Six steps to growing a business
The 6 Steps to Building a Business” – a proven and progressive, step-by-step approach that helps clarify company objectives and produces consistent profits over time.
Each rung of the ladder in the 6 Steps – Mastery, Niche, Leverage, Team, Synergy and Results – are dependent on one another and each works to propel the other forward.
Mastery
The first level, Mastery, focuses on the fundamentals of building up a commercial enterprise.
Mastery is about the owner taking back control. It is the first step in making sure the business delivers profit and productivity with enough information to make great decisions.
Part of Mastery is getting the business out of delusion and re-focusing attention on drivers that impact overall performance.
Niche
The next level, Niche, is about creating predictable cash flow for the business and operating from a position where the business has no price competition.
Niche is where the business becomes a commercial, profitable enterprise. At this level, everything is oriented around marketing.
Leverage
Leverage is the third of the 6 Steps, where systems are implemented at all levels of the company. The definition of leverage is ‘doing more with less. It’s about finding ways to systemize the routine while humanizing exceptions to the routines.
Leverage level gives owners great information on ‘what to manage.’ It’s a strategic way of getting to the ‘nuts and bolts’ of an operation. It can be time consuming – but the benefits at the backend far outweigh the time spent systemizing upfront.
Team
The Team level provides ownership with a structure for growth. Up to the Team level, business is built on getting the basics of the business up and running.
At Team level, the business owner works on the keys to building winning teams. namely strong leadership toward a common goal, knowing the rules of the game and following a plan of action where everyone knows ‘who needs to do what by when.’
The outcome of the Team level is a realization of synergy within the organization that allows the business to function towards its maximum potential.
Synergy – Leading to Results
Ideally, the Team and Synergy levels seamlessly ladder the owner and the business to the Results level – giving the owner a variety of options he or she may have never considered before.
Maybe it’s more free time. Or maybe it’s expansion, meaning duplication of the business and its systems to new locations in new markets. Who knows?
What’s important is the owner has the freedom to consider those options without the burden of a chaotic workplace – knowing the business can operate profitably without her physical presence at the company.
The success of the “6 Steps” in the real world has been to do exactly that – giving owners the time and resources they initially wanted when they first went into business for themselves.