In this Treasure Tuesday, I am sharing a story about a business owner who couldn’t teach his “Secret Sauce” to his team for many years. He tried, but it didn’t stick well enough. The result: He was exhausted, and his company couldn’t grow further. The story has a happy ending … or should I say, a happy opening for the significant expansion he is experiencing now?
In this Treasure Tuesday, I want to tell you a story that addresses the question: How can you pinpoint the secret Sauce for scaling a business?
Here is a story of a company that’s been in business for 20 years, and the founder/owner is still there. He has developed a secret sauce in his head that created an amazing success. He created the company from nothing into a multimillion-dollar business, and his clients loved him dearly.
His Challenge
The problem was he needed help to teach his secret Sauce. He tried for many years, but for some reason, he was unable to. What is that reason? He wasn’t completely aware of the entire Secret Sauce because it has conscious and unconscious components.
You can’t teach the things you do automatically, things you’re not even aware of.
Worse yet, the company’s growth was impeded. They could not grow past the about 5 million dollars revenue mark. It was exhausting for the owner! There was no clear path to grow any further.
One might say what was even worse was that there was no clear path for him to, at some point, exit and sell this business because if you can’t pass on your secret Sauce, even to your own team who’s working with you day in, day out, how are you going to pass it on to a new, new owner?
A Guide Shows Up To Help The Business Hero
A business associate referred us to each other. The associate said, “I think Dr. Stephie can help you!”
We looked at what he does and what brilliance is there, what experience, what expertise, what wisdom, what philosophy, and which questions are running through his head.
It’s a lucky thing that I love to ask questions because I’m extremely curious. This mindset always helps us out. This is what I do: I ask a ton of questions. I think of Colombo (it is a TV show if you don’t know), who had his pencil and his little notebook. Remember him? He had already asked many questions, and then he turned and was about to walk away. Then he turned back, pulled his notebook back out of his pocket, and said, “One more question…” That question turned out to be instrumental in solving the case! I just love this guy.
What We Did Together
We looked at his brilliance in his head, and we decided that there was a whole list of things. That was not surprising to me because there is always more than first meets the eye. We saw that his Secret Sauce was the thing to start with. There was a fundamental secret sauce. It had five components to it. We said, we’ll go after that first, and then we can go from there. Everything else is built on this Secret Sauce. It’s like a foundation.
Quick Wins: Recruiting and Onboarding Made Easy
What happened next? Within six weeks, we had enough of the secret Sauce documented that we were able to teach the first two new people with it. This first training was very successful. They were blown away. They were very excited to come on board. If you know anything about the job market right now (especially since this happened a few months ago), hiring is not for the faith of the heart. Having two people excited to join your team when you’re looking for good people is already an amazing thing.
Then we polished the material and set up a company training portal with a Learning Management System (LMS).
You may think, “Wow, those are big words, and I don’t know whether I can afford to do that?” This sounds like a lot of work, but it’s not that bad. It is affordable, and the return is just incredible. You can do this.
The Team Is Excited, And Revenues Are Growing Fast
What happened was, in a short amount of time, revenue started to grow. The team said, “Man, we finally get the Secret Sauce. The videos you’ve made are so helpful, and the supporting tool you created is easy to use. You made a few slides that remind us what was in the videos. That’s amazing, and now we get it.”
The company started to grow. It’s fair to say that it grew by 50% quickly.
The Success Is Snowballing
The owner had more bandwidth again and said, “We’ve got these systems. Let’s create two more locations.”
He’s in the process of rolling out his Secret Sauce in the systems we’ve developed. We’re now developing more training systems and rolling them out to two other locations. He’s working on franchising this business.
What Happened In A Nutshell
Now think about this. He’s gone from being a “handcuffed” business owner who couldn’t fully explain his Secret Sauce, not even to his own team who’d worked with him for years and years. He could explain it partially but not fully. He’s gone from that to now franchising his business. That’s amazing! That’s gratifying to me. He’s a happy camper, and that makes me happy. That’s what we do.
I’m Curious
This story hopefully helps you visualize what this could look like for you. This story could help you because think about how many things you have to do repeatedly. How much heavy lifting do you do for things you can’t afford to have “fouled up” by someone else who can’t do it as well as you do?
If you recognize yourself in these questions, there’s something to consider. Drop me a line. I’m happy to connect and brainstorm how you can scale up without it consuming your life.
Live brilliantly,
P.S.: I appreciate you commenting and sharing this Treasure Tuesday with others. Thank you!
