43: Scale or Fail with Allison Maslan

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Allison Maslan on Business Breakthrough Podcast - Estie Rand

There are 4 key components to every successful business, no matter the type or industry: Revenue, Marketing, Sales and Team. Today’s guest, Allison Maslan, designed the blueprint that enabled her to build 10 successful companies in 10 completely different industries on these four key principals. Listen and learn how simple business success really can be, when you break it down to it’s bare structure. Also get some great free information at estierand.com/43 such as Allison’s 17 Scale Strategies and other gifts.

 

Teaser: 

 

My Guest: Allison Maslan

Allison Maslan, CEO of Allison Maslan International, has built ten successful companies, starting out at age 19. Her client list has included Ben & Jerry’s, Merril Lynch, Supercuts and Charlotte Russe.
Allison is the #1 best-selling author of “Blast Off”, as well as her upcoming book “Scale or Fail: How to Build your Dream Team, Explode your Growth and Let your Business Soar.” Allison is also the host of a weekly video podcast, “Allie & You”. She’s been a world-renowned homeopathic physician for 20 years, a flying trapeze artist for 18, and appears in the award-winning documentary, “Inspired by 11.”

 

Pivotal Moments:

Grew up in Oklahoma in an entrepreneurial family where she learned that if you want something, you go create it yourself.
Got a job which lasted just two weeks because she couldn’t get passionate about other people’s dreams.
Started her first business making greeting cards for companies, as a 19-year-old college student.
Landed some corporate accounts and grew the business by the seat of her pants, but didn’t understand how to scale or delegate.
Became trapped in the business working 24/7 with no life of her own.
After 7 years in business and a serious car accident which she was lucky to survive, she gave the business to her partner for almost nothing and simultaneously walked away from a difficult marriage.
Took a year to reflect and write a blue-print for how to build a successful company.
Discovered homeopathy through her own personal healing and opened a homeopathy practice which lived through two decades.
Built eight more companies in eight different industries including a full service advertising and PR firm, scuba diving certification business, real estate agency and a jewelry import and manufacture company.
Now runs Pinnacle Global Network, which directs and guides business owners and CEO’s all over the world.

 

The Advice:

If you understand business, you can apply that knowledge to every industry. Every business owner has the same four areas they need to work with: Revenue, Marketing, Sales, Team (time management/leadership). Gather knowledge in these areas and then customize and tweak it to fit whichever industry you are working in.

Growing vs. Scaling
Growing: The start of your business when you really need to focus on sales. Growing involves getting clear on who your target market is, your avatar, getting your revenue streams figured out and bringing in the sales to bring in the cash.
Scaling: When you’ve reached your bandwidth. Scaling involves figuring out the right scale formula to use. In Allison’s new book, Scale or Fail, she outlines 17 scale strategies (find the link to a free download below) of which you pick one or two to scale your business.

Scale Acronym
Strategic Vision: Know where you are going and get your whole team on board.
Cashflow: Big numbers doesn’t mean an endless cashflow – you still need to plan it carefully.
Alliance: It’s all about your team once your business starts to grow beyond you.
Leadership: Shifting from being a boss to being a leader – from telling people what to do, to inspiring them to action.
Execution or Exit: Make it happen!

Systems Acronym
Saves You Stress, Time, Energy and Money

The secret to successful business lies in building your team. You have to take a step back and figure out how to get the right people on the bus. Great leaders inspire people instead of telling them what to do. When you inspire people, they treat it as their own and can run with it. But, that means you have to trust them, let go and accept that it is not done exactly your way. But, better done than perfect.

 

The Struggle:

Although Allison is at the peak and has years of experience behind her, she still has struggles, as the saying goes, “New level, new devil.” Allison recently struggled with letting people go soon enough. She sincerely cares about her employees and wants them to thrive, but she ended up in a situation where a new employee was not a fit for the culture of her company. How could Allison maintain the culture in her company without a nasty conflict with her new recruit?

 

The Breakthrough:

Allison came to the realization that she had to tackle the elephant in the room, not because she wanted conflict, but because she had to deal with it before it got bigger. She made a firm resolution that she had to fire this new employee but she did so with a caring and honest conversation.

To do something like that, Allison needed four prerequisites:

  1. Be crystal clear on what you need in a new employee.
  2. Have a strong culture so it is immediately clear when someone is not a good fit.
  3. Be self aware enough to recognize and acknowledge the problem.
  4. Have the courage to do something about it.

 

Quote:

Make decisions from where you are going, not from where you are at.

 

Resources and Links:


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About the author, Estie Rand

I love turning ideas into money, and helping others do the same. I help small business owners with everything from marketing to fiscal management, business plans to staffing, database architecture to work/life balance coaching and I love it all! What do you need help with today?

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