April 24, 2025 • 24 mins
Join my Free Webinar - Scale To 7 Figures Without The Overwhelm on Wednesday April 30, 2025, at 10am UK time. Discover proven strategies that help you grow your business sustainably and profitably.
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In this episode, I’m breaking down a hard truth for product-based business owners: What got you here, won’t get you there. If you're a retailer stuck at six figures—or feel like your business is running you instead of the other way around—this one's for you.
I dive into the essential mindset and structural shifts that independent retailers need to make to grow their business sustainably, without sacrificing their sanity or freedom.
Plus, I invite you to my free live webinar on how to scale your product business to seven figures without burnout. 🎧 Tune in for insights and actionable steps!
What's Inside:
00:00 The hard truth about growth
01:40 Why sales growth alone won’t solve everything
02:54 The toughest part of product-based business growth
06:12 How the skills that got you here can hold you back
07:08 The “new level, new devil” concept in retail
11:35 Burnout signals and the trap of doing it all
12:41 Defining your “there”—what success really looks like
16:30 Structure, support, and sanity: The real game-changers
18:47 Why leadership mindset matters more at scale
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Catherine Erdly (00:00):
Today what I wanted to talk about is this notion of what
(00:03):
got you here won't get you there.
And what that means in practice ishaving a look at the difference between
growing a business to the point whereyou are making around six figures in
revenue and then scaling the businessor growing it further beyond that point.
Welcome to episode number 247 ofthe Resilient Retail Game Plan.
(00:24):
Hi, I'm Catherine Eardly.
I'm a small business and retail expert,as well as the founder of the Resilient
Retail Club, which is my membership group,my one-to-one program, and done-for-you
services, all for product businesses.
You can find outmore@resilientretailclub.com.
Welcome to the Resilient RetailGame Plan, a podcast for anyone
(00:49):
wanting to start, grow, or scale aprofitable creative product business.
With me, Katherine Ley.
The Resilient Retail Game Planis a podcast dedicated to one
thing, breaking down the conceptsand tools that I've gathered from
20 years in the retail industry.
And showing you how you canuse them in your business.
This is the real nuts and bolts ofrunning a successful product business
(01:12):
broken down in an easy, accessible way.
This is not a podcast about learninghow to make your business look good.
It's the tools and techniquesthat will make you and your
business feel good confidently.
Plan, launch, and manage your productsand feel in control of your sales
numbers and cash flow to help youbuild a resilient retail business.
(01:40):
There's this general perceptionthat what you really need to do
with your business is you need togrow your sales and then effectively
all of your issues will go away.
But in reality, what I found over andover again is that there's a certain set
of skills and certain set of mindsetsthat get you to a certain point with
your business, and then that switches andactually what you need to take you to the
(02:03):
next level is something quite different.
And hitting that realization andunderstanding it and making that shift
is profoundly transformational forbusiness owners who might otherwise
have been feeling really stuck.
So what that feeds into is this feelingof overwhelm or burnout, and if you want
to know more about this topic, then Ido invite you to come to my free talk.
(02:26):
It's happening on Wednesday,the 30th of April.
You can find the detailsin the show notes.
There will be a link there to sign up.
And if you can't make it live,of course there will be a replay.
But I'm gonna be talking abouthow to scale your business to
seven figures without burning out.
And what I'm gonna be doing isaddressing what you need to do to put
(02:47):
in place a system structure to helpyou get past that six figure phase
without it just becoming unmanageable.
But what I wanna talk about today is whythis is a difficult transition and why
it's something that people often miss.
So I call this episode what got you here?
Won't get you there because I thinkit's a really great summary of
(03:07):
this flexion point, if you like.
This idea that when you first starta business, it's really all about
getting to know your customer andcreating a product that they actually
really want creating or curating.
And I often say to people when I talkto people, potentially if they're coming
in for my one-to-one program, or we'retalking about that, or our stock doctor
(03:31):
program, for example, or my membershipgroup, the Resilient Retail Club.
What I often say to people is, thehardest thing of all in business is
to find a product that people reallylove and will pay you money for.
That, in my opinion, isthe thing that's toughest.
And when you see people who arereally stuck, like maybe they're not
even able to get past, single digitor four digit turnover, for example.
(03:56):
Often when they're really struggling,it's because there's something about the
product that just isn't really resonating.
There isn't, there aren't enoughpeople who love it or the product
itself isn't really something thatthe customer really resonates with.
And that's usually what the issue ismore than say, a lack of marketing skill
or other skills in the business owner.
If you are really stuck atthe starting block, it's
(04:17):
usually to do with the product.
So one of the first things that you haveto overcome as a product business owner
and to grow to that four figure, fivefigure, eventually six figure turnover.
It's about really honing in onwhat does the customer want?
Am I offering them somethingthat they really love?
And I don't believe that you can get tosix figures unless you've got a product
(04:38):
that people do love or enough peopleare or a certain number of people are
interested in and are looking to buy.
And again, whether that's youcreating it or whether that's you
curating it, I really think that'sthe first most important step.
And nothing, you can't doanything with a business.
Unless you've got to that point now.
(04:58):
There's lots that you can do even onceyou hit six figures to improve on that.
But I would say usually that first piece,that first step on your journey to the
first six figures is all about workingout what do people really want from me?
How much are they willing to pay for it?
What do I want to stand for as a brand?
What does my brandidentity, who am I serving?
All of those kinds of things.
(05:19):
That's the first phase, and in orderfor you to do that and to get there.
Often it's about wearing all the hatsbeing really relentlessly scrappy
basically, for want of a better word,trying lots of different things, trying
lots of different ideas, avenues,trying this type of marketing, trying
(05:40):
this type of product, and just reallybasically giving it your all and pouring
your heart and soul into it to justget that formula or at least understand
like what do people want from me?
And so that is the first stage, and itrequires you as the business owner to
be pretty much in the detail all thetime, looking at everything, trying
(06:00):
to understand what's going on, tryingto understand what your customer wants
from you, almost like obsessing overeverything to get that to the point
where you've found something thatpeople want to buy from you and you
are beginning to get some traction.
Now, what I often see happen, and thereason that it gets really tricky is
that, as I said at the beginning, oneof the perceptions is that once we have
(06:21):
sales growth, then that's basicallygoing to solve all our problems.
So o often people will cometo me and they'll say, I
just need to get more sales.
And of course there is always an elementto which people do just need more sales.
If you've got high overheads, ifyou don't really have many sales
at all, then yes, getting moresales is the most important thing.
(06:42):
And obviously to grow from sixfigures to seven figures, you need
to grow your sales alongside that.
But actually, what I tend to find happensis that as people get to that six figure
point and then they go above it, thenall of those skills and things that
they were doing as a starting founderbecome, they stop being a positive
(07:06):
and they start becoming a negative.
And there's another phrase that Ilove, which is new level new devil.
And I think that's a really greatexample of what happens in that sort
of six figure and above area, isthat you've got to a point where you
needing to make larger orders, themoney that you're spending goes up.
And the business itself is going tostart getting a bit more complex usually
(07:30):
because you've expanded your productrange, you've expanded your number of
sales channels, you've expanded to dothe type of marketing that you're doing.
And just generally speaking,there's more going on.
And also if you're getting to sixfigures, then if you were, for example,
doing fulfillment yourself or customerservices yourself, that may have
been manageable when you were justhaving a handful of orders a week.
(07:51):
But as you grow and asthose numbers go up.
Then certain parts of thebusiness start becoming a burden,
effectively, a time burden.
And even if you were able to manageit, as I said, when you just had a few
orders a week, when you get to thatpoint where you've got that consistent
six figures and above, then they juststart becoming some tasks that you
(08:11):
could possibly manage before and you arefinding it really hard to manage now.
So then what you find is the businessowner becomes a bottleneck because
if you've been really immersed in thebusiness in every single element of
the business and obsessing about everysingle element of the business as
(08:31):
you go along, and that's what helpedyou grow, and that's what helped you
get to that six figure level, thenit's quite hard to turn that off.
Especially if it's something thathas helped you grow and you've seen
growth, and you've seen things workbecause you were so determined and so
immersed in every single detail, it'svery hard to then say logically to
(08:53):
yourself, okay, now I'm at this point.
Now I need to stop doing that, andI need to start looking at ways to
take myself out of the business.
It's human nature is if we dosomething and it works well,
we want to do more of it.
And so what I find is that there is apoint where people are six figures and
above and they are just stuck becauseeverything feels much heavier because the
(09:18):
numbers are bigger, the investments arebigger, the bills going out each month are
bigger, and they're simultaneously tryingto keep everything together themselves.
So as a result, what you find isthe level of stress for the founder
starts going up and up, and theirability to step away from the business
goes away or gets really difficult.
(09:41):
And as a result, it can go fromfeeling like something that they built
to give them freedom into somethingthat all of a sudden feels like a
job that you just can't clock out of.
If you think about, again, goingback to this idea of the skills, like
what gets you to those six figures?
So some of the skills that you needreally to start off with is that being
(10:02):
scrappy, having reactive decisions,really leaning into your gut feel.
So trying to feel your way aroundokay, what are people reacting to?
What do I wanna do next?
Who is my customer?
You need to be able to move really fastand just try lots of different things.
And then I'm sure if you're notalready there, you probably know
(10:23):
exactly what I'm talking about.
But if you're not quite there yet,I'm sure you can imagine that just
becomes absolutely exhausting.
I also think as well there's acertain level of adrenaline that
we can run on as business owners.
And when you first startout, it's super exciting.
So sometimes if you absolutelylove what you do, and most of us
absolutely love our businesses.
(10:44):
Then you are willing to put that time in.
And it may even be that it wassomething that was almost like a
hobby or a passion project for youthat you then turned into a business.
So when you first start out, it canfeel like, okay, I'm doing this in the
evenings or at weekends, and that's okay.
'cause I love it and I absolutelyenjoy it and I get so much out of it.
And that can carry you, ayear, two years, three years.
(11:06):
It could carry you quite along way in your business.
That just general excitementokay, this is amazing.
I love it.
I'm, I get so much out of it.
I just love it when I see people buyingmy products and I love seeing them,
wearing them or purchasing them for gifts.
All the rest of it, it's like super,super exciting, super energizing, and
so we can get carried quite a longway on that kind of messy, reactive,
(11:28):
putting everything into it, blood,sweat, and tears, all the rest of it,
and then it can get to a point where.
If that continues.
I honestly believe that therejust becomes points where we
just can't take it for that long.
Like maybe a year, maybe two years,but like three years, four years.
And you're still.
Giving it all your all, you're still nothaving proper boundaries around your time.
(11:51):
You're still not having weekends offproperly or always working until midnight
'cause that's how you fit everything in.
That just really startsto grate after a while.
And I think especially if it'scoupled with not getting yourself
as rewarded financially asyou really should be for your.
Efforts.
It can mean that you end upthinking, what is my hourly rate?
(12:11):
If I actually think about this?
How much am I paying myself and how much?
How many hours am I putting in?
And all of a sudden it can just start tofeel like too much because, we all know
that it's really relentless customers.
Some people have absolutely wonderfulcustomers never have any issues.
Most of us have mostly wonderfulcustomers who we love, and a handful
of people who can be really difficult.
(12:33):
And it can start to feel really difficultand really grating and just there's this
huge pressure on you all of the time.
So what is the there thatwe're trying to get to?
So that's what kind of got us here.
We got us here by being scrappy,reactive, fast, maybe a little
messy, but that was okay.
Less boundaried more willing to putblood, sweat, and tears into it.
(12:57):
So what is that there that thethere that we're talking about?
So again, coming back to this idea, ifyou're at that six figures of growth
you've got there, but you've reallyput your heart and soul into it.
And one of the things that peoplereally fear then is, okay, I
know I want to grow my revenue.
I know I want to, I. Get to that pointwhere I'm at multi six figures, or
(13:18):
if I'm already at multi six figures,maybe I wanna be at seven figures.
Or if I'm at seven figures, Iwant to be at multi seven figures.
So I want to grow the business.
I want more of it.
I want it to continue to grow to in.
To continue to grow my presence, continueto grow my impact, the number of people
that I can help, the number of peoplethat I can make a difference to the world
with my products and everything else.
(13:40):
But the fear is okay, if I had towork really hard to get to this
point, then how am I going to thenmove forward and make the next leap?
And people talk to me a lotabout things like I know where
I want to go, but I don't reallyknow the roadmap to get there.
So I know I'm here, I know I want to bethere, but I dunno what's in between.
And what does there look like?
(14:01):
Sometimes it's about a revenue number.
People have a revenue number in mind, butoften, a lot of the time people want to
just feel a little bit more in control.
They want to feel like.
I really feel like aproper business owner.
Like I know my numbers, I know that I knowwhat my bank account's gonna look like.
I don't have these unexpected expensescoming out and buy to me on the
(14:21):
backside when I least expect it.
They want to be able to paythemselves consistently.
Often people come to me wanting toincrease the amount of money that
they pay themselves, and they alsowant a business that isn't gonna
fall apart if they take time out.
So I often.
Say that I've worked with people wherethe real testament of success of the
(14:42):
work that we did together was thatthey took a two week holiday in August
and they were able to do that and thebusiness kept going, and when they
came back, they weren't hugely behindand things had progressed forward.
Now that is a huge thing, andoften when you hear people talking
about business success, they don'talways talk about things like that.
They might talk about gettinginvestment or having a chain of
(15:04):
stores or whatever it might be.
But I think for a lot of people that Italk to, what real success looks like
is consistent pay, increased pay, payin line with the hours that they put
in better boundaries, and really justliving the life that they wanted to
live when they created their business.
So having that flexibility, havinga business that serves them and
(15:26):
not the other way round, and alsofeeling like they know what to focus
on, feeling like they're not pulledin a million different directions.
So what kind of is the missing gap?
So as I said, what got you here isnot gonna be what gets you there.
And if that's what weare defining as there.
Now, you may have a different definitionfor there, but it would be interesting
to know and I'd love to hear, dopop me a DM on Instagram and let
(15:50):
me know what your there looks like.
But for a lot of people it's that nextlevel of calm, confident, consistency.
Maybe not the most sexy sounding thingin the world, but for a lot of people,
that's what they're really craving.
They just want it to feel likethey're in control, feel like
they've got things that they're notspinning a million different plates.
(16:11):
They're not waiting for the nextthing to happen to them, or the
next bill to hit their bank account.
It's not necessarily that they'relike, okay, I want to be the next
big high street name, or maybe it is.
And if that's what your there is, thenI completely support that as well.
But just to say that we all havethese different visions of success.
And so what is the bridge between the two?
The bridge between the two.
(16:32):
In my experience is going through aprocess of changing the way that you
think about your business and theway that you think about your role
within the business, and usuallyit involves structure and support.
So I call it structure, support,and sanity, or structure and support
leads to sanity, I should say.
(16:53):
So structure is you move frombeing reactive to being proactive.
You know what your planis for the year ahead.
You know what you want to launch andwhen you know when your big peak times
are and you have that zoomed out viewwhere you've got a plan in place.
And you can look at your marketingand your operational plan, your
product launching plan, andit all ties together neatly.
(17:17):
It's also about having structurearound your stock purchasing.
So understanding how much you need tobuy, when, what you should be focusing
on in terms of your stock so thatyou're not just feeling like you are
spending money just 'cause somethinglooks low and you dunno whether or
not that was the right thing to do.
'cause you're not sure whether actuallyyou should be replacing that, for example.
(17:38):
It looks like understanding whatsupport you need, understanding what
jobs there are to do in the business,and I have a template for a retail
business, which is really useful.
Often when I work with people, we're ableto go through and say, okay, what are
these roles and who's doing them now?
And understand what supports the easiestfor you to bring in the lowest risk, and
(18:03):
what's gonna work with your current coststructure so that you're not overburdening
yourself too quickly with overhead.
Because that is one of those thingsthat it's easier said than done.
If it was super easy to outsource thingsreally quickly and get people doing the
jobs really well and just all happeningwith no stress, then I think a lot
(18:24):
more of us would do a lot more of it.
But it's about working outwhat are the real pain points?
How can I also manage my timeto make myself more effective?
But also how can I start buildingin this leadership time because.
That's the real difference I thinkbetween that first phase when
you're building the business.
It's about you really putting your allinto it and you making things happen.
(18:47):
And then as you get past that, thenext stage of the bridge is about
you starting to lead and lettingother people make things happen.
And as I said, it's notsomething you can necessarily
turn on and off really quickly.
It's something you have to put intoplace, piece by piece for your own peace
of mind as well, so you don't end uptrying to do too many things at once.
(19:09):
So it's all about then that clarityabout having your stock plan, about
having your sales calendar mapped outabout having your strategy really clear.
It's not about you working harder, it'sabout you working smarter, which I know
is, can be a little bit of a cliche, butI do really think that is the truth of it.
Because you just get to thispoint where you are just one
(19:31):
person and one person cannot.
I would be love to know if anyoneknows of a seven figure product
business that is solely one person.
I'm not sure how that would work.
I guess maybe they exist some.
If somebody's a big influential contentcreator and all of their products are
being printed on demand or somethinglike that, sure, maybe there are those
kind of seven figure businesses, butfor most people it's about taking
(19:54):
yourself out of the day to day.
There's a couple of reasons why takingyourself out is really important.
Number one, becauseyou need the headspace.
There are many people in thisworld who can fulfill orders and
deal with custom service queriesin a way that is really brilliant.
There are not that many people whohave the creative vision and strategic
vision to move your business forward,you are the person with that vision.
(20:19):
You are the person who can leadthe business to the next level.
So you've gotta make sure that youdon't end up spending time on tasks
that other people could do andfree you up for that mental space.
And secondly, it's justsimply not practical.
You get to the point where the number ofhours needed to do some of these tasks
in the business, they're just too many.
You can't possibly do them all.
(20:40):
So you have to start thinking abouthow to delegate and how to shift.
But.
It's entirely natural that if you'vebeen in a certain mindset for a certain
amount of time, that you haven'trealized that what you need to do is
shift mindset because you're trying toreplicate what's worked for you before.
But as I said, it is understandingthat is, there's that flection point.
(21:01):
Now, it's not the samepoint for everybody.
Sometimes it's rightaround that vat limit.
Sometimes it's when people havebuilt it to a, 200, 300,000 turnover.
Some people, they get to thispoint when they get to, half a
million or even a million, andyou can also get to this point.
(21:21):
You can add some people in andthen get a certain bit further
and then need to reassess again.
It's not something thatis completely linear.
Probably the one thing we'veall learned about building
businesses is it's not linear.
There's gonna be fits and starts.
There's gonna be times that you jumpforward and times that you fall back
and times that you have to recalibratewhat you're doing and really re really
(21:42):
look again at what you're doing andreally understand is this still working
for where I'm at in the business?
And I think it's so you have to be sointentional when you build your business.
You have to be really clear aboutwhat your vision is for the business,
what you're trying to build.
And you have to be really clear aboutwhether or not it's working for you
as a person, as a 360 degree personwith other commitments in life,
(22:04):
as well as being a business owner.
And I think it's that process that Ireally love working with people on that.
Where am I now?
Where do I want to get to?
Is it working for me?
And then we put things in place, we moveit forward, we see if that's working.
We make adjustments.
'cause as we all know,business is not static.
It's constantly evolving.
(22:24):
So if this resonates for you, ifthis sounds like something that
you'd like to learn more about,then do tune into my free talk.
I said I've got a talk all about howto scale to seven figures without
overwhelm, without burning out.
It is happening onWednesday, the 30th of April.
I'd love to have you join me.
Do take a look in the show notesfor the link to sign up, and we're
(22:44):
gonna be delving even more intothis topic and specifically what
steps you do need to take, but.
If anything else from this podcastepisode, what I'd love you to take away is
just this feeling that you're not alone.
If you are feeling like it's allbecoming overwhelming and you're
not feeling like you are running thebusiness, you're feeling like the
business is running you, then it maywell be that you've got to a point
(23:06):
where what you're doing needs to shift.
It's not about you, it's just you'verun out of your knowledge if you've
got as far as you can with what youknow, or you're ready to make a shift
into a different way of working.
So hopefully that's reassuring.
It's something that everyone goes through.
All businesses that grow have thesemoments and these points of inflection
where they have to look at things againand make decisions about how they're doing
(23:29):
it and what adjustments they want to make.
So it is not a sign of failure, it'susually a sign of growth and opportunity.
So thank you so much for listening.
If you've got a moment to unfollowthe podcast, it makes a huge
difference in getting the podcastout in front of more people.
And of course, if you have a momentto review in Apple Podcasts, that
will make a huge difference as well.
You can also rate it within Spotify.
(23:49):
Thanks again for tuning in,and I'll see you next week.
Today what I wanted to talk about is this notion of what
(00:03):
got you here won't get you there.
And what that means in practice ishaving a look at the difference between
growing a business to the point whereyou are making around six figures in
revenue and then scaling the businessor growing it further beyond that point.
Welcome to episode number 247 ofthe Resilient Retail Game Plan.
(00:24):
Hi, I'm Catherine Eardly.
I'm a small business and retail expert,as well as the founder of the Resilient
Retail Club, which is my membership group,my one-to-one program, and done-for-you
services, all for product businesses.
You can find outmore@resilientretailclub.com.
Welcome to the Resilient RetailGame Plan, a podcast for anyone
(00:49):
wanting to start, grow, or scale aprofitable creative product business.
With me, Katherine Ley.
The Resilient Retail Game Planis a podcast dedicated to one
thing, breaking down the conceptsand tools that I've gathered from
20 years in the retail industry.
And showing you how you canuse them in your business.
This is the real nuts and bolts ofrunning a successful product business
(01:12):
broken down in an easy, accessible way.
This is not a podcast about learninghow to make your business look good.
It's the tools and techniquesthat will make you and your
business feel good confidently.
Plan, launch, and manage your productsand feel in control of your sales
numbers and cash flow to help youbuild a resilient retail business.
(01:40):
There's this general perceptionthat what you really need to do
with your business is you need togrow your sales and then effectively
all of your issues will go away.
But in reality, what I found over andover again is that there's a certain set
of skills and certain set of mindsetsthat get you to a certain point with
your business, and then that switches andactually what you need to take you to the
(02:03):
next level is something quite different.
And hitting that realization andunderstanding it and making that shift
is profoundly transformational forbusiness owners who might otherwise
have been feeling really stuck.
So what that feeds into is this feelingof overwhelm or burnout, and if you want
to know more about this topic, then Ido invite you to come to my free talk.
(02:26):
It's happening on Wednesday,the 30th of April.
You can find the detailsin the show notes.
There will be a link there to sign up.
And if you can't make it live,of course there will be a replay.
But I'm gonna be talking abouthow to scale your business to
seven figures without burning out.
And what I'm gonna be doing isaddressing what you need to do to put
(02:47):
in place a system structure to helpyou get past that six figure phase
without it just becoming unmanageable.
But what I wanna talk about today is whythis is a difficult transition and why
it's something that people often miss.
So I call this episode what got you here?
Won't get you there because I thinkit's a really great summary of
(03:07):
this flexion point, if you like.
This idea that when you first starta business, it's really all about
getting to know your customer andcreating a product that they actually
really want creating or curating.
And I often say to people when I talkto people, potentially if they're coming
in for my one-to-one program, or we'retalking about that, or our stock doctor
(03:31):
program, for example, or my membershipgroup, the Resilient Retail Club.
What I often say to people is, thehardest thing of all in business is
to find a product that people reallylove and will pay you money for.
That, in my opinion, isthe thing that's toughest.
And when you see people who arereally stuck, like maybe they're not
even able to get past, single digitor four digit turnover, for example.
(03:56):
Often when they're really struggling,it's because there's something about the
product that just isn't really resonating.
There isn't, there aren't enoughpeople who love it or the product
itself isn't really something thatthe customer really resonates with.
And that's usually what the issue ismore than say, a lack of marketing skill
or other skills in the business owner.
If you are really stuck atthe starting block, it's
(04:17):
usually to do with the product.
So one of the first things that you haveto overcome as a product business owner
and to grow to that four figure, fivefigure, eventually six figure turnover.
It's about really honing in onwhat does the customer want?
Am I offering them somethingthat they really love?
And I don't believe that you can get tosix figures unless you've got a product
(04:38):
that people do love or enough peopleare or a certain number of people are
interested in and are looking to buy.
And again, whether that's youcreating it or whether that's you
curating it, I really think that'sthe first most important step.
And nothing, you can't doanything with a business.
Unless you've got to that point now.
(04:58):
There's lots that you can do even onceyou hit six figures to improve on that.
But I would say usually that first piece,that first step on your journey to the
first six figures is all about workingout what do people really want from me?
How much are they willing to pay for it?
What do I want to stand for as a brand?
What does my brandidentity, who am I serving?
All of those kinds of things.
(05:19):
That's the first phase, and in orderfor you to do that and to get there.
Often it's about wearing all the hatsbeing really relentlessly scrappy
basically, for want of a better word,trying lots of different things, trying
lots of different ideas, avenues,trying this type of marketing, trying
(05:40):
this type of product, and just reallybasically giving it your all and pouring
your heart and soul into it to justget that formula or at least understand
like what do people want from me?
And so that is the first stage, and itrequires you as the business owner to
be pretty much in the detail all thetime, looking at everything, trying
(06:00):
to understand what's going on, tryingto understand what your customer wants
from you, almost like obsessing overeverything to get that to the point
where you've found something thatpeople want to buy from you and you
are beginning to get some traction.
Now, what I often see happen, and thereason that it gets really tricky is
that, as I said at the beginning, oneof the perceptions is that once we have
(06:21):
sales growth, then that's basicallygoing to solve all our problems.
So o often people will cometo me and they'll say, I
just need to get more sales.
And of course there is always an elementto which people do just need more sales.
If you've got high overheads, ifyou don't really have many sales
at all, then yes, getting moresales is the most important thing.
(06:42):
And obviously to grow from sixfigures to seven figures, you need
to grow your sales alongside that.
But actually, what I tend to find happensis that as people get to that six figure
point and then they go above it, thenall of those skills and things that
they were doing as a starting founderbecome, they stop being a positive
(07:06):
and they start becoming a negative.
And there's another phrase that Ilove, which is new level new devil.
And I think that's a really greatexample of what happens in that sort
of six figure and above area, isthat you've got to a point where you
needing to make larger orders, themoney that you're spending goes up.
And the business itself is going tostart getting a bit more complex usually
(07:30):
because you've expanded your productrange, you've expanded your number of
sales channels, you've expanded to dothe type of marketing that you're doing.
And just generally speaking,there's more going on.
And also if you're getting to sixfigures, then if you were, for example,
doing fulfillment yourself or customerservices yourself, that may have
been manageable when you were justhaving a handful of orders a week.
(07:51):
But as you grow and asthose numbers go up.
Then certain parts of thebusiness start becoming a burden,
effectively, a time burden.
And even if you were able to manageit, as I said, when you just had a few
orders a week, when you get to thatpoint where you've got that consistent
six figures and above, then they juststart becoming some tasks that you
(08:11):
could possibly manage before and you arefinding it really hard to manage now.
So then what you find is the businessowner becomes a bottleneck because
if you've been really immersed in thebusiness in every single element of
the business and obsessing about everysingle element of the business as
(08:31):
you go along, and that's what helpedyou grow, and that's what helped you
get to that six figure level, thenit's quite hard to turn that off.
Especially if it's something thathas helped you grow and you've seen
growth, and you've seen things workbecause you were so determined and so
immersed in every single detail, it'svery hard to then say logically to
(08:53):
yourself, okay, now I'm at this point.
Now I need to stop doing that, andI need to start looking at ways to
take myself out of the business.
It's human nature is if we dosomething and it works well,
we want to do more of it.
And so what I find is that there is apoint where people are six figures and
above and they are just stuck becauseeverything feels much heavier because the
(09:18):
numbers are bigger, the investments arebigger, the bills going out each month are
bigger, and they're simultaneously tryingto keep everything together themselves.
So as a result, what you find isthe level of stress for the founder
starts going up and up, and theirability to step away from the business
goes away or gets really difficult.
(09:41):
And as a result, it can go fromfeeling like something that they built
to give them freedom into somethingthat all of a sudden feels like a
job that you just can't clock out of.
If you think about, again, goingback to this idea of the skills, like
what gets you to those six figures?
So some of the skills that you needreally to start off with is that being
(10:02):
scrappy, having reactive decisions,really leaning into your gut feel.
So trying to feel your way aroundokay, what are people reacting to?
What do I wanna do next?
Who is my customer?
You need to be able to move really fastand just try lots of different things.
And then I'm sure if you're notalready there, you probably know
(10:23):
exactly what I'm talking about.
But if you're not quite there yet,I'm sure you can imagine that just
becomes absolutely exhausting.
I also think as well there's acertain level of adrenaline that
we can run on as business owners.
And when you first startout, it's super exciting.
So sometimes if you absolutelylove what you do, and most of us
absolutely love our businesses.
(10:44):
Then you are willing to put that time in.
And it may even be that it wassomething that was almost like a
hobby or a passion project for youthat you then turned into a business.
So when you first start out, it canfeel like, okay, I'm doing this in the
evenings or at weekends, and that's okay.
'cause I love it and I absolutelyenjoy it and I get so much out of it.
And that can carry you, ayear, two years, three years.
(11:06):
It could carry you quite along way in your business.
That just general excitementokay, this is amazing.
I love it.
I'm, I get so much out of it.
I just love it when I see people buyingmy products and I love seeing them,
wearing them or purchasing them for gifts.
All the rest of it, it's like super,super exciting, super energizing, and
so we can get carried quite a longway on that kind of messy, reactive,
(11:28):
putting everything into it, blood,sweat, and tears, all the rest of it,
and then it can get to a point where.
If that continues.
I honestly believe that therejust becomes points where we
just can't take it for that long.
Like maybe a year, maybe two years,but like three years, four years.
And you're still.
Giving it all your all, you're still nothaving proper boundaries around your time.
(11:51):
You're still not having weekends offproperly or always working until midnight
'cause that's how you fit everything in.
That just really startsto grate after a while.
And I think especially if it'scoupled with not getting yourself
as rewarded financially asyou really should be for your.
Efforts.
It can mean that you end upthinking, what is my hourly rate?
(12:11):
If I actually think about this?
How much am I paying myself and how much?
How many hours am I putting in?
And all of a sudden it can just start tofeel like too much because, we all know
that it's really relentless customers.
Some people have absolutely wonderfulcustomers never have any issues.
Most of us have mostly wonderfulcustomers who we love, and a handful
of people who can be really difficult.
(12:33):
And it can start to feel really difficultand really grating and just there's this
huge pressure on you all of the time.
So what is the there thatwe're trying to get to?
So that's what kind of got us here.
We got us here by being scrappy,reactive, fast, maybe a little
messy, but that was okay.
Less boundaried more willing to putblood, sweat, and tears into it.
(12:57):
So what is that there that thethere that we're talking about?
So again, coming back to this idea, ifyou're at that six figures of growth
you've got there, but you've reallyput your heart and soul into it.
And one of the things that peoplereally fear then is, okay, I
know I want to grow my revenue.
I know I want to, I. Get to that pointwhere I'm at multi six figures, or
(13:18):
if I'm already at multi six figures,maybe I wanna be at seven figures.
Or if I'm at seven figures, Iwant to be at multi seven figures.
So I want to grow the business.
I want more of it.
I want it to continue to grow to in.
To continue to grow my presence, continueto grow my impact, the number of people
that I can help, the number of peoplethat I can make a difference to the world
with my products and everything else.
(13:40):
But the fear is okay, if I had towork really hard to get to this
point, then how am I going to thenmove forward and make the next leap?
And people talk to me a lotabout things like I know where
I want to go, but I don't reallyknow the roadmap to get there.
So I know I'm here, I know I want to bethere, but I dunno what's in between.
And what does there look like?
(14:01):
Sometimes it's about a revenue number.
People have a revenue number in mind, butoften, a lot of the time people want to
just feel a little bit more in control.
They want to feel like.
I really feel like aproper business owner.
Like I know my numbers, I know that I knowwhat my bank account's gonna look like.
I don't have these unexpected expensescoming out and buy to me on the
(14:21):
backside when I least expect it.
They want to be able to paythemselves consistently.
Often people come to me wanting toincrease the amount of money that
they pay themselves, and they alsowant a business that isn't gonna
fall apart if they take time out.
So I often.
Say that I've worked with people wherethe real testament of success of the
(14:42):
work that we did together was thatthey took a two week holiday in August
and they were able to do that and thebusiness kept going, and when they
came back, they weren't hugely behindand things had progressed forward.
Now that is a huge thing, andoften when you hear people talking
about business success, they don'talways talk about things like that.
They might talk about gettinginvestment or having a chain of
(15:04):
stores or whatever it might be.
But I think for a lot of people that Italk to, what real success looks like
is consistent pay, increased pay, payin line with the hours that they put
in better boundaries, and really justliving the life that they wanted to
live when they created their business.
So having that flexibility, havinga business that serves them and
(15:26):
not the other way round, and alsofeeling like they know what to focus
on, feeling like they're not pulledin a million different directions.
So what kind of is the missing gap?
So as I said, what got you here isnot gonna be what gets you there.
And if that's what weare defining as there.
Now, you may have a different definitionfor there, but it would be interesting
to know and I'd love to hear, dopop me a DM on Instagram and let
(15:50):
me know what your there looks like.
But for a lot of people it's that nextlevel of calm, confident, consistency.
Maybe not the most sexy sounding thingin the world, but for a lot of people,
that's what they're really craving.
They just want it to feel likethey're in control, feel like
they've got things that they're notspinning a million different plates.
(16:11):
They're not waiting for the nextthing to happen to them, or the
next bill to hit their bank account.
It's not necessarily that they'relike, okay, I want to be the next
big high street name, or maybe it is.
And if that's what your there is, thenI completely support that as well.
But just to say that we all havethese different visions of success.
And so what is the bridge between the two?
The bridge between the two.
(16:32):
In my experience is going through aprocess of changing the way that you
think about your business and theway that you think about your role
within the business, and usuallyit involves structure and support.
So I call it structure, support,and sanity, or structure and support
leads to sanity, I should say.
(16:53):
So structure is you move frombeing reactive to being proactive.
You know what your planis for the year ahead.
You know what you want to launch andwhen you know when your big peak times
are and you have that zoomed out viewwhere you've got a plan in place.
And you can look at your marketingand your operational plan, your
product launching plan, andit all ties together neatly.
(17:17):
It's also about having structurearound your stock purchasing.
So understanding how much you need tobuy, when, what you should be focusing
on in terms of your stock so thatyou're not just feeling like you are
spending money just 'cause somethinglooks low and you dunno whether or
not that was the right thing to do.
'cause you're not sure whether actuallyyou should be replacing that, for example.
(17:38):
It looks like understanding whatsupport you need, understanding what
jobs there are to do in the business,and I have a template for a retail
business, which is really useful.
Often when I work with people, we're ableto go through and say, okay, what are
these roles and who's doing them now?
And understand what supports the easiestfor you to bring in the lowest risk, and
(18:03):
what's gonna work with your current coststructure so that you're not overburdening
yourself too quickly with overhead.
Because that is one of those thingsthat it's easier said than done.
If it was super easy to outsource thingsreally quickly and get people doing the
jobs really well and just all happeningwith no stress, then I think a lot
(18:24):
more of us would do a lot more of it.
But it's about working outwhat are the real pain points?
How can I also manage my timeto make myself more effective?
But also how can I start buildingin this leadership time because.
That's the real difference I thinkbetween that first phase when
you're building the business.
It's about you really putting your allinto it and you making things happen.
(18:47):
And then as you get past that, thenext stage of the bridge is about
you starting to lead and lettingother people make things happen.
And as I said, it's notsomething you can necessarily
turn on and off really quickly.
It's something you have to put intoplace, piece by piece for your own peace
of mind as well, so you don't end uptrying to do too many things at once.
(19:09):
So it's all about then that clarityabout having your stock plan, about
having your sales calendar mapped outabout having your strategy really clear.
It's not about you working harder, it'sabout you working smarter, which I know
is, can be a little bit of a cliche, butI do really think that is the truth of it.
Because you just get to thispoint where you are just one
(19:31):
person and one person cannot.
I would be love to know if anyoneknows of a seven figure product
business that is solely one person.
I'm not sure how that would work.
I guess maybe they exist some.
If somebody's a big influential contentcreator and all of their products are
being printed on demand or somethinglike that, sure, maybe there are those
kind of seven figure businesses, butfor most people it's about taking
(19:54):
yourself out of the day to day.
There's a couple of reasons why takingyourself out is really important.
Number one, becauseyou need the headspace.
There are many people in thisworld who can fulfill orders and
deal with custom service queriesin a way that is really brilliant.
There are not that many people whohave the creative vision and strategic
vision to move your business forward,you are the person with that vision.
(20:19):
You are the person who can leadthe business to the next level.
So you've gotta make sure that youdon't end up spending time on tasks
that other people could do andfree you up for that mental space.
And secondly, it's justsimply not practical.
You get to the point where the number ofhours needed to do some of these tasks
in the business, they're just too many.
You can't possibly do them all.
(20:40):
So you have to start thinking abouthow to delegate and how to shift.
But.
It's entirely natural that if you'vebeen in a certain mindset for a certain
amount of time, that you haven'trealized that what you need to do is
shift mindset because you're trying toreplicate what's worked for you before.
But as I said, it is understandingthat is, there's that flection point.
(21:01):
Now, it's not the samepoint for everybody.
Sometimes it's rightaround that vat limit.
Sometimes it's when people havebuilt it to a, 200, 300,000 turnover.
Some people, they get to thispoint when they get to, half a
million or even a million, andyou can also get to this point.
(21:21):
You can add some people in andthen get a certain bit further
and then need to reassess again.
It's not something thatis completely linear.
Probably the one thing we'veall learned about building
businesses is it's not linear.
There's gonna be fits and starts.
There's gonna be times that you jumpforward and times that you fall back
and times that you have to recalibratewhat you're doing and really re really
(21:42):
look again at what you're doing andreally understand is this still working
for where I'm at in the business?
And I think it's so you have to be sointentional when you build your business.
You have to be really clear aboutwhat your vision is for the business,
what you're trying to build.
And you have to be really clear aboutwhether or not it's working for you
as a person, as a 360 degree personwith other commitments in life,
(22:04):
as well as being a business owner.
And I think it's that process that Ireally love working with people on that.
Where am I now?
Where do I want to get to?
Is it working for me?
And then we put things in place, we moveit forward, we see if that's working.
We make adjustments.
'cause as we all know,business is not static.
It's constantly evolving.
(22:24):
So if this resonates for you, ifthis sounds like something that
you'd like to learn more about,then do tune into my free talk.
I said I've got a talk all about howto scale to seven figures without
overwhelm, without burning out.
It is happening onWednesday, the 30th of April.
I'd love to have you join me.
Do take a look in the show notesfor the link to sign up, and we're
(22:44):
gonna be delving even more intothis topic and specifically what
steps you do need to take, but.
If anything else from this podcastepisode, what I'd love you to take away is
just this feeling that you're not alone.
If you are feeling like it's allbecoming overwhelming and you're
not feeling like you are running thebusiness, you're feeling like the
business is running you, then it maywell be that you've got to a point
(23:06):
where what you're doing needs to shift.
It's not about you, it's just you'verun out of your knowledge if you've
got as far as you can with what youknow, or you're ready to make a shift
into a different way of working.
So hopefully that's reassuring.
It's something that everyone goes through.
All businesses that grow have thesemoments and these points of inflection
where they have to look at things againand make decisions about how they're doing
(23:29):
it and what adjustments they want to make.
So it is not a sign of failure, it'susually a sign of growth and opportunity.
So thank you so much for listening.
If you've got a moment to unfollowthe podcast, it makes a huge
difference in getting the podcastout in front of more people.
And of course, if you have a momentto review in Apple Podcasts, that
will make a huge difference as well.
You can also rate it within Spotify.
(23:49):
Thanks again for tuning in,and I'll see you next week.
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