What’s your #1 goal for your business over the next 12 months?
If you could change or improve one thing about your business website, what would it be?
When I speak with clients and other business owners, it should be no surprise that the answers that come back follow the same theme:
“I want to grow my business”
“Increase revenue”
“Make more sales”
“Improve my cash flow”
“Generate more profit”
“Growth!”
“Increase the value of my business”
“Gain cashflow stability”
“Cover the rising costs of business”
“Make more so I can afford to reduce my hours”
In other words, the thing we most want to improve in our business is the money it makes.
The 2017 Gartner Research CEO Survey showed 58% of CEOs were prioritising profit growth as their top strategic business priority. (The other key priority was revenue growth. Noticing a trend?)
It makes sense. Instinctively, we KNOW that we need more money. Because – when it comes to non-financial goals – money solves all manner of evils
In business, there are very few problems that money cannot solve.
Scale – money lets you invest to grow capacity
Leads – money lets you buy ads, and attract new customers
Knowledge – money lets you hire the best people
Leadership – hire the most skilled leaders, or invest in training to help existing leaders to become world-class
Impact – fund projects that will leave a legacy for generations
Stability – cashflow for a war chest in uncertain times
Provision – money is necessary to be a good provider to your staff
And much more…
(That’s not to say that there aren’t also selfish motives too. As a business owner, the money is necessary if you want to afford to be paid well, increase the value of your business, become rich, maintain a great lifestyle, drive a Mercedes, live in a nice house, take loved ones away to join you on expensive holidays, stick it to the S.O.B.’s (teachers, family members, ex-partners, ex-business partners, whoever) who said that you’d never make it by living a far better life than they ever could, and enjoy a comfortable retirement in the future!)
In fact, unless you’re funded by rich benefactors with fat wallets (in the style of Silicon Valley venture capitalists), it’s impossible to achieve ANYTHING in business if you’re not making sales and generating cash flow.
And the better you are at generating cash flow, the better you are at doing everything else.
So what’s your strategy for increasing sales over the next 12 months?
How will you ensure you have enough money to invest in key projects?
How will you prevent stressful “cashflow dips”?
What can you do – right now – to maximise your sales today, and growth and impact tomorrow?
How will you build a financial buffer to stay ahead of rising cost pressures, and rising risks, in your market and the wider economy?