Learn how to grow your small business the right way by surrounding yourself with the right people, taking steps to strategically enhance your business, and establishing financial expansion.
Has your business passed the startup stage? Are you ready to bring it into the next phase of growth? Ready to make it one of the coveted Small And Midsize Enterprises (SME)?
As a person who has a startup that is moving into the SME stage with 300% growth per year, all eyes are on me to grow and nurture my company consistently.
After meetings with my board of trustees and my mentors, I have put together a list of items I have had (and continue) to work on to bring my business to its full potential.
The right circle
Surround yourself with the right team, the right people, and the right mentors and connections.
Your team is really the main aspect of your business that allows you to reach your big vision and your targets.
Personally, I am a stage where I definitely need to evaluate who on my team aligns with my goals to grow and who I should add on to assist me in fulfilling the company targets.
“Has your business passed the startup stage? Are you ready to bring it into the next phase of growth?
PR yourself
As a business owner, you should be bigger than life. What I mean here is that you should be able to inspire not just your team, but all members of society, including the press.
Your communication channels should act as tools to describe what your vision and mission is, and your bio should be accessible to the masses. I personally make it my business to make our company projects clear and visual on the website, and the profiles of my team members are up there as well.
Making the transition
Making the transition from managing director to CEO is a crucial move. One of the most common mistakes found in static businesses today is that the owner of the company is too busy managing day to day activities to focus on strategic moves to help the business evolve.
I find myself very much in this transition, very comfortable and equally stuck as I manage client deliverables, provide creative consultancy to clients stuck in a rut, and remind my staff to double and triple check facts and reports.
It seems the minute I take a step forward I take two steps back and adjust back into the cycle of day-to-day manager instead of working on the calculated moves that can allow us to open our second office in Khobar.
“Making the transition from managing director to CEO is a crucial move.
Networking
We heard this word way too many times as students: networking. It got tossed around so much that it became cheap and commonplace.
To me networking is a privilege. The more I do it, the more I realize its power, and the more I feel I have earned the privilege to be able to have worked hard enough that my firm manages itself so I am able to be social attending events, seminars, conferences, and grow both my influencer and network. It is easy to get carried away with networking and lose focus with your aim and vision.
It can, however, also be a waste of time, should you attend events that have the same amount of people at them or if events don’t benefit you in terms of content or network.
It is important to strategically network, defining clearly your goals, and lining up ideal organizations and firms and others who will help you expand and grow.
Financial Expansion
At my self-made firm, we are now at a crossroads where we need to take out a loan to expand our company and open our first office in Khobar.
It would be hard to expand at the rate that we want without taking that risk and hiring the right people who can get us there.
That’s why my accountant is my second right-hand man. I go to him to discuss all matters of the business, to understand the amount of risk we can take at any given time.
