The Art of Growing a Business
This month's feature article on Andrew Sherman and his company, Grow Fast Grow Right, is extremely important information for any entrepreneur considering starting and developing a business. How a venture is created in the formative years, knowing what direction you want to take your company; these questions are key to producing positive growth. It's almost certain that mistakes will be made, and that's perfectly acceptable. Nothing is perfect, and if you learn from the errors made, then all the better.
In the beginning of business creation, you must be aware of some of the basics to help make constructive initial growth possible -- things like effective marketing, setting up vital lines of financing and determining an internal operation procedure that allows you and your employees to influence proper paths of growth.
It's also important in the beginning to be very specific about your product in order to find a core customer base. The trick is finding the clientele interested in your business product and building a loyal group of customers who will return again and again. And, as you will learn from this month's cover article, you must be ready and prepared to enter the global economy and do it quickly. You should be able to understand where your company and your product fit into today's global economic environment.
If you are able to hire an employee base in the beginning, you, as the CEO, must be able to develop and create a sense of urgency, while inspiring the team to focus on growth. The key to your next move is choosing the growth method that suits your business' product or service. You also need to gauge the strengths and weaknesses of the internal team, and come to conclusions concerning the challenges of cash and credit resources. Any company taking on a new growth approach should be willing to examine all areas of the business project and not look for ways to avoid unsolved problems.
While growth is the fundamental principle of business development, any business must also be willing to slow down when the growth rate gets to be too much to handle. Rapid growth, if not managed properly, causes many businesses to fail. Today's emergent economy is full of bankrupt companies that borrowed too much money, lost a key customer or wouldn't spend the money to hire a quality staff able to take the company to the next level. There are all types of decisions that a business owner must make that will lead the company to solid growth or to ultimate destruction. The major thing I've learned as an entrepreneur is to be willing to change directions at a moment's notice. If you can't change your course to follow the current trends, you will find it difficult to succeed.
Thousands of new businesses have been started in this country and around the world in the past decade. Even if you make all the right choices, there's no guarantee that your new enterprise will succeed. But, you will have a better opportunity of "growing fast" and "growing right" with solid information. Enjoy this month's issue.
Originally published in James Dicks: Buy*Sell*Hold magazine.