Seeking advice from experts to improve your sales, communication or motivation is money well spent, whether you’re just starting your business or you’d like to move an established organization to the next level.

And sometimes, it’s free.

Executive coaches Pam Harper and Scott Harper of Business Advancement Inc., for example, have a series of podcasts you can listen to. These conversations are with business authors and CEOs and include insights and ideas you can immediately use for your own business. Topics include using the full power of your business community, achieving business goals through partnering with nonprofits, and how to stay entrepreneurial as your company grows.

Business Growth Experts You Should Know

We’ve compiled a list of 15 business growth experts, many of whom you can work with directly, to improve various aspects of your business, whatever its size or complexity.

Sam Silverstein

This business advisor helps organisations become accountable, authentic and transparent, and has spread his “Take the high road and work your ass off” message around the globe. In an article on the recent Volkswagen debacle, Sam Silverstein writes that “the bottom line will always be best served in the long-term when people are best served in the short-term.”

Patti Pokorchak

This Toronto-based Small Biz Sales Coach has helped hundreds of entrepreneurs and small business owners develop their businesses. With more than three decades of experience, Patti Pokorchak is able to successfully coach her clients to become more productive, sell more and make more money.

Quick results are part of her focus, and clients confirm this with testimonials like this one: “In one short week, Patti helped me distill what I do and how that benefits clients into 4 simple and powerful statements. We closed 3 new sales. My sales funnel is filling and I no longer feel overwhelmed.”

Arnold Sanow

Poor communication within a company or with customers can hold any business back. Communication skills expert Arnold Sanow can help with proven solutions for any interpersonal situation. The author of six books and president of Sanow Professional Development, he offers presentations in addition to workshops, coaching and consulting.

Laura Stack

A 25-year authority on workplace performance, keynote speaker and author Laura Stack is dedicated to helping business leaders and employees alike increase productivity. Training teams how to obtain maximum results in less time using sustainable and repeatable methods is the Productivity Pro’s speciality.

John Clancy

The president of Radius, an international company that helps US businesses expand globally, John Clancy says they’ve helped 1,000 companies across the nation expand to more than 100 countries. While Radius is based in the UK, its nearly 1,000 employees are spread across the world, with offices in China, Germany, India, Japan and Singapore.

And now it’s in Brazil, too: “Clancy just helped lead its first acquisition — accounting and services firm B&B Gestao of Sao Paulo, considered Brazil’s financial center — to provide its own customers with expertise with tax, compliance, finance, HR, labor law and culture, basically all the areas of business that a company will need to address while expanding to Brazil.”

Kris Gilbertson

American author, speaker and expert in lead generation and business growth Kris Gilbertson says the two biggest problems people have with taking their businesses online are how to stand out and how to create a lead system. She offers solutions that include the creation of a signature program, a “done-for-you” funnel, a podcast blueprint so you can launch your own podcast, and an alliance of women business owners for the purposes of networking.

Andrew Gibson

Based in the UK, Andrew Gibson and his team at Business Services Leeds work with people at all levels in businesses as well as charities and organisations in the public sector. He writes that his “passion is the creation of wealth in deprived communities,” empowering people to succeed by offering targeted and actionable business advice and coaching services.

Trevor Crane

The founder and CEO Stepup Strategies, Trevor Crane is a business growth expert and sales strategist who has been helping clients make their companies successful for more than a decade. In 2014 alone, he coached and trained his clients into generating over “$13 million dollars in bottom line profits.” Crane helps clients achieve more sales as well as systemize their processes for predictable delivery with less effort.

Laura Posey

When your small business needs explosive growth, Laura Posey says she’s the person you need to hire. An expert in small business growth, the CEO of Dancing Elephants and her team teach entrepreneurs and sales teams to increase sales and profits by focusing on the right things. By working smarter, not harder, Posey says you can nearly double your yearly income.

Barbara Weaver Smith

Consultant, author and speaker Barbara Weaver Smith is also founder and CEO of The Whale Hunters, a strategic sales coaching company. Smith and her team help small and mid-size businesses grow fast by acquiring bigger customers and in turn making bigger sales. And as their own clients grow, they are responding with a global accounts initiative that will take Whale Hunting “to a large number of IT and BP executives and business owners who are located in India and do business around the world.”

Shaz Nawaz

A business growth strategist in Peterborough, England, Shaz Nawaz is a chartered accountant practicing at AA Accountants. On his LinkedIn page, Nawaz says his expertise helps his clients grow their businesses through strategies designed to improve performance as well as by reducing the taxes they pay and increasing their capital wealth.

Mike Ogilvie

Called “The Profit Man,” Mike Ogilvie is an international conference speaker and coach who is passionate about helping entrepreneurs and managers increase their sales, effectiveness, profits and, ultimately, their wealth. Offering implementable advice, “Dr. Mike, the business doctor” (as he’s also known) will help you survive economic downturns and benefit from the upturns.

Susan Solovic

You might recognise Susan Solovic from her tenure as a small business contributor at ABC News. An author and keynote speaker, she’s helped small and mid-sized businesses all over the world grow with strategies she’s recommended. An attendee to one of her talks wrote in his review: “The feedback was unanimous with very valuable walk away ideas and real usable information.”

Meridith Elliott Powell

Business growth expert Meridith Elliott Powell recently tweeted: “The economy isn’t down, it’s different. Make sure you’re ready to handle your sales in this new environment.” That in a nutshell is how she motivates and ultimately helps professionals increase profits. “To succeed,” she writes on her website, “you need a new approach.” And the internationally certified coach, speaker, and author provides the tools. John Miles, CEO at a digital marketing firm in the US, has a testimonial on her site that reads: “Working With Meridith We Doubled Our Sales – Best Year Ever!”

Roger Harrop

An award-winning motivational business growth speaker, Roger Harrop has been leading international business for the past 25 years. His speciality, he writes on his LinkedIn page, is that he improves “the sustained profitable growth of businesses — from sole traders through to the largest corporates — in good times or in bad.” The takeaways from his keynotes help attendees develop their business as well as management skills, from which they see immediate and sustainable results.

images by: StartupStockPhotos, Karolina Grabowska