The biggest lie about scaling

Today’s episode is bought to you by one of my freebies 7 strategies to help you grow your profit while working less.

The reason why I love this freebie is that so many business owners believe you have to work harder to make more!  So I wanted to share some practical tips to earn more with out the burnout.

To grab a copy of this, please jump into the link in show notes.

What is the biggest lie about scaling?

So, I’m not going to keep you sitting on the edge of your chair… I’ll dive right in. what IS the biggest lie about scaling?

Well here is it.

That growth needs to be linear.

In my 6 ½ years as a business coach, I’ve seen hugely successful women entrepreneurs fall in a heap because they have a slow month/ launch/ quarter or even year.

And the biggest thing I remind my clients, and I’m now sharing with you is that this is completely normal!

We have a misconception in the filtered world of social media that our business needs to grow month on month and year on year! 

But let me tell you a few of my thoughts with this idea.

It is extremely rare that any business grows and grows and grows. And I’m not even talking about in small business.  As someone who has worked in many global organisations, I can assure you that sales and profit go up and down.  Sometimes A LOT.  This is a normal part of business.  It is very rare to go up and up.

Sometimes you have to slow down to go to a new level

Sometimes you have to slow down to speed up.  The last 2 years my business has been growing quickly, which has been amazing.  But I was starting to burn out.  And I also found that a lot of my processes and systems were falling over with scaling.  I didn’t have sufficient support in my team, and I wasn’t operating at the version of me I needed to, step into the next level. My revenue has plateaued for a a couple of months now, and it’s super tempting for me to sign a few new private coaching clients to boost the cashflow, but I’d be repeating old patterns which is taking on more clients because I know it’s easy for me to attract high ticket one-on-one clients.

Same with any kind of business, sometimes you need to stop, and pause, re-strategise and refresh to leap into your next income level.

For service-based businesses, it might mean slowing down on being busy to create a course or to hire new team members. Anyone who has hired will know that when you first onboard someone new, it actually takes more of your time in training them initially then they will add back!  So this is an example of slowing down to speed up.

One of my biz friends actually took a few months off to create and launch her first course!  I get that not everyone has that luxury, but it’s something to consider. Sometimes you have to intentionally slow down, to speed up.

Dealing with cashflow ups and downs

Cashflow issues happen. People think that “at a certain stage” the money will just pile up.  And it can.  But to be honest, I believe that banking up savings can be a form of money block.  I’m not against saving of course, but it’s just that sometimes businesses are restricting their long term growth by not investing back into it.

Let me tell you about my hubby’s business.  He runs a recruitment firm if you aren’t a long time listener. Anyway his business is going gangbusters at the moment.  With the world opening up again, everyone is hiring and he is literally scared to answer his phone as he doesn’t have the bandwidth.  With me as his unofficial mentor I am encouraging him to hire and capitalise on this opportunity.

So, what is the takeaway from all of this?

1) Intentionality – Are you intentionally creating plans for what you want to create? In Episode 157 I shared that I very intentionally lowered my profitability for the 2021 year to focus on longer term growth. Stopping, planning and pausing to figure out the plan is imperative!

2) Being kind to yourself if things DON’T go to plan and creating a new strategy – Shit is going to go wrong in business.  Fact.  And you are going to miss your profit targets at time.  Fact. You can’t control a lot of things in business – the external market, economic factors, the cost of Facebook ads etc. But you can control how you are going to filter information and the strategy you will use off the back of it.

For example, if your business is slowing down right not, you could say “It’s doomed! I need to quit my business” vs. saying “That’s weird.  I was so sure that was going to work.  Ah well, let’s course correct.”

When things DON’T go to plan, you need to know what you are going to do next. May it’s a major pivot, or maybe a minor tweak to get it back on track.

To sum up today, the biggest lie we are told in business is that growth is linear. It’s not. 

I hope what I have shared today gives you comfort and hope if you are going through a plateau or even a temporary decline in your business.

Intentionally create YOUR most profitable business in a way that works for you. Business is not a race, focus on what you are creating in the long term, so you can create a sustainable business to support you in the long term.