From Founder Bottleneck to Scaling Machine
By Coco Sellman
đ Featuring the What Generates Profit⢠â Free Until June 22nd at aforceforgood.biz/weekly-tool
Welcome back to the Force for Good Community on Substack!
What if the real reason you canât take a week off...
is because no one else knows what makes the business work?
Youâve built a thriving company. Your team is smart. Your mission is strong.
And yetâyou are still the nerve center for every critical decision.
Sound familiar?
The Problem: Youâre Still the Gatekeeper
Hereâs how this shows up:
Your team asks you which offerings to feature in marketing
Youâre still approving every custom quote or pricing exception
You get pulled into sales calls to explain the companyâs value
Youâre constantly recalibrating focus across products or service lines
This isnât a leadership flaw. Itâs a clarity gap.
Without a shared, data-driven understanding of what actually generates profit, your team doesnât have the confidenceâor contextâto lead.
The Insight: Profit Clarity Creates Strategic Freedom
As we explore What Generates Profit in this weekâs masterclass, profit isnât just about the bottom lineâitâs about purpose and performance working together.
Profit is the life force that powers scale, sustainability, and team alignment.
Thatâs why the WHAT GENERATES PROFIT CLARIFIER⢠is so powerful.
It gives your entire leadership team a clear lens into:
Which offerings drive the most customer demand
Which deliver the highest margin
Which contribute the most total gross profit
And then? It becomes the foundation for shared decision-making power.
You move from being the only one with the full pictureâŚ
to leading a team that understands exactly where to focus, why it matters, and how to move fasterâwith intention.
Real-World Example: Glossier
Founder Emily Weiss built Glossier into a beauty and skincare powerhouse by listening closely to her community and experimenting with multiple product lines. But it was only when the team identified their hero productsâthose with the highest margins and strongest customer loyaltyâthat they could focus their resources, streamline their launches, and empower teams to make bold, data-driven decisions. With this clarity, Emily was able to step back from daily approvals and let her team drive growth.
Real-World Example: Stitch Fix
Katrina Lake, founder of Stitch Fix, started with a broad vision for personal styling but found true scale when her team used data to pinpoint which clothing categories and customer segments were most profitable. By aligning product strategy and marketing efforts around these high-margin, high-demand offerings, Katrinaâs team gained the confidence to lead independently, freeing her to focus on vision and innovation.
What Happens When You Share the Profit Lens
Founders often avoid profit analysis for a few reasons:
They assume they already know what's working (without checking the data)
It feels overwhelming to gather the numbers
They fear what theyâll findâthat beloved offerings may be underperforming
The team is emotionally attached to low-margin services
Profit wasnât modeled for them early onâso revenue became the proxy for health
But once you do this work, something shifts:
You stop guessing. You start leading with precision.
How to Use the Tool to Regain Your Time
Run the WHAT GENERATES PROFIT CLARIFIER⢠with your leadership team.
Identify your top 1â3 offerings based on unit margin, volume, and total contribution
Align those offerings to your purpose and growth strategy
Create simple dashboards to track monthly profit performance
Empower your team to lead based on the data
This is how you go from being a bottleneckâŚ
to being a builder of systems, strategy, and scale.
From Bottleneck to Breakthrough
Hereâs what changes:
âď¸ Your team makes better, faster decisions
âď¸ Resources flow to your highest-impact offerings
âď¸ You finally step into the visionary seat
âď¸ Your company evolves from reactive to proactive
As we say in the masterclass: âYou canât scale everything. Know what to scale first.â
Thatâs what profit clarity unlocks.
Ready to Step Backâand Scale Up?
Download the WHAT GENERATES PROFIT CLARIFIER⢠and access the full video masterclass for free until June 22.
Profit isnât selfish.
Itâs what makes growth sustainableâfor your team, your mission, and you.
Letâs go build a company that works even when youâre not in the room!
This article is part of the Force for Good ToolKit Series. The full FFG ToolKit is available with the book, A Force for Good: Empowering Visionary Women to Lead High-Impact, High-Growth Enterprises.
Got a question about building, scaling, or selling your business? Ask me anything.
Whether you're stuck on growth, dreaming about an exit, or just need a sounding boardâIâm here for it. Drop me a line at coco@aforceforgood.biz. I read every single email myself and reply to as many as I can.
And hereâs the fun part: the most thought-provoking questions may be featured in a future issue (with your blessing, of course), so we can lift others while we learn together.
Join Me for Founderâs Office Hours
If youâre a paid subscriber, you now have access to something close to my heart: monthly office hoursâa space for real conversations, real breakthroughs, and real connection.
For just $10/month, youâll get direct access to meâand to a circle of purpose-led founders who are building companies of substance and scale. Bring your questions, roadblocks, wins, and wild ideas. Iâll be there to support you.
⨠Upgrade here to join us. Iâd love to hear what youâre buildingâand help you grow it with clarity, courage, and joy.
Watch the companion episode to todayâs article with Coco Sellman on the Force for Good Business Show:
Apple Podcasts:
Spotify Podcasts:
About the Author:
Coco Sellman believes business is a force for good, especially with visionary women at the helm. With over 25 years of entrepreneurial experience, she has launched five companies and guided over 500 startups. As Founder & CEO of A Force for Good, Coco supports purpose-driven women founders in unlocking exponential growth and prosperity. Her recent venture, AllumĂŠ Home Care, reached eight-figure revenues and seven-figure profits in just four years before a successful exit in 2024. A venture investor and advisor, Cocoâs book, A Force for Good, reveals a roadmap for women to lead high-impact, high-growth companies. She is the host of #WisdomOfWomen Show and the Force for Good Business Show. Coco partnered with ChatGPT and Perplexity to write this article.
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