What 82% of Scaling Founders Know That You Don't

You know that feeling when you sit down on Monday morning and your brain feels like a browser with 47 tabs open!?

Wondering if you'll ever feel properly in control of your business growth?

The data shows that 82% of founders who scale successfully past £250K in revenue have one thing in common: they've shifted from reactive firefighting to proactive planning. And they've built systems that actually work for their brain, not against it.

Throughout running my own businesses, and working with Founders across the globe, I've learnt the businesses that grow sustainably are the ones who trust their plan enough to say no to the shiny objects and yes to what actually matters.

When "Winging It" Stops Working

Let me tell you about Heidi. When we first started working together, she described her state perfectly: "As an entrepreneur I have a million ideas an hour, I'm a magpie, I like to look at lots of different things."

Sound familiar?

She'd scaled her business through two years of impressive growth, but her head was fuzzy. She no longer knew what direction to take. Every opportunity felt urgent. Every idea felt brilliant. And she was exhausted from trying to execute them all.

The truth is, when you're building a business, you'll only ever have time to do about 20% of what you want to do. If you're lucky. So that 20% had better be filled with the right activities.

The Framework That Changes Everything

After years as a CIMA-qualified CFO and now working with hundreds of founders, I've adapted the OKR framework (the same one that helped Google scale) into something that actually works for real businesses run by real humans.

OKRs stands for Objectives and Key Results. But before your eyes glaze over at the corporate speak, let me show you why this matters.

Your mission is your 'what' - what are you building? Your objectives become your 'how' - how are you delivering on that mission?

Everything flows from there. No more wondering if that exciting collaboration is worth your time. No more 3am panic about whether you're focusing on the right things.

The 6-Step Process (That Takes Less Time Than Your Weekly Admin)

Step 1: Start with your mission

If you haven't written it down, do it now. One sentence. What are you actually building here?

Step 2: Set 4-5 objectives

These are the core things that will show you're on track. Not 20. Not 10. Just 4-5.

For example, one of my clients in professional services had:

• Increase client value (profitability)

• Build sustainable team structure (scalability)

• Create predictable pipeline (stability)

• Improve operational efficiency (freedom)

Step 3: Define measurable key results

Against each objective, list 3-5 results you need to see. Make them punchy. Make them number-driven where possible. It doesn't matter if you achieve them all - it matters that you try.

Step 4: List the actual tasks

This is where the magic happens. Break down each key result into actual, doable tasks. The things you can tick off. The things that move you forward.

Step 5: Map your 13 weeks

Shade in when you'll focus on each task. Some run for weeks, some happen once. This visual map stops you trying to do everything at once (because let's be honest, that's your default setting).

Step 6: Use it every single week

Every Monday, review progress. Give each task a RAG status (red, amber, green). Five minutes. That's all it takes to know exactly where to focus that week.

Remember Heidi with her million ideas an hour?

After implementing this planning process, she had a revelation in our very first session: "I needed to balance my team out with doers - I am a driver, I drive the business forward but I need to build a team of doers that can help me implement my ideas."

That clarity came from seeing her plan laid out. From understanding what actually needed to happen versus what felt urgent in the moment.

She went on to dig into her customer data, pull out what made her business unique, and strategise exactly where she wanted the business to be. As she told me later: "I kind of see Thea as a co-founder - she gets really involved in the business and she's really helped me push Heylo forward."

The Surprising Side Effect Nobody Talks About

Here's what my clients keep telling me that I didn't expect when I first started teaching this method: it makes them more adaptable, not less.

When something unexpected happens (and in business, it always does), you can see exactly what it affects and how to adjust. You're not rigid - you're clear.

As Madi shared with me: "I went from feeling very overwhelmed and stuck to feeling motivated and hopeful, making progress with a clear plan of next steps."

She'd hit a wall with revenue and time, painted into a corner with low price points and no clear direction. The planning process gave her the clarity to drastically increase her revenue month to month and finally start building her team.

Your Next 90 Days Start Now

I know planning feels like it takes time you don't have. But you're already spending that time on decisions that feel hard, on opportunities you're not sure about and on lying awake wondering if you're doing the right things.

Catherine Ann put it perfectly. She felt stuck, like the light at the end of the tunnel had almost gone out. After implementing this process and really dialling in her focus: "That pitch won us £50,000."

Same energy. Different results. That's what proper planning does.

Ready to Take Control?

If you're tired of that Monday morning overwhelm, if you want to know exactly where to focus to hit your growth goals, I've created a blank version of my quarterly planning template that you can start using immediately.

But here's the thing - having the tool is only part of it. Knowing how to use it strategically, how to choose the right objectives, how to stay accountable to your plan... that's where the real transformation happens.

Inside my Strategic Growth program, we don't just plan - we execute. We review. We refine. And we get results.

Shall we explore what your next 90 days could actually look like?

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