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, Kaela Traywick, 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: Hello and welcome back. And if you've been with us for a couple of weeks, you know that we are focused on scaling and how to do so sustainably while keeping some really important financial and operational things in mind. So today we're going to talk about how to grow without breaking the bank, because people automatically [00:01:00] think that scaling means higher costs, but there are ways to expand your business without having to dramatically increase expenses. A lot of small business owners automatically start investing in more employees office space, software, operational costs. Thinking that like that is how I get more growth. But it doesn't have to mean spending more because actually, if you're efficient, it actually can mean working smarter. So our key question for today is going to be how can [00:01:30] you expand your impact and revenue without automatically increasing your overhead? We'll dig into that now. So there's a traditional scaling trap. I think a lot of times because people think that scaling means growth and growth can be hyper focused, right.

Keila Hill-Trawick: We are just trying to get bigger. We're trying to serve more people. We're trying to make more money. And scaling should include a sense of efficiency. It is not just about getting bigger, it is about serving the right amount of people, maybe some more in a way that we can deliver [00:02:00] a consistent promise. But there are a couple places where businesses typically overspend when they're falling into that trap. The first is hiring too soon. So sometimes I have seen, even with our clients, there is a tendency in order to get tasks off of our hands to add full time employees before demand is consistent. It starts feeling crazy in the business and we're like, I gotta hire somebody right now, full time with benefits just so they can help me. The second thing is expanding office space unnecessarily. The real is [00:02:30] that most service based businesses don't even need office space. Now, I know that that is not the same for everybody. I work from home. That works for some people and not for others. But I think the big thing that I want to say here is consider why you're doing it. If you meet clients on a regular basis, sure, invest in a space that makes sense for them, but don't do it for ego because it could end up being a waste of money. Next, investing in tools and software before they're needed. I've seen so many clients and small businesses [00:03:00] invest in these big HR and payroll platforms or project management platforms when they are small enough to really be able to use smaller tools.

Keila Hill-Trawick: A lot of times that comes from this idea that, like the smaller tool, can't do it, and sometimes that's because we haven't actually looked into how good it could be for us. Finally pouring money into unproven marketing strategy. So you're spending money on ads or campaigns, but you don't really have any sense of why, what's working [00:03:30] and what's not, and so you're just dumping money into them. The problem is these costs start becoming fixed expenses, so they're sticking around even if money fluctuates, regardless of how much revenue you have coming in and out, you're still just pouring money into these without really stopping to think why you're doing it and whether they're worth the continued investment. So when I think about growing strategically and building to enough, I think about lean growth strategies. So how can we scale without the extra overhead? [00:04:00] I've talked about this before, but one of the steps is to leverage technology and automation when we think about using tools to handle repetitive tasks. I'm thinking about all kinds of things in your business, from bookkeeping and financial to scheduling and client onboarding. So one of the things that we do for our clients, for example, is look at app advisory. What are the ways that you're sending invoices and receiving payments. How are you tracking that information? What's the easiest way for you to resurface? [00:04:30] Details about what you need to follow up on, and the status of things that you don't need to do anything with that can be project management systems, CRM and automation tools that streamline communication or automated invoicing and payment processing tools.

Keila Hill-Trawick: This can also include things like expense management. How are you gathering information about projects or customers that are associated with employee expenses? And one of the things that we bring up to clients is maybe instead of adding an [00:05:00] admin right now, you may just need a better system for getting this information so that you can see it easily. Sure, you may still need somebody that like oversees it and makes sure that everything is in order, but have the process and the system first before you bring somebody in to manually do all the work. The key point here is like before you hire, ask, can this task be automated? Because you still might need a person, but their job description might be different. The second way that you can scale without extra overhead is to optimize [00:05:30] pricing before you expand services. A lot of people are underpriced for a lot of reasons, but it means that because your prices are so low, you're thinking about new ways to make revenue. And a lot of the first ideas that come up are more work. And what we want to think about instead is, are you charging appropriately for what you already do? This is especially important for clients you've been working with for a while.

Keila Hill-Trawick: Your service has probably already naturally expanded. You're [00:06:00] already doing more things for them faster. You're providing more insights because you've got software and background processes that are enabling you to do that better. So instead of just expanding services automatically, think about what you're doing for clients and whether those rates need to be raised in order to match your increased expertise and demand for your services. This may be an opportunity also to create tiered pricing. It could start looking like those that have been with you for a while, and those that are new to [00:06:30] you are getting the same service, even though they don't all need the same thing. And so do you need to start thinking about whether you should remove some things from a tier, add some things to another, and then price those accordingly for those that find the most value out of them, and then add higher value offers instead of just more work. As an accountant, I can especially say this. I think that it's easy for us to just add tasks and say, that's why you should pay more, and those tasks may or may not be valuable to the people that we're serving. Instead, [00:07:00] ask your clients what they want, what feels valuable, and what do they wish that you would add? Because there may be things that are relatively low lifts for you that you can add on and charge more for, versus just kind of coming up with your own idea of what you think new services should be.

Keila Hill-Trawick: When you think about expanding your team, the next thing I would say is to consider outsourcing instead of hiring full time employees. Now note I say outsourcing, not offshoring. Offshoring is it's whole other thing. What I mean by outsourcing is, is [00:07:30] they're an expert in the field that can do this for you because they run a firm. So an accounting firm, an HR firm, an IT firm that can do that so that you don't need an in-house person to do it. Or should you just hire a contractor on a project basis to help get you to a place that a full time or even part time employee could pick it up and run with it after that? Before you commit to full time salaries, benefits, and other HR related items that you may have to do if you hire a person, just make sure that you're [00:08:00] in a position to really be able to support that. So for an example, if you think that you need marketing help, this may be the time to hire a specialist on retainer, or somebody who can kind of pull all of your assets together in a way that it's easy for you to grab. The idea is that you want to grow with flexible labor costs, instead of just adding fixed payroll expenses where you have to pay somebody, whether they have the work or not. So I know I just told you not to just expand [00:08:30] services, but let's say that your rates are where they should be.

Keila Hill-Trawick: And now you are thinking about expanding revenue streams. Think about how they can't just be things that take more bandwidth from you. So this may be the time to consider digital products, consulting or scalable services that don't require more increased resources. So you may want to do online courses or workshops. Some of our clients, we recommended that they do VIP intensive days instead of ongoing services, so that you've [00:09:00] got all your work at once, and then you take some breaks, and then you have like a peak of more work that you're doing Again, for some service providers, it may mean that you do more group programs instead of one on one work, and the one on one work has an increased price associated with it. This means that you can have impact on more people at once, but it will be more generalized. And those customized, personalized conversations that you're having that really give in-depth strategic information to a specific person are priced accordingly. [00:09:30] Because at the end of the day, you want to work differently, but you don't necessarily want to work harder. Okay, so now we have those ideas of how you can scale without extra overhead. Now let's talk about when and where it makes sense to invest in growth. Because lean growth is smart, right? We don't want to just spend money and blow up the business to make it bigger, but some investments are worth making.

Keila Hill-Trawick: So what are some good investments strategic hires that bring in direct revenue. If you are hiring sales [00:10:00] or client services or marketing people, you want to make sure that you can see on the other side that you are making more money as a result. This should also be really easy for you to see in your financials. Hey, I was making this much or profiting this much before I brought this person in. Do I see any change in a reasonable amount of time? And that amount of time is going to differ, but you should be checking in at least every three months to see if you're seeing any benefit. In order to determine if you should continue to investing there tools that save time and money [00:10:30] in the long term. Your goal is to make your team and your processes more efficient. So not only do you want to invest in tools, you may want to invest in the people that set it up for you. I know as a small business owner who loves to tinker, that it can be really exciting to feel like, oh my gosh, we got this new thing, I'm going to learn it and I'm going to implement it for my team. And maybe that's fun, maybe it's not. But maybe this is an opportunity for you to hire somebody to build the foundation so that you and your team can [00:11:00] execute on it, but you're not overspending. Time on learning it. Finally, things with a measurable ROI.

Keila Hill-Trawick: So ads. Marketing spend. Investments in placements, those kinds of things that you want to be able to see. I had a dollar that I saw go out, and I want to see if it actually made me any money back. But there's a direct, um, a way to be able to track that information. Some bad quote investments are hiring without a clear ROI [00:11:30] or plan. We've talked about this multiple ways in on multiple occasions, but really just thinking about not just adding people without having a sense of like what you expect at the end of that. And the ROI doesn't have to be financial. It can be time wise, it can be process efficiencies or the speed with which your projects or your work is completed. But at the end of the day, there's a reason why we're hiring them. And if you're going to hire somebody, you want to know what you expect to be different once they're on the [00:12:00] team. We talked about office space or equipment that you don't really need. Make sure that there's a reason that you're investing in these because they cost money and it's going to feel like a waste if you rent out an office that you end up never going to and clients never meet you at, but you just thought that you needed to have it, make sure you have a reason for that and take advantage of those being set up. So if you can have events there, whether that is a workshop or again, client meetings or whole client get togethers, make sure you're taking advantage of that [00:12:30] so that it's not just an office workspace that doesn't feel like it's providing you any value.

Keila Hill-Trawick: And then finally, expensive systems that don't improve efficiency. There are so many project managers, payroll systems that seem too easy for you to be able to use, and it can feel like it's not really giving you that big company feel of all of the things that you want to offer. But I would encourage you to really look at all of the resources that are included there. You may not need the big expensive thing. You may just need [00:13:00] to learn what you're using a little bit better, so that you can use it with more efficiency without using all of your funds to get something bigger and what feels like better when it's not. So how are we thinking about scaling without breaking the bank? As a recap, you want to grow your revenue before you grow your expenses, make sure that you're making money so that you know how to strategically invest what you've made. Optimize pricing before adding new services, take the time to beta test. Ask your clients what they're looking for and beta test with them. We've [00:13:30] definitely had clients where we're like, hey, I'm going to start this new thing. I don't want to put it out into the world, but if you're willing to try it with me and give me feedback, I would like to make this as easy as possible for you.

Keila Hill-Trawick: And that really gives us a stronger foundation for when it gets rolled out to all of our people that we work with. Leverage technology and automation before hiring. What can you make more efficient within your team before you bring on a full time salary? And even if you're thinking about partnership, knowing that it doesn't have to be an employee, you [00:14:00] can use contractors or have other businesses that complement what you do. Before you bring that as a person that you have to pay directly. Finally, focus on only investing in what? Directly improves revenue efficiency or client experience. If it is not meeting the goals of making you more money, making working with you better, or helping your team to work smarter for you, it's probably not worth it. And as we think about eliminating distractions so that we can work in a way that is sustainable [00:14:30] while being scalable, we want to make sure that we're not just spending more, but that we're actually making smarter choices. That's it for today. I'll 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.