If you are stuck in a cash flow cycle of ups and downs, chasing clients and inconsistency with work, what I want to share with you is what's caused me to break through the twenty thousand dollars a month ceiling with our business and have reliable ongoing work.

These three things: systems, partnerships, and people. My name's Caleb, I'm the founder of Flow Gurus. You may have seen us at The Re-loom Icon Library or used our Ultimate Webflow Build Checklist. I came across Webflow which completely changed everything for me. I fell in love almost instantly, and I actually started with the first Lord to the Flux Academy course. I launched Flow Gurus about two and a half years ago and full transparency, it has been a tumultuous ride.

We're bringing in sixty thousand dollars in some months, back to back, we might have one thousand dollars. 200 websites later, we're on track past our first half a million dollars worth of revenue. We have customers that are super happy with our service that continually come back. I'm now about 80 percent out of actually working in websites myself in the business and more now focused on building the business, growing the revenue of the business, improving our service and hiring top talent. And these are the things which I can see have measurably helped me make a dramatic difference in my business.

Number one is systems, and you've probably heard a lot about systems, but in here I want to give you very clear actionable steps and things that cost me so much time and money to learn. Number one with systems is see your business as a machine. This is actually more of a

mindset thing that actually took me a while to break out of, but seeing the business as a reliable machine that can spit out the quality that you want for your customers, step one: document every step in your process. When you first get in contact with a potential new customer

or partnership, what is every single thing that you do from that step all the way to when you're handing over the website, the aftercare, the follow-up 30 days later? What are all the steps in between and actually document them in a sequential order from start to finish.

Here's an example of what documenting every step in your process looks like. This is our ultimate Webflow build checklist all the way from when we get the design all the way to when we hand over the website. You can see here every single step in our entire process for

example: create Webflow account, ensure Webflow account is ready for transfer. Then, rather than scrambling at the end of the project, so we're even leaving hints and suggestions and reasons why things are done. Every single step is documented thoroughly so that basically a monkey could do it. That's what I kind

of think is, how could a four-year-old child follow these instructions and then they could do it themselves? No matter how many times I do these projects, I still miss things. I don't want it to be in my head, I need it on paper. It has to be outside of my brain.

Otherwise, where is the business? What is the business for me? This is the business. This is actually the valuable part of the business that I can teach other people and other people can help learn, improve, and grow. Before you can do that though, the second step is measure and

Track time on everything, so you want to be able to measure everything. How many projects are you doing per month? How many leads are coming through in your sales pipeline? How many sales calls are you having each month? How long is each step in the process taking, as an example?

This here is our current project pipeline. We can see the projects that are ready to start, we can see the projects that are in progress, the projects that are on launch pad, and the projects that are in the 30-day monitoring. Now I can't show all of these

because of NDAs, but you can see here if we look at each project, I can see exactly what has been done, what's not been done, and how long each and every step of that project has taken. It helps you figure out where am I losing time

where am I losing money? Where do I need to create efficiencies in the business? Because 30 minutes here, one hour there, 20 minutes here, it all adds up when you start to scale and grow the business, and if you're doing it by yourself even more so. Do you need to become super efficient?

With this, at one point I was building 10 websites by myself, which is why I actually had to develop this checklist so that I could handle that. Otherwise, I was just going to go and say it. Another part of measuring and tracking everything is knowing your numbers in

terms of how many websites do you need to do each month in order to hit twenty thousand dollars a month revenue? If your average website is two thousand dollars, that means you need to be doing 10 websites a month. If your average website is five thousand dollars, that means you

need to be doing four websites a month, what does that look like? How do you get four websites a month if your conversion rate out of every 10 sales calls, we have we close one deal, then that means you're gonna have to do 40 calls to do four

five thousand dollar websites. So you have to be able to measure and track time on absolutely everything so that you can see your business as a machine as a whole and tweak the dials and create efficiencies where you can. If you don't know your numbers, it's very, very

difficult to create efficiencies and find out where you're leaking money, leaking time. It blows my mind because the majority of people that I speak to about their business, they don't know their numbers, they don't track their time, they don't know how much they're

spending in terms of costs and they don't have a reliable way of having an overview of this in their business. I cannot stress this point enough, absolutely game-changing. As an example, here's a quick breakdown of when we were doing cold calls to drum up new

partnerships with design agencies. I made just over 60 cold calls to Australian design agencies in total, that was eight hours of calls that led to two new partnerships and the average value per partnership so far since they've come on board has been around two thousand

dollars per month. So that helps me understand the value of those cold calls. I don't know if you've done cold calls, but for me, it's painful, it's a grind and it feels like 80 hours rather than eight hours, but now that I can objectively see

not subjectively feel how big or small the value is I can objectively see the value that's created by doing that for my business The third and final step of the system is taking notes and updating the documentation on every project not after the project I noticed I was first

doing when I was documenting every step timing tracking measuring everything is that I was often waiting to the end of the project to then kind of circle back and add things I highly recommend doing it in real time so during a project if you notice ah that was a little bit

difficult well we could do that better a great example is this step in our build checklist so whenever we set up projects we set up all the pages in the entire project at the very beginning so that we know every single page that's going to

be in the project now when I discovered this step I added it straight away to the checklist I didn't wait until the end of the project and then add it later I when I realized oh wow this is super useful to have all of the pages already

in there just so that I don't have to keep checking the site map and remember wait which pages are we doing again what page do we need to do next it's already all in there add it straight away done you never have to think about it again

of course you can always circle back after and have a bit of a team review and figure out how we can do it but nothing better than doing it in the moment when it's fresh because we always have this thought of yeah I'll remember that and you don't the tricky part that

I found because I've tried to do this for four years and it's only been in the last 10 months that I've really nailed this system. The reason this system has worked and I don't have to rebuild a whole other system is that I've created

a system for one customer that there has been one of the biggest game-changing things, which we're going to get to in the next step in Partnerships, but having one person that you deliver for and win for, that one person fully. Talking to myself four years ago I'd be saying

Caleb, just win for one type of customer and just be super specific about that customer. It might be less customers at the start, but if you can win really well for that one customer and systemize that, then open up to a second type of customer if you want to. We found that it

was sticking with one golden customer that we love working with has just unlocked value efficiencies and happier customers, and better processes and better quality of service. If you have any questions about systems, please comment them down below. I'll be in the comments answering as many questions as

I can. The purpose of having a system is so that you have a reliable machine that can leverage instead of you being the leverage, and you are the only reason that projects are delivered. You now have a machine that's starting to take the responsibility away from you and the

machine can be operated by other people or things can be automated. The amount of things we've automated is just unbelievable. It makes life so much easier. But other than that, you're wanting to deliver for someone, right? We're wanting to deliver for someone now.

Previously, I was getting referrals, I was reaching out on Facebook, I was doing cold calls, cold emails, connecting with people on LinkedIn. It was just so various how we were getting work, and it was so many different types of businesses that we're working with.

Startups, e-commerce, you name it. We just said yes to everything, and with that came a high level of variability and complexity. So every time I built a system, it wouldn't serve that customer well. It always had to be adjusted. Then when I adjusted it, the next customer

came along, and then it was different again. So when it comes to having reliable, consistent work coming in, I need to focus on one customer. And then the next question I asked is, where do they hang out? How can I have a situation where these people are coming to me

constantly? Focusing on partnerships that are going to stack and snowball rather than turn and burn, once-off website, see you later, never see you again. So for me, a real shift in the last year has just been focusing on businesses and partnerships which are going to lead to

long-term support work and growing together. Who can I serve the best consistently? And the focus was on creating value, not getting value. It's a very subtle but super important shift. Who can I create the most value for now? Because previously, Flow Gurus and

for five years, I was offering brand design, development, aftercare. I'd experienced a lot of the pains and the complexities and the problems that came with brand and design. And for me, it was a real struggle. But we really nailed Webflow development. So what we decided

to do was focus on serving Creative Design agencies that are passionate about design and they've got their systems nailed in their space and they're focused on serving a particular niche and a particular persona and they're looking for people to handle this part of the business which is

reliable development because from my experience when whenever I worked with highly professional, organized, and detailed designers, we would all always produce our best work for them and it just felt great, the outcome was always something we were all proud of and it created really great relationships so

that's where we decided to focus our energy on creating partnerships like that as soon as that decision was made suddenly all these ideas started coming together with oh I'm going to build a client dashboard specifically for design agencies, oh I'm going to create this

system specifically for design agencies and so it just started to stack the value of our systems and processes and it really forced us to dig deep and to really understand that the core needs and pain points and things that we can solve for our design agency partners which they wouldn't be getting from the

average Webflow developer who hasn't spent hundreds of hours trying to figure out how they can best serve that one person something that really helped with this as well was focusing on long-term wins, they win, we win. Sometimes when we get new agency partnerships on board

they can be in a struggling situation, in fact that's often the case, one of their developers has just disappeared or ghosted them or they've got some kind of fire that needs to be put out and sometimes they've got a really skinny budget for that first website or two for

us because we're focused on partnerships, we always figure out a way to make it work with them because we know in the long term it's going to be fruitful. There's going to be a lot more enjoyment and money that's going to be made in our

partnership together. If we just focus on getting through this first phase, principle number three, when it comes to actually getting partnerships or getting work through the door, a huge game-changing thing for us was focusing on 10x the amount of outreach necessary to actually get that much work through the

door. This is actually from Grant Cardone's book, *The 10x Rule*, but basically I've noticed, and even in myself, I dramatically underestimate how much effort is going to be involved in getting new business through the door. So by focusing on in the start I was

thinking, 'Look, if we just, you know, get three design agencies on board that work really well with us and that should be able to help us reach our financial goals.' And then I thought, 'You know what, we're going to focus on getting 30 design agencies on board.' At the moment

we have 15 design agencies on board, but if I didn't focus on getting 30 agency partnerships on board, there's no way I would have put in the amount of effort that I did, which has actually got us to the point where we've had the financial

breakthrough with the business. And it's also helped us see if we have 30 design agencies, we have to think a little bit differently about our systems and how we can manage that many agencies, which creates more efficiencies versus if we're just handling a few. We now have

regular business coming to us every month where we're not chasing people because we've built a reputation with our partners and we're getting new business because they know we can deliver these are the things which seem to have made the biggest difference for my business so far I have spent tens of

thousands of dollars on courses programs coaching and an incalculable amount of 80 hour weeks sleepless nights trying to crack this I'd like to ask you before we get to the last point what do you feel is the number one thing to help you get

to twenty thousand dollars plus a month we're always trying to improve our systems and processes our checklist and I'd be really curious to know what you feel is the main thing that you need to break through in order to crack that ceiling for this last step people

finding the right people I think this is actually a highly underrated topic when it comes to business success this one step has made the systems it has made the partnerships all way easier and in some cases I would say without these people that are in your team in your

environment I wouldn't have been able to achieve the first two major steps anyways your team obviously the machine that we're talking about either you're operating it it's operating itself or you have other people that are agreeing to jump into the machine with you and

operate parts of that machine with you I'm actually highly focused on this step at the moment to figure out more about how we can have a team super team members that are just contributing massively that love being a part of the team and that can help flow gurus grow

flourish and continually get better. Number one is attitude over talent. I've noticed that in the past I've picked a lot of talent, but ultimately the attitude in terms of are they rocking up with a positive attitude, is it friendly? Because if that's not there, it's almost

like, no matter how talented people are, if the good vibes aren't there, then it's, it's not in my opinion, it's just not worth having the people in the business because it can erode the business from the inside out, and the headaches that come with it, it's not worth the money.

I'd rather just downsize the business and offer less and do less and make less money, but the main thing that's actually really hit me recently is that you can take your eye wires off them. So one thing I noticed when I was delegating is that

I was always including myself in the delegation. I was always imagining that I'm going to be managing this person. So one thing I'm focused on now is how can I find people that I can fully just take my eyes off because they've got this

sorted fully? How can I make sure that they are best supported to do their best work to earn as much as they can in this business, to create as much value as they can in this business and grow, learn, etc.? That there is actually one thing that

I'm figuring out, testing the waters first is also something that I found to be super helpful where instead of just jumping into bed together and signing a 12-month full-time contract, let's do one project together or let's do this little thing together, and if it feels good, if

You notice that they're just doing the things automatically that you're hoping that they will do for a particular role. That's kind of what I've found to be really helpful. It appears this one here is massively underestimated, but who do you have around you in terms of

peers? I actually put a lot of effort over the last few years into connecting with people and the community, finding people that are doing things that I really respect and admire and that are on similar journeys to me. You might know people in the community that are really

struggling, but if we're always hanging around people that are struggling, then it's very hard to break out of that norm mindset. So being around people that are on the same page, that are also on the same journey of progress and not on the same journey of struggles

necessarily, but you know, are really pushing in the same direction as you so you can support each other side by side. Great places like this is actually like the Flux Community, like that's incredible. The Re-loom community actually, the overall Webflow Community

is incredible, but finding those Slack channels, those Facebook groups or whatever that is, the Discord Channels with people that you really resonate with that are figuring out similar questions that you're trying to answer. And lastly, mentors, for me finding mentors and people that are doing what

you want to be doing, who are actually succeeding in the space, who are actually, who are really actually succeeding in the space that you're wanting to succeed in. And I'll tread carefully with this, but not necessarily people that have made a lot of money.

online but that are doing the exact thing that you want to be doing and they are doing that one thing very well. Those are the kinds of people that I want to be around. I love what the guys at Outsetter are doing, their business model, their values, the way they show up and

I've constantly been trying to look for opportunities on how I can be a part of what they're doing, contribute to what they're doing, just because I want to be around people that are doing things that I aspire to also be doing myself. Not to

mention you just increase the potential of luck to happen when you're around more people that are doing things that are in alignment with your values and goals. But just being around them, being in their space, seeing what they're doing and finding ways wherever you can to

contribute to what they're doing is something that I've been focused on for years now. Any opportunity I get when I can see people doing amazing work, I try to think of ways that how can I be a part of this, because that's that's the

kind of thing that I want to be doing and I want to be a part of. The benefit of being around mentors and people that you admire is that they're already going to have established systems, processes, values and things that are probably going to unconsciously rub off by just

being around it. Not to mention you're just in the potential of luck to happen when you're around more people that are doing things that are in alignment with your values and goals. Going from zero to a six-figure Webflow agency, I'm still learning and ironically I started

learning by watching videos just like this with Flux four years ago. If you have any questions, please post them down below. I'm personally going to be in those comments answering as many as I can, and feel free to grab a copy of our chat checklist. Flux viewers get a

cracking discount with it if you use the discount code Flux. Have a beautiful day.

Behind the scenes of a 6 figure Webflow agency

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