Bodies
Back in school, I was required to read The Mythical Man-Month in one of my software engineering courses. The most popular theme in the book–now known as Brooks' Law–states that:
"Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later."
Basically, adding people to a project increases communication overhead and requires training–both things that consume time. Brooks' Law can apply to many other disciplines and businesses.
That's why I sigh when I hear of other companies in our industry hiring staff, concierges, butlers, sales people, or whatever you want to call them. It doesn't work (here's proof).
Do you want to provide great service, scale your business, and handle demand? Don't add people. Don't outsource everything. You find bottlenecks. And then you crush them. You get a few great people and you continually look for bottlenecks and open them up. That's what we do and that's why we're pretty awesome at what we do.
If you're a sole proprietor, you look for new technologies and new processes that can make every aspect of your business run smoother.
This week, pick 1 step or process in your business (no matter how small) and ask yourself: how can I make this more efficient? And then go do it.