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- [00:06]
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The number one reason businesses fail, they run out of money. Well, that one's obvious. But many business owners get blindsided by the second reason. They focus so much on getting more business and making more money, but they never build the systems to actually handle it. This is one of the most pivotal moments in small business. Because if you don't have the right structure in place, growth won't fix your problems. It will only expose them. And the very thing you prayed for will be the thing that takes you out. So today, Entre Leadership's head coach, John Felkins, is going to break down the biggest challenges growing businesses face and the four key areas you've got to get right if you want to scale. Let's get into it.
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Let me tell you a story about a client that I worked with. Her name was Stacy, and she had a business that was really going well. It was growing, but there was problems. As I started to talk to her team, she only had a few key people that were leading what was going on. And they were just running from one marketing campaign to the next. They were pretty tired, they were pretty worn out. And the success was actually the problem. Everybody was busy, but nobody knew what they were doing long term. And as I said, started to interview the team. I could tell the team was wore out, too. People were just going from one thing to the next. They had no long term vision for what it was that they were going to accomplish, for what their part was to grow the overall business. They were just doing what was right in front of them and it was wearing them out. There were some of them that were on the verge of leaving. They liked what they were doing, but it was just wearing them out. She had done well. She had a tiger by the tail, but a tiger was about to bite her because her team was about to leave her. She didn't realize that she thought everybody was just as committed as she was. And the fact of the matter was, instead of growing the business, she was drowning in it. What we started to figure out was she wasn't going to be able to seize the opportunity in the market that was right in front of her. Her team wasn't going to be able to fulfill its potential. They weren't going to be able to capitalize on the need in the market. Now, if that sounds like you, I want you to know you're not alone. And more importantly, you're not necessarily stuck. You're spinning. In Entrez Leadership, this is what we call the trailblazer stage of business. This is a point where you Start getting more business, but you don't have the capacity to handle it. So now you're going to be stretched thin. You're going to be constantly putting out fires. Your team might be burned out, and you can't scale. Most leaders deal with this by pushing themselves and their team even harder. That just makes things worse. The problem isn't the growth itself. It's the lack of structure to support the growth. And as you were hustling to get more business, you probably never stopped to create the strategy, the clarity, and the systems that you needed to actually handle this growth. Up until this point, you've been running on chaos. But chaos doesn't scale. This doesn't just happen with small businesses. Look at a company like MoviePass. They were a subscription service that let people watch unlimited movies in theaters for a low monthly fee. They basically told people, go watch as many movies as you want for only 10 bucks a month. And guess what happened? Everybody signed up. They had massive growth in a short amount of time. They didn't have a sustainable business model. They were losing money on every single customer, and. And they eventually collapsed under their own weight. So without structure, fast growth leads to fast failure. So how do you set your business up so that it can actually support this rapid growth? You have to stop reacting. You have to start leading with purpose and intentionality. Because healthy growth isn't an accident. It's intentional. Nobody ever won the super bowl by accident. They had a plan. They thought ahead. They put systems in place. So if you want to scale the right way, you need four things. The first thing you need is intentional culture. The culture that you want won't happen on its own. You have to define it. You have to shape it. You have to make it happen. Because that's part of the system of your business. Culture is the collective actions and attitudes of a group of people of your team. You need to set clear expectations and share all the values. Then you need to reinforce all of that. You need to reinforce the behaviors that you see that you want to be a part of your behavior. You need to have core values. You need to ask yourself, does your team know your core values? In order for your team to know the expectations that you have for your culture, you have to repeat it over and over again. You're probably going to feel like the chief repeating officer, but that's what you need to do. For example, at our staff meeting, our core values get repeated every single month. You have to remind people, we'll get right back to that episode. But first, for a lot of entrepreneurs. Health care is one of the most unpredictable line items in the budget. That's why I want you to look at Christian healthcare ministries. CHM is not health insurance. It's a budget friendly, faith based alternative to insurance. Instead of premiums that keep climbing and coverage that keeps shrinking, CHM gives you a more predictable monthly cost. With programs Starting at just $115 a month, lower monthly costs can free up capital to build your margin, grow your team and reinvest in your business. And as a faith based organization, CHM aligns with Christian business owners who want their healthcare dollars handled in a way that reflects their values. That's stewardship, not just savings. CHM even offers a groups program for small businesses and that want to provide a healthcare sharing option to their teams. And right now, CHM is offering new members a 50% credit towards their first month of membership. Go to chministries.orgentrez and use promo code ENTREE. That's chministries.orgentree and use the promo code entree. Now let's get back to our episode. Okay. Secondly, you've got to pour into your leadership team. You really have to intentionally develop them. You and your leadership team are probably spread too thin and trying to wear too many hats. You don't have the depth of leadership that you need to get things done. The team might be waiting instead of acting and growth slows down when they're just sitting around waiting for answers. Even if the demand in the marketplace is high, you've got to build your leadership team wisely. It's going to look different for each business, but you need a main person to own each area of the business. Ask yourself what are the holes of leadership in your business? Leaders need to own the outcomes of their area, not just tasks or projects. When that's clear, people are going to make faster decisions. They're going to feel more ownership over their work and you're going to get your time back. For example, if you're running a construction company, you're probably going to have somebody that's in charge of estimating. You're going to have somebody in charge of business development or operations or maintenance. The point is you need to have a strong leader in charge of every discipline inside your business so you have a solid, cross functional team that can execute on a strategic plan. Which takes us to the third thing that you need to do good strategic planning. One of the biggest challenges at this stage is not thinking strategically enough, not thinking long term enough. You can't just work harder Anymore. You need to clearly define where you're going, how you're going to get there and what it's going to take. Because a plan in your head is not a plan that the team can actually execute on. You need to simplify priorities. There's probably stuff that you're going to have to say no to, which I know is painful. But most teams are trying to do too much and that kills momentum. Fewer things done better is how you move forward. 4. For example, Stacy, who I mentioned earlier was running from one marketing campaign to the next and burning everybody out. What she needed to do was have a strategic plan and for her leadership team to know which part of that plan they owned. Okay, the fourth thing you need repeatable processes. Listen, personal heroics no longer suffice. You might have somebody that's willing to stay at the office until 2 o' clock in the morning to get something done. But don't mistake people who are willing to do everything and not complain about it as a good thing. They're actually sacrificing themselves. You'll burn them out. You need intentional systems around things like meetings, communication and accountability. Those things have got to become muscle memory for your business, not something that you're always thinking, what should we do next? Listen, don't overcomplicate it. Simple repeatable processes give everybody the clarity, the alignment and the consistency that they need. James Clear says, you don't rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems. So you gotta have a collection of processes in place that everybody knows so they know what to expect next. Otherwise your team is going to be waiting to make decisions. They won't know what to do and progress will stall. For example, our hiring process is very regimented. It wasn't that way a long time ago, but. But as the company grew, we had to get more intentional in this process. No matter the role, it's very clear how the process works. So when you put these four things in place, everything's gonna start to settle down. Your team will get aligned and the business will start to move forward using this system. And guess what? You're gonna be back in control. Then you can take your business to the next level.
- [10:02]
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Growth doesn't have to break your business, but it will if your systems aren't built to handle it. If you want to learn how to actually scale your business without losing your mind or your team, I explain it all in my latest book, build a business you love. It'll walk you through the different stages of business and show you what to focus on at each level so you don't get stuck or taken out by your own success. We'll leave a link to it down in the description. If you've enjoyed this episode, be sure to like, share and subscribe for more real world leadership content. I'm your host Dave Ramsey, and this is Entree Leadership.