Growth is not always the best goal for a business. This goes against a lot of what traditional business books would tell us.
I’ve been reading Paul Jarvis’ Company of One lately. It’s a great read on this exact topic. Even though it’s more about his world, that is, a tech freelancer, it really is applicable to anyone working in the world today.
One quote from the book I think really says it all is the following:
[…] For companies of one, the question is always what can I do to make my business better?, instead of what can I do to grow my business larger?
Paul Jarvis, Company of One
Food for thought for sure.
It is extremely easy to get caught up in what the world tells us success looks like. We can end up chasing that dream thinking we need to in order to ‘make good money’ or ‘be seen as successful’
It’s very easy to convince ourselves that when we’re not earning enough, the solution is to grow bigger. Offer more hours, more services, have someone else come on as a subcontractor, and so on.
Now of course, if you are just starting out or don’t have a fairly full client schedule, you may need to grow in some ways in order to just pay your bills. That’s totally expected.
But that’s not who we’re talking about here. We’re talking about established massage therapists, pilates teachers, yoga instructors, nutrition consultants, and anyone else working in health and wellness. If you’ve got a full client roster and are doing well, why does growth have to mean growing bigger?
Here’s the thing: as health, wellness or fitness professionals you might think you’ve opted out of the whole corporate, startup, venture capital, tech company game. And in some ways, you’re totally right! Your day-to-day work looks very different from what startups and big business and tech look like. Totally true.
However, the thing we don’t realize is a lot of the same things that drive people working in startups, tech, corporate environments drive all of us. Wanting to be successful. Wanting to have money to do the things we love. Wanting people to be proud of us. Wanting to be thought of as an expert at what you do.
So just because your career path has taken a different shape from others doesn’t mean you won’t be pulled into those same desires. They just manifest a little differently. And that’s what we dive into in this episode!
You can listen to the episode right here (just click the play button below), or search for ‘Life Beyond The Massage Table’ on your favourite podcast app!
Find this type of content helpful? Need help attracting your ideal ‘niche’ client in order to grow stronger, not bigger? I got you! Sign up below and I’ll send you my ‘Ideal Client Workbook’ which helps you write your website and social media content so those awesome clients will find you (and book in).
