“You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” Martin Luther King Jr
This quote is a popular one for good reason. Far too many people are presented with an idea of their future and feel so daunted by the end goal, that they become overwhelmed, or disillusioned.
Your vision may seem so far away from your starting point that you begin to question your capability and even passion to get you there.
The meaning of significant growth can only be defined by you. Your growth is not significant to my business, only yours and so we take steps to help you achieve your idea of growth.
Enter, ‘Step Change’…
If, like many entrepreneurs you aim to create a business that runs like clockwork, without you, and makes more money with less effort, then step change is the vehicle to get you there.
Step change is defined in Collins Dictionary as, ‘a significant change, especially an improvement’. The changes are expected to be less simple than incremental and will require significant effort, to achieve significant growth. However, as you work through them, you will begin to see some sort of flow, which I believe will generate energy and enthusiasm for the process.
My 10 steps to significant growth
- Know and analyse your starting point
Be honest, are you ready for growth? Do you know your gaps? Take time to identify the skills, knowledge, resources or people that are missing from your business, and understand the roles you play within it. Pay particular attention to the roles you want, and those you don’t. This step provides a strong foundation to build upon.
2. Making the time for your priorities
Time management… What can you do to make the best of your time so you have more to spend on growing your business, rather than working in it? Consider your systems, processes, efficiency and distractions.
TIP: Write a to-do list and prioritise the items every single day. I say write, because it allows more time for thought as you write and tick off the items. With regards to prioritisation, what do you value? Is it effectiveness, customers, team or revenue generation?
3. Your mission, vision, goals and objectives
Understand your reasons for being here, in this business, and how you can convey that to others. I can recommend Simon Sinek’s book, Start with Why on this topic, which will help you inspire others to help you on your journey. Giving clarity to your mission also makes it easier for you to say no to activities that are not recognised as high pay-off ones.
TIP: Take your journey in 90 days sprints by creating shorter term objectives.
4. Know your ideal customers
This is to help you convey your ideal customer to others who can refer to you when asked, and to help reach out to potential new customers with marketing. You will save time and money by making sure you are talking to those most likely to buy from you.
TIP: Buyer personas needn’t come down to the minutia, but should include pain points; their wants, needs and triggers, and where they spend their time.
This flows nicely into number 5…
5. Positioning your business
What makes you truly unique to your customers? Can you create packages for your offering? Do you know why a prospect will choose to work with you or buy your product? This step prevents the shock of when customers don’t choose you and helps you appear in front of those who would.
TIP: Conduct a SWOT review on your business and identify your heroes and villains within your offering.
6. Your marketing tactics
Once you understand your position in the market, you can begin to work on marketing tactics. Where do your ideal customers hang out? What type of language do they use and how do they like their information provided to them – is it through social media, is it video, magazines or events, for example?
TIP: Be consistent and stay focused on your ideal customer’s needs. Does your website say the same as your other methods of marketing? Do your ideal customers understand why they need you?
7. How to win more customers
In this step, take a look at your marketing and sales funnel. What’s at the top, is it easy for your customers to follow? How can you build rapport with your buyers? What does your customer journey look like from the time they’re lurking to when they buy, or buy again?
Tip: My free e-book, 51 More Proactive Ways to Win More Customers is available to download.
8. Make your numbers work
Contrary to what you may expect, this is not about income, profit margins or turnover, because these are only outcomes of your activities. The numbers we’re referring to are you’re your trends, cashflow, key success drivers and key performance indicators.
EXAMPLE: Regarding income, the numbers that affect this are; the number of people who buy from you, how many times they buy, and your average sales value.
Begin recording these numbers so you can see what affects your desired outcomes and decide where to focus your activity for the following month.
9. Maximise your people investment
As leader in your own business, you are the first person we look to maximise. How do you lead, manage people, make decisions and manage change? What type of culture are you fostering in the business? How do you use this to attract more of the right people to you?
TIP: Try DiSC profiling to learn more about how you and your team react to certain situations and help you to approach one another in the workplace without conflict.
Make sure you have an impact statement for each role, and that the people in, or interviewing for those roles, are a match.
10. Making your business run like clockwork
The final step to the business you envisioned! Think about and choose to do the roles you want and are best at. Delegate the other roles to those that are best for them. For this to work, you must have trust in your team, so they can execute the tasks with minimal or zero input from you.
TIP: Systemised processes will support great habits in your business. Get all the processes for each role written and tested, so they can be repeated with ease by new team members.
Now, I did promise to keep this guide brief and friendly, so if you would like to learn more and work through these steps with me, you can watch my webinar, The Step Change to Business Growth. In less than one hour you will gain all you to craft a plan to focus on for your significant business growth.
For personal guidance on this process, please call me on 01235 614809, or email your questions if you’d prefer.