How to Build a Business that Works Without You: Allison Bridges on Systems, Scaling & Freedom

Are you trapped doing the work in your business instead of on it? In this episode of Small Business Pivots, host Michael Morrison welcomes business systems expert Allison Bridges, founder of Experts Only, to unpack how service-based business owners can finally build a business that grows without you.

With over 20 years and 46,000 hours in the trenches, Allison shares why trading time for money doesn’t scale, how to create your secret-sauce system, and the exact tools and frameworks you can implement this week to avoid burnout and turn your business into a freedom machine.

We dive into:

• The system mindset vs. the founder-doer trap
• Where to start when you don’t even know where your SOPs begin
• How to store and deploy your systems for maximum impact
• Choosing your version of success and designing your business around life (not the other way around)

Whether you're a doctor-turned-entrepreneur, running a field-service business, or simply ready to scale, you’ll walk away with actionable steps to stop being the business and start owning the business.

Connect with Allison Bridges

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/expertsonlyallisonbridges/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/expertsonlyconsulting
• Website: https://expertsonlyconsulting.com/

Show Notes Summary (Bullet + Timestamps):

00:00 – 02:30 – Introduction: Allison Bridges sets the stage — 20 years, 46,000 hours, fascinated by systems.
02:30 – 08:00 – Allison’s upbringing: serial entrepreneur since age 10, multi-sport athlete, corporate roles, and the shift to being truly “unemployable”.
08:00 – 15:00 – The big trap: You are the business. Why that kills scalability and what to do instead.
15:00 – 23:00 – Defining burnout and success: It’s unique to you, not a generic checklist. Designing your business around life.
23:00 – 33:00 – Where to start when there are no Systems: Allison’s guest-situation working with a 30-year business that never had SOPs. Her approach: Grab your phone, voice record, build SOP bank.
33:00 – 40:00 – Storage & rollout of systems: binder vs. online knowledge-base; leveraging tools like ChatGPT, Loom, ManyChat for automation & training.
40:00 – 50:00 – Proprietary secret-sauce: If you don’t have something unique, you’re in the sea of sameness. How to claim your edge and document it.
50:00 – 58:00 – Full-circle: Allison’s services explained, how to connect with her, and one last actionable tip: “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”
58:00 – end – Wrap-up & closing.

 Allison Bridges is the founder of Experts Only Consulting and owner of a children’s athletics franchise. With 20+ years in entrepreneurship and 46,000+ hours logged, she has built, scaled, sold and consulted in numerous service-based industries, including med-spa, construction and franchise rollout. 

Chapters

• 0:00 Opening And Guest Introduction
• 1:15 Allison’s Entrepreneurial Origin Story
• 6:40 Freedom, Burnout, And Defining Success
• 12:20 Lessons From Failed Ventures And Corporate
• 19:30 Why You Cannot Be The Business
• 24:50 Scaling Mindset: Life-First Business Design
• 29:30 Practical SOPs: Where To Start
• 35:10 Tools For Systems: Voice, ChatGPT, Loom
• 41:00 Protecting IP, Branding, And Differentiation
• 46:05 Getting Teams To Use The Playbook

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

All right, welcome to another Small Business Pivot. Today we have another special guest from around the world. And if you watch or listen to our show, you know that no one can introduce themselves like the business owner. So just introduce yourself, your company, and what we're going to help our listeners with today.

SPEAKER_01: 0:17

Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me. I'm obsessed with business and cannot wait to chat with you. My name is Allison Bridges. I'm the founder of Experts Only. We're a full-service boutique firm. And I also own a children's athletics franchise as well. And over the last 20 years and 46,000 hours, I have learned so much about taking the time to create the systems to get ahead in your business later on. And we're going to discuss today, again, that's one of my favorite topics, how to actually optimize, put those in place, and why you shouldn't feel like you're behind while you're working on those systems.

SPEAKER_00: 0:59

This is going to be incredible. And for the business owner that we just had a coaching session with this morning, I hope you're watching this show because we were just talking about systems and the benefit and how do I find time to actually do them and everything. But first, we're going to introduce the show and we'll be right back. Welcome to Small Business Pivots, a podcast produced for small business owners. I'm your host, Michael Morrison, founder and CEO of Boss, where we make business ownership simplified for success. Our business is helping your growth. Boss offers business loans with business coaching support. Apply in minutes and get approved and funded in as little as 24 to 48 hours at business ownershipsimplified.com. All right, welcome back to Small Business Pivot Assistance. It's my jam. Everybody knows that, that knows me. Where do we even start? I mean, you've got 46,000 hours. I'm sure you've got just a couple of insights. So let's start with kind of maybe your upbringing a little bit because I know as a business owner, we didn't come out the womb. As an entrepreneur, there was something that triggered us to do that. And I find with most business owners that we work with as a business coach, they're either running from something or running to something. So kind of what was your upbringing like so people can be relatable to your story?

SPEAKER_01: 2:32

Yeah, absolutely. I always say I've been a serial entrepreneur since I was like 10 years old. I used my form of creativity, ironically, was creating these like clubs and businesses. I literally have a tape of me doing what now is a podcast to my stuffed animals back in the day. So I think I just it's it's very, very funny because I look back and I'm like, wow, like if only you created that, you know, you would have been so ahead of the times. But uh I very much used, I think, creation as a way to just kind of escape reality a little bit. That was my thing. Everyone has theirs. Um, I spent a lot of time in athletics, so um was a multi sport athlete. And I think that one of the first things that I realized was the correlations between everyone having a job on the court, um, no matter what it was. And I had a really great understanding of that being in sports. There's so many correlations with the two. And so fast forward a little bit, um, go to college. You know, I've I graduated college like literally 2008, the worst time in the world to get to get a job, found out I was pregnant, like literally the same week. I'm like, wow, this is tremendous. Like, what the hell am I gonna do? Um, and I think, you know, uh my work ethic started very young because I was uh I started working when I was 14 at McDonald's. I just want to make my own money. I wanted to be off my own. I didn't want anybody, including my parents, I didn't want anyone to tell me what to do or where to be. And that's been my personality, my entire life on this.

SPEAKER_00: 4:10

So the freedom.

SPEAKER_01: 4:11

Yeah. And yeah, definitely very much a, I don't know if anyone's into astrology, but I'm definitely a very textbook Sagittarius. And so I I think my entire life in a nutshell has been chasing freedom. And I thought initially, because of I'm a millennial, uh, almost I'm almost 40. And so I think that what I realized was, or I what I thought, I guess, initially was okay, if I get a job and I'm in charge and I'm the CEO and whatever, then I'm gonna have this freedom and all this money and all these different things. And I worked my way up to that and was running several, I I've run several companies, mostly in like the medical space and things like that. But I realized that that's like that's actually not it. You're actually more of a prisoner. It's you're actually almost more of a prisoner than than anything. And I always say that I was like the best employee, won tons of awards, everyone loved me until I decided I wanted to leave and go about my way. Um, and I think that the really the last corporate role that I had, I decided that I was probably just unemployable. And that came from there just I I truly don't listen. I I like to learn and I'm very inquisitive, but I don't like to copy or do anything that anyone else does, right? And so that is very much an entrepreneurial mindset because I'm not gonna say, like, oh, they did this, I'm gonna copy them, I'm gonna, you know, roll with it. Um, I wanted to make sure that I was like truly creating on my own. And the only way to go about doing that, that I finally realized it wasn't by running someone else's company, it wasn't by running a division, it was none of those things. It was truly being off on my own. And when I was able to connect the two, that like you're such a hard worker, but you get so frustrated because you know how it needs to get done, and you can't, you know, you're not the owner of the company. So that's kind of where my uh my journey started. But it started very, very young, and I just I I I consider business a hobby. I know that sounds really lame, but even my favorite show is Shark Tank. So there's that.

SPEAKER_00: 6:20

Well, so you don't like barriers and entrepreneurs, that's one of our favorite things. And for those that are considering, I know we have some listeners that just haven't quite pulled the plug yet. They want to be an entrepreneur. And for those listeners out there like that, uh I want you to hear that you aren't chasing the money. Most entrepreneurs don't. So if it's only for the money, you're probably not gonna go as far as you could. It's gotta be for that freedom, the experience, the making choices of your time. You know, there's other things. So uh so let's start with when you first started your first business. Yeah, what were some of the things you would have done differently now that you have 46,000 hours of a lot, long time.

SPEAKER_01: 7:09

Um I've actually had a few failed businesses before I got to where I'm at now. And a lot of people just don't even know that because I stayed very private on social media for so many years. I really didn't post anything until just recently. Um, so I my first venture was an event planning business. And ironically, I was very far ahead of the curve. This was back in like 2012. So event planning is a totally different industry now. I I started before Pinterest even existed, really, or like it wasn't it wasn't popular yet. Instagram really wasn't a thing. And I think that, and this is something I still struggle with, by the way. So it's a lesson I've learned and I'm cognizant of it, but I have to constantly reset my brain. I'm such a giver and I really love helping people, and I think that that's why I love helping businesses be successful. I I truly just love it, or else, you know, I'd be miserable because I work, you know, all day long. I work pretty much all day long. But I I think with that business, the first thing, and and again, talking about service-based businesses, that is a service. It's very time consuming and it's very high pressure, right? Which, which a lot of a lot of businesses are. So what I realized was I was 100% the business. It was 100% not scalable because if I'm the person that's doing X, Y, Z and they want me, I can never really truly step away from that. And this was before before personal branding as well, and before all these resources we have, right? So I didn't want to spend every single weekend away, like at the time I had two young children. I'm I'm married. It's like I don't want to go do any of these things. I hate, I actually like hate this. And I don't like to be told where I need to be at any given time, you know, unless it's something I truly want to do. So I think for that, I learned the importance of creating a business that works for you that isn't you. And I identify that so early and was able to help a lot of, I worked with a lot of doctors, and a lot of times the doctor was business, and that's very, very difficult to change the model. But I've been very successful in doing that. So I'd say overall, the lesson is you cannot be the business. It is not scalable if you are the business. And so you have to take yourself and place your personal brand as one thing, and that's how you're showing up, that's how you're talking, that's podcasting, it's you know, speaking, whatever it is. And then you also have to create everything in the background that runs so you could literally take it and hand it to someone and say, All right, so you do this first, second, third, fourth, and fifth. And I just wasn't aware of how to do that yet. I hadn't been exposed to it. There's no entrepreneurs in my family but me, you know. So I kind of was like, ah, what do I do?

SPEAKER_00: 9:55

Yeah, we we both kind of wear that patch. I believe I was one of the very rare entrepreneurs in my family as well. But there's uh something you said that was interesting there that I want our listeners to hear. What you were kind of saying, it sounds like, is in the event space, when it was just you, you were trading time for money. Well, guess what, people? There's only so much time in a day. So if you have a business that you are the business and you're wanting to hit you know 10 million or whatever, you're gonna burn out because you're working all hours and you're really never gonna scale it because you there's not enough time.

SPEAKER_01: 10:30

You are so you're so very correct. And it it's the words that you mentioned, I think like we should take a second really to dissect them because they're so powerful and there's so much meaning behind them both. But unfortunately, with Chat GPT and everyone in America starting a business from Chat GBT and Canva and whatever, I feel like you see that those words and you don't you you don't really know necessarily what it means, right? So, what does scale really mean? What does burnout actually mean? And I think for me, burnout, you have to identify what it looks like. I start getting angry. Like I actually get angry, and everything that happens, I will like I'm just mad at. Like I can go to the gas station and be mad at the gas pump, like stupid stuff like that. And so when I when I step into that, I know I'm out of alignment and I know that I'm doing something within my business that is frustrating me, and I really need to figure out, or even within my role in corporate, and I need to figure out like what that is, and I need to solve for X. So I think that what burnout means is like when you feel that sensation in your body that's like, I don't want to do this. I'm I do not want to do this. To me, that's what burnout is. It's not staying up too late because there's plenty of times I've been happy as all get out to stay up all night long. You know what I mean? So I think that we see things like this online, and it's like every single person's different and how they want to operate as a human, it's it's all different. Some nights I love to stay up all night because it's peace and quiet. My kids aren't, you know, awake. Sometimes I like to get 4 a.m. on a Saturday. Sometimes I like to go to my workout in the middle of the day. I I think truly, like all of those things could be identified as burnout in some way if you told a story around it. So I think that you really have to sit with yourself as a business owner and say, like, number one, what do I want to do every single day? Like, what is it? Is it, I want to make sure I can take my dogs to the dog park? Okay, write that down. Like, write literally every single thing that would fill your cup up every single day first. And then in the gaps where you don't have something, that's where you fill in your business. And if the business that you have doesn't fit into that, it's probably not gonna work for you at some point because you're going to have the push and pull. Like, I don't mind working all day as long as I can get to my daughter's volleyball game, my son's baseball. I don't care. That burnout to me is when someone's calling me and being like, Allison, Allison, Allison, and I'm trying to watch a game. Or do you see what I'm saying? Yeah. So I think we have to really identify what burnout is, and no one's doing a good job of that right now because we're just recycling content. That's a conversation for another day.

SPEAKER_00: 13:09

Very well said. Build your business around your life.

SPEAKER_01: 13:13

Yeah.

unknown: 13:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 13:14

Right.

SPEAKER_01: 13:15

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00: 13:15

Make sure it fits the mold.

SPEAKER_01: 13:18

Yeah. And you know, definitely very long-winded there, but I feel like you have to really think like use my examples to think. Like, think for yourself. Don't think for the thought leader on social media. Like, think for yourself because everyone's everyone's different. You don't have to get up at 4 a.m. to be successful. But if you feel like doing that one day and you feel good about it, then by all means go for it, you know? Um, I think the other thing is from a scaling standpoint, it's like if I went, like my best question to answer that is like, if I decided I wanted to go to Jamaica for 30 days, what what happens? Like, what what happens to the business? Do I have money coming in? Do I have a recurring revenue stream? Does my lead system, you know, is it is it on autopilot? Is it automated? Is there an AI bot available to answer questions? Do I have an employee that I can trust? And you know, employees are becoming less and less scalable too. So it really starts from the foundation of like what things can you automate? And like you've got to spend all your time doing that. I meet like as soon as you get done listening to this.

SPEAKER_00: 14:24

Yes.

SPEAKER_01: 14:24

Actually.

SPEAKER_00: 14:26

Well, follow you first, and then uh yeah, well, that's powerful. And you said another word in there. I guess we could play on power words for a second because you said another word success. So just like burnout is different and unique to each person, so it's success. For some people, they may feel successful, just being able to go to the dog park, money is really not the issue, or go on to watch their kids. And for another person, that success could be$10 million or a quality of life, a different, you know, going to Jamaica, going to these different places, traveling the world. So, you know, there's there is no there are a lot of buzzwords that I feel like influencers have put limitations on, or if it were to be success, this is what it looks like, and you're not successful if it's not. Choose your own lane, right? And stay with it. That's that's so powerful. Well, when you started or got out of the event uh business, then did you find a business that fit the mold, or did you still have to learn that?

SPEAKER_01: 15:26

I had this, yeah, I had this whole dream, and this is the trap that I got into. And I'm gonna be super honest with you, it was a rough trap. I mean, I started that business because I hate like I hate working for people. I there's no other way to put it. I really just don't like to do it. And so I wanted to be off on my own, and I knew I could be, but there just weren't resources that like I don't even think business coaches existed. Like I I really don't I I don't really know what existed at that time because I just know I didn't have anything other than my brain, and I didn't know enough because I hadn't been through enough. And you talk about, and I I'll answer your question, but you think you talk about trading time for money, and that's actually what you're doing with what you do and with what I do, because if you've been through it and you know what to do, you can save someone 46,000 hours or you know, in your background as well. You can save all that time, hit the fast forward button and get so far ahead so quickly. Whereas, like I it took me, I mean, I was gosh, 20, I got I don't even know, 25 maybe at the time. And going on 40, it took me that long to finally figure out from trial and error and running different businesses to how to actually, and I'm still not probably an expert at running my business, if I'm being honest with you. Like, you know, you you don't know what you don't know, and things are continuing to change so quickly. So wanted to just mention that. I mean, trading time for money is available now. It was not available back then, I'll tell you that. The only option was trial and error. And unfortunately, I was so I was everything really within my career, one thing fed into the other, and I've really never had to apply for a job or really don't do a lot of advertising for clients. Uh I I'm mostly referral. So ironically, I did an event for someone that worked for a company that I had actually applied to for several years in the aesthetic space, right when aesthetics started, like very like 2013, 2012, something like that. And I saw her post it after I'd done an event for her for her child, and I was like, I want to, this is what I want to do. And so I actually took a job as a a front desk person and was there for a week and then worked my way up. By the time I left, I was managing like over a hundred employees, um, redid the entire sales process and marketing for the company. It was an 18-location med spa corporation. So I went and I I went ended up just throwing myself back into corporate, but it happened for a reason because when you take something that is so heavily regulated, and I think a lot of my why I think like I do as far as systems is running a medical spa is it's very, very, very hard because you have the medical board. You also have like the advertising, it's reach it's retail medicine at the end of the day. So I had to very much, especially when I was working with so many people, and then also had, you know, my world at corporate in addition to working with people like in the field, I there there really was no other option but to have the checks and balances. And that's honestly where I learned a lot. And I took that knowledge and I just applied it to every industry that I've because I work in all different types of industries now, but I just applied all of that to all these different industries. And even though maybe, you know, I have a construction company right now, I wouldn't be like, oh, you need to do you need to review charts and you need to have three people sign off on it because obviously that's not relevant, but you can take that same system and plug it into that business. So um I I don't think that I could have done anything that I that I'm doing now had I not gone through the corporate kind of circle. And you know, I I had probably three or four CEO roles before I actually, and then I did franchise sales for a year and I took a brand new franchise to 200 locations in a year. Um, and then that's when I just had I honestly I just had the money to go. Like that that's honestly what happened. I just sold a lot. I sold a lot, I sold like 3.2 million and had a very high commission structure. And I literally took my bonuses and I was like, this is your chance, Allison. Run, like literally run and you just go. And that's when I bought my my franchise that I have. And so it it took much longer. But for anyone listening, like you know when you're like you know when you're done with something and you know when it's your time to go, and you know when you're ready to go off on your own. And I don't think that I could do what I do now had I not gone through a lot of those different things because there's almost nothing I haven't been through. Like you see a lot, you see a lot when you're when you're in charge, and you know, you can't unsee that. But um, yeah, I I went back into corporate America and then finally, you know, I I told my husband, like sometimes he's like, why don't you just go get a nine to five and you know, you can just you don't have to work all day. And I'm like, that I would rather die actually than do that. And I know that for certain now, but if you if you went back five years, I didn't know that. Yeah, because I didn't know what I didn't know, and I had no mentor either, that was the other thing.

SPEAKER_00: 20:44

So yeah. Uh my first business was started before 2000, we'll say that. And the only way you could learn anything was go to the library and starting a business. If anybody knows what a library is, but starting a business, who has time to go read a book to learn that many things? You know, I I I still read today, but back then that was the only source. There weren't coaches, there weren't consultants. And what I've learned is just like you, uh we don't know what we don't know. I've been through divorce, I've been through a bankruptcy, I've been through all these things, and I can catapult you faster, just like you can, your clients faster by recognizing those signs that are coming up, forecasting, and trying to keep people on the straight path and not have to go down those things that took you and I years to learn.

SPEAKER_01: 21:36

I know. I'm just like, I mean, I and the financial stress too. Oh, don't, yeah. I mean, it's stressful. Like I have, I mean, I really truly have the burden of being the person that kind of decides what our life looks like. And that's hard. You know, it's hard to be mom. It's hard to have that every single day. But that's the the ironic thing is on the flip side, I don't think I would have it another way because I love being in charge, you know, like that's my thing. And I think a lot of people won't admit that. Like, I just like being in charge of whatever the situation is. I like being in charge of plans. I, you know, I'm that control freak, we can throw that word out there if we really want to. But I think that I very much just like to manage situations, and I don't think there's anything wrong with it. And I also don't think there's anything wrong with being a control freak, and there's nothing wrong with being a perfectionist, and there's nothing wrong with wanting things done your way. But if you if you're listening to this and you're that person, you need to start your own business. You need to start your own business if you're never gonna be happy.

SPEAKER_00: 22:38

Yeah, it's not control freak, it's you're controlling your freedom. Yeah, you're controlling your freedom, and that's that's why we do what we do. So on the freedom side, I want I don't want to push off the systems because that is essential in any business to be successful and scale. Uh I hear so many business owners, they know they need them, they hear about SOPs, but it's just always on the shelf, it's always on the back burner, and I always hear, well, I just don't have enough time, I don't know where to start. We do so much. I there's no way I can talk about uh can we debunk those myths? And since you've got so much experience in this, you've done franchising and stuff. Can you share, like, first of all, if a business owner starts, and I have businesses that approach us that's been in business for 30 years and they don't have SOP.

SPEAKER_01: 23:28

Oh, that's that is actually, in my opinion, and uh it sounds like yours, the most common.

SPEAKER_00: 23:34

Yes.

SPEAKER_01: 23:35

The ones that are from the 90s and yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 23:37

So where do they start? Where do they find that time? What's the benefit of them? And I'll let you have the floor.

SPEAKER_01: 23:43

Yeah, I do this a lot because and I do sell businesses.

SPEAKER_00: 23:48

Uh you're listening to small business pivots. This podcast is produced by my company, Boss. Our business is helping yours grow. Boss offers business loans with business coaching support. Apply in minutes and get approved and funded in as little as twenty-four to forty-eight hours at business ownership simplified.com. If you're enjoying this podcast, don't forget to hit the subscribe button and share it as well. Now let's get back to our special guest. So, where do they start? Where do they find that time? What's the benefit of them? And I'll let you have the floor.

SPEAKER_01: 24:25

Yeah, I do this a lot because and I do sell businesses uh um a lot too. Like I have a lot of businesses that are like, I just want to sell in six months. Can you boost my revenue and then you know create the sales package? So I actually do this a lot. And the uh it's probably you can tell I'm getting excited to talk about it because I really genuinely I I just believe that like people don't even people don't think about what what's with the end in mind. And if you want to have a one location and that's what you want, you you need systems. If you want a franchise, you need systems. If you want to have you know a large corporation with multiple locations, by all means, same thing. And then if you want to license your business, which is what I plan to do uh in the future, you you need you still need all the same things, but you build all of it differently for a certain reason. And I think people just don't know what avenue to go for each one, and they just get very, very overwhelmed because it is time consuming to type. But my and I do work with a lot of service-based businesses, so people are in the field, they're they're on job sites, they're injecting, they're you know, physicians, like all sorts of stuff. And if you're working all day, when are you gonna work on your business? Right. And so the easiest way nowadays that that you can do this, and this will this will probably be tried and true forever and ever. So whenever you're listening to this, uh I tell my clients, I'm like, if you're driving down the road or you're not doing anything, you're on a walk, whatever it is, send me a voice note to explain, and I obviously give them what I want them to explain, right? So if it's I have a doc building company, so how you build your docs, why you do it differently. Um, and I'll give them like prompts and questions, and I ask them to answer those questions, and I literally create SOPs from there. So for the business owner that's super busy, it's not overwhelming to like get grab your phone and talk into it because you have your phone every second of every day. But it does feel overwhelming to say, okay, I would love for you to document on it, you know, this this big document all of the things that you do. It it sounds very, very overwhelming. And so just make it easy. You can also do the same thing in uh Chat GPT. I personally recommend Chat GPT for any SOPs. They have a they do have a voice option as well, and they also have an app on your on your phone. You can literally talk straight into it and be like, I want to create an SOP for building a doc. This is how I do it. Make sure that this is relevant to someone just starting out, you know, blog, whatever, whatever the criteria is, and it's gonna create that for you. And then you just plug that into Google Docs, make sure it stays super organized with tabs, and there you go. You've got you've got an entire bank. And then if you want to take it a step further, and for example, you want to build like a little uh uh localized internet for your franchise or for your corporation or for your small business, what whatever it is, all you do is take all of those, turn them into pages, and voila, it's all there for you. Another tool that I use a lot because I developed a uh CRM and EMR as well. Um I use Loom a lot. And I find it's very effective because now, again, it summarizes everything for you. Your face can even be in the bottom, so it doesn't seem like just a screen. And it's for those of you that don't don't know what Loom is, sorry, I'll I'll explain that. It's basically a screen record. So think of how you can screen record on your iPhone. It's basically like that for your computer, and it's so, so efficient for course building, anything like that. And you sit down and do something that you're already doing and be like, oh, let me let me bring up Loom and let me, you know, go ahead and save this, and you can actually create an entire SOP bank in Loom. And then that way, if you hire a new employee, one of my biggest issues before all these things were available was again, if you're in charge, you're in charge of everything, right? So me hiring an assistant, a new office manager, like I would get so much anxiety because so I know, trust me, I've been there. I I would get so much anxiety because I'm like, okay, nothing's in place yet. I'm in charge of putting these things in place. But in order for me to have the time to put the things in place, I I this person needs to know what to do. So I have to train them. And so that takes me out of my workday. And that's tried and true for any business. It's it's like a push and pull of time. So it's almost like before you're hiring somebody, go ahead and get those things in place because don't assume that you're gonna have a forever employee. Right. You know, like most likely you're not gonna have a forever employee. I don't think that anyone is gonna be an employee in the next like five years. I think we're all be freelancers. Another story for another day. But I I think that between Chat GPT, voice text, and Loom, those tools will help you so easily build a bank where anyone can watch a video at any given time and you have it right there. And then when it comes time to put together your sales package, if you do want to sell your business or if you want to franchise it or whatever the case may be, you aren't going to scramble and you're gonna look so much more put together and the valuation of your business is gonna be significantly higher because they're realizing that, oh, you actually do have a business. You don't just have a service that you provide in exchange for money. And I think that that's what SOPs actually do for you is they take uh something that you're doing. Trading time for money or a service for money, and you're putting logic to it so that then you actually have something that is scalable. And without that, you're you're gonna do at some point, you're just gonna phase out, in my opinion. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 30:16

You're either gonna phase out or you're not gonna be able to just survive the company without Lulu or Mark, whoever that person is that is the most valuable.

SPEAKER_01: 30:26

Lulu. I haven't that's so freaking that's funny. I thought you were gonna say Lululemon initially. I was like, is he?

SPEAKER_00: 30:33

I don't know. One of my old uh business partners, he always used to because Lulu is not a common name, so he was like, I don't want to use common names, that's all just Lulu. That was before Lemon.

SPEAKER_01: 30:44

That way, uh that way nobody gets no one gets offended.

SPEAKER_00: 30:48

No one gets hurt, right?

SPEAKER_01: 30:49

Not like, oh, wait a second.

SPEAKER_00: 30:52

So you've uncovered a lot here, and one of those is the best opportunity I hear is when a new employee starts, if there's anything you have to train them on, make a system for it, make an SOP for it right then. That's your best opportunity because for those business owners that are stuck saying, I don't even know where to start. Well, when you hire somebody, if you have to train them on something, there's your SOP right there. You need to make. But what about for oh go ahead?

SPEAKER_01: 31:18

Yeah, no, I was gonna say, and if you are training someone, that would be the perfect time to record what you're training. Set up your set up whatever it is that you need to set up and do it right then and there, because like I said, they're not gonna be a forever employee. We all know that. And so then you can hand what you did for that employee on to the next one, and you're good to go. So, like, that's definitely an example of working harder or sorry, working smarter, not harder. Because if you're already doing something, then it's so much easier just to be like, Oh, let me do this. So, sorry, go ahead.

SPEAKER_00: 31:48

No, no, that that that was good. I mean, I you see, I'm getting excited with you.

SPEAKER_01: 31:52

I know, I I can do this all day.

SPEAKER_00: 31:54

I literally so what about those companies that aren't hiring right now? Those are the ones that also seem overwhelmed where I we do so much, I don't know where to start. So, in other words, is there a structure that you like to follow? And then, secondly, where do you store those so people actually use them?

SPEAKER_01: 32:13

So, repeat the very beginning of that question.

SPEAKER_00: 32:16

Uh, is there a structure that you follow? So let's say we're not hiring somebody, so we don't know what to start with. Is there a structure or a framework that you prefer?

SPEAKER_01: 32:26

Yeah, I I mean, I think the biggest thing is if you are not, I always start with like whatever you don't want to be doing first. Well, I mean I I know that sounds crazy, but if you think about it, if it's something that isn't creative, because like there's you can't make an SOP for creativity, right? And so depending on what that looks like, I mean, you you you you're just not gonna be able to replicate that. So if you think about, okay, I am building, I'm just gonna use the doc example. I build docs. Well, I'm not building every single doc. So what would be the first thing that I need to tell someone how to do? It would be this, right? Or if there's something that's very time consuming within your niche or your business that you know you could hand off, but you would need to actually like, here's the link for this, here's where you go for this. Those things always have to be done first because the second you have those, it's very copy and paste, but it does take a long, I mean it takes time to put together. So um that would be probably the first thing. It's like whatever is my mindless that you could have someone in middle school or high school do, you need to go ahead and get that done immediately. Um, I also think if there's a proprietary, and by the way, if you do not have this within your business, you are swimming in the sea of perfect competition and you it's a race to the bottom. We all want to be competing in just a monopolistic type way, meaning like you have to have something proprietary so that you're actually able to stand out against your competition. So, just to like say that first. So if there's anything that is very proprietary, this is our very specific way that we do a facial, or this is a very specific way that we build a dock, or we do our consultation process, those things are high on the totem pole as well, because that is actually your secret sauce, and that's what people pay you for. And if you don't have something like that in your business, here's your sign to go figure that out. Because if not, again, you'll be swimming in the sea of perfect competition where everyone sounds the same, which is what we actually talked about in the beginning, where everyone's saying scale and burnout, and everyone's trying to solve for that, but no one's doing it in a way that is actually effective or custom, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_00: 34:55

So, what do people do? Because uh most business owners they'll say, What if somebody takes that with them? Now that I've given the recipe out there, do you have any kind of gaps or things that can prevent that or maybe calm their nerves on that?

SPEAKER_01: 35:11

Yeah, I mean, if you have any employee that's working within your business, they already know what those things are, right?

SPEAKER_02: 35:19

True.

SPEAKER_01: 35:19

Um, facts, facts are facts, you know what I mean? Like I I'm trying to think of an example. I mean, I I opened up a a big, a big, big, big med spa that um, a franchisable med spa, and I like from start to finish, I did I did all the things and we did things very, very differently. And that's the first thing that I had to train the staff on, because that was the secret sauce, you know what I mean? So I think that first and foremost, if you're really it's it's first of all, it's hard to start a business, right? So if you've already started and you have things going, you have the secret sauce, like you're already way ahead, so don't worry about that. But I also think that by making your employees, if it's that type of situation, really a part of the business and a part of the changes in the business, I think that they'll stay with you a lot longer too. And there's also a lot of like profit sharing options and things like that. But to an extent, every single person and every single business that exists right now has some piece of something that they learned somewhere else that they've put somewhere else. But that doesn't mean that one business is going to be more successful than the other because everything revolves around like, who are your employees? What is your branding? What does your visibility look like? How are people finding you? Are you showing up on social media? You know, are you optimized for SEO, AEO, and GEO? I mean, there's like nine million things that you can look at that would are are very big determinants. It's not necessarily like this is how you do this. I mean, I'll give you an example. Um, this is a really good example, actually. I'm really excited. I can so have a good example.

SPEAKER_00: 36:58

Anticipation here.

SPEAKER_01: 36:59

Oh, yeah, I know. I'm I'm building it up right now. So Oreo, who's had an Oreo? Everybody. I freaking love Oreos. Uh so Oreo was actually there, there was a different company that made the Oreo cookie first. No one's ever heard of it. And I actually can't even remember the name of it because I didn't, I've never seen them in my entire life until you know I was reading up on it. And what was the difference? Was it the icing in the middle? Was it the cookie? No, it was literally exactly the same thing, tasted the same. Oreo came through with very, very, very, very, very um just like amazing marketing, amazing branding, and they just took it and ran with it. And they exist, and their company doesn't. So that's just an example of branding. Um, Coca-Cola, uh, Coca-Cola actually has two different companies that are traded on the stock market, and one is literally just like the essence of Coca-Cola, like the branding of Coca-Cola. So, I mean, there's different things that you can put, and you've got patents, and like there's so many different things, right, that you that you can do for sure. It just depends kind of what your industry is. But just know that just because someone does something that you've done before doesn't mean that you can't be successful or they can be more successful than you.

SPEAKER_00: 38:19

I assure you that probably calms some nerves because that's a good way to look at it is just because they might have the one secret sauce doesn't mean they have everything else to take that brand to the or that sauce to the next level. Yeah. So what do people do? I also hear business owners say, well, how do I get people to follow these? In other words, do I put them in a binder and throw them on the copier on the desk, or do I where how do I store them so they're easily accessible and people actually use them?

SPEAKER_01: 38:47

Yeah. So I think first a good way is just a very easily accessible knowledge base, number one, making, I mean, this that not nothing crazy, making sure that all employees know where to go for things. I think you also have to train people. And I even have to do this with my clients because I've I've tons of things done for them, and they're like, hey, can you send me this? It's in the drive that you've had for 90 days now. Like, you know, and so I could easily find it and send it, but I also am doing them a disservice by not being able to allow them to operate on their own.

SPEAKER_02: 39:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 39:20

And I mean, independence is huge for me. I'm I've been very I'm I've been independent my entire life. You know what I mean? I used to, I kind of just found my way through life by myself, I feel like a little bit. And I let my kids operate the same way. Like I let them, you know, handle things on their own. I don't, you know, handhold if they need anything, obviously, all the system, but very much a tough love manager back in the day or CEO. I'd be like, nope, you can go look for it. It's right there. Um, so yes, you can put it in a binder and that's fine. And if you're it just depends on the business. I think depending on how technologically savvy your business is running. If it's not, by the way, you need to get it. But um, it's not a terrible idea to have a binder. Um, I think that what we all have to do is just commit to the fact that your staff isn't stupid, they know where to look, they just are lazy, and you have to train them to not be lazy. And because we all want information so quickly, um, I think by having that online database where you can actually just like search whatever it is and it will pop up. And there's several platforms, like Go High Level, for example, is one, you can create those knowledge bases and it's right there in front of you. Uh, so definitely 100% um can do it that way. But just know like staff meetings and communication and things like that are always super beneficial. So, like maybe rotate on one procedure and talk about that at each staff meeting. So, everyone, you know, you can either improve the processes or people are reminded of how to do things. And then when they they ask you for the shortcut as the business owner or manager or whatever, whatever the situation is, make sure that you're redirecting them and you're not holding their hand through that. Like make them go to the binder and figure it out.

SPEAKER_02: 41:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 41:06

And I I would always say, I can tell you how to do that, but I would be doing you a disservice to your professional development if I gave you the shortcut. So you go figure out how to use it, and then come back to me and you know, tell me tell me what you learned.

SPEAKER_00: 41:21

So no, that's a great point. I used to tell my kids when they were growing up, when they were smaller, if it wasn't a moral issue or ethical issue, I would tell them if they'd ask a question, I'd say, Google it. In other words, find the information. Here's the tool, here's the resource, you find it, and now they can they're independent.

SPEAKER_01: 41:41

That is that's how honestly, that's how I've learned pretty much everything that I know. I'm very much an expert in trial and error, but I think because I failed so many times, and I've won a lot too, right? But I think because I failed so many times, I know what not to do. Like I've made a lot of mistakes, but I I always say, and I even would tell my employees that they ever like everyone would always uh employees now, but then also employees when I was in corporate America, everyone would always come telling themselves to me. I just created that culture where I never had to like pry, nothing was ever a secret. People would come to me and be like, Allison, I I did this. And they like they knew I would coach them through it. And my first thing would always be like, congratulations, you have learned something today. It's totally fine, nothing, everything's fixable, but just don't ever do it again and learn from it. Turn your L's into lessons, you know? So I think that, and and actually when there's a mistake, that's actually an opportunity to create a system.

SPEAKER_00: 42:47

Another value.

SPEAKER_01: 42:48

Most of the SOPs I do now for especially for med spots, because I ran them for gosh, like 15 years. I and I've done a lot of startups there. I I think that that that was the first thing. Like almost all of my SOPs are mistakes that people have made. But had I not done it and seen it, I wouldn't have been able to solve the problem. So I think too, if you're just starting out, because I know some people have been in business, you said, for 30 years. Some people are like, I want to become an entrepreneur, and they're everyone's in different seasons. But if you think about like a special skill you have or business that you want to start, really what you should be doing is sitting and thinking, like, okay, what is everything that could go wrong in this situation? Like, what could go wrong with the client? What could go wrong with the process? And you literally solve for X before it's even a problem, and then tweak it if it ever, you know, doesn't work out. Um, I think what everyone does, and it's funny because our brains are mostly negative, but a lot of times when we think about um, you know, how something's gonna go, we do assume that it's gonna go well, especially in business. And and I guess in my opinion, I'm like, oh, this client's gonna be great and we're gonna do this, this, and this. Uh but I actually think you need to reverse it and say, like, what could go bad in the situation and just like make sure that that isn't a thing ever.

SPEAKER_00: 43:59

That's called being proactive, people.

SPEAKER_01: 44:02

Proactive.

SPEAKER_00: 44:03

My favorite word.

SPEAKER_01: 44:04

I try not to use, I know, I try not to use uh I explain more than use words because I feel like I see them online so much now. I'm like, but now when you see proactive online, you know what that means because we just actually talked about it.

SPEAKER_00: 44:17

Exactly. Well, Allison, it's obvious that you know your stuff, and I assure you that you've got the ears of so many people. They probably want to learn more insights and tips. Where can they do that? Where can they find you?

SPEAKER_01: 44:31

Yeah, I'm most active on Instagram, I'd say Allison M. Bridges. And um I am definitely big on AI, and you might get my AI bought sometimes when you message me, but I do always check direct messages and inquiries and things like that. So if you need any sort of help with anything, obviously would love just to give you tips and tricks. And that's mostly what my Instagram's focused on too, is just free resources. I think that definitely a little bit um on the Alex Hermozzi train in terms of just like giving away free knowledge because I really do want everybody to win.

SPEAKER_00: 45:06

So that's for the free knowledge. Tell us about your business where they can pay you.

SPEAKER_01: 45:12

Yeah. So I do I have three different options. Um, I have like a full service build where I basically either flip or start your business and it's all done within 90 days. So that's anything from like CRM, automations, mini chat, anything AI bot related, website, logo, you name it. It is all full service, just need about an hour of your time a week. I also am uh launching the next week Founders Circle, which is a done with you uh lower, lower ticket option. It's like$79 a month or something like that. And each week we do a workshop and work on a part of your business. And I don't know that that exists anywhere, which is why I built it. I really feel like people need the opportunity to take at least one hour a week and work on their business so that we can get things like this done. And it just keeps you on track. So it's not like a as much of a coaching session as it is coaching and doing at the same time. And then we also have um experts only mini. And basically what that is is if you just need like to pull a solution off the shelf, we turn around most of those in about a week. So that could be anything from an AI bot to I bring up many chat a lot because many chat's great for service-based providers, and uh especially if you need to book and things like that. So, really anything, a logo, website, automations, you name it.

SPEAKER_00: 46:30

And is this all on your experts only consulting.com?

SPEAKER_01: 46:35

Yes, um, it is.

SPEAKER_00: 46:37

And then your personal website, Allisonmbridges.com, what can they find there?

SPEAKER_01: 46:43

Yeah, so I I just recently launched that. I haven't actually even publicly thrown that out there yet. But um for that You heard it here first, people. Yeah, like actually breaking news. Yeah, so we uh on on that site, if you want me to, I I do a lot of the recording videos for different businesses, like if they want me to be kind of their spokesperson versus um not as much of like an influencer thing, but like if you want a video explaining X, Y, and Z, so I do that for like construction companies and wellness brands and stuff like that, where I'll just kind of go through and explain all the things, or if you want to do any brand collabs, even if uh speaking gig or anything like that, I do all of those things, and I just love to help and see what I can do for your brand or your company.

SPEAKER_00: 47:29

Well, I always end with a question, and that is if you were in a room full of business owners, different seasons of business, different industries, what's one thing that could be applicable for all of them? It could be a quote, it could be a book, some one last piece of insight or tip.

SPEAKER_01: 47:48

Yes, it is my favorite, favorite quote ever. It's you always miss 100% of the shots that you don't take. So don't be scared to be the first person to do anything. Just look at look at I'm a huge Steve Jobs fan, and look at Steve Jobs. He lit, I mean, may he rest in peace. He created apps out of thin air, and we exist off of apps nowadays. You know what I mean? So don't be scared to create something that doesn't exist. And in fact, I encourage you to do that because those are the people that will truly be successful, not the successful people that are trying to do and copy everybody within their industry. So just be different.

SPEAKER_00: 48:29

Sound advice. Well, Allison, you've been a blessing to many. Thank you so much for sharing your insights and your time with me and our listeners.

SPEAKER_01: 48:38

Of course. Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00: 48:40

My pleasure. Thank you for listening to Small Business Pivots. This podcast is created and produced by my company, Boss. Our business is growing yours. Boss offers flexible business loans with business coaching support. Apply in minutes and get approved and funded in as little as twenty-four to forty-eight hours at business ownership simplified.com. If you're enjoying this podcast, don't forget to hit the subscribe button and share it as well. If you need help growing your business, email me at Michael at michaeldmorton.com. We'll see you next time on Small Business Business.