Growth roadmap: a 12-month plan your team can follow

Who it is for

Roadmaps suit owners who have a direction but need it turned into numbers and dates. Typical moments:

• before a significant hire or a second crew or shift
• before taking on a large contract that would change the customer mix
• when adding a service line or splitting off a focused brand
• when a partner, spouse or key employee needs to see the plan to commit to it

If you are not yet sure what the constraint is, start with a business diagnostic instead.

What goes into the roadmap

Every roadmap has the same five parts, kept deliberately short.

1. The goal in one line. For example: "Reach $2.1 million in sales at a 34% gross margin without the owner quoting every job."
2. Three to five targets. Each one is measurable, has a deadline and belongs to one person.
3. The moves. What will be done to hit each target, in what order, and what it costs in dollars and hours.
4. Focus areas. Which customers, services and parts of Burnaby or the wider region get attention first, and which wait. Our areas page shows how we think about the city.
5. The scorecard. Six to ten numbers checked monthly, with the level that should trigger a rethink.

A worked target

Here is how a vague goal becomes something you can check. An illustrative Burnaby distributor sells $1.8 million a year, 40% of it to its five largest accounts.

• Vague: "Grow sales and reduce dependence on big customers."
• Roadmap target: "Add 12 mid-sized accounts averaging $25,000 a year by next September, so the top five fall below 30% of sales."
• Arithmetic: 12 × $25,000 = $300,000 in new sales. Total becomes $2.1 million; the top five stay at roughly $720,000, about 34%. So the target also needs the top five to stay flat, not grow. That tension is written into the plan.
• Owner: the sales lead, with a monthly count of new accounts and their run-rate.

The roadmap does this arithmetic for every target so you know before you start whether the goal is realistic.

Timeline

A roadmap usually takes three to six weeks.

How results are measured

The roadmap is measured by its own scorecard. At the end of each quarter you should be able to look at the targets and say, with numbers, whether each is ahead, on track or behind. If two of five are behind for two months running, the plan is revisited rather than quietly abandoned. Owners who want help with that rhythm keep us on through monthly owner advisory.

Mistakes to avoid

Most growth plans fail from overload, not from bad ideas.

• Too many targets. Beyond five, nobody remembers them.
• Targets without owners. "The team" is not an owner.
• Revenue targets with no margin floor. You can grow sales and shrink profit at the same time; set a minimum gross margin beside every sales target.
• No capacity check. If the plan adds 30% more work, the operations and capacity review should come first or run alongside.
• No stop list. Every plan should name what you will stop doing to make room.

What we've seen work

Focused moves tend to beat broad ones. In our HVAC work, GasBoilers.ca was built as a gas-boiler division for CANRO Heat rather than another page on the main brand, and it now serves 26+ BC communities. Not every firm needs a separate brand, but the principle of a narrow, well-defined growth line transfers. More on our results page.

Price and next step

Roadmaps are quoted as fixed-price projects, typically within the $3,500 to $25,000 project range, plus GST. See pricing for what drives the figure, then call, text or email to arrange the free first conversation.