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Getting Your Back Office Tight with Dee Taylor-Jolley · The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson

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  3, 10, 1, 0, ignition, liftoff,
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  Ending small business failure.
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  Welcome to the Small Biz Chat podcast with a number 1 small business expert Melinda Emerson.
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  Bolinda's goal is to end small business failure, and she'll give you the information
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  you need to succeed and live the life you've dream of.
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  Now here's the small biz lady herself.
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  Melinda Emerson.
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  Hi, everybody.
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  I'm Melinda Emerson.
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  Small biz lady.
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  America's number one small business expert, and I would like to welcome you to the small
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  business chat podcast live.
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  Now small business chat is a peer to peer interview show that gives small business owners
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  a way to get invaluable business advice The mission of small biz chat is to end small
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  business failure.
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  So with that, let me introduce my very first guest Her name is Dee Taylor Jolly, and she is
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  known as the back office boss.
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  Yes.
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  Miss Dee has operated a successful business with her husband.
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  Doctor.
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  Willie Johnny for over 30 years, and she serves as a consultant to small business owners in the
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  professional service sector who need to build their back office structure to support their
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  businesses.
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  She developed systems which help businesses grow and protect their profits.
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  She provides everything from developing SOPs to guidelines, forms, checklists, anything to help
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  the business run more efficiently.
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  Some of our clients include small business owners, government agencies, non profits as
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  well as churches.
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  Miss D Jolly, how are you?
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  Welcome to small business chat.
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  Thank you so much for having me.
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  I'm so excited to be with all of you smart people.
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  Alright.
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  So so how did you get this title?
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  The back off is balls.
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  Tell tell me what what how did how did you get your chops to get that title?
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  It was given to me.
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  And I don't remember which individual, but just over time because I always ended up saying,
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  well, This is how you can do this.
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  No.
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  Here's a list.
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  So I started volunteering when people would ask me, how are you organized?
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  How did you set up this system?
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  And I was like, okay.
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  I have a checklist.
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  Let me give this to you.
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  Then if they're questions, I would answer their questions.
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  So that's how I started being called the boss.
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  And it's I am not the headliner.
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  I do all that on the backside of the business behind the stage, underneath the stage, or
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  whatever.
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  The term back office boss came into existence.
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  Love it.
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  Love it.
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  Now you're really as a teacher.
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  Right?
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  You you were a teacher for a long time in your career.
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  How did that help you sort of, like, build some of these systems that you have to help business
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  owners be successful?
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  Being a teacher taught me patience, number 1, it taught me that I had to learn to work with
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  everybody, which meant I learned to be fit and adaptable.
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  Which kind of plays into what Brett was saying about this emotional intelligence bit.
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  I think initially it's simply a matter of deciding that you can work with any and
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  everybody.
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  And once you make that decision, you can incorporate your more willing So I was a
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  teacher, then I wanted to work with adults, and I went into adult education and became a
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  training director.
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  That's major in an industry of construction with all men.
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  That requires being fit and adaptable.
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  I love it.
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  I love it.
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  Oh, so So I don't see that.
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  The whole do I work with millennials?
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  Do I work I like the idea of embracing everybody because each generation brings
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  something special that I didn't know.
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  In our environment, we have lots of interns.
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  We had 5 until March 6th when we shut it all down.
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  How they think?
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  The creative ideas.
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  It's so very helpful.
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  Okay.
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  So let's talk about back office structure I'm not sure everyone knows what we're talking
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  about when we say that.
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  Can you tell us sort of like, what is all encompassing in that?
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  Okay.
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  So the creative people, of which I am not, person who owns a business, they're a
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  consultant.
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  There are these things, and they have their specialty in HR and technology.
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  But if you have that business, there's some fundamentals that I'm going to go on
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  regardless.
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  Of your up front program.
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  Now what does that mean?
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  Well, for example, you have a banker, or you should have a banker.
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  What kind of banker should you have?
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  Should it be a credit union, which is members, or should it be a regular big bank or a small
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  bank?
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  Well, what goes in today?
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  How do you make that decision?
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  Who is going to work with you and your personality and kind of business that you have?
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  Are they gonna give you a line of credit?
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  So you have to shop for that just like you do everything else.
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  Issue brokers, insurance brokers.
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  Absolutely necessary.
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  That's a back office piece of specialty.
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  That's not somebody that you that you keep on staff.
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  But if you're offering health insurance, if you have errors and omissions insurance and you've
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  got liability insurance, You don't know all of that.
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  So you outsource that because the brokers are getting paid by all of those insurance
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  companies, and they're bringing the broker is bringing to you Here's what fits your profile.
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  CPA specialist.
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  Absolutely.
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  You send you what?
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  Because you can mess up because you think that you can do your taxes.
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  You think you can reconcile everything on your own doesn't work that way.
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  I learned that the hard way.
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  And oftentimes, the cheapest is not the best because you then have to come back and have it
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  done again correctly.
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  So you pay twice.
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  So, really, we sort of like all of the sort of operations and administrative function of a
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  business whether it's finance, whether it's marketing, whether it's like hiring onboarding,
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  accounting, you know, even even technology, like your IT support people.
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  You might not have a full time person, but you need No.
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  Some of that.
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  Right?
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  The primary business person or the small business person might have the technology skill
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  and might be the marketing person.
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  But they might not have.
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  I don't know how to handle payroll, so you outsource that.
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  I don't know how to put together SOP, so I'll outsource that.
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  So certainly as small business people, we need to be as lean and as lean as possible.
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  So you need to identify what your strengths are.
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  And then where you need support, then you can pull that in.
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  And I think in some instances with some people that I deal with, part of the issue is you're
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  too embarrassed or too prideful to admit that you need help.
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  Help like I got my first subcontract, and that's a someone I'm dealing with right now,
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  who said, do I pay myself?
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  And I said, oh, are you do you wanna be a w 2, or do you wanna be a 1099?
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  Now what goes into that?
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  But at least He had the courage to say I need help in walking this through because I got the
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  money.
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  At least it was in a separate business account.
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  From his personal account, but now I need help and how to work this out.
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  And how do I pay taxes on Do I have to pay quarterly taxes?
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  Maybe there's a way I can get.
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  So those are the kinds of questions and situations that present themselves when you're
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  talking about back office small business.
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  Because we're dealing with creative people.
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  We're dealing with people who are driven, who have a vision, but they still have to have some
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  foundation support to take them across the finish line and make sure that when they get
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  across that finish line that the IRS is not there with their handout asking for their
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  portion.
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  Alright.
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  Alright.
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  I get it.
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  So now how do I determine who I need to be?
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  You said you need to make a, you know, sort of like understand what your strengths and
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  weaknesses are.
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  So are you suggesting that, like, just getting an assistant isn't enough?
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  Like, I I need I need multiple players here.
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  Is that what you're saying?
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  You need to know where you're weak as well as where you're strong.
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  So just to say you're getting an assistant is a major mistake.
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  What do
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  you need an assistant for?
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  Do you need an assistant because you don't know how to do marketing?
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  That's one thing.
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  Do you need an assistant who handles your schedule because you're so busy and I miss
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  calls.
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  I miss the meetings.
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  That's another.
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  Sometimes you it can be a combination.
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  So I think the most critical thing that one can do is to make the difficult analysis.
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  Of what your own limitations are.
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  Once you do that, you can make the decision as to who the kind of person that you need to work
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  with or people.
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  Well, listen, we're gonna go to break.
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  And when we come back, we're gonna dig even more into this how to get your back office
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  tight.
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  We've got Dee Taylor Jolly here, and she's given us the low down on how to get your back
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  office right.
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  I'm Melinda Emerson's small business lady.
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  You're watching small fish at Live.
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  We'll be right back.
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  Are you tired of struggling in your business?
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  Not picking up paycheck, dreading dealing with your business in the morning?
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  Are you regretting even starting your business in the first place?
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  Well, I know you're tired.
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  I also remember what that kind of tire is like, but the good news is it's time to stop feeling
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  that way.
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  Stop.
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  I'm Melinda Emerson's small business lady, and my new book to fix your business is a ninety
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  day turnaround plan to get back your life and reduce chaos of your business.
• 10:25
  I've been in business nearly 20 years and let me teach you how to build a business that works
• 10:30
  for you.
• 10:31
  Grab a copy to death.
• 10:35
  Welcome back.
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  We're here on small fish chat live talking with Dee Taylor Jolley about your back office, how
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  to get it tight how to get the support you need.
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  Alright, Dee.
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  Let's jump back in.
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  Office assist.
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  And we've done the assessment.
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  I know I need an assistant to handle email and scheduling.
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  What do I do next if I wanna hire someone?
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  So once you've identified the kind of person that will provide you with the right support, I
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  would say go by way of referral.
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  Now you say, well, why?
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  Because there's everybody out there on the internet who can do this Personally, I would
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  not trust them because I've been down that route.
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  So I'm saying from my past experience, referrals are a best.
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  And if I can't get a referral and a referral from other small business people that I know,
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  from the Chamber of Commerce and and score is absolutely wonderful as business, former
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  business owners, retired government people who are in a position to provide you with wise
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  counsel, and they're not making money from it.
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  So if those things don't work for you, then you can go to some of the websites but then that
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  means that you really have to vet carefully because I I I just wouldn't trust them.
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  I was certainly not fund anything until the job was done to your satisfaction.
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  Alright.
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  So I know a lot of people who get their assistance and stuff from from Thailand, from
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  the Philippines, and all this kind of stuff.
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  So you're saying, uh-uh, no.
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  Don't even
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  I'm just saying that does not work for me.
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  And it also depends upon kind of assistant that you want.
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  I would not get my technology assistant from there.
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  Okay.
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  Okay.
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  Is there a language to do we have the same cultural values so that when I say a, b, and c,
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  they know exactly what that means.
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  I would just be very careful.
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  So you're not just hiring a person for an individual who is just going to do a test.
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  The personality and everything works with that too.
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  So just like Brett was saying earlier in terms of the emotional intelligence portion of how
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  you talk to someone, So if you're gonna get someone from another country, how you speak to
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  them may impact what they do and how they do it.
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  So all of those things are important.
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  I see.
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  So at what point in a business should someone think about getting some support step.
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  I mean, you know, when you're just for turning out and you kinda don't have a lot of
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  resources, you you end up being an army of 1, but it but it won't what point do you what what
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  point do you need?
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  Let's be pragmatic.
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  How can you hire somebody if you don't have any money?
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  Right.
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  Keep it real.
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  Okay.
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  So if you don't have any money and what you are making, let's say you have a budget and you
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  budgeted for year that you can operate with no money.
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  So then you have the budget to pay that person whatever by the hour or whatever.
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  But if you're struggling and saying I don't I I don't I don't have any money, what do I do if
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  you can't pay them?
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  Next best thing would be to get an intern.
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  From a university.
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  Like I said, the beginning of this year, we had 5 interns.
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  Now every semester we get in terms.
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  Now why is that?
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  Because I'm learning from them and they're learning from us.
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  We are focused in the social media and marketing base.
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  They're absolutely wonderful, but they get credit.
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  So this is free labor.
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  They're learning.
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  They wanna do well.
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  So we're Okay.
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  Okay.
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  Can do that.
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  So how much training should a business owner need to give someone who's coming on to be
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  support staff to them?
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  That's a variable.
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  My own personal experience because I am so absolutely anal, everyone who works with us,
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  here's the list Here's who we are.
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  Here's our vision statement.
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  Here's our mission statement.
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  Here are 3 top goals.
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  Here is where you fit in our picture, and this is what I want you to do.
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  And this is how you're gonna be judged on what you do.
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  Do you have a question?
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  And this kind of attitude probably comes because I was a teacher.
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  I was a trainer.
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  Yeah.
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  I worked on Capitol Hill.
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  So you have to be able to be you gotta hit it and quit it.
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  As you deal with the kind of different personalities, of course, you're pleasant.
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  But you have to be able to give the bottom line and make sure by asking questions that they get
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  Alright.
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  Well, you guys heard it here from the back office calls.
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  Okay.
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  Miss Detailing, Jolley broke it down.
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  Please head over to my blog.
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  It's succeed as your own boss.com to get more information and contact information about
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  tonight's guest.
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  And I just wanna thank you all for watching small fish chat live and being a part of our
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  success.
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  The mission of small fish chat is to end small business failure.
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  I'm Melinda Emerson, the small biz lady.
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  Until next time, remember this.
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  You never lose in business either you win or you learn.
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  God bless everybody.
• 15:56
  Thank you for listening to the Small Biz Chat podcast with Melinda Emerson.
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  For more resources and small business success strategies, visit succeed as your own boss.com.
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  Subscribe to this podcast wherever you listen to podcasts and join us next Wednesday.