Building Big & Living Real
Download MP3Hello, and welcome to the Service Based Business Society podcast. I'm your host, Tiffany Ann Bottcher. I left the corporate world to build my own businesses, and along the way, I've learned that scaling isn't all highlight reels. It's messy, it's hard, and it's totally worth it. As a mom of three, the author of the data driven method, and a serial entrepreneur, I know firsthand what it takes to build something bigger than yourself.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:This show is where we get real about entrepreneurship, the good, the bad, the beautiful, and, yes, even the ugly. Each week, I'll pull back the curtain to share stories, lessons, and strategies that help ambitious entrepreneurs scale their success. So let's get started. Hello, and welcome back to another episode. Whether you've been with me for over a 100 episodes or you've just stumbled upon the show today, I thought it might be time for a bit of a introductory refresher, time to reintroduce myself, pull back the curtain a little, and share why this podcast exists, what drives me forward, and how I want to serve you as we move ahead.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:So for those who may be really new, I'm Tiffany Ann Bottcher, and I am a data obsessed mom of three who went from scaling a corporate business to over $12,000,000 a year in revenue to stepping out on my own and building multiple of my own companies. So when I left the corporate space, I was a partner and leaving was probably one of the scariest things I've ever done. I've talked about it in previous episodes. There was this time where you felt like it was the right thing to do, but it's pretty scary. And I think it really resonates with anyone who has left the security of a corporate cushy position, any nine to five really, and started their own business.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:There is a lot of uncertainty when it comes to starting your own business. I had three kids, a mortgage, a life built around earning great money. And so taking the decision to walk away from all of that and start my own businesses was truly a massive decision. So since then, I have built several companies within my own portfolio, which the parent company is called Botcher Group. So within that, we have Path to Profit Bookkeeping Intacct, which helps business owners with bookkeeping in a variety of different ways.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:We offer services like your standard monthly bookkeeping, but we also offer some more impactful high touch services where we are ultimately, our team is replacing any kind of in house accounting team. We are managing an accounting email. We are dealing with vendors, customer payments, all of these types of things to ultimately take any of the stress away from business owner admin team for bookkeeping. It just handles it just gets handled in the background. We also have a company called Goal Getter Media.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:We do podcast production, some video editing. We do a proprietary social media marketing called set it and forget it. Businesses that are looking to have that cohesive online presence without having to take care of it themselves. So that set it and forget it marketing is not for businesses that are trying to sell online or really use that to generate leads. Set it and forget it marketing is truly so that your business has an online presence that is cohesive with the rest of your marketing, but isn't something that you wanna be dealing with or worrying about.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:We also have the Service Based Business Society, which this podcast is a part of. We do several different types of content under that brand. And ultimately, it really is that community for business owners looking to scale their success, learn what it takes, different resources. We have amazing incredible guests on this podcast with a variety of topics, and so that is how that fits in. And last year, new company called Taxco, and that is for personal taxes within Canada.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:So we launched that very quietly, almost kind of during tax season with the focus of really preparing for this tax season. So we made some changes to our processes. We did a bunch of updating and some automation and some really cool stuff. And I wanted to test that system, that process, all of that through one tax season before we really ramped up for the second one. There's certain parts of your business that you can't actually battle test, I call it, without putting them live, without testing them out.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:And so for something like tax season, well, we don't really get another go with that until the following year. Sometimes it's a matter of jumping, maybe done is better than perfect. Our tax go everything was pretty close to finish. Ultimately, we were issuing tax services under another brand anyway, so it wasn't completely outside the realm of what we were doing, but some of our new processes updates this really kind of tax service, a slightly newer concept. Is a pretty big name in taxes.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:They have a lot of mall outlets, and we really want it similar where anyone can get their taxes done, but that they're gonna do that in a more virtual way. On your cell phone, a couple emails, you don't need to be going anywhere. A lot of people in today's day and age don't wanna be doing a lot of phone calls. They just wanna get it done. Those are the companies in our current business umbrella, and there's lots of different things going there.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:So I'm gonna talk a little bit today the other things that make me some of the key things that I think have made my business journey a little unique. I wanna share a little bit behind the curtain about some of these things that I have going on. I feel like this podcast, as we've gone through each of the seasons, has evolved a little bit. I talked about that on season five episode one where even the messaging and the intro of the podcast no longer felt as congruent with where business had taken me. There's this growth, this evolution.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:And so here we are today, and we're gonna be diving into all of these topics. Outside of business, I am often at the lacrosse field. My kids are avid lacrosse players, and my daughter is a all star cheerleader. So I really do also have those elements of juggling. I have three kids.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:I have two wiener dogs, and it's a busy life. You know, I often refer back to if you think of that reality TV show, John and Kate plus eight from a million years ago, their intro always kinda stuck with me to this day. And, Kate, for all of your opinions on Kate. I believe it said something along the lines of it's a crazy life, but it's our life or something along those lines. And I I truly feel that to my core.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Oftentimes, our life of three kids, two dogs, multiple businesses, my husband also is in an executive level position, works a lot. And so I would say overall, our life is it's a crazy life, but it's ours. And so I really have tried to just embrace that. But oftentimes people who are in our circle often say things like, it's too much. You know, sure, it's not too much.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:And I guess I just don't really know anything different. I feel like for many years, this has been first it's you have one kid, then you have two kids. It's not like all of a sudden you get dropped into this life. I can't imagine being transplanted into this life with multiple businesses and kids and sports schedules and everything else. And so I try to do my best and often say that to my kids.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Hey. I I tried my best. That's all I ever ask you for. And every so often, something doesn't quite go according to plan. I am the queen of the one more thing.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:But we can definitely fit one more thing in before we have to leave and then are rushing out the door going, oh my goodness. We should have left five minutes ago. It's pretty typical. In fact, as I'm recording this podcast episode, I'm thinking, hey. I probably could have started this a little earlier because it's almost time for that next thing in the schedule.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:To that effect, I also believe that if I stopped doing that, I would get way less things done because I seize opportunities as I go to get in here or do it there or, you know, walk past I change the load of laundry each time I walk past the laundry room because ultimately, when else am I gonna get it done? Those are, you know, to kinda into what life is like here, it's busy, but I really wouldn't have it any other way. When I launched the podcast five seasons ago, it was truly something that I started with something in mind. The podcast has turned into something greater and larger than I could ever have imagined. It is become something that I adore doing.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:I love connecting with our guests. I love having those conversations. I love sharing what is going on behind the scenes. And especially as over the last more recent times, as we have really started to share even more things. Our number one episode ever in the history of the podcast is the anti anti hustle movement episode.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:And that episode yields. I feel that episode to my core because often, often, we focus on things about boundaries and work life balance and, you know, these different kind of pushing back. We can't do this and we won't do that and I don't work after this time and I won't travel for this and I won't do this and I won't and we've kind of sight of what it takes to build a business. Because if you're only willing to work until 04:55, chances are someone else is willing to work until later, someone who is hungry or someone who wants those things. People often ask me, especially guests, who are the people that you wanna talk to with this episode?
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Who are we chatting with? And I always say this is for business owners who want to do big things. They want to do transformational things in their industry. Now that doesn't necessarily mean the biggest sales. It sometimes can just mean doing things differently, whether that's bringing some new sense of innovation to an older industry.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Maybe that's you want to bring a different level of customer delivery. Maybe that is that you want to have the biggest business in a specific industry. However that is for you, the people that this podcast really should resonate the best with are people who want to do something big within their business, their life, their industry, because we're not talking about the five easiest ways to do something. In fact, I very rarely will default to what is the cheapest way, what is the easiest way, what is the laziest way, do I wanna be efficient, do I wanna be innovative, do I wanna touch things the least amount possible? Do I wanna lean into using modern day technology?
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Yes. Absolutely to all of these things. But my ways are I'm not seeking out the easiest way. I'm not the person who will say, hey. How can you do forty hours a week in a two hour work week?
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:That's not who I am. I work all the hours. I build the businesses. I love what I do. And I hope that you as a business owner also love what you're doing, and that you're passionate about what you're doing.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Now that's not to say at times, we don't go through periods where we dislike our businesses. I saw someone recently share on their stories that it said to the successful women out there who are secretly hating their businesses. And then in small text, it says, I won't tell anyone. And I I think that that post really stuck out for me because I think we have this illusion that we're always gonna love our businesses. We built it exactly like this.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:You built it how you wanted it and then sometimes you're like, is this really what I wanted? It's the people who say, hey, I wanna do these things and maybe they hire. Perhaps you were in the field, maybe you were a professional organizer and you've hired a team of organizers and now you run a team of people. Maybe you don't like that so much. Maybe when you were an organizer, you worked in the quiet, you came into someone's home, you connected with the homeowner and then you said, okay, I'm gonna go and get started, and you worked quietly on your own independently.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:And now through growth and transformation, suddenly, you're never working quietly. I know that this happens to so many people as they scale teams. Perhaps they were quiet, slightly introverted, kind of in themselves kind of people, and suddenly they're doing so much peopling. My husband and I talk about this so often because both of us are definitely on the quieter side. The well, you could independently take each of us, drop us in a room to work on the computer quietly getting stuff done, and not need that kind of big social human interaction element.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:However, both of us are in roles where we need to do that. So we get to the weekend and we're both like, oh my goodness, we are peopled out, we just need a little quiet time. It's nice that we are similar that way because we enjoy that same same thing. I think that would be more challenging if one of us like, hey, let's get out. We need to do this and do that and visit with these people and go here and go wanna get things done, and I definitely am not good at at downtime, but to me, it doesn't necessarily need to be with a lot of human interaction.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:People often find that surprising. You have a podcast, you do a lot of content creation, you talk to clients in your team, and I remember when I say I actually am fairly quiet and introverted. That sometimes catches people by surprise, but that is, you know, is definitely me and who I have always been. Someone explained to me being introverted in a way that resonated so hard with me at a business conference years ago. Because a lot of times people say I'm introverted and that means I'd rather just like not deal with people.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:I'd rather kind of do quiet things. Maybe you're quiet, maybe you're shy, and you're saying you're introverted. And someone explained things to me and said, if you have a certain number of coins, social coins, and if you are interacting with people, that's giving you more coins. You have a great interaction and it adds to the coins. People who are introverted, typically you have a great interaction and you spend 1 coin.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:You have a great interaction, you spend 1 coin. It doesn't mean you don't enjoy the interactions. It doesn't mean that you don't have the interactions. It just means that at one point, you're out of coins. You get energy coins from something else.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:It's not from necessarily people interaction. So as you're building your business, as I've built my business, being mindful of what are those things. When we started this podcast, it actually started with a Facebook community. If you go back to earlier episodes, it often talks about the Facebook community. Join the Facebook community, come hang out and connect in the Facebook community.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Through the process of five seasons, I realized, hey, I really enjoy the podcast. I love connecting with those guests and business owners. I love the conversations that happen in the comments, in the DMs of the podcast platforms. I don't enjoy moderating and being part of a Facebook community. I enjoy being in other Facebook communities where I can pop in, I can be that person that lurks in the shadows, makes a comment here, those kinds of things, but overall, I'm not the person who is leading the community.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:I have other people in my life that are really great at leading community, creating community, fostering that. That's not my skill. That uses up an excessive amount of my social points, and so I feel like it's not worth it. That's not where I am currently. I think the other thing though that we have to factor in is being somewhere currently versus forever.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:So I started with a Facebook community and decided ultimately that wasn't what I wanted, and so we closed the community. It doesn't mean I upended everything. We do so many other parts and things and we evolved in other ways. Does that mean that at one point I wouldn't do a different variety of community? Does that mean that no.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:It means that you have to be willing to honor what you need at the time. I like to think that this show is for service based entrepreneurs who are ready to scale their businesses and their success without losing themselves in the process. I used to say scaling without losing sleep. I lose sleep all the time. Sometimes by choice, sometimes because something just needs to get done, sometimes because I have made a choice that I wanna do something with the time.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Perhaps I've decided, hey, I wanna go and watch two hours of tryouts next to the field. And I know at the time, but that means that I'm gonna have to take that two hours and stick it in somewhere else. It doesn't mean that I'm just gonna abandon those two hours worth of tasks, it typically means that I'm gonna put them in at night. We do the typical daytime work during the day, do a lot of kids sports, a lot of activities. I say my second job is is being a chauffeur, driving kids from here to there, but I love that I can be the person who gets to stand there and cheer them on.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:But then in the evening, I start what I refer to as the night shift, and oftentimes, I'll check, you know, back from a computer, deal with things as they come up. That's oftentimes that's when I get to do things like record the podcast, edit some content, do those kinds of things that require that a little bit more create quiet time for some creativity. One of my businesses does run a night shift, so we have a team on later on in the evening. So I'm checking in with those team members, answering any questions, checking in with the shift manager saying, hey. What's going on with the team?
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Do we need to connect on any of these other items? And so ultimately, all of that to say, you need to build your life and business for what works for you. I don't have a lot of downtime, but I don't always need a lot of downtime. I shared on a previous episode that I would love to be able to get away for a few days and get to the point where my business doesn't have any major issues with that happening. We're not there yet, but we are the closest we've ever been.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:I recently was chatting with someone and we were talking about some piece of technology and they said, well, this is the worst it'll ever be because it only gets better from here. And I thought that was a great way of really capturing where your business is, where your life is, where your knowledge is. You're gonna grow and you're gonna build. And then sometimes, you you go through those periods of stress. I've referred to it, you know, previous episodes as the valley of death.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:And so it's kind of that point in anything where you can't really go back. You can't really stay where you are. You have to keep going, but it's going to be tough. In business, lot of times, it's because you're going through a phase where your business has the cost of a big business but isn't quite there yet. But you had to invest in some of those pieces in order to get to being there.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Perhaps it's investing in some kind of manager for your business on an opposite shift, unite shift manager. I remember when we made that shift to having leadership on a on a separate not because I don't often check-in, but because I do want to be able to, at one point, not have to feel like I need to check-in, perhaps get to the point where I check-in less frequently and someone has been empowered to make the decisions when I'm not around. Someone has been empowered to be able to keep things moving, to be able to meet the team. And so, you know, it takes a long time for people to get into those roles, to know what you would want to do, what to do when you are absent and those types of things. And so hiring and implementing those people sooner so that you can get them ready so that when you really need them, they're ready to go.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Investment. And so sometimes we have to invest in those people, so now we have these bigger costs without necessarily the bigger delivery. You haven't yet been able to say, hey, I invested in this person who's going to do this role, and with that time, I'm going to go and sell this, which is going to make more money. That process takes a little time. It's not a matter of I hired that person, they're in that role, I pay them more money, but I save five hours.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:I take that five hours and I do this. It takes time. So sometimes if you're in high growth and you're doing that investing in a lot of areas, maybe it's tech, maybe it's people, maybe it's those if you have people who are working in the field, all those different things, investments, whatever, they really contribute to that feeling of, oh my goodness, I need to keep going. I need to grow because I need to now pay for all of these things that I've invested in. Cash flow, being able to invest in these pieces are all key parts of business that if your business is new, you may not have credit facilities.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:A lot of very successful businesses go under not because they're not profitable, but because they can't they have a cash flow problem. If you are extending credit to others, if you're not paying at the time of fronting the cost for jobs and and getting the money back later, you're investing in growing people, you're investing in improving your innovation technology, you know, building systems, all these types of things, it becomes a bigger and bigger business to pay for, and there's that valley of death. You have to cross it and get to the other side. One of the things I'm so passionate about is the data and the numbers behind businesses. And I would say it's probably the part that I don't talk that much about on the podcast, even though it is such a key piece of my business and my beliefs.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:I wrote a book called the data driven method. It looks at all of these different metrics and and different things. It has a your book has a dashboard, a template that goes with it so that you can take what you learned from the book and drop it into these things. And it's interesting because over five seasons now, starting the fifth season, we had so many guests on, and they talk about their books and their businesses, and they talk about how they offer impact and value. And I don't know that I've ever really had an episode where I dive into what are these different businesses and what do they do?
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:How do they help entrepreneurs? That I wrote a book that I've stood and and spoken about that book on stages and shared this dashboard and templates and these types of things that can help grow businesses. This is the area that I often say, well, but the data isn't the sexy side of business. I love it. But it's a lot of what I do isn't the flash and dash and exciting parts of business, but it is so important.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:So this season, we're gonna talk a little bit more about those things. We're gonna talk about those specific metrics and pieces. And before you I I immediately say before you run off because you think, oh, this is gonna be turning into a snooze fest, then I think, why do I wanna say that though? It it isn't. And those who if we go back to who is that key audience, I'm kind of almost talking myself through this a little bit at a moment.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:The key audience wants to do big things. They want to make impact. Well, we need to know what these specific pieces are. So this season might be a little bit more into some of these pieces that I'm super passionate about and passionate about sharing, about helping you implement them in your business. So I'm gonna drop the link for the data driven method into the show notes of this episode so that you can check out the book.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:It's got that free downloadable template that's gonna walk you through implementing some of these things in your business. You can expect episodes packed with actionable strategies, thought provoking conversations, and maybe even a little tough love. If you go back to that episode about the anti hustle movement, it really was kind of that episode saying, you know, a lot of great people who have done a lot of amazing things in business are now saying, hey. Don't forget work life balance. Hey.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:Don't feel like you have to work so hard. Hey. Don't do these things. And it's like, hey. But the people who are talking that, those people who are sharing that message, they already earned their stripes.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:They built their business based on all of the things that they're saying now you don't have to do. And maybe they don't have to do it now. You won't always have to do the hard work, do the, you know, things. You won't your business grows, you evolve, you hire the right people, the right people know how to do the right things, the business grows again, all of those types of things. But if you're not at that phase yet, if you're not there yet, then that information doesn't always apply.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:It's taking the right advice and aligning it with the timing. I'm not here to give you cookie cutter advice. I'll share the wins, the mistakes, the lessons learned from working in the corporate world, starting my own businesses, growing my businesses, and also working hands on with incredible entrepreneurs through each of my companies. You'll get the unpolished at times behind the scenes look at scaling with a side of encouragement to go bigger than you think you can. Let's remember, your future, your outlook is really capped by your vision.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:If you are thinking small, you'll only ever be small. If you're new here, don't forget to hit that follow button. We have the video version of the podcast up on YouTube. We have the audio versions of the podcast on places like Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon, really that that classic everywhere you listen to podcasts. If you're a longtime listener, this is your invitation to share the show with a friend, someone who's chasing their own big goals, or perhaps someone who is starting a business.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:One of the most exciting things for me this season was my son deciding that he wanted to start a podcast. He's 10. He is lacrosse obsessed, and he decided that he wanted to host a podcast. So he got started with an idea. He worked through some of these pieces, and his podcast is live.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:He's having fun with it. That was one of these moments where the big vision, it's now funneling through down to him. And as a mom, that is so incredible. You wanna connect with me and discuss any of the episodes, the podcast is on LinkedIn and Instagram. Of course, you can search Tiffany Ann Bottcher on YouTube.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:I review the comments and often use questions for future episodes in the show. If you are interested in learning more about how my businesses support entrepreneurs in their goals, you can go to botcher.io, b0ttcher.io. There are links to each of our respective businesses on those pages. Thanks for being here. It means the world to me that this podcast has grown into such an incredible source for so many business owners, and let's keep building successful businesses that are scalable, that are profitable.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:This episode has been more about sharing a little bit more about me and how my story and what I have to share is relevant for you as a business owner. Up next, we have a very special guest next week, and I am super excited to bring that episode to you. So that's all for today. That's all the time we have for today, but the conversation doesn't stop here. Be sure to subscribe to the Service Based Business Society podcast on all of your favorite apps.
Tiffany-Ann Bottcher:And if you're hanging out over on YouTube, search for Tiffany and Bottcher. Your likes, comments, and shares don't just help the show, they help more entrepreneurs find the real stories and strategies that they need to scale. Until next time, keep pushing, keep building, and I'll catch you in the next episode.
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