How to Thrive in Maintenance Mode So You Can Be Set Up for Growth
Episode 670: Show Notes
All too often, business owners will be trucking along just fine, reaching their goals and generating profits, but that inner feeling of urgency never quite goes away. This is a little easier to justify early on in business. We think of this as the honeymoon phase, but for business. You see all this potential, and your vision is strong.
Growing something is way more exciting than maintaining something. We don’t give enough credit to the outside validation that you get when you first take the leap and start something new. Oftentimes, if you’re fueled by that, you end up staying significantly smaller than your potential because you keep starting over instead of adding or growing. Is there a better way to approach that feeling of wanting to start all over again?
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One question you absolutely have to ask yourself if you’re itching to start something new
Whenever a client approaches us with the problem of wanting to start something new when they’re already building a business, our answer is always the question: “for what?” That’s because it’s so essential to think about your end goal when you’re mapping out how to do things today.
What does five years from now look like? What does ten years look like? We’re talking about your life, your career, and your skill set. What are some shifts you can make to your approach to the business today to get you there? One of the amazing privileges we unlock when we are in maintenance mode is the ability to see things from a bird’s eye perspective. You’re starting to ask questions about how your business can serve you in the long term, whatever your goals might be.
Why your business goals need to be tied to something you actually care about
Trust us when we say that oftentimes, goals can be really arbitrary. That’s why we interrogate them. If you want to double your business, ask yourself why, and make sure that the reason is significant enough to motivate you. At some point you really can have desires that are justified only by ‘because you want to.’ But if what you’re willing to do to get there is not in alignment with that, your list of excuses is going to get crazy long.
We all live in the mythical realm of what business should look like from time to time. But having growth year after growth year just isn’t realistic. You don’t actually know the inner workings of a lot of businesses! Most of them don’t do that. Even the big ones. We prefer to think about the businesses we know that have been in business for a long time and consider the limitations they have placed around their business structure. They know because they have been doing this for a long time. If they maintain the number of clients they have, they’ll hit a certain threshold they can repeat year after year.
The kind of growth you can only get if you figure out what maintenance looks like
The fact is, there is no ethical and sustainable growth that can happen for you if you don’t figure out what maintenance looks like. You have to do the unsexy stuff first, and the benefit of that is that you can make more money without having to grow your team or client base. A lot of our clients are scared of what will happen if they don’t grow, but in reality, if you only focus on growing, you stand a chance to lose what you already have.
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You don’t have to have growth year after growth year after growth year. That’s not sustainable. Other businesses don’t do that either, not even big ones.
We have an addiction to that sense of urgency and the feeling of always wanting more. While having that feeling can fuel you to approach the next level, at some point you’re going to start sacrificing things that you don’t actually want to sacrifice. In fact, we saw our best growth during the year when we stopped focusing on growth altogether. We want to support you in getting to maintenance, feeling and getting to enjoy maintenance, and getting properly set up to grow. Growth is who you are! Growing from a place of stability is a place a lot of business owners don’t get to, and we want to help you get there.
Highlights
One question you absolutely have to ask yourself if you’re itching to start something new [0:13:10]
Why your business goals need to be tied to something you actually care about [00:15:30]
The kind of growth you can only get if you figure out what maintenance looks like [00:20:03]
Today’s Guest:
Abagail & Emylee
The Strategy Hour Podcast
We help overwhelmed and creative entrepreneurs break down their Oprah-sized dreams to create a functioning command center to tame the chaos of their business. Basically, we think you’re totally bomb diggity, we’re about to uplevel the shiz out of your business.
Key Topics:
Growth, Maintenance, Planning, Revenue, Profit Margins
