{"id":978,"date":"2010-05-11T05:53:17","date_gmt":"2010-05-11T12:53:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/edandriessen.com\/?p=978"},"modified":"2010-05-11T05:53:17","modified_gmt":"2010-05-11T12:53:17","slug":"a-good-i-d-e-a-for-business-growth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/a-good-i-d-e-a-for-business-growth\/","title":{"rendered":"A Good I.d.e.a. for Business Growth"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/edandriessen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/iStock_000004607143XSmall.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-991\" style=\"border: 1px white; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 10px;\" title=\"light bulbs\" src=\"http:\/\/edandriessen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/iStock_000004607143XSmall-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"227\" height=\"171\" \/><\/a>All owners want their businesses to grow. Many of us invest time and energy into planning how we will grow our businesses.<\/p>\n<div style='display:none; visibility:hidden;' id='nssv'><\/div>\n<p>The biggest problem with growing a business is neither the lack of desire or planning.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s finding and implementing the right strategies. There simply are too few sound strategies that owners can easily and effectively apply in their own businesses.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Good I.D.E.A.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>One of the best approaches to planning business growth is the I.D.E.A. concept: <strong>Identify Develop, Evaluate, Act<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Instead of re-inventing the growth-strategies wheel, I offer the following outline of the approach.<\/p>\n<p><strong>IDENTIFY\u2014Specifically What Would You Like to Achieve?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Like all planning processes, this one starts with identification.<\/p>\n<p>Specifically you start by identifying the growth you want: increased clients, revenue per client, sales volume etc. Regardless of what you plan to increase, it\u2019s important to establish a clear measure for this improvement.<\/p>\n<p>Identify the growth as measurable amounts such as \u201c10%\u201d or \u201c15 over last year\u201d.  This yields an objective measure against which you can evaluate the results of your growth strategies.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><strong>DEVELOP\u2014When &amp; How Will You Achieve These Results?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In pursuing new growth, specific targets or milestones will help you along the way. Once you have set your long range target, develop mid-term and short-term objectives.<\/p>\n<p>Ensure that these interim objectives lead to the next level, en route to achieving your long- term goal.<\/p>\n<p>In and of themselves, having goals and evaluation criteria do not guarantee success.<\/p>\n<p>You must also develop a clear process for what you are going to do, when you are going to do it, how you are going to do it, and most importantly, who will be responsible for each activity.<\/p>\n<p><strong>EVALUATE\u2014How Are You Progressing?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As you move forward, it\u2019s important to continuously evaluate your progress.<\/p>\n<p>Be careful not to adjust your expectations to keep them in line with results.<\/p>\n<p>When you are driving a motor vehicle, it\u2019s important to keep your eye on the traffic around you; likewise when implementing your growth plan, you must also keep your eye on the big picture\u2014your direction and what\u2019s happening around you.<\/p>\n<p>You may also evaluate your level of commitment to your growth strategies.  It\u2019s also critical to include your people in the process. To ensure their continued momentum, they need your encouragement and enthusiasm.<\/p>\n<p><strong>ACT\u2014How Will You Avoid Paralysis By Analysis?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Your ongoing evaluations may point out the need to take action to adjust your plans.<\/p>\n<p>These adjustments should not take the form of constantly tweaking your plan. Too much tweaking will limit your ability to know for sure what did or did not work.<\/p>\n<p>Taking action  may also involve ending initiatives that do not help you achieve you the results you are seeking.<\/p>\n<p>Unlike natural growth, business growth is not an automatic process. Growth is not something that happens to your business: it is something that you initiate, plan and monitor.<\/p>\n<p>To achieve your growth goals, you need effective growth strategies.  The I.D.E.A. approach is a good way to effectively organize and manage your growth strategies.<\/p>\n<p>Sound growth strategies will help you renew and grow your business.<\/p>\n<p>Take the time to revisit and refine your business growth strategies.<\/p>\n<p>Soon you will start to enjoy results of your growth goals.<\/p>\n<p>Seems like a good idea to me.<\/p>\n<div style=\"margin: 5px; padding: 5px; border: 1px solid #c1c1c1; font-size: 10px;\">\n<p>Larry Easto is a best-selling business writer and publisher of www.real-estate-marketing-link.info.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>All owners want their businesses to grow. Many of us invest time and energy into planning how we will grow our businesses. The biggest problem with growing a business is neither the lack of desire or planning. It\u2019s finding and implementing the right strategies. There simply are too few sound strategies that owners can easily &#8230; <a title=\"A Good I.d.e.a. for Business Growth\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/a-good-i-d-e-a-for-business-growth\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about A Good I.d.e.a. for Business Growth\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440,1,498],"tags":[22,263,275,528,529],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A Good I.d.e.a. for Business Growth - Ed Andriessen<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/a-good-i-d-e-a-for-business-growth\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Good I.d.e.a. for Business Growth - Ed Andriessen\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"All owners want their businesses to grow. Many of us invest time and energy into planning how we will grow our businesses. The biggest problem with growing a business is neither the lack of desire or planning. It\u2019s finding and implementing the right strategies. There simply are too few sound strategies that owners can easily ... Read more\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/a-good-i-d-e-a-for-business-growth\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Ed Andriessen\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-05-11T12:53:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/edandriessen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/iStock_000004607143XSmall-300x225.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ed Andriessen\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ed Andriessen\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/a-good-i-d-e-a-for-business-growth\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/a-good-i-d-e-a-for-business-growth\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Ed Andriessen\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/#\/schema\/person\/612dfd1e5435a5e5cdbd8f075aadd432\"},\"headline\":\"A Good I.d.e.a. for Business Growth\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-05-11T12:53:17+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2010-05-11T12:53:17+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/a-good-i-d-e-a-for-business-growth\/\"},\"wordCount\":585,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/a-good-i-d-e-a-for-business-growth\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/edandriessen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/iStock_000004607143XSmall-300x225.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Business\",\"Good\",\"Growth\",\"growth strategy\",\"I.d.e.a.\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Business growth\",\"General\",\"Personal development\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/a-good-i-d-e-a-for-business-growth\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/a-good-i-d-e-a-for-business-growth\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/a-good-i-d-e-a-for-business-growth\/\",\"name\":\"A Good I.d.e.a. for Business Growth - Ed Andriessen\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/a-good-i-d-e-a-for-business-growth\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/a-good-i-d-e-a-for-business-growth\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/edandriessen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/iStock_000004607143XSmall-300x225.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-05-11T12:53:17+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2010-05-11T12:53:17+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/a-good-i-d-e-a-for-business-growth\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/a-good-i-d-e-a-for-business-growth\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/a-good-i-d-e-a-for-business-growth\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/edandriessen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/iStock_000004607143XSmall-300x225.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/edandriessen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/iStock_000004607143XSmall-300x225.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/a-good-i-d-e-a-for-business-growth\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"A Good I.d.e.a. for Business Growth\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/\",\"name\":\"Ed Andriessen\",\"description\":\"Speaker | Trainer | Author\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Ed Andriessen\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/EdAndriesssen-header-logo-175w.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/EdAndriesssen-header-logo-175w.png\",\"width\":175,\"height\":73,\"caption\":\"Ed Andriessen\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/#\/schema\/person\/612dfd1e5435a5e5cdbd8f075aadd432\",\"name\":\"Ed Andriessen\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6c21ac76f9cb960b8b455c55ea5a2908?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6c21ac76f9cb960b8b455c55ea5a2908?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Ed Andriessen\"},\"description\":\"For two decades, Ed has designed and led trainings and seminars in NLP, Management Development, Professional Development and Selling skills. He is CEO of Business Training Resource, Co-director of the Princeton Center for NLP and is a Dilts\/NLP University Distance Learning Affiliate. Ed has dedicated himself to understanding human communication in its many forms, and works as a trainer, coach, consultant and professional speaker. Ed currently holds two certifications as a Trainer of Neuro-Linguistic Programming, one from the NLP Center of New York and one from NLP University at the University of California at Santa Cruz.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/author\/edandriessen\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A Good I.d.e.a. for Business Growth - Ed Andriessen","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/a-good-i-d-e-a-for-business-growth\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A Good I.d.e.a. for Business Growth - Ed Andriessen","og_description":"All owners want their businesses to grow. Many of us invest time and energy into planning how we will grow our businesses. The biggest problem with growing a business is neither the lack of desire or planning. It\u2019s finding and implementing the right strategies. There simply are too few sound strategies that owners can easily ... Read more","og_url":"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/a-good-i-d-e-a-for-business-growth\/","og_site_name":"Ed Andriessen","article_published_time":"2010-05-11T12:53:17+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/edandriessen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/iStock_000004607143XSmall-300x225.jpg"}],"author":"Ed Andriessen","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Ed Andriessen","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/a-good-i-d-e-a-for-business-growth\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/a-good-i-d-e-a-for-business-growth\/"},"author":{"name":"Ed Andriessen","@id":"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/#\/schema\/person\/612dfd1e5435a5e5cdbd8f075aadd432"},"headline":"A Good I.d.e.a. for Business Growth","datePublished":"2010-05-11T12:53:17+00:00","dateModified":"2010-05-11T12:53:17+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/a-good-i-d-e-a-for-business-growth\/"},"wordCount":585,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/a-good-i-d-e-a-for-business-growth\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/edandriessen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/iStock_000004607143XSmall-300x225.jpg","keywords":["Business","Good","Growth","growth strategy","I.d.e.a."],"articleSection":["Business growth","General","Personal development"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/a-good-i-d-e-a-for-business-growth\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/a-good-i-d-e-a-for-business-growth\/","url":"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/a-good-i-d-e-a-for-business-growth\/","name":"A Good I.d.e.a. for Business Growth - Ed Andriessen","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/a-good-i-d-e-a-for-business-growth\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/a-good-i-d-e-a-for-business-growth\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/edandriessen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/iStock_000004607143XSmall-300x225.jpg","datePublished":"2010-05-11T12:53:17+00:00","dateModified":"2010-05-11T12:53:17+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/a-good-i-d-e-a-for-business-growth\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/a-good-i-d-e-a-for-business-growth\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/a-good-i-d-e-a-for-business-growth\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/edandriessen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/iStock_000004607143XSmall-300x225.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/edandriessen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/iStock_000004607143XSmall-300x225.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/a-good-i-d-e-a-for-business-growth\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A Good I.d.e.a. for Business Growth"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/","name":"Ed Andriessen","description":"Speaker | Trainer | Author","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/#organization","name":"Ed Andriessen","url":"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/EdAndriesssen-header-logo-175w.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/EdAndriesssen-header-logo-175w.png","width":175,"height":73,"caption":"Ed Andriessen"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/#\/schema\/person\/612dfd1e5435a5e5cdbd8f075aadd432","name":"Ed Andriessen","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6c21ac76f9cb960b8b455c55ea5a2908?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6c21ac76f9cb960b8b455c55ea5a2908?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Ed Andriessen"},"description":"For two decades, Ed has designed and led trainings and seminars in NLP, Management Development, Professional Development and Selling skills. He is CEO of Business Training Resource, Co-director of the Princeton Center for NLP and is a Dilts\/NLP University Distance Learning Affiliate. Ed has dedicated himself to understanding human communication in its many forms, and works as a trainer, coach, consultant and professional speaker. Ed currently holds two certifications as a Trainer of Neuro-Linguistic Programming, one from the NLP Center of New York and one from NLP University at the University of California at Santa Cruz.","url":"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/author\/edandriessen\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/978"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/978\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edandriessen.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}