4 Ways to Leverage Your Business for Massive Growth

The word leverage has quite a few meanings, but for our purposes, we’re defining it as “more with less, i.e., multiply to divide.” 

In other words, leverage is the ability to influence a system or environment in a way that multiplies your efforts. It’s investing the right amount of effort, through the proper channels, to yield greater returns for your business.

Using leverage to grow your business is where you start the process of getting your business to work without you. Wasn’t that your intent when you got started—to build a business that would allow you and your family to live the lifestyle you desire, and would ultimately run without your day-to-day oversight, so you could actually enjoy the fruits of your labor?

By systematizing each section of how your business runs, from how the phone is answered by the first point of contact to how the management team performs planning and strategy, you can simplify and systemize it to enable constancy and predictability. Best case scenario: you’re catching some rays on a Hawaiian beach, skiing down a Colorado mountain or doing anything else that brings you joy—and your business continues to operate without a hiccup. 

At ActionCOACH, we’ve identified four ways to make your business work more effectively and efficiently.  As you might expect, each way has numerous checklist items associated with it, and the process isn’t going to be completed overnight—but with your goal in sight and your eye on the prize, so to speak, you can methodically work through the four ways to grow your business and ensure it’s able to not just operate, but flourish without you.

Way #1: People & Education

It’s often said that for small businesses, there’s no greater leverage than your people. An Inc. article went so far as to say, “The people in your company will ultimately determine the success or failure of your business.” 

While you may readily acknowledge your people are your most important asset, do your actions and your company culture reflect that? And never forget the importance of ongoing education. Do you have programs in place to help your people gain new skills or keep their existing skills up-to-date?

Way #2: Delivery & Distribution

You’re probably familiar with the age-old question: If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, did it make a sound? What does this have to do with delivery and distribution? It’s not exactly apples to apples, but here’s the business-focused question: If you create a great product or offer a great service, but the lack the necessary infrastructure to get it to your customers in a timely manner, will your business survive?

Way #3: Testing and Measuring

Here's something else you may have heard before: Writing down your goals makes it more likely that you’ll achieve them. Of course, if you don’t have the necessary data to see how you’re doing right now, and no benchmarks in place to let you know where improvements are needed, it’s going to be more difficult to reach your business goals, even if you have them in writing.

Way #4: Systems & Technology

Ensuring your business has effective systems and processes in place will help your people be more consistent, productive and confident—which will lead to improved efficiency and accelerate your overall growth. Technology will be key in being as efficient as possible, and it will also support better communication, facilitate data security, save time and money, and more.

Perhaps there’s a lot more to leverage than you thought, but as already noted, you can tackle these items one by one—and there’s no reason you have to do it alone. 

Schedule a complimentary call with us to discuss how we can help you use leverage to grow your business to the point where it runs itself, rather than the business running YOU.