You may be seeing the first signs of positive results just months after you start your own business.  You may be seeing your wealth grow through your bank account, while your employees don’t appear to be having any problems – they’re productive and so are you. And that makes you feel happy, as you feel like you’re truly in the money.

But is your business really growing like it should? Are you all settled on your current state of wealth and your current frame of mind that you’re starting to feel a bit complacent? That shouldn’t be the case, especially with the fickle state of world economies and the countless probabilities that your business may be facing.

If you aren’t prepared for these things, you may soon find out that you aren’t that much “in the money” after all. That’s what makes growing your business and continuously trying to do so paramount.

Leadership Matters, But Are You Actually a Leader?

At this point you may think you’re paying the cost to be the boss, as the song goes.  But you probably don’t want to be the boss – you want to be a leader.  You do not want to be the person everyone fears the moment you pass by, the person they have to address as “Mr. /Ms. /Mrs. ____” instead of calling you by your first name. You don’t want to be someone who’s a popular subject at the proverbial water cooler.

Instead of castigating employees the moment they mess up, the important thing is making them learn from their mistakes by calmly, rationally telling them in private why they messed up, and what such a mistake means for you, your business, and for them as well. Motivate your employees regularly, praise them for a job well done, and recruit people who believe in your company and what it’s about.

Growth Also Extends to Sales

Aside from growing as a leader, you also have to grow in terms of sales.  This means effectively communicating your message without having to “shout” your message, in business parlance. You should make sure that your approach allows you to be visible in multiple forms of media, and to actually have meaningful conversations with potential customers.

Since you’ve likely had a lot of sales at this point, it’s always good practice to stick to what had worked in the past. Last, but not the least, don’t “shout.” Avoid using any sales technique that may come about as too cloying, desperate, or pervasive in nature.

Be Sure You’ve Got a Well-Developed Business Model

It doesn’t matter what business model you’re using, but the key thing is that it has to be fully developed. It should have a concrete type of end user, and you should be using the right channels that work the best in your favor.  But if you feel your existing model can do better, then that’s when you can consider alternatives.

Aside from direct sales, there’s wholesale and retail distribution, agreements with VARs, or value added resellers, licensing your product, and franchising your product. However, the only time you want to consider these alternatives are if you know either of them has the potential of winning more volume.

Knowing your customer or end user is one thing, as we mentioned above, but you also have to be absolutely familiar with your product or service.  Don’t expect the money to keep rolling in if it’s obvious you have little clue about the finer points of what you’re selling.

What Else Can Help Your Business Grow?

Profitability, for starters, should be ensured in the process of growing your business  - this could mean minimizing your overhead expenses, taking advantage of flexible term options when hiring employees, and pricing your product/service in such a way that you can earn a fair profit or better without letting customers feel like they’re being gouged.

Having enough cash in reserve will protect you from going belly-up, heavens forbid. And problem solving should always include a Plan B (and then some) for your Plan A, as you prepare for the worst while continuously hoping for the best; if problems do occur, and they’re sure to crop up once in a while, think analytically instead of making knee-jerk decisions.