I was astonished recently when I read the statistic that only 4% of businesses in the US break a million dollars in revenues. Only 4%, that is an amazing statistic. Now, I’ve done some research and I believe there are five reasons that are holding them back from breaking that million in addition to having the ability to go to the next level.
Number one, Lack of Leadership. In many cases, small business owners are great technicians. They’re great at what they do. However, as they begin to build the business and a team, they need to graduate to become a great manager and leader and to set an example. There’s a great little book, The E-Myth Revisited, which talks about the technician, the manager, and the entrepreneur. If you’re going to run a company and build a team, you need to learn to be a great manager and leader because only then will you attract great employees.
Number two is misalignment or no alignment of the organization and the team. If you haven’t aligned a team with a vision, a mission, and most importantly, core values or a culture. There will be no articulated, documented standard of excellence. Everyone will be going in different directions. They will not be tied or locked into the most important core values of your organization, and what you deliver. And unfortunately, you’re never going to be able to build a consistent culture and delivery process for your clients if this is not in place.
Number three is unintentionality on your ideal client, ideal product, and ideal services. Many of us I’m sure are familiar with the 80/20 rule, where 80% of your business comes from 20% of your customer base. The reason I believe there is an 80/20 rule, is because when we started our business in the beginning, we just wanted the business. We just wanted to generate revenues. We would take anybody. And then somewhere along the line, we realized that 80% of our clients are a pain in the butt. How about we just get very intentional on exactly what a great client or customer is for you in the very beginning and how you can deliver upon the value to attract them? Get really clear on your ideal customer or client, as well as the core products and services that you supply. Don’t try to be a jack-of-all-trades. Get intentional about where you bring value and find those people that you can service accordingly.
Number four, focus on the outside versus the inside. What do I mean by this? You could only focus on everything within the four walls of your business. Control your leadership, create your culture, and create systemization in your organization. You know your numbers inside and out. Make you, your team, and your organization the very best they can possibly be. Let everybody else worry about all the noise on the outside. You focus on everything within the four walls of your business that you can control.
And number five, the reason why businesses don’t break a million r go out of business, they don’t master their numbers. Know your numbers. You went into business to make money, to create freedom, to create wealth. I was astonished when I became a coach 10-plus years ago that there are so many small businesses out there that just don’t know their numbers. They don’t know how to read a P&L. They don’t know how to pull up QuickBooks. If you’re in the business to make money, you need to learn how to follow your numbers. If you don’t you may become part of a statistic that you may not like.
There are the five reasons that only 4% of U.S. companies break a million. If you want to break a million; become a better leader, get your company, your team, and your organization aligned, be intentional about who, what, and why, focus on what you can control, and know your numbers.
COACH MICHAEL DILL is an Award-Winning Certified Business Coach, global speaker, and published author. He is a proud Action Coach Franchise partner as well as the President of Power & Ice Wealth Creation a strategic leadership company that works with business owners, leaders, teams, and entrepreneurs to both develop a systematized and structured organization while accelerating their mindset, efficiencies, and effectiveness to grow both personally and professionally to achieve extraordinary results. He brings more than 40 years of business and entrepreneurial experience in his leadership, team training, and mentoring practice. Businesscoachmichaeldill.com