Grow Your Business like A Weed

 In agriculture weeds are considered a scourge. They compete with the established crop and generally wreak havoc on the plans of the farmer.

What makes them so difficult is they spurn the rules. They refuse to grow in rows, they grow tall when needed, or stretch out wide when required, and they jump at every possibility to ensure their survival using increasingly creative ways to disperse seeds including wind, rain, passing animals and projectiles.

In fact, their will to survive and succeed is so strong that they’ve learn to adapt to human attempts to remove them. Many weeds, including the dandelion, grow in flat rosettes against the ground that allow them to escape lawn mowers. Their greatest achievement against man would have to be their success against our chemical warfare; many weeds have become resistant to herbicides commonly applied to kill them. In an essence, what doesn’t kill a weed only makes it stronger.

The world of business can look a lot like a field of corn — a crowded industry full of large, well-established businesses all competing for the same resources. It can be daunting as a small business to look at those perfectly manicured rows of corn and wonder how you can possibly survive competing against them. Surely those large businesses will shade out the sun and drink up all the water before it can filter down to your small business. How can you possibly expect to survive against the mighty corn plant?

Here I implore you to remember the lowly weed. If you cannot survive in the corn, grow outside the row. Approach your business plan and marketing like a weed. Market in diverse platforms using multiple media. Be unique, be relentless and always be ready to adopt new tactics. Weeds do not survive because they are the strongest plant in the field; they survive because they are the hardest working and because of their willingness to adapt to new adversity.