Shownotes
Business Building Insights
- Do big things. Have the courage to take a big step forward and leap into whatever adventure is part of your dream.
- The first step is to determine what you want out of your business.
- As you grow, build and scale your business, we need to remove yourself from the day to day activities. You do this by defining and documenting the steps all aspects of your business.
- When you hire others to do the routine work, you regain time that can be used to focus on business development.
- There is no direction without a business strategy.
- Step out of product development and into the leadership role.
- Have a true definition for the why behind what you’re doing.
- Match your vision to your daily activities. Are you doing things each day that get you closer to your goal?
Resources Mentioned
FREE Business Hub Template from The Ops AuthorityContact Links
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Join our FREE Gift Biz Breeze Facebook Community
If you found value in this podcast, make sure to subscribe and leave a review in Apple Podcasts or Google Podcasts. That helps us spread the word to more makers just like you.
Thanks! Sue
Transcripts
Gift biz unwrapped episode 231 my heart,
Speaker:my passion,
Speaker:my legacy is on how many people I can reach and
Speaker:touch and of course I'm going to be in turn,
Speaker:blessed financially by that Attention.
Speaker:Gifters, bakers,
Speaker:crafters and makers pursuing your dream can be fun whether you
Speaker:have an established business or looking to start one now you
Speaker:are in the right place.
Speaker:This is gift to biz unwrapped,
Speaker:helping you turn your skill into a flourishing business.
Speaker:Join us for an episode packed full of invaluable guidance,
Speaker:resources and the support you need to grow your gift biz.
Speaker:Here is your host gift biz gal Sue moon Heights.
Speaker:Hi there,
Speaker:it's Susan And welcome to this week's show.
Speaker:If by chance you happen to be at the Philadelphia national
Speaker:candy show in Hershey,
Speaker:Pennsylvania, come visit us.
Speaker:We're in booth seven Oh eight and I'll print you a
Speaker:ribbon with your name or anything else you want on it
Speaker:right then and there.
Speaker:I'm also speaking this afternoon all about what's working right now
Speaker:in social media and as we know that changes all the
Speaker:time, so you might be in need of an update.
Speaker:I guess this is an educational kind of intro today.
Speaker:Maybe it's in the air with the kids all back at
Speaker:school, but I want to make sure that you know that
Speaker:registration is now open for my upcoming masterclass.
Speaker:I'm doing something a little bit different by opening up times
Speaker:when I normally don't run classes,
Speaker:specifically weekends and evenings.
Speaker:I get that you have other things to do and your
Speaker:time is limited,
Speaker:so I'm doing three classes and I'm pretty sure one of
Speaker:these will work for you.
Speaker:Let me back up here a bit.
Speaker:You may be asking,
Speaker:what is this program all about anyway?
Speaker:If you've ever thought about turning your handmade products into a
Speaker:business or you're just getting started and wondering if this could
Speaker:really work for you,
Speaker:you'll want to attend the master class.
Speaker:You'll learn the single biggest thing people miss when they start
Speaker:a business.
Speaker:Four critical elements to include when you're pricing your product,
Speaker:how to attract customers and the secret to creating loyal customers
Speaker:who buy from you again and again.
Speaker:The market is so primed right now for your handmade products.
Speaker:This whole category is steadily growing as the big box stores
Speaker:are seeing declines.
Speaker:Just look at your local malls,
Speaker:all the vacancies,
Speaker:even the well known anchor stores.
Speaker:We get into all of this too.
Speaker:The masterclass is called how to turn your handmade products into
Speaker:an income producing business and it's totally free.
Speaker:Go to gift biz on rapt.com
Speaker:forward slash masterclass and pick one of the days and times
Speaker:that works for.
Speaker:I'll be thrilled to have you join us and I promise
Speaker:you're going to want to know what I'm talking about here.
Speaker:Coming your way right now is a discussion every existing business
Speaker:owner should pay attention to.
Speaker:I've got one of my mastermind sisters on and we talk
Speaker:about what you should be doing to prepare for adding on
Speaker:employees. I know.
Speaker:I know you may not be there yet,
Speaker:but if you ever want to gain back time and set
Speaker:your business up for growth,
Speaker:you'll need to add this to your plan or heaven forbid.
Speaker:Let's say you get sick or injured or you just want
Speaker:to take an extended vacation.
Speaker:Wouldn't it be great to have your business capable of running
Speaker:without you even for just a short time?
Speaker:Let's pop over to the interview so you can learn more.
Speaker:Today it is my pleasure to introduce you to Natalie Gingrich.
Speaker:Natalie is the founder and host of the ops authority.
Speaker:She has been in operations for two decades,
Speaker:either in healthcare,
Speaker:corporate America,
Speaker:or as an entrepreneur.
Speaker:Her goal is to bridge the gap and overwhelm when it
Speaker:comes to processes and systems.
Speaker:Growing a team and setting up solid business foundations.
Speaker:Natalie spent 15 years in corporate operations and leadership at a
Speaker:fortune one 50 company.
Speaker:Notice she's not telling us who when given the opportunity to
Speaker:leave, she put her knowledge,
Speaker:certifications, and experience to work by creating her own consulting firm
Speaker:as well as a certification.
Speaker:She developed the director of operations certification to equip existing ops
Speaker:experts with a flexible profession outside of corporate but still playing
Speaker:a huge role in small businesses globally.
Speaker:Natalie, welcome to the gift biz on wrapped podcast.
Speaker:I am so excited to be here.
Speaker:Yay. I'm so curious about how this conversation is going to
Speaker:go. But before we get started,
Speaker:I want to have you introduce yourself in what's become a
Speaker:traditional way and that is sharing who you are by way
Speaker:of a motivational candle.
Speaker:So if you were to describe yourself,
Speaker:Natalie, by color and by quote,
Speaker:what would your motivational candle look like?
Speaker:So I would have to choose the color purple,
Speaker:any color purple,
Speaker:like everything from
like that is my jam.
Speaker:It has always brought me so much joy.
Speaker:And of course the color purple is Royal and I feel
Speaker:like I have always not necessarily see myself as royalty,
Speaker:so let's be clear there.
Speaker:But I've always felt like a distinction of the knowledge that
Speaker:I've been gifted and just equipped to share that.
Speaker:So I love the color purple for so many reasons,
Speaker:but the symbolic reasons for sure and the quote that it
Speaker:would have on there is let's do big things while leaving
Speaker:a legacy.
Speaker:It just means everything to me.
Speaker:And I'm so glad you go over this question because it
Speaker:really made me stop and review and visualize what that candle
Speaker:would look like as I'm sitting here at my desk burning
Speaker:the candle.
Speaker:You aren't really.
Speaker:I am every day.
Speaker:Oh, I'm so jealous.
Speaker:Well that's why I like you so much.
Speaker:You love candles like I do.
Speaker:I actually have four on this desk right now.
Speaker:I was trying to decide this morning which one I was
Speaker:going to burn.
Speaker:Okay, so you have to send a picture of that to
Speaker:me. When you say let's do big things while leaving a
Speaker:legacy. Are you talking about how they leave the legacy?
Speaker:Because the first thing I thought of is sometimes people leave
Speaker:a legacy but they leave a big mess behind them too.
Speaker:Like they'll step on people or it feels disingenuous or something
Speaker:like that.
Speaker:So are you comparing how the message is sent and how
Speaker:it's received along with the big things that you're doing?
Speaker:I feel like we,
Speaker:especially as females,
Speaker:we'll waste a lot of our hearts by not going after
Speaker:the things that we really aspire to do.
Speaker:So we kind of squash them and minimize them and maybe
Speaker:we never take that leap.
Speaker:And it doesn't have to be from a profession perspective,
Speaker:but in all areas of our lives.
Speaker:And so when I say let's do big things,
Speaker:I mean just having the courage to just take that step
Speaker:forward to take the leap and whatever it is,
Speaker:if it's buying a new home,
Speaker:if it's creating a new product,
Speaker:whatever that may be going on,
Speaker:that amazing adventure you've always dreamt of,
Speaker:let's figure out a way to do it and let's make
Speaker:it happen.
Speaker:And then leaving a legacy is the result of that.
Speaker:Right? Absolutely.
Speaker:So I have to be really honest with you,
Speaker:Natalie. When we met,
Speaker:I don't know,
Speaker:about a year and a half or so now you're about
Speaker:a year and a half ago.
Speaker:I guess.
Speaker:Even though in my corporate world I was often on production
Speaker:floors, lots of operations,
Speaker:processes, et cetera.
Speaker:I don't really think I understood what operations meant for businesses
Speaker:like ours.
Speaker:So to ground me and all of our listeners.
Speaker:Can you share with us a little bit what your definition
Speaker:of ops is for us?
Speaker:Absolutely. So when I talk about operations,
Speaker:think about your business as having two different sides.
Speaker:So you have what I call the front of the house
Speaker:or the front office and the back of the house.
Speaker:So everything that you would see.
Speaker:So imagine your customer is going to purchase something from you.
Speaker:We as the customer only see the front office.
Speaker:So we see the graphics,
Speaker:we had the opportunity to purchase.
Speaker:It's what we visually see as a consumer.
Speaker:But the back office is all of the operational pieces.
Speaker:So this is all of that technology that goes into putting
Speaker:that one product on a website or all of the things
Speaker:that happen to be an exhibitor at a show.
Speaker:The amount of projects and tasks that go in to creating
Speaker:and executing something.
Speaker:All of that is going to be in the operation space.
Speaker:So some common areas that are operations that may make this
Speaker:a little bit more clear for you are a lot of
Speaker:the technology.
Speaker:It will be the financials.
Speaker:I know that this is not glamorous.
Speaker:Definitely all of the efficiencies and the processes and the systems
Speaker:that you're going to need to scale your business.
Speaker:And those are not the first things that you think about
Speaker:when you walk into a business.
Speaker:You often think about getting your product on the shelf.
Speaker:And so this back office and the operations piece are going
Speaker:to be helpful with strategizing the ways to make that easier,
Speaker:more automated,
Speaker:et cetera.
Speaker:Beautiful. So tell me how this became an interest to you
Speaker:and why you decided or how you chose to take this
Speaker:on as the focal point for your career.
Speaker:It is so wild.
Speaker:But even as I look back over my life,
Speaker:I have always had this as a part of me and
Speaker:of course at the age,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:in my childhood I had no idea that this was a
Speaker:value that this was going to be something that I would
Speaker:use over and over and for the rest of my life
Speaker:and much less make a profession out of it.
Speaker:But I have always had the knack for making lists,
Speaker:for organizing,
Speaker:for leading.
Speaker:And as I went through college and got my multiple degrees
Speaker:that I'm not using today,
Speaker:I have always been able to connect the dots back to
Speaker:what I now call operations.
Speaker:But if it's really a systematized personality and we can look
Speaker:through all the personality types,
Speaker:et cetera,
Speaker:but this was the gift that I have always had and
Speaker:leveraged and I really can remember it all the way back
Speaker:to being six and eight years old.
Speaker:List-maker leading organizations,
Speaker:driving for results and being able to tie a big vision
Speaker:that I have and breaking it down into small pieces ultimately
Speaker:so that we could attain the goal that we had set
Speaker:forward. So I'm relooking at your bio and healthcare,
Speaker:corporate America,
Speaker:all these big organizations that have multiple departments underneath them,
Speaker:lots of employees.
Speaker:Of course,
Speaker:they would need these systems and processes to run their businesses
Speaker:efficiently. And now I guess I'm seeing an understanding why,
Speaker:even if you're a one man show,
Speaker:this can become really valuable.
Speaker:Right? Let me take you on a little journey.
Speaker:When I went to undergraduate for nursing as well as business,
Speaker:I know I was like most people between the ages of
Speaker:18 and 21 had no idea what I really wanted to
Speaker:do when I grew up.
Speaker:I actually could see you in nursing by the way,
Speaker:cause you're always caring about people around you.
Speaker:And you know,
Speaker:I know we're going to hear it all throughout this interview,
Speaker:but you overlay that nice,
Speaker:calm, warm personality on top of operations,
Speaker:which can feel so rigid and strict.
Speaker:So in that way you're really different in terms of combining
Speaker:this topic with who you are as a person.
Speaker:It makes you really unique.
Speaker:Well, thank you,
Speaker:Sue. Anyway,
Speaker:I'm excited to hear the story.
Speaker:Go ahead.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:Carry on.
Speaker:Yes, so I went from my undergraduate degree in nursing and
Speaker:business went on and wanted to be a specialist.
Speaker:Again, you're saying that high achiever in me wanting to get
Speaker:excellent education to be able to come out of this and
Speaker:really serve in a bigger,
Speaker:deeper capacity.
Speaker:I went on and got a master's degree in a specialty
Speaker:called cardiac rehab,
Speaker:and I know this is wild because it feels different when
Speaker:you're listening to this,
Speaker:but I will connect the dots for you whenever I have
Speaker:wrapped up.
Speaker:But I went on to get a graduate degree and in
Speaker:doing so I came out with an advanced degree being able
Speaker:to serve this particular like a niche audience,
Speaker:if you will,
Speaker:as compared to business and was really serving the the gerontology
Speaker:world. We ended up moving,
Speaker:my husband had gone on to get his degree and so
Speaker:we had taken some turns and I was licensed in a
Speaker:couple of different States to perform this well.
Speaker:Of course every single one of those roles I loved patient
Speaker:care. Like there is a super servant part of me that
Speaker:just always comes out,
Speaker:as you mentioned a second ago,
Speaker:but the patient care was so important,
Speaker:but also being able to consistently treat these patients in a
Speaker:way where they knew what to expect.
Speaker:And I could also train other people below me.
Speaker:So these are very much operational skillsets that were natural to
Speaker:me that of course I could not have seen at that
Speaker:time. But that was my benefit to every single provider I
Speaker:ever worked for.
Speaker:I would come in,
Speaker:I was systematized,
Speaker:I would naturally get into leadership and then as the world
Speaker:turns we would move to another location.
Speaker:So we moved to many years ago,
Speaker:I guess about 15 years ago we moved to Texas,
Speaker:back to Texas.
Speaker:I'm originally from Texas,
Speaker:so it was a nice place to come back home to.
Speaker:But when we moved to Texas,
Speaker:the Medicare rules were quite different.
Speaker:And so I was not able to serve in the field
Speaker:of cardiac rehab like I had before.
Speaker:Lots of medical jargon that we don't need to get into.
Speaker:But it forced me to look around and see what else
Speaker:I wanted to do.
Speaker:And so I went to work for that fortune one 50
Speaker:company that I left nameless and here in San Antonio,
Speaker:it provided me so much.
Speaker:It has allowed me to connect the dots backwards as I've
Speaker:been mentioning,
Speaker:because I left that nursing field and I walked into human
Speaker:resources and this is all on the job training.
Speaker:I was extremely grateful and blessed with a path and support
Speaker:and additional knowledge that I couldn't have jumped up.
Speaker:But I came in because of my expertise in both client
Speaker:care and in the servicing space.
Speaker:I came in and was running their wellness and health benefits.
Speaker:So I did that for a long time through the company
Speaker:and rising into leadership,
Speaker:I had been absorbed into the project management space,
Speaker:which of course was perfect from an operations perspective because now
Speaker:we were looking into the details and that forced me to
Speaker:kind of get out of that health space.
Speaker:And so I started working in it projects and you know,
Speaker:Sue, you and I have talked about your history and your
Speaker:corporate experience and some of those things that I see you
Speaker:worked in putting out new campaigns,
Speaker:et cetera.
Speaker:I was behind the scenes doing that from a project perspective.
Speaker:So there you go from a nurse all the way into
Speaker:working in it and marketing campaigns.
Speaker:But I was really on the delivery side,
Speaker:so I was always making sure that the process and the
Speaker:projects were set up and then I was the person that
Speaker:was leading the team to make sure that everyone met their
Speaker:milestones, that we had all the materials that the budget was
Speaker:being attended to because that's always a big issue in corporate
Speaker:projects. And after I had worked in project management for a
Speaker:while, I was voluntold that I would be the chief of
Speaker:staff for our chief executive officer.
Speaker:So for our CEO,
Speaker:and it was a humongous role,
Speaker:as you may imagine,
Speaker:this company has 40,000
Speaker:people. And this CEO was just an amazing gentlemen and I
Speaker:had a great opportunity to serve him.
Speaker:But what I really recognized at that point was what was
Speaker:happening to myself and my family.
Speaker:So this is where that legacy,
Speaker:that part of the candle,
Speaker:where legacy just keeps burning and burning and burning.
Speaker:I started to look at the commitment that I had to
Speaker:the business and the way I was showing up here in
Speaker:my own home with my children and my children were getting
Speaker:bigger. And so it was a great opportunity.
Speaker:He had retired when he left the company,
Speaker:it gave me the opportunity to leave or find another job
Speaker:within the company and I just took a risk and I
Speaker:said, you know what?
Speaker:I'm going to go home and shuttle my kids around and
Speaker:not spend $30,000
Speaker:a year on getting them to places to,
Speaker:because I couldn't be there as a corporate employee and my
Speaker:legacy was forever changed.
Speaker:But what ended up happening after I came home is that
Speaker:high achiever and ambitious Natalie could not just be fulfilled by
Speaker:being on the PTA and volunteering.
Speaker:I found myself back in business and supporting in the exact
Speaker:same way I was supporting that CEO of fortune one 50
Speaker:I felt myself really trying to understand the small business sector
Speaker:I grew up with in a single parent family who had
Speaker:led a huge business in the seventies and eighties and so
Speaker:that is ingrained in me,
Speaker:but I just wanted,
Speaker:I was committed to understanding what the small business workscape look
Speaker:like and then I complimented it by putting what I was
Speaker:doing in corporate and duplicated it and started serving CEOs in
Speaker:the small business space in the same way.
Speaker:I loved your story Natalie,
Speaker:because it's so you.
Speaker:Interestingly enough,
Speaker:that was exactly my route,
Speaker:a little bit different circumstances,
Speaker:but corporate I elected to leave because of family,
Speaker:but then there was always that underlying business love to.
Speaker:So when the time was right,
Speaker:I jumped back in.
Speaker:But I also want to bring this up because give his
Speaker:listeners, look at what you're doing right now with a fresh
Speaker:eyes. What skills are you using that so easily come to
Speaker:you that they don't even feel like their skills,
Speaker:right? Maybe something that your friends compliment you on and consider
Speaker:that as one of your,
Speaker:Also if you have a nine to five a regular job
Speaker:right now,
Speaker:what types of things are you learning?
Speaker:What education are you receiving that you might very well be
Speaker:able to use as you move forward with your own business?
Speaker:Just like Natalie demonstrated.
Speaker:And another thing,
Speaker:Natalie, now I'm going back to operation specifically.
Speaker:You were talking about the front of the house and the
Speaker:back of the house.
Speaker:The tech,
Speaker:yes. Financials.
Speaker:Um, but yes,
Speaker:but also the production aspect.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:everyone who's listening here is a maker.
Speaker:So the production of the product,
Speaker:the steps that are taken,
Speaker:the process,
Speaker:if you will,
Speaker:of how you make your soaps,
Speaker:how you create the special sense or doing the mold or
Speaker:whatever applies to the specific art.
Speaker:As you go.
Speaker:Creating processes around this is what allows you to grow.
Speaker:Because taking that uniqueness,
Speaker:documenting it then allows you to pass it on to somebody
Speaker:else who can then replicate it.
Speaker:So you can focus on growing the business.
Speaker:Absolutely. Whether you are in a service based business or in
Speaker:a product based business,
Speaker:all of us will start by most likely doing all the
Speaker:work ourselves.
Speaker:And then as we grow,
Speaker:build and scale our businesses,
Speaker:we try to remove ourselves.
Speaker:And the only way that we can do that is by
Speaker:defining what it is that we're doing.
Speaker:What is your secret sauce?
Speaker:And you know,
Speaker:so it took me a long time.
Speaker:I kept saying no one can ever do what I do.
Speaker:Like it's just me.
Speaker:No one can do that.
Speaker:And I'm sure you and everybody else that's listening have said
Speaker:that about something in your life.
Speaker:I'm the only one that can do this.
Speaker:We say it about our kids all the time.
Speaker:I'm going to fold the towels because I like the way
Speaker:I do it.
Speaker:No one else is going to do it my way just
Speaker:to make this very practical,
Speaker:but we can all remove ourselves and it does you and
Speaker:your business such a service to be able to write this
Speaker:stuff down to articulate.
Speaker:You don't have to physically write it.
Speaker:Honestly. There are so many different ways to get the stuff
Speaker:out of your head,
Speaker:but just as you said Sue,
Speaker:if we cannot get the process out into the world,
Speaker:no one else will ever take it over,
Speaker:which will also limit you from being able to do and
Speaker:focus on other things.
Speaker:So having yourself replicatable should be a big driver for all
Speaker:of your listeners.
Speaker:Okay, so let's extend this a little further to something that's
Speaker:more concrete.
Speaker:I don't care which angle we take,
Speaker:but I'm kind of hoping that we can go with the
Speaker:product creation process.
Speaker:How would you suggest someone gets started?
Speaker:I personally,
Speaker:I'm a child of the seventies and paper is a good
Speaker:friend of mine,
Speaker:so I typically start everything on a piece of paper and
Speaker:I will eventually move it into some digital software,
Speaker:but I think of what happens chronologically when you sit down
Speaker:to create that candle.
Speaker:What are the steps that you were doing?
Speaker:What is the very first thing?
Speaker:The second thing,
Speaker:and I mean detailed,
Speaker:so I really do think of this comes down to age,
Speaker:which no discrimination but we,
Speaker:me, Natalie,
Speaker:42 years old,
Speaker:I would sit down and write every single small detail.
Speaker:What I'm seeing with millennials is they are going to record
Speaker:themselves either speaking it or in video form recording exactly what
Speaker:they're doing.
Speaker:That's why YouTube is so big today,
Speaker:right? They're recording the how tos,
Speaker:but if you just do that,
Speaker:honestly, if you put a camera up in your office for
Speaker:a day and just watch what you're doing,
Speaker:I know that that would not be super life altering content,
Speaker:but it's so helpful to see,
Speaker:to break down,
Speaker:to be able to see the big picture and break it
Speaker:down into the small pieces of what you're doing.
Speaker:So I'm just going to go back to the candle thing
Speaker:because I can still see that purple candle just burning in
Speaker:my office over here.
Speaker:Is there a scent to that candle?
Speaker:It is lavender lemon mint.
Speaker:Oh that sounds amazing.
Speaker:Sorry I just had to do that.
Speaker:We had to get a feel for your environment.
Speaker:Yeah, I've got ports all around that poor candle.
Speaker:Let me ask you a question here real quick.
Speaker:Would you start with let's say with a candle,
Speaker:cause that's perfect.
Speaker:Would you start with here's the candle,
Speaker:here are the ingredients that go into it and then here's
Speaker:where I resource it from.
Speaker:Would you start there for as far back as there?
Speaker:So it's almost like a recipe.
Speaker:Then with the ingredients,
Speaker:the sourcing,
Speaker:and then you'd start step one,
Speaker:step two,
Speaker:step three,
Speaker:et cetera.
Speaker:It really is going to come down to the type of
Speaker:person that you are.
Speaker:I myself,
Speaker:yes, that's exactly what I would do.
Speaker:I would start all the way from sourcing to filling the
Speaker:candle and complete it with how I got it on the
Speaker:shelf. But that's just me.
Speaker:If you're a creative,
Speaker:that's likely not how you're going to be thinking.
Speaker:So I would start with the part that you are the
Speaker:most connected to the part that comes the easiest to you
Speaker:because that's going to be the easiest part for you to
Speaker:teach to the person that you could hire or help you
Speaker:to get this done.
Speaker:Perfect. And I'm thinking that it can change over time too.
Speaker:So if you just start getting some steps down,
Speaker:you can always adjust and add to it later as you
Speaker:go. You can fill it in and edit it and add
Speaker:to it over time,
Speaker:which would be a reason for it to be digital because
Speaker:then you can easily adjust it as you go.
Speaker:Right. So I think about a jewelry designer and I come
Speaker:back to Kendra Scott quite a bit just because I've researched
Speaker:her a lot,
Speaker:but she loved the design piece,
Speaker:right? And so she held on to that piece the longest.
Speaker:And so what she did was go,
Speaker:the way the route that she went was to understand how
Speaker:to document,
Speaker:how to source these,
Speaker:the Juul,
Speaker:how to bring them in,
Speaker:how to market them,
Speaker:how to get them out.
Speaker:She documented all of that,
Speaker:but she still held on to the actual design piece cause
Speaker:that's what she loved.
Speaker:So if there's a part of the process that you feel
Speaker:highly connected to and you love it,
Speaker:you feel like that's your unique advantage.
Speaker:Hold on to that piece.
Speaker:So you may not want to go there first.
Speaker:You may want to go to the pieces that you want
Speaker:to outsource.
Speaker:It's really going to be dependent on your type of personality
Speaker:and how much help you can afford to bring in.
Speaker:Right? And I have to say from talking with lots of
Speaker:business owners,
Speaker:I frequently hear that as your business grows,
Speaker:you start to grow yourself out of the business that you
Speaker:love. Your job starts to change as you hire employees,
Speaker:um, have to go out and market the business,
Speaker:right? And all of a sudden you're not doing some of
Speaker:the things in your business that you really loved,
Speaker:like making the jewelry or pouring the wax of the candles,
Speaker:some of those things.
Speaker:But as the business owner,
Speaker:you get to choose,
Speaker:you might still want to participate up until the design stage.
Speaker:So you design everything,
Speaker:but then when it gets moves over to production,
Speaker:you hand it off so that it's still your hand in
Speaker:the product all of the time.
Speaker:But again,
Speaker:I just want to layer on top of this that you
Speaker:always get to choose.
Speaker:It's kind of that choice of how much time do you
Speaker:want to spend working on your business versus working in your
Speaker:business? Right?
Speaker:And I would also say this also depends on the type
Speaker:of business that you want,
Speaker:right? A lot of us start as hobbyist.
Speaker:We realized that,
Speaker:I mean we've got a big fire and a big passion.
Speaker:We realized that we can monetize it so we get into
Speaker:the business kind of on accident,
Speaker:which is at that point it's still very much a hobbyist
Speaker:business and then it gets to the point where production or
Speaker:request or demand is coming in and all of a sudden
Speaker:overnight you turn into a business owner,
Speaker:well, you may not have a business background or a business
Speaker:backbone and all of a sudden you're putting yourself really out
Speaker:of your comfort zone.
Speaker:So when you start to dissect what part you're going to
Speaker:remove yourself,
Speaker:if that has been your path,
Speaker:it's going to be a little bit more cloudy because you
Speaker:don't know about the marketing side.
Speaker:You don't know about all of this technical how to get
Speaker:my product on the shelf type of thing.
Speaker:You may be great at parts of this and really we
Speaker:can others,
Speaker:but I will go back to the type of business that
Speaker:you want.
Speaker:I get the question all the time.
Speaker:Do you want to have a lifestyle business or do you
Speaker:want an empire?
Speaker:And I would ask yourself that.
Speaker:It's a challenging question because the high achiever in me is
Speaker:like, Oh yeah,
Speaker:I want an empire,
Speaker:but me,
Speaker:Natalie personally have never been somebody who has been motivated by
Speaker:a six figure business or a seven figure business or the
Speaker:numbers, yes,
Speaker:numbers matter and yes,
Speaker:I need to be able to contribute X amount of dollars
Speaker:to my family every month.
Speaker:But income is not as important to me as impact.
Speaker:And yes,
Speaker:I still need income.
Speaker:Like I'm not saying that I'm doing this for free,
Speaker:but I'm doing this,
Speaker:my heart,
Speaker:my passion,
Speaker:my legacy is on how many people I can reach and
Speaker:touch and of course I'm going to be in turn blessed
Speaker:financially by that.
Speaker:But it really comes down to the type of business that
Speaker:you want to understand,
Speaker:how much you want to get out of it,
Speaker:how many parts you want to continue to play,
Speaker:how many streams do you want to hold on,
Speaker:how many of those processes that you are going own?
Speaker:If you're somebody who's wanting an empire and there's nothing wrong
Speaker:with that.
Speaker:I'm inspired by empire builders every single day,
Speaker:but if that is what you're wanting,
Speaker:if that one candle you wanted to turn into something that
Speaker:is in every big name shop,
Speaker:then you're looking for an empire.
Speaker:You're going to have to replicate yourself much differently than the
Speaker:person who is content with selling and sharing at craft fairs.
Speaker:So you have to get to determine what it is that
Speaker:you want out of your business.
Speaker:And then I think that operations become a little bit more
Speaker:clear in how hard you're going to have to work at
Speaker:this piece,
Speaker:A lifestyle business or an empire,
Speaker:something to think about.
Speaker:We'll carry on with this conversation right after a quick word
Speaker:from our sponsor.
Speaker:This podcast is made possible thanks to the support of the
Speaker:ribbon print company.
Speaker:Create custom ribbons right in your store or craft studio in
Speaker:seconds. Visit the ribbon,
Speaker:print company.com
Speaker:for more information And success in your business doesn't even mean
Speaker:that your numbers need to increase year over year.
Speaker:You may have a certain timeframe in your life where you
Speaker:need to just keep things on the even keel and not
Speaker:increase. And guess what?
Speaker:That's okay.
Speaker:Balanced with what else is going on in your life is
Speaker:really important.
Speaker:And you were talking about legacy a little earlier too,
Speaker:Natalie. Yup.
Speaker:What a great thing to be home with the children while
Speaker:they are little and just keep the business humming along,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:on a peaceful keel and then later as the kids are
Speaker:growing and you find an opportunity,
Speaker:then you can build your business further.
Speaker:I just answered this question earlier.
Speaker:I had a boxer,
Speaker:we use boxer to communicate with some friends and she was
Speaker:asking me about a legacy business or what kind of business
Speaker:I wanted and I just said,
Speaker:you know what?
Speaker:Right now I can't think past a lifestyle business.
Speaker:I need a lifestyle slash legacy business because I spend 17
Speaker:hours a week in the car taking my children to activities
Speaker:and so when they're gone in just five short years,
Speaker:I'm not going to have any kids at home.
Speaker:My goals are going to be,
Speaker:I know that they will be vastly different but I'm not
Speaker:there yet.
Speaker:So I also know as a small business I am not
Speaker:going to put the carts so far ahead of myself that
Speaker:because so much can change.
Speaker:I know it's going to change.
Speaker:And you know that you've been a great model for me
Speaker:and our friendship because you are ahead of me both in
Speaker:business and in family development.
Speaker:I'm watching all of you guys and I know you have
Speaker:more time to be on the road right now cause you
Speaker:don't have young kids at home and so who knows what
Speaker:the future holds.
Speaker:But I do know right now it is definitely based on
Speaker:a lifestyle business.
Speaker:Yeah. Well you know what,
Speaker:you can't put your kids on pause but you can put
Speaker:your business on slow.
Speaker:Yes, listen to that listeners.
Speaker:That is exactly right.
Speaker:And I will say having one business that's pivoted into another
Speaker:and my whole business progression has been my baby and it's
Speaker:been a big help when the kids started leaving the house
Speaker:because that is a big Turning point for sure.
Speaker:Yup. I can see myself diving really deeply once even just
Speaker:one child goes off to college and I can't even imagine
Speaker:both of them being off,
Speaker:but we're not that far away.
Speaker:It'll happen and when it does,
Speaker:you and I will talk and everything will be fine.
Speaker:Yes. Okay.
Speaker:Let's talk a little bit more about product creation because a
Speaker:couple of ideas came up as you were describing things,
Speaker:talking about the different steps involved that you go through to
Speaker:create whatever it is that your product is.
Speaker:I'm thinking also about the time involved with going through each
Speaker:step, so what are the time requirements for each step and
Speaker:of course you as the designer of your product will know
Speaker:best how long it takes and what appropriate requirements are for
Speaker:each step.
Speaker:The reason I'm saying that is twofold.
Speaker:One is just kind of a flat set statement and the
Speaker:other one I think we can have some conversation around knowing
Speaker:how long it takes to make your product is going to
Speaker:help with the production part of your pricing.
Speaker:As makers,
Speaker:it's so easy to perfect that design just a little bit
Speaker:more and that's 10 minutes or mess around with the bow
Speaker:a little bit or add a little bit more color in
Speaker:and there goes another 10 minutes.
Speaker:So all of a sudden you have wasted 20 minutes when
Speaker:depending on your product,
Speaker:you might have been able to make a whole new piece.
Speaker:Or even more importantly,
Speaker:maybe you could've made a call to a corporate account or
Speaker:done something to advance and grow your business instead of,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:kind of wasting a little bit more time making it perfect
Speaker:without necessarily an incrementally valuable result.
Speaker:Let's talk about this a little bit time into making your
Speaker:product versus time in to developing and growing your business.
Speaker:Right? So we usually start our businesses,
Speaker:especially females and I know that that's the majority of your
Speaker:audience, but we start our businesses most often out of an
Speaker:emotional need,
Speaker:a financial need or we're just extremely passionate on the topic
Speaker:or the product so it's easy to fall in love with
Speaker:the creation side of business.
Speaker:It's exciting,
Speaker:it's fun,
Speaker:it's an adventure,
Speaker:but like we were talking about,
Speaker:once you move from the hobby more into the business side
Speaker:where you want that income to continue to grow,
Speaker:really do have to remove yourself from that product piece,
Speaker:which is going to be hard.
Speaker:I get it.
Speaker:I totally understand that.
Speaker:For me,
Speaker:your product side is like my relationship.
Speaker:I could sit and talk all day long to new people
Speaker:to help them.
Speaker:I mean that's what I could do all day long,
Speaker:but I know that my business will be limited if I
Speaker:ignore and I don't really dive in to those other pieces
Speaker:that are going to make my business run more smoothly.
Speaker:So you will what buy tip is for anyone.
Speaker:Absolutely. Any type of business in any stage of business is
Speaker:once you understand you have a product that sales you know
Speaker:that it's selling well,
Speaker:understand how you're doing that,
Speaker:how you're developing that product so that you then can have
Speaker:somebody come in and help you with multiplying how many products
Speaker:you're able to make and removing you from it.
Speaker:From here,
Speaker:I really want you and all of your listeners to think
Speaker:about the business strategy and these sound like stuffy corporate words,
Speaker:but without any strategy,
Speaker:you don't have a direction without a direction.
Speaker:You go back to your default,
Speaker:right? You're not stretching,
Speaker:you're not growing,
Speaker:you're stuck in the candle making.
Speaker:You never move past that because that's easy.
Speaker:It becomes comfortable.
Speaker:So with a business strategy,
Speaker:it all starts with a vision.
Speaker:So where do you want this business to go?
Speaker:What we were talking about just one second.
Speaker:Go with what kind of business do you want?
Speaker:Do you want this to be a hundred thousand dollar business?
Speaker:What is it?
Speaker:What is your big driver?
Speaker:Why is this candle business so important to you?
Speaker:So we start there and then we really start to look
Speaker:at how we're going to make that happen.
Speaker:And that's what makes your business strategy.
Speaker:When you get up in the morning,
Speaker:you understand the business strategy that's ahead of you and for
Speaker:right now you will know what to work on.
Speaker:Once you complete that,
Speaker:then you can keep looking and growing closer and closer to
Speaker:that longterm vision.
Speaker:I think that vision is so important and it is my
Speaker:first step in maker's MBA.
Speaker:I'm just going to stop right here and tell everybody that
Speaker:you are the one who named my signature program.
Speaker:I stop right here and tell the story.
Speaker:Can I tell the story?
Speaker:Because you definitely get all the credit.
Speaker:So last year,
Speaker:2018 Natalie and I were in the CEO biz chicks mastermind
Speaker:together and I was on the hot seat.
Speaker:We were going through,
Speaker:I'm talking about the signature program because I'm about to relaunch
Speaker:it and I'm sharing what it's all about.
Speaker:And Natalie dear heart that you are,
Speaker:listens intently and says,
Speaker:uh, SU,
Speaker:what you've just described does not match the name in any
Speaker:way, shape or form.
Speaker:It is so much more than what the name kind of
Speaker:suggests. So she let me contemplate that for a little bit
Speaker:and then we took a break and she meets me in
Speaker:the hall and she says,
Speaker:okay Sue,
Speaker:I have just checked everything out.
Speaker:You need to name your signature program maker's MBA.
Speaker:I see that the domain is available right here.
Speaker:Would you like me to buy it for you right now?
Speaker:So that was that and I will forever more be indebted
Speaker:to you and everyone now knows where the name came from.
Speaker:Okay, let's get back on track here.
Speaker:And going back to the conversation about the vision,
Speaker:I so agree with you there and specially for makers because
Speaker:we have This different element of the fact that we have
Speaker:to put time into production to making our art.
Speaker:And then when you sell you actually,
Speaker:the more you sell,
Speaker:the more time and work you're creating for yourself.
Speaker:But it's not necessarily business development work.
Speaker:It's busy product creation work.
Speaker:Yes. So I'm going to blow your mind really quick.
Speaker:Oh, do it.
Speaker:My very first business,
Speaker:which I was out of graduate school,
Speaker:I was probably 25 it was called sassy pants art.
Speaker:I love that already.
Speaker:And I made jewelry and I'm thinking back to the days
Speaker:I loved going to beating shows and bad by the way,
Speaker:and finding jewels and gems and I loved that part of
Speaker:it. I loved understanding how to use the tools.
Speaker:I loved making the final product.
Speaker:But where I have always struggled in business is in the
Speaker:marketing piece.
Speaker:And so as you're telling the story,
Speaker:it's really bringing me back to some of my roots and
Speaker:my own entrepreneurial journeys and understanding that there was a block
Speaker:for me in growing the business because I was scared to
Speaker:market. I was scared to contact the craft fairs and the
Speaker:craft shows that were around me because I was attached to
Speaker:the creation process.
Speaker:And so for me to have scaled that business,
Speaker:I would have had to get over that and move forward
Speaker:and understand where my vision was.
Speaker:But I never put a vision to that business.
Speaker:Number one.
Speaker:I was probably too young to see where it could go,
Speaker:but I was too closely attached to the actual creation piece
Speaker:to make it a true bonafide business.
Speaker:A solid business.
Speaker:Right? Which could have been fine if that's what you wanted,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:extra income on the side.
Speaker:But this is perfect and yes,
Speaker:it does blow my mind.
Speaker:And by the way,
Speaker:you're really good at naming businesses if this is a new
Speaker:sideline job wanted to uncover.
Speaker:Okay, but let's carry on now with this line of thinking.
Speaker:So let's say we have somebody who has been making their
Speaker:product all along themselves and they recognize that if they want
Speaker:to grow,
Speaker:they're going to have to add staff employees,
Speaker:but they've never done that before.
Speaker:What would you direct to that person who needs to now
Speaker:start thinking about bringing on people to produce their product?
Speaker:Right. Well if you've got started by documenting the process and
Speaker:then Sue,
Speaker:you had just mentioned kind of putting the times of how
Speaker:long it takes you to complete that.
Speaker:If you've got this long list of items and tasks that
Speaker:it takes to create the candle.
Speaker:Let's just talk about the actual product creation.
Speaker:So you'll have this list of everything.
Speaker:If you know the timing that it takes you,
Speaker:you can double that for a new hire.
Speaker:So if you're hiring someone to come in to do what
Speaker:you were doing,
Speaker:some of the questions that I get often is I don't
Speaker:know who to hire.
Speaker:I don't know how to hire and I don't know how
Speaker:many hours or what to pay them.
Speaker:Like it's such a big can of worms,
Speaker:but if you will do what Sue had just said about
Speaker:understanding how long it takes you to you personally to do
Speaker:this, to do the work that you're doing and you become
Speaker:so good at right now,
Speaker:you can double the time and that's kind of an easy
Speaker:equation to understand how much help you need for that one
Speaker:particular piece of the puzzle.
Speaker:The next piece is understanding who it is,
Speaker:what the skill sets of the person that you need,
Speaker:what level of person are you looking for?
Speaker:And people come at this all different ways and I cannot
Speaker:tell you a particular formula to go for,
Speaker:but if you're looking for a lot of,
Speaker:actually most people will come into this looking for low price
Speaker:talent. And when I say low price,
Speaker:I mean someone who can come in and help either with
Speaker:products or in the administration piece.
Speaker:So fulfilling those types of things you can get from labor
Speaker:that is not extremely expensive,
Speaker:but it's also not specialized.
Speaker:So if that's the path that you take,
Speaker:you're now going to know that you need that type of
Speaker:labor. You're going to know how many hours you're going to
Speaker:need them for and then do a market analysis.
Speaker:And that word seems really stuffy.
Speaker:But number one,
Speaker:you've got to look at your finances to see what you
Speaker:can afford.
Speaker:And second of all,
Speaker:see you may want to see what other people are providing
Speaker:or offering for a similar role,
Speaker:but I could care less what other people are paying.
Speaker:If you cannot afford it,
Speaker:you can't stretch your budget because it always affects your personal
Speaker:margins. So I'm always telling people don't overinvest in people despite
Speaker:your own success.
Speaker:Yeah, that makes sense.
Speaker:And there's another thing I'd like to interject in here as
Speaker:well, and that is you don't need to necessarily hire somebody
Speaker:to take over from the start to the completion of your
Speaker:product. If there's some time intensive portion of the product,
Speaker:maybe it's involving prep,
Speaker:getting everything set up or some very basic steps.
Speaker:You may hire somebody to do that where those steps require
Speaker:less of a skill level,
Speaker:but you come back in and be the quote unquote finisher
Speaker:of the product.
Speaker:This allows you then to get back some time that you
Speaker:can use on growing the business.
Speaker:Some of the other things that employees just wouldn't be able
Speaker:to do yet.
Speaker:You'd still be involved with creation of your product at least
Speaker:for a time being,
Speaker:you know as you start growing,
Speaker:and this goes back to the steps and the process,
Speaker:you'll know which particular parts you could hire in for if
Speaker:you have those steps defined.
Speaker:Yes, I mean having the processes is number one.
Speaker:So if you have not grown a team and you aspire
Speaker:to grow and to have people come in and help you,
Speaker:I would highly encourage you to start documenting what it is
Speaker:that you do today.
Speaker:Something that came to mind as you were talking,
Speaker:Sue, I have taken what I do from a one to
Speaker:one client perspective and I've documented this into six particular and
Speaker:paths and what I have done is for those six I
Speaker:slowly as I was growing my business,
Speaker:I slowly removed myself one by one by one.
Speaker:So you're absolutely right.
Speaker:I would be almost crazy,
Speaker:foolish and broke if I would bring somebody in or several
Speaker:people to do all six of those steps at one time.
Speaker:So it took me almost a full year to remove two
Speaker:of the six steps and to hand those over to somebody.
Speaker:So yes,
Speaker:don't feel overwhelmed that you're going to bring in somebody and
Speaker:you're going to have to pay them a whole lot of
Speaker:money because are handling an entire piece of this.
Speaker:You could just have one small part,
Speaker:maybe it's inventory,
Speaker:maybe it's ordering inventory,
Speaker:maybe it's the actual marketing piece,
Speaker:whatever that may be.
Speaker:Don't feel like you have to overdue or overspend.
Speaker:One small piece of outsourcing can free you up and it's
Speaker:only going to free you up if you're bringing somebody in
Speaker:and they're helping you two hours a day to do something.
Speaker:If you use those two hours to do business development,
Speaker:to do other things that can making a new product or
Speaker:finding a new place to retail,
Speaker:whatever that may be.
Speaker:I always like to warn people that it's not easy to
Speaker:outsource. This is a big journey,
Speaker:but once you've done it,
Speaker:it feels so good that sometimes we as business owners look
Speaker:at this as like a retreat,
Speaker:like we got two hours back,
Speaker:but you're only going to see the return on the investment
Speaker:if you're putting those two hours back into the business in
Speaker:another way,
Speaker:In a way that's closer to the sale because that's the
Speaker:way you can afford to hire them on.
Speaker:You continue to grow.
Speaker:That's right.
Speaker:And it's not then that you're free for lunch for an
Speaker:hour a day or something.
Speaker:But I see it so often.
Speaker:Okay, so I'm putting myself in the heads of some of
Speaker:our listeners and they're going to say,
Speaker:Natalie, there is not a chance that I am going to
Speaker:share with anybody else all the secrets about how I make
Speaker:my product.
Speaker:What's the response there?
Speaker:If you have a process that needs to be legally secured,
Speaker:it's okay to do that and it may be a really
Speaker:wise investment for you to protect your intellectual property,
Speaker:Protecting the product depending.
Speaker:Right, Right.
Speaker:And then also having good contracts for the people that do
Speaker:come in.
Speaker:I mean there can be repercussions,
Speaker:but I also think that this is a mindset thing outside
Speaker:of the legality and the scary parts.
Speaker:I think a lot of us are just concerned that someone's
Speaker:going to take our idea and run off with it and
Speaker:guess what?
Speaker:There's not an original idea out there.
Speaker:Right? So there's a lots of different candle makers and yes,
Speaker:what they may all make them somewhat similarly,
Speaker:but there is something different about each company,
Speaker:so just know that no one's going to do it your
Speaker:way. Yes,
Speaker:it's likely that you want them to learn from you and
Speaker:they may not be invested in you forever,
Speaker:but the most important thing is that you need to focus
Speaker:on is that they're giving you the space and energy and
Speaker:allowance to do something different for yourself.
Speaker:They are offsetting what the time and investment that you were
Speaker:making in the business so that you can grow it.
Speaker:Now the risk as businesses,
Speaker:all there are definitely risks and business is that they're going
Speaker:to come in and potentially learn something and take it somewhere
Speaker:else. That's a very common fear,
Speaker:but just know most people are good.
Speaker:I can't even tell you how many times I say that
Speaker:to people,
Speaker:but most people are good people and having them sign documents
Speaker:will help to enforce how important this process is to you
Speaker:and convey that to them.
Speaker:Okay, so like non-competes and things like that,
Speaker:nondisclosure agreements,
Speaker:et cetera.
Speaker:I'll also say,
Speaker:and I have seen this happen before,
Speaker:let's say a noncompete is not enforceable or something happens and
Speaker:someone's not protected and they have an employee who decides I
Speaker:can do this so much better and they go off and
Speaker:they start their own company.
Speaker:Running a business is so much different than just making a
Speaker:product. Yeah.
Speaker:It takes a different set of skills.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:we were just talking about the courage and putting together procedures
Speaker:and processes and the fact is a lot of people look
Speaker:from the outside and say that,
Speaker:Oh, it looks so easy and they can do it.
Speaker:But when reality sets in and you actually have to,
Speaker:it's not as easy as it looks.
Speaker:Let's face it,
Speaker:those of us who decided that we're going to start our
Speaker:own business,
Speaker:we're a unique breed.
Speaker:I think they say like 78% of small business does fail
Speaker:on the first two years and 90 I think it's 90
Speaker:something. I don't have those stats.
Speaker:98 within the first five within the first five.
Speaker:Yeah. So I mean,
Speaker:let that comfort you,
Speaker:unfortunately, and remember all the steps that you have gone through
Speaker:as a leader to get your business to this point.
Speaker:Would that person really have the tenacity to do what you
Speaker:have done?
Speaker:And that is not a point to discourage you give biz
Speaker:listeners, look,
Speaker:you're listening here.
Speaker:I'm sure you're capturing information from other places.
Speaker:You're resourceful just by the fact that you're here and that's
Speaker:what the majority of people won't do,
Speaker:so please don't turn a mirror on yourself and say that's
Speaker:going to be you.
Speaker:Think of the opportunity that's available to you because the fact
Speaker:is the further along you go with the growth of your
Speaker:business, the more competitors drop off.
Speaker:They reach obstacles and just decide they're not going to continue.
Speaker:I always say,
Speaker:and some people disagree with me on this,
Speaker:but it's really easy to start a business where it gets
Speaker:challenging is staying in business and growing a business.
Speaker:I couldn't agree more.
Speaker:The other thing is by bringing on,
Speaker:to kind of piggyback on what you were saying too,
Speaker:with don't let this be a discouraging,
Speaker:this should be the exact opposite.
Speaker:I understand that there's fear because you're going to be trading
Speaker:money for this role to come in,
Speaker:but understand that you're fulfilling something.
Speaker:You're putting a product out into the world,
Speaker:you're growing a business,
Speaker:you're supporting other people to make this happen,
Speaker:which is extremely difficult to do and you've had the courage
Speaker:to do it.
Speaker:Absolutely. And then the more that you give somebody,
Speaker:the more responsibility,
Speaker:the more that this person is able to assist you and
Speaker:to help you,
Speaker:the deeper that they become attached to you and your brand.
Speaker:And ultimately,
Speaker:I think all of us who do aspire to have employees
Speaker:or contractors helping us,
Speaker:we want them to be a true extension of us.
Speaker:I'm a firm believer that the more you give to these
Speaker:folks, the more authority,
Speaker:the more you allow them to express their natural skills in
Speaker:your business,
Speaker:the deeper they are and the more committed they are to
Speaker:you And the pride they have in what they're doing.
Speaker:Yeah. And I think when you stretch people to do things
Speaker:that they never thought they were capable of doing,
Speaker:they love it even more.
Speaker:Right. Think about that in our own lives.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:I know I can think back to corporate.
Speaker:I would have never put myself as a corporate project manager,
Speaker:but because I was given those skills in that trust,
Speaker:it changed the trajectory of my life.
Speaker:So you can do the same thing for somebody else.
Speaker:There you go.
Speaker:So Natalie,
Speaker:what would you say to the person who has started their
Speaker:business, is working with their product and has just listened to
Speaker:our conversation here?
Speaker:What would be the steps that you would suggest?
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:maybe they've been taking notes,
Speaker:maybe they've just been listening.
Speaker:What are one or two things that should be the biggest
Speaker:takeaways? It's really stepping out of the product and into that
Speaker:business leadership role.
Speaker:And when I say leadership,
Speaker:I'm really talking about having a true strategy for the why
Speaker:behind what you're doing.
Speaker:Where do you want to go?
Speaker:So as Sue talks about,
Speaker:what is that vision for your company and now what are
Speaker:we going to do in the next six to 12 months
Speaker:to get closer to that vision?
Speaker:I am a believer that a vision is going to be,
Speaker:and for a small business like most of ours,
Speaker:we're not going to have a vision that's going to extend
Speaker:past three years.
Speaker:The economy,
Speaker:the industry,
Speaker:technology, all of those things can come in and can disrupt
Speaker:it. Set your vision big enough to where it's a three
Speaker:year kind of stretch.
Speaker:Where do you see yourself in 2023 and what are we
Speaker:going to do in 2019 to get closer to that 2023
Speaker:vision? I love that because You're making the vision farther out
Speaker:so that it can be a bigger vision,
Speaker:but there's not the pressure that you have to be there
Speaker:tomorrow. You break it down step by step so you can
Speaker:start progressing to where you're trying to go And see advancement
Speaker:towards your goal every single month.
Speaker:Right? And that's the only way that we as individuals feel
Speaker:progress, right?
Speaker:So for someone,
Speaker:me who's not extremely money motivated,
Speaker:I love to see this.
Speaker:This gets me closer to where my heart wants to be
Speaker:versus where I physically am at today.
Speaker:And that's truly the way I look at it.
Speaker:I know it's very soft and fluffy,
Speaker:just so that I can share with you guys a true
Speaker:example. My vision for my company is by 2025 I will
Speaker:have certified 500 directors of operations on at least four continents.
Speaker:So it's specific.
Speaker:And so everything that I do in my business,
Speaker:I am always looking through the lens of what am I
Speaker:doing to make sure that I'm equipping business owners and equipping
Speaker:people who have operational knowledge to be in business because I
Speaker:want them to have a flexible lifestyle just like I do.
Speaker:So it allows me to say no to things that pop
Speaker:up. It allows me to say yes to the right things
Speaker:and having that vision,
Speaker:making sure that everything runs through that lens.
Speaker:Should I run Facebook ads?
Speaker:Like even the day to day stuff is still run through
Speaker:that exact same lens.
Speaker:Should I go to this conference?
Speaker:Should I speak at this event?
Speaker:Should I,
Speaker:all of those things,
Speaker:all of those business activities,
Speaker:I come back and I say,
Speaker:okay, if my goal is to have 500 certified director of
Speaker:operations, does it make sense for me to talk to wedding
Speaker:professionals because that's an offer that I had to go speak
Speaker:at. So it just helps me to stay in line,
Speaker:to stay in check,
Speaker:to make sure that I'm doing the right things,
Speaker:and if I can tie my daily activities to the vision
Speaker:that I want in 2025 then I know I'm going to
Speaker:make myself proud.
Speaker:I know that I'm going to keep marching forward and fulfilling
Speaker:that heart piece of why I'm doing what I'm doing.
Speaker:Oh my gosh.
Speaker:I love that example because you could be so busy by
Speaker:taking speaking engagements and training and all of that,
Speaker:that could ultimately bring you into an entirely different direction than
Speaker:where you were trying to go.
Speaker:In that case,
Speaker:you'll be really busy,
Speaker:you'll be dedicating a lot of time,
Speaker:but none of the actions that you're taking are actually bringing
Speaker:you to your goal.
Speaker:Right. And I just have to say corporate Natalie,
Speaker:I love how concrete it is.
Speaker:500 certifications for continents.
Speaker:Yep. Time to kind of come up with that number.
Speaker:But I'm super analytical and so numbers do somewhat come naturally
Speaker:to me.
Speaker:But yeah,
Speaker:I love having that because you know what?
Speaker:It tells me how much marketing I need to do.
Speaker:It really helps me to reverse engineer by putting some numbers
Speaker:to this.
Speaker:It did allow me to do that,
Speaker:but it also could be having a product and target,
Speaker:right? It doesn't have to be a number.
Speaker:It can be where do you want this product to go
Speaker:in the next three to five years?
Speaker:Where, what shelf do you want it to be on?
Speaker:Sure. That's a huge vision.
Speaker:I mean the point is having the vision not to just
Speaker:be doing a ton of work and not sure what road
Speaker:you're on.
Speaker:So I do something called strategic mapping,
Speaker:which would be really helpful for your audience and it starts
Speaker:with the vision,
Speaker:but it's also being organized in your business.
Speaker:And I know that as makers,
Speaker:you spend a lot time in that actual product because that's
Speaker:where you likely entered business.
Speaker:So it's hard to remove yourself and we've talked about that
Speaker:today. But I also think once you are ready to grow
Speaker:and scale this business,
Speaker:make it a little bit easier for you.
Speaker:Maybe remove the overwhelm,
Speaker:you're going to need that productivity and that structure internally and
Speaker:I have a giveaway at the,
Speaker:if you go to the opposite authority.com
Speaker:forward slash business dash hub like business hub,
Speaker:it's going to help you with getting started in getting organized
Speaker:and then understanding how you create and take that vision to
Speaker:your daily activities.
Speaker:Thank you so much for sharing that with us.
Speaker:Yeah, so it's the apps authority.com
Speaker:forward slash biz dash hub,
Speaker:right. You got it.
Speaker:Gift biz listeners,
Speaker:you know that I'll also have that for you over on
Speaker:the show notes page and Natalie in addition to this for
Speaker:another place on mine for people to go to learn more
Speaker:about you,
Speaker:where would you direct them?
Speaker:So you can definitely go to the website,
Speaker:which is the opposite authority,
Speaker:but I'd encourage you to check out the podcast as well,
Speaker:the opposite authority,
Speaker:podcasts.com and then I spend the majority of my time on
Speaker:Facebook, call it my age,
Speaker:but I love Facebook,
Speaker:you and me.
Speaker:Yes. So you can go to facebook.com
Speaker:forward slash the opposite authority.
Speaker:So everything is the opposite authority.
Speaker:I'm also on Instagram.
Speaker:I do spend time there,
Speaker:but Facebook is more my jam so you'll see me there
Speaker:more often.
Speaker:Well, Natalie,
Speaker:thank you so much.
Speaker:This has been a topic we've never discussed before and you've
Speaker:given us some nuances,
Speaker:some different ways of looking at things that are going to
Speaker:be really helpful as we build our businesses into the future.
Speaker:So processes the name of the game.
Speaker:Thanks again Natalie.
Speaker:It has been such a joy to have you on.
Speaker:Michelle, Thank you for having me Sue.
Speaker:So now you know all about processes and the important role
Speaker:that they can play within your business.
Speaker:We started documenting our procedures about a year ago or so,
Speaker:maybe a little bit more.
Speaker:We're not done yet and every time we start something new,
Speaker:it's built into our system to capture the steps and the
Speaker:procedures. I have to say it makes me so much more
Speaker:at ease to know these things are written down.
Speaker:It's also helped when I brought on a virtual assistant and
Speaker:as we bring in new people for order fulfillment or different
Speaker:things like that.
Speaker:The trick here is to actually get started.
Speaker:So why not?
Speaker:Think of one process you have that you can capture on
Speaker:paper. Momentum can really help here too because once you've done
Speaker:one, the next one will come easier.
Speaker:As we say goodbye for this week,
Speaker:I want to remind you to go over and register for
Speaker:a spot in my masterclass.
Speaker:The link again is gift biz unwrapped.com
Speaker:forward slash masterclass.
Speaker:Do it right now,
Speaker:so don't forget,
Speaker:and having said that,
Speaker:I'm looking forward to us being together again next week.
Speaker:Bye for now.
Speaker:After you listen to the show,
Speaker:if you like what you're hearing,
Speaker:make sure to jump over and subscribe to the show on
Speaker:Apple podcasts.
Speaker:That way you'll automatically get the newest episodes when they go
Speaker:live, and thank you to those of you who have already
Speaker:left a rating and review.
Speaker:By subscribing,
Speaker:rating, and reviewing,
Speaker:you help to increase the visibility of gift biz on wrapped.
Speaker:It's a great way to pay it forward to help others
