You’re doing all the marketing things. You’ve got a podcast. You’re posting on social media. Maybe you’re even speaking on stages. But when someone asks you how many sales those efforts have generated in the last 90 days, you just stare at them like a deer in the headlights.

Sound familiar?

You might be doing all the right things, but if you’re applying tactics from the wrong stage of business, you’re building your foundation on shaky ground. And that’s costing you clients, time, and money.

After working with hundreds of former corporate leaders who’ve launched coaching and consulting businesses, I’ve identified three distinct stages of business growth. And here’s the kicker—most people are operating from the wrong stage entirely.

The Three Stages of Business: Start, Optimize, and Scale

Your business will move through (or skip around between) these three stages. Understanding which stage you’re actually in is the difference between spinning your wheels and gaining real traction.

Let’s break down what happens at each stage and where things typically go sideways.

Stage 1: Start – Building Your Foundation

What This Stage Looks Like:

The Start stage is where most former corporate professionals find themselves when they first launch their consulting or coaching business. You’ve got tons of skills from your corporate career, and you’re ready to turn that expertise into a business.

But here’s where everyone wants to rush straight into technology. They want a fancy website, an email platform, all the bells and whistles. It feels safe and productive.

The Problem:

If you’re not crystal clear on three critical things, no amount of technology will help you get traction:

1. Your Message – How you talk about what you do
2. Your Audience – Who you’re actually helping
3. Your Offer – What transformation you deliver (not just a list of deliverables)

Common Symptoms You’re Stuck in Start:

• Very few sales calls or discovery conversations
• Little to no traction despite having a strong corporate network
• Struggling to explain what you do in a way that resonates
• Low confidence in marketing yourself (even though you’re amazing at what you do)
• Trying to serve everyone instead of getting specific

The Biggest Mistake:

Trying to help “all small businesses,” or “all middle market companies,” or “anyone who needs leadership coaching.”

I can’t tell you how many people tell me they work with middle-market companies. Great. Do you know how many middle-market companies exist? If you’re a dentist running a small business and someone says they help small businesses, you’re thinking, “Yeah, whatever. That’s not for me.”

What Actually Works:

Get specific. Really specific.

For example, I recently worked with a client who did corporate communications in the finance and tech space. Instead of positioning herself as someone who “does corporate communication for mid-sized companies,” we focused on her unique expertise: developing communication strategies for intergenerational workforces.

Think about it. Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X (always forgotten, but we’re here), and Boomers all communicate completely differently in the workplace. Most companies have zero processes around this. Which message do you think gets more traction?

If you’re in the Start stage, you need to focus on message, audience, and offer clarity before anything else. Learn more about getting started the right way.

Stage 2: Optimize – Stop Chasing Shiny Objects

What This Stage Looks Like:

You’ve got clients. You might even have a small team. You’re doing lots of marketing activities—maybe a podcast, social media, speaking engagements, and YouTube videos. You’re busy. Really busy.

But when I ask how many sales you’ve gotten from all those activities in the last 90 days, you look at me like I’ve grown a second head.

Houston, we have a problem.

Common Symptoms You’re Stuck in Optimize:

• Doing everything but connecting nothing to revenue
• Spending lots of time and money on marketing tactics with no tracking
• Shiny object syndrome—always jumping to the next thing before building momentum
• Team members are either running around like they’re covered in honey, being chased by a bear, or sitting around wondering what they’re supposed to be doing
• No processes in place (or processes that nobody can find)

The Biggest Mistake:

I think there must be secret memos that go out to business owners. Five years ago, everyone worked with “small businesses.” Now everyone works with “middle market companies.” And apparently, everyone needs a podcast.

Look, I’m not saying podcasts are bad. I’m not saying any of these tactics are bad. But here’s what I see constantly:

Someone creates 300 podcast episodes. They spend thousands of dollars on production, editing, and distribution. And when I ask how many clients they’ve gotten from it, they say, “Oh, we haven’t gotten one client from the podcast.”

What in God’s name?

The same thing happens with ads, social media, speaking engagements, and virtual summits. People throw money and time at tactics without ever connecting the dots to how those tactics actually generate sales.

What Actually Works:

Every activity you do builds momentum. But if you only do something for 60 days and then switch gears, you’re starting over at zero. You have to start completely over to build that momentum again.

You need a plan that tracks every marketing activity to get people into a funnel that builds relationships and leads to purchases. Period.

Stop investing in tactics until you have a direct line to how they’re going to generate revenue. Learn how to optimize what you’re already doing.

Stage 3: Scale – Get Your Life Back

What This Stage Looks Like:

You’re successful. You have consistent revenue and clients coming through the door. From the outside, everything looks great.

But you’re so immersed in your business that you can’t take a vacation. You feel like no one else can do what you do. You don’t have processes, or if you do, nobody can find them.

Common Symptoms You’re Stuck in Scale:

• Haven’t taken a real vacation in years (or ever)
• Constant paranoia that everything will fall apart if you step away
• Wearing all the hats—delivery, sales, content creation, team management
• Referral or affiliate partners who don’t really know how to refer clients effectively
• Can’t hand anything off to your team with confidence
• High-level goals that only exist in your head

The Biggest Mistake:

You didn’t leave your corporate job to work more hours than you did at your nine-to-five. But here you are, working nights and weekends, unable to disconnect.

The problem isn’t that you need to work harder. It’s that you don’t have the systems, processes, and team support to scale without burning out.

What Actually Works:

You need three things:

1. Equipped partners – Your referral and affiliate partners need the right resources and processes to consistently bring you clients
2. Documented processes – Everything should be documented so your team can execute without you
3. Connected plans – Your team needs to understand not just the high-level goals, but the specific plan to get there

Yes, you want to add another six figures in revenue. But if you’re at $100K and want to hit $600K by year-end, there needs to be a detailed plan that doesn’t just live in your head.

Your team shouldn’t be sitting around hoping you’ll let them in on the plan at some point. Learn how to scale without the chaos.

So Which Stage Are You Actually In?

You might be generating revenue (Optimize or Scale stage), but still struggling with foundational issues from the Start stage. Your business might be somewhere between stages. That’s completely normal.

The key is identifying where you are right now so you can focus on the right strategies for your actual stage, not the stage you think you’re in or the stage you want to be in.

Take the Business Stage Assessment to find out exactly where you are and get specific action steps for your stage.

At the end of the day, if you’re feeling like you’re doing all the marketing things but not seeing the results, it’s probably not because you’re not working hard enough. It’s because you’re applying tactics from the wrong stage of business.

Once you know your stage, you can create a marketing strategy that actually makes sense for where you are right now. You’ll stop wasting time and money on tactics that don’t move the needle. And you’ll finally start seeing the traction you’ve been working so hard to get.

Ready to identify your stage and get a clear action plan? Take the Business Stage Assessment now and get specific strategies for where you are today.

If you found this helpful, pay it forward by sharing it with a fellow coach or consultant who’s struggling to get traction. Sometimes the most valuable thing we can do is help each other see our blind spots.

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