You might remember the tragic story of basketball legend Kobe Bryant’s helicopter crash.
It was a foggy morning in Los Angeles. To avoid the city’s notorious traffic, Kobe chose to fly. But visibility was poor — so poor that the pilot was relying on what he could see, not on the proper flight instruments.
Moments later, the helicopter flew into a hillside hidden in the fog.
The pilot didn’t even realise it was there.
Now, as grim as that story is, it perfectly illustrates what happens when a business operates without a revenue and profit plan. You’re essentially flying through the fog — trusting instinct instead of instruments, reacting instead of steering.
And that’s a dangerous way to run a business.
Your Plan Is Your Flight Dashboard
A revenue and profit plan acts like the dashboard in your cockpit. It tells you what’s coming, where you’re heading, and when you need to make adjustments.
It starts with your forecast — your best estimate of what you intend to achieve over the next 12 months.
That might sound as simple as saying,
“We want to grow from £500,000 to £600,000 this year.”
But the moment you set a goal, it triggers the right questions:
- How many new clients would that take?
- What’s our conversion rate?
- How many enquiries do we need to support that?
- Could we increase our average sale or retain clients longer?
- Can we improve our margins?
Suddenly, the fog begins to lift. You move from vague ambition to structured thinking.
That’s what planning does — it gives you visibility. It forces you to think like a pilot, not a passenger.
Without a Plan, Growth Can Stall
Here’s what I often see: a business owner starts getting busier. Then busier still. Before long, they’re maxed out — at full capacity, maybe beyond it.
When that happens, they unconsciously start putting the brakes on growth.
They delay responding to leads. They stop networking. They quietly hope things will calm down.
It’s not laziness — it’s self-protection.
Deep down, they know they can’t take on more work without breaking something.
A revenue and profit plan helps you avoid that trap.
If you know you want to grow by 20%, you can map out what that means operationally:
- Do we need more people?
- More equipment?
- Better systems?
You can set signposts along the way, like:
“Once we hit this turnover, we start recruiting.”
That way, you grow by design, not by accident.
The Three Plans That Drive a Healthy Business
Your revenue and profit plan doesn’t live in isolation. It’s part of a trio that keeps your business flying straight:
- Revenue & Profit Plan – what you expect to sell and earn.
- Marketing Plan – how you’ll attract enough of the right leads to hit those targets.
- Delivery Plan – how you’ll fulfil the work efficiently and profitably.
If one plan is out of sync, the others start wobbling.
So, block out some time — ideally a few quiet days before the new year — and do this:
- Map out your year ahead. Sketch what “steady,” “stretch,” and “ambitious” growth might look like.
- Create two budgets.
- A conservative version — your baseline.
- A stretch version — your aspirational goal.
- Plan your costs to the conservative one, but aim for the stretch.
Then ask: what would it take to make the stretch version real?
Do you need to hire, invest, raise prices, or target different clients?
This isn’t about wishful thinking. It’s about clarity and conscious choice.
Why Most Business Owners Don’t Do This
Most business owners know they should have a plan — they just don’t get round to it.
Some over-plan and never act. Others drift from one busy month to the next, hoping it all works out.
The reality is: the businesses that grow consistently are the ones that plan intentionally — and review that plan regularly.
That’s where working with a coach helps.
A good coach helps you:
- turn numbers into a strategy,
- align your marketing and delivery with your goals,
- see blind spots before they become costly mistakes, and
- stay accountable to what you said you’d do.
If your plan currently lives in a drawer — or doesn’t exist yet — let’s fix that.
Book a free 15-minute call, and we’ll talk through:
- where your business is today,
- where you want it to be next year, and
- the numbers, strategy, and team structure to get you there.
Because when you’re flying with instruments instead of guesswork, the sky really is the limit.
