How to Figure Out What’s Working in Your Business and What Isn’t
Prefer to listen rather than read? Listen to the podcast episode covering this same topic here → The Quietly Disruptive Business Podcast
As founders, we don’t stop often enough to check whether the actions on our to-do lists are actually moving us in the direction we want. Sometimes it’s because we’re busy and stopping takes time. Sometimes it’s because we don’t want to see what’s really going on — a head-in-the-sand moment. I get it. I’ve done it myself. But I also know the other side, the one where really knowing what’s happening in your business is so empowering that it changes everything. That’s what I want to help you with today, a simple exercise to figure out what’s working, what isn’t, and what to do with the gap between the two.
The Exercise: Two Columns, One Piece of Paper
Grab a piece of paper and draw a line down the middle. On the left, write the title: what’s working in my business. On the right: what’s not working in my business. Then let everything come out. Get specific. Write down whatever pops into your head when you read those two titles — what’s genuinely going well, and what you wish would disappear completely.
I did this exercise a few years ago, and because I’m the kind of person who keeps everything, I dug out the original piece of paper. In my working column I’d written things like: meeting clients in person for coffee, working with one particular client I loved brainstorming with, being there for school pickup, having a stable income. Good things. Real things.
The not-working column was longer. I’d written: hating seeing a specific client’s name in my inbox because I knew it meant more work. Not having any boundaries — just working all the time. Doing work I could do but didn’t love. Not feeling valued by most of my clients. Not being paid what I was worth. I could have gone on. That was not a pretty time. I was stuck in a business that felt like a cage — restrictive, frustrating, demoralising. But seeing it written down in black and white was the wake-up call I needed. It showed me that things had to change. And they did. I repivoted my business, and that pivot led me to where I am now, talking to you.
What the Gap Between the Two Columns Tells You
When you look at your own columns, you may see what I saw — a gap. On my list, I had one client I loved working with and a handful I didn’t. That gap told me something specific: I needed to find more clients like the one I loved rather than putting up with the ones I didn’t. The gap between the two columns is where the changes live. It shows you exactly where things need to shift.
The aim, eventually, is to have nothing — or as close to nothing as possible — in the not-working column. Your business needs to work for you, and you can create it however you wish. There’s no rule book. Nobody is coming to check whether you’ve built it the right way. But sometimes you need the jolt of seeing it written down to be prompted into making changes.
How to Actually Close the Gap
The question I always get asked at this point is the practical one: how do you actually make those changes when you’ve got bills to pay and the wifi to keep on? The answer is gradually. It doesn’t happen overnight and it doesn’t need to. It’s saying no to any future clients who aren’t right for you, even if they pay well. It’s putting a plan in place to find, network with, and connect with people who could become the clients you actually want. It’s being visible. Putting yourself out there. Asking questions. Being curious. Trying different things.
It’s a transition, not a flick of a switch. You slowly replace the clients you don’t want with the ones you do. You protect and do more of what’s in the working column, and you change, adapt, or let go of what’s in the not-working column. Small decisions compound — a decision here, a decision there — and before you know it, real momentum is building, moving you towards the place you actually want to be.
Simple Works
This exercise is simple, and that’s the point. We tend to overcomplicate things unnecessarily, when often the most effective tools are the most straightforward ones. Two columns on a piece of paper won’t solve everything, but they will show you what’s really going on. And once you can see it — written down, in black and white — you have the control and the ability to change it. That’s an empowering place to be. Your business is yours and it can be anything you want it to be. The key is getting it to work for you.
About the Author: Becky Benfield Humberstone partners with Quietly Disruptive founders to build businesses that change their corner of the world, on their terms. If you started your business because you believed things could be done differently, and you're ready to make that vision real, she gets it. Based in the UK and working globally via Zoom and in person, she's done this work herself, more than once.
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