Growth Academy – what’s the destination for your business?

As part of our recently launched Growth Academy programme, in partnership with Paul McCarthy of ActionCOACH Worthing, we are covering the 6 steps to a better business.

Destination

Destination focuses in on one of the Mastery arms of the 6 steps to a better business. The idea behind the ‘6 steps’ is that they act as building blocks to create a business that can function and thrive without you. This allows you, as the business owner, to work on the business rather than in it.

Growth mindset

Before considering the destination for your business, it’s important to understand the mindset required for setting effective goals. To set goals that strive for success within your business, a growth mindset is essential.

This means believing that your skills and abilities, as well as the capacity and the potential of the business, can be continually developed.

You will need to embrace change and failure as part of your journey. View any setbacks as a learning opportunity; this shift will allow you to take calculated risks.

Ultimate destination

Next, you can think about the ultimate destination of your business – what does it look like when it’s finished? What is your end in mind?

Consider all factors, such as:

• location
• wealth
• personal experience
• time
• size of your company
• turnover
• profit

This will give you as comprehensive an outlook on what you want to achieve as possible.

Vision

Once you know what you want your business to look like when it’s finished, you then need to interpret that in a way that your team, clients and potential clients can understand to truly get behind your business.

This is where the vision, mission and values of your business come in. Being crystal clear on these is central to your business moving forward. These provide the drive behind your business plan.

So many business owners think they have a plan all mapped out in their head, but establishing these on paper can provide huge clarity for you. It can really define what your business is about, helping to shape the direction you take it in.

Setting clear goals

When you are clear on these three aspects, you can begin creating clear goals for the next 1-5 years. This allows you to take into account both long and short-term aims. In the programme, we use the Vision Orbit strategic planning tool to break down the goal-setting process. Each ring of the ‘orbit’ represents a time period in which to achieve said goals.

Other goal-setting techniques include ensuring each goal is SMART – Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-Based. This will immediately lay the groundwork for getting better results.

What is equally important to goal-setting is how to measure your performance to see if you are on track to achieve those goals. Testing and measuring everything you do within your business will enable you to hold yourself accountable for the progress you have made. It also allows you to easily see what is and isn’t working within your business plan. This provides the opportunity for you to fine-tune processes or make efficient change.

What is the Growth Academy?

Our new Growth Academy programme is designed to help small business owners. We teach a practical, relevant, tailor-made business growth strategy, aimed at driving more profit into your business.

Join us for the next session

In the next Growth Academy session, Paul will be focusing in more depth on Time. While you may not be able to manage time itself, you can manage yourself within the time you have. How can you get the most out of your time and make your business run more efficiently?

To find out more about Growth Academy, please don’t hesitate to contact Paul at paulmccarthy@actioncoach.com.