Speaker 1: Hello.
Speaker 2: My name is Santasha Nabananga Bamblet. I'm a proud Order
Speaker 2: Order Kerni Whoalbury and a waddery woman. And before we
Speaker 2: get started on She's on the Money podcast, I would
Speaker 2: like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land of
Speaker 2: which this podcast is recorded on a wondery country, acknowledging
Speaker 2: the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming through
Speaker 2: as this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing and
Speaker 2: the storytelling of you to make a difference for today
Speaker 2: and lasting impactful tomorrow.
Speaker 1: Let's get into it.
Speaker 3: She's on the Money, She's on the Money.
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the business Bible. Are you noticing
Speaker 1: some burnout signs, juggling multiple hats and wondering if it's
Speaker 1: time to bring more hands on deck. Maybe you're seeing
Speaker 1: some bright opportunities on the horizon, but you're not sure
Speaker 1: if they're worth chasing. Well, today we're diving into one
Speaker 1: of the most crucial questions for any business, and that's
Speaker 1: when is it time to scale? I'm Victoria de Vine,
Speaker 1: your business bff, and I'm here with our side hustle
Speaker 1: superstar is Jess Gorucci. Hi Jess.
Speaker 4: Hello, welcome back to another episode of the Business Bible.
Speaker 5: Happy to be here. I love the business episodes. They're
Speaker 5: so fun and I'm so excited today because I feel
Speaker 5: like you hear the words scale a lot in the
Speaker 5: business world. People are always saying things like scale to
Speaker 5: ten k in one month.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, it's isn't it.
Speaker 5: Yeah, people just popping off using the word left, frat
Speaker 5: and center, and it.
Speaker 1: Sounds took me like six years.
Speaker 5: It sounds great in theory, but like, what does it
Speaker 5: actually mean to scaling business?
Speaker 1: It's a good question and probably the best place to start.
Speaker 1: So from the starts, scaling your business is kind of
Speaker 1: like adding the perfect accessory to your favorite outfit. It's
Speaker 1: all about enhancing what you already have without losing your
Speaker 1: unique style, which is harder done than said. In business terms,
Speaker 1: scaling means growing your operations, increasing your reach, and boosting
Speaker 1: your revenue, all while maintaining the quality and essence that
Speaker 1: makes your brand so special. It's not just about doing more,
Speaker 1: it's about doing more smartly, with the right systems, team
Speaker 1: and strategies in place that support your growth. It's exciting,
Speaker 1: it is challenging, and if it's done right, it's really rewarding.
Speaker 5: Is scaling something that we should all be just like
Speaker 5: diving straight into the second that we start.
Speaker 1: Or just go hard or go home? Jess, No, I'm joking.
Speaker 1: Definitely do not go hard and do not go home.
Speaker 1: Timing is absolutely everything. Scaling your business is kind of
Speaker 1: like tending to a garden. I can't keep a garden alive.
Speaker 1: So maybe this is a really bad analogy, but you
Speaker 1: need to plant the seeds at the right moments to
Speaker 1: let them grow. If you try and scale to early,
Speaker 1: your roots might not actually be deep enough to support
Speaker 1: new growth. And things could with a really fast like
Speaker 1: my actual garden. But if you wait too longes you
Speaker 1: could actually miss out on a prime season for expansion.
Speaker 1: It's all about finding that sweet spot where your business
Speaker 1: is ready to thrive without getting tangled in the weeds
Speaker 1: of let's call it unpreparedness.
Speaker 5: Okay, now, you obviously as someone who's scaled multiple businesses
Speaker 5: with a lot of success, but did you run into
Speaker 5: any problems kind of along the way of that journey, Yeah.
Speaker 1: One hundred percent. And then I cried a lot. But
Speaker 1: I think that's really normal. I feel like I've gotten
Speaker 1: so much wrong, And I mean, scaling is really hard.
Speaker 1: Knowing when to scale is also equally hard, because I
Speaker 1: think so many of us see that as like a
Speaker 1: really shiny next step. But as someone who has scaled,
Speaker 1: sold and now is going through, I would say your
Speaker 1: scale process. At the moment, I am recruiting left, right,
Speaker 1: and center. But I'm also finding it very different this
Speaker 1: time because I've really realized that scaling is not necessarily
Speaker 1: always the goal I need at this point in my
Speaker 1: business to scale because right now the demand we have
Speaker 1: outweighs the staff that we have. Like we are overworked
Speaker 1: at the moment. We're not able to service as many
Speaker 1: clients as we would love to, so I know that
Speaker 1: we need more hands on deck. But on the flip side,
Speaker 1: I have run a bigger business before and I haven't
Speaker 1: enjoyed it, and it has you know, I wouldn't say
Speaker 1: gone to shit, but like I wasn't loving at my
Speaker 1: mental health, wasn't there, nothing really worked, And I think
Speaker 1: that there are so many bumps along the way right Like,
Speaker 1: it's not something that is super shiny, and you do
Speaker 1: need to really work out what that looks like. And
Speaker 1: with scale comes in increased cost as well, and that
Speaker 1: can be really overwhelming, like at some point you go,
Speaker 1: is this actually worth it? So there's I guess a
Speaker 1: lot of moving parts when it comes to scaling, and
Speaker 1: it doesn't necessarily mean that it might be right for you.
Speaker 1: Like if you love your lifestyle right now, scaling might
Speaker 1: mean that you are working another forty hours a week.
Speaker 1: Is that actually for you?
Speaker 5: Crazy? How did you know that the right time to
Speaker 5: scale was when you decided to do so well?
Speaker 1: The first time we scaled was when I scaled my
Speaker 1: financial advice firm. The first time this is like when
Speaker 1: she's on the money, was just starting. And if we're
Speaker 1: being really honest, I think that scale to me was
Speaker 1: a lot about ego. I wanted a big business. I
Speaker 1: felt like a big business was reflective of how good
Speaker 1: I was at my work, and we all know now
Speaker 1: that that is absolutely not the case. So I scaled,
Speaker 1: and I feel like I was making decisions because a
Speaker 1: lot of the time they looked like the right decisions.
Speaker 1: Having a good financial advice business to me meant having
Speaker 1: a lot of financial advices. It didn't actually end up
Speaker 1: breaking even in the way that you would expect it to,
Speaker 1: because with increased headcount, your entire business model needs to
Speaker 1: change to make sure that the profitability is still being maintained.
Speaker 1: And my profitability was being eaten into significantly, which it's
Speaker 1: absolutely fine, because often when you scale, there's a number
Speaker 1: of investments you need to make in the short term
Speaker 1: to get there. It eats away your profitability and then
Speaker 1: over time it starts to come back up. I didn't
Speaker 1: like it, I didn't enjoy it. It wasn't nourishing to me,
Speaker 1: and we ended up selling that business. So in September
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two, I officially sold out of being a
Speaker 1: financial advisor. I went back into mortgage broking, decided to
Speaker 1: start that from scratch. I've recently had the other business
Speaker 1: partner in that business, Leaf and we're currently in the
Speaker 1: process of scaling the business now, but more so that
Speaker 1: we can properly resource the team so that we can
Speaker 1: have a really good time. And I mean right now,
Speaker 1: I currently run Cheese on the Money and Zella Money
Speaker 1: the mortgage broking business, and we have so many beautiful
Speaker 1: clients coming from Shees on the Money and I want
Speaker 1: to be able to service more of them. So the
Speaker 1: reason for scaling at the moment is purely because I'm like,
Speaker 1: I want more people to come to my business because
Speaker 1: I'm enjoying this, not because of an ego thing. And
Speaker 1: as you know, Jess, a lot of this is taking
Speaker 1: us a long time because I'm trying so hard to
Speaker 1: find the right mortgage brokers to hire. My last mortgage
Speaker 1: broker took four months to hire because I had not
Speaker 1: found the right person yet and I wasn't willing to
Speaker 1: compromise in order to say that my team was growing.
Speaker 1: So I definitely have a different hat on this time,
Speaker 1: and it is a little bit more complex, but I
Speaker 1: think it'll be for the better.
Speaker 5: Yeah. So scaling isn't necessarily just about adding in follow
Speaker 5: you more quantity of people, or you know, outsourcing to
Speaker 5: more and more people. It's about finding the right people
Speaker 5: to support that growth exactly.
Speaker 1: And I think that there's a very big misconception that
Speaker 1: the bigger you scale, the bigger profit margin there will be.
Speaker 1: And someone who's really good at this is Iris Smith
Speaker 1: from the quick Flick. So she's on TikTok and she
Speaker 1: shares a lot about how her business has scaled, and
Speaker 1: she went from a small business where she was packing
Speaker 1: her own orders in her laund room, which was really cute.
Speaker 1: I feel like I've followed her since then and now
Speaker 1: her products are available in price line. But what you
Speaker 1: guys probably don't know is that if you get to
Speaker 1: that stage with a cosmetics company, you are not only
Speaker 1: paying for mass amounts of production to supply to these
Speaker 1: big companies. You're paying for the display stands, you're paying
Speaker 1: for the marketing. You're paying for the branding and arguably
Speaker 1: the spot inside the store to begin with that, and
Speaker 1: you're sharing your profit margin with somebody else because they're
Speaker 1: stocking it. They're not going to want to stock your product,
Speaker 1: jess if it's not financially beneficial for them to do so.
Speaker 1: So it's all about is that even worth it? And
Speaker 1: it's about weighing up do I actually want to scale
Speaker 1: or do I want to stay small and maybe keep
Speaker 1: a higher percentage of my profit margin. There's a lot
Speaker 1: to take into consideration.
Speaker 5: Okay, well, I feel like after the break, we should
Speaker 5: talk about maybe some indicators for people on how they
Speaker 5: can know whether or not scaling is the right choice
Speaker 5: for them. But let's go take a really quick break
Speaker 5: and come back. Surely, Welcome back, everybody. Now, I know
Speaker 5: a lot of our listeners are eager to learn a
Speaker 5: little bit more about whether or not scaling is the
Speaker 5: right choice for them because it feels a little bit
Speaker 5: like a gut decision. But is it really just about
Speaker 5: your intuition and what you think or are there things
Speaker 5: that we can look out for that let us know
Speaker 5: that it might be the right choice.
Speaker 1: It's definitely not a gut thing. I mean at the moment,
Speaker 1: I know in my gut that I really want to
Speaker 1: scale Zella money because I just know that that's going
Speaker 1: to nourish my soul, having more brokers that can support
Speaker 1: more folsts home by, Like, I just love it, right,
Speaker 1: So in my gut that's what I want. So it
Speaker 1: feels really positive, but I have a number of tools
Speaker 1: that I need to implement because just because it feels
Speaker 1: right doesn't mean it's going to be financially viable. And
Speaker 1: if we go down that route just based on gut feeling,
Speaker 1: I could end up in a lot of trouble Jess,
Speaker 1: because more money, more problems. Right, So there are some
Speaker 1: key indicators that I want you to keep an eye on.
Speaker 1: So firstly, if you or your team at the moment
Speaker 1: are completely swamped, they're working additional hours and you're still
Speaker 1: feeling like you're drowning in tasks. I would say that's
Speaker 1: a red flag. You might need to hire some more
Speaker 1: hands and delegate some tasks off, or ask yourself if
Speaker 1: there are tasks that you do all the time that
Speaker 1: you might be able to automate or get someone else
Speaker 1: to do next up. If you're selling out regularly, that's
Speaker 1: usually not just luck. I think lots of us, especially
Speaker 1: small business owners, they're like, I am so lucky, and
Speaker 1: you're like, no, you are so talented. That's demand telling
Speaker 1: you that maybe it's time to level up. And lastly,
Speaker 1: if your current tools, space or tech setup just isn't
Speaker 1: cutting it anymore, to me, that's a sign that your
Speaker 1: infrastructure needs an upgrade to keep up with your growing business. Now,
Speaker 1: it's something when we're looking at key indicators. If I
Speaker 1: sit down and look at it, right, I have a
Speaker 1: team of mortgage brokers. You don't need to know what
Speaker 1: they do at the end of the day. They see clients, right,
Speaker 1: and I know that at this point in time, my
Speaker 1: mortgage brokers can see two clients a day, and I go, wow,
Speaker 1: I'd really like more clients to get through my door.
Speaker 1: The first thing I might think is that means we
Speaker 1: need more brokers, Yess, But in reality, we actually need
Speaker 1: to look at the back end processes. Are we equipping
Speaker 1: them with enough admin staff to get their job done?
Speaker 1: Are we automating enough processes? Is there anything that I
Speaker 1: could do to mean that my mortgage brokers do less
Speaker 1: admin work and get to see more clients? Is there
Speaker 1: a way that I could scale my pre existing team
Speaker 1: from seeing two clients a day to being able to
Speaker 1: say three. What would that actually look like? What would
Speaker 1: I have to alleviate from them? And I think that
Speaker 1: we need to look at our businesses this way first,
Speaker 1: because if you're just going, okay, well I need another
Speaker 1: Jess like Jess, you and I both know in she's
Speaker 1: on the money. If scaling she's on the money was
Speaker 1: the plan, and we go, actually, Jess is really productive.
Speaker 1: She's running all the partnerships. Maybe we need to double that.
Speaker 1: Maybe we need another partnerships manager. You and I both
Speaker 1: know that's not the answer. The answer would be to
Speaker 1: alleviate all of the things that you personally are doing
Speaker 1: that could be done by somebody else, so that then
Speaker 1: you can scale that. Because from my perspective, you'd be
Speaker 1: the right person for that.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So I think we need to take a step back
Speaker 1: and pragmatically look at our businesses before we actually pull
Speaker 1: the trigger or immediately think Okay, well I want X,
Speaker 1: so I need y. Yeah that could mean that you're
Speaker 1: seeing more people, but is that the most cost effective decision?
Speaker 1: Are you effectively outsourcing things? Are there things on your
Speaker 1: team that you are doing that you don't really need
Speaker 1: to be doing. Recently, I've re reviewed all of the
Speaker 1: financials that I'm doing. You guys know, I have a
Speaker 1: bookkeeper and I adore her. Hi Helen and Carmen love you.
Speaker 1: They do so much. But when I went back to
Speaker 1: the drawing board, I was like, oh my gosh, every
Speaker 1: single month, I'm generating all these reports and I'm doing this,
Speaker 1: and I'm doing that in addition to their bookkeeping. I
Speaker 1: could actually get them to do that, pop it into
Speaker 1: my emails. I can still do the review, but I'm
Speaker 1: saving at least another five hours a month by not
Speaker 1: doing it myself. And I think that that is really important.
Speaker 1: But as business owners, Jess, we don't like to let
Speaker 1: go totally. And you've probably seen this, but for me,
Speaker 1: letting go has been a really big part of it.
Speaker 1: I don't really want people to come in and do
Speaker 1: it for me because I feel like I'm good at
Speaker 1: it and I want to still feel involved. But at
Speaker 1: the same time, sometimes you turn around to me and go,
Speaker 1: they I can actually do that, and we both know
Speaker 1: I'm better at it. Yeah, I know, I know. So
Speaker 1: I think it's really important to step back and go,
Speaker 1: what is the actual logical answer here because it might
Speaker 1: not look the way that you think it looks. Because
Speaker 1: for me to scale my business right now, if I
Speaker 1: looked at it at surface level, it's high more mortgage brokers.
Speaker 1: I actually need a lot more admin. So that's going
Speaker 1: to look different. There's going to be different costs associated,
Speaker 1: different resources associated, And I just think it's really important
Speaker 1: to have a look at the indicators and go, are
Speaker 1: we even ready for this? Is this even something I want?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 5: It sounds like you need to have a really in
Speaker 5: depth understanding of like, ah, you're back in your processes.
Speaker 5: It's not just a quick snap decision if someone is
Speaker 5: feeling the pinge in those places. Scaling is a very
Speaker 5: abstract word. I feel like, what do we do?
Speaker 1: It's a bit different to scaling a fish. Do about
Speaker 1: that yuck that you said abstruct scaling And I was like, okay,
Speaker 1: let's go completely rogue. When we're talking about scaling, you
Speaker 1: should always start with a financial health check. I bet
Speaker 1: none of you saw that coming from me assessing your
Speaker 1: financial situation. It's going to ensure that you're ready for
Speaker 1: the financial investment that scaling actually requires. First, I want
Speaker 1: you to look at your cash flow before scaling. You
Speaker 1: need to make sure that your cash flow is positive
Speaker 1: and consistent. You need to be able to cover the
Speaker 1: costs of scaling without jeopardizing your financial stability. Then I
Speaker 1: want you to have a look at your profit margins.
Speaker 1: We spoke about this before the break. Your profit margins
Speaker 1: should be strong enough to support the additional cost of scaling,
Speaker 1: like hiring and marketing and production increases. Like, for example,
Speaker 1: if you're taking a product into a different store that
Speaker 1: you don't run, what percentage of that profit margin are
Speaker 1: you going to end up having to share? What does
Speaker 1: that look like? And how does that eat into your
Speaker 1: ability to put that product on the table. How does
Speaker 1: that work? And don't forget we all need a financial buffer.
Speaker 1: I jump up and down on cheese on the money
Speaker 1: about making sure that we have an emergency fund. Where's
Speaker 1: your business emergency fund?
Speaker 3: Jess?
Speaker 1: We need one of those two. This is going to
Speaker 1: be your safety net to cover any unexpected costs. Like
Speaker 1: what if growth is slower than expected during this process
Speaker 1: of scaling. What if you've done all of your numbers
Speaker 1: and you've dot it all your eyes and crossed all
Speaker 1: your tea's and then all of a sudden, it's just
Speaker 1: not working the way that you thought it was going
Speaker 1: to work. But you know it's going to work long term.
Speaker 1: Can you get through that period? We don't want to
Speaker 1: be under significant financial stress so that we're forced to
Speaker 1: make a.
Speaker 5: Decision we don't want to have to make. And that's
Speaker 5: a risk, right with scaling n sive risk. You know, ultimately,
Speaker 5: in an ideal world it works exactly like you said.
Speaker 5: You add in a new team member or a new
Speaker 5: piece of machinery or a new factory or whatever, and
Speaker 5: it improves your profitability. But that isn't always how it works.
Speaker 1: Right Like you and I, Jess, we could sit down
Speaker 1: and I'm clearly just using my businesses because it makes
Speaker 1: the most sense to me, and both you and I
Speaker 1: understand it, and I think that they are full enough
Speaker 1: when we distill them down. So I have this mortgage
Speaker 1: broking business right and right now, it's going well, and
Speaker 1: I adore it. If I sat there and said, Jess,
Speaker 1: we want to scale, let's make a plan. What could
Speaker 1: we do? We could do more mortgages or yes, we
Speaker 1: could add another stream of income to that business. What
Speaker 1: if I go back to financial advice? So maybe I'm
Speaker 1: not the advisor. Maybe Jess, we do the numbers and
Speaker 1: we realize we've got the demand. I reckon, we could
Speaker 1: get clients for this. Let's hire a couple of financial advisors.
Speaker 1: That's significant in our head, it makes a lot of
Speaker 1: sense because you know, mortgage broking and financial advice go
Speaker 1: together really nicely. And arguably I've done this before. But
Speaker 1: is that worth it? Yeah? Like the amount of money
Speaker 1: to hire financial advisors, pay them properly, get them off
Speaker 1: of space. Is that something I even want to engage in.
Speaker 1: I know it's scaling. I know it's going to ultimately
Speaker 1: add profit to my business, But at what cost am
Speaker 1: I going to have the same time, time, energy, and
Speaker 1: effort to focus on my mortgage broking business? Have I
Speaker 1: thought about what the mortgage broking business will lose because
Speaker 1: I'm investing my time, energy and effort into something else,
Speaker 1: Like what effort needs to go into that to maintain it.
Speaker 1: I think we need to talk about all of these
Speaker 1: other things because financially, on paper, we could distill it
Speaker 1: down and go, okay, Jess, we know that a third
Speaker 1: of the income that is generated from hiring a new
Speaker 1: financial advisor is going to go to the overhead costs,
Speaker 1: a third is going to go to paying their wage,
Speaker 1: and a third is going to go to profitability. I
Speaker 1: can make a beautiful spreadsheet, so the financials checkout, but
Speaker 1: that's not all we have to consider.
Speaker 5: Yeah, apart from the financials, what are the things should
Speaker 5: people be looking at all?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 1: So I have a framework for you. I love a framework.
Speaker 5: You love a little bit.
Speaker 1: Hold the three p's framework, And it's all about making
Speaker 1: sure that your people, process and product are set up
Speaker 1: for growth. First, you're going to look at your team.
Speaker 1: Do you have the right gesses in place in your
Speaker 1: team and can they handle more work? Of course that
Speaker 1: might be just you at the moment. Let's be honest.
Speaker 1: Let's go back to our candle example that I love
Speaker 1: using on their business Bible could just be you. Are
Speaker 1: you just looking at your process, your person and your product.
Speaker 1: So could you handle this on your own or do
Speaker 1: you need to look at getting some help or outsourcing
Speaker 1: some of your tasks. You need to ensure that you
Speaker 1: are scaling but not burning out. I've done that. Do
Speaker 1: not do that. It impacts your business more than you know.
Speaker 5: Yeah. Are you staying up until five in the morning
Speaker 5: pouring candles, go into bed for three hours, and then
Speaker 5: getting up to take all the candles out of the molts?
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you're just having the worst time ever, Like
Speaker 1: one out of ten cannot recommend. Next, we want to
Speaker 1: look in and have a bit of a check in
Speaker 1: with our processes. Are your systems for things like production
Speaker 1: and customer service and management working efficiently? And are they scalable?
Speaker 1: You want to make sure that everything is running as
Speaker 1: smoothly as possible for scaling. So a good example of
Speaker 1: this right now is just I'm going through everything in
Speaker 1: our business right now, and we're really good at customer service,
Speaker 1: Like that's my favorite part. And I want every single
Speaker 1: person that comes through my doors to be like, Wow,
Speaker 1: working with Zella Money was incredible, Like I loved that.
Speaker 1: I'm going to recommend them to a friend because that's
Speaker 1: going to grow my business, right, But when I review it,
Speaker 1: it's so manual at the moment, Like in the background,
Speaker 1: my team are doing an incredible job at it, but
Speaker 1: everything is manual, Like they are writing out birthday emails
Speaker 1: and letters to clients on a monthly basis, Like none
Speaker 1: of that is automated. They are you making sure that
Speaker 1: every client email is going out when in reality I
Speaker 1: could probably automate some of that to take the pressure
Speaker 1: off my team. One to make sure it's consistent, but
Speaker 1: also if we take on more clients, Jess, we wouldn't
Speaker 1: be able to maintain that same level of customer service.
Speaker 1: So right now we're small and it's really easy to
Speaker 1: pick up the phone and talk to us. But like,
Speaker 1: if I'm scaling, how do I make sure that the
Speaker 1: client experience of a client joining us in twelve months,
Speaker 1: when hopefully we have a bigger team is exactly the
Speaker 1: same as it is today. What does that look like?
Speaker 1: So then the final thing I want you to look
Speaker 1: at is your product, Jess. Is your offering consistently meeting
Speaker 1: customer needs and getting positive feedback? Your product needs to
Speaker 1: be ready to meet the demands of a larger market.
Speaker 1: So you might have a really small business and it's
Speaker 1: really niche and they like really like your candles, and
Speaker 1: maybe you have like a run of candles and it's
Speaker 1: like the Seconds, like you sell the ones that have
Speaker 1: the bubbles in it for a discounted price. Is that
Speaker 1: actually scalable? Like it might be a really good business
Speaker 1: right now, But like if one of the most profitable
Speaker 1: things is your seconds candles because like maybe you're not
Speaker 1: so good at it, but your current community absolutely adores it,
Speaker 1: is that something that's going to work long term because
Speaker 1: I can almost guarantee that it's not going to be
Speaker 1: picked up by a commercial store, like they're going to go, well,
Speaker 1: we don't really want to sell your seconds candles, So
Speaker 1: we need to look at it pretty pragmatically and as
Speaker 1: business owners. Yes, that's really hard. Yeah, I've had to
Speaker 1: do that a number of times and be like, maybe
Speaker 1: I'm not doing my best here, And that's okay, because
Speaker 1: if you can identify that you're not doing your best,
Speaker 1: we can change it and we can be better. But
Speaker 1: it is really confronting when your business is your baby
Speaker 1: and your life and your soul and then all of
Speaker 1: a sudden you're like, I'm not really good at that.
Speaker 1: I'm going to need some help here. Yeah, that can
Speaker 1: be really confronting. Yeah, it's all right to look at
Speaker 1: things with a critical eye. That's how we all grow
Speaker 1: and develop and change. I guess you have to sometimes
Speaker 1: face those hard things, because better to address it now
Speaker 1: than before you put all this money into scaling and go,
Speaker 1: oh my god, it's a flop and I'm now, oh
Speaker 1: my god, and I'm also sad. Yeah, and that sad
Speaker 1: piece is really important because now my goal we need
Speaker 1: to scale to have the business I want to have.
Speaker 1: But it's not about scaling so that we can be
Speaker 1: the biggest. Like I say this all the time. Internally,
Speaker 1: I do not want the biggest team, but I want
Speaker 1: the best team. Like I want people to want to
Speaker 1: work with us, and it might be hard long term.
Speaker 1: We don't want to have to have long wait lists.
Speaker 1: But I also want to maintain that consistency, in that
Speaker 1: quality so that our customers and our clients are obsessed
Speaker 1: with us. I love that part of it the business.
Speaker 1: I love getting dms. I got one this morning, Jess.
Speaker 1: It was from a girl who was like, oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: I just had their best meeting with Tari yesterday. She
Speaker 1: was an incredible broker, Like, you should be so proud
Speaker 1: of the business that you run, girl, I am. That's
Speaker 1: the grit that I want to keep. So I think
Speaker 1: you also need to ask yourself do I want to
Speaker 1: be the biggest or do I want to be the best?
Speaker 1: Or do I want to increase my profit margin? Like
Speaker 1: what are your lifestyle goals? There's so much to talk.
Speaker 5: About here, Yeah, and scaling can totally help you achieve
Speaker 5: them if you have a good understanding. So we've got
Speaker 5: the financial sorted, the three p's are all checked off.
Speaker 5: How do we make sure, I ask, scaling plans align
Speaker 5: with the overall business vision that we're talking about.
Speaker 1: So that's literally what I'm talking about now, So good segue.
Speaker 1: So this is where a visions and goal checking happens.
Speaker 1: Start by getting crystal clear on your business vision. This
Speaker 1: can be as personal as you want it to be.
Speaker 1: Like Jess, some of my business goals are actually really personal.
Speaker 1: They are around me feeling really fulfilled. They're around financial
Speaker 1: targets for me, the lifestyle I want to lead. Because
Speaker 1: let's be honest, if you are the business owner listening
Speaker 1: to this, your business is meant to be setting up
Speaker 1: the lifestyle you want to live. Like, I know it
Speaker 1: can sound selfish, and I feel like historically I felt
Speaker 1: quite selfish saying that. But I want to have a
Speaker 1: business that provides me with the lifestyle that I want
Speaker 1: to live. I don't want to get to sixty five
Speaker 1: and retire and go well, I should have just had
Speaker 1: a salary and way journing job and not done this
Speaker 1: whole business thing, because I would have been in a
Speaker 1: better position. I would have cared about my superannuation and
Speaker 1: had more to fall back on in retirement. Like I
Speaker 1: want to get to retirement and be super proud of
Speaker 1: the journey. I want to do so much. And my
Speaker 1: vision and my goals for my business are very different
Speaker 1: to what someone else's might be. Like I get a
Speaker 1: lot out of making sure that my team can achieve
Speaker 1: their goals as well. Like get crystal clear on these
Speaker 1: things about where you want to be in the next
Speaker 1: three to five years business and personally, do you see
Speaker 1: this brand expanding internationally? Or maybe you want to become
Speaker 1: the go to expert in your niche. I do it finance.
Speaker 1: I want to be the go to expert your scaling efforts.
Speaker 1: I think they should directly support that vision to make
Speaker 1: sure that you're always moving in the right direction. Because,
Speaker 1: as someone who's gone off the cliff in terms of
Speaker 1: going in the right direction to support my goals and
Speaker 1: my lifestyle and who I want to be, it's just
Speaker 1: not worth it. Chess, Yeah, like it sucks and it's
Speaker 1: not fun. Then we want to break that down into smaller, specific,
Speaker 1: really measurable goals. Let's say your vision includes launching a
Speaker 1: brand new product line. Maybe let's set a timeline, so
Speaker 1: we want to have in that timeline some time for
Speaker 1: research and development and then launch. Or if you're aiming
Speaker 1: to grow your customer base, I want you to decide
Speaker 1: on how many new clients you want to attract each quarter,
Speaker 1: and then outline the marketing strategies that are going to
Speaker 1: get you there. By setting these really tangible goals, you're
Speaker 1: going to ensure that every step in your scaling journey
Speaker 1: is really aligned with that big picture and keep you
Speaker 1: on track. And I feel like so many times when
Speaker 1: people talk about scale Jess, they're not talking about that.
Speaker 1: They're talking about get your processes in place, you know,
Speaker 1: do your profitability margins like organize all of this, you know,
Speaker 1: start recruiting, you know, even get funding, right, but they're
Speaker 1: not talking about, well, how are you going to feel
Speaker 1: when you've scaled? What's that going to look like for
Speaker 1: your lifestyle? What's that going to look like for your
Speaker 1: fulfillment out of the job that you do every single day?
Speaker 1: Because I promise once you get there, if it's the
Speaker 1: wrong type of scaling, it's a massive regret.
Speaker 5: Well, you've said before on the show, and even just
Speaker 5: to echo what you said before, you don't want to
Speaker 5: have the biggest team. There's a point at which you go,
Speaker 5: I would be really happy here.
Speaker 1: That's your tipping point.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you would hit your tipping point. So what if
Speaker 5: somebody else is listening to this episode and they're just thinking,
Speaker 5: I'm so busy. I've got a full time job, I've
Speaker 5: got a side hustle, I've got all of these personal commitments.
Speaker 5: Scaling that up, making it bigger seems really overwhelming and
Speaker 5: like a weight that maybe they just don't want to
Speaker 5: carry right now.
Speaker 1: They're not gonna like this. Jess cannot have your cake
Speaker 1: and eat it too. There is always going to be
Speaker 1: compromised along this journey. I feel like we talk about
Speaker 1: it in terms of like work life balance, and you know,
Speaker 1: even for example me, I knew that at some point
Speaker 1: when I had scaled my financial advice business, I had
Speaker 1: shees on the money. I was doing broking as well.
Speaker 1: I knew that with everything that I was doing, starting
Speaker 1: to write books, it was not going to all be
Speaker 1: able to continually be successful. Like me, diluting myself across
Speaker 1: all of those things meant that I was going to
Speaker 1: become not good at all of them. I could already
Speaker 1: see cracks in things starting to appear, you know, emails
Speaker 1: slipping through the cracks and not being addressed in the
Speaker 1: you know, timely manner that I expected from myself. And
Speaker 1: I had to choose a plate that was spinning to
Speaker 1: push off myself, because otherwise a plate was going to fall,
Speaker 1: and it was going to be one that I didn't choose,
Speaker 1: and I didn't want that to happen. I didn't want
Speaker 1: to see she's on the money falling when in reality,
Speaker 1: I just wanted to pull the trigger on the financial
Speaker 1: advice stuff. And it was heartbreaking at the time, and
Speaker 1: you were here for this journey of me coming to
Speaker 1: the realization that selling the practice was the best thing
Speaker 1: for me. But it was sad because a lot of
Speaker 1: that practice was tied to my self identity. Like I
Speaker 1: saw myself as a financial advisor, and I knew that
Speaker 1: by stepping out of that, what would I become a
Speaker 1: retired financial advisor. I didn't want to be seen only
Speaker 1: as a finance influencer, like I always saw myself doing
Speaker 1: more than that, and you know, having a gritty business
Speaker 1: in the background, because that's what nourishes me. So it
Speaker 1: was about finding my place in the world again. And
Speaker 1: I'm not saying that you need to get rid of something,
Speaker 1: but you do need to look at your goals and
Speaker 1: what's achievable, and your values and your vision for what
Speaker 1: your life looks like. Because at the moment, if you
Speaker 1: have a million plates spinning, more often than not, you
Speaker 1: haven't taken the time to step back and go, well,
Speaker 1: what is the big picture? What am I looking at?
Speaker 1: Like I'm just treading water at the moment, Like, oh, fire,
Speaker 1: I do really want to focus on my business. What's
Speaker 1: that going to look like? So if you're scaling doesn't
Speaker 1: fit with your vision, it's actually really okay to hit
Speaker 1: the pause button pushing for growth just because you feel
Speaker 1: like it's the next step can lead to burnout and
Speaker 1: take you off track from your true mission, and I
Speaker 1: think that that's what we want to be looking at.
Speaker 1: So taking a step back and revisiting your long term
Speaker 1: goals is something that you should be doing. Sometimes the
Speaker 1: best move actually isn't expanding, it's refining what you've already
Speaker 1: built so it's more streamlined. So focus on streamlining your
Speaker 1: processes and strengthening your relationships with your current customers and
Speaker 1: enhance what's already working. And remember, growth isn't always about
Speaker 1: getting bigger. Sometimes it's about getting better and more efficient
Speaker 1: and going through that. And that's where I'm at now.
Speaker 1: But if you want to scale and take over the
Speaker 1: entire world, like girl, I have your back, Like I
Speaker 1: want that for you too, but I want it to
Speaker 1: be really crystal clear and part of the vision, not
Speaker 1: just what you thought was the logical next step. Because
Speaker 1: this is going to be hard to swallow for a
Speaker 1: lot of people. But sometimes that next step is there
Speaker 1: and you see it, but it's actually really ego driven.
Speaker 1: You want to be bigger because you want to be
Speaker 1: the biggest and you want to be the best, But
Speaker 1: why do you want that?
Speaker 5: Yeah, and if you're standing on the edge of that
Speaker 5: cliff and you're like, wow, I'm so overwhelmed. I've got
Speaker 5: all of these things going on. That is kind of
Speaker 5: the choices in it. It's like, Okay, either we jump
Speaker 5: in both feet and we scale, and that takes, as
Speaker 5: we've discussed in this episode, a lot of commitment in
Speaker 5: terms of finances, in terms of processes, in terms of
Speaker 5: bringing in team members, or you go, okay, maybe I
Speaker 5: take a step back and maybe I scale in the
Speaker 5: other direction. Maybe I pull back a little bit to
Speaker 5: get a really solid foundation so that I can either
Speaker 5: then grow on top of that, build on top of that,
Speaker 5: or maybe I'm happy being small and like there's something
Speaker 5: in that too, in acknowledging that it's okay to stay small.
Speaker 5: You don't have to want to grow to be the biggest,
Speaker 5: and you can have a really successful, awesome business that
Speaker 5: is just small, that is just you or maybe one
Speaker 5: other person.
Speaker 1: And I think so often as business owners, we tie
Speaker 1: our self perception to the success of our business, and
Speaker 1: often that success looks like bigger is better, right, so
Speaker 1: we go, I haven't really made it, and I mean
Speaker 1: all of us we just making it up as we go, like,
Speaker 1: if you haven't run a business before, I've been in
Speaker 1: that position, you just make it up as you go.
Speaker 1: You're like, oh, next thing, Oh, I need to work
Speaker 1: out that process the things I google sometimes yes, how
Speaker 1: do you CRM like? It's not embarrassing. We're all there,
Speaker 1: but we're the ones with the grit to get it done.
Speaker 1: But we also just tie our self worth often too
Speaker 1: closely to our business and assume, well, when my business
Speaker 1: is better, I'm going to feel better about myself. When
Speaker 1: my business is you know, the biggest in my niche,
Speaker 1: I'm going to feel finely confident, like that's not going
Speaker 1: to happen. I'm really sorry, but that's not the reality.
Speaker 1: In fact, the more you bite off, the deeper you're
Speaker 1: going to feel, and the deeper you feel, the more
Speaker 1: overwhelming it's going to be. So we need to kind
Speaker 1: of also this is fluffy, but work on ourselves and
Speaker 1: why we do it these things in the first place.
Speaker 1: Because then once we've worked that out, we can scale,
Speaker 1: and it's going to be a healthy scale as opposed
Speaker 1: to one that maybe isn't sustainable long term.
Speaker 5: That's such a good point. It's all about finding the balance,
Speaker 5: making sure you're growing in the best way possible.
Speaker 1: I agree, and I mean we're running out of time,
Speaker 1: so don't forget. Growth is going to look very different
Speaker 1: for everyone, whether you're scaling up or simply you just
Speaker 1: want to get better at what you do. It's all
Speaker 1: about making sure that aligns with your personal vision and
Speaker 1: your goals, not someone else's.
Speaker 5: That's what makes it exciting, you know. No, it's different,
Speaker 5: and it's personally going to be exactly what's good for you.
Speaker 5: And I think after Jay, I'm definitely going to go
Speaker 5: home dive into my own business plan, dive too.
Speaker 1: Deeply, because I don't really want to lose you. No, no,
Speaker 1: I mean if you did, actually, you can just stay
Speaker 1: on the Business Bible slaves.
Speaker 5: Perfect nothing to worry about here, all right.
Speaker 1: Well, I hope that you all are feeling really motivated
Speaker 1: after that and you're ready to reflect on your own
Speaker 1: business goals. There's some really important work ahead to make
Speaker 1: sure that you're growing in the right direction. If not
Speaker 1: even planning on growing, these are just like nice seeds
Speaker 1: to plant ifever this topic comes up in the future,
Speaker 1: So guess what, guys, This is the end of another
Speaker 1: Business Bible episode. We'll catch you next month for another episode,
Speaker 1: mister Scricci. As always, it has been a pleasure.
Speaker 5: Thank you, Bye guys.
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