For years I have been trying to answer this one question: What do small businesses that achieve sustainable growth do differently than those that do not?
As the senior coordinator of the Inc. magazine, I speak to thousands of business owners each year. I have learned that no silver coins or 17-point checklists will lead to guaranteed growth. However, there are seven areas in which emerging companies focus their efforts.
1. A strong sense of purpose. Most corporate executives who have experienced growth find that it takes more than a promise to raise financial rewards to strengthen their ambitions and ambitions. They get a higher position than they do for “more money.”
2. Outstanding market intelligence. This is an organization's ability to foresee, and adapt, to important changes in the market place. Most of the time, small business owners become very myopic, seeing a limited view of the markets in which they compete. Growth leaders see a bigger picture.
3. Planning for successful growth. This is the best predictor of whether a business will grow or not. To be successful, a growth program does not have to be complicated or complicated. However, it needs to be written, spoken and updated regularly.
4. Procedures run by customers. These days, every company I talk to believes it is run by customers, when in fact very few are. View all business processes from a customer perspective. Are they there to make it easier for the company, or to help deliver a faster, cheaper and better promise to the customer?
5. Technical capabilities. Successful leaders do not allow the prosperity and explosion of technological cycles to give them an excuse for not knowing that we are living in an age of information. If the company is in business, it is in the technology business.
6. The best and brightest people. Growth leaders realize that they are as good as the people they work with. The ability to hire, train and retain the best and brightest people is often the difference between success and failure.
7. Vision. Few organizations take the time to think about the future. Growth leaders are learning to monitor and actively interpret the great forces of change that affect the world in which they live.
