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Capturing Rewards
To capture the ultimate rewards of growth, take a planned approach that makes your company a better competitor. That way, the rewards of growth are continuous, from your first steps toward understanding your customer better to the latter stages of improved cash flow and financial strength. Some of the key benefits are:
- Better Customer Relations: Trying to improve your products and service to attract more sales can only help customer relations. At least they will appreciate your attempts.
- Unleash Employee Potential: You need sales ideas and some of your employees probably have good ones. Letting them go to it is highly empowering.
- Better Networks: As you grow, you develop a better range of contacts who can help you - new and influential customers, financiers, consultants, suppliers, media people, government officials.
- Continuing Customer Focus: As you survey customers and listen to what they say, you become better at understanding them. You're developing good business sense.
- Better Use of Resources: Growth leads to a better use of resources as you maximize production capacity and find new efficiencies. Sales teams seeking crossover sales or new niche markets are also maximizing their selling abilities.
- Profitability of New Efforts: Innovations cost less than initial products and new campaigns can build on old ones. So profit levels should be higher, especially if you have accessories or complementary products with higher markups.
- Synergy: New products, more locations, better systems, more good employees. Pretty soon, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts - if you do it carefully.
- Brand-building: New markets and more customers build recognition and ultimately confidence in your name - your "brand". Success tends to snowball.
- Financial Strength: While a healthier balance sheet seems far in the future in the early stages of growth, increased cash flow eventually allows retirement of long-term debt. Result: more value in the company, more borrowing power and more growth potential.
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