How do you manage the challenges that limit your business growth?
I recently had the occasion to speak with a colleague that has a unique way of describing how to manage these challenges. All of us, as business owners, find ourselves challenged with things like time (I’m writing this blog on Saturday evening), money (revenue, profit, cash flow, right?), People and Resources (how many of us are finding the quantity and quality of staff we need?).
Most of us currently, or in the past, have experienced some good levels of success. But regardless of when that occurred, we all want our businesses to grow. We might be looking for a comfortable retirement, more discretionary income. Maybe it’s a matter of building a legacy for our family or reaching a point where we can have a better work-life balance. Whatever it is that drives us to grow our businesses we continue to find challenges and limitations.
How often do we stop to realize that WE might be the biggest limiting factor? There’s a saying I use in my workshops and coaching, “The biggest constraint in your business is what governs how fast you can grow it.” Are you the biggest constraint in your business? I’m not suggesting that what you do doesn’t significantly contribute to your business’s success. It most certainly does, or you, or your business, wouldn’t still be there. But let’s look at this from my colleagues’ perspective. Here’s a story he uses to explain my point.
He uses the sport of cycling as an example. We all recognize that Lance Armstrong was a tremendous cyclist. He excelled in the sport for years, beating virtually all his competition. At some point Lance’s ability peaked. We are all limited by our God given abilities and at some point, we peak. We’ve given it all we’ve got. To do more something has to change. In Lance’s case he changed things. Fist, he started building a better bike. Then once he had a better bike, he built an even better one. Unfortunately, he then resorted to performance enhancing drugs, but the point is if we want to get better something must change, and it may be something other than us. If we want our businesses to grow, we need to build a better bike.
In business we can do that in a multitude of ways. First, we need to be sure that we’ve taken the time to be the best we can be. That we, as owners and entrepreneurs, have looked at all aspects of our business in order to “build a better bike”. We need to utilize all our resources to identify areas of improvement beyond our personal contribution. When we do that, our business grows.
If you want to know how, learn more, and join my Entrepreneurial Growth Course. This course is eight 2 hour classes over a three month period where you learn how to maximize performance at all 8 critical levels of your business. Why keep struggling to get there. BUILD A BETTER BIKE!
Richard Barbercheck
Strategic Orientation, LLC
Richard@StrategicOrientation.com
StrategicOrientation.com
