A business that doesn’t grow is a business that will eventually fizzle out. Most businesses don’t make it past their first 24 months, and even fewer stick around long enough to celebrate their five year anniversary. This is a great example of why you need to always be focused on growing your business. Nobody is going to do it for you, so take the steps needed to ensure your business is one that sticks around for a long time.

Times are difficult now, so it requires discipline and a smart strategy in order to now only stay afloat, but also to experience impactful growth. Let’s look at a few areas of focus that can help your business grow, even in the most unpredictable situations.

Focus on Specific Areas of Growth

You cannot simply say that you want to grow your business and expect miracles to happen. Every business has multiple factors that contribute to its success, so you need to identify where the biggest opportunity is to grow. This could be anything from focusing on up-sells and cross-sells to increase the average order value, or by rolling out a rewards program to encourage additional purchases. This is specific and different for every business.

Set Goals and Hold Yourself Accountable

Setting goals is one thing but it requires you to follow through in order for the goals to come to fruition. This requires you to hold yourself accountable, making sure that everything you set out to do is accomplished. There will be times where the last thing you want to do is put in the effort, but without it, you will never reach the growth goals that you set. From creating a to-do list to auditing your own performance on a nightly basis, do whatever it takes to make sure you get everything done that you set out to do.

Create a Realistic Plan

Laying out a plan to reach all of your growth goals is great, but it needs to be realistic. Having outrageous goals only sets you up for failure. Set realistic goals and a plan that you can reach. Sometimes setting micro-goals is the best approach, because it allows you to experience a sense of completion. it does no good to create a plan that has a low probability of being reached.

Determine What You Need to Succeed

You need to know what tools you need to succeed. It does no good mapping out goals that you’re not going to be able to reach because you’re not armed with the tools required to get the job done. Be realistic and write down everything needed, setting goals to put all of this in place. This is the foundational structure you need to attack any goals related to business growth.

The tips above should give you some great ideas that you can get started on right away, and to help even more the infographic below has ten additional tips, all provided by successful business owners and entrepreneurs. Learn from their helpful tips and leverage their knowledge to take your business growth to the next level.