Starting and growing a business is not for the faint of heart – especially if you want to grow fast. When I say “grow fast” I’m talking about rates of 80-100 percent per year. It’s achievable, even in this economy, but it results in spectacular highs and lows and tests and stretches the entrepreneurial venture in every imaginable way.
Our company has gone through this type of growth over the past seven years. Here are five of the biggest lessons we’ve learned about managing a growth-stage company:
Set your prices higher - Most entrepreneurs simply don’t charge enough to make a profit. This hampers the business’s growth because there isn’t enough dough to share with marketing partners. Consequently, the business struggles to grow at a fast rate, not because the product wasn’t good, but because it was too inexpensive.
I remember many years ago when we were launching our first product. I had a price in mind, based on competitive research and what seemed reasonable to me. Fortunately, a couple of partners talked me into charging a higher price, and that made all the difference in the marketing of that product, which paved the way for us to eventually launch our flagship product. I often think that we might have never escaped those early years if we had set a lower price on that first product.
To read the full, original article click on this link: 5 tips for managing a growth-stage company | VentureBeat
Author: Clate Mask is the co-founder and CEO of software company Infusionsoft. He submitted this story to VentureBeat
