← The Foundr Podcast with Nathan Chan
The Foundr Podcast with Nathan Chan
586 : (Solo) How I Solve The Biggest Problems in My Business (and How You Can Too)
00:08:06
Every business has one major constraint holding it back from the next stage of growth — and solving it is the fastest way to scale. In this episode, I share the exact formula I use to identify the biggest problem in my business, find the right person who’s already solved it, and get the solution faster than years of trial and error.
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- [00:02]
A
Hey, founder fam. I want to talk to you about something super exciting. We're officially partnered with Omnisend, the email marketing and SMS platform built specifically for e commerce founders. We've been recommending Omnisend to founder students for a while now because it just works. Whether you're launching your first store or you're scaling to seven figures, it really helps you automate your marketing and get real results. Did you know, on average, OMNISEND customers make $68 for every $1 they spend, which is an insanely good return. And because you're part of the founder community, you get 50% off your first three months with the code. Founder50. Just head to omnisend.com founder without the e to get started. All right, now let's jump back into the show.
- [00:49]
B
Hello and welcome back to another episode of Founder to Founder. These are solo episodes where I share exactly what I'm learning on the journey of building founder past 10 years and learning from some of the best in the game. So today I want to talk about something that every founder faces and that is how do you solve the biggest problem in your business? How do you grow your business? We all have roadblocks. We all have plateaus. And so what I'm going to share with you is my formula on how I solve problems in my business and how you can too, and how you can get that outcome faster than anyone.
- [01:26]
C
Hear the stories, learn the proven methods, and accelerate your growth and future through entrepreneurship. Welcome to the Founder podcast with Nathan Chan.
- [01:40]
B
So, first and foremost, you need to identify the constraint, the biggest problems in your business. Is it people? Is it product? Is it lead gen, Is it marketing? Like, you have something right now, even if you're in the early stages, there's something right now that if you were to fix it, your business would start growing again or it would grow even faster. So it's your job as a founder to work out what that constraint is. And when I interviewed Matt Orlich, he talked about this idea of the theory of constraints. Now, I'd never heard of it before, but that's effectively how I look at things. Like, what is the biggest constraint in my business right now? Like, as an example, if you have a phone sales team and you're selling perhaps you know, a higher ticket product and you can see that from a benchmark perspective, the close rate of your sales team is just not where it needs to be. And you have a perhaps a target to double your business or grow by 50%. And you can see if you double your sales team's conversion rate, you can double the size of your business. Let's just say that is your biggest constraint, your conversion rate on your leads, right? So before we look to solve anything, we need to find out and work out what is the biggest constraint, what lies within your business as the largest opportunity. And we follow that theory of constraints. And the second thing that we need to do is find people that have already done it. And this is what found is all about. And I know that for many of you guys will be like, oh, well, that's obvious. But like so many of my founder friends, they don't go out there and find people that have already done it and solve that constraint. So here's the thing, the problem that you're facing in your business right there, like the biggest problem, the biggest constraint, it has already been solved by somebody else. And what you need to do and what your job is as the founder is to go out and find that person and learn from them. It sounds so simple, but people just don't do it. So how do you do it? First and foremost, an incredible hack. Listen to competitors on podcasts. This is an amazing hack, right? So many of your competitors, the founders, they go on these podcasts and they share everything, right? They share how they built their business. You know who your competitors are, you know who the founders are, Google their names, find them on any podcast platform and listen to interviews they've done. You will learn so much. Second thing, success leaves clues. Look at what other people in your market, in your niche are doing and really try and deconstruct what you can model. The next thing is find people that have solved that problem from certain industries, certain markets, certain competitors, and reach out to them on LinkedIn and ask them if they're open to having a chat or really trying to network, because that's the next step is pay people. And now I know that this might sound like, oh, you know, it's so obvious, Nathan, but like if you know what the constraint is and you find that person that has solved that problem and you know it's going to unlock a lot of growth through your business, why wouldn't you pay that person? One of the best decisions that I ever made in my journey early on was like when I was trying to grow the magazine founder. I joined this community of like minded people that all had digital magazines. And I actually paid somebody to teach me some of the stuff that he was doing, how he was growing his magazine, because I wanted more subscribers. And that one call made me hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of Thousands of dollars. So find the people and then pay them. Right? Don't be afraid to pay people for what their insights are. You can go to websites like Intro or Clarity FM, but oftentimes I like to cold outreach people on LinkedIn, for example, if I know somebody in the industry that's doing really, really well with creative as an example, I'll reach out to that particular company. It doesn't even have to be like a direct competitor. It could be an indirect competitor. It could be somebody that's killing it in that particular space. As an example. Canva, they are amazing. That company, canva, they are amazing at SEO, right? Like how could I find somebody that led their SEO team in the early days, which I have, and then pay them for their time and get them to write that blueprint for you. One expert conversation can save you 6 months, 12 months, 24 months, years and years of trial and error. I can't stress this enough. I remember when we were really scaling up our ads at Founder, we're spending half million dollars a month on ads. And Jordan Maynard, who recently taught a course for us, this amazing course on creative and the offer, he's got a massive e commerce brand now. He's got an incredible agency, he's a master of Facebook ads. We spoke to him like five years ago and he taught us how to do different creative angles and like how to create ads that convert and like how to really scale your ads. And it was amazing. Like that conversation we had, I remember I paid Jordan like a few thousand dollars for a couple of hours. That one conversation was so game changing for our team, it made us millions and millions of dollars. And then full circle moment. Jordan's actually teaching some of these same concepts on the Founder course platform on Founder Plus. So the shortcut isn't a hack, it's just learning from people that have done it before you. And that's why Founder exists. And every single successful founder that I have interviewed over the past decade does the same thing. They get clear on what their biggest constraint is. They go all in on solving that problem. They learn from the best and they find people and they pay for speed when it matters. If you are stuck right now, ask yourself, what is the biggest constraint in your business and are you giving it your full attention? And then who can you learn from, speak to, talk to or pay for their time? Who's already solved this? And that's how you grow, that's how you scale. If you want help getting unstuck, that's why we built Founder plus. So if you have an E commerce business, you want to start an E comm business, you want to grow an income business, you have all the roadmaps, all the mentors, all the step by step systems built by founders who have actually done it. You get Access for a $1 trial. Just go to founder.com forward/membership. All right guys, I hope you enjoyed this episode. As always. Shoot me a dmnathanchan and I'll speak to you soon.