Why Did My Business Stop Growing

I am Jon Wilhoit, a Professional EOS Implementer® in Atlanta. I have spent more than 30 years building, leading, and scaling businesses. I founded my own company and ran it for more than 12 years before I became an Implementer. This article covers the signs I look for, why growth stalls, and what restarts a business’s growth.

Stalled growth shows up in more places than revenue

Businesses stop growing in many ways, and most of them go beyond revenue. Each one signals that trouble is coming. These are the signs I see most:

• New clients stop onboarding while revenue per client keeps growing. The higher revenue per client masks the problem.

• Adding employees gets harder, so production capacity shrinks as new business arrives.

• Processes reach their limit, and limited access to capital blocks any expansion of production.

• Leaders fight fires every day, so they have no time for strategic challenges. Major issues creep closer and great opportunities slip past.

Every business hits ceilings

No business has a smooth growth trajectory. Every company goes through periods of growth and change, and runs into periods of frustration and barriers to progress. Those periods of conflict define the company’s future. When leaders break through a ceiling, the company grows and comes out stronger.

Many businesses plateau or fail in these periods because their leaders lack the ability to lead in a disciplined and effective way. They let comfort zones, egos, fears, weaknesses, or inabilities restrict a better path forward.

That is where EOS® enables them to break free. EOS is a simple, proven system that helps leadership teams clarify their Vision, gain Traction, and become a more Healthy, cohesive leadership team.

Owners double down on what worked before

The answer to stalled growth hides behind what the owner knows. Owners double down on the actions that worked in the past. They assume today’s issues match the issues they faced before, so they miss the root issue. More effort, more hours, fire-and-hire, and the quick fixes that are the current internet darlings all fall short because none of them address the new challenge.

That trial and error is part of the learning curve. Owners have to reach the point where they admit they need help. Some take years to get there. If an owner brings in help while believing they have the answer, that owner questions every process, tool, and action that does not deliver a quick result.

The first change is humility

No single first change applies to every business, because every business’s circumstances differ. One change gives an owner the best chance of finding the path back to growth: the owner acknowledges that no one is an expert in all things and asks for help. In a word, humility.

The owner finds the right partner to strengthen the key areas of the business and to orchestrate the human capital so everyone drives toward a common vision. That partner helps optimize team health and engrain real discipline and accountability. This combination offers the greatest opportunity to get back on the growth track.

What a stalled business looks like when growth returns

One client, an insurance agency, felt frustrated by a lack of sales productivity. The leaders hesitated to take a hard look at their employee base because qualified salespeople are hard to find. Each new hire must earn a license, and that process takes time and costs money.

We did not treat it as a quick fix. As the implementation got underway, they discovered what a great employee looks like for their specific company. They learned that people-issues have no easy answer. They learned that an answer exists.

They made changes. They removed employees who caused friction, even though those employees produced. Losing that production hurt. The uplift from the other employees made up the difference and more. The leaders built a mechanism for ongoing recruiting in place of reactionary recruiting. The company has a clear path to smoother success, and the leaders have more time for strategic opportunities instead of office drama.

What to do when revenue has been flat for six months

Call someone like me. The call gives you a better question, one you needed to ask before revenue flattened.

Flat revenue that arrives as a six-month surprise tells me the owner has no way to keep a finger on the pulse of the business. We work on that in the first session.

We look at everything that happened before revenue flattened. The order of events goes like this. Marketing effectiveness flattened. Lead flow flattened. Lead conversion flattened. Discovery call volume flattened. Proposal generation flattened. Contract flow flattened. Revenue flattened after all of them. Better ways to look at a business reveal the path back to growth, and an advisor shows you those ways.

Healthy growth means what you want from your business

Each business owner defines healthy growth. One owner values customer count. Another values revenue, another locations, another balance sheet assets. No answer is wrong. It comes down to what you want from your business: a lifestyle, wealth, a legacy, or prominence. The right advisor can give you a way to reach the target you set for success. I help people get what they want from their businesses.

Talk with me about your business

If revenue has stalled, or any sign above sounds familiar, you have something worth examining. Schedule a call and tell me what you see in your business. If you want a look at the system first, start with EOS in 3 Minutes.