Discover the specific actions and strategies needed to scale.

If you’re looking to grow your business, but need the specific actions and strategies to make it happen, Troy Millings and Rashad Bilal of Earn Your Leisure are here to help.

Over the past three years they’ve quickly amassed attention on social media and garnered viral posts which led to millions of followers by teaching people how to build wealth in a cool and relatable way. They also share conversations with today’s popular entrepreneurs, celebrities, and top executives. Past guests include Mark Cuban, Rick Ross, Steve Harvey and Todd Johnson aka TJ Millionaire Mentor.

The Earn Your Leisure Show has amassed over fifty million downloads and is consistently ranked in the Top 20 Business Podcasts in the United States, peaking at #1 on the Apple Podcast charts.

So, these guys clearly know their stuff. But they also excel at explaining complex topics in a digestible and relatable approach. Today they’re going to share with you five critical steps to launching and scaling your business.

Don’t just build your network, nurture it

While it can be true that “your network is your net worth”, you can’t just reach out to people when you need something from them. Instead, seek to build a valuable relationship by periodically checking in and identifying how you can help.

Rashad provides more guidance on the value of nurturing your network “That’s extremely important because it’s one thing to meet somebody, but that’s only half the battle. You have to cultivate the relationship over the course of time and stay in touch without being annoying. So having a system in place, even a client management system, where you’re actively managing the contacts that you make can be very beneficial to your business.”

I immediately took Rashad’s advice and set up a free HubSpot account where I can now document and nurture my professional network.

Study the competition

Staying informed about your competition can be a great advantage for you and your business. You’ll have the upper hand when it comes to marketing, pricing, and setting yourself apart from other offerings in the marketplace.

Troy shares more on this topic “Understanding who and what is going on in the industry is key. You want to know what they’re doing so that you can figure out how you can add value. How can you make it different? How can you provide something that’s more sustainable or that the industry doesn’t have?”

Studying your competition can be as simple as visiting their website, signing up for their emails and following them on social media. And remember, success leaves clues, so you may be able to revise and optimize some of the strategies that have worked for them.

Find the right niche

You may have heard the phrase “the riches are in the niches”. And while that may be directionally true, you don’t have to go overboard with it; especially early on. If you’re too niche you may not have a big enough audience or you may turn off people who you could have otherwise partnered with.

Troy and Rashad have a very specific niche but they developed it with an altruistic and organic approach. Rashad explains, “People have been talking about finance for years right? We came with a different type of spin. We made it a little bit more digestible. We were authentic to who we are. We look different from the average person that’s talking about finance. So that is how we found a niche audience.”

This is a great example of how your motivation, purpose and personality can help you discover and provide value to your niche.

Take imperfect action

Planning is a form of procrastination. And although you shouldn’t move forward haphazardly, you learn through experience, not just talking about what you’re going to do. Troy shares more on this approach.

“I think taking imperfect actions is key. If you wait for everything to be perfect and aligned, you’ll be waiting forever. It’s never gonna be perfect, but what will happen is that you’re going to learn on the job. And so that’s something that we’ve had to do.” He continues “We started with iPhones, we didn’t have fancy cameras or know what tools to use. But these are things that we’ve learned over time and it’s led to where we are now. So taking those imperfect actions in the beginning was vital because we learned a lot through that.”

Need more motivation to get moving? Keep this in mind; perfection is the enemy of progress.

Dream big

Telling you to dream big might sound cliche but this is how you set the vision for your personal and professional life. Rashad shares his perspective.

“I think entrepreneurs should dream big and dream more. It’s one of the things Tyler Perry has said to us ‘Prepare for where you want to go and not where you are.’ Even if you’re launching a t-shirt brand, you should be looking at it like this is something that’s gonna be a luxury item in the next two or three years. So figure out where you want to go with your business and then attract it everyday.”

What does this mean to you? Don’t let self-limiting beliefs lower the bar of what success looks like for you and those you can impact. You’re both the painter and the portrait, and you get to decide what comes next.

Next steps

Ready for more practical guidance from Troy and Rashad about investing, real estate and entrepreneurship?

Here are a few more ways to learn from them:

• Listen to our full interview on the Launch Your Business Podcast
• EYL University An online interactive community that includes over 200+ archived webinars covering a range of business, finance, and entrepreneurial topics.
• Market Mondays Live Show & Workshop Learn the strategies to make money in the stock market under any circumstance.
• Earn Your Leisure Podcast Giving you behind the scenes financial views into the entertainment and sports industries as well as highlighting back stories of entrepreneurs.

You can also follow them on Instagram and YouTube to see all their latest content

This article was written by Terry Rice, and originally appeared on Entrepreneur.com.