Taking your business to the next level

What your “next level” looks like depends on where you are in business now. Running a business is a journey, with many levels to navigate along the way.

There is usually a trigger point in your business that has you considering taking your business to your next level, e.g. reaching the GST threshold or making your first $100,000. Perhaps you’re focused on reaching the salary that you had while you were in a corporate job or maybe you want to earn enough so your partner can stop work.

We are all unique in the goals we have for our businesses.

Moving beyond the start-up stage

You know you want to grow and expand yet you’re confused about what the next steps are for your business. Do you hire more team members, offer different services or let go of poorly performing services?

You’ve nearly reached capacity in terms of your available time so something needs to change but when you’ve got a case of the “don’t knows” - you don’t know what you don’t know - you can feel nervous about moving onto the next stage in your business. How do you manage your businesses growth past that initial start-up stage?

When my clients come to me with these questions there are four areas we discuss.

1.      Goals and plans

If you have a goal, but no plan to get there, we’ll work out an action plan that is tailored to you and your business.

What will your mix of roles look like? Perhaps you’ll give up your marketing sales manager role, or your technician role, in order to fully step into the role of CEO. You might retain your technician role on less hours. Or you might decide on something in between.

There are many factors to consider when deciding on your mix of roles which is why having a trusted mentor to discuss your goals and plans with is so important.

Ideally you want your business to support you to do the work you love, which leads us onto business models.

2.      Your business model

Choosing the right business model for your next stage of your business is about more than just leveraging your time by running a group course.

It’s important to go deeper than that and consider how you want to show up in your business.

Will you be the sole technician doing all of the client work and have a business manager taking care of everything else? Or will you hire staff to do the technical work while you step into a management role? Or is it going to be a mix of both so you keep your consulting experience relevant?

You may need to change your current business model in order to reach your new goals.

In this blog post, Which business model is right for you?, I shared three of the most common models.

 3.      Hiring

Once you’re clear on your goals and the steps needed to reach them you need to decide who you need on your team to help you reach your goals.

Start with who is in your team now. How is that mix working for you? What additional support or skills do you need on your team? What costs will a new team member have?

If you need to add to your team, make sure you consider your capacity to train them. You might need to sustain a lull in business while the training takes place or you might need to take dedicated time out of your business to train them up quickly.

 4.      Your prices

As you move into the next level of your business you need to consider if your prices need adjusting.

When was the last time you raised your prices? Do you need to rework your whole pricing structure or simply do a percentage increase across the board?

If you have team members doing the technical work for you, you need to consider if their work is at the right price point too.

In order to reach your goals, you need a plan to get you there. If you don’t make the time and space to put on your CEO hat then it’s going to be that much harder to move your business to the next level.

Having a mentor by your side means you’ll be considering the right questions to keep you focused on your goals and your plan. Book in a 20-minute call with me to discuss how I can provide the support you need.