9 reasons your business growth has plateaued

Many entrepreneurs complain that their businesses are not growing as fast as they'd hoped. They may have a wonderful product, superior customer service and a steady flow of customers -- yet their business growth has stalled. What they don't realize is that they themselves might be the ones holding their business back and causing its growth to flat line long before it's time to die.

I read that there are 28 million small businesses in the U.S., according to the U.S. Small Business Administration -- 99.7 percent of U.S. employer firms. So, there's plenty of opportunity for everyone. If you're one of these promising self-starters, it's time to figure out what's causing the stand-still and to fix what's broken.

What should you do when you see a growth plateau? The hasty response is to throw more money at the problem in the form of aggressive marketing or to seek a cash infusion to reinvest in your business. However, before you spend another penny on marketing or take on added debt, consider the following nine reasons you may be keeping your business from growing.

1. Flawed or outdated business plan

Before you started your business, when you created your plans, you may have had an idea of how you wanted things to work. But things don't always happen according to plan. And now, that business plan is wrong or outdated. You find yourself making tougher and tougher decisions to adapt on the fly.

Quick fix: Perhaps it's time to re-assess your whole plan and see if it’s relevant to today. It takes years to build a business, and lots of things change and evolve in a year or two -- the economy, your customers, your products and services, your goals and much more. So take a look at it, and tweak it as necessary.

2. Imperfect pricing strategy

Selling based on low prices or low fees only works if you’re the lowest-priced alternative, and chances are, that's not you. In fact, your prospective clients can go to Google and find a lower-priced alternative in seconds. If you desperately price-drop in an effort to attract sales, it’s a very shaky, short-term approach that I call a race to the bottom, where you attract the lowest-value clients that will leave as soon as someone undercuts you.

Quick fix: A better strategy than lowering prices is instead to add value to what you do. This will make your business more profitable and allow you to compete for better, more profitable clients or customers.

3. Blending in with the competition

In an attempt to play it safe, you've camouflaged your business. You seem like all the providers in your industry, just blending in. While the names and faces change, nothing is really noteworthy about your business. Nothing sets you apart.

Quick fix: Do something outstanding, if you want to stand out. Something remarkable. Something uniquely valuable. Find a new service that your competitors don’t provide. Have a customer meet-and-greet. Conduct a webinar. Or do something else that differentiates your business. Just don’t be like all the others, if you want to get noticed. Stop thinking like a same old, same old provider. Be brave and think outside the box. Creativity and courage is what it takes to really grow.

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