Sales plateaus are usually strong indicators that certain operational and marketing changes are required within a business. They point out stalled growth that can be caused by a lack of hiring, lack of innovation and a lack of efficient operations.

For some entrepreneurs who’ve hit the $1 million in sales mark, coming up with a plan to potentially double or even triple that figure might seem like an almost impossible task especially when they look at all the effort it took to reach the $1 million milestone.

Brian Creager is one example of an entrepreneur who was able to cross this hurdle. His men’s hair care line went from zero to $1 million in revenue within the first 27 months of being on the market. Four months later, it surpassed the $2 million mark and it is now grossing around $3 million in sales annually.

In his appearances on the Freedom Fast Lane podcast with Capitalism.com founder and CEO Ryan Moran, Creager explained his strategies for building a $100 million empire as well as what he learned from the corporate world. Here are five of the tactics that Creager has used to achieve rapid growth in his business.

Duplicate What Already Works

Paying attention to the what works and what doesn’t in your business is an easy way to multiply your successes while avoiding the need to repeat mistakes.

As someone who has spent most of his life working corporate, it’s no surprise that Creager is an advocate of having some form of structure in his business when it comes to carrying out market research and conducting product development. When conducting these tasks, he tends to replicate what has already worked well for him in the past and building a process.

Take a look at the actions that you and your employees are doing in your business every day, and make an account of which ones are yielding the best results and which aren’t yielding much at all. Then, look for ways to duplicate and multiply those actions that are producing positive results.

Diversify Your Product Line

Offering a wide range of products makes surpassing the $1 million revenue mark much easier.

Creager significantly expanded his product line during the four month period in which his sales went from $1 million to $2 million. In addition to improving revenues, having a large portfolio of products can make your business more attractive to potential investors. That's because, in theory, any damage caused by a fall in sales volumes for some products or even a handful of product failures would be partly cushioned by the overall portfolio.

Take a look at your current product line and spend some time thinking about possible complementary items that you can begin to offer. You might even want to consider the possibility of creating a new product offering by simply packaging some of your existing products into one bundle.

Be Willing to Delegate Operational Tasks

As your company grows, your focus should be directed more towards sustaining that growth and less on the day to day operations. A driven team of employees is required to go beyond your first million dollars in sales.

As Creager brought on new staff, he had more time to put his attention on the parts of the business that directly generated revenue. Hiring talented people is required to get to the next level.

Use Debt Strategically to Grow

Debt can be used to expedite your company's rate of growth.

Oftentimes, retailers have a lot of money tied up in inventory. If liquid, this money could be used to invest in marketing campaigns, hiring new staff, and developing new products. Such investments are usually not possible until good portions of the inventory is sold and converted into cash.

Creager used debt as a tool to further the growth of his business, and like him you can use it to free up some of the cash that's sitting in inventory that could be used in a more productive manner.

Constantly Look for Ways to Be More Efficient

Many consumers make decisions on whether or not to purchase an item based on its price and the price of similar items offered other brands. Consequently, it is very important to run your operations efficiently so that you're able to sell your products at the best price possible.

Running efficient operations and subsequently passing a portion of your cost savings to your customers is a great way to be more competitive with larger brands that are able to sell their products on the low. One way that Creager has done this is by developing his products in batches, rather than separately. He's found that this strategy allows him to brings multiple products to market a lot faster, and at reduced costs because the legal work, debt financing and marketing are done together at the same time.

 

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