Managing Crazy Ass Growth + Scalability with Natalie Gill
I’m so excited to be sitting down with my friend and former client, Natalie Gill. In the past five years Natalie has gone from working an office job to launching her career as a florist, to becoming the owner of two thriving brick and mortar floral shops. But Natalie will be the first one to tell you it isn’t easy or idyllic.
In this episode, Natalie shares all about the hard lessons learned when opening up her first storefront for Native Poppy. Hiring mistakes, overlooked details, and finding a groove. As the business grew and thrived much quicker than expected, Natalie had to take on a bigger management role and less of a creative one.
One of the smartest things Natalie did when launching her business was invest in systems and organization. She set up an employee handbook, operational systems and company-wide organizational tools at the very start of business. Having these implemented from the get-go makes growth and scalability so much easier. Being proactive with your systems rather than reactive is one of the best investments you can make with your business. If you don’t currently have the funds or the resources, allocate a certain amount of time each week to work on these things yourself.
Burnout comes in ebbs and flows
You won’t ever be able to completely avoid burnout from a business owner. But have the mindset of understanding that these hectic, busy seasons are temporary will give you light at the end of the tunnel. You need to have bouts of refresh bookending your crazy time periods, that’s the only way to get through it.