You only make money on marketing once you stop sabotaging yourself
Every phase of growth tests who you are as a business owner. Five ways owners get in their own way, and what to do about each of them.
Every business owner wants to grow. More customers. More revenue. More success.
In the beginning that feels great. You feel unbeatable.
Until growth stops being a party. It gets busy, you carry a lot of responsibility, and you have to keep learning how to handle chaos.
That is exactly where a lot of owners drop out. Not because they cannot do it, but because they get in their own way.
Here is what to do about it.
Self-sabotage #1: wanting to do everything yourself
We see it often enough: an owner gets a hundred new leads a month. Fantastic, but instead of hiring a salesperson, they try to handle all of it themselves.
Why? Because they think nobody can do it better, or they are afraid of having to pay someone before that person turns a profit.
The result? They drown in work, they lose opportunities, and they pay the highest price of all: growing pains without the growth.
You have two choices: the pain of investing and learning, or the pain of regret because you wanted to do it all yourself. Choose wisely.
Self-sabotage #2: second-guessing your marketers
Of course you know your product inside out. But you are not a marketer.
You pay experts to make an impact, and then you do not listen to their advice. You ignore strategies, you stop campaigns too early, or you say: “Email marketing? That does not work for us.”
Marketing works, but not if you refuse to let go and trust.
Self-sabotage #3: focusing on what goes wrong
Some owners do not handle change well and therefore fix their attention on whatever is going wrong. There is a comma missing in an ad, so the ad has to come offline, even though that ad is producing revenue.
That is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Your brain goes looking for reasons to be right, and in the meantime you close yourself off from growth.
Stop looking at what goes wrong. Focus on what works and do more of it.
Self-sabotage #4: no grip on your team
You cannot manage growth without accountability, from yourself and from your team.
Anything you do not actively pay attention to shrinks. Culture, customers, cash flow.
If your sales people are not performing, that is partly on you. You have to listen back to calls, follow the data, monitor results and demand accountability.
Self-sabotage #5: stopping while you are winning
The biggest mistake owners make? Stopping their advertising when things are going well. “Business is good, we have enough work.” Wrong.
That is the moment to push. Never stop when you are winning. That is exactly the moment growth explodes.
The hard truth
Do you want to be successful? Then you have to stop sabotaging yourself.
Every phase of growth tests who you are as a business owner. The question is not whether you feel the pain. The question is whether you are willing to go through it.
In short
Why do business owners struggle to grow their company?
Business owners often struggle to grow because they get in their own way, not because they cannot do it. Growth brings more work, more responsibility and chaos, and many owners respond by sabotaging themselves: doing everything themselves, second-guessing their marketers, fixating on what goes wrong, losing grip on their team, or stopping advertising while they are winning.
Should I stop advertising when business is going well?
A business should not stop advertising when things are going well, and doing so is the biggest mistake owners make. The reasoning "business is good, we have enough work" is wrong: the moment things go well is the moment to push, because that is exactly when growth explodes. The rule is to never stop when you are winning.
Should a business owner handle all incoming leads personally?
A business owner who gets a hundred new leads a month should hire a salesperson rather than handle them all personally. Owners who try to do everything, because they think nobody can do it better or fear paying someone before that person turns a profit, drown in work, lose opportunities and end up with growing pains without the growth.
Team Stigo, Stigo Digital Agency
Writes about what actually happens inside the campaigns we run from our own location in Antwerp. Questions about your own numbers? Book a call.
