Week 1 Transcript The Entrepreneur Journey
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Dental Consultant Master Academy evolve ■ emerge ■ influence
Transcript - Week 18
The Entrepreneur Journey
Week 1 Transcript The Entrepreneur Journey
©2013 Dental Practice Solutions www.dentalpracticesolutions.com
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Hello. This is Debbie and welcome to this weeks training video.
WOW! We are almost half way through our journey. Today we are talking
about the Entrepreneur’s Journey. This is a three stage model that I have
developed for you to take a specific path as an entrepreneur from the
beginner, to an intermediate, to advanced.
I call these three stages Evolving, Emerging, and Influencing. As you look at
your action plan for this week can you identify where you are in these three
stages? Place a check mark or circle where you are today and then write a
date next to this stage. I want you to look at this action plan again or better
yet – write this on your calendar and in three months and six months write
a note on your calendar to check in with where you are in these three
stages.
Set goals in three month increments to check back and see if you are on
track with your successes.
Now let’s get started with this week’s module.
Here is what you are going to learn in today’s video. First is I’m going to
show you a very simple business distinction that will help you focus your
efforts so you get easier and faster results.
I am going to be showing you how to hold a long-term vision while
centering and focusing on what is going to bring you the immediate profit
in your business. I am doing this by introducing these three-stages of a
business growth model and where you fit in right now in your business.
But before we begin, I always like to put the learning into context for you,
which means I want you to think about a situation in your own life that you
had to grow and develop your skill around. So for a moment, you might
want to pause the video after this too and simply think and reflect for
yourself what’s a skill or a hobby that you’ve mastered in your life.
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It might be a musical instrument you play. You may have learned an art or
a sport. Simple things, even like riding a bike, or more complex things like
parenting. Just choose something right now that you’re really, really good
at and that you had to learn how to become good at.
What I want you to do is simply remember back to when you were an
absolute beginner at that. What did that feel like? What was your
experience of being a beginner at that? Because now you’re looking back in
hindsight. And then, as you got better at this craft or this skill, you move to
a more of an intermediate level.
Do you remember when that happened? They blended, right? I mean, you
started as a beginner, but before you knew it, you kind of knew what you
were doing and things were going nicely. And then it gently
transitioned into you really became a master at that particular thing. You
became really, really good at it.
How long did that whole arc take you? And I just want you to reflect back
at that whole experience of growing and developing through stages of
development in some area in your life that you are currently a master
around. Because what I want to do for you is to reflect back to now and say,
“Hey, you know what? This is exactly how it happens when you grow a
business. Really is no different.”
You’re going to go through stages of development and we’re going to
outline what those are here in today’s video.
One of the things I want to address right out of the gate is this myth around
“instant success” because you hear this all the time. You know, you hear
that, “Oh, so and
so, they were an overnight success.” Because that’s what you perceive.
You see that person on stage, or you see that person excelling in their
business, and they just kind of came out of nowhere, right? But what you
don’t hear is the truth about it, which is they were an overnight success
that was ten years in the making.
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What you don’t hear are the hundreds of clients that person actually
worked over years and really became masterful at their craft. What you
don’t hear is the everyday in the trenches, working, trying to figure what
they’re doing and growing this business of theirs, dealing with their team
and staff issues and marketing issues.
What you don’t hear about are the thousands of hours that person spent
not only becoming masterful at their craft, but also becoming a really solid
business person.
What we do hear, however, is, “Oh, I did internet marketing and I became
rich overnight.”
I just want us to take a deep breath here and put all of this into context into
how it really works in real life. How it works in real life is what I’m calling
the Way of the Trades, these service professions that have been around
literally for centuries now, even back in the middle ages. They were
carpenters and blacksmiths and if you look at that ancient model, it’s
absolutely true today. The blacksmiths started out as a young person and
they were an apprentice. They worked with a master and they got to know
what this whole thing of blacksmithing is. As time went on, years, then they
become a journeyman, like an intermediate level. They knew their tools.
They knew the language. They knew how to do things. But they were still in
a kind of growth and learning process. But then one day, they equaled their
teacher, their master, and then they themselves become a
master.
In the arts, you know that stage has happened when you’ve mastered your
basic skills and you take things in a new direction. Maybe you work on your
voice.
Your style really starts to come out. And you look at all the professions that
are out there--auto mechanics, dentists, doctors, pilots, firemen--they had
to learn how to become masterful at their craft.
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When you think of a dentist , she graduates from dental school, but is she
really a dentist at that point? The piece of paper says so, but is she really a
dentist? No, not really. It’s only after years of actual hands-on work that
she can truly claim, “Yes, I’m a skilled dentist and really only now work in a
dental office. But have I ever learned about business?
This is very true for your skill level as an entrepreneur. You’re going to grow
as a business owner and develop your skills around how to run a business;
how to do marketing, manage your team, grow your product line, and
services.
It will take you some time and allow yourself to take time to really master
the skill of being an entrepreneur? This is also the way of nature. Allow
yourself to grow into this. The process is joyful.
Your business growth also has stages of development. Each one is distinct
and each one has its focus on where you need to put your energy and
attention to fully go through that stage, learn what you need to learn at
that stage, and then move on.
Now, here are the three stages of business growth. First is what I call
evolving, second is emerging, and third is influencing. I’m going to now
break these down into specific examples for you so you can start to identify
where exactly are you.
Now, another thing to note is that these are not steps really. Think of this
as more like a wave. You gradually evolve from one stage to another. It’s
not like you take a step to get into there. It just happens organically and
naturally. So don’t be so rigid with this model and understand that they
blend together. There’s going to be overlap here.
Okay, so let’s start with the first one, which is emerging. Now, first off, let’s
talk about the emerging state of mind. This is when you’re just starting the
idea of being an entrepreneur and whatever your product and service is.
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You’re really excited. You’re motivated by what’s possible here and you
have these dreams in your mind. You can have a vision of a better life for
yourself. And yet, you have some idea about, “You know, I think I want to
start to be a social media expert,” or “I think I would like to become a coach
or a consultant.” “I think I would like to start a product line and sell that
online.”
It’s the seed of an idea. This is the stage when you’re really starting to, as I
say, throw the spaghetti on the wall and see what sticks. You know you are
evolving if you don’t know exactly where to start, right? I mean, you don’t
know where to start. You’re just new to this. You don’t even know the
language, the details of this. All you have is the seed of an idea.
If you’re business is service-based or even if you have products, but quite
possibly you don’t even have any clients or customers yet, or just maybe a
handful. You’re in that early stage. A lot of what I’m saying here is about
the throwing the spaghetti on the wall and you are experimenting with
what is the right business and business model for you.
I can tell you for myself, I actually spent about two years in this evolving
stage. I just got out there in 2000 and we took a second mortgage on our
house. I knew that I needed to prove myself as an expert. I knew I had to go
out there and speak, write for dental journals and do all of that so I started
my own speaking courses. At the time I was living in Southern California
and I spent thousands of dollars on marketing various conferences all over
the state of California each month. I began writing for RDH Magazine and
went to all the major dental conferences in the US. I would go to all the
major corporations like Oral B and Proter and Gamble, Orascoptic, 3M. You
name it and I met the corporate executives. They quickly became my
sponsors and helped pay for those conferences I held all over California.
Then in 2005 my husband and I moved to Oregon and I was speaking all
over the US and Canada. It was a lot of fun but I quickly fell into a unique
opportunity to start a dental Hygiene school in Portland. I had to put a halt
to all my speaking and fun travel.
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The accreditation and starting the school became my focus. Then once the
school was up and running I thought I could go back to where I was but in
2009 the economy began to take a dive. It was not as easy to step back in
so I started throwing spaghetti on the wall again until something stuck and
you know what? Everything I threw on the wall STUCK! Good news, bad
news.
So all of these things were in an attempt to find, “Well, what’s my true
niche here?”
That’s what you have to allow for yourself to do in this evolving stage.
Allow yourself to experiment and try on different sets of clothes to see
which one really fits for you and which one is your style, because at this
stage, that you probably don’t really have a business niche yet. That’s what
you’re here to explore.
At this point you may not even know exactly who your ideal client is and
that’s okay. You have to start somewhere and try it out. Take a few steps
into that direction knowing that you’ll figure that out as you grow.Assuming
it’s the right business model for you. You have to start somewhere so if you
have felt paralyzed until now I want to encourage you to take the first step
forward now.
If you’re in a service-based business or even having products, you don’t
even have any clients or customers yet or just maybe a handful. You’re in
that early stage. A lot of what I’m saying here about the throwing the
spaghetti on the wall is you’re experimenting with what is the right
business and business model for you.
I can tell you for myself, I actually spent about two years in this evolving
stage.
When you are in this evolving stage you need to allow yourself to
experiment and try on different sets of clothes to see which one really fits
for you and which one is your style, because at this stage, you don’t really
have a business niche yet. That’s what you’re here to explore.
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You may not even know who exactly your ideal client is and that’s okay.
That really is okay. You’ve got to start somewhere and try it out. Take a few
steps into that direction knowing that you’ll figure that out as you grow.
Assuming it’s the right business, you have to start somewhere, take the
step.
The challenge that people have at this evolving stage is, yes, you don’t have
clarity around your business because you haven’t done it yet and that’s
fine, but just allow yourself to be confused and not know which direction is
really the right fit. It will happen if you keep persistent with it.
That’s the only thing that makes the difference between those who really
succeed and those who don’t is you’re just persistent enough to keep going
at it. As you try these things out, you will start to get direction. You’ll move
forward in that business.
The other thing that happens here is that you get really distracted by what
is called the bright, shiny objects syndrome. You have this great idea and
you think, “I’m going to make a membership site and I’m going to have
products and I’m going to have all this big fancy stuff in there. I’m going to
do live events.”
Well, you’ve got to start somewhere, and it’s probably more important for
you to actually connect with your potential ideal clients and really explore
it. It has very little to do with how your website looks. It has everything to
do with you getting out from behind your computer and actually interacting
with people.
I don’t know anybody who really got past the evolving stage without
connecting face to face with people and really see is this the right fit or isn’t
it? The key way to move past this emerging stage is to take action,
persistent action. It might be confused, it might be messy, but that’s okay.
Just move forward. Try things out and not try to make them perfect. It’s not
going to be perfect. It’s supposed to be messy.
Week 1 Transcript The Entrepreneur Journey
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So know that you have to get your hands muddy a little bit here. As you
move forward though, there are rewards to this. What happens is things
pick up. You find your niche. You do find your ideal clients after
experimenting enough. And you become your own boss. You start making
money with your business. You start developing and growing your client
base.
As that happens, you feel more confident, more solid in what you’re ready
to do. You’re really now ready to expand into a bigger business.
What’s going to hold you back from getting these rewards is thinking that,
“If I just had the perfect header on my website,” or “I’m active in social
media, I’m active on Facebook, why am I not getting clients?”
Well, it’s because you’re not actually interacting with human beings. I’m
here to tell you that most businesses, almost all of them, start out as word
of my mouth businesses. Even Apple. Even Hewlett Packard. When they
say, you know, the classic garage story, started in the garage? Well, yes,
and they went out there and hit the pavement. They went out and
communicated and developed relationships with key people. They
weren’t putting ads or making brochures. They were interacting with
people.
So you need to know that. The key here is getting more word of mouth in
your business. Get out there, network, and get referrals, and become good
at what your craft is because that’s the other part of this. In the evolving
stage, you’re also developing your skill at what you do. That takes time, just
like I said with dentists who go to dental school and then begin working in a
dental office.
.
So finally, your top goals here are, number one, is you just want to start
making money as soon as possible; getting out there and doing it. As you
work with clients, one by one, you’re going to start to identify your passion.
All of that is going to help you get clear about your niche, your ideal client,
and you can now start to really shape and design what are your true
products and services that you’re going to stick with.
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You really start to move towards developing a client and customer base.
I’ve seen this happen. Time and again, this happened to me too, that once
you do get that niche, that everything lines up, things really do then start to
expand and take off quickly. But like I said, for myself, it took me two years
of throwing spaghetti on the wall before I found the thing that worked for
me and for the audience, for the market.
So give yourself time. Allow yourself to really fully emerge in this stage and
experiment with different things. Don’t worry. It’s all going to start to shape
if you’re persistent enough. Things do get clear but they’re not going to get
clear if you’re just spinning and thinking in your head, hiding behind the
computer every day.
Okay, let’s move on. I want to talk now about stage two, which is Emerging.
Here, there is a wonderful state of mind that occurs, is that you’re really
owning the fact that you’re now a business owner. This is no longer just a
hobby or a passive thing. You’re thinking now, “Oh My Gosh I have a
business! I’m really going to do this!”
Your goal is you’re really now starting to maximize on profits from what you
have. So in other words, you started with a base; maybe it was working
with some one-on-one clients; maybe selling some product at an initial
level here. You want to maximum your efficiency. How do you get the
maximum number of clients? How do you maximize your sales on that
product? That’s where your attention really goes.
As you develop that and you build your systems, which include potentially
building your team, which might be assistants, bookkeepers, CPAs, web
people, now you can start to also develop multiple streams of income for
yourself.
As .you develop and you have the base systems in place, and the team in
place, then you can start to really expand further and add on more
products and services. Ultimately, this is leading you towards designing this
profitable business that allows you to live the lifestyle you desire. It’s
starting to really happen here.
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So you know you’re in this stage when you really do have some niche. Now,
even in the Emerging stage. There may be some tweaking within the niche,
but basically you know what you’re good at and you know what people are
buying. Yes, you may not know in the beginning what exactly your
particular segment of that niche is, but you’re in the ballpark.
You already have clients. Things are moving and you’re moving towards--at
first in the evolving.stage, you might just have a few handfuls of clients. But
as you move forward, you’re going to have a full practice of clients. Then as
you move forward beyond that, you’re going to look at I got to add on
other streams of income to do this because I don’t want to just work for
hours and dollars all the time.
You’re starting to sell your products and things are really starting to scale
up.
A lot of this emerging stage is simply building the systems to support your
growth, because you’re starting to step into expanding this business of
yours and not just limited to a handful of clients.
So this does happen about midway through the emerging stage is you do
hit the ceiling of, “I’ve got a full practice. I’m working with a lot of clients
each week and it’s great. I tapped into the six figures here.” Usually, you’ve
broken 100,000 at this point. But now, you’re looking to expand that even
further. You got bit by the bug and you want to grow and leverage yourself
better. So you start offering different types of programs that
maximize your time better--group programs, selling more products,
leveraging your website.
Yet, here, you’re really developing the team to support you with all of this.
So part of this issue of being in emerging mode is learning how to manage a
team and hire the right people.
You might have to go through a few people, right? I mean, that happens a
lot. You don’t find the right fit for you, just like when you’re in emerging,
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trying to find the right niche for yourself. You have to throw some spaghetti
on the wall and not all of it stuck.
Same when you build your team. You’re going to try out different virtual
assistants, bookkeepers. You might have to go through three, four, five of
them before you find the right one. That’s normal. That’s okay. That’s part
of doing business.
So the challenge here is--and this is really a big one--is you’re excited now,
right? You’re starting to make some money and it’s really easy to get
distracted with all the things you could be doing, instead of focusing on
what’s going to generate the maximum profits for you right now.
This one I really see time and again, people in this stage they start to add on
more things onto their plate, more offerings in their business, before
they’ve truly maximized what is their true money makers.
You hear me say this all the time: focus on the lowest hanging fruit. Put all
the other things aside. Put it in a folder. You might get to it one day. But
focus on what is the lowest hanging fruit that’s going to give you the
maximum profit with the least amount of effort.
If you do that in your emerging stage, you’re going to make more money
faster. Don’t worry about these other things. Just because they’re there
doesn’t mean you should do them.
So this relates to the team is that you’re taking on more than you or your
team can really handle because expanding means growth. And sometimes
it’s really fast.
So you’re working late nights. You’re developing your systems. You’re
working and training your team. All of that is happening in expanding
mode. Honestly, it can get quite messy, but it’s also exhilarating. That’s the
fun of having your own business.
But think about it. If you’re, let’s say, a service professional, you’re working
with clients, you have a full practice, and now you’re also trying to leverage
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yourself, build your systems, create your shopping cart, your merchant
accounts, your website. Well, you’re not only now just a technician in what
you do, but you’re also a manager in what you do.
You’ve taken on another role in your business. And those things typically
overlap. You’re going to be busy.
Now, as you move through this, there are rewards of going through this
expansion stage. You really do hit some sweet income levels. You’re going
to be breaking past 100,000 and moving even into multiple six figures here
and beyond.
You have that team. Once you get the right people, it’s a godsend, right?
They’re wonderful. You have a team that’s harmonized with each other.
You’re connected with them well. There are really a few things that are
better than that. I can tell you from experience. It’s part of the joy of
actually being in business is working with an awesome team.
You have a website. Very likely, you’re now leveraging the online world and
you have a website that converts visitors into leads, and leads intoclients.
And you’re developing that list. You’re developing a following of people
who know, like, and trust you.
Now, at this stage too, the reward is you have systems in place. So the
business can start to run without you having to be there to manage it all
the time, which means, you really start to now tap into that ideal lifestyle.
Now, let’s talk about your top goals here for the emerging entrepreneur.
Again, maximize profits with what you currently offer. I can’t tell you again
that if part of this is you’re still zigzagging, you’re still experimenting with
what to offer and what not to offer, hey, that’s okay. But I encourage you
to focus at least 80%, 70% of your energy on the true money makers in your
business and make those as profitable as possible.
Maximize on that profit before you start jumping ship and trying out all
these other things that you could do.
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As you develop that though, you are going to develop multiple streams of
income where it’s appropriate, where it fits in your business growth.
You’re really focused on systematizing your marketing and your business
overall. That’s where you actually are spending a lot of your time as an
emerging entrepreneur is systems because you want to scale up now your
business. You want to leverage yourself.
Systems include how you intake clients, creating the forms to do that; how
you’re going to work with your staff, your virtual assistant, your
bookkeeper, your CPA; how you organize and design your office space so
you become efficient, maximal efficiency with minimal clutter and
distraction. Maybe that means a system of you getting out of your home
and renting an office space somewhere. All of these things, that’s all
systems-based.
Okay, now, let’s move on and let’s talk about now influencing, stage three.
Here is a wonderful experience as well. You’re starting to step into a bigger
game here. You really become a role model whether that’s national or
international. And people really look to you towards leadership and you
really start to feel it. I mean, there is a perception of you out there, and it’s
almost like a glow happens.
You go to the events and people know you because you’re the industry
leader. That can be a little scary at first, I can tell you. You keep reminding
people, “Hey, it’s still me. I’m still real.” But people look at you differently
because you’ve really proven yourself.
Again, look at the dentist who is established, let’s say, after ten years.
People respect that doctor because she’s done amazing work and she’s
really proven herself over years of
work.
Here at this stage, too, you really have a very powerful and big vision. It
might even scare you at this stage. It gives you really owning responsibility
and being out in front, on the frontlines. This means you’re really holding
your opinion even stronger. You’re taking a position.
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And the downside of the influencing part is you will get attacked. People do
get jealous and they don’t want you to succeed. This actually happens in all
three stages but especially here. People are perceiving you as like, “Well,
who is she to think that she can do that?”
So just be prepared for that. You’re going to get some slings and arrows
shot at you and they hurt. There’s no denying that they do hurt. But again,
when you have the right support and systems in place, you can manage
that better.
You do have that restless feeling that there is something more for you; that
you have this passion, this bigger vision that is drawing you towards
something beyond just where you are right now and you’re really setting on
a multimillion dollar business. It is a decision, I would say, to step into this
influencing stage. You really are committed now to bringing that bigger
vision into the world.
Now, I’m going to talk about this a little later in this video, too, and I want
to bring it up right here. The influencing stage is not for everybody. Just
because that stage exists doesn’t mean you actually have to go there.
Being in emerging mode and maximizing this stage is for most people is
actually just fine. You’re making multiple six figures, you’re doing great. It
doesn’t mean you have to now step out into the spotlight and be a
superhero. You are a superhero to your small niche
and those community that just adores you.
But as you step into a more national, international stage, the game
changes, and it really isn’t for everybody. So again, hear what I’m saying,
just because it exists doesn’t mean you have to go there. You have options.
So now, you’re in this influencing stage if you already have a very solid base
of revenue stream. You’re making, I would say you’re at least a quarter
million, half a million at this stage. Your income is very steady and
consistent. You’ve got solid team in place. You’re stepping into the spotlight
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more than ever. Your team is there. Yes, you keep growing your team
because as you scale up, you need to bring on more team, but the
base team is all there and they support you and they’re the right people
in the right positions.
Competitors actually start to copy you more and others are going to model
you. Modeling is better. But when you deal with those competitors copying
you, sometimes they do cut and paste copy, and you have to do legal issues
here, too. A lot of that comes up. Even in expanding that comes up, but you
really have to stand for your brand, your copyright, and you have to bring in
legal counsel oftentimes here at this stage, too.
Now, here’s where the challenges arise in this stage is there’s too many
opportunities and ideas to consider. It’s another exhilarating time because
you’re making money.
I know a lot of people in influencing stage when they start to make a few
millions of dollars, they just go crazy. They start spending on things that
they kind of don’t look at the bottom line, which turns around and bites
them after a year or two. Because they have so many ideas and they’re like,
“Oh, we can do this. Let’s just bring on staff to help with this.”
It’s kind of like blindly going into this growth mode without really being
concrete on, “Well, what’s my core business? What do I need to focus on?
And what’s still being thoughtful to profit, to net profit?” Not just to “I’m
making a lot of money.”
That’s one of the biggest challenges actually in influencing and in the
emerging stage is forgetting that bottom line, forgetting net. Net is the key
word. It’s not so much income. It’s what you actually take home with you.
So you’re growing too fast. You’re spreading yourself out too thin. And
you’re saying yes to things just because you could. You have the resources
and the money, and so you start taking on projects that, again, are not truly
aligned with your core business.
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I tell you, this happens oftentimes for people in the influencing stage. It’s
very common.
The other challenge here is that you’re fishing in the same pond as
everyone else. You generally or typically create your own competitors.
And people start modeling you, copying you. The pool gets a little more
crowded now, doesn’t it? So you have to keep innovating and holding the
position as leader in your industry. That takes energy, doesn’t it? It’s very
easy to lose your lifestyle for the sake of the business.
Again, I see this one as extremely common with people in the influencing
stage. The business starts to really take over your life and you lose that
personal touch of your life and your lifestyle.
Now, I’ll say that there are, if you look at the bigger arc of your business
growth, there are going to be phases and maybe years where you are busy.
I mean, you’re in growth mode. And that’s okay, just as long as it’s not
overwhelming you. You have to make sure it’s the right balance for you in
your life and what your personal life is. Maybe you have kids and it’s
actually more important for you to spend time with the kids than it is to
grow the business like a mad woman.
You have to make decisions here to decide what are your true values, and
even if you are in growth mode in a heavy way, then you have to
give time for yourself to be in contraction mode just as much. Do you see
what I mean with that? You have to allow yourself to connect with yourself,
with your family, with your life again without being consumed by the
business. As I said here, the challenge is you get excited by the gross profits
rather than net profits.
So the reward of going through this stage is you really have a brand now.
You can make your decisions in your business easily because of your clarity
around who you are, what your business is, what the core business is that
produces profit for you.
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You’re speaking more and more freely. You’re being even more authentic
than ever before. You’re pissing people off because you are holding a
position and you’re outspoken about it. That’s really what’s necessary to
stand in that national, international leadership position.
You are known internationally. You’re getting invitations and opportunities
endlessly. You’re starting to get those FedEx boxes in the mail of people
wanting to share their product with you or have you promote their stuff.
Again, that’s why in the emerging stage, you have the systems in place to
help you clean up these opportunities, because you can’t say yes to it all.
Your income continues to grow smoothly without your business imploding;
meaning that the smooth growth is truly the longer term strategy. You can
see--I have seen this many times too--that the companies who just really
burst out fast and they start getting tons of business, but they don’t have
the support, the staff, the systems in place, they implode.
That happens a lot, too. So these are all the things you got to manage as
you become
more of a CEO and less of a manager.
See, at the influencing stage, you’ve definitely at this point brought on a
COO, chief operator for operations, and a financial operator. So you’re not
dealing with that stuff. You’re the CEO who is managing the vision and the
drive of the business.
You still might have your hands in the marketing because that’s your
business. That’s where the money is coming in. But more and more, some
of the bigger tasks in your business are being sent out to other people --
that’s their strength.
You really are becoming aligned with your deeper mission and you’re really
starting to speak your message. It’s almost like your dharma, your gift in
this world.
The top goal here is you want to line up your business mission with your
personal mission. In other words, you’re not losing sight of your life as you
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grow this bigger vision and you become in a way more famous. Your
business growth and impacts are growing. The business is growing with
your income. In other words, you’re not spending more than you’re netting.
I mean, there might be dips where that happens, where you’re spending a
lot and you’re not really bringing a lot home. But you’ve got to think long-
term, like how am I going to keep the net profit solid and have the net
profit grow?
You’re really the top of mind name of your industry, and you’re really
starting to step up in who you’re networking with. So you are starting to
hang out with the other big players in your industry and you’re one of them
now. You’re starting to really leverage your opportunities. You’re definitely
having more products of services, multiples streams of income here and
things are really starting to step up for you.
Now, I mentioned I wanted to talk about this. This is a really important
distinction and I want you all to think about this. As we’ve looked at now
the three stages of business growth and that is you’ve got to think, what I
call, an empire. An empire is when you have this kind of business that’s
making either multiple six-figures, but typically it’s in the millions by now
and it’s the kind of business where you have at least 8 staff members and in
some cases 10, 20, 30 and up.
You’ve really built an empire here. I just want to remind you all that that is
not necessarily the right path for you personally. You don’t have to build an
empire to be somebody. Let me explain this. When somebody says, “I have
a $2 million business.” Okay, that’s gross. What are they actually taking
home after they’ve paid their 10 staff members and they’ve paid for all
those vendors and all the stuff that they have to pay for?
They might actually walk home with maybe $300,000, maybe $200,000 out
of $2 million. Well, this is my take on it. I can make that $200,000, $300,000
without all the staff without all the complexity and the intricacy of running
that kind of a business. By keeping my systems and my offerings at a simple
level, I can bring home the same amount, but with dramatically less
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complexity because I’m actually bringing home that same amount without
all of the expense attached to it.
Do you see what I mean? You want to really look at this. Some people, it’s
their destiny to become empire-builders. It’s oftentimes easy to spot them.
They just have that drive in their eye. They can’t do anything but build this
big business. That’s totally fine. We need people like that. That’s great.
What I want you to look at is that you? If it’s not you, that’s okay.
You might really start to think about, “Hey, I just want to have a nice solid
business that generates a quarter million a year net or with minimal
expenses on that and just live my life and enjoy my life. Travel the world
instead of this complex intricate machine that might make $2 million, but
requires $1.8 million just to operate.” All I’m saying – my message to you
now is you have a choice.
It’s a lifestyle decision really. It’s looking at your longer-term vision of what
you want. As we’ve looked at these three stages of business development
keep that in mind. How complex do you want this business to be for
yourself? It’s a values decision more than anything else. Like I said too, on
the other hand, there are people this is their destiny.
They are supposed to build empires. That is their value and that’s cool too.
Now your action steps. I want you to determine which stage of business
growth you’re currently in right now and own it. It’s okay to be there. Know
that, “Okay, I’m in this stage and I’m moving towards the next stage.” Now
you have a bit of a context and scope about what that would entail. Decide
really how big you want to expand your business.
How big do you want this business? Do you want an empire or not?
What do you then need to focus on right now to maximize what you’ve
already got going for you? This is so important. Now, that you’ve seen the
whole picture, come back down to where you are now and focus on what
needs to be done right now. If you keep doing that you’re going to naturally
grow and the business will grow with you. You don’t have to force it.
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How I want you to think about this in context to your everyday life now
again is I want you to put about 5% of your attention generally in your
average, everyday business operation on the future vision of where you’re
going. But, the rest of your 95% of your attention is going to actually have
to be focused on what needs to happen today to maximize profits and
efficiency.
Hold the vision out there, but put the majority of your time on your day-to-
day operations, streamlining your systems, building your team, maximizing
your profits
OK. This is Debbie signing off. Everyone, have a wonderful day and I will see
you on next weeks video. Bye for now.
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