Are You Ready to Grow to the Next Level in 2020?

No doubt you’re ready to kick-ass in 2020. You are full of motivation, drive and energy to make sure that this year is awesome for you personally and professionally. 

Most people treat setting goals like wishing, but how do you turn that wish into a reality?

 Just writing down a goal and talking about it isn’t enough.

So, let me ask you, what actions and plans do you have in place to make it happen?

Do you have a written plan for the actions and steps you will take to scale your business in 2020?

Without it, you will never reach any of your goals. You’ll just go round-and-round in circles, never really reaching the potential within your business.

Goals demand action, you must identify what your goal is, what it looks like and the changes that are needed in the way that you operate so you hit your targets.

The next level 'you' is not the same as the 'you' that you're today.

Your business will evolve as you grow and expand, your culture, methods and message change. You can either make deliberate changes and actions or you can mess around and wing it, hoping it will all come together.

Growth in nature starts at the cellular level, in the depths and hidden corners of your mind. Routines and operations are where growth starts. Growth isn't a big event, but lots of little changes coming together. Layer upon layer things will build and start yielding results.

Momentum.

In the early 2000s, I was working with a large communications group, they had gone from ￡11m turnover to ￡50m in 4 years. As part of that expansion, they bolted in smaller businesses they had bought up. Their culture, communication and focus was a mess. Five profitable businesses combined turned into a loss-making group.

Why? The expanded group didn't do any work to build a common focus. Sales teams would get work to meet quota and the business grew, just not profitably.

A year later, the group folded and with hundreds were out of work. Growth at any cost, without any plan or any internal work, is stupid and dangerous.

Out of control, unplanned growth is very much like cancer because it can poison the whole business. It can grow the business in the wrong ways, which can make the rest of the business sick. Bad growth can destroy cash-flow, morale and profitability. More business doesn’t always mean more profit.

Growth in the right markets, at the right pace and in the right markets is deliberate. It is intentional growth and the business is geared up for it.

If I asked a room full of business owners, do they think growing a business should be planned and systematic, pretty much everyone would agree. Yet, if I went to many of those same business owners’ offices, you would be hard-pressed to find a plan or system functioning to deliver business growth. Plans are often paid lip-service and not actioned.

Your growth as a business is not external, it starts with the internal parts.

If you want real long-lasting business expansions, it isn’t about tricks, tech and hacks. That will only get you so far. It is about building a structure, culture and system to expand.

That is true whether you are a solopreneur or a business behemoth.

Growth starts on the inside.