Business Coach Explains Stages of Business Growth
Business Coach Discusses Stages Of Business and Forming an LLC
This is one of my all time favorite business coach quotes: “Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.” -Steve Jobs (Co-founder of Apple, founder of NeXT, and the former CEO who turned around PIXAR)
Take the business coach assessment at Thrive15.com and discover what your Stage 1 score is: www.Thrive15.com/stage1score.
4.1.2 – It’s About Time to Form That Limited Liability Company
After you have sold 15 services or products, you will want to form an LLC to insure that you do not lose everything you have personally saved up when you get sued for the first time. To simplify and demystify the process for you (because people tend to fear what they do not know), here are the steps necessary to form an LLC.
- Accept emotionally that you will get sued at some point (which is the main reason you need to form an LLC in the first place).
- Find an attorney to help you form an LLC. Attempting to form an LLC by yourself is dumb and will negate the entire purpose of forming an LLC when you get sued for the first time and discover that your LLC cannot protect you because it was filed incorrectly.
- Select the business name for your LLC. The name of your LLC must be in compliance with the rules of your state’s LLC rules and regulations.
- Write your articles of incorporation.
- Create an operating agreement.
- Publish a notice in the states that require it.
- Get the appropriate licenses and permits.
For in depth training on how to form an LLC and setting up other legal documents, visit: www.Thrive15.com/how-to-form-an-LLC
To download a template operating agreement, visit: www.Thrive15.com/operating-agreement-template
4.1.3 – Marshall Marination Moment: Business Plan Now?
Real Quickly – Common Business Misconception #43 states that you need a business plan to even begin an entrepreneurial journey. WRONG. I’ve seen many academic environments that teach that this is where you begin the business process when in reality, it would be foolish to spend copious amounts of time developing a world-class business plan and pitch deck if you are going to pivot at least 934 times after you’ve created that initial plan. Hang tight, and we’ll business coach you when and how to create a rock solid business plan a little later.
4.2 – Stage 2
Raising a Baby Business – At this point, you want to make sure you do not drop the ball so you can deliver a consistent and quality product to your ideal and likely buyers. You spend most of your time in this stage scrambling around answering the phone, training your cousin to make deliveries, trying to convince your mom to answer the phone, and hoping that your minivan that you have converted into the mobile company headquarters doesn’t explode after it passes 200,000 miles on the odometer. You are irritated that your first non-family employee broke the handle on the driver-side door and broke the knob on the radio, but you don’t have the money or the time to fix either of those. During this time, you must begin formulating your inbound and outbound order taking and deal closing scripts. You must document the steps you have to take to produce your product. You must create an employee handbook, organize your files and develop a naming system for your computer files that makes sense. You’re trying to get all of this done while taking your kids to soccer and figuring out what kind of checklist you need to make to get your public bathroom to stop smelling like the rotting remains of a roadkill animal. During this time in your business, you must figure out what works and what doesn’t and make the time to transform your findings into checklists, systems, processes, scripts and templates. I know that this phase sounds overwhelming, but as a Thriver, you will have access to hundreds of downloadable and customizable checklists, a business coach, tools, templates and systems. Visit www.Thrive15.com/Resources to explore this treasure trove of best-practice documents. It will take you just seconds to download what has taken me and my team over 20 years to collect.
Take the business coach assessment at Thrive15.com and discover what your Stage 2 score is: www.Thrive15.com/stage2score.
4.3 – Stage 3
The Bipolar Teenager – If you’ve ever raised a teenager, been around a teenager, or were a teenager, then you will know what I’m talking about. It is during this time that you are just trying to get everybody to CALM DOWN AND STOP LOSING THEIR FREAKING MINDS!!! Just like teenagers who are overloaded with hormones and freaking out at their bodies that are changing so rapidly, they don’t even recognize themselves in the mirror, when you get to this point in your business you are going to be acting a little nuts. Trust my business coach experience and advice here. One moment you are PUMPED and you KNOW THAT THIS WILL BE THE BEST YEAR EVER; the next moment you are convinced that THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE HATES YOU AND YOU ARE NEVER GOING TO GET OVER THAT COLD. Exhausted, you press on because you financially cannot afford to stop now. You are tired of being tired and you are irritated when your team members tell you how tired they are BECAUSE YOU HAVE BEEN UP SINCE TWO IN THE MORNING AND YOU HAVEN’T TAKEN A FREAKING DAY OFF IN FOUR YEARS. Because you are so emotional at this point, I’m encouraging you to mellow out and begin to F.O.C.U.S. (Focus On Core tasks Until Success) on creating six systems as soon as possible.
[1] Take the Stage 1 Assessment and get your Stage 1 score.
[2] Form an LLC for the company.
[3] Find an attorney who can help with the basics of setting up an LLC.
[4] Create the articles of incorporation for the company.
[5] Create an operating agreement for the company.
[6] Take the Stage 2 Assessment and get your Stage 2 score.