3 Reasons Your Business Is Stagnant
Business growth typically isn’t a linear trajectory. There are many ups and downs, and often we may even find our growth stagnant. So today, I wanted to share with you three reasons why your business growth might be at a standstill and discuss ways that you can get things moving in the right direction again.
A Lack of Strategic Depth
I was recently talking with one of our clients who had a key team member who fell in love and quit suddenly to move to Fiji, which left our client short staffed. And while they were genuinely happy for the person—because let’s be honest, you can’t compete with love in Fiji—it did leave them in a bit of a tough spot in the business. And as anyone who has been in a similar situation knows, losing a key team member can really slow down your growth. Especially if you lack strategic depth. Strategic depth is the measurement of how much cross training your team has. With a little bit of foresight, my client could easily have trained several other members of their team to do the missing person’s responsibilities. And do the same for every position within the company, including their own. Which makes your business not only vacation proof, but also love-in-Fiji proof.
Poor Systems and Controls
Poor systems and controls are another reason your business may become stagnant. Having documented processes, procedures, and tools to help your team complete tasks in another’s absence is crucial to keeping the momentum going.
Having documented best practices and tools will increase your company’s efficiency, reduce costly mistakes, and make your business more scalable.
This could include the checklists your operations manager follows when working with a new client, the orientation process you use to onboard all new hires, the sequential process for producing your core product or service, and the automated e-mail sequence that goes out to each new prospect.
Basically, business systems include any essential company know-how that you have captured in a tangible format, as opposed to information locked in the brain of an individual team member.
Not Enough Leadership Attention
And the final thing that can cause your business to become stagnant is the lack of leadership attention. Not having a good action plan and failing to focus your best time, energy, and resources on completing your company goals can cause you to drift and lose focus on your goals.
You can combat this issue not only by putting down your goals on paper, but also by meeting with your team regularly to review those goals, looking at your progress, and working together to overcome any hurdles or issues.
The good news is, that despite the occasional dip or stagnant trend in your business, it is recoverable. By focusing on cross training, strategic depth, systems, and controls and leadership buy-in, you can be well on your way to scalability and growth.
