Starting a business while transforming an idea into a lucrative venture is the dream of many entrepreneurs. Building a profitable enterprise from the ground up while becoming a boss can be incredibly rewarding. However, getting a business going and keeping it afloat is not always smooth-sailing. The longer a business operates, the less likely it is to fail.
According to the Small Business Administration (SBA), about 33% of small businesses go bankrupt in the first two years, around 50% crash after five years, while an average of 33% make it to 10 years or longer. The challenge then is, knowing how to get a small business past its high-risk stage.
Getting a business to stability can be incredibly challenging, as this requires a lot of hard work, sacrifice, and consistency. Every young business needs a number of factors to thrive. While a lot of entrepreneurs may think that finance or capital is the most important requirement for business success, capital, in reality, is only one out of several other factors that make a business successful. Aside from funding, one critical ingredient for business success is having a business plan, this allows a business owner to create pathways for driving profitability and maintaining sustainability. It also helps in determining entry and exit routes to the business.
Maggie Perotin, the Founder and CEO of Stairway to Leadership, a Toronto-based company created to help entrepreneurs achieve profitability and stability in business. Maggie has over 15 years of coaching and leadership experience in various domains in the corporate world. According to her, she has led, grown, and fixed various high-performing operational teams spread across Canada. She also holds the Facility Management Administration designation, a master’s degree in international relations, and is a Jack Welch scholar with an Executive MBA at Jack Welch Management Institute. As a business and leadership coach, Maggie helps service-based business owners start, grow, and scale their businesses without being overwhelmed.
Maggie explains that, through her DREAM-PLAN-DO coaching model, she helps her clients align their mindset, business strategy, and high-performance habits to transform their businesses from an unreliable source of income to a super-productive client-attracting gem. Maggie adds that she uses all her knowledge and experience to help her clients grow their businesses in a strategic and innovative way, while supporting them in building a successful business that consistently attracts their ideal clients. She specializes in helping them build a brand that showcases their uniqueness to reach their full potential, becoming the powerful CEO they’re capable of being.
“My DREAM-PLAN-DO business model has been a business masterstroke. I have used it in unlocking success streams for so many businesses.
This model talks about three important phases of starting a business: the Dream phase talks about how entrepreneurs can create a working business idea. The Plan phase explains how the entrepreneur draws the business model and all the factors that should be contained in it. Lastly, the Do phase details the action plans the entrepreneur is expected to take in order to achieve the desired results. The most exciting part is, I teach all this in a simple and easy-to-follow, step-by-step process,” Maggie explains.
Maggie says she offers sessions for clients, talking through their business challenges as well as helping them strategize. Helping clients build the right mindset necessary to achieve the required result for their business. According to her, when the mindset is right, entrepreneurs will be able to focus on the important details in the business.
“I hold a consultation, where clients can tell me where they are in their business and where they want to be. I’ll then diagnose the root causes of their current challenges and help them overcome them. I also let them know the key areas of their businesses to focus on. I focus on working on my clients’ mindset during my coaching sessions. I do this because I understand that knowledge alone doesn’t create results. When you have the wrong mindset in business, you will continue to focus on the negative aspects of what you’re doing. This can hold you back from taking the right steps and achieving success,”
She hopes to help thousands of people grow their businesses in the next five years, taking her business coaching venture to a multi-million dollar level. She also believes it is possible to grow a business in a sustainable manner without necessarily burning out or overworking.
Article published originally on usatoday.com website, on Sept 21, 2023.