We are now half way through the first month of 2025 but I have only just returned to work. I’m not sure if it’s the post Christmas blues, the dark mornings or the fact that I allow myself to push every new goal to this month, but I bloody hate January! Due to this I always try to go away after Christmas for some sun, which I was lucky enough to do this year, but regardless of what I do I have to come back to work, get motivated and kick start the year.
For years I have been providing advice to small and medium businesses on how to grow.
To help you self-motivate in this god awful month and achieve whatever it is you want from your business in 2025, here are my 5 tips:
1. Make a Plan
My business belief structure sounds more serious than it is, but I do have one. Mine has been developed over 25 years and the basics never change. Most business owners enter a calendar and financial year wanting to grow. The simple fact is unless you are lucky, you can’t just grow a business; you have to plan for it! Now I’m not talking a war and peace business strategy here… in fact I prefer the word plan as I can spell that (thank God for spell check!). If you want to create sustainable growth within your business, you must have a plan, and that plan must be broken down to deliver daily impact. My belief is small steps quickly, generate real and sustainable growth.
My advice is to spend at least a day or even a few days with you and your team if you have one and fix firm objectives of what you want from 2025 and agree how and who are going to do them. If you don’t have a team, check out the Small Business Mentoring sessions I offer. If you do, ensure each person, including you makes time within their working day to work on tasks which align with the objectives. My core belief is activity leads to revenue, unless you are doing something wrong so making sure all activity aligns with your 2025 objectives will keep you on track.
2. Keep it Simple
Ok, so I am a business consultant, and consultants are famous for over complicating things and talking in a way that us mere business owners don’t understand. Well, that’s not us. RBC was founded and is run by people who have learnt on the job. We don’t have MBA’s but we do have a ton of hands on, relevant business experience.
Due to this, our approach when advising on growth is keep it simple. Yes, we all want to take over mankind and be rich but that isn’t going to happen in 1,2 or 3 years unless you’re Elon Musk. Rome wasn’t built in a day but if you keep it simple you will be surprised what you can build in a year!
The more you plan to achieve, the less achievable it becomes, so start with setting 5 core objectives that you want to deliver in 2025. Obviously, these must be linked into growth but don’t always think that has to be sales related. In 2020 I owned an IT business in Manchester which I wanted to sell. That year the majority of the focus was based on delivery growth as I knew I couldn’t grow the top or bottom line if I didn’t have the infrastructure to handle it. Hey presto, we achieved this and sold in July 2022 as the increased sales could be delivered.
I advise you take time to work on your 5 objectives and not a business plan. Shape them around what you need from that year. A 3 or 5 year plan is important and if you have one, use elements of this for 2025 so you work towards achieving the bigger goal.
3. Set a Revenue Budget
Setting a revenue target isn’t really a tip, it’s a you will NOT grow if you don’t focus on delivering it. The number of businesses I work with who look back at what they have done instead of focusing on what they need to do is surprising.
My favourite task in any project is setting the revenue budget. I left school with a E in maths, so you don’t have to be an economist to do this. I start by setting the annual figure and then breaking it down. Another one of my beliefs is that if you bury your face in your business, it tells you what to do. So, I start by using the historical performance from the business, identifying the revenue streams and then map trends. I use this and add some educated aspiration and hey presto you have a budget. I then map the revenue trend (what comes in and when) to set monthly targets. My annual plan will always link into the revenue target as if you want more, you either have to do more or charge more.
Setting revenue budgets and strategies is my absolute favourite job so if you run a business and want help, feel free to contact me directly!
4. Ensure you Have an Activity Plan
In the 19 years I have been running RBC there is one common denominator when a business is struggling for sales; they are not doing enough activity. I’m sure everyone who works with me gets fed up with me saying “activity leads to revenue” but its true! In my opinion you will not grow unless you plan to do so, and to do this you must plan and deliver activity - it is crucial! That can be done in many ways, and I always suggest you look inside as well as out. My order is current, past and then new customer activity. You may think this is strange BUT it costs less to generate work from customers you have a relationship with than it does to implement outbound campaigns. Make sure your 2025 plan is underpinned with activity to achieve your 2025 revenue target, and you won’t fail!
5. Review and Refocus Regularly!
So now you have your plan, and you have your two sets of targets but don’t think it will just work. A key to growing your business is allowing yourself time to work “on” it and not just “in” it. This means you have to take an active role in managing your growth. I do this by reviewing the performance on a regular basis. I do look backwards to see what we have done but I also look forwards to see what our future pipeline looks like, how our activity is performing, and tracking if we are on target to hit our goals.
The key aspect here is strangely negative, as if we are on target and performing, I get on with my day job of implementing the plan. If we are not then I stop, identify why and either change tact or sort the issue. Realistically, plans never really go to plan…there are so many external issues that impact. My advice is review and refocus. Deal with the big things that matter, things that impact on revenue, cost or implementation. If you have an underperformer, deal with it quickly as they cost money and time. If your marketing isn’t working, stop, review and refocus.
I spend at least 3 hours a week reviewing my business and I’m busy but at least doing this means I’m not a busy fool.
At RBC we love helping owner led businesses grow so if you want the best 2025 and need some help, send us an email!
