$1M – $3M Is The Swamp
Summary
- Making $1 to $3 million a year is tough because you're in what I call "the swamp." It's hard to get past this because you're stuck with tough choices.
- Let's say you're making a $400,000 profit. You have two tough choices: either work even more hours or hire someone better than your current team.
- Hiring someone new at this stage could cost a third to half of your income, which makes it a risky bet.
- The reality is, you probably have to do both. Do more unscalable things that have high profit margins to afford hiring someone who can help buy back your time.
- Running a business means making difficult decisions and taking risks, and this is why many people don't make it past this stage. Welcome to business!
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How To Take Action
I would suggest implementing a strategy that can help you navigate the difficult swamp of making $1 to $3 million a year. Start by identifying unscalable tasks that yield high profit margins. These are tasks that may not necessarily scale with the business but bring in significant profit and can be done quickly. For example, offering a specialized service or product that you are particularly skilled at could be one.
Next, be ready to make risky yet calculated decisions, like hiring someone who’s better than your current team. Yes, they might take a big chunk out of your profit initially, but the time they free up for you could be invaluable. This means you can focus on strategic growth rather than being bogged down by everyday operations.
Look at this hire as an investment in buying back your own time. Freeing up any portion of your day allows you to focus on high-impact areas that further grow the business, like scaling those unscalable things or improving processes.
So, a good way of doing this is to make a list of your daily tasks, categorize them by profit margin and time investment, and then decide what to delegate. Choose one or two high-impact tasks that you can enhance or expand on your own. The aim is to gradually transition out of tasks that don’t directly contribute to growth, allowing your business to move beyond the swamp.
