Scale or Fail with Allison Maslan

Entrepreneur, business mentor, homeopath, and author – Allison Maslan

Brought to you by Ownerbox – Business Systems in a Box – Click here for info

I’m excited to have the amazing Allison Maslan back on the show. Allison is the CEO of Allison Maslan International, a Global Business Mentoring Company.

She just released a NEW book called Scale or Fail, which is a Wall Street Journal bestseller. In this episode, Allison shares the story behind her new book and important tips on hiring and scaling your business.

A few highlights from this episode:

• How to ACTUALLY systemize your business
• How to determine the most important roles to hire and how to find the right person for your business
• How to move people around into different roles and give them the reigns
• What to do when you get burnout and are ready to throw in the towel

Allison’s Websites:

ScaleOrFail.com
AllisonMaslan.com

Transcript: Download

Video Transcription provided by GMR Transcription Services.

Jaime:	Welcome to Eventual Millionaire. I?m Jaime Masters, and today on the show, we have back Allison Maslan. 

	Now, she has a brand-new book. It?s super awesome. It?s called Scale or Fail, and it was great packaging that you sent to me with litter stuff and everything. The kids loved it. You?ve had over 10 businesses since you were 19. Thanks so much for coming back on the show.

Allison:	I am so excited to be here. It?s been way too long. 

Jaime:	It has been so long, and what?s so amazing is I feel like this is a needed time for a book like this, because everybody?s talking about hustling and craziness, and they?re not talking about team or hiring or the stuff that really matters, which otherwise will drive you crazy in business.

	So, can you tell me a little bit about the premise and why you created it?

Allison:	Yeah. So, exactly like what you are saying, and in my earlier days in business, I didn?t know how to scale, I didn?t know how to build a team, I didn?t know how to delegate, I didn?t know how to build the foundation of business.

	So, when my business was growing quickly, I had a full-service advertising and PR firm and had a lot of great clients like Ben & Jerry?s and Supercuts and all of that, and I thought oh this is awesome, and then, I realized wow, I have no foundation. There?s only 12 to 15 working hours in a day, and I was working 20 hours a day, and I maxed out, I burned out, and really fell apart.

	And I think that it happens to somebody business owners even if you love what you do, if you don?t have that foundation under you to support your growth, then you?re never going to be able to really reach the goals that you want to in your business.

Jaime:	And you?re constantly running out of energy and being like aah, I wanna run in a corner and hide from all the people that you have ?

Allison:	Yeah.

Jaime:	? working for you, right? So, what?s the first step? What do they do if they feel like they?re starting to get into burnout right now, and they?re just doing the best they can with what they have? What are some of the first steps that they need to work on?

Allison:	Well, you know, the thing is, is of course you have to work hard, and I'm not going to sit here and say oh just snap your fingers and you got this team and so forth, but it really is about working smarter. And it?s choosing those strategies that you really resonate with an saying okay this is the model that I?m going to build to scale, to ultimately take yourself out of the picture, and have a revenue stream that can multiply at a large volume and impact a lot of people.

	So, first you got a look at does the model I have right now, is it scalable? And if you?re the only one delivering the product or service, the answer is no.

Jaime:	You?re like every listener that is listening right now is going oh crap, thanks. Appreciate it. I run a service business or I?m a freelancer or, right? And they?re doing ?

Allison:	Yes.

Jaime:	? the work too. And we?ve already [inaudible] [00:02:52] most likely that?s listening, and they know that getting themselves out of that day-to-day is really important, but it is one thing to talk about it, it?s another thing to actually do it.

	So, how do we do it?

Allison:	Yes. Exactly. So, I?ll just give you for instance with a few of my clients and also myself, for instance, I ran a business coaching company. So, we work with business owners all over the world, and we mentor them to grow and scale their company.

	In the beginning, it was just me. It was me mentoring and it was great. And I did wonderful work, but again, only so many hours in the day. So, I began to build a team of other mentors that have run successful companies, I wanted them to have the qualifications to be able to work with my clients, and they?re amazing.

	So, it didn?t happen overnight. I hired one and hired another one, and then I took big leap and hired four, and because with each new person that you bring on your team, you can now help a lot more people. And when you?re helping a lot more people, your revenue goes up, and your impact goes up as well.

Jaime:	Okay. Tell me more about that. I want to dive into the nitty-gritty of what that is, because especially coaches, and me included, I'm always like well, they?re never going to be as good as me, right? 

	And so, hiring somebody and then training them on your skill set, right, is an interesting thing. So, walk me through how you actually found that right person and how you knew they were right person and all that fun stuff.

Allison:	Yeah. So, I?ve been through this in the past with other businesses that I?ve had, and I understand how scary it is, because I felt the same way, and I struggled with that, and that?s why having a mentor is so important, because they were helping keeping me from like jumping off the ledge like oh my gosh, I can't let go. It has to be me. 

	And what I realized is that that?s just our ego in the way. It doesn?t have to be us. Your customers; you think that they only want to work with you, but it is not true. They just want great support. They want their questions answered. They want their needs met.

	And so, if you can take your brilliance and systemize it. Put it into a signature program that can be replicated. And you need to do this anyway if you?re ever going to sell your company, right? So, you?ll be ahead of the game. And then you train other people on that process. And I know a lot of people are afraid oh someone?s going to steal my idea and run with it. 

	If you, in following the proponents in my book, Scale or Fail, if you build a strong company culture, if they are aligned with your vision, and you are really inspiring them on a regular basis on the goal of this vision, and you help them to feel like they?re a big part of it, they are not going to do that. Right? 

	They?re going to feel aligned, and they?re going to want to see it happen.

Jaime:	Definitely. How do you systemize all that stuff that?s in your head? Right? I know writing a book is a lot of that, right? And trying to get it all out of your head? How did you do that, especially when you?re training the coaches?

Allison:	So, in the beginning, I did not have it all organized. In fact, I said don?t worry be crappy, because if you?re waiting to have it all perfect and organized, you?re never going to get out of the gate.

	So, with the first coach that I hired, I didn?t really have any of it written down except that I had the tools I was already using with my clients that I had developed. And they were really good at pulling that out of me.

	So, usually the CEO or the founder is super creative. You?re the visionary, but you?re not the systemize or, you?re not the implementor, and neither am I.

	And so, it took having people around me that would just watch me and put those in order. Now, I had I own checklists and charts and I'm very visual, but I had so many.

	I was almost overwhelming my team, and so, they were able to take it and really narrow it down and say okay we?re going to use these five tools or these three sales strategies, these 10 marketing strategies, these five teams strategies, and really just narrow it down, less is more, and then, you just ? whoever comes on, they have to learn those things. They have to prove to you that they can do it, that they can make a real positive impact using your tools and strategies without you being there.

Jaime:	What happens if they don?t, by the way?

Allison:	Well, if they don?t and you work with them and you train them, then they?re not a fit.

Jaime:	Okay.

Allison:	That?s a big lesson for business owners.

Jaime:	We are so gonna go down that road in just a minute, because I do feel like it?s not ? most of the entrepreneurs that I know are visionaries and are not taught in business school, they?re not taught about firing, they?re not taught any of this stuff.

	And so, when we start going down this path, yes we have mentors and coaches and stuff, but it is still a process to let go, to push yourself outside of your comfort zone.

	So, what I wanted to ask though before we get into the firing piece was who do you have for a rockstar systemizer? Because I found the same thing. Visionary; not very good at creating and implementing and maintaining the system.

	So, how do you have yours set up?

Allison:	Well, you need to ? you know, in the beginning, let me just back up a little bit and say look I was a single mom for 12 years. I had no money when I started, and I say that because I know a lot of people are like well you had money to build a team. I did not. Okay?

	And so, you just art with one person. Get an intern. Get a part-time person, and then each person that you bring on if they?re good hire, and I do teach you step-by-step how to hire in my book, but each person you bring on is going to take your business to a higher level. They should be increasing your revenue by at least three times what you pay them, and whether they?re freeing you up, making you more productive, freeing you up to get out of the day-to-day and get out there and build relationships.

	But it?s fighting those people that are not like you, really. I mean I think sometimes we get into oh I have to hire someone like me, but you don?t really want too many ?yous? running all over the place, but my admin, they?re so organized. They know how to do the step-by-step.

	So, for instance, we have an event tomorrow, a live stream, and this time I was part of organizing it, and I said to my team, you guys are gonna run with this next year. Make sure you have all the data down, step one, step two, step three, and so, that I can just walk into it. I don?t have to do any of those operational pieces anymore.

Jaime:	And that?s what everybody wants, right? Like come on, do it without me people. And once you?ve put your flavor into it, it?s easy to systemize it and then move it on and give it to someone else and trust that they?ll do it with your level of excellence that I assume you have, right?

Allison:	Yeah. And you have to ask them to do it. Because see, if what I used to think was that if I just keep doing it and I just keep showing them, they will get it, and they will run with it. Some people will, but most of the time when you keep doing something, there?s something that shuts off in our mind like I don?t really have to think. They?re going to do it for me. It?s just what happens with our children and if you?re always rescuing them, what is the impetus for them to jump in and take ownership?

	So, there?s a point where you need to be saying okay you on this, put a strategy together, and come back and present it to me. Or how would you handle this? What would you do in this situation?  Instead of always spoon feeding the answer.

Jaime:	Because we also ? our ego feels smarter when they come to us with problems and you fix it. Like and then I fixed that, and I fixed that, and I fixed of that. And then, you?re also training them to come to you with every gosh-darn problem that comes up.

Allison:	Yes.

Jaime:	And you?re wondering why you?re so in chaos all the time, right?

Allison:	Exactly.

Jaime:	Well, and so ? 

Allison:	You can?t focus that way.

Jaime:	What was that?

Allison:	You can't focus that way.

Jaime:	Yeah.

Allison:	Yeah.

Jaime:	But that responsibility indicator that you were just talking about is huge, because people ? entrepreneurs typically have a hard time letting go anyway, so to be able to give the reins over to someone else is a big trust factor, right?

Allison:	[Audio distortion] [00:11:33].

Jaime:	Do you have tips for that?

Allison:	It?s scary. I?m not going to lie, but ? and everybody makes mistakes. You hope it?s not a massive one, but my team has made mistakes. I make mistakes, but if they?re smart, they are going to learn from their mistakes, and it won't happen again. And if it does keep happening, well then, they?re not a right fit for your team.

	But you want them to treat it like it?s there?s. And if you?re constantly sending the message that I don?t trust you, then they?re never going to step up to the plate and try.

Jaime:	How do you determine that right fit? Especially because when you?re in it, you?re like well maybe I'm just not training them well enough or maybe I?m not the best leader or maybe ? there?s all these gray areas. 

	So, how do you know if they?re a right fit and/or not?

Allison:	If you?re having those thoughts, most likely they?re not a right fit. It?s kind of like if you?re in a relationship and you?re doing a pro and con list, if this person?s the right person ?

Jaime:	Right.

Allison:	If you even have to do a list, they?re not the right person. Okay? Like you should just know. And believe me, I?ve had several employees over the years that were not the right fit, and either maybe they were great in the interview, and then when they started it wasn?t what they said or maybe you?re not asking clear enough questions, but business owners are the worst at this. They wait and wait and wait and wait until too long. They sometimes keep people for years longer than they should, and it?s not only the money that you?re spending on the salary on them on the wrong-fit person, but also think of how much you?ve lost.

	And if they were a phenomenal team member how productive they would?ve been, how motivated, how helpful. So, my team is ? they?re incredible. I mean honestly they don?t even really need me, and that?s a great thing. You know that whether you?re there or not that things are, you know, they?re on fire in a good way.

Jaime:	In a good way. I love it. So, it?s funny, because I was just chatting with the client the other day, and I was like so it sounds like you want to fire them, and he was like my wife will be so happy if I do, but ? BUT, and then dot, dot, dot ? and it still hasn?t happened, right? And so ?

Allison:	You have to rip off ? 

Jaime:	? if it got to the ?

Allison:	? the Band-Aid. 

Jaime:	? exactly. If you got to the wife level, that means something, right?

Allison:	Yes.

Jaime:	So, how do we rip off the ? like give us tips to like ? because it?s a moment, right? It?s getting outside your comfort zone. I worked with clients like okay, you?ve got this. Go. Now. Right? But how ? give us some tips on her up enough that Band-Aid.

Allison:	Well, you know, the reason the wife said this first, I just need to say that, is because you?re probably coming home every day talking about this person and how frustrated you are. We?ve all been there. And just think of the amount of hours you have wasted talking about your frustrations.

	This is not healthy for anyone. And it?s not fair to them, because they?re ? it?s not a right fit for them either. And again, back to the relationship thing, if you keep dating someone that you?re not really so hot about, they could be finding someone else that?s a good match, and is not good for their self-esteem.

	So, as much as you?re wanting to protect them, you?re actually hurting them, and that?s something that I realized early on. It?s my least favorite thing to do. I don?t like firing anyone. And I remember when I was younger, my father built a large clothing chain for women, and I would see sometimes women that, or men, coming out of his office like distraught and upset because he had let them go. And I thought he is so mean, you know.

	Because I didn?t understand, but now I do. And generally, when I let somebody go, now it?s usually a really good experience. As much as you get that knot in your stomach, we don?t like conflict as human beings generally. We avoid it and that?s the issue. You?ve got to learn to embrace conflict. You?ve got to learn to go towards the elephant in the room and deal with it. You know?

Jaime:	Definitely. I love that you were a little girl and saw that and completely reframed as a business. Because we have to reframe as a business owner, because you?re right. Looking out for their long-term is way more important than the short-term pain that you have to feel, and of course they have to feel too, but it can change them for the better.

Allison:	Yeah. I had one time hired someone actually through a staffing agency, and so it was not inexpensive. And within three weeks, I knew oh my gosh, this is a disaster, and I knew it wasn?t going to change. You know, sometimes it?s just a matter of training. Sometimes you need to move someone to another position and it?s fine.

	This person, I knew it was going to be a disaster, and she had actually moved to San Diego to take the position, and I had to go in there and let her go, because it was disrupting the team so bad it was really impacting the company culture, we had a lot of people up in arms, and I just knew it was not a culture fit.

	And as hard as it was to deliver that information, and that means just sitting down and being straight, being honest, without going into too much detail and, you know, it?s different state-by-state, because California is an at-will state, so you don?t really have to have a reason, you have to be careful for whatever legalities are in your state. 

	As tough as that was and as expensive of a mistake that was, I was relieved. And I?m really happy that I had the courage to do that.

Jaime:	Because it does take courage. What is interesting is the staffing, right? Because as soon as you fire someone then you go oh no now I have to go through the entire hiring process again and hopefully I will find ? right? So, there?s more work on your plate also.

	So, do you ? but the staffing company didn?t even get it right. So, which way do you go?

Allison:	[Audio distortion] [00:18:09]. 

Jaime:	Should they learn ? should the interpreter really learn how to hire or should they try a staffing company?

Allison:	Yes. Well, this was a higher-level position, but I mean I have hired so many people, you don?t need to have a staffing company, especially in the early stages. As you grow ? and we have 20 employees now, so it?s a different situation. But you need to learn to hire. It?s your company. You know what is the right fit, and I do teach you how to do it in the book, but I teach something called the three-step process and ? the three-time rule. 

	And that is, interview at least three people, interview them each three times, in three different places. And the reason is that sometimes someone will come in, you?re interviewing, you?re in a hurry, you?re desperate, you need to have someone and you?re like oh they?re perfect. You?re hired. And you real haven?t compared them to anybody else. So, you?re shooting yourself in the foot there.

	The second thing is make them work for it. You want them to show up on time. See if they show up on time for the other interviews. Are they dressed professionally? Are they prepared? Have they done their research? Are they taking a double parking spot when they park? I mean you need the time to look at those things and then have a couple other people interview them too even if they?re a friend or spouse, because often we want it to work so badly that we?re not looking at the red flags.

Jaime:	How do we know that? Because there are a lot of people that are very good at interviews, and then later, you have them come in and you?re like huh, I was really hoping. Right? Are there red flags? Tell us what those are?

Allison:	Yeah. I mean we work with our clients. I have a private mentoring and mastermind, and we work with a lot our clients to build their team, and it really is life-changing once you get this down.

	It doesn?t mean that you?re not going to have some that are just not a fit, because sometimes you could do the best interview, Jaime, and then once they start, you?re like uhh, this is totally not a fit. But it really is something that it just takes practice, and the other thing is I think before you even interview, and this is a big mistake that a lot of business owners make, get the role down first. Be super clear on what it is you want.

	And I think sometimes we try to ? we?re looking for Superman or Superwoman that they?re ? oh they?re the marketer, they?re the delivery person, they?re the social media person, they?re the receptionist, they?re the, you know, accountant all in one, and then the person gets overwhelmed and quits.

Jaime:	That is exactly what I was going to ask? How do they determine what role is the most important one that they hire for when they?re technically going to wear five different hats when you?re a small company?

Allison:	Yes. And you have to communicate that. Oftentimes, if you hire someone from the corporate world to work in a small business, it doesn?t work, because if they?re in a big corporation, they have one responsibility or one area of the company they deal with. Small businesses, you know, game on for everybody.

	So, you know, you can?t do everything that you want to in the beginning. So, I think the first tire is an assistant and so that you can get some of the admin responsibilities off your plate and so that you can be out building relationships and opening doors for yourself and your business for good joint ventures or sales, you know, obviously need to be bringing cash in the door.

	If you?re doing all the admin, when are you going to have time to do that?

Jaime:	So, when we talk about growing even more, because I feel like this is a big problem for a lot of people too, they?ll try to go well, I want someone else to do the sales. If somebody was doing 40 hours a week doing the sales that I do as the owner, man we would go crazy.

	And then they hire someone and they?re not great and they?re like great. Now I just spent all the time and if I just invested a little bit of time in sales, I probably would?ve made a lot more. How do you manage that?

Allison:	Yeah. Sales is a challenge. It?s probably the most challenging position to fill, because they need to be good at relationship building, but also they have to be good at closing sales, and they don?t necessarily need to know your industry, but they?re going to need to learn it.

	So, if you hire someone that is really good at selling low-price items, you know, 100, 200 and under, or even under 1,000, that?s one skill set. If you have a product that is 10,000, 15,000, 100,000, they have to have a good money mindset themselves to believe that they can do it; to believe in the value of it.

	And oftentimes, we get a salesperson we?re like yay. I don?t have to sell. Here. Here?s the leads. Or go to these networking things. And they?re not really getting training or direction, and you have to be on those sales people and connected to them and working with them every day in the beginning. They need lots of training. They need to learn your way, your language in, you need to record calls. You need to record your calls, their calls, you need to have benchmarks, you need to have daily goals, you need to have a way of tracking that. People need structure so that they can succeed.

Jaime:	Yes. A million times over yes on this. Especially, how do you figure out ? so, the business owner wearing 17 hats, how do you figure out which ones they should be doing versus which next few hires we have, right?

	So, the admin makes sense, but as soon as we start getting a bigger team like five, six, seven, how do you figure out what is really going to be the best use of the time? Because then it starts going oh well, maybe we can take this role from Sally and this role from this and ? you know what I mean? It starts to get like whoo. We?re moving things around.

Allison:	Well first, you need to look at your time, because your time is the most valuable in the company, and if you?re doing admin work or work that you could pay someone 20 bucks an hour, you will never get to seven figures. It?s not mathematically possible.

	And so, look at what are the top three things that are taking up most of your time. And your job is to figure out how to get that off your plate all the time. So, I?m constantly asking myself how do I take this off my plate? How do I take this off my plate? 

	And like one of my clients, Christine Sanchez, who owns a cold storage construction company called A-N-C cold storage, and she was involved in like she was the bottleneck of the company. She had employees, but she was still doing a lot of the busywork. And so, they were losing money.

	And so, when you get those three things off our plate, your role is to figure out who?s going to do that for you. Is that someone you have? Is it something that you are going to outsource? But just get in the habit of handing it off. And if you had it off to someone and you figure they?re not necessarily the right one, next time we?re going to hand it off to somebody else, but after a while, you get to know people?s skillset on your team, and you know okay they?re the ones that are going to be doing social media. They?re the ones that are going to be organizing this event. And you start to see teams emerging.

	I used to have one marketing person. Now I have a whole marketing team. I used outsource my video, but now I have a video team just because we do so much of it and it?s cheaper, less expensive for me to bring it in house that it is to outsource that at this point.

Jaime:	How do you make those determinations too? So, for example, like you said a marketing team. You start having a team, and I'm assuming a project manager upfront, and then you start building that out. How do we move people around into the different roles?

Allison:	So, I started out with one ? so, I had a graphic artist that I used to use for freelance. And then, when I started paying her more than it would cost me to bring somebody in-house, I knew it was time to bring someone in-house.

	So, I hired my ? he is now my creative director, but I heard someone that was helping me do social media and online marketing. His name is Jared. He?s been with me for seven years now, and he?s just learned so much through the career. I pay for him to take courses. Go to conferences. Things like that. So, he?s always in the know.

	And then, once his bandwidth is full, then you?re like okay, what are the areas ? is he really working on what I call his shine factor? Is he really utilizing his best talent? Let me take the things off that he doesn?t really need to do anymore, and let?s give it to the next person. And that?s kind of how we go down the line.

	And then, I hired a marketing project manager, and that was one of the best hires ever, because marketing is a big part of your business. There are so many details. I mean even with your show, right, to get it out there, there?s just a lot of steps. And if someone misses a couple of those steps or if it has to be you, it can be overwhelming.

	And so, I marketing project manager is able to make sure that the right people are in the right place at the right time and that the links are working and all of those things. And that takes a lot of pressure off of you.

Jaime:	The nitty-gritty details that the visionary entrepreneur does not want to deal with, right?

Allison:	Yeah.

Jaime:	And so, when we?re looking at that though, that?s an interesting trajectory that you talked about like hiring a graphic designer, but Jared became the creative director and not ? the marketing manager is actually managing the team underneath.

	So, how do you move people through? Do you know to me? So, when we?re looking at ooh Jared doesn?t actually like managing people potentially or how do you move them off that way?

Allison:	Well, you get to know their personality and their gifts. Some people do assessment tests like Kolbe.

Jaime:	Yep. Yep.

Allison:	Something that. StrengthFinder to really figure out where they thrive. And so, Jared, for instance, is super creative. So, anytime I can get him into that creative role, he likes to do a lot of the design for the events and video for the events and things like that. 

	And if you put people in the roles where they thrive and they?re excited, they?re going to exceed your expectations. But if you keep trying to put somebody in a role and have them do things that are not their skill set, they?re not their strength, and you try, you?re just going to get frustrated, and you?re going to think oh my gosh this person is so disappointing.

	Well, it?s because that?s not their strength. It?s like if you were working on things ? let?s say if I was doing accounting, you know, oh my god, I mean we?d be a mess. That?s not my strength.

Jaime:	Well, and that?s the thing of being the business owner and understanding that your team and what they actually want to do really matters too. I just chatted with a client the other day, because she was like well, we?re going to get a graphic designer, we?re going to move her here. I go does she want to go there? And she?s like oh I didn?t ask that. Right? 

	It?s like I know. When you?re actually ? when you have a close rapport with your team, you know what they?re good at. It doesn?t necessarily mean if they?re good at something and want to be a good employee that they actually want to be doing that all the time. Does that make sense?

Allison:	Yeah. And the communication with your team is crucial. So, we do meetings, and we ? so, this morning I had a meeting with my coaching team. And we been meeting every Wednesday for two hours for years. Years. So, I have eight CEO mentors that our on my team that do our coaching. And so, because they?re working directly with the clients, I want to be staying in communication with them so that I have a pulse on what?s going on, and I can help mentor them, and that?s my way of infusing through them to the clients.

	We do a marketing meeting every week. We do an admin meeting every week. I just launched this new book. Right? So, we did a book-launch meeting with the book-launch team every single week. So ? 

Jaime:	See ? 

Allison:	? otherwise, <p data-wpview-marker="%5Baudio%20cut%20out%5D">.</p> [00:31:22] ?

Jaime:	? I love that you ?

Allison:	? chaos everywhere [inaudible].

Jaime:	Well, you infuse the training, especially on the coaching ones. That?s not ? it?s so much more than a meeting than to your giving them what they need, when they did, instead of having to wait a month and be like I had a client that needed this, and now you didn?t answer that question, and now I don?t know what to do. Right? Because there?s still training that needs to happen.

Allison:	Yeah. And you know, I learn from them too. I mean I'm always saying what do you guys think? Or let?s brainstorm on this. I am definitely not here to say that I am the end all and I have all of the answers. I don?t want to be that person.

	It?s way more fun ? I love having a team around me, because I like their energy, I like their creativity, and it helps me grow.

Jaime:	Are you all local? Or is it virtual for most of your team?

Allison:	We have a lot local in San Diego, and we do have an office-office, but we also have some people that are virtual. I had two full-time employees that both moved to Oregon in different cities, and I wanted them to stay on the team. And so, they work full-time but in a different state. And that?s the age we live in now.

Jaime:	Definitely. They must be grateful that you allow them as a boss to be able to move like that, because back in the day, you were never able to do that before.

Allison:	[Audio distortion] [00:32:45].

Jaime:	And it?s funny. Because the person I interviewed right before you has a book called Company of One, and his is about having it smaller. And so, because of the cash flow and the overhead and the, oh no, now I have to pay for all these people, right? And especially if you?re not a marketing and sales genius as a business owner, that can feel like a lot of pressure. 

	How do you respond to stuff like that?

Allison:	It can for sure. But that?s why I talk about five phases in my book, Scale or Fail, to build a team-managed company. And it really is a choice. If you want to stay that solo-preneur, that phase one in my book, that?s totally fine. But that?s not going to be a business you can scale.

	And if you go on vacation, you?re not making money. If you go to sleep, you?re not making money. So, yes, it?s overhead, but if you?re bringing in ? if you have a great net profit, and you?re holding that profit line all the way around up, you?re gonna actually grow faster, and you can step out of the picture.

	Go on vacations. Be gone for months at a time. Not in the beginning, but if you set it up right and systemize it right, then you will be able to do that.

Jaime:	Are there any metrics on some of that stuff too, because when it comes to hiring, especially a more important role with a bigger salary or whatever, and you look at your net profit, and you?re like well, it was really good, but now if I make these two hires, it?s no nearly as good as it ? right? 

	So, how do you determine the ROI? Are you supposed to try to get it as fast as humanly possible? Do you slow down your hiring process? What do you do for that?

Allison:	You know, it depends on where you are in the stage of your company. If you had a lot of growth, you want to catch up with that growth and make sure that you can deliver what you promised.

	So, sometimes people will grow so fast that everything topples over. They can?t handle the demand. You have to balance of that supply and demand. That?s economics.

	But if you?re hiring right, they?re not an expense. Good people pay for themselves, because it?s like a stair step. If I invest, okay there?s one step. I invest in this person, then three steps up should be your profit. I invest in this person, three steps up is your profit.

	So, if I?m hiring based on any that?s really going to grow the company, then you don?t even really notice that expense, because you?re bringing in more revenue to be able to cover that.

Jaime:	Love it. I know we have to start wrapping up, because you?re doing so many book interviews, which I appreciate, and you have a live stream tomorrow.

	What?s one action, because there?s so many things, especially when you?re talking about scaling, so many things, what?s one action listeners can take this week, besides buying your book, to help them forward on their goal to 1 million?

Allison:	Well, you know, first is really decide, you know, so scale is ? the and acronym for SCALE, and I talk about it in the book, is Strategic vision for the S, C is Cash flow, A is Alliance with a team, L is Leadership, and E is Execution.

	You need to have all of those things to scale. But you start with the S. And that?s a strategic vision. Where do you want to go? If it was three years from now or five years from now and you were in the present time, you know, three years from now let?s say, and you walked into your office, what do you want to see?

	Who do you want to be surrounded by? What do you want your client saying about you? What kind of products and services do you want to have into the market place? How much money do you want to be bringing in? How much profit?

	You know, really get crystal clear. Get it out of your head, get it on paper. Because if you don?t know where you?re going ? you don?t have to know how, but if you don?t know where you?re going, you?re not going to get there. So, that?s the first thing.

	And it helps, you know, often to work with a business mentor, and that?s what we do with our clients, to help pull that out of your head, because I think we?re so good at, well I've got this figured out. My team should understand. Or the world should know what I want. But you have to first learn to communicate it and translate it so everyone can get excited and help you make it happen.

Jaime:	I love it. And especially you have said those questions before. I love ? because sitting in your own head trying to pull out what you actually want can be a process that is painful. You don?t even know what questions to ask yourself. You don?t even know ? I think it?s gonna look like this, right?

	Us as visionaries are like wait. I can see it, but I can't get it out. So, thank you so much. People rewind what this says, so you can go through all the questions that she asked you. That way, you have a little step-by-step for you. 

	Where do we find the book? Where?s the best place to actually go grab the book?

Allison:	Yeah. So, you can always go to Amazon, but if you go to ScaleOrFail.com. You can still go to Amazon, but you?re going to get a lot of great gifts that go with the book, because we?re launching it.

	So, you?re going to get a quick-start guide, which is kind of like the CliffNotes but really colorful and powerful resource.

	I did a two-hour training that goes with the book; a master class. You get that. Of course, if you buy more than one book, you have other trainings and so forth that I put together with you that are absolutely free. Super, super valuable.

Jaime:	Thank you so much for coming on the show, and I want everybody to go grab it, because this is the stuff that you avoid that you need to be reading. 

	Thank you so much for coming on the show today, Allison. I appreciate it.

Allison:	Thank you so much for having me.

Tags: Allison Maslan, Business Owner, entrepreneur podcast, eventual millionaire, hiring the right person, jaime masters, millionaire entrepreneurs, podcast, right time to scale, scale or fail, scaling a business, start-ups / startups, startup entrepreneur, top entrepreneurs

Categories: All, Business, Business Growth/Scaling, Entrepreneurship, Featured Millionaire Interview, Hiring/HR, Human Resources, Millionaire Interviews, Systems/Processes

Hi I’m Jaime. Each and every week I bring you the top business advice from the people who know best.

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