Building To Scale

Chip Murphy is the co-founder of CDM Technology - a consulting, contracting, and professional search firm that works in the high-level IT space with a focus on software development, Dev/OPS (think Cloud), and high-level software architecture.

In 2020 - right in the heart of the pandemic (crazy, we know) – Chip and his team expanded the business with 3 additional offices, primarily due to an account they landed that is hiring like gang busters. The growth has been challenging, but most of all it's been fun and exciting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qivUKMwAV_s

Key Takeaway: Building a business is a continual cycle of taking the entrepreneurial leap - over and over again. As Chip describes, the gray hair is not going away, and the delay in taking the leap to expand the business despite the challenges of 2020 was holding the business back.

Lessons Learned:

You don't know what you don't know...and that's okay - Knowing everything, every little step of starting or even owning a business is impossible. As you go along the way...Find Peers, people you admire, people you work have worked with, people who have done work for you, people you went to school with, and probably most importantly people who have also started businesses...and keep them close to you.

Keep a journal, keep mental notes, or just plain sticky notes – Keep track of all the things you experienced in the working world or for the companies you worked for that you did not like...write them down and keep them somewhere special...and try like hell to not repeat them as a business owner.

Read. Read. Read. - Books, newspapers, magazines, anything you can that does a couple of things. Educate you, or make you laugh. Not everything you read needs to be business-related. Not everything you read needs to focus on your business, or your clients etc.

For More Information:

CDM Technology @ https://www.cdmtechnology.com/ (https://www.cdmtechnology.com/)

LinkedIn @ https://www.linkedin.com/company/cdm-technology/ (https://www.linkedin.com/company/cdm-technology/)

Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/cdmtechnologysandiego (https://www.facebook.com/cdmtechnologysandiego)

Twitter @ https://twitter.com/CDMTechnologySD/ (https://twitter.com/CDMTechnologySD/)

LinkedIn @ https://www.linkedin.com/in/chip-murphy-6361871/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/chip-murphy-6361871/)

Scott Beebe is the founder of My Business on Purpose, a business coaching, training, and strategy group that helps small business owners and organizational leaders transition from working IN their businesses to working ON their businesses.

Scott is also the host of the Business on Purpose podcast; a weekly podcast where Scott interviews small business owners who share insights into how they are living their business on purpose.

Scott’s journey has taken him from seminary to pharmaceutical sales, back to church planting as a new pastor, and now into business as an entrepreneur leading and helping other business leaders.

Key Takeaway: Your role is an ever-growing organism as new things come along in the business. You must make a regular practice of reviewing everything you are doing and determine what you are good at, what you absolutely must do yourself, and then work to off everything else.

Lessons Learned:

Marketing is a Long Play – Word of mouth is the “silver bullet” of all marketing. But it is the hardest to come by and takes the longest to get there.

Everybody is in Sales – Everybody on your team is in sales and should be using the same message.

Marketing Consistency is Key – Your prospects are watching you and consistency is key to stay top of mind until the prospects urgency is great enough to connect.

For More Information:

My Business on Purpose @ http://mybusinessonpurpose.com/ (http://mybusinessonpurpose.com/)

LinkedIn @ https://www.linkedin.com/company/my-business-on-purpose/ (https://www.linkedin.com/company/my-business-on-purpose/)

LinkedIn @ https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottebeebe/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottebeebe/)

Twitter @ https://twitter.com/scottbeebe (https://twitter.com/scottbeebe)

David has been thrust into intense situations, often with a ‘fix or sell within 90 days’ imperative. It has been said that “He is never intimidated by crisis.”

David Baughman is the consummate operating professional and is the founder and CEO of Fractional Executive Solutions, a firm that provides the experience and knowledge of a high-powered operations professional for half the cost.

David has “been there and done that” for clients across a broad range of sectors, stages of growth, and business environments. His experience includes aerospace, automotive, industrial, and oil and gas. His specialty is dramatic and profitable acceleration of the company’s growth through his deep grasp of all functions and leverage points.

Key Takeaway: As a growing, scaling business, owners many times have blinders on as to different ideas or things that fall outside of their current path. As David describes it, business paradigms can inhibit us from exploring new ideas, which is how we grow.

Lessons Learned:

Understand the importance and the quality of your network. Do your research and connect with those who can best help you TOMORROW as well today.

Look to join and network in groups such as Vistage. Again, that is for tomorrow as well as today.

Be clear on what value you and your company can provide and create an "elevator speech" around it.

For More Information:

Fractional Executive Solutions @ http://www.fractionalexecutivesolutions.com/ (http://www.fractionalexecutivesolutions.com/)

LinkedIn @ https://www.linkedin.com/company/fractional-executive-solutions-llc/ (https://www.linkedin.com/company/fractional-executive-solutions-llc/)

LinkedIn @ https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidjbaughman/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidjbaughman/)

Every company wishes they have a crystal ball when it comes to making business decisions, and while a physical iteration of that wish is not possible, Tony Nash has developed the next best thing for his clients at his startup, Complete Intelligence.

Tony is the CEO and Founder of Complete Intelligence. Before founding Complete Intelligence, Tony was the global head of research for The Economist and the head of Asia consulting for IHS Markit.

Complete Intelligence is a fully automated and globally integrated AI platform for smarter cost and revenue planning. Using advanced AI, they provide highly accurate cost and revenue forecasts fueled by billions of enterprise and public data points.

Key Takeaway: As a growing, scaling business, you must know what you are good at, what you do, and what you do not do. Maintain your mission-critical focus on the most important aspects of your business and outsource the parts that you are simply not good at or are outside of your mission.

Lessons Learned:

Put Significant Thought into Your Senior Hires – Hire low first, then hire the upper levels as they will be the ones that have to share your mission and must be the right hire.

Know what You Do Not Do – Knowing what you don’t do is just as important as knowing what you do do.

Define Your Culture – Define the culture you are building and continually and intentionally reinforce it.

For More Information:

Complete Intelligence @ https://www.completeintel.com/ (https://www.completeintel.com/)

LinkedIn @ https://www.linkedin.com/company/complete-intelligence/ (https://www.linkedin.com/company/complete-intelligence/)

Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/completeintel/ (https://www.facebook.com/completeintel/)

Twitter @ https://twitter.com/complete_intel/ (https://twitter.com/complete_intel/)

YouTube @ https://youtube.com/c/completeintelligence/ (http://youtube.com/c/completeintelligence/)

LinkedIn @ https://linkedin.com/in/tonynash/ (https://linkedin.com/in/tonynash/)

From IT technician to CEO, Dylan Todd of Wellteck IT is a Christian, Husband, Father, Brother, Son, Entrepreneur and Cross-fitter with a passion for People and Technology.

Dylan started Wellteck IT in the spare bedroom of a friend’s house in 2014. The company is now more than 15 employees and breaking 7-figure revenue marks on a consistent basis.

As Dylan has transitioned from technician to CEO, his role has continued to evolve and change. However, his focus and vision to best serve and treat his customers' IT needs remain unchanged.

Key Takeaway: Understand the work that running a business requires and find ways to work smarter and harder. Making that transition from technician (working in the business) to owner (working on the business) is not easy and requires constant attention to the long-term picture and strategy.

Lessons Learned:

Do to others as you would want done to yourself – Whether it is your own team, your customers, or your vendors, your integrity takes a lifetime to build up and only minutes to crash.

Never sign or verbally agree to anything you will not put 110% in to.

Look at things from your customer's perspective, not just your own.

For More Information:

Wellteck IT @ http://wellteck.com/ (http://wellteck.com/)

LinkedIn @ https://www.linkedin.com/company/wellteck-it/ (https://www.linkedin.com/company/wellteck-it/)

Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/wellteckit/ (https://www.facebook.com/wellteckit/)

Twitter @ https://twitter.com/WellTeckIT/ (https://twitter.com/WellTeckIT/)

LinkedIn @ https://www.linkedin.com/in/dylan-todd-72b51764/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/dylan-todd-72b51764/)

Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/dylan.todd1/ (https://www.facebook.com/dylan.todd1/)

As CEO of Elements.cloud, Ian Gotts is passionate about providing the tools and training to help customers reduce the risk and improve the adoption of their Salesforce implementations. He’s been a customer Salesforce over the last 18 years and a regular speaker at Dreamforce, World Tour and Dreamin’ events.

Over the years as a customer of Salesforce, Ian and his team struggled to manage the implementation lifecycle as there were no enterprise level tools. Over the last 10 years Salesforce has become a powerful platform and now has huge enterprise customers. Ian saw a massive opportunity to fill the gap and support their customers, so he dragged a couple of old colleagues out of retirement and founded Elements.cloud.

Key Takeaway: When it comes to building a product or service, customer feedback is invaluable to ensure you are hitting your target. However, it must be balanced so that you are not in the position of having no clear direction and doing "anything for money".

Lessons Learned:

Focus – Ensure the product market fit, solve one problem for one market before you scale.

Marketing - Understand marketing "to the right of the chasm" and aim to quickly get beyond the early adopters into the majority.

For More Information:

Elements.cloud @ http://elements.cloud/ (http://elements.cloud/)

LinkedIn @ https://www.linkedin.com/company/q9-elements/ (https://www.linkedin.com/company/q9-elements/)

LinkedIn @ https://linkedin.com/in/iangotts/ (https://linkedin.com/in/iangotts/)

Twitter @ https://twitter.com/iangotts/ (https://twitter.com/iangotts/)

At the age of 4 with 20 words vocabulary, Crys was solidly in the foster care system. She was adopted as an older child and loved learning. Crys graduated from high school as a valedictorian, attended college at Fresno State, has four degrees, and continues to pick up an alphabet of certifications. She has overcome abuse, lives with a traumatic brain injury, and truly believes that we have the power to rewrite our story at anytime, especially our financial story!

Crys has launched five businesses and absorbed a myriad of lessons from each one. Over the last 13+ years, she has empowered thousands of humans through leadership workshops, budgeting webinars, CFO sessions, and the budgeting tools you can find on our website. Most recently, she created the Manifesting Financial Freedom sets that help entrepreneurs focus on abundance and prosperity.

Key Takeaway:

When a project is "break-even", you are moving with a "broke even" mindset, actually going backwards in your business. Knowing your numbers, your profitability, etc. is the only way to make informed decisions and scale the business.

Lessons Learned:

Paying yourself first is a top priority…put it in the financial plan and build around it.

Exponential growth is so much more painful to a business than slow and steady growth.

Owning your BS takes a level of humility that I never would have imagined possible.

For More Information:

TandT, LLC: https://www.tntdynomite.com/ (https://www.tntdynomite.com/)

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/crys-noell-708a5a179/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/crys-noell-708a5a179/)

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TNTFinancialFreedom/ (https://www.facebook.com/TNTFinancialFreedom/)

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/TNTFinancialFreedom (https://www.instagram.com/TNTFinancialFreedom)

Natasha Miller sits at the helm of Entire Productions, but she isn’t your average CEO; she is a hyphenate entrepreneur who began her career in entertainment as a celebrated jazz artist with seven records released on her own label, Poignant Records.

Having founded Entire Productions in 2000, when she was still performing, this single mother and Des Moines, IA native single-handedly built a multi-million dollar company.

As an event planning agency, faced with a global pandemic and a shutdown of all in-person events, Natasha faced a critical pivot in her business in early 2020. By making a fast re-alignment of her business, she wrapped up 2020 with more than 150 events staged after the shutdown in March.

Key Takeaway: By having a strong foundation and a forward-looking vision, Natasha was able to quickly pivot her company and move forward along a different path very quickly when she might otherwise have been faced with closing the company.

Lessons Learned:

Education- I took incredible lessons from professors, mentors and advisors and put them into action immediately. This was the #1 needle-mover in our growth.

I listened to my team and followed their passion and skills.

We have an omnipresence in our very targeted niche and don't stray from it - wastes time and money.

For More Information:

Entire Productions: https://www.entireproductions.com/ (https://www.entireproductions.com/)

Natasha Miller: https://natashamiller.co/ (https://natashamiller.co/)

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natashamiller/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/natashamiller/)

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NatashaMillerMusic

Twitter: https://twitter.com/NatashaMillerSF (https://twitter.com/NatashaMillerSF)

Kaitlyn is the owner and creative director of South Street, Co., a digital marketing agency that helps small and medium businesses grow their reach online.

Following the stereotypical entpreneurial journey, Kaitlyn turned a side hustle into a growing digital marketing agency. Her transition from consultant to business owner has been a journey of discovery and learning when it comes to how to run a growing and successful business.

One of the biggest keys to her success has been leveraging automation to remove the burden of administrative work from her creative team, while still ensuring the work is done the right way each time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yl1Fxm0IFcs

Key Takeaway: By systematizing and automating administrative processes, you ensure that all of the right things get done the right way, while freeing up time and brain power for the creative side of the business.

Lessons Learned:

Trust your gut

Set up automation to help run your business

Always be nice!

For More Information:

South Street: http://www.southstreetmarketing.com/ (http://www.southstreetmarketing.com/)

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/south-street-and-co--a-marketing-agency/ (https://www.linkedin.com/company/south-street-and-co--a-marketing-agency/)

Facebook: https://faceboook.com/southstreetco (https://faceboook.com/southstreetco)

Twitter: https://twitter.com/marketinggal_ (https://twitter.com/marketinggal_)

Cristy “Code Red” Nickel, author of “The Code Red Revolution,” is a speaker, #2 world-ranked boxer (retired), celebrity nutritionist, award-winning personal trainer, and elite-level athlete.

Cristy created a nutrition program that enables people to lose 10% of their body weight each month WITHOUT shakes, pills, diet foods or exercise. She is a retired professional boxer, celebrity trainer and had her own MTV show.

She was receiving Idaho state food stamps up until April 2016 where she hired a business coach and hit $10 million in 3 1/2 years. Currently, Cristy is based out of Boise Idaho and has 61 employees.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Mm2_9eOprA

Key Takeaway: Find and utilize help - as an entrepreneur, you don't have all of the answers and the faster you can realize that and find a coach, a mentor, an advisor, the faster you will be able to grow beyond yourself.

Lessons Learned:

Be consistent when utilizing social media as a way to deliver marketing messages

Get a business coach!

Be a product of your product (or no one will buy your product)

For More Information:

Code Red: https://coderedlifestyle.com/ (https://coderedlifestyle.com/)

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/cristycodered/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/cristycodered/)

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CodeRedLifestyle/ (https://www.facebook.com/CodeRedLifestyle/)

Twitter: https://twitter.com/cristycodered/ (https://twitter.com/cristycodered/)