The Three S’s: To Stabilise, Sustain, or Scale?

There’s a whole lot of business advice out here telling you what to do next in your business.

Experiment with ads! Start creating reels! Focus on list growth! Create a scalable offering!

The list could go on and on. And the advice isn’t bad, a lot of it is actually really insightful and supportive and can be exactly what we need to guide us in the next steps of our business journey.

But there’s a key piece of the puzzle that we always have to bring to the table with us when navigating the advice and ideas out here and that is discernment.

I would probably say that discernment is one of the most underrated but game-changing qualities of a thriving business owner.

Because a thriving business cannot just be built by following someone else’s step by step process.

I often say to my clients: don’t bypass your business becoming.

Because business isn’t just something we do, it’s something that we become too.

Developing our business inner compass, our own gut instincts, and the tenacity and vision to guide our next steps is the life force at the heart of every thriving business owner that I know.

And discernment is at the heart of that, it’s how we figure out what noise to listen to and what noise to tune out and what steps to take next in our journey to intentionally make our way towards our goals.

And a tool I like to use when rooting into discernment in our business is the three S’s.

They help us clarify what kind of season we’re in and what our business actually needs right now to be supported to thrive so that we don’t lose time doing the things that won’t actually truly move the needle in our work.

Okay so what are the three S’s?

Stabilise, sustain, and scale.

Stabilise is when our business needs us to focus on building strong foundations, when we aren’t yet in a place of feeling steady, stable, and secure in our business.

Often we’re in a season of stabilising in the earlier stages of business, or when we’re pivoting, or perhaps during a slow or challenging season when we need to re-group and find steady ground again.

So often when we’re in a season of stabilising we can get distracted by shiny pennies that focus more on scaling when in reality we need to actually build the solid foundations that then can be scaled down the road.

Then there’s sustain, which is basically just a season of enjoying what you have built. This is when you are feeling really steady in your business, you’re most likely making your enough number and have made your ideal workweek your reality and you’re just sustaining the infrastructure that you have already built.

I have spent many years now in the sustaining season, and it’s only been since having my son 18 months ago that I have then gently started to shift into our final S which is scale.

So a scaling season is when we’re ready for more - more freedom, more income, more space, more creative fulfilment, it could be all of these or just some of these but it’s when we’re ready to enter the next chapter of growth in our work.

Often this can look like developing new offers, intentionally growing our audience, sometimes it may look like growing a team or building new systems into our business. It will depend on what your next vision is for your work but this is a season where we focus on intentional growth in our business and what makes it different from the stabilising season is that we have the security of what’s already be stabilised and sustained as our foundation to grow into the next chapter of our work.

As I break these down it’s probably quite obvious to you which season you’re in - even if it’s not the season you want to be in. Perhaps you just want to be at sustain already but you have some stabilising to do, or maybe you’re sustaining what you’ve built and you’d love to scale but you just don’t have the capacity for that in this season, or perhaps you’re scaling and you can’t wait to be in a sustaining season again but with the new vision you have for your work made possible already.

What the three S’s are here to help you do is root into what you actually need to thrive in this season and welcome in the guidance, support, and ideas that will actually support you best in the season that you’re in too.

I’ve supported hundreds of clients over the years, at all three S’s, and here are the biggest lessons I’ve learned for each:

For when you’re in a season of stabilising, focus on the foundations.

On building an engaged and aligned audience, on building your word of mouth and testimonials, on building your confidence and self-trust, and experimenting with intention every step of the way but not falling into the trap of just throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks.

Lean into the kind of boring work that it takes to stabilise a business, because there are no one-size-fits-all shortcuts - it’s just you and your business figuring it out and staying the course long enough to see what actually truly moves the needle. And you don’t have to do it alone - you can collapse some time by welcoming in guidance and support and insight but ultimately stabilising a business cannot happen overnight and your willingness to keep on showing up and figuring it out is key.

Then for when you’re in a season of sustaining my biggest encouragement is to be okay with leaning into the enough that you’ve already built for yourself because there’s a whole lot of noise out there encouraging you to chase more more more.

Enjoy what you’ve built, soak up the space and freedom and stability you’ve built into your work, and just be here where you are and stay open to wherever your journey may guide you next. And when your inner compass inevitably guides you to shift into the next season let the stability you’ve already built be your catalyst and support for whatever you desire next.

And then finally for when you’re in a season of scaling, root into deep courage that you are capable of going where you want to go next.

It’s hard to leave behind past security in the pursuit of more, even when you know deep down that’s what you want and need next in your business. And remember: what got you here probably isn’t going to be what gets you where you’re going next so stay open to new experiments and ways of doing business that can support you to step into that next level.

And it’s okay if the journey is messy, if you have a season of continuing to sustain what you’ve already built while also building out what you want next too. Trust that you will figure it out and remind yourself every step of the way of what you’re capable of.

Sit with the question of the three S’s, clarify whether you’re in a season of stabilising, sustaining, or scaling. See how that guides what you explore and experiment with next, and what noise it allows you to block out that cannot truly serve you right now too.

Ask yourself: is what I’m focusing on right now supporting me to do what I actually want and need to do in my business in this season?

And if you’re feeling stuck and unsure of what steps to take next? Seek out support from people who get what season you’re in and know that it’s okay to want and need guidance and support, no one does business alone.

Here’s to being in the season we’re actually in and intentionally moving our business forward in whatever way truly works best for you.

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Jen Carrington6 April 2022