2: The Chaos Tax: How a Messy Backend is Costing You Time, Money, and Growth

In this episode of “Scale Smart, Stay Grounded", host Amber Matthews dives into a topic that’s quietly sabotaging many founders’ success—a messy business backend. Amber breaks down the telltale signs your backend is holding you back, from constant scrambling for documents to missed deadlines and team inefficiencies.

She highlights how disorganization impacts growth by draining time, creating missed opportunities, and even shaking client confidence. Most importantly, Amber shares actionable steps to regain control, from auditing your current systems to bringing in the right support to build a strong foundation.

If you’ve ever felt like your business is stuck in chaos, this episode is your guide to uncovering the hidden ROI of an organized backend and creating a scalable, sustainable foundation for growth.

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Transcript

Hello, friends.

Today we're tackling a topic that doesn't get nearly enough attention, but is often the silent culprit behind a lot of your frustration and overwhelm as a founder, and that is your messy backend.

To start, I'll help you identify the telltale signs that your messy backend is quietly sabotaging your momentum. Then we'll dive into actionable steps to get things under control.

But before we proceed, I need to read our public service announcement...

Scale Smart Stay Grounded is a safe space free of founder judgment. Our goal is to call each other up and not out.

OK, now that we have that out of the way, let's discuss symptoms that might indicate it's time for a backend intervention.

Symptom one, you can't find what you need when you need it.

Have you ever wasted 20 minutes searching for a document that you know exists but you can't locate it?

Now multiply that by everyone on your team and your bleeding time. Here's how it shows up.

You've invested in Google Workspace, but every document is located in the front end of your My Drive with no folders created. Or even worse, none of the documents have been renamed to make them easier to find.

Symptom two, deadlines are missed or close calls are too frequent.

If projects are consistently coming down to the wire or worse falling through the cracks, this is a sign your systems just simply aren't working.

Symptom three, your team has to ask you for the same information repeatedly.

If your team is constantly circling back to you for clarification, you have now become the bottleneck.

This could indicate a few things. First, it could indicate that your SOPs or standard operating procedures aren't clear or readily accessible.

It could indicate that your communication style is not effective.

Or it could be an indication that you're meeting with your team too infrequently,
which could be rectified very easily by increasing your meeting cadence.

Symptom four, you're running on gut feelings, not data.

Disorganization is causing you to make decisions without key insights, forcing you to rely on instinct because your numbers aren't readily available.

Symptom five, clients are asking for updates and you're scrambling.

The strain of being the visionary who is also wearing the hat of the implementer is starting to show. And one key way that it shows up is because you are now very slow when it comes to providing updates to clients. And this, my friend, unfortunately, is going to start to shake your client's confidence in your business.

Now, these five symptoms aren't just annoyances.

They're signs that your backend end is actively holding your business back.

Let's talk about how these issues can also impact your growth.

The five symptoms discussed can create a ripple effect that touches every part of your business.

One way it can start to impact your business is through time and energy. You are now spending more time putting out fires than focusing on growth. The mental load alone is enough to slow you down.

Next, you're losing key opportunities. Delayed decisions or missed deadlines means that you're leaving money and partnerships on the table. By the time you remember to circle back around to a prospect, that person has now signed a contract with your competitor, not because the competitor is any better, but because they were more efficient.

Next, we have team inefficiency. Your team can't perform at their best if they're constantly dealing with unclear processes, duplicative efforts, or chasing you down for answers. A word of caution here. If you happen to have rock stars on your team, you won't be able to retain them long, because rock stars will eventually get tired of the hot mess express train that you put them on and politely get off at the next stop.

We'll, next move on to client confidence. Perception is reality. So if you appear disorganized to your clients, they're going to start to question your ability to deliver at scale.

Here's a hard truth: A client who thrives on order will never tell you this is the reason why they discontinued your service. So take it from me. This right here is a recurring revenue killer.

And lastly, we have founder burnout. Just like chaos is going to wear your team down, the stress of managing everything in chaos is going to wear you down. And it can eventually lead to costly mistakes or worse, it can start making you resent your business.

In my opinion, this is actually the saddest to see. You have a founder who has a great business model, but because they refuse to delegate to an implementer so that they could continue to thrive as a visionary, it starts to really put a strain on the business.

This can lead to profit being spent on reimbursing clients for errors that actually could have been avoided.

Or it can show up as the founder creates an environment that's no longer enjoyable for the team because the founder is stressed out and unhappy.

So it really is true what they say. You can't scale sustainably on a foundation that's cracking under the weight of inefficiency.

Let's shift gears and let's have a more solution focused conversation.

If you're finding yourself in this position as a founder, here are some things that I recommend.

First, I want you to acknowledge the problem. Your current situation is not a reflection of your abilities as a founder. It's simply a sign that you need better support and systems.

Let's move forward to starting small. I don't want you to feel like you need to overhaul everything overnight.

Pick one area to focus on, maybe it could be your digital files or implementing a project management tool, and build from there.

We can then move on to documenting processes. Create simple, repeatable workflows for recurring tasks. This not only is going to save you time, but it makes the onboarding of new team members a breeze. This could be done in a written format, or by video, which for many is easier.

We're going to move on to bringing in the right help, whether it's a fractional executive assistant, an operations manager, or another specialist, just having someone dedicated to creating and maintaining order inside of your business is a game changer.

During this process though, remember, you are currently drowning. You need someone who has the skills to help you get off the hot mess express immediately. So you need runners, not someone who needs you to teach them how to walk.

And lastly, commit to maintenance.

Organization isn't a one-time project. It's a habit. Schedule regular check-ins with your team or your assistant to assess what's working and what needs to be adjusted. 

So there you have it!
 
Five actionable tips so you can start implementing tomorrow. 

Did today's episode hit home? 

Let me know by sending a DM on LinkedIn, booking a discovery call, or sending a message through my website. I'll be sure to drop all links in the show notes. 

And don't forget...

Caring is sharing!
 
So if you know a founder who's currently struggling from a chaotic backend end and is actively searching for help, I would love it if you shared this episode with them. 

That's a wrap, my friend! 

Thanks for joining me for another episode of Scale Smart Stay Grounded. 

Until next time, remember, scaling your business doesn't have to mean sacrificing your sanity. 

You've got this. 

And more importantly, I'm here to help.