Create a growth plan

Create a plan to help you achieve growth for your business.

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Introduction 1. What is a growth plan? 2. Planning for growth 3. Goal setting 4. Iterating your growth plan

Introduction to 'Create a growth plan'

If you've been planning to grow your business, a business growth plan is key. You can use it to create an actionable path to achieve your goals. In this course we'll discuss what business growth plans are, why they're important, and how you can write one for your business.

What you'll learn

  • How to plan and prepare for growth.
  • Steps to setting achievable growth goals.
  • How to start building a sustainable growth plan.

How long it takes

25 minutes

Chapter 1 - What is a growth plan?

What is a growth plan?

Chapter 1

How long it takes

3 minutes

Growth plans are different for everyone

If you want to grow your business, your growth goals need to be both achievable and sustainable. A growth plan helps you to clarify the objectives, tactics, and resources you'll need  to achieve this kind of growth within a set timeframe. Your plan should be your roadmap. It should detail the steps you need to grow no matter your goal, whether it's expanding , increasing revenues, or enhancing performance. Growth plans are important for all business sizes. They provide a framework for decision-making that helps to always align you with your goals.

 

A growth plan:

  • Builds on strong business foundations and enables you to grow your business sustainably.
  • Helps you look at each aspect of your business and set specific goals.
  • Allows you to calculate the resources you will need.
  • Helps you understand your key opportunities for growth.
  • Describes how you'll embed these methods in your business through change management and communications.

 

When you use a growth plan successfully you'll be more likely to achieve controlled and successful growth.

Remember

There's no right way to grow. It's completely individual to your business and your goals.

What are the benefits of a growth plan?

There are five key benefits to consider. Select each one to learn more.

  • Knowing how people engage with their favourite brands and what influences them to buy are key to growing a successful online business. For example, your research may find that 55% online search for reviews and recommendations, or that 47% visited the company website.

    According to McKinsey "those companies that set growth strategies to address all available pathways to growth are 97 percent more likely to achieve profitable above-peer growth."

  • Growth plans help businesses stay agile and adapt to changing market conditions. This means they can seize new opportunities and stay competitive.

  • A well-structured growth plan can inspire confidence in investors, lenders, partners, and customers, as it demonstrates the business's commitment to long-term success.

    Taking time to define a clear growth plan helps when you're looking for funding. It will show investors the likelihood of future profits and success.

  • A growth plan should include strategies for boosting sales, which directly impacts revenue and profitability. This means setting out ideas on how to attract more customers, spot other sources of revenue and ways to increase income and reduce costs.

  • Growth plans help businesses prioritise and allocate resources effectively, ensuring that efforts are directed towards the most critical and impactful areas.

    When you build a growth plan, you'll look at all aspects of your business operations. As you do this, there will be opportunities to spot chances to  improve performance. For example, using automation to streamline admin tasks. This frees up your time. Targeted marketing is another example. It can save time and money, while helping you reach the right customers for your new product.

Introduction - Create a growth plan
Chapter 2 - Planning for growth

Planning for growth

Chapter 2

How long it takes

14 minutes

Looking for growth opportunities

 

There are three core parts of your business strategy you should keep in mind when looking for growth opportunities:

Part 1

Your business goals and values.

Part 2

Your vision and mission statement.

Part 3

Your unique selling point (USP).

Carry out a 'SWOT' analysis

You'll need to bear your overall strategy in mind when setting goals for your growth. As part of this, we recommend you carry out a 'SWOT' analysis. This is a strategic planning tool used by businesses, organisations, and individuals to assess their current situation and identify areas for improvement or growth. 

 

What does 'SWOT' stand for?

Strengths

Internal attributes that give you a competitive advantage.

Weaknesses

Internal limitations or areas for improvement.

Opportunities

External factors you can exploit to gain a competitive advantage.

Threats

External factors that can negatively impact your business.

Let's look at some typical examples.

Strengths

  • Skilled employees with expertise in their field.
  • A strong brand that customers recognise and trust.
  • Unique products/services that set your business apart from others.

Weaknesses

  • Outdated technology that slows down operations.
  • High employee turnover leading to a loss of skilled workers.
  • Lack of specific expertise that is key to staying competitive.

Opportunities

  • Emerging markets with a growing demand for your products/services.
  • New technologies that can improve efficiency.
  • Consumer trends that create new needs the business can meet.

Threats

  • Increased competition from other businesses.
  • Economic downturns that reduce consumer spending.
  • New regulations that impose additional costs or restrictions on your operations.

To make sure these help your overall strategy, it’s a good idea to focus on finding SWOT aspects that are related to your goals. For example, say you want to increase your revenue. You would focus on the aspects of your business that currently help you with this, the weaknesses that are current blockers, the new opportunities you have to do this and any external factors that may stop you from achieving your goals.

It’s a good idea to consider SWOT for each of your business goals, as well as your vision, mission and USP. This will help make sure you’re working towards your future vision with every growth plan decision you make.

 

SWOT example - A bakery:

Strength examples

  • High quality baked goods hand-made daily.
  • Friendly and knowledgeable staff.

Weakness examples

  • Lack of gluten-free and vegan options.
  • Limited seating capacity.

Opportunity examples

  • Offering baking classes of workshops.
  • Opening additional locations.

Threat examples

  • Rising cost of ingredients.
  • Seasonal fluctuations in demand.

Activity

Take some time now to start your SWOT analysis. Aim to find 1-3 of each.

Look at your business goals and align your SWOT with them.

Chapter 1 - What is a growth plan?
Chapter 3 - Goal setting

Goal setting

Chapter 3

How long it takes

7 minutes

Turning your SWOT into problems and opportunities

A problem statement

Is a description of an issue or weakness that needs to be addressed or improved on.

 

From our bakery example:

"The bakery has challenges around limited seating capacity and a lack of gluten-free or vegan options in their menu. This could stop them from reaching more customers, which may lead to reduced revenue and growth.”

An opportunity statement

Is a description of a desired outcome that might come from taking opportunities to grow

 

From our bakery example:

"The bakery has an opportunity to expand the business by offering baking classes or workshops. This could be a way to build an additional revenue stream and reduce the risk of seasonal sales fluctuations."

Setting goals

From your statements, it should become much clearer what the focus of your goals should be.

Let’s take our bakery example. The bakery has an opportunity to enhance its market position and attract a wider range of customers by addressing its current limitations. By expanding the menu to include gluten-free and vegan options, the bakery can cater to a more diverse clientele.

Your focus areas here look like a change of target market, development of new products, plus potential for new marketing techniques to reach your new market.

As you’re turning these into goals, we recommend using the SMART method to create clear, well-defined growth goals. These are easier to meet and track.

 

SMART goals should be:

  • Goals should be clear and ideally focus on one area. They should set out a specific action you are going to take. For example - Increase sales.

  • You must be able to measure the success of your goal. This means setting targets to track progress. For example - Increase sales by 50%. You can then say without doubt whether or not you have achieved this, using data.

  • It's good to stretch your business to be better. At the same time, goals should be realistic. They should reflect the resources, skills and time you have or can get.

    For example - You might lower your target to 25% after reflecting on how hard 50% would be for your business to achieve. It can be helpful to look at your track record. If you've only been increasing sales by 10% each year, how realistic is it to expect 50% with extra focus?

  • Goals should always align with your overall mission. This ensures that everything you do helps you get closer to your long-term vision.

    Always consider if there's anything you can add to a goal to help achieve your long-term goal. If you're increasing your sales, how can you do so safely, sustainably, or in other ways that better reflect your purpose.

  • Goals should have a specific deadline. For example - Increase sales by 25% by the end of the year, without lowering our customer experience score.

Activity

Take some time to turn your problem and opportunity statements into SMART goals. 

Need help getting started? Here's an example: "The bakery has an opportunity to expand the business through offering baking classes or workshops to generate additional revenue streams."

This could be turned into the SMART goal: "Increase revenue by 20% by the end of the year and reduce risks through expanding from a single revenue stream by offering workshops and baking lessons in addition to baked goods."

Chapter 2 - Planning for growth
Chapter 4 - Iterating your growth plan

Iterating your growth plan

Chapter 4

How long it takes

1 minute

Turning your goals into a roadmap

Now you have your goals, you can start to consider how different methods of growth might help achieve them. We have lessons on lots of different growth options - from using digital skills to grow to reshaping your target market and using innovation techniques to grow. 

Things to think about as you grow

What you have now is a list of potential growth goals. You'll turn this into a plan as you go. The big benefit of the work you have already done, is that you now have a laser focus on achieving your vision and mission through growth. Don’t be afraid to change things, adapt them and improve as you learn more. This whole process is to equip and test your thinking to make sure you create the most robust growth plan possible.

As you come across things that could become an issue, it’s a good idea to write down these risks. Doing this as you see them means that you're less likely to miss something that could become a blocker to growth later on. This helps you to manage your risks without being too distracting.

As you consider different elements of how you’ll grow, note what needs funding . When it comes to creating your funding plan and looking at sources of funding, you’ll already have made a start.

Given your goals are SMART goals, you should have specific enough views on what you’re trying to achieve. This means you should have an indication of how you’ll measure the success of your growth. Track this as you go. This helps you check your growth progress.

For now, you’re taking this journey on behalf of your business. It’s okay if you don’t have all the answers. Asking your team and others for help, support and opinions can really help make your growth plan better. Remember, your growth plan is and should be unique to your business and goals. So, though it’s helpful to work with and network with your peers, make sure you’re always doing the right thing for you.

Chapter 3 - Goal setting

Want to learn more?

Planning and growth

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Marketing strategy

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