Ep.45 When Your Business Model is Out of Alignment

What happens when you reach your business goals and then discover it's not what you actually wanted? You've created this thing that started out being fun but now, it totally drains you. Uh...what now? 

Nicole Haney takes us from hometown farmers market to scaling her home baked energy bars across 300 locations in Canada. We'll talk about what happened when that business was no longer serving her and how she used the skills gained in that business to propel her forward to a new career helping others.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:08

What do you do when you've created a business you no longer love? You've been working so hard to get to that next level and achieve the goals you've set for yourself, but you fail to check in and confirm those goals are actually lining up with what you want to do. Hello, friend, I'm your host and business bestie, Jamie Renee, and this is the Perfection Not Required podcast. Together we explore what it looks like to build a business from the inside out. And today, that looks like going behind the scenes with Nicole Haney. Nicole started her baked goods business Boho at her local farmers market and then grew to over 300 locations across Canada. The business was successful, but didn't actually allow for the travel and freedom she envisioned when leaving her corporate job. We'll get into the importance of taking messy action, boundaries, and pivoting when necessary. All lessons hard-learned on Nicole's journey. We start this conversation with Nicole and I talking about her new podcast, Goals and Gratitude. Let's jump in.

SPEAKER_01 1:25

So I realized that if I wanted to grow a personal brand and I wanted to put myself out there as someone who's been an entrepreneur, someone who has that entrepreneurial experience and someone who just like gets it and gets how hard it is, that I needed an effective way to deliver that message to people. And so I thought about doing a podcast for a while and I kind of like went back and forth on it. And then finally I was just like, I'm gonna rip the band aid. I'm just gonna like jump in, I'm gonna do this. And honestly, like that whole thing that happened where I was like, I'm gonna do this. And I recorded my first episode, all happened in the matter of like two hours, perhaps. Oh wow. I was just like, if I'm gonna do this, I have to put myself out there and do it because I know that if I don't do it like right now, I'm gonna talk myself out of it and I'm gonna say, no, no, no one wants to hear what I have to say. Like, that's a terrible idea. And so I was like, I'm just gonna hit record and I'm gonna just do this. And so I did.

SPEAKER_00 2:30

Nicole jumped into creating her podcast and fumbled around until she found the sweet spot between not having a plan at all, just scripted and stiff, a few episodes and I feel like I'm finally finding my rhythm.

SPEAKER_01 2:44

And what we were talking about is how like this idea of just jumping onto a Zoom call and like having an authentic conversation with another human being, another entrepreneur, someone who like is in the same space as you, it's really more so what people want is to like have those authentic conversations, right?

SPEAKER_00 3:02

Yeah, you know, because it's very different than the picture that we see on Instagram a lot of times. It's like people are generally putting their best selves forward, or you know, an edited version at the least. Let's just have a conversation because this is what people need to hear. Yes, there are strategies and there's things that you can do, but the mental piece is so much of entrepreneurship. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 3:30

I totally agree with that. The mental piece is the hardest piece, in my opinion. Like when I started my first business, I started very naively, and then I slowly started to figure out like, oh, I need to learn how to run a business. And so I did, I figured that out along the way. But I would say, like, learning how to run a business and like pull your PLs and figure out your cash flow and like all of those things that is challenging for sure in the early days. But I would say the bigger challenge is like getting out of your own way and getting out of your own net, right?

SPEAKER_00 4:04

Nicole's learned a few things about getting out of her own way. She's now a business coach, professional speaker, and a business professor at a local college. But she obviously didn't just start there. Nicole earned her place by going through the trenches.

SPEAKER_01 4:20

I started a health food bakery, is what it started out as. Gotcha. Just this like little bakery in my hometown at a farmer's market. So very, very small. And I was doing everything with gluten-free, dairy-free, 100% whole food, no refined sugar, like super healthy, but like also dessert. So like really delicious. And then I had an energy bar um as well. And so eventually I decided to take the energy bar and really like like scale with that. I was able to get the energy bar into about 300 stores across Canada. So I really scaled it to this like national level, which was cool. And like it was the adventure that I needed. But then I slowly started to realize that it wasn't the right fit for me in terms of a business model, in terms of being in the food industry. And so that's when I pivoted out and got into the coaching space.

SPEAKER_00 5:12

Yeah. I mean, what just like a plethora of experience, though. I mean, because not only is it a product-based business where you're fulfilling orders and doing all of the things brand new into entrepreneurship. And then also like the food industry is a whole other next level.

SPEAKER_01 5:32

Like it's honestly what there's so many regulations, there's so much to learn. Like you're getting health inspections and audits, like there, like there's just so much to learn in that space.

SPEAKER_00 5:43

Yeah. So did you like have to get a commercial kitchen and all of those things? And wow, that's like as somebody who just kind of on a whim went into that. That's just like mind-blowing. I mean, that's that's a lot of experience, real quick.

SPEAKER_01 6:00

Yeah, for sure. Like, definitely like thrown into the fire for sure. Yeah, and that's why I'm such a huge proponent of messy action. Cause like I wouldn't have said that before I started this this business. I wouldn't have said that at all. Like, I was a very risk-adverse person. I liked my routine, I liked stability and security. And then I got into that food business like very naively, I would say. Like, I really had no idea of what I was getting into. And it was probably for the best, right? Because had I known, like, I might not have done it. Um, and then I get into it and I'm like, oh, okay, crap. Like, I have to figure out how to do all of this stuff. Like, I have to figure out like, how do I get a food handler's certificate so that I can, you know, produce this food? How do I like talk to the health unit about this and get my health unit inspection? Like, where do I find a commercial kitchen space that's affordable and isn't gonna like bankrupt my business? Right.

SPEAKER_00 6:57

There were so many things to learn. So, were you getting like coaching at that time, or was this like Google University? For sure, Google University.

SPEAKER_01 7:06

Yeah, 100%, 100%. I will say I did tap into like the small business centers in my region and tried to educate myself by going to like workshops and finding out as much as I could from the people around me. I would say that was my biggest education was talking to other food entrepreneurs. And they were the ones that would be like, oh, you have to go like get your food handler certificate before you can do anything else. And here's how you scale your business, and here's how you talk to distributors and retailers and like all of those things. It was all learned on the fly from other people that were doing the same thing as me.

SPEAKER_00 7:44

Yeah, that's really fascinating. Tell me about that transition. I think that okay, this business model is not something that's jiving with my lifestyle or whatever it was. Like, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:55

So I had gotten into the food industry for I would say the same reasons that most people get into the food industry. I loved making food. I loved, I love making food, I love eating food, I love sharing food with other people and like seeing the joy it brings into their lives. Like I love food. And as I started scaling my business, of course, you need a team of people to support you. And so I had to pull away from production. So I wasn't producing the food product anymore. I had a team that was doing that, and I wasn't really getting that like one-on-one connection to the customers anymore either, because I was selling to distributors, and those distributors would sell to the retailers, and those retailers would sell to the end user customer. And so I was like really far removed from all of that. And so I'm building this business and I'm starting to realize like, I think when you get into the food industry or really like a lot of industries, you don't know what you don't know, right? Like, you have no idea necessarily when you get into an industry what a successful business model in that space looks like. And so as I started to realize this, like, oh, okay, in the food industry, like if you really want to make money in the food space, you have to scale this like massively, right? Like this needs to be even further than what I got it to. So I started to look around at like, okay, how do you do this? What are the steps to do this? And so I started to realize I need to get investment. So I'd been bootstrapping it the entire time. Like I was just like relying on my very small amount of savings and like the cash flow I was generating in my business and doing like some programs that I could get government grants through and just trying to like pull it all together. But I was like, if I'm gonna do this for real, I'm gonna need to get investment. I'm gonna need to get a contract manufacturer, like a co-packer, to produce this. Because again, like I took a small business and just was like, I'm just gonna make this bigger and bigger and bigger. And that's not necessarily how you scale, right? We were manufacturing ourselves in-house by hand, still, which was insane. Like, I never I don't suggest people do that at that level. It was nuts. Um, and so I was like, I need to like get somebody who has the automated equipment to produce this product to produce it for me. There were a number of things I needed to do to get the business where I wanted it to be. And I was like, well, wait a second, do I actually want to do this? Yeah. Like, is this the business that I want to have? Is like this big, like scalable thing where you really scale it to like this huge level and then you sell it for like millions of dollars or whatever, right? Sounds cool. It sounds cool, but honestly, like that's not what I wanted. And I don't think that's what most entrepreneurs like truly want. I just wanted to be able to make a living. I wanted to work on my own terms, I didn't want to have a boss, I wanted to be able to like travel the world whenever I wanted to. And I realized like having this business model that I had created, that was I think the big turning point for me was this isn't gonna get me to the goals I have for my life. I need to do something else.

SPEAKER_00 11:18

So, how did that look for you? Once you decided, okay, this is not working for me. What do you do next?

SPEAKER_01 11:27

Yeah, for sure. That's that's a hard question, right? Because it's I talk about it in this kind of removed way because it's been a few years since I decided to move on from that business, but it was not an easy decision to make, right? Because you're committed at that point. Like you, I put four and a half years of my life into this business. And when I started it, I was like, this is it, like this is my thing. I am doing this for the rest of my life. Like, this is this is what I'm doing, this is my career path. And so to put all of that time and effort and energy into a business to then turn and decide to close it, like that's not an easy decision to make. I had one client that made the same kind of decision, and I could feel it coming on every time I would meet with her. She was like, Nicole, I'm just like not happy with this. I'm just not happy like doing this. This isn't what I want. And like, so I coached her through like, okay, what do you want your life to look like? Let's say in five years' time, you could have your most ideal life. What does that look like? Right. And she was like, Oh, yeah, okay, this is cool. So I want to, my my boyfriend and I have been dating for a while. She's like, I want to get married, I want to start having kids, and like, I want to buy a house and you know, do all of these things. And I was like, she she told me her whole dream. And I was like, that sounds like a fantastic dream. Like, that sounds really cool. And I can see you lighting up when you talk about it. But nowhere in there did you say anything about still having a food business. Yeah. And I think in that moment, that was where it really clipped for her that she was like, Yeah, you're right. Like having this business that I have right now does not fit into what I want my life to look like in the future.

SPEAKER_02 13:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:20

And so we had a few conversations around like, okay, she decided she wanted to pull back from this. And then I was like, what does this look like? Do you want to sell it? Do you want to close it? Like, if you're gonna sell it, what does that mean? Because there are a number of different options you have when you sell your business. Um, who you're gonna sell it to, are you gonna get a lump sum payment? Are you gonna, you know, stay involved in some sort of capacity? And so we had those conversations and ultimately she did decide to sell it and she sold it for a lump sum. Um, and now actually another one of my friends is is the person that purchased the business from her. And she's yeah, and so she's running that business. So I get to continue to see that business grow while the original person that owned it is now hasn't now moved on to a totally different career in consulting. Um, and she's super happy with her decision.

SPEAKER_00 14:12

Yeah. That's so beautiful. I mean, it's just like it's okay if it's just for a season, you know. As entrepreneurs, we're a dedicated folk. So you get in your head like the only way to fail is to quit, you know. But then sometimes it's like what can maybe start out feeling like a failure just because it you're quitting when really it's not quitting, it's just a transition. You're taking all of that knowledge and you're pivoting and moving. And I think it just takes uh just a tremendous amount of courage to just look at your situation, whether you're in corporate or whether you're in your own business or you've created this monster that you no longer love. You know, this is no longer serving me what's next. And it doesn't have to be this uh failure that you know what I mean, like it's all just a mental state. So I think it's really cool that it continues to live on and like she gets to be happy and somebody else gets to be happy, and it's like this whole exchange. I mean, like, did you sell your business? Is that how it closed, or what was your exit like?

SPEAKER_01 15:21

That's actually usually people's first question when I'm like, oh, I decided to move out of the food industry, and people are like, Did you sell your business?

SPEAKER_00 15:30

It had been four and a half years, and even though she was so far removed from the actual cooking that she loved, she remained the face of the business. She was totally burnt out, and the offers she received required her to stay on during the transition. It was all just too much.

SPEAKER_01 15:47

People are always shocked. They're like, what do you mean you didn't sell it? Like you could have made a lot of money. And I'm like, no, honestly, like the mental like health and peace that I have from just closing it and moving on is worth so much more. And like now looking back, I mean, I wouldn't have done it that way. Like I would have had maybe better boundaries around my work so that I didn't get so burnt out. But by the end of that four and a half years, I was toast. Like I was just like, I'm done. Like, I need a break. Like I need to just like not be doing anything for like a second so that I can catch my breath and like regroup, right? Because it takes so much out of you when you create something and and when you pour yourself into it.

SPEAKER_00 16:34

Yeah. What does your structure look like now? I mean, are you able to travel and have you set yourself up in that way?

SPEAKER_01 16:40

Yeah, yeah. So now, because I have an online business, I am able to just kind of like travel whenever I want to. So we actually are going to Mexico next week, and then in February, we're going to Thailand for three weeks because we can. And like it's just, it's so cool to be able to like have that freedom to just like travel whenever we want to and be able to like turn off when I need to. I will say running a business, no matter what kind of business you have, it's still hard work, right? This idea, and I think there's a lot of rhetoric in the online business space around how you don't have to work that many hours and like, oh, you can work like a four-hour work week, and that's all you need to do, and you can make six figures, and then you can just like peace out and like go travel the world and live your life. And I just don't think that's real. Like, it's just, it's still a business at the end of the day. You still have to put in the work, it still is hard work, but I will say that because of my last business, I have learned how to put boundaries around that. And instead of working like 24-7, like I was working probably 15, 16 hour days when I had oh ho. Now I'm working like an eight-hour day. And then I like clock out, I go to the gym, like I have a life outside of my business. And sometimes that means I work on like a Saturday, sometimes I still work evening, like it does happen, but I just have better boundaries around when I decide to work.

SPEAKER_00 18:14

Yeah. I mean, that's such an important part of like what we're all searching for. I mean, boundaries are a hard thing to get in place sometimes. I'm sure it's usually after they've been really broken before you actually put them in place. I know for me personally, I have a hard time turning my brain off as far as like I'm constantly thinking about my business. Like, even when I quote unquote shouldn't be in the book, it's like, yeah, okay, here I am. I'm supposed to be watching this movie with my family, and it's you know, and it's so hard. Definitely a practice of being more present and trying to live more in the moment. But yeah, it's it's a struggle when you get excited about stuff and just kind of want to go down those paths all the time, and to balance that with actual work-life balance so that you're not gonna burn yourself out.

SPEAKER_01 19:04

Yeah, no, for sure, absolutely. Definitely like the burnout is a huge piece. And then also like I feel like I just kind of let the rest of my life kind of go to crap. Like when I when I had my other business, like because I was working so hard on it and I'm I'm such a focused person that I will focus, like I will choose one thing and I will go all in on it. And that can be a really good skill to have, but it also can for sure lead to burnout because everything else just falls by the wayside, right? Like I had a fence that was like falling over in my yard. And I didn't attend to it for literally years because I was just like, no, I gotta grow this business, I gotta do the thing. And like I was going to networking events, I was going to markets and trade shows and like selling my heart out, just trying to like build the business and make it work. And I think that's the key thing in my mind is like we get so focused. I think a lot of us will start our businesses thinking this is gonna work like relatively quickly. I think, but most of us go in thinking, okay, I'm gonna have to put some hard work into this and I'm willing, you know, I'm gonna roll up my sleeves and I'm gonna do the work and and I'm okay with that. But we think it's gonna work within a matter of like a couple of months or so. And then when it doesn't, then we're like, oh crap, like what am I supposed to be doing right now to make it work? And then we start to get into this pattern of like, okay, I gotta do this and I gotta do this, and I gotta do this, and I gotta do this. And then you're doing all of the things, and all of a sudden you're working like 15, 16 hour days, and your fence is falling down in your yard, and you're not fixing it, and you're just like everything else is is going to crap because you haven't focused on anything but this business. You pull your head up and it's been two, three, four years, right?

SPEAKER_00 20:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:50

That I think that's like a big piece that leads to burnout.

SPEAKER_00 20:53

There's definitely a balancing act. And I think that that's why like these conversations are so important. Because I do think that people think, according to the internet, like this is easy, right? Like according to the internet, we should all be having six figure months. Okay, you know, so when I took a severance, left my job, all of the things, it was like, okay, well, I'm gonna replace my corporate income in nine months. I've got this time to focus, I'm a great employee. I'm like, I know if I just put the same amount of effort into what I'm doing, you know, like, yeah, like success. You know, I honestly believe and you know, for some people that may be the path. I'm not trying to discount that or minimize that because I have seen those things happen. But what happens is those things get amplified so much compared to the struggle of everyday entrepreneurship where you're really just putting yourself out there and getting knocked down every day. For sure. I've really taken a longer approach this time to where it's like. Okay, I'm not saying a year. I'm saying three years. Like I'm giving myself this runway and it just feels more realistic. And I I feel like it's a way for me to start bringing in my boundaries of I don't want to look up in four years or three years and be like, okay, well, my business is great, but I'm not. Yeah, my health is crap and my butt is glued to this chair all the time. You know, but like all of the things relationships have crumbled. But, you know, so it's like finding that balance. And I think the more that people are aware that it's going to take a while and there will be plenty of ups and downs, just like knowing that will help people just kind of set themselves up better, in my mind.

SPEAKER_01 22:48

Yeah, for sure. And I think like a big thing too is a lot of us panic. I think that the hustle and the like burnout and all of those things, it comes from that panic moment. This isn't working. Like, what am I supposed to be doing? And you really like start to freak out about it. But I think it's really important once you learn the lesson. And trust me, I have had to learn this over and over and over again. I'm still learning this lesson. But as you start to realize, like, well, wait a second, the only thing that's holding me back from success is literally time. It just takes time. It just takes time. And so I strongly believe that you can be successful. I'm not gonna say a hundred percent of businesses, but like I think that 99% of businesses could be successful, or business ideas could be successful if you just give it enough time. Think about this. I had an energy bar. I had an energy bar. Do you know how saturated that market is? You walk into any health food store, any grocery store, like anywhere, and you're gonna see at least 50 energy bars on those store shelves. That's a saturated space, right? And so when I went into it, I like again very naively just thought, like, oh, I have this great energy bar. It's gonna work really well. Things are gonna go great. And then I started approaching these retailers, and every single retailer was like, oh, another energy bar? Like, no, we're good. We have we have enough energy bars. And then I started to pin, this is not a good business idea because it's already out there, it's already being done. I need something that's a lot more unique or different, or like some sort of just innovative business idea, not an energy bar. And you start to go down on this path. But then I started to realize well, okay, not everybody is saying no. 75% of the people I talk to are saying no. That's a lot, and that's a lot of rejection to deal with. But 25% are saying yes. And once I realized that, I was like, okay, well, if I can talk to you enough people over enough time, then I will get into enough stores.

SPEAKER_02 24:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:00

And then I'll have a successful business. And that's exactly what I did. And so I built a successful energy bar company to a national level with zero experience in the food industry, like no idea what I was doing, I didn't have a business education. Like this, by everybody's perspective, this is a business that should have failed. And literally to this day, I will tell you, the reason it didn't is because I kept going. And that's it. Honestly, and I know it's like it's a hard lesson to learn. But if in those moments of panic where you're like, this isn't working, like maybe I should shut it all down and go back to my day job and like all of these things, in those moments of panic, if you can just tell yourself, like, no, Nicole made an energy bar business work, like I can make my thing work. I just need to give it more time. Right. That's gonna, I think, help for you to take a deep breath and like have those boundaries in your life.

SPEAKER_00 25:57

Yeah, I like that. I guess you do this all the time with your business coaching, but like, what do you find yourself telling people most often? What's your most given advice?

SPEAKER_01 26:08

The biggest piece of advice that I have is this piece. You just have to keep going. You just have to keep going. And like, yes, that does involve pivoting sometimes, right? So I think in the entrepreneurial education space, there's a lot of talk around finding the right business idea and like really just validating the heck out of that idea before you go to market. Do people want this? Is this the right idea? Should I be doing something else? What I feel like that does is it sets you up to like just question everything all of the time, question whether you're even like choosing the right thing. And it really, I think, instills a lot of fear in entrepreneurs. Well, but maybe I don't have the right product. And what I say to entrepreneurs is it doesn't matter. It does, but it also like doesn't, right? Because if you enter the market with the wrong product and you find out that nobody wants your product, okay, cool. Well, you can just pivot that product into something else that will work. And I think that's just a lot of what entrepreneurship is. It's just like jumping in, taking that messy action, do the thing, see if people will buy it. And if they don't buy it, then change. I had to do that when I started Bolo, because I started as a health food bakery at a farmer's market. And like you were saying, like I thought, okay, cool. Like I will make these base guts, I'll bring them to a farmer's market, and within a matter of months, I'm gonna replace my corporate salary. Because of course, that's how things were. Right. Right. And you do, you go into it thinking this. And so I get into it. And because again, you don't know what you don't know. You can't know everything, it's not gonna be perfect. So I jump into this space with this idea of what my business is gonna look like. I start doing it, and very quickly, I was like, cool, okay, so I can't make a full-time income selling baked goods at a farmer's market. Like, that's not a thing, right? I'm only selling one day a week. There's only like a couple hundred people that come to this farmer's market. Like, there's actually I can run the calculations and find out like a certain percentage of the people coming through the door buy my baked goods on a regular basis. Like, that still isn't even enough to pay my mortgage. This isn't gonna work. And so then I started to look at like, well, if I had a packaged product that I could sell in stores, then that product would sell, you know, five days a week or six days a week or seven days a week, however often the stores open. Now we're talking about making consistent revenue. And so then I pivoted into that space, and that's how I really grew my business. But at the end of the day, you're not gonna have all the answers. And it doesn't matter how long you take in the beginning stages. You can take one week, you can take six months to think and think and think about this idea and whether or not you want to do. But at the end of the day, you are not gonna know until you get into it. So you have to like I know it's cliche advice, but you kind of have to just start. Just start and like pivot as you go.

SPEAKER_00 29:12

Yes, I love that. That's great advice. I mean, it really is. Just, I mean, because it I bet I could ask every single person I've ever had on this show what they started and what their business is today. And it's gonna be totally different. It's just that getting started and pivot, pivot, pivot, pivot moving along.

SPEAKER_01 29:31

Yeah, you don't know until you get into it.

SPEAKER_00 29:34

Thanks so much to Nicole for sharing what she's learned on her incredible journey. Connect with her on Instagram at it's Nicole Haney and check out her podcast, Goals and Gratitude, both of which are linked in the show notes. Until next week, friend.