Hey Friend!
In this conversation with Judy Weber, we are talking about how to scale your business with some really simple steps. But before we start, just a heads up. When we talk about scaling, we never want to scale when we are just starting out. Scaling is an advanced strategy to be used if you already have a business or a podcast and ideally, you are already making money with a proven offer, whether that be coaching or a course or whatever it is you do.
Wait Until the Bonfire Is Burning Before You Scale Your Business
Once things are working and your business is a well-oiled machine that no longer needs rebuilding and pivoting and once you are making a profit, you can pour fuel onto the fire that has already been kindled and begun burning.
So just have that mindset today, while you read this, that you first want to create the spark and cultivate the fire to bonfire status by sitting at the campfire focusing on getting one thing to work extraordinarily well. Once it’s at that bonfire status, then you can look at using the steps Judy offers us in this conversation to really scale your business.
From Humble Beginnings to Helping Women Make a Big Impact!
Stef: Welcome, Judy! I am so excited to have you here! Tell everybody a little bit about who you are and how you got here and what you do.
Judy: Thanks Stef!
I come from humble beginnings. I’m one of six kids and we lived in a one bathroom house. We didn’t have a whole lot in the house but we had love and we had Jesus Christ. I remember going to my mom who taught me about Jesus and saying ‘I think I’m going to be a millionaire one day. I feel like God’s telling me he’s got something really big for me.’ And I was the first one to go to college. It was all a whole new world for me.
Ever since I was 8 or 9, I had wanted to be a lawyer but I had 5 years between college and law school before I actually dove in. I got a great job in Philadelphia but I knew that it wasn’t my purpose. One thing I will tell you though is that I use my lawyer brain every day in the strategic thinking of being a business owner.
I fell pregnant in my first year of being a lawyer which was a relief because I knew that this wasn’t the place for me. After I got divorced, I started my first business in 2003 as an interior decorator. I got a booth at a home show and that weekend, I walked away with 14 appointments and closed on ten of them in the next two weeks.
In 2015, I got an opportunity to go in-house as an HR director and General Counsel for an international multimillion dollar company. I was one of three women in the boardroom and we met every week. I loved everyone except my boss and two years in, I realised this was not for me and jumped into coaching.
In 2019, I spent a whole summer on the coach with my Bible and a notebook crying and asking the Lord what He had for me. I am now serving Christian women and really helping them to fully embrace who He made them to be to really go big. So that’s me in a nutshell!
Stef: So where you have landed up is with this business that helps women who have created a successful business to multiply it for the kingdom and for their families and to create bigger kingdom impact.
Build the Bonfire and Then Scale Your Business
Judy: Yes, but I do want to say that I have two containers. The one is the mastermind that I’m going to be focusing on today. This is around the three simple strategies to scale your business. But I also have a container to get you to your first $100k. In both of them, I teach how to think like a CEO.
Stef: I think it’s interesting that you have these two containers because I have really noticed that it’s a completely different strategy getting the first $100k. Then when you’re getting to that next level, the half a million dollars, you are focusing on a totally different set of things. So let’s talk a little bit about scaling. Can you define what it means to scale a business and then we’ll talk about some of the things that it takes to actually get there.
Judy: Yes, thank you for. The words growth and scale in the market can get really muddy. Growth comes incrementally. And as you’re growing, you’re growing yourself as a CEO, you’re growing your clientele, you’re growing your revenue. Scaling is when you’re able to leverage your time and you’re able to leverage the things that you’ve already put in place. So it’s about doing more with less. And it’s also about going even deeper in your faith in Christ in order to do it.
Mistakes to Avoid When You Scale Your Business
Stef: I’m with you on that. So let’s talk a little bit about some mistakes. I know that there are three things you have really identified as the things that get in our way or that we stumble upon when we’re trying to scale. Talk us through those.
Judy: Again, to be clear here, I am talking about six and multi six figure – and more – entrepreneurs at this stage. I like to call them CEOs because they’re thinking strategically. All the mistakes point to decision making which is a key CEO skill we need to develop at any stage.
Your Team
The first key mistake I find at this level is around the team. I find this happening one of two ways. They’re either going it alone, with one VA or two, but they don’t really have the roles well defined. Or they over hire and they over delegate. I remember working with a client who was bringing in about six figures. She had five or six people on her team and when I asked her what the KPIs were associated with these people and how she was managing them, she was confused by the concept that she had to manage them and see that they were fulfilling their roles.
Stef: I’ve made that mistake before. I have both over hired and in the very beginning had a lot of under hiring happening. Now I feel like I’m at the sweet spot. How do you know you’re in the sweet spot or that you have over hired or that you have under hired? What’s the gauge?
Judy: To me, it is when for every dollar you invest in a new hire or an existing team, they are producing two plus dollars. That’s the importance of KPIs. And so going back to my example of my client, she had a social media manager whose role was to drive revenue. When I asked my client what her goals were in that regard, she didn’t have an answer. For me, for example, one of the KPIs would be how many consults she was getting booked in a week. It’s not just about likes and shares.
Stef: Yes! What was happening for me is I would really love someone and bring them in. And whatever they wanted to do was great because I liked them so much! But then you look at the numbers in the KPIs and the data to find that they are not actually helping the company grow. You have to be able to separate business decisions from emotional attachment. And I think as a CEO, that is a difficult thing to do. Do you have any tips on that?
Judy: I think this is especially hard for women because we don’t want to hurt people’s feelings. But I think that’s where my legal training comes in. I was a trial lawyer for over a decade, in a very tough, male dominated venue. So I had to learn how to talk to, for example, my secretary.
Just a quick, silly thing. I remember going to my secretary’s desk, and having something for her to do. But instead of saying ‘Here you go. I need this by 2pm’, as the men would do, I would say ‘Oh, listen. Do you have time to get this done today?’ We really have to put on our CEO hat. We can be friendly, but there’s a job to be done. And so sometimes tough conversations have to be had.
A Lack of Systems
The second mistake is a lack of systems. We are creatives. We have got tons of ideas. Don’t talk to me about the back end. I try to pretend it’s not there. But you have to have systems and processes and standard operating procedures. People say they don’t have any. Yes, you do. You just don’t have them out of your brain on paper.
If you don’t have things in writing, a couple of things happen. You have duplication of effort. You have a lack of clarity around who’s doing what and what exactly anybody is doing so there are inefficiencies. Then if somebody leaves, ouch! Because then you don’t know what they did and they are gone and now what? So systems are hugely important.
Stef: Where do you start with SOPs? Do you start with the bottom of the organisation up. Or do you start top down? Could you give us a few tips on starting to build up standard operating procedures and systems?
Judy: A foundational element of my work is simplicity. I am not one to say you must start here or there, but I say just start. You might be the one building up the SOP. Let’s use you as an example, Stef. As you set up your podcast, you might be the one to build an SOP for uploading a podcast from production all the way to publishing.
Perhaps you bring on a social media manager. You tell this person that you need them to produce an SOP that shows you everything they are doing.
There is no one way to do it. It’s just getting started. Maybe pick one area a week, or even a month. Time block it and do what you hate. Because you are going to love it when it’s done.
Stef: Amen to that! It took us probably a year to create all of the SOPs and now the beauty is that the pressure is not so high to worry about someone leaving or getting sick. It’s not perfect but we are able to step in and take on anyone in the company’s position and at least fumble our way through it. And get it done until they’re back or until we find a replacement.
You’re not the only person to tell me this. When I have asked people who are multi seven figure business owners what the things are that have got them to where they are, the two things they always say are team and systems. And then, of course, foundation.
So what is the third mistake?
Avoidance of the Numbers
Judy: This one sort of relates to the other two. It’s an avoidance of the numbers, the dollars and the data. According to a recent study, nearly 72% of six and multi six-figure female entrepreneurs don’t know their numbers. They don’t want to look at their bank account and sometimes don’t even know what to track. I put everything that is necessary to track on one document for my clients. It’s called the ‘one page summary’ and I tell them to put it on their wall and keep looking at it.
You’ve got to know your numbers, ladies. The more you look at the numbers and understand them, the more your revenues will go up as will your profit. Stef, you mentioned revenue earlier. There’s a big difference between revenue and profit. I’m crazy about the profit.
Stef: What do you think is a great profit margin on an online business?
Judy: It depends what online business it is. But I would say 35% to start. Sometimes when you get started, it does take a guesstimate with KPIs. So just use your best guesstimate and then track it and adjust.
Stef: We have a similar thing that we have called the KPI dashboard. It’s one page and you can expand the sections to see it in more detail. We fill it out once a month. I am curious what you recommend. Do you check in once a month or more often?
Judy: I have weekly meetings with my team. We do also look at it monthly and quarterly.
Stef: I also think that when we think about numbers, we avoid the thing that seems hard. I always think that everything is hard until it’s not. So start with a few of the numbers. Google them and see what they mean. Put them in a spreadsheet. Next month, you can add a few more. This can be a place of education that you can evolve into. But if you’re going to be a CEO, you’re going to have to get savvy with your business.
Judy: 100%. And I believe that for every women who is listening, you are smart. You can figure this out. I ran from the numbers for way too long. So just get started and within a couple of months, you will start to feel like a CEO. Just jump in!
The 3 Strategies to Employ When You Scale Your Business
Stef: So we have talked about the mistakes. What are the things we should be doing if we’re interested in scaling? Firstly, when do you scale versus building and growing? And then what are the some of the things to do if you are ready to scale?
Judy: I ascribe to what I call the ‘sophisticatedly simple business model’. It really applies to the 111 principle, which is one offer, one best client, one transfer.
This also applies to what we talked about earlier about the team. I only have three team members but everyone owns their respective areas. They own their role. They know what they are doing and it’s a well-oiled machine. This is what you really want.
Stef: So say I have hit that point where I have the power of ones. I have the team in place. I have my SOPs and I’ve got systems ready to go. I’m ready to start scaling and actually create leverage off the things I have already done. What do I do then? What are the key things to focus on when you want to scale your business?
Judy: I have three scaling strategies to get you from where you are now to as far as you want to go. The first is your breakthrough strategy. Second is your operations strategy. And third is your profit strategy.
The Breakthrough Strategy
When women come into my mastermind, we start with a three day in person event because I really want to download my entire curriculum and methodology for them. This is where we start. This is your marketing and sales and delivery, which is all part of the same thing. It’s all providing value before, during and after. All this goes back to dialling in your offer, dialling in your brand. You are the expert at something. Not one of many, but one of one.
That’s what I mean by the breakthrough: when you really have that dialled in. Your belief as it relates to your offer is a 10 out of 10. I talk about the belief triad. This is when you believe in yourself and you as an expert. You believe in your best client, that God’s got them out there waiting for you. They’re waiting to find you. So make it easy for them. And you believe in your offer. That you know what is the best, quickest, most wonderful way for them to get from where they are to where they want to go. That is when you will experience breakthrough. And all the while, by the way, going deeper in your faith in Christ. Really walking the talk.
The Operations Strategy
We have talked about this a lot. It is team, SOPs and automation. It’s really getting that back end dialled in so that you have more time to step away. So that your team can, at some point, run the business. Can you imagine being on vacation and not having to worry about what’s going on back in the office? I have that, by God’s grace, and I want you all to have that.
Stef: I have that. It is such a gift. It is the most amazing feeling because I used to be needed. I used to have to work all vacation. I have just been on vacation and I didn’t have to open my laptop once. It felt like such a blessing. And our revenues and profit are way over projection for this month!
Judy: Right. The CEO of any Inc 500 is not working on their vacations. It just doesn’t happen!
Finally, your profit strategy.
The Profit Strategy
This talks back to something we’ve already discussed. That is the numbers. Here we are looking again at revenue and profitability, the profit margin. We’re looking at short and long term planning. And we’re talking about strategic initiatives like referral programs, collaborations, affiliates etc.
When you dial in each of these strategies, you are on a massive trajectory. And really, any one of these scaling strategies can make a significant impact not only on the dollars and the impact of you to your clients, but also your time.
The Impact of Faith on Scaling Your Business
Stef: You brought up faith. Let’s talk about that for a moment. How does faith impact success in your business? What does that look like for you?
Judy: Faith is everything, even to the unbelievers. I always say we are living our faith in our business. When I go to church, when I go to Bible study, I listen. Whatever lesson God has for us in life, nine times out of 10 it’s going to apply to business.
Specifically when I’m talking about belief or faith, it is around acting in accordance with our Christian belief system. We say with God, nothing is impossible. But are we living it? If you know you are called to business, why are you doubting that God already has your clients in abundance? God doesn’t do things in a little way. He’s over abundant. Why are we doubting that we can serve those we’re called to serve in a deep and meaningful way?
If we’re sitting at $5,000 this month, why can’t we believe that $50,000 is coming, if that’s what our success is? For those of you that have big dreams, stop feeling guilty about it. God gave you that ambition.
This is my biggest work this year. It is really walking my talk. Seeing not only what’s possible, but seeing the impossible that is possible.
Stef: Oh, I love that. It’s so powerful.
Walk Your Talk as You Scale Your Business
So to wrap up, give us the one thing that changed the trajectory of your business.
Judy: Well, it really is just that – walking your talk. It is really believing what you say you believe. I have what I call the ‘faith fuelled thought model’. It’s always a battle of the mind, in life and in business. So we need to truly be aware of the thoughts that are not serving us. I believe that every thought has one of two sources, truth in Christ or the lies of the enemy.
What I have found is that whenever we experience fear, we know that’s of the enemy. So stop letting whatever thought led to that feeling of fear stop you. When I really become more and more aware, I can hold those thoughts captive as unto Christ. I can say ‘I believe this. Am I walking in it?’ Since I started doing that about a year and a half ago, I am now in constant breakthrough, because I’m going deeper and deeper and deeper in my belief of the “impossible” that is absolutely possible.
Stef: That’s so key. And I know that that’s such an evolution. It’s a decision and a discipline every day. You have to know that you’re in it for the long haul because what else are we doing here? So every single day, just go a little deeper, believe a little more, renew your mind one more time, believe that God’s got you today, tomorrow and the rest of the time that you’re called to this work.
Judy: We’re called to the miraculous. My whole mission is to normalize miraculous results for Christian women. If you’re committed to business, let’s go. God’s ready for us to step out in faith so He can bless us abundantly.
Judy’s Free Gift for Those Ready to Scale Your Business
Stef: Judy, I know you have a free gift for us and I would love for you to tell us where we can get this gift and come and hang out with you.
Judy: I am at @judyweberco on Instagram, LinkedIn and Facebook. These are my go tos. Of course, I also have my podcast, The Joyful Scaling Podcast. And, yes, I have a gift for you.
Stef mentioned that hiring is something that you ladies are interested in. So I prepared a hiring guide because its time for you to build your dream team and do it in the right way. We are taking all of the guesswork out of strategic hiring. I take you through every step of the hiring process: who to hire, when to hire, what to pay and even where to find them.
Go to judyweber.co/hiringguide to get this gift. I would love to hear your feedback after you have had a look because I think your eyes are going to be opened to how doable it is to build a dream team.
Stef: What a gift that Judy has brought today. Thank you so much for coming on the show and for blessing us with your wisdom today, Judy. It’s been so much fun.
Judy: Thank you, Stef. It’s been a blast!
Create the Spark, Build the Bonfire and Then Scale Your Business
If you would love to start a podcast or have a podcast but want to see that bonfire grow so that you can use Judy’s tips to scale your business even more, I have lots of free resources for you including a 40 minute training video at podcastforgrowth.com. I am here to help you get that fire burning so that you can walk the talk, using the gifts that God has given you to impact the world. Check out our courses at stefaniegass.com/school and please join our community where we can support you as you step out into your business.
For those who already have a podcast and want to pour fuel on the fire, my six-month mastermind programme Podcast to Profit will help you to do this!
I pray this blesses you!
Xo,
Stef
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