Yesterday I was having a conversation with a business acquaintance. They told me that they wanted to grow their business revenue significantly within the next 18 mos and in order to make this happen they hired a new CPA firm. I asked them about their upcoming marketing and sales plans to support their desired growth and for a moment there was complete and utter silence. They told me that their idea was to have the CPA develop a cash flow projection, establish cost cutting strategies and suggest ideas for financing.

A business growth disconnect for sure.

In my opinion building your business requires attention to the following:

1. Operations: How do you create and deliver your services or products that you are selling to the market in order to turn a profit (aka “how do you “do” what it is you do!).
2. Finance: What is your company revenue and what are your expenses? Is the company profitable? Where is the shortfall?
3. Marketing and sales: This is where you create the required brand, visibility and recognition to enable you to convert leads into sales

Quite frankly without #3, numbers 1 and 2 are somewhat irrelevant.

It seems apparent and so I wonder why so many companies pay attention to all of the aspects of the business OTHER than bringing in clients and doing what needs to be done to nurture, retain and grow them.

CPAs aside, looking at how to cut costs because there isn’t enough business means that you need to go out and get the business.

The CPA firm can’t do that; marketing, and even more so sales, can.

So if you’re in business and you want to grow take a good look at the three areas that MUST be working successfully in order to support the desired growth and then take an extra long look at sales, the engine that feeds the business.

And if you think things are awry don’t call your accountant, call someone in to explore your sales and marketing initiatives and see what you can do to jump start business.