Targemaker Sharp targets. Measurable growth.

Targemaker

Sharp targets. Measurable growth.

Latest Articles

The Uplift Ledger: Setting a 2027 Price Target You Can Defend
Strategy & Planning

The Uplift Ledger: Setting a 2027 Price Target You Can Defend

Most UK founders treat a price rise as a single decision rather than a target with measurable outcomes. Here is how to segment the customer base, set a revenue-per-customer uplift goal, script the difficult conversations, and track retention and margin so a 2027 increase becomes a controlled growth lever rather than a customer-relations gamble.
Thirteen Weeks of Certainty: Making Liquidity Your First Target
Performance & Measurement

Thirteen Weeks of Certainty: Making Liquidity Your First Target

Most UK SMEs can quote their revenue target to the nearest thousand pounds but cannot say what their bank balance will be at the end of next quarter. This article sets out how to build a rolling thirteen-week cash target with a calculated floor, a realistic inflow forecast, and a twenty-minute weekly checkpoint that turns liquidity into a measured discipline.
Before the Ink Dries: Stress-Testing Next Year's Numbers
Strategy & Planning

Before the Ink Dries: Stress-Testing Next Year's Numbers

A target is only as strong as the assumptions beneath it. This guide sets out a 90-minute failure audit for UK SMEs: assume the 2027 plan has already missed, identify fragile assumptions and single points of failure, and agree kill criteria before December planning locks the number in.
Beyond the Founder's Calendar: Turning Growth Targets into an Operating System
Performance & Measurement

Beyond the Founder's Calendar: Turning Growth Targets into an Operating System

Founder dependency can make a growth target look owned when it is only being watched. This deep dive sets out decision rights, a weekly scorecard, escalation triggers and a one-page target brief that let a UK SME team run the number without constant check-ins.
Five Numbers, One Page: A Target Sheet That Earns Its Place
Performance & Measurement

Five Numbers, One Page: A Target Sheet That Earns Its Place

A crowded dashboard rarely improves judgement; it usually postpones it. This article sets out a one-page target sheet — one outcome, three inputs and one guardrail — plus a thirty-day test for keeping only the numbers that change decisions.
The Conversation Floor: Building UK Revenue Targets from the Bottom Up
Strategy & Planning

The Conversation Floor: Building UK Revenue Targets from the Bottom Up

Revenue targets are often chosen first and reverse-engineered with optimistic conversion assumptions. This article argues for a pipeline floor — a weekly minimum of qualified conversations — set from your own close rates and sales-cycle length before a revenue ceiling is agreed.
Margin Before Momentum: A Profit-First Target Hierarchy for UK Founders
Strategy & Planning

Margin Before Momentum: A Profit-First Target Hierarchy for UK Founders

Revenue-first targets can reward busy growth while starving cash and capacity. For UK SMEs planning 2027, a profit-first hierarchy sets contribution margin, cash conversion and billable capacity before turnover—and makes the trade-offs explicit.
A Quarter Plus One Week: The UK SME Cadence That Keeps Targets Alive After January
Performance & Measurement

A Quarter Plus One Week: The UK SME Cadence That Keeps Targets Alive After January

Annual plans often fade once January momentum gives way to February reality. A rolling thirteen-week target board gives UK SMEs a shorter operating horizon, named owners and a Friday scorecard that turns growth into a weekly measurement habit.
The November Reset: Ninety Days to Turn a Drifting 2026 into a Measurable Q1 2027
Performance & Measurement

The November Reset: Ninety Days to Turn a Drifting 2026 into a Measurable Q1 2027

With 2026 targets drifting and January still two months away, the temptation is to write the plan later. That is precisely backwards. This is a structured ninety-day reset — diagnosis, leading indicators, cashflow checkpoints and a weekly rhythm — that produces a Q1 2027 plan built on evidence rather than optimism.
Retire These Five Targets Before 2027 — and Measure What Actually Pays
Strategy & Planning

Retire These Five Targets Before 2027 — and Measure What Actually Pays

Most UK target lists are inherited, not designed. As planning for 2027 begins, five familiar metrics deserve to be retired outright — not because ambition is unwelcome, but because they cannot tell you whether the business is actually getting stronger. Here is what to put in their place.