When I was starting out as a business owner, a successful entrepreneur who had just sold his business told me “You’re either growing or you’re dying”. It was horrible advice for me at the time. 

There are endless ways to measure growth. 

A line on a financial statement. Employee count. Number of vacation days. A bank balance. An improved marriage.

Unfortunately, it’s easy to forget that we get to decide how we’re going to measure and instead, we use somebody else’s metrics.

For a startup that has taken on investment capital, growth is critical to success.

Customers. Revenue. Patents filed.

Measurable signs of growth are mandatory to keep going forward. But not all businesses are startups and growth can be measured in different ways for different companies.

For a solopreneur, growth could be measured by a decrease in the number of hours they work in a week. The number of referrals they get from customers. Or their rate of paying down debt.

A small business owner could measure growth by the number of days they exercise in a week. The quality of their sleep. Or their profit margin.

Growth is important. Progress should be measured. Profitability is sustainability.

But we should remember that we get to determine what metrics we use to measure growth and different metrics can be used at different stages within the life of a business.