Could your business be enjoying the fruits of High Growth?

The benefits of producing a sustainable High Growth curve in your turnover and profits are more accessible these days than you might think.

I have been working with several new clients recently as a coach on the Government’s GrowthAccelerator service. This is a programme which is funded by the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills and is available to all SME businesses from any sector based anywhere in England. Provided you turnover is less than £40m and you employ 1-249 people, you could be eligible if you meet the growth criteria.

Although you certainly will need high energy levels and high levels of commitment to achieve High Growth status (officially defined as ambition, opportunity and capacity for growth at 20%+ pa) I was surprised to learn just how grounded and “normal” some of these client businesses can be. Most of these companies (and I fully support this view) shun grandiose schemes or intellectual strategy and use technology on a highly selective basis only where the benefits are crystal clear and unambiguous. By following a simple plan and being flexible enough to change it when the market produces the slightest twitch and stick with it when the pressure mounts with every subsequent twist and turn – rewards can be reaped.

Some of these rewards would include benefits such as these where UK plc is also undoubtedly a beneficiary:

•     High Growth firms show on average a 300% increase in employment over a 3 years 
•    A contented workforce is empowered to act independently and follow a shared vision
•     Creating a sense of exhilaration that comes from making regular rapid decisions

If you want to know more about my views on developing a High Growth business – check out my latest article on page 26 in the Chester Standard.

Alternatively, if you are interested in hearing direct from me please drop me an email to info@barnhillmarketing.co.uk

Ideas are everywhere!

To my way of thinking, “ideas are everywhere” is a brilliant little catchphrase. Like all good ideas, it’s extremely simple, easy to remember and yet very powerful in the potential it contains. At first glance it might seem obvious that ideas are everywhere – at least until you need some… I heard the phrase recently at a Winning Pitch High Growth Foundation master-class from keynote speaker Alexis Giles, New Business Development Principal at Google Inc. California. It was one of her ten top tips which you can see here in full at Winning Pitch MD John Leach’s blog: http://johnleachwp.wordpress.com/page/2/ I’m very grateful to Alexis for bringing this key little phrase into sharp focus for me and whenever I need new ideas now I always think of this expression.  By doing this I ensure that I consult far and wide, ask for as many opinions as I can find and make a conscious effort to include even the “silliest” ideas before arriving at the stage of narrowing down my options to enable me to take a key business decision.

It seems to me that heeding the phrase “ideas are everywhere” can make your decision-making process inclusive, far-reaching and even, dare I say it, more fun as it throws up all sorts of wacky ideas for your consideration! By consulting people you would not normally consider “ideas potential” for your business you are thereby naturally making the whole process more random. You are increasing your chances of coming up with something which is left field, innovative and bold enough to make an impression on the market – all things which a good many of us either find difficult to do, can’t do or pay someone else exorbitant sums of money to do for us!

So, why does the simple phrase “ideas are everywhere” work so well both as a memory-jogger and as a kind of mini-mantra? Well, there’s a lot of precedent if you think about it, the most famous probably being “veni, vidi, vinci.” When it comes to oratory, Cicero apparently knew a thing or two and he reckoned doing things in threes was definitely the way to create impact. I would agree with him based on my findings over the years in all things business related. That goes for whether it’s a phrase like “yes you can” (whispered to your self before an important meeting to summon confidence and alter the mind-set appropriately to induce the correct brain programming to take over) or whether it’s a concept based around three elements as for example in design, a sales pitch or a pleasingly balanced approach to displaying your business capability over the internet. Here’s a link to the website of a High Growth client that I worked with last summer: http://sea-chem.co.uk/ Look how strikingly they use graphics and text in groups of three – check this out and I think you’ll agree it’s very appealing visually and makes a very compelling case for the internet visitor to enjoy and absorb.

By the way, I’m sure you will all have noticed how I’m practicing what I preach in this blog post – I tried to make it interesting, entertaining and informative in three paragraphs – let’s hope I succeeded!