Streamlining Small Business Operations with Adrian Marable | Ep. 301

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You know what it is. That's right. It's time to talk money with your

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money nerd and financial coach. Now, tighten those purse

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strings and open those ears. It's the money talk with TIFF

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podcast. Hey, everyone.

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I am so excited because I have Adrian Maribel on the line, and he's here

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to talk to us about operations optimization

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for small businesses and private equity firm. So, hey, Adrian, how

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are you? Hey, Tiffany, how are you? I'm doing great, and

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I'm so glad that you're here to talk about this, because operations

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trips a lot of people up. It does not. A lot of

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people think about it when they're running their business. It's always, go, go.

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So I'm glad to be you. Thank you. And, yeah, that is

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so true. When you're in the trenches, you're just like, okay, how can I make

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it to another day? So let's hop right

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in. First, let's define what operations are, because you

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said most people don't think about it. So what are operations when it

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comes to small businesses? Yes, operations is really your

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processes, is what people call them. In small business world.

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Operations is more of the corporate world. But

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essentially, operations are

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the set of tasks, repeatable tasks that you use in your

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business to deliver a product or a service. So it could be

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your financial operations, it could be your

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delivery operations, the way that you deliver a service. It could also

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be the way that you deliver or create a product and deliver it to your

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customer. And each one of those are a set of processes,

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but ultimately they make your company. There's

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a whole bunch of processes that you can have within your company, but

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many of them tie together in a way that allows

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you to be a great company, essentially.

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And what I usually suggest to people is to really

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start small, start with your basics,

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like your CRM. A lot of people want to go and

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buy a super expensive CRM system, which is a customer relationship

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management system, to manage their clients. And

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my suggestion is always, well, start low tech.

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Start with an excel spreadsheet. We're not going to stay there because you

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should not manage your company through an excel

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spreadsheet. But when you're starting off, it's good to

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understand what your processes are and how you're going to use these

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systems before you go and spend hundreds or maybe even

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thousands of dollars on a particular software.

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I love that. I love that because I was

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recently actually shopping for crms

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a few months ago, finally landed on one. But they

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all do so many different things. And if you don't have a clear picture of

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what you need it to do, then you might get into one.

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You're like, oh, this is not what I thought it was. And

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that happens more often than not. I do a lot of counseling

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with people through either the college or

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through a business center. And a lot of times they

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say, well, I got the software because my friend told me to get it or

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I used it in my previous company. And your previous company does not like your

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current company. So they bought the software

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and either they've implemented it and it doesn't do what they want it

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to do, or they haven't implemented it because it's so difficult

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to onboard into the particular software. So

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ultimately they're wasting a lot of money if they don't

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make a thorough and thoughtful decision. Got

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you. And while we're on the topic of CRM, so just in case we

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have small business owners listening that haven't

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thought about using one, what are some ones that you've

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used that you would recommend? It really

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depends on business. I hardly ever recommend a

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software to a company without going through their

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operations and understanding how they work. But some

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popular ones that are out there are HubSpot, also

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Salesforce, which is a little bit more expensive for new

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upcoming small businesses.

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Honeybook is also one that has gained a lot

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of popularity over the last couple of years as well, especially for

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freelance businesses. Gotcha. Gotcha. Yeah, I've

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heard of all three of those. So I'm

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very familiar. Now, let's say, for instance, we have our

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CRM in place. What are some other things, operations

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wise, we should think about? Like should we be documenting how we do

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things? Yes, you should always document. That's really the first step

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of your processes, because your goal as

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a business owner should be to scale, unless you have a lifestyle

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business. But most people who have lifestyle businesses still

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have one employee, whether it's a virtual assistant or just a

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backup employee. So you should be documenting your processes

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and really understanding what those processes mean and how they work.

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And then as you document those processes,

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we actually go in as a consulting company and

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we interview customers. So once we understand your

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process or your processes, we go interview

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your customer and see how they feel about the process. And a lot of

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times, the way that the customer feels about the process

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is a little different than how the owner

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or the small business employees feel about the

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process. Oh, that's good,

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because I never thought about asking my customers. So

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what do you think? How was the onboarding process for you? I'm

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just thinking, oh, this was easy for me. When they could

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have been in the background saying, oh, I'm confused. I didn't know what to do.

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Right. Yeah, it happens quite a bit, actually. Well,

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yes. That is some great information, Adrian, and I'm so glad you brought that

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up. Now you have me over here. Like, I need to go back and interview

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my customers. Right?

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That is awesome. So let's say, for instance,

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we started documenting our processes. We have our crms.

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What's one more thing that small business owners should think about when it comes

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to their operations? Yeah. As far as tools or just the

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processes in general? Let's talk about

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both, because I think both of those are really

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important, and people might not know the difference. Let's

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talk about both. Yeah. So far as tools, you definitely need an accounting

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system. A lot of people go for Quickbooks. Quickbooks is probably one of

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the most popular, but it also incurs a fee.

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And as a technology guy myself, I try

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to avoid monthly fees when it comes to software, because you

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always have to consider, oh, well, I'm getting

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$2,000 or $3,000 or maybe $50 a month

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taken out of my account. Well, Wave

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app is a really great place to start when it comes to your

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accounting systems. It's free to start, and then,

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of course, it has some add ons like payroll and things that you have to

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pay for. But it's a really great tool to really get started.

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And it looks very similar to Quickbooks.

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So I would suggest you get an accounting system and a

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CRM. Those will probably be the first two areas of software

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from the process standpoint. Generally, I tell people,

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once you have documented your processes, think about the

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places you can automate. You still want a personal touch

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into your processes. But if you can automate

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different areas of your process, you can eliminate

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hiring one person or maybe even two people. And

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a lot of people get scared about the fact of hiring an

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employee. But you should only hire an employee when you need to.

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And by looking at your processes, understanding the areas that

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you can actually automate could eliminate you or not

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eliminate you having to get an employee,

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but it could help you delay that

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process and spending more money on payroll. Oh, that is

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so true. So true. And I want to kind of back up to the

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accounting software really quick. So Wave

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app is similar to QuickBooks, but it's a little

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more cost effective. Actually, wave apps

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are free. It's free for the basic version of it. If

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you go to wave apps, and that's apps plural.com,

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you can just sign up and you can get a free version

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of what most people get for their basic version of QuickBooks.

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But once again, you have to pay for payroll and things like that.

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But starting off, it has the same chart of

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accounts. You can link your bank account, and it's a really great

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tool. Awesome. I'm going to have to go and look at that,

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because I was just telling you, off air, I got a little mad at QuickBooks

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for upping my rate this month. So

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I'm like, don't make me. I'll jump. No, but

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I'm definitely going to check that out. So thank you so much for that. And

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also, I'm a huge techie. I love

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tech. And I will say it makes life so much

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simpler sometimes when I thought I needed a person, I

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could use tech, and it helped me out. So

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back to your second point. It's really good to

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understand where you can automate in your processes,

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because therefore, when you hire someone, you make sure that you're

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hiring them for the right thing. But also, you might be able to find some

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tech that can fill that gap as well. That would be a little cost effective.

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So I kind of want to switch gears a little bit now, because part of

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your business is you help private equity firms. So

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I kind of want to go over first, what is a private equity

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firm, and then also, how do you help them accelerate their

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growth? Yes. The short version of it is that private

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equity firms are companies that acquire or purchase

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other companies, and they do it in many different ways. They do

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different size companies. If you take a look at a shark

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tank, for instance, those sharks do

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angel investing. These companies actually purchase

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the entire company instead of just an equity stake in a

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company. And they do this by either using their own

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money, which is very seldom that that happens, or

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they use a combination of debt and

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investor money. So if I am an

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investor, an accredited investor, then I

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can put my money into a private equity fund

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and I can get returns from the

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growth of the company. That is,

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you know, I work with those companies basically coming in and

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doing their operational support and due diligence.

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So when they acquire a company, they say, hey, Adrian, we have

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acquired this new company and we want to know how we can

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optimize their processes, their operations. And I go in and

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do the same thing I just said, document the processes, understand how

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the customers feel about the processes, their vendors, their

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employees. See how they all feel about the process,

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and they really work. And I work with them

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to figure out where can we optimize, where can we automate,

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and then how can we make a strategy that's

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going to, over the next two to three years, double,

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triple their revenue or their EBITDA. Got you. And if we

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can explain EBITDA real quick, because some people might not know what that stands

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for. Yeah. EBITDA is your earnings before

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interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization.

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So that's what your EBITDA is. And many private equity

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firms, instead of looking at revenue or cash flow, that's what

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they look for when they're talking about valuations and

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growth. Got you. And I love that

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you do all of this because you can give us small business owners some

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inside scoop on what people may be

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missing or some common mistakes that they may have with their operations.

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So I am super excited that you were able to

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share those gems with us. So if you didn't catch that, guys,

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make sure that you have a CRM in place, even if it's a

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spreadsheet, make sure you're documenting your

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processes and make sure that you have some form of

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accounting software. Wave apps is free. I'll have the link in the show notes,

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so that way, you can better optimize your business and

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then only hire when you need to. Sometimes there could be a piece of

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tech that could get the job done, and you can save a little bit of

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money. So thank you so much, Adrian, for coming on the show

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today. Now, if there's a private equity firm listening and

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they're like, this guy knows what he's talking about, how can I get in touch?

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How could they find you? Yes, they can reach out to

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me@colerity.com. That's colarity.com,

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and we can

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definitely help you, and we would love to hear your awesome,

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awesome. So, yes, thank you so much, Adrienne. I will make sure

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I have all those links in the show notes for you all to check

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out, all of the software that we talked about today, make sure you do your

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due diligence. Right, Adrian?

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But we'll make sure that we have all of those links. So if you're listening,

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multitasking, be sure to check those out. I'll also have all of

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Adrian's links in there, so if you want to get in contact with him, all

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of that will be readily available. Again, thank you so much. Because

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you gave me some things to think about today. I will be asking my

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customers what they thought about the onboarding process, and I will

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be checking out waves because Quickbooks is not on my website

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right now. Thank you so much, Adrian. I hope

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you have a wonderful rest of your day. Bye bye.

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