A quick extract from my interview with Nick James, the CEO of Expert Empires, after I audited HIS business against our #ADDAZERO Methodology. In this clip, I share with around 600 Entrepreneurs in the audience the three most common FLAWS that growing businesses fall into, and the devastating impact it then has on the speed and direction of growth for the business. Remember, you don't have to fall into these in the order I describe them, (this is just the most common order we have witnessed, from auditing more than 117,00SME businesses) The fact remains: ONE flaw and your business growth is already challenged, TWO flaws and it creates a ceiling you struggle to ever push beyond, ALL THREE flaws, and our research shows its WHEN will it fail, not IF it will fail!

"Why does asking for the sale feel so awkward?" I think it's because we've misunderstood what sales actually is. We imagine sales is something we do to people. When in reality, great sales is something we do for people. Nobody walks into a restaurant and complains when they're offered the menu. Nobody enters a shop and feels offended when asked if they need help. Yet business owners often behave as though offering their solution is somehow intrusive. It's bizarre. Particularly when the very people they're avoiding may genuinely need what they provide. The greatest sales barrier isn't price. It isn't competition. It isn't the economy. It's the story we tell ourselves about asking. And stories are surprisingly expensive things to believe. What story might be holding you back?

Most people aren't bad at selling. They're bad at asking. And they're bad at asking because they assume the customer is making a purely rational decision. They're not. A surprising number of business owners will spend hours perfecting their offer, refining their pricing, updating their website, redesigning their logo, and then, at the critical moment, become strangely embarrassed about inviting someone to buy. Why? Because asking for the sale feels emotionally risky. The irony is that customers often want a little help making decisions. The world's most expensive word in business is probably "think". As in: "I'll think about it." When what they often mean is: "I haven't been given a compelling reason to act right now." The purpose of sales isn't to pressure people. It's to reduce uncertainty. If you genuinely believe your product, service or solution improves someone's life, then asking for the sale isn't selfish. It's a form of service. The question isn't: "How do I get better at selling?" It's: "Why am I making it difficult for people to buy?" Do you have a predictable rhythm of new clients? If not, perhaps its time you booked a call?

The mix-up that's quietly costing you They're not the same thing, and confusing them is one of the most common pricing mistakes I see. Margin = (Price − Cost) ÷ Price Markup = (Price − Cost) ÷ Cost Example: you sell something for £1,000 that costs £600 to deliver. → Margin = 40% → Markup = 67% Use the wrong one to price your next job and you could think you're banking 30% profit when you're actually keeping less than 20%. Quick check: do you actually know your margin (not markup) on your top service right now? Reply with your number, and I'll tell you if it's healthy for your industry.

The next 'order of business' is for you to have clarity on WHERE you are in your business journey right now. I'm sure you're more than aware of when you started, and the physical highs and lows of running your own business, to get to THIS exact point. That's not what I'm referring to. You see, the vast majority of owners (and I've had the pleasure to speak to circa 400,000 so far in my business lifetime) are so busy in THEIR business. They aren't fully aware of how that compares with others, and how much others' journey is unintentionally influencing the decisions they make in their own. Sure, you want to make money (how much) Sure, you want to grow the business (by how much) Sure, one day you'd like to sell up and retire (when, who to, and for how much) The majority of owners are working so hard IN the business, they rarely come up for air long enough to take a look around and notice not only their own progress, but whether they are 'on course' to achieve what it is they set out to achieve. And how others are tackling the very same hurdles you are facing. There's a great saying I learnt a long time ago when first joining the British Army "You keep your friends close, and your enemies even closer" What I'm trying to say is somewhere on that journey you've taken so far, you're more than likely to have faced a number of challenges, hurdles, obstacles, which, to overcome, may have knocked you slightly off course. And, gone unchecked (not easily something you can do whilst on the path), that 1-degree difference now could make a multi-6- or even 7-figure difference later! Which is exactly why I created the Business Freedom Assessment. A free-to-use tool (that takes less than 10 minutes to complete) and 'measures' your business against the EIGHT universal laws of scale, to offer you a Business Freedom Score. Along with a tailored report showing what you're doing really well at and should continue. What you might wish to spend more time on to improve. Along with what you might consider STOP doing (and why) and the things you might wish to consider START doing and why.