The Secret to Growing Your Business without Growing Your Workload
16 August 2023
Remember the landscaper I mentioned a few months ago?
They discovered a marketing system that generates a steady return on every dollar they spend on marketing.
They were ready to grow.
But, they knew they couldn’t multiply their business without careful consideration.
So, we worked together to create a growth plan and take advantage of their unlimited marketing budget.
Here are the four strategies, borrowed from the world’s biggest companies, that we used to grow their business:
1) Objectives and key results
The concept of objectives and key results (OKRs) comes from the mind of former Intel CEO: Andrew Grove He implemented this at Intel, with great success, which he documented in his book: High Output Management.
An objective is an overarching goal that you want to achieve for your business. An objective works toward three to five key results: measurable actions that lead to achieving your dream.
A simple example of an OKR:
Objective = Gain 20 new clients
- Key result #1: Define your Unique Selling Proposition (USP).
- Key result #2: Train all staff on your unique selling proposition.
- Key result #3: Generate 200 new leads.
- Key result #4: Convert 10% of those leads.
Your key results can also be treated as a secondary objective with its own key results. For example:
Objective = Generate 200 new leads
- Key result #1: Create a free tool that people can download from emails.
- Key result #2: Create an advertisement promoting the tool.
- Key result #3: Run the ad on Facebook for three weeks.
As you can see, this system is helpful, as it boils down the big, overarching goals into the day-to-day actions required to achieve them.
And when small actions push you closer to big goals, motivation goes through the roof.
2) Know your lagging and leading indicators
When setting your business on a growth path, it’s essential to distinguish between lagging and leading indicators.
What are lagging indicators?
Lagging indicators are a measurement of past performance. A simple example of a lagging indicator is the number of completed jobs/sales you achieve within a time period.
What are leading indicators:
Leading indicators are a measurement that can predict future performance. A simple example of a leading indicator is the number of quotes or leads received within a time period.
Addressing the relationship between lagging and leading indicators provides vital information for your business.
Governments around the world had to know their lagging and leading indicators to put plans in place for the future of COVID-19. The number of confirmed COVID cases is a lagging indicator and the level of restrictions to stop the spread is the leading indicator. Without knowing the number of cases, decisions on restriction levels would be ill-informed, just as they would be if no one knew which restrictions were working as intended.
3) The Dashboard
The best sports coaches share the ability to change their team’s tactics in the middle of a game and, in doing so, turn the tie in their favour.
As the head coach of your business, it’s your responsibility to do the same thing.
Just as coaches don’t wait until the end of a game to make a change, nor should you wait until the quarterly review to address a two-month-long downturn in sales.
A business dashboard helps business owners track the metrics that matter. This will enable you to make mid-game business decisions based on real-time data.
Business dashboards are a vital tool for businesses of any size. Don’t expect to grow your business if you don’t have one.
From a simple excel spreadsheet to high-powered data visualisation software, there are plenty of ways you can create a dashboard for your business.
Once you have a dashboard, your business is set to make better decisions (in record time).
4) Business systems
You won’t see Richard Branson serving you drinks on a Virgin flight (well, at least not at the time!) Nor will you see Elon Musk working at a Tesla dealership. And, when you call Amazon’s customer service, chances are, Jeff Bezos won’t pick up the phone.
Yet, you probably play all of those roles, at least some of the time, in your business.
For your business to grow, you need to let go and trust that your team will perform according to your high standards. But the only way you can guarantee that happens is with business systems.
Business systems will be your secret weapon to building a business that has the potential to be as big as Virgin, Tesla, or Amazon.
A system should document an agreement between you, your clients, and your team about how you do business and everything that needs to happen to serve your clients effectively.
Systems make business simple — and that’s the point.
With the right systems in place, you’ll be able to trust your team with operations because you’ve given them the key to success.
Are you ready to set your business up for success? Get in contact with me, and let’s work together to build a better business.
© Copyrights 2025 Cindy J Drake, All Rights Reseved.