According to Tim Robbins, if you don’t grow, you die. In business, GROWTH and SUCCESS are synonymous. Just as no one can be successful in life without growth, no business can also be successful without growth.
Every business is at a different stage of growth, and it’s not rocket science that 90% of businesses never experience growth, nor a suitable level of success. So, what then are the successful 10% of businesses doing to grow their businesses, you may ask?
Is there a FORMULA?
The answer is YES, there is a formula.
I call it THE BUSINESS GROWTH BLUEPRINT. As with the genesis of all great creations, I stumbled upon, created and then coined this formula by accident, back when I was struggling to scale my business some years ago. It includes 6 pivotal steps that need to be taken,both mentally and physically, to elope to the next level, and the icing on the cake is that you can easily remember them because they form the acronym G.R.O.W.T.H.
So here we go.
Milestone 1 is G for GOALS
This is the fundamental milestone on which your business is founded on. Before you can even think about growing, or attaining the next level, you first need a target to aim at. This is your goal, without which you are going nowhere. Another way to look at goals, or an analogy for goals, is a compass or navigator, instruments that enable you plot your direction from whatever position you find yourself, without which, you will be lost.
Milestone 2 is R for RESPONSIBILITY
Responsibility is a pivotal milestone, and unfortunately, many entrepreneurs find themselves stuck here. Before you can grow or move closer to your goals, you need to take responsibility for your current situation. This is a hard pill to swallow, because it is much easier for one to play the blame game. “Oh it’s my web developer that caused this issue” or “My customers are horrible and don’t want to pay me what I’m really worth.”. To rise to that next level, you begin by pointing the finger at yourself, and man/woman up. You are where you are, because of the choices you made, and if you desire to change your situation, then take responsibility for where you are, and that way you will immediately be responsible for where you are headed.
Milestone 3 is O for OPPORTUNITY
When you have an overview of where you are, and where you want to be, you will realize there is a GAP. How you see this gap, is a huge determinant if you will remain stagnant or grow. In order to grow, you need to visualise this gap as an opportunity NOT an obstacle. It is worth remembering, that anytime you come across an obstacle, all it really means is that there is some INFORMATION missing, that you need to deduce, to overcome that obstacle. Obstacles are a symptom of Ignorance, so the solution is simple, find the root cause, in the form of information, that you need to overcome the obstacle. That is where your effort should be applied, and this is why you should always be optimistic about the gap, and recognize that it is really just an opportunity waiting to be taken. Without this mindset change, it is virtually impossible to grow, because recognising opportunity, gives birth to something your business truly needs, INNOVATION.
Milestone 4 is W for WILL
No matter the opportunity you uncover or the innovation you apply, if you do not possess the WILL, then your efforts will be futile. “O” and “W”, cannot thrive without each other. To discover the solution or information you need to close the gap, you need to have the undying will to do everything necessary to seek out the information you need to achieve your goals.
Milestone 5 is T for Test
Okay, so you finally found some useful information to overcome that obstacle, but then guess what, it doesn’t work, now what? Do you close up shop and move on to something else? Obviously that sounds silly, but this the stop where most entrepreneurs’ journeys end. Others try again, the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and that’s it, they too give up. They accept failure and say to themselves, it didn’t work for me. Well friend, there is no such destination as Failure. Ask Thomas Edison who created the light bulb. According to people, he failed 999 times and on the 1000th time, he created the light bulb. However he didn’t see the 999 times it didn’t work as failures, on the contrary, he saw them all as an experiment, a test where he learned something from each negative result, that ultimately led him to the final test, that yielded the positive result he desired. This is how we should view failure. So when you test your first hypothesis (your first information) and it doesn’t work, try the next one. Test and test and test and test, until you get it right. So T can also stand for Tenacity or simply Thomas Edison. In order to grow and succeed, always remember there is no such thing as failure. It is only failure when you decide it is and when you give up.
Milestone 6 is H for HARNESS
Yayyy….it worked. Your test finally worked and after all the sacrifices made, you are now yielding positive and productive results. So you must be successful now right? Wrong, this is just the beginning. Success is when you can achieve growth consistently, not just after one positive test. This milestone is where you begin to learn how to replicate your success, by harnessing it into a system that consistently produces the same or better results for you. This is the final stage of business growth and not many businesses get there.
So there you have it. You now have the growth blueprint that the top-tier entrepreneurs live and breathe. I hope it serves you as well as it has served my clients and I. Thanks for reading, and I wish you all the very best in your business growth journey.
Charles Uzor (author)
Business Growth Expert
BRANDi Design Ltd
If you wish to have a private chat with Charles to discuss your business grow strategy, click here and book a 30 minutes FREE Strategy session now.