Why it is important to think about tomorrow

During a recent discussion with a client, I was asked how could they go about more deliberately starting to grow their business?

They have made a conscious decision that they want to grow their business but weren’t sure where and how to start. Now if you’ve been reading our recent emails you will have various ideas about how to get your growth started. Covering ideas such as routes to market, understanding what role you play in scaling up your business and understanding how important it is to build an effective management team to help you.

However, as the conversation developed, they asked very interesting questions: what factors should I consider when developing a plan?

This is an interesting consideration; in short, there are both external and internal factors that will influence your ability to deliver your growth.

The external factors to consider are around both the microeconomic climate – what is happening in the local area that may impact my plans. Or the wider macro-impact, that will need to be considered.

From an internal perspective it is perhaps useful to initially identify the market opportunities; so, understanding the various routes to your customers is a good starting point.

Once you have this, start thinking about:

• How you can access these opportunities?
• What are the customer’s needs? And does your offer reflect this?
• Are you delivering a message that reflects both the customer’s needs and your market offering?

Once this initial activity is complete, ask yourself does your business have the skillset to deliver what you have identified as an opportunity?

If the answer is no – be honest with yourself, you will need to bridge that gap, this may mean more resource, it may mean more training, or it may simply need more of your time in getting your offer or product to a point where it meets the needs of the customer.

Once you are happy to move forward, you can get started. However, be deliberate in your actions – it may be a good idea to write a plan: what needs to happen when and who is going to do it.

Most importantly – hold yourself accountable and regularly review your progress and re-appraise where you are against your original objectives.

Our team at BHP Consulting have all successfully run businesses, and we understand that every business is unique. Our practical approach to supporting our clients enables us to share our real-world experience to positively impact the performance of your business. To arrange a call or an exploratory face-to-face meeting, please click here.