There is an invisible set of stairs that entrepreneurs perceive in the life of their business and every business owner has the desire to move their business up these stairs toward some (possibly unknown or unstated) level of success. They know that each level requires new efforts and techniques and ideas and comes with its own challenges and rewards.

But the problem is, what the heck are the levels? There’s no manual anywhere suggesting what the levels are. Yet, every entrepreneur knows that they are at one level and they want to get to a higher level. I have people asking me all the time to help them move to a higher level.

In case you’re reading this and wondering if I have somehow divined what the levels are, I haven’t. But I have discovered something else: Moving from one level to another is often preceded by dissatisfaction at the current level as well as an increasing amount of chaos and sometimes an unsettled feeling. I compare it to a child’s top that is spinning smoothly for a while and then starts to wobble. The business starts to wobble, unbalanced, just like that top. That “wobble” is often the time when a business owner wants to move to the next level. But here’s what I recommend first:

Instead of focusing on the next level (which is difficult to do anyway because it’s hard to know exactly what it is for each business), focus on making your current level perfect. Address that unsettled feeling and that chaos. Get it under control.

You can do this by:

• Creating or revising your business’ systems.
• Revisiting your business plan.
• Hiring someone to take care of your details (or extending the responsibilities of someone you’ve already hired).
• Taking a vacation to clear your head.
• Perfecting your current operation.
• Looking at your expenses and reducing them.
• Revisiting your business model to see if there are additional revenue opportunities.
• Strengthening your customer service.
• Increasing the consistency and quality of your marketing.
• Increasing the quality of your deliverables.

“But Heather,” you say, “I want to get to the next level. What you are telling me is how to make my current level better.”

Indeed that is exactly what I am doing. And the reason is: Your current business, which is probably running well enough (after all, you are looking at moving forward) needs to be tightened up a bit in order to more effectively move forward anyway. And, as you move forward, you want to maintain as much control as you can (and as much profit as you can) and cleaning house will help with that. You will also gain a fair amount of insight into how your business is running (and that could reveal for you exactly how you can move forward).

If your business is starting to feel like it’s becoming unbalanced and you’re wondering if you’re ready to move to the next level, make your first step a house-cleaning effort to strengthen your current business and that will help you get to the next level faster and more profitably.

On to the next level!

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In a couple of days, my calendar is going to ping me with a reminder. It’s going to say “One month in – how’s it going, Heather?” This reminder is for me to review the new business strategies I intended to integrate into my business this year.

Each year, I list out a bunch of strategies I want to integrate into my business. Some are marketing strategies, some are productivity strategies, some are customer service strategies; that kind of thing. I always have a really bold and vibrant vision of the year ahead and it’s easy for me to actually create so many strategies that I simply can’t implement them all effectively.

What I find is that over time, some strategies simply can’t be done in the day (because I don’t have time, for example) while other strategies become quickly integrated into my daily routine.

I was speaking with a colleague of mine who does something similar. She had developed several strategies she wanted to integrate into her year. For example, she wanted to increase her article marketing and she wanted to do more blog commenting. We usually chat about our strategies from time to time so I asked her how hers were going nearly one month into the year. The blogs were easily integrated in and are now a habit for her. The articles, however, are not. We talked about the reasons that could be and what she and I discussed might be helpful for you, too:

• Integrating new strategies into your daily schedule is important to do from time to time, but not always easy. I’ve found that if you want to be more successful at making them habits, you need to do everything possible to make it super-easy to do. The easier they are, the more likely you’ll do them and the more likely they will become habits.

Take exercise as an example: Lots of people make a New Year’s Resolution to start exercising… and then they fail. One of the reasons is that exercise might be an hour or two commitment a few times a week: Driving to the gym, working out, showering, driving home. It adds up so it’s not compelling to do. The secret to integrating it into your life is to make it really easy at the very beginning. Start with a 5 minute workout at home; have a friend call to remind you. Then, increase your workout to ten minutes. Then to fifteen. Then twenty. Eventually you will find yourself at the gym doing a full workout, but by then it will be a habit. To get there, though, it had to start easy.

It’s the same with my friend and her articles: Instead of writing an article a day – her original goal – she should start with an article a week. Or, split the work between herself and a freelancer. Eventually, she can increase her own effort. And she should decide ahead of time what the article will be about, rather than staring at a blank page.

And it’s the same for your 2010 goals. The goals that easily integrated into your business – celebrate them. And the ones that you’re struggling with one month in – take baby steps and make them easy. You may not start out as boldly as you had originally dreamed but making them easy will help to make them habits.

Have a great time!

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Tip #2: Perform Market Research to Target Expansion
Whether you are considering adding a new product to your line, opening an office in a new city or simply producing more of what you already make, it is important to understand your market. The costs associated with expansion are often high and can be crippling to the company if the expansion does not do as well as expected. You must understand who you are targeting, what their specific needs are, how you will meet those needs, what you will offer and when the new offering will become available. Employing an outside market research firm can be extremely helpful at this time.

Tip #3: Outsource
Once you are ready to go forward with your expansion, your workload will dramatically increase. Allow yourself the time necessary to develop your company’s expansion by outsourcing many of your day to day tasks. You can outsource some of the work to a virtual assistant and some of the work to freelancers and consultants, depending on the projects.

Expanding a company can be an exciting and profitable venture. However, without guidelines and controls in place, it is easy for the company to lose its focus and ultimately become spread too thin. Use your business plan and market research to create targeted slow growth that will be able to be develop properly. Outsource as many daily tasks as possible in order to focus on your new expansion. With proper care, your company’s expansion can flourish, breeding additional successes

About the author: Heather Villa, MBA CMA MSM, is a Business Coach and Entrepreneur. She helps business owners achieve success in operations, productivity, project management, and social media. Read her other articles at http://hireheathervilla.com/resources/articles/ and visit http://heathervilla.com for more information.

Disclaimer: © 2009 Heather Villa. Permission is granted to repost this article. Article must be published in its entirety, including author bio, and all links must remain intact.

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1. Have a plan. Start with goals, break those goals down into smaller objectives, and then break those objectives down into manageable tasks. Then perform each task with excellence. Revisit your objectives and goals often so that you can make sure you’re on track, and make course adjustments when necessary.

2. Have a contingency plan. Think about the various things that can happen. In some situations, there might be a “business as usual” plan and a “worst case scenario” plan. In other situations, there could be three or four (or more) potential outcomes. Make sure you know what could happen and plan for it.

3. Outsource. This is huge. You can’t do it all. You can delegate some, but chances are, you won’t be able to delegate all of it. Outsourcing is often a more affordable alternative because you don’t have to cover overhead and benefits and you only need to pay for the time you need. More businesses need to do more of this and when they do, they’ll see more profit.


4. Know your business. A good manager once told me, “You should never be surprised by what goes on in your department”. That was good advice and I took it to heart. Now that I run my own businesses, it’s even more important to know the business well.

5. Don’t work 24/7. It can be tempting to work around the clock, especially if you’re a small business owner with few or no employees. But taking periodic breaks, and forced downtime on the weekends, will actually make you more productive when you are working. Sure, you might occasionally need to burn the candle at both ends, but keep it rare and you’ll be surprised at your productivity.


6. Don’t be afraid to tell a client “no”. Clients ask for things. It’s easy to say “yes”, especially when we want the business. But clients can sometimes ask for too much. It’s rarely malicious. They either don’t understand what you do and don’t do, or they’re just watching their bottom line and trying to get a good deal. Consider the long term consequences of delivering on their request and be willing to say “no” if it makes sense.

7. Manage risk, manage risk, manage risk. Businesses are a delicate balance between risk and reward and you sometimes have to risk a little more to leverage your way into more business. But manage that risk as much as possible. Remember: if a deal looks too good to be true, it probably is. Trust your instincts because you’ll be surprised at how accurate they are.

8. Be creative. The longer a business operates, and the larger it gets, the less creative a business becomes. It’s as if someone just sucks out all the creativity and replaces it with bureaucracy. Creativity is a powerful force in business and can open up new opportunities. Just remember: creativity only happens in the midst of failures. (Think: Edison and his hundreds of attempts at light bulbs).


9. Dust off that business plan and revisit it. If it seems irrelevant, you’re not pulling it off the shelf often enough and you’re letting the business lead you where it wants to go. Take control and work with the plan. If the plan is outdated, update it.

About the author: Heather Villa, MBA CMA MSM, is a Business Coach and Entrepreneur. She helps business owners achieve success in operations, productivity, project management, and social media. Read her other articles at http://hireheathervilla.com/resources/articles/ and visit http://heathervilla.com for more information.

Disclaimer: © 2009 Heather Villa. Permission is granted to repost this article. Article must be published in its entirety, including author bio, and all links must remain intact.

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In a recent blog, The Three Natural Phases of Successful Small Business Growth, Jantsch talks about the 3 phases that he sees small businesses progress through.

The first phase is foundation, the second phase is growth, the third stage is momentum. Jantsch describes each phase and encourages readers to identify where they are.

To recap (and to add on to what Jantsch has said):

• Foundation is the early start-up phase where entrepreneurs start their business and work through all of the initial stage work, like creating systems and developing the business plan. In this stage, the business owner is often working solo and the work, although thrilling, might not be extremely profitable.

• Growth is the next phase where the business moves from a solopreneur who runs it all into a revenue-producing machine that probably includes additional staff and refined products or services. Jantsch wisely says that businesses feel the pull to add new markets and products but the better choice here is to narrow your markets and focus.

• Momentum is the third stage and businesses owners who achieve this stage hit a “zen” stage in which they just keep doing the smart, profitable things again and again to consistently build a strong business. But this stage is so easy to fall out of that mindset and it needs to be carefully cultivated and nurtured to be successful. Jantsch also says that this is a stage when other businesses want to partner and align with you.

Jantsch’s blog is so relevant to the work I’ve done and it mirrors closely the clients I’ve worked with over the years as well as the businesses I’ve been involved with.

As a consultant, I’ve helped businesses jump into that Foundation stage. As the owner of IAC Professionals, my staff helps businesses (often those in the growth stage, run by entrepreneurs who need to delegate in order to grow).

If you’re a small business owner looking for the next step in your business, you should consider where you are in this spectrum and how you can advance your business to the next level.

Until next time!

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I’ve been coaching a client through a fairly significant business transition. He had a business that had been slowly failing for about 5 years before he came to me about three months ago. Through the course of our discussion we discovered that his real vision for business was not in the area of business he’d started but it lay elsewhere and (in his case) the right decision was to wrap up his failing business and pursue a different direction. He is taking a couple of weeks away from his business to clear his head and to prepare a business plan for this next step.

In our final conversation yesterday evening, before he left for his “business-plan-getaway”, I advised him to include contingency planning into his business plan. At first he said, “Yes, I was planning on including an exit strategy”, but then I clarified what I meant: He shouldn’t JUST create an ideal exit strategy; he needs to also consider other possibilities that he could encounter in the course of his business. For example:

• What happens if some other product replaces his in the eyes of his target market?

• What is the amount of money he is willing to spend on advertising? And what will he do if he reaches that amount and has acquired no new leads?

• What will he do if there is a sudden flood of new customers and he cannot fill the orders himself or with the raw materials he has on hand?

• What if he suddenly gets bad publicity (no matter what the reason)?

• What happens if his vendors go out of business tomorrow?

• What happens if he has a power interruption for a significant period of time?

These are just six of many possible situations he could face in his business. Some are positive, some are negative, and ALL should be planned for.

As I went on to explain to him: Admittedly, you’ll never fully plan every contingency to a “T”, and even if you do, it’s rare that a situation ends up exactly the way you expect. However, you will be so far ahead of the game should a similar situation actually occur that you’ll have far more confidence in handling the situation and be far more likely to come away with a positive outcome.

Here’s an example of what I feel is an adequate contingency plan for a couple of the above-mentioned situations:

Situation: I spend $2,000 on Google AdWords and end up with zero leads at the end of 30 days.
Plan: I need to revisit my offer, my AdWords copy, and my landing page. While it could be other factors, those are three areas over which I have some control. At that time, I should also consider finding a professional who can help me with my AdWords and landing page copy.

Situation: I get a flood of orders amounting to more than I can personally handle and/or more than I have raw materials on hand for.
Plan: I should have another trained person available to help and “on-call” for situations like this. I should talk to my vendors and see if they have any surplus on-hand. I should also have a couple of other secondary vendors who might help. I’ll pay with my credit card if I have to, in order to resolve this temporary solution to the satisfaction of my customers.

Once these scenarios are planned, you’ll have a list of to-do’s in order to prepare. In the above two examples your to-do’s might include:

• Visit Elance.com or Guru.com to source a couple of AdWords or landing page professionals. Bookmark their profiles for future reference.

• Train spouse in how to assemble the products so that he/she can help in emergency situations.

• Find 3 vendors to keep “in reserve” should extra raw materials be needed.

So, if you’re failing to plan then you’re planning to fail. But if you are actually planning then you should also be planning to fail… and then mitigating those possibilities proactively.

Good Luck!

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So far, I’ve talked about out-of-control business growth that costs so much up-front, the business cannot keep up. And, I’ve talked about business growth that spikes (increasing then decreasing) so that the business is stuck with a high bill from the brief burst of business.

And in this blog, I want to talk about yet another problem of business growth that I’ve seen:

Problem 3: The lack of control over the business. When a business grows – whether it’s a sustained increase or a spike, the business owner/director/manager tends to lose control over that business. In some cases, customers “take over” in the sense that they might demand additional efforts which might not normally be granted but which are added because the money is there. In other cases, business partners “take over” because they see the money coming in from a certain market and they want to follow those dollars. In other cases, resellers “take over” because they feel that they are bringing in enough money for the business to make demands on the business. One example I’ve seen is a consultant who was asked by a client to design his website. Business was busy and the consultant should have said no, but the client was generating so much revenue that the consultant couldn’t say no. It didn’t go well and the consultant lost a client and the revenue. And another example I’ve seen is a reseller who earned so much money for a manufacturer that the reseller started demanding price cuts and excessive promotional considerations.

Solution 3: The best thing to do is stick to the business plan. (Uhhh…you have a business plan, right? MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A BUSINESS PLAN…then stick to it). If you’ve done your research and you start the business with the confidence that the plan is going to work then you should be okay (assuming that your research led you in the right direction). Yes, you may need to shift with the market, but that needs to happen carefully and thoughtfully and not “on the fly” based on whoever is sending the most money right now. Your business plan should be your North Star that guides your business. And when you need to change your business plan, you take time to do it carefully.

There are certainly other problems that result from too-fast, unmanaged business growth, but these are three common ones that I see from time to time.

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