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At some point at school, probably during a business management class that felt far too complicated, I decided I’d never have staff. Too hard. I was a little graphic designer doing her own thing on a computer, and that suited me fine.
A few years later, I’ve got people. And no one ever taught me how to lead them.
So I sat down with Steph from Success School, who went from $0 to $1 million in 12 months, burnt out, rebuilt, and now runs a team of about 17. She was refreshingly honest about what went wrong, and that’s what I’m sharing here.
Why most businesses reach a growth plateau
Steph said something that stuck with me: no one is going to push the business forward more than a founder. The catch is that you can’t do all the day-to-day work and drive growth at the same time. Day-to-day work means billing queries, failed payments and putting out small fires. It’s very hard to think about vision when the business feels like it’s on fire.
What happened in Steph’s first business
Steph started a version of her business in 2021 and hit $1 million within 12 months. She told me it was a lot for her nervous system, and that her sense of what was possible for her probably didn’t grow as quickly as the business did.
About 3 years ago she transitioned it into what’s now Success School, which did $1 million in its first 4 months. She thinks they’re on track for $4 or $5 million this financial year.
Why teaching staff how to make decisions are different from delegation
This was Steph’s big mistake. She hired people who were on mission, handed over tasks, and didn’t teach them how she made decisions. The result was seven people asking her questions every day, more decision fatigue than before, and in the end she lost some really good employees. She said she felt really crappy about it.
Her fix is practical. Give people a decision matrix.
For example, if something is under $500, they can make the call. If a client is trying to quit and it falls under certain conditions, they can make the call. She also moved to a values-first approach: if you wouldn’t be comfortable with another client or team member seeing it, don’t do it.
Why business owners should pay for outcomes, not hours
Nobody at Success School submits a timesheet. Every role, including admin roles, is tied to an outcome. Failed payments should sit below 3%. Around 85% of clients should make back their first 30-day investment in their first 30 days.
If someone gets there in 2 hours a day, Steph wants to know how. If it takes 15 hours a week, that’s fine too.
Her head VA has been with them about 9 years and has worked herself out of a job 3 times. When AI took most of her admin away, the team made her chief bot creator instead. She learnt to code and is now building new things for the company. If you reward people for innovation, you get more of it.
Steph’s problem, solution, recommendation method for her team
Steph’s team has a rule called PSR. No one is allowed to bring a problem on its own. It has to come with a solution and a recommendation. Even the operations manager works this way. If the recommendation is wrong, it’s a chance to teach. And Steph says it’s right most of the time.
Key takeaway: one small rule can get people thinking like leaders.
Why values matter when your team grows
Steph and her husband were adamant they would not be a company with values on the wall. Then they scaled, and realised they needed them, from the hiring process onwards. Their values include love and connection, health, fun, high standards, and give and take. Team meetings start with wins and a check on where everyone sits against the standard.
She reckons you can fluff along with 1 or 2 people, but once you hit 5 or more, you need consistency.
What tasks to get off your plate first as a solopreneur
Steph’s answer: admin. She says people often hire marketing first because they don’t love it, but if you’re not good at marketing yourself, you can’t show someone else what good looks like. Admin feels easy to keep doing, but all those little tasks (invoices, bookkeeping, proposals, website and landing page updates, email automations, the weekly newsletter, scheduling content) easily add up to 10 hours a week. Put those hours into growing the company instead.
If you don’t believe her, do a time audit. Track how you spend your time for a week or two, and see how much of it is admin.
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