Millions of new businesses are started every year, and I think it’s safe to say that most of those business owners have aspirations to grow their businesses into something big. No matter how lofty your goal, every concept has to start out small. Business leaders looking to grow their company need to be thoughtful about how they invest time, energy, and funding to ensure that their growth is sustainable over time. By taking methodical steps in the early days of your business and developing those actions into habits, you can find the right cadence to grow your business.
When I started GYMGUYZ with little more than a laptop, a van, and an idea, I knew I wanted to make it big – but growing my business took time, patience, and strategy. The idea of a mobile at-home personal training business was something I had been formulating for a while, but it was only when I started bringing others into my business that I recognized the importance of keeping my business on an upward trajectory while remaining focused on the long-term vision.
It’s one thing to find success as a business owner, and it’s something entirely different to be responsible for paychecks as you’re growing your business. When I’m with GYMGUYZ franchisees, I’m constantly reminded of the pressure of small business ownership; but having grown GYMGUYZ into what it is today, I know listening to the right advice and trusting your entrepreneurial instincts can carry you far.
Below are a few tips for business owners looking to grow their operation and build momentum:
Cater to the Demand
If you want to scale your small business, you need to educate yourself about the demand for the product or services that your business provides. I encourage business owners to articulate a clear mission statement that specifies what your business is doing and who it is serving.
Understanding the demand for your business and how the market for it will trend over time is essential when you are considering scaling. Insights about supply and demand inform your business model, marketing initiatives, and key growth areas. Be realistic and assess if there is enough of a demand to support the growth of your business, and adjust your business model accordingly. Having confidence in your business’ products or services is important for any business owner, but building in flexibility will give you space to develop new ideas and respond to future trends.
Set Out to Solve a Problem
Filling a demand is an essential process for a business, but solving a problem will set your business apart. If the problem you identify is something that affects many people, you are setting yourself up for scaling early on in the process.
With GYMGUYZ, I noticed that people bought gym memberships, and then failed to regularly show up. Rather than recycling a business model I had seen in so many other gyms, I wanted to build something that could fill the gaps. Let people see how your business fits into their life rather than convincing them how they should adjust life to accommodate your services. If you can position your business as the solution to a problem and genuinely help people along the way, your concept should sell itself if you can express your mission clearly.
Establish Good Systems for Growth
Without solid standard operating procedures, your business cannot grow. Similar to toning your body, it would be unwise to try to lift heavy weights without building the right techniques, strengthening your muscles, and slowing increasing your loads over a period of time.
Creating specialized systems will help your team maximize their efficiency and deliver the best service to your clients. Knowing that you have standard operating procedures can give you peace of mind about internal processes. It can also make it easier to pinpoint where your team can improve. It is important to take time to develop your standard operating procedures and get everyone on the same page. If you take the time early on to lock those down, growing your business with them will be much easier.
Always Assess How Things Are Going
In the same way you have to pay attention to your body’s overall health, you need to be aware of how your business is performing. You need to think about every element of your business, which goes beyond reviewing a few spreadsheets.
Wholistically assessing the market for your services, the culture of your business, and how your business operates on the day-to-day, is essential. Having that depth of understanding will inform how you make decisions, how you adjust your operations, and how you drive your business forward. Treat your business as you would a family member—be kind, be real, and provide support in every way you can. If you want to grow your business, you will want to grow something healthy and strong so it can keep on that trajectory moving into the future.
Growth Means . . . Don’t Wait
My best advice for business owners that want to grow their business: don’t wait! If you have a goal in mind and have aspiration to connect with more clients, go out and do it.
People always wait for the perfect opportunity to grow their business, but I promise—the circumstances will never be perfect. You have to go out and make it happen. You can grow your business at any time. If you want to grow it with sustainable, long-term results, you need to be attentive to what’s going on but, most importantly, willing to jump in and make your own luck.
These five tips have driven the philosophy we use at GYMGUYZ to drive growth. Our momentum has helped us grow internationally over the last few years, and we were recently named one of Entrepreneur’s Startups hottest business opportunities – and, we plan to keep moving.
There are steps that any business owner can take to kickstart their businesses growth, but for long-term growth, you need to do little things every day. How you build your business is rooted in your core values and essential structures—both of which you really need to hone in on in the early days of running a business. While growing a small business can be daunting, tiny actions done over a long period of time will set you up to scale your business and keep the momentum going.
Josh York is the Founder & CEO of GYMGUYZ, the largest in-home and on-site personal training company in the world. York founded GYMGUYZ in 2008 from his parents’ dining room table. Now, the in-home and on-site fitness training provider services over 1,000 cities worldwide, including the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada. GYMGUYZ is the fastest-growing fitness concept in the U.S. with plans to award another 75 territories by the end of 2023.
