Feeling stuck.

Business Owners often ask me to take a look and come up with suggestions about changes in how they do stuff. They feel stuck and say they are not growing as fast as they want. 

It turns out, in 99% of those cases, the growth potential is not in what they are already doing, but in what they do not. The main task then becomes not to change HOW they do things, but change WHAT they do. 

Sometimes it helps to take a look at competitors. 

Who are they? If there are no competitors, then most likely, there is no need for the product or the business model is not working. If competitors are small – why will you become big? If there are big competitors – how will you win over them? What can be done differently, so that you stand apart? What is it in the world that just changed and trending that can be used to build this differentiator?

To copy your competitors is the path to zero margins and no profits for all of you. What should you take money for? Who should be paying? Maybe not those that are paying you today and perhaps not for what they are paying you. Maybe the money is in an adjacent product? Which one?

So many questions, but they lead to potentially finding the answer about what we should be doing differently.