Think Beyond Launching: Essential Steps For Sustainable Business Growth

Long-lasting growth is what every entrepreneur wants to achieve. But achieving growth that’s profitable and sustainable isn't a smooth ride. According to McKinsey’s Inside the Strategy Room podcast, only 25% of companies grow sustainably through their lifetime. Those who achieve it get rewarded, generating more annual total share revenue than their peers. To grow a business sustainably, you need to be strategic in everything from creating a business financing roadmap to resource allocation and marketing. Having a growth strategy ensures your venture doesn’t grow too fast, which sounds desirable until you start seeking additional funds and resources (tech, human labor, and equipment) to support it. You also prevent growth that’s too slow or zero growth, which results in stagnation and bankruptcy. In this post, we’ll explore the essentials of growing businesses sustainably. This includes business planning, forming legal foundations, and focusing on brand equity.

Identify And Validate A Business Idea 

What type of business do you want to launch? Is it practical and worth sticking to through the doubts and the fear of failure and growing? Before you start a company, find an idea that has the potential to scale and keep you inspired and engaged in the long-term. Next, validate. A validated business concept has a potential to be part of the 14% of promising ideas that cross the development phase to become a commercial success. The steps to validating a business idea are straightforward. Begin with thorough market research (evaluate industry insights and data) and know your target audience. Also, review your value proposition to ensure what your business is offering is unique. Note, your target audience wants a solid reason to purchase a product or service and remain loyal. Don’t forget to test your offering using the minimum value product (MVP) tactic. Since an MVP is a product produced affordably and quickly, you won’t spend much trying to understand the potential of the product and customer preferences. 

Craft A Feasible Business Plan 

You need a roadmap (plan) to launch a business that will thrive for a lifetime. When developing your business roadmap, begin with your why. This will help you understand your motivations for launching your company and achieving your goals. Then outline your action plan or initiatives that represent your brand or showcase what you do. Write your mission statement that aligns with sustainable growth. Something like “our mission is to create lasting impact by building a business founded in integrity, innovation, and sustainability,” for example. Include your offerings (services and products), executive summary, marketing campaign strategy, growth and stability roadmap, and finance in your plan. Having a detailed plan for a business helps you focus, attract investors, and forecast future challenges and how to address them. 

Setup A Legal Entity 

During the latest Small Business Index survey, 51% of small enterprises said meeting regulatory compliance essentials is affecting growth negatively. Complying with tax regulations is a major issue for startups to navigate, for example. Best way to navigate regulatory compliance with ease and boost growth is through the formation of legal structure. You could register your business under sole proprietorship, which gives you 100% control over business planning and development. However, you’re fully liable for risks which could hurt your personal finances. Alternatively, you can register your venture as a partnership or corporation. Under partnership, you will have shared legal and financial responsibilities with one or more partners. But when one party terminates their partnership, you could encounter stagnation or closure. 

As a corporation, you have the advantage of protecting personal assets from your business if your business gets into legal trouble or debt. You also get tax breaks and exemplary financing options. But corporations are costly and have lots of restrictions. Your best option is starting an LLC (limited liability company). LLCs enjoy the legal protection offered in corporations and tax rewards if sole entrepreneurship. Setting up an LLC is also easy. You can do it yourself, but for a streamlined process that ensures your private information, like address, is safe, it’s wise to hire a Registered Agent. Services by Registered Agents are cheap and often discounted to ensure LLC formation is affordable. Using a coupon discount for Northwest Registered Agent, for instance, allows you to get as much as 60% off the standard $100 dollar fee they charge. For discounted fees, your Registered Agent will review and file your firm’s legal documents, open a digital mailbox for all your documents, get your tax ID from the IRS, and provide an LLC operating document.

Build Brand Equity

When preparing to launch a business, it’s crucial to think about what would make consumers willing to pay for products and services. Also, consider what would encourage investors to invest in your company. Building brand equity for your business gives you the advantage of achieving these goals and supports steady growth. Since brand equity revolves around consumers’ individual and collective brand knowledge and awards, part of building one involves marketing and educating the target audience. Make sure to increase your firm’s market place through product innovation and diversification, while reducing variable costs. At this stage, consumers are willing to pay premium prices for your offering, thus increasing profits. Maintaining a high flow of purchases and sales revenue translates to higher returns with minimal risk. The long-term outcome is increased shareholder value that attracts high-value investors. 

Business growth, especially for startups, isn’t a sprint. Consider it a well-paced marathon race that’s focused on long-term gains and stability. For sustainable growth to succeed, it needs careful planning, legal structure, strategic allocation of resources, and a commitment to provide value to consumers and potential investors.