10 Lessons from 10 Years of Growing Better Businesses
Point16 turned 10 late last year. That's a decade of helping businesses do this business growth thing. When it comes to business growth one thing becomes clearer every year: growth isn’t magic — it’s knowing where to focus, how to use your resources effectively, and what to let go of and doing it with awesome people.
We've worked with over 180 businesses and are responsible for a number of our own. We navigated, not just one, but 5 companies through COVID and the following recessions (collecting our own scar healed lessons along the way).
As a result, we have collected some valuable mantras that lead us daily.
Here are some lessons that have stuck with us the most and form the basis of our advice we give to companies wanting to grow more easily:
01. Business is Simple
Every business has its complexity, and running / owning a business can be hard for sure, but business itself is actually pretty simple. Make sure you have a good product or a service, that customers know about that product or service, and then buy off you at a price that exceeds your cost. We call this PCF (product, customer, finance).
02. Every Business Has a Bias
Most businesses over focus / have a bias to one of these PCF areas which, by definition, means they are likely weaker or underserving in another area. Growth happens faster and easier when you give attention to your company’s current most underserved area across Product, Customer, or Finance. This sounds obvious but when your company is well-developed in that bias it is hard to see the easier path. This is the biggest, easiest unlock for business brilliance in my opinion.
03. Growth Cliffs Are Real
Every growing company eventually hits growth quicksand — not necessarily due to a lack of demand, but because the company's ability to deliver that growth hasn’t evolved. What got your company here won't necessarily get it there. If growth is stalling it might be an internal focus rather than an external one.
04. Fit Right Tasks to Resources
High-volume, repeatable tasks belong to systems. High-variability, unique tasks belong to people. Misalign these, and you create inefficiencies that stop a business from scaling. Tasks that used to be low in volume grow in volume with scaling businesses and if you don't evolve how they are resourced you will create legacy and inefficiency. Change how they are resourced as you grow and you’ll break through growth cliffs easier and faster.
05. Write the Goal Down & Share It
Growing on purpose starts with a target. People serve a clear, written goal better than a leader’s changing mood, moving goal post or the latest shiny distraction dressed up as an opportunity.
06. Goal. Role. Remind. (GRR)
This is Leadership 101 in our mind and the cheat-sheet to having engaged staff. Everyone should know the goal, their role in achieving it, and be reminded often. Clarity + feedback = alignment.
07. Work On, Not Just In the Business
Invest in developing your business. Solely working in the business because your busy is robbing the future health of your business. Protect time to step back, think bigger, and invest in the future. As a rule of thumb have 20% of your workforce work on the business. This won't be the same allocation for everyone but a rule of thumb.
08. Measure What Matters
Focus on the few metrics that will create the business you want in the future and track them. It is not to create a pass/fail culture, it creates a focus culture. What gets measured, improves. What’s ignored, festers.
09. Cash is Fuel — Not a Trophy
Capital is abundant and everywhere when you know how to access it. It is easier to get access to an umbrella when it is sunny rather than when it is raining. Don’t treat business cash like a personal piggy bank and don't leverage high risk bets.
10. Most importantly, businesses are grown around people.
Yes, all businesses start trading with a product or with a customer. But all small/medium businesses especially are grown and developed around a company of people.
It is these people who make the decisions, do the mahi and achieve the goals. The business becomes a reflection of their attitude, work ethic and combination of skillsets and experiences - what many would call culture. If you are growing a business between $2 - 100m, know that this happens quicker and easier when you start with the people. You build a strategy around them first, it will be these amazing humans that will determine the success of your growth.
All our businesses and client strategies are built around amazing individuals and teams.
Ok... a bonus! My biggest piece of advice in life? Figure out what you want, then figure out how to ask for it.
The door to opportunity says “Push”. You’d be surprised how many doors swing open when you just have the guts to ask for what you actually want.
If you had to add your own lesson to this list — what would it be? Drop it below.
