Getting from $0 to $10 Million is a Grind. It’s also our Specialty.

I bear the scars of multiple successful and failed startups, and have built businesses from scratch well into 8-figures. I can tell you right here, right now, that the journey from $0-10 million is by far the toughest part of the journey. There are so many facets to it. What you experience from $0-100k is completely different from what you will experience up to $1 million in revenue. What you experience from $1M to $2M, and then $2M to $4M will be completely different and will have unique challenges.

What I have found is that $0-10 million is where the most help is needed. It’s a grind. It’s hell. It’s everything in between. It is therefore what I am focusing on with our content. I am riffing on the things that you are, or will be going through on a daily basis. I am giving information hot off the daily press of what is happening right now to keep you ahead of the times.

If you like what you are hearing, and if you like what we are discussing then give us a follow on Insta, Facebook, Twitter.  If you one day feel so inclined, tag a friend who is currently in the entrepreneur journey who might benefit from this content. Leave a comment on one of our posts and share your experiences, thoughts, challenges, troubles. I want to hear from you. I know what you are going through and the ride that you are on.

True Leadership Feels Like Dragging People Kicking & Screaming

If you aren’t constantly dragging your employees or direct reports towards excellence, faster execution, and continuous improvement then you will notice that they will eventually default back to status quo, being average, and remaining in their comfort zone. It’s why there are very few true leaders in this world while the rest are just along for the ride, who buy things like lottery tickets, all because they truly want the easy path. Which is why as a leader, you have two choices. You either drag your people forward with high energy and push them into a constant state of continuous improvement, or watch them default back to their own, average, status quo. If you drag them forward, you will have a chance at achieving excellence in your company or department. But if you leave them to their own devices, you will achieve nothing more than their “average”.

But you aren’t doing this to be average, right? Exactly. So, as a leader you need to be very careful with words like “autonomy”. Like anything, “autonomy” given without this flavor of leadership can result in status quo performance.

Leaders are intrinsically motivated to work hard, pursue excellence, and completely reject the status quo. It’s who we are. But its equally as important to know that this is not who everyone else is. Therefore, when you are really leading it should feel like you are making people feel uncomfortable. They should feel like they are doing things and are being challenged in ways never experienced before. To you, it should feel like you are dragging them to a point of almost kicking and screaming.

If it doesn’t feel this way right now, then you aren’t setting the bar high enough. As such, you aren’t moving as fast as you could be and time is a wastin’. So go set it higher. Right now.

Fix Your Own Machine During this New Years’ Downtime

I have previously posted that a “Business is a machine that produces outcomes”. When you begin to treat a business like a machine, you start to realize that the reason problems continue to get created is because somewhere the machine is broken. Maybe you are missing a process, or a policy. But somewhere it is broken and you need to fix it.

In the same way — we, as individuals, are also machines that produce outcomes in our own lives and in our businesses. Those outcomes are either good or bad; but 100% of the time, these outcomes are your fault. If you don’t fix your own machine (i.e. you!), the way you think, operate, execute, and manage other individuals — then you are going to continue to have the same outcomes.

This is why it is imperative to reflect on your 2017 as this year comes to a close. You need to think about the goals you didn’t accomplish. The things that didn’t go the way you wanted them to. The crises that continue to pop up in your business. Write them on a list. Then, you need to map out the process or series of steps that created each of these outcomes.

You need think like an engineer who is fixing a robot – literally. The scary part about this process is, you will quickly realize how robotic you are, in how you mindlessly we all follow certain patterns, biases, assumptions, or ways of doing things every day when some might actually be the cause of future bad outcomes. But if you take the time right now to stop, reflect, identify the broken parts of your own machine then you will go into 2018 with the best version of your machine. That’s what I want you to do. As such, your 2018 will be set up on day 1 towards a completely different success trajectory.

Embrace that Your Assumptions will be Wrong

Once you embrace that your assumptions about your customer will almost always be wrong, you realize that launching faster is far more important than trying to get it perfect upfront. The marketplace is the ultimate truth. Only after you launch will you get real feedback from real customers. Which means that within days, you will learn that several — if not many — of your upfront assumptions were wrong.

Once you realize this, you can start to see that it is a complete waste to allow yourself, or your teams, to spend tons of extra time and resources trying to make something “perfect” and allowing “perfect” to delay your launch. It’s literally money and resources flushed down the toilet, because you don’t know what perfect is yet. BUT — what I am willing to bet, is that YOU DO KNOW what is “80% perfect” right now and you can get that to market quickly. So, your job as the CEO of your world is to define what is 80% perfect and then push everyone to get that product or feature to market (even as a small, controlled beta test) as quickly as possible.

Have you ever noticed or tracked how expensive the remaining 20% of any feature, project, or product is? I have. I have been a part of too many projects where a team will get 80% done in one day, yet it takes an extra 30 days just to complete that last 20% of perfection. I’m sure you have too. It’s those projects that just linger and never get done. It’s those projects that randomly pop in your head and you immediately think WTF why is that not done yet, and then you step in and realize everyone has been overcomplicating it. They are overcomplicating it because they are banking on their assumptions. They want to be right and are scared to be wrong.

So I encourage you to take stock right now of any product, feature, or project you are working on — especially those that seem to be dragging on. Find the 80/20 in it, and I’m willing to bet you can get it completed in 1-2 days. More importantly, teach everyone on your team to embrace that their assumptions will always be wrong, so will yours, and that this is just a fact of business. It’s nothing to get emotional about. Doing this will create a culture based on fast execution, getting to market quickly, and collecting customer feedback as the way to ultimately achieve perfection.

What It Really Feels Like to Grow a Startup

I was asked today what it truthfully feels like for entrepreneurs as your company tries to survive and grow.

Here’s how I responded:

• From $0-100k in revenue: joy! this might even be easy!
• $100k – $500k: gulp.
• $500k – 2 million: Hell. on. earth.
• $2-4 million: Hell + 20 degrees.
• $5+ million: This just got a whole lot easier.
• $10+ million: Joy! I also sort of never want to do that again.

Starting a business that survives has significant rewards in the end, but you also pay a heavy price – whether it succeeds or fails. I’ve been on both sides.

Which is why anyone considering it should really think long and hard about whether you are willing to pay that price.
Because if you read what I wrote above, and you fully understand the realities and you are STILL excited about getting in the game — then my guess is you’ve got what it takes to succeed. If that is you, get up and go for it.