How to Grow Your Business

8 LEARN AFTER TWO EXITS

How do I build a better business? An issue of eternity that is on the minds of just about every entrepreneur. Whether the goal is to exit or simply better money and a smoother business, there are a few universal things to increase the value of a company that helps build a better business.

In this post, I will share 8 tips on how to build a better business that is more meaningful to own and operate. I did not connect these examples vain one business is closed, because I have noticed that often cause only "does not work in our industry" type comments. We hope you get more out of these new ideas and thoughts. 

Eight learn how to build a more valuable business.

• Market and differentiation
• Recruitment and people
• Scalability
• Long money 
• Predictability
• Cash flow
• Processes
• Love feedback

Market and differentiation

Too often I hear start-up entrepreneurs discussing how they have just found a market where they are first and where there is no competition. Pitch decks are adorned with phrases stating that now is the best time to invest because the company will be the first to enter the market.

However, the practice has taught that if there is demand somewhere (i.e. customers who are willing to pay for the product or service you produce/sell) there is most likely competition as well. 

Competition, contrary to what people usually think, is good. It says that the thing is so valuable that we are willing to pay for it. A competitive market is therefore the surest sign that there is a lot of demand.

In a competitive market, the one that stands out from the crowd does best. Differentiation has traditionally taken place through product differentiation, but today at least as significant, if not a more significant way to ensure success is to stand out as a brand.

The importance of an attractive brand should not be underestimated. Or how do you explain that, in practice, two identical pairs of sneakers cost almost ten times the price when the sneaker has the Nike logo. Or how does one company take the best in the industry, where the other is content with a more inexperienced workforce?

Profitwell,  who analyzed pricing data from SaaS companies, made an interesting point in his study. 

"Those customers who perceived a company's brand positively had between a 16% and 41% higher willingness to pay than the median."

- Profitwell, 2018. Pricing Brand Study

The brand increases the willingness of customers to pay for the product. The key to the brand is to ensure differentiation from competitors. A distinctive brand is thus one of the most effective ways to build a better-performing business.

Recruitment and people

The majority of growth-seeking companies fail because they are unable to build a growth-enabling model of continuous recruitment. Those who apply the marketing and sales model to their recruitment do best in recruitment.

With Advance B2B, we initially built a policy that team supervisors must have their own recruitment funnel in place - in other words, actively monitor potential employees and bring them into our recruitment pipeline.

"Prospecting" is done actively, for example, by following people who write on social media about our business topics, peeking at whose names, for example, technology partner HubSpot references / blogs appear and who has been recommended for the key skills we are looking for / want to recruit.

In those moments when we have had challenges in recruiting, it has only been due to a poorly managed recruitment process (aka too few candidates in the recruitment funnel). Recruitment should therefore not be campaign-like, "need-only", but ongoing.

This recruitment work is, of course, preceded by recruitment marketing, which is to give a true picture of us as a workplace and a work community. In all honesty, I don’t think a completely truthful picture of us has been conveyed.

The nice things of everyday life come up too often and the moments when we are in pain with growth (making the structural changes required for growth, starting new stuff, quitting old, searching for new ways of working, etc.) have received less attention.

In line with the principle of transparency in our cultural code, it is important to us that a potential employee has a good understanding of us so that he or she can make the right decision for himself or herself. That is why I have come in my conversations potential kandeja even a little bit "intimidated" because what we are working in the worst case. 

Human growth is a prerequisite for a growth company

Our recruiting model has amazed (also delighted and angered) people. With us, you see the recruiting supervisor does NOT make the final recruitment decision / selection. Over the years, I have come to the conclusion that it is better to let people affected by the construction of their own work community and give them the final decision on recruitment. That’s why we always have a final recruitment discussion with the recruiting team.

The task of the pre-recruitment process is to filter the kind of people who are supposedly best suited to the company’s culture to the final meters. In recruitment discussions, we look in particular at 1. professional competence and development aspirations / areas, 2. general suitability for culture, and 3. customer work competence. After passing these three stages, the candidate ends up with the final stage, “grilling,” which then, depending on the recruitment, has a practical task to complete and present to future colleagues. After this, the recruiting team and the candidate get to know each other by talking freely.

We have received tremendous amounts of good feedback from the model. Also from those individuals who have themselves decided on the final stage that we are not the right job for him right now. Of course, the model also has a problem in the middle of a shocking rush (the recruitment process is unnecessarily lengthened if the calendars are cramped).

Human growth is a prerequisite for a growth company. If employees are unable to grow to new levels and if a company is unable to grow its next managers on its own, there is a rapid situation where recruitment and cultural problems become a bottleneck for growth. With regard to the preservation (or rather the development ) of the culture , it is extremely important that those in the company's managerial and managerial positions fully understand the company's values and are able to act accordingly in all situations.

Lastly, the balance between the more experienced and the new Staros, who are just entering the world of work, is one of the most difficult solutions. Many young people get tremendously new ideas and an open-minded attitude. On the other hand, a growth company then requires context, an understanding of how to get over different situations, and the ability to perceive which things become a problem. Naturally, someone at the beginning of their career does not have these things.