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Your $1M Strategy Won't Get You to $5M · The High Ground

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Most businesses that stop growing aren't doing
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anything wrong, they're doing exactly what got
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them there. You can work harder every single
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year and still end up in the same place. A plateau
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isn't a sign that you've run out of market, it's
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a sign that you've outgrown the way that you're
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currently running your business. If your revenue
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has flatlined and you're not sure why then this
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episode is for you. Most of the people watching
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this podcast right now aren't actually subscribed.
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And we release conversations like this every
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single week. So make sure you hit that subscribe
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button down below and subscribe to the podcast.
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Why has your business stopped growing? Where
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most people I think look wrong when we get to
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this is they look at the outside. Oh, the market's
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tough. Rates are up. Customers, you know, are
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cautious. They don't want to invest, for example.
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And we see this, I think, specifically with the
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B2B companies that we work with. A lot of them
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are seasonal. And they tend to blame the seasons.
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But it shouldn't be a case of, you know, it's
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the season's fault. We're in this position. We've
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got no clients. We need to be forecasting for
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that. 100%. I mean, this is why most businesses
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work in quarters. You know, you've got quarter
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one, two, three and four. So because we do quarterly
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sprints, what we do is we strategize in the previous
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quarter or the current quarter in order for the
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plan. for the preceding quarter but you know
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when we bring on a client we would generally
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normally look at you know how their business
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is set up you know how their market works so
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if it's kind of seasonal like pools like nobody
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wants to buy a pool for instance in this in the
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winter because and even though it's still quite
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warm and because people are living right now
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they don't think about you know in six months
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time i'm going to be sweating uh outside and
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i really love a pool it's no taller than actual
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sweating outside the thing to himself we need
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to get a pool for next year yeah et cetera et
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cetera um but yeah the first thing that they
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look for the problem they look for is you know
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some market conditions and a lot of cases it's
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not the market conditions it's just because you've
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not been doing much planning And there could
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be other internal issues such as alignment could
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be off. There could be issues with the website.
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Maybe the conversions aren't working. You know,
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there's a misalignment with other parts of the
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business itself. Well, you can see that if you
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look at like ads, for instance, you know, if
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your ad isn't compelling and it's not enticing
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somebody to book up. poll for example or if you've
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got an ad that's still catered to summer time
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you know you need to be adjusting that for the
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winter time testing videos and all that sort
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of stuff as well i think blaming it on the market
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is just a comfortable answer and as you know
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while in a sense it is correct is not yeah yeah
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yeah but you shouldn't have that victim mentality
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problem is is where most business business owners
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and you know operators are are generally living
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as they are right now. I think in a lot of cases,
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you know, they're working that hard that sometimes
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they take their eye off the ball a little bit
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of what needs to actually happen and what you
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need to be doing in order to make sure X, Y and
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Z is going to, you know, you're going to achieve
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your objectives for the end of year, if you like,
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you know. So you just need to make sure that
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we're looking internally. Also, obviously. externally
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around the market and see what's happening. And
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this comes into play as well when our clients
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are working directly in the business as they're
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so focused on maybe that customer experience
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or ensuring that all the leads that are coming
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in are getting followed up and then as one thing
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starts to increase, one thing starts to slip.
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You see, that's why you need a system in place
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because the system helps deal with all those...
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fragmentations if you like and all those issues
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where and it's probably especially true as well
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for you know a single you know people are running
4:08
the business themselves and they don't have that
4:10
team to help back them up and they're trying
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to wear every hat every single day and try and
4:17
get things done if they take the time or get
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a partner like us on board if they can afford
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to do of course then that would help free up
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all those, free up their time, but also allow
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us to come in and really push forward with setting
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up the revenue system for them. Everything's
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getting governed so they know that it's going
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to happen. And then revenue and everything else
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starts to become more predictable. I think even
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as we start to get into like, so if you're, for
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example, if you are a seasonal company, it's
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very easy just to assume that you just need more
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leads. It's very... It's the default response
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that we see, right? You know, when that revenue
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starts to flatline, it's, oh my God, I need leads.
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You need to get me more leads. And it's not necessarily
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that you need more leads because your ad spend
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goes up. You know, the outbound might get pushed
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harder. And while the volume increases, it's
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not the leads. You know, if I could be generating
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you 400 leads, for example, and if you're only
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converting 10 % of those. then there's a problem
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there. So, you know, we need to look at your
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sales process. We need to look at how your follow
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-up process looks like. Your website, for example,
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if your ad's getting clicks and, you know, impressions
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and, you know, people are coming through but
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nobody's actually contacting you, then there's
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a problem there. Absolutely. And the thing is,
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pouring more leads into that kind of model is
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just going to make things even worse because
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you're going to end up losing even more money
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in that kind of leaky bucket scenario. And that's
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one of the things that... we do as well you know
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as we we look at what's happening if you're if
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you're getting like two thousand visit or two
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thousand clicks on your ad in the space of 14
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days and you've only had one one person reach
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out that means there's a problem between the
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ad and the website and certainly the conversion
6:08
rate optimization It needs to probably be brought
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in fresh and to fix whatever the problem is.
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So there's so much science around, you know,
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business growth and things like that, that a
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lot of people take for granted that, you know,
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all we need to do is just put up some ads and
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then we're good to go. That's not how it works
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anymore. And I know that AI is a good component,
6:30
I suppose, now to get involved to help optimise
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ads, but I don't think AI is always going to
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be the answer. And this... particular scenario
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because there'll be things that ai doesn't quite
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know for instance i may not know about the culture
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of wherever your business is you know scotland's
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culture is different from queensland or australia's
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culture the way that you talk it could also be
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that the whole seasonal thing so they might not
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know that um i mean you could probably prompt
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engineer this uh so that ai can learn that, you
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know, this is what's happening in this industry
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throughout a year and teach it. And then you'll
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probably get a bag of better answers and it will
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maybe even help optimise and add to that a bit
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better. But it's not always going to be the answer.
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This is why you need the experts in place just
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to make sure that things are being done properly
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end to end. And it's why you need a governed
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revenue system. If you just add those more leads,
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it's just more expensive. of the same problem
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and you do just end up with that problem and
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you know it's usually not a volume problem it's
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a process problem and that's what a revenue system
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you know having those systems in place to to
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ensure that you know when you're going into this
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period of slowness and you know where you're
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not front of mind that you can still you know
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you're still booked out you're still got money
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coming in and you're not in a place where you're
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like crap I can't even afford to to live so obviously
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what you don't want to be doing is you don't
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want to be working harder at the thing that's
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not working you need to try and find out what
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is actually working you know and this is why
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you need to be testing and measuring and why
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conversion rate optimization even exists you
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need to be looking and understanding the data
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if you don't understand the data you need to
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learn I look at YouTube videos, learn from other
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people, read the documentation. A lot of people
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just disregard it nowadays and think AI will
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just do everything for them. And it can, right?
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We spoke about this in the last episode with
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your critical thinking skills. You need to be
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the brains. You need to be the one that's pushing
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that forward, not just relying on AI. Anyways,
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if you want to watch that, go watch last week's
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episode. Totally. But my point being is, you
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know, you need to focus on the right things at
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the right time in order to grow. And, you know,
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trying to drive more leads and getting all frustrated
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isn't going to do that. And again, if it does
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come down to that as a seasonality thing, then
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obviously you should have been planning for that
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six months ago. Six months, probably. That's
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probably where you want to be. Because we're
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now quarter one, but we're now already thinking
9:13
about quarter three. and which is the height
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of the summer here for one of your clients so
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always be working on the things that is working
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if you don't know what's going what's working
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or what's going wrong you need to take a step
9:26
back get some experts involved ask ai if it's
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there if it's providing data if you've got dashboards
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to access you understand how to understand the
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data Use as much information as you possibly
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can to make those data -driven decisions. And
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when you're thinking about, like, stop doing
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the things that don't work, what's going to get
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you from 1 million to 3 million might not get
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you from 3 million to 5 million. So, you know,
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you constantly need to be ensuring that your
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strategy is aligned with your goals and where
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you're going. If you're still doing what's got
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you to 3 million, you will see that your growth
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will start to... To flatten. That's right. But
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you need to also remember that you need to be
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realistic with your budget and your investment.
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Again, what gets you to one million won't get
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you to three million in most cases. And when
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you get to three million, you probably need to
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adjust your strategy. You're getting bigger.
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You're starting to scale. Excuse me. And your
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investment needs to grow with your revenue. Yes,
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that's a big one. We tend to... tell our clients
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that you need to be investing between 10 between
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10 and 12 percent of your annual revenue if you're
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not then you're under investing and all you're
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doing is you're just um you're preventing your
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own growth your own business growth by not properly
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investing and the more you the more you invest
10:48
the more outcomes that you achieve and the bigger
10:51
you're or faster your business will scale so
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what's actually going on we have mentioned a
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little bit of you know what you can be doing,
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what's actually going on. But one of the things
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is that you've actually outgrown the way you
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sell. You know, when you're in the early years
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of business, it's the founder that sells everything.
11:08
You know, the founder knows what to do. They've
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started the business. They know the processes.
11:13
And the problem, the bottleneck there becomes
11:16
the founder because the founder is the only one
11:18
that can close those deals. Well, that's because
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the founder is generally the person that knows
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exactly what product to service is, who it's...
11:27
built for who's who's providing it for and the
11:31
outcomes that they can generally achieve so normally
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i mean i'm the same i mean when when i go on
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a sales call it's usually 99 .999 over the line
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and it's just because i understand what the problems
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are again going back to you know you've kind
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of outgrown the way that you sell when it's just
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that one person and that ceo again like your
11:51
budget you'll eventually stall your own growth
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because everything needs to come through you
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What you need to do then is you need to start
12:00
building your team, get some experts in place.
12:04
In fact, what Jim Rohn says is what you should
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be doing is you should be getting experts in
12:09
the field within that particular industry that
12:12
are better than you. Get people in that are better
12:15
than you and let them handle that stuff. And
12:17
then you'll start to see your business grow again.
12:20
Because you've got to remember, scaling a business
12:22
and growing a business is... is all exciting
12:24
and you know there's more money coming in but
12:26
that also means that there's more investment
12:28
needed there's more cost there's more overhead
12:30
in terms of needing to build a team and it can
12:34
become pretty stressful but you need to keep
12:36
the things in mind yeah and a lot of the you
12:39
know successful businessmen business women that
12:41
we follow and that a lot of people look up to
12:44
like for example Alex Hormozy or Leila Hormozy
12:47
they always speak about hire that a player talent
12:51
because it'll be cheaper than hiring two c player
12:55
talents and it's not just a case that it'll be
12:58
actually physically cheaper money wise it's that
13:01
that a player is always looking for the next
13:04
thing they're innovative they're proactive they're
13:07
you know they're they want to be better they
13:10
have the need to be better it's not just a case
13:12
of okay i'll rock up and get my money for the
13:15
month and then that's me done And then I'll see
13:17
you. They're looking for ways to help you grow
13:19
your business. That's right. That's why sometimes
13:22
it's good to get partners in where they're completely
13:24
focused on your business. I mean, the outcomes
13:27
that we get for our clients is phenomenal. And
13:30
it's because we care and we're passionate about
13:32
what we can deliver. I've not seen in the whole
13:35
24 years that I've been in business, I've never
13:39
seen such. returns as we get for our customers
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and i know that people will be thinking i have
13:45
heard that before listen most most businesses
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are looking for like a 20 increase each year
13:51
which is a good increase for most businesses
13:53
you know when we bring on our customers and generally
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they don't have leaving the foundations in place
13:59
to scale and run the business, even though they're
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doing maybe 1, 1 .5 million for some of the trade
14:06
businesses anyway. And we're taking them to 3
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million within 12 months. So we're doubling or
14:11
sometimes tripling revenue in that time. And
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I just don't see that. And it's just because
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we, apart from the fact we know what we're doing,
14:19
but we want to make impact and we're partnering.
14:22
We're always looking for ways and things each
14:25
month. And each quarter, pretty much every day,
14:29
in fact, to make sure that we're always trying
14:32
to push the barrier forward and progress with
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the client's business growth. I think this also
14:38
comes down to like when we have a client come
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on, I treat that client like as if, I think we
14:43
all do, as that's my business. You know, that's
14:46
how it should be and that's how it is with Bauderia
14:49
when our clients come on. You've got to remember
14:51
it is our business because we're helping them
14:55
grow their business through our business, you
14:58
know. We're exerting our expertise and professionalism
15:02
and everything that we've built over the last
15:04
24 years upon, you know, our business is maybe
15:08
five years old or younger or, you know, a little
15:12
bit older, etc, etc. I think it's always a good
15:16
thing to look at it that way rather than just
15:20
looking at focusing on the money and what you're
15:22
trying to earn yourself. So another way that
15:25
growth can stall is from winning the... wrong
15:27
clients which comes down to your icp for example
15:32
clients that we work with are high consideration
15:34
clients so a lot of them have that higher premium
15:38
price point so they don't want the small demanding
15:40
price sensitive one -off type of clients they
15:44
want clients that are willing to invest in their
15:46
product they see the benefits you know they're
15:49
happy to invest that kind of money yeah i don't
15:51
think anybody wants to you know attract those
15:53
small demanding price sensitive their clients
15:56
we all know how much of travesty that they are
15:58
um and to be brutally honest i mean we've had
16:03
to deal with far too many of them in the past
16:05
because i've been the type of person that's like
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you know we can help you and we can and but the
16:11
problem is you need to you need to make sure
16:13
you're helping the right people and that's where
16:15
you need to build your icp and buyer personas
16:17
it's absolutely imperative make sure that you
16:20
have those in place before you start marketing
16:24
to anybody i suppose because you need to attract
16:28
that right customer for your business and i'll
16:31
tell you something it's the difference between
16:32
someone that's willing to invest you know 20
16:36
30 10 20 30 grand a month in comparison to someone
16:40
that doesn't even want to invest 200 a month
16:42
is massively different your business will either
16:46
grow or it will not grow uh based on who it is
16:50
that you want to attract so if you're looking
16:52
for someone as uh clients that are spending 200
16:55
or less a month your business is not going to
16:57
grow you're just not going to be able to invest
16:59
and your own growth and you know it's just not
17:02
going to happen unless you know you're a sas
17:05
business that's aiming to get you know three
17:08
thousand four thousand five thousand uh customers
17:12
which you know they come they they find you themselves
17:15
and then they onboard themselves and that so
17:18
you've got pretty much no no relationship with
17:21
them um but again most most of the businesses
17:24
we work with is the actual opposite but we still
17:27
do get those people and this is why your sales
17:30
process needs to be in place as well and why
17:33
how we can help you do that is because you can
17:36
qualify your customers based on your ICP and
17:40
what their demographics and psychographics and
17:44
how they are made up. And certainly taking them
17:47
through something like BAN or just making sure
17:49
that they've got the right qualities that you're
17:52
looking for in a customer is an absolute, you've
17:56
just got to be doing that. Yeah, it's a game
17:58
changer. It will either, you'll see. you know
18:02
massive growth and less headaches too because
18:04
you know the price sensitive ones are usually
18:07
the ones that demand the most of you um which
18:09
you don't want but the thing is again even though
18:12
we're talking about the icp and things like that
18:15
i would also suggest that you need to think about
18:17
your positioning because your positioning can
18:19
be caught can definitely be causing you a problem
18:22
as well you know are you positioning yourself
18:24
as a premium service or a premium product because
18:28
if you are but the customer experience is not
18:31
premium, then the chances are you're going to
18:35
have sales problems. If you're wanting to go
18:38
for the shorter, sorry, the cheaper kind of client,
18:43
but you look as if you're positioned as more
18:47
premium, that can also put people off because
18:51
their expectation is all about the customer experience
18:54
and customer expectation of where you are what
18:56
you're charging you know an actual fact price
18:59
itself can be a positioning factor you know if
19:03
you're more expensive than other people and then
19:06
you get someone that claims to do the same as
19:08
you or people think that you are you know an
19:11
agency where you're not you know a growth partner
19:14
and you know you're providing the platform the
19:17
revenue team and the leadership to drive businesses
19:19
forward is a completely different positioning
19:22
and story from an agency that job was to focus
19:26
on tactics and seo and ads and doesn't take into
19:30
account the the whole end -to -end business strategy
19:34
itself you know so you really need to make sure
19:37
that you're understanding and positioning your
19:40
your product and service properly so how do you
19:43
actually work out which one is causing your business
19:46
to plateau so you need to actually understand
19:48
where your deals are dying not where you think
19:51
they're dying where they're actually dying because
19:54
every business owner you know they have a story
19:57
about why deals are lost and it's usually price
20:00
or they didn't want to pay a premium price or
20:02
you know They want to go with someone cheaper.
20:04
And if you're getting that someone cheaper, then
20:07
you do need to look like what Derek just said.
20:09
Look at your positioning, look at your ICP, really
20:12
hone in on ensuring that those are crisp and
20:15
clean. aligned with your business and where you
20:18
see your business going do you even get the deals
20:21
you know are people actually contacting and inquiring
20:24
about your product or service because if they're
20:27
not again this goes back to what I was talking
20:28
about earlier that you know if you've got like
20:31
yeah you know 2000 clicks on your ad this week
20:34
but you only get one inquiry then there's a there's
20:37
a problem there and you need to take that opportunity
20:41
to recognise that there's a problem and start
20:44
to test and find out what's different between
20:48
the ad which is clearly working and the landing
20:51
page which clearly is not. What's the message
20:54
on the landing page? What's the story? What's
20:58
the offer? How is it made up? You know, where's
21:01
the call to action? Is it clear enough? You know,
21:03
are the colours correct? Is the website designed
21:07
properly and professionally? There's so many
21:09
different things you need to consider. But you
21:11
just need to do what you can do in order to find
21:15
out what that problem is and fix it fast. And
21:18
you should be tracking all of this. So when your
21:20
leads come in, and even like with your sales
21:22
process, this should be all, it should be an
21:24
SOP so that no matter who comes in from your
21:28
sales team, thing is the same and you should
21:30
be tracking all that into you know crm from the
21:34
very start to the very end where's the bottleneck
21:37
so that you can understand okay here's the bottleneck
21:40
how can we fix that i should i actually seen
21:42
something from mr beast right and he said he
21:46
sees his business like uh holes so you have he
21:50
does obviously he does youtube if you don't know
21:52
who mr beast is so he does i think it was idea
21:56
film edit thumbnail and he said if there's a
22:00
problem with the thumbnail and there's a bottleneck
22:03
there it's almost as if you're closing the hose
22:06
right and you've you've got that hose so the
22:08
rest starts to get backed up something he gets
22:10
all of his people that come in all of his staff
22:12
to read a book about being a bottleneck he says
22:15
to them you know you're the bottleneck you need
22:17
to fix that so in your business like you could
22:20
think of this as the same you know there's a
22:22
bottleneck there so how do we fix that what is
22:24
actually happening when we're getting these deals
22:27
that they're not converting and they're not coming
22:30
you know not choosing us why is that and you
22:33
can do things like an NPS score as well to to
22:37
ask the clients that have come on and the clients
22:40
that haven't come on or you can ask them yourself
22:44
directly you know why didn't you choose us was
22:46
it price was there an experience that you didn't
22:49
like what was the barrier there for you to choose
22:53
us and why you chose one of our competitors yeah
22:55
i mean i'm really sure what else to add to that
22:58
i mean that's exactly right and that's that's
23:00
one of the biggest things that most people don't
23:02
do is they don't actually ask a customer but
23:05
it's one of the best things that you can do because
23:07
yeah At the end of the day, your customer's the
23:09
lifeblood of your business. Without customers,
23:13
there's no revenue, but cash flow. And without
23:16
cash flow, your business is dead. So you need
23:18
to really... Just be confident and ask your customers,
23:22
you know, what do you think of your service?
23:24
How can you improve? Don't wait until something's
23:27
wrong before you do that either. Make sure you're
23:30
doing it all the time. That's why we have actually
23:32
built an NPS system, which allows us to survey
23:36
our clients. Now, everyone would have seen this
23:39
before, where you get an email from a company.
23:41
It's generally already one of your customers.
23:44
You're trying to find out. the sentiment of your
23:47
customers about your brand and basically it asks
23:51
one question is how likely are you to recommend
23:55
us to your client or your family or whatever
23:58
as to a friend and it's one to ten and I think
24:03
it was like one to six as you know detractors
24:07
and then you've got six to say eight and then
24:10
eight eight to ten um and you'll find that the
24:13
eight to tens are advocates of the business and
24:15
the other ones are just kind of middle of the
24:17
road so we have that system in place which we
24:19
can activate with our customers not just getting
24:22
reviews because that's obviously a good thing
24:24
as well but the actual nps system itself yeah
24:27
which we do for a lot of our clients when we
24:30
hit specific stages and they've been with us
24:32
usually about the one year mark where we start
24:34
doing that depending on where they are in their
24:36
cycle though in their growth stage and to be
24:39
honest i mean we're probably not doing that correctly
24:41
either you know we should be doing that a lot
24:44
sooner um it's just like what we do is we tend
24:48
to wait until we've actually got the outcome
24:50
that we're looking for so we can all celebrate
24:52
and the customers and in that bubble you know
24:56
So you're getting them right where you want them
24:58
if you like. But we could probably be doing that
25:00
more often. So the next thing that you can find
25:03
out is what happens when you step away. So usually
25:06
a fortnight is a... like decent diagnostic to
25:09
understand you know what's getting backed up
25:12
and it's not just about you know what gets broken
25:14
what's quietly slowing down when you're away
25:16
for those two weeks what's getting piled up so
25:19
that when you come back you know you've got this
25:21
lengthy to -do list um that's just been left
25:25
for you you know that's what needs to be handled
25:27
first and you need to be writing it down writing
25:30
sops if you're the barrier when it comes to your
25:34
sales process for example you're the founder
25:36
and you're the barrier you know you need to be
25:40
writing out that sop of what exactly happens
25:43
and what you want to happen so that when you
25:45
bring in a salesperson they do the exact like
25:48
it's like copying and pasting you pretty much
25:51
and they're not losing that quality and consistency
25:56
that's right i mean the thing is a ceo's job
25:59
is to to actually run the business, to run on
26:02
the business, not in the business. So really
26:05
what you should be doing is bringing other people
26:08
in to do the jobs that you are currently doing.
26:10
That's why you need to not spend all the money
26:12
that comes into the business. On flashy cars
26:16
or... Yeah, 100%, because that's what everybody
26:18
does, I've done it as well. But what you need
26:21
to do is you need to... keep the money the money
26:23
that comes into the business isn't actually yours
26:25
it belongs to the business you get paid from
26:27
the business or you take dividends or both um
26:30
but the thing is you need to make sure you've
26:32
got enough money in there so that so what you
26:34
can do is it's giving you that breathing space
26:36
for when you start scaling your business and
26:39
bringing other people in i mean ideally what
26:41
you'd want to be doing is you'd want people to
26:43
be coming in first and foremost into the business
26:47
full time that are actually going to move the
26:49
needle you know that could be the sales people
26:51
you know the people that are going to pay for
26:53
themselves then from an operational standpoint
26:56
you want to start thinking about getting copywriters
26:59
and things like that and so i sales people would
27:02
probably the the first go to and then you just
27:05
keep building out your team until you essentially
27:07
manage yourself out the business so that you
27:10
can go away for two weeks or more and the the
27:13
everything is running like a well -oiled machine
27:15
yep couldn't have said anything couldn't have
27:17
said it better and then the last one is which
27:21
customers do you wish that you had more of so
27:23
this comes down I think hand in hand with the
27:25
first one and what we said earlier where it comes
27:27
down to defining your ICP your position you know
27:31
like Derek said business growth isn't just we'll
27:34
just pop up some ads on our website and we'll
27:36
be we'll be good to go you need a system You
27:39
really do. You need a system. And it's something
27:41
that we've seen in ourselves. It's something
27:42
that we've seen in every single client that we've
27:45
worked with. And it's something that we've started
27:46
implementing for them, which is hence why Bauderia
27:49
exists now. That's right. But I'll tell you something.
27:52
I mean, most of the businesses, if not all of
27:55
them, don't even have a strategy in place. What
27:58
they're basically doing is they're just running
27:59
from month to month. and they're just wondering
28:02
what will we do now because that didn't work
28:04
and because they're not tracking anything and
28:06
it's just it's just a big mess until we get involved
28:09
but one of the biggest things that they also
28:12
don't do is actually build our strategy and understand
28:16
what is their main priority for the next 12 months
28:20
you know what's our priority what what do you
28:22
want to happen for to make the this year a success
28:27
so for one of our pool installation clients last
28:30
year he done 50 pool installs this year he wants
28:33
to do 100 we're already halfway through the year
28:38
for him so it should be achievable especially
28:42
as we move into the summer because you see what
28:44
we've done in the previous 12 months will compound
28:47
even more so in the next six months what we what
28:51
he done in that six months which we planned for
28:54
six months previous is going to be compounding
28:57
even more so we should actually do more than
28:59
100 pull installs but you need to understand
29:01
where it is you're heading you know as Jim Rohn
29:03
talks about you know whether you've got a target
29:06
or no you're always going to hit it you know
29:08
so make sure you write down what your goals are
29:10
what's your objectives what's your priorities
29:12
and then work back from that and that will tell
29:15
you exactly what needs to happen in order for
29:17
it to get there. It's actually not that hard
29:19
once you start understanding how it works. But
29:22
again, our government revenue system does all
29:25
that, helps you do that as well. Once it's in
29:29
place, you set up the campaigns and then you
29:31
just execute and run. Yeah. So some things that
29:34
you can avoid is rebranding instead of fixing
29:37
the actual problem. This is something that I
29:39
think a lot of people tend to just gravitate
29:41
towards because it's visible and it feels like
29:44
momentum and it feels like progress is happening,
29:47
but it's not. You know, you're still in the same
29:50
position just with a new name or a new logo.
29:53
You know, you still have the same handoffs, the
29:55
same deals. And this is where you need a revenue
29:58
system. You need those systems in place. You
30:01
need those processes in place. Especially if
30:03
you're planning to exit your business in, say,
30:06
five years. People buy processes. People don't
30:09
buy because you're attached to it. People buy
30:12
processes, things that actually work when you're
30:15
away on holiday for four weeks and the revenue
30:18
is still growing. That's what people buy into.
30:21
Well, most people are the business when they
30:23
start a business unless they've got a system
30:25
in place. If you've got a system in place, people...
30:28
you know, prospects or business owners are buying
30:30
the, it's the system they're buying. It's not,
30:33
it's not, they're not going to buy you. Generally,
30:36
what would happen, even though you're selling
30:37
the system, is you're, as the business owner
30:41
that's selling the system, is you normally have
30:43
to stay on for like a minimum of 12 months to
30:46
prove that it is actually the system that's running
30:48
and not kind to you to make sure that, you know,
30:51
they've made the right decision and things. Yeah,
30:53
the thing is, like rebranding i mean we've just
30:56
rebranded but we rebranded because our offer
30:59
had outgrown what present the presentation of
31:02
business was adonis media and all that kind of
31:05
stuff was fine for what it was at the time back
31:07
in 2010 up till 2023 2022 maybe um until we started
31:13
actually recognizing that you know over that
31:16
24 years what we've what we've noticed is x y
31:20
and z and the way that we could solve that is
31:23
doing a b c And that's why we now have our platform,
31:27
our revenue team and leadership, which is exactly
31:31
what every business needs. This is a great example
31:33
of what you said earlier. Sorry to butt in. Great
31:36
example of what you said earlier when it comes
31:38
to positioning, because we weren't positioned
31:40
to the premium price that we were offering. You
31:44
know, when I spoke to people and said, yeah,
31:46
look, I'm the director of Adonis Media. They
31:49
go, OK, so you do social media? No. We do revenue
31:53
systems. Oh, that doesn't really make sense.
31:57
So for us there, that was a huge barrier. And,
32:00
you know, our positioning wasn't correct because
32:03
we were actually also getting inquiries for just
32:05
a bit of Facebook ads, just a bit of Google My
32:08
Business, you know, and that's not what we do.
32:10
We do the full revenue system. We partner with
32:13
your business. So changing to Bauderia made sense
32:16
for us. Yeah, so what we do, do the market and
32:20
the sales. the customer success and revenue operations
32:23
alongside or for our clients. What we don't do
32:30
is we don't sell them as individual components
32:32
like what marketing agencies do. And if you look
32:36
at our brand now with Bauderia, the word Bauderia
32:39
itself is actually in reference to the Firth
32:42
and Forth estuary in central Scotland where the
32:47
Forth bridges are. The whole point is us taking
32:52
what's called the high ground and being on top,
32:56
looking down at the chaos and actually lifting
32:59
our clients up. And that's exactly what we do.
33:03
That is the outcome that we provide. You know,
33:05
one year you're doing one million, the next year
33:08
you're doing three million, the next year after
33:10
that you're doing five million. And that's what
33:13
it's all about. You know, you need to be continually...
33:16
growing and the only way you can grow is by having
33:19
systems in place to help you support your business
33:23
to do that and this goes on to hiring before
33:25
actually fixing the system the first instinct
33:27
is when you're stretched and you're in that position
33:30
is let me just add some more people and you know
33:33
if you're adding people into an unclear system
33:35
they tend to inherit it and it gets a bit confusing
33:38
for them so it's a six -month process to a year
33:41
of guessing getting frustrated confused you know
33:45
and if you have that system in place if you have
33:48
those processes that sop this is what happens
33:51
bang bang bang bang bang it's just going to make
33:53
life easier for them it's going to keep your
33:55
branding consistent it's going to make the whole
33:58
business process just a lot easier for them.
34:01
Yeah, I was speaking to someone the other day
34:03
there on LinkedIn regarding fragmentation and
34:06
having these so many different SaaS tools now
34:08
which generally get brought in. So when there
34:11
is a problem with their business, they look for
34:13
some sort of tool to fix that and they normally
34:15
use like 10 % of that tool's functionality and
34:18
they've got added another subscription and another
34:21
layer of complexity and another layer of someone
34:24
having to learn that system in order for it to
34:27
work. In a lot of cases, it doesn't work. But
34:29
what he says was that research shows, I think
34:32
it was Gartner that done this, that some businesses
34:35
now use over 300 different applications just
34:40
to try and run the business. 300 different applications.
34:43
I'm sorry, but that, I mean, that's just not
34:46
good. While they may see that as a system, that's
34:48
a fragmented system. And that fragmented system
34:51
is actually costing you more than what you realise.
34:53
Well, the problem with that is, is they go, okay,
34:56
here's a problem. This tool fixes it. Great.
35:00
Oh, here's another problem. Oh, well, I'll get
35:02
this tool. This fixes that. Here's another problem.
35:04
Let me just get this. And then that is just a
35:07
continuous cycle. And then you end up with actual
35:09
double ups because some systems, you know, might
35:12
do, for example, social media and they might
35:14
also do YouTube analytics or something. And then,
35:18
you know, you're buying a software that does
35:20
specifically YouTube analytics because it's more
35:23
in depth than the first one you have. So then
35:25
you're paying for. double it just doesn't make
35:27
sense and this is why you need that revenue system
35:30
you know we keep coming back to that revenue
35:32
system and i see it all over linkedin recently
35:35
that people are actually starting to gravitate
35:37
towards saying you know you need a system you
35:39
need to look at everything cohesively now so
35:43
well it just makes sense i mean the thing is
35:45
we still need people in our business to help
35:48
run the systems you know people Good people have
35:51
to find it. So what we need is we need to make
35:54
sure our systems and processes are in place to
35:57
make sure that they can just step into their
36:00
role. know what needs to happen which obviously
36:03
helps when you've got the SOPs already available
36:06
there for them and you know our system also includes
36:09
an LMS learning management system so that means
36:13
that we can onboard them and show them how our
36:16
business kind of works and that's exactly the
36:18
same functionality that our clients get as well
36:21
you know I mean how great is that having an onboarding
36:24
system so someone comes in and they sit down
36:27
in front of the computer and they can actually
36:28
learn all the SOPs They can make sure they're
36:32
doing everything perfectly. They can jump in
36:34
and out of different trainings whenever that's
36:37
needed. And that is needed all the time, especially
36:39
like in sales and that as well. Yeah. And retention.
36:43
In any position. yeah it's not just the case
36:47
if you go in that position okay i'm an expert
36:49
i don't have to learn anymore you still need
36:51
to learn i still need to learn just because i
36:54
had the title ceo doesn't mean i just stopped
36:57
learning and i'm like okay sweet everybody else
36:59
can do it you know i still need to be learning
37:01
alongside my team even more so yeah yeah Exactly.
37:07
Next thing is chasing a new channel. So when
37:09
something stops working, the temptation is to
37:12
go somewhere new. So that can be an agency. And
37:14
you can actually see this a lot when it comes
37:16
to marketing. As you try one marketing agency,
37:19
you tell them, I'll need more leads. They do
37:22
lead generation. You don't get the results you
37:24
want. So you go to the next agency and then you
37:26
badmouth the first agency. But they did what
37:29
you asked them to do. And, you know, it feels
37:32
like progress and it feels like, you know, oh,
37:34
yep, we're one step ahead. realistically it's
37:37
just resetting the clock every time you have
37:39
to fix something. Yeah totally and you know we've
37:41
had the type of clients as well before we started
37:44
you know defining our new ICP for our new Bauderia
37:49
brand whereby that particular client was not
37:54
the ICP we really needed whereby there were not
37:58
wanting to invest in their business they didn't
38:01
understand why you know google ads cost x amount
38:04
or you know because as far as they were concerned
38:07
google ads is a set it and forget it which it
38:10
clearly is not in fact nothing is not even google
38:13
business profile you should be and managing that
38:16
on a daily or weekly basis and posting things
38:19
all the time that's that's the signals that marketing
38:22
and advertising needs in order for you your business
38:25
to grow and we've had clients whereby you know
38:28
they'll even stop investing in seo with you to
38:32
try and add a golf course for instance which
38:35
you know after a year and a half uh you go back
38:38
and ask how how much revenue did you drive from
38:41
that ad none you know so i'm not i'm not suggesting
38:45
you should be testing things of course you need
38:46
to be testing things but don't invest in places
38:50
or take your investment if it's especially as
38:54
a small investment out of things that are working
38:57
in order to test things that you don't know is
39:00
going to work because that's going to put you
39:01
back and you're not going to be growing and you're
39:03
not going to be doing the right things uh so
39:06
yeah don't have anything else to add to that
39:08
i think see when it comes to billboards like
39:11
there's no I've never passed a billboard and
39:15
been like oh you know I need to do that stopped
39:18
my car to type in the number or the QR code or
39:21
anything I think especially when you're on like
39:23
the highway the motorways maybe most and you
39:27
know maybe they're more so effective and for
39:30
example like New York where you know you've got
39:33
people walking all the time or in cities I'm
39:35
I honestly I don't know too much about billboards
39:39
because it's not something that we specialize
39:41
in well i mean if if billboards like say for
39:45
instance we had a local pool builder you know
39:48
there's nothing there's nothing wrong with with
39:50
testing that um as an awareness channel but as
39:53
an awareness channel that's it one of the one
39:55
of the the reason that you know most of us digital
39:59
people say it doesn't work even though it probably
40:01
does work um as and radio is the same as because
40:06
the Most of the businesses don't actually add
40:09
a quality action in, you know, so they don't
40:11
have like, you know, say this code when you phone,
40:14
it will give you 5 % off or say this code and
40:17
will give you X, et cetera, et cetera. I mean,
40:20
yes, you maybe need to give something extra.
40:22
The chances are in order for them to get that
40:25
extra part, they would actually need to continue
40:27
through to a sale. But that allows you to then
40:31
track and measure how good that channel is working.
40:34
Because at the end of the day, I mean, um radio
40:37
and billboards and you know flyers and things
40:41
like that obviously do work to a certain extent
40:44
obviously it just depends on your your business
40:47
it depends on what you want to test um it's good
40:51
for for local awareness you know because there's
40:54
a lot of companies out there that a lot of people
40:56
out there that are maybe new to the area so they
40:58
don't know your your company etc etc so i wouldn't
41:02
discount them i would certainly say you know
41:04
give them a test if you've got an extra couple
41:06
of grand that month and see how it goes i think
41:10
with billboards though it's more of like you
41:12
said it is a brand awareness thing it's not going
41:14
to generate you direct leads and it is can be
41:17
hard to track especially if you don't have that
41:18
call to action i think they're more suited say
41:23
you know maybe bdc if you've got a new product
41:27
coming out you know you need that brand awareness
41:30
or maybe a new movies coming out you know those
41:33
sort of things that you need people to go to
41:35
specific places like the cinema or that i don't
41:40
Well, if you look at, say, Mackay, for instance,
41:43
Mackay's made up of a lot of mining companies
41:46
and a lot of companies that maintain a lot of
41:49
these other businesses. You know, they supply
41:50
to other businesses that supply to the mining
41:54
companies. So, like, all along the roads here,
41:57
there's tons of different BEB billboards, you
42:02
know, ads and things like that. And again, they're
42:05
a BEB company. And that is maybe, I mean, it
42:08
could just be... a testament to you know what's
42:12
done in this area uh in terms of the marketing
42:15
agencies that they're approaching because the
42:17
marketing agencies get a cut of the billboard
42:20
uh cost for instance and i'd also charge the
42:24
customer but i mean there is probably better
42:28
ways where you can track it uh and that's not
42:31
always going to be google ads either it maybe
42:33
need to be you know an account based marketing
42:36
uh campaign or something like that but again
42:38
that might be you know 10 times more expensive
42:40
than a billboard but it might it might actually
42:43
give you 10 times more of a response and help
42:47
drive revenue 10 times more because it's more
42:49
targeted um which is probably what i would recommend
42:52
over a billboard to be honest but i would say
42:54
i would say not don't discount it give it a try
42:57
see see what you think you you'll soon find out
43:00
you know i mean if if you're running a radio
43:02
ad for instance, and you start to get an influx
43:05
of people during that radio ad, even if you're
43:07
not tracking it, you'll be able to see that,
43:10
you know, we're getting loads of inquiries now,
43:13
so obviously that ad must be working, if that's
43:16
the only thing that you're doing at the time.
43:18
You know, at the end of the day, if you're not
43:19
advertising, people don't know you exist, and
43:21
therefore you'll not be driving any inquiries.
43:24
Yeah. So a plateau isn't a verdict on your business,
43:27
it's information, and it's a business telling
43:29
you that the way that you're currently running
43:31
it... has reached its limit. So we need a strategy
43:34
in place. We need a revenue system. So you need
43:36
to fix the system underneath it and the growth
43:40
will just start to compound from there. If you're
43:43
not sure where to start or you feel like your
43:45
business has hit that wall, make sure you give
43:47
us a contact on our website at boderia .io forward
43:51
slash contact and we can walk you through where
43:54
your gaps are, see if we're a good fit for you.
43:56
Pop the link in the description and if you found
43:59
this valuable, make sure you subscribe to the
44:01
podcast because we share conversations like this
44:03
every single week. Awesome. See you on the next
44:06
one. Bye.