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Your Second Act isn't just about starting over; it's about starting smarter. You’ve left the safety of a structured career to follow your passion, and while the opportunity is exciting, the uncertainty is real. You have the vision and the drive, but without a roadmap, that leap of faith can quickly feel like a freefall.
Welcome to Second Act Business Owner, the podcast dedicated to ensuring your new venture lands on solid ground.
Hosted by Lee Gray—an award-winning ActionCOACH, certified executive trainer, and serial entrepreneur—this show is for the courageous professionals who are trading corporate stability for entrepreneurial freedom. Lee understands that being an expert in your field doesn’t automatically make you an expert in running a business.
Each week, we strip away the fluff to provide the real-world MBA training you need to turn chaos into clarity. From navigating the emotional rollercoaster of ownership to mastering the mechanics of profit, Lee brings the structure and strategy required to build a legacy.
Hit follow and let’s get to work.
Ep22
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Bigger Should Be Easier
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[00:00:00]
Bigger should be easier. Hmm. Think about that for a minute. I'm Coach Lee, and you are here today with the Second Act Business Owner Podcast, and we're on episode 22. Episode 22 is about business should be easier, but why, oh, why do we complicate it so? Growth without systems, leadership, and owner independence [00:01:00] simply creates a bigger, harder job.
If you're growing and growing and growing and working and working and working more and more and more, that's not scale. That's making complexity. Brad Sugars said this at the conference that I attended recently with Action Coach and many of our clients in Tampa, "The whole point of business is that bigger should be easier."
Growth Versus Scale
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Growth means more with more, and scale means more with less. So if you're growing your business, adding more employees, adding more products, and doing more and more and more, that's growth with more. Scaling is doing more with less, more with systems, more with better training, more with being a better leader, more with learning to leave the business from time to time.
Many owners grow revenue, add people, take on more customers, yet their lives get harder. Ugh. That's growth without scale. We [00:02:00] do it unknowingly.
Tampa Water Crisis Lesson
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Actually, I'll just tell you a story. I was in, in Tampa with one of my clients who attended the conference, and she and I were sharing a room. She and I were sharing a coffee when her phone rings. It's the office. It's back home. They're calling me. Well, wouldn't you know, they were out of water. Well, she's in Florida. They're not. How is she gonna fix the water problem? She knew the answers. "Well, first thing you gotta do is figure out what services require water, and how are we gonna bring some water in to get us through?
How are we gonna serve some beverages?" That kind of th- She knew exactly what to do. But guess what? Her leadership team did, too. It took them a little bit longer to figure it out than it would have if she would've just answered all their questions, but she did not answer their questions. She said, "What do you think you need to do?"
They shared it with her. She said, "I think you've got it. I think you've got it. I don't think you need me." [00:03:00] Wow, what a great opportunity for scale. That's what scaling is about is letting people do what they're hired to do so that you as the business owner can be away at a conference, learning and training.
Training and learning and growing and being with people who take you to the next level.
Why Most Businesses Stall
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And you cannot scale complexity or genius. So if you're the one who has all the answers in here, all... You know all the tricks, you know where all the keys are, you know how to unlock all the doors. You're the only one that can talk to the accountant, talk to the attorney, talk to the plumber.
I've got clients who they're the only ones that they think can talk to the plumber, and I'm pretty sure that your people are smart enough to talk to the plumber. Now, might they need some systems? Absolutely.
Lee Gray: If the business depends on you, the owner, remembering everything, and you, the owner, solving every problem, and you, the owner, being the only person who knows how to make things work, can't scale.
Which is why
90% of all businesses,
Lee Gray: 90% of all [00:04:00] businesses do not scale. They stay just about where they are year over year, over year, over year, until they either sell for not as much as they'd like to sell for, or they just go away. You've seen it. You've driven down the street, and you've seen businesses gone.
Poof. Where did they go? Well, the, the owner got tired of knowing everything, doing everything, solving every problem, being the only person who knows how to call the plumber and talk to the attorney and talk to the accountant.
Six Drivers of Scale
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Lee Gray: Whew, is that ever exhausting But simply, there are six areas that make business stronger and valuable, and, and, and that's how you scale.
And this is what Brad Sugars talked about at the BizX conference. So it's so simple, it's almost dumb, but doesn't mean we do it, right? I'm gonna talk to you about them a little bit. Number one Getting the business as profitable as possible.
You know, the more profitable businesses can pay people better, which means you can retain people better, you can provide better bene- benefits, you can invest in training for your[00:05:00]
training and education for your team. You can invest in new products and services. So profitability is one way to scale. The second is customer predictability. Now what do I mean by that? Let's just say I'm going to buy your business, or you have your business for sale, and you've got contracts with all of your clients that either
they're short-term contract, long-term client, but you have in your business recurring income. You've got agreements on it. I'm more likely, or that more, business is more likely to be sold, especially for a higher value, than a business that isn't. That doesn't have any of those agreements.
'Cause then, 'cause otherwise you're just buying the name of a company and having to go out and sell everything. So customer predictability, you know, what they do and what they buy and how they're going to buy from you in the future is, is a second scaling skill. The third one is operational systems. So having the systems for opening the business, closing the business, accounting functions, payroll functions, all those [00:06:00] things that get done on a regular basis, but still need some kind of a system in place.
A- going back to systems, that's always going to be the foundation of making a business more profitable and also easier for you, the owner, as an owner to run. Um, leadership capacity, growing yourself as a leader, which is the same as letting go, letting other people make mistakes, and maybe even costing you money when they make a mistake.
But if you avoid every cost of every new person or leader or manager in your, in your organization, if you try to avoid those costs, again, you're gonna be answering all the questions for everyone. You're the one gonna be talking to the plumber, the lawyer, all of those people. And then scaling readiness.
All the people in your organization need to be growing. , The foundation of your business, the bank accounts, the debt, all of that stuff has to be scale ready. And then your owner independence. So can you be gone for a amount of time? I'm gonna talk about another speaker [00:07:00] here in a minute at the conference, and I'm gonna s- tell you what he suggested that we do.
It's really cool, so stay tuned. The cool thing about these six things to scale is it doesn't have to be done in 90 days. You just pick, pick one area, and you start working on it. Just pick your weakest area and start there. I think that's always a good place to start.
Owner Independence Layers
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A business that runs without you is worth more. So a business that runs without you is worth more, which means when you can go away for training and education, because the managers are there to get the work done when you're not there.
Really, your job as an owner is to train your managers, and to educate your managers, and to empower your managers. They're the ones getting the work done when you're not there. And the layers for that is operational. You know, if you're on the tools, you're gonna always be on the tools. So transitioning the tools, whatever they are in your industry, whether it's accounting or seeing patients or clients or doing surgery, whatever it is, letting go of the tools so that you're not operational.
You know, i- if you have to [00:08:00] work to make money, that's, that's being on the tools. And letting management do their work. Let them do their job. Finally, - leadership. Growing as a leader so the business can run without you so that you can power manage- and then you own an asset, not a job.
That way, it is worth more to you and to someone else if you decide to sell it
So which layer are you operating in today? Are you a operations tool person? Are you just focusing on your managers? Are you focusing on your own leadership to grow yourself so the business grows? Are you building an asset and not a job?
Four Week Vacation Challenge
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So Michael Michalowicz he is the author of Profit First and many other books, and he was such a great speaker. If you ever get a chance to hear him, you should. He said to schedule a four-week vacation within the next 18 months. So now how do you do that? Well, first of all, you schedule some kind of a, a procedure that has to be done, and you have to be out of the office for four weeks.
You plan it. You put it on your calendar. You've got 18 months from today, and I challenge every [00:09:00] second actor that's watching this now to either break both of your arms figuratively or go off and have a surgery where you just can't be in the office. Maybe it's a, it's a throat surgery, so you're not even gonna be able to talk.
You get to pick what it is, but you've gotta be able to be gone for four weeks. That becomes a fire drill for your business, and then your team can finally get empowered, and you discover what needs to be documented, delegated, or developed. That's the only way to do it. I mean, if you're always there fixing everything, you're not gonna know what, what can't be fixed when you're, when you're gone.
I'll tell you something else. Every time my clients attend a, a workshop any given amount of time or a vacation, they always, almost always come back to discover something that they wouldn't have seen if they had remained there. So things happen under your nose, and we're so close to looking through that lens, we miss it.
Break Your Arms Experiment
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Let me give you an example of some client conversations I've had recently. So I talked to the client, and they are, they're [00:10:00] exhausted. So I assign them... Well, first of all, they're so good at what they do. They can fix everything. They can... One is actually in construction, another is in a service industry.
And I said to my construction owner, "Next week, both of your arms are broken. They're literally broken. You cannot do anything." And I did talk to him the following week, and I said, "How did that go?" And he goes, "I cannot believe how much strategic things I got done." He also said, "I can't believe how much more time I have to do things I really wanna do."
So we had to make him break his arms in order for him to see wh- what else he's capable of. The capabilities of business owners and entrepreneurs is amazing when they can get off the tools, 'cause it's that energy that started the business in the first place that we wanna get back out and, and put back into the business from the outside in, and if you're hammering nails all day long, that is just not going to happen.
Another client did the same thing. [00:11:00] She said, "There's just no way. My clients will not let me leave them." Oh, is that true? Because your wrist is broken. You have a broken wrist, and you have to stay off of the wrist for 90 days, otherwise you're surely going to have to have surgery. 90 days. In two days they stopped asking.
In two days they stopped asking for her help. Keep that in mind. What, what do you need to, what do you need to break so that you can break through and become the owner of the second act business that you wanted to have all along?
Price Dictates Perception
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Another quote that Mike Michalowicz said is that price dictates perception. So if you're the cheapest, then that's the perception. So how does your price tell the story about your business to your ideal client? If your ideal client is a price shopper, well, they still want more than just price.
They, they want something that works if they buy it from you. But decide what your price is and then live up, live up to it. Let that, [00:12:00] let your price dictate the customer's perception. I just, I felt like that was something really, really strong to hang on to.
Clone Your Best Customers
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And invite people to clone their best customers.
Another quote from Mike Michalowicz says, "The more we w- work with bad customers, the worse they get." Hmm. Does that resonate with you? 'Cause it did with me. I've probably been someone's worst customer, sorry to say. But clone your best customers. List your customers by revenue, list them by, list them by revenue, and then write, literally write down, "When I look at this client, do I think, 'Ooh, cringe.
Bleh.' Or do I think, 'Crush it. I want more like that'"? And then look at that list and say, "What am I doing right with these people? What is our industry doing wrong? And where do these people that I want to crush it with, where do they hang out?" 'Cause that's where I wanna be, and that's where you need to be when you're going to education events or netw- networking to educate yourself as a business owner.
This is how [00:13:00] you find people who value that price you have, by being in the same room with them, the people that are just like your best customers.
Graceful Ways to Say No
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Finally, I, I wanna give you a tip on saying no that the Ivan Misner, Dr. Misner gave us, and I, I love him. He said, "One of the things we need to focus on is saying no."
And I thought, "Oh, no. I can't say no. I don't know about you, but I don't like to say no to anyone." But he said, "How about offer a graceful refusal instead?" Because if we say yes to something, we're saying no to something else. So he says this. I'm gonna read it right here. Dr. Misner said, "If I said yes, I'm afraid I'd let you down."
Then say, "Well, let me refer you to someone else who I think would, would be able to help you with that, and they would be great at doing what it is, whatever it is they're asking." Huh, wow, how cool is that? That's not offensive. "I, I'm afraid I would let you down if I said yes." And that, if that's the truth, go ahead and say it to them, but it's a nice, simple way to say no.
We [00:14:00] have to say no if we're gonna continue to grow the areas of our business and our life in order to scale and be where we wanna be.
Closing Call to Action
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So I wanna close up with this. Business should be easier. Bigger should be easier. If your business is growing, but you're more exhausted than ever, it's time to have a conversation with someone outside of your circle.
Give us a call at ActionCOACH Business Coaching. We are happy to listen and to, to just, just do a diagnostic of your business. We're happy to do that with you. Reach out to us a- any way you can. You deserve a bigger business without chaos that doesn't have to have you on the tools. Remember that. That's what you got into your second act to begin with. Own it. You deserve it.
Final Encouragement
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What I feel like expressing today is, you know, I think about how hard we work. I think about how hard every one of these second actors is working, and I love it. I'm proud of every one of you, and I want you to work hard, but work [00:15:00] hard doing the smart things that are gonna provide dividends for you, your family, your business, your community, all the things that you wanna do in your business and in your life.
That's what I feel like expressing. What do you feel like expressing?