Growth & Strategy Conversations
Growth kills more small businesses than stagnation does
Expansion consumes cash, exposes every weakness in delivery, and is difficult to reverse. This session is the audit beforehand: whether the current operation actually works, what breaks first at double the volume, and what would need to be true before committing.
Growth does not fix a business that is not working. It multiplies it.
A business with thin margins, unreliable delivery and one dominant customer does not become sound by getting larger. It becomes the same business with more cash tied up and less room to recover.
The owners who expand successfully almost always fixed something first — margins, dependency, a process — and can say what they fixed.
The audit
32 topics across 6 areas. Six questions to answer honestly.
Does the Current Operation Work?Before adding volume to it.5
- Are margins healthy at current scale?
- Is delivery reliable?
- Are complaints falling or rising?
- Does it run without you daily?
- Do you know which products or customers actually make money?
What Breaks First at Double?Everybody has an answer; it is usually wrong.6
- Delivery capacity
- Cash
- Key people
- Suppliers
- Quality
- Your own time
The one that breaks is rarely the one owners plan for. Working it out in advance is most of the value here.
Can You Fund It?Growth consumes cash before it produces any.5
- How much working capital the larger business needs
- How long before it pays for itself
- What happens if it takes twice as long
- Whether you are funding it from reserves, borrowing or supplier terms
- What the downside case looks like
Is the Demand Real?Or is it one enthusiastic customer?5
- Where is the evidence of demand?
- Is it repeatable or a one-off?
- Would they pay the price you need?
- What did you test, and how small?
- What would prove you wrong?
What Kind of Growth?They are not equivalent.6
- More of the same, to the same customers
- A new customer segment
- A new geography or branch
- A new product
- Partners, dealers or franchising
- Growth through technology
Some of these are reversible experiments. Others are a lease and three years.
Reducing the RiskMaking it a test rather than a bet.5
- What is the smallest version of this?
- What would you learn from it?
- What would make you stop?
- What is the cost of stopping?
- Who else has done it, and what did it cost them?
Signs a business is not ready
- Margins are thin or unknown
- One customer is more than a third of revenue
- Delivery is already occasionally failing
- The owner is the bottleneck for daily decisions
- There is no cash reserve
- Nobody can say which lines make money
What to fix first, usually
- Margins, before adding volume to a thin one
- Customer concentration, before it becomes structural
- Delivery reliability, before promising more of it
- Founder dependency, before adding complexity
- A cash reserve, before committing it
How the session runs
An owner who has expanded — successfully or otherwise — describes what actually broke and what it cost. Participants then run the audit on their own business and answer the double-the-volume question specifically. A good number leave having decided to fix something before expanding rather than instead of it.
What your students leave with
- An honest audit of whether the current operation works
- A specific answer to what breaks first at double the volume
- A view on whether they can fund it, and for how long
- Evidence that the demand is real rather than anecdotal
- The smallest version of the expansion worth testing
- One thing to fix before committing
Scheduled sessions
Nothing scheduled yet
Sessions are arranged with a college once a date is agreed. Ask us and we will find the right person for it.
A student rather than a college? See what is coming up, or ask your placement team to host this.
Growth does not fix a business that is not working. It multiplies it.
Tell us who your students are and what stage they are at. Sessions are free for participants.