5 Actions That Will Quickly Grow Your Business

What was your vision when you first wanted to become an entrepreneur?  Did you just want to build a business that would fund your dream lifestyle?  Maybe your desire was to have a company that would one day provide for a cushy retirement.  Or perhaps you wanted to start a company, sell it for billions, and spend your time playing golf with Bill Gates and Steve Jobs.

No matter where you saw yourself, you’ll never get there unless you grow your business.  We entrepreneurs understand that starting a business takes hard work.   Now that we’ve got our businesses up and running, how do we take it to the next level?

Growing a business can be challenging and it’s filled with ups and downs. But ultimately, it’s the only way to stay in business. Of all of the things you can do to grow your business, There are five powerful actions that you can take immediately that will propel you and your business to the next level.

Be Prepared for Growth

A growing business consumes two things; time and money.  When the growth of your business begins, its best to be prepared to feed your business what it needs to grow.

Let’s say today your blog gets a spike in traffic that brings an extra 10,000 visits a day.  Are ready for the floods of emails, comments and offers that will come in?  If you have an offline business, be prepared to have a buffer of cash for hiring, upgrades and support.  It’s better to have that cash on hand instead of trying to raise the capital in the middle of a boom.

Not being prepared for the growth also means you will be losing out on customers and leads.  Six months after I built Potential 2 Success, I had a spike in traffic that brought more than 100,000 visitors to my site.  At the time, I didn’t even have a RSS subscription button.  I can only guess how many subscribers I lost by not being prepared.

Be Everywhere

Your business or blog is not going to grow unless people see it and are reminded of it.  Make sure that your brand is all over the digital market space.  One of the reasons we can recognize the Coca-Cola symbol is because we’ve seen it thousands of times.  If you want to gain similar brand recognition, you have to make sure that people know that your business exists.

Whenever I meet entrepreneurs that ask me how they can increase their online presence, I usually ask them the same question, “what are you doing now”?  I usually get the same answer.

“Well, I have a Twitter and Facebook account.”

Just “having” those profiles doesn’t do much for your brand.  You have to be actively participating to be effective.  Seek the opinions and wants of your readers, customers, and clients.  Make sure that the world knows who you are and what you do and remind them often.

Lose Your Ego

In business, your ego is your enemy.  There is a difference between having confidence and having a big ego. Confidence gives you the courage to take risks. Your ego may stop you from getting help when you need it.  It may also cause you to be closed off to good ideas because you’re determined to do things your way.

As entrepreneurs, we like being in control.  Sometimes that is not a good thing.  As leaders we have to know what we can and can’t do.  If there is someone better  than us for the job, and it will help grow the business, we have to step back and let them do it.

That includes allowing mentors, consultants, customers, and even our competition the freedom to evaluate our business objectively.  Once we let go of our ego, new doors and opportunities will present themselves that will help our business grow at a quicker pace.

That also means trusting the people who work for the company.  It’s important to trust your employee’s ability to do the job they were hired to do.  Give them the freedom to use their skills and talents to make your business better.

An entrepreneur’s ego is one biggest dangers a business can have.  Let go of yours and you will see how much easier it will be to manage the business.

Create a Need

Before I wrote this post, I asked a few different successful business owners I know how they were able to make their businesses grow.  All of them touched on creating a need or demand for their product or service.

The key is providing so much value, that the consumer feels as though they need your product or service.  The same is true for a high quality blog.  If you offer outstanding content, your readers will feel moved to visit the site often and even share it with their friends and contacts.  From there, they will be more likely to buy your ebook or a product that you recommend.

In order for you to sell your product or service there must be a demand for it.  The way you present the business will help create that demand.

Form an Alliance

Partnering up with similar businesses can be a powerful move.  The opportunity for growth can be tremendous if the right alliance is formed.  If you form an alliance that is mutually beneficial for both parties, you increase your growth potential.

By aligning yourself with a similar business, you now are exposed to their customers.

You also gain credibility by having a repeatable partner endorsing your blog, product, or service.

With online businesses it is much easier to form alliances.  An alliance can be formed by trading guest posts, links, and other promotion strategies.  It’s also easier for internet entrepreneurs with blogs because blogging is about connecting and community.

If you want to grow your business, leverage your relationships with people other businesses. Take these five actions and apply them to your business strategies and see the dramatic change that happens.

How do you grow your business?