36. The Art of Business Delegation with Marla Coffin
EPISODE 36
Marla Coffin has cracked the code, creating six vertically integrated companies while stepping back to focus purely on strategy and growth. In this episode, she reveals how she built and stepped back from six vertically integrated businesses to focus on strategy and growth while others handle daily operations.
Catch the Conversation
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Marla Coffin is a seasoned entrepreneur, business strategist, and mom to three wonderful girls. She owns six vertically integrated businesses and 18 months ago, stepped back from daily operations to focus on strategy and leadership coaching. Now, she helps business owners scale with structure and confidence, drawing from her deep experience in business ownership, vertical integration, and strategic hiring.
Marla specializes in guiding entrepreneurs beyond the operational grind so they can focus on growth and long-term success. She works across industries, tackling the common roadblocks that hinder both small and mid-sized businesses. Her strategic approach helps businesses build the foundations they need to scale, creating systems that drive efficiency and profitability. Spending the bulk of her time on this allows Marla to operate at her highest and best use and share her knowledge with other business owners.
Her mission is simple: to help business owners break free from operational overwhelm and take their companies to the next level.
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Julie: 0:04
Welcome to Figure 8, where we feature inspiring stories of women entrepreneurs who have grown their businesses to seven and eight figures revenue. If you're in the mix of growing a bigger business, these stories are for you. Join us as we explore where the tough spots are, how to overcome them and how to prepare yourself for the next portion of the climb. I'm your host, Julie Ellis. I'm an author, entrepreneur and a growth and leadership coach who co-founded, grew and exited an eight-figure business. This led me to exploring why some women achieve great things, and that led to my book Big Gorgeous Goals. Let's explore the systems, processes and people that help us grow our businesses to new heights. If you're interested in growing your business, this podcast will help. Now let's get going.
Julie: 1:04
Hello and welcome to this episode of Figure 8. Today I have with me Marla Coffin, and Marla has founded a good number of businesses and I'm excited to dive in with her today about why so many and what the potential she sees in them are. But she now owns six vertically integrated businesses and she has stepped back from daily operations to work on strategy and watch them scale without her hands being directly on the wheel at all times. So I'm really interested to talk to you today. Welcome, Marla.
Marla: 1:42
Thank you so much, Julie, for having me. I appreciate it.
Julie: 1:45
You're welcome. So let's dive right into that, because I do think it's unusual and fascinating, because it makes a lot of sense as a way to grow your businesses that you let go and let other people run them.
Marla: 1:58
Absolutely, absolutely. We have really found it to be the key for us and my husband and I were business partners in terms of what our everyday life looks like now not necessarily being in the grind, not necessarily having to do all of the things right, not always being, you know, like you said, driving, driving the car.
Julie: 2:20
Yeah well, and I think it's interesting because I mean, one of those six businesses is bookkeeping and you know you are not an accountant, but you saw an opportunity, so how it allows you to create an entrepreneurial venture without having that sort of subject matter expertise.
Marla: 2:38
No question. We have a few different businesses that you know, bookkeeping being one of them, where we partnered with someone who is a bookkeeper by trade. She runs the business, she understands the business. We certainly help her to navigate, you know think strategically, make bigger business decisions and you know, guide her along the way as partners. But she certainly runs all of the day to day operations as partners. But she certainly runs all of the day-to-day operations and by default, because myself and my husband we are not bookkeepers although he certainly is more into, we'll say, the numbers than I am by default we are not running the business. We cannot step in on a day-to-day basis, regardless of what facets are contributing to the circumstances. So we've learned to make sure that we have other systems in place as backups. So if something does transpire or our team lead needs time off, whatever the circumstance may be, there are systems in place for that. But instead we work more on a strategic level in that business.
Julie: 3:42
Yeah, and it reminds me kind of of a board of directors sort of structure, right, like you kind of function as the board of directors and shareholders of the company, who are not in the day to day but who are involved in setting the strategy, making sure that you have those redundancies that you're talking about built in all of those kinds of things.
Marla: 4:04
Definitely. We definitely take more of an advisory role, for sure, and you know we are striving for that in all of our businesses. It's a little easier, or more built in, I should say, in the businesses where we have less familiarity, like bookkeeping.
Julie: 4:17
Right, because you really automatically have to have your hands out. It's a forced situation. Absolutely, which is not, you know, the nature of most entrepreneurs, so yeah, well, and that's why I think I find what you're doing so interesting that you, you know, are spinning out these businesses because of, I mean, let's, you know, rewind a little bit. You started one business, yes, and if you want to maybe talk about that a little bit, because that sort of spawned you seeing a lot of other needs in the world that brought you to multiple businesses.
Marla: 4:54
Absolutely. Our core business is called MARDA Management. It's a rental management company for residential property management, so that's our core business. My husband and I founded that together 15 years ago, started as a side job and just sort of evolved from there. But as it became an intentionally structured business which we were very much running the day-to-day operations of, including to the point where it was growing to 40 and 50 staff, we were still running the day-to-day operations. We knew all of the intricacies, but we started to then identify that there are a lot of vertical integration opportunities within this type of business, and that is primarily what initiated some of our other businesses that have both allowed us to vertically integrate but also taught us one of the most important lessons we could have asked for, which is that you don't need to be in the day to day, you don't need to run it operationally. You know you can exit without selling and it can be an income producing asset for you.
Julie: 5:56
And would you say, there was like a moment or a time period where you really became aware of that and were able then to step back Like what was it that sort of prompted you to view things in that way?
Marla: 6:08
Sure, I can sort of point to two different channels. One was more of an evolution from when we started to vertically integrate, we started to expand our holdings, we started, you know, we acquired some businesses, we developed some new businesses, we learned how to serve that core business through other ventures, and that was more of an evolution. And then, in addition to that, we worked with a coach who was the first coach we ever worked with and you know, I always say you know, when it comes to coaching, it is so much about awareness, right, and you know, really heightening that awareness level, and for me and my husband it was an awareness level. It was certainly an aha moment for us to come to realize that what would happen if we stepped out of the day-to-day operations of our core business? What would that look like? What would transpire?
Marla: 6:57
You know, and we identified, through that aha moment, that number one we would identify gaps. What are the things that people need to be cross-trained on? Where do we need to delegate more effectively? You know, essentially, where are the gaps. And then, secondly, once you know that is tended to, there really is a path for you to create that income producing asset instead of the job, instead of being the technician or the primary person with your hands on the wheel.
Julie: 7:26
Yeah, and so when you started stepping back, did you and your husband both step back in all of your cases, or did you and did you stagger that? How did you find that happened?
Marla: 7:37
Yeah, so we intentionally chose a time period of one month to both step back together. During that month, you know, we put some systems in place for things that couldn't be tended to without us or that, inadvertently, you know, would. Of course things would arise. So we did that, and we did that in June of 2023 for the month of June both of us. Now, of course, there are certain things in any business that certainly at your first shot and probably even long term, you will hold on to, like financial access and things of that nature.
Marla: 8:09
So there were some things that we knew we would have to do, but we intentionally didn't go to the office.
Marla: 8:14
We intentionally set our teams up to understand what level of things we expected them to self-solve and what level of things we understood they may need to reach out to us for, and things like that. And that was true for both my husband and myself. And so we did do that for that month and we both found significant gaps and holes, which we anticipated, but that was a mechanism for self-identifying what those were and how we could tend to them. And by the end of that month, my husband, dale, did go back to the business I'll say three quarter of his time, probably to what he was previously and that's now down a year and a half later, almost a couple years later, to about, you know, 10 hours a week, and I never went back. The only thing I did after that month off was I intentionally set aside time from home to do that cross training, to hire, to promote et cetera, to restructure our org chart and things like that, to make sure our team was set up for success, not just for the short term but for the long term.
Julie: 9:15
Yeah, and make sure you do have that day-to-day leadership that the team needs to look to to answer all those questions and do those things.
Marla: 9:22
No question, it's key and it really pushed our team as well through a process that really required them to self-solve. There are a lot of things that, by nature as humans, we just ask the person who's there because they're there. We want human connection, we want to talk to our colleagues, we want to work together with others, so it's very natural for us to go to those that are closest to us especially. You know I always operate on an open door policy, which you know I do for a reason, but certainly that encourages people to come on by and, before you know it, as a business leader, all day, every day, you end up with hey got a minute, hey, do you have a minute? Can I borrow you for a sec?
Julie: 10:03
Very much Well, and it's interesting because I mean, obviously you didn't just shut off your phones and go on vacation, you were keeping yourself available for finding those holes. But it must have been a very interesting day, one kind of like what's going to happen today.
Marla: 10:23
It was a very interesting day, one, I will say for sure, and I think the team certainly took a certain level of, you know, responsibility to work through their own challenges, and it pushed them just as much as it pushed us, because, make no mistake, it wasn't easy for us. It wasn't just like poof, there we go, things are running well. And even when they were running well you know it's a control factor that you're used to when it's your developed business that you've put a lot of, you know, blood, sweat and tears into, it's not so easy to just say, oh, they got it, it's fine. Whatever they come up with will be great.
Julie: 10:56
No, and what was that part like? Because I think that would be a really challenging part for a lot of entrepreneurs. Like you know, the letting go of control and you know there's, there's your vision is involved in that. Ego can sometimes be involved in that like there are a lot of reasons why we hang on tight.
Marla: 11:16
For sure, for sure. I mean, I think that there are a couple of really critical things that you need to make sure you have in place. First, things like core values, things that will set your vision straight, so that it's not just current team members that know and hopefully live it, but new team members that come on board and, as your business evolves and grows, you don't lose sight of that somewhere along the way. So we work pretty diligently to make sure that was the case. But once I could be confident that that was true, there was still a whole myriad of things I had to work through, as you, as you've explained here right.
Marla: 11:49
It was no easy feat, but it was certainly an evolution. It was something that took time, I would say it took me probably about eight months before I was mostly I'll call it at ease with you know, allowing the team to make the decisions, recognizing what are the small things and what are the big things. You know, allowing the team to make the decisions, recognizing what are the small things and what are the big things. You know because we're used to, as business owners, making all the calls, small and big, whatever it may be in a lot of ways.
Julie: 12:14
And we do it without thinking. In a lot of ways, I think you're just, you're there, you're in it, you're, you know, you're moving through your day making those decisions and so to think about, like doing that pullback and not being the person who makes them.
Marla: 12:30
Totally and and and being okay with the fact that, hey, if the decision that they arrive at is not exactly my decision, it's probably okay, it's not going to make or break the business, it's not going to, you know, be significantly consequential, probably right. And those things that are at that level, we're still part of those conversations, we're still part of those decisions to make sure that our vision, you know, does get carried through the way we'd like to see it. But when you're in it, you just make all the calls, you know hundreds, if not 1000s, of decisions a day and, like you say, by nature it's just what's the next question, what's the next need? And so that, I would say, was pretty significant.
Marla: 13:12
I did eventually, probably after up to a year, might've been a little bit less than a year I did give up my, even my, office space. So I did have an office there, of course, but I did eventually tell the person that I promoted you know what you can, you can have my office because I felt like that was the final component for me. That was that piece of control. It was the piece of comfort too, by the way, that I could just slide back into that seat if I needed to. So that was, for me personally, an emotional decision, but a necessary one, and I felt like that went a long way for the team as well, because you have to make clear to the team who's in charge too.
Julie: 13:51
Sure you do, because people need to be told very specifically that they are going to be stepping into the gap. And these are the decisions you need to be making and this is how, what you are accountable for and how I'm going to you know, measure you against that.
Marla: 14:08
Definitely. And I had to be very disciplined about redirecting other people too, because team members would still come to me even though I felt as though we were clear people are, we are all creatures of habit so they would still come to me and I would have to be very disciplined about redirecting and of course, by nature, we all want to be helpful. So I would consistently want to just respond and you know it was an easy question, easy answer but I had to really push myself diligently to redirect that person through the right channel, to the appropriate, to the appropriate party.
Julie: 14:38
Yeah, the yes. It will take you 10 seconds to answer this, but then you're creating, you know that slippery slope.
Marla: 14:45
Totally, yeah, absolutely.
Julie: 14:49
And what do you feel like so that freeing of you to raise yourself up? What do you feel like that unlocked in you in terms of what your sort of best self is to bring to these businesses?
Marla: 15:01
Well, it certainly gave me an opportunity to even begin to think about what that would be, because when we're in the grind all of us have been there at some point for some length of time or still are, you know you just are making decisions one after the other, and I always say that when you're in the weeds, so to speak, $20 problems and $500 problems become one pile, and that's the real challenge, because you don't know how to strategically think about where to use your time or where it's most effective. You're just trying to get to the next thing, and so it gave me a chance to really think thoroughly about what is my highest and best use, what can I bring to these businesses that will be most effective for the businesses, and what do I want to spend my day-to-day time doing? What you know, what do I enjoy the most? And where do I bring the most value?
Julie: 15:52
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Julie: 16:48
There's some good parts about letting go, but I'm sure that there were also parts that you did enjoy doing that you let go of also.
Marla: 16:55
For sure. There's no question. I love the team environment. I love, you know, working with people, but that hasn't really changed. I mean it's just shifted. So now I'm really working with all of the leaders of the businesses instead of all of the people in each business. I'm really working with the different personalities through helping to promote them into stronger leadership, as opposed to, maybe, you know, with the one onone individual employee at each business. So it's it's different, but it's really just been a shift. It's you just have to kind of look at it from a little bit of a different perspective. I do still get a lot of the reward internal reward, I mean that I feel and have felt from working with those people and helping make them stronger leaders too.
Julie: 17:43
Yeah, and so how do you set up, I mean, I see, the aligning of culture, making sure people you know have the responsibility on their shoulders that you're very clear of? I'm giving this to you, and what were the other things that you really found that you had to do in terms of yourself as a leader?
Marla: 18:05
Well, a couple of things. One is the thing that I implemented in all of the businesses. It took me some time to realize that I needed it, but it's a monthly managerial report that really just provides mainstream communication between the person leading the business and the ownership team. I found that I was a little bit too on top of them hey, what happened with this? Hey, by the way, what about that? What about that? And a little bit too on top of them hey, what happened with this? Hey, by the way, what about that? What about that? And that wasn't properly empowering them to run with it.
Marla: 18:32
But I still needed some of these pieces of information, some of them for my ability to be strategic and some of them just for my own peace of mind. It's still, you know, our business. It's still businesses that we worked hard to build, so some of it was just sheer peace of mind. So we've developed that. We started that about nine months ago and it is going pretty well. Of course, it was a little bit of an adjustment period too, because the report can be a little bit intense, but trying to focus on the most important sets of information, the things that are most relevant, if you will, or are most needed, and I think that that has significantly impacted the level of what I call now ease finally getting to a place of ease where we have that appropriate communication and I'm not necessarily having to bug people for no reason about what happened here and what happened there, and so that's made a big difference.
Marla: 19:24
Yeah, Well, and yeah, and it's also that piece of like you're getting timely information at the right level and you create that sort of scorecard or template that really, I think, just helps you with your comfort level For sure it's as much for me as it is for them, or as much for them as it is for me, because, at the end of the day, these are also the things that they should be spending their time focusing on right, because they can get two in the weeds too we all can. So it helps give them that direction and expectation and it helps ensure that I'm really only focusing on those high level things that I need to know.
Julie: 19:56
Yeah, and it gives you that boundary against the desire to roll up your sleeves and put your hands back in.
Marla: 20:05
It's an itch. That is a bit of a battle sometimes, sometimes more than ours but yeah, it's always there.
Julie: 20:10
Especially if you feel like things aren't going the way you want them to go or going as well as you want them to go. I can see that that, though, anytime there's sort of more difficulty, you always have to fight that urge right. I mean, I see it in myself as well, and it's so easy to unravel right.
Marla: 20:25
We've worked so hard to build a team that can handle it, and it's very easy to just dive back in because that's the clearest path. And then boom, you've unraveled months and months and months of work.
Julie: 20:35
And suddenly you're losing people and you know all of the things that come with that right the trust is eroded, all the things you've worked hard for for sure People are saying wait, who do? I call again. Yeah, you're like. Oh yes, did I do that right.
Julie: 20:53
But like anything, it's a process and we're not perfect, but, yes, making sure you've got those like boundaries to follow, like to stay inside, so that you understand. Yeah, yeah, I feel like that's a real, like. It's a very interesting point, right, like that impact we have as leaders, both for the good but also for the bad, and rolling up our sleeves and diving in where we should not be doing. That is damaging actually to the team dynamic and what's happening.
Marla: 21:24
Yep, definitely, definitely, definitely.
Julie: 21:27
Yeah, Interesting. And so now you are how spending your time. How, what, what, what's, what's keeping you interested and lit up these days?
Marla: 21:39
I certainly have come to a place within my businesses that I've been able to decide, you know, where do I want to spend the most time, what do I want to do day to day, and I think that you know helping other business owners is definitely key. That's something that has done a lot for me for a long time, even when I was doing so less formally, if you will. You know, coming to a place where I can take my mistakes, I can take my decisions, I can take the things that I've chosen over time and share them with other people, has been so consequential in being able to give me true satisfaction. True satisfaction, it's us sharing with each other, it's us going down the path of really finding ourselves in a place that, hey, these are the things that worked for me, these are the things that didn't. And if you take even one little bit of that and save yourself from your own heartache, your own mistakes, your own tumultuous ups and downs that we all go through, you know, as entrepreneurs then I've won.
Marla: 22:54
That's, for me, what I've really recognized as something that makes a big difference. So I've parlayed that into a new business called the growth arena, where we can spend our time coaching people and empowering them to be better leaders, to recognize the things that are most important in their day-to-day business and, for some people, depending on their goals. Because we do try to work with people on developing their individual goals, but for some people, figuring out how to exit without selling, how to ensure that their business is an income producing asset and how to honestly just get them to a place where they are living what we call the good life right, achieving their goals on a day to day basis coach who really helped you do this, and now you want to sort of take what you learned and implemented to more people, which I think is a really nice circle.
Marla: 23:56
I can appreciate that and you know, when we started with a coach because it wasn't something we did originally, it wasn't even something we were aware of we came to understand that there's a lot of opportunities out there. But sometimes we get so hung up in the day to day that we just don't have that level of awareness. And sometimes it just takes someone on the outside to say, hey, why are you doing it like this? Or why aren't you doing it like that? And we all know as business owners. Sometimes the answer is it's because that's how it's always been done.
Julie: 24:27
That's what we're used to right, or because you don't realize you're getting bad advice, or like you know. There are so many areas you don't know about when you enter into entrepreneurship.
Marla: 24:38
You know they always say there's two kinds of you don't know, right, you don't know what you know. You don't know, I don't know how to be an author or do brain surgery. But then there are things I don't know, that I don't know, and if you can heighten my awareness, sometimes even a little bit, it can make a significant consequential difference in my life, my business, my family, my entrepreneurship, whatever my choices are. So I've really just found that if I can parlay some of what I've learned along the way, showing other business owners and demonstrating for them how beneficial that vertical integration can be, because sometimes, you know, we do get stuck in treading on the same wheel over and over again.
Marla: 25:20
And you know, I think, if we really consider how key it can be to bring in some of those other factors, why am I paying another business when I can be potentially paying myself? Why am I losing the control that maybe I need, depending on what it is that hey, I can't prioritize this because it's not up to me, I'm hiring someone else to do it. But if it's also an internal company that we begin to develop, not only are we getting the financial benefit but we're getting the operational benefit that we can internally decide among companies. Where do our priorities lie? What do we need to see happen? And now we actually have some say right.
Marla: 25:59
So we've found that vertical integration component to be so critical and something that a lot of businesses don't do either at all, or they think they're too small. They think you know it doesn't make sense for me at this size or this point. But I think you just need to recognize what your TAM is, understand what your goals are within that total addressable market and then decide, hey, you might want to branch out a little bit, you know, to vertically integrate where you're at and where you're going. It can really strengthen your overall portfolio, right.
Julie: 26:31
And what are some ways that you see people and have been able to yourself implement that vertical integration?
Marla: 26:40
Yeah, absolutely so. A lot of times it's just thinking about what your core business does and the ways that you might be able to bring benefit if you did it, either yourself, or you brought under your umbrella the ability to do it. So, for example, at our residential property management company, we've created a business for lawn care, landscaping and snow removal. It was simply just strategic for us to do that internally. It allows us to decide on our own priorities. It keeps the revenue under our you know our internal umbrella and you know it's. It's pretty, a pretty, um basic, straightforward company, but it was something we were outsourcing, something we didn't have control of before.
Julie: 27:22
And setting it up as its own business allows it to have its own profit and loss manage its own way, because businesses run on different kinds of models.
Marla: 27:33
Right.
Julie: 27:33
And so it just allows you. And then also it could be something that you expand beyond only looking after your properties. It could also be something that you sell independent of that at some point.
Marla: 27:45
No question, and we do. You know, depending on the business, we have some businesses that the only client is our core business, but we have other businesses, like you know, the bookkeeping firm that we spoke about. That business serves many industries, many customers, not just our internal businesses. So it depends on the business, depends on what strategic at the time. And then the other thing is is you can set yourself up for an opportunity for growth. So, even if today that new offshoot serves you internally, down the road you may be able to grow to a point where it can actually service outside customers as well.
Julie: 28:31
Right, yeah, which makes sense too, like I do think the bookkeeping business is a great example because, let's face it, there is a shortage of bookkeeping out there in the world quality people who know their stuff.
Marla: 28:43
So if you've got, somebody you've got.
Julie: 28:46
You've got potential there, for sure.
Marla: 28:48
Yep and you can really start to work through some of the operational challenges as well. When it's internal, that's a little easier to do than when you're serving outside clients as well.
Julie: 28:56
Yeah, yes, and I think also from a financial perspective it gives you some arm's length protection as an entrepreneur inside of the businesses you have against fraud and those kinds of things.
Marla: 29:07
No question for sure. And so you know, when you're looking at vertical integration, it can be. You know, sometimes people have ideas and then they bring it under the umbrella of the existing company because it's an additional revenue stream, which is great. And diversifying your revenue streams, you know, is going to do a lot for you as a business. It's going to protect you from, you know, economic ups and downs. It's going to do a lot of different things for you by diversifying that. But depending on how significant that arm is, it might make sense to bring it as something within the umbrella, but as a separate company, as a separate entity. So we could have just started to do lawn and snow removal in our property management company, but by really bringing it outside. That's what's going to be pivotal in diversifying our client base, in growing, you know, our revenue and all of that.
Julie: 29:57
Yeah, it also makes it really easy to see where you're making money, where you've got problems. You're looking at them you're looking at them all separately, and so you can see going well, going well going well.
Marla: 30:11
Oh, we've got something or chart, you know, creating all of the basics, starting to develop, that you can cookie cutter approach and say, okay, we'll do that over here, we'll do that over here, we'll do that over here. And, of course, depending on your goals and your desired scalability, you also might reach a point where you want to sell a piece of that off. Doesn't mean you need to sell the whole thing.
Julie: 30:45
Right, right, which makes a lot of sense Because, as entrepreneurs, we have our biggest assets are in our business.
Marla: 30:54
Absolutely.
Julie: 30:55
Yeah yeah, and at some point in our lives. We need to try and get the money out.
Marla: 31:02
Yes, and that doesn't mean that you necessarily want to exit on all fronts, but it does give you options, right? So I like it for that reason as well.
Julie: 31:12
Oh, that's good, and so let's talk a little bit more about the growth arena. What has that journey been like for you?
Marla: 31:18
So it's been very, very interesting, very fascinating. I never anticipated, you know, that I would kind of morph my career into this. I had a coach who said to me a few years ago you know, you'd be, you'd be a great mentor, you'd be a great coach, you'd be, you know, really strong in business consulting. And I looked at him like he had three heads or more. I was like I'm a landlord. So thanks, you know, I'm a property manager, that's my main gig and, frankly, I loved it.
Marla: 31:46
By the way, I went to bed thinking about our core business. I went to sleep thinking about MARDA. That was a lot. It brought a lot of enjoyment and because I did it with my husband, we shared an office, we did a lot of stuff together. So that certainly was very, you know, very robust for us at the time. But as it's evolved into a place where I realized, wow, first of all, I absolutely love helping businesses to grow, fix problems, share the lessons I've learned over the years as well, which are a plenty, and so being able to parlay that into something formal has been really rewarding. I decided sometime I think it was late last year that I would document my growth through the growth arena. Actually, what does it look like to develop a business that isn't necessarily raising, you know, significant capital, where we're kind of just bootstrapping the business on purpose? What does this look like?
Julie: 32:44
Because I want to be able to demonstrate for people once it's off the ground these are some of the things you can do and it's not necessarily out of reach for you. Yeah Well, and in a world that feels like we're all being told to raise capital right now, like it kind of feels like the pendulum is over on the you know, if you're bootstrapping, you shouldn't be, you should be raising capital side, and and that isn't it isn't true for everybody. It doesn't mean you can't build a great business by bootstrapping.
Marla: 33:15
For sure, and I'm a firm believer in that and I think that sometimes entrepreneurs, and certainly women, can be intimidated by the idea of getting into an environment that maybe they've never been an entrepreneur, maybe they've never started up a business, you know, maybe they've never worked for themselves or been accountable to others in that way, and so it can be really intimidating thinking that they're going to do that and they have to go out and, you know, pitch investors and raise capital, and while that can be really important, especially in certain businesses, it's not necessary and it's not mandatory and there are other ways and I think that's important to demonstrate.
Julie: 33:53
Yeah Well, and it leads to you know I had a conversation on the podcast recently like it leads to you building a really strong skillset in raising money, which takes a lot of time to do, and so you also need to sort of weigh out the value of the time of building different skill sets and building a skill set and building the operational skill set to grow the business faster on that side.
Marla: 34:16
For sure, and it's really all about that competition between time and money, right, you know, for all of us.
Julie: 34:22
It is and figuring out which path is the right path for the business.
Marla: 34:26
You have the right path for the business you have. That's right. And what is your end game right? I always say we need to start with our end game in mind. Where are we trying to take this? Where are we trying to go and then work it back from there?
Julie: 34:36
Well, that's really exciting, and so six businesses.
Marla: 34:43
So I've got more ideas. My ideas are a plenty.
Julie: 34:45
Only some of them have legs, though, so well, it's good to know that, because sometimes that's the hardest challenge is figuring out which ones to pursue yep for sure, and where to spend our time.
Marla: 34:56
Right, and I think that one of the the best things we can do when we're not sure of hey, you know where should I invest my time. First of all, write it down. Write all the things down. Let's start there and then talk to the people you trust most. Talk to the people in your life who can give you insight into what might work and what might not, sometimes depending on where we're at in our career. That can be family, that can be friends, it can be colleagues, it can be other people in the industry, it can be people we trust locally or even, or even, people we trust afar. So I think it's really important to do that exercise to narrow in on what should I spend my time doing?
Julie: 35:33
Yeah, yeah, no, and I'm a big fan of having the systems or the scaffolding that you build around what it is you want, so that you set yourself up for more success 100%.
Marla: 35:47
I couldn't agree with you more and I think that you know there are a lot of ways into business you can. You know I just talked about the growth arena. We're starting it from kind of square one here and we're doing it this way intentionally. I've, you know, developed businesses out of side jobs, out of intentional vertical integration. We've acquired businesses as well. Acquisitions is something that certainly can also be looked at as a potential way to parlay into an entrepreneurship, depending on where you're at or you know what type of industry you're in. Right. We've had a couple of acquisitions over the years and we've learned a lot from that. It got us into another sector, another component of our industry that we may not have been willing or able to spend the time getting into ourselves by manually building that up right.
Julie: 36:31
Yep or yeah. Would it just maybe not have been taken too long to get profitable, or those kinds of things?
Julie: 36:37
And I do think it's interesting because I think lots of times people think that they, to be called an entrepreneur, it has to be built from scratch, from the ground up, and I really don't see that as true. You know you buy a business, you work in a business and you know, acquire it from the person you've been for a long time, or you bring something complimentary or to give heft to what you have. I think it's so interesting all the different ways we can become entrepreneurs.
Marla: 37:06
Absolutely. There are so many ways to arrive in this crazy entrepreneurial world we're living in right. It's not a straight path, that's for sure.
Julie: 37:16
No, I totally agree. Well, thank you so much for joining me today and sharing about your journey. I have really enjoyed learning more about you.
Marla: 37:25
Thank you so much for having me, Julie.
Julie: 37:27
I look forward to seeing how many more businesses you end up with, thank you.
Marla: 37:29
Thank you so much for having me, Julie.
Marla: 37:31
Thank you, Julie. My pleasure to be here and looking forward to continuing to set more big, gorgeous goals Awesome.
Julie: 37:36
Thanks so much. I hope you enjoyed today's episode. Please remember to hit subscribe on your favorite podcast platform so you won't miss any episodes. Figure 8 isn't just a podcast. It's a way of seeing the big, gorgeous goals of women entrepreneurs coming to life. If you're interested in learning more, you can find my book Big Gorgeous Goals on Amazon, anywhere you might live. For more about my growth and leadership training programs, visit www. julieellis. ca to see how we might work together. Read my blog or sign up to get your free diagnostic. Are you ready for growth? Once again, that's www. julieellis. ca. When we work together, we all win. See you again soon for another episode of Figure 8.