Growth is a hugely important factor in the success of a business, but strategic growth is even more critical. When it comes to growing a small business, there are many different ways to grow. Growing too soon in one area can bring imminent destruction to a business while failing to grow in another area can do the same thing. Here are 3 ways you can help your small business undertake strategic growth.
Dream Big
You can’t get to where you want to go if you don’t know where that is. Small businesses generally become big businesses by having big audacious goals. The first step to growing your business is determining where you want to be in 5 years, 10 years or even 50 years. Before you can create a plan for getting where you want to go, you have to decide where you want to end up. If you have partners, employees, or investors, they should also be a part of this vision. This will not only allow you to gather more input but will also help you and everyone else involved in the business to get on the same page. Without a unified vision, even if you haven’t dreamed up your biggest goals, your company can’t get going in the right direction.
Find a Coach
It is almost impossible to imagine any sports team achieving any measure of success without a coaching staff. The truth is, if you want to grow your business, you’re probably going to need someone to help you get there. More than likely, you will need several someones. Sometimes, the right person to help you get over one hurdle is not the right person to take you over the next. Once you figure out where you want to go and what you want to do, however, the next step is to find someone that can help you get there. If you aren’t able to surround yourself with business professionals, you can still get help by hiring a professional executive coach or business consultant. You can find a professional coach in just about any field working privately or as part of a firm. Don’t hesitate to spend some money on training those who will support your business the most.
Set Manageable Goals
The longest journey begins with a single step. It then continues with another and another and another. In fact, long journeys are nothing more than the stringing together of thousands and thousands and thousands of individual steps. Once you have a destination in mind, then you need to break down the journey into hundreds and hundreds of small, manageable steps—or a few steps that you repeat hundreds and hundreds of times. Michael Jordan wasn’t born a superstar athlete, he got there by spending hours and hours and hours on basketball courts shooting thousands and thousands of free throws and playing the same game again and again and again for years on end.
You will never grow a business by thinking small. In order to get where you want to go, you have to have a destination in mind. If you just keep thinking local, that’s the only place you will ever go. If you want to be a world traveler, you have to start thinking globally. That’s the same way you grow your business.
