Stop Adding. Start Eliminating.

Why Simplification Is the Real Key to Scaling Without Chaos

What if the fastest path to growth isn’t adding more systems, more people, or more hustle—but cutting the clutter that’s already slowing you down?

That question sits at the heart of a recent conversation I had with John St. Pierre and Rich Hoffmann. And it’s a question I ask contractors all the time—especially the ones who are “too busy” to think, too buried to step back, and too exhausted to scale.

Here’s what I know to be true:
Most contractors don’t have a motivation problem.
They don’t have a work ethic problem.
They have a clarity problem.

And clarity always comes from simplification.

Watch the podcast here.

From Construction to Craft Beer—and Getting Trapped

I grew up in a third-generation construction family. Job sites were normal. Hard work was normal. Long days were normal. What wasn’t normal was being taught how to actually run a business.

Later, my husband and I built a craft brewery. What started as a passion project turned into a fast-growing, award-winning business. From the outside, it looked successful. From the inside, it owned us. We were stuck in the day-to-day, wearing every hat, convinced that if we let go, everything would fall apart.

Sound familiar?

That experience taught me something contractors feel in their bones: growth without structure doesn’t create freedom—it creates chaos. And chaos always pulls the owner right back into the center of the business.

Your Business Is Like a House

This is where my “business is like a house” framework comes in.

You wouldn’t frame a roof before pouring a foundation. Yet that’s exactly how most businesses try to scale.

A strong business needs:

• A solid foundation: standards, leadership, non-negotiables

• Four structural pillars that support growth (not just revenue)

• A roof that represents sustainable scale and profitability

When any part of that structure is weak, adding more only makes the cracks bigger.

The Five S Framework (And Why Order Matters)

Most owners want to jump straight to “scale.”
That’s the mistake.

Real growth follows this order:

1. Simplify – Eliminate what doesn’t matter. Cut the noise. Identify what’s actually moving the needle.

2. Strategize – Decide where you’re going and what you’re willing to say no to.

3. Systems – Build processes that support the strategy, not random SOPs for everything under the sun.

4. Sustaining – Create rhythms, accountability, and leadership habits so systems don’t die.

5. Scaling – Only now does growth become easier instead of heavier.

If you skip the first step, everything downstream breaks.

Why SOPs Fail (And It’s Not What You Think)

SOPs don’t fail because your team is lazy.
They fail because leadership is missing.

A process with no owner is just a suggestion.
A system with no measurable outcome is just paperwork.

Every SOP should answer three questions:

• Who owns this?

• What does success look like?

• How is it measured?

When SOPs are tied to clear leadership and KPIs, they stay alive. When they aren’t, they collect dust—and the owner ends up doing the work anyway.

Simplification Is About What You Stop Doing

Here’s the hard truth most contractors don’t want to hear:

You don’t need more tools.
You don’t need more systems.
You don’t need to work harder.

You need to stop doing the things that don’t matter.

Simplification means:

• Fewer priorities, not more

• Clear roles instead of shared confusion

• Systems built around outcomes, not activity

• A business that doesn’t require you to be the bottleneck

When you eliminate the unnecessary, your team gets clearer. Your systems work better. And your business finally starts to support your life instead of consuming it.

From Owning a Job to Owning a Business

If you feel like you can’t step away without everything breaking…
If growth feels heavier instead of easier…
If your business only runs because you are holding it together…

That’s not a personal failure. It’s a structural one.

And structure starts with simplification.

Stop adding.
Start eliminating.
Build the house the right way.

That’s how you scale without chaos.

Watch me break it down on the Entrepreneurs United Podcast here.