Over the last year, we have helped Brennan with Jumpstart ROI add $1,000,000 in net new annual recurring revenue.
Here is how we did it.
Context:
Coming into 8F, Brennan was doing below 500k/year.. At that time, he was the only person talking to clients (account management), he was unsure how to onboard new team members and had the limiting belief he had to do everything.
These are the 7 steps we took over the course of a year that added 1M in annual revenue. All clients were on Upwork.
1. Process & Foundation
Like many clients, Brennan didn’t have the appropriate foundation to scale a team.
We first had to map out his process workflow, the process that maps out every single step in his operation from when a client signs to retaining them for over 1 year.
1A. Built great onboarding
Within this process, we emphasized building an elite onboarding experience.
When this is done well, clients can stay 1.5x to 2x longer.
Some ideas for you to consider for your business:
- Deeper in-depth analysis and strategy upfront
- Leveraging dashboard, timelines, and roadmaps
- Making value-added introductions
- Presenting a clear roadmap
- Quick & clean operations
1B. Systemized everything leveraging zapier
This one is rather simple. If we could build an integration, we did.
Auditing your flow to zap as much as possible is a simple way to build efficiency and save time.
1C. Project Management, SOPs & Trainings
Once we had everything laid out, it was time to move the template in project management so each time a client was signed, we copied the template to new for that client.
As we completed specific tasks that didn’t have defined SOPs, we built them as we went.
For more complex tasks, we had Brennan record looms with in-depth training explaining his thought process behind media buying.
A simple frame here:
SOPs teach people what to do.
Trainings teach people how to think.
2. Hired Ops Manager
Once we had his operational foundation set, it was time to delegate some items off his plate by hiring an ops manager.
Because the workflow, tasks, and ownership were so clear, it was a lot easier at this point to onboard his new hire into a defined process and provide him with a foundation of training.
This new hire began immediately taking over meetings which saved Brennan a significant amount of time per day once he was onboarded.
3. Media Buying Talent
With one talent win under his belt, Brennan realized the value of a good hire. Like many other entrepreneurs, he had tried to hire cheaper talent in the past to save on margins.
But once his ops manager was successful, he realized how impactful it was to have A talent.
We decided to level up his media buying talent & strategists, hiring more senior media buyers that we’re a larger investment for Brennan.
In order to make this work financially, this requires Brennan to raise his prices to maintain effective margins.
The amazing bi-product of this experience:
- LTV increased due to better service
- Brennan got more time back
Brennan shared that at scale, he was able to make this work by implementing a filtration process into his sourcing process. This process requires talent to go through an assessment upfront to see their skill set.
This DQ’d plenty of unqualified roles.
What was one big win for Brennan was asking his first account manager to assist him in the hiring process, taking over initial screening and interviews so Brennan could do less work to make a great hire.
4. Slack
As we continued to scale clients, we repeated the SAD process (Stop, Automate, Delegate).
Up until this point, all client comms were in email. We moved client comms to Slack to create cleaner, easier communication flows.
This saves the team a lot of time.
5. Continuous Improvement
As we grew, and more variables began to present themselves, Brennan began giving team the team the freedom and authority to fix things. In fact, we built this into the fabric of his company culture.
Brennan started letting go to let the team reply to everything.
From afar, this may seem obvious, but for a founder like Brennan, one that struggled to delegate when we met him, this win, along with the actions above was massive for Jumpstart.
Brennan was able to continually make this decision because he had the support of his 8 figure executive, pushing him into areas that he wouldn’t have been comfortable solo.
6. Compounding Sales
As the client roster grew, so did sales.
Because we built an amazing team and operation, in addition to his initial funnel, Jumpstart began getting more referrals from their clients.
This reinforced how a great service leads to more revenue, so we leaned in further.
Brennan began improving the audit process within the sales process to provide more value. This decision came with the intention to increase the tangible value a prospect got when they ended up on the Jumpstart ROI calendar.
Many founders would have avoided this due to increased cost and time per lead, but this actually increased the closing rate for Brennan…adding more fuel to the fire!
7. Attribution Channels
The final needle mover for Jumpstart was adding additional attribution sources.
With the free time to reinvest in growth, Brennan built the processes to compound his brand and outreach.
We added a cold email process, newsletter growth, and content process as well as leveraging a simple process to ask clients to continue to refer business.
All of this compounded over the course of a year to lead to an additional 1 M in annual recurring revenue.
It may seem simple on paper, but in practice, week to week & month to month this can be difficult to continually manage while maintaining everything else going on.
If you are ready to remove yourself as the barrier to growth in your business, just like Brennan did, book a call here.
