A friend of mine had shoulder surgery just recently. The recovery for this type of procedure is grueling. In the past, he had spent a lot of time in the gym hitting the weights. But this nagging injury ultimately required time off for the surgery.

Not sure how he hurt himself. Perhaps from years of abuse or improper exercise or technique.  All I know is his is currently choppin’ at the bit to get back into the gym.

His physical therapist is advising, or should I say demanding him, to stick with the therapy until he has built back his foundation and fully healed.

“You can’t grow properly until you are fully healed and you have a foundation for growth”, they would tell adamantly tell him.

Growth requires pressure. It requires pushing the muscles to new levels. To overload them. His shoulder simply isn’t ready to be overloaded.

So how does this relate to business? Glad you asked.

Often businesses are trying very hard to grow but parts of the business are still broken. Perhaps it’s the cash management system. Perhaps it’s the customer fulfillment process. Perhaps it’s the lead conversion process.

So we are applying pressure to grow parts of the business without taking into consideration how that pressure will affect the other parts of the business that aren’t prepared for growth.

Either way, to build a business capable of sustained and solid growth requires the business has a strong foundation across all the areas of business attention. We need to ensure that our leadership and management functions are working well. We need to have strong marketing, sales and advertising processes. And we need to make sure we are managing the money of the business well and providing great fulfillment. These are the critical areas of business attention that must be whole before it can grow.