Happy Monday everyone! I hope you all had a good weekend – and are facing a productive week ahead. As always, I like to start by sharing some of the best articles (and, ok, a few things I wrote myself) that I think will be valuable to you, the small business leader. So, read on!

• Are YOU CEO material? Think about whether you have these characteristics: on.inc.com/2fG1FqK
• Ideas for making better decisions with less data: bit.ly/2g1aBeJ
• Looking ahead. These are some of the social media trends that may dominate 2017: bit.ly/2fUL33r
• These are the questions your business plan really has to answer: bit.ly/2eMd6Q6
• Some good B2B content marketing tips: on.inc.com/2fAreNA
• Could this be what’s wrong with your to-do list? on.inc.com/2fe1qGz
• Why shared experiences can help build high-performing teams: bit.ly/2eBjhTQ
• Postponing decisions can just make things more complicated. Here’s how to look at decision-making: bit.ly/2fsYIet
• Want to be a better predictor of the future? Here’s an approach that works: bit.ly/2fwJbKN

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about the different aspects of business growth. While there are upsides for sure, there can also be some downsides that you should look out for. I’ve seen it numerous times. Here are a few tips I shared that you might find valuable:

• During business growth be creative in how you keep employees tied to the business’s strategy and vision.
• Training and instilling the business’s culture gets more challenging as your business grows.
• As you grow, maintain your business’s personality in business processes, communications, marketing, and social media.
• For many companies, the biggest challenge during growth is maintaining close contact with customers.
• As your company grows, Consider how to balance control (i.e. policies) w/ autonomy, innovativeness, and risk-taking.

And I crafted my last blog post about this idea. I wanted to share some ideas about challenges that small business leaders should look for – and also suggested ways mitigate them or even avoid them altogether. You can read that post here: The Growth Conundrum.