Quick Answer
A free fifteen-question diagnostic across the method’s three phases: Frame (do you have a real goal, clock, and constraint?), Floor (do you have a written standard and the discipline to cut below it?), and Focus (is there one path, with math, that runs without you?). Ten or more honest yes answers suggests you are ready to scale. Under seven says fix the model first — and either answer is worth knowing before the next dollar of spend.
Key Takeaways
- Score it honestly: a maybe is a no. The checklist only works at the same standard the Assessment applies — numbers open, optimism off.
- Ten or more yes answers: the model is likely ready for an engine. The question becomes which one — and that is what a Plan of Action prices.
- Seven to nine: fix specific gaps first. The pattern of your no answers names which phase is weak.
- Under seven: do not spend on marketing yet. The budget would multiply a model that leaks — the most expensive way to learn what this page just told you.
- The paid version of this page is the $1,500 Assessment: same questions, plus two partners, your real numbers, and a named constraint in writing.
01Frame — do you know where you’re going?
Five questions on the goal, the clock, and the constraint. This is the Define work of the Orient phase, compressed.
1. Can you state your growth goal as one number with one date?
Not “grow more” — a number and a date, written somewhere someone else can see. An undated goal is a wish, and a wish cannot force a decision. If you have the number and the date, that is a yes.
2. Is the goal big enough to force structural change?
A goal you could hit by trying harder is not a scaling goal — it is a workload. The test: does hitting it require the business to work differently, not just more? If yes, yes.
3. Do you know your revenue, margin, and spend by channel — this month’s, not last year’s?
If the numbers take a week to assemble, the honest answer is no. Scaling decisions made on stale numbers are guesses with confidence.
4. Can you name what each marketing dollar produced last quarter?
Spend by channel on one side, customers by source on the other. If any channel cannot answer, count this a no — that channel is running on faith.
5. Can you name the single constraint most blocking the goal?
One constraint, in a sentence. If your answer is a list, it is a no — a list of constraints means the diagnosis has not happened yet. Naming the crux is what the Frame phase exists to do.
02Floor — do you have a standard you enforce?
Five questions on the standard the business will not go below. This is the discipline of the Engineer phase: cut, simplify, hold.
6. Is your standard written down where your team can read it?
A standard carried in the owner’s head is a mood, not a floor. If a new hire could learn what “good” means here without asking you, that is a yes.
7. Have you cut a product, service, or client below the standard in the last year?
A floor you announce but never enforce is not a floor. The cut is the proof. If nothing has ever been below the line, the line may not exist.
8. Is your delivery consistent when you personally are not involved?
The hardest question on the page for most owners. If quality depends on who happened to do the work — or on you being in the building — the answer is no, and that constraint outranks every marketing idea you have.
9. When the same mistake happens twice, does the system change?
Twice is a pattern, and a pattern is a system problem, not a people problem. If your fix for repeat mistakes is reminding people to be careful, count it a no.
10. Do you know which work you would cut if you enforced your floor today?
The below-the-line list: accounts, offerings, or habits that survive on history rather than merit. Knowing the list is the yes; having no list usually means nobody has looked.
03Focus — is there one path, with math, that runs without you?
Five questions on the engine. This is the Build phase and the Compound phase, as a mirror.
11. Can you name your one primary acquisition path — and defend why it beats the alternatives?
One path, chosen on math, with the also-rans cut on purpose. If you are running several channels and none is designated primary, that is a no — diffusion is the default, focus is a decision.
12. Do you know your cost to acquire a customer, by source?
The first number of the arithmetic of scale. If you know it blended but not by source, count a half — and round down. The by-source number is the one decisions need.
13. Does acquisition produce results monthly whether or not you personally showed up?
An engine has output you can count — pages published, introductions made, reviews earned — that does not route through the owner’s calendar. Heroics are not an engine.
14. Is there a fixed monthly rhythm where the numbers are read against the goal?
Same numbers, same day, every month, against a written target. A dashboard nobody reviews on a rhythm is decoration. If problems get noticed by feel, the answer is no.
15. When something improved in the past, did it hold six months later?
The Compound question. If gains erode when attention moves on, the business improves in episodes and pays for the same fix twice. Holding the gain is a system — and its absence is the most expensive no on this page.
Scoring, plainly
10–15 yes: the model can probably carry an engine — the question is which one, at what size, and that is exactly what a Plan of Action prices. 7–9: the pattern of your no answers names the weak phase; fix that before funding the rest. Frame-heavy no’s usually start at taking honest inventory of a stalled business, Floor no’s at raising the standard the business will accept, and Focus no’s at choosing the one channel to focus on. Under 7: do not spend on marketing yet — the model leaks, and budget poured into a leaking model is how a $60,000 rebrand produces a prettier version of the same revenue. Either way, you now know more than most owners a year into a retainer.
The paid version of this page
The checklist self-scores; the Assessment reads your real numbers with you, pushes the goal until it forces change, and names the constraint in writing. Two hours with David Mitroff, Ph.D. — $1,500.
Book the $1,500 Assessment → Call (949) 628-6500Frequently Asked Questions
Is the Scaling Diagnostic Checklist really free?
Yes — the full fifteen questions and the scoring are on this page, with no email gate. The paid version is the $1,500 Assessment: the same diagnostic run in full, with both partners, your real numbers, and the constraint named in writing.
How should I score a ‘sometimes’ or ‘mostly’?
As a no. The checklist works at the standard the method holds everywhere: a floor you sometimes enforce is not a floor, and a number you mostly know is a number you do not know. Maybes are no’s.
What does my score actually tell me?
Where the constraint probably lives. Ten or more yes answers suggests the model can carry an engine. Seven to nine points at a specific weak phase — Frame, Floor, or Focus — visible in the pattern of your no’s. Under seven says fix the model before funding marketing.
I scored low. Should I still talk to you?
A low score is the best reason to. The Foundation — Assessment, Brand Book, Plan of Action, $4,500 — is built precisely for businesses that are not ready for the engine yet: you leave with a diagnosed model and a written route, whether or not you ever buy another thing.
Can I share this checklist with my team or clients?
Yes — link to this page freely. The questions work best answered independently by each partner or leader, then compared; disagreement between your answers is itself diagnostic.
The Bottom Line
Fifteen honest yes-or-no answers tell you whether to build the engine or fix the model — before the budget finds out for you at a hundred times the price. Score it, read the pattern of your no’s, and if you want the version with two partners and your real numbers on the table, that is the $1,500 Assessment.
References
- U.S. Small Business Administration. “Business Guide — Manage Your Business.” sba.gov/business-guide/manage-your-business
- U.S. Internal Revenue Service. “Small Businesses and Self-Employed Tax Center.” irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. “Business Employment Dynamics.” bls.gov/bdm
About This Page
The fifteen questions are derived from the diagnostic sequence of the Growth-Scaling Assessment as specified in the firm’s Brand Intelligence Book (Edition 2.0, July 2026), Sections 3 and 6, mapped to the method’s three phases. Written by Steven Lockhart, reviewed by David Mitroff, Ph.D.
Growth-Scaling is a marketing and business-scaling firm. It is not a licensed practitioner in any client vertical and does not provide medical, legal, financial, or contracting services; all industry content on this site is marketing and growth guidance for owners in those fields. Figures describing past engagements refer to specific businesses under specific conditions and are not a prediction of any future result. No outcome is promised.