The #1 Bottleneck Killing Your Business Growth (And How to Fix It)

In this episode of the Ecomm Breakthrough Podcast, host Josh Hadley shares his proven strategy for doubling business growth by identifying and eliminating bottlenecks. He recommends conducting a time study to pinpoint where time is being consumed, then hiring specifically to relieve that constraint. Whether it's PPC management or product sourcing, freeing up the founder's time allows focus on growth opportunities like new product launches or expanding sales channels. Josh cautions against hiring roles that don't address the real bottleneck, drawing from his own costly mistakes, and notes that while AI can help, human oversight remains essential.Bullet Points:Strategy for doubling and accelerating business growthImportance of identifying business constraints or bottlenecksConducting time studies to pinpoint where time is being spentHiring specifically to relieve identified bottlenecksRole of AI in business operations and the need for human oversightCommon bottlenecks in ecommerce, such as PPC management and product sourcingThe cycle of identifying constraints, hiring for them, and focusing on growthCaution against hiring roles that do not address the main constraintImportance of ongoing attention and iteration in the hiring processBuilding a scalable and sustainable business through disciplined approachesTimestamps:00:00:00 Introduction to the Ecomm Breakthrough PodcastHost Josh Hadley introduces himself, his ecommerce background, and the podcast's purpose of sharing strategies for business growth.00:00:56 The Key to Doubling Your BusinessJosh reveals his number one strategy for rapid business growth: identifying and hiring for the main constraint or bottleneck.00:01:52 Identifying the Business BottleneckAn example of how a growing ecommerce business hits a bottleneck, such as PPC management consuming the founder's time.00:02:52 How to Find Your ConstraintJosh recommends conducting a two-week time study for yourself and your team to pinpoint where time is being spent.00:03:52 Solving the Bottleneck: Hiring vs. AIDiscusses two solutions for a constraint: hiring a person or using AI, emphasizing the need for human oversight with AI.00:04:50 Reinvesting Time into GrowthOnce a constraint is solved, the founder's freed-up time must be redirected toward new growth opportunities like product launches.00:05:46 The Evolution of a Business OwnerDescribes the ongoing cycle of identifying a new bottleneck, hiring to solve it, and reinvesting time into further growth.00:06:40 The Danger of Hiring for the Wrong RoleJosh shares personal examples of hiring for roles that were not the actual business constraint, which proved to be mistakes.00:07:38 A Real-Life Hiring DilemmaJosh recounts his decision between hiring a Director of HR versus a Director of Ecommerce by identifying the true constraint.00:09:36 Final Warning and ConclusionA final caution against hiring roles based on what other companies are doing instead of focusing on your own bottleneck.Links and Mentions:E-commerce Platforms:  "Shopify": "00:00:00"  "TikTok Shop": "00:00:00"  "Amazon": "00:00:00"  Business Concepts and Tools:  "Hiring for the Constraint": "00:00:56"  "Time Study": "00:02:52"  "AI Agents": "00:03:52"  Recommendations:  "Hiring Strategy": "00:09:36"  Call to Action:  "Share and Subscribe": "00:10:21"Transcript:Josh Hadley 00:00:00  Today, I'm going to share with you the best way I know how to double a business and help it grow even faster. Welcome to the Ecomm Breakthrough Podcast, I'm Josh Hadley. I've scaled my own ecommerce brand from 0 to 8 figures, and I'm actively building towards nine figures in sales. This podcast is where I document that journey and share the systems, the strategies, and the lessons learned in real time so that you can learn what actually matters and scale your own business. My name is Josh Hadley. First and foremost, I'm a man of faith. I'm a husband to a beautiful wife and the father of four children. I've been selling in the e-commerce space for over a decade now, doing over $20 million in annual revenue and multi-millionaire on Shopify, TikTok shop and Amazon. And I am also the host of the number one business strategy podcast for ecommerce entrepreneurs, which is Ecomm Breakthrough. So let's dive into how I would double or grow a business. What is this magic trick that I'm saying that, hey, this is the exact best way that I know how to grow a business the fastest.Josh Hadley 00:00:56  And that simply comes down to hiring for the constraint of the business. Nothing more and nothing less. And I'm going to talk about why this is so important, because ultimately, every business at every part of its pathway is going to hit a constraint. This is also referred to as the bottleneck for a business where, you know, things are flowing, flowing, flowing until you get to the bottleneck. And then it just seems like things really slow down. Now let's talk about like what is the true constraint? Like, let's give you some ideas. When I say constraint to the business, I want to give you a few examples of what that actually looks like in an e-commerce perspective. And then we're going to talk about why hiring is the solution to that. Or it could also be AI by the way. So let's talk about that and how I'm going to basically relieve the bottleneck of the business and point it in a different direction. So let's talk about this. A new e-commerce entrepreneur that gets started on Amazon and finds some initial success.Josh Hadley 00:01:52  First and foremost, you've got to go find some products. You got to go source those products. You got to then get them launched up on Amazon. And then you need to manage those products and make sure that they're successful. Well, if you can continue to do that, rinse and repeat Time and time again. Eventually, it's going to get to a point in time where the founder is no longer able to do everything themselves, and ultimately, the bottleneck will reveal itself in whatever processes in the business takes the most time and is the most labor intensive. So let's for a hypothetical situation. Let's say PPC is the constraint. In this case, the business owner has launched product after product after product. They found really good opportunities, but then PPC just continues to suck up more and more and more of their time. So much so that now they spend less time coming out with new products, because what used to be only a few hours a week has now turned into 20 or 30 hours of their week.Josh Hadley 00:02:52  Just trying to manage and optimize PPC campaigns and day partying, and staying up to date with the latest and best practices on PPC. So if that's the case, and how do you reveal where your time is going? Go back and take a look at my two week time study. This is how you identify the bottleneck of the business by actually going through the processes, understanding where your time is going, and this applies to you and your team if you have an existing team. They should all be doing this time study. That's how you're going to reveal where the bottleneck in the business truly sits. So let's say we're going to go solve for this bottleneck. I've got two possible solutions. I can eit...