Yesterday I was talking with a founder who’s got a ~$6M a year business that has been flat for the past 4 years.

It’s funny because 5 years ago they jumped from $3M to $5.5M, but since then they’ve gone sideways and have been struggling to figure out what to do next.

This is what I told him...

Your business should be growing in 3 cycles...

... and knowing where you’re at now, can cause you to hold back when you should be leaning in and pushing.

It’s probably what happened when he almost doubled in a single 12 month period.

My guess is that he focused on the first phase that year, then didn’t do the second, and that caused him to get gun shy.

More on that in a bit...

… but first, I shot this video to help you understand the 3 cycles and what specific steps you need to take to powerfully (and predictably) ascend from one to the next.

If you want to take action and jump in with two feet, here are the cycles:

1. Going after sales - focusing on top line revenue
2. Building cost controls - improving your gross profit
3. Improving market reach - getting your message into the market

You just keep cycling through each one and if you're smart, you’ll be using quarterly themes so you can get the whole company behind it!

The friend I mentioned above decided he needed to push hard on sales, build a team and ensure they were well managed.

It’s funny how understanding the “big picture” and the context for where you’re at can light a fire under your butt to improve!

Clarity IS power.

Be sure to leave me a comment letting me know what phase you need to spend some time on. Maybe your cashflow is hurting, so cost-controls need to be implemented? Let me know.

Keep up the good fight!

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Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you how to scale. (Get the free 3 videos to grow your business here.) He previously created, raised venture funding for and successfully exited two tech startups: Flowtown and Clarity.fm. You should follow him on twitter@danmartell for tweets that are actually awesome.

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