By Ward Morrison, President, Motto Franchising, LLC
Business growth – we all want it, but attaining it can be challenging. Obstacles are likely to crop-up around every turn. Seemingly impossible decisions may require your executive determination. And, when it comes to business, failure is always a potential outcome. Although sometimes arduous, striving toward business growth is what fuels entrepreneurs like you and me. Thankfully, by employing a thoughtful approach to expansion, you can hurdle obstacles, judge concisely, and possibly even conquer defeat.
Employ Growth Mindset
In order to achieve your colossal goals, you must approach your business with a growth mindset and foster it among your staff. This term has found its way into pop culture and work vernacular, but rarely is it used accurately. According to Carol Dweck, Professor of Psychology at Stanford University and the concept’s architect, growth mindset is the understanding that the mind and human abilities are plastic. In other words, skills, knowledge, and executional effectiveness can be improved upon through dedication and perseverance. The prevalent implication is that in light of growth mindset, failures and mistakes are viewed as opportunities to improve. Indeed, there are times when failure is the only way to grow. This view promotes flexibility and thoughtfully-planned risk taking – what I’ve found to be two of the most essential business growth components.
Through the lens of growth mindset, you and your team can continually seek opportunities, including revenue and expansion options, without the crippling fear of failure. I’ve noticed that many entrepreneurs begin their business journey with a growth mindset then slowly lose it as systems, processes, and personnel fall into place. Many acquire fear that their established practices will crumble – but if the status quo remains etched in stone, the company will fail to evolve.
It’s important to regularly remind yourself to challenge your operations and to attempt to better meet the needs of your customers. In order to grow, continue to look for those opportunities that expand on your core competencies – never rest on your laurels. Continue to employ your flexibility, take on calculated risk for growth potential and engage your employees in brainstorms where thinking outside of the box is encouraged and failure isn’t a fear.
Foster a Revenue Culture
Sales drive success. As a business professional, you know it as well as I do. In order to maximize revenue-producing activities, foster a company culture that revolves around sales production. This means you’ll include everyone in the sales culture – not just your sales people. Whether they’re planning events, designing your graphics, or directly “selling” your product, every employee must be part of the revenue culture. With many ways to accomplish this, consider the existing culture of your office and the individuals on your staff. Below are some ideas I’ve employed successfully:
· Use a unique form of announcing goals. I ring a large bell every time my team makes a franchise sale.
· Hold a contest for new ideas around your revenue production.
· Reward and/or recognize those who contribute through their roles to improvements in sales.
Plan for Scalability
If growth is in your future, be sure you’re ready for it. This often means you have scalable and repeatable processes in place and that you have the ability to quickly insert new staff when necessary. You might also plan ahead by employing technologies that streamline processes to aid in added workload due to business expansion. A word of caution on this topic, don’t hire new employees before you need them. I call this goldilocks hiring. You don’t want to overburden your employees by waiting too long for an added hire. But at the same time, avoid adding the substantial costs of new staff members before you truly need them. Simple operational tracking can help with this. For example, if you know your customer service representatives can only successfully handle 15 clients, be ready to proactively hire a new representative as soon as you max out on that ratio, but not before.
On a similar note, be sure you set yourself up for expanded leadership requirements as well. Depend on your ability to share decision-making authority with those who are working in the field to ensure leadership success during business growth. This comes back to trusting your people and delegating so as to avoid creating an approval bottle neck. The most important factor in this is empowering your staff to make those decisions – if they fear your response, you’ll become a sticking point and hinder your company’s progress.
Next Stop, Colossal
Feeling the itch to grow? Embrace it. Your enterprise will reap the rewards if you employ growth mindset, foster a revenue culture, and plan for scalability. Your business could even go from modest to colossal.
Published on March 9, 2020
