Scaling Up Success Podcast

Hold My Beer: The Accidental Consultant's Guide to Business Growth with Dave McFarland

• Ryan Van Ornum • Season 1 • Episode 26

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What happens when skilled tradespeople, machinists, welders, and engineers step into business ownership?
Many hit a wall around $2–4 million in revenue. In this powerful episode, Dave McFarland of Focus Op-X breaks down why so many “accidental business owners” stall at that point, and how scaling up requires a shift in mindset, not just more hustle.

“You can't read the label from inside the jar,” Dave says, reminding us that true growth starts when owners let go of total self-reliance and build systems that empower others. He shares real-world stories of transformation, from simple tech upgrades that revolutionized daily operations to long-term consulting wins that clients still talk about years later.

Whether you’re a small manufacturer, service provider, or trades-based entrepreneur, Dave offers clear, actionable advice, including why buying an existing business might be your smartest move.

To learn more about breaking free from operational bottlenecks, connect with Dave on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/davemcfarland-investor-advisor-innovator or visit focusopex.com.

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Speaker 1:

What's up everybody this Ryan Van Orden back with another episode of scaling up success, powered by synergist. Today I have Dave McFarland of focus op X. Dave, how you doing today, sir? I'm doing great. Ryan, how are you? I am fantastic and I'm super excited to be able to talk to you a little bit about what's what you got going on on and what you've been building out. So let's just jump into it, shall we Sure? All right, so well, tell us a little bit about Focus Op-Ex.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so Focus Op-Ex is my consulting company. I've been consulting for about a dozen years and I mainly focus on small manufacturers, privately held companies, and basically what I do is I help them solve problems and grow their business. I really focus on operations on the factory floor and then I go from there.

Speaker 1:

Okay, Okay. So if you're looking at like people that you work with, what would be like that, I guess quote unquote, avatar of the people that are your people that you work with currently?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so it's mainly owner operators. A lot of times they're what I would call accidental business owners, right, so they're people that worked with their hands or they had a skill and they turned that into a company. So think welders, machinists, maybe even engineers that are, you know, have a service and they're like, oh you know, I could sell the service on my own, and then they just build a business out of that.

Speaker 1:

So what challenges do you see with when see when people take on businesses like that? Do you see that there are certain things that maybe that they're struggling with with the growth of the business Go more in depth into that piece of it?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and I will leverage that book you have behind you. Buy Back your Time. I recommend that book to a lot of people. I think one of the main things that I see that folks like to struggle with is they're so self-reliant and they're so good at solving problems. They feel they have to do everything themselves, and so they really paint themselves into a corner and really, you know, the business ends up owning them because they spend so much time doing it and they're really good at what they do, right. So maybe maybe they're really good machinists, but maybe they really shouldn't be doing their books Right, maybe they really shouldn't be doing the ordering, and so I think that's one of the main things I see is that they really struggle to get out of their own way and they really have trouble giving up some of those activities, and they really should if they want to grow and scale.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I mean if, if someone's a really good machinist, but like man, they, they absolutely suck at ordering or bookkeeping. Like you said, man, what they've done is basically just rewrote their job description and something that they're awful at and that they hate Exactly. So how do you help people in those regards?

Speaker 2:

Well, you know, it really depends on the purpose. I can't help them if they don't want to be helped. So that's really the first thing is sometimes, you know, I'm a little bit of a coach, or even a therapist, to try to get them to understand they have to not do more, they have to do different, and that's one of the things I really try to impress upon them. And so sometimes that's difficult and they bristle because, well, dave, I've been doing it this way for 20 years. Why are you coming in and saying I have to do things differently? And sometimes that's a tough conversation to have, but it's really important because they kind of get stuck right.

Speaker 2:

So I see, you know companies, an individual and maybe just one or two other people they can grow a business to two to four million in revenue pretty easy, but getting above that it's hard. And they think they can get above it by just doing more. And you can't. You really have to do something different. You have to put systems and processes into place so that someone else can do some of the stuff that you're doing right now.

Speaker 1:

Man, you were kind of like the bartender without the good stuff, aren't you? No, I love what you're doing, man, because what it does is actually helps people understand how to take it from. You know, like, get yourself out of your own way. You know, like, and you know, once people start to buy into that and it's not even buying in, it's like understanding, like, here's what, here's the next piece of evolution of my growth. Would you agree on that piece?

Speaker 2:

on that piece. Yeah, yeah, and that's, and that's partly why I do recommend books, because a lot of times what I'll do is I'll say you know what here I could preach to you, but what I want you to do is to listen to this guy. Right? He wrote a book and he sold a bunch of them. He's pretty credible. Read that book and then let's talk.

Speaker 1:

Isn't that funny Cause it's like I used to coach college sports. I coached college volleyball way in a different lifetime ago and what I found is like I could be saying something as the assistant coach and the head coach would say it for months and months and months, and then all of a sudden, just because myself or another assistant coach may have said it just in a different manner it's just a slightly different voice All of a sudden that player clicked and it just so. That's really fascinating that just using a different piece of modality or a different voice, a different connection to somebody, may have them click exactly what you're looking for them to take that to that next level. So very cool, very cool.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I found one, one little phrase that has helped me, a changed this mindset a little bit is I've told people you know, there's an old saying that you can't read the label from inside the jar, and so I've had that. A couple of people just like their eyes open and it just clicked with them and they understood the value of that outside perspective and they really realized that, oh, you're right, you know, I that's what I feel like. I feel like I'm stuck in here and run around bouncing off the walls all the time, and so that that analogy really resonates with people.

Speaker 1:

I love that, I love that. So now you've been doing this for a minute or two now in the, in the, in the consulting space. What are you most proud about when, since you've been building this, this, this business up?

Speaker 2:

I think what I'm most proud about is that when people come back and tell me that I really helped in some way, and sometimes it's not obvious at the time. So I'll give you a good example. I had a client a number of years ago. Well, for all intents and purposes, I considered it a failure because we didn't get the improvement that I wanted us to get.

Speaker 2:

And I had someone come back to me and this was oh my goodness, it was at least five years after I left there and they said hey, dave, I just wanted to let you know we're doing this in our company now and these things are going great because all that stuff you taught us and I was like but you didn't do any of it. And they're like well, we know we didn't do it then, but you know we ran into some problems and we started doing some of the things that you said and they were really successful. So thank you for that. That. Just two things. It was kind of wowed me that that they tried it so much later, but it was tried it so much later, but it was, uh, it was gratifying to know, um, that I did move the needle.

Speaker 1:

Man, that that's. That's some quality stuff right there. And then the other thing that it makes me think of too it's like you know, when you're kind of like raising kids and like you, you talk, talk to your kids who you're blue in the face, and then they go off to college or they, they go into high school or whatever level that they level up to, and then all of a sudden it starts clicking with them. They're like I should have listened to dad about that. It's kind of similar in that huh, and it's funny.

Speaker 2:

I've had that happen a number of times in my career, Even before I was a consultant. I'm a degree biologist, so way back when, when I worked in the science environment, it was the same thing. I'd have people come back three years afterwards and say hey, Dave, remember when you told me that, yeah, I do. Well, that was awesome and it transformed the way I did things. I was like, oh well, that's cool, but at the time I didn't even know it.

Speaker 1:

Right, right, no, that's I love and that's like the gratifying piece about this is like you can come back years later to somebody and be like man. Thank you for that. You know like it's. It's like delayed gratification, but still pretty cool.

Speaker 2:

So, and the funny thing is, it's not always what you would expect it to be. That's what's funny. It's like it's some little thing you're like oh, I didn't think that would have that much of an impact, but it did and yeah, it's great Well let's switch gears but still talk a little bit about unexpected opportunities.

Speaker 1:

So one of the things that that you you just kind of said is, like you, you have these unexpected, you know, like like feel good moments but like, as you've gotten into consulting, is there, has there been unexpected opportunities that doors open up because of the, the career genre that you're in now? You know like maybe it's a conversation that happened and it's like it opened up into something else. Tell me some, tell me something along those lines.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, it happens a lot, and so I think that happened because of my mindset shift. So when I first started consulting, I decided I was this and I was going to do this, and people said they wanted something outside of that. Say, no, I'm this and this is what I'm going to do. So part of it is because I've been a little bit more of an opportunist and so now, now, consulting opportunities come along that aren't really what I say I do or advertise that I do, but I was like, yeah, I can do that and they need the help. So I will.

Speaker 2:

I'll give you a specific example. I'm in conversations right now with two people that want to buy a business, right? And they said, dave, you know, we worked for this business. The owners sell it. We want to buy the business, but we don't know how to do that. We don't, we don't have to get funding, we don't know how to make an offer. We don't know any of this. Can you help us? And I'm like, well, yeah, I think I can. And so that's turned into a consulting opportunity that, like I said, that's not my core business, but it's a skill that I have that I can share with people, and so now I'm very open to doing things like that. So that's one example. And then another thing I'm doing right now is I'm working on a healthcare startup, of all things, and the reason I'm doing it is because I have the network that would allow me to access those people. So there's no reason for me not to do something like that.

Speaker 1:

I kind of love that and I'm kind of like the blue collar, kind of gritty. I came from the military side of stuff and it's like the hold my beer mentality. You know what? Let me figure that out, I can make that happen for you. And I love that man because like it just kind of shows like you know you're not, you're not just going to like pigeonhole yourself into one, one area, that there's so many opportunities out there. Why not, right, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2:

I really believe that the most value I bring to clients now is my network. So so that's kind of a hard thing to sell. Oh, you should hire me because I know people. But honestly, that's really the most value I bring, because I really truly believe whatever problem that we run into in a business I can help them solve that, not because of what I know, but because of who I know.

Speaker 1:

And and you know, one of the the analogies that that pops in my head with that is, like your net worth is your network, yeah, so, um, kind of kind of switching a little bit here, like you know, like what you've been doing and being able to stay ahead of stuff. It goes kind of into that with, like your, your network of people, but like what's your strategies to stay ahead of, like industry trends and what you've been seeing over the last, you know, like decade or two.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so again, it really does start with my network. I do a lot of networking and I talked to a lot of people, especially folks in the tech space, so I actually just started. I'm on the advisory board of a tech startup and so that kind of helps keep me in the mix. I know a lot of AI experts so that you know there's a lot of stuff going on with AI. Now, you know there's industry what are we on? Industry 3.0, 4.0. I don't remember which one we're on now, but that kind of stuff, and so I do kind of stay on top of that.

Speaker 2:

Especially, you know, this is really important for small business owners, not just in manufacturing, but in any type of service industry. Technology can help you right. So I have a great example of a lawn service company where they're like technology why do we need technology, new tech? Come in and did an analysis and they found out well, the owner you're spending 80% of your time just answering phone calls or calling people back 80% of his time and the reason was is because he was taking a lot of calls he shouldn't be taking, right. So they put a tech solution in place. They had some AI in it and basically a lot of the questions could be answered by the AI chat bot, and then the other ones got either directed to other people that he didn't, so he only had to answer really about 10% of those calls, and that transformed his business.

Speaker 1:

Right, right, and it gives him back his time with much of that stuff. What we do with Synergist is very similar. We actually build those things out for people, so it's really cool to be able to see the growth and like. A lot of people get worried about what may be coming instead of like embracing what opportunities may be coming their way.

Speaker 2:

Yep, Especially with AI, people are waiting for something. Don't wait. It's pretty good right now. It's only going to get a lot better and it's changing so fast. Whatever you wait for by the time that you think that's cool, there's always something better, so you need to embrace it now and the thing that I keep telling people is like it's not like Terminator 2, skynet kind of stuff.

Speaker 1:

So you know it's more functionality and it you know it's based to be able to help create better productivity for you. So totally, totally on board, on the same page as that. So do you feel like nowadays that there are unique set of challenges that are different than days gone by for business owners when they're starting a business right now?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I think there are a couple of things. So I know right now everybody's talking about tariffs, right. If you're in manufacturing, that's impacting you one way or another. So, yeah, it's kind of happened in the past, but not to the level it's happening now. So I think for a lot of manufacturers that that's something they didn't have to deal with before. And then again I'm back to tech, right. So there's never been a time where tech applied the way it does now and it can really change things.

Speaker 2:

So, especially requirements around tech, I think a lot of people don't understand that. So let's say, you're a small manufacturer and you want to do government work. Well, do you know that there's a cybersecurity law that you have to pay attention to? Right, and so that's a tech issue that they haven't had to deal with before. So I think you can't avoid it. So I'm not telling you. I'm not telling you, mr Manufacturer, that you have to get rid of your 50-year-old equipment out there that's still working. That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying there are other tech solutions in your front office and back office that can really improve your operations and you should embrace that 100%, 100%.

Speaker 1:

I love that. So, as we, as we kind of get closer to wrapping this up for you, so like what's one piece of advice, if you could give somebody that is looking to start a business or buy a business I mean, the thing that I've kind of heard lately is like maybe it's not even that you want to start your own business that you could potentially even buy a business and not have to put too much money into it. Is that something that's out there right now?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah. So I get a lot of founders come to me, you know, trying to find money to start up a business, and I tell all of them especially if they're a manufacturer, they're building a widget you're much better off buying a business. It's going to give you a head start. So let's say you're a medical device maker. You have this electronic medical device that you've come up with right, and now you have to get it built. Okay, well, you can get a lot of money and give away a lot of your equity and go out and build a new facility. Or perhaps you can find a small manufacturer that has all the skills you need to build your widget right, so that leaps you ahead. Plus, you're buying an asset instead of giving away equity and, honestly, in a lot of ways, it's easier to get money to buy a business than it is to get money to fund a business. So I think that's a perfectly viable way to go forward.

Speaker 1:

Love that man, love that. So what as, as you've kind of built your, your business in the you know over your career, what, what would you? How would you summarize that journey for yourself in like a sentence or two man.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so it's uh, I've. I've looked at the opportunities and taken what was given to me. So I wasn't like I said. I changed from being this pigeonhole thing and trying to do what other people do. Instead, I looked at the opportunities presented and said okay, which one of those can I really go after? How can I serve those clients and monetize that? So I think being flexible has really helped me in that regard.

Speaker 1:

I love that. I love that. Is there anything coming down the pipe that you're really excited about that you want to share?

Speaker 2:

Let's see. Well, I'm trying to acquire my own business, so I have a few conversations going on there that I can't really tell you too much about, um, but but that's kind of exciting to me.

Speaker 1:

You may either have to kill me or sue me until I, uh, until I submit. Right, I love it, man, very cool. So, uh, if people are interested in knowing more about Focus, opex and yourself, how can they get a hold of you, man?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so I'm on LinkedIn. That's probably the easiest way to find me, so all my contact information is on there. You can even access my calendar on LinkedIn. My email address, my phone number is all there, and then also my website, focusopexcom. It also has ways that you can contact me, and then I have a bunch of blogs on there that you can kind of dig into my brain a little bit and see how I think by reviewing those blogs and giving us a better focus on exactly how you help manufacturing companies succeed in today's, you know, crazy, crazy work environment and the economy that's going out there right now.

Speaker 1:

Man, thank you so much for your time today, really appreciate it.

Speaker 2:

Thank you for having me, ryan, it was a lot of fun, thanks.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. Once again, dave McFarland, focus Op-X, and I'm Ryan Van Ornam with Scaling Up Success powered by Synergist. Have a great one everybody.

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