The Three Levels of Business Growth

You've been grinding. You've been pouring your heart into your business. Yeah, you've got clients, you've got some revenue coming in, but yet sometimes you just feel stuck.You're saying to yourself, Ralph, I'm busy. But the business isn't really growing, to be honest. You feel like you're on this plateau. I've been there with my weight loss.When you just feels like it just stops for a minute. You look around at other entrepreneurs and you wonder, hey, what's the next step here?What's the difference between where I am now and where I want to be in the future? Then you ask yourself this question. Am I doing all this wrong? Is there something I'm doing that's just not getting me to where I need to be?That feeling of being stuck, that feeling of not knowing how to break through to the next level, it's a heavy one, isn't it? If we're not careful, it can turn your passion into frustration and it can turn that vision that you had for your business into a constant blur.But what if I told you growth wasn't a single event, but something such bigger than that and really a strategic journey through three distinct levels?And what if by simply identifying where you are now, I'm talking about right now, could unlock the exact steps that you need to move to the next level of freedom, the next level of impact, and, hey, even to the next level of profitability.Well, today on the show, I'm going to talk about the three levels of business growth, and I'm going to give you some gritty, actionable steps to climb from one level to the next. So stay with me today because I've got your business success roadmap, and that's what I'm covering on today's show.

Running a business isn't easy. It's long hours, tough calls, and relentless pressure. No shortcuts, no handouts. Just grit, grind, and the will to keep going when most would quit.Welcome to Grit and Growth Business. The show for entrepreneurs who know success is built the hard way.Hosted by Ralph Estep Jr. A seasoned business coach, accountant, and fellow fighter in the trenches, each episode brings you real talk, proven strategies, and the unfiltered truth about what it really takes to build something that lasts. Because if you've got persistence, perseverance, and determination, this is the place for you. This is Grit and Growth Business.

Hey, there. Welcome back to Grit and Growth Business. I'm Ralph Estep Jr. And I'm so happy that you chose to join me again this week.I can't believe that we're actually in our 14th episode of this new show, Grit and Growth Business. And I sure hope you're enjoying it. Now, last week, we talked about an incredibly vulnerable talk. We talk about an unspoken truth.If you miss them, encourage you to check it out. But what we talked. Remember this one? What do I do when I hate my business? A lot of people, I get a lot of mail after that, a lot of emails.People said, Ralph, I can't believe you talked about that. But it's what we needed to hear. And if you miss it, I'm gonna encourage you to go check it out.You can find all of our shows@gritandgrowthebusiness.com it's a great place to start. You can catch all 14 of our prior episodes. And last week, I shared my own journey through that feeling of feeling like you just hate your business.And bigger than that, much more important than that, I gave you some gritty steps to reclaim your joy and find your path to freedom. And again, if you missed it, that was episode 13. I encourage you to go back and listen again.That's@gritandgrowthbusiness.com now, today, we're going to build on those lessons. We're really building each week and trying to take your business to the next level.Because once you found a business that you love, and a lot of people will say to me, Ralph, you know what? Yeah, I do kind of hate my business some days. But I. I wouldn't trade it in.So once you found a business that you love, the next natural question is this. This is what. I work with clients on a daily basis. How do I grow it? And that's why we're talking today about the three levels of business growth.Because you really need to understand where we are so we can understand how to climb that. I'm going to call it a ladder. How we can climb that ladder of success to that next level.And listen, if you're like most of us, for so many of us, growth feels chaotic. We're working harder, we're putting in more hours, we're adding more services. Yes, we're even getting more clients.But sometimes at the end of the day, we just feel like we're busier and we're more stressed.And I gotta be totally honest with you, my journey was a lot like that when I was first getting started and for many years, and I've shared this on this show for many years, I believe that if I just worked more hours, if I just put more time, I just Kind of kept my head to the grindstone. And if I took every single client who came my way, guess what? I was growing.But when I look back at it and I ask a very difficult question, but was I really growing? Or bigger than that, what was I really growing? My stress, my to do list, my resentment for my business.Yes, I got to the point where I said it last week, I hated my business. But when I was honest about it, I look back and I was running a successful business by some, what they call the general business metrics.When I really am honest with myself, I found that I was still the bottleneck. Listen, I was stuck. I thought I was growing, but I was stuck. And it was only when I started seeing my business growth as a ladder.And that's what I'm really going to ask you to embrace today. Start to think of your business along a ladder, a set of distinct levels with different rules for each of those ladder rungs.Picture that ladder up against the house and you're trying to climb up on that ladder. But until I was able to see it as that ladder and really understand and embrace those different rules, that's when I was finally able to break free.And I want to share that framework with you today on the show because, listen, I could throw a lot of theory your way.It's a lot of people out there pontificating a bunch of nonsense theory and trying to sell you all kinds of coaching services about get rich overnight, grow your business right away. But as I promised when I launched this show, I was never going to give you those get rich quick schemes overnight because guess what? They don't work.And today what I'm sharing isn't just theory. It's just so much bigger than that. I'm going to call it a roadmap.And it's a roadmap that I forged in the real world, putting fires out and building businesses for myself and for successful other clients. And my hope today is by the end of this episode, you're going to know exactly where you are on this journey, what ladder rung you're on.But bigger than that, what your very next steps need to be if you want to keep ascending to the top of that. So let's break this down. Let's break down this framework. The journey of what I'm going to call solopreneur to thriving.And really, what I'm really trying to get you to is a self sustaining enterprise, because it happens in three distinct levels. And listen, as I said a few moments ago, each level has a Different focus. Each level has a different set of challenges.And here's the thing a lot of people don't understand. Each level requires a completely different mindset if you really want to get past it. Are you ready to get past it? Well, I hope you are.Well, let's get right to it. And that's level one. And I'm going to call this the operator. And this is where most small business people start.When I work with a new client in my accounting and my consulting practice and my coaching practice, it's where most people start. Because truth is, you're the operator. You are the business. You're the visionary, you're the salesperson, you're the doer, you're the administrator.Hey, you're. You're the chief cook and bottle washer, as they say. You're the customer service rep. You do it all. You wear all the hats in your business.Now, the benefit to that is, hey, it's yours. You've birthed this beautiful thing into life.But if we're honest, we have to understand something and that your business growth is directly capped by your own two hands. Hey, if you're the one that's doing the business, it's all about your time. It's all about your energy. And guess what? There's a cap on that.Because here, let's be honest with ourselves right now, I can only do so much because the mindset is this. I do all the work. And I found myself right there. I talked about that a couple shows ago when I talked about hiring somebody.We're going to talk a little bit about that again today. But the biggest challenge here, and I mentioned this a few moments ago, you are the bottleneck to your business.You feel busy, but here's the problem, and you're probably listening right now. You're like, Ralph, that's where I was. Or maybe that's where you are right now. Well, listen up, because I've got some tools for you.Yes, you feel busy, but you're often busy. But broke. You're broke because you can't grow, because you've got no more time left to give. You're giving it all.You're sacrificing every ounce of your being. You're sacrificing your relationship with your wife or your husband.You're sacrificing your relationship with your children, with your friends, with all your members of your family. And you're thinking, Ralph, you are so right, man. I am just stuck. And I damn truly the bottleneck, because it's only me.And I talked a little bit about there's different goals and there's different things you have to do, but your goal at this level is not just to do the work because you've already realized you've capped on how much you can actually do. Listen, I found myself right there. I remember when I first started my accounting practice, I was going to do it all myself.And there was a lot of benefit to that. Say I was going to know what was going out the door. Everything had my touch on it. But the problem is when everything had my touch on it, guess what?It limited how many clients I could take on. It limited how much work I could do. Hey, it limited how much revenue I could build.So your goal, if you find yourself right here on this rung of the ladder right now, your goal needs to be not just to do the work, but to start documenting and building systems so that someone else, eventually, yes, it might not be tomorrow, it might not be next week, but you've got to change your mindset. You've got to start building systems so that someone else, eventually, if you want this to grow, can do some of the work for you.And listen, I'm going to harken back to an episode I did on systems. That was episode eight. You can check that again at our website, Grit and Growth business dot com. But I talked all about systems.See, the goal here is to get really good at one thing. And then here's the thing. Here's the, here's the secret sauce, if you will, of being in this first ladder room, that, that operator position.You get really good at one thing. You got to find a place where you can afford to offload it. And then we're going to talk about the next level. So we're going to graduate.We're going up the ladder. We're going to graduate from the operator to the manager. That's what I call level two here. A lot of people have reached this point.Hey, I got this too. You've made that brave leap to hire help you decide.You know what, Ralph, I took your advice, I listened to your show about how to hire and I, I hired somebody. And now I've got a team.Maybe it's just one part time virtual assistant, or maybe you've got a real person there sitting in front of you in your office or whatever that looks like in your store, whatever your business is.And your focus has shifted away from doing all the work and now you find yourself managing people and you're managing those systems that you put in place. And now your mindset's changed a little bit. And now your mindset is, I manage the people who do the work.You might be thinking, Ralph, that's what you told me to do. That's where you wanted me to go. But even in this level, even when you've reached this point of being the manager, there's a challenge here as well.And listen, I am the poster child for making mistakes in a business. That's why I'm so good at helping people grow their business, helping people get through those bottlenecks.Because here's the biggest challenge to this, and like I said, I've lived this myself. It's micromanagement. See, when you're used to doing everything yourself, you know what that. Listen, I did my own practice.Every single piece of paper that went through my office went across my desk. I put eyes on it, I signed it, I reviewed it, I looked at it. That's the way I was used to doing business. Now I've hired somebody.And when I hire somebody, I've got to learn to put trust in other people. And listen, if you're a type A personality, if. If you're a control freak. That's what my wife calls me all the time.Ralph, you got to be in control of everything. Well, here's a little secret. Most successful small business people, when they start now, we're talking about going up that ladder.We're talking about growing your business. Most successful small business people are those people who are in control of everything.And so once you decide to grow your business, once you decide that you can't do it all, the problem is you can fall into that rut of micromanagement because you're afraid of delegating things or you're really afraid of giving up control. But the problem is, if you don't give up control, you're right back in that same place. Yeah, you've gotten more payroll expense.You've got more people sitting in your office. But now your business growth is capped because you've lacked the ability to lead.So you can't just do it in this phase and for so many people, you might be sitting there right now going, Ralph, you are so right, man. I am in this, what I'll call the new set of headaches.But I want to encourage you right now, these are better headaches to have than trying to do it all yourself. I've worked with so many clients. I can think of somebody I'm working with right now.He just rolled out his business a couple months ago, and now he's hired his first person. We had a conference call the other day.He said, Ralph, man, I'm happy that I decided to hire somebody, man, but I. I'm spending more and more time managing this person. And I said to him, I said, all right, let's talk about that.And when we really flush things out, he had hired somebody, but he didn't relinquish control. He didn't have the systems in place to relinquish control, to let somebody else do it. So here's your mission.If you really want to grow in this stage of your business, if you really want to grow as a successful manager, and that's what we're really talking about here, because the role is manager, it's easy to get to that role. But do you want to be successful? Your goal here is to stop micromanaging. And listen, this is the hard work. I'm not going to lie to you.This was hard for me. It's hard for me to this day. But this is where you really start to build your leadership.And this is where you start to create a culture of ownership and accountability. Because here's what. Here's what the takeaway needs to be if you're going to be successful in this stage of growth in your business.And listen, if you want to get to the next level and truly grow your business to something beyond you, you've got to do this.But this is where you create a culture of ownership and accountability so that your team, not you anymore, your team can run their processes without you, without you having to oversee every single detail. And your graduation from here is going on to the next level. But until you can stop micromanaging, until you can effectively delegate to.You can build those systems that other people can do things in your absence. And here's a one, until you can stop having to be in control of everything. But I'm going to say something right now.You've got to be willing to embrace. People are going to make mistakes. It's inevitable. They're not you.But allow them to make the mistakes, teach them, help them to learn from those mistakes so that they can grow your business for you. Because guess what?If you just hire somebody and you remain in that micromanagement time, in that micromanagement mindset, you're going to get stuck on this ladder. And then what most people do is they end up regressing. They end up falling down of wrong. They go back to that operator again. And then your captain.I've. I've had clients say to me, Ralph you know what? I am so tired of employees. I'm just going to do it all myself.And they see that as an, as an answer, you know, it's just going to be so much easier. I don't have to worry about that stress of staff and managing people and Ralph.I can't find good people and people don't show up for work and people have drama in their lives. Yes, that's all true.But it's a trade off because if you go back and you, and you could do this, you can step back down off that ladder to that first rung as operator and he just handcuffed yourself again because you've just created a bottleneck again. But let's say you move past that manager. Let's say you've learned how to be an effective delegator. You've built those systems well.Now you graduate from the manager role to the strategist role or the owner role. And as you're starting your business, as you're starting to think about what this is, this is the dream role. And if you think about it, here's why.Because your business is no longer reliant on your day to day presence. You don't have to be there for things to run well, for things to run efficiently, for things to work, for you to make profit.And that's really the key to this. This is the dream of most business owners. You want to get to this point, but here's what you got to understand in order to get to this point.You've got to build a team of leaders, not just doers. So many business people come to me for advice, they come to me for coaching and they say, rob, I've built this team.But the problem is they've not built a team of leaders, they just built a team of doers. And doers are only get you so far. But you've got to build that team of leaders.You got to break free of those doers and you've got to build, here's the secret sauce to this level of, of making this work for growth in your business. You've got to build robust systems that allow your business to run independently.And that takes work, it takes time and it takes a lot of effort because you're not out there in the trenches doing the work anymore. But let me just tell you right now, in this role, you may work harder, you may put in more time, but that is the truth.I could lie to you and tell you that it's not the case, but it is the case. This is the place where you're going to put in more time and effort, you're going to have to do more. But here's the takeaway from this.If you invest that time in building a team of leaders, not just doers, and you invest the time into building systems, your business can grow and your role will shift entirely. So I want to talk about the mindset here because it's so important that you understand this.The mindset while you're here is that I work on the business, not in the business. That's really what you need to embrace every day. Your role is to work on the business, not necessarily to work in the business.And I see so many entrepreneurs who find themselves getting to this point and they find themselves regressing. They go back into working in the business and they lose all that momentum of where they were going, how they were building this thing forward.But here's the problem. Even at this level, the dream level of business ownership, there's still a challenge here. And a lot of people don't talk about this.You don't hear about this on those fancy business shows about, hey, I'll help you grow your business, I'll help you take it to the next level. Seven figures, eight figure, whatever that looks like. There's still a challenge here. And the challenge here is boredom and losing touch.Because here's a simple truth. You're not in the weeds anymore. You're not seeing the day to day things. You're a little bit disconnected.And when you're disconnected, it's easy to sort of get that boredom. And you feel like you don't know what's going on in your business anymore. Your focus has to shift now to the big picture.You've got to be that visionary. You've got to think about how do you grow the business beyond what it is right now.Start thinking about strategic partnerships or maybe opening new markets. But here's what I'm going to challenge you to do. And so many small business owners lose sight of this because they.My grandfather used to term you get too big for your britches old Southern fell. And I thought that was so appropriate for what I'm talking about today.One of the things you've got to make sure you continue to embrace is you've got to stay connected to the core values of your. And this is not easy. This is where a lot of small business people really struggle because you've got to learn to stop putting out those fires.See, sometimes I think people like to embrace putting out the fires because in a Lot of ways, that's easier work because you've done the work, you know how to go. I'll give you a great example of this. A plumber client of mine, he knows how to fix everything plumbing.So his employees will call him and say, hey, such and such. I'm out of this job site and we've got this problem.Now, an effective business owner, an effective delegator, an effective leadership person would say, okay, let me talk you through how to fix it.But this particular client find himself hopping in his truck and heading out to the job site because the natural inclination was him to go fix it, go put out the fire. But the problem is, when he jumps in that truck, guess what he just did. He lost a half a day.He's lost that ability to build that vision, that ability to build those strategic partnerships, to look at new markets. And he lost that ability to start building his future empires, because guess what he did. He went back and got in the trenches again.I'm not saying that's a bad thing, but it's a bad thing if you really want to grow your business. Because your mission at this level, and I said, this is the dream. This is the dream place to be, but it's not any easier.Your mission here, your goal in this level is to be a visionary and a leader to ensure that your business continues to grow and adapt and. And to have ways to find the greatest possible impact without being tied to that daily grind.Because once you get to this point and once you can master this, I'm going to tell you something right now. This is where you will find true freedom. This is where real freedom actually lives. But now you might be saying, Ralph, this is all great.I understand that these things are fantastic. Ralph, I'm glad you put this. I get the analogy. I understand that the step ladders.So now I'm going to ask you right now, as you're listening to this, be honest with yourself. Take a moment right now, stop what you're doing for just a second, be brutally honest with yourself and ask yourself, where are you on this ladder?Where are you? Because here's a very simple truth. I've worked with clients for 30 years. I've been doing this. It makes me feel old when I say it.But if we're being honest with us, most of the people, and listen, I fall back into this position, too. I feel at times I go down a rung or two.If we're being brutally honest with ourselves, most of us are either at level one or struggling very hard, struggle to make that transition to level two. And here's what I want you to know. That's okay. I'm not here to judge you on where you are. You are where you are.And you may be very successful at level one, you may be very successful at level two. But listen, I want to give you the straight. I want to give you the grit to lead you to growth.I'm not judging you for where you are, but the point is to give you clear next steps. So now I want to talk about if you want to move forward, if you say, Ralph, look, I want to get past those things.I want to give you some actionable steps right now to help you move to that next level. So let's start by saying, let's assume that you've answered that question honestly and you're like, Ralph, I'm at level one, I'm the operator.Well, here's what I'm going to challenge you and I'm going to encourage you to do. Right now, your action this week is to create one single system. I just want you to pick one.Choose one repetitive task that you do more than once a week. Let me give you a couple examples. For example, maybe sending new client welcome emails.You've onboarded a new client and guess what, you're the chief cook, bottle washer, your customer service, your sales, your administrative, or all those things. Well, just one repetitive task like sending new welcome emails or posting to social media. A lot of people are posting to social media.We can have a whole discussion about the value of that. We talked about feel good followers a coup weeks ago. I'd encourage you to check that out, but maybe that's your role or maybe it's chasing invoices.So just pick one of those things that's relevant for your business, something that's repetitive, something that you do more than once a week. And I want you to document a step by step process in a simple text document. Or even better, I love this one, go and film a video.Go film a loom or YouTube video, whatever that is. But go and build out a step by step process of exactly how you do it.Because that's your first step towards building a business that doesn't depend on you anymore. And you can move from a doer to a documenter. Think about that. Embrace that mindset. I'm going to move beyond being a doer.I'm going to be a documenter.So if you find yourself in that level of being that operator, that level one, here's the way you can start to Build away from that and move to that second level. Because, listen, you got to have the systems in place. Just document one of those repetitive tasks.And hey, once you master that one, move on to the next one. But let's say you honestly say, you know what, Ralph? I'm beyond that one. I've got some decent systems in place. I've started to build a staff.Maybe you're at level two, what I call the manager. Well, here's your management challenge for this week. Your action, if you choose to take it. Kind of sounds like a silly soap opera thing, doesn't it?Or is that Mission Impossible? I guess is the better thing to say. Your action, if you choose to take it, is to delegate one key decision.That thing that you identified, maybe in the last step we talked about, that thing that you're still micromanaging, that thing that you won't let go of, that one you have to have the final say on. And I just want to encourage you this week, your challenge this week, empower your team member to make that decision on their own. Give it to them.Let go. Give the trust to them and give the responsibility to them and the opportunity to grow. Listen, I've done this in my own practice.I've got somebody that's working for me for about five or six years now, and she's embracing, taking on more stuff. And hey, you know who the bottleneck was to that? It was me. I thought I had to handle it, had I had to oversee it all.And yes, she's made some mistakes. And guess what? I made mistakes. We all make mistakes, but she's learning from that.And if you want to move your business beyond that micromanagement, that ability to grow and the ability to truly delegate things effectively, you want to move from a manager to a leader, that's what you've got to do. So that's my encouragement. And listen, this is hard. This is not easy. This is your baby. You love this business. It's all about you. It's everything.You've poured your heart and your soul and your time and your effort, and you sacrifice for this.And I know what I'm telling you to do right now is not easy, but listen to me right now as you're hearing this, if you truly want to grow, if you truly want to move up that ladder to the next level, you've got to do this. You've got to let go. You've got to give them the trust, and you've got to give them the responsibility and give them the opportunity to grow.It's hard, but it's essential. Now, maybe you said, Ralph, you know what? I've mastered those two things. I am at level three. I am the strategist and I am the owner.Well, here's one that's going to shock you a little bit. I want you to schedule a strategic retreat. You're thinking, hey, is that a vacation, Ralph? Well, not quite, but maybe a little bit of vacation.I want you to block off a full day. I want you to be away from your office. I want you to be away from your home. I want you to be away from your email. I'm talking about away.And your mission for the day is to think only about the future. I don't want you putting out fires. I don't want you answering emails. I don't want you managing anything that day.I just want you to be away with just your thoughts and start asking yourself some, some deep strategic thinking questions. Like this one. Where is the business in five years? What do I see the business doing in five years? What are those markets look like?What is that strategic partnerships look like? What are the new services? What are the new products I want to offer? How do I envision? What does the team look like?What do I need to do to build that infrastructure? How do I build those responsibility centers? How do I build those systems? But see, you've got to be away.You've got to retreat and block off that time away from putting out the fires, because you can't put the fires out and build strategy at the same time. You can't do it. Here's another question you can ask yourself. What new opportunities exist? Take a look at the market.What are the new things out there that you're. Listen, I'm working with a client right now. He's been in his business for many, many years.And he says in the rap, he says, like, I feel like I've done everything I can do in my business. And I said, all right, how about you and I go play golf next week? And we just sit down and, and we played a round of golf and sit down.We're going to sit on the golf cart a little bit, but we're going to get him hit the ball. But anyway, you get the idea. But I'm going to challenge him when we go meet next week. What new opportunities exist? What do you see on the horizon?What are some markets that you can get into? What are some services that you can offer? Because I know what he's feeling. I felt this in my own business, but you've got to take that time.You've got to take that retreat and go be strategic about it. Here's another great question you can ask yourself. How can you increase your impact? See, now, that's not an easy question. You can't answer that.When you're, when you got the fire hose and you're daily putting out fires, when you're trying to micromanage everything, you're never going to be able to get to the point of asking yourself, how do you increase your impact? What does that look like for you?Because, listen, if you really want to make your business grow, you've got to move away from running the business to evolving it. So that's my real big strategic, my gritty things that you can do today to start to move up that ladder. And listen, I'm not judging you today.I'm encouraging you today because guess what? You can do this. And see, here's the thing I want you to understand. Growth is not a mystery. It's just not. It truly is a journey through these levels.When I was planning today's show, I thought, how can I encapsulate this in a way that makes it easy to understand? See, there's no, there's no mystery. Oh, here's the solution. Here's the. No, it's a, it's a, it's a journey through these levels.If you're in business, if you've been in business for any length of time, you are going to start. You're probably not in your head right now. You're saying, Ralph, you are so right.I've never kind of encapsulated the way you did, Ralph, but it's true. You've got to embrace this journey.And the biggest mistake that you can make, the biggest mistake that you can make, if you're listening right now, is to use the tools from one level to solve the problems of the next. It just can't work that way. You can't say, well, the things that I did in level one, building those systems are going to work.When I'm being strategic, you can't do that. But I know this. You've got the grit to build, but now you've got to apply that grit to strategically climb in that ladder of growth.I'm going to ask you right now, has this framework resonated with you today?And maybe you're being honest with yourself, Rob, you're like, Ralph, I'm standing at level one, dude, but I am overwhelmed and I got no clue how to get to level two. Or maybe like you say you're at level two and you and you're frustrated by the new management headaches. I never bargained for all this.I never thought I was going to be a boss. I never thought I was going to have to be this person that manages all this. I hate this. I want to get out and do the work again.And you're ready to build that team that leads itself, but you just can't figure out how to make that happen. Well, today I want to invite you to take a deeper step. See this podcast. This show every week is designed to give you some strategies.But let me ask you this. What if you had a guide? I'm talking about someone who has personally navigated these levels and done it and been successful at it.What if you had a guide to help you chart your own course? Think about that. Someone who can diagnose where you are right now can help you identify your next move and hold you accountable.Because hey, accountability is where it's at and hold you accountable to making that transition. Well, here's the good news. This is exactly what I offer through my coaching services.So if you're ready to take that kind of one on one support, if you're ready to stop guessing, stop trying to throw mud at the wall and see what sticks, and if you're really ready to start building with a clear, proven path, I wanted to invite you today to explore my coaching services. See, and my coaching service. A lot of people get hung up on this. Well, Ralph, you're going to tell me what to do? Not at all.It's not my job to tell you what to do. I'm not going to tell you what to do. But I'm going to work together with you.We're going to stand side by side and I'm going to help you unlock your next level of grit and growth. Now if you're interested, I would love to schedule a discovery call with you.You can book a no pressure free discovery call to see if my coaching services are the right fit for you can go to gritandgrowthbusiness.com coaching again, that's grit and growthbusiness.com coaching. Let's talk about how we can build your legacy and build it together. Again, you can do a no obligation 15 minute discovery call.We'll get to know each other. Let me understand your business. I'm going to encourage you today. Go out there and check that out@gritandgrowthbusiness.com coaching.Well, now maybe you're not ready for coaching right now, but you really say you know what, Ralph, I really need some an action plan. So I've designed something to help you diagnose today where your business businesses and apply the core strategies that I've covered today.I've created a simple action plan sheet for this episode and guess what it's called? It's pretty simple. The three levels of business growth.Now, this is a free downloadable sheet that will guide you through identifying where you are at your current level.I'll help you diagnose that where you are, diagnose your biggest challenge, and help you to commit to that specific action that you need to take to move forward to climb that ladder. I created this because it's a practical tool to help you integrate the lessons into your own unique path.And listen, all business owners are on their own unique path. And you can get that by going to gritandgrowthbusiness.com action again. That's gritandgrowthbusiness.com action.And here I'm going to tell you a little secret here. If you go there and you get that action sheet, it's going to open up the door to all the action sheets from the prior 13 episodes.So I want to encourage you, again, go start climbing that ladder today. Go get that action sheet again. That's@gritandgrowthbusiness.com action. Listen, don't let this feeling of being stuck be your permanent reality.So many people I talk to in business, they said, Ralph, for so many years, I was stuck. I wish I had met you five years ago. I wish I had met you 10 years ago. I wish I had decided to do those coaching services with you.I would have stopped being stuck. I wouldn't be able to climb that ladder of success. Because here's the truth. Growth is a choice and it's a process.It starts with understanding your level where you are right now, mastering the skills of that level, and then you can find a path to the next. And I just want to encourage you right now, you've got this and I'm here walking alongside you every step of the way.So thank you for joining me today on Grit and Growth Business. My mission every week is to empower small business owners to build thriving, profitable business.And I'm committed to bringing you honest conversations and practical strategies every single week to help you build, build your business the right way. Now, next week we're going to go into another crucial topic and we're going to talk about overcoming entrepreneurial setbacks.I'm going to do a show about building a resilient mindset. We're going to explore how to navigate the inevitable challenges. Hey, you're going to have challenges in business. I've been doing this for 30 years.I've seen challenges.But bigger than that, I'm going to teach you how to bounce back stronger and cultivate some mental toughness that you need to really embrace long term success. So make sure you subscribe to the show. You can do that right at our website.That's gritandgrowthbusiness.com so you don't miss another empowering episode. Hey, and if you missed the first 13, you can go get those right on the website.And again, don't forget, download the action sheet for today's show@gritandgrowthbusiness.com Action. Hey. Now go put these things to work and I'll see you next week. God bless you. And you have a great day today.