7 Rules to Grow Your Business Fast

The world of entrepreneurship moves fast; and in our haste to leverage opportunities, it’s easy to lose sight of the things that make the best entrepreneurs so successful. Let’s take a step back now and review seven rules for growing your business and sales quickly.

Branding - Set Yourself Apart & Toot Your Own Horn Once In Awhile. If you don't think you're great, no one else will. I always teach, "be careful what you say, because you're always listening". If you think or talk negatively about yourself all the time, you will become what you say and you will not succeed. Convince yourself you're awesome and others will quickly realize that you are too!

You need to claim the website domain, social media properties and vanity URL’s for yourself personally, for your business and your products if need be. You can search for all of them in one place within moments with this free search service I use right here. If your name(s) are not available, reach out and see if you can the existing owner is willing to sell. I have done that with many large sites out there to control my personal brand, but be careful, because it violates most of the site's terms of service.

Take some fun and creative ideas in branding yourself, across the web you'll find I have Sir Richard Branson fake-punching me, I have a photo of me cleaning Zappo's Founder Tony Hsieh's dishes one time when I was at his house, I ran over to the sink in his kitchen and yelled for someone to take a photo before he noticed, etc. Below is a photo of me in a suite in Las Vegas with my one of my best friends, the late great legendary guitarist Eric McClure, (RIP buddy).

Now exactly why in the hell am I'm dressed like part of someone's yacht staff and holding a glass of white wine in the middle of the day, I have absolutely no idea. But there are some crazy fun pics from this shoot and they've made their rounds on the internet, it's not too hard to find them, lol.

Invest In Yourself by Reinvesting - Turn Every Dollar into $20. How do you expect someone to bet on you if you won't bet on you? It’s that simple. Reinvest profits in your business in order to grow your business. Learn what the cost per acquisition is of your customer or client. This business function is the quickest way to scale, large companies do this as a matter of course, but small businesses don’t have capital investment budgets and watchful boards of directors.

It’s tempting for entrepreneurs to enjoy the fruits of their labor, and while that can be motivating, it can’t be all we think about. This is especially true for newbies who have just enjoyed that first big success. Don’t buy that sports car (or that diamond) yet. And don’t move to South Beach. Instead, put some, preferably most, of that first big check into growing your business.

Find Partners You Can Trust - Leverage Your Strengths. Entrepreneurship has more than its share of people who have enjoyed quick success. But success isn’t the only thing to look for in someone you’re looking to do business with. Look beyond success. Do your research. Talk to people. Get a feel for any potential partner. If you see red flags, don’t ignore them.

There are far too many stories out there about entrepreneurs who were making a killing with a company only to see it shut down. Don’t be one of them, yours truly was fell victim to that. Focus on platforms you control.

Same goes with strategies. If you diversify your business with different products and strategies, you have much more options. If you fall in love with any single strategy, you won't. Beware though, jumping from one strategy to the next can slow your progress rather than speed it up - "the next shiny object syndrome" is the crux of most entrepreneurs. There are plenty of ways to make money, especially online. There’s no need to try them all at once.

Stay current - Things Change Rapidly & So Should You. Compared to many, online marketing is still a young business. Strategies and tactics are still in a period of rapid change. Legal and regulatory issues can crop up quickly. It’s vital that we balance the demands of running a business that we take the time to look up periodically and see what the rest of the world is doing.

Look Forward - If You Don't Have A Plan, Get One. Armed with an understanding of your business as it stands now, we must always ask ourselves what’s coming next and be prepared to innovate. Doors open; doors close. We have to be thinking constantly about opportunities, and the innovation it will take to take advantage of them.

If you look far enough ahead, you better have figured out your “WHY”, and incorporated it into your vision, mission and values. Apart from doing well by doing “well”, you’ll eventually need tax breaks once you make all that money. Would you rather give it to social entrepreneurs that are solving humanitarian, social and economic issues responsibly or a government who’s known for wasteful spending?

As the millennial generation is coming into the workforce, studies show that they're more concerned with what cause an employer is supporting than the job they are doing. Think about that for a minute, how you retain talent and how you make money is directly tied to why you’re in business the first place. 

For us, our passion and 'why' is JoinOurFight, a non-profit focused on combatting human trafficking (modern-day slavery), and child prostitution globally. If you would like to help, please message me. Here is one photo from when I was in Uganda.

Focus on content - Articles, Posts, Updates, Photos, Likes, Shares, etc. Yes, I know it can be exhausting and takes up time just like this article... effective marketing and communication come down to content. Build your list all you want, and without great content, there is no cash flow. Great content establishes relationships and improves conversions. So, make that content as effective as you can, test it, then improve it some more. It’s a process. Just like growing your business is a process.

Do you think developing content is a waste of time? This article is proof it isn’t.   Educating and empowering entrepreneurs, developing culture and creating brands are all passions of mine. I’ve provided this great content and as always I will have future mentees, coaching and agency clients reach out quickly after publishing this article requesting help and availability. If you don't have the time, hire a social media manager to learn your voice and publish on your behalf.

The content I create, educates others and naturally becomes revenue because of its value. Look at the image below of my Social Selling Index (SSI) as ranked by LinkedIn. I am in the Top 1% and have a score almost 4 times that of people in the sales, marketing, and advertising industry. I am also in the top 2% of the 10,000 connections I have regardless of the industry. Trust me, this stuff works.

Hire An Advisor, Then Learn, Learn, Learn.  For years I noticed the more I surrounded myself with people who possessed way more experience, wisdom, and knowledge in areas of business, the more I would personally grow exponentially, as would my revenue. If you always desire to be the smartest guy in the room, good luck – because you’re guaranteeing yourself that you always will be and that’s not good.

Here is a photo of me sitting around the Temple House next to Sir Richard Branson at his private home Necker Island discussing some Virgin Unite goals, sharing ideas and learning from him and many other entrepreneurs that are way smarter than me.

His living room you see above is circular and there are pillars all the way around. Each pillar represents one of the Council of Elders of which Richard is on the advisory council of. So what other individuals does the 200th wealthiest man in the world surround himself with to learn from? To name a few, the late Margaret Thatcher, the late Nelson Mandela, Founder Desmond Tutu, President Jimmy Carter, former head of the U.N. Kofi Annan, and a litany of other influential global leaders.

I’ve spent a fortune over the years making the right connections, building a Rolodex that includes world famous people and local experts in their field, and it’s always paid off. I've always reinvested in myself, I've practiced what I've preached, I've built my brand. Once I paid $1,000/hr to a well-known author to teach me the growth hacks of publishing that I had been searching for, it saved me tens of thousands. Another time I made a $100k donation to a certain celebrity who now happens to be a friend and supports me and my pursuits.

I have always valued people’s time and so should you, its human nature that people do not value what they don’t pay for. Simply put, you wouldn’t drive a Ferrari the same way if it was given to you, then if you had worked for it yourself. Many say they would treat it the same, but the truth is its human nature... YOU didn't earn it.

After almost 20 years, 6 companies and over $100MM in revenue generated through our companies, we’ve learned what makes or breaks a fast-growing company. We’ve learned the hard way at times and really enjoyed our successes along the way as well. 

If you’re needing help with from business branding, personal branding, business model generation, leadership development, advising on customer acquisition or anywhere in between – don’t hesitate to reach out to Blackwell SGP and see how we can help!

You can click connect to message me here on Linkedin, follow me on Twitter or connect on Facebook.

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Agree or Disagree?

What rules have helped you grow a business fast?