In this episode, I want to chat with you about the growth stage of entrepreneurship and emphasizes the importance of recognizing and celebrating this stage.
We talk about the difference between growth and scaling and encourages business owners to focus on sustainable growth rather than rushing to scale.
I also believe that the growth stage is one of the most underserved markets of business owners in the $40,000 to $120,000 range and emphasizes the power and profitability of the growth stage.
I urge you to sit in the growth stage, honor it, and enjoy the journey.
Key Takeaways
Connect with Michelle:
Hey, hey, welcome back to the real truth about business. I hope everybody's having a great day, great week, great month, wherever you're at. I really wanna dive in today and talk about a topic that's near and dear to my heart about the growth stage entrepreneur, the growth stage business owner, the growth stage that most people aren't talking about that most of us are actually living in and we are in it, but most people really truly are not.
discussing it. All right. And so that's the topic of conversation today is we're really going to talk about growth versus scaling, especially as we're, you know, pretty soon I'm going to stop saying the new year, but I mean, at the time of recording, we're still in January. So I think, and I'm sensing for a lot of people, like, I don't know, how are you feeling about January? But I'm feeling like I have so many unfinished projects from December that February 1st is going to be like my brand new
like new year kickoff only because I feel like there's still so many things in the works, which are a couple things I wanted to share with you today before we dive into this episode. So number one, the 100 Copy Chats Club is back. It's back. I'm feeling so good and so excited about it every third Tuesday. So it's going to be on Tuesdays from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m.
Eastern Standard Time. I literally just signed up for a mastermind the other day and did not realize that the time zone was not Eastern Standard Time and I have a conflict. So I am hopefully making it very clear that the coffee club meets from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. Eastern Standard Time every Tuesday. However, every third Tuesday you will be able to attend for free if you want. It is still going to be a paid membership.
ting is one of your goals for: Michelle (:to everybody for speed networking, my absolute favorite style of networking. So be sure to check out the link in the show notes and you can get all of the information, get registered for that free event, okay? So that's number one. Number two, do not forget that the Sunday Morning Brew, 52 Weeks of Freebies is off to a fabulous start. I've made it so simple where I just created a Google Drive folder and.
Every week I'm uploading a new resource. So it's a take action tip, it's a PDF. The other day it was a little mini podcast episode. So if you have not joined the Sunday Morning Brew Crew, please also click the link in the show notes or you can go to sund and get on that list and then every Sunday you'll be getting your freebies, you'll be getting a little note from me.
and it's absolutely my favorite community. I'm never gonna stop talking about it because I just love it so much and I am really loving the power of connection. It's part of my Nurtures campaign, which we're gonna talk about like sales pipelines. I've got a lot of topics coming up on this podcast, so I'm super excited. And if you're loving this podcast, please, please share. Okay, that's all my announcements. Now, let's dive into the topic.
today, which is really about the growth stage. All right. So I have this conversation all the time and I really wanted to just have it publicly because I think it's really, really important to honor and respect and call out the fact that many business owners are sitting in the growth stage and I want you to celebrate the shit out of yourselves. Okay. And I also want you to stop like chasing that scaling.
I need to scale my business. First of all, even if you hit $100,000 does not mean you're ready to scale, okay? So $100,000 tends to be this magic number in the online space where, or with online service business owners and whatnot, that once you hit your first $100,000, you're ready to scale your business, right? You're ready to scale. You're ready to take passive income. You're ready to remove yourself and all the things. And that's just a bunch of horseshit because it does not happen that easily.
Michelle (:Okay, but there's also this like really underserved market of business owners that are sitting somewhere in that $40,000 range to like $120,000 range. And the reason I'm calling it out and I want to talk about it more and you're going to hear me talk about this in my content more is because that is where most people are sitting. Okay?
there is all these coaches that speak to your startup entrepreneur, right? Like, oh, if you're new in business or if you're new to freelancing or you're new to this or that, like, I can help you and here's all the things I wish somebody would have told me when I was a business owner. And then you've got all these other coaches and all these other programs that are like, oh, if you're a six figure plus earner, here's all these things and here's what you need to do and here's how you scale your business and everything else. And it's like, what about all the rest of us in the middle?
Right? Like, what about the people that are just building, not just, I hate that word, what about the people that are building a sustainable business? What about the people that are literally, consistently hitting 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, $100,000 year after year and growing? Right? Like growth stage. Nobody's talking to those people. Who's talking to them? Nobody.
Nobody's sitting here going, if you're making $50,000, I'm your girl, right? But the reality is, is this is where most people are sitting, okay? So stop letting other people make you feel bad and make you feel like, oh my God, you should be ready to scale your business. You should be ready to do all of these things. Trust me when I tell you, I see a lot of revenue. I see a lot of people's numbers. There are more people sitting in the growth stage.
then there are sitting at that six plus figures or beyond. I'm not saying that there's not a million people sitting beyond that. There is, right? Like, but there's also a lot of people that are really just grinding it out and really in that growth stage, but they're also building some of the most sustainable and successful businesses out there. They also have revenue. They also have a really great work-life balance. They have their time under control, okay?
Michelle (:Here's the thing, sit in that stage, stop chasing that next stage, stop chasing that scaling. Because even if you hit $100,000 once, it does not mean you're ready to scale, okay? Scaling means doing and making the same amount of money in less time, right? Or continuing to offer the same services without it costing you more money, like on the admin side.
Most people are not ready to do that. Most people think of scaling like, oh, I'm going to scale. I'm going to hire all these people or I'm going to automate all these things. And my business is just going to keep doing all the same things. No, it's not right. If you have to hire people to, quote unquote, scale your business, that really is not the definition of scaling. Scaling is making the same amount of money without adding expense. So if you're having to add people to maintain that, that's not scaling. That's still growth.
that is still growing, okay? So sit in the growth stage. That's it. This is like a short episode. I don't even know, there's, I mean, there's so many things I can talk about the growth stage, but what I really is most important is that I don't want you chasing something that is not ready to be chased is the best way for me to say it, right? Like...
There is a lot of power in the growth stage. There is a lot of knowledge to be gained in the growth stage. There is a lot of freaking money to be made in the growth stage. Right? Like think about it. If you're making $70,000 a year and your business is only operating and your operating expenses are less than $20,000, right? That's $50,000 in quote unquote profit.
I guarantee you a lot of those people at a hundred thousand don't have $50,000 in profit. Most of them don't because most of them just keep adding expenses. They add people, they add softwares, they add programs, they add automations, they add all these things that cost money. So they're sitting here touting that they're scaling their business. No, they're not. You can scale a business at $70,000.
Michelle (:If you can make $70,000 and it only costs you $20,000 where the year before it costs you 40, you've just scaled your business, right? You've scaled your time. You've scaled your profits. You've scaled. So like this, I just get so sick of all of this bullshit in the online space about like people talking and using these words where it makes them, they don't even know what they're freaking talking about. So that's what I'm seeing is like,
So many people are coming up quote, unquote short or they're missing their goals. That's what I was talking about in stretch versus attainable goals. It's like, there's so many ways to scale your business and it doesn't have a set number. It doesn't mean after five years of being in business, you're magically ready to scale. It doesn't mean that once you hit $100,000, you're magically ready to scale, right? I was talking with a client the other day who's making over $100,000 and...
but she's still primarily the only one that can do a lot of the work. So her goal this year is to do is for her to remove herself, for her to not be the one doing all of the work, for her to scale her time. She wants to be more on the marketing side, more on the front facing side, and she wants to have team members that are handling more of the day to day. That's scaling in a sense, but she's also having to hire people. So in order to hire the people,
right? Then she needs to make a little bit more money, right? How many more clients can she bring in? What does that revenue look like? So again, there's so many different ways to scale your business. You can scale time, you can scale profits, you can scale revenue, you can, there's all different things. You can scale your team members. So there's a lot of different ways to do this, but it doesn't, it's not the be all end all, right? Like
There is something so powerful about sitting in that growth stage, about really, truly learning, growing, sustaining. What's more important? Think about this because there's so many people are like, oh, I hit my first 100,000. I'm going to scale my business. I'm going to remove myself out of here. I'm going to do this. They make all these plans and they hire all these coaches. Next thing you know, the next year, they make 50,000. That's not scaling.
Michelle (:And you don't just magically scale a business from 100,000 to 250,000. Those strategies look completely different. There is a completely different strategy that takes you from 100,000 to 250,000. So understand, are you truly in a scaling stage? And you can scale, like I said, you can scale a $50,000 a year business. It's not about the dollar amount.
It's about your ultimate goal. What are you trying to achieve? All right. So stop getting wrapped up in this like, Oh my God, scale, scale the new heights. Oh my God. It's just a bunch of garbage. It's a bunch of noise. People use these words to sell you the product that they are offering. It doesn't necessarily mean it's for you, but look at the people who are serving that growth stage entrepreneur.
If you want to know how they, you know, if they're serving a growth stage entrepreneur, 90% of the time, they're not calling it out. They're not calling out, oh, are you brand new in business? Here's what I wish somebody would have told me, right? They're praying and like, they are really, most of them don't operate out of integrity. They're like, oh, easy target. I'm sorry. This is like, I'm so obnoid with the online space, if you can't tell.
But there are so many people acting out of integrity right now that that's where this episode came from. So most of those people targeting brand new people are like, oh, these are easy peasy people. I'm going to target all these people. And most of them aren't getting any results. So again, they're calling it out because it's an quote unquote easy target. That's just my opinion. I'm not saying of course, it's not true for everybody by any means. Then you have these other people that call out if you're a six figure plus earner, right? They're like, oh.
These people, they're making six figures. They're making all this money. I can charge them $5,000 a month. You wanna know why you don't hear about the growth stage people? Because we don't call it out. You don't see a lot of people going, hey, but you know what, I'm gonna probably start because I think more people need to understand that there are so many service providers out there. There are so many copywriters out there. There are web designers out there. There are so many.
Michelle (:business owners out there that are not only a sitting in that 40 to $150,000 range, but they're also serving those people. But those people feel like they don't fit in, right? Well, I'm not a six figure earner technically, or I'm not really brand new. So who's serving me? Here's your answer. Me. I'm here. That's exactly what I love to do. And that's exactly who I love to help because there's so much power.
in setting your business up at the time correctly so that you can actually scale it, so that you can scale it and make it profitable. Okay? So anyway, I said this was going to be a short episode. We're already at 15 minutes. I'm going to wrap it up. I could go on my soapbox forever, but my point is, is that I want you to sit in the growth stage. Sit in it, honor it, love it, respect it, enjoy the hell out of it. Because
There is so much power in it. The growth stage is crucial. Do not try to scale your business too fast. Okay, most of the time that leads to disaster. All right, so understand that there is a majority of people that really truly are in that stage. You are not behind all these people that are talking about six figure earners and all this other shit. Like...
Trust me, half of them aren't even making it. Okay, so don't think you're behind. You're not. Most people are in that range. There's a lot of business owners that sit in that range for a good long while. And that is something to be proud of. It is not easy to make five, six, eight thousand dollars a month, right? It is not as easy as everybody makes it out to be. So if you're there,
Good for you. You're freaking killing it, okay? Don't let anybody tell you otherwise. Don't let anybody tell you that it's easy to make $20,000 a month. No, it isn't, okay? I'm not saying it can't be done and I'm not saying it can't be done with ease, but it's not easy, all right? It's not easy. Go talk to any business owner that's been around for 20 years and ask them, how long did it take you to hit 20 grand, okay? Again.
Michelle (:A lot of the people that are sitting in that stage, they aren't necessarily doing things the most ethically. Sorry, not sorry. But you can do it ethically and you can build it very, very well, but sit in the growth stage. Okay? All right. I love you.