In October 2026, I spoke at a Federation of Small Businesses event in Lanarkshire and shared my 12 top tips for growing a business. Some are financial, as you’d expect from an accountant. Others come from experiencing the challenges of growing a business myself.
I was asked to speak because Benson Wood had been shortlisted for Lanarkshire Employer of the Year. We went on to win it at the Lanarkshire Business Excellence Awards on 30th October. I've been with the firm since 1998, and Benson Wood turns 90 this year, so most of what I talked about is what we do in our own business, and what we help our clients do every week.
Here are the 12 tips I’d encourage any business owner to think about.
1. Define your business values
Your business values guide the decisions people make when you're not in the room, so set them early. If you haven't yet, it's never too late.
Once you have a team, you can't be part of every conversation, and without shared values, decisions either keep coming back to you or get made in ways you wouldn't have chosen.
We set our values at Benson Wood earlier this year, in a workshop with the whole team. I wanted everyone involved because they're the ones living them every day.
If you're doing this yourself, I'd suggest keeping it to five values at most and making them doing words, so people understand what they look like in practice.
Then make sure you use them. We bring ours into daily huddles and one to ones, and use them when recruiting and deciding which clients to take on. That helps our team make decisions confidently and ensures we're working with people who share our approach.
2. Systemise your finance and admin
Automating your bookkeeping and admin can save hours of work and make your business less dependent on individual employees. If you're spending evenings sorting receipts, or relying on one person to handle payroll, there's probably a better way of doing things.
I recently visited an accountancy firm where paper was everywhere, with bags of shredding and filing cabinets taking up much of the office. Further along the same street, a financial adviser who'd taken over his dad's business had modernised everything and gone completely paperless.
It was quite a contrast.
At Benson Wood, we're a Xero Gold Partner and use Karbon to manage our workflow. Nicole and Irene have also been documenting our admin procedures so the team can follow the same processes.
I'd suggest starting with bank feeds and an invoice capture app, then looking at which tasks could be automated. Document how regular jobs are done, too.
You'll spend less time on administration, and the business won't depend on one person remembering how everything works.
3. Delegate or outsource work
Delegating work to people with the right expertise can free up your time and reduce the risks to your business.
It's tempting to do everything yourself because it feels cheaper. But there's an opportunity cost to the time you're spending on work somebody else could handle.
For a long time, I took on more than I should have at Benson Wood. Now we work with an HR firm, a business mentor and a marketing consultant, and I let them get on with it.
Think about the specialist work you're handling yourself, such as IT, payroll, bookkeeping or tax. One business had been handling its own bookkeeping, VAT and payroll for years. When we reviewed the accounts, we found VAT had been claimed on entertainment and other costs that didn't qualify. If HMRC had investigated, putting things right could have cost far more than getting specialist help in the first place.
I'd encourage you to look at where your time goes each week. Could somebody else do some of those jobs as well as you, or perhaps even better?
It might feel like an additional expense, but think about what you could achieve with that time back.
4. Hold a monthly board meeting
A monthly board meeting gives you time to step away from the day to day running of your business and look at where it's heading.
Do it even if it's just you at the kitchen table or in a local café.
I describe it as getting off the dance floor and up onto the balcony, where you can see what's happening across the business. I’ve written more about board meetings and what to cover in them.
Before the meeting, prepare a short report covering your management accounts, KPIs and what's happening with your team. Include any business development activities, operational issues or risks that need attention.
Then ask yourself what needs your attention, what you should start or stop doing and which actions will move the business forward.
We hold monthly board meetings at Benson Wood, facilitated by our business mentor. They're far less formal than you might expect, but they help us keep our longer term plans on track.
It's something we also help clients with through our Grow With Confidence service.
5. Create your 3 year business vision
Start by deciding where you want your business to be in 3 years and what you want it to make possible for you personally.
I meet owners whose businesses have grown for years without them deciding what they want from them. The business gets bigger, but they're still the person everything depends on.
One question I always ask is, "What's your number?" How much do you need the business to give you, both now and when you eventually step back? Part of that is looking at how much of the business runs through you, and whether it could carry on if you sold it one day.
I've worked out my own number. Yvonne and I recently upgraded our caravan overlooking Kirkcudbright Bay, something we'd wanted to do for a while. Planning for the future helped me understand what Benson Wood needed to achieve to make that possible.
Growing your business should help you get what you want from life, and that’s the thinking behind our Growth Vision Workshop. We spend a day with business owners exploring what they want their lives and businesses to look like in 3 years.
6. Decide on your strategic priorities
Once you've decided where you want your business to be in 3 years, pick up to five priorities for the coming year that will help you get there. Break them into quarterly goals and review progress every week.
It's easy to come away from a planning session with a long list of things you want to achieve. The trouble is, once you're back dealing with clients and the daily demands of running a business, those plans can quickly get forgotten.
At Benson Wood, we track our priorities in our monthly board report. Every project has someone responsible for it, with an update on progress and what needs to happen next.
That means we can see what's moving forward and where we need to give something more attention.
I'd encourage you to concentrate on the big priorities that will move your business forward, with smaller tasks sitting underneath them.
If you'd like to explore this approach further, I'd recommend Traction by Gino Wickman. It's a book I've found helpful for thinking about how to put business plans into practice.
7. Build a business budget
Targets are a great motivator, and a budget gives you and your team something to aim for each month. Without one, it's difficult to know how much income the business needs to generate or what you can afford to invest as it grows.
I'd recommend setting your budget out month by month, with income targets for each service or product line. Include your expected costs, gross and net profit margins, and an estimate of the tax you'll need to pay.
We do this for Benson Wood too, and our monthly report shows each month's figures against the budget. For clients, we call this a Business Roadmap. It helps owners set realistic financial targets and understand what their plans will mean for the business.
Including tax estimates means you can put money aside throughout the year rather than facing an unexpected bill.
8. Track your growth with management accounts
Management accounts show how your business is performing throughout the year, while there's still time to do something about it. By comparing them with your Business Roadmap (budget), you can see if your business is staying on track.
If you only look at annual accounts, you might not spot a problem until month 14. With quarterly management accounts, you could identify it by month 4. At Benson Wood, we call these Growth Reports.
Compare your results against your budget and keep an eye on important figures such as gross profit margin, cash and lock up, which measures how long it takes for work to turn into money in the bank.
"Why am I making a profit but have no cash?" is a question I hear regularly from business owners.
Often, the money is tied up in work that hasn't been billed or invoices that haven't been paid. Regular financial reports help you see what's happening.
We sit down with clients to review their figures and discuss what they mean for the business.
That makes it easier to decide when to recruit or invest, rather than relying on figures that are already out of date.
9. Be consistent on social media
Post regularly on the platforms your clients use, and talk about the problems they're dealing with.
I use a 70/20/10 split as a guide. Around 70% of your content should help your audience, 20% can be personal and 10% can promote your services.
I post on LinkedIn several times a week, sharing business advice alongside stories about Benson Wood and other local businesses.
People now come up to me at events because they recognise me from my posts. Some even call me the Teacake Guy! I've written about how that came about.
The posts that get the strongest response are often those about our values or the businesses and people in our local community.
I'd encourage you to share your own experiences and write as you would speak to a client.
Don't use AI for your content. People want to get to know the person behind the business, so give them something that reflects who you are.
I’d also recommend They Ask, You Answer by Marcus Sheridan, which looks at how to write content around the questions and problems your clients have.
10. Speak to your accountant
Speak to your accountant before making major investment decisions and before your financial year end, while there's still time to plan for tax.
Over the years, we've had clients tell us they've just bought a big diesel Range Rover through the business. That's when we find out, after the fact, with no opportunity to discuss the tax implications or explore a more tax efficient approach.
A quick phone call beforehand could have saved them money.
I'd encourage you to have regular conversations with your accountant, ideally monthly or quarterly, even if they mainly handle your compliance work.
They can help you make decisions as your business grows, but they're also someone to talk things through with.
Running a business can feel lonely at times, particularly when an important decision rests with you. Having somebody who understands your business and is happy to be a sounding board can make a real difference.
11. Be kind to yourself
You're not an emergency service, so set expectations with clients about when they can reach you.
This is where your business values come in again. We use ours when deciding which clients to work with, because the wrong client can take up far more of your time than the fee would suggest.
At the end of my talk, a business owner told me he was constantly distracted by social media and struggling to concentrate on running his business.
I told him he sounded like he'd been speaking to my wife Yvonne!
My advice was to use an app that blocks distractions or put his phone in another room. If you've got a team, block time out in your diary and let them know you need to concentrate.
I'll admit I don't always follow my own advice.
It's easy to let work take over, but as someone once put it, nobody on their deathbed says, “I wish I’d worked more.” They’re far more likely to say, “I wish I’d been there more for my family, particularly when I was growing my business.”
12. Be human
People buy from people. Being yourself, both face to face and online, helps others get to know you and trust you.
I spend a lot of time at business events introducing people to each other. I enjoy helping make connections, even when there's nothing in it for me. More often than not, you get it back in spades.
I recently spoke to a business using AI to arrange insurance. I suggested they show more of the brokers behind the platform, because clients still value having a relationship with the person advising them. They told me nobody had suggested that before.
It's something I've written about before.
I'd also encourage you to operate above the line. That means taking ownership and responsibility for your decisions, rather than falling into blame and excuses when things go wrong.
I started my talk with business values, and I finished with them too, because once you've agreed on your values, you've got to live by them.
How can Benson Wood help you grow your business?
We work with growing professional services firms across Lanarkshire and Central Scotland, helping owners plan for the future and make decisions about their businesses.
If you'd like to talk through any of these tips, get in touch with our team.
Come and see us in Bellshill, and there'll be a coffee and a Tunnock's Teacake waiting for you.
