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Scaling isn’t about more money. It’s about becoming a different kind of leader.
In this episode, Sam and Leon cut through the noise and get real about what scaling actually means. You’ll learn why growth and scaling are not the same thing, why identity shifts matter more than skill sets, and how to navigate the messy middle where you’re both operator and CEO.
If you’ve ever wondered why your business feels stuck, or why scaling feels harder than expected, this conversation will give you the clarity you need to move forward with confidence.
Scaling isn’t about chasing easy wins. It’s about embracing the hard truths that transform your business and your role within it. If you’re ready to start leading like a CEO, this episode will give you an insight into the mindset and strategies you’ll need to embrace to make it happen.
WHAT YOU’LL DISCOVER IN THIS EPISODE:
- 04:24 – Growth vs. scale (What’s the difference?)
- 05:26 – Why scaling requires you to think and act like a different person
- 09:54 – Deciding which hard is worth your energy
- 16:58 – How shifting energy to CEO-level activities unlocks growth
- 18:04 – Why letting go of control is essential to scaling
- 20:45 – The non-negotiables of scaling sustainably
- 25:55 – Gamifying data to scale fast
CONNECT WITH SAMANTHA RILEY
CONNECT WITH LEON FLITTON
TRANSCRIPTION
Most people say they want to scale, but what they actually mean is I want more money without anything else changing. So today, that’s what we’re going to talk about. I’m Samantha Riley, and welcome to the Business Growth Lab, where visionary entrepreneurs come to experiment, evolve and expand what’s possible.
Welcome to today’s episode of Business Growth Lab. I’m your host. Samantha Riley joined, as always, with my partner in business and crime. There we go. I got it in Leon Flitton, thanks for joining me again. I know, sorry. I have to. It’s just the way we speak. Be inauthentic not to say it right, exactly right. I believe you are going to take us off today. Well, I just, I’m a little bit nervous about where you’re going to take us.
Leon Flitton 0:51
Well, no, just before, I was actually having a conversation with one of my mates’ daughters, because she knows I’m a car guy, and she likes motorbikes, right? Yeah, and she’s what she dream car. And I went, why? What? That wasn’t an easy answer, yeah. Anyway, I think I like too many cars. Yeah, okay, I gave you a four. And she goes, That’s not one.
Samantha Riley 1:14
What four are they?
Leon Flitton 1:15
Well, I always want a Dodge Viper. And then I love those Mercedes coops. I reckon they’re absolute base of things, yeah. And then I always want a Toyota Supra. I don’t know why. Oh, my goodness, yeah, weird, right? Pretty weird. That’s eclectic. And then I still wanted to get some kind of v8 Land Cruiser, yeah, I think anyway, but that’s me. But what got me thinking about was this is like nothing to do with cars. You like the ballet? But what’s your favorite all time ballet?
Samantha Riley 1:48
Oh my goodness, this is so easy for me, Romeo and Juliet. Oh my goodness, it’s my most favorite ballet, because the score is so beautiful. It’s just, ah, first I love all music. Like this morning I’ve had Taylor Swift on quite loud. Our neighbors would be like, Okay, we’re listening to that again. But yesterday I had hilltop hoods on. Like I am. I have a very eclectic taste in music, but if you put on the score for Romeo and Juliet, I just immediately, just melt. I love it, and it’s so cool because you need to know this Leon, because my birthday is coming up, Romeo and Juliet is at Sydney Opera House in one month’s time.
Leon Flitton 2:35
And for anyone doesn’t know, Aries, send Aries gifts now, all right, because …
Samantha Riley 2:40
I’ve been sending Leon all the memes. I even sent him a text message yesterday that said Siri, just letting you know that you need to remind Leon to buy me gifts.
Leon Flitton 2:50
I say gift. I make memes. That’s so old, gifts.
Samantha Riley 2:57
Presents, not gifts. Oh, my goodness. Now I’m going to end up with a whole heap of gifts for my birthday. All right, let’s get to today’s episode. We’re going to be talking about, or we are talking about, scaling a business. And I think that this is an important conversation we’ve had with a few people just recently, because a lot of business owners say that they want to scale. But I think it’s really, really important conversation, because scaling isn’t just more of the same. So a lot of people think, oh, I want to scale, but what they’re really saying is I want more money doing exactly or less than what I’m doing now. And that is not what it is like, let’s have this honest conversation about what scaling is. Because scaling changes the way that your business works. It changes the way you work. And if we’re being like, really, really honest, scaling changes who you are inside the business and who you are actually in life in general, because the person that’s in a 10k a month business and the person that’s in $100,000 a month business, they’re two completely different people. I know this. I’ve lived it. So yeah, I want to talk about this.
Leon Flitton 4:15
Yeah, yeah. And I think there’s also something to separate as well, and that’s growth from scale?
Samantha Riley 4:21
Yes, thank you very much.
Leon Flitton 4:24
To me, growth is just more of the same, but scaling is a whole different game, I feel anyway.
Samantha Riley 4:29
So yeah, actually, that’s a really good point, because I think when people say scale a lot of times they mean growth. So I remember having this conversation with someone I met at a dinner a few years ago, and it was quite funny, because she was saying I was looking for a specific coach to help me scale. I’m like, Cool, tell me about your business. Sure. Well, I haven’t started it yet. I’m like, oh my goodness, that’s not scaling, that’s growing, or that’s actually launching that stuff. Just launch it first. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, you can’t scale it until you nail it right. There has to be something there to scale. So, yeah, growth and scale are two very, very different things. So really, I’m really glad that you brought that up to begin with.
Leon Flitton 5:12
Leon, yeah, yeah, if we’re talking about that, you mentioned that they’re not the same person that does, you know, the hungry case, as the same person does a mill. What do you think those differences mainly are?
Samantha Riley 5:26
Well, let’s break it down. I think number one is that the skills that you bring into your business, or the skills that you use to grow your business, are not the same skills that you use to scale it. So to get to a certain point, let’s just say that 10 to 15k a month, right? The thing that you’re really good at, the coaching, the expertise, whatever you’re actually doing, the writing documents, whatever it is the coaching, the writing the documents, whatever it is, you can grow a business 10 to 15k, months just doing that. You know, it’s the coaching, holding space, getting results, whatever it is. But scaling is a different set of muscle. I guess you could say it’s, you know, what does your marketing architecture look like? What does your offer design look like? What do your sales systems look like? What does your team leadership look like? You know, you need a team, right? How does the financial thinking change and the operations like, they’re all going to change? So as the founder, all of a sudden you have to change your thinking from this thing that I’m the best at isn’t actually the thing that grows the company or scales the company. So there’s this massive identity shift that needs to happen. Because, as you mentioned at the beginning, Leon, most people think that scaling is just doing more of the same, but it’s not so that’s hence the identity shift. And I think that most people think it’s a skill deficit to grow a company. I’m not going to say it’s not like there’s a lot of new skills that you need, but I actually think that the two biggest things are a mindset shift and an identity shift. They’re the two biggest things. And we’ve seen it from some of the rooms that we’ve been in where people have talked about, you know, I was at this, and then I got to this, and every single one of them said I had to think like a different person. I had to suddenly take accountability for the things that were going to move the needle. I suddenly had to do different activities in my business. I suddenly had to, you know, almost grow up in a business sense. And suddenly I needed to record data. I needed to think like a CEO. I needed to know I was the person to take me there. Yeah. So it’s a different way of being, and different way of doing is what needs to happen.
Leon Flitton 8:09
Yeah, you know, I think I see this the most difficult with people that come out of corporate, and I say it’s because, you know, they might have been, you know, middle senior management in corporate, they come and run their own business, what’s happened is there’s always been someone at the very top, like the board or somewhere, giving outright direction and then filtering down to having a job description with this person responsible this and this person responsible for that. Then all of a sudden, when it’s your own business, you’re responsible for everything, like all that planning, all that forecasting, all that pushing ahead, all that, making those decisions. And I think that identity crisis hits crisis. Well, I think it hits it really hard.
Samantha Riley 8:50
Yeah, yeah, you’re right. Because all of a sudden there’s, well, there’s no one else to blame for a start. Well, it didn’t happen because that team member didn’t do it, or I was just doing what I was told to do. I honestly think that for everyone that says, you know, like, it’s hard having a job, in some ways, it’s almost easier, because you go there, you know exactly what you need to do. And even if you’re using your own, like your own decision making, it’s still based on something that you’ve been directed to do, yeah, exactly where, in your own business there is no directive. Yeah, yeah, you have the vision. And if you’re no good at accountability and holding yourself accountable to get those jobs done, the stuff that you don’t like to do, then it’s really easy not to do it. Yeah, yeah.
Leon Flitton 9:43
But also, I’m going to flip that little bit and go, if you’re someone like me or you that doesn’t like being told what to do by anyone, maybe your job’s really, really hard. Just saying.
Samantha Riley 9:54
So here’s the thing, I think they’re both hard. Having a business is hard, having a job is hard. You just have to choose your hard, yeah. And I think that that’s something really important to remember. Because, you know, just recently, a few people have gone, oh, that’s really hard. Well, yeah, it is really hard. Like, let’s be honest. Here it is really hard. I’ve grown and scaled multiple businesses, and you know, when you’re scaling a business, you’re pulling so much of your profit and putting it back into business, and people on the outside are going, oh my goodness, that’d be like they’re doing so well. Well, you don’t actually know what’s happening behind the scenes, because there are times where, in past times that there isn’t any money to pull out, because it’s all being pumped back into the business. That’s really hard. And at that time, it’s either we do this hard or we don’t grow and then that’s hard, or we could just quit the whole lot and go back to a business and that’s hard. Like I’m on a soapbox about this at the moment, because it really is about choose your heart, like, if you’re in business, to be having it be super easy every single day, then I just don’t know that it’s the right place for you.
Leon Flitton 11:12
Yeah, so there is some things that I look at, and I always think I see the same people you’re talking about, and they go, Oh my God, look at that person. They’re doing so well and in business, and they whatever, you know. And they almost go, they must be ripping someone off or something like that, you know, like and going, you But hang on. They’re the people that put all on the line. They’re the people that pumped all their money back into for the advertising and the growth into having systems and things that you need to grow a business, right, and scale a business. I should say, Yeah, you know, they’ve done that. So they’re taking the reward from from the risks that they had, you know, so, and that comes in a number of forms too, like they got the risk of stress, like, you know, stress out going, Oh, wow, you know, can you pay the wages this month, this that and within money for advertising and this software costs money. And then, if you’re in a shop like you were, you had to, like, you had to, like, you know, have certain amount of stock and those things, so you’ve had that risk, so to get the reward. So I think you can sum it up by people doing the things that others won’t. So they’ve got what others don’t have.
Samantha Riley 12:14
Absolutely. Now, I want to be really clear here, if you are listening and go, but I’ve got this, you know, 10 or 15k coming in, and I really like it like that. And I just want to coach or do my expertise, and I don’t want a team at all. And you’re happy doing that. That is brilliant, because I think at the end of the day, we should all create something so that we are happy that, like, that’s why we’re going to business, to have something that that we’re happy with, that gives us the life that we want, if that and you know, if that’s what you want, 100% like, there’s no shade Being thrown here whatsoever. But if some days you’re like, I actually don’t feel great, and I have to show up, or I actually want to take a month off, and you can’t, you can’t say, you know, like, that’s not fair, because you’ve created that. That’s so totally fine. Who we’re speaking to are the people that are like we’ve got this fire in our belly that we want to we want this to be bigger. And can I just say that I did talk about the fact that you’re pumping all of your time and profits back in to scale, I’ve been in a position where I was 37 I’ll never forget it, and I had worked to a point where in our three businesses, I didn’t need to show up in any of them, they were fully operational because I’d scaled them. That was fabulous. It was so good because I got to hang out with my kids. But I put it all on the line to be at that point. So was it worth it 100% I would do it that way every single time, because I had the time and the money to do whatever it was that I wanted to do, but there was a cost to get there, so you’ve just got to choose what you are willing to do to get there, yeah, yeah. They choose your hard. You do need to choose your hard. And, yeah, like I said, I do it like that every time, because I know that at the other end of that hard, it’s worth every single bit of it, yeah, yeah.
Leon Flitton 14:35
And, like you said, like, not throwing shade, if someone only wants to make their, you know, 5, 10, 15k, a month, whatever it is that they’ve got, that their plan is what X amount of hours. There’s also ways you can organise yourself there so that you’re okay too, like if you need to take a month off, whatever it is, but you need to be thinking ahead about, how do you do that so? But you can’t then turn around and go, Well, I want to make more. I wish I was making more money if you didn’t bother to grow or scale it. So there’s two sides to that coin, I suppose.
Samantha Riley 15:04
Totally. So let’s take it back to the question that you asked me, What are some of the things that are different? And I think that one of the biggest mindset shifts is that the business can’t revolve around you anymore. So what got you to grow to a point that your business can look after you is that you’ve done everything, but you get to a point where it actually has to revolve around, not you. So you know, in the early stages, you’re answering all the messages, you’re doing, all the calls you’re coaching, you’re the one that’s delivering, you’re the one that’s fixing the problems. You’re the one that’s making every decision. And that only works for a short amount of time before what will happen is eventually the business will become really dependent on you showing up and your energy, and then all of a sudden, if you want to keep growing, you’re the bottleneck. So there comes a point where you are the absolute constraint, and to be able to scale, you need to make that shift from operator into CEO. And we’ve talked about this on the podcast before, and a lot of people get really confused, because it isn’t one day you’re an operator and the next you’re a CEO. And it doesn’t go like that. There’s a really messy middle where you need to think like a CEO, but you need to do like the operator to get you through that messy middle or to transition, I guess, because bit by bit, you will come out of that operator position. But I think this trips up a lot of people, because they’re like, but I’m, I want to be the CEO, but I’m doing all these operator tasks where you need to do operator tasks to get you to a point where you’ve got enough money to plug into being able to get out of those. And that’s where the messy middle is. And I think that maybe a lot of people get really confused on that piece. Yeah, yes.
Leon Flitton 16:58
Well, there’s definitely reinvesting money in this case that we’re talking about. The other thing is time now you just talked there about the CEO part of it, and I will talk a bit more about this in the next part of the podcast today. But just want you to have a think about the things that you were doing with like, things like creativity or the planning and those bits and pieces, you need the brain capacity to do that. Yes. And if you’re doing all the other bits and pieces of admin and stuff like that, you don’t have the capacity available to do more, because you talk about scaling, there needs to be planning and, you know, actually strategizing. I should say that needs to be there, but you need the brain capacity to do it. Yeah, so, which probably brings us to our next point, which I was just saying before, at some stage you need to learn to let go of things. And I think this is probably one of the biggest problems I see with people letting go of things, even, you know, even from like, like, a lower end of it. How many people do you know that like to go on playing Canva? Because rather than getting a designer …
Samantha Riley 18:04
Oh my goodness, right? And I think that this comes in, there’s a mindset with this piece, though, that I can’t get anyone to help me yet, because I haven’t made the money, right? But there’s this piece where it’s like, you have to get yourself to that point to get the money. And this is where so many people get stuck, because, well, something that I hear a lot is, I can’t do any of that because I’ve, like, I only just made profit this year. Like, that’s the horrible, like transition period, right? And that’s the thing. That’s definitely a thing, 100% it’s a thing. And it’s 100% of a thing every single time for every single business, right? But you know what it’s about? You know, we talk about investing in people to help you, but I actually think the bigger piece is investing in yourself to have the belief that when I do that will be okay, and I think that comes back to that identity shift and the mindset shift, yeah, and that plays into what you were just saying, that you need to let go of control, but you also need to step up and do different activities. You can’t just let go of control and do nothing. You let go of control of those things that other people can do so that you can do the CEO activities. It’s not just about letting go and doing nothing. Yeah, so that’s I guess I could have just confused it, because that’s both ends.
Leon Flitton 19:36
And look in at risk of me confusing it more. There is a time when you need to hustle as well. Yeah, you let go of some things so you can hustle on other things. So I think it’s like choosing where your energy goes, yep, and it’s like you said that letting go part, it’s crucial to you making the next step. Yeah, yeah. But it’s not saying like you’re. Do nothing, you just sit around. Yeah, it’s choosing where your energy is going to go.
Samantha Riley 20:04
Yeah, it’s making the decision to serve the company, not just your comfort like and it’s about understanding that sometimes you need to do hard things to get to the comfort. Yeah, right? And one of them, here’s the hard things again, right?
Leon Flitton 20:22
It keeps things well. And then I brought Canva before, okay, so you need to be okay with being a designer, going to Canva and do designs for you, for example, just one thing, rather than you doing yourself because you think you’re the best at it, and you might be, and it might not. That might be the case, but if you do all those other pieces, you can’t be the CEO and move forward. So that’s like the letting go part.
Samantha Riley 20:45
Yeah, totally, totally. This leads into the next part of what we’re talking about, and that is some parts of the business actually become less fun. Now, this is something that not many people talk about, right? Because in marketing, this is the thing that doesn’t. It doesn’t sound that attractive, right? It’s very easy to say, build a business that you love, and it’s going to be easy, and you can do it in 10 hours a week.
Leon Flitton 21:16
That’s because it’s just like, a lot of rubbish, really. Like, yeah, I mean, all people I know, they’re in business, they’re always thinking about it at some point in time, right? But that’s you know, that they don’t just like, they then do 10 hours and shut off. It’s not one of the way why it works, yeah. But what you’re saying here is some parts aren’t going to be fun, like, especially if your forte isn’t going through data planning, analysis or something, but that’s what you need to do. Need to do. Because, you know, we talked about the previous episode, we’re talking about data and how much we need to move forwards and keep evolving with time. Well, the same thing with your business when you get a scaler. So, you know, if you’re just a person doing a solopreneur thing, you know, it’s quite simple. But as you start getting team and, you know, like, your cost of things go up and advertising and whatever else you need to then start dealing with all those numbers that are involved with it to make sure that you’re scaling, rather than just growing, you’re scaling and actually making more profit, and all those things as well, so that you go in the right direction. But then you’ve also got things like, well, now we need to think about the people in the business.
Samantha Riley 22:22
And like your role changes, because you’re making strategic decisions, you’re reviewing numbers, you’re leading people, you’re designing systems, even if you’re not the one that’s putting them together. Because I don’t put our systems together, but I tell the team which systems need to be put together sometimes, although I’m training them to know the systems first, but that’s the CEO part, right? It’s about, you know, leading the team, and it’s about solving the bigger problems. So the role that I started at when I started coaching, which was the coach, is now, like, really, really different. Yeah, I’m still coaching, but it’s a much more strategic place, because I need to be able to pull all this data to be able to do the things. But when I started coaching, I didn’t have data to pull. Does that make sense? Because I was coaching, I needed to do the thing to get the data. And this is, you know, this is why it that the role changes, because you can’t start with data. You have to, you have to do the thing first. But this sort of messy middle part, what you were talking about, you know, we may, we need the data that can trigger a lot of people, because when they first start doing the data, they’re like, Well, I don’t like doing this. It takes too much time. And let’s call the elephant out here. They don’t like to record the data because at the beginning, it looks shit. Well, yeah, looks horrible at the beginning. And it’s very triggering, because you’re like, that’s jarring. That’s not where it should be. But the thing is that it has to start there, so that you can know what to do next, so that you can change it, so that you can make the strategic decisions you need to see the horrible data to make the strategic decisions to move forward. And sometime down the track, you can have a team member to pull that data for you. But at the beginning, you have to do it because you need to understand it, because you can’t afford someone to pull it for you. You need to pull the data so that you can figure out how to bring a team member in to do it. You need to understand those numbers.
Leon Flitton 24:31
Yeah. The other thing is, as well, it’s just data. I think it’s just, take the emotion out. Yeah, yeah, that’s what’s gonna say, remove the emotion. It’s just data. But the best thing about data is it tells you where the opportunities are. Yeah, now you could lie to yourself and not look at the data if you want. And sure, go ahead. If you don’t want to scale or grow, you can do that. But if you want to grow, remove emotion, the data. See what’s going wrong, and you know. I mean, from the outside, it could be diabolical, if you think about it, but removing the emotion going, Okay, well, this is the next gap we’ve got to sort out. So data says this is the next thing to work on. So you’ll work on that, and then after fix that, you go, Well, this is the next thing, and you work on that. And that’s, you know, how well that’s that scaling, right? And how you work out where to scale, where to grow totally. The other thing I was just going to say as well was, we talked about growth and scale, and my mind kind of equates scaling to leverage. That’s what. Yeah, 100% Yeah. So when you think about, you know, try and do everything yourself. How can you leverage that? There’s no possible way you can do it yourself and leverage it. So you need to have either other systems, processes, people, whatever the case may be, to actually leverage that to get more profit, to get more you know, more sales, more profit, and grow your business through scaling it like that’s better.
Samantha Riley 25:55
I just want to go back to that data quickly, because I want to share where I used to be with data because, you know, I talk about it all the time. I actually love data. I love spreadsheets. It’s not how I started. So when we had our dance shops, my business partner back then was very data oriented, and I was like, the artist, you know, I was the dancer. I was the one that ordered in our fashion. Like that was my part of the business, the people, the making the shop look pretty, all that kind of stuff. And he was a data analyst, all of those things. Looked after the money. And we got to a point where you know exactly what we’re talking about here. We’d grown, and all of us, we got to, like, the 500k mark, and we’re like, we need to do something different to be able to grow past here, because we kind of hit a little sticking point where we’d been there for a little bit, and we wanted to get further. And I didn’t look at the data. I never used to look at the data. I just used to, you know, he would give me the numbers and the projections. I knew what my budget was per month, and I would order within that budget, and I didn’t really know much past that. And we got to a point where we where we had to sit down, and we had to start looking at what was happening things like, you know, which departments were we making the most profit in? Which departments were we making those sales in because they weren’t the same thing. You know, which team members did we want? Like, what days were we making the most? Like, there was just we, like, had to get right in there. And I hated it. I was like, I hate looking at these spreadsheets. I hate looking at these numbers. Some of it does, and I’ll be honest, lots of it didn’t make sense to me. But what started to happen is, the more that I looked at the data, the more I understood it. And the more I understood it, the more I realized, Oh, if I do something here that affects a number over there. And I started to gamify it myself. And it started to get exciting. Of like, Oh, let me do this so that the numbers go up there. And once I started to gamify the numbers and have fun with them and realize that, you know, suddenly we made, you know, 10k more this week, it started getting really exciting. And all of a sudden it was a huge gain to me. And that was, that was the biggest thing, once I understood the data and understood how to play with it, and it got exciting, that’s when we grew really quick, and we went from 500k to a meal in six months. Yeah, nice. And it’s, because I started to play with the data, not manipulate it in like, a bad way, but gamify in an exciting way. And I said in the last episode, I hate gaming. I hate gaming on not that kind of gaming PlayStations, but I love gaming spreadsheets.
Leon Flitton 28:55
Yeah, yeah. I love the fact that you gamified it. I think that’s brilliant. And a mindset shift, right? You can look at data as bad and horrible and all. That’s a nasty thing. Or you can go, oh, this is fun. Let’s see what we can do with it. You know, turn to a game. So, yep, yep. I’m pretty sure Sam plays Mario Kart, but just saying, anyway.
Samantha Riley 29:15
I’ve never played Mario Kart, but …
Leon Flitton 29:19
He’s sorry. My bad. Team Racing. That’s the one crash. Team Racing, yeah, you should try Mario Kart anyway. So I think that’s actually a really important point to make there, using their mindset shifts to apply it to things like the data that applied to things like the planning is really critical to, you know, be able to move it, move ahead. I just want to touch on something quickly as well. We did say before about the, you know, the people that they might not want to grow or scale to a certain amount then, but I do believe that there is probably some people that might have levels in there. So whether it’s 15k or 100k a month, or whatever it is. There’s, there’s probably ways of going about it, but being able to scale to whatever your chosen amount is, if it’s 100k months, being able to scale to those amounts and doing it well in a very leveraged manner, as I like to say, lean and mean can actually hold you in good stead as well, so you can still have, you know, a really good lifestyle. Love your team you’re working with. Keep it nice and tight, you know, lean and mean, and actually still make plenty of money or profit. Yeah, make money.
Samantha Riley 30:29
Totally, totally Yeah. Build your business for you. I think is, is what you’re trying to say, Absolutely, yeah, yeah. Because not every business should scale. Totally, totally No. If you got, like you said, if you’ve got a beautiful 15, 20k a month business, you’ve got a small client base that you love, you’ve got lots of lifestyle freedom, you can do that without a team. Go for it. I personally, I want to be doing a million dollars a month, and that’s what I want. So everyone can do whatever they want. But the reason I’m saying this is you need to be really honest with yourself and don’t constantly be trying to do things because you think you should be doing them. Yeah, yeah. If you want to create a larger impact, if you Yeah, if you want to be getting out to more people, if you enjoy having leadership responsibility, then definitely scale.
Leon Flitton 31:23
Yeah, yeah. I think there’s something you can definitely take it out of this episode as well. Is that the data and that we talk about a lot, but knowing the data and knowing where you are at right now, and being able to apply that to your business, even if you have a super small team, you know what? I don’t think these matters. If you got a small team as you and a VA or there’s like, there’s 10 of you, or 20 of you or 30 of you, I always like to apply the lean and mean approach to all and everything counts. Doesn’t matter. If you’re doing a million dollars a month or 20k a month, same principles apply. Know your data, know where anything to go with it, and there’s absolutely no reason why you should. We shouldn’t be trying to maximize your profit.
Samantha Riley 32:05
That’s what your business for, actually, really good point there. And I want to touch on this really quickly. I’ve seen people at much, much larger amounts, lose a lot of money because they’re not paying attention to their data, and all of a sudden it’s a lot easier to leak money and not realize it, because it’s not as painful. So always, always, always, look at the data. But I think that I like to close this out, scaling isn’t just about making your business bigger, like we were talking about growth and scale, right? So it doesn’t necessarily mean make your business bigger. It’s actually about making your business stronger. So it’s about having systems, stronger leadership, stronger foundations, people that well, because when the structure is right, growth becomes the natural outcome of that scale. And then you know that in that place that’s about more profit and less chaos?
Leon Flitton 33:07
Yeah, yeah. I just like to leave you with something as well. I’m just, and this is kind of just then, is that to say you’re doing 30 hours a week, right? Yep, and you’re doing somewhere between like 20 and 100k Yep. What if you could do that in 15 hours a week? Yeah, technically, scaling.
Samantha Riley 33:25
100%. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So something about, can I just, can I add a little piece there that some people may miss, and it’s how we started this episode. Yes, coming back to that 15 hours a week, but like bringing in the same amount or more, because it’s not just about suddenly not working those extra 15 hours, but halving your revenue. It’s not that, yeah, totally. That’s the clarity piece there, all right, it’s the taking the 15 hours away or not working that 15 hours earning the same or more that you were earning at the 30 hours? Yeah, yeah, definitely. That’s the critical piece. Leon, what do you want to leave people with in relation to this topic? So with the topic being the hard truth about scaling a business?
Leon Flitton 34:20
Yeah, yeah. I think the biggest thing is you need to know your numbers, put the work in and not be afraid of it. And think about the reward that you can get from the other side of it. Think about Sam running a shop four hours a week. Well, actually, was like three shops and two businesses. But who’s, you know, who’s counting, you know, and being hanging with the kids and like that. That was like a dream lifestyle. So whatever your dream lifestyle, or life is like this lifestyle, but life, you know, if you think where you want to get to and just the Quickie learner data. The quicker you get a plan together, get on with it. Make that mindset shift, get going, yeah, and then, you know, push towards that dream life that you want.
Samantha Riley 35:11
What I’m going to finish this with is actually going off something you just said, and you said, Don’t be afraid of it. I think I’m afraid of it every single day, because to get to that next level, I feel fear. There is not a week that goes past where I don’t cry over something, there is not a week that I don’t get frustrated with myself over something. There is not a week that goes past where I don’t get really pissed off about something. There’s also every single week i at some point in the week it’s like, Oh, my God, I’m doing this for a reason, like, this is my why. This is what I’m doing it for. But I do feel the fear every single week, because I think that if you’re comfortable and you’re not, then you’re not playing to, you know, like that next level, that person that, that you’re sort of growing into that new identity, like that pushes boundaries. So, yeah, that’s my thoughts on that. Yeah, yeah.
Leon Flitton 36:13
And just quickly, I know that I hear a little bit of emotion in your voice right now, but I just want to say that one of the things, and I’ve said this before on another episode, is I love about you, is that you care deeply about what family and your clients and what they can achieve. And I just think it’s awesome. But you know, I see the, I hear the emotion, and I know it’s because you care, and that’s a big deal for me.
Samantha Riley 36:42
Ah, love that. Love you guys. Thanks so much for listening to today’s episode. We’ll catch you next time on another episode of Business Growth Lab.
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