By Oluwakayode Adegbesan
Every business man or woman wants their business to grow. But most of the times, for most people it ends up as a wish because the principles that apply to growth and sustenance of businesses are not applied. I’d just share a few points as God’s Spirit has inspired in my heart and those I’ve learnt in business and you would be on your way to growing and sustaining the growth of your business.
The following are some of the principles but are not limited to them:
- Your Mind
No business or human endeavor can grow beyond what the mind can fathom or conceive. That’s why God told Abraham to look as far as his eyes can see. That’s why God would tell the Israelites to send spies to the land of Jericho. Once we can successfully register how much of growth we want in our business in our minds, then the rest is as easy as a piece of cake. Now the question is: how do we get our minds to dream big and wide? We can do this by looking at people who have gone ahead in business whether in our line or in our environment. Rather than envy, the way to go is to celebrate other people’s successes. In doing that, you would be creating an avenue for your own success. Another way is mentally visualizing where we want to be and documenting it to see it always. The Scripture says in Habakkuk 2:2 to write the vision down, make it plain. Our mind plays a key role in the growth of our Business. Let’s pay close attention to it and the sky is just our launching pad.
- Don’t wait till you’re big before you begin to think big.
In fact, even if your business is worth just ₦50,000 now and you want it to grow to ₦500,000,000, apply the principles and structures a ₦500,000,000 business would require; don’t wait till then! One of the statements that I usually say and that I’ve come to love and cherish is “Start Small, Think Big and You’d Grow Big.” Note that I said “principles” and “structures,” not practices. You don’t have to wait to be there before you imbibe all these into your business.
As long as you continue to do business with the wishy-washy mindset of “I’ll make adjustments when I grow big,” the business may never grow big.
- DIVERSIFY
The third point I’d like to raise is that whilst a number of business gurus would say “carve a niche for yourself,” which is very fantastic, please DIVERSIFY. This is very important to your business growth. Let’s take Apple as an example. Even though Apple started with Computers, they have diversified into other things like smart phones, smart watches and a lot more. Carving a niche is important but diversifying your business is one sure way to grow your business and sustain it. For instance, I started out selling shoes, and everyone knows I sell quality shoes. If in 5 years, I begin to make shoes, people would trust my product more. Why?
Because I have been selling shoes for a while now and I already have a list of clientele, so it would be easier to make and sell other leather stuffs such as bags, belts etc. That’s diversification. It’s just making more opportunities for more income that revolves around your niche market.
- KEEP RECORDS!
The whole idea of a business growing is to be able to leave where your business started to where you want it to be. And there’s no how you can measure this if there are no records you can refer to in order to measure your business growth.
It’ll just be assumptions and guesses which isn’t good for business. You have to keep all kind of records. No record is too small or irrelevant to keep as long as it has to do with your business. And when I say records, I don’t just mean financial records, you should also keep Clients Record. Know who your clients are, who referred them, why they patronize you and the part of your business they love. This would help know your strengths and how to make it your selling point and work on weaknesses.
You can also keep Sales record―both for those who sell and those who offer services. You can ask yourself questions like:
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On which day or part of the year or month do I make most sales?
– Where do I make the highest sales?
– What product or service sells the most?
I can go on and on with kinds of records. The most important thing is to keep records as long as it has to do with my business.
- DON’T WALK ALONE. One is too small a number to achieve greatness
You can’t go the journey alone. You really can’t. Except you either want to burn out fast or you don’t want to grow. There are things you’d need people to do with you or for you. Have a team. Have people you’d submit to. Those who would give you hard knocks where and whenever you err. Have people that would cheer you on. In as much as you need people around you on the way to greatness, know where everyone falls.
Let me give an example. Once in my office, I conducted a class for my interns and as usual they were wowed and blown away. Mid way into the class I got a message from one of my mentors that she would like to see me in my office. Fast forward to that evening, we spoke for close to an hour and I was almost in tears simply because she corrected me on a lot of things that I didn’t even notice.
My point is, if I had judged my success based on the comments of my interns, I would have missed it. And if I had judged it solely on my mentors comment, I’d have gotten depressed. So we need different kinds of people:
- Those who would correct us.
- People to make us feel good about what we do.
- People to inspire us.
- People we can compare with.
- People we can compete with.
- People you can collaborate with
The main point is that you need people.
- Learn more about your business daily
You can’t keep servicing people with what is stale and old and expect your business to grow. Growth is impossible this way. You have to learn new and faster and modern ways to do your business. In fact, what learning about your business would do is it’ll make you the go-to person; your clients would be rest assured that they are getting the best of what you’re offering.
You can learn more about your business by doing the following:
- Go on the internet to seek out new trends relating to your business.
- Attend trainings that relate and will add to your business.
- Ask your competitors (yes!!! Do it)
I trust that by virtue of these points, God will enable us take our business to greater heights and sustain it. Amen.
This post is a selection from the Wisdom Gate Family Bible Study Series ©2017. If this has blessed you, kindly drop us a comment or send us a mail at info@wigradio.com. You can also listen live to WiG Radio on www.wigradio.com or download the app at www.wigradio.com/apps.
