Let me tell you about a lady. I’ll call her Kak Liza. Not her real name.
Kak Liza was once a Titan. She ran a taska and tadika business. Before coaching, her sales were under RM1 million a year. In about a year of coaching, her sales climbed to RM3.8 million a year.
Then her husband said, “That’s enough. Sales are already much higher than before. No need to keep learning.”
So Kak Liza stopped.
I have no problem with that. It was her choice. But I knew that decision would become a problem for her.
Why?
Because Kak Liza had never run a business at RM3.8 million a year.
All this while, she, her staff and her teachers were only used to handling the number of students, the parents, the operations and the challenges of a business under RM1 million a year.
When sales rose to RM3.8 million, marketing became more aggressive, students increased, parents increased, and branches increased too.
But the team’s capacity was never built to match that growth.
The processes were still the processes of an RM1 million business. The org structure was still the structure of an RM1 million business. The staff’s capability was still at RM1 million level. Yet the workload and the responsibility had almost quadrupled.
Everyone started to feel overwhelmed. Staff and teachers felt there was too much work. Kak Liza, on the other hand, didn’t know that at that level she needed to build team capacity, tighten the processes and plan new positions to support the growth.
Long story short, almost half her staff resigned.
Kak Liza didn’t know how to handle the situation. Her husband just blamed her.
“You already went for the training, why still cannot handle?”
When staff are not enough, students cannot be managed properly. Parents started to be unhappy and moved their children elsewhere.
In the end, Kak Liza’s sales plunged.
And her husband blamed me.
But that’s not the point.
The point is this: every stage of a business needs a different level of understanding, a different set of skills and a different way of executing.
What brought the business from RM1 million to RM3.8 million may not be able to keep it at RM3.8 million. To stay and grow at that level, the Founder has to build capacity before growth overtakes what the organisation can carry.
When sales go up, don’t just add marketing. Ask these questions too:
Can my team handle the increase in customers?
Are our operating processes still effective at this scale?
What new positions need to be created?
Who will guard quality when the Founder can no longer monitor everything himself?
What happens if sales double or triple in a short period of time?
Growth without capacity is not healthy growth. It can become a burden that eventually damages the business from the inside.
We don’t learn the same things in Standard 1, Form 1 and Year 1 of university. Business is the same. Every time the business moves up to a new level, the Founder also has to raise his knowledge, his leadership and his capability to a new level.
Some of you may relate to what I’m trying to say here. If you don’t yet, I pray Allah SWT grants you the understanding.
Because understanding is also a rezeki.
That’s why RichWorks is different. We don’t just teach. We coach, and we walk with someone through the business journey from one level to the next.
Unless you’re the one who chooses to stop or give up.
Datuk Wira Dr. Azizan Osman
If you’re building a business and facing certain challenges, my team at RichWorks and I want to help you get clearer and see the real state of your business through a free report — the Business Diagnostic Report (BDR) made for you.
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