Scale Like a CEO

Scaling Businesses with Noelle Curtis: Insights on Pricing and Growth | Scale Like a CEO

• Justin Reinert • Season 1 • Episode 25

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Pricing structures make or break businesses, yet they're often the most overlooked aspect of entrepreneurship. Noelle Curtis, founder and CEO of Busy Boulevard, is changing that reality with a platform that helps entrepreneurs establish proper pricing foundations to ensure sustainable growth.

During our conversation, Noelle unpacks the critical distinction between gross and net revenue that trips up countless business owners. "A lot of people are stuck on the gross, but the net is really what matters," she explains, highlighting how her company's platform helps entrepreneurs finally include their own compensation in their pricing calculations. This fundamental shift transforms businesses from unsustainable passion projects into viable, growth-oriented ventures.

The journey from solo founder to team leader presents universal challenges that Noelle addresses with refreshing candor. Her approach to delegation involves what she calls "creative restraints" – empowering team members with decision-making authority within defined parameters. This framework has allowed her six-person team to execute effectively while maintaining alignment with company goals. Her practical advice on cross-training, establishing clear deliverables, and setting regular check-ins provides a roadmap for founders feeling overwhelmed by wearing too many hats.

Busy Boulevard's expansion plans reveal Noelle's strategic vision for growth beyond their beauty industry origins. Their upcoming credit union program will help connect entrepreneurs with funding opportunities based on platform usage data, while partnerships with nonprofits and educational institutions are extending their reach. Perhaps most fascinating is their move into agricultural technology, bringing pricing expertise to another traditionally low-margin sector. As Noelle puts it, "Someone told me we have a glutton for punishment because we service industries that have lower profit margins," but this purposeful focus addresses critical gaps in underserved markets.

Ready to transform your approach to business pricing and operations? Connect with Noelle and the Busy Boulevard team on social media @busyboulevard, visit busyboulevard.com, or call 312-809-2474 to request a demo and discover how proper pricing structures can position your business for sustainable growth.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to Scale Like a CEO, the podcast where we dive deep into the strategies and challenges of building successful companies. Today, we're joined by Noel Curtis, ceo and founder of Busy Boulevard, a platform that's revolutionizing how entrepreneurs establish and scale their businesses. Get ready for an insightful conversation about pricing, growth and the journey from startup to success.

Justin Reinert:

Noel, thank you so much for joining me on Scale Like a CEO. Just to get us started, if you wouldn't mind give us a 90-second intro to you and your business.

Noelle Curtis:

Hi. Yes, I am Noelle Curtis, CEO and founder of Busy Boulevard, where we help entrepreneurs actually establish and scale their companies, starting with how they price, so that they can actually grow efficiently.

Justin Reinert:

Great, and what's the biggest problem you see in your industry and how are you solving that?

Noelle Curtis:

So, interestingly, justin, we launched in the beauty sector although we are an industry agnostic platform, one of the things we saw was just like pricing and making sure that entrepreneurs are actually paying themselves, and so we discovered that a lot of math is overlooked with a lot of entrepreneurs, and so we like to say we do the busy work for you, right. So making sure that you're pricing is set to actually include you from a compensation perspective your company expenses, and then make sure all the other operational features are actually working together. So are you controlling your inventory? How's the communication with your clients going? Our system covers and integrates all of those elements.

Justin Reinert:

That seems so valuable for the folks that you're serving. I'm curious if there's anything that makes you unique in the way that you're helping folks.

Noelle Curtis:

Yeah. So we ask our subscribers all the time, and when they say, oh, I made this much this year right, Our question is always well, is that gross or is that net? Because a lot of people are stuck on the gross, but the net is really what matters, and oftentimes in there we discover that they haven't been paying themselves, they are missing bill payments, and so our system really helps create a different framework and a different approach to how they think about their pricing with their companies. We also make sure that they include flexibility into their scheduling. A lot of systems just kind of lock you into time. No-transcript technical hand-holding support. When you call our office, you will get a human and we will actually work with you to make sure that you understand how your account is working actually work with you to make sure that you understand how your account is working.

Justin Reinert:

That's great, and so you know you've been.

Noelle Curtis:

it looks like you've been building the business for almost four years now, is that right? No, we're just tied two years, so we actually yeah, yeah.

Justin Reinert:

Great. And so you know, as you've been building the business and you kind of went from being a business of one to starting to build your team, what were some of the challenges that you faced?

Noelle Curtis:

Oh, my goodness, so many chiefs. Not enough Indians I don't know if I can legally say that anymore there is. A lot of people are afraid to do work and so even I personally have to make sure that our team members are cross-trained on a lot of activity. They although I don't expect them to be working with our developers and coding, I do need to make sure that they can understand how our system flows and they can walk someone through all the touch points of setting up an account. I need to make sure that they are comfortable having client retention conversations that's been a continual growth area and then also making sure they're comfortable fielding some of our incoming cold calls.

Noelle Curtis:

So we get a lot of calls that come in where people are asking to learn more about our software and our services. So making sure they're cross-trained and that they're comfortable and being able to speak about the platform Again walking people through setting up an account. They've even had to do some of the training videos right on the accounts. You'll even see we have a podcast coming on Like hey, no, you're part of the conversation, come on, join the camera, let's have the conversation. So a lot of cross-training on the team.

Justin Reinert:

Yeah, well, that's great. I'm sure that cross training is really valuable. You know, at what point did you decide that it was time to start hiring and building the team?

Noelle Curtis:

Oh, my goodness, I will say, with our lead investor. I did start. This company was an offshoot from my day spa, where I had a team and then we closed because of the pandemic here in Illinois. It was one of the last states to open post-pandemic in a service-based environment. And when I actually started building the software company, there's a lot that goes into it.

Noelle Curtis:

I am not the technical founder, if you will right. I can code enough to know, Justin, I'm gonna code and so it's okay. Well, if I'm not gonna be the one who's coding, right, who can I hire to make sure that they understand the flow and that they can walk through the development phases of our platform? So that was a critical decision. The marketing, the outreach, the branding there's yes, it's my vision, but to execute it all would be just an abuse of my personal life and time. And I have to be real honest with myself, right, Just because I know how to do things doesn't mean I should be doing everything.

Noelle Curtis:

I think I actually put a post out there. It's like, hey, you have to be honest with yourself when you're the bottleneck in your own company and a process, and so I'm humble enough to say, hey, I've got all these marketing campaigns that I won't execute it. But I'm not about to be the one setting up all the advice and going through all of that, but I need to get the reports back in. When I started activating different levels of activity within our company is when I really sat down and said, okay, how can I find the best person aligned to help execute this project? And that that decision came. I want to say well, I shouldn't say it came after. It was before I got funding that I knew I wanted to hire people. It was just a matter of who and the priority that I want to hire first.

Justin Reinert:

Okay, great, and so it sounds like you're kind of encountering something similar. That a lot of founders do is that point of delegation where it could do a lot of this stuff, but there's no way I can get it all done. So how do you decide and prioritize what you do versus what you delegate to the team?

Noelle Curtis:

Yeah, the vision of labor is a genuine thing. So I've set the tone, I've set the goal for the year, breaking it down by quarterly and monthly activities, and then, as it relates to who is the kind of second in command, on that it's a combination of obviously seeing their background. I've been very intentional that, although I can't offer six figure salaries to start right Some we would start with a contract and then if they hit key milestones within that contract, then I would offer them the actual employment opportunity. So that was a lot of pre-interviewing information. Yeah, as it relates to who gets assigned to what, it just really depends. It depends on the department that we're handling work with in.

Noelle Curtis:

I think I answered that question.

Justin Reinert:

Well, let me maybe ask from another direction. So tell me about a time when you were maybe overwhelmed with decision-making or tasks, and how did you? How did you kind of clear the plates, if you will?

Noelle Curtis:

Oh, I've got decisions all day. I'm overwhelmed constantly with decisions and tasks.

Noelle Curtis:

That's a Monday. I really what I do is I segment out our quarter based on the goals that we have and where the dependencies in the different departments. So right now we're executing our Q3, q4 marketing. We had an adjustment we were doing several trade shows and several travels for the end of the quarter three, which we decided to cancel those and redirect to advertising purchases, and so with that I had to go back to the team and say, ok, well, in order for us to move along this quarter, these top three things have to happen. So it turns into well.

Noelle Curtis:

I know it sounds very selfish, but I know how I want the company to move forward and I have to communicate that desire to the team lead who's moving the project forward. So it's really just a dissemination of our project flow. Right, we create a project plan, we have steps to go through it, we turn those into sprints and we track deliverables along the way. Like every three to 10 days we're making tracking touch points. Yeah, I'm trying to think of all the other things we do. There's so many things I'm I'm big on dependencies and like who's being impacted by what it looks like this big logic tree behind the scenes on how we move forward.

Justin Reinert:

Yeah, well, it sounds like you've got some great organization there, then, um, you know, I'm curious, as you've been adding to the team. What are some of the key qualities that you're looking for in the people that you hire?

Noelle Curtis:

So promptness to deadlines is a critical one. Technology is moving so fast. I mean, we've had changes even since March of this year in our tech stack, and so making sure that they can adapt to that is important. Making sure they're able to understand and digest plans when they change is important, but then also making sure they're able to execute right. I cannot stand meeting just for the sake of a meeting and we're not going to have a meeting to discuss the meeting we just had. You know, it's like, hey, here's the meeting, here are the deliverables, here are the expectations. Let's clear the air of any questions. But then, if there are questions that come along as we're executing, here's the point within time where we're going to bring that back. I also empower them enough to make decisions within a certain parameter. Right, it's like hey, you can make a decision up to this point. If they have a budget, you can make a purchase up to this point.

Noelle Curtis:

If you are confused, definitely come back and get clarity before you do. But for the most part I give creative restraints is what I like to call it. You can go out and you can do these things. But if it gets to a point where you're legitimately uncertain, come back and check and make sure we're still on the same path. But for the most part, as long as the outcome is, you're still working towards that outcome and you haven't veered too far off of here's the plan. Right, here's the plan. Just don't veer too far off of it. And if you are, where's the guardrail that's going to bring you back?

Noelle Curtis:

that's great that autonomy has to be so appreciated by your people it does, and that's what takes a lot off of my plate, right like one. It's a big trust factor. I have to to trust that their decision-making process is in alignment with the goal that we're trying to achieve. So, if it's with our sales team and with our outreach, how many outreach touch points do you have to have in a day? What happened that you didn't hit that metric? Let's talk about that. But let's talk about it at a particular time in the week. But then that also allows us to check to make sure that they're still in alignment with messaging, if they're bringing back information that can help the team, like if they're running into a dead end on a particular industry. What have been some of the things that have been hindrances? Let's know so that we can go through it as a team, so that no one else is running into that same issue. And we celebrate, like we celebrate the wins and the victories. We're big on work hard, play hard.

Justin Reinert:

I love that. I love that. That's so key. So what's? Well? Actually I was curious, um so what's uh? Well, actually I was curious how big is the team as of now?

Noelle Curtis:

Yeah, so we are six right now. Okay.

Justin Reinert:

Excellent. And what's the so, what's the future? Look like as you're, as you're growing the company.

Noelle Curtis:

So excited. We are in the process. I'm on this little podcast tour right now. We have a credit union program that we are in the process of releasing. We actually will be open, opening the wait list. So the end of this week we actually have the wait list that will release and we're really excited about that.

Noelle Curtis:

What we've discovered a lot of the entrepreneurs that we've worked with are less than two years old and we know that's the area where they need funding and lending the most, where they need funding and lending the most, and so one of the beauties of our software is that we are able to identify if they are actually using the system correctly and how they're supposed to. It gives us signal that hey, these people would actually qualify for some funding to help in different areas. So we really look at if it's inventory or equipment purchases. Those are some of the critical areas that we know most businesses need to expand safely. We can look at that and if we're not able to support them because of our banking relationships, we're able to make valid referrals and some of the partners that we have with those financial institutions. If we're not able to support them, we can make the referral there. So that's a beautiful through line within our FinTech element.

Noelle Curtis:

Also, we've already started this, but our enterprise sale, so we started working with nonprofit organizations and other higher ed institutions as it relates to vocational training. That's really been an amazing boom for us to see the nonprofits that were like, yes, how many seats can we get Our service? The service providers that they support from entrepreneurial lens have been benefiting so greatly from that, and so those two things are some of the things we're really excited about. The third one is I'm giving you all my little details.

Noelle Curtis:

You know we are a software development company, so we launched in the beauty space with our first product, but we also have an agricultural product in the works and people ask all the time well, how did you come from beauty to agriculture? I came through the agricultural community growing up. I know there's a need there as well. Someone told me we have a glutton for punishment because we service industries that have lower profit margins, and I was like, well, there's a reason for that, right? No one's really gone in to tool the numbers and our system has done that, so I'm very excited about that.

Justin Reinert:

Well, that's great, Noelle. Thank you so much for joining me on the podcast. If folks want to get in touch with you, what's the best way to do so?

Noelle Curtis:

Yeah, so we are at busyboulevard on just about every platform that's B-I-S-I-B-L-V-D. So we're on Instagram, we're on TikTok, we're on LinkedIn. Feel free to reach out. I mean, I do check my emails, I check voicemail around here. Again, no job is too small, even for the CEO. So they can reach us by office 312-809-2474 on our website, busyboulevardcom that's B-I-S-I-B-L-V-Dcom. There's a contact page there and they can request a demo, they can request a consultation call and then, even if they just shoot and I mean I get my email directly noellec at busyboulevardcom, and if I'm not able to help you, or if one of my teammates isn't able to help you, we will actually find someone who can support you.

Justin Reinert:

That's great. Well, thank you so much for the time today, Noelle.

Noelle Curtis:

Thanks, justin, I appreciate it.