Top Benefits Of Focusing On Internal Growth For Your Small Business
This sentiment shows the power of having a successful business and the advantages you can reap from your hard work. Focusing on your internal company growth allows your business to increase its revenue without relying on investors to help you along the way. This may be a harder and longer road to travel, but your company will be stronger as a result – something you can be proud of for your efforts.
All images courtesy of Young Entrepreneur Council members.Members of Young Entrepreneur Council share their top tips for focusing on internal growth.
Below, 10 entrepreneurs from YEC weigh in on how much time they spend on internal company growth versus pitching to investors.
1. Grow Through Client Sales
Internal company growth through client sales is more important than fundraising. Increasing sales and maintaining happy clients is less dilutive than fundraising from investors. Having said that, if there is a requirement for significant investment in technology, innovation, and R&D, then 60% of my time is spent on fundraising. Once the round is closed, 80% of time is spent on growth initiatives. - Eddie Lou, Shiftgig
2. Build Relationships, Don't Pitch
You should spend a vast majority of your time (more than 90%) on company growth objectives. If you are talking to investors, you don't need to be constantly pitching. In fact, you should only "pitch" if you are running a formal fundraising process. Otherwise, you should stay connected with potential investors, however, rather than asking for money, you should be asking for advice. - Jeff Epstein, Ambassador
3. Go For 80/20 Allocation
Investors want someone heavily involved in the company that's being grown; if you are spending to much time seeking out funds, then you're not actually doing the work that needs to get done to grow the company. I suggest 80% growth, 20% on investors. It should actually be an even smaller percentage towards investors, and that time should be designated in the calendar year. - Nicole Munoz, Start Ranking Now
4. Get Money In Through The Door
A company's CEO has three jobs: Set the vision, hire the right team, make sure there is money in the bank. Ideally, you can look internally and focus on growth to fund your business. But if that's not possible, then all of your time should be spent pitching investors to find outside capital. Once you have a cash cushion, then switch back to execution mode. - Aaron Schwartz, Passport
5. Focus 100% Of Time On Internal Growth
As a solo founder of a bootstrapped company, I spend all my time focused on internal growth. By dedicating 100% of my time to leading growth efforts, I've been able to focus on metrics, such as revenue and profits, that will drive the business forward. I've been able to stay in execution mode and not get distracted by potential promises of cash that might not materialize. - Diana Goodwin, AquaMobile
6. Create Profit With A Solid Strategy And Effective Team
While relaunching our brand, we started with retooling the business strategy: operating framework, strategic customer benefits, and brand/employee platform. If all those pieces are in place, and with the right maintenance on the culture (weekly huddles), the CEO can spend their time building the brand awareness through thought leadership, relationship development, and increasing cash flow. - Jarred King, Swagger Media
7. Focus On Growth Until Investors Come To You
If you spend all of your time pitching to investors, you won't have much to pitch to them. You need a strong concept and a reliable path to growth before you can attract the best investors, and that's going to take a lot of determined internal growth. Once your company is stable and your officers are experienced enough to manage growth, you should start focusing on investors. - Adam Steele, The Magistrate
8. It Depends On Strategy
When we were starting up, we split pitching and growth down the middle as priorities. As we were funded and grew, we tended to go more inwards in our focus. However, when we again wanted to undertake a large expansion, we tended to spend more time on pitching and used our internal growth as the selling point. - Cynthia Johnson, Bell + Ivy
9. Always Be Fundraising
As the founder of your company, you should always be fundraising, even if you don't need the money. The money is hard to come by seemingly when you need it the most, but not so much when you've been talking to investors for quite a time and prepping them for the opportunity when they can actually invest. You just have to be transparent with them about where you are at in the investment cycle. - Andy Karuza, FenSens
10. Focus On Growth And Strategic Partnerships
We spend our time mostly on internal company growth and partnering up with strategic companies. Our strategic partnerships consist of integrations with other applications and guest blogging on each other's blogs. This helps us grow without needing to seek out venture capital funding. - Jared Atchison, WPForms
">Growing your business organically has its benefits. Not only will you see the results first hand, but you may end up being happier as a result. According to a report by Advantage, 77% of small business owners are happy to be running their own business despite long hours, working weekends, and no vacations to speak of.
This sentiment shows the power of having a successful business and the advantages you can reap from your hard work. Focusing on your internal company growth allows your business to increase its revenue without relying on investors to help you along the way. This may be a harder and longer road to travel, but your company will be stronger as a result – something you can be proud of for your efforts.
All images courtesy of Young Entrepreneur Council members.Members of Young Entrepreneur Council share their top tips for focusing on internal growth.
Below, 10 entrepreneurs from YEC weigh in on how much time they spend on internal company growth versus pitching to investors.
1. Grow Through Client Sales
Internal company growth through client sales is more important than fundraising. Increasing sales and maintaining happy clients is less dilutive than fundraising from investors. Having said that, if there is a requirement for significant investment in technology, innovation, and R&D, then 60% of my time is spent on fundraising. Once the round is closed, 80% of time is spent on growth initiatives. - Eddie Lou, Shiftgig
2. Build Relationships, Don't Pitch
You should spend a vast majority of your time (more than 90%) on company growth objectives. If you are talking to investors, you don't need to be constantly pitching. In fact, you should only "pitch" if you are running a formal fundraising process. Otherwise, you should stay connected with potential investors, however, rather than asking for money, you should be asking for advice. - Jeff Epstein, Ambassador
3. Go For 80/20 Allocation
Investors want someone heavily involved in the company that's being grown; if you are spending to much time seeking out funds, then you're not actually doing the work that needs to get done to grow the company. I suggest 80% growth, 20% on investors. It should actually be an even smaller percentage towards investors, and that time should be designated in the calendar year. - Nicole Munoz, Start Ranking Now
4. Get Money In Through The Door
A company's CEO has three jobs: Set the vision, hire the right team, make sure there is money in the bank. Ideally, you can look internally and focus on growth to fund your business. But if that's not possible, then all of your time should be spent pitching investors to find outside capital. Once you have a cash cushion, then switch back to execution mode. - Aaron Schwartz, Passport
5. Focus 100% Of Time On Internal Growth
As a solo founder of a bootstrapped company, I spend all my time focused on internal growth. By dedicating 100% of my time to leading growth efforts, I've been able to focus on metrics, such as revenue and profits, that will drive the business forward. I've been able to stay in execution mode and not get distracted by potential promises of cash that might not materialize. - Diana Goodwin, AquaMobile
6. Create Profit With A Solid Strategy And Effective Team
While relaunching our brand, we started with retooling the business strategy: operating framework, strategic customer benefits, and brand/employee platform. If all those pieces are in place, and with the right maintenance on the culture (weekly huddles), the CEO can spend their time building the brand awareness through thought leadership, relationship development, and increasing cash flow. - Jarred King, Swagger Media
7. Focus On Growth Until Investors Come To You
If you spend all of your time pitching to investors, you won't have much to pitch to them. You need a strong concept and a reliable path to growth before you can attract the best investors, and that's going to take a lot of determined internal growth. Once your company is stable and your officers are experienced enough to manage growth, you should start focusing on investors. - Adam Steele, The Magistrate
8. It Depends On Strategy
When we were starting up, we split pitching and growth down the middle as priorities. As we were funded and grew, we tended to go more inwards in our focus. However, when we again wanted to undertake a large expansion, we tended to spend more time on pitching and used our internal growth as the selling point. - Cynthia Johnson, Bell + Ivy
9. Always Be Fundraising
As the founder of your company, you should always be fundraising, even if you don't need the money. The money is hard to come by seemingly when you need it the most, but not so much when you've been talking to investors for quite a time and prepping them for the opportunity when they can actually invest. You just have to be transparent with them about where you are at in the investment cycle. - Andy Karuza, FenSens
10. Focus On Growth And Strategic Partnerships
We spend our time mostly on internal company growth and partnering up with strategic companies. Our strategic partnerships consist of integrations with other applications and guest blogging on each other's blogs. This helps us grow without needing to seek out venture capital funding. - Jared Atchison, WPForms
https://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2017/11/22/top-benefits-of-focusing-on-internal-growth-for-your-small-business/
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