How to keep your 2024 business growth plan on track

And they're off!... January is the month for springing forward with a burst of energy and optimism inspired by the potential of a new year.

Most companies’ financial year runs alongside the calendar year, so January is the bright start of the new 12-month path for taking the business forward, with growth, success and hopefully lots of enjoyment!

Easier said than done?

Of course, growing a business requires sustained effort, a resilient and positive mindset, and sometimes a bit of luck and good timing too.

However, I believe it is discipline and consistency in how you drive your business growth plan forward that will underpin your ability to maximise success.

Here are my recommendations of how to instil a disciplined approach to keep you motivated and focussed and give the best chance of delivering your growth goals in 2024.

1.      Simplify your 2024 growth plan to a one-page summary.

 A problem with annual business plans is that they are usually very detailed with lots of sub-elements and budget sections and therefore not very user friendly to keep in mind week in week out.

Clearly, it’s vital to use rigorous process to write a business development plan in Q3/4 for the year ahead, with solid thinking and analysis, and detailed budgets.  

But what’s needed for easy day-to-day reference is a simple summary which distils the large plan to your key strategies and agreed KPIs for the year, segmented into shorter timeframes to provide a timeline for actions and results.  

The summary should be no more than 1-2 pages containing your key financial targets and KPIs, your objectives and how you intend to pursue them in each quarter of the year. This will be easy to refer to, memorable and help keep you focussed on priorities. And of course, you have the detail of all the plans that sit behind this to refer to as needed.

Everything you do during the year should ‘ladder up’ to the overall business plan vision and goals.

2.      Run ‘Triple Tracks’: Quarterly, Monthly, Weekly

 Organising your goals and activities into different timeframes will help you tackle them systematically and avoid the trap of being overwhelmed by an exceptionally long to-do list (potentially to the point of paralysis).

Start by dividing the year’s strategic priorities and actions into quarters – with the actions you know are going to make most impact soonest. However, avoid the temptation to put everything in the first half of the year. The trick is to build momentum by having the time to undertake actions properly and see results start to build. 

3.      Run ‘Quarterly Sprints’ for strategic developments.

Three months is the ideal timeframe for a new strategic initiative to be started and seen through to completion. It is an immediate horizon which provides motivation to get the initiative going but also gives a realistic amount of time to implement and see impact. Examples might be creating and marketing a new product or service or developing and embedding a new way of working.

4.      Have a ‘Monthly Focus’ for improvement initiatives.

Within the business development plan are likely to be many aspects of your company that you want to strengthen or improve to benefit performance. Scheduling these to the months of the year will give you a timeline to work through them, and a month is an appropriate length of time to review and make tweaks or decide on further actions needed. Once more, the trick to success is to not overload your to-dos – ideally plan to tackle one aspect of your business per month – any more is not likely to happen, which will create frustration.

5.      Use a ‘Weekly WIP’ for immediate actions.

Set up a rolling ‘Work in Progress’ list for the short-term actions needed to progress your Quarterly Sprints and Monthly Focuses. This should only cover the next 2-4 weeks at a time, to ensure it is accurate and motivating and can be updated quickly once a week. With a checklist you will have clarity of what to focus on and the satisfaction of seeing actions ‘ticked off’ the list weekly – both of which will ensure you keep moving steadily forward through your year’s development plan.

6.      Schedule a Quarterly review, refine, and reset.

It’s inevitable that plenty will change or happen during the year ahead that was unforeseeable in Q3/4 2023. To keep your business growth plan on track, schedule a quarterly half day to review your progress against the original overall plan, and the Quarterly and Monthly programme. Identify where your programme is ahead or behind, and adjust it as needed.

7.      Hitting hurdles

If you find yourself in a situation which is dramatically different to what you envisaged for your business in 2024, it will help to hold a more formal mid-year review of the original plan and strategic direction, to address issues as quickly as possible. My tips on holding constructive planning sessions are recommended here (see October 2023 insight), and facilitation from an external experienced business advisor will also help you troubleshoot and find constructive solutions.

Very best of luck with 2024’s business growth!

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