Hi there 👋! Thanks for stopping by. I share expert, actionable business advice on #operationalexcellence and #scalingup businesses. Those who will get the most value from the blog are successful Founders, aspiring CEOs, C-Suite leaders, and purpose-driven Executives who are interested in growth.

Found·er Floun·der

/ˈfoundər floundər/

"The burnout an entrepreneur may experience after successfully overcoming the Startup phase of their business, resulting in the complete collapse of drive, interest in or energy to push on."

While the Founder Flounder gets a bad rap, it's not always a failure to stop pushing. Especially if you’re in it for the long game. What you decide to do next in your growing business depends on how far you've come, what you've achieved already, and how far you want to go.

Whatever the next step on your entrepreneurial journey may be, one thing can help make everything much more manageable. Becoming really good at delivering value to your clients through operational excellence.

If you're an entrepreneur whose marketing and sales machine is already working and consistently hitting some exciting sales numbers, congratulations.

You've crossed a threshold into early-stage business growth.

As the dust of the startup grind begins to settle in the rearview mirror, you can finally catch your breath.

It's time to take a moment and recognize just how far you've come.

You're going to find some pretty significant achievements. You've found a solid product-market fit, and your business model is working, just to name a few.

After coming this far, there is one question that every business leader must ask themselves: "Is this enough?"

To own and lead a highly profitable small business is #lifegoals for millions. It's an already enviable accomplishment.

Running a successful small business is in and of itself a significant achievement. There's no shame in staying great but small. Growing and scaling your business to the next level is another wild ride that not everyone is prepared to take.

Yet other entrepreneurs are driven to keep going. Their eyes are set on achieving a world-changing personal legacy, becoming a CEO, or creating an impact on a cause that matters to them.

Staying relatively “small” and working out the kinks and flowing forward won't satisfy them.

These are the people who are already thinking about harnessing the momentum they've created thus far to propel themselves and their teams forward into what's next.

And yet, for our thriving small business owner and our driven future CEO, this turning point from the startup hustle to scaling up for growth is an opportunity to improve business operations.

The decisions you make now will define the kind of business experience you'll have moving forward. Operational excellence matters for businesses of all sizes, not just giant corporations.

According to an article in FORBES on Why Operations Matter More In Small Business,

"Small businesses often face a unique set of challenges. They have to do more with fewer resources, which focuses on efficiency. To achieve successful growth, they also have to proactively plan for their evolution, as much as any company can, to have a pipeline of resources needed for their next phase while being fiscally responsible about every choice they make."

Getting really good at business operations means the business will:

discover ways to make the value-creation process happen more efficiently

increase profits without bulking up overhead
create processes and systems that help leaders have more time & energy for other things
deliver increasingly consistent quality to clients or customers

For thriving small business owners, getting serious about optimizing business operations will result in more profit, happier teams & happier customers. It also means you'll reduce stress over time as you build more and more excellence into your systems.

How Change-Ready is your business? Take this assessment and find out.

For the future CEO, it means you're equipping the business and everyone in it to grow skillfully into the next level of success.

A StartUp entrepreneur builds a plane while flying. The excitement and terror are incomparable.

However, the #ScaleUp entrepreneur has a choice.

Will you prepare for what's next, or are you just going to wing it?

The future CEO's job is to anticipate what organizational changes will prepare the company for its next level of success and begin to create the capacity, conditions, and culture for that now.

What I am talking about is operational excellence. As I'll explain in more detail in a later article in this series, digital transformation also plays a part. When combined, ideal conditions are created for you to lead your business instead of running it daily.

Regardless of your path forward, both the thriving small-business owner and the future CEO share the same next big challenge to business growth:

Get your business, team, systems, and processes pointed towards operational excellence to make your life easier moving forward.

Now it's your turn. Let us know your thoughts on these questions in the comments:

What kind of entrepreneur do you aspire to be: a thriving small business owner or a future CEO?

What legacy are you creating through your business?

Are you Taking Your Business to the Next Level? You may enjoy these resources.

The article is part of an original content series authored by Jamie Jenkins ♾️, Business Growth & Operations Strategist at Jamie Jenkins Consulting LLCand is not authorized for reproduction or reuse online or elsewhere without explicit consent by the author.

The 1 Question Small Business Owners & Future CEOs Have to Answer