Forum Discussion

Brand's avatar
Brand
Contributor 4
30 days ago
Solved

Stuck with Plateau Solution?

we all are the problem in our businesses as we are also the solution. 

How long do you struggle to improve at something before you attempt to outsource help and pay for assistance? Is the desire to struggle through something yourself a result of being an entrepreneur who had no money and survived by doing things with their own two hands? Is it Pride? Or is it a matter of not valuing the opportunity cost that we would rather struggle through it than pay to have it done faster? 

They say you can only focus on moving the needle on two major things a year. We often fail to focus on just two things for 12 months at a time as it is! What holds us back from progressing faster? Accountability? Mentors? All of the above? 


  • Stuck with the Plateau Solution?

    ​Let’s be honest: we are usually the exact bottleneck holding our own businesses back. We are the problem, but we’re also the solution.

    ​In the beginning, when cash is tight, you survive by doing absolutely everything with your own two hands. The problem is that grit becomes a habit. We get addicted to the grind, and pride convinces us that we need to figure it all out on our own. But honestly? It's often just a failure to see the real opportunity cost. Spending 20 hours beating your head against a wall to save a buck isn't saving money—it's wasting time that should be spent on high-value, revenue-generating work.

    ​They say you can only focus on moving the needle on two major things a year, but we often fail to focus on just two things for 12 months at a time. The reason is a total lack of accountability. When you're the boss, it’s way too easy to negotiate with yourself and jump to a shinier, easier project the second things get frustrating. Without a mentor or a solid peer community to call us out, we just stay stuck in the loop.

    ​To break through, we have to set a hard limit on our own stubbornness. If we can’t figure something out in a few hours, we need to stop struggling and pay an expert to do it faster. We have to flip the script: stop trading our valuable time to save a dollar, and start trading dollars to buy back our time.

     

4 Replies

  • Stuck with the Plateau Solution?

    ​Let’s be honest: we are usually the exact bottleneck holding our own businesses back. We are the problem, but we’re also the solution.

    ​In the beginning, when cash is tight, you survive by doing absolutely everything with your own two hands. The problem is that grit becomes a habit. We get addicted to the grind, and pride convinces us that we need to figure it all out on our own. But honestly? It's often just a failure to see the real opportunity cost. Spending 20 hours beating your head against a wall to save a buck isn't saving money—it's wasting time that should be spent on high-value, revenue-generating work.

    ​They say you can only focus on moving the needle on two major things a year, but we often fail to focus on just two things for 12 months at a time. The reason is a total lack of accountability. When you're the boss, it’s way too easy to negotiate with yourself and jump to a shinier, easier project the second things get frustrating. Without a mentor or a solid peer community to call us out, we just stay stuck in the loop.

    ​To break through, we have to set a hard limit on our own stubbornness. If we can’t figure something out in a few hours, we need to stop struggling and pay an expert to do it faster. We have to flip the script: stop trading our valuable time to save a dollar, and start trading dollars to buy back our time.

     

    • Brand's avatar
      Brand
      Contributor 4

      I believe you are correct. Humility would bring us to this realization with the right people around us. I do believe in continuous improvement and there is value in a business owner learning how to do something, but there needs to be a cost/benefit analysis to decide when enough is enough. At a certain level, it all gets outsourced to someone else and you only have personal development and leadership left to worry about. 

      It is hard to see the forrest through the trees for a long time though. 

  • Crodymi's avatar
    Crodymi
    Contributor 2

    Yet the main question is, where will the money come from to pay the expert to solve the issue?

    • Brand's avatar
      Brand
      Contributor 4

      That is a simple and yet difficult thing. One very common issue for business owners is raising their prices. The majority of us believe we deliver the best product/value out there and yet we are price competing with mid tier businesses at best. It's scary to increase more and we don't want to risk the client base we built up. It also requires us to be better at sales and overcoming objections due to "price".

      Another thing is focusing on the metrics that make you more profitable, efficiencies, high margin products, how we spend our time, etcetera.