If you were to reduce growth to a formula, it might look something like:
Resources + Energy + Organizing Pattern = Expanded Capabilities or Capacities
This works for trees, kids, and businesses.
For your business, resources are things like employees and tools. Energy takes the form of customers buying from you. And the organizing pattern is your way of doing business- systems, culture, values. The result is an expansion in what you do or can do.
This is pretty abstract. But it’s a useful abstraction, because it gives us three areas to investigate growth in your business.
If I asked most businesses what was limiting their growth, they would say, “We need more customers.” (Energy)
Customers are awesome, but there are two other areas of opportunity.
For example, you might hire an employee which increases your throughput and profit. (Resources.)
Or you might change what you sell to a higher ticket item and increase your net profit without changing your team or your lead flow (Pattern.)
Each of these three categories of resources, energy, and pattern have current limits for your business. Otherwise, your business would have already grown further.
The question is which of these limits are easily changed to unlock your next level of growth?
What resource could be easily fixed, what energy source could be easily unplugged, or what pattern could you tweak to expand to the next level?
What could you change today that would make a difference?
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