From Engineer to Bottleneck
I founded Ennovate Corporation in a small home office and, over 16 years, grew it into a multi-million-dollar engineering and construction business… with a team of 30 employees spanning four states. I eventually sold the company.
From the outside, it looked like success. Internally, the business depended on me more than I wanted.
The Hidden Struggles of a Bottleneck
As the business grew, everything was routed through me. I was the bottleneck.
- Controlling every decision
- Participating in every sales call
- Delaying hiring decisions
- Doing the work of my employees
My hours increased because I didn’t trust the work done without me would meet my standards.
The answers weren’t easy to find. I worked with consultants, but they focused on the business. Not how I was functioning inside it.
Why Traditional Help Didn’t Work for Me
I spent years trying to fix the business through mechanics… working with sales consultants, accountants, and advisors.
Their advice wasn’t wrong. It just didn’t change what was happening to me.
The issue wasn’t just the business. It was how I was thinking, deciding, and staying involved inside it.
At the same time, I wasn’t interested in “mindset” work that ignored the realities of running a business. I needed something that worked with a real company, real people, with real consequences.
What I learned…
You can’t fix a bottleneck with mechanics alone. And mindset without structure doesn’t work. Both have to change together.
That’s the foundation of Mechanics & Mindset Business Coaching.
When those align, the business can grow without requiring more of your time and energy.
Two Ways to Move Forward
There isn’t a single right next step. It depends on how you prefer to approach this.
Talk it Through
If you want to look at your business directly, we’ll walk through what’s happening and where the bottleneck is forming.
This is a 30-minute conversation, not a sales call.
Think it Through
If you prefer to think it through on your own, The Worktrap walks through the process step by step and shows how this plays out in a real business.
You can take this as far as you want on your own.
The Worktrap
Why Hardworking Business Owners Get Stuck and What to Do About It
I wrote The Worktrap to capture what it actually feels like to build a business around your expertise, get trapped as the bottleneck, and navigate your way out.
It follows an engineering business owner who realizes the business depends on him more than he expected. With the right help, he gets out of the trap and lives a life served by his business instead of consuming it.
The story reflects both my experience and the patterns I see in the business owners I work with today. It illustrates the process I use with my clients to grow their business while reducing their workload.
If this feels familiar, the book walks through the process of how to get out of the worktrap.
What clients are saying...
