Monique Allen runs a multi-million dollar landscaping design business. She started it with just one employee and now has 22. She makes bank and has zero debt. How did she scale her business? What was the key to her success? Learn more in this episode of Wingnut Social!

Connect with Monique Allen

The Garden Continuum
Get Monique’s Book!
Follow Monique on Instagram
Connect on LinkedIn

Resources & People Mentioned

Let Go to Grow with Doug and Polly White
The Continuum Concept by Jean Liedloff
Overcome Your Limiting Beliefs to Charge What You’re Worth

What You’ll Hear On This Episode of Wingnut Social

[3:11] Mini news sesh: Swipe-ups on Instagram stories
[5:40] Learn how Monique Allen got into landscaping design
[11:01] Why did Monique decide to scale her business?
[21:26] Learn more about what Wingnut Social offers
[23:06] Check out Build Lane for custom furniture!
[24:36] The service packages Monique offers
[28:14] Building a business from one employee to 18
[33:57] One mistake Monique says NOT to make
[35:41] Take the time to imagine what’s possible
[36:52] The What Up Wingnut Round!
[38:54] How to learn more about Monique Allen
[41:00] Blooper Reel!

Why did Monique decide to scale her business?

Monique bought a house, got married, and was about to have a baby. So she wanted a wedge between her personal life and her business. At the time, she had six or seven employees. She wanted to do more of what she excelled at. She decided to gather people around her that had expertise in areas she didn’t. She continued adding hires that lined up to elevate the company. It allowed her to have support and have the impact she desired.

She notes that you can look at your skillset as four quadrants: incompetence, competence, excellence, and genius. She emphasizes that you can’t scale your business if you’re working in your competence. You have to be working in your genius (at the very least, something you excel at). Monique learned to let go of what she was competent at to spend time working in her zone of genius. That’s where your business starts to catapult.

Monique believes the hardest part is to hand off the design work or the client contact. But she has a team that she completely trusts to complete a project—all because she niched down. When you choose a niche, you’ll begin to attract your perfect employee or design partner. Those people are ambassadors of your design strategy.

What is another mindset shift business owners have to make to scale their business? Why did she shift from hourly pricing to packaged services? Listen to hear Monique’s thoughts!

Building a business from one employee to 18

Monique hired her first W-2 employee in 1991. In 2000, she had six employees. She’ll have 22 employees in 2021. At one point, Monique had capped her business at $1.5 million. She was bringing the right clients in and she wanted to hit $2 million, but she realized she needed to shore up her organizational chart and have role clarity in place first. She worked on that for several years. Now she’s in a place where she’s working to scale her business to $2.5 million.

Monique has a corporate team and a production team. Her production team consists of two production leads with direct reports. As the creative director, she makes sure that the strategy around marketing, sales, and onboarding clients is done well. Her tagline is that she is the gardener of people. Her job is to make sure all the people—both clients and employees—are being supported.

How does scaling her business bring her freedom? What was her dream for herself that she extended to her employees? Listen to learn more!

One mistake Monique says NOT to make

Monique says that as a business owner, you have to be clear that there isn’t anyone out there who is going to rescue you. She states: “There isn’t a hire, a client, a job, or software, that is going to rescue you.” Monique believed that if she hired the right person, that everything would fall into place. She was repeatedly disappointed until she realized she needed to embody her vision and direct things the way she wanted them to go. She had to release the death grip she had on the idea that someone would rescue her from the hard work of owning the business.

Check out this week’s episode on Wingnut Social Premium to hear exclusive content about biophilic design and how to partner with landscapers to strengthen your business.

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