A growth matrix for 2008

Is 2008 going to be a year of growth for you? Here is a two-step, 10 minute, exercise to help you find out. KIRSTY DUNPHEY

By Kirsty Dunphey

I’ll make this short and sweet. If you want 2008 to be a year of growth for your business, here are two things you can do to help you achieve that. In actual work time they could take as little as 10 minutes; in thinking time perhaps a little longer.

1/ Draw up a growth matrix

Plug everything you do in a work week into one of these four boxes.

If you love doing it and it is helping you grow your business, plug it in the top left hand quadrant. Note here that something that makes money in your business may NOT necessarily be helping you grow your business.

The business owner who still sees all their own clients isn’t growing their business, they’re growing their job. Growth comes from leverage and you can’t leverage one-on-one time with yourself.

If it helps you grow your business but you don’t love doing it – it goes in the bottom left hand box. Love it but it’s not about growth, right hand top. Don’t love it and it’s not about getting growth, bottom right hand side.

I’ve found the easiest way to do this is to go back over a week’s dairy/schedule and just start plugging things in. Mark my words – your first instinct for where something should go may not always be right. Keep asking yourself is this really helping to GROW my business.

Once you’ve got your matrix sorted, this is what I recommend you do with each area:

2/ Read this post by Scott Ginsberg

Short, sweet and done. Now I’m off to grow my business!

Kirsty Dunphey is one of Australia’s most publicised young entrepreneurs and is the founder of www.reallysold.com – the ultimate tool to help real estate agents write amazing advertisements. The youngest ever winner of the Australian Telstra Young Business Woman of the Year award, Kirsty started her first business at 15, her own real estate agency at 21, was a self-made millionaire at 23 and a self-made multi-millionaire at 25. For more information on Kirsty or either of her books – Advance to Go, Collect $1 Million and Retired at 27, If I Can Do It Anyone Can, or to sign up to her weekly newsletter head to: www.kirstydunphey.com

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