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When I was studying at Copenhagen Business School in Denmark for my MSc in Finance & Strategic Management I came across a topic called “Theory Of Constraints” and it’s a way of thinking and a way to view your business.
I actually came across the concept theory of constraints long before I read about it in a book. The best example I can think of right now is when I bought a scooter as a teenager.
In Denmark you have to be sixteen to drive a scooter (18 to drive a car) so when I turned 16 years old I went out and bought a brand new scooter.
But I had a big problem with this scooter because it only went about 35 km/h. The legal speed limit is 30 km/h, so I guess I was a little lucky to get a scooter capable of driving an extra 5 km/h.
Now before I move on in my example, please remember that I have a point and it has nothing to do with me breaking the law, but a point that relates to your business.
I did break the law. All me friends did. Nobody ever just went the legal 30 km/h. It was just not cool and it took forever to get yourself transported at that snails pace.
I needed to figure out how to get my scooter to drive faster, something was holding it back from reaching its full potential. I knew it was capable of driving at least 70 km/h because the machines are build that way. The scooters are modified to comply with the speed limit.
Something was holding it back. Something was responsible for limiting the speed it was capable of driving. I did get it to drive so it was capable of going 70 km/h and later on 120 km/h. Every time I wanted to increase the maximum speed a new modification had to be made, a new constraint had to be removed.
And this is exactly the takeaway from that story. It was ONE constraint that was holding it back, sure I could have done all kinds of little tweaks but ultimately it only needed ONE tweak, I just needed to figure out what it was and the speed capacity instantly more than doubled.
Something is currently holding your business back, something always is holding a business back – otherwise it would be capable of producing limitless numbers of units.
What is the ONE thing that is holding your business growth back from exploding?
Locate Your Business Constraint, Eliminate It and See Instant Massive Growth
Put on your business cap and start to think about what is currently holding your growth back, what is the constraint that is limiting your speed?
You might come up with many possible constraints in your business, such as:
- I don’t have anybody to talk to.
- My upline is not supporting me.
- I don’t have a big email list.
- I don’t have any traffic coming to my website.
- I don’t know how to close.
- I don’t have a proven prospecting script.
- I don’t have a high converting presentation.
- I don’t have a custom made squeeze page to collect leads.
- My website conversion rate isn’t very high.
- And so on…
What is the one major tipping point in your business? The one thing that if fixed, will more than double the potential speed you would be capable of going?
If you are not living up to your full potential and you think that you can do more, you probably can. Just as I got my scooter to go four times as fast as the initial capability your business is capable of moving faster too.
In my scooter example I wasn’t able to locate my scooter constraint, I didn’t know much about how such a machine functioned and what possible could limit its speed, luckily I had a very wise friend in this field and he was quickly able to determine the root cause of the problem – the constraint – and help me eliminate it.
There will always be a constraint, always. If my scooter didn’t have a constraint it would be able to run as fast as I would let it. But in the different stages it was a different constraint. We focused on the ONE thing that was holding back the performance and eliminated, that ONE constraint multiple times. I didn’t get my scooter from 30 km/h to 120 km/h in one attempt.
What is your current constraint in your business? Focus all your energy and effort on relaxing that one constraint and you will see significant results really really quickly.