You can view everything you do in business as a pipeline that goes left to right

An agency, for example, is a pipeline that takes in raw materials like leads and then funnels them through sales, marketing, onboarding, fulfillment, and delivery to output a completed customer

You can further subdivide each section into its own pipeline

Sales pipeline, for instance, has steps that range from "Interested", to steps like "Proposal Sent", to steps like "Invoice Paid"

Fulfillment pipeline might have "Kickoff Call", "Flow Mapping", "Development", "Testing", "Delivery"

Etc

Using our pipeline analogy: in a pipeline, the fluid inside can only ever go as fast as it goes through its narrowest part

This narrow part is termed the "bottleneck" and it establishes the speed of the entire rest of the pipeline

It doesn't matter how the other parts of your pipeline are—if your bottleneck is X, the pipeline will only go as fast as X. Never more

This is extremely useful, because it allows us to build a simple 4 step process

Identify constraints,

Widen constraints,

Looking for new ones,

Repeat

First documented in a book on manufacturing process improvement ("The Goal"). Have applied to the agency and now consulting space with success

Examples for agencies:

For most people <$10K/mo, your bottleneck is lead gen. Therefore you should spend all of their available time improving lead gen. If you spend time on anything else but lead gen it's a strategic error

For most people >$10K but <$25K, your bottleneck is fulfillment. You have a business but it's not scalable due to logistics. Therefore you should spend all of your available time improving delivery

For most people past $25K, your bottleneck is hiring. You have a business that is ready to scale but you can't because of people. Therefore you should spend all of your available time improving hiring

If you have something that's working, but not fast enough: just 10x it. It really is that easy.

Sending 100 emails/day and closing 1x/wk? Send 1,000 instead

10x your ad budget

Build automated systems that 10x output

Etc

If you have something that's not working:

Invest a dedicated $ amount in R&D

I.e spend money every week on previously untried lead generation methods

Or invest in new project management systems

The point is: what you're doing now isn't working. You need to consciously commit to experimentation and R&D or you'll flounder

Everything: add more staff to bottleneck areas

Everything: invest in better technology & systems

Everything: redistribute workload across team members

Fulfillment: document all processes, add SOPs, ensure SOPs are lean, have everyone use them henceforth

Fulfillment: cross-train employees for flexibility, so they can overlap job duties if needed

Fulfillment: outsource non-core activities

Everything: automate repetitive tasks

Sales: invest in a CRM, get organized

Efficiency doesn't matter (local). Effectiveness does (global)

Beware of creating new bottlenecks when solving others (cash flow etc)

Don't neglect long-term strategy in pursuit of short-term gains. But also don't lose the trees for the forest.

Identify personal bottlenecks (e.g., time management, skills gaps, relationships)

I.e relationships can bottleneck the rest of your life

If that's you, improve your relationships

Games, apps, time sucks can be bottlenecks

Widen them by implementing blocking practices etc