Episode #21: Scaling Smart: How to Work Less and Earn More (Without Losing Your Sanity)

In this podcast episode, we explore the imperative concept of scaling one's business or career intelligently, emphasizing that increased revenue does not inherently equate to enhanced freedom or satisfaction. I elucidate the prevalent misconception that greater financial success necessitates an increase in workload, and I present compelling anecdotes illustrating how entrepreneurs can achieve significant revenue while working fewer hours through the implementation of robust systems and processes. The discussions highlight the necessity of financial clarity, streamlined operations, and strategic team management as foundational components prior to pursuing growth. Through the experiences of clients such as Vanessa and Amy, we reveal that without these essential systems, individuals often find themselves ensnared in a cycle of chaos and burnout. This episode serves as a critical guide for those aspiring to elevate their professional endeavors without sacrificing their well-being or personal time.

The episode elucidates the profound misconception that augmenting one's income necessitates an increase in labor intensity and duration. In my discourse, I articulate that the most successful entrepreneurs, paradoxically, often operate with reduced hours yet yield superior financial results. I recount the plight of Vanessa, a fitness coach who, despite her impressive revenue of $400,000 annually, experiences debilitating stress and a lack of work-life balance. Her narrative exemplifies a widespread phenomenon where individuals, in their quest for financial success, inadvertently create unsustainable work environments devoid of systematization. The crux of the discussion pivots on the imperative need for entrepreneurs to establish robust systems, as revenue without structured processes breeds chaos and ultimately leads to burnout. This episode sets forth a clarion call for business owners to prioritize scaling their systems in tandem with their revenue, thereby facilitating sustainable growth and personal well-being.

Takeaways:

• The podcast emphasizes the importance of scaling smartly in business without succumbing to overwhelming stress.

• Financial clarity and control are essential prerequisites for successful business scaling and decision-making.

• Streamlined processes must be documented to facilitate efficiency and enable effective delegation in business operations.

• Strategic team building is crucial; understanding roles and expectations can alleviate unnecessary stress for entrepreneurs.

• Burnout often results from scaling revenue without implementing robust systems that support that growth.

• Focusing on systems rather than mere hustle is a fundamental principle for sustainable business success.

Links referenced in this episode:

• designyourdreamlifetoday.com

TRANSCRIPT:

Hey there, I'm Kara and welcome to Design your Dream Life podcast where we dive in and explore how you can use practical personal development to up level your life.

Whether you are looking to have better or deeper relationships, fix your problems with money, learn to love yourself unconditionally, leave a dead end or high stress career, or just want more happiness in your life, my friend, you are in the right place. Are you ready? Hello my friends and welcome to another episode of Design your Dream Life.

I am Kara, your host and I am so excited that you're here today.

Today we are diving into something that I personally am incredibly passionate about, which is scaling smart in your business or your career without losing your mind in the process.

You know, there's this persistent myth out there that to make more money, you simply need to work harder, longer hours, take on more clients, create more products or more offer. And I am here to tell you that is absolute nonsense.

In fact, the entrepreneurs that I work with who are making the most, they're often working the least hours. And it's not because they're cutting corners or delivering less value. It is because they have figured out how to scale smart.

So let me start with something that might sound counterintuitive, but I promise you it's true. More revenue does not automatically equal more freedom.

I have seen this firsthand with friends and clients who have scaled to multiple six figures, or even seven, or multiple seven, but are more stressed and have less free time than when they were making half of that amount. And honestly, just last month I was talking with a friend, I'm going to call her Vanessa. Let's say I'm like, okay, what's the name that we can use?

Let's use Vanessa. She's built an incredible fitness coaching business generating around 400k and a year, not a month.

And from the outside, her business looks absolutely amazing, which I think is so funny because, like, isn't that like the influencer life of like, everything looks amazing, but behind the scenes she's falling apart. And so, and this is pretty much her, she's got the Instagram following, success stories, you know, the lifestyle photos.

But when we were chit chatting and we were talking, you know what she told me? She said, kara, I'm making more money than I ever dreamed possible, but I feel like I'm drowning.

I haven't taken a day off, like a real day off in months. I'm in every part of my business and if I stop, everything stops. And for me, this isn't sustainable. I just like, I Don't know what to do.

Like, I feel like I'm drowning. And honestly, Vanessa isn't alone because I see this pattern over and over and over again.

Entrepreneurs hit this, they might hit these, like, super impressive revenue goals, and then they realize they've built themselves a very expensive job with no way out. So why does this happen? Well, it happens because they've scaled their revenue without scaling their systems. I'm going to say side note here too.

There are so many people online who will tell you, oh, like, you know, I'm their life looks great and everything looks great. And on the outside it's like they're like, oh yeah, you know, we did like $10 million. And you're like, oh yeah, and what was your profit?

And they're like, oh, we actually lost money. So I want to also put that out. There is like, when you're following or talking to other people that might be dropping real impressive numbers.

Unless you know their actual profit, which is the money they're actually making and taking home, then it's just smoke and mirrors. All right, let's get back to the actual podcast. Revenue without systems creates chaos, and chaos leads to burnout.

No matter how much money you're making, the most beautiful penthouse in the world would still be miserable to live in if it was constantly on fire. Right? Listen, I have told you about Vanessa, who we were chit chatting about success and chaotic business and let me tell you what happened.

When we started working together, the first thing we did was conduct a complete systems audit. We looked at everything her client onboard. Her content creation, her team, her management style, her finances.

We looked at everything and you know what we found? She was doing at least 60% more work than necessary because nothing was systemized.

For example, she was personally sending welcome emails to every new client.

She was approving every single piece of content that her team created, and she was still even handling, oh my goodness, some customer service inquiries that really should have been managed by her va. So within three months of her implementing proper systems and delegation protocols, Vanessa's workload, listen, it decreased by 20 hours per week.

Her revenue stayed the same, and three months after that, her revenue actually increased by 15% while she continued working fewer hours. This is possible. Let me share another quick example with Amy.

Amy was one of my very first high level clients that I ever worked with after I transitioned out of agency life.

I've shared, I think her story in earlier podcasts, but she's a client of one of very few private clients that I work with and have been Working with for over five years. And when we started working together, her business was generating about 500k annually. But she hated it.

When she, when she came to me, she's like, Kara, when we were talking, she's like, on the outside, everything looks amazing. I am drowning inside, like, drowning. She's like, I want to burn it all down. And to be honest, I don't even know if I want to do this.

Like, the passion is gone. I do not love my business anymore. And I will tell you this. I was like. When she was telling me all the problems, I'm like, girl, we can fix this.

And not only can we fix this, we can make it so much better. And the first year that we worked together, we scaled her business to 2.2 million with 1.1 million in profit, which is outstanding.

But here's the really impressive part.

She went from working like a mad dog to actually working a leashed amount and enjoying family time and having way more time with her family, which was a huge win. Like, money is great. But to me, that win, when she was like, I love this now. I love the freedom that I have.

I love that we're making all the money and. And I'm having more time. And I don't feel like every day there's a new fire or there's, you know, all these problems.

And so I also want to pause and say this. It's never going to be perfect. Is there still days where it feels like there's fires? Absolutely.

So I don't want to say, like, oh, nothing bad ever happens. I'm just saying it's not on a consistent basis. It's not like you constantly feel like you're under fire.

And you know, Amy, like I said, to this day, she is still my client. She's still crushing it. We still are working reasonable hours.

And she's had a lot of stuff happen in her life that has made her not have to work as much. And thank goodness we had those systems and we've created this business business.

Because when other things happened in her life and she couldn't, she was forced not to work. The business went on, we went on, and we were still able to sustain our growth. So how did we do this?

Well, we did this with systems automations, strategic delegation, and smart scaling. So both Vanessa and Amy stories, they prove the same point Systems beat hustle every single time.

All right, so here are the three things that you must have before you scale. And I want to talk about these three essential elements to you because I want you to Know that they have to be in place before you attempt to scale.

If you are just starting out some, like some of you might be, these are foundations that you want to build from the beginning. Because if you can build from the beginning and work your way like, it's amazing.

And if you're already generating significant revenue but feeling overwhelmed, it's time to go back and implement these core elements. And maybe you have a few, maybe you don't. And if you do, maybe they need fine tuning.

If the, if you are doing this and it's not working, then you need to rework it. So the first thing is financial clarity and control. First you need complete financial clarity and control.

So this means understanding your true profit margins, not just your revenue, having clear visibility into your cash flow, knowing exactly which one of your offerings is most profitable, not just which ones that bring in the most revenue, and just really creating a financial dashboard that lets you make decisions based on data and not emotions. Honestly, I cannot tell you how many business owners I meet and they tell me their monthly revenue down to the penny.

They have no idea what their profit is. They have no idea which is their the most profitable offer.

They have like really honestly, they do not know what making, what's making them money versus which ones are just keeping them busy. Right? So before you scale, you need to know your numbers. Period.

All right, number two, the second essential element is having streamlined and documented processes for everything in your business. And you might be like, woo, that's a lot, Kara.

Well, when I started working with some friends and clients, I would ask them if you were hit by a bus tomorrow, don't worry, you survive. But you, but you can work. You can't work. You can't work for three months. Could your business continue to operate?

Most of them put their head between their legs and like omg, no, it would fall apart pretty quickly. And that's because so much of what they do only lives in their head.

So before you scale, you really need to clearly document the processes for every major function, just the major functions at first in your business, so that you can streamline workflows that eliminate redundancy and busy work systems that allow for easy delegation without constant supervision. So remember, if it's not documented, it's not a system, it's just a habit. And habits can't be delegated or scaled.

The third essential element is a strategic approach to team building and management. And listen, I'm not a huge believer in having mega teams.

I really love my whole core values is running lean and mean and really making people efficient. And that's why I'm like, okay, like, I like higher profit margins, smaller teams, but we're super efficient.

Everybody knows what they're awesome at and that's what they focus on.

So this means knowing exactly what roles you need to fill based on your business model, having clear expectations and outcomes and metrics for each role, and creating structures for communication and accountability that don't require your constant involvement, and building team culture that supports your vision without draining your energy. So many entrepreneurs make the mistake of hiring people without knowing what they need or how to manage them effectively. They're like, I need help.

I don't like everything's on fire. I like, I need help with this and this and this and this.

And they throw people in and they end up creating a team that creates them more stress than less. One tip I'll share before you hire anyone is to track how you spend your time for at least one week, if not two.

Two is probably the most optimal, and you will quickly see what tasks are taking up the most of your energy and which ones are truly they need your unique talents versus could just be delegated. Honestly, when you do time studies, they're just such an eye opener.

Now, if you're feeling stuck at a certain revenue level, maybe you've hit 5k months, but you can't get to 10. Or you're stuck at 20 and you can't get to 50. The problem is rarely your marketing or sales strategy.

More often it's your systems and structures or lack thereof, that are creating the ceiling. And here's what I mean by that. Let's say you're a service provider making 10k a month. You're working with clients, you want to scale to 20.

The typical approach would be just take on one more client, which means working more. But if you're already working 40 to 50 hours, there's your ceiling. The solution isn't necessarily to change your offer or even your marketing.

It might be simply to document and optimize your client delivery process so it takes less time. Build templates and frameworks that allow you to deliver the same quality.

And last time, hire and train someone to handle parts of your delivery and automate parts of your communication and follow up.

With these systems in place, you might be able to handle twice as many clients in the same number of hours, effectively doubling your revenue without doubling your workload. Or you might decide to move to a different business model altogether, like a group program or a course or digital products.

But without systems in place, even that transition Will be chaotic and exhausting. So what concrete steps can you take today to start scaling smart? Here are three things you can do this week.

First, conduct an energy audit for the next few days. Track where your time and energy is going now. Remember I said before, do a time study. You can actually mold this together. And a minimum do two days.

But honestly, one to two weeks and I get it. Listen, you can go easily Google how to do a time study.

And really, you you need to look and see which tasks drain you, which activities generate revenue. This data is crucial for making smart scaling decisions.

Second, identify one recurring process in your business that takes up a lot of your time but doesn't necessarily need your unique talents. Document the process step by step as if you were to hand it off to someone else.

Even if you're not ready to hire, Having this document and like having it done, let me tell you, it'll make your own work even more efficient. And third, look at your offerings and identify which one gives you the best return on your investment.

This might not be your highest priced offer, but the ones that provide the most value per hour for your time. This is where you should focus on your scaling efforts. And listen, it doesn't matter what kind of business.

If you're a coach, if you're a creator, if you do digital digital products or courses, or you have a membership, it does not matter. This applies to everyone. Remember my friends, scaling is not about working harder.

It's about building systems that allow your impact and income to grow without requiring more of your time and energy. Whether you're just starting out or already making six or seven figures, the principles are the same.

Clarity, systems and strategic delegation are the keys to scaling without sacrificing your scanity.

If you've been feeling stuck at a revenue ceiling or find yourself working longer hours as your business grows, I hope this episode has given you some clarity and direction.

You know, one of the most important things I've discovered with friends like Vanessa and clients like Amy is that having clear visibility into your business number changes everything. It's actually the first thing I do when I work with my high level private clients.

Because when you can actually see what's working and what's not and where to focus next, scaling becomes so much simpler. Honestly, it is why I created the CEO Dashboard. It's a tool I originally developed while helping clients like Amy scale to multiple seven figures.

It gives you a complete view of your revenue expenses, profit margins, lead growth, marketing performance all in one place. So if you are tired of feeling overwhelmed by your business numbers or just want the CEO level clarity we talked about today.

I've made this available to you for an insanely low price.

So it's the same system I use again with my high level clients, but I wanted to make it accessible for everyone in my community so you can go and find it at design your dream life today dot com. I was like, wait, that's the right. Yes, that is the right side, Kara.

And it's under products and there's a little video and then you can click learn more and then you can read all about it. It is only $27 you guys.

This dashboard comes with some powerful mindset shifts around money and strategic questions to help turn those numbers into actual smart business decisions. So if you need that in your life, please go grab it. I promise you this is the best $27 you are going to spend on your business.

Thank you again for tuning in today. Remember, you don't have to work harder to earn more. You just need better systems. I will catch you on the next episode.