Over the years, QRG has spoken with hundreds of small company founders and presidents from a wide variety of different industries and business types. We've been retained by many of them to assist in solving their growth problems. From this experience, we've identified what we believe to be the Top Ten most common growth-related issues that small companies face. These are listed below with actual client quotes.

1. The “How to Grow Profitably” Issue

“We’re stagnant and not growing, but I’m afraid to spend a lot of money on marketing and sales due to the risk involved.”

2. The “Lack of Strategic Direction” Issue

“I have a general sense of where I’d like the company to go, but we have no plan and no idea how to get there.”

3. The “Lack of Differentiation” Issue

“There is too much competition, and I don’t know how to make us stand out.”

4. The “No Sales Engine” Issue

“Our only new customers come from word-of-mouth. We don’t know how to develop new business beyond this.”

5. The “Under-Developed Management” Issue

“I spend too much time on day-to-day issues and not enough time on developing new accounts.”

6. The “No Understanding of Profitability” Issue

“I don’t really have a good understanding of our profitability. I don’t know what truly makes money and what doesn’t.”

7. “Poor Information Management and Utilization” Issue

“We have an instinctive sense of what our customers like and dislike, but it isn’t documented anywhere and we don’t really use this knowledge to our advantage. I’m not sure we’re doing all the right things.”

8. The “Inability to Make Good Strategic Decisions” Issue

“We have plenty of ideas for new products and services, but we don’t know which ones will make money for us. It’s tough to decide where to invest.”

9. The “Concept to Commercialization” Issue

“I have a new concept that I’m really excited about, but I don’t know how to take this idea and make it into a successful enterprise.”

10. The “Lack of Useful and Cost-Effective Training” Issue

“I want to develop my employees and make them more well-rounded, but there aren’t any courses or seminars designed specifically for my requirements. We need concise, focused, in-house training for specific skills, which unfortunately doesn’t seem to exist out there at affordable prices.”