Why 90% of Entrepreneurs Get Their Business Stage Wrong? (And How It Is Killing Their Business)

Knowing your business stage and acting upon it is arguably one of the most important things you can do in business. It's one leverage point you don't feel if you started on the right foot and you crave if you didn't.

Who am I kidding, the chances of you falling for this is almost 90%. From my perspective, this has screwed me so many times that I can't say anything but tell you that it's the single most predeterminer of your success in business.

To put it simply, being aware of your business stage is being aware of the things you should be doing now above all others to get the expected results you need to have a stable business and get to the next stage.

So, what happens when you get the stage wrong?

1. Overlooking a Broken Business Model

Your business model is how you make money—whether it's selling goods, services, or digital products. If you get this wrong, no matter what you do, your business will fail or stall at best.

You need profitable unit economics. For a $29 book with $14 in costs, your gross profit is $15 per unit. Then subtract your general expenses (salaries, rent, ads, etc.). If you get a positive number, you're on the right track. If not, you're building on quicksand.

2. Chasing the Wrong Problems

Your mind always looks for easy solutions. When it finds a hard problem it can't solve, it looks for an easier one.

Instead of fixing your business model, you harass your sales team for more revenue, blame marketing for poor ad performance, or demand operations deliver faster. You're not a fool - you're just emotionally hijacked, running around business functions to numb the pain of not knowing the real solution.

3. The Insanity Cycle

Now you're chasing problems, solving some, hitting blocks, then looking for the next easy fix. You're doing a million things but never finishing one.

You're spread thin, your energy is scattered, and you're making everyone around you anxious. This amplifies the problem - you lose clients, team members quit, and eventually, quitting becomes your next logical choice.

The Warning Signs

Before you spiral completely, watch for these red flags:

• You're constantly firefighting instead of preventing problems

• Your metrics don't align with your actions—obsessing over followers while ignoring cash flow

• You feel perpetually behind, comparing your struggle to everyone else's highlight reel

Getting your business stage wrong doesn't just slow you down, it compounds exponentially:

• Resource Misallocation: You throw money at advanced marketing automation while basic customer service falls apart.

• Decision Fatigue: Every choice feels equally urgent, exhausting your mental energy on trivial decisions while big ones get postponed.

• Team Confusion: Nothing destroys morale faster than a leader who changes direction weekly.

You start battling distractions without a compass for what's important. You waste time on endless trial and error because every experiment looks promising. You attract the wrong people—bad hires, greedy consultants—because desperate entrepreneurs make easy targets.

The pressure builds, you become impatient, feel cornered, and make increasingly bad decisions.

Breaking the Cycle

1. Get Brutally Honest About Your Stage

Stop pretending you're further along than you are. If you're pre-revenue, don't act like a scaling company. If you're small but profitable, don't try competing with enterprises.

2. Focus on Stage-Specific Metrics

• Validation Stage: Customer interviews, problem validation, willingness to pay

• Early Revenue: Customer acquisition cost, product-market fit signals

• Growth Stage: Unit economics, scalable systems

• Scale Stage: Market expansion, operational efficiency

3. Master One Thing at a Time

Get your current stage right before moving to the next. Resist the temptation of shiny objects—every new opportunity will seem like the answer, but it's usually just a distraction from the hard work you actually need to do.

4. Build Appropriate Systems

Don't implement enterprise systems as a solopreneur, and don't try scaling with startup chaos. Match your systems to your stage.

Here's what I wish someone had told me:

Your business stage isn't a judgment of your self-worth, it’s data that helps you get unstuck and move forward.

There's no prize for pretending to be further along than you are. But there's a massive reward for being exactly where you are and doing exactly what that stage requires.

Your business stage is your roadmap. Stick to it and you'll avoid becoming another statistic in the 90% failure rate. Ignore it, and you'll learn the hard way why so many promising businesses never make it past their first few years.

The question isn't whether you'll face these challenges, it's whether you'll recognize them early enough to course-correct before they compound into business-ending problems.

If you're ready to get unstuck and start moving forward again with your business,

Reply to this email with "UNSTUCK" or DM on x.com/ItsBialy. Let's talk about how to solve for the right problems and turn your anxiety into momentum.

Talk soon,

Bialy