Most business growth starts quickly and then hits a wall. As operational costs and complexities increase, it becomes harder to scale. What’s the secret to continued growth without compromising on the quality of service?
TenHats CEO Brian Strong recently joined Brandon Garcin on the Syncronized podcast, sharing insights on scaling businesses past $10 million. In the episode, Brian discusses transitioning from founder-led to executive-led operations, shedding daily tasks, and fostering team trust and leadership to build a thriving enterprise.
Brian’s three core pillars for scaling your business include:
- Changing your mindset
- Being smarter about finances
- Growing your sales team
1. Change Your Mindset
Changing your mindset from a founder-led to an executive-led business can be difficult, especially if you helped start it from the ground up with only a couple of partners. While sharing day-to-day responsibilities like going to the bank or post office can work for a while, it eventually becomes clear that you need help on the business side.
I think it’s really identifying what you’re good at. If you’re very technical and you have really hard skills in stuff like that, you may think about hiring somebody who’s more business-oriented to run that side of the business.
Brian calls this “hiring for your weaknesses.” At its core, this means hiring people with skills that you lack. This could be a permanent, full-time position or an outsourced contractor. He encourages people to “trust but verify,” but hiring people to fill the operational side of the business is a great way to get things done while looking smarter in the process.
Another important way to change your mindset is by joining a peer group as soon as you can, but not for the reasons you may think. “I don’t go there to find out what I’m doing right,” explains Brian, “I go there to learn what I’m doing wrong.” This is all part of a process of dealing with the big things first and becoming more nuanced as the company begins to grow.
2. Be Smarter about Finances
“Basically, as you’re running past three million dollars, you should really start looking at all your packing and how it’s set up,” says Brian. This includes financial buckets such as labor and GL codes, allowing you to get more granular as you put in your costs. Otherwise, these buckets become too big as your business grows, making them harder to deal with later on.
Having a fractional CFO on your team is another important step, as Brian explains:
Bookkeepers are great. They do exactly what you tell them to do and they will put it in the same bucket every time. But a CFO will really give you better reporting and they’ll look at your GL codes to see where the cost is going. A little bit of time goes a long way.
Another important part of this step is going after bigger customers. “We don’t want to fire customers, per se,” explains Brian. However, this can free up time and manpower to pursue bigger clients.
Speaking of challenging his salespeople at TenHats to go after bigger clients, Brian says:
It can be done. I know it can be done because I did it. You have to have the faith that you can actually sell those size accounts, and if you don’t have that faith, then you won’t sell it.
3. Grow Your Sales Team
Discussing sales is a natural segue into Brian’s third pillar—growing your sales team. According to Brian, one of the biggest mistakes companies make is who they hire as outside sales reps. “They also look to the person who’s really bubbly,” Brian says, calling on his 25+ years of experience.
They can talk to anyone. But because they can talk to anyone means they like to have conversations. What they’re not naturally gifted in is being tasked with closing the sale.
The secret is finding someone who’s more task-oriented than conversational, which means an extrovert may not always be the best choice for your sales team. “A conversational person will go into a meeting, have a great conversation, and they’ve gotten all their fulfillment out of that great conversation, but they’ve made no money,” Brian cautions.
This all loops back to the first pillar of adopting a new mindset. As a CEO, the purpose of hiring salespeople is to get that off of your plate. The way Brian sees it, if you’re having to come in and close sales on behalf of your sales team, then you haven’t truly traded a founder-led mindset for one that’s executive-led.
About Brian Strong and TenHats
Brian Strong’s professional journey is marked by innovation and leadership. His career in sales and IT services laid the foundation for his expertise in business technology strategy as CEO of TenHats.
TenHats has since become a key player in Knoxville’s tech ecosystem, offering managed IT services. We support local businesses with relationship-driven IT solutions to meet your technical needs. Since 2022, TenHats has contributed to Knoxville’s growth as a regional tech hub, emphasizing collaboration and adaptability in its operations.
