"Growth" as priority #1 can be bad. Very bad.

Bigger . . . bigger . . . bigger . . . and then?

As tempting as it may be to make “growth” priority numero uno, “growth above all else” often leads to problems.

As Paul Jarvis explains in his book “Company of One”, “A study done by the Startup Genome Project, which analyzed more than 3,200 high-growth tech startups, found that 74 percent of those businesses failed, not because of competition or bad business plans, but because they scaled up too quickly. Growth, as a primary focus, is not only a bad business strategy, but an entirely harmful one. In failing - as defined in the study - these high-growth startups had massive layoffs, closed shop completely, or sold off their business for pennies on the dollar. Putting growth over profit as a strategy, however trendy as business advice, was their downfall.”

So – while it's tempting to assume:
• “scaling = success” - but if, let’s say, the process of adding more clients decreases profitability, that type of growth is moving you in the wrong direction
• “the only reason to be in business is to dominate”, but there is no shortage of numbers 2 through 20 in every biz category that are quite profitable and successful
• “bigger companies are more stable” - but that’s clearly not true, as we regularly see in the news

Instead - before ever setting your sights on “bigger”, prioritize “better”. Better at customer acquisition. Better at customer retention. Better at product/service quality and design. Better at internal communications. Better at supplier relations. Better at people management. Better at listening. And so on.

When “better” is your top priority:
• you identify and address the systematic problems that might be holding together with little more than chewing gum and duct tape.
• you likely become more profitable (and – quite possibly - bigger)
• the growth you eventually experience will be sustainable (since you identified and fixed those systematic problems that would buckle under the weight of that growth)

Get better – and make bigger inevitable (rather than a potential threat).