How to Prepare Your Business For Growth in Any Season
If you've been in the online business space for any chunk of time, you've probably seen dozens of ads telling you that it's time to level up and, if you're not doing it a certain way, you're doing it wrong. Yuck.
I honestly don't think that people understand the pressure that manifests from growing a multi-six-figure business in a short amount of time. I certainly didn't. But in 2021, that's what happened to me, and I was definitely NOT ready.
I was creating more ways to bring in passive income because I was being told that client work was for the birds. But then I got so many client inquiries that I said YES to because I was too scared to turn down work. I had to scramble to assemble a team to keep up and was running myself into the ground to be present 100% of the time for everything in my business.
Simply put — I was doing WAY too much.
Growth is amazing. There's so much that has happened because of it, and I am grateful for that, but that doesn't mean it didn't come without hardship.
If you're in a spot where you think it's time to grow, heed my caution — prepare yourself! Don't forget the prep and planning that comes from scaling. Remember, slow and steady wins the race.
Document Your Process
When it was just me at TLHQ, I kept all my strategies in my head. I thought that I didn't need to write it down because there wasn't anyone else to relay that information to besides my clients. It seemed like a waste of time to me and, honestly, I was more focused on doing my job as it concerned video content than the admin part.
Big fail.
Once I started onboarding people on my team and our client base grew, I realized that keeping my strategy in my head wasn't going to work anymore. I had to scramble to get it all written down and missed a lot of information on my processes because I was going so fast.
Save yourself and just write down your strategy and processes, no matter how small.
Get Clarity on Hiring
Speaking of having your processes laid out for new team members, understanding your standard operating procedures (SOPs) is a must!
It's not fair to bring someone on board, whether full-time, part-time, or contractor, and have no idea how anything works in your own business. I learned that the hard way.
A while back, I had hired two new people to join my team, but it didn't work out. It wasn't because of anything they did. They were actually great! It was because I was so all over the place that we were constantly under pressure to get things done at the last minute, which led to missed details and deadlines. I pretty much threw them into the deep end with no life jacket, and I regret it.
If you're going to hire help, make sure that what you need help with is crystal clear. You don't have to have all the kinks worked out, but please don't onboard someone with little to no context. It makes your life, and theirs, a thousand times harder than it needs to be.
Staged Onboarding
Part of the reason growing so much in just one year was so stressful is that we were overloaded with clients. Sure, that seems like a good thing, and I obviously thought so because I kept saying yes where I shouldn't have.
It wasn't always about the client not being a good fit and me taking the work anyways. It was just that my schedule didn't have the wheelhouse for the number of clients I had.
What ended up happening was a lack of quality all the way around — with my client work, in my Video Strategy Academy, and in my agency. I showed up to record videos for my channel, ready to "just get it over with” and check another thing off my list. The content I was producing wasn't as valuable and authentic as it could have been because I was stretched thin.
That did not sit well with me, so I've since reduced the amount of clients I can take at a time. We only onboard one every two weeks.
If you take away anything from this post, please let it be that quality will always trump quantity.
Define Success For Yourself
We live in a society where we're told that if we aren't making a million dollars (or something close to it), we aren't very good at our jobs. We are sold this idea that climbing a ladder and making more and more money is the whole point of our job.
And it's not just corporate America either. As business owners, we are bombarded with messages about the amount of money we should be making in our business or how to get high-paying clients (even if we may not have the skillset to back it up).
But honestly? Screw that.
If I've learned anything from being an entrepreneur, there is SO MUCH more to life than making money. Don't get me wrong. I like to have it. That's kind of the point of working. I gotta pay my bills, but it isn't everything.
If your business gives you the freedom to have the life you want? Great! If it allows you to spend more time with your family? Awesome!
Success is different for everyone, so instead of stressing over the ads you see on Instagram telling you that if you're not making X amount of dollars per month, you're doing something wrong, define success for yourself. That's the beautiful thing about being an entrepreneur.
Find Your Support System
Business can get lonely. You're more than likely working from home, by yourself, and trying to do it all as a team of one. You try to vent to your friends or spouse about your workday, but it feels like they don't get it.
If you're an introvert like me, this is even harder because the thought of reaching out and making new friends that understand you makes you want to run and hide under the covers!
Early in 2021, I joined a mastermind. I was nervous and kept trying to talk myself out of it because that's just what introverts do at social gatherings (virtual AND in-person). I made myself do it and learned that the pressure release from finding people who know exactly what you're going through is worth pushing past those nerves.
Find people who get you, in business or not, and keep them around. You're going to need them!
Being Perfect Doesn't Equal Success
You can't show up as the best business owner you can be if you're letting perfectionism run your life — another thing I learned the hard way. Living in a constant state of overthinking made me question myself and kept me from getting ANY work done because it never felt "good enough."
Nothing is ever going to be good enough. We all have improvements to make. Sometimes you'll have messy hair days when it's time to do an Instagram live. Sometimes you're not going to have a productive day because it's Tuesday and raining outside.
Who cares? Life moves on, and you should too! These things aren't going to matter five years from now, much less six months, so don't focus your energy on trying to be it all.
Find a Way to De-Stress
Moving my body and getting some form of exercise was something I sacrificed for work in 2021, and I'm not happy about it. By the end of the year, I was in a funk, feeling pretty unmotivated.
When January rolled around, I had enough of that!
I realized that for me if I don't get my body up and move a few times a week, I start to spiral. Now I stop working at 3:30 PM on the dot (or 3:35, who's counting) and hop over to my home gym for a Peloton ride, or if the weather is nice, I'll go for a walk.
Find the thing that keeps you balanced and make it a point to integrate it into your weekly routine.
If You're Struggling to Stay Focused and Content…
You don't have to do everything right at this moment. We're human beings, and we're not going to be functioning 100% all of the time, but shaking it off isn't so simple when you run a business. There's a lot of pressure to perform, even when your mind and body cannot keep up.
If you're struggling to manage your time because your focus is everywhere and it is running you dry…
First, know you aren't alone. This took me YEARS to overcome and is something I still have to battle every day to keep my shiny object syndrome in check. It's one of the hardest parts of being a business owner.
Second, I really think this video is going to help you get clear about what you need to focus on to get clarity in your biz and time back in your personal life.
