#9 Unlocking Business Growth with Chris Wood

SaCola (00:00:00) - Welcome to Work it, Live it, Own it! A show that explores how to upgrade your lifestyle through life lessons, real estate and entrepreneurship. Here's your hostess, SaCola Lehr. Hello everyone, and welcome to this particular episode of Working Living on It. I am your hostess, SaCola Lehr, and I am bringing on a very special guest because this is something that I personally have struggled with. I know there are countless of people or artisans, I should call them out there who really want to delve in to getting their products into stores. And so I have connected with Chris Wood, who is phenomenal. Chris, you know what? Matter of fact, I want you to tell people your journey, your story, because I could do the introduction, but I want you to tell the story because it's absolutely amazing.

Chris (00:01:04) - Oh, thank you. Well, I'm so happy to be here. Super excited. I think my journey started out a lot like other people's. You know, you discover you've got this this skill to make a product and eventually it kind of overtakes.

Chris (00:01:19) - So the business starts, you know, a little bit by accident. You start getting into stores, your orders start getting bigger, and soon you start realizing that you don't have certain foundations in place. So I ended up getting my products into 75 stores across Canada. It wasn't easy, learned most things the hard way. I even made a beer soap that landed in the hands of Oprah Winfrey was just a happy accident, but still makes a great story. But yeah, eventually there came a point where. Oh, sorry. Yeah. Eventually there came a point where the foundations just weren't there to support the next level of growth and things became chaotic and overwhelming and I end up selling the business pretty burnt out and learning later that that's so common. And because of that, I've created a business to help entrepreneurs through that phase. You know, that middle stage of growth where they're in between growing, they're not really able to get to that next level without certain foundations. They don't know about them, and I'm excited to teach that now.

SaCola (00:02:24) - Awesome guys. I'm telling you, 75 stores. That is unreal because a lot of people just dream about getting their products into stores, right? Or they have this idea they have this great product, but how to even get it out there as far as their branding, getting it out there into stores. And I like what you said in your bio and I don't want to misspeak, so I'm going to read this directly because it's phenomenal. You said that you have set up a program that is a three phase approach that takes artisans and turns them into or elevates them into business owners, helping them to automate parts of their business, to get retailers to sell, elevate over what they have to offer. So tell me, though, the part that I really want to talk to you about and guys, listen, if you really want to reach out to her about the three phase approach or how to get your products into stores, we're going to leave all of Chris's information down in the show notes. But today we were going to talk about basically how to automate your business, because as you can see, I've got one of the candles I've made myself, and a lot of times I make my candles and I give them as a gift, as a closing gift to my clients, my real estate clients.

SaCola (00:03:53) - But I had a dream of making my own soaps, making my own candle line, having those things out there. But I got burnt out in the early phase of it because I didn't know where to go next. And if you don't have someone to help you with that process and how to automate things, how to streamline the process, you can tap out and you can burn out easily. So we talked about a fate, a word or a term. You use a term called bottlenecking.

Chris (00:04:29) - Yeah. Can you explain.

SaCola (00:04:30) - Or share with the work live audience? What does bottlenecking mean in the business?

Chris (00:04:38) - It means that everything stops at the owner. You know, when you first start out your business, it's like you've got this great big mansion in front of you. You open that bottom level door, that ground level door, and that's all the space you need at the time. You just need your little space. But eventually you get curious what's above you? What what are the other options? And you try to open those doors, but you can't because you don't have the key.

Chris (00:05:00) - So you're stuck on the ground level forever. That's kind of the bottleneck. Part of the journey is like everything stops. Everything starts at that business owner and stops there. You know, all the decision making is done by the business owner. They haven't taught anyone how to think like them. So everything has to go through them. Even when they hire, then they've got somebody who needs to ask them every little thing, How do I what? Red or white, what size, what you know, which supplier? And the business owner says, I'll do it myself. It's faster. And they're right. It's faster to do it themselves at the beginning. Eventually you start doing too many things yourself. You're doing too many jobs, you're getting tired. Then you don't have the option of opening up, opening up one of those doors of hiring somebody or having help in. So bottlenecking stops starts with decision making. All the decisions have to go through that business owner. It stops the business owner from being able to do their other tasks when someone's asking them or they can't take on another order because they're spinning their wheels over here.

Chris (00:06:03) - And it starts with with tasking as well, so they can't hand any little thing over. So everything starts and stops with them. And it's it's an exhausting place to be in.

SaCola (00:06:17) - Yes, it can be. I think that is a common trap for a lot of business owners. It doesn't matter what business you're in, you're trying to make the decisions. You're trying to implement the decisions that you make. And then, you know, everybody says, well, you know, it takes money to make money. But for people who are just starting out and they're doing everything themselves, a lot of times it's because they're limited on the resources temporarily is not in their budget at the time to delegate to someone else. So what do they do? Where do they go? So when you're talking about this bottleneck and approach and it starts at the very beginning. What would you say are some.

Chris (00:07:08) - How can I put this?

SaCola (00:07:10) - Because sometimes people can do it. Some people are just able to do it all. But are there any particular personality traits or mindsets that make an entrepreneur more susceptible to the bottle necking syndrome versus some others? Because we look at we can look at other people and it seems like they're doing everything and they're being successful.

SaCola (00:07:31) - But is there is there a certain personality trait with entrepreneurs?

Chris (00:07:37) - I think it is just the entrepreneur phase itself. Like we are just built that way. We're excited, we're passionate, we have the energy, we have the time. I think it's just simply that they haven't been taught, you know, they haven't been taught to take out time to build the back end of their business. Everyone says, Oh, you've got this amazing product, you should sell it. So they sell it, but they don't think about the the business is actually not the product. The business is the back end of the business. The business is the thing you can sell when you're ready to exit. You can't just sell your product and say, Oh, I've got 60 cases of this. I'm selling my business. Nobody wants to buy your product. And as a business, they want to buy your systems, they want to buy. How did you hire, how did you find your suppliers? What's your branded approach for doing your sales calls? All of these things is what they're actually buying.

Chris (00:08:26) - And this is what people aren't being taught. They're being taught. Take your product here and there. Go on Dragon's Den. You know, all the shiny, sexy kind of stuff. Glamorous stuff. Oh, let's work on our branding, you know, How about let's spend a third of that time and invest it in systems brand? I'm rebranding. Nobody cares that you're rebranding. Everyone makes a big announcement about it. I'm rebranding everybody. Nobody cares. Build out the back end. That's that's what I think. We've all been caught there because it's so fun.

SaCola (00:09:05) - I love it. Guys look for real. Because when I have guests on my show, we're going to get relatable. We're going to get real. I got my notebook. I got my pen ready because this is something that I've been talking about for years. And I do have a podcast coming out about your having an authentic brand. And when you're having authentic brand, nobody cares about your website or your business card.

Chris (00:09:31) - Yeah.

SaCola (00:09:32) - You have to have what we call a sexy back office.

SaCola (00:09:37) - You take care of business first. Yeah. And then once you take care of the business first, the worst feeling in the world is when you're putting out all these products and then you haven't set up your business properly. You haven't set up an LLC or S-Corp, whatever works for you. Then you don't even have a number. You're just out here selling products or you haven't taken the time if you are trying to go out to stores. Have you trademarked your product? And that does take time for the trademarking. So are you saying back to what you were just saying, Are you saying that it doesn't mean a particular type of entrepreneur? It could just be any type of entrepreneur that can have the bottlenecking syndrome or. Oh, yeah. It's everybody.

Chris (00:10:29) - It's mostly people who are the product. They're the product that their own business, they're making the product, they're the service provider. But a lot of it is, you know, you make the product yourself. You're already wearing ten more hats than the average business owner.

Chris (00:10:41) - You've already got a few odds stacked against stacked against you. You don't feel it yet because it's exciting. It feels good when people praise your products. Wow. Is it so nice? You know, I love your stuff. You can get sidetracked and pulled into that sort of, you know, people pleasing. So that's one thing to kind of watch out for, watch out for when you're not able to raise your prices because you mentally aren't able to, even though you see it on paper, you can't raise your prices. Then we need to talk. Um, there are a lot of little clues, but you usually don't see it to your part way in. And that's okay. That's just part of the journey. Not knowing everything you can't preventatively learn. You learn as you go. And that wasn't. That was uncomfortable or that didn't work out so well. But there are some things you can put in place, you know, if you meet the right guide and mentor to help you put things in place, you don't have to learn everything the hard way.

Chris (00:11:31) - You don't have to get quite so bruised and it might hurt to implement them. Some of these things are boring, some of them are uncomfortable, they're tedious. They're the things that are the opposite of what our creative mind craves when we're making our product. Sit down and write down how I made it. Are you kidding me? You know, you want me to document every little thing about how to get a new supplier, You know, where what.

SaCola (00:11:54) - Country are they in? What are the terms.

Chris (00:11:55) - What you know, will I get a real person on the other end? Are they ethically sourcing their things? You know, documenting isn't fun. It isn't as fun as like, Oh, what is this going to make when I swirl this thing in here? And what are people going to say about the aroma and the color and, you know, the look and all that? It's not gratifying. It doesn't reward you right away. But you know who we're doing this for. You know, we think when we go into business, we're doing this for ourselves.

Chris (00:12:22) - Well, I'm working for myself. You are not. And you're not working for the customer either. You're working for your future self. Your future self wants a business that's going to support them. So you look ahead and you ask her, How did you do this? What was your goal? 40 stores. How did she do it? How did she get into 40 stores? Well, she didn't do it by having low prices. Otherwise, I'm seeing my future self as that. You too, could be homeless in six months. Our future self knows how you did it. Future self knows. You know, I raised those prices. I did it. I did it for me, you know, And it sort of takes the pressure off, you know, you can even ask your brand, Hey, brand, do you want to be charged such low prices? No. You'll get a loud no. What what price point do you want to be at? You know, we're asking the wrong people questions.

Chris (00:13:16) - We should be asking our future self, even asking our brand. Our brand has so much more knowledge and wisdom for us than we think we don't even think to ask. We made it. It's its own entity. No, it thinks it breathes. It has thoughts for you. It has wisdom for you. So ask it. What do you want me to charge you? You know, what do you want? To be the cheapest thing on the shelf? No. You know, And it gives you a little bit of a buffer too. You can let some of that fear of rejection fall between a little bit of a buffer, you know? Oh, they didn't reject my prices. It's my brand. I'm representing my brand. You know, you feel like you're the sales rep instead of the business owner who created it. You know, it can feel painful when people reject your your product because you created it. But if you have that buffer of like, I'm just the sales rep here, I'm just the CEO, you know, there's a creator in the back office or in production making the product, you know, give yourself some buffers, ask your future self.

Chris (00:14:13) - She wants you to charge higher prices. Ask her how much she charge. It's probably the $12 soap or the $14 soap, not the eight. Let's go with that. You know, you can let her take the the heat. I forget where I was going with that, but. But yeah, it's just that we've got the wrong we're asking the wrong person. We think we're working for ourselves. We're building this up for a future. For some reason, we're either going to sell it in the end. Or make something that we were proud of. And we can't sell something that isn't sellable. You know, it needs to have the systems in place, proper pricing. The new owner is going to want to be profitable. You know, a lot of times we get into the trap of just thinking, okay, I'm on that ground floor of the mansion is good enough. I live in the mansion. It's fine. It's great down here. But you're limited. You know, you need that funding.

Chris (00:15:01) - You can't open that door. You can open the door to funding because you don't have your business plan in place. Because I don't have time. I don't know how to write it. No one showed me how to busy. Anyway, that door is closed. You see a grant opportunity. Oh, that would fit perfectly for me. I said, I check all the boxes, but I don't have time. I'm too busy putting out fires over here, too busy doing the jobs of three people. Because I didn't hire someone. I didn't hire someone because I didn't have time to write the job descriptions. And when I did finally hire someone, I didn't have time to train them. So they left, you know? So the things we need to put in place are often we don't think of it at the beginning, and that's okay. That's just perfectly normal. But try to visualize how your future self set this up. Did she do it all on her own? Maybe she did, but she still needed a job description for every every role she played.

Chris (00:15:48) - You know, she still had standards. She had standards for every single supplier. So she wrote spec sheets for every single supplier of every single ingredient, every single packaging, every single thing that she needed to use in her business. She wrote a spec sheet for boring but necessary. And now with those spec sheets, she can hand that on. She can hand that off to an admin assistant in the Philippines if she wants to and say, Hey, I just had a supplier tell me they discontinued, find me somebody new for coconut oil. Here's the parameters. That sheet will teach that person to think like you. She will shortlist you your three. You don't have to look through a database and, you know, take up all your mental energy just for supplier. And you know what? When your supplier quits or discontinues its when you're behind on orders, that's when it happens. Your supplier discontinues. When you don't have time to look for a new supplier and you'll get caught with someone, right? It's the irony.

Chris (00:16:47) - You'll get caught in so many situations like this and they're okay at the beginning, but they take their toll. So she's got, you know, your future self made those spec sheets and she was able to hand that off and get help. You know, she was able to create she created job descriptions for every role so that when that right person comes, she knows it. You know, she visualized, oh, I never want to hire. I just want to be small. Okay. That's you. That's not future self. That's not your new buyer. That new buyer wants to see those job descriptions. They want to see. Uh huh. Are you ready for this? That's. Are you ready for the universe may be blessing you. You might even get a volunteer come up to you happen to me a few times. I like to volunteer for your company. What? Where do you come from? Had nothing in place to help that volunteer be successful with me. What if I had it all in place? The tasks I would.

Chris (00:17:34) - My dream admin assistant would look like this. My dream sales rep would look like this. You know every role, every hat you wear, you need a job description for. And there's templates online. You don't have to reinvent the wheel. You know everything that that, that I that I recommend always sounds like it's going to take so long and be so daunting and scary. But you just break it down, set your timer for 45 minutes. You know, this week's theme is job descriptions. I want a job description for every role I play. If you find templates online that you just have to tweak, you can probably get three of them done in that time. You know, give yourself a monthly goal this month. I've got all my job descriptions done next month. It's spec sheets. Once you get on a roll, it's easy. It really is. It's tough at the start. I'm not going to paint that to be a pretty picture. Oh, it's just so easy. It really isn't.

Chris (00:18:24) - It's a tough little mental hurdle You have to have to get through. But once you do, it feels kind of good. It feels like a massage for your brain. You realize how much you know already? You have spec sheets, you've got job descriptions, you've got Esso P's, you've got a branding. It's all in your head. That's why you're the bottleneck. That's why no one can help you. That's why you can't hand anything off. You've got it all inside. You just yeah, you just need a little guidance to get it out, whether that's looking up templates or talking it through with someone and they're right there documenting it all, you know. And when you hire, get them to write the SOPs, give them the format and they will replicate, you know, every task that they're doing. So it doesn't have to all be on you.

SaCola (00:19:09) - Okay. So let's back up for a minute, because you touched on so many points. You touched on sorry, you talked about.

Chris (00:19:17) - Yeah.

Chris (00:19:17) - No, no, no, no.

SaCola (00:19:18) - No, no. That's good. That's good. I love it. I love it because you touched on one thing. You you first of all, you got to get your mindset in order, right? You've got your brain from being an employee to an employer to being an entrepreneur, not just for today, but for your future self. You. I mean, that's I took notes. Let's recap because you said that. You're not working for yourself. You're not working for your clients. You're working for your brand and then your brand. You ask yourself. You're working for your future self, which is your brand and. Oh, man. Okay. Yes. You and your brand are one. And then you then you went on and you touched on some other points about. Striking that balance between maintaining your involvement in the business as a business owner, but also empowering others to do their their brilliance, what you've hired or delegated them to do. So let's let's just recap because I want to make sure I didn't skip a beat.

SaCola (00:20:28) - And then you talked about spec sheets, right? Can you tell my audience what a spec sheet is? Just a general?

Chris (00:20:36) - Sure it is. All the things that for for the example of a supplier, let's say a spec sheet for an ingredient, it's all the things that you would need to include to make that supplier. It can be for suppliers, it can be for ingredients. And it's very singular. It's not just here's my spec sheet for all ingredients, it's every individual one. The organic coconut oil has its own spec sheet. Now, what what color range is acceptable on the low end? On the high end ideal? What aroma? So that when you have your shipping receiving, when you receive an order, your team member can verify they don't have to. Hey, this looks a little yellow. We'll check the spec sheet. Yellow's fine. That level of yellow is fine. You know what I mean? So spec sheets capture all of the nitty gritty details, you know. You know, has to arrive with the lid sealed or whatever.

Chris (00:21:29) - But it's mainly like those things, you know, you're testing the quality of it. And then a spec sheet for a supplier can be those things I mentioned like must be local, must be ethically sourcing as proved by XYZ, must be able to speak to a real person and not just an automated thing. So you test those things out before you end up working with them. Must provide 30 day terms or accepts credit card or however you prefer to pay must deliver within a seven day time frame. None of this were delayed. It's going to be 14 days type of thing, so it requires a lot of back end research, like what would be your ideal supplier or or how did you choose your current suppliers? Might be an easier way to get started. I chose them because friendly customer service, ease of ordering have everything I need in one roof, under one roof. I don't need to order from ten different suppliers so that spec sheets, it's just getting all your decision making criteria down on paper for everything that you choose that comes into your business.

Chris (00:22:28) - And I just naturally go to where the product base because of my background. But somebody who's in service that might be yeah, well you can visualize what what other how to apply that. I'm sure everything that comes in that you're using and paying for.

SaCola (00:22:42) - So. Right. So like for me being in real estate industry, I have or some people will tell you this, a lot of consultants will say we'll do a ideal client avatar. What does your ideal client look like? What are their needs? What are their desires? What are their frustrations? How are you taking them from pain to pleasure? You know, I hear that a lot because I used to work with a lot of life coaches and business coaches. And so you hear that. So you can take what she's saying, what Chris is saying, and transfer it over into different aspects in various different businesses, of course. But again, I had to come up with a standard operation procedure manual. And when Chris was saying SOP, that's what that means.

SaCola (00:23:33) - Standard operation procedure manual. Again, that's where I put in my core values. What is the core values of my business? If you're working a daytime job, okay, give yourself a 12 month transition plan of what that looks like. If your extraordinary goal and Chris and I are in the same group together and we're talking about our extraordinary goals, what is that going to look like? What is that extraordinary goal? Now let's work backwards. And what you were saying, Chris, again, taking it one month at a time. And saying, okay, this month I'm going to focus on this. This month I'm going to focus on that. Or you said, say, for example, with artisans set 45 minutes, was it 45 minutes a week or a day? What is it, 45 minutes a week to do a job description?

Chris (00:24:26) - Whatever is realistic for you if you can get it done. Yeah, right.

SaCola (00:24:32) - Right. So whatever your time allows, again, it's to help you to avoid burnout.

SaCola (00:24:39) - And once you have all those things in place and yes, there unless you just love spec sheets, unless you just love writing operating manuals and all that other kind of stuff. And there are some people out there that do love to do those things. It's not fun for the creative. So have you had any success stories with entrepreneurs who may have come to you and said, Chris, I am so not a business plan person. I am not a manual person writing out SOP, manual or all of that. And how have you have let me give my words, how have you been able to help them get past that hurdle to actually reach their goals towards their future self?

Chris (00:25:30) - Well, I'm just starting out. I've just created a membership group. Mentorship group. A few weeks ago. I'm just new, as in coaching, but I'm starting them out with these foundations and I'm dreaming of the day when someone just knows that they need to have those things and already ask me proactively to help them with them.

Chris (00:25:49) - But they just don't know. They just don't know about them. We're not teaching them this. Um, you know, they're leading with the product and not with the back end of their business. It's tough to get them out of the mindset, you know, let's leave your product out of this for a little bit. You know, you've got all kinds of help for your regulations and setting up that part of your business. Let's work on the business together. And that's what I've created is, you know, a place to really focus on the foundations. And it will change everything for them. It really will. You know, and and as you were asking about how do I help make that faster for them or smoother is by providing templates and showing them like, look, this is nothing. This isn't a complicated, um, template you need to be filling out. It's really just dumping the info out. If all you had was a word document with the information on it point form done. Good.

Chris (00:26:39) - That's the best. You know, you might get caught into the trap of well, now I should brand it. I'm going to put my logo on there. No, stop. Just keep making them and get them out of the way. Put them in a binder, put them, you know, for, for future team member. Keep them organized, make them findable. Don't go through all the trouble of trying to make them pretty. So one shop. But anyway they will go from, you know, picture a typical day as a as a maker you've got an order to fill. You're already behind. You go to order supplies. And that supplier has discontinued one of your ingredients. You have to take the time now to find a new supplier. You've got ten decisions to make. It's like decision Whac-A-Mole. You know, one thing, one thing they never teach us is how many decisions we're going to be making on a day to day basis as an entrepreneur. And oftentimes making one decision opens up five more that you have to make.

Chris (00:27:30) - You get fatigued. It's tiring. So say you're already behind on that order, You know, now you're looking up a new supplier for whatever reason, the awful timing you find a new supplier, but their minimum quantities are higher. You don't have the funding. Then comes another order where you're still dealing with this one and comes an email one somebody wants to return. Someone has an allergy that they want to report, and your supplier tells you that something else that you were waiting for is going to be delayed, delayed by two weeks. Picture all of that. That's a normal day to day, say year three, year four, if you've been dealing in wholesale, all of those things can go wrong in one day. You're putting out last week's fires still today, you're never getting ahead. Now that's a typical picture and that you can probably carry through for a good two years, Surprisingly limping yourself along, getting sloppy, giving sloppy service, though some stores will drop you, some will put up with it, Your cash flow will get tighter, your stress will go higher because the work flow doesn't stop.

Chris (00:28:30) - Just because you know, you're still juggling all of that. Now, that's typical scenario. It's not it's no exaggeration. It's 90% of business owners. Why they quit that overwhelm that burnout. It's not fun. It's not fun that when you can't grow, you know, you see that beautiful mansion, you're like, what have I created? I've created a jail. I live in a little cell in in this big mansion. Now, the other scenario is you have those things in place. You get an order, you find out that suppliers just continued. You hand that off to your admin assistant or because you have your own spec sheet, you can quickly verify, okay, here's my little checklist how I find the best supplier. I've got to be local, so I'm putting Canada in my search or wherever you are, you know, must be real person to talk to on the other line. Your checklist just helps you find that next supplier faster or help someone think you know. With ue4 you were like you.

Chris (00:29:23) - And let's just say all those emails that were coming in, you've got you've got branded responses. Let's say you created branded responses for all the common emails that you get. They'll be five. I think you'll find that you get on a regular basis. Tell me about your biodegradable packaging or tell me why your stance is vegan. Tell me or you know, somebody has an allergy. What should I do? You'll find that there are five or so typical questions that come your way. Create a branded response. Everything from the Hey, how are you? How do you want to sound in your greeting? Hi there, Happy Friday. Whatever your thing is, your branded hello your thanks for reaching out your here's your quick version. But I also have a blog if you do not leave it out. By the way, this and this may be a discount because you reached out so happy blah blah. Have a great day. Whatever your branded ending is, you create those ahead of time. Now your admin assistant can answer emails and sound just like you.

Chris (00:30:24) - Or if you don't have that capacity to hire yet, you have that at your fingertips and you've answered. Very gorgeous email that made somebody feel heard in minutes instead of ignoring them. There's no reason to let your inbox pile up. These are things that can you know, I was thinking this morning before our call today and I thought, you know, it's honestly like self care. You know, the feminine approach to all of this spec sheets and standard operating procedures and job descriptions and branded responses is self care because it takes so much stress and pressure off. Yeah, I got this. Imagine everything comes your way. Oh, supplier quit. I've got this team member quit. I've got this. I've got the job description ready. I've got her training manual ready. She's moved on. That's great. The next right person will come because I've envisioned what that next right person is like. I've got this. Oh, allergy, I've got this. This is a feeling I want people to have when they come into their business.

Chris (00:31:21) - They're not putting out last week's fires, though. Be fires for sure. You're an entrepreneur, but hopefully they'll be today's they'll be contained. They'll be I got this instead of Oh no. You know for me, every day felt like the last straw. Oh, that's the last straw. And I had last draws on top of last draws. Oh, that's the last straw. I'm quitting. Oh. And then comes the next thing. That's the last straw. You know, you keep going and it's not fun. It's not pleasurable for. For the masculine side of it. I know that self care might not be the way to convey that, but for the masculine side of running your business, all of this back end stuff is like your revenue guarantee. You know, it's your pre revenue right now. This part is guaranteeing your revenue later on. So it's self care and profit. So true.

SaCola (00:32:11) - Absolutely is so true. And it is time consuming, guys. We're not trying to make light of it.

SaCola (00:32:17) - It does take a lot of work. It does take a lot of dedication to. And one great thing, if you have Gmail, come on guys, you create that template, you save it your template. If you don't have an assistant yet to work with, you can go ahead and create those for yourself. A lot of those common questions they're going to keep coming up no matter what they are. Even for me, when I ask for certain things from my clients when we're near a transaction or they're reaching the conclusion of reaching their goal, I always send an email out. I have that already set up ready to go so I can just tweak it a little bit. Press send. I have forms that I've created to find out what my client's needs wants. Are you set these things up when you go out on appointments? Because a lot of people, even in my profession, they just go out and do and they're making money, they're making money, but they also burn out. And so when the market fluctuates, when it shifts, then they're like, I've had enough.

SaCola (00:33:19) - I'm backing out. I can't do this anymore. And a lot for me, my first year was setting up a lot of things and I was like, I'm not out here making a lot of money. I need to make some money. But now that I've set those things up. Is okay. I just need to go to the printer. Let me go to the printer again and let me print some more of this off so I can have this ready to go. I want to do a seminar. I want to do a function. Guess what? I got that it's ready to go. And then when you're ready to hire an assistant, which is what I want to ask you, Chris, How do you know? When you're ready to go from the one stop shop, the solopreneur, to actually putting out that job description and looking for an assistant. When have you seen that shift of when you can say, okay, this business owner, this entrepreneur is ready.

Chris (00:34:16) - Okay, I go dry my throat.

SaCola (00:34:20) - Oh, no, you're fine. I got tea here.

Chris (00:34:22) - I think there are three. I think there are three phases of there are three possibilities. One is great if you have the money. A lot of people start out accidentally, though, when the money comes from sales. So they never get to the point where they have money ahead of time to hire or saved up. But still. So there's that route. When you have the money, you can hire when you hate the job. I hated production. I hated it. I hated making products. I couldn't stand it. So that was one of the first things. I was clumsy, you know, when I had a big order, I spilling stuff and wrecking stuff and it wouldn't come out the same. So I thought, I need I need to hire someone who could focus, you know, we can make 100 of these at a time without messing up. I didn't have the money yet, but I made it work because I. I knew I couldn't grow unless I had that.

Chris (00:35:09) - So it's that if you dislike a rule that you that you need to play that's vital for your business, then hire. You know somehow the money comes. And I know that's bad advice because you can put yourself behind the eight ball, but it can be a necessity if you can't move forward. And then when the things are piling up, if you're so behind on emails, you know, you could hire short term doesn't have to be a long term thing. That's the beauty in some of the virtual world that we're in. Now. Get yourself a a VA, a virtual admin and get it. Get yourself cleaned up. Give say I've got three months to dedicate to you helping me create these things that I know are important to my business. And first, you got to teach her to think like you. So you might have to make those spec sheets for her or do some visualizing with a coach or something like that. How do you want your business to look? How do you want to feel on a day to day basis? Let's shoot out five years from now, you know, and and think like that.

Chris (00:36:03) - You can have such a low budget. I've seen, you know, for $300 a month, somebody can whip up those things for you if you know what you need, you know, get some guidance in that. So I know it's a dangerous thing to say that you can hire before you have the money. But look, we're we're it's reality. We're entrepreneurs. We've we've often started our businesses accidentally without a loan. And often loans don't cover the wages anyways of a team member. So we're a little bit stuck you know, part way in. So those are those are some things if yeah. If your inbox is just exploding, you could hire someone to manage it or like I said, hire someone to get you those templates so that you can manage it again. And then when you are financially ready, because either you've saved money by not hiring too soon or watching those ebbs and flows and hiring just as needed, you'll find somebody that flexible too. You just have to lay it out. A lot of times we limit ourselves, Oh, who's going to want to work for an hour a day that I need to hire someone for eight or for? No, it exists.

Chris (00:37:03) - If you want someone to work for an hour a day, you will find someone who will work for an hour a day. You know, whether it's your virtual admin, it would have to be a contract because obviously there's labor laws where you need to hire for the three hours minimum, but whatever you're looking for, you'll find it in whatever form it comes, whether it's a contract or things like that. Oh, I can't afford it. You can't afford ten bucks an hour. What's going on in your business? Like, are you If you can't afford that, then are you working a job that you you don't always have to pay for your business from your business. You know, right now, while I'm building my coaching business, I am working a job that enables me to hire an office business manager who has set up systems so quickly for me. I'm not affording her out of my business cashflow. I'm paying for her out of my job. And that's okay at the beginning, right? You know, it's not sustainable, but it's reality.

Chris (00:37:56) - The money comes from somewhere. I could limp along for the next two years and probably get sick of it. I'm not willing to do that because this message has to get out and people need help in setting these systems up so that they don't burn out. And I'm really sick of it happening to hand crafters mostly. You know, this is a world where we want instant gratification, but we also want beautiful things. Well, let's teach those hand crafters to create businesses that right, that get their products out into the hands of people in a in a beautiful way, in an on brand way, not haphazard. Let's bring that experience back. And wow, I love I love handcrafted products. You know, I love that experience of having something beautiful and, you know, unique. You know, we we need to help that industry, I think, more than ever because they've got so many odds stacked against them because they're wearing so many hats, making the product themselves, you know, all the all the roles that they juggle within that, let's help that industry.

Chris (00:38:54) - And they're they're elevating our lives. I want to elevate their businesses and them as business people. I think they're the most underserved because people are flashing this whole shiny object in front of them. They're easy prey because they know they're creative. Oh, they're going to love this. It might not be intentional. It might be, you know, they bought it because it was it was beautifully presented. It might not be that they're trying to deceive people, but they're. Teaching them the fluffy stuff. These. These hand crafters are paying money to learn the fluffy stuff, the stuff that isn't going to get them profits. And it bothers me a lot, mostly because I've been there, but because, you know, I believe that handcrafted products just give us so much. You know, they make our whole day, these beautiful little experiences throughout our day. Right. Put on that lip balms. Oh, I love, you know, candle. Oh, body butter like all day long beautiful experiences and that's thanks to hand crafters.

Chris (00:39:53) - You don't get that from Amazon or Walmart you got oh I saved ten bucks. Yay. You get that little rush. But but beautifully handcrafted artisan products Give us something rich. They enrich our lives and I want to see them succeed. And they're they're terribly underserved. They feel the pressures the most, like I said, because they've got that whole back end of production to manage as well.

SaCola (00:40:16) - Well. So, guys, listen, we could talk about this for hours on end because what Chris is saying is so real and it's relevant, especially in this day and time when we are seeing the increase and rise of entrepreneurs, specifically women entrepreneurs. They're stepping out. They're trying to launch their businesses. But takeaways from this is that you can't operate in scarcity. You got to find a way. You got to operate out of abundance. You got to operate from your future self, your future brand. So if you want to reach out to Chris and find out more of how she has been able to help people, she's starting on this journey again.

SaCola (00:41:01) - She's switching from I mean, goodness, woman You your soap landed into the hands of Oprah Winfrey. My goodness. And that's phenomenal in itself. But then she's been able to sell that business, but now she's coaching and helping other artisans like yourself, aspiring artisans or even artisans who are in this that in-between. Phase where they are bottlenecked and they're either going to just give up. And go back to a 9 to 5 or they're going to have to push through. So we're going to leave all of Chris's information down in the show notes. Reach out to her. And I want to talk to you, too. Maybe you can just briefly, I'll add this as a rapid fire question for you now. Where would someone go to hire an assistant? Would you recommend Fiverr or are there any other places that you would recommend for an artisan or business owner to get an assistant? Especially if there are like me.

Chris (00:42:04) - Yeah. I recommend joining some admin assistant Facebook groups. And. It's sort of for a different reason than you might think when you see admin assistants in a Facebook group learning to hone their craft and to create their businesses and you see how they interact, that's just so much more valuable than putting out a request and getting thousands of submissions back to you.

Chris (00:42:33) - So I joined a virtual admin Facebook group. This was when I thought that my way of supporting hand crafters would be as a virtual admin. So I joined that those groups in order to to create a business like that, which I then switched later on to coaching. But I gained so much insight, you know, and I met some great people and you see how they interact with each other and whether you want to be treated like that, you see how much complaining might be going on. Or maybe I don't want to work with someone who's just spreading negativity. You see the real their real rawness or you see opportunities to someone might post in there, Hey, I'm just starting out and I want to get some testimonials. Where do you guys think I should go? And you're like, Swoop, I'll test your services out for a testimonial. You know, we don't think of like go to where they actually are. We think we have to post it and then we get on slotted with all the submissions and how you decide and it's overwhelming.

Chris (00:43:28) - Then we give up. So that was my accidental learning actually was go where they're hanging out as the back end of their business, not as the front end.

SaCola (00:43:40) - Good, good, Good to know. Didn't think about that because a lot of people say, oh, just go to Fiverr. But actually getting inside those Facebook groups or social media groups is very informative, informative and insightful. So, Chris, if you could just wrap up your business, your life into a title of a book or movie. What would it be?

Chris (00:44:05) - I think I might call it from fearing sales to celebrating sales celebrating s e l l because it all stems from, you know, if you can get your mindset around sales and selling, a lot of us create the product and we say, well, how many stores do you want to get into? Oh, 50, 100. Great. Are you good at sales? No. Well, how do we miss that part? Who's going to sell your product? Where did you bridge? How did you bridge that gap? So.

Chris (00:44:34) - So I like to teach entrepreneurs, you know, stop fearing it, make it something fun, turn it into a conversation. And that mindset, when you let that carry through, when you have confidence in sales, that trickles down to the rest of your business.

SaCola (00:44:51) - Okay, cool. Who or what would you say inspired you the most?

Chris (00:44:58) - I think it was this book called The E-Myth. When I sold my business quite bruised and beat up and overwhelmed and all that. I put myself back on the job market and got a job at reception. Nice low key where if you just smile, you've made someone's day and it's a low, a low bar to reach for me. So it felt like therapy being in a job again. And I. I was always curious, like what happened? What would add a lot of time to think about that while sitting at the reception desk. You know what happened in my business? That that was I unique. You know what? Where did it go wrong? Can I trace it back to where that overwhelm started to when every day felt like putting out fires? And then what's the difference between this business that's established and has a whole team of people? They've got their own production and their own you know, they've got several departments and managers of departments.

Chris (00:45:54) - What is the difference? I picked up a book called The E-Myth and it talked about the business owner being the bottleneck and wearing the hat, like you said, kind of of being the employee. And it talked about how that business owner is doing all of the things because no one else knows how to do all the things. They haven't trained them, they haven't created the systems. And all of that is mapped out so well in that book. And that book felt like therapy. And I also looked at the business side of things, like I said, where I was hired and their sales processes were just as bad as mine were as somebody who was not trained in sales, their sales manager. I hope they never hear this, but they were just as lost in sales. They weren't making sales a conversation. They were just spitting out emails saying, I'd like a ten minute meeting, you know? And it it shocked me that a business could grow to this size with systems like that. So it gave me a little bit of hope that if, you know, like you can still make it even though you aren't doing everything right.

Chris (00:47:02) - At any rate, in that role, I developed some systems for sales and those that branded reach out in the branded response. And I always I had always hoped that they would adopt it. They weren't quite like that. We have no time for that. You know, you have to just get the meeting. Just get the meeting. And anyways, I started to develop my own and realized I have something here that I can teach. But yeah, that book, The E-Myth, I always recommend it for as old as it is. I'm surprised more people haven't heard of it and I'm surprised that I only heard of it, you know, those few years ago. And just by accident someone said, You have to read that. And they were absolutely right. It talks about all the pains and all the pressures and how to create those systems, like I was saying about, so that you can prevent some of that and be able to hire and then grow and expand and have access to the rest of the mansion and not just your cell at the bottom.

SaCola (00:47:58) - Right. Well, thank you so much, Chris. This conversation has been so insightful, so impactful. Any last words or quote, a favorite quote that you may have for artisans, beginning artisans, business owners out there, and how they can work with it in their everyday life.

Chris (00:48:21) - I treat it like an adventure. You know you can't get an adventure wrong. Doesn't have to be perfect. Adventures aren't. There's bumps on the road. Potholes, all of that. It's all an adventure.

SaCola (00:48:39) - I love it. I love it. Treat it like an adventure. Got it. Writing it down. I love it. That's absolutely brilliant. Well, this wraps it up, everyone. Hope you enjoyed this conversation. Again, I'm going to put all of Chris's information down in the show notes below. So if you want to reach out to her, you have any further questions, don't hesitate to do so. And also, if you love this episode, you want to hear more. I want to hear from you and tell me, hey, can you bring on a guest who talks about this, that or the other? Whatever it is, let me know.

SaCola (00:49:11) - Reach out and don't forget to work it, live it, own it in your everyday life. And if this episode was meaningful and impactful, don't forget to save it, download it, and also share it with your tribe and friends and family members. All right. That's it. Take care, guys. Talk to you soon.