• Swindon & Wiltshire Experts
• Wednesday November 11 2026
• Author Name: Chris Spratling

Is your business actually growing, or are you just getting busier?

Real growth should create something: more profit, stronger cash generation, better capability, greater resilience, improved market position or more enterprise value, says Chris Spratling of Chalkhill Blue.

Growth is one of the most misused words in business.

‘We’re growing,’ an owner tells me. Usually the evidence follows: turnover is up 20 per cent, another six people have joined and the business has just won its biggest customer.

All good news. But none of those things, on their own, proves the business is better. It may simply be bigger.

I’ve seen companies increase revenue substantially while profitability falls, cash becomes tighter and the owner works harder than ever. Technically they have grown. Commercially, you might reasonably ask whether they have progressed.

Real growth should create something: more profit, stronger cash generation, better capability, greater resilience, improved market position or more enterprise value. Ideally it also creates more freedom for the owner.

Imagine revenue rises by £1 million, but delivering that work requires £950,000 in additional people, equipment, overhead and working capital.

What has really changed? Or imagine landing a huge customer who quickly represents a third of sales. You have created an opportunity, but also a potentially serious dependency.

This is why I encourage owners to look beyond the headline turnover figure.

Five questions are worth asking. Is profit growing? Is cash generation improving? Are margins strengthening? Is the company becoming less dependent on particular people and customers? And is the business becoming more valuable?

The answers can lead to decisions that feel counterintuitive.

Perhaps you should increase prices rather than chase volume.

Perhaps a loss-making customer needs to go. Perhaps investment in systems is more important than another salesperson.

Scaling a business is not simply doing more of the same. A process that works perfectly at £1 million turnover can become a bottleneck at £3 million and break completely at £10 million.

Growth also has a habit of hiding inefficiency. A busy team can feel productive while spending too much time correcting mistakes, handling bespoke requests or servicing work that generates little return.

So before setting next year’s revenue target, look at the quality of what you already do. Which products or customers deliver the best contribution? Where does cash get trapped? Which activities are consuming management time without building long-term value?

Then agree what must improve as the business grows. You might set targets for gross margin, cash conversion, repeat revenue, customer concentration and the proportion of decisions handled without the owner.

None of this suggests turnover doesn’t matter. Of course it does.

But turnover is a means to an end, not the end itself.

At your next management meeting, replace ‘How much bigger can we get?’ with ‘What would make this a substantially better business?’

It is a small change in language that can transform the conversation.

Chris Spratling is a business owner, author of The Exit Roadmap and founder of Chalkhill Blue. Having built, bought, scaled and sold businesses himself, Chris now works with SME owners to help them grow, scale, build enterprise value and ultimately exit on their terms.