You have managed to successfully navigate your way through the infancy stage of your business and you created an operation that is beginning to take off. You are generating clients and you are make sales which has paid you good money.

However, you probably find that you are doing everything yourself or even if you have team to assist in the day to day operations you find that you never seems to have any downtime.

You are determined to take your business to the next level and multiply your income but need some serious systems and leverage.

The irony of entrepreneurial success is that the very behaviors and habit patterns that lead to success at one stage of growth can contribute to failure at the next stage.

So it is critically important to identify what it is you NOW need to do, to achieve that next level of success and implement these things into your business.

This will allow your business to scale up smoothly without you spending 24 x 7 x 365 in your business to get there. Without the right plan which focuses on systems and leverage you will find yourself on the fast track to burn out.

You’re are action oriented and passionate about your work, and as a result you make good money. Typically, your business is turning over more than €150k per year at this point. You have lots of clients—so much so, that you sometimes have a difficult time keeping up.

In becoming an entrepreneur, chances are you’ve actually created another job for yourself. You’re a high-achiever, and determined to bring value to the marketplace. One of your core drivers is that your business must make your customer’s life better.

But you are finding more and more that you struggle with a completely full schedule and there seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel. As a result, you have little time for yourself, and you’re probably feeling guilty about neglecting those who are most important to you.

Although from an outsiders perspective the business seems to be doing well and you’re making good money your days just seem to be way too short and you to-do list seems to be getting longer and longer and for every items to take off many more go on.

This means that it is physically/mentally impossible to do everything that you need to. People want your time but just can’t seem to get it.

Everyone is constantly putting out fires. Your not sure which of the multiple growth opportunities you should be pursuing.

You also feel mounting pressure because you’re managing all the risks alone.

As a result of all of this your stress level is pretty high and it’s likely that you haven’t taken a vacation in a while because you’re just too busy.

The other challenge your probably facing is that you’ve become the bottleneck in the business because nothing gets done without you doing it or approving it.

In fact, if you take a cold hard look you would see that if you were to take a step back from the day to day operations, the business would struggle to function without you being there.

It’s not unusual for you to be working 50, 60 or more hours per week just to keep it all going.

At this point, you’ve reached a glass ceiling: it feels like the only way to get your business to the next level is by working much longer hours, but you just don’t have it in you.

The initial Growth stages can be difficult to manage. Every step – adding employees, increasing customer value, changing the way you do things and how things get done – means growing pains.

As the complexity and scale of your business increase, you will experience some defining moments.

You will realize that you can’t do it all yourself any more and that you don’t know how to solve some of the more complex issues facing your company.

If this sounds like you then you have reached that all to common point all successful business owners and entrepreneurs experience as they go for growth.

You are at the glass ceiling between the start-up phase of your business and the initial growth stage.

The decision many entrepreneurs make at this critical juncture, who are determined to take there organisation to the next level, is to work much longer hours.

This decision is often the beginning of the end.