You got what you wanted – but it didn’t turn out like you imagined.
That business you dreamed of is finally taking off … but it’s also driving you crazy.
• Maybe you took on more clients than you wanted.
• Or found spending 7 hours a day on Zoom is draining you.
• Or are drowning under the deluge of client questions and texts.
This scenario is more common than you can imagine.
In fact, if you’re a new solopreneur if you haven’t gone through it yet, there’s a good chance you will.
It’s painful and disorienting … but don’t let it freak you out.
Because when you’re aware of these 3 common phases of a solopreneur start-up, you can know what’s happening, minimize the struggle, and grow with a lot more ease.
PHASE
Pedal to the Metal
When you’re starting out, all you want is clients and sales. Because you realize: All the things your company or boss used to pay for are things that now come out of your pocket.
So you do everything:
• Work endless hours.
• Enroll anyone with a credit card – even if they’re not ideal.
• You’d do singing telegrams if it would bring in business.
And it’s working! Not only are you making money and closing sales, you’re doing it over and over.
You may be approaching six-figures and even starting to meet influential partners and connecting with opportunities.
But it’s slowly dawning on you this frenetic level of activity is just not sustainable.
PHASE
Yikes! Retreat …
Clients are draining you. Constant sales calls are exhausting you.
And you feel you have to constantly develop new programs because your followers have already seen your old ones.
You reached your goal, but the problems seem greater than the rewards.
Even though you’ve demonstrated the ability to make things work, you may find yourself thinking, “I knew I was a fraud. If I was a real business owner I wouldn’t have ended up here.”
You find yourself on a tight rope: Needing to keep hustling to pay the bills, while at the same time figuring out a different business model that lets you breathe AND prosper.
I can’t tell you how many business owners I’ve met who are there or were there. The good news is that you don’t have to STAY THERE.
PHASE
Reload and Revive
While it seems like there’s no way out, I want to give you a few steps and “a-ha’s” to help you navigate through the mess. And emerge stronger and more successful than ever:
What got you here won’t get you there.
The frenetic start-up activity, the ‘throw it at the wall’ scattershot craziness has a very hard ceiling. This realization is the crucial step one. Without it, you’ll continue to run in circles and exhaust your energy.
Trade-in complaining for curiosity
It’s interesting: How you ask a question is just as important as what the question is.
Asking “Why is this happening?” as a complaint mires you deeper in “woe is me” helpless mode. Asking “Why is this happening?” from a place of genuine curiosity starts to surface the discoveries that move you forward. It also puts you in the seat of empowerment and self-direction because it assumes there’s an answer. You just have to find it.
Find the cause / Fix the cause
Once you stop playing the helpless card, you’ll start finding why you’re in this predicament. Business is not meant to be a forever trial, as long as you’re willing to examine the problem you helped create that’s making it that way. So you can find a solution.
IMPORTANT: Don’t try to enact a solution without being really clear on the problem that created your current situation, or you’ll infect the new direction with the old crisis.
Move from over-creation to strategic creation:
That crazy, energetic throw-it-at-the-wall phase was absolutely necessary to get going. But like the spent first stage of a rocket, it needs to be cast aside for you to get into orbit.
You must move from launching a new program every month or crafting a brand new talk (to go with the 7 you already created) to focusing on one or two “Hero Programs” that are of perpetual evergreen interest to your ideal clients.
Slow your brain down and shift your creation energy from creating new offerings to marketing and promoting the few you know will be a huge hit with your audience.
Make the thing you want the thing they want
Many of us begin taking something we love to do and getting a bunch of folks to pay for it. It’s a friction-filled process because it involves a lot of convincing: As in “You should want this.”
To sell at scale (which is crucial to getting out of Stage Two) you must start positioning your offer as the thing they already want. You’re moving from a product-centric model – create a bunch of products and try to sell them – to an audience-centric model – what does my ideal audience already want and how can I position my offer as the best path for them to have it?
Key skills: Laser targeting their pain and ideal outcome and articulating your offer as the bridge between the two.
AND MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL:
A TOOL OR TACTIC IS NOT YOUR ANSWER
I’ve seen too many entrepreneurs crash and burn when they reach for a tool or tactic as their way out.
Because tools and tactics are useless without the strategy that powers them.
• A funnel is useless without the strategy that drives it.
• A challenge or webinar is useless without the strategy that drives it.
• A launch is useless without the strategy that drives it.
• A summit is useless without the strategy that drives it.
Running to the perceived safety of another hot tactic to save you is a dead end that can mire you deeper into that desperate “No way out” feeling.
What works is FIRST doing the work to know the problem your audience is going through and the solution they are already searching for.
And then chose the tactic that is a perfect match for your current expertise and abilities that best highlights your offer as the answer they’ve been searching for.
A mentor once told me “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.”
Knowing how common these 3 phases are and the key escapes will help you navigate the growth of your business so you can thrive.
