331. What Changes When You Scale Past $500K

You didn’t start your business to stay stuck. If you’re serious about hitting 6 or 7 figures without sacrificing your life, book your FREE Gap Assessment with our team→ https://weddingproceo.com/application

If you feel like your wedding business is hitting a breaking point just as you’re finally seeing the big numbers, it’s because the "hustle" that got you to $500K won't get you to seven figures. 

It is time to trade your wedding hangover for white space on your calendar by shifting from the person doing all the tasks to the CEO leading a high-performing team. 

In the episode of the Wedding Pro CEO podcast learn how to build the middle management and systems you need to stop treading water and start running a business that actually thrives without you being involved in every single weekend event.

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A favorite book of mine: Profit First by Mike Michalowicz 

https://amzn.to/4lbqZFw

Another favorite book of mine: Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martell 

https://amzn.to/3ITKLb4

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EPISODE SHOW NOTES BLOG & MORE:

https://weddingproceo.com/scale-wedding-business-past-500k/

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Thank you for tuning in to this episode of the Wedding Pro CEO Podcast. If you find these strategies helpful, make sure to share this episode with your fellow wedding pros. And remember, in the world of weddings, it's all about building genuine relationships and showcasing your best work. Until next time, keep shining, CEOs! 

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Transcript

1:01

Hitting 500 K in your wedding business doesn't mean you figured it out. It actually means things are about to break. In this episode, I'm breaking down what actually changes when you scale past 500 K in your wedding business. And why so many wedding pros get stuck here. I've been through it and I've coached through it. We'll cover the operational changes, the leadership shifts, and what your business should actually look like if you wanna scale past this stage. When people think about scaling their wedding business, what they usually think that means is just making more money. And the reality is, yes, it does mean that you're gonna make more money, but it also means you're gonna have a whole lot more operational challenges that you've never had before. Scaling is so often misunderstood in the wedding industry because we think if I just do more, if I work harder, if I have more team members, if I have more clients, that's gonna scale me. But once you get past that half a million dollar mark, so much about the way you run your business has to change for it to actually operate and continue to scale past seven figures. Scaling from a business perspective actually means that your business can run without you. When you scale past that half a million dollar mark, everything in your business has to be able to run without you, the business owner being involved. So what we're looking for here is how to remove you from each of the operations in your business, that means removing you from marketing, removing you from operations, removing you from sales, removing you from client work. And that can feel really difficult at this stage of business because up until now, you've either been doing everything yourself in that first stage, or you've been doing it with your team, but now your team is gonna do it completely without you, and that is absolutely necessary for you to actually hit that scale of your business. Some things that can make you think your business is scaling, but in reality, it's going to crunch you right when you hit that $500,000 mark is that you have so many clients and so many team members and all of these things going on, but there's actually no one. Owning any of the things going on in your business. So you've got somebody that does your social media posting and somebody else does your social media capturing and someone else posts to stories. And then this person, in addition to posting to stories, they're also the one that's supposed to onboard the clients. And then this one over here is supposed to be helping with the CRM. Everyone has random tasks that have somehow gotten onto their plate because at the time you needed it done, they had availability, but nobody owns the lanes. And when you scale past this half a million dollar mark, you need to start creating a middle management team. This looks like you at the top as a CEO and the business owner, and then a middle layer of management who. Owns operations and customer satisfaction. Who owns marketing, who owns sales? These are the people that you as a business owner are gonna pour into, and then they are gonna pour into the team members who are actually executing each of those things. As my own business started to cross over this $500,000 mark, this is where I really had to understand creating that middle layer of management. And I would say the biggest thing I went through and then I also see my students go through as we cross into this stage is actually. A guilt factor and that feels like my team is all out on Saturday and I'm not, and I feel guilty about that 'cause I feel like I should be working with them. Or my team is dealing with all of our clients and they're working with them and they're busy and it's busy season, but I'm not overwhelmed by client work. And it can start to feel like, but I feel like I should be, or your calendar actually has white space on it, and that feels so foreign to you because it's always been packed. The reality is, at this stage of business, that's what your business needs from you. If you have a wedding hangover on Monday, because you are out with your team all weekend, you can't focus on what you actually need to do to keep everyone employed. You have to start thinking like a coach instead of a player. And I always liken it to a baseball game where if the coach was actually also covering second base, he wouldn't be able to see which of his players needed help, which of his players needed to move positions or what the other team is doing so that he can make sure to win. You have to think like a coach. Your job is to pour into your players, into your team members, not to actually cover second base. There were things in my business that stopped working the way they used to because I simply couldn't be everywhere and do everything, and that felt so strange to me. But in this stage of business, you have to completely change your mindset. You are stepping into that coach role. You are stepping into that CEO role. And so instead of managing tasks all day long or managing client work, your job is to manage the people and the people to manage the tasks, and that starts to feel a little bit weird until you get the hang of it. The operational shift that often gets overlooked at this stage of business is really growing up your team members to become those middle management leaders that you need them to be in this stage of business. They need to step up and actually own their lane. And a lot of times what this looks like is that they need to be able to manage up to you. So instead of them coming to you with a problem and saying, we're not posting enough, or we're not getting enough leads, or I'm not sure how to handle this client situation, we now wanna train them backwards to be able to come to you with a problem and the solution. So as the business owner, you often have to say, how would you handle this? What do you think we should do? Because you're training up leaders because they now need to understand how to manage their team members underneath them, and that's a little bit different than how you've been running your business. In this stage, systems and processes are crucial to you scaling because up until now your hands have been involved in every single thing that's happened with your business. Again, in the first stage, you were doing it all yourself. But in that second stage, you are doing it with your team now, because your team needs to be able to execute completely without you. They have to have the SOPs, they have to understand the standards. They have to know what to do in case of an emergency. You have to create those standards and the things that are important to your business. Your values, what your business stands for, how you treat your clients in the way that you serve other vendors, because that's the only way that your team's gonna understand the guardrails in which to serve your clients and represent your brand. So often my students say to me, at this stage of business, I wish I would have done this sooner. And it's typically two things. One, creating those SOPs that you now are having to backtrack to get. And number two is hiring. The reality is it's okay for you not to have created those SOPs and systems earlier. We all wish we would have, but at that time. You were just running, you were just treading water, you were just trying to keep your business alive. But now is when you can work with your team members to say, I'm gonna explain to you how to do this, and then I want you to do it, and then I want you to write it down. I want you to document it. And so now is a great time to be able to create those SOPs. I often, when I'm working with students, they're like, I'm trying to create an SOP, but I'm missing steps. That's because you've done it for so long that your SOPs have giant holes in them. So it's a really good practice for you to explain to an employee how to do it, let them take it in, and then let them document it. So don't feel guilty about not having these things written down already. So let's talk about what it practically looks like to go from being a player. To a coach, and I wanna come back to this guilt factor that you're gonna feel. So often we have just had our hands in every single piece of the puzzle, and that's okay until you get to this stage. At this point, if your business cannot run without you, you are creating a massive danger zone. You now have people on payroll who rely on your business to make their paycheck, to pay their mortgage, and so the business cannot rely on your back. If you were to get hit by a bus tomorrow, if you went on vacation. Would everything in your business continue like normal? That is so crucial at this stage of business. So in this leadership, you really have to start thinking, how can I remove myself from this task? How can I remove myself from this operation? How can I remove myself from this client work? Whose plate should it live on and how can I help them to understand how to really run that segment? You're starting to think like a big picture visionary instead of that doer that's got their hands in the mud every single day. The biggest difference here of leading your business as the business owner versus the main worker is that you will start to actually have days where you have no client work, no operational work, and your full focus will be on all the things that you wish you could do so far. Things like reading your P and L and actually understanding it. Being able to dig into your sales numbers and see where your funnel might be leaking leads out of it. Really looking for additional revenue streams that you can build into your business to even scale further in your business. That white space is what creates the ability for you to set goals, cast a vision for your team members and really look at your team as a whole and say, where do I need more help? Or where can my team members use additional support from me and training?. The biggest leadership shift for me as a business owner was just realizing that every minute that I spent doing $10 tasks in my business was actually costing our business money because if I kept my eye on the prize, if I understood that by me doing only needle moving tasks, I could make my business 500 a thousand dollars, then I started to really understand that I'm costing my business money every single time I put my hands into a task I shouldn't actually be managing. And that's something that I think is really, really important for CEOs at this stage is to understand. You can make your business so much more money if you focus on the money making tasks like sales and building up your team and really creating those systems and processes for your team to follow. But if you instead get involved in the minutia of dealing with tiny little operational challenges or even just posting on social media, those are things that you can outsource for so much less money than the amount of money you can make your business. So what will your wedding business actually look like when you scale past this chaotic growth stage? Well, for one, you'll actually start to feel like I have time to cast a vision for my company. I have time to create an additional revenue stream. And what I love to hear from our students at this stage of business is. I actually really like numbers. up until this stage, most business owners come to me and they say, I hate numbers. I'm not a numbers person. And I know if you're listening to this, you've probably said that yourself. But once you start to be able to have the time and the bandwidth to look at your p and l, to look at your sales numbers, to understand exactly the data that you can use to. Predict the income you're gonna make next month, it will actually feel exciting to read all of this. And so you become excited about the business side of your business. What changes behind the scenes when your business becomes more structured is that you should be able to disappear for a month, unannounced, unplanned, and nothing would change about your business because your middle layer of management understands their roles. They know what's expected of them and what success looks like in their role, and they understand how to lead the people that are underneath them. And so they don't need you to do their day-to-day job, and that is the most. Freeing feeling and exactly why you said you were building your business in the first place. If you're watching this and you know this is a stage of business that you're in, you have a great team, you're starting to hit right around that 500 K mark, all of this feels a little bit like a juggling act. I want you to know there is freedom on the other side of this. You have to just understand that your role as the business owner is starting to change, and it is so important that you embrace that change and that you as the CEO understand that the way you've run your business for however long it's taken you to get to this stage is no longer the way that you can continue to run your business to scale to seven figures. If this is you and you know that you're ready for that next stage of business, but you don't know how to get there, and you want our team's help, I wanna invite you to book a Gap assessment with my team. Head over to wedding pro ceo.com/application, or click the link in the description below and grab a time. Our team will dig into your business with you and help identify the biggest gaps in your business, keeping you from scaling to that next stage, and if it makes sense for us to work with you, we'll walk you through what that looks like too. CEO. If you got any value from this episode, I would love it so much. If you would like, subscribe or share with another business owner who can get value out of this episode too, and if you're feeling extra generous, leave us a five star review on whatever platform that you're listening on. I will see you next time.