I bet you have a clear sense of your goals over the next 1-3 years?

Whether they’re to grow your market through the number of client contracts and policies, increase your customer leads, put a new service into the marketplace, acquire a new property within your business, or add new team members….we typically have a sense of what we want to accomplish this year or over the next few years.

Knowing where we want to get to is key for effective goal setting.

But, how do we ensure we’re making regular progress so we don’t get half way through the year and realize how much time has slipped by - slowing growth?

Steering the ship of a business is can be both exhilarating and challenging. Decisions made can have a profound impact on the entire company and its performance. It’s in this context that personalized business coaching emerges as a powerful tool for business owners to not only navigate the complexities of their roles but to thrive and excel.

I’ll dive into the various advantages and positive outcomes that business coaching brings to owners and founders as a not-so-secret weapon.

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.

Why a Sales Surge? Whether you're in Financial Services, Food Services, Home Security, Real Estate, or any industry with a sales focus, this guide is designed to help you and your team collectively hit your targets. It's not just about meeting deadlines; it's about creating a culture of continuous improvement, collaboration, and fun that elevates your team's performance.

Are you caught in a never-ending cycle of day-to-day tasks, feeling like you're always putting out fires, and never making the progress you dream of in your business? You're not alone.

Many entrepreneurs and professionals find themselves trapped in the whirlwind of immediate demands, leaving little room for strategic growth. But fear not; there is a solution, and it's called future-oriented work.

In this blog post, we'll delve into the significance of focusing on future-oriented tasks and how it can transform your business.

I want to share a story about a business owner who was consistently feeling behind the eight ball…Always feeling 2 steps behind each week.

She was growing but everything was chaotic and she was exhausted.

She was struggling to deliver her services to her clients and grow her business - She was engaged in most of the business development, dealt with many of the clients and was the primary contact for any customer service issue.

She was onboarding a new team member yet because she was still a small business of only six, she was still wearing many hats each day.

Then, after working together, she was able to turn things around.

How?

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.

There are three fundamental qualities that contribute to bring scalability to any business.

Listen here as I talk about them by sharing an experience in my family…and how the principles show up in the common household task….of meal preparation :).

You started your business because, and I’m taking an educated guess here, you want to have flexibility, create a lifestyle uniquely yours and make a positive impact through your work. Is that right? or close?

If you’re aspiring to or on your way towards something bigger and you feel there’s more to go and not quite there yet, amidst the strategies and the tactics, I’m inviting you to consider another aspect that will help you increase your success rate to achieve big goals.

Your energy: the mental perspective you’re bringing to your goal achievement.

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.)

One of the common topics that I notice come up from Founders and Owners is how to manage the multiple priorities they have.

There are so many hats we wear that we often have many similarly prioritized initiatives going on at the same time: from managing a newer member of your team, to pricing your services for next year to planning marketing initiatives. The list can be endless.

And they’re all important.

Sometimes, it feels impossible to chose what to focus on next because it IS nearly impossible. They all have to be done!

While everyone’s situation can be somewhat unique, what I do know is this: when we focus on the many, progress is slow; when we focus on the few, we speed up.

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…

If you’ve been tuning in for a while, you’ve heard me discuss the many contributing factors to building value in your company.

I’ve touched on attributes like growth potential, differentiation, financial performance, diversification of people, suppliers and employees, but you know what these all boil down to?

The SVO Model of Sustainability and Growth…

As we build our businesses, we get to practice and gain proficiency in the details of running of it.

Details like hiring: some of us may have hired a few employees over time and each time we do it, we will get a little bit better at it; finding what works and what doesn’t.

When it comes to managing your people: I suspect that you’ve made some mistakes (like we all have) and had some wins, and have attained a decent level of competency in managing your team through the years.

I also bet that how you serve your customers has improved in some way over time as you do this over and over again. There may be still room for improvement, but you practice this day-in and day-out and it’s my observation that your company is very good at serving it's customers.

So what don’t we get to practice?

Has this thought ever gone through your mind?

You keep pouring more of your efforts in but you can’t seem to grow beyond the level you’ve achieved in your business.

You’ve been hitting the same revenue line for the last while, or maybe even the last couple of years and you can’t seem to go beyond, no matter what you do.

Beyond our plans or intentions, there’s a barrier we can’t seem to break.

The pain of this is you want to expand your company and want to hire or build on the services you offer, but without solving this revenue plateau your hands feel tied…

You’re working too hard to not have the profit you need.

You sell your products and services, but realize that after each month, you’re no further ahead.

Your bank account is dismal and there doesn’t seem to be much left to invest back into your company.

Does this sound familiar?

If so, you may be suffering from the profit conundrum.

This is suffered by those businesses who are selling, but not making any money.

This is no bueno.

If you’re not familiar with the 4 Levers of Profit, then you’re going to love today’s article.

Let’s dive 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.