What you can learn from my 5 business breakthroughs and how they can accelerate your business growth

Starting a business is hard work, and looking back and acknowledging how far you’ve come is important. Here are the milestones Orion Marketing’s Marshall Thurlow celebrates.

Like every business owner, I’ve made mistakes and learned plenty of valuable lessons along the way. It’s a journey, after all! However, certain steps I’ve taken have been more important than others. In this article, I’ll share my five business breakthroughs that have accelerated my business journey.

From becoming incorporated to finding a profitable niche, these moments have been instrumental in the growth of my business.

The 5 breakthroughs that fostered business growth

Becoming incorporated

There are several reasons you might choose to incorporate your business: to give yourself limited liability, to take advantage of tax structures, to attract investment or simply because it is required by your working situation.

I made the strategic move to incorporate Orion Marketing for these reasons as well as for a less tangible, more personal reason.

By establishing Orion Marketing as a proprietary limited company (Pty Ltd), I feel I cultivated a sense of legitimacy for myself. I felt that I was taking my business more seriously by incorporating, and I stand by that decision.

This step instilled confidence in potential clients and expanded our target market to include clients with specific policies regarding partnerships with incorporated businesses, rather than sole traders.

Incorporating the business required a bit of paperwork, but it helped me take myself more seriously and unlocked lucrative opportunities, contributing to the sustainable growth of Orion Marketing.

Joining a co-working space

Like many new business owners (50% of all small businesses start at home!), I started Orion Marketing in my living room. To begin with, this was a great option as it kept my overheads low. However, once I was up and running, I made the decision to take a membership at a great co-working space in the city.

Initially, this decision was based on giving me a boundary between work and home life (something that’s really important for self-employed workers) and helping to give me clearer working hours, but it came with myriad other benefits.

The main one was that it opened incredible networking opportunities. Working alongside professionals from diverse industries fostered an environment conducive to collaboration and business development. Several of my current clients have come because of kitchen conversations, and I’ve also met and teamed up with other professionals to improve my service offerings to clients.

Engaging with like-minded entrepreneurs, exchanging ideas, and forging valuable connections were key factors in the growth of Orion Marketing.

Yes, an ongoing cost is associated with my membership here, but the return on investment is sound.

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Hiring my first team member

If you’re a small business owner, you’re probably wearing many hats. But as the business scales, there comes a time when it makes sense to hand some of those responsibilities to others.

One person can’t do it all. Your time and energy are limited, and you should be focusing on the top-level, strategic issues facing your business.

As my workload mounted, I took the significant step of hiring my first team member. This decision allowed me to shift my focus to high-level growth activities while entrusting smaller, less critical tasks to a capable team member. By delegating routine tasks, I freed up valuable time and energy to expand the business, acquire new clients, and develop innovative marketing strategies.

This felt like an intimidating step, but drawing on the local pool of talented and experienced freelancers meant I didn’t have to hire a permanent employee. Since then, I’ve brought on several freelancers to help with various tasks and projects.

The addition of a team member improved operational efficiency and allowed me to bring on expertise in areas that weren’t my strengths. Plus, I could start passing off the tasks I didn’t enjoy to someone else. Bonus!

Finding a niche for growth

While there’s a lot to be said for being a generalist within an organisation, in a crowded marketplace, finding a niche can be a game-changer for any business.

I realised the importance of focusing on doing one thing exceptionally well; for me, that thing was search engine optimisation (and SEO for health practitioners, more specifically). By identifying a specific area of expertise within the marketing industry, I positioned Orion Marketing as a trusted authority in the SEO niche.

Specialisation allowed me to provide tailored solutions to our clients and establish a reputation for excellence. Catering to a targeted customer base, we built a loyal clientele who appreciated our expertise and value.

It also allowed me to be more targeted with my continuing professional development rather than just taking a scattergun approach of staying across the whole field of digital marketing.

Embracing continuous learning and adaptation

You are obviously already aware, but the journey of growing a business is a continuous learning process that requires adaptability. Being a small business owner is all about staying curious, staying keen and constantly asking yourself questions like:

• What am I trying to achieve for my business?
• What are the gaps in knowledge or skills that are holding my business back?
• What tasks could I effectively do myself instead of outsourcing if I had the skills?
• What am I interested in or inspired to learn more about that I could apply to improving my business?

I firmly believe in investing in personal and professional growth to stay ahead in the ever-changing marketing landscape and made that commitment early in my business journey.

Throughout my entrepreneurial journey with Orion Marketing, I have taken several critical steps to foster business growth. Each of these actions has shaped the trajectory of my success.

By taking these steps in your own business, you can unlock new opportunities, enhance professionalism, expand your customer base, and position yourself for long-term growth.

Whether you’re a new business just starting out or a more established brand, what were your breakthrough moments that accelerated your business journey? I’d love to know.

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