Welcome Back, Hard Knocks community 💰 

Today we are talking all about scaling a business. We will be walking you through a 4-step framework that has allowed an 8-figure entrepreneur to help 100 entrepreneurs go from 0 to reaching $100k/month in monthly recurring revenue. This will be taught from the perspective of a marketing agency owner but the lessons from within the process can apply to any business through our “Keys for any Business” sections. Reply to this newsletter if you enjoyed this format!

Today’s Schedule

• 4 Pillars to $100k/Month: How this 8-Figure Entrepreneur uses this 4-step framework to scale businesses to $100k/month

• From the Hard Knocks Library: Principles by Ray Dalio

• In Case You Missed It: Our Podcast with James Keyes, Former CEO of 7-Eleven & Blockbuster

Happy Friday - and thanks for being patient with us this week. We had so many new sign ups in the past 24 hours we wanted to pack this week’s newsletter with as much value as possible. You should expect our regularly scheduled newsletter next Thursday. With that being said…

Lets Get into it!🔥

4 Pillars to $100k/Month

Last March, we met an entrepreneur at a business event in Denver, Colorado who has helped 120 different people hit $100k/month in monthly recurring revenue (MRR) with their business. His name is Joel Kaplan and clearly he had a model that could help solve the problems of many service-based business owners.

In his early 20’s, Joel co-founded a marketing agency called “Atlas Digital” which helped chiropractors get more clients in their door by using Facebook ads. At the age of 26, Joel’s business was doing more than $300k a month and he became a millionaire.

After a few years of running Atlas Digital Joel ended up selling his stake in the company and started to consult other up-and-coming marketing agencies using his framework of how to scale a company.

This framework consists of 4 pillars and is the exact philosophy he used to scale 120 people to $100k/month with their marketing business. Although this framework is geared towards a marketing agency, the lessons within each pillar are valuable to any business owner.

The 4 Pillars.
 1. Set appointments
 2. Close appointments
 3. Client Results
 4. Fire Yourself 

1. Set Appointments - Often times, new business owners get caught in the loop of focusing on non-revenue generating activities like editing videos or trying to create the perfect website. When in reality they need to focus on having conversations with potential clients and creating systems to prospect new business every single day.

If your business doesn’t serve any clients, then you can’t provide them great results, and you don’t make any money. As a business owner you have to constantly be prospecting for new business even if you have existing customers because some of your customers will churn.

Setting appointments with potential customers allows you to book your schedule with revenue generating conversations every single day. In the case that you do get bogged down with the day-to-day tasks that come with running a new business, having appointments scheduled can keep you from avoiding one of the most crucial business activities.

Here are some examples of ways you can prospect for new customers and set an appointment with them to potentially sign them as a client:

• Cold Email

• DM’ing Ideal Clients on Social Media

• Facebook Ads (90% of people Joel worked with that hit $100k MRR used ads to scale)

• Asking for Referrals from Existing Customers

• Posting Content on Social Media with Call-to-Actions

• Networking Events

• Telling People You Know about Your Business

We will include resources with more information on how to do these prospecting methods at the end.

Keys for any Business: 

• A core piece of your time as a business owner should be spent seeking and attracting new potential customers

  • If you are not actively seeking new customers for your business, you are not growing. And if you aren’t growing…you’re dying.

• Always have communication flowing between your potential customers and your product/service

2. Close Appointments - Once you have conversations with ideal clients scheduled, Joel recommends a two-step closing framework to sign them as your client.

Intro Call - Have interested prospects hop on an intro call where you can take a consultative approach to selling by asking questions in a similar manner as to how a doctor would approach a new patient. On this call you are determining if this person is a good fit for your service, are they qualified and able to pay for it, and if you even actually want to work with this person.

Demo Call - If the person is a good fit for your service, you would then book them on a Demo-call where you actually pitch them your offer. Since they were qualified on the first call, you already know this person is a great fit for your service. On this call, you should be helping the prospect come to the decision on their own that your service is the answer to their problems. Given that you have a great service that you want to share with the world, it would actually hurt their business if they did not sign with you, you just have to make them see that.

Here is a video breakdown from Joel on how to close your appointments:

Keys for any Business: 

• Find Information about your prospective customers before selling to them

  • Even for a product-based business, offer questionnaires to really understand your customer avatar

• Sell to the customers that you know will greatly benefit from your product or service

3. Client Results - In order to scale your business you need to deliver an exceptional product or service. If you don’t deliver a good service, then even if you have customers right now, they probably won’t be your customers for long.

But what do you do if you have never had a client before and are unsure of how to deliver a great product?

Here are a couple things Joel recommends you do:

• Pay someone else who serves the same customers as you and have them teach you their process.

• When starting out, offer a free trial in return for a testimonial. This gives you the chance to test your service with little risk to the client and in return you now have a testimonial to use for future prospects.

  • Don’t worry about the money, the goal is to prove you have a service that works. Once you have that, the money will come.

• Partner with someone who knows how to fulfill for the clients. (If you are great at fulfillment but hate sales you could also partner with someone to handle front end sales while you do fulfillment).

Often times, the results of your service are not the only thing that keeps a client from leaving. There are some clients are not solely motivated by money or the results of the service but are more driven by relationships. People want to do business with people that they like.

Building a relationship with your clients and actually caring about them is crucial to long term success because not only are they likely to stay as a client longer, they will be more likely to refer your service to other potential clients as well.

Keys for any Business: 

• Have proof that your product or service works before you sell it

  • Get testimonials from customers

  • Often times you may have to give away your product or service for free to obtain this

• Develop a great relationship with your customers

  • People give their money to people and brands that they like

  • You are much more likely to retain a customer even when mistakes are made if you have a great relationship with them

4. Fire Yourself - As a business owner, you are your own biggest roadblock to success. You can get a business to $10k/month by yourself, and maybe even multiple 5-figures by yourself, but to build a 7-figure company you have to bring other people in to help you.

What is the best way to go about hiring when you are just starting out?

The first hires Joel recommends are:
1. Personal Assistant - In the early stages of business where you don’t have a team around you, your time is the most crucial and essential to the businesses success. Hiring a personal assistant can assist with setting appointments, taking care of administrative tasks and non-revenue generating activities.
2. Hire your biggest weakness - Hire out the area of your company that you have the least skills in. If you are really good at fulfilling your product or service and more introverted, then your best hire would be someone who is great at sales. If you are great with people and ultimately have the idea for a great product or service, hire someone to help fulfil the actual product or service.

In a specific example, if you build databases and you are really good at building them for businesses, your best hire would be someone to go and sell businesses on you building them a great database.

Firing yourself not only allows you to stop working on the day-to-day non-revenue generating activities but it also makes your company stronger by removing the areas where you are weak.

Keys for any Business: 

• Replace yourself within your business where you are spending time doing non-revenue generating activities

  • If the task you are doing in your business does not bring you new business, you should hire it out.

• Hire people that replace the weaknesses

  • Fill in the areas where your skillset or company are lacking the most.

These are the 4 pillars that Joel used to scale his business and many others to $100k/month. If you enjoyed learning about his approach to business and scaling a company then you should connect with Joel below:

You can connect with Joel on Instagram at @officialjoelkaplan

Watch Joel Kaplan on YouTube below for more resources and lessons on scaling an agency👇

Words of Wisdom

From the Hard Knocks Library

In Case You Missed It

We sat down with the former CEO of 7-11 and Blockbuster James Keyes to talk about what led him to be the CEO of two multi-billion dollar companies and had him break down the raw truth of what caused the iconic collapse of Blockbuster. This episode is full of gems on what it takes to be a successful leader and gives you a behind the scenes view on what caused the collapse of a multi-billion dollar empire

Let Us Hear From You

What were your thoughts on todays newsletter with Joel Kaplan? Please reply back with your thoughts or things you would like us to include in future newsletters!