Nigel Bennett
Managing Director
16/05/2019
Summary
If you run an ambitious growing business, our new white paper on accelerating growth will be of interest to you. It provides lots of information and insight into how to get from where you are now, to where you want to be. Covering everything from recognising barriers to putting plans in place, the white paper will help you take your business to the next level.
Removing barriers to growth
The first step to growth is removing barriers, but to do so you first have to recognise what they are. There are a number of things that could be holding you back.
First off is mindset. Negative thoughts, worry and lack of confidence can all be barriers to growth. It’s important to be aware of how your mindset can impact success and consider how you could think differently. Then come more insidious things like procrastinating or working ‘in’ rather than ‘on’ your business. Being disciplined and making the right priorities will help clear things up. There are also issues with lack of vision and strategy planning and not enough resources. If you don’t set goals for where you want to be and make sure you’ve got what you need to get there, you are going to struggle.
“Most of us spend too much time on what is urgent and not enough on what is important.”
Using a time management matrix can help you identify how best to manage your time. First ask, is the task important? Second ask, is the task urgent? Then plot it on the matrix to determine whether you should complete it right away, plan time to do it later, or eliminate or ignore it altogether. Using this tool will help you prioritise the things that are worth your time and effort, and avoid procrastinating on the things that are not.
How to find time
Brian Tracy, a self-development author, identifies 7 key time wasters as; telephone interruptions, unexpected visitors, meetings, fire-fighting, socialising, indecision and procrastination. To combat these time wasters, you could implement things like ‘Quiet times’ where you put all calls on hold and don’t take any meetings with unexpected visitors, instead have a specific time such as 3-4pm where you make all your calls for the day.
The 80/20 rule
The Pareto Principle (named after the man who realised it) states that 80% of results comes from 20% of the action. If you focus resources on the 20%, you could seriously boost growth. In business this could mean that 20% of customers account for 80% of profits, or maybe 20% of sales reps (the best ones) generate 80% of sales. Take the time to get to know what actions are getting the best results and helping you to grow, so you can focus more of your time and resources on them.
“A habit is a formula our brain automatically follows: When I see a cue, I will perform a routine in order to get a reward.”
Changing habits
A habit, by definition, is an action that we’ve become so used to it becomes default. They are behaviours we perform automatically, allowing us to carry out essential activities without consciously thinking about them. We all have habits which affect our personal and business lives. These habits often develop through a pattern of unconscious behaviour known as a habit loop. Your habit loop consists of a cue, which triggers your routine, and results in a reward. By recognising this pattern, you can begin to take the steps to change your habits.
Breaking the loop:
- Identify cues/triggers
- Identify the routine around the habit you want to change
- Identify the reward you get from your existing routine
- Have a plan for your new habit
Your keystone habit
A keystone habit is one which, if you change it, will have a ripple effect on your other habits. The best and most common example of this is exercise. Making positive changes to your exercise habits encourages other positive changes like eating better, being more productive, smoking less, and reducing stress. Once you have worked on your habits, you’re then ready to focus on your growth strategy.
Get ready to BOPP: Halliday’s Business One Page Plan
BOPP (Business One Page Plan) drives what’s critical to growth and helps you make the changes you need to make in the business, so you can move forward and take action when things are not going to plan. A BOPP is a method to help businesses set targets for everything that matters, then develop and implement an action plan which empowers you to grow. The great thing about a one-page plan is it gives you a regular snapshot of your business, making it easy for you and your team to monitor success and take action.
Develop your growth strategy
In his book, Jump Start Your Business Brain, Doug Hall talks about three significant factors that will dramatically help you improve the effectiveness of your growth strategy and chances of success: Overt Benefit, Reason to Believe and Dramatic Difference
- Talk about benefit – As Simon Sinek puts it: “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” What is the obvious benefit of your product or service to your customer? You have to make sure you’re not just selling the feature.
- Reason to believe – A Reason to Believe is literally the proof or way you demonstrate to a potential customer that you can do what you say you can do. It could be common sense explanations, a sample of your product, something about your heritage, testimonials from delighted customers or financial guarantees.
- Dramatic Difference – Your Dramatic Difference is what makes you stand out – don’t look at what your competitors are doing – look at what they aren’t! Your DD must be something that is consistent with your target market who have been attracted by your Overt Benefit and convinced by your Reason to Believe.
“It is easy to sit up and take notice, what is difficult is getting up and taking action.”
Why not take some action of your own and download our white paper. It goes into much more detail in each section, as well as providing special case studies of how we’ve helped accelerate growth for a number of clients.