5 Ways You are Stalling Business Growth

It’s no secret that we stand in our own way in life and in business. Sometimes those ways are pretty obvious. But I’ve found that those are a little easier to combat. It’s the subtly destructive habits that almost look productive that have the biggest capacity to keep me stuck.

If you are ready to get out of your own way, and open the door to growth this year, watch for these 5 ways you are stalling business growth. And then stop them in their tracks!

1. 1. I’ll do it myself- Unwilling to Delegate. I see this so frequently from business owners. We need to run FB Ads? I can do that. We need to book media appearances? I can do that. It masquerades as thriftiness. Why pay someone else to do what we can do ourselves? Because oftentimes they do it better and faster. And if you are doing too many things in your business, you naturally stop the progress. Once the hours in your day are done, so is business growth.
   2. Yes, yes and yes- Overcommitment. In a society that has come to romanticize busyness and praise the overscheduled, we fall into this trap far too easily. In business this is especially challenging because there are a never-ending number of ways you can expand your business. I can go to that networking meeting. And let’s run some new FB Ads. That conference sounds good. I should sponsor the local school. You never know who might see that banner. Before you know it, you are overcommitted and you don’t have the time to make your core business strategies really work.
   3. I think we have…- Mental systems rather than actual systems. If you are holding information in your head as a business owner, you are stalling business growth. In my early years, billing happened because I had a little spread sheet where I wrote down what day I was supposed to charge someone’s card. And then I was supposed to remember it. I found myself asking questions like, “Did I charge that card? I think I did.” And then I would have to spend extra time to verify if I did indeed charge the card. It was an example of a mental system. All the information was stored in my brain. If I had been hit by a bus, we would have been out of business! It’s great that you know a lot of things in your business. But the real strength will come when you take that info out of your brain and build it into a system. If your business can’t run without you remembering to do something, you are most definitely stalling growth!
   4. Master of none- Spreading the talent pool too thin. Not all money is good money. Some jobs require more time and resources. I’ve had clients that when it was all said and done, the amount of time I spent on their account really didn’t match up to the price they paid. My business is 5 years old, and we are still mastering this one. We get better every year, but I have yet to have a year where I can say we didn’t do anything that we weren’t GREAT at. When you know what you are truly great at and say no to everything else, you are the most productive, and the most profitable.
   5. Squeaky Wheelitis- Putting day-to-day over future. This one is hard because the day to day is the most loud and demanding part of your business. It’s the emails, the client needs, the questions from your team, and the never-ending to-do list of things that have to happen now. The problem is, working in the day-to-day doesn’t build your future. And no one nags you to implement inspiration and ideas you have for growth. You can be so busy working on today that you never spend time on tomorrow. I challenge you to make your highest priority, working on implementing new ideas that will bring growth to the company. Because here’s the honest truth about the squeaky wheel stuff. You will still get it done, even if you do it after 12 pm when you’ve already attended to your business growth ideas.

It’s a new year. We have big goals. It’s time to get out of our own way and quit stalling our business growth!