An Expensive Way to Stay Stuck
A business owner I work with said something recently that stopped me in my tracks.
She told me:
“I feel like I’m standing on a branch that’s already rotten… and now I’m thinking about climbing farther out onto it.”
I knew exactly what she meant.
She owns a retail business in a small town.
She’s hardworking.
Thoughtful.
Creative.
Deeply invested in her customers.
And despite all of that, the business continues to struggle.
Revenue is too low.
Debt is too high.
And every month feels like an uphill battle.
Recently, an opportunity emerged.
A second location.
A larger town.
More traffic.
More customers.
More visibility.
More potential.
And that’s where things got interesting.
Because most people hear “struggling business” and “second location” and immediately reach the same conclusion:
Absolutely not.
Too risky.
Fix the first location first.
Get stable.
Then think about expansion once it's appropriate...
Once you've earned it.
Normally, I’d agree.
But this situation felt different.
Because the more we studied the numbers, the more a different possibility emerged.
What if the current problem isn’t business model or execution?
What if the problem is geography?
You can have:
The right products.
The right team.
The right systems.
The right owner.
And still struggle if there simply aren’t enough customers.
The more we analyzed the opportunity, the more convinced I became that a successful second location could potentially generate several times the revenue of the first.
Not because she’d suddenly become a better business owner.
Not because she’d suddenly work harder.
Not because she’d suddenly discover some secret strategy.
Simply because more people would walk through the door.
That’s when I realized we were thinking about risk all wrong.
Everyone was focused on the risk of opening the second location.
Very few people were focused on the risk of staying exactly where she is.
Every month she delays finding a better market is another month she pays the price of not knowing what’s possible.
Another month of constrained revenue.
Another month of limited opportunity.
Another month spent trying to optimize a business model that may simply be operating in too small a pond.
There’s a concept I often discuss with business owners:
Early in your journey, your job isn’t optimization.
Your job is discovery.
You are trying to figure out:
What works.
What doesn’t.
Where demand exists.
Where it doesn’t.
What customers want.
What they don’t.
And sometimes the most expensive thing you can do is stop experimenting too soon.
That’s why I keep coming back to her description of the rotten branch.
Because from one perspective, expansion looks risky.
But from another perspective, staying put might be the bigger gamble.
We often assume that caution is automatically the responsible choice.
But sometimes caution is just fear wearing a responsible-looking disguise.
The question isn’t:
“Could this expansion fail?”
Of course it could.
Every meaningful business decision carries risk.
The real question is:
“What’s the cost of never finding out?”
Sometimes growth is reckless.
Sometimes growth is required.
The hard part is learning the difference.
In your corner,
— Andrew
P.S. One of the most valuable things a coach can provide is perspective. Not every problem requires caution. Not every opportunity deserves pursuit. The challenge is learning which is which. If you’d like help thinking through your next big decision, I’d love to help.
Talk with Andrew
If you want help applying these ideas to your own finances or business, we can talk it through.
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