The real nature of business is growing. Either you’re growing or you’re going backwards. Growth is one of the more necessary components of success in business. It’s not necessarily that you only grow by premises, but perhaps, more importantly, your business growth can be various measures of such as in customer size; base; market share; reviews/testimonials, and service offerings.

Considering when to grow can be intimating at first, but as a business, you need to see value in expansion. Growing your network; team engagement, and happiness, are all ways forward for any business working towards success.

How to?

Growth can be represented in many ways, and it’s not always how you’d expect. At a certain level in your business, you have to look at new offerings, new models and new ideas. Of course, the old saying, ‘if it aint broke, don’t fix it’ still stands true, but a business must make sure they aren’t stagnant and in danger of missed opportunity for success.  To grow, look at your people, you need the right leaders. You also need a plan. You need to know exactly what you’re aiming for and design a path to get you there. You also need to fund the journey. Research ways you can cover the costs and be aware of any unexpected expenses.

Understanding ‘the why’

I understood the need for growth early on for Reliance. There was a time we focused on growing our footprint more than any other aspect of business. We aspired to create the brand whole our team wanted to be a part of and wanted to grow with it. We agreed that by adding our team members, growing our market share, and training our teams, we would attract continuous improvement. In the last six months we focused on growing our systems and procedures to provide better customer experience.

We looked at our customers journey from the start to finish. We truly got to know our customers to better understand what they needed from us and ensured we could provide. We wanted to improve our existing customer experience and attract more customers.

Growth equals happiness.

When you’re growing, teams feel they are an important part of the growth and major opportunities become available for them to grow with the business. People are the most important asset and great team members feel valued, inspired, and engaged with a business that’s always seeking progress.

Growth equals focus

Growing your business can keep you very focused on what the important steps are to achieve healthy growth. Stay focused on the end goal. For us, our vision is to have our agents in the top 1-3 in any market we serve. We have set training and plans for our teams to follow, to be the top performers in their marketplace. Keeping the growth mindset teams can easily stay focused on the end goal for their and client’s betterment. Any decision we make always align with keeping our team growth in mind.

Embrace innovation

To create superior sustainability in the market, businesses need to embrace innovation. This doesn’t always mean introducing new and mind-blowing technology, although there is always the opportunity to check out your existing platforms and find new features, experiences, processes, and tech. With the recent ongoing Victorian lockdowns, we had to ‘grow’ with the current environment and introduce a different customer experience through online auctions, electronic document processing and virtual tours. The importance of ‘moving with the times’ has never seemed so relevant. If you don’t grow with the environment, you will be left behind.

Distraction

Recognising distraction will be a major tool for any business on their growth journey. Not all opportunities are good. If you find yourself diverted from your core business goals, you need to ask yourself ‘is this taking us closer to our vision? If the answer is no, then stay away from that path. Every business decision around growth should align with your vision.

Break it down

Finally, break your plan for growth into steps and set down some roots. Treat your business like you’re raising a child to adult hood.  You nurture, guide, and provide a child with the best possible tools for success in life, and business is no different. Always keep the end in mind to stay focused on your path.

Written by Sunil Kumar.

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