I can still remember the feeling I got when Liz Gooster, a commissioning editor, asked me to write a book for Financial Times Publishing about how to double your business.
It was a challenge. I didn’t want to pretend that business growth can be achieved with wizardry or a magic silver bullet. Businesses naturally grow to a level and then stop, for all kinds of reasons. I wanted to write a book that would help business owners no matter what was going on for them.
My idea for the book was to identify all of the issues that I had seen that prevent a business from growing.
With all of these Barriers to Growth defined, I would provide a blueprint to fix each one. The basic idea is that you don’t need to move heaven and earth to make your business grow. You just need to resolve the one problem that stands in your way right now. It’s a way to make the smallest effort for the biggest result. Repeating this cycle again and again means you gradually eliminate every obstacle that stands between your business now, and the business you’ve always wanted.
With this in mind, I decided that the best starting place would be a questionnaire.
And because you’ll get a different answer depending upon what your business needs, the path to growth is unique for each business.
So instead of reading the book from start to finish, you jump to the section that’ll help you most right now. This might be managing your team differently, or coming up with ideas for a USP to improve your marketing. Or perhaps you need to get your salespeople working more effectively, or fix a cash flow problem.
Every ordinary business problem that you can face has been solved before. My book lists the simple solution to problems so that you can move quickly forwards without painful trial and error.
As a #1 best-seller on Amazon, it’s got over 60 reviews, with most giving it 5 stars.
What Other People Say About Double Your Business
“An immensely useful book for the owner-manager whose business has plateaued. Both practical and motivational, it brings a clarity to what can all too often become a blur as one becomes absorbed in the day to day running of the business, neglecting the original vision.
My company are owner-managed businesses consultants (accountants by trade) and I am an avid reader of business books. I came across this book whilst looking for assistance with mentoring/coaching clients. With compliance (accounts, VAT and payroll etc…) a market where prices are endlessly driven down by competition, we recognise that we need to be pro-active with both our clients and our own business to maintain profitable lifestyle businesses.”
Mr A. Whitbread (Amazon review)
“Great! Puts the positive thinking back into your business. great ideas and tips with the rawness that’s needed to put you on track to a bigger and brighter outlook for any business owner.”
Mark Colby (Amazon review)
“I wanted something aimed at established small businesses. This was perfect and is full of helpful practical advice. I have a good list of takeaway actions!”
Andrew Pearson (Amazon review)
“As the director of a small business and not having a lot of experience in marketing I wanted a book that could assist me in pushing forward with my business in focused and easy to manage steps.
This book certainly delivers on those fronts, I have found it focused, to the point, easy to understand and the steps, the Growth Blueprints are written in a way that makes them easy to implement and very appropriate to what I want to achieve.
It is very readable and I found the examples of other businesses really helpful and inspiring. It is an exceptional resource, and very motivating.
I haven’t read a better book that gives all the relevant information that I need to push forward with my business in a way that is relevant, readable and concise. I would thoroughly recommend it.”
Elizabeth Roe (Amazon review)
“Excellent read and full of practical advice that you can start implementing right away.
I read this book a year ago and we went from around £30k/month to £50k/month turnover in a year.
Re-reading again now to reset our target to £100k/month!
Would recommend any small business owner to read it.”
Chris Harris (Amazon review)