From the archive: This episode was originally recorded and published in 2019. Our interviews on Entrepreneurs On Fire are meant to be evergreen, and we do our best to confirm that all offers and URL’s in these archive episodes are still relevant.

Colton Bollinger and the team over at Jumper Media help over 4,000 businesses tell their stories through Instagram. From zero to 6 million in annual recurring revenue in 2 years and from 3 to 50 employees!

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Resources

Your Big Idea: Successful Entrepreneurs have One Big Idea. Follow JLD’s FREE training & you’ll discover Your Big Idea in less than an hour!

JumperMedia – Colton’s website

3 Value Bombs

1) The biggest thing when handling an internal team is communication and being able to be transparent with them.

2) Scaling a company will never happen if you don’t have a really effective lead generation strategy.

3) Evaluate relationships and what you can give to people; it will come back to you ten-fold.

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Show Notes

**Click the time stamp to jump directly to that point in the episode.

Today’s Audio MASTERCLASS: From Zero to 6 million in annual recurring revenue with Colton Bollinger

[01:14] – Colton shares something interesting about himself that most people don’t know.

• He grew up restoring classic cars with his dad.

[03:55] – Colton talks about how this accidental business happened.

• When he was trying to grow an audience on Instagram for an app he was building, someone asked him for help with growing their Instagram following.
• He thought that if he could build a relationship and help someone out that it was going to pay out down the road at some point.

[06:29] – How did Colton figure out how to scale through outsourcing through Upwork?

• It takes time to figure out who is going to make a difference and who is a terrible freelancer, and you don’t want to waste your time.
• Scaling employees internally is a different thing. What Upwork enabled is buffer.
• Sometimes taking on a full-time employee as you’re waiting for your clients to come in results in a loss because you’re having to pay that salary.
• Always have availability to take on new clients while not depleting all your resources and cash flow. Having too many people on the team is not going to help you get profitable.

[09:56] – What are some things that Colton did during the hiring process?

• The best thing that we can do for clients is to give before we ask to take.
• Relationships we’ve built through Upwork – or any other freelancing position we’ve started – have been from people coming in and wanting to give first – to show us what they can do.
• This has allowed us to build up a lot of automation that we can do both internally and externally, which enables us to take on more clients to do more of the things we’re best at and add value where we can.
• He looks at qualities like the reviews, how much business they’ve done through Upwork or other websites

[16:30] – How do you continue to build a team using the people you’ve hired?

• The biggest thing in handling an internal team is communication and being able to be transparent with them.
• You’re going to have some great people who join your team and who are self-motivated – they’ll be the ones who are thinking about how they can add value.
• Colton’s team is very lucky that they’ve found a good portion of people they work with everyday who know what they need to do, are looking to continuously add value, and who think about how they can help others around them. They want to find ways to be a leader in their own respect.

[23:17] – Lead generation is a critical thing in business. If your leads are drying up, your business is going to fail. How did Colton figure out lead generation?

• Scaling a company will never happen if you don’t have a really effective lead generation strategy.
• DM people on Instagram and then get people on the phone. Figure out your numbers, cause it’s all a numbers game.
• Pro tip for connecting with your audience: Colton’s team puts merge tags in emails that pull relevant data they’re gathering on their end.
• Building trust with their audience took a lot of testimonial videos and a lot of meeting with clients in order to get references. Building a brand and the type of trust you can display through digital marketing isn’t easy.

[31:07] – How do you increase cash flow without outside investment?

• You have to step up and ask your clients what their goals are.
• We’ve built trust with our clients, and so we don’t feel bad asking them to pre-pay, and you shouldn’t either.
• Put together a package that helps your clients feel like they’re getting a better deal while also giving you what you’re looking for, which is more cash flow and more resources.

[35:24] – Colton’s parting piece of guidance.

• Don’t be afraid to give.
• Remember how much people appreciate you because you give before you ask for anything. It can be very scalable if you teach that process to your team and help them understand the value of going above and beyond for a customer.
• If you go above and beyond for your customers, it will lead to more opportunities down the road.
• Evaluate relationships and what you can give to people; it will come back to you ten-fold.
• JumperMedia – Colton’s website – check out what Colton and his team have going on today!

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