Why Hasn't Business Grown?

Do you ever feel like you have grown your business to a certain point, and no matter what you do or what advise you take, you still can’t seem to get over the hump?

Business has phases of growth, and even though we all want to have the next big idea that brings us overnight success. The reality is, it takes work to grow a business to every level of success. I will never forget the day, the levels were spelled out for me, by the one and only Alex Charfen is his Billionaire Code, suddenly I discovered what was confounding me, became clear.

The Billionaire Code that Alex created is worth taking a look at, it’s basically a chart of the levels and layers of success and the things that stop businesses from evolving to the next level. I found that there is a lot of truth in the layers he lays out, but it’s also not a straight line of doing, implementing or understanding- unfortunately.

Because a business, when launched, grown, and systemized becomes a living breathing creature all it’s own. You get a special tax ID from the government for your business, and your business pays taxes like you and your employees pay. When done correctly, your business keeps running without you needed in the day to day operations, and in the best case scenario cases outlives you, (for service based businesses, it’s a harder thing to accomplish, but certainly not impossible.)

Because your business is an entity of its own, it also means that you can expect certain things along the growth spectrum, there are always variables at play, normally due to human error. So as you grow your business and look at the person next to you, making it happen with ease, know this-

Everyday is an adventure, full of unexpected twists and turns.

The one thing every growing business has in common, is each leaders (you) ability to see the problems, create solutions, and implement them.

I remember early on in business, I thought that meant that only I could implement changes before I passed the new changes onto my staff. Where I got it wrong, I didn’t have to be the person doing all the heavy lifting, that is why you hire people, and why you bring on a staff you pay to do a very specific job.

The problem is, most business owners, especially first time business owners are a mess at delegating work, making sure it gets done, and rewarding success.

Normally how is the whole scenario plays out:

• Hire someone, delegate work to them

• Take the work back, do it yourself, because nobody can do it better that you, and you have to make sure it gets done.

• Get frustrated and burned out, because having a team is more of a problem than it’s worth.

• If you don’t fix it, many business owners, especially coaches, consultants and creatives shrink their business down to where it’s just them again, and end up owning a job not a business.

The common denominator in this chaos here, is YOU. YOU THE BUSINESS OWNER.

You and your micromanager tendencies, inability to ask for help, and ensure that you are effectively getting the help you need.

The only thing stopping you from taking your business to the next level is you, it will always be you, and as soon as YOU realize that you are your businesses greatest strength you are also your businesses greatest weakness.

Your business will change when you understand those weaknesses, ask for help diagnosing the blind spots and change how you lead people.

For me, early on in my career as an entrepreneur, changing how I led people was the hardest and messiest part, because by nature I may possess leadership qualities, but that doesn’t mean I was inherently gifted with knowing how to lead others. Chances are you are the same.

The mistakes I made while learning how to lead is what makes this such a big topic for me.

The mistakes you make while leading others, can literally ruin the lives of the people who work for us by either creating a false sense of security or be so brutal, they end up having to spend years in counseling after having worked for a person like you. I know that seems a little melodramatic, but the power you have as business owner, and leader is something that you must respect.

Your blind spots in knowing where your weaknesses lie as a leader and actively seeking solutions for them is slowing your team down, business growth , and the impact your company is capable of making in this world.

If you are ready to get deep, beyond the basics growing your business, and ready to take a look inside you, your business, and truly gaining the skill of discovering your blindspots, moving through them quickly, and creating the income and impact you have always envisioned, but feels somehow out of reach, it’s time to schedule your Smart Business Audit.

When you schedule your Smart Business Audit, you will be taken to a short questionaire so that I can be more familiar with your business, and we can waste less time getting to know each other, and more time problem solving.

On this call we will diagnose your blindspots preventing you from growing your company, now and into the future and create a plan to move forward and thru these blindspots quickly so that you can gain the leverage, growth, and sense of peace in owning your business that has been eluding you up til now. That changes today.

If this blog was valuable to you, let me know in the comments, and subscribe to my newsletter to get all the updates.

Are you failing as a leader?

I’ve noticed recently as a look at the entrepreneurial space in recent months, leaders are becoming whiners, complainers, and bellyachers. It’s hard to see the rest of the societal narrative of always looking for something to complain about, invading the hearts and minds of some of the strongest leaders, breaks my heart and saddens me.

Scrolling through social media, I see people who are generally upbeat, positive and encouraging others to see the world through a rosier lens take a wrong turn somewhere into the realm passive aggressive, aggressive, and/ or blaming and fingerpointing.

As leaders we are the problems solvers of society.

When we point out the problems we see it is to provide a solution, not to complain. We are constantly looking forward to see and create a better world.

I get that life hasn’t been easy this year, the world is different, and things are uncertain and ever changing. BUT things have ALWAYS been uncertain, challenging and ever changing.

What you think about you bring about.

What you talk about becomes your reality.

Why waste your thoughts and words on anything more than possibility, future casting and problem solving?

Why add to the problems of the world? Enough people do that.

Why state and restate the problems of the world? Everyone is already doing that.

You are not everyone else.

You are a world changer, and you can’t change the world if you are focusing on the wrong things.

The wrong things are:

• The things that disempower and discourage

• Stating the problem without offering a solution

• Being negative, passive aggressive, or sarcastic

You are a leader, as a leader we have to first lead ourselves.

I know how easy it is to give into to noise and the negativity and focus on the small things that do nothing to improve your life or the lives you impact. It’s easy to say “The struggle is real,” and allow the work and toil in growing a business, raising a family, and living life in a changing climate to be so overwhelming you feel like everything you want to do and achieve is impossible or has to be hard.

Nothing in this life is easy, but the perspective we have about the things that happen are a choice.

Leaders do better, and lead.

Dreamers do better, and do.

Dare to be bold enough to think differently, speak differently, and you will create differently.

It’s not always about being positive or always being ra-ra, that’s not realistic, and I’m highly suspect of people who refuse to acknowledge the hard stuff, denial ain’t pretty either.

What I am saying is - Perspective is everything.

It’s ok to go through the thoughts and feelings and pity party phase of the hard stuff happening everyday, for each of us, while still not talking about it, and whining about it before you have had the chance to process through the stuff.

It’s tempting to bond through pain, but that kind of bonding leads to the most toxic and unproductive relationships, businesses, and life experiences.

Make it a rule, to not share the hard stuff with the world- until you have come through it, learned the lesson and can speak from wisdom not whining. Save your emoting for your family and close friends.

As a leader we must speak the truth from wisdom. Wisdom is formed through thoughtfulness, reflection, and experience.

Let me know in the comments if you have noticed the trend of negativity in yourself or the world around you lately. Have you tried to change it?

Get all my updates and subscribe to my newsletter here.