Anticipating Your Business Growth
Hundreds of thousands of new businesses are started every year, according to the Small Business Administration; however, this trend has increased sharply in the past two years. In 2020 alone, a record 4.4 million businesses were started. The mixture of job losses due to the pandemic, people being stuck at home, and just sheer boredom during lockdown brought us the biggest business startup boom we’ve ever seen.
Of course, not all of these businesses grow according to plan; market trends and the choices of the owner or CEO play a huge part in the process. There is no shortage of services and “experts” coming out of the woodwork, promising to miraculously grow your company. We’ve all seen the ads:
- “Grow Your Business to $$$ with These Easy Tips!”
- “I’ll Get You 1,000 Qualified Leads Every Month!”
- “Want to Grow Fast? Use This Amazing Funnel!”
The thing is, though, there is no “easy secret” to growing a sustainable, profitable business that allows you to live the life you want to live. It takes hard work, perseverance, and solid planning.
Effective planning and solid calendaring are a business owner’s best friends. When the challenges hit (and they will), your plans will provide the foundation you and your team need to pivot and thrive.
Planning is not something you’ll do once and then refer back to from time to time; rather, it is something that you will revisit throughout the year and refine over time.
Anticipating Your Hiring Needs
In order to grow in a sustainable fashion, you need to have a great team to support you. Bringing in the right people – those who will take tasks off your plate, serve your clients with excellence, and work beside you to meet (and crush) your goals.
If you don’t plan for your hires, however, hiring can inhibit your growth instead of drive it.
Many business owners employ the “hire and hope” method: bring people on who can take the immediate tasks off your plate and hope it works. (It rarely does.)
Others will retain the wrong people for too long because they simply don’t have the time to replace them or the systems in place to equip them to work productively. This often results in a drain on both their time and their profits.
In order to anticipate your hiring needs and plan accordingly, there are several things you should take into account:
- Who do you actually need? A GAP Analysis can give you the answers.
- Which areas of your business are most profitable and therefore, should be grown first?
- How will you raise the revenues to support their paycheck? Your sales and marketing plans will tie directly into this.
Anticipating Your Systems Builds
As your company and your team grow, your systems will become the key to your success. Planning which systems to build and when will determine how productive (and profitable) your team will be.
Often, business owners assume that their systems will somehow organically appear as their team becomes more experienced. However, this rarely (if ever) happens. Systems are the product of intentional planning and action.
As a Business Strategy Coach, I talk with business owners all the time who either want to build their systems so they can grow or grew unexpectedly and need to get their systems in place. I help them triage their needs and my Coaching Team helps them to build the right systems in the right order, according to their needs.
This process is different for everyone – there is not one single road map that fits every business. This is why strategy and planning are so important!
However, it’s also essential to use a proven framework when building your systems rather than trying to reinvent the wheel. This is what our Systems and Staffing Packages do: they’re designed to help you and your team build out your systems and put solid training in place in just a few weeks!
Anticipating Your Numbers
One area that many business owners struggle with is knowing how to use their numbers for effective growth. No judgment – I’ve been there!
When I owned my law firm, I dreaded working with my original CPA. I didn’t really know which reports I should review or how my numbers can help me plan for growth, so I always felt ignorant when I met with him.
One of the first changes I made was to find a new CPA – one that would equip me to understand my numbers and use them effectively. Today, our Financial Coach helps business owners across the country put their Financial Controls in place and use their numbers to strategically grow!
This is such a key step; when you know your numbers and know how to use them, you’ll be prepared to plan for growth in every other area of your business. If you would like to know more about how to put your numbers to work for you, just let us know!