Latest / The 3Bz Podcast - Building Better Business / EP163 - What Actually Happens Behind the Scenes in My Business

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EP163 - What Actually Happens Behind the Scenes in My Business · The 3Bz Podcast - Building Better Business

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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
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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.
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Each week we tackle real problems, answer the questions
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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
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and clarity, then let's go. Hello and welcome back to
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another episode of The Three BS Podcast, your go to place for
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around 15 minutes of motivation, education and inspiration to
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help you build a Better Business each week.
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If we haven't met before, hi, my name is Stephanie Marshall.
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I'm the founder of ABCSUK. I'm multi award-winning boutique
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finance and systems partner and I help grown businesses who have
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outgrown their bookkeeper move from messy reactive finances to
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clear structured numbers and systems they can actually use to
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run their businesses properly. Because I really care about the
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people behind the businesses, not just the numbers.
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Now, today's episode is a little bit different.
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Because I want to take you behind the scenes of my
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business. Not the polished version.
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Not the version that looks neat and tidy from the outside.
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The actual version. Because one of the biggest
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problems in business is comparing your reality to what
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you think someone else's looks like from the outside.
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A business like mine might look organised, calm, structured,
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like everything is under control.
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And to an extent yes, but not because it's perfect, because
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it's intentional. And I think this is the biggest
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misconception. People assume that some business
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owners are just naturally organised, naturally productive,
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naturally good at managing things, and I'm not.
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What you're seeing is built. It is definitely not natural.
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For example, I recorded 8 episodes of the podcast this
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morning and the mic didn't work for any of them.
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So we're re recording, we're taking two and this is just a
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way of me showing you one example of things.
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Don't always go to plan, but what you will see is every
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episode go out every Thursday as normal behind the scenes.
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I do not rely on memory, I do not rely on motivation and I
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definitely don't rely on I'll remember to do that later
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because I know that doesn't work.
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I've made the mistakes, I've learned the hard way.
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So instead I build things so I don't have to think about them
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constantly. I like to remove that mental
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load. If something happens more than
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once in my business, it gets turned into a process, even if
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it's simple, because repeating something without the system
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just creates friction every time.
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If you've listened to the podcast before, you've heard me
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talk about sticky bits. The sticky bits in business is
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something that doesn't run as smoothly as I would like it to.
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Something that requires a bit of extra input that that takes
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time, that drags me down. If there is a sticking point, I
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will find a way to smooth that out because there's something
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people don't realize as business owners.
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When you don't have a way of doing things, you don't have a
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procedure or a system in place, every single task requires
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thought and that thought takes energy so that by the end of the
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day, you're not just tired from doing the work, you're tired
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from thinking about how to do the work.
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That mental load adds up and is why many business owners
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experience burnout. From the outside, it might look
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like I'm busy. There's always something
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happening, clients, content, podcasts, events.
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But behind the scenes, I'm very intentional about what I say yes
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to. But that wasn't always the case.
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At the beginning, I listened to all the gurus on the Internet
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and social media that said I should say yes to every
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opportunity because you never know where it's going to lead.
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And I get that, I do. But I did say yes to everything,
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every opportunity, every client and every idea because that felt
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like growth. I felt like what you had to do
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to build a business. But what that actually creates
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is noise. Noise makes it harder to focus,
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to prioritize, and to make good decisions because everything
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feels really important. And because everything feels
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important, nothing is clear. There's no priorities.
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I had to move from saying yes to everything and figuring it out
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to asking myself, does this actually make sense for the
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business? Because that's a really
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different way of thinking. When an opportunity now comes my
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way, I think, does this move the business closer to my goals?
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If the answer's no, is it something I really want to do
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and it's worth my time or it's worth the investment?
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Again, if the answer's no, the answer is no.
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There are opportunities that look good.
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They look like they're going to bring in more sales, they're
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going to give you more visibility, they're going to
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give you more growth. But behind the scenes to those
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opportunities, I am always asking, does this fit how I want
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the business to run? If somebody wants me to come on
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a doom call or a webinar in an evening, I have children to
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raise and that's more important to me.
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Does this create more complexity?
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Is this going to make things that already exist in my
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business more difficult? And does this align with what
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I'm building? Is this what I want it to grow
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into? Because not every opportunity is
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a good opportunity. There has been many times that I
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have been and done filming and I've been on podcasts and done
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lots of recording for big companies.
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I've done some incredible work with the companies that never,
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ever will see the light of day. I did 2 television recordings in
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2025. I'm not sure we'll ever make it
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to the TVI have said yes to go into speaking at stages, spent
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money on hotels only for it to be an absolute flop.
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I've been told to attend certain awards because we went nudge,
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nudge, you know, you need to be there, you need to be in the
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room and it went, I didn't get any benefit from it.
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Now I'm not saying you have to win every award you go to, but
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don't tell people you know, don't make out like they have
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won something so they have to be in the room.
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I've spent thousands of pounds on tickets to awards that
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actually were a complete waste of my time.
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I got nothing back from. I did not make any networking
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contacts. I did not grow the business in
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any way from attending those events.
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From the outside, I know decisions of mine can look quick
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too, like she just knows what she's doing.
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She's just head down and doing it.
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But that's because you only see things when I am ready to
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release them. I work with quite a few music
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clients. I for those that don't know, I'm
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very passionate about two things outside of business, motorsport
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and music. I work with a few musicians and
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a few artists and the process of releasing an album, 95% of that
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is done behind closed doors. There is the songwriting or the
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buying of songs for the album. For every 14 track album,
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there's probably 20 to 30 songs in the running for that album.
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Then once they've decided on the songs, they need to look at what
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direction they want to go in. Is there a particular way that
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they want it to sound? Some like particular themes, So
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all are sad songs or all are uplifting songs or they are
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country vibes or R&B vibes? Like what do you, what does the
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artist want that to be? Once that's decided and the
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songs are then decided, you've then got what running order they
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go in. How does it flow lyrically,
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sonically? Does it play through correctly?
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Then you've got to decide the album name, the track list, the
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visuals, the what does the album cover going to look like, What
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is the different versions? Are we going to have vinyl?
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Are we going to have cassettes? What merch are going to go
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alongside this? Then there is the marketing arm
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of it. By the time you get to hearing
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that an artist you like is about to release an album, there's
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about a year's worth of work gone into that before you see
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the light of day of it. Behind the scenes decisions are
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considered in my business too. They're not slow, but they're
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not reactive either. They're something that takes
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time and planning behind the scenes before I'm willing to put
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it out to the world. And what that looks like in my
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business is before I make a decision, I'm thinking, what is
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the impact of this? Does this create more work or
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less? Does this simplify things or
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complicate them? Because quick decisions are
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easy, off the cuff decisions are easy.
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Good decisions often take a little bit more thought.
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I want you to just pause for a second.
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Think about the last few decisions you made in your
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business. Were they reactive, off the
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cuff, done quickly, or were they considered?
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Did you put thought into them? Because if it's the latter, that
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changes the way your business grows.
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I often joke that my business is a swan because on the top it
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looks graceful and serene and calm and running like clockwork,
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and underneath sometimes my legs are kicking like there is no
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tomorrow. From the outside, a business can
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look calm, like everything just works and it's smooth and nice
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and wonderful. But calm doesn't happen by
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accident. It's maintained and it's looked
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after what people don't see Behind the scenes, there are
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constant small adjustments and little tweaks, whether that's
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processes, reviewing what's working and changing what isn't.
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It's not dramatic, but it's consistent.
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It's something that has to happen all the time in order to
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grow and scale a business because without those small
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adjustments, things start to slip and then suddenly
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everything feels really hard. You don't need to overhaul your
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entire website in one go. You need to make a small tweet
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to the homepage or a small tweet to the services page and step by
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step you build it. One of the biggest ones is that
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from the outside, it can look like business owners are doing
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everything. One of the biggest questions I
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get asked is Stephanie, how do you do it all?
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How do you raise two children, run a household, run a practice,
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do a podcast, write books, teach financial education?
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Children run a community for business owners, attend all of
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these networking events, be in all the good spaces, do all the
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content and the creation and the media on your own.
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And that's because the ones who build sustainable businesses
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know what actually matters and more importantly, what doesn't
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and get to say no. I have a personal role with
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decision making behind the scenes.
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I am constantly asking what will actually move this business
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forward. If it doesn't, it's either
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simplified, delegated, or removed because doing everything
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is not the goal here. And when I say delegated, I mean
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automated so that the computer sends the e-mail.
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The repetitive tasks are done without me.
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AI helps me. I delegate things to software,
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tools and technology to help me. I don't have a human to delegate
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to, but if you do have a team, you can do that.
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If something's too complex, then how can we make this easier?
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I've said before and people don't believe me when I say I'm
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a as a bookkeeper, an accountant.
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If you need to write your invoice out on pen and paper, go
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for it, because sometimes you just need it to be simple.
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You don't need 17 different software as a quoting software,
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proposal software, a tool for pricing, to send an invoice and
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sometimes things just have to be removed.
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What no longer serves you? We've had a real big transition
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at ABCSUK where we've repositioned and we are now
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showing our value and demonstrating it better for what
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we actually do. And in order to do that, we had
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to say goodbye to some clients that no longer fit, saying no to
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something or letting something go.
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I've provided services that are not profitable.
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I have built software for people charged what I believed was a
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fair fee and then they kept moving the goal posts and wanted
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Scout Creek and wanted more support for this and could they
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do this? But they've already paid what
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was agreed and having the boundaries in place to say no,
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sorry. It's quite difficult when you're
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growing and building a business, but it's important to learn to
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say no or remove the things that no longer serve you.
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It's your business. It's OK to change your mind.
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Now, I want to warn you about the danger of just getting it
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done because a lot of business owners say, oh, I'll just get it
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done. And that works in the short
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term, but long term, that's going to create inefficiency,
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which is going to cost you time and money.
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It creates inconsistency, which makes everything harder than it
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needs to be, and then it creates exhaustion.
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Another big one I get all the time is that, well, you don't
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have any problems. You don't have any challenges.
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From the outside, it can look like some businesses don't have
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problems. They do.
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Every business does. Every business at some point has
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a challenge to overcome. The difference is that some
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problems are managed early and some are ignored until they
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become bigger behind the scenes. I deal with things early because
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small problems are much more easy to manage than when they
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snowball. Big problems are usually
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expensive. If you think about your business
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right now, what are you currently avoiding doing?
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Because I know there's something.
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What are you currently delaying? I'll do that later.
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I'll fix it later, it'll be fine.
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And what are you currently hoping will fix itself?
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Because the answer to those questions is usually where your
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pressure is building and that's the thing you need to tackle for
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the real behind the scenes. Truth is that behind every
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business that looks calm, structured and in control is not
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perfection. And I can guarantee you that.
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It's decision making confidently and with clarity.
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It's intention of the things that are being done in the
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business are for the business to reach its goals, not for any
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other reason. And it's consistency repeated
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over time. This is also about how you see
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yourself as a business owner. I get it.
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But the minute you change your mindset from I'm trying to run a
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business to I run this business properly, it's a big mental
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shift. But the results that come from
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that are huge. I am ACEO of my business.
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I run my business. I'm not trying to run a
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business. The business is not running me.
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I run this business and I will build it into something better,
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something bigger, something scalable.
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You don't need to become someone completely different.
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I'm not asking you to change who you are overnight, but you do
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need to think differently about how your business runs because
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what you see on the outside is built behind the scenes.
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As always, before we finish, I want to give you one thing to do
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this week. This week, I want you to simply
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notice what you're relying on your memory for.
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Make a note of it. Every time you think I remember
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that, write it down. Turn it into a simple system,
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even if it's basic, if it's notes in your phone.
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Because the less your business relies on your brain, the easier
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it becomes to run and the mental load is going to reduce, which
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is going to reduce your stress and make you a Better Business
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owner. And by this time next week,
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you'll already start to feel that shift.
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So if you've been looking at other businesses and thinking
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they've got it all together, if you've been looking at mine and
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thinking, God, how does she do it all?
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Just remember, you're only seeing the outside.
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I will be open and transparent on this podcast always.
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But what matters is what's going on behind the scenes.
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If you found this episode useful, please do like, rate and
15:41
review. Subscribe if you're on YouTube
15:43
or Spotify. It takes you a couple of
15:46
seconds, but it really does help more business owners find the
15:49
podcast so we can all build better businesses.
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And if you want support building a business actually feels
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structured, clear and in control behind the scenes, that's
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exactly what we do at ABCSUK. The link is in the show notes if
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you'd like to put 15 minutes in my diary to see how we can help
16:05
you 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.
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And that brings us to the end of another episode of the Three BS
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podcast. If this has helped you think
16:19
differently about your business, then it's done its job.
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Make sure you're following or subscribe so you don't miss the
16:25
next episode. And if you found it useful,
16:27
please do leave a review. It helps more business owners
16:30
find this and start running the businesses properly.
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If you want more insights behind the scenes and the reality of
16:36
what it actually it takes to build a Better Business, come
16:39
and connect with me on social media.
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And if you're ready to stop guessing and start running your
16:43
business with clarity, structure, and confidence, your
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next step is just to click away because your business deserves
16:49
better. I'll see you in the next
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episode.