The ultimate business growth guide

Businesses have a number of goals, the first, often being to still be operating past the first year. Once stability has been secured, it’s time to start thinking about where your enterprise is going next. Growth is the goal, but how can you achieve it?

Sage invited a number of highly successful entrepreneurs and business experts to discuss the best methods for expanding an endeavor.

Included in the twitter discussion were Jennifer Warawa – contributor to Sage’s ‘The ultimate business growth guide’, Rieva Lesonsky – small business and entrepreneur thought leader, and Tripp Braden – financial services and client acquisition advocate and expert.

In addition, a number of the Sage Top 100 global business experts joined the conversation and offered their advice on growth and expansion. Here’s what they had to say.

How should businesses prepare for growth?

Rachel Fisch, CPB @FischBooks

“Many times businesses want to grow but haven’t done the work to ensure their internal practices and policies are scalable as they do. Standardize and streamline as much as possible first, then create a plan to grow”.

Carol Stephen @Carol_Stephen

“Hire people who’ve been through the process successfully before so you can have the infrastructure in place.”

Rob May @robmay70 

“Start with the customer in mind. Customer focused companies make sure their policies and processes make it easy, for the customer to do business with them.”

How will digital transformation effect fast-growing businesses?

Paul Ince @BizPaul

“With knowledge comes power. Those businesses that grasp the intelligence can respond far more quickly. It’s also easier for a smaller business to do this in my opinion as they have fewer levels of internal bureaucracy to affect change.”

Nancy Teixeira @nancytex

“Digitization (the conversion) and digitalization (the process) are fundamentally changing the way we operate + deliver value to customers. Smart companies will embrace and leverage technology to fuel their business growth.”

How can businesses foster deeper relationships with customers to drive growth?

Tripp Braden @TrippBraden

“For many entrepreneurs, the greatest opportunities exist by blending tech and human touch.”

Jennifer Warawa @jenniferwarawa

“Deeper relationships with customers come when you’re totally ‘customer obsessed’. Create a true understanding of where customers are happy + where they see room for improvement, then make a visible effort to improve in those areas. Customers want to be heard.”

Where should customer focus begin?   

Neil Cattermull @NeilCattermull

“Regular account meetings to demonstrate you are delivering what’s required, whilst having potentially new biz proposed!”

How can businesses recruit with a growth mindset?

Janice B.Gordon @Janicebg

“Recruit on attitude everything ease is trainable – most company play is safe and recruit similar to what they have or had before. Zero on innovation and transformation – GET OUT OF YOUR BOX!”

Jennifer Warawa @jenniferwarawa

“Recruit talent that can meet your future needs, not just your current needs. Knowing where your business is headed and what skillsets will be needed to get you there is critical as you think of building your workforce of tomorrow”.

2/3rds of companies offer flexible working environments. How can you adopt a productive arrangement as a high-growth company?

Jennifer Warawa @jenniferwarawa

“Flexible work environments allow businesses to recruit the best talent from around the world, regardless of company size. However, it’s key to make sure remote colleagues have the opportunity to collaborate and be part of the team.”

What is your #1 tip to maintain momentum? How can you avoid a plateau or falling behind?

Rieva Lesonsky @Rieva

“My best advice echoes @TrippBraden. Never stop learning. Always aspire to do better. And follow the Golden Rule.”

Payment Evolution @PayEvo

“Keep going. Don’t stop and try to keep up with your competitors. You fall behind trying to keep up instead of growing your original idea and being innovative.”

Thank you to everyone who participated and made this twitter chat a great success.

If you would like to learn more, we encourage you to download ‘The ultimate business growth guide’. This exclusive guide is your roadmap to creating a thriving business and includes:

• Inside tips from successful leaders at Karbon, Remote Year, Zendesk and more
• How to build a finance and accounting foundation for growth
• Insights into hiring and retaining a great team
• How to form strategic partnerships
• Your 10-step profitability checklist

Get your copy now by subscribing to the Sage Advice newsletter and you’ll join our growing community of business leaders, CFOs, and accountants.