Aligning Your Numbers: Why Consistency is Key in Business Growth

The Cost of Misalignment

Imagine a business owner who sets a goal of gaining 1,000 customers this year. Their business plan reflects this, but their marketing campaigns aim for 10,000 customers. Meanwhile, their operations team is only prepared to handle 500. What happens?

?? Frustration. Missed opportunities. Financial strain.

This type of misalignment—where different parts of your business operate on conflicting numbers—is more common than you think. It leads to wasted marketing spend, overwhelmed teams, and customers slipping through the cracks.

Let’s break down the most common misalignments and how to fix them.

1. Strategic Planning: Are Your Numbers Backing You Up?

You have a vision. A well-thought-out plan. But somewhere along the way, execution stalls. Why? Because your numbers didn’t match your strategy.

Misalignment Warning Signs:

• Your strategy calls for resources you can’t afford.
• You launch an initiative but don’t have the cash flow to sustain it.
• Your execution is flawless, but the results aren’t what you expected—because the numbers didn’t add up from the start.

?? Fix It:

? Align strategy with financial reality. Model your plan based on projected revenue, budget, and cash flow—not just assumptions.

? Test before you scale. Before going all in, create a financial model to see if your strategy produces the expected results.

2. Are Your Customer Numbers Aligned?

Many business owners set different customer goals across different areas:

• Business plan projects 1,000 customers.
• Marketing is built to attract 10,000.
• Operations is only prepared for 500.

This gap creates bottlenecks, customer dissatisfaction, and financial stress.

?? Expert Insight: Tara McMullin, Business Strategist, says: "Misalignment in business often happens when we create offers for imaginary customers instead of real ones. Pricing, marketing, and strategy should be based on actual data, not just what we ‘hope’ will work."

How to Fix It:

? Start with your capacity. How many customers can you handle efficiently right now?

? Align marketing with reality. If you’re structured for 500, don’t market for 10,000.

? Plan for scaling. If growth is the goal, set a roadmap for how marketing, operations, and sales will scale together.

3. Pricing & Branding: What Are You Communicating?

Your price isn’t just a number—it’s a signal.

Big Mistake:

Being the cheapest option. Competing on price is a race to the bottom.

There are seven factors that go into pricing, and one of them is perception. Your prices should align with your branding. If you claim to be a premium service but charge bargain-bin prices, customers won’t believe you can deliver on your promise.

Your content—social media posts, emails, website copy—should attract your ideal customers. If you’re getting price objections or inquiries from the wrong audience, your messaging might be off.

?? Denise Duffield-Thomas, Money Mindset Coach, emphasizes: "Your pricing should reflect the level of transformation your product or service delivers. If you undercharge, you’ll attract people who don’t value the work."

How to Fix It:

? Price strategically. Don’t just set a price—position it. Does it reflect quality, exclusivity, or affordability?

? Look at your current audience. Are they engaging but not buying? You might be attracting the wrong crowd.

? Match your content tone to your pricing. A luxury brand should not use discount-heavy language.

? Be confident. The right customers will pay for value. The wrong ones will walk away—and that’s okay.

4. Long-Term Goals: Are You Building the Right Business?

TIME

How much time do you want to spend in your business? Are you building a business that aligns with that?

For example, I wanted to travel, so I created a digital business that I can run about half the time, allowing me to continue my slowmad lifestyle.

IMPACT

What impact do you want to have? Keep your impact goals in mind as you grow so you can put initiatives in place without overstretching yourself.

Cheri wanted to create an apprenticeship program in her communications business to help youth gain skills. She believed she could offset costs by offering lower prices in exchange for interns doing the work. But her miscalculation cost her. Instead of freeing up time, she had to spend extra hours supervising interns—taking her away from higher-value work. The result? A business model that didn’t align with her revenue or impact goals.

Moving forward, she made sure to hire experienced communicators and when her business had capacity, she wove in a couple of intern positions.

?? Fix It:

? Be realistic about capacity. If you want to work part-time, don’t build a business that requires 60-hour weeks.

? Plan for impact. Want to give back? Make sure your business is structured to support initiatives without sacrificing revenue.

The Big Takeaway: Align, Then Grow

Growth happens when all parts of your business are working toward the same goal, with the same numbers in mind. Misalignment leads to wasted effort and missed revenue.

Your Next Step:

1?? Audit your numbers. Where are your customer, pricing, and marketing numbers misaligned?

2?? Adjust accordingly. Make small tweaks now to prevent big problems later.

3?? Take action. What’s one area of misalignment you’ll fix today? Comment below or reach out—I’d love to help you streamline your strategy!