The "Big 5" Business Limiters.

by Dave Alcock

I've been a business owner now for about 23 years, and have experienced much of the joy and pain that seems to go with the territory. At times it has been a struggle. And at times it has felt ridiculously easy.

To say there have been a multitude of "seasons" would be something of an understatement. Whilst the entire time I've been in the service industry, there have been changes within that business life that means that whilst my service product was much the same, the business was totally different. In size, structure, and strategy. This diversity has resulted in a number of observations.

I've read a lot of books that have helped along the way. Generally on something that I felt I was struggling with at the time. But for the most part they focus on some part of the puzzle. I've never really seen anything that succinctly gives a big picture overview of what limits the size or success of a business in its entirety.

At times I thought I had found the key. I'd try something and my business would flourish. But after a while I'd hit another boundary. Another factor that was limiting my business. And over the years I realised that there are a number of different factors that limit us.

After more than 20 years of going through this business life, I'm still not sure I've got the whole picture yet, but I think I've narrowed down five critical areas, all of which are vital to the size and success of our business. And any one of which will ultimately limit you if you don't improve on it, no matter what you do with the other points.

Now it's quite possible when you look at my list, you'll recognise in them things that have formed popular discussion under other names. However, just as advertising forms a subset of marketing, I think most of these popular discussions are subsets. Each subset is relevant and adds to our overall knowledge and understanding. But I think this is the "big 5"; the main categories that make up the whole.

And they are:

• Ambition
• Capacity
• Capital
• Expertise
• Network

At various times in my business life, I've discovered that whilst all the other points were in place, a deficit in one of these points was holding my business back. In each instance, unblocking the point in question led to a leap forward.

Focusing on one point may produce results for a while, but if you don't pay attention to each of the other points, the time will come when you're going to hit a limit.

A quick example.
To get this one across, please note that I consider marketing as a subcategory of Network and production as a subcategory of Capacity. No matter how successful you are at marketing, if that is all you do and you ignore production, at some point production will be your limiting factor no matter how much marketing you do. Or in reverse, building production capacity without any attention to marketing and sooner or later your production will outstrip your buying market.

Over the coming months I'm going to explore each of these points, discuss what they really mean to me, and give some insight on my experience of how they can limit us. And ultimately, with a better understanding, help you identify the potential that might be pent up in your business just waiting to be released.

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Dave Alcock has been a struggling entrepreneur since 1984. Most of this time has been spent in the pest management industry.

He attributes his recent business success to a dismal business failure in 1997. This failure resulted in a complete change in his understanding of how a business owner should function.

He now has three businesses in his stable, has served a total of 5 years as National Chairman of the South African Pest Control Association (SAPCA), and two years as Chairman of the World Environmental Pest Managers Alliance (WEPMA).