Find your best opportunity and relentlessly pursue it

For many CEOs, getting by is good enough. Growth is either slow or stagnant, but that’s OK, because there’s enough money to pay the bills and count a small profit along the way. But for other CEOs, they are looking for more. They want to build something special, but how do you get there from where you are now?
The key is to examine the market you are in and find the sweet spot. What is it that you are doing that offers the best opportunity for growth? You might have a dozen products or services, but maybe only one is resonating with the market and really showing signs of greater potential. 
If you want to see rapid growth, you need to focus on exploiting that opportunity. Devote all your energy to figuring out how to spark increased sales and widen the market reach for this product, even if it means leaving the others behind.
This doesn’t necessarily mean you abandon them, but put them in more of a maintain mode while you go after the big prize. The money the other products make can be used to fund your growth initiatives for the special one, while the majority of your leadership team’s talent focuses on making the most of your best growth opportunity, not maintaining the status quo.
This method of thinking might end up transforming your business into something you never imagined, similar to what Dell has done in recent years. The company went private in 2013 as founder Michael Dell saw an opportunity to shift from the hardware space to a business model that provides a wider range of IT services, as well as storage and networking systems. The company returned to the market in December and after a dip in January, Dell’s stock was trending upward again in mid-February.  

Your change may not be as drastic, but the important point is to focus on your most lucrative opportunity to maximize your growth potential. Other product lines may not get the attention they once did, but if you want to do better than just getting by, taking a little risk is the only way to accomplish your long-term goals.

Fred Koury is president and CEO at Smart Business Network