Most small businesses leave millions on the table by underestimating the potential of their existing resources. On today’s episode of Strategic Edge, Jay Abraham, legendary business leader, executive coach, and founder and CEO of the Abraham Group, explains how small business owners can design scalable business models that unlock exponential, not incremental, growth.
Most small business owners aren’t maximizing their resources to their fullest potential, leaving millions of dollars of untapped potential on the table. The same amount of time, effort and investments can produce compounding results when owners learn how to leverage assets the right way. Understanding how to deliver compounding performance is the difference between exponential growth and static, incremental gains.
"A lot of [businesses] are 'successfully stuck.' They're outperforming their industry or wildest dreams of income and they're content and complacent... They don't realize what they've done is a miniscule of what the opportunity can make possible."
Many entrepreneurs view growth through a narrow formula: Revenue (top line) minus expenses equals profit (bottom line). But exponential thinkers add one more essential variable: yield, the ongoing benefits that assets or prospects generate long after the initial effort. It’s this shift in thinking that separates those who plateau from those who scale.
Abraham encourages business owners to adopt a “safety first” mindset by using low- to no-investment strategies that deliver a 10x bottom-line multiplier before taking bigger, riskier swings.
Three fundamental growth levers
There are thousands of tactics for growing a company, but only three fundamental drivers of exponential business growth.
- Increase the number of clients
Securing the first customer is always the hardest step, but once that hurdle is crossed, each additional client compounds results. - Increase the transaction value
Boosting the value of each sale can easily triple profits. This could mean offering an add-on item, a larger unit, an extended warranty or an additional service. - Increase the frequency or utility value of repurchases
One of the simplest ways to scale quickly is to encourage customers to return more often. Identifying what people buy repeatedly, and why, opens the door to faster, consistent growth.
Advanced techniques
Abraham encourages entrepreneurs to master the fundamentals before moving to his three advanced levers of exponential expansion. The advanced techniques should be completed annually.
- Enter a new market or niche
This helps the business diversify, secure new buyers and strengthen brand reach. - Add one new product
Each new product should have a clear purpose: attract new prospects, increase profit margins or expand lifetime value. Lower-priced products make onboarding easier, mid-tier products accelerate profit and high-value products significantly expand lifetime value. - Acquire a new business or segment
Purchase a complementary business or part of one each year. The goal is to strategically acquire new assets, such as new buyers, additional products or services, that can grant meaningful market access.
Becoming an exponential thinker
Most small business owners focus on just getting their product or service to market and earning a livable profit, often becoming complacent. They don’t see their business as a long-term wealth-building asset that can scale far beyond its current performance. Abraham urges small business owners to shift this mindset because thinking beyond daily operations unlocks the exponential growth that many owners never realize is hiding within plain sight.
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