Do you like mountain climbing?

Running a business is actually very similar to climbing a mountain! Here is a great analogy I learned from a mentor CREEL PRICE (who runs a company called accelerate global).

The question is, what is the goal of climbing a mountain? Is it to get to the top?

The real goal is to get back down; reaching the summit is only half way.

Creel teaches that there are 3 main stages to growing your business; I’ll explain these and then also the 8 smaller phases that make up the whole journey. Which part do you think you’re at?

Watch the video below.

IF YOU WANT HELP UNDERSTANDING YOUR MOUNTAIN FROM A PROFESSIONAL ‘GUIDE’, I AM OFFERING A [highlight color=”autumn” style=”style-2″]COMPLIMENTARY BUSINESS STRATEGY CHAT FOR THE FIRST 5 PEOPLE TO EMAIL US: andrew@andrewroberts.com.au

THE RIGHT GUIDE CAN SAVE YOU A LOT OF TIME AND EFFORT! ACT FAST TO BE IN THE FIRST 5.

1) INCOME – in this part we first want to match what we could be making if we were paid a salary, this is not a time to start building a massive brand, this is a time where you are selling YOU and building up enough business to make money

2) PROFIT – So we’ve completed the ‘income’ phase, we’ve covered our wage, and it is time to leverage by hiring other people. This is the phase where we start to sell our TEAM

3) VALUE – your business is now mainly run by your team and doesn’t revolve around you, you are now recognizable and people are no longer buying you or your team, they are buying your BRAND

It’s important to give yourself time to work through and understand the following steps so that you don’t fall victim to the temptation to try and sprint up the mountain only to burn out before reaching the top!

1) VISION – what mountain are you going to climb? Start with the end in mind. Spend time writing down where you really want to be in 10 and 5 years time and also WHY that is important to you. If you want to have a massive company just because you think it’ll make you look prestigious in front of others, it might be worth a re-think! Take the ego out of this decision and ‘START WITH THE END IN MIND’

2) TRAINING – your apprenticeship. This part can be hard and not as glorified as you think, you discover you need to wear many hats and you need to learn so many new skills for the climb ahead. Like building the foundations for a house, don’t rush this part. INVEST IN EDUCATION and allow yourself 2-5 years

3) BASECAMP – preparing for the climb. Here you are well prepared to start the climb, you’ve got some stability and you are planning the climb ahead in detail

4) CREST – hard yards. Are we there yet? This is where you put in the real work and you eat through the kilometers. Don’t give up and don’t be tempted to try and run too fast!

5) HIGH CAMP – foundation. You are now getting ready for the summit push and in this phase you are experimenting with new ideas and are looking for ways to scale and grow. You have a solid team in place and you are looking to crack the model that will take you to the summit.

6) SUMMIT PUSH – expansion. Exciting times! You are likely to make more profit this year than all of your previous years combined. BRING ON THE PROFIT!

7) DESCENT – succession. It’s time for you to remove yourself from the company and to train a second tier management that can do what you did just as well. You’re going to train a ‘mini you’! It’s time to make it attractive to a buyer!

8) EXIT – the big payday. If you can build a business with profits of over 400k a year, you have a real chance of selling it to another company who is looking to grow by acquisition or an investor. You could sell for a multiple of 4-5 times profit. The key is to have 3 major things in place.

1- Strong financials

2- An excellent database

3- Second tier management

If we learn to become an accountant we study for 5 years, as does a chiropractor. However, when we decide to climb our own mountain and become an entrepreneur, we realize that there was no real qualification for that and so we have to learn most of the required skills from scratch.

You can climb the mountain by yourself but as with most climbers looking to climb a mountain for the first time, they HIRE A GUIDE.

They hire a guide because they realize the advice and direction they will get on the journey will keep them SAFE and headed in the RIGHT DIRECTION. The guide knows the right tools to use at the right time, when to rest and when to push forwards. He makes sure you have the right team around you and also that you are properly prepared BEFORE you make the climb.

The statistics on failed businesses are famous! 9/10 business fail within the first year and only 1 of the surviving businesses will still be around in 10 years. Those are worse statistics than attempts at EVEREST!!!!!

To us as coaches, we see it all too often, the climber that is too stubborn to ask for advice, they decide they’ll learn for themselves along the way and they try to climb too quickly without first understanding the details of the mountain ahead. From what we see, this normally ends in burn out and debt.

We help many business owners both up and down the mountain regardless of what stage they started at. If you want some help climbing your mountain and don’t want the pain of learning the hard way, chat with us to see if we could be the right GUIDE for you.

We will offer you a complimentary chat so we can understand your mountain and see if we can guide you through a fun and fulfilling journey to come. Email us at andrew@andrewroberts.com.au to take us up on the offer.

Best of luck on your journey!

p.s, one of our clients who recently sold his business said that having a guide in business is like having someone carry your backpack whilst climbing the mountain, it’s like a weight off your shoulders!

Have you had any mountains to climb in your business? Would love to hear your stories. Please share them below.