What Got You to $500K Won’t Get You Over $1Mil

Summary

In this episode of the Off the Ladder podcast, Branden Sewell discusses the importance of adapting business strategies for growth, emphasizing the need for financial management, learning from challenges, and the significance of faith in both business and marriage. He shares personal experiences and mistakes, highlighting the shift from an owner-operator mindset to a CEO mindset, and the necessity of implementing systems and delegation to scale a business effectively. Branden encourages listeners to embrace humility and continuous learning as they navigate their business journeys.

Takeaways

The importance of faith in sustaining relationships during business challenges.
Learning from past mistakes is crucial for growth.
Cash flow management is essential for scaling a business.
Avoid holding onto money while taking on new loans.
Strategic planning and team meetings can prevent financial pitfalls.
Transitioning from an owner mindset to a CEO mindset is necessary for growth.
Implementing systems and processes is vital for efficiency.
Humility and willingness to learn are key to overcoming obstacles.
Your craftsmanship alone won't lead to business growth.
Continuous learning and adaptation are essential for success.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Technical Difficulties
02:48 The Importance of Faith in Business and Marriage
06:03 Learning from Challenges in Business
11:46 Financial Management and Cash Flow Strategies
17:58 Scaling Your Business: From Owner to CEO
24:03 Embracing Change and Humility for Growth

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Transcript

Branden Sewell (00:01.442)
Hi everybody, I'm Brandon Sewell. I am the owner of Seal Pro Painting and I am also the host of the Off the Ladder podcast. And we exist to help home service business owners learn so that they can lead well and ultimately live life off of the ladder. Today's episode is unfortunately going to be solo. And the reason why is last night my wife and I had actually recorded

An entire podcast episode, it was going to be about marriage and business and just how to have a really strong marriage. Even in the midst of like really challenging times in business. And unfortunately, that entire episode was recorded. It was about an hour and 18 minutes and went to go edit the episode and realized there was no audio. So I guess.

Somehow the wrong mic had got selected. And so our mic wasn't actually picking up the audio. Unfortunately, that was like an hour and 18 minutes for nothing. So it was nice though, because my wife and I got to bond over that experience and doing that whole recording. We talked a lot about

you know, like how we met and, you know, how we have such a strong relationship, a marriage and how that has played into having a business. So anyway, we definitely want to redo that episode with her in it. But, you know, I need an episode for today. So unfortunately, usually my episodes

I would go live at 4am on Wednesdays, this one obviously is going to be put out later in the day today just because of that technical difficulty. So anyway, for those of you that listen regularly, sorry that I did not have that episode available this morning. But, you know, in it just in the spirit of that episode and like what we're going to do.

Branden Sewell (02:20.936)
Really the the heart of that episode is to go over how important our faith has been for both our marriage and just for the business in general and how you know business is extremely challenging and you're going to have like a lot of highs and lows and the highs are great. The lows

they can be really dark and really challenging. And if your relationships, if your marriage does not have a really strong foundation, then when things go wrong, when things go bad, when it gets ugly, that can test and challenge the strength of your marriage and your relationship. And so really we just dive into how God has really sustained us

through some really challenging times. So I'm actually really excited to do that episode again and to get, you know, my wife on there so you can hear her perspective. You know, because we've had some definitely challenging times as a business owner. And it really plays in well too with the last episode that I did, just so not letting your emotions drive your decisions in business. So

Anyway, for this episode, what I really want to talk about is this concept that what got you to where you are now is not going to get you to the next level that you want to go in in business. And something that I've realized and found out for myself is when I've gone through

seasons in my business and I've had hiccups or challenges, you know, along the way, I learned something in those challenges and in those seasons that helped me to get to the next level. And sometimes that looks like, you know, going along and growing and growing and then hitting that obstacle and then having to go backwards a little bit, because I have to learn that lesson and then

Branden Sewell (04:42.862)
grow again and then inevitably that same challenge is going to come up. But now I understand how to go past that that challenge. And that actually just recently has happened to me like in 2022 we were in this position where we were growing and things were really great.

But there were things that I wasn't doing. were mistakes that I made financially that caused me to actually get set back and really almost fail. you know, maybe it's just me and maybe this isn't what every other business owner goes through. But I found that one of the biggest challenges to going to the next level in your business

it's really kind of twofold. one, I'm going to say it's cash flow, like, you have to learn how to manage cash flow in a different way to go to another level. You have to, you know, be able to understand finances and business at another level and be able to, you know,

just do things differently. You can't do things the same way that you do when you're smaller. And then you have to like have a cadence to looking at your numbers like religiously. And so in 2022, one of the things that almost caused me to fail is like we were selling, selling, selling, growing. But, you know, I ended up, you know, having a dip in business cash flow.

slowed down and that's where I just I got taken out. But now I understand through using and I've talked about this some other episodes recently but like before I avoided using any type of debt. didn't have any business credit cards. I didn't have credit lines. I didn't have any way to help me get through like those unexpected dips. And so now I understand like

Branden Sewell (07:01.482)
Of course, you have to be responsible. Like you can't just go out and take on debt and utilize, you know, credit lines and credit cards in an irresponsible way, but you can use them as a tool. So it's like, you know, if if I'm looking at the numbers and I'm anticipating that like, hey, this is historically going to be a slower month. Well, I know, OK, I can utilize, you know, the credit card or the credit line or whatever to

to help me get through a slow season and then, you know, be okay and get to that mountaintop again where everything's booming. But the other thing, the other side to that is, like I said, it's like looking at the numbers, anticipating those things, not just like waiting for them to happen and then responding, but

Like we're having meetings right now because we know historically June is a slower month for us. It's like, okay, families are like just going into the summer. They're taking vacations. They're not getting as much work done. You know, the focus is not to work on the home, right? Their focus is spending money other places. And we even see that a little bit going into like

August because we know that families are transitioning. They're spending money on back to back to school expenses and they're, you know, coming back from vacations and the focus is probably not getting work done on their home. So we see a little bit of a slow down there into like the beginning of the fall and then it picks back up again.

So anyway, we're looking at those, something that we started that we used to not do is have team meetings every Monday. this is a meeting to really go in deep and dive deep into like, hey, this is what the numbers look like this week. This is what we're expected to produce. This is what's going well. This is what's not going well. This is where we need to get better.

Branden Sewell (09:21.314)
this is what we can expect and because this is what we can expect, this is how we need to pivot and do this. And so it's being strategic in how you move forward. And so I made that mistake in 2022 of not doing those things. So even though we were growing, it just wasn't a healthy way to grow. So this is going to sound like probably absurd to some people too, but

a really big mistake I made financially back in 2022 is I took on, you know, I wanted to use debt to grow the business. so because I had like a fear mindset, I got a loan. And then because I didn't, I like wanted to hold on to that money.

Like I saw it there and I'm like, okay, I don't want to like spend all this I'm gonna keep it so this is when I say it's this is so dumb Do not make this mistake if you take out some type of loan for your business business loan, whatever do not Hold the money and then go get another form of financing. So What I mean by that is like in my mindset. I was like, okay, I'm gonna have this big chunk of money

I'm going to go buy a van to grow. I'm going to finance the van. So all I have to worry about is these monthly payments. Well, when things slow down, well, now you're paying on both loans. Even though you had that money sitting there, if things slow down, something is going to give and use that money, whether it's payroll, material, marketing, that money is is going to get used. So

What I learned from that experience is if I'm going to like get a loan for the business to grow, if I get a loan, I'm going to buy, for example, a I'm going to either eliminate another debt, or I'm going to use that money to buy a, like, let's say a van in full pay for it in full.

Branden Sewell (11:46.594)
So now the only payment that I have is to that one particular loan. And again, I know that probably sounds ridiculous to some of you guys, but I just want to share it because I made that mistake. And if I made that mistake, I'm sure other people have too. And it's just, think it, like I said, I think it comes from this fear mindset. You're like, okay, I have this money sitting in the bank account. It's very tangible and I can see it.

And so your mind goes to, well, I don't want to go pay for like, let's say this 10, 15, $20,000 depreciating asset and not be able to tangibly have that money to like pay for material, pay for unexpected expenses and stuff like that.

What ends up happening is, like I said, now you're financing two things. You're the loan, the business loan that you got, plus whatever equipment you got. I don't know if that makes sense, but I just want to encourage you, like, don't do that. you know, or don't take out a business loan, just go finance something and just have that one payment. But anyway, that's...

That's a mistake that I made in the past that I have not done now. And so you just have to be, you have to be open to changing your mindset on how you look at some things. And you know, you have to be willing to be strategic in ways that maybe you weren't before. I learned this from a business coach last year and

you know, we're doing it now. But like I said, I tried to avoid debt like the plague before in my business. Like I didn't want credit cards. I didn't want to use vendor accounts or like credit lines, vendor credit lines. But I was actually disservicing myself because now what we do is like, you know, I have

Branden Sewell (14:07.944)
have a credit line for materials so I can buy material on that credit line and then what I can do is I can take and if I need to I can borrow myself time and cash and keep it in the business for let's say 30 days and then when that 30 days is up and I need to pay that account I can pay that account with my credit card.

And then when I pay that with my credit card, well, now I have some time that I don't have to pay for that material upfront. And so before I had this mindset of like, I'll just pay for all of the material upfront because I'm going to buy it anyway. Well, now I utilize the credit card, I get cash back on my card. And so then I also am not only am I getting like my vendor price for material, but now I'm also getting

my cash back for that purchase and I'm extending the amount of time that I have to pay for that material. And so like I said you have to be smart with it like you can't just you have to pay it like you have to you have to be watching your your cash flow you have to be watching what's you know coming in and out and you have to be forecasting and

you know, no, okay, I'm expecting these expenses and you have to still be responsible and do all those things. And I'm not saying that it's easy. It's still challenging, but it's easier in the sense that it takes like this stress and anxiety off of and that pressure off like every, you know, week, every, you know, two weeks of having to cover all of your material, all of your payroll, all of your overhead expenses.

and it gives you some ability to kind of like breathe and manage that and kind of stretch that out if that makes sense. And in order to grow, like you have to be able to do that, at least in my experience. Now, you know, there could be somebody, you know, I'm at one stage in my business. Maybe there's somebody who is a bigger business than me that would say, no, like once you get to this point, you don't want to do it that way. And I would be.

Branden Sewell (16:33.966)
all years to hear that. But I will say for where I am right now in my business and what has enabled me to grow past where I was in 2022 and be on that pace to do over a million in revenue has been adopting some of these practices in my business. so you have to again, just to reiterate, have what you did before to get you to

you know, get off the ladder and do 250,000, 300,000, 400,000 in revenue is not going to be the same thing that gets you to 500,000 and above. you know, what you did to go from 500,000 to let's say, you know, 700,000, 800,000 in business is not going to be the same thing that's going to take you from that to doing over a million in revenue. You have to

constantly be working on your business, implementing the things that you need to in order to grow and go to the next level. And if you're expecting to be able to do what you're doing now at, you know, 300,000, you're not going to get above 500,000. And once you reach 500,000, you're you cannot do the same things.

at 500,000 to get you over a million. And so that's why it's so important for us to be constantly learning, investing in ourselves, and being open to hearing from people who have already achieved what we have set for our goals and be willing to say, okay, I'm going to implement some of these things that

they're doing so that my business can get there. And the goal is to try to avoid mistakes along the way so that you can get there. But all that to say is like, look at your business where you are right now and ask yourself like, what am I what do I need to do? You know, to work on my business to get me to the next level. You know, if

Branden Sewell (18:50.702)
If you're a business that's under 500,000, you've probably it's maybe just like you and a small team. And you're producing, you know, 500,000 in revenue, like you could easily do 500,000 in revenue, working with like yourself, and maybe like, you know, three to four guys, you might even be able to accomplish that with less if you're really hustling. But

All that to say is in order to go to the next level, you can't do the same things. Maybe you're working on the truck with those guys and maybe you don't really have much of a process for one boarding and training and maybe you haven't set, you don't have standard operating procedures for your business. Maybe you don't have KPIs, which are key performance indicators for different positions.

In order to go to the next level, you have to be able to delegate. You have to be able to put team members in place, delegate authority and responsibility and let go of things and have them do things. And if you don't work on your business and put some of those things in place, then you're not going to be able to grow to the next level. If you think that you can run a million plus dollar business off of Google spreadsheets and

you know, paper and not lose your mind, then you're not going to grow, at least not efficiently. Imagine a business that's doing over a million in revenue that has no CRM and is doing everything from paper and spreadsheets. Imagine them taking and implementing a CRM, getting organized, getting things efficient.

It's going to create the time and the space and the energy to scale even bigger. So it's like you're holding yourself back. So when you're smaller, get those systems in place so that you can you can grow past those those barriers. And, know, like, again, from the financial standpoint, like you have to to grow past a certain point, you got to start thinking like the CEO of your business instead of

Branden Sewell (21:17.518)
you know, just a, you know, an owner operator, you have to change how you view things, how you view your leadership, how you view the financials of your business, you have to change all of those things. And that's, that's what I'm having to do. Like, my goal is to be over a million dollar business. And I'm hopefully going to accomplish that this year. But in order to do that, I have to change things like I

you know, just in the last month. I'm not proud to say this, but just in the last month is the first time that we've done weekly team meetings. We used to do them with just the admin and sales team in 2022, but now we've brought production into it. now it's all sides of the business. We're doing a weekly team meeting and that's just necessary to go to the next level.

We weren't doing that before. So anyway, those are all things that you have to do if you want to grow. And like I said, you can't ever feel like, I've arrived. I know everything. You also can't be afraid to admit that you're not where you want to be. Like, I have to admit that. I have to admit and say, like, hey, have I been able to accomplish?

Some things that I'm proud of. Have I been able to grow a business and do what some people won't ever do? Absolutely, I have. like, I'm not going to get prideful in that and think like, I know everything because I don't. Like, I'm not, I have not built a business over a million dollars. I've tried and I've failed and I've...

I've almost been there. This is going to be our second year where we should be on pace to do it. you know, it's like, I haven't accomplished that. But am I further along than some people are in their business? Yeah, sure. But I'm not where I want to be. And I haven't accomplished what I want to. So it's just being humble. You know, if you're listening to this, you're listening to this podcast, be humble.

Branden Sewell (23:36.75)
You might have grown a great $150,000 business and you've done all the work and you do great work and you're a great craftsman, you're great at what you do, but I promise you, you are not the answer to going to the next level. Your craftsmanship, what you've been able to do is not going to get you to the next level of where you wanna go.

And if you think it is, if you think that everything revolves around you and what you've been able to do, you're not going to get off the ladder. You're not going to grow a business that's bigger than you. You'll stay right where you're at and you're going to blame everybody else for all the reasons why you can't grow a business. You're going to blame, you know, the fact that you can't find great help. You're going to blame the fact that nobody can do it as good as you, that if you're

not there, it's not gonna get done and it's not gonna get done right, you're gonna come up with all those excuses of why you can't implement these things to get to the next level. I for a long time used the excuse of my fear and not wanting to use debt and that was a disadvantage to me. Now I'm learning like, okay, like.

If I want to go to the next level, I need to get my financials really strong. I need to have a healthy credit line. need to have credit cards that I can use as tools and I need to do some of these things to help me go to the next level. So anyway, I could keep going on and on. guess really the main message here is be humble.

work on yourself, be willing to change, be willing to be wrong, be willing to try different things so that you can go to the next level in your business. I'm gonna wrap this up for today. Hope you guys enjoyed this episode and got something out of it. As always, if you're watching on YouTube, please comment below, like this video, share it with somebody else, subscribe to the channel, and if you're listening on Apple or Spotify, please rate and review the show.

Branden Sewell (25:55.79)
And if you need any resources to run your business, whether it's a CRM like Jobber or reputation management software, I've got NiceJob down below. If you need a way to track your marketing and know how to be successful and know what's working and what's not, you can use CallRail. If you need a payroll provider, Gusto, all those resources are in the show notes below. And I've got a new partnership with Zapier. If you want to know more about that, ask me.

I'll get some resources out there, but Zapier is a powerful way to integrate different softwares in your business, automate some things. I've created some new automations in my business recently using Zapier to help me out. I'll get that link in there in the show notes as well. But anyway, until next time, thanks for watching and I'll see you next time on the next episode of the Off the Ladder Podcast.