“The entrepreneur builds an enterprise; the technician builds a job.” – Michael E. Gerber
Do you suffer from the Entrepreneurial Myth?
The Entrepreneurial Myth #1: The myth that most people who start small businesses are entrepreneurs.
Myth #2: The fatal assumption that an individual who understands the technical side of a business can successfully run a business that does not technically work.
The secret to go ‘Beyond’ The E-Myth is to scale up… that said, what are the best ways to scale your business?
In celebration and anticipation of Michael E. Gerber’s last book release for the E-Myth series – Beyond The E-Myth – we have more than 50 successful business owners sharing their best tip on scaling and growing a business.
Enjoy these insights and share this post to every entrepreneur you care about. Together we’re about to go…Beyond The E-Myth!


Excerpt taken from – Beyond The E-Myth – release date 12.7.16
This is the simplest book I’ve ever written.
It’s a book written for everyone who has started his own business, or for everyone who hopes to.
It’s a simple book because it starts out with a simple premise. That unless you start your business with the intention of selling it, it will almost always turn out to be a disaster.
So this book is about going to work ON your business (I’m going to call it ‘a company’ from now on) – to design your company, to build your company, to launch your company, and then to grow your company for the extreme purpose of preparing your company for sale.
That means that a company, no matter what it does, and how it does that, is nothing other than a product. A product you’re preparing to sell.
After all is said and done, that’s what an entrepreneur is: an inventor of a grand and growing company — a product — which ultimately will be sold to a buyer who falls madly in love with it.
Every company on the face of the planet is nothing other than a product for sale.
But, the buyer of your company, whomever that may be, doesn’t fall in love with what the company does; he’s much more pragmatic than that. The buyer falls in love with how well your company does it.
And the measure for how well a company does what it does is only two things: First, its success in its ability to attract and keep customers better than any other company; and Second, the return on equity a company produces time after time after time.
In sum, such a company – a company which buyers absolutely love — possesses the uncanny, and seemingly unnatural, ability to scale. To continue reading, download the preview chapters – click here.
Question: “What’s your best tip for growing/scaling your business?”

Adam Toporek Twitter // customersthatstick.com
~ Customer service keynote speaker and workshop wizard, frequent #podcast guest (and host), and author of Be Your Customer’s Hero
One of the best ways for entrepreneurs to scale is to leverage the incredible technological and remote labor opportunities available today.
Many of the barriers to growth that early-stage businesses faced in the past have been eliminated or diminished by our interconnected world.
Where entrepreneurs might have previously struggled with finding the right talent locally or having to add a salary they could not afford, now they can find specialized independent contractors across the globe whose services can scale with the business.
Where previously implementing a CRM system would have required a major leap of faith and capital investment, now service as a software offerings are ubiquitous and systems, from basic to robust, can be had for an affordable monthly subscription.
Need a new logo? A virtual assistant? Sales page content?
Freelance and crowdsourcing platforms enable you to get competitive bids and even spec work from a global marketplace of providers.
And while these methods do have their downsides – an excess of inferior vendors to sift through and the challenges of remote management to name a couple – those issues tend to pale in comparison to the risks of more traditional alternatives. In any industry that is not capital intensive, an amazing world of opportunity awaits growing entrepreneurs who can now compete effectively against big business and scale smartly with minimal risk.

Loyalty created through an emotional service bond is powerful way to grow your business. How does your organization create emotional customer bonds that build deep loyalty?
Eight Steps to Blue & Gold Loyalty
· Brand:
You need to start with a strong brand identity that your customers can identify with. Your brand must not only communicate a message, but also inform, motivate and deliver as promised.
The better your brand is at keeping its promises, the better your brand is at being trusted.
· Learning Relationships:
Organizations that implement learning relationships are better able to understand and anticipate a customer’s unique needs.
Learning organizations understand that great customer experiences start with listening to the customer to learn instead of talking to the customer to sell.
Customers in a learning relationship experience a heightened sense of vendor awareness and are more likely to be loyal because their vendor understands their needs.
· Use technology to connect in positive and collaborative ways:
Customer connections that engender loyalty deliver a seamless experience across channels and touch points while demonstrating integrity and interest.
· Ensure and Empower:
Ensure high quality customer interactions that demonstrate a caring attitude by empowering your employees to resolve problems.
If you want your people to act like it’s their business, make it their business. Empowerment leads to never losing a customer over a stupid rule.
· Great Service: Almost every customer has a service support need at some point. Use support incidents as an opportunity to solidify relationships.
Providing excellent service and quick resolution can build customer trust.
· One view of the company:
Despite the desires of corporate managers, the customer ultimately controls the relationship.
If the customer is in control, don’t they need a 360 degree view of the company? Great customer experiences start when you make it easy for the customer to do business with you.
· Layers:
Customers have layers, and relationship layers are built on trust and dialog over time.
Customer loyalty requires the care and commitment to take the time, invest the money, and have the patience to grow the relationship.
· Dynamic real-time processes:
Building relationships takes time; however, instant gratification has been a feature of our everyday lives for a long time.
Give your customers their rewards now, and keep your promises on time.

Ana Hoffman Twitter // www.trafficgenerationcafe.com
~ I plan on blogging forever. So far, so good. In need of sleep, sanity, and a hug. Your way to more traffic http://tgcafe.it/TrafficHacksTw
Website push notifications are an incredibly easy and effective way to tap your visitors on the shoulder.
The visibility of push notifications is very high (as high as 90%!), and they work across a number of platforms, devices, and browsers.
Your visitors simply subscribe once through a web push request, then receive notifications from your website on both desktop and mobile devices.
One of the reasons web push notifications work so well at the moment is the fact that this engagement strategy is still in its infancy.
You can make sure it continues to work well for you if you keep your push notifications personalized, contextual, timely, and relevant.
This is one of the cases where less is more – fewer notifications will actually have more impact.

Anand Kulkarni Twitter // leadgenius.com
~ Founder at @LeadGenius; Forbes 30 under 30 social entrepreneur
The best way to grow a business is by identifying your top-converting channels for customer acquisition (quantitatively), rank-ordering them by cost-effectiveness, and then spending time & money in order on each channel from most to least cost effectiveness.
This requires you to track the ROI on each activity, which many new business leaders neglect to do – how much did you spend and how many new customers did you acquire?
Even informal activities like conferences and networking events can be quantified, especially by putting a dollar value on your time.
Being methodical about knowing which channels drive growth is the first step to understanding where to direct your efforts to drive growth.

Andreea Ayers Twitter // www.launchgrowjoy.com
~ Sharing tips & advice for product entrepreneurs, Etsy sellers and ecommerce store owners at
http://www.launchgrowjoy.com #ecommerce
My best tip for scaling and growing your business is to hire people to help you before you actually think you need them!
Start with one person and delegate the tasks that are your least favorite to do, as well as the tasks that don’t directly contribute to sales/revenue.
That will free up some time for you to plan and implement other strategies that are directly tied to revenue.

Andrew Warner Twitter // mixergy.com
~ I run Mixergy, a site where founders help each other by telling their stories and teaching what they do best.
When I found out my wife was pregnant I realized that I couldn’t keep scrambling at the last minute to get my work done or pull lots of late nights at the office.
So I finally made an effort to organize my company better.
My team and I made a list of everything we do repeatedly at Mixergy. For example, since Mixergy’s mission involves creating courses and interviews for entrepreneurs, finding the right course leaders and interviewees was something that we had to do every single week.
So we made a list of all the steps involved in getting interviewees and of course leaders. Then we documented exactly how we do it. Then we assigned each part of the process to someone.
That allowed us to get our work done more smoothly. But the surprising discovery we made was that by having our process documented in organize, we started discovering new ways to improve.

Andy Beal Twitter // andybeal.com
~ author of Repped: 30 Days to a Better Online Reputation. ]Speaker, author & CEO of @RepRefinery. P/T travel photographer & serve on the @RaleighRescue BOD
Understand that your reputation is one of the most crucial investments you can make in your business.
Of course, that means creating a professional looking logo, designing a user-friendly website, and not cutting corners on any printed material, but it goes way beyond that.
Your reputation is an extension of your character.
The investment you make into your employees welfare, how you treat your customers, and the interactions you have with your peers, will all determine how your company’s brand is perceived.
A strong reputation provides a solid platform for referrals and word-of-mouth growth. Build a strong reputation and you won’t have to spend as much on PR, advertising, or social media.

Anese Cavanaugh Twitter // anesecavanaugh.com
~ Devoted to helping people Show Up. Author Contagious Culture, Creator IEP Method, Speaker, Advisor & Partner to biz leaders, Mom, Inc.com Columnist+
My “best” tip for growing/scaling a business/my business has been a combination of tips that all work together and support each other.
Bottom line: Show Up, and Show Up.
Next… Don’t do it alone; create an intentional advisory board that can hold your vision with you and call you (even demand that you) step into an even bigger vision; focus on your intended impact (that goes way beyond you); stay connected to purpose, and take excellent care of yourself in doing all of the above.
That’s the soul work, collaborative work, and support work I’ve found necessary to grow — not only externally in the business, but as a business leader.
Secondly, make sure your infrastructure ROCKS with the right people, systems, and practices in place, so that you are freed up to be the best instrument of change possible and to do the work necessary and desired, that is truly the best use of YOU, to keep scaling.
Finally, keep it fun. Build in joy space, purpose space, family space, and self-care space — because if not, then what’s the point?
You’ll want (need) intention, you want (need) energy and self-care, you’ll want (need) presence, you’ll want (need) people, and you want (need) infrastructure… And you’ll want to listen to yourself.
Listen well. Roll with that and positive impact through business becomes more scalable (and sustainable).

Arnie Kuenn Twitter // VerticalMeasures.com
~ CEO of Vertical Measures a PPC, SEO & Content Marketing agency. International speaker. Co-author of Content Marketing Works. Hiking, travel & most sports.
I have said for more than two decades as an entrepreneur, that the top line fixes [almost] everything. What do I mean by this?
It means that your focus must always be on revenue. It does not matter if you are a well-funded startup or if you are a business that is in “boot strap” mode, eventually you must be profitable. And the ONLY way to be profitable it to bring in more than you have in expenses.
I have seen companies that truly believe “if you build it they will come.” They think they have the best product since sliced bread and people will just line up to buy it. Or they think they need to hire this and hire that, get ready for the stampede of customers.
Twelve months later they are out of business. You must make sales and marketing your number one priority. If revenue is coming in, you can address almost any business issue the company might have, whether it be personnel, processes, receivables, facilities, or whatever.

Bernie Borges Twitter // findandconvert.com
~ Podcaster | CEO Find and Convert | Speaker | Blogger | Lover of God, Country & Family #contentmarketing #socialstrategy #socialselling
Growing and scaling a business requires the trifecta of the right people, processes that allow for repeatable activities, yet evolve as the business evolves, and technology that helps streamline all aspects of the business.
This trifecta needs to be balanced with intense love for the customer.
Understanding the customer journey must be at the heart of the business in order for people, processes and technology to be harnessed effectively.

Bryan Eisenberg Twitter // bryaneisenberg.com
~ Keynote speaker, best selling author – http://www.buyerlegends.com. Dad of 3. Youth #baseball coach. Publisher http://www.playballkid.com.
Plan A Customer Journey That Is Channel Agnostic
Charlatans are endemic to all forms of marketing but they are especially attracted to digital. I’d like them to go away but there is always somebody willing to buy what they are selling.
ALL business is becoming digital!
Connected customers engage in many ways (foreseen and unforeseen) with brands in and out of stores, offices, call centers, social media, catalogs and websites.
Those customers don’t care what channel they interact with or what department gets the credit. Customers think of every interaction with a brand as THE brand experience.
Then they happily share the best and worst of those experiences. Wonder why customer experience isn’t what most CEOs focus on for differentiation?
Customer satisfaction and customer experience appear not to have budged at all.
According to Bain & Company, 80% of surveyed companies claimed to be delivering a superior customer experience, but only 8% of those companies had customers that agreed with them. What a dangerous blind spot!
That leaves an awful lot of companies actively disappointing customers while smugly congratulating themselves on their “superior customer experience.” Couldn’t be you, right?
Most companies don’t have a map. They haven’t mapped out the customer journey, either in terms of what it is now, or what it ideally ought to be. And without that map, they can’t plot the data to determine what’s actually happening — or what they ought to do about it.
Jeff Bezos said it best “If you’re customer-focused, you’re always waking up wondering, how can we make that customer say, wow?
We want to impress our customers — we want them to say, wow. That kind of divine discontent comes from observing customers and noticing that things can always be better.”
Why do so few companies bother to plan and then validate the buyer journey with accountable metrics?
Is it inertia?
“We often miss opportunity because it’s dressed in overalls and looks like work” – Thomas A. Edison
Or perhaps it is…
“Success breeds complacency. Complacency breeds failure. Only the paranoid survive.” – Andy Grove
There is some hard work on your business involved. There is the careful navigation of people’s territories, channels and silos, There is the inherent career risk that comes with greater accountability.
There is also a great opportunity. Plan a great experience, deliver a great experience and then improve on it. That is a challenge all businesses face. Some will live up to that challenge and most won’t.

Carol Tice Twitter // makealivingwriting.com/freebies
~ I help #freelance #writers get well-paid with my blog, and #bloggers at http://smallblogbigincome.com. #Author of 11 books & ebooks… and of my own destiny.
The top thing you can do to grow your business is get help. Start outsourcing, and find collaborators.
I wasted far too long trying to do everything myself.
Once I hired pro webmasters, designers, and admins to work behind the scenes, my online business exploded. I had time to envision, write great content, and of course they were better designers, anyway! My site immediately started attracting more subscribers.
With collaborators, I was able to create new courses I never could have delivered on my own, creating a whole new profit center.

Chad Pollitt Twitter // chadpollitt.com
~ Faculty Indy @KelleySchool, Adjunct @RutgersU, Top 20 CMO Influencer, @HuffingtonPost & @Guardian contributor, Co-founder @Relevance & former @USArmy Commander
People, process, product (service) – This is at the core of growing and scaling a business.
That said, it’s also critical to make sure there are no holes in the marketing and sales funnel. It’s quite common for businesses to ignore the top of their funnel online. And others don’t do inside sales. This can stifle growth.

Christine Hassler Twitter // christinehassler.com
~ Author. Life Coach. Speaker. I help people overcome Expectation Hangovers®. Gen Y expert. Hybrid of mystical and practical. Lover of Kombucha.
Grow it from the inside out. Most entrepreneurs invest a lot more time and effort in their business than they do themselves.
Focusing so hard on external results may create success but it is not sustainable if we are not growing at the rate our business is growing.
From day one of my business I have had a coach and made my self-care (both physical and psychological) my number one priority.
In doing so, my business growth has been steady and sustainable. Investing in myself has immediately proceeded big deals I have closed, additional people I have hired, and higher streams of revenue.
I see the same thing happen to other entrepreneurs who do the same. The foundation of a business is dependent on its founder and a shaky foundation may hold up for a while but eventually the walls are going to start to crack.
In a work world where busy-ness is a badge of honor, it is easy to put ourselves last. The business may be growing but guess what also happens?
Checking email before you brush your teeth.
Missing a family event because you just had to get that deck done.
Gaining 20 pounds because you are glued to your computer.
Popping Tums from the bottle that sits on your (cluttered) desk.
Pulling all nighters because who needs sleep when there’s business to get done?!?!
Friends stop inviting you to things because the answer is usually no.
Not all of these things may happen, but even if just one of them does, that’s enough to contribute to a shakey foundation.
Here are a few ideas to build a strong foundation:
- Get a coach or counselor to hold you accountable to your core values and keep an eye on your mental health.
Being an entrepreneur is a vulnerable experience. There is quite a bit of uncertainty involved. With so much on the line, having someone other than your spouse of best friend to talk to is imperative
- Set up a non-negotiable self care plan that includes a daily meditation practice, exercise and nourishing yourself with healthy foods.
The more you take care of your body and mind, the better you will be at building your business. Burning the candle at both ends is NOT a way to scale. It’s a way to age prematurely!
- Be gentle with yourself. I see so many entrepreneurs motivate themselves by being hard on themselves.
That kind of hard drive may be effective but it is not sustainable. Know your “why” and allow your vision to PULL you rather than push yourself toward a goal.

Christy Wright Twitter // businessboutique.com
~ Author, Business Coach & Intense Friend. I love Jesus, my patient family, running & cookies. Enthusiasm is my love language. Business Boutique book out 4/18/17!
Business growth can be an exciting, wild ride – but only if you are prepared to grow in the right way. In fact, trying to grow too big, too fast is one of the number one reasons that small businesses fail, second only to a basic lack of money.
The business implodes because it can’t support the growth.
Before you take the step to expand your business, you must build up your revenues. If you don’t have the finances to grow, then you simply aren’t ready to take that next step yet.
You want to build your revenues up high enough so that it doesn’t feel like a terrifying leap when your business begins to expand.
This may mean slowing down and recognizing that, while you want to grow your business and feel like you are ready, the numbers might not add up.
You have to have patience and wait until the money is available.

Colin Klinkert Twitter // serped.com
~ Serial Entrepreneur. Marketing Success Through Simplicity!
As businesses grow and scale, the fundamental dynamics that affect a business change. In early days, time, money, and resources – all three hold equal importance.
But, as a business grow, money and resources grow along, but time is the only thing that does not. So, it becomes even more crucial that they optimize their time and try to get maximum from it. This is what I learned from building and running two software product startups. To new-age founders, my top two bits of advice are –
- Automate as many business functions as possible
- Be data driven and have clear ROI metrics
Automate as many business functions as possible.
When you are in the growth stage and want to grow fast, accept the fact that you can’t do everything manually. You need to automate your business processes, and for that, you have to have right tools in your arsenal.
Right tools automate and streamline business processes and save you a lot of time. For example – HubSpot for marketing automation, SEO tools suites like SERPed.net, Moz for SEO, platform.ly to run entire back-end of your online business.
Be data driven and have clear ROI metrics
The another advice I have is- Make data driven decision and tie everything to ROI. I missed on this in the growth phase of my first startup and knowingly or unknowingly, most of the founders miss this as well.
In the growth phase, you go on experiment spree to figure out that one growth formula that you can run again and again. During this exploration stage, having clear ROI metrics becomes very crucial.
And, to ensure that you measure ROI metrics correctly, being data driven with a hacker mindset helps. It can make or break your business.

Colin Wright Twitter // colin.io
~ Author, speaker, podcaster. Books http://colin.io / Blog http://exilelifestyle.com / Host http://letsknowthings.com & http://considerthis.io / I travel
Growth requires persistence and time, but it also necessitates that you’re communicating something valuable from the beginning.
That means it’s not enough to simply post things on Twitter or maintain a consistent schedule of inspirational quotes on Facebook — you need to stand out and give people who might be interested in following you and engaging with your project something they care about.
Ideally, this means you step back, take a good long look at who you are, what you’re doing, and why you’re doing it, and allow that to inform what you produce and share.
Allow yourself to not just ‘produce content,’ but to tell a story across all the different touchpoints you have with your audience and potential audience.
This results in a unique consistency, but also helps you stand out from everyone else who’s doing something similar.
No one can be a better you than you, and telling your story in this way incentivizes folks to stick around and share your work with others who might enjoy it.
Scale naturally occurs as a result, so long as you do well by the people who are paying attention.

Darren Kavinoky Twitter // DarrenKavinoky.com
~ Host #DeadlySins on @DiscoveryID | Keynote Speaker | TV Legal Analyst @TheInsider | Founder @1800NoCuffs
Lewis Carroll once said, “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.”In order for a map to be useful, you need to know two points: where you are now and where you want to wind up.
The same thing is true with growing or scaling your business. Know your desired destination. Also, read the E-Myth. It’s a book that will change your life. Thank you, Michael Gerber!”

Darren Stehle Twitter // eatmovebe.com
~ Coaching people to flex their mind and nourishing their wellbeing. #Nutrtion and #Fitness #Coach
To build and grow a successful business you need to know your authentic self, how you do your best work, and whether you offer a service, product or both.
There are more channels and options to promote what you do online than can be counted. There are just as many products and services you can buy to learn how to be a better “marketer”.
However, there’s an old school method that has worked for thousands of years and still does to this day.
Invite someone to a conversation and offer them as much value as if they were already my client.
Recently, I turned my back on SEO and social media promotions. I’m not ignoring it forever, but I’m not focussing on it for now. Instead, I’ve made the choice to focus on one person at a time.
I want to transform people’s health by helping them flex their mind and nourish their wellbeing.
Is that a scaleable form of business? That depends on the value I offer and how much I can charge.
That depends on what I want my business to look like so I’m happy and not overwhelmed. That depends on if I stay true to myself and offer deeply transformative and fearless nutrition and lifestyle coaching to one person at a time.
When I do that I don’t need to worry about scalability.

David Meerman Twitter // davidmeermanscott.com
~ Marketing & Sales Strategist, keynote speaker, and bestselling author of 10 books including The New Rules of Marketing & PR and Newsjacking.
Educate and inform instead of interrupt and sell.

David Risley Twitter // blogmarketingacademy.com
~ ProBlogger, Internet Entrepreneur. I Show Bloggers How To Generate A Full Time Income Online and Turn Their Passion Into a Solid, Profitable Business.
Know your numbers. I spent a long time in my business shooting from the hip and going on my gut.
Finally I realized just how important it is to establish some KPIs (key performance indicators) and to make a regular habit of measuring and tracking them.
Unless you have some hard metrics to go by, it is hard to really scale your business because you’ll be flying by the seat of your pants.

Doug Kessler Twitter // velocitypartners.com
~ Creative Director & Co-founder of Velocity, B2B marketing agency to the stars. I tweet on content marketing, B2B copywriting, social media, tech marketing…
For growing a service business, finding great people and keeping them happy and motivated are the most important things.
I used to think our business (a content marketing agency) had to put clients first.
While it’s obvious that you have to be pretty obsessive about delivering value to clients, I now think our people are even more important.
Clients come and go. You need your people to stay and grow. But only if you’ve hired the very best people you can find in every department and discipline.
‘A-team’ people get discouraged if they have to work with ‘B-team’ players. But they get turned on by working with talented, committed, enthusiastic people who love what they do.
In the best workplaces, people are committed to the mission and values of the company. But they’re even more committed to each other.
That means hiring really, really carefully and firing quickly when you get it wrong. At Velocity, every serious candidate meets up to ten people — that’s a lot when the whole company is still only 40! We then hold a meeting where we all discuss the candidate.
‘Red flags’ and reservations are taken very seriously and explored fully. If we can’t allay our doubts or can’t get enthusiastic about the candidate, we don’t hire.
This is a major pain the ass when you’re trying to grow fast. But lowering the bar can never be the answer.
Of course, the most important part of attracting great people is to have a company that deserves the best people.
You need to be able to look any candidate in the eye and say, “You will learn here. You will grow here. You will love it here.”
If you get this right, you can almost stand back and watch great things happen. If you get it wrong, you’ll find yourself dragged back into working in the business instead of working on the business.

Erik Luhrs Twitter // guruselling.com
~ The Bruce Lee of Lead Generation. Creator of Subconscious Lead Generation.
My best advice for scaling a business is to engage in Simplified-Exponential thinking.
This handles the 2 main issues that stop companies from growing; Offering more stuff that is too complex, and being self-limited.
When companies start adding more products or services, they tend to “over-build” them so they are too complex to be easily understood.
Example: At first, your company just sold a software that helped track staff work hours. It was successful. Then you decide to add an outsourced service to find, hire, train and track employees so that they are super efficient, super productive, fully certified…..
From very simple to too complex overnight.
At the same time, companies can often pigeon-hold themselves, meaning that they lock themselves into one piece of one niche industry.
Example: You sell a software to track staff work hours. You think you have to remain stuck in ‘staff time tracking,’ so you create an add-on for multi-devise tracking.
You make some sales, but not nearly as much as your original software. So you build another add-on, and another, scrapping less and less sales each time.
But if you allowed yourself to think exponentially, you would say that staff work tracking lends itself to productivity, efficiency, business growth, revenue per hour, tactical planning…etc.
It is a fine line that must be walked between staying simple to understand and expanding in a way that is useful to more and more customers.

Fred Joyal Twitter // goaskfred.com
~ Founder @Futuredontics, author of Everything Is Marketing, speaker, blogger at http://goaskfred.com, dental marketing guru. Seldom seen without a Starbucks.
Team Building is the Cornerstone to Scaling
The biggest challenge in scaling any business is people. The faster you grow, the harder it is to add enough skilled people to keep from tipping over.
If you accelerate your growth but don’t have a team that supports your customers and maintains a high level of service, development and refinement, you’ll eventually collapse in on yourself.
There are two parts to this: First is hiring. As an executive, you should be spending as much as 50% of your time putting the right people in place.
Your ability to attract and grow strong employees, managers and executives will be the most powerful contributor to your success throughout your career.
Entrepreneurs are the worst at this, because they think they can do so much themselves, and do it better than anyone else. You must suppress that urge, and delegate.
The second is creating a fertile work environment for growth. And that requires you to do two things: making your business a great place to work, and being crystal clear with everyone what you expect from them in return for providing this great place to work.
This was my biggest failing in the first half of my career as CEO. I was extremely supportive and made our company a terrific place to be every day. And I assumed that my employees would respond by doing a great job and working hard.
The problem was, I didn’t spell out what that meant to me so, in the absence of clear goals and responsibilities, they created their own priorities based on what they liked to do, what they were good at and what was easiest.
As often as not, this didn’t coincide with what I expected or what the business really needed.
If you want to scale your brilliant idea, excel at team building, and the sky’s the limit.

Guy Kawasaki Twitter // guykawasaki.com
~ Mantra: I empower people. Chief evangelist of @Canva https://www.canva.com/ . Author of thirteen books. Former chief evangelist of Apple.
Most companies scale too fast because of delusions of immediate, “hockey-stick” acceptance.
I’ve never seen a company die because it couldn’t scale fast enough. I’ve seen many die because they scaled too early.
Remember: eat what you kill, not what you intend to kill. And if your product does take off, you’ll figure out a way to scale.

James Arthur Twitter // jamesray.com
~ James Arthur Ray NYT Bestselling Author of Harmonic Wealth. Inc 500 inductee 2009. Helping you find your purpose, grow a business, and do what you love!
The number one tip for scaling your business is self-awareness.
Realize what you’re great at doing, as well as what you’re not good at; and then move towards only playing your strengths.
Attract, hire and surround yourself with team members whose strengths are the things that yours are not. Move methodically to offloading those actions to them and continually remove barriers.
Empower them to do what they do best and you do the same.

Jan Orsula Twitter // weekhack.com
~ Enthusiastic Digital Marketer, Skilled in #SocialMedia, #Blogging, List Building. Ice Hockey Fan & Amateur #GuitarPlayer
My best tip for growing an (online) business is to focus on one thing at a time. Focus on building a quality and engaging email list. There’s a bunch of shiny objects we’ve seen every day that causes only distraction.
A ton of different marketing strategies, sales techniques, business opportunities, social media sites like Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, etc.
In today’s world, we have so many choices that is very difficult to find the right ones most appropriate for our business.
Most people overlook the importance of building an email list. If you ask successful online entrepreneurs what would they changed if they could, nine out of ten say start collecting email addresses from my potential customers from day one.
Email is most proper and responsive channel to connect with your potential customers.
Through email, you can engage, educate, and build a connection with your subscribers on a personal level.
It’s much easier to sell a product to people who know you, trust you, have a positive experience with you than someone who barely remembers your name.
First, I’d create some kind of free material like checklist, spreadsheet, video series or ebook. And offer it in exchange for an email address.
After someone opts in, I’d send them ‘thank you email’ where I’d introduce myself, tell them what I’m going to send in the future, add some personal note and the most important thing – I’d ask what is their biggest problem with the topic.
You’ll find out that a lot of people will respond. Most of them have very similar questions. Just take the time, create a valuable response and then just use it again and again.

Jennifer Gresham Twitter // everydaybright.com
Writer, speaker, scientist, career activist. I help overachievers design a life and career they love. Founder of the No Regrets Career Academy.
Focus on developing and selling premium priced products. What most people don’t realize is that it takes roughly the same amount of time and effort to close a $10,000 sale as it does a $1,000 sale as it does a $100 sale.
Getting people to part with their hard earned cash is not easy at any price point, so it makes sense to optimize the process where you’ll get the highest return on your investment. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t offer lower priced products.
It just means that your higher priced products should serve as your revenue engine while your lower priced products primarily serve as lead generation.
When businesses get this right, it becomes a virtuous cycle. You are able to earn more money with fewer customers, which means you have the time/energy to invest in serving and understanding those customers even better.
That leads to an increase in repeat purchases and referrals, further enhancing your bottom line while driving down client acquisition costs.

Jim Berkowitz Twitter // launchhawk.com
~ Founder of LaunchHawk | Startup Mentoring | Growth Consulting | Digital Marketing | CRM Technology Coaching | ‘The Professor’| Jazz DJ on KOTO-fm | Telluride CO
If you want to be able to grow and scale your business, marketing technology must used so that the lead generation process can be completely automated.
First you’ll need to outline your marketing process in detail, then find products that can work together to accomplish all the process steps.
For example, If your going to use Facebook Ads to promote a Webinar, you’ll want the leads generated from Facebook to automatically go into your autoresponder and your Webinar software to generate a series of automatic emails about the webinar (and after the webinar to take the next step).
If that next step is to schedule a call, then the Call should be able to be automatically scheduled by the prospect using a meeting scheduling tool.
Finally, after the call the autoresponder should keep sending emails for the next step which might be signing up for your service or buying your product.
The point is that everything from running Ads to closing the business is automated — the only manual step is to show up and do the webinar.
Some people are even recording their webinars and using that instead of live seminars.
Automation like this provides the means to scale endlessly without the need to use manual clerical staff.

Joel Klettke Twitter // businesscasualcopywriting.com
~ Professional loose cannon, CRO + copywriter, TEDx speaker and D-list Canadian news celebrity. Traded hair for a winning personality. (Also owns @casestudybuddy)
My best tip for growing and scaling your business is to focus on doing one thing really well at a time.
It’s not sexy, revolutionary advice – but it’s so important.
When you’re freshly into a business, there are so many shiny objects and priorities demanding your attention.
You can’t possibly manage them all at once, so you need to make a list of jobs to be done, prioritized by their potential impact.
Don’t get stuck doing routine, day-to-day operations if what you need is a seismic shift in your marketing effort, for example.
If you have to, delegate the pieces that others could do more quickly or more efficiently than you, and focus on making the biggest change where it needs to be made, and where your personal skill set aligns.

John Doherty Twitter // johnfdoherty.com
~ Founder of @getcredo. Growth marketer. @distilled/@zillow/@hotpads alum. Speaker. Husband. Kingdom follower. Caffeinated ENTJ. Black lab owner.
My best tip for growing or scaling your business is to figure out where you are the bottleneck, then break that down.
By getting out of the way and either entrusting others to do it or stopping work that was not showing any movement forward, you’ll likely see your business start growing in new ways since you are now able to work on things that previously were left undone.
Along these lines, by automating tasks that you are currently doing manually (either via custom software or tools like Zapier or IFTTT) you can clear up time to work on new tasks

Jon Nastor Twitter // showlist.io/@jonny
~ Entrepreneur, podcaster, writer, and drummer of punk rock beats. I’m the creator of Hack the Entrepreneur and ShowList.io.
To grow your business, make more money or become more successful, you have to grow as a person.
Being a successful entrepreneur is about personal development and becoming a better version of yourself.
When you force yourself to grow into the leader your business needs, only then will growth in your business follow — not before.

Josh Steimle Twitter // joshsteimle.com
~ Author #CMO book Chief Marketing Officers at Work, 200+ articles on Mashable, TechCrunch, Forbes, Time. @TEDx speaker, husband, dad, trail runner, agency CEO.
Make yourself 100% unnecessary
Don’t misunderstand–making yourself unnecessary is very different than making yourself useless. If you’re an entrepreneur, you may be familiar with the following scenario.
You start a business, and at first you’re 100% necessary. You’re actually doing 10 jobs, even jobs you’re ill-suited for, because if you don’t do them, who will? But as you grow you begin to hire people to do those jobs, and if you’re smart you hire people who are much better at those jobs than you are.
But now you face another challenge. As you do fewer and fewer things, you begin to feel unnecessary, and that scares you. If you have partners you may even feel that your position in the company is threatened. Have you ever felt this way?
It’s at this point that many entrepreneurs get involved in the details again in ways that prevent them from scaling.
They hold onto tasks and jobs they should give to others who are better suited for them, and by so doing they often bring about the very consequences they’re afraid of.
The antidote is vision. If the entrepreneur understands what his business will look like at scale, he can chart his course from A to B, and he will see that following this path means although he must strive to make himself unnecessary, he’ll never succeed.
He’ll never succeed because the better he does at giving up jobs, the better and more necessary he will become as a leader, and the last thing anyone wants to do is get rid of a great leader.

Lewis Howes Twitter // lewishowes.com
~ NY Times, WSJ & USA Today Bestselling author. Lifestyle Entrepreneur. Former pro athlete & USA Team Handball player. Top 50 Podcast. Snapchat LewisHowes
The absolute most important priority for scaling a business is having a crystal clear vision on what you are committed to creating.
There will be so many distractions and other opportunities that come your way as you start to gain momentum and get some success.
Without a solid vision of what you are committed to, it’s so easy to get off course and invest your time and energy in stuff that isn’t serving your bigger purpose.
The way I do this is to physically write down my number one goal for my business at the start of each year on an actual certificate of completion.
I tape the certificate on my office wall so I see it everyday. I also frequently tell people what my big goals are for my business that year so I’m accountable and keeping it top of mind.
My whole team knows what our big vision is for the year and we re-visit what we are doing to move that forward every week. It saves us so much time and energy that we would be tempted to put elsewhere as we get bigger.
Keep your vision simple, clear, and make sure it’s really important to you
Scaling means you will get more opportunities and more overhead. But that doesn’t mean you have to lose sight of your big vision and what you are committed to creating.

Madeline Puckette Twitter // winefolly.com
~ Passionate about learning wine and all the wonderful places it takes us. http://winefolly.com/blog/ http://winefolly.com/subscribe/ (free!) http://winefolly.com/book/
The friends who tell you that you’re working too hard will never understand what it means to grow your own business.
Do yourself a favor and stop listening to them (or the part of yourself that tells you this too!). Follow the passionate obsession to figure out how to make your business successful.

Mana Ionescu Twitter // lightspandigital.com
~ Preso at #Chicago agency @LightspanD. Entrepreneur, Speaker &friend. Busting #digitalmarketing myths. ‘Make no little plans.’ Be bold, brave, kind. #SCUBA
I once met a very successful woman who told me how she grew into a multi-million dollar business in two years. She said, when she started she just got one table and a chair for her office.
She made sure that it was the most uncomfortable chair she could find. Why? So she wouldn’t sit in it. She knew she needed to be out there selling.
She didn’t want any comfort or temptation that would distract her from hustling. She believed top-of-the-funnel comes first, when you are in growth stages.
It would be a dream to be able to grow a business based on the quality of your product or service alone. But if you’re not out there getting the word out and closing deals, your business won’t magically grow.
I can’t tell you how many businesses come to us and expect a few social media posts to turn them into millionaires. B2B or B2C success alike, requires that you build relationships, are present, make yourself visible in flesh and blood, not just on social media.
Don’t get comfortable. Don’t sit in that chair. Go out and sell. Build strategic partnerships. Meet key people. If you fill up the funnel, you’ll figure out how to deliver the work. But with an empty funnel, you won’t do any work at all.
So get off Facebook. Get out of that chair. Go out and sell.

Marc Nager Twitter // tellurideva.com
~ Helped build and grow Startup Weekend, ran UP Global, EIR at Techstars and now MD for Telluride Venture Accelerator
For a small company that is starting to scale quickly, my single biggest tip would be to ensure that you have taken time as a founding/executive team to write down your mission/values/key beliefs/strategies/primary business models used/etc.
We did this at Startup Weekend and UP Global, and I’ve worked with dozens of startups to do the same, and I truly believe it is one of the most powerful tools to tackle many challenges of growth including alignment, external communications, marketing strategy, preserving culture, recruiting, training, and many other things.
It serves as a true north whenever there are questions or concerns. Leaders within the organization should feel like they are pointing to and quoting the Manifesto like a broken record.
Think it is a waste of time? Absolutely not. Ensuring the leaders across your company are all using the same vocabulary and marching in the same direction is invaluable.
Ensuring that everyone in your company has access to the same document ensures great transparency that empowers team members to come up with new ideas and push back on potential distractions.
I’ve even see cofounders get in fundamental disputes around what should go in this document, leading to an entirely different understanding of the business altogether that could have been fatal if discovered too late.
It is a sign that there is extreme clarity on the direction of the organization and helps identify when things lie outside of core purpose since rapidly growing companies tend to be easily distracted.
We were originally inspired by a combination of Jim Collin’s Good to Great and Valve’s Employee Handbook. A copy of our very first one is here. As you can imagine, this document can evolve along with the company. We found that we needed to revisit it every ~2 years.

Martijn Scheijbeler Twitter // www.linkedin.com/in/martijnscheijbeler
~ Director of Marketing @TheNextWeb / @Indexdotco . Loves: Marketing Strategy, Audience Development, Product Marketing, SEO, Google Analytics, CRO, GTM. Speaker.
Think x10, you’re ideas and your approaches are going to change when you start focusing on growing your business / business unit x10 instead of marginal improvements.
You’ll come up with more ideas that can grow your business faster and that might have a bigger impact. It will still be very important to keep your focus so you don’t end up doing 100 things at the same time, but it will make sure that you’ll get more insights into what your business might really need to grow faster.
When you want to start executing these ideas don’t worry about creating the best version right away, no company has ever become market leader by doing just that. Build an MVP, listen and look at user feedback and improve your product based on that.

Matt Wolfe Twitter // mattwolfe.net
~ Founder at http://MultiplyAuthority.com -Become a brand, Build an audience, Provide Value, Profit
The best piece of advice that I can give for growing your business is to put a ton of focus into content creation and truly become the recognized expert in your niche.
Every business that we have helped build, we worked to write blog posts, create videos, get featured on other people’s platforms like their podcasts and their blogs, and truly focused on helping people before ever asking for a single dollar.
Much of this content creation can even be outsourced. We often hire writers to create well-researched content as a “rough draft.” They’ll then pass the content over to us so that we can add our own voice and additional commentary into it.
Creating this content helps us build a bond and a trust between us and our potential clients so that, when they are ready to purchase, we are the obvious and “top of mind” choice for them.
Another piece of advice is to not be afraid to invest.
With the proliferation of internet businesses and low startup costs, people are becoming less and less willing to spend money to create their business.
While there is something to be said for bootstrapping and staying lean, often the only way to truly scale a business is to get out of your financial comfort zone and invest in things like paid advertising, reputable web developers, and professional copywriting for your sales messages.
If you’re not willing to take some risks and get out of that financial comfort zone, you are probably not fit to be an entrepreneur

Melanie Benson Twitter // melaniebenson.com
~ #SmallBiz Optimizer. Boost profits, soar as a #leader, love your life. Luv Starbucks, good wine, exotic travel & spas
In order to have a business that makes a significant impact on the world, you have to stop being the bottleneck.
As a business grows, the role you play has to evolve from entrepreneur to leader. Your strategies have to shift from “just making money” to running a profitable business.
It’s not about doing more, exponential growth is a result of strategic focus and intentional action with leveraged efforts.
One of the biggest bottlenecks every small business owner faces is doing it all by yourself. Even if a business owner has hired help, if they are still entrenched in the day to day operations and decision making, they become a bottleneck to progress.
A critical step any entrepreneur can make to scale their business is to hire people to grow exponentially. Hiring for growth is different than hiring people to handle low-level tasks.
Often, you’ll still spend an enormous amount of time telling your team how to do the job, and micro-managing them to complete their tasks.
The key to hiring for growth is to delegate ownership of roles. Delegating without ownership is just another way to become a bottleneck.
Hire talented people who can free you up to do what no one else can do. Train them to own the outcomes so that you can spend more time on activities that fuel you.
Don’t try to achieve your next level of success with the same approach that got you here – that’s a sure-fire recipe for overwhelm and frustration.

Mike Kawula Twitter // socialquant.net
~ CEO @theSocialQuant Social Media Twitter Marketing Startup driving businesses Leads & Sales! Entrepreneur, Author & Inc. 500 Alum http://bit.ly/mkawula
I want to give you the best tip ever for not only surviving, but growing your business tremendously over the next 10 years.
You ready?
No Excuses. Just GSD (Get Stuff Done)!
As striving future successful entrepreneurs, the majority of us:
- Grind daily
- Sacrifice tremendously (we’ll work 80 hours a week making nothing so as not to work 40 hours a week to make money for someone else)
- Are doggedly, sometimes ruthlessly, determined
But sadly, 9 out of 10 business owners are taught a lesson (some say fail) in the first 10 years.
Why? What are the surviving 10% doing differently since we all grind, sacrifice and are determined?
Here’s what I’ve learned that those other 90% aren’t doing.
Those that don’t make it simply aren’t GSD (Getting Stuff Done), at least not the right stuff.
I owe so much thanks to Michael Gerber for his book, The E-Myth. Reading that book changed my life in 2001 when I became an entrepreneur.
This book’s lessons have helped me grow multiple million-dollar businesses over the last 15 years. I learned the importance of creating systems and making sure that I’m always working on my business instead of working in my business.
You see, many entrepreneurs are busy playing business, but they aren’t necessarily doing what drives business growth.
You say you want to grow/scale your business?
Ask yourself at the end of each week, “Did I move the dial, did I show ROI, and did I GSD?”
Focus on the following 4 things and you’ll scale (and scale fast, you will):
Week 1: Create 5 different traffic sources to your business
Week 2: Create 5 different ways to activate (turn to customers) that traffic once they arrive
Week 3: Create 5 ways to retain those customers once you’ve got them
Week 4: WOM Baby – Word of Mouth Marketing: Create 5 ways your organization can get your customers to refer you to others
That’s it. At the end of each month, measure these results and look at the areas you need to refine and then repeat.
This is all you should focus on. It really is that simple.
No Excuses. Just GSD!

Nick Loper Twitter // sidehustlenation.com
~ Chief Side-Hustler at Side Hustle Nation. Marketer, skier, author, business nerd, podcaster, Seattle sports fan, parrothead. Never stop learning. #FinCon16
The best way I’ve found to grow my businesses is to try a bunch of different ideas, and then double down on what’s working. At various stages of my entrepreneurial journey, that’s meant cold calling, Google AdWords, Pinterest, or podcasting.
Most recently, The Side Hustle Show podcast has been performing well so that’s where I’m focusing my energy — producing a high quality show, turning listeners into email subscribers, and finding unique and helpful guests.
It’s uniquely scalable because it takes the same amount of effort to produce the show whether 10 people listen or 10,000 people do. I’ve found that by honing in on what’s working or what has some initial traction, I’m able to amplify my efforts and get better results than by continuing to spread myself across several different channels.
I’m still creating written content for example, but I don’t feel the pressure to publish as often knowing it doesn’t have the same impact as the podcast.

Noah Fleming Twitter // noahfleming.com
~ Highly sought-after business strategy consultant, speaker, and the author of the Amazon #1 Bestsellers, Evergreen: Cultivating the Enduring Customer Loyalty that Keeps Your Business Thriving and The Customer Loyalty Loop: The Science Behind Creating Great Experiences and Lasting Impressions.
Don’t forget about your existing customers.
In the business world, customer retention is boring, and marketing & optimization (especially around acquiring new customers) is sexy.
It feels great, and you get practically immediate feedback on how good your marketing is and if it’s working. No question about it, the ability to stimulate immediate sales is sexy.
But I’m not convinced it is doing us any good in the long run—especially when organizations aren’t focused on keeping the customers they just spent a bundle of cash to get.
Immediate marketing results–like impressions, conversions, traffic, sales, e-mail open rates, and new customers–is all attractive stuff. The thrill of the chase.
The satisfaction of the successful seduction. I get it. But it’s got nothing on long-term customer retention, which is more analogous to a relationship.
Real growth in business is directly correlated to the relationship with your customers, and it will survive long past the initial glitz and glamor of that first encounter, and it’s ultimately far more fulfilling for both parties.
Nearly everyone and anyone can make the first sale. But to create long-term growth and perpetual profits, you need to be constantly asking how you can take the customer to the third sale, the fifth sale, the tenth sale, and beyond.

Pamela Slim Twitter // pamelaslim.com
~ Author, Speaker, Passionate Connector. Founder of K’é a Small Business Community Space in downtown Mesa. Latest book: Body of Work.
My best tip for growing or scaling your business is to define the ecosystems and watering holes where your ideal customers hang out.
Where, in person and online, do you find large groups of ideal customers?
What books do they read, which influencers do they admire, what associations are they part of, which conferences do they attend?
Place yourself in the middle of these ecosystems, and you are much more likely to get attention, referrals and connections.

Ryan Biddulph Twitter // bloggingfromparadise.com
~ Seen at @virgin @forbes @foxnews @entrepreneur and @huffingtonpost. Wrote 126 eBooks. Retire to a life of island hopping at Blogging From Paradise.
My best tip for growing your business is using the concept of leveraging intelligently.
I used to focus heavily on just onsite factors when building my blogging business.
All well and good but I wasn’t reaching out, connecting with influential bloggers and leveraging my presence through their audiences.
I dove into guest posting and effective blog commenting with vim and vigor and, voila!
My eBook, audio book, and blogging course income streams grew because I spent a fair portion of my energy helping a collection of large, targeted, growing audiences versus trying to create on my cyber real estate alone.
Think of all the places online where your ideal customers meet. Guest post, comment on respected blogs, share your thoughts on forums and help people on high traffic, authority websites to leverage the freaking stuffing out of your presence.
Build bonds with current customers through your blog and email list but meet new customers and scale your business by leveraging your online presence through OPW: Other People’s Websites.
Always be helpful. Always have fun. Always be on the look out for new, authority blogs and forums from within your niche.

Sacha Greif Twitter // sachagreif.com
~ Originally from Paris, but now living in Osaka. I co-wrote @DiscoverMeteor, and created @Telescpe and @SidebarIO. Addicted to #Hearthstone and #BJJ.
The best way to grow your business is to give it plenty of sunlight and water, but make sure you only water it at night.
You can also prune the lower leaves every two months to make sure your business can use all its nutrients to grow larger and stronger.
If you follow these simple steps, your business is sure to scale up in no time!

One of my best tips for growing and scaling your business… Create customer loyalty. And, one of the best ways to do that is to be so good at what you do that you create confidence.
There’s an old saying: People like doing business with people they know, like and trust. The knowing and liking is easy.
All you have to do is have some good marketing materials that reflect your “brand personality,” and some friendly and engaging employees.
Your customers will hopefully like what your brand promises and like the people they interact with. But, the trust part is harder. That takes time, and can only come when the customer can predict their experience.
Customers want a consistent and predictable experience. And, when you can provide that, you start to earn their trust, which turns into confidence, which can ultimately create loyalty.
So, let’s talk about loyalty for a moment. Some people think that it is about a lifetime. It can become that. But, if you tell your employees that we want to create lifetime customers, it can become a daunting goal. So, let’s make this easier to scale.
Consider this. Loyalty is not about a lifetime. It’s about the next time. Every time. Ask yourself what I call the loyalty question: “Is what I’m doing right now with this customer going to make him or her come back the next time they need whatever it is that I do or sell?”
Are you handling that moment – that interaction – so well that they you are earning their trust and confidence. That’s one of the secrets to growing your business. Be that good. Create trust, build confidence and create loyalty.
Loyal customers come back, they buy more and they tell their friends, colleagues and family members about the amazing experience they have when they do business with your company.

Susan Payton Twitter // eggmarketingpr.com
~ President, Egg Marketing. I help small businesses look better through words & social. Articles. Blogs. Ghostwriting. San Diego. Photography. Food. Beer.
Growing your business requires constantly assessing your goals and tweaking them to fit your current strategy.
Most of us, as Michael Gerber says, are so busy working in our businesses that we don’t take time to work on them. But pulling out those business goals and updating them every few months can help you move forward faster.
For example: maybe a year ago you wanted to establish yourself as a small business expert through public speaking, but this year your goals have moved in a different direction.
That means you need to scratch last year’s objective and create new ones that better align with where you are and what you currently want.
That way, you can make sure you’re moving in the same direction for growth.

What’s your E-Myth IQ?
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Ted Rubin Twitter // tedrubin.com/blog/
~ ‘Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass… it’s about learning to dance in the rain.’ 🙂 http://www.TedRubin.com/
Communication: We know that in order to build trust with another person there must be good, two-way communication. It’s central to our existence as human beings, yet we struggle with it every day.
Multiply that struggle by the number of people in your organization, and you can begin to see just how essential communication is in building trust with your employees, vendors, partners and customers…. and growing your business.
I’ve long been a proponent of what I call “Return on Relationship,” or ROR, hashtag #RonR, which is the value that’s accrued by a person or a brand due to nurturing a relationship. That’s no secret. We develop and grow human relationships every day of our lives.
Establishing communication is essential to this process because it helps build trust—a vital component of ROR. Seth Godin says that “In the connection economy, trust and relationships are the new currency.”
He’s absolutely right. However, even in this digital age many of us are still struggling with relationships. Smart phones, tablets, social channels, live-streaming—there are a zillion ways to connect with each other, and it overwhelms us.
So it’s no surprise that businesses are often find themselves behind the eight-ball when it comes to adapting new ways of communicating to each other and with their customers.
We’re used to doing things a certain way. Boundaries have been established and systems put in place. The bigger the business, the harder it is to adapt and change.
Communication via social channels must be mastered if we’re to stay competitive.

Tim Bourquin Twitter // onlinereputation.com
~ Co-founder, AfterOffers.com, Entrepreneur and Angels Baseball Fan
In this world, ideas are cheap. Execution is everything. So once you have your idea up and running, how do you scale and grow beyond what you can execute alone?
I’ve owned and managed a business where I had 25 full-time employees and I spent 90% of my time on human resources. I also spent countless hours training employees.
When I sold that company, I decided my next business would focus on systems. Systems give you the keys to really scale up and grow.
Systems allow a company with 100 employees to grow to 500. Systems also allow a “solopreneur” to grow from $1,000 in revenue to $100,000.
Systems are what allows my co-founder (my brother) and I to run our web platform company with just two full-time employees – us. Growing and scaling your business doesn’t necessarily mean hiring employees.
To me, scaling means growing profits. If you can do that without hiring full-time employees, even better.
Start by writing down processes (we use Evernote) for even the most mundane tasks you do every month. Then do everything you can to automate those processes with software.
You can hire terrific programmers on a project basis to automate those tasks and systematize as much of your business as possible.
I used to spend hours each week creating invoices and charging the credit cards of our customers. It now happens with just a few clicks.
That’s just one example, but the more things you can systematize, the more time you can spend on “big picture” tasks that will open new doors and new revenue streams for your company.
Figure out what you do that brings in the most revenue and automate, systematize and outsource everything else. That’s how you scale.

Tyler Wagner Twitter // authorsunite.com
~ Bestselling Author and Head Honcho at Authors Unite.
The #1 tip for growing and scaling a business is FUN. Make it fun and it will scale naturally. Think of what you most enjoy, add value to others with that joy, and then charge for it. An example to use for this, is my current business, Authors Unite.
We are scaling at a rapid rate right now because I opened new avenues for the business that I really enjoy doing.
We started out as a coaching/consulting business to help people write and market books and grow their business online. We’ve helped over 250 people effectively do this.
My joy in the business was starting to fade a little bit though and it was scaring me. Then, I came up with a new idea that I knew I would have FUN with.
The 100 Person Book. 100 People. 100 Chapters. 100 Business Lessons To Live By.
Each person pays to be in the book. All they have to do is write their chapter and we do all the rest. We guarantee bestseller status and business growth.
We have created an unbelievable community around this and we now have Authors Unite meet ups all over the U.S.
We also have a membership program and subscription based program. We have opened so many different avenues for the business than just coaching/consulting.
This has all been made possible by creating fun in my business. I love community and engaging with people. I have hired every other aspect of the business out.
All my time now is in my strength one of marketing, public speaking, and leading different Authors Unite communities and projects.
Start with FUN. Profit will follow.

Tyler Zey Twitter // www.easyagentpro.com/blog/
~ We Connect Agents With Leads Though Content Writing, Website Design, SEO Services, And Even Logo Design!
The best advice I can give for scaling your business is to make the projects smaller. If you want to grow sales, you can do that in hundreds of ways.
You can grow it with digital or old fashion marketing. To start that process, pick a proven tactic, make it work for you, and then systemize every part of that working process.
At that point, you have something that you can repeatably hire for and execute against.
The problem most people run into is they approach growing their business like a moonshot project.
They try to hire the best Google ads company to do it for them. Instead of creatively finding a solution themself, they push the heavy lifting off onto others. This almost always backfires and doesn’t work.
I think the biggest tip is to get granular and take action with yourself first.

Tyson Downs Twitter // titanwebagency.com
~ I run a web design & #SEO company specializing in helping #healthcare professionals get online and get found
My best tip for growing and scaling a business is to have a plan.
Sure you can survive for a while or perhaps even a long time without a plan, but until you get a plan in place of how you want your business to operate, then you won’t have the free time that you want and you want have the success that you expect.
Develop a plan and strategy that will allow you to systematize your frequent, complicated, mundane, unenjoyable, etc. tasks.
It isn’t hard. You can do it with a notepad at first, graduate to Microsoft Word or Google Docs.
But whatever it is, be consistent, and continually be adding more content, more processes, and you will ultimately make your business more profitable, and more successful.

Venchito Tampon Twitter // sharprocket.com.ph
~ CEO/Co-Founder of @sharprocketph, a word-class link building company and also a Filipino Motivational Speaker.
I’d rather be actionable sharing a tip on how to grow your online business instead of just a providing generic one. Here you go. If you are building your online brand from scratch, try to look for available communities online that can help drive consistent referral traffic to your website.
One good example of this is Quora. Quora is a community site visited by million online users to ask or answer questions related to specific topics they’re in. Here’s a screenshot of number of views I’ve received over the last month, simply by answering topically relevant questions in my industry (SEO and link building). It only takes 5 minutes of my time every day to answer Quora questions.
Participating in Quora threads is not only useful for brand exposure but in generating qualified leads for your online business. I do receive client inquiries from people who have seen my answer in Quora. You can start by finding relevant questions or community sub threads in Quora (do a search for “keyword” or “topic”) and you’ll see the top questions related to that search query.
List down all questions you are capable of answering, base it primarily on your expertise. Then start answering each question you have in your list, one by one, each day. The more you answer questions, the easier it’ll be for you to build a personal brand in Quora and become their top writers.

Warren Whitlock Twitter // warrenwhitlock.com
~ Keynote Speaker, IBM Futurist, Influence Expert, Radio Host, Author, Influencer and Friend
I know a business is ready to scale when they the stop saying “we need more sales” start talking about numbers that make sales happen. We call the an ROI formula.
ROI
Most small business use “return on investment” as a catch-all for anything that makes money. I prefer to use investor definition to calculate the NET PROFIT from money spent.
Analyze any potential investment by adding up ALL the costs, the cash, resources and labor. Even if going to do some labor yourself, estimate the cost if you were to pay someone. Not counting your own labor value will keep you small.because you can’t scale your own time.
Speaking for time, an investment must return enough to cover all costs in a specific amount of time. In finance, we’d call that the Interest Rate earned on investment.
Let’s say you invest $500 in marketing that brings in $5,000 in sales. Subtract any fulfillment costs for that sale (inventory, labor, etc), let’s say $1,500. That leaves $3500, minus the initial $500 for a Gross Profit of $3,000 to apply to paying the rent and other fixed expenses.
Spending $500 to net $3,000 with a repeatable process can make you rich, IF you can do that in a reasonable amount of time. If it takes a year, you’ll be broke before you the year is out.
If you could do it in a day, you can invest that $500 and have $15,000 by the end of a week.

Wendy Weiss Twitter // www.coldcallingresults.com
~ Author, speaker, sales trainer, and sales coach. She is a leading authority on lead generation, cold calling and new business development.
Prospect every day – no matter what.
Far too many business owners go through the boom and bust of being incredibly busy one day and not having anything coming in the next. Here’s the typical scenario:
- Business owner is frantically looking for new business.
- Business owner finds an opportunity and closes the sale—Yippee!
- Business owner drops everything and focuses solely on executing what needs to be done for that particular new customer. Business owner is incredibly busy.
- Business owner finishes up everything that needs to be done for the new customer, looks around and realizes there is nothing in the pipeline.
- Business owner panics and starts frantically looking for new business.
What is the solution to this dilemma? Stop the boom and bust. Always be looking for new business no matter what.
Then, make sure to document your new business development process. Make your process replicable so that eventually others can do it too.

Yaro Starak Twitter // www.entrepreneurs-journey.com
~ My mission is to help you create a blog and turn it into a solid revenue stream.
When I first read the E-Myth as a teenager my goal was very clear – I wanted to create a business that would grant freedom so I never needed a job.
I was very aware that running a business can be worse than being in a job, if you have to spend 12 hours a day to coordinate your staff, show up at an office, deal with the accounting, etc — all the things I wanted to avoid!
This is why I eagerly devoured the E-Myth when I first discovered it during the late 1990s. It proclaimed to show an entrepreneurial path that would actually lead to financial AND time freedom.
As a result of reading the E-Myth and my own experiments with websites, it became clear to me that in order to grow and scale my business, without my own workload growing with it, I had to choose ’smart’ business models.
The internet is particularly well suited to tap into smart business models because you can use technology and global outsourcing to scale.
For example, my first successful online business was an editing company. I hired contract editors from around the world, and used email and a virtual assistant to coordinate all jobs.
Later I started a coaching business selling digital products like ebooks and courses. Because the products are 100% digital, there is no increase in fulfillment costs as more sales come in.
However, the real ’secret’ I have tapped into to grow and scale my businesses is the power of content marketing. I can produce a content asset, like a blog post, or a free report, or a podcast episode or webinar, and it will go to work to promote my brand and business for me — forever!
Content marketing is free, and if you do it right, can become a long term stable source of new customers.
Almost all my customers over the past 15 years have come from content, and when you combine that with a business built around a smart model, you can truly become ‘free’ (and as I like to call it — live a Laptop Lifestyle).

Zac Johnson Twitter // zacjohnson.com
~ Entrepreneur, Internet Marketer, Blogger and Super Affiliate by Day, Super Hero at Night
When it comes to growing and scaling a business, it’s all about having automation in play and making sure your content is working for you at all times.
This is especially true when focusing on online marketing and using content to keep new audiences coming back to your site.
The best way to accomplish this is through several component and methods, which I’ve laid out for you below.
- Know your audience and figure out what they want
- Analyze the competition and create something better
- Use custom content and social media to get exposure
- Create infographics and shareable content to scale in size
- View reports on your search rankings and focus on improvement
Yes, it’s easier said than done, but it’s a model that does work. You can see this exact formula in place within my make money blogging guide, which has over 2,000 words of actionable and step-by-step content, while also including an original infographic along with it.
This helps with the outreach, link building, social sharing and search ranking process.
Analyze where you currently are within your industry and create a platform that targets your audience with valuable content, then putting in the necessary steps so it continues to work for your days, months and years after it’s original publication.
Taking action.
You too can now start adopting a scalable business model and make that a priority; your business can boost its profits without all the obstacles that plague traditional growth systems.
If you have any comment, question or suggestion for about this article or any upcoming posts, leave your comment in the section below.

Donna Merrill Twitter // donnamerrilltribe.com
~ Donna is a pro blogger who coaches newbie and advance bloggers alike. Her main focus is to help them break through obstacles they’ve struggled with, and achieve the results they dream of.
You are not really ready to grow your business until you first realize that it’s not your business at all… not really.
You may have started your own business so you could “be your own boss.”
That’s okay to get things started.
But as you mature in your understanding and sophistication, you become increasingly aware of the fact that “your business” actually belongs to your customers, your clients and your loyal followers.
In order to grow your business, you must aggressively seek more innovative methods for serving them better.
That means, in part, to improve your ability to listen to them, and to really hear what their problems and challenges are.
Growing your business means improving it.
There’s no such thing as maintaining your business.
Your customers needs today or not the same as your customers needs were yesterday.
Their desires change and aspirations change all the time.
You must listen to them carefully and recognize the direction in which they are moving.
Then you must move in that same direction.
Sometimes, you might even lead your customers in new directions.
More often though, since they know their pains and struggles intimately and best, you must follow their lead.
Staying in touch with the struggles and desires of your customers doesn’t necessitate that you develop something new, brave and bold.
The chances are that your customers and not looking for something new.
Just the opposite.
They’re looking for something familiar.
Familiar, yes… but simultaneously bigger, better, faster, shinier and primarily, more responsive than anything they’ve experienced before.
While your business may offer familiar and comfortable solutions, it stands alone.
It stands alone in it’s ability to connect viscerally with it’s prospects and customers.
It does that by offering more than products and services.
It offers a human experience.
People can buy products anywhere.
They get “sold to” by everyone.
Your business will stand apart from all the others to the extent that it can establish a human relationship with it’s customers, and offer them an experience that goes far beyond a mere transaction.
In order to scale your business, you must learn to deliver a bigger, better and more meaningful experience for your customers.
They can always get your product or service from your competitor, buy they can only enjoy the unique experience your offer them from you.
Make it a great one.

Tor Refsland www.timemanagementchef.com
“What’s your best tip for growing/scaling your business?
Let´s not beat around the bush.
You want to grow your business, right?
Well, then you need to build your business around your strengths, so you will have a competitive advantage.
Most so-called experts chant about building your business around your passion…
…and that´s cool and all that.
However, if you don´t build your business around your strengths, you are spending your time on a freakin´ hobby and you are on track to adding yourself to the statistics of failed businesses.
Here´s an example.
Let´s say a guy, and we´ll call him Peter, was working in a sales department in big company, and he really wanted to start his own business to quit his job.
Peter was kicking *ss with everything related to sales, and he really sucked at painting.
But Peter had this BIG passion for starting a business and living of his painting, even though he SUCKED at it.
You get my point. In order for Peter to have any chance at all to succeed with his business, he should build his business around his strengths.
And if you are able to build your business around your strengths, and you have passion as well…
…then you can become unstoppable.
One of my super powers is that I am able to get massive results on any activity that I decide to focus on.
So I used this skill when it came to building my business.
And how did I do it?
When I started out I did this to grow my presence on social media.
I got 2000 targeted Twitter followers in 38 days without spending a dime on advertising.
And then I did the same when it came to generating traffic, comments and social shares to my website.
I published a blog post and got 20,231 page views in 6 days with a new blog. The post has now 106 comments and 1800+ social shares.
But all off the above doesn´t mean sh*t when it comes to you building your business.
Here´s the thing…
I will now tell you something that most people WON´T tell you…
Are you ready?
ALL of the above are pure vanity metrics. Yep, I said it.
It´s like having a nice Ferrari in your garage that doesn´t work. It looks pretty awesome, but it´s totally useless.
Then I applied the same tactic to increase my conversion rate.
I found a way to get an average of 18,2 % conversion rate on my blog posts. Yeah, that means that for every 100 unique visitors that hit your blog post, you will get 18 new opt-ins. And that is pretty good. At least that´s what Bryan Harris from Videofruit told me on our last Skype call.
The reason why you really want to succeed with your business is of course to build a tribe of loyal fans, help a lot of people transform their lives and make the world a better place, right?
But that is kind of mandatory in order to succeed with your business…
…or at least it should be.
At the end of the day you need to generate revenue to pay your bills.
You can´t really pay your milk and bread at the local general store with a snapshot of your social media following. At least that doesn´t work in Norway.
Okay, so how do you actually start earning money FAST?
I discovered that…
What you really want to do is to position yourself as an authority so you can attract premium clients.
How do you do that?
Through getting PR to you and your brand.
Now you´re probably thinking “Eh, Tor? PR is cool and all that. But will that really help me to become an authority and attract premium clients?”
Good question, indeed!
Judge for yourself…
I got featured on 158 blogs in my first 14 months of blogging. I won several awards, including winner of “Most Epic Blog Post” category on Jon Morrow´s blog.
And want to hear something really crazy? I recently got published in a book with some of the best marketers and bloggers in the world: Seth Godin, Brian Clark, Chris Brogan and Grant Cardone.
Yup, I still can´t believe the last part.
And how has this helped my business?
Now I am able to attract premium clients who really want to take their business to the next level. One of my coaching clients was earning $1000 per month when he started working with me. After 66 days he had generated $100 000 in sales.
Since I am giving my clients awesome results, I have been able to 10x my hourly rates…
…and 10x my income in a few months. I am now on track to 20x my income compared to last year.
But let´s jump a few steps back.
How was I REALLY able to position myself as an authority and massively grow my business?
The secret is that I was able to build genuine relationships with influencers online.
And how did I do that?
Well, through focusing on mastering one skill…
…how to blog outreach like a boss. “
Tor Refsland
Creator of How To Blog Outreach Like A Boss
So there here you have it: 50+ experts sharing their best tips on how to scale your business. Remember to share this post if you picked up any useful tips.
Did we miss anything and/or do you have any tips of your own? Join the conversation and add your comment below…

Preview the highly anticipated release of Michael E. Gerber’s final book in the E-Myth series and discover the process growing from a company of one, to a company of 1,000.
Download your preview chapters and join the notification list. Book release date: 12.7.16
What’s the secret to scaling your business?
The little golden insight I’m about to bestow here might seem counter intuitive but don’t hire more staff; instead document your systems and processes to use your existing team more efficiently. Once you have the right systems in place, your business can finally grow beyond you. You might even intuitively know that business systems are the answer to many of your troubles but you might be wondering…
“How am I going to find the time to document everything I’m doing and create systems when I barely have the time to drink my coffee before it goes cold?”
This is the point where most entrepreneurs get stuck. But I have a secret… one that changed the whole game for me. You don’t have to create the systems yourself – get your team to do it for you! And how in the world do you do that?
Easy, all you need is a system for systems! Yes “a system for systems” or “standard operating procedure (SOP) for standard operating procedures” if you prefer. It’s a funny name I know but getting this right will turn you into a serious business.
This system, coupled with a few smart team members, will set off a chain reaction in your business like knocking down the first domino in a series.
Thanks for including my thoughts!
Hi Michael,
Thanks for sharing my thoughts among these pros!
Just wanted to add 1 thing to my actionable tip: make sure your energy’s in the right place. Build your business predominantly from the joy of building your business. Follow your passion. Love you gig. This detaches you from outcomes some which accelerates your business growth.
Ryan
Hi Michael,
Thanks for this book.
I’ve loved your books and their helpful materials and contents.
Kavosh Hossein Tabar
Iran
What an incredible treasury of knowledge and information from real-time entrepreneurs.
This is like reading a book, and in some ways, better… you get such a cross-section of ideas.
I’m so excited to hear the ideas you’ve expressed, David, about developing systems to drive systems.
Like most entrepreneurs, I struggle maintaining my own SOP, but it sounds like we’re moving into a new universe of potential with this idea.
I’ll be reading Michael’s book very carefully.
Thanks for putting together this very enlightening article.
-Donna
Hello Michael,
Thanks for including me in this epic post.
Hi Michael,
Big Thanks for your great book.
I read the book and enjoyed every piece of information which you shared with us.
Regards,
Faramarz
Australia Sydney