One of the most common refrains I hear from fellow small business owners is their frustration upon reaching a plateau in business. It seems almost universal that you see exciting start up periods followed by excellent organic growth only to arrive at the inevitable plateau. This barrier varies by business type, but for you it might be that you have reached your first million dollars in sales and just cannot grow beyond that limit. For some businesses it might be the first five hundred thousand, or even a couple of million; but the story remains the same…once you hit that threshold, it seems there is just something holding you back from growing beyond it.
This syndrome is counter intuitive in many respects. As an entrepreneur, you obviously pride yourself on having succeeded in starting your business. You have grown it from an original dream of yours through the vulnerable start-up phase right up to today; a fairly profitable concern but with much more potential waiting to be tapped. You probably credit your talents such as keen insight, astute business planning, and powers of observation as traits which have helped you succeed where others have not. Your hard work, long hours, and ultimate dedication have paid off with a business that has seen success, but could be so much more if only this seemingly invisible roadblock had not stalled its growth. Just what happened?
The short answer is nothing happened. At least, the next things that needed to happen didn’t. And the reason is that those skills which enabled you to achieve your current status are just not sufficient to continue to propel you further. That is a hard lesson to learn, but you are probably experiencing its effects right now! At this point, you might be thinking that I’m crazy and that your astute business planning skills and powers of observation have never been better. Really? Before I go further and offer you a solution to your dilemma, I’d first like you to view a short video. It’s only 2 minutes long and I promise you it will be an eye opener…at least for those of you truly wishing to grow your business beyond its current level! Just click on the following link and come back here when you’re done. You will be coming back with some new found information that could have a significant impact on your business today!
Click here for short video.
(If you are reading on here without viewing the video, please don't. You just won’t get it and your time will be wasted).
Surprising, isn’t it? Even though we may truly be quite observant, even though we can be truly astute in our business planning and be the most dedicated hard working entrepreneurs ever imagined; our perceptions are filtered by those very experiences that have gotten us to where we are today. It’s not a bad thing; it’s just a thing we must recognize if we are truly going to grow beyond our current limitations.
I’ve seen it. I’ve also experienced it. I have the answer for it. It’s very simple really. It’s something you used to do on a regular basis before it all fell on your shoulders. And it’s something you must do again if you are going to grow out of your boundaries. You need to get other opinions! You need other viewpoints and that is why working with a business advisor is not only the right thing to do, it is essential if you are going to truly grow beyond these barriers. I’m not saying you need to hire me, even though I do work as a business advisor. I’m not saying that at all. I’m only saying that you do need to work with someone outside of your organization and family who can bring an unbiased perspective to your business operations. If you’ve never done that before, it can truly be an epiphany. If you tried it and didn’t get much from it, you either had the wrong person or the wrong goal. Try again. It is the only way I know of to get truly unbiased information from a source with a vested interest in nothing other that helping you grow your business. All other sources of advice will be biased in one way or another; be they family, sales reps, colleagues, employees, or creditors. Even your accountant or lawyer will have an agenda which will include their interests.
Now you may have “perceptions” already of how consultants work and their possible worth. Remember how accurate your perceptions can be? You’ve heard that a consultant will borrow your watch and then tell you what time it is. That could be true of large corporations and some of their wasteful systems, but it’s not true of small business. Businesses such as yours are lean and efficient by definition. There are better definitions of business than simply ‘large business’ or ‘small business’. How about ‘slow business’ and ‘fast business’? Small business is fast business. You can change much quicker than larger companies. That is both good and bad. It’s good if you make a good decision, bad if you don’t.
An advisor can open your mind to opportunities that you may or may not know about. You may have known about them and dismissed them prematurely, or you may not know about them at all. The irony is that you don’t know what you don’t know. Taking the time to actually work on your business instead of just in it can pay huge dividends if done methodically. Most advisors will give you an hour or two for free just to explore the possibilities. Find one and ask them if they do. That way you risk nothing but have the potential to gain much.
Bob Banasik is a senior business advisor and an accredited associate of the Institute for Independent Business, and can be reached at bob@bestbusinessassociates.com .
© 2009 Best Business Associates LLC
Thursday, February 5, 2009
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