Are you looking for advice on how to scale your business into part-time hours without losing revenue? In today’s episode, Rachel Traxler joins us to share how she’s built a business that she runs on limited hours each week with the support of her team! She shares the mindset shift she had to make around time, what team members she currently works with, and how her business is centered around her faith!
Called to Both is brought to you by Joy Michelle, mom of two and multi-passionate entrepreneur who’s on a mission to help others find balance between the worlds of motherhood and business. Called to Both is the podcast for women who have big business ambitions and also want to be intentional and present moms. At Called to Both, we truly don’t believe you have to choose between these two worlds tugging at your heart You can be Called to Both.
You can stay up to date with the Called to Both Podcast by subscribing on Apple Podcast App, Spotify, or your favorite podcast player!
Today’s episode is brought to you by Kajabi! I use Kajabi to house my freebies, my email list, my coaching pages, and client replay calls. Kajabi also offers podcast hosting, communities, and memberships. This all-in-one tools helps streamline my admin and marketing efforts! You can try Kajabi for free today with the link below!
The Overlap of Motherhood & Business
As an entrepreneur who started her business before she started her journey to motherhood, Rachel has found it to be a blessing to blend these paths and find overlap in lessons. Prior to having her first child, she looked at her business like it was her baby—she put so much time, effort, and energy into it.
When she became pregnant, she feared the impact that would happen when she stepped back from her business and what it would do to this beautiful business that she’d built. The opposite happened though—becoming a mother has helped her to grow her business.
Now that Rachel is expecting her second child, she’s in go-mode of prepping for maternity leave! Once maternity leave hits, Rachel will be taking time off and allowing her team to handle the business while she’s away. This is one way that Rachel embraces being called to both.
Scaling Your Business in Part-Time Hours
One lesson that being called to both has taught Rachel is that you learn how to balance and navigate your time better and with more intention. The time she’s now provided to work on her business is limited, which increases her productivity, as she knows she only has so much time to get things done. This could happen during nap time or while the nanny is around.
This mindset shift will come naturally when you’re force to face it head on, but you may be stuck in the mindset that you can’t work less and make more money. If you’re stuck in the mindset of not being able to make the same amount of money when you decide to work less, the first shift might need to be in adjusting to a higher paying client. When you work with premium clients at premium prices, you can work significantly less. With this additional time, you can focus more on lead generation if you want!
Building a Team to Scale Your Business
In Rachel’s business, she has built her own brand, manages an associate photography team, runs a coaching program, hosts a podcast, and more, all while being a present mom. In order to do this, Rachel has had to build a really solid team and processes in her business. Those team members include the following:
Online Business Manager
Rachel has an Online Business Manager (OBM), who helps her run the business side of things like email funnels, course, management, and more.
Podcast Manager
She also has a podcast manager who helps her manage everything related to the podcast, allowing her to release content on a weekly basis.
Youtube Manager
Similarly, she has a Youtube manager to help with the same thing on the Youtube side.
Photography Editor
She has brought her husband on as an editor for her photography business, allowing her to step out of that role and focus on other aspects of her business.
In addition to these roles in her business, she also has her husband, who serves as an equal role in parenting. It takes a lot of support to be able to do this.
The CEO Mindset Shift
The shift in building these roles was looking at what Rachel, as the CEO, needed to be doing in order to drive in income generating activity in her business. She doesn’t have to have a hand in every single thing that happens in her business.
She had to reevaluate: what is she doing wrong in her day? What is she doing wrong in her day? How is she structuring her day? What’s not productive? Where is her energy going? What does she have her VA doing? How do those impact her revenue?
Income Producing vs Lead Generating Activities
As you’re evaluating your business with some of those questions, look at what your lead generator is, how much time you’re putting into it, and what’s the ROI? From there, look to see if another lead generator you have leads to just as many leads with less time commitment. Platforms like Instagram require a lot of real-time energy to maintain and keep consistent leads coming in. Rachel is a firm believer in not having Instagram as your main source of leads. Even despite her large community and following on the platform, it’s not her main lead generating platform.
Your Next Step to Scaling Back on Hours without Losing Revenue
While Rachel mentioned working with higher end clients as an approach to scaling back on hours, she also believes that it’s rooted in the foundation you set for your business. This could be your brand identity, promises, elevator pitches, etc—the things that set you apart as a business.
When you have those foundations, it allows you to build all of your marketing from there, which will allow you to build a solid plan of repurposing to save your time. Go back to the basics.
Faith in Business
Faith has always been prevalent in Rachel’s life and business. Despite her initial plan to keep her business part-time, the time came for her to take it full-time on a leap of faith. She had no backup plan and just trusted God with her faith. Having faith as the backbone of her business has been reassuring through any and all seasons.
This faith ties into the why behind her business and how she does things. Rather than being self-serving in her business, she focuses on how she can serve her clients well. Having a talent to build a business to serve people is a God-given gift. It’s easy to get caught up in the business of it all and forget that you built your business to serve people.
Rachel’s approach to goal-setting while keeping faith and service in mind is to always question the meaning behind every goal. Where does the intent come from and does it center in her faith?
RAPID FIRE INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
Within our interviews on Called to Both, I’ll be asking each guest a series of rapid fire questions about being called to both! Check out Rachel’s answers to my rapid fire questions below:
What does called to both mean to you? You can have more than one identity in your life.
What is one thing that has surprised you about motherhood? How much it helped her business and her as a person to prioritize her time.
What is one tool/tip that has helped you thrive? Do things during nap times that you can’t do when your child is awake.
What is the last book you read or podcast you listened to? How Are You Really by Jenna Kutcher
What is something that you’re excited about? Spending a full month in Florida.
If you’re enjoying the content we’re creating on the podcast and want to connect with others who are called to both, make sure you come join us in the Called to Both Facebook Group!
Mentioned in This Episode:
@racheltraxler
racheltraxler.com
Connect with Joy:
Instagram: instagram.com/joyymichelle
Youtube: youtube.com/channel/UC-Ou6jRKxcjMrVMxWxLO_fQ
Facebook: facebook.com/joymichellephotography
If you decide to use any of the links above and buy through them, I’ll receive a small commission back. All of those affiliate income commissions really add up over time and help generate revenue to help support this podcast.
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