Service — The Plan Of Action
The payback math behind the plan of action
The payback case for the Plan of Action is simple: it contains the honest no, which is the single most expensive sentence to discover late.
7 min read · Reviewed by both partners
Marketing spend is usually justified with projections. This is arithmetic against costs you are already carrying.
The cost side: $1,500.
Step by step
Count what a wrong decision costs
A twelve-month retainer on a mis-diagnosed constraint is the standard comparison, and it is not close.
Count what an avoided hire costs
A senior marketing hire is a multiple of the entire Foundation before benefits.
Count the time
Months spent funding something unmeasurable are months you cannot learn from. That cost is real and never appears on an invoice.
Then the upside
It contains the honest no, which is the single most expensive sentence to discover late
Set the threshold before buying
Decide what would make this a good decision, in a number, before spending. Then check.
Common mistakes
Comparing it to doing nothing
Doing nothing has a cost too, and at a stalled business it is usually the larger one.
Expecting payback inside a month
The Foundation pays back through decisions avoided, which is slower to feel and easier to verify.
Frequently Asked Questions
The payback math behind the plan of action?
Marketing spend is usually justified with projections. This is arithmetic against costs you are already carrying.
How soon should a business owner act on this?
It sits under The Plan Of Action in the Growth Scaling Method. The next step for an owner is the $1,500 Assessment, which reads your own numbers against everything described above.
What does working with Growth-Scaling cost?
Four thousand five hundred dollars for the Foundation, split evenly across three deliverables. Recurring work is quoted afterward and never starts below five thousand a month.
Who works on the account?
The two founders, directly. David Mitroff, Ph.D., handles strategy; Steven Lockhart handles systems and measurement. Nothing is passed to a junior team.
References
- www.bls.gov — primary source
- www.nfib.com — primary source
- www.consumerfinance.gov — primary source
Run the arithmetic on your own numbers
That is what the first two hours are for.
Growth-Scaling is a marketing and business-scaling firm. It is not a licensed practitioner in any client vertical and does not provide medical, legal, financial, or contracting services; all industry content on this site is marketing and growth guidance for owners in those fields. Figures describing past engagements refer to specific businesses under specific conditions and are not a prediction of any future result. No outcome is promised.
Written by Steven Lockhart, reviewed by David Mitroff, Ph.D. Figures and regulatory details reflect the cited public sources; requirements vary by state and situation. Growth-Scaling is a marketing and business-scaling firm, not a licensed practitioner in any client vertical.