6 Common Mistakes That May Be Holding Your Company Back From Fast Growth

Are you trying to scale your business and struggling to do so? Are you stuck in a holding pattern and wonder if there’s room for growth? If so, it may be time for a pivot. For one reason or another, your product or service isn’t reaching its full potential–and it may be one of these six things that’s holding you back from growth.

1. Your choice of a target market

In the past, whom have you focused on selling to and whom have you ignored? Is that the right choice? Opening up your product or service to a new demographic may be a quick win for your business and allow you to grow and scale faster than you thought possible. On the same note, is there a certain demographic that is holding you back? It might be time to fire those customers and focus on new ones.

2. Your focus on “best”-selling products or services

Many business owners play favorites when it comes to their product lineup, oftentimes with little or no data to back up that decision. Are you focusing your attention on your best-selling products or the ones with the best margins? Do your personal favorites get all the marketing efforts or are you focusing on the products with the most competitive advantage?

3. Your business model

Consider your business model carefully. You may have been selling direct for years, but is that really the best decision? What about wholesale or a subscription-based model? Will you use physical locations, mobile locations, conferences, or sell online? If you didn’t have your current investment in how you do things and were able to start totally fresh, what business model for your company would most excite you?

4. Your pricing structure

This is another area that I see many business owners finding themselves stuck in. You set your pricing when you first started your business, and going in a different direction can be difficult, especially if you have long-standing customers to consider. And while it may be difficult to navigate, changing your pricing structure can be one of the best ways to help your business scale. This could be everything from the price point you charge for your product to the way you capture payments and handle collections.

5. Your sales model

What are the main means by which you market and sell your product or service? Do you use an inside sales force or an outside sales team? Do you use strategic partners who already have existing relationships with your target market as your main means to sell, or do you build your own marketing list? Just because you’ve been doing it a certain way for years, it doesn’t mean that’s the best way to do things.

6. Your branding

As your business has grown and evolved, has your brand positioning? Review your brand promise and brand emotions and see how they fit in with your current product offering and the needs and desires of your market. Is it consistent with what your business does well? If you were to look at your business with a set of fresh eyes, what would you choose for your company at this point in time?