What Are You Willing To Trade For Scale

We get honest about the costs that come with growing a business and why “wanting growth” is not the same as being ready for it. We break down the real tradeoffs in time, money, focus, and family and how to navigate a growth season without losing your why. 

• time as the first cost of scaling and why 40 hours rarely gets you there 
• seasons of sacrifice that include sleep, friendships, and capacity 
• choosing growth on purpose and planning for the other side 
• money and capital as the fuel for hiring and inventory 
• bootstrapping stories that show what reinvestment looks like in real life 
• focus under pressure and how to decide which fires matter 
• spotting repeat problems and fixing systems instead of symptoms 
• why work-life balance is really juggling and clear expectations 

Love design, but think like a business owner? If you're ready to leave your 9 to 5 and want to do something that's buildable and scalable, check out linden-creek.com/franchise and see if Linden Creek is the right fit for you. 

If this is something that was relatable to you, that helped give you a perspective as you're in your own growth journey or considering pursuing one, subscribe for future episodes.

Transcript

hy Growth Has A Price

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Everyone talks about the idea of wanting to grow their business and it is sexy and it is fun, but very few actually talk about the cost of growth. So what we want to do today is have a very real, very authentic conversation. Um, peel back the curtain, if you will, and kind of talk about the costs that come with growing a business um in it in that growth season.

SPEAKER_00 0:22

Oh, oh, we're doing this. Okay, we're doing this.

ime Becomes The First Cost

SPEAKER_01 0:24

Yes, we can dive in. One of the biggest costs to growth is time. Um, that's something that might sound cliche, but if your business is going to grow, working just 40 hours a week producing is not going to create the growth. You have to be in a season where you're doing all the things you're normally doing to fulfill your customers and then take extra time out of your time and schedule to build and develop and create systems and operations and train and develop your team to take you guys to the next level. Um, and I think when it comes to time, it's something that we often overlook. We just write it off and we're like, there's not a cost to that. It doesn't really matter. But there are very real, true, and authentic sacrifices that have to be made in that season of growth that I think oftentimes we as business owners, when we make that decision of like, yes, we're gonna grow, we um minimize or we think it's not gonna be as significant as it really is.

hat The Grind Really Looked Like

SPEAKER_00 1:28

Why don't you talk about like the time sacrifices that you made when you were starting Lennon Creek? Like, really, what did that look like as you were? I mean, we can go back to as far as when you were um transitioning from your own full-time job over to Lennon Creek.

SPEAKER_01 1:42

Yeah, I mean, the time investment isn't any different today in our new growth season than it was on those early days. Um, I think before I like tell you the horror stories of the number of hours that I work and the sleepless nights and all those things, like let me caveat it with when you're building a business, the advantage you have as a business owner is you get to choose when you're gonna grow and you get to choose when to pause. And so even though growth seasons are aggressive and they are challenging and they are trying personally and professionally, they are for a season. Um, and it's not that you're putting your foot on the gas every single day, 24 hours a day, seven days a week for the next 185 years. And so when you go into it with this mindset of like, we're gonna push, we're gonna grow, and then there's gonna be another side where I breathe again. Um, it helps prepare you for your sprint or your marathon, however long it's gonna be, rather than feeling that like this is forever. But I would definitely say in those early seasons, you're spending your days, you know, providing to the customer. So you're at an installation from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. You're going to walkthroughs, your site visiting new properties, you're networking with new clients, doing these things. In my instance, I'm picking kids up from carpal and bringing them back home. Um, and then you get to be mom for a bit, but the kids would go to bed at 7:30, 8 o'clock, and I would pull up my laptop and I would be there sending out estimates, designing for the project that's coming up later in the week, um, doing social media and marketing efforts because I didn't have a marketing team yet, all of those details until sometimes midnight, and I'd be up at 4 or 5 a.m. the next morning going again. Like there are very real seasons where like sleep is um fantastic, but you're maybe getting five, six, seven hours of sleep at any given night. But in addition to that, like it's the sacrifice you're making on relationships. So in those growth seasons, my priorities are my family first and foremost, but then my business comes second. So these relationships that I would love to invest more time into in friendships and people that I love and I care about have to be put on the side burner sometimes because you don't have the capacity to invest intentionally into a friendship while you're also building and growing and doing all of these other things. And so it comes down to like very real and authentic decisions of like, am I willing to sacrifice these things to see that growth? And there's not a right or wrong answer. There could be a time you go, no, I'm not. I don't want to grow at that aggressive of a level. And that's totally fine. But knowing and understanding that every time you're saying yes to something in your business or to growth, you have to say no to something else. It's not that magically more time shows up on your calendar to be able to do this. And so there's something that's gonna have a take because you're giving it into the business.

SPEAKER_00 4:21

I've got nothing to add to that. I mean, that was that's that's pretty good from a time standpoint. I mean, again, you have to you have to live like no one else so you can live like no one else. Like really, that's the truth. Dave Ramsey. That is Dave Ramsay, I believe. Yes. But like, you know, it's just the truth. You have to be willing to make short-term sacrifices for long-term rewards, you know. And if you're a crazy person like us and want to start a business for one, but want to build something big for two, it's just gonna take that much effort. You know, one of the things that I used to do when you know I was building my own businesses back in the day, and um it was in the sales world in particular, but like, you know, always run things through the filter in your head of like what are most normal people doing right now? And if the answer is they're sitting on their couch or their answer is they're doing something else, go out and do more. Go out and do more activity, right? Um be better, be more, be everything in that way, and it will yield its fruit for sure. But you're right, like there's only so much time. So what you do with that time is essential.

apital And Reinvestment Reality

SPEAKER_01 5:26

Yeah, the second big um cost that sometimes is talked about, um, but again, I don't think there's enough weight put on it, is money and capital. Um, growth is not typically when you're investing in growth. It's not the season that you make money, it's the season that you're dumping money into the growth to make it happen. Um, and that can look in a few different forms. That can be investing in key people where maybe the money is not coming into your business yet for these new hires, and you're choosing to take home less money every single month so that you can bring in those key players and have them elevate your business and take your business to the next level. Um, in the staging world, it definitely comes into investing in inventory. I know we got a chance to um grab coffee a couple of months ago with another um staging company in our industry that we love and adore. And, you know, they were sharing their stories of their build-out. Oh, and they've been in business about the same length we have now and the sacrifices that they made all of those years because every penny just got poured right back into the business of reinvesting into one more sofa, one more end table. And do you have to do that? No. But I will say it's really beautiful standing on this side of that story after making those sacrifices or watching someone else make those sacrifices and seeing and realizing that something beautiful came from it. But it required sacrifices. It required you to choose a long-term advantage to your financial success instead of the short-term gain that sometimes is really sexy and appealing.

SPEAKER_00 6:57

We've we've talked in, you know, in other episodes about profitability too. But this is also another reason why you need to be profitable is so you can have the money that you can reinvest back into your vision, into your dream, into your business. Um, so you can continue to scale it and grow it and keep pushing because you are going to need capital. You are gonna need resources. Um, personnel is key in our industry, inventory is also key, right? Being able to replenish that. So um it's expensive in a lot of ways, um, to your point, not to just regurgitate everything you said, but it's expensive from a time and capital standpoint for sure.

ootstrapping With A Bare House

SPEAKER_01 7:32

Love design, but think like a business owner. If you're ready to leave your nine to five and want to do something that's buildable and scalable, check out linden-creek.com slash franchise and see if Linden Creek is the right fit for you. Can I share a story on like real life nitty-gritty?

SPEAKER_00 7:49

Uh-oh.

SPEAKER_01 7:51

So when I when I first started Linden Creek, um, I was really blessed and fortunate. Like we organically grew very fast. Word of mouth spread and sales were flying um in the most beautiful way, but that creates its own challenges. Like I now need to fulfill and deliver to all these customers that are amped and excited that Linden Creek showed up. And I had made the decision early on that I wanted to bootstrap this business. I didn't necessarily want to take out debt for it. I didn't necessarily want to bring in other investors, I was just gonna figure it out. And so in those early seasons, we were growing so fast that I could not get inventory back into my warehouse fast enough to be able to serve a client. I couldn't order it fast enough. And so there was a season. Um, my parents live, as you know, they live um in Minnesota. So they are on the other side of the country and they're retired. So every six weeks, they would drive down and they would come and visit me and see how life is and stay with me for a week. And there was a season for honestly about six months where they would make the drive down and they'd show up and they'd be so excited to see me and my dining table and my dining chairs were like missing. And they're like, Elisa, they like they didn't say anything. They just were like, Oh, that's interesting. Um, and I told my kids, I was like, this is the dance party room because there's like a chandelier because it's a dining room. And so we would have dance parties in there because I was worried they'd like think we were poor and it was gonna be sad. And so I like made up this story like this is our dance party room, guys. Um, and then you know, my parents came and left. And then the next time they came, we were missing the sofa. Um, and so like in the evenings, we would watch TV together to spend time together. And I would sit on the floor because I didn't have a sofa because my sofa was like staged in somebody's house because I couldn't get my hands on a sofa fast enough. And they were like, Elisa, are you doing okay? Like, do you need extra money for food? Like your furniture is disappearing. And I was like, no, no, no, it's fine. It's just the business is growing, it is what it is, it's fine. And the next time they came, like we were missing our breakfast table. So now, like, we literally don't have a table to eat our food on when I'm like making them dinners. And so we're eating out on the picnic table, which is fine until it rains. And then we're like having some version of eating a picnic on the floor. Um, and it and it continued like that for like six months. It was like, what random piece of furniture is Elisa missing from her house this time? And then they're hit this place where finally the house was fully furnished and they came and my mom hugged me and she was like, I'm just so glad you're not broke anymore. Um, but you know, it's like those are the real life sacrifices that that are part of reality. But I would go back and do it all over again because choosing to not have a sofa for a few months to reinvest back into serving a client so we could grow the business faster was absolutely the right decision in that season. Um they had no idea they were using my sofa, but nonetheless, like it was a season of growth and development that was just necessary that got us to where we are today.

SPEAKER_00 10:31

I think when I last checked, you own 184 sofas now.

SPEAKER_01 10:35

Yeah, so I won't run out of sofa anymore.

SPEAKER_00 10:37

We're we're good in that department. We're good.

SPEAKER_01 10:40

The last place where there's like really a costing growth to me is around focus. It's it's amazing. When you try to push and do something new and sort of level up your business, that's when things start to break, right? Um, you see it breaking communication, quality control, whatever it may be. And so it's it's this moment where like you're already trying to do something big and then fires start coming out of the woodwork because you're like, I planned for this, but I didn't see that coming. Um, and so it's a decision of which fires do I put out because they need instant answers right now, which ones can keep burning slowly so that I can actually fix the bigger problem as to why these fires are coming up. And so your attention and your time is pulled so many different ways in this season of growth because you're figuring out something new. You might be 80% of the way there with your theory, but that doesn't mean that you don't know, you know what it's gonna look like in a practical application. And so choosing the fire to put out versus the one to keep burning is like a very real practice that has to happen in that growth season.

SPEAKER_00 11:38

Yeah, uh prioritizing, right? Prioritizing what's most important. I think some of the things that we prioritize first and foremost are existing relationships. You know, so if a client needs something, right, you're you're really jumping to fix if there's a fire to be put out. I would say that's important, right? Because you're gonna value that relationship. Uh another priority would be anything that's gonna generate revenue, right? Because you need the resources, as we've talked about. Um, so those are just two of the top ones. And then from there you just kind of filter out what you need to. But, you know, if you feel like everything is urgent, then you're frantic. And that just dominoes to your team, that dominoes to your customer experience, right? So really being able to just calmly prioritize what's most important will allow you to address those fires piece by piece.

our Why And Work Life Juggling

SPEAKER_01 12:22

Yeah. And and I think it allows you to also see like, are there repeatable fires that are happening? Like there was a season where it was like our dining tables kept getting dinged up and scratched, and we'd find out when we got to the property. And that's a really bad time to find out that your dining table has a scratch, right? Because now you go, cool, furniture marker, let's pray to God that it works, but what if it doesn't? And so if you start seeing those similar patterns, then you go, pause, there's something broken bigger in the system somewhere else. So maybe we need to make sure there's a quality control check before a piece of furniture moves onto the truck. I mean, candidly, we had scenarios where sometimes the solution's easier than you think. We had an issue in our warehouse where the lighting was so poor that the team just didn't see these things. So we upgraded our lighting and ta-da, like all of it changed overnight because we were actually able to see what we were looking at. So sometimes it's not just like, oh, massive system rewrite. Sometimes it's something as simple as brighter lights in your warehouse that can solve some of these issues.

SPEAKER_00 13:17

And I think to focus as well, right? This is something that that you teach a lot uh to our franchise owners. And I think it's just good for practical business application, but focus on your why, right? When when when it gets overwhelming, because it certainly will, particularly in a growth phase, you know, when just everything's coming at you and you just you get to the edge and you you want to throw your hands up, right? Remember what your why is and why you started this journey on purpose. Um and that'll ground you, that'll center you, help you to just kind of calm and gather yourself and then keep moving forward.

SPEAKER_01 13:47

Yeah, the why is a huge part. Um, and you the your growth season is when you're gonna be the most tested. It's when it's the most challenging every time, hands down. But if you cling to that why, you figure out your why well before you need it, um, and you hold on to that tightly in that season, it's amazing that change and that transformation. I mean, for me, transparently, in this season of who Linden Creek is, my why through and through is I I remember that moment I decided to franchise, and I remember how much I loved the beauty of my life, every aspect of it, the the work-life balance, the decision for the flexibility, the industry I was in, the team that I had. And I just thought it's so selfish to hold that to myself. But if somebody else can feel this way too, that's fulfilling to me. And so, of course, you know, we went down the franchise journey, all of those things, but allowing other people to have that same feeling that I had in that moment is through and through my why. Like I want to impact their lives in the most beautiful way, where they look back and they see this journey and they go, That was the best decision I ever made because I love who my life is today and what it looks like in the day-to-day. Um, we got an email from one of our owners this this past week, and she had an exciting success story. Somebody that she had strongly admired in the industry reached out and had complimented her work and what she was doing. And she was kind enough to share that with us. And it's those little moments that are like fuel to somebody when when it syncs with their why, when it gives them that resounding, like all of this hard work that you're doing to grow is in the right direction in the right step because you're seeing the fruition of your why. And so the other thing that I would say is like know your why, but take those moments where the why is come becoming a reality and hold them tight to your heart because you're gonna need to hold on to them in those trying times.

SPEAKER_00 15:31

Can we help the people out for a second? Sure. Um, sure. That was a great accent, whatever that was. I don't know what it was. Um you mentioned the phrase work-life balance. And I think to in today's world, uh, that's that's really played up a lot. Talk about what work-life balance actually looks like in conjunction with the sacrifice as you're growing a business. You may not have balance, right?

repare For The Season And Subscribe

SPEAKER_01 15:52

Um, I think I think balance is not a realistic word in in this um ever, to be honest. I think it is juggling. Um, and it's I think it's two things. I think when you're a business owner, work and life don't go like this. It's not one or the other. Oftentimes it's this. It's I am working while my family is there or my family is there while there is work happening. Um, it's this blended sort of scenario. But when you are growing, you have to go into it knowing there are probably sacrifices, like we talked about, you're gonna make where the business might take a bigger position of your life than your family in seasons. And and that's okay if it's for a season. It's okay if it's not forever. It's also helpful to communicate openly to your family and the ones that you care most about that, like this is a journey you're going through, but there's an end to it, that there's gonna be this moment of like, hey, mom's putting her head down. We are gonna try to accomplish X, Y, and Z. I think it's gonna take 18 months. But when we get to the other side, this is what life is gonna look like. And this is the quote unquote balance that we're gonna have and the flexibility that we're gonna have. But setting those expectations for your family as you go through that growth season is so hugely important because then they're by your side. They're not just going, wait, what happened? Why don't we have as much time? And I think in that growth season, when you do have your quality time with your family, it forces you to be more intentional with it. It's it's uh cherishing those conversations, those moments, building memories intentionally in those moments where it's almost sometimes like you pack more into those encounters than you would if they're there all the time and you're just taking it for granted.

SPEAKER_00 17:27

Yeah, that's so true.

SPEAKER_01 17:29

Yeah. So, you know, I think growth is beautiful. I've done it several times throughout this journey in my business and I have enjoyed the experience as a whole. But I think it goes, it shouldn't go without saying that it's at the cost of something else always. And so before you dive into like a heavy growth season, make sure that you're prepared for what it's gonna take. Make sure you're ready for it, you're communicating it to the people that you care about and that you love most so that you can dive in, get the job done, and get to the other side of it. If this is something that was relatable to you, that kind of helped give you a perspective as you're in your own growth journey or considering pursuing one, subscribe. We that gives us indication of what kind of information you want to hear more about. But we love having these open conversations. We love sharing a little bit about our journey and what brought us there. Um, closing thoughts, Mr. Sparks.

SPEAKER_00 18:20

This is in good space.