BIO: Kim Barrett is a world-renowned million-dollar marketing strategist with a focus on Facebook. Kim is an international speaker and trainer, having taught marketing worldwide and helping businesses grow to six, seven, and even eight figures.
STORY: Kim had a successful start to his business. He was bringing in lots of sales, and he felt he needed more staff to handle these sales. The problem was that he spent too much on those people without looking at their achievements and his team’s capacity limits.
LEARNING: Have a clear understanding of your business numbers. Dive deep into the capacity that you have before hiring. Avoid a business model that makes it easy to grow costs and hard to increase revenues.
“My worst investment was in human capital people. Not because they were bad people, but because I didn’t need it.”
Kim Barrett
Guest profile
Kim Barrett is a world-renowned million-dollar marketing strategist with a focus on Facebook.
Kim is an international speaker and trainer, having taught marketing around the world and helping businesses grow to 6, 7, and even 8 figures.
Kim is the Founder and CEO of Your Social Voice, an Australian-based Digital Marketing Agency established in 2015. YSV helps businesses get heard on Social Media and, most importantly, build engagement and generate more leads and more sales.
Worst investment ever
Kim started his business when he was 25 years old and had a good start. In the beginning, Kim was good at marketing, and then he got very good at sales. He made many sales, and his team would deliver on his sales.
As he continued bringing in more sales, he felt he needed to hire more staff to handle all the sales. Being young, inexperienced, and running a successful business, Kim brought on people without paying attention to capacity or doing any quality assurance. At one point, he had many different people and had to expand and get a new office.
As Kim continued to hire more people, one of his first-ever marketing mentors sat him down and asked him if he was looking at his team’s capacity. He made him think about the price he was charging, his wage bill, and the profit margin left at the end of the day.
From this talk, Kim realized that he was paying so many people who, while at first useful, many of them weren’t doing much once the quiet months hit and there wasn’t a high volume of work. He realized he had to let go of a couple of people immediately.
Lessons learned
- Have a clear understanding of your business numbers.
- Dive deep into the capacity that you have before hiring.
- Be careful about the average employee. They can drain your business slowly.
Andrew’s takeaways
- Avoid a business model that makes it easy to grow costs and hard to increase revenues.
- Be careful when hiring people because some may not add value to your business, yet they’re generating costs that need to be covered by your revenue.
Actionable advice
Go to the people who have done what you want to do, ask them for advice, and listen to them.
Kim’s recommended resources
- If you’re new to the world of marketing and advertising and you do want to grow, Kim recommends reading Breakthrough Advertising. In the book, Eugene Schwartz shares excellent principles.
- Join Kim’s Facebook Group to hear more about Kim’s approach and get free resources, training, and education.
Parting words
“Stay safe out there. Learn a lot and avoid mistakes.”
Kim Barrett
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