When I talk with a prospective new client, they almost always tell me: We want to grow as much as possible, as quickly as possible.
And that’s natural — but my follow-up question is usually: Why?
If you’ve got the team in place, and the strategy in place, I understand the need to grow, and grow quickly — you’re trying to reach a level of scale where your business can flourish.
But so many of the teams I talk to aren’t there yet. They don’t have the team yet. They don’t have the strategy yet.
And in those cases, growth shouldn’t be the top priority. Their priority should be growing their audience to the point where they can prove out their editorial concept and business model. Only once they’ve done that should they shift into growth mode.
Yes, growth always sounds great. But maybe it’s worth asking yourself: What are we in such a rush for?
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That’s a photo of a jam-packed First Avenue here in New York City. It was taken by Lerone Pieters for Unsplash.