Join us in this episode as we explore the secrets of incremental growth and the strategic decisions that lead to incredible success in the world of business. Our guest is CEO of Ramsay Innovations, Jon Morris. He shares valuable insights into his approach to business, focusing on budgeting, financial acumen, and building a superstar team. Discover how an incremental mindset and strategic decision-making led to double and triple-digit growth year after year.

Key Points:

• Starting Small and Incremental Growth: $10,000 in seed money, adopting a marathon-style approach for continuous growth.
• Long-Term Mindset: Committing to the long haul and reinvesting in the business each year for sustained success.
• Learning from Others: Humble admission that 99% of knowledge comes from learning and implementing ideas from others.
• Benchmarking and Financial Acumen: Utilizing benchmarking numbers like 20% year-over-year growth target for financial acumen.
• Building a Superstar Team: Emphasizing hiring and retaining exceptional talent to achieve extraordinary results.
• Budget as a Strategic Plan: Viewing the budget as a strategic plan, allocating resources wisely for growth.
• Improving Gross Margin: Increasing sales and marketing budget through profitable customer servicing.
• Salesperson Effectiveness: Understanding that new salespeople take time to become effective, typically around six months.
• Budget Allocation: Allocating budget based on existing and new revenue figures for detailed expense planning.
• Cash Reserves: Maintaining cash reserves of at least two times monthly overhead for unexpected challenges or opportunities.
• Budget Frequency: Creating an annual budget and engaging in quarterly re-forecasting for expense management and goal alignment.
• Communication and Accountability: Regularly communicating budget goals, reasons for changes, and planned actions to keep the team aligned and accountable.

Quotable Moments:

"Rather than weeks, I'm going to think of it as years. Rather than miles, I'm going to think about it as dollars." (00:07:10)

"If you want to create a large company, then you have to determine what are the milestones you need to achieve to help you get there. And then once you understand what those milestones are, you have to budget for them." (00:08:26)

"I focused on top-line growth. Eventually, I switched to focusing on EBITDA. But those were big decisions that I needed to make that allowed me to invest more in sales and marketing." (00:08:53)

LINKS:

http://www.ramsayinnovations.com

https://twitter.com/ramsayinno

https://www.linkedin.com/company/ramsay-innovations-llc/

https://beefymarketing.com/

https://beefymarketing.com/blog/

https://beefymarketing.com/small-business-nation/