Growing a business is complex and requires hard work – even if so many gurus tell you the opposite. But with the right roadmap that covers all the essential elements of business growth, your growth can become simple and joyful.

At Avenue, our consulting and education company, we have been simplifying the growth journey for clients globally for many years.

Even if their goals are different, as are their resources, ambitions, products and services, markets, and operations, every growth plan consists of certain elements that contribute to their success.

The 9 elements of business growth

Smart businesses build strategic and tactical assets that increase the value of the company, operational efficiency, and impact, and contribute to growth.

• Assets allow you to focus on the key activities in your business while you grow it
• Assets allow you to take holidays and enjoy life with family and friends
• Assets allow you to scale without adding more work hours
• Assets allow you to add team members that deliver the same amazing service as you
• Assets increase the value of your company in case you’re looking to sell it at some point
• Assets make your operations seamless and work more fun

We identify 9 different elements every business needs to focus on building at different stages of their journey. The elements are:

Product

A product asset is anything that can be sold several times. This could be a packaged service, a platform, technology, tools, or a service that is easy to copy and multiply. This could also be your product line, innovation, or one single product that can be multiplied.

Sometimes a product asset is an intangible asset and sometimes considered tangible. If you hold a stock of goods, you have tangible assets that are visible on your balance sheet.

Brand

Brand assets are intangible assets, but carry a real value if you manage them right. Brand assets are your methodology, intellectual property, trademarks, licenses, and other related assets that can increase the value of your company.

Your message, your visual elements, but also your personality, essence, and values are considered important brand assets.

Audience

The audience is the people who know you exist. This audience can be built in several ways and can consist of several types of people, such as your customers and clients, but also your partners, referral networks, and connections that contribute to your growth.

The central in building audience assets is that you try to maintain control of the access to your audience. This means, for example, that you build a database of prospects and keep creating value for them.

Client Acquisition

The client acquisition assets are the sales and marketing systems, processes, and tools that contribute to the revenue and profit growth of your business.

Acquisition assets are closely related to audience assets and technology assets, but we wanted to separate these since there are specific types of assets that every business needs to build to improve its sales and marketing performance.

Media

Media assets are your blogs, social media channels, magazines, podcasts, or any other assets that you can use in your brand building, sales, and marketing.

Your media assets are closely related to your acquisition and brand assets, and the goal with your media assets is to position you as the leading player in your industry.

People

People are key assets to your business. At the start, you and your potential co-founder are the only assets that your company has, but once you start growing, your people assets will also grow.

People assets are your team members, and your suppliers, and just like when building your audience assets – your strategic partners become people assets.

Capital

Capital assets are cash in the bank, accounts receivables, loans, check credits, and other financial instruments that you use to grow your business.

Growth eats a lot of cash, so you should focus on building your cash reserves already at the start, hence our focus on sales already out of the gate.

Management

These assets are standard operating procedures and processes to manage your business. These assets are usually something that becomes a necessity once you have gained some momentum, but there are also some assets in this category that you need to think about from the start.

Technology

Technology assets are the tools, systems, and technical infrastructure required to scale your business. These assets are a necessity regardless of how your business model looks like, what you sell, and how.

In today’s environment, it’s impossible to neglect technology and this is sometimes something that causes a great deal of stress for non-tech founders and CEOs.

What should I do first?

We also continue making the implementation simple by defining the order of importance and focus at each business growth stage. Learn the method.