Many business owners and founders often grapple with the question of where to focus their efforts for maximum impact. When you can hone in a few important areas, you’ll find that the pieces come together, you’re gaining traction and able to create sustainability in your company.

While it's not uncommon to feel pulled in multiple directions, the key to overcoming this lies in a strategic and intentional approach to where you direct your attention.

There are two areas that support yours and your business’ growth: personal and strategic initiatives.

Does your life ever feel like a whirlwind and it’s passing you by?

It can be challenging to move forward on your life’s goals and dreams if you don’t make space for them.

Creating the conditions to live your life by design and build a business intentionally is not impossible amongst your other responsibilities.

But building a sustainable business takes time.

And it’s easy to become impatient.

But if you take the steps and put the structure in place, the rewards will start to show up - even before you‘re finished.

When I graduated from University, I was incredibly fortunate to go back-packing across Europe, travelling through several countries.

For a time, I was with a friend, but then we went our planned separate ways and I travelled solo for a few weeks.

I remember one leg of the trip I was arriving in Prague, via train, with an hour to find my way to the hostel to check in before the front desk closed for the day. I had to navigate through a strange city and language to find the hostel where I was staying for a few days - all arranged over the phone.

This was a time of pay phones and phonebooks….and very limited internet!

I remember nervously studying my travel book in anticipation of the train’s arrival, mapping out my route in my mind, trying to picture and plan each step.

I had to take the street car from the train station, get off at the correct stop, find the correct street, turn at the next correct street and then the next to find my way. Finding the landmarks and proper streets each step of the way.

Waking up each morning, one of the first things so many of us do is check our emails and messages.

What is the day shaping up to be?

What did I miss?

What am I going to be faced with when I get to work?

We look at our calendar and see the meetings, administration and other commitments that are required to run our business.

We have aspirations for greater sustainability and perhaps growth, but how does one achieve this amidst the running of the business?

…when so much of our energy and time is already wrapped up in what we do every day?

Growing your business can be fun, challenging, rewarding and all-encompassing. It can also feel frustrating, never-enough and like spinning your wheels.

An interesting question to consider if you have aspirations to expand is: how are you measuring growth?

There’s the traditional metrics of using revenue and profit. Those are great measures.

However, measuring growing using only the metric of growing top-line sales is using a very narrow lense.

AND these metrics are lagging indicators. They are the result of the activities you’re engaging in.

What are your leading indicators? (These are the actions you’re taking that LEAD TO the results you’re looking for.)

Based on KPMG’s 2022 SMB Business Outlook Survey, 83% of SMB leaders are confident in their company’s growth over the next three years.

KPMG has also identified that the single most significant source of growth over the next three years will come from organic growth (innovation, R&D, investments, new products, and recruitment) ranked at 24%. Other forms of growth cited were Digital and Technology Investments 18%, Strategic Alliances with third parties 18% and Attracting Fresh Capital at 10%.

Organic growth involves evaluating your operational models for efficiencies, enhancements, or other initiatives that will strengthen your company.

This is where the consideration of adding value comes in…

Have you been in the situation where, no matter what you do, you can’t seem to break through your revenue ceiling? You might be moving the needle a few percentages, but in general, your topline revenue seems to have stalled?

This is exactly the situation a very talented and accomplished friend was in when she was telling me the story of her business. She went on to say that no matter what she did (reminding me she already worked long hours) that she can’t seem to generate more revenue, year over year. Each year she thinks it will be different, but somehow doesn’t end up making significantly more to consider it meaningful growth.

I was asking her deeper questions about how she operated in her business and who and what brought in the most revenue.

“It’s me brining in revenue and I’ve changed up my services, but I’m not getting the type of growth I’m looking for.”

After hearing her story, I started to see a couple of reasons why she was experiencing a revenue plateau.

When I was younger I loved to dance. (Well I still do, but I actually took lessons and performed in my youth). What I admired about professional dancers was their athleticism, their grace and their superb amounts of skill. The way they could capture an audience and tell a story through movement.

What I learned was in order to get to be so skilled and master their craft, they practiced all the time and often practiced the basics. Like a musician mastering and warming up with scales. It’s the foundational steps and method that help them to hone their craft. It’s focussing on the foundations of their craft that built the muscle memory and capacity that they have today. The ballet dancers always came back to their pliés.

When I hear and speak to business owners and founders today who want to grow their companies, some of them have all sorts of plans and initiatives. I always love hearing about their plans and vision. It’s inspiring. Until I hear about their method…

Have you ever felt the weight of running your business?

Wouldn’t it be nice not to have everything resting on your shoulders?

Wouldn’t it be nice to feel supported and know that certain things are ‘handled’, and you aren’t solely responsible to make key things happen in your business?

I’m not a car person by any means, but this analogy popped into my mind as I was thinking about how I often hear (and experience) the challenge of feeling like you’re alone in your business.

You've likely heard the adage that it’s far easier to cross-sell an existing customer a new product than it is to find a new customer. And if your goal is to grow at all costs, then cross-selling makes sense.

However, all of that sales growth may not do much for the value of your company. If you cross-sell your existing customers too much, it could make your business far less valuable.

When you cross-sell a customer so many products and services that they begin to account for more than 15–30% of your revenue, expect your value to drop. If a single customer represents more than 30% of your sales, expect an even deeper discount.

Customer concentration is one factor that makes up your score on the ValueBuilder assessment — it’s one of eight drivers that’s behind the research determining your business's value in an acquirer's eyes…

I just had the pleasure of taking the weekend to do some hiking in the Cape Breton Highlands and let me tell you: If you’ve never been to Eastern Canada in the Fall, you’re missing out.

The leaves were stunning. Absolutely breathtaking.

It was walking through the woods, experiencing the quiet beauty and perfectly imperfect landscape of rivers and mountains that filled me with a peace that was so wonderful to experience.

It was there that I was able to be reminded of me; and what I’m wanting to accomplish. And how fortunate I was to be able to take these moments in a busy life to reconnect to that.

I’ve been working to create opportunities for more space in my work and calendar. Not only to work on projects that are important to me but to think more deeply about my work and how to improve on certain areas of my business. Particularly HOW I work.

What I’ve learned is space in my workweek leads to business growth…

Have you ever had a wonderful experience with a brand, product or service that you really wanted to tell your friends about it?

Actually, I’m guessing you have. When we experience something wonderful, we want to tell people about it.

I am happy to share with others when I’ve had a phenomenal experience at a restaurant, a retail store, or with my hairstylist or my insurance company.

We want others to have those experiences as well and for those individuals to continue to be successful because of the great work/food/products/services/etc. they’re putting out into the world.

So now let’s flip things.

Do you think people say the same for your business?

There’s one critical question you can ask your customers in order to measure how well you’re doing as a business to know if you have high levels of customer satisfaction and the answer to this question is also proven to be predictive of your future stream of revenue.

The question is…

The unconventional strategy: Create space to think.

This may seem odd to highlight, but stick with me here…

Often, we go and go and go in a business we’re trying to create and build. We feel like there’s never enough time, there are more clients or customers to attract, or new products or services to release in this quest of creating, building, and growing a business. There’s a lot of doing. And a lot of striving.

And that action-taking can be worthwhile.

However, there is another side of the equation to consider….and that side is the opposite of doing.

It’s about taking frequent pauses. Creating space for something else…..

How often are you creating space for thinking, reflecting, planning, and considering?

What a question…..and, a question I’m often asked.

It can also be a deeply held belief that some of the business owners I begin working with have: that their business can’t possibly grow because they are already maxed out….or close to it.

This is where the intervention begins :)

Yes, growing your business is hard work and you will have to put the work in. I want to lay that out right now.

However, it’s where you put your energy that counts as you grow and expand into a future vision of your business that delivers results…..and maintains your sanity and personal relationships too.

It’s about laying the foundation for growth.

A house cannot be build on a faulty foundation. It doesn’t sound fun but it’s soooo important and you’ll find that when you do have a solid foundation….after you’ve put in the work to create one…it IS fun. It’s exciting to see what you, your team and business are capable of at that point.

So what does a foundation for growth look like?

I deeply admire and am inspired by business owners.

They take a chance….make a leap….to create something from nothing. To take the untravelled path, taking a chance and a risk, no matter how calculated…there’s always some degree of risk.

As the business grows from start-up to an established business, typically people are hired or contracted and the team grows. More people benefit from that business’ existence. Not only the customers buying the product/service and the people who are employed or contracted, but there are the spin-off effects of that.

Somebody’s child gets to play soccer that year. There’s a family vacation. There’s a charity that gets a donation or even a larger donation. A spouse that gets to have the freedom to then choose their own career path. The spin-offs are endless…..as long as that business does well.

We all benefit directly or indirectly from those ‘small’ businesses starting, growing and thriving. (A Small Business is defined as a business with employees 1-99: source Statistics Canada)

Yet, the challenges many of them face are…

Having systems in your business is like having healthy eating habits...once they're established they contribute to longevity, vitality and create a solid foundation for great things to happen - such as growth in your business.

This power is not to be underestimated.

Your Intention can make profound things happen. It can create changes or actions that may feel small at the time but can have a big impact on how your life events unfold.