When a business is trying to grow there is often a limited resource that prevents it doing so. The one that immediately comes to mind is customers or, more accurately, a lack of customers.  However, for many, a lack of customers is not the main issue; there is some other limiting factor that prevents them from growing.

Identifying this limiting factor and eliminating it should be part of a business owner’s regular tasks, something they regularly review and plan for.

Do you know what your limiting factor is?

Many years ago, I was being shown around a new client’s premises who was in the whisky business – he took premium grade scotch whisky, re-bottled it and then re-sold it under a different brand.

This client asked me to guess what his limiting factor was; it’s obvious now I think about it, but at the time, I had no clue. It was the actual Whisky. Apparently, to be labelled scotch whisky it has to come from Scotland and production of it is not a quick process.

This client had identified his limiting factor and had put a plan in place to mitigate it.

Here is a list of things that can be limiting factors in your business:

Cash – or rather, the lack of, has always been a main limiting factor for many businesses. One of the reasons the government were so keen to put in place financial support for businesses during the pandemic, was to prevent cash from being a limiting factor in the recovery.

At this present time, lenders are keen to lend to help businesses grow, especially with the government’s recovery growth scheme loans.

People – getting good people is always difficult, but not impossible. By far the best way to get good people is to take them on and train them into what you need them to be. Finding fully trained individuals with the right attitude for you is difficult, but finding the right person and training them to fit your mould is much easier.

See our guidance to getting good people here:The People Problem

Stock & Materials – At the moment building materials are expensive and scarce. Clients have been telling me that everything from wood to concrete have seen price increases because of the scarcity.

What with the pandemic and Brexit, careful planning must be the name of the game when it comes to getting the materials you need. It should not be taken for granted that your stock will be there with short notice.

Time – Business owners often say to me that they need to make time. I always think to myself that would be a great trick, to be able to make time, when you can do that let me know how! Time is our most precious limited resource and there are two ways to leverage that time:

  1. Employ people (See above)
  2. Be more organised.

Being more organised includes being more efficient in what you do, and also looking at your role in the business and making sure that you are not doing the work that you shouldn’t be doing.

In Conclusion

If you are interested in growing your business, then identifying and planning for your limited resources will go a long way to helping.

We can help you by spending an hour with you, just talking through the business to help you identify the problems that exist. Sometimes just the simple act of discussing what problems you are facing can help identify a way through them.