Your Weakest Link is Your Biggest Growth Opportunity
By Russell Thompson, Director on Demand
Most business owners waste time fixing problems that aren’t the real issue. They polish processes, buy new software and reorganise teams while the actual bottleneck sits there untouched.
Here’s the thing nobody tells you: every business has exactly one constraint that limits everything else. Find it, focus on it, and growth accelerates. Miss it, and you’re just moving problems around.
I was speaking with a business owner recently who was clearly frustrated with his situation.
“I’m working 60-hour weeks Russ, the team is at capacity, we’ve upgraded our systems twice this year, but we’re still hitting the same growth ceiling.”
Sound familiar?
The issue wasn’t effort. It wasn’t the team. It wasn’t even the systems.
The real problem? His bottleneck was customer service. One person handling all complaints, queries, and follow-ups. It didn’t matter how many leads came in - everything ground to a halt at that single desk.
Until we sorted that constraint, nothing else mattered.
That’s the brutal truth: your business isn’t limited by how good you are at most things. It’s limited by the one thing holding everything back.
Every business has one weak link
Think of your business like a chain. You can strengthen ninety-nine links, but that one weak link determines how much weight the whole chain can carry. Most business owners make the same mistake - they keep polishing the strong links. They optimise marketing, upgrade technology, restructure teams. But the constraint stays put.
And here’s why: your bottleneck probably doesn’t look broken. It often looks busy, productive even. But everything else slows down to match its pace.
How I help clients sort this out
Here’s my simple method for tackling your constraints:
- Diagnose: Spot the real bottleneck. Where does work always pile up? What determines how much you can actually deliver? Don’t guess - measure what’s happening.
- Design: Focus everything on that constraint first. Make it work better through scheduling, removing interruptions. Then make everything else support it.
- Deliver: Put the fix into action. You’ll unlock capacity you didn’t know you had. Once you’ve eliminated that constraint, your business can handle more work and grow faster.
The bottom line
I worked with a consultancy owner convinced he needed more salespeople. They spent months recruiting, training, building a bigger pipeline.
Revenue barely shifted.
The real constraint? Their delivery process. The delivery team were already maxed out. More sales just meant longer delays and stressed-out staff.
We streamlined delivery first. Removing the constraint meant they could handle 40% more clients with the same team.
Diagnose. Design. Deliver.
Three simple steps to turn your constraint into your competitive advantage.
Get in touch with Russ via russ.thompson@director-on-demand.co.uk and director-on-demand.co.uk
