Introduction
Welcome back to a new episode of the Coaching Hive Podcast. This week in the Coaching Hive Blueprint series, we are going to talk about growing and scaling and you might be thinking to yourself, Ooh, this is where the smooth sailing starts. And that’s true, but there are also some unique challenges that can pop up when you’re thinking about growing and scaling your business.
In today’s episode, we are going to talk about and celebrate the fact that you are at this point of growing and getting bigger. You are reaching more people and being everything that you want your business to be. We’re also going to talk about the challenges that arise so that you can think through how to manage this new level of business.
I don’t know about you, but this is an exciting topic. It’s certainly one that we work through and work toward for every business. As an entrepreneur, you always want to get to this stage of growing and scaling. So I do not want to delay. I want to go ahead and jump right in.
If you are ready to get started, grab that notebook, grab your tablet, whatever you’re using to take notes on today, grab your cup of water or a snack, whatever you need to stay focused. And if you’re ready with our theme of simplicity, clarity, and vision for 2022 in mind, let’s jump in.
What does it look like to grow your business?
Let’s paint a picture to get us going today.
You have been in business for two or three years. Your business is profitable every single month. You are clear on your messaging. You’re clear on your marketing. You can describe your business with ease, regardless of who asks you. When they ask you or how they ask you, you can be exhausted and still share with ease, who you help, what you do, what it looks like, You know what products you offer, what services you offer, how they benefit the client, and how they work. You have a daily rhythm that allows you to have balance. You have a daily rhythm that gives you the opportunity to take care of yourself first and foremost, and serve your clients in a way that is congruent and in alignment with who you are.
You know what you want for your business. You have a vision, you work with your peers and your mentors to make that vision happen. You ask for support, you offer support and you feel like things are going really well. You have an email list that is growing every single day of potential clients and partners. You have your learning opportunities dialed in, you know, where you’re headed, you know what you need, and you know how to get there. You have a web presence that is gaining momentum because your potential clients see what you offer. They see your website, your social media, they see you speaking at local events and they know they want to work with you.
What an amazing feeling and place to be in your business is successful. It’s profitable.
And now you have that itch. You’re an entrepreneur after all. You have that itch to challenge yourself because things are just a little too easy. And so you start thinking about how you could reach more people, how you could enhance the services you offer or expand the services you offer. You’re thinking about how to grow and scale your business.
It’s working great right now, but you’re not settling for that. You want that next step. It’s part of being an entrepreneur. We are wired for that challenge and to take those next steps, not to be complacent with where we are now growing and scaling after you’ve accomplished.
All of this might seem like a no brainer. It might seem easy, but there are some inherent challenges with growing and building, growing and scaling your business. And that’s what today is about.
When you are ready to grow and scale your business, there are a few things that you want to think about. The first one is the fact that you do not have unlimited time and resources personally. You can’t do everything all the time. Which means if you have not yet hired someone to help you, this is probably the time when that’s going to happen.
You have to start looking for those opportunities to outsource the tasks and the things that keep you from creating, keep you from growing and building that intellectual property. That’s part of your business that has gotten you to where you are today. This is a tough step to take because a lot of times we think, but I can do it, or it’s going to be so hard to tell someone all of these steps, that’s where you want to develop processes.
One of the easiest ways to get back more time in your schedule so that you can actually think about how to grow in scale is to make sure that you’re creating lots of processes and trying them out, and then readjusting them.
The first time you hire a virtual assistant, a VA, you are going to need to have processes in place that they know how to do the things you want them to do. Whether that is editing Canva, scheduling your social media posts, writing your social media posts. Maybe it is sending out your weekly email to your email list. Perhaps it is doing follow-up and getting client appointments scheduled or discovery calls scheduled, or perhaps ordering that new product that you are putting on your shelf.
You have to have a process. So the sooner, if you’re not yet to this growing and scaling point, you kind of have the best of all worlds, because you’re still building, which is great. You’re making progress. But right now is the time to start creating your processes. Every time you do something new, document it, and then over time as it shifts, change those documents. So that your process, when you’re ready to hire someone it’s already done, it’s ready. You’ve worked through it. Step-by-step you know, it’s right. And you can hand it over with confidence that the person you’ve asked to do the task will be able to carry it out because your instructions are so good.
Your process is so clear that they’ll know what to do by doing this. By having processes in place, you are freeing brain space and time on your schedule, your calendar to actually do more of your genius work.
A lot of times, as an entrepreneur, especially as a solopreneur, you are wearing all the hats and your creativity hat, your creative hat gets worn. As often as the hat where you’re chasing down clients, because credit cards have expired, or you are trying to launch something new and figure out the marketing and the ads for that, and then creating the ads. And so your creative hat doesn’t get to be put on very often, or maybe it’s the last one, because you’re scrambling to do your posts or your emails, or to get that new thing out there.
Growing and scaling has its own challenges. It’s so exciting to be at that point in your business where you can think about growing and scaling, but you’ve got to be aware of your time and your energy. So when I think about growing and scaling inside the blueprint, it’s all about processes. It’s all about protecting your time and energy so that you can do what your best at, because there are other people who can do the other stuff.
There are people who are great at messaging, great at writing emails, great at following up with clients or tracking down those credit cards that have expired. There are people who are great at doing that. That’s their zone of genius. Let them work in their zone of genius and you can work in yours.
That’s what growing and scaling is truly about. It is about building that business in a way, and expanding that business in a way that is still in alignment with that vision that you created once upon a time and have updated over the days. It’s honoring that vision and working inside that vision. And if your vision hasn’t yet expanded, go ahead and do that.
Go back to the vision. First, go back to your daily rhythm, go back to all of the previous steps in the blueprint. Make sure that they’re in alignment for where you are headed and if they’re not, make adjustments. Now I want to keep this short because I know that many of my listeners are not quite to this growth and scaling point just yet so the other pieces of the blueprint feel bigger and more important right now, but there is one thing, you know, me. I love that, that action to take, right?
Action Item
Your action item for this week around growing and scaling is that I want you to imagine the day where you are profitable every month. Go back to that description I offered you that profitable business, what’s happening, what it looks like. I want you to go back to that and put yourself in that, in that moment, and then write down where you think you want the business to grow from where it is now, where do you think you want it to grow? And then what resources do you think you need to make that happen when you get there?
That’s it. That’s what I want you to do today. I want you to think about what your business might look like as you grow in scale. Like, what do you see as the next step? And then what kind of resources do you think you’ll need to make that happen that are different from today’s needs?
And then one last thing that you can do, take a look at some other businesses and think about what processes they might have put into place. Because if they’re growing and scaling, they’re bigger than you are right now. And you might recognize that they’re doing some fancy things that you wish you could do. Write that down as a potential resource or process that you will need or need to develop, just get you.
It’s a fun future list that if you write it down, you don’t have to worry about forgetting. When you see that neat thing that someone’s doing, who’s further down the road than you. And you can file it away without feeling like it’s overwhelming or burdensome right now. So that’s it.
That’s what this is all about. This is about growing, learning, taking those next steps, but doing it in a way that is simplified so that you can still live life. I promised you I would keep this short.
As we wrap up today, I just want to, once again, thank you for being here. If you got something out of today’s episode or any of the other episodes you’ve listened to, please leave a review, just a sentence or two, let me know what you like about it. That helps me to plan my future content, my future podcasts, so that they serve you even better and be sure to rate the podcast as well. That is all I have for you this week. I want you to take some time, do a little bit of dreaming.
In fact, go back to your vision and look at that dream stage of your vision. What did you dream and how can you take that in the next step? How can you elevate that a little bit further as you think about what it will look like when you grow and scale your business, when you get to that point, and if you need help thinking through this, moving through the blueprint or nailing down your marketing and messaging, please reach out on Instagram at www.instagram.com/coachinghive, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/coachinghivelife, or hop on over to my website, www.coachinghive.com and click the “apply now” button that will take you to a form. You’ll fill it out. And we will set up a time to talk about your business, where you’re headed, and what you need so that we can identify the right resources for you.
That’s all for now. I look forward to seeing you back here next week. For another episode of the Coaching Hive podcast, where a focus on mentoring and community removes the overwhelm of building your successful and profitable business and adds in a dose of momentum.
Until next time, have a healthy, safe, and happy week!
~ Dr. Moira Hanna
