Episode #43 - Growing and Scaling Your Business

Episode Transcript

Welcome to business reflections with your host Meredith Matics, and we are here to reflect on the business topics that are affecting you today and how you can better run your business.

Meredith Matics: Today I have Melissa Machat, founder of realigned coaching and consulting. Welcome onto the podcast, Melissa.

Melissa Machat: Thank you so much for having me. 

Meredith Matics: So before we go dive into our questions, let's get a little bit about your background. What led you to startRe-Align Coaching? 

Melissa Machat: So I actually come from a theater and dance background, and have a degree in theater from USC, which brought me to LasVegas of all places.

Cause I wanted to audition for the shows here. 

Meredith Matics: I was going to say, I feel like that's a good place to go. If you want to be in right acting there. Plenty of shows. 

Melissa Machat: Exactly. It was in Los Angeles. I was working professionally in stage management and just with the cost of living, I miss performing Vegas just was kind of calling to me.

Moved out here at 24 years old was auditioning for shows, actually got a job dealing cards in a [00:01:00] casino. So that is kind of heart of the story is I've always had multiple jobs to get by always kind of how to whatever it takes attitude. And that led me to realizing I wanted a real job. So I chose real estate of all things in 2009, which was the bottom of the market, but I didn't know any different.

I was used to being broke from theater. So it was still a lot of money for meand I started to build my business really quickly, but I also burned out over the years and I woke up one day, probably in 2014, I started seeing success. I was starting to make money. I thought money would solve all my problems of course.

Right. And I was completely miserable and I, I kind of created this monster without realizing it and letting the business completely control me. And so that led me on a purchase personal development journey, which led me to NLP. Or neuro-linguistic programming to a training in the fall of 2019.

So not that long ago. And pretty much within 30 days started my [00:02:00] coaching business. It's something I'd always wanted to do, but I felt like I wasn't ready or wasn't good enough, or didn't have enough credentials, or I hadn't made it far enough in order to earn the right to help others. And so that NLP training is really what changed it all and I was able to get out of my own way and Re-Align was, born. 

Meredith Matics: Wow. Okay. So quite the journey. We all take our own time. We get there when we need to be. So today we're going to be talking about, one of, I want to say is kind of the scariest things about being a small business and that is growing and scaling.

 There's a lot that goes into growing and scaling, but it also could be a lot of fun because it means you're going to be able to do so much more with your company. So my first question is if a business owner is wanting to get serious about like really growing their company, where do they even start? 

Melissa Machat: So I'm always going to say it's systems and people. 

So systems, meaning what do you actually need to [00:03:00] automate and create in your business so that when you scale, you can handle the new business coming in. And then people meaning, leverage or hiring and having that admin support.

And hiring the right admin, they'll actually help you build your systems for you. So I think that's part of where solo preneurs get stuck is they think they're the ones that need to create all these systems. Usually if you're the entrepreneur, the systems, the backend, the organization, that's not normally our strong suit.

So I find that that's also a big challenge is people think, well, someday when I have time to get everything organized, then I can hire. But to me, the secret to scaling is getting help, getting support, making a hire so they can help you build out the business. 

Meredith Matics: What do you think are the most important considerations that a business owner needs to think about when getting ready to scale?

I know you're saying that bringing on personnel is basically a really [00:04:00] critical point, but what should they be thinking about before that? 

Melissa Machat: So I think it's so important to be clear about your own vision, where you're going, why do you want to grow? What is the org chart of your company that you're looking to create?

Because a lot of the times we think bigger is better and I need to grow and, you know, businesses coming in. But if we don't take the time to actually get clear about what that path looks like, what we're trying to create, where we're even going then usually we don't make the right hires because we're just doing it out of necessity or we're desperate, or we're overwhelmed.

We're not thinking big picture. 

Meredith Matics: I can definitely speak to that one. Yep. 

Melissa Machat: By the way, our personal experiences of learning the hard way. So yeah, 

And that's part of not being clear on the vision is you kind of, I mean, I know when I made my first hire in 2013 and it was kind of, yeah.

I just need help. So whoever shows up would be great. [00:05:00] You know, there was no, I had no direction. I had no idea like what I was even doing. I just knew I needed help. And when you're in that place everybody looks great if especially, if they seem to know what they're doing and then you don't understand why it didn't work out and you're like, what, what went wrong? 

Yeah. Yeah. You're like, you're breathing and you can type. Yup. 

You're hired. 

Meredith Matics: Yeah. My first year of growth, like real growth in hiring people, I had a lot of turnover, but it, I'm like, because I'm not picking people who want to be in it for the same reasons that I want to be in it. You know, they're just doing it to fill a gap in time and they're not committed to the purpose and they're not going to stay.

And that was something I definitely had to realize. 

Melissa Machat: I'm so glad you brought that up because I do feel like when it comes to hiring, that is a huge mistake is not being again, clear on where you're going, but not checking in to make sure the person you want to hire is, is on the same path as you. And they're in alignment with your vision.[00:06:00]

They want to help you get there. A lot of times, like you said, it's oh, you're, you're human and you're breathing and you know what to do, like great come on board. And then they leave because they were never the right fit to begin with. And they were never in alignment with the actual vision of the company. . 

Meredith Matics: So do you think hiring is the biggest mistake or issue that people make when they're first growing their company or even not even first growing just growing in general?

Or do you think there's other mistakes that we make.

Melissa Machat: Ooh, that's a good one. Well, I mean, there's plenty of mistakes. I'm sure I can think of that, that I made, but I'd say the biggest one was not understanding what it takes to be a leader, lead others and, and hiring and not understanding how to hire, how to even figure out if they are the right match or not.

Like, that's great to say, okay, are they in alignment with the vision? How do I even figure that out? So I do think that was a huge pain for me when I was actually building my real estate business. At one point I had two full time employees. I had two agents who were also working for me [00:07:00] and leading other people, not understanding, you know, why aren't they working as hard as me or why don't they just, you know, go do whatever they're supposed to do.

Like just not understanding leadership and realizing that leadership is actually a skill that's learned. It's not just something that you, go, oh, I'm just a natural leader. Like that's, that's not necessarily true. 

Meredith Matics: Yeah. Do you think there's any other factors or anything else that get overlooked regularly?

I mean, I think one of the things we think about the most, growing is it's financial resources, but I feel like there's so much more that goes into it. So what else are we not thinking of when we're thinking about growing?

Melissa Machat: So Heidi talked about the vision and being clear on where you're going, obviously who or who's missing, who do you need to help you get there? But I think it's, it's being really in touch with like your own goals of why, why do you want to grow bigger is not always better. A lot of people think, well, I need to make more money.

Well, [00:08:00] bringing on other people costs something as well. That's an expense, it's an investment. So I think a lot of business owners, if you scale too quickly, that can also be a huge negative impact. If customer service is now sacrificed, if you know, you're dropping the ball, things are slipping through the cracks.

People are not getting what they thought they were signing up for. And a lot of small businesses, even like I'm thinking of like restaurants, Pre COVID of course, but just restaurants where they would scale too fast. And, and it didn't, they didn't last, right. They didn't have those foundations in place. So I guess that's my very long way of saying, make sure you also have the foundations in your business so that you can grow and handle w hatever is coming your way. 

Meredith Matics: Well, I have heard that, growing too fast as like the number one killer of businesses, I don't know if that's totally accurate, but that's definitely something I've heard.

Melissa Machat: And so, yeah, that's, that's a [00:09:00] huge one is if you are going to spend money on anything. What return are you expecting from it? 

Meredith Matics: That is, I mean, I help a lot of small practices grow and I see a lot of them get really excited about growing and bringing on other providers just because well, I mean, realistically, we are living in the age of FOMO and it's like you talk on Facebook or whatever with other providers, or even as business owners, we talk to other business owners.

Oh. But they have 10 employees. I should have 10 employees. I could make so much money and not realizing like all the intricacies of what goes into that. Like logistically, like worker's comp you know, payroll taxes. 

Melissa Machat: Everybody else does it, but they're probably not profitable. And the thing we also don't know yet talk about his, his profitability, and that's great to grow the business. And that's great. You're making all this money, but what kind of overhead do you have now? And that is a lot.

It can be a lot of [00:10:00] pressure and a lot of responsibility. And again, not everybody really wants that. They don't. I feel like a lot of the times we don't realize what we're signing up for? Like, like, oh, I just I'm ready to bring somebody on and you run the numbers and it's like, wait, it costs, what, what do you mean worker,

O h, that's not a $40,000 salary. That's actually going to cost me like 50 to 60, like that's, you know, that's not the same thing. Yeah. 

Meredith Matics: There's so much that like, especially when we do start as solo preneurs, we're really good at something obviously, or we wouldn't be doing it and growing and needing to grow.

But usually what we're not good at is like the HR or the logistics of the things that are not in our realm. Maybe I make jewelry and I'm really good at it and really high quality. And then I want to bring somebody on and they're just not the same quality that I am. And, and then now you got to do payroll and used to be a creative mind, but now you got to think like numbers and make sure that they clock out at exactly [00:11:00] five hours.

Melissa Machat: And that's part of that, that leadership skill, right? Like now you're responsible for somebody else. Are you holding them accountable? Are you communicating with them? Do you just expect them to show up and figure it out? Like there's, there's definitely a lot more to it that I think we, we, there's almost a lack of training out there.

Meredith Matics: Yeah. Yeah. So what kind of resources or where should people be looking if they want to grow the, the leadership skill ? 

Melissa Machat: There's so many podcasts and books and resources that are available and the way I would find them is maybe who's either doing something you're in your industry or who is, you know, like of course there's Steve jobs. There's, you know, books about founder of Nike. There's all these different companies.

What's one that speaks to you. Go see if there is a book that they wrote and, and just start kind of, I guess, paying attention to it. Awareness to me is always the first step. So when you realize that leadership is something that you want [00:12:00] to figure out and pursue, there are a number of resources and books and podcasts that, that do talk about it.

I just think that you have to be looking. 

Meredith Matics: Well and I feel like too, as a leader, when you're growing and growing a company, I mean, it's really stressful, but a lot of it is to take a, not like a whole, like I'm going to set aside 15 minutes every day to reevaluate this, but to look at like, if, if you're bringing on employees and they're not sticking, or they're not working the way you want, what is going on, that's causing that.

Was that like a) a bad hire like, do they not fit to begin with? Did you make the mistake there or b) are you not communicating in a way? Are you not explaining it? Are you, but this is like, my big error is I just have so much in my brain that I will say something thinking that they know the other half of it and I have to be like, okay, Meredith, noteverybody has everything stored in your brain.

Melissa Machat: Yeah. I remind people all the time. Like, they're not mind readers, they're not psychic. Right. Even if they were, there's no way for [00:13:00] them to really know what we're thinking on our end, if we're not able to communicate it with them. 

Meredith Matics: So getting back into that, like once a business owner has identified that. They want to grow their business, like, do you have steps or stages that they should be going through you suggestto like, really make sure they do it smoothly. Like, how do we, we were talking about all these problems that could come about, but how does one like do it correctly?

Melissa Machat: So this is probably where I would say having a coach, having a mentor really is so important. And here's the thing. There's a lot of people out there who are, you know, coaches and business coaches and growth coaches and whatever label you want to put on it. And so I'm very particular about finding someone who isdoing things in a way that you want to do it that speaks to you, that matches your vision. Almost finding a mentor who's who's done it the way that you envision it so that you can actually model [00:14:00] it, find out what worked for them, what didn't work for them. Because I think that's the mistake is we think we have to figure it out on our own or we think I don't really need help.

I can handle it. I'll figure it out . I just made a hire, like we're good. And, and a week or two later, it's like, well, they stopped showing up so I'm starting over again. I'm like, right. This is part of the, having that mentor, having that guide, having that coach who can actually kind of almost hold your hand through it, guide you through it, let you know the mistakes that they made that they experienced.

So you can shorten that gap instead of taking 6, 7, 8 years, however many years we've been working on this too, to figure it out. 

Meredith Matics: Yeah. I mean, even if somebody can't find, or as, you know, having another business owner, who's done it, that you can just talk to and hear how they've done it. But, but again, I also say too, With reason, be careful.

He listened to you, like, don't go into Facebook and like go on a Facebook business group [00:15:00] and hear all these people being like, want to make a million dollars, just hire these type of people. Like, like just, yeah, you have to find somebody, you try just, I think that's the, how do we get through the noise of that?

Like, I mean, in a way, like, we all want to grow because we're in this FOMO world of like, oh, everybody else is doing so much more. Like, how do we get through thenoise of like is that even real what they're doing? How do we know if they're profitable? 

Melissa Machat: This is where due diligence is so important.

So again, I see it all the time. Especially with social media, it's really easy. You can, we get ads thrown in our face all the time about want to make a million dollars, join this program. You want to make a million dollars to join this course. I have all the answers and I think that's part of it is there is no magic pill.

There is no magic. It really is surrounding yourself with people, mentors, mastermind, groups, networking events with them, people who, you can actually have conversations with and get [00:16:00] feedback like did this program work for you?I always want to find out, not just at the testimonial you'll use to see website.

Meredith Matics: Like, no, one's picking the bad testimonials to put on the website, 

Melissa Machat: Exactly but like, I want to talk to someone who's like really gone through it and, and I've been references for people I know that are coaches and they've said, Hey, Melissa, would you be willing to talk to a prospective client? They just want to get feedback.

And so I actually want to have conversations with people. What was working for you? What did you like? What didn't you like? 

Meredith Matics: Yeah, I think one of the things, I like to ask business owners that I'm working with when they're looking to grow, and I would say, do you know the difference between your gross income and your net income?

And if they don't understand that I no offense to anybody who doesn't understand that, but if you don't understand that you're not ready to grow and. You know, if you can't tell the difference between, cause sometimes I'll get people to be like, well, but I'm a million [00:17:00] dollar company. I make a lot of money.

Okay. That's your gross? Did you see your net of negative 22,000? Like where are you going to put another person? 

Melissa Machat: So good. It's true. This is what I mean about pay attention. Like do a little bit of investigation. This is something that I've learned too, is that it's really easy to put people up on a pedestal and we look up to them and, you know, they look like they have, they have it all together and they have the business and they make the money and they're making millions of dollars and whatever it may be.

But again, like, you don't know what they're actually keeping. 

They're, you know, literally working 24 7. And it was like, hold on a second. Why am I aspiring? To do it that way. That's, that's not the life I personally want, you know, and, and there's a lot more behind the scenes than what it appears. So just be careful if you're putting people on a pedestal and just investigate a little bit more.

Meredith Matics: Yeah. I mean, you know, the facade that we put [00:18:00] through as business owners, like I've seen businesses where they're hardly making anything, but the owner drives, you know, the newest, latest, whatever BMW or Tesla or something.

But then if you talk to the employees, like I would really like a raise, but there's not enough money in the company. You look at their books and it's like, oh, the owner is spending most of their, you know, like on stuff that they shouldn't be, that shouldn't, that's going to be kind of questionable to the IRS ina couple of years, you know, things like that, that you're just like, what is really happening? 

Melissa Machat: Exactly. And so that's why I would say it's to me, I'm all about alignment. I want to figure out a great question if you're like, okay, I hear you guys, but like how, how do I figure it out again? Ask for referrals, ask for references. Ask to talk to the people who've actually gone through the program. And a great question is what's missing right now.

And like what support do you need? [00:19:00] And then who can help you make that happen? Who can help you get there? 

Meredith Matics: Yeah, definitely. Do you have any other like last tidbits, Melissa, that we should be talking about when it comes to scaling? Am I missing anything that we need to tell our listeners?

Melissa Machat: I feel like, I feel like it's, it's being really clear. I know I've said it before, but being really clear about your why, your purpose and why you're building this business, why you want to build it and making sure that you're building it in a way that makes sense to you.

And it's not. , it's not following somebody else's rules or paths. I think that's where we make a lot of mistakes is we just kind of do what everybody else is doing because it worked for them, not realizing that's taking away from our own authenticity and in what would work for us. 

Meredith Matics: Well, and, in business, having clear anything, clear goals, a clear business plan, things that you can measure your success against that are, [00:20:00] are measurable. Like, don't just be like, like I want to be successful. Well, what is the definition of success? I want to grow? What is growing meaning? Does it mean one employee, 10 employees, a hundred employees? What does that growth look like? If you can't put it in a tangible guesstimate or range or something to measure it against, you'll never obtain it and you'll always be chasing.

Melissa Machat: Oh, I love that. It's so true. Be I that's me. I'm you're reminding me right now. Like yes. Be really, really clear and intentional about why you want to do this in your own definition of it. That's huge. I love that. 

And to me, it's all, you can never hear it enough. Like even you just saying, what is your definition of growth? I had this realization where it was like, I don't necessarily want to build a company with a hundred employees and that's not necessarily growth to me. To me, growth is more about passive income making my money work for [00:21:00] me.

So what does that look like? You know, is that digital courses, like that's a completely different path than building out like this coaching empire, where I have other coaches working for me, like those are two very different directions. So if I'm not careful, I could be going down a path because that's what everyone tells me I should be doing, but that's not actually what I want.

Meredith Matics: Yeah, when I first started growing, I had one of the providers I work with be like, oh my gosh, you have such a good plan. You're going to be huge. You're going to be in every state. And I'm like, well, no, You know, like, like that's not what I want. 

Melissa Machat: So I guess that's it stay true to yourself?

Meredith Matics: Yeah. One of the things that I always remind people is when you create a business, you are creating a life form of some kind. And what do you want for that life form? How big do you want it to grow? What do you want it to succeed at?

 When you build a business, it could be what you want it to be if you're intentional about it. 

Melissa Machat: So good. So true. 

Meredith Matics: Well, [00:22:00] Melissa, as we're. getting to the end of our time here. I want to know what is the best piece of advice that you personally have received that you want to share with our business owners?

Melissa Machat: Hmm. I would say it actually had to do with boundaries, standards and expectations. Make sure you are so clear on your own boundaries. Again, that could be your schedule, your ideal work time, if you want nights and weekends off, then, then why are you working nights and weekends and saying yes? And standards and expectations for yourself, the business and your people, are they clear about what the expectations are in their role of, of them?

And that was probably the game changer where it went from a high turnover and not knowing if they were the right fit or not to clear, concise, like you're actually doing a great job at this, or, oh my gosh, you're not doing anything on this expectations list.

This is not the right fit.[00:23:00]

Meredith Matics: Yeah. That's one of those ones wecould not say enough, just like boundaries, boundaries, boundaries, but where can our listeners learn more about you and your company, especially if they want to, you know, learn more about realigning their goals and growing?.

Melissa Machat: So Instagram is definitely where I spend most of my time. You can find me on there. DM me. I absolutely would love to have a conversation, or if you have more questions or melissamachat.comis where you can, you can find more info. 

Meredith Matics: Well, thank you so much for coming on Melissa. We really appreciate you coming on and chatting with us about growing, because I know as we exit this pandemic, I'm sure a lot of people are going to need to regrow or, or grow for the first time.

Melissa Machat: Absolutely. Thank you again so much for having me.

 Please note that these are thoughts and opinions alone. For tax advice, please see your CPA or tax advisor, tax professional. For business advice and legal entities. Please see your local, uh, business, lawyer, or attorney for [00:24:00] advice. And if you'd like to reach out to us for any topics or questions about any subject, any episode, you can reach us at podcast@maticsbilling.com that's podcast.

podcast@maticbilling.com. Thank you for show notes. Visit maticsbilling.com/podcast. If you liked this episode, we want to hear from you. Please hit subscribe, leave a review and share this episode with your friends, family. And on your social media pages, see you nexttime.