Maraia's Rainmaking Blog

Six Foolproof Ways To Grow Your Business

In an article by Verne Harnish in Fortune Magazine (March 22, 2010) he offers great advice for six foolproof ways to grow your business:

1.  Find an underlying advantage over your competition (that delivers 10-30 times more value) and dominate your industry.  One way to do that is to look at your industry’s biggest cost and time constraints and challenge conventional thinking in those areas.

2.  Own a phrase.  Harnish says it’s about owning a word or two in the minds of your target market.  Easier said than done but the rewards are great.  

3.  Hyper focus.  Align the entire company (or practice group) around a single measurable priority each quarter.  Not 75, not 5 but one overarching focus for the next 90 days that removes a significant bottleneck.  

4. Control your cash.  Construct a business model that fuels growth without the need for outside capital.  Look at your cash position daily.  

5. Write!  Flood the digital world with your ideas.  Education based marketing establishes you and your company as industry leaders and thought leaders.  And I would add, use what you write as a chance to open up a dialogue!!

6.  Pulse faster.  The best executive teams huddle daily, as if in constant crisis mode, driving priorities, metrics and data.  It’s about having a bias for action.  In the words I use from my book Rainmaking Made Simple:  Have more conversations for action!!

Mark