752 Most Six-Figure Businesses Aren’t Scalable ~ Here’s Why

Welcome to the Next Level Life Podcast with Christine Corcoran. This podcast is made for the powerhouse business women who are ready to ignite their fullest potential. This is where we will dive deep into mindset breakthroughs and sprinkle in some kick up the butt motivation so you can scale your business with confidence and clarity. Whether you're craving more income, impact, or inspiration, this podcast will be your ultimate resource for all things next level. Listen in as we have authentic conversations with game-changing female entrepreneurs as we reveal the secrets on what it takes to rise and thrive. 5. So go ahead, ignite your inner fire, and let's get you taking massive aligned action. Are you ready to elevate? Let's go. Hey, hey, welcome back to the podcast. Thank you so much for tuning in. I just got back from 3 days in Melbourne. I was flown down to speak to an incredible group of builders and construction workers, uh, and all their wives and their partners. And honestly, I had the most incredible couple of days It was such an incredible community called Live Life Build. So if you know a builder or you know someone who works in that type of construction industry, then definitely check, get them to check them out because it's so such a great community. And so I was flown in to speak and facilitate a day called Elevate Her, and it was all about overcoming imposter syndrome and building confidence and really backing themselves. And I had such an incredible day really getting to connect with all the beautiful women and meeting them with where they're at, what they're experiencing, and what they need to really develop within themselves in order to support themselves to be more confident And it was so phenomenal because the second day, so it was a 3-day summit and I facilitated day 1 and then I, and then I stuck around for day 2. And the beauty of being part of then day 2 was to see how the ripple effect of the messages that came through on day 1 really shone through into day 2. A lot of the women that were in the room were very much supporters of their partner's business. So they are still a big part of their business, but they would deem themselves to be the supporters, right? They do on the backend support every part of the operations and One of the things that came through on the Elevate Her day was really about owning the value that you bring to the business, because without them, their businesses wouldn't exist. They would not be thriving. Their husbands would not be thriving. Their husbands wouldn't be able to really spend time in their zone of genius in order for them to scale their business. And one of my biggest goals, because I had so many conversations with some of the ladies that were attending prior to the day to make sure that what I was sharing was really impactful. And one of the things, one of the messages that I really wanted to get through was them really owning the value that they brought to their companies. And by day 2, what really shone through was them owning the titles of what they really were truly doing in the business. Instead of calling themselves admin or support, they were starting to really redefine their roles. And one of the questions that came through on the panel in the afternoon was really like, what could you title yourself? What would the title be? And someone was like operations manager or project manager or sales manager. And then someone said, what about general manager? Because you actually are doing all of it. Right? Like, you're actually the GM of the company. And so that really resonated with a lot of people. That then on day 2, some of the men— it was so funny— some of the men were like, well, I've just heard that I've had to give someone a promotion in the business, and so now I have to pay this general manager so much more money. And it made me laugh, but then it also made me realize that they have to value them too. It's not just one piece, but for their partners to value them it had to start with the women. The women had to believe in themselves first before their partner would value them. Because really, if their partner had to outsource that role to somebody else, I guarantee you it would be a general manager or operations manager, and they'd probably be paying them upwards of $200,000 a year, right? And so yet, because it's their wife or because it's their partner, they were like, oh, well, they're just jumping in and doing bits and pieces. That's actually not what they're doing. They're doing so much more and they're bringing so many skill sets. From their previous careers into this role, yet majority of the time it was them downplaying their own success or their own skill sets in order for them to truly value themselves. And so it works the same within your business. And it was so many— there were so many correlations between the women that I work with within my business and these beautiful women in the construction industry, right? There was a lot of self-doubt, a lot of lack of self-belief, uh, there wasn't a lot of confidence coming through. And when the confidence was there, it felt like it was them being an imposter when really they had the skillset, the qualifications, the abilities, but they were determining their skillsets based on the hard skills that are valued in society. So what I mean by this is a lot of the time hard skills are the ones that are valued in society, which is your education, your qualifications, right? Your experience. But what also is required to succeed in business are the soft skills. That maybe we don't value as much, right? Your ability to have empathy, your ability to listen, your ability to pay attention when something shifts within a conversation, your ability to lead someone, your ability to care about your team. Like there's so much more than just the hard skills of the education, but because their partners are the ones building, right? It can feel like we can look at that to be the most valuable piece, but without their soft skills happening behind the scenes, their business would not succeed. Their business would literally fall, right? And so I want you to acknowledge what you bring to the table, not just acknowledging what needs to be done in the business, but what you truly bring to the table and where you're most valuable. Because as we start to step into scaling a 6-figure business, which is what today's podcast episode is all about, why most 6-figure businesses aren't scalable, is because often, one, we don't truly see ourselves worthy of receiving more, going after more, achieving more. So it starts firstly with ourselves and our belief in what's possible. But secondly, it's actually valuing what you bring to the table and being able to hire people around you that will support the other areas of the business because you cannot do it all alone and you should not do it all alone. So one of the biggest things that prevents a six-figure business from scaling is just that, like you. You need to first work on you. You need to believe in yourself. You need to believe that you are worthy of charging more, serving more, receiving more in your business. And that comes down to your belief systems and your capacity and your nervous system work, right? The other side is being able to really recognize what you bring to the table and what your value is and what is most valuable within your business, and then hiring around you so then you can scale it. So I've talked a lot about that in the past few episodes. So that's really you stepping into your CEO role, really acknowledging what you bring to the table and building your confidence in what you believe is possible for the next level. But today's episode, what I really wanted to focus on is a little bit different. When I look at 6-figure businesses and I have women that come to me to work with me because they've, they've got a 6-figure business, they've done well to get to where they are now, and then they're like, I don't know what needs to change in order for me to scale. I wanna scale it and I wanna take it to the next level. And whether that's multi-6 figures, whether it's half a million, whether it's a million dollars, we need to look at what's going to actually scale this business. And so there's a few different things that I would look at in order to determine the scalability of it. Okay. Firstly is the business model, right? We have to start there. If the business model is not set up to scale, then that's really going to be the biggest thing, biggest hurdle that will prevent you from actually scaling your business. So we need to look at, is it possible to currently sell what you exactly have right now, your current services, to more people? And do you have the capability and capacity to be able to do that? So for you to hit your scaling goals, does your current business model support that scale? Because right, first and foremost, if it doesn't, we need to start there. We need to change that, right? And so that might be then also identifying some systems that you're currently using, recognizing like how much of you are you currently within your business and what needs to shift in order for you to be able to scale it? Because you cannot do it all on your own. Secondly, you shouldn't be doing it all on your own, as I mentioned before. But thirdly, a business is more scalable when it require— when it requires less of you in it. So we look at your business model first. Can you either charge more for what you currently offer? Can you serve more people with what you currently offer? And if you can't, that needs to change first. We need to determine how you're going to go about scaling that. Which then brings me to the next piece. When it comes to scaling a business, in my opinion, you have to have a really clear problem that you are solving. And you have— and you need to have enough people in the market that are willing to pay for that solution. So this is sometimes where we need to get so much more clearer on the, on the problem that you are actually solving and determine whether there is enough people in the market in order to buy that service offering. Are people actively out there looking for that solution to the problem? Because if they're not, there could be two things going on. One, you're solving the wrong problem and we need to get clearer on what that problem is. Or two, your sales messaging needs to shift. So this is something where if you find that you are having to convince a lot of people to work with you, If you're finding that the sales conversion time is really, really long, it usually means that there's so much education that needs to happen before people are ready and willing to buy. So that's where I would start next, right? You get the business model right, then you make sure, are you solving the right problem for the right people? And is there enough people that want to actually pay to solve that problem? Because if there's not, you're gonna find scaling really, really hard, right? And that you can do with data. You can look at the data, you can look at the current market, you can be determined, you could do market research, you can figure out, is there enough people out there actively wanting to solve this problem? Because sometimes what I see is people come to me with businesses and they're like, "Oh, but I've served this many people already doing this type of service offering." I'm like, "Great. When you did that sales messaging, when you did that sales conversation, were they all one-on-one conversations or did people come to you and convert without a one-on-one conversation?" Because if they only converted with a one-on-one conversation, then I would be concerned depending on the type of service that you offer, I would be concerned that they may need convincing in order to buy. Right? Once we have an incredible problem that people are actively out there searching to solve, it just makes everything so much easier. Right? Which then brings me to the next piece, which is making sure it's profitable. Right? If you wanna scale it, you're gonna need money to invest back into it in order for you to scale the business. So if your service offerings are not profitable, then that will be a really big bottleneck. You'll find it very hard to actually invest back into scaling to get more visibility in order for you to be able to get in front of the right people that are ready to buy your product or service. So secondly, sorry, that's not— so number 3, making sure it's super profitable so then you can actually scale it. And I remember talking to someone recently about this and it was actually a mix of the two. So one, her service offering wasn't profitable enough, so she couldn't really invest back into advertising. And that really kept a bottleneck because she was still doing everything so manually and she was still like, trying to perfect her content to really get it out there when really we needed to test it on a bigger market and doing some Facebook ads to really test it at that next level was really worthwhile, but she just didn't have the cash flow to be able to do that. So we needed to work on the profitability of her offers first. The second piece is that she needs to test the messaging, right? And so what was actually happening, she tested one lot of messaging and it didn't land. And so that was an expensive test, but she needed to also go through that testing in order to then come back out the other side to be like, actually, What are people willing to pay for? Because she thought the messaging was landing. So the messaging— sorry, was landing, but it wasn't— the problem wasn't clear enough and it wasn't actually important enough for the ideal client to want to actually spend money to pay for it. They thought it was actually just an everyday, like, thing that they had to deal with. They didn't realize it was something that they could solve, and they didn't even believe that it was a solution out there to solve it. And so she was out there selling burnout and she was selling energy Right? Where really a lot of people in her market were like, well, I just have a lack of energy. It's just normal part of my everyday life. But really what was actually happening is that she was hitting menopause and the women who were out there actively searching for a solution to solve the menopausal symptoms, they were willing to pay for a solution. So the messaging completely needed to shift in order for her to focus on the right thing. Yes, people were out there going, I want more energy and I feel like I've got a lack of energy, but they weren't looking at that as a problem that could be solved or that, or they're willing to pay for. But when they shifted their messaging to then focus on menopause, then things started to really hit, like the rubber hit the road and ads started working more effectively and they were able to scale that. Right? And so it's those two things. The problem has to be something that people want to actually pay to solve. And it has to be something that people are actively out there looking for the solution for. And then lastly, it needs to be something that people are willing to pay for. Right? Willing to pay for. And that only comes through your market research and being willing to do that, to do that market research, to get the information in order for you to be able to scale it. And so What this also highlights, I guess, is probably what I really wanted to get to, is that scaling your business is gonna be a lot of test and measure, but the foundational pieces need to be those things: your business model, your profitable offers and the services, a solution that is something that people are actively wanting to solve a problem with, and that it's something they're willing to pay for. Which seems so basic, I know. Like, sometimes it's like, this is the purpose of scaling. We need to simplify because simplifying always works better over complexity. And so we want to make sure that as you're scaling, we're scaling one specific offer to begin with, right? A lot of people where they get stuck and they don't scale is because they're trying to do too much at once. They're trying to scale every service offering in their business, right? They want to be known for everything, or they want to be, want to be able to keep serving all these different types of markets. Whereas we need to perfect one, just one, and scale that, and you will go so much further instead of trying to do it all at the one time. And I think one of the things that people are just not willing to do, they're not willing to do that work. They're not willing to sit there in the discomfort of things not working in order to get it right. And it takes time and it takes money and it takes energy, and you have to be ready and you have to be willing to do that work. And I think sometimes people get really comfortable at that 6-figure, multi-6-figure, and they're not really willing to do the work to put in to be able to scale it to the multi-6 to then 7. And I think that If you're willing to do that, then that's where you want to just simplify and make it easier for yourself and just focus on one service offering. You can still offer the others, but you're going to go to market with one clear, specific offering and go hell for leather for a good year to nail it, right? Okay, the other thing I wanted to mention, and I know I touched on this in the previous episodes, but like, you have to be willing to look at your business as a scalable business, as a scaled business, in order for you to be able to see where the bottlenecks are. Because often it's actually you, and I say that with absolute love. Like, we are our biggest bottleneck because we're the ones that are either still trying to stay in our operator shoes and do the things we've always done. We're still wanting to stay comfortable. We're still not willing to look at the data. We're still not willing to step out of our comfort zone of the— literally the tasks that you're doing in your business in order for you to step into doing the harder things. Because as you scale, you have to literally let go of all the things you used to do that where you were confident and comfortable. And you actually have to start doing the bigger, scary, harder things, which is mostly where people get stuck and they end up just going back down into where they belonged, right? And so this is going to require a lot more attention from you. This is going to require a determination, a powerful mindset, a growth mindset to be like, where do I need to stretch myself? And I have to be willing to get uncomfortable in order for me to be able to scale to that next level. And it's all going to feel uncomfortable. It's all going to feel stretchy. It's all going to feel yuck at certain points, right? Because there are going to be things that you have never done before, or it's going to require you to lead. It's going to require you to take a high level of responsibility. It's going to require you to feel stretched and uncomfortable. And usually people just avoid that at all costs. Okay. The next piece with it is actually thinking too small. And this can be a symptom of who you surround yourself with and the conversations that you're having. Because when you're scaling, you really do need to look at the numbers and the data. And often when I do this with clients, we see that the actions that they're taking aren't getting the data that we need in order for us to be able to make smarter decisions. So we're doing the same actions, right? We're creating the same type of content. You're not perfecting your content in a way that really lands and hits and goes viral, or at least, at least really speaks to your community. We're not willing to step out and be that real authority, which is the next piece where we're really like, if you want to scale, you've got to be willing to be known for the thing that you want to be known for. And that means like that real niche specific thing that is real in relation to the product or service that you're selling. But when you surround yourself with people that are doing the same level, you end up doing the same things and that then gets the same results. And so one of the things I always say to my clients is like, let's look at the scalability of your business and go, okay, what's the numbers that we need to be hitting in order for you to be able to hit those scale numbers? We need the data. So for instance, simple as this, right? It might be like, okay, well, how many leads do you need to have come through the door in order for you to be able to hit your goals? That then brings us back to, we have to reverse engineer that and be like, what's your current conversion rate in order for us to be able to know those numbers? And then what money do we need to be put behind it? Because sometimes it's Facebook advertising. Sometimes it's action that you need to be taking in order to get in front of the right audiences to get those types of numbers. And that's sometimes what we're not willing to do. And it could be doing more PR. It could be getting on more podcasts. It could be stretching yourself in other areas, speaking on stages, like doing all of these types of things at that next stage in order for you to be— in order for you to be able to get the numbers. Because often if you're just doing the same actions to your same audience, you're not going to get the scalability that you need in the numbers. So often what the biggest challenge is here is actually thinking too small because your brain will only think about the past, right? It'll only think about what you have created and what has been possible for you in the past. But when it comes to scaling your business, you really need to think outside the box and you need to start challenging your belief about what you believe is possible. So for instance, I remember doing this at a workshop a little while ago where we were like, okay, if you were to 10 times your current goal, right? So if you wrote a scalability goal down and went, I really wanna scale to XYZ, and that might be a financial number, but then I would actually look at the numbers you would need within your business. So how many of your services or, or the specific, specific service you're going to sell on scale, how many of those would you need to sell in order for you to hit your scalability number? And then if you actually times that by 10, stay with me for a second, I'm not going to change your goal. But like, if you just times it by 10, then you will get this stretchy goal, an expansive goal that activates new ideas within your mind. So let's say for you to be able to hit your goal, you need to sell 100 of the service offerings that you have, right? Let's say it's 100. But then you times it by 10 and you hit 1,000, then for you to be able to hit those numbers, how many people do you think you need to get in front of on a regular basis? And then when you're thinking about your sales messaging, what would you need to say in order to activate 1,000 people, right? What would they really want to see from you? What would they want to hear from you? Who would they want you to be in order for them to be like, I really want to be a part of what you're creating? And so there's this thinking outside the box piece that needs to happen. And then you might go, okay, so if I need to get in front of say 5,000 people in order to convert 1,000 people, then you start thinking differently. You start going, okay, well, I need to be able to speak on bigger stages. I need to be able to, you know, be on bigger, larger-scaled podcasts. I need to be able to get my messaging out to a lot more people. So instead of spending $1,000 on Facebook ads, you might need to spend $5,000 to $10,000 on Facebook ads, right? It's changing the way that you will perceive your business and the action steps that you need to take in order for you to be able to hit your goal. Because your brain doesn't want you to keep scaling. It's scary, right? So it's going to keep playing the same scenarios in your head. It's going to be like, stay safe, do this thing, you've always done this before, this is where you were before. So you're going to end up causing yourself to play small because your brain doesn't want you to grow. It's not wired for growth. Whereas if you surround yourself with other people that are scaling and you start having those discussions and those numbers, you're like, holy hell, like, I am not doing that at all, right? It's so interesting. And so even like, if I think back to last year with my event, I spent very little on Facebook ads and was really happy with the numbers that I got. But looking back now, I could be like, why didn't I just put more money behind the ads? Like with that hindsight, I'm like, I could have literally doubled the amount of money that I spent on ads and probably filled the room, the numbers that I really wanted. But I was sitting in thinking small because I was literally doing this with the first time. It was the first time I'd ever done that event. And I was doing all of it myself. When hindsight now I can look back and be like, that was silly. I shouldn't have done it all myself. And now this year I'm approaching it from a completely different perspective in order for me to be able to hit my numbers. And so I want you to be conscious of like, you need to do the data, you need to do that. And then you need to test and measure, test and measure, test and measure until you start hitting the numbers that you really want to hit. And then the more you surround yourself with people that are doing numbers at that scale, it'll normalize what you're actually doing. And it won't feel as scary. It won't feel as uncomfortable. It'll just be like, this is part of the process. This is just part of the process. So let's summarize. If you're wanting to scale your business, most things that stop a 6-figure business from scaling is one, the operator, the person at the helm who is still doing the same things you've always done, who is stuck in your operator shoes, not stepping into your CEO shoes, and is the actual bottleneck of the business scaling. Right? The second one is the business model. Is the business model set up effectively in order for you to be able to scale? And hit the numbers that you wanna hit? 3, are you solving a problem that people actually wanna pay to solve? 4, is your sales messaging on par, right? Is it actually set to scale or are you not speaking to the right problem and the right desire in order for your ideal client to be like, I absolutely wanna be a part of that? Are you the one thinking too small? Are your actions not aligned with the results that you wanna actually achieve because you're thinking too small? And lastly, are you making things a little bit too complex? It's time to simplify, focus on one key thing and go hard with that key thing and sell, sell, sell until you actually hit your goal. I hope that this resonated with you. And if you have any questions, feel free to send me a DM on Instagram. If you're really wanting to do more work on this and you're ready to scale and take your business to the next level, we're about to open the doors to the Next Level Mastermind, which is my 6-month container to support you to scale your business, whether that is with a one-to-many offer or with team, and you're really wanting to do that by creating unapologetic authority in the space so you can become that go-to person in your industry. You want to set up the foundations of your business so you can have freedom while you're scaling, and you're ready to scale your sales. You're ready to go all in and scale it. It's time. It's time. Feel free to add your name to the waitlist and I'll reach out with more details. Have an incredible week. Thank you for listening. And if you found any value out of this episode, make sure you hit the follow button so you get access to the episodes as soon as they are live. And make sure you come hang out with me on Instagram. You can find me at Christine Corcoran underscore coach. Have an incredible week.