The 100th Edition And My Wild Bet
The 100th Edition And My Wild Bet
100 editions ago, I made a bet that most business owners are flying blind.
5,127 subscribers and 32.5K followers later, I'm more sure than ever.
Here's the truth nobody puts on the highlight reel.
Nearly 1 in 4 businesses fail in year one. Half are gone in five. The odds are not on your side.
But the odds change based on a few things most owners skip.
I learned this the hard way. I scaled a trucking company to $6M with 27 trucks in under a year. The rise was incredible.
The fall was faster. Why? I was buried IN the business and never working ON it.
Here's what fixes that:
1️⃣ Stop for 30 minutes a day. Ask where you really are and what you're avoiding. Owners who do this decide on purpose, not out of panic.
2️⃣ Be coachable. Owners who seek input and act on it raise their odds of success by roughly 71%.
3️⃣ Solve for all 7 Core Competencies. By nature, you only bring 3 or 4. The other 3 or 4 must be solved for.
Only three ways exist:
✅ Hire it (but if you're not good at it, how will you know what right looks like?)
✅ Partner for it (just know we tend to partner with people like us, not people who complete us)
✅ Outsource it (my pick early on, and exactly what a great coach is for)
The 7 Core Competencies:
✳️ Leadership & Vision
✳️ Financial Acumen
✳️ Sales & Marketing
✳️ Operational Excellence
✳️ People Management
✳️ Customer Focus
✳️ Innovation & Technology
The 8 Phases of Scale:
➡️ Creator ($0–100K): 45% of all businesses are in this phase.
➡️ Hustler ($100–250K): 25% of all businesses
➡️ Operator ($250–500K): 15% of all businesses
➡️ Leader ($500K–1M): 9% of all businesses
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➡️ Architect ($1–3M): only 6% ever hit $1M, and ⅔’s of them stay at this Phase.
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➡️ Optimizer ($3–10M): 1.5%
➡️ Executive ($10–25M): 0.4%
➡️ Investor ($25–100M+): 0.1%
Each competency matters more or less depending on your phase. That gap is usually why you're stalled.
Here's the part that stings. Hitting $1M puts you in the top 6% on earth. Feels like the finish line. Yet, it's phase 5 of 8.
You're halfway. And although you’ve come so far, you're probably not ready for the next half…
One more stat: up to 80% of businesses listed for sale never sell. Why? They weren't built to sell. But everyone exits eventually.
And, of the businesses that do sell, slightly more than half of those businesses sell on their terms. Meaning, they sell due to something else, cash flow issues, divorce, illness, burnout, or family issues.
So build it to sell now while you are growing, or you won’t be ready to sell when you need to or find the opportunity.
Are you interested in identifying which competency is holding you back and which phase you’re actually in?
P.S. Try our assessment at MyBizNavigator.com
👉 Also consider learning more about our Playbook at My Biz Coaches by picking up a copy of my new book: “The CEO’s Playbook for Scale: The Only Guide You Need to Start, Grow, Scale, and Exit Your Business Successfully" for just $9.99 or the ebook for just $0.99 on Amazon: https://amzn.to/4xt0YZs
To Your Success,
Eric T. Whitmoyer, Business Growth Strategist
Founder & CEO at MyBizCoaches.com
Host of The Biz Coach Show
From Startup to Exit, We're There for Your Biggest Decisions
P.S. If you're serious about taking your business to the next level, then you may find value in getting a copy of our 2026 Business Survival Guide, full of strategies, tactics, and solutions to help move your business forward faster this year.
Because the difference between ordinary and extraordinary isn't luck; it's the information you act on.
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