When your business grows past the solopreneur with a team stage, it moves from being your baby, to being a hyper-active adolescent. Suddenly everything speeds up, you have to create job descriptions and learn to let go of tasks and control over the granularity of those tasks. The amount of work to be done skyrockets faster than you can onboard new people. So you need to have a plan in place LONG BEFORE the shift happens.
- Business structure: As a solopreneur, you may have operated as a sole proprietorship, but as a small business owner, you need to consider a more formal business structure, such as a limited liability company (LLC) or a corporation. This will help protect your personal assets and provide a more professional image for your business.
- Hiring and management: As a solopreneur, you may have been able to manage everything on your own, but as a small business owner, you need to hire and manage a team. This requires developing job descriptions, interviewing candidates, and creating a positive company culture that encourages employee engagement and retention.
- Financial management: As a solopreneur, you may have managed your finances through a personal bank account, but as a small business owner, you need to separate your personal and business finances. This requires setting up a business bank account, tracking expenses, and creating a budget to ensure that you are managing your finances effectively. It may even mean allowing a trusted few employees to have access to a company credit card to do their jobs more efficiently. And it almost certainly means hiring on a bookkeeping firm to track your numbers and help you understand your financial records so you can make better fiscal decisions.
- Marketing and sales: As a solopreneur, you may have been able to handle marketing and sales on your own, but as a small business owner, you need to develop a more formal marketing and sales strategy - including a marketing calendar. This means no more fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants decisions to create and market a new class in 2 weeks. Instead, you're committing to a long-term approach to your marketing and to what you are offering on a regular basis.
- Mindset: As a solopreneur, you've been the chief bottle washer and visionary. If you've been smart, you've been onboarding people along the way who can help with the transition to a larger organization. But now you have to uplevel your thinking. Instead of thinking about what you're doing next month, you need to be looking longer term - the next 1, 3, and 5 years. Running a larger organization requires thinking systematically and over time to be able to anticipate problems and provide growth tools. You also have to stop doing everything that doesn't absolutely require your presence. This is often the hardest part for most entrepreneurs. Letting go can be a big leap of faith.
- Keyperson Insurance: If you are the face of the company and it can't operate without you, then this is the time to talk to an insurance company about getting Keyperson insurance. This is like life insurance for your company. It allows the company to continue to operate while it finds a replacement for you if you die or become incapacitated.
- Upleveling Your Partners and Contractors: When your business expands, so should your network. You need to make sure that you are working with people at your level. You will likely begin to outgrow your former marketing and JV partners. Looking for new partners for this stage of your business will help you grow even faster. Also take a critical look at your contractors. With more money coming in, you'll be able to afford done-for-you solutions that can reduce the workload on your company. The more you can outsource during this ramp-up phase the fewer systems you have to create.
- Energetic Shifts Required: When you start a new business on your own, you create it with your own energy field. This means that it ends up with the same energetic blocks that you have. This is why it's so important to do your personal growth work when you run a business. When you clear your blocks, you clear the business's blocks as well. But when you become a business owner, it's time to take the business out of your personal energy field and allow it to have its own energy field. This allows the employees and the company culture to impact the business and it keeps the business from slowing down just because you got tired. If you skip this step, you can find yourself feeling VERY overwhelmed when the shift happens and things speed up.
In short, the shift is coming - are you ready? If you need some help navigating the change in your business - especially the spiritual ones - I can help. Reach out for a Discovery Call and let's discuss how we can work together.
