Fast Lane
Moving forward
How to create a successful plan for growth
By Carolyn LaWell
Smart Business Akron/Canton | January 2009
Page 1 of 2
Margaret K. Nabors co-founder and CEO, Mustard Seed Market & Café
Margaret K. Nabors got
her start with $60 and
a cooking pot.
But that was 20 years ago,
when she co-founded Mustard
Seed Market & Café with her
husband, Phillip, yet today, the
company boasts 300 employees at two locations.
Nabors, co-founder and CEO
of Mustard Seed Market &
Café, says that when it comes
to growing a business, keeping
track of the numbers is imperative, taking risks is a must and a
good business plan is essential.
“It’s a road map,” Nabors says
of creating a growth plan. “It
makes the journey a little bit
easier.”
Smart Business spoke with
Nabors about how to create a
plan for growing your business.
Q. How do you create a plan
for growth?
It happens sometimes spontaneously, and other times in a
planned, well-thought-out manner. There are pluses to both of
them.
When you’re sitting down and
going through a formal meeting,
that’s very helpful, because at
that point in time, you really get
things down on paper. You can
measure: Have we met our
goals? How close are we to getting our goals?
The impromptu meetings,
those are enormously constructive, as well, because something
has come up that has inspired
you to talk about it. It really gets
the juices flowing.
You need to have an executive
team that you can share ideas
and formulate direction. You
need to be cognizant of the
economy, labor market. This can
have a huge impact on the direction you may want to pursue.
You need to know the growth
pattern of your business. You
need to be realistic about the
strengths and weaknesses of
your business.
You must be willing to listen.
Be willing to listen to the people
on the ground — the people
who are in the trenches down
there — what they have to say
about their department, what
their needs are, what they think
are the long-term goals that can
be fulfilled. That’s important.
Listen to your managers
because they’re the ones that
are interacting with the staff.
Our senior vice president
meets with each department head at least twice a
year to map out the direction of their specific department, discussing with them
their team’s strengths and
areas to be improved.
