In other words, I had no strategy.
Which meant there was no consistency in the business.
My small team didn’t know whether they were coming or going week to week.
I was ‘winging it’ and giving them zero direction, and it was exhausting for all of us.
Then in September 2014, I attended a workshop in Phoenix, Arizona.
The guys running it had built a $100m company from scratch in 10 years, so I figured they knew a thing or two when it came to growing a business.
Over 2 days, they outlined how they’d planned for growth and achieved it, year on year.
The funny thing was, there was no talk of new marketing fads or tactics. What we learned was many levels above that stuff.
At the end of those 2 days, we had greater clarity on what we were doing (and more importantly, when we were going to do it) than ever before.
That alone was a MASSIVE win.
The team were so happy, that after years of ‘winging it’ we finally had a concrete plan.
But what happened next blew my mind...
In the 3 months that followed, we generated more revenue than we had in the previous 12 months combined.
And…
In the following year, we tripled the business and did over £1m for the first time ever!
Since then, I’ve adapted the strategic planning process I learned back in 2014 and created my own version, especially for Coaching, Consulting, Mentoring, Speaking, Training, and other ‘Expert’ businesses.
This process gives you clarity and focus on exactly what you need to do in the next week, month, quarter, and year, to make the impact and income you want.