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As an entrepreneur, it’s surprisingly easy to get addicted to being busy. After all, you survived the earlier stages of this journey—where most new ventures get dashed on the rocks—in no small part due your ability to out-grind the competition.

You know what it takes to stay disciplined. When someone like Dolly Parton says “The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain,” you know what she’s talking about!

Here’s the problem with this mindset, though. You absolutely do need it during the beginning stages of a venture, when the model is still mostly theoretical and the cash flow fitful. But once you grow beyond, it can hold you back—and even kill your business.

Let’s First Do Some Diagnostics

Are you “doing too much, too quickly”? Here are possible symptoms:

• The quality of your product or service is faltering, as measured by a metric like increased return rates, more complaints from clients or staff, or shortened average customer lifecycle;
• You’ve begun to take back lower level work from your team, just to keep up with the workflow;
• You experience major and regular cash flow shortages, despite having more than enough revenue coming in;
• You’re still living and breathing a startup existence, even though your business has advanced well beyond startup.

The Dangers—What If You Keep This Up?

1. Entrepreneurial burnout. As the saying goes, being an entrepreneur is about living a few years of your life like others won’t, so you can live a life others can’t. But a few years is different than a few decades! Sprint too hard, too long, and something will break.
2. Some key business system will rupture. Maybe your customers will revolt in mass because of quality issues. Maybe you’ll face a staff mutiny. But a blowout of some fashion is coming.
3. Legal/financial catastrophe. For instance, maybe a burned out employee will steal from you. Maybe you’ll play fast and loose with some deliverable, inviting a lawsuit.

What Can You Do About It?

First off, admit that you have this problem. Nothing is going to change about your workflow—or how you interact with the business—until you consciously articulate your challenges.

Second, clarify the real reasons why you’re overwhelmed. Root causes are not always obvious! Maybe you’re working nights and weekends to bring in new business, because you spent so many years without enough work that you’re now irrationally terrified of scarcity.

Finally, get help from someone who’s qualified and smart and who’s been there. I would love to help you get the perspective you need. Please get in touch for a consultation, or download my ebook to get insights about how to end the overwhelm.

To build an amazing organization, you need remarkable people. Period. Full stop. No woman is an island.

Bestselling business author, Jim Collins, has argued in his books that recruiting is arguably more important than even core fundamentals like strategy or vision. Here’s how he put it in Good to Great: “The executives who ignited the transformations from good to great did not first figure out where to drive the bus and then get people to take it there. No, they first got the right people on the bus (and the wrong people off the bus) and then figured out where to drive it. They said, in essence, “Look, I don’t really know where we should take this bus. But I know this much: If we get the right people on the bus, the right people in the right seats, and the wrong people off the bus, then we’ll figure out how to take it someplace great.”

Top CEOs (perhaps unsurprisingly!) intuitively understand this idea and spend a profound amount of their time just looking for great people. Consider:

• Dave Gilboa, co-founder of Warby Parker, said… he spends 25% of his time recruiting and that being a CEO also means you’re the “Chief Recruiting Officer.”
• Marissa Meyer of Yahoo! at one point personally reviewed every new hire at her company!
• Per LinkedIn’s Reid Hoffman, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg spends a full 50% of his time recruiting.

How Can You Recruit Better? (A Secret Shortcut)

There’s a vast and growing literature on recruiting—one we obviously don’t have time to summarize in q short post. But there is one standout idea that can save you tons of time. In some ways, this is the 80/20 hack of recruiting A Players.

When filtering a pool of applicants, wield the Threat of the Reference Check (TORC). Developed by Brad Smart (Topgrading), the Threat of the Reference Check is a simple concept. During early phases of the interview process, reveal to applicants that you absolutely will be calling and checking all their references. Then do so! Have thorough conversations with each and every reference, and then cross-check any inconsistencies with the applicant.

There’s more to the method than that, but that’s the gist. Here’s why it’s so powerful. Many C (and even B) Players will exaggerate or lie or put on airs during the interview process. The TORC:

1) Intimidates poor-quality applicants and scares them away from applying for your positions.
2) Forces people to be more honest and self-revealing, because they know you’ll eventually find out the dirt, anyway.
3) Exposes troublemakers before they get into your company.

Want help improving your recruiting processes? I can help you drill down to discover solutions to find more remarkable people—and to prevent the wrong people from signing up. Get in touch today to set up a time to speak together!

Starting your own company is ferociously hard work. Randi Zuckerberg famously encapsulated the challenge with this tweet: “The entrepreneur’s dilemma: Maintaining friendships. Building a great company. Spending time w/family. Staying fit. Getting sleep. Pick 3.”

But even if you grind like mad, forgoing sleep and play and other life necessities, you can only get so far without fundamental shifting certain paradigms. How you view the world—and your business—creates invisible constraints. To reach a higher revenue mark—say $1,000,000/year—you need to become conscious of those constraints and deal with them strategically.

Before we get into the 3 things that commonly hold people back, time for some cold water. It usually starts with the entrepreneur herself. Maybe, for instance, you’ve been at the helm for two, three, four years or more, and you as the owner are still playing the role of operator and working in the business most days, instead of on it. At minimum, you’re feeling exhausted. At a maximum, you’ve created little more than a decent pay “job” for yourself.

Break through by conquering these hurdles:

1) No Clarity

As an entrepreneur, you cannot lie to yourself! You cannot be fuzzy about what’s happening in your company and your life and where you want to go. Where will the company be 1, 2, 3 years from now? What it will look like? Feel like? Who it will serve? How it will be seen in the community? What will its culture be like? What will revenues be?

To the extent that you’re not clear about these things is to the extent that you’ve lost control. And that means you will not be able to find the shortest, smartest path to what you want.

2) No Vision

Zappos founder Tony Hsieh put it bluntly: “Chase the vision, not the money, the money will end up following you.”

Setting the vision isn’t hard or time consuming, but it must be done. You can even fit it all in a single page for reference to track:

• Core Values
• Company Purpose
• Key Performance Indicators
• SMaC Recipe
• Medium and Long Term Targets
• Whatever Else Is Core to Your Vision (here’s an example)

3) No Plan

The plan is the nuts and bolts. You know why you want to achieve some goal (like $1M/year). You know what success should look like. Now, you need to sweat the details and articulate the whats, the hows and the whos in key areas like operations, marketing, culture and business metrics.

Remember: your plan is a living document. You will amend and revise it as you go along. But you need a plan to improvise intelligently.

You Must Think About What You’re Doing!

Most people (including, sadly, most entrepreneurs) do not spend nearly enough time thinking, in my opinion. You need to act decisively AND think decisively. Ask yourself the hard questions. Have the courage to put the answers on paper.

At your current stage, you likely do not have a big team or any time. That’s okay. I remember early on in our law practice, when it was only my husband and myself. That was the whole team! We did these exercises—just the two of us. We wrote the answers on napkins in restaurants, on planes traveling to seek out our mentors, and late at night after a long day in the office. This deep, persistent thinking is how we got to where we are now—and how I’m able to help others.

Getting to the $1M/Year Mark: I Can Help You

In addition to building a multi-million dollar law practice, I’ve worked with dozens of extremely successful entrepreneurs to obtain ambitious goals for their companies. Set up a consultation with me today, and let me help you put together a step-by-step plan.

Your business is doing great! Not that this is a competition, obviously. But objectively speaking, you’ve gotten farther than 99% of entrepreneurs and would-be entrepreneurs out there. You’re certainly grateful for how far you’ve come. And you’re humbled by the experience of building something bigger than yourself.

In a recent post [NOTE: please link to the $1M/year post!], we explored what it takes to get to $1M/year in revenue. Now what? How do you reach the next peak?

As you’ve learned, the entrepreneurial journey requires different things from you at different levels of development. The “grind it out, shoot from the hip” battle mentality of startup becomes a liability once the organization is big enough to need structure, for instance.

So what does it take to get from where you are now—pulling in $500,000 to $1,000,000 a year in revenue—to reach $5M/year?

Here are powerful thoughts from three people who actually know what they’re talking about:

1) Y Combinator’s Paul Graham says start small, but then go after frighteningly big ideas. If you want to generate massive success, think disruption and paradigm shifts—not incremental improvement in your industry. Graham writes: “Empirically, the way to do really big things seems to be to start with deceptively small things. Want to dominate microcomputer software? Start by writing a Basic interpreter for a machine with a few thousand users. Want to make the universal web site? Start by building a site for Harvard undergrads to stalk one another.”

Along those lines, John Kenneth Galbraith once observed that: “All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership.”

2) Ali Alshamsi, a wealthy entrepreneur and popular contributor to Quora, advises a philosophy of self-reliance and internal focus. Here are some intriguing quotes from him:

• “Do not take loans.”
• “Keep innovating and don’t bother with cat fights with your copycats. It’s a waste of time.”
• “Don’t try to fight multi-billion dollar companies… Instead, fill the gap these companies don’t cover, and they might actually buy you. They are potentially investors too.”

3) Embrace your asymmetries, and get to your revenue goals in spite of them. It’s hard to change yourself, even if you commit to doing so. But do you really need to change… or can you succeed in spite of your quirks? CEO Marissa Mayer, for instance, “flaunted her habit of getting less than four hours a night and famously said that during her first five years at Google, she pulled an all-nighter every week.” She could have modified her attitude of “I don’t really believe in burnout,” but instead she embraced her quirks and won.

Getting to Your Ambitious Revenue Goals: Need Help?

Want insight about how to get to climb from where you are now to your ultimate revenue goal—and increase your speed and certainty in doing so? Please get in touch with me now for a private consultation!

One of the reasons I love writing blog posts is because I get to share my experiences, my growing knowledge and any tools, resources and solutions that can help you – my community of friends and family.

This blog also gives me the opportunity to highlight the things that matter the most to me – one of those things is getting involved in my Tucson community and giving back … not just monetarily, but giving back of my time and my passion.

In fact, the projects I value the most are the ones that bring large impact in a short amount of time…

And this massive impact is often done by small, humble groups of people right in our own backyard!

What do I mean?
Well this year, Zanes Law is lending a hand to a new pilot program called “No Hungry Kids Tucson” launched by Nadia LaTurco, founder of Wings for Women, an organization that empowers homeless and impoverished women to overcome despair through various resources, programs and guidance.

Why?
Because for some kids, when school ends and summer begins, that marks the first day of little to no food … in other words, with school ending, so do school-supplied meals for low income families and their children.

When I heard this, my heart hurt … all I kept thinking was that no child should go without food, especially not our children here in Tucson.

What Are We Doing?
Zanes is helping provide meals for the summer to Roskruge Bilingual Magnet Middle School – the school chosen for this pilot program. This year a total of 200 kids (50 families) will participate in this meal program from now until the end of July.

As a part of our contribution, Zanes will also open two of our offices to the public as drop-off locations for donations through July 26:

• 3501 E. Speedway Blvd., Suite 101
• 1185 W. Irvington Road, Suite 155

Now, remember at the beginning of this post, I mentioned that this massive impact was happening in our own backyards, well… LITERALLY, IT IS!

Nadia and her small team of volunteers stores the food that gets donated in a small guest house in central Tucson … And that is where the magic happens!

Every Sunday, the crew gets together (including some amazing kids in the program) to make food bags and deliver them to participating families!

….BUT…. Here’s the catch of this incredible program….

WE CAN’T DO IT ALONE!

The community can participate in so many ways!

HERE’S HOW:

1. You can donate non-perishable food items to one of the Zanes Law locations I mentioned above… Check out the food list below:
   • Cereal
   • Granola/cereal bars
   • Peanut butter & jelly
   • Macaroni & cheese
   • Instant oatmeal
   • Ramen noodle soups
   • Other canned goods
   • Rice/beans
   • Baby food/formula
   • ***You are definitely not limited to this list!
2. You can help bag food for the families on Sundays, and here’s how: Contact Nadia LaTurco at wingsofhopetucson@yahoo.com more information.
3. You can provide Zanes or Nadia with coupons to get a great rate on lots of food. REMEMBER: Check the expiration date before mailing them or dropping them off!
4. You can make a monetary donation to No Hungry Kids Tucson by mailing a check to Wings for Women, P.O. Box 23369, Tucson, AZ 85734, OR go to wingsforwomentucson.org and click on the PayPal link.

As I write this post, I am reminded of Margaret Mead’s famous quote:

“A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

I believe in this so much because I see it happen in Tucson every day, not just with Zanes Law, but with other community leaders, organizations and businesses.

Tucson may be a small city but we have immense power and passion to bring about immediate change for our communities.

Today I am reaching out to you to join me in that change by participating, in any way you can, to help this pilot program succeed and transform into something bigger than us.

Putt-ing Kids First Mini-Golf Tournament & Family Fun Night!!!

Okay, has anyone attended this event in the past years?

If you have, you know EXACTLY how much FUN it is … !

And if you haven’t attended?!

It’s time to get in on the fun! – SATURDAY, APRIL 12, from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.!

No, seriously, parents – when is the last time you went mini golfing or laser tagging or an activity of the sorts with your kids and it cost … well ..  A LOT!

But with a ticket to this event …

All the fun is INCLUSIVE –

All right, everyone – we are talking about ENDLESS mini golf tournament, go-carts, bumper boats, laser tag, face painting, batting cages, and all of the non-redemptive video games …

All for the price of one ticket, per person!

And …

Wait for it …

In addition to the attractions, there will be a raffle and a BEER garden for the adults!

As board members of the Blair Charity Group, this event is near and dear to our hearts. In fact, proceeds from the event will support the Arizona Basketball Academy.

For the past 13 years, Joseph Blair has been bringing the Academy to this community and changing kids’ lives …

In those 13 years, Blair Charity has given free-of-charge basketball camps to over 1,200 youth in Southern Arizona …

Campers learn from celebrity guests and community leaders about fiscal responsibility, college preparation, work ethic, and community involvement, all in a basketball environment!

When I was a kid, I LOVED basketball, but my family couldn’t always afford to have me go to camps …

With events such as Putt-ing Kids First, we can help keep these camps alive and thriving in our community!

I look forward to seeing you all there!!!
**Tickets can be purchased at http://blaircharitygroup.givezooks.com/events/putt-ing-kids-first

***For individuals who do not want to participate in the tournament, GENERAL ADMISSION TICKETS ARE AVAILABLE. General admission ticket holders will still have all-inclusive access to all of the attractions.