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A step-by-step guide to creating a business growth plan

Business owners and executive teams are constantly monitoring the growth of the company they own or work for. They look ahead and plan for the future by developing growth plans. This attribute is essential for the success of the business in the long term. Not everyone is spontaneously able to step away from their day-to-day activities to plan ahead, but it is a skill that can be taught. This article provides you with the ins and outs of a business growth plan. It also outlines the key steps to creating a business growth plan so that you can forecast revenue growth and look to the future.

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The ins and outs of a business growth plan

‘Growth plan’ is a term often used in the business environment. But what does it mean and why is it so important? The section below answers these questions. It also gives a list of advantages of having a business growth plan.

What is a business growth plan?

Growth in a business doesn’t just happen. It is the result of planned successes, staffing, client retention and much more. A business growth plan aims to anticipate how every aspect of the business will evolve in the mid to long term. It sets goals for the organisation at every level. It should also lay out what needs to happen to achieve those goals.

The importance of business growth plans

Growth is often the desired outcome for businesses. Having a business growth plan will shed some light on how to reach those development goals, including, for example, the following:

      • Increasing annual sales
      • Diversifying and expanding the products or services delivered
      • Taking advantages of new opportunities in the marketplace
      • Attracting new types of customers

A growth plan may also allow the company to anticipate what the market demand will be in the future. As such, it gives guidance on the efforts required for the business to grow its market share or retain its customers.

Growth plans might be at the source of innovations, internal organisational changes, tweaks in services and products and much more, as long as they are all strategic decisions within the plan for the future of the organisation.

Reasons why growth in a business is essential

Apart from the simple desire to grow the business, there are many other reasons why having a growth plan is essential. Some examples include the following:

      • Process efficiencies
      • Reduced costs
      • Stronger position in the market
      • More resilience
      • Anticipation of market turbulences
      • Ability to retain and attract talent

Growth is not always a choice for businesses. Stagnation often means a slow death due to missed opportunities that the competition will be eager to grasp.

The advantages of a business plan

Growing a business presents many advantages. If the growth is strategic and thought through in the long term, it will bring the following advantages:

Minimisation of future risks

Whether the business is a start-up or an established brand in the marketplace, the growth plan will unleash sales potentials and likely boost them. The result will be liquidity, which can be used to tackle unexpected challenges.

Increased market share

A business growth plan looks at the demand and the business positioning in the marketplace versus the competition. It may shed some light on a shift in demand and result in actions that will anticipate these shifts, thus avoiding the loss of market share. These actions might even result in new market penetration.

Tangible revenue planning

If there is a must in a business growth plan, it is the revenue forecast. The plan should aim to gain visibility on the potential revenue in the near to long term. It should also set revenue goals based on research, facts and analysis.

Provide visibility to investors

For businesses with investors, the growth plan will come in handy. The strategy should outline the projected sales and revenue for the coming months and give visibility of the business’ ambitions in the mid to long term.

Steps and tips to developing an effective business growth plan

This section provides business owners with the steps to take when building the business growth plan, along with some valuable tips when doing so.

7 simple steps for an effective growth plan

 Step 1: Define and set your short-, medium- and long-term goals

Defining in detail what the business wants to achieve is critical. This isn’t a general aspiration or a simple revenue target, but instead a granular view of where the organisation wants to be in the future. Anticipating and setting the scene in this way will make the business’ goals concrete, solid and achievable.

Step 2: Prioritise the areas of growth

Growth can mean several things and achieving it might involve actions in various departments of the company. When planning for growth, priorities should be set. They can be placed on a matrix together with the level of effort required to achieve the goal. This will facilitate the selection of priorities and their levels of importance. Dependencies should be clearly highlighted. For example, growth might mean increased sales, but this increase in sales might require investment, with for example the recruitment of new sales representatives or sales training for existing teams.

Step 3: Collect data and conduct market research

As with any thorough strategic analysis, once goals are set, data needs to be collected. This data should recoup internal data and external market research insight. The market audience should be fully understood, as well as the competitive landscape and the overall market conditions.

Step 4: Set your goals and milestones

The combination of steps three and four should allow for setting clear goals. It ensures that they are achievable and provides insight on what will need to take place as part of the growth plan. Often, setting milestones will provide relief and momentum in the project as breaking it into key steps will make it seem more achievable.

Step 5: Define your key performance indicators for growth measurement

Setting up key performance indicators that will allow for the measurement of the actions implemented ensures that the roadmap is on track and effective. Once the roadmap is implemented, KPIs form the measurement of success and aim to evaluate the performance against targets.

Step 6: Create a plan of action to achieve your goals

Creating strategies is the core of the business growth plan. However, it cannot take place without the previous steps. Creating the strategies that are at the heart of the growth plan is like putting together the results of the prioritisation task, the goal setting, the KPI implementation and the data collection exercise. It answers the “So what?” and the “How?”.  At this stage, the strategies might have an impact on the budget assigned and therefore should be supported by data, including forecasting.

Step 7: Deliver the plan

Without this step, goals will not be achieved. Delivering the plan is by far the most fastidious action when it comes to business growth. It requires efforts from the entire organisation. It might result in change management projects, recruitment of new talent, organisational restructuring and much more. It is the implementation of the needed actions to achieve the planned growth.

Growth in a business is a fastidious task that requires the involvement of multiple stakeholders, investment and buy-in from leadership teams and the workforce. Following the 7 simple steps highlighted above gives some structure to business growth and guarantees that the plan is solid, achievable and measurable.

More tips for an effective growth plan

Creating a business growth plan is something that most businesses do. They also review their plan on a regular basis. For these reasons, there is a wealth of tools and tips out there that can help you drive the growth of your business and create the growth plan. Here are some additional tips when creating your plan:

Use predefined growth strategy templates

If the steps highlighted above still present some difficulties, businesses can use some predefined templates for growth strategy.

Define what tools will be needed

Before delivering your plan, it is recommended to assess if tools or technologies will be needed for the teams to deliver on their new goals. Often, the use of technology boosts the implementation of business goals.

Be clear on the funding required

Growth plans need investment. Be clear on the funding that will be needed to deliver the plan. Highlight the risks and the limitations if the budget is not allocated.

For more on business growth, take a look at some of the additional content below:

Business growth is critical to all organisations for their survival in the long term. Planning it using a structured process that is backed by data will assert its value. When creating your growth plan, focus on the steps one by one to avoid paralysis by analysis. This approach will lead to a structured plan that will be easy to understand and adopt.

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