Season 1: How do I Grow My Business?

by Nichole Smith | Apr 9, 2019 | Grow Your Business, Podcast, Season 2

It is possible to both have a sustainable business and a life!

Today I wanted to walk you through the very first stage of the process that gets you from wherever you are now to that freedom and fulfilment. I mentioned it’s not going to happen overnight and it does happen in stages and today I want to walk you through the first stage, which is how to grow your business.

So one of the things I believe in is what I call the Four Seasons of Freedom and Fulfilment. These are the stages from being an entrepreneur, just starting out to one who has freedom and fulfilment. That doesn’t happen by accident. In fact, most of us go the opposite direction. Many people quit their corporate job because they love the idea of being an entrepreneur and then find they have less freedom and fulfilment than ever.

Why? Because this sh*t is HARD!

It’s hard to run your own business. If you ask most people, freedom is not something they would necessarily associate with being a small business owner. But there is a way to make that happen and it happens in stages; four of them. The first stage is growing your business, so that’s what I want to talk to you about today.

When you are just getting started as an entrepreneur, it is so easy to get distracted by all the things we’re supposed to be good at. All of the things we’re supposed to know. You hear talk from people like me about building a brand and you want to do all the social media tactics and you want to do all the PR and all the things that look great on paper and it’s hard to know what is a good fit for you.

But I want to tell you that there is one thing that you need to focus on if you’re new to running a business or if you’re running a business that isn’t working very well yet and that is:

Getting stable.

When I say getting stable, what I mean is being able to make more money with less stress. Sounds pretty simple and it also probably sounds a bit like a pipe dream if that feels a long way away for you right now. But that is all you need to focus on at first because if you’re going to use any of those fancy tactics or build a brand or do any of that stuff and you don’t have the foundations of a great business, it’s not really going to work for you the way it’s supposed to or the way it should on paper. So growing your business is the first stage.

And here’s what that looks like. You really need to learn how to manage the Five Laws of Entrepreneurship.

The Five Laws are:

Mindset
Money
Marketing
Mechanics
Momentum.

You can try and ignore one or more of them, but you’re going to get in trouble. And remember, this stage isn’t about mastering these things. It’s just about understanding them and learning to manage them.

1. Mindset

The very first one is Mindset. And for a lot of that that feels a little bit woo woo, like we don’t really want to talk about scarcity and enoughness and having enough money and self-worth and all that kind of stuff, so you ignore it. It’s gonna bite you in the ass so you really need to acknowledge that. The first law of entrepreneurship is mindset and to really invest in your ability to show up with your head on straight as an entrepreneur.

2. Money

The second stage is Money and that is all about getting organized. It’s about understanding the money coming into and out of your business, looking for opportunities and having a clear picture of things like your cashflow and your profitability.

3. Marketing

The third step with Marketing is really, really just about the simple act of starting more conversations and getting conversions. And that’s a huge part of where the stability comes from is being able to go make money when you need to and testing and trying stuff, seeing what works and seeing what doesn’t because once you know what works in your business, you can scale it. You can put more money, more effort, more team, more resources towards it because you’ve seen it work, but until you figure that out, it’s testing. It’s all testing and that should be your primary focus.

4 & 5 Mechanics & Momentum

Then those next two laws, Mechanics and Momentum are all about starting to save you time and save you money and then showing up an acting consistently.

So this is about creating some really basic habits and really getting, starting to get some processes and systems into your business that make it easier for you to be stable, to be consistent, to grow your business. If you haven’t figured that stuff out, if there’s a lot of things I just mentioned that freak you out or you’re not very, very sure of yet, then you are still in the grow your business stage and you don’t need to worry too much about building a brand or funding your freedom or any of the other wacky things that you might hear entrepreneurs talking about that are just beyond where you are right now.

So this is your permission slip to just focus on one thing, get stable, get enough time, enough money, and get enough confidence that you can go into the next stages and move towards your freedom in a way that is sustainable and not just chaotic all at the same time.

We have a ton of resources to help you grow your business here on jnicholesmith.com so definitely check it out. There’s usually a free challenge and tons of downloads to help you get started with this phase and to figure out where you’re at now and what your next steps are. You can also join the conversation in our Private Facebook Group. This is the place where I hang out all the time and can answer your questions and really provide a ton of resources for #enchantedrebels like you who want to build a brand instead of just a business and who want to find freedom and fulfilment.

Because I promise you it is possible to both have a sustainable business and a life and we can help show you how. I hope to see you inside.