5 Strategies to Focus On As You Start (And Grow) Your Business

What are the most important things to focus on as you’re starting to grow your business? 

It’s a big question, right? You see so many different strategies, it’s hard to know what to focus on.

You open up Facebook and there’s someone in your feed using a strategy you think might work for your business.

You open your inbox and another expert is sharing what works for them.

You go to a free event and there are 22 speakers telling you to do 22 different things.

Sound familiar?

Let’s get real. We can’t do all of that. When I first started my business, I had to figure out what I should and could focus on that would make things go faster and far easier. 

Here are 5 Strategies to Focus on To Grow Your Business Faster

1) Get Clear on Your Why 

This is a really powerful question that can help you think about the type of business you really want to build.

Why are you starting your business? 

What do you want to get up and do every day? 

Not being clear on my why was the biggest mistake I made in starting my business. Instead of having a clear “why” as a compass and making decisions in alignment with it, I followed where opportunities showed up. 

I woke up and realized I had created a business that required me to travel virtually every week doing something that no longer fulfilled me.

The irony was that I started my business to create more time with my family while doing what I love. It took a wake-up call to move me into reinventing my business into what I should have created in the first place.

Focus on this: Think about your why. Get clear on what you want to get up and do every day. This will equip you to easily filter what opportunities have your name on it and which ones you are going to pass on. 

2) Clear Message 

If you want to effortlessly attract your ideal clients, the message you send out has to clearly speak to them.

Ask yourself:

Who do you want to work with? 

What is their day-to-day life like? 

What problems can you help them solve?

The more clear you are on your audience, the easier it will be to identify how you can help them. 

For example, I help experts like you to create and launch online courses that build their business. While I can help lots of businesses do this, I chose to work with passionate coaches, consultants, authors, and other experts who are on a mission to share what they know with other people.

I know what kind of problems my audience faces. I can design everything I create for them to help them go faster. 

Focus on this: Get clear on who you serve and the problems you can help them solve. This is how you create a message that attracts your perfect people.

3) Choose One Platform 

When you are first starting to grow your business, it’s overwhelming trying to figure out how to show up on every social platform. 

Should you be on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or LinkedIn? Should you focus on Youtube or Google search?

Trying to dabble in all of them is going to lead to inconsistency and a lack of momentum. Consistency is the number one factor for success on any platform. 

Focus on this: Ask “Where do my ideal clients hang out online?” Choose this platform first. Be consistent in sharing value. Expand from here. 

4) Bootstrapping 

What does bootstrapping mean? 

Think about how you can invest in things that will help you go faster later using your existing resources. 

For example, one of the biggest barriers that shows up in expanding your business is the common phrase “I don’t have the money to hire somebody to help me do what I don’t know how to do.”

It’s easy to think the best solution is to take the time to figure out how to do that thing yourself. Before you go down the “how-to” rabbit trail, ask yourself “Is this where I will get the biggest return on my time?”

One client could likely easily fund whatever you need to hire a graphic designer to get that page completed or a virtual assistant to help with tech support. 

Focus on this: Fund the growth of your business by focusing your time on things that live in your zone of genius.

5) Prioritize Engagement vs. Selling

There’s this temptation in growing a business to put all your energy around sell, sell, sell.

It can feel like you should be selling in every interaction:

On social media…

In every email you send…

When you meet someone at an event…

Here’s the thing: When you shift attention to what engages your audience, sales naturally happen. Click To Tweet

For an example, engaging on social media is one of the fastest ways to grow your following. Commenting, sharing, contributing and adding value is how you show up as a thought leader in your space. 

Focus on how you can help solve problems. Add value. This is what brings clients to you.

Summary 

There’s a common thread in all of these strategies:

Simplify.

Stay focused on what you are really here to do.

Be consistent. 

Most people won’t do any of these. It’s too easy to hop from one thing to the next. Focusing on adding value and being clear on how you help is how you can quickly scale your business.