A founder once told me he needed more leads.
I looked at his numbers and told him he didn't.
Plenty of leads were coming in but very little was making it through to a sale.
He had a 'leaky bucket' problem rather than a 'not enough leads' problem.
The leaks are always boring and that's partly why they tend to remain unresolved.
- Two tools doing the same job.
- A subscription nobody cancelled.
- Work that got delivered and never got invoiced.
That last one was a show stopper ... literally.
One in ten jobs he did never got billed.
The work was done, delivered, and the client was happy.
It's just that the invoice never got raised and sent.
He was giving away his valuable time and resources.
As humans, we're hard wired to prioritise risk mitigation over opportunity maximisation.
This means we'll work harder to avoid losing $100 than to make $1,000.
So if "you could grow faster" doesn't move you, try this version instead: you're losing money right now, today, and you've stopped noticing.
That one tends to wake people up.
Thing is, my client already knew all of this so knowing was never his problem.
Doing something about it consistently was the problem.
It usually is.
Fix the leak before you chase more revenue.
Invoice every single job.
That one thing, done consistently, will go a very long way to building a profitable and sustainable business.
None of this is clever and that's kind of the point.
The money's often already there we just need to make sure we claim it.
What's the leak you've stopped noticing in your own business?
Ciao for now
Ash
