Beginning to Scale
When I first got started, it was all about making money. Well, it was all about how to get a business to work, to make money. And while there is still a goal to make money there is more to it to get the business running and then to elevate that business.
Take John here. John is a baker and then John wants to start his own bakery. But John doesn't realize that the bakery requires more than just learning how to bake muffins. He's got to learn how to market the bakery. He's got to learn how to hire the folks. And so on.
Let’s say after a few hiccups and learning curves, John figures some things out. He has staff, he has brought awareness to his bakery, and he has new and regular customers every day. He is paying attention to acquaintances and influencers and is thinking, “Hey, things are looking good. How can I do even more?”
It is easy to be tempted to move ahead as quickly as possible. It seems like your business is running well and so you want to do all that you can to reach for that next rush and do all that you can to make more money like I did.
It doesn't help that when you have your ear open to what’s going on, you know that right now, the business environment is all about scaling. Scale, scale, scale. But if you rush into scaling there can be some pitfalls that if you don't address them properly, can cause a lot of problems. I would not listen to any coach, any course, any nonsense that says scale, scale until you have some of these indicators in place.
Until a business is running relatively well, it's not time to scale because if you press into scale too fast, then what's going to happen is you are going to have more burden. Then what?
There must be a reserve, there must be a surplus. That is step one because remember, scale consumes profit. Scale consumes the P&L. Scale eats the P&L like Pac-Man eating flashing ghosts. So, you need to have a business that's profitable such that everything's running smoothly and you're accumulating reserve.
Something else to realize, especially if you are further along in your business growth, is that there are different levels of scale. If you are at $10,000, you don't need to wait until you have $100,000 to scale. Just make sure that they have some surplus, that you have a cushion, that then when you press into that, you still have some bandwidth so that it doesn't become stressful.
Either way, when you meet this part of building your business, it's going to be stressful. You just don't want it to be stressful and then add financial stress on top of that. Then the Christian entrepreneur's head just gets overwhelmed. The devil comes in and just like the line with the three-legged stool you’ll want to take a pause and think, “When I do this, it stinks, I don't like this.” And if worst case, you will quit.
What the challenge is, is when we press into scale, not only does it consume cash, but not only are we not good at it, but here is the big thing, the hidden thing that most people don't think about is the skill set to get us to $50,000 a month is not the skill set to get us to $100,000 a month.
The things that we're doing right now with Christian Entrepreneur Inc., to go from half a million to $750 to a million dollars a month are entirely different than what I was doing when we first launched the business.
We recently hit the best month which was a little under $800,000 for the month. Because we were focused on, what do you think we're focused on? Scale, right? Scale, scale, scale. However, things downstream were starting to break and I could see the writing on the wall. We could have scaled it to a million. I have no doubt we could have scaled it to a million.
However, as a Christian, what I found was happening was I was pressing into that, but I was getting like, ah, this is draining, it doesn’t feel right. This is not easy. This is not light. This is not it. It was consuming more of my time, right?
How you know that you are moving in the right direction is that as the Christian entrepreneur grows, you are growing with more time because time is more valuable than money. We can get more money; we can't get more time.
Scaling should be done when you can do it with peace. You can do it with confidence.
We must optimize for Jesus said, his yoke is easy, his burden is light.
There are three critical things that I've learned over my twenty-plus years, evaluating over one hundred and fifty different business models as a Christian entrepreneur.
I've put together my observations and these three keys (I learned the hard way) into a Christian Entrepreneur Manifesto, along with some step-by-step walk-throughs and demonstrations.
There is no opt-in required.
It walks through my favorite model, the Finders model.
It might be interesting for a Christian looking to start something new or for the first time to escape the "business running them vs. them running their business" or the nine to five and not to have to work for themselves or someone else until the age of eighty.
Check it out here:
https://christianentrepreneurinc.com/go-video
I hope it helps!
Blessings,
Paul
PS: God is a big God.
He gives us above and beyond what we can ask or think.
We must ask big.
We must think big.
And if we don't, it's not His fault if we live limited.
Work hard, pray harder, and never ever ever ever quit.
You've got this!
PPS: Whenever You’re Ready... Here's How I Can Help You Generate An Additional $5 to $10k Per Month Or More:
- Check Out Our Christian Entrepreneurship Manifesto
Learn why some "make it" and others don't - Access More Articles Like This
Sharpen your Mindset, Model, and get Mentored - Watch Our Christian Business Incubator Training
Learn key lessons from analyzing over 150 different business models, launching ten virtual businesses in ten different markets with ten different models, and hitting six figures in four and seven figures - Schedule A Free Discovery Call
Make sure you read the Manifesto and review the Training first and then let's hop on a call and get all your questions answered about the Christian Startup Business Incubator