Narrowing Your Focus to Build a Better Team with Erich Kolb

Today’s episode highlights another “Great Place to Work.” My guest learned the ugly truth of entrepreneurship the hard way. Erich made a big pivot and changed everything to align his business with the dream life he wanted. He is an alumnus of our How to Hire the Best course, which showed him what he was doing wrong and could do better. Now, he is moving in the right direction with his team of A-players to make his business even more profitable.

Erich Kolb owns Seagreen Lawn Care and Irrigation in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. He and a business partner started their first company in the Raleigh, North Carolina, area. They started with only in 1995 with $40 in their business bank account! The company grew to $700k in revenue within a few years, but Erich wasn’t happy with its direction. A few years later, Erich realized his entrepreneurial dream was a nightmare. He was wearing too many hats and working too many hours to achieve his dream of living on the coast. After selling his business in 2016, Erich relocated and started pumpkin planning his new business before he knew what it meant. Through our course, books, and EVERY episode of the Profit by Design podcast, Erich has learned what it takes to be committed to having a business that supports his life.

Learn how Erich has been able to achieve business success by narrowing his niche!

Profit by Design is a Tap the Potential Production in collaboration with Small Business Consulting Group.

Show Highlights:

Erich’s story: his background, business management degree, and how he started his landscaping business with $40 in the bank
Why a business degree does NOT match up with real-world entrepreneurship
The turning point that forced Erich and his business partner to step back and look at the numbers and the truth
How Erich realized he was not moving toward his life and business goals—and needed to change his direction
Erich’s steps in selling his business, relocating to Myrtle Beach, and starting a new business in a new and specific niche
How Erich found success by tuning into higher-profit areas within his industry so he could offer higher wages and build a better team (Pumpkin planning at work!)
Why a narrow focus allows you to stand out in your field, build an expert team, and free up your time
How Erich’s hiring mistakes drove him to the How to Hire the Best course (Fact: 9 out of 10 small businesses have no system for attracting A-players!)
The “Aha moments” for Erich when he took the course regarding immutable laws, job descriptions, and hiring systems (Fact: Following traditional hiring practices will fail 75% of the time!)
What Erich is doing to make a great place to work by communicating his values, providing training and incentives, and supporting and respecting team members
Erich’s questions about communication in moving forward in building his team
What Erich is doing differently in hiring, based on what he has learned and experienced
How Erich is incorporating virtual team members and helping them feel included and informed
What Erich says about his experience with our How to Hire the Best course

Connect with Erich: www.seagreengrass.com

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Links and Resources:

Learn more about the next How to Hire the Best course. It starts on April 7!

New! Now Available!!

The 4 Week Vacation book with bonuses!

Download Dr. Sabrina’s Introductory Training: How to Make Your Time Worth $10,000 an Hour

Join Dr. Sabrina in our Entrepreneurs Take Your Live Back! Community

About The Author

Dr. Sabrina Starling, The Business Psychologist and international best-selling author of the How to Hire the Best series and The 4 Week Vacation™, is the founder of Tap the Potential and host of the Profit by Design podcast. At Tap the Potential, we work to free business owners from the constant demands of a growing business.

We believe work supports life, not the other way around. Clients in our Better Business, Better Life coaching program have more time for what matters most and more money in their bank account than they’ve ever had. Next, we send them off on a 4 Week Vacation™ to celebrate their hard-earned journey to take their life back!

Dr. Sabrina and her team at Tap the Potential are on a mission to change the story of entrepreneurship from one of long hours, grinding it out, to one of sustainably profitable businesses that support and enhance life. The Tap the Potential Solution™ and our Tap the Potential Family of Business Owners are disrupting small business as usual. We are on our way to making the Tap the Potential Solution™ the mainstream model for growing business.

By 2023, 150 Tap the Potential clients will have taken 4 Week Vacations. These are the trailblazers, role modeling what’s possible for entrepreneurs. In many entrepreneurial circles, it is becoming more and more common for one entrepreneur to ask another, “Have you taken a 4 Week Vacation™?” (as opposed to asking “How many employees do you have?” or “What is your annual revenue?”). Taking a fully unplugged 4 Week Vacation is rapidly becoming the recognized symbol of entrepreneurial success.

Never one to accept the status quo or back down from a challenge, Dr. Sabrina’s How to Hire the Best series grew from her desire to solve the toughest hiring challenges interfering with her clients’ growth and profitability. What sprang from her experience working with entrepreneurs in rural areas catapulted her into becoming the world’s leading expert in attracting top talent in small businesses—no matter what hiring challenges those businesses are facing—and earned Tap the Potential’s reputation as the go-to resource for entrepreneurs committed to creating Great Places to Work with thriving coaching cultures and highly engaged team members working from strengths.

As The Business Psychologist, and with her years of driving profit in small businesses, Dr. Sabrina knows what it takes to find, keep, and motivate exceptional performance out of your biggest investment—team members.