Growth as a Context

I've been working with a number of clients these last months on growth issues. In the process, I've come to realize that the word "growth" brings up thoughts of "hard work," "major change," "tied up resources." In other words, growth is often viewed as a struggle. But the fact is, growth is a state of mind that leads to actions intentionally aligned with a long-term goal. It's not easy OR hard, just a different context that works in lean as well as bountiful times.

During lean economic times, it's easy to fall into a state of mind of "maintenance" where business owners and entrepreneurs try to keep afloat. But growth is not explosive, nor does it require expensive changes to current operations to make it happen. More often, growth is incremental change that ceaselessly moves forward given the right care and feeding (intentional actions).

For example, one of my clients was in "maintenance" mode because they didn't have enough resources (time, money, people) to grow. In this economy, just to maintain their current revenues, they added 2 new commissioned salespeople. It wasn't working. Revenues were dipping. When they switched to a growth perspective, the goal of maintaining revenues created a whole new set of actions. To fill their pipeline, they focused on having an outside agency prequalify prospects so their salespeople had strong opportunities to work on. With less to hunt for, the salespeople had more opportunity to close new customers. In addition to maintaining sales revenues, my client is now poised for growth when the economy shifts because they've reduced their sales cycle while doubling their pipeline. (At less cost than adding new personnel.)

Small to Big

Social networking for a small business is a remarkable and indispensable tool. My team recently developed a new product to help entrepreneurs uncover opportunities in their sales and cash flow operations. It's a sweet analysis product and we were excited about its potential since so many of our clients were asking for something like it. So I sent out an email to a few people in my immediate network for their feedback once we'd made the prototype. The response was astounding! The gist of the comments were "perfect timing...great for making decisions and comparing risks/upside...wish I'd had that information before hiring..."

We couldn't have asked for more enthusiasm. But the euphoria was quickly replaced by concerns of how to develop the product for the larger market. As a small company, we still needed to find the cash and resources to launch the product. Argh! I tapped my network again for developers, testers, and marketing assistance and found instead of simple referrals and basic advice, real operating assistance.

This experience has shifted my perspective on partnerships, on the power of social networking, and on the generosity that can come from community.