Running a Business is Not a Race: Go for Sustainable Growth

Recently featured on UpCity’s expert article, 16 Tips From Successful Business Owners For 2022, Meg Mothershed spoke on sustainable business growth. 

Feelin’ the pressure.

Freedom over your time, financial independence, and limitless potential—it’s why you became an entrepreneur. But what happens when you start feeling the pressure to grow before you’re ready, or what if you’re just not sure that scaling the size of your business is right for you? 

If you own a small business, you’ve undoubtedly felt the pressure to grow. Whether it’s growth through team size, ever-increasing revenue, or through other means, the pressure is real. There are countless seminars, articles, videos, and podcasts about scaling your team and achieving and maintaining rapid growth. However, there’s often very little discussion about it being acceptable, or even encouraged to focus on sustainable growth.

With so much pressure to become a multi-million dollar business or hire an extensive team to be considered successful, business owners can often feel like they’re not good enough. We’ve spoken with other business owners who feel the same, and others who describe rapid growth as the only way to achieve recognition and success. There’s enough pressure, stress, and imposter syndrome that entrepreneurs face without adding any additional strain to grow. 

 

What is sustainable business growth?

Startup culture tells us we need to grow big and grow fast. However, there’s tremendous power in staying small and going for sustainable growth. Sustainable business growth is focusing on realistic, maintainable growth, rather than going full-steam ahead 24/7 365 and burning out in the short-term. Businesses that focus on small-scale, sustainable growth can be more adaptable, preserve their autonomy, maintain lower overhead, and have greater potential for profit. 

By not giving in to the pressure to grow too much too fast, you can hit realistic revenue goals, have the time to weigh business decisions, truly enjoy your work, and avoid losing the passion that got you into business in the first place.

 

Running a business is not a race.

Trying to accomplish too much too fast is a sure-fire way to burn out. Remember that pressure to grow we talked about earlier? While we may experience pressure from outside forces, ultimately, as business owners, it’s up to us to set our own boundaries and expectations. Stop worrying about others’ expectations and start with one area of focus and put your time and energy into making that successful, rather than jumping from task to task. 

In our five years in business as Mothershed Design Co., we have experienced just how much a small business can truly accomplish working as a team of two from a home office, including expanding to an international client base and recurring six-figure yearly sales, while maintaining the freedom of entrepreneurship and relentless passion for our field. Our emphasis on sustainable growth is what keeps us going and helps us attempt to achieve that all-elusive work-life balance. 

 

We care about your business’s success.

Receive the right brand foundation and creative support to become the confident business owner you were always meant to be. Book a call with us to start building your brand and growing your business sustainably.

By Meg Mothershed

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