05 Feb
Most companies misdiagnose their growth problem. Here’s what’s actually holding you back.
A few weeks ago, I got on a call with a company ready to double in size. They had 42 employees, plans to expand from one warehouse to three, and a growing dealer network that was starting to outpace their ability to serve it. The logical next step? Find an ERP.
But here’s what the owner said that stopped me in my tracks: “We were ready to start ERP selection, but then we realized—we don’t actually know what we need because we haven’t documented how we work.”
He paused the software search to do the process work first.
That decision will probably save his company hundreds of thousands of dollars and months of implementation headaches. And it runs completely counter to how most growing companies approach this problem.
The real constraint isn’t capacity. It’s clarity.
When I walk into a company stuck at a growth plateau, I rarely find a shortage of talent or technology. What I find is critical business knowledge trapped in people’s heads. The returns process that only Jen knows how to handle correctly. The dealer onboarding that works differently depending on who answers the phone. The warehouse workflow that falls apart when the lead takes a vacation.
You don’t have a capacity problem. You have a documentation problem dressed up as a capacity problem.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: As long as your business runs on tribal knowledge, your growth will always be capped by your ability to clone your best people. And last I checked, human cloning isn’t on the product roadmap.
Why an ERP won’t fix it
This is the harder truth, because ERPs are expensive and feel like real progress. But an ERP is a container. If you pour unclear, undocumented processes into a sophisticated software system, you get expensive, automated confusion.
Your processes turn into your system requirements. If you don’t know how you work—or how you should work—you can’t possibly evaluate which system will support it. You’ll either buy the wrong tool or configure the right tool incorrectly. Either way, you’re setting six figures on fire.
The company I mentioned earlier? They’re mapping their current state processes across sales, warehouse operations, returns, and dealer support. They’re designing future state workflows that will actually scale to three warehouses and dealer self-service. And then they’ll evaluate ERPs—with a clear requirements list based on how their business actually needs to operate.
What this looks like in practice
Before you hire or buy, document. Get the knowledge out of heads and into systems. Map the workflows. Identify the decision points. Design the future state. Create the single source of truth that allows anyone—new hire or tenured employee—to execute consistently.
This isn’t glamorous work. It won’t make headlines at your next board meeting. But it’s the foundation that makes everything else possible. It’s how you break through the ceiling that money alone can’t crack.
The companies that scale aren’t the ones with the most people or the fanciest tech. They’re the ones that turned their best practices into repeatable systems—before they tried to grow.
So before you sign that ERP contract or post that job listing, ask yourself: Do we actually know how we do what we do? And is it written down somewhere other than Sarah’s brain?
What’s one process in your business that would fall apart if the wrong person left tomorrow? That’s where to start.