Here’s what we’ll cover
It’s been drummed into me for years that there are two must do’s before you consider growing your business. I’m talking about business growth that is intentional, profitable, sustainable and elegant business.
These two elements are;
Getting better with what you’ve got; and
Creating capacity.
Then, you are ready for business growth.
Today I wanted to explain to you exactly what that means and then give you a couple of simple ways to begin the process in your business.
I’m going to tell you what I mean by ‘Getting better with what you’ve got’ and ‘creating capacity’ before you grow your business. Why you need to know this and how you can start working on it in your business.
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Here’s the shownotes
It’s been drummed into me for years that there are two must do’s before you consider growing your business. This is about intentionally growing a profitable, elegant business.
Get better with what you’ve got.
And, Create capacity.
Then, Grow.
Remember that and write that down somewhere;
Get better with what you’ve got.
Create capacity.
Then, Grow.
I think it was our business coach that drummed those words into my brain. This is exactly the approach we took in growing our businesses over the years.
Today I wanted to explain to you exactly what that means and then give you a simple way to begin the process in your business.
I’m going to tell you what i mean by this, why you need to know this and how you can start working on it in your business.
What do I mean by ‘Get better with what you’ve got’?
It takes a whole lot of different assets and resources to build your business. Now for those of you that have been in business for a while now there are two underlying valuable assets that without which, you don’t have a business.
These are the services you offer and the clients you serve.
So, getting better with the services you currently offer and getting better with the clients you currently have.
What do I mean when I say ‘Create Capacity’?
I mean making more room in the working week to DO the things you need to do. Give yourself and your business the capacity to handle the growth before you grow.
Why? Why get better with what you’ve got? Why create capacity before you grow?
Because growing too fast can be dangerous.
You’d never run a marathon without having done all the base work. You build up to that marathon over time. You get your body accustomed to handling the intense pressure of the run. You’ll start small, you’ll plan for injury, allow recovery time, put contingency plans in place to deal with what comes your way during the run. You’ll consider mental burnout, hydration, fuel. You’ll prepare well, then you’ll run.
Your business is no different. Pacing your growth will set you up for both a profitably sustainable and an elegant business.
It helps you control the quality of your work as you grow.
It gives you time to review, control and grow the value of your service offering.
How can you kickstart this in your business today?
‘Getting better with what you’ve got’ Remember this is about two critical elements in your business; your existing services and your existing clients.
1. Sell all of your existing services to all of your existing clients.
Get better at selling everything you offer to every one of your clients.
Now clearly you’ll only do that if they need or want what you offer. But far too often we undervalue the relationship we already have with our existing clients and we are far too quick to jump to the next new client leaving our existing clients in the wind and underserved. I think now more than ever we need to be intentional in the way we serve our clients. Take care of them and focus on retaining them.
Practically, I’m going to give you one way to implement this into your business.
I have my clients draw up a matrix listing all the services or products they offer down the left hand side of the page. The across the top of the page list each and every client you have.
You’ll then look at each client individually against each service offer you have.
So for example, a legal firm offering business services will list the services separately down the left hand side of the matrix.
Commercial Agreements
Distribution Agreements
Confidentiality Agreements
Terms and Conditions Policies
Privacy Policies
Partnership Agreements
Then across the top of the matrix they’ll have their existing clients Tims Business, Jens business, Clares Business etc.
Then you’ll assess each business for their potential need for the services you offer.
Does Jens Business need a commercial agreement, a distributions agreement, a confidentiality agreement and so on.
The thing is, as a client of yours, I may not know or understand everything you offer. I’m probably too busy to go scrolling around on your website, I’m too busy to come to you. And I may not know that I need a lot of what you offer. It’s your job to make sure I know. It’s your job to be proactive.
In fact, I’d go so far as to say you’re doing me a disservice by not bringing these things to my attention.
Be certain that you are fully servicing all of your existing clients before you spend money and time on finding new clients.
Get Better at selling what you’ve got to the clients you’ve got.
Once you’ve got this part sorted, you’re ready to start looking at Creating Capacity.
Creating Capacity is a big beast of a thing. We are making more room in the working week to DO the things you need to do. Give yourself and your business the capacity to handle the growth before you grow.
Broadly it’s about creating systems, processes, managing efficiencies in your team and every aspect of your day and your business.
Rather than try and tackle everything at once let’s start with you and your time. Here’s one simple thing you can do today to get the ball rolling. You’ll take out your notepad and pencil and as mundane as this may sound – you’ll write down every single thing you do in your workday for a week. Every task.
Why? I guarantee you’ll be surprised at what you find at the end of the week when you look back over your entries. How many hours you spend on the phone, on email, on socials, fixing errors, dealing with admin, chasing money, answering team queries, servicing clients, finalising paperwork, giving instructions, doing repeatable jobs, doing jobs that others can or should be doing.
Once you know what you’re doing all day everyday, you’re in a much better position to change what you’re doing all day everyday.
So to recap, you’re going to get better with what you’ve got, your existing services and your existing clients. You’re going to build a simple client matrix and be certain you are fully servicing every one of your clients.
Then you’re going to start creating capacity, creating space in your day and your business to handle the growth. And what better place to start than with you and your day. You’ll list out every single thing that you do in the next week. Then you’ll be in a great position to find out what you can easily change to create capacity in your day.
I hope that gives you a couple of simple but practical things to get you on the right track to building that profitable, sustainable but elegant business.
