In December 2016, I had my first $10k/month in my business.

That was just in time to celebrate my first year anniversary as an entrepreneur and end up 2016 on a great note!

But little did I know that two months later I would make the biggest mistake I’ve ever made in my business.

It’s like putting the cart before the horse.

But I didn’t know it at that time because I didn’t know about the first 3 stages of Business.

The first 3 stages of business are:

  1. The CREATION phase
  2. The CONCENTRATION phase
  3. The MOMENTUM phase

Many new entrepreneurs don’t realize that in order to get to the IMPACT and LEGACY phases (where you can give back and build a legacy), you have to go through the first 3 phases of business.

In that order.

The biggest mistake I made in February 2017 was to jump from CREATION to building MOMENTUM assets.

Specifically, I enrolled myself in a new program to design your dream team, ready to expand my business.

But all the cash my business made was reinvested in team members BEFORE I had a solid flow of leads coming in to be able to keep paying my team members.

That was a big mistake.

I felt like I was constantly chasing after money to keep my business running and it felt like this big monster always hungry for $$$.

I really felt like a slave to my business and ultimately had to let go of all of my team to rebuild my business properly.

Knowing which stage of business you are in is CAPITAL for you to know:

  • What you need to first focus your efforts on,
  • Which business model to leverage to go to the next phase

So let’s have a closer look at each business stage and how you can tell if you’re successful or not at each one of them:


The CREATION phase

During the creation phase, you are defining the concept of your business. You need to find an answer to the following questions (among others)

  • Who do I help?
  • What do I help them with?
  • How do I call myself?
  • What offer can I make to people?
  • How can I market myself?

How do you know when you’re successful in the CREATION phase:
You know you are successful in this phase when you are making your first sales at the price you want.

That means you found a match between your ideal clients and your offer.

That means your concept is of interest to the market.

If you’re not yet making sales, it’s because you didn’t find what’s the perfect match between your ideal client and your offer. Here is a free training to fix this problem.


The CONCENTRATION phase

During the concentration phase, you are making sure that your business idea generates a healthy profit margin so that your business can grow (and pay you!). You need to find an answer to the following questions:

  • Am I creating a debt or accumulating profit?
  • Is my pricing enough to pay myself, pay for my business needs, and generate profit?
  • How can I make sure my clients pay me? pay me on time?
  • How can I attract consistently more prospects into my business?

How do you know when you’re successful in the CONCENTRATION phase:

You know you are successful in this phase when you are making a profit, paying your taxes, paying yourself and when you’re able to pay all your business bills on time.

That means that you found a great balance between the money coming in and the money coming out and you’re accumulating profit in order to reinvest and grow in the next phase (MOMENTUM)

If you’re not making a profit and paying yourself it’s because you don’t have the right pricing for your offer and you need to raise your prices.

Or you’re not having enough sales each month. This is why this phase feels a lot like feast-and-famine cycles to a lot of entrepreneurs.

Here is a free training to learn the business model I used, and my clients successfully used, to be profitable in their business from day 1.


The MOMENTUM phase

During the Momentum phase, you are making sure that your business has the right systems and processes to be the most efficient possible.

This is usually the time for you to hire your first team members to help you scale up without drowning.

You need to find an answer to the following questions:

  • Where are the bottlenecks?
  • Is this the best use of my time?
  • Can I delegate this task?
  • Do my team members’ roles match their talents?

How do you know when you’re successful in the MOMENTUM phase:

You’re successful in the Momentum phase when you have successful systems and processes in place that make your business and your team efficient.

This is the time when you can step away from your business and your business can still run without you having your hands or your eyes on it.

You’re building an order so that when you scale up, even more, you know your business foundations are solid enough to hold the weight.

If you’re overwhelmed, can’t take a week off and if you feel like you’re trying to extinguish fires day-in-and-day-out, that means your business is not yet successful at the momentum phase and is definitely not ready to scale up to the impact phase.

At the MOMENTUM stage, each business is very unique and I recommend you to book a free assessment to see where the biggest roadblock is in your business and what’s your next step to successfully grow your business and graciously enter the IMPACT stage.

 

Share This