Ep122 How to know when to grow your team to grow your business 

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There is something so awesome about being a solopreneur. You know, you've got all of the freedom, all of the flexibility you answer to no one, no one answers to you, you are Footloose, and Fancy Free. But what I see in so many businesses, especially female ran businesses is you get to the level where you hit that plateau, and go, why aren't I growing at the rate that I have been to this point, and often it has to do with team.

So today, I'm going to be running through how you know when it's time to hire that next person in your business. And so that you can have that beautiful happy medium between having a lot of profit, not sacrificing the profit for somebody else, but being able to grow your business and level up into its next iteration.

Hello, I'm Tina Tower, and you're listening to her Empire Builder. For my first decade of business, I thought grinding and hustling and working harder than everyone else was my path to success. It was pretty successful by a lot of measures, but it led to burnout and adrenal fatigue. Then when I travelled around the world, on my family gap year, I discovered the simplicity and the reach of online business. And I completely fell in love. You have so much knowledge and expertise that's within, and I want to help you to package that. So you can also help to lift others up. So how do you build a thriving million dollar business based on everything that's in your mind? This is her Empire Builder, the podcast.

Hey, friends, welcome to Episode 122 of the hair Empire Builder podcast. It's so great to have you here with me today. I'm talking all about team and I just want to like I wanted to call this episode, don't be a hero. But that's what we're going to be talking about a little bit today as well. Because what I see, and the same has been true for me many times is we've all if we've been in business long enough have been burnt by staff, there is always the fear that people are going to take advantage that it's going to cost us a fortune that we're not going to get the return on investment that they're going to take everything that we've taught them and leave and start their own business and rip us off - I’m starting on a real positive note here, right? All these things will happen if you do it for long enough. But there's some ways that we can avoid that. And the benefits still far outweighs the risk. So what I see happen, Yeah, I've been lucky enough to coach lots and lots of business owners, and I get to see their profit and loss statements. And I get to hear their fears and their frustrations. And I can say hands down, the number one thing that people in business complain about is team. It is the number one thing that you go, you know, how's everything going, and either it's a barrier to growth, or it's slowing them down or people man, humans, humans are complex individuals with my previous business Begin Bright we once we got big, we got to 36 franchise centres. So I had 36 franchisees and we had 120 staff across the brand, including my headquarters team. And my job literally by the end became about people. It wasn't about we had primary tutoring centres, it had nothing to do with education. It had nothing to do with the marketing. It had nothing to do with anything else. What took up 95% of my time was people. And I hated it.

Because I am. Well, I'm an introvert. And I know sometimes it can sound sound not because of the way that I can show up. But I love the medium of online business because it means that I can, you know, show up and serve from behind a screen or behind a mic, which is absolutely fantastic. And I don't have people in my face all day. And when we got to the end when I decided to sell my last company, because I was I was a broken woman by the end. And all day, every day I would get up and I would have calls and emails and calls and emails all day, every day, all to do with people. And it was exhausting. And so when I started in online business a few years ago, I vowed to myself to never build a business that involved a lot of team. Now I didn't want a business then involved no team. And there's a distinction between that because there's only so much that we can do by ourselves. But I didn't want to have this heaviness on me of a lot of people and what I've learned through I've had I had five or six different proper businesses, serious businesses that have taken off, and I have learned, I can get to about four, five, max six people, before it starts weighing on me. So I love small teams, small team of four, I think it's just a beautiful, because you don't have all of the issues of like cliques going off and hierarchies and, you know, people not getting the attention that other people are getting, and all of these sorts of things that happen with humans. And so a small team is absolutely beautiful. And that is one of my favourite things about online business is that we can do it with this small, beautiful team. And so I want to run through today, how you know, when it's time to hire somebody, because I do think that a lot of business owners wait until it's too late and wait until they've hit that plateau. And the thing is, once you hire someone, it gives you all of this time and space. But the ironic thing is it gets built really quickly. And you'll be thinking, Oh my gosh, how did I ever do this business alone. And this is why you get more and more profitable, the more people you hire is because there's so many things in business that you can do. I know you're there right now, and you're thinking about there’s probably another 20 things that you go, you know, if only I had the time and the energy, I could do all of these things that I know will elevate the performance of my business to that next level. But you don't, because there's only you I mean, I can't tell you the amount of times I have said, but I am but one woman, you know, I can't do all of the things, we can do a lot of things, but we can do more when we get help.

So the idea is to be able to get staff that are going to keep the cogs turning, do the repetitive stuff in the business like actually run the admin side and all of the backend side so that you can do the thing that you're best at. And you can do the thing that they need you to do, which is coming up with all of the ideas, which is doing all of those higher revenue generating activities.

So, when to hire someone. Now, I have said a lot of people wait until it's too late. The other thing that I do want to caveat with this is sometimes people will do it too soon, as well. So we're in this weird era of entrepreneurial-ism, where being an entrepreneur is very glorified at the moment. And you know, you can see all the boss babes coming out. You can see all this stuff, kind of happening and going, you know, if you can pay someone to do this for you, it's not worth your time and all of this sort of stuff. But the thing is, your number one responsibility, as the owner of a company is to ensure its profitability and sustainability. If you don't do that the business won't survive. And then you can't make an impact. You can't serve people, you can't do any of the other things that you want to do, unless you have a sustainable, profitable business. And so you don't want to hire too early and sacrifice your profit to somebody else. There were many years in my business when I started, where my staff would get paid more than I did. Many years, we were in a service based business, we had retail stores, like we had all sorts of things going on. And I needed people there was literally not enough of me to be able to do it by myself. It's why I love online business, you can do so much with contractors with automation with software that you don't have to hire too early. So I think somewhere between the quarter and the half mil a year, is where you should start considering getting someone in to help you, you can very easily get to your first $250,000 a year in an online business by yourself. You do not need anybody to help you get to there, you can get everything that you need from being part of like education programmes, join courses, join masterminds get virtual assistance, use Fiverr for the little things that you're outsourcing, outsource those little things so that you don't have that ongoing responsibility of staff. And then once you get to that quarter, half a million, you've got a lot more consistency in the business. So you know, quarter to quarter, what the growth trajectory is going to look like you're a lot more confident and you're not worried about going Gosh, what if I hire someone and then like next month, I can't pay their wages. So you want to make sure that you're past that. And then I think once you get to that stage and you're like, you know what, I'm profitable. I can keep this thing going. Now I'm ready to level up. I've got business as a basic worked out. I've got these things in place. And now I want to figure out, how do I get myself to that next level and this is where your beautiful, beautiful team comes into play. So I've always worked on 20%. So 20% of my top line revenue, so all of the money that's made in the business goes to other people. So whether it is contractors or in house staff 20% goes to team to help their business grow. And that's always been a really beautiful kind of marker. For me, when I was in service based business, it was 40%. Because that's just how the cookie crumbles in that industry. Another reason why online business you guys, I'm in love! Ok so with 20%. So set aside 20% and go, okay, who can I hire with this 20% whether it is someone part time, whether it is someone full time, work out, what are the parts of your business that really drain your energy that really go that you dread that you're like, Oh, my gosh, I can't believe I've got to do this, like this is taking so much energy, you want to get to the point eventually, where you're doing the things in your business that you're really, really good at, and that set your soul on fire. Because when you've got that energy, then it all works together. And the thing that I thought like at the beginning of my business journey was, well, if I don't want to do it, I feel really bad getting other people to do it. But another person's jam is like what you dread. So you can find the people that love the things that you don't love. And then everybody's happy. And it's a win win. So how do you know when it is time to hire. So the first one is you're exhausted at the end of every day, if you are tired at the end of every day, and I mean, like brain tired, like you are sitting there and you're like finish working like I cannot like if I had two thoughts in my head, it'd be a miracle, I am exhausted, you've been there. If that is coming up more often than not, you need help go and get it. Because you won't be able to sustain that and business is going to suffer. As a result, it just is. Sometimes we can get in that stage. And we can think we're doing really well and be like it's gonna be worth it. Because like we're grinding and hustling, and we're doing this, it's not going to be as good as if you get someone and you've got a little bit of time and space in there.

Number two is if your to do list is so huge, that you feel like your brain is going to explode. So I use Monday.com. I think I've spoken about that before for my to do list. And I put everything on there all of our tasks, all of the projects that we have, like coming up with book launch, and our retreat, and launches and everything that we have going on is all on Monday boards and allocated to the different people. So I can at a glance, look at that. And I know what's realistic.

I mean, I often put unrealistic expectations on myself with the things that I want to do. But I know deep down when it's time to go, Okay, this is so huge. And I know I'm only going to get this much done. If I don't get these other things done. It's going to be okay, and this is the thing in our business, it's going to be okay, if you don't get all of the things done. There's nobody checking on you. There's nobody saying, hey, why didn't you do X, Y and Zed You are the boss of you, which is both a good thing, and can be a bad thing. Because it means that if you don't get to those things, there's no one cross checking that. And so if you had done those things, it's going to move the needle in your business and going to help you grow. But you don't have the capacity to do everything big by yourself. So if you're like, all over business, and you go, I know what I need to do, I just need the time and energy to be able to do it, hire someone get some help there.

Okay. Number three, this is a big one. If you're inadvertently, limiting yourself from more customers, because you're worried more customers will take more time from you. Now, this is like a double edged thing, because I've worked with a lot of people that go, I don't want to launch again, because I can't handle the influx of new customers, oh my gosh, hire someone get some help. But also, if more customers are taking more time, work on your systems and automation. So you can get that scalability. I mean, there's different products that are going to take more effort. Like I know, for me with my mastermind, Her Empire Builder were capped at a certain number because more customers does equal more time. So it's still using some of that service base model, which I know a lot of people don't love because it's not 100% scalable, but I just love it. I love it so much. But we also have our other products that are straight up courses that it doesn't matter whether I have 100, 1,000, 10,000, 100,000 people go through them. It does not equate to any more time or effort on our part. So you want to be able to go if you feel yourself holding back and you're not getting more business and you're not increasing that revenue because you feel like if you do increase that revenue, you don't have the time to service it. Get some Help.

Number four, you're only doing the things that you have to do. And you have no time for growth activities. Now, this is what I touched on a little bit before, is going. If you look at your to do list, and you finish everything that you do, like I know, I see it in my Mastermind all the time, because a lot of the things that we work on are the things that are next level activities, they're the things are going, this is not the normal running of the business. This is when you're in a high growth phase, and you want to go Alright, if I go the extra mile, when nobody's watching, this is going to make the biggest difference to our revenue to our profit to my lifestyle to everything there. But what a lot of people do is they don't have time for those growth activities. So they keep staying on the list, but they keep getting parked. And you may be like that sometimes in going, you have the best intentions. And there's always these things on the list that you're like, I know, if I do that, it's gonna make a big difference. But it just gets rolled over and rolled over and rolled over because you never actually get the time or energy to get to record that new sales video to make that new sales page to design that new lead magnet to run an extra webinar to send a weekly newsletter, to do all of the things that are going to grow and propel your business forward. So if that's the case, it's time to hire somebody.

Number five is if you've got a lot of profit in your business, and you're not spending 20% of your revenue on team to help you grow. So it depends on your goals too. Like I will say that I know there's some people that sit at half a million a year and have no staff and they freaking love it. They're like, you know what, I have no desire to grow. I just am happy here, this is a great business, I can plod along, I get paid really well, I have a really great lifestyle, I'll stay just here. And if that's you, that's fine. But you're not listening to this, if that's you. Because you're listening to this because you like growth, yeah, baby, Bring it on, I am ready to grow. I'm sorry, that is you look at your p&l, you should be looking at your profit and loss statement at the end of every month. If you're not add that to the list. If you don't have enough time on your list, get some staff. And look at that profit and loss statement and go, alright, what is my profit app is that enough profit to keep me sustainable. And if you're in a healthy business stage, where you've got about 20 to 30% profit in your business month or month, then that's a healthy business, super healthy business. And so you can start then going, alright, I'm profitable, I’m sustainable.

I'm doing this month on month, I can now look at 20% of my top line revenue and allocate that to team to help me grow. So having I really like to have a formula because it keeps it keeps the budget in line. Because when I look at the way that we spend in a business, and you've got like 100% of the pie, once you take out the different things, it can blow out really quickly. And I see so many people that spend so much effort and time and energy on creating so much revenue in their business and don't have any profit left at the end. So we want to find that beautiful balance between spending enough that's going to help grow the business look after your customers do all the things, but also keeping enough for you. Because like I said before, your number one goal as the owner of a company is the sustainability and the profitability of that company.

Okay, number six, is you're spending your time doing the things that you're not best at. And look at the beginning, we all do it one of my favourite Oprah quotes is, how does it go? Do what you have to do until you can do what you want to do. And I loved that, because this is where I kind of touched on before with this glorious entrepreneurial-ism is, you know, if you don't like that, and it's not bringing you joy, or it's not sparking you like hire someone, there's no point in spending 80% of your revenue on team when you're not making any money. So you want to kind of get there first, and then go. Alright, now I'm at that critical mass where I'm profitable, and I'm sustainable. Now I want to figure out how I can slowly one by one, take all of the tasks in my business and hand them off to keep in line with that 20% of revenue, and go, alright, when you go through your day, when you notice yourself doing something that you're like, I am just not the best person to be doing this. I can do it, because I'm fucking awesome. But I'm not the best person to be doing it. So then you can offload it one thing at a time and go Alright, I'm going to hand that over now. And then you've got your next things, you get a little bit more revenue, a little bit more profit, it gives you a little bit more space to hand over the next thing and the next thing and the next thing until you've got your business to this beautiful mystical sweet spot where you're making plenty of money. you're serving the people you want to serve. You've got amazing customers and you've got team doing all the things that you're not best at so that you get to spend your days in your genius zone. You get to spend your days being energised by your work because you're doing things that you were made to do. You were put on this planet to do them and you're like, this is me, I'm here. Okay, so that's number six.

Last one. Number seven. You are literally out of time. So You know, you've probably seen all the things on the internet, where, you know, it says, I've got gone to say it. And now now it's totally gone out of my head. But it's something along the lines of like we have all the time to do the things that are most important to us. And if we say that we don't have enough time to do it, it's just not important enough to us. Now, I believe that to a certain degree. But I also know that there's a lot of things that are important. Like I look at it from the point of view of I know the majority of women, the majority of people that listen to this podcast and women, and the majority of women have the highest responsibility in their homes. So for most women that I work with, you know, you're looking at how can I be a good partner? How can I be a good parent? How can I look after my health? How can I prepare really great meals? How can I look after my team? How can I look after my customers do the marketing the systems, the finances, working out my profitability, working on growth, like there's so many things that are so important that I think sometimes it's a bit of a cop out, when someone says to you, it's not important, because it is much easier to do that when you have money. I know when I was in my stage of building my business, and I've been going for 16 years now. So, you know, it's, it's one thing for me to sit here and say it now. And I remember all too well, what it felt like to be sitting there crying, going, I have all these things I want to do. And they are important to me, don't tell me I could do everything. If it was just more important to me or in my values, they are in my values, I just can't do it. Because you don't have time. So every time you say yes to something, you're inadvertently saying no to something else. So I know when I say when my kids come home from school, and I go, I'm gonna go hang with them for half an hour an hour and say, Hello, I know that things in my business that just don't get done. And I'm okay with that. But it's a choice, it is always a choice. And if you're in a business growth phase, and you're wanting to grow your business, so that you do eventually have time for your family and to do all the things that you want to do in your life, then you need to get help for that. As soon as you get the money. So as soon as you start getting that money, start getting it and going, alright, looking at that 20%, when should I be hiring that person for five hours a week, and then up to 10 hours a week, and then 20 hours a week, and then full time, now you get a very different quality of person at full time than part time. And I know that's controversial, because a whole lot of people love part time flexible arrangements. But when I have had staff, you have so much more commitment from full time staff than part time staff. So it's always been my goal, to get part time until I could afford full time. And then when you have full time staff in your team, oh my god, it's game changing. It is a game changing, you're on the team together, and you're able to build something together. That's awesome. So that's what I want for you. So hopefully today, you got a lot of ideas in when and who to be able to hire in your team and what you want them to be able to do. Don't be afraid of hiring. I know it's a really big thing, especially if you're a solopreneur of hiring somebody. But it is like a right hand person that can do all the things that you're not best at or that you don't like to do. Because you've worked really hard to get yourself to the point that you are at now. And you're allowed to do this, if you've got the profitability for it, get help, don't be a hero. There's no one giving out medals at the end of the day for the person who suffered through working their ass off to do everything. That is not the person that gets the medal. The person who gets the medal is the one that you give to yourself. When you've got the team who is running your business and you're off living your best life. That's the person who gets the medal. So work your way towards that one. Alrighty, thank you so much, everybody have the best day let me know on Instagram, I did a post about this, so that you could comment. If you're going to hire a team and who you're going to hire. I'd love to hear from you, Tina underscore Tower, have the best day.

Thank you for listening to this episode of her Empire Builder. If you loved it, please share it on Instagram and Facebook for your friends. And if you really want to deliver me smile, you can pop a review on iTunes. I'd love to hear from you. So if you have any questions, email me at podcast at Tina tower.com. And if you want to know more about what we do, head over to Tina tower.com. Now I truly hope this podcast gives you so much value and you can use it to dream big, plan well and take massive action in building your very own Empire. That's perfect. Just for you.