Christina: (00:00) You are listening to the scaling of freedom podcast. I’m your host, Christina Bernhard. And this is episode 156, and we are talking about how I cut my business expenses in half, um, and actually increased performance. Um, and I also wanna talk about how I restructured my team. So we did so many changes this year. Um, we’re still, I mean, I’m, my business is only a few years old, so we’re always just changing and growing and, um, always pivoting different things. Um, last year, uh, we actually doubled the team, so we grew the team really quickly, um, and it was very necessary and, um, it was a very good thing to do, but I was able to get to a place where I really just started to kind of like for lack of a better term, like cut the fat for my business and really change how we did things.

Christina: (00:56) And it actually ended up cutting our business expenses in half, um, which was really necessary because, um, I started to invest so much into the, um, client experience and marketing and all of these different things. And I was able to find better ways and just more efficient ways to use our, um, the money that we were investing. Um, we didn’t actually take out anything like none of our services or the level of service or anything that we had that was related to serving our clients. None of that was removed at all. So I’m gonna talk about, um, you know, how I cut the business expenses in half and what allowed me to give my business the most stability that it has ever had. Um, and also just how I was able to do this, but keep the same level of service and marketing E efforts despite the expense cut.

Christina: (01:50) So we didn’t actually cut any marketing efforts at all. So I’m super excited about this episode, cause I love talking about the backend of business and just the different details and strategy and um, you know, even whenever I am getting together with friends or even my family, my dad is a business owner and my mom is, uh, like a business woman for sure. And so we’re always talking about business and it’s one of my favorite topics. So, um, super excited to dive in and, um, chat with you guys about this topic. So the first one that I want to go over is how I cut my expenses in half. So, um, the first thing that I did was I reevaluated every single expense, like even the $12 per month subscriptions, just like everything. Um, and this took a long, long time. Like it took several days because so many little things added up, especially when you look at the different software that you’re using.

Christina: (02:48) Um, I actually had a lot of overlap in the different software that we were using as far as their abilities, because, you know, after a couple years of accumulating more and more expenses, things just started to get kind of messy where it was like we had this software that did this particular thing, or I had, um, this service or whatever to do this particular thing. And then, because it just kind of stacked over time. I never really looked to see, you know, can we condense some of this or consolidate some of this because it did start to get to where there was just so much. Um, and when the revenue is coming in, it’s kind of easy to just continue on paying your bills and not really looking into every little thing. I mean, we of course looked at our profit margins and all of that.

Christina: (03:36) And we had a very close eye on all of that. And, um, our larger expenses were definitely looked after and there was nothing alarming in our profit margin. So I was very happy with our profit margin. Um, but it just got to where we were just kind of adding in more and doing less evaluation. So, um, I looked into all of those little different, uh, expenses and some of them are, you know, they’re just like varying costs and it just got to where, um, once I started to dive into it, I, my plan actually wasn’t to reevaluate every single expense. Um, but after I got through a few and I started to just see all of these unnecessary things, I was like, wow, what else is there? And I just kept digging. So I went through every single expense, um, and that cut out so much.

Christina: (04:24) Um, the other thing that I did was I looked into my team members and their performance. Now we always did, uh, we always did performance reviews and like, things like that. So this wasn’t something that was necessarily neglected like in its in full form, but I did do a deeper dive into the analytics, um, much deeper than I did before. And, um, one thing that has been really helpful is the systems that I’ve created. And I’m gonna talk about that later, but, um, that is what made it possible to actually like really dive into every little crevice of my business in this way, because before, whenever I was just kind of, you know, on a hamster wheel just constantly like so busy, just trying to keep up, I just, would’ve never had time to do this kind of like deep evaluation. And again, we did evaluate things.

Christina: (05:18) Um, we always do quarterly evaluations and we do comb through quite a bit of my business, but, um, I just took it to a whole nother level. Um, so I looked into all of my team members and what their performance was and did that deep dive into all of the analytics. And I just started to see, I even had some team members that had overlapping in what they offered, um, because a lot of them were, or all of them were contractors. So some of them there was even overlap in what, what their services were, which means that I was kind of double paying for certain things that were going on in my business. Um, and so whenever I

Christina: (05:56) Did this and I looked into the team members and I looked into the structure because it did get to a point where just like with the software and stuff, it got to where we were like, okay, we need someone to do this. We need someone to do that. We need to hire this person and that person and that person, um, and it started to just kind of, you know, stack up. Um, and so what I did was I went ahead and transitioned some of the contractor roles to in-house employee structure. This was huge. This was something that I was so excited for. And now that we’ve done it, I am so, so happy with it. Um, I could not be, I don’t think I could be more happy with this. Um, I do think that contractors are important and there is a really good, um, place for them, especially whenever there’s just something that you need.

Christina: (06:40) That’s very specific. Um, I still have plenty of contractors on my team, um, and there are certain roles where a contractor position just makes so much more sense. Um, and then there were just roles where it just didn’t make sense anymore. Um, so whenever that was the case, I was able to sit down and really figure out how do I want to structure this, um, and bring this in house. So that’s what I did, um, as far as my expenses. So now I wanna talk about the stability that made it possible to even do this. Um, it made it possible to, you know, look at all of these expenses and have the time to really reevaluate every single little crevice in my business on a very deep level, but it also made it possible to go from the contractor roles to the in-house employee structure.

Christina: (07:27) Because with that I know in, um, our space in our little like bubble in the world, um, a lot of people are, um, building teams with contractor roles. And, um, I do know quite a few people who have brought a lot of things in house. Um, but it’s a, it’s definitely a transition that I usually see, you know, later on in, uh, in their businesses. And, uh, I couldn’t, again, I could not be happier with this, but the reason that we were able to even do this for the particular roles that we were able to absorb is because of our systems. One really great benefit of hiring contractors to do things is that they already have systems and their ways of doing things. So you just tell them what you need and you still need systems to do this right. But for the most part, you tell them what you need and then they take care of it.

Christina: (08:15) When you bring it in house, you have to just kind of up level your systems. You have to be even more specific with what you are asking from them because they are an employee now. So they are relying on you to come up with these systems. And of course they’re gonna be resourceful hopefully, and independent and figure out their own ways. And hopefully they will aid you into building these systems. Um, but either way, it still has to be systems that are built into your business. So every single task in my business has a written SOP and a, um, most of them have a recorded SOP. Um, so they don’t have a recorded video if it doesn’t make, if it’s just not necessary for that kind of task, but most of them do have the recorded video. So, um, that’s huge. Like this takes so much time.

Christina: (09:05) I it’s unbelievable how much time this takes because, and maybe it’s not a surprise to some people, but I just, my brain works this way. So I’ve thought it would be something that was so simple and I could just easily just knock out. But I mean, we’ve been making this such a priority for probably the last year and a half. It’s been a very, very high priority. And I still, I made SOPs this morning as I’m recording this. Um, I’m just constantly making new SOPs and it’s, it’s so worth it. Like I would do it again in a heartbeat. I’ve pulled all nighters doing this. I’m not saying that you should do that. But, um, it was just so, so worth it. Um, so every task has that written SOP. This is going to make it so stable. This is one of the reasons why my business has been so stable, especially on just the operations front, because even if we have to rehire a role or hire a duplicate of a role or something like that, um, all the SOPs are there.

Christina: (10:07) So I don’t have to rely on anyone necessarily like training them, my systems, train them, and then we are there to support them as they are going through that process. Another thing that we do is all of our SOPs are organized in one spot. So they aren’t just like randomly like floating around in my loom accounts, although the videos are, but they’re all linked inside of this one spot we use click up. Um, and we actually have a space that’s just training and SOPs and we have every single little thing that happens in my business. And you can find all of the SOPs there. Another thing that we do is all of our tasks that are in the operations part of our project manager. Um, all of them are templated to have the link to the SOP in the description. So whenever someone on my team gets tasked something, if they just open that task, there will be a link to the SOP on how to complete that task.

Christina: (11:02) And again, this is so much work . Um, but the goal is that we make it as full proof as possible. Um, and this really does help set my team up for success because whenever they are tasked something, having the SOP right there in the description, it just makes it easier for everyone. This makes it easier for them sets them up for success, but it also just really decreases the amount of mistakes or any inconsistencies with training, from team member to team member, everything stays very consistent and it flows so seamlessly. Um, and so this is one of my favorite things about my business and how I’ve been able to just have the mental capacity to have more time, not only just for my personal life, but also to be able to constantly be really high touch with my clients, to be able to reevaluate my business on a deeper level and just always come up with ideas on how we can make things better, because I have the mental capacity to be the visionary as well.

Christina: (12:04) And, um, always just be in that space of creativity and not in this space of overwhelm and just constantly like on the wire, um, trying to come up with, or, you know, trying to meet deadlines and trying to get through my task list. Um, that’s just not my life anymore. And it’s, it’s amazing. um, and our systems are a big, big reason for that. Another thing that made it possible for me to do this for my business was, um, our training. So whenever I do hire someone, um, I’m incredibly present during the training. Now, as my business grows, then, you know, I might be less present, but as of right now, my team is very small. So I am very, very present in the training process for most of the roles. Um, but I will say that I do throw them straight into the role.

Christina: (12:56) Um, so my style might not be for everyone. Um, but what I personally do and what works for us, um, is I basically throw them in as if they are like seasoned in that role. Like I just start throwing all the tasks to them and then I just kind of dive in with them. So, um, it’s what works for us right now. And I’m only able to do this though, because my SOPs are so thorough. So I’m whenever I’m training, I’m not necessarily training them on how to do the tasks, necessarily. Those are already in the SOPs. They already know how to do everything. I am there to answer any questions. Um, and I, one of the reasons why I love to be very involved in this is because whenever you create all of your SOPs, and then you hand them off, you start to see the different holes in them too, especially when you’re really present.

Christina: (13:46) So me being really present and not just like, here’s how you do this, do it. Um, it’s I always like task in like, look at this SOP and ask me questions and I make them ask me questions because I wanna know where are the holes? So I’m trying to dump my brain into this system. Um, and I wanna know what what’s not clear whenever someone else is looking at it and this just makes our SOPs even better because we’re always able to optimize them. I’m able to, um, add different things or they’ll ask a question. I’m like, that’s a great question. Um, it’s something that was already in my brain and it should be written out in this SOP. So, um, I’ve been able to just make them more and more thorough. Another thing is that once they are thrown in, I’m able to see different scenarios where this SOP actually doesn’t work.

Christina: (14:34) Um, because there are times where there are special case scenarios, um, where they might not happen a lot. They might happen frequently enough where we need to modify the SOP or add something where if this is the case, if this happens, then this is the SOP. Um, and so just making them just better and better over time. Um, but another thing that it helps with is just that they have a lot of resources that are independent of me. So that allows me to be really present without having to, you know, spend all of my time, training them. I’m just there to, you know, answer the questions and catch the different holes and just be able to create the best SOP possible. And once we go through that process, that SOP is pretty much like good and done, and it works really well for the long term, as long as we’re not, you know, changing how we do things.

Christina: (15:27) Um, so that is how I’ve been training. And I just spend a ton of time with my new team members whenever I hire them, we get on extra calls. Um, a lot of times whenever I’m doing something, I will just record videos of me doing it so that they can just see what it looks like in real time. Um, and I, we also put those in the SOPs as well. So it’s not the actual SOP, they’re just examples of different scenarios. And so that they can just kind of see where I’ll just talk out my thought process while I’m doing something. And that has been really helpful as well. Um, another thing is that I give them very thorough responses and feedback. So whenever they do ask a question, I don’t just like, you know, answer it. Um, I answer it, but I answer it like sometimes with longer paragraphs, if that’s necessary sometimes with extra calls, um, and things like that, or even just doing a quick loom video of a video response to their questions just helps them understand it on a whole nother level.

Christina: (16:29) Another thing that is really helpful is, um, whenever I answer their question on this is how it’s done, I always include why, um, and that way they can see why it has to be done that way. I can say that, um, it has to be done this way because you know, the next day, so, and so actually takes this and sends it to the client or does this or whatever. And then the whole thing, like their little piece of that, um, process makes sense to them and they understand why they have to do it that way. Um, and it just helps solidify, uh, the so P and makes sense for everyone. And it just keeps everything super streamlined. So that is how I’m able to hire and, or that’s how I hire. And, um, I’m able to have that stability so that I can, you know, really dive into the business and make these different changes.

Christina: (17:23) Um, and one thing that we’ve been able to do, um, through this process of this year of the changes that we’ve made is that I’ve cut expenses without lowering quality. So it’s really important that my expense cut didn’t cut anything in the business. I wanted to make things more efficient, um, and increase the profit so that I can reinvest because there was a lot of fluff, right. So, um, you know, I wouldn’t have been able to cut my expenses in half if there wasn’t so much fluff, like, as you can see, there was a lot of fluff, but again, our profit margin was still like, you know, good. It wasn’t the greatest, but it was, I was happy with it. Um, but I really want to always be investing even more into my client services. That’s something that’s been really, really important to me for the past couple of years.

Christina: (18:11) I mean, it’s always been important, but like really is something that, um, I’ve been focusing so much more on and investing so much more on. So by increasing the amount of money that we’re able to have left over, I’ve been able to actually, you know, put more into it rather than cutting things just to cut expenses. So, um, the focus has just been on making things more efficient, not necessarily to just cut things out, um, and just have less marketing effort or, you know, less team members and just like taking out whole projects or anything like that. So the result of all of this, so I went through all the expenses, cut, all of that. I, um, restructured the team, took a lot of contractors, brought them in house, um, and, uh, redid a lot of the SOPs and things like that. A lot of the, um, motivation for this was also my maternity leave coming up.

Christina: (19:06) Um, so I already had a maternity leave plan before I even got pregnant so I did fertility treatment. So I was able to really plan this out. Um, and I’m very grateful for that. Um, but even though I had those things planned out, I of course, wanted to go on the path while, um, like during pregnancy to really make things even more solidified. And it has just like Uplevel things so much more. So I’ve been able to do all of these different transitions and the results of that. Um, the first thing is that our content metrics all went up, everything, literally every marketing metric went up. And, um, some of this is because, um, with the content specifically, I did take over a lot more of my content. I always was a part of the content part of it, but not necessarily the planning of the content and also not all of the execution either.

Christina: (20:04) Um, so I’ve been able to take this back into my hands and find ways to make it more doable for me. But again, because we have all of these other systems more solidified, I have the time to do it now. Whereas last year I did not have the time, um, to be doing so much content. Um, so I had someone writing my social media captions and things like that. Um, we had a content strategist that was planning out and mapping out all of our content for the podcasts for Instagram, all of that. And so I’ve taken all of that back over. Um, so the social media followers have gone up. The podcast listeners have gone up, the reach has gone up engagement, like literally everything has gone up, um, and continues to do, I know, know it’s going to PLA plateau at some point. Um, but it’s still rising.

Christina: (20:50) Um, and we made a lot of, we started making a lot of these changes in March, so, and I’m recording this in August and it’s still all continuing to, uh, grow and go up. Um, so that’s a really great indicator that that was a good idea, cuz to be honest, I wasn’t sure that it was when I first decided to do that. the second thing that happened is that the business ran smoother. So this isn’t a huge surprise, like systems always seem to make things run smoother. Um, but also bringing things in house really does simplify so much, uh, not at first, cuz you do have to create all of these systems before where, or whereas before the contractors kind of just took care of that for you, but it does give you more control over just the system of things and how things flow.

Christina: (21:37) So it can just make most sense. So I feel like I have more control and just like stability, like everything is cleaner, it’s more intentional. Um, I also have more money to reinvest in my business, which is huge. Um, and also just like when you cut expenses, you also have less pressure to generate as high revenue numbers. And this really allows me to spend more time having space in improving things rather than just keeping things going, um, and trying to, you know, keep the revenue at a certain point. Um, it’s okay if we go down a bit, which we’ve always fluctuated, especially whenever, um, we are hiring more people and I’m kind of in a training phase, um, we will kind of scale back the marketing and focus on the back end. That’s been, um, that was a big theme last year, um, especially last summer, but um, you know, having going through all of your expenses and cutting all of that fat and being more efficient with your money, which of course we’re all trying to do that.

Christina: (22:37) It’s just that over time things just start to stack up because you’re, you know, solving this problem and then solving this problem and solving this problem as revenue comes in, um, at least in my experience, it was just kind of like we could afford to take care of that problem. And I did it the best way that I knew at the time. And if I went back, I would do it again. I mean, those were the solutions that we needed at the time. Um, but we are just in a more stable space where we’re able to just bring more in-house and just have things run a bit smoother. Um, and we, I had the capacity to actually put the time and effort into making that and building that within my business. Um, so that is what I have for you for this episode. I hope that you found this helpful. It was just a bit of a deep dive into what we’ve done this year and I could not be more thrilled and more happy with the changes that we’ve made. Um, everything so far has been incredible. Definitely a lot of work when you are making shifts like this, but, um, it’s been really great thing to do during pregnancy because it’s going to make maternity leave even better. And then also my transition into motherhood, which was

Christina: (23:44) Really important. I feel like even last year, um, the business was just so streamlined. Um, and it’s just been, it’s been amazing honestly, and it’s been really like mind blowing that I was able to take it and make it even more efficient just because it was so much work to make it what it was before. So to even just like make it even more efficient and have things run even smoother and create more space in my business, um, financially, but also time wise, um, has been a really, really incredible journey, um, and very, very happy with the results of it. But I hope that you found this helpful and maybe entertaining even. And, um, I will see you guys next week.