Since I’ve been solo in my practice and I’ve broken through some personal ceilings I’ve had around the number of my clients and my earnings, I’ve been thinking about how fast can a business grow, and what’s healthy. I’ve been helped along by a chapter in Paul Hawken’s Growing a Business called “The Art of the Incremental” I was re-reading recently.
So many times in business we are constantly urging ourselves forward, listening to the voices in the media, in advertising, in our heads, saying “More and more! Bigger, better, faster!”
This unhealthy focus on growing quickly, instead of growing organically, can ruin your taste for what you do.
It’s not to say that growth can’t happen quickly; it can, and blindingly fast. But the real measure of whether the rate of growth you are experiencing is healthy or not is your heart.
If your business is growing more slowly than you want it to, it’s time to look first at why you want it to grow more quickly.
Is it because you are in fear about money? Is it because you think others won’t perceive you as successful? Is it because you want to be somewhere other than where you want to be? These are all symptoms of fear and contraction, and tell you that you have a focus on what you are getting, rather than what you are giving. You won’t grow your business that way, and you probably won’t be enjoying the business you do have already.
If your business is growing very quickly, are you inclined to push it along even faster?
Sometimes you have a period of growing quickly because you have been doing all the right things- you’ve been giving from a place in your heart, you’ve been marketing from a place of giving consistently, you are being responsible and delivering goods or services of the highest quality and integrity, etc. And then it starts to slow down a little, or you feel the need to push it even faster. That’s when healthy growth can turn cancerous and knock you over.
How can you tell the difference between healthy and unhealthy growth?
It’s in your heart- you’re having fun, you are being carried, you are meeting your responsibilities, and you are inspired, and your customers/clients are grateful. Doing business from a holy place, the Divine spirit moves you at different speeds at different times. Remember to check with your heart and see where you really are.
Instead of worrying about where you are going, just right now, come into a place of gratitude for all you’ve been given. And then, from that place, move forward.
5 Responses
I just read this article after a link on p94 of the Momentum Homestudy book. I love the idea. It is simple and so relevant for me! Thanks for this one from the archives 🙂
Great, Dunstan! Thanks for your kind words. Oh boy is this oldie, eh? Almost ten years old…
An oldie to you in your process of growing within your business, but it’s relevant to where I am as I build my structure and the business takes on form, revisions/course corrections, comes into alignment with the more personal form it is longing to be rather than being the cookie cutter version.
In terms of keyhole/teaching and article writing principles, if you were to re-write this article, how would you present it differently now, or is the content something you would change instead of just the form of it???
Debra- What an interesting question! Looking back it this article from the very beginning’s of HoB, I would say the Keyhole is a business owner who is exhausted, frustrated, and anxious trying to make their business grow faster. And the Teaching is that growth happens at different speeds at different times, and it’s important to know the right speed for the moment.
“…important to know the right speed for the moment.” And when one may have put socks on over the boots instead of making sure the socks were on first. Going back to basics and grateful so few have read my web site in its rough first effort form – will do the revisions and start building 2nd journey foundations (aka socks), then welcome expansion to potential clients and networking peers.