Most business owners want to grow their business to achieve increased revenues, higher profits and streamlined operations – and to employ more staff and have more time. But knowing how to get from your current state to that growth place can be challenging and requires focus.
In a recent blog post by Kabbage, an alternative small business lender, I was thrilled at how articulately the author laid out key points a business owner needs to consider as their business grows. The information was presented in the context of knowing when your business needs more financing. Reading it made me smile as it was all so familiar; these five areas come up often in our Growth Advisory Program meetings.
Here are the areas Kabbage cited that often indicate a business should seek financing; they are likewise five themes that emerge and re-emerge as business owners talk with their mentors about growing their businesses:
- Cash Flow Management
- Growth/Expansion
- Cushion
- Hiring
- Innovation
These areas are important to focus on at any stage in business, and they come up repeatedly for business owners because they are all somehow tied to finances. This is why, in an earlier post, I talked about how important it is for businesses to be in control of their numbers.
I’ve seen, time and again – and most recently with a Growth Advisory Program member – that as business owners start to really look at their numbers, they realize how much the numbers tell them and, perhaps more importantly, they start asking really good questions of themselves. Because the numbers don’t lie.
Mentors in the Growth Advisory Program help business owners transition from blissful ignorance within these five areas to understanding how to have control over them and then mastering them. There’s a transformation that occurs when business owners become business leaders – taking his or her business to that next level – through their work with the Business Growth Center at Springfield Technology Park.
It’s a gift to participate in that process. Business owners dedicate their lives to their work, and we are dedicated to them and their success. Every advisor sitting around the table wants to see the business they are mentoring succeed and prosper.
Focusing on these five areas can help you make growth intentional.
Let us help you learn how to transform.