It looks like you’re in…
Level 1: The Dissatisfied Employee
Your journey as a Founder has already begun! Becoming a Startup Entrepreneur may feel like nothing more than a dream, but you’re already on your way. The trick is to not stop AND to not move too fast. The best way to do that is to focus on learning as much as possible before you make the leap.
And you may be thinking, “What do I need to learn? I’m already an expert in my field.”
That’s probably true, but it’s not enough to make you an expert as an entrepreneur. You need to begin learning how to do everything else around your expertise.
For example, if you are a great baker and make the best pecan pie east of the Mississippi, you need to learn about profit margins and cash flows, choosing the right location, attracting and retaining customers, upselling and cross-selling, hiring your first few employees the right way and the list goes on.
If you’re a sales rep, you’ve got an advantage early on, but you’re going to burn out quickly if you don’t learn how to effectively fulfill the demand you generate and keep your customers happy.
If you’re an associate pastor, you need to learn how to develop and share your own vision and rally people around it to do the dirty fingernails work of launching a new church, how to raise support for your new endeavor, and how to keep the sermon machine going every week no matter how many other hats you’re wearing.
It is going to be hard to wait, but the more time you can give yourself before you start, the more money you can put away in the bank, and the more you can test out and confirm the market for your product or service, the higher your chances of success will be. And with the failure rate of Startup Entrepreneurs at a staggering 80%, anything you can do to tip the odds in your favor is going to be worth it!
Ready to make sure you’re building on the right foundation before you make the leap? Schedule a call and let’s talk through your next move.
Level 2: The Startup Entrepreneur
Welcome to the game. If you’re here, you’re in it to win it. And here is the best news. You don’t have to win at everything. In Level 2, you don’t have to be a great manager, you don’t have to scale your business (or nonprofit), you don’t have to have the best processes, you don’t need to have a full HR team, you don’t even have to have the best market conditions. All you need is a clear vision for your organization and a relentless drive to find and tap into a profitable sustainable market.
Here’s the bad news. That’s not easy to do. First, it’s up to you. Outside of maybe a VA or two, if it’s going to happen YOU need to do it. If you are out on vacation, nothing gets done. Second, you are facing a lot of competing priorities, and to make matters worse, everyone has an opinion on what your top priority should be and none of them agree. Your family wants you to play it safe and find stability. Your business friends want you to break $1M like they did. Your successful business friend thinks you should be a better leader. And the 5 podcasts you listened to this week left you with another 15 things you should be doing (and you feel bad because you can only remember 2 of them).
If you feel confused and overwhelmed by everything coming at you and the speed at which it is coming, don’t worry. You can cut through the noise and when you do you’ll discover there are really only two or three things you need to prioritize. Everything else will work itself out.
Want to figure out exactly what those two or three things are for your specific situation? Schedule a call and let’s cut through the noise together.
Level 3: The Reluctant Manager
Do you ever find yourself asking, “What’s wrong with these people?” Your employees, contractors, and virtual assistants don’t think like you do, they don’t act like you do, they don’t take ownership like you do. But they do cost money. A lot of money. So not only are you frustrated by always having to tell them what to do, you’re working double or triple time to sell enough to make payroll.
If you’re working harder, selling more, and keeping less than ever (or at least less than you want), you can take comfort in two things. First, you’re not alone; this is a level every successful founder goes through. Second, this isn’t how it ends; you can get through this. In fact, you can even enjoy this level. But to do so, you need to hire and learn to manage a very specific type of person. And once you know who you’re looking for, you can use this free leadership styles assessment to discover your current team members’ styles and also use it to learn more about new job candidates you are considering.
This level can be tough for founders. But it can also be joyful. Don’t let your desire to move forward to Level 4 smother the joy you can have starting today.
Oh, and by the way. Those Level 3 founders who leverage the right strategies generally double their revenue and more than double their profit in the first 12 months!
Want to be one of them? Schedule a call and let’s build the system that gets your team working without you in the middle of everything.
Level 4: The Disillusioned Leader
Do you ever find yourself asking, “Is this it?” If this level feels harder than it should be, don’t worry. You’re just one step away from a powerful transformation.
So what’s going on in this level. Why is it so hard?
You’ve probably reached some major milestones by this point. You built something from nothing, beat the odds, and made it through those early years. You’ve hit the million dollar mark in revenue and maybe even the 10 million dollar mark. Things may look amazing from the outside.
But you’ve realized (or are realizing), each of those milestones made your organization bigger, but it didn’t really get better.
Sure, you’re not on your own anymore, but I’d be willing to bet there are days where you wish you were.
Sure, you have a team around you, but you feel like you’re more of a babysitter or referee than you are a CEO.
Sure, you have more revenue than before, but it’s made things so much more complicated.
Sure, you may be closer to your vision than ever before, but you feel like you have less freedom to be a Visionary than ever before.
What makes this level so hard is that it should be better. Things should get better and easier as they grow. But that’s just not how it works.
And something has to change.
Before you give up on your vision and settle for less, before you give up on yourself and sell out, think about this.
You are only one step from the biggest, most rewarding transformation in your journey as a founder. The difference between what you are experiencing now and what you will experience in the next level is actually difficult to explain, because it is so much better that you would struggle to believe it from where you’re standing right now.
You don’t have to figure out how to get there on your own. Schedule a call and let’s map out exactly what needs to change.
Level 5: The Chief Executive
Do you ever find yourself asking, “Who am I apart from the organization I built?” If you weren’t the Founder/CEO, what or even who would you be? If so, you’re not alone. Level 5 is one of the most professionally rewarding levels. For the first time in a long time (or maybe even forever) you get to spend the majority of your time in the Visionary seat, leading your executive team into a brilliant future.
But it also presents some challenges personally. Let’s be honest, you’ve taken some hits over the years. All that success in business didn’t come without a price. And as you look to a future where life may begin to slow down, or a future where you no longer lead your organization on a daily basis, all of a sudden you become much more aware of the price you’ve paid and continue to pay.
You may have challenges with your health, your marriage, your children, your friendships, your retirement accounts. You also may feel a great deal of uncertainty about what is coming in the next season of life.
And underneath all of that sits one of the hardest challenges Level 5 has to offer: finding your successor. Not just someone who can run the day-to-day, but someone you can genuinely hand the keys to. Someone who shares your values, understands what you’ve built, and can take it further than you could alone. Most founders underestimate how long this takes and how much it costs them when they rush it or avoid it altogether. The temptation is to either hold on too long because no one seems good enough, or to hand it off too fast because you’re exhausted and ready for the next thing. Both are expensive mistakes.
Getting this right requires getting clear on something most founders have never had to think about before: the difference between the organization you built and the vision it was built to carry. Those aren’t the same thing. And until you can separate the two in your own mind, finding the right person to take over is nearly impossible.
If I could recommend anything it would be to slow down enough to get clear on who you are and what it is that only you can do. Then, and only then, can you begin to engage in one of the most important processes of your journey as a founder: finding your successor.
That process goes a lot faster with the right thinking partner. Schedule a call and let’s get you clear on who you are and what only you can do next.
Level 6: The True Owner
Ever find yourself at 1:30pm sitting on the couch in your beautiful house thinking, “Now, what am I going to do?”
There’s only so much golf, grandkids, gardening and general galavanting a founder can take. Founders are wired for vision, creativity, and drive.
But as a True Owner, you can’t just jump back into your company and start breaking things just because you are bored. Well, you can, but you’re likely to end up frustrating your best people and/or ending up with a bunch of great projects that now you are responsible for.
So what do you do? As wonderful as Level 6 is, it’s not always easy. You need somewhere to direct your passion and your energy without driving your executive team (or your spouse) crazy in the process.
And here’s what makes it all worth it. This isn’t the end of the line. It’s not even the last level. No, there is one more level, Level 7, and it is the most rewarding level of them all.
If you’re ready to figure out what this season is actually for, schedule a call and let’s talk about what’s next.
Level 7: The Visionary Founder
Welcome to the Business (or nonprofit) Hall of Fame. I want to genuinely congratulate you for an accomplishment that very, very few founders ever achieve. And if you look back over the highs and lows of your career, you’re probably more likely to remember the faces that helped you along on your journey more than anything else.
And it’s here that your primary opportunity rests. Level 7 is perfectly summed up in this old Greek proverb.
A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they shall never sit.
For much of your story so far, you’ve played the part of the hero. Now, in Level 7, you get the wonderful opportunity to take on the role of the guide in someone else’s story. And let me tell you, there is no more rewarding role to play. Regardless of what the news, social media, or any other fancy new fad has to say, the world has not passed you by. Your value is greater than ever. It’s up to you to decide what you can do with it.
You’ve spent a career helping others build something great. Let someone return the favor. Schedule a call and let’s talk about the legacy you want to leave behind.
How aligned are you with your stage?
Highly Aligned! As you read through the description of your level, it may feel like I have a camera in your office. How else could I know so much after so few questions? The reason is because you are in a normal stage that everyone goes through, and you’re experiencing the normal challenges for that stage. The great news is that if you follow the strategies in The Founder’s Evolution, for your stage, you are likely to see rapid growth with a fraction of the effort you’ve been spending.
Mostly Aligned. As you read through your results you probably felt like the description was pretty accurate, but there were a few things that didn’t quite fit. As harmless as this may seem, you might be facing some very big distractions that seem good, but are actually wasting a ton of your time and energy. You can find out what they are by reading The Founder’s Evolution chapter for your stage and comparing it against your own calendar and tasks. Or you can skip all that and just schedule a quick call. We’ll get you fully aligned and accelerating in no time!
Out of Alignment. You may be feeling like your level doesn’t quite fit. Sure there are some parts that resonate, but there are other that seem to be missing. This is a big part of the problem you are experiencing. You are trying to function in too many stages at once, and that is exhausting even for high-capacity founders. There is one trick we’ve learned to get out of this hole the fastest, schedule a quick call. We’ll get you fully aligned and accelerating in no time!
All Over the Place! You may be feeling like your level doesn’t quite fit. This is a big part of the problem you are experiencing. You are trying to function in too many levels at once, and that is exhausting even for high-capacity founders. There is one trick we’ve learned to get out of this hole the fastest, schedule a quick call. We’ll get you fully aligned and accelerating in no time!
How did you score in each stage?
You can click on each stage to explore what it would be like if you were in each stage
- The Dissatisfied Employee –
- The Startup Entrepreneur –
- The Reluctant Manager –
- The Disillusioned Leader –
- The Chief Executive –
- The True Owner –
- The Visionary Founder –
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