How you grow your company can be as important as whether you grow your company.

Business growth carries with it a certain amount of risk. To avoid potential pitfalls, consider the following tips for successful growth.

1. Find your key focus. It is important to select and stick to a key focus, particularly in times of an uncertain or slow economy. Do what your company is good at. Produce the products that can be delivered consistently and successfully. It’s harder to add new services or venture too far outside your scope during a recession.

2. Don’t become overconfident. Like a favored team that lets down its guard and loses to an underdog, an attitude of overconfidence can bring about business loss. Owners who have had success in the past must guard against gaining a sense of omnipotence. Overconfidence is unrealistic and can spell disaster.

3. Don’t define your business by your product. Virtually any product can become obsolete over time. Don’t define your business by your product, but rather from by your customer’s needs that you are able to satisfy.

4. Make your marketing message consistent. If you want to grow your company, marketing is essential. How you market is important. A key way to grow your business is to have a consistent marketing message. In today’s complex world, marketing messages have to be very simple, direct and constant.

5. Practice what you promise. Customers will be the most intolerant of mistakes when money and time are tight. For example, if your marketing campaign promises a certain turnaround time, you need to live up to that promise. Otherwise, you risk reducing your customers’ satisfaction or possibly losing customers altogether.