So this is a book about the power of the small-scale business - whether, it turns out, that's a true one-person business, one run by a person with a particular skill who outsources a lot of the actual work to contractors, or a person within a company who has the ability to take their own initiative and grow their role as they will.

Full review available on my blog https://wp.me/p21YR4-3Gm

5 Things to Demystify Business Growth. Choose to Increase Revenue Growth Instead

The bigger, the better. The myth

This year in the United States, mass closure of retail stores is happening, from Payless ShoeSource Inc. to Michael Kors.

And retail stores in Spain like Mango or El Ganso aren’t doing any better.

For example, Desigual, a Spanish fashion brand focused on accelerating its expansion in 2014.

By 2017, Desigual sales had declined for three consecutive years. Moreover, Desigual Sales rate decreased by 11,5% that year.

On the other hand, entrepreneurs like Paul Jarvis, author of Company of One, and many others like Buffer have taken the plunge out of the business growth bandwagon.

So you are wondering:

To grow or not to grow your business.

First of all:

Congratulations!

What a great problem to have.

I’ve found in Paul Jarvis’ book Company of One a great resource
so You can increase revenue growth with a well-known strategy that cost 5 times less than business growth.

Let’s keep going:

5 Plainspoken Reasons You Can Increase Revenue Growth Without Mindless Business Growth. Stop Thinking You Aren’t Doing It Right
1. You have figured out how to generate steady reliable revenue, your runway buffer is in place, and you have the investments you need in order to diversify your income in the long run.

It seems growing your business is the natural next step. However, you question the blind growth mindset. You don’t want the complexity, stress and responsibility that comes with it.

2. Growth as a primary strategy failed to 74% of startups according to a study done by the Startup Genome Project, which analyzed 3,200 high-growth tech startups.

3. You work in a profitable niche that big companies overlook to chase for bigger markets and higher revenues.

4. Getting more customers to increase revenue isn’t the best strategy for success. User growth costs more than user retention.

According to the Econsultancy/Responsys Cross-Channel Marketing Report, “adding a new customer costs five times as much as keeping an existing one.”

5. The average life span of an S&P 500 business is only fifteen years according to Richard Foster, a lecturer at the Yale School of Management.

You will go from building a relationship with your customers to please investors as a priority.

Recommended:

The Best Simple Mind Hack to Get Things Done
Wrapping Up
Paul Jarvis proposes only one rule to grow or not your business, “stay attentive to those opportunities that require growth and question them before taking them.”

There are different approaches to career and business far from usual. Some people focus on the retiree early plan, others on the entrepreneur lifestyle, for example.

Where do you want to be ten years from now? The choices you make today will create that future. Choose wisely.

Editorially speaking, this book is not a good fit for BookBrowse, but I was interested in reading it for my own reference. In that context, I found it very helpful because the Company of One approach is how we've always run BookBrowse - and thus reading it provided validation and reinforcement to our way of doing things. I will certainly recommend it personally to other businesses, and those thinking of starting a business.

Very helpful book that challenges a lot of beliefs about business, especially about succeeding as an entrepreneur. Jarvis's take feels both sane and well-considered in a world obsessed with more. An excellent gift for any self-employed person who seems tired and overwhelmed. Also a great book to suggest for anyone fearful of making the leap into becoming a company of one. Includes stories about people who work more independently and more effectively both as their own employers, as well as working inside a company with specific parameters. This is a welcome shift in the business conversation.

An interview with Paul Jarvis will appear on my site in January 2019 when the book is released.