Growing or busy?

For many of my clients growth means sustainable growth – a longer term plan built to last, improving over time and each year. For others, this can be mean being a bit more aggressive – and growing through each season.

Whichever type of growth you choose, improving each year is important – it helps ensure that you’re moving in the right direction toward whatever type of growth goals you’d like for your small business.

As mentioned last week, systems are an important part of growth – more so in fending off the chaos that can accompany the growth, which can ultimately hinder any potential growth plans you may have.

That said, here are some important notes on growth that may help you see where you’re at and knowing if you’re just busy – or growing – and map out where you want to be.

What Do You Really Want?

Before evaluating growth inside your small business it’s often good to step back and look at what you really want outside your small business.

Very often with small business owners, running their business can consume a fair portion of their lives – if you’re passionate about what you do, this isn’t an issue, but if you find yourself unable to pull away when you want, then it’s likely a sign that you might want to take a step back and evaluate things.

Growing your small business to the point you can step away (and let it run itself) should be a plan that any small business owner should work towards, but again it’s all a matter of perspective.

Once you understand the end game – what you really want and lifestyle you’d like – knowing what growth you need to get there is much easier to attain.

“Busy” Vs. Growing

Being busy is a great problem to have. Filling your capacity, getting projects booked, contracts signed — all really great problems to have.

Very often, though, busy doesn’t always equal growth – especially with no end point defined for that growth.

Busy for the sake of being busy can often feel like a being on a treadmill — a lot of work and effort, but ultimately in the same spot once you jump off of it.

Set Goals For Growth & Work Towards Them

Something that will help you feel like you’re not just running on the same treadmill is putting in place tangible goals for growth.

Whether that be in terms of revenue, profit, projects, contracts, staff added – whatever is in line with how you’d like to grow your business – and support your associated lifestyle.

Without setting these (or even just getting a rough idea of what these look like), you’ll often feel pushed-and-pulled throughout the year – with no definitive direction or path towards the lifestyle you want.

It can be a busy time of year for many small businesses – but make sure you make some time to sketch out where you’d like to be in 6 months, 1 year, 3 years, 5 years – and create a plan to work toward it.

So I leave you with the question, again: what does growth look like for you in 2026 (and beyond)?