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Three Keys to Unlocking Growth and the Primary Cause of Failure - Bill Flynn

Gordon Henry • Jan 21, 2021

Today's Guest

Business coach and successful entrepreneur Bill Flynn of Catalyst Growth Advisors provides powerful insights drawn from personal experience and consulting with hundreds of businesses. In this episode, he shares that understanding your customer’s pain points is key to your success. Plus three keys to unlocking growth and the primary reason established businesses fail.

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Episode Summary

I’ve helped lead several start-ups and I was privileged to be part of some great teams. Primarily my focus was on the sales and marketing end of the business. I had a lot of success early on in my career which helped to build the foundation I use today as a business coach. I love what I do and only wish I would have started my coaching business sooner. 


The formula I use won’t tell you how to be successful but it will show you if you can be successful. And it provides you the answer more quickly, using fewer resources. First off you need to fall in love with the problem you want to solve and the customers that you will help, get to know them and understand their pain points. Secondly don’t ever run out of cash. Those are the primary two problems as a founder or founding team you should worry about. 


Regardless of your type of business, we often think we know why our customers choose us, and often we’re wrong. This is why understanding your customer is key to your success. There is a theory called Jobs-To-Be-Done that applies here, which is what is the job people are hiring you to do for them. 


The facts are that most businesses fail, so when I wrote my book Further, Faster I studied those businesses the have survived and thrived. I found that there are a few things that successful business owners do well. The three main things you need to do well is to understand performance is a team sport, you have to build a system for your business, and you have to use cash as your financial growth metric. 


What I’ve learned is that most businesses that are run well aren’t run by the leader. Rather they’ve created an environment for other people to be able to run the business well. Because the leader realizes their true job is to predict the future of the business, not run the day-to-day operations. 


It’s not your customers' job to tell you what products or services they need. It’s your job to understand your customers' pain points and create products that solve those needs. 


Resources Shared

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