Build to Enough

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Keila Hill-Trawick: Hello. You're listening to Build to Enough, a podcast for entrepreneurs who want to scale at their own pace. I'm your host, Keila Hill-Trawick, and I'll be your chief storyteller and cheerleader in a world that glorifies endless expansion, we're tuning out the noise and discussing the beauty of enough. Each episode will dive into inspiring stories, practical insights, and strategies to cultivate sustainable success on your [00:00:30] own terms. So whether you're a solopreneur, small business owner, or aspiring entrepreneur, get ready for a refreshing take on the entrepreneurial journey. This is build to enough.

Keila Hill-Trawick: Hey, and welcome back to build. So if you heard the last episode, we talked about the financial foundations of growth. When you're thinking about scaling smart. If you haven't listened to that episode, go back and grab it, because I think it sets the stage for what we're going to talk about today, which is going beyond being busy. So a lot [00:01:00] of times when we think about scaling, we think about like all the work that it's going to take to actually get bigger, get stronger, build a better growth plan. But scaling isn't just about being busy. It's really about building a business that works for you. So today we want to talk about how and when to grow your team or offerings without losing control. Growth isn't just about being busy, and I think that entrepreneurship gets glorified online as this feeling of constantly being overwhelmed.

Keila Hill-Trawick: And a lot of business [00:01:30] owners feel like that overwhelming feeling is a sign that it's time to grow. But I would question, is it really expansion? As with all of the decisions that you're making within the business, whether that's adding new team members or new offerings should be a strategic decision, not just a reaction to chaos. Otherwise, you might end up implementing things that actually don't change things for you. So instead of asking, am I too busy? Ask yourself, am I Am I too busy doing the right things? So [00:02:00] the first thing that you want to start thinking about is what is actually driving your need to expand. Is it growth or is it inefficiency? Because the difference between the two is going to impact the decisions that you make going forward. Instead of just growing because you're swamped, you want to look for two real signs that it's time to scale. So the first thing is capacity limits. This means that you're maxing out on work that aligns with your long term goals. You have things that you want to achieve, but there's not enough time or enough hands on deck for you to actually [00:02:30] get that done. So you know that you're reaching this because you're consistently turning away the right kind of clients, not just any clients, but like people that you actually want to work with. Your current team is efficient, but you still can't meet the demand.

Keila Hill-Trawick: People are constantly like coming at you, and your team is doing what they're supposed to, and you still can't catch up or your systems are running well, but they're simply too much volume. One of the ways that we work on this with our with our clients is really thinking about, hey, of the clients that are working [00:03:00] with them. So the work that they're doing, what is standing in the way of them being able to take on more clients? Is it the onboarding process? Is it the way that work gets done because there's too much manual that could be automated? What are those. Because ultimately that's going to roll back up to the financials, right. The fewer clients you take, potentially the less money that you make. And so you've got a couple of decisions there. If you're bound by capacity. Your team's only going to be but so big. Maybe the [00:03:30] answer is to figure out what the most valuable work is so that you can charge more for it. Or it may be time to hire more team members, but you need to figure out what's going on with your team and in your software and in your processes first, before you can figure out what that next step should be. The next thing is missed opportunities or the next trigger is missed opportunities. So this means there's a demand for something you could offer, but you don't yet.

Keila Hill-Trawick: You'll often see this when clients are asking for additional services that fit your expertise, but you just haven't implemented [00:04:00] it. Your market is shifting and you need to adapt to stay competitive. Or you see a clear path to expand revenue without overcomplicating your business. But you haven't instituted it yet. And here's what I will say about that. The best way to achieve, like a path towards those missed opportunities, is to figure out if you already have the groundwork laid to be able to support new things. So a great example is internally, our ongoing tax service is year round, right? [00:04:30] Everything that we do in the tax service is included in all of the packages and the tiers that we offer. And what that means is no matter how you come in, there are some steps that are going to be exactly the same for every single client. The more that you can streamline that, the more you can even envision new opportunities and new service offerings, because they don't all have to have to start from scratch. In a new bucket, you really have the opportunity to use processes and SOPs and software that you already have [00:05:00] in order to start with a bud of an idea that can really expand without starting from the very beginning. Now when is growth a bad idea? You want to avoid expansion traps because there are some warning signs that you shouldn't grow.

Keila Hill-Trawick: So one. Do you find yourself adding services just to please a few clients, rather than building a scalable model that's going to be really difficult to keep on top of and hard to make profitable if it's not something that will really serve the larger swath of your clients, particularly [00:05:30] if they are small and not making up the bulk of your revenue. If you find that you're hiring to fix inefficiencies rather than improving systems, first, you'll want to look back on the drawing board again at your processes to see. Is there anything that I could automate or make easier here that maybe a new hire is going to be brought in in order to oversee that versus doing the work itself. A good example is bookkeeping, right? So maybe you need someone who is going to look over some of the automations, [00:06:00] make sure that the bookkeeping is right, look at the reports to make sure that they're accurate, but they don't necessarily have to be the data entry people. That's great because it means that they can take on more work. They can look at more trends and analysis that they might miss if the bulk of their time was doing manual work. If you feel rushed into growth without a clear plan, that's probably a sign that you want to stop, take a step back and just really reassess what you want out of your business.

Keila Hill-Trawick: So you're growing towards a business that you actually want to run. [00:06:30] And if you're expanding based on short term trends rather than long term demand, you could end up like some of our favorite businesses where you are responding reactively to something that is happening that's not expected to continue. Instead, first you want to ask yourself a couple of couple of questions one. Can automation or delegation solve this problem before I hire? It can often feel like bringing in a new person can resolve all of your issues, and that is not going to be the case if you still have some inefficiencies [00:07:00] behind the curtain. Second, will this new offer add sustainable revenue and not just extra work? If your team is constantly just trying to keep up with the project in addition to their ongoing work, it might not be reasonable to expect that that's something that you can continue to offer to new people. And then third, do I have the financial stability to support this growth? As we've talked about in other episodes, when you're growing, it often costs money. And if you barely have enough to cover expenses and make sure that the team and the business [00:07:30] that you already have is supported, it's going to be very difficult to invest in new, shiny opportunities for you to be able to give new clients. So let's say you're ready to grow, and now you want to expand, and you want to make sure that you don't lose control along the way.

Keila Hill-Trawick: Here's how I would say to do it intentionally and sustainably. First, if you're thinking about expanding your team, hire for the future, not just the fire. So what roles will still be needed a year from now? What specialists [00:08:00] can you bring in that will complement your skills, not just be another version of you? You want people who can do it better than you can, so that you don't have to have your hands in it anymore, and you're left to only do the things that you can do. You may want to start with contractors or part time help before committing to full time hires. This way, you get a sense of what you actually need within the business, and you can kind of expand that role to determine. Now that I know exactly what this job description should be, I know how much time I'll need from this person in order to have [00:08:30] them on the team. And then you want to define clear roles and expectations. Don't just hand off tasks. You want to empower people to own responsibilities. And it's really difficult to do that if you don't have a plan for them. Now, if you're thinking about expanding your offerings, first validate the demand. Don't just go out building something new, expecting that people will want it without pulling your clients, or testing a beta version so that you can start small to see if this is something that people even want.

Keila Hill-Trawick: Also, make sure that your [00:09:00] new services align with your core strengths. You don't want to pivot too far from what's working. And if you do, you want to make sure that again, you can financially absorb what that might cost you while you're tinkering to figure it out. Keep it simple. The best expansions are focused and easy to deliver. Remember, you already have continuing work that you're doing, and you want to make sure you don't blast off with a brand new offering that's going to take a bunch of time, money, and resources that really already are needed for the work that you're doing [00:09:30] throughout the year for your current clients. Make sure your pricing for profitability, not just popularity. It may seem really exciting to do something because you're going to make a bunch of money from it. But again, if the If the cost associated with that. Take a bunch of the revenue you want to make sure you're not adding low margin services that drain your resources without putting back to you financially. And then make sure that you're establishing repeatable systems and processes because you don't just want to efficiently deliver once. [00:10:00] You want to keep doing that on a consistent basis so that over time you're getting better and better.

Keila Hill-Trawick: But you're always delivering on the promise that you say that your clients can receive. So what are the takeaways for making growth intentional? One don't mistake chaos for a sign to grow. You want to focus on strategic expansion. One of the things that we talk about with clients often is like, what are your goals? What kind of business do you want? What services do you want to offer? What services do you know that you want to sense it? And you may [00:10:30] not be able to do all of that right now. In fact, I would recommend that you not. It is a lot to change at once. But just because everything feels crazy right now doesn't mean that you should change everything right now. It's probably a time to stop and assess what you do want, so that you can slowly but surely get out of the things that you don't want to do. Growth should create ease, and so if it is just adding complexity to a small business that already feels like it's a little bit frazzled, you may want to rethink whether that's the growth that you want to shoot [00:11:00] after and hire when you need long term help. It may be that right now you just need a quick fix or project based focus so that somebody can help come in and just get you level set. But when you're hiring people on your team, you want people who are going to be there for the long haul.

Keila Hill-Trawick: In a relationship that helps to build your business where you want it to go, and if they have very short term contracts with you, it's going to be hard to build that consistently. Finally, expand offerings only when they add real value [00:11:30] to your business and clients. So if it's fun for you, but your clients don't care about it and your business isn't going to benefit from it. It may be something that you want to look at, but maybe something that you deprioritize until it can really fill the need of what your business needs. So if you're wondering whether this is the right time to grow, start by looking at your financials, capacity and demand. All three of these are going to help to create a picture of where you currently stand, so [00:12:00] that you can determine which lever you want to pull in your quest for growth. That's it for today. I will see you next time.

Keila Hill-Trawick: Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Build to Enough. If you enjoyed today's episode, don't forget to subscribe, rate and share the love with your fellow entrepreneur friends. And make sure to sign up for the Build to Enough newsletter. The link is in the show notes. Stay tuned for more episodes as we continue to redefine success. One intentional step at a time.