Join Melissa Swink as she addresses common objections that she hears from business owners about hiring a team and investing in systems to streamline their operations. Most say that they can’t afford to hire team members or invest in systems, and they don’t have time to train or implement! You’ll learn from real-life stories of business owners who took the leap, including how they made it work from a financial standpoint. Melissa also reveals her strategic approach to financial management using the Profit First system, which enabled her to invest profits wisely back into her business, prioritizing team growth over personal salary temporarily. This episode also touches on practical tips for those preparing for significant life changes, like maternity leave, highlighting the importance of documentation, process sharing, and leveraging experienced hires to maintain business operations. Tune in to discover how structured financial planning and embracing systemized operations can lead to sustainable business growth and personal peace of mind.

Key Highlights:

• Business owners need to overcome financial fears and invest in growth tools like software and essential team members.
• Implementing a centralized project management system enhances team productivity and ensures alignment on deliverables.
• Learn how Melissa uses the Profit First system for effective cash flow management, enabling reinvestment in team growth.
• Documentation of processes and using tools like Loom aids in consistent training and efficient task delegation.
• Strategic financial planning, including setting aside funds for taxes and expenses, supports sustained business expansion.

About Melissa:

Melissa Swink, Founder & CEO of Melissa Swink & Co., has a team of virtual assistants who provide administrative and marketing support for small businesses and non-profits.

Since 2012, Melissa and her team have helped more than 100 businesses grow through the services they offer, and she is dedicated to helping entrepreneurs create profitable, scalable businesses they love.

Her work is all about doing what works (and eliminating what doesn’t) and driving real, measurable results. Visit www.melissaswink.com to learn more! 

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Hi, everyone, welcome to the Make Space For More podcast where we talk strategies for growing and scaling your business in a way that's authentic and aligned for you. I'm your host, Melissa Swink. And in today's episode, we are going to address the two elephants in the room. When it comes to growing and scaling your business with systems and team, those elephants, you want to get them? Are you ready? Time and Money. These are two big resistors when it comes to investing in our companies and growing them.

So with that being said, I have a question for you and be honest with yourself, Does the idea of purchasing and implementing a new software or system or hiring help rank right up there with getting a tooth pulled at the dentist or like, Ah, I don't want to go through all of that process, I don't have the money for that. Maybe tomorrow, or I can go a little longer with what I have. There's a lot of resistance when it comes to especially investing the time and money to growing our businesses. So in today's episode, I'm going to address these, especially when it comes to the hesitations that held me back and many others back from growing and scaling our businesses with systems and team. But while I share these common hesitations that many of us have had and currently in still continue to struggle with. We're also going to talk about simple and easy to implement tips to overcome them. And I can share some stories with how I was able to gain some momentum in these areas and overcome these really hard resistors to growing and scaling.

So common hesitation Number one is I can't afford to hire help in my business or buy that software. So going with the software example for a moment, I want to tell you about a client of mine that I worked with through the make space for more framework where she had a team, she had a virtual team that she was working with and doing her best to manage on her own. But there was a disconnect between the things that she needed done, and what her team members were ultimately spending their time on. And they had a lot of meetings to try and get everybody on the same page and make sure that everyone was aware of the deliverables of what needed to happen that week. And when we started working together, I asked her Do you have a centralized place where all of your current tasks and projects and goals and initiatives can live so that everyone can see them? And be clear on what's happening next? And when does it need to be done by? And so we helped her ultimately set up a project management system for relatively low cost for her team so that they can all be on the same page, they can see what are their tasks that are due this week? When do they need to be done by who else needs this information once they're done completing these tasks in these projects, and it was a game changer for her. Yes, she needed to invest the money in purchasing this software and setting up the system. But in reality, how much time and money did that save her from all of these additional meetings that she was bringing everybody together and trying to get them on the same page, and also how much time lost because things weren't done. When they needed to be done. It wasn't completely clear to her team of what needed to be done. And by when, by investing in the software, it was a huge game changer, not only for her, but their team. So the other item I want to address here when it comes to I can afford to hire help in my business is tell you the story of how I was able to hire those first team members in my business.

So as I shared in episode one, and expanded upon and episode since I primarily work on my own for the first six years of my business. And at the halfway point in about 2018 I attended a business retreat and the coach who was leading that retreat ultimately told me Listen, if you want to grow your agency, if you want to make more money, if you want to have more time freedom, you're going to have to hire people to help you. And so with that, I took the leap of faith and I hired two people to work with me and my clients behind the scenes. This is when I was So very, very client facing, I was very new to having team members. But I did hire two people in my business. Now also just to paint a picture of where things were at then I had created a job for myself, where I did have consistent clients on a regular basis, I was able to pay my bills most of the time. You know, sometimes there would be a push in a poll where money would be a little bit tight, and then things got flowing again, there was a little bit of ebb and flow. But overall, I was making ends meet. But the challenge then was, where do I find the money to invest in these team members. And what I ended up doing, I just to share with you a little bit of kind of the way that I run my business in terms of cashflow, and budgeting, I follow a system called profit first and you can get the book Profit First by Mike McCalla wits. It's a fantastic book, I implemented that system several years ago. And I know every month what's coming in, what's going out and how all that money needs to be divided up in flow. It's a phenomenal book. I'm sure we will talk about that many times during this podcast. But what I did was I put myself on a salary freeze. So I knew how much money I needed to bring in to make ends meet, pay my bills, but didn't leave a whole lot of extra, I wanted to make sure I had enough. But then I froze my salary at that level temporarily. Now, this is not a long term solution. And I highly recommend that you don't continue to restrict and restrict and restrict yourself, when it comes to earning a salary in your business. Again, your business can become a cash eating monster in a hurry, if you don't get this under control cannot emphasize Profit First enough. But anyway, I froze my salary, temporarily. And I invested 100% of the profits that I received from new business that I was able to bring in, into paying my team members. So just to pull that all together, again, where I was at, I was working solo, I was maxed out on clients and projects that I could do myself. When I hired these two team members, we started off small, and I told them, you know, we're gonna grow over time. And I was able then to go out and bring in some new clients and some new business, rather than woohoo, I have extra money coming in, I'm going to go out and buy, you know that that new pair of jeans, I wanna, I want to, I'm gonna go out and get a massage with that money. I took 100% of the profit of those new accounts in those new projects, and funnel that into paying my team. Now again, over time, as I really started to be able to scale, of course, I was able to work them into my budget. But in a better way, I was able to live that salary freeze and incorporate that into my profit first system. But in the beginning of hiring that team, I invested 100% of those profits into the new business. Okay. I hope that makes sense. But we can share more about that in future episodes as well. Or if you guys have questions, certainly leave me a comment or send me a message on my website, I would be happy to share more and break that down for you. But I hope that you get the sense of what I'm talking about there.

Okay, common hesitation. Number two, I don't have time or patience to train people. I'm lifting my hand up on that one. I was like, I am already spending all of my time growing my business. I'm communicating with my clients. I'm leading this new team that I have. I don't have time to take on all of this training and onboarding and all of that. And I want to share with you the story of a tale of two business coach, I call it a tale of two business coaches. When I was about two years into owning my business, I had my daughter my daughter was born. Prior to her being born that summer. She was born in November, that summer, I invested in working with a business coach to get my business maternity leave ready. So again, I was a solo business owner. I was working with a virtual assistant with a variety of clients. But I knew that I was going to be taking some time off. And so what he had me do during that summer was create a manual of all the things that I was doing in my business so that I could hire some temporary help. Now I ended up having an intern she was college age intern, and actually my mom helped during my maternity leave. That was the I should say that those were the very first team members that I ever had in They were able to cover for me for a couple of months. And, you know, I did a couple of things during that time as well, there are a few creative writing things that I couldn't hand off to them. But anyway, I spent that whole summer, creating a binder of step by step written instructions of how to do each recurring task for each of my clients, and some of the overall global business tasks that needed to be done as well. I can tell you, it took many, many hours, it was tedious, I hated doing it. I'm glad that I did it, because I did have some backup support during my maternity leave, but it was painful. And so when I got back into the swing of things, and got back into the business, and again, continue to reach my capacity, and was limited to the growth of my business based on the amount of hours that I had available. And I attended a business retreat in 2018. And the, again, the business coach who was running that said, you need to grow your team, you really need to start hiring people. And I told her, she said, What are your next steps in that my question, or my answer to her question was, oh, I need to create a manual of all the things that I do. And that's going to take a long time. And, you know, it's March, and I'm hoping that I can have that done, maybe by July. And she looked at me and said, You don't need to start there. She's like, you just need to get a clearer idea of the type of work that you need to hand off. You need to find people who have experience and skills in those areas. And then you train them, and they document the process alongside you, as you're showing them. And my mind was blown. I was like, How many hours did I waste creating a manual that I can do 1014 When I was preparing for my maternity leave, when all it took was having somebody else sit with me, so I can train them and they can document the process. Now, of course, after they documented those processes, I reviewed it and maybe made some corrections, some tweaks, but then they had that process built out. I didn't have to do this myself, I think a lot of us and I'm talking to myself here as well. Imagine that in order to hand something off to somebody else, we have to have it wrapped up with a bow and serve it to them on a silver platter, like, here you go, please do this thing for me from here on out, which in reality, we don't have time for that. The other thing that I wanted to share with you, of course, since those early days of documenting, like literally documenting on a Word document of the steps, and you know, go to this tab and then open this and then click on that. Now our team uses a system called loom L O M, many of you have probably heard of it, where we can record like basically screenshare videos and talk through a process. So you know, for example, if I'm handing off to my assistant, here's how I need to invoice this nonprofit client, I can walk through and actually do the work of invoicing, that nonprofit client record myself doing it explaining the steps and hand that off to her, it is so much more convenient, because I am getting work done. And it also is a much easier way for her to receive that information, follow it along and be able to do the work on my behalf, I can tell you that training other people does not have to be hard. The other tip that I have here, and I want to emphasize this is to hire an experienced person who has the skill sets for what you're looking for, don't train, I'll take a step back. Understand that if you are hiring a brand new person with no experience, and it's an entry level position, you will need to invest more time in training them. And if that's what makes sense for you, and where you're at in your business, and you have the time and you have the patience to train somebody on the ground from the ground up great. For those of us who are stressed for time as it is it is far easier to hand off tasks to somebody who's experienced where instead of training them how to do all the things. It's more or less showing them, here's how I do this, or here's how I approach this, and they're able to follow along with that. So I hope that that is helpful.

Okay, so, common hesitation number three. If I make more money, I'll have to pay more taxes. And I'm kind of chuckling about this here. So I realized that this one is less obvious than the other two But the truth is, is that I certainly had this and I have talked with so many clients over the years, especially working with them in the make space for more framework, that there is a fear of, if I make more money, I'm going to have a bigger tax bill, which, you know, we say, God, I want to make more money, but please don't make me pay more taxes, it doesn't work. And so we have this inner conflict. And so I can tell you that for many years, I knew exactly how much profit my business could show, and what that translated to in terms of what my taxes were going to be. And there were years that I hovered around that level. I and it was interesting, because even though I had, I had income goals, I had sales goals, and I wanted to grow. I also knew where that line of safety was in my own head, the key is in my own head. So I knew like oh, if I make x, then I only have to pay y. And I had like this the safety zone, which is really, really weird. But here's how I overcame that. And I've mentioned this earlier, is Profit First, again, incorporating Profit First, into the way that I manage my business finances and our budget. Again, I know what's coming in, I know what needs to go out, I know how much I can pay myself, I know how much I need to set aside for taxes. Also mixed in there is no budget for my team. There's also a business savings account, basically. And there's also the expenses of software, maybe business coaching, things like that, to make sure that everything is well balanced out if you follow that system. Or if you find a system that works for you, where you know that a certain percentage of your income needs to be set aside for taxes. And if you do that consistently, you won't be limited by that fear of paying more taxes. The other thing is, is that this system can be helpful for finding the the funds to invest in your business as well, as I had mentioned, once I got that system in place and knew here, based on my sales, here's what my salary should be. Here's how much I need to set aside for taxes. Here is what I have budgeted for expenses in the business. That's where I really began to see here's how this can all flow together. So again, have a plan. Having a plan will release you from that fear of having to pay more taxes. And I wanted to address that here. Even though it's a little bit more abstract, maybe not necessarily top of mine. I had a weird thing going on for years where I did hold myself back because I knew exactly where that line of safety was of not having to pay too much in taxes.

So, all of that being said, thank you so much for tuning into today's episode. I hope that these were bite sized tips for helping you overcome the concerns about finding the money to invest in your business, how to manage it as your business continues to grow, and taking the time to hire and train people. Those are big, very valid concerns, but they don't have to hold you back because there are solutions to overcoming them so that you can continue to grow in scale and thrive. So with that being said, please follow and subscribe to our podcast so you don't miss an episode. We're going to continue bringing you practical information to grow and scale your business beyond you. I'll see you in a future episode. Thanks so much