7 Lessons Learned While Growing From 6 Figures to 7

I felt stuck.

I was stuck.

Stuck at 6 figures for almost 5 years before I finally crossed the magical line.

Forstarters, it doesn’t really feel so magical after you cross it. Feels kind of abitrary. Like waking up on your birthday, you know you’re older, that a number increased, but you still FEEL the same as you always have.

If you’re feeling stuck, or even if you’ve just reached the 6 figure mark, then here’s a few crucial lessons to make the 10x trek to 7 figs.

1. Hard Work Ain’t Enough

I believe anyone with a semi-good product and a strong work ethic can get to 6 figures.

It really just takes some applied effort and focus.

You cannot just work 10x harder to earn 10x more though. To get to 7 figures, you’ll need to work smart.

Which takes me to my next few lessons…

2. Systems

When I was stuck a 6 figures I was running my business mostly from my head and maybe a few notebooks.

I did not have standard operating procedures, process maps, position agreements, contracts, etc.

Since you can’t hard work your way into 7 figures, you’ll need help, and the help needs to know what’s in your head.

Start by writing a looooong list of every task that you do. All of them. Even checking email. Even depositing checks. Ev-ery-thing.

Now group those tasks into imaginary employee roles. Now create process charts that show how the roles interact to get tasks completed. Now write checklists for each task.

It takes time, don’t do it all at once, but set aside an hour each day to get a little bit more of it done.

3. Strategic Plan

My strategic plan for getting to 6 figures was to “wing it.”

I mean, I kinda had a plan. I knew I needed to make more money. I knew selling a product would make money. I knew things I could do to sell more products.

That’s about what my plan consisted of though. Every month was kind of like “Ok, how do I not go broke this month.”

Today though, we have an annual strategic plan we follow. It’s something we wrote at the beginning of the year.

It starts with our mission aka what do we want to achieve. Then how much money do we need to make to achieve that. What will we sell? How much of it do we need to sell? Who will be involved? How will we meet those numbers? How will we stay on track, measure, and pivot?

That’s broken up into quarterly and then monthly goals. Which turns into our weekly and daily tasks.

Now we have a plan. A map to 7 figures-ville.

4. Hire Super Slow & Fire Immediately

“Hire slow, fire fast” sounded like a cutesy phrase, and I thought I knew what they meant.

NO!

Do not underestimate this cliché.

I hired too many people and fired too many people. It’s cost me over $50,000 doing so.

Do you want to burn $50,000? No?

Ok listen…

Your first hire should be either a CMO or a COO. You are either an idea guy (or gal) who works because he has to or you’re a worker bee who borrows ideas.

You need to hire the person whose strengths are your weaknesses. Then divide and conquer.

There’s a great book about this topic called Traction by Gino Wickman.

You’ll be tempted to hire some cheap labor. Maybe someone to do customer support or edit your blog post.

Before you know it you’ll have a bunch of cheap labor employees that you have to micromanage and it becomes a full time job just to manage them.

Now you’re money is spent on all these lesser employees so you don’t gave enough to hire a big dog to manage them for you.

This is what hire slow means.

What about fire fast?

In my experiences, an employee shows what they are capable of in their first month. Rarely do they have a massive change in work ethic or mindset.

So if you’re not impressed by the 30 day mark, it’s probably time to tell them this isn’t a good fit. Actually, the moment you think to yourself “I don’t know if this person is working out” is the moment you should fire them.

Your subconscious is telling you this person is not a fit, trust your subconscious. Every day you wait costs you more and more money.

5. Define Your Customer

In getting to 6 figures it was ok to just take on anyone who could fog a mirror and pay you.

In getting to 7 figures though, any problems those customers were causing you will be 10x.

The complaints, the refunds, the support, the fulfillment, the profit, etc.

It’s critical that you define who your best customer is. The one who is easiest to acquire, service, and support.

You can’t afford customers that are both hard to acquire and hard to support. It will increase your cost per customer and decrease your profit per customer.

Define who is easy though, and you’ll have smooth sailing to 7 figures. You’ll enjoy easier marketing, lower costs, and higher profits.

6. KPI’s

There’s a lot that you could track.

You’ll get overwhelmed with trying to track it all. Drinking from a fire hose is a good way to drown.

Instead come up with strategic “Key Performance Indicators” for each role. Even if you’re still doing most of them.

What is the 1 or 2 numbers that show you how well each role of the company is performing.

When you assign a KPI to someone management gets easier. Now you don’t have to micromanage or assign busy work. You just ask them to report their KPI daily or weekly.

They will know if they are doing their job well enough or not based on that KPI (and so will you).

7. Learn To Say No

It’s very easy to get distracted.

It’s very easy for a great idea to ruin an entire quarter of productivity and profit.

I’m not saying you have to say no to all new ideas, you just need to vet them.

Save it for next quarter, research the costs, research the opprtunity. Don’t just add new ideas or people on emotion.

There is a finite amount of money and time you have access too. For every 1 thing you say yes too, you’re effectively saying no to something else.

What is your yes today going to cost you tomorrow?

Just because everyone is starting a podcast doesn’t mean you should. Or maybe it does IF it fits into your strategic plan, makes all the KPI’s easier to achieve, and is far better than what you are currently doing.

However, if it’s not any of those things, then it’s a good idea — just not the right good idea for you right now.

Being productive is not about doing more, it’s about doing what you currently have in front of you better.

The more you say no to today, the more you will be able to say yes to later.

If you’ve found this article useful or you know someone who should read this, please recommend it. That little recommendation helps me out so much. 😊