Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Teresa Saffold. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Teresa thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Folks often look at a successful business and imagine it was an overnight success, but from what we’ve seen this is often far from the truth. We’d love to hear your scaling up story – walk us through how you grew over time – what were some of the big things you had to do to grow and what was that scaling up journey like?

My first pole company officially started in 2016, however I was a business owner long before that. I knew I always wanted to own a business and once I realized the type of business, I wanted to get into I began working in that business and treating it as my own. I sought out a mentor and was honest with her to tell her I wanted to do what she was doing. I would offer my support to her endeavors and I was patient with the learning process. Once I stepped into my own, I was already light years ahead.

I believe that is the key. You cannot wait until you start to actually start. You have to become the thing you want to be long before you become that thing.

So moving on, once I was “official” I went all in. I focused on my business education seeing as I do not have a degree in business. I read books, listed to audio recordings, I took all the digital courses I could fin and afford that were important to what I was doing. I spent a lot of time strategizing and using my resources. I leveraged good relationships that I had for support and I took really big risks.

The biggest risk I took was quitting my banking career of 10 years to pursue running a pole dance studio full time. It was frightening, but I was all in. Now – I had to make it. Taking astronomical risks like that where you have to fight hard lest you drown can give anyone the motivation to grow and scale their business.

In the beginning of the building of my first company I was involved in every part of it. I watched every operational detail and I looked for clues that clients were leaving to tell me what mattered the most. Once I started figuring out what mattered the most to the clients, I started focusing on that, By doing that – it helped me to ultimately begin to scale in the first area.

That is an unknown truth to many entrepreneurs is that you should not try to scale everything at once. Pick the most popular item or service you have and blow that up. There is a book called “the Pumpkin Plan” by Mike Michaelowicz that will help you understand this concept best. Do not try to have everything you are doing scale at once, do it in segments and you will find that you scale much faster.

This is what I feel I did great at. I started segmenting the needs of the market and I gave dedicated attention to that. Understanding you can lump all the need of your clients into a one size fits all solution will by default help you to scale your business model. Not only that, it can position you as an industry leader and expert and can certainly increase your revenue making potential.

Scaling a business is a beautiful thing. It proves your concept is needed and wanted by the market you serve. It is proof you are doing something right and it is a pathway to what is next for your business goals,

In summary, the way you scale is first immerse yourself into what you do through hands on experience, surveying. and observation. Analyze the needs, problems, and come up with solutions. Then you will segment them and essentially provide niche focused solutions to those different needs. Give yourself time, be solution focused not profit focused, and most importantly enjoy the journey.

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?

My name is Teresa Saffold, but I go by Coach Tee and I am a Pole Fitness Mogul. I have created multiple Pole Dance Fitness Studios, I own a highly successful Pole Party Company, I’ve curated Pole Instructor courses and produced hundreds of successful pole coaches, written business books, launched the first and only Pole Supply Store in Dallas Texas, and am still not done!

I love what I do. I love creating other pole fitness entrepreneurs, and I have much more to accomplish in this Poe Industry. The reasons why I do what I do are clear for me – it is about women empowerment. I love to help women see their abilities when it comes to physical strength, intellectual power, and their own innate abilities to build businesses and create financial freedom for themselves.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Of course – Covid-19. Having a business that operated out of a brick and mortar supplying in person services and was in the fitness industry was a nightmare when the pandemic hit. I was however able to overcome it with one – the grace of God and two quick thinking on how to take my business online.

I had already been toying with the idea of online sessions, but when Covid 19 happened I had to go all in. Not only was I able to find a solution that held us over, but I was also able to create another revenue stream through launching Polepreneur instructor courses virtually. It was a success and I have doubled revenue since then!

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Hiring and training good people who care.

Our brand is known for the way we care about the needs of others. We do not just service them, we grow them. People who are passionate about what they do and not what they earn are the key to building a strong reputation in the market.

Hands down – it doesn’t matter what you sell if the people doing the selling are not caring.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.coachteepower.com/
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/coachteepower
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TeeSaffold/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCV9s6zMCqIbHfB8WbYFvMOQ