Episode 88: 4 Stages of Scalability

Welcome to Scale to Seven®! Your behind-the-scenes look at what it really takes to scale your business to seven figures. I'm your host Kathryn Binkley, business and leadership coach for online entrepreneurs. Here's what I know, building a business that will generate millions requires the mindset, strategy, and action of a future seven-figure CEO, starting now. Ready to Scale to Seven®? Let's go! 

Hey, everybody, I am sitting in the mountains recording this episode for you with a beautiful view out the window. There's just cool, crisp, air beautiful colored leaves. It's a gorgeous setting. And I just love to get away, I really encourage you to take the time to do the same when you get a chance. There's nothing like it for me, it just gives me this burst of creative energy. And I definitely was excited to channel that because I have some incredible things that I'm working on for you that I can't wait to tell you about at the end of this episode. Now, in the meantime, today, we're continuing with our all in series that started last week. And we're going to continue that through the end of the year. There's an area today that I want to challenge you to go all in on. But the thing is, you may not even know it's a thing. And that means you might think something is wrong. I remember when my children were little, I wasn't a big worrier. But I was a big researcher. And I was the oldest of five kids. So it was pretty rare for something new to happen, that I'd never experienced before when it came to kids. So when something did happen that I didn't expect, my husband and I would call the pediatricians office. And once I don't even remember exactly what happened. It was so long ago. But I remember vividly this moment of sitting in the rocker with my daughter, who is my second child. And my husband was on the phone calling the pediatricians office, he got a nurse on the phone. And we began to explain what was going on. Only for the nurse to say this is completely normal. I immediately replied, But how is this normal, this didn't happen with our son. And in that moment, I realized that for something to be normal didn't mean that it also had to happen in every single instance, right? Such a simple concept. But in that moment, I just expected that everything normal already happened, we've already experienced it. And if it's something new, that means something's wrong, something's not normal. In this same way, once you grow your business to 100k Plus, you think that you know what it's like to make 100k and that the next 100k will be the same. And then when it isn't, you might just think something is wrong. And I'm here to tell you that nothing is wrong. It's normal. And it means your business is growing and getting ready to scale. But there's a difference in scaling, and getting ready to scale. Now in Episode 58, I talked about the difference between growth and scaling. But today, I want to break down growth even more into four scalability stages. Alright, stage one is value scalability. And the goal in this stage is to establish product market fit and learn to make your first 100k. So this is an area where maybe you've already passed this, but if so you want to make sure that you've already proven that the concept that you have for your business will work. You validated and sold a one to one offer. You've created $100,000 in value exchange. In other words, your audience was willing to give you $100,000 in return for a solution that you've created. And so there was an exchange of value there. As you learned, what works to get clients, how to help your clients get results to gain experience and knowledge and honestly This first 100k is the hardest part. But once you've validated once you've established that product market fit. In other words, you know that you have a solution that you can sell that people want. Once you've done that, and you've made that $100,000 in value exchange, then you're ready to move to stage two. Now, this is where I start working with most of my clients. They've already validated their offer.

And now they're ready to start scaling. Or they think they are, they think they're ready to scale. But what they really need to do is get their business ready to scale. And so stage two is all about offer scalability. The goal of this stage is to create a scalable, repeatable, profitable business model, you want to remove yourself from delivery, as much as possible, so that client results aren't dependent on you. During this stage, I like to help my clients double their revenue without actually doubling their work, they learn to make that same 100k and more over again, but this time with a scalable offer. And what that means is they actually increase their earning potential. For every hour, they work, they're going from one to one, to one to many. Now, a lot of my clients at this stage come to me, and they're used to charging high ticket. So they're used to prioritizing their one to one services or coaching. And when they start to transition from one to one to one to many, it feels a natural, maybe in part because the price point is lower. But I want to encourage you to do the work. And look at your hourly rate when you're working one on one versus in a one to many offer. And you'll see that you're actually able to earn more per hour with a scalable one to many offer, you can go from 10k months to creating 20k plus months while working less. In this stage, you're getting your business ready to scale by creating a scalable business model and transitioning out of one to one work. And that scalable offer means that you're creating a signature process. And either creating some kind of a group program a one to many offer, like a course, a program of some kind, or maybe even going to an agency model. There are different ways that you can create a scalable business model. And this is where you decide. Okay, once you've got your scalable offer, you're ready for stage three. This is all about sales scalability. The goal here is again, a scalable, repeatable and profitable element of your business. But this time, it's marketing and sales. You're removing yourself from marketing and sales as much as possible. So that selling isn't dependent on you, you learn to make money by selling in a scalable way. So first, in stage one, you learn to make 100k, period. Second, you learn to make that money again. But with a scalable offer. Now you're learning to make it all over again. But by selling in a different way, you're creating a dependable growth strategy that isn't relying on you. You don't have to show up every day. Even if you're the face of your business. Many of you have personal brands. You can grow your business you can market and sell without you having to show up every day. And the people who tell you otherwise aren't in stage three yet. And that's okay. You do need to show up every day earlier in your business. But as you go on that isn't sustainable. So we want to create a marketing and sales strategy that will continue to drive revenue. Even if you take a break. Even when life happens, good or bad. You can take that time off, you can go on vacation, you can take the time to heal and you can still make money.

We're transitioning you from selling one to one, whether on sales calls or in the DMS and you're going to learn how to sell one to many. Once you've done that you're ready for Stage Four. This is all about team scalability. The goal in this final stage of scalability is to elevate to CEO. Learn how to make money. By leading a team, I want you to notice how many different ways you're learning how to make money, you learn to make that 100k, then you learn to make it with a scalable offer, then you learn to sell it in a scalable way. And now, you're learning how to lead a team and allow the team to make the money. This is moving you out of implementation, out of management, out of strategy and vision within specific departments, you're learning to systemize hire, delegate, and lead a team to the results that you want. So now, you're no longer managing the marketing, the selling delivery, that's handled by the team members who you're managing, you're freeing up even more time, and you're handing things off. That means your focus is really now on scalable operations. So you've created scalable delivery, and scalable client results. And I like to refer to that as your client success department. You've learned to create scalable marketing and sales, which I refer to as your growth department. And now in this stage, you're creating scalable operations. You're leveraging systems, Team data, you're improving execution. And you're learning to lead not just the doers in your business, but you're learning to lead leaders, you're no longer just delegating tasks, you're delegating results. You're delegating management. Once you've tackled each of these phases of scalability, then you're actually ready to scale, you're ready to scale your revenue, you're ready to scale your impact, and you're ready to scale your freedom. Scaling is different than growth. And again, we've talked about this in a prior episode. But I just want to repeat here, that scaling is different than growth, because scaling is all about making more money and helping more people, while working less. You don't have to do more, you don't have to invest more. You get to focus on making more money and helping more people without investing more. So your next all in talent is to go all in on the stage that you're in. The biggest mistake that I see around all of this is that you either get too far ahead of yourself, or you want to revert back to a prior stage because that feels easier or more certain. If you want to keep moving forward. If you want to get your business ready to scale, figure out exactly where you are. Which stage are you on, and go all in on mastering that, when I talk about slowing down to speed up this episode is so much of the reason why you're going to feel like you're rebuilding your business, you may even feel like you're starting over. But you have to focus on the progress that you're making. In the stage that you're in and recognize that the wins to celebrate in your business, the progress that you see isn't always going to be revenue. Sometimes it's making that same amount of revenue, but in a different way. Because as soon as you learn to make that same 100k in a new way, you're that much closer to scaling it, you're to do that one at a time for each of these stages.

Now, the thing is, as you do this, you're going to learn how to make more money, you're going to actually grow your revenue. It's not quite scaling, you're still getting your business ready to scale. But I guarantee that as you go through this, you won't just make this same exact amount over again, there may be a season where you do but over each of these phases or stages, you're going to learn so much that naturally, your revenue will increase even if you're not focused on trying to make more, but you're trying to just make it in a new way. So as a recap here, there is a difference between growth and scaling. And the four stages of scalability are all about getting you ready to scale, your value, your offer yourself and your team. Once you've made money, you have to learn to do it again and again, at each scalability stage, and then you'll be ready to scale. Now here's some news for you. Next week, I'm opening the doors to the scalability factor, where you're going to learn how to create and sell in a scalable way. This is perfect. For those of you who've already started validating the work that you do with a one to one offer, you've probably hit eight to 10k months before. And now you're ready to double your revenue without doubling your work. And the best news is, this is a lifetime program, you're going to get weekly group coaching calls, a community of entrepreneurs ready to give their businesses this scalability factor. Plus, I've got a big bonus up my sleeves that you're gonna want in on for sure. And I've got more on that to come next week. So tune in,  join me again for the next episode in this series all about going all in in your business. I'll see you next week.

Hey, if you're ready to Scale to Seven®, I want to invite you to join the Scale to Seven® Mastermind. It's my coaching program designed to turn your online business into a self-sustaining scalable business that can generate millions. Just head over to kathrynbinkley.com/scale-to-seven. We'll see you inside!