Business Growth: Make it Bigger Than You

One of the toughest transitions in business isn’t about money, clients, or even competition—it’s shifting from thinking ‘I’ to thinking ‘we’.

For your business to grow, you must look beyond yourself.

Whether you are a start up, small team or even a larger business, the capacity of the owner often becomes a bottle neck to the business.

The Habits That Got You 'Here', Simply Won't Get You 'There'

To really grow you need to stop saying things like:

• "I'll get that sorted"
• "I'm on it"
• "Let me take a look"
• "I'll do that now"
• "Let me give them a call"

These phrases come from a fantastic place, after all they are how you have started and established your business. Taking decisive action, taking responsibility, getting things done.

That's all great but it can only ever be as big as you.

So if your goal is to grow beyond what you alone can manage, you need to shift your approach.

Stop Making Work For Yourself and Start Making Work For Other People

The first resource question you need to be thinking about is, "Are the whole team fully utilised?", not "Do I have space in my diary?".

I don't mean pushing people to breaking point, that doesn't help anyone. However, very few members of staff will come forward if they have spare time on their hands, almost every staff member I have ever spoken to will say they are busy, no one ever wants to feel like they aren't pulling their weight.

In reality often businesses give too much to some and too little to others, normally this results in an under utilised team.

This is logical if you think about it, there's much less resistance to under utilising someone, than to over utilising someone. So the trend is generally down.

You need some good indicators of how busy people really are, then make it ok for your staff to tell you they are too busy to get something done, without pressure or negative stigma. Check in with them regularly and watch out for deadline drift. That way you can delegate tasks, confident that you will know if its too much.

The general principal is that your team should be able to generate more work than you ever could on your own.

Your Diary Balance Isn't Right, Until You Have Proper Time For Planning and Strategy

I can't tell you how often I'm told by business owners "I never have the time to plan and think". This is not ok, if you're not making the time to plan for your businesses success, then no one is (I know its hard but its true).

I do understand the problem, I've been there, but the owner isn't realising how damaging that is to themselves and their business. It locks you into a working hard not smart cycle.

Simply treat your planning time like a client meeting. It cannot be cancelled without an excellent reason and you can't be interrupted during it. Simple (but hard to do). Book them in your diary for 2 hours every month or quarter.

Making The Change

This change will take time, discipline and determination, however growing your business was always going to need those things.

Remember, you are the only person who can work on your business, many people can do it's work.

Keep asking yourself:

• "Is my whole team fully utilised?"
• "Can I change something to enable my team to be more productive?"
• "Is there enough work to cover the cost of another team member?" (you can worry about fully utilising them later)
• "Am I doing my job as owner, not just as worker?"
• "Do I have a clear plan? Am I on track for it?"

If you want to make this change, sit down with your team, tell them:

"I'm really excited by the opportunities I see for this business, in this next chapter I am going to start trusting each of you with more, freeing me to work on the business itself, which will provide you opportunity as the business grows. Thank you so much for the work you do, it's really appreciated."

This shift isn’t easy, but it’s the key to unlocking real growth. Trust your team (with safety nets in place), prioritise strategy, and watch your business grow.

Thank you for reading,?I hope you've found it helpful.

Chris

Founder - Pivotal

Blog: pivotaluk.co.uk/my-blog?

Website: pivotaluk.co.uk

?Use My Experience, To Achieve Your Goals.

I have been lucky enough to successfully buy, grow, mature, sell and exit my own business. I now use this experience to help other business owners on their journey.

Business Mentor/Coach/Consultant -- Growth -- Succession & Sale -- Health Check