In the summer of 1997, Apple was just weeks away from bankruptcy.

The company was a bloated, chaotic mess, trying to be everything to everyone. They were churning out dozens of different versions of the Macintosh computer, along with printers, scanners, handheld PDAs, and random accessories.

Then, Steve Jobs returned.

In his first board meeting, Jobs walked up to a whiteboard and drew a simple two-by-two grid. On top, he wrote Consumer and Professional. On the left, he wrote Desktop and Portable.

He pointed to the grid and told the room:
"We are killing seventy percent of our product lines. We are going to build four great products. That's it."

People panicked, understandably. They thought it was business suicide. But that single, terrifying act of saying no is what saved Apple.

Ten years later, Jobs did it again when he launched the iPhone with a $499 price tag and absolutely no physical keyboard.

The entire industry begged him to play it safe and copy BlackBerry's plastic buttons.

 

Jobs had the courage to let the screen be the product. In doing so, he chose to alienate the people who wanted cheap and familiar, choosing instead to capture the people who wanted the future.

Now, I'm no Steve Jobs, but there have been many times in my business journey when I had to make a decision that required supreme courage:

 

Every single one of those growth spurts required me to walk away from something that felt comfortable.

I know you've demonstrated that same kind of courage. You had to when you signed the lease on your first premises, hired your first member of staff, or took out your first business loan.

Somewhere along the line, as the business grew, the daily grind took over. You stopped being the visionary leader you used to be, and you became a firefighter just trying to survive the day.

When you are trapped inside the daily chaos of your own facility, you lose your perspective.

It's not your fault. You are simply too close to the business to see it clearly anymore, so you miss the obvious flaws and the massive opportunities right in front of you.

 

And even when you know what you should do next, you often lack the courage to do it.

 

Funnily enough, the longer you've been in business, the harder it gets. You have more to lose, and there is more resistance from staff who are deeply entrenched in the old way of doing things. Over time, avoiding big decisions becomes a habit.

So, the question is..

Do you already know you need to raise your prices?

Do you already know that staff member isn't the right fit?

Do you already know you're spending too much time working in the business instead of on it?

Do you already know you've outgrown your current 'pile em high' warehouse business model and you need to sell more premium experiential services to your existing clients?

If you're honest...

I bet you do.

See, every one of those decisions scared the bejeezes out of me.

Every time I started talking myself out of it, my coach asked awkward questions I couldn't dodge.

Left to my own devices, I'd probably have waited another six months.

My coach wouldn't let me.

A coach won't let you hide behind your excuses.

 

When they joined my mastermind they already knew they were undercharging, the problem was finding the courage to do something about it. Sound familiar?

Like so many owners, Kim had convinced herself of all the reasons it wouldn't work.

Until she actually raised the prices.

And yes, they lost a few clients.

The bargain hunters left, but they were quickly replaced by better clients who valued what Butter's House was really about.

Revenue increased, which means they were able to invest in better staff, better systems and a better experience.

Kim's verdict now?

 

Sarah and Pete (K9 Adventures, London): They were nervous about introducing memberships, yet today, the recurring income from those memberships pays the rent on their entire facility.

Allison Jacobs (Scouts Honour, Indiana): She resisted the price increase I recommended for years. Today, she says her biggest regret is simply not doing it sooner.

Tim Jackson (Pets2Impress): Tim thought a price increase meant adding 50p, and even that terrified him. Today, his prices are multiples of what they used to be. He works fewer days, his turnover has doubled, and his profits have trebled.

Notice the pattern? They made the decisions, but the coach helped.

Don't make the mistake of thinking you are too smart for a coach.

Steve Jobs had one.

I have one.

My coach has a coach.

 

The bigger your business becomes, the more dangerous it is to make every important decision entirely on your own.

So let me ask you:

Because if the answer is...

... that might be the single biggest thing holding your business back.

If you have a decision hanging over your business right now—whether it is pricing, staffing, memberships, marketing, or simply figuring out what comes next—and you would like someone to challenge your thinking, ask the awkward questions, and help you take action, that is exactly what we do inside the Dog Daycare Success Academy.

Every Sunday, I deliver the unfiltered marketing and operational blueprints I've used to help 2,500+ frustrated dog daycare owners, to stop running a low-margin facility and start building the most expensive (and most wanted) pet destination in town.