🚀 GROWTH AND SCALING - The 4L Framework · The Dumpster Runners Network

🚀 GROWTH AND SCALING - The 4L Framework

I have found this to be a good visual for the "Circle of Life" if you will for growing a business. I first picked it up from Mike Andes, but I've heard other people reference it in their own ways. It goes something like this...

Liquidity > Leads > Labor > Leadership > Liquidity > Leads > Labor > Leadership > Continued forever...

Liquidity is just a fancy way to say CASH. Cash is the determining factor of whether you still have a business or not. No more money? No more business. Little bit of money, little of time left. Big pile of cash, the opportunities are endless.

Liquidity is what makes you capable of investing into LEADS.

With money you are able to invest into the proper channels to get you leads. These could be paid ads in the form of Google or Meta, they could be door hangers, bandit signs, or mailers, the point of this story is not to tell you HOW to advertise, but rather that leads are going to be necessary for growth. No leads equals no customers. MANY LEADS means you need someone to turn those into sales, which turns into work, which is going to need LABOR!

LABOR is the piece of the puzzle that grows you out of being the 1 man (or women) dumpster operation.

In order to have a a self sustaining business, eventually you're going to have to delegate. That means your first step is going to be generally in one of two directions. Hire someone to take you out of the truck so you can focus on the Sales, Marketing, and Admin side (the route I'm leaning into) OR hire someone to take over the admin side while you outsource other tasks such as Marketing and Sales. My personal preference is to get myself out of the truck as quickly as possible. Reality is you are one twisted ankle away from having your business shut down when you're a solo owner operator. If you want to keep the machine moving YOU NEED TO NOT BE THE BOTTLENECK FOR PRODUCTION.

But lets say we do that. We're now out of the truck, things are chugging along. You have your driver, you hired your aunt to do the admin, you might even have a second or third truck on the road, but your STUCK. The business has peaked at X dollar amount for the last 6 months... a year... and you're frustrated not knowing the direction to take things. That's where LEADERSHIP comes into play.

In my research I discovered that ONLY about 7% of businesses EVER exceed 1.5m in yearly revenue. The typical reason why that is would be LEADERSHIP. Lets be real, if your a small business owner, and this is your first company you've ever grown, you didn't know what you were doing half the time along the way. You simply find a new problem and busted your A$& until you found the solution. Hard work and pure determination has been what kept you in business all this time most likely, and the world applauds you for what you do... BUT... What do you fix when everything is running relatively smoothly? You have some money, your generating leads, word of mouth is kicking in well, and you've got the trucks and people to perform the service. WHY AREN'T YOU GROWING?!?! It's because you have become the bottleneck once again. You need someone who has been there, done that. A leader who can take what you're doing and multiply it with their skillset.

📌 Maybe your problem is that you are bleeding to much money on the operations side.

📌 Maybe your problem is that you're marketing is only mediocre, and with a handful of tweaks you could 2x, 3x, 5x, 10x the business coming in.

📌 Maybe you haven't raised your prices or come up with a better money model for the business.

There are endless things to keep your eyes on. Sometimes all it takes is bringing in some outside eyes and appointing other people and their experience to elevate you. Once you do that you unlock infinite potential inside the business.

Now you're breaking beyond your previous barrier and making money faster then you know what to do with... so what do you need...

MORE LEADS. And the cycle continues.

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