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Shannon Stone:
Hey guys, welcome to the podcast.
Shannon Stone:
Super excited to jump into this episode today where we are talking how you can use a team or grow a team that actually grows your business. So there's a big difference to being really busy in your business and getting an extra set of hands to help you take that load off that type of thing, versus having a team and still that extra set of hands, but having that team, whatever size it might be it could be one, it could be 10 people to help actually grow your business and to drive it forward. So in this episode. I was going to share three pieces of advice with you, but I'm going to share four. There was an extra one. It was just going to be a side comment but I was like no, this is like so imperative and, based on a few conversations I've had with clients and businesses this week, I was like, yeah, like it almost deserves its whole own episode, this extra tip that I was going to share. But we will jump into it. But I want you to really know that there is that big difference between just getting an extra set of hands and taking some of that workload off, getting some help in your business, versus really, I guess, capitalizing and embracing that help so your business does grow, it does drive forward. So we'll talk about that as we go through. Now we'll start with this bonus tip because I think it is at the forefront of so many.
Shannon Stone:
So, if you are wanting to grow a team or expand your team from where it is, one of the best pieces of advice that I do have is to have retainer services in your business and why this is so important from a team perspective. Like not even just talking about that recurring revenue, that more guaranteed, repeatable business, just from a team perspective. It's so much like when you have a team. We all know we need that consistency. We need, obviously, that consistent income in order to pay that team, but you also want that consistent task to be able to delegate to that team on a regular basis. And what retainer services allow you to do, it's just the same thing, day in, day out, week in, week out, for whoever it is, you know, doing the delivery of that service, or they might not be doing the whole service, but they might be doing components of it. Even if you're on the front end of that client delivery on that retainer service, there might be things in the back end that your team or your virtual assistant or whoever or however many people it might be, they're constantly servicing that retainer package. So you can bring that to your clients, you know, month on month, in a really consistent, stable manner. So that piece of advice number one is the importance of retainer services. It's not just because of that recurring revenue, which is amazing, but from a team perspective it's incredible because it adds that stability. And as we go on to the tip two, three and four, you'll see why the retainer services is so important.
Shannon Stone:
So number two, which is links in perfectly is to delegate repetitive tasks. So when you are looking at how you can use your team or how you can use them more, repetitive tasks are probably the best task to delegate to your team members, because once you show them what to do, they just have to do that same thing every time. It's like you're not always teaching them a new software or a new idea or throwing them odd tasks all the time. It's like what are those repetitive tasks that you have going on in your business and a great tool? So when I first hired a team member in my marketing agency, I went through well before I went through a recruiter. I did a few things myself, but eventually I did use a recruiter and that was incredible and one of the tools that she gave me was to document your daily, weekly and monthly activities.
Shannon Stone:
So what are all the tasks in your business that get done daily?
Shannon Stone:
What are all the tasks that get done weekly? What are all the tasks that get done monthly? And if you want to go on quarterly, annually, you definitely can. But really getting that brain dump out of your brain, you know those things that we just do. You know because we just know to do them. Get all of that onto paper and from there you almost have a map You'll start to see, okay. Well, here's the things I do every single day or every single week. It's like scheduling content, sending email newsletters. It could be sending reports or compiling reports for clients, whatever it might be. But looking at your daily, weekly and monthly activities really helps you to see what are those repetitive tasks that I can give to a team member. And that's incredible for training as well, because if you're doing the same thing over and over again, you're going to get good at it. You're going to get so good at it that you don't have to ask questions. They're not going to have to come to you all the time. They're probably going to get better at it than you as the business owner.
Shannon Stone:
So step number two, or a piece of advice number two, is to delegate repetitive tasks. Okay, piece of advice number three is to take the time to train and retrain your team members. So say, for example, you send out a monthly newsletter to your email database. Maybe it takes you an hour every single month to put that email newsletter together. Now, when you train someone else to put this together, and that's one of the repetitive tasks that is being assigned to them. Is it going to take them an hour every single month? Probably not, and especially on a monthly frequency. You know they're not doing it every day or not even every week. So that learning experience, what they're being exposed to, that particular task, it's not happening on every single day of the week. So taking the time to train and retrain someone, it's going to take longer than however long it takes you to do that particular task. So if it takes you an hour to do your email newsletter, it's going to take them an hour and a half, maybe two hours In my marketing agency.
Shannon Stone:
That's why I first became exposed to really building a team, leading a team to the point where I was able to take multiple days off from my business and no one even knew the team didn't even know I was taking time off, and that was almost like an internal experiment for myself of like let me see if anything breaks. That was the whole idea of it and it just came to, I guess, process and opportunity for me to see oh okay, well, here's some more systems I can build. But kind of coming back to what we're talking about here, in my first experiences with teens, I used to double the time it would take. So if it took me an hour to do a task, I would anticipate it takes them two hours to do the task, at least in the beginning and when I was really patient with having them learn it, having them ask questions, having them make mistakes and correcting all of that as well, not taking the task back over, it was really just. I really want to equip this person and not just the person, my whole business in being able to do this task without me. So, in tandem to training someone, I was also documenting the training material. And if it wasn't me documenting the training material, the training material, and if it wasn't me documenting the training material which could be, you know, typing up the steps it takes to do this particular task or creating a video walkthrough of how to do that task I would get the team member to do it, so I would teach them how to do it. And then at some point in time I'd say can you please create a training video on how you do this task? And that was a two-folded, I guess, win, because one I got to see how are they doing it? Are they doing it right? Are they up to speed, how long is it taking? And also, I was building an asset in my business, a training system. So if and when that team member wasn't there, I've got that same training material.
Shannon Stone:
So training and retraining is so important and, yes, it's front loaded. It takes you so much more time to do it in the beginning, but there is a point in time where it definitely does pay off. And I think as well, like, if you're not prepared to do that, if you're not prepared to have the patience to train someone, to really, I guess, remove yourself from that task, to kind of go through the hiccups and I don't even like to call them hiccups or mistakes or negatives, it's just part of the process. Like we have to be willing to do that if we want to be in business, because otherwise you'll just remain one man band style or remain much smaller than what you are or you'll have much more headaches than you should. So sometimes it's like bringing some of that to the party as well. So that is number three taking time to train and retrain.
Shannon Stone:
And last little tip on that is to not take back tasks that you've delegated. It's so easy once you've given someone, say, the email newsletter task and maybe after a couple of months you're like, yep, it's not working, I'm not loving it, xyz and all the other. It's so much easier to be like you know what I'll actually do, that I'll get you something else to do, like, instead of going down that lane, have the patience to work out what do I need to do. How do I need to train them. Is there another conversation I need to have? Is there something that's missing from my end? You know, work out what you need to train them. Is there another conversation I need to have? Is there something that's missing from my end? You know, work out what you need to do and provide to that team member and to your business in the way of systems and training and support, so that you don't have to take back that task you've delegated.
Shannon Stone:
And that's one of I guess one of the favorite tips some of my clients with teams have is that, shannon, we're not taking back the tasks we've delegated. And they just love that tip because it helps them to free up their time so much more. And it's having that patience around teaching people what to do instead of doing it for them which brings us to our fourth and final tip, which is and it's got to be almost like. This is like where the rubber meets the road. Like I said at the beginning, you can build a team, for sure, but there is a difference between having a team and having a team that drives your business forward, that really acts as assets to helping your business to grow, and grow in multiple ways the number of people you help, the quality of work that you do, obviously in revenue and profit as well. So tip number four, piece of advice number four is to reallocate your newfound time wisely. So if you're building this team, you're taking tasks off your plate. You're going to end up with more time back. So how are you allocating that time? And this is like really coming back to the beginning of where people are looking at hiring or not hiring and they're like it's a chicken or an egg situation Do we make more money first and then hire the person, or do we hire the person and then make more money? It's like this piece of advice falls into that category where you will get your time back, but if you're not reallocating that time any wiser, you're just going to add an extra expense payroll, contractor, whatever it might be to your expenses and not really moving any forward.
Shannon Stone:
Look at how can you optimize your lead generation some more. How can you maybe expand your marketing strategies some more? How can you do better, reach more people, help more people? Are there certain things in your business that you haven't been doing that you know will help to grow your business? Maybe it's getting testimonials from your clients so that you can showcase that some more. Is it building case studies in your business? Is it looking at how your current clients can work with you longer? Is it going back to past clients and building some of that return client strategies as well? So people aren't just working for you ad hocly. You know, they keep on coming back and maybe they come into those retainer services that we spoke about in the beginning. So, yes, you will free up more of your time, but you need to reallocate that newfound time wisely, and that's really where this brings it all together. Having that team can help you to grow your business and help it to really move forward. Okay, so that brings us to the action step for this episode. Now, depending on where you're at with everything, there could be an array of different action steps for you to take, so I'm hoping that you jotted those down and you'll work out how you'll start to apply those into your business.
Shannon Stone:
But something I think everyone should do somewhat often even twice a year, is incredible is to do that exercise of writing down what are your daily, weekly, monthly activities that you do and just getting that out of your head onto a spreadsheet, onto paper, whatever works for you. I think is a very worthy exercise because you can start to see all the bits and pieces you're doing in your business and whether you start to delegate some of that now or you start to batch your time together a bit more and you start to do it a bit smarter, you start to batch your time together a bit more and you start to do it a bit smarter. It's like we can fit everything in if we just do it in the right order. But sometimes we don't actually know what we're doing. We're just kind of like running, like almost like chasing our tail. We're getting things done, but we could be getting it done so much better.
Shannon Stone:
So when you do the daily, weekly, monthly activities and you well, here's the things that I did today, here's the things that I've done this week, here's the things I've done this month or will do this month Get all that written down it gives you. I guess it's the same kind of approach as looking at your numbers. It's like when you look at your numbers, then you can kind of do something with it. You can start to see where things are working or not working. Same to see where things are working or not working, same goes with this exercise. You can see where your time is going, where your attention is going, and that is going to be something that is really really helpful for you. So give that exercise a crack.
Shannon Stone:
If you have any questions at all, definitely let me know, but I hope you have an amazing week and I'll talk to you soon.
