Purpose Chasers ®

It's no secret that Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs drives and motivates human behavior. Each stage is the motivating factor behind what you are doing and why you are doing it. When it comes to business, these needs only intensify when it comes to you and your employees. 

Suppose you want to create a successful business where the success is mutually beneficial for everyone involved. In that case, you must start with the first level of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. After understanding your employee's needs, you also need to recognize and understand your needs as the entrepreneur and owner of the company. 

Purpose Chasers, if you missed last week's episode where I broke down Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and how to fit the company's vision with your employee's driving factors and behaviors, I invite you to go back and listen to part one. Last week, I took a deep dive into recognizing and understanding your employees' needs, specifically how you can help them attain them and how you and your team will reap many benefits, including maximum production, happiness, and self-fulfillment.

This week, I'm focusing on you, the entrepreneur. When creating a solid business, four main contributing factors keep any entrepreneur out of the lower levels of the Hierarchy of Needs: Cash Flow, Paying Yourself First, Chain of Command/Leadership, and Systems. While individuals commonly refer to a typical 9-5 job as a rat race, it's easy to fall into the entrepreneurial roller coaster trap. To get off the roller coaster for good, tune in as I help you dial in these four systems to create space for you to do what you do best.

Topics Discussed:

• Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs breakdown
• Why efficient systems are Gospel in business
• Solution-minded vs. problem-minded
• How to spot an immediate crisis vs. something you can come back to
  
  

Ready to stop working for your business and have your business start working for you? To gain access to resources I've created for you and learn how to work with me and my marketing team to grow and scale your business, visit www.markcrandall.net

Quotes:

Mark Crandall

• "Being pulled into all the problems within your company will bring you down faster than anything else. A chain of command or order of business needs to be put in place to ensure you can get out of the weeds.”
• “Chain of command is CRUCIAL. If you want to grow and scale your company, you must be out of the problems. You need to train and empower team members to make decisions to solve problems so that you are not pulled into every single issue that arises.”
• “Building systems without accountability is useless because there is no structure to ensure the systems get followed.”
• “You'll never feel at your highest self if you're constantly solving problems and never put preventative measures in place to ensure those problems never happen again. That's the core definition of systems.”

According to Abraham Maslow, all humans operate inside a Hierarchy of Needs. The Hierarchy of Needs includes Physiological Needs, Safety, Love and Belonging, Esteem, and Self-Actualization. These needs are what drive and motivate human behavior. When it comes to business, creating a vision for your employees to align themselves with is the key to recruiting and maintaining employees. 

This week, I'm sharing a quick overview of the 5 Stages of the Hierarchy of Needs and how to fit the company's vision with your employees' driving factors and behaviors. Once you recognize and understand your employees' needs and how you can help them attain them, you and your team will reap many benefits, including maximum production, happiness, and self-fulfillment.

Purpose Chasers, be sure to tune in next week as I share part two of how Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs applies to business, specifically how it applies to entrepreneurs and business owners. 

Topics Discussed:

• Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs breakdown

• How to help your employees map out a career, not a job

• Goal setting as a team vs. individual goals (hint: teamwork is HIGHLY beneficial)

• Create a vision that motivates your to take on new roles and responsibilities
  
  

Ready to stop working for your business and have your business start working for you? To gain access to resources I've created for you and learn how to work with me and my marketing team to grow and scale your business, visit www.markcrandall.net.

Quotes:

• "My belief of the Hierarchy of Needs is that you can never have enough behaviors that are driving multiple phases of the hierarchy because your behavior is dictated in that single stage you are seeking to fulfill." 

• “Every human is striving to get to a place of self-actualization, the desire to become the most that one can be, but a lot of people never get to experience that because they don't get the lower level needs met.”

• “I use all my team members' goals to drive my behavior. Team members hitting their goals and hierarchy of needs allows me to sustain self-actualization.”

This week, I'm sharing the lessons learned from terminating two individuals who are near and dear to me. Terminating employees who are like friends and family is one of the most challenging decisions I've ever had to make in business. But one of the most valuable takeaways is the importance of asking how YOU can do better. How can you be a better leader and team leader? What areas can you improve on to future-proof the relationships in and out of your company? 

While entrepreneurs and team leaders don't regularly ask this, it's important to instill it into your team. When you own up to your mistakes and treat others equally, you create a strong accountability structure moving forward that everyone can pick up on. On the flip side, just as owning up to your mistakes is necessary for team success, so is praise and appreciation. Ensuring that you point out the achievements of your team members lets them know that you're investing in their growth and security. 

Purpose Chasers, be sure to tune in next week as I share how Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs applies to business, specifically how it applies to your employees and team members. 

Topics Discussed:

• The Number 1 question to ask yourself when facing adversity in your business
• Why owning your mistakes makes you a better leader
• Finding mutual ground and equality with your team
• Establishing a solid accountability structure
• Understanding the balance between praise and demand
  
  

Ready to stop working for your business and have your business start working for you? To gain access to resources I've created for you and learn how to work with me and my marketing team to grow and scale your business, visit www.markcrandall.net

Quotes:

Mark Crandall

• "Whenever something happens that negatively impacts your company, the most important question to ask yourself is, "What can I do better." 
• “An iron fist can only go so far, but too much praise can get you in trouble. Finding the balance between praise and demand is key.”
• “I never want to be better than the team beside me. I don’t view myself as better or less than the people surrounding me. We are all equal.”
• “Making money is great, but not on the backs of those you rarely show appreciation to.”
• “Good is the enemy of the great. Keeping the good may prevent the great from ever gracing you with their presence.”

If you're an active listener of the show, then you might remember Episode 100, where I chatted with Nathaniel Bruno, Owner of Community Solar Authority, about my entrepreneurial journey and how he helped me get started. It was a fantastic conversation about the two main lessons I learned in entrepreneurship and the incredible insight I gleaned from Nat's own experiences. Well, Purpose Chasers, I decided to bring him back for an all-new episode. 

Nat Been has been an entrepreneur since college and is currently on his 6th business. He's lived in a van for three years and traveled all over the US and overseas. Now, homesteading in Texas, he's been running a solar business without ever meeting his business partners in person ever since Covid-19. In this episode, Nat shares his own entrepreneurial journey and how he became a community authority within the solar industry. 

Be sure to listen in as we discuss the truth behind what it takes to be a business owner, how to grow your business and scale yourself out of your company, and why entrepreneurship isn't for everyone (and that's okay!)

Topics Discussed:

• Going all in and focusing on ONE business at a time
• Being intentional in both your personal life and business
• The KEYS to creating healthy partnerships (and the dangers to look out for)
• Why it’s near impossible to scale out of a consulting business

Ready to stop working for your business and have your business start working for you? To gain access to resources I've created for you and learn how to work with me and my marketing team to grow and scale your business, visit www.markcrandall.net

Connect with Nat Bruno:

• Website: https://www.communitysolarauthority.com/ 
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/community-solar-authority/

Quotes:

Nat Bruno

• "I started with my good friend and consulting client; next thing you know, I had three businesses. And that quickly led to burnout. I sold everything, took off on the road, lived in a van, and traveled through the US and Canada to enjoy life. Running three businesses, I finally had to say enough and focus on one business. And now I'm all in on one business, and since then, things have been super clear in my life, and I'm a lot more intentional in everything I do in life and business." 
• “There’s always going to be that entrepreneur in me that’s always looking for what’s next, what can I do better, and how do I be better. I don’t think I’ll ever truly feel settled and content.” 
• When I was on the road, I had a very specific framework of what I was looking for in my next venture, one that had unlimited income potential, the ability to work from anywhere, and the ability to hire and train my replacement. I didn't want to be the only one. In consulting, being the face of a company, you're never going to be able to get out of it because people want you and only you, not your replacement.”

Mark Crandall

• "I stay behind the computer and work on marketing strategies that break the internet. But I'm also a visionary, so I like to look at a company and the hazards and issues that could arise."
• "There are a lot of dynamics that go into healthy relationships with your business partners. Being able to have clear communication with your partnerships is essential."
• "I quit my 9-5 to be a business owner, and then I started working 24 hours a day. There's a degree of crazy that's involved in being an entrepreneur. That's why most companies don't make it. It’s not for everyone.” 

If you lead your business with honesty and integrity, you’re setting yourself up for a successful company. While building a scalable company isn’t for the faint of heart, it is doable and it can be done the right way. You just have to nurture your relationships and honor your previous agreements. 

But sometimes other people don’t always hold their end of the bargain. One of the key lessons I share this week is how a $8k error made by a former supplier has made my company more money than I can count. One of the most important lessons you can learn from your mistakes is how to leverage your errors in order to grow. Owning up to your mistakes and recognizing ways to improve will help you create stronger relationships and scale your company. When you constantly evaluate what you’re doing and how you’re doing it, the room for error shrinks over time. 

Not only can you leverage your mistakes but you can also leverage your relationships. Though, the number one thing you have to remember about leverage is that you have to have some weight on the other side of the scale. If you don’t have something to offer on your end, it’s a lead that goes nowhere and the other person can see that it’s not a mutual benefit for them. To learn more about how to leverage your mistakes, strengthen your relationships, and how technology can propel your growth and scalabilyt, tune into this week’s episode of Purpose Chasers!

Topics Discussed:

• Streamlining your business to make it more efficient to scale up
• Why you need a “fail safe” tracking method for your business
• Red flags to look out for when doing business with other suppliers
• How technology helps your business stay accountable

Ready to stop working for your business and have your business start working for you? To gain access to resources I've created for you and learn how to work with me and my marketing team to grow and scale your business, visit www.markcrandall.net

Quotes:

• "Technology saves time and minimizes the risk of error through accountability”
• “A lot of companies should be asking themselves how they can leverage their errors.”
• “We can be friends but if you don’t navigate business from a high-level of integrity with my interest in mind, there is no friendship. I’m thinking about you and how to be the best customer possible but if you’re thinking about yourself, it’s not going to work.” 
• “One of the key ingredients to rapid and massive revenue scale is strengthening and leveraging relationships in business.” 
• “The time on-site should be spent being as productive as humanly possible.”

If you’re an entrepreneur, business owner, or industry leader, then you’ve more than likely heard the phrase, “cashflow is king” or “cash is king.” Just because you make millions of dollars a year doesn’t mean you pocket millions of dollars. On paper, it may look like you’ve made tons of money per job, but in practice, you may be losing more money than you even realize. But what if I told you there’s a better strategy? One that can ensure you’re getting paid first while also paying your employees and paying off any surprises along the way. (i.e., renting equipment).

This week, I’m sharing the formula that I’ve created within my own companies to ensure each business is in a healthy financial state. One of the biggest pieces of this formula is recognizing that your finances can’t be a guessing game. There has to be an effective mathematical equation put in place to predictably hit your margins every time. Once the needs of the customers are met, and the job is completed, then you can start paying yourself first. But only after accurately calculating every step of the process. 

Topics Discussed:

• The TRUTH behind the notion “cashflow is king” 
• Gamifying the financial state of your business
• Why you should NEVER spend money that you don’t have in your pocket
• Expenses most business owners never consider until it’s time to pay the bill

Ready to stop working for your business and have your business start working for you? To gain access to resources I've created for you and learn how to work with me and my marketing team to grow and scale your business, visit www.markcrandall.net

Quotes:

• "If the owners are stressed out about money, the employees are stressed out about money, and that is absolutely no way to live."
• “You never want more money going out than you have coming in."
• “You get to plan what the IRS takes. They don't get to tell you what they're taking.”
• “Your financial systems can be the greatest asset or the most profound downfall within your company.”

In this episode Frank Crinite shares the journey of branding himself to sell over 100 cars per month on average.  With 0 marketing dollars Frank has built his livilihood on the word of mouth of all of his previous customers.

Gain access to resources and/or work with Mark or his marketing team direct visit: www.markcrandall.net

This week, I’m sharing how my company went from $0 to $1.5 million in solar sold in a five-month span. While many people see this as a wild unicorn, luck of the draw experience, there’s just no such thing. By putting systems and automations in place, doing the work with honesty and integrity, building relationships with our clients, and keeping them in the know at all times, my team and I were able to grow and scale in an authentic way.

Everyone wants to grow and scale their business, but not everyone is willing to put the work in. Too many businesses are profit driven and completely void of strong customer relationships. Yes, growing and scaling your business is possible. But you must first focus on strengthening your relationships. Not just the relationships you have with your team but also the relationships you have with your clients and potential clients. To future-proof your company, you have to first lead with honesty and integrity.

Topics Discussed:

• Why there’s no such thing as beginners luck
• The REAL keys to success (that nobody wants to talk about)
• How to systematize every aspect of your company
• Learning new ways to overcome obstacles in your business

Ready to stop working for your business and have your business start working for you? To gain access to resources I've created for you and learn how to work with me and my marketing team to grow and scale your business, visit www.markcrandall.net

Quotes:

• "One of the hardest parts was teaching our team that every human we come into contact with is a potential customer."
• “Do not put all of your eggs in one basket. Do not rely solely on one platform to do anything for your company.”
• “We really doubled down on our belief that customers come before profit always. We’ve learned lessons along the way and have owned our mistakes because we are a company that operates with honesty and integrity, and that’s what separates us from the rest.”
• “When I had this conversation a year ago, I was talking to my team about this path, but the map hadn’t been created. There was no point A and point B. I just knew that I wanted to do it, and it would open up eventually if I kept putting the intention there, and now it’s happening.”

There is no such thing as “slot machine” growth, only slow and steady growth. Too many business owners make uneducated guesses about their financial health. But in order to grow and scale your business, you must take out the guessing game and start figuring out the correct mathematical equation. In order to do that, you must first put the systems and automations in place to take your business to the next level. 

This week, I'm sharing how I 6x’ed Energy Shield of New Hampshire with just a Google Document and a CRM in just two short years and how we went from 5 employees to 15 and counting. 

When I first moved back to New Hampshire and gained ownership of Energy Shield of New Hampshire, there were no systems in place. There was no way to track customer appointments, deposits or final payments, materials ordered, and there was no schedule of projects from start to finish. There was a lot of money being thrown out the door. 

So I got busy building systems, hiring the right people for the right positions, tracking where the money was going in and out, and effectively communicating with every single client of ours. One of the biggest takeaways was that no homeowner wants to be surprised when it’s time to pay their final bill at the end of the day. The key to ensuring there are no secrets or surprises for the homeowner is to set clear expectations, use effective communication, and ensure everything is organized on the backend. 

Topics Discussed:

• Setting the tone for your team and your clients
• Financial health: one of the most overlooked things in business
• Why $ raises aren’t keeping your employees happy
• How to scale your business despite the growing material costs
• Why you need to build systems before you hit the throttle

Ready to stop working for your business and have your business start working for you? To gain access to resources I've created for you and learn how to work with me and my marketing team to grow and scale your business, visit www.markcrandall.net

Quotes:

• “One main principle we as a company carry through our entire process is customers over profit.”
• “We have direct communication with the customers. Even if we can't do their job, we are in contact with and talk to every single customer or potential customer that comes our way.”
• “One of the greatest money losses for businesses is that they crank up their marketing efforts before they ever have systems in place to ensure client calls are being answered, appointments are being booked, and the homeowner is being followed up with.”
• “With effective systems in place, can scale your business and know the outcomes on the other side.”

No amount of money can determine your worth. If you're unhappy with where you are and what you're doing, the dollar signs mean nothing. You could be making millions of dollars, but that doesn't mean a thing if you're constantly feeling like you're running in circles, utterly dissatisfied with where you're at in life. Tired of feeling stressed out, bogged down with work, and frustrated with how you're feeling at the end of the day? Then this episode is for you. 

This week, I'm diving into the epiphany I had four years ago around the difference between working off a retainer to working for ownership. I also walk you through the moment that completely changed my life and business for the better. After taking ownership of 8 companies over the past few years, I've gained incredible insight into how to run a better business model, the main ingredient for authentic and effective marketing, and how to strengthen my relationships with clients and friends-turned-business partners. Be sure to listen in as I share my top 10 lessons learned in business and why making more money could be costing you joy. 

Want to learn more about how I scaled Energy Shield of New Hampshire with just a google document and a CRM? Stay tuned for the next week's episode as I share how YOU can do the same with your company!

Topics Discussed:

• Why raising your rates won't fix your disconnect with the work you're doing
• How to effectively mix friendships and business partnerships
• Making progress by taking calculated risks
• Recognizing there are no failures, just costs associated with life lessons 
• Why you should NEVER sacrifice authentic relationships for shiny, new objects

Ready to stop working for your business and have your business start working for you? To gain access to resources I've created for you and learn how to work with me and my marketing team to grow and scale your business, visit www.markcrandall.net

Quotes:

• "I was all over the road, doing a lot of things. The revenue was awesome, but I was super frustrated. Praises were shouted from the rooftops about my work, but the frustration was building. I repeatedly raised my rates, trying to match my worth per hour. I was up to making $2,500 an hour and still didn't feel I was getting what I was worth for the results I was producing."
• "You can teach organizations and systems, but you can't teach someone to hustle."
• "I didn't understand the conundrum I was facing. I didn't understand the dollar-per-hour battle I was in. Then later, I learned that no amount of money could compensate me per hour. As my skills, experience, and track record increased, and the testimonies piled up surrounding what I was doing with the clients I was working with, and the results they were getting just weren't adding up."
• "I have such a high standard for myself and the work I'm performing for my clients that I never want to take on again more than I can do at a 110%. It's not fair to my other clients."
• "You're not building a business, you're building a reputation."