From 1 to 150: Scale up your business with employees
By Nina Kaufman, Esq.The dining room was a sea of Post-It® notes. All over the table. They flowed out into the foyer, onto the cabinets, into the kitchen. Such was the organizational state of Molly Mahoney Matthews’ newly-launched PR business.
When Molly’s sister, Sharon, stopped by for a visit and saw the torrent of little yellow squares threatening to engulf Molly and her home, Sharon said, “Oh no you don’t. You can’t live this way. Get rid of this. You need an assistant. Now. ”
That was Molly’s first lesson about scale. About getting the weight of her business off her lonely shoulders. About getting the help she needed to balance, focus, and breathe.
So Molly hired. And then she hired again. And again. Ultimately growing her staff from 1 … to 150.
How’d she do it?
Listen in as Molly and I talk about:
- How she went from being solo working from home, to 150 and $20M in revenues
- When (and why) she changed her approach and process for hiring
- What new ideas (and scalable solutions!) expanded her service offerings
- How she shifted her client and contract focus to get the “revenue continuity” she wanted (ah, the urgency of single motherhood!)
- Why she ultimately chose to sell her company … after not knowing for many years that she could sell it!
- The starfish story
Don’t forget to pick up a copy of her book, Unsinkable:Find a Job, Create a Career, Build a Business, available at www.MollyMatthews.com or at Amazon.com.
What else would you want to know from Molly? Post your questions below!
About Molly Mahoney Matthews
Molly Mahoney Matthews founded Matthews Media Group (MMG), a public relations and marketing firm, at her dining room table in a suburban tract home. The company grew to a staff of over 150 and more than $20 million in revenue. The Washington Business Journal ranked MMG number four among public relations firms in the Washington, D.C. area. PR Week ranked the company in the top 35 public relations firms nationwide. In 2000, Diversified Agency Services, a division of Omnicom Group, Inc., one of the world’s largest multimedia holding companies, acquired MMG.
Molly now consults with her new company, The Starfish Group, and works with colleagues to offer continuing education in career development and workforce preparedness. Molly’s passion is helping people of all ages develop strategies on how to connect the dots between education and employment. Based on her experience growing and managing a successful small business, she authored Unsinkable: Find a Job, Create a Career, Build a Business. Molly has coached start-ups in the education, health care, energy, and food businesses. She’s also been a speaker at TEDxBethesdaWomen.
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