I am not in a hurry to build my business
I’m okay if it takes me a couple years to get to my revenue goal
I want to grow…slowly.
Here’s a fascinating fact – I work the same amount today in 2018 making $2M+ (that's our current revenue goal that we are on track to hit) as I did in 2017 when I made $1.3m as I did in 2016 when I made $650k, etc. In fact, I work less because my team has grown and my role has gotten hyper-focused on my zone of genius (plus I take Fridays off).
This isn’t just true for me. It’s true for almost EVERYONE I work with. As your business grows, as you learn from your successes and failures, as your team grows, the hours per week that you will need to work will remain the same or will decrease.
So when someone says to me that they want to grow slowly, it CONFUSES the crap out of me! It’s like offering somebody two options, $10 or $20, and they choose $10. WTF?!
Okay, confusion aside, there’s actually understandable (but totally incorrect) reasons that people think they’re making the right choice by picking the $10. There’s a couple underlying myths at play here and I’m going to dismantle them today for you, one by one.
Myth #1: You have control over your business growth
We think of business growth as steady and predictable. Like if I work on my business, it will grow. And if I work on it some more, it will grow some more. And if I don’t work on it as much, it won’t grow as much.
In that world, your business would look like this:
The only problem is that’s not how businesses grow. Instead, they grow more like kids. Ten inches one year and then nothing. Another four inches. Nothing. A foot! Another foot!
Which means your business looks more like this:
Every business will have a few seasons of incredible growth. This might be because of a new product / service, a change in the industry, publicity or a new marketing strategy. If those opportunities happen during your “slow” seasons, when you are not focused or ready for them, you are going to miss out. You can increase your chance of creating a growth season by hard work and focus, and you can decrease your chance of getting a growth season by inattention and distraction, but you cannot conjure a growth season simply by showing up for one season. You have to be there, focused and ready, to grab the opportunity when it shows up.
Myth #2: 10 1-inch steps is the same distance as 1 10-inch leap.
I know what you’re thinking: wait, that’s actually true! Yes, it’s the same distance, but it’s not the same momentum. Imagine you’re a frog. Think about the effort needed to take a 1-inch step. Now think about the effort needed to take a 10-inch leap. A leap requires commitment, focus, risk, energy, etc. A tiny step requires almost nothing.
This is why it’s been proved that tiny steps are effective for creating long-lasting habits, like drinking water or becoming tidier, because they don’t require very much energy to sustain and then they become an automatic choice, i.e. a habit.
But it’s also why if you want to make a huge change or transformation, the most effective way is to make a BIG BOLD LEAP. Put money down. Sign on the dotted line. Move to a new city. Publicly commit to your goal. Internal commitment + external risk (such as financial or social) = momentum.
“You can’t cross a 20-foot chasm in two 10-foot leaps.” – Gina Mollicone Long
Myth #3: Hours worked = money earned
Yep, Rachel over here, pulling out her broken record and talking about the “work hard once” theory. I have covered this SO MANY TIMES. Here and here and here. If you’re not familiar with the concept of work hard once, get yourself in the scripture!
When I’m talking to a business owner about growing their business and they tell me that they want to grow slowly, I ask them why. And 9 out of 10 times, they say, well I’m working all the time as it is, I just don’t have the time or energy to work any harder.
This is how they see it:
1 hour = $100, so if they want to make $10,000 a month, they have to work 100 hours.
$20K = 200 hours, $30K = 300 hours, and so on…
But here’s the reality:
As a lawyer, I used to work 200 hours a month to earn $10K ($50/hour)
Then I hired junior lawyers to help me which meant I was working 160 hours a month but earning $30K ($187.50/hour)
Then I took 100 hours to create a digital product which has earned me $1m ($10K+/hour)
This Friday, I led an 8-hour workshop and earned $160k ($20k/hour)
When you realize that your hours are TOTALLY unrelated to your revenue, the whole world opens up. Suddenly, there is no slow growth or fast growth. There’s just focus or distraction. Strategic or scattered. Moving forward or standing still.
Which one are you doing?
xo,
PS: When you're ready, here's two ways my team can help you grow quickly this year:
1. Join the Hello Seven Group and connect with women entrepreneurs who are scaling too.
This is our new Facebook community where badass women learn to get more income, impact, and independence. Click here
2. Join Glow Up, my 10-week course where you will complete the 9 projects that will scale your business and add $100k to your revenue.
If you’d like to work with me on simplifying your business while scaling to more revenue, Glow Up is the place to be. We're starting May 1st and have some special bonuses included. Registration closes tomorrow so act quickly. Details here.
