Clients are the lifeline of your business. But what do you do when your plate is full? You can’t just neglect your work and expect clients to stick around. Nor can you just keep adding more work hours into your day. Something has got to change.

Hitting the point of peak capacity is an amazing accomplishment. It’s something we all strive for as business owners. But what does peak capacity really mean? And how can you adjust your business operations to make room for more of the clients you actually love? 

The Who or The What

The first thing we want to do when you reach this inflection point in your business is to ask: what am I doing? And who am I doing it for?

If you don’t already have your clients segmented out, this will be the first step. Open your CRM and start funneling clients into the tier of service they receive. This exercise alone can be enlightening. Are the majority of your clients on the low, mid, or high tiers?

For most business owners who reach this point in scaling their business, there are several low and mid-tier clients that (a) take up too much of the business owner’s time and (b) aren’t paying for the highest level of service. In other words, these aren’t your ideal clients and are taking up the capacity you could have for more higher paying clients.

So, with this data in hand, you’ve got a decision to make. Should I be changing what I am doing or who I am doing it for?

Changing the WHO

What does it look like to change “the who”? Changing the WHO is often an exercise in hiring, delegating, or both. In other words, take a look at what you are doing for each client and then ask yourself, “Can I hand some of these tasks off to another person on my team or could I solve my capacity problem by hiring?” In other words, the WHO has LESS to do with WHO you are serving, and more to do with WHO is doing what within your business. 

In some cases, you may be able to split workflows up and delegate different parts of them to different team members. Overall, this is also a great exercise in making sure the people filling the roles in your business are in their ideal position, or if they need to switch seats on the bus. It can also illuminate the necessity to hire or even fire. Let’s be honest, hiring costs money, so improving efficiency within the company may be the most cost effective, near-term solution. Of course, you’ll have to remain flexible and adjust if you see something isn’t working.

Changing the WHAT

What does it look like to change “the what”? Essentially, it means moving your service model up market. Instead of taking on more of the low paying clients, you decide to put your foot down once and for all and only take on the clients that fit the 80/20 model. That is, you seek to duplicate the 20% of your clients that are generating 80% of your income. Perhaps you even take it one step further and transition some of those high-demand, low-income generators to another business with a model that can better serve their needs.

Choose Your Own Business Adventure

Operating a scaling business is a lot like a choose your own adventure book. You are the one calling the shots, so it’s up to you to decide which solution will help you reach your destination with the most profitability and personal satisfaction. Delegating tasks may be a good solution for one company, but not quite the panacea needed for another. This is not even to mention the analysis paralysis that can result from fear of pulling the trigger on major change. 

Luckily, you don’t have to figure this all out on your own. Like we say all the time, modern day consultants and coaches are life’s greatest “hack.” You can enlist the help of an expert (or team of experts) without having to spend the time, money, or energy to become one yourself.

At Trivium Point, we help guide business owners through these and other major decisions all the time. What’s new to you, we’ve likely seen a hundred times. We know what to look out for, how to proceed in certain circumstances, when to push, and when to pull. Together, we can help you find the best solutions to many of your business problems, with capacity being just one of them.

If you are a business owner in need of business consulting, wealth management, and tax strategy services, we have built our WHO and our WHAT just for people like you. We work best with business owners looking for an all-encompassing solution to their business management, wealth and tax management solutions. Schedule a call with us today to discuss if we’re the right fit for you.