How To Scale Your Business - The Freedom Equation

Original Article By AMIRA ALVAREZ, CEO & Founder of The Unstoppable Woman

Recently I was on a call with a VIP client who shared with me that she had TRIPLED her income in ONE MONTH.

Can you believe it?! I can. 😉

She went from $16,531.50 in August to $46,378.75 in September in the first month of us working together. This got me thinking about how I’ve scaled and quantum leaped my own business over the years and how I’ve helped my clients do it… there’s quite a LOT that goes into it.

Today I want to break it down so that YOU can experience similar results in your own work by knowing what you need to consider and have in place.

Here we go… another Unstoppable Blueprint!! (Check out the PS. section for links to past Unstoppable Blueprints.)

Let me paint you a picture of where I started:

I have to start by sharing that after I left the corporate world, my first business was doing a form of mind-body work to help people get out of pain… after all, part of the reason I finally left my job as a project manager was because I was experiencing a severe burning sensation in my hands. I sought out help from a teacher of this particular modality, fell in love with the work-from-home lifestyle she had, and decided to get certified for myself!!

Now, this particular form of mind-body work is amazing, yet many practitioners of it don’t make a lot of money doing it… but I was determined to be successful and make money, so I studied everything I could about marketing and growing a business. I also did a TON of local networking and soon grew my practice far quicker than anyone else I knew in the Bay Area!

But then, guess what happened?

I moved! I moved across the country from California to the Midwest and I was faced with a decision. Do I start the same business over again in my new hometown or do something else? In hindsight, even asking that question is telling.

After much evaluation and feeling in, I realized that what I thought was my true passion wasn’t. Now what? Without belaboring the past 6 years I had put into that previous pursuit, I quickly let it go. (Hint: that’s a key feature of quantum leaping–not belaboring your past actions as “mistakes.” Course correct quickly and move on without rumination or self-blame.)

I got honest with myself about what my true passions were and what my strongest skill sets were and decided to build a business around that: coaching. As the Universe is apt to do, it answered my question of what kind of coaching I was really suited for once I showed up and took action. All my first clients were women in business. Imagine that. 🙂 (I did have one client who wasn’t but she and I soon decided it wasn’t a good fit. Great data!)

For me, my first level desire beyond doing what I was passionate about and suited for, was around making more money… I wanted to have the means to do the things I desired to do in my life without worry or stress, and that’s what drove me forward. I simply wanted a profitable business and not to be constrained by not having enough money. But in following this, I also got clear on what my purpose is: supporting women in becoming truly unstoppable in their own lives and businesses!!

Let’s break this down… first, I wanted to make more money. I had a money goal. I honestly didn’t have a lofty impact or big purpose goal. My impact goals are so important to me now, but my first goal was a money goal and it was to make $100k in my business. I knew that would feel amazing!

That first year in business, I made $30k.

The second year in business, I made $90k. So close!!!! I had tripled my income, but I hadn’t reached my goal and I hadn’t crossed that 6-figure mark.

But the third year in business, I made $138k. I had done it! Woohoo!!

I feel it is important to note that PURPOSE is an incredibly important driver behind scaling your business… but “making more” and “not having to worry about income” can be a HUGELY important and motivating first level desire!! 🙂 I really wanted this!

Now the truth is that in that third year, I was still an “unconscious competent”. I didn’t know consciously what I was doing to create these results. I knew business tactics and strategies, but I didn’t know why they sometimes worked and sometimes didn’t. I didn’t know why I was energized one day and stalled out on another day. I didn’t know what actually moved money and what the foundations of success were based on.

All I knew was to just kept working harder and harder!! That was my “good girl” upbringing. Although I was a rebel in many ways growing up, I absolutely bought into working hard at school and getting the best grades. That’s what school teaches you will give you success and it does when it comes to school!!! But it’s not the thing that moves the needle and creates success in life! (That was so hard for me to learn. To be clear here, I’m not advocating for being a slacker. I’m not saying don’t put in the work. You need to. However, it’s NOT the only thing required. If it were, so many hardworking people would have so much more financial success. Think about that.)

I learned pretty quickly that you can’t 5x or 10x your work hours to 5x or 10x your income. I was already putting in 12 hour days. There just wasn’t more time to put in. That couldn’t be the solution.

And if I was so smart and so good at what I did… what gives? 😉

And it’s clearly not your environment, as there are many people who come from impoverished backgrounds who make it and so many people who come from wealthy backgrounds who don’t do anything magnificent with their lives.

So clearly, I was missing something. I knew that I had to learn a different way of operating. What I was doing wasn’t going to scale. To scale, I knew I had to learn what success was truly based on. If it wasn’t simply hard work, being smart, and being really good at what you do, what was it?

I went on a journey to learn this as quickly as I could, because I realized I had big dreams and that I didn’t really have time. Doing it my old way wasn’t going to get me where I wanted to go as fast as I wanted. In fact, I had basically plateaued and I could see my life stalling out if I didn’t figure this out. Even though I enjoyed what I was doing, I was scared that I was trapped at this level, that I wouldn’t achieve what I wanted out of life, but that I would be completely overwhelmed trying to achieve it. I didn’t know at the time what ‘it’ was exactly. I didn’t know that this was a path to self-actualization and becoming a fully empowered woman I love and adore. All I knew was that this, what I was experiencing, wasn’t all there was for me.

I invested deeply to learn the Laws of Success. I invested my time. I traveled to seminars. I studied. I worked with mentors who had done what I wanted. I listened to audio recordings. I followed the deep knowing inside of me. I started thinking differently. I started reprogramming myself for success. I learned what the Spirit of Wealth was and I learned what a success mindset really was. (No, it’s NOT just thinking positively and saying affirmations.) I moved toward my fears and busted through block after block. And yes, I worked diligently. I started operating from NEW RULES OF BUSINESS. This allowed me to make a true quantum leap, taking myself from $138K revenue to $700K revenue in just one year!! And I have continued growing from there!!

So, let’s talk about what it really takes
to scale and grow your business…

I went through this process for myself, as well as with the VIP client I mentioned earlier who tripled her income in just the first month of us working together…

The truth is, you have to look at a lot of different things. I’m going to give you an overview so you can start thinking it through, but you may also need some support to get clarity. That’s normal! 🙂

What do you want? How much do you want to make? What’s the next level for you? You have to be really, really clear about your answers to these questions before you start doing the work to scale. If you’re wishy-washy or you don’t know what you’re working towards, you’ll never get there. You’ll meander. You won’t have a clear direction and we won’t be able to build a plan to get you there. Get clear on this before you do anything else.
What needs to stay and what needs to go in your business? This requires honesty with yourself. Not everything you’re doing (services, products, marketing campaigns, team, etc.) is working, otherwise you’d already be where you want to be. Not all offers are good offers. Not all things you can sell are good things to sell. Not everything you’re pouring time, energy, and attention into is bringing real results. You have to get clear about what’s working and what’s not… then make changes accordingly to suit where you actually want to go, not just want you’re comfortable with. The Law of Sacrifice says you must let go of something of a lower nature to bring in something of a higher nature. That means letting go of the team that isn’t at the level you need, the systems that are no longer working, the offerings that aren’t selling, the marketing that’s landing flat, and anything that’s standing in the way of where you want to be, including your fears, lack of confidence and self-worth, old conditioning, and limiting money mindsets. It must go for you to have more!How do you assess this? You have to look at your numbers!! You have to be tracking your metrics for everything, everywhere in your business. You can’t know your results for certain if you’re not doing this. Spend some time putting some tracking in place if you don’t have any so that you can clearly assess what needs to go!
Do you have the right support in place? This is about team… both professionally and personally. Where are you saying I have to do it all? This is a huge way women block themselves from scaling. You’ll find yourself saying you can’t afford to hire help or that you really love doing xyz, or that it doesn’t take up so much time and it’s easier to do it yourself than train someone. Any of those thoughts sound familiar? Don’t buy into them! This is not how you scale!

You cannot scale doing everything yourself. I was terrified when I hired my first assistant. My fear looked like: “Would I have enough to give her? Was I wasting money? Would I make a ROI?” I faced that fear and did it anyway. It wasn’t all peaches and cream. There were frustrating moments. I did initially hire the wrong person. Someone too expensive and not dedicated enough, PLUS I had no idea how to manage someone. But if I hadn’t taken that first step and made that “mistake” I would never have gotten to where I am now with my incredibly amazing team! You have to start!This is true for getting personal support too: hiring a housekeeper, then a personal assistant were big steps for me. Now I don’t know how I would run my life and business without them, but at the time, I had to sacrifice my thoughts of “I can do it myself” in favor of leverage and the time it was going to free up for me to work on my business. I had to act!

Letting go of the “I can do it myself” attitude and quite frankly the thought that “I wasn’t yet worthy of getting the help I needed” was so critical to my ability to scale. But here’s the rub… I had to take those scary actions before I felt ready to. That’s how you become ready. You take the action. This showed up for me in the biggest way when I joined high level masterminds and hired coaches to coach me privately. Those were big financial decisions and I really had to step forward and say I deserve this and I can’t do this alone… otherwise I would have already. My results showed me exactly where I was at.

So where do you need help? Where are you doing work that isn’t the highest and best use of your time? Where can you delegate to free up more time for doing your genius work? You have to take an honest look at where you’re the bottleneck, or where you’re not using your time in the best way and where your mindset is keeping you from success. Bring in the support you need!!

Where are you limiting yourself? This is about MINDSET! Are you limiting yourself in terms of your geography and who your audience is? Are you ignoring markets? Are you not offering the things that could bring in the kind of cashflow you desire because you think it will be too hard or you don’t believe you have enough time? Are you not charging enough for your products or services? What stories are you telling yourself about why you can’t grow? You have to unpack these, one by one, and move beyond them.This is SO KEY because all the best laid plans in the world won’t get you anywhere if you’re continually self-sabotaging yourself. If you have a mindset that says, “I’ll do that later when xyz happens… Or, I can’t because…” Or any thought that stops you from seeing what needs to happen as doable, means you have inner game work to do. This is all about moving beyond your subconscious programming, double binds, and limiting beliefs. It’s a process of bringing them to the surface, seeing them for what they are, and creating NEW beliefs and ways of being. It’s about really identifying the deep core fears that are limiting you. This is true at all levels of business and career. I still do this work!! I have some pretty kickass, lofty goals that I have not achieved yet, which means that there is still something holding me back. Don’t fight this process. Fall in love with it. Embrace it. Get help with it. So you can scale!
Do you have a clear plan for success? Do you know exactly what steps you need to take to close the gap between where you are and where you want to be? Do you know what marketing initiatives need to be in place? Systems and team? What about a clear plan for when to roll out new offerings and when to focus on business development?And what about the math?! Do you know how much of which offerings you need to sell in order to hit your number goals? There are only three ways to make money… sell more, raise your prices, create a new channel. Which of these need to be in place and what do you need to do to ensure that happens when it needs to?And if you’re working for someone else, do you know what you need to do and how you need to think about your career in order to get to that next, next level?
Are you being visible? This is a BIGGIE. You can’t have a true income breakthrough and scale your life, your business, and your career without other people. You can’t do it alone. (Are you noticing a theme 😉 You need other people. This may be your team, your colleagues, your higher ups in the workplace. Or it may be clients and customers if you’re running your business. In both cases, you need to be visible!! This means putting yourself out in the world… going out to lunch or coffee with people, reaching out for connections, getting in front of the right audiences, doing Facebook live videos, posting to social media, showing up at networking events, etc. Where are you stopping yourself from showing up in the ways you need to show up?
Do you know how to speak about what you do? This is all about MARKETING and MESSAGING! You need to be able to speak to your colleagues, collaborators, partners, and prospective clients and customers in a way that is CLEAR and COMPELLING. This begins with looking at what you’re doing now and seeing where you’re falling short, making yourself small, not saying what you mean, holding yourself back, worrying about what other people think, etc… then asking, how can I improve how I’m talking about myself, my work, and what I do? How can you be sure it resonates with the right people?
Do you understand the Laws of Success? This was absolutely fundamental to my quantum leaping and scaling my business. It’s too much to review in detail here and beyond the scope of this email. But for now, let me say that it wasn’t just an intellectual understanding of them. I didn’t just read a book. It was applying them on a daily, even moment-to-moment basis, always holding myself to higher and higher standards with regard to them as I moved to higher levels of awareness. This was the foundation of my success and what I love teaching my clients. Total gamechanger.So, with all of this in mind….

What will you focus on first to scale and grow more quickly?

Hit reply and let me know what you’re taking away from this blueprint and will start working with now!

And, be sure to grab your spot at The Unstoppable Woman Income Breakthrough Summit if you want to go deeper into this work!

I’ll be teaching on that last point, the Laws of Success, in detail PLUS…

We’ve built three GET-IT-DONE WORKSHOPS into the Summit to give you a chance to integrate what you’re learning into your own life and business, right away! This means you’ll walk away with your very own Success Plan for scaling!!

Get laser-focused on your goals… create your own high-integrity, massively effective sales system… and get crystal clear on the aligned actions and the Success Mindset you need now!

I hope to see you there. 🙂

We look forward to connecting with you at an upcoming virtual event and to seeing you at a live event soon. If have any questions and to learn more about being part of the sisterhood, head on over to the Business of WE community page.