Nicola Harris (00:03.33)
Hello everyone and welcome to this week's episode of the Economy of Seoul. I am Nicola Harris, your host, and just wanted to welcome you back here. This week we're going to talk all about scaling because one of the things that is most important to me in the work that I do in the world is ensuring that you are building a business that feels like freedom. And because freedom is one of my biggest values and because for so many years I
felt like I was fighting against that value by doing the complete opposite. I realized that a lot of people when they start their businesses don't really understand how to totally embrace and build in strategic opportunities to help them scale. So that's what we're going to do today. So we're just going to talk a little bit about the importance of it and sort of what it is in case maybe you are not familiar with the term. So one of the first things that I would do
whenever I would go into a business unit, to coach clients, didn't really matter what we were doing. I really looked at the model in terms of where their scalability existed. So every business is a little bit different. And to be honest, most of the businesses that I've worked with in the past are like physical locations. they could be a cafe, they could be a store, retail store, they, you know, maybe I worked with a lot of physiotherapy clinics, multidisciplinary clinics.
things like that and their services or their products would range and so it was never sort of a one industry kind of gig it was often just looking at the the way that they received money with their revenue streams and then how we could really allow that to grow through system development
And so scaling is essentially the art, because I believe it's an art, of taking something that you have done or something that you've created and allowing more people access to that without it costing you more of your time.
Nicola Harris (02:11.605)
And that's the real kicker is that we want to create opportunities in our businesses that do not require a lot more time on our behalf to deliver them or to execute them.
And so we need to look at our business models. And when I say that is designed in your business model, I will say that until the cows come home, even though obviously my nervous system work is a huge part of that because we cannot do one without the other. However, if your business model is set up in a one-to-one environment, so you are trading time for dollars, you're gonna hit a ceiling. And that ceiling might be okay.
That might be a good earning ceiling and of course you can raise rates you can there's you know different things that you can do to increase how much you're receiving however, it's tied to you being present for that work and Again, I've scaled many models where that is the case where you know you go in for an appointment and then that appointment costs you this many dollars And that's how you make money
But what ends up happening is a couple of things. One, we can often have breakdowns in that because if you become sick, if you have a sick child, if you can't show up, if you get cancellations, if your clients are dropping off, all of a sudden that model isn't extremely supportive of creating this freedom-based life that you're really craving. And so we need to look at the sustainability of that overall.
And I started in the physiotherapy world. And so that's where my corporate career came in and where I oversaw 42 business units. And...
Nicola Harris (04:09.324)
You know, we worked in a lot of different ways to be able to scale, ultimately at the end of the day, every individual hit a capacity for earning. They would hit a ceiling because they couldn't work more hours. And a lot of the time they wanted to work less hours. I would hear over and over again, you know, this person wants to increase their vacation time. This person wants to take a sabbatical for a month. You know, this person wants to take Fridays off so that they can spend more time with their family. I was hearing this
same sort of thought process that everyone was wanting more time and more space in their life.
But the way that they were working, and these in many cases were employees. So we weren't in the same situation of building a business for them, but they were still craving the same thing. They wanted freedom in their lives. They wanted to be able to spend more time and have more connection to the people that they loved. And so I started to notice this pattern and I started to realize that, okay, when I would sit down and punch the numbers, because I love to do that.
I would realize that every single individual had an earning potential for the business. Obviously they have an earning potential for themselves, but they were also having an earning potential for the business. And the only way that we could really increase that was either to hire more people, like expand the size of your team so that that earning potential per person was more.
Nicola Harris (05:45.652)
Or we would have to look at other ways in which we could create income streams that didn't rely on us hitting that ceiling for each individual person. And so each sort of business owner, depending on obviously the industry that they're in and depending on where they were at, we had to really look at all of these numerical factors really in how we could begin to create more space. More space for the individual business owner.
but also looking at what each individual person on their team really wanted for their lives also. And that's the thing that comes into play when you start to look at building a team and when you start to add in these layers is that we're not just creating freedom for ourselves as the business owner. We're creating freedom for everybody that is going to participate in this beautiful journey with us.
And to me, it's such a privilege to be able to do that. And so many business owners get it backwards when they start hiring teams and team members and they think, it needs to look like this and they need to work from this to this. And there's no sort of opportunity for those team members to really also create the lives that they're really wanting to create.
But that's where the gold is. And I'll probably talk about retention as a whole because for years and years and years, it was the premise of what I did and how to really scale and create businesses that were sustainable and thriving because everyone was so fucking happy. You you can't really beat that. But for today and for right now, regardless of where you're at in your business, I want you to really just take a cold hard look at
what your revenue streams are. How are you actually making money?
Nicola Harris (07:40.342)
And is that something that you can scale? Is there opportunities for you to grow those without creating more time or energy on your behalf?
And it might mean that you need to implement a system or maybe multiple systems and that's okay. System development is gonna be part of how you scale, part of how you begin to build those bridges and take away the pressure off of you as the business owner.
And again, we'll talk about systems in a whole other topic together. But what we really wanna just look at is how are you creating these? Are you creating these opportunities right now in your business? And what could that look like if you're not? What could that look like for you, for the clients that you're serving? How could you reach them?
without having to physically be the one to do that work. And it doesn't necessarily mean that you need to hire someone either. It could mean that you are setting up opportunities and interactions with little touch points all along the way that are automated through your back end system.
But these are important things to look at if you're starting or if you've been in business for years and years. It's looking at how you can serve more people without investing more time.
Nicola Harris (09:19.329)
How can you create additional revenue by serving your people better?
Nicola Harris (09:29.858)
I remember when I worked in the restaurant industry, like when I was in high school and in my early 20s as I was going off to university and I managed a restaurant and I was pretty young to be managing. Most of my team was quite a bit older than me. And one of the things that I would say regularly is like, don't forget the upsell. Don't forget the upsell.
Ask them if they want a fancy coffee instead of a regular coffee. Ask if they want a double instead of a single. Ask if they want to start with an appetizer or have dessert. And it's not even that you're selling anything in particular. It's that you are willing to offer the invitation of having a heightened experience, perhaps, for those people.
Nicola Harris (10:25.697)
Like we put so much pressure on this notion that we have to sell. We put so much pressure on this notion, like well they won't want that. They're gonna say no. Well, okay. They get to decide the journey that they and the experience that they are going to have. That is how you treat each and every single one of your clients. But if you do not tell them what's available to them, they might have absolutely no idea.
Nicola Harris (10:57.705)
No idea that they could get the VIP version of this experience. Maybe it's exactly what they're craving, but they're too afraid to ask.
Maybe they're wanting to work with you in a deeper capacity, but because you haven't put the invitation out there.
Nicola Harris (11:19.671)
They just said, I won't bother. I won't bother. When I worked in the multidisciplinary clinic space, often the feedback that we would hear from clients is that they would say, my therapist never really told me what was next, so I didn't read book. My therapist didn't tell me what was next, so I didn't read book.
And we would hear this consistently. It was not something that was a one-time thing. We would hear it consistently from multiple different clients, across multiple different therapists. So it wasn't even isolated to one person.
Often they were not spending just two or three minutes at the end of each session to say, hey, here's what I see for you. Here's where I can evaluate your ad and here's the path I think you need moving forward and here's how I can help you. Instead, they do what they do and then they send them on their way and the client is confused. The client is confused about that next step.
And so when we start to look at how we can scale our businesses, we don't come from it in the terms of like, how can I just make more money? That's going to be the benefactor no matter what. That's gonna be what happens. Instead, we're gonna come at it and say, how can I serve this client better?
How could I meet them more deeply where they are at in a way that does not require me to provide more of my time? So not only am I serving my client in the best way possible that only I can do, I also am creating more time and space in my own life.
Nicola Harris (13:15.403)
so that when I do show up to serve one to one or one to many, I am doing that in a way that I am thriving. I am doing that from a position of thriving.
Nicola Harris (13:32.235)
And so that's why scaling becomes the key component in you being able to really create freedom in your business and your life.
The idea of being free, to me, has nothing to do with not working. It has everything to do with working in ways that support people where they are at while also supporting me. In the best way that I work, in my authority, in the way that I can show up that is so authentically true to who I am.
and the impact that I desire to make. It's not about not doing anything. In fact, it's about doing more of what.
we are called to do.
Nicola Harris (14:32.203)
When you're working 24-7, you're not serving anyone because most likely you're tapped out, you're burnt out, you're exhausted, you're probably resentful. If we're really honest, we're really honest. We're probably resentful. It took me a while to realize that in a couple of situations that I was in.
is that I didn't want to hustle. I didn't want to work 24-7. I didn't want to sacrifice my life for my business all of the time.
I wanted a business that supported my life and not the other way around.
Nicola Harris (15:21.975)
But that takes real intentionality in looking at ways that people can work with you and interact with you and be served by you, be served by you in a way.
that allows you to also thrive. And that's why scaling to me and really looking at ways where you are not just exchanging time for money, time for money, but that you were creating a business ecosystem that has multiple touch points for clients along the way. And some of those might be free.
Some of those are about building trust with your people, with your community, fostering that.
Allowing them to experience you and the work that you do without any sort of expectation on your behalf. Like how beautiful is that? To sit in the exchange of that and the energy of that is that you are going to give from a place of wanting to them to really receive you and the work that you do. And to use that as a building block, as a touch point.
for you to create deeper trust with your community.
Nicola Harris (16:48.235)
And then from there you get to build maybe offers or touch points or interactions that allow them the opportunity to build off of that and to go deeper with you.
And that doesn't matter what industry you're in, what kind of business you have, whether it's a physical location, whether you work online like I do. It doesn't really matter. The foundation is always the same. But when we look at building freedom, we need to do that from a place where we are thriving as well. I'm working in a one-to-one exchanging time for money.
as the only way is going to tap you out of the opportunity of creating more impact, which is ultimately going to stop you from creating more income.
So just look, you you just do a really quick audit of where you're receiving money, how you're receiving money, what are the requirements of receiving that money that you be present, that the client be present.
And then start analyzing, well, how, where are my clients at when they first come to me? How could I serve them there first? Is there something that I could offer through an email sign up? And it doesn't matter what industry you are in, every single human that owns a business should be building an email list.
Nicola Harris (18:30.593)
So what could I offer them, whether that's a free item, a low cost item, what could I be offering them that gets them excited to continue on the journey, that gets them really leaning into this notion that this is an experience I'd like. And how can you nurture them from that point on?
Nicola Harris (18:55.775)
scaling your business and looking at your scalability is going to be the key and your ticket to freedom. So please do not overlook it. And if you need some help looking at how you can scale or ideas, just know that I am here, I'm available. You can reach out, can DM me on Instagram or reach out on my website. I'd be happy to...
book a session with you and we can just brainstorm ideas on scalability and how you can execute them. It's work that I absolutely love to do because to me it is the ticket. It is the thing, the launch pad that we build everything off of.
Nicola Harris (19:41.495)
And that's it for today. Have a beautiful week and I can't wait to connect with you next week.
