The Harrow and Jett Show
Welcome to The Harrow and Jett Show — unfiltered conversations between two young business owners and Accountants who just merged their firms and are figuring it all out in real time.
If you’re a young entrepreneur, this is your podcast. We talk about the stuff nobody teaches you: creating a 10-year vision (and why you shouldn’t change the goal, just the path), staying disciplined while still having fun, learning from dumb mistakes like hiring too early, spending money you don’t have, using credit cards to “feel like a business owner,” and why paying yourself first is non-negotiable.
We share our real stories — selling golf balls as a kid, moving from Cuba with nothing, leaving cushy jobs, merging two practices, wearing all three hats (technician, manager, entrepreneur), building processes on the fly, and why having the right partner changes everything.
No corporate jargon. No theory. Just two Accountants who work with hundreds of early-stage businesses every year telling you what actually works (and what will sink you).
Perfect for ambitious founders who want to stop stressing about taxes, cash flow, and growth — and start building something that pays you and lasts.
New episodes every week. Hosted by the team at White Glove CPAs & Business Solutions.
Visit whiteglovecpas.com and let’s build smarter together.
The Harrow and Jett Show
How to Scale Your Business: From Solopreneur to CEO EPS 8
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Is your business 100% dependent on you? In this episode, we break down how to shift from being the doer to becoming the designer. Learn how to delegate, build systems, and scale your business into a real asset—without sacrificing quality. 🚀
Website: https://www.theharrowandjettshow.com/
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How do I do that?
SPEAKER_00So you have to replace yourself with the work. And for us, because the busy season is ending, it'll be a perfect time for you to start transitioning your identity from the doer to the designer. When I say designer, I mean someone who's designing how the work gets done and then becoming more like asset focused rather than income focused. So when you're more of the doer, you're income focused because you're trying to get more clients and get more rejet. Let's get into it.
SPEAKER_01Let's get into it. Guys, welcome back. This is episode number 908. We still need to figure it out. Nine or eight. Night or eight of the hero and jet show. We're almost on the 10th episode. I appreciate you watching everyone, every one of the episodes, and your support. We have been growing crazy on YouTube shorts, on Facebook, Instagram. Please, uh, if you have the chance, follow us, follow the hero and jet show page in any of those uh stuff.
SPEAKER_00I mean, we do have some fun things coming though. So definitely follow and and watch and see um some of the things we're gonna be posting in for July. We have some like giveaway type stuff. Yes. So I'm excited for that.
SPEAKER_01Who likes free money?
SPEAKER_00Free money.
SPEAKER_01Who likes prices?
SPEAKER_00Price.
SPEAKER_01How much money are we giving away? How much are we blessing people?
SPEAKER_00The value is like over a million.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, hey, hey, I'm a generous person. Yesterday I gave out $2,000. You know?
SPEAKER_00So to the church. What? To church.
SPEAKER_01Uh no, to a to a surfing organization down in the Dominican Republic. I will show you. I would show the receipt for everybody. To see everybody want to see my my my bank account. $2,000. Let's bless some surfers.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's just surf Christian surfers. Okay.
SPEAKER_00Well, you didn't give it to me. I I could be a Christian surfer.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, hey. I will I'll give it to you next time. And then yeah, there you go.
SPEAKER_00Oh, remind me to tell you about the golf clubs. There you go. They're gone. Nice.
SPEAKER_01The golf club? How much money you sold it for?
SPEAKER_00I didn't sell them, they're gone.
SPEAKER_01I gosh, I gosh. We'll talk about it later.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_01I'll talk about that later. Okay, so awesome. Yes. If yet is feeling generous, yet can go crazy.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_01I am my I am Jed, right? Okay, cool. Sometimes, sometimes we'll forget. Harrow, what's up? What's up? How's life?
SPEAKER_00Life's great. We have I have something super exciting today. Like we talked about this before. Um tell me. And the it's the it's the new series that we're gonna be doing. It's a six episode series. Yes. Right? And I came up with the idea. I remember I told you I was in the sauna talking to another business owner. I didn't know she'd a business owner until we started talking.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00She's a soul preneur, right? And there are so many soul preneurs out there. Think about how many soulpreneurs are out there.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Way more than enterprises for sure. Way more than small businesses. Soulpreneurs are like dime a dozen. So the series is called Soulpreneur to Enterprise.
SPEAKER_01I'm s that is so good. I'm really, I'm super ready for that. And you are right. You are right. There are a lot of surpreneurs out there, and people that don't know how to scale and and cannot figure it out how to do it or don't have the right guidance to do it. And we are here to help you all out, guys. If you if if you are in that stage where you are a surpreneur and you want to get to the next level, this podcast is for you because we see it, we see it all of the time. And our goal is to make your business bigger, is to help you grow that way you can achieve.
SPEAKER_00And many people I'm finding like they don't know how to get out of that soulpreneur. So, and we've talked about this before here, but if your business only works when you're working, you don't have a business, you have a job. That's right.
SPEAKER_01That's right. And then like uh that there is no value on it because the value is tied to you.
SPEAKER_00It's not an asset, it's just it's literally like like a W-2.
SPEAKER_01Awesome.
SPEAKER_00With without the cushion of not having the chaos. So, and like this is something that I'm very passionate about, obviously, because we did that. We grew from solopreneur to, I wouldn't say we're enterprise level, but we're on our way there. So this, I feel like we have a lot of clarity around the subject. Yeah. And we've actually done it. Right. We don't, and we we've advised on it and we've actually built it as well.
SPEAKER_01Definitely this summer, we are going to get there. We are we're going to get to the to the enterprise level because we are getting ready to bring management positions in place, and I'm really ready for it. And I feel to get to that enterprise level, there gotta be a layer between we can step away. Yes, between the business owner and how the job gets done. It's like is that you can deliver the product or service without having to be in the business. And for that, you need people, you need manager. Right now we have the people, we are only missing the managers, and we are going to get it within the next the next six months. Yeah. So it's going to be pretty cool. But you know what is the crazy part though? Sometimes people uh from from the outside, being a solopreneur, it it looks successful.
SPEAKER_00I was yes, it does.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it looks it looks really successful, and people think you are successful because you're making money, but you don't know how like people don't see how many hours you're putting in and all of the sacrifices. People don't see the late night, people don't see the weekends that you're working. At least for us, at least for me, uh it's really easy for me to fall in this mindset of being a solo preneur and I want to do everything by myself because I think I I am the best person to do it and nobody can do it better than me. But to grow a business, uh I need to get out of that mentality, even though it seems successful, even though uh we can be they can be making a lot of money, is not is not sustainable for long term. So that is why we are in this stage of going into becoming uh an entrepreneur. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you're right. Um, and I think a lot of people think that they need strategy to be able to grow, right? And they're like, oh, um, I'll just hire this accounting firm and be like, okay, can you give me strategy? Which yes, uh, we can give strategy, we can talk through things, but the biggest, I think the biggest first step from going from a solepreneur where you're, like you said, you know, you're handling everything yourself, like you're um the marketer, right? Like you're the customer service person, you're actually doing the work as well. You're getting the clients, you're managing your own accounting, maybe you're um, you know, wearing all the hats in the business. Going from that to bringing on a couple of people, it's a new identity. So you need to actually look at yourself like, okay, I'm a business owner, I'm not the doer.
SPEAKER_01Yes, I agree.
SPEAKER_00So first step is between hiring admins, so it depends on the type of business that you have. So if it's more labor intensive, I think the first step would be hiring, like you continue to do admin work and you hire a laborer, someone to actually help do the work. But I think if it's more of like consulting type work or service industry, like accounting, like attorney, you hire admin first.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And then you start building your actual team of doers.
SPEAKER_01Yes. I think uh for me, for us, for White Glove, for White Glove, uh uh I think the the way we went about it is that, and I feel any service company have to go about it this way. Any service company where the owner is still the operator of the business and the owner does the job, first they need to get admin. And we talk about that, about investing in admin in the couple's episode. That way, that way the the the admin staff can control the email, the invoices, the phone number, the customer service, and all of that. Uh stuff that needs to happen.
SPEAKER_00Imagement, processes, all of those things are so important. The emails, the inquiries, the social media, oftentimes, right?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and then after that, then the next step is going to be to bring people, at least that at least the way we did it, is like, you know, we have two tax staff. We have around five bookkeepers. You have to bring people and trade them and train them and use that as a way to create an SOP to be able to deliver the service. After whenever we already have our crew and we as we are spending a lot of time managing them, reviewing their job, the next thing is just to get management.
SPEAKER_00And you basically, like you're saying, you're basically you're promoting yourself. So you promote yourself from the doer, yeah, right? And then you promote yourself to the manager. Because the thing is, when you're in the soulpreneur stage and like you're the doer, it's perfect because you understand like all the processes, how to do everything properly. And it's a good time to reflect and say, okay, can I teach this to 30 people?
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Is it teachable? And if so, okay, let's document it. If not, if everything lives in your brain, then it is, you know, you have to document and have it on paper somewhere. So that's comes from admin or you doing it yourself. Yes. Right? So then then you have that prepared, that base level, because like you're basically you're building your business brick by brick, right?
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And that's how you do it. That's brick, the first layer of brick, right? Before you um get into the next step is you being the doer and understanding how everything needs to be done properly and creating those SOPs and processes written down somewhere so other people can have access to them later.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And then the next step is you go, you're in the manager level, right?
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_00And you're acting as a manager and you build out that role and what it needs to look like, and then you understand that the SOPs for that role, et cetera, and that's kind of what we've done. And then you continue to grow and build in that manner. Um, easier said than done, of course, and there are more details and things that go into it, and we'll continue talking through the series.
SPEAKER_01But but if you want to grow your business, you have to figure it out. That is the staff, that is the issue we have to spend time on. So uh between us, who struggled the most with this? You or or me?
SPEAKER_00With which part?
SPEAKER_01With with the operator mentality and trying to do everything together. I do. Yes, awesome. So I I agree with you. I I agree with you on that. So I'm really excited for this series though. So let's do this. Why don't you just take control of this and you just give me a pet peep? Like, think I am the normal business owner, the a good operator. I'm like really good at what I do because I am. But sometimes being really good at what I do and spending time in doing the work doesn't allow me to spend time on the stuff that is going to really bring value and it's going to grow the business. Like training people, acting more like a manager, going out there and bringing this business in. And I think uh I think to be honest, you probably sometimes get a little frustrated. We delegate, we'll delegate more.
SPEAKER_00I do want you to delegate more, but I understand why you don't, because like what you do it is kind of more niche, right? And you're good at it, you know how to do it, and sometimes it's faster to do it yourself. I went through that too when I worked at the company before starting my business. And that company actually, I I feel like I grew it helped me a lot with my like entrepreneurship because I had to like let go because I was having little mini catastrophes every day when I was working there because I was like, okay, I need to be going into this doing every little part of the job, and people were taking a long time, or they were putting yeah, weird journal entries in or like doing weird stuff. So I was like, you know what? I'll just handle everything.
SPEAKER_01Okay, perfect. So let's do this though. Let's do this hero, let's do this. Let's so I guess I need to fix that, right? I guess I need to start delegating more and start spending time on the stuff that is actually going to grow the business. So something I really like to do is just talking through stuff, you know. So so I think uh why don't we just do this? I would call you like Dr. Harold. Okay. You are my therapist. Yes, business therapist.
SPEAKER_00Take a seat, lie down once.
SPEAKER_01Yes, and let's uh let's talk through it. So okay, so I have a problem, you know. What do you think is the real problem with me? Like why why do you think why do you think I don't I don't entreprise that, you know?
SPEAKER_00Okay, so your real problem, Jet, is that you need a new identity.
SPEAKER_01Tell me that.
SPEAKER_00Step one.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_00So what I mean by that is instead of your brain being the operator, you need to move into the segment where you are a manager. And that means people are going to make mistakes.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And you're going, you know, you have to review and you're going to catch the mistakes, and then you train on the mista mistakes. And I know it's going to take a lot longer, probably three or four times as long. But in order to move into that enterprise level for our business, we have to go over to the management and then director and owner. So you have to wear your owner hat.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. How do you I guess then I guess something about me is like I don't like making mistakes. And at the end, and sometimes I like to control everything because if they make a mistake, it comes to me. You know, they are my client. I brought them. They know they trust me. So how do I get over that? How does and also like you know, I'm I'm going through this now, but I know a lot of other business owners doing that. So how do I create a new identity and how do I understand making mistakes is okay? Or or like, oh, or if we are making mistakes, it's a good thing because that means we are growing. I don't know, I guess. How does that go?
SPEAKER_00So a wise person, aka my grandpa, once told me that if you are not making mistakes, you're not doing anything.
SPEAKER_01Okay. So that's a good point.
SPEAKER_00That was really helpful for me when I was my first corporate job, made my first big mistake. I was like, because I didn't like mistakes making mistakes either.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00But that changed my mentality because what that taught me was basically if you're not making mistakes and you're not doing new things.
SPEAKER_01That's a good point.
SPEAKER_00You know, you're you're not expanding yourself or your team. So you have to be okay with mistakes. But and the good thing is that you catch them and then you fix them, you train on them. So making mistakes is okay.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_00But you have to you have to catch them. So I think that's why having that multi-like pass or where you actually review the work that everyone's doing.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, and then eventually like you'll trust a manager so much so that they can review and you don't have to review. Or you could go in and do like miscellaneous reviewing.
SPEAKER_01That that makes sense. What is the what is the responsibility of a manager? Because I kind of feel this busy system, I know I did a really good job at reviewing stuff, but I still felt it took a lot of time. And sometimes I think, man, I'm so sorry. So I still think I'm like, man, even if I'm acting as a manager, I'm spending a lot of time inside of the business reviewing, and I cannot focus on this other thing. And I still feel like an operator.
SPEAKER_00But I think that I mean, you are like being a manager is a part of the operator, right? But like it's still that second step. So like the first step is you being the doer, then the next is the manager. To get out of that manager role, you have to replace yourself. You can't just think, okay, now, and that was a mistake that I actually made in our business.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Is that I was like, okay, I'm gonna just wear this ownership hat. And like you witnessed it with the accounting team. I stepped out of being an accounting, I forgot about it almost, right? Yeah. Because I was wearing the ownership hat so much, but you can't do that. So like you have to replace yourself before you can step out.
SPEAKER_01Yes, that makes sense. And then I guess what are the consequences? What are the consequences if I still think as an operator and don't make the move? What what would be the consequences for it?
SPEAKER_00It hurts your business growth revenue. Um, you know, every you can't take time off, right? Because you have to be there for everything. There's no one to replace you. Every decision has to run through you, right? So eventually you want to in order to grow, if that's your goal, right? If your goal is not to work 90 hours a week for the rest of your life, then you need to get to that next level.
SPEAKER_01That makes sense.
SPEAKER_00Um, because you can't grow if you're working inside the business.
SPEAKER_01That makes sense. That makes sense. Yeah, I I definitely feel that it's hard to take time off, and then now now the summer is coming up, and I want to take two weeks off just to go with uh with uh my family for vacation and and I I don't know how that would go, but hopefully by then we will have a good team around it, a good team around it and and it will go well. And then how okay, something else that that happened with me by being the operator trap, uh by staying as the as the operator.
SPEAKER_00You're saying um I completely lost trap being the operator, not the owner. Something interesting is most this will be a good little clip. Okay, something interesting is that most people who are really good at what they do are the ones who end up being stuck as the operator because they're so good at it and they it's hard for them to let someone else take it and make mistakes, like you said before, because they know they're like, I am the best at this, which is very common for soulpreneurs because usually the reason you go out and start your business, right, is because you're good at what you do and you know that you can go and do it for yourself and make more money, make better decisions, have more control of your time, etc. So you go out and you do it for yourself, and then you're stuck working excessive hours and dealing with the chaos of being a business owner, wearing all the hats, and not being able to get out of that operator mentality.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that works. And then also something else that happened to me, and and I have been feeling this as by doing this, sometimes I feel busy, but I feel that me being busy is not adding any benefit, it's not adding value to the business. And sometimes I'm like, man, this is not good. I need to, I need to do something, do something about it. Yeah. So how do then then how so you talk about me having to shift my identity? And how do I change, how do I shift my identity from being an operator to the next step, which I guess will be focusing more on the business. How do I shift that whenever how do I do that?
SPEAKER_00So you have to replace yourself with the work. And for us, because the busy season is ending, it'll be a perfect time for you to start transitioning your identity from the doer to the designer. And when I say designer, I mean someone who's designing how the work gets done and then becoming more like asset focused rather than income focused. So when you're more of the doer, you're income focused because you're trying to get more clients and get more revenue and you're doing the work. And then when you're the business owner, you're more asset focused because you're growing your asset, right?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And then how, but by doing that though, from going to the operator to the designer, I know that needs to happen. But how do you deal with the cash flow? If I bring a manager that is more money, I have to pay them, and then less money, less money we have to pay ourselves. How do you reconcile that? How do you deal?
SPEAKER_00So it should be that when you go from the manager position to Actually building the business. Maybe there's a couple months where you suffer in that. So what I would recommend to people is a couple of things like saving up money, like growing your business as much as you can for a couple of months. You may have to work a little extra. So maybe you can start doing a hybrid of where you're doing management stuff and doing things like trying to source new clients and new jobs, things like that, depending on your industry, to kind of save up money. Because for a couple of months it may be tight while you're working on getting new clients and customers. Because once you step out of that role, then you have 40 hours a week or however many hours a week, right? To sit there and actually go after new business and grow your business and bring awareness.
SPEAKER_01And then whenever I step into that role, whenever one of my employees may make mistakes, what how do I deal with that?
SPEAKER_00So the way that you deal with it is you go through, ask them why it happened, figure that out, and then you teach them how to not make it again.
SPEAKER_01Awesome. So I guess I guess mistakes are going to happen. We just have to sit down and help them face it, but let them freeze it. I cannot, I cannot jump in and freeze it for them.
SPEAKER_00Nope. And I would say, like, in more emergency situations, emergency, right? Um, I have done like went in and just fixed things, but I always say I highly recommend, especially if it's an employee who you want to keep around and that they're a good employee, they're going, they don't want to make a mistake, right? They want to fix it and they want to understand why they made it and how to fix it. So when they learn that, they they likely won't make that mistake again. And if they do, they'll be able to fix it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that works. So, but in my situation now, they're thinking about the tax practice. Right now it's me and I have two tax intake. I don't have anybody with that that have the knowledge or the skill set to become a manager and kind of take my position of what do I do? How do I go about replacing myself whenever I don't have anybody right now? Like, how does that transition look? Is that something momentarily or should we create a plan?
SPEAKER_00Like, I don't know, it's three months, a six month plan to definitely create a plan, like a transition plan, right?
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_00So when you bring someone on, they're going to not like they're gonna be used to other firms, they're gonna know how other firms do it. And that's why having those SOPs and processes for them to go back to is so important.
SPEAKER_01Awesome. So, yes, the SOP and stuff like that. So how much supervision would that person need though?
SPEAKER_00I would say for the first, I mean, they probably won't need much, especially in a management position, right? But I would say for the first few months, um, especially the first month, you kind of hold their hand, right? Like you're walking through with them. Like when I've hired managers in the past, managers usually hit the ground running because they're they've done it before, likely. Um, and it's kind of a different role than the doer.
SPEAKER_01Awesome.
SPEAKER_00And they know they have the knowledge and the skill set there. So when you hire them, first the first thing is going to be training them on white glove.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00Not even the job, but on white glove. Here's what we do at white glove, here's how we email, here's how we treat our clients. We we prov we are very big on um efficiency, we're be we're very big on value, we're very big on um making sure that we are providing the best service, like the white glove service. So our quality and our communication both are really, really high. A lot of CPA firms we know are terrible with communication.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So we have we're quality is like number one communications up there, too. So we set that precedent, that example to the manager first.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So we teach white glove, then we teach your job. And you say, hey, here's what I do in a day.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Here's how you're going to do this in the summer, here's how you're gonna do this in the fall, here's how you're gonna do this in tax season.
SPEAKER_01That works. So it sounds that I I guess to make the jump, for me to make the jump from an operator to a designer, to more like uh a designer to like running the business, uh, to make that transition, I'm going to need some kind of core values to figure out what is the identity of what we do in the tax department. And and then we need to, we need after we figure that out, we need to bring, I guess I need to bring somebody that's going to be a good fit for it.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_01So I know we we kind of have these core values for White Glove, uh, but to be straightforward with you, like I don't look at it a lot. I and because uh we are the owners, I am the person behind the tax departments, I kind of have those things in my mind, and I and I know how the client how the clients need to be treated and and what I want the world for them to be known for. But sometimes I keep a heel on my mind and and I don't type them down.
SPEAKER_00And that's another problem, that's another soulpreneur habit is keeping everything in your brain and not dumping it out. Even if you dump it in like a OneNote or a Word document or even write it on a paper, having that stuff out there only helps your business, right? So, you know, you're not protecting your business, you're limiting it when you do that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. How do I communicate that to then to my whole team? Is that something I have to remind them every day? Like, do I need to create a pledge of allegiance about White Glove and make them sing it, remember?
SPEAKER_00Do you mean like how like how we treat and how we behave to our clients?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, or core values. Like because I remember whenever I used to work uh for all the firms, usually they will have those core values either sticking out or they will have a piece of paper, and every new employee will get them. And this is st this is white glove standfold.
SPEAKER_00But I think maybe maybe we do like t-shirts, like we do like swag with that kind of stuff on there. We could do something with that for sure. Yeah, but I think and and I do this in our accounting meetings. Every so often I remind them, like, hey, our number one thing is quality, high quality work, high quality communication, and high quality treatment of our clients. Like they're trusting us with their business, like that's very valuable, and we're going to treat them as such.
SPEAKER_01Awesome. Sounds good. So yeah, hey, it sounds like like I have a lot of uh of work to do in HIL. Uh, but thank God we're getting HIAL into a down season, which is going to be a good time to sit down. And also we have a Wallonist retreat coming up, and I would love to talk more about that stuff in the honest retreat and create a plan uh to set it up. And then I guess talking about that, when is the next the best time? When is the best time to make this move? Because I talk to a lot of clients, and a lot of clients are struggled with that. They get to this point where they don't know how to grow, and at the same time, they don't want to delegate, or they don't trust people, or they can't find people to replace them. So to set this process, how long does this usually take and what would be the best time? Is this better to do before the busy before the busy time of the bus of of the year for the business or in the middle of a busy time or after the busy time is done?
SPEAKER_00I would say definitely after the busy time is done.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_00Not right before. That way they can get a few months of working and understanding the because they have to understand the business, especially for us, because for I mean, for me and for you, I think too, White Glove is so is an experience. It's not just a service that we're providing people. And I want all of our employees to understand that. So I think working for three to six months for the for White Glove before a busy season hits, so they can really fully grasp how um high level, high quality um White Glove is and how we treat people. So I that's what I would say is you know, make sure that you understand your brand first and like how you want your clients to be treated, how the work needs to be done, and then do like a three to six months before a busy season to make sure that you have proper training done and they understand your business, they they have proper expectations. But before you can go to that level, you have to be prepared to trust someone to do the work and be okay with the mistakes that they're going to make and have the time to be able to train them and fix the mistakes, help them fix the mistakes.
SPEAKER_01That's a good point. Okay, cool. So I guess where I'm at, where we are at, and what I need to do is this. I guess first of all, I need to realize. I need to make the change. You know, I need to realize, and I gotta bring that energy like, hey, I know I'm I am being the bottleneck of the business. We are not growing the business, we are not growing the task department of it. I'm not helping you as much as I can because I'm still in this little operator trap, and and I just I'm spending too much time inside of the business and spending too much time inside of the business.
SPEAKER_00The the good thing about it is though, we plan for that. So I think like to other business owners, I think you you plan something. I appreciate being like as a as a solepreneur, thank you. As a solepreneur, I think that's something that you have to mentally prepare for and say, okay, look, I know I can't step out of the business until May. So I cannot work on the business. So you have to say, okay, so now I'm going to work it through, you know, and do the be the doer, right? And maybe maybe put a little extra time in to do other things.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And then in May, you can work on hiring, but you have to be prepared because you may not find that perfect person.
SPEAKER_01That's good point.
SPEAKER_00You know, and and you're gonna make hiring mistakes. That's so I mean, we made so many, and that's okay. You have to be okay with him making the hiring mistakes. Like it's gonna happen, and don't let that cause fear to hire again. You know, they're they're like we talked about before, A, B, and C players.
SPEAKER_01That makes sense.
SPEAKER_00Very hard to spot a C player, apparently. Very hard.
SPEAKER_01Yes. So so I guess I guess what you're saying is okay, it's good to plan for it, but I know the necess then the next stage for us is for me to change my identity. And you mentioned three stuff. I got I gotta change my identity from being a doer to being a designer. I don't have to do everything. I need to design how the work gets done and the quality of service. And to do that, I will need to work on some SOP, figure out the core values for the tax uh department, and then going into that to make that change from the doer, because sometimes I fail on the trap like, hey, the more hours I work, the more money I make. But it sounds also that I need to change from the to stop thinking about income and start thinking more about building, building an assets.
SPEAKER_00If you think about it like this, sure, the more hours you work, the more money you can make, right? But you can only work so many hours. So think about it like this. How many people can you get to work 40 hours a week, and how much money can you make off of each of those people?
SPEAKER_01That makes sense. Yeah, that's actually. That's how I think about it.
SPEAKER_00I'm like, okay, so if I have four people doing this, five people doing this, I make X amount of dollars on each of them. Yeah, how can I get five more?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and that is a completely different business model than me maximizing your time, yeah, my time versus maximizing other people's time, and that is where good thing you have a partner who thinks for sure. I appreciate that, and I appreciate you bringing that that that feedback, and I completely agree with you. Hey, that's why we became business partners, and that and to be able to grow, and that's why we're growing so much. So, and then to uh to stop thinking from income, to what uh to stop focusing on income and focusing on build and building an asset, something I can sell, I need to start giving up control. Don't focus about control, but focus about the standards, create the standards. This is what we do here.
SPEAKER_00Standards, process, SOPs, all of those.
SPEAKER_01And then to be able to do that as a business owner, as uh as a leader inside the company, I need to be able to communicate those standards and those goals and make sure those standards are being accomplished. So instead of me doing everything, now I need to figure out how to track this standard, to create a tracking system uh for this standard. So I guess I guess I am not the only one that goes through this. I talk with a lot of clients and they want to grow past the million dollar, past and that is past the million dollar, but they cannot do it because I feel they're still stuck on this. And it's so crazy. I advise them like, hey, just focus on the business, just be all the enterprise, don't do the job, but I'm a slow leader. Easier said than done, yes, for sure. So why so many people struggle with it? Why that business owner watching this is probably saying, Man, I'm going through the same thing. I feel the same thing, and I kind of want to make the jump. Why why does that happen and why so many business owners don't so many businesses don't grow to be five, ten million dollar businesses and not only like an sustainable five million to ten million dollar businesses because I have seen solopreneurs that have grown businesses to five, ten million dollar.
SPEAKER_00Well, if you think about it, everyone starts out as a solepreneur, right? I mean, Apple, he was a solepreneur in his garage when he started Apple, right?
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_00I mean, Facebook Meta, like I mean, everything starts out like a small and it grows because it gets a capital injection, or or they know how to grow a business, right? Like we haven't done capital injections, we just know how to grow a business.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but I feel those people started the business thinking they're going to be billion-dollar companies.
SPEAKER_00Yes. And that's why you have to have the mentality and the mindset to do it if you're going to continue.
SPEAKER_01And that's probably why we are talking about it. Yes. Because we have that mentality, we have that goal. And I think in one of the Derry Docents episodes, we talk about thinking thinking, treating your business like a billion-dollar business, that way, that way you you can make this move here. So I feel also, uh, I guess for me, why we don't why I don't make that shift fast. And also a lot of my clients feel the same thing is because feel of losing quality, feel of losing that personal touch with the client. Hey, I want to email the client, I want to message the client.
SPEAKER_00And they become like family, right? Clients oftentimes, like you know them so well, and you've been working with them, and and they trusted you, especially when you first started your business. I have a couple clients like that too. Like you know that I do.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And they're so like near and dear to you because you're like, wow, you trusted me, like you're the one who gave me enough confidence to be able to continue to pursue my business. So I can't let someone else touch your your work, right? Yes. But again, it's limiting to your business.
SPEAKER_01Yes. So I guess I guess by I guess by doing that, by by just focusing on this, by don't making this shift, like we think we are protecting the business, but I'm just limiting the business because we cannot grow it to the next l level for that. What what do you think are some other reasons uh people struggle to make the this shift? Okay.
SPEAKER_00Because what what they're doing is they're working 40, 60 hours a week, right? I mean, I've never met a soldier who only worked 40 hours a week. So they're working 60 hours a week, likely. So and they're actually in the business doing the work or doing the admin. They're they're worried about cash flow, they're worried about paying the next bill, they're worried about collecting invoices. They don't have time to think about how can I grow this business. They just think, oh, I wish I could do this. I would love to do that. And oftentimes they don't have the business knowledge to do so. Yeah. Because again, they become a entrepreneur or sopreneur because they're good at what they do. And oftentimes we just got lucky, like that we just I mean, accounting and business is like what we did.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Right. So when you start a business, it's a little bit easier for us, a smaller learning curve. But for others out there, like who are doctors, lawyers, um, I mean, lawyers, I guess, are a little more business savvy than your average person, but dentists, like things like that. Um, you know, shoemakers, right? They don't like they're good at what they do and they know everything about that, but they don't know how to run a business and they don't have the thought process of like, okay, this is how you scale a business. Because they haven't seen it done. Yeah. And they haven't experienced it, they haven't read about it, they haven't learned about it. We have. So I think that's where the difference is.
SPEAKER_01I think another thing that also for me, and I see clients mentioning this a lot, is trust issues. They don't run trust people, or they can or they don't want to manage more than five people at the same time or more than eight people. I think it's just get a little bit of a.
SPEAKER_00I mean, yeah, I've heard of that as well. People don't like managing people and and honestly, tough. Yeah. Like if you want to be go from that soulpreneur level, you have to eat it. You have to do something. Yeah, you have to figure it out.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00You know, and and if you can't, then you stay a soulpreneur. Yeah. I don't want to hear you complain about it.
SPEAKER_01Something I have realized, and what I tell myself is this as a business owner, we can make a lot of money, and you are going to make a lot of money. But the more money you make, the more responsibilities, the more struggles you go through. Like making money is not easy. The more money you make, the harder you're working, or the more responsibilities, the more stress, the more struggles you have. And something I have been getting used to it is to that. Like, hey, Monday to Friday in business, it's going to suck. You know, it's just business. I'm making money, that is going to be a file, a file I have to put down, I have to deal with the staff, but that is the job I sign up for. And usually it's like people.
SPEAKER_00Like, I mean, we love our clients, we're grateful for them. We love our employees, we're grateful for them as well. But that's most of the problems in in business come from people. And a lot of times I think it's like communication. And yeah, you know.
SPEAKER_01So I guess I guess the I guess in my mind I have to remember myself that by that that I am not protecting my business just by keeping as a solopreneur instead of an enterprise. If I don't make that move, I'm just limiting my business. If I don't change my my identity, the way I look at myself in the business, the way I look at the business itself, I'm just going to limit the growth of the business, and then I'm not going to be building an asset, something that has value because it it depends on me. So I guess I guess I guess how can I start implementing this? You know, I'm soul, you are completely right. What can we do this week? What can our audience do this week to achieve this?
SPEAKER_00Exactly. So I think the first milestone for the soulpreneur transition to enterprise is this. Step one, you write everything down that you do in a week.
SPEAKER_01How do I find time to do that if I'm so busy? How do I do that?
SPEAKER_00You have to make time. So you you you have a calendar, right? Okay. You you make time and you sit there and say, Okay, I will do that. I'm gonna take, or you do it at night, do it at midnight, do it at two in the morning, do it at 5 a.m. when you first wake up. Sit there and say, Okay, here's all the things that I'm going to do today. Do it every day for five days for a week, and then there you have it, right? And then once you have that list, the next thing that you do is you highlight everything that only you can do, that no one else can do.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_00Okay. And then you circle or highlight in a different color things that someone else could be doing right now for you.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_00Okay. Then pick one task. This is step three. You pick one task that you can remove off of your plate. And you continue to do that every week or every so often. You pick the time frame that works for you. And again, like we're not burning the house down, right? We're building it brick by brick. We're rebuilding it. So I'm not saying, you know, everything that other people can do, give it all, give it away. You do one thing at a time. So maybe that's outsourcing and having an executive assistant, an EA, an executive assistant. We've talked about that before. They're very affordable, or maybe it's outsourcing your accounting. They like super, super small things. Maybe it's outsourcing your social media, who's handling social media. Or your or like a phone service, something like that. That's super small, um, that you can go ahead and get going and start taking some of the pressure off of you. Maybe it's hiring a contractor to come in and do some of the labor, some of the work.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's awesome. So, okay, thank you for that. I think those are really good actionable steps. So let's do this. I'm going to do that over the next two weeks. And it's going to be a really busy time for me. Uh so I and then it's going to be a good time to do it because I'm going to be busy and I'm going to come ready and talk about it this week.
SPEAKER_00I like it.
SPEAKER_01And talk about it this week. So I'm going to grind everything down I'm doing over the next week, over the next two weeks. Then I'm going to highlight the stuff I can only do and the stuff that somebody else could do. And then we're going to pick it, uh we're going to pick a task to remove from this week. I like it. And I would love to share this experience with another business owners. I know we have a lot of clients that struggle with this, that go through this. So let's do this. If you're watching this and you wait and you waited until the end and you liked this conversation and you want to jump from being like me, a sorpreneur, to building an enterprise, and you want to jump on this project, we would love to bring you to the podcast and talk through it, you know? But before we bring that that business owner to the podcast, they have to do all of this and then we can talk through it.
SPEAKER_00Is that what you mean? So if they listen to all six episodes and go through the process and then bring them in.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, because we're doing I guess I guess have five more sessions with you.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_01About getting me to the next level.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01That's awesome. Yeah, let's do that. And then if you wanted to be part of this, you gotta let us know in the comments. You know, just send us an email, let us know, and then that would be good to kind of work with work through a business, work with the business owners about it.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. So the next episode, we're getting into foundation.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00Because if your numbers and systems and structures are messy, then scaling your business will break it and not grow it.
SPEAKER_01I'm excited. I'm excited to heal, uh, I'm excited to heal that one and then yes, get into the foundation. Because yeah, you definitely need a foundation and start tracking the numbers and knowing your system and structure to be able to build in an enterprise. So I'm ready. I'm ready, hara. Yes, I'm ready for this series. I'm ready. You're working me through this, and I appreciate you investing the time on it and and making it and making me relax all over. Then let's make it happen. Let's get into the journey.
SPEAKER_00Hey guys, thanks so much for watching. I just wanted to steal uh jet spotlight.
SPEAKER_01Yes. What do you uh awesome? Okay, yes. Do we have a sponsor for this show? I guess are we good? I think. But what what was it? Like, are we what are you going to say something? Or I was I was just joking. I was just fencing around with it. Okay, cool.
SPEAKER_00So before we go, I would love to thank our sponsor for this episode. It's White Glove CPAs in Business Solutions, right there with the shirt. Beautiful. Uh, Jet, something interesting about White Glove.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00White Glove saved business owners over one million dollars with tax strategies from October 1st through the beginning of this year.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_00$1 million in taxes saved from simple tax strategies.
SPEAKER_01Yes. And they can help more people out. If you're interested over it, go to the website, submit the contacts us from, and tell us that you're looking for a tax planning and session to save to save you some money. And then in the that is going to be a session where you can leave a comment there and tell them that the heroine jet show is sends you over there.
SPEAKER_00And I hear the people who work for White Glove are they're they're pretty good people. I mean, I feel like they're pretty cool people. They are they're very good at what they do, they really care about it. You know, so definitely if you need tax strategy, if you're tired of paying too much money in taxes, reach out to White Glove.
SPEAKER_01Reach out to White Glove. Sounds good, guys. Hey, thank you, Harold. This was this this was a great show. I'm really excited to to go through the next five in sessions, and I'm going to give you all a report of how my my staff went. I'm going to grab down everything I'm doing over the next two weeks, and then on the second episode for the intro, we will talk about it, and then we will go with the foundation. Guys, thank you for watching. If you liked this episode, please subscribe, follow, yes, do comment.
SPEAKER_00You can add us as friends. I'm just kidding, that would change.
SPEAKER_01Yes, yes. And then we will see you on the next one talking about foundation. Okay, thank you guys, peace out.
