Business Growth: It's a way of life.

Years ago, one of my managers told me something that impacted me for the rest of my life: "If you're not growing, you're dying." This mantra has become a cornerstone of my personal and professional philosophy, driving me to constantly seek self-improvement, enhance my skills, and nurture my career and business.

For business owners, executives, and marketing leaders, growth should be a constant thought – the first thing on your mind when you wake up and the last before you sleep. Even in your dreams, the theme should be related to growth in some way. Every day, as you put on your shoes and brush your teeth, take on the role of Chief Growth Officer (CGO), responsible for the growth of your career, business, and life.

What exactly is considered Business Growth?

Business growth is not just financial growth like revenue, profits, and market share. It encompasses a broader spectrum, including physical expansion, an increased customer base, a growing workforce, and further diversification of your products and services.

Why Business Growth Matters

As I mentioned earlier, the mantra is clear: if you're not growing, you're dying. Our world is characterized by economic growth, population expansion, and inflation; if you run a business that doesn't make "growth" a part of every aspect of your day-to-day operations, then you are not keeping pace with your external environment, which means your business is actually shrinking and "dying" slowly relative to its surroundings.

This is precisely why I emphasize so much that every business decision has to be made with an underlying objective for long-term growth. Business growth can't be an additional strategy that you choose to develop when you feel the desire to; it needs to be a fundamental, ongoing element embedded into your day-to-day business operations and strategy.

Efficiently implementing and integrating your business growth strategy into your daily operations will empower your business to:

Seize New Opportunities

Business growth opens your business doors to fresh and endless possibilities. It enables your company to venture into new markets, introduce innovative products or services, and even acquire other businesses. The possibilities are endless as you choose to grow physically, metaphorically, and financially. I call this the holy trinity of growth!

This strategic agility keeps you ahead of the competition and allows you to meet and exceed the ever-evolving customer needs and wants.

Strengthen Your Competitive Advantage

With growth, your business gains resources and influence, which can translate into offering competitive prices, superior products or services, and more effective marketing campaigns. This allows you to stay competitive and agile being able to quickly and swiftly iterate and evolve as customer trends and needs evolve.

Enhance Brand Reputation and Drive Loyalty

By continuing to grow, you grow market share, your grow eyes on your brand. A growing company naturally begins to garner more and more attention and generate more and more brand recognition. Your brand becomes more likely to be seen as a leader in its industry, this allows you to attract new customers willing to pay more to receive a true and trusted product from a true and trusted provider and thus continue to generate more loyalty from existing customers.

Immediate Actions to Enhance Your Business Growth

Be obsessed with your customers.

Understand their needs and wants, and focus on providing them with the best possible experience, always.

Invest in innovation.

Constantly look for new ways to improve your products and services, and to create new products and services that meet the changing needs of your customers. Stay connected to your customer's feedback and continue to evolve and iterate based on their feedback, their needs, and trends.

Build a strong team.

Surround yourself with talented and experienced people who are passionate about your business and committed to achieving your goals. Remove the main cause of complacency: boredom.

Growth in itself kills boredom, there is always a challenge, and when employees can help the business grow, their careers and skills grow along with it. As the business grows, new roles and opportunities are bound to be created. Keep your team motivated by staying motivated to continue to iterate, enhance, evolve, and grow!

Execute flawlessly.

Once you have a plan in place, it's important to execute it flawlessly. This means paying attention to detail and making sure that everyone on your team is aligned and working towards the same goals. Communication is key, and if things change, remember to follow the ICU, which stands for:

• Iterate it: evolve the strategy based on incoming feedback.
• Communicate it: communicate your strategy with your entire team so everyone is on the same page and they see how their contributions impact the bigger picture.

• Update it: update the strategy in writing and make sure it's aligned with overarching strategies.

Start with the End in Mind

When I am developing a growth strategy, I always start with the end in mind. Clearly defining my goals and vision is the first step towards developing a strategy designed to achieve those results. Once I have clearly defined the vision and end goal, I work backward from there to develop each concurrent step that gets me from the point today to the vision. These strategic goals are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART).

• Specific: I make my goals specific and very well-defined, leaving no room for ambiguity.
• Measurable: I include very clear criteria for assessing progress towards my goals.
• Attainable: I make sure that each goal is achievable and short-term. If my overarching goal is too large and too long-term, I continue to refine the goal into smaller short-term goals designed to put me on the track to accomplishing my overarching larger, long-term goal.
• Relevant: This means that each goal is a key piece of a puzzle to the overall long-term strategy. If it isn't supporting my long-term growth strategy or distracts me from my resources, money, and mental equity, I trash it.
• Time-bound: I choose my time frames to create urgency and designate predetermined milestones. Remember the more you divide your goals into smaller goals and milestones, the better you will be able to stay on track and agile to refine and iterate each subsequent goal to the ever-changing influences that affect your business on a day-to-day basis.

Business growth is not just a strategy; it's a way of life. Remember, growth is not a one-time event; it's an ongoing commitment. Strategy and goal building is a skill that anyone can develop and the more you commit to setting achievable goals and developing SMART action plans, your skill becomes stronger. So, be the Chief Growth Officer of your life and business, and "keep growing!"

Daniel V. Passariello

Business Growth & Sales Enablement Strategist