If you’re a purpose-driven entrepreneur and you’re saying,

Nicole, something is missing.

My business is not growing at the level and rate that I love to see it grow at.

Use these tips to assess your business and apply them to your business. They will help no matter what stage of the game you’re in.

1.You, the Visionary.

The first must be you, the visionary and the CEO. Oftentimes this gets really confusing when we’re starting our business and we feel that it’s our responsibility to do everything. Understandably you know there will be times when you have to multitask and take on more than one role. But as your business begins to grow, you have to implement strategies that support business growth, so you want to start off number one, as the visionary.

That’s you. That’s the CEO. You want to always be in a mode where you’re working on your business. Even if you’re in a position where you have to work inside of your business. I get that. I dually was the visionary and employee for probably the first, I think six months, of my business because I couldn’t afford to pay employees. But what I’ve learned over the years is to accelerate growth.

You have to begin to put the infrastructure in place that allows you to be the visionary and the creative. You’re the one who has the ideal for the business and need to be able to continue to grow the business by working on rather than in the business.

We need a healthy visionary. We need you to be able to do what you do best, which is create.

2. You Need Leaders

The second thing that you need is leaders.  So you need to begin to look for, not employees, but employee-preneurs.

You need to look for leaders who can catch your vision and execute decisions without you according to whatever criteria or protocol you established for your business. This will allow you to focus on growing the business and also give someone else the responsibility of managing the day to day operations.  You really want to be keenly aware that they are working in your business and you are working on your business businesses. Two different things.

What I see happen so often with successful entrepreneurs is that they spend a great deal of time not transitioning from CEO and visionary. They never transition from an employee, the result is a lot of stagnation. Progress is hindered because you cannot flow in the creative while working inside the business continually.

And I know what normally comes up when I’m having this conversation with high-level aspiring entrepreneurs. Nicole, I just can’t afford to get anyone.  But you really need to reframe your thought pattern and say you can’t afford to NOT get anyone. Being in a cycle of working on an in your business at the same time is eventually going to cause your business to lose some momentum.

If you’re the creative, you’re supposed to work on your business and bring the ingenuity, the new ideas, and the creativity. If you are not doing this,  you are actually going to stop the flow of those things. So we need you, the visionary, to be healthy in all aspects. At some point, you should not be the busiest person in your organization!

Sometimes I feel extremely guilty. I really do because there’s just a grace and ease when you get into the right rhythm with business.  Your time should be free and that’s fair because you’re holding the weight of the entire business on your shoulders. So the day to day operations of the business should be delegated to someone else. That should be someone who can support your vision, understand your vision, and get in and handle critical things that are going on or the day to day operations without a lot of guidance.

This applies to business ministry as well. Wherever you are, you’ve got to have people at the forefront who can help you and say, listen, I caught the vision. I know what I need to do, I’ll come to you if there’s a crisis, but I can handle things according to your protocol. If you don’t have this component, it will affect the level and rate that you grow.

3. You need employees who think like entrepreneurs.

You want people who are actually executing, who are taking directives from the leader. I don’t care if its employees, if it’s volunteers, or if it’s ministry. If it’s business, you need someone to execute and follow through on the orders that come from the leader. Your ultimate job as the entrepreneur or the CEO and the visionary is casting the vision and making sure that you surround yourself with a team of people.

If you want to accelerate, if you want to grow, you’re going to have to put some infrastructure in place. I see so many talented individuals who are still stuck in phase one and they’ve been in business for a number of years. They’ve been in ministry for a number of years, but they have not created a system that will support their growth.

What happens is anytime you step away, whether it’s for a rest period or just to work on something else, there’s a crisis because no one knows what to do. No one can because they cannot execute independently or there’s no one to delegate to them. So then we create a cycle of burnout.

I just want to make sure that you understand the importance of having a support system. Having a support system in place, having a team in place, actually doesn’t take something from you. It adds something to you.

I work with leaders. We have over 1300 employees right now. There’s no way I could talk to everyone and figure out what’s going on with everyone, but I have leaders in place who can come to me and my team when they cannot handle something their own. This allows me to continue to think of creative things to do with you, to jump on a live and share, to share new things that we’re coming out with to build the business and continue to learn and grow.

The Big Misconception

To be clear, because I think there’s a lot of misconception that the CEO, the visionary, the person at the helm, is always the person who should be running around like a chicken. I’ve been there. I did that. It didn’t work. True success. The success that adds no sorrow,  has grace and ease. It has a flow and it has a rhythm, but you need people around you that will come in and support the vision. You need people around you who can execute independently and you also have to be willing to release because that’s a big issue. Sometimes we’re not willing to release or let anyone else be a part of our vision, but to bring it to the full manifestation, we’re going to have to allow people to come on.

Now, I’m not talking about Billy and Jojo up the street. You have to make sure that you get qualified people who are really there to support you, your growth, your mission and your message and your business.

I learned this from a hospital bed many years ago when I started back in 2007. I was in a hospital and it’s like, I got it. That was my wake up call. You can’t be the only person in the business running the business. I learned it the hard way. I don’t want you guys to learn it the hard way. I’ve already done that for you, but I also want to help you accelerate your growth and begin to build those structures in place.

Make a Change Now

If you want to talk about it more. I’m always available. If you’re in business right now and you’re saying, Nicole, I need to grow. I need to do something. I need to put something in place. I’m running a mom and pop, but in my heart, I see that it’s, grander and it’s bigger. If you’d like to collaborate and work together and let us kind of figure out, hey, where are the leaks at per se? Go to BreakthroughwithNicole.com and myself and my team will support you.

Let’s do talk. Let’s take some time. Let’s not build it in a way that we have to rebuild it. Let’s build it from the ground up. Let’s build it the right way from the beginning.

BreakthroughwithNicole.com