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In this episode, Tiffany-Ann Bottcher dives into the not-so-sexy but absolutely amazing elements of running a business. From systems and processes to feedback loops and compliance, she unpacks the underappreciated essentials that drive growth and profitability. These aren’t the flashy parts of business ownership, but they’re the backbone of long-term success.
Tiffany-Ann shares practical examples, actionable tips, and relatable stories to help business owners embrace these overlooked aspects with confidence. Whether it’s mastering contracts, optimizing customer service, or saying “no” to overcommitment, this episode delivers a punchy and insightful look into what truly keeps a business thriving.
Key Takeaways:
- Systems and processes are crucial for profitability and scalability.
- Data management drives informed decision-making and growth.
- Clear contracts save relationships and ensure compliance.
- Outstanding customer service is the secret to client retention and referrals.
- Strong internal communication keeps teams aligned and efficient.
- Routine maintenance (aka “business flossing”) prevents costly breakdowns.
- Feedback loops foster continuous improvement in every area.
- Boundaries and saying “no” protect your time and resources.
Actionable Insights:
- Audit Your Processes: Identify one area of your business that could benefit from better systems or automation.
- Track Your Numbers: Start measuring a key metric that directly impacts your profitability.
- Set Boundaries: Review your commitments and practice saying “no” to protect your energy.
What’s Next:
Don’t miss the final two episodes of 2024! Next week, Tiffany-Ann will be joined by Steph Fournier, her incredible branding photographer, to explore the concept of community in business. And stay tuned for the year-end wrap-up episode in early December.
Brought To You By:
Path 2 Profit Bookkeeping, don't let bad books hold you back, book your complimentary consult here.
Brought To You By:
Path 2 Profit Bookkeeping, don't let bad books hold you back, book your complimentary consult here.
Creators & Guests
What is Service Based Business Society Podcast?
Attention entrepreneurs! Are you looking for ways to scale your service-based business without sacrificing your sleep? Look no further than The Service Based Business Society Podcast, hosted by Tiffany-Ann Bottcher.
Each week, Tiffany-Ann shares valuable insights on productivity, business strategies, marketing trends, and tech secrets that you need to know in order to take your business to the next level. She firmly believes that a successful service-based business must prioritize an amazing client experience and sustainable, predictable, repeatable profit, and she'll teach you how to do just that.
But that's not all - Tiffany-Ann also invites expert guests to share their knowledge and experience with you, providing even more valuable insights on service-based business growth and sustainability. You won't want to miss a single episode!
If you're looking to create, grow, and optimize your service-based business, The Service Based Business Society Podcast is the perfect resource for you.
And don't forget to join the community on Instagram by searching for Service Based Business Society Podcast
MINDSET
Focused on helping entrepreneurs cultivate the right mindset for success in their businesses. Hosted by experts in the field, the podcast covers a range of topics related to mindset and business, including self-improvement, goal setting, visualization, and meditation. The podcast provides practical tools and strategies to help listeners develop a growth mindset, overcome limiting beliefs, and build confidence. Through inspiring interviews with successful entrepreneurs and thought leaders, the podcast shows that a positive and resilient mindset is key to achieving business success.
DATA-DRIVEN DECISION MAKING
Dedicated to equipping business leaders with the knowledge and skills they need to lead with confidence, based on data-driven insights. Hosted by experts in business leadership, the podcast covers a range of topics related to data analysis and interpretation, strategic decision-making, and effective communication. It provides practical tools and strategies for interpreting complex data sets and using them to make informed business decisions that drive growth and success. Through engaging interviews with successful business leaders and industry experts, the podcast offers valuable insights and examples of how to use data to build strong teams and drive innovation.
RELATABLE ENTREPRENEURSHIP STORIES
A great resource for aspiring entrepreneurs looking to learn from the experiences of successful business owners. Through relatable and engaging entrepreneurship stories, the podcast provides valuable insights into the challenges and opportunities that come with starting and running a business. Hosted by experienced entrepreneurs, the podcast covers a range of topics related to entrepreneurship, including idea generation, product development, marketing, and fundraising. Each episode features inspiring interviews with successful entrepreneurs, who share their personal stories and provide practical advice and tips for those looking to start and grow their own businesses.
BUSINESS TOPICS
As businesses continue to evolve, it's essential for entrepreneurs and business owners to stay informed about the latest trends and best practices in marketing, bookkeeping, technology, and innovation. The podcast is a valuable resource for anyone looking to keep up with these changes and stay ahead of the competition.
Whether you are just starting out or looking to take your business to the next level, this podcast is a great source of inspiration and guidance from real-world examples of entrepreneurship success.
Brought to you by Bottcher Group of Companies
Hello and welcome to the Service Based Business Society podcast. I am your host, Tiffany Ann Botcher. On our weekly episodes, we will dig into everything you need to know about scaling your service based business without losing sleep. With my experience in creating over 7 figures per month and a passion for marketing, finance, and automation, this show will provide tangible tips and techniques for scaling your business. Let's get started.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Hello, and welcome back to another episode. Today, we are talking all about the unsung heroes of business success. Guys, I have been battling a cold for the last week or so. And, well, I'm just gonna say this is an audio only podcast, and we're gonna just bear through it together. I'm a little more froggy than usual, but we're we're just gonna get through it.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Because today, we're talking about those unsung heroes of business success. Those are those, you know, super sexy, but actually amazing parts of business that everyone needs to focus on. And it doesn't matter what business you have. This list is so key. And we're just we're gonna go through.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:There's 10 items. We're gonna talk a little bit about how they can affect your business success. And also what is a tangible tip for actually getting this done? Because at the end of the day, it's all great to have all of these big kind of pie in the sky. This is important.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:That's important. Well, here's the thing. It's all important. There's very few parts of your business that are not important, but we have to really always look at things from a kind of timeliness perspective. Everything is important, but when is it important?
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Because on day 1, all of these things are not important. And on day 500, some of these things are really important and some of them are less important. As you get to the point where you're really mastering your business looking to scale, then there's new things. But even if it's not an important part of your business journey right now today, you still need to know and have it kind of sitting on a shelf so that when it is time, when it's like, cue the insert item, it's there. It's not just been forgotten altogether.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:The biggest challenge is where these items cause the biggest hindrance to your success is when they just get abandoned altogether. So everyone is at a different point in their journey. Everyone is a different level of interest in these I kind of like the not so sexy, but actually amazing parts of business. Other people maybe like other parts of their business. Some people love doing social media content.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Some people love doing bookkeeping. Some people love talking to clients. That's what makes it very interesting and that there is no perfect right or wrong answer for anyone. So we're kicking off our list today and we're talking about item number 1, systems and processes. I know sometimes a bit of a snooze fest, but honestly one of the biggest difference makers when we're talking about profit.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Because here's the thing. You can actually grow a pretty successfully sales driven business without any systems in process. You can hire a great sales team. You can have a great product. You can go out and you can sell.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:But what about when it comes to actually delivering, when it comes to actual follow through, when it comes to the follow-up process, when it comes to invoicing, accounting, and really recreating that on repeat. Oftentimes businesses without systems and processes end up with lots of sales and not a lot of profit. They have a great top line, very minimal bottom line. And the reason for that is because everyone buys solutions along the way. And while there is a time and place in the business journey for buying solutions, you can't do it all the time.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:It just doesn't work. There's only so many dollars to go around. And oftentimes, what we see is those same businesses that had those big surges in sales, what happens is when they hit a quieter time is that they realize that it's really expensive to run their business, that their overhead costs are very high, that their, you know, variable costs are not easily tracked with work. So it's the same type of, you know, these same type of businesses that go from generating, you know, a $100,000 a month to generating $50,000 a month. And they realize that they really haven't saved any money because nothing is really tied to the actual work that they're doing.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:So super important to develop systems and processes, but here's my caveat. As someone who loves systems and processes, you actually can't develop them until you have a workflow in your business. So while some people get really hung up in systems and processes, even before the business starts, you have an idea. We need a logo, we need a website, and we need these systems and processes. This is the people that I often say done is better than perfect.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:And I get it. There's some really conflicting advice there, but this episode is for everyone. And so I really wanna be able to show almost kind of the the two sides of the coin. You can't be so focused on systems and processes that it prevents you from actually getting the job done. And so number 1, get your business going.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Understand what the process looks like from start to finish. It is only then that you can build systems and processes around. I'm gonna give you an example because we updated a system recently in, one of our businesses. And so I'm gonna kinda discuss how that looks. And so kind of our sales workflow, if you wanna call it that, is we have a consult call and we go through a series of questions and whatnot.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:And and then the next step is for me to send over a proposal and service agreement. And that's gonna outline the scope of work. It's gonna outline the pricing and the timing and all of these types of things. Now there's actually a number of automations that can make that process much easier. But to start with, I need to know what am I updating frequently and what types of items are actually staying very static.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:So certain things like our hourly rate for extras, this actually doesn't change. So this is an item that can just stay fairly static on the agreement. Other things like the actual scope of work, the duration of the project, these types of things were changing frequently. So it's it's only after you've done it a number of times that you start to realize, hey. I always change this.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:I need this to be, you know, a variable text box. I need this to be more automated. These are the items that I need to be able to take from the sales call in an efficient way and get them into the agreement. Because without any systems and processes, what happens is you can get on one call, get that information, but now you haven't actually put it into the agreement and sent it to the client. And now it's sitting on a on a task list because now you're jumping into the next call.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Being able to do that process efficiently means that at the end of the sales call, I can take 5, 6 minutes, wrap up the agreement, send it off to the client. And now that's tracked in a process that's gonna flow along the pipeline, letting me know if the person has viewed it, if the person has signed it. When they sign it and pay the deposit, I'm gonna get a notification. That's gonna signal to someone on our team that we need to add them to our project management system, which by the way, at one point will be automated, but we're still fine tuning the exact process as to how we can do that in the most efficient way. So for now, the notification goes to the team member.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:We can automate that process entirely. However, we're just not there yet because we Roam wasn't built in a day. None of your systems and processes are built in a day either. Go through the process and test it and see what works and always be willing to make adoptions and make changes as needed to really serve you and your growth. The next item, we're going super sexy with this one, data management.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:I know it's not sexy at all, but understanding your numbers is the undeniable way to drive growth in your business. Being able to say, cost me 76¢ to get someone into my email list with a lead brand. Within 6 months, it's going to turn into x y z journey. That allows you to scale and drive your growth undeniably. Now maybe it's not through an email list.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Maybe it's through a Google Ad. Maybe you know that every time you put a $1,000 into Google Ads, you're going to book 20 sales calls. And from there, you're going to get 10 maybes and you're gonna get 4 yeses. For $250, you can have a new client. Well, now some people might say, oh my goodness.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:$250? I mean, if you're gonna give that person a $100 service, that's probably not a great deal. But if that service is $10,000, why would you not? When would you stop spending $250 to buy $10,000 in sales? I'm gonna give you a hint.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:You wouldn't. That is about tracking numbers because so many business owners put a $1,000 into Google Ads and that's it. Sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn't, sometimes they get sales, sometimes they don't. And here's where it gets really tricky is when we're putting money into Google Ads, we're putting money into Facebook Ads, we're investing into SEO, we're also hitting every single market we can hit. Yes.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:There's so much value in this omnipresence and being everywhere, But when it actually comes to driving growth, you do need to know what works, and you do need to know what it costs. So knowing what your cost of acquisition, knowing what a cost of a customer is, very important. This really allows you to be able to decide exactly how much advertising dollars you need to invest in order to make your sales target. Data makes people hide. And I know that.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:I love data and I see the number of people that I passionately talk about data to that want to hide. I see the eyes glaze over. I see the, oh, boy. Here she goes again. But, guys, it is so important.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Tracking cash flow, spotting different trends in your finances early. The number of business owners that either don't look at their financial statements or they are looking at them so late after the fact that it's really there's no actual connection between what's going on in the businesses and the numbers that you're seeing on the page. Guys, it all starts to blend together. When you are immersed in it, it's really hard to see the forest through the trees. That saying comes back again and again.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:When you are in your business and you're not looking at your your finances, you're not looking at your metrics, you're not looking at your numbers, it's so easy to just bumble along and not really know. Pick some specific numbers and track that data. It can be the biggest difference maker. 2025 is just around the corner. Set some targets.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Maybe you're thinking, man, I wanna do a $1,000,000 next year. Well, if you if you did 10,000 this year and you wanna do a $1,000,000 next year, that's all that's a big gap to cover. But it is not impossible. Many have done it. And so I really want you to know that data drives growth.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Okay. We touched a little bit of on it in in number 1, but we're gonna touch on it again. Contracts and agreements. Number 3, contracts and agreements. Clear terms save relationships.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:A confused mind never buys. It's a old cliche marketing term, but it is so true. Especially if you are in an industry where you're doing something new and innovative, if what you're doing is slightly confusing, people don't wanna ask questions. People don't like to appear uneducated. They don't know.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:So clarity is so important. Whether it is with team members, whether it is with vendors, whether it is with customers. These are 3 relationships that you are gonna manage on an ongoing daily basis where clarity is so important. So often we see great team members lost because of a lack of clarity in employment or even subcontractor agreements. Perhaps something was said that implied that there would be a specific bonus structure, a profit share, some type of additional compensation.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:It becomes emotional because it is not factual. And when it comes to business agreements, it is always best to be factual. As soon as we start to get emotions involved, it really can get messy and it can can honestly snowball into a much bigger situation. So when it comes to contracts and agreements, especially in the employment space, make sure you're being compliant. Make sure you know what it takes to be compliant.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:The number of business owners that feel like certain employment requirements are guidelines, well, we decided we were gonna do it another way. Unfortunately, it just doesn't work that way. And almost in every situation, if that employee caused a problem upon their exit, typically, the body compliance body will side with the employee. And so you will be on the hook for paying out whatever, you know, was supposed to be paid out. The beauty of having everything in writing is that it's just super clear.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:So even if it's someone who's gonna be worth you for a short time, have a standard agreement for any subcontractor. These are the freelancer responsibilities. This is the confidentiality requirement. This is the amount of notice that is required if you're gonna be offered an extended period of time. If you're going to be looking to leave, what kind of terms are you looking for?
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:What days is your business closed? You know? What is the timeline that you expect people to respond with during the day for any type of remote work? It's great if someone's sitting across the desk from you that you you know that, oh, that person's gone for lunch. But if you're working on a remote team and you're trying to get a hold of a teammate and you've been trying for an hour and a half, is that unreasonable?
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:How do you prevent ugly conversations? Have it in your agreement. Same thing with customers. What if your customer decides that they're going to do work with you, they give you the deposit, and they decide 6 weeks later they're not gonna move forward with the project? What happens with the deposit?
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:It prevents an ugly conversation if it is outlined in your agreement. So take the time. Go through and create your standard agreement, and make notes as to which fields are dynamic. If you're not using a program that can do this and make this very simple and automated, the easiest way to do it is to do it in a document and just highlight in yellow the fields that you're gonna update each time. That way, you know with a quick scroll that you've gotten all of the yellow removed before you send it to client, that you've updated all of what you would consider the variable field.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:I would recommend using a software that helps automate that process as part of your systems and processes, but it really depends on where you are in your customer journey. You do not need that to get started. You need to be doing a certain amount of agreements in order to make any kind of automated process worth it. Otherwise, you're investing in this, but you don't need it. So, like I said, always deciding where in the journey you are and what you really need.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:The contract and agreement is a nonnegotiable. How much you automate it is the part that really depends on the journey. Our not so sexy item number 4, customer service. Let's be honest. At times, any kind of human to human interaction can be difficult.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Customers will not always be happy. And sometimes as a business, we have to own that. We made a mistake or we made a mistake and we didn't handle it very well. I always say we're all humans. Mistakes will be made.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:It is how you handle them. Customer service is so important and anyone representing your business needs to understand your vision for customer service. So while it's fantastic that you know how to handle the customers, what you would say, what you wouldn't say, that type of thing, Is any person who is out there representing your business pushing the same message? Super important deciding what your customer service looks like. We talked a little bit about business boundaries a couple of episodes ago.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Customer service is one of those areas where boundaries can get fuzzy. Going to the end of the earth to make a customer happy can win a customer for life. But if it is done in a way that breaks every boundary and makes your life as a business owner very difficult on an ongoing basis, one must evaluate if that's worth it. There's no right or wrong answer there. There are some very successful businesses that have very poor customer service.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:There are some businesses that are not super successful that have amazing customer service. Customer service is just one part of the equation, but it is the quiet work of retaining clients instead of always acquiring new ones. The fastest way to more sales is to sell more to the people you already have. How can you do that? Making them happy.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:They're gonna refer you. They're gonna leave you Google reviews, which are gonna help you grow your business. They're gonna tell their friends. They're gonna buy more from you. Always focus on retaining clients, keeping the clients you have happy.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Those people will come forward and, and really speak your praises when it counts. It's often understated. It's not always super sexy, but it is incredibly important. In the vein of communication, we're also gonna talk about internal communication, which is the underrated glue that keeps teams aligned. Deciding what tool you use for internal communication.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Do you want everyone texting on their personal phones? An advantage? Well, most people don't go anywhere without their cell phone. Most people will text even after hours and not consider it work. No additional cost to the business, but now people are on-site of your business, wherever that is, and they are texting on their cell phone.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:The optics at times are not great. I think it has become more and more forgiven because people do so much on their cell phones these days, but there was a time where having your phone out at a place of business was not appropriate. I remember the battle years ago when I worked in the restaurant industry while I was going to university. Our bar manager, he battled hard for us to put our phones away. We would hide them under the trays.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:We would hide them in our pockets. We would do whatever we could to sneak just a couple little texts here and there. It was terrible. I look back at it now and I think, gosh, that must have been incredibly frustrating. Not much different than I'm sure the teachers feel about now with kids who all have their cell phones and they don't leave their hands.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:So while texting can be an easy form of communication, it also comes with many downsides. You know, how do you know if someone is sending a legitimate something for business or if they are cruising TikTok? You really don't. So that kind comes the next piece of what tool are you going to use? Is that something that, you know, you're going to provide?
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:The other upside to to an employee the other upside to an employer provided tool is that if a person leaves, that you can close their access down to Teams Communications. I remember many years ago, early on in my career and the business I was a part of at the time, company chat. I'll never forget picking up my phone and it had like 97 missed messages. And I thought, what did I miss? And I clicked on it and there was all these emojis, the poop emoji, all over the screen.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Well, it turned out that someone had decided to quit and leave in a blaze of glory. There was cursing and carrying on and emojis and this ranting. Unfortunately, it became very hard to just shut that down. I wasn't in any role of leadership at the time, but it became very hard to shut that down because that was that person's cell phone in a giant group text message. If you are in a organ you know, in a in a Slack, we use Google Chat within our organization.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:You can simply remove someone. With one quick click, you can shut off their company email, remove them from Google Chat, and ensure that any kind of issue is not gonna blow over into the rest of the team. I often get the question, why do we use Google Chat? It's it's less common. Not not as many people use Google Chat.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:And I always say, Google Chat is free. It's included. I pay for a Google Workspace membership for every single one of our team members. Everyone has a company email even if they're only gonna email internally. Even if they're only gonna email internally, they still have a company email.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:They still have an email signature. There is no need for us to add additional cost for another tool. Now we don't add any of our clients into our chat. Many agencies do. We don't use that.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:We never liked that workflow. We do our communication through a client portal. So if we wanted to add clients into a chat workspace, maybe we would use Slack. That's why really choosing a tool that fits your business, fits your your place in your business growth, very important. A lot of people use Microsoft Teams, many different options.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:If there is a tool or a feature of a tool that does what you need it to do for no additional cost, don't pay for an extra tool. So often people add any tool, use part of it, and have all of these overlapping features. Cut costs. You know, we talked a little bit about measuring, tracking profit, tracking growth. Well, cut some costs.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Don't pay for things you don't need to. Slack does offer a lot more automation options in terms of messages, notifications for external things into Slack. I've never felt the need. Lots of people like them. There's no right or wrong answer.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Next piece. Number 6. Sexy number 6. Employee onboarding and training. So this really ties into the last piece on me mentioning that we have Google Workspace set up for everyone, even if they only use internal email.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Now you may say, Tiffany Anne, why would you spend money on a monthly subscription for them to have Gmail when they're just they're just messaging with other people on the team? What does it matter? Well, here's why here's why it's important to me. When we start onboarding an employee, the very first thing we do is we set up that employee's email. We set up their email signature.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:They're ready to go. Now they may be in an internal communication role only. In our organization, we have a whole team that communicates only internally, and then the progression in the journey is now you're a customer facing employee, and now you're gonna communicate directly with clients. There's a certain level of trust and training that is required for people to take that step and communicate with clients directly. The next step above that would be to be able to meet with clients on Zoom, in person, that type of thing, without any kind of leadership present.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:So that's kind of a progression. And so the first step in our journey is to create that email. Now someone can grow, and we would never want mid process to have some communication in one email. And then as they grow, now we have to swap everything over. Moving emails from account to account is actually a very tedious process.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:We don't advise it. It's possible, but it's a mess. So we create that email and then we create all of that employee's user logins based on that email. So we have a password management tool. We create their login and we invite to the email.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:We can have almost all of that access set up, all of the invites to our test management system, to our CRM system, to our password management tool, all sent to the email before the person even starts. So when that person starts, the only thing we need to do is send them an invite to the email. They log in. They have all of the instructions. They have all of their emails.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:We send them in a strategic order. Email at the top of the inbox says welcome to the team. These are your next steps to getting started, and these are the items that you're need gonna need to accept invites to. That process, we have worked over a year to streamline and get it so we are just right. Will we automate it now?
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Quite possibly. And that's that process we were talking about where first you have to understand the process and what works, then you can start to automate it. When it comes to employee onboarding and training, if it's a role that you hire for on repeat, then you might get better at it faster. If it's a brand new role you've never hired for, it will take a little bit more and likely a little headache along the way. The ripple effect on productivity and morale is kicking things off in an organized fashion.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:You know, it's it's when your house is clean, you're less likely to leave a giant miss behind. When an employee starts with an organized onboarding, they think, oh, this organization is is organized. They come in knowing that they need to rise to the occasion. If an employee shows up super organized and your onboarding process is super chaotic, disorganized, they have no idea what's going on, they're gonna understand, hey. That's a little bit wild here.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:And they're going to they're going to manage their performance to the expectation. Nobody wants you know, there's no incentive to being the most organized person on the team. You want to lead with organized, lead with professionalism. Now training is really slightly separate from onboarding, and that really is gonna depend on the role, deciding how often you're training people and how you can do that efficiently. Some people in your organization might be great trainers.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Other people in your organization might be great employees and not great trainers. Really deciding who is going to promote the correct culture, promote the values, understands the company, is going to train people effectively. Very important. Number 7. Number 7, super sexy routine maintenance.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:It doesn't matter what you do. There is a maintenance component of running your business. Think about this as the business flossing, and everyone goes to the dentist and the dentist says, do you floss twice a day? I wanna know. First of all, I wanna know, does anyone floss twice a day?
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Does any do do the dentist floss twice a day? But when it comes to your business, you need to be flossing enough to get the job done. So I'm not gonna say you need to be doing this twice day every day, but I will say that not doing it at some kind of regular interval can really catch up fast. Maintenance prevents breakdowns. You might think, oh, I don't have any big equipment.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:It is not all big equipment. It can be performance reviews if if we're gonna stick in that HR. Are you checking in with your employees? Do they know if they're doing a good job? Have you reviewed and made sure that their compensation is in line with their performance the way that the their places in the business with the current cost of living with any additionals that have been discussed.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:You know, that that was one one piece that you really should be auditing regularly. Your software updates. Do you have software that's out of date that will need to be updated? Do you know what that cost? Do you know what the process is?
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Do you have computer equipment that is going to need replacement at one point or another? How old is your computer? Is it is it working correctly? Because at one point, software will say, hey. You need a specific operating system to run.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:You don't want to have a costly breakdown, not in people, not in equipment, not in any of these things. You need to be flossing and making sure that you're auditing your your situation. All of all of the pieces of making your success happen all have an expiry date. Keep the flossing. Keep it going.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Number 8, compliance. Oh, man. Compliance may be the least sexy word in business, but let me tell you, it is not exciting, but it is absolutely necessary. Staying on top of things is so important. So often, people have the money to pay and they miss the deadline or they just don't file it.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:They were growing. They were busy. The books weren't done. Guys, you have to remain compliant. It's easy to forget.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:This is one of those systems and processes that should start at the very beginning. Write the dates down in your calendar where it's going to remind you. Don't have them off in the corner of your brain. Don't just assume you'll remember, especially if you I mean, if you've hired a bookkeeper, they will keep track of these things for you. But if you're at the point where you don't have a bookkeeper or you have a you know, you're doing your books in house or or whatever that process is, it's easy to forget.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Any of those penalties are not a tax deductible write off. It's not helpful in any way to miss the deadline. So even if you don't have the money to pay, you should still file on time. Because most times now it depends on the state, province, etcetera. There is one penalty for the actual filing, and then there is a interest on the money.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:So if you file the paperwork, you miss that penalty and then you can pay interest on the money. It's not the worst thing. Be compliant, file the paperwork, make sure you know how much money you owe because you don't want to get to the end of the year because oftentimes in the 1st year, it's an annual filing. You know, I get to the end of the year and go, crap. I owe $7,000.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:I don't have $7,000. The payment plans on that dollars, they take forever to pay. Compliance. It is not sexy. It is not exciting.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:It is so necessary. This episode is brought to you by Path to Profit Bookkeeping. Don't let messy books hold you back from your growth. With expert bookkeeping solutions from start up to 7 figures, we handle the numbers so you can focus on building your business. Visit path to profit bookkeeping dot I o today to book your complimentary call.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:That's path number 2, profit bookkeeping. Io. And, back to the show. Number 9, feedback loops. Gathering feedback from customers, employees, yourself leads to continuous improvement.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:It is also one of the most challenging. That's why I left it a little later in the list. It is tough. If you have clients that stay for a long time, we've talked about this in in boundaries episodes. We'll talk about it again in a minute.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:If you have a customer that's going to last a really long time, you have a less chance for reviews. Most people leave one review. Getting feedback from employees is tough because most employees will not speak candidly to anyone in leadership. People will moan amongst each other. Very rarely will people actually take those concerns to anyone who actually has the power to fix them.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:And it is one of the biggest challenges to helping employees grow into leadership positions is that they go from being a part of the gripe circle to having to be able to say to people who are then griping to them, you're giving me this information, and I'm going to have to go and do something with it. You'll often see people in new leadership roles come to you. So maybe you've promoted, like, a manager to your business, a newer manager, and they're gonna come to you and say, so so someone gave me some information, and it's confidential. And I can tell you who it is, but they're not happy, and they're thinking about leaving. And then you say, okay.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Well, who is it? And the person says, I told them I wouldn't tell you. Okay. So you're in a leadership role now. That person needed to know that what they were telling you wasn't just gossip.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:That, of course, now that you're you're you're managing the business, of course, you're gonna wanna do something to help them stay. Without giving the name, you can't do that. And it's that that shift is often the biggest challenge for those employees because usually someone along the way will tell them something that they didn't realize that they were they they maybe used to stand around and gripe about something like that. You know? Oh, man.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:The scheduling has always been crap lately. I'm driving from here. I'm driving from there. Gosh. I wish the office would get it right.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:And then at one point, that's gonna shift. So getting candid feedback from employees, very challenging. You know, most people know that anonymous surveys aren't really exit interviews are almost always flawed one direction or another. Feedback loops are challenging. So deciding, you know, how you're going to get that information is super key.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Are people referring? Are people, you know, in Facebook communities when they're asking for service providers? Are they saying, hey. Mine's really great. They're doing a great job.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:This is what I really like about them. Oftentimes, that feedback is way more candid. That feedback is that more honest feedback, and it will come more frequently. Asking them specific targeted questions on specific calls. What do you think about this?
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Not everyone's going to really say much. But sometimes, if they're staying for a long time, they're re referring, doing that kind of things well, you can discern that they're happy. Employees, are they staying? Are they are they bringing people in that they know? Are they doing a great job?
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Well, sometimes those are feedback loops too. And the feedback loop on yourself, takes some serious self awareness, self reflection, and being honest. Knowing your flaws, knowing the things that you struggle with, coming from a purse coming it from a way of how do I grow? How do I learn? Not from a imposter syndrome, I'm not good enough is a tricky piece, but so important to success.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:And the last item, our big sexy number 10, boundaries and saying no. Guys, we did a whole episode on this just a few weeks ago. It is it is not glamorous, but it is liberating. The art of walking back over commitments is so key to success. Learning to protect your time.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:I talk about it. I talked about it in the first episode of this season. We talked about, about protecting your time, talked about boundaries recently, and you think, gosh, is this the theme? It is. It is a theme of success because overcommitting is diluting your success.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:You have a certain amount of peanut butter. You are gonna spread that on a piece of bread. You have to decide how big that piece of bread is because you can spread peanut butter pretty far. But at one point, you cannot taste peanut butter on the bread. It's there, but you can't taste it.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:And that is what over committing. That is what spreading yourself too thin is. You can't grow a team. You can't support your customers. You can't take the time to review your data when you are up to your eyeballs in chaos.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:We've talked about outsourcing. We've talked about automating. This podcast, this season of the podcast gives you the steps and pieces to help scale your success in an amazing way. It is time to really take these items and decide how to apply them to your business because some of them, boundaries and saying no, they apply at all stages of the business. But as we talked about in the boundaries episode, at the beginning of your business, you're gonna say yes to more than you would later on because you're just getting started.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Yeah. You'll do that. Of course, you will. No problem. But at one point, you'll have to walk it back to something that is sustainable.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Because, guys, we're not just here to create successful profitable businesses. We're here to create sustainable successful profitable businesses. 2024 is almost over. We have just 2 podcast episodes left in 2024. Next week, I have very special guest returning to the studio, Steph Fournier.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Now Steph has been on a previous episode. She has been talked about in previous episodes. She is my amazing branding photographer. You've definitely seen her work if you've seen any of our social stuff, but she is so much more than that. She has been a key part in my business journey.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:It's part of my business network, and I absolutely love her. Next week, she is back in the studio and we are having an amazing chat all about community and not in the way that you would think. We're not talking Facebook groups. We're talking community in the business world. And then our final episode of 2024 will be in early December, and we will wrap it up for the Christmas guys.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Two episodes left. 2024 has been incredible, and I cannot wait to share the last 2 episodes with you. Take this list. I know they're not the sexy 10, but they are the difference makers when it comes to success. Now's the time.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Get up.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:We're all out of time for today, but the fun doesn't stop here. Make sure to subscribe to the Service Based Business Society podcast on your preferred podcast app. If you're hanging out over on YouTube, search for Tiffany Ann Botcher. Your likes, shares, and reviews really do help the show. Until next time, have a great week.