Setting your business up for revenue growth

Written By Flavio Hangarter

A Business Without A Vision Is Like Exploring A Foreign City Without A Map. You’re Bound To Miss Some Awesome Spots.

It’s been a few months since I published my whitepaper: The Bootstrapper’s Guide To Business Development. In it, I propose a framework that helps founders to get more customers, generate revenue and become attractive investments.

The uptake and conversations this has sparked have been incredible; however, like anything informative, knowledge alone isn’t enough to create change; it’s about execution. 

And from my seven years working in tech accelerators, I have learned that most founders and their teams don’t execute as they don’t know where to start - I plan to change that.

And today I want to share with you the projects that you can action to generate traction in your business. 

At the end of the paper, I introduced the growth cube, comprising nine key projects that accelerate the development of businesses.

Each project was leading back to influence one of the key action points of either strategy, structure or scale. Today I wanted to touch on the vision and strategy part as it is one of the most crucial projects that influences revenue growth. 

 So where do you start?

It’s like building a house.

You can’t start doing the interior design to begin with, i.e. put up walls and start decorating with how you want it to look. It wouldn’t be strong enough to withstand the environment long term.

Instead, you need to start with the designs of how the finished build will look. Then create a plan to begin building (executing) the house. Creating the vision and strategy is an important step that will dictate how much of a foundation you must develop to support the image of your final build.

Referring back to the analogy… Are you building an apartment complex to increase your investment portfolio or developing a lifestyle block to live in? Depending on your vision, the plan and execution will change.

1. Build a vision of where you want to go and your purpose - (Why)

Your vision is what sells your entire concept to your team, stakeholders and yourself. It becomes the image that allows people to envisage what you are building. Think of a 3D model or wireframes that give a rough idea of the development. It shows what you’re creating before its ready. 

So ask yourself: What do your next five years look like? Where do you see yourself and your business heading?

2. Create a roadmap/ traction model - (What)

Your roadmap lays out the performance milestones that need to be achieved and to help you to measure your progress towards your vision. When I work on a new project with clients, after creating a visualisation of the vision, the next step is organising the traction model/roadmap to demonstrate how the client will get there. 

Imagine a three-year timeline that shows what you’ll deliver on and the milestones you look to reach, such as customer numbers, product feature releases, market expansions, feature rollouts and of course, revenue. 

3. Design a scalable business model that’ll show you how to get there - (How)

Once you completed your traction model, it is essential to align your team to understand exactly how you will achieve the numbers played out in your roadmap to achieve your vision. An audit of your current business model will tell you whether your vision and milestones are achievable with your existing business model. 

The challenge often is to create a business model that is genuinely scalable so that you can grow your business without infrastructure constraints down the track. Designing a scalable business model will allow you to increase revenue while keeping costs down and create a profitable business. 

Keep in mind that your business model can change over time; it’s never fixed, and it should continuously adapt to the changes happening around you.

Start by taking a snapshot of what it is today and what it could like in three years to achieve your vision. 

You can get yourself a copy of the Bootstrapper's Guide To Business Development at my site: www.flaviohangarter.com

Written by Flavio Hangarter - Flavio is a business development expert and helps technology founders and teams to rapidly build sales and marketing capabilities.

This article originally appeared on https://www.flaviohangarter.com/blog/set-a-new-direction-for-your-business