As an entrepreneur, how did you learn to solve problems in your business? Did you have a mentor help you flush out the root of a chronic issue? Or do you fall back on how you solve problems in life? Maybe you just follow your instincts?

How we go about diagnosing problems and creating solutions is a pretty big deal for any entrepreneur or business owner. It can literally mean the difference between being stuck or keeping the momentum going with your team, your cash flow, and productivity.

There’s typically one big problem that can cause you to throw your hands up in the air and wonder if you really have what it takes to be a success. Often that problem is a lack of consistent cash flow.

What if you knew, that your current approach to fixing cash flow problems is actually keeping you stuck and perpetuating chronic financial frustration? When you focus on the wrong problem in your business, you never quite get to the root of the challenge. When you solve the RIGHT problems you’ll have a “Eureka” moment and business growth will start to feel easy again.

When Joanna joined my mastermind program, one of the first things we did was assess her cash flow (and in the process we uncovered a few hidden profit drains.) Like many of Joanna’s peers, she was shocked to learn that activities she thought would GROW her business were actually draining away funds and causing additional stress.

Here are seven indicators that I look for that reveal a business has hidden profit drains:

  1. You have more people leaving your programs than you do joining them (which, by the way, is a pretty common problem for membership programs these days.) Even though your offering is rock solid and full of valuable content, you just can’t seem to flip sales so that more people join instead of leave.
  2. When you need cash flow, you tend to create new offerings and launch them within 4 – 7 weeks. You and your team always seem to be in launch mode to generate desired cash flow.
  3. If you review the list of tools, plug-ins, integrations and systems your business needs to run, you’ll discover overlap or resources that aren’t being used (but you are paying for.)
  4. You can’t keep good people on your team – or the people you hire or contract with never seem to deliver the results you want (hint: it’s probably you not them.) You find that you are often training new people instead of focusing on growth opportunities.
  5. New opportunities for speaking, interviews or partnering with peers fall by the way side because you don’t have the bandwidth to respond to, let alone pursue, them.
  6. You have so many balls in the air that you can’t keep up and you are exhausted mentally, physically and financially. Your mind is cloudy, your energy is low, and you know you are not performing at top speed.
  7. Up to now, you fly by the seat of your pants, deciding what you will do tomorrow instead of creating a revenue plan (not to mention you have no systems or procedures to help guide predictable results.)
Sign number 2: When you need cash flow you create more offerings (instead of making the ones you have work better.) Good one @melcoach Click To Tweet

If you saw yourself in one or more of these situations, and started to get down on yourself that you’ve been struggling with these hidden profit drains, here’s what’s super important to know. First off, it’s not your fault that you are here. Most highly creative, visionary people are not wired to think about these nuances. And most of us are conditioned just “work harder” to make up the difference in revenue.

But if you add more income to a business that has a profit leak, then you will always have to work a hundred times harder to keep up. Ultimately, you are solving the wrong problems in your business.

Here’s how to solve the right problems (and kick start your momentum again.)

1. Make the Decision to THRIVE this Year

You don’t even have to know how to pull this off in the moment. Just as I teach in the Own Your Bold Challenge, when you make a decision to go for a bigger, bolder goal, and that means being prosperous, you’ll feel like you are thriving as you grow! You don’t need to know how right now. You just have to decide and commit to a better outcome. Your very clever mind starts to see new ways to fulfill on that decision. That might mean hiring a coach or other type of expert to help you pull that off. Just be willing to be “all in.”

2. Recalibrate your Growth Plan

Take a step back and re-evaluate what offerings you are focused on. Map out a plan of what you will offer to your list (or sell from the stage, develop an ad strategy or whatever technique you use) to promote those offerings and drive sales. By taking a step back and re-evaluating, you will see things from a fresh perspective. It may FEEL like you are going backwards but truthfully, you are plugging holes so that what you add in doesn’t go down the drain. If you need help with the planning step, use a tool like the Profit Explosion Toolkit where I walk you through each step.

3. Choose to Optimize instead of Create

Most entrepreneurs “go-to” is to create more stuff. More books, more products, more programs, more webinars. But as we already covered, more is not the answer. Learn how to optimize what you already worked so hard to create BEFORE you add more stuff. Optimize means you learn how to market it, sell it, and increase the profit on it to people who already love what you do. It’s the easiest and fastest way to boost income. Uncovering the right message, Unique Profit Amplifier and cash flow plan is where we start for EVERY member of the Amplify Mastermind. Why? Because these puzzle pieces are the foundation for solid revenue growth.

Now, imagine yourself a few weeks out from today. Won’t it be nice to see all your hard work starting to pay off? You might even notice that areas you felt blocked by are dissolving and now opportunities are flooding in. I can’t wait to hear how you fill your profit drains and start thriving again!

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