Ben’s Struggles When He Started Inspire

Have a listen to the struggles Ben Walker faced as an Accounting Firm Owner when he first started Inspire in 2013, all the way to 2022 – 9 years later.  

Here’s what he said – 

I’ve broken Inspire into 3 different stages: 

• Inspire 1.0 ($0-500k) 
• Inspire 2.0 ($500k-1.5m)
• Inspire 3.0 ($1.5m-3m) 

Inspire 1.0 ($0-500k)

• There was way too much to do
• I was wearing heaps of hats
• I wasn’t taught how to run a business at university – My dad was in business, my grandfather, but you don’t get taught that stuff. Some of them are hard lessons
• I had conflicting information from coaches or mentors
• I was pretty unclear about what to focus on for me at the time.

Inspire 2.0 ($500k-1.5m)

• I was really bogged down in delivery sales
• We were making losses as well for a lot of that
• My business partner and I are having different perspectives towards the end of our journey together in terms of vision for ourselves and our firm
• The other thing that took me a while to crack is, I was really unclear on how to grow out of a flat structure. And what I mean by that is, I had about seven or eight people reporting to me and asking me questions a lot. I was responsible for reviewing stuff and getting back to so many people, including my own clients, my life,  my wife and all that sort of stuff. So, it was a very flat structure that I struggled with.

Inspire 3.0 ($1.5m-3m) 

The thing that I’ve had to work through is sometimes not knowing what my role is. There are literally days I’d go to work and I’d have nothing to do. I would question myself, “How do I get to the next stage? What problem is going to be coming in the next day, or week, or month that I’m not seeing yet?” And also, “Where do I add the most value to the team? What are my day-to-day responsibilities?”

I’ve found out that if I’m doing things, it’s stopping someone else from learning that role as well. Let’s say marketing for instance. One of the things I’ve actively had to do is step back from speaking engagements to let those 3 future managing partners come in and take that place as well.