Kelly Goss Of Solvaa Automation Academy & Consulting On 5 Things You Need To Know To Successfully Scale Your Business

Relinquishing control. My own business is a perfect example for this point. I’ve learnt that if I want to build a strong team, it’s really important to kind of separate myself and make sure I’m not micromanaging people.

Startups usually start with a small cohort of close colleagues. But what happens when you add a bunch of new people into this close cohort? How do you maintain the company culture? In addition, what is needed to successfully scale a business to increase market share or to increase offerings? How can a small startup grow successfully to a midsize and then large company? To address these questions, we are talking to successful business leaders who can share stories and insights from their experiences about the “5 Things You Need To Know To Successfully Scale Your Business”. As a part of this series, we had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Kelly Goss.

Kelly is a Business Automation Specialist; the founder and “chief problem solver” of her company, Solvaa; a Zapier-certified Expert; and author of Automate It with Zapier. She started her business as an online business manager and has grown it into an automation specialisation agency, and was one of the first women to become Zapier-certified in the UK. As an automation expert, Kelly is a master at helping entrepreneurs and business leaders build better systems and scale their businesses through automation in a number of areas, including content planning, client and employee onboarding procedures, sales systems and procedures, finance reporting and organisation, software integrations, and more.

Thank you for joining us in this interview series. Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’?

My degree is actually in zoology and in microbiology. So, I essentially started the first part of my career in pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturing using my microbiology background. I worked in a lab, and eventually managed the team in the lab. Essentially, we ensured that the medical products being manufactured — like needles, syringes, and vaccines — were safe to go out onto the market.

The lab was where I started loving processes. Part of what I was doing was running projects to help the manufacturing teams get better at how they produced their products. I was doing a lot of training and helping people understand how they should be behaving in the manufacturing process to ensure the products were of high quality. I really loved that part of my job when I was in that environment. After several years of being in that career, I opened a veterinary practice with a partner and we had that business together for 5 years.

After opening our vet clinic, I started understanding how incredibly inefficient small businesses can be. Even if you have the right tools and technology, if they’re not connected together and you’re not able to automate tasks between them, your business can be so unproductive.

Not long after opening, I was working crazy hours, doing things like submitting tax returns the day before they were actually due — staying up all night because I didn’t have enough time. We were trying to grow the business, but we didn’t have enough financial resources to hire more people, so much of the administrative work fell to me. A lot of it was super heavy and time-consuming, manual, and repetitive.

I decided something needed to change, so I ultimately left the business. Shortly after, I started doing some freelance bookkeeping and online business management.

At one point, I was working with a client where their entire finance process was such a mess. I was spending a lot of time on their bookkeeping in particular and eventually I thought, ‘Come on, there must be a better way of doing this!’ I realised that if we put one software in place and connected it to another software, and we automated something with Zapier… then everything would work perfectly.

As a result of me putting some new technology in place for them, I pretty much did myself out of a job! It was so streamlined. They saved about 63% on their bookkeeping time, which translated into a significant amount of money they had been paying me. Looking back, all of that has helped them grow their business, too, because now they have more than 10 times the number of transactions they had when I was working with them.

Long story short, as a result of that and my previous roles, I realised I really love processes and automation. And actually, I wasn’t totally convinced it was the direction I wanted to go in or anything like that. But I had a mentor who was telling me specialising in systems, processes, and automation was what I should be doing. It still didn’t dawn on me until he said, ‘This is what you should be doing, this is amazing, and there are so many businesses out there that need what you can offer.’ So that’s how I got to where I am now.

I founded Solvaa in 2015, and as Zapier Certified Experts, Pipedrive Certified Partners, Xero Certified Advisors, and SmartSuite Certified Partners, we focus on helping small and medium-sized businesses use the right systems, implement better processes, and supercharge the way they work with no-code automation. We even build entire business tech stacks without the need of any code. By harnessing no-code tools and AI, businesses can implement cost-effective systems in a fraction of the time it takes for traditional programming and development. It’s an extremely exciting space to be in right now. We’re a growing team and I’m really excited about where the business is going.

You’ve had a remarkable career journey. Can you highlight a key decision in your career that helped you get to where you are today?

Actually, the decision to be where I am in my career now was kind of an accident. It’s not something I was planning to do. It was more a case of having left a previous business I owned because it was time to leave, and I was burnt out and needed something different. It was while I was doing financial administration for a couple of clients that I stumbled across Zapier.

I realised how much I loved processes: That’s what I had been doing in previous careers and previous jobs before I opened my first business. And I realised how much I loved working with multiple clients, and being able to solve problems that not many other people are able to solve.

So, it wasn’t really a key decision. It was more like I stumbled across this, realised (totally by accident) how much I loved it, and then went into pursuing it as a career. And the rest is history!

But I suppose if there was a key decision I made, it was thanks to a mentor I once had. I was telling them I wanted to create X business at the time, and they challenged me by asking, ‘But why do you want to do that? Because you’ve got these other skills and you should be pursuing those.’ That mentor pointed out that I could make a very significant impact in the career I’m in now as opposed to the direction I wanted to go previously. Ultimately, I think a key decision was listening to the advice of somebody who had an external point of view.

What’s the most impactful initiative you’ve led that you’re particularly proud of?

I think the most impactful initiative I’ve led and that I’m particularly proud of is the education side of automation systems — the process of building and implementing automations. The consultancy side of my business is very well established and doing well, but I feel the most impactful thing I’m leading at the moment is the academy we recently launched.

We help business owners, leaders within businesses, and individuals within teams to get a better understanding of how they can use a ‘systems, process, and automation’ mindset to make themselves and their teams more productive — essentially thinking on the process side of things and then finding and implementing better systems, and putting automations in place.

Some of our students have saved a full day per week of time that they were spending on manual and repetitive tasks. And for a small business owner, that’s a day they can get back. They can instead take a day off or bring in more clients or something else. There are a lot of benefits to that extra time they gain.

We’re also putting scholarships in place for people in developing countries. Our next course cohort has two people on a scholarship. So, I feel like the education side is the most impactful thing for me.

And to add to that, we’ve started collaborating with a few universities in London who are running digital skills courses for unemployed young people and business owners, producing content for their programmes.

Sometimes our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a mistake you’ve made and the lesson you took away from it?

I think one of the biggest mistakes I’ve made was trying to launch a new product and ended up being completely burnt out as a result of the launch. Although I was delegating and there were other people working on the project, it was just too much for me and I was trying to fit it into a very short period of time.

As a result of that, I took my eye off the ball with a client and ended up losing them because I had basically burnt myself out and couldn’t cope with more than one thing at that particular time. That’s an extreme example, but it is actually something that happened. And we don’t like to admit these things, but you know, we’re all human and that kind of scenario does happen.

I definitely will not be doing that again! It was a major lesson. I think it was a combination of me wanting to take complete ownership of something, having a lot on my plate already, and then putting even more on my plate and not sharing the load enough with other people in my team because I was concerned they didn’t have enough flexibility, either. So, yes, it was bad timing and a huge mess up. But you make mistakes and you learn.

How has mentorship played a role in your career, whether receiving mentorship or offering it to others?

Mentorship has absolutely played a huge role in my career. I’ve had mentors or coaches or a mix of both at various points in my business-owning career. Having impartial advice from somebody who really believes in you, believes in your abilities, and can help you get clarity on things is so incredibly helpful. There are people that have made a huge impact in my life to the extent that I completely changed directions and the way I was doing things in my business.

On the flip side, I’m a member of the Association of Business Mentors in the UK. I’m also part of a UK government-led mentorship programme called Help to Grow, and I am a mentor to others. That, in particular, is a really meaningful way for me to pay back all these things that other people have given me out of the goodness of their own hearts. And it’s so rewarding because mentors don’t always have the answers, but it’s about being able to share and relate to experiences and give different ideas of how things could work.

With all of that said, mentorship has played a massive part in my business. I don’t think I would be where I am today if it wasn’t for the impact of various mentors I’ve been lucky enough to work with.

Developing your leadership style takes time and practice. Who do you model your leadership style after? What are some key character traits you try to emulate?

I can’t say I have anybody in particular that I model my leadership style after. It’s something I’m constantly adapting and learning about myself. I would definitely say the key character traits that I want to portray as a good leader are being flexible, being understanding and open, and being approachable. I want people to feel like they can come to me and share things; I don’t want anyone to feel that they can’t confide in me or bring ideas to the table.

Being kind is another thing. We’re all human and we all have our ‘things.’ I do have a tendency to be critical, and that’s something I’m working on and developing — not being overly critical. I think being able to trust that people are good at what they do, and relinquishing control a little bit empowers people to do their jobs better. I hate the idea of micromanaging people, but rather want to empower people to run with their roles and shine with their skills.

Encouraging learning, encouraging development — those are some of the main things I try to embody in my leadership style.

Thank you for sharing that with us. Let’s talk about scaling a business from a small startup to a midsize and then large company. Based on your experience, can you share with our readers the “5 Things You Need To Know To Successfully Scale Your Business”? Please give a story or example for each.

The first thing is to leverage technology from the start. This is the main thing we help businesses with at Solvaa. It’s important to think with a ‘systems, process, and automation’ mindset and to start using technology before you begin hiring. We’ve worked with businesses that have some of those pieces in place, and some that have nothing in place.

We’re currently working with a business, for example, that has basically been working off paper for years. Now they want to scale the business, but they can’t do it effectively because they don’t have anything in place other than emails and document storage. They have no way of scaling their business and they’re a franchise! So, the best place to start is establishing systems and processes, and thinking about that mindset.

The second thing is relinquishing control. My own business is a perfect example for this point. I’ve learnt that if I want to build a strong team, it’s really important to kind of separate myself and make sure I’m not micromanaging people.

It’s obviously important that you hire people who are skilled, motivated, and aligned with your company values. Once you’ve trained them on how to operate within your company, you have to give people the autonomy to do what you’ve hired them to do. Part of relinquishing control is trusting them to align with your business culture and collaborate with others on the team, and then empowering them to learn, develop, and improve the way they work.

The third thing is fostering a culture of innovation. I think it’s very important to encourage people within the team to be creative and think outside the box. Give them the autonomy to make suggestions, drive change, and give them the resources and support they need, and recognition for new ideas.

This is something we’re trying to do internally — to be able to offer that to our team. We have a culture here within Solvaa where the core team gets involved with group trainings. We have team meetings after workshops, skill development, and things like that. I constantly want people to know that it’s about innovation, and it’s about making sure we’re also bringing in new avenues of software and things we can add to our toolbelt. And different people in the team may want to take ownership for leading that part of the business which is great.

Fourthly, staying adaptable is so important. As we know, the environment is constantly changing. And we know that due to Covid, a lot of businesses closed down because they weren’t able to adapt or maybe couldn’t take their businesses online. That wasn’t possible for everybody.

But in order to scale, and even to stay afloat, you have to become adaptable and allow for new opportunities and challenges, and to pivot the way you’re doing things within the business so you can offer new services that work with changing trends. A perfect example is ChatGPT and how everybody is talking about AI at the moment. One of the things we have adapted as part of our automation course is that we are now teaching a segment on how to use ChatGPT and Zapier, and the features within Zapier that encompass ChatGPT.

So it’s always important to stay on top of things that are happening in the world and with our businesses.

Finally, I firmly believe finding a mentor or hiring a coach is so important for scaling your business. I mentioned this a bit earlier, but I don’t think I would be where I am now in my business if I didn’t have various mentors or coaches that I worked with over the years. Now, I don’t think this is essential for scaling a business, but I think it’s incredibly valuable. You get guidance, support, and expertise on things you’d never have thought of before. I think that’s really important and it could actually be fundamental.

And also, to be able to pay that forward when you feel you’re comfortable — to be able to offer that to somebody else is just as important. As a mentor now myself, I really want to help give some direction and encouragement in the same way it was offered to me.

Can you share a few of the mistakes that companies make when they try to scale a business? What would you suggest to address those errors?

I think one major mistake that companies make when they try to scale a business is not having a plan for their direction.

If your business is growing, it can get overwhelming. And if you don’t have a plan in terms of how you are going to address certain things as they come up, that could be a problem. So, it’s all part of developing a strategy and a plan.

The second thing I often see is not having the right processes in place from the start. For example, not having documented processes for when you are taking on new team members, and letting people blindly work without any direction is a recipe for disaster. And people do it all the time!

If you’re in a situation where you’re bringing on your first hire, look for someone who is process-minded and can put all those things in place for you before you carry on. Maybe start by hiring an assistant who can create documentation, help with system development, and make sure that everything is as good as it can be. Obviously, nothing is ever going to be perfect. But things will evolve and improve over time.

The third mistake I would say that companies make is hiring people too quickly because they feel like they need to fill a gap. I think in some cases, it makes sense if you’re hiring for temporary roles. But always take the time to find the right people that have the right attitude and that are going to fit your culture. You can always train for skills over time. Even if you’re hiring for a particular skill, you still need to make sure people will fit into your company culture because it’s an expensive process to hire and invest in training and onboarding people only to then have to get rid of them. The hiring process is never, ever going to be 100% perfect, but I always recommend taking your time.

Scaling includes bringing new people into the organization. How can a company preserve its company culture and ethos when new people are brought in?

I think a big part of this is making sure you are hiring for the right kind of attitude in the first place. Somebody once told me that you should hire for a mix of skills and attitude. But skills are something that can be taught to someone, whereas attitude can’t be taught. You have to find the right people with the right attitude that are going to fit in with your company ethos and bring even more value to the ethos and the culture.

For me, the key thing here is to hire people who think in the same way as you do. One of the things I like to try and assess is whether people have a continuous-improvement mindset. The environment we work in — technology — is constantly changing. We are constantly adapting to new things that are happening in the market. So the team I want to have is one that is passionate about learning new things all the time, being on top of changes, and embracing those changes so we can apply them to help our clients.

I think it’s important to have a very clear idea of what attitudes you should be hiring for because that will help you bring the right people into the company.

Many times, a key aspect of scaling your business is scaling your team’s knowledge and internal procedures. What tools or techniques have helped your teams be successful at scaling internally?

This is a fun question to answer because this is what our business is all about!

We use a lot of tools that serve specific purposes within the business: We use Hubspot and Pipedrive for our CRMs (two separate sides of the business); PandaDoc as our proposal management tool; Google Workspace for emails and documents; Slack for communication; and occasionally separate tools for documents and cloud storage. We use Xero as our digital accounting system. We use ClickUp for our task management and project management.

And actually, having a tool like ClickUp is a key part of being able to scale your business and having something that everybody can use to stay on top of their tasks. You have clear visibility of what everybody is doing and a place where everybody can communicate directly about (and within) specific tasks or projects.

Zapier is also a huge part of our business. We have all these individual tools, but we’re able to connect those processes together — either with native integrations or with Zapier — to be able to automate tasks between the various platforms.

So, we obviously use a lot of tools in our business. And many people will think (especially smaller businesses), ‘Well, I don’t want to spend $50 a month on something because it’s a lot of money.’ But that’s the wrong approach. It shouldn’t always be about how much you’re spending (although sometimes cost is and should be a factor). It’s more about having the right systems in place to do the job, making sure the processes are simple and straightforward for people to follow, and having automation in place to tie all those things together and make people more productive. The cost of a software subscription should be weighed up with the time you would save by having a digital process.

Part of the technique is always making sure that when you’re introducing a new tool, that all the key users within the team have a say about how to implement that tool. This is important because it helps with everyone embracing the new tool and process. Involve the right people to make sure you’re adopting the right tools for your business.

Then it’s also important to have clear documentation in terms of how everybody should be using those tools, especially if multiple people are using them. Training is really important here.

Our trademarked process, ‘The 4-Step Solvaa Automation MethodologyⓇ,’ describes the best process for implementing systems, processes, and automation. It’s what we use in all our consulting projects and what we teach in our academy.

What software or tools do you recommend to help onboard new hires?

At Solvaa, we are big on creating systems that will fit a business’s specific needs. So with no-code tools like SmartSuite, for example, you can actually create your own bespoke process to use for onboarding new hires, and have an automated system with different entities to it.

For example, you can build a system that triggers emails to go out at different stages of the hiring process — like when somebody’s been selected to move on to the next part of the process, and so on. All of that can be automated with Zapier. You could also create checklists for the onboarding process and allow people to have access to forms and checklists, or to be able to move through an onboarding process, watch videos, and have documents that serve as a Wiki tool.

At Solvaa, we have a team hub within ClickUp. It’s essentially a document that has policies and procedures that everybody needs to read when they’re being onboarded. We also have an onboarding guide in there that goes through how to use ClickUp and all the other tools we use regularly.

So, you can quite literally adapt a process and you don’t have to use a specific tool. If you’ve got a project management tool that you use within your business, you can simply make adaptations. The important thing is that it’s clear and accessible to everybody, and everybody knows where to find it.

Because of your role, you are a person of significant influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most people, what would that be? You never know what your ideas can trigger.

My answer to this is a little unoriginal because this is essentially what I do every day. But I feel my purpose in life is to help people, to motivate businesses and the people within businesses to be more productive. Somebody said to me the other day that I’m ‘the productivity queen’. I don’t know if that’s quite true, but it was funny!

I would love to motivate people to be more productive in their work environments. And to me, that’s all about thinking with a ‘systems, process, and automation’ mindset. How can you use digital technology to make your life easier? Obviously, we have so many tools available on the market to make things more productive, but we also have mindset tools as well — things like task management tools and apps that help us focus on deep work. I want to inspire people to be more productive and focus on the things that really matter for us and make our jobs more significant for us — mixing the kind of stuff that we can do for ourselves individually while also using technology.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

There are several ways to follow me and my work. You can sign up for courses with Solvaa Automation Academy, contact us about working with us through our website, and subscribe to our newsletter for blog updates and business productivity tips. You can follow us on YouTube, Facebook, and LinkedIn, and grab a copy of my book, Automate It with Zapier, via Amazon and other booksellers.

This was truly meaningful! Thank you so much for your time and for sharing your expertise!