How to Grow Your Business in 8 Steps

Throughout my four-plus decades of working as an internationally renowned leader in personal development, I have connected and collaborated with thousands of business owners who have turned to me for advice on how to take their businesses to the next level. 

Many of these entrepreneurs have been graduates of my popular Train the Trainer program, and are eager to start attracting clients and grow a business as a certified Canfield Success Principles coach. 

Today I’d like to share with you what I typically tell them whenever they ask me for tips on how to grow a business. Learning how to grow a business can be challenging no matter what kind of business you have – especially when you’re first starting out. 

It takes courage, effort, and dedication to achieve your goals and learn how to scale your business in a way that delivers long-term sustainable success. 

Fortunately, success leaves clues – and following in the footsteps of those who have already achieved the kind of growth that you are hoping to see will make it much easier to reach your goals faster. 

8 Steps to Grow Your Business

My first tip for any entrepreneur who wants to learn how to grow a business is to break the process down into clear and achievable steps. 

It’s all well and good to say that your business growth goal is to “make one million dollars” or “attract 100 new top-dollar clients” – but if you don’t get super clear on the steps you’re going to take to achieve that goal, you will end up spending a lot of time and effort on tasks that send you in all directions and don’t move you closer to the goals.

To get started, here are the 8 key steps I recommend you take to take your business to the next level in a sustainable way.    

Step 1: Create Your Business Growth Plan 

The first step to achieving what you want is knowing what you want! You need to get really clear on what your key business growth goals are – and what you will have to do to reach those objectives. 

The best way to do that is to create a growth business plan that includes a detailed company vision of exactly how you plan to grow your business and the steps you will take to achieve each goal. 

I then encourage you to consult that business growth plan every day so your company vision remains clear in your mind and it’s easier to align your actions to your top priorities for your business. When you see what you want, you will get what you see. 

Step 2: Research Your Industry

Knowledge is power! To ensure the actions you take to scale a business are effective, it’s a good idea to thoroughly research your target market and competitors. This will help you understand your ideal customers’ needs as well as what other options are available to them and how they are being presented and received. 

Look for communities online and off where your target market tends to hang out and observe what they’re talking about. 

• What big challenges are they dealing with? 
• What do they think of the current solutions on the market that are designed to help them solve those challenges? 
• Where are their needs going unmet? 

This research will give you valuable insight into how to speak to your target market and grow your business in a sustainable way. 

Then, based on what you’ve learned, revisit your business goals to ensure that your company vision and action steps are aligned with your target audience’s needs. Remember: it’s not what you don’t know that holds you back, it’s what you *think* you know that isn’t true.  

Step 3: Ask, Ask, Ask

Don’t be afraid to ask for what you want! Too many business owners hesitate to ask their customers or clients what they really think about their products or services, and as a result, never gain the knowledge they need to improve.

Oftentimes, they also will hesitate to ask their colleagues or mentors for insight on overcoming a problem, so spend too much time spinning their wheels and making zero traction toward their growth goals. 

As an entrepreneur, you must get comfortable with asking people for what you need! It is the fastest and easiest way to get where you want to be as a business owner. 

You must also learn to “reject rejection” and never take it personally when someone tells you “no.” Instead, realize that every “no” brings you closer to a “yes.” Learn how to ask for what you need faster so you can get the inevitable “no’s” out of the way and get to that “yes” as soon as possible. 

Step 4: Nurture Your Customers

Highly successful business leaders understand that the success of any business depends on the quality of the relationships you cultivate with your ideal customers or clients. The good news is, that the better you understand your customers, the easier it will be for you to identify ways to serve their needs. 

You will be able to continue to grow your business if you create new products that you can offer to your existing customer base. These are people who already trust your brand and have experienced the benefits your products or services bring into their lives.

That’s why it’s a good idea to build a sales funnel that offers increasingly more valuable products or services to your customers and clients. This allows you to scale your business quickly and effectively while building trust and loyalty while giving your biggest customers ongoing opportunities to bring your brilliance into their lives. 

Step 5: Get Your Business Online

Any entrepreneur who wants to know how to grow a business effectively should focus on increasing the number of people who know they exist! 

In today’s world, it is critical that you develop a strong online presence and make sure your business is visible where your target market tends to congregate online. 

Create a memorable and engaging brand identity for your business on social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or TikTok that define your company brand and clearly convey the value you offer. 

Also, be sure to market your business using the tools available on these platforms and take the time to interact with your existing customers or clients as well as prospective members of your target market who engage with your posts and online presence. This is a key part of knowing how to brand a business successfully so you can stand out

Step 6: Attend Networking Events

The incredible success I’ve experienced in my business is directly dependent on the relationships I have cultivated with colleagues and mentors who opened doors for me I didn’t even know existed at the time. 

That’s why I strongly encourage any entrepreneur who wants to know how to grow a business to attend as many networking events as possible to meet other business owners and entrepreneurs who can support them in achieving their business goals. 

Look into opportunities to define your company brand and grow your reputation and connections in your industry through outreach efforts such as:

• Getting a booth at large networking events
• Speaking as an industry expert
• Creating partnerships with other like-minded business owners

You may also gain valuable insight into how to manage a business successfully and grow your revenue in ways that would otherwise never occur to you.  

Step 7: Expand Your Products

One of my top tips for a small business wanting to grow is to always be on the lookout for new and better ways to serve the needs of your customers or clients. This means coming up with new products and services that complement your existing offerings and make it possible for people to engage with the value you offer in new ways. 

For example, after my New York Times bestselling book, The Success Principles, was published, I started conducting presentations and workshops that introduced my Success Principles to larger audiences and showed them how to incorporate my most powerful principles in their lives. 

I continued to hear from people who wanted an even more comprehensive framework that would allow them to put the Success Principles to work in their lives. So, I created my popular Breakthrough to Success multi-day event that allowed people to deep dive into the Success Principles. 

I further created additional programs like Breakthrough to Success Online and Train the Trainer to offer my most valuable clients the opportunity to work with me personally to implement the Success Principles in their lives. 

So if you’re looking for ideas on how to manage a business and grow your product offerings, consider how you could complement your current offer with workshops, courses, or other services that will help your ideal clients or customers overcome their challenges and get the results they want even more effectively. 

You might even want to create a number of free webinars, ebooks, or other free resources that give people a taste of what you offer and allow you to introduce your business to new audiences. 

Step 8: Measure Your Success

One of my most powerful Success Principles for any entrepreneur is “Keep Score for Success.” Get in the habit of tracking the results of everything you do so you can grow your understanding of what works and what doesn’t. 

This allows you to learn from your mistakes and do more of what’s already working so you can maximize your results and learn how to scale your business in a way that delivers long-term sustainable success. 

It will also give you the knowledge, insight, and confidence to take the kind of risks that will grow your business by leaps and bounds while minimizing any potential negative fallout from those risks. 

Scale Your Business Today

Finally, my last piece of advice is simply to lean into it and take action. Too many entrepreneurs spend all of their time planning and not enough time executing that plan. 

Growing your business will require you to take risks and move beyond your comfort zone. But it’s only by stepping into the unknown that you gain the skills and expertise to scale successfully and achieve your biggest goals. 

If you’re a coach, speaker, or trainer – or you work with people in any capacity – and you are looking for ways to grow your skillset and your business, you may want to consider adding “transformational training skills” to your career toolkit and gain the foundational expertise you need to grow a successful business helping others to become their best selves. 

Interested in learning more? Check out my free webcast, “7 Pillars of True Life Transformation” to discover how you can become a transformational trainer and grow a lucrative and fulfilling business – or add these new skills to your existing business.