Why Your Business Isn't Growing (When the Strategy Is Fine)
Your business plan is solid.
You've got clear positioning. A good offer. You know who you're targeting and how to reach them. You've worked with coaches, refined your messaging, built your systems.
And yet.
Revenue hasn't moved in six months. Maybe a year.
You're working hard. You're consistent. You're doing the things everyone says you should do.
But the business isn't growing.
So you start questioning the strategy. Maybe the offer's wrong. Maybe the niche is too narrow. Maybe you need to pivot.
Except here's what I've noticed after ten years of working with founders: when a business isn't growing despite having a solid strategy, the strategy is almost never the problem.
The behaviour is.
What "the strategy is fine" actually looks like
Before we go further, let's be clear about what I mean by "the strategy is fine."
I mean:
You have an offer people actually want and will pay for
You know who your ideal client is
You have a way to reach them
Your pricing makes sense for the value you're delivering
Your positioning is clear enough that people understand what you do
If any of those things are genuinely broken, yes, fix the strategy first.
But if those foundations are solid and you're still not growing, tweaking your messaging or rebuilding your website won't fix it.
Because the problem isn't what you're doing. It's how you're doing it.
The real reasons businesses stay stuck
You're saying yes to the wrong things
A founder came to me with flat revenue. Good offer. Clear positioning. Plenty of inquiries.
But half her client base was the wrong fit. Projects that paid less, took more energy, didn't lead anywhere strategic.
I asked why she kept taking them.
"I didn't want to say no in case nothing better came along."
So she filled her capacity with work that kept her busy but didn't move the business forward. Which meant when the right opportunities showed up, she had no space for them.
The strategy wasn't the problem. Her yes/no filter was.
You're not following your own plan
You've got the content strategy. You know what to post, when to post, how to position it.
But you're not posting.
Or you post once, get no immediate result, and stop.
Or you post inconsistently and wonder why you're not building an audience.
The strategy works. You're just not working the strategy.
And usually that's not about discipline. It's about cognitive load, capacity, or something underneath that you're avoiding.
You're undercharging and then resenting it
Your pricing is too low. You know it's too low. You've calculated what you should charge. You've decided to raise your rates.
Then someone asks for a quote and you drop your price.
Every. Single. Time.
So your revenue stays flat because you're taking on more work to hit the same number instead of charging appropriately and taking on less.
The strategy – raise prices – is sound. The behaviour – dropping them in the moment – is what's keeping you stuck.
You're avoiding the conversations that would move things forward
There's a client you need to let go. A strategic partnership you should explore. A pricing conversation you need to have. A boundary you need to set.
You know these conversations would shift things. You just... don't have them.
And the longer you avoid them, the more stuck you stay.
The strategy isn't the issue. Your willingness to have uncomfortable conversations is.
You keep restarting instead of finishing
New offer. New niche. New positioning. New website. New brand.
You get 80% of the way there and then blow it up and start over.
Not because the strategy was wrong. Because finishing it would mean you'd have to see if it works. And what if it doesn't?
Easier to keep starting than to risk completing something and having it not land.
You're recreating the same constraint
You fix your capacity problem by hiring someone. Three months later, you're overloaded again because you've taken on more work to fill the space.
You streamline your offers. Six months later, you've added three new things and you're juggling too much again.
You set boundaries with clients. A few weeks later, you're back to being available nights and weekends.
The strategy – create space, simplify, protect time – is right. But you keep unconsciously recreating the problem because the constraint is serving you somehow.
Maybe being busy makes you feel important. Maybe complexity makes you feel needed. Maybe overwork gives you an excuse for why things aren't working.
Until you see that pattern, you'll keep fixing the strategy and recreating the behaviour.
Why smart founders miss this
Because behavioural problems don't feel like problems. They feel like circumstances.
"I didn't have time to post" feels like a fact. It's actually a choice about priorities and capacity.
"I had to say yes to that client" feels unavoidable. It's actually fear-based decision-making.
"I couldn't charge more" feels like market reality. It's actually discomfort with asking for what you're worth.
Your brain rationalises the behaviour. Makes it seem reasonable. Inevitable, even.
That's why you can't spot it yourself. You're too close.
How to tell if behaviour is the problem
Ask yourself:
Am I actually doing what my strategy says to do? Not "am I busy" – are you executing the specific actions your strategy requires?
Do I have a pattern of almost-but-not-quite? Almost launching. Almost finishing. Almost charging what you planned. Almost having the conversation.
Am I solving the same problem repeatedly? If you've fixed your pricing three times and it's broken again, the pricing isn't the issue.
What am I avoiding? Is there a decision, conversation, or action you know would move things but you keep not doing?
Where am I making fear-based choices? Saying yes because you're worried about money. Dropping prices because you're worried they'll say no. Staying busy because you're worried about what happens if you're not.
If you answered yes to multiple of these, your strategy isn't the problem.
What actually helps
Not another strategy. Not more information. Not rebuilding your offer.
What helps is seeing the behaviour you can't see.
A founder told me she couldn't figure out why her business wasn't growing. Her strategy was solid. She was working hard.
One session, I spotted it: she was taking on too many small projects to feel busy instead of making space for the bigger work she actually wanted to do.
She'd been doing it for eighteen months. Couldn't see it.
Once she saw it, she changed it. Revenue doubled in three months.
Not because we fixed her strategy. Because we fixed her behaviour.
If your business isn't growing
And you've got a solid offer, clear positioning, and a plan that should work.
Stop tweaking the strategy.
Start looking at your behaviour.
What are you saying yes to that you shouldn't?
What are you avoiding that you should be doing?
What pattern are you repeating without realising?
What decision are you not making?
That's where growth is hiding.
Here's how we could work together:
One-off mentoring session (£325): 90 minutes where I look at what you're actually doing (not what you think you're doing) and spot the behavioural pattern that's keeping you stuck. Book a session
Ongoing mentorship: Monthly support for founders who need someone tracking their behaviour over time. Because patterns don't show up in one conversation – they reveal themselves across weeks and months. From £3,000 for three months. Learn more about mentorship
Your strategy is probably fine.
Your behaviour is what needs looking at.
