How To Go From 6-Figure to 7-Figure Entrepreneur
The shift in mindset of a 6-figure entrepreneur versus a 7-figure entrepreneur is massive, but the good news is; it’s all in your head.
Whether you are stuck at 6-figures or looking to upgrade your mindset and question your limiting beliefs, I’ve got the inside track on how to get there. I hit 7-figures when I was just 19, and let me tell you; I didn’t feel ready for that success at such a young age. My accelerated journey led me down a path of personal development and self discovery which is so different from other entrepreneurs, who often travel down that path before they hit the elusive 7-figure mark. The shift in mindset of a 6-figure entrepreneur versus a 7-figure entrepreneur is massive, but the good news is; it’s all in your head. The biggest obstacle standing in the way of reaching your next level is yourself.
My Journey
I started my first business at 16 and in our first year we turned over $40k.
I didn’t set out any goals for the business at the start. What can I say? I was young and naïve, and it goes without saying every start-up should have an idea of the targets they want to achieve in both the short term and long term.
Nonetheless, I was barely out of school and I wanted to pursue my passion and, truth be told, $40k was a massive win for us. In my eyes I was living my best life, as I was doing something I was passionate about and living a pretty good lifestyle off of the money I was earning as a 17 year old.
However, when I sat down to set my goals for the next couple of years in business, that’s when the whole idea of mindset really came into question for the first time. I wrote down that I wanted to turnover $60k in the following year and my perception was that if I could do that, then I was the owner of an extremely successful business. At the time, my mindset would not allow me to dream further or aim much higher.
Incredibly, we hit the seven-figure mark in the next 12 months.
My mindset journey is of course a strange tale, as my business achieved massive success and I consequently had to play catch up. Most entrepreneurs I have met have had a totally different experience, as their mindset shift culminated in success for their business. They were proactive; I was reactive. Indeed, they themselves were the only obstacle standing in the way of them reaching their next goal.
Being your own obstacle is something we can all relate to. A lot of people believe that once they get the dream house, the dream car and win national awards, they have completed the ‘success game’ and all their mindset issues will go away.
In my experience, it’s actually quite the opposite. The more you challenge yourself, the more you grow your business and yourself as a person, then the more that comes up in your daily life; questions and sometimes limiting beliefs.
How do we deal with that? What is the difference between running a six-figure business and a seven-figure business? In my experience, a six-figure mindset is resourcefulness. A seven-figure mindset is team and being able to delegate.
One-Man Band Mentality vs Team Mentality
I was the prime example of the one-man band mentality when I started out in business. I had no start-up funds, no degree and no experience. I had to hustle my ass off to get exactly where I wanted to go, and that would result in me doing everything myself because I couldn’t afford to outsource, and it ultimately resulted in complete burnout. I got to the point where I physically couldn’t do any more.
You’ll no doubt be asking yourself: how do I make the shift from one-man band to team? How can I afford employing a team, outsourcing and eventually reaching that elusive seven-figure business?
Unless you start to outsource, the chance of reaching seven-figures is extremely slim.
For my business, part of the transition involved having to let go of perfectionism. As a six-figure entrepreneur and a one-man band, you’re used to everything being in your control. One of the best ways to move the needle is finding those people that are going to help you get there and that you can trust to carry out tasks to a similar standard that you would.
One of the best tasks I have ever undertaken has been to write down the tasks you do for your business that could be outsourced. For example, you should only be carrying out tasks in your business that are going to take your business to that next level.
Here’s an exercise for you that will help in deciding tasks which can be outsourced.
Go through your to-do list and highlight your tasks based on the following criteria:
· If it’s a money maker or a needle moving task, then write a $ sign next to it.
· If it’s an admin task, meaning something YOU do not need to carry out within your business and someone else could do it, put an ‘A’ next to it.
· If it is something that can be either delayed but you still need to carry it out, then put a ‘D’ next to it.
Take risks
This is the number one way in which you’re going to start to make moves in your business and reach that next level.
As you grow and you scale your business, risk taking is something you will encounter often throughout your journey. When I talk about risk taking, my comfort level with that has completely grown and that is partially down to the fact that I have learned to trust my instincts.
As you grow your business, you start to learn what’s going to work for you and what you’re willing to do to take it to that next level. Getting comfortable with that is such a massive part of growth because when you’re building your business, the risk only gets higher… and it’s not always something you notice.
The next time that you make a big decision in your business, whether that’s taking an external investment or investing your own cash into an idea or marketing, stop and ask yourself; would I have been able to make this decision a couple of months ago?
It most likely doesn’t even cross your mind that you’ve done it and already taken a risk.
One of the biggest moments of reflection for my business was when I realised how much I’d grown as an entrepreneur, as a business owner and as a person. We signed our first $350k contract with my home staging company, and the level of income we received from 1 client was more than we had received in total in the entirety of the previous year. It’s moments like these that make you realise how much you’ve grown.
Show up
Show up every day consistently.
You don’t need to hit insane goals every day, hit the singles.
Think of hitting the singles like a tennis player warming up in practice. Alone with their racket and ball, they get into the groove by just consistently hitting those single shots.
In business terms, this can mean carrying out small tasks or tasks that you don’t particularly enjoy. You know that by doing them every day, you’re going to be moving the needle in your business.
Every time you show up, you turn up, and you are creating that certainty in yourself that when you say you’re going to carry something out, you do! Whether you’re turning up to events when you don’t feel particularly motivated or you’re working when you’re feeling a bit down, it’s that resilience and that determination that is going to get you to your next goal and your next milestone.
Most importantly, just remember that this is a journey. You’re going to grow but you’re also going to experience those hard times where you feel that things aren’t moving. Just keep working on it, keep developing and don’t forget to reflect on how far you’ve actually come.
