How to Scale a 7-Figure Service Business & Fund a FinTech Company with Sophia Contreras Stone
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"Entrepreneur is a synonym for salesperson and salesperson is the pedestrian term for storyteller." Scott Galloway
The startup ecosystem does not value service businesses enough. We love to hype up tech but here's the thing... Some of the best scalable businesses started out as services (think Mailchimp) Here's why - services businesses are innovation R&D labs giving you blueprints for scale.
However, there's an art to learning what to lean into, and a part of that comes from mastering sales. This is where service companies have the upper hand over their pure tech counterparts.
Ready to learn how to master sales in way that doesn't feel icky?
What we'll brief you on:
How she built out her services company.
How she leaned into what was working to scale the services business to 6-figures then to 7-figures.
How mastering enterprise sales helped her make this move and a masterclass in how you can do it too.
How to build confidence in selling so you can slay your way to sales.
How she used the revenues from her service-based business to fund her fintech company.
HERE'S YOUR TRACTION BRIEFING: How Service Based Companies Can Scale & Mastering Sales
Founder: Sophia Contreras Stone | Company: Indie Tech | Location: Toronto, ON
Receipts before Indie Tech
"I grew up hella poor." Sophia started 2 years in community college and took out $100k in student loans to finish university abroad. Despite years of experience, she was only able to snag a sales job making $1700/month (before taxes!) and eating a slice of pizza for lunch and dinner. If you’ve ever been broke, you already know what’s up. My broke meals were PB&J or Ramen (with allll the spices) and lowkey... Today, I sometimes buy them as a comforting homage to the girl who got me here. What's your broke meal? Sophia later moved on from pizza slices into banking because that’s where serious cash was at. Little did she know, her selling prowess + insider knowledge of banking became a recipe for a dope-ass business.
Problem-solving
If you’re reading this, you’ve probably consulted at some point. Most founders have. That’s how I stacked a cool 5-figures to launch Get Sh!t Done. Sophia realized that there was too much red tape making it damn near impossible for consultants to work in a meaningful way with banks. Deals weren’t going to vendors who were the best. Instead, banks relied on the same pre-existing relationships (hmmmmmm... sound familiar?) Sophia quickly learned banks did not have systems in place to actively participate in the burgeoning gig economy. Meaning, they were missing out on 55 million opportunities to find the best folks to work with. That’s 34% of the workforce.
Solution
Initially, she offered a services company that acted as a "cooperative of independent consultants." This got the company to 6-figures but to scale, she knew that they had to remove the manual components. They evolved to a service vendor management system backed by AI to help banks go from simply finding commodified labor without the right expertise to a curated system that managed relationships from start to finish. She walks through her journey here.
Growing services Businesses to 6-figures
Did you know that 20% of Latin-owned businesses are in services? That’s exactly where Sophia got her start. Instead of obsessing over scale, she did a lot of shit that didn’t scale to learn what could. (Do things that don’t scale should be your motto pre-6-figures) However, to prevent herself from getting stuck in the weeds, Sophia methodically documented errythang! By talking to customers often, she identified key pain points that hadn’t been solved by the market that Indie Tech was uniquely positioned to solve. This is where service companies have a leg up. The one-on-one nature of the business gives you so much intel early on, whereas some tech companies fall short because they hide behind product and build blindly. If you ain’t talkin’ to your customers regularly, you’re wasting innovation.Get Sophia’s process here.
How Mastering Enterprise Sales moved her from 6-figures to 7-figures...
Relationships, not Transactions. Put it on a shirt! Sophia learned that the best sales technique was building relationships. Being human is the first step to mastering sales This is why she doesn’t even believe in sales titles. Sophia basically gives you a mini masterclass on sales by breaking down how to learn the dynamics of an organization, learn who is who, what questions to ask, how to get them to work together, how to secure SOW’s (Statement of Work) and MSA’s (Master Service Agreements). Have you ever heard of the 3-legged stool? You gon’ learn today! This is major for enterprise sales. Get the mini sales masterclass here.
How to Build Confidence in Founder Sales
"You need to know that you’re the shit and your product is the shit" Sophia did not come to play! She reminds us that deference is not helping you and quite frankly, we gotta stop telling women to be humble. It's the system's way of saying - stay small. Hard pass. Give yourself all the flowers Sophia teaches you how she musters the courage and confidence to get in front of top executives and treasurers of banks. In the meantime, if you ever need a little reminder that you are the mothaf***in sh!t, you can borrow my hype song. Seriously - you’re welcome ;)
How to move from 7-figures to scale....
Sophia walks through how the services business allowed her to understand what they could patent and sell for scale - a supplier risk system that helps companies manage their supply chain. And guess what - she didn’t have to wait on a check from an investor to fund it because her investor was the service-based business. Check and mate Learn how Sophia made money moves by her damn self.
How You Can Support Sophia?
Sophia’s call to action - stop competing and start sponsoring each other. For her - collective impact starts at a community level. She wouldn't have been able to break barriers into businesses without her sponsors. We couldn’t agree more <3
SALES MOVES: Securing the REAL Bag
How to Acquire 150k Users Using TikTok for B2B & B2C
Did you know that TikTok had MORE traffic in 2021 than Google? Real talk - we're kind of here for it and more importantly, here for learning how to optimize the platform to drive sales. Check out how to drive sales via TikTok and how to get started below...
Here are some tools that will help you sell NOT die <3
Learn More About the 3-Legged Stool to secure the sale.
Wanna practice building Confidence in Sales. Check this out.
What should you sell? Data, not drama! Michelle breaks down how she scaled a multi-million dollar business in 3 years that's profitable by learning what to lean into and sell by listening to the data. Learn how to use her frameworks to lean into what you can sell.
Selling > Fundraising: Last week, Heather broke down how she was able to scale her company to profitability by focusing on sales that would later help her raise $3M from a place of opportunity later. Learn how she did it.
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