"WATCH THIS To Earn More Money While WORKING LESS!" | Allison Maslan

Yeah, I mean, in the early years, I had zero sales training, and mine came out of a need. As being a single mom, I had to figure out a way to make the business work. I had a lot of people around me telling me to get a job. Who do you think you are? I literally, Gina, had no money and my daughter was young then, and I just didn't want to get a job. I. Well, let's just say I couldn't keep a job. I tried, but I was one of those unemployable.

So.

Welcome to the scale or fail show. I am your host and business growth mentor, Alison Maslin. I'm also the founder of Pinnacle Global Network, where we mentor business owners around the world to grow and scale. And on the scale or fail show, we love to talk about anything. Business, business growth and hopefully make the journey easier for you and faster to get to where you want to go in the least amount of time with the least amount of effort. And so today, what we've been doing on the last few episodes is kind of turning the table. And I get to be interviewed on my own show. And this is new for me in like 10 years, haven't done this. So I love interviewing amazing people and building relationships. It's one of my favorite things in the world. Sometimes I don't get to really share some of the wisdom that I've picked up along the way. So today I've got one of my favorite people in the world, Gina Ruby. Hi, Gina.

Hi, Alison. Good to be here.

And Gina has been on my team going on nine years. I believe in Pinnacle Global Network. She's been with me since almost the beginning. We've been together. We've had the company 11 years. And Gina is a very successful business owner in her own right, in the health space. And she is such a superstar. Clients absolutely love her. And you're amazing at sales too, Gina. And so you know a lot about driving in cash flow, which is our topic today. And I love talking about cash flow because you kind of have to have it when you're running a business. So let's dive in.

Alrighty. I'll take it away. So we do use the scale up method with our Pinnacle clients, and today we're specifically going to talk about cash flow and how it actually integrates with the scale it method. So the first question is, what actually is cash flow and is it different than revenue?

Yeah. So in the scale it method. And let me just recap for a second. For those of you that haven't heard me talk about this is the anacronym for scale. The S, C, A, L, E, and this five, five pillars that you absolutely have to have to scale your business successfully. So one is the S is strategic vision, the C is cash flow, and the A is alliance of the team. The L is leadership and the E is execution. Where it all, you know, where the magic happens. So we're talking about the C today, which is cash flow. And it's, you know, cash flow is the oxygen of your business. It's really breathing life into everything. You've got to have it. And it's critical because it fuels the growth for all aspects of your business. And the cash flow is driven through marketing, through sales, through financial investment, through joint venture relationships and so on. And there's revenue, which is your overall, you know how much is coming in on the totality. But at the end of the day, it's profit. You know what's left in your pocket, you know what's left to reinvest in your business or do whatever with. And you've really got to monitor these things with projecting your cash flow so that you can make smart strategic decisions. You know, I'm all about power of intention and let's move ahead, let's take the big leaps, but let's also be clear and be strategic about it. So it's important that you're constantly driving cash flow in your company. The doors should never be closed. You've got to be a revenue focused company instead of constantly thinking, oh, I've got to get investors, I've got to get someone to loan me money. No, you got to sell stuff. And then you've got to have systems and processes around the money because it can go out faster than it comes in.

Yeah. And it's quite fascinating what we find with our clients. They can be seasoned business professionals, but a lot of times they don't know their numbers, which is fascinating. So cash flow, revenue, all that is a part of knowing your numbers. And when you know your numbers, there's power in that, whether it means they're under what you want, then you got to, you know, work harder, or if they're over, then it's a win. So we definitely hone in on our clients knowing their numbers. What would you say is your favorite ways to maximize cash flow with less effort and with time and investment?

Yeah, so this is my favorite topic because it's all about scaling and that's what we help our clients do. And it's about replicating you as the business owner. So if you're the product, you can't really scale that. And you are, you know, you go to sleep or you take vacation, the money stops. So it's about finding ways to replicate what you do or replicate your product or service beyond you. And so that's where the real growth happens. That's where you really find your multiplier. And so it's the same amount of time and energy going out to one person could reach potentially hundreds or thousands or millions or billions even. And so that's one side. The other side is that business owners.

Often.

They'Ll get frustrated if there's not enough cash flow coming in, especially earlier stage business owners. Once you get over a million, you've kind of got some systems in place and you've got consistent leads coming in. But, you know, we always tell our clients, you need to be spending two to three hours on sales. If you're doing the sales. If you have a sales team, they need to be doing focused on sales 24 7. But when we dive in, it's more like two to three hours a week that they're doing. And then, you know, okay, well, now we get why there's no cash coming in the door. So, you know, if. And if you are, again, if you are the one that is delivering that product or service. So, for instance, if you're the accountant or you're the attorney or you're the coach or whatever, it's fine to get it going, but after a while, you've got to replicate you, because you can then only help so many people. There's only so many hours in the day, and you're going to hit a ceiling in the growth of your company.

Which you have done that. You've done that exact same thing in 11 years. It used to be just you, and then you got more and more clients. You added a few more coaches, a few more. And now we're up to at least 14 coaches. So you've replicated yourself, which isn't easy to do, to give your baby away, not away, but to share it. And you've done a phenomenal job. And I love that because you've been there, done that. You get to pay it forward and teach other people how to do it, too.

Yeah. Thanks, Gina. It's so true. It's probably one of the hardest things, I think, for business owners to let go. And I know it was for me at first because it's your baby and you care so much. But what I realized, it's worth it.

Because now you're reaching thousands and thousands.

Yeah, yeah. So once you make that jump, then you're like, oh, what was my problem? You know, they love our team. You know, they're not there going, well, where's Alison? You know, they're really happy with our team because, you know, build a good team, and they'll support the vision and the clients and all of that.

Yep. Which is about hiring well, too. And that's a whole other episode that you've mastered, but moving right along. So what is it? When CEOs are scaling, they almost seem to be losing money.

Yeah.

Even scaling.

Yeah. Well, it's. You know, we say this in Pinnacle all the time. It's about working on the business, not in it. But most business owners are working in the business, not on it. So you become the bottleneck, and we really are the ones in our own way. And so when you hire strategically, which we teach in Pinnacle Global Network, when we work with our clients, we show you how to hire towards growth. And so when you hire someone, and some of you might be saying, gosh, Allison, I'd love to hire, but I don't have the money to do it. But if you're hiring towards growth, every employee should be bringing in three to 10 times their salary in one way or another. That directly affects the bottom line. So it could be that they are bringing in sales. Of course, that's very direct. But it could be just getting things off your plate. So you could be out there building amazing relationships that will open so many doors for you. So building team is growth strategy. Strategy. By trying to do it all, you're staying small. You're creating struggle, and you're creating overwhelm. And so there is, you know, there's roi, return on investment, then there's roe, return on energy. And so that's really where. And, you know, Gina, you know my story, right? Like, a gazillion times, you've heard it where I was making money, but I was totally dying inside because I absolutely had no life. And that's not winning.

The cool thing that we help our clients do is not only make more money by getting things off their plate, but also getting more time. And that time, you can never get back. So the money and the time is such an amazing gift that they actually.

Well, they're getting life right. They're getting life right because the clock is ticking by. And, you know, I mean, I love my business. I love what I'm doing right now. This is so fun. But if you're doing things in your business like a lot of business owners are doing, they're not focused on their genius. They're doing things they don't like at all. And to me, it's like, you know what, I had that conversation with Richard Branson. He said, there's only so many days we have on this earth. So, you know, every, every moment is precious. And you know that, Gina, from what you've been through.

Right, Exactly.

So. So yeah, it's so pivotal. And this is the cool thing, is that we've helped so many clients, I mean, totally get their life back. And, you know, we have so many clients. I love talking about Marshall. You know, no vacation for 20 years, working 60 hours a week in his business, and now only needs to be in his business 90 minutes a week. And they've grown by millions of dollars. And so, you know, they went from like 35 to 85 employees. And, you know, he's not even really running the business anymore.

Yep. And Pam, who grew her team from zero to four people in a year, doubled her revenue, and went on a vacation for the first time in like five years. So really, their life back.

Yeah. On all levels. On all levels. You don't have to wait till, you know, you're up to 30 employees to do it. He, Marshall, waited about 20 years too long.

A 20 year overnight learning lesson.

Yes.

So what are some of the biggest mistakes CEOs make with cash flow? And where are some of those cash flow leaks?

Yeah. And look, all the things that I'm sharing with you, these are mistakes I've made. Failures. They're not really failures, but they've been, I call them research and development. And I definitely had to learn this. You know, as my companies start getting bigger, you have to get your arms around it. It's one thing when you're organizing 500,000 in revenue, but when you have like 3 million coming in and you've got employees and you start seeing receipts and things and you're like, what? You know, how did this happen? You know, who decided to buy this thing? So there's money slipping through the cracks. You've got to have bench, you know, you've got to have systems and processes around the money. And you've got to be strategic with your products, your services and your marketing. Like really have a concrete plan. What are you going to be implementing in the year and what is your expected roi? And so that you can plan your implementation of everything you do in a smart way. So, and the other thing is, you want to make sure you have a good profit margin. A lot of times when we dive into our clients that are working really hard and they're not making that great of money. I'm like, you know, what's wrong here? And we really look and the where they're putting their energy are on the things that are not really making them that much money. They have to have a decent profit margin.

And so for that, they even need to know what their profit and loss is.