If you’re an established service-based founder turning over between £200k and £500k and still feel like you’re pushing treacle uphill, you’re not alone.
Let me be the one to remind you. You’ve built something real. You’ve got clients. You’ve got a team. You’ve hit revenue numbers that many never reach. Don’t believe me?
Around 70% of businesses go bump within the first three years. And of the survivors, far fewer than 10% of businesses ever reach seven figures, despite what social media will have you believe.
Back to the treacle-covered hill, let’s talk about how it feels here in the real world.
Growth feels slow. Progress feels foggy. The business feels heavier than it should.
Here’s the truth
Your business model probably isn’t the real problem. You are. (Stick with me.)
The Plateau Is a Signal, Not a Punishment
When clients come into my world, they’re often caught in the same pattern. They think the answer is to offer more services. Or to hire more people. Or to spend more on a lead-gen silver bullet.
More, more, more.
But what they’re really doing is adding complexity without clarity.
They’re avoiding the hard truth that it’s not their business model that’s broken. It’s that they’re still operating as the operator, not the owner. And there’s a cost to that.
You’re doing too much. In the weeds too often. Still firefighting. Still caught in a web of dependencies.
This isn’t about working harder. This is about levelling up how you think about and relate to your business.
Logical Levels: Why Your Strategy Keeps Stalling
Let’s use a coaching model for a moment—the Logical Levels framework. It’s a way to understand how we function and make decisions at different layers of identity, belief, and behaviour.
When most business owners try to change, they go straight to action:
“Let’s hire a new BDM.”
“Let’s launch a new offer.”
“Let’s try that marketing tactic I saw on LinkedIn.”
But if you’re trying to change outcomes at the action level without shifting your identity, the changes rarely stick. You bounce between doing more and feeling less in control.
What you need is an identity shift—from operator to owner.
From: “I get paid to deliver work.”
To: “I lead a business that delivers outcomes.”
From: “I’m at the centre of everything.”
To: “This company runs with me, not because of me.”
Until that shift happens, no amount of new offers, funnels, or hires will create sustainable growth.
So What Is the Problem, Then?
In almost every case I see, the real issue is one (or more) of the following:
No clear growth model – You’ve outgrown the scrappy start-up phase, but haven’t replaced it with a roadmap for scale. Your strategy is “more of the same” on autopilot.
Lack of owner-level systems – Things run on muscle memory and ‘good enough’ processes. You’ve hit the ceiling of duct tape and good intentions.
Misaligned role – You’re still filling gaps, doing client delivery, and firefighting ops. You haven’t built the machine—you are the machine.
Fuzzy financials – You’re still checking your bank balance instead of using data to make decisions. You’re not managing money—you’re reacting to it.
Invisible KPIs – You can’t scale what you can’t see. If you don’t know your cost per lead, MQL to SQL conversion, or client LTV, you’re flying blind.
And none of this makes you a bad business owner. It makes you a growth-stage business owner.
Why the Plateau Matters
The plateau is actually progress. It means your business is too big to be winging it but not yet built to scale.
And that’s where the 7 Pillars of Mastery come in.
This is the framework I use with every business I coach—from £200k agencies to multi-million pound service providers. It’s not about fluffy mindset work or shiny funnels. It’s about identifying exactly where your business is blocked and unblocking it fast.
The 7 Pillars of Business Mastery
Each pillar is both a diagnostic tool and a growth lever. You can tell me your monthly revenue and I can tell you which pillar needs the most attention.
👉 Want to see which pillar is holding you back?
Download the 7 Pillars of Mastery eBook and audit your business in 21 minutes.
Still Think It’s Just the Model?
Here’s the real kicker: even the best business model won’t work if it’s resting on shaky foundations.
It’s like building a house without doing the ground clearance, ground works and laying the foundations.
Most service-based businesses already have the ingredients to grow, but they’ve been trying to scale a foundation that was only built to survive.
That’s not failure. That’s just a sign it’s time to lead differently.
Final Thought: It’s Not About Doing More
I’ll leave you with this: if you’re stuck, don’t ask, “What more should I do?”
Ask instead: “Who do I need to be for my business to grow?”
That’s when things start to shift.
📥 Get your 7 Pillars of Mastery eBook
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