When we look at growth and planning/budgeting for growth there are a few levers we have at our disposal.  Expenses and Revenue = Profits.  Looking at each of these through its own lens will tell us which lever we need to pull to make profits increase.  Each lever has consequences, managing those consequences will produce profits or loss. Profit is the name of the game if we want to win.  Growth comes as an expense sales comes as revenue.

We find entrepreneurs primary goal is to grow their enterprise, they think by generating more sales they increase revenue.  But focusing on selling more just to increase the top line many times overlooks the necessity of the cost related to delivering on the sale to truly scale the business.

In order to scale, we must first have a strong foundation to the business processes.  Process that includes deliberate planning, thoughtful assessments of key people and targeted allocation of investment capital. 

A first step is asking a series of fundamental q...