Signs You’re Ready To Scale, Ep 203

06/24/21 • 55 min

Just The Tips, with James P. Friel and Dean Holland

“How do I scale my business?” is a question on many entrepreneurs’ minds, but there’s a lot more to scaling your business than most entrepreneurs realize.

It’s not just about whether your business is growing and successful. It’s also about whether your business has all the pieces in place to scale without collapsing.

In this episode, James and Dean share some telltale signs your business is ready to scale. They also reveal how to avoid the many potential pitfalls of trying to scale before you’re ready, and what being “ready” to scale actually means. (It’s not what most people think.)

Outline of This Episode

6:30 What does it actually mean to scale?
10:15 Growth and scaling are not the same thing
16:25 You’ve got a winner - what’s next?
21:01 Find out what breaks
25:02 Get your ducks in a row FIRST
30:55 Scaling for the first time in a new business or industry
33:59 The most dangerous traffic source

Growing is not the same as scaling

The word growing is often used interchangeably with scaling, but they aren’t the same thing. Growth is about getting traction in your business, creating predictable results from your sales, marketing, delivery, operations, and finances, and creating the infrastructure your business needs to be able to scale. Scaling is about adding more volume to what’s already there. Some overlap is expected, but don’t make the mistake of confusing growth with scaling.

Success doesn’t mean you’re ready to scale

Another mistake many entrepreneurs make is thinking that because their business is successful, it’s ready to scale, but there’s a lot more to being ready to scale than being successful. Scaling even a successful business without the right infrastructure in place is like putting up the walls of a house with no foundation under them. It’s only a matter of time before everything comes crashing down. Tune into the episode to hear how to identify which areas of your business still need that infrastructure before you’re ready to scale.

Find the breaking points

Odds are excellent that if you tried to scale right now, some parts of your business would “break” because they’re not structured in a way that supports scaling. Before you try to scale, identify the breaking points, and a way to fix them. For example, if you’re getting 100 orders a day now, and want to scale to 500 orders a day, could you keep up with inventory and delivery, or would something break? If you’re a service-based business, do you have enough support and systems in place to serve all the people who want to work with you? These are the questions that have to be addressed BEFORE you try to scale.

Beware scaling with one traffic source

In light of the war between Apple and Facebook over who gets access to what data, along with other changes Facebook has made, business owners who depend on Facebook ads as their only source of traffic are experiencing rising ad costs and lower profit margins. The Google “slap” from years ago also illustrates the danger of depending on one traffic source. As you look to scale your business, make sure your plan includes additional sources of traffic.

Simplicity equals scalability

The simpler you structure every facet of your business, the easier it will be to scale. Look for ways you can make things simpler instead of more complicated. What that looks like for your business depends entirely on what you do and where you’re at. It could be you need more software, or it could mean you need LESS software. It could mean you need another team member, or it could mean you have too many because you’ve overcomplicated the way your business is set up. Look for ways you can simplify.

Resources & People Mentioned

Music for “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

Connect With James and Dean

James P. Friel:

CEO Quickstart: https://jamespfriel.com/ceo-quickstart/
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/hustledetox/
Facebook Group (BulletProof Business): https://www.facebook.com/groups/1107362546297055/
Site: www.jamespfriel.com
Interested in being a guest on the show?

Dean Holland:

Blog: www.DeanHolland.com
FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/DeanHollandHQ
Billion Dollar Project:

“How do I scale my business?” is a question on many entrepreneurs’ minds, but there’s a lot more to scaling your business than most entrepreneurs realize.

It’s not just about whether your business is growing and successful. It’s also about whether your business has all the pieces in place to scale without collapsing.

Outline of This Episode

6:30 What does it actually mean to scale?
10:15 Growth and scaling are not the same thing
16:25 You’ve got a winner - what’s next?
21:01 Find out what breaks
25:02 Get your ducks in a row FIRST
30:55 Scaling for the first time in a new business or industry
33:59 The most dangerous traffic source

Growing is not the same as scaling

Success doesn’t mean you’re ready to scale

Find the breaking points

Beware scaling with one traffic source

Simplicity equals scalability

Resources & People Mentioned

Music for “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

Connect With James and Dean

James P. Friel:

CEO Quickstart: https://jamespfriel.com/ceo-quickstart/
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/hustledetox/
Facebook Group (BulletProof Business): https://www.facebook.com/groups/1107362546297055/
Site: www.jamespfriel.com
Interested in being a guest on the show?

Dean Holland:

Blog: www.DeanHolland.com
FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/DeanHollandHQ
Billion Dollar Project:

Previous Episode

The Hustle Detox, Ep 202

Freedom, time, and the ability to make more money are the top three reasons most entrepreneurs will give as their reasons for becoming entrepreneurs.

So how is it that so many entrepreneurs find themselves stuck in the hustle and grind, with LESS time and freedom than they want, instead of more?

That’s exactly what James and Dean are diving into in this week’s episode.

Whether you’re a solo entrepreneur or already have a team, tune into this week’s episode to hear how to detox from the hustle by turning your business into an asset that works for you (instead of the other way around).

Outline of This Episode

2:54 Do you HAVE to “kill yourself” to grow your business?
6:06 Busy is not the same as productive
11:32 Unintended consequences of success
19:31 Where to focus to get results
23:59 Take action on the right things
28:40 The efficiency trap
35:47 Spread super thin

You’re not doing it right

A false perception has taken hold of the entrepreneurial space--that you HAVE to hustle and grind 24/7, lose sleep, alienate your loved ones, and destroy your health. If you’re not doing all those things, you’re not “doing it right” and you don’t want success badly enough. It’s true that hustling has a place, especially when you’re in a growth phase, but not how your business has to always and forever operate in order for you to become and stay successful.

Think like a CEO, not like an employee

Many entrepreneurs, without realizing it, think like an employee instead of like a CEO. It’s a huge part of why they end up shackled to their business, instead of their business becoming a vehicle to freedom, time, and unlimited income potential. Growing and scaling your business without 24/7 hustling and grinding requires making intelligent decisions at a high level, and that comes from thinking like an effective CEO.

Productivity vs. activity

A lot of people mislabel activity as productivity. Activity is “being busy,” which may or may not grow your business. Productivity is focusing on what will move your business forward NOW. If you’re active without being productive, you end up stuck in the grind with nothing to show for it. Make sure what you’re working on is the next best step to help your business grow.

Focus, then execute

Step one is to identify where your focus needs to be right NOW. Where that is depends on your business and how far into it you are. Once you’ve identified where to focus, step two is to execute...but not just on any old thing. It has to be focused. Mediocre execution focused on the right thing is always better than perfect action focused on the wrong thing. When things that are proven to work don’t work, always assume it’s because there’s a flaw in your execution. Then work on finding and removing that flaw.

Are you efficiently doing the wrong things?

Efficiency is not about doing more, better. It’s about doing the right things better. A mistake a lot of people make when trying to systematize their business is efficiently doing things that don’t need to be done at all. The quickest path to a more efficient business is to remove tasks that don’t need to be there.

Music for “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

Connect With James and Dean

James P. Friel:

CEO Quickstart: https://jamespfriel.com/ceo-quickstart/
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/hustledetox/
Facebook Group (BulletProof Business): https://www.facebook.com/groups/1107362546297055/
Site: www.jamespfriel.com
Interested in being a guest on the show?

Dean Holland:

Blog: www.DeanHolland.com
FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/DeanHollandHQ
Billion Dollar Project: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BillionDollarProject/

JTT Facebook Page - https://www.facebook.com/justthetipsshow/

JTT Listeners Free Portal: www.JTTShow.com

Next Episode

Finding The Right Business Partner with Damian Lanfranchi, Ep 204

Something magical happens when you get the right business partner. Plus getting it right can add a lot of zeros to your bank account and eliminate a ton of stress.

But getting that RIGHT person is not as easy as it sounds, because this topic isn’t discussed enough.

This week’s guest, Damian Lanfranchi, is Todd Brown’s business partner, and they’ve been business partners for over seven years. Tune in to hear what makes their partnership successful and profitable as well as long-standing; and how to find the right business partner for you.

Outline of This Episode

4:29 The first try (and why it didn’t work)
11:14 The glue that holds it all together
18:58 How to tell whether you should have a business partner
26:15 The visionary and the integrator
31:14 Who’s who in the partnership?
46:47 Successful implementation
51:57 Don’t get “married” on day one

What holds it all together?

This might sound a little fluffy, but according to Damian, a business partnership cannot succeed without trust. Nobody’s perfect, and you may not always agree with your partner, but you’ve got to be able to trust them to do right by you and have your back. Damian and Todd have bumped heads during their partnership, but there was never any doubt they had each other’s backs.

Don’t fill the same roles as your partner

One top cause of conflicts between business partners is both of them trying to fulfill the same roles. It’s super awkward and inefficient, and leads straight to conflict. Clearly defining the roles and responsibilities of each partner eliminates a lot of head butting; and of one partner feeling like they’re doing all the work. Tune in for an example of how this aspect of a successful business partnership works in Damian and Todd’s case.

When NOT to bring on a partner

Sometimes people bring on a business partner because they don’t want to do it alone. “It’s more fun to get lost in the woods with a buddy than to get lost in the woods with yourself,” as Damian says on the episode. But basing your business partnership on insecurity or loneliness isn’t a healthy reason to work with a business partner. Tune in to hear more on this, plus other bad reasons to team up with a business partner.

Be strategic, not desperate

When Damian and Todd teamed up for their second crack at a business partnership--the one that succeeded--it was strategic. Both were running their own businesses, and found they each had a need for the other person’s gifts. The partnership was strategic, not desperate, and definitely not based on insecurity or loneliness. A business partnership that doesn’t make sense, strategically, is unlikely to go well.

Who’s the visionary and who’s the integrator?

Damian can function as both visionary and integrator. But since Todd is pure visionary, Damian serves as the integrator in their partnership. Todd sends him ideas, Damian helps bring them to life. The most successful partnerships operate like this, because it’s unlikely two pure visionaries (unless they have identical visions) or two pure integrators will do well in a partnership together. In the case of two visionaries, what if one wants to sell marketing funnels and the other wants to sell sweaters to cats? The company’s unlikely to get far in that situation. If you want a business partner, look at partnering with someone who’s your opposite in this area.

Resources & People Mentioned

Music for “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

Connect With James and Dean

James P. Friel: