Growing your business is often compared to playing an instrument, excelling in a sport, or learning a new skill. It has specific steps, requires ongoing effort, and constant refinement.

As a small business CEO, you’re the only one up at night, working weekends, or struggling to solve problems that you didn’t anticipate. This is why it helps to have a blueprint for success—so you can grow your business like a pro.

Define Your Who

Talk with every successful business owner or entrepreneur. He or she will tell you that the biggest success comes from defining a precise target market.

The funny thing is, many owners don’t consider their market, with this at first.…

All growth is good for a business, but what happens if you discover that your marketing has worked so well you can no longer keep up with the demand? When the costs of operating your business exceed your profit, you can quickly spiral into debt and possibly even have to scale back your operations. This negatively impacts your reputation with customers, and it may result in long-term deficit that takes months to get out of.

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It’s not surprising that nearly half of small businesses close within their first five years, and even more end after 10.…

Believe it or not, some entrepreneurs want to start small and stay small. They have no intention of growing beyond their current level. They like things just the way they are because it is familiar and something they can manage. They have no plans for the business to continue after they leave it.

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They started the business for a specific reason such as the following:

• They lost their company job and had to support a family
• They inherited the business
• They needed to push themselves to see if they could be successful on their own
• They had a particular passion for a specific thing

All of these are valid reasons to start a business.…

Despite the year we’ve just had being quite like no other for the business world, some normal patterns and trends still remain. One of those is happening right now in the form of the post-Christmas slump, but January, despite not being a great business month for virtually any business, is actually a key time in the calendar.

That’s because now is the time to focus on your business’s development going forward. So, if you’re not already taking the time to look into how you can make improvements over the next 12 months, here’s why you should be.

A time to reflect and resolve

On a personal level, new year is typically a time for reflection on the past 12 months we’ve experienced and the creation of some “new year, new me” style resolutions as we try to make the next 12 that bit better.…