BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
DON ’ T BE MYOPIC ABOUT MARKETING
Most entrepreneurial companies treat marketing as glorified sales-support . Even worse , they fail to use it to crank up the flow of qualified job applicants they need to win . Take a cue from one fast-growing company I know that needed to lure workers physically fit enough for trash collecting . It posted ads in local gyms asking , “ Would you like to be paid for your workout ?” The fliers cost next to nothing , and the owner found plenty of energetic candidates .
FIGHT PROCESS PARALYSIS
Functions such as recruitment , billing , and customer care are like hallway closets . You have to clean them up once in a while — not just throw more people at them — so they don ’ t get sloppy . Nurse Next Door , a home health care provider in the U . S . and Canada , found that its payroll and billing accountant was working weekends before it streamlined her workflow . That saved her a good 20 hours a week . Now the firm teaches the same pared-down approach to its franchisees .
LOVE YOUR ACCOUNTANTS
Most entrepreneurs undervalue — and understaff — their finance department , viewing it as a necessary evil to keep the tax collectors at bay , issue and pay invoices , and provide monthly accounting statements . Big mistake . Hire a sophisticated pro who can gather the granular data you need to see where you ’ re making money by product , customer , location , or salesperson . It ’ s the quickest way to double profits and cash flow in a year
TEACH YOUR PEOPLE WELL
If you want the company to grow by a factor of 10 , you need 10 times the leadership skills among your key people . They ’ ll need to excel at predicting where the market is heading , communicating the company ’ s values , goals , and priorities — and delegating successfully to their teams . Give them time away from the fray to attend the conferences , classes , and seminars they need to make a bigger contribution — so you don ’ t have to pay for their on-the-job mistakes .
INVEST IN SYSTEMS
Fast-growing firms need to upgrade their infrastructure at three critical points or their teams will get lost in inefficiency : At 10 employees , you need a better phone system ; at 50 , sophisticated accounting software ; and at 350 , a single database that links all key information , so a simple change of address by a customer doesn ’ t trigger a cascade of mistakes . Procrastinating on this will kill your growth . Trust me : Your most aggressive rivals made these changes — last year . +
Verne Harnish is founder of the world-renowned Entrepreneurs ’ Organization ( EO ), with over 16,000 members worldwide , and chaired for fifteen years EO ’ s premiere CEO program held at MIT , a program in which he still teaches today .
Founder and CEO of Scaling Up , a global executive education and coaching company with over 200 partners on six continents , Verne has spent the past four decades helping companies scaleup .
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