When you’re at a crossroads in your business, unsure where to turn next, or how to grow your revenue, it’s hard to drown out the noise telling us to hustle even harder… “Start taking advantage of this social media platform!” “Write a book!” “Make a new course!” Argh!

But getting distracted by “shiny objects” and simply adding more is NOT the answer. Instead, it’s a sign you need to dig deep into your business and your life so that you can diagnose what’s not working and identify the right steps to build your business’s next *sustainable* chapter.

With a background in corporate leadership, McKinsey & Company consulting, and a Harvard Business degree, Jessica Lackey is no stranger to hustle culture. She now combines her deep experience in actionable business strategy with a human-centered approach to help business owners like you examine the roots of your business so you can shape it in a way that truly works for you.

So if you’re facing a threshold point where you have to make some tough decisions about your business, we’re hoping Jessica’s expert insights will help you evaluate whether your processes are working for you or against you when building the business you envision.

Common Pitfalls When Scaling a Business

Jessica often sees entrepreneurs making two fundamental mistakes when scaling their business:

1. Conflating growth with scale

Business growth is about increasing top-line revenues at any cost, whereas scaling a business is about increasing revenues while minimizing your costs.

Scaling is when we start to think about creating more leverage in our business. Yes, you may add some costs to your bottom line but your revenue more than outstrips it because you’re thinking about a leveraged delivery model. For example, when you grow a team, your time is no longer coupled with your revenue because you’ve got team members delivering services on your behalf.

2. Not recognizing that scaling a business fundamentally changes the business model

People often overlook the fact that scaling a business will change the role you play as the business owner. And so in pursuit of scale, we can sometimes end up with a business that we’re not sure we really wanted or a business that may not be as profitable as we wanted.

Growth vs. Scale: What’s Right for You?

Do you want to grow? Do you want to scale? Do you want to do both?! And if it’s going to fundamentally shift your business and possibly even create a business you don’t really want, how can you test the waters to see if it’s the right move for you?

Well, the first part is knowing what the different business models and archetypes are and not only understanding the positives, but also the trade-offs that come with them.

The Delivery Model Business

These models prioritize delivering services, either personally or through a team. They typically involve fewer clients but usually foster deeper and potentially longer term relationships. Often labeled as “time-for-dollars” models, they may not be as scalable, but can still yield significant profits.

And within this model, you’ll find three main business archetypes: Craftsmen pride themselves on delivering a craft and enjoy the work they do for clients (e.g. copywriters and graphic designers) but there is a limit to how many clients they can serve. Advisors guide clients through transformation with deep expertise (1:1 coaching and consulting), while Agencies delegate client delivery work to a team under strategic oversight.

The Creator Model Business

In this model, the focus is on creating and distributing content around your point of view. What distinguishes these models from each other is the way you intend to make money from that content. These businesses typically target larger audiences and may not involve traditional “clients.” They are seen as more scalable, but success is dependent on building and engaging a substantial audience.

Gatherers curate groups for connection (think retreats and community-organized masterminds), Teachers guide clients to outcomes or learning (through selling related content like templates, courses, and books) and Edu-Tainers monetize content through various means like sponsorships and advertisements.

Ultimately, each of these business models dictates where you spend your time and attention, your profitability structure, and your investment areas.

So if you got into this business to be a copywriter, for example, yet you find yourself running a copywriting agency because you’ve been told to scale, that will mean you’re doing less writing and less client work and a lot more team leadership, HR, and financial planning. Always keep in mind that as you scale, it changes the role you play in the business and It changes the responsibilities that you have.

Diversification

It’s also important to recognize that there is a cost-benefit tradeoff when you’re adding or shifting models, as each distinct model you add increases the overall cost and complexity in your business.

Jessica frequently sees businesses adding on business models to generate more revenue. For example, a content-only course might add a cohort element or group tier. That switches the game from audience building and teaching a course to moderating a community, which incurs a shift in the cost and time model in your business.

Jessica would always advise to be stable in one business model before you add another and to make sure it has a purpose in the client journey (you do not want to cannibalize). For example, if you offer a course and then introduce a VIP day that essentially duplicates the course content, you risk undermining both offerings. Plus, if your audience isn’t large enough to support both services, you might find yourself trading one for the other.

Navigating Financial and Energetic Shifts as You Scale

When your business is smaller, your focus is on establishing sustainable revenue that aligns with your personal needs and aspirations. For instance, if you want to work four days a week, what does that mean for the business you need to create and how does that support and fund your life?

As your business starts to scale, you may encounter what Jessica calls the “messy middle” phase. During this transition, you might find yourself investing more time and money into building the infrastructure needed to scale.

For example, you might be hiring new team members who don’t immediately contribute to revenue generation but are crucial for laying the groundwork for future growth. Strategic spending like this essentially buys back your time so that you can invest it for those higher leverage revenue activities.

But when you transition from doing hands-on work to managing others doing the work, it is a complete energetic shift. While you may have been rewarded in the past for being deeply involved in day-to-day operations, scaling requires a shift towards strategic thinking, visioning, and leadership.

And—as I’ve learned myself—that transition can be pretty…daunting (find out more here). It means letting go of the need to control every aspect of the business and instead focusing on setting clear expectations, training team members, and shaping the overall strategy.

For many entrepreneurs, that can be a scary shift, especially when you’re so used to the familiarity of task-based work. All of a sudden, you’re now a visionary leader, responsible for steering the business towards its long-term goals. It’s a shift that demands different conversations, content, and peer support networks. And when some people get there, they realize they don’t actually want the responsibilities that come with being the visionary in a business.

Overcoming Operational Bottlenecks

On the flip side, for entrepreneurs who want to embrace more time to dream, vision, and strategize, there can come a point when you realize that you’ve inadvertently built yourself a desk job.

In fact, this is something I noticed happening to myself last year. I thrive in having more freedom in the day, having fewer discrete tasks, and more time to play, but I ended up feeling trapped at my desk—despite continuing to delegate tasks to my team!

If that starts to sneak up on you, Jessica recommends using the visionary time you have created to take a step back and take a good look at your processes. Why are certain tasks lining up on your plate?

A lot of the time, things end up on our plate because they’re in the seed stage. Even if you’ve got a business that scales, there will be particular elements at a seed stage. And so you’re doing things because it’s too nascent to delegate.

So it’s really about classifying those tasks that land on your desk and saying, “Is this supposed to be here because I’m coming up with new seeds and sprouts and I’m tending those before I hand them over? Or is there something underlying in our systems that needs addressing?”

What to Consider When Hiring

As business owners start looking at their workload and realizing tasks they’re not so good at or don’t fully understand, they might be wondering, “Is now the right time to hire somebody?”

But before you rush into outsourcing certain parts of your business, Jessica recommends considering some key points:

Understand the Task: Outsourcing something you don’t understand is usually a recipe for disaster. It’s important to have a foundational understanding of the task before you outsource it—especially when it comes to things like financial analysis.
Specialist vs. Generalist: If you outsource it to a generalist, you have to come up with the process and you have to manage them. For example, a lot of business owners want to outsource everything to a VA. But when you’re operating at a high level and they’re operating at a doer level, it’s your responsibility to drop down to the doer level and codify processes to a level that is manageable for them. Whereas if you hire a specialist, they have a process to manage YOU.
Establish Operational Levels: Do you need someone to simply execute tasks, or do you need someone to analyze outcomes, manage processes, build new systems, design strategies, or identify new opportunities? Often, we *think* we want someone at the executor level but actually what we need is someone at the builder and designer level.
Ask the Right Questions: By tailoring your interview questions, you can find out potential candidates’ operational level. For example, if you’re looking for someone at a “builder” level, you might ask them, “How would you manage multiple priorities?” Understanding their approach can help you determine if they’re the right person to hire for your needs.
Consider Your Organizational Readiness: The operational level you’re hiring for needs to align with the current stage your business is at. Hiring for execution may not be the smartest move if your business is still in the vision and strategy phase. For example, you might think you need someone to handle your social media, but actually it needs a bit more strategic guidance and branding development before executing on those tasks.
Short-Term Expertise: Before hiring a long-term employee or contractor, consider bringing in a short-term expert to make sure you’re set up for success. This expert can help codify your genius, document processes, and lay the groundwork for seamless delegation when your long-term employee comes on board.

The “Five Whys” Technique

Business owners have a tendency to move quite fast and it’s often the case that they end up turning to short-term fixes instead of diagnosing the true problems in their business.

And so this is where you have to really force yourself to slow down and dig into the problems. Jessica encourages us to use the “five whys” technique to get to the root of the problem.

Let’s say, for example, you’re not being consistent with your social media marketing. Why am I not consistent in my marketing? “Well, I never know what to say.” Why don’t I ever know what to say? “I guess I don’t really love my offers…or my brand kit looks drab…or I don’t know what to put on Instagram.” And you keep probing like this until you realize you don’t know who you’re trying to target and what you’re trying to solve for them.

If that’s the underlying issue, then you don’t need more marketing. You need help with positioning and diagnosing the issues with your messaging, as well as determining the value proposition for your offers.

But if you were to just hire a social media person to do more marketing, you’re solving a symptom that’s actually going to cost you money and not get you results versus going all the way down to the root.

Embracing a Human-Centered Approach to Growth

By embracing a human-centered approach to work, we can prioritize our wellbeing while still achieving our goals effectively. Sometimes we forget that humans are NOT machines. Just like plants, we have periods of root growth and times when growth happens beneath the surface—we’re not constantly in bloom.

So many of us are used to the hustle culture in the corporate world—but relentless growth with little rest and rejuvenation will only lead to one thing: burnout.

In reality, truly creative and deep work can only be sustained for a fraction of the traditional eight-hour workday. Rest IS productive. So it’s time to let go of productivity guilt and make sure we start incorporating self-care into our schedules to maintain our wellbeing.

Trying to grow and water 15 plants at once is probably going to leave all of them shriveled and sad (especially if you’re anything like me when it comes to looking after plants).

Instead, focusing on one or two key projects at a time allows for deeper root growth and more significant progress in the long run. Scaling might be the endgame, but it’s crucial to prepare properly and have realistic expectations.

Scaling isn’t just about achieving rapid growth; it’s about laying the groundwork, refining your model, and building confidence in your messaging and offerings. This process takes time and patience, and is likely to span several years rather than months.

It’s easy to get blinded by “overnight” successes, but they’re usually hiding years of hard work and dedication behind the scenes. Instead, we have to learn to embrace the journey of gradual growth, celebrate slow and steady progress, and recognizing that the results might not be linear to the effort at the get-go.

In this blog post, we look at the often overlooked—but obligatory—entrepreneur mindset shift that’s key to growing your business.

Watch More

In this Energize Your Online Business podcast episode, our hosts are joined by Jessica Lackey, a strategy and operations advisor, who bridges the gap between traditional business practices and a thirst for creating sustainable businesses with a human centric approach. Listen in to find out how to get take your business to the next level *without* sacrificing your wellbeing.

Your Turn!

What are some of the bottlenecks you want to break through in your business? Let us know in the comments below!

Break Through Business Bottlenecks to Build a Business that Works for You