247: How to Grow Your Business Without Adding More Clients

Welcome to the She Thinks Big podcast. I'm your host, Andrea Liebross, coach, speaker, life balance architect, and strategic thought partner for high-achieving women who want to think differently, lead confidently, and create success on their own terms.

As an entrepreneur myself and the bestselling author of She Thinks Big, here's what I know: You've been at this for a while, but somehow you can still feel stuck in the day-to-day. And running your business like a to-do list does not fulfill the vision.

So around here, we're not about more hustle, we're about smarter strategy, bolder thinking, and leading a business that fits your life. Each week, you'll hear the mindset shifts, real-world tools, and CEO-level conversations that help you reclaim your time, grow with intention, and elevate your leadership. Now, let's dive in.

Hello, my friends, and welcome back to the She Thinks Big podcast. How are you today? What are you doing? What's happening in your world? Well, listen, if you are listening, you are likely to be a female business owner, female founder, female entrepreneur, right? Those are the people that are listening to this, and you have probably said to yourself, if not out loud, "If I could only get more clients or customers or conversions, everything would be better."

I hear this. I hear this. I hear people tell me, "If I could only just get more clients or customers, everything would be better." Is this you? Have you said this? If it is, I want you to press pause. I want you to go to Instagram to your direct messages. I want you to send me a message and say, "Andrea, that is me. I have said this." If I could just get more and then fill in the blank for what's real for you, what do you call them? Clients, customers, conversions, everything would be better. While you're over there in your direct messages, tell me where you're listening from.

So more clients, we're just going to call them clients for this podcast purpose, more clients feels like the obvious answer to things being better because more clients means more money and more security, and more growth. But here is what I think is the truth and which might be a little controversial. Client volume alone will not solve your deeper, deeper business challenges. In fact, sometimes it makes them worse.

It makes these challenges even bigger challenges. The more clients you bring on, the challenges become more and the challenges become deeper. So today I want to unpack why chasing more clients can actually hold you back. I want to share some real client stories, and I want to give you a framework for what to focus on instead.

If you're nodding along because this feels like your story, I am also going to share how you can take the next step through getting the right kind of support to help you grow faster and further, not just by getting more clients. That next step, I'm going to tell you a little bit more about my Activator and my Ascension programs because enrollment is open here, my friends, for those who need to be there.

But let's start with the myth. More clients does not always mean more profit. Did you know that according to a 2024 report from SCORE, which is a government organization that helps small businesses, only 40% of small businesses are profitable? Yes, I'm going to say that again. Only 40% of small businesses are profitable.

That means six out of 10 of you out there listening are working long hours, serving more clients than ever, and still struggling to pay yourself consistently. So if you're struggling to pay yourself consistently, you're not alone. Six out of ten small business owners are feeling the same thing.

I had a client who doubled her client roster, we'll call it, in six months. Doubled. So on paper, she looked like she had made it, right? Her friends saw her as a success story. So this is someone I say they're excelling externally on paper. For the real world, it looks like they are excelling.

But when we dug into her numbers, she was actually bringing home less. Why? Why was she bringing home less, even though she had more clients? Why? Because she had to hire help. She was actually bringing home less because she had to hire help. She had to upgrade her software and work longer weeks to keep up.

She told me, "Andrea, I thought this would feel like freedom, but it just feels heavier." So busier in terms of client load does not always mean better off. More clients does not equal a more sustainable business. So sometimes I say on the external you're excelling, but internally you're exhausted, right? You're trying to just keep yourself afloat.

So at first, this more clients thing, you tell me if you think I'm wrong, it feels exciting. Someone wants what you offer. Someone wants what you offer. The clients are coming. They want what you offer. But then the cracks in your business start to show.

One of my clients, we're going to call her Susie, she ran a design studio with five projects at a time going on inside this interior design studio, everything felt manageable. But when she jumped to 12, so that's more than double, her systems collapsed. Onboarding was inconsistent. Communication slipped. She found herself in back-to-back meetings all day.

She admitted, "I feel like my business is running me instead of running it."

Now, Susie is not alone. Harvard Business Review found that 65% of fast-growing businesses fail within 10 years. This is not because demand dries up. It's because their internal systems couldn't keep pace with their client growth.

So here's the pattern I see. More clients highlight the cracks in your systems, in your delivery, and in your leadership. Growth magnifies what's already fragile. Okay, so if you're going to write one thing down, your growth is going to magnify what's already fragile.

So there's some hidden trade-offs here. There's another cost. When you're chasing volume, more clients, you often say yes to anyone who inquires, even when they're not a fit, right? So I worked once with a salon owner who admitted that 20% of her clients caused 80% of her stress.

They canceled last minute. They pushed her boundaries. They drained her team. But she kept them because she thought, "I need the volume." But once we shifted her focus to attracting and keeping the right clients, clients who valued her expertise and paid her on time, her profit went up, her stress went down, and her calendar actually had space again.

So more isn't better if it's the wrong more. More isn't better if this wrong more is really not giving you the space and freedom to work on those internal processes that you need to keep up with the volume. So here's what we don't talk about enough. We don't talk about the more clients bring you those more hidden costs, right?

So you might need more admin help. You might need more software to manage this. You might need a bigger team. Suddenly, basically, bottom line here, you need more support. Whether it's systems, software, or people, and suddenly your expenses climb right alongside your revenue.

According to Statista, okay, which is another company out there, statistics, 30% of small business owners say cashflow, not client acquisition, is their biggest challenge. This is why volume alone won't fix your business.

Without better margins and better systems and better leadership, more clients can actually hurt your bottom line. I know this is sad. Without better margins and better systems and better leadership, more clients can actually hurt your bottom line.

So let me pause and ask you, do you find yourself saying yes to clients who aren't a fit just to keep the pipeline full? Do you feel like you're always putting out fires instead of moving your business forward? Do you secretly wonder how long you can keep running this fast? So this is like the excelling on the outside, but exhausted on the inside.

So if you said yes to any of those, here's what you need to know: More clients is not going to fix this. More clients isn't going to fix it. The deeper challenge is how your business is structured. So let's now talk about scaling problems versus scaling solutions, meaning to scale the business, what are our problems versus what are our solutions?

So this is the real issue, I think. This is where we get to the crux of this. More clients don't fix broken foundations. They just magnify them. So if your structure is shaky, more clients are going to expose it. If your pricing isn't aligned, more clients are going to drain you.

If your leadership isn't clear, more clients are going to highlight every gap. So in other words, you're not scaling success, you're scaling chaos. Okay, so I want to know, are you scaling success or are you scaling chaos?

This is exactly why I created Ascension. Okay, so you've probably heard me talk about Runway to Freedom. Well, the new version of Runway to Freedom, the new rebranding is called Ascension. Ascension is for established women entrepreneurs who are really ready to stop chasing that volume and start building businesses that fuel their lives instead of consuming them.

So more volume might come that might be part of this, but they have to also start building this business that's going to fuel them, versus consuming them. We don't want to build a business that's going to exhaust us. Inside Ascension, we work on structure and pricing and leadership and team, and really those deeper challenges that unlock that freedom that you're looking for, that was one of the reasons you founded the business in the first place.

So what actually creates this true freedom? The solution isn't more. It's just better, better systems. So your delivery of your product or your service scales without you. Better pricing that reflects your true value. Kudos, shout out to one of my clients today that just sent me a message. She increased her pricing today and sent out emails to all her clients.

Better fit clients who energize, not drain you. Part of what she was doing today too was not just increasing her pricing and letting her clients know, but inviting certain clients to come with her in this next stage of her business and saying goodbye to the ones that didn't energize her.

Better leadership. You need better leadership so you feel like the CEO, not just the operator. These are the things that are going to create that freedom. If you're listening right now thinking, "I know something has to change, but I'm not ready to commit to the support it might need long-term," that's where what I call the Activator comes in.

So the Activator, because I know you guys who are listening, I know what you're thinking, the Activator is short. It's a focused experience. It's where we identify those biggest bottlenecks in your business. We create a plan to move forward and give you clarity and momentum right now. It's like hitting pause on the chaos so that you can reset your path.

Do you feel like you need to hit pause on the chaos so you can reset the path? I mean, sometimes I do. I know that for a fact. So here's my challenge for you. I want you to stop chasing more, and I want you to start building better. Stop chasing more, start building better.

If you're ready for some long-term transformation, working on this over the next year, join me in Ascension. If you need clarity and momentum right now, start with an activator. Both of these programs are really designed to help you shift from that overwhelmed operator into the visionary CEO. Or from just excelling on the exterior to feeling energized on the interior versus exhausted.

All right, how do we do this? You can go learn more at andrealiebross.com, but better yet, just go schedule a call with me. Let's chat about it. If you're not clear where you're at with all of this, go take the two-minute diagnostic that I have on my website that helps you clarify where you are in your business. That's going to give you some personalized help right there on the screen.

All right, my friends, the truth is more isn't always better. Better is better. More clients isn't always better, but just better systems, better business, better foundations, a better you. What if you were better? That would be better. All right. I will see you next week.

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