So, you’ve spent years building a pretty successful business, but now things have reached a plateau.
It’s not uncommon, with experts noting many entrepreneurs reach either the survival or success stage of business and remain there.
If that’s a conscious choice, then fine. But if your ambition is to build something bigger, and you’re wondering how to break through to the next stage, then it’s important to consider what’s holding you back.
In over 30 years of business coaching, I’ve found there are five common themes that see businesses stagnate rather than grow. So, let’s examine what exactly might be holding you back.
Mindset
Growth takes a dedicated mindset and it’s slightly different to the one which saw you start building a business all those years ago.
To scale up your business beyond survival and to the upper echalons of success you need to have confidence in yourself, your leadership and your business structure, along with a willingness to recognise and seize opportunity.
This mindset is actually at the centre of all the tools you need to grow, and also involves recognizing you deserve to achieve, you can take the leap, and there are opportunities available.
The right mindset helps you overcome the limiting beliefs that whisper all the reasons you can’t achieve, and helps you form the habits that lead to success.
Overwhelm
If you’re constantly feeling pushed for time and spend too much of it working in your business rather than on it, then attaining the next level of business success will remain out of reach.
To grow you need a firm grasp on your current business operation, along with systems and a plan to take it forward.
That makes now the time to delegate suitable tasks by outsourcing or staffing your business accordingly. Doing this will allow you take a big-picture perspective of your enterprise and identify opportunity along with the path forward.
Systems
I cannot put this more plainly, systems and procedures are the how-to of any operation. They are the recipe for success.
Without systems and procedures, your business grinds to a halt because systems and procedures:
- Reduce mistakes
- Allow for efficiency
- Hold people accountable to their role in your business
- Allow you to repeat success
- Create consistency
Opportunity
Opportunity isn’t something that comes knocking on rare occasions. In business, it is something that you create through market knowledge, customer insight and planning.
Creating opportunity for growth involves understanding your business’ strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, and planning for them accordingly.
Cash
The likelihood is, scaling up will require an investment – whether that’s into new technology, upskilling, additional staff or time spent planning.
All this requires cash, and chances are you have it within your business if you’ve already reached the stage of success.
Now it’s about recognising where this cash is best spent in a bid to make a solid return on your growth investment.
That means attention to numbers, KPIs and the bottom line is critical, while planning helps sure up your investment.
If you’re looking to learn more about business growth, see here. Alternatively, you can find out more about working with me to identify the path forward or contact me directly to see how we can work together to take your business to the next stage.
Talk Strategy with Clive
With more than 30 years’ experience in mentoring small to medium-sized businesses around Australia. Clive works with company owners and their teams to grow their business and achieve goals through startegic coaching.
