The Inflection Point – Why Growing SMEs Need Systemic Clarity Now More Than Ever
- Brainz Magazine
- 5 days ago
- 8 min read
Updated: 4 days ago
Lauren Lea Fenn-Ellis, founder and CEO of OBM Associates, leads a globally trusted business management agency. Named one of the Top 10 Disruptive Entrepreneurs, she helps founders scale with clarity, strategy, and operational excellence.
There’s a point in growth where everything technically looks great. Revenue is steady, opportunities are pouring in, and the team is larger than ever. But the business feels heavier than it should. Most CEOs don’t talk about this moment. They just feel it. That creeping sense that things are getting harder to hold together, that decisions are taking longer, that the business is running, but not running smoothly.
And here’s the part most leaders won’t admit out loud, it’s confusing. You’re doing well. You’ve built something with real traction. So why does it feel like you’re constantly firefighting?
I’ve seen this inside corporate environments, managing operations across multiple countries, moving entire offices, and leading teams through structural change. And I see it now every week with SMEs. The pattern is the same, growth exposes what the current system can’t hold.
And that's usually because the pace has changed, but the structure behind it hasn’t.
Right now, this is happening everywhere. Businesses are optimistic, but they’re also navigating more complexity, more tools, more decisions, more expectations. And eventually, there’s a moment when you realise, we can’t keep operating the way we always have.
If you’re at that point (or heading towards it), this conversation is the one that usually brings everything into focus.
Growth isn’t linear anymore
One of the biggest shifts I’m seeing across SMEs right now is this. Growth used to feel sequential. Predictable, even. You’d hire, refine, improve, expand, and the system would more or less keep up.
That’s not the landscape anymore.
1. Growth is outpacing internal structure
Businesses are investing more in tools and tech than ever, yet leaders still describe the same issues:
Teams skipping processes because “it’s quicker that way”
Decisions are being made with half the information
Work is being duplicated across departments
Everything feels reactive, even when the business is doing well
From the outside, it looks like disorganisation. From the inside, it’s usually because the pace of growth has overtaken the system, which was never built for this stage.
2. Stronger SMEs are shifting focus, from selling more to running better
Stronger SMEs are shifting focus, from selling more to running better
One thing I’ve seen in corporate, in agency life, and now consulting for SMEs is that most leaders don’t reach out for support when things are “fine”. They reach out when they’re already at this inflection point, when the team is stretched, when they’re exhausted from holding everything together.
And almost every time, the belief is the same, “I’ll get help once we hit £X, once we land this contract, once the next hire is in, once things calm down during the summer.”
But things don’t calm down. They compound.
What actually moves a business out of that cycle isn’t more selling or another burst of growth. It’s strengthening the core operations.
The SMEs that continue to grow sustainably have something in common. They stop chasing the next big revenue goal as the solution. They turn inward. They tighten how the business runs. They get intentional about the tools they’re already paying for. They refine workflows, decision-making, communication, and expectations.
Once the structure starts creaking, adding more volume won't grow the business. It just reveals every weak point.
For most leaders, this is the turning point. Growth stops being about “more.” It becomes about capacity, the ability of the business to hold what you’re building without draining you or your team. And it’s usually around this moment, when the firefighting becomes the default state, that they finally say, “This shouldn’t feel this hard.”
3. AI is no longer a “nice to have”, it’s a stress test
When AI comes up in conversations with SME leaders, the hesitation is rarely about the tech itself. Most people are already experimenting. The real sticking point is that every time they try to introduce AI into the business, it highlights just how unclear the underlying system is. And that’s what catches people off guard.
I see it happen again and again. Someone tests an AI tool to “save time,” and within a week, they’re realizing:
The data is inconsistent
No one’s following the same process
Decisions aren’t documented
Roles overlap
There’s no single source of truth
AI didn’t create those problems, it just surfaced them.
This is why so many SMEs find AI overwhelming. It isn’t the tool. It’s the realization that the business doesn’t yet have the clarity, structure, or discipline to make the tool work.
AI only works when the system is ready for it. If the foundation is messy, AI simply automates the mess. I go much deeper on this topic in this article.
Most SMEs don’t need “AI solutions.” They need the operational clarity that makes AI a genuine advantage.
The inflection point: The moment you realize growth feels different now
There’s usually a single (small) moment that makes leaders pause:
A missed handover
A decision that took three meetings instead of one
A team working hard but not in the same direction
Or that quiet sense of, “Why does this feel harder than it should?”
Most CEOs come to me at this stage because something underneath the surface has shifted. They describe things like:
Growth that suddenly feels weighty, not exciting
A team that’s capable, but not aligned
Meetings increasing, clarity decreasing
Systems that once worked now need constant patching
Pressure to adopt AI without knowing if the business is ready
Feeling stretched too thin, even with a bigger team
On paper, everything is moving forward. But operationally, it’s becoming harder to see the full picture.
Technically, nothing is “wrong.” They’ve simply outgrown the way the business currently runs.
Businesses don’t become messy out of carelessness. They become messy because the structure that got you to this point isn’t built for the stage you’re entering.
This is the inflection point, the moment growth stops responding to effort and starts requiring clarity.
The real issue: Systems that can’t carry the ambition
By the time most SMEs hit the £1.5M–£30M mark, the business is no longer being held back by a lack of demand, effort, or ambition. What actually limits growth at this stage is far quieter, the internal system simply isn’t built for the weight the business is now placing on it.
Inside, it feels like you’re always compensating. You step in, pick things up, smooth things over, and fill gaps you didn’t expect to still be filling at this point.
This is the part nobody warns you about. The systems that got you to this point stop being the systems that can carry you forward.
You don’t notice it at first. Then it becomes the backdrop of your entire week. The founder-led intuition that once held everything together isn’t enough anymore. The business has outgrown memory, proximity, and good intentions. It now needs clarity, structure, ownership, and flow. This isn't because you’ve “done something wrong.” Instead, the business has moved into a more complex stage.
This is exactly where SMEs break, stall, or burn out their leaders, because the internal architecture can’t hold the pace, the volume, or the ambition anymore. And this is the point where support makes the biggest difference (long before a crisis, long before burnout, long before you start questioning whether you’re the bottleneck).
The business is evolving, and the system hasn’t caught up yet.
What SMEs at this stage actually need
When a business hits this inflection point, the solution isn’t “work harder” or “hire more.” It’s getting the internal system to a place where it can actually hold the growth. Here’s what that looks like.
A clear picture of how the business actually runs
Most leaders are operating from assumptions. They think they know how work moves through the business, until they map it.
How to do this:
List your core processes (sales, delivery, operations, finance).
Ask each owner to outline how they actually do the work.
Compare the versions. The gaps, duplicates, and bottlenecks will reveal themselves immediately.
You can’t fix what you can’t see.
Defined ownership, not “shared responsibility”
Shared ownership sounds collaborative, but in practice, it creates delays, confusion, and dropped balls.
How to do this:
Assign a single owner for each function, workflow, or recurring responsibility.
Make it visible (in your org chart, project tool, or weekly check-ins).
If “everyone is involved,” no one is accountable.
Decision pathways that remove bottlenecks
Most decisions end up with the CEO because there’s no alternative route.
How to do this:
Identify decisions you shouldn’t be making anymore.
Define who makes them and what information they need to do it well.
Create a simple rule, “If X is true, this decision sits with Y.”
Decision hygiene is one of the fastest ways to free up leadership time.
Workflows that match reality, not the ideal version
Far too many businesses have workflows written once and ignored forever.
How to do this:
Review only the processes people touch weekly, ignore the rest for now.
Remove steps no one actually follows.
Rebuild the workflow around how the team already works (not how they “should” work).
Re-test it live for one week.
If a process doesn’t make someone’s life easier, it won’t get used.
Clean, consistent data (not perfect data)
You don’t need dashboards worthy of a boardroom. You just need numbers you trust.
How to do this:
Pick 5-7 metrics that actually inform decisions.
Define exactly how each metric is measured.
Update them weekly or monthly, consistently, not perfectly.
A team that understands the operating rhythm
If the team doesn’t understand how the business runs, they can’t run it without you.
How to do this:
Set a simple weekly rhythm, such as check-ins, priorities, and blockers.
Give people clarity on what “good” looks like in their role.
Revisit responsibilities quarterly.
Autonomy isn’t a mindset, it’s a structure people can rely on.
A system that’s ready for AI, not scrambling for it
AI becomes powerful only when the foundations are in place.
How to do this:
Start with clean data and consistent workflows.
Test AI on one contained process first, not the whole business.
Document what worked (and what didn’t) before scaling it.
The opportunity: Why getting this right now matters
When the system gets clearer, the whole business opens up. In practical terms, it means:
Decisions stop feeling heavy. You have the information you need when you need it, no circling back or guessing.
Your team finally knows what “good” looks like. With the right structure, people step into their roles with confidence, not hesitation.
Growth stops depending on how much you can personally hold. The business runs because the system is working, not because you’re working overtime.
AI becomes genuinely helpful, not another thing to figure out. With clean workflows and data, AI supports the business instead of overwhelming it.
You get real visibility without getting pulled into every detail. You can see what’s happening, trust the flow, and stay out of the weeds.
You get your headspace back. There’s room to think, to lead, to plan without everything feeling last-minute or reactive.
For leaders standing at this inflection point
If you recognize yourself in any of this, you’re not alone. Most SMEs reach this stage sooner than they expect, and almost always after they’ve spent far too long firefighting their way through it.
This is exactly the moment where stepping back becomes more powerful than pushing forward.
When you can see the whole system clearly, everything becomes lighter. Decisions get cleaner. Teams align. Growth stops feeling like pressure and starts feeling like progress again.
This is the work we do, calm, structured support that helps leaders build a business capable of holding the next stage of growth.
If you’re at that inflection point, here are two simple places to start. Reach out for a conversation on where your business is right now and what it needs next.
Your business can grow with more ease, more structure, and far less strain. You don’t need to carry all of it. You just need a system that will.
Read more from Lauren Lea Fenn-Ellis
Lauren Lea Fenn-Ellis, Agency Founder and Fractional COO
Lauren Lea Fenn-Ellis is the founder and CEO of OBM Associates, a globally trusted business management agency supporting high-growth entrepreneurs. With nearly two decades of operational leadership experience, Lauren and her team partner with visionary founders to scale intentionally through strategic systems, high-performing teams, and operations designed for clarity, efficiency, and scale. Named one of the Top 10 Disruptive Entrepreneurs, her work turns operational friction into focused momentum. For founders who are ready to step out of the day-to-day and into confident, sustainable leadership, OBM Associates builds the structure that sets them free.
