Whether your company is on a calendar or fiscal year, it seems like the next quarter’s growth prospects are always top of mind. They should be, as nearly every move, large or small, will have an impact on future growth.

Sometimes hoped-for growth can be elusive… and all too dependent on outside factors that seem beyond one’s immediate control.

It’s one thing to visualize growth, but what can one do actually to drive it?

Here are four suggestions based on our experience working with companies like yours:

Eliminate Bottlenecks By Establishing a Team Approach. If most, if not all decisions and business-building activities have to go through a single person, the potential for growth-killing bottlenecks exists.Growing and empowering a team to act in alignment is a different job than what entrepreneurs do to start a business. It is slower. It takes patience. It means you have to talk less and ask far more questions. It means you must not give answers so quickly, and instead challenge your leadership team to find the right answers for themselves. Your role is redefined. You might have time to dive back into your favorite function (maybe even lead it) since you won’t be spending the bulk of your day telling everyone how to do everything. So, if you’re not personally “directing traffic” in your company, you may be the bottleneck.

Replace or Reassign Marginal Members of Your Leadership Team. This may sound harsh, but sometimes it may be necessary. Some people on your team may not be cut out to lead future growth efforts. Sometimes “helpers” get promoted into roles with leadership titles but can’t lead. When left to their own devices, they make bad decisions or aren’t proactive. Some can’t see the big picture or hate change. Consider upgrading your top team as needed so you have a team of leaders, not a team of helpers.

Make made each team member accountable for delivering on their promises. Hold weekly one-hour huddles to discuss short-term operational issues and make sure your team’s quarterly goals are on track. Review your company’s key performance indicators each month. The shift to clear goals and strong accountability will produce results. When each team member is focused on what’s important, growth objectives will become more achievable. Consider weekly online one-on-one review sessions to provide even more fuel for growth.

Write a short and simple business plan. Not kind you would show a potential or to raise capital, Instead. Write a simple one page operations plan which will become a guiding document for your growth efforts. At the same time, ask each key leader or department head to create their own one page plan That is, in alignment with your own top-level plan. Without such plans, teams can work at cross purposes or even worse run amok.

It takes a strong, focused, and aligned team to keep a company growing. It also takes a simple and easy-to-manage planning system to help accelerate your growth plans. The One Page Planning and Performance Management System can help you implement such an approach. Click the button below to find out more about how One Page Plans can help you grow your business.