In this episode, Jessie and Angela discuss recognizing when a business transitions from the hustle phase to a period of slower growth and stability. They highlight three key signs: sales and revenue growth becoming more predictable, a shift from rapid expansion to optimizing and streamlining operations, and a greater emphasis on maintaining existing customer relationships. They share personal experiences and insights on this transition, emphasizing the importance of adapting to this new phase and its impact on personal and professional life.
**ANNOUNCEMENT** After nearly 3 years, the Marketing Moms podcast is sunsetting. Thank you so much for the unwavering support, well-wishes, and memories. This has been the experience of a lifetime <3
It's coffee time!
Jessie & Angela
00:00.00
jessievalle
Everyone today Angela and I are going to dive into 3 signs. Your business is over the hustle phase. We know that we all find ourselves in that spot where it sort of feels like our business is changing and we want to go over 3 specific signs you can look for. That you're you're out of that growth phase you're ready to move on and it's super exciting.
00:56.83
jessievalle
All right? So Angel and I have both kind of reached this spot in our business where we feel like that initial growth phase is over and we're ready to move on in our business. Things start to be changing our habits are changing our routines are changing how we think about our businesses changing and we kind of wanted to go over some of those signs that it's like wait. Yeah, our our startup. Initial growth phase business has changed.
01:33.50
Angela
Yeah, and we've both kind of discussed it and we've heard from other moms with businesses like I don't know like my business just feels weird I feel like I'm in a weird place in my business right? like I feel like it's just kind of like. I don't know it doesn't fit right anymore and I think that's kind of you know you get that first little inkling that like maybe I'm done with this hustle phase or you may just kind of be at a point where you're like you know what? I just really.
02:03.29
jessievalle
Um, a.
02:08.30
Angela
Am realizing I don't have to work 14 hour day I can really spend time with my kids like so I think I think it's a good thing to discuss because it's easy to kind of feel like there's something off but not really be able to pinpoint what it is.
02:11.45
jessievalle
Um, yeah.
02:25.53
jessievalle
Yeah, yeah for sure and it's tough to make this realization when it feels like a lot of the information out there is for startups and it is for people to just go go go push push push hustle hustle hustle.
02:36.54
Angela
Here.
02:42.22
Angela
Yeah.
02:44.20
jessievalle
Work those fourteen fifteen sixteen hour days barely sleep but also be an amazing mom. Ah, don't forget to make the cookies from scratch for school and it's hard to realize you're entering a phase where wait a minute.
02:48.73
Angela
Right? Don't forget to do that.
03:03.22
jessievalle
This is kind of against what the information out there is about or what people say you should be doing and and it almost feels wrong somehow to want something different.
03:14.60
Angela
Or her.
03:17.33
jessievalle
And I feel like 1 of the big signs and this is not on our list is that you start to resent some of the pieces of the the quote unquote hustle that you would you used to do and you start to resent it a little bit because you realize.
03:23.16
Angela
Yeah.
03:30.66
Angela
Now.
03:35.60
jessievalle
I think internally that it's not doing what it used to for your business and so you resent doing it because you kind of know internally you don't need to be doing it anymore right.
03:38.57
Angela
Okay. Right? Yeah, It's not getting the result you wanted and I do think when you start to get into that face and think you said so much of our marketing culture especially with online businesses is hustle and grow and do this and you see where. You know with service-based businesses, especially especially, you get to where you're like you know what? I'm kind of I've got clients I feel like I'm doing Okay, but then the the next messaging that comes at you is well add passive income ad courses add digital products. Add this which. If you're ready to do that and want to do that cool. But if you're just in a place where you're like I'm kind of happy where I'm at it feels really weird to have all of that marketing coming at you saying? Well you can't just stop now.
04:29.92
jessievalle
Yeah I kind of also feel like it's because there are so many people who try to start businesses and never really get it off the ground. So the majority of the businesses are in the first year or 2 phase of extreme growth.
04:38.60
Angela
Yeah.
04:48.11
jessievalle
And very few businesses actually push past and make it to where Angela and I are which are not rapid growth more of maintaining more of slow growth and optimization and so that's kind of what we wanted to talk about today is.
04:54.54
Angela
Right? And he.
05:05.78
jessievalle
Signs your business is over that initial hustle phase and entering something new. Yeah for sure. Ah, the yes we too the first sign.
05:10.40
Angela
Yeah, and also congratulations if that's you we know you worked very hard to get there.
05:24.94
jessievalle
Is that your sales and revenue growth kind of stabilizes and it becomes more predictable So as service providers for us. It was. We had a stable client base. We knew.
05:38.40
Angela
Ah, here.
05:40.76
jessievalle
About how much money we'd have coming in each month it was predictable. It felt stable and we weren't on the feast or famine cycle per month anymore.
05:47.33
Angela
Um, yep.
05:51.60
Angela
Right? Yeah, that was a weird phase for me to suddenly realize that I could like oh no I know how much I'm going to make next month like and getting out of that feast and famine cycle was really.
06:03.50
jessievalle
Yeah, yeah.
06:08.91
jessievalle
Yeah, and I know it's also difficult sometimes for coaches because they have these packages of you know, coaching sessions or whatever and sometimes people want to pay in bulk in full.
06:09.21
Angela
A weird place.
06:13.49
Angela
Is he.
06:24.38
Angela
Right? monthly? Yeah yeah, and yep.
06:26.90
jessievalle
But sometimes it's better to have them do the payment plans or monthly because then you know there's money coming in each month and it's not a lot now and then nothing and you know that roller coaster that so many of us go through especially in the beginning of. Months of crazy income and then months of peanuts.
06:42.77
Angela
Yeah.
06:46.25
jessievalle
Another thing is that your internal focus for your business kind of shifts from that rapid expansion to actually optimizing in streamlining operations in the beginning systems. And processes are not top of mind they would be nice but let's be honest, you're just like jumping from task to task doing the best you can working all those crazy hours and when you find yourself start to be like okay I've got the income coming In. It's stabilized.
07:06.25
Angela
Right? yes.
07:24.67
jessievalle
I don't have to go out and do all those things to find more clients and get more sales and do those things I can I actually have the capacity to look inward in the business and say oh I could actually streamline this process I could make this better I could actually write some s O p.
07:42.18
Angela
Right.
07:43.98
jessievalle
And Hire a V a to come in and help me like those are signs that your business is in a really good place.
07:51.23
Angela
Yes, you know it's funny a while back I was in ah just an amazing mastermind but 1 of the things we would do is every month we'd get together and do like a little monthly planning session and for so many of us every single month for the whole year that I was in this we would have. Some sort of operation. It was usually over and over again like client onboarding or client offboarding or organizing our invoices and we kept putting it off like every month it would just show up again and again and again.
08:12.13
jessievalle
And say.
08:22.81
Angela
And looking back I realized it was because we were all moving out of that hustle phase and into a more stable phase but it felt scary to like take time away from cultivating clients and getting more income to like focus on those things.
08:30.36
jessievalle
In.
08:40.63
Angela
That we knew would help our business in the long run we knew would help improve our income in the long run but it felt scary to shift our focus to something a little more internal in our business.
08:50.20
jessievalle
Yeah, and that kind of leads into side number 3 which is a greater emphasis on maintaining your existing customer relationships rather than just acquiring new ones. So when you get to that point where you want to nurture and pay attention to and really grow the relationships with the clients and customers you already have to maintain them. That's a different focus than just bring in new people bring in new people bring in new people.
09:20.91
Angela
All right.
09:24.78
jessievalle
And that's another great sign that your business is kind of over that hustle phase and it's now in that maintenance like what can I do to make sure these people stay here and become long-term clients and and have these long-term relationships where maybe it is the whole they're going to refer me to other people.
09:41.52
Angela
Bright.
09:43.19
jessievalle
Like that kind of network to me is still in this phase because it's something that you've worked towards in the past and then you're reaping the benefits of it now.
09:45.97
Angela
Yeah.
09:52.61
Angela
Right? And as scary as it is to move out of that focus on growth to focus on stabilizing and maybe a slow growth phase in your business. When you really think about it. That's what we've been working Toward. That's what the but the growth phase of your business was for was for the point where you have a steady income you know about how many hours you're going to need to work. You kind of have an idea of what kind of work you're going to be doing.
10:12.43
jessievalle
Is it.
10:28.19
Angela
You can start planning around your work hours for things like doctor's appointments and kids plays and really take that time back to focus on your family your kids time for yourself. All of those things that you kept thinking Oh one of these days I'm gonna.
10:44.15
jessievalle
Is is.
10:47.28
Angela
It's here. It's okay to enjoy it.
10:48.88
jessievalle
I think one of the first things that I did when my business hit this point was not get up at 5 a m anymore.
11:00.11
Angela
Yes, and I remember when you did that.
11:03.33
jessievalle
Yeah I I remember because I felt so guilty but there be there came a day where I was like I would rather sleep I meet I would love to catch up on my sleep and wake up later because I don't.
11:13.61
Angela
Um.
11:20.39
Angela
Yes.
11:20.69
jessievalle
Have to wake up at five a m anymore and I remember telling Angela that I didn't think I was going to wake up with her anymore at that time and I felt so guilty. Um, because because I didn't know how much she relied on me or where she was at in her business. But I think I started by like.
11:28.38
Angela
So.
11:39.15
jessievalle
Just cutting down to a couple days a week. Yeah, we slowly phased it out. It wasn't just like one day I'm done. It was yeah like you know I don't think I need to do this every day and for those of you that? yeah.
11:39.66
Angela
Yeah, yeah I think we slowly phased it out.
11:49.80
Angela
Yeah, yeah, and then we met late for a while.
11:56.40
jessievalle
And and for those of you that don't know our history angela and I started years ago in a ah group where we would wake up every day at 5 am m for me sixam for Angela every single day to kind of kick start our day together accountability that kind of thing and.
12:10.64
Angela
And.
12:14.38
jessievalle
Yeah I finally and it was a couple years maybe even 3 years that we did that. Yeah and I just remember hitting that point where I was like I don't think I need to do this anymore. It was very helpful.
12:17.40
Angela
yeah yeah yeah I think it was 3 or 4 anyway.
12:31.94
Angela
Yeah, definitely it was.
12:32.60
jessievalle
In the beginning but it was really nice to exit that phase where I need to wake up that early every single day just to get things done.
12:39.23
Angela
Yeah I think for me it was when my youngest finally went to school I had spent the first several years of my business just fantasizing about all this time I was gonna have to work on my business once all of my kids were in school it was gonna be amazing. Yes, just like I just have to get there. But then I got there.
12:52.65
jessievalle
Um, it was like a car it dangling in front of me but you just kept going towards.
12:59.23
Angela
And I realized my business wasn't ready for that like I had not prepared for the slow growth maintain phase of my business and I I felt weird making that shift because it was like now I'm here I have all this time to focus on my business and it's like but. The whole point was to get into where you could fit your business into the school day.
13:22.37
jessievalle
Right? Because inevitably you think you have all this time during the school day but it's not as much time as you think but.
13:29.57
Angela
Ah, it's not as much time as you think it is.
13:38.20
jessievalle
I Remember another point that I came to to this point in my business I actually hopped on a phone call with another. Ah.
13:51.47
jessievalle
But I don't know you know what you call them to me. You guys are almost like coworkers. Even though we're all working on our own business. You know another mom entrepreneur another marketing Mom I hopped on the phone with her because we had started our businesses at like the same time.
13:54.18
Angela
Um, yeah, ah.
14:08.00
jessievalle
Joined the same program we had been through the same trainings We had the same drive and desire because that's the other thing is all the people who joined the program when I initially started only a few of the. You know people that had joined actually had that drive and desire to push forward kind of like we were talking earlier So many businesses start and then they quit we had the same drive and desire to keep going to grow our businesses to get to a level where.
14:28.13
Angela
Yeah.
14:33.70
Angela
Yeah.
14:44.13
jessievalle
We could maintain and I remember us hopping on a phone call and being like is this ok I I I know that we're still getting the messaging from our mentor at the time.
14:55.86
Angela
Right.
14:58.43
jessievalle
Still getting the messaging that we know we're supposed to want more. We're supposed to want to keep pushing if you hit 10 ah five figures go for 6 figures if you hit 6 go for 7 and I'm just like I don't need.
15:01.55
Angela
Right.
15:08.75
Angela
Go for 6
15:16.56
jessievalle
To make a million dollars in my business to accomplish my initial goal you know exactly and I have seen people who are at that level of business and I see the level of commitment to the business and how they're.
15:19.76
Angela
Right? And I don't want to do the things that I would have to do to get there.
15:34.67
Angela
He.
15:34.89
jessievalle
Home lives I mean I don't want to use the word suffer but they suffer and and that's not what I had wanted for myself and all I was hearing was.
15:41.73
Angela
Yeah.
15:47.90
Angela
Bright.
15:53.36
jessievalle
You You were supposed to want this and to me it also meant a shift in who your mentors are you reach a point where maybe the room you were originally in with the group of people you were originally with isn't the group that you need to currently be in now.
15:59.24
Angela
Yeah.
16:12.65
jessievalle
And it's okay to shift into a different place because your business is in a different place and maybe that person in that group is focused on the growth and startup phase and you're beyond that it's okay.
16:13.50
Angela
Um.
16:23.12
Angela
Right.
16:26.94
jessievalle
To move into a new room and find new mentors and new colleagues.
16:30.50
Angela
Yeah, it's hard to let yourself find new mentors new people to follow new voices to listen to especially when you're moving out of that growth phase because you almost feel like those first people were your lifeline. They were the ones that told you all the things that got you to where you are now and so not listening anymore is terrifying.
16:48.50
jessievalle
Um.
16:54.12
jessievalle
Yeah, it's like when you hear a kid and you're leaving for college like what am I going to do when Mom's not there to cook my food or do laundry or all these things like hopefully she has prepared you.
17:06.00
Angela
Yeah, um, yeah.
17:09.64
Angela
Yes.
17:12.40
jessievalle
To do those things on your own and it was kind of the same thing. Hopefully your initial mentors and and colleagues at group prepared you for this flying the nest phase.
17:22.66
Angela
Um, yes.
17:25.92
jessievalle
So I would say that when you reach that point where you feel like what you used to do in your business doesn't feel quite as necessary or urgent as it used to. That's when you might be ready to enter a new.
17:40.66
Angela
Um, listen.
17:45.43
jessievalle
Phase of slower growth and stability where you can kind of shift your focus in your business and hopefully also in your personal life because what it meant for me was working less hours to sleep more.
17:52.83
Angela
Um, yes, um, yeah.
18:00.24
jessievalle
And have more flexibility doing family activities. Even if it's not working as many hours in the evening after the kids went to bed that was a huge boost in the relationship for me and my husband to finally be able to do things together again in the evenings.
18:12.10
Angela
Um, yeah.
18:16.97
jessievalle
Whereas it used to be kids are in bed I'm back at the computer.
18:18.53
Angela
Yeah I remember that that was hard.
18:24.50
jessievalle
So we encourage you to analyze your business and know that it's okay if you decide that you're entering a new phase and that's kind of the phase that Angela and I want to start focusing on here on the podcast. We kind of mentioned this previously in in.
18:33.75
Angela
Yes.
18:44.17
jessievalle
Our episodes like the last episode of the year we're ready to focus on not necessarily that group of startups like we're still here for you if you want advice hit uss up. We're yeah, we'd still love to help you chat about it.
18:51.15
Angela
Yeah, we still love to help you.
18:58.43
jessievalle
But we also want to chat about what it's like to have the second phase in your business where you're ready for the slow growth and the stability and that's kind of where we want to talk about because we know that there's less people who reach that point in their business. So there's less conversations about this. But Angela and I are ready to have this conversations because that's where we are as well. So we hope the best for you and we will talk to you next week bye
19:17.66
Angela
Yeah.
19:28.42
Angela
Bye.
