The end of December is a great time to look back, go through all good and bad things that happened, and set up the goals for the new year. Along with business analysis try to allocate some time for self-reflection and learning.
That’s what I do, and for the second year in a row I’m happy to share my thoughts with you. I hope you’ll find them useful.
329% revenue growth in 2016
We’ve managed to improve our last year results (yay!). But to be honest – it was quite a challenge.
The thing is – you can’t have the same business growth rate from year to year if you stick to the same market and the same tactics. To keep up with the results, turning the wheel faster isn’t enough. You need to try out new directions and new ways how to turn it.
In other (less figurative) words, to ensure a stable business growth you constantly need to explore new marketing and sales channels. The problem is that it’s hard (if not impossible) to predict which ones will work for you in the end. So it’s all about trying, testing, investing into new things and never sticking to something that works as the only cure-all.
Marketing and sales drive the business growth, but it doesn’t mean these are the only things you should focus on. If the company’s capacity isn’t enough to make the ever growing number of customers happy, then what’s the point of all the marketing/sales efforts? So my sincere advice – make sure that all necessary business processes work and are ready for scaling before you push the “boost the sales” button.
From 30 to 90 employees in one year
And yes, we’re still learning how to fit the camera frame altogether XD But for sure, this isn’t the biggest problem of having a constantly growing team. The real problem is to remember all their names…. Kidding, of course 😀
What I can advise to fast growing teams/companies – think whom you need to hire before the need actually occurs. Take care of all the internal processes first: scenarios for on-boarding, training schemes, clear description of responsibilities, tools and resources that the new person will need etc. Only then start the recruitment.
It’s easy to neglect your “older” employees when you’re constantly hiring new ones. Don’t do that. Provide regular 1on1 meetings, trainings, knowledge sessions to all your employees, no matter if someone is more experienced, and someone is less.
For founders of growing companies it’s important to learn how to delegate and prioritize constantly. You should focus on things which really matter – your core priorities, actions that bring the biggest effect. That’s why it’s wise to reconsider your duties from time to time. Get rid off the things that can be done by someone else.
To be able to do that – you should have C-level managers around you – 2-5 people who can lead separate departments without your constant supervision. Give these people all necessary knowledge and resources, as well as freedom within their circle of responsibilities. Relying on them will release your time and strength for more strategic tasks and projects.
452 new clients → more than 500 clients from 33 countries in total
My advice when it comes to the clients – stay always customer-centric and spread this idea within the whole company, especially in the departments that don’t deal with clients directly.
Customers, their success stories is the perfect source of motivation for you and your employees. Share and celebrate your clients’ achievements as our own ones.
More than 1,500 cold emailing campaigns organized, more than 200,000 cold emails sent in 2016
Our main goal when it comes to our services is to deliver quality over quantity. We don’t send as many emails as possible. We send emails with a valuable offer only to those people who are likely in need for that solution – right emails to the right people. And I think that staying loyal to this principle helps us get so high conversion results (up to 16%) and such a great ROI (up to 4000%).
New Year resolutions…
We will bring these lessons and principles with us to 2017 in order to make RightHello services more convenient and accessible to the broader number of businesses, and move closer to our goal – become the best in class lead gen company in Europe. And of course I’ll keep you updated on how it’s going though this blog 😉
At this point I want to give a huge THANK YOU to our team, clients, advisors, investors, partners, friends, readers and everyone who supports us. We wouldn’t achieve all this without you.
Wishing you all lots of happiness and many more leads/deals throughout the New Year. Stay tuned, keep calm & see you in 2017!
