Growing a business to grow 10x is a pretty big goal to set. In the book Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies, a goal like that is called a “Big Hairy Audacious Goal” – a vision so large and compelling that it forces you to think and to act differently.

Can you see why simply doubling your business doesn’t accomplish that? You can create a 10%, 25%, or even a 100% growth in one year, and you can probably make it happen simply by maintaining the status quo and doing whatever you are doing right now. You will only have to tweak a few things: working longer hours, using time management tools, and by making sure that you fill your calendar to accomplish more each day.

The wrong way to go about doing this

But if you choose the path of simply working harder to get the growth you want, you might only end up bringing your bad habits with you like a piece of battered old luggage. By not changing your vision, methods, tools, skills, or products, you cannot creating lasting or sustainable change.

For example, if you have 10 product lines and you try to increase the revenue from all of them, what’s going to happen? You’re going to feel even more stressed, you will have even less time, and everyone around you will be even more on edge.

The problem with smaller growth goals is that they suck you into a hole of never-ending “to-dos”. And I would imagine that simply increasing the revenue from your product lines isn’t your burning passion and isn’t at the core of what most matters to you.

And that’s really the key piece here – choosing a growth goal that will change the way you do things.

If you’re busy now, imagine how much busier you would be if you tried to grow your business 25%, 50%, or 100% without fundamentally changing anything! You would go crazy! That’s why working harder is not the answer. Instead, you need a new vision – specifically, you need a 10x vision.

A much better way of working

Even if you don’t get to the 10x goal at the end of the day, by simply having the vision you are forced to change everything about your business. But instead of being scary, this change is a really cool and liberating part of this process. You experience a unique paradigm shift in terms of how you structure your work and how you generate revenue.

Clearly, the first step is changing the way you think. Remember, it’s not about doing more; it’s about becoming more. You need to go back to the drawing board and redesign your professional self to become the leader who has the capability to run a 10x business.

Don’t act like a new business owner

This process is completely different from what you did when you first started your company. When you first started your business, you needed to say “yes,” to everything. If somebody asked you for a product or service and you didn’t offer it, you likely still said “yes” and then you figured out a way to make it happen.

And that’s okay: some great companies have emerged as a result of the owner’s saying “yes”. For example, I have a friend in Phoenix who delivers fresh food to your door. He met a celebrity in LA who wanted to know if he offered catering service, and because my friend needed money he said “yes”. Later he figured out the pesky little details like where the food would come from, and today he has an eight-figure business.

In the beginning it’s okay to say “yes” all of the time, but that’s not the way to grow your business 10x. In fact, it’s not even a sustainable business model, because soon you will burn out and won’t be efficient with your time.

The secret

So the secret to dramatic and lasting growth is saying “no” to almost everything so you can focus on the few things that will make the largest difference in your business.

All of this starts with your learning to be a leader and developing a Big Hairy Audacious Goal. Remember that leadership is a state of being and not just another skill to be mastered. If you do it right, it’s something that you become.

And once you are the leader your company needs, look out world!

Learning to say “no” can be overwhelming at first. Click here to schedule a call with us, and together we can brainstorm and help you get going down the right path.