As a visionary founder, have you pondered the potential of your business? Have you ever wondered if your business could go bigtime (become worth $20 million or more) — and if so, what it would take to get there? As an entrepreneur who has taken two companies from startup to bigtime and successful sales, I have some advice to share.

First, evaluate whether your business meets the three criteria for going big (I developed these through discussions with fellow entrepreneurs):

• It provides exceptional value that customers cannot readily find elsewhere.

• It’s positioned to scale by offering repeatable transactions with wide appeal.

• You are exceedingly passionate about your idea.

If your business checks these three boxes and you’re up for the challenge, it’s time to explore what you’ll need on your trek to the bigtime.

A blueprint for the bigtime

I recently interviewed five bigtime-level entrepreneurs to try to figure out whether the bigtime group did something business owners “stuck” at other levels don’t (or can’t) do.

The answer is yes: They all took five specific actions that lower-revenue businesses did not.

1. Think bigger and plant a flag.

The bigtime entrepreneurs were confident enough to dream, and to ask, “Why not 5x, 10x — or even 100x?” To help them imagine that future, some used Cameron Herold’s book Vivid Vision, Jim Collins’ BHAG concept or Verne Harnish’s concept and book, Scaling Up.

2. Commit to a one-page plan (and only one).

Notably, 100% of the bigtime entrepreneurs I interviewed use a one-page strategic plan religiously, all the time — a key concept from Scaling Up. I’ve observed that some founders have such strong ideation tendencies that they won’t permit themselves to get “corralled,” or commit to a single path. If they do make a plan, they often abandon it six months later. Their company then tends to meander, never truly achieving what’s possible when everyone is on the same page, rowing toward a brass ring.

3. Hire the right staff to make it happen.

Once bigtime entrepreneurs developed their plan, they hired the right people in the right positions to make it happen. They also leveraged tools like Gino Wickman’s book Traction to ensure execution and forward planning, enabling inevitable growth while keeping stress at the lowest level possible. They all had capable leadership teams and trusted copilots for the journey, often involving top contributors in ownership with significant incentives to bring the vision to life.

The major advantage of this approach is that sharing the responsibility for building the enterprise reduces stress on the leader. But staffing up requires entrepreneurs to get comfortable with two things: First, sharing control of their company and investing more in it. Second, raising funds to pay for the staff-up, either by taking on investors or sacrificing some pay and profit to enable company growth. This is the gutsiest moment of the journey.

4. Develop crystal-clear branding.

All five bigtime founders are exceptionally clear about what their companies offer, how it is distinctive and how they communicate those distinctions. Most importantly, they are clear on what they won’t do, which is nearly everything except their very narrow product description. They only do what they feel they can be best at. These founders embody the value of answering key questions (as I’ve written about previously) to get your brand crystal clear.

5. Become fanatical about culture and customer.

Creating a unflappably positive, unique company culture and raving customers who promote your brand takes a great deal of heavy lifting. But it pays off a hundredfold, like a self-perpetuating flywheel.

There are two ways to measure this. One is customer reviews on Google and/or employee reviews on Glassdoor and Indeed. The other is a Net Promoter Score (NPS) survey, asking how likely customers are to refer friends or family to your business, as rated from 1-10. In my experience, if you can achieve a 4.8 average on Google, a 4.5 on Glassdoor or Indeed and an NPS score of 75%–85%, your flywheel is spinning, and good things are happening: You’re on your way to the bigtime.

In an in-person Q&A I attended, Richard Branson said the difference between a good company and a great company is in the tiny details. Sweating the tiny details of employee and customer experience is the “secret sauce” that adds to the first four ingredients.

Final thoughts

All five bigtime entrepreneurs shared a final common step after they reached the bigtime: They sold. That may be in part because running the business became less fun and more mundane, and partly because the business had essentially outgrown their capabilities.

All five sold for life-changing valuations and never had to work again. But most chose to continue working because they love the challenge and had new ideas they wanted to breathe life into.