When you start off creating an online course business, it is exciting – so too is growing it! But what do you do to grow your business years down the line?

It isn’t something people talk about too often. In fact, I will fully admit that it isn’t a common topic on this blog.

The reason for this is that there are more people out there who are just getting started with their online course journey compared to those who are already successful. So, much of the literature out there speaks to them.

But I wanted to take a quick minute to addresses a topic that not many people discuss. How do you keep growing business after you have already seen success?

After three or four years, how do you innovate? Well, there is definitely some low-hanging fruit out there in the form of complimentary products, services, and partnerships. If you haven’t considered those avenues yet the I would recommend starting there.

But let’s say you have done those… now what?

Do The “Hard Thing” – Whatever It May Be

Now I can’t say what the “hard thing” is for your business, but there is a good chance that you know of something your customers have asked for (or have hinted at) that you have not put into practice because it would require a tremendous amount of effort.

Every business has this scenario. There are simply some things that would require a great deal of resources (financial and time) to accomplish, so the decision is to hold off for the time being.

But guess what? Your direct competition has likely the exact same “hard thing” on their list as well.

My advice to you is to find whatever that “hard thing” is for your business and start getting the wheels in motion to make it happen.

Your current customers will be ecstatic, but it will also send a clear sign to your industry that you are the leader. This will create separation between you and your competition. You will gain more customers in the long-run because people like to do business with innovators.

Of course the alternative is to continue business as usual, but eventually one of your competitors will do that “hard thing” and you will be scrambling to catch-up. Competing in business becomes much easier (and more fun) when you’re the leader rather than the follower.