“More companies die from indigestion than starvation.” – Dave Packard, Hewlett Packard
You might be surprised to know that I speak to business owners every month who want to grow 25% next year, but they don’t have a plan to get the sales or handle the extra work.
According to Scaling Up by Verne Harnish, these are 3 warning signs that you aren’t ready for more sales:
- Your profits are at or below the industry average [or you don’t know what that is]
- Processes are not running smoothly now
- There is drama on the team or from customers from missed deadlines, increasing mistakes, lack of resources, and “communication” issues
- People are working overtime to fix problems
At the very time when the focus becomes more important, your key people start being “too busy” putting out fires to work “on” the business.
Maybe you are doing this too— getting dragged into daily work instead of setting aside time to evaluate, plan and work on the key projects that will improve the business.
What is the solution?
Thousands of businesses have adopted the “10 Rockefeller Habits” as outlined in Vernes’ book “Mastering the Rockefeller Habits” (and now updated in his recent book, Scaling Up.)