Driving business growth is an important issue that is top of mind for all business leaders, regardless of the type of business you’re leading.  It’s one of the few goals that both for-profit and nonprofit organizations share. While this issue is top of mind for many due to the shifts that have occurred because of COVID-19, it is an especially pressing issue for the estimated 7.5 million small businesses that are at risk of closing, according to a new survey from Main Street America.  More than 90% of the 5,850 business owners polled have fewer than 20 employees. 

Approximately two-thirds of entrepreneurs said they may have to shut forever if business disruption continues at its current rate for up to five months. Maintaining a balanced status quo for the next twelve months is the real growth goal. The key question is how to drive growth to achieve profitability and overcome the loss of business already experienced. 

Federal programs, such as the CARES Act expands the existing PPP Program and helps many but does not represent a permanent fix. With so many businesses who have already closed temporarily as a result of the coronavirus there is an enormous need for businesses of every type and size to drive new growth. 

Here are three time-tested strategies for producing growth:

  1. Comprehensive health checkup of an organization’s strengths and weaknesses.It’s vital to use a systematic process to obtain an objective measurement of the factors that affect an organization’s ability to grow. Understanding what can or should change to improve the ability to perform is not a luxury; it’s a necessity. A health checkup process designed to help executive leaders identify any organizational gaps their organization hasfuels profitable growth that impacts all organizations.
  2. Deep insights into how current clients perceive an organization and its value.  The first step to building and maintaining strong organization to client relationships is to identify perception-reality gaps.  The role that high retention rates play in the organization cannot be overestimated because it’s one of the most important metrics used to evaluate organizational health.
  3. Strategy roadmap that provides navigation to strong organizational growth.  Knowing the performance level of your organization and how it’s going to improve it is what leaders want to see. It identifies what capabilities an organization has that provides the projections needed to sustain and scale the organization. This knowledge helps avoid the common pitfall of poor prioritization that plagues so many organization that hinder their growth.

These dynamics have been analyzed by us using thousands of data points we have gathered during organizational transformation efforts over the past decade, and we have found these keys can drive any organization’s growth.