We all want the growth hack that will take our existing business and shoot it to the moon. “Growth levers” is a term I constantly hear coming from the online world. I like that saying, don’t you?
Let’s unpack the quickest way to pull these growth levers so that we can scale your business as fast as possible.
The 5 Questions to Ask Yourself That Will help you grow and scale your business.
Let’s go over these 5 questions so that you can achieve growth and scale for your business. These apply to both new businesses and small business.
1. Should I do Homework or Planning Before Starting A Business?
The obvious answer is YES. Make sure to take a good look below at the following questions to determine if what you are doing is likely to be worth your time and investment. These are just a couple examples.
- Are there enough customers?
- Can this company scale quickly and efficiently?
- Can I charge enough for my product to afford ads and fulfillment?
- How is my timing of a launch?
- Should I partner or not?
These are just some of the many things you need to be thinking about and evaluating as you are doing your homework.
The list is endless of people who never do their homework in the beginning and are destine to fail from day one. Don’t be one of them!
2. Should I bootstrap my Business or Raise Money?
That depends on your desired outcome.
Do you want to be a founder that is in charge of a large team, lots of responsibility, and fast growth? Then you may want to raise money.
That money will help amplify the following:
- Increase the number of leads from advertising dollars.
- Afford to hire a great team from the get-go.
- Launch with a large amount of SKUs (if you are a product-based company)
- Start off with a bang in your sales numbers due to large Ad budget and customer service in place.
On the other hand, if you want to boot strap you will be choosing to take the safer and longer path to growth (in most cases).
Boot-strapping a business will look like this:
- Could be months or years until your product gets traction from building a customer base and low ad budgets.
- Potentially less stress as less people are depending on your for leadership and a paycheck.
- In most cases you will use your own money. Many founders claim they had to max out their credit cards to get going.
- Going this route you really have control over which direction you want to take and you are not forced by a board or shareholders pressuring you to make the next move.
Between bootstrapping and raising money, I think the answer is clear – Raising money will allow you to grow and scale the fastest. But be careful.
3. Do I Need Systems and Technology In Place to Scale Fast?
More often then not, the answer is almost always yes. This is in both product based business and service based businesses.
If you start to grow and scale, that means your sales numbers are going up (naturally). If you have not put teams in place to handle the influx in sales, you will have a disaster on your hands.
Bad reviews, wasted ad dollars, upset customers and closing your doors from terrible cash flow could destroy you immediately.
Here is what you need to have in place before you are ready to pull on a growth lever for sales.
- Customer service team.
- Sales team Inbound and outboard (most likely).
- Fulfillment whether that be ecommerce or service based. Someone has to fill the packages and go on service calls.
- ERP system to effectively track all aspects of your business. Leads, orders, deliveries, SOPS, financials, invoicing, you name it.
*These are just a few and can cost you a TON.
4. Do I Need To Build a Team Beforehand or Can I Hire as I go?
Waiting to hire a team after you open the flood gates would be a complete disaster waiting to happen.
You need to get a team in place immediately that is skilled enough to handle the new requirements that are suddenly being placed on your and your business.
In order to hire effectively, you need a system and process for finding the right talent, interviewing them, and on-boarding them so they are ready to rock.
With that being said, you don’t always have to put the burden on hiring a team on yourself. You can look to outsource things like marketing and sales to other agencies that don’t need a hand-holding.
5. Where Is the Best Place to Get Leads For My Business?
That all depends on what your business is. Clearly there is no one-size-fits-all in this loaded question.
Here is a good rule of thumb to think about when it comes to service-based businesses vs. Product-based businesses.
Examples of Service-based businesses:
- Pool cleaning
- Christmas lighting
- Firewood delivery
- Power washing
- Waste management
- gyms
For these types of businesses we have found that google advertising and local paper, magazine, and mailers tend to work best. Also a good referral system in place is a huge asset you need to get implemented ASAP.
Examples of Product- Based Businesses:
- Ecommerce
- Retail Stores
- Grocery
- Thrift Stores
- Dealerships
For these types of businesses there are so many options to go with. Google works great, Facebook, Instagram, influencer marketing, road signage are just a few. For each type of business listed above, you are almost certainly going to have a different blend of marketing channels.
Ex) Dealerships do well with word of mouth and referrals. Ecommerce can do well with google, Instagram, meta and influencer marketing.
It is up to you to get testing and figure out what channel will work best for your business. Good luck out there!
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