Editor’s note: This 9 part series is specifically designed for coaches, consultants, strategists, and service-based business owners who are in the scaling phase of their business. The JoyFueled™ Journey success path graphic will serve as your visual anchor and teaching tool for this content series. The EXPAND™ Method is our unique process we use to help our clients expand their already-working-business without burning out or imploding. All 9 parts of this series are linked at the end of this post.
Scaling your business brings up a lot of conversation around systems, outsourcing, and increased revenue. But there’s one key ingredient that’s often overlooked: energetic capacity.
Your energetic capacity is how much you, your team, and your business can handle without burning out. In general, there are three areas you must be aware of when it comes time to scale your business:
- The Energetic Capacity of you, the CEO/visionary
- The Energetic Capacity of your team
- The Energetic Capacity of your business model
In this article, we’ll take a deeper dive into each of these three areas so that you can begin to assess your own energetic capacity—and that of your business—before leaping into high-growth phase.
The Energetic Capacity Of You, The CEO/Visionary
You are the visionary, the leader, and the CEO. As such, you carry a lot of responsibility—and a lot of weight. Your energetic capacity is directly related to your ability to shoulder this load without breaking down.
Your personal energetic capacity impacts how you can THINK about the opportunities and problems within the brand. You’re needed as the VISIONARY in order to expand and have the bandwidth to ask important questions such as:
- What new ideas would I like to present to my team for consideration?
- How well are we measuring what’s working?
- And how can we improve one or two things and get 10x (or better) the results?
The mistake often made in this area can be simply stated with a beautiful question: Are you an eagle or a goat?
Eagle CEOs soar above the entire brand. They know what’s going on at a very high level within every department and team, but their main focus is on the brand’s future vision. They’re looking ahead and flying high.
On the other hand, Goat CEOs spend lots of time with their heads down, chomping at the grass and weeds, only able to look up once in a while to notice another goat standing next to them or the cloud passing overhead. When you do have a moment to consider the cloud, you often get glimpses of “what this business could look like.” It feels good, but you can’t revel in it too long because you gotta get back to chomping.
When your energetic capacity is addressed in a sustainable and future-growth-oriented way, you’ll experience the full, beautiful relief of more time. Specifically, time to spend on the things that are actually going to grow the revenue, grow the team and grow your time off.
The Energetic Capacity Of Your Team
Successful businesses are grown on the backs of successful teams. Your team is your secret weapon, and their capacity is crucial to the success of any scaling efforts.
This area impacts how fast or slow, accurate or inaccurate, and smooth or bumpy changes get implemented. Do you ever want just to get a “small project” done, yet it takes 2x or 3x the amount of time you thought it would? Poorly managed energetic capacity within a team can make things feel like they’re constantly in a state of flux or, even worse, complete and utter stagnation.
The main mistake in this area is that you haven’t actually given true ownership to your team.
This can look like:
- Still being involved in team meetings
- Checking in on project completion
- Asking for updates
- Wearing too many hats in the brand
If you are serving as the go-to person in sales, marketing, and client delivery, then your energy is being dispersed in too many places to actually do what needs to be done to grow: VISIONING.
When the energetic capacity of the team is addressed in a sustainable and future-growth-oriented way, you will experience the sweet, sweet relief of having freedom from your team. Each person is operating in their Zone of Joy, and things get done on time and flow smoothly to completion—without you being a manager.
The Energetic Capacity Of Your Business Model
And finally, the energetic capacity of your business model. This impacts everything from the sales process to the delivery process to how you are marketing and branding yourself.
Are you selling one-time services or products? Do you have a high-ticket offer? What’s your client experience like? What’s your ideal customer look like?
This area impacts:
- The number of clients you can take at any one time
- The results your clients can expect to get
- The amount of revenue you can bring in at any one time
- And the time you can happily spend in Visioning/CEO-Leading instead of client delivery and managing your team
The main mistakes in this area are two-fold:
- You’re either operating on the belief that your capacity for client load will be solved by adding a membership or a group program (which is hardly ever the case).
- Or you’re thinking that keeping your business model the same as it is now but raising your rates will get you where you want to be in terms of revenue. Spoiler alert: it will not.
When the energetic capacity of your business model is addressed in a sustainable and future-growth-oriented way, you will experience the joyful relief of a leveraged model. That means you can take on the number of clients you desire at any given time and provide them with outstanding results without being at capacity with your time, your energy, or even revenue in your business.
Become A JOY FUELED™ CEO
Stepping into your rightful role as a JOY FUELED™ CEO doesn’t mean you have to give up control or be “hands-off.” What it does mean is that you get to focus on what only you can do in your business while having the time, energy, and freedom to do the things you love outside of work.
If this feels like a breath of fresh air, then I invite you to check out our Joy Fueled™ Program. It’s designed specifically for the CEO Leader who wants to expand into the next evolution of your business, so you can lead consciously and sustainably.
Your next level of business growth is going to require something different from you.
Do you know what that “something different” is? You might be thinking this “thing” is elusive to you–but not on my watch!
I’ve created a tool to help you you determine which part of your business needs your focus now, so you don’t burnout trying #allthethings at once.
The Business Expansion Scorecard will help you score your business as it is now–so you can celebrate what’s working–and identify your current blindspots.
Part 2: E is for Energy in The EXPAND™ Method: Understanding the Energetic Capacity of Your Business
Part 5: A is for Alignment in The EXPAND™ Method: Who does your brand want to be when it grows up?
