Why Saying “I Can’t Take on More Clients” is a Good Thing (and How to Fix It)

I just can’t take on any more clients!

Have you ever found yourself thinking or saying this or something similar?  If so, it’s actually a positive sign. It’s a sign that many people don’t recognize and their business ends up suffering in the long run.

Why did you say you couldn’t take on more clients? Most likely it’s because…

• you don’t have enough time,
• you don’t have enough people,
• the quality of your service or product would suffer, or
• a combination of all three.

I say it’s a good sign because it means you realize that you’re not doing yourself or your clients any favors by taking on more work than you can handle.  You recognize that you wouldn’t be giving your clients your best work and experience with the current way you’re doing things. 

So what do you do?  Just accept the fact that you’re tapped out and will never grow?

Absolutely not!  But it does mean it’s time to take a step back from working IN your business and spend more time working ON your business. When you started your business you probably were (or still are) the only doing the actual work.  You may have grown to a few employees or contractors, but you’re still running things pretty close to the same way you were when you were doing all the things.  Am I right?  That’s not a negative, but when you find yourself saying you can’t take on any more clients, it’s a wake up call that you need to make a change if you’re going to take your business to the next level.

It’s time to think about where you are with your business and where you want to go.  If you recognize that you can’t scale or level up with the way you’re doing things, it’s time to evaluate what you’re doing and find better and more efficient ways to do them so you CAN take on more clients and continue to grow your business. 

Instead, though, many small business owners who find themselves in this position rush to bring on employees so they can take on more clients, and it often ends up backfiring. They often find themselves with a little more business, a lot more problems, and a declining profit margin – NOT the outcome they expected!

Why? Because they didn’t do their homework before they jumped into the deep end.

So what is this homework I’m talking about? 

I’m talking about analyzing where you’re at with your business, where you want to go, and how you’re going to get there.  Take a good hard look at where you are now, and then evaluate what you could do differently to get the desired result.  Analyze your client workflow process, and find ways to improve and/or streamline it, while continuing to give your clients a first-class experience.  While you might think the answer is to hire people, you’ll often find that implementing processes and technology is a much better first move.  You may still need people, but if you don’t have the technology and consistent processes in place to ensure that each customer gets the same great experience every time, you will find yourself with problems you never imagined and frustrated employees, neither of which will help you get to the next level of business growth that you desire.

If you’re a brand new or small business owner looking to scale your businesses to the next level, I’ll guide you through a six step process:

1. Find Clarity – Where are you currently? Where do you want to go, and why?
2. Discover your Superpower – What makes you and your business unique?
3. Identify Pain Points – What is preventing you from growing or getting to the next level?
4. Review your Workflows – How do you operate your business? How can you make it better, more streamlined, efficient, effective, and provide a better, more consistent client experience? 
5. Design and Develop a Plan – What are you going to do differently to get to the next level?
6. Implement the Plan – How are you going to get it done?

When you’re so deep in the weeds of “doing” the work in your business, it can be hard to see alternative ways of doing things or realize that you may not be the best person to do some things. For example, if you’re a rockstar at providing the service your business provides, then taking you away from face to face interaction with customers to do administrative work, probably isn’t the best use of your time.  As a small business owner, you often fall into the trap of thinking you need to do everything yourself, but it usually doesn’t serve you well in the long run.  What if you could use technology to streamline some of the things you’re doing yourself, or could pay someone who is an expert in that area to do the work? 

Imagine you’re a service provider who can bill clients $200 per hour for the service you provide, but you decide you can’t take on any more clients because you don’t have time.  But you’re spending 10 hours a week on tasks you could pay someone else to do more effectively at a rate of $50 per hour.  Do the math…with those 10 hours a week, you could bring in an extra $2000 in sales, pay someone else $500 to do the other work, and still be $1500 ahead on the bottom line. 

Seems like a no-brainer, doesn’t it? 

And let’s be clear, you don’t always need to hire someone else to do the work.  Sometimes you just need to automate or streamline some of your processes to get back time.  What if it was only 2 hours per week, but you could save yourself that time by spending $50/month on technology?  Even if you only billed 1 extra hour per week in services, you’d have at least $400 more per month in sales at a cost of only $50!  This is the definition of working smarter, not harder!

Sometimes it’s hard to see how things can be done differently when you’re deep in the weeds of your own business.  That’s why it’s important to work with someone who can bring in a fresh perspective and help you get out of your box and grow your business to new levels.  This is the kind of work I love doing with small business owners.  When you have something good going, but need to scale and grow, I can help you work through the process of putting together the plan to take your business to the next level.  Every situation is a little bit different, but my direct involvement will be based on your individual needs. 

If this hits home for you, and you’re ready to see how working with someone like me could positively impact you and your business, let’s hop on a call. I offer complimentary 30-minute calls to see if we’re a good fit for each other. The link is here: Schedule a Call