Today’s episode is an overview of a recent conversation we sat in on, which discussed navigating change in 2023. The panel included a list of industry leaders, the CFOs of AirBnb Midjourney, Masterclass, Step, and Aon PLC. Although these businesses are all incredibly well-funded and resourced, we have found that what happens in larger businesses tends to have a trickle-down effect, and smaller businesses will mirror their patterns. That’s why we’ve dedicated this episode to sharing some key insights from the discussion with our audience at Boss Project.

We see so many business owners who think that the answer to scaling is more about cash than relationships. Yes, cash is a component but it is not the primary problem! First of all, we want to talk about growth versus scaling. They are used interchangeably in this industry but they simply are not the same. Growth is primarily centered around financial and revenue changes in your business and scaling is more about the actual behind-the-scenes operations of how your business is pieced together.

Every decision we make takes us down a different path, each with its own set of consequences. Decisions aren’t categorically good or bad, right or wrong, but today, we discuss how you can learn to make the best business decisions for YOU! This conversation was sparked by an interesting article that we came across in Forbes that highlighted some of the key points that we have been expressing on the show about goals, outcomes, and living in alignment with our values.

Today we’re sharing a bit of our progress when it comes to delegating. We started out being bad at getting things off our plates, but now we are getting better and better and we want you to learn from our mistakes. Delegation is truly the stepping stone to get the right people on your team! Ultimately, you’re going to need to hire extra team members to take on some tasks in your business.

An overwhelming majority of female-owned businesses (88%, to be exact) are run by women who do not have a single employee. That means they are essentially doing everything on their own. And if you are pursuing growth, then running your company without any support is not a sustainable business model!

As a business owner, you will unlock different tiers of problems that you need to solve. While working with folks inside the Incubator, we’ve encountered many questions that we would categorize as ‘next level.’ We realized we have a lot we can help those people with. That’s what’s led us to introduce a brand new offer. We are so excited to talk about our new opportunity for people!

These are people who entered the Incubator, thinking that the next step for them was to start hiring more people. Spoiler alert: it wasn’t that! Instead, we worked with them on refining their offer so that they could start getting paid appropriately. Once they start getting those achievable results, they’re in the position to start looking for more people to hire.

Many of our Incubator graduates reach a point where they slowly want to remove themselves from some of the deliverables of their service. They want to be involved with strategy and direction, but they’re ready for everything else to fall to their team. They’re ready for the next phase, and this can be intimidating! This is not less work for them. In fact, at first, it’s more work. After that, it’s different work.

This isn’t about removing your job from the business. It’s shifting your focus to different aspects of the business. It will require you to grow and evolve as a manager, leader, and CEO. You’re going to go from just being the person who founded the business to sitting in a true CEO or leader’s seat. It’s such an exciting thing for us to see!

Does your input feel aligned with your output? If you are billing hourly, chances are things are beginning to feel unbalanced. In this episode, we fill you in on how we can help you make the transition from hourly billing to value-based pricing, creating a more predictable business and recurring income. Today, we want to introduce you to new pricing models and provide insight into how to prepare your clients for the changes.

We have been seeing many frustrating things in the business world lately, so today, we talk about marketing ploys and business strategies that we don’t align with. We strongly believe that if you work with a coach, you should ensure that that person lives their life and runs their business in a way that aligns with your belief system so that you can create a life and a business that you really, truly want.

Today we’re talking about pricing! We have been discussing pricing for creative small business owners since the beginning. This is our happy place! We have a new version of this conversation today and are excited to share it with you. Let’s face it, the market is just totally weird right now. Business owners approach us often, asking for advice about whether to pivot or start over. And 90% of the time, we’re Team Pivot, as long as you ensure that your pivot aligns with what the market sees as essential. You’ve got to meet your clients or prospective clients where they’re at. So what does it take to close different kinds of clients at different price points?

Today we are diving into what you need to get right in your service-based business. This has a dramatic effect across the board and will either make your business very successful or lead to its failure! The people getting this wrong are often the ones who are on the road to burnout, are overworked and underpaid, they feel like everything is working against them and all systems are broken, they’re not reaching their financial goals and don’t understand why, and they don’t know where all their time is going.

Maybe you’re a one-woman show. Maybe you’ve hired a part-time employee or a contractor or two. You have probably seen significantly high profits in your first few years. Now, you’re entering years three, four, five, and beyond, and you want to pay yourself more, hire more, or have other expenses you want to reallocate funds to. You’re so married to your high profits, that you will create goals for yourself to do anything you can to maintain those profits while being able to spend more money. We really want you to give yourself a bit of a break here! And that’s exactly what we hope to empower you to do through this episode.

Today we're talking about creating an intranet (which we also refer to as a “garage”) for your company. This is separate from the project management of your day-to-day operations. This is more about setting the precedent for your company culture, creating SOPs, and focusing on other high level elements that are essential to the running of a successful business. You can think of it as Union Station for your team, your clients, and you!

Until we had an intranet in our business, we wouldn’t have known it was missing. Now, we can’t imagine ever living without it! It has been so useful in so many ways. At first we used it only internally, but then we decided to branch out and use it to enhance our clients’ experience, and the results have been incredible.

Most people who go into business are usually technicians who are really skilled at one area of the business. Learning to be a leader in your business is the most challenging part of running a business. Here’s the hierarchy we see: you’re a technician, and then hopefully you begin to love sales too. Then, hopefully, you begin to learn and love how to be a leader. If you don’t like sales, then we would say, don’t start a business. That doesn’t mean it’s impossible to find a way to sell that is in alignment with you, but you do absolutely have to find a way to like it.

We’ve been asked countless times about our business partnership and our take on whether we feel that partnership is a good route. We’ve been in a partnership from the get-go, and clients are often curious as to how we manage communication and generally maintain a healthy working relationship. In this episode, we tackle the cons of partnership: why you should never get into one and why, and the next episode will explore the pros. Naturally, there are potential issues that can arise and cause tension in a partnership, and today we identify what to look out for if you’re considering partnering up with someone. You’ll discover a few of the, dare we say, many drawbacks of partnership, the requirements for maintaining a successful partnership, and the principal cause of partnerships (and subsequently, businesses) going down in flames!