10 Questions You Can Answer to Help You Set The Right Foundation for Your Business and Drive Growth

Spend time upfront to invest in systems and processes to make long-term growth sustainable. -Jeff Platt

Setting the right foundation is key to business growth. Without it, you may find yourself surprised at how quickly things are changing when your business starts growing.

If you want to grow your business, you need to set the foundation right. Growth doesn't happen overnight—it takes time and patience. But when it picks up momentum, it behaves like wildfire - ‘like everything is happening all at once.’

For instance, what got you from 1 customer to 10, won't get you to 1000. The same applies to your revenue - the strategy and skills that took you from $0 to $1k, won't get you to $100k. The same can be said about the talents you're working with. And ultimately, what role you will assume at every stage or phase.

You need to keep watch. Well, if you've got an eye on the prize, there are a few things you can do to get yourself on track for success.

Setting the right foundation for business growth is a huge deal. When done right, it means you've set up your business for exponential success.

What to do...”The 10 Questions”

But what's the best way to do that? How do you make sure that even when your business starts growing at a fast pace, it doesn't all go awry?

Here are some questions you can try to answer when deciding what type of foundation is best for your business:

1. What is the purpose of your business?

2. What problem do you want to solve?

3. What problem are you solving?

4. What are the challenges that you'll face? How can you solve them?

5. Who is involved in this process? What kind of person are they? How will they help you achieve success?

6. What resources do you have access to at this point in time (money, talent, etc.)

7. Who will be responsible for certain responsibilities? (*based on your strategy)

8. What will they do?

9. How much time do they have in which to complete their tasks?

10. How many people will be working on these tasks?

These questions are not set in stone. They are very likely going to change as things changes. Pay attention to the regulators, social, technology and political trends.

Once you've answered these questions and made sure that each task has a designated resource - person or team assigned to it, then it's time to get moving!

The next step is planning out your strategy for growth. This involves figuring out what kind of business structure will work best for your company and which skills and talents are needed for success at each level of management.

Now, concerning talent - don't go and get a senior executive when you're just starting out. By that I mean, knowing what type of talent - years of experience, is needed is crucial in building the right team. Don't assume that a graphics designer will be a good UX/UI or product designer.

“Bringing great people onto your team is about demonstrating that size really doesn’t matter – people do.” -Jess Campbell

Finally, you'll want to identify any potential obstacles along the way—things like government regulations—and prepare plans for dealing with them if necessary.

You can't build a great building on a weak foundation. You must have a solid foundation if you're going to have a strong superstructure.

Gordon B. Hinckley

What I am reading…

• 5 Diligence Criteria for Web3 Angel Investing in a syndicate

• Buy Now, Pay Later in Africa: a strategy to drive inclusion

• Expert Interview with Adedeji Olowe: Fintech in Africa & Open Banking

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Samson

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