Stop Telling Yourself Your Business Is Special. Here’s How to Stop Being Stubborn and Grow Your Business The Right Way.
“My business is special. I can’t scale it because there is no way it could function without me.”
I talk to thousands of business owners every single year that think that they are special. They think that their business couldn’t run without them, so they work…a lot. They put in 70 or 80 hour work weeks and their business remains stagnant. By the time they join the Maui Mastermind community (my business coaching business) they are frustrated and feel like they are destined to work this much until they sell the business.
So one of the first things we work on, is creating systems to get them out of the equation.
The Fundamental Truth
Right now, chances are your business can’t function without you. But that is merely a description of your business as it exists today. This is not something that will last forever, if you plan accordingly. Too many business owners think that they have the “one in ten thousand” businesses that simply cannot be scaled without constant input from its owner.
Sure they see it’s possible for other business owners, many of whom they even know personally, but just not for them.
The medical professional says, “I see how a manufacturer could do it, but I’m a doctor. My business could never function independently of myself.”
And the manufacturer says, “I see how an accountant could do it, but I’m the lead engineer for my manufacturing business. I’m the one who drives all innovation. Without me my business would wither and die.”
Then the accountant says, “I see how a doctor could do it, but I’m a tax specialist. If I’m not there doing returns or checking that my staff is doing the forms correctly, clients would leave me.”
And the list goes on and on.
Reality Check
Many businesses have grown and matured the traditional way. They are heavily reliant on the owner for day-to-day functioning and success. They have made a lot of progress, but at the expense of the owners mental and physical health. And it isn’t until they are confronted about their belief in the “specialness” of their business, that they take a look at ways to progressively wean the business off of its reliance on themselves, that the real change occurs. Sometimes this is with the help of a mastermind group or business coach, and sometimes it is through a health or family emergency that forces them to take a good look at the growth of their business and it’s limiting factors.
What if the real limiting factor holding your business back from growing independent of you was your stubborn insistence that it could never function properly without you (or even with less of you)?
