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The Lesson My AI Startup Taught Me
Hey oh! Your weekly biz buying newsletter that comes in dryer than your dry January dreams. Delivering you all the great flavor without the headache inducing fluff of too much content.
The Fastest Path to Growth Isn’t More Leads
This week I reviewed the results from a home service owner quiz I’m running as part of a Facebook funnel.
The goal of the funnel is simple:
Find owners I can help make more money and get more time back.
The results were… extremely telling.
What the Data Says (From Real Owners)
From completed quizzes so far:
72% of owners are either:
The Bottleneck (everything runs through them), or
The Leaky Bucket (leads and revenue slip through cracks)
57% miss calls
38% don’t consistently follow up on estimates
To make more money, most owners said they just work more
When they take a day off, revenue drops
74% said the same two things would help most:
More leads
Better systems
This is the part that matters.
The Counterintuitive Insight
Most owners believe growth comes from more leads.
The data says otherwise.
The fastest path to growth is actually:
Answering every call
Following up on every estimate
Communicating clearly and consistently
In other words: communication beats demand.
Before spending another dollar on marketing, most businesses could grow 20–40% just by:
Not missing inbound calls
Not letting estimates die
Not forcing the owner to be the hub of everything
“Doing It Yourself” Is the Most Expensive Way to Run a Business
Here’s the uncomfortable truth:
When the owner is the system, the business can’t scale.
DIY feels efficient in the moment:
“I’ll just handle it.”
“It’s faster if I do it.”
“No one does it like me.”
But it’s incredibly expensive—both in time and money.
Owner time is the highest-cost input in the business, and it’s usually treated as free.
If:
Calls depend on you
Estimates depend on you
Follow-ups depend on you
You don’t own a business.
You own a very demanding job with overhead.
A Personal Lesson as I Take Over a $1M Business
This hit especially close to home for me.
As I get ready to take over a shower door installation business, the temptation is obvious:
Jump in
Fix things myself
Be the hero
But the data is clear.
The fastest path from $1M → $10M isn’t a clever strategy.
It’s boring, repeatable systems.
Systems so simple that:
“Even a monkey could run them.”
That’s not an insult.
That’s the goal.
Because if a process requires:
Experience
Judgment
The owner
…it doesn’t scale.
The Real Formula for Growth
Not sexy. Very effective:
Answer every call
Follow up on every estimate
Proactively communicate job status
Remove the owner from daily decisions
Write it down
Train it
Automate it
Repeat
Great systems beat great strategy every time.
Final Thought
Most small businesses don’t stall because of bad ideas.
They stall because:
The owner becomes the bottleneck
Communication breaks under load
“I’ll just do it” becomes the operating model
The real unlock isn’t more leads.
It’s buying and then building a business that works without you.