392: Why Most Small Businesses Plateau — And How to Start Growing Again

When you go into business, you work really hard to get things going, but as you achieve success, the business takes over your life, right? You want to keep growing your business, but you can’t work more. You’re already exhausted and stretched too thin. If you’re tired of being the fixer, the one with the fallback plan, and the one who holds it all together, you are not alone! If you’re like most business owners we work with, you have revenue coming in, but you are still not profitable. You struggle to make payroll and attract profitable clients that you enjoy working with. This is why we created the Tap the Potential solution: a step-by-step, simple framework to increase your profitability while working fewer hours so that you can take your life back from your business. On average, our clients experience a 716% increase in time off, a 215% increase in profit, and a 55% increase in owners’ pay—all within 12 months. In this episode, Melissa Kay and Dr. Sabrina Starling reveal why most small businesses hit a growth plateau, the hidden reason revenue increases don’t lead to profit, why entrepreneurs stay stuck in survival mode, how working less can actually increase profitability, and the simple framework successful business owners use to reclaim their time. If you’re ready to take your life back from your business, this episode will show you the path forward.

Profit by Design is a Tap the Potential production. 

Show Highlights:

  • Reasons for a growth plateau in small businesses: trying to do it alone, hiring the wrong people, and mishandling the revenue needed to grow
  • Understanding the hidden costs in payroll for the wrong people
  • Design your business to be sustainably profitable.
  • The business owner’s blind spots contribute to growth plateaus.
  • Revenue doesn’t equal profitability. Apply the 80/20 rule.
  • Identify your PITA (“Pain in the assets”) clients.
  • Our Better Business Better Life Jumpstart reveals the best profitability secrets!
  • We are not like typical business coaches! The Tap the Potential solution teaches you how to work fewer hours with a focused intention that frees up your time.
  • From Dr. Sabrina, the one action business owners can take today: “Do less. Ask, what’s the one thing I can do today that will have the greatest impact to make other things easier or unnecessary while driving the profitability of my business?”
  • Sign up for the Better Business Better Life Jumpstart today!

Resources:

Join our Jumpstart beginning April 7th! Learn how to:

  • Free up 10 hours per week.
  • Pay yourself an additional $50K this year.
  • Take an extra week of vacation.

Enroll now for Leadership Bootcamp! The next session begins in April.

Take our Better Business Better Life Assessment to determine your level of burnout and receive a complimentary call with the next steps you need to take in your business to support your life. Click here!

Ready to take your life back from your business? Want more time for what matters most and more money in your bank account than ever? Book a call with us today!

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About The Author

Tap the potential of your team and double profit!

Sabrina Starling, Ph.D., PCC, BCC, The Business Psychologist, is the international bestselling author of the How to Hire the Best series and The 4 Week Vacation®.

The third generation in her family impacted by entrepreneurial hustle culture, Dr. Sabrina is transforming the story of success from long hours and grinding it out to work that supports and enhances life.

Hustle culture often means sacrificing our health, well-being, and relationships, all for the sake of success. Dr. Sabrina’s research shows this leads to burnout and pain in our relationships. There is a better way. Work supports life, not the other way around!™

Dr. Sabrina is revolutionizing the workplace with concepts like Work Supports Life™, 4 Week Vacations®, $10,000 an-hour activities, 25-hour workweeks, and unlimited vacation and sick time in highly profitable businesses winning the war for talent. She inspires transformation in a world where work often overshadows life, sharing insights from her ongoing research with over 650 entrepreneurs and their high-performing teams.

Featured in Forbes, Entrepreneur.com, and Thrive Global, Dr. Sabrina is the founder of www.tapthepotential.com and the globally top-ranked Profit by Design Podcast. Listed in The Daily Hustle’s Top 50 Entrepreneurs to Watch in 2022, Dr. Sabrina is on a mission to get 10,000 business leaders taking the Work Supports Life™ Pledge.

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