4 Steps to Quintuple Your Business in the Next 12 Months Here's how you can scale from $20,000 to $100,000.
By Scott Oldford Edited by Dan Bova
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
If you want to scale from $20,000 per month to $100,000, there's a four-step process you need to take.
Which may sound too simple, because the thought of quintupling business growth in under 12 months may sound impossible. I'm here to tell you it isn't because I have done it myself (as well as helped clients do the same).
Related: 10 Insanely Clever Ways These Companies Grew Their Business
In fact, you may find it's easier to scale from $20,000 per month to $100,000 than it is to build your initial $20,000, so if you've yet to reach this stage, this process might not be what you need (yet).
You see, this 4-step process only works once you already have a validated product and business model. Up to this point you've grown through pure hustle, which is fine. But, what got you to here won't get you "there," and I imagine you've already started to realize this.
You're tired of the "hustle" and you can't imagine you will keep up this pace for much longer. You want to scale and grow and extend your impact, but the thought of working this hard and long for the next five years ... no thank you.
Good news. You don't have to. This four-step process won't only help you quintuple your growth, but help you finally escape "hustle mode" forever. Here's how it works:
Step 1: Create one-to-many relationships (intimately).
When "hustling" and validating your business, you build most of your momentum through one-on-one relationships. Everything runs through you. This is great. This is how you build trust and authority.
But, you cannot keep this up as you continue to scale and grow.
You need to transform your one-to-one approach into one-to-many, but all the while maintain intimacy and connection (otherwise you become just another online marketer with a list).
You can do this through marketing funnels, email and social media, but the point is to ensure you automate as much of the process as you can so it no longer relies on you (and so it works 24/7). The trick here is to not overcomplicate this process.
Related: 15 Ways to Grow Your Business Fast
Step 2: Effectively qualify your audience.
The way to create intimate relationships with one-to-many people is to only focus on the "right" people. This begins by appreciating who your audience is and building a specific profile so you know who they are, where they are and what their problem/pain is.
But, as well as understanding who your audience is, it's vital you know who isn't.
You can only help certain people. If you try to help everybody you will ultimately help nobody, and if you try to be everything to everyone, you won't become the "go-to" expert of your industry.
Your superpower surrounds your ability to help a certain type of person in a big way. Once you know who these people are, you can build their trust and create an intimate relationship with them (even if it is one-to-many). At this stage you're ready to optimize your ability to sell to them.
Related: 5 Companies That Grew Too Quickly (and What You Can Learn From Them)
Step 3: Automate your sales process.
If you're the only person who does the selling in your business, you have a problem (now and in the future). Those who spend their days selling are those caught in "hustle mode," and no matter how amazing your lead generation is, it won't matter because you will remain the bottleneck.
The only way to scale your business is to automate your sales process so it doesn't rely on you jumping on the phone with each new lead. There are many ways to do this:
- Evergreen webinar
- Marketing / sales funnel
- Video sales letter
- Hiring a specific salesperson
Depending on your product and offer will depend on how to best automate your sales process. Sometimes you need a human element, whereas often you don't.
The point is you need to automate your sales process so it isn't only your lead generation that works for you while you sleep, but your sales too. The key to this is to remove you from the process. Because so long as you're working "in" your business, you cannot work "on" the business.
Related: 15 Ways to Scale Your Business and Make More Money
Step 4: Optimize your operations.
This is the most important part of the process, and is the period when you finally start to own your business (so it no longer owns you).
This centers around you building a team so you can finally become the person who works "on" the business and ensure it continues to scale and grow. So long as you're in the business doing the sales, doing the marketing and doing the delivering, you will never focus on the bigger picture.
This is also the biggest obstacle most entrepreneurs face because most entrepreneurs struggle with the idea of delegating. But, if you want to scale your business from $20,000 per month to $100,000, you cannot be an entrepreneur -- you have to evolve into a CEO.
Once you do this you reclaim a lot of time and freedom, but more importantly you bring fresh people into your business who can do a better job than you. This allows you to escape the hustle and dedicate your time to what you do best, as well as focusing on the bigger picture and strategy.
This is how you scale from $20,000 per month to $100,000, and you can achieve it in as little as six months. So, if business is going well and you're ready to step out of "hustle mode," dive into these four steps so you can scale the right way.
