What goals do you have for your company?

Want to grow your business and increase your profitability?

Of course you do! But I’ll let you in on a little secret: Company growth is not a goal — it’s a means to an end.

When we envision the future of our companies, we often jump ahead to the idea that our business should be bigger and make more money… but we miss the details of what it takes to get us there.

Right now, there are five things more important to the success of your business than growth and profitability. Without them, you won’t grow your company or your profits.

In practice, growth comes from five key traits — and once they’re implemented into your business, growth and profit will naturally follow. Rather than jump ahead to the abstract idea of growth, let’s look the traits we need to focus on first.

1. Scalability

Scalability is the first thing that’s more important with growth. Companies lose profit when they try to grow but don’t know how to scale. Without an effective way to scale, growth actually works against your profitability.

If you want to make your business scalable, you have to add the right resources along the way. Companies of different sizes need to operate differently. Very often, I work with companies who’ve been around 20-30 years (sometimes through multiple generations) that haven’t changed their scalable processes.

If you want to grow, scalability is the first thing to pay attention to.

2. Adaptability

This is a tough concept to gauge — and sometimes even tougher to implement. Do you think you’re adaptable because you’re very responsive, always taking care of problems right away?  

That doesn’t mean you’re adaptable. Adaptability prevents problems before they start.

Look for ways to respond to potential problems — not just the problems that have already surfaced. You have to adapt your resources and people to the conditions of the marketplace, the demands of the customer, changes in products (even changes in weather!), should it change your ability to deliver your service well.

The measure of adaptability is not how well you respond to problems. Real adaptability is measured in how well you prevent problems from ever happening.

3. Communication

Communication is key to success. Your company can’t afford to have a communication problem.

We communicate internally to keep operations running and make sure we’re on the same page for the services we deliver. We communicate externally to our customers, prospects, and the general marketplace.

There’s so much that we have to do that requires communication — and we can’t expect to grow if we’re not communicating effectively.

In this century, communication is ubiquitous. We can’t ignore it. It’s not about just surviving communication — it’s about finding ways to grow through communication. That means making adjustments to the different communication platforms available and finding ways to use communication to your company’s advantage.

4. Bravery

You need to be brave in business. You can’t grow without bravery — and if you do, you’re going to make some very weak choices.

If we’re going to be scalable, adaptable, and communicate well, we have to make strong choices.

Bravery is not the absence of fear — it’s the willingness to face your fears in spite of everything you know. To be successful business people, we have to be brave about business decisions.

The more we know about what we’re facing, the braver we can be about facing those challenges.

5. Franchise-ability

Not ready to be the next McDonald’s? Don’t worry — I’m not asking you to be the ultimate AV franchise. But, you still need to develop a franchise mindset even if you never intend to duplicate your business.

You must understand your sales and delivery process so well that you could duplicate it in the blink of an eye. Maybe you’ll eventually open up another office. Maybe you will branch out. Maybe not. But if you can’t explain your franchise to a new customer, a new employee, or to a partner, you will never grow your business.

Every business owner wants growth and profitability — but don’t make them your immediate goals. Instead, focus on scalability, adaptability, communication, bravery, and franchise-abilty.

If you have those five things, the growth and profit will take care of themselves.