How To Make Big Bold Business Moves

Are you wondering if it’s time to make a big, bold move in your business? In Episode 25 of The Lean Out Your Business Podcast, we’re switching things up a little bit and I’m getting interviewed by Jessica Maine. In my interview I take you behind the scenes on some bold moves I’m making at Lean Out Method. My hope is that by sharing my story I can help you learn how to recognize when/if it’s time to make a bold business move of your own, as well as give you some insight into things you should be considering before you make that bold move so that when you do act, you are set up for success.

In today’s episode we discuss:

• Why all time is not created equal and how to know the difference
• How to know when it’s time to make a big, bold move in your business
• How to have long-term health
• One question you need to stop asking yourself (and what you should ask instead)
• My secret to success

Tune into Episode 25 of the Lean Out Your Business Podcast or keep reading below.

It Always Starts With Vision

Do you know where you want to go? Do you know where you want your business to go?

In any of the workshops we do at Lean Out Method, we always start with a vision exercise and to help get ideas flowing, I start by sharing my personal vision for Lean Out Method, which has been to work exclusively with entrepreneurs and small business owners instead of working with both entrepreneurs and corporate clients. For the last twenty years, I’ve always worked with both.

Although I’ve loved my corporate clients and the transformation I’ve been able to make with them on a large scale, recently, I’ve found that I don’t get as much satisfaction working in the corporate world (which tends to be high stress and slow-moving) as I do working with small business owners, where I can be closer to the impact. Plus, because I get to work with a lot of coaches and consultants, I feel like my work is force multiplied, I help my clients and they in turn help their clients, creating a ripple effect of more and more people building sustainable businesses.

I had a clear vision for what I wanted and who I wanted to work with but I reached a place where I was having to say no to working with entrepreneurs and small business owners because I had reached my capacity, with the majority of my time going to my corporate clients.

"Be in alignment with your vision." -Crista Grasso Click To Tweet 

Being Out of Alignment with the Vision

At this point, I could have scaled back my work with my corporate clients, I could have reduced my hours and made more time in my schedule to work with entrepreneurs but ultimately, I decided not to go that route because of something really important that I want to talk about and it’s the idea that not all time is created equally, it truly is quality over quantity.

For me, it wasn’t just the amount of actual time that was taking up space on my calendar, it was also the amount of mental space that my corporate customers were taking. It was all-consuming and when you have something that is all-consuming it becomes really hard to do the necessary strategic planning for your business. When my work for my corporate clients was finished at the end of the day, I could do busy work no problem, but that wasn’t my zone of genius.

I was saying no to working with the people I wanted to work with, I was putting programs on hold because I didn’t have the space (physically and mentally) in my calendar to execute them in the way I wanted and more and more, I was feeling out of alignment with the work/life balance that I am so passionate about helping others achieve.

I was starting to trade my personal life for my business, which is something I feel so strongly about and that I coach all of my clients not to do.

"Don't trade your personal life for your business." -Crista Grasso Click To Tweet

In my opinion, I had three options:

1. Continue in this stressful space where I was feeling more and more out of alignment with my vision and my values
   
   
2. End my contract with my existing corporate client and try to find another client that I enjoyed working more with or that would potentially free up more of my time and space
   
   
3.  Stop settling for good when I knew great was possible – end my time working with corporate clients and move exclusively into working with entrepreneurs and small business owners

I chose option three, I took the big leap, I made the big, bold move and decided to move forward with the vision, and begin working exclusively with entrepreneurs/small business owners; even though it was earlier than my projected timeline, even though I would miss the steady/dependable recurring revenue from my corporate clients, even though it didn’t necessarily make sense on paper.

How Do You Make the Decision

There comes a time in the lifecycle of every business where it’s time to make big decisions, so how do you make them?

For me, I believe it’s a balance of trusting your gut/intuition and knowing the analytics. Because it’s not blind intuition. You’re a seasoned business owner with years of data, metrics and analytics working in your favor. You have enough knowledge and enough data to really be able to trust your intuition.

I knew one day I would make the transition and work exclusively with entrepreneurs, but I didn’t plan on making the shift until 2022. On paper, it made more sense to wait but my intuition would not quit. It would not stop saying make the shift NOW.

I’m naturally a very analytic person, so when my intuition wouldn’t stop, I knew I had to listen. My one caveat to that, is this, if you naturally make all of your decisions on intuition and if that doesn’t usually serve you well (often leaving you in a reactionary state) I would caution you to make sure you have a full understanding of the analytics and data around your business before you make a big, bold move.

"When making a big change in your business, it's a balance between trusting your intuition and knowing the analytics." -Crista Grasso Click To Tweet

What’s Next for Lean Out Method

Now that I’ve said goodbye to my corporate clients and am working exclusively with entrepreneurs and small business owners I’m finally back to the business model I’ve always wanted, one that is in complete alignment with my vision and my values. Now with the time and mental space to focus on the things I am most passionate about I am so excited to bring back my two favorite things: retreats and my Simplify to Scale business accelerator program.

Retreats

Retreats are coming back in 2022! I’m so excited because these are my happy place, a place where entrepreneurs come together to lean out their business in order to scale. We spend the time to put in the hard work to grow our business BUT we also have a really good time because to me, lean does not mean super dry and boring. Lean is getting into alignment with what fuels you and what you’re super passionate about. For me, it’s a combination of lean AND luxe, which is why we have our retreats in beautiful locations and in addition to doing the hard work, we also spend time on self-care.

S2S Business Accelerator

My Simplify to Scale Business Accelerator program is back!  This is a high-touch, intimate program where we help business owners scale in a simple and sustainable way. In this program, we help established entrepreneurs reimagine a business model that balances what’s important in their business with what’s important in their business life and set them up to leave the legacy they want to leave.  To me, that is sustainable success.

In Summary

If you think you are ready to make a big, bold business decision but aren’t completely sure you are ready to make it, here’s a checklist of things to ask yourself and things to consider:

1. Have you looked at the data and analytics around your business? 
   
   
2. What is your intuition telling you?
   
   
3. Are you settling for good, rather than pursuing great?
   
   
4. Are you in alignment with your vision and values?

If you’ve examined the analytics, if your intuition is telling you to make the move still, if you feel like you’ve been pursuing good instead of great and if you feel like you are out of alignment with your vision and values, then you are ready to make the big, bold move.

Now, it’s time to stop asking, “should I do this?” and time to start asking, “how can I do this?”