Systems Simplified

Dré Slaman is the Co-founder and CEO of Farm to Fit, a healthy, ready-to-eat weekly meal delivery service in the Portland, Oregon, area. Farm to Fit was started in 2011 by Dré and her husband, G. Scott Brown, who were looking for a food delivery service in the Portland region. They couldn't find one, so they decided to create one themselves. Over the years, they've expanded their kitchen space and hired 30 team members to keep up with the demand for their services. In addition to being an entrepreneur, Dré is also an actress and a mother. She is the President-Elect of the Entrepreneurs' Organization (EO) Portland Chapter and holds a master of fine arts in acting from Northern Illinois University. In this episode: To build a successful business, developing great relationships, both personal and professional, is crucial. According to Dré Slaman, solid relationships and business networks are necessary for every leader looking to grow a thriving business. Having spent 11 years in entrepreneurship, one of the biggest lessons Dré has learned is the value of surrounding yourself with a solid support system. As a business leader, she suggests developing a habit of asking for help and leaning on other people's expertise, knowledge, and experience to build a thriving business. If you work alongside your spouse, create systems and processes that guide you in running your business. In this episode of the Systems Simplified podcast, Adi Klevit interviews Dré Slaman, the Co-founder and CEO of Farm to Fit, about how to create a system for working with your spouse. Dré talks about starting a business with her husband, the value of developing a business support system, and tips for separating your personal and professional life.

Ron Nussbaum is the Co-founder and CEO of Nuttnest, a customer communication platform that helps contractors, builders, and home service providers communicate with homeowners more effectively to transform the customer experience. Ron served in the Marine Corps and then joined the construction industry, where he's worked for over a decade. He is a visionary leader with expertise in the many facets of construction, including field, sales, leadership, and management. In this episode: Do you often experience communication breakdowns between your team members and clients? How can you ensure productive communication with clients to provide better service and avoid customer complaints? Constructive communication is essential in building a thriving business. As a business leader, you must have appropriate systems and processes in place to cultivate exceptional communication between your team and clients. According to Ron Nussbaum, one of the first steps to take is setting clear expectations with your clients in a simple and understandable way. Effective communication prevents chaos and leads to happy long-term clients. Ron Nussbaum, the Co-founder and CEO of Nuttnest, joins Adi Klevit in this episode of the Systems Simplified podcast to talk about systematizing communication in the construction industry. They discuss the most significant sources of communication breakdowns, the effects of poor communication, and how Nuttnest promotes communication between contractors and clients.

Bill Patten is the President and Owner of Sunbelt Business Brokers of Portland, a company that helps business owners value, price, and buy or sell their businesses. Bill has been in business for over 40 years and has successfully purchased and sold four businesses. One of his businesses earned recognition from Inc. magazine as one of the 500 fastest-growing privately held businesses in the country. He uses his expertise to help other business owners sell or buy their businesses. In this episode: What systems and processes do you need to have in place to prepare for selling your business? How can you increase your company's value to make it more attractive to investors? Some of the most significant factors that determine the sellability of a business include its cash flow, turnover rate, and level of risk. To prepare your business for sale, build a thriving company that separates you from the crowd and makes you stand out from your competitors. Bill Patten's advice is to create barriers to entry to protect your business from competitors. This includes getting intellectual property protection, creating solid systems and processes, and increasing your cash flow. Bill Patten, the President and Owner of Sunbelt Business Brokers of Portland, joins Adi Klevit in this episode of the Systems Simplified podcast to talk about preparing your business to be sold. They discuss the signs that a business is not ready to be sold, improving your systems and processes, the right time to contact a business broker, and how to make your company more attractive to investors.

Emma Dye is the Founder and Chief Salad Officer of Crisp Salad Restaurant, a chain of restaurants in Portland, Oregon, that offers chopped-to-order salads, fabulous soups, wine, beer, Prosecco, and other goodies. She has created a company culture of respect and inclusivity by building a diverse team and providing a safe and fun environment for her employees. She donates 10% of her company's sales to a local nonprofit every month. Emma was recognized as Restaurateur of the Year for 2022 by the Oregon Restaurant and Lodging Association. In this episode: How can you use technology and automation to provide a better customer experience? What can technology do to promote a great company culture? Technology offers great tools and opportunities to help companies improve their systems and processes. Being an early adopter of technology allowed Emma Dye to put in place systems for placing online orders and delivering products to her customers. In turn, it helped her create a better customer experience, and her business benefits through high accuracy, fast delivery of services, and increased efficiency among her employees. In this episode of the Systems Simplified podcast, Adi Klevit interviews Emma Dye, the Founder and Chief Salad Officer of Crisp Salad Restaurant, about how to leverage technology to create systems in the service industry. Emma also talks about building her company's culture, tips for hiring and retaining great employees, and the future of technology in the restaurant industry.

Natalie Nathanson is the Founder and CEO of Magnetude Consulting, a B2B marketing firm that provides fractional marketing services to small and medium tech-related businesses. The company services clients across the globe and brings specialized expertise in areas including cybersecurity, big data, AI, SaaS, B2B professional services, and emerging and established technology-related products and services. Natalie is also a member of the Entrepreneurs' Organization (EO) and a Thought Leader and Writer for the Forbes Agency Council. In this episode: Are you planning to rebrand, launch a new product, or enter a new market segment? What processes can you use to effectuate the change successfully? To pivot your business, you need a good strategy. The first step is to get a clear understanding of where you want to go and assess your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and potential challenges. You must also be agile and have the proper structure and team in place to develop and execute your plan. According to Natalie Nathanson, developing solid processes prevents chaos and acts as a risk mitigation measure. Natalie Nathanson, the Founder and CEO of Magnetude Consulting, joins Adi Klevit in this episode of the Systems Simplified podcast to talk about the process of preparing a company to pivot or implement a change. They also discuss the benefits of developing processes and procedures, working with a fractional marketing company, and assessing the effects of change after implementation.

Odette D'Aniello is the Founder and CEO of Celebrity Cake Studio, a family-owned and operated retail cake boutique. The company has received numerous awards, including winning Best of Western Washington several times. Odette creates custom, artistic cakes that combine the aesthetic of taste with beauty. She is also the Owner of Dragonfly Cakes, the wholesale sister company to Celebrity Cake Studio, which designs, develops, and manufactures delicious handmade and clean-label petit fours (little cakes covered in decadent chocolate), tea cakes, and mini desserts. Additionally, Odette is involved in various other areas, including being a US West Accelerator Expert for the Entrepreneurs'​ Organization, the Owner of True Nature Distribution LLC, and the Managing Partner for 26th St Holdings. In this episode: If you are a creative entrepreneur, how can you incorporate systems and processes into your business? Which structures can you develop to make your business thrive? For Odette D'Aniello, having boundaries has been critical in preventing chaos in her business. She uses daily checklists and routines, surrounds herself with trusted people who keep her in check, and learns from her mistakes. Systems and processes have helped Odette make better decisions and successfully integrate creativity into the business. In this episode of the Systems Simplified podcast, Adi Klevit is joined by Odette D'Aniello, the Founder and CEO of Celebrity Cake Studio, to talk about systems and processes for creative entrepreneurs. Odette explains how she uses the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) in her business, how she merges creativity with systems and processes, and shares her strategy for creating a great company culture.

Jay Bartot is the Co-founder and CEO of Zeitworks, an AI-powered business process intelligence platform that provides enterprises with the data-driven insights and tools they need to improve and transform their business process operations continuously. Zeitworks uses advanced machine learning and other technology to automatically discover and measure business processes to help unlock broken processes, identify bottlenecks, and make teams happier and more efficient. Jay has over 20 years of experience as an entrepreneur and innovator. He has experience developing data and machine learning applications for a variety of verticals, including e-commerce, online advertising, travel, medical informatics, and consumer video creation. In this episode: How can you use data to improve your business processes? Can data improve your team's productivity and overall company performance? If you have many business systems and processes, it can be challenging to measure and evaluate their efficiency over time. It can also be difficult to identify variances in behavior and productivity across your team. The solution, according to Jay Bartot, lies in data analysis. Data helps to provide transparency throughout your organization and also helps you identify your best performers, fix deviations, and ensure continuous process improvement. In this episode of the Systems Simplified podcast, Adi Klevit interviews Jay Bartot, the Co-founder and CEO of Zeitworks, about the relationship between data, analytics, and processes. Jay discusses the benefits of continuous process improvement, explains how to determine the usefulness of the data you generate, and talks about using data analytics to improve business processes.

Hilary Key is the Founder, President, and CEO of Art Steps, a school that teaches thousands of students classical, realistic drawing and painting skills. In 2020, with the sudden onset of the quarantine, Art Steps Online was born. She has been in business for 22 years and owns three Art Steps locations in Orange County, California. Before Art Steps opened its oft-requested third location, Hilary's dream of forming a non-profit organization became a reality, and she started Bright Artists in 2015. After attending Fullerton College and the Idyllwild School of Music and the Arts, Hilary received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with an emphasis on conceptual and abstract painting and performance art in 1998 from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In this episode: Can you use systems and processes to avoid chaos? Can systems and processes create order in your business? According to Hilary Key, a business is an organization made up of people and systems. It is critical that you keep it organized in order to grow and thrive. Systems and processes create order, prevent chaos, and drive success. Hilary's advice is to start by using simple strategies like checklists and begin to develop a culture of accountability. She successfully implemented these types of strategies to scale her own business. In this episode of the Systems Simplified podcast, Adi Klevit interviews Hilary Key, the Founder, President, and CEO of Art Steps, about the systems and processes she used to scale and diversify her business. Hilary explains why systems are important to creatives, shares her tips for ensuring that systems are followed, and talks about her future business plans.

Cameron Bell is a Partner at Fairmont Capital Partners, a lower-market private equity firm focusing on tech-enabled B2B companies with revenues between $1 million and $30 million. They work with founder and family-owned businesses to help them build, grow, and exit through strategic partnerships and capital structuring. As a serial entrepreneur and investor, Cameron's first business was a bootstrapped SaaS startup, one of his former businesses was awarded Startup of the Year in 2020, and he was also a finalist for Entrepreneur of the Year in 2020. In this episode: If you want to sell and exit your company, what can you do to make it attractive to private equity firms? How can you increase your company's valuation? As your business grows, there are a number of metrics you can look at to determine whether or not the business is profitable enough to entice investors. These factors include a strong customer base, solid profits, and efficient systems and processes. Evaluating those aspects can be beneficial in taking your business to the next level and determining if you can sell your company or acquire private equity funding to scale your business. Cameron Bell, a Partner at Fairmont Capital Partners, joins Adi Klevit in this episode of the Systems Simplified podcast to discuss the systems and processes for identifying investment-worthy companies. Cameron talks about his firm's ideal clients, the systems they implement in a new business, and the biggest challenge they face working with founder-owned companies.

Mike Krass is the Owner and Founder of MKG Marketing, the world's premier marketing agency for cybersecurity vendors. He focuses on helping businesses grow their sales pipeline through SEO, digital ads, and analytic programs. Mike founded MKG Marketing in 2011. He embraces a people-first philosophy, promotes strong work-life integration, and holds his employees and clients accountable. In this episode: Should you document all your business processes and procedures? Which criteria can you use to evaluate the need to create a system or standard operating procedure (SOP)? Mike Krass faced challenges running his business when his team grew to five employees. He realized that he needed well-documented systems and processes to ensure that his clients received consistent service. Using three key questions to decide which processes to document, Mike helped to improve his team's productivity and quality of work. He joins Adi Klevit to share his insights. In this episode of the Systems Simplified podcast, Adi Klevit is joined by Mike Krass, the Owner and Founder of MKG Marketing, to discuss how to know which processes and procedures to document. They also discuss the benefits of documenting systems and the value of regular reviews of documented processes.