One Size Doesn't Fit All (The Bathrobe Theory)

We do believe that the blueprint changes. The thing that a business owner is doing at $2 million is not the same thing somebody's doing at $200,000. You are the rainmaker of the business. We just believe at some point it's got to change. And that line of demarcation is probably in the half a million dollar range. You really got to shift from being rainmaker to become the architect. As many of you know, one of my favorite books, actually my favorite book, business book of all time is The Road Less Stupid by Keith Cunningham. And it's in there that he has a chapter that's called The Bathrobe Theory of Business. And it's this idea that one size just doesn't fit all. But I want to give you an example of this. So if one size doesn't fit all, how do we then learn from other businesses that are maybe ahead of us. I completely agree that one size does not fit all. As a matter of fact, we specifically believe that every small business should carry and have a business blueprint. And we think about it in 4 different stages. Stage number 1 is $0 to about $300,000. It's that initial launch, is getting to about $25,000 in revenue. Stage number 2 is a big one, and it's really tough. That's $300,000 to $1 million. I call that the growth stage, or the really the build stage. You're not scaling yet, but you are building. You're building 2 things primarily: you're building systems and you're building and developing people. Stage number 3 happens when you cross a million. And you're on your way from $1 million to $3 million. That's what I think is the acceleration stage. Things begin to really accelerate. There's enough, you know, fuel in the tank, so to speak, to be able to do it. You have a big enough team to be able to do it. There's some compounding interest that begins to happen. And then stage number 4 is $3 million plus. Now, look, for those of you that have much bigger businesses, yes, there are stages beyond that, you know, $10 million to $30 million, $30 million to $50 million, $50 million to $100 million. Sure. Great. Not a world that I'm familiar with. But at the end of the day, the world that I am familiar with is 0 to 3, 3 to 1, 1 to 3, and 3+. And so we do believe that the blueprint changes. The thing that a business owner is doing at $2 million is not the same, somebody, the same thing somebody's doing at $200,000. There's just not. There's maybe, you know, some, some things that can be similar, but they're just not even close to the same scale. You don't have the same size number of team members. Your marketing budget's not the same. Your role in the company is not the same. I mean, truthfully, you know, we talk about being going from rainmaker to architect, but really that first $300,000 to $400,000 or $500,000, you are the rainmaker of the business. We just believe at some point it's got to change. And that line of demarcation is probably in the half a million dollar range. You really got to shift from being rainmaker to become the architect. Of your business. And that's what we would love to be able to do is help people to number one, start thinking that way, and then number two, become the actual architect of their business. But that being said, there are times that it is so valuable to be able to learn from other businesses. So recently, one of my business partners and I had a conversation with another exterior remodeling company that has many different locations in some really big cities— Phoenix, Denver, Los Angeles— and they're expanding into some other cities in the West Coast as well. This company combined revenue across those different locations is over $100 million. And what we did is we got on the phone with, uh, my business partner was able to connect with the owner who then put him in touch with one of his key men in the business, and his name is Isaac. And Isaac was sharing with us the things that they do from a field marketing perspective. One of the ways that they've been able to grow that business is not through just digital means, although they do do that. Absolutely, they do run, uh, Google PPC campaigns. They really work on their SEO. The number of Google reviews they have is unbelievable, in the thousands. Of Google reviews and they're great. And so that naturally is bringing a lot of business, but they're a very similar company to us, at least in terms of what they do, the products that they sell. But in size, they're 30 times bigger, you know, than what we are at the current point. And so you may say, well, Bradley, I thought you mentioned, you know, it's not— it's always good to kind of be around those other businesses that are a few steps ahead of you. And yes, that's absolutely the case. So if one size doesn't fit all, it's important to maybe have inspiration from a company like that about what they're doing. Why would you jump on the phone and talk to them about their field marketing strategies? Here's why. A couple things. Number one, it doesn't mean that we're going to take their field marketing playbook so to speak, and try to just go and implement it directly into our business. But they do have, and they were able to share with us, us some things, some specifics, some things that they have learned along the way. These things work, these things don't work. How many people do you actually have at one of these local events? What are the giveaways that you guys have? What's the call to action? How do you follow up with people? Are you getting leads? Are you setting appointments? Are you trying to do a combination of the two? Those are a lot of questions that we had ahead of this call. So they had really convinced us and understood, like, the thing that they did to grow that business to where it is, is field marketing. And I wanted my access. I wanted access to that playbook. So we jumped on a call. The other thing is that was very fascinating is when they decide to go into a new market, a market that they've never been in, the way that they start and they expand in that market is they start with one person and they build it from the ground up with field marketing. Well, that's a lot similar, more similar to where we are in that business than at a, you huge conglomerate, one location doing $50 million. And so we kind of bypassed some of the things and the level of scale that they have that they can do. And we pulled out some of the principles, some of the lessons, some of the things that are applicable at our size and at their size. Now, those things became valuable. Are we going to be able to execute at the exact same level that they're executing on? Not at all. Is it— was it inspiration to us? Yeah, sure it was. But it also gave us some real good tangible specifics, some mistakes that they had made along the way, so we don't have to make some of those mistakes. We can bypass a lot of that learning and pain and even, quite frankly, maybe some of the money. And we're able to bypass all of that because they have gone before us. Does that mean that we're going to take their bathrobe and try to use it as a one-size-fits-all for us? Not at all. We're not. So whenever you're around other people, maybe that are doing significantly bigger than what you are— maybe you're a million-dollar business owner and you're talking to an insurance agency owner. I'll tell you what, let's take— let's use a, uh, a different one. Let's say you're at half a million dollars. It's you and 4 team members. On your staff, you've got 2 sales and 2 service team members. Is it helpful to be around a business owner that's doing $3 million? I do think so. Yes. Does that mean you're going to take their exact strategies, their blueprint, so to speak, and go and pull that and implement it directly into your business? No, I don't think so. We're not asking you to go get that exact thing and go try to you know, fit it in, kind of square peg, round hole. But you can pull the principles. You can pull the elements of it that make sense at no matter what scale it is. Also, last thing, it's not just always what somebody is doing now. It's what they did to get there. And that's one of the biggest questions that we asked. Isaac, you guys are doing this now at an unprecedented scale. We cannot replicate that. But what are the things that you guys have done to be able to get to this point? What did it look like when it was at $5 million? What did it look like at $10 million? I see what it looks like now, and it's impressive. But what was it like in those early days? And that's why he was able to share with us, well, we actually run the same playbook whenever we go into a new market. We're executing just like we're almost a startup. And that gave us some details and nuance that we really ultimately needed. I would encourage you to do the same thing. Get yourself around other small business owners. Indeed, get around other business owners your size. Sorry, Tim. Get yourself around business owners your size so you can compare and contrast notes. Have a peer community. Number 2, Get yourself around some people that are a few steps ahead of you, but somewhat still reachable. Maybe you're at $750,000. Get around a business owner at $1.5 million, $2 million. They, they are not too far ahead. And then get yourself around a handful of other business owners that are doing way more, maybe $10 million or more, because they can give you some perspective. They can help you get above the business in a way that otherwise maybe somebody else would not. So one size does not indeed fit all, but you can pull elements to be able to put into your business. Hope this served you. Till next time, lead well and go be great. Oh, and by the way, last thing, if you would love to create a plan that fits your business for the upcoming quarter, go to blueprintos.com/assets and you can register for my totally free quarterly workshop. We're going to get a plan for going into the next quarter. We'll look back on the previous quarter, plan for the next quarter, and put a plan together that is specifically for your business. BlueprintOS.com/assets. All right, everyone, till next time, lead well and go be great.