Latest / The 3Bz Podcast - Building Better Business / EP159 - The Messy Middle of Business (And Why It Feels So Hard)

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EP159 - The Messy Middle of Business (And Why It Feels So Hard) · The 3Bz Podcast - Building Better Business

• 0:01
  Hello and welcome to the Three BS Podcast where we go beyond
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  the numbers and get into what actually makes a business work.
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  I'm your host Stephanie Marshall, founder of ABCSUKA,
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  Multi award-winning boutique finance and systems partner.
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  I help business owners who've outgrown the basics bring
• 0:18
  clarity, structure and proper systems into their business so
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  things finally feel in control. If you want more clarity, more
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  confidence, and a business that doesn't feel like constant
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  chaos, you're in the right place.
• 0:31
  Each week we tackle real problems, answer the questions
• 0:33
  you're probably already thinking, and give you practical
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  steps you can actually use in around 15 minutes.
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  So if you're ready to build a Better Business with confidence
• 0:42
  and clarity, then let's go. Hello and welcome back to
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  another episode of the Three Bees podcast.
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  You'll go to place for around 15 minutes of motivation, education
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  and inspiration to help you build a Better Business each
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  week. If we haven't met before, my
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  name is Stephanie Marshall. I am the founder of ABCSUKA,
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  Multi award-winning boutique finance and systems partner, and
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  I help growing businesses who have outgrown their bookkeeper
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  move from messy reactive finances to clear, structured
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  numbers and systems they can actually use to run their
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  businesses properly. Because I truly care about the
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  people behind the business, not just the numbers.
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  Now, today's episode is for a very specific stage of business.
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  And if this is you, you'll know it quite quickly.
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  Because when people talk about business, they tend to talk
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  about two stages. The beginning or the success
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  stage, starting out or scaling up.
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  But there's this middle stage that sits in between those two.
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  And it's a stage most business owners spend the longest in.
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  I like to call it the messy middle.
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  This is the stage where you're not new anymore.
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  You've got clients, you've got money coming in, and people know
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  what you do. From the outside, it looks like
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  it's working, and in many ways it is.
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  But behind the scenes, it doesn't feel as smooth as it
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  looks. The messy middle feels like
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  being busy all the time and constantly having things to do,
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  feeling like you're always playing catch up and not quite
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  feeling in control. But it's not quite chaos and
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  it's not calm either. It's somewhere in between.
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  This messy middle part is where a lot of business owners start
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  thinking, I thought it would feel easier by now.
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  I thought I'd feel more in control or I thought I'd have it
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  more together. And that creates frustration
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  because on paper things really are working, but internally it
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  just doesn't feel like it. This stage is quite confusing
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  because nothing is obviously broken in your business.
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  You're not failing by any means, you're not struggling to get
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  clients, you're not at 0. But things feel harder than they
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  should and that's the part that people don't expect.
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  We're not told this. As business owners.
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  The root of the problem is this. What's actually happening is
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  your business has grown, but the way you're running it hasn't
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  caught up yet. You're still operating like you
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  did at the beginning, you know, winging it, but the business is
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  no longer at the beginning. And that gap is what creates
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  that mess. Let's say you started your
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  service based business with three to five clients.
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  You could keep everything in your head, respond quickly,
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  manage things as they came in, and that works.
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  But Fast forward to when you've got 1520, maybe even more
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  clients, and you're still trying to run things the same way.
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  That's where the pressure builds.
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  If you want to know what the messy middle looks like
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  day-to-day, it often looks like this.
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  Emails everywhere. I am one of those people who
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  does not like to have a notification.
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  I hate the number on your phone. I hate the little red dot next
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  to your Outlook symbol that tells you've got an unread
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  e-mail. The messy middle often knocks,
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  like lots of unread emails or lots of emails that you've read
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  and flagged to deal with later tasks in different places.
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  Maybe you have some things written down in the notes on
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  your phone somewhere in a CRM system you've tried to use
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  Notion to make things easier, or Trello things being remembered
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  rather than tracked. That's a real big one, having to
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  try and remember all the little individual nuances of all of
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  your clients or customers and decisions being made quickly
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  without full visibility. None of it will feel wrong
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  necessarily, it just feels heavy.
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  Just feels like a lot. 1 of the biggest symptoms of that messy
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  middle is time. You're busy but not always
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  productive. I talk about it a lot on the
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  podcast. Go back to the last few episodes
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  of series three I was talking a lot about.
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  Busy does not always mean profitable.
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  Maybe you're working a lot but not always moving forward.
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  That creates that constant feeling of I'm doing a lot, but
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  I don't feel ahead. Like how much more can I do?
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  I don't feel like I'm getting anywhere.
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  Maybe you feel like you're treading water.
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  Now let's talk about the financial side of this.
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  Not in a numbers deep dive kind of way.
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  Bear with me in a reality way, because in that messy middle you
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  have money coming in, but the clarity isn't always there.
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  Decisions are often made quickly using the wrong data, if any
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  data at all, and there's not always a clearview of what's
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  actually happening in your business.
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  So what happens is you end up saying things like, I think I'm
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  doing OK, which as we talked about before, is not the same as
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  knowing there's a part of this that nobody talks about and I'm
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  probably going to be one of the 1st and that's OK.
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  This messy middle stage carries a lot of emotional weight too,
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  because not only are you responsible for your income,
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  sometimes your household's income too.
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  You're responsible for your clients and responsible for all
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  of the decisions or most of the decisions in your business.
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  And even when things are going really well, that responsibility
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  does not go away. It sits there.
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  That emotional weight is always there in the back of your mind.
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  If you're feeling like this is you and I'm talking to you as a
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  business owner, please know you're not alone.
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  I right now I'm in the messy middle too.
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  Coming up to five years of ABCSUKI am fully in the messy
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  middle, feeling all of the feelings, all of the weight.
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  So if you need someone to talk to, the link is in the show
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  notes to book, 15 minutes out of my diary, just so you feel a
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  little less alone. And together, maybe we can make
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  the first step to getting out of this messy middle and getting
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  into that scaling up category, which I presume you want to do
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  by watching or listening to this podcast.
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  Now here's the important part. There's a trap that people fall
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  into in the messy middle. So when things feel messy, most
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  people try to fix it by doing more.
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  More work, more hours, more clients.
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  I'm definitely guilty of that one because doing something
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  feels like you're making progress, but what it's not
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  doing is solving the problem. The issue isn't and wasn't ever
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  not enough effort, it is how the business is being run.
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  You don't need more activity, you need more clarity, more
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  structure and more intention. Think about this.
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  If your day already feels full, if your diary is already packed
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  out with meetings, adding more to it doesn't fix that, it just
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  makes it even more full. But if you improve how your day
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  is structured, everything starts to feel different.
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  Now the good news is you don't stay in a stage forever, but you
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  do have to move out of it intentionally.
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  This is not something that you will fall into and grow through.
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  I sometimes call the messy middle growing pains and the
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  shift is this. You need to go from reactive to
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  intentional. And like I say, I'm doing this
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  right alongside you right now. No more firefighting.
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  Everything is done with intention.
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  You also need to shift from doing everything to doing only
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  what matters. And that's learning to say no to
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  things that no longer align with where you want your business to
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  be. And you need to go from guessing
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  to understanding financially, operationally, across the whole
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  of your business. Because moving out of the messy
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  middle looks like putting systems in place, even the
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  simple ones. Getting clarity on your numbers,
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  making more considered decisions, setting boundaries
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  around your time. And these are not huge dramatic
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  changes, but they are consistent ones.
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  And these little small changes really do add up and start to
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  snowball. And we just pause for a second
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  and ask yourself right now, does your business feel calm or
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  constantly slightly behind? Because that answer will tell
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  you exactly where you are and if I'm being transparent, I feel
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  like I'm in the constantly slightly behind.
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  I know things need to change and I'm starting to implement those
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  changes right now. If you're also in this stage, I
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  want you to hear this clearly. This is normal.
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  It's not you failing. This is growing pains and it's a
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  sign of growth. But this is not a stage that you
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  stay in or will want to stay in because the longer you are in
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  there, the more exhausting it becomes.
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  The messy middle is where your business starts asking more from
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  you and not more work. It's asking for better
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  decisions. It's asking for support and
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  structure. Before we finish, I want to give
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  you one thing to do like I do every week on the Three BS
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  podcast. This week I want you to identify
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  1 area of your business that feels unnecessarily complicated.
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  Just one It might be how you manage your tasks right now, how
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  you communicate with clients and how they communicate with you.
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  How you organize your workload and ask yourself, how could this
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  be simpler? Not perfect, simpler.
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  Because simplicity is what moves you out of the messy middle.
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  And by this time next week, that one change will already start to
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  make things feel lighter in your business.
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  If you want to know which one mine is, drop me Adm on social
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  media and tell me what yours is, and I'll let you know what I'm
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  going to do this week too. So if your business feels a
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  little messy right now, a little bit reactive, you feel like
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  you're constantly firefighting, maybe it's heavier than it
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  should feel. You're probably in the messy
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  middle, and that's OK. But the goal right now isn't to
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  do more of anything. It's to run your business
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  differently, with more clarity, more structure, more intention,
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  because your business deserves better than constant chaos and
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  firefighting. If you find this episode useful,
• 10:46
  please do like, rate and review. Subscribe if you're watching on
• 10:48
  YouTube or Spotify. It really helps more business
• 10:52
  owners find the podcast so we can all build better businesses.
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  And if you're listening to this episode or watching it and can
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  think of a fellow business owner that this relates to, you
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  probably need to know that they're in the messy middle.
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  And this is not forever. Send it to them.
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  And if you want support moving out of that messy middle and
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  into something that feels more structured alongside me, you
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  want it more clear and more in control, That's exactly what we
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  do at ABCSUK. The link is in the show notes,
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  the book, 15 minutes in my diary to see how ABCSUK can help you
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  because your business deserves better.
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  Thank you so much for listening and I will see you next week for
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  the next episode. Bye and that brings us to the
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  end of another episode of a three BS podcast.
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  If this has helped you think differently about your business,
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  then it's done its job. Make sure you're following or
• 11:39
  subscribe so you don't miss the next episode.
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  And if you found it useful, please do leave a review.
• 11:44
  It helps more business owners find this and start running
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  their businesses properly. If you want more insights behind
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  the scenes and the reality of what it actually takes to build
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  a Better Business, come and connect with me on social media.
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  And if you're ready to stop guessing and start running your
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  business with clarity, structure and conference, your next step
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  is just to click away because your business deserves better.
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  I'll see you in the next episode.