Secrets of growth are goal to success

Businesses are driven by growth, yet many entrepreneurs have trouble pinning down how to grow their companies, so Courtney Spaeth created a consulting firm to help companies grow to their maximum potential.

“All growth has a goal. It’s a lot like having a child. When it’s born, most parents want it to have an education,” said Spaeth, CEO and founder of growth[period]. When parents hope for a child’s education, she added, they aim for an Ivy League university, not a trade school.

“With a business, when it’s born, you need to have a goal. Is it to get to a certain revenue level and be bought? Is it to get to a certain revenue level and buy others? Is it to pass it down in the generations? Is it to be a lifestyle business?”

It’s hard to tell whether a business is capable of growth. “Not all businesses are meant to be successful businesses. Sometimes you succeed accidentally in the beginning, and then you can’t sustain it,” Spaeth said. It’s the sustainability that marks a business’s ability to grow.

Spaeth said that while a company’s first year can be survived with help from friends and family, the second and third years are where this sustainability is really tested. “Are you retaining your clients? Do you have the bandwidth to handle the operations as well as growth? Are you hiring smart people?” she asked.

“Growth is a lot about the talent in your organization, or external to your organization, and how process-oriented they can be. We don’t like luck in growth, which a lot of people start out with… because it’s not repeatable.”

Spaeth’s firm, growth[period], works with all stages of companies.

“We work with early-stage entrepreneurs to some extent, but we really pick carefully. In general, if you want organic business development, us helping you do deals with companies, or the government, for example, we prefer that you be at least $30 million in revenue,” Spaeth told What’s Working in Washington.

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