Feel as if there’s something holding your business back but you just can’t put your finger on what it is? Ready to unblock your path to success?
In this episode, Samantha and Dana Earhart dive into a critical but often overlooked topic — bottlenecks in business growth. Whether you’re in start up or you’re on the way to seven figures and beyond, identifying, understanding, and addressing these bottlenecks is key to your success.
Dana shares her expertise on the nuances of growth versus scalability. By understanding the different types of bottlenecks and implementing strategies to address them, you can pave the way for smoother, more sustainable growth.
The key is to take the time to plan, communicate, and document your processes. You’ll be surprised at how significantly this impacts your business’ growth and success.
IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL DISCOVER:
- The nuances in what different types of business owners focus on (01:12)
- Symptoms of bottlenecks in business (02:37)
- The CEO bottleneck — The value of delegation (05:40)
- The team bottleneck — The urgency of hiring the right people (06:31)
- The importance of sharing your vision and goals with your leadership team (08:54)
- How to manage the financial aspect of hiring new team members and changing your mindset around it (13:22)
- The KPIs bottleneck — The importance of setting and tracking KPIs regularly (19:23)
- Basic KPIs you should be tracking (22:15)
- How to ensure your KPIs and other metrics are tracked rigorously while allowing team accessibility (23:45)
- The cash flow bottleneck — Why it’s crucial for scaling your business (28:57)
- The operational efficiency bottleneck — How to enhance efficiency and scalability (33:48)
- Why you should take time to reconnect with your business goals and create a 90-day action plan (40:57)
QUOTES
“Understanding a bottleneck can be a bottleneck in itself if you don’t exactly know where to go.” – Samantha Riley
“What got you here will not get you to where you want to be going. You want to make sure that those processes, those procedures, the automation, the systems, are keeping up with where you’re headed.” – Dana Earhart
“When we started the coaching business, the very first thing we did was systemise the client onboarding, because it’s not just about making it easy for your business, it’s also about making it repeatable and consistent for your client.” – Samantha Riley
“Have a think about what’s going to move the needle the most in your business and just start there.” – Samantha Riley
“As a CEO, as any leader, you want to always be asking your team, ‘What do you need from me in order to be more successful in your role?’ And just keeping that communication and keeping the cadence of those meetings going to ensure the needle is moving forward.” – Dana Earhart
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WHERE TO FIND DANA EARHEART
- Website: https://danaearhart.com/
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CONNECT WITH SAMANTHA RILEY
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TRANSCRIPTION
Samantha Riley 0:00
Okay. Welcome to today’s episode of Influence By Design. I’m your host, Samantha Riley, and I’m here today with Dana Earhart. And we’re going to talk about the bottlenecks that keep people stuck. So welcome to the show, Dana. It’s great to have you here.
Dana Earhart 0:15
Thank you. It’s my pleasure and my honour to be here.
Samantha Riley 0:20
Now, we had a really great conversation before we started recording. And I think that this is really what I want to deep dive into. We’re talking about the bottlenecks, but bottlenecks for a six-figure business owner and bottlenecks for a seven-figure business owner are slightly different, and a lot of people don’t talk about this. So we’re not going into that. All right, really get into the nitty gritty of the nuances today. So that people can really such think this is where I’m at, and not get caught up with the noise. Because even understanding a bottleneck can be a bottleneck in itself if you don’t exactly know where to go. Right? So why don’t you start off by sharing a little bit about the kind of people you work with and who you serve, because I think that will give a little bit of context to today’s conversation.
Dana Earhart 1:12
Sure, I really focus on working with service based business owners. And they, I have worked with a number of them that are in the mid to six figure range working and growing to that seven figure mark. And I also have worked with a number of clients now on the other side of seven figures, meaning they’ve made it to that first million. Now they’re working on the second, the third, the fourth million. And the nuances are just a little different. And it is about, you know, I think prior to seven figures, the focus is really on growth. Once you make it to seven figures, you’re switching into scalability and really ensuring that the talent, the systems, the stability, and foundation are in place so that you can now really work on scalability, which is growth on fire basically.
Samantha Riley 2:11
Totally,love that so much. So bottlenecks. Without, before we get even into what the bottlenecks are, what do you see are the symptoms of people experiencing bottlenecks in their business? Like we all know we have them. But sometimes we can be blind to what’s actually going on. Can you talk a little bit to, you know, the things that people might be experiencing.
Dana Earhart 2:37
Absolutely. You know, I think first and foremost, not just for the owner, oftentimes for their leadership team as well, is they’re running from meeting to meeting and putting fire out after fire out. And there’s very limited if any time for the vision, for the strategic planning, for really being intentional. And they end up in focusing more on what is most urgent, versus what’s most important to really be moving that needle towards the goals or the KPIs that they’re out to achieve. I think it’s also, speaking of KPIs, it’s sometimes they’re not even sure, they’re not tracking. They don’t know baseline numbers. And without baseline numbers, how do you set effective KPIs and realistic KPIs? I think one of the other bottlenecks is communication. And oftentimes, the leadership team, the team in general, doesn’t really know the vision of the organisation, the vision of the CEO, they’re so focused on their piece of the puzzle, they’re not grasping how that piece of the puzzle really makes the entire picture. I think another symptom is working more than 40 hours. I recently saw a statistic that 19% of business owners, small business owners of which there’s 33 million of them, 19% are working on average 60 hours a week. That is a collective years, over 1000 extra hours in the business, which means that’s 1000 hours they’re not spending with their family, they’re not spending with their friends, their loved ones, their hobbies, their vacations, and then the symptom is they’re exhausted, they start getting sick more often. They’re not able to work at full capacity. And they’re really starting to feel burned out. And there’s some business owners who are also starting to question can I do this?
Samantha Riley 4:50
Yeah. Well, I was gonna say, I’m seeing a lot of people sort of saying, is it worth it? Like, you know, we gave up our, we gave up our job to have more freedom, to have more income. And all of a sudden, we’re actually living this thing. There is nothing else. I’ve seen it so much over the years, and I’ve been there myself at some points. Let’s talk about. Let’s start off with the number one. Oh, we’ve got five bottlenecks. Are they in any particular order?
Dana Earhart 5:26
No, they’re not in any particular order. So no, they’re not. How would you like to start?
Samantha Riley 5:35
All right. Well, you give us one that is near and dear to your heart.
Dana Earhart 5:40
Near and dear, I think I’m going to jump to the number one bottleneck. And this is the same bottleneck, whether you are in those mid to high six figures and quite frankly, once you are into the seven figures. The number one bottleneck is you as the CEO of the organisation. Yeah, seven figures, you know, let’s plug your ears, not listen, what I want to start with is for the six figure owners, where you’re the bottleneck here, is so often you’re thinking, oh, I need to get something done fast. I’m just going to do it myself. It’s easier for me to just crank this out. I’ll teach them later. Only later keeps getting …
Samantha Riley 6:24
Never comes, never comes.
Dana Earhart 6:31
Exactly. It’s also a matter of hiring for where you are versus hiring for where you’re headed.
Samantha Riley 6:42
Tell us more about that.
Dana Earhart 6:45
That is really thinking, what do I need right now? Where is the biggest void or the biggest bottleneck from a workflow and hiring for that? Only if you actually back up and take a look at okay, we are looking at 50% growth this year. Where is the real void going to be? And let’s hire for that because chances are that person is going to be able to help with the immediate now as well. But if we focus on only what’s needed, they may not have the skill set yet to get us to that 50% growth.
Samantha Riley 7:27
I love that. That’s so cool. I can’t, I might be totally off here. But I don’t see that being any different for a seven figure business owner.
Dana Earhart 7:40
I think it certainly is an issue. It absolutely is an issue. What starts happening though, over seven figures is as you’re building your leadership team, oftentimes you are actually empowering that leadership team to be the first line of putting the job the one ad out, the job description. The first, you know, the phone interview, the in person interview. You typically aren’t bringing the CEO in for those first few steps. Well, if you have focused on what you needed, you’re right, if you focus on what you need. Now, and if you as the CEO have not done a good job of really sharing where you’re headed, your leadership team doesn’t know what to be looking at for six months down the road. They don’t know what is being forecasted as far as the growth to be able to really start evaluating where those needs are going to be.
Samantha Riley 8:40
How much of that information, I’m talking the forecasting, the numbers, like really getting into the nitty gritty data, how much of that should we be sharing with our team?
Dana Earhart 8:54
Every owner is going to handle that a little bit differently. And I think it also depends on the size of the team. I have some at seven figures and they’re still a team of five, I have some seven, they’re actually, they just hit 1.6. Their goal is 3 million this year. Their business model is much different and they have 27 staff members. And so the answer would be different based on the size. I think your leadership team, if you are truly leaning on them for the growth, you want to be as transparent as possible because this is also part of their business growth and development so that they will continue to grow in the direction of your vision. If you start limiting them to what they know, you’re limiting their ability to lead you where your vision is.
Samantha Riley 9:56
I love that. I love that because I think that’s, this is something, the reason I asked that is because when I think back over the years, this has always been something that’s come up for me. And what I noticed is that different team members like to have different amounts of information as well. So if I think back to one of my first businesses, I was super transparent, and all of our numbers were up, actually on the back of the door in the office so that people could watch them. And they were tracked every week. And when I think back, most of our staff loved that. But I remember there was one staff member, that actually when she saw those numbers, she was like, it came from a negative place of, wow, these numbers are so big, like, you know, there was this negative connotation to it. Thinking back she was, she was actually never a fit for our business. But at the time, I was just I actually took it in a different way. And I was like, oh, maybe we shouldn’t be sharing them, because they’re almost taking these numbers and using them in a negative way. And I wanted to bring that up. Because as you’re growing, you’re going to have these little things happening. And you’re going to question, Am I doing it the right way? Should I be doing it this way? Should I be doing it a different way? And I guess you’re seeing this all the time with the people you’re working with. How do you help your clients to navigate those conversations? And to really understand what’s right for them? And how to know that they’ve got the right fit in their team? Does that make sense?
Dana Earhart 11:35
Absolutely. Absolutely. And it’s a great question. I think, number one, you know, the moment a situation like that happens, it is, it is showing you a door that is wide open for you, as a leader to walk through to engage in conversation, and simply be asking, oh, well, you know, why do you feel like that’s so big, and really see where they’re coming from. So that you can also be evaluating if this is an opportunity to help them understand the business vision. Is it a mindset issue? Is it a right fit scenario? Just this morning, I had a conversation with a client on really having consistent conversations with our team to know what is each team member’s three-year and five-year vision. And I’m not saying you have an hour long conversation about it every week. However, certainly at a minimum at least once a year, when you’re talking about their performance, be hearing from them, where do they see themselves in the future? Do they, have they identified where they would like to grow in the business that really helps you be a stronger leader, because you know, who’s looking at growth within and who may be starting to look at growth outside, neither is good or bad. You know, it’s really about just good communication, so that you can plan accordingly. And I also think that really bodes well for a good, solid relationship with your team, when you’re showing that you actually care, that you’re asking those types of questions.
Samantha Riley 13:22
With team comes a cost or an investment. There’s a financial, I can’t think of a word, thing that comes up. And I know that it can be scary to take on team no matter where you’re at, whether it’s low, six figures, mid, you know, 7, 8, 9, we’re always hiring for a certain level. And that comes with a financial cost. What are some of the mindset issues or some of the ways that we can change our thinking or even like, really get into the nitty gritty of how can we change our business to ensure that we have the money there to pay for these team members? Because I’ve never, ever, no matter what level met a team member, I’ve met a business owner that’s not afraid of taking on a team member at whatever level, because there’s that weekly cost that we know that we have to have covered and in the bank. And it isn’t just a low six figure, you know, like I said, I’m eight and nine figure business owners that still think exactly the same. So what are some of the things that we can lean into to help us understand and put in place in our business so that we can make sure that these finances are covered?
Dana Earhart 14:47
Yep. Though, it’s a great question. And you’re absolutely right. No matter what level you are, there’s always that concern of payroll, or with independent contractors, still ensuring that that money is there and allocated for the support. I’m reading the book, How To Buy Your Time Back, which is an excellent read. But it really starts with numbers, it starts with knowing your numbers, it starts with knowing when you’re a small team as the owner, knowing what your value is, what is your rate? And certainly, you know, the obvious is, if I’m the owner, the first place to be hiring somebody for is administrative support. Then it’s really looking at another place where it’s easy to quantify the investment is a salesperson, because that’s going to be directly related to what they bring in. Where it gets cloudy, or those positions that are not as easily identifiable on what is the return on the investment of their time, energy, and resources. And I think so knowing your numbers, it’s also one template that I use with all clients. It’s called an inventory task and responsibility list, where you know, when we know that they’re looking at growing in a second location, they’re looking to franchise, we’re doing a real strong, deep evaluation of where is each team members time being spent, what area of business, how much time, weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually has been spent on it. And what are the top three skill sets of that particular task or responsibility, because as we look to grow, it may not be just duplicating or cloning one person, it may be looking at three of your team members and realise that they have a similar skill set in tasks, each of them that if we bought, we invested in one new person, we could alleviate those hours, and they can go do more of what they specialise in. And so I think it’s also about getting really clear on where are your team members’ strengths? Where do they excel? And one question that I think often gets missed is what do they enjoy doing the most? Because what you don’t want to do is misalign. And just because it’s their strongest area, it may be the part of their job they like the least. And that is crucial to know sooner versus later.
Samantha Riley 17:31
I love that so much. That’s a question that we asked our team members’ reviews, is what do they enjoy the most? Because it is very easy over a year for things to go off by .01 of a percent and then all of a sudden they’re like right off. I’d love to add another question that we add on to that is, is there an area that you would like to learn more about? And that has actually opened up a huge opportunity in our team. And I’m thinking of one team member in particular who’s actually not doing anything that she was originally employed for. And because there was an inch, so she was good at something. But because she shared she had an interest in another area. And it’s where we had a gap. She has filled that. And with so much passion, and so much, you know, she learned so much about this new area because she wants to be good at it. It blows us away that if we hadn’t asked that question, we would never have been lucky enough to have her in that position. So I love that so much. Yeah.
Dana Earhart 18:38
That is a great, great question. And so often, I think that also helps you really identify who some of your core, most loyal team members are. And the ones that you can lean on to help not just get work done, but to build culture, to help other team members who may be struggling, whether it’s with the responsibilities, whether it’s with culture, or just fitting in, it highlights who are your go-to team members that you can really empower to blend and connect better with the other team members.
Samantha Riley 19:23
Yeah, love that. I’m guessing, and correct me if I’m wrong, that we’ve kind of, you blended or we’ve started to transition into one of the next bottlenecks because you mentioned KPIs. Yes. Yeah. Let’s go there. KPIs is one of, is a topic that most people think is unsexy, and I think is super sexy. I’d like to share.
Dana Earhart 19:52
It is and you know, I am fascinated with several clients who have come to me recently, ladies who are incredibly successful. One has, I won’t say she’s completely removed herself from the day to day operations, although she’s probably 95% removed from the day to day operations. And yes, they are successful in all rights. Yet, when it came to tracking numbers, there’s not a lot of tracking that’s been reviewed, evaluated, and used for forecasting, outside of bottom line revenue or top line revenue, I should say. And that’s where I believe there’s a real opportunity to be diving in every single department, every single team leader, absolutely should have at least one KPI that they very much understand, that they know where they started, and they know what they are being tasked with achieving. And then the key is to make sure that you’re actually checking in on that on a consistent basis. And sometimes monthly is fine. And I’m a big proponent of how about every other week, so that you know, before or even weekly, before you get to the month, end of the month, you want to know where you stand. So why not check mid month so that you have those two weeks to tweak things as necessary to ensure that you’re hitting that end of month KPI?
Samantha Riley 21:31
Yeah, because if you track monthly, it’s very easy to go off track for a whole month. So yes, I’m actually on my top KPIs, I like to check weekly, because you can alter or change direction, well, four times in a month, right, so less likely to go off track a lot. It’s a lot easier to say, oh, that didn’t work. Let’s tweak that this week and go this way. So what are some of the most important KPIs that if people are going yeah, this all sounds great, but I don’t even know where to start? What are some of the basic KPIs that people should be tracking?
Dana Earhart 22:15
Absolutely. I want to start with the financial, even though most people do know what their revenue goal is. And usually it’s looked at by year. And so you want to be looking at it monthly as well. And what happens nine times out of 10, when I start working with someone, it’s not until the 10th, 15th, maybe 20th of the next month that we get their p&l for the month prior. That means that leader is actually not leading the business, the p&l is leading the business. And I would much rather, as you said, weekly, or at a minimum, mid month and end of month, know where you stand so that you can pivot. I think another KPI is number of clients, and getting down to how many new clients versus repeat or renewal clients. If you’re selling a service or multiple services, you can also be looking at how many clients did you cross sell that month. You can be looking at, from a prospecting and sales perspective, how many sales conversations were had, how many converted? How many are follow ups, how many were nos at the spot, very general terms, those would be the key KPIs that I would be encouraging someone to be looking at.
Samantha Riley 23:45
And how do you suggest people keep the numbers or, you know, like, yeah, exactly, like follow the data? You know, is it a spreadsheet? Is it, you know, a piece of paper under your laptop? Like, is it different for others? Is it different for everyone? And I’ve asked this because I’m going to follow it up, but I’d love to hear your answer first.
Dana Earhart 24:09
Absolutely, you know, I often, you will hear me saying that it’s up to you, whether it’s in your CRM in a particular software that you’re collecting that data or a spreadsheet. That is the organisation’s choice. And there’s different variations, again, depending on size, and depending on how many people would be accessing that data and for what reasons. I do have some businesses in healthcare so in that case, then we have to be cautious because of HIPAA, certain pieces of information cannot be disclosed. The most important thing is that it’s being tracked and it’s being tracked electronically so multiple people can be accessing it as needed. I personally, as I grew my own business, I am a spreadsheet, a self-proclaimed spreadsheet geek. I love Excel, it took me a long time to switch over. Now I like Google Sheets. I like seeing the whole picture on one sheet or one report versus a CRM at times, because of course, whatever report is produced is only as good as the input you requested. And if a report is missing one ingredient that could be very crucial, and you don’t realise it when you’re just looking at the output from an actual software platform, versus the spreadsheet, everything is visible for me right there. I can sort it, I can filter it, I can do, I can manipulate it the way I need to manipulate it. So I don’t have a one answer fits all. As long as it is being tracked digitally.
Samantha Riley 25:56
Yeah. And the digital piece is so important, because most of us have teams that are, I was gonna say virtual, they’re not virtual, they’re working remotely, is what I mean. So everyone needs to be able to see it. I’m very, very lucky that I have a business partner, that’s also my husband, that when I say, Hey, can you build me this so that I’ve got, you know that I can be able to collate all of this information? So we use Google Sheets as well. And I love it that all the sheets are collated on the front sheet, took him ages. He got all of the the equation is the equation, the right word, formulas, formula, formulas on Chat GPT. So there’s a little tip for you. Because I was, I want this, I don’t know how to do it. So Chat GPT told him how to do it. But the reason I asked is because I personally like to keep my KPIs on a piece of paper right in front of me. Because I feel that some, we definitely need the electronic so that all of our team can see it. But sometimes it can be hidden. And what I mean by that is, I’m sitting here talking to you right now, if I’ve got a little post it note here that says I haven’t done my number of reach outs or if I haven’t done whatever it is, it’s there right in front of me. I can’t just shut a tab and pretend it doesn’t happen. So I personally love manual as well. So yeah, I was just interested to hear what you said on that. Because I think that a lot of people have that same thought that it’s hidden away somewhere on their computer, they need to specifically open it. But when you’ve got a blue or a yellow something staring at you in the face. Now I’ve got to do that.
Dana Earhart 27:46
Absolutely. And I think what you’re sharing, though, is also almost two different perspectives that your personal KPIs, mine as well. I have them in multiple places, there have been seasons where you might walk into my bathroom, and I will have certain things taped to the mirror. Just that daily reminder of this is what you said you were willing to do in order to achieve what you said you wanted. Then when it comes to the reports, and being able to analyse the collected data, that’s when I definitely encourage the data. And so I just want to say I totally agree with you, there are time and a place for it to not be digital, just like you know, I’m going to age myself. But for 20 years, I was in corporate consulting, and we’d have our quarterly meetings, strategic planning, and it would be put in a binder and it would sit on our shelves until a week before the next quarterly meeting. And we update the reports. We don’t want that, not with what we’re building in our businesses at this point.
Samantha Riley 28:49
100%. All right. Let’s move to another bottleneck.
Dana Earhart 28:57
Another bottleneck, I think, is really and we partially touched on this one and it’s cashflow. I think cash flow almost goes hand in hand with the KPIs but it’s not just having a p&l, having a balance sheet. It’s understanding the numbers. And it’s also being able to ensure that you have forecasted out several months, because we want every business to be gearing or moving towards stability, especially you know, you’re growing, growing growing, when you often hit the 7 million mark or the 1 million mark, I’m sorry, the seven figure, you want to stabilise while you start scaling. And there’s other plateaus, at the half million mark, at the three quarters mark, at the million mark. And so it’s about ensuring that you are not just tracking and managing the money, it’s that you understand the cash flow, and that you’re looking out further than just the next payroll, that you’re forecasting out several months so that you can get yourself off the cash flow rollercoaster. And you can start reducing that payroll stress that hits every couple of weeks as well. So I think, you know, knowing your expenses, evaluating your expenses, that’s one of the first things I start doing with clients as well is I will start looking for where are their jumps in the expenses, because I think so often there’s the focus on we’ll just get more sales, get more sales. Yes, that is one way to profit. However, you also want to be looking at the expenses, because maybe you can improve your profit margin without additional sales just by getting a handle on those expenses. And really taking a look at that. With the cash flow management, also, and it’s tied in a little bit with HR, but I was talking to a client again this morning about, you know, paid holidays, PTO, how are you handling that? How are they accruing it? How are they utilising it and just ensuring that you understand how that, if you’re hiring eight new team members, don’t forget to include the value of those benefits, it is not just the base salary, it is also taking a look at what days will that position not be filled, that others will need to make up for that work. That is one of the top bottlenecks in both areas, in both the high sixes as well as the seven figures, it just becomes, I’d say even more crucial as you grow. Oftentimes people think it might be less like Oh, there’s more money coming in, we’re good. Typically have more money, because coming in, you also have more expenses and a higher payroll included. You’d want to keep your finger on that pulse.
Samantha Riley 32:12
I remember my first business, and we were at the time, we would have been in the six figures, I think probably the high six figures. And one of us, we took one of our suppliers out for dinner, it was one of our top suppliers and they had helped us to grow to where we were and it was just we wanted to go out. And I remember saying too, like Julie, like I can’t wait to we’re in your position. They were in the multi eight figures, can’t wait to we’re in your position and all of my problems that I’m currently experiencing will be over. And she went, Oh, Dear Sam, have I got a story for you. And it was a great conversation. And it just helped me to realise that when we’re earning a smaller amount, our problems are a little bit smaller. That as the numbers grow, the problems can grow as well. And from a percentage wise, I mean, I’m not here to say it doesn’t get easier as you grow your business, like it most certainly does. But like you said, your payrolls’ higher, your costs are higher. And it’s just as easy to get caught out at a higher level than it is at a smaller level. That’s wise advice. Beautiful.
Dana Earhart 33:24
Absolutely.
Samantha Riley 33:27
All right. So we’ve talked about, we’ve talked about team, we’ve talked about, I’ve forgotten to write all of these down. This is not like me, I’m very loving this conversation. We’ve talked about team. We talked about KPIs, we talked about cash flow. I feel like I’ve missed something in here. But I’m not sure.
Dana Earhart 33:48
Well. The other area I think really getting into is the operational efficiency. And again, this is another one that you have one focus in those top six where you realise like, as you had one person doing this, one person doing this, and another person doing this, that you want to start systematising and ensuring that things are getting documented. I think that the documentation is the main focus when you’re in the mid six figures, then it’s about ensuring that the team is utilising what’s been documented. As you move over the seven figures, that’s when you really want to be using a fine-toothed comb to it. And now you’re looking for where are the inefficiencies? Where can we still tighten things up to be even more efficient as we start wanting to scale not just grow? And that’s making sure, make sure that you’re also empowering your team to be looking at the process. They’re the ones using it day in and day out. And you don’t want them to just follow a process just because that was the process that was outlined several years ago. You want them to be looking at what makes most sense now, and be taking into account, again, where you’re headed. Because what got you here will not get you to where you’re going. And you want to make sure that those processes, those procedures, the automation, the systems are keeping up with where you’re headed.
Samantha Riley 35:33
What are some of the areas that people need to really look at those systems? Like if we were, if someone was going to start systemising their processes, is there an area that you would recommend they start at? Or is that a personal thing?
Dana Earhart 35:52
I think it depends on the business model and the industry. And, probably team size as variables there. Because again, a call this morning, we covered a lot of ground in one of my calls this morning, we were talking about the interview process. And while everything is documented, and there’s a number of various positions, this is the team, they have about 27 to 30 team members, and they’re going to be adding eight more. What are the, you know, something is getting down to the details of what are the exact interview questions that are being asked for each individual position, and ensuring that that’s happening consistently. And unfortunately, what happens when you have multiple people involved in an interview process, one question different from each of the people holding the interview changes the entire dynamic of you screening candidates. And oftentimes people don’t realise that, just like you referenced earlier, you know, just one percentage point difference on a day can get you to somewhere different. It’s that granular of detail in a process, in a procedure for interviewing on you know, so that’s more the HR staffing and talent recruitment side of things, documenting. Another one could be client fulfilment, you know, what are the costs associated with a client fulfilment. And sometimes you may have certain relationships where they send a little gift here or send a little gift there that never got documented. That’s the type of things you do want to have documented. Because if that particular client stays with you two years longer, it’s probably worth that $50 or $100 of your clients to get them to stay. So, there’s not one particular area, although what I will encourage a CEO to do with their team is not try to change everything at once. It’s really picking one or two initiatives. One, maybe it’s just one bottleneck per quarter, it might be one or two bottlenecks depending on the size and depending on the size of your team to really move the needle forward. But the idea is over the course of a year then, if you take one to two per quarter, you’ve addressed all of the top five bottlenecks, and you’ve started moving into the next five bottlenecks.
Samantha Riley 38:36
I love that you’ve mentioned that because it’s very, very easy to look at it all and either try and do it all at once and be really ineffective, or just go wow, this is way too hard. I’m not even going to start. So I was very, very lucky that my very first job when I was 16 years old was working at McDonald’s. And if anyone knows McDonald’s, like their systems and procedures are so watertight, I thought that that’s the way all businesses ran, because that’s all I knew. So when I started my business, we very much did the same thing. I’m so grateful for that, that that was my first job and that that’s what I thought everything was. But I know that when we started the coaching business, the very first thing we did was systemise the client onboarding, because it’s not just about making it easy for your business. It’s also about making it repeatable and consistent. And that for us, having a consistent client onboarding was the best way that we were going to increase the clients staying on and working with us. So that’s where we very first started. So have a think in your business about what’s going to move the needle the most and just start there.
Dana Earhart 39:54
Absolutely. Hats off to you. You definitely were able to start with the leg up. Most all offing Yeah, processes and procedures, you know, that comes down the road when we have time to do it.
Samantha Riley 40:05
Yeah, yeah, look, I am so grateful. Like, I think that I’m a big believer that things happen for a reason. And I think that there is some other force at play that knew that I was going to be in business. And that was the very, very first place that I needed my first job.
Dana Earhart 40:25
That’s awesome. As you referenced earlier, you know, Chat GPT can be a great assistant, not an end all be all. But when your processes and procedures, it can give you a template, it can give you an idea, I have had clients use it as the initial shell for even a 30, 60, 90 day onboarding of a new team member, it gives you the shell, then you and your team personalise and customise it for that particular role. The same could be done with processes and procedures.
Samantha Riley 40:57
Absolutely. Dana, for anyone that’s been listening to this and thinking and hopefully, we have helped them to work out some bottlenecks in our business and helped them to understand how important it is, what is something that you want to share with them right now, that will help them to take the next step forward, for whatever that is?
Dana Earhart 41:18
Absolutely. I think, you know, right now, we’re almost at the end of June, June 26. So we know in just a couple of days, Q3 starts. And it’s really about making sure to give yourself that time, some CEO time as I call it, to really reconnect with what your goals for the organisation are come December 31. What do you and your team want to be celebrating? And then, then evaluate what tweaks need to happen. And then it’s really about creating a 90-day action plan for the next 90 days, for next quarter, in bite sized chunks of what actions you need to be taking, what actions your team needs to be taking. And then ensuring I think the where, where it often gets forgotten, is the importance of consistent meetings. And I don’t mean meeting paralysis meeting just to meet. I mean meeting with very clear intentions of, you know, what is our progress? As a CEO, as any leader, you want to always be asking your team, What do you need from me in order to be more successful in your role? And just keeping that communication and keeping the cadence of those meetings going to ensure the needle is moving forward. That’s paramount. So take your CEO time, get clear on your vision and your objective, and then make sure that you are effectively communicating to your team and meeting with your team to help move that needle forward.
Samantha Riley 43:02
Love that. Dana, it’s been such a pleasure to chat with you today. It’s for some people, it’s like, Oh, this isn’t such a fun topic. For me, it is a fun topic, because I realised that when you understand this, it can grow your business really quickly. And that’s fun. So it’s just about changing, changing the conversation. So thank you so much for coming and sharing this with us today.
Dana Earhart 43:27
Thank you so much for having me, it was my pleasure. And I certainly hope your listeners got at least one golden nugget that they can immediately be implementing.
Samantha Riley 43:37
Thanks so much. All right, I just realised, we’re gonna have to record a little bit to put in there, because I forgot to mention your free resource. So I’m recording. I’m going to record this separately, and I’ll get the team to pop it in. Now, Dana, for people that have really enjoyed this conversation, I know that you’ve got a resource to help people how to become a million dollar CEO, can you share a little bit about what’s in there and where people can find that?
Dana Earhart 44:08
Absolutely. It really is designed for both those striving for the million dollar status as well as those who are there and may not feel like they’re thriving in that role yet. And it really is designed as a guidebook, by chapters of just some of the key areas to focus on really modelling what we’ve talked about here with a chapter on each of those bottlenecks, and how they can be, what they could be focused on and what they can be doing to ensure that they are not getting caught up in the bottlenecks. Where they can find it is at danaearheart.com and it’s forward slash million. And that will be available to them there. And of course, I welcome them to connect with me on all the social media platforms as well.
Samantha Riley 45:03
Perfect. And of course, as always, the link will be in the show notes below wherever you’re listening to this, that link will be there. Awesome, thanks. There, we just hit stop on the record.
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