I had one of those lightbulb moments recently while talking with a successful integrator who’d just hit a major milestone. His business was humming along beautifully — consistent revenue, great team, and profitable projects. But what struck me wasn’t just his success; it was how relaxed he seemed.
“Five years ago, I was working 70-hour weeks and constantly stressed,” he told me. “Now I work maybe 30 hours, take real vacations, and the business actually runs better than when I was trying to control everything.”
What changed? He’d figured out something that most business owners never discover: How to build a business that works for you instead of against you.
During a recent episode of The Flywheel Effect podcast, my co-host, Brent Sonnek-Schmelz, and I dove deep into this exact topic — what separates businesses that create freedom for their owners from those that keep them trapped. What we found was a surprisingly simple framework that any business owner can implement.
The Beautiful Reality of Business Building
Here’s what I love about coaching custom integrators: You’re already problem-solvers by nature. You walk into a home, assess complex technical challenges, design elegant solutions, and execute flawlessly.
The irony? Many of you haven’t applied that same systematic thinking to your own businesses. But when you do — when you start approaching your business with the same methodical precision you bring to a home automation project — magic happens.
Also by Matt Bernath: From Dreamer to Builder
After working with hundreds of business owners, we’ve identified three core pillars that every sustainable, scalable business needs. Think of it like designing a home system — you need reliable power, smart controls, and seamless integration. Miss one pillar, and the whole thing becomes unreliable.
Pillar One: Sales Certainty
Let’s start with something exciting — predictable revenue growth. Not the feast-or-famine cycle that exhausts so many business owners, but steady, reliable income that lets you plan and invest with confidence.
- A Reliable Lead Engine: Your next project shouldn’t depend on luck or waiting for the phone to ring. The integrators who’ve mastered this have multiple lead sources working simultaneously — referral systems that consistently generate warm leads, strategic partnerships with builders and designers, or targeted marketing that attracts new people into their circle.
- An Expert Sales System: This isn’t about being pushy or manipulative. It’s about guiding the right clients to confident decisions. The best sales systems create a smooth buying atmosphere rather than selling, helping clients understand their options and providing clear next steps.
- A Consistent Closing Framework: Here’s where many integrators leave money on the table — they don’t follow up consistently. Most home automation decisions involve multiple stakeholders, significant investment, and careful timing. A prospect who says “not now” isn’t necessarily saying “not ever.”
Pillar Two: Trusted Team
Building a great team is one of the most rewarding aspects of business ownership. When you get this right, you’re not just creating jobs — you’re building something that makes everyone’s life better.
- A Winning Hiring Formula: This is all about creating systematic approaches to attracting, identifying, and onboarding the right people. It’s not about being naturally gifted at hiring — it’s about following proven processes. You don’t need to find unicorns; you need people who are a great fit for specific roles.
- Strategic Growth Planning: As your business grows, you need different people in different roles. The most successful business owners I work with have implemented strategic growth models, so they know who to hire and when. This kind of planning ahead makes growth smooth instead of chaotic.
- Leadership Development: Your business will never outgrow your leadership capacity. But here’s the exciting part: Leadership skills can be developed with the right guidance and accountability. Every time you level up as a leader, you unlock new potential in your business.
Pillar Three: Profitable Production
This is where the rubber meets the road — turning your expertise into consistent, profitable operations that don’t require your constant oversight.
- Financial Confidence: Successful business owners make decisions from a place of financial strength, not financial guesswork. You should know your numbers, understand your margins, and be able to see at any point how much money in the bank is actually yours.
- Eliminating Bottlenecks: The goal isn’t to make yourself unnecessary; it’s to make yourself available for the highest-value activities. When you’re not the bottleneck in every decision, you can focus on strategy, growth, and the parts of the business you enjoy.
- Proven Processes: Documentation isn’t just for big corporations — it’s the foundation of scalable operations. When your processes are documented and systematized, quality becomes consistent, and training new people becomes straightforward.
The Smart Approach to Implementation
This might all seem overwhelming, and here’s why: Most people overestimate what they can accomplish in one year and underestimate what they can accomplish in three or five years. Don’t try to fix everything at once, or even this year. Business improvement isn’t about dramatic overhauls; it’s about focused, consistent progress with the right framework to guide you.
Start with your biggest constraint. For most businesses, that’s sales certainty, because predictable revenue makes every other improvement easier to implement and fund.
Pick one specific area — maybe it’s implementing a systematic follow-up process, or documenting your project management workflow, or developing a reliable referral system. Focus on that one thing for 90 days and make it significantly better.
Also by Matt Bernath: Adapting to Change
It’s like having a car with multiple problems. You don’t try to fix the engine, transmission, and brakes simultaneously. You identify the biggest constraint — maybe it’s the starter relay — and fix that first. Once the car runs reliably, you can address the other issues.
What’s exciting about this framework is how improvements in one pillar support the others. When you have sales certainty, you can invest in better people with confidence. When you have trusted team members, you can implement more sophisticated processes. When you have profitable production, you can invest more in sales and marketing.
It creates a flywheel effect — each improvement makes the next one easier and more impactful.
Your Right Next Thing
Business owners don’t have perfect systems from day one. They just get a little bit better, consistently, over time. And those small improvements compound into something remarkable — a business that creates freedom instead of stress, opportunity instead of chaos.
The beautiful part? You already have all the skills you need. You just need to apply them to building your business with the same intentionality you bring to building your clients’ systems. And when you do, you’ll discover what that relaxed integrator I mentioned earlier figured out: running a business can actually be fun when it’s designed to work for you.
Need help figuring out what your Right Next Thing is? Jump on a quick call with VITAL, and in 15 minutes, you’ll get clarity on the Right Next Thing for your business. Book a call here.
This article was inspired by insights from The Flywheel Effect podcast, where Brent and I explore practical strategies for building businesses that enhance rather than consume your life. Each episode offers actionable frameworks you can implement to create the kind of business you actually want to own.
