The Biggest Mistake I Made as An Entrepreneur by Nicole Roberts Jones
I’ve been an entrepreneur for 25 + years but it took me 17 years into my journey to learn my greatest lesson, which came in the midst of my BIGGEST mistake! After 17 years into my business, I had accomplished much more than I expected. I had launched 10 chapters of my youth nonprofit in 10 cities across the country, I had a full coaching client roster serving women to align their purpose with their paycheck, a successful book, and speaking engagements all over the country. Anyone who looked at my business from the outside would have sworn I was successful but one peek at my bank account would have told them otherwise. Here I was, doing the exact thing I knew I was born to do but I was only generating $13,000 a year. I wasn’t generating ANY profit! To make a long story short, I had come to my enough is enough moment and realized what I was doing was definitely NOT working and that I needed help. What did I do? I realized if I was going to reach any level of success I was going to have to risk it all to gain it all and I hired a business coach. Let me remind you I was only making $13,000 in my business and my coach cost $30,000 so this was a BIG risk!
Taking this HUGE risk actually paid off because my coach pointed out to me that I had been doing what so many business owners do when we discover what we’re passionate about and good at I had fallen into the passion trap. I had become so focused on helping other people doing what I loved that I neglected to implement a strategy that would make my business profitable. Unfortunately, I am not alone, this is the exact reason why many entrepreneurs aren’t successful. According to an article I read in Forbes Magazine which shared a Bloomberg Report that stated, “8 out of 10 entrepreneurs who start businesses fail. A whopping 80% crash and burn.” One of the main reasons for this was, “inability to nail a profitable business model with proven revenue streams.”
I’m sure you’re familiar with the popular Marsha Sinetar quote, “do what you love and the money will follow,” and while that’s an inspiring bit of advice, I had to realize the hard way that money is not going to magically appear without some kind of plan of action in place. So, how can you bankroll your brilliance in your business and avoid being part of that 80% of entrepreneurs who, unfortunately, don’t make it past their first year of business? I learned so much from that bump in the road and now have the privilege of coaching women from the tools I learned and the strategy I created to bankroll their brilliance. Here are the 3 steps I followed that moved me from $13,000 to making over $200,000 within 6 months that really moved my business from broke to bankable:
Ask yourself, “Am I putting all of my eggs in one basket?”- Take a look at how your business is structured and ask yourself, “am I relying on a one-on-one model to generate money in my business?” Meaning, are you solely relying on your time spent face-to-face with your clients as a means of generating income? When you do this, you are only selling your time for dollars which also means you can only serve so many people. Here is a brilliant way to start taking those eggs and moving them from one basket to many: Create a system or process (I call this a blueprint when I am working with my clients) to serve clients where you do not have to be present. Also building a business model around it allows you to do the next step:
Develop Multiple Streams of Income. Once you develop a blueprint or system for yourself, multiple revenue streams come easily. Multiple revenue streams allow you the ability to, not only serve more clients without having to be present but also the opportunity to make money while you sleep! As I mentioned earlier, you can only be in one place and help so many people at a time, but creating multiple revenue streams allows you to be able to do this without always having to be present and only effective in a one-on-one setting. How? Here are a few examples;
Each step in your blueprint can become its own stand-alone program.
You can also create various tiers of programming using a combination of 2 or 3 of the steps as a lower price point product that could get a potential client a jump-start toward a longer-term program. One program becomes more of a deep dive than the next.
Each step could be an individual workshop or a weekend retreat experience where you move participants from step to step.
Each step can become a chapter in a book
I could go on; the possibilities are endless!
You Must Have a Month-to-Month Strategy. There is a saying, “when you fail to plan, you plan to fail” and for years I was failing to plan. Once you’ve created a blueprint and used it to develop multiple ways to serve those who need you, you can design a clear strategy to get there month over month, quarter over quarter. Having this blueprint will help you begin to generate predictable revenue in your business.
Following these three steps changed the trajectory of my business almost overnight! When you learn all the ways that are possible for you to serve those who need you, then turning it into multiple streams of income flowing into your business is easy! It allows you to achieve revenue generation in your business, all while doing what you love and making a significant impact in the world. Do this, and I guarantee you, your passion will produce a paycheck.
To give you more insight and strategy, I want to gift you will my free eBook called Bankroll Your Brilliance: 15 Ways To Get Paid For What You Know. Grab your copy at www.BankrollYourBrillianceBook.com
Learn more about Nicole at www.nicolerobertsjones.com
Twitter: @NRobertsJones
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