When you’re just starting out in business, it’s easy to feel like you’re drowning in *all.the.things*
You spend your days on coaching calls, but you’ve also taken on a ton of other roles…
Bookkeeper.
Admin.
Head of marketing.
Director of customer service.
It can get exhausting, y’all.
And while you may take on all those roles in the beginning, as your biz begins to grow and scale, you’ll slowly be able to grow your team and delegate, so you can stay in your zone of genius 🤓
But there’s one role that no matter how big your biz gets, you can never outsource –
I’m talking about the role of Chief Executive Officer, the CEO, of course!
As a CEO, it is your responsibility to carry out the vision of the business. It is up to you to have a vision for the future, and focus on growing and protecting your brand. You’re the one that takes a bird’s eye view and makes sure your customers, students and employees are all empowered to do the best they possibly can.
CEO’s always have a long-term view. They don’t get bogged down in the day-to-day, in the nitty gritty details on what’s on the table this week.
You may be thinking to yourself, “that sounds nice and all, but I don’t have the luxury to be sitting around vision-casting all day! I’m trying to get my business off the ground, I’ve got tons of WORK to do”.
And while you might not have as MUCH time to spend in “CEO mode” in the beginning stages of business, it is absolutely critical that you begin to shift into a CEO mindset.
Your future of your biz depends on it!
Here’s how you can step into your CEO shoes and be the absolute BOSS you were meant to be👇🏽
Focus On Building Your Foundation
In the beginning stages of business, it’s totally normal to want to put all of your focus and energy into revenue-generating activities. You’re head down working on your marketing, your visibility, connecting with prospective clients, and getting your name out there.
And that is A-OKAY! You gotta do what you gotta do to get your business running.
But what you’ll notice is, pretty soon after putting in all your hard work, you’ll start to gain momentum. You’ll start having clients flock to you, you’ll start making real money, you’ll start building a team…you’ve got the ball rolling!
But here’s the thing.
The mistake I see with so many new entrepreneurs who experience quick success is that they start to build and grow their businesses on a shaky foundation.
They haven’t put in those foundational elements that every business owner needs in place in order to properly scale.
Things like:
- Setting up their biz and LLC or Corporation
- Creating a strong trademark
- Implementing solid contracts
- Sorting your finances and opening a business bank account
These are the sort of *majorly important* tasks that so often get pushed to the side in the beginning stages of business. And we totally get that growing your brand on the ‘gram or doing lead generation may feel more important than getting your legal ish sorted when you’re trying to get your business off the ground.
But here’s the thing: the longer you wait to get these things set up, the more complex your business will get, and the bigger a project it will become. So don’t wait!
Be Proactive, Not Reactive
You might be thinking to yourself, but I’ve never experienced any legal issues before, and that probably won’t happen to me, so do I REALLY need to focus on this now?
But the honest truth is, it’s not a matter of ‘if’ you’ll experience a legal issue. It’s a matter of WHEN.
All businesses experience growing pains, and whether you like it or not, legal issues simply come with the territory.
The bottom line: if you’re in business for the long-haul, it’s only a matter of time before you experience your first legal problem.
When it does happen, you’re going to be in one of two positions:
Either A) You’ll either be over-the-moon grateful you prepared and were proactive when it came to legal matters. You’ll be thinking to yourself I am so glad I did what I needed to do. I am so relieved that I took the steps I needed to take to protect myself to protect my business, that I got the proper contracts set up and that I took ownership of all my intellectual property. Because you took the time to get your legal ducks in a row, you’ll be able to resolve your legal issue with no sweat off your back 💁🏽
Or B) You’ll be filled with regret wishing that you had taken the time to set up your legal foundation back when you thought it ‘didn’t seem like such a big deal’. You’ll wish you’d be proactive and foreseen this sticky legal sitch, rather than reacting and having to put out fires.
As a CEO, your time and energy is your most valuable asset. Do you really want to be spending that energy putting out fires?
By being proactive and setting up your flawless foundation, you’ll be able to stay calm, cool and collected when a legal issue does arrive. So you can use more of that energy for GROWING your biz!
Access Affordable Resources
When you’re first starting out, you might not have the financial resources available to you to consult a lawyer one-on-one. But just because you can’t afford a lawyer doesn’t mean you’re not worthy of legal protection.
Let’s just clear that up once and for all: YOU are worthy of legal protection.
You are worthy of the security, peace of mind, and confidence that having a solid legal foundation brings.
We created Coaches and Company because we were tired of seeing hard working, passionate business owners get burned because they didn’t have the funds for a lawyer.
Check out our ready-to-use, lawyer-approved, plug-and-play legal templates! So you can stay profitable AND protected ✨
Not sure where to begin? We’ve got you. Jump into our FREE 20-Minute Contract Crash Course to get the legal lowdown on everything contracts! (Heads up: It’ll forever transform the way you view your client relationships!)
*The information presented in this blog post is for educational & informational purposes only. This should not be a substitute for customized legal advice from a licensed professional in a private setting. If you need legal advice, please consult with an attorney. This is not a law firm.
