The 5 Powerful Steps That Determine Entrepreneurship Success
Dec 15, 2025
Do you like dancing?
A lot of people don’t like dancing because they are worried they don’t know the right moves. Sound familiar?
And that’s why they go to lessons, to learn the steps, but there’s something more important than just knowing the steps. You have to learn the right time to do those steps!
But what does dancing have to do with running a business?
You will be faced with many choices over the course of your entrepreneurship adventure and you’re going to need to be ready to do the right steps in each of those moments.
So put on your dancing shoes, and let’s get into the 5 steps you need to get familiar with in your business.
Stepping Up
Stepping up is how businesses start, connections are made, and projects begin.
When you see a need in the marketplace, you step up to fill that need.
But how do you know when it’s the right time to step up? You go into your business arena and talk to people.
“A lot of people want to start a business because they feel entrepreneurial. But what are you actually hearing around you. What are people needing?” Kim White
What are you hearing so much that you can’t ignore it anymore?
“Being a good listener is part of being a good human, but I think it’s also part of being a good business.” Kim White
Remember, you are not necessarily going to be stepping up for the whole solution every time. You can’t help everyone with everything.
Sometimes you can help connect the dots for people by introducing them to someone who will be the right solution for them.
Or if you’re hearing two people who need the same thing, then you can connect them so they will be able to work out a solution together. You made a connection for them to help each other.
“A lot of times when I have not wanted to be the ONE, but I know the solutions, I’ll connect people.” Kim White
Stepping Down
“We don’t have to be married to everything in our business.” Jill Olish
Stepping down should come from a place of knowing intuitively that it is time to stop one part of your business.
Remember that stepping down is not failing at something.
When you take something on, you’re not promising to take it on forever. There are going to be seasons that come in your life that you can’t see coming that change things.
And all that is a part of building a business that you own, and that doesn’t own you.
“SHIFT is one of the best things I learned in business. Not failing, just putting your skills to different use, or learning something new.“ Jill Olish
Knowing the right time to step down is hard because it’s easy to believe the lie that you’re the only one in the whole world with that solution; you don’t want to let people down; and you can get stuck by the fear of not knowing how to step down.
The trick to stepping down is knowing the HOW and the WHY.
If you’re the solution for someone, and then you just close your business door, you’re harming whoever has been following you or coming to do business with you. So, can you facilitate giving people another solution?
Sometimes when you step down, you actually open the door for someone else that you didn’t even realize could be a solution.
“That’s a dance we do as business owners. Stepping up and stepping down. Who wants to step up when we step down?” Kim White
The more you hold on to something, the less room there is for possibilities. If you let go, you will find there is a whole new world of possibility.
Stepping In
Stepping in can be for a season. It’s not forever. It’s not about taking something on from now on.
Stepping in is different from stepping up, which is long-term. But stepping in is temporary when you need the help for one event or project.
It’s a great place to learn some new things, make different connections, and do something for a short time.
Stepping in gives you an experience and understanding that you didn’t have before. You couldn’t have had it before without the taste of doing something different.
“Once they got a little taste, now they want it in their own businesses too.” Jill Olish
When you step in to help other people for a short time, it can turn out to be a gift to your own business.
Stepping Out
Imagine a speaker on stage in the middle of their address and they start having a coughing fit, it becomes so disruptive so they step out to sort out their cough, get some air or have a cough drop. That’s a good choice for them.
Nobody is mad at them for doing that. They didn’t do it on purpose.
“Stepping out is not failure, it’s being human, and sometimes you just need to take a break.” Kim White
And you can apply that to running a business too, and all the projects, meetings and events that come with the entrepreneurship adventure. There is no guilt involved in stepping out if you need to make that decision in the moment, and you’re honest and forthright about it.
Podcasts are a great example, where they take a season off and let you know they’re taking a pause because of their real life happening in the mean time.
If you never allow yourself to take a break, your business will suck the life out of you. Thinking back to the example of the speaker, imagine you can’t leave the stage to just go get a sip of water!
“Guilt is a big thing for business owners. We feel guilty if we let people down or step out. But there is no guilt involved.” Kim White
The best way to have a business is where you are not the only one who can do everything. It’s not about lacking ability or responsibility. Sometimes you will physically need someone else to step in while you step out.
“Allowing others to step in is one of the hardest things because we don’t want to feel like we are failing when we are not showing up.” Kim White
If you’re solo in business, and you do have a following, letting people know you’re stepping out helps take the pressure off.
And if you’re part of a team, this is one of those magical parts whenever real life is happening and there is someone else who can step in for that season.
Stepping Back
Sometimes its not a matter of stepping down permanently or stepping out quickly. There might be something going on like a big life event, or a family event, a health scare that you need to handle.
Something like that is going to happen at some stage in business and you’ll need to step back.
The time to step back usually involves big emotions, exhaustion, or both.
“It’s amazing how many poor decisions are made based on exhaustion.” Kim White.
Stepping back can give you clarity to make decisions like whether to step up, step down, or delegate in the long run.
These 5 steps are important for all business owners and team members to understand because this is what the entrepreneurship adventure really looks like.
You don’t want to step down when you just need to step back. But you also don’t want to just step out when you really need to step down.
You need to understand the difference between stepping in for a season and the commitment of stepping up longterm.
“I hope this gets you to not quit things you don’t need to; and quit things that you do; get help where you need it; and understand that delegation is actually a superpower and teamwork makes the dreamwork. My wish for you is to get clarity.” Kim White
If you get clear about what you want, you can get it. If you don’t get clear, you get chaos every time.
If you missed the conversation about this between Kim and Jill on their podcast Buckets and Boom Gates, you can catch it here.
Our Groundwork Brigade is a home for entrepreneurs who want to build a business that they own and that doesn't own them. It’s a community of like-minded entrepreneurs finding freedom in the entrepreneurial adventure by practicing putting the right things in the right order.
It’s a safe space to learn how to build a relational business using irresistible marketing strategies, tailored to your individual needs, in a group setting, with lots of accountability and support.
To connect and find out more about Kim or how to create a sexy business for a sexy life, you can reach her and the My Sexy Business Team at www.mysexybusiness.com.
And to connect with Jill Olish go straight to her website www.mamaoutspoken.com and you’ll find her there!
