It’s not all rainbows and sunshine running a service based business that’s been growing quickly
In this blog post, I’m sharing real-life challenges that came way, and what I learned
1. Expect more employee issues
With a big(ish) company comes a big team and more problems.
We have an internal team made up of remote workers from around the world.
Sometimes, they don’t get along.
We’ve had an issue with employees that were unhappy and we had to deal with it.
We had another involving inappropriate and overly harsh tonality used in a zoom meeting.
HR becomes more important the bigger you get.
2. Tracking everything is hard, so build your own software
Did you know that when we had 50 Chef Teachers we did our scheduling and payroll and reminder emails manually?
We had an admin team spend hours using google sheets.
Then, under the guidance of Slava, the company’s President/Integrator, we hired a designer to create our own software.
It took almost ¾ of a year to build and implement, but it saved us massive time and eliminated a lot of hours of manual labor.
Now we have a team of over 250 Chef Teachers using the software, and it was a great investment.
3. Finance and cash flow become very important
When you start to have BIG months in the 7-figures, you gotta keep track of all of the expenses and margins.
We hired a part-time CFO named Amit to help track all of the money.
With multiple departments and corporate entities, he was able to help us see through it all to get the big, overall picture.
We even had to let go of our previous bookkeeper, who was decent and inexpensive, but not equipped for a bigger company.
Always hire people that know MORE than you.
4. Staff often try to do their own things, so now SOPs run the show
80% of all of our services, from how we sell to hire Chef teachers to plan sessions with our clients is written down in a searchable database of SOPs.
An SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) is a written document on how to complete a key task.
It takes the guesswork out of business and helps guide all of the key team members to do their task as it should be done…not as how they think it should be done.
5. Legal challenges become prevalent
I believe that when you hit higher levels of revenue, you get a bit of a target on your back.
This is especially true if you service specific states in the US that are quite litigious
We work with our employment lawyer routinely as they help guide us through the complex web of compliance law.
It’s great to have them on our side, but it costs upwards of 5-figures a month.
For peace of mind, it’s worth it.
Just put it into your budget!
6. To avoid disorder, Meetings Happen Like Clockwork
Meetings are essential. We have a daily huddle for the whole team that lasts about 10-12 minutes. We also have weekly meetings for the Leadership, Sales, Operations and HR departments.
They happen on the same day and time each week.
They start and end ON TIME. (and never go over…)
It gives everyone a place to meet and problem solve…without taking up too much time over email and slack.
For me, I just go to 3 meetings a month and it takes me 8 hours (like I go over in this post)
7. “Problems” still happen, but they cost a lot more.
There are still stresses to be experienced, but they are much bigger in scale.
An example would be a financial issue I had that cost me $15,000.
It was an expensive lesson.
But it will NEVER happen again.
I used to freak out over problems that cost $1k-$5k
Now, most problems result in about 5-figures of costs.
But we’re bigger and can handle it.
You get used to the scale.
8. Taxes Take Up More Focus
I have a team of professionals helping me navigate the ever-changing tax landscape.
As you make more money, it becomes more and more tricky to keep it.
So, you have to look into all of the tax-compliant ways to set up and run your company.
It takes up a good amount of my money (and stress), but it’s worth it!
9. A healthy team doesn’t work without scheduled team bonding
With a 30+ person remote team, we like to keep them as engaged as possible with our culture and vibe.
We do things like
- Monthly lunch-time hangouts where we sit and chat in small groups on zoom
- Holiday parties, on zoom, with “silly sweater” contests
- Quarterly all-company meetings to showcase how we’re doing
- In-person events so we can connect and bond in a cool location. (we’re going to Havana in July!)
10. The goal post keeps moving
Our first BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) was to hit $10 million, then $12 million.
Everyone knows the goal and gets rewarded, financially, along the way.
Next year we’ll set even bigger goals.
But I still make sure that goal is in sync with the essence of the company, and my own vision.
I’ve grown my US service-based company from $0 to $12+ million in annual revenue with a great team and great margins so I only work 8 hours a month while living in Dubai. I love helping other entrepreneurs as coaching clients to scale their business from 7 to 8 figures. Here’s the link to hop on a consultation call to see how I can help you grow.