The Hidden Startup Growth Killer: When You Forget to Prune
Startups are in a constant state of evolution. Every new idea, opportunity, and growth stage brings new kinds of work. Consider a few of these common examples:
- New client types bring new service steps.
- New funding streams bring compliance steps.
- A new partner requires more granular data, so we start tracking it.
- We experiment with new sales strategies, adding extra steps to measure results.
This is all a good sign – it means we’re growing, thriving, and adapting. As our companies grow, so do our work streams.
Startups are great at adding extra steps. But there is another half to this healthy growth equation that too many overlook entirely: pruning. Without it, growth turns into a tangled mess of inefficiencies, wasted effort, and lost opportunities.
Let’s look at a real example of a nonprofit that unknowingly created years of unnecessary work – and how a simple pruning process turned everything around.
The Cost of Never Trimming the Fat
This nonprofit had a mission that depended on volunteers. Over the years, they received multiple short-term grants, each requiring specific forms for volunteers to fill out. But as the grants ended, no one removed the outdated paperwork.
By the time I stepped in, onboarding a single volunteer took over three hours.
Not for training. Not for mission engagement. Just for paperwork.
Worse, this wasn’t a “fill it out at home” situation. Volunteers had to schedule time to physically come in, sit with a staff member, and work through the forms – costing both the volunteer and staff member half a day’s work.
The result? A staggering 30-40% drop-off rate of potential volunteers. People who wanted to help simply walked a