Lesson 1
Compare designs, not versions of your courage
Asha’s design studio generates $240,000 annual revenue and $84,000 simplified profit before owner taxes and reserves. She works 52 hours weekly. A waitlist makes expansion look obvious; her household needs predictable income, and her contractor wants steadier work. Growth is a genuine option, not a compulsory next step.
Three designs deserve consideration: grow with a new offer, delegate within existing scope, or stay small with better pricing and service limits. Each changes money, time, people, values, and wellbeing. Use the scorecard to expose those effects; do not let a high average erase one unacceptable consequence.
Ratings are judgments, not financial evidence. Anchor them in assumptions: contribution after staffing, owner hours after training, customer access after repricing, employee predictability after scheduling changes. Include transition costs and downside conditions. A score of five on money does not validate untested demand.
Name both beneficiaries and payers. A plan that frees the owner by adding unresourced work to a contractor has not removed the cost. A plan that stays small may preserve health but limit advancement or income. The task is not to find a painless design; it is to choose a feasible one whose tradeoffs you can defend and review.
- Compare at least three options, including a credible version of not expanding.
- Attach financial, capacity, and people evidence to each score; distinguish knowns from estimates.
- Mark floors that cannot be averaged away, and identify which assumptions require a pilot.
Fictional case · competing duties
Asha’s three designs
Growth adds $80,000 revenue, $40,000 direct costs, and $28,000 overhead: $12,000 incremental contribution before taxes, with six extra weekly owner hours. Delegation costs $18,000 yearly and might reclaim eight hours without new sales. Staying small with a tested 6% price increase could add up to $14,400 revenue before customer losses and other effects.
- Pilot the new offer with service limits and evaluate the extra owner load.
- Fund delegation from existing surplus if lower owner cash remains viable; budget training.
- Test repricing at current scope and track renewals, contribution, and customer access.
These are fictional estimates, not predictions. Delegation’s time benefit is not guaranteed; price increases may lose clients; growth may need more cash before collections. Choose after checking household needs, commitments, and downside risk.
Put it to work
Score growth, delegation, and staying small. For each, record one financial assumption, one human cost, and one condition that would reverse your preference.
Consider privately · optional
- Are you choosing a design, or proving that you are the kind of person who grows?
- Who gets an option from this decision, and who gets another obligation?