I’m fortunate in my line of work to meet many entrepreneurs and business owners on a daily basis across varying and diverse industries and perhaps one of the most popular topics that seem to come up during discussions is: how do I grow my business?

I believe that the single biggest mistake why some companies don’t achieve growth is simply because they see growth as singular and a stand-alone object and that if you rub the proverbial lamp hard and long enough, growth must come. Quite the contrary.

The most recent demise of one of the country’s leading lenders ultimately capitulated in the face of not having at the end of the day a business model that created a platform to create value for themselves or their customers.  Lesson: don’t leave out the obvious when it comes to growing a business and it you truly build and deliver value, your customers and the market will not abandon you.

In this blog, I’m going to unpack for you some of the elements that I believe you should be looking at to enhance your business growth strategies.

1. Do you really know what the customer wants and is willing to pay for?

So often in trying to grow a business, we forget that a business ONLY exists because of its customers. One of the most important things that you and the team need to understand is knowing exactly what customers want and to do this, you need to get behind the customers eyeballs and ask yourself the following question: if I was a customer to this business, what would I need to offer, how would I need to offer and position it, and how would I like to pay for this? Critical is that you ASK your customers the same question and honestly tweak your business model to hone in some of the learnings.

2. Have you got a damn good value proposition?

Knowing what the customer wants and how he/she is willing to pay for the offering will really assist you in refining your value proposition. Critical here is the word: value and let’s explore this a bit. Know that ultimately, value is a perception. It is your job to create an environment where customers are likely to receive a higher value that the price for which they paid. The moment customers receive the opposite is the moment your business starts also going in the opposite direction.

3. Can this value proposition be delivered?

Having a great value proposition to speak of is one thing, being able to deliver it and deliver it consistently well, is another. This forms the precipice on which real business growth comes from. What this simply means is that the business model must have within it a business engine that can consistently deliver a wow customer value proposition on a scalable basis to customers. I believe that if you get this right, you likely to see the business grow exponentially.

4. Can the business model put real cash in the bank?

I often encounter businesses that have reasonably good business models, however the quality of the revenue and cash flow is not always there. The easiest way to break your business is to have a scenario that creates unstable revenues, low margins and slow cash flow. Don’t let this impinge on your business growth strategies.

5. Build partner networks and effects

It’s wise not to do try and do everything on your own. We live in the most exciting time where relationships are becoming key to the way we do business.  Seek out partnerships and grow your network that serve the best interest of growing your business and reciprocating this to the partner.

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