If your enquiries doubled, would your profit and freedom improve too, or would you simply have twice as much to manage?
Before spending more money attracting customers, I believe every business owner should sit with that question. More sales can help a business thrive. They can also increase the demands on a business whose pricing, people, cash flow or ways of working are already under strain.
After more than 20 years advising business owners, I have seen turnover rise, sometimes dramatically, while the amount left for the owner barely changes. Sometimes it falls. From the outside, the business looks more successful. Inside, the owner is wondering why success feels so exhausting.
The answer starts with understanding what needs to improve and what you want the business to make possible for you.
The conversation that stayed with me
At a business event, I met two founders and we began talking about our clients. We worked in different industries but shared something important: we cared deeply about the people we served. We believed in going the extra mile and demonstrating value before asking someone to pay.
As we talked, one of them opened up about how hard it still felt. They were working all the time. After years in business, they felt they must be missing something. Surely it should not still be this difficult?
It was a very human conversation between directors. We understood the responsibility and the effort that people outside a business rarely see.
I explained that we need to examine a business from several angles. Sales are one part. There is also the way it is structured, how work is priced, how money moves through it, how responsibilities are shared and what the owners are trying to achieve personally.
She told me that the conversation had made them reconsider their next steps. They had been concentrating on sales and marketing in the hope that these would resolve their difficulties. Looking more widely at the business suddenly made sense.
This was an informal conversation, not an advisory engagement. I am sharing the insight without identifying the founders or drawing conclusions about their finances.
Why the promise of more is so persuasive
At BBE events I attended, the emphasis I personally experienced was strongly on sales, marketing and visibility. I understand the attraction. I went partly because I wanted to learn about social media monetisation. I also hoped someone might know how to recover the BHUK Facebook page we had lost after it was closed without an explanation.
There was no secret recipe for that particular problem. But I did learn from attending. My point is that any lesson needs to be applied to the business in front of you.
When you are worried about income, more customers feels like an obvious answer. When everyone around you is filming, posting and building a personal brand, doing the same can feel essential.
Those activities can be valuable. The question is whether they address the problem that currently limits your business.
If you have spare capacity, sound pricing and too few suitable enquiries, marketing may be exactly where your attention belongs. If every new job leaves too little money to cover the effort involved, attracting more of those jobs can deepen the problem. If everything needs your approval, more work can mean a longer queue at your desk.
Before planning the next campaign, ask what you expect it to improve and what must happen after someone says yes.
The business owner who finally got the work he wanted
I remember a sole trader who worked for the same contractor for years. When we met to prepare his tax return, he would tell me that he did the work while his “boss” made the money. He believed he could run the business better. He just needed the money to get started properly.
Eventually, he set up a limited company, bought the equipment and went out on his own.
Then he discovered the demands that had been less visible from his previous position. Rent, rates, administration and other overheads needed paying. He needed enough work to support those commitments and had to manage the work as well as deliver it.
His turnover became substantial. His working hours grew. Yet after paying everyone else, he was left with less than before. He was devastated and the company eventually failed.
Later, he approached his former contractor with a different proposal and became a 50 per cent partner in the business.
Being excellent at delivering a service does not automatically prepare someone for every responsibility involved in running a company. Business skills can be learned, responsibilities can be shared and different ownership arrangements can be explored. In his case, the eventual route was a partnership.
Before committing to equipment, premises or staff, work out how much you must sell to cover the new costs, what remains for you and who will carry each responsibility. Test what happens if sales arrive later than expected. Winning the work is only part of making the arrangement viable.
What the numbers can reveal
The following is a fictional illustration with invented figures. It is not a description of the founders I met or their company. It shows why growth needs to be tested before it is pursued.
Imagine a service business with annual sales of £600,000. Delivering that work costs £360,000, leaving £240,000 to cover its running costs. Those costs are £180,000, including a reasonable salary for the owner’s work. That leaves £60,000 before tax.
Now sales rise by 50 per cent. More work requires additional staff, outsourced support and greater management capacity. Rushed delivery and unpriced extras also increase the cost of each job.
A fictional growth comparison
Before expansion, the business has £600,000 of annual sales, £360,000 of direct delivery costs and £180,000 of running costs including owner salary. That leaves £60,000 profit before tax.
After expansion, sales rise to £900,000. Direct costs reach £585,000 and running costs rise to £270,000. Profit before tax falls to £45,000. The figures are illustrative, not a prediction for any particular business.
Sales have increased by £300,000 but profit has fallen by £15,000. The share of sales left after direct delivery costs has dropped from 40 per cent to 35 per cent. The business is also supporting higher running costs.
This is not inevitable. Investment in growth can deliberately reduce profit for a period. The owner needs to know why that is happening, how it will be funded and when the expected improvement should arrive.
There is a separate cash question. If suppliers and staff must be paid before customers pay, a profitable business can still struggle to meet its bills. Equally, money received in advance may already be needed to complete a customer’s project.
A useful review therefore looks beyond the bank balance. What is committed to unfinished work? What payments are coming due? How much is genuinely available? A forecast of expected receipts and payments helps turn those questions into decisions.
Putting clients first has to be sustainable
I still believe in going the extra mile. That was the value which connected me with the founders in the first place.
But excellent service has a cost. Additional revisions, extra calls, unexpected site visits and work outside the original agreement all take time. If those hours are repeatedly absorbed without being recognised, the owner or the team pays for them.
Showing value before asking for money does not mean doing unlimited work for free. You can demonstrate value through the quality of your questions, a useful explanation and a clear understanding of the client’s problem.
To sustain that care, agree what the service includes, explain how additional work will be handled and allow enough time to do the job properly. Review completed jobs against the time and cost you expected, including your own involvement.
That knowledge helps you price fairly, protect quality and pay your team properly. It also tells you which work you should seek more of.
I recognise this in myself
I cannot write about this honestly without looking at my own behaviour.
There are jobs I should say no to or delegate. Instead, I sometimes tell myself that I can do them faster or that nobody else will do them quite as well. Another task stays on my desk. Another decision waits for me.
I often say that my business is my hobby and that I love what I do. I do love it. But that does not mean it never feels like work. I have experienced burnout more than once. Enjoying the work does not make me immune to exhaustion.
I have also reached milestones and immediately moved the goalposts, without taking enough time to appreciate what I had achieved.
If the owner becomes the person who must rescue every situation, the business has a limit on its capacity. Training someone and accepting a different way of achieving a good result may take longer today. It can give the business room to function without that same intervention tomorrow.
This is a discipline I need to practise too.
Decide where you are going before you accelerate
When someone tells me they need more customers, I first want to understand their goals. That question is for them as much as it is for me.
Imagine packing your suitcases, rushing downstairs and getting into the car. You check the passports and lock the front door. Then you ask your partner which airport you are driving to, only to realise that neither of you has decided where you are going.
You have put a great deal of effort into a journey without choosing its destination.
“I want a successful business” is not yet a clear destination. What does success need to provide? How much personal income do you want? How much time do you want to spend working? What would you like to be different in three years?
Once you know that, you can work backwards. Consider the income the business must support, the resources needed to deliver it, the work that fits and the structure required. Then decide how to attract the right customers.
For some owners, that will mean substantial growth. Others may need better prices, fewer unsuitable projects or a team with more authority to make decisions.
Look at the whole business before choosing the next action
This is the thinking behind the BHUK business health audit and my wider business framework. The purpose is to identify where attention will make the greatest difference, then put the actions in a sensible order.
Your goals and personal finances. Define what you want the business to provide and how dependent your personal security is on your continued daily involvement. Company turnover alone cannot tell you whether you are becoming financially better off.
Pricing and profitability. Identify which services and clients leave enough after the full cost of delivery. Check whether the apparent profit relies on substantial unpaid owner time. Use the findings when setting prices and choosing work.
Cash and commitments. Look ahead at customer receipts, supplier payments, wages, tax and borrowing repayments. Agree payment terms that fit how the work is delivered and follow up overdue amounts consistently.
People and capacity. Establish what the team can deliver well, where decisions get delayed and which responsibilities sit with the owner by default. Give people the training and authority needed to take genuine ownership.
Systems and technology. Examine repeated tasks, duplicated work and avoidable errors. Use automation or AI where it serves a defined purpose, with appropriate checks. Measure whether it actually saves time or improves the service.
Structure and obligations. Review whether the legal structure, ownership arrangements, tax approach and relevant VAT scheme remain appropriate as the business changes. These decisions need advice based on the actual circumstances; a more complicated structure is not automatically a better one.
Marketing and sales. Be clear about the client you want, the problem you solve and the work you can deliver profitably. Track suitable enquiries, conversions and the value of the resulting work, alongside the time and money spent attracting it.
The areas affect one another. A campaign may succeed in attracting demand while exposing a capacity problem. A price change may improve the money available to train staff. Better delegation may release the owner to build valuable relationships.
You do not need to change everything at once. You need to understand what is holding you back before deciding what to change first.
Measure whether life is improving too
There is no single definition of enough. Different owners have different commitments, ambitions and ideas of a good life.
Morgan Housel, author of The Psychology of Money, writes about control over your time as a particularly valuable form of wealth. That idea resonates deeply with me. Financial freedom means having meaningful choices about how I spend my life, including the work I choose to do.
Alongside sales, ask whether the business is giving you more security, whether you can reward your staff better and whether you can take time away without everything stopping. Consider what you are building for your future beyond the next month’s income.
A period of intense work may be a deliberate investment towards a goal. But it deserves a plan and a review date. If the sacrifice becomes permanent while the reward keeps moving further away, something needs reconsidering.
Seven questions before you chase more customers
1. What do I want this business to make possible for me and by when?
2. Which work leaves enough profit after allowing for all the time and resources it uses?
3. If enquiries doubled, could we deliver well without relying on longer owner working hours?
4. Could we fund the additional work until customers paid us?
5. What would stop or slow down if I stepped away for two weeks?
6. Which activity takes my time without a clear connection to the result I want?
7. What is the most important problem to resolve before we grow further?
If you cannot answer one of these questions, that gives you a useful place to start. Gather the information, discuss it with the people involved and choose a specific action. Decide how you will recognise improvement and when you will review it.
At BHUK, we help owners connect their business decisions with their personal goals. You can start with these questions, ask us about our business health audit or book a focused review to explore where your attention is most needed.
Before your next push for more sales, be clear about what you want those sales to change.
To build wealth, be intentional. Name the goal. Make the plan. Put the structure around it.
