Engineering Calmer Agencies & Consulting Firms: Calm is the New KPI

We have the freedom to design just about any business we want. We can work with clients in a hundred different ways to deliver our service.  But how that works has a lot to do with the boundaries you set in place.  Boundaries are expectations, guidelines, and frameworks around how we want our work and our lives to happen. They're a really effective way to both deliver better customer service and make your business more efficient. All while building more resiliency into your processes.  Today, I continue our month’s theme of opting-out by talking with Brittany Berger, founder of digital media company Work Brighter.  Brittany’s boundary game is strong.  When building Work Brighter, Brittany made the conscious decision to prioritize the mental health and personal life boundaries that make room for unproductive things like rest, self-care, and fun.  For her, boundaries are a powerful tool for streamlining and increasing her operational capacity. By choosing how she works with clients, when she works with clients, and who she works with in the first place, Brittany is explicitly setting expectations for how they will be working together.  By establishing these boundaries she is not only taking care of herself she is also ensuring that she will continue to have the capacity needed to continue helping high achievers and productive unicorns go beyond just working smarter to a better version of productivity.  On today’s episode:Why Brittany has opted-out of the normal method of doing one-on-one business and instead leverages her strengths and interests in ways that are more profitable. Why she defines success in her business in ways that are not necessarily tied to profit or revenueWhy she only checks her email twice a week so she can focus on deep work and self-careHow she manages energy and focus by doing the hardest thing first, preserving the most energy for sustainable productivityThe transparent guidelines she uses to reinforce boundaries with her clientsAnd how making it difficult for herself to access social media has been a great tool for freeing up space in her business Links:Work With Brittany at Work Brighter@workbrighter on Instagram@thatbberg on TwitterThe Slackification of the Family Home–The Atlantic MagazineScalespark Dollars + Decisions RoundtableTwitter @ScaleSparkLinkedIn @thesusanboles Grab the Calm Service Design + Delivery Swipe File here

Opting out of business-as-usual practices  or deciding to buck your industry trend can be a really powerful point of differentiation for service businesses  When you opt-out of using corporate jargon or ridiculously complicated implementation processes, you can really stand out from the crowd.  And, making this choice can also be a really great tool for increasing your operational capacity behind the scenes.  By opting-out and choosing not to implement a cumbersome or overly complicated process, you free up your time. By choosing to not administrate the process and hire somebody to manage it for you, you save all that time, money and effort that you would have spent otherwise. Today, I am having business strategist, Michelle Warner, back on the show to talk about how we both use opting-out as a tool to help our clients become more profitable and efficient.  We talk about how Michelle helps service providers, coaches, and course creators drill down and focus on what's important, as well as how they can stop spending time on unproductive distractions and start designing profitable businesses. On today’s episode:How Michelle uses an 80/20 framework to harnesses creative energy, turning it into something useful instead of something that can quickly derail us.How Michelle helps clients move away from their startup phase and start optimizing as a companyThe ways that doubling down on a single project has compounding effects and is uniquely beneficial to entrepreneurs  All the ways that entrepreneurs are naturally creators and how they can look to the art world for guidance and inspirationHow you can take your financial metrics and turn them into qualitative choices for what you want your business to be.How we can slow down and build our awareness in our business with tracking and mindfulness practices Links:Where you can work with Michelle WarnerAtomic Habits by James ClearForte Labs - Building A Second Brain Grab the Calm Service Design + Delivery Swipe File here

If you’re struggling to keep your head above water in your business and you can’t figure out how to break the ceiling and scale your business, then you should listen to this Break the Ceiling podcast with ScaleSpark Founder, Susan Boles. In the first few episodes of this series, Susan has focused on tackling default decisions, those decisions that you might have made in your business without thinking about them or realising that you had another choice. “Default decisions aren't necessarily good decisions or the right decision for your business.”In the upcoming episodes however, Susan switches the focus from default decisions to opting out and why she advocates ‘Default to Simple’, the touchstone she uses when trying to figure out the solution to any problem in her own business, or her clients businesses. Because often, the next thing you have to do in your business process is just really simple. But before we go ahead and begin the next chapter, if you didn’t get the chance to listen to our series on default decisions, definitely go back and dig into them because they frame the upcoming episodes on opting out, and get you thinking about alternative options that you might not have considered in your business. On today’s podcast:Why the tech that promises to make your life easier can just be another complicationWhy your business needs processesWhy writing a list allows you to keep it simpleHow to simplify your process to get paid by opting outWhy opting out is such a powerful toolFuture guests on the podcast for the opting out themeLinks:Scalespark Dollars + Decisions RoundtableTwitter @ScaleSparkLinkedIn @thesusanboles Grab the Calm Service Design + Delivery Swipe File here

In this special podcast episode, the shoe is on the other foot - Susan herself is on the receiving end of the interview. And she’s talking to Tara McMullin (who you might remember from the first ever Break the Ceiling episode.)Bottlenecks in a business workflow process and complicated workflows can combine to create huge business growth headaches, not to mention potentially impacting your quality of work, resulting in poor customer satisfaction, or worse, letting things slip through the gaps. So Susan wanted to share this episode (first aired on Tara’s podcast, What Works) because she wants to discuss her experience of default decisions in software and technology. “When you're starting out, you don't know what you don't know.”In this episode, Susan and Tara talk about why and when you should review your software tools, and how you can really use software to help automate your operations and address some operational capacity issues. They also talk about the challenging work of implementing new software and how to make the change a little bit easier and more effective.So tune in to hear all that and more. On today’s podcast:What Susan typically finds is standing between her clients and tripling their revenueThe basis for business default decisionsWhy hiring more people won’t fix an operational capacity problemMistakes small business owners make when they try to use software to expand their capacityWhy software can be another bottleneck to workflow process rather than an aidThe audit process Susan carries out for each individual business to figure out what software could help themHow Susan makes software recommendations for each businessHow to implement a new software system painlesslyCommon mindset problems business owners face when switching softwareLinks:Walk through of how to do a software auditWhat Works podcastZapier - automation platform that connects SAAS toolsXero - accounting toolScalespark Dollars + Decisions RoundtableTwitter @ScaleSparkLinkedIn @thesusanboles Grab the Calm Service Design + Delivery Swipe File here

Are you looking to break the mold with your business model? Are you one of those business people that make very deliberate decisions and knows that default decisions just can’t apply to your business? Then you need to meet Pia Silva. If you haven’t heard of the powerhouse that is Pia Silva, then you’re in for a treat. Pia is the founder of Badass Your Brand and Worst of All Design, and she made a very deliberate decision to step away from the default agency model. She knew she had to structure her business in a way that suited her preferred working style, while ensuring it remained wholly efficient to meet her needs and the needs of her clients. “This model came about because a year prior, a business coach of mine had said to me, ‘you're selling $30,000 projects, you're looking for clients who have $30,000, but you're networking with people who think you're great, yet they don't have $30,000, they have $3,000. So maybe you don't want to keep saying, oh, sorry, you don't have $30,000, so forget you, and instead think of something to sell them. Just come up with something you would sell someone if they had $3,000.”And in the space of just a couple of days Pia had pivoted her whole business from chasing big projects via a traditional agency model, to making more money with a smaller project model. On today’s podcast:Break the ceiling by breaking the default agency modelWhy project management tools don’t work for every businessUsing a lead product and a bullseye productThe freedom of transparent pricingHow to figure out your pricing strategyIncrease your price as you increase your valueFigure out a model that works for you and what you want out of lifeCreate a marketing structure that means you constantly have leads coming upWhy the big agency model can’t work for smaller businessesLinks:Badass Your Brand - the impatient entrepreneur’s guide to turning expertise into profitScalespark Dollars + Decisions RoundtableTwitter @ScaleSparkLinkedIn @thesusanboles Grab the Calm Service Design + Delivery Swipe File here

We’ve been focusing our attention on default decisions in the last couple of episodes- those choices that you make about how to run your business. And a lot of these decisions happen without us even realizing we're making a choice, especially at the beginning of our businesses. But sometimes those choices we didn't know we made come back and bite us in the butt when we need to make the transition from experimentation mode or validation mode into growth mode.I chat with business designer Michelle Warner about business models, because lots of our default decisions are actually built into the model we choose. Michelle helps coaches, consultants and service-based entrepreneurs grow their businesses by showing them how to prioritize what matters and skipping what doesn’t. More importantly, Susan and Michelle discuss how to make that all-important decision of crossing the chasm from experimentation entrepreneur mode to a business model that's designed to grow, and how not to drive yourself crazy along the way.On today’s podcast:Why business design is a hybrid approach to creating your business modelThe inspiration behind moving from a multi million dollar tech startup to business designThe symptoms of knowing when you’ve hit the ceiling in your businessThe decisions entrepreneurs make over and over againHow to choose your business prioritiesFocusing your team to do the 80%, leaving you free to do the 20% fun stuffLinks:www.themichellewarner.comMichelle.warnerScalespark Dollars + Decisions RoundtableTwitter @ScaleSparkLinkedIn @thesusanboles Grab the Calm Service Design + Delivery Swipe File here

Are you an entrepreneur who thinks marketing is prosaic, a series of boxes that need to be checked off in a certain order? Are you too scared to break the ceiling with your own brand of personal marketing because it’s not something that you’ve been told to do? Then you should listen to Margo Aaron on today’s podcast, because she is someone you need in your life. Margo Aaron is the cohost of #HAMYAW and the author behind That Seems Important. She accidentally ended up in marketing and today she talks and writes about how to connect authentically with customers, and how to use ethical marketing to sell better, and more, online. “People really don't understand marketing, in part because marketers do a really bad job of explaining it. And they very very unethically sell it.”On today’s podcast:People don’t pay for strategy, they pay for outcomes and resultsWhy Margo was so nervous about launching ‘That Seems Important’You don't have a marketing problem, what you have is a self-doubt problemYou need to find the intersection between your business model and your personal dispositionWhy you shouldn’t measure your worth based on other people's benchmark successThe importance of playing and seeing where a business goes rather than sticking rigidly to a planPart of entrepreneurship is making things up - you are bringing something into the world that didn't exist beforeLinks:Hillary and Margo Yell at WebsitesThat Seems ImportantScalespark Dollars + Decisions RoundtableTwitter @ScaleSparkLinkedIn @thesusanboles Grab the Calm Service Design + Delivery Swipe File here

Welcome to this first episode of Break the Ceiling, the podcast where we'll talk about how you might structure your business, or even why you're in the business you're in in the first place. We're going to talk about financial decisions, hiring decisions as well as technology decisions, and give you some ideas to consider. But mostly, I just want you to start asking yourself, ‘why did I make this choice and does it still serve my business?’My first guest in the series is Tara McMullin. Tara is a podcaster, writer, and a small business community leader. With over a decade of experience helping thousands of small business owners grow their business. She's on a mission to change the dialogue about what's really working and she believes that no one person has the answer to “what works” in small business.Tara is the host of the What Works podcast, a top small business podcast that's been recommended by Forbes and Entrepreneur. And she's also the founder of the What Works network, a community hub for small business owners. She is also incidentally the person who came up with the name for this podcast.On today’s podcast:Why the default decisions you make at the beginning of your business may actually be causing the problems that are limiting your ability to growNot every framework or management tool works the same for each businessWhy ‘What Works’ is pretty much an entire business based around the concept of fighting default decisionsChallenges associated with switching between different types of business modelsHow to know when you’ve hit the ceilingKnow where your skills lie and focus on doing that well - outsource the other stuffWhy Tara’s personal growth will help her business break through the ceilingLinks:What Works - the podcastScalespark Dollars + Decisions RoundtableTwitter @ScaleSparkLinkedIn @thesusanboles Grab the Calm Service Design + Delivery Swipe File here