"It may be true that you can’t buy friends, but it certainly cost something to make a new acquaintance" -- William Ballard By William Ballard Being an entrepreneur and growing a business or enterprise is no easy feat. It takes a lot of hard work, sweat, sleepless nights, and you may even shed a few tears every now and then. The truth is, as a business owner, there are several options out there that can help increase your profits and, if we're all being honest with ourselves, its profits we all want – you can’t run a business without it. Based off my years in business, and the knowledge I’ve gained from several years in Business school, here are 7 strategies that I’ve continued use to grow my business and can help grow yours as well. 1) Generate Leads By The NumbersOne of my mentors, John Maxwell, once said, "Your leadership is not measured by how many you have serving you, but rather how many you have to serve." To that end, you will never grow as a leader, and your business will never grow to the capacity that it can be, if you don't develop a process as to how you can increase the number of people you can serve. The fact of the matter is: You can grow your business by increasing the number of qualified leads. For instance, if five out of 10 leads end up buying from you, and you can increase the number of people coming in to your store (or going through your lead generation funnel) from 10 to 15, you will increase profits by 50 percent. That is what I mean by "Generate Leads by The Numbers” – you got to do the math in order to stay above water. Bonus Insight: One of the first things you must do in order to start growing your business is to define what growth means to you, and identify what it will look like to you. For example, in the Church world, growth is identified by how many new souls are reached, and then by how many more are being discipled. Some churches also correlate church growth with starting daughter works or preaching points. You see, by opening a new daughter work, they expand their reach to a new area of their city (or neighboring city) thus reaching more people and developing more discipleship opportunities. 2) Measure EverythingThe next strategy -- or better yet, habit -- that you should develop in order to grow your business is to measure the number of leads you convert to buyers. This is how you measure the effectiveness of each of your sales efforts. You see, it’s hard to get a clear picture of where you’re going if you’re unclear of where you’re currently at. If you can increase your conversion rate from one out of 10 to two out 10, you can double your sales and increase your profits. For instance, consider personal trainers. Why do you think they take before and after pictures, and/or measure your BMI (Body Mass Index) before ever starting a workout session? They do assessments at the beginning to see where they are starting in order to keep track of progress and goals. Improving your ability to, not only generate new leads, but to convert those leads into paying customers is one of the most important things you can do. Moreover, there is absolutely nothing that can replace ongoing sales training, both for you and every single person who speaks to your potential customers, either in person or on the phone. (Bonus: Master Sales & Marketing to Grow Your Business Like a Pro – 10X Business Boot Camp) 3) Identify Key Challenge Areas and |