In this solo episode of the Above the Business podcast, host Bradley Hamner introduces the concept of stage‑based business blueprints, arguing that a blueprint must consist of three concrete components—a growth roadmap, an operating‑system‑style framework, and a personal leadership track for the founder. He divides small businesses (under $10 M in revenue) into four revenue‑based stages: $0‑$300 K (Stage 1), $300 K‑$1 M (Stage 2), $1 M‑$3 M (Stage 3), and $3 M+ (Stage 4). Using analogies of lifting an anchor and a rocket launch, he illustrates the intense effort required to achieve the first $300 K. Hamner stresses that each stage demands a distinct blueprint; practices, team structures, and hiring decisions that work at $3 M are inappropriate for a $300 K business. He critiques the “one‑size‑fits‑all” mindset and highlights the danger of copying higher‑stage tactics prematurely. The episode also contrasts his view with Alex Hormozi’s characterization of the $1‑$3 M range as a “swamp,” arguing instead that for many owners this range is the ideal lifestyle‑business sweet spot. Hamner outlines upcoming content: a four‑episode mini‑series that will detail the specific blueprints for each stage, covering topics such as when to bring on an executive assistant, operations manager, or COO, and how marketing, sales, and team dynamics must evolve. He closes by urging listeners to assess whether they are following the right stage‑appropriate blueprint and to seek concrete, stage‑specific advice rather than generic advice.
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Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Above the Business podcast. My name is Bradley Hamner, your host, where we help you get above the business, begin to think like an architect, and then design the blueprint for your business. And that is exactly what I want to talk about today. I want to talk about stage-based blueprints. If you are new to the podcast, well, you saw or heard what I just mentioned right there. That's what we help people to do is to have a blueprint for their business. Now, what are all of the elements that go into the blueprint? It's not just a conceptual thing. It is actually 3 specific things that go into a blueprint. It's a roadmap to grow the company. It's an operating system for the business to run on. And then it's a personal leadership track for you to follow as the founder, or if there are multiple founder owners in the business. So that's what a blueprint is. But what are the different types of blueprints? And is there a blueprint that is a one-size-fits-all? I don't believe that there is. And in particular, the stages of business that we break it down into and the ones that we help— you, you've probably heard me say this before, but business owners in that $300,000 to $3 million stage in revenue. But I'm gonna break it down even further for you. I think that there are 4 specific stages that a business goes through when when it's less than $10 million. Now there's a lot of different ways to cut this up. Of course, this is just our point of view of how we see small business. And that is number one, the first stage is that initial lift, $0 to $300,000 in revenue. If you think about it, that's that first $25,000 a month in recurring revenue. If you're in a recurring revenue business, it's how do you breathe life? How do you initially get the thing off the ground? One of the analogies, really two kind of analogies, or really visuals that I like to think about in that stage. Number one is, can we just get the anchor, you know, a few inches off the, the, the, the floor of the lake so the boat can move forward? If we can do that, just getting the anchor off the ground a little bit, not even all the way in the boat, but we can just get off the ground a little bit, things can begin to move forward. And that's what I think about in that first $300,000 in revenue. Another visual is a rocket ship. I live in Huntsville, Alabama, so there's obviously rocket ships. NASA has a ton of people work for NASA here, and also even the defense contractors are in Huntsville, Alabama. And so they're talking about missile defense agencies and things of that nature. And so that initial thrust, it takes a tremendous amount of power to get a rocket just initially into orbit. That's where all of the fuel is spent. That's where all of the, you know, it's where a whole lot of things can go wrong even initially. But specifically when a business, that is that first $300,000, that first $25,000 a month. That's stage 1. Stage 2 is then what does that look like when that business has got a little bit going? It's probably got a couple contractors, maybe a team member or 2, maybe a full-time team member plus yourself. How does that business then go from $300,000 to a million in top line revenue? Now I want to share that I recognize even that there's a lot that happens. I mean, think about that $300,000 business going from $300,000 to $600,000, how big of a, like, a game changer that is for that business specifically. And then number 2 is what if that business goes from $300,000 to $600,000, even to $900,000? Like, I recognize that there's a lot of stages that happen in that $300,000 to $1 million stage. But that's how we see that one is when that business owner's at $25,000 a month, how do they get that thing to about $84,000 a month? In other words, a million dollar run rate. That is stage 2. And then stage number 3 is a million to $3 million. And again, I recognize that that is a big jump from a million to 3. I mean, it's going to, it's adding another million, then another million on top of that to go from 1 to 3, but that's stage. And then finally, 3+, and, and that could look like $3 million to $10 million. Now, we have members in all of those stages. We have some that are just below the $300,000 range, but the vast majority of our business owners— in fact, I would say 90% of them, maybe more than that— are in that $300,000 to a million, stage 2, and also million to 3 Stage 3. But we do have a few business owners that are past $3 million now, and they're on their way to building towards a $10 million company. So now that you have a better understanding of the different stages, the question now remains is, just because that's where the business is, do they all follow the same blueprint? And the answer, I believe, is no, they don't. So conceptually, we want to help you get above it. Once you get above it, you can begin to think like an architect. What architects do, they design things, and specifically they use a blueprint to do so. And I believe that you should have a blueprint for your business. But what blueprint do you, do you use? Do you take a blueprint off the shelf, somebody else's blueprint, or do you need a blueprint based on where you are and also where you want to go. And I believe that's what you need. I think that the blueprint somebody is following to get that initial lift in the business, that first few hundred thousand in revenue, is absolutely different than the blueprint that a $3 million business owner is doing to try to scale to 10. Obviously, are there some similarities? Are there overlaps even in those two polar opposite examples? Of course there is. But at the same time, the thing that I see often is a business owner is at $3 million, $4 million, they're scaling to $10 million, and they're sharing things with a business owner that's just getting started. And they're saying, this is what you need to do, this is what we do. And then that business owner at a couple hundred thousand starts attempting to mimic what the one that's at $2 million is doing, the one that's at $3 million is doing, the one that's at $5 million, what they're doing. And they're just not the same. They're not the same. In fact, I believe that when— and I've seen this so many times, let me give you a couple specific examples where— sorry, Tim— I'm going to give you a couple specific examples of where when a business owner has finally crossed that 7-figure, that 2 comma club mark. They're now at a million. It may have taken them 15 years. There's one specific example, took them 22 years to finally get to a million dollars in top line revenue. They're about to cross 2 million in annual revenue 3 years later. That's why we talk about that million dollar threshold is not a vanity metric. If you are continuing to grow and utilizing some of the tools and utilizing the right blueprint that carries those tools, growth can begin to happen so much faster. It is indeed very difficult to get a business off the ground, and it is very difficult to take that business from $300,000 to $2 million, make no doubt about it. But if you remain patient, growth will begin to actually accelerate, I do believe. Now, it depends on where you want to go. I did a podcast a few weeks ago called The Swamp, and that's Alex Hormozi calls the $1 to $3 million space. He thinks that that's one of the worst places to be. I do not. I think that that's one of the best places to be if that's the type of business you want to own. The reason he believes, and where I think we're both actually right with that, is not for me to be contrarian, just to be contrarian. It's because he sees that space as taking that company immediately to $10 million, $20 million, $30 million, $50 million, $100 million. And so he's right that it is a swamp because you have to decide, am I going to go hire this really expensive person on the team? Are we going to really make the investments? Or do I just really like the fact that I got a couple million dollar company that's throwing off 20, 35, 25 to 30% profit? I'm kind of good. I don't know if I'm ready to go reinvest $300,000 in a COO, but that's what it takes if you want to actually get to that $10 million plus mark. So he's right if that's the vision. But for so many of the business owners we work with, their dream outcome is to have a profitable lifestyle business, one that's in that $1 to $3 million range, one that really runs without their constant day-to-day involvement. They have a fantastic team. It's fun for them. It gives them freedom and flexibility, and it gives them the financial success they always wanted. That's why I think the $1 to $3 million range is not the swamp. It's the sweet spot. In business, actually. But the point that I'm trying to make today is that depending on where you are and where you want to go, you need to follow a different blueprint. And in some upcoming episodes, I'm going to start to share some differences of, well, what do you see now? What are the differences specifically in those blueprints? Again, is there clearly overlap? Sure. But the number of team members that you have at $500,000 is just not the same as you're going to have at $2 million. You're not going to have an office manager or an operations manager at $300,000. You don't need that. When do you bring in an EA? Do you bring in an EA immediately, or do you bring an EA around a million? What makes the most sense? Where do these things, from a best practice principle perspective, where do they fall in? And so I'm going to start to detail some of those out. I'm kind of foreshadowing in a little bit. I've actually been doing some research on this. And so this is not going to come out next week, but in upcoming episodes, I'm going to do 4 episodes in a row on this very topic. I'm going to detail out the $0,000 to $300,000 blueprint, the $300,000 to $1 million blueprint, the $1 to $3 million blueprint, and then the $3 million plus. And I'm going to try to share some stories and analogies, but experience of myself, but also more importantly, other business owners that I know that they had to change things. Once the thing that they were doing from a marketing, from a sales, from a team, all of it, the thing that they were doing to get to the next level is just not the thing that they, that they needed to keep doing. Okay. They fundamentally, things needed to change. And this is where the Goldsmith quote, which I've quote, I've shared on here before, I think really comes into play. What got you here is not the thing that's going to get you there. And that is very true. But the bigger point I wanted to leave today is the fact— think about, think about, are you following the right blueprint in your business? If you get inspired by a business owner that's doing $3 million and you're at $300,000, instead of asking him or her, what are they doing? Ask them what they did. What did they do to go from $300,000 to $1 million? How long did that take them to get there? Because I promise you, they're doing some things at $3 million that are probably not the things that you should be doing. There may be some correlation, some overlap, but it's just not the same. Art of One. Hope this episode served you well. I look forward to dropping those 4 episodes in the upcoming weeks when I feel like the content is tight and good enough for all of you. On here. All right, everyone, till next episode, lead well and go be great. 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