We were lucky to catch up with Elisabeth Bourke (Jackson) recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Elisabeth , thanks for joining us today. Let’s start on the operational side – do you spend more of your time/focus/energy on growing revenue or cutting costs?

This is a common question I get from my clients all the time, and the relationship between the two comes down to efficiency. When you are efficient in your operations, you make it easier for you to grow your capacity to focus on growing your revenue. You don’t want to arbitrarily begin cutting costs in order to increase profit; however simplifying your backend so you can see where you can be intentional with your costs, and being clear on the responsibilities you need outsourced so you can keep a lean team, will save you from both unnecessary costs while also setting your foundations to welcome increased revenue. It’s a win-win.

Let’s be real, for a lot of us business owners, we built our business figuring it out as we went. And in growing our business, things that worked to get us to this point only worked for that season and are now acting as a very expensive wrench in the operation. An example, having an email marketing software that may have worked as a cheap alternative, that now is costing you several hundreds when your subscribers grew. Or vice versa, focusing on keeping all functions of your business on your plate, and limiting the amount of people you can work with due to your capacity, compared to hiring intentionally for support.

That’s honestly why at The Afro Coach, we developed the operational engine™️. The philosophy around it is that there are only 6 systems you need in your business to run your operations at scale. It focuses on optimizing people, processes and tools in these areas in order to sustainably grow your business without unnecessary costs.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am Elisabeth Bourke (Jackson), founder of The Afro Coach consultancy, a boutique operations agency focused on supporting online agencies and service providers to run a business without it running them.

It started after I left my agency project management position, where I managed Fortune 100 and Fortune 500 company projects, and moved across the world to Australia with a couple thousand to my name. After grinding and nearly quitting in 2018, I realized that with little structure and no clock-out, I had built a 24/7 job that kept me financially well-off, but miserable. And I, unfortunately, saw a similar trend happening amongst service providers.

Our mission is to make it possible for business owners to not have to choose between living their life or having a livelihood. Where we shine is in our dedication to custom-creating a business that suits each entrepreneur’s needs. We care about YOUR experience, just as much as we do your clients. So we offer strategy and set up sessions, where we create a holistic operational strategy that simplifies, optimizes and systemizes business backends, so that they can increase their clientele capacity, without burning out. The work we do covers all aspects of a service-based business operation, from client onboarding and offer delivery, to policy creation and team building.

What we are MOST proud of, is being able to show how every business how we can simplify the workload on their plate, specific to their needs. We’ve worked with well over 30 businesses ranging from 4-figures to 7-figures, ranging from new moms, and those with chronic illnesses. Our goal is to make a business that not only is scalable, but is sustainable and enjoyable for the business owner.

if there is anything I’d like future clients to know, it’s that we care about YOU just as much as your business. We won’t create something that doesn’t feel good to you to run and operate. We check in, sometimes months after our initial call, to ensure everything is still working well, we provide custom advice to help decision-overwhelm, and heaps more resources to ensure that you are building a business that not only makes money, but that you ENJOY. You aren’t your business; and we ensure that your income doesn’t depend on you being at 100% in order to run.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

WHEW. There are many times I’ve pivoted across my life, but I think the biggest one was moving from a service provider to an agency. It’s so different going from a place where everything is fully dependent on you, to having a team to help you deliver the entirety of the offer delivery, and even supporting with the marketing and the sales. I was incredibly nervous (this was at the beginning of the year in January), and had to remember my OWN advice on recognizing that I cannot grow a business to where I want it to be, without support. And if I want this business to grow, it can’t rely on my own capacity; something I had been feeling when I was having to PASS on clients due to not having the time! We are still growing, but have since hired support with my content, my lead generation, and my overall delivery of operational setups, and it has drastically changed my viewpoint on how far I can take this business. Everything was based at first in what was possible with my own capacity. Now, the sky is the limit.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

You can’t look at your business success from month to month. There will be months where you see nothing, and then have three $20,000 revenue months in a row. Being able to review my progress based on 1. The number of clients who refer me and come back to me for more work 2. How long my clients use what I have built for them and 3. How many lessons I’ve learned and applied, has given me a LOT more peace around how well my business is doing, even when the growth is less obvious.

Contact Info:

• Website: theafrocoach.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/elisabethjackson
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lizzijackson/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/byTheAfroCoach