Has this ever happened to you?

You’re looking at your numbers and year over year, you don’t see any movement in your top-line revenue?

This could be an indication that your business is overly dependent on YOU for its sales.

You might think - of course - I’m the only one who can do sales! — and there’s the issue. For companies with teams there are more options to have others involved in connecting with customers and owning a piece of sales.

For soloprenuers, there are other considerations but there are definitely things to consider and focus on for both types of business owners to get you moving in the right direction.

Listen in for what those are…

If you’re a Solopreneur or a Business Owner with a team…how do you feel about taking vacations?

Is it something you do?

And do your vacations actually feel like a break or are you simply working from a different place?

Even if you are on your own there’s mindset, structures, and procedures you can incorporate when taking time away from your business.

And the extent to which you can do that is a reflection of how well your business can run without you.

This takes preparation…and it’s doable.

There are three fundamental qualities that contribute to bring scalability to any business.

Listen here as I talk about them by sharing an experience in my family…and how the principles show up in the common household task….of meal preparation :).

When I graduated from University, I was incredibly fortunate to go back-packing across Europe, travelling through several countries.

For a time, I was with a friend, but then we went our planned separate ways and I travelled solo for a few weeks.

I remember one leg of the trip I was arriving in Prague, via train, with an hour to find my way to the hostel to check in before the front desk closed for the day. I had to navigate through a strange city and language to find the hostel where I was staying for a few days - all arranged over the phone.

This was a time of pay phones and phonebooks….and very limited internet!

I remember nervously studying my travel book in anticipation of the train’s arrival, mapping out my route in my mind, trying to picture and plan each step.

I had to take the street car from the train station, get off at the correct stop, find the correct street, turn at the next correct street and then the next to find my way. Finding the landmarks and proper streets each step of the way.

I thought I would switch up what I normally share and turn the attention to cultivating prosperity.

Rather than sharing tactics, I’m sharing what I’ve learned and continue to practice in my life about the mindset of abundance.

First off…

Abundance: a very large quantity of something; plentifulness of the good things of life; prosperity.

Opportunity: a situation or condition favourable for attainment of a goal.

You give power to what you focus on.

What I’ve learned in my experiences about cultivating prosperity is that the nature of seeing abundance and opportunity is more about where I apply my attention and focus.

This is a collection of what I’ve learned and perspectives I practice daily to help me do that:

If there’s a common culprit that’s discussed amongst business owners and entrepreneurs - it’s this:

There’s never enough time to get it all done! OR I wear too many hats!

The theme here usually involves a very hard-working but overworked owner.

There’s a desire here to gain back some much-needed time and space.

Can you relate?

There are three foundational ways to free-up more of your time so you can go from feeling ‘overworked’ to having more ease and spaciousness in your business (doesn’t that sound nice?!).

You started your business because, and I’m taking an educated guess here, you want to have flexibility, create a lifestyle uniquely yours and make a positive impact through your work. Is that right? or close?

If you’re aspiring to or on your way towards something bigger and you feel there’s more to go and not quite there yet, amidst the strategies and the tactics, I’m inviting you to consider another aspect that will help you increase your success rate to achieve big goals.

Your energy: the mental perspective you’re bringing to your goal achievement.

If you’re like many Business Owners and Founders, you’ve found a way to delegate to your team members.

What I hear, however, is sometimes you feel like you’re doing a great job and other times it feels like you and your team member are speaking two different languages.

If you feel your delegation is hit or miss, don’t worry, I’ve got a resource for you!

First, why is it important that we delegate in our businesses?

I suspect you know the answer to this already.

There’s much talk these days about a recession and what that could mean for our own businesses. Recessions can be tough for some and yet others thrive. What’s the secret? Is there one?

In my research I’ve identified strategies that can help businesses not only survive, but thrive during economic downturns.

What I found can be summed up in three main areas:

Waking up each morning, one of the first things so many of us do is check our emails and messages.

What is the day shaping up to be?

What did I miss?

What am I going to be faced with when I get to work?

We look at our calendar and see the meetings, administration and other commitments that are required to run our business.

We have aspirations for greater sustainability and perhaps growth, but how does one achieve this amidst the running of the business?

…when so much of our energy and time is already wrapped up in what we do every day?

One of the most frequent questions I get asked is ‘how do I grow my business’?

While businesses each have their own founder/owner strengths and opportunities, there are foundational steps to growing any business.

And, when I’m working with my clients, we look at where they are now and where they want to be. We look at what has worked in the past, what hasn’t and how we can use what’s working to fuel greater growth.

We reverse-engineer from where they want to be to hone in on the specific steps they need to take to get there.

What I’m sharing below is a guide so you can self-identify where you are and what next steps could benefit you in your business…

Do you struggle with decision-making when it comes to growing your business?

Are you holding back from making a decision in your business right now?

The price of NOT making a decision can be time, energy drain, taking up mental space and…missed opportunities.

Is this something you struggle with, or have struggled with?

If so, here are some questions that could help…

Growing your business can be fun, challenging, rewarding and all-encompassing. It can also feel frustrating, never-enough and like spinning your wheels.

An interesting question to consider if you have aspirations to expand is: how are you measuring growth?

There’s the traditional metrics of using revenue and profit. Those are great measures.

However, measuring growing using only the metric of growing top-line sales is using a very narrow lense.

AND these metrics are lagging indicators. They are the result of the activities you’re engaging in.

What are your leading indicators? (These are the actions you’re taking that LEAD TO the results you’re looking for.)

There are many tips and how-to’s in the marketplace about how to market your company.

It’s almost too much to wade through, isn’t it?

One thing I would invite you to consider is: if you own a business, you’re a marketer…And a salesperson. Whether your marketing and sales are sophisticated or fairly simple; if you have customers, you’ve engaged in some sort of marketing.

Even if that marketing is based on word of mouth and referrals. Your customers are doing your marketing for you in this case.

Marketing isn’t sales and sales isn’t marketing, but they do work together.

One of the common topics that I notice come up from Founders and Owners is how to manage the multiple priorities they have.

There are so many hats we wear that we often have many similarly prioritized initiatives going on at the same time: from managing a newer member of your team, to pricing your services for next year to planning marketing initiatives. The list can be endless.

And they’re all important.

Sometimes, it feels impossible to chose what to focus on next because it IS nearly impossible. They all have to be done!

While everyone’s situation can be somewhat unique, what I do know is this: when we focus on the many, progress is slow; when we focus on the few, we speed up.

Based on KPMG’s 2022 SMB Business Outlook Survey, 83% of SMB leaders are confident in their company’s growth over the next three years.

KPMG has also identified that the single most significant source of growth over the next three years will come from organic growth (innovation, R&D, investments, new products, and recruitment) ranked at 24%. Other forms of growth cited were Digital and Technology Investments 18%, Strategic Alliances with third parties 18% and Attracting Fresh Capital at 10%.

Organic growth involves evaluating your operational models for efficiencies, enhancements, or other initiatives that will strengthen your company.

This is where the consideration of adding value comes in…

How easy is it for you to find time and space in your calendar to work on the really important things to you?

You know, the things that will advance your business or improve how you work?

Here’s a thought.

What if the act of creating space for meaningful work is just as powerful as the space itself?

If creating space in your business feels like a big lift, I want to invite you to think about how the practice of creating time and space for important initiatives is a fundamental skill a founder and owner can cultivate.

We can all relate to the owner that wears all the hats. Bookkeeping, Sales, Customer Service, Leader, HR, Manager, etc. You may be at this stage right now.

Even when you have team members occupying these roles, the work of an owner and founder is rarely a calendar of open space.

However, the owner and founder that is able to create some white space is the one that goes farther. Their companies seem to advance, evolve and grow further…

If you’ve been tuning in for a while, you’ve heard me discuss the many contributing factors to building value in your company.

I’ve touched on attributes like growth potential, differentiation, financial performance, diversification of people, suppliers and employees, but you know what these all boil down to?

The SVO Model of Sustainability and Growth…

Have you ever thought about what it would be like to be a ‘customer’ of your business?

To walk in their shoes?

You may use your own products and services but what I’m talking about is different. I’m talking about experiencing what they would experience.

How do you think your service delivery would stack up?

This is probably one of the most impactful exercises a business owner can do…

Notice I said ‘when’….because really…this happens to everyone.

I wanted to touch on this today, because I’m noticing you taking action and some things are working out and some things…aren’t.

There’s a skill to failing that I wanted to highlight that I’m hoping will be helpful.

So what does failing look like to you?