EPISODE 275

What to fix when your business isn’t growing

Have you ever had one of those moments where you think:

“Maybe this business just isn’t working.”

Maybe you feel resentful.
Tired.
Burnt out.
A little bit over everyone.

And your brain starts whispering:

Maybe I should just quit.

But before you throw the whole thing out…

This week’s episode is your checkpoint.

Because sometimes it’s not the business.

Sometimes it’s:
• your pricing
• your boundaries
• your business model
• your client expectations
• or even your own fears about growing

Inside this episode, I’m sharing the first things I’d look at if your business feels stagnant.

Because often, small shifts can completely change how your business feels.

And honestly?

Sometimes one boundary email changes everything.

xx Denise

P.S. This is also exactly why I created the free Mid-Year Money Reset Assessment.

Before you decide your business is broken, take an honest look at what’s actually happening with your money, goals, and mindset. Sometimes the problem is clearer, and much more fixable, once you stop guessing. Grab it here: denisedt.com/reset

Prefer to read?

Here is the transcript for this episode: 

Hey. Hey, gorgeous. It's Denise Duffield-Thomas here. And welcome to this episode of Chill and Prosper, where we're talking about what to do when your business isn't growing and what sort of things to check and make sure before you throw it out.

Now, I remember hearing this from my friend and Amber McCue, who is such a great business mentor, but she's like, you know, is it a bad day or a bad business? And sometimes we do have a bad day or a bad week, bad month, bad quarter even. And we think, oh, no, I'm not meant to do this anymore.

I'm going to throw out my whole business. And sometimes it's not about that. It's about realignment. Changing up a few things. Getting really honest, cutting out the bloat, you know, all those kind of things. And it's okay to realign. And you know what? Sometimes it's okay to let a business go as well. So let's talk about how you can, discern what that is.

Okay. So one of the big signs that you need to do this checkpoint time is if you're feeling resentful, tired, angry or resistant around your business. Now, of course, we're always going to get a little bit of that. You know, I've run my business for a long time, and there's definitely times where I'm like, oh, no, I have to do my money boot camp call tonight.

And then I'm always like, oh, I love doing this. This is so much fun. Same with doing any kind of filming or podcast work where I'm like, I hate doing this. And then I go, no, it's totally fine. And I think that again, that Amber McCue advice. Right? A bad day or a bad business? What's the difference? And, you know, I have had longevity in my business, so I know that the business is right for me.

But over time, I have shifted up different things that hadn't worked for me. And so sometimes that is the best thing you can do is, give yourself permission to shift and change things. Okay. So, I've told this story on this podcast before, but it's always a good one where this lady said to me, you know, I really struggle with doing my florist business.

It's so stressful. You know, it's like, I'm just going to let that part of my business go. The bridal part of my business. And I was like, okay, so let's just talk about a little bit, because what do you not like about it? And, you know, there was a lot of stress and whatever. But she actually love the creativity side of it.

And she actually loved being able to do wedding stuff. And so I was like, okay, well if you charged more would you keep it? And she's like, yeah, but you know, people won't pay that much. And I'm like, no, no, no, let's take that aside. Because especially in the wedding industry, there is a client for every single budget, right?

Every single budget. So take that aside for a second. Would you do it if you got paid more? And she was like, yeah, because I do love it. But I just feel tired and burnt out and resentful. Okay, so sometimes it's not the business. Sometimes it's the way you run your business. Okay. And sometimes a lot of the time it's actually the price.

And so if you're starting to feel resentful, stressed, burnt out, that's a really good place to look. Am I charging enough? And here's what she said. But people won't pay that. Okay. And so she was willing to throw away that whole side of her business. And so I said, well, let's give it a try. Why don't you raise your prices to something that feels even a little bit scary or outrageous for you?

She's like the people will pay and I'm like, but you're about to let go of the business anyway, so who cares? Like, if no one pays it, then great. That's a great sign for you, right? To let. That's full permission to let it go. But maybe someone does pay it and she's not like charging a crazy amount where it's like she's being I don't know.

But it's like, if that feels in integrity for you and it really, truly reflects the value, then hell yeah. Why shouldn't you pay that? Right? And so sometimes a bad business can be, salvaged by, hey, I'll just get paid more for this, okay? And sometimes, though, the money is not the thing. Okay, so when Mark came into my business, he had so many cool ideas, but he was like, do you realize how many emails we get about a mastermind?

And it's like, people want you to create a mastermind so bad. We get emails about it all the time. And I was like, I don't want to do it. Goes but think about how much money we could make from it. And he's like, I've done the calculations. I think we could add an extra million dollars into the business from from doing a mastermind.

And I was like, but I don't want to do it. And he couldn't wrap his head around it. Right. But not all money is good money either. And so there could be parts of your business. It does not matter how much. It it would not be worth it. And of course, I'm sure there is a point. If someone said to me, I'll give you $100 million to run a mastermind for a year.

I'm sure I'd be like, yeah, okay, fine, whatever. But it would only be for the money. And that's not. That doesn't mean I don't love people. I love doing one off events, but it does not work for my personality. I don't like holding space for people in that way. I don't think I would be good at it necessarily.

It's just not my thing in this phase of my life. And I think that is because, you know, I have three kids, two dogs, two cats. I financially support people in my family. You know, I feel like I've got enough on my plate around that. Maybe in the future I would have the bandwidth for it, but I do not.

And so no amount of money would make it feel good for me. Okay, so sometimes it's about the price. Sometimes it's not. And I think that's a good way to evaluate some a business sometimes. Like if someone paid me like, you know, $1 million, would I do it? And would I do it just for the money. And so sometimes that's a really great way to think about it.

Now, sometimes it's not necessarily the money, but it is what the money represents. And that could be boundaries around money. Sometimes people's businesses get derailed because they they have so much stress around the money side of it. Now this could be the price for sure. But oftentimes it's around things like, like taking the money, receiving the money, asking for the money, chasing up money and having awkward conversations around the money.

Okay, so I met a personal trainer years ago who she's like, I had to give up my personal training business because I would receive the money in cash, and sometimes people wouldn't have the right amount and I would just be like, that's fine, pay next week. And then, of course, she started to attract clients who had that same sort of wishy washy energy around money.

And so she was basically doing her business almost for free, in some cases with some clients, because she literally could not take the money. Okay. And so if I'd met her earlier, there's a lot of different things I would have recommended. So one, I'd say, you know, take payment online, take money beforehand. You know, have like a little tapping device or something like that.

Make people prepay. And again, some of those things, people go, oh, my clients would never do it. And it's like, yeah, but you're about to like you threw away your business over that anyway. So why not? You've got literally nothing to lose. And recently I went and got a massage with somebody, and literally she had online payments so I could choose my time.

I put my credit card in there. I confirmed it all online. You know, the the yes thing came up, so it's. Yes, I'm going to come. She sent me the forms beforehand to fill in all that kind of stuff. And so then after my massage, she was like, so I'll just charge the card on file. Thank you very much.

Easy. Done. Right. She didn't have to ask for the payment. We didn't have to have an awkward conversation about it. And sometimes, as the client, I'll be like, how much is this? Because they just have not communicated that to me at all. And it can be very frustrating. But it's just such a beautiful, easy way to do it.

And some people might go, well, I don't pay on card. It's like, okay, that's fine. Like maybe we're not a good fit in that way, right? And here's the thing to do around things like cancellation. If I canceled outside of her window, she could just be like, okay, no problem. You know, I'll just charge the cancellation to your card.

You don't even have to have a conversation about it. And there might be systems where it can just all do it for you, right? And so sometimes it is around the boundaries around the money. That can be the difference between you liking your business and absolutely hating your business. Okay. Similarly, boundaries around time, very similar to the money thing because in my mind they are the same.

It's the same kind of currency, right? And I think I really struggled with this when I first started my business, because I wanted to be generous and I thought if I, you know, restrict people around time and energy and my, like, availability, they're going to think I'm a bitch. Right? And this I had this client who would just send me questions all the time.

And so she'd sent them, you know, on messenger and she had my mobile number. So she texted, say, hey, did you see my messenger about the thing? Or she sent me a voice note, or then she sent me an email and I remember, send you your message and say, hey, just to let you know, you know, unlimited questions between sessions is is not included in your package.

So if you have, a question, just write it down. We'll cover it in your next session. And then I slammed my computer shut and like, I wanted to throw up. Right? I was felt so sick, I thought, oh my God, she's going to think I'm such a bitch. And the next day, I dreaded opening up my inbox because I honestly thought again, she was just going to say you are such a bitch.

Like how horrible! How dare you? And she just went, oh no problem. You know what? I don't want to, you know, waste our time with some of these things, so I'll just figure it out myself. And it was like the biggest light bulb moment for me. I went, oh my God, I am trying to solve every problem. I'm trying to solve every problem for someone.

And it sets up such a codependency. So I want to talk about that codependency right after this break. Do not go away because that is something that can really derail your business. And again, if your business isn't growing, sometimes it is because of these things. Okay. So we're not even talking about strategies to explode your business. We're really talking about the things that are stopping your energy and cleaning up some of these energy leaks around time and money.

So then you have bandwidth to grow. Okay. See you in a second. Okay. Welcome back. So we're talking about what to do and what to do first. If your business isn't growing, I'll do other episodes about how to grow and do sales marketing stuff. But I really think so many of the businesses I say it is a combination of around these things where you're struggling to receive money, you're struggling to have conversations around money.

And you're struggling around boundaries with clients. Okay. So, I just talked about this story about how I slammed the laptop shot and I was like, oh my God, I can't believe it. And what really showed up for me was that I was attracting codependent people. And I've seen this with some of my other friends who've got a bit of a nurturing kind of personality, that they sometimes get into this trap where they're so giving and generous with their clients that their clients stop making decisions for themselves and will be like, what do I do about this?

What do you think about this? What should I do? And this is across any industry, right? So, I remember talking to an interior designer and she was saying, I'll get to a point where clients who I'm not even currently working with will take a picture of something in store and say, should I buy this? You know, and that can be exhausting.

And this is where people start to go, maybe I shouldn't do my business anymore. Maybe I need to cut back instead of setting boundaries or saying no, or being very clear about what's on offer. Now, I've worked with someone one time where I was unknowingly overstepping boundaries and I could see I could feel the energy, and her responses were very snippy, and it was kind of a bit.

I was like, oh, what's happening? And what I realized was, I didn't realize that I was overstepping and she wasn't saying it. So it just felt like this really icky, horrible thing. Right? And it's okay just to say to someone, hey, just to let you know, you know, that's out of the scope of this project, but here's what we can do.

And you can give them a couple of options. You can say if you want to action this right now, here are the two things that have to go. Or if you want to add that on, that's no problem. Two if you've got the capacity, it's going to cost an extra, blah blah blah. Which one would you like to do?

And setting boundaries like this is such an elegant, beautiful way. It's like that improv rule of yes, and it's like, yes. And but it's also sometimes like, this is a bit like, yes, but it's like, oh my God, that's amazing. That's a great idea. However, it's going to derail, you know, our timelines or it's going to derail this and it's not included in this package.

It doesn't make them wrong, but you can add it on or we can park it for later. Right. And that's one of the boundaries I started doing right where I was like, that's a great idea or a great question. Let's add it later. And then what I did was, Monday I would send out an email to any of my coaching clients, and it would be a little questionnaire.

It would say, you know, our sessions coming up this week, what are some of your priorities? What are some questions? What are some things? And then when we got in our session, I could open that up and say, oh, which one do you want to work on first? What's the priority instead of just being this person who would answer them within a couple of minutes and, and burn myself out around them?

Okay. So think about where, things are spiraling out of control, where it's taking up too much time and energy. And if you feel like you're not growing because of it and like, literally, you might not be able to grow because you cannot take on any more client, you cannot take on any more work. And this is where, one of my, friends, Michelle Swann, who is my photographer I've worked with so many years, she's just so beautiful.

And, you know, we've spoken a few times over the years about this, too. If when you have a service based business, it does sometimes cap your ability to take on more clients. And so over the years, she steadily increased her prices because she is so freaking good. And little things like, you know, gallery upgrades. Again, there's nothing wrong if someone wants more and more photos, but give them the option to have it.

And I really appreciated when she did this because, sometimes we'd buy a package and it'd be like, oh, you get 50 photos or you get X amount retouched, and I would go into ADHD analysis paralysis and I get so freaked out. And so she introduced this thing. It's like, oh, you can have all of them for an extra amount.

And it was just like a one package thing. And I'm like, thank you. And I'm sure at the start she was like, who is going to pay this? Right. Because she was thinking, no, no, someone's just going to go through and go, I only want X amount done. And I was like, no, make it easy for people like me who it's like, don't be resentful about it, you know, not that she was, but like, and here's this with bag and package.

And so if you're in that service space industry, you know, you might go, okay, I'm going to put boundaries around what's included. I'm going to have tiers of things so people can upgrade. You know, you can outsource things. You can use tools to make things easier and to be able to leverage your time. Okay. Because the only thing you can't necessarily you can't create more hours in the day, but you can leverage those things.

The way you run things, how much you charge for what's included, where you're over delivering. And the other part of that, too, is getting away from this scarcity, thinking that there's only one type of client. And I think this is probably one of the greatest leverage points. That goes beyond the surface. Okay. I mean, we could go into so many different directions here of like add courses or add books or add different sources of income.

I've done different podcast episodes around that about creating passive income. This is like the really subtle things, okay. And this is the stuff that we sometimes struggle with because we think you get what you get and you don't get upset or whoever comes to me, I'll say yes. And where your business can really get like satisfying and perfect for you in a really granular way, is looking at some of those nuances.

Who do I like to work with? What feels easier for me, and this is where we start to feel guilty about it, right? Because we go, hang on, it's not supposed to be easier. It's not supposed to be quick. For me, it's supposed to be hard work to earn the money, and you're allowed to make really tiny, granular decisions around that.

Okay, so a couple of examples. And I know I've spoken about this one too. If you've heard me, that I had an astrology session with someone a couple of years ago and it was over Skype chat. And, you know, I've had so many different versions of coaching or whatever. And I was really intrigued about how this was going to work.

Right? Because we didn't talk, we didn't see each other. It was all over chat. And it was a really great astrology session because I'm a really fast typer. And also I do have a bit of introversion, social anxiety, sometimes a little bit, and it just worked so well for some people it would not work, it would feel impersonal, it would feel, I don't know, they would want to connect with either someone's voice or someone's face for them to really, truly feel, I don't know, like they got their money's worth.

For me it worked perfectly. But the lesson for me was, oh wow, you really can do whatever you want. You can really design your business however you want. Now, another friend of mine, Rebecca Gibson, she she has two very important jobs. So one, she's a mental health nurse. And when Covid happened, she, you know, kind of came out of semi-retirement to go back into that field because she was so needed.

And, she also is a psychic medium. And she was really struggling a little bit with like, juggling those two things and feeling like, okay, well, I have to give up my business because how am I supposed to do that? Right? And so what she decided to offer was, readings where you send in your questions and she'll send you an audio or video, and sometimes she'll do it all in one go.

Sometimes she will record a bit, come back to it, record a bit, and I'm like, again, some people want the live thing to be able to ask questions, but for Bec, it works so well for her personality. She's a real introvert as well. But it works around her schedule because she sometimes does not. Actually, if she sometimes does day shifts and she can sit and batch them into it.

Not everyone would like that, but for some people it works perfectly. I also, on the psychic medium thing too. I've sometimes work with Erin Pavlovna, who also does that, but she has it over email so you can send in one, three, five questions, whatever, and she'll send you an email back. And that that works really well too, right?

So when you think of your business and you start thinking of your capacity or what phase of life you're in, you don't necessarily have to give up things. You can shift the way they're delivered, you can change the way you offer things. And some of that could be preferences. Some of it could be literally phase of life stuff.

Okay. So, a preference for this could be interesting to you. So, years ago I worked with, my friend Tammy. Guess who's a natural past? And she was saying, I just don't like working with skin conditions. It takes me out. I don't like doing it. And so it's like, don't offer it. And it was like, I remember just thinking, you just can just not do things.

You know, you can say, that's not my area of specialty. Like, that's not my area of expertise. Here's someone I can send you to. You don't have to do all the things just because people want you to. You can take offerings off your website. You can say, hey, I no longer work with people at a particular, you know, phase.

Great example of this. My friend Katherine Hocking, who is, she's an astrology teacher and astrologist. But when she first started her business, she helped people create their courses. And at start, it was like, you want to do an AA course? Come to me. And after a while, she could refine who she wanted to work with because she loved working with people who already had a team in place, already had an idea, or had done a course before, not a complete beginner, and she actually had that on her website.

This is for you. If you already have a team in place, you already have, infrastructure. You know, you already have an idea. It's not for you if you're starting from scratch. Now, does that mean she's being a bit she's being exclusive? No, it's just that she knows that she would work best with someone like that. Because if she had to work with someone who's a beginner, she'd be like, okay, well, oh my God, you don't have a system.

Okay, we need to create an email thing for you. Okay. We need to do I think there's too many moving pieces. And she was smart enough to realize I work best here. And this is where I can really leverage my expertise in this area. Okay, so think about, for you, maybe it's you are really good at a particular, niche within your industry, like the skincare example, right?

Or you like working with someone over a particular phase of life in business, and you have a little sweet spot. Sometimes you want to work with people who are in, like, crisis mode and help them get out. Sometimes you like to work with someone who is in like an okay phase, but work helping them towards mastery. All of those things are really valid.

Okay, so it's if you're stuck and you're not growing, you do need to kind of go, okay, where can I refine these things? And then you can move on to the next phase. Okay. So I'm going to do an episode. I'll make sure it's next week. This can be hard for me too, but like then you can go, okay, what are some of my numbers?

Okay. Or I'll. I'll put a link to that because I've done an episode before about being really, really sick about some of your marketing numbers. Okay. But that's not what this episode turned into. This episode totally turned into the nuances and almost like starting a fresh before you grow. And I've got one last tip for you after this last break, so don't go away, okay?

This is going to be really key if you're at a bit of an inflection point. See you in a segue. Okay. Oh my gosh, there's so many things I want to tell you, but I'm I'm trying to be really good this year and not make these episodes too long anyway.

Okay, so if you are in an inflection point, you kind of a little bit stuck. One thing that's so, so, so key and I'm opening up another can of worms here is your money mindset. And where your set point is, because we all have our kind of imposed glass ceilings about how much we're allowed to make, how much we're allowed to receive.

And often I'll talk to people when they're kind of why their business isn't growing. Sometimes you're scared of going to the next level. You're scared of the next tax bracket you're scared of. What more responsibility would mean you're scared of more money? And I know that sounds really strange, because if you ask someone if they're scared of money, they'd go, of course I do want to make more money.

But when you really dig into it, sometimes you have some unacknowledged fears about what that would mean. Okay? And that's okay. And that's really normal. And actually it's really important to acknowledge that because we all have money blocks at every phase of business. And it's not about pushing them away. And it doesn't mean there's anything wrong. It's about acknowledging it.

That's all it is. And see where your fears are. Okay, so we talk about that a lot in Money Boot camp. So obviously if you're, you know, not in a money boot camp, come and join us because there's a couple of really important lessons. And if you are in Money Boot camp, go and have a look at the new zero and negative consequences exercise, because that is a really great place to see where you're not growing, see where you might be sabotaging yourself about going to the next level.

And just to remind everyone as well that for this month we have, a mid-year reset workbook. And you can get that at denisedt.com/june. Okay. So you can get it at any time if you're listening to this.

Okay. So, we'll do more episodes about the mindset stuff, but otherwise have. I'd love to hear your ideas around this episode. See where you might be stagnating because of one of the things we talked about pricing business model boundaries with clients. And I give you full permission to shift and change whatever you want, because what have you got to lose if you're about to let go of a business because it doesn't work, then why not?

Why not try it? Okay. And I'm here to help. I've got so many resources to help you so you can always send me a DM. Tell me what you're struggling with, and I'll send you to one of my free resources. Because otherwise I'd sit here and tell you all the links and there'll be a million of them. But I'm happy to send what?

What you need. Okay. Whether it's around pricing or boundaries. So, my Instagram handle is @denisedt to send me a DM, tell me what's going on for you, and I'll. I'll point you in the right direction. Okay? Or you can always send up my team. Adina. All right, my lovelies. I will see you next week on another episode of Chill and Prosper.

Thanks for listening to Chill and Prosper. Tell your friends to chill and prosper. Review and subscribe. We hope you had a very good time.