Should I spend more on marketing?

Only once you know you can take on the work it brings at a good margin. If you are already turning work away, marketing is not the constraint.

Is it okay to stay at this size?

Yes. A business that pays you well and leaves you time is a real outcome. The question is whether the plateau is chosen or just where things stopped.

What is the first hire to break a plateau?

Whoever takes the thing only you currently do, often scheduling, estimating or running jobs, so your time goes where it is worth most.

← Answers

My business has been stuck at the same revenue for years. How do I grow past it?

A plateau is usually a ceiling of capacity, not demand. The business has grown to the size one owner can personally hold together: every quote, every decision, every problem. Growing past it rarely means more marketing first; it means handing something you do every day to someone else, and pricing so that hand-off is affordable.

Find what is actually full

Is it work coming in, or your ability to take it on? If you turn work down, quote slowly or lose jobs to response time, demand is not the limit. More leads into a full system just means more dropped balls.

The owner is usually the ceiling

If every quote, schedule change and customer problem passes through you, the business can only be as big as your week. The first step past the plateau is one thing you stop doing, estimating, scheduling, or running a crew, with someone else doing it to a standard you have written down.

Margin pays for the next layer

A manager, an estimator or an office person has to be paid out of margin before the growth they enable shows up. A business running thin cannot afford the very hire that would get it unstuck. Pricing is often the first growth move, not marketing.

Grow the right work, not all of it

Look at which jobs or customers make the most per hour of your team’s time. A plateau is a good moment to do more of those and less of the rest. The revenue may barely move while the profit does.

Also asked

Should I spend more on marketing?: Only once you know you can take on the work it brings at a good margin. If you are already turning work away, marketing is not the constraint.
Is it okay to stay at this size?: Yes. A business that pays you well and leaves you time is a real outcome. The question is whether the plateau is chosen or just where things stopped.
What is the first hire to break a plateau?: Whoever takes the thing only you currently do, often scheduling, estimating or running jobs, so your time goes where it is worth most.

Written for your trade

This is the kind of thing Solomon works through with owners using their own numbers. See how it works →