How to Grow a Profitable Business: People, Quality and Planning

Every business owner wants to know how to grow a profitable business.  It doesn’t matter what stage you’re at right now; you feel like your business could always do better.  And, in fact, it makes more sense to try to grow your business while it’s still doing well rather than when it has started to deteriorate.  You need to strike while the iron is hot, not when it’s already started to cool off.

But no matter when you start trying to grow a profitable business, there’s always something you can do.  Whether you’ve just started your own business or have been running it for several years, you could benefit from the following tips:

The Importance of Good People. “When you have good relationships, running your business is so much easier.  People respond to you faster and are willing to go that extra mile for you.”

1. Business Relationships vs. Personal Relationships.  How do you develop good business relationships?  It’s not that different from developing good personal relationships.  You ask questions, you practice active listening, you refrain from criticizing when it’s unnecessary and you offer your own help.
2. The Power of Good Intentions.  When you’re sincerely interested in the lives of others, they will sense it, even if you’re not the chatty type.  Make the happiness of your employees, business associates and clients your main priority and you will reap the results.

The Importance of High QualityMost people will tell you that there are many tips and tricks for improving profits.  You can mark up your products, give out freebies, advertise more and get new referrals, as per this article from Inc.  But very few people remember to mention that you should have a good product or service to begin with.

1. Believing in Your Product or Service.  When you started your business, you must have done so because you believed in the product or service you were providing.  You believed that it would help people and improve their lives.  You need to carry this conviction with you as you go along.  You can’t let your product quality or service quality suffer in any way.  And if you see opportunities to improve quality even more, all the better. 
2. Keeping Your Vision in Mind.  Well-known inventors such as Steve Jobs have been known to obsess over the design and quality of their products until they’re satisfied with the results.  Whether or not you choose to be inspired by Jobs, you too can make sure that your product or service lives up to your vision.

The Importance of PlanningThere are people who plan to start businesses and those who do so spontaneously.  Maybe you just started painting tiles in your spare time, as a hobby, until someone asked if they could buy a few from you.  And then, your home business started growing until it finally became a full-fledged tile design company.  This type of organic growth is really exciting but it leaves a lot to chance.  Instead, you might want to ask yourself the following questions which will help you plan out how you want your company to grow:

1. How many years do you think it will take for your company to achieve its full potential?
2. What market do you plan to target?  Are you aiming for more than one demographic?
3. Do you plan to introduce new products or services in the future?  If so, which ones?
4. Will you perform all your tasks in-house or do you want to outsource some of them, like accounting and bookkeeping?
5. Would you like to bring in a consulting firm to help you achieve certain aims?

These are all sprawling questions but it’s a good idea to keep the answers in mind as you go about starting and growing a business.
Call Mike McVay at 850.725.5696
Mike@MikeMcVay.com