Which Stage is Your Business in?

In just a few weeks, my oldest heads off to college.
As I pass by the baby clothes at Target, I remember vividly those days of buying diapers and praying I can get through the day with young babies and toddlers.
Now I'm buying dorm room supplies and holding back the tears. Everything is about to change. It's a whole new stage of parenting. The bird is flying away from the nest. It's time for him to fly.

As I've been on coaching calls during the last few weeks, I'm helping many of you map out your goals and where you should be focusing. Website? SEO? Google ads? Facebook ads? Hiring team?  Those goals are completely dependent upon the stage your business is in. We have to customize our path based on where we are and where we are going!

Maybe you're a parent and well acquainted of these stages. Now let's see how they apply to your businesses, too!

Which one describes your business?? I'd love to hear!

Baby Business Characteristics:
· ​Your business is fairly new, and seems to need a lot of time and attention
· Sometimes things seem quiet, like the business is sleeping.
· You’re not quite sure what to do with this baby or if you’re doing things right.
· You’re still testing things out and not even sure if what you’re doing is sustainable.

Start Here:
· The right name 
· Clear marketing message
· Website and SEO
· Set up a FB page
· Start an email list
· Write a monthly newsletter

Toddler Business Characteristics:
· Super busy, and your business can feel overwhelming.
· You feel scattered, like there’s always a mess somewhere.
· You’re distracted and not sure if you should hire help or just get more organized.
· You know you need some systems but are tired and can hardly see straight.

​Focus on:
· Your systems
· Hire one admin to be your assistant
· Say “no” to things that are not income-producing
· Work on boundaries and margin

Teenaged Business Characteristics:
· You’ve been in business awhile and you’re ready for some freedom
· You can’t take a vacation or get away without basically shutting everything down
· You know you need some freedom from the business, but you’re not sure which steps to take in which order

Work on this:
· Hire multipliers to do the work that you do
· Increase your admin help
· Increase your marketing
· Tighten up your systems
· Increase checks and balances and visibility of what you expect
· Be the CEO and the manager of your company 

Young Adult Characteristics:
· Your business doesn’t need you as much for the day to day operations.
· You can go on vacation!
· You’re profitable!
· Your staff is handing things for you.
· The business is running itself at this point and you have a lot more freedom. 

Work on this:
· The business still needs you. You will still need to check in with your staff and act as their coach.
· Regular staff meetings are recommended, although you may have a manager handling the bulk of the meetings.
· Continue to make the high level decisions and oversee marketing and hiring.
· Life is good! You should be able to work from anywhere, you are not location bound, you will have a lot more freedom, and you will have money flowing in to show for all your labors!!
· Decide if you’d like to start a second location, start a second business, sell the business, or retire!

Watch this week's video!

Facebook Groups: Free Training!

Did you miss it? We had 3 power-packed trainings on how to use Facebook groups to grow your local business!

You can still watch! The videos will remain up for 1 week! Then they will be transfered to our Inner Circle, for only members.
Join the group here to watch these free trainings!
Join the free group here!

Want to be the FIRST to know when the Never Alone Inner Circle opens up again? Get on our waiting list here. We will let you know FIRST (before it goes public) when we are accepting new members! 
https://www.jenhickle.com/innercircle.html