How To Grow Your Business
To 6-7-8-Figures

Lateral expansion means using outside assets, relationships, and partnerships to scale faster than traditional marketing. It can produce in one quarter what most companies take a decade to build - and I'll show you how using a real example where we added 20,000+ paid members using NASCAR and partner relationships with zero ad spend.

What's the Fastest Way to Grow Your Business?

I've built multiple successful businesses and invested in growing companies, which gives me unique insight into strategies that work in any industry, any size, any economy. One of the best strategies I use scales companies far faster and at far lower cost than old tactics from books - it's called lateral expansion.

If you're an entrepreneur, you want to know how to grow your business to six, or seven or eight figures in the shortest time possible. Today, I want to share with you one of my top strategies to successfully scale any business fast, and predictably increase your profit margins.

I've built multiple successful businesses and sold several companies. I've also invested in growing companies as well. And all of this gives me a very unique insight into strategies that grow businesses every time they're used. No matter what size your company is right now, or what industry you're in, or what the economy is like.

I want to detail one of the best strategies we've used to scale companies fast. It costs far less and takes less time than most of the old tactics that you read about in books.

What Is Lateral Expansion?

Lateral expansion is using outside assets, relationships, and partnerships instead of relying only on your own marketing budget. It's not easy, but it's simple - if you follow a proven system, you will get results that collapse timeframes. It can help you scale more in one quarter than most companies scale in a decade.

Now, one of the simplest ways to scale any company is using a process called lateral expansion. It's not easy, but it's simple. Meaning that if you follow a proven system, like what I'm about to show you, you will get results.

When I'm talking about lateral expansion, those results could collapse timeframes and help you scale more in one quarter than most companies scale in a decade.

Most people in small businesses have never heard of lateral expansion. And the ones who I meet who say that they do know what it is, most of the time they get it all wrong. I think the easiest way probably to define lateral expansion is to start by defining vertical expansion. Because those are two totally different ways to grow a company.

What's Vertical Expansion and Why Isn't It Enough?

Vertical expansion is the basic price of entry in business - increasing prospects, sales, and lifetime value of customers. Those are vital pieces of scaling, but they all cost a lot of money and take a bunch of time. Most businesses rely on vertical expansion alone, which is why they grow slowly.

Vertical expansion is the basic price of entry in business, right? It's, it's what most every other business uses, and they focus on when they want to grow, they focus on increasing prospects, sales and lifetime value of customers. And all those things are vital pieces of scaling a company. But they all cost a lot of money. And they take a bunch of time, right?

How Does Lateral Expansion Accelerate Growth?

Lateral expansion is thinking outside the box and using tools most businesses don't know about or believe are possible. If vertical expansion is the firewood you keep adding to keep the fire lit, lateral expansion is throwing gas on the fire and experiencing dramatic growth in a shorter period. It's like scaling from $1M to $2M, or $2M to $10M, or $10M to $30M+ dollars - if you do it right and back growth up with systems.

So lateral expansion, on the other hand... is thinking outside the box and using tools that most businesses either they don't know about, or they don't believe are possible, or they just plain forget to use. It's kind of like vertical expansion might be the firewood that you need to keep rolling on top of fire over and over and over again, keep it lit, meaning you always have to keep marketing to new customers in order to stay alive in business.

But lateral expansion is like throwing gas on your fire and experiencing dramatic growth in a shorter period of time. Like scaling from 1 million to 2 million or 2 to 10 million, or 10 to 30 million dollars. If you do it right, and back that growth up with systems, then that new level of revenue is now your new low level of revenue, right.

To scale at the rate needed in today's world and to maximize profit... we need both vertical and lateral expansion. There are several ways that we've used lateral expansion to scale companies in my portfolio over the years. But the three most common for us I want to go over right now.

What Are the Three Main Types of Lateral Expansion?

The three most common forms I use are acquisitions (which immediately adds customers, team, and revenue), complementary companies (that leverage both entities to scale each other), and branding assets (that get your message in front of an audience 10 to 100 times larger than you can reach alone). Each one has its own mechanics and timing.

First, is acquisitions. If you want to know how to grow your business using acquisitions, I've covered exactly how we handle the negotiations and acquire companies for far less upfront cost in a separate article. Read it after you finish this one. But there's two more very important forms that you need to know about before you go and do that.

The second form of lateral expansion is building a complementary company that grows your current company. I haven't covered that one in detail yet. If you want me to write it up, use the Ask Chris a Question form and let me know. If enough people ask, I'll publish a full breakdown along with the paperwork we use. The short version: we literally segment a department out of a company that's already very successful, making it its own entity. And we leverage both companies to scale each other. So in the end, instead of having one profitable, successful company, after 12 to 18 months, you have two even more profitable successful companies, because they both support each other's growth.

Now when talking about how to grow your business, the third most common form of lateral expansion that we use, is adding a branding asset that massively increases your reach. So instead of reaching thousands of people a day with our message, we might reach millions a day for a week, or a month or a quarter. That's pretty amazing for most companies. Which is why it's what I want to focus on today.

I think the very fastest way for you to really get how we do this in our company, is if I walk you through a real life example of one of the times that we've done this not that long ago.

How Do You Add a Branding Asset to Your Company?

I used NASCAR to grow my company for free. You might think NASCAR isn't relevant to your industry, but I've never been in an industry without gigantic opportunities people were passing by because they weren't thinking big enough. Think about one way to leverage this concept - it could be a celebrity endorsement, a YouTube influencer, or something sitting right in front of you that you haven't activated yet.

So here is how and why we use NASCAR to grow our company for free. I absolutely understand that you might think that you're not in a position to leverage NASCAR. But I have never been in an industry where there weren't gigantic unbelievably big opportunities that people were just passing by. Primarily, because they weren't thinking outside the box and thinking in a bigger way. So keep your mind open. My guess is that in a few minutes, you'll think about at least one way to leverage this concept to scale your company this quarter.

Several years ago, I was a partner in a social community called Healthlife. One of our main products was a paid online community. I remember sitting in a meeting with our leadership team, and looking at the company's targets, right. We were brainstorming on ways to hit those targets. One of which was the target of having 20,000 new members in our paid community. We had such a small budget to make that happen. But every single person at that meeting knew that if we reached that target, it would mean several hundred thousand dollars in additional revenue for that company every single month. But since we had hardly any money in the budget, we had to get really, really creative.

So we went through this long meeting. We were listing any asset that we could leverage to get the company that kind of growth. Prior to the meeting, I asked the analytics team to send me the results of our latest survey that we did with our current customers. Because before I throw any time, or any money at any marketing tactic, I want to know as much as I can about my current target audience.

That survey showed us three main things. First, 41% of our current members were engaged in some form of personal development. Second, 56% were single. And third, 32%, liked NASCAR. Which I kind of just pushed aside, because let's be honest, NASCAR fans are not our target demographic, right? They were not our target demographic for our health community then, and it's probably not your target demographic if you're in the health field now.

But after hours, one of our leadership team said, "Hey, so a few years ago, before you became a partner in the company, we created a partnership with a NASCAR team. Do you think we could use that?"

At first I sat there thinking, why the heck is this the first time I'm hearing about this. But then, the way they described it to me was that we owned a lot of aspects surrounding this deal. This included a technology that wrapped the car. So the entire car was wrapped in one big "sticker" that included all the sponsor logos that are on the side of NASCAR, and the car number and pretty much everything else.

So we could change the wrapper to include anything we wanted. This including putting our company logo on the car during the race. Now the good news was that NASCAR fans are historically very, very loyal buyers to companies that sponsor cars.

But the problem like I said before, was that our target market was not NASCAR fans. Yes, definitely some of our current members said that they liked NASCAR. But that didn't mean that other NASCAR fans would buy memberships into a health community like ours.

I mean, NASCAR fans buy things like beer and tires and motor oil and things that are related to cars, and racing and the related merchandise. Obviously, there's a few outliers who have been really successful sponsoring cars that don't fit that model. But we didn't have the budget to run a car for a year before we really gained brand exposure and began to profit. So I put together this list of everything that I knew about our target audience.

Why Does Knowing Your Customer Come First?

The very first step in lateral expansion is knowing your current best audience - their demographics, interests, and what they value. Then I find new ways to put my message in front of them at a much bigger scale using assets and relationships they already trust.

The very first step in lateral expansion, is knowing your current best audience. Then finding new ways to put that message, your message, in front of them in a much, much bigger way.

So here's what I knew that I could leverage 41% of our current members like personal development. I happen to be friends with several of the largest personal development icons around.

Second, 56% of our current members were single. I also happen to have had a friend who owned one of the largest singles websites at that time. I knew that I could leverage that too.

So I put a list together of eight of the largest brands that I knew who I had a very strong relationship with. Either they were good friends of mine, or they were clients inside of our advisory firm. Either way, they had a strong level of competence with me because they had seen me consistently over and over again, grow companies by thinking outside the box.

Although I knew that NASCAR fans were not my target audience, so I probably wouldn't get to 20,000 new members into our community, just by putting our logo on the car during one race. What I did know was that if I could get some of these personal development friends of mine, to mail their massive email databases and promote our community, I could easily reach that goal, because those were our target audience.

What's the Key to Getting Major Brands to Say Yes?

I asked eight brands to send emails to their massive lists promoting our community with no commission - just as a favor. They looked at me like I was crazy until I offered them something money couldn't easily buy: their photo and name on a NASCAR car at the Daytona 500 where 170,000 people would see it in person and millions on TV. When you identify what someone actually values and create that for them, they'll promote you to their entire audience.

So I went to all eight of brands and companies I had identified. I told them that I wanted them to send three emails to their list using naked links. Meaning that they would not get a commission for anybody who joined our community. They were just kind of promoting our community as a favor to me. And they all kind of looked at me like I was crazy, because that was a really big ask.

But, I told them that if they did that for me, I'd have their photo on their name put on NASCAR during the Daytona 500 qualification race, if they want it, right? They could even come to the race if they wanted and have their picture taken next to the car with their photo on it. I got some of them passes, so they could join me on the track, which was a pretty damn cool thing.

Because from that day forward, they would be the only people in the room right in almost any room that they ever walked into... that could say their photo was on a NASCAR. That's pretty cool bragging rights and something they could never have achieved without me. Now, seven of those people said yes.

If you don't know anything about NASCAR, the Daytona track can hold almost 170,000 people. Plus that year almost 17 million people watch the race on TV and out of everybody who saw that? I doubt we sold more than a dozen memberships in our community because NASCAR fans, were not our target audience.

But with seven large databases mailing for us and millions of emails promoting us from them. What do you think? Do you think we hit our target?

What Happens After the Initial Spike?

From those partner emails we built a massive database we could advertise other products to - products we owned and products we received commissions on. We used an asset we already had access to, recreated a win-win for key relationships, and did it all with no money out of our pocket. The branding asset opened the door, but the backside monetization was what made it truly valuable.

From those sends we also built a large database from those mailings. A database that we were able to advertise all of our other products to. Plus products that we didn't even own, but we received the commission for referring people who bought. So we use an asset that we already had access to, and recreated a win win for some key relationships in my life. With no money out of our pocket.

We exceeded our expectations by adding a branding asset, the NASCAR that massively increased their reach. It put our message in front of a far larger audience that did not know us before, not NASCAR fans, but rather all the loyal followers of our personal development friends who promoted us.

Where Do You Find These Opportunities?

I have never been in an industry without gigantic opportunities people were passing by. It might be your receptionist's sister who became a celebrity and could endorse you, or one of your kids' friends with a big YouTube following who'd mention your product, or a relationship you built years ago that you never activated. The opportunities are closer than you think - you just have to think bigger.

So like I mentioned earlier, I have never been in an industry where there weren't gigantic, unbelievably big opportunities that people were just passing by. It might be your receptionist's sisters, college roommate, that is now a celebrity who might endorse your product. Or one of your kids' best friends who has a big YouTube following right now. They might love a few extra bucks to mention your product online.

See, lateral expansion begins with thinking outside the box and opening your mind to the possibilities that are right around you. Remember, I had no clue that we had access to NASCAR until I dug deep during a team meeting.

How Do You Apply This to Your Business Right Now?

I've done lateral expansion many times in every industry I've been in. When done right, it's always like throwing gas on the fire and accelerating growth. Take one hour and identify one big opportunity, asset, or relationship you could leverage to put your message in front of a massive audience far bigger than you can reach now. Get creative and share your idea - sometimes the best ideas come from pressure-testing them with other operators.

We've done this kind of out of the box marketing, this lateral expansion, many times in every single industry that I've been in. When done right, it's always like throwing gas on the fire and accelerating our growth. So think about how to grow your business. What's one big opportunity or asset or relationship that you could leverage to put your message in front of a massive audience far bigger than you can right now? Get creative.

Then share your idea with me using the Ask Chris a Question form. The best ideas often come from pressure-testing them with other operators, so be open when someone else expands on what you're thinking too.

The more people who you brainstorm with, the bigger your idea is gonna get. And heck, we have a great community of readers and operators here. Someone in this community right now might introduce you to a big name who could endorse your product.

A lot of big movers and shakers follow my work, big CEOs, pro athletes, actors, and most of them understand that they grow by helping others. So share your idea.