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In these challenging economic times, no one can afford to rest on his or her laurels when it comes to business growth. You have to be relentless when it comes to your next opportunity and the potential it holds to expand your operations. If you don’t remain ahead of the game, you run the risk of losing out to your competitors. Here are a few ideas to help you organise your thinking and get you started. Get ready to LEVEL UP!
- Identify Your Next Big Thing
So you want to grow? But grow how? Is it leads? Customers? Market share? Bottom line? People? The first step to levelling up is to identify a goal and to unpack it in detail. You can’t afford to be vague about what you want to achieve – so get specific. Set yourself an ambitious, but realistic and measurable target. If you don’t know where you’re going, you will never get there.
- Identify Your Metric
So now that you have gotten your growth target down on paper in detail, you need to define a metric that will allow you to accurately measure the results of your efforts. So, for instance, a financial growth target is easy – because profitability is the metric. But how do you quantify growth in people? Is it decreased staff turnover? If improving your BEE rating is your aim, how will you get there and when will you know when you’re winning?
- Develop A Strategy
As Benjamin Franklin once said, ”If you fail to plan, you plan to fail”. So what is your strategic roadmap to achieve your goal? If we use the BEE example again, what strategy will you employ to get the right candidates or create the correct structures that will help you achieve your target? If you’re not an expert in BEE, don’t be shy to enlist the help of a specialist BEE consulting firm like Gestalt. They offer a variety of services that range from BEE consulting, skills development to training and verification. If you want to grow your business and marketing is a key aspect thereof, create a marketing strategy with the help of an agency, if it’s not in your wheelhouse. The point is, you’re good at running your business, so ask an expert when you need help and make sure the strategy is attainable and within your current business capacity to deliver. Otherwise it will just become another fancy document that doesn’t fulfil its potential to grow your company.
- Follow-Through
Implementing and maintaining your strategic direction is probably the hardest part of levelling up. It means dedication, determination and often a change of organisational behaviour to make it happen. It’s easy to slip back into old habits and to forget your goal, so make sure you schedule regular status meetings with your team to ensure that your growth project is on track. You have to keep your fingers on its pulse otherwise it may wither away and become another initiative that is filed in the storeroom.
Good luck with your growth venture. With faith, perseverance and hard work, you can make it happen. Here’s to levelling UP!