October 1, 2024 • 37 mins
Unlock the secrets of strategic planning and elevate your small business with insights from Amanda Majewski, Vice President of HCM Services at Higher Level. This episode of Small Business Big World promises you a front-row seat to Amanda's journey of refining business strategies and cultivating a robust company culture. Discover how tools like DISC assessments can transform your hiring processes and enhance team dynamics, and why clearly articulating your mission, vision, and values is essential for attracting top talent, especially those transitioning from larger corporations.
Get ready to transform your approach to business planning with our deep dive into brainstorming sessions, vision boards, and the strategic prioritization of ideas. Amanda shares her personal experience with planning retreats and the critical role of management feedback in shaping a cohesive strategy. Learn the importance of community involvement and regular company-wide training sessions in fostering alignment and growth. Through heartfelt self-reflection and continuous dialogue, we'll guide you on how to ensure your team is always working towards the same objectives.
Discover the power of team collaboration and the role of regular meetings in assessing operational efficiencies and client relationships. Amanda and I discuss how empowering employees can lead to better client experiences and the tough decisions involved in parting ways with clients who aren't a good fit. By setting clear service standards and maintaining constant communication, align your team and clients on processes and expectations. We'll explore strategic planning methods like SWOT analysis and strategic alignment to enhance client satisfaction and drive internal growth. This episode is your roadmap to operational and performance improvements that can make a significant impact on your small business.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Small Business Big World, our weekly
podcast prepared by the team atPaper Trails.
Owning and running a smallbusiness is hard.
Each week, we'll dive into thechallenges, headaches, trends,
fun and excitement of running asmall business.
After all, small businesses arethe heartbeat of America and
our team is here to keep thembeating.
All right, welcome to SmallBusiness Big World, our weekly
(00:23):
podcast, where we talk about allthings small business.
This week, my guest is AmandaMajewski.
Amanda is the what are you?
Vice president of HCM services?
Is that your official title?
Vice president?
That's the official title Ithink that's HBIC right, that's
the boss lady there at higherlevels.
So higher level is a similarhuman capital HR company to us.
(00:46):
They're out in the Midwest,they've got locations all over
the place.
But today we're going to talkabout kind of strategic planning
and building a mission andvision and values and so forth
for your company, which we'vekind of all been through in our
growth, and I think it'll be agood conversation.
So thanks for joining me,amanda.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Thanks for having me.
I'm excited'll be a goodconversation.
So thanks for joining me,amanda.
Thanks for having me, I'mexcited to be here.
So it's been a wild ride.
For as many years I've beendoing this, but I always tell
the girls on the team you canalways learn something new every
single day, it don't matter howlong you've been doing this.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
So we were just doing a little pregame here.
But talk to me kind of aboutyou know, your history at the
company and where what it'slooked like that I've been you
know with the company.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
I think when you are getting out of place where you
have employees, you're just,you're just grinding at that
point right, you're just tryingto make it happen and there is
no slow down.
And maybe you did write down ona scratch piece of paper a
business plan at some point.
But I can honestly say you cando as much school as you want,
(02:13):
work in a corporate world.
I just it is just not the sameunless you are working in a
small business.
I feel like.
I feel like and there's been alot of pains and growing pains,
but I would say about the thirdor fourth year in working at the
company is when we and whichwe're now we've been in business
(02:35):
29 years.
So you know year I would sayyou know, after we've been there
a few years was when we started.
Just looking at, okay, we'veseen growth, it's been fast, but
how do we continue to now builda culture that we want people
(02:59):
to work here too at that point?
So we invested in consultantsand we've seen a lot of them
work with many of them and Iwould say working with more than
one isn't obviously ideal, butas a business you grow and maybe
you outgrow what you had hireda consultant to do.
(03:24):
But even when I think about thevery first consultant that we
had, there are still things thatI still utilize from that
consultant and a lot of it hadto do around.
You know, a disc assessment andreally using those four
quadrants to think about who ison my team and where.
(03:46):
Where are they strong at um,and I can't say that enough.
You know, finding someone, anoutside person, you know someone
that doesn't naturally have toeven know your industry but who
just understands people.
You know, that's having peopleis the hardest absolutely.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Absolutely, I'll say I mean as a small business.
So we've been in business now20 years.
I've been with the company 11years and, you know, we just
kind of started truly strategicplanning and building kind of
our mission and values and soforth last year, and it was
really because, again, we weregrowing.
We were growing fast and, as Iwas trying to find people, I too
(04:26):
was trying to find a, you know,really I was trying to attract
people and try to build, likeyou said, the culture to attract
people.
And we've we've spent a lot oftime building our, you know,
candidate pipeline.
We're doing more recruiting,we're reaching out to people,
we're kind of building a benchahead of time when we need
people and we're sellingourselves as an employer.
(04:48):
And part of that is, you know,especially if we're pulling
people from bigger companiesthat may have not ever worked in
a small business before, theywant to know that you're not
going out of business tomorrow,they want to know that you have
a plan to grow.
And that was really kind oftransformational to us.
As we're talking to people,they're like well, what's you
know what?
What is your strategic plan,where are you going, what are
(05:09):
your goals?
And you know, of course, as asmall business owner.
That's all in my head and, andI'll say, once I started to
write it down, I don't think itsurprised me or anybody who we
were, we wanted to be.
But now I can say, can say here, this is who we are, this is
who we want to become.
It's written down and that'sbeen really powerful.
So, uh, it's funny, you needthose disc assessments because
(05:30):
we too have started to do thatwith our new hires, something.
It's like a hybrid of the disc,something else uh it's been
really cool because we gothrough an interview process and
then we'll run them through anassessment and this consultant
that we use to manage that.
He'll come back, give us a fullreport and say, okay, this
person will work really wellunder this manager, but not this
(05:50):
manager, or you know, or whatbecause their motivations, their
interests, their you know workethic, whatever is different, um
, or you want them in this role.
Well, they don't have the rightmindset or motivation or life
goals for that.
So that's really cool too.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
We, in addition to a lot of that, back to kind of
scaling, and I mean when I firstcame to the business I was
doing business development.
I didn't have formal businessdevelopment training or had done
it, done it previously, but Ihad the right skills at that
time that you know the companywas looking for to find and
(06:33):
cultivate new businesses.
Um, and then, oh, three yearsago now three, four years ago, a
couple of colleagues hadattended a conference and a
group who manages um, um, likethe Sandler training, um, they
did a great presentation and wehired them to again help culture
(06:56):
, those sales skills, especiallyin a lot of us, you know,
veterans who'd been doing it along time and a little difficult
to kind of, you know, breaksome of those bad habits.
But at the same time, it's thatmission for us to always be
growing.
And I would say about 10 yearsago is when we really started
(07:19):
writing down you know, what isthat mission?
What does that vision look like, what are core values?
Because it just seems like eversince, you know, right before
COVID, the people that we wereinterviewing, they want to know
those things like, they want tomake an impact, and it was
really important to us to makesure that we're continuing that
(07:42):
mission and that we're talkingabout it every day, not just the
interview process or our annualretreat, where we do meet at
the end of the year and you know, plan for the future.
What do we want to accomplishthe next year?
And I think the biggest thingfor us for people to be
successful and I think this kindof goes back to whatever you
(08:04):
decide for what your mission orvision or core values is going
to be successful.
And I think this kind of goesback to whatever you decide for
what your mission or vision orcore values is going to be.
I cannot stress the importanceof this one phrase Comfortable
is a slow death.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
We use the term growable.
Right, that's our business,that's our industry.
We got to grow or we're goingto die.
That's okay for some people.
And and how you want to setyour business up for success?
(08:44):
As a small business, you haveto be ready or uncomfortable
every single day because it'sgonna happen.
Oh so I just cannot stress thatmore than anything from what
even I've learned, and justsetting expectations for team
members when they do join ourteam, and just setting
(09:05):
expectations for team memberswhen they do join our team, that
this is it's a hard job andit's not for everyone.
But how do we make sure that weset them up for success in the
beginning One, they're alignedwith our mission, vision and
core goals and that they arelooking for a career path?
Speaker 1 (09:21):
So one of the things that we took, we went a little
step further this year.
We worked on our mission, ourvision, our values, and we went
one step further and we createdkind of service standards that
go along to support those kindof things.
And we have 18 kind of servicestandards.
They're, you know, one sentence.
You know this is how we delivergreat services, how we do this.
(09:43):
And you know, every week at ourweekly team meeting I talk
about one of those standards andI say, ok, who has a win?
Who can give me a good exampleof using this standard this week
?
And you know, so that helpskind of cultivate the team.
And again, I have some folksthat have been with us, for we'd
still have employee number oneworking for us.
(10:05):
She's very close to retirementand I'll cry on that day, but
you know, she's employee numberone, the first employee Debbie
ever hired when she startedpaper Trails, to now 20
something years later, wherethings have changed and she's
had to change with us and thebusiness has had to change.
And then now I have to helpmanage the folks that are just
(10:25):
coming on, the three brand newemployees we hired this year,
bringing them into the fold andmaking sure everyone's on the
same page, and I think writingit down, memorializing it,
really helped us, and me as aleader, to deliver that message
more consistent, which I thinkwas really transformational.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Yeah, I think again and it'll take time for anyone
really to get there but writingdown the things that are most
important to you or back to youknow, why did you start the
business in the first place?
Right, those are your corevalues.
So, for whoever's listening outthere, that if you're trying to
figure that out, it's it's okay, You'll figure it out along the
(11:03):
way.
And no, there's not just onewritten book.
There's millions of books outthere to help you.
But you just always think backto why did you start this
business in the first place?
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Yeah, so what?
How did you guys go about thatprocess?
I know you said you hired aconsultant.
You know, did you do visionboards and all that?
You know all that fancy stuff.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
We did, we, we did all of that.
We had the which actually youcan probably see you see that
sticky board right behind me,those big post-its, those really
big post-its.
We have gone through I couldn'ttell you how many of those over
the years and it literally isjust putting them up on the wall
.
Um, we first kind of wouldalways start just like a, a big
(11:43):
group kind of brainstorming, um,and just writing ideas down,
and then we would sexualize thecertain ideas and then we would
break out into groups further,go through that you know
particular, now smaller list andfigure out what is the most,
almost kind of likeprioritization, because you
(12:04):
can't accomplish it all, butwhat is the most important, or
what is the most critical thing,or what's gonna, you know, get
you to that revenue thresholdthat you want to be at, and then
those are your priorities andthe other is just going to, it's
just going to have to wait, orjust it just doesn't make the
list.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
And that's okay.
So, yeah, we, when we, when Istarted kind of writing my you
know, the mission and the visionand the values and so forth, I
actually I kind of did it myselfas I'm like, okay, I'm the
leader and I need to get mythoughts of again why we're in
business and where we want to go.
And I actually I rented myselfa hotel room for the day and I
(12:41):
literally went because I just Ineeded to get away.
It was kind of my own littleconference and we kind of worked
through some of that stuff andI said, okay, I had been taking
a bunch of notes because thishad been a goal of mine
personally, so I had pages ofnotes of different things from
the last several months and Ikind of did the first framework.
And then I came back and I saidokay to my management team this
(13:04):
is who I think we are and who Ithink we want to become, and
why we exist, and so forth.
What do you think?
And they actually came back andsaid said well, you're too
ambitious there, right, that'sthat word is right.
They brought you back down toreality they also said hey, you
know, you forgot about, you know, this whole piece.
What about our communityinvolvement?
(13:25):
That was one thing.
That really is something.
We are very involved.
You know, we're very I'm verypassionate about serving the
community and giving back to thecommunity.
That supports us and, and, andso is my team.
I encourage everyone tovolunteer and be on boards and
all that stuff.
Uh, and it was like, so thatwas something we had to add
right, like, yeah, this is whowe are, um, and you know where
(13:46):
we want to be.
So that was really.
You know, everyone has adifferent process and it's funny
.
I went to a conference earlierthis year where there was a
strategic planning session andthat was another leader in our
industry and she basically wrotelike a two or three page story
to herself of like what shewanted to be in 12 months and in
two years.
(14:07):
And that was her way of doingit.
And I'm like, okay, well,that's a different approach.
That that's not me.
I'm a little more, you know,blocky and black and white I
guess.
But it was kind of neat,something totally different that
I didn't think about.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Yeah, that's a great way to think about it.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
No, I've not been to IPPA in a while, so yeah, I've
not been in a long time.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
That obviously is a different perspective.
You know, I hadn't thoughtabout it.
She basically wrote herself astory and this is what I the
story.
I want how I want my company tobe in two years, and she kind
(14:53):
of wrote herself like a two.
I love the fact that you knowthat.
You said you know bringing itback to the team.
We do that a lot too, because Idon't want to hire 10 of me,
right, I want to have peoplethat are have different ideas,
that I want people smarter thanme.
I mean I want to be someonethat I can lead you to water and
(15:15):
you can take off and run withit, and that's that's obviously
always hard to do, but I thinkwhen we know what our core
values are, that always justgoes a long way with making sure
that we're trying to hire theright people that you know want
to have the same beliefs as youdo.
You know the I had mentioned.
(15:37):
You know, yeah, we've workedwith consultants and we've
worked with many over the years.
Um, but the one that we've beenworking with, the past gosh now
four or five years, that's thelongest stint that we ever
worked like with the same person.
But I think sometimes you justyou just know right when you
finally found that right personand she gets us and her style of
(15:59):
the training that she brings tous.
We first started out where itwas just meeting with management
.
We don't even do that anymore.
It is at a company-wide.
Once a quarter we meet with herand we break it up into, you
know, many sessions throughoutthe day.
So it's smaller groups, youknow smaller pods, and I think
(16:20):
the greatest thing with that,with her leading it that way, is
that we're constantly goingback to you know our mission and
our vision, because we alwayshave to be talking about it.
We always have to be talkingabout it and we are really big
about, you know thatself-reflection.
Where is my own impact?
(16:46):
What did I do to contribute tothis?
What could I do to contributeto this?
Because, at the end of the day,everyone has to be on the same
boat as you.
We all have to be workingtowards the same greater good
and if everyone on the team doesnot align or, as we talk about
with our consultant now, we allhave to have the same beliefs
and if we're not all there,we're never going to accomplish
(17:08):
the things that we want.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
And that's really important, joy, we've seen that
impact here as well, becausewhen I did our mission or vision
, value, so forth, then we gottogether kind of as the
management team and we did ourstrategic plan for the next kind
of 18 months, two years.
And once we kind of built that,then we rolled it out to the
team for the first time ever.
Right, it wasn't just me rowingin the direction by myself.
(17:32):
I need everybody paddling.
You know we're not going to getacross the finish line.
So we get together late lastyear, rolled out to the whole
team.
You know this is where we'regoing for the next 18 months,
two years.
And now I can tell you we're.
You know, at this point we'rerecording this in August.
We're about, you know, eight or10 months into our plan.
Have things changed Absolutely?
(17:53):
Have we adjusted and adapted?
Absolutely?
The management team and I meeton a quarterly basis to review
that strategic plan and say,okay, so we're holding ourselves
accountable.
Okay, what have we accomplished?
What do we need to accomplish?
What has zigged or zagged orchanged?
And it is a living document.
It's not something, especiallyin business today, like you said
, every day is uncomfortable,every day has, you know, issues
(18:16):
and that brings up.
I mean, there are opportunitiesand changes that happen every
day.
So, you know, it definitely isimportant to kind of hold
yourself accountable to yourgoals as well.
But then we just did last weekkind of a mid-year update for
our team.
We did it everyone in the roomwe did, you know, half a day,
lunch, training, strategicplanning, updates and fun.
(18:37):
And I said, okay, remember whatI told you.
You know, last year, this iswhat we were, where we were
going.
Here are our sales goals andhow close we are to getting them
.
And this is why this is what'sworked, what hasn't worked.
Here's our, you know,operational goals.
We have.
We told you we were going tohire this many people we have.
We haven't done this or we havedone that.
Um, you know, we told you we'regoing to make some efficiencies
(18:59):
here and there, and we have,but we're continuing to work on
those um and oh, by the way,these are some things that we're
adding that weren't originallythere, and this is what's going
to happen, what our plan is forthe rest of the year.
And that was a really goodconversation for everyone in the
room to say, you know, for themto ask me questions like okay,
what you know, we we tried thisa couple of months ago.
(19:21):
It kind of fell flat.
You know what happened and youknow it was really really good
conversation and I think it's Ialways no-transcript, but you
(19:49):
know it wasn't Wolf of WallStreet, nobody was banging their
chests going paper trails,paper trails, paper trails.
But I feel like it was a reallygood day, as we were all having
a good conversation.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Yeah, I think it's just Everybody working this
direction.
Yeah, I think, obviously,having the team get together
that's important, and we doweekly meetings as well and talk
about numbers.
You know where do we need towork or improve, Whether it's
operating efficiencies or, youknow, do we need to fire a
client.
There's something in life outof us, whatever it may be.
(20:24):
You know those are things.
Those are very importantdetails and you know, at the end
of the day, we're all in thistogether and I want the team to
feel like they are a part ofsomething that they signed up
for, yeah, in that second piece,we in that kind of service
standards we created.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
one of them is you own the client experience and I
trust you to do whatever youneed to do to either take care
of that or take care of thebusiness.
Right, and sometimes that mightmean you coming to me and
saying this client isn't rightfor us for X, y and Z reasons,
right, and I mean I have told mystaff probably more than once
fire them, right, like not allclients are right for us.
(21:06):
And, of course, even if we everdo that, it's not like.
You know, it's not the DonaldTrump you're fired moment, it's.
You know we just don't feellike we're the right thing for
you.
Let's work on a transition out.
We will help you do whateveryou need to find a better
provider.
You know, whatever that may be,there's a right way to do it,
of course, but but we've learned, and that is giving good
service to that client, but alsoto all of your other clients,
(21:28):
because nine times out of 10,that bad client is is sucking
your resources, resources theydon't want to pay their, you
know, their bring morale down.
Uh, it's just not a good thingfor the organization, including
for your employees, who youobviously want to come to work
and be happy, uh, but theorganization has a hole yeah,
they.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
We actually just recently started, um, um, I
wouldn't say a campaign, but butyou know, back to you have
people on your team that youexpect, that they're inspecting
some work, and we know labor isexpensive and we have to be
(22:08):
constantly looking at ourefficiencies because we don't
want to have to hire more peopleto do the same amount of work,
etc.
Right, and so, um, you know, wereally just have been focused
on where can we improve our time, our time for processing, right
(22:29):
, our time for getting payrollsdone, and because now team
members, especially some newerteam members, they're just so
focused on that that they forget, oh, um, I need to have a
conversation with the client.
Well, how do I have thatconversation with a client?
(22:50):
You know, um client, you know,and at the end of the day, a
client has to be now retrainedon a process.
When they're like well, it wasworking before, why did it
change?
And so then it's slowing downand having that, you know, I
wouldn't say fierce conversation, but realigning with the client
(23:13):
what we are capable of doing,because we've talked about it
internally the the team, theyunderstand it and they're like
yes, let's do this.
You know, I want to make moremoney, well, we've got to
streamline these clients.
And then they forget that nextstep.
So I think again, when you arebuilding, you know to your point
(23:35):
service standards or what yourcore values are that
communication and overcommunication is important for a
small business because, as weknow those big box providers,
why do clients come to us?
Because they're know they're.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
They're getting service, and service is also
helping your clients with thingsthey didn't know they needed
help with, which sometimes arethose efficiencies right, and I
tell people that all the time.
You know, just because I'mproviding the client with the
resources or the tools to do thework better, that's not bad
service.
You're helping them be moreself-sufficient and you know
(24:14):
they're going to get the thingsthey need or know how to do
things on a Sunday afternoonwhen we're not in the office and
we're not going to beresponding to that email and and
whatever, right.
So, again, stop and take thatsecond and say, hey, can we help
you figure this out so thatyou're not so reliant upon me?
Uh, I think that is goodservice.
So.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
I know, and it's so strange because then now you've
got to explain that to theclient and you forget that they
become so dependent upon you.
And we love every client right,we love all our clients but at
the end of the day, we're hereto make higher level, better.
We're here to make money and weare here to make an impact, not
(24:59):
only internally.
You know I talked about I wantthe team to have career paths,
what do they want to learn?
What do they want to get toknow, but there also has to be,
I feel like, when it comes toclients, and you know, again
part of your strategic planningwho is an ideal client for you?
I think that is so important.
That's something you have toconsider in your strategic
planning.
Who is an ideal client for you?
I think that is so important.
That's something you have toconsider in your strategic
(25:21):
planning as well.
And who do you want?
Who do you want to do Exactly?
Who are you going to target?
And I think, again, we've beenable to identify those things
with working with.
You know, the sales consultantthat I talked about, you know
that follows the Sandler model.
It just really just brought alot of that to light, because
(25:42):
otherwise you're wasting time.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
Absolutely.
You know we started ourstrategic planning kind of with
a SWOT analysis.
You know our strengths, ourweaknesses, opportunities and
threats and to be honest withyou that you know quadrant
project, you know thing.
We did the same thing.
We took the sticky notes andthe big sticky notes, put them
on the wall and everyone wroteyou know what are our strengths,
what are our weaknesses, whatare the opportunities and what
are the threats.
And we tried to say, okay, howdo we capitalize on our
(26:07):
strengths and continue to managethat?
You know what opportunities areout there.
How can we retool our businessto take advantage of those
opportunities?
What weaknesses do we need towork on and what threats do we
need to be aware of and defendourselves from?
And that formed our strategicplan.
I mean that, right, there waslike gosh.
We basically took everythingoff and put it in different
categories and that was ourstrategic plan and I think that
(26:30):
alone was how we got there.
It was a couple hours in anafternoon.
We went off site.
We had a few minutes whereeveryone could be together and
be focused.
And I can't stress that enoughtoo.
I'm just as guilty of thisgetting sucked into the
day-to-day and sometimes youhave to take a step back, you
have to get away.
(26:53):
I've done it where ouroperations manager and I were
working on doing that kind ofcareer development plan stuff
and I said let's go to my house,let's sit at the kitchen table
and let's work on it there,where the phones are ringing and
you know people are walkinginto the office and you know
there's not you know, comes intothe dining room table for an
hour and we can get this done.
(27:14):
I think that's really importantas well, and you just you have
to know when to do that.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
So yeah, I agree, I think once you've gone through
all of that and you're doingthis, whatever, on a regular
basis I know you talked abouteven quarterly revisiting, you
know and then, of course,annually revisiting what did you
do well, what do you need to dobetter on, you know, the SWOT
(27:42):
analysis.
We've done that as well, but atthe end of the day, though but
I've talked about this a littlebit but you know, your team has
to be all on the same page withyou, right?
So we've have then even gone tothe level of all right, we've
met as a management team or, youknow, small group to come up
with these things.
(28:02):
But now we're going to do itagain with the entire team and
let's see if their SWOT analysisis somewhat similar to ours.
And it, it, oh my gosh, it'sjust, it's so.
It's just such refreshing tosee that, okay, they know where
we are heading towards becausethey also are writing down the
(28:26):
same things as well.
I think the biggest element tothe almost like an extension to
the strategic planning really is, you know, meeting on a regular
basis with your team members.
We do monthly we call themmonthly either strategic
sessions or roadmap recaps, andsometimes I feel like I'm.
(28:51):
You know I'm a coach for someof my clients because a lot of
them also are struggling withyou know finding'm a coach for
some of my clients because a lotof them also are struggling
with, you know, finding theright talent or keeping the
right talent, or you know whatchallenge that they may be
having with.
You know something HR related,but it's always around
performance, it seems like.
But the roadmap or strategicsession is designed to.
(29:15):
You know, recap what youreviewed last month.
Um, you know people, they wehave like a formal sheet they
fill out um goals that they'reworking towards.
You know their individual goals.
Back to their own professionaldevelopment training um, what do
they want to accomplish?
(29:35):
And we're not big on titles.
Yeah, higher level, I don'treally care for them, but it
does mean a lot to people andI'm fine with that.
But at the end of the day, Iwant to know that you have found
some sort of passion or careerpath that gets you up every day
(30:00):
and makes you want to come tothis job and do it well every
single day.
So I cannot stress.
You know, while maybe you dothe big stuff, planning, you've
got to bring it down everysingle level with each team
member and know where they're aton a monthly basis when it
(30:21):
comes to you know, what are theyowning their impact on?
You know, are they stayingfocused on what things that they
said that they're going to do?
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
Absolutely so, since you've been kind of working
you've had.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
You know you've been strategic planning you've been.
You know you've had your, youknow high goals and and and and
vision and and values and soforth.
What have you guys seen interms of results in for you know
, operationally and performancewise, you know they have the
same level of investment.
You know, back to the folksthat want to work an eight to
five job, they don't work wellin our company, maybe in others
that aren't organization thelevel of just expectations to do
(31:16):
the work that we do is reallyhard and challenging anyway.
But when you know I'm outselling the bill of goods of
higher level, the number onething that I'm selling, because
you know obviously you and I weall bring the same software
right, I can't say that mysoftware or my products is
(31:36):
better than yours absolutely.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
I tell people that all the time listen, our, our
product that we sell isessentially the same as almost
anybody else in our industry.
You know, give or take a fewfeatures, right?
Um, but what it comes down tois how we take care of you.
You know the service that youexpect and and so, yeah, that's,
that's really what.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
Well, is yes, exactly , you know I.
You know I'm selling, I'mselling my team, right, I'm
selling that.
They're getting.
You know these certain peopleon my team that have great
skillsets, and now then it'stheir turn to deliver.
What if I'm outselling thatbill of goods?
You know the people that theyget on our team.
So I think, ultimately, you'vegot to have those check-ins with
(32:19):
them on a regular basis.
You know, I mean sure I know yousaid it we do this as well.
You know we do a weekly teammeeting, but that's everyone on
the team.
There's now like 25, 26 of uson on our team, and that's hard
to do from a level of like.
Okay, we're going to do thisstrategic meeting every Friday.
(32:42):
We can't take our entire Fridayto do that, but these monthly
sessions allow for thatone-on-one time to meet.
Go through, pull out your notesfrom last month.
Go through, pull out your notesfrom last month.
Where are we at?
Where are you at?
Because I want the team to beable to hold themselves
(33:04):
accountable to the strategicplan that they're putting in
place for themselves too.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
That's awesome, that's really cool.
So obviously we're in the sameindustry.
We are very similar mindset,but I think the one thing that I
want to let everyone know thisis something that any business
can do, you know, at any.
And again, you, you know, youguys were in business for almost
20 years.
You know 15, 20 years beforeyou really started to do this.
We were in business 20 yearsbefore we really started to come
(33:30):
get our shit together and getyou know to some strategic
planning and figure out who wewanted to be when we grew up.
Right?
So it's there's, it's not.
You know, we're not saying we'renot saying we're perfect, but
certainly anybody has theopportunity here to to start at
any point.
You know it's never too lateand it really can make a
difference.
(33:50):
I think we both have seenreally big impacts by by
creating our missions and ourvisions and values and our
common purpose with the team andsetting those standards and
sharing that and working withthe team and developing the team
.
Um, and you tell your clients,right, hey, these, this is who
we want to be, this is who weare.
Um, you know, we we've createdour brand video for the website
(34:10):
and it talks about our valuesand who we are and why we do
what we do, and so, as we'relooking for clients and
employees, we're finding peoplethat are like-minded and have
the same principles.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
Yeah, that's funny that you say that, because this
client call that I had yesterdaylate was really about that, you
know.
I mean she's been with us three, four years now and now we're
asking her to change her waysand she's like, well, it wasn't
like that when I signed up.
I know it wasn't, but as acompany we have grown and just
(34:46):
like you, I understand, you knowyou have, I mean, I think that
30 employees or so, like they'restarting to experience that I
mean they've not maybe have beenin business as long as we have
been and at the same time,though, it's finding that common
ground as listen, you know it'shard hiring people.
(35:06):
I see your turnover.
I know what's happening we are.
We're also in the same boat.
We have to find ways to improveour processes and at the end of
the call it ended up beingreally great and she's ready to
do some training.
After beginning the call shedidn't want anything to do with
it, but that is such a key piecein the work that anyone does,
(35:33):
and this doesn't have to be justin our industry.
Like you said, it wouldn'tmatter if I was.
Honestly, I don't know where Iwould be if I hadn't been at
higher level but at the sametime, I know that I want to be
somewhere that I can have avoice.
I think is obviously criticalHaving those touch points on a
(35:56):
regular basis with your teammembers so that you are aware of
what's happening in yourcompany Absolutely Well, good,
well, hopefully everyone got alittle bit out of this and
certainly I think I've had a fun.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
This is fun for me anyway, but you know, I know it
was right down.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
a couple of notes I was like I do too.
Speaker 1 (36:13):
I'm like, oh, I got to look at this, I got to look
at that, so it's definitely beengood.
So, as a reminder, everyoneplease like, follow, share rate,
review, subscribe.
We are everywhere.
You get your podcasts SmallBusiness, big World and at
smallbusinessbigworldcom.
If you have any questions forus or any of our guests, you can
always email us.
At podcast at papertrailscom.
(36:34):
How do folks get in touch withyou, amanda, if they instagram
you guys at higher level oninstagram?
Speaker 2 (36:40):
oh yeah, we have all the social media that you can
think of facebook, instagram,snapchat.
I mean you name tiktok.
I mean we have all of thehandles.
Speaker 1 (36:52):
So their tiktoks.
They actually do funny dancesand yes, we uh.
Speaker 2 (36:58):
They've spent a lot of time on that, but I'm more of
an Instagram type of person.
But they definitely post somefun stuff out there, and that's.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
H-R-I-E level E-L-S.
They're hiring employeesExactly.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
yes, that's right.
Speaker 1 (37:16):
Well, thank you, Amanda, and thanks everyone for
tuning in this week and we willsee you again next week.
Thanks for listening to thisweek's episode of a small
business, big world.
This podcast is a production ofpaper trails.
We are a payroll and HR companybased in Kennebunk, Maine, and
we serve small and midsizebusinesses across New England
and the country.
If you found this podcasthelpful, don't forget to follow
us at at Paper Trails Payrollacross all social media
platforms and check us out atpapertrailscom for more
(37:38):
information.
As a reminder, the views,opinions and thoughts expressed
by the hosts and guests alone.
The material presented in thispodcast is for general
information purposes only andshould not be considered legal
or financial advice.
By inviting this guest to ourpodcast, Paper Trails does not
imply endorsement of oropposition to any specific
individual, organization,product or service.
This is Small Business Big World, our weekly
podcast prepared by the team atPaper Trails.
Owning and running a smallbusiness is hard.
Each week, we'll dive into thechallenges, headaches, trends,
fun and excitement of running asmall business.
After all, small businesses arethe heartbeat of America and
our team is here to keep thembeating.
All right, welcome to SmallBusiness Big World, our weekly
(00:23):
podcast, where we talk about allthings small business.
This week, my guest is AmandaMajewski.
Amanda is the what are you?
Vice president of HCM services?
Is that your official title?
Vice president?
That's the official title Ithink that's HBIC right, that's
the boss lady there at higherlevels.
So higher level is a similarhuman capital HR company to us.
(00:46):
They're out in the Midwest,they've got locations all over
the place.
But today we're going to talkabout kind of strategic planning
and building a mission andvision and values and so forth
for your company, which we'vekind of all been through in our
growth, and I think it'll be agood conversation.
So thanks for joining me,amanda.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Thanks for having me.
I'm excited'll be a goodconversation.
So thanks for joining me,amanda.
Thanks for having me, I'mexcited to be here.
So it's been a wild ride.
For as many years I've beendoing this, but I always tell
the girls on the team you canalways learn something new every
single day, it don't matter howlong you've been doing this.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
So we were just doing a little pregame here.
But talk to me kind of aboutyou know, your history at the
company and where what it'slooked like that I've been you
know with the company.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
I think when you are getting out of place where you
have employees, you're just,you're just grinding at that
point right, you're just tryingto make it happen and there is
no slow down.
And maybe you did write down ona scratch piece of paper a
business plan at some point.
But I can honestly say you cando as much school as you want,
(02:13):
work in a corporate world.
I just it is just not the sameunless you are working in a
small business.
I feel like.
I feel like and there's been alot of pains and growing pains,
but I would say about the thirdor fourth year in working at the
company is when we and whichwe're now we've been in business
(02:35):
29 years.
So you know year I would sayyou know, after we've been there
a few years was when we started.
Just looking at, okay, we'veseen growth, it's been fast, but
how do we continue to now builda culture that we want people
(02:59):
to work here too at that point?
So we invested in consultantsand we've seen a lot of them
work with many of them and Iwould say working with more than
one isn't obviously ideal, butas a business you grow and maybe
you outgrow what you had hireda consultant to do.
(03:24):
But even when I think about thevery first consultant that we
had, there are still things thatI still utilize from that
consultant and a lot of it hadto do around.
You know, a disc assessment andreally using those four
quadrants to think about who ison my team and where.
(03:46):
Where are they strong at um,and I can't say that enough.
You know, finding someone, anoutside person, you know someone
that doesn't naturally have toeven know your industry but who
just understands people.
You know, that's having peopleis the hardest absolutely.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Absolutely, I'll say I mean as a small business.
So we've been in business now20 years.
I've been with the company 11years and, you know, we just
kind of started truly strategicplanning and building kind of
our mission and values and soforth last year, and it was
really because, again, we weregrowing.
We were growing fast and, as Iwas trying to find people, I too
(04:26):
was trying to find a, you know,really I was trying to attract
people and try to build, likeyou said, the culture to attract
people.
And we've we've spent a lot oftime building our, you know,
candidate pipeline.
We're doing more recruiting,we're reaching out to people,
we're kind of building a benchahead of time when we need
people and we're sellingourselves as an employer.
(04:48):
And part of that is, you know,especially if we're pulling
people from bigger companiesthat may have not ever worked in
a small business before, theywant to know that you're not
going out of business tomorrow,they want to know that you have
a plan to grow.
And that was really kind oftransformational to us.
As we're talking to people,they're like well, what's you
know what?
What is your strategic plan,where are you going, what are
(05:09):
your goals?
And you know, of course, as asmall business owner.
That's all in my head and, andI'll say, once I started to
write it down, I don't think itsurprised me or anybody who we
were, we wanted to be.
But now I can say, can say here, this is who we are, this is
who we want to become.
It's written down and that'sbeen really powerful.
So, uh, it's funny, you needthose disc assessments because
(05:30):
we too have started to do thatwith our new hires, something.
It's like a hybrid of the disc,something else uh it's been
really cool because we gothrough an interview process and
then we'll run them through anassessment and this consultant
that we use to manage that.
He'll come back, give us a fullreport and say, okay, this
person will work really wellunder this manager, but not this
(05:50):
manager, or you know, or whatbecause their motivations, their
interests, their you know workethic, whatever is different, um
, or you want them in this role.
Well, they don't have the rightmindset or motivation or life
goals for that.
So that's really cool too.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
We, in addition to a lot of that, back to kind of
scaling, and I mean when I firstcame to the business I was
doing business development.
I didn't have formal businessdevelopment training or had done
it, done it previously, but Ihad the right skills at that
time that you know the companywas looking for to find and
(06:33):
cultivate new businesses.
Um, and then, oh, three yearsago now three, four years ago, a
couple of colleagues hadattended a conference and a
group who manages um, um, likethe Sandler training, um, they
did a great presentation and wehired them to again help culture
(06:56):
, those sales skills, especiallyin a lot of us, you know,
veterans who'd been doing it along time and a little difficult
to kind of, you know, breaksome of those bad habits.
But at the same time, it's thatmission for us to always be
growing.
And I would say about 10 yearsago is when we really started
(07:19):
writing down you know, what isthat mission?
What does that vision look like, what are core values?
Because it just seems like eversince, you know, right before
COVID, the people that we wereinterviewing, they want to know
those things like, they want tomake an impact, and it was
really important to us to makesure that we're continuing that
(07:42):
mission and that we're talkingabout it every day, not just the
interview process or our annualretreat, where we do meet at
the end of the year and you know, plan for the future.
What do we want to accomplishthe next year?
And I think the biggest thingfor us for people to be
successful and I think this kindof goes back to whatever you
(08:04):
decide for what your mission orvision or core values is going
to be successful.
And I think this kind of goesback to whatever you decide for
what your mission or vision orcore values is going to be.
I cannot stress the importanceof this one phrase Comfortable
is a slow death.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
We use the term growable.
Right, that's our business,that's our industry.
We got to grow or we're goingto die.
That's okay for some people.
And and how you want to setyour business up for success?
(08:44):
As a small business, you haveto be ready or uncomfortable
every single day because it'sgonna happen.
Oh so I just cannot stress thatmore than anything from what
even I've learned, and justsetting expectations for team
members when they do join ourteam, and just setting
(09:05):
expectations for team memberswhen they do join our team, that
this is it's a hard job andit's not for everyone.
But how do we make sure that weset them up for success in the
beginning One, they're alignedwith our mission, vision and
core goals and that they arelooking for a career path?
Speaker 1 (09:21):
So one of the things that we took, we went a little
step further this year.
We worked on our mission, ourvision, our values, and we went
one step further and we createdkind of service standards that
go along to support those kindof things.
And we have 18 kind of servicestandards.
They're, you know, one sentence.
You know this is how we delivergreat services, how we do this.
(09:43):
And you know, every week at ourweekly team meeting I talk
about one of those standards andI say, ok, who has a win?
Who can give me a good exampleof using this standard this week
?
And you know, so that helpskind of cultivate the team.
And again, I have some folksthat have been with us, for we'd
still have employee number oneworking for us.
(10:05):
She's very close to retirementand I'll cry on that day, but
you know, she's employee numberone, the first employee Debbie
ever hired when she startedpaper Trails, to now 20
something years later, wherethings have changed and she's
had to change with us and thebusiness has had to change.
And then now I have to helpmanage the folks that are just
(10:25):
coming on, the three brand newemployees we hired this year,
bringing them into the fold andmaking sure everyone's on the
same page, and I think writingit down, memorializing it,
really helped us, and me as aleader, to deliver that message
more consistent, which I thinkwas really transformational.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Yeah, I think again and it'll take time for anyone
really to get there but writingdown the things that are most
important to you or back to youknow, why did you start the
business in the first place?
Right, those are your corevalues.
So, for whoever's listening outthere, that if you're trying to
figure that out, it's it's okay, You'll figure it out along the
(11:03):
way.
And no, there's not just onewritten book.
There's millions of books outthere to help you.
But you just always think backto why did you start this
business in the first place?
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Yeah, so what?
How did you guys go about thatprocess?
I know you said you hired aconsultant.
You know, did you do visionboards and all that?
You know all that fancy stuff.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
We did, we, we did all of that.
We had the which actually youcan probably see you see that
sticky board right behind me,those big post-its, those really
big post-its.
We have gone through I couldn'ttell you how many of those over
the years and it literally isjust putting them up on the wall
.
Um, we first kind of wouldalways start just like a, a big
(11:43):
group kind of brainstorming, um,and just writing ideas down,
and then we would sexualize thecertain ideas and then we would
break out into groups further,go through that you know
particular, now smaller list andfigure out what is the most,
almost kind of likeprioritization, because you
(12:04):
can't accomplish it all, butwhat is the most important, or
what is the most critical thing,or what's gonna, you know, get
you to that revenue thresholdthat you want to be at, and then
those are your priorities andthe other is just going to, it's
just going to have to wait, orjust it just doesn't make the
list.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
And that's okay.
So, yeah, we, when we, when Istarted kind of writing my you
know, the mission and the visionand the values and so forth, I
actually I kind of did it myselfas I'm like, okay, I'm the
leader and I need to get mythoughts of again why we're in
business and where we want to go.
And I actually I rented myselfa hotel room for the day and I
(12:41):
literally went because I just Ineeded to get away.
It was kind of my own littleconference and we kind of worked
through some of that stuff andI said, okay, I had been taking
a bunch of notes because thishad been a goal of mine
personally, so I had pages ofnotes of different things from
the last several months and Ikind of did the first framework.
And then I came back and I saidokay to my management team this
(13:04):
is who I think we are and who Ithink we want to become, and
why we exist, and so forth.
What do you think?
And they actually came back andsaid said well, you're too
ambitious there, right, that'sthat word is right.
They brought you back down toreality they also said hey, you
know, you forgot about, you know, this whole piece.
What about our communityinvolvement?
(13:25):
That was one thing.
That really is something.
We are very involved.
You know, we're very I'm verypassionate about serving the
community and giving back to thecommunity.
That supports us and, and, andso is my team.
I encourage everyone tovolunteer and be on boards and
all that stuff.
Uh, and it was like, so thatwas something we had to add
right, like, yeah, this is whowe are, um, and you know where
(13:46):
we want to be.
So that was really.
You know, everyone has adifferent process and it's funny
.
I went to a conference earlierthis year where there was a
strategic planning session andthat was another leader in our
industry and she basically wrotelike a two or three page story
to herself of like what shewanted to be in 12 months and in
two years.
(14:07):
And that was her way of doingit.
And I'm like, okay, well,that's a different approach.
That that's not me.
I'm a little more, you know,blocky and black and white I
guess.
But it was kind of neat,something totally different that
I didn't think about.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Yeah, that's a great way to think about it.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
No, I've not been to IPPA in a while, so yeah, I've
not been in a long time.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
That obviously is a different perspective.
You know, I hadn't thoughtabout it.
She basically wrote herself astory and this is what I the
story.
I want how I want my company tobe in two years, and she kind
(14:53):
of wrote herself like a two.
I love the fact that you knowthat.
You said you know bringing itback to the team.
We do that a lot too, because Idon't want to hire 10 of me,
right, I want to have peoplethat are have different ideas,
that I want people smarter thanme.
I mean I want to be someonethat I can lead you to water and
(15:15):
you can take off and run withit, and that's that's obviously
always hard to do, but I thinkwhen we know what our core
values are, that always justgoes a long way with making sure
that we're trying to hire theright people that you know want
to have the same beliefs as youdo.
You know the I had mentioned.
(15:37):
You know, yeah, we've workedwith consultants and we've
worked with many over the years.
Um, but the one that we've beenworking with, the past gosh now
four or five years, that's thelongest stint that we ever
worked like with the same person.
But I think sometimes you justyou just know right when you
finally found that right personand she gets us and her style of
(15:59):
the training that she brings tous.
We first started out where itwas just meeting with management
.
We don't even do that anymore.
It is at a company-wide.
Once a quarter we meet with herand we break it up into, you
know, many sessions throughoutthe day.
So it's smaller groups, youknow smaller pods, and I think
(16:20):
the greatest thing with that,with her leading it that way, is
that we're constantly goingback to you know our mission and
our vision, because we alwayshave to be talking about it.
We always have to be talkingabout it and we are really big
about, you know thatself-reflection.
Where is my own impact?
(16:46):
What did I do to contribute tothis?
What could I do to contributeto this?
Because, at the end of the day,everyone has to be on the same
boat as you.
We all have to be workingtowards the same greater good
and if everyone on the team doesnot align or, as we talk about
with our consultant now, we allhave to have the same beliefs
and if we're not all there,we're never going to accomplish
(17:08):
the things that we want.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
And that's really important, joy, we've seen that
impact here as well, becausewhen I did our mission or vision
, value, so forth, then we gottogether kind of as the
management team and we did ourstrategic plan for the next kind
of 18 months, two years.
And once we kind of built that,then we rolled it out to the
team for the first time ever.
Right, it wasn't just me rowingin the direction by myself.
(17:32):
I need everybody paddling.
You know we're not going to getacross the finish line.
So we get together late lastyear, rolled out to the whole
team.
You know this is where we'regoing for the next 18 months,
two years.
And now I can tell you we're.
You know, at this point we'rerecording this in August.
We're about, you know, eight or10 months into our plan.
Have things changed Absolutely?
(17:53):
Have we adjusted and adapted?
Absolutely?
The management team and I meeton a quarterly basis to review
that strategic plan and say,okay, so we're holding ourselves
accountable.
Okay, what have we accomplished?
What do we need to accomplish?
What has zigged or zagged orchanged?
And it is a living document.
It's not something, especiallyin business today, like you said
, every day is uncomfortable,every day has, you know, issues
(18:16):
and that brings up.
I mean, there are opportunitiesand changes that happen every
day.
So, you know, it definitely isimportant to kind of hold
yourself accountable to yourgoals as well.
But then we just did last weekkind of a mid-year update for
our team.
We did it everyone in the roomwe did, you know, half a day,
lunch, training, strategicplanning, updates and fun.
(18:37):
And I said, okay, remember whatI told you.
You know, last year, this iswhat we were, where we were
going.
Here are our sales goals andhow close we are to getting them
.
And this is why this is what'sworked, what hasn't worked.
Here's our, you know,operational goals.
We have.
We told you we were going tohire this many people we have.
We haven't done this or we havedone that.
Um, you know, we told you we'regoing to make some efficiencies
(18:59):
here and there, and we have,but we're continuing to work on
those um and oh, by the way,these are some things that we're
adding that weren't originallythere, and this is what's going
to happen, what our plan is forthe rest of the year.
And that was a really goodconversation for everyone in the
room to say, you know, for themto ask me questions like okay,
what you know, we we tried thisa couple of months ago.
(19:21):
It kind of fell flat.
You know what happened and youknow it was really really good
conversation and I think it's Ialways no-transcript, but you
(19:49):
know it wasn't Wolf of WallStreet, nobody was banging their
chests going paper trails,paper trails, paper trails.
But I feel like it was a reallygood day, as we were all having
a good conversation.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Yeah, I think it's just Everybody working this
direction.
Yeah, I think, obviously,having the team get together
that's important, and we doweekly meetings as well and talk
about numbers.
You know where do we need towork or improve, Whether it's
operating efficiencies or, youknow, do we need to fire a
client.
There's something in life outof us, whatever it may be.
(20:24):
You know those are things.
Those are very importantdetails and you know, at the end
of the day, we're all in thistogether and I want the team to
feel like they are a part ofsomething that they signed up
for, yeah, in that second piece,we in that kind of service
standards we created.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
one of them is you own the client experience and I
trust you to do whatever youneed to do to either take care
of that or take care of thebusiness.
Right, and sometimes that mightmean you coming to me and
saying this client isn't rightfor us for X, y and Z reasons,
right, and I mean I have told mystaff probably more than once
fire them, right, like not allclients are right for us.
(21:06):
And, of course, even if we everdo that, it's not like.
You know, it's not the DonaldTrump you're fired moment, it's.
You know we just don't feellike we're the right thing for
you.
Let's work on a transition out.
We will help you do whateveryou need to find a better
provider.
You know, whatever that may be,there's a right way to do it,
of course, but but we've learned, and that is giving good
service to that client, but alsoto all of your other clients,
(21:28):
because nine times out of 10,that bad client is is sucking
your resources, resources theydon't want to pay their, you
know, their bring morale down.
Uh, it's just not a good thingfor the organization, including
for your employees, who youobviously want to come to work
and be happy, uh, but theorganization has a hole yeah,
they.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
We actually just recently started, um, um, I
wouldn't say a campaign, but butyou know, back to you have
people on your team that youexpect, that they're inspecting
some work, and we know labor isexpensive and we have to be
(22:08):
constantly looking at ourefficiencies because we don't
want to have to hire more peopleto do the same amount of work,
etc.
Right, and so, um, you know, wereally just have been focused
on where can we improve our time, our time for processing, right
(22:29):
, our time for getting payrollsdone, and because now team
members, especially some newerteam members, they're just so
focused on that that they forget, oh, um, I need to have a
conversation with the client.
Well, how do I have thatconversation with a client?
(22:50):
You know, um client, you know,and at the end of the day, a
client has to be now retrainedon a process.
When they're like well, it wasworking before, why did it
change?
And so then it's slowing downand having that, you know, I
wouldn't say fierce conversation, but realigning with the client
(23:13):
what we are capable of doing,because we've talked about it
internally the the team, theyunderstand it and they're like
yes, let's do this.
You know, I want to make moremoney, well, we've got to
streamline these clients.
And then they forget that nextstep.
So I think again, when you arebuilding, you know to your point
(23:35):
service standards or what yourcore values are that
communication and overcommunication is important for a
small business because, as weknow those big box providers,
why do clients come to us?
Because they're know they're.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
They're getting service, and service is also
helping your clients with thingsthey didn't know they needed
help with, which sometimes arethose efficiencies right, and I
tell people that all the time.
You know, just because I'mproviding the client with the
resources or the tools to do thework better, that's not bad
service.
You're helping them be moreself-sufficient and you know
(24:14):
they're going to get the thingsthey need or know how to do
things on a Sunday afternoonwhen we're not in the office and
we're not going to beresponding to that email and and
whatever, right.
So, again, stop and take thatsecond and say, hey, can we help
you figure this out so thatyou're not so reliant upon me?
Uh, I think that is goodservice.
So.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
I know, and it's so strange because then now you've
got to explain that to theclient and you forget that they
become so dependent upon you.
And we love every client right,we love all our clients but at
the end of the day, we're hereto make higher level, better.
We're here to make money and weare here to make an impact, not
(24:59):
only internally.
You know I talked about I wantthe team to have career paths,
what do they want to learn?
What do they want to get toknow, but there also has to be,
I feel like, when it comes toclients, and you know, again
part of your strategic planningwho is an ideal client for you?
I think that is so important.
That's something you have toconsider in your strategic
planning.
Who is an ideal client for you?
I think that is so important.
That's something you have toconsider in your strategic
(25:21):
planning as well.
And who do you want?
Who do you want to do Exactly?
Who are you going to target?
And I think, again, we've beenable to identify those things
with working with.
You know, the sales consultantthat I talked about, you know
that follows the Sandler model.
It just really just brought alot of that to light, because
(25:42):
otherwise you're wasting time.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
Absolutely.
You know we started ourstrategic planning kind of with
a SWOT analysis.
You know our strengths, ourweaknesses, opportunities and
threats and to be honest withyou that you know quadrant
project, you know thing.
We did the same thing.
We took the sticky notes andthe big sticky notes, put them
on the wall and everyone wroteyou know what are our strengths,
what are our weaknesses, whatare the opportunities and what
are the threats.
And we tried to say, okay, howdo we capitalize on our
(26:07):
strengths and continue to managethat?
You know what opportunities areout there.
How can we retool our businessto take advantage of those
opportunities?
What weaknesses do we need towork on and what threats do we
need to be aware of and defendourselves from?
And that formed our strategicplan.
I mean that, right, there waslike gosh.
We basically took everythingoff and put it in different
categories and that was ourstrategic plan and I think that
(26:30):
alone was how we got there.
It was a couple hours in anafternoon.
We went off site.
We had a few minutes whereeveryone could be together and
be focused.
And I can't stress that enoughtoo.
I'm just as guilty of thisgetting sucked into the
day-to-day and sometimes youhave to take a step back, you
have to get away.
(26:53):
I've done it where ouroperations manager and I were
working on doing that kind ofcareer development plan stuff
and I said let's go to my house,let's sit at the kitchen table
and let's work on it there,where the phones are ringing and
you know people are walkinginto the office and you know
there's not you know, comes intothe dining room table for an
hour and we can get this done.
(27:14):
I think that's really importantas well, and you just you have
to know when to do that.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
So yeah, I agree, I think once you've gone through
all of that and you're doingthis, whatever, on a regular
basis I know you talked abouteven quarterly revisiting, you
know and then, of course,annually revisiting what did you
do well, what do you need to dobetter on, you know, the SWOT
(27:42):
analysis.
We've done that as well, but atthe end of the day, though but
I've talked about this a littlebit but you know, your team has
to be all on the same page withyou, right?
So we've have then even gone tothe level of all right, we've
met as a management team or, youknow, small group to come up
with these things.
(28:02):
But now we're going to do itagain with the entire team and
let's see if their SWOT analysisis somewhat similar to ours.
And it, it, oh my gosh, it'sjust, it's so.
It's just such refreshing tosee that, okay, they know where
we are heading towards becausethey also are writing down the
(28:26):
same things as well.
I think the biggest element tothe almost like an extension to
the strategic planning really is, you know, meeting on a regular
basis with your team members.
We do monthly we call themmonthly either strategic
sessions or roadmap recaps, andsometimes I feel like I'm.
(28:51):
You know I'm a coach for someof my clients because a lot of
them also are struggling withyou know finding'm a coach for
some of my clients because a lotof them also are struggling
with, you know, finding theright talent or keeping the
right talent, or you know whatchallenge that they may be
having with.
You know something HR related,but it's always around
performance, it seems like.
But the roadmap or strategicsession is designed to.
(29:15):
You know, recap what youreviewed last month.
Um, you know people, they wehave like a formal sheet they
fill out um goals that they'reworking towards.
You know their individual goals.
Back to their own professionaldevelopment training um, what do
they want to accomplish?
(29:35):
And we're not big on titles.
Yeah, higher level, I don'treally care for them, but it
does mean a lot to people andI'm fine with that.
But at the end of the day, Iwant to know that you have found
some sort of passion or careerpath that gets you up every day
(30:00):
and makes you want to come tothis job and do it well every
single day.
So I cannot stress.
You know, while maybe you dothe big stuff, planning, you've
got to bring it down everysingle level with each team
member and know where they're aton a monthly basis when it
(30:21):
comes to you know, what are theyowning their impact on?
You know, are they stayingfocused on what things that they
said that they're going to do?
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
Absolutely so, since you've been kind of working
you've had.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
You know you've been strategic planning you've been.
You know you've had your, youknow high goals and and and and
vision and and values and soforth.
What have you guys seen interms of results in for you know
, operationally and performancewise, you know they have the
same level of investment.
You know, back to the folksthat want to work an eight to
five job, they don't work wellin our company, maybe in others
that aren't organization thelevel of just expectations to do
(31:16):
the work that we do is reallyhard and challenging anyway.
But when you know I'm outselling the bill of goods of
higher level, the number onething that I'm selling, because
you know obviously you and I weall bring the same software
right, I can't say that mysoftware or my products is
(31:36):
better than yours absolutely.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
I tell people that all the time listen, our, our
product that we sell isessentially the same as almost
anybody else in our industry.
You know, give or take a fewfeatures, right?
Um, but what it comes down tois how we take care of you.
You know the service that youexpect and and so, yeah, that's,
that's really what.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
Well, is yes, exactly , you know I.
You know I'm selling, I'mselling my team, right, I'm
selling that.
They're getting.
You know these certain peopleon my team that have great
skillsets, and now then it'stheir turn to deliver.
What if I'm outselling thatbill of goods?
You know the people that theyget on our team.
So I think, ultimately, you'vegot to have those check-ins with
(32:19):
them on a regular basis.
You know, I mean sure I know yousaid it we do this as well.
You know we do a weekly teammeeting, but that's everyone on
the team.
There's now like 25, 26 of uson on our team, and that's hard
to do from a level of like.
Okay, we're going to do thisstrategic meeting every Friday.
(32:42):
We can't take our entire Fridayto do that, but these monthly
sessions allow for thatone-on-one time to meet.
Go through, pull out your notesfrom last month.
Go through, pull out your notesfrom last month.
Where are we at?
Where are you at?
Because I want the team to beable to hold themselves
(33:04):
accountable to the strategicplan that they're putting in
place for themselves too.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
That's awesome, that's really cool.
So obviously we're in the sameindustry.
We are very similar mindset,but I think the one thing that I
want to let everyone know thisis something that any business
can do, you know, at any.
And again, you, you know, youguys were in business for almost
20 years.
You know 15, 20 years beforeyou really started to do this.
We were in business 20 yearsbefore we really started to come
(33:30):
get our shit together and getyou know to some strategic
planning and figure out who wewanted to be when we grew up.
Right?
So it's there's, it's not.
You know, we're not saying we'renot saying we're perfect, but
certainly anybody has theopportunity here to to start at
any point.
You know it's never too lateand it really can make a
difference.
(33:50):
I think we both have seenreally big impacts by by
creating our missions and ourvisions and values and our
common purpose with the team andsetting those standards and
sharing that and working withthe team and developing the team
.
Um, and you tell your clients,right, hey, these, this is who
we want to be, this is who weare.
Um, you know, we we've createdour brand video for the website
(34:10):
and it talks about our valuesand who we are and why we do
what we do, and so, as we'relooking for clients and
employees, we're finding peoplethat are like-minded and have
the same principles.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
Yeah, that's funny that you say that, because this
client call that I had yesterdaylate was really about that, you
know.
I mean she's been with us three, four years now and now we're
asking her to change her waysand she's like, well, it wasn't
like that when I signed up.
I know it wasn't, but as acompany we have grown and just
(34:46):
like you, I understand, you knowyou have, I mean, I think that
30 employees or so, like they'restarting to experience that I
mean they've not maybe have beenin business as long as we have
been and at the same time,though, it's finding that common
ground as listen, you know it'shard hiring people.
(35:06):
I see your turnover.
I know what's happening we are.
We're also in the same boat.
We have to find ways to improveour processes and at the end of
the call it ended up beingreally great and she's ready to
do some training.
After beginning the call shedidn't want anything to do with
it, but that is such a key piecein the work that anyone does,
(35:33):
and this doesn't have to be justin our industry.
Like you said, it wouldn'tmatter if I was.
Honestly, I don't know where Iwould be if I hadn't been at
higher level but at the sametime, I know that I want to be
somewhere that I can have avoice.
I think is obviously criticalHaving those touch points on a
(35:56):
regular basis with your teammembers so that you are aware of
what's happening in yourcompany Absolutely Well, good,
well, hopefully everyone got alittle bit out of this and
certainly I think I've had a fun.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
This is fun for me anyway, but you know, I know it
was right down.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
a couple of notes I was like I do too.
Speaker 1 (36:13):
I'm like, oh, I got to look at this, I got to look
at that, so it's definitely beengood.
So, as a reminder, everyoneplease like, follow, share rate,
review, subscribe.
We are everywhere.
You get your podcasts SmallBusiness, big World and at
smallbusinessbigworldcom.
If you have any questions forus or any of our guests, you can
always email us.
At podcast at papertrailscom.
(36:34):
How do folks get in touch withyou, amanda, if they instagram
you guys at higher level oninstagram?
Speaker 2 (36:40):
oh yeah, we have all the social media that you can
think of facebook, instagram,snapchat.
I mean you name tiktok.
I mean we have all of thehandles.
Speaker 1 (36:52):
So their tiktoks.
They actually do funny dancesand yes, we uh.
Speaker 2 (36:58):
They've spent a lot of time on that, but I'm more of
an Instagram type of person.
But they definitely post somefun stuff out there, and that's.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
H-R-I-E level E-L-S.
They're hiring employeesExactly.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
yes, that's right.
Speaker 1 (37:16):
Well, thank you, Amanda, and thanks everyone for
tuning in this week and we willsee you again next week.
Thanks for listening to thisweek's episode of a small
business, big world.
This podcast is a production ofpaper trails.
We are a payroll and HR companybased in Kennebunk, Maine, and
we serve small and midsizebusinesses across New England
and the country.
If you found this podcasthelpful, don't forget to follow
us at at Paper Trails Payrollacross all social media
platforms and check us out atpapertrailscom for more
(37:38):
information.
As a reminder, the views,opinions and thoughts expressed
by the hosts and guests alone.
The material presented in thispodcast is for general
information purposes only andshould not be considered legal
or financial advice.
By inviting this guest to ourpodcast, Paper Trails does not
imply endorsement of oropposition to any specific
individual, organization,product or service.
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