93: The 5 Business Pillars Every Small Business Needs

Speaker A: You know that feeling when you look at your business and think, uh, why is this not working? Everything feels broken. Everything feels like it all needs my attention all at once. The marketing, the sales, the systems, your schedule, your team. And you don't even know where to start. So you just don't because you're so overwhelmed and you're like, I just can't even do it. Here's the truth. It's almost never everything. It's usually one thing, maybe two. And they're quietly running the entire show. And today we're going to find them.

Speaker B: Welcome to beyond you'd Business, the show where we get real about what it actually takes to lead in business and in life.

Speaker A: I'm Amy Sussex, your behind the scenes

Speaker B: support in systems, client experience, scaling and sustainable growth. I work with visionary women who are done with burnout and ready to step into leadership with clarity and confidence. This podcast is for the women shifting from overwhelmed operator to being an empowered CEO. Um, the ones who want to build a business that feel as good as they look. Each week we dive into conversations about leadership, systems, client experience, motherhood, and the messy middle of entrepreneurship, all through the lens of building with intention, ease and alignment. I created this podcast because I believe

Speaker A: how you lead yourself shapes everything. Your systems, your team, your results.

Speaker B: What works for you should be as

Speaker A: unique as your business.

Speaker B: If you're ready to step into things

Speaker A: differently in a way that supports your

Speaker B: vision and your capacity, you're in the right place.

Speaker A: Let's explore what's possible. Welcome back to beyond you'd Business. So I've been chatting about operations because I obviously love all things operations, organizing, but I want to get into it a bit more because business operations can feel overwhelming when you first start thinking about them. Because once you realize your business has systems, processes, SOPs, all the things, moving parts, and they all have different pillars essentially within them too. So it's very easy to look at everything and think, honestly, it all feels broken. It all feels overwhelming. And just wanting to blow up your business and burn it down. And you are not alone in that feeling. It doesn't matter if you've been in business for six months if you're just starting today, if you've been in business for three years, 10 years, everyone I know goes through this and continues to go through this. So sorry for those of you that are like, oh, will this ever get better? It does. But then as you continue to grow and evolve things, what worked before doesn't always work again, right? Or what got you here won't always necessarily get you to the next part. So most small business owners eventually hit a point where their business feels messy, reactive, and a lot harder to manage than it should. And the problem is everything feels chaotic all at the same time, and it becomes really difficult to know where to start, and you become overwhelmed by it. So most people, they try to fix everything all at once. They're busy trying to improve their business, but they're not really identifying what's actually causing the chaos underneath. And so today I want to simplify that because the goal isn't to, like, break apart your business and, you know, fix everything all at once. It's really about. And again, this isn't going to happen overnight either, but it's really about learning how to figure out, like, what's causing you the most issues, I would say, right now. And then you can identify what that weak part is, and then you can start to improve. And then it just, it's that snowball effect that it's the next thing and the next thing that you're going to work towards. So here's where people usually get stuck, because once you know that you need to fix something, the next question becomes, okay, but how do I actually know what's really broken? And that's where we're going to get into it. So let's clarify here, because a lot of times in your business, there's kind of surface level things that are happening, and those surface level things are actually derived from like a root cause of something. And so this becomes one of the biggest mindset shifts in business operations is a surface level thing is something that you experience, something that you're feeling where a root cause is creating that experience or feeling. So, for example, when you're feeling overwhelmed or you're feeling like you're missing a deadline and everything feels heavy, that's really like the surface level of things, right? Uh, forgetting to follow up with somebody. Again, those are all surface level. But underneath of those things, it's actually more of like a structural issue that's happening is because you don't have a process in place or a habit or a routine in place with that. And then that's where people are getting stuck because you spend all your time reacting and putting out fires and juggling balls when really we need to look at what's underneath all of that to stop all the weak, stressful structure that's breaking within your business. So let's go back to the five pillars that I believe that happen in your business. So you have the customers, sales, delivery, finance, and systems and so instead of trying to judge your whole business all at once, we're going to walk through each pillar and help you determine where you're feeling the most surface level things that are happening right now. So for example, number one, customers, this pillar is about how you enter your business and how communication is handled. So you're asking yourself, are inquiries slipping through the cracks? Are people messaging you but they're never hearing back from you consistently, do you have strong conversations but then it fades because there's no follow up? Are you losing interest because there's no consistent communication happening? Or are they losing interest because there's no consistent communication happening? Are you relying on your memory for everything to manage client service? And if all this sounds familiar, then this is a good chance that this is one of the pillars in your business that are weak. And a lot of surface level stuff is happening because you're not getting to the root of it. So when your customers systems are weak, opportunities quietly disappear. And then it feels like you don't have a good offer or you don't know what you're doing in business or nobody wants to work with you. And really at the end of the day it's just because you don't have consistent communication. The next one pillar is sales. So again, this one's different from the customer aspect in the sense that customers were talking about communication and relationships. Sales is like the moving somebody from they're interested to deciding, yep, you're the one I want to work with you, I want to work with your business. And so again, here's what the surface level stress structure like frustration can look like is do you have a consistent sales funnel? Do sales feel unpredictable? Does it feel like it's like feast or fame and everyone's coming and then no one's coming? Are people interested but they're not actually converting? Are you having conversations but you have no clear process for people to move forward with? So you're talking to people, but do you like when you're talking to them, do you know which bucket of your business that they fit into? Are you avoiding follow ups because they feel awkward? You always hear the fortunes in the follow up and really it's that consistent in you being top of mind for people. So if you're not doing that follow up, you're doing a disservice to that person because they reached out, um, to you because they needed help and support in their business and you got busy or don't have a process and you didn't follow up with them because people need Time a lot of times to make decisions, but you following up is helping to support them through that decision. Do you explain your offer differently every single time that you talk to somebody? Do you rely on memory instead of having a clear process? So again, it might not be your offer issue, it's that you don't have a repeatable sales process. And then this is where your sales funnel and everything starts to feel weak and the revenue feels random. And then you start stressing about money and all the things that happen when it comes to your business. Okay, so the next one we want to talk about is delivery and operations. So this is how actually the work is getting done. So again, this is where a lot of small businesses are quietly burning out. And maybe some of you not so quietly burning out, but because again, everything is depending on you, the owner remembering things, managing things manually, constantly reacting. So I want you to ask yourself, does your work feel chaotic as soon as a client comes in? Are you constantly rushing? Does quality change depending on how busy you are? I'm going to say that again. Does quality change depending on how busy you are? Do you consistently feel behind on work? Do tasks get missed because there's no clear process? So again, this isn't just a workload thing, it's a broken delivery system. And this is where in your operations it causes that surface level frustration because you don't have the structure behind it to back it up. And this usually means that your business has grown super fast, but you don't have the systems that are supporting it. And being honest, this is a lot of times where I'm coming in and helping clients. And the reason I was repeating this too is because I've even recognized this within my own business of like I've grown, which has been wonderful and amazing. But even I'm working on these parts within my own business. So that's the other piece too is as much as like I'm helping people, I'm doing this within my own business as well too. The next one is finance and this one people often avoid because it feels stressful, overwhelming. And really a lot of times finance is stressful is because you're lacking the visibility on it. You're not a num, you're not looking at the numbers or you're like, say you're not a numbers person. So I really want you to ask yourself these questions is are you avoiding looking at your numbers? Do you know exactly what came in last month? Do you know exactly what went out? Are you doing regular check ins of things? Are you making Decisions based on instinct or which, yes, we can do that. But are you also making decisions based on facts, or are you just waiting for something to feel wrong? So if your finances are feeling unclear all the time, that's not just stress. That's a missing financial system that you haven't set up yet in your business. And without visibility on what's happening in the business, you can't make those decisions. And a lot of things become emotional instead of informed. And then the last piece is admin and systems. So this is a pillar most people underestimate because it can feel so boring compared to, like, sales and customers and, you know, having those deep conversations with people. But this is really the glue that holds everything together. So looking for the signs is everything in your head? Do you have repeat tasks that you could be doing, but you start from scratch every single time? Do you lose time searching for things all the time? Do you rely on memory for repeat work? Are, uh, you constantly feeling mentally overloaded? And again, this means that you have no operational structure supporting your business. And without that structure, everything takes more energy, more time, more capacity. And this is where it leads to that burnout and that frustration with your business. And again, this is another piece where clients end up hiring me for is because it's like, I'm sick of everything in my head. I'm sick of being the bottleneck. I'm sick of having no processes. So let's get that all set up to help support you so you can do the things that you do love and do and enjoy. So here's a key shift, though, because most people hear this and then they think they have five things, because as you. I'm talking through this, I'm sure in every pillar, there's something that you're thinking or multiple things that you're thinking need to be shifted and you want to work on and update and support and fix, right? But really, at the end of the day, out of all five of these areas, there's probably one or two that need the most your attention right now. And then everything else just feels like it's snowballing from there. So the goal is to start with one area, because once you start to build that up, then you can always move into the next one. So, again, instead of trying to fix everything, you're trying to fix one thing. And so here's a simple way to find, because I'm sure, like I said, all of those are living in each one of them. You're like, I know that I could fix everything, but I want you to ask yourself these questions is, where are you losing the most time, money and mental energy right now? So, um, out of those five pillars, which one is giving you the mental energy? The mental drain feels like you're losing money and feels like you're losing time and feels like you're the least consistent in. And so this is where that's the pillar that needs to be looked at, because that will help you from feeling stuck and drained. And the answer is always the first thing that typically comes up. Right? You're like, you think maybe you want to fix your sales, but really it's your operation. Or you think maybe you want to fix the admin side of things, but really it's actually your finances you need to be fixing. So it's really looking at, again, that pillar that's giving you the most stress. And so, you know, from what I've seen a lot of times, it's delivery and service and systems. It's because it's these repeating tasks that we're spending too much time looking for information. So I want you to start to build out the structure there. And then once you identify that you are now stopping guessing, you're now stopping from reacting emotionally to things, and it's, uh, allowing you to start to improve your business strategically, one system at a time. So most business owners don't struggle because they lack effort. They struggle because they can't see the real source of the problem that's clearly happening. So what I want you to take away from today is you don't need to fix your entire business. You're not broken. Your system's not broken, your business isn't broken. It's not a reflection of you. Don't try to improve everything equally. Instead, go through the five pillars and notice which one's causing you the most stress, where you're losing time, money, and sleep and energy, and identify from there and start to make a system to improve it one step at a time. In the next episode, we're going to zoom out and we're going to see once you know what's broken, you need to understand what a real system actually looks like. So I'm excited to dive into that, but I want you to remember, your business should work with you, not because of you. Bye for now.

Speaker B: Thanks for tuning in to beyond you'd business podcast. I hope you're walking away today with clarity, ideas and the inspiration to go take action. If you love this episode, take a moment to follow the show and leave a review. It helps more women like you find their way here. Until next time, lead yourself and everything else will follow.

Speaker A: This podcast is produced, mixed and edited by Cardinal Studio. For more information about how to start your own podcast, please visit www.cardinalstudio.co or email Mike at mikecardnostudio. Co. You can also find the details in the show Notes.