December 18, 2024 • 39 mins
What if you could break through the barriers holding your business back and scale beyond $10 million in sales? Join us as we sit down with a distinguished Scaling Up coach, Herb Cogliano, who shares a wealth of experience from a remarkable 35-year journey transforming a family business across North America. Discover the hidden complexities behind scaling a business, not just growing it. It’s not just about increasing revenue; it's about expanding purpose, impact, and team capabilities. With only a tiny fraction of American businesses reaching that coveted $10 million mark, our guest offers strategies to overcome stagnation, from delegating key functions to experts to embracing a functional accountability chart.
The power of business coaching is harnessed in this enlightening episode, where we explore how certified business coaches can redefine a company’s trajectory. Learn to cultivate internal capabilities, such as employee development through a company university, to foster leadership and talent retention. Our conversation dives into the shift from hands-on management to effective delegation and the vital role of hiring individuals with management potential. An external perspective from a coach can illuminate blind spots and unlock new pathways for growth, ensuring your business runs smoothly even in your absence.
Prepare to unlock new growth opportunities by embracing adaptability and strategic pivots. We delve into the importance of tracking market trends and planning strategic pivots, whether through acquisitions or entering new markets. Our guest stresses the importance of transitioning from working in the business to working on it, focusing on activities that drive growth and profitability. With resources such as complimentary assessments and expert advice, this episode empowers business owners to chase their dreams without settling for less—because you deserve the company of your dreams.
Herb Cogliano: CEO and Founder of Aspire Growth Advisors
Website: https://www.aspiregrowthadvisors.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hcogliano/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/herb.cogliano.37
Blog: https://www.aspiregrowthadvisors.com/blog
Email: herb@aspiregrowthadvisors.com
#SmallBusinessGrowth #ScalingUp #BusinessCoaching #HerbCogliano #AspireGrowthAdvisors #BusinessStrategy #EntrepreneurshipTips #ScaleYourBusiness #DelegationMatters #TeamLeadership #BusinessPodcast #EntrepreneurSuccess #GrowYourBusiness #BusinessScaling #VisionaryLeadership #ScalingStrategies #BuildToLast #Entrepreneurship #SmallBusinessTips #ScalableBusiness #EntrepreneurJourney #BusinessGrowth #StrategicPlanning #SmallBusinessSuccess #EntrepreneurMindset #GrowthStrategies #EntrepreneurLife #Oklahoma City #SmallBusinessPivots #Success #MichaelDMorrison
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, Welcome to another Small Business Pivot
brought to you by Boss.
Today we have a special guestand I hope you buckle up today
because we are both coaches.
But before we do that, I alwaysknow that the business owner
can only say their name andtheir business, like the
business owner can.
So tell us about yourself andyour business.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Michael and welcome to all of you in the listening
audience.
I am a scaling up coach.
I'm a person who had a journeyof my own personal business for
35 years, part of a familybusiness, and went through the
dynamics of scaling up abusiness from one location to
(00:42):
many locations across NorthAmerica, dealing with the
challenges in the drama withscaling employees, scaling
clients, scaling services,scaling office locations, all
thinking that when it got bigger, life would get better.
But the more complexity thatcame with scaling, the more
(01:07):
drama I felt and the morecommitted I was to making the
journey simpler and easier.
Share with others that journeyin ways that you can enjoy the
ride to scaling up with you andyour team.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Fantastic.
Well, how do you think we'regoing to help our listeners best
today?
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Well, I know you're going to give me some amazing
questions.
Those questions are going todraw that out of me and I look
forward to helping answer them.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Fantastic.
Well, we'll be right back afterwe introduce the show with more
about scaling your business.
Welcome to Small BusinessPivots, a podcast designed for
small business owners.
I'm your host, michael Morrison, a small business coach and
founder of BOSS, where we makebusiness ownership simplified
(02:00):
for success, so that you can owna business that runs without
you.
To learn more, go tobusinessownershipsimplifiedcom.
But welcome back to SmallBusiness Pivots.
This is a true treat If you'veever read one of the popular
books Scaling Up.
Our friend today is a scalingup coach, as he mentioned, and
we're going to talk aboutscaling up a business, because
(02:22):
that is very difficult for smallbusiness owners to even fathom
having more than one location,multiple employees, as you said
it best in one word drama, right.
So let's talk about let's startwith the first of what's the
difference between growth andscaling up.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
I don't know if there's differences.
I would say there's levels ofexcuse me, and the levels deal
with number one what does theownership want to accomplish
with their company?
I view the company as a vehiclefor the owner and the team, and
(03:03):
that vehicle really is helpingthem deliver a purpose, a
service to the world.
And so that when we identifythe business purpose and we're
doing that purpose let's sayit's a $1 million business a
year and you're servicing 100clients and they're happy and
(03:25):
they're impacted you're making adifference.
But what if I scale that to a$10 million company servicing
1,000 people a year with 1,000impactful outcomes?
I'm scaling my purpose and myimpact outcomes.
(03:48):
I'm scaling my purpose and myimpact.
And so the question to theownership team is how big do you
want to scale that impact?
And from that comes scalingrevenue, scaling profits,
scaling cash, scaling the peoplewho run the business to deliver
on that purpose.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
So when most people hear scaling up, it's more than
just growing your revenue, isthat fair to say?
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Yeah, to scale a business successfully, you're
growing a bunch of differentthings.
You're scaling the people in it.
You're scaling the purpose andimpact from it.
You're scaling cash flow tofund it.
You're scaling clients todeliver it, and all these things
have to work in unison to dothat, and that's why most people
(04:42):
get stuck.
And that's why most people getstuck.
There's only one half of 1% ofthe companies in America today
ever reach 10 million or more insales.
Wow, Now, when I heard thatnumber 32 million companies
approximately one half of 1%only reached 10 million or more.
(05:08):
10 million didn't seem like abig behemoth company to me.
But 99.5% never make it.
Some of them are solopreneursor lifestyle companies and
that's all they want and that'sgreat.
But many others want that $10million.
(05:30):
But the complexity they're notable to break through the
complexity to get to the otherside and they're stuck.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
That's a popular word that we use in our coaching
world is stuck, and most of ourlisteners, their business is
stuck and they've plateaued, ifyou will.
In fact, most of them, I wouldguess, have probably doing less
than a million in annual revenueand, to go along with your
statistic, I heard that lessthan I believe 8% ever even hit
(06:02):
a million.
So when we're talking sevenfigures, you're talking about
scaling, a lot of responsibilitytoo.
So what is kind of the firststeps for business owners that
are stuck and they're workingthose long hours and they just
can't fathom even working onanything else or doing anything
(06:22):
else other than what they'redoing, which is putting out
fires and working long hours?
What are kind of those firststeps?
Speaker 2 (06:30):
I think one of the first challenges I see is
bandwidth.
The owner of the company ischief cook and bottle washer.
They're doing marketing,they're doing sales, they're
paying the bills, they're doingmarketing, they're doing sales,
they're paying the bills,they're doing the hiring and
that's what you need to do whenyou're at that size.
(06:51):
But one of the methods we useis a functional accountability
chart which is simple forleadership bandwidth and over
time we want you to grow yourbandwidth by adding somebody to
be in charge of sales, marketing, finance, it operations.
(07:16):
Now you might say Herb, well,that sounds great, but how do I
do that?
In every quarter we one thenext best function.
We need to increase ownershipbandwidth a month or a part-time
CFO for 20 hours a week.
(07:36):
We do it fractionally until thebusiness can afford the
full-time person in that seat,but it also gets you away from
(07:56):
it and gives you more bandwidthto put in the other more
productive areas of the companythat you're really good at,
other more productive areas ofthe company that you're really
good at.
But most people think they keephaving to juggling all these
different hats and they need apathway on how to slowly grow
the leadership team and by thatquarterly progressive pathway.
(08:19):
Over time, our leadership teamis developed, their bandwidth
increases and they feel likethey have more freedom and less
drama to run the company, versusto actually have to work in the
company day in and day out.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
Is there a formula to use Like, for instance, a CFO
would be your best first step,then a CMO then?
Or is it just based on thecompany itself?
Speaker 2 (08:48):
I think it's situational, michael, because
every company owner has adifferent background of
expertise.
They have a different challenge.
If your company has major cashissues and you don't have
anybody who's managing yourmoney well, doing the right
(09:10):
financial statement reporting,making sure you can keep the
lights on and make payroll, thenI would say it'd be pretty
critical.
Then you get somebody on thatteam that can help that, or your
business could go out ofbusiness very quickly, or your
business could go out ofbusiness very quickly, but if
your sales are flat or decliningand you can't grow, it may be
(09:35):
somebody on the marketing orsales side.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
That's most pressing right now.
I know systems and processesare a key component of scaling a
business.
So how does one find the timeto figure that out, and are
there some steps that they canfollow?
Because when we mention systemsand processes, the first thing
they think of is a lot more workfor nothing.
(09:56):
That's not increasing sales,not reducing debt, it's just
piddly work, and they understandthe importance of it.
They just can't find the timeto replace what they're doing
with creating systems andprocesses.
Do you have any input on that?
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Yeah, I guess my perspective would be that we
have another tool called theprocess accountability chart.
Every company has veryimportant processes that drive
your business model and youcan't deal with all of them at
once.
But which one is most criticalright now?
(10:35):
For example, if you're acompany that cannot hire staff
for some reason, you have allthese openings but you can't
find anybody.
Some reason you have all theseopenings but you can't find
anybody.
Do you think a critical processto work on would be recruitment
to onboarding, becausewhatever's happening right now
is not working.
So if we don't fix or retool orre-engineer recruiting to
(11:00):
onboarding, we're going to havea problem.
So to solve that constraint, weidentify the one most important
process each quarter that willhelp unblock our major
bottleneck and get us free tothe next step.
That's the one we work on, andin unison.
(11:21):
When I hire that one person,fractionally or not, that works
on the face chart.
What I found is I can't be anexpert in all of the functions,
but if I hire a great fractionalHR person with recruitment
background, they normally cometo the table knowing how to fix
(11:46):
that process for me if they'reany good at what they do, so
normally together that helps mesolve my issue as a business
owner.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
As a business owner.
Is there a size of business?
Is there a revenue size?
Is it employee size?
As to when you can afford toscale, Because scaling takes
money, it takes an investment.
You mentioned fractionalemployees, things like that, but
is there some kind of formula,Because I hear so many business
owners I want to scale mybusiness and they don't really
(12:18):
understand what it means or ifthey're even in a position to do
that.
Can you help explain that?
Speaker 2 (12:24):
Well, I think, michael, it goes back to, first
of all, what does the owner want?
Scale to 1 million, scale to100 million?
So we need to find the actualtarget.
But then I think scaling also,in its basic form, is about cash
(12:45):
flow.
So if I want to scale and I'mgoing to hire more employees
before I get 20 more clients,let's say, I need capacity and
bandwidth for delivery.
How much can I self-fund?
And if I can't self-fund it,would the bank loan it to me or
(13:06):
an SBA loan and am I creditworthy?
So you need to be in a businesswith high enough gross margins
in bottom line.
The businesses that I was inhad good enough gross margins
that I could self-fund themajority of all my growth.
(13:27):
Now I could have taken it outas a dividend or a distribution
at the end of the year andthat's a choice.
But most scaling up owners,when they see a marketplace
that's vibrant, when they see anindustry with healthy bottom
line and gross margin, they wantto take advantage of that
market and they want to scale it.
(13:48):
So they keep reinvesting theprofits and the excess cash flow
back into the company so theycan continue to make even bigger
profits and bigger cash flow.
But if you don't have goodmargins and good receivables and
good cash flow, your scale upis very limited.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
We offer business loans at Boss and we'll have a
business owner from time to timecome to us and say I hear
you're not supposed to have anydebt whatsoever, and I kind of
combat that a little bit wherethere is good debt.
If you will, yeah, Can you helpexplain that?
Speaker 2 (14:27):
No, I think that there is good debt and it's like
in your personal life.
What can you afford?
Debt that makes you cash flownegative is not good debt.
But if you buy, like a car, ifI buy a Mercedes which is
(14:49):
$100,000 plus vehicle, but Ionly make $25,000 a year income,
that's not fundable because Iwill always have more payment
than I do income.
So for a company it's the sameway.
Do I hire one employee or do Ihire 10 employees all at once?
(15:13):
And what could the businessafford?
Banks ultimately want to knowthat at the end of the day, when
they loan you money, that yourcash flow generated from the
business will always be largeenough to service their loan
payment and when you can't showthat, they don't want to make
(15:34):
that loan.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
So let's talk about kind of the process of scaling
up.
So you're certified.
You're listening to SmallBusiness Pivots.
This episode is proudly broughtto you by BOSS, where business
ownership is simplified forsuccess.
At BOSS, we help businessowners create their businesses
to run smoothly without thembeing there 24-7.
(15:55):
Our seasoned business coaches,who have walked the path
themselves, provide invaluableguidance and support, and with
additional services like fastbusiness loans.
Seasoned business coaches whohave walked the path themselves,
providing valuable guidance andsupport, and with additional
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to 48 hours.
Comprehensive online courses,detailed workbooks and engaging
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Boss offers a wealth ofresources to help you succeed.
(16:17):
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Your support keeps us going.
Now let's get back to ourincredible guest.
So let's talk about kind of theprocess of scaling up.
(16:40):
So you're certified, you're abusiness coach.
What does that look like?
From start to finish?
So somebody has an idea of theexperience they could have with
a coach like yourself.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
Yeah, I think on a simple level, we want to
understand from the owner whatis their current state of their
company.
Where do they want to get it to?
If you look at the next threeto five years, if you're 10
(17:11):
million, do you want to double?
Do you want to be 20 million ordo you want to be 100 million?
Most of the scaling upcompanies that I work with are
companies that are committed.
They have the mindset and theyhave the initiative that they
want to double their business atleast top line revenue, every
(17:34):
three to five years.
And, based upon that target, wewant to come up with a shared
vision, a plan of how we'regoing to get there.
What are the priorities that weneed to have over three to five
years?
Capabilities that we need tocreate.
(17:54):
One of mine was creating auniversity inside the company so
we could train and develop ourown internal people, because we
know to grow the company, youneed to grow the people in it.
So that was a core capabilitywe didn't have in the beginning.
But to double our size, we'dneed to create that capability
(18:18):
to support the targets that wewanted to achieve, and so we
work with the owner and,ultimately, the leadership team
on putting their shared visionon paper.
One simple page of paper tomake it so easy to understand
(18:40):
that everybody in the companycan be on the same page while we
together execute and build thatcompany into reality.
And we do that over the nextthree to five years together.
And then we reset, and we do itagain and again until the owner
says wait, a minute timeout.
I've achieved what I wanted toachieve.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Yeah, I love that.
I love that.
So coaching is a big thing.
I know for myself.
I struggled a lot, like most ofour listeners, until I hired my
first coach two decades ago.
Can you share the value of acoach and what it did for your
businesses that you owned, andthen now the value that you see
(19:27):
of actually being a coach andstepping into these other
businesses, how valuable it can?
Speaker 2 (19:32):
be formal coach, I would say would be my father,
being a family business Verymuch mentoring, giving me
different opportunities forstretch, different assignments
(19:52):
in leadership.
That would expand my experienceand my competency.
But my first professional coachreally brought outside
perspective, because you can bevery insulated inside your
company.
You don't always get the directtruth of what you need from
your employees.
Some of them may be fearful oftelling you what you need to
(20:16):
know because of their job orwhatever.
But it's true and this coachreally could see my blind spots
and help me address them in away that was productive and made
me become a better businessowner and CEO.
Because of it, and when Ilearned how to do that from him,
(20:38):
I was then able to apply thatsame coaching mindset to all of
my direct reports.
And when you do that to yourdirect reports and they grow,
then the business can run on itsown without you always having
to be there, and that was theultimate freedom that I always
(21:00):
wanted.
I wanted to work on thebusiness more than in it, but I
needed to earn that freedom andthat's where the coach really
helped me grow and evolve.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
So you're saying there is a chance of owning a
business that can run withoutyou.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Absolutely.
I'm living proof.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
I just, I just wanted our listeners and clients and
everybody else to hear that itis possible.
You know cause some of them?
They're just putting out firesand they're just like, but how
you know?
So what are some challengesthat you see today with most
business owners?
Because from time to time abusiness owner we work with will
say am I the only one that isgoing through this?
(21:44):
So can you share some of thosechallenges that you work with
clients on?
Speaker 2 (21:51):
Yeah, I think one of the number one barriers is the
ability to hire, develop andretain leaders in your company,
because in the beginning you'reused to delegating.
Let me tell you what you needto do, michael, as the owner do
(22:11):
A, do B, do C, come back to me,let me know and we'll do it all
again next week.
Why, when you're small, that'sthe way it is.
But when you get bigger and youneed to delegate marketing
finance operations number onethe people you hired in the
beginning weren't hired to bemanagers.
(22:33):
They were hired to be greatfunctional staff and that's
hopefully what they are andthat's hopefully what they are.
(22:59):
But now you flip a switch andsay, well, now I need you to be
a manager and I need you to haveall those skills and experience
and capability, and they don'tday one, and so you get
frustrated, they get frustratedand hence drama occurs.
So there's kind of a pivotperiod where you're
internalizing, when I'm makingnew hires, what percent of them
need to have management orleadership background so that
they will be promotable soonerthan later with the right skill
set and the right desire to wantto be a leader, because not
(23:21):
everybody does.
But once you do that, that'sgoing to be a key inflection
point for your growth and scale.
The second thing that goes withthat you have to learn how to
coach and develop people,because maybe you were a great
sales guy.
You sold insurance.
You have your own littlebrokerage now three to five
(23:44):
people, you're doing over amillion a year.
Life is good, but you never hadto develop a leadership team.
What does that mean?
Like what do I have to do?
What's the definition ofsuccess?
What tools do I use?
Do I even like doing it?
And that's a turning point fora CEO of a scaling up company.
(24:06):
You go from being the biggestsales guy, the biggest brand
ambassador, to now being thenumber one developer of talent
in your company, and that maynot be the job you're used to
doing the last 20 years.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
So it's a learning curve.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
Absolutely.
What makes a good leader, agood manager these days?
Speaker 2 (24:32):
Oh boy, there's a bunch of wonderful things.
I think number one is thewillingness to want to be.
Do you see potential in people?
Because when you think of goodleadership, number one we repeat
a lot of things over and over.
What are they?
What are the core values of thecompany?
(24:54):
I'm always talking about ourvalues in the way we behave,
treat each other, treat ourclients, and we need to be
consistent.
And so if you're not alwaysrepeating almost like a parent,
do you remember ever saying toyour parents oh my God, there
they go again.
They keep reminding me abouthomework or being polite, or
(25:17):
saying thank you and please andall that good stuff, well,
you're the head cheerleader ofthat for your company.
So I'm always repeating ourvalues, I'm always repeating our
purpose, I'm always repeatingour top priorities.
I'm always talking about ourbig, hairy, audacious goal.
And that's repetition.
(25:39):
And you need heart, you need anemotional connection behind it,
to want to keep doing it overand over, the way you want to do
it, to raise good kids over andover.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
That's some great advice.
And I've got some businessowners I know that listen, that
they're kind of stuck in thefact that they have skilled
workers right, they're doing thetactical things day to day.
They're doing what they'resupposed to excellent,
dependable, responsible butthey're not leaders and so the
business owner is kind ofstrapped.
(26:14):
He's like I can't really Idon't have a position to hire
for a leader because I'vealready got people in those
positions and those skill setareas for a leader, because I've
already got people in thosepositions and those skillset
areas.
So got any advice on how youcould help them with some advice
that I can go find a leader orafford a leader and how to kind
of reorganize a little bit.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
You can go out and hire outside people.
I would just say that's risk.
There's higher risk when youbring people in from the outside
, and especially at theleadership level.
When you hire the wrong leaderfrom the outside and bring them
in, they can cause a lot ofdisruption with the current team
(26:59):
you have.
So I'm not saying not to do it,but it's not my first resort,
it's normally my last Internally, what do you do?
Well, number one if you havesome other good leaders, can
they mentor aspiring people thatwould like to become a leader,
(27:25):
aspiring people that would liketo become a leader?
And by that mentoringrelationship, you and I know the
majority of leadership that welearned was not from a book.
It was by modeling other peoplethat we thought were great
examples of leadership, whetherfrom our family, from our
friends or from our boss.
The second thing that I woulddo, which is low risk, without
(27:48):
changing anybody's title, givethem a leadership assignment.
Let them lead a project, letthem lead a committee Low stakes
, you know, low probability forbig errors and costing you money
, but let them try it and mentorthem.
(28:09):
They're going to make a mistake.
Let them fall, but not fall offa cliff, maybe fall off one or
two steps and then you can seehow determined they are to want
to improve, want to get better,take initiative.
And then I would, just overtime, make the leadership
(28:30):
assignments I gave people alittle bit more difficult, a
little more challenging, and themore and more they grew and
they got through the assignment,you'll know when they're ready
for that promotion.
Most people do it exactlybackwards.
I'm in a spot.
Michael's been with me for fiveyears.
(28:52):
He's a great worker on the shopfloor.
We're just going to make himmanager tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
Complete recipe for failure.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
That may work one out of 10 times, but most times it
won't, and you could lose thatwonderful employee if you do it
wrong, so don't yeah, that'sgreat advice too, because I've
seen where people have shuffledan employee around without
getting buy-in from thatemployee and then the employee
(29:24):
leaves because that's not whatthey were comfortable doing.
You know, they liked to beeither the office person or the
machine worker or the designeror whatever it was, but they
didn't want to be a leader.
They never asked for that.
So that's a that's that's greatadvice.
Well, the show is called smallbusiness pivots.
Any pivots that you made inyour historical entrepreneur
(29:45):
journey that you'd like to share, that maybe someone else go.
Hey, I can relate to that.
Maybe I'll try that.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
I think the major pivots are strategy pivots that
were based upon my marketdynamics changing.
So in my education business, wewere early on in online
education, so my lead flow wasvery strong and growing for
(30:13):
several years.
But if you've looked at onlineeducation, over the years it's
become mainstream.
It can be commoditized, wherethere's millions of options that
are very low priced via theinternet, via AI, and so it got
really hard to have the righttraction for growth if you're in
(30:36):
a highly commoditizedcompetitive market.
So I can either keep doing whatI'm doing and losing revenue,
losing lead flow, or I can pivot.
And so you need to look at yourbusiness, your business's
traction in your marketplace.
Is your lead flow increasing ordeclining?
(30:59):
Is your pricing beingchallenged or declining?
Is your pricing beingchallenged?
Do you still have high marginsor are you pressured more and
more to lower price in order tokeep up with the competition?
And when I see those thingshappen, I don't just do it,
incidentally, I'm charting itmonth over month, quarter over
(31:21):
quarter the number of leads, thenumber of appointments, the
number of proposal win rates,and you'll notice when the
market's changing, that's goingto start to drop off.
I don't want to wait till itfalls off the cliff.
I want to catch it when Ireally see a trend that isn't
going to change, a trend thatisn't going to change.
(31:41):
And then you have to look at apivot.
What other market, what otheroffering, what other pricing
strategy would reignite the windat my back and push me again
into a competitivelyadvantageous position in the
market?
And most owners wait till it'stoo late.
(32:06):
They have a fear.
It worked before.
I'm afraid if I change it I'mgoing to lose everything.
But yet if you don't considerchange, you could lose
everything.
That's why tracking it's soimportant that you're not doing
this by your gut.
Your business is very important, so having the data and
(32:30):
planning the pivots with theright change at the right time
is crucial.
But not every owner gets thatright and that's a problem.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
And that's where a good coach can come in is
they're that outside kind ofsounding board, second set of
eyes that works with otherbusinesses and they could say,
hey, the last four businessesthat, blah, blah, blah.
This is what happened.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
So Michael, a real story.
We were doing staffing servicesreally in a regional basis and
we've been around for decades.
High brand identity, but moreand more competitors.
You could open a staffingcompany on any corner, any
street, usa, and they were.
(33:15):
And it was harder to get orders.
More salespeople, lower pricing, and yet that's all we knew.
So we come in and we'restarting to lead the business.
Now, second generation, and whatdo you do?
Well, my playbook for my earlylife was organic growth Hire
(33:40):
more salespeople, make morephone calls, make more
appointments, get more revenue.
It wasn't working.
I had to expand my pivotplaybook.
We learned how to make anacquisition.
I learned how to open an officenot only in another region but
another side of the country andthen into a different country up
(34:03):
in Canada.
I'd never done that before,didn't know what it was like to
set up a bank account in Canadaor employment law in Canada.
But I needed to change mymindset, to have new vehicles
for growth on a pivot, andthat's where owners have to be
willing to change and adapt whenthe business is not changing in
(34:28):
the right direction.
Speaker 1 (34:31):
What are some things?
Because you mentioned being theowner and I'm asked this a lot
what are some of those things?
You've mentioned some of them,but percentage-wise, kind of
like what could somebodyenvision as a business owner?
So I have this business thatruns without me?
Finally, what are some of thosethings that you work on?
I just met with a businessowner yesterday.
So when I have that business,what am I going to be doing?
Speaker 2 (34:54):
Yeah.
So you said something there.
I just want to adjust.
You said runs without me.
The way I would say it is I'mworking on the business versus
working in it.
That doesn't mean runs withoutme.
You're still the owner, you'restill the CEO.
If that's what you wish and whatyou're going to do with your
(35:17):
time, what I ultimately love todo with my time is focus on more
market facing activities.
Market facing activities arethe activities of growth Open a
new location, roll out a newproduct line, create a new
partnership or joint venture, doan acquisition.
(35:40):
These are all market-facingactivities which will help grow
the company.
But before I was too busyputting out fires, looking at
the accounts receivable,managing the sales team and how
many calls they made last week,putting out drama because we
didn't have enough people doingdelivery that I couldn't fill
(36:03):
all the orders I had.
So how much time do you think Ispent on market-facing things?
Very little, and my company'sgrowth early on showed it.
And so that's the mindset to gofrom working in to have the
freedom to work on more.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
I like that.
I like that.
We could go forever, I am sure,but we are almost out of time.
How can someone get a hold ofyou, follow you?
What social channels are youactive on?
Speaker 2 (36:36):
Sure, simplest way is to go to my website.
Way is to go to my websiteaspiregrowthadvisorscom For
anybody that wants to understandthe gap in your current
business for scaling.
There's a complimentaryassessment to determine your
scaling up readiness, and I alsohave a high impact CEO
(37:02):
assessment for you to understandyour level of CEO readiness to
lead that scaling up charge.
So please take advantage ofthat.
I'm also on LinkedIn, but justappreciate being able to share
some experience with you,michael, in your audience today.
Speaker 1 (37:21):
Well, this has been a treat to have you on the
episode.
So I always end with one littlequestion.
If you were in front of anaudience of business owners all
different sizes, seasons ofbusiness what is something
that's applicable to all of themAdvice, quotes, books, whatever
it might be?
Speaker 2 (37:41):
You deserve the business of your dreams.
Don't settle.
A lot of people start a companywith a great vision and
unfortunately it turns into anightmare.
I want you to really have thecompany of your dreams.
(38:01):
That will not feel like anightmare.
Scaling up was just the growthmethodology for me that helped
me bring my dream to life and,if it helps some of you,
wonderful.
I know there's different growthmethodologies out there.
You have to find what works foryou, but for me it was the most
(38:26):
pivotal book I have ever read.
But more importantly, it's notreading the book that's
important.
It's the mastering of theconcepts in it that gets you to
the dream that you all want, andthank you for your time.
Speaker 1 (38:44):
My pleasure.
You've been a wealth ofinformation and a blessing to
many.
Herb, I thank you so much forbeing on our show today.
Thank you, michael.
Thank you for listening toSmall Business Pivots.
Please don't forget tosubscribe and share this podcast
.
If your business is stuck, youneed help creating a business
that can run without you, or youneed a fast business loan or
(39:06):
line of credit, go to ourwebsite
businessownershipsimplifiedcomand schedule a free consultation
to learn why small businesssuccess starts with boss.
If you want to talk anythingsmall business related, email me
at michael atmichaeldmorrisoncom.
We'll see you next time onSmall Business Pivots.
All right, Welcome to another Small Business Pivot
brought to you by Boss.
Today we have a special guestand I hope you buckle up today
because we are both coaches.
But before we do that, I alwaysknow that the business owner
can only say their name andtheir business, like the
business owner can.
So tell us about yourself andyour business.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Michael and welcome to all of you in the listening
audience.
I am a scaling up coach.
I'm a person who had a journeyof my own personal business for
35 years, part of a familybusiness, and went through the
dynamics of scaling up abusiness from one location to
(00:42):
many locations across NorthAmerica, dealing with the
challenges in the drama withscaling employees, scaling
clients, scaling services,scaling office locations, all
thinking that when it got bigger, life would get better.
But the more complexity thatcame with scaling, the more
(01:07):
drama I felt and the morecommitted I was to making the
journey simpler and easier.
Share with others that journeyin ways that you can enjoy the
ride to scaling up with you andyour team.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Fantastic.
Well, how do you think we'regoing to help our listeners best
today?
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Well, I know you're going to give me some amazing
questions.
Those questions are going todraw that out of me and I look
forward to helping answer them.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Fantastic.
Well, we'll be right back afterwe introduce the show with more
about scaling your business.
Welcome to Small BusinessPivots, a podcast designed for
small business owners.
I'm your host, michael Morrison, a small business coach and
founder of BOSS, where we makebusiness ownership simplified
(02:00):
for success, so that you can owna business that runs without
you.
To learn more, go tobusinessownershipsimplifiedcom.
But welcome back to SmallBusiness Pivots.
This is a true treat If you'veever read one of the popular
books Scaling Up.
Our friend today is a scalingup coach, as he mentioned, and
we're going to talk aboutscaling up a business, because
(02:22):
that is very difficult for smallbusiness owners to even fathom
having more than one location,multiple employees, as you said
it best in one word drama, right.
So let's talk about let's startwith the first of what's the
difference between growth andscaling up.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
I don't know if there's differences.
I would say there's levels ofexcuse me, and the levels deal
with number one what does theownership want to accomplish
with their company?
I view the company as a vehiclefor the owner and the team, and
(03:03):
that vehicle really is helpingthem deliver a purpose, a
service to the world.
And so that when we identifythe business purpose and we're
doing that purpose let's sayit's a $1 million business a
year and you're servicing 100clients and they're happy and
(03:25):
they're impacted you're making adifference.
But what if I scale that to a$10 million company servicing
1,000 people a year with 1,000impactful outcomes?
I'm scaling my purpose and myimpact outcomes.
(03:48):
I'm scaling my purpose and myimpact.
And so the question to theownership team is how big do you
want to scale that impact?
And from that comes scalingrevenue, scaling profits,
scaling cash, scaling the peoplewho run the business to deliver
on that purpose.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
So when most people hear scaling up, it's more than
just growing your revenue, isthat fair to say?
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Yeah, to scale a business successfully, you're
growing a bunch of differentthings.
You're scaling the people in it.
You're scaling the purpose andimpact from it.
You're scaling cash flow tofund it.
You're scaling clients todeliver it, and all these things
have to work in unison to dothat, and that's why most people
(04:42):
get stuck.
And that's why most people getstuck.
There's only one half of 1% ofthe companies in America today
ever reach 10 million or more insales.
Wow, Now, when I heard thatnumber 32 million companies
approximately one half of 1%only reached 10 million or more.
(05:08):
10 million didn't seem like abig behemoth company to me.
But 99.5% never make it.
Some of them are solopreneursor lifestyle companies and
that's all they want and that'sgreat.
But many others want that $10million.
(05:30):
But the complexity they're notable to break through the
complexity to get to the otherside and they're stuck.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
That's a popular word that we use in our coaching
world is stuck, and most of ourlisteners, their business is
stuck and they've plateaued, ifyou will.
In fact, most of them, I wouldguess, have probably doing less
than a million in annual revenueand, to go along with your
statistic, I heard that lessthan I believe 8% ever even hit
(06:02):
a million.
So when we're talking sevenfigures, you're talking about
scaling, a lot of responsibilitytoo.
So what is kind of the firststeps for business owners that
are stuck and they're workingthose long hours and they just
can't fathom even working onanything else or doing anything
(06:22):
else other than what they'redoing, which is putting out
fires and working long hours?
What are kind of those firststeps?
Speaker 2 (06:30):
I think one of the first challenges I see is
bandwidth.
The owner of the company ischief cook and bottle washer.
They're doing marketing,they're doing sales, they're
paying the bills, they're doingmarketing, they're doing sales,
they're paying the bills,they're doing the hiring and
that's what you need to do whenyou're at that size.
(06:51):
But one of the methods we useis a functional accountability
chart which is simple forleadership bandwidth and over
time we want you to grow yourbandwidth by adding somebody to
be in charge of sales, marketing, finance, it operations.
(07:16):
Now you might say Herb, well,that sounds great, but how do I
do that?
In every quarter we one thenext best function.
We need to increase ownershipbandwidth a month or a part-time
CFO for 20 hours a week.
(07:36):
We do it fractionally until thebusiness can afford the
full-time person in that seat,but it also gets you away from
(07:56):
it and gives you more bandwidthto put in the other more
productive areas of the companythat you're really good at,
other more productive areas ofthe company that you're really
good at.
But most people think they keephaving to juggling all these
different hats and they need apathway on how to slowly grow
the leadership team and by thatquarterly progressive pathway.
(08:19):
Over time, our leadership teamis developed, their bandwidth
increases and they feel likethey have more freedom and less
drama to run the company, versusto actually have to work in the
company day in and day out.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
Is there a formula to use Like, for instance, a CFO
would be your best first step,then a CMO then?
Or is it just based on thecompany itself?
Speaker 2 (08:48):
I think it's situational, michael, because
every company owner has adifferent background of
expertise.
They have a different challenge.
If your company has major cashissues and you don't have
anybody who's managing yourmoney well, doing the right
(09:10):
financial statement reporting,making sure you can keep the
lights on and make payroll, thenI would say it'd be pretty
critical.
Then you get somebody on thatteam that can help that, or your
business could go out ofbusiness very quickly, or your
business could go out ofbusiness very quickly, but if
your sales are flat or decliningand you can't grow, it may be
(09:35):
somebody on the marketing orsales side.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
That's most pressing right now.
I know systems and processesare a key component of scaling a
business.
So how does one find the timeto figure that out, and are
there some steps that they canfollow?
Because when we mention systemsand processes, the first thing
they think of is a lot more workfor nothing.
(09:56):
That's not increasing sales,not reducing debt, it's just
piddly work, and they understandthe importance of it.
They just can't find the timeto replace what they're doing
with creating systems andprocesses.
Do you have any input on that?
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Yeah, I guess my perspective would be that we
have another tool called theprocess accountability chart.
Every company has veryimportant processes that drive
your business model and youcan't deal with all of them at
once.
But which one is most criticalright now?
(10:35):
For example, if you're acompany that cannot hire staff
for some reason, you have allthese openings but you can't
find anybody.
Some reason you have all theseopenings but you can't find
anybody.
Do you think a critical processto work on would be recruitment
to onboarding, becausewhatever's happening right now
is not working.
So if we don't fix or retool orre-engineer recruiting to
(11:00):
onboarding, we're going to havea problem.
So to solve that constraint, weidentify the one most important
process each quarter that willhelp unblock our major
bottleneck and get us free tothe next step.
That's the one we work on, andin unison.
(11:21):
When I hire that one person,fractionally or not, that works
on the face chart.
What I found is I can't be anexpert in all of the functions,
but if I hire a great fractionalHR person with recruitment
background, they normally cometo the table knowing how to fix
(11:46):
that process for me if they'reany good at what they do, so
normally together that helps mesolve my issue as a business
owner.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
As a business owner.
Is there a size of business?
Is there a revenue size?
Is it employee size?
As to when you can afford toscale, Because scaling takes
money, it takes an investment.
You mentioned fractionalemployees, things like that, but
is there some kind of formula,Because I hear so many business
owners I want to scale mybusiness and they don't really
(12:18):
understand what it means or ifthey're even in a position to do
that.
Can you help explain that?
Speaker 2 (12:24):
Well, I think, michael, it goes back to, first
of all, what does the owner want?
Scale to 1 million, scale to100 million?
So we need to find the actualtarget.
But then I think scaling also,in its basic form, is about cash
(12:45):
flow.
So if I want to scale and I'mgoing to hire more employees
before I get 20 more clients,let's say, I need capacity and
bandwidth for delivery.
How much can I self-fund?
And if I can't self-fund it,would the bank loan it to me or
(13:06):
an SBA loan and am I creditworthy?
So you need to be in a businesswith high enough gross margins
in bottom line.
The businesses that I was inhad good enough gross margins
that I could self-fund themajority of all my growth.
(13:27):
Now I could have taken it outas a dividend or a distribution
at the end of the year andthat's a choice.
But most scaling up owners,when they see a marketplace
that's vibrant, when they see anindustry with healthy bottom
line and gross margin, they wantto take advantage of that
market and they want to scale it.
(13:48):
So they keep reinvesting theprofits and the excess cash flow
back into the company so theycan continue to make even bigger
profits and bigger cash flow.
But if you don't have goodmargins and good receivables and
good cash flow, your scale upis very limited.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
We offer business loans at Boss and we'll have a
business owner from time to timecome to us and say I hear
you're not supposed to have anydebt whatsoever, and I kind of
combat that a little bit wherethere is good debt.
If you will, yeah, Can you helpexplain that?
Speaker 2 (14:27):
No, I think that there is good debt and it's like
in your personal life.
What can you afford?
Debt that makes you cash flownegative is not good debt.
But if you buy, like a car, ifI buy a Mercedes which is
(14:49):
$100,000 plus vehicle, but Ionly make $25,000 a year income,
that's not fundable because Iwill always have more payment
than I do income.
So for a company it's the sameway.
Do I hire one employee or do Ihire 10 employees all at once?
(15:13):
And what could the businessafford?
Banks ultimately want to knowthat at the end of the day, when
they loan you money, that yourcash flow generated from the
business will always be largeenough to service their loan
payment and when you can't showthat, they don't want to make
(15:34):
that loan.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
So let's talk about kind of the process of scaling
up.
So you're certified.
You're listening to SmallBusiness Pivots.
This episode is proudly broughtto you by BOSS, where business
ownership is simplified forsuccess.
At BOSS, we help businessowners create their businesses
to run smoothly without thembeing there 24-7.
(15:55):
Our seasoned business coaches,who have walked the path
themselves, provide invaluableguidance and support, and with
additional services like fastbusiness loans.
Seasoned business coaches whohave walked the path themselves,
providing valuable guidance andsupport, and with additional
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to 48 hours.
Comprehensive online courses,detailed workbooks and engaging
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Boss offers a wealth ofresources to help you succeed.
(16:17):
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If you're enjoying the podcast,make sure to stay connected by
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a positive review.
Your support keeps us going.
Now let's get back to ourincredible guest.
So let's talk about kind of theprocess of scaling up.
(16:40):
So you're certified, you're abusiness coach.
What does that look like?
From start to finish?
So somebody has an idea of theexperience they could have with
a coach like yourself.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
Yeah, I think on a simple level, we want to
understand from the owner whatis their current state of their
company.
Where do they want to get it to?
If you look at the next threeto five years, if you're 10
(17:11):
million, do you want to double?
Do you want to be 20 million ordo you want to be 100 million?
Most of the scaling upcompanies that I work with are
companies that are committed.
They have the mindset and theyhave the initiative that they
want to double their business atleast top line revenue, every
(17:34):
three to five years.
And, based upon that target, wewant to come up with a shared
vision, a plan of how we'regoing to get there.
What are the priorities that weneed to have over three to five
years?
Capabilities that we need tocreate.
(17:54):
One of mine was creating auniversity inside the company so
we could train and develop ourown internal people, because we
know to grow the company, youneed to grow the people in it.
So that was a core capabilitywe didn't have in the beginning.
But to double our size, we'dneed to create that capability
(18:18):
to support the targets that wewanted to achieve, and so we
work with the owner and,ultimately, the leadership team
on putting their shared visionon paper.
One simple page of paper tomake it so easy to understand
(18:40):
that everybody in the companycan be on the same page while we
together execute and build thatcompany into reality.
And we do that over the nextthree to five years together.
And then we reset, and we do itagain and again until the owner
says wait, a minute timeout.
I've achieved what I wanted toachieve.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Yeah, I love that.
I love that.
So coaching is a big thing.
I know for myself.
I struggled a lot, like most ofour listeners, until I hired my
first coach two decades ago.
Can you share the value of acoach and what it did for your
businesses that you owned, andthen now the value that you see
(19:27):
of actually being a coach andstepping into these other
businesses, how valuable it can?
Speaker 2 (19:32):
be formal coach, I would say would be my father,
being a family business Verymuch mentoring, giving me
different opportunities forstretch, different assignments
(19:52):
in leadership.
That would expand my experienceand my competency.
But my first professional coachreally brought outside
perspective, because you can bevery insulated inside your
company.
You don't always get the directtruth of what you need from
your employees.
Some of them may be fearful oftelling you what you need to
(20:16):
know because of their job orwhatever.
But it's true and this coachreally could see my blind spots
and help me address them in away that was productive and made
me become a better businessowner and CEO.
Because of it, and when Ilearned how to do that from him,
(20:38):
I was then able to apply thatsame coaching mindset to all of
my direct reports.
And when you do that to yourdirect reports and they grow,
then the business can run on itsown without you always having
to be there, and that was theultimate freedom that I always
(21:00):
wanted.
I wanted to work on thebusiness more than in it, but I
needed to earn that freedom andthat's where the coach really
helped me grow and evolve.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
So you're saying there is a chance of owning a
business that can run withoutyou.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Absolutely.
I'm living proof.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
I just, I just wanted our listeners and clients and
everybody else to hear that itis possible.
You know cause some of them?
They're just putting out firesand they're just like, but how
you know?
So what are some challengesthat you see today with most
business owners?
Because from time to time abusiness owner we work with will
say am I the only one that isgoing through this?
(21:44):
So can you share some of thosechallenges that you work with
clients on?
Speaker 2 (21:51):
Yeah, I think one of the number one barriers is the
ability to hire, develop andretain leaders in your company,
because in the beginning you'reused to delegating.
Let me tell you what you needto do, michael, as the owner do
(22:11):
A, do B, do C, come back to me,let me know and we'll do it all
again next week.
Why, when you're small, that'sthe way it is.
But when you get bigger and youneed to delegate marketing
finance operations number onethe people you hired in the
beginning weren't hired to bemanagers.
(22:33):
They were hired to be greatfunctional staff and that's
hopefully what they are andthat's hopefully what they are.
(22:59):
But now you flip a switch andsay, well, now I need you to be
a manager and I need you to haveall those skills and experience
and capability, and they don'tday one, and so you get
frustrated, they get frustratedand hence drama occurs.
So there's kind of a pivotperiod where you're
internalizing, when I'm makingnew hires, what percent of them
need to have management orleadership background so that
they will be promotable soonerthan later with the right skill
set and the right desire to wantto be a leader, because not
(23:21):
everybody does.
But once you do that, that'sgoing to be a key inflection
point for your growth and scale.
The second thing that goes withthat you have to learn how to
coach and develop people,because maybe you were a great
sales guy.
You sold insurance.
You have your own littlebrokerage now three to five
(23:44):
people, you're doing over amillion a year.
Life is good, but you never hadto develop a leadership team.
What does that mean?
Like what do I have to do?
What's the definition ofsuccess?
What tools do I use?
Do I even like doing it?
And that's a turning point fora CEO of a scaling up company.
(24:06):
You go from being the biggestsales guy, the biggest brand
ambassador, to now being thenumber one developer of talent
in your company, and that maynot be the job you're used to
doing the last 20 years.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
So it's a learning curve.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
Absolutely.
What makes a good leader, agood manager these days?
Speaker 2 (24:32):
Oh boy, there's a bunch of wonderful things.
I think number one is thewillingness to want to be.
Do you see potential in people?
Because when you think of goodleadership, number one we repeat
a lot of things over and over.
What are they?
What are the core values of thecompany?
(24:54):
I'm always talking about ourvalues in the way we behave,
treat each other, treat ourclients, and we need to be
consistent.
And so if you're not alwaysrepeating almost like a parent,
do you remember ever saying toyour parents oh my God, there
they go again.
They keep reminding me abouthomework or being polite, or
(25:17):
saying thank you and please andall that good stuff, well,
you're the head cheerleader ofthat for your company.
So I'm always repeating ourvalues, I'm always repeating our
purpose, I'm always repeatingour top priorities.
I'm always talking about ourbig, hairy, audacious goal.
And that's repetition.
(25:39):
And you need heart, you need anemotional connection behind it,
to want to keep doing it overand over, the way you want to do
it, to raise good kids over andover.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
That's some great advice.
And I've got some businessowners I know that listen, that
they're kind of stuck in thefact that they have skilled
workers right, they're doing thetactical things day to day.
They're doing what they'resupposed to excellent,
dependable, responsible butthey're not leaders and so the
business owner is kind ofstrapped.
(26:14):
He's like I can't really Idon't have a position to hire
for a leader because I'vealready got people in those
positions and those skill setareas for a leader, because I've
already got people in thosepositions and those skillset
areas.
So got any advice on how youcould help them with some advice
that I can go find a leader orafford a leader and how to kind
of reorganize a little bit.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
You can go out and hire outside people.
I would just say that's risk.
There's higher risk when youbring people in from the outside
, and especially at theleadership level.
When you hire the wrong leaderfrom the outside and bring them
in, they can cause a lot ofdisruption with the current team
(26:59):
you have.
So I'm not saying not to do it,but it's not my first resort,
it's normally my last Internally, what do you do?
Well, number one if you havesome other good leaders, can
they mentor aspiring people thatwould like to become a leader,
(27:25):
aspiring people that would liketo become a leader?
And by that mentoringrelationship, you and I know the
majority of leadership that welearned was not from a book.
It was by modeling other peoplethat we thought were great
examples of leadership, whetherfrom our family, from our
friends or from our boss.
The second thing that I woulddo, which is low risk, without
(27:48):
changing anybody's title, givethem a leadership assignment.
Let them lead a project, letthem lead a committee Low stakes
, you know, low probability forbig errors and costing you money
, but let them try it and mentorthem.
(28:09):
They're going to make a mistake.
Let them fall, but not fall offa cliff, maybe fall off one or
two steps and then you can seehow determined they are to want
to improve, want to get better,take initiative.
And then I would, just overtime, make the leadership
(28:30):
assignments I gave people alittle bit more difficult, a
little more challenging, and themore and more they grew and
they got through the assignment,you'll know when they're ready
for that promotion.
Most people do it exactlybackwards.
I'm in a spot.
Michael's been with me for fiveyears.
(28:52):
He's a great worker on the shopfloor.
We're just going to make himmanager tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
Complete recipe for failure.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
That may work one out of 10 times, but most times it
won't, and you could lose thatwonderful employee if you do it
wrong, so don't yeah, that'sgreat advice too, because I've
seen where people have shuffledan employee around without
getting buy-in from thatemployee and then the employee
(29:24):
leaves because that's not whatthey were comfortable doing.
You know, they liked to beeither the office person or the
machine worker or the designeror whatever it was, but they
didn't want to be a leader.
They never asked for that.
So that's a that's that's greatadvice.
Well, the show is called smallbusiness pivots.
Any pivots that you made inyour historical entrepreneur
(29:45):
journey that you'd like to share, that maybe someone else go.
Hey, I can relate to that.
Maybe I'll try that.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
I think the major pivots are strategy pivots that
were based upon my marketdynamics changing.
So in my education business, wewere early on in online
education, so my lead flow wasvery strong and growing for
(30:13):
several years.
But if you've looked at onlineeducation, over the years it's
become mainstream.
It can be commoditized, wherethere's millions of options that
are very low priced via theinternet, via AI, and so it got
really hard to have the righttraction for growth if you're in
(30:36):
a highly commoditizedcompetitive market.
So I can either keep doing whatI'm doing and losing revenue,
losing lead flow, or I can pivot.
And so you need to look at yourbusiness, your business's
traction in your marketplace.
Is your lead flow increasing ordeclining?
(30:59):
Is your pricing beingchallenged or declining?
Is your pricing beingchallenged?
Do you still have high marginsor are you pressured more and
more to lower price in order tokeep up with the competition?
And when I see those thingshappen, I don't just do it,
incidentally, I'm charting itmonth over month, quarter over
(31:21):
quarter the number of leads, thenumber of appointments, the
number of proposal win rates,and you'll notice when the
market's changing, that's goingto start to drop off.
I don't want to wait till itfalls off the cliff.
I want to catch it when Ireally see a trend that isn't
going to change, a trend thatisn't going to change.
(31:41):
And then you have to look at apivot.
What other market, what otheroffering, what other pricing
strategy would reignite the windat my back and push me again
into a competitivelyadvantageous position in the
market?
And most owners wait till it'stoo late.
(32:06):
They have a fear.
It worked before.
I'm afraid if I change it I'mgoing to lose everything.
But yet if you don't considerchange, you could lose
everything.
That's why tracking it's soimportant that you're not doing
this by your gut.
Your business is very important, so having the data and
(32:30):
planning the pivots with theright change at the right time
is crucial.
But not every owner gets thatright and that's a problem.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
And that's where a good coach can come in is
they're that outside kind ofsounding board, second set of
eyes that works with otherbusinesses and they could say,
hey, the last four businessesthat, blah, blah, blah.
This is what happened.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
So Michael, a real story.
We were doing staffing servicesreally in a regional basis and
we've been around for decades.
High brand identity, but moreand more competitors.
You could open a staffingcompany on any corner, any
street, usa, and they were.
(33:15):
And it was harder to get orders.
More salespeople, lower pricing, and yet that's all we knew.
So we come in and we'restarting to lead the business.
Now, second generation, and whatdo you do?
Well, my playbook for my earlylife was organic growth Hire
(33:40):
more salespeople, make morephone calls, make more
appointments, get more revenue.
It wasn't working.
I had to expand my pivotplaybook.
We learned how to make anacquisition.
I learned how to open an officenot only in another region but
another side of the country andthen into a different country up
(34:03):
in Canada.
I'd never done that before,didn't know what it was like to
set up a bank account in Canadaor employment law in Canada.
But I needed to change mymindset, to have new vehicles
for growth on a pivot, andthat's where owners have to be
willing to change and adapt whenthe business is not changing in
(34:28):
the right direction.
Speaker 1 (34:31):
What are some things?
Because you mentioned being theowner and I'm asked this a lot
what are some of those things?
You've mentioned some of them,but percentage-wise, kind of
like what could somebodyenvision as a business owner?
So I have this business thatruns without me?
Finally, what are some of thosethings that you work on?
I just met with a businessowner yesterday.
So when I have that business,what am I going to be doing?
Speaker 2 (34:54):
Yeah.
So you said something there.
I just want to adjust.
You said runs without me.
The way I would say it is I'mworking on the business versus
working in it.
That doesn't mean runs withoutme.
You're still the owner, you'restill the CEO.
If that's what you wish and whatyou're going to do with your
(35:17):
time, what I ultimately love todo with my time is focus on more
market facing activities.
Market facing activities arethe activities of growth Open a
new location, roll out a newproduct line, create a new
partnership or joint venture, doan acquisition.
(35:40):
These are all market-facingactivities which will help grow
the company.
But before I was too busyputting out fires, looking at
the accounts receivable,managing the sales team and how
many calls they made last week,putting out drama because we
didn't have enough people doingdelivery that I couldn't fill
(36:03):
all the orders I had.
So how much time do you think Ispent on market-facing things?
Very little, and my company'sgrowth early on showed it.
And so that's the mindset to gofrom working in to have the
freedom to work on more.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
I like that.
I like that.
We could go forever, I am sure,but we are almost out of time.
How can someone get a hold ofyou, follow you?
What social channels are youactive on?
Speaker 2 (36:36):
Sure, simplest way is to go to my website.
Way is to go to my websiteaspiregrowthadvisorscom For
anybody that wants to understandthe gap in your current
business for scaling.
There's a complimentaryassessment to determine your
scaling up readiness, and I alsohave a high impact CEO
(37:02):
assessment for you to understandyour level of CEO readiness to
lead that scaling up charge.
So please take advantage ofthat.
I'm also on LinkedIn, but justappreciate being able to share
some experience with you,michael, in your audience today.
Speaker 1 (37:21):
Well, this has been a treat to have you on the
episode.
So I always end with one littlequestion.
If you were in front of anaudience of business owners all
different sizes, seasons ofbusiness what is something
that's applicable to all of themAdvice, quotes, books, whatever
it might be?
Speaker 2 (37:41):
You deserve the business of your dreams.
Don't settle.
A lot of people start a companywith a great vision and
unfortunately it turns into anightmare.
I want you to really have thecompany of your dreams.
(38:01):
That will not feel like anightmare.
Scaling up was just the growthmethodology for me that helped
me bring my dream to life and,if it helps some of you,
wonderful.
I know there's different growthmethodologies out there.
You have to find what works foryou, but for me it was the most
(38:26):
pivotal book I have ever read.
But more importantly, it's notreading the book that's
important.
It's the mastering of theconcepts in it that gets you to
the dream that you all want, andthank you for your time.
Speaker 1 (38:44):
My pleasure.
You've been a wealth ofinformation and a blessing to
many.
Herb, I thank you so much forbeing on our show today.
Thank you, michael.
Thank you for listening toSmall Business Pivots.
Please don't forget tosubscribe and share this podcast
.
If your business is stuck, youneed help creating a business
that can run without you, or youneed a fast business loan or
(39:06):
line of credit, go to ourwebsite
businessownershipsimplifiedcomand schedule a free consultation
to learn why small businesssuccess starts with boss.
If you want to talk anythingsmall business related, email me
at michael atmichaeldmorrisoncom.
We'll see you next time onSmall Business Pivots.
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