196: The Ugly Truth About Why Your Business Isn't Scaling

We know how frustrating it is when your business isn’t growing at the rate you think it should.

Andrew and I have gone under the hood of dozens of different companies over the years and now when a company approaches us, it’s easy to spot the ones that will be able to scale up, and the ones that will struggle.

Today, we share seven reasons your business might not be scaling and what you can do to fix it. We’ll talk about market size, margins, LTV, and product diversification, and how all of these things impact your ability to scale. This episode will help you identify potential issues and give you solutions for the most common reasons why your business may not be scaling.

Enjoy!

Episode Highlights:

• 4:32 Reason #1 that your business might not be scaling: Your market is too small or too cheap.
• 6:25 What to do if your market is too cheap.
• 7:50 One solution for scaling up if your market is too small.
• 8:43 Reason #2 that your business isn’t scaling: Your contribution margin isn’t large enough.
• 10:29 How to solve your contribution margin issue..
• 11:26 Reason #3: Your AOV or LTV is too low to advertise profitably.
• 13:13 The workaround for increasing LTV if you have a low AOV.
• 15:02 Reason #4: You don't have any repeat customers.
• 16:08 How to build a product system that will get you repeat customers.
• 18:21 Reason #5: You don't have complementary products.
• 20:20 Reason #6 why you might not be scaling: You're too cheap to hire quality people.
• 22:25 Reason #7: You have a product that you sell, not a business.
• 23:48 If you’re just selling a product, here’s what you need to do to build a business.
• 25:39 You don’t always have to scale to be successful.

Links and Resources:

• Foxwell Digital
• Brand Growth Experts
• Review or subscribe on iTunes

Become a Member:

If you've been a podcast listener for a while and you've yet to join the Brand Growth Experts Membership, now is the time to do it. It’s my online coaching community, and it’s an incredible resource for you. We've got about 120 members, all ecommerce business owners and marketers. And in that community, I work with you one on one to help scale up your business.

That could be scaling up advertising, hiring a team, or diving into marketing strategy. We go really in depth every single month on topics that we also talk about on the podcast. So, if you've enjoyed the podcast, you're going to love the Brand Growth Experts Membership. Head over to brandgrowthexperts.com for more information. Can't wait to see you guys on the inside.

Sponsor: Klaviyo

If you’re looking to grow your business, there’s only one way. By building real, quality customer relationships. Most marketing software will claim that they do this, but they’ll never deliver on those promises. Klaviyo, though, is different. Klaviyo helps you build meaningful customer relationships by listening to and understanding cues from your customers, which allows you to easily turn that information into valuable marketing messages that’ll help grow your business and make more money. That’s why over 10,000 innovative brands have switched to Klaviyo.

If you aren’t already a customer, head over to www.ecommerceinfluence.com/klaviyo and you’ll get a free trial + priority on-boarding.