The ability to look ahead on this entrepreneurial journey is a huge part of your role as CEO – this is what allows you to see what’s coming before you are IN IT.
And that’s the theme of today’s email.
You’ve already build a sizeable business. Now let me give you a peek into what’s ahead on your journey (so hopefully those lessons aren’t as challenging).
Grab yourself a latte, Reader!
It’s time for a little coffee chat, where I’m breaking down some of the lessons learned (often the hard and expensive way) as my business has generated well over 7 figures over the last couple of years… while working an average of 25 hours a week, homeschooling 3 kids, and taking care of my aging parents.
And if your business isn’t ready to scale yet – that’s fine! I’m always learning more advanced material even if it’s not time to apply it in my business. So if your business is still in the mid to high 5-figures, I encourage you to keep reading and see what the road ahead looks like.
Lesson #1:: You Can’t Hustle Your Way to Sustainable Success.
If you’ve already got a six-figure business, it’s not that hard to see the path to scaling past 7-figures. You launch. You create a next level product or program. You launch again. You do more marketing. You launch again.
It’s not magic, it’s math.
But the math doesn’t show you the entire picture.
The numbers might work on paper – but where they don’t consider is the time, energy, and focus that goes into all that hustle.
And that’s why so many people hit a massive revenue goal ONCE, but they can’t do it twice.
Being able to grow your business year over year means your success isn’t a fluke. You have something REAL on your hands – a healthy business with healthy demand from potential clients.
So you can hustle and add more and more and more work to your plate – but if you really want sustainable success, you need a real structure, a real plan, and a healthy business.
Lesson #2:: You Won’t Have a Dream Team with ‘Just Outsource It’ Mindset
Ohhhh this topic makes me so dang angry at the experts and gurus out there telling entrepreneurs to just piecemeal together a team by outsourcing everything at the lowest possible cost!
If you truly want sustainable success, you must be willing to invest the next few years into attracting, building, and leading the right team. And it takes time to get the right people on board!
Hiring is hard. Managing is hard. Leadership is hard. You’re going to make mistakes, hire the wrong people, and have hard conversations. It’s going to bring up all your own stuff.
But it’s easier when you focus on building a great company with a great culture, where people feel VALUED and ENJOY working together.
Lesson #3:: You’ll Struggle to Celebrate Your Success
You’ll get those moments where you’re like “Wow! Look at how far I’ve come!”
Then you’ll get right back into working towards the next goal.
I spent years reinvesting back into my business and not really enjoying that success… then I realized how ridiculous it was that I’d spend money on the business without a second thought but spending the same amount hiring a designer for my house or going away on a vacation without the kids felt extravagant.
Now, it’s a priority to celebrate.
My husband and I love taking kid-free vacations – or this week, just enjoying that we can have a guilt-free day-date.
I splurged flying my 93 year old Granny out to New Orleans for the weekend to celebrate my cousin graduating from med school and fully spoiled her with first class tickets, luxury limo service, and of course, extra dessert.
Life is not a dress rehearsal – so enjoy what you’ve built!
Lesson #4:: You’ll Outgrow Your Mentors
The more you grow, the fewer answers you’ll find in public.
Honestly – the majority of business education out there is geared towards absolutely beginning stages of business. And once you cross $100K, $250K, $500K… those answers become harder and harder to find.
And I get it – when 88% of women owned businesses are making under $100K annually – it’s a huge opportunity for celebrity entrepreneurs to focus on tips, tricks, and tactics aimed at new business owners over big picture strategy.
But as your business crosses those milestones, you’ll need less of the one-sized-fits-all and more personalized information, relevant to your business.
That’s why it’s so important to stop listening to everyone and focus in on the mentors who truly resonate with where you are, right now. And if you find that person, lean in 100% to what they have to share with you.
Lesson #5:: More Marketing Isn’t The Answer
Building on lesson #4 above, if you were to pay attention to the biggest celebrity entrepreneurs out there, it would seem that marketing solves all business problems.
In my experience, if you’re spending all your time, energy, and money on marketing without a clear vision, aligned values, business growth strategy, support team, and incredible customer experience – you’ll solving the wrong problems.
It’s time to level up your CEO leadership in a massive way to ensure that your entire business is running like clockwork.
Lesson #6:: You Get To Do It YOUR WAY
Nothing makes me happier than walking into my gorgeous office space the week of a CEO Retreat, knowing that I’ve carefully created each part of this experience for myself, my team, and my clients.
I love truly getting to not only celebrate my client’s business success… but also their big milestones like having a baby or taking that dream vacation without a laptop.
I love that my incredible team fully supports one another, celebrating each other’s lives and cheering each other on.
And all of that came because I rejected any of the advice out there that wasn’t 100% aligned with myself, my business, and my values.
When you get to create what you want – things really get fun.
Sit back and think about what you want the next 12 months to look like. What do you want to experience? What do you want your team to look like? What do you want your impact to be? Create your vision then make it a reality.
Lesson #7:: You’ve Gotta Do LESS, Not More
Us entrepreneurs are idea machines – and it’s totally natural to wrap up one product/program/service and immediately think of the next one to create. And the next. And the next.
Or add more to the marketing mix – more webinars, more challenges, more affiliates, more partnerships, more social media.
It’s always more, more, more!
And if you do this – business is going to be SO MUCH HARDER than it needs to be.
Sadly, most entrepreneurs don’t understand that sustainability scaling is about doing LESS, but better.
And they are the ones who continue grinding it out until they hit a revenue plateau where they’ll hang out for a few years until they realize that breaking through to the next level requires real strategy, real systems, and a real team.
I know so many people who hustled their way to 7 figures by doing launch after launch – each more exhausting than the last – until they finally realized that they couldn’t keep up the pace without burning out themselves and their team.
When I realized there were easier ways to achieve our goals by simplifying and streamlining everything in the business (including my role as CEO), everything got massively easier.
Whew – that was a lot for a coffee chat!
But this has all been on my mind for awhile. So this week, I’m going to not just tell you about the lessons learned, but I’m going to also share what actually happened as we scaled The CEO Collective.
If you want to sustainably scale your business to multiple 6 or 7 figures, hit reply to this email and let me know the biggest challenge you’re facing right now.
And if you’re not quite ready yet, I hope you enjoyed this sneak peek of the more advanced conversations we have in store as your business grows.
To Your Success!
Racheal
PS – If this resonated, I’m hosting an invitation only training on Thursday, October 13th about how to sustainably scale your business using The 90 Day CEO Operating System.
In this training, you’ll learn::
- How to re-align your business to your vision and your values as you grow from a company of one to a CEO leading a company.
- How to continue building momentum in your business, even when facing constant changes in the world and economy.
- Why doing LESS is the secret to growing MORE in your business – and the key systems required to make it happen.
- The #1 reason you might be the bottleneck in your business as you start to scale.
Because this is a more advanced training for established entrepreneurs, there is a short application to get your invitation.
This training is absolutely free and there is no obligation to work with us once you apply.