Why Discover Growth?

I spent a lifetime trying to design growth, architect growth, plan growth, strategize growth, and yes it worked … kind of.

Yes, there are strategies and tactics that will make a difference in your business. I can help with that. They really do work.

But over the last few years I’ve come to realize that a lot of the time business growth is hard to plan. Most plans blow up as soon as you start engaging with your customers.

What I’m noticing more and more is that the right way to grow a business is to discover the growth. That means, trying something out and seeing how the market reacts to it. Or sifting through what you’ve already tried and figuring out what works and what doesn’t.

Most of what you’re doing or about to do isn’t going to work. That’s the old 80/20 rule that says “80% of the results comes from 20% of your efforts, and 20% comes from 80% of your efforts”. That means most of what you try is a waste of time … IF you keep repeating it.

Key word … REPEAT. What should you repeat?

You need to try a lot of stuff to know what works and what doesn’t. Try things in small doses so there’s minimal loss if it doesn’t work. If it doesn’t work, or gets a luke warm response from your customers, then STOP. If your customers react with a “Wow, finally!” then repeat, repeat, repeat.

You see this a lot in Lean Business practices in tech startups. They try things on a small scale to see if it works before committing resources.

Derek Sivers, the founder of CD Baby who sold it for $22 million, says “If it’s not a Hell Yeah!, then it’s a No”.  (I highly recommend his new book “Anything You Want” – Available at Amazon.com)

You must be intensely customer focused and discover what they want most. Start with your own ideas, but once you throw it out there, you need to let customers direct you to where the most value is. When you discover that, you grow.

So yes, start with a great idea, do some research, have a vision, use strategies and tactics.

But, very quickly, use customer feedback to tell you what you should focus on. From focus comes growth.

Now go and Discover your Growth.

Mark Lengies