Diagnose the growth problem.
Growth stalls for a reason. This step finds the real constraint — and tests it before believing it.
Owners usually arrive with a theory: we need more leads, better marketing, lower prices. Sometimes that theory is right. Often it is not — and acting on the wrong theory is how businesses spend money and stay stuck.
This step separates symptoms from constraints. Is demand actually thin, or is usable capacity thin? Is the leak in winning customers, converting them, delivering the work, or keeping them? The answer changes everything that follows, so it is tested, not assumed.
How the diagnosis is tested
- Against your own numbers — utilization, conversion, leakage, time spent
- Against alternatives — each rival explanation examined, kept or rejected on evidence
- Against your experience — what you have already tried, and what actually happened
What a good diagnosis sounds like
It is specific, measurable, and usually surprising at least once. “Prime hours are full while midday sits half-empty, and cancellations never get refilled” is a diagnosis. “We need more patients” is a wish — and it points at the wrong fix if the schedule is already full.
How it shows up in a real consultation
In the simulated physical therapy consultation, the diagnosis was: demand is healthy, but usable capacity is not. Prime-time scarcity, cancellation leakage, and staff-time drains were the constraint — not a lack of patients. A weak-demand explanation was examined and rejected on evidence, because referrals were steady and waitlists were present. (Simulated example, not a real client.)