Mentor & Business Speaker

Whilst most business commentators are talking about doom and gloom and battening down the hatches for 2012, The FD Centre CEO Colin Mills talks about his process for how to significantly grow your business.

"The best advice I ever received for 'doubling' the size of our business, was to list down the Top 20 things we could do to increase the revenue by 10 times and then identify the Top 3 activities to concentrate on for the following year" says Colin.

So - if you're a £4million business spend a few hours listing out the 20 things you could do and turn this into a £40millions business over the next 12 months. This will force you to think outside the box and away from small incremental changes you can make.

When you've got your list of 20 spend another hour or so considering the Top 3 activities that are most likely to get you towards your goal of £40m.

You then have the top 3 activities to focus on over the next 12 months that may well enable you to double your turnover.

For each of those Top 3 activities, develop clear action plans on how you are going to achieve results.

Get input from your management team (including your finance director of course) in developing these action plans.

Don't forget to consider the risk and downsides to each of your priorities and develop strategies to mitigate the risks you identify.

Above all ensure your plans are realistic and finding capacity can support your ideas. Your FD should be able to support you in developing financial and funding to ensure your growth plan is realistic.

Whilst the overall economic climate won't allow all business to double their size next year, this radical approach for business growth will hopefully get some to change their thinking from doom and gloom towards optimism and growth. As Henry Ford famously said "If you think you can, or think you can't, either way you'll be right!"


Colin Mills founder of The FD Centre, the UK's largest provider of part-time Finance Directors, who are dedicated to helping businesses overcome their problems and meet their strategic objectives.

Find out if your business could benefit from a Free Financial Health Check  and get valuable advice for your business's financial planning. For more information visit our site www.thefdcentre.co.uk.