Category: Growth Guy Articles

By: Verne Harnish “Growth Guy” Nov 1, 2010 1:00:00 PM ET Of the four “P’s” of marketing, price is the only one that provides direct revenue, the other three (product, place, and promotion) are expenses. “Our customers have already consciously decided they are going to spend a little more when they buy from us,” notes Andy Buyting, President of New Brunswick, Canada-based Green Village Home and Garden. “So I try not to disappoint them!” Buyting raised prices 20 % on his most popular item and sold 24 % more units this year than last year. Raise prices! One often overlooked strategy …

By: Verne Harnish “Growth Guy” Nov 1, 2010 1:00:00 PM ET If revenues aren’t soaring, there is something not quite right with one of these components, rough economy or not. Businesses often under invest on the accounting side of their business, seeing it as pure overhead meant to be kept to a minimum. And given a marginal dollar, most business owners will opt to either spend it on acquiring more resources or making more sales. In fact, I’ve seen the best investment a company can make is bolstering the numbers side of the business. Hiring just one additional accounting clerk or …

By: Verne Harnish “Growth Guy” Nov 1, 2010 1:00:00 PM ET If revenues aren’t soaring, there is something not quite right with one of these components, rough economy or not. Are your company’s revenues growing as fast as you would like? If yes, skip this column. If no, you need to look at your strategy – or more specifi cally, the business model aspect of your strategy. This is what Paul Silvis, founder of Restek, did when he became frustrated with a $7 million division that had stalled. Today, he has a clear path to $100 million. As companies approach the …

By: Verne Harnish “Growth Guy” Nov 1, 2010 1:00:00 PM ET Growth consumes cash – the first law of entrepreneurial gravity… Get rid of your bank lines – Bill Ritchie, CEO of Think Fun, and his team, focused on cash and reduced what had become a permanent $1.5 million bank line down to zero. Reduce your cash cycle days – PPR Travel changed the color of their invoice to blue and reduced their cash cycle days by 15. Get customers to help fund your growth – Wild Birds Unlimited accomplished this through an innovative Free Birdseed Storage program. Growth consumes cash – the first …

By: Verne Harnish “Growth Guy” Nov 1, 2010 1:00:00 PM ET All companies can take a lesson or two from Johnson’s discoveries to increase the number of important ideas they generate, the lifeblood of growth firms. If you want to get the most ideas out of your business reading, prioritize every book by four essential authors: Jim Collins, Malcolm Gladwell, Pat Lencioni — and Steven Berlin Johnson, who might not be as familiar to you. One of my best-read mentors, Reade Fahs, president and CEO of fast-growing optical chain National Vision, first turned me on to Johnson’s work. He hammered me …

By: Verne Harnish “Growth Guy” Oct 15, 2010 1:00:00 PM ET If you want to grow faster, pulse faster. “Implementing a daily sales huddle has helped Quickparts grow at a torrid pace,” explains Mark Mackie, co-founder and Vice President Sales for this Atlanta-based source for custom-manufactured plastic and metal parts (they helped develop the 2002 Winter Olympic Torch). And this growth has garnered them plenty of honors including Finalist Atlanta Small Business Person of the Year, Finalist Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year for the Atlanta region, and number 86 on the Entrepreneur Magazine Hot 100 list of growing firms. More on …

By: Verne Harnish “Growth Guy” Oct 15, 2010 1:00:00 PM ET We must embrace the importance of our contribution to the welfare of everyone and recognize that it’s in our own self interest to drive up productivity and wages. Increasing sales by 30% this year in a market where US competitors are going out of business due to overseas competition, Advanced Circuits (www.4pcb.com), the $36 million Denver based manufacturer of custom printed circuit boards, is showing all of us how to compete as mid-size firms. Ron Huston, recently named one of the Top 10 Bosses in the U.S. by Fortune Small …

By: Verne Harnish “Growth Guy” Oct 15, 2010 1:00:00 PM ET … steel prices have gone through the roof; and oil prices have doubled! These are all things China needs. WARNING – the following is not actual investment advice! In most cases by the time us mere mortals learn of investment trends (think stocks and real estate) it’s too late. However, driving business decisions based on demographic trends is always a smart idea. The following are several sure bets if you can figure out how you and/or your business can capitalize on these trends. Whatever China needs! Arthur Lipper, my long-time …

By: Verne Harnish “Growth Guy” Oct 15, 2010 1:00:00 PM ET Are you kicking off the year with an energizing theme for the next three to twelve months – something to rally the troops and get them focused? Virtual Technology Corporation exceeded their sales goal by $1.4 million; VMS flawlessly executed on the largest quarter of business in their history; Dial One Printing added five points to their gross margin; Capital Recovery Group increased sales on a new service offering by 2000%; and ICC/Decision Services saved 160 hrs per week of work among fourteen employees allowing them to take on additional business …

By: Verne Harnish “Growth Guy” Oct 15, 2010 1:00:00 PM ET Strategies of the Fastest Growing Firms: Power of the One-Phrase Strategy By Verne Harnish “Growth Guy”. Every year, since it launched in 1984, pundits have been predicting the demise of RIM, the famous makers of the Blackberry – most recently given the success of the iPhone. Yet for all the attention Apple and the iPhone receive, the Blackberry Curve is the best selling smart phone in the U.S. in 2009 – and RIM, the famous maker of the Blackberry line of mobile devices, has 56% market share, up 15% over last …