The Harsh Truth Why Only 8% of Businesses Will Ever Scale

Welcome to episode 122 of Dawn of a New Era, where we talk about all things marketing, motivation and mindset. And in this episode, we're going to talk about the shocking truth behind why only 8%, yes 8%, of businesses ever scale. When I first heard this fact, I genuinely was shocked myself. But when I reflect on it, I'm actually less surprised because when we look inside why businesses are not growing, they are not scaling, then there seems to be a few commonalities.

Now, in this podcast, I really want to dig into this and share with you the behind the scenes of what is actually happening in businesses. And this is businesses globally. And when we look at why people are struggling, why people feel that they are under huge amounts of pressure and that they're not reaping the results that they either deserve or desire, then there seems to be something, one pinnacle thing that is preventing them moving forward. When I say that I'm honestly shocked that so many businesses don't do this, I am less shocked as the days go on because I've been researching what it is that elevates a business.

What is it that actually makes a business Fluid in terms of being profitable, being easy to scale, being sustainable. What are the key elements that we need to change or do as business owners to make our lives easier? So stay with me on this because I've been in business for over 24 years, and I'll let you into a secret. Some of these things I have definitely been guilty of.

Now, as I say this, I recently met with my solicitor, who was really quite surprised how organised that we were in terms of our systems and generally just having everything together in the business. So we had all of the information at hand that she needed, and she said it's a real rarity that people can supply the information, or they've prepared for the call, or the job in hand. This to me is second nature, but it wasn't always like this. We didn't always have everything together, and everything did not flow like it does now.

My journey has evolved, and since I was 21, I've definitely changed. And, you know, I'm 45 now. My priorities, my goals, my dreams, the way I want to live my life has definitely taken a pivot, and my trajectory has been up and down along the way. It hasn't been plain sailing.

We see many people online who we sort of believe that, you know, have gone from zero to hero in five minutes. Over time, I've had some really big scaling moments, and I've also had, on the other side, things that haven't worked out so well. So if I look at what the problems were in the business, and I look at, you know, the environment, and, you know, I look at what's happened, of course there are some circumstances outside of our control that we have no— way of impacting, you know, things like COVID, right? We can do things in that time to evolve, but, you know, some things we just can't actually change.

So let's get into what it is when we see people online. We know that social media has always been plagued with the fact that people are showcasing a snapshot of their lives. You know, how true is it? And we all see this front end on social media of how people are nailing it and scaling like lightning.

But inside the business, I promise you, it isn't always as shiny. And often I meet people who I have seen online, who I think are absolutely smashing it, only to find out that they're not, that what they're portraying on the outside is not the actual truth of the business. So please be aware that you are only seeing a highlight, the bit that people are choosing to put out there. And yes, some social media people are being authentic, they are being genuine, and they're sharing the good, the bad and the ugly.

And that's what we aim to do in this podcast. But when you see events happen beyond your control, the business can absolutely take a knock, and we've probably all been there. But what can happen is if you don't have systems in place. Who suffers?

Well, generally your clients suffer. Yes, you'll probably suffer too, but your clients will be the first people to see this. And I've seen this so often in the past two weeks where suppliers, even for me or my clients, have failed to deliver. Why?

Well, the issue is that if you don't give exceptional customer service, people won't stay. And why should they? And if you aren't leading with a client-first mentality in your business and putting them central to your success, then you're definitely leaving money on the table and you're leaving your business very exposed. Now, I've got clients who've been with me for years.

Why? Because I deliver on my promise. I'm there to support, and even when life throws me curveballs and challenges, it doesn't ever impact my client. Why?

Because I've systemized. I've put a solid structure in place, and I have a model. When nothing weighs too heavy on me. Now, I want you to lean into that and just listen to that again.

I've put a solid structure in place, and I have a model where nothing weighs too heavy on me. The mistake I see in businesses is that people are the driving force behind making money. They have put themselves in the driving seat where if they don't turn up, nothing happens. The business stalls.

And I have learned this the hard way because I did this too. I didn't always have my businesses running so smoothly, and, you know, as a result, I have suffered and I felt like under an immense amount of pressure because everything fell on me. You know, I felt like I had no freedom, no space, and I was so tired, and I was nearing burning out, if not burnt out already. And this whole approach to business and this way of kind of hustling and pushing, we're kind of taught in our younger lives.

We hear things like, Work hard. The more you do, the more you earn. And honestly, I lived that as absolute gospel in my life. And what was wrong with it is that I was making business hard for myself.

I was actually creating the problem because I just felt like if I just pushed so hard. But when you're doing that, you're not taking the time out and space and getting the creativity to actually look at the bigger picture and be objective to what you're doing and looking at what is working, what is working really well, what can I delegate, what can I declutter. So the harder you go and the faster you go. The less you are successful as a business owner and entrepreneur, and if we want to truly step up as a CEO in our business, we have to be working on our business, not in it.

I used to hear that when I was younger, and I was like, I don't really get what that means, but now I do, because I have certain things that are my do or die as a CEO, things that only I do and only I should be doing. But everything else, I'm empowering people who are specialists to do those things. A classic example of that is something that I absolutely hate: accountancy, right? Bookkeeping.

If I was responsible for any of that, my business would be in dire straits, okay? So when I talk about systems and structures, you have to look at what are the things that you, as a CEO, as the creator of your business, that you should be doing. And I believe clients are the number one. They are the people that are paying you money, okay, that is facilitating your business, okay?

So they have to be important. So why is it that I see so many people take the money and just don't deliver on the clients? The other day, I literally saw someone who was claiming they were a specialist in X, Y, and Z. They'd taken a client on, but they hadn't done three of the most obvious things that needed to happen for that service to actually be successful.

So whatever they did, because they hadn't put the time in with the client just to optimize and check everything was right when they onboarded them, no one's going to get results. Now that is going to result in a relationship that is fully charged with contempt on both sides. And when we have that, everything feels out of sync. Everything feels hard.

So you need to make it easy for yourselves by putting systems and processes in, not just in your business, but with your clients.

And how you work with them. You know, when we talk about boundaries, one of the disappointing things that I see is not that people are being taken advantage of, but the actual supplier is taking advantage of the client by putting such fierce boundaries in place that it almost feels that it's difficult. Now, I saw this the other day with a supplier who was like, We don't do this, we can't do this. It just felt so unaligned.

You know, what has happened to us wanting everyone to succeed? If someone messaged me in the evening, I wouldn't reach out ranting at them how they crossed my boundaries. If I felt like answering it, I'd answer it, and, you know, they would know that I'd just kind of taken time out. It wasn't the norm, but I answered it.

If something was really important that happened for a client, I would do my best to help them, okay? So I think there needs to be a line drawn in the world of business that says kindness, respect, and care are the key fundamentals, right? Boundaries, yes, we have service level agreements. When someone signs an agreement, they know I won't answer out of hours.

But the thing is, when I do, do they think that I've gone over and above? Of course they do. They're thankful for it. So I think we have to take charge of owning how we facilitate our relationships.

And when I think about when I was burnt out, I was pushing so hard, and then I think, well, what changed? I changed. I was the key facilitator of the change. Nothing else.

Nothing in the environment, nothing in the events around me. I took charge of my own trajectory. I looked at what was working and what wasn't, and I owned it. And I started to make changes, small, subtle changes.

I didn't try and change the world in a day. I made changes that were aligned to how I wanted my life to look. And I changed my beast of a business into a facilitator of fun, financial growth, and certainty, and freedom. And wow, when I look back, how different things could be now if I hadn't taken that leap.

So my advice is, if you don't love it, be prepared to change it. You are your own worst enemy, you know, when it comes to making business hard. And sometimes that's hard to hear, and it definitely was for me. But the biggest win for me was simplifying to scale.

Yes, it took me time and it took me effort, but my goodness, was it worth it? One thousand percent. It is worth taking time out, changing things to shift the trajectory for an easier, nicer, more enjoyable, more enriched life full of experiences and fun. Surely, you know, if something doesn't feel right, why keep pushing down that line?

You're just getting deeper and deeper. And guess what? The longer you leave it, the harder it will be to change. And this is something that I see all of the time.

I always say to people who book discovery calls with me, I'm not here to convince you. I'm just here to tell you what can happen, right? I will never, ever convince somebody on a discovery call. Why?

Because they are their own blocker. They're not ready to change. They will be the issue in their business. For the foreseeable future.

Do I want to work with that? No, of course I don't. The thing is, is that people have to see that it is time to change. And I see so many people pushing so hard, it is simply not sustainable and certainly not scalable.

And, you know, it'll soon come to bite them in the bum if they don't do the work soon. And this could be you, because I certainly fell into that cycle. Something wasn't right in my business. Everything felt incongruent.

It just didn't feel aligned. It didn't feel like what I'd set my business up to achieve. I wasn't leading the entrepreneurial life that I thought I was going to love. And I wasn't spending time with my family.

I wasn't present in those moments because my head was elsewhere. So when I hear the excuses, and I hear this a lot, people will reel on a call. They'll show up and say, I really want to do this, and then the excuses come. Now, when I hear the excuses, I know them so well because guess what?

They were my excuses too. But I stayed in my situation for too long. Now, years on, it is still very fresh when I think about how I felt in that time. Now, you imagine if I hadn't changed, I'd probably still be stuck there.

And the thing is, and this is really sad, 80% of businesses will still stay stuck because they won't change. You know, we hear, Oh, I haven't got the time. Oh, I haven't got the money. Oh, I just don't have the capacity to put the effort in.

And guess what? You are being your own blocker. And this is really hard to hear, I know, because I walked that walk. I was in that space.

But when I had the epiphany moment and I realized I was the blocker. And the blocker was me. Then I realized the truth that I stood in my own way too long, listening to the voices in my head. I was seeking validation where I could, and I was justifying to myself all the reasons to stay stuck.

And you will probably hear this from clients. You may even hear it for yourself. But these are all false beliefs limiting yours or your client's next level of growth. And this podcast, if you take one thing or anything from it, is that if you don't like what is happening right now and you aren't reaping the results that you desire or deserve, then something has to change.

You cannot show up every day doing the same things and expecting a different outcome or result because guess what? And this is my promise to you: it will never, ever happen, okay? When I made the commitment to myself to make the changes, I knew I needed to get out of my own head, and I couldn't do this solo. I needed somebody to be objective.

I needed someone to challenge me. Now, as an entrepreneur or a CEO, how often do people actually say no to you? Very rarely. If I said to my team, Let's get on the bus, let's go to the zoo for a day out, they'd say, Yeah, okay.

We need challenge. We need objectivity. We need someone who is in a place that is above where we are. And this is the thing that really struck a chord with me, and this might be striking a chord with you now.

But when I realised that someone else has walked the walk, been where I was, and they've achieved what I want, would it be quicker and faster to go to that person or go it alone, do all the tests and the trials, hit some pretty epic pitfalls along the way, probably take me three times, maybe ten times longer to get there, but I get there? Would it be better to say to myself, Well, look, you know, it may have taken me ten years longer, but I got there myself. No. I invested in a coach mentor, someone who I knew confidently was living the life, not just running the business, but living the life I wanted, so that I could say, This is where I'm at.

This is what I'd like. That's what you've got. How did you get there? Can you show me the exact steps and tell me what to do in my business?

And very quickly, there was things that I was doing that I thought I was doing right that were completely Wrong. And this was the thing. If I kept doing them, I would have just slowed everything down. It would have cost me not just 10 times more time, but guess what?

It would have cost me probably 10 times more money to make the change. So my last word to you is when we look at why only 8% of businesses scale, 80% of businesses will do nothing. Now, out of the 20% of people who are ready to make the change, then some of them, 8%, who take the advice, invest in a mentor, and do it the quick way, will scale. The other percent, 12%, will be the people who want to self-navigate.

And yes, they may get there and they may scale, but it won't be quickly. So you've got to choose: do you want to be the 80% who do nothing, or do you want to be the 20% who do something? And out of that 20%, do you want to be the 8% who actually scale, or do you want to be the 12% who grow and then fall and then grow and then fall and then grow and then fall? Now, what I'm not saying here is that everybody has to this minute invest in a coach and mentor.

But what I am saying is, is that if you truly, in your heart of hearts, know that what you're doing isn't working, then change it, okay? So as I say, if any of this has struck a chord with you, then your time is now, okay? And all I want you to do is reach out to me. DM me the word change and just let me know that you've heard this podcast, okay?

Let me know that you are

Okay. And if it's right, then maybe yes, let's chat and let's see if I can help you make these shifts. But if nothing else, you've consciously recognized in your own mind that you're ready, okay? And however that looks to you, you have made a decision that this is the day that things will change for you.

Now you can find me in all the usual places at Dawn McGruer on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn. Go onto my website, dawnmcgruer.com. There is lots of free resources there.

Even if this podcast didn't quite tip you to that point where you need to make the change and you're still the blocker, okay, that's fine. But do something to take yourself to that next level. And as I say, there's loads of free resources on the website, okay? And maybe if you just take one step at a time, if you watch the masterclass or you get a copy of my free book, any of those things, anything that shifts you closer to the world that you want, then I've done my job.

So I hope you have enjoyed today's podcast. I know that maybe some bits have triggered you, some have been a bit hard to hear, or some you may even be thinking, do you know what? That was me. I was my blocker and I made the change.

Now let's celebrate the success of others, but let's celebrate also the importance of clients, and let's put all of our effort into making that relationship and those results the most transformative that we can in business today. Thank you for listening to Dawn of a New Era podcast, and for your free checklist to find out how to boost your business for growth, profit and success, and join our community, go to dawnmcgruer.com.