How do I know if my business is growing too fast?

# Edit of TIH - 2.5 Growth is great. Until it isn't

[00:00:00]

## [00:00:00] HOOK

[00:00:00] **Linda van Egmond:** Everyone wants growth fast, right? More leads, more clients, new markets. And when it starts happening, like when interest is really coming in, it feels amazing. It feels like things are finally working, and then you have to keep up. Let's talk about what happens right after the momentum picks up, because that's where things usually go wrong

## [00:00:27] REALITY CHECK

[00:00:27] **Linda van Egmond:** I worked with this startup where on paper things were going super well. Leads were coming in, people were interested, they were starting to think about new markets and new campaigns and new segments

The problem was that none of that interest was going anywhere because there was no system to follow up on any of it. Leads were managed by hand, and as more of them piled in, it became harder and harder to keep up.

Warm contacts were cooling quickly because they didn't get the follow-up they [00:01:00] needed. they weren't doing badly, but they were leaving a lot on the table. And every time they thought about expanding, they were adding to a problem they hadn't solved yet. That's a tricky trap.

Growth feels like a solution a lot of the time, but if your current setup can't handle what you already have, moving faster just makes the damage faster too. I actually talked about a version of this in season one when the brand grows faster than the organization behind it. It's the same problem but from a different angle.

If you haven't listened to that one, it's worth going back

## [00:01:38] THE SHIFT

[00:01:38] **Linda van Egmond:** Here's the thing about fast growth that nobody talks about in the highlight reels. It doesn't just test your product. It tests your team, your systems, your follow-up, your communication, your ability to say no to the wrong things, all of it and all at once.

Think about it this way. Imagine you're cooking one dish. You know the [00:02:00] recipe, you got the timing, and it works. And now someone says, " Add two more dishes. " it's the same kitchen, the same stove at the same time. You can try, But from experience, I can tell you something's going to burn.

Fast growth without infrastructure is the same thing. You're adding more to a setup that was already running close to full. The leads that came in before the holidays, they didn't disappear, they just went cold because there wasn't a system in place that didn't depend on someone manually remembering to follow up.

And that's the real risk. Not that you grow too fast, but that you grow in a direction you can't actually deliver on

## [00:02:46] THE MOVE

[00:02:46] **Linda van Egmond:** So what do you do with this? Here are three questions I'd ask before any expansion decision, like if you wanna go to a new market, start a new campaign, a new segment, any of those. [00:03:00] Question one

Can your current team deliver this without dropping something else? not in theory, but in practice. Take a look at your actual capacity this week. If you said yes to this new thing, what would stop happening? If your answer is, " I'm not sure ," then that's your answer. Question two: Do you have a follow-up system that doesn't depend on someone personally?

Because if the only reason things get followed up on is that you remember to do it, you don't have a system. It's a habit, and habits don't grow. And question number three is: What's the smallest version of this you could test first? Maybe it's a region, or a smaller segment, or a campaign element before you go broad.

The startup I mentioned eventually shifted from reach everyone in the country to one region, one segment, and one oil stain at a time. It didn't [00:04:00] slow them down at all. It actually created momentum and made them move faster. Growth is great, but fast growth in the wrong direction without the infrastructure to support it cost you the thing that made you interesting in the first place,

which is your ability to actually deliver, and that is the fast way to turn interested people against you.

## [00:04:23] WRAP \+ CTA

[00:04:23] **Linda van Egmond:** The companies I've seen get hurt by growth weren't doing badly. They were doing well. That's the silly thing about this. Everything looked fine from the outside. The damage was hidden underneath a layer of new leads.

So Before you scale anything, ask yourself, "Is the current setup ready to carry more weight?" or are you just adding more to something that's already starting to break? That's all for today. See you next episode.