Skim through any online business forum and the one question that is asked over and over again—albeit in many different forms—is what it takes to effectively grow one’s company.
Is it a new and innovative marketing strategy that others have tried and found that it brings extremely positive results? Or maybe it’s that one piece of wisdom that, once learned, can change the trajectory of your business for good.
While there is undoubtedly a great deal of business advice and marketing strategies that can ultimately help you take your company to higher levels, one successful business coach says that building a bigger business is as simple as asking yourself the right questions. What questions are those?
According to executive coach Mark Moses, the best-selling author of Make Big Happen and founding partner of CEO Coaching International, as a business owner intent on building your company, asking (and answering) these four very important questions can help you achieve that goal.
1. What Do I Want?
Answering this first question involves taking a deeper look at what it is you really want to achieve with your business. Put another way, why did you decide to start your company?
Did you set out to revolutionize a particular industry or were you intent on providing customers a more efficient service? Maybe your goal was to work for yourself while earning enough to support your family and fund a decent retirement. What is your ultimate goal?
2. How Do I Get What I Want?
Though some business owners know the answer to this second question immediately, others struggle with exactly how to get what they want. If you fall into this latter category, Moses has an exercise that may just help.
He calls it his ‘crystal ball exercise’ and, to complete it, you simply imagine that it’s the end of the year and you’re celebrating because you achieved something big in the previous 12 months. What is it that you achieved? This will give you a better idea of what is most important to do in the months ahead.
Though there are likely many actions you can take to reach your goal, Moses recommends only listing the top three to five activities. By limiting the number, you’re less likely to feel overwhelmed.
Not sure how to reduce your long list to just the top few? One option is to do what Stephen Covey suggests in his book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, and that is to “begin with the end in mind.”
Essentially, Covey says to think of your ultimate goal and work your way backward. This will tell you exactly what you need to do (and in what order) to create the amount of company growth you want.
That said, Moses also stresses that it’s critical to make sure your actions are both specific and measurable. Being specific helps you recognize exactly what you’re after while measurability enables you to easily determine whether the things you’re doing are as effective as you’d like.
3. What Is Going to Get in My Way?
The third important question you want to ask yourself when trying to build a bigger business is what is potentially going to get in your way? What hurdles are you likely to face?
According to Moses, one of the biggest obstacles business executives face include being distracted by “shiny new objects.” Limiting beliefs such as thinking that you can’t do something—that you’re not smart enough, talented enough, or whatever enough—can get in your way as well.
Small Business Trends adds to this by indicating that some of the other challenges facing a lot of businesses today are more external in nature. These include growing healthcare costs for employees, increasing governmental regulations, and finding ways to grow without sacrificing product or service quality.
Recognizing these potential problem areas up front helps you better plan for times when they arise.
4. How Do I Hold Myself Accountable?
The fourth and final question Moses says is important to ask is what you’re going to do to hold yourself accountable. How will you ensure that you take the steps necessary to make your business bigger and stronger?
The reason this is critical is, despite your best of intentions, motivation eventually wanes. Therefore, even if you’re extremely determined to grow your company right this moment, that feeling will lessen over time, making it more difficult to stay the course long enough to see positive results.
This is where having an accountability system proves to be beneficial. Essentially, it keeps you motivated (and a little obligated) to take the actions you say you’ll take.
A few of the options offered by Moses to increase your accountability are to create scoreboards or to post your goals around you, both serving as reminders of what it is you’re trying to do. Getting a business coach helps as well because this person will check in with you regularly to inquire about whether you’re doing what you said you’d do.
Conclusion
By answering these four questions, you’ll not only have a clearer idea of what you want in regard to business growth and how to get it, but you’ll also have a better shot of heading off any obstacles before they even present themselves.
You’ll also have a predetermined way to stay accountable during the process, increasing the likelihood that you’ll follow it through long enough to take your company to higher (and more profitable) levels.
