Are You The Reason Your Business Isn’t Growing?

“If you don’t know where you are going you will probably end up somewhere else.”
— Laurence J Peter, 1919-90, Canadian academic and expert on organized hierarchies, from his 1969 book “The Peter Principle”.

Behind every successful entrepreneur is the next shift waiting to happen. What’s the difference between a shift and a change? We’ll it’s more about a subtle distinction than full blown difference. In his brilliant ebook “Distinctionary”, printed in 1997, Thomas Leonard (1955-2003) describes the difference like this:

Internal shift vs. linear change
Change is what happens externally and is the outside measure. A shift is who you’ve become rather than what you’ve reacted to. A shift is permanent. A change is often temporary or circumstantial. When a person shifts, they reorient around who they’ve become. When a person changes, they reorient around an external stimuli.

I remember reading his description and I thought, oh my God — this is why New Year’s Resolutions don’t work! In order for change to happen you must shift your own mindset — not an easy thing to do — for sure.

Without shifting business owners who want to grow remain small. Lack of an internal shift is what’s missing when the medium size business owner, who knows they want to hire a CEO to run their business puts it off for “x” years. Without a shift in thinking business owners can stop themselves from growing. For example, they may see hiring employees as a legal battle instead a way to grow their business.

Making a major internal shift often means dealing with your fears — something many coaches have helped clients walk through. It possible to gain skills which remove the fear of shifting internally.

Which of the shifts do you want to make — but haven’t?

• From having a job or being a homemaker to earning more money.
• From having a hobby you enjoy to earning money from that hobby.
• From having a hobby that brings you money to starting a business.
• From corporate executive to running a business on the side.
• From corporate executive to self-employed.
• From freelancer/self-employed to hiring consultants.
• From freelance/self-employed to micro-business owner (under 10 employees).
• From a micro-owner to a small business owner (under 250 employees).
• From a small business owner to medium size business (under 500 employees).
• From a medium size business owner to large business owner.
• From a president to CEO.
• From a CEO to hiring a CEO so you’re now president.
• From CEO to manager.
• From full time to some time.
• From business owner to business investor.
• From business owner to philanthropist.
• From business owner to legacy maker.

If it’s time to accelerate the growth of your business, then it’s time to work out why you’re holding your business back!