This is Post No. 17 in  How to Start a Business  Series.

So you came up with an idea, validated it and organized other important things.

You are using sales and marketing to put pillars under your castle in the sky.

You made the start that you wanted, now is the time to move ahead and grow.

Just starting a business is not enough – you need to provide fuel for its growth. Here is how you can do it.

1. Reinvest What You Earn.

Once you start making profits, reinvest a part of what you make. You can use profits to hire an employee, get a new email template, invest in a customer outreach campaign, adding bells and whistles to your website or getting better tools for your business.

2. Forge Partnerships.

I shared this in detail in marketing ideas post. This helps a great deal in growing your business quickly. If you are web design firm then you can forge partnerships with advertising agencies. Similarly for businesses in other fields.

3. Take Investment.

If your business has already gained customers and you are growing at a good rate you can take investment. This is helpful for those who want to grow a business really fast. Here is a good post about what you need if you want to raise $1 million.

If you are looking to run a lifestyle business then stick to bootstrapping.

4. Launch New Products.

This is a quick way to grow and make extra bucks. Survey your existing customers what they want to learn or buy next. Create this product and offer it to them. Instant growth for your business.

5. Increase the Price of Your Products and Services.

This should not be done too often. Once in a year is fine.

Do it, after you have been in the business for a while and have acquired a good number of customers. Now time to analyze and fire your high maintenance and low paying customers. You can also connect them with agencies that are just starting up and let them go. This way you will have more energy to focus on what needs to be done and same or more revenue with less customers. You can use a part of the time you save in serving new high value customers. Means good growth for your business and peace of mind for you.

Also leave some time everyday to celebrate – so that you do not become a slave of your business.

Action for the day: Identify one item for growth and take action on this within next 7 days.