Growing is the natural order of all living things, including businesses.  If something is not growing, it's by default declining or even dying.  Besides, if you aren't continually growing your company, odds are one of your savvy competitors is!  As an owner, your challenge is to keep your business vibrant and growing at all times...even in challenging economic times.  Have the right mindset, marketing, and dare to go for growth!

Start by making no excuses.  Even with a tougher economy, you should still be intelligently marketing and growing your business.  While you should conserve cash in your company anyway you possibly can at this time, you should not scale back effective and profitable marketing...emphasis is on effective and profitable.  As long as your average profit-per-sale is higher than your average cost-per-sale, keep your marketing machine cranked up.  Effective marketing pays for itself!  However, many owners are forgetting this wisdom and caving in to their irrational fears.  They are running their businesses based on fear instead of based of data. 

Since many of your competitors are probably panicking and reducing all expenditures, including in the areas of sales and marketing, now is the time for you to hold tight to or even increase your marketing investment.  Now is the time to gain market share.  Now is the time to be courageous.  Don't let your fears and emotions get the best of you.  Dare to go for growth! 

I realize some of you may feel uncomfortable right now maintaining or even increasing your marketing expenditures.  Maybe you have an uncontrollable urge to cut back in all areas.  I too understand and battle this fear myself.  However, instead of going with my gut, emotions, and fears, I choose instead to go with the numbers and go for growth.  Since we track all our marketing investments and performance metrics at The Growth Coach, we can rely on evidence instead of hunches in our decision making.  We know which marketing is effective and profitable.  Do you? 

Without a doubt, if we reduce our proven marketing, especially now, we will reduce our leads, franchise sales, system-wide revenue growth, and profits.  To remain the fastest-growing business coaching franchise system and be within reach of every small business owner throughout North America, we need a continual inflow of high-caliber and talented business coaches who can generate strong revenues and profits for themselves and royalties for the system.  The more we grow, the stronger the system gets.  Not surprisingly then, The Growth Coach dares to go for growth...after all, growth is in our name and in our business DNA.

Bottom line, running a business should be more about your brain and less about your gut.  Track your marketing and know which lead sources produce profitable sales.  Again, while you should conserve cash anyway you possibly can, think long and hard about cutting back on your effective and profitable marketing at this time.  Track your marketing data and make intelligent decisions based on the numbers, not your fears or hunches.  As long as your average profit-per-sale is higher than your average cost-per-sale, keep your marketing machine cranked up.  Effective marketing pays for itself!  Dare to go for growth...even in challenging times.

Daniel M. Murphy
President, Founder & Business Coach
The Growth Coach
Business Coaching Franchise System