How to position your business for growth

In this article, based on a webinar delivered for Companies House, Professor Paula Whitehouse, Help to Grow: Management Curriculum Director, outlines a four-step process to creating a strategic plan for growth. 

For the past 20 years, I’ve worked with small businesses to help them plan their strategy and future direction. If there’s one thing I’ve seen time and again, it’s how difficult it can be to step away from the day-to-day demands of running a business and make time for strategic thinking.

As someone who has run my own business in the past, I understand this completely. There are always problems to solve, decisions to make and interruptions that demand immediate attention. In that environment, stepping back can feel like a luxury you simply can’t afford.

But it is the act of carving out this space—to work on the business rather than just in it—that makes the biggest difference to long-term success.

The past few years have only made this more important. Small businesses are navigating technological change, economic uncertainty and rising costs, alongside increasing competition. It is no surprise that strategy often gets pushed aside.

And yet, when we do make time for it, the benefits are clear. Strategy helps us see the bigger picture. It allows us to focus our energy in the right places and provides a framework for making better decisions.

I firmly believe you don’t need years of formal training to develop a strategy. You are already the expert in your own business.

What you need is a structured way to think through your options.

In the Help to Grow: Management Course, we use an approach that has helped thousands of business leaders gain clarity, improve performance and build sustainable growth.  Here, I explain four key steps from Help to Grow that will enable any small business to develop a strategic plan.

I’ve set out a brief introduction to each of the steps below, and if you want to go further, you will find more information about the 90% government-funded Help to Grow: Management Course, or the shorter, free Help to Grow: Management Essentials Course at the bottom of this article.

Every effective strategy begins with a deep understanding of where you are now - your customers and a clear view of what your business does well.

Start by asking some fundamental questions.

Who are your customers, and why do they choose you? Is it convenience, expertise, price or trust? In reality, it’s often a combination of factors - both practical and emotional. The better you understand these drivers, the better you can meet their needs.

Next, think about your business from the customer’s perspective. What alternatives are available, and how does your offer compare? Mapping this out can be incredibly useful. It often reveals what customers truly value and where your business sits in the wider marketplace.

It is also important to reflect on your resources and capabilities. These go far beyond physical assets or finances. They include your people, your knowledge, your processes and even your brand or data. Just as importantly, your capabilities determine how effectively you use these resources to deliver value.

But none of this exists in a vacuum. Markets are constantly evolving. New competitors enter, customer expectations shift and technology reshapes industries.

That’s why I always stress the importance of regularly reviewing your position. Strategy is not something you do once, it’s an ongoing process of checking in, learning and adapting.

Your ambition for the future

Once you understand where you are now, the next step is to define where you want to go.

There are three core principles, featured in Module 2 of the Help to Grow: Essentials Course, that bring that ambition into focus: purpose, vision and mission.

Your purpose explains why your business exists beyond making money. It captures the difference you want to make.

Your vision describes the future you are working toward - a clear and compelling picture of success.

And your mission sets out what you do, who you do it for and how you deliver value.

When these are clearly defined, they become powerful tools for guiding decisions, aligning teams and communicating with customers and stakeholders.

Once you have clarity on your current position and future direction, the next step is to explore how you will grow.

There are many potential opportunities, but the challenge is not just spotting them, it’s choosing the right ones.

One of the most useful tools explored further with business leaders as part of our Help to Grow Management courses is Ansoff’s Matrix*, a simple framework that looks at growth across four areas: existing and new products, and existing and new markets.

This gives you four strategic options.

·       Market penetration: selling more of what you already offer to existing customers. This is typically the least risky option.

·       Product or service development: creating new offerings for current customers, relying on strong relationships and insight into their needs.

·       Market development: taking your existing products to new customers or geographical regions. This introduces more uncertainty, as you are entering less familiar territory.

·       Diversification: moving into entirely new products and new markets, is the most ambitious, and highest-risk approach.

What I always emphasise here is the importance of focus. You don’t need to pursue all these options at once. In fact, trying to do so is often where businesses run into difficulty.

The goal is to identify the opportunities that best align with your strengths and your long-term ambitions.

Growth doesn’t happen without change.

Once you’ve identified your preferred direction, the next step is to understand what needs to be different in your business to make it happen.

This is where the concept of the business model comes in.

At its simplest, your business model describes how you create and deliver value, and how you make money sustainably. It includes everything from your customers and value proposition to your operations, revenue streams and costs.

A tool that’s really useful here is Business Model Canvas**. This allows you to map these elements visually.

What makes this so powerful is that it helps you see the connections between different parts of your business. Changing one element, such as introducing a new product, will inevitably affect others, such as your activities, resources or customer relationships.

I encourage businesses to use this as a working document. Start by mapping your current model, then explore what it would need to look like to support your chosen growth strategy.

This is also an opportunity to think more broadly. Where could you improve sustainability? Where might new technologies, including AI, enhance your operations or customer experience?

The aim is not to get everything perfect, but to build a clear picture of what needs to change.

The final step is to bring everything together into a clear, practical plan.

Capturing your strategy on a single page forces you to be concise and ensures your plan is easy to communicate and revisit.

In the Help to Grow: Management Course, we use a “growth action plan on a page” to do exactly this.

It brings together your vision, your key goals and milestones, and the actions required to achieve them.

I always encourage leaders to start by mapping their goals along a timeline. This helps you phase your plan and be realistic about what can be achieved and when.

For example, if your ambition is to expand into a new location, your first milestone might be market research, followed by securing premises, recruiting staff and developing your promotional activities.

Each goal can then be broken down into specific actions: who is responsible, what needs to be done, and how success will be measured.

What’s important to remember is that this is not a static document. As you begin to implement your plan, things will change. New challenges will emerge, and you may need to adjust your approach.

Finally, I would stress that strategy should not sit in isolation.

Share your ideas. Discuss them with colleagues, mentors or peers. Some of the most valuable insights come from these conversations.

In my experience, connecting with other business leaders, whether through networks or structured programmes like Help to Grow: Management, can be incredibly powerful. Hearing how others approach similar challenges often sparks new ideas and perspectives.

For those looking to get started, there is a free, bite-sized digital version of the course available - Help to Grow: Management Essentials - which includes short video content and practical templates.

For businesses with between five and 249 employees, the full Help to Grow: Management Course offers a more in-depth experience, including peer learning and one-to-one mentoring. It is delivered by business schools across the UK and is heavily subsidised by the Government – costing businesses just £750.

*Ansoff Matrix - Original source: ‘Strategies for Diversification’ (Harvard Business Review, September–October 1957

**Business Model Canvas – Strategyzer.com