WLP319 Lessons Learned from Scaling a Remote Business
In this episode, Shannon Teague shares her story scaling a remote business, and some of the things she learned along the way.
Today’s guest is Shannon Teague, CEO of Scaling Up Simplified. Shannon started her first business in 2014, at the age of 25. She deliberately set up a remotely-run recruitment agency, in order to be able to travel the world and provide the opportunity to do so for her future team. She wanted to explore the world, live in different places, and experience different cultures, all while running a business set up in the UK to serve 5-star hotels.
Back then there wasn’t the cool technology we have today - however, Shannon had never run an office-based business either, so she figured out how to set up everything remotely. She now runs a different business, but she chose for it to be remote as well, to give her the flexibility to travel.
When Shannon started running her business, she didn’t just have to figure out how to manage her staff and her clients remotely, but also how to manage herself. As a remote business leader or employee you need to be very disciplined, and ready to learn about what works best for you. For example, Shannon realised how difficult it was to run a business as a backpacker, so she changed her travel plans to include coworking spaces.
These spaces provide a great environment to work in, including spaces for online meetings, and the opportunity to meet other digital nomads. Staying around 6 months at each space gave Shannon an understanding of what it’s like to live in the different countries and cultures. Visiting coworking spaces also enabled her to feel part of a “global family” and bump into its members every now and then.
In her business, she made it a rule that employees had to visit a coworking space twice a week, to tap into a different community, and a sense of a physical community around you. (Pilar thinks all companies should have optional memberships for coworking spaces for their people, as it’s a great way of tapping into different kinds of creativity.)
Shannon has been travelling for eight years, but now she’s based in Thailand, as her home.
Shannon Teague
09.38 mins Shannon is a spa therapist by trade, and she tapped into her network of directors and managers in the business. Within three years, there were 80 contractors working for her company.
The industry has a very tight network, so Shannon recruited through word of mouth, social media and job boards, and scouted for therapists and then trained them to spa standard.
Their mission statement “Happy therapist, happy spa, happy client” meant Shannon put her people first. They managed to reduce the therapist cancellation rate from 50% to 1%, due to putting their therapists first.
To manage her team and keep them connected, Shannon’s company developed their own software (an “Uber for therapists”). She also trained those therapists that needed upskilling, or deliberately matched them with clients that suited them best. She was also able to pay some of the higher rates in the industry, as Shannon thought that pay was something that needed addressing. Obviously the therapists weren’t remote to their clients, but the support team worked remotely and worked har to maintain a personal relationship with the therapists.
Time zones weren’t really a challenge for Shannon - the job descriptions for potential contractors mentioned that you needed to be comfortable with working UK times, and there were also shifts available to accommodate the wide opening hours of clients.
The main challenge for Shannon was how to find the right technology to manage the team, understanding how to delegate effectively as well as all the other challenges all founders and business leaders face when expanding.
18.45 mins
Pilar would like to know how Shannon approached delegation, as her and co-host Tim Burgess recently released an episode on delegation on Management Café.
Shannon learned through trial and error. As much as we can give tips to each other, there’s nothing like experiencing directly what works and what doesn’t. Eventually, Shannon got to a point where she worked with her managers, who then managed their teams.
She uses a CRM system to see what the focus should be for their quarterly goals, she sets top focuses for the week, and meets with the team to see whether what she’s proposing is realistic. At the end of the week, they meet again regarding progress. This means that people have complete autonomy and flexibility throughout the week.
This takes us to Shannon’s current business: Scaling Up Simplified. Hiring is one of the biggest problems that small businesses face, so Shannon’s put all her knowledge of hiring systems, especially remote/global hiring, into a training programme. Hiring can be one of the biggest reasons why you close your business, and it can also be stressful if you don’t hire the right people. She’s also written two books on the subject: Scaling Up Simplified and Hiring Method Simplified.
Going global is the best thing you can do for your business, but you need the right hiring foundation and structure for the business.
It all starts with the job description, where the business needs to sound exciting. Think of creating a recruiting funnel, like you would design a marketing funnel. There’s a specific candidate you are trying to attract, and so you create the recruitment process for this. The job description establishes the kind of culture your company has, in order to attract the right candidates. That should be what draws the right people in.
The job description can then highlight the company benefits from that culture. Eg for Shannon’s business, it’s the opportunity to travel. It will attract those for whom that’s important, and filter out those who don’t like travelling (eg. Pilar!).
The job description ends with a call to action, which will determine whether the candidate is the right fit. Only then, do you start paying attention to the C.V.s. This process will save you a lot of time. Shannon’s hiring system is structured to allow business owners to delegate most of the steps of the process to other team members.
Retaining your staff is also part of your hiring process, so you need to have a plan for that too, as well as for growing globally.
You can find Shannon and her course over at www.scalingupsimplified.com - and she’s got a free course on hiring remotely to get you started if you need help right now. And if you want to hear more from Sharon, check out her YouTube channel.
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