In Episode #4 of Taco Bout It Season 2, Gogan sat down with Danny Kerr of Breakthrough Academy to discuss the importance of developing processes in order to grow your business. The conversation between these two bearded gents inspired us to write a little bit more about some keys to business growth.
Some basic background info in case you missed the episode — don’t worry, we have it linked below — Breakthrough Academy specializes in business training for trade-based entrepreneurs. Danny and his team help the guys out there whose businesses are growing like crazy, but they aren’t quite sure how to keep up.
BTA helps those companies come up with a game plan for how to organize people, profits, and progress in a way that sets them up for continued success.
So, what are the steps you as a business owner need to take in order to position yourself to scale that growth? We broke it down with Danny in Taco Bout It, but we’ll give you the CliffsNotes version here. The secret sauce for success? According to BTA’s track record, setting a foundation based on informed goals makes for a great jumping-off point.
The key to growing any business is getting the right people in the door. The hiring process can be daunting, especially when you’re just flying by the seat of your pants. But in order to build a hiring process, you have to take a step back and figure out just exactly what it is you want to accomplish as a business owner. If it’s X dollars in revenue that year, great, who and what do you need to reach those goals? It’s easier than we think to get lost in the big picture or lofty goals and forget about all the little interconnected pieces that go into reaching those goals and painting that big picture.
BTA’s advice is to lay out what it is you need/want to accomplish in order to consider it a successful year, then work backwards. If you want to double the amount of jobs booked, then you probably need to hire more sales guys — but not just any sales guys, the right ones.
As a business owner you have the privilege and immense responsibility of creating and crafting the culture you want, and it’s hard to reverse-engineer good culture. So before you start hiring anybody with a good resume, make sure you’re interviewing them through the culture lens.
Do you think they’d get along with the rest of your team? Do their goals align with the company’s goals? Do they have the same values as you and the company you’ve built? If not, they might be a great salesperson, but they could be a real problem for your culture.
Putting together a recruitment process that attracts good talent who are good culture fits is absolutely crucial to your ability as a business owner to grow your company. Ya know what else is? Training those good people right.
Training your new hires well is so, so, so important. Whether you’re dealing with in-house employees or subs, it’s critical to get them trained up in the way you want things done. Using something called ‘situational leadership’ can really help guide the amount of time you spend training and cultivating certain skills with certain employees.
The example Danny used was with a salesperson. Say you hired a guy with five solid years of sales experience — he probably doesn’t need you to help train or coach him on how to make a sale or find a need. But maybe he’s new to the way you catalog things in your calendar system or CRM, that’s where you spend your time leading and training.
Being adaptive to each hires strengths and weaknesses will help you get more out of them in the long run. Seeing and working with the skills they already possess and offering more intentional direction and leadership in the areas they need some work in will grow them as an employee, you as a leader, and your business as a whole.
Taking a step back and laying the foundation of your business, not on profits or revenue goals, but on the people you’ll have surrounding you will do you big favors for your future growth.
If you want to learn more about Danny’s approach to growing businesses, leadership, or how he made those homemade taquitos shoot him an email over at info@btacademy.com.
Huge thanks to Danny Kerr and Breakthrough Academy for joining us this week on Taco Bout It!
Stay tuned for more episodes and blogs this season.
