Hi there, wellness entrepreneur. Welcome back!
Today we’re going to talk about a topic not often talked about in business, especially the way that we’re going to talk about it. And that is the question, Can You Grow Too Fast In Your Business?
And most of the time, because we’re seeking to help more people, get more clients, earn more revenue, the answer seems intuitive, that would be, “No, never, I want to grow fast.” However, I caution you with this, because there are some ways that you can grow too fast in your business. And that can actually feel nice, it can seem nice for a short period of time, however, if you don’t have the foundation in place to handle that growth, it will end up sabotaging you in the big picture, it can actually slow you down in the big picture, which is why we’re going to talk about it today.
What Does Growing Fast Really Mean?
And first, we’re going to talk about what does growing fast really mean. It does not mean about worrying about getting too many one-to-ones all at the same time. Because most of the time, especially if you’re starting out, you’ll get a trickle-in of requests here or there. And even if you get in demand of request, like a handful of people reaching out to you at the same time, if you’re doing consultation calls, the truth is, is you can only accept one person at a time, anyways, you’re only going to do one call at a time.
So let’s say you had 10 consultations booked in one week, which is going to be rare, especially if you’re starting your business within that first year, that’s amazing. First of all, celebrate that. Second of all, now you have 10 consultations in your schedule in one week. The truth of the matter is, if you already have five clients that you’re working with, and you decide, “Well, I only want 10 clients a week I want to work with, it’s not a problem,” because you’re going to take each of these consults one at a time.
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And let’s say all 10 said yes, again, another highly more rare occurrence, most of the time. On average, a consultation average conversion is typically 20% to 30%. Now, I work with my own clients to get it closer to 80%, because there are a lot of things that you can do within your consultation call that you are in control of no matter what the client says, thinks, or does, that you can help them guide them into making the right decision.
But let’s say that you manage to get that 100% conversion rate on all these 10 consultations, again, more rare, but it can happen. I’ve had weeks where I’ve had five consultations, and they’ve all said yes, so it can happen. But, you still get to decide when that client is going to start. I have some people that say yes on a consultation call, but because of various life circumstances or what works in their business plan, or they’re finishing up with another coach, and then they’re working with me, so they might not start for another month or so. And you can decide and stagger start dates with these clients.
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So the point is, even if you get 10 consultations in one week, and they all say yes, they don’t all have to start at the same time. In fact, you can start a waiting list for some of the consultations that come in at the end of the week.
Let’s say the first six say yes, and you’re like, “Oh boy, now I’m filling up to max capacity,” you can start a waitlist, and you can even cycle back around to your existing clients. And even if they’re only halfway through the program, you can get a sense if they want to renew or if their spot might become available. And you can start to play around with your schedule in that way where you can stagger start dates of some of these clients.
Working On Yourself and Your Energy Leads to Effective Boundary Setting
And here’s the other thing that I’ve learned as well. The more that you work on yourself and your energy and your boundaries and notice when you’re perfecting or people pleasing, then you can tighten up on the boundaries of working with your one-to-one client, so then you have more energy.
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When I first started, I didn’t feel that I could handle a high volume of people per week. And that volume was more than 10 people. But now, by weeks, currently are closer to 20 people, and I can handle that well, and I still get all the back end of work in my business completed, and I don’t feel pressured for time. In fact, I am strategizing for next fall when my daughter is in third grade, that Friday afternoons are going to be an adventure day for her and I, so we can get some bonding time before she becomes a middle schooler and doesn’t want to do that with me anymore. And I feel that I have the capacity to handle that in my schedule, and work with my one-on-one people and manage and support the Group Mastermind that I offer as well.
So the more that you continue in your business, the more efficient you will get in both your time management and your energy management, so you will be able to handle more one-to-one clients, which will allow you to handle growth and demand in your business.
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What it Really Means Growing Fast
So just know that growing fast doesn’t always mean a huge influx of one-to-one clients are going to come to you. And if it does, it’s trusting yourself that you’ll figure out a plan to handle them.
What I’m really talking about here in terms of growing fast is starting too many things at the same time. Something like establishing a new brick-and-mortar clinic. So you have a large space where you have to make sure that you have several will rooms filled, maybe even a group classroom filled, where it forces you to hire a bunch of new people at the same time, at the same time of taking on this new overhead expense, or hiring a bunch of new people at the same time and adding group classes at the same time, or adding group classes at the same time and your brick and mortar and trying to launch an online program at the same time for the first time.
Or trying to launch a group program and an on-demand portal for the first time. Or the one area where you can grow too fast in terms of handling an influx of high demand and too many people into your business at the same time is bringing on too many people into your first group or on-demand program without really practicing holding the space for that many people. And bringing the people through the program to make sure that your deliverables and your community support systems are in place to support that many people.
So what do I mean here specifically, meaning that you want to launch a group program or an on-demand portal or a membership style program online, and initially, you saw, “Okay, I’m going to support 10 people into this program for the first time,” and you feel confident with that, and you go to launch it. And to your surprise and delight, there’s actually close to 30 people that are really interested in it, and they want to start it now, then you have a decision to do.
I cap it at 10 people, and that’s a difficult decision because your mind will want to say that you’re leaving money on the table, etc, etc. However, if you accept 30 people and you’ve never run that many people through it or supported that many people at the same time, then it actually can slow you down because they’re not going to get the results that they desire or feel supported in a way that surprises and delights them, so they might be less likely to renew. So that can affect future group launches or future launches of your on-demand program. So accepting them, all those people, before you’re ready can actually slow you down for the future.
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So we’re going to work through these because, first of all, very normal for the brain to say, “Oh, I can handle all these things. I can do these things. I can launch this group class and add this online program at the same time because it’s similar marketing. It’s the same group of people. One’s in person, and one is online.” However, often our brain underestimates the amount of marketing that is truly required to efficiently fill whatever class or program you’re trying to offer. The brain will also underestimate the amount of time and work involved to successfully launch something like this.
And so, the result of that is you’re pulled in many directions. You might feel overwhelmed and constant pressure with so many things to do, a list that never seems to be ending however, it’s urgent that you do, and finish the list, or else, something’s gonna fall off.
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Becoming Aware of What Your Brain is Offering You
And here’s the truth, that’s why I have this blog. It is possible to add too much to your plate and try to grow your business too fast, and things will fall off or not get completed or not be done as effectively as you could. Versus, if you were only focusing on one thing, and your brain will want to say, “Well, then I’m gonna grow too slow, I’m leaving money on the table, I have all these great ideas for these programs. If I don’t do it now, it’ll never get done.” And that’s not true. Again, it’s really just becoming aware of what your brain is offering you, when it tells you that you should launch multiple things at the same time, because if you can track down those thoughts, and what’s happening in your body, what feelings, emotions, or how your nervous system responds to that, then you will actually know what truly is going on.
Because I will tell you personally, there’s been a time in my business several years ago, where I did try to bring in too many things at the same time. I was leading in-person yoga, teacher trainings, different types of yoga teacher trainings, I was trying to launch my online membership and portal for my patients, and as well as an online portion of my business only, as well as continuing to support my current patients and all the yoga teaching group classes I was offering and workshops I was offering, it was a lot all at one time. And here’s the thing: I made it work, I did it. Some of that is not as successful as I would hope.
So, for example, I did get people in my online membership and had a great founding member launch, I was filling my workshops, I was filling my classes, I was filling my teacher trainings, I was doing it all. I got it done. However, my schedule, and the pace I was growing was not sustainable. So eventually, I kind of burned in crap mentally. And because I was tired and exhausted, I self-sabotaged some of my programs where I didn’t have the energy or the bandwidth to keep them going.
And so I essentially sabotaged some of my future launches, which ended up having me be in the river of misery as it’s called, or as my coach calls it, the hole for some period of time as I had to re-sort my business, re-sort my health, get back on track in so many ways. And now here I am several years later, and I did climb out of the hole, and I’m in a brand new place. And my business has never felt stronger and growing in a more sustainable way, consistently and reliably. My health has never felt better than ever.
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So it is possible to grow too fast and kind of have either your health or your business will force you to reevaluate. Or maybe it’s your time, and your family gets mad. And they cause you to reevaluate, and you can go through the hole and come back out just like I did.
However, if I can cause you to shed light on some of this, so you’re aware of that and prevent you from going into the hole at all, or at least if you go into the hole, maybe it’s not as a deep of a hole and come out quicker on the other side, then that is the purpose of this blog, because I don’t want you to struggle unnecessarily if you don’t have to.
Knowing What To Prioritize First
And the reason why you might struggle is only because your brain is offering that it is possible for you to do many things at one time, or maybe even a coach has coached you to do many things at one time, such as bringing on overhead, such as hiring much staff and starting ads for the first time and launching this online program for the first time because they’re offering all of that, like a platter to you, for you to do. I know a few coaching programs that offer that – here’s the platter of all the things you can do in your business, but there is no guidance or instruction on what to do first or even to stagger some of those.
In fact, they see the community of people doing all of that at the same time. So it doesn’t look like a platter where you choose one thing at a time. It looks like a buffet where you try to get it all onto your plate at the same time. And that’s just not sustainable.
So it’s recognizing when you’re in that place and knowing that all these offers that are on the platter, that’s on the buffet, are great options. They all can grow your business, but it’s knowing what to prioritize first and getting one up and running and focusing on that and focusing on serving those people that have come into whatever you decide to launch first, and sticking with that for a while, whether that means six months, one year, two years, and then adding in the second plate, if you will, the second offer, because, in that way, it’s so much more sustainable.
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When You’re in it for the Long Haul, It Really Should Not Matter
And remember, if you’re in your business for the long haul, meaning a decade, two decades, it really shouldn’t matter if you offer one program now, and then another program in three years, and it works. It’s sustainable, and you grow sustainably while living your life and being happy, versus trying to launch it all in a rush at the same time, where then you burn out and nothing works or you feel overwhelmed, and entrepreneurship isn’t for you. And then you have a higher likelihood of quitting, right?
So if you look at it in that way, where you’re growing a sustainable business that takes several years to add in all the offers, all the things that you want to do in your business, if you want to grow your brick and mortar business and have specialty services and more practitioners in there and more wellness, or if you want to have an online suite of offers, so what if it takes three, five or even 10 years to bring all of that in. But, it’s sustainable, and it’s profitable, you’re not stretched too thin, you’re able to spend time with your family, you’re able to spend time with your health, and your business grows year after year, in a sustainable way with profit. Did I mention that profit is key?
Versus trying to do it all at once and quit or give up or end up sacrificing time with your family or costing your health, it’s just not worth it. The slow growth, if you look at it from that perspective, is so much better.
The painful part for your brain, I should say, is to really prioritize and know what to focus on first. And here’s a question I always ask myself, “What will serve my people best?” So if I want to add in another program, and I’m not sure what type of program would work in my business at a certain point, I ask, okay, “What’s my current audience like? Who are the people that are currently following me? What are their struggles? Where are they in their business and what program would help them best?” Because typically, I am a very creative person, I have several programs that I want to launch, I have never run out of ideas for all the things that I want to launch to offer to support you. So I create running documents where I keep all my ideas in my Google Drive. And when I’ve successfully got one thing up and running, and I have a system and a process, and I know people are getting results, and I feel ready personally that my bandwidth can support another offer, my business is mature enough to support another offer, then I will bring in the second offer.
And I will ask, “Okay, what is the logical next step for these people? Maybe it’s more advanced?” Or, “What is the logical precursor program that could fill a need?” and that usually directs me on what to launch next.
So for you, if you have a brick-and-mortar, it’s asking yourself, “Okay, have I truly maximized the space? Have I hired all the people in my existing space that I can?” So, I am used to hiring people. I have a system and process for hiring the people that I need. I know how to onboard them. I know how to make sure that they’re trained. And maybe those people that you hire will stick with you as you grow, but at least if they don’t, because it’s natural that there is turnover with staff, you have a system and process in place.
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So when you max out the current space that you’re in and move to a larger space where you do need more staff, you feel that you have system and processes in place and at least maybe core members of staff that will transition with you so you’re not having to go from having 300 square foot office for example, to a 2,000 square foot office while trying to add new staff, manage that new staff, understand the roles of the new staff, if you have multiple practitioners like physical therapist, massage therapist naturopaths in there, how do you market all these different specialties? Plus, some people add in group classes at that point, which is like having a yoga studio, how do you market and fill those classes as well? That can be a lot! No wonder why you might feel exhausted.
So if you’re currently in that space, don’t give up hope, just understand where you need to prioritize your time and take things one step at a time. Don’t worry about trying to fill all the rooms and all classes at the same time, just focus on one, get it done, get that room filled, get the practitioner schedules filled, and then focus on the group classes.
It’s better to try to slow down and focus on bringing revenue in that way versus trying to fill a practitioner schedule and a group class schedule, and understand how to market those at the same time and not fill either. So again, it may seem slower to do this way. But it’ll cause faster, more sustainable growth in the long haul.
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What May Happen If You Decide to Launch Two Programs At The Same Time
If you have a brick and mortar and you want to launch an online service and program, no problem. You have to understand what you want to prioritize. Because if you’re one-to-one and your brick-and-mortar is not filled yet, and you try to launch an online program, it’s going to slow down both because you’re going to have to divert your energy into marketing the one on one and then marketing the online program. And anytime that you’re doing one, it’s taking away time for the other.
So, for example, if you’re marketing one-to-one, it’s going to take away time and energy, and resources from marketing your online program. And anytime you’re marketing your online program, that means writing the e-mails, the social media posts, going to networking events, and talking about the online program, for example, you’re taking away those resources from building your one-to-one.
So often what happens is some practitioners, their one-to-one, they’ll be starting to get momentum, they’re starting to get more consistent weekly clients and patients, then they take their foot off the gas of that and put the gas on their online program, suddenly, they find that their own online program hasn’t launched as successfully as they would like, because their brain underestimated the amount of marketing and time involved to successfully launch an online program and their one-to-ones have slowed down dramatically.
That is not the position that you want to find yourself in because, obviously, your revenue is going to slow down. And then you’ll find yourself hustling to make up for that. And that can be exhausting, and you don’t want to overwork.
So again, it’s best to just put a pin in the online group program. At that point, revisit it in a few months when your one-to-one is booked out, when you have a waitlist, when it has momentum on its own.
So for me, for example, I found myself in that same position years ago. I had one-to-one, it was growing rapidly. And then I tried to bring in all these additional offers, and it slowed everything down. So now, when I launched the business coaching, for a long period of time, I only focused on the one-to-one. And in fact, I didn’t want to launch my Group Mastermind. I was slow to start that because of all the work I knew, and I didn’t want to lose the momentum in my one-to-one.
I realized I wasn’t launching my Group Mastermind program out of fear. That’s when I know launching the Group Mastermind program, that is my gross edge to work through that versus the energy of launching the group program. Because I want to launch a group program at the different type of energy. So my work is getting into the space of sufficiency and confidence and grounded, calm, and certainty that I can handle the one-to-ones and launch my group program.
Now, my business is mature enough, I have enough skills, I have the bandwidth, I have the capacity to do both. But it took me some time to get here. But here I am. I’m here now and I’m doing it, so the same can be true for you.
Whereas if you just focus on one thing at a time, you can have multiple offers, you just don’t want to market them all at the same time and launch them at the same time. You want to do one so you get the system and the process going, then add in the other, and then it’s going to be an art and imbalance of how to market because you will market both.
And you can alternate how you market both or sometimes, if you follow me in my newsletters, you’ll see that in my PS now, I say there are two ways to work with me, you can work with me one-to-one, or you can work with me and my Group Mastermind program, and I have the date of the next launch so people can prepare. And I tell the reasons why someone might want one-to-one. And I tell the reasons as to why someone might want to join a Mastermind community.
So I’m speaking to the person that specifically either wants one-to-one, they’ll like say, “Oh, yeah, I recognize that I want more individualized intention, I want to work with Alison one-to-one, I want more of that VIP service,” or the person that wants more a community to bounce ideas off with, they work better in a group, they want to be able to have more access to feedback and more brainpower and drop ideas into a Facebook group and get feedback more immediately. All of that are good reasons to join the Mastermind.
So they both have their benefits, the message and the copy are just speaking to the person that wants one of those. I’m not pitching them against each other. So when you’re adding in additional offers, it’s figuring out how to market them in a way that really differentiates and discerns.
So your audience, your ideal clients, your patients, they know how to self-select and say, “Oh, okay, I need this, this is what I really need,” versus seeing a whole list of offers and programs and ways to work with you and then freeze, because again, that’s not going to serve them, they’re not getting the help that they want. And it’s obviously not going to serve your business because now you have so many ways to work with people, but no one’s taking you up on your offers.
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Conclusion
Remember, you’re always in control. And it might feel uncomfortable to slow down and prioritize one thing, or it might slow down and say, “I’m only going to accept 10 people into my group instead of 30,” or, “I’m going to create a waitlist for my one to one so I can make sure I have the capacity to handle more people.” But slowing down will create so much more sustainability. And it will create more demand for your offers in the future.
Because the people currently going through your office will love it. Because you’re making sure that you’re delivering on your promise, they’re getting supported, so they’re going to be more likely to work with you again and tell all their friends, and it will start momentum.
For the future, you’ll lay a strong foundation for these programs to set you up for the future versus being stretched too thin trying to do it all just making it work maybe one time, but then you feel so exhausted, you’re like, “Oh, how can I launch this again and get another group cohort of people into my group program again, or fill all these classes again for next month.”
That’s how you know if you’re feeling that way, that you might be trying to prioritize too many things all at the same time. And that is really what I mean by growing too fast in your business.
So if you want help with any of this, of course, reach out to me, I can help you to prioritize exactly what you should focus on in your business to grow the fastest. And your best next step is to sign up for a consult call, and I’ll point you in the right direction.
So there you have it, sustainable, sometimes slow growth will lead to faster growth and more sustainable growth in the future.
There you have it. I will see you next week. Bye for now!
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