The #1 Problem in Entrepreneurship, and Why No One Is Talking About It

This is the Momentum podcast. Today, I want to jump into and share with you what I feel and really what can be argued as the number one problem the majority of entrepreneurs have that nobody talks about. And I want to talk about why no one talks about it and how you can get over this problem. I'm Alex Charfen, and this is the momentum podcast made for empire builders, game changers, trailblazers, shot takers, record breakers, world makers and creators of all kinds, those among us who can't turn it off and don't know why anyone would want to.

We challenge complacency, destroy apathy, and we are obsessed with creating momentum so we can roll over bureaucracy and make our greatest contribution. Sure, we pay attention to their rules, but only so that we can bend them, break them, then rewrite them around our own will. We don't accept our destiny. We define it. We don't understand defeat because you only lose if you stop. And we don't know how. While the rest of the world strives for average and clings desperately to the status quo, we are the minority, the few who are willing to hallucinate. There could be a better future. And instead of just daydreaming of what could be, we endure the vulnerability and exposure it takes to make it real. We are the evolutionary hunters, clearly the most important people in the world, because entrepreneurs are the only source of consistent, positive human evolution and we always will be.

And so let's jump in, I want to I want to talk about the number one problem that entrepreneurs have and why no one talks about it. So first, I want to start with a story. I want to start with kind of an anecdote. So I'm forty eight years old. I started in the online market space with an online business for the first time in two thousand seven. Prior to that, I'd been in real estate and prior to that I'd been a consultant. And so really, my online marketing business space is about it's about 14 years of being in this space, specifically in the 14 years I've been in this space, I have heard a presentation from someone on stage over and over again that sounds something like this. And so let me set the scene for you. It's usually at a business event and the person on stage talking is talking to people about how to get started up, how to find the right product to sell, how to how to get some traction, how to create a business and move forward. And then they start talking about what type of market you want to address. And they say things. And this is this is the pitch. The words are different, but the sentiment is the same every time it's you want to find a market where people are ready for you. And here's how it's explained. There are several different types of markets. Let's look at the least desirable type of market.

The least desirable type of market is where people don't know they have a problem, they don't know there's a solution and they don't know you're the solution. If you choose that market, you're going to have to explain the problem to them. You're going to explain the solution to them. Then you're going to have to sell yourself. You probably shouldn't do that one. Now, the second type of market is where people know they have a problem, but they don't know there's a solution and they don't know you're the solution. They just know there's a problem there. Well, that market's a little more desirable because at least they're acknowledging the problem. They know that they have a problem, but they don't know the solution. Now, the third type of market is the market where people know they have a problem.

They know there are solutions out there. They don't know you're the solution. This would probably be the most desirable for you because all you have to do is convince them you're the solution to the problem. They already know they have. And that is a how many of you have heard this? If you've heard this just in the comments? I've definitely been there. I've heard it. I heard the pitch because here's what's happening. Every time that is shared with a room full of entrepreneurs, we're basically told if someone doesn't understand the problem that they have, don't go help them. And so that's why I feel like the number one problem in entrepreneurship is one that we don't talk about. And here's why. And that's why. Here's the number one problem. Entrepreneurs don't have a strategic plan. Now, if you gather together one hundred entrepreneurs and we and I can tell you this based on how many entrepreneurs we talk to on a monthly basis and you ask what is the biggest problem in your business right now in One Hundred Entrepreneurs?

Here's what you can find. About ninety five of them will not mention the strategic planning of any kind. They'll blame their problems on something else. Two or three of them will have a strategic plan and tell you, I've got these other problems because I have a strategic plan. And then there will be a couple of entrepreneurs that say, you know what, I don't think I have a plan. I need help. I don't really know where we're going next because they have the awareness of the problem. The vast majority of entrepreneurs don't even know this is an issue.

And here's and this is such a massive issue if you're an entrepreneur, here's here's why in entrepreneurship. Here's why it is hurting you so much when you don't have a plan. In fact, when I say this is the number one problem in entrepreneurship, let me qualify that. When I say not having a strategic plan is the biggest problem we have is for anyone who's beyond the point where you now have even one team member. As soon as you have a single team member, I think it actually starts before this. But as soon as you have a single team member, you must start creating a strategic plan for your business if you want it to grow as fast as possible. If you don't, you don't have to have a strategic plan. You can do it by project plans. You can kind of overwhelm yourself. You can do a lot of the work yourself. You can continue to do a lot of the work yourself. But if you want to have a business where you can grow and scale without giving up your life, what you can grow and scale and still have a life and still do what you want. And if you want to have a business that actually creates freedom, then this is what's holding you back.

Let me explain to you why when you don't have a strategic plan in your business, these are the conditions that are present. No. One, you're guaranteed you are the biggest bottleneck. If you don't have a strategic plan in your business, your team must go through you to get the information they need to do their projects. So they're always going through you.

This means definitively you are the biggest bottleneck in the business. Now, if you create a strategic plan and you present it to your team and everyone knows where you're going and it's impossible to misunderstand and easy to understand and they all know the outcomes are driving towards. Now, your team can get out in front of you. You move out of the way of being the biggest bottleneck. Your team gets out in front of you and they can go pursue outcomes, they can make things happen and you can coach their success along the way. So not having a strategic plan is causing massive issues in everyone's business. Who doesn't have one? In fact, when you talk about entrepreneurial overwound, one of the most overwhelming feelings in a business for the entrepreneur in charge is that we feel like we're doing it all ourselves. In fact, it's not it's worse than doing it ourselves. It feels.

We're doing it all ourselves, but then we hire help and we still end up tethered to doing everything. Have you ever felt this way? I know that when I was in my 20s and I grew my first business, I didn't understand strategic planning. I didn't understand how important this was. So I didn't have a strategic plan. And I always felt like I was delegating something and it would bounce right back to me. I called it boomerang allegation. I was like, here you go. Oh, it's coming right back. And it happened over and over and over again. And the reason that it happened was there was not a global strategic plan. There wasn't clarity as to what people were really doing. They didn't understand what they should be doing to move the company forward and to move the business forward. And now here is probably the biggest challenge to not having a strategic plan. You are not clear on what you and your team can do. Here's what I mean by this. In the absence of a strategic plan, it's get everything done all at once and right away or work on all the projects or do as much as you can, but you're not setting up what you're going to execute. So when things are done, you don't really know what you're capable of. Let me give you the other side of that coin. When you create a clear written strategic plan for the next 30 days, you have perspective as to exactly what you and your team are focused on, working on going to move forward. You then execute that strategic plan and you see how much of that you were able to get done. And you know what happens. You know better what you can do in the next 30 day period. Then you do it again. You create that strategic plan, you execute. Then you look at it for perspective and you know what you can do in the next 30 day period. And after you've done this for two or three, 30 day periods, you actually start improving with how much you can get done as a team. After you've done this for six months or nine months, you actually start understanding how well your team can execute in a period of time and you start getting more out of it. And once you've been doing this for even longer, you and your team instinctively, methodically, systematically will crush through your goals because you know what you're capable of and you now have perspective as to what you're actually doing. This is a huge issue in entrepreneurship. When we don't have clarity as to where we're going, everything is challenged. In fact, entrepreneurs where that small percentage of the population you've heard me before, you've heard me say this. We get up in the morning, we travel into the future, create a new reality, come back to the present and we demand it becomes real. And here's the issue.

If we go out to the future and create a new reality and we come back to the present and we don't create a plan, the only person who understands that future is us. That means anybody involved with helping us with it, anybody involved on our team, anyone who's trying to keep up with us, the only person who knows where we're going is us. So we are guaranteeing we will always be the biggest bottleneck. We will always be overwhelmed. We will always get got two minutes and interruptions on and on and on until we finally create a strategic plan, show it to our team, help them understand it, and we execute together and move forward fast. Now, going from no plan to having a plan is absolutely life changing. I often think of our members when I talk about not having a strategic plan because so many of them were plateaued, so many of them were stuck, so many of them were frustrated because they weren't moving forward. I think of some members that just rejoined our program this week.

I'm so excited to have them back. Ashlynn and Wallace Nelson, they are incredible entrepreneurs. They run a wholesale supplement company. I supplement company that helps other people get into the supplement business. And when we started working with them a few years ago, they didn't have a strategic plan. They were running a I think it was about a 30 year old supplement business that was a family business that Wallace had taken over. It had been plateaued forever in between five and six million for a long time. And so they came into our program and we helped them create a strategic plan. And on a strategic plan is all the projects that you're going to achieve, the policies you're going to put in place, the processes, your document, the people you're going to promote, hire or have, do something for you or delegate do so all four PS people, policies, process and projects. And they put all of their everything that we're doing into a strategic plan. And after struggling to grow past five or six million, four years, I mean, this is a thirty year old business that have been stuck for years. They put together a strategic plan and within the first 12 month period, post plan got up to almost nine million dollars. We're talking about a company that was stuck for years at under six goes up to nine, almost fifty percent increase in the size of the business in under a year from creating a strategic plan. When you have clarity of your plan, it creates confidence in where you're going. It gives you a massive commitment. You will go all in and grow your business like crazy. So if you are an entrepreneur who has a business and you've hired your first team member or two, or even if you have a larger team, when Wallace in the ASHLYNN came to us, they had a team of dozens of people. And if you are, you have a team and you're ready to start getting more out of your team, you ready to get out of being the biggest bottleneck and you want to grow your business fast, reach out to us. Go to billionaire dotcom. The billionaire Koch is a framework I created that shows you how to go from zero to one hundred million dollars. As an entrepreneur, it will give you a ton of insight into where your business is. And even more importantly, when you go to billionaire dotcom, you can set up a call with a member of my team, but. Talk to you about the products we have that will show you how to create a strategic plan communicated effectively with your team and grow and scale your business in a way that's predictable and fast.

I often share with entrepreneurs we help people grow their business. Predictably, here's what that means. You're creating a plan and you're knocking it down. Some of them say, well, predictable seems slow. It seems kind of boring or predictable is anything but slow or boring. Wallace and Ashley went from six to nine million dollars in under a year. We've had other members that have taken a business from a couple million dollars to tens of millions of dollars in two or three years. When you create predictability in your business, your business will explode. Go to billionaire COCOM. We would love to connect with you and understand how we can help you. Set up a call with my team. I guarantee you'll enjoy it. You'll be talking to one of our coaches. We don't have salespeople and I can't wait for them to connect with you. So billionaire COCOM go set up a call now and talk to my team. Let's see if we can help you create a plan so you eliminate the number one problem that entrepreneurs have and you can get into momentum like you never have before.