Growth Demonstrated

"You have to hold yourself accountable for everything – the good and the bad...There is no such thing as luck...Everything that happens (or doesn't happen) in your business is the result of your work or lack thereof."- Rob Cuesta, Extreme Business Coach

If you are running a start-up, you want growth.  If you are leading a project, you want to be able to say that the project demonstrated some form of accomplishment.  Pastors and ministry leaders are constantly trying to figure out if what they are doing on a regular basis is leading to growth within the church or the ministry.  When you go out into the field, you measure your calls versus your sells.  For evangelism, you measure your return on effort by the number of people you attract to a community event or the number of people who accept Christ at the event.  In business and ministry, we are constantly tracking activity.

Growth is not something that is easily accomplished. There are some things that you can do to grow your business, and there are some things that you have to do in order to grow your business, too.  It depends on what you seek to grow and what it takes to grow.  Part of what helps one point towards growth is the ability to analyze historical data. Such an ability allows one to identify benchmarks and road blocks based upon historical performance.  No matter what direction things may go, whether up or down, such new data gets compared to previous data.  With your data in tow, you can make an honest and earnest appeal to your corporate stakeholders or your congregation members, even your core group of supporters and volunteers.

You demonstrate your growth with numbers.  Use percentages and ratios.  Compare recent years to past years.  Track and measure gradual changes.  We don't always get that drastic change at the turn of a dime.  Keep track of trends as you go along the way.   Build your own business reporting system or work from n established model. Speak to other professionals in your field who have more experience than you or who may have a vastly different experience from you.  Identify how to work on reaching your numbers and have a means or method for reporting your numbers.