Start with Why.
Growing companies have a problem no one talks about. It's not their competition, their market, or even their execution. The real challenge lurking beneath the surface is more fundamental: The gap between the value they create and the revenue they capture.
I discovered this pattern watching promising companies hit inexplicable growth plateaus. They were winning customers, delivering value, scaling their teams – doing everything right. Yet something was off. Their growth never quite matched their activity. Their bank accounts never reflected their true success.
Why does this matter? Because when companies focus solely on growth without protecting what they've already earned, they're building on an unstable foundation. Every dollar that leaks from your business isn't just lost revenue – it's lost potential. Lost opportunities. Lost futures.
But this isn't just about money. It's about purpose. When you started your company, you had a vision. You saw a problem you could solve, a value you could create. You weren't thinking about revenue optimization or process efficiency. You were thinking about impact.
Here's How.
Most companies approach this challenge backwards. They build complex systems, implement rigid controls, create elaborate processes – all trying to plug leaks they don't fully understand. But successful companies do something fundamentally different.
They recognize that revenue, like water, follows the path of least resistance. From the moment you make a promise to a customer, through delivery, billing, and collection – value should flow smoothly and predictably. When it doesn't, that's where you find your leaks.
Great companies build cultures where finding these gaps is celebrated, not criticized. They understand that every dollar saved through better value capture is a dollar earned for future impact. They see revenue protection not as a constraint on growth, but as a catalyst for sustainable success.
This is What you do about it.
The solution starts with three deceptively simple questions:
- What are we promising our customers?
- What are we actually delivering?
- What are we capturing in return?
The space between these answers – that's where your trapped potential lives. Finding it requires vulnerability. It means acknowledging that your growing business isn't as efficient as it appears. That some of your trusted processes might be working against you.
But here's what makes great leaders different: They see these challenges as proof of success – evidence they've created something valuable enough to be worth protecting. They understand that managing revenue leakage isn't about perfection – it's about progress.
In the end, this isn't about plugging leaks. It's about building businesses that naturally capture the value they create. Because when we understand why revenue leaks matter, how they occur, and what we can do about them, we don't just build better businesses. We build foundations for lasting impact.
The most successful companies understand that this isn't just a finance problem or an operations issue. It's a leadership challenge that strikes at the heart of why we build companies in the first place. It requires us to step back from the daily rush of growth and ask ourselves: Are we being good stewards of the opportunities our customers give us? Are we honoring the value we create by ensuring we capture it fully?
Because when you get this right, you don't just protect revenue. You protect your ability to make the impact you envisioned when you started this journey. And that's what building a lasting company is really about.