I think about bees more than most people do.
That probably comes as no surprise if you have been following along. My maiden name literally means beekeeper, and I have two hives sitting on a property not far from my home. Watching a hive work is one of those experiences that makes you slow down and pay attention. There is so much happening in there, and all of it is intentional.
Something I find particularly fascinating is the way a worker bee’s job changes as she ages. She does not spend her whole life doing one thing. She grows into each role. And the more I watched this happen, the more it started to sound like something else entirely.
It sounded like building a business.
How a Worker Bee Spends Her Life
A worker bee lives roughly five to six weeks in the warm months. That is not a long time, but inside those weeks, she moves through several distinct stages of work, each one perfectly suited to where she is in her development.
Days 1 and 2: The Cleaner
The moment she emerges from her cell, a new worker bee starts cleaning. She tends to the cells around her, removing debris and preparing them for the next round of eggs. She is not foraging for nectar or guarding the entrance. She is cleaning the house. Her first job is simply to create order.
Days 3 through 12: The Nurse
Once her nursing glands have developed, she transitions into caring for the larvae. She feeds them, tends them, and makes sure they have what they need to grow. This is demanding, detailed work, as she is building the next generation of the hive.
Days 12 through 18: The Builder
Around the second week of her life, her wax glands become active. She begins producing wax, building comb, processing nectar, and maintaining the physical structure of the hive. She is literally constructing the house that the whole colony depends on.
Around Days 18 through 21: The Guard
Before she is ready to leave the hive, she stands watch at the entrance. She evaluates what comes in and what stays out. She guards and protects what has been built.
Day 21 and Beyond: The Forager
Finally, she goes out into the world to gather nectar, pollen, water, and propolis. She brings resources back to the hive. This is what most people picture when they think of a bee, but it is the last job she will ever have, not the first. At some point, her wings will become too tattered to fly straight and she’ll simply become too weak, too tired, too old.
Why This Matters More Than You Might Think
The hive does not ask a one-day-old bee to forage. That would be pointless as the one day old bee’s body is not ready for it. Her glands have not developed, and she has not yet learned the workings of the hive.
She has to go through other jobs first: cleaner, nurse, builder, guard. Only after all of that does she go out into the world.
There is no shortcut to this process or skipping steps to get to the good part. Every stage prepares her for the next one.
This Is Your Business Too
When I think about the women I work with who are building businesses, I see the same progression. All worker bees are female after all. The steps in a building a business are not always in the same order for each business builder, and they’re not always seen cleanly, but the stages are there.
The Cleaning Stage
When you are just starting out, you are creating conditions for growth. You are cleaning up your message, brand and image. You are figuring out who you help and how and getting your systems in place; putting together your “I help” statement. This stage feels slow, and you look around and wonder when the real work starts. But once you realize that this is the real work, you dig in deep because you realize you cannot build on a messy foundation.
The Nursing Stage
Once you have some clarity, you start tending to early relationships. You serve your first clients, and you learn what they actually need, not what you assumed they needed. You give more than you get, and although that can feel daunting, that is okay. Just like the young worker bee, you are learning the work from the inside. This is where your skills develop, so don’t rush it.
The Building Stage
Now you are constructing something. You are creating content, building your processes, putting the pieces together that will hold the weight of a real business. This stage can feel unglamorous as you slog away. You are not yet seeing the results you want, but you are building the comb, and without it, there is nowhere to store the honey.
The Guarding Stage
At some point, you have to start discerning. You realize that not every client is your ideal client and not every opportunity is your opportunity. You start protecting your time, your energy, and the thing you have built. This is not selfishness; it is sustainability. A hive without a guard does not last.
The Foraging Stage
This is when you go out into the world confidently. You know what you offer, who you serve, and how to bring resources back to your business. You market with clarity, and your marketing attracts your ideal clients. You bring in revenue through clients that are aligned with you. The forager comes back to the hive. She does not just keep flying further and further out. She brings home what she finds, and then she goes out again. As the honeybee ages, her chance of returning to the hive declines. At some point, she won’t make it back. Those lost bees represent the good you’ve put out into the world as a result of your work. They are the times you’ve paid it forward.
Your Purpose Changes. That Is Not a Problem.
One of the things I hear from entrepreneurial moms is that they worry about the changes that are happening to them as a result of building a business. They started one way, and now they feel like they are becoming something different. They wonder if that is failure, imposter syndrome or something else.
The worker bee would disagree.
The worker bee does not fail when she stops being a nurse bee and becomes a builder. She does not mourn the loss of her nursing or building roles when she becomes a forager. She grows into the next stage because that is what the hive (just like her business) needs from her at that point in time. She is not an imposter in her new role, just learning along the way.
Your business needs different things from you at different stages, and you need different things from it. That is what’s called development.
The key is not to skip stages because you are impatient (who me?), and not to stay in a stage longer than necessary because you are afraid. Pay attention to where you are, and do the work that each stage requires. As you move through one stage, trust that the next stage is coming.
I did not expect to learn business strategy from a hive, but bees have been figuring this out for tens of millions of years. They are probably onto something.
If you are curious about where you are in your business lifecycle and what work belongs in this stage, I would love to help you figure that out. Reach out and let’s talk.