Why Your Small Business Needs a Comprehensive Growth Strategy to Thrive

If you’ve set your goals, worked diligently, and still aren’t achieving them, it often boils down to one of four things:

1. Your goals are inherently unattainable.

2. You’re not working hard enough.

3. You’re not capable of achieving your goals.

4. Your strategy is flawed—or worse, nonexistent.

For small business owners, this can be a hard truth to swallow, but it’s also empowering. Because while unattainable goals and effort levels are relatively fixed, strategy is where transformation happens.

The Strategy Gap: My Personal Book of Excuses

I’ve set some aggressive goals for myself lately—professionally and personally (have you tried the Twelve Week Year? Highly recommend). Professionally, I’m tracking where I need to be. But personally? My gym goals are… coming along, but not exactly on target.

Are my goals unattainable? No, unless there’s some unknown, fundamental issue holding me back. Am I incapable? I certainly hope not. Am I working hard enough? I think I am. But you know what disagrees with me? The expensive machine that empirically measures my progress and tells me to, uh, do better.

So what’s left? Strategy.

My gym coach respectfully listens to me a little too much—and I’m fantastic at excuses. My knees ache, my back hurts, and I hit 70% of my protein goal before tapping out. Sound familiar? It’s the equivalent of a business owner saying, “I post on Instagram sometimes, I try email campaigns, and I talk to my customers—I’m doing all the things!”

But when the pieces don’t fit together, the results stay out of reach. When I reviewed my Twelve Week Year and assessed it against the framework I outlined above, there was nowhere else to go but to admit that despite the good advice readily available to me, that I wasn’t exactly working the plan. At my insistence, my coach and I are moving into a 2.0 strategy where I commit fully, no excuses allowed. Because I know the only way forward is to embrace a cohesive, professional plan.

The same is true for your business.

The Single Exception

That said, there are times when it’s not about strategy but the goals themselves. Just as you can’t run a marathon with a broken leg, some businesses face hurdles that are fundamentally insurmountable. Whether it’s a poor location, misaligned market demand, or an over-reliance on unsustainable income sources—like family support or initial buzz from opening day—these challenges might call for a complete reconcepting of your business.

However, for most mid-stage startups, the issue isn’t that their goals are unattainable or their business model is flawed. It’s that the luck and momentum they started with have run out, and it’s time to replace random acts of marketing with a thoughtful, strategic plan.

The Cost of Disjointed Efforts

The most frustrating conversations I have are with business owners who are convinced their business is “failing” because they’ve “tried everything.” When I dig deeper, I find a series of disjointed tactics masquerading as a strategy: a couple of social posts here, a promotion there, maybe a one-off ad campaign. These efforts aren’t coordinated, and they don’t ladder up to a clear path to growth. (The fitness equivalent of I donated to the gym, ate some turkey…why can’t I do a pushup?)

What’s worse, they’ve entered a “can’t” mindset. They’re so focused on cutting costs to stop the bleeding that they resist the idea of strategic investment—even when that investment could lead directly to profitability.

Strategy Is Your Lifeline

Here’s the truth: If you’re planning any major investment in your business—a lease, buildout, equipment, or marketing—you must plan your growth strategy at least three years out. Without it, you risk believing you’re incapable, when in reality you just need the right roadmap.

A strong strategy aligns your actions with your goals, optimizes your resources, and positions you for sustainable success. It’s what turns effort into impact and confusion into clarity.

Your Next Step

If you’re in the planning stages of a business, it’s tempting to focus on the exciting parts—dreaming up your offerings, designing your space, or envisioning the grand opening. But there’s one critical piece that too many entrepreneurs overlook: getting clear, strategic direction on where you’ll find your clients and how you’ll nurture those relationships for repeat business and referrals.

Without a clear plan, you risk starting with momentum but losing traction when the initial buzz fades. Identifying your ideal customers, strategizing how to attract them, and setting up systems to keep them coming back is the foundation of long-term success.

Don’t let your goals slip out of reach. With the right strategy, success isn’t just possible—it’s inevitable. Schedule Your Consultation Now .