No matter what type of business you are running, there are a few
universal business truths, and a few things that MUST be done in ALL
businesses to achieve true success.

When women come to me and tell me that they want to launch a
business, scale a business, or are struggling in their business, the
FIRST thing we do is identify how many of these things they already have
in their life or business. I truly believe that if you do not have most
of these set up, you will struggle! If you truly want to scale your
business, follow these “simple” tips!

Tip 1 – Have a Roadmap!

I know it’s not sexy! I know as entrepreneurs, we often like to “wing
it”. But every single business that I know that has scaled to a half a
million dollars, has a roadmap for how they are going to get there!

And most of the start up businesses that I know that are successful out of the gate, had a plan.

One of the most powerful books I’ve ever read (and one of the books
that I still base much of my business on today) is Steven Covey’s Seven
Habits of Highly Effective People. One of Covey’s habits is “Begin with
the end in mind” is one of my guiding principles. In his book, he
describes climbing up a ladder to find that it is leaning against the
wrong wall. But I also liken it to just getting in your car and driving
all day long – just to end up somewhere you hadn’t planned on going.
These are two examples that you may be able to relate to – but now
imagine spending tens of thousands of dollars to drive across the
country – only to find out that you went the wrong direction! When you
are launching and running businesses, it is imperative to know where you
are going, and what you want to achieve!

When I left corporate to open my first fitness studio, I had a
business plan. As a fifteen year veteran financial and business planner,
I couldn’t imagine running a business without a roadmap! I swear that
it was one of the ONLY things that helped me scale to a six figure
studio in less than six months! Because I had that roadmap for my
business, when I decided to open my second studio only eight months
after the launch of my first, I already had manuals, systems, training,
and the complete plan for how we were going to launch and scale the
second studio.

By that time, I had a team of 30, two managers, thousands of clients,
and revenues of almost a half a million dollars – only about a year
into my business. Can you IMAGINE how quickly the business could have
gotten off course if I didn’t have an end destination and just let the
business go in whatever direction the team allowed it to?

Recently on my Turning Lemons Into Lemonade Podcast, I interviewed
Maureen Lake. Maureen had been a long time educator, who was ready to
leave the school environment to be a business owner. Maureen and her
daughter, bought an established, and struggling business. She credits
the fact that she joined Todd Herman’s 90 Day Year program as the number
one thing that she did in her business in the first year. Because she
was leaving education and was a first time entrepreneur, she had no
systems and no processes. She had a rough idea where she wanted to go,
but not any specific plan on how to get there.

A few years ago, I met a woman at through a coaching program. She had
built one of the most beautiful brands I had ever seen, but she never
really had a plan for the brand, so despite a beautiful brand and great
marketing, she just set it aside and moved on to the next thing. The
money and time that was spent in this venture was significant, and up
until this point, completely lost! Imagine investing $25,000 and a year
into a business, and then shutting it down. It happens a LOT – mostly
when you don’t have an end game and a blueprint or roadmap to get there!

Tip 2 – Know EXACTLY Who You Want To Serve

I took Marie Forleo’s B School in 2012. It was a huge life changer
for me. Although many of the topics were things that I knew extensively
from working with my clients in corporate, the LIFE CHANGING piece of
learning that I took away from B School was to Know Your Ideal Client
Avatar!

When a woman business owner comes to me and tells me the struggles
she is having in her business, the FIRST question I ask her is “Who is
your PERFECT, IDEAL client that you would serve all day long every day
if you could?”

You’d be shocked at how often that question is met with a confused
look? First, they often don’t know how to answer who they serve. But
second, the thought never occurred to them that they could build a
business working with only their dream clients! As the business owner,
how much better would your life be if you knew EXACTLY who your dream
client was, and that you had a full client list of ONLY those people?

B School taught me to create that Client Avatar (that I now call my DREAM CLIENT).

So let’s get started:
You can download your Ideal Client Worksheet here:

• Who is your ideal client?
• Do you have a client that you’re already working with that is your
  PERFECT, DREAM client that you would work with all day long if possible?
• What is their name?
• Are they male or female?
• Why are they your perfect client?
• What is their biggest problem that you solve?
• How do you solve it?
• What are the benefits they experience after they work with you?
• Where do they shop offline?
• Where do they shop online?
• What other businesses do they follow online?
• Where would you find them on a Saturday night?
• Where would you find them on a Tuesday night?
• Do they network?
• Where do they network?

I once had a business coach tell me, “The riches are in the niches.”

It sounds like a great little quote, but let me tell you more about
WHY this one single phrase may literally transform your business. If you
are marketing to everyone, you’re really not marketing to anyone. But
if your marketing message is CUSTOMIZED to your best clients, then it is
much more likely to speak to THEIR problems, dreams, and desires!

Marketing is all about promoting your products and services in such a
way that your prospect is eager to do business with you! We all know
that very few clients buy from us the first time they meet us. So our
marketing and branding becomes all about remaining top of mind when the
customer is ready to buy. The BEST way to do that is to have a crystal
clear marketing message that says exactly what you do and who you do it
for!

If I say:
“Hi, I’m Amy Mewborn. I help people
make more money and have a better life.” It sounds nice – but it really
doesn’t say ANYTHING about what I do, how I do it, or if it’s a fit for
you. If you were my ideal client, there is nothing in this that says,
“Oh I have to do business with her.”

But if I say:
“Hi, I’m Amy Mewborn. I help women
launch and scale six and seven figure businesses!” That tells you that I
work with women who are starting businesses or have businesses that
need growth. It doesn’t tell you how I do it, but at least it is
descriptive enough to help it either resonate or not….

Now, if I were really speaking to my ideal clients, I COULD say:
“Hi,
I’m Amy Mewborn. I help struggling women business owners scale multiple
six figure businesses through events and masterminds meant to help
improve their marketing and operations.” That tells you that I most LOVE
to work with women that already have businesses and are looking to
scale. It also tells you that my ideal way to work with my clients is
through events and masterminds (in person face to face). So if THAT
person is looking to grow their business, they know a LOT more about
what I do and how I do it!

A few years ago, I received a call from a business owner friend who
was launching a new online program. She was so frustrated because a
bunch of clients unsubscribed, people weren’t opening her emails, and
she wasn’t getting sales – all bad things. When we started talking, she
said something VERY telling that explained the whole problem – that she
had missed entirely. She was selling a program to clients who wanted to
learn how to use social media to promote their book. On her list were a
bunch of people who had never written a book. There were a bunch of
people who SHE was managing their social media surrounding their book.
These emails and these promotions had NOTHING to do with these people!
And by her emailing them this promotion, she actually made it look like
she didn’t know her very best clients!

One of the things that we teach in all my programs is segmenting your
client list and using nurture systems to warm up your prospects, always
speaking to THEIR needs, and what BENEFITS you provide to them. But if
you don’t know EXACTLY who you serve, how you serve them, and what the
benefits are to them in working with you – your marketing (and your
business) is going to fail!

Tip 3 – Know Your Numbers!

I once had a coach tell me that, “What you measure is what improves.”
I didn’t quite get it at that moment, because if you’re measuring the
past, how will that help your future?
But let’s break it down like this:
When you focus on revenue, you do everything humanly possible to increase revenue.
When you focus on new clients, you’re constantly looking for ways to get new clients.
When you focus on getting more social media followers, you’re spending more time and energy on social media.
When
you focus on increasing profitability, you may be focused on increasing
revenue, or you may be focused on decreasing expenses!

The best way to build a healthy business is to identify the things
that DRIVE your business success. (In most businesses this is new
clients, closing ratio, and profits.)

I often meet business owners who are measuring gross income. I was
ABSOLUTELY one of those business owners! A few years into my business, I
was running three businesses, and my gross revenue was ALMOST
$1,000,000! I KEPT pushing to get to that $1,000,000! But in the
process, I was MISERABLE! My staff was bloated. I was spending money on
growth growth growth, but less and less money was coming home to my
family! I felt like I was working for everyone else – and it was KILLING
ME!!! I would wake up at 5:30 am to check my emails to make sure
everyone was where they were supposed to be. I was getting emails and
calls from my managers at 9 pm. And I was getting texts from my
consulting clients at 1 and 3 am! A business that I had LOVED was
destroying my spirit – all because I was measuring the wrong things.

Once I made the conscious decision that I wasn’t chasing that seven
figure number any more, I started making VERY deliberate decisions to
start SIMPLIFYING! Rather than measuring gross income, I started
measuring PROFIT and TIME OFF! This was completely novel to most! But I
had already had a stroke about 10 years prior, and I knew that a “magic
number” really wasn’t going to improve my life or get me the things I
really wanted in my life. Especially when the things I really wanted
involved more international travel and not being accessible to my
business!

Tip 4 – If you don’t like it – don’t do it!

As entrepreneurs, we often think that we have to do everything! And
we often think that someone else just can’t do “it” as well as we can! I
will tell you right now, it is THIS mentality that will single handedly
destroy your business!

First, it is impossible to scale if you are doing everything. Second,
there are some things that you can do, buy you hate! If you hate it, it
will OFTEN get pushed to the bottom of the to do list!

Unfortunately, just like in our fitness life, if you’re great with
cardio, you do a lot of cardio, and no weights and flexibility. If
you’re super strong, you’ll likely lift weights, and skip the cardio.
And if you’re a dancer, you’ll likely do all the flexibility – and skip
the strength and cardio! The problem is, you need ALL of them to have a
balanced fitness routine, just like you need ALL of “them” to have a
balanced business!

I believe every business has four main pillars:
The Leadership and Management Pillar
The Marketing and Sales Pillar
The Systems and Operations Pillar
The Finances and Profitability Pillar

If you’re a great sales person, you may spend all your time selling,
but never put in the systems you need to truly run a scalable business!
If you don’t have any systems, you will never be successful hiring,
because you have nothing specific to train them in!

If you’re a great systems person, but hate sales, you’ll put systems
in all day long, but that won’t make you any money, and your business
will go bankrupt!

I’m a systems person. I’m a marketing strategist. I CAN sell, but
it’s not my favorite thing to do! So when I was running the studios, I
hired SALES managers! I created all the systems and strategies, but they
were the ones who had the sales conversations. When I went into the
studios, I wanted to teach classes and get to know the clients, not
worry about whether or not someone was buying their next package! If I
didn’t have someone else handling the sales, the business would have
failed because I didn’t want to do it!

There is only so much time in the day. If you’re spending your time
doing something that you hate or something that you aren’t good at, you
are likely NOT doing something that you are good at that could help your
business grow.

Tip 5 – Spend your time on highest value activities

Inherently we kind of all know this one. It SHOULD be second nature.
But many of us still continue to fill our time with “stuff” that really
doesn’t move the needle forward! When I was pushing toward the million
dollar income level, I found that I was FORCING so much – and I was
literally working myself into the ground trying to find the “next thing”
that could help! The problem was that my to do list was SO long, that I
probably couldn’t have finished it all in three lifetimes!

Because I had not yet hit my goal, I kept thinking, “I just need to
do more. I just need to work harder.” And I just kept finding more and
more to do, even though I knew that a lot of it really wasn’t
contributing to my desired end result. Many mindset coaches call this an
Upper Limit Problem – that every time you’re making a big breakthrough
that scares you, that you try to sabotage it in some way. I do that with
spending my time on busy work, vs MEANINGFUL work!

I know that I have this struggle, so I hired one of my amazing
coaches SPECIFICALLY to deal with this challenge! What I have instituted
into my day is now simple, and HUGE in my business. At the end of each
day, I list the TOP THREE things that will make the BIGGEST IMPACT in my
business that I need to do the next day. Then I can’t do ANY of the
other items on my to do list until those three key things are done. One
of the other things that I started instituting was that if something
didn’t make it into the top three things for an entire week, it went
into a notebook of “Maybes”! This was stuff that I MAY get to one day,
if it still made sense. But rather than keeping it on my to do list, and
feeling bad about myself, I freed myself to eliminate the excess
“stuff” that I was doing, just because I had time.

Along with this, comes one of my other huge tips!

Tip 6 – Take time off

I don’t know about you, but I am absolutely most creative when I take
time AWAY from my business! One of my favorite ways to unwind is to go
on vacation, and sit next to a pool with a great book and an umbrella
drink! It feeds my soul – and I NEVER leave without a huge list of ideas
and inspiration! Some of my most successful systems came to me from my
workout time or my pool time!

But as entrepreneurs, we wear our “hustle” like a badge of honor.
That is why I created my current slogan. I help women escape the
corporate grind to launch and scale six figure businesses – without the
hustle. I want to CHANGE the mindset that we have to work all the time! I
don’t know about you, but I launched my business to have more time with
the people I love, doing things I love – not working more!

When Mike and I moved to Vegas in 2017, we picked our neighborhood,
our lot, and our house all based on the principal that we wanted more
fun and more time off! We live in the desert 25 minutes from skiing in
the mountains. Our neighborhood has amazing gyms, trails, and outdoor
activities. Our yard is huge and we built a fabulous pool with cabanas,
umbrellas, and lounge chairs! This entire life was built to support how I
am most creative – and so I could invite clients to come and “work” in
this environment! It fosters creativity! It fosters fresh perspective!
And I have instituted a four day work week most weeks – with MORE time
doing the things I love!

Tip 7 – Surround yourself with AMAZING people who “Get” You!

“You’re the equivalent of the five people you spend the most time with.” Jim Rohn.

I want you to pull out a notebook and I want to ask you right now:
Who are the five people you spend the most time with?
When you have a problem in your business or your life, who do YOU turn to for guidance and advice?
Do
you have a board of directors or a group of like minded women who are
helping you see the next steps in your business when you’re stuck?

A
couple of years ago, my business was going through huge transitions. I
had decided to set off my “golden goose”, the business that was bringing
in almost seven figures of revenue each year!

I was doing what most people would consider ludicrous. I was
eliminating the established and proven business that had a huge team
that did much of the work. Instead I was going all in on my consulting
business, which was new, had no income, and no clients.

What my mastermind girls understood that no one else did at the time
was that I was EXHAUSTED! I was running three businesses at the time. I
had a staff of about 30. My payroll and rent expenses were INSANE and
although I loved the business, I had been running it about six years,
and needed a break! The problem with building an almost seven figure
business is that it’s a monster that continually needs to be fed –
otherwise it’s going to explode!

The business environment, competition, marketing strategies, pricing
policies – everything was changing! In order to go to the next level, or
even just continue on the current path, the business was going to need
much more than I had the energy to give.

On our calls, I would sit with these ladies, and I would describe the
feelings of stress, frustration, lack of sleep, and worry! They knew
that I was one bad piece of news away from a full nervous break down!
They were the ones that were providing the clarity and problem solving
support when I was just TOO tired and stressed to see it!

Today, I’m running a six figure consulting business that mostly
allows me to work 4 days a week. I took almost a month off at the
holidays to spend them with my family! This was NOT something I could do
when I was running three different businesses! Although I was using my
gross income as a scorecard for my success, I wasn’t doing anything or
anyone (most of all me) justice in trying to juggle so much! But I
needed people that would help me with that clarity!

Tip 8 – Hire people who have a desire to serve

You can teach skills, you can’t teach someone to be a good person!

As someone who teaches systems, marketing, and sales, I always tell
my clients to hire amazing people. You can teach skills, but you can’t
teach someone to be nice, kind or caring!

I learned this quickly in my first fitness studio! I hired an AMAZING
fitness instructor with a really LOUSY personality! I was new in
business. I was working my tail off to make money. And I had this one
staff person who was making my life a living hell! She discounted
everything I said. She thought she could do everything better – and
often told everyone that would listen that she felt that way.

Despite being an amazing instructor, she was not a fit for my
culture! I immediately made a rule – if I wouldn’t invite you over to my
house on a Friday night and open up one of my best bottles of wine with
you, I probably didn’t want you as a representative of my business!

As a business owner, any one that you hire to work with you or your
clients is a representative of your business! Do you want someone with a
nasty personality being nasty to your clients? Of course not! So don’t
hire them!

A couple of weeks ago, a client from a few years ago emailed me
panicked! Her manager turned in her two week notice. Upon further
investigation, she found that she had taken a position in management
with her biggest competitor. Unfortunately, this kind of stuff happens
ALL the time! You can’t stop all of it. But if you develop a “no jerks
allowed” policy, you’ll certainly keep it to a minimum!

Look for people with the values that are in alignment with your
business, then teach them the skills you value in their position!