Building and keeping momentum has bumps in the road for every business. We know this all too well. While we spend time benchmarking and planning for the future, we’ll often hit a point where straight-line growth turns into a zig-zag.
We’ll go through ups and downs, and what seemed like an easy growth year transforms into a challenge that forces us to grow.
If you’ve felt like this in the past or you’re growing your business and want to keep the momentum going, this post is for you. We’ll sprinkle in some of the challenges we faced this past year and how we overcame them as a firm.
Planning for an Uncertain Future
“It’s not what happens to us, but our response to what happens to us that hurts us.”
Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
I’m a fan of planning.
You want to leverage your team’s working genius and grow your business. But here is where the statistics don’t lie:
- 39% of projects fail due to a lack of planning
- 70% of all projects will fail
- 60% to 90% of business strategies fail
Add in economics, market changes, and factors outside of your control, and you’ll realize that no matter how diligent you are, you’re planning for an uncertain future.
Much like Stephen Covey says in the quote at the top of this section, “our response to what happens to us hurts us.”
If a key employee leaves your business or a major deal falls through the cracks, the wrong response can easily derail your goals.
The right response will help you get back on track.
We went through this first-hand in 2025, and we came out of the year stronger because of it.
Our Personal Struggles in 2025
We started this last year with a significant system conversion, which worked out in the end, but it put significant stress on the team. These software migrations were a strategic, long-term decision. Along the way, we also lost two people in the office due to personal issues.
Losing integral employees, who these two were, led to my own personal challenges of:
- Leading the team while taking on more client work.
- Taking on additional administrative responsibilities.
- Hiring two new employees to fill our now vacant positions.
- Adding an additional position was necessary for us to grow.
Add in a challenging hiring environment in the industry, and building and keeping momentum becomes increasingly more difficult. My team and I had to make a lot of changes. For me, I found:
- Managing expectations for my clients, myself, and my team became even more crucial to stay on track.
- Prioritizing was difficult, with fewer hands on board and the need to fill positions.
- Time, energy, effort and focus management became a necessity.
Addressing these challenges was the only way to build and keep momentum, and the key was making strategic changes.
I’ll explain below.
Addressing Challenges To Continue Building and Keeping Momentum
Challenges are surmountable, but it’s up to you (leaders) to take the reins and overcome them with as much grace as you can. What I did to address the challenges of this year was:
Be Intentional
I made Sunday evenings my time to plan for the week ahead. I knew I had to be intentional going forward as best I could, so I took time every Sunday to:
- Identify the priorities for the week
- Plan out my week based on these priorities
- Remain reasonable as to how much we could accomplish
While I did my best to plan, things still came up daily. Tax notices from the IRS. Clients selling or buying businesses. Meeting a good prospect. The world continues moving whether you have a plan or not, but being intentional to start the week ensures you start off on the right foot.
Check In With Your Team
I’m not the only one invested in our growth. I couldn’t do it without my team, which I met with both in groups and individually. I did my best to:
- Keep everyone informed
- Express my appreciation for every single member of the team
- Seek feedback from my team to make sure their needs are addressed
- Maintain an open line of communication to reinforce our vision, mission, and values
Our best efforts didn’t always hit the mark. Did we meet every deadline? No, but we did our best. When we missed the mark, we reflected as a team and made sure to put plans in place to do better next time.
Consciously and Intentionally Keep a Growth Mindset
Maintaining a growth mindset and remaining focused took a conscious, intentional effort on my part. Through the challenging times, I reminded myself that “this” was just a season.
Challenges that you address are rarely permanent.
I focused on every challenge as an opportunity to:
- Improve our firm
- Put the right systems in place
- Accelerate growth in the future
While the year and season were some of the toughest I faced, I kept my eyes and ears open for new opportunities, clients, and growth.
Was I perfect throughout this whole transition and year? No, I could have done better. I thank my clients and my team for giving me grace and supporting me. I did make an intentional effort to add to what Stephen Covey calls the “Emotional Bank Account.”
If you don’t know what an Emotional Bank Account refers to, it’s the idea that you can contribute to a person’s account (in this case, a client or employee) to build or fix relationships. You can do this by:
- Understanding the individual
- Attending events, calls, and the little things that matter
- Clarifying and managing expectations
- Keeping your commitments, no matter how challenging
- Acknowledging when you miss the mark and making it right as best you can
- Showing integrity
Adding to emotional bank accounts helped me build great relationships with clients. It was this effort through the years that led to people understanding the unique position we were in this year.
Through it all, the ups and downs, long days and nights, we built the strongest team we might ever have. Our processes are stronger, IT systems are primed to make this the best busy season yet, and the year ended on a positive note.
Growth always works out when you make intentional changes.
Are you looking for help when it comes to growing your business or navigating a challenging season? Schedule an appointment to see if we’re a good fit to help.