Find out what growth costs you, before you spend a dollar of it
Answer sixteen questions about your business and you walk out with a Growth Strategic Plan & Budget: where your business stands right now, what growth asks of you each month in your own numbers, and what to build first.
We built this from research and from the work we do with owners who run the business and deliver the work themselves. The questions here are the questions we ask in a first conversation. They find your real starting point, so your money goes into the right thing in the right order instead of into the expensive detour almost everyone takes first.
What growth costs you is knowable, and this works it out from your numbers. What growth returns is not promised here, or anywhere honest. Anyone who hands you a return figure before the work has started is guessing at your expense.
What the plan gives you
Six parts, every one of them built from the answers you give.
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Where you are right now
The phase your business is actually in, and the two or three answers of yours that put it there.
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What growth costs you each month
A dollar band worked out from your own money in and money out, not from somebody else's benchmark.
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What to build first, and in what order
Two to four pieces of work, sequenced so each one makes the next one cheaper to do.
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What each piece costs
Mid-market reference prices from our public guide, so you can price the same work anywhere you like.
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How long each phase takes
Working ranges for foundations, customers and growth, and where the date you have in mind collides with them.
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The limits worth knowing
Whether you are the ceiling on your own growth, and what the rules of your trade let you advertise and sell.
An example of a finished plan
Made-up numbers for a made-up business, so you can see the shape of it before you start.
An example. No real business, no real numbers, and nothing here is a promised result.
- Money in last month
- $42,000
- Paid out to others last month
- $9,000
- Growth base
- $33,000
- Growth budget, 15 to 25 percent of the base
- $4,950 to $8,250 a month
- Where they are
- Foundations first
What they build first
- Financial visibility setup$4,500
- Systems and process installation$4,000
Every figure is worked out in your browser. Nothing is sent anywhere unless you ask us to email you the plan at the end.
Sixteen questions, about five minutes, and you can go back at any point.
Your Growth Strategic Plan & Budget
Worked out from the answers you just gave. Print it, save it as a PDF, or bring it to a conversation.
What you told us
Where you are
The order never changes: foundations, then customers, then growth. What changes is where you start.
What growth costs you, per month
A business your size should be putting 15 to 25 percent of what it keeps toward its own growth. That is the whole allocation, not a fee. It covers the work, and it covers the tools and systems the business needs, which the business owns.
When a team like ours does the work, the fee usually does not exceed 15 percent of that base. The rest funds the systems and tools that stay yours. This is a market allocation, not a quote.
What growth costs is knowable. What it returns is not promised, here or anywhere. Anyone who gives you a return figure before the work starts is guessing with your money.
What to build first
The prices above are mid-market reference prices, not an Emrj quote. They are the middle tier of our public guide, which also shows what freelance and large-agency work costs for the same thing. See the pricing guide.
Ad spend sits on top of these fees
How long each part takes
You start at the phase named above and work forward.
How long any phase actually runs depends on the complexity of the business and the challenges it faces. These are working ranges, not a schedule.
What your budget means
The honest limits
You are the ceiling right now
So the first money goes to capacity, not to marketing. Demand you cannot serve is not growth, it is a longer day. And hiring before the foundations are in makes it worse, because every question the new person has still lands on you.
What you can say and sell is regulated
You said what you sell carries rules about how it can be advertised. What you may claim, what you may sell, and where you may say it shapes both this plan and which channels are open to you. Some platforms will not run the work at all, and the rules often differ by state or country.
Those answers belong to you, not to a marketer. Confirm them before any money goes into advertising, because a channel that turns out to be closed is the most expensive way to find out.
Take it further
If you want to go through this with someone who has done it, book a conversation.
Email me my Growth Strategic Plan & Budget
Optional. This is the only thing on this page that sends anything anywhere. If you ask for it, your name, your email, and the answers you gave come to us, so we can send the plan back to you.
Ready to grow your business with confidence?
Duct tape brought you this far. Systems will take you further.
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