What to Know About the 4 Stages of Entrepreneurship

mandyythomas4

7 years ago

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What to Know About the 4 Stages of Entrepreneurship

When it comes to starting a business, especially an online business, it is so valuable to have coaches and mentors to help you through the process. There is so much to learn in starting a business and having someone else help you to struggle less and succeed faster, allows you to become successful so much quicker.

But after being in the online space for a few years and seeing the back side of many entrepreneurs financials, I am seeing a lot of common themes, mistakes and different mindset perspectives that need to be taken into consideration.

I do know people who have literally went from 0-100 in terms of financial success in the first year of their business. And I am so proud of those people! They have done an amazing job and they deserve every single drop of credit for their hard work, sacrifice and everything that went into them being successful.

But I am seeing that most new entrepreneurs do face some sort of struggle in the beginning of their business. These struggles take an emotional, mental, physical and financial toll on you.

Struggles I Often See Entrepreneurs Have:

Businesses not picking up as quickly as people would like, their income coming in being lower than their expenses for an extended period of time.
Your zone of genius is in your business, your service that you are offering, not necessarily in marketing and in sales. And in the beginning of your business, if you don’t know how to effectively market yourself and if you aren’t great at sales, you don’t have any income coming in.
Having the mindset that you can help everyone. I totally get this, you really care about people and you want to help everyone. But if your marketing is speaking to everyone, it won’t feel specific to anyone, so no one will be pulling out their credit cards to pay you. You need to niche down and figure out who specifically you can and are going to serve. If you are a health or wellness coach
A lot of scarcity money mindsets that haven’t been addressed before building their business, which is often seen as low self-worth, low self-value and not charging what you are worth and actually need to, to run a *profitable* business.

The Stages of Building a Business

Now I want to talk to you about the 4 Seasons of Entrepreneurship because they are very important to know, so you understand how the cash flow in beginning your business, is affected by the stage you are at.

The first season is Spring – the season of creation

You’re full of ideas and super excited
You start planting your seeds, you plant a ton of seeds
It is a very, very busy season and you feel like you’re in hustle mode
You have so many choices of what kinds of seeds to plant and might almost feel as if you are being pulled in every direction possible, which can really affect your focus and cause you to put too much time, energy and focus into multiple projects, instead of having a clear focus on getting your main offerings and systems set up and running
This time requires a lot of effort, to get the crop in the ground, because if you don’t plant the crop now, you won’t be making any money come fall time, when it’s harvest
You spend a lot of time watering these seeds and nurturing them
You may have a small network and not as much influence, but you are building it in the spring season
You don’t have very much income coming in yet
The season of spring can last longer than you think it will when you first begin your businesses

Summer – Season of Business Growth

You are spending time continuing to nurture what has blossomed
Business is in full bloom and flourishing
The seeds that you were planting have now blossomed and your business is thriving

Fall – Season of Harvest

Now you have finally made it to the fall, the time that you have been so excited to finally reach
When you reap the rewards of all your dedication and hard work
You feel more in flow now, your income is more stabilized as you have more steady clients, projects or product orders
But, something you do need to prepare for, is for winter, which is often something we don’t prepare enough for, because we are super optimistic that business will always be this steady, we felt like we sacrificed when building our business so it is time to treat ourselves and purchase things because we feel like we’ve made it and we almost forget that there are going to be ebbs and flows
Because the winter season is coming soon, you need to be mindful of it and have money set aside for the time that you need to take for rest or when it slows down

Winter – Season Where Things Slow Down

In winter the cashflow might start to slow down, so you need to prepare for this, in this fall
It can be caused by a variety of reasons: normal ebbs and flows in business as growth isn’t always linear, due to putting more systems into place to support the growth of your business, time, energy and money spent training people to help you or outsource tasks

The seasons you can compare to those of planting a crop and harvesting it, but what I don’t want you to compare are the time periods, because your season of spring, will take you months or maybe even years, everyone is different. This is something that I don’t think enough entrepreneurs talk about and when we go into entrepreneurship, sometimes it’s almost as if we have blinders on because we are so excited about our idea and all of the people we will be able to help and the lives that we will be able to change, that we sometimes don’t prepare for the time that things can take.

That’s why I wanted to share that with you, is to really help drive my point home about getting your personal finances, in order as quickly as you can and to keep on top of managing them really well as your business grows, so you have the sufficient time needed, to get through the spring season and to those summer and fall seasons in your business.

If you are starting out your business on a very small budget or you have been at your business for a while and funds are still tight, use that to empower you, not disempower you. Because you can use that money to be really intentional and resourceful and you can make your business successful, you just need to be intentional about it.

Click here to download my Realistic Budget template!

One of the Biggest Mistakes I See When People Go into Entrepreneurship

Often people don’t allow a big enough “gap” for them to build their business.

The gap is the difference between your income and your expenses. In order to create the startup capital that you need and the money to sustain your business until the income coming in is greater than your expenses, you need a greater gap between your personal income and expenses, to have more money available to fund your business.

The problem that I see, is that people don’t create this greater gap soon enough. You can’t keep living the same lifestyle that you currently have and create the necessary capital needed to start your business.

How Your Physical Health is Affected as an Entrepreneur

We also underestimate the toll that hustling in entrepreneurship, is going to take on our body. When you are really intentional with your money, you are able to take a step back, to take a breather and give your body a rest, when it is needed, more often when you are managing your finances well.

When you begin a business, you need to take a step back in other areas of your life.

You only have so much energy in a day and your business is going to require a ton of your attention while you are getting it up and rolling.

There’s a pretty good chance that you will be sacrificing your health and my business, if you try to do everything at once.

What you need to remind yourself is that you are making temporary sacrifices, for something so much greater in the meantime.

Why Working with a Financial Coach Can Help You Grow Your Business

The reason it is so important and helps you to really succeed with your business, really dialing in your personal finances as soon as you can, is because we are often optimistic about how much income we will have coming in right away and often underestimate the amount our expenses will be, to bring this income in.

Think about how often you feel like you get “whammies’ in your personal life, I am sure that by now or soon enough, you will realize that with entrepreneurship, there are so many more whammies, that you can and do face.

We often think things will pick up faster than they will. I am not saying this to alarm you, but I am saying this to help prepare you. I see the back-side financials of many entrepreneurs, and while it looks like they are earning a lot, many of them have very high expenses as they are trying to grow their business, therefore they have high income, but not high profitability.

And I want you to know that income and profitability are two very different things. One does not equal the other.

Related Content:

Questions to Ask Yourself as an Entrepreneur or New Entrepreneur

I encourage you, to ask yourself, what do I value most in my life? What are my core values? Are they freedom? Are they flexibility?

Do I need these things or these expenses right now in my life, or can I reduce them temporarily while I am getting my business up and running and profitable?

Because if you value freedom, it takes structure to get to freedom. And having structure, helps to reduce emotional spending, accidental overspending and giving into the short-term indulgences and impulses, that can hold your business back while you are trying to grow it.

I also want to touch lightly on something that more people are starting to talk about, but they aren’t talking enough about, is the mental health connection and entrepreneurship.

Entrepreneurship is hard and you wear a lot of hats, especially in the beginning stages, so I really encourage you to reach out when you need help, reach out to people who can help you in the areas that aren’t your strong suits and to reach out sooner than later.

You began your business because there is one area that is your zone of genius, not everything you experience in your business is your zone of genius, in fact there are many areas that are your weaknesses.

Please don’t struggle for a long time before asking for help because it really takes a toll on your mental and physical health and it weighs you down. What I want you to know is that asking for help is courageous, not weakness. Because it doesn’t take courage to sit and struggle, it takes courage to speak up and reach out for help, so reach out.

Not having a plan in place for your money and how you are managing it can lead to:

You constantly worrying
Feeling so overwhelmed about where to start or what to take action on
Your body going into fight or flight mode
Feelings of anxiety
Your mind always feeling “ON”
Lowered feelings of self-worth, confidence and self-esteem
This cycle constantly repeating in your mind, body and life

Taking back control over your money, is something that can feel overwhelming, frustrating and like you don’t even know where to start.

This has a huge effect on your income because it affects your energy and your energy is one of your biggest resources needed, to be profitable. Don’t think that you are the only one who has experienced what you are going through or what you are going to go through and please don’t be ashamed or embarrassed to reach out for help, do it for your body’s sake.

There are people out there who can help you, so your struggle is so much shorter than what they’ve experienced.

If you are wanting to become an entrepreneur or you are an entrepreneur and you understand now why it is so beneficial for you to work with a financial coach on your personal finances, I would love to help you. You can click here to read more about my services and if you’re ready to talk with me about your specific financial situation, you can click here to book in for a free 15-min Q&A call with me to find out if we would be a great fit to work together.

Want to find out where you really stand financially? Click “Cash Flow Confidence” Program.

Other Content You May Find Helpful:

Do you want to finally feel confident in how you are managing your everyday finances? Click here to download my free checklist!

I am very active on Instagram, follow me here for more financial tips & tricks: http://instagram.com/mandyythomas (@mandyythomas)

Do you have any questions or anything to add? Leave me a comment in the comments below and I will respond back to you!