“You have to believe you can build a team who can be as invested in your Vision as you are.”
how his business was run and start building from there. His entire team shifted from being reactive to working together. He learned the importance of orga- nizing the work, building the Org Chart, and establishing a Meeting Rhythm, co-creating these things with his team. Nate still regularly refers to his Elite Forum notes from five years ago. “Just creating the space and time to think is the greatest gift we can give ourselves as CEOs and founders,” Nate shares. “It takes time, curiosity, patience, and checking your ego at the door; and yes, you will have to study and ask for help over and over. What is fascinating is that it is simple when you zoom out. You have to show up every time and be willing to act on every item that needs your attention.” If you’ve built a seven-figure business and want to learn about the shifts required to grow to the next stage like Nate did, you can download our free e-book at GrowWithElite.com.
When you understand the Stag- es of Small Business Growth, you can do the work to shift to the next stage. Let me explain. The Stages of Small Business Growth are actually based on some original research done by Clate Mask. (Shoutout to Clate!) Clate pored over U.S. Census Bureau data for dozens and dozens of hours to better un- derstand the patterns in small business growth. He discovered something really interesting. As you grow past that first $100K in sales, there are natural places where business starts to plateau. Interestingly, this happens every time a business roughly triples in revenue. We call it the 1s and 3s of revenue:
able level, and few do the work to shift to the next stage. Thankfully, the proven methods required to shift are simple yet powerful. Magic happens when you get a passionate group of people to take targeted, coordi- nated action as a unified team with an exciting, shared objective. Let me give you a real-life example from someone you may have seen in Keap’s Big Grit cam- paign: Nate Shaw, CEO of Brook- lyn Music Factory (BMF). Nate is an amazing market- er. After winning the 2016 IKON Award, Nate and his team knew they were doing something right in leveraging the power of Keap to grow their sales. Despite their success, Nate knew he needed to learn how to become a capable business builder (not just a great marketer), so he attended Elite Forum in May 2016. At BMF, Nate was surrounded by creatives all day. While they were getting the job done and were passionate about their work, Nate said they were “confident but confused.” He recognized he had a strong team, but they needed to get in the same boat and row in the same direction at the same pace. Nate commented, “You don’t know what you don’t know until you have been in the presence of people like Clate, who talk about what it’s really like to grow a business.” Through his work with Elite, Nate was able to lay out all the pieces of the puzzle that defined
Stage 1: $0-$100K Stage 2: $100K-$300K Stage 3: $300K-$1M Stage 4: $1M-$3M Stage 5: $3M-$10M
Each stage requires a mindset shift, new areas of focus, and different kinds of support. What is created in each stage builds on the foundation of the stage before it and requires changes in you as the leader and changes in the business. As the business grows, you will begin to feel the stress and frustration that come as you approach the next plateau. Many owners choose to shrink their business back to a manage-
Brett Gilliland is the CEO of Elite Entrepreneurs, a company that spun off from Keap in 2018, specializing in giving $1M-plus business owners the knowledge, processes, and tools to grow to $10M and beyond.
Brett spent 10 years helping Infusionsoft grow from seven figures in revenue to over $100M.
Keap.com / The Keap Insider / 19
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