There’s a sweet, satisfactory milestone that emerging growth companies hit when leaders find themselves asking, “How do I increase business growth?” more than they go around wondering, “How can I keep this company alive?” When survival mode makes way for starting to realize an emerging growth company’s potential, business growth drivers become more important for the company to tackle.
So, what are the main ways to drive business growth? We offer some of the more common factors that can influence a company’s success below.
5 Ways to Drive Growth at Emerging Growth Companies
If your startup has proven to have a solid foundation for taking the company to the next level and you have venture capital backing or other funding to support a strategic move, then it could be time to turn attention to business growth drivers.
What are the types of business growth? Business growth falls under two categories: organic or inorganic. Depending on your current resources, you may be leaning toward expanding with the help of another company, through an acquisition—which would be a quick, “inorganic” way to expanded market share and increased sales—or your company may have the capital, stamina, and capabilities to take another approach (“organic”) by expanding on its own.
1. Diversify Into New Markets
Of course, expanding into another market, either geographically or with a new product or service, is no guarantee of growth. To explore the option of entering a new market, you will want to have an understanding of what other companies like yours have done, and what brought them success or failure in this effort. An understanding of demand for where you’re branching out will be a must.
Expert scenario planning can help you decide how to approach this business growth plan and whether it seems feasible at this time in light of current market conditions, key risks facing your company, along with future assumptions.
2. Evaluate Your Current Financial Operations
Is your company currently built to withstand a strategic change, or should some internal adjustments be made in preparation? More appropriate accounting systems and processes that match your company’s current complexities while allowing for scaling up as you make progress on your growth goals could be a wise move at this time.
3. Keep Your Eye on the Numbers
Has your company been strengthening its budgeting and forecasting capabilities—or are you still operating under a “let’s wing it” culture? Do you have a true sense of how your company truly performs—not just how you hope it is performing?
As attention turns to business growth factors and a move toward more of a business growth mindset, it may be an opportune time to bring in CFO guidance. A careful, insightful look at the numbers by a CFO expert can be telling as it is a perspective that probably does not exist within your startup’s current team. A strong, experienced CFO—on an interim or part-time basis—can look at your historic figures, put them into context against forecasts in light of your growth goals, and help you develop a workable business growth plan.
4. Build Momentum Through Partnerships
Fortunately, when adopting a business growth mindset, not everything your company does to become bigger or better has to rely on current internal resources. Developing a strong, reliable ecosystem of partners you can rely upon again and again can help move your company forward.
This involves continually working on your network, or relying on a service provider to help you build up your network of reliable partners—from your outsourcing accounting firm covering your finance function’s many layers to the legal and marketing support you will need as the company expands.
An efficient way to create such an ecosystem is to rely on trusted advisors who understand your needs, who can pinpoint the current gaps in expertise and capabilities at your company, and who you can trust to connect you with reliable partners. Trusted advisors like RoseRyan’s consultants can start this business growth process by connecting you with such service providers and also guide you when the time is right toward recruiting and bringing in full-time resources.
5. Prepare for an Acquisition
As you explore the many growth drivers that could help your company reach current and future goals, an acquisition could be worth consideration. Is there an opportunity to acquire another company to quickly expand your product offerings, bring in new talent, or connect you with new customers? Or could teaming up with another company bring you closer to your favored exit strategy?
Preparing for either type of acquisition should entail a hard look at your numbers to ensure that the decisions you will be making will be based on timely, reliable financial information—and that the information you will be sharing with another company can be trusted as well.
How Do I Create a Business Growth Strategy?
If you are wondering, “How can I measure business growth?” the answer will depend on your company and current priorities. As for driving business growth, finance experts can work with you to develop key performance indicators that can help you and your team work toward objectives and be accountable to them, in addition to evaluating your financial operations to see what needs to change before taking on new plan, as well as CFO expertise, scenario planning, and more.
As a finance advisory and consulting firm, RoseRyan can help your emerging growth company develop a business growth strategy that works for your culture and structure. RoseRyan consultants get to know the companies they advise, to truly understand the business and develop a tailored plan. Are you ready to get started on a more practical business growth plan? Reach out to the experts at RoseRyan today.
