How to Build a Grown Up Business

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I've coached hundreds of businesses and even the ones who are already at really high six figures are already at seven figures. They would come to me believing they needed a specific thing and then I was really excited. So I was like, ooh, we're gonna fix some complicated thing, you know, some big complex thing. And when I would go in and do my audit, the thing that needed fixing was always something really foundational.

This is the Launch youh Business podcast because we know starting a business is challenging, but it doesn't have to be confusing. Each week we'll give you the tactical advice and the necessary tools to scale your business with without feeling burnt out. I'm Terry Rice, business development consultant and staff writer here at Entrepreneur magazine. Let's dive in. Selly, how's it going today?

It's going good. It's going good. How are you?

I'm good. I'm glad. Cause I'm talking to you right now and can you just go ahead and introduce yourself? I think that'll be beneficial for context before we hop into the rest of the conversation.

Yeah, absolutely. I am a business growth strategist. I help entrepreneurs and small businesses get from the 1 to $5 million range in revenue, profitably, of course, and also a certified mindset coach and 25 year long entrepreneur.

Awesome. So I want to get into what you're doing now in a moment, but can you just go back to the beginning of your career? Because I think it'll help some people listening realize that you don't have to stay stuck in a current occupation, even if you're really good at it. So do you mind just going back to the beginning? Just kind of walking us through your career in general?

Oh my gosh. I mean, talk about not staying stuck in things. So I started my first, like real serious business when I think I was about 23. And that was a fashion line, which was amazing because I learned about the importance of understanding production, supply chain logistics, like the stuff about business that a lot of people want to avoid. I learned that early on and how painful it is. Then I went and got an MBA after running that company for nine years. And I always say it ran me into the ground. So ironically now that's what I help a lot of entrepreneurs do is not allow their businesses to run them into the ground. I got an mba and when you and I met, I had kind of worked my way from startups to corporate sales and partnerships back into startups. And when you and I met, I was a COO at a tech startup, but starting to coach and consult on the side because I really had built a business there that was pretty stable and I was kind of bored. And so I started coaching and consulting people on the side because what I'd like to do is build businesses. So once a business is built and working, I start to go, well, who can I help? What can I do? So I've pivoted many times and you helped me in the very, very beginning, actually begin to think about even positioning myself and how to position myself as a business, business coach and consultant for helping businesses grow. So that's evolved over time. Like now I have my own proprietary framework because I've coached hundreds and hundreds of businesses, several into the seven figures. And I've created my own framework that I now use to walk people through a framework, but still gives them their own custom strategy. Because I really believe that different businesses need different things and everyone deserves to have the business that works for them. Probably your business model doesn't work for me and I, you have four kids, so I'm pretty sure my business model doesn't work for you. So that's kind of how I've evolved over time.

I appreciate the fact that you learned it, lived it, now you're teaching it because there are so many coaches out there like, oh, I'm going to help you grow your business or I'm going to help you, whatever. But they haven't actually grown a business, they just learn how to coach. Right. Which I think is important to learn those skills, but it's also you need like, you know, actual lived experience. So I'm glad you're doing that. But you hinted at this framework and I know all our listeners are going to be upset if they don't hear about this framework. So do you mind walking through that, please?

Yeah. So I like what you said. What happens is sometimes people hit success doing one thing and then they think that they can coach others to do it that way. And business doesn't work that way and growth doesn't actually work that way. So the framework is called the grown ass business framework. And what it is is basically, you've probably seen this yourself. I've coached hundreds of businesses and even the ones who are already at really high six figures are already at seven figures. They would come to me believing they needed a specific thing, right? And then I was really excited. I was like, oh, we're going to fix some complicated thing, you know, some big complex thing. And when I would go in and do my audit, the thing that needed fixing was always something really foundational. And I was like, womp, womp. It's just product market fit again. Or it's oh, profitability again. Oh, or like understanding your sales pipeline and how to follow up with a sales pipeline, how to Use, you know, foundational things every single time. So at the end of last year I was like, what if I just addressed all those foundational things so that we're much further along and growing faster. So that's what the grownass business framework is based on, is understanding what, what are the fundamentals first that you have to have in place and then from there when that's solid, then you can go into creating a marketing machine and automations and delegating and scaling and moving yourself out of the business. Everybody wants to do those sexy things first. But the reason you fall apart in exhaustion and burnt out and overwhelm is because you haven't built the foundation to handle that. So the foundational part of this framework, you're gonna love this. It's number one. What is your business vision, which you and I have talked about a lot. And it's a business vision isn't one sentence and it's actually a document that guides every other decision. And it's actually a document you share publicly and you share with your team. And then what is product market fit and how do you get it? What is a profitable pricing strategy? Right. How do you build sales projections and sales plan and a sales pipeline off of that? How do you build a simple marketing plan? So I have the one page marketing plan in there and then what is this? How do you use the CRM to follow up with your leads? Because you're always sitting on money and a lot of times they're in your sales pipeline or your system or your CRM. And if you don't have one, you don't know where your leads are. It's like those old commercials. It's 10 o'. Clock. Do you know where your leads are? Remember that commercial? You and I are old enough to know that commercial. And then what are the KPIs that you actually need to be tracking? Because we're all confused by KPIs and metrics so therefore we ignore them and yeah, and clash flow sheet is in there as well. So we cover just all the foundational pieces before you can do the whole delegating yourself out of your business and scaling and all that stuff.

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Yes, absolutely. And I'm glad you mentioned mindset. So I do things opposite. A lot of mindset coaches say it's all mindset and mindset first. And what I say is it is all mindset solid business foundations first. So what happens when we cover those business foundations and I do it with you, you are going to see in what departments and what pillars your mindset stops you and then you get to see for yourself like, oh, is that a number? Like, oh, it turns out figuring out my numbers is actually really easy. So I just have a mindset issue around money and numbers and looking at my numbers. It's not that the numbers are hard and that's where I like to play with mindset is let's get that, let's do that business stuff first. And then what's going to happen when we do that make it solid is your mindset is going to bubble to the surface and then we can address it.

Let's, let's go deeper on that because I talk about money mindset quite often because when I first started my business I was not charging nearly enough. I was charging like 40 bucks an hour, whereas now I'm at 700. So, so things have gone better. But what's a common issue people have around pricing that might be related to mindset that you've experienced around price?

So there's the classic, oh, I can't possibly raise my prices. So there. So that doesn't have to do with the price of something and the value of something that has to do with self worth. Right. Or what I'm seeing a lot now is, well, my coach told me this product is supposed to be at around 5k. Let's say someone has put a sticker on my offer and now I just have to like somehow get up the courage to say it's 5k or even better. I saw a pricing sheet, somebody shares a lead magnet of prices, of the going rate for a consultant, the going rate for a marketer, the going rate for. And so now because I saw a pricing sheet, I'm somehow supposed to start charging that for my offer. And the thing is, the thing around pricing is if your body doesn't believe it, if your mind doesn't believe the price, if you're going to go, you wouldn't have gone from $40 to 700 and been like, yeah, here we go, I'm 700 now. But a lot of people are getting this advice. It's like, raise your prices. Just raise your prices. Just raise your prices. Well, your mind and your body actually needs to catch up to that. And so that's the mindset of it. So what I do is use tools for your mind and body to catch up to the reality of what your pricing needs to be. Number one, we do a simple exercise, profitability. Let's look at your costs, let's look at your cost of living. Let's see how much money you need to make in your business to cover your expenses. And not just to break even, but to actually live life. So that starts to create evidence for your brain of, oh, I can't charge $40 an hour anymore because I would have to serve 100 people a month to make enough money to just cover my expenses. That's crazy time. Now we're providing evidence for your mind to go, yeah, that $40, that's low, right? It's really hard to get somebody to go from 40 to even 400 because they don't, they don't. There's self worth issues in there. There's belief in there, there's. The mindset is. That's what I call like when your mindset is getting intertwined with strategy. And then it's really hard to just create a clear strategy or make a clear business decision. So I use tools to show your mind. Oh, yeah, 40 is too low. But what I do also have is people who suddenly put a really high sticker price on their offer because someone told them to, and then they're not selling and they're not closing and then they're like, oh, well, maybe people just don't want what I have to offer. That's the other end of the spectrum. So there's two ends of the spectrum. Oh, I'm not good enough. I suck at business. People don't want my offer because I'm not selling. No, it's just that now you've priced yourself out of your audience. You suddenly priced yourself out of the market that knows you and the people who know you. You don't know how to speak to that higher paying audience yet. You're probably not in the right rooms or on the right stages or in the right platforms to speak to them, but you've suddenly put a new price on your offer because someone told you to. Also a mindset thing, because again, we need to do the work to create the evidence that you can charge that 5k for your group program or whatever it is. Right. So it can. The mindset on money can play on both extremes of the spectrum.

You know what's interesting on the other side, where people are charging too much, I've realized some people will raise their rates, but they don't raise their standards and how they conduct themselves and how they present themselves. And to your point, there's a misalignment there, so you can say I'm worth $5,000, but if you don't act like someone's worth $5,000, then it ain't going to work. Right. And people can kind of tell when you're faking it just because you googled how much to charge or someone told you this. So I think that's, that's a good thing you're calling out here. And I don't, I don't like to heavily endorse people on the show, but I feel like you have a very good combination of just knowing the nuts and bolts of business, but also going into the mindset piece. But you're just truly an empathetic person too. So it's like this triple threat where you have all these tools, but also just naturally want to help people. So I just know that anyone who partners with you would get a lot of value from that. But I'm wondering if you feel comfortable sharing any examples of people that you've worked with in the past and doesn't have to be a dollar amount, but maybe the, the outcomes they've experienced as a result of that.

Yeah, absolutely. Well, I literally received a text from a client of mine who did the grown ass business accelerator earlier this year, like literally right before we got on this call. That's why I'm all in a happy mood, because she just texted me a graph of her revenue growth and said, 15% profitability is up. We have 15% higher profitability than last year. We've also had 32% growth. And I'm working less. And she literally said, it actually feels weird to work this little. And I'm like, we just did all the things I claim that I do, right? Grow the business, grow the profitability, grow your revenue, but also work less. And I just told her, let yourself feel the weirdness until it doesn't feel weird anymore to now be working less. But one of her things is one of my key pillars that I teach. Her and her husband run a production company, and they had like 14 offers on their menu and only two of them were actually really profitable. So they were selling a bunch of offers spinning out in over delivery. And they hadn't really realized that over time, only two or three of those offers were actually making them money. So we just created a whole new offer suite of the three core packages that people typically buy and made sure those three offers are actually profitable. So they're only selling three offers now, and they've grown revenue and grown profitability.

There you go. Yeah, it's funny, just that one thing saying, okay, what am I selling? How much am I making off of it? And can I do this 80, 20 thing where I focus on the 20% that's making the 80% of the revenue? So that stuff like when you, when you hear it, it sounds simple, but until you actually work with someone to expose those blind spots and opportunities, it can be challenging to see them. So for everyone listening, how can they learn more about you and potentially work with you if they. If they'd like to?

So an easy way to find me is just go to grownassbusiness.com because then you don't have to remember how to spell my name. Or if you are an Instagram fan, you can find me at I am Doncella D O N C E L I A and I always have a cool menu of offers and things there.

Awesome. Selli, this has been amazing. Thank you very much for this. I'm learning as I'm talking to you and I just appreciate you. You and the impact you have on the entire entrepreneur community. So thanks for that.

Oh, thank you. Thanks so much. Thanks for having me on.

Apply what you've learned on today's show. You'll find the show notes and more resources at TerryRice co. Podcast. Again, that's TerryRice co. Podcast. And the best way to support this podcast is by subscribing, telling a friend and leaving a review. Also, you can get more tips by following me on Instagram, terryrice or follow me on LinkedIn. This episode was produced by Josh Wilcox of Brooklyn Podcasting Studio and edited by Dan Lardy. Special thanks to my wife, Dominique, for keeping our kids relatively quiet as I recorded. Thanks again for listening. I'll see you next time.