Five Warning Signs That Your Business is Approaching a Plateau and How to Break Through to the Next Level

November 2, 2020
Category: Techniques and Solutions

As your business grows, chances are that you will hit a plateau at some point. It’s important to recognize when you’re entering a plateau phase because, if you act quickly, you can shortcut the time you spend on the plateau and sometimes even blow past it completely.

Here are five common early warning signs that your business may be entering a plateau:

1. Increased frequency of problems and fires
2.  Important things falling through the cracks
3. Increasing frequency of customer complaints
4. Losing business because you can’t handle the leads or do the work
5. You’re working more hours and struggling to keep up

It’s natural for some of these warning signs to crop up from time to time. But if they increase in frequency or severity, pay attention. It may mean that you’re hitting a plateau.

• What do you do if you’re experiencing these early warning signs in your business. Plateaus typically happen because your current business systems are stretched to their limits, and you’ve grown your business as big as you can running it as you do today. Here are five areas to focus on that will help you break through your plateau:
• Put out some fires once and for all. There are 2 or 3 recurring problems for many businesses that eat up 80% of your time. Fix these problems and, you’ll increase your capacity for growth.
• Create a good foundation for growth. Your business is really a machine that generates leads, sells customers, delivers services, and collects money. Find and fix the weak links in these core functions to ensure that they’re running effectively and have the capacity to handle future growth.
• Build a self-sufficient team. Does your team need a lot of babysitting to get their work done? If they do, they’re hampering your ability to grow profitably. To break through your plateau, give your team the structure (well-defined roles, procedures, and goals), support, and accountability, they need to do their work effectively and independently.
• Make sure that you’re not the bottleneck. Many business owners try to make every decision, solve every problem, and do or control everything in their business. If you’re an “I do everything” owner, you may be the bottleneck that’s holding your business back. As you grow, you must evolve your management style and systematically “let go of doing” the basic field, sales, and office work and run your business through team so that you can spend more time on building your business.
• Have enough people in the right places. One major reason your business may plateau is that there aren’t enough people in the right places which, limits your capacity to profitably grow. If you’ve resolved the four areas that I’ve listed above and you’re still on a plateau then, I believe that you must hire to grow, which will expand your capacity and make future growth possible.
• If you heed the five plateau warning signs and take prompt corrective action in the five areas that I’ve laid out here, I can almost guarantee that your stay on the plateau will be brief and you will propel your business upward on a more continuous profitable growth path.

Additional Reading Related to This Topic

• 4 Keys for Breakthrough Success Beyond the Million Dollar Threshold
• What’s the Best Growth Strategy for your business?
• Are You Covering All the Bases in Your Marketing and Sales?
• Use This Simple Technique to Eliminate Discombobulations and Get Your Business Growing Strong.
• Is Your Job Description Holding Your Business Back?
• Two Keys to More Consistent Growth and Profit

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