The final phase in your evolutionary journey, and you are at the point where you are very much on the outside looking in. You’ve exceeded the 3000 property mark, and your business is now being run by your chosen directors, who fully believe in your ethos, and have passed all of your knowledge and expertise to their teams on the ground. You can now stand back and look at what you have created. Wonderful, isn’t it? Let’s talk about what’s happening now, and what might happen next…

Beyond 3000

Congratulations! You are now the owner of a fully established, fully grown business! From those early, fledgling days, you’ve watched as your hard work, nurturing, and vision have brought your dreams from conception to reality, and agonised over every decision in order to get things working the way that you want them to. You’ve shared your passion for your business with those first members of staff you took on, employed a management team, and brought in a team of directors. Wow, you’ve come a long way!

Once you’ve hit that 3000 threshold in the evolutionary scale, you’re at the point where the shareholders will begin to take over. It’s worth thinking about that, and keeping in mind your end goal. Remember what we talked about right at the beginning of this journey – why did you start this business? What was the reason you wanted to do this?

Now the future of your business is very much in someone else’s hands. So what about you? This is the point where you have the ability to decide what you want for yourself. Perhaps that means cashing in, selling up. Retire and go somewhere sunny. You could leave the business to your children. It might mean you use your position and wealth to give back to others. Maybe you will do something to make a difference in your community, or help your kids get on in life. It’s a great position to be in.

“Can somebody answer the phone?!”

If you think about your position within the company at this point, I’m willing to bet that your role is very much altered from those earlier days – You’ll be more of a leader than a staff member, and as such you’ll be away from the shop-floor, and dealing with things in the background. Your focus will be on growth, acquisition, and strategy. What you won’t be doing is filling in paperwork and answering the phones! Chances are that you’ve been away from these kinds of tasks for so long, you’d struggle to do them, anyway. You’re not involved in that stuff anymore.

What you will be involved in is making sure that the Board of Directors is working to the guidelines you’ve set out for them in order to direct the management team, and that the management team knows your ethos well enough to ensure that the staff on ground level are providing the correct services at the correct prices in the correct way. In other words, everyone has to be on the same page – the page you wrote in order to run your business your way.

Remember your WHY

You will have had a reason to start this business way back when. We have mentioned this once or twice in the previous posts in this series – what is your WHY?

Why do you want to be in business? What made you take this journey? Was it because you wanted more money? Because you wanted to make a difference? Or, was it because you just wanted to be somebody? Did you want the feeling of being a successful person?

Perhaps not surprisingly, about 80% of people say it’s because they want to make a difference. If you look beyond the monetary value of your WHY, the idea of being able to make a difference will likely be pretty high on your agenda. And this is the point, as we mentioned above, where your unique position enables you to make that decision – where can you make that difference? It might be something really personal to you, such as family and friends, your local community, or it might be something bigger or further afield. Whatever it is, this was always your motive for being in business. Isn’t it a great feeling that you can now achieve that?

The end?

Is this the end of your journey? Or is this the beginning of a new adventure? That’s for you to decide; and isn’t it a fantastic feeling to have that option? To be able to have the freedom, the financial certainty to choose which path you take next? And that’s the point, isn’t it? You’ve put in all this hard work in order to get here. To enjoy the freedom of choice, for you, and your family.