| | MARCH 2022 8OPINIONIN MYBy Brian Mac Mahon, Founder, Expert DOJOGROWTH, GROWTH AND MORE GROWTH - WHY NOTHING ELSE MATTERS WHEN BUILDING A STARTUPBrian Mac MahonBrian Mac Mahon is the founder of Expert DOJO. Brian has consulted and coached in over 35 countries, bringing a global perspective to starting and growing a small business. He has been teaching the power of connecting in a community and the process of turning a pay it forward mindset into a revenue generator for years.Expert DOJO is one of the most active international early-stage startup accelerators in the United States. Since 2018, Expert DOJO has invested in over 100 startups to accelerate their growth.Growth has never been more important in the venture ecosystem. If survival of the fittest is acknowledged as a Darwinian principle, then survival of the growth companies should be a unicorn principle today. A common mistake made by many early-stage companies is thinking that growth is just about tactics. And even when they do get to thinking about growth they look at things such as, `how do I get better Facebook ads?' or, `how do I build a better landing page?' or even, `how do I hit the right keywords so that I can be found by my customer on Google?' These are all huge mistakes. If you haven't sorted out the vision and the strategy before you get to the tactics, then irrespective of what marketing tactics you employ, you will fail. Communication Our work with our entrepreneurs, right at the very start of looking at the growth process, focuses on the communication of their vision. The communication of your vision should be all about making sure that you can explain what your multi-billion dollar company will look like, once fully grown. Which is in stark contrast to the way that many companies think about their vision - a gradual day-to-day growth from where they are today. Another great challenge here is that companies generally find it very difficult to communicate. Hardly surprising perhaps when
< Page 7 | Page 9 >