Today, I want to talk to you about something that most business owners never realize is the reason that their growth feels stalled. Maybe they realize that something is going on, but they don't realize just how simple it can be. And so let me open it up by talking about this. If you have tried everything from optimizing your offer, hiring more support, tightening your messaging, launching something new, and probably a lot of other things too, and. And you still feel like you're not seeing the results that you want, it's probably because you're solving for the wrong problem. And I know you don't realize it, but if you're trying all of these things and it's not working, then there's something that you're missing. And it's really easy to over complicate what you need to focus on. It's really easy to look at all of the options and all the strategies and all of the tactics to.

To figure out the one thing that you're missing. But it's not about all of those various things. It really just comes down to two things. There are two constraints that control how far you can scale supply and demand. Okay? And if you don't know which one is your constraint, you're going to keep applying pressure to the wrong place. That means instead of speeding things up, you actually unintentionally slow them down. So let's talk about how to spot which is your constraint, and then why solving the wrong one only makes things harder. Let's start with this.

In every business, growth is constrained by something. You've got to start there. And you have to understand that no matter where you are in business, even when business is going really, really well, there is still a constraint. And you need to know what that is. You might be trying to scale delivery, trying to bring in more clients, trying to hire more team, trying to fix a funnel or update messaging. But if you're not solving for the right constraint, you're just going to spin your wheels. And I see this all the time. Founders assume the answer is one thing.

When it's not, they might assume it's more visibility, more leads, more clients, more sales then. But in reality, their business couldn't handle more right now, even if it showed up. Or they focus on the opposite. They focus on cleaning up systems and tightening delivery and hiring when what they really need is demand. Because in that case, maybe the team is ready, the systems are built, but the pipeline is dry. And this is the cycle. This is the pattern. I want to interrupt today so you can spot what's Active, actually holding you back.

Like I said, at the highest level, every constraint comes down to one of two things. Supply or demand. A demand constraint is all about not having enough leads, sales, or marketing momentum to fuel your growth. A supply constraint is about not enough capacity, systems or team to deliver what you've sold. Now this is where it gets really interesting. I want you to think of it through the lens of this metaphor. Imagine a house with beautiful, intricate plumbing. Pipes are installed, fixtures are in place, but when you turn on the faucet, there's just a drip.

Or maybe, worst case, nothing comes out. That's a demand constraint. You've built the infrastructure, you have the offer and the systems, and you have a beautiful polished onboarding process and you have a team who is ready to support, but you don't have water flowing through it. Then if we flip it, imagine you've got really strong water pressure and you turn on that faucet and water gushes out and just spews everywhere because there's no pipes. It just leaks all over the place. It floods the house. It's total chaos. That's a supply constraint.

You have demand, but there's no delivery system to catch it. And sometimes it's not one of those two extremes, it's something more in the middle. And something like the pipes are just clogged, things aren't moving fast enough. And so you go and you turn the water off until you get them unclogged. But then you go to turn the water back on and it's dried up and there's nothing there because you stopped focusing on demand to fulfill delivery. That often happens when you're already drowning in work, projects are stalling and nothing is moving, and the thought of more demand makes your stomach turn. I. I have heard this from so many business owners that have been in that place.

Or maybe it's something else. Maybe you've kind of built the system, you've kind of built the team, but you wouldn't call them high performing. Again, everything is moving really slowly and results aren't there because there are leaks. You're losing energy, you're losing resources, time, profit. Everything is just leaking through cracks because execution isn't dialed in. And that's still a supply problem. If you can't execute efficiently and in a way that gets results without leaking, time, energy, profit, then there's something going on with the way that you're delivering. In all of these cases, whether it's one of the extremes or something in between, the problem isn't that you're not trying.

The problem is that you're not solving the true constraint, your biggest constraint. And when you have a goal to scale, you might think or you might even receive advice that you just need to drive more demand. But when supply is already maxed out, when you don't have any more time to deliver and you drive more demand, you get burnout, you get missed deadlines, you get unhappy clients, it's a nightmare. And then let's flip that on its head. If you're in a place where there's no demand, but you think that you need to create capacity, maybe you need to create a group program or you need to hire more team. And again, maybe you're given that advice, or maybe it's just something that you think you need to focus on to prepare for that demand before you create it. If you're increasing supply without the demand already there, you're building really expensive capacity that sits unused and that tanks profitability. That's how businesses create unnecessary pressure and block their own momentum.

It's how businesses wreck their profitability and it's simply not sustainable to operate in either of those ways. You need to spot your real constraint. So how do you know which one is yours? I'm going to give you a few questions here that you can start with first. If demand doubled tomorrow, what would break? Would your team be able to handle it? Would delivery collapse under pressure? Would you be pulled back into the weeds just to keep things moving? If yes, you have a supply constraint, but then you need to look at this question. If you took a real break, completely unplugged, would sell still come in? Would leads keep flowing? Would marketing continue working without your daily presence? Would the pipeline keep moving? If not, you have a demand constraint and sometimes you might have both. And you've got to figure out which one can to address first because one of them needs to be addressed first. And that's going to depend on your unique situation. If demand doubled tomorrow and your delivery would break, yes, you have a supply constraint, but if that demand isn't likely to double, if you have no idea how to generate new cells, or if those cells can't be generated without you, then there's a demand constraint as well.

So yes, you can have both constraints in your business, but you've gotta know which one is the right one to solve right now. And it changes for each business. It's kind of this stair step approach where you solve one and stabilize and then it's time to solve for the other and stabilize. And there's this back and forth, but each one helps you move your business forward. Do you have a supply constraint or demand constraint? Or if you have both, which is most pressing? Which one needs to be addressed first? Once you know which one's holding you back, you can actually focus. You can direct your energy to what's going to create the most leverage, and you can scale without spinning your wheels or setting yourself up to break the business that you're trying to grow. If you want to build a business where neither delivery nor demand depends on you, then I want you to remember that your business is like that plumbing system that I described. If the pipes are there but no water flows, you're missing demand.

And if the water's flowing but there's nowhere for it to go, you're missing supply. And both are a sign that it's time to stop solving symptoms and start implementing a new operating system in your business.