Rekindling Momentum
You’re Doing Great – Then You're Not!
by
Jul 2, 2024
You have established your business, your name, and your niche. You’ve nailed your messaging, processes, and offers. You have a great community. You outsource some stuff and have a small team that feels like family. Sales are coming in. Year on year growth has happened, and you feel… unfulfilled.
You want more; you know there’s more!
You’re not one to sit back and wait for things to happen. You’ve organised a strategy session to map out the next steps. After all, you’ve honed your skills and are part of a robust business network. The details are just a matter of time.
Everyone gets excited, and you plan, act, and go: Growth – HERE WE COME BABY!!!
And then… nothing. Or maybe not nothing, but certainly not enough!
It’s different from the progression you were expecting. That turnover projection didn’t quite get over the line. It’s a good job you did the extra marketing because retention on your existing base went down. WTF? The marketing wasn’t supposed to be to top up from loss; it was supposed to bring in growth!
Right. Back to the drawing board – you know the marketing worked, it did bring in new people, but now you need to look at retention. Nothing had changed remarkably. You speak to some peers, and they have this experience. It’s decided that this is to be expected – the bigger you get, the more you’ll lose. “Some people turn out not to be ‘your tribe’. They probably weren’t a fit. It’s to be expected.” Okay, you decide, we’ll develop the enquiry process to qualify them more, put prices up to deter ‘those’ people, or ignore it a little; after all, it’s to be expected as your community expands…
Growth always slows down, right? That’s what everyone else experiences, commonly attributed to market saturation. Still, while that’s true for other people, it doesn’t mean your momentum should be impacted—that doesn’t happen because of something like market saturation; it occurs when you’ve missed something.
Even though you see this is a common thing, there’s still a niggle in your head. You’re irritated by that. It doesn’t feel very fulfilling. And quite rightly, too.
Because if we look at momentum, the more you grow, the more you grow – in theory. However, as in physics, forces impact momentum. Forward progress slows and stops when a business loses momentum. And once this happens, it’s more complicated because you must deal with more friction and obstacles. What forces have you missed?
The annoying thing is that you only know what you know, and often, you and your team can be too close to see the obstacles, and when they do knock on your door, it’s too late. Momentum has left the building…
3 Key Strategies to Regain Momentum
Taking proactive steps to reignite growth is crucial when your business momentum is slowing. Here are three high impact strategies to help you overcome these challenges and keep moving forward:
1. Re-evaluate and Realign Your Vision
Action: Take a step back and reassess your long-term vision and goals. Are they still aligned with your current market and business environment? Have you communicated this vision to your team and community?
Leadership Connection Strong leadership involves setting a clear, inspiring vision and ensuring everyone is aligned. Everyone, including your community. This motivates your team and keeps everyone engaged and supportive.
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2. Innovate and Diversify
Action: Always start with the Customer Journey. You may have taken your eye off the ball. Look for opportunities to innovate and diversify your product or service offerings, but start by pivoting to address customer needs. They change, and you must innovate to align with those changes.
Leadership Connection: Effective leaders foster a culture of innovation, encouraging creativity and taking calculated risks. This approach keeps your business adaptable and resilient, even when momentum slows. But you must have your Sherlock Holmes Hat on to spot things before they become a force that slows things down!
3. Engage and Empower Your Community
Action: Deepen your engagement with your community. Listen to their feedback, involve them in decision-making, and create value-added experiences that strengthen their loyalty.
Leadership Connection: Building and nurturing solid relationships with your community is essential for a leader. These relationships enhance trust, boost retention, and transform customers into advocates who drive word of mouth growth. This is where your brand and reputation must be protected at all costs – you don’t want momentum turning to bite you negatively about that!
The Leadership Imperative
Slowing momentum is a common challenge, but that’s no excuse. Leaders take responsibility for everything, so the minute you hear yourself accepting a situation and not asking yourself where YOU contributed, that’ll be where the obstacle sits.
This is an opportunity to demonstrate exceptional leadership.
Here’s how:
1. Visionary Leadership
You ensure your business stays relevant and inspiring by reassessing and realigning your vision. This keeps your team and community motivated and focused on a common goal. You may think you’ve done that, but you may not have included the community needs – even if you KNOW they’ll benefit, they may not see it. And if you’re honest, the growth you were aiming for was not to benefit the community. It doesn’t matter how you pretty it up; it was to benefit your desires. Of course, you are entitled to that, but the way to do it without impacting momentum can often be by not forgetting to serve first. That’s not the bullshit, pretty sentence version of serving – it’s the real deal version.
2. Strategic Innovation
Encouraging innovation and diversification helps your business stay ahead of the curve. Leaders who champion creativity and adaptability create an environment where new ideas flourish and drive continuous growth. You will feel like you have done this already, but did you start by assessing your current customer journey? Did you include the retention signs and signals first? Did you innovate that beforehand?
3. Community Stewardship
Building deep, meaningful connections with your community fosters loyalty and engagement. Leaders who prioritise community relationships create a strong support network that can help sustain and accelerate momentum. Always, forever, no matter how successful you get.
When momentum slows, it signals you to step up your leadership game. Unless you accept this standard thinking around momentum – that it’s ‘normal’ because other people experience it, and if this is your thoughts right now – addressing your leadership skills is vital!
Stay connected, keep learning, and lead with confidence.
If you get stuck… call me.
Dawn
Truth is Service
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