April 8, 2025 • 31 mins
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Do you ever find yourself buried under an endless to-do list, bouncing from task to task, but never feeling like you're making true progress? If you're an online business owner, you're in familiar company. This common challenge of trying to handle everything all at once can be overwhelming. But recognizing which season your business is currently in can guide you in setting priorities that truly move the needle without veering into burnout.
When your list of business tasks is a mile long, there’s one important thing to remember: you don’t need to do everything at once! In this episode, I’m breaking down the three business seasons and sharing what to prioritize based on the specific season you’re in. You’ll also learn how to recognize when it’s time to shift from one season to the next.
Each business season serves a special purpose. Whether you’re a seasoned entrepreneur or just starting out, recognizing and embracing your current business season allows for targeted growth and sustainable success without falling into the endless hustle trap. Wherever you are in your business, I’d love to hear about your priorities! Send me a message on Instagram @kristendoyle.co and share your current focus.
01:50 - What the three business seasons look like and how to identify which season you’re currently in
07:45 - Specific tasks to prioritize in each of the three business seasons
22:04 - Tell-tale signs that you’re ready to shift into a new season
26:49 - Action steps to take and apply to your business as soon as today
Links & Resources:
- Episode 131, Strategy Over Spaghetti: A Smart Approach to Building Your Audience
- Follow me on Instagram @kristendoyle.co
- Check out my Everything Page: a one-stop shop for savvy selling!
- The Savvy Seller Collective
- Join my private Facebook community: Savvy Teacher Sellers
- More resources for growing your TPT business
- Rate & review The Savvy Teacher Seller on Apple Podcasts
Show Notes: https://kristendoyle.co/episode142
Tired of constantly hustling to sell your digital products? Check out my free 19-minute training where I show you how to turn all those products you already have into a profitable, automated business.
Get more freedom and less stress ➡️ watch now at kristendoyle.co/training
Check out my Everything Page at https://kristendoyle.co/everything
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Kristen Doyle (00:00):
Do you ever feel just overwhelmed by your endless
(00:04):
business to do list? Do you findyourself constantly jumping in
between tasks, never reallyquite feeling like you're making
any actual progress, or like youcan never finish all the things
on your checklist? Well, you aredefinitely not alone.
This is one of the most commonchallenges that I hear from
digital product creators, andcourse, creators and really all
(00:27):
on business owners of any kind,and it's something I have
struggled with myself in thepast. But here's the good news
that I've learned. You don'tneed to be doing everything all
at once.
In today's episode, I ambreaking down exactly what to
prioritize based on yourspecific season that you're in
in your business right now,whether you are just starting
(00:49):
out, you're in a growth phase ormaybe you're in a phase of
maintaining what you've alreadybuilt. Because really what moves
the needle the most right nowfor you depends entirely on
where you are in your ownbusiness journey and just where
you are in your life in general.
So let's dive in to what thesedifferent business seasons
(01:11):
actually look like.
Are you a digital product orcourse creator, selling on
platforms like teachers payteachers, Etsy or your own
website? Ready to grow yourbusiness, but not into the kind
of constant hustle that leadsstraight to burnout? Then you're
in the right place.
Welcome to The Savvy Seller. I'mKristen Doyle, and I'm here to
(01:35):
give you no fluff, tools andstrategies that move the needle
for your business withoutburning you out in the process.
Things like SEO, no stressmarketing, email list building,
automation, and so much more.
Let's get started y'all.
So let's dive into what thesebusiness seasons actually look
(01:59):
like, so you can identify whereyou are right now and know what
to prioritize in your season. Sothe first business season that
you might be in is what I liketo call a starting out season.
This is probably where you areif you've just started your
business or if you're stillworking on getting everything
(02:20):
running well.
This is where you're reallybuilding the foundations for
your business. You're probablydoing a lot of experimenting,
because you're not quite surewhat's working yet. So you're
trying lots of different thingsto figure out what works. And
you're creating that first setof products or offers that
The second season that you'llmove into is a season of growth
you're going to sell.
(02:43):
in your business. This is whereyou have that good foundation,
and now you're ready to startscaling what's working well so
that it can grow more and more.
You might be expanding theproducts or the services that
you offer, or building outreally streamlined systems,
cleaning up your processes, allof those kinds of things happen
in growth seasons.
(03:04):
And then in a maintenanceseason, you're taking those
existing products, offers,assets you've created for your
business, that you have that areworking well, and you are really
just optimizing those,automating some processes. And
honestly, you're taking sometime to step back a little bit
so that you can make sure thatyou prevent burnout in your
(03:27):
business. So let's talk abouthow you can figure out which
season of business you are inright now.
For someone who is in thatstarting out season, maybe
you're still really figuring outwho your target audience is and
learning about them. You're notquite solid on who you're
(03:47):
talking to. Maybe you areworking on that initial offer
that you're going to put outthere, or you're building up an
initial product catalog ofdigital products. You're
probably still learning some ofyour platforms or tools that
you're using for creation, andyou're not quite solid on those
(04:08):
things yet. And one of thebiggest indicators that you're
in that starting out phase isthat you aren't quite yet
bringing in consistent income inyour business.
Now, when it comes to the growthphase, some of the best
indicators that you are ready tomove into that growth phase are
that you now have provenproducts they are consistently
(04:31):
selling for you. You have areally clear understanding of
who your target audience is, andhow to talk to them, what they
desire related to the productsthat you offer, what their pain
points and their struggles are,and you're ready at this point
to expand your reach and toincrease your sales.
(04:52):
You probably are hitting a pointwhere you really need some
systems in place, because thedemands on you and your time are
getting a little more than youcan handle by yourself. So
you're maybe thinking aboutputting in some systems to help
you handle things, or evenhiring maybe an assistant or VA
to help you.
(05:13):
For the maintenance phase. Ifyou are in a maintenance phase
in your business, you probablyalready have a nice, solid
catalog of products, or you haveyour services or your core
offers really dialed in, but youare feeling a little
overwhelmed. You have thatfeeling that you might be
approaching a point of burnoutin your business. This is a
(05:35):
really good indicator that youneed to move into a maintenance
period for a little while andstep back temporarily from your
business.
Sometimes this is due to lifechanges, health reasons, or it
could just be that you've beenworking really hard for a really
long time and you need to take alittle break. In that
(05:55):
maintenance period, what youwant to do is preserve those
things that are working and setup systems to automate things so
that you don't have to be asactive and as present, and give
yourself space for things likebrainstorming and future
planning, those sorts of thingsthat we don't have time to do
when we're busy in a growthseason, or we're just starting
(06:18):
out because we have too much onour plate. Those are great
things to be doing during yourmaintenance period.
It's really important to figureout what season you are in and
understand that specific season,because every season in your
business requires a differentfocus, different strategies and
a different amount of work fromyou. If you are trying to do
(06:40):
growth season tasks when you arein a maintenance season, that
will lead you straight toburnout in your business. So
it's important to make sure thatyou're being honest with
yourself about where you are andwhat current season works for
you, so that you can set someappropriate expectations and
goals for your business.
I know for me, I moved from akind of a starting out season to
(07:02):
a big season of growth in mybusiness, and I was pushing
hard. I had created a boot camp.
I had launched it several times.
I was, at that point, launchingit three times a year, and along
with that, I was growing my webdesign business and working with
more and more clients. And whathappened is I didn't notice
(07:23):
those signs that I was gettingclose to burnout until it was a
little too late, and I wasoverwhelmed, stretched way too
thin, just exhausted.
I had gotten myself to a pointof just exhaustion and burnout
because I didn't make that shiftinto the maintenance phase I
needed to move into for a littlewhile. Alright, so now that
(07:45):
we've talked about the differentbusiness seasons and you know
how to decide which one you'rein, let's break down those
specific tasks that you need tobe prioritizing in each one.
If you're in a starting outseason, your biggest priorities
are your audience, your productsand your brand. Let's talk about
(08:06):
what that looks like. You wantto make sure that you are
spending some time in thatstarting out season really
getting to know your audience,not just on a surface level, but
a lot more deeply. So you'reresearching things like where
your ideal customers hang outonline.
You're starting to hang out inthose same places so that you
can study their language thatthey use around the things that
(08:29):
you offer, especially. You canlearn their pain points, their
struggles, the desires or thegoals that they have for
themselves, because that'swhat's going to help you really
identify what solutions they'relooking for so that you can
create an audience that is basedon real people and not just
assumptions that you're making.
It's really important to knowyour audience well, because that
(08:52):
is how you create the right typeof messaging that speaks to that
audience. So don't skip out ondoing the audience research
work, just because it feelsmaybe like it's not the actual
progress. You don't see thosetangible results at the end of
it, like a product that you'vecreated that you can now sell.
But that foundational workreally is so important for being
(09:17):
able to reach your audience andtalk to them in a way that
resonates with them long term.
So don't skip out on that work.
It is so, so important.
The second thing to focus onduring your starting out phase
is creating really high qualityproducts to start your business
with. The focus here should beon quality, not quantity. I know
(09:39):
a lot of people will thrownumbers out there, like you
really need to build up yourcatalog of digital products to a
certain number, but I would sayfocus on quality over quantity
and make sure that you arecreating the right products.
You need to create products thatsolve specific problems that
your target audience needs,because those are the products
(10:00):
that they're willing topurchase. When you're doing
this, don't take shortcuts. Makesure you're including lots of
support materials, likeinstructions, examples,
templates for things, so thatyour products are really
thoroughly created and they arehigh quality.
As you're working on these, takesome time to gather feedback
(10:21):
from people, especially thoseearly customers and maybe even
some friends, before you startgetting purchases and be willing
to make changes. I know oncewe've created a product, we've
poured our heart and soul intoit, sometimes we feel like it is
perfect, just like it is, and ifeveryone else doesn't see that,
then that's their problem.
But if you want to sell theseproducts, make sure that you are
(10:45):
gathering feedback from otherpeople, and that you're looking
at it objectively and beingwilling to make some changes and
adjustments based on thefeedback that you get. It really
can help your products just bethat much better, which will
help them to sell more in thelong run.
The third thing to focus on, ifyou're in that starting out
phase, is establishing a good,solid brand foundation. Now this
(11:10):
could look like developing thosevisual elements of your brand.
What are your fonts and colors?
What is your logo going to looklike? What style will you use in
the products that you'recreating? Once you nail that
down, I would encourage you tostart creating templates for
your products, because that willreally help you speed up the
(11:30):
creation process long term.
You can create templates foremail, opt ins, for downloadable
PDF kind of products for yoursocial media, posts, anything
that you are creating on aregular basis. Go ahead and
create templates for thosethings so you can save time in
the long run, when you arecreating. You'll want to make
(11:53):
sure that you have gotten yourbrand name in as many platforms
as possible, even if you aren'tusing them all yet. Even if you
don't think you will use them! Agood example of that for me is I
just really don't see myselfcreating a lot of tiktoks or
(12:13):
posting on X slash Twitter. It'sjust not my thing. But I don't
want anyone else on thoseplatforms having my name,
because that could lead to someconfusion with my audience.
And you never know, things mightchange, and I may want to start
doing that someday. So I wentahead and got those names on
(12:36):
those platforms so that theywill be mine if I need them.
Think about getting your brandname on Facebook, Instagram,
Twitter, X, I keep forgetting tocall it that TikTok, Threads,
Pinterest. But then also makesure that you're grabbing your
brand name as a.com. Grab thatURL so that when you're ready
(13:02):
for a website, even if you'renot using one right now, you're
able to build your website onthat domain.
The other thing I would suggestthat you do, as you're
establishing your foundation foryour business in this starting
out phase, is go ahead and startbuilding your email list. It is
never too early to startbuilding a list. The only caveat
(13:22):
there is, once you startbuilding your list, you do need
to start emailing them, even ifyou only have two or three
people on your list today.
Make sure that you are emailingthem on a regular basis, because
that way, as people come ontoyour list, they are immediately
getting to know you, and theyaren't forgetting who you are if
they join your list and it's twoor three months before you ever
(13:45):
email them. All right. So thosethree tasks are the ones that I
would recommend you work on whenyou're starting out.
But as your business gainstraction, your priorities need
to shift. So once you have thosesolid products and you have a
growing audience, here's whereto focus your energy during a
growth season in your business.
You've sold lots of yourproducts or offers by now, so
(14:06):
that means you have some data.
So spend some time analyzingyour data to find opportunities
to improve, opportunities togrow, what kinds of new products
you should be creating. To dothat, you want to track two key
metrics, your page views andyour conversion rate.
(14:27):
Page views tell you if you'regetting enough traffic to your
offers, your products, yourposts, and then conversion rates
tell you how many people areactually purchasing those
things. So you want to make surethat you are focusing your
efforts on products that arelike those that are your current
best performing products. Soidentify those best performers,
(14:50):
figure out what they have incommon or why they are working
so well.
Look for things like patternsand customer behavior too, and
then use your data to guide yourdecisions in the future. Instead
of just guessing about things,you can use that data to create
more products, like your bestperforming products, to change
(15:11):
the content of your course or toshift the messaging around your
service offer. It takes all theguesswork out when you're able
to analyze your data.
Once you've analyzed your data,take a little time to optimize
and update those existingproducts. So you'll identify
some high performers, but you'llalso see some that aren't
(15:31):
performing as well. Take sometime to improve those products
that are getting traffic butthey're not converting well.
Look at things like the visuals,the design, especially of older
products that maybe you haven'ttouched in a while. Think about
expanding those successfulproducts into bigger bundles or
product lines, and use yourcustomer feedback to make good
(15:53):
improvements, especially to thethings that aren't working as
well as you want them to.
And then the third thing thatyou want to focus on growing
during a growth season is yourconnection with your audience. I
would recommend that you kind ofpick one primary marketing
channel that you're going touse, whether that's a podcast or
Instagram or Tiktok, whateverthat is, pick one to really
(16:16):
focus on and excel at thatthing. And then find ways to
repurpose that content ontoother platforms. Make sure you
have some systems in place forstaying consistent in your
content creation or your postingschedule, and build in things
like automated email sequencesfor welcoming and nurturing your
(16:37):
new subscribers.
This is also a good time tostart doing some paid
advertising, because that canhelp you grow your email list.
It can also help you send moretraffic to your offers. Now,
growth seasons are exciting. Youmight find yourself in a growth
season for a long time in yourbusiness, but they can be a
little intense, because you wereworking really hard on growing
(17:01):
your business, and eventuallyevery business needs to move
into a maintenance phase.
Sometimes that's by choice, andsometimes it honestly just
becomes a necessity.
Whether it's something in yourpersonal life that causes you to
need to take a step back, or youjust find yourself at a point of
burnout and you know that youhave to. So when you find
(17:23):
yourself needing to move into amaintenance season, because it's
not a question of if it's goingto happen. When you find
yourself there, here's what youneed to be focused on. Those
priorities in a maintenanceseason are automating everything
that you can, optimizing yoursetup for passive income, and
(17:43):
then preserving your own energyand your creativity.
So let's talk about automatingand systemizing things. You want
to set up a system that canrecycle your content in an
automated way. You can do thatwith something like SmarterQue
or Meet Edgar for social media.
You can also do this with someemail automations that continue
(18:04):
to send out your content to youremail list over time. Another
thing to systemize is yourtemplates and your SOPs, those
standard operating procedures.
When you have those things inplace, repeated tasks get a lot
faster and easier, and you'reable to hire out for lots of
(18:25):
things that you might not havebeen able to hire out for
before, if you're in a placewhere you're ready to do that.
During that maintenance season,you'll find some times where you
feel like your energy is higherand you can create new things.
And if you want to thenabsolutely lean in and do that.
Give yourself time to do somebatch creation of either blog or
(18:46):
podcast content or new productswhen your energy is high and
you're feeling up to it. Andthink about which tasks you can
either delegate to someone elseor eliminate all together. I
like to look for three things,what can I automate, what can I
delegate, and what can Ieliminate when I'm in a
(19:06):
maintenance phase.
Let's talk about how to optimizewhat you have for some passive
income. In that maintenancephase, make sure your best
sellers are updated andoptimized so that they're
performing as well as possible.
If you have been doing launchseasons during your growth
phase, transition those over tosome evergreen funnels that can
(19:26):
run automatically. I wouldreally encourage you, if you're
selling digital products, to setup some evergreen email funnels
that will send those productsout to your audience over time.
And focus on things that canscale over things that are time
intensive if you're a serviceprovider.
(19:46):
So what can you do that's maybea one to many offer instead of
one on one offers? Or how canyou take your one on one offer
and make it take less time sothat you can serve more people
with less of your energy. Andthat leads us right into the
third thing to focus on duringyour maintenance season, which
is preserving your own energyand your creativity. This is
(20:09):
really a season of establishingsome firm boundaries around your
time and your availability.
My web design clients and mymaintenance clients have
probably noticed that happeningin my business over the last
year, where I am setting someboundaries around when I am
checking emails and when I amresponding to things. That's
important, because when we startreaching a point of burnout, we
(20:31):
have to set those boundaries toprotect our energy and to give
us that time to recharge and beready to dive back in.
Make sure that you arescheduling regular breaks with
real time off. I'm not talkingabout the kind where you go on a
trip like I did not too longago, but you take your laptop
and you work in the mornings andthen enjoy your trip in the
(20:54):
afternoon. Those are great. Itis wonderful that we are in the
type of business where we can dothat sort of thing, but make
sure you're scheduling some realtime off too, where you leave
your laptop at home. Or youclose it on a Friday and commit
to not opening it again untilMonday.
This is also a really good timeto revisit your business
(21:17):
foundation a little bit, connectwith your why again, why do you
love this business? What arethose personal benefits you get
out of it? How are you helpingyour customers or your clients
just really reconnect with whyyou love the thing that you do?
And use this maintenance seasonto learn new things, to get
(21:38):
inspired, to do somebrainstorming, but take the
pressure off to implement thosethings right away.
Only do the things that feelgood, that you really want to be
doing at that time, that'll giveyou the time to recharge, so
that you're ready to move backinto a growth or a starting out
(21:58):
season, and you have the energyto really show up and do a great
job in those seasons too.
All right, so that's yourroadmap for each of the
different business seasons. Butwhat happens when it's time to
shift gears? How can you knowwhen it's time? Let's talk about
recognizing those signs. So ifyou're in a starting out season,
(22:19):
some good signs that you'reready to move into a growth
season in your business are thatyou're starting to get
consistent sales, you're feelingmore confident about your
products, and you're reallyready to scale that growth to
reach a bigger audience and toget more sales of those
products.
Once you're in that growthseason, you'll probably stay
(22:41):
there for a while. In fact, mostbusiness owners spend the bulk
of their time in growth seasons.
It's a good sign that you needto move into a maintenance
season when you're starting tofeel overwhelmed, the quality of
the work that you're doing issuffering, when it's taking you
twice as long as it usually doesto do things, and you feel like,
I just don't know why this feelsso hard. Those are some really
(23:02):
good signs that you'reapproaching that point of
burnout, and you need to takesome time to shift into a
maintenance season for a littlewhile.
Now, once you're in amaintenance season, you might
move to a new starting outseason or back into a growth
season, depending on what'sgoing on in your business.
Either way, when you startfeeling energetic again about
(23:26):
your business, you're inspiredand have lots of fresh ideas.
When you have those systems inplace, then you are ready to
think about moving to one ofthose other stages again. You
might move into a starting outseason if you have gotten lots
of fresh ideas, sometimes thatleads to a little bit of a pivot
in our business, and we need togo back and revisit things like,
(23:48):
who is my target audience forthis new thing that I want to
do?
Maybe you need to build somebrand foundations for something
new and big that you're excitedabout starting. So then move
into a starting out phase for alittle bit again. If not and you
are just ready to get back intothe groove, back into the swing
of things, then it's time tomove back to a growth phase. I
(24:09):
know for me that it's time tomove back into a growth phase
when I start finding myselfpushing at the boundaries I've
put in place.
So if I have told myself, youknow, just think and brainstorm
and get ideas, but don't createthose times when I feel like I
really am so excited about thisthing I want to go and create it
right now. That's when I knowthat I am ready to move back
(24:32):
into a growth season. When itcomes to transitioning between
seasons, you don't necessarilyhave to let your audience know
what you're doing, but if youhave a team, make sure you
communicate with them kind ofwhat is happening for you
personally and where that isaffecting things in the
business.
You'll want to make sure thatyou are setting up systems
(24:53):
before you transition from thegrowth season into a maintenance
season so that things still runwell while you're in that
maintenance period. And you wantto make sure you're being really
intentional about thattransition that you're making.
Don't let yourself just slip inand out between seasons,
especially when it comes tomoving into a maintenance
season. Really be intentional.
Set boundaries for yourselfaround your energy and the time
(25:17):
you're going to work what you'reworking on, so that you really
do give yourself time in thatmaintenance season to recharge
and be ready to go back in to astarting out or a growth season,
excited and renewed and ready togo.
Before we close out, I want tojust kind of give you some
(25:37):
permission, hopefully, to bewhere you are right now. See
these different seasons in ourbusiness are natural. They are
necessary, and it's a flow thatwe have back and forth through
those different seasons overtime. The season you're in has
nothing to do with whetheryou're a success or a failure.
If you've been in your businessa long time and you feel like
(25:59):
you're still in a starting outseason that is perfectly fine.
Sometimes it's not even us thatforce that season change.
Sometimes there's externalcircumstances out there, family
needs, health concerns, maybeit's just a busy season in your
life. Keep in mind that when itcomes to being really successful
(26:21):
as an online entrepreneur or asolo business owner of any kind,
it really comes down tosustainable growth over time.
Having a business that grows ina way, that you love it, that
you feel inspired and energizedand excited about your business,
and that it fits into your life,instead of you having to always
(26:41):
make your life fit into yourbusiness. We're saying goodbye
to that constant hustle andcreating a business that really
works for you.
All right so, understandingthese seasons is one thing, but
actually applying this to yourbusiness is another altogether.
So here are some action stepsfor you to actually put this
into practice, starting today.
Right now today, I want you tofigure out where you are. Take a
(27:03):
little honest inventory of whereyou are right now in your
business, not where you wish youwere, but where you are right
now, both in your business andin your personal, just capacity
to work on your business.
Once you do that, choose onepriority task from your season
(27:27):
that you're going to work onthis week. If you're just
starting out, pick one way thatyou're going to spend some time
learning more about youraudience. If you're in a growth
season, pick one of your highestperforming products to optimize
or to start creating a productline around it. And if you're in
a maintenance season, find atask that you can automate or
(27:48):
systematize this week.
And then step three would be toschedule some dedicated time in
your calendar. If you're like meand you use Google Calendar, I
want you to open it up right nowand block out at least 90
minutes of uninterrupted focustime to work on that one thing
that you chose in that timeblock. When you do that, I would
(28:10):
really encourage you to justeliminate distractions. Put your
phone or your computer on do notdisturb, close the doors, get
really focused and put in somegood hard work for that 60 to 90
minutes.
Whether you are in a startingout season, a growth season, or
you're in a maintenance seasonright now, taking action on just
(28:33):
one of those priorities willreally help move your business
forward this week and get youworking in A way that works for
your life right now. Speaking ofaction steps, I would love to
know which business season youare currently in and what you've
decided to prioritize afterlistening to this episode.
Send me a DM on Instagram atKristen doyle.co and let me
(28:55):
know. Or you can look for astory in our stories today and
respond there. And if you foundthis episode helpful, please
screenshot it and share it withanother online entrepreneur like
you, who maybe is strugglingwith knowing what to focus on
right now in their business.
Talk soon friends.
Do you ever feel just overwhelmed by your endless
(00:04):
business to do list? Do you findyourself constantly jumping in
between tasks, never reallyquite feeling like you're making
any actual progress, or like youcan never finish all the things
on your checklist? Well, you aredefinitely not alone.
This is one of the most commonchallenges that I hear from
digital product creators, andcourse, creators and really all
(00:27):
on business owners of any kind,and it's something I have
struggled with myself in thepast. But here's the good news
that I've learned. You don'tneed to be doing everything all
at once.
In today's episode, I ambreaking down exactly what to
prioritize based on yourspecific season that you're in
in your business right now,whether you are just starting
(00:49):
out, you're in a growth phase ormaybe you're in a phase of
maintaining what you've alreadybuilt. Because really what moves
the needle the most right nowfor you depends entirely on
where you are in your ownbusiness journey and just where
you are in your life in general.
So let's dive in to what thesedifferent business seasons
(01:11):
actually look like.
Are you a digital product orcourse creator, selling on
platforms like teachers payteachers, Etsy or your own
website? Ready to grow yourbusiness, but not into the kind
of constant hustle that leadsstraight to burnout? Then you're
in the right place.
Welcome to The Savvy Seller. I'mKristen Doyle, and I'm here to
(01:35):
give you no fluff, tools andstrategies that move the needle
for your business withoutburning you out in the process.
Things like SEO, no stressmarketing, email list building,
automation, and so much more.
Let's get started y'all.
So let's dive into what thesebusiness seasons actually look
(01:59):
like, so you can identify whereyou are right now and know what
to prioritize in your season. Sothe first business season that
you might be in is what I liketo call a starting out season.
This is probably where you areif you've just started your
business or if you're stillworking on getting everything
(02:20):
running well.
This is where you're reallybuilding the foundations for
your business. You're probablydoing a lot of experimenting,
because you're not quite surewhat's working yet. So you're
trying lots of different thingsto figure out what works. And
you're creating that first setof products or offers that
The second season that you'llmove into is a season of growth
you're going to sell.
(02:43):
in your business. This is whereyou have that good foundation,
and now you're ready to startscaling what's working well so
that it can grow more and more.
You might be expanding theproducts or the services that
you offer, or building outreally streamlined systems,
cleaning up your processes, allof those kinds of things happen
in growth seasons.
(03:04):
And then in a maintenanceseason, you're taking those
existing products, offers,assets you've created for your
business, that you have that areworking well, and you are really
just optimizing those,automating some processes. And
honestly, you're taking sometime to step back a little bit
so that you can make sure thatyou prevent burnout in your
(03:27):
business. So let's talk abouthow you can figure out which
season of business you are inright now.
For someone who is in thatstarting out season, maybe
you're still really figuring outwho your target audience is and
learning about them. You're notquite solid on who you're
(03:47):
talking to. Maybe you areworking on that initial offer
that you're going to put outthere, or you're building up an
initial product catalog ofdigital products. You're
probably still learning some ofyour platforms or tools that
you're using for creation, andyou're not quite solid on those
(04:08):
things yet. And one of thebiggest indicators that you're
in that starting out phase isthat you aren't quite yet
bringing in consistent income inyour business.
Now, when it comes to the growthphase, some of the best
indicators that you are ready tomove into that growth phase are
that you now have provenproducts they are consistently
(04:31):
selling for you. You have areally clear understanding of
who your target audience is, andhow to talk to them, what they
desire related to the productsthat you offer, what their pain
points and their struggles are,and you're ready at this point
to expand your reach and toincrease your sales.
(04:52):
You probably are hitting a pointwhere you really need some
systems in place, because thedemands on you and your time are
getting a little more than youcan handle by yourself. So
you're maybe thinking aboutputting in some systems to help
you handle things, or evenhiring maybe an assistant or VA
to help you.
(05:13):
For the maintenance phase. Ifyou are in a maintenance phase
in your business, you probablyalready have a nice, solid
catalog of products, or you haveyour services or your core
offers really dialed in, but youare feeling a little
overwhelmed. You have thatfeeling that you might be
approaching a point of burnoutin your business. This is a
(05:35):
really good indicator that youneed to move into a maintenance
period for a little while andstep back temporarily from your
business.
Sometimes this is due to lifechanges, health reasons, or it
could just be that you've beenworking really hard for a really
long time and you need to take alittle break. In that
(05:55):
maintenance period, what youwant to do is preserve those
things that are working and setup systems to automate things so
that you don't have to be asactive and as present, and give
yourself space for things likebrainstorming and future
planning, those sorts of thingsthat we don't have time to do
when we're busy in a growthseason, or we're just starting
(06:18):
out because we have too much onour plate. Those are great
things to be doing during yourmaintenance period.
It's really important to figureout what season you are in and
understand that specific season,because every season in your
business requires a differentfocus, different strategies and
a different amount of work fromyou. If you are trying to do
(06:40):
growth season tasks when you arein a maintenance season, that
will lead you straight toburnout in your business. So
it's important to make sure thatyou're being honest with
yourself about where you are andwhat current season works for
you, so that you can set someappropriate expectations and
goals for your business.
I know for me, I moved from akind of a starting out season to
(07:02):
a big season of growth in mybusiness, and I was pushing
hard. I had created a boot camp.
I had launched it several times.
I was, at that point, launchingit three times a year, and along
with that, I was growing my webdesign business and working with
more and more clients. And whathappened is I didn't notice
(07:23):
those signs that I was gettingclose to burnout until it was a
little too late, and I wasoverwhelmed, stretched way too
thin, just exhausted.
I had gotten myself to a pointof just exhaustion and burnout
because I didn't make that shiftinto the maintenance phase I
needed to move into for a littlewhile. Alright, so now that
(07:45):
we've talked about the differentbusiness seasons and you know
how to decide which one you'rein, let's break down those
specific tasks that you need tobe prioritizing in each one.
If you're in a starting outseason, your biggest priorities
are your audience, your productsand your brand. Let's talk about
(08:06):
what that looks like. You wantto make sure that you are
spending some time in thatstarting out season really
getting to know your audience,not just on a surface level, but
a lot more deeply. So you'reresearching things like where
your ideal customers hang outonline.
You're starting to hang out inthose same places so that you
can study their language thatthey use around the things that
(08:29):
you offer, especially. You canlearn their pain points, their
struggles, the desires or thegoals that they have for
themselves, because that'swhat's going to help you really
identify what solutions they'relooking for so that you can
create an audience that is basedon real people and not just
assumptions that you're making.
It's really important to knowyour audience well, because that
(08:52):
is how you create the right typeof messaging that speaks to that
audience. So don't skip out ondoing the audience research
work, just because it feelsmaybe like it's not the actual
progress. You don't see thosetangible results at the end of
it, like a product that you'vecreated that you can now sell.
But that foundational workreally is so important for being
(09:17):
able to reach your audience andtalk to them in a way that
resonates with them long term.
So don't skip out on that work.
It is so, so important.
The second thing to focus onduring your starting out phase
is creating really high qualityproducts to start your business
with. The focus here should beon quality, not quantity. I know
(09:39):
a lot of people will thrownumbers out there, like you
really need to build up yourcatalog of digital products to a
certain number, but I would sayfocus on quality over quantity
and make sure that you arecreating the right products.
You need to create products thatsolve specific problems that
your target audience needs,because those are the products
(10:00):
that they're willing topurchase. When you're doing
this, don't take shortcuts. Makesure you're including lots of
support materials, likeinstructions, examples,
templates for things, so thatyour products are really
thoroughly created and they arehigh quality.
As you're working on these, takesome time to gather feedback
(10:21):
from people, especially thoseearly customers and maybe even
some friends, before you startgetting purchases and be willing
to make changes. I know oncewe've created a product, we've
poured our heart and soul intoit, sometimes we feel like it is
perfect, just like it is, and ifeveryone else doesn't see that,
then that's their problem.
But if you want to sell theseproducts, make sure that you are
(10:45):
gathering feedback from otherpeople, and that you're looking
at it objectively and beingwilling to make some changes and
adjustments based on thefeedback that you get. It really
can help your products just bethat much better, which will
help them to sell more in thelong run.
The third thing to focus on, ifyou're in that starting out
phase, is establishing a good,solid brand foundation. Now this
(11:10):
could look like developing thosevisual elements of your brand.
What are your fonts and colors?
What is your logo going to looklike? What style will you use in
the products that you'recreating? Once you nail that
down, I would encourage you tostart creating templates for
your products, because that willreally help you speed up the
(11:30):
creation process long term.
You can create templates foremail, opt ins, for downloadable
PDF kind of products for yoursocial media, posts, anything
that you are creating on aregular basis. Go ahead and
create templates for thosethings so you can save time in
the long run, when you arecreating. You'll want to make
(11:53):
sure that you have gotten yourbrand name in as many platforms
as possible, even if you aren'tusing them all yet. Even if you
don't think you will use them! Agood example of that for me is I
just really don't see myselfcreating a lot of tiktoks or
(12:13):
posting on X slash Twitter. It'sjust not my thing. But I don't
want anyone else on thoseplatforms having my name,
because that could lead to someconfusion with my audience.
And you never know, things mightchange, and I may want to start
doing that someday. So I wentahead and got those names on
(12:36):
those platforms so that theywill be mine if I need them.
Think about getting your brandname on Facebook, Instagram,
Twitter, X, I keep forgetting tocall it that TikTok, Threads,
Pinterest. But then also makesure that you're grabbing your
brand name as a.com. Grab thatURL so that when you're ready
(13:02):
for a website, even if you'renot using one right now, you're
able to build your website onthat domain.
The other thing I would suggestthat you do, as you're
establishing your foundation foryour business in this starting
out phase, is go ahead and startbuilding your email list. It is
never too early to startbuilding a list. The only caveat
(13:22):
there is, once you startbuilding your list, you do need
to start emailing them, even ifyou only have two or three
people on your list today.
Make sure that you are emailingthem on a regular basis, because
that way, as people come ontoyour list, they are immediately
getting to know you, and theyaren't forgetting who you are if
they join your list and it's twoor three months before you ever
(13:45):
email them. All right. So thosethree tasks are the ones that I
would recommend you work on whenyou're starting out.
But as your business gainstraction, your priorities need
to shift. So once you have thosesolid products and you have a
growing audience, here's whereto focus your energy during a
growth season in your business.
You've sold lots of yourproducts or offers by now, so
(14:06):
that means you have some data.
So spend some time analyzingyour data to find opportunities
to improve, opportunities togrow, what kinds of new products
you should be creating. To dothat, you want to track two key
metrics, your page views andyour conversion rate.
(14:27):
Page views tell you if you'regetting enough traffic to your
offers, your products, yourposts, and then conversion rates
tell you how many people areactually purchasing those
things. So you want to make surethat you are focusing your
efforts on products that arelike those that are your current
best performing products. Soidentify those best performers,
(14:50):
figure out what they have incommon or why they are working
so well.
Look for things like patternsand customer behavior too, and
then use your data to guide yourdecisions in the future. Instead
of just guessing about things,you can use that data to create
more products, like your bestperforming products, to change
(15:11):
the content of your course or toshift the messaging around your
service offer. It takes all theguesswork out when you're able
to analyze your data.
Once you've analyzed your data,take a little time to optimize
and update those existingproducts. So you'll identify
some high performers, but you'llalso see some that aren't
(15:31):
performing as well. Take sometime to improve those products
that are getting traffic butthey're not converting well.
Look at things like the visuals,the design, especially of older
products that maybe you haven'ttouched in a while. Think about
expanding those successfulproducts into bigger bundles or
product lines, and use yourcustomer feedback to make good
(15:53):
improvements, especially to thethings that aren't working as
well as you want them to.
And then the third thing thatyou want to focus on growing
during a growth season is yourconnection with your audience. I
would recommend that you kind ofpick one primary marketing
channel that you're going touse, whether that's a podcast or
Instagram or Tiktok, whateverthat is, pick one to really
(16:16):
focus on and excel at thatthing. And then find ways to
repurpose that content ontoother platforms. Make sure you
have some systems in place forstaying consistent in your
content creation or your postingschedule, and build in things
like automated email sequencesfor welcoming and nurturing your
(16:37):
new subscribers.
This is also a good time tostart doing some paid
advertising, because that canhelp you grow your email list.
It can also help you send moretraffic to your offers. Now,
growth seasons are exciting. Youmight find yourself in a growth
season for a long time in yourbusiness, but they can be a
little intense, because you wereworking really hard on growing
(17:01):
your business, and eventuallyevery business needs to move
into a maintenance phase.
Sometimes that's by choice, andsometimes it honestly just
becomes a necessity.
Whether it's something in yourpersonal life that causes you to
need to take a step back, or youjust find yourself at a point of
burnout and you know that youhave to. So when you find
(17:23):
yourself needing to move into amaintenance season, because it's
not a question of if it's goingto happen. When you find
yourself there, here's what youneed to be focused on. Those
priorities in a maintenanceseason are automating everything
that you can, optimizing yoursetup for passive income, and
(17:43):
then preserving your own energyand your creativity.
So let's talk about automatingand systemizing things. You want
to set up a system that canrecycle your content in an
automated way. You can do thatwith something like SmarterQue
or Meet Edgar for social media.
You can also do this with someemail automations that continue
(18:04):
to send out your content to youremail list over time. Another
thing to systemize is yourtemplates and your SOPs, those
standard operating procedures.
When you have those things inplace, repeated tasks get a lot
faster and easier, and you'reable to hire out for lots of
(18:25):
things that you might not havebeen able to hire out for
before, if you're in a placewhere you're ready to do that.
During that maintenance season,you'll find some times where you
feel like your energy is higherand you can create new things.
And if you want to thenabsolutely lean in and do that.
Give yourself time to do somebatch creation of either blog or
(18:46):
podcast content or new productswhen your energy is high and
you're feeling up to it. Andthink about which tasks you can
either delegate to someone elseor eliminate all together. I
like to look for three things,what can I automate, what can I
delegate, and what can Ieliminate when I'm in a
(19:06):
maintenance phase.
Let's talk about how to optimizewhat you have for some passive
income. In that maintenancephase, make sure your best
sellers are updated andoptimized so that they're
performing as well as possible.
If you have been doing launchseasons during your growth
phase, transition those over tosome evergreen funnels that can
(19:26):
run automatically. I wouldreally encourage you, if you're
selling digital products, to setup some evergreen email funnels
that will send those productsout to your audience over time.
And focus on things that canscale over things that are time
intensive if you're a serviceprovider.
(19:46):
So what can you do that's maybea one to many offer instead of
one on one offers? Or how canyou take your one on one offer
and make it take less time sothat you can serve more people
with less of your energy. Andthat leads us right into the
third thing to focus on duringyour maintenance season, which
is preserving your own energyand your creativity. This is
(20:09):
really a season of establishingsome firm boundaries around your
time and your availability.
My web design clients and mymaintenance clients have
probably noticed that happeningin my business over the last
year, where I am setting someboundaries around when I am
checking emails and when I amresponding to things. That's
important, because when we startreaching a point of burnout, we
(20:31):
have to set those boundaries toprotect our energy and to give
us that time to recharge and beready to dive back in.
Make sure that you arescheduling regular breaks with
real time off. I'm not talkingabout the kind where you go on a
trip like I did not too longago, but you take your laptop
and you work in the mornings andthen enjoy your trip in the
(20:54):
afternoon. Those are great. Itis wonderful that we are in the
type of business where we can dothat sort of thing, but make
sure you're scheduling some realtime off too, where you leave
your laptop at home. Or youclose it on a Friday and commit
to not opening it again untilMonday.
This is also a really good timeto revisit your business
(21:17):
foundation a little bit, connectwith your why again, why do you
love this business? What arethose personal benefits you get
out of it? How are you helpingyour customers or your clients
just really reconnect with whyyou love the thing that you do?
And use this maintenance seasonto learn new things, to get
(21:38):
inspired, to do somebrainstorming, but take the
pressure off to implement thosethings right away.
Only do the things that feelgood, that you really want to be
doing at that time, that'll giveyou the time to recharge, so
that you're ready to move backinto a growth or a starting out
(21:58):
season, and you have the energyto really show up and do a great
job in those seasons too.
All right, so that's yourroadmap for each of the
different business seasons. Butwhat happens when it's time to
shift gears? How can you knowwhen it's time? Let's talk about
recognizing those signs. So ifyou're in a starting out season,
(22:19):
some good signs that you'reready to move into a growth
season in your business are thatyou're starting to get
consistent sales, you're feelingmore confident about your
products, and you're reallyready to scale that growth to
reach a bigger audience and toget more sales of those
products.
Once you're in that growthseason, you'll probably stay
(22:41):
there for a while. In fact, mostbusiness owners spend the bulk
of their time in growth seasons.
It's a good sign that you needto move into a maintenance
season when you're starting tofeel overwhelmed, the quality of
the work that you're doing issuffering, when it's taking you
twice as long as it usually doesto do things, and you feel like,
I just don't know why this feelsso hard. Those are some really
(23:02):
good signs that you'reapproaching that point of
burnout, and you need to takesome time to shift into a
maintenance season for a littlewhile.
Now, once you're in amaintenance season, you might
move to a new starting outseason or back into a growth
season, depending on what'sgoing on in your business.
Either way, when you startfeeling energetic again about
(23:26):
your business, you're inspiredand have lots of fresh ideas.
When you have those systems inplace, then you are ready to
think about moving to one ofthose other stages again. You
might move into a starting outseason if you have gotten lots
of fresh ideas, sometimes thatleads to a little bit of a pivot
in our business, and we need togo back and revisit things like,
(23:48):
who is my target audience forthis new thing that I want to
do?
Maybe you need to build somebrand foundations for something
new and big that you're excitedabout starting. So then move
into a starting out phase for alittle bit again. If not and you
are just ready to get back intothe groove, back into the swing
of things, then it's time tomove back to a growth phase. I
(24:09):
know for me that it's time tomove back into a growth phase
when I start finding myselfpushing at the boundaries I've
put in place.
So if I have told myself, youknow, just think and brainstorm
and get ideas, but don't createthose times when I feel like I
really am so excited about thisthing I want to go and create it
right now. That's when I knowthat I am ready to move back
(24:32):
into a growth season. When itcomes to transitioning between
seasons, you don't necessarilyhave to let your audience know
what you're doing, but if youhave a team, make sure you
communicate with them kind ofwhat is happening for you
personally and where that isaffecting things in the
business.
You'll want to make sure thatyou are setting up systems
(24:53):
before you transition from thegrowth season into a maintenance
season so that things still runwell while you're in that
maintenance period. And you wantto make sure you're being really
intentional about thattransition that you're making.
Don't let yourself just slip inand out between seasons,
especially when it comes tomoving into a maintenance
season. Really be intentional.
Set boundaries for yourselfaround your energy and the time
(25:17):
you're going to work what you'reworking on, so that you really
do give yourself time in thatmaintenance season to recharge
and be ready to go back in to astarting out or a growth season,
excited and renewed and ready togo.
Before we close out, I want tojust kind of give you some
(25:37):
permission, hopefully, to bewhere you are right now. See
these different seasons in ourbusiness are natural. They are
necessary, and it's a flow thatwe have back and forth through
those different seasons overtime. The season you're in has
nothing to do with whetheryou're a success or a failure.
If you've been in your businessa long time and you feel like
(25:59):
you're still in a starting outseason that is perfectly fine.
Sometimes it's not even us thatforce that season change.
Sometimes there's externalcircumstances out there, family
needs, health concerns, maybeit's just a busy season in your
life. Keep in mind that when itcomes to being really successful
(26:21):
as an online entrepreneur or asolo business owner of any kind,
it really comes down tosustainable growth over time.
Having a business that grows ina way, that you love it, that
you feel inspired and energizedand excited about your business,
and that it fits into your life,instead of you having to always
(26:41):
make your life fit into yourbusiness. We're saying goodbye
to that constant hustle andcreating a business that really
works for you.
All right so, understandingthese seasons is one thing, but
actually applying this to yourbusiness is another altogether.
So here are some action stepsfor you to actually put this
into practice, starting today.
Right now today, I want you tofigure out where you are. Take a
(27:03):
little honest inventory of whereyou are right now in your
business, not where you wish youwere, but where you are right
now, both in your business andin your personal, just capacity
to work on your business.
Once you do that, choose onepriority task from your season
(27:27):
that you're going to work onthis week. If you're just
starting out, pick one way thatyou're going to spend some time
learning more about youraudience. If you're in a growth
season, pick one of your highestperforming products to optimize
or to start creating a productline around it. And if you're in
a maintenance season, find atask that you can automate or
(27:48):
systematize this week.
And then step three would be toschedule some dedicated time in
your calendar. If you're like meand you use Google Calendar, I
want you to open it up right nowand block out at least 90
minutes of uninterrupted focustime to work on that one thing
that you chose in that timeblock. When you do that, I would
(28:10):
really encourage you to justeliminate distractions. Put your
phone or your computer on do notdisturb, close the doors, get
really focused and put in somegood hard work for that 60 to 90
minutes.
Whether you are in a startingout season, a growth season, or
you're in a maintenance seasonright now, taking action on just
(28:33):
one of those priorities willreally help move your business
forward this week and get youworking in A way that works for
your life right now. Speaking ofaction steps, I would love to
know which business season youare currently in and what you've
decided to prioritize afterlistening to this episode.
Send me a DM on Instagram atKristen doyle.co and let me
(28:55):
know. Or you can look for astory in our stories today and
respond there. And if you foundthis episode helpful, please
screenshot it and share it withanother online entrepreneur like
you, who maybe is strugglingwith knowing what to focus on
right now in their business.
Talk soon friends.
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