Introduction: The Myth of More
For many business owners, the daily reality is a relentless pressure to grow. You accumulate more clients, hire more staff, and add more services, all in the pursuit of scale. Yet this constant expansion can leave you feeling overwhelmed, overworked, and trapped running a business that feels more like a monster you can’t control. You’re always just trying to keep up, and the success you’ve built can feel more like a burden than a victory.
What if the path to a more profitable, sustainable, and enjoyable business isn’t about doing more, but doing things differently? Some of the most powerful strategies for building a better company are actually counter-intuitive. They challenge the conventional wisdom that “bigger is always better” and force you to rethink the fundamental assumptions that drive your decisions.
This article distills four surprising lessons from an expert in the accounting world that apply to any service-based business. These principles are strategic imperatives designed to break you out of common traps: the vanity of scale, the commodity pricing of your services, the paralysis of perfection, and the weakness of apology.
1. The Most Powerful Growth Strategy Might Be Shrinking
The natural tendency in business is to accumulate. We add clients and staff in pursuit of scale and status, but often end up building a “monster that we find we don’t actually want to run.” This growth can come at the cost of profitability, sanity, and personal freedom.
The counter-intuitive solution is to consider a radical mental exercise: Is there a version of your business that could be cut to half the size while eliminating 90% of the headaches and only 10-20% of the profit? This question isn’t about admitting failure; it’s about strategically overcoming the “sunk cost fallacy.” The time and effort you’ve invested don’t obligate you to continue down a path that isn’t serving you. It’s also a direct challenge to vanity metrics, like the prestige of running a “$1 million firm,” which often have little to do with actual take-home profit or quality of life.
The real asset isn’t the bloated business you’ve built, but the expertise you’ve gained along the way.
the most important thing that is here today is you and what you have learned to get here it’s not the business in fact you could argue the business is actually getting in the way of you becoming a better version of you…
In other words, the bloated structure you’ve built can actually prevent you from leveraging your most valuable asset: your own expertise. A leaner business frees you to apply that expertise where it matters most. By strategically shrinking—cutting loose unprofitable clients and even misaligned staff—you create a leaner, more agile business. This newfound agility makes you far more capable of pursuing and serving better, more profitable clients in the future. The standards for what constitutes an “A client” become vastly superior, setting the stage for a healthier and more sustainable next phase of growth.
2. Stop Selling More Work. Start Selling Better Delivery.
A common pricing model for service businesses is to offer different packages based on scope. A “Gold” package includes more work, more features, or more hours than a “Bronze” package. While logical, this approach limits your ability to capture the true value you provide and cater to different types of buyers.
A more powerful, alternative model is to offer three-tier proposals where the core service remains the same, but the delivery of that service changes. Think of it like an airplane cabin. Passengers in Coach, Premium, and First Class all get to the same destination. However, the airline charges two or three times more for a first-class ticket, a premium experience that only costs them about 20% more to deliver. You can apply the same logic to your services.
This model is effective because it gives customers more choice and control, allowing them to self-select into the tier they identify with. The source calls this the difference between the “Mercedes guy” and the “Camry guy.” Both may have similar needs, but one identifies with and is willing to pay for a premium experience. By offering options based on the experience, you can capture far more value from clients willing to pay for premium service, without changing the fundamental work you do. This could mean offering a “VIP phone line that rings to your best people,” guaranteeing access to partners, or even providing early access to next year’s renewal slots as a “President’s Club” perk.
3. The Goal of Your Tech Isn’t Perfection—It’s Confidence
Choosing technology for your business can feel like a trap. Many owners fall into “analysis paralysis,” endlessly researching the perfect CRM, project manager, or billing software. Stuck between two “95% solutions,” they end up sticking with their current “50% solution” for months or even years, paralyzed by the fear of making the wrong choice. The pursuit of perfection leads to stagnation.
The radical reframe is this: the true goal of tech selection isn’t finding a flawless, magical solution. The goal is to make a good, informed decision and gain the confidence to stop thinking about it.
We think we’re in the search for the perfect tech stack where what we are in the search for really is confidence the ability to decide on my tech stack and then put it out of mind for another 12 months imagine how good that would feel…
This mindset shift is incredibly powerful, especially because the search for perfection is often fueled by a fear of missing out on the next new tool. The source argues that true confidence comes from validating your choice with peers, allowing you to “put it out of mind for another 12 months” and ignore the distracting noise of the market. Choosing a “95% solution” and committing to it is a massive win compared to staying with a system that’s clearly holding you back. The biggest cost in technology decisions is rarely the marginal difference between two good options; it’s the time, energy, and opportunity wasted in prolonged indecision.
4. Your Scarcity Is a Feature, Not a Flaw
For any in-demand service provider, capacity is finite. It’s common to feel apologetic about this reality, especially during busy seasons when you can’t take on every request immediately. This defensive posture weakens your position and sets you up for burnout.
The counter-intuitive approach is to treat your limited capacity as a feature, not a flaw. Proactively and confidently communicate your scarcity as a sign of value and demand. This simple psychological shift changes the entire dynamic of your client relationships. Instead of apologizing for what you can’t do, you are highlighting the value of what you can.
…communicating your scarcity in the renewal process saying like ‘Hey we got 15 more seats on the bus here.’ And that’s the honest truth because we are in demand…
This proactive stance is the polar opposite of the weak, default approach: telling a client, “As long as you get me your stuff by March 20th we should be good.” That passive statement invites a last-minute bottleneck and positions you as an order-taker, not a scarce resource. By framing your capacity as a choice you control, you position your services as a valuable and limited resource, earning more respect and empowering you to set healthier boundaries.
Conclusion: Choose Your Discomfort
Building a better, more profitable, and more sustainable business rarely comes from following the crowd. The most profound improvements are born from making uncomfortable choices that challenge conventional wisdom. As the expert notes, if your pricing feels comfortable, you’ve probably underpriced it. True progress lies just beyond what feels safe.
It requires the courage to shrink in order to grow, the insight to charge more for the same core work by selling a better experience, and the discipline to be confident in “good enough” rather than chasing an illusion of perfection. These strategies aren’t just about business tactics; they are about taking ownership and intentionally designing a company that serves your life, not the other way around. They command a mindset shift from passive victim of circumstances to the architect of your own success.
Looking ahead, what is one uncomfortable choice you could make before the year ends that would set the stage for a more profitable and sustainable tomorrow?