A growth plan that survives contact with reality

Most growth plans list ten initiatives and deliver two. A plan built around the current constraint delivers more, because it does one thing at a time and can tell whether it worked.

Find the constraint

At any moment one thing limits growth: traffic, conversion, margin, stock, or the hours of the person running it. Adding effort anywhere else produces activity without result.

The constraint is usually visible in the numbers. Plenty of traffic and a low conversion rate points at the shop. A high conversion rate and flat traffic points at acquisition. Healthy demand and constant stock-outs points at working capital, not at marketing.

Size the effect before starting

Writing the arithmetic down before starting separates the initiatives that could matter from the ones that could not. An improvement that moves a metric which carries two percent of orders is a rounding error, however satisfying the work is.

Growth that adds value

Not all growth is worth the same. Revenue from a single marketplace account increases concentration. Revenue from own-brand products at healthy margin reduces it. A plan that grows the first while ignoring the second raises turnover and lowers the value of the company.

• Own brand over reselling, where the category allows it
• Repeat customers over one-off buyers
• Direct and search traffic over paid traffic alone
• Several suppliers over a single source

A twelve month shape

Three initiatives, one per quarter, with the fourth quarter reserved for the peak season and for finishing what slipped. That shape is deliberately modest, and it is the one that gets completed.