Build It Like You’ll Sell It: A Wake-Up Call for Founders with Shay Bacani

20:41But they don't have any real execution that's happening from getting from 500 ,000 to 2 million. So, for example, when you want to take this kind of jump, it is very difficult. It sounds like it's not a lot, but it's actually very difficult because it's a huge, it's much more of a mindset shift to go from six figures to a million. One of the biggest shifts is that you are going to have to build a good team, a good enough team to get you to that next level. Because chances are who you started with is not going to get you there. So you have to build out a quality team, which most people don't know how to do because they're like, well, how much do I pay people?

21:10I don't really make that much. I make just enough. You know how it is at the six-figure level. It's like, I make just enough to pay people and keep enough for myself into our dash. That's just about it. So you have to be really strategic. Every single dollar that comes in, you have to know how to flip it and put it to work. And most people don't understand how critical it is when you make six figures. Because chances are, if you're a first-generation, six-figure person, that seems like a lot of money, but it's not. So you're spending it like you have a lot of money rather than investing it into the right avenues of marketing, investing it into the sales process, investing it into how to make sure you are retaining each client or that they're referring you other clients.

21:44So where the money is going oftentimes at this level is to people and operations when it should be going into marketing, when it should be going into customer retention, and they're not doing it at this stage. When I mentioned messy, most of the time it's messy because you don't have any strong SOPs. Like everyone is just kind of flying by the seats of their pants. If one person were to leave, they're taking their knowledge and information with them because you don't have a sound system. So that's what I mean when I say messy. Obviously, the financials could be very messy too, which I've seen a lot of, but more so than that, it's like your operations is just completely leaking.

22:14It's trash because you don't understand the value of it yet. You're so focused on getting to the next month that you're not understanding, okay, we want to get to the next year. We have to be more strategic and we have to be more long-term focused. And they're just not like that at that level. Okay. So we're going to talk a little bit about the how, because I do see similar patterns with like the six figure scaling to seven. And then once you pass that like 1.5, 2 million, you're set with like a different set of messiness. We'll talk more about the how. But when you look at that first client and you look at your current client roster, how would you describe the businesses that are coming to you?

22:49What do you do for them? And what type of negotiations or mergers or acquisitions are you negotiating? So right now, the average client probably makes$3 to$5 million. They want to get to an$8 to$10 million range. They either want to do that by raising capital. and then once we've raised or honestly just restructure the business, then they want to get to the point where they can also sell it. So at this level, the biggest issues is not as much of mess. They're actually much more cleaner, much more lean. The issue is that they just don't know how to build a$10 million company. And so what I mean by that is, I think I said this at your mastermind, if your goal, let's say right now you're making$1 million and you want to get to$5 million or you want to get to$10 million, you have to build your infrastructure as if it's already a$5 to$10 million company.

23:29so that way the money can flow to you and you can actually sustain it. The biggest issue when you are at a higher level is you can't sustain the growth. The growth can, it's gonna come inevitably, but you actually don't have the capacity to be able to do it. The more work that comes, the more overwhelmed you get. The more work that comes in, your team actually can't support it. So you don't even have a team of A players that can get you to that next level. So I think the biggest thing when you, the clients that I have now is auditing the business and saying, this person needs to go. We need to actually have this person.

23:57We are completely looking at their org chart and saying, who do we actually need in place to get there? And then we're looking at the revenue streams. This is the most important part to me because I'm like, you're making money, which is a good start, but you could be making way more. So oftentimes when you're at a level, let's say three to five million, you probably have a good amount of offers that are making you money, but you're not actually capitalizing on the amount of customers that you have coming through the door. So I'll give you an example. Hotels are really good at this. When you go to book a hotel stay, you're like, okay, that's the one thing I'm buying is the hotel stay, right?

24:27Which is good. That's what they're selling you on the forefront. You get there, maybe you get a little bit of room service. Maybe you get a little snack at the bar before you head out. Now you're spending money while you're inside the room. And then let's say you go to another place the next weekend in a different country. Who do you go with? The same exact hotel because you had such a great quality experience. When you are now booking some sort of meeting or conference, who do you book with? The same hotel because you have such a great experience. Hotels are really good at getting one person to spend as much money as possible.

24:54Business owners at a, let's say, I would say just one to five million, they just try so hard to get the customer and they don't think as much about retention. They don't think about how can we extract the most value from that one person. They just want to get as many new sales as possible. They're not even looking at customer acquisition costs. They're not looking at lifetime value. They're not looking at the churn rate. They're just simply saying, we got this much in sales and we want to get to the next level of sales. That is not how a business that's operating at a$10 million level is looking at it.

25:22one person is worth so much more in that company, at a$10 million company, than it is at a$5 million company. So then there's like the chicken and the egg. And so I always look at the podcast as like, I'm a voice of the people, right? So someone's like, I agree, Shay, absolutely. How am I going to pay? I'm doing$4 million and I want to get to$10 million, Shay. How do I pay like a$10 million operator or a$10 million CMO to come to my business now if the revenue isn't there to sustain it. So you're not. We're in an age now where work, and I hate to say it like this, but the value of work has gone down where we have access to a pool of talent that we otherwise wouldn't have had access to.

26:01It doesn't mean that you are able to pay them less than what they're worth. It means that you can hire someone fractional, at a fractional rate, and they're still able to produce for you at a high output because of AI, because of technology. So rather than saying, okay, I'm going to go, you know, get, recruit a COO of Google. You can't afford it. So let's just start there. But you can maybe recruit someone who worked as the COO's assistant, and you can have them come because they still know the information. And you can have them come and work for you, maybe at a fractional rate or even full time, because they have the information and they've seen the execution.

26:32And that's all you need. You need someone who has that level of intellect to say, here's exactly what's missing and be able to execute on your behalf. Most of the time at this level, you have people that are great. If you tell them to go do a job, they're going to do it for you. but they don't have the intelligence to say, we are doing the wrong job. We need to be doing X instead of Y. And so that's what you need. You need smarter people. And it's not to say the people around you are dumb. They've only worked for companies that have done 1 million, 2 million. So they just simply don't know. So you need someone who's worked in companies that have done 10, 20 million and who knows the execution.

27:03They know exactly the step-by-step process of what needs to happen. They can look at your SOP. They can look at your business model and say, hey, other company, we did this and you're not doing that. So this is what needs to change. You need smarter people around you at this level. And most of the time, you still have the people that helped you get to a million. Because you're like, well, these people are great. They helped me. I want to keep them around. But the reality is they are awesome, but they aren't the leaders that you need around you. And so women, I always talk about this. Women, when we are cultivating our network, we are thinking, okay, they're in a similar business as me.

27:32Or maybe, you know, my clients might benefit from them, so I want them in my network. We talked about this yesterday. You know, like, it's good to have people like that in your network. But if you want to get to a higher level, you almost want to build out your network. like you're building out an army. So not like you're going to war, but like you're on a mission. Being on a mission to 10 million, you're going to need as many people on board with that mission as possible. You need a strong legal team. You need someone who's strong in branding, someone who's strong in marketing, someone who's strong in sales.

27:56And they're all thinking like war generals of how do we get from point A to point B? Typically what happens when a woman is making, you know, I would say even six figures to let's say 5 million max, they have people around them who are good, who can execute, but they don't have that level of intelligence and like that level of strategy that's going to take them to that next level. And that's what we're missing. Even if you don't know how to do it, hire someone else that does know how to do it or hire a consultant that's going to say, hey, you guys need to do this, but we're not doing it. Oftentimes we're hiring coaches who haven't been to where we want to go or they have no clue.

28:27They're just like, look, I know what you need, maybe from a marketing perspective, but not operations. You need the entire team on board with whatever your mission is. And women always miss that. And I really commend men because they do this all the time. When you think about fraternities and those little secret societies that people always talk about, oftentimes all they're doing is exchanging information. You know, people talk about Elon Musk and PayPal mafia, which is like some conspiracy that everyone that came from PayPal are like wildly successful. And there's some mafia that they have going on.

28:56And I don't think it's as deep as, hey, we all have knowledge. Let's get together and talk about this knowledge and get to this next level. We all have a mission of building out the next Google and the next Amazon and the next Apple. Let's all just get in a room and talk about everything that we know that's happening in the market. Women don't do that. we get together and we try to release from business and we try to decompress. No, we need to get together and we all kind of like sit around a round table like this one and all produce, like all have our strategy as if we're going to war. But instead the mission is actually going to just be more success, more power and getting us to that next level.

29:25And we don't do that. So I heard it two ways. Can you correct it or codify? So when you talked about building your, like A players to go to war, are you talking about network or internal team or both? Both. So you actually need both. So the internal team is kind of the people who execute for you. They're actually the ones doing the work. They're executing, which is great. Your network is oftentimes going to be the one that can connect the dots for you. Say, hey, you know, I'm looking to raise capital. I think I said this at your mastermind. If you're looking to raise capital or sell, tell everyone you know.

29:53Because what's going to happen one day, they're at a cocktail party and they're going to be talking about it. And so your network is going to be kind of like your evangelist. They're working on your path. Even when you and your team are sleeping, they could be the ones talking about whatever it is that you're doing. Oh, yeah, Jasmine is actually working on building out an app. Oh, really? I build out apps. Okay, I'll connect you guys. That's kind of like what your network is doing. But also what they're delivering is intelligence that you don't know, which is really important. So let's say you are building out, you know, some sort of app that you've never built out before.

30:20And you're like, I really wanted to do this, but I don't really know how. Oh, I've done that before. All you need to do is, you know, all you need to do is hire this person and they'll get it done for you. Oh, OK. That's it? Yes. So it's intelligence that you need. And oftentimes we are surrounding ourselves around people who are very good at what they do and they're very smart, but they don't have the intelligence of what we need to get to the next level. If you want to get to 10 million, that should be who your circle is, is getting around enough people who make 10 million as possible. So you can just absorb all that information because they clearly know something you don't know or else you would have been there already.

30:52And so you need that level of intelligence. And when you think about what war strategy is, it's intelligence, it's intel. That's what they always say, like they have intel. That's all it is. They know something that you don't know. And I feel like women, we value coaches and consultants, but we don't value that level of strategy, in my opinion. Because if we did, we would be sitting around a table. Okay, oh my gosh. I was not expecting to go here, but actually speak your truth about this. I had a conversation today with another eight-figure founder and we're talking about, she's like, Jasmine, where's the network?

31:23Where's that eight-figure network? And I was like, girl, if and when those networks for me happen, it's always just back of the napkin. Like, you went down? Great, you went down. But what about like, and she's like, but why isn't somebody setting it up? And I was like, nobody wants to do the logistics. Yeah, that is true. And nobody wants to set it up because like we're all doing a thousand different things. And I said, how about this? How about you have your operator set it up and set that room up? And she kind of just sat with it for a little bit and maybe considered it. But do you think that we aren't doing it for any other reason than like all of us are running at a hundred thousand miles an hour and we have our families and we have this other stuff?

32:00Like, why don't you think we're doing it? I don't think that's it because men also, you got to think about high performing men. They're working 12 hour days. And so it's not a matter of, well, I'm too busy. I can't do it. I think it comes down to women just aren't conditioned to get in a room and talk about that. So you got to think we do get together. Like we, women have these summits and they have these festivals and they have these business conferences. We're getting together actually quite a bit. We're getting together a lot. If you go online and you look up all these business women. I know.

32:28Yeah, you get women together all the time. So it's not a matter of, are we doing it enough? I think the issue is that when we get together, we aren't having the right conversation. Men go to golf to talk business and talk deals. They go to a five-star restaurant and you see finance bros and they're talking about the market. When women, we go to the restaurant, we're talking about the kids. We're kind of releasing. We're taking a load off. And I get it because I don't want to go away from our natural trait of just, we're just very communal. We want to, how are you? We want to talk about the family.

32:53We want to talk about the kids, which is fine. But we have to know when I say, okay, we've caught up. What are you working on? What are you doing in five years? What are you doing in five years? What is your thoughts on how the market is going to be? What are your insights on the future of social media? What are your insights on this? We aren't having that conversation. That conversation is never being had. And if it is being had, it's had one-to-one. You know, we will talk about this. Maybe you talk about it with another friend. I just talked to Shay about this. It was really interesting. You know, it was good.

33:18Okay. Nothing ever comes from it. But you got to think if PayPal mafia really got together, that means that they were getting together, having this level of intellect. And then, okay, let's go execute and we'll be back here next year. The World Economic Forum. That's a huge event that happens annually every single year with a bunch of billionaires and bankers. What are they saying in that room? No one knows. But they are getting together and having these conversations about this future state of the global economy, of the global financial state. They're talking about how currency is going to change, how the dollar is going to get removed.

33:49You know, they're having those conversations. The masses, the 99 % of people aren't in on those conversations, but they're being had because they want to dictate. They want power over how that all plays out. Now, women are a little bit different. I think that rather than trying to have power over others, we just need to have power of our own business and our industry. So rather than us getting together, talking about geopolitical state, let's just get together and say, okay, I know that you are in social media marketing. What are your thoughts on the next five years? How do I adapt? If I were to create some sort of agency that supported this industry, what does that look like?

34:21You give your insight and your intelligence. And then we all go and say, okay, in the next 12 months, here's exactly what we're going to do. Let's meet back here in a year from now. and we have that conversation. That is what we need. So we talk about this and we talk about creating teams, armies around us in a network capacity and in a team capacity. And we started the conversation by talking about building a buildable asset. And when we look at a business and when you look at a business, because this is what you do professionally is you look at businesses. What are the key factors in making sure that you say this is an asset and not a liability outside of are you too much in the business?

34:56Things like that. Talk to us about Somebody can go through their business right now and say, I'm on an asset track. Okay. So how I like to look at it is there's four parts. It's actually spells out sale. So scalability, brand allure. So allure, leverage, and earnings. So S for scalability. This is obviously owner independence. But more importantly, how big can the business get? So if right now you have a strong team, maybe a strong tech stack, if this business was operating at the most capacity, what would that look like? Could you support 1 ,000 customers a year, 2 ,500? That's what scalability is all about.

35:27You want to understand how scalable is this business model. If it is extremely scalable, meaning that you have software into place, maybe you have a strong tech stack, you can onboard anywhere between 10 to 100 clients in any given week. That is a scalable business. It can take off at any given time. And then A for allure. Allure means that this brand is alluring to both consumers and investors. And how to make a brand alluring, it's all about perception. So what does Google say about you? What is your brand perception like? Another thing that makes a brand alluring is pricing power. I talked about Erwan when I was at your mastermind.

36:01Erwan is a very alluring brand to both the consumer and an investor. You're getting people to pay three times the price of groceries. That is interesting. I want to sit down and talk to you. So it doesn't mean that you're going to invest right away, but it's alluring enough where you want to have a conversation. And that part is really important. The L is for leverage. Leverage is what is unique about you? What do you have that when we go into a room and negotiate, you say, I have this and no one else has this, or I have this and it's very hard to come by. Example of leverage is IP, intellectual property.

36:30How much of that do you actually have? Maybe it is an example of this is like the company Goop, Gwyneth Paltrow's blog. She has access to a very wealthy consumer, an affluent consumer that's really into wellness. This is why she was able to raise millions from private equity because they know it's very hard to come across this consumer in one consolidated place. That is her leverage point. And then E is for earnings. So earnings is financials. What financial story is being told? Are you profitable or not there yet? Do you profitable, but you have cashflow issues? You know, what is the financial story that's being told?

37:00Because it's always going to come down to finances. It's always going to come down to, is this business actually even worth anything on paper? So that's kind of the quick thing that you can go through to ask yourself, okay, is this actually something that someone would want to buy? Is this actually investable? So we'll actually go back just to kind of break it down on each one to see what problems would be in each one. So let's say scalability. The number one problem that we already talked about was owner dependency, meaning you're in too many parts of the business. But another part would also be infrastructure.

37:26So you don't have the infrastructure to support where you want to go. When you are sending out a pitch deck, and I look at a lot of pitch decks, and they say, you know, we're going to be, we're going to make 250 million in the next five years. Okay, and you start talking to them because that's, people say, they literally make up on a pitch deck. We're going to meet, you know, 100 million. We're going to get acquired by Google in 10 years. They say anything, which is fine. You can say anything, but how to basically call them out is, what do you have to support this? Like, can you support a thousand customers this year?

37:53Well, no, not yet. You know, we don't have the infrastructure or, you know, our team is getting there. Okay, so this isn't actually scalable. You're just, this is just all theoretical. So you want to make sure that the business is scalable to where you want to go. If you say you want to grow to 10 million, this is why I said you need to start with your infrastructure. Create the infrastructure of a business that can be supported at 10 million. If not, you're never going to get there. You're not going to wake up one day and be like, oh, I have 10 million. Let me go build the infrastructure. You built the business like that now.

38:18And oftentimes we are actually in a world where that's easier because a$10 million infrastructure doesn't mean you have to go get a brick and mortar. It means that you have to build out quality tech stack. You have to build out, oftentimes it's IP. So what IP do you have? It's white labeling, having different strategic partnerships. It's not as much as it used to be if I had to have 20 million stores. And it's more so about what does the tech look like to be able to support this. Brand allure, I think this is something that actually women are really good at. And most of the time people actually check the boxes here, but I'll go through it anyway.

38:48So brand allure means that when I Google this business, other people would agree that this brand is really cool. So there's a lot of mentions in media. There's a lot of different PR. There's people doing podcasts, case studies about the brand. When people are talking about your industry, your name tends to come up because the brand is luring. It's cool. If you're not there yet, you need to get to that point because oftentimes, especially now with a lot of founder-led brands, they're able to raise capital or they're able to sell just based on the fact that people are saying they're the next big brand.

39:17This is what everyone should be doing. We're also in this era on social media where people are using brands as case studies in real time. So, you know, I saw this social strategy that Le Labo did and here's why you need to do it. That's another example of Brandalure where everyone is starting to just watch you. They want to see what this brand does next. And that's really, really important for an investor because investors love to feel like they're early. They love to feel like, well, you know, I got in where they were, you know, just at this size. So that part is really important because investors look at that.

39:45And then L for leverage. So leverage is actually something most people don't think about, but when you are negotiating your deal, whether that is to raise capital, even whether that is to hire someone on or you want to sell, you have to have leverage. So leverage is that thing where you're sitting at the table and I tell you, I think my company is worth X and you tell me I think it's worth Y. And we have to basically settle and figure out what it's worth. The leverage is going to be what does that. So if you have IP, let's say you have a social media agency. If you say, well, this is the best social media agency, it makes$5 million a year, it's the best.

40:18And I say, okay, well, you're not the only social media agency that makes$5 million a year. What else do you have? After I ask you that question, that answer is your leverage. So we have this level of talent. We have only the top influencers that have 2 million followers. We actually dominate the beauty and wellness space. Or maybe we have access to over 100 ,000 social media managers who are ready to work, which is actually very hard to find, like a level of quality social media managers. So whatever it is that you have, that is your leverage. and you need to be building leverage all throughout your business.

40:47It's kind of like that unique factor that's actually valuable. So everyone, if you ask someone like, what makes you unique? They typically go kind of the brand positioning route. You know, well, we offer cow milk instead of tea. Like, you know, they start kind of going more into the features. And I'm like, no, I want to know if I were to, what makes this company valuable? Because when it comes, sometimes it does just come down to financials. If I have a$5 million agency and you have a$5 million agency, what's going to, who's going to determine who gets the money? It's going to be down to what unique leverage that we have.

41:16And so that part is really important. And then the final E, when it comes down to earnings, people think that how much you make actually means something when you want to sell your business. And it doesn't really actually mean that much, to be honest. I don't want to say it doesn't mean anything, but it doesn't mean that much. When you are getting ready to sell, they're actually not just looking at revenue. They're looking at something called EBITDA, which is earnings before interest, taxes, and amortization. That's a fancy way. That's how profitable your business is before you pay taxes. and before your accountant does all that funny stuff to make sure that you don't have to pay taxes, basically.

41:48So it shows any investor, okay, here's how much a business is truly worth. After we've paid all the expenses, here's how much a business is truly worth. That EBITDA or that profit before all of that is the most important number. That number is actually what determines what the business is worth. So when you want to sell and you look, well, we make 10 million, okay, but we profit 2 million, you're going to be in for a rude awakening because that number that what you profit is actually much more important than you think. that's actually what they're using to determine the value of the company. And so if you know that you want to exit for 10 million, okay, that means that your revenue actually has to be at 20 and your profit likely has to be at five because you can sell at a multiple.

42:24So for those that don't know what that means, that means that they're looking at your profit. Let's say the profit is a million. They're actually going to multiply that by two, anywhere between two to five. That's how you're going to get the value of your company. Now that's a little bit more complex than that because we have to look at everything, but that is kind of like the baseline if you want to understand what your company is worth. So most people are only looking at revenue. You have to look at how profitable this company is if you are planning to sell it. So somebody's watching and they say, okay, that's great.

42:50I'm not really aiming to sell my business. I want to make a very good business. And I want this business. I would love to work in this business 20 to 25 hours. I want this to be making a lot of money. If somebody comes to you and says that, do you change your perspective or your advice for what it is they're trying to do? No, absolutely not. Because they're saying that now. Here's what always happens. They're saying that now. When your parents get sick, when your kids grow up and they graduate, when maybe you get a divorce and maybe your husband's like, hey, I'm done. I want to go to move to another country.

43:25Life changes. And so when life changes, inevitably your business is like how you operate in your business is going to change. And so people say this while things are going great. Like, this is my baby. This is my company. I'm never going to leave. And then, you know, as life goes on, different things happen. and you realize maybe your kids don't want the business or you don't want to pass it down. And you're like, okay, I don't want to do this. I don't want to be involved in this. And oftentimes, especially I work with a lot of visionary entrepreneurs, meaning they are the ones with all the best ideas.

43:51And I tell them all the time, I'm like, you have so many ideas that you're sitting on that you can't execute because you're in this business. So it's not a matter of maybe you don't want to sell, but you do want to step back because you have to be able to create other ventures. You have so many ideas that you can't physically go out and execute because you just don't have the bandwidth or capacity. And so advice doesn't change because I know oftentimes their minds are going to change, even if it's five years down the line. So my process is always going to be the same because I'm like, regardless, if you want to stay in the business or not, you don't want to be a slave to the business.

44:20So this framework is still going to help you get out of it as much as possible while still seeing the vision. Because people think that, okay, when I step back, the business is no longer mine. Apple is still operating. It's still operating. Steve Jobs' vision, we still get to see it in real time because the company is very, it's vision led. It's not, but it's still led with processes and systems. And so that's how you have to think, what is your vision for the company? Really lay it out and be very specific. It's not so much about money, but it's like when people see this vision, when they see this brand, what do they see?

44:52What stores are we in? What is the perception of this? That is what you were building. And so then you don't need to execute that. When you realize that you are truly a visionary, you don't have to be the one to execute that, but you do have to outline how you want the culture to operate on the inside. And then someone can tell you, okay, if that's how you want to operate on the inside, here's what the org chart needs to look like. Meaning here's how we need to hire from the top down. But you don't have to actually be in the business. And it's probably best if you're not in the business because sometimes you're too emotional.

45:18Everyone is so emotional when they're in it. And so I think that's why it's so important to step out. So you can really just look at it from a bird's eye view and say, isn't this my vision? Is this what I want? If the answer is no, you have to be willing to hire someone that can do that for you. So if we might, as we are taking all of this information, I'm wondering and I did ask for her permission so there was a woman in my mastermind she had been in there and you came and you spoke at our second live event so by this time she did give me her permission to use her name so Paige Griffin of the legal page she was sitting there and she had been talking about the structure of her business and so I'm going to describe the structure of her business I'm going to describe what the business looked like when she encountered your presentation because I feel like there's people who are watching and listening right now and so at the time she had a legal firm she has lawyers and attorneys working underneath her.

46:05She also sold digital contracts. And she decided to add on a layer for scalability. Because while the contracts itself were scalable, she said, if I had a tech layer, that a small business owner would be able to buy a contract template and be able to take payment by adding an IP layer to it. So when we're going through this sale acronym, the scalability, then the brand allure is that every person in the wedding world knew that she was the go-to person. Absolutely. This is where you get started. So back in the day, if you were, if and when you were a makeup artist, you would be able to get a contract and take payments to that platform.

46:41That goes back to the allure. And then she had the leverage. What's unique about her is that her name and her brand and her attorneys were pervasive across all industry, like all cross disciplines in that industry. DJs, venues, photographers, makeup artists. And then lastly, earnings. That girl's profit. Like her business was, I'm not gonna spill that tea, but very strong business. phenomenal profitability. And at the end of your conversation, she went up to you, that girl got her plate at lunch, got real close to you, started asking you questions. And at the time she said, I'm going to do this on my own.

47:16And then after you gave a very clear presentation of scalability around getting investors, she's like, I talked to Shay and I'm so ready to move in this direction. My goal in saying that story is that somebody right now is watching this and they're learning how to see their business as an asset and see how the asset can change their life. I want to say thank you for being here. Thank you for blowing my mind. Thank you for being so inspirational. I was always inspired by you. And then now I know like the back backstory. And I'm like, you have had, you have just come a long way. This is in freaking credible.

47:51I am so happy to be sitting here with you. Now, people are going to want to learn more about what it is you do. They want to learn more how they go deeper. They're going to know, are they qualified to even potentially be in your ecosystem, in your sphere? Where do people go to get more information? What are you pointing them to? Is there like a baseline for the people size of business that you work with? Absolutely. So the businesses that I work with are anywhere between one to$15 million in revenue, and they have to actually at least meet that sale mark. So they have to have some sort of scalability.

48:20They have to have some allure, some leverage. It doesn't have to be a lot in earnings. If they aren't at that level yet, I'll actually put them through my investable program, which is a 12-month program where we actually go through all four of those pillars and then some to basically create, reverse engineer an asset that an investor would want to buy. And the program, the first thing that I look at is I look at the business, I look at the model, I look at the founder, and I say, okay, based on all this information, here's the type of investor that would likely invest with you. Amazing. And angel investor, maybe it's maybe you would likely settle private equity, whatever the case may be.

48:50And then we reverse engineer that business to make sure that it's appealing to those parties. Oh, that's good. I didn't know. Where do they go for that? So that's invite or refer only. But if you apply and you say, I heard you on Jasmine's podcast, because I've gotten to a point where it's very picky because the level of dedication that is required to scale or sell, it is a lot. And most people just truly aren't. They don't they don't want to do it like they think they want to. And so I always like to interview every client myself to say, okay, like, what is your goal here? You know, what is your work ethic like?

49:20What is your team? Are you willing to get rid of people if they aren't performing? And I want to understand, are you truly ready to get this business to become an asset? Because it's not as sexy as it may sound. Like creating an asset, it's not actually fun. You're going to actually go through a process. I'm working with a client now where we're getting them ready for an acquisition. And they're like, Shay, this is a bit much. Not much as far as time-wise, but it's like, I didn't know I'm going to have to let this team member go. I didn't know I'd have to cut this offer. And so you really have to rework it because you realize you have to cut the dead weight.

49:50And most of it is mental. Most of us mentally don't want to shed those old things. And so I want to vet every client to see if that's what you're prepared for. But if you're not ready, that is okay because you can find me on Spotify or Apple Podcast, type in Sheba Connie and just consume the information. And then whenever you're ready and you're like, Shea, I want to do this. I'm ready to do this. That's how I found you. I already said that. Again, I'm going to link it in the show notes because I will tell you how like the level of creep that I did of your content. And you do podcasts and you create content to empower people to self-serve until they're ready.

50:21Absolutely. So where do they go to get more information about whether or not they're ready or just to learn more about you? Learn about Center Financial at Center Financial. Shea and Finance is my personal Instagram if you want to get to tell me on a personal level, which I think is important because we really become best friends during that process. Like I'm all in your business. So you want to say, okay, what I actually vibe with this person. So I have to say follow both accounts and then just stay up to date on all the podcasts that I do. I tend to do podcasts with like more high level masterminds, high level podcasts, because I want to get in front of the right audience.

50:53But I think no matter what stage of business you're in, when you are listening to that information, take what you need. But also I have an investability assessment. So it's also an assessment that I have. It's a link in my bio. And I want you to actually take that assessment. It will tell you exactly which of these areas your weekend. Is it in the brand allure? Is it in the scalability? Or sometimes Is it in your leverage? You don't have enough IP. You don't have anything that's actually interesting. So take that assessment and I'll give you a blueprint, at least for the next 12 months to say, okay, here's exactly what I'm going to work on for the next 12 months.

51:21And so you'll actually know if you qualify to be a client right away after you take that assessment. This queen did not come to play. Shay, thank you. Thank you. Center Financial and Shay in finance. Y 'all, just a big round of applause. If you found this at all helpful, share it with a friend. Pass it specifically to another woman who wants to have conversations about finances and asset class and getting around this round table with brilliant other women. I want to say thank you for watching and listening to The Jasmine Starr Show.