Prioritizing Sustainable Growth Over Comparisons in Business

podcast Apr 25, 2023

I recently had a past client get in touch with me and she shared with me that she's been comparing her business growth to her competitor and it’s been draining her confidence. Comparison is so present in the entrepreneur world and I knew I wanted to dive further into this topic. So today I am talking about overcoming the pressure of comparing your business growth to the growth of others. Why? Because we need to prioritize sustainable growth in our business over our rate of growth or else we’ll get stuck in the comparison game and wreck our confidence in the process.

Let’s jump right in!

Factors That Contribute to the Growth of Your Business:

There are several factors that can cause our business to slow down or hit the pause button. And all of them contribute to your business growth. These factors are:

Time off

Taking time off is absolutely deserved. I have personally taken time off in my business for various reasons. For health reasons, but I have also gone as far as to press a true pause button on my business for a time period. There will be times when taking time off is important and necessary.

Losing team members

Have you lost any team members? This is very significant if you are trading time for money. It can be challenging finding the right people for your business, and the time it takes to find a replacement can slow things down.

Having the wrong team member

You may have the position filled within your business, but maybe the person is the wrong fit, or they aren’t performing as well as they need to be.

Working hours

You may look at your competition and feel they are growing way faster than you. But what you might not see is that they may be working insane hours. So this is your reminder that when you compare yourself to other competitors, they may be working well beyond the hours you are willing to work for your business.

Now that we know these factors that contribute to business growth, I want to get into how to bounce back from these pauses or breaks in business.

I say this often– we have 2 main assets. Time and money. In seasons of returning or slowing down and you’re wanting them to speed up, time is of the essence. When time is of the essence, I want you to focus on money. What does this look like? Where are you going to make your money? Are there systems you can tweak?

Let’s talk about systems to help turn your business back on.

Look at Your Business Systems

Marketing and Sales

What are the marketing systems that you can utilize immediately? Do you have your network and outreach established? This can be newsletters, texting, or email. Do you have the ability to reach out to past clients? If so, past clients are a wonderful lever to lean into and improve. Something else to consider is a marketing asset. Examples could be a lunch and learn or a workshop. And once you have found your marketing asset, you can analyze the frequency at which you need to use it to bring in leads and turn those leads into customers.

You can do the same with sales. Start by analyzing your sales rates. Are your close rates as high as they were before? When you turn on your marketing system or asset, are you able to draw sales in through your outreach channel? Say you are sending a newsletter or email. Include a workshop you are hosting and spots available so you can draw that customer to the sale.

If you aren’t sure how to turn on these systems, I encourage you to check out one of my programs. We talk about these systems in depth and how to lean into them to help you in your business.

Operations, Fulfillment, and Finances

If you feel confident in your marketing and sales systems, there are areas for you to focus on too! Operations, fulfillment, and finances are other systems in business that need attention. Are you aware of what you need in each category? Have you really sat down and approached each from a different viewpoint than you have in the past?

If you are in a position in your business where you wish to outsource some of these systems, you cannot do it effectively if you don’t fully understand them inside and out. And if you don’t have a firm grasp on each area of your business, or what each area needs, then that is when it is absolutely okay to slow things down, because the goal is sustainable growth, and keeping your business open.

It’s Time to Drop the Hustle and Grind Culture

Upwards 70% of businesses fail in the first 5 years, and I want you to withstand that. To take it a step further, only 6% of women in the US reach 100k+ in gross earnings per year. But instead of putting pressure on yourself for the rush of growing your business, I want you to focus on sustainable growth.