Stop Being the Bottleneck: Candy Messer Shares How Entrepreneurs Can Build Sustainable Businesses

Welcome to the B2B Growth Blueprint podcast, where we talk with entrepreneurs, founders, and leaders at B2B services, tech, and SaaS companies to learn the systems and processes they've used to create success for their business. We'll also learn from marketing and sales experts to provide insights to help you grow your business. I'm your host, Mark Osborne, and the podcast is brought to you by Modern Revenue Strategies and their 10x ROI B2B Growth Guarantee. Schedule a free diagnostic call to learn the fastest path to double your B2B revenues in just 90 days. Hello and welcome to another episode of the B2B Growth Blueprint Podcast. I'm your host, Mark Osborne, and today I'm very excited to welcome my guest, Kandi Messer. Now I'm going to read Kandi's bio to make sure I get get it right. She is a profitability advisor working with entrepreneurs to help them have successful businesses. She's experienced in bookkeeping ever since 1998, and she understands the stresses that business owners face, and she offers customized services to meet those needs. Her company energizes entrepreneurs by removing the burden of compliance tasks as well as identifying issues preventing higher profitability. She also teaches business owners how to take a 4-week vacation and have the company run effectively without them. And we're going to talk about that a little bit today. As a result of using her services, clients have peace of mind and the freedom to do what they love. Candy is co-author of 4 different books: Business Success with Ease, Navigating Entrepreneurship, Maintain a Solid Mental Health, and Yes, God. She's also the host of Biz Help for You, a podcast which I've been fortunate enough to be on, which can be found on YouTube as well as multiple podcast channels. She's been married since '92 to her husband, Garth. They have a son, daughter, son-in-law, and 3 grandsons. When she's not running her company, Candy enjoys reading, crochet, baking sourdough bread, and spending time with friends and family. So, welcome to the show, Candy.

Thank you for having me. I'm glad to be here.

Yeah, I'm super excited to have this conversation. We've had a chance to get to know each other before. So, why don't you tell our audience a little bit about your story? How did, how did you get started in this and how'd you get to where you are today?

Well, honestly, I never thought I would be an entrepreneur. I was in like retail and working, you know, I started my first job and was there for like 10 years, went home, raised my kids for a few years and then ended up going back into the workforce and did bookkeeping. I was a full charge bookkeeper for a publishing company.

Okay.

And somebody knew what I did for that job and kept asking me to help her with her husband's business because she said, I'll pay the bills, you know, I'll invoice my customers, but I hate reconciling the accounts. And she bugged me for months. And so I finally agreed. But at the time, you know, I would have to work from home. I had to get a home operating permit and a business license and buy the software and, you know, do all the things. And I was like, I'm not gonna make enough to even cover those expenses.

Right.

So I probably need to find a few more customers, you know. So I was doing it quote unquote on the side, you know, of my real job. And over time that just started growing. And then my husband finally said like, quit your job and focus on your business. And so I ended up quitting that job I had in 2004 and really then started working on building my team and, you know, growing the company. And so, you know, here we are all these years later and we've been helping clients with bookkeeping and payroll and sales tax, like all the compliance things you have to do and most people don't like to do.

Oh.

That's what we started helping with.

So basically all the things that are sitting in a corner on the pile of my desk that I avoid all the time, that's what I can just lift and shift to you. I can delegate that out.

Yes, exactly. I mean, people get scared when they're dealing with government agencies. And that's why a lot of people come to us because they just want to have peace of mind, know it's handled, it's done accurately, and they're not going to get themselves in trouble.

That's right. Well, and I love that you call out that you give, you know, folks the freedom to focus on what they're— what they enjoy and what they're good at. We think about, you know, some of the services we offer in marketing and sales the same way in that, you know, we give them the freedom to focus on delighting their clients, building solutions, you know, delivering all that stuff. We'll worry about revenue forecasts and generating pipeline and closing deals and all that other stuff for them. So I totally get that value proposition. But one value proposition that I read in your bio that It's really compelling to me because I would love a 4-week vacation right now. So tell us a little bit about— I know that there's a specific framework that you use and some, you know, kind of background and research around this. Tell us about this idea.

Well, I found out about it. So I love Mike Michalowicz too, and the books that he writes. You know, he writes for entrepreneurs and he wants to eradicate poverty, you know, for the entrepreneur. So I've been reading books that he has, and I had Profit First and, you know, had focused on that. And so I was on his email list. And so then he asked people to read Clockwork. He was going to revise it. He had added about 60% more content. And as I was reading it, I'm like, I need this because I'm working like a crazy person in my business. Like most of us do, we start our businesses and we're told, you know, being an entrepreneur is great, you're gonna have freedom and all these things.

Right.

But we usually end up working more than if we were in a regular 9 to 5 job. And so I was thinking, you know, as I'm getting older too, I still have older parents and a mother-in-law and, you know, my kids, My daughter's got 3 kids too. And so I've got people pulling at me sometimes for different things that need me. And at some point, as I lose my parents, I have to be the executor and things like that too. So I was thinking, if I have to do all these other things and I'm working as much as I am in my business, I'm not going to have time to do it all. Right. And so I need to implement this program in my own company. And then I found out about an accelerator program that Adrienne Dorison had put together, and she's the one that Mike actually talked to. to get her ideas and put it into the book. So I started implementing the program and I started with a 1-week vacation, right? It's just, let's start to put things in place.

Sure.

I'm gonna step away. But technically, I didn't actually go on vacation. What I did was I just said, I'm gonna focus on things I haven't had time to do. You know, we all have a list of things we would like to get to at some point. And I think that week I was creating a webinar that I wanted to put together, but I was telling my staff, don't reach out to me. You know, only the operations person, if there's really an emergency, you know, can reach out to me. And then I came back a week later. We had a debrief meeting. What happened? Like, were there any issues? And really, there were no issues that came up, nothing serious that, you know, they weren't sure how to handle. And then a couple months later, I did 2 weeks, right? We did the same thing. Now, at that point, You know, there's more things that are happening in your business when you're gone. So more things could potentially come up.

They can't just hold it for you till you get back.

Exactly. Like for the first week, yeah, they could potentially hold it. It's only a few days. That's right. You know, and then we had the 2 weeks and what happened, you know, what do we need to change again and start implementing things. Um, by the time I did the 3 weeks, I had to offload payroll processing to my operations manager. We had to have like Calls from prospects offloaded. Like there were things that had been on my plate that I had to offload because honestly, as owners, we're the bottlenecks most of the time in our own companies because things have to wait for us. We have to answer questions. We have to get proposals put together. We have to do, you know, certain things. So it forced me to really look at what am I doing that I shouldn't be and teaching other people what needs to be done and giving them permission, you know, to do those things too. And know, someone might make a mistake at first or, you know, no one's perfect. And we always think too in our minds, well, no one could do it like me, right? But we had to learn it too, right?

Or maybe they can do it better.

And that's a good point because a lot of times they can if we give them the permission. But what it did was it allowed me to empower my staff as well and give them ownership of things too so that they could be responsible and know like, here's the outcome that is expected and you don't have to micromanage everything. You know, you just give them You know, this is what needs to be done and let them do it. And I think a lot of times too, we feel, well, if we take time off, the employees might wonder like, why are we taking time off? We should be working. And I'm finding that that is not the case either. Like even I mentioned before we started recording, I wasn't feeling well yesterday. And even today my staff was saying, well, if you're not feeling well, you should just rest, you know, feel better. Don't, you know, you don't need to hop back in here right away. And so it's not like they're expecting you to be here all the time. And if you're not, they're going to be upset with you. And I think that's one of the mindsets we have to get over is thinking we have to be in the business all the time because we're the face of the business and it's not gonna run effectively without us.

Well, and so that brings up so many good things. Uh, the first is, and, and one of the things that I've been spending some time on recently is, is thinking about sort of company culture. Uh, and a lot of companies, the first thing that they do once they start to think about, well, how do I How do I take at least a week vacation or maybe 2? Is they got to build some systems and processes. And so maybe they start to build that. And once you have those systems and processes, just as you said, it actually creates a better environment for collaboration because once the system's written down and doesn't live between your ears anymore, well, then someone else can look at it and say, hey, what if we did this? Whereas they could never do that if it only lives between your ears.

Mm-hmm.

And so you create an opportunity for other people to do their best work. you also create the opportunity for you to give permission for folks to do it. And this is the thing that's really been, you know, sort of speaking to me lately is the idea that, you know, you don't just care about the systems and processes to run the business, but you also care about the culture and what it feels like to work in the business. And if you have this mindset of, well, if I don't show up, no one's going to work, then people can feel that. And then if You don't show up, they don't work because they can tell that's what you expect. Whereas if you empower them by creating a system that they can own, that you collaborated on together, and then empowering them to work without you because you trust that they're going to do good work, it changes the culture of the organization, which, you know, as they say in Harvard Business Review, culture eats strategy for breakfast. So, like, if you can create a culture that, you know, is always looking to do the best thing for your customer and always looking for ways to be more efficient and effective, then that is better than even the best strategy because it makes small changes in every way and every day. Well, have you seen it be much of an impact on your culture at your organization or others that you've worked with? Yeah.

And thankfully, I mean, all of our team too is remote too. So we're not even in the same building. We have people in all different, you know, locations. And so we've had to be very intentional about how we're able to work together and collaborate as well, you know, so that we can support each other even if we're not in the same room.

Right.

And then we did have instructions on how to do certain things. And if someone finds a way to do something better, like we're open to that. And I keep telling people, even as I hire them, it's like, you know what, I am not the know-it-all, you know, and especially as I'm moving out of doing certain tasks, you know, like I'm not using the software as much anymore. So maybe there's an update and you find a better way to do something, like bring to us, like, we think we should do this, you know, can we change this system? And then we could say yes, right? Or give them the permission to do so, you know, as long as it's not going to make a major effect. You know, like a lot of times too, there may be some guidelines you set up that if within a certain range of whatever those, you know, guidelines are, you can make this without even asking.

Yeah.

Right. And then maybe it's like, well, if it's going to affect something that's going to cost more than this, or, you know, it's going to have an impact, then maybe you have to come to us first before we give you permission to implement it. So it's not like you're just giving free rein and then you have to be worried what's going to happen. You can set some guardrails of, you know, within these boundaries you could do it without even talking to us. But, you know, if the situation goes like in this direction, then reach out. You know, but it gives them the opportunity to really like invest themselves in the business too and figure out what they could do to make it better.

Yeah. So I'm curious, you know, as you've developed this expertise and worked with other companies on, you know, sort of implementing these types of systems that allow them to be away, what is the most common, you know, sort of challenge? What's the biggest obstacle that companies have to creating this kind of environment where It's not 100% or where it is 100% dependent on the owner. What's the biggest sort of mistake that they're making when you come in and start working with companies?

Honestly, I think one of the things is, you know, as the owner, then we feel if we're not in the middle of doing all the things, we're not gonna be important anymore, right? Because especially if we founded the company and we've built it and it was, you know, our thing. if we're stepping away and letting other people handle it, we don't feel necessarily as needed, right? And so I think we have to get over that because we're not supposed to be doing all of the things, right? All the little minutiae of the business or doing the tasks. Like, we're supposed to be doing strategic planning and figuring out where the company is going to go next. And that's even one of the things Mike Michalowicz had said in his book is that, you know, as entrepreneurs, we're not supposed to be doing all the work. We're supposed to be creating jobs for other people. To be able to employ them. And I think that's what we need to focus on really too, is not feeling like we are like giving up our own positions or, you know, maybe it's ego or something too that we have to get over, you know. And it's hard sometimes if you've done it for a long time, you know, and when you step away, like it's really hard to not wonder what's going on. And I've had to force myself like, When I step away and I'm not supposed to be doing, you know, anything in the company per se, like I, we have Teams, you know, chat, but they don't message me or I'll turn it off. I don't check email. Like I forward all my emails so I don't even see them. It goes to my operations manager. So even if I wanted to cheat and get in there and take a look, I basically set it up where they're forwarded to her and it doesn't keep a copy. And then when I come back, she sends me anything that she thinks that I need to look at.

Hmm.

But anything else she can handle. And most of the time she's already handled things, but it's like, oh, this is for your information. This is what came in, but she's handled other things. So I think, you know, we just have to get over the fact that we don't have to be doing all of the little tasks in the company. We could be, you know, focused on designing new things for our company and what is the future gonna hold for us and how can we get there? And, you know, all of the higher level things that we usually don't have time to do. If we're doing all of the little tasks.

Well, and what a better place to spend your time. As you know, sort of your value as the entrepreneur is to be that visionary, to be that synthesizer that can see different trends in the marketplace or see different trends within your customers or competitors and different offerings that they're having and to synthesize all of that and skate to where the puck is heading. As Gretzky says. And if you're just buried deep in the business, it's really hard to do that, whereas you've got a unique skill set as an entrepreneur. And so, if you create an environment where you can do that, it really leads to a lot more success, which is really interesting to sort of hear and talk about. And it's also sort of triggered a thought with me. I've been doing some work recently with like certified exit planning advisors and folks that help people sell their businesses. And the thing that I hear from them consistently is, you know, people don't think about selling until they're ready to sell. And by then it's kind of too late. And I say, well, what's the, you know, sort of number one thing that they should do is— and they're like, you got to make it so that the business can run without you because if you're the only one that knows how to run it, no one else wants to buy it because—

Right.

A, they're not you and they're afraid that they can't be what all that you are to the business. And B, they don't want to not be able to take a vacation. They want a business that runs on their own. And so, if you can build this thing that runs on its own and you can say, I took a 4-week vacation, it's a lot more appealing to a potential buyer. And so, it makes it a lot more valuable asset.

That's for sure. Because again, if you are the owner and you are doing all the things and you're the bottleneck, no one's gonna want to buy your business because there's not a value to it. It's you doing all the work and they don't wanna work the 50, 60 hours a week or whatever that you're currently working. So it's for your own benefit too. And not only just for that reason, but for our own health and mental, you know, as we're getting into the middle of business and everything too and working so much, it's not really healthy for us to work as much as we are, right?

That's true.

And like I said, as things come up, I need to be able to step away if something happens and not feel that I can't do that. And I don't want to feel guilty that I can't step away if, you know, somebody calls and, you know, if my daughter's like, Mom, something happened, I need you to come over. I want to be able to say, yes, I can come over and help you and not say, oh, I'm sorry, I have to, you know, check my email today because I've got all these projects, you know, that have to be done. You know, or if, you know, something happens to my parents, I want to be able to go and help care for them as necessary. And I have been able to do that periodically and Sometimes just for, you know, fun visits right now. But, you know, my mom a couple of years ago had to have surgery, and that was even before I was doing what I'm doing now, where I literally could step away and I was still working while I was at her house.

Right.

And so then I'm trying to juggle like, okay, I'm going to prepare meals, I'm going to help take care of her. But now I'm still doing all the things that I need to do. And so looking at the things in my life that have come up and what is potentially coming up in the near future, I was like, I need to get to where I can step away if needed. And when I heard Adrienne Dorison say she took 13 weeks away for maternity leave and she didn't check in one time, like, I know it's possible and it seems impossible when we think about it, but we can get there.

Wow.

And so it's not perfect, right? Like, even now when I, you know, step away, maybe something comes up that then we still tweak. But that's what we are doing is we're learning. We're continuing to make changes, hiring the right staff, figuring out the roles that they need to be in. And if we need to remove someone from a certain role and put them in a different role, that's what we're learning as we're doing all of this too, is like who has the strengths to do these certain things and finding those right people as we continue going along. That's one of the keys is you have to get the right people too who see the vision of your company too and want to be a part of it. They don't want to just show up, get a paycheck, and go home, but they want to be really part of something.

Yeah. So, for our audience that's listening and they're like, boy, I could sure use a 13-week vacation or at least a 1 week, what's something they could get started on today? Like, what's an actionable takeaway that they could get started on this path of creating some systems that allow them to remove themselves? What's that first thing they should do?

I think the first thing would be time tracking, right? You need to know what you're really doing. And a lot of times we think we know how much time we're spending on things. And then when you really look at it, you're going to be surprised you're spending a lot more time on certain things. So if you do a time tracking, I would say like 3 to 5 days, you know, a couple of days isn't really enough because some things only happen maybe once a week or something, but really track your time and be detailed about what you're doing, you know? So are you answering customer emails? Are you researching software? Are you having client meetings? Like, Just detail all the things, how long you're spending on those tasks, and then you can analyze like, what are the things that I'm doing that I don't need to do anymore? And, you know, can I transfer that to someone else on my team? Is there a way that maybe I can make that take less time? You know, like meetings, a lot of times, you know, if it's 30 minutes on the calendar, you spend 30 minutes, right? But maybe you can change that to 20 minutes and get 10 minutes of your day back, you know, for that too. So little things like that that you could figure out, what could I do more efficiently? Can I have somebody do this for me? Is it something I still really need to do? Maybe you're still doing it just because it's something you've been doing for a long time. Maybe you don't even need to be doing it any longer. So I think that's the first step is really analyzing that. I do have a tool for that too, that if somebody is interested, I can send them the link. You know, they could reach out to me because it will— they'll be able to fill it in and it will calculate the totals for them. But I think that's the first step. Yeah.

So that leads us to a great, you know, sort of next, next point of the conversation for folks that have been listening and they're like, I could really use some of this and I could use some help doing it. Obviously, you've got a lot of expertise. What's the best way for them to get in touch with you and talk about how you can help them start to create some of these systems in their, in their business?

Sure. Well, there is on my website, it's abandp.com, short for affordable bookkeeping and payroll. So abandp.com, there's actually a questionnaire on there that they can fill out too and just reach out. Or if you're on social media, you can find me on LinkedIn. You can send me a message there too. And then we can start the process and figure out like, are we a good fit for you and kind of start that process with you. But there's just so many different things I want to encourage people to do, like, because I'm there now and like I said, it's not perfect yet, but I started with working way too much and, you know, I'm still—

Yeah.

Getting things off my plate, but I have been able to step away. And like I said, I even took just a couple weeks ago completely disengaged. I didn't even do any work at all, where other times, like I said, I've been like, oh, I get to do something that has been on my I wish I was able to do this list. And I finally got some of those things done too. So it is possible, and I want to help you get there.

Well, you paint an inspiring vision from the other side of it. The top of the mountain that many of us are trying to reach. So, thank you so much for taking the time to come on and share with us. And what was that website address one more time? ABANDP?

Yeah, abandp.com. Got it.

abandp.com. Thank you so much, Candyce, for taking the time to come on the show today. That link will obviously be in the show notes, but I really appreciate you taking the time.

Well, thank you for inviting me. I was glad to be your guest.

All right, talk to you soon.

All right, bye.

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