Growth Questions: like your favourite pair of socks

“Let’s plan our strategy for the next 12 months!”

“I want to really move the business forward now.”

“There’s huge potential in this business, let’s make the most of it.”

Any of these statements sound familiar? You may not have said them out loud to other humans - or even to your stapler - but perhaps you have simply thought them idly as you sprinkle some granola onto your yoghurt one morning (or slapped another rasher onto the plate, lest the whole granola thing sounded a bit worthy).

Following a statement of intent like this in a small business, there can then be a pause. A small bolus of tumbleweed may spin across your desk. Because how to do turn that desire to move your business forward into tangible plans?

This is where the Growth Questions come into play. A set of five great questions that can really focus your attention toward the right part of your business that is ripe for improvement and / or growth, then help you explore potential options to create action.

Focusing on one part of your business, rather than dealing with the entire business as one ‘thing’ that needs to grow, not only make it manageable, but also means Is a heck of lot easier to create momentum. And let’s not forget, your business is a system of interconnecting parts, so a well placed tweak (or radical overhaul) of one of the elements within that system will have a beneficial effect across the piece. Make that customer onboarding cog run more smoothly and suddenly, the customer retention cog spins with less friction, the customer happiness belt wobbles less and the income lever goes up a notch (as you can tell, I have only the most rudimentary of grasps on engineering, but you get the gist).

Let’s get down to business with the five Growth Questions. Well… actually, I lied. There are ten Growth Questions, but like your favourite socks, they come in pairs and really do work best together.

Each pair of questions sits under two complementary headings of ‘Focus a Spotlight’ and ‘Options and Explorations’. The Focus question comes first, and helps you pinpoint the area of the business that has potential for change and growth. Then, you use the options question to do some creative, expansive thinking and understand how potential solutions could create impact.

So, let’s welcome to the stage our first pair of Growth Questions.

Focus the Spotlight: What frustrates you about your business currently?

This could be a big bug bear, or a small one – anything from my website doesn’t get enough visitors, to my clients don’t pay my invoices quick enough. Make a short list of frustrations, then select the single most pressing or irritating challenge.

Options and Explorations: What if we…?

Here’s your chance to spend some time thinking creatively about possible solutions. Create a mind map with your chosen frustration on a white board or large piece of paper to help you think broadly and expansively: write each idea as a ‘what if we…? question’. Get your team involved. If you can, look at how other businesses deal with this challenge. How would you solve it if money was no object? What could a solution be if you had zero budget? What if you asked your favourite brand to solve this challenge – what would they do? No possible solutions are too crazy at this stage!

If your frustration is around client payment delays, you might write: What if we gave 5% refund to clients who paid the same day? What if we published a league table of great payers? What if we put all prompt payers into a monthly prize draw? What if prompt payers got a bigger Christmas gift? What if we raised the penalty for late payers? What if we sent late payers a wooden spoon? And so on. Keep adding What if..? ideas to your mind map. You will end up with a fantastic list of potential solutions.

The next step is to explore what the strongest What If… ideas might look like in terms of their impact on your business and the key stakeholders (it’s like the first phase of due diligence on a potential idea). Luckily we have a tool just for that very purpose hanging in our Tool Shed right now. It will help you discover both the positive and negative impacts your what if..? idea will have and how to minimise or eradicate the negative impact to create the best chance of growth without compromise.

If you are not already a member of the Tool Shed, just pop over by clicking here and signing up – the process is quick, painless and you will get access to our ever-expanding collections of bespoke tools whenever you like. You can download the Growth Questions What If tool to help you complete your thinking.

Good luck!