When business owners think of business growth, they often think first of new customers. New customers are great, and we all want them, but there are often more effective—and less expensive ways—to grow your business. Learn the five ways to grow your business to help achieve business success.

Here are five ways to grow your business: keep the customers you have, sell more to the customers you have, sell more often to the customers you have, get new customers, and get rid of the problem, or low-value, customers.

EXPERT TIP | Gary Furr, Organizational Development Consultant:

The best way to grow your business is to keep the customers you have. The cost of new customer acquisition cost can be high; strengthening your relationships with your current customers is much less costly. When you have a strong relationship with your current customers, you can sell to them more often, including additional products and services without a lot of added cost.

Do not neglect the customers you have. They’re yours already! It’s usually a simple equation: If you want to sell more, communicate more with the customers you have. If you want to sell less, communicate less.

To read more about the five ways to grow your business, see Chapter 13 of my book.

With over 40 years of C-level business experience and an MBA in organizational development, I am uniquely qualified to help you achieve success in your business. Give me a call to set up a free consultation: 503-312-3145.

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Many business owners hate to pay the tax man, and so they employ a strategy of tax avoidance. Learn about the effects of such a strategy, and whether it makes sense for your business.

When you are thinking about avoiding taxes, you are not thinking about creating wealth. It’s a mindset that can be damaging to your business. As a business owner, you should be more focused on maximizing after-tax revenue to build wealth rather than focusing on tax avoidance.

EXPERT TIP | Gary Furr, Organizational Development Consultant:

Focusing on tax avoidance is a path that will come back to bite you the business owner when you either need to borrow money or sell your business. Tax avoidance is a short-term strategy with a long-term negative effect on your business and your wealth.

Tax avoidance nearly always results in difficulty borrowing money from the bank or other lending source. The problem is that bankers do not lend from the P&L or income statement; they lend from the balance sheet. When you minimize taxes, you are also minimizing your borrowing power.

It’s a strategy that also complicates selling your business. Tax avoidance means your business will not be worth as much when you go to sell because you haven’t maximized after-tax revenue.

To read more about the negative effects of tax avoidance and the benefits of wealth creation, see Chapter 12 of my book.

With over 40 years of C-level business experience and an MBA in organizational development, I am uniquely qualified to help you achieve success in your business. Give me a call to set up a free consultation: 503-312-3145.

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One of the major mistakes I see business owners make is neglecting their relationship with their banker. Your banker can play an important role in your business success, and time spent developing and maintaining that relationship is an excellent investment.

EXPERT TIP | Gary Furr, Organizational Development Consultant:

Your banker is a critical part of your business and that’s why you want to work on developing a relationship with your banker before there is a need. Your banker is interested in having a long-term relationship with you as a business owner, not much different than you are looking for with your customers.

Banking is about more than just rates. Yes, you may save a quarter or half basis point at a big bank, but the bankers there come and go. You want a banker who is there for the long-term and understands your community and your business.

Business owners sometimes have an adversarial mindset toward their relationship with their banker. That’s a mistake. Bankers are interested in your success. They want you to be successful because successful businesses reduce the risk to the bank. All bankers want the same thing, regardless of their size. They want to know that you have a solid business strategy, good management, and a clear direction as to where the business is going.

For more reasons to prioritize your relationship with your banker and ideas to do just that, read Chapter 11 of my book.

With over 40 years of C-level business experience and an MBA in organizational development, I am uniquely qualified to help you achieve success in your business. Give me a call to set up a free consultation: 503-312-3145.

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Business success will be hard to come by without keeping track of your numbers. Your P&L and balance sheet are important, but cash flow projection is the way to look ahead and forecast your cash needs.

EXPERT TIP | Gary Furr, Organizational Development Consultant:

Many companies (small, medium, and even large companies) have gone out of business due to the lack of adequate cash flow. Revenue minus expense is profit, but it is not necessarily cash. Cash is the lifeblood of every business. Without cash, you do not have a business.

Too often, business owners look at net income or profit and think they are making money. Your profit is simply the amount that your revenue exceeds your expenses; it is not cash but the theory of cash since your P&L does not take into account debt service.

An important note about cash flow is that accounts receivable is not cash. Many businesses have gone bankrupt with plenty of accounts receivables on their books, but no cash to operate on. As you know, without cash, you cannot pay your bills. If you want to better understand your metrics and grow your business, you will find guidance in Chapter 10 of my book.

With over 40 years of C-level business experience and an MBA in organizational development, I am uniquely qualified to help you achieve success in your business. Give me a call to set up a free consultation: 503-312-3145.

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Do professionals ever play a game without keeping score? Right now baseball fans are keeping track of strikes, balls, outs, and runs, waiting to see who will win the World Series. What do your numbers say? Do you keep close tabs on them?

It used to surprise me how many business owners didn’t keep track of their own scoreboards. It doesn’t surprise me anymore, simply because it’s so common. But it shouldn’t be!

EXPERT TIP | Gary Furr, Organizational Development Consultant:

The numbers drive everything in your business and as a business owner you need to fully understand the numbers and what they mean. The only way to know if you are winning the game of business is to understand your financial numbers.

Ignoring the numbers is like playing a guessing game with your future (and your employees’ futures). Understanding how the P&L, balance sheet, and cash flow projection work and keeping up with what those numbers say is the way to continue to steer your business toward greater success. If you want to grow your business by better understanding the language of numbers, you can find help in Chapter 9 of my book.

With over 40 years of C-level business experience and an MBA in organizational development, I am uniquely qualified to help you achieve success in your business. Give me a call to set up a free consultation: 503-312-3145.

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The idea of discipline may sound dull, but the results it delivers are anything but. Everyone from football players to elite gymnasts to world-class musicians will tell you that the discipline of consistent effort and practice has made all the difference in their achievements. Why would business be different?

Yet many business owners I meet don’t recognize the impact that discipline could have on their business outcomes. This is one of the biggest impediments that I see to achieving dreams and goals.

EXPERT TIP | Gary Furr, Organizational Development Consultant:

Discipline is required to stay focused and produce the outcomes we are looking for in business. As a business owner, if you are going to dabble in your business, you are probably not going to achieve the level of success you desire. Dabblers rarely succeed at what they are doing. Full commitment and discipline are required.

Discipline is about goals and progress. It is about taking consistent action toward your goals. I recommend blocking off time on your calendar—daily—to work on three of your top priorities. Results are achieved with focus one step at a time. More practical tips for using discipline to make gains in your business can be found in Chapter 8 of my book.

With over 40 years of C-level business experience and an MBA in organizational development, I am uniquely qualified to help you achieve success in your business. Give me a call to set up a free consultation: 503-312-3145.

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Although I have never looked at your business’s numbers, I would be willing to bet that every day your business is burning through cash, and you don’t know where it is going. This may sound like a bold prediction, but it isn’t—because I know that distraction is costing businesses a lot these days.

In fact, a recent study found that the time wasted as a result of constant distractions is costing the U.S. economy $997 billion every year, and 89 percent of employees do not complete their top three tasks each day due to distractions.

It does not have to be this way, and it cannot be this way if you want to get your business where you want it to go. The antidote is to take charge or your time—and yourself. Most people fail to grasp the need to develop an unapologetic focus on their plan of action.

EXPERT TIP | Gary Furr, Organizational Development Consultant:

We underestimate the power of intense focus. Water at 60,000 psi will cut through two inches of steel. That same amount of water unfocused will just splash around and create rust. We must learn to eliminate the distractions and get intensely focused on creating success in our businesses.

One step forward in creating intense focus is determining what your high-value activities are. What is the highest and best use of your time, energy, and money? These resources are limited. How can you use them best? Brainstorm and write down your thoughts. Practical tips for sorting through your high-value and low-value activities and making the most of your time, energy, and money are available in Chapter 7 of my book.

With over 40 years of C-level business experience and an MBA in organizational development, I am uniquely qualified to help you achieve success in your business. Give me a call to set up a free consultation: 503-312-3145.

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As a CEO or business owner, you may be so busy running day-to-day operations that you forget to evaluate where you are and where you are going. This is what makes a map (or a plan!), so helpful. It is worth taking time to check your coordinates and make sure you are on track to get where you want to go.

It is easy to get lost when you are navigating your way. The daily concerns can get in the way of your vision and goals. This is a reminder not to get lost.

EXPERT TIP | Gary Furr, Organizational Development Consultant:

Once you have a vision for the future of your business, you need to develop a map or a plan on how to bridge the gap between where you are and where you want to be. The map will help guide you and keep you on track. It’s no different than going hiking in the woods: the best time to have a map is before you even start the journey.

Set aside some time to evaluate where your business is right now. Then brainstorm and write down some 90-day goals to help move your business from its present state to your vision of the future one year from now. This is the most straightforward method for forging a path forward.

With over 40 years of C-level business experience and an MBA in organizational development, I am uniquely qualified to help you achieve success in your business. Give me a call to set up a free consultation: 503-312-3145.

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