Salutations, friend! It’s RJ here, and in today’s conversation, we’re talking about gearing the framework of your business towards scaling, and not just growing it. We’ll try to determine what stage of business you are at right now, what your probable challenges and goals are, as well as the things you need to consider to catapult your business into scaling.
Salutations friend! It’s RJ here, and in today’s conversation, we’re talking about gearing your business towards scaling, and not just growing. We’ll try to determine what stage of business you are at right now, what your probable challenges and goals are, as well as the things you need to consider to catapult your business into scaling.
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The three main parts of the framework that we covered are:
We put together a quiz to help you figure out which areas you need to focus on in order to help your business scale. Taking the quiz will also provide you with some insight on how to fill those gaps in as quickly as possible. Don’t forget to take the quiz before you go!Â
If you attended or accessed the replay of the Systems That Scale Information Session and you figured that it is the right program for you, then join our waitlist for early access to the applications.
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Links
Systems That Scale Information Session: Access the replay
Systems That Scale Application: APPLY NOW!
Quiz: Scaling vs Growing quiz
Website: RJC Consulting
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Salutations, friend, and welcome to an episode of The Profit Scale. This is the podcast for consultants, experts and service providers who are either already serving corporate clients or transitioning towards it. This is the place where you can find tailored solutions to help you close your first, next, or biggest client yet.Â
I'm your host and Income Strategist, RJ Connell, and if you are looking for expert strategies to help you build on your existing success, then you, my friend, are in the right place. Turn up the volume and lean in, 'cause we're about to get started.
So you want to scale your business, well friend, you are in the right place. Welcome back to another episode of The Profit Scale Podcast. It is RJ here with you today, and we will talk about the secret to scaling your business sustainably. Before we jump in, as you know, applications for our signature program, Systems That Scale, are opening up on August 19th for a final 2020 enrollment.Â
So I thought, what better way to kick off Episode 20 of the podcast than by helping you understand the premise of the program. If you have attended the Systems That Scale Information Session and you know that this is the right program for you, then click the link in the show notes to join the waitlist for early access to the applications. When you join the waitlist, you will be provided with all the information you need to know in order to ensure that the Systems That Scale is the right fit for you.
I designed Systems That Scale to help you to price, pitch and close your first, next or your biggest corporate contract yet, and we would love to support you to do just that inside the program. We only have 10 spots available in total, and three of them have already been secured. So click the Systems That Scale waitlist link in the show notes for early access.Â
All right, let's dive in!
The first thing I want you to do is to think about what stage of business you are at right now. I like to think of business stages in the following categories. If you are between one to two years in business, you are just starting out. If you are three to five years in business, you are getting some traction. And if you are five years or more in business, then you are pretty well established. Take a few seconds to think about what stage of business applies to you.Â
I ask you to do that because the challenges and goals change the longer you have been in business. The reality is that when you are first starting out, your focus is simply on making your first or your next sale. From a financial perspective, the focus is usually making enough money to first pay yourself, then hopefully enough to replace your salary at your full-time job. And then your focus shifts to keeping the money flowing so that you don't have to go back to your full-time job. Am I right?Â
As you, the business owner, grow, your goals, focus, and even the ability to earn money grow and develop with you. That is why it is important to realize how far you have come.Â
Now that you are getting traction and establishing yourself as an authority in your field, you are asking different questions. You are likely more willing to hire help when you need it and less concerned about penny-pinching. You are thinking more about the future of your business and how you can build something sustainable that will both outlive and outserve you. You are ready to take the focus off of you so that the business you are building can shine and thrive in your absence, and you are slowly shifting from solely being an entrepreneur to becoming a CEO. And that is why you need systems in place that will help you scale.
One of the biggest shifts that happen when you are levelling up in your entrepreneurial journey and in your business happens in your mindset. You will notice that the more experienced you become and the more traction you get in your business, you worry less about simply surviving and you begin to give yourself permission to thrive. That means your perspective broadens and instead of looking at your business solely through the lens of sales, you begin to see your business through the telescope of sustainability.Â
Now, I used the word telescope intentionally because telescopes are designed to magnify objects like planets, stars and entire galaxies that are hundreds if not hundreds of thousands of miles into the distance. They take an otherwise blurry or unclear image in the distance and bring it into view so that you can clearly discern details of the image as if it is right in front of you. That is what it means to start thinking like a CEO and not solely a business owner. In our line of work, I like to refer to this as a vision in focus, and that is the ability to see where you want to take your business within the next five to ten years and bring that vision into the present, so you can align your daily actions to bring you closer to it.
One of the foundational ways to actually bring that vision into focus is to establish systems within your business. I'm going to highlight and break down the role that systems play in your business, but first I want to run you through a bigger framework, and it starts with a vision. So friend, if you are not already taking notes, this would be a good time to start.Â
1. Vision
The first part of this framework is the vision, which we have already touched on. This represents where you want to take your business. I like to use the analogy of a GPS to describe this framework, and the vision represents the address that you put into the GPS. Now let's think about this for a second. The vision is important because it sets the tone for everything else. It not only tells you where you are going, but it makes sure that everyone on your team knows as well. It sets the tone for how long it will take you to arrive at your destination, what items you will need to pack. Will you need to cross a border in order to get to your destination? If so, you will likely need a passport. Will you be arriving in a cold or warm climate? This will affect the type of clothes you pack or at least will let you know that you should be prepared to purchase appropriate clothing once you arrive.
When you are clear on the destination, you can give clear instructions to your team on how to prepare. The same thing is true for your business. When you are clear on where you are taking your business, you can better lead your team towards that goal, giving them the choice to buy into the vision and not just a paycheck. So that is the first part of the framework.Â
When you enter an address into a GPS, the first thing it does is dropping a pin at the location of the destination, allowing you to see it relative to its surroundings. Then, the next step is that it gives you the option to get directions, and in doing so, it is going to consider all the factors like traffic, toll routes, road closures and more to map out the fastest route for you to get from where you are to where you want to be. That's what I call strategy, and it is part two of the bigger framework.
2. Strategy
The strategy represents the alignment of your current actions within your business to get you closer to the vision. It is understanding who you need on your team, anticipating and planning for obstacles on the journey, evaluating what's working and what's not, and what you need to eliminate or what you need to add. It is getting clear on what items need to be in your proverbial suitcase in order for you to prepare to make the trip. As it relates to business, those items are more often your skillset, your team and your surroundings. Who's in the car with you also matters. We all know that when you are doing a road trip, you want someone who's going to be able to stay awake with you, to be a source of entertainment or to help you navigate to make sure you don't miss your exit. It is the same thing in business.
The people you surround yourself with as peers and as employees or even contractors will have an effect on your business, and establishing a strategy means knowing who you need and also who you can't afford to let into your business. So that is the second part of the framework, strategy.Â
3. Systems
Once you have gotten clear on the vision, which is the destination you are going to, and the strategy by mapping out the best route to get you there and what preparations are needed for the journey, now you need to drive the vehicle. That, my friend, is where systems come into play. Your systems are the actions that actually move your vehicle forward and keep it moving forward.Â
In line with our analogy, they are the actions like pressing on the accelerator and making sure that there is gas in the tank, getting an oil change when needed, and rotating drivers so no one gets burnt out. When we think about systems in our business, we most often think about systems around sales and marketing.
We think about what we need to do to get people into the business, like our content creation or prospecting, or the emails we write to convert our subscribers into buyers. Let me shift your perspective for a moment because systems don't deal with the “what,” they deal with the “how.” We outlined the “where” by establishing the vision, we outlined the “what” by creating the strategy, and now we establish the “how” by implementing systems.Â
The systems are what you and your team will do on a daily basis to help you make that vision a reality. The great thing about systems is that when properly established and aligned, a good portion of the system can be automated, some delegated, and then the little that remains is what you as the CEO will focus on. Systems make sure that your results are predictable and repeatable, and therefore also making them sustainable. This is how companies scale. The definition of scaling a business is to increase revenue while decreasing cost, and the only way to do that is to have efficient systems in place.
Have you ever wondered why Amazon can get you your package in 24 hours or sometimes less than that, and virtually no other company can compete? It is because Amazon has invested billions of dollars into creating efficient systems. Their warehouses run on automation, and what can't be done by machines and software is then delegated to employees literally creating the epitome of efficiency and cost-effectiveness—two of my favourite words in the English dictionary.Â
If you have never seen it before, I encourage you to do a YouTube search of the term Amazon warehouse automation. It is literally a well-oiled machine and it is amazing to watch, or maybe that is just for me. So why exactly am I sharing this framework with you? It is because I know you are ready to scale your business and I wanna help you to do it in the most efficient way possible. In my years of corporate sales, one of the biggest mistakes that there is seen businesses make is that when they're trying to scale, they only focus on sales and increasing revenue.
Now revenue, of course, is important. I would be lying if I said it didn't matter. However, if we think back to the definition of scaling, it is an increase in revenue and a decrease in cost. One without the other is simply growth, which is incremental while scaling is exponential in its results.Â
When I work with established business owners in our CEO Business Reviews, we walk through this exact framework quarterly to ensure that their business is on track to scale and not only grow, and that is why I wanted to share this framework with you today. As much as I know you love the sound of my soothing voice, I also know you don't just listen to this podcast to hear me talk, but rather to help move you and your business forward. That being said, I have homework for you today.Â
We have put together a quiz to help you understand whether your business needs more focus on establishing the vision, creating the strategy, or implementing the systems. Think of this quiz is an assessment to help you identify the current gaps in your business so that you can better fill them.
Once you take the quiz, you will be given some insight into your results to help you understand the problems and start to create solutions for them. To take the quiz, click the link in our show notes or head over to rjcconsulting.com/quiz. As you know, our mission here at RJC consulting is to help you build generational wealth through entrepreneurship, meaning we want you to thrive and not just survive. So if you would like help to fill in those gaps after taking the quiz, we have provided some options where we can support you to do just that.
Let's recap today's conversation.Â
We first talked about the shift in mindset that begins as you progress further into your business. We talked about the fact that as you begin to get traction and become more established in your business, that you learn to think about how to sustain your success and not just maintain it. We distinguished that there is a difference between growing your business and scaling it—where one achieves incremental results, the latter produce exponential results. Finally, we broke down the framework to scale your business, which involves three main parts.Â
The first part was establishing a vision that represents the destination you are taking the business towards. The second part was creating a strategy that represents both the best route to get to your destination, as well as what needs to be done in order to prepare and troubleshoot along the way. Finally, the third part of the framework was the systems, which represent the daily actions that you need to take and how you will arrive at your destination.
This framework is at the heart of everything we do here at RJC consulting. In fact, it is the reason why our signature program is called Systems That Scale. We follow this framework. And guess what? Depending on when you are listening to this, Systems That Scale might officially be open to accepting applications. We open for a final 2020 enrollment on August 19th to welcome 10 new clients into the program.Â
If you attended our Information Session at the beginning of August, then you got early access to applications, and we have already had three clients who have received their invitation to the program and have secured their spots, which means that out of the 10, we only have seven spots left.Â
Friend, if you are ready to work with corporate clients, if you are ready to build up your existing corporate income stream, if you are ready to stop underpaying yourself and start paying yourself a salary where you can feel certain and comfortable instead of concerned, and if you wanna make five and six-figure contracts your new normal, then Systems That Scale is the program for you.
We operate on an application basis, which means that we make sure that Systems That Scale is actually what you need before you make any kind of financial investment.Â
Our three-step application process starts with a simple application form to collect some baseline information about your business. Once you have been selected to move into the next stage of the process, we then set up a phone call to help you understand how Systems That Scale would apply to your unique business. Then, the third and final stage is an invitation into the program through a proposal, which will outline the entire Systems That Scale program for you, as well as what you can expect in detail.Â
I want to assure you that it is just as important to us to make sure that Systems That Scale is the right program for you as it is to you. We don't believe in income without impact. So if it is not the right fit for you, we will happily make a suggestion for something that is better suited towards your current needs.
To apply for the program, click the link to the application in the show notes or head over to rjcconsulting.com/stsapplication to apply. Only seven spots remain in the program for the remainder of 2020. So don't wait, click the link and apply now.Â
As always, friend, it has been a pleasure to spend this time here with you today. Before you go, remember to do your homework and take the quiz as well as apply for Systems That Scale if you want to pursue and level up with corporate clients. I will see you at the same time and place in two weeks. And until then, I wish you coins confidence and all the bags. Bye for now.