What does it take to shift from startup to growth when you’re ADHD? To build a business that lasts you need consistency, plenty of patience, and an “experimentation mindset”.
The Start-Up Phase Can Last Longer Than You Think
People often expect the start-up phase to last 2-3 months. But the truth is often it takes years. My own businesses have been in the startup phase for 2-3 years.
This period is crucial; it’s all about building a consistent, replicable system that generates income.
Think Tactical for Early Capital
Sometimes you need to sacrifice long-term goals for upfront gain. In my first business we focused on raising initial capital by doing something that wasn’t going to lead to anything long-term.
But this short-term income allowed us to invest in the bigger picture. It helped my ADHD brain focus on one thing at once, and build a team who would help with the longer-term vision. I call it a stepping stone business – something that builds initial capital.
Consistency Is the Secret Sauce
The key to growing beyond the startup phase is building a consistent, reliable system that will generate income time and time again.
Your raw ingredients are your traffic sources (like search engines), your product or service, and the customers you’ll sell to.
To move from startup to grow you need to align and leverage all these components.
With my coaching business, for example, I needed traffic. I needed to understand the coaching business better before I could really turn people into customers. This process took me about a year and a half.
That was hard for my ADHD brain, but I managed it by having singular monthly focuses. For example, this month I’m link building, this month I’m working on conversions, and so on. This allowed me to keep the experimental mindset alive – I would try different ideas out during these months to see what worked.
People Before Product
You could have the most amazing product in the world. But you won’t sell it unless you’ve got the right people in front of you.
There’s no point having a sophisticated sales system if you don’t have a solid marketing plan. Focus on building an audience or getting traffic before you perfect your offering, and build it in an experimental way where you try things out, gather data, and iterate.
Growth Starts With a Solid System
It’s all too easy to rush ahead without a solid foundation in place. The growth phase can only begin once you’ve got this consistent, sustainable business model because your ADHD brain will find it too difficult to handle too many things at once. In practice this means:
- You know how to attract leads
- You’ve got a clear offer that converts
- You can deliver consistent sales
- Your business is repeatable and predictable
At that point you’re ready to scale, expand your team to help your ADHD brain get through the growth phase, add new business arms, or start new ventures.
It’s a Marathon, Not a Race
Too many entrepreneurs quit too early, right before they hit sustainability. And the ones who give up believe that they’re failed as entrepreneurs, when in fact that’s just part of the journey.
Success often comes after a period of trying stuff and seeing what works – that’s the experimental mindset. Things will go wrong.
And that’s ok. Founders often test, fail, adjust and repeat, sometimes for years.
I recommend thinking about what support you need to keep going before things get tough. That might be a network of fellow ADHD founders and entrepreneurs. It could be trusted friends and family members. Or maybe you’ll choose to work with an ADHD business coach.
Whatever you do, don’t wait until you’re at breaking point! Get these resources in place in advance so you know someone has got your back just in case you need it.
A 10,000-Foot View Helps in Early Stages
It’s easy to get caught up in every little detail of your business. It’s your baby. When I talk to customers we start by looking at their business from 10,000 feet up. ADHD people can get too stuck in the detail, and have never zoomed out. We’ll ask questions like:
- How are they marketing?
- What’s their positioning?
- Who are they marketing to?
- What’s their sales? How are they selling to people?
- What’s the product? How are they producing that product?
Looking at the bigger picture rather than getting bogged down in minutiae helps you stay tactical and strategic.
That’s not something that comes easy to all ADHD brains, but with practice, it can do. It’s easier to see your next steps from up here.
Adopt an “Experimentation Mindset”
Having an “experimentation mindset” is critical for business success in the early years.
Be open to testing, learning and adjusting.
You need to be ready to bounce around trying to make your business work, at least for the first few years.
The most successful ADHD founders are often learners first and foremost. They’re up for trying new things and thinking beyond the norm.
And finally, let go of the need to be perfect! This is a massively common trait for ADHD brains, because we’ve experienced a lot of trauma which leads to Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria
Aim for a “good enough to test and get an answer” approach.
If your marketing or sales is working, it doesn’t need to be perfect because you can improve it later. Instead of spending hours slaving over that landing page, just get it done. You can always come back and adjust later.