The Sell-Do cycle creates business stress
The Sell-Do cycle creates business stress
The "Sell-Do" cycle is a common and highly stressful operational model for many service-based businesses. It is characterized by a relentless loop of:
- Selling: Actively seeking out new clients, creating custom proposals, and winning new projects.
- Doing: Delivering the work for the projects won.
The primary source of stress in this model is that the revenue counter resets to zero at the beginning of each new period (e.g., every month). The business must constantly generate new sales to cover its fixed overheads, creating a feast-or-famine dynamic.
This cycle leads to several challenges:
- High Pressure: There is constant pressure to find the next project to avoid revenue gaps.
- Unpredictable Cash Flow: Revenue can be lumpy and unpredictable, making financial planning difficult.
- Difficulty Scaling: The business is often dependent on the owner or key individuals to both sell and deliver the work, creating a bottleneck that hinders growth.
Transitioning to a model that generates recurring revenue is a direct solution to the problems of the Sell-Do cycle. It provides a baseline of predictable income, which smooths out cash flow, reduces stress, and allows the business to focus on delivering value rather than constantly chasing the next sale.