contents · growing your business, there is a high risk of being overtaken by competitors, even if...

CONTENTS

Introduction 2

From survival to stabilisation 3

How to grow 4

It starts with you 7

The IX7 Business Growth Model:

Stage 1 - Stabilise

Customers 8

Cashlow 9

People 10

Stage 2 -Align Values

Purpose 11

Culture 11

Story 12

Stage 3 -Clarify the vision

Direction 13

Goals 13

Measures 14

Stage 4 -Map the strategy

Roadmap 15

Value proposition 16

Brand 16

Stage 5 -Execution

Delivery 17

Processes 18

Systems 19

Stage 6 -Investment

Products and services 20

People 21

Platform 21

Stage 7 - Scale

Marketing 23

Sales 24

Partnerships 25

1

THE 7 STEPS TO

BUSINESS GROWTH

THERE ARE

ONLY TWO

STATES A

BUSINESS

CAN EVER

BE IN:

growth or decline. Let me explain.

A business operates in an eco-system

of businesses. Resources are limited.

Where one business coasts, another

business forges ahead. If you’re not

constantly evolving, developing and

growing your business, there is a high

risk of being overtaken by competitors,

even if you don’t see a decline in your

own business.

The solution, however, is not to ‘go for

growth’ without proper planning.

Scaling up a weak model will only

prove to augment any issues you’re

facing and bring a potential collapse

forwardintime.Thekeyistoirst

stabilise the business, strengthen the

foundations, invest in your assets and

then scale.

In this paper, then, I outline the 7

stages needed to scale a rich, asset

based business, strategically and

consistently.

2

FROM SURVIVAL

TO STABILISATION

THERE ARE

ONLY TWO

STATES A

BUSINESS

CAN EVER

BE IN:

growth or decline. Let me explain.

In a start up, nothing is secure. You

have a great idea and often a powerful

vision but resources are scant. Every

day is about survival and all of your

decisions are made on this basis.

Often, the leader is inexperienced -

you don’t know what you don’t know.

Day after day, you forge ahead in a

mix of drive, confusion and hope,

adjusting everything in the business to

make it work, to get through the day.

Doubtishighandyouindyourself

asking: “will we make it?”.

Then, one day, something happens:

things fall into place. That customer

renews their contract, you hire an

operations manager, you outsource

your accounting, you scramble a

week’s holiday. Suddenly, your

proposition is clear, your routes to

market are strengthening and your

business is beginning to stabilise.

As this stage, your sights shift from

‘survival’ to ‘growth’. The energy is high

and the momentum is building.

3

HOW

TO GROW

IN

BUSINESS

YOU NEED

TWO THINGS

TO GROW:

scalability & agility

SCALE

Scale happens when you are able to

get more output from the system you

have built, without increasing the size

of that system. It from comes:

1.

utilising your platform – the core

systems and processes - the machine

if you will; and from,

2.

leveraging your assets - those

intangible things that add true value

to your business such as your culture,

your brand, your customer base, your

channels and your expertise

Both are used in a bid to drive up

sales,revenueandproitability.

AGILITY

Agility, by contrast, is more akin

to the start up culture you will

remember from those early days; it’s

about adjusting your system to stay

competitive and this could be in the

form of a change to your market

positioning, the introduction of new

products or, even, letting go of

clientswhoarenotproitable.It’s

about responding to the changes

in the market.

4

HOW

TO GROW

THE DIFFERENCE

Scalability and agility are not the same

thing.

Scalability is about leveraging your

platform and assets to grow. It’s

about adding more revenue without

increasing the operational cost of

your business: it’s about getting more

from what you already have. It’s about

growth.

Agility is about adapting to the coarse

landscape of business, it’s about

changing your operating model to stay

competitive. It’s about survival.

5

“WE

BELIEVE

THAT

COLLABORATION

MAKES

BUSINESS

GROWTH

LIMITLESS”

6

IT STARTS

WITH YOU

GROWING A

BUSINESS IS

NOT AN

ACCIDENTAL

OCCURRENCE, it must happen by design.

As a leader / owner in your business,

everything starts with you: the vision,

the values, the behaviours, the

direction, the pace. Growing a

business is not an accidental

occurrence, it must happen by

design.

One thing leaders often misjudge

isthediferencebetweenscalinga

business and remaining agile;

between growth and survival. You

can’t have one without the other, but

you can’t do both at the same time.

If you’re turning over £1m in revenue,

for example, but you keep losing

customers, or team members, or your

product is getting bad reviews, it’s time

to stop scaling and starting adjusting.

You can’t scale a poor model – cracks

will form and problems will magnify.

It is for this reason that ‘stabilise’

appearsirstintheIX7Business

Growth Model, and it is our view that

a business leader should seek to

stabilise the business before and after

all periods of rapid growth.

In this white paper, then, I will talk

you through the 7 stages of the IX7

Business Growth Model.

7

THE IX7

BUSINESS GROWTH MODEL

STAGE 1:

STABILISE

Theirstpriorityofbusinessgrowthis

to prepare your business for growth,

and this means stabilising key aspects

of your business model.

If you have issues in the business

around performance, motivation,

productquality,cashlowetc.the

answer is not ‘growth’. Adding ‘more’

to a machine that isn’t working is only

going to cause more problems, new

problems, BIGGER problems.

So,theirststageistoperformafull

and rigorous MOT on your business.

Understand its strengths, weaknesses,

opportunities and threats and focus on

levelling out the ups and downs.

There are three key elements to

consider in this stage.

CUSTOMERS

Your customers are the reason

you’re here. They pay your wages,

they provide the fuel for growth and

they build your brand through their

commentary. If they’re not happy,

you’regoingtofacesigniicant

problems as you grow.

It’s really important, then, before you

begin to scale, to ensure you have a

happy customer base. Start with your

biggest,priorityaccountsirst,orby

addressing the customer segment of

yourlargest/moreproitableline.If

there are grumbles, don’t sweep them

under the carpet: address them. The

chances are that if you address the big

grumblesirst,orthegrumblesofthe

larger,moreinluentialcustomerbase,

you will likely address the concerns

of many of your smaller accounts or

segments too.

THE

QUESTION:

What must you stop, start and

continue in order to delight your

most valuable clients or customer

base?

8

THE IX7


CASHFLOW

Revenueisvanity,proitissanity

andcashlowisreality.Youmight

haveheardthephrasebefore.Iirst

came across it in Hilary Devey’s

autobiography “Bold as Brass’ and it’s

stuck with me ever since. How true

this is. There is no point turning over

£5m if it costs you £5m just to do it!

Cashlowcanbeanincredibly

important indicator of what is or isn’t

working in your business, and it often

hints at structural problems around:

1.

Fee structures (not charging enough /

not accounting for hidden costs such

as marketing or training)

2.

Productivity (projects overrunning,

machines not at capacity)

3.

Sales and marketing (bringing in

the wrong type or customer, or not

enough of the right customers)

Adding in more sales isn’t always the

solution, when the problem might be

the fact that the team is constantly

running over budget.

Spend some time with your

accountant and go through the

numbers in detail. Understand where

the risks and issues are and be brave

and face them.

THE

QUESTION:

What strengths, weaknesses,

opportunities and threats does

yourcashlowreveal?

9

THE IX7


PEOPLE

The people in your business are your

most important asset. When you have

a competent, motivated and aligned

team of people who share the same

values and are all pushing in the

same direction, there is no limit as

to where you can go as a team, as a

business.

It’s so important, then, to make sure

every single person is happy on

an individual level, and that a

positive culture of collaboration is

being forged to help people perform

as a team.

Little grumbles turn into big problems

and there is such power in engaging

your teams. Let them decide what

needs to be ‘ixed’ in your business

and give them the autonomy to do it.

THE

QUESTION:

What are individuals motivated by

and how can you provide this, and

what do they need collectively as

teams to perform at the optimal

level?

10

THE IX7


STAGE 2: ALIGN VALUES

PURPOSE

One the best books I’ve ever read

when I was starting out in business

was Jim Collins from Good to Great. If

you haven’t read it, go and buy a copy.

In this book, Collins talks about “being

on the bus”, asserting that it’s more

important to get the right people on

the bus and then get them in the right

seats before you decide where you’re

going.

Most business owners, instead, pick

a destination; they set a course and

share their vision bringing people on

board to help them realise that vision

inveryspeciicways.Butwhat

happens when things change, what

happens when you need a new

approach, or a shift in direction to hit

that vision? What happens when new

information reveals you’re heading

in the wrong direction? The people

you’ve hired based on that vision will

feel uncomfortable and they’ll leave.

“That’s not what I was hired to do.”

Instead, it’s far better to hire based

on value set.

THE

QUESTION:

What really drives you, what is your

purpose?

CULTURE

During a visit to the NASA space

centrein1962,PresidentKennedy

noticed a janitor carrying a broom.

He interrupted his tour, walked over

to the man and said, “Hi, I’m Jack

Kennedy.Whatareyoudoing?”

“Well, Mr President” the janitor

responded, “I’m helping put a man

on the moon.”

This story is a great example of a

business with a strong sense of shared

purpose: a culture that transcends

every level of the organisation. This

man wasn’t merely a janitor; he was

amemberofthe1962NASASpace

Team.

But how do you develop this? Well,

slowly: over time, with every single

action you take, reward and enable.

Onceyourvalueshavebeenidentiied,

paint them on the wall – make them

really visible and use them to recruit,

promote, reward, manage,

communicate and celebrate in your

business. Let your team own them:

give them objectives, and let them

answer them in their own ways. If your

values are truly aligned, the culture will

form naturally, organically.

11

THE IX7


STORY

In1999,twopeoplewenttoa

music festival. They put up a sign and

gave away free smoothie samples.

The signed posed the question as to

whether or not the pair should give up

their jobs to make smoothies.

Customers were asked to put the

empty cups into one of two bins: yes,

or no. At the end of the weekend, the

‘Yes’ bin was full, so the pair resigned

from their jobs the next day. The

company was Innocent smoothies

and since then, they’ve introduced

veg pots, juices and kids’ drinks, all in a

quest to make delicious, healthy foods

that help people live well and die old.

THE

QUESTION:

What’s your story? What tail will

people tell about your business?

12

THE IX7


STAGE 3:

CLARIFY THE VISION

DIRECTION

Now, you have your team bursting

with drive, energy and commitment;

you all have the same purpose…where

are you going?

Clarifying your vision as a team is such

a crucial part of uniting the values

from Stage 2 – you might all have the

same ‘purpose’ in life but that can be

achievedinsomanydiferentways.

A strong vision statement takes a

long-term view – it’s about your

trajectory as a team. That said, it is not

a 10-page document: it is a sentence

that sums up how your business wants

to be seen in the next few years: it is a

statement of your intended legacy.

A great example I always remember is

that of Bill Gates (Microsoft chairman

andchiefexecutiveoicer)statedin

1980:“Acomputeroneverydeskand

in every home.”

THE

QUESTION:

How will you know when you’ve

fulilledyourmissionasabusiness…

what is your vision of the future?

GOALS

A strong vision is powerful, but it can

be daunting. As a leader, it’s your role

to show how this vision can be

realised through a series of much

more attainable goals: goals that can

be translated into business projects

and individual objectives.

Crucially, all actions, no matter how

small, must contribute in some way

to that shared vision. If a project, or

objective or team does not contribute

to the vision, something isn’t working.

THE

QUESTION:

Whativethingsmustyoudothisyear

to bring your business closer to your

shared vision?

13

THE IX7


MEASURES

Of course, a vision is set to be

achieved and there is only one way of

knowing you’re on track to meet that

vision and that is through proactive

measurement.

Measurement in business

sometimes gets a bad name. People

think it’s about control, and checking

up. If that’s how it feels in your

business, it might be that you have

the wrong people on your bus.

Measurements are not there to control

people, they’re they to help guide

everyone into high performance.

The way in which you measure

progresscandifer,dependingonthe

project, the people or the scale. For

example, you might have a formal

dashboard or you might have an

informal weekly meeting to discuss

what has been achieved against key

goals.

THE

QUESTION:

What measures can you use to help

improve performance in a positive

way?

14

THE IX7


STAGE 4: MAP THE STRATEGY

ROADMAP

With your purpose clear and your

vision in focus, it’s time to create the

map that will take you there.

Now, we all know that growth often

requires more: more money, more

people, more time, more customers

but you can’t use that any of that as an

excuse to change your vision. This is

where strategy comes into its own.

The conditions for growth will never

be perfect. When you set your

strategy, you devise a plan, or

roadmap for maximising what you

do have for getting where you want

tobe:youindaway.

Remember, a strategy isn’t something

that is set in stone. If you get up every

day and drive your car in the same

direction, you’ll always end up in the

same place, so if the map is wrong,

change it as you learn.

A key consideration here is ‘who’

do you really want to work with? It’s

important, as part of your roadmap,

to carefully consider the kind of

customer that you want to work with

based on characteristics, or shared

values.Whenyouirstset-upin

business, you take what you can get.

As you grow, you need to take a much

more considered approach to who

you want to work with based on your

growth model.

THE

QUESTION:

Who do you want to work with, and

how can you communicate your value

to that group?

15

THE IX7


VALUE PROPOSITION

A core element of your strategy is

your value proposition. Let’s take the

Innocent smoothie example from

stage 1. The company’s vision is help

people live well and die old. They do

this by creating nutritional veg pots,

juices and kids’ drinks in a natural and

yetafordableway.

There are an untold number of ways

to realize your vision through your

value proposition, and key to this is

producing what your customers want,

not what you want.

Of course, a value proposition is so

much more than just products or

services. True value comes from your

entire operation: your brand, your

story, your people – it’s about how

everything combines to produce

something unique and valuable.

THE

QUESTION:

In what ways will you provide value

to your customers, in line with your

vision?

BRAND

KeepingwiththeInnocenttheme,

the company has an incredibly

strong brand, which is built on their

promise: “tastes good, does good”.

Part of keeping this promise means

sourcing products sustainably and

giving10%oftheirproitstocharity.

This is their promise to customers and

it resonates in their packaging, their

web sites, their promotional materials

and their news.

A brand is a stamp. When stamped on

anything, it immediately increases the

value of the item. For example, a pair

of jeans will cost a lot more with the

Levi’s name on them! Of course, this

onlyworksifthebrandrelectsvalue

for the customer. The brand ‘Levi’s’, for

example, is synonymous with “classic

Americanstyleandefortlesscool’.It

tells a story of relentless pioneering

and innovative spirit and this is of value

to its customers: they want to be part

of this story.

THE

QUESTION:

What promises are you making to

customers and how do you convey

this in your marketing…is there anything

you can do to tighten it up and make it

more consistent?

16

THE IX7


STAGE 5: EXECUTION

When you have a strong, clear and

distinctive strategy, execution is far

easier: people know what’s expected

and why and they can see exactly how

to deliver.

DELIVERY

Keytoexecutionisnottostartwith

the small details: start with the huge

details. Organise your delivery into

workstreams, or projects. Give these

projects names and identities so

people can align themselves to an

idea, and get on the same page.

Some recent projects we have run

internally include ‘Project Hedgehog’

for identifying our true calling (Jim

Collins fans will get the reference),

‘ProjectButterly’forgrowingour

own business, and ‘Project Ant’ for

improving our team working skills in

order to better deliver for customers:

our Queen Bees.

THE

QUESTION:

How can you segment delivery into

funandspeciicprojects?

17

THE IX7


PROCESSES

Crucially, as the MD of a business,

you can’t do it all by yourself - you

can’t take every customer call, you

can’t attend every sales meeting, you

can’t be present in every meeting. This

is the key: empower the right people

in the right moment to make the right

decisions quickly and crucially, help

themtoindawaytotrackand

measure the outcome, and pivot

quickly if needed.

Documenting processes can be a key

part of this, and it helps to induct new

people into the business to: it’s your

guide to getting things done

well! However, as you know, you

can’t impose processes ‘top down’.

They never work and they never stick.

Instead,askdiferentpeopleinthe

business to work in their teams to

design the best process according

to them. What works will stick, what

doesn’t will fade away. If there is true

value in the process, and you have the

right people in the right seats: the best

processes will stick, and will be shared

across the business.

THE

QUESTION:

What core processes do you

perform over and over that could be

standardized to increase productivity

andbringconsistencytotheofering?

How can you enable this to happen?

18

THE IX7


SYSTEMS

Once you have the processes in

place, you’re in an ideal position to

begin systemising core, repeatable

processes, reducing the burden on

people and reducing the margin for

error.

Systems mean anything from invoicing

software to warehouse management

software. As with ‘processes’, don’t

impose the solution you like: ask the

peopleusingthesystemtoirstwritea

wish list of what they’d like to have in a

system, then go shopping!

THE

QUESTION:What systems would help your

teams to improve performance?

19

THE IX7


STAGE 6 : INVESTMENT

PRODUCTS & SERVICES

In business today, the very same

threats are present, if not more so. A

key investment all businesses must

make, then, is in developing new

products and services to meet the

changing needs of consumers, just

as Innocent introduces new products

under the same value principles, you

toomustindnewwaystoofervalue

to customers.

THE

QUESTION:

Howwillyouensureyourofering

remains relevant and competitive?

20

THE IX7


PEOPLE

Perhaps even more important than

this, though, is the investment you

make in your people.

Most businesses measure themselves

onrevenue,proit,growth.Theyoften

forget a critical metric: value. Value is

about what your business is truly worth

andthisishardtomeasureininite

igures.Why?Becausetruevalue

comes from how people

communicate to deliver innovative

solutions to complex problems. It

comes from how systems and

processes combine to ramp up

productivity and eliminate waste. It

comes from the stories customers tell

about your brand, and what that brand

means to your market. It’s what creates

your value for your customers and it all

starts with people. If you hire, develop

and empower the right people, they

will take care of the rest for you.

THE

QUESTION:

What do your people need most,

right now, to perform at their best?

PLATFORM

Of course, you can help them to do

thismoreeiciently,andwithmore

joy by investing in the systems,

processes and equipment they rely

on every day. Maybe it’s time to review

core processes, or upgrade key

systems, or purchase new computers.

THE

QUESTION:

Which parts of your infrastructure slow

down the productivity of your teams,

or cause great frustration?

21

THE IX7


STAGE7: SCALE

There comes a time in all businesses

when they must transcend the

knowledge of the founders. When

your expertise, knowledge and insight

alone is not enough to scale the

business to the next level.

Everything you are doing through

stages one to six is about preparing for

this moment; the moment when you

are no longer the answer: the business

can grow without you. Only then, do

you truly have scale because it means

the people, systems and processes

are aligned beautifully to function

without the dependence on one

person, or one idea.

NOW YOU

HAVE TRUE

GROWTH

POTENTIAL,

IT’S TIME TO

PUT MORE

INTO THE

MACHINE.

22

THE IX7


MARKETING

The function of marketing is often very

misunderstood in SME commercial

enterprises and so much money can

be wasted. By following stages 1-6,

you will create an incredibly strong

proposition: one that is clear, distinct

and aligned to the intrinsic values of

your teams: this is what must be

marketed; the very ‘why’ of what put

you in business as opposed to the

what that you sell.

Simon Sinek, the author of “Start With

Why”,irstpopularisedtheideathat

businesses who succeed are those

who communicate their ‘why’, not their

‘what’. He uses Apple as the example

and shows, in a very famous Ted Talk

how Apple ‘starts with why’. So, instead

of saying: ‘We make great computers,

they’re beautifully designed, simple to

use and user friendly…Do you want to

buy one?’, Sinek suggests that Apple

instead says: “Everything we do, we

believe in challenging the status quo,

webelieveinthinkingdiferently.The

way we challenge the status quo is

by making our products beautifully

designed, simple to use and user

friendly. Want to buy one?’

For this reason, it doesn’t matter if

Apple manufactures computers,

music systems or home appliances:

we trust in their brand and this is what

companies must learn to ‘market’; not

the what, but the why.

THE

QUESTION:

Going back to Stage 1, what is your

‘why’ and how can you communicate

this in your marketing activities?

23

THE IX7


SALES

Forbusinessesoferingservices,

marketing is a critical component but

it must often be supported by a strong

sales team. A good sales force is

worth its weight in gold.

Sales is about being proactive, it’s

about going out to meet your

prospects instead of waiting for them

to come to you. Crucially, the sales

team can do nothing but ‘sell’ your

existing value proposition and so any

problems you might be having with

yoursalesigures,couldinfactpoint

to a deeper problem with your

proposition, or with your brand itself.

A crucial element to consider when

setting up or reviewing your sales

function is what everyone is motivated

by as individuals. Studies have shown

that remuneration systems tailored to

individuals are far more powerful than

blanket reward systems that apply to

everyone on sales.

THE

QUESTION:

How can you empower your sales

teams to demonstrate your ‘why’, and

motivate them on individual levels?

24

THE IX7


PARTNERSHIP

As you really start to scale, it’s

sometimes not enough to go it alone.

As your customers get larger, their

needs get larger. Instead of

scramblingtoilleveryneed,itmight

be a good idea to look for partners

who support or compliment your

ofering.Byworkingtogether,both

companies strengthen their

propositions, and in fact create more

opportunities to bring in bigger work.

Another consideration here is about

where your leads actually come from.

Using IX7 as an example, a recent

piece of research we found showed

that our prospective clients will go

looking for ‘business growth advice’

from consultants only after seeking

advice from their accountants, their

banks, their solicitors etc.

Consultancies were in fact seventh

on the list of sources. Why? It could

be for any number of reasons, but the

top one is likely to be that they have

strong relationships with these people,

who know their businesses and can

advise on aspects of growth.

THE

QUESTION:Whoinyournetworkinluences

customer decisions and how can you

partner with them? 25

LOOKING

FOR MORE?

VISIT

www.ix7.co.uk/businessgrowthplan for

a free ‘business MOT’ to help guide

you through this 7 stage process.

COLLABORATION

MAKES

BUSINESS

GROWTH

LIMITLESS

26

contents · growing your business, there is a high risk of being overtaken by competitors, even if...

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