Paradox of Growth
One night, as you’re working late, a strange figure appears in a flash of light and says:
“I’m your business fairy godmother, here to magically grant you one wish that will transform your business!”
What’s your one wish?
Most business owners would change the results their business achieves.
Progress is never fast enough…
Profits are never high (or consistent!) enough…
The benefits of being a business owner – for all the time, effort and money you invest – are never big enough.
And (for some frustrating reason) the “second-rate” competitor down-the-road… Every time you glance over at him, he’s making more sales than you are – and it drives you insane to see him getting ahead so easily!
You want to achieve more, do more, earn more, enjoy more time, contribute more, build a legacy.
But there are problems holding you back.
Most of these problems can be solved with money.
As the late-great master of marketing, Gary Halbert, once wrote:
“If you have enough money to solve a problem, you don’t have a problem.”
And – if I were to ask you how could you bring more money into your business – I’m sure your mind would immediately go to marketing.
Personally, I believe marketing is the the solution to EVERY problem in business.
Very few businesses have such incredible marketing that they’re turning away customers at the door, and limitations in almost every other area of business are the flow-on effects of marketing constraints.
Marketing generates Sales;
Sales generate Profits;
Profits generates a Healthy Bank Balance;
And a Healthy Bank Balance can be used to solve all manner of business problems.
If you don’t have enough time to do something – money lets you hire staff who can take workload off your shoulders.
If you lack the right skill or knowledge within the business to do something important in the business – money will pay for the expertise you need.
If you don’t have enough stability to weather economic storms, or capital to take on competitors – filling your business coffers with money solves that problem quickly.
And therein lies the problem…
If the solution is so simple – why don’t we all just do more marketing, keep growing our businesses, and end up sitting on private yachts moored beside our private islands?
Well, it’s all to do with the Paradox of Growth.
About the Paradox of Growth
A good mate of mine, and one of the smartest marketing minds I know – Brent Hodgson – has a framework he calls “The Paradox of Growth”.
Brent’s had some incredible experience as a business owner and leader in the marketing world – co-founding and launching Market Samurai, building the business from nowhere to 100,000’s of users world-wide; creating marketing campaigns that have generated over $15,000 in sales per minute; and doubling online revenues for some of the most recognisable brands in Australia – just to name a few.
So he has seen why some businesses grow, and why others don’t.
The Paradox explains why some businesses experience rapid growth – and why others get stuck in cycles of plateau or decline.
How The Paradox of Growth Affects Businesses
We know that marketing will fund our capacity problems.
But doing more marketing takes more capacity. So we need to create the capacity, to do the marketing, that will create the capacity, to do the marketing, that will create the capacity… you get the idea.
It’s the “Catch-22” of business – because if you had the capacity already, you’d be going through rapid growth, rather than scrounging for extra capacity to solve other problems and wondering why you don’t have more time or money to do more marketing.
Breaking The Impasse
If you’re going to break this impasse, something’s gotta give.
The business activities – the marketing; the systems; the thinking; the management – all of the things that got you to where your business is today… All of that needs to change if you want to own the business you dream about.
(Or – if you aren’t dreaming about that kind of business yet – it’s the business you are capable of owning if you were to dream about it.)
The key isn’t to work harder, longer hours, over-extending yourself to break through the plateau.
The key is to work smarter, with better focus on the things that make the biggest difference.
Brent
P.S. – Want more info? Here’s a white paper that goes into more detail on this topic.