In business, there are times when you are ready but your business isn't. And there are times when your business is ready but you aren't. Whether it's related to getting more visible, launching, scaling, hiring, delegating, investing, or all of the other new steps required in business—anything new that you have to do—you could be experiencing readiness dissonance. And that's because there are two different definitions of readiness. First, the state of being fully prepared for something, and second, a willingness to do something. Some entrepreneurs come to me saying that they're trying to scale, but it's not working. They are willing to scale, but their business isn't ready. So they have the willingness.

The second definition, but they don't have the first. Their business isn't fully prepared to scale. Maybe this is you. You clearly see where you want to go but not how to get there. You feel eager to get to that next level, maybe even in a hurry. You search for the right strategy to get more clients and scale up your revenue. You keep trying new things, but nothing seems to work. You hit a wall, maybe with your time because you're maxed out already and you don't have more time to give.

So your new efforts and results are inconsistent at best. Maybe you hit a wall with your team because they simply aren't doing things, quote, unquote, right. There are mistakes, missed deadlines, and things falling through the cracks. Maybe with your clients you've hit a wall because as you focus more on marketing, client support and satisfaction drops, and before you know it, clients are complaining, canceling, or simply not getting the same level of results as before. And even if your revenue increases in the short term, maybe you hit a wall because it doesn't yet feel consistent, predictable, or repeatable. Just because you want to scale doesn't mean your business is prepared to scale, meaning that your business doesn't have a scalable business model, structure, and systems. Your business isn't prepared to create consistent results that aren't dependent on you. Other business owners come to me and it's the opposite story.

They have a business that's ready to scale, but they don't feel ready. The business is set up in order to be scalable, but the owner of the business doesn't have a willingness to scale yet, and often because of one or more limiting beliefs or thought errors. Now, this is you if any of the following are true. It doesn't have to be all of the following, but if any of these are true: you think making more money equals more work for you; if seven figures or more feels impossible; you throttle your goals back after you set them, making them smaller than you truly want; you don't believe that you have what it takes to run a million-dollar company; you think it's too early to be thinking about scaling; you've told yourself that you don't want what's required to scale—for example, leading a team.

Maybe you've been burned before. Maybe you've tried to scale with ads that didn't work, or you've hired a team member who didn't work out. Maybe you invested thousands into a funnel or a launch that didn't even come close to hitting the goal. You make assumptions about what your clients want or can't afford. You feel overwhelmed. You feel pressure, doubt, or uncertainty. Just because your business is ready to scale doesn't mean that you feel ready. But often what business owners really mean by feeling ready is feeling confident. And true,

tested confidence is based on what you've already accomplished in the past. If you want to accomplish something new, you can't wait until you feel confident. You have to move forward from a place of commitment and courage—a readiness that isn't built on certainty that you will succeed right away, but certainty that you won't give up or stop trying until you succeed. So I'm curious: are you experiencing readiness dissonance? Where maybe your business is ready to scale, but you don't feel ready? Or maybe you're excited and you're anxious to get going, but the business isn't there yet? It's not caught up. Because the truth is, before you ever actually feel ready and before your business is ready to scale, you have to take a step forward to get started, to get you and your business ready.