Seven Questions For Growth

Every entrepreneur will tell you that they want and need to grow their business.
The trouble is, growth isn’t a tap that can be turned on and off in an instant.
Growth comes from changing your mind, your story, your desire and your habits.
If all of those remained the same, no platform, expert or tool would be able to transform your work.
Then there’s the question of what to change – which stories and behaviours need to be revisited, and we can only do that once we understand what success looks like.

So how do you go about it?
We use seven big questions that help people reflect, think and prioritise, so that they can make a few important choices.
Those choices, if embraced, will flow into projects, decisions and actions that create growth.
The seven work well as a sequence, but it’s usually two or three of them that provoke the most important conversations.
You could go through this process twice in a year and find totally different questions to be the most interesting or challenging.
Let’s look at the list, and then each of them in more detail:

o   Where have I been?

o   Where am I now?

o   What do I want?

o   What’s holding me back?

o   What do I need to do?

o   What do I need to let go of?

o   Who’s walking with me?

Where Have I Been?

To understand your situation, it helps to know where you’ve been, how you got to where you are, and what has motivated you along the way.
A good way of mapping this out is through your Origin Story, which describes the influential moments, people and choices that shaped your work.
You can go back as far as you like – it can describe moments in your childhood or studies that nudged you down a particular career path, the pivots and changes to your business model, or the conversations that motivated you to do something unique or unusual.

Crucially, we are not trying to judge or justify where you’ve been, but rather understand it.
A well-examined failure holds more value to you that a hollow list of achievements.

Where Am I Now?

Next we want an honest stocktake – where are we now, what do we have, how are we feeling?
This might describe your business model, your action plan, your financial position, your headspace, your calendar and your network.
Your present state is the result of previous growth projects and a lot of deliberate work, and it’s good to honour what you’ve achieved.
We want to give credit where credit is due, but not romanticize our current situation. 

What Do I Want?

You’d be surprised at how hard this question can be.
Some people struggle to begin an answer, others launch into specifics but lose confidence as they hear their own words.

Some people think in terms of Have-Do-Be e.g. I want to HAVE 100k subscribers, so that I can DO more sponsored content and therefore BE a serious influencer in my field.
Or you might go Be-Do-Have e.g. I want to BE financially sustainable, so I’ll need to DO more project work, so I’ll need to HAVE a better website.

That might not sound all that different, but it affects what you focus on.
The 100k subscribers is a means to an end, but can become unhelpful if it’s a fixation.
e.g. you grow your subscribers by optimising for an algorithm, but these followers aren’t a valuable audience or representative of your customers.
We want to sense-check this all along the way – is this an instrumental goal that gets me closer to an end, or is this the end in itself?
Do I want this thing, or is it about what this thing gets me?

What’s Holding Me Back?

Arguably the most important question, and the one that leads to the funniest conversations.
“What’s holding me back?” is so funny because it’s often the first time you’ve actually verbalised that:
a)     There’s a force or snag holding you back
b)    You might not have actually attempted to resolve this situation
c)     You might know exactly how to overcome this roadblock
d)    There might be embarrassingly little holding you back from getting what you want

Coming back to Have-Do-Be, it might be that you don’t HAVE the right tools and assets, and need to acquire/borrow something.
You might need to DO different things, which might involve a technical solution or facing an adaptive challenge.
You might need to BE different, which means changing your mind and your story, particularly around what you’re allowed to do and whether or not you’re a “real” business leader.

The temptation is to assume that your business needs physical, purchasable items or services to be able to grow – things that can be bought with money.
In reality, the things most likely to be holding you back are terrible habits and attitudes, affecting how you approach your work and how you view yourself.

What Do I Need To Do?

Now we have some momentum, this question is likely to have a few obvious answers based on what you’ve said so far.
Do you need a technical solution, or 20 seconds of great courage?
Do you need to learn a skill, or hire a professional?

We aren’t going to tell you that “it’s all in your head” or pretend that a new narrative will suddenly transform everything.
It’s usually a blend of some practical changes and upgrades to your company, your weekly routines as well as your mindset.
There’ll be a few disproportionately valuable changes that need to be prioritised, usually around the 20% of the work that generates 80% of your results.

Please don’t pretend to do a total overhaul either, it’s more sustainable to take two or three changes and commit to them, rather than pretending that you’ll magically become a different person who now wakes up at 4am.

What Do I Need To Let Go Of?

For every new habit, routine or story we add in, we’ll likely need to remove 1-2 habits, routines and stories that are keeping you where you are.
The worst part is these are likely going to feel very comfortable, reasonable and sensible – that’s how they’ve been able to hold you down for so long.

These might take the form of:

·      Excuses

·      Bad friends

·      Bad hires

·      Free software that isn’t doing the job

·      Self-doubt disguised as humility

·      Conversations with family members that undermine you

·      Comfortable and familiar routines

·      Your ego

·      Low paying customers

·      The need to be across every detail of your business

 
This might sound vague, but in most cases you’ll see lists like these and have a visceral reaction to some of them – that’s a big clue.

Who’s Walking With Me?

Entrepreneurs do not work alone – they are part of ecosystems and will have access to very talented people at different stages of the journey.
You don’t need the same people with you the whole way either – each stage of development benefits from slightly different specialists and perspectives, although consistent friendships are great for keeping you grounded.

These might take the form of

·      Co-founders

·      Hires

·      Contractors

·      Peer groups

·      Startup programs

·      Growth programs

·      Coaches, mentors and advisors

·      Investors

·      Suppliers

·      Alliances

·      Accountability partners

·      Genuine friends

·      Family support

·      Psychologists/therapists

·      Specialists like accountants or lawyers

Some of these can be acquired with money, and some come from personal connections.
You might know who they are, or you might choose to hunt for these people in the coming months.

How To Make The Most Of The Seven

There are no strict rules, but these work really well in conversation with someone you trust, or who you can talk with 100% honesty.
Yes, the notes app is a good starting point, but what really helps is to be challenged on your first answers.
e.g. someone who can remind you of your strengths, spot issues in your blind spots, or who can suggest options that you hadn’t realised you could wish for.

You don’t need to work through them in one hit or one workshop, in fact there’s a lot of benefit purely in identifying which of the seven needs the most urgent attention.
A problem well-stated is a problem half-solved.

Good luck with the questions, they’ve proven to be helpful, but only if you’re honest with yours