Why Businesses Stay Stuck In The Startup Phase

When you first build your business, you’re going to experience the first step, which is what we call the “start-up phase”. 

As a guide, the start-up phase is somewhere between 0 to $10,000 a month. If you’re in construction, retail, restaurants and cafes and that space, then this still applies to you – the only little difference is this 0 to 10k is your gross profit, not your revenue. But for everyone else, if you’re in a service business of any sort, then this will be your revenue. So for everyone else, like in construction, or anyone who has large cost of goods sold, then for you guys, that’s your GP or gross profit. And by the way, you could be a startup, and be in business for many, many years.

So in the start up phase, you’re a little bit stuck – there’s a little bit of “oh, It’s life and death” in many ways. Having said that, it’s actually a little bit fun, It’s relatively new, or you could be excited. The principal here – this is the thing that you need, that is important to be nailed if you’re stuck in this early stage – is to learn how to create a proven concept. 

How do you create something that will sell in the marketplace? So, it’s an iterative process, where you go out and you create something, you build something, you put it to market, and then you test it and come back. It’s the speed of evolutions on your ability to do that, that is the key. 

Where I see people get stuck, is they’re far too slow. They go out, and say “I’m going to build this thing, and I need to get my website perfect – I need my colours just to be for who it’s standing for, who I am, my website needs to be perfect, and now I need to do a blog.” 

And then you know what? Business has passed you by. And these next eight months or so you’ve missed the boat. 

It’s not the time to do that in this place here. You’ve got to be in the marketplace, you’ve got to be in presenting your amazing value to the marketplace as often as you possibly can. 

So, it’s a combination of product development and getting out there, and discussing it with people in the general public, or wherever your ideal client is. As you do that you may think “you know what? I don’t really like working with those people. These are the people, these are my peeps. These are the ones I want to work with.” That’s what happens in this stuck-phase in startup.

Watch the full webinar replay at https://learning.benwalker.com/courses/how-to-navigate-2021