Whatever the size of your business, the industry, or the market you play in, growth takes persistence and hard work above all.

But, not all hard work has an equal payout.

Growth comes as the sum of mindful, focused and precise actions. These actions are tailored to bring the business one level at a time. The difficulty is that most entrepreneurs get trapped in their day to day activities, and lose sight of the strategic thinking they so clearly had when they started their business.

Guy Israeli, co-founder of Solomoto, at Innovative Miami - A Catalyst for Disruption, compiled his list of the “5 most important tips for business owners to scale their business starting tomorrow”. These are his 5 tips:

1. Work On Your Business, Not In It

God is in the details, and your company won’t grow if the core business needs aren't properly taken care of. But details and day to day activities are not going to help scale your business. Strategy is. Think strategically and pinpoint the things that will help move you through the ranks.

Focus on these core actions, even if it means missing a little business today. This might entail pushing off tasks for another time, or rescheduling a meeting. Yet, these are the activities that will make your business stronger and bigger tomorrow.

2. Learn what and how to delegate

It´s hard to trust anyone will put in it the same passion and dedication that you will. But learning how to delegate is one of the single most important growth strategy skills you’ll ever need as a small business owner.

A remarkable amount of entrepreneurs never really master this core component, and end up failing to deal with the important tasks that really matter.

What you need to do is work on yourself and start trusting others can do also do a great job. You  might  be able to outsource on-demand tasks to professionals, who can do an even better than you would have done. Other times you will be able to use your company resources, and even when no one is as skilled and passionate as you are - you can still find that their execution will be good enough to reach your target.

In order to maximize results, you have to learn to delegate in the correct way. Don’t expect others to read your mind, or to see what you envision. Create a framework and explain your vision and your goals. Encourage others to contribute with ideas to improve the framework given keeping the goals in mind. This will help you receive something that meets your expectations and evengoes beyond them; also, you will be building a network of trusted resources that you can rely on.

3. Automate time consuming activities.

Every successful business started somewhere. When a business is starting out, repeating a certain task manually is more than acceptable. But when the size of your business is expanding, those repetitive tasks start to add up. Think of email confirmations, training, support, newsletters, social media, and more.

Technology has gone a long way, and there is a surprising number of solutions to help your business become more efficient and effective with its time.

Find the tasks that are becoming a burden and are bogging down your calendar, and search for more automated solutions. If you’re not sure where to start, consult with your peers, forums, and groups for the best solution. Once you have found a solution, implement it yourself or delegate the project to someone who can handle it.

4. Build your brand with useful content

Your customers are going to look for experts in your field, for authorities that are able to give advice and guidance. Make sure your business is where your customers are looking, and provide them with truly useful information. Try to be creative with informative content and find the right channel for your audience: examples can be social media, blogs, video tutorials, or a mix of channels.

Genuine useful content will bring customers your way in the most natural and organic way, and it will help you build your company brand at the same time.

5. Experiment with growth channels

When resources are limited, it is hard to have the guts to try and fail. But experimenting doesn’t need to be a hazardous game. Not only that, it’s a fundamental part of entrepreneurship.

Testing out marketing channels, new markets, territories, and products, is vital to your business. If done with structure and attention, the data you will gather will give you powerful insights, and eventually lead you to success.

Have an iterative approach to testing and ask yourself what type of results do you expect when you try something new. Design what you will do with different results scenarios, and what you would like to test next.

Be bold. Take some risks, and make sure each test has taught you something. Eventually the sum of your findings will show you the path to scale up.

Are you on top of these 5 tips? What other tips would you give to small entrepreneurs trying to scale up their business? Share your tips and experiences with us at info@solomoto.com