Stop the Bleeding: What’s Holding Your Business Back

When most leaders think about growth, their minds jump to doing “more”—more customers, more products, more markets, more talent.

But here’s the thing: growth isn’t just about adding. It’s also about protecting what you already have.

If your foundation isn’t solid, scaling up only makes things worse.

What’s Draining Your Business?

Every business has leaks—those areas where value slips through the cracks. Left unchecked, these leaks quietly eat away at your profitability, your efficiency, and your ability to grow. Here are the usual suspects:

• Underperforming Products: These are the offerings that drain your resources but barely move the needle on revenue or customer satisfaction.
• Inefficient Spending: Campaigns, tools, or projects that burn cash but deliver little return.
• Unprofitable Customers: Clients who cost more to serve than they bring in revenue.
• Clunky Operations: Slow workflows and outdated processes that make your team less productive.

Example: A SaaS company I know focused heavily on new customer acquisition. They grew fast—but they held on to a ton of unprofitable accounts. Their resources got stretched thin, and their growth couldn’t keep up with their costs.

Why Fixing Leaks is Harder Than It Seems

Even if you know where the problems are, fixing them can feel overwhelming.

One big reason?

Biases. We all have them, and they creep into decision-making.

Here are a few to watch out for:

• Giving too much weight to what just happened while ignoring long-term patterns.
• Fixating on flaws while undervaluing what’s working WELL.
• Letting underperformers slide because it’s easier than confronting the issue.

These blind spots make it harder to see the real problems—and the best solutions. The fix?

Question your assumptions.

Use data to challenge gut reactions and look at the big picture objectively.

Even if you know where the problems are, fixing them can feel overwhelming.

How to Stop the Bleeding

Fixing these issues isn’t rocket science, but it does take focus.

Here’s a simple three-step playbook:

?1. Find the Leaks

Start with an audit. Review your products, customers, spending, and workflows. Where are you bleeding resources? Which parts of your business aren’t pulling their weight? Write it all down and rank them by how much they’re costing you.

?2. Fix the Biggest Problems First

Not all issues are equal. Focus on the high-impact, low-cost fixes first.

For example:

• Cut products that aren’t delivering value and reinvest in the winners.
• Streamline workflows to save time and reduce frustration.
• Drop unprofitable customers and double down on the ones who drive real value.

?3. Redefine Success

Stop obsessing over vanity metrics like revenue or headcount. Focus instead on metrics that actually matter, like:

• Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV): How much a customer contributes over the long term.
• Product Profit Margins: Are your products or services as efficient as they should be?
• Marketing ROI: Is your spend turning into actual results?

Why "More" Isn’t Always Better

Here’s the trap: most leaders think they can solve problems by adding more. More products. More markets. More hires. But if you haven’t fixed the leaks, all that “more” just amplifies the inefficiencies.

Examples:

• Launching a new product without cutting an old one that’s dragging you down.
• Hiring more staff to patch bad management instead of fixing the leadership problem.
• Expanding into new markets while ignoring operational inefficiencies in your current ones.

Real growth comes from doing less—but doing it better.

Fix the foundation first, and every growth effort will go further.

The Payoff of Stopping the Bleeding

When you stop the bleeding, everything gets better:

• Higher Margins: You keep more of what you earn by cutting waste.
• Smarter Operations: Your team spends less time on busywork and more on what matters.
• Stronger Growth: With a solid foundation, scaling becomes a lot easier—and more sustainable.

Protect, Then Scale

Here’s the bottom line: before you chase ambitious growth goals, make sure you’re not losing value along the way.

Fix the leaks, question your assumptions, and focus on what truly matters.

Protecting what you have isn’t just smart—it’s the only way to build a business that can grow and thrive over the long term.

Take care of the foundation, and then scale with confidence.