A business needs to be growth conscious but growth is a result of being successful in offering what your customers pays for. This allows a business to make the profits needed for expansion. However, busyness is not growth. Growth requires improvement and you can be busy without getting better. For example, Sally owns Sally Print Shop. Sally wears four different hats in her business: she is the accountant, the designer, the print machine operator and the janitor. Sally is busy all the time, however, zero percent of her time is dedicated to planning or business improvements. As a result, year after year, Sally finds herself in the same place. Eventually, she burns out and closes the doors of her business. Even though Sally had enough customers to keep her busy, she never invested the time for true economic growth.

Just like humans, businesses are either big due to muscles or fat. You have to be diligent in working out your business to trim off the fat and build muscles. To grow, you need to put to good use the opportunities presented in your industry and the economy. This means consistently examining your processes to see if you are producing the most value for your customers with the least efforts. Any activities in a business that do not produce value or results is a waste of time and resources. Allowing your business to accumulate too much fat means you will soon be out of a business. As a business owner, you need to find the right thing for your business and focus on it. Growth comes by focusing on the right things. Do not confuse busyness with growth! A busy that is not growing is going to eventually die!