Scale Your Small Business

Thanks for tuning into the Scale Your Small Business Podcast with your host, Jillian Flodstrom. On this week's episode, we're discussing organization charts. Jillian is here to share some tips on why organization charts are important for your business, even if it's just you by yourself or if you have a small team.

Every business requires a clear structure for their company, and an organization chart can really help with that. An organization chart can make your team understand the hierarchy of your organization and what channels to go through when they're working on a project. A visual representation of the structure can help your employees understand their relationship with other groups within the company and how they can contribute over all.

By clearly communicating how each group of staff members relates to each other, the organization can experience greater growth by avoiding unnecessary conflicts and confusion. An organization chart can also help assess employees workloads. This can clearly illustrate where the loop ends, where the buck stops, based on every person that's in your organization on your org chart.

Identifying opportunities for collaboration is a massive benefit of having an org chart. Which employees work in which departments, which might be good a resource for another employee, can be huge when determining where in an organization, especially if you have a large one, where people should go to find other people to collaborate with.

In the same way, an org chart can show you holes in the structure of your organization. It can point to bottlenecks where things are getting slowed down. Important functions that no one is accountable for are immediately apparent in an organizational chart.

Finally, it's always fun (and surprisingly useful) to plan out the future of your business. You can visualize how you want to look after you've grown.

So, don't discount an organization chart just because you might have a smaller business, you might be by yourself. Give yourself the ability to dream about what your organization could become and you never know, those future spots on the organization chart just might be filled with awesome people.

Key Takeaways

1. Every business requires a clear structure for their company, and an organization chart can really help with that.
2. An organization chart can make your team understand the hierarchy of your organization and what channels to go through when they're working on a project.
3. Identifying opportunities for collaboration is a massive benefit of having an org chart.
4. An org chart can show you holes in the structure of your organization. It can point to bottlenecks where things are getting slowed down.

Welcome back to the Scale Your Small Business Podcast with your host, Jillian Flodstrom. This week, we're welcoming number one award-winning account executive and a super successful sales coach, Nicole Cramer. Nicole is here to share with us her unique perspective on shifting our mindsets to a place of service and how we can avoid being 'salesy.'

Nicole believes sales can be fun. It doesn't have to be a big, scary thing. The key is shifting your perspective. Serving is selling, and selling should be serving. Nicole reminds us of this: if you're feeling salesy, the chances are you're making it about you. You're making yourself the centerpiece, and that's not why you started a business, right? If you're not telling your customer how you can help them, then you're not really doing what you said you wanted to do, which is to help others. We have to be willing to get uncomfortable and take some of those risks in order to fulfill this passion.

A major challenge Nicole sees business owners make is distracting themselves from what they are afraid to do with other tasks and things that they feel productive with. When you're focused on, "I need this website to be up and running before I can help people." The website doesn't give you any better ability to help people. It's a distraction that makes you feel good because you're doing something, but it's not actually a revenue-generating activity. And if you aren't generating revenue in your business, then you don't have a business.

Additionally, business owners often fall victim to bright shiny object syndrome of trying to do too many things all at once. Those who do this are just distracting themselves and keeping themselves stuck where they are.

Many people have the fear of being too pushy. Nicole's advice is this: If you're selling ice to a polar bear, then you're selling a polar bear something that he doesn't need. So are you selling people something that they don't need? You're being salesy because you're selling people things that they don't need. Don't let your fears or insecurities prevent you from helping and serving people. The truth is, most people aren't going to need what you have, and that's okay.

Personal growth plays a huge part in professional success. From Nicole's perspective, your first couple of years of entrepreneurship have nothing to do with growing your business. It has everything to do with your own personal development journey. If you don't focus on that first and foremost, you are going to take yourself out of the game. You need to be so committed to why you want to do this and you need to be able and willing to recommit every day, sometimes every minute.

90% of this is mindset and 10% of it is strategy. Invest in yourself, hire a coach. A doctor does not perform surgery on herself. You are not meant to go through this alone. That can look like investing in a coach. Maybe that means investing in whatever your success team is, therapists, mentors, guides, anything that would help.

Nicole's final piece of advice is this: you either get to fight for your limitations or fight for your possibilities. You can see it through either lens, but when you continue to see it through the lens of your limitations, you will continue to see more limitations. If you shift your perspective, you'll see your potential.

Key Takeaways

1. Serving is selling, and selling should be serving.
2. If you're feeling salesy, the chances are you're making it about you.
3. 90% of this is mindset and 10% of it is strategy. Invest in yourself, hire a coach. A doctor does not perform surgery on herself.

Links

https://www.healthystepswithnicole.com/

https://www.instagram.com/healthystepswithnicole/

Thanks for tuning into the Scale Your Small Business Podcast with your host, Jillian Flodstrom! Today's an exciting day, as we're welcoming our first guest to the show. Joining us this week is James Gardiner, he's a high-performance athlete who helps entrepreneurs face their challenges, uncover their secret sauce, and help their lives and businesses thrive. This week, he's breaking down his success and how he uses Conscious Leadership to help people find theirs.

James first found his interest in helping entrepreneurs achieve because he saw the similarities between his own, competitive, high-performance mentality and theirs. Entrepreneurs are creative, driven minds, and there's no secret why many high performance athletes end up being coaches and business advisors.

With that, some of the same challenges are presented for both high-performance athletes and high-achieving entrepreneurs. Everyone comes to the table with his or her own unique skillset, strengths, and of course, challenges. It's about wearing multiple hats and learning how to juggle the different balls of what it means to be in business for ourselves, to be of service, and also to run a business. Following through on each of those can be difficult. On the other side of the spectrum are those who only do follow-through, and lose sight of the bigger picture.

So, how do we combat those challenges? James points to a constant process of assessing, reassessing, course correcting, and moving forward. This helps to mitigate some of those challenges and within those challenges, understanding or labeling the severity of them. Which are my bleeding artery challenges? Which are my just kind of nicks that are like a paper cut? Have a group of team members that you consult throughout to stay on track. Hand in hand with that is personal growth alongside professional growth. Misalignment will always show itself, always.

It's about understanding what gets you out of bed in the morning. We were all a young Beethoven once, and we had the ability to create our Ode to Joy, our masterpiece. James feels like we owe it to ourselves to take that journey.

If anyone knows the mentality between athletes and entrepreneurs, it's James. For him, it's an unwavering discipline towards a commitment, towards a contract with your soul. a true athlete understands all that encompasses how they show up in that sports arena. Why do I do the training I do? What effect does certain training have on my physiology? In the same way, taking into account everything that makes up being a successful entrepreneur is paying attention to how you're developing alongside the work you do. Everything that needs to go into having a vision, to creating a tangible concept of that vision, bringing people in possibly to champion the final product needs to be considered.

It's about showing up every day, but it's about balance. James reminds us of the importance of not needing external validation to equate your internal (and actual) value. You can't take anything with you when you die, so it's vital that you pay attention to areas that need it. Build in the ability to pause.

If you find yourself on the struggle bus and aren't sure where to make that bus go, James says to get crystal clear. Ask yourself, what do I want? What does it look like? How does it make me feel? Anchor those questions in emotion. Don't get caught up in the big step--take as small of a step as you need to move forward.

There are folks out there that just don't want to do what it takes to get the result that they want. The same way there are very few people who put in the work to become a professional athlete, it's the same with entrepreneurs. As Jill calls it, "Destination Procrastination."

Reach out to James Gardiner on Instagram and Facebook, and visit his website at theherowithin.ca to schedule a complimentary 45-minute hero discovery call.

Key Takeaways:

1. Everyone comes to the table with his or her own unique skillset, strengths, and of course, challenges. It's about wearing multiple hats and learning how to juggle the different balls of what it means to be in business for ourselves, to be of service, and also to run a business.

2. It's about showing up every day, but it's about balance. James reminds us of the importance of not needing external validation to equate your internal (and actual) value.

3. It's about understanding what gets you out of bed in the morning. We were all a young Beethoven once, and we had the ability to create our Ode to Joy, our masterpiece.

4. Ask yourself, what do I want? What does it look like? How does it make me feel? Anchor those questions in emotion. Don't get caught up in the big step--take as small of a step as you need to move forward.

Want more information? Connect with James Gardiner at his:

Website - https://theherowithin.ca/

Instagram: https://instagram.com/jamesgardiner___?utm_medium=copy_link

Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/jim.gardiner.canordinaryinspire

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-gardiner-b157b5163

YouTube: https://youtube.com/c/JamesGardiner

We've officially made it to "halftime" here on the Scale Your Small Business Podcast. That's right, this is episode 52 and we're celebrating the one-year anniversary of the show. It's been an incredible journey and we can't wait to share with you what's coming next -- we'll be talking with our upcoming podcast guests about topics you care about most. Stay tuned to hear from some of the brightest minds in business.

Jill is excited to share with you a mix of systems and processes that she uses daily with all their information partnered with their wisdom and insight. We would love for you to join us for two episodes per week! Shorter episodes with Jill will come on Thursdays, and guest episodes will be released on Tuesdays.

If you've enjoyed our show, we would love for you to rate this podcast, leave us a review, send Jill a message on Instagram. She would love to continue the conversation there.

Key Takeaways:

1. Thank you for one year of success and scaling your small business!
2. Looking ahead, we'll be producing two shows--one solo, and one with an expert guest!
3. Stay tuned to hear from some of the brightest minds in business break down their success.

Thanks for tuning into the Scale Your Small Business Podcast with your host, Jillian Flodstrom. This week, we're going to talk about why it's important to plan, layout, and execute your content in an intentional way. We'll break down strategies that can help you get ahead in case of unexpected challenges, build an audience, and calm the chaos.

So, why is it crucial that you plan your content ahead of time? It's simple. The more content you have ready to go, the more flexibility, the more control, and the more lead time you get when it comes to putting out content. Not only do you give yourself space to change your strategy, but you also can keep track of all the moving parts that come into play when producing content for your business.

The truth is, getting a system in place will come with some challenges. You'll run into hiccups as you iron out what works best for your team, and that's where most people fall off. But if you stick with it and let the process fall into place, you'll see the results in return.

For our example, we'll talk about the Scale Your Small Business podcast.

This system is simple but incredibly effective. It starts with a big calendar where all the content is laid out with episode numbers, air dates, social media posts, etc. That way, there are weeks and weeks of buffer time to make changes.

Then, we move to a shared spreadsheet that gives the team a robust look at the workflow. The first columns have dates when the raw file for an episode can be expected. Once that box is checked, the audio editors know to work their magic, all by the date on the spreadsheet. From there, once the box is checked, it can move to show note writing, social media content, and publication.

Not only does this spreadsheet keep everyone informed, but it increases efficiency when people know when their expertise and role is needed in the workflow. Think of it as a ripple in the water. As that ripple goes out, it gets farther and farther and farther. We want to make sure that all this content that we're creating, all the hard work that goes into it behind the scenes, that it launches when it's supposed to in a timely manner and we're not running to catch up.

Key Takeaways

1. The more content you have ready to go, the more flexibility, the more control, and the more lead time you get when it comes to putting out content.
2. Not only do you give yourself space to change your strategy, but you also can keep track of all the moving parts that come into play when producing content for your business.
3. Getting a system in place will come with some challenges. You'll run into hiccups as you iron out what works best for your team, and that's where most people fall off. But if you stick with it and let the process fall into place, you'll see the results in return.

Thanks for tuning into the Scale Your Small Business Podcast with your host, Jillian Flodstrom. As any entrepreneur knows, time is an incredibly valuable resource. In fact, it might be the most important facet of running your business. But there will always be areas where we're losing time, and if it can be prevented, why not save your time and money? This week, we're talking about time management.

Lauren Vanderkam's book I Know How She Does It breaks down, in depth, how many hours we're actually working in any given day. That's where time-tracking comes in.

This exercise can be catered to your work schedule, but the idea is to break down your day into chunks, 15, 30, an hour, whatever works, and log your activities for that time chunk. Consider using a split schedule. Oftentimes, our workdays are broken into different parts of the day--maybe you leave work early and pick it back up later in the evening.

If you're losing traction on important projects, it could be because of how much time you're spending scrolling, watching TV, or even doing laundry. The good news is, your logs will show you that, and then you can begin to take that time back.

Remember: interruptions are not breaks. They merely tire you more because they are not planned, and because they constantly leave you behind schedule. If you check your Facebook profile just five times a day, and you spend no more than 10 to 15 minutes each time, you've already lost an hour. Those distractions within an eight-hour workday could lead you to work more than 14 hours a day.

There are five more key components to managing your time:

One, get your big projects out of the way first. You'll thank yourself for the relief later.

Two, manage your meetings. If you can shave off 10 minutes from an hour-long meeting, you'll be surprised with how much time you get back.

Three, commit to your free time. Block out the time that you consider 'free' to ensure you have structure to complete tasks for yourself.

Four, plan your week ahead. If you go in with a plan, you won't feel like you're flying by the seat of your pants every day. Set your goals and a pathway there, so if any fires arise, you can adapt and continue.

Five, find your drive. When you carve our time for your work, you leave time to follow other passions. If you are interested in creating that side hustle, creating that other job to replace your current job, getting focused and scheduling out that time on your calendar will give you the ability to make that happen.

Finally, be mindful of family time. When we look back at the memories in our lives, we're not thinking about that big work project that we completed.

There is enough time. You just need to change your daily schedule. Nobody's perfect, and nor should we dream about being perfect. It's just not going to happen. We need to cut ourselves a break. Focus on the things that are important and ways that we can manage our daily schedule so that we have more time to spend with family and focus on the work that we love and brings us joy.

Key Takeaways

1. Log the time you're spending in 15 minutes chunks to identify areas where you'd losing traction on bigger projects.
2. Get your big projects out of the way first. You'll thank yourself for the relief later.
3. Manage your meetings. If you can shave off 10 minutes from an hour-long meeting, you'll be surprised with how much time you get back.
4. Commit to your free time. Block out the time that you consider 'free' to ensure you have structure to complete tasks for yourself.
5. Plan your week ahead. If you go in with a plan, you won't feel like you're flying by the seat of your pants every day.
6. Find your drive. When you carve our time for your work, you leave time to follow other passions.

Welcome back to the Scale Your Small Business Podcast with your host, Jillian Flodstrom. A question that almost always comes up when hiring a new team member is "how many hours should they work" Today, we're going to take a look at how you can make that choice, what to expect, and how you can maximize the efficiency and efficacy of your new hire.

The best part about being an entrepreneur is you call the shots. That means you get to decide who gets hired, what tasks they do, and how many hours you need them to work for. You can tailor the job to what you need most. But with that comes some necessary introspection.

Firstly, make a delegation list. On this list you're going to include tasks you don't want to do, don't like to do, don't have time to do, or don't know how to do. Have your list broken into columns: I do this, I need to do this, someone else could do this, and not applicable. Go through this list and consider every task, no matter how mundane, and ask "do I really need to be doing this?" If you find yourself saying 'yes' a lot, dig a little deeper. There could be things that other people may be better suited for.

Now that you have your list laid out, begin clumping tasks together and see if a position arises from there. Things like checking emails, sorting communications, transcribing voicemails, and other tasks could be done by someone else. Remember, though, it'll take time for them to reach the pace at which you can do these tasks. Once they're in the groove, it'll be worth it.

Once you've got a good idea of what kind of hire you're looking for, head to a hiring resource like Virtual Staff Finder. Work with a representative there to tailor a position that works best for you. Remember, you're in charge here. You get to decide what this looks like.

It's important to shift your mentality when making a hire. Yes, there are costs associated with hiring, and you will need to spend money to find the right person to pay to do these tasks, but the money will come. You're going to be freeing up hours upon hours of your day--what can you do in that time? There are going to be places you can cut costs to make this happen. Whatever your destination procrastination is, you can hire someone to free up that time.

Key Takeaways:

1. The best part about being an entrepreneur is you call the shots. That means you get to decide who gets hired, what tasks they do, and how many hours you need them to work for.
2. Make a delegation list. On this list you're going to include tasks you don't want to do, don't like to do, don't have time to do, or don't know how to do. Have your list broken into columns: I do this, I need to do this, someone else could do this, and not applicable.
3. If you feel like you need to handle most things, dig a little deeper and consider that someone else may be better suited for what you're looking to have accomplished
4. It's important to shift your mentality when making a hire. Yes, there are costs associated with hiring, but the money will come. You're going to be freeing up hours upon hours of your day--what can you do in that time?

Organizing paper can be daunting, especially when you have a giant pile of it and it's overwhelming. The key is just getting started. Today on the Scale Your Small Business Podcast, Jillian is breaking down her systems for calming the chaos when it comes to filing storage and organization.

A powerful tool when organizing paper is the 43-folder system. In this system, you have one folder for each month. Within each month are folders 1-31--one for each day. Hanging folders work best because you're going to be putting other folders, invites, just anything that's related to specific dates that you can't or would rather not scan, but need to keep a hold of. If it's client work, you can use this system in conjunction with a CRM reminder so you can go into the date and have everything waiting for you.

For current projects, you'll have a ladder file folder where scribbled notes, print outs, whatever it is, so it's self-contained. If it's something for the future, consider a 44th folder that you can revisit when the time comes.

Bank statements and receipts need their own system as well. Consider a folder that has 12 subsections, one for each month. This allows you to put every single month's bank statement, as well as an envelope with all your dated receipts, inside that folder. When everything is done and taken care of, you can clear those folders out (be sure to check with your accountant before you do that!).

You can always utilize digital tools for long-term storage like G-Suite and Dropbox, but if you're keen on using the paper method, especially with client files that were a no-go or have been dormant, you can purchase boxes from an office supply store and label them with the appropriate information. Be sure to keep these safe, and when they start to pile up, go through the files and eliminate those that no longer serve a purpose.

Key Takeaways:

1. When organizing papers, hanging folders work best. You're going to be putting other folders, invites, and anything related to specific dates that you can't, or would rather not scan, but need to keep a hold of.
2. For Bank statements and receipts, use a 12-section folder, one for each month. This allows you to put every single month's bank statement, as well as an envelope with all your dated receipts, inside that folder.
3. You can always utilize digital tools for long-term storage like G-Suite and Dropbox, but if you do store paper files, keep them secure and eliminate those that no longer serve a purpose.

Thanks for tuning into the Scale Your Small Business Podcast with your host, Jillian Flodstrom. Today, we're taking a close look at DISC profiles. These assessments have the ability to offer insight into your communication, as well as your teams. This powerful tool can lead to better, healthier personal and working relationships. Let's talk about it.

DISC profiles get their name from four distinct categories of personality types: decisive, interactive, stabilizing, and cautious. Each of these aspects play a key role in how an individual communicates, gets work done, and generally move throughout their world.

Understanding DISC profiles not only equips you with knowledge of yourself and others, but it helps you identify traits that can help you see what kind of communication would be best suited for the person you're working with.

In a sales environment, chances are you'll be in a situation where you're making a sales call in some form. This is a great place to see different personalities within the DISC profile in action.

For example, a decisive person would want a sales call to be short, sweet, and to the point. An interactive person would want to let the conversation go longer--similarly, a stabilizing person would let the conversation as long as it had to be. While a cautious person would rather get the cliff notes and know the facts, no matter the situation.

Making purchases is the same way--these concepts are personality types and how individuals interact with the universe.

Decisive: Short and sweet

Interactive: Not cut off or rushing

Stabilizing: No pressure

Cautious: Important details only

Shoot Jillian a DM to get the visual of the DISC system and to chat further into how this incredible tool can be utilized.

Key Takeaways:

1. DISC profiles get their name from four distinct categories of personality types: decisive, interactive, stabilizing, and cautious.
2. Understanding DISC profiles not only equips you with knowledge of yourself and others, but it helps you identify traits that can help you see what kind of communication would be best suited for the person you're working with.

Decisive: Short and sweet

Interactive: Not cut off or rushing

Stabilizing: No pressure

Cautious: Important details only