Doing Business Better… the Ellevated Outcomes Story
Today, we’re wrapping up our 3 part series on the Ellevated Outcomes Story, a Q&A between Madyson McClure & Julie Sellers, CEO of Ellevated Outcomes. To get the full picture (if you haven’t already), you can read the ins and outs of where we started and where we’ve come.
But today we’re looking ahead, into the goals and vision for the next year and beyond. And this is not just a typical numbers recap, (we want to have x amount of clients and x amount of money by the year 2030), but who we want to be, and how we want to do business better…
M: What are the goals for Ellevated Outcomes for the year to come?
J: So over the next year, we’ll continue our focus on the Advisory Practice and Small Business MBA. Specifically by the numbers, in the next year we want to have 40-50 clients in our Advisory Practice, with a strong subset of those being our clients who we’ve been working with for years. We’re building a long term portfolio of clients we’re advising. On the Small Business MBA side, we want 250 people to go through the How to Price course.
Looking inside the business – as you know, this year our theme is Structure Creates Freedom. But what’s the point of that?
The reason is we’ll be 5 years old in January, and we’re trying to get to this tipping point. I think of it as an upside down U curve of effort. There’s the point at the top of the U where we’re at the scale that we need to really settle into a flow, and we’re getting closer. We’ve been pushing, pushing, pushing really hard for 5 years, and the top of that curve is within view, so it’s time to get to the peak so we can settle in in 2023 before we start growing again.
M: What’s your 5 to 10 year vision (from now) for the Advisory Practice and Small Business MBA?
J: To stay on the paths that we’re building! Nothing is going to wildly change with those, we just want to get to the top of that curve and get steady there.
I talk about the growth of our business being in concentric circles. The Advisory Practice is our smallest, tightest circle. That will remain the heart and soul and root kernel of our business. We want to continue to grow that, but we will intentionally cap that growth at some point because we want it to remain our super intimate, personal, client-intense business.
Outside of that circle is our Small Business MBA, which give us a bit more scale, but is not meant to be the hugest business in the world. It’s an expansion of our Advisory Practice.
Beyond that, there’s a bigger technology play at hand where we have an opportunity to get some scale. It will have a totally different clientele, but still be within the small business space.
But the important element of it all is, in a very logical way, these are 3 concentric circles where each one is building on the prior one. Each one is basically acting as a research & design laboratory for the next one. This helps us not only build these businesses with smart, real-life hands-on market research, but this also provides a really valuable feedback loop so that we can keep recycling the information that we’re learning and continue making each business better.
M: Has that long term vision changed from when you first started? doing business better
J: Not really! The vision started out and still is: to be the most sought after advisor for small businesses growing the economy with intention. And that big picture hasn’t changed. But the nuances and specifics of how we’re going to get there have changed. And I’m sure they will continue changing as we test, learn and refine ourselves.
M: What feels most exciting about our goals for the future? doing business better
J: I think it comes back to doing pretty sophisticated business things for incredible human beings, and helping them make more money, and have better lives, and have more power in the world.
It just drives me crazy that people think of money and business and power with this negative connotation, and it doesn’t have to be that way. And I know we won’t change the whole world’s perception, but if we can have a hand in reshaping how some people perceive business – I love business! So that feels really, really exciting to me.
M: Anything else you want the world to know?
J: Around this quest we’re on… I think whether you’re following from the perspective of a potential client, employee, or strategic partnership – I want people to know we’re serious! This isn’t for the faint of heart. I talk about feelings and being a good person (sometimes.. ha), but we work really hard, and we’re all pretty smart. What we’re trying to do is not easy by any stretch of the imagination, so this is not silly work, or for anyone who is feeling half-in or half-assed about it. Of course we have fun, we’re kind, and we do cool things! But everything we do is important and meaningful, and we take it very seriously.
I want people to know, and I want to be around other people who want to do both – the really hard, smart work, and also want to do it in a really special, unique way. I’m so proud of the culture we’re building internally and externally. And beside myself with excitement about the team we have right now, both employees and our clients.
And so… more of this. 🙂 If you think you might be like us, come along. We want to know you.
Photos by Guillaume Lechat
