Based on working with clients and learning from my own experiences, I’ve seen a few common mistakes that can completely derail us in achieving the goals we set in our business.

My hope is in highlighting these mistakes, it can help to avoid them, helping you to be more successful when aiming for great things in your business…

Not an easy thing for a business owner to do.

As much as we think it should be a switch we can turn off - letting go of something we know we can do well, easily and quickly in our businesses - especially if that task brings in revenue - takes one critical piece.

Trust

Trust has to be established. If you’re lacking trust….you won’t be able to hand things off.

And establishing trust goes beyond whether we believe our team member to have the best interests of our business at heart.

There are components to trusting and letting go…

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.

Have you experienced those times when you feel:

• Consistently overwhelmed thinking: How am I going to get it all done?

• You have too much to do but feel like you have so little time

• You can’t focus on what needs to be done

• Continuously checking your emails, for the next thing to do

These can all be signs of not implementing a few intentional and savvy strategies that can take you from wondering how to get it all done….to moving your biggest initiatives - and your business - forward.

If this is you or if you’ve dipped in an out of these phases, here’s what you can do about it.

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.

Has this ever happened to you?

You’re looking at your numbers and year over year, you don’t see any movement in your top-line revenue?

This could be an indication that your business is overly dependent on YOU for its sales.

You might think - of course - I’m the only one who can do sales! — and there’s the issue. For companies with teams there are more options to have others involved in connecting with customers and owning a piece of sales.

For soloprenuers, there are other considerations but there are definitely things to consider and focus on for both types of business owners to get you moving in the right direction.

Listen in for what those are…

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.)

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…

What’s not to love about your favourite customer?

Whether it's the fact they’re wonderful people to work with, provide you with much of your business, they pay on time or you simply look forward to your interactions together; whatever the reason, each time you do business with them, it’s a good day :).

And why not? I love it when business is fun and enjoyable.

But could working with your favourite customer put your business at risk…?

Have you ever thought about what it would be like to sell your business?

Or, hand it over to a family member who now works, or will be working, in your company?

Is this something you know you’d like to do in the future…or does it feel more abstract and you have no idea how to make it happen?

We’ve all heard stories of successful businesses, passed down to the next generation who have failed the business in some way.

While we can’t predict what a new owner might do - whether that’s a buyer or your own family member we CAN prepare our business the best we can so it operates well, setting the new owner, existing employees and existing customers up for success.

AND there’s a way to do all this so you enjoy the benefits now even before you are ready to transition.

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.

Our vision is to see more purpose-driven companies excel and sustain through generations, making a positive lasting impact on the world.

How does my company contribute to this?

We coach founders & owners to grow by adding transferrable value, create a succession platform and take a vacation.

Part of lasting through generations is capturing the brilliance, savvy and know-how of you, the founder and owner, to ensure you don’t leave a knowledge gap when you decide not to be directly involved in your business anymore.

Your knowledge is gold and is the foundation of how your company started and what contributes to its ongoing success.

Even if you are aren’t thinking about passing your business to another in the future, or at the point where this has even entered your mind; capturing and transferring knowledge is a skill that takes practice and planning. It’s possible and it doesn’t have to be perfect or complex. And, it can be a process that evolves.

Create a business model that turns your company into a valuable asset.

The definition of an asset: property owned by a person or company, regarded as having value and available to meet debts, commitments, or legacies.

Research shows that the number of employer businesses with 1-99 employees accounts for 97% of businesses in Canada (source: GOC: Key Small Business Statistics 2021).

And 67.6% of all employees work for small businesses.

As employers and businesses that often bring innovation and social impact through their products and services, what would it look like if more of these companies survived into the next generation? What if many could sustain and continue to bring their innovation, social impact, and dependable products and services to future generations?

As some of you are considering and refining your goals for this year, I want to ask you…do you have a goal to grow your business?

As business owners, ‘growth’ can be a loaded word.

I hear some saying - yes, they’re all about the growth and that’s their focus.

I hear others saying - no, I like my business the way it is, I’m not looking to grow at all.

And also saying - growth means more work from me and I just don’t have more to give.

Maybe there’s even another camp here that isn’t reflected. In spite of what you may think about growth in your own business I think it’s worth deconstructing what growth means.

Have you ever wondered if business could be done another way?

If your business, and your relationship to it, has to be the way it is?

If you’re in the camp that’s thrilled and love your relationship to your business, then keep doing what you’re doing!

However, if you’re in the camp where you’ve had successes but are thinking: How much longer can I continue with this? Then this is for you.

What if you could re-write some of the rules?

What if there was another way that didn’t require such a drain and strain for you, and you didn’t have to sacrifice growth and profits to do it? What if your business model supported and created the environment where the business supported itself versus feeling like it’s all resting on your shoulders?

WOW - can you believe it’s the beginning of October already?

I can’t believe how quickly the year is going already.

The Fall is my favourite time of year with the changing of temperatures, the beautiful colours of the leaves and forests, and cooler sweater-weather (I love wearing sweaters!). And the food I associate with the fall are apples and apple pie, pumpkins and pumpkin pie and warms soups and stews with newly harvested veggies.

Thinking about the next few months also brings up thoughts about how I want to finish the year in my business and I know my clients think about this as well.

So what’s your goal for the remainder of the year?