When you are growing a business, you enter different phases, and for each phase, you should have a different focus point.
In this short and sweet podcast episode, I will tell you what you should be focusing on to grow to that next level in your business, whether you're at €0 months or €20k months right now.
€0 to €2k months. €2 to €5k months. €5 to €10k months. €10 to €20k months. €20 to €50k months. +€50k months.
Personally, I've moved through all of these different phases, and I've had +1000 clients do the same thing.
Now it's YOUR turn. Ready?
€0 – €2000 months
If you're finding yourself in this initial phase, I assume you're working on your side hustle next to your full-time job, or maybe you're just starting out.
No matter your situation, your main focus in this phase should be to generate cash flow for your business. Cash is king.
To generate cash flow, you need to be focused on SALES.
Don't worry about your website. Don't worry about the logo stickers on your car. Don't worry about getting a different cell phone number for your business.
Focus on getting clients. Sales are your priority in this phase, and good marketing can help you get those sales.
And when I talk about good marketing, I don't mean getting professional photos or choosing your brand colors…
Start engaging with people and figure out what they want you to be selling, and get them to buy THAT, so you can generate cash for your business.
€2000 – €5000 months
Alright, it's time to focus on hitting those consistent €5k months by refining your core offer.
Of course, you need to make sure it's something people want to buy, but your (one) core offer should be something that makes sense for you financially, too.
In this phase, your focus is on aligning your product, program, or service (core offer) to allow you to pay your invoices, go on vacation, and do things that will enable you to invest in growth.
€5000 – €10.000 months
Honestly, this phase isn't much different from the previous one. You have your core offer in place, and it should allow you to grow upwards to €10k per month.
You will only succeed in hitting €10k months if your core offer is smart.
What do I mean by that?
Stick to ONE thing. Don't start selling mugs along with mom-coaching and jars of Nutella. (Haha, lol. I think you get my point, right?)
Therefore, make sure that your core offer can actually get you to €10k per month, and what often helps me is looking at the different pricing points.
Make sure your core offer is realistic in terms of traffic: if you want to sell 1000 pieces at €10, you need a big audience in order to hit €10k months.
I recommend you at least start with a 200 EUR offer if you run a service-based business. If you're selling products, it's a different story, but try to stick to a few key items.
Apart from looking at your pricing, there are a few additional focus points in this phase:
- Client retention: Make sure your clients keep coming back, and ideally, focus on creating longer-term commitments with clients. Instead of 1-month packages, go for a 6-month package.
- Referrals: Work with referrals. Make your service or product so good that others (ideally your existing clients) want to promote it for you. You can do this both offline and online.
- Social proof: Use social proof over and over again. Social proof is an excellent way to show others they can believe what you're telling them.
- Time management: Optimize your time management for two major reasons: 1) make sure you have enough time to serve your clients, and 2) leave some buffer time to focus on growing your business.
- Automation: Start automating appointment scheduling (or labeling of packages if you're running a product-based business). Automate whatever processes you can so you don't waste precious time staying stuck in ‘maintenance mode'.
RECAP
These first 3 phases are really focusing on one core offer – because making your one core offer profitable should really be your focus when you start to grow your business.
Your main goal should be happy clients, happy cash, and to reach this goal you need to make sure you get that cash flow first.
This is still the time to work from your kitchen and not over-invest in unnecessary fancy stuff!
Once you hit that €10k mark, you can look into expanding to multiple core offers, outsourcing,…
€10.000 – €20.000 months
When you reach the ‘over €10k phase', you can start focusing more on outsourcing.
Before you start outsourcing (or make any other big decisions or expenses), ask yourself:
- What is the potential upside of me making this expense?
- What is the potential downside or risk of me making this expense?
For instance, hire a virtual assistant (VA) to take over some of the work that's holding you back from creating abundance and the space you need to focus on growth. The potential upside of this expense outweighs the potential downside because it creates time for you to work ON growing your business.
It can seem terrifying to outsource because you think only YOU can get the work done, but if you want to start growing from €10k to €20k consistent months, you need to outsource.
Additionally, you need to take a closer look at your product suite. One way to think of your product suite is like a staircase.
For example, we have the Business Freedom Elevator™️, and the Boss Up Mentorship™️ program, which is the follow-up coaching program for the BFE™️.
Instead of serving a different audience each time, we look at how we can continue serving the same people.
This is how we have built our own product suite as a staircase: people start in BFE™ and can move up to BUM™.
The truth is, it's much easier to keep selling to existing clients, than to new clients.
Get more tips on getting organized with a team in podcast episode 101 where I share 6 key principles to scale and grow your business. You can find the recap of the episode here.
€20.000 – €50.000 months
Remember: I'm talking about consistent €50k months, not a €50k launch!
You've entered another major phase in your business, and it's time you start building up passive funnels.
Passive profits could come from affiliate income, but I wouldn't recommend you start there. Because affiliate income is like putting your eggs in the basket of someone else and it doesn't generate the cash you want to be looking for. You increase your risks and reduce the control.
Instead, build your own passive funnels and focus on selling your own offer(s) passively on the regular. This will give you much more control and less risks.
If you already have a VA on board, you might also consider to expand your team at this point. A team will help you create space for setting up passive funnels and ensure a monthly recurring revenue (MRR).
+€50.000 months
In this phase, everything we discussed previously comes back.
You still need to focus on your recurring revenue and planning, but to pull off €50k consistently every single month, you don't just need planning; you need kick-ass planning.
Of course, you will have launches that make your income spike during certain months, but that's different than hitting €50k consistently.
Going through these different stages doesn't happen overnight. Trust me!
I've been working on this for years and sometimes I'm still switching things around. However, the main takeaway for you should be that you have a different focus point for each phase of your business.
Ultimately, the goal should be that you can step into your CEO role with an organization that supports you and your business moving to the next and the next and the next phase.
If you're unsure what next steps to take, my team and I have created a Growth Quiz to help you narrow in on what you should be focused on next (e.g. marketing, sales, planning etc.). Take the Growth Quiz for free via this link: www.fastforwardamy.com/growthquiz
Watch this episode on YouTube, or listen via iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, and search for episode 103 of The FastForwardAmy Show.
Leave a Reply