I wanted to talk to you today about the idea of the “geometric progression formula” and how it applies to business and business growth.
No matter where we are in our entrepreneurial journey, we must understand that universal processes happen. If we can properly understand the process, we can apply it to where we came from to get to where we are today, but also as a framework to understand what it’s going to take to get to where we want to go tomorrow.
What is the Geometric Progression Formula?
Did you know that if you take a single piece of paper and fold it in half 42 times, it can reach the moon? Each fold effectively doubles the thickness of the piece of paper. Here’s how that looks, utilizing the unit ‘ply’ for the thickness of a piece of paper:
1 ply
2 ply
4 ply
8 ply
16 ply
32 ply
64 ply
128 ply
256 ply
512 ply
Each time you fold the paper, you double the thickness. This is a mathematical principle that has infinite applications when developing your own journey framework for your business.
How does the geometric progression formula apply to business?
Let me tell you a brief story. Several years ago, I attended a business conference and sat in on a lecture all about goal setting. In the lesson, the proctor asked me to write a number on a piece of paper and declare that I was going to reach that number and by when. Of course, being the naive business owner I was at the time, I had no idea what number to write down, so I did what most people do and wrote $83,333 (1MM/Year). Why? Because it sounded nice, and of course, I wanted to make a million a year.
What I didn’t recognize at the time was that the number was almost meaningless. Meaningless because I had no context as to what that number actually meant and couldn’t see a journey to get there. I couldn’t possibly fathom a plan to make that amount of cash. I didn’t have a framework to help me get there. It was a made-up number for a meaningless dream that no amount of manifestation was going to bring me. A number so big it wouldn’t matter if I failed because, ‘who wouldn’t, right?’
Micro Chunking Geometric Progression
I was reading a book not long ago that mentioned the piece of paper analogy I mentioned above. And it dawned on me that this was directly applicable to reverse-engineering my own goals and making them attainable. The main point was to micro chunk the goal into easier or more attainable steps, so you only have to focus on the next flagpole in the race, rather than the end (even though we must always keep the end in mind). Here’s how it works:
What I’ve noticed is that in each step of the way, doubling your revenue or business takes a different set of skills or a different priority. Each step is a new ‘evolution’ of your business, and as such, you can create your own journey and set up your own milestones along the way. It’s pretty cool. Check out how it works.
I’m going to use 80k/month as my goal just for even numbers and reverse engineer the geometric progression.
80k/Month
40k/Month
20k/Month
10k/Month
5k/Month
What you can see here is similar to another concept in nuclear chemistry called half-life. Each step you take, you cut the goal in half and then set up each one as a milestone for yourself. The first step is to reach the first milestone. Let’s say it’s making it to $5000 a month. Give yourself about 3-6 months to do that and set your expectations realistically. The set of skills to do this usually involves choosing a niche or a target demographic, determining a problem that you can solve or are uniquely situated to accomplish for them, and finding your first few clients willing to give you a shot.
Creating Milestones Using The Formula
The next milestone is the 10k/month mark. This is where you start to set up systems around the problems you’re solving and just do more. This is where a TON of people stay stuck because you don’t quite have the funds to grow and outsource work that you’re doing, and you infrequently have enough of a ‘system’ to effectively create standard operating procedures. This is where you are an ‘employee’ of your own company. But you know that you need to do MORE and bring on MORE clients in order to reach the next milestone of 20k, and in order to do so, you must buy back your time by continuously automating, optimizing, or outsourcing (hiring) some of the work so that you can start creating the backbone of your company, which is the systems that you and your team use to get things done (assuming you have a team).
Once you reach the 20k/month range, you’re in a pretty good spot, and the next evolution is getting to 40k/month. This is where we start taking the clients that we serve 1on1 and finding a way to serve the same people 1onMany. It’s all about finding high-leverage activities to save time and still give equal value. Plus, the value of the group is a value add. We all want to be surrounded by other people working on the same things. You must continue buying back your time and creating more time by creating leverage. (Leverage is things like recording your onboarding, creating a weekly call with the entire group, building a course, saving yourself time on sales calls by optimizing the sales process, etc.)
Once you’ve reached the 40k mark, it’s time to really pour gasoline on the fire. At this point, you’ve figured out a lot of stuff. You should know a TON about your core customer avatar and the problems they experience. You should know a TON about how to solve those problems and have several customer case studies of you doing just that. It’s time to pour gasoline on in the form of advertising and marketing. Advertising is simply the art of letting people know about your stuff. At this point, you should have been doing a good amount of this already, but it’s time to get traffic and continue to optimize your marketing, sales, and fulfillment processes to work without you. And that will take you to the 80k mark.
The main idea is that each step takes a different mindset and different skills
It’s no wonder so many people get stuck. As I stated before, what got you here won’t get you there. We build our company at the beginning and become an employee of that company. We are the ones 100% responsible for our results, and we are the ones whose reputation is on the line. We have all the upside, but also all the responsibility and downside. It’s extremely difficult to give up control and empower and lead other people, and most often we will get stuck at the progression of our skills, and then realize there is an entirely new skill set to learn.
What to do now?
The first thing to do right now is identify where you are on this progression formula. If you’re making 10k a month, create a framework for your first milestone, which is to double where you are right now. Then the following milestone, which is double again. Then the final milestone, which is double again. Figure out and identify 5 new skills or ‘pivots’ you’re going to have to make at each milestone in order to effectively reach the next one. For example, if I were planning the next year, this is what it would look like:
10k/month – Foundations (Target -> 20k)
Work with my core clients and SERVE them at a ridiculously high level, even if that means working 60 hours a week. While serving them, retain a laser focus on the similarities between the clients and what they need. Start to create operating procedures and identify things that can be done without me so that I can bring on more clients in a similar situation. And find those clients. Continue buying back my time with the additional funds that I make from each new client.
20k/month – Leverage (Target -> 40k)
Empower leaders and create a virtual assistant team that I can delegate things to and make them work without my input. Focus on my own core competencies and the hats that I get to wear while implementing an ‘operating’ system in my business so that I can effectively delegate and communicate to those on my team. Bring the groups of my clients and prospects together to give value 1 to Many instead of taking all of my time 1on1. Build ‘products’ and/or services that can be delivered without me. Bring on more clients while focusing on freeing up time and figuring out how to give even more value.
40k/month – Scale (Target -> 80k)
Remove self from anything outside core competencies and empower leadership and C-Suite within the organization. Build a sales team and optimize the offer. Continue to focus on key constraints, starting with the top of the funnel (marketing) all the way to the bottom of the funnel (fulfillment). Continue turning up the dials on each step. Traffic —> Leads —> Appointments —> Applications —> Sales —> Fulfillment —> Retention. Identify the weak points and focus on making the pieces work even better. 1% better every day will have a compound effect on the business in the long term. The place most people start in this is with traffic by starting to invest in instant traffic (ads) or finding partners who would be willing to promote your offer to their shared audience.
Conclusion
These numbers and examples are real examples for the things I know about my own company. Every company is unique. I don’t want you to takeaway that the activities above are meant to be exactly what your company needs to do right now, as much as that there is a framework that you must follow and each 2x step is going to lead you to where you want to go in a much more manageable way.
It’s mind bending to think of the number 83,333 and see a path to getting there, but my brain can easily get around the idea of going from 10k to 20k/month, so I’ll start there and determine the path over the next 3 months to knock down the first dominos first. (Keep first things first). It’s unlikely I’ll make it through doing the things at the third evolution first becaue I haven’t built the foundations that I learn and build in the first geometric steps.
This framework is meant to help create focus on what needs to be done now vs. what you can table for later. If you’re just starting out, creating a podcast to publish to no audience might not be the best use of your time and limited resources. Or building a funnel for that matter. I promise you, you are not just “ONE FUNNEL AWAY” because on the backend of that funnel is a problem that you solve for a target market. Figure that out and respect and trust the process.