How to Grow a Once Slow Growth or Maintain Company: 12 Steps to Ignite Growth
We often help business owners and private equity firms take once sleepy lifestyle businesses and turn them into explosive growth organizations.
Sometimes we find it was the previous owner or CEOs vision not to drive explosive growth but maintain the current business. That strategy worked for several businesses until the pandemic. Those lifestyle businesses suffered when one or more of their larger customers left due to supply chain constraints and never came back.
We also see some businesses that want to grow but find themselves stuck in a cycle of stagnation, where growth has plateaued, innovation has slowed, and excitement has fizzled. A once-thriving company can become complacent, content with maintaining the status quo rather than pushing for progress and looking for new market problems to solve. If you’re leading such a business, it’s time to evolve and position it for growth.
Often, we have business owners wanting to reinvigorate their business , revenues and profit margins as they prepare to sell the business.
If you just bought a once slow or no growth business or if you have invested in a sleepy business with high growth opportunities, I wrote this for you.
If you desire to strategically increase the value of your business for a strategic buyer at a higher than industry multiple, this post is for you.
Reviving a slow growth company requires strategic planning, decisive leadership, and a culture shift. Here are twelve steps you can take to breathe new life into the organization and set it on a path to sustainable growth.
In my book Driving Explosive Growth I share steps to help your company grow revenues, profits, market share and customer satisfaction in much deeper detail..
What are the 12 common steps we use to help once sleepy companies grow rapidly?
1. Assess the Current Situation with Brutal Honesty
The first step in waking up a dormant company is to thoroughly assess its current position. This includes analyzing financial performance, market position, customer satisfaction, employee engagement, and operational efficiencies. We conduct voice of customer research and understand if our customers are satisfied or unhappy and preparing to leave. We listen for things we are doing well and things our customers need us to do.
We assess the skills of your sales team to determine the current state of sales effectiveness then prescribe training, systems, and processes to improve results.
We run a net profit by customer analysis to determine what customers are contributing most to net income and what customers are profit leakers today and need corrective action immediately.
Assessing the website, we determine if the site is performing to industry standards or is it just a virtual brochure that looks nice but is not producing conversations that lead to revenue.
Be brutally honest about the weaknesses and the factors contributing to the stagnation. A clear-eyed view of the company’s situation is necessary to map out a path forward.
2. Establish a Clear and Compelling Vision
Growth requires a vision that excites and inspires. Without a strong sense of direction, both employees and stakeholders will remain disengaged. Define a clear, bold vision for where the company is headed. Here we help teams determine their BHAG, As Jim Collins shared the Big Harry Audacious Goal. It should not be something you know how to achieve today. Once in place we develop your one-page plan working backwards from your BHAG.
Make sure this vision is not just focused on profitability, but also includes a purpose that resonates with employees and customers alike. A compelling vision acts as a rallying point for the entire organization. We help teams create their vision, culture, and purpose.
3. Reevaluate Leadership and Management
A slow growth company often has leadership that has become too comfortable or disconnected from market trends. We have seen companies who recently received Private Equity investment often replace the CEO and other leaders who do not wish to grow as fast as the investors desire in the first six months. Assess whether current leaders are the right people to drive the company forward. We spend time with the leadership team and assess their trust, skills and growth appetite.
Do we have the right people in the right seats based on skill or do they have their role based on years with the company?
We conduct top grading exercises to determine if we have teams of A players or some C players that need to be coached up or out.
This might mean bringing in fresh leadership or reshaping the existing team to inject new ideas, skills, and energy into the business.
4. Refresh Company Culture
Stagnation can be a symptom of a culture that resists change or lacks innovation. Refreshing the company culture is key to reinvigorating growth.
Encourage openness to new ideas, a willingness to take risks, and a bias toward action. We help foster and environment of psychological safety to ensure we are talking about things that matter to the success of the business.
Employees should feel empowered to challenge the status quo and contribute to the company’s reinvention.
Sometimes we see leaders preparing to exit soon who do not desire to make the time investments to grow. If we find leaders not onboard with growth, we place them in roles to drive the maximum value while they remain at the company while ideally promoting a team member into the open role.
5. Identify New Growth Opportunities
Look for new markets, products, or services that align with your company’s strengths and capabilities. We frequently uncover these insights from voice of customer interviews.
This might mean expanding into new geographic regions, diversifying your product line, or pivoting into a niche market.
Identifying these opportunities requires thorough market research and a deep understanding of industry trends and customer needs.
6. Focus on Customer-Centricity
A slow growth company often loses sight of its customers, focusing more on internal processes, operation efficiencies than on customer satisfaction.
Reignite growth by shifting to a customer-centric model. Reconnect with your customers, ask for feedback, and involve them in the development of new products or services. Understand their pain points and adapt your offerings to meet their evolving needs. Understand what they value your team is doing and what they would like to see your team do in the future.
7. Streamline Operations
Operational inefficiencies can drag down growth and profitability. Conduct a thorough review of your operations to identify bottlenecks, redundancies, or outdated processes.
Implement technology solutions and automation where appropriate to improve efficiency and reduce costs. Streamlining operations allows the company to become more agile and responsive to changes in the market.
Growing revenue will tax operations teams that do not have a plan to grow their throughput and effecencies.
8. Invest in Innovation
No company can grow without innovation. Create an environment where experimentation and creativity are encouraged.
Set up dedicated innovation teams or departments tasked with exploring new ideas and testing potential products, services, or processes.
Consider partnerships with startups or research institutions to gain access to cutting-edge technologies and ideas.
9. Empower Employees with Skills and Tools
Growth won’t happen without the right talent. We often share if you want to 10X your company we need to 10X your employees’ skills. First, we assess then prescribe training. We encourage Investing in employee training and development to ensure your team has the skills necessary to drive the company forward.
Provide the tools, resources, repeatable processes, and technology they need to perform at their best. When employees feel supported and valued, they are more motivated to contribute to the company’s success.
Invest in leadership and management training. Employees today want to be coached not micromanaged.
10. Strengthen Marketing and Branding
If your company has been coasting, chances are its branding and marketing have grown stale. The digital footprint analysis helps us discover if our current marketing and messaging has grown outdated and stale. We conduct a value proposition audit to determine if what your marketing and sales teams are saying still resonates in your market.
Revisit your brand’s messaging, visual identity, and overall marketing strategy to ensure they reflect the company’s renewed vision and goals.
Invest in digital marketing, social media, and customer engagement strategies to reinvigorate your brand presence and attract new customers.
11. Develop Strategic Partnerships
Growth can often be accelerated by partnering with other companies that complement your business. Look for partnerships that can help you expand your market reach, enhance your product offering, or provide new distribution channels. Whether through joint ventures, strategic alliances, or supplier partnerships, leveraging external relationships can be a catalyst for growth.
12. Set Measurable Goals and Track Progress
Once the new growth plan is in place, it’s critical to set clear, measurable goals to track progress. ( SMART Goals) Define key performance indicators (KPIs) that align with your growth objectives and monitor them regularly. These should include leading and lagging indicators. This ensures accountability and allows you to adjust your strategy when necessary.
Celebrate small wins along the way to maintain momentum and keep the organization motivated. Top performers strive to be on top performing teams. Celebrating wins creates a culture of top performers in each department.
Do you have a once slow growth company that now wants to drive explosive grow?
Did you just purchase a business that’s needs to be reinvigorated to grow profitably?
Are you looking for a process to grow your company and increase its value before selling your business?
Waking up a once slow growth company is no small task, but by taking deliberate and strategic steps, you can reignite growth and drive the business toward long-term success.
It requires honest introspection, a commitment to innovation, and a willingness to make bold changes. By following these twelve steps, you’ll not only position your company for growth but also energize employees, attract customers, and inspire a renewed sense of purpose throughout the organization.