We are working with a small company who have ambitious plans to grow their business, which is in a niche market with substantial potential. We introduced them to our business development service earlier this year and worked closely with the owners to clarify their ambitions and to understand what they ultimately wanted to get from the business.
With clear business and personal goals established, we worked together to clarify the main financial drivers of the business, and starting with the data from the previous year, looked at what could be achieved if changes were made to these growth drivers.
We settled on a 75% growth strategy – i.e. 75% increase in turnover and profit and a 5-fold increase in cash in the bank. This was felt by the client to be very ambitious as the previous year’s growth had been significantly less than that.
We meet monthly to review the numbers for the last month and the year to date. We examine all the growth-drivers and compare actual result to targets. Any areas which are behind target are reviewed and, if necessary, amended or new SMART actions are agreed. The process is reviewed each month at our regular meetings.
At just beyond the six-month stage the business is ahead of target and on track to achieve an 80-85% growth this year – ahead of our ambitious targets at the start of the year.
As we said to this client, the next step will be tax planning and an exit strategy!
