For many entrepreneurs, the most confounding aspect of business is growth. How do you generate enough business to get started? And, later, how do you manage the many complex changes that accompany growth? How do you keep innovating to expand your business in new directions? Fast Company’s The Small Business Guide to Growth Hacking, presented by OPEN Forum from American Express OPEN, explores these questions and more. This exclusive collection is drawn from articles in Fast Company and openforum.com and focuses on what it takes to build a thriving business that manages to both grow and adapt to the demands of a bigger company.
The solutions here are rooted in ultra-clever problem solving that short-circuits conventional sales, marketing, and product-development approaches—what many refer to as “growth hacking.” There’s Dropbox founder Drew Houston creating a popular storage service to take on web giants; Sophia Amoruso using street smarts to turn a modest eBay store into the $100 million retail brand Nasty Gal; and best-selling author Guy Kawasaki offering the do’s and don’ts of pitching your business.
From common mistakes that undermine small businesses to a constructive framework for thinking about vision and investments, this indispensable book arms entrepreneurs with strategies for smart growth.
