Growing a business is hard work. Regardless of what you sell and how you sell it, getting and maintaining customers is a full time process.
However, there is a point where you reach self-sufficient business growth. This is the point at which your business becomes like a snowball rolling downhill and the process of rolling keeps the business growing. Your job at that point is to maintain steam and keep everyone happy.
That’s the good news. So how do you get there?
There are four major components to attaining self- sufficient business growth.
1. Time.
You have to be in business long enough to develop the other three components. There is no short cut to this.
2. Satisfied Customers
The main fuel of your self-sufficient business growth machine is happy, repeat customers who advertise for you by telling other people who become happy, repeat customers.
3. Solid Business Reputation.
This is an off-shoot of number two. A solid business reputation is what you have when people think of buying a product or service like you sell and then naturally and logically think of you as the person to get it from. Time and happy, satisifed customers help you develop your solid business reputation. Never giving less than 110% customer service develops all three.
4. Self-Propelled Marketing.
Self-propelled marketing is things like link exchanges and traffic exchanges and other programs that create a lasting AND growing marketing machine. A busy, growing web site is a self-propelled marketing machine.
Once you work through the ramp-up process and develop all four of the necessary components of self-sufficient business growth, you begin to experience success in spite of yourself rather than success as a result of yourself. Its not the point where you can sit back and rest on your laurels, but it is the point where you can occasionally slow down and take a deep breath.
Self-sufficient business growth should be the goal of everyone in business who desires to reach the next level. The next level is where ever you dream of being next but aren’t at yet.
Everyone needs a day-to-day operating plan. But designing that operating plan to lead to self-sufficient business growth is a way to certain success.
Shannan Hearne is the owner of SuccessPromotions.com and the co-founder of ShoppingInTheSouth.com
shannan@successpromotions.com