How I Uncover and Solve What’s Stopping a Business from Growing

Let’s talk about how to ensure your business keeps growing—and what to do when growth stalls.

Why is unblocking constraints so important?

Many founders spend a lot of time on tasks that don’t actually move their business forward or align with their vision. The main reason? They don’t know where to focus their efforts.

By identifying the bottlenecks (or constraints) in your business, you can achieve your goals faster and more efficiently. Unfortunately, many business owners don’t know how to track and monitor the key areas of their business, leaving them guessing at solutions.

Today, I’ll share the exact system I’ve used to gain visibility, identify constraints, and unblock growth.

Here’s the process, step by step you can use:

Step 1: Map Out Your Business, End to End

If you don’t understand exactly how your business works, you can’t identify what’s slowing it down.

Think of your business as a system of inputs and outputs. A simple analogy is an hourglass: the sand represents the flow of your business, and the narrowest part of the hourglass determines how quickly it flows. Your goal? Widen the gap.

How to do it:

Take a day to map out your business from start to finish. Start with how you attract attention from your target audience and follow the journey through to when they eventually leave your business.

I recommend using tools like Miro, a whiteboard, or even paper. The key is to outline every step in the process. If you have a team, involve them in the exercise—but remember, as the founder, you’re the visionary. The business needs to function the way you envision.

This mapping exercise is critical. It takes your vision and turns it into a clear reality you can act on.

Step 2: Separate Assumptions from Facts

This is where many people go wrong—they don’t measure each step in their process. Metrics are vital because they help you test assumptions and identify what’s actually happening in your business.

For example, let’s say you’re struggling to generate qualified leads. Without tracking specific metrics, you won’t know if the issue lies in your ads, your offer, your landing page, or your targeting.

Example: Marketing Flow

Here’s a simple breakdown of metrics for a marketing funnel:

By focusing on a few key metrics at each stage, you can quickly identify where your system is slowing down.

Step 3: Use a Red Light / Green Light System

Now that you’ve mapped your business and assigned metrics, it’s time to monitor progress.

If you have a team, assign responsibility for specific metrics to individuals. They become accountable for reporting on these metrics daily, weekly, or monthly. This not only provides clarity for you but also helps your team understand how their role contributes to the business’s success.

How I do it:

I use a simple Google Sheet with all the core stages of the business listed in the order a customer flows through. Each week, I review a report that shows the target metric versus the actual result.

If a metric falls below the target, it turns red; if it exceeds the target, it turns green.

When I see a red light, I know where the constraint is. For example, if our landing page conversion rate drops, it’s a bottleneck affecting lead flow, sales, and production.

This approach ensures we identify and resolve the issue before it impacts the business further.

Summary

A business is a system of inputs and outputs. To keep that system running smoothly and without friction:

By addressing one constraint at a time, you’ll unlock growth and build a business that continuously improves.