The 5 Stages Of Business Progression - How To Build A Digital Writing Business The RIGHT Way WITHOUT Getting Shiny Object Syndrome
Use this system when building and scaling any service based business
Greatness happens, when you put in consistent amounts of effort..
Over long periods of time, in small measures
And when it comes to building a digital writing business, it’s no different
But most people building a business..
Are not following a progression system
They are just throwing paint at the wall, and seeing what happens
It might turn into an amazing painting..
Or it might turn into a third graders art project
There is no direction, only experimentation
Now in the past, I would’ve been the first to tell you..
“Experimentation is part of the game”
But I’ve learned that’s only partly true
Without a system, your progress will be slower..
THIS, is part of the game
Without a progression system, you will keep making the same mistakes
I’ve seen it so many times before..
“I’m going to make money this way”
“This is the best way to do it”
“Maybe this is a better idea”
“Maybe I should do this in my business next”
If you keep doing this, you will struggle with:
Making the right choices
Losing thousands of dollars in revenue
Getting distracted by different business models
Trying new business strategies every few months
Wasting hundreds to thousands of hours on pointless ideas
And the list goes on
Stop. Breath. Rethink things..
You have no direction
You’re doing what you THINK is right..
And not what you KNOW it right
Why? Because you don’t know where to go
I recently talked to a potential student who needed some guidance
He was convinced if he created a digital product that costs $400+..
And drive $2000 worth of ads to it
It would make him/her a ton of money
Statistically this plan wouldn’t work
There is always an off chance that it does..
But 99% of the time this strategy is the same as burning money
They were jumping to the 5th stage of business progression..
And as a result, there was a lot wrong with their strategy
They will keep thinking of cool ideas, that might not work at all..
Because they are not following a system
But instead of trying to fix problems individually, it’s better to use a system
A progression system
You will never have to worry about:
What you’re doing next in your business
If a business strategy will even work
Losing money on expensive business models you end up abandoning
Feeling unsure if what you’re doing is even going to work
When it’s time to make a big decision (the system will tell you)
But how does the 5 stages of business progression work?
Let’s break it down..
Stage 1 - The Beginner Stage
This stage is where everyone should start. DO NOT try to skip stages
This stage you are a 1 man team
You have no help, no support, no team members
This is part of the process
This stage is for building a customer and client acquisition system, manually
Spend the start of your 4 hour deep work session, finding ideal potential clients..
And turning them into actual clients
If you’re reading this, and you don’t have a skill to sell yet, then go read my article on “The 3 Digital Career Paths That Can Replace Your 9-5 Within 3-18 Months”, here
Every single day, your schedule needs to contain a prospecting method
DMs, Cold Emails, Partnership Propositions etc.
Whatever you need to consistently land clients
Outreach, is the main goal in this stage
Forget hiring people, forget partnering with people
The only thing that matters here, is a consistent stream of paid clients
This stage is for anyone who’s yet to hit $1000/mo with their service or sales
Until you can consistently hit $1000/mo, you are not moving stages
But your future plan, needs to be removing the need for prospecting entirely
You can only do this by having a content creation strategy
So while you’re sending DMs, you need to create content that attracts your ideal clients, instead of you having to find them
A strategy like this takes months of effort to work, so get started on it immediately
I teach you how to sell services in the DMs, in “Digital Philosopher University”, you can join the waitlist here
Apart from having a skill to sell, you need to start your newsletter or email list in this stage already → More traffic to run to your offers down the line
Every day, when you’re prospecting, do this:
30 Minutes to find ideal clients
30 Minutes to message ideal clients
Use a Customer Relationship Manager to keep track of all the conversations
Follow up on a daily basis
Keep doing this until you can realistically say you’re making $1000/mo
This means you need to have hit $1000 made, every month, for 3 months
But before you move to the next stage, you need to systemize
“Systemize your process, so progress becomes effortless” - Ian Pierre
Anything you’re doing in your business that works, you need to be able to teach to other people → Outsourcing is key
Even as a 1 man business, you will most likely still need a VA
Which brings us to..
Stage 2 - Entry Level Outsourcing Stage
If you have reached this point, it means you have enough workload to comfortably produce consistent results, but not enough manpower to maintain them
To get results on auto-pilot, while opening the doors to scaling, you need a virtual assistant
But just randomly hiring a VA is not the way to go about things
First you need to turn your systemized process, into trainings
This is called an SOP → Standard Operating Procedure
It’s breaking down your entire process into an easy to understand guide
Now it’s time to get you a VA
The average salary in India is $380/mo
So it’s best to hire someone from a third world country, who are used to working hard
This person needs to be filled with ambition, and have big dreams of their own
Consider taking on a business partner in the future somewhere as well
Anything to make your process easier
Ideal places to find these people would be Linked In, X, and Upwork
Now when you start working with this person, you just give them the SOP you created
This allows you to train them, without actively doing coaching sessions with them
Now of course, your SOP’s will require editing.. Everything won’t be perfect
But with enough experimentation and minor changes, you’ll have an SOP that properly teaches your virtual assistant, with minor or no issues
Now you delegate important tasks to your VA
Such as:
DMs
Cold Emails
CRM Management
Relationship Building
Social Media Management etc.
Now if you were in my coaching program “Digital Philosopher University”, you’d be able to scale your business infinitely, while staying in this step
But since we’re following the mainstream business progression method, stage 3 will look like this..
Stage 3 - The Expansion Stage
Once you hit $2,500/mo, you will need to expand your team
Maybe hire a few more VAs, or get some more team members
Basically anything to remove effort from your part, while increasing revenue gain down the line
THIS is the stage where you really start building a team
But remember this.. You will be putting out fires left and right
And you will most likely keep struggling with it for a very long time
If you are at this stage, it means you’re no longer a 1 man business, but an agency
To be clear, people don’t care if you’re an agency, or if you’re a 1 man business
What they DO care about, is results
How much money can you make them? How much traffic can you generate etc.
With enough struggle, and enough management, you can hit $5,000/mo in this stage
Stage 4 - The Productization Stage
This stage is where you finalize the expansion of your employees, to a full team
It’s also where you start taking your processes, and turning them into online courses, lead magnets, and webinar trainings
This will increase cashflow, and allow you to build multiple revenue streams
If you are at this stage, you should have about 2000-5000 followers..
And 1000+ email subscribers
This is more than enough to make consistent sales using story emails and authority, personality, and credibility based content
It’s also more than enough to start landing clients through your following and through your email list
Now we get to the final stage..
Stage 5 - The Scaling Stage
So you’re making over $5000 a month, you have a few team members, and you have products selling consistently.. But how do you take this to the next level?
By spending money on ads
Spending money on ads right now, is by far your best choice..
Because you have more than enough cashflow to fund it..
And more than enough opportunity to figure out a formula that works
This means you can drastically increase your product sales and clients over a short period of time, WITHOUT paying out of pocket
Now before you start working on this plan of yours, let me share something with you..
Most people doing this, are not very good at it
In fact, most agency owners fail
Not only that, they spend a fortune on outsourcing and keeping things afloat
And most of them never truly feel free, because they just end up doing another 9-5
Now unless you think you’ve got a 99.99% of succeeding, I’d suggest you go a different route
It’s called the “The DPU Creator-Catalyst System”
Learn digital writing to sell, you’d normally need to outsource
Build a social media brand on 4 platforms at once
Build a copywriting portfolio that grows weekly
Never hire more than a single virtual assistant
Scale as high as you want
Here’s what you get:
A 4 Hour Content Creation Workshop On How I create over 80 social posts
A laid out 90 day roadmap to building a 1 man digital business with no team
An invite to my private discord community that never expires
82 Course Modules on digital writing
90 Days of 1 on 1 Coaching From Me
24/hr Q&A access on discord and X
And you keep access to the whole curriculum forever
If you’re interested, join the waitlist here
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Your systematic approach to building a digital business is incredibly clear and motivating!... It’s refreshing to see a step-by-step progression that actually makes sense. It seems like a roadmap to real, sustainable success. Out of curiosity, how do you adapt the system for industries that are constantly evolving? Looking forward to your insights on staying agile while scaling up!"