Everyone gets into business expecting nothing but profit and growth. We speak to Cameron Herold in our Making Bank S7 E33 episode, ‘ The Business Growth Guru. He earned this reputation by leading companies to exponential growth. Watch the whole episode here.

Developing A Pipeline
Most entrepreneurs need help with delegating jobs. They start off by themselves and handle everything as the business progresses. Right from strategic decisions to administrative work, they take on more than they can handle. It only makes sense to hire a ‘Second In Command’. You can delegate the miscellaneous work i.e. the jobs that do not need your complete attention, and focus on value-adding activities for your business. A few points to consider when selecting someone for the job:
Size of the business
Pay package for the role
Clarify responsibilities
Experience
Your relationship with each other
Their knowledge of your business
Apart from being competent, your next-in-line needs to be someone you trust. Picking the wrong person can do more harm to the business than good.

Standardize, Systems, Simplify
Standardize operations to make them easier for everyone. A new employee will have a set of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to figure out how to do things. Imagine the value this adds to your business. There is no information lost with employees leaving. You don’t need to spend a whole lot of time training the new person as a written SOP is pretty self-explanatory. Systems that are in place and in use will keep operations running smoothly. This will ensure consistency across the business, and keep things simple. You will see a reduction in waste and higher efficiency and productivity. With standardized systems, it becomes easier to achieve the desired result repeatedly, irrespective of who is performing the task. In doing so, it is also easy to detect which steps have been deviated from, especially in case of an issue. It is not only the executives and supervisors that benefit from having systems in place but the customers too. They receive an end-product that they are happy with, which in turn improves brand loyalty.

Investing In People
This is one of the biggest strategies for growth. People and their skills will make or break your company. Putting in the effort and resources to train them and keep them satisfied is equal to investing in your own business. Training employees should be a constant process. Identify soft skills and find experts to impart knowledge about acquiring them. Topics like project management, leadership, effective email writing, time management, conflict resolution, and interpersonal relationships are great to start with. Treat training as an important part of the company’s ecosystem. People will feel motivated when they can learn something new regularly. Seeing how their skills fit in with the company’s vision will help them feel important. You will observe lower attrition if your people know they are being valued.