Entrepreneurs know already that building a business is anything but easy. So the more ways that leverage can be incorporated into the growth strategy, the easier the journey will be and the greater the chance of achieving success.
Focusing on what matters may seem simple enough, but this can make a big difference in the outcome of your business. Often times the entrepreneur gets bogged down with the minutia of the daily business activities such that the big picture can get obscured. Having a business plan that helps you stay focused on what matters can go a long way to keeping you on track.
Leveraging sales channels is another strategy that can help you to exponentially grow your sales efforts. Rather than simply printing more sales material and trying to get in front of more people that way, partnering with distribution channels that already have sales and marketing infrastructures built is a great way to exponentially increase your growth.
Leveraging partners in all key processes can yield the biggest return if properly executed. Going beyond leveraging the sales channel to leveraging existing resources for all facets of your business can allow you to streamline your focus on your core competency while allowing third-party experts to deliver valuable services for you.
Leveraging credit to grow your business is another key tool that can help entrepreneurs to grow. The goal of credit should not be to create static debt, but to manage it responsibly enough to build a squeaky-clean credit profile. The effective use of credit can enable the entrepreneur to use future time to defer the payment on things purchased today. But what happens when things don’t turn out the way you anticipate and you find yourself over-leveraged and in trouble?
Sometimes the overuse of credit, or the tightening of the money markets, can cause a situation where debt becomes over-leveraged and you are in default. One strategy for this can be to negotiate a settlement for a discount payoff with your creditor. Often time, a creditor know that it is better to take a deal with a distressed debtor rather than to sit on the loss any longer. Student Loans are a unique type of debt because if they are government-backed loans, in most cases the threat of bankruptcy cannot be used as leverage to negotiate a settlement of a restructure. But there are many government programs for student loans that the debtor can try to qualify for which can ease the debt burden.
Taxes are another thing that can be leveraged with some foresight and planning. Businesses can create multiple-entity structures and leverage fiscal and annual year structures to reduce the tax burden. There are also options for defaulted tax payers with the IRS that can be used in some scenarios to either halt collection efforts or to create a tax resolution that puts the defaulted tax payer back on the road to recovery.
Leveraging your Accounting through the use of cash flow analysis and other CFO-type solutions can allow an entrepreneur to better understand his numbers and to make better money decisions.
Building a business itself is a great way to achieve leverage when you are able to successfully leverage the efforts of a system and of other people to grow a business. Well-structured compensation plans and encouraging the use of team collaboration are great ways to create a business framework that can create leverage.
As Warren Buffet says, “When you combine ignorance and leverage, you get some pretty interesting results.” So don’t be that person who falls into this category. Ensure that you have a plan and a team to help you successfully carry out your plans.