The Secret to Profitable Business Growth Is Change!

I talk to business owners regularly that want to take their businesses to the next level, but are puzzled as to why it's so hard. They push and work and expand only to find themselves right back where they found themselves last year.

Business growth is a tricky thing, because growth always involves change. And for most of us, change is hard.

But, change is the ultimate secret to business growth.

Actually change isn't that hard, but we seem wired to find ways to make it so. Change involves little more than letting go of past assumptions and trying new things, admitting that you don't have, and don't need to have, all of the answers, showing yourself and others different ways to approach the same challenges.

Letting go is particularly hard for small business owners, it's often a bit like sending your child off to school. The unknown is too scary, so you just clutch to what you know and, well, there you have it.

The first change that may be necessary for growth is to start looking at change as a positive element of your success. Start seeing change as a good thing, start looking for signs of change, practicing change on purpose, looking for change opportunities that roll right up to your feet in the simplest of things.

Do you need a prescription for change? Below are 5 ways you can intentionally get change in your business life and focus on new and empowering growth behaviors.

Get Uncomfortable on Purpose! - Your wealth, your success, will correspond directly with the size of your mindset. Get in front of an audience and speak, write for an industry publication, network with prospects, write personal thank you notes. Let someone else be in charge or take the credit for success. You can't grow unless you are uncomfortable - embrace it!

Get and Give New Skills - Read everything you put your hands on. Read your direct mail, watch infomercials, read magazines that cover topics seemingly unrelated to your job and "this is a big one" look for ways to teach others how to grow their businesses. Become known in your industry for some specific expertise and show others how to do it. Teaching something is the fastest way to get better at it yourself.

Get Bigger Ideas - Tear your products and services apart. Look for ways to approach an industry problem like no one else can or will. Your ideas don't have to really be that big as long as they are world altering. Come up with one idea this year that makes someone say you are nuts - and then go do it.

Get Value - No matter what you offer, it can be better. Heap more and more on your products and services, give stuff that no one expected you to give. Add services over and above what was agreed upon. Force people to talk about how incredible you are.

Get What You're Worth - If you do any of the steps above, you will be more able to do this. Raise your prices. Choose to work with fewer clients at much higher rates. Sell based on value, not on time. And, refuse to work with clients that don't fully appreciate the value you have to offer. You can make more space in your head to serve your clients when you don't have clients that bring you down.