Scaling Your Business with Systems, Delegation, and Sales (ft. Cassandra Barrett) | Ep.24

In this episode of the Systems Rehab Podcast, I sit down with Cassandra Barrett, a powerhouse business operations consultant, to unpack what it really takes to scale a business into an agency model.

And here’s the fun part: instead of just keeping it theory-based, Cassandra actually used my business as the example. Since I’ve been exploring what it could look like to grow into an agency in the future, she walked me through step by step how to think about scaling, delegation, and building a sales process that doesn’t feel overwhelming.

We talk through:

• The shift from solo entrepreneur to agency owner
• How to delegate effectively without losing your personal touch
• Why building relationships in sales is more powerful than quick wins
• The balance between inbound and outbound marketing
• How systems can help you stop chasing every client and start scaling sustainably

If you’ve been thinking about growing beyond just yourself or you’ve wondered what it really looks like to build an agency model that aligns with your revenue goals, this episode gives you a front-row seat to that process.

Connect with the guest, Cassandra Barrett, Senior Business Analyst + Ops of Handled Oc. Visit her website at www.handledoc.com and follow on LinkedIn 

Connect with the host, Kenniqua Lewter

🌿Work With Me: www.yoursystemspro.com

🌿Let's keep the conversation going. Feel free to send me DM on Instagram @kenniqua.lewter

🌿Follow me on YouTube, @KenniquaLewter

Ready to finally streamline your service-based business with HoneyBook? Head over to yoursystemspro.com to get started. 

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Business Operations Consulting
• 1:08 Scaling Businesses: Strategies for Entrepreneurs
• 2:50 Building a Team: The Role of Implementers
• 6:26 Inbound vs. Outbound Marketing Strategies
• 9:44 The Importance of Relationship Building in Sales
• 12:43 Active vs. Passive Selling: Finding Your Approach
• 17:27 Refining Your Message and Offers
• 22:44 Revenue Goals and Project Management
• 23:11 Implementing Systems for Business Efficiency
• 25:04 Understanding Client Needs and Solutions
• 26:11 Creating Scalable Business Models
• 30:41 Building an Agency Structure for Growth

Transcript

Kenniqua Lewter (00:00)
Hello, hello everyone. Welcome back to the Systems Rehab Podcast. I have a wonderful guest with me, Cassandra. Welcome, welcome. All right, so go ahead and just, we're gonna go ahead and jump right into this. So go ahead and introduce yourself.

Casandra Barrett (00:08)
Thank you.

Okay.

Yes. So I have been a business owner for the last give or take four years now. My business is Handled Operations Consulting and as so many of us know, whether you call yourself a freelancer, a solopreneur or a business owner, all businesses pivot and change over time. But the Handled moniker has been with me from the beginning and it's evolved into the operations consulting that I do today. So the way that I like to explain what it is that I do

is I'm kind of like your business house inspector. I come in, I find the structural problems keeping you from adding in that next floor if you want to renovate or, you know, find the raccoons trapped under the crawl space that needs to be gotten rid of to do some work down below. And I go in and I also then become that construction crew for you. So I inspect and then I help you make those fixes to get you to where you're trying to be with your business or

home remodeling. Now I'm working on that description, but basically I am the business house inspector that also helps you fix any of the problems that you find.

Kenniqua Lewter (01:16)
Awesome, awesome. So I know that you go through and you work with a lot of entrepreneurs and you work with agencies, which I'd absolutely love because that's actually something that in the future, hopefully by, I would say like next year, I would love to start and operate an agency. So can you kind of tell us more about how like the entrepreneurs that you work with, you mostly work with them and help them scale their businesses, even up to, you know, a million dollars plus.

Casandra Barrett (01:38)
Mm-hmm.

Kenniqua Lewter (01:43)
Can you tell me a little bit more about that and what entrepreneurs maybe need to have in place while they're trying to kind of either build their agency or to scale their businesses?

Casandra Barrett (01:43)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, well let me start by asking you your question with a question. Would you be comfortable talking a little bit about your plans? Because then I can just demonstrate what it is that I do for my clients to help them put together those plans in their businesses.

Kenniqua Lewter (02:06)
Yeah, so that's good. Okay, so with my idea, and I haven't thought this completely out as of yet, so you're kind of hearing it first right now. But okay, so with the agency, I would like to have an agency where I am more so being the person that is bringing in the business. So I'm doing the videos, I'm doing the podcasts, and that's really my...

my role, I might do maybe a couple of sales calls, but I wanna have people that are trained underneath me more so to do the day to day. So that would be like answering emails, calls, things like that. But more importantly, the implementation. the implementation part is very important. So I do wanna start to bring on a couple implementers.

that could help our clients go through and build HoneyBook systems, as well as just other systems that we go through and build, whether it's project management, ⁓ going through, we do personal systems and development, things like that. so people for kind of bringing people on to be implementers.

Casandra Barrett (02:51)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Got it, got it. So I'll quick give you a little synopsis of like the different entry points for how I help people just so can understand where I'm going to start going, what direction we're going to take this combo, like as we analyze your goals. So I either embed myself into businesses as a, like I direct the operation. So you're saying get out of the day to day as you brought in those initial implementers and started figuring out how to put that team together, you'd eventually get to that point.

where to be, to step into that CEO seat, as people love to say, you would need somebody that could help you more so running the day-to-day operations. So what I do on business side is generally teams under 10, I go in and I help manage those teams to grow and scale and achieve operational excellence, which is like, it's a non-negotiable, especially with agencies, it has to run great because there's so many moving pieces. Now for us, I also do intensives. So,

That is where I work one-to-one really intensively with my clients. And it's an all-in-one sort of situation where we look at, what is your business? What are the services? What is your revenue strategy? How do we bring sales calls to us? What is the customer journey end to end? And what are the services that we're offering? And where are we trying to get? And what do we need to get there? All of the math and the data and the strategy that comprises.

scaling into that piece where you would then be able to move into that CEO seat. So for you, based off of what you're telling you, me, my first ask would be,

What are the first delegatable tasks that you'd want to remove? And how many more clients a month or projects a month do you need to bring in to make it a reality operationally?

Kenniqua Lewter (04:42)
So the thing about it is, I think as far as now one of the people that I did have a VA for a second, I no longer have a VA, but, I don't necessarily think that a VA is necessarily like the highest person on my list at this point in time.

Casandra Barrett (05:01)
Mm-hmm.

Kenniqua Lewter (05:01)
just because one of my main goals is content creation. So like a content person is like my main person. Like, so I do have a video editor, but I want someone to really just take over my social media. Like I just literally want to sit here and record and just someone just do everything. don't even, I don't even want to have to even send a video to the video editor. Cause I don't have every single video edited, but then I do still have to post the video.

Casandra Barrett (05:10)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Kenniqua Lewter (05:30)
and I still write the description for the video and stuff like that. And I have systems in place to get it done more effectively. So I'm not necessarily burned out from it, but I still would like to not be doing it at all. So I would definitely say like a content person as far as handling the scheduling and doing content, that is my most precious person that I would want because that's like the biggest thing that is

Casandra Barrett (05:38)
Mm-hmm.

Kenniqua Lewter (05:56)
I'm not going to say a pain, kind of a pain for me, because it's something I do the most. Like I could push out way more content than what I do even now. If that was the person that I had just kind of just take over, know exactly what it is that I want. I'm already going through like having SOPs. Like this is what we do. This is, this is the process. So like I have these processes in place. It's really just about finding the people. So I think that's really

Casandra Barrett (05:59)
Mm-hmm.

Kenniqua Lewter (06:21)
but the better way to answer the question, it's really just about finding that right person that will fit with me. And then the second person would be, would probably be the implementer, just to have someone else to go through and do implementation. I know VAs, they do play a lot of roles. I don't necessarily, I don't necessarily need someone to necessarily answer like my emails or,

Casandra Barrett (06:33)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Kenniqua Lewter (06:47)
do my calendar. I don't necessarily need someone to do that because those things, you know, they're pretty automated. I kind of got that down packed. but the implementation of certain things to have it where I'm implementing, but then I'll have one or two other people implementing. So yeah. And I haven't really just me and you just have this conversation. Like I haven't even really even looked for a implementer. So I will say that I haven't even.

Casandra Barrett (06:52)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Kenniqua Lewter (07:12)
attempted to look for someone at this point.

Casandra Barrett (07:14)
because you're still trying to

put together what does that structure even look like in your business. So when we talk about, so for one, I'll actually pause and I'll say, what we're talking about is more so like organic social media marketing. And I know that like with your podcast that brings people to you. People watch the podcast and they say, Hey, can you help me with that thing? And so in a sense it is, it's a long-term inbound marketing strategy.

And that could be somebody who engages with your content, watches a couple episodes of the podcast, decides that they like, know, and trust you, that they feel seen, heard, and understood in the content that you make. And then they're going to reach out to you and they're going to want to work with you. And that is a longer game strategy over time where it builds up. You got to have a lot of people watching the content, a lot of right stuff happening in that sense. And so when we're thinking about putting out more content to bring in more leads,

which is I assume part of what you're talking about, that if you did more content and if you were even doing more volume, that would also bring in more people. But part of the question that I'm also asking is what are other sales strategies for how you bring in business? Is it majority inbound and referral network or are you also going out and doing sales and outbound?

Kenniqua Lewter (08:22)
Yeah. So majority is actually inbound, inbound. I'm actually, I've always like, I've been in business now seven years. And so I've done YouTube for majority of those years. So like my inbound, even my inbound is pretty good with my inbound. So it's really not about, guess, doing, well, it is about doing more content. but I've always been like this long form.

girly, like I like doing the YouTube long form. like doing the podcast. I think that nowadays I think people want to kind of get a little bit more personal with you than just the long form. And so my biggest struggle with the content and when I say like post more content is the short form content.

Casandra Barrett (08:49)
huh.

Mm-hmm.

Kenniqua Lewter (09:08)
Because

Casandra Barrett (09:08)
Yeah.

Kenniqua Lewter (09:09)
I can be consistent on YouTube. can be consistent on podcasting, but I'm not consistent on posting short form content. So my idea is to be a little bit more active on Instagram. Um, that way I can show like, you know, some of the day to day show what I'm working on, show that type of stuff. And I'm very active on threads. Like threads is my jam. I'm on threads all day, every day. But I also would like to be more active on.

Casandra Barrett (09:30)
Mmm.

Kenniqua Lewter (09:35)
on Instagram. Now, as far as outbound, as far as outbound, so I do, I've actually started to do a little bit of outbound marketing more so this year in the past pre pandemic, I would go to networking events. I'm a part of like our black chamber of commerce. And so I do do networking in person. I have like, even in our office here, we now have a space where I

Casandra Barrett (09:48)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Kenniqua Lewter (10:02)
I plan to host workshops so like we can host like 20 people here. And so I do plan on doing those types of things just to, and we've had a couple of networking events we've had since being here. think we've had about three or four. And so that is something that I definitely want to do is more in-person things as well, because I think that in-person is great, especially when, you know, everybody's always networking on social media. I think it's really good to kind of.

Casandra Barrett (10:06)
Thanks

Mm-hmm.

Kenniqua Lewter (10:26)
get a chance to see people behind the social media. So I think that's great. So here recently, have been doing this year and part of last year, I have been doing more outbound networking by doing in-person events. I've actually been reaching out to people. So like when I see that people go through, maybe they follow me, then I reach out to them. I've had way more conversations. Like literally this year,

Casandra Barrett (10:30)
Uh-huh.

⁓

Nice.

Good, that's fantastic.

Kenniqua Lewter (10:52)
I've had way more conversations on Instagram. this, this is a secret is that since being on Instagram, I have never commented. I have been on Instagram for probably like seven, eight plus years and I never wrote a comment. I don't.

Casandra Barrett (11:00)
interesting.

Mm-hmm. So you're

just jumping into DMs or engaging, do you like? Interesting.

Kenniqua Lewter (11:10)
No, not really. Like, so like, why

can't I say never comment it? Like if I do comment, it's like my peers, like me and you, you know what I'm saying? Like I've never gone through and commented on just like, I'm not, I guess the biggest thing I would say is not social on social media. Like, so.

Casandra Barrett (11:16)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

See, because that's

key what you're saying though. And sorry to cut you off, but I just wanted to add into that. What I'm hearing you say is that you're extremely relational, which is what makes like, you're talking essentially about, or we're getting into talking about social selling and conscious selling. Where if it's mostly predominantly peers now, and I'll give it back to you to keep going, I'd really be interested to talk to you about what social selling could look like for you by selling in the DMs, selling by actively engaging with other accounts and whether it's Instagram.

That's where your main client lives or anywhere else.

Kenniqua Lewter (11:56)
Yeah. Yeah. Because that's, mean, I think that that part for me really works because like before I felt really like how like icky about selling. And so I'm not the biggest like, I'm just going to sell this person something. So that's not really, that's not really me. So like you said, building relationships over time, that's really, I'm all for the long game. Like I'm in it. So I don't mind kind of just

Casandra Barrett (12:06)
Mm-hmm

Mm-hmm.

Kenniqua Lewter (12:22)
building up that relationship. Like almost everybody that I met online has literally like, I would say peers has been me commenting on their posts, like, Hey, you know, that's really good. I love and commenting something meaningful, you know, like, yeah, that's true. I feel the same exact way about XYZ. And then actually building up these relationships over time. The only thing is I have been comfortable doing this with my peers, you know, people who like semi do the same thing that I do. Maybe,

Casandra Barrett (12:26)
Mm-hmm.

Kenniqua Lewter (12:50)
kind of adjacent to what I do, but never really to ideal clients. Like I haven't did that with ideal clients. I have only really done that with just like my peers. So I'm working my way to kind of getting into doing a little bit more outbound. I actually had a coach and she was like, do you do outbound? I'm like, outbound, you know, like, no.

Casandra Barrett (12:57)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, that's

something we could definitely talk about because it's something that comes up. This is so huge, especially for women entrepreneurs, women, people socialize as women at birth and their approach to sales. Because in the current landscape of capitalism in business, there has been this removal of the relational, this removal of person to person human connection. And it sort of becomes this like, I'm just going to make a deal with you. I'm just going to pitch you. I'm just going to sell you.

They're all of these people that most people that are in business understand this. I know you do the people who are DMing you pitching you before even talking to you, the really bad DMers, the super annoying cold emails. The problem with that is that it comes to the top of the pile for people. Cause it's like desperate mass, spray and pray, outbound sales or like outbound lead generation is what they're technically doing. They're trying to generate leads by just cold.

Kenniqua Lewter (13:46)
Exactly.

Casandra Barrett (14:02)
reaching out to people. That doesn't work, not because it's a bad strategy, but because most of the ways that people are doing it, they're just bad at it. They just suck at it. So you're having people in the past that have reached out to you, hey, hi, do you need more leads? I can help you get them for just this much. And it's like, I don't even know you. It's like a random stranger walking up to you on the street and saying, do you wanna try this? Versus you walk past a Starbucks. They're wearing the green apron.

They're outside of a brand that you know and like. They're friendly. They're holding a tray. It has the Starbucks logo on it, which you like, know, and trust. They say, hey, we're launching a new drink this week. This is an apple, cinnamon, crisp, macchiato, whatever they're doing. Do you want to try a sample? It's totally free. That's a completely different experience than a friend of mine last summer had a birthday at Niagara Falls.

in one of the casinos. And as we're walking in between the different locations, there's a shirt guy. You've seen it, there's the heckling guys, anybody who lives in a city. Maybe it's that old guy that everybody used to know who do the bootleg CDs. Maybe it's that guy with the fruit stand who's really aggressive about selling the oranges on the side of the road. Maybe it's that door-to-door salesman who like somehow ended up convincing you to buy lawn care that you don't really need.

Kenniqua Lewter (14:58)
Mm-hmm.

Casandra Barrett (15:19)
and then you felt stupid for spending $700 on it after you realized you don't even need it. That kind of selling technique, which is just sort of not even aggressive, but just highly persistent, it feels sometimes when people are good at doing that, or if they're bad at doing it, that they're like trying to hack your attention. Hey, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I won't even take up that much time of your time. Do you need this kind of shirt? Do you need this? Do you need that? It's almost like they're distracting and confusing you with all these shiny objects.

Kenniqua Lewter (15:41)
then.

Casandra Barrett (15:45)
to the point where you almost just want to appease them so that they go away. And then it ends up making you feel like you were used.

What I'm talking about, and this is what I see with my clients constantly that I work with, is what we're talking about is being good at sales. It's not that sales is icky, it's that most of the sales experiences that we have are with people that are not good at sales. So they're aggressive and they're rude and they make you feel inhuman and they make you feel like they don't care about you as a person. And so we as women entrepreneurs will say, like, I don't want to be like that. So then what do we do?

Kenniqua Lewter (15:50)
I agree.

Casandra Barrett (16:17)
We choose passive selling models with our social media marketing and our general networking and outbound efforts as entrepreneurs. We will go and we'll post educational content on our socials or we'll have a long form podcast where we just share our expertise over time in open at lands, which you you've been successful doing that and we are successful doing that. But what that creates is a lack of consistency long term over time.

depending on how consistent you are and how effective the content you're putting out is. Because when I say passive selling, I'm saying you're going out here and maybe you're teaching people, you're educating them about elements of how HoneyBook works, or for your case, or systems and why systems are good and what makes them awesome. But so much of the time it's sort of generic for everyone content that doesn't speak to a specific person's story.

the urgent problem that they need solved and the context around why it needs to get solved. So we put out this kind of generic content talking about, you know, topics and themes of the things that we kind of do for work, but we never actively sell anybody in our content or even in conversations. Hey, how are you? I'm good. What kind of work do you do for work? I do this. That's all. That's really cool. If you ever need help, just let me know. They're like, I definitely will. That's like nobody's selling anyone.

Kenniqua Lewter (17:31)
Yeah.

Casandra Barrett (17:34)
want forgive the kind of crazy example here, but I think of it as like two femme women that date women on the date. Nobody wants to make the first move because they're women. They're used to being courted and it's a new experience for them. And they're like, my gosh, this has been so fun. And the other girl's like, my gosh, this has been so fun. And nobody ever just says, hey, like, do you want to see each other next week or breaches in for that kiss? That's what happens.

with women that have been icked out by sales or people that have had that experience in general, where it feels dehumanizing. Active selling is saying, here is my HoneyBook set up VIP day package. Here's why it's fantastic for you, this individual person. Here is everything that you get in it. Book a call through the link in my bio, if you're interested in talking about how we could set this up for you and why it would get you X amount more leads per week. That is actively selling in a clear, specific way.

Kenniqua Lewter (18:25)
Yeah, absolutely. I definitely agree with that. What's so funny about that is because like this past, so we're recording this in May. So in April I sat here and I said, you know what? In April, I'm not going to post any content. Now I have been recording a whole bunch of podcasts. I've been doing a whole bunch of podcast guests, but I haven't posted anything like, so I haven't posted any podcasts. I haven't posted any YouTube videos. I haven't posted any Instagram. I haven't been MIA.

since for April. since That's it. So I haven't posted. But the reason why I haven't posted is because just like what you said, I had to go and like really just sit down and just sit with my content to make sure that, okay, my message. I went through, I got another, I did redid my website. had like quite a few offers on my website. I said, you know what? I'm getting rid of.

Casandra Barrett (18:56)
Mm.

Kenniqua Lewter (19:14)
most of these offers, I'm going to do two things. I'm going to do systems and I'm going to do HoneyBook setups. That is all I'm going to do. And that's all I'm going to talk about. And kind of like what you were talking about, like I have four years because I didn't know, I've never had a sales job in my whole entire life. And so,

Casandra Barrett (19:23)
Yes.

Mm-hmm.

Kenniqua Lewter (19:31)
I just worked at a call center. I worked at a call center for UPS. I was just helping people find lost packages. So I never had a sales job. And so I didn't necessarily know how to sell, but I've been reading books on sales. actually go to a event here in DC at the end of this month that's about selling. So I wanted to sit down like with myself and my content.

Casandra Barrett (19:37)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Kenniqua Lewter (19:52)
to like really kind of figure out, okay, where is my messaging and who, who, like you said, who am I going to be talking to and to actually go through and actively sell? Because definitely years prior, I've gotten way better, but years prior, it has definitely been passive selling. Like there have been time, there have been months where I haven't mentioned my offer at all.

Casandra Barrett (20:00)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Kenniqua Lewter (20:15)
And it ain't probably, but by the grace of God that people still just come to me because they kind of go to the description box or they kind of hear me and stuff like that. But it's not because I have actively sold. It's just because you engage with me and maybe you're involved in my content. You know what I'm saying? And over time, like you said, the longer game. Yeah, go ahead.

Casandra Barrett (20:25)
and

Mm-hmm. And over time. Let me ask you a question.

What is your current next monthly revenue goal? If you're comfortable disclosing that on the podcast.

Kenniqua Lewter (20:40)
I would like to get to my next. 20.

Casandra Barrett (20:43)
There we go. So that is very, very helpful. So I appreciate you sharing that. what I want to know is how many projects do you have to do to hit that?

Kenniqua Lewter (20:51)
So now that we've narrowed down, and so this is gonna include a couple of things, but so to be able to hit that number, so I didn't even did that on that, but I would say at least five, and this is full setup. So it would have to be at least, well, probably about five to seven, but it would also include, it would have to include probably some, because I do plan on kind of doing a couple of like digital products.

Casandra Barrett (21:05)
Mm-hmm.

Kenniqua Lewter (21:18)
And so our workshops, so it would have to include some of that because without implementers, well, hold on, let me just say this, without another implementer, it may be a little bit more difficult unless I significantly raise my price.

Casandra Barrett (21:18)
Mm-hmm.

Gotcha.

So, okay, how, because we're talking about in a month, you're talking about five of these larger projects. To hit that.

Kenniqua Lewter (21:37)
Yeah. So I don't

mean five of them getting done. So not five getting completed. Cause most of time, like with our projects, they take about four to six weeks. And so most people pay in, in either half payments or they play in thirds. So typically payments go across more than one month, if that makes sense.

Casandra Barrett (21:48)
Okay, so.

Yes, I completely understand what you're saying. So, but if we're talking about when we start the project, so you start a project, they would pay in half or in thirds of the initial upfront payment. And then those are, is it milestone based? So if you're doing like a payment plan, would they pay at the beginning of the project and then at the next milestone or after two weeks? And then the next two weeks or after the project is complete?

Kenniqua Lewter (22:20)
Yes, so they will pay at the kickoff. They would pay for the deposit and then they would pay the kickoff their project. So this is when their project is due to start. So they would pay then sometimes depending on when their project is due to start, that might not be two weeks. It might be a little bit longer. So it just depends of when their project is due to be kicked off. So it's the deposit, it's kickoff and then project completion or near project completion.

Casandra Barrett (22:25)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Yeah. See, that's really interesting. Yeah.

Kenniqua Lewter (22:48)
So I haven't sat down with the math on it though. I haven't sat down and see

how many projects, but I do believe in order to be able to, it would have to be a couple of factors and that is either a raised price, which I have raised the price a little bit.

I don't really plan on raising the price up significantly. It's just, I just don't plan on doing that. If I do, it would be a little bit by little bit as like people kind of come through. ⁓

Casandra Barrett (23:16)
Cause you're targeting solopreneurs

anyway, so their budgets are always only going to be a certain amount for it to make sense, right?

Kenniqua Lewter (23:22)
Yeah,

so we do. We do small teams as well. But again, like you said, the budget is still going to be, but so much. And so I don't want to. I don't want to charge thousands upon thousands of dollars for the work, because I want people to be able to get the systems they need to be able to get to that next level. And if budget can sometimes be in the way.

Casandra Barrett (23:35)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Kenniqua Lewter (23:47)
of

Casandra Barrett (23:47)
Yeah.

Kenniqua Lewter (23:48)
doing that. And so I don't want to raise the price to where it's like, like where it's, it's about me heading that number. I know with a combination of things that I can hit the number, you know what I'm saying? So like, yeah, yeah.

Casandra Barrett (23:52)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, definitely.

Of course, of course.

That's really interesting. Yeah, I think there are lot of different things at play here. So it's very interesting because it would be taking a look at your service model and then also understanding, like, and I'm sure you do. So I'm going to ask it as a question now. What is the typical problem that somebody's facing when they come to you and they're like, they decide to do the honey book? Um, cause we were talking about one particular project and just focusing on like the, just focusing, just focusing on the work itself.

Kenniqua Lewter (24:25)
Yeah.

Casandra Barrett (24:29)
Why did that client come to you and decide that HoneyBook was going to make running their business better, easier for them?

Kenniqua Lewter (24:35)
Yeah. Most people that will come to me for doing services is that they are overwhelmed with everything that they have going on. They don't have any systems in place. so HoneyBook though, HoneyBook is not the full system. So HoneyBook obviously is the software and the tool that we then could take a system and then implement it into HoneyBook. And that's what I help people do is to

Casandra Barrett (24:45)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Kenniqua Lewter (25:00)
let's put an onboarding system in place. Then let's use software like HoneyBook to actually implement that process and that system. And so a lot of people that come to me is that they don't have a system in place, or if they do have a system in place, it's mostly done manually. So they may have to grab an email from their Google Drive. Maybe they got a contract there. They're sending it voices through Stripe or through Square.

Casandra Barrett (25:24)
Mm-hmm.

Kenniqua Lewter (25:27)
It's things and pieces that are literally just everywhere. And so with that, it's causing them to spend way more time than they need to. And so HoneyBook a lot of times is the, I love HoneyBook and I offer it to clients that I say, Hey, you know, I think that you will be a good fit for it. Or a lot of times they already know that they want HoneyBook like

I don't have to convince them to say HoneyBook is the right system for you. Most of them have already kind of done their research. They see the features that they offer. And a lot of them actually have already played around in HoneyBook, but they just haven't figured it out all the way. Like, so they'll have HoneyBook and then they just start sending an invoice here or a contract here, but...

Casandra Barrett (26:06)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Kenniqua Lewter (26:11)
They

don't necessarily know how to go through and put all of the pieces together. And so that's where I come in to help them with a system. Like we do their client journey mapping. We do all of that. Like, Hey, this is all the touch points. And then these are all the forms, the documents that we need to put in with these touch points. And then we go through and we build them out.

Casandra Barrett (26:21)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

So what about work instructions and SOPs after the project is complete? So here's how you do this, here's how you edit that, here's how this works. Is that a part of your project deliverables at the end?

Kenniqua Lewter (26:40)
It is, cause it's, very important to me that people know how to use what I set up for them. Like, so it's, it's not helpful for me to set it up. And I'm the only one that knows how to work it because you're in your business day in and day out. And so you have to know what was built. And so I do a training video of each part. So I do everything that we've updated that we change and I teach them how to use HoneyBook. And then I do.

Casandra Barrett (26:46)
Mm-hmm.

Kenniqua Lewter (27:04)
create like an SOP document of how to do this, how to do that. And if there's any other like HoneyBook resources that I can include in there, like any training material from HoneyBook themselves, I will include that as well. But again, it's important that they understand how to actually go through and use what we did build. And then also too, I do provide

Casandra Barrett (27:11)
Mm-hmm.

Kenniqua Lewter (27:24)
30 days of support. So like if they have any questions afterwards, they can come to me and like, hey, you know, I have a question about XYZ or then we're there to be able to go through and support them.

Casandra Barrett (27:26)
Mm-hmm.

Got it. Okay, so let's say you were a client doing one of my intensives. Generally, I separate this and I look at it as sort of the successful service loop of a business. To have a business that is scalable, you need to be able to solve a problem. So you've already identified what that looks like in this client archetype. And somebody that doesn't have the systems in place, that doesn't quite get like, what should their customer journey look like?

They might have a contract or an onboarding email or this, it's in different places and they're doing it all manually themselves. And they're a little overwhelmed. know that they need something that's an all in one that's simple for them because they're not trying to maybe run this big, huge business or they're just not in that stage yet. Right. You know, I'm in the process of onboarding one of my clients onto HoneyBook and they're, they're passed, they're way past that 20K a month recurring revenue mark. It just makes sense for the enforcing contract and payments.

There's going to be other things at play for like the day-to-day operations. Some people that have HoneyBook might actually just use the task system for project management with clients. Others, they're probably going to want to use ClickUp or Asana or Trello or whatever it is. with a business, you solve a problem, you sell the solution, you deliver the promise, and then you repeat that loop over and over and over over again. And the better you get at having a proven process for doing that for, you know, your entire business model for any, each offer that you have.

Kenniqua Lewter (28:26)
Mm-hmm.

Casandra Barrett (28:44)
So in your case, the HoneyBook systems offer, that creates scalability. And so with everything that you're telling me, this would be what I would recommend for you. And it would be one, change the timeline for delivery and condense it into one month. that beginning of the month and end of the month, every month, you know that you're starting off with X amount of clients, ending off with X amount of clients. That really tightens things up so that it's easier to onboard somebody and it's not this consistent cadence.

Kenniqua Lewter (28:58)
Mm-hmm.

Casandra Barrett (29:09)
of like, okay, so there's this many people that are currently doing it, and then this person started next week, and then that person started that week, and then this person started this week, and because you're kind of like a boutique business, it creates this sort of waitlist experience for people where it's like, our spots for this month are all filled up, but beginning June 1st, I still have this amount of spots. So I think you'd be a great fit for this thing if you use the invoice. If you just wanna like, they decide, they've already told you what payment makes sense, they can't do pay in full, okay.

So if it's gonna be more digestible for you to split up the payment, here's what that looks like. If you wanna just go ahead and make your initial payment, we can get started with June 1st and start kicking things off. All in one month.

Kenniqua Lewter (29:46)
So do you think,

so I have a question about that.

But what you mean by going through and reducing it to the four week window is that also the payments. So having it where they have to pay in 30 days, is that what you recommend?

Casandra Barrett (30:00)
Yeah. So

what I'm doing, and this is how I do everything for business, I reverse engineer success based off of the outcome desired. So we talked about selling, sound like how we would sell, hitting the revenue goal cash in hand, bringing in a team, getting to that X amount of money per month. But we didn't talk at all about if it was, and I'm assuming already knowing the way your mind works, cause I get it. You're talking about profit, but what are your profit margins once you have your team?

So what's the scalability as soon as you bring an implementer that actually affects the bottom line, plus whatever your systems and tools and other costs are that you have. So I'm looking at the outcome that you want, and then I'm building it backwards. So phase one is test, right? Changing up the timeline and putting it all into one container. and because I'm working HoneyBook, I've done HoneyBook setups, I get HoneyBook.

Kenniqua Lewter (30:31)
Mm-hmm.

Casandra Barrett (30:47)
I understand that people's basic onboarding smart file template, their invoice, their services, their scheduler, how they set up their pipeline, all of that stuff, the actual implementation even for design could probably happen in a week for an entry level business owner. Once you have the strategy, you don't need the time. So then it's just a matter of what is the cadence for you going in and strategically working with them to have an understanding of what their honey book should look like, how it should be built out.

Kenniqua Lewter (31:02)
yeah.

Casandra Barrett (31:14)
delivering it to them and then the timeline that they have to get back to you on it.

So what I would recommend would be sort of like an account management sort of you're taking them through it with each piece. So obviously you start with the strategy work. If you had a team to do it, I would say put it into one to one month, kick off with you doing the strategy because you're the expert and you've been doing this and you know how you do this in your business. You would meet with them to discuss the initial strategy and then maybe you might even delegate the project plan and figuring out the specifics of what it looks like to.

maybe like an account manager or project manager, or that person can be client facing as account manager, but also like your OBN, not a VA, but somebody who's a little bit higher up that has that HoneyBook systems knowledge. So they're going to take, you're going to have your systems internally. They're going to take your little strategy call that you do with a client that doesn't have to take forever. doesn't have to be a whole VIP day. You're going to pass it along to them. They're going to have a project plan that they put together. And then maybe they'll put like a quick loom.

Kenniqua Lewter (31:50)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Casandra Barrett (32:10)
and they'll say, here's exactly what we're thinking for how we're gonna build up your honey book, send it to the client and say, hey, you've got until this day, this time to let us know if there's anything you think we should add or if maybe there's something we missed, but if not, we're just gonna start building up your honey book. You create boundaries there and then you just move directly into the build phase. So you put it all together, you build it all out, you get your SOPs and your work instructions ready because the functions are gonna stay the same.

Kenniqua Lewter (32:33)
Mm-hmm.

Casandra Barrett (32:33)
And

then you would say, have the client come onto another call where you present everything to to them, walk them through it, show them how everything works, gain approval from them on the call or take any notes for minor revisions. And then you send it to them afterwards and say, okay, you made those changes. Any other notes that you have for us? Okay, sick, no. Any other questions? Okay, cool. And then the goal is to actually wrap it up even before the end of the month. Cause then they're going to make their payment before that fourth week. So if you notice,

Kenniqua Lewter (32:59)
for the program.

Casandra Barrett (33:01)
The way that I built this out in my brain and worked backwards is this is already having the team in place for you. Structuring it all so that you already are in this place where you're literally just in the strategic seat. All of the implementation, probably all the SOPs, all of the account management phases, it would start with one person. And then as you scale and grow the amount of projects you do per month, you could probably start building it out into like an agency pod structure where maybe there's like, there's an account manager who is client facing. And then there's somebody who

Maybe there's different departments. So one person does the work, one person does the work instructions, whatever ends up making the most sense. That is going to be the strategy that I would suggest for how you start building to that point and starting with active selling to bring more business in through the door and an OPM to help you.

Kenniqua Lewter (33:43)
I love this. Thank you, Cassandra. That was really good. You kind of gave me a whole breakdown, whole map. And I know that you have all the people and the expertise to when it's time for me to go through and do that, I'm like, okay, I got to talk to Cassandra so she can go through and help me put this agency together. So I love this. And I know you had a pretty hard stop at where we have to kind of wrap this call up, but I do appreciate you joining me today on this podcast episode. If you can share really quickly where people could learn more or follow you.

Casandra Barrett (33:59)
Mm-hmm.

Kenniqua Lewter (34:12)
you know, anything that you have to offer, I would love to know and hear about it.

Casandra Barrett (34:15)
Yes, definitely. So I am most active on LinkedIn. I can't give you that link here, but what I will say is check my website out and go to the contact section within it. All of my socials are linked on the site. You'd see my company page. You'll see me within the people. So you can always hit me up there, Instagram, any of these places. So if you are interested, if you have questions, if you want to do a strategy call with me sometimes, if you think you'd like some support with just kind of

Organizing your brain and figuring out what's going on with your business so that you can scale or just feel more stable in it go to www.handledoc.com So it's like handled operations consulting. So it's handled. see all in one all lowercase

Kenniqua Lewter (34:57)
Awesome, awesome. And I'll make sure I put all that information in the show notes for you as well. All right. Thank you so much for joining me and I hope you enjoyed the rest of your day.

Casandra Barrett (35:01)
Thank you so much. Such a pleasure.