EP 201: The Bottleneck Audit: How to Identify Where You're Blocking Growth

If you're working harder than ever but your business isn't growing the way you want it to, you might be the problem ... and that's actually good news. 

In our Season 2 premiere, I'm guiding you through a simple five-question audit to help you identify exactly where you're blocking your own growth. 

You'll learn how to spot the invisible bottlenecks keeping you stuck and gain actionable steps to start building the leverage your business needs to scale sustainably.

💡 In This Episode, You’ll Learn How To: 

• Why you can't fix what you can't see (and how to finally see where you're stuck)
• The five critical questions that reveal where you're the bottleneck in your business
• How to distinguish between tasks that truly require you vs. tasks you're holding onto unnecessarily
• The real cost of being the person who does everything (hint: it's not just time)
• Practical steps to document processes and delegate effectively without losing quality
• How to avoid the common pitfalls that keep founders trapped in the weeds

🔗 Resources & Links:

Apply for my 90-Day CEO Empowerment Intensive if you're a profitable female business owner that's ready to step into strategic CEO-level leadership with clarity, calm and an action plan that actually fits you, your business and your lifestyle.

Have a question you'd like me to answer on the show? I'd love to hear from you! Send me a DM on Instagram @leandracreates with your question. I'm reading every single one and personally selecting ones to answer in upcoming episodes. 

Transcript

EP 201: Your Business Bottleneck Audit

Leandra Nisbet: [00:00:00] I am Leandra Nisbet, founder and owner of a six figure revenue generating award-winning business. As a business advisor and growth strategists, I've helped hundreds of aspiring entrepreneurs and small business owners navigate from the idea phase into creating fully fledged profitable businesses that allow them to support their lifestyles, goals and communities.

As a small business owner myself, I know firsthand how tough it can be navigating the ever-changing business landscape while juggling all the hats and managing to still have personal time. Now, over a decade into my business, I continue on my mission to empower fellow small businesses with the tools, knowledge and resources they need to break free from being overwhelmed and overworked so they can reclaim their time and focus on what really matters most.

I created the Enlightened Entrepreneur. A podcast to provide [00:01:00] you with practical, approachable strategies you can start incorporating today so you can save time, reduce stress, and save money while growing the business you desire. If you're ready to launch, grow, or steal your business, you're in the right place.

Leandra Nisbet: Welcome to the Enlightened Entrepreneur hello and welcome. We are in season two of Enlightened Entrepreneur. If you are joining me again, welcome back. Thank you so much for continuing to be a listener. And hello and welcome. If this is the first time that you are joining me so without further ado, I cannot wait. So let us jump right in.

So what are we talking about today? Today I really wanna focus on. How you can identify where you are getting stuck in your business and where growth is being prevented. The reason for this is that we really can't fix what we can't see, and sometimes it can really be challenging because we as [00:02:00] founders, owners are so close to our businesses.

Sometimes it's like the analogy, you can't see the forest for the trees. We are so in the day-to-day of our operations of our businesses, that it can be challenging to really understand what's restricting or constricting us from moving forward. If you feel like you're working harder than ever but your business really isn't moving the way that you want it to.

I hate to break it to you, but you might actually be the bottleneck or the challenge within your business and take this from somebody who's been there. So just know that if this is true, it's not a reflection on you. It is not anything negative. But it does give you the opportunity to say if this is true, if this really is the case, then I am also in a position to make and create change, and that's what we're going to talk about today.

I am going to walk you through a simple audit process so that you can help [00:03:00] to understand. If you are the, hindrance to growth within the business, what are things that you can start doing today to help eliminate that challenge? So if you find yourself in your business, you are maybe busier than ever.

It seems like on paper your business should be doing very well. Maybe your revenue number, the sales that you're bringing in is even at someplace healthy, something that you're proud of, but it still feels like you're stuck. Sometimes we as the founders become that invisible bottleneck within our businesses, and the challenge here is that continuing to push forward and continuing to do the same things over and over will never create the breakthrough that we're looking for.

Really, what they can lead to, unfortunately, is burnout. They can lead to that breaking point because we're just spinning our wheels and we're not gaining any traction. So [00:04:00] really what you need to realize is that our businesses can only grow as fast as we can execute and create change unless we really start to build that leverage and sustainability within our operations.

So let's go through the bottleneck audit framework. I want to introduce you to this audit, and then I'm going to share with you five questions that you can be asking yourself. And. Elaborate on how these can really be impactful for you within your business. So question number one that I want you to ask yourself is, what can only I do?

What can only I do? And I'll tell you, for many of us as business owners, we. Overestimate what the length of that list really is. It's easy for us to think maybe because when we started our businesses, it was just us, or maybe because we are multi-passionate, because we are [00:05:00] multi-talented, because we have the skills and ability to do numerous things within our business.

We then start to develop a thought process and a mentality that says, that means we are the only one that can do X, Y, Z. And very rarely is that really the case. So what I want you to think about is when you ask yourself this question, you start to organize this list. I wanna challenge you to say, if I took my name off of the list for this one task and replaced it with somebody else, maybe it is.

A contractor, an existing team member, somebody that I could potentially hire if I replace my name with somebody else with training, would my answer still be the same? Would I still feel like I'm the only one who can do this task? And so something that might fall into this space is maybe you think, maintaining relationships with clients, communicating with your clients, building that rapport.

Those can be [00:06:00] multiple things. So for example, maybe you are the only one who, is comfortable, confident, knowledgeable, able to. Form relationships with your clients to work on the business development, to establish those relationships to build, that rapport. But maybe when it comes to some of the deliverables, the client relationship management, some of the day-to-day aspects of the communications, maybe with training, someone else on your team could do that just as well, if not better than you.

And not only that, it then frees up your time and capacity to focus on some of those higher level aspects or. Forming new relationships. So think about realistically what really does require you and what with training or with support, could you remove from your plate and empower someone else to do question number two, what am I doing that someone else could do [00:07:00] with 80% quality?

Now, if you're like me, I know this one is going to be a little bit. It might make you sit back a little bit and say no, I don't know about that. 80% isn't good enough. That's B level work. I get that. I can understand that. But what you need to think about, and what I remind myself of as well, is that 80% is generally more than good enough, and that perfectionism is incredibly expensive.

Not only can it take time, it requires additional mental energy. It requires additional capacity. All of those things that are being invested in something that probably was already more than good enough before. We continue to rework it, refine it, revise it, tweak it, look at it again, come back to it days or weeks later before actually doing anything with it.

So I want you to think about what is the cost of thinking? That you're the only one who can do something correctly, or that you're the only one who can do something well enough. Because again, [00:08:00] going back to what we talked about in the first question, that's generally not the case. And really we're getting in our own way when it comes to things like that.

So some things that could fall into this space might be something like. Maybe you have a basic client onboarding process. Maybe you need to follow up on billables invoices that are sent out that you're awaiting payment on. Maybe it's content creation and development. Those are things that between either a team member, a contractor, or even a automation or workflow process improvement, you can get those off of your plate.

So let's keep moving. Number three. I want you to ask yourselves, what tasks am I repeating that could be systematized? And so this actually is a perfect transition to what I was just sharing about having process improvements, but to improve a process. It's best if you actually have a documented process to begin with.

Think about what are the tasks that you're doing on a [00:09:00] regular basis. This could be, again, some of the things that we've already talked about. Maybe it's creating proposals. Maybe it's your client onboarding. Maybe it's. Communication cadences with existing clients. Maybe it is a business development process that you have.

How frequently are you following up on leads or opportunities, et cetera. So if this is a task that you have done numerous times within your business, three times, five times or more, it is probably something that should be documented. And then you can create a process and a workflow around it. With this, there are a couple things that I want you to think about.

Having a documented process not only will help you with. Being able to delegate or share this with someone else internally, or even if it's something that you're looking to outsource, by having that clear understanding of what the process is and what your needs are and expectations are of someone else taking it over.

But it will help empower whomever you share this with as well, because it will be. More [00:10:00] clear. It's not something that's just in our mind, something that we do on autopilot because we're used to doing it. It will ensure that you have all of those little parts and pieces and nuggets that go into all of the steps and stages as well.

Additionally, by having documented processes, it can help you identify redundancies, inefficiencies, because you might see that once you document something, oh yeah, I am going back to this tool twice. Or, oh yeah, I am doing something that. If I combine steps three and eight in this process, it would be more efficient and I don't need to come back and it actually will eliminate step seven, for example.

So thinking about things like that as well can really help you when you are trying to create processes and systems within your business. Number four is where am I making decisions that don't need my judgment? So with this, I want you to think about the fact that every time we're making a decision.

It requires mental [00:11:00] energy. It's taxing. We're making decisions all the time, whether it's in our businesses or our personal lives. It could be the simple things of what am I going to wear today? What am I going to eat for breakfast? Am I going to be able to work out today? What are we gonna have for dinner?

Who do I need to follow up with? Oh, should I check my email now? All the things, and the list goes on and on, but all the time we're constantly making decisions, thinking about something, deciding when to do something, how to do it best, et cetera. So that can create decision fatigue. So when you think about.

How can you not be the one who needs to make the decision on everything? It can help you just creating that mental clarity and freeing up mental space and energy. So think about creating decision frameworks so that you are not evaluating things on a case by case basis every time they come up, especially recurring things.

So this might be something like having a clear pricing structure and strategy within your business instead of pricing out everything. On a case by case, every time a new prospective client reaches out to you or a [00:12:00] new project comes your way, you're very clear because you understand the scope, you know what it's going to entail, and you know how you price your services and offers.

It could also be thinking about things like what types of projects. For clients to bring on board. Sometimes very early in business, it's easy for people to say I could serve anyone. Yes, but should you, and having clarity around who you serve, who your ideal client is, makes it easier when you're making decisions because you really know what aligns with you, your business.

your offers and even things like policies, maybe it's a refund policy, a return policy, et cetera. Having those things clearly defined, eliminates needing to make another decision. When someone reaches out to you, it's very clear to say, here's what the policy is, or even to train others on your team, what those policies are.

And then finally, number five, I want you to think about what revenue generating activities are you not doing in your business because you're too busy. And so this can really [00:13:00] help when you're thinking about what is the real cost that you're incurring by being the bottleneck in your business if you're in the weeds all of the time, because you're making every decision, because you are assessing things on a case by case basis because you're doing the same processes over and over.

Then you're really not able to do any CEO level work. So this could be thinking about things that you're not able to do, like business development, creating and fostering strategic partnerships and relationships, working on your business instead of in your business, looking at overall strategy and thought leadership, et cetera.

All of these are things that when you are able to effectively delegate, automate, systematize, be much more strategic and intentional with your time and energy, it frees up your time and capacity to do these things that are much more impactful. And I will just share even for myself, something that had come up a couple years ago when I realized that I was a bottleneck in a specific area was around our content creation and our social [00:14:00] media and content development.

I loved being able to still be involved in that process, even though I wasn't the one creating it anymore. So I would like to review things that were coming out, see what's coming up, be able to provide input, feedback, suggested edits, et cetera. But what I realized is that I was a bottleneck because I don't need to do that.

I trust my team. I trust their skills and capabilities and their creativity and expertise, and using our brand voice and all of those things. So there was really no reason for me to be taking the time and in essence, taking their time from their workflow and process by needing to see what was going on.

In the moment. And so by removing myself from that, by allowing them to go through their entire workflow and process, from ideation to creating the content, to actually publishing the content without me needing to step in at that last stage, allowed for a much more effective and efficient process and workflow.

And. Surprise. [00:15:00] Nothing has broken, nothing has failed, and so that is just one example. But I would really encourage you to think about where some of those things may be coming up for you within your business and operation as well. So for today's Action Accelerator, I want you to create 30 minutes in your calendar for this week to block off that time and answer these five questions that we've gone through.

Answer them openly and honestly. This is really to help you and your business as you're moving forward. And then I want to challenge you to choose just one area where you're the bottleneck and where you could see that removing yourself from that will have the biggest impact within your business. And then I also want you to think about is there a process that you could document around this, or even a framework or criteria, something that you can document and write out to help explain this workflow or process.

And then think about how you could have someone else take this over, and maybe that's not today, maybe it's not this week, but what is something that you can work toward in this [00:16:00] area? And think about who that is. Maybe someone already on your team, maybe a contractor, a vendor or partner you're working with, or maybe this is something that in the future you want to work toward hiring for.

Hopefully this brings up some new ways of thinking about this and opportunities for you within your business. And I want you just to think about some common challenges that might come up in this space so that you can avoid these. So I don't want you to think, if I just do it myself, I'll be able to get it done faster.

Because while that might be true in the short term, long term, that is not a sustainable solution or fix, I also want you to realize that once you identify the problem, or the roadblock or the bottleneck, that's great. Identification is important, but now we also need to take action because if we don't, nothing is going to change.

And then finally, I want you to not fall into the trap of, if you come up with several things on your list, when you go through this activity, do not think that you need to fix everything at [00:17:00] once. That really can create more problems than solutions. So really just focus on one area that you think will have the highest impact and drill down there.

So just remember, we're not able to scale or sustain what we can't let go of and what we can't build upon. So remember, make sure that you carve out time to complete your audit this week. And if you want any support and wanna go deeper into this, feel free to find me on Instagram at Leandra Creates, and send me a direct message.

I'd love to hear what you come up with and if you have any questions, I'd be happy to weigh in. So be sure to join us on our next episode of Enlightened Entrepreneur, where I'm going to be talking about your CEO calendar and how to structure it, and your week for success for strategy instead of just survival.

Can't wait to see you there. Bye. 

Leandra Nisbet: Thanks for joining me on The Enlightened Entrepreneur, where we discuss all things business so you can be empowered with the actionable tips, [00:18:00] strategies, and mindset shifts you need to help you launch and grow your business with ease. Be sure to subscribe wherever you listen to your podcast to make sure you don't miss a thing and to learn more.

Be sure to connect with me on Instagram and on my website. Take a look at the show notes for any suggested resources and links to connect with me directly.