PREPARING FOR GROWTH Setting Boundaries with Customers (Before You Need Them)
G rowth rarely fails because of a lack of ambition or effort. More often, it fails quietly — strained teams, frustrated customers, cash pressure, and founders wondering why progress feels harder instead of easier. The next phase of Preparing for Growth focuses on the less visible foundations that determine whether growth compounds or collapses: decision discipline, boundaries, financial readiness, and the operating habits that protect momentum before complexity sets in. These are not advanced strategies; they are the basics done deliberately, early, and with intent. In the early days of any business, customers are everything. They validate your idea, fund your progress, and often help shape what you build next. As a result, many growing companies fall into a familiar trap: saying yes to almost everything a customer requests. At first, this feels like good service. Over time, it becomes one of the most common causes of burnout, operational strain, and stalled growth. Setting boundaries with customers isn’t about being rigid or unhelpful. It’s about building a business that can grow without breaking — and that work needs to happen before you feel the pain. I picked Boundaries because this is personal. It is not something I’m naturally good at. I’m more of a, jump in and help out, kind of person. But I’ve learned, without defining where that help starts and ends, the task expands beyond your capability to help and constrains your ability to help in other areas (that are often more important). I now have a regular check, both internal and external, for “good enough.”
by Darryll Gillard
56 SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE • VOL 26 ISSUE 1
BUSINESS • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE 57
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