Season 5/Episode 16: REWIND: Are You Ready to Scale?

[00:00:03] Welcome to The Messy Mind Podcast, a show to support you in seeing the messiness can lead to your light bulb moments. I'm your host, Tammy L. Davis.

[00:00:14] Good day everyone and welcome to The Messy Mind Podcast. What I want to tackle today is asking the question if you are ready to scale.

[00:00:32] So this is the time of year and actually first quarter, maybe even December of 2019 as you're approaching the new year 2020.

[00:00:41] As you review your monthly financial statements to really gain a snapshot on how well your business did last year and what your goals are for this year, this quarter 2020.

[00:00:54] As you're looking at those financial statements, you may be drifting off in dreamland and really wishing for more. More visibility, more clients, and of course more revenue.

[00:01:06] I personally love dreamland and visionland. However, as I'm flying high, drifting through the clouds, the one question that enters in the sky is are you ready to scale?

[00:01:19] When your clients are ready to buy your products or your services, the key question to ask yourself is are your people, processes, and technology in place to handle their purchasing power?

[00:01:33] Far too many times I've heard my fellow entrepreneurs state how they want X amount of revenue by X month. But when I ask them the question, are you ready for that?

[00:01:45] The response is always well, hell yes. Yet when I ask how ready they are, what is your sales process? How do you onboard new consultants for a project?

[00:01:58] Is your line of credit or financing in place? Or are you even able financially to handle a net 90 or even 120 days, meaning that are you able to handle not getting paid for three months, potentially even four months?

[00:02:15] Needless to say the proverbial hell yes shifts to oh no, I haven't thought about those things.

[00:02:24] So as we focus to gain more business, we really must pause and assess if we are ready for the new business.

[00:02:33] So when speaking to countless entrepreneurs, small business owners, I've developed the five steps for scalability approach.

[00:02:41] And I really would recommend at this particular time you put the podcast on pause, you know, you get your pen, you get your notebook and really listen to as I walk through these five steps.

[00:02:55] Five steps that I've done in my own businesses. Remember because as I was saying, my husband and I, we've been serial entrepreneurs, whether it's construction, whether it's information technology business,

[00:03:07] whether it was a frozen frozen dessert concept, whether it was real estate. So every time that we've approached wanting to grow where we are, we've gone through these five steps.

[00:03:19] So I really ask you to recommend listening to this over and over again, because again, it's really helped us in our in our future growth.

[00:03:30] So tip number one is assess and analyze. So before you jump into installing, you know, software before you go running to your bank to get a line of credit or obtain some level of financing, I'm going to ask you to pause.

[00:03:46] Really take the time to find a quiet space without interruptions and take a breath.

[00:03:52] Assess and analyze where you are. What are your current needs? Where are your deficits and place them in three buckets in people processes and technology.

[00:04:04] And once you have also placed your deficits really being honest with yourself in those respective buckets, people places, I'm sorry, people processes and technology.

[00:04:15] Then you're going to go ahead and go to step two, which is people. If your need is people, then ask yourself, do I have the current team in place who can handle the increase in business?

[00:04:30] If so, are they properly trained? Do they have the necessary skills? And if not, what do they need to be trained on? And how can I get this training?

[00:04:43] If I don't have the right people, what will my recruiting efforts be? Will it be word of mouth online job post referrals working with a recruiting company?

[00:04:53] What is our onboarding process? Work through each one of those questions to ensure that your people current or future are set up and ready for success to excel in their new roles.

[00:05:07] So that takes us to step number three, processes. When I asked my fellow entrepreneurs to define whether the process is to me, they can write it a rattle it off as easy as water rolling off mountains.

[00:05:21] But when I asked them if the process is documented, that's when the buck stops dead in its tracks.

[00:05:29] The amount of process knowledge in entrepreneurs mind is mind boggling, but trying to get them to pause and document that knowledge is a challenge.

[00:05:39] So when you take the time to write down your processes, at least to a level where you can delegate these processes, you know, to one of your people to create a form of process structure, you will see where your processes need work.

[00:05:54] Yes, I have experience in business analysis. So one of my favorite tools for processing flow is Visio. However, don't get caught up in the type of tools.

[00:06:03] Just focus on mapping it out your processes. Yes, a brained up there's tools that you can find online processing mapping tools or even mind mapping tools just to get focused on how you want your business to operate in the key areas such as HR, payroll,

[00:06:20] business development, financing, public relations, marketing. Just think of develop design, implement and evaluate as you're working through your processes.

[00:06:33] Tip four is technology. Now that you have your people in your processes in place or at least to a level where you're ready to enter the world of technology.

[00:06:44] One of my favorite areas, what systems software do you need to implement to efficiently work through your processes? Do you want to work with a commercial off to shelf product?

[00:06:57] Meaning that do you want to embark down the road of implementing and doing a software implementation project? If so, what vendors are aligned with your needs?

[00:07:08] Take the time to assess your software vendors. You definitely do not want to get caught up in getting sold a dream then in implementing a nightmare.

[00:07:20] That's one of the main tasks that we do, you know, for my business next level. We work with clients who have gone down the path of doing a software implementation only to realize or maybe not realize that they've inherited a nightmare.

[00:07:36] Or they don't want to go down that path and they need, you know, our organizational change management help. So technology again, big tip, tip number four, one area for you to look at.

[00:07:49] And the last tip, tip five is your triangle of readiness, your readiness triangle actually as I like to call it.

[00:07:57] Now that you have your roadmap containing what you need to have your people, processes and technology in place, create your readiness triangle and give it a test drive.

[00:08:08] Create a scenario of your business being awarded a multi-million dollar contract and put your triangle to work. Remember your triangle, people, processes, technology and work through it.

[00:08:20] See what works, see what doesn't work. See how many elements if any of your triangle can be improved.

[00:08:29] So at this particular point, I really believe that fortunately with the right preparation, you and your business really can thrive through its growth.

[00:08:38] My number one tip might sound cliche, but it still holds true that cash is king.

[00:08:44] You know, make sure you have cash in hand to be able to quickly and appropriately manage your resources for your new view on how you're going to approach scalability.

[00:08:57] And always remember that don't let being unprepared for growth be the beginning of the end.

[00:09:05] Thank you for joining me this week on The Messy Mind and remember to always embrace your messy mind.

[00:09:13] Thank you for joining us this time on the Messy Mind podcast. Please visit our website at themessymindpod.com.

[00:09:24] Make sure to subscribe to the podcast so you'll never miss an episode.

[00:09:29] While you're at it, if you found value in this episode, we'd appreciate a rating on Apple Podcast or simply tell a friend about the show.

[00:09:39] Always remember to embrace the messiness. It can lead to your light bulb moments.