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

Hi Tiffany, thanks for joining us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

I got pregnant with my first daughter at 26, at the time I was working for a tech company in downtown Minneapolis. I knew raising my kids (we have 4 now) was important to me, so I went to my boss and told him I was planning to quit and be home full-time. That was in 2008, when remote-work was not a thing. My boss saw my work ethic and didn’t want to lose me, so he fought for me to be one of two employees in a 120+ employee company to get to work from home. That season was hard, learning to juggle working at home with my children, but to this day I am so grateful for that opportunity, and it has spurred in my heart the desire to give that opportunity back to other moms.

I started my agency not only to help our clients stop sacrificing their health, motherhood, and relationships for their businesses because they are drowning in the day-to-day but also to build a team of amazing women entrepreneurs that want something different than the nine-to-five or a network marketing business. My goal is to allow moms to work on their terms. If they want only to work 5 hours a month or they want a full-time gig, we are on the road to creating that.

The freedom to live the life we moms want has become my new agency mission. Both with our team and with our clients. Helping support working moms on both sides.

Tiffany, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’m Tiffany, Wife, Mom of 4, and Owner and Founder of TiffHoeft.com and Fierce Decorum – Business Management Agency. Once I started having kids, I knew I wanted the flexibility to raise them well. So while my kid were young I worked a remote corporate job, then some small local positions, and then landed in a network marketing business. I grew that to a very successful level, but our company filed bankruptcy and got bought out and pretty much lost my business overnight.

It was at that point that I knew I wanted something that was mine, that no one could take from me, that allowed me to still work on my own terms. So I started in 2019 as a virtual assistant. I did that for about 6 months, but quickly realized that my skills were above and beyond what a typical assistant would do, so I pivoted and grew over the last 3 years into our current two legs of the business.

TiffHoeft.com is an educational platform for new business owners, or specifically women who want to start their own businesses. We have both free and paid content to help them set up the right foundation, primarily as it pertains to their systems.

Fierce Decorum is a Business Management Agency that also helps with Operations. I step in as a Fractional Chief Operating Officer to a handful of clients, and my team helps to execute monthly back-office support services to our retainer clients. Because of the amazing skillset of our team, we can provide an extensive list of services to our clients.

We primarily help boutique business owners step out of the day-to-day operations and into their role as CEO by taking on daily, weekly and monthly tasks. We are different because we tailor our services and deliverables to our clients, their personalities, companies, and industries. We act as a one-stop shop for our creative clients who don’t want to build a massive team, and we create systems that work for them.

I am proud of the team that we have built. These women, who are mostly mommas, are fierce, dedicated, loyal, and have massive skills. We all treat our client’s businesses like our own. We also are able to flex if anyone has a sick kid, or other commitments. Everyone supports each other. I feel so blessed to have these amazing women around me every day.

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

When I first got started as a Virtual Assistant, I knew in the back of my mind that wasn’t the end goal. But I wasn’t really sure where I wanted to go or, ultimately what I wanted to do. So I looked at that time as a learning opportunity. Every group I could join (in budget of course), every course I could take, and anyone who wanted my time, I took advantage.

I started my business right at the beginning of Covid, so that posed a challenge to get out and meet people so each week I would reach out to 5 people on LinkedIn or Instagram and ask them to have a virtual coffee chat so I could learn about them, their business and their pain points as an entrepreneur. Which usually led to them asking me what I did.

During this time, I also would work for free or discounted rates to learn a new skill or do something I hadn’t done before, or if there was a really cool client I wanted to have on my roster. To this day I still have 1 client I started as her virtual assistant, and now am her Operations Director. We were able to grow her business together.

Honestly, the biggest reputation builder has been building relationships. I’m known in the Minneapolis women in business circle because most of them know they can come to me and I will always respond, and always try to help. I’m a teacher who loves new people at heart, so I’ve leaned into that and just made friends and taught people how to have better businesses. It’s served me well.

Any advice for managing a team?

Your team will be your biggest asset, your biggest investment, and usually your biggest issue. But you can not scale without other people coming alongside you to help. I’ve helped clients navigate a myriad of team issues, and there are a few tips I’ve learned along the way.

First, be slow to hire and quick to fire. You should never bring on your neighbors, best friends, cousin, unless you have developed a job description and application and had them apply, vetted, and interviewed. So many small businesses get into trouble because they wait too long and then rush the hiring process and end up with someone who is not the right fit. Knowing this team member is going to be a big investment, plan for it, start saving now, especially if you’re hiring your first person. Then make sure they are a good fit before bringing them on. Then, when you start seeing red flags, don’t drag it on. It’s not a service to you or them to keep on someone who isn’t working out. I’ve coached a few of my clients through letting team members go and they all wish they had done it sooner.

Make sure your team members have a voice. You should have consistent one-on-one meetings that are all about them. Not what you need them to do, but them as an individual. Ask them about their ideas…and listen! Especially when things are going well, those meetings are non-negotiable because then, when an issue does arise (and it will!), you have a relationship where the sting is not as bad.

Have solid onboarding and training processes. So many of the issues you’ll run into with your team are around knowing what needs to be done and the expectations on how and the result. Systems and processes will give people the knowledge to do their job well, and it also is the gauge when things aren’t being done to company standards. It acts as a way to keep people accountable for their roles.

Finally, celebrate them! Celebrate their work and who they are as a person. Think of growing your team as building relationships instead of managing people.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.fiercedecorum.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/tiffhoeft
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tiffanyhoeftconsulting/
• Other: www.tiffhoeft.com

Image Credits
Kaylee LaMoine