This is a common theme this week amongst many of, not only my clients but some of the other business coach clients as well. Most of our clients have great ambitions and big aspirations. They’re entrepreneurs. So they think BIG. I can 100% empathize with the entrepreneur who has the big goal and wants to get on that NOW! For example, I have a 10-year goal that I have to constantly talk myself off the ledge of trying to implement today, right now. Because it’s not the time or the season for this. So when my clients and others talk about additional services they want to offer, or opening up a second or third location, I completely understand where they are coming from.
Nail it, then scale it.
However, no matter how much I can empathize with them, most people don’t have direct mentorship from Clay Clark and Jonathan Kelly on a daily basis teaching them the right way to do things. Now, if you are a business coach client, chances are you have been personally mentored by Clay or Jonathan at least once. But hearing things like “Nail it, then scale it” on a daily basis is not happening to you.
Luckily, my business coach clients have me. Amelia’s clients have her. Jason, Andrew, and Luke’s clients have them to help be that sherpa leading them down Clay’s path. So then, when you start talking about opening up a second location, we can quickly say, “Hey now. We still don’t know all of the numbers every week, nor have we worked on anything past two checklists so far.” This can also be the case when you bring on more clients that you may not yet be equipped to handle.
Let’s say for example you don’t know your numbers. What if you are actually losing $2,000 for every job you are doing, and then you try to scale. Well, you’ll scale a fail, ultimately digging a bigger hole than you are already in. Or, let’s say you take on more jobs than you can handle. Quality will suffer. When quality suffers too much, this taints your brand and before you know it, your entire business is filled with detractors who are repelling your business. You will be trying to scale a walking-bankrupt-business. However, even the greats have had to learn this the hard way. In this video, Reid Hoffman talks about the early years of Paypal’s near-death experience.
By default, we want the next thing that looks great. The thought of marketing a second location and getting all of the additional revenue we are now making in the next market sounds sexy. But if the current systems in your business at the location that you have are not perfect, scaling that is not full proof. Or, maybe in your case it isn’t opening another location. Maybe you are currently equipped to handle 50 jobs at once as your maximum threshold and you are being asked to take on another 30. That revenue looks great. But, nail it, then scale it. Whether it is opening up a second location or increasing the threshold that you can handle, there is a TON of behind the scenes works to create these repeatable systems.
