Our ultimate guide to carefully-managed business growth

Are you building a business around your expertise? This guide reveals the 5 stages of growth for content creators and entrepreneurs (and what to focus on in each stage), featuring insights from successful entrepreneurs and Thinking clients that have reached 6 and 7 figures in annual revenue.

Business Growth Guide

The opportunity that you have for building a business around your expertise is unprecedented. At no point in history have individuals had access to the tools and technology to build a business and reach a global audience as quickly and inexpensively as they do today.

If you’re someone that has truly honed your craft and wants to share your expertise with others (and get paid for it!), this is the golden age.

But just because there has never been a better time to build a business around your expertise doesn’t mean that doing so is easy. Building a successful business takes dedication, hard work, sacrifice, and resilience that most people aren’t willing to stomach. "It’s not crowded at the top for a reason."

Without knowing what stage of building your business you’re in, I’m going to make a few assumptions about you:

✓ You’ve probably spent years (and lots of trial and error!) honing your craft. You’re an expert at what you do, with a track record of results to prove it.

✓ You’re determined to utilize your expertise to help others and to be paid well for doing so.

✓ You’re working hard and you’re often feeling overwhelmed.

And if you’re in the early stages of building your business, there’s a good chance that you’re also:

✓ Tired of working long hours with little progress to show for it.

✓ Tired of working with clients that aren’t a good fit because you need the money.

✓ Tired of watching your competitors win the attention of your target market and then fail to actually help them (leaving a bad taste in their mouth that makes it even harder to earn their trust).

✓ Tired of sacrificing things that are important to you (like traveling or spending time with friends and family) while you hustle to create momentum in your business.

✓ Tired of trying to keep up with all of the latest marking strategies and tactics that other people are telling you to focus on. You have a bad case of information overload.

The bottom line? Building a business can be extremely stressful and tiring.

But here’s the thing…

If you’re feeling overwhelmed as you’re building your business, that feeling of overwhelm isn’t the real problem. Overwhelm is a symptom of a problem.

The real problem is having unclear priorities. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, you’re likely giving your time and attention to things that do not deserve your time and attention (at least not right now). You’re keeping busy, but you’re not as productive as you should be. You’re working hard, but you’re not working on the things that you should be working on.

When it comes to building a business, there are specific stages that require different priorities. Focusing on the wrong priorities for your specific stage of business is what causes overwhelm and stalls your growth.

1. Build a sales funnel.

The first way to quickly grow your business is by building a sales funnel. If you don't have a sales funnel, you're making a monumental mistake. Sales funnels can help to automate your business. It helps you to scale and grow quickly and easily. Sure, there's some front-end work involved. Obviously. But, once those processes are in place, it's smooth sailing from there.

Every sales funnel needs to be carefully conceptualized before it's created. Consider the different funnels first and foremost. Whether it's a free-plus-shipping offer or a high-ticket coaching funnel, it's important to build your automated selling machine to quickly scale and grow your business.

2. Utilize a customer management system.

Manually tracking transactions is hard. No one wants to do that. It gets too cumbersome as the business grows. If you want to scale quickly, use a customer management system. There are plenty to choose from. But, it really depends on your line of work. Of course, Quickbooks can help you with the accounting. Infusionsoft can also assist with sales and marketing. There are plenty of CMS systems, most of which integrate with other cloud-based services. Find what works for you and utilize it.

3. Research the competition.

When going to market, and you're really looking to get your offer to the masses, you need to research the competition. There are a number of platforms that can do this, two platforms that come to mind are: The first is Silimar Web. The other, Adbeat. Both provide competitive intelligence. It's your chance for x-ray lenses into all landing pages, ad copy, and other stages of the funnel.

This allows you to uncover any advertiser's online strategy. Find the ads that have been running for the longest and emulate those. That's the quickest way you scale any business. If it's proven and it's working for your competitors, it's likely it'll work for you.

4. Create a customer loyalty program.

Loyalty programs are great ways to increase sales. It costs up to three times more money to acquire new customers than it does to sell something to an existing customer. Other resources pin this number anywhere from four to 10 times more. However, any way that you slice it, acquiring new customers is expensive.

Building a customer loyalty program will help you retain customers. It might also help you attract new ones as well. If there's a clear incentive to spend more money with you, it'll pay off in the long run. Build an attractive loyalty program and make it accessible to your existing customers and watch sales skyrocket over time.

5. Identify new opportunities.

Analyze new opportunities in your business by understanding your demographic better. Understand everything from distribution channels to your direct competitors, and even an analysis of foreign markets and other potential industries. There are likely dozens of new opportunities you could pursue immediately with the proper amount of analysis.

6. Build an email list.

One of the most best and most effective ways to grow a business quickly is to build an email list. Clearly, that means you need to have a lead magnet. Why else would people subscribe to your list? And, with a lead magnet, comes the necessity for a sales funnel. Look into companies like Aweber, ConstantContact, ConvertKit, Drip, GetResponse and others for building and managing your list.

7. Form strategic partnerships.

Strategic partnerships with the right companies can truly make a world of difference. It could allow you to reach a wide swath of customers quickly. Identifying those partnerships might be easier said than done. But, look out for companies that are complementary to your own. Contact them and propose opportunities for working together.

8. Leverage global platforms.

In the eCommerce business selling products? Why not use Amazon's FBA service? In the business of selling services? Why not use Upwork? In the business of renting vacation homes? Why not leverage AirBnB, InvitedHome, HomeAway or other global platforms? Find a platform that's reached saturation and use it to grow your business quickly.

9. Licensing deals

Doing licensing deals is a great way to grow your business without too much added effort. If you have a product that you can license to others and share a revenue of, that's an ideal way to grow quickly. Taking a popular or successful product and bringing it to a company with a large footprint can help you achieve market saturation quicker.

10. Consider a franchise model.

If you have a successful business, and you're really looking to grow quickly, consider franchising it. Although franchise costs are high and moving to a franchise model is complex and takes a lot of marketing know-how, it could make all the difference if you're truly looking for quick growth.

11. Diversify your offer lineup.

Look into diversifying your offers. What complementary products or services or information can you offer in your business? In order to grow, you need to think about expansion. Identify new opportunities within your niche. Uncover the pain points. What else can you sell to your clients. Where else can you add value in the exchange?

12. Build passive income streams.

Growing a business takes significant effort. If you're dealing with razor-thin margins, consider building passive income streams. This way, you don't have to worry so much about keeping the lights on, so to speak. Passive income will afford you the opportunity to make mistakes and not have to lose your shirt. It'll keep you in business and provide a basis to grow and market and scale quickly by giving you ample resources.

13. Acquire other businesses.

Sometimes, acquiring other businesses is a very quick way to grow your own business. If you can find competitors or businesses in other industries that would complement your own, you could use them as platforms to scale fast. Take a look within your industry and even outside of it to find potential for potential opportunities.

14. International expansion.

Can you expand internationally? Can you take your existing offers and scale them internationally? What would it take to do business in Canada or Mexico or Europe? If you have a converting offer, international expansion could be a quick way to grow. You'll incur some costs. Sure. But, the potential for profits could be massive.

15. Create a webinar.

Webinars are a great way to promote any product or service. It can also help you grow any business relatively fast. Webinars provide an automated selling tool for literally taking any product or service to market and reaching a wide audience quickly. The webinar medium is great for captivating audiences to clinch sale after sale, automatically.

10 Ways to Make Your Office Design More Efficient

Office design is about more than creating an environment that provides all the furniture and equipment to support the various types of work tasks.  Great office design goes beyond the physical, practical concerns and takes into account the psychological and emotional well-being of the people who will be using the space.

10 ways to make your office design more efficient

Here are just a few tips to help you think about what will make your office the kind of space employees love to be in. Even if you’re not designing a new office space, but are contemplating a makeover, these tips will be helpful.  These suggestions are a great starting point, but we’d love for you to contact our team of designers for more ideas.

1. Design in keeping with your culture: Every organization has its own unique culture. You could describe it as ‘personality.’  Great office design recognizes and celebrates those factors that make you different from your competitors. Often it’s these, sometimes very subtle, defining characteristics that attract your best client and vendor partnerships! It’s also what attracts and retains top talent and helps build team spirit within the organization.  Take some time to work with your team to define in words and images what your culture looks and feels like.

2. Observe the office dynamics: The best way to figure out the best layouts and designs is to observe how your team uses space.  How do they interact?  Where are the sticking points in traffic flow?  Where are the obstacles to collaboration?  What is working? What isn’t?  What are common complaints among employees?  Observing with these factors in mind for a week or two will give you insights you might not otherwise gain.  Sometimes we see things on a regular basis without actually ‘seeing’ them.

3. Remember it’s not all or nothing choices. The debate about open plan versus private space has been lively over the past few years.  But who says it has to be all or nothing?  There are a multitude of ways of accommodating both concepts within your office. To make better, more efficient use of space, office designers aim at creating a good balance that achieves that goal without making employees feel like nomads.  It’s true that way we work has become much more flexible. It’s not practical in many instances to have a single workstation ‘belonging’ to a single employee.  Some employees only require a ‘touch down’ space. Some tasks require individual space, while others must be done in a collaborative setting.The key is to re-think space as ‘we’ space, not ‘me’ space, giving people the freedom to work where the task is best done rather than being limited to a single desk within the office. It’s very possible to have a layout that provides both focused work zones and team work zones.  Think in terms of ‘quiet’ and ‘noisy’ zones. Noisy zones are ideal to stimulate conversation and collaboration so necessary to brainstorming. Quiet zones are ideal for those times when you need to focus and concentrate with minimal distraction.

4. Productivity levels are directly impacted by office design. Office design impacts productivity by as much as 20%.   The way employees feel about and perceive the work environment is reflected by how well they’re able to work within it.  The tangible, physical layout, furniture and equipment exert a psychological effect that is manifested by productivity levels.

5. Office design that inspires and motivates helps to make work meaningful. Work/Life balance used to be what we would all strive for as technology began to blur the lines between work and personal time. Now, younger generations entering the workforce see everything as part of a cohesive whole.  Work is life, life is work. They’re not necessarily looking for more personal time, they’re looking for greater meaning in what they do.  They see work as an integral thread through their lives and want to not just enjoy it, but feel that what they do makes a difference to the world.They see their post college lifestyle as being an extension of student life where work and play are inextricably intertwined.  It’s all ’their life.’ Seeing work in this way helps to inspire greater innovation, creativity and productivity. People tend to do their best because they choose to and are inspired to, rather than because they’re given a specific task with a set goal by their boss. While older generations may still regard work as separate to their personal lives, the fact is that the more employees like their work environment, the happier they’ll be. The happier they are, and the better they get along with their co-workers, the more productive they’ll be.

6. Design around light: Access to natural light is a human right. Natural light is essential to quality of life. It has a significant impact on people, both  physiologically and psychologically. Natural light stimulates serotonin production. Serotonin is the chemical responsible for ‘happy’ feelings and for keeping us awake and alert.  Lack of light suppresses serotonin production and stimulates melatonin production. Melatonin is the ‘sleepy’ chemical that our body needs in order to sleep at night. This naturally leads to a loss of energy and motivation which is obviously bad for productivity at work.  Most office designers emphasize the need for everyone to have adequate access to natural light.  Removing cubicle walls, using movable glass walls and more open plan space are all ways to achieve this.

7. Design with visual stimulation in mind. We are visual beings.  What we see has a tremendous impact on our psyche. This is why office design should always be visually pleasing as well as practical. Colour choice is an important part of your design. Choose colors that fit with your corporate culture, the type of work being done and the desired results.Visual representations of the organization’s culture are also important. Creating spaces where employees can display their hobby projects helps reinforce the message that they are valued and their extracurricular achievements are appreciated as much as their work achievements.

8. Room Colour:

The colors around us all have an effect on our moods and brain function. It evokes both a physical and emotional response. So choosing the right colors for your work space has the ability to affect your productivity. For instance, blue has been said ti illicit productivity. Mind you, too much of anything can be overwhelming, even color.

If you work from a company office: Bring in items from home that are a certain color that inspire you and keep you focused. Use postcards, magazine cutouts, even just blocks of color will do.

If you work from a home office: If you work from home, you have much more control over the colors around you. Consider repainting a wall, adding color to the table you work at, or hanging pictures that are dominated by a specific color.

9. Room Temperature:

Most offices keep their temperatures around 65-68 Fahrenheit but it turns out that this might not be good for productivity. Warmer rooms actually make people more productive.

If you work from a company office: Most offices are regulated by somebody else, so bring a space heater, sweaters and blankets to your work space.

If you work from a home office: Depending on the season, open the windows or adjust the heat or a/c so that you’re more comfortable and warm. Pile on the sweaters in the winter or add a space heater to your feet.

10. Room Scents

Like the color of the space you work in, our sense of smell can powerfully affect our mood, mindset and thus our productivity. Consider adding scents to your work space to jar your mind into focus when you start to notice yourself drifting off.

Try using these scents to stay focused:

Pine – Increases alertness

Cinnamon – Improves focus

Lavender – Helps to relax you during a stressful work day

Peppermint – Lifts your mood

Citrus (any) – Wakes you up  and lifts your spirits

If you work from a company office: Most people will not appreciate added scents to their work environment so you’ll need to keep it subtle. Keep essential oils in your bag or drawer and when you’re in need of a boost put a few drops on a handkerchief or cotton ball.

If you work from a home office: Use candles, incense or essential oils. You can also simmer herbs and spices in the kitchen to fill your home with a warm scent.

3 Things to Consider Before Hiring a Commercial Contractor

3 Things to consider before hiring a commercial contractor.

Three Things to Consider Before Hiring a Commercial Contractor

Hiring a commercial contractor is an important decision for the future and growth of your company. This decision will set the tone for your entire project. No matter your business, taking time to consider your options and learn all you can about a commercial contractor will be nothing but beneficial. Read through these three things to consider before hiring a commercial contractor and then contact us to learn about our commercial construction services, industries we serve, and available financial resources.

1) Experience. The first thing to consider before hiring a commercial contractor is how much experience the company has. A contractor’s body of work and length of time in business will help you determine if they’ll be the right fit for your project.

Look into past projects and clients. Did they do a good job? Are the clients happy? Does the commercial contractor provide referrals or testimonials? What does a typical job look like for them?

Are niche projects their specialty, or do they serve a variety of industries? The answers to these questions will help guide you to a commercial contractor that fits your company’s needs. Finding answers to these questions will help you know exactly what you’re looking for in a commercial construction project management team.

2) Communication. Good communication is key to excelling at any type of project, especially before hiring a commercial contractor. Steady, efficient, and informative communication from the contractor will ensure the project gets done right – on time, on budget. Figure out your main point of contact before signing with a company. Make sure they are flexible enough to meet your communication needs. Do they respond in a timely manner? Will they be easily accessible throughout the project?

Under the umbrella of communication, it’s also important to check that the commercial contractor’s bid includes all expenses. A bid should account for all costs. If there’s something important missing from the estimate, inform your commercial contractor so they can give you a revised bid.

3) Safety and Insurance Coverage. The third thing to consider before hiring a commercial contractor is safety and insurance coverage. Safety is the most important thing for any construction project. Review the contractor’s work practices and what they do on a day-to-day basis to ensure not only their employees’ safety, but the safety of your employees as well.

In addition to everyday safety policies, your commercial contractor should have general liability and workers’ compensation insurance coverage. That way, you won’t be liable for any injury or damage that occurs while the commercial contractor is working on your project/property.

For more information about what to consider before hiring a commercial contractor or for questions about our process or financial resources, contact Dopeppii today.