Mapping out a much bigger business

As the CEO of multiple companies in the past, I always found it helpful to consider this question:

“What would we have to do to 2-3X our business?”

To do this, would we go horizontal (more product lines) or vertical (increased sales of existing products/services/programs)?

What would need to change in our business to support this growth? Why? What would that cost? What would our marketing need to look like? What kind of lead volume would we need and how would we get those leads? What would have to change with sales, customer service, etc, etc.

One question that should be nested within this exercise: How much of this could we do with existing resources? This is an especially revealing question. Because it tells you where you’re over-resourced currently. But then it gives you an idea as to where you might be able to drive growth without too much added expense. Some businesses are very linear in how they grow, and so you might not find much here. But for others, sometimes you find a little gold.

Disclaimer: It’s a lot easier to go from $300k to $1M than it is to go from $3M to $9M.

Doubling or tripling each year becomes harder and harder. And so companies who are already at a good size often spend all of their time thinking about incremental growth. How do we get another 10-20%? How do we go from $10M to $12M?

I get that. But even if 100% growth is a laughable idea…and you just “know” that the cash needed to pull it off would be gargantuan, and the logistics of it all would crush your company…

…do it anyway.

Go through the exercise.

Doing so will usually shed some light on great growth ideas, operational holes, areas you can exploit, and more.

You’ll find it to be a valuable exercise even if you have no intention of really seeing it through.

Maybe through the process you’ll even start to feel more confident in growing more than 10-20%.

While we're here, I want to tell you about something we're doing next week.

If you've followed my writing/work for long, you know I’m a big proponent of diversification in your business model.

When you have a few different revenue streams, you are protected if one slows down.

More times than not, it allows you to grow significantly. Because you have more things to offer more people and thus, get a bigger chunk of your market.

One of the easiest ways to do this is by offering coaching/consulting.

If you already do that, you’re still going to want to hear about this. Because it’s probably different than the way you do it. As such, it will be a new model and revenue stream to easily bolt on.

One of my colleagues has a great framework for a specific type of coaching offer that gets results unlike any I’ve ever seen. It’s great because anybody can do it. And it’s easy to sell because it’s a no-brainer offer…and yet it’s still high margin.

Next week I’m going to share more details with you.

For now, I just wanted to give you a heads up. And if you aren’t interested in diversifying and adding a new revenue stream…feel free to ignore it next week. :)

Hope your year is off to a great start!

Josh

Josh Turner

Multiple times Inc 500 + 5000, WSJ Bestselling author, dad, #LetsGoBlues, top LinkedIn expert, helping small businesses get more leads and clients online.