CASE STUDY

Paradigm X Boss Project

HOW STRATEGIC HR HELPED BOSS PROJECT REIMAGINE THE POSSIBILITIES OF THEIR TEAM

It’s no secret that Abagail and Emylee, founders of Boss Project, are thought leaders and innovators in the online business world, but when Kira heard them talk about their team breakdown in an episode of their podcast, she knew that with a few tweaks they could skyrocket their growth and majorly increase their impact in the online education space. So Kira did what any online business owner would do in this situation – she slid into their DMs. And the rest, as they say, is history. 

Over the course of Paradigm’s 90-day Paradigm Solution, Boss Project was able to:

By The Numbers..

But turning to Kira for HR support wasn’t the first move for Boss Project, who didn’t really think of HR as anything beyond automated payroll (and they aren’t alone!). Once they realized their need for growth, Abagail and Emylee were on the right track, choosing to let go some of their more established contractors (like a marketing agency) in favor of individuals who they could work with more closely. But replacing contractors with more contractors could only improve so much, and their personal to-do lists continued to grow as they filled in gaps that their contractors couldn’t. 

“If we hadn’t met Kira, I think we would have done more ourselves and we would have brought on contractors to fill certain gaps, but we wouldn’t have made such a big leap to bring on more support in the form of employees.”

Abagail says “If we didn’t get the right people, doing the right jobs, in the right seats as quickly as possible – our business was going to slip backward. We had the momentum we needed for growth, but not enough support to sustain it.”

Growing Pains

Prior to working with Paradigm, the Boss Project team was entirely made up of contractors (aside from Abagail & Emylee). Keeping the business lean was really important, and while the company was in maintenance mode, a team made up of contractors seemed to do the trick. But when the company goals began to shift towards growth, managing a team of 20+ contractors turned out to be as challenging as it was nerve wracking. With Abagail and Emylee focused on growth, the gaps in their team structure grew wider and wider, and they quickly realized that they no longer had the support required to maintain their business – let alone achieve the growth they were aiming for. 

Grow their team from 2 to 6 employees (streamlining the responsibilities of nearly 20 contractors in the process)

Increase Monthly Recurring Revenue by 25%

Increase customer lifetime value by 16%

Project 3.5x growth in the next 12 months (previously expected to happen in 3-5 years) 

The Path With Paradigm

Kira La Forgia founded Paradigm to bridge the gap between corporate HR policies and the modern needs of online entrepreneurs.

Kira says "Running a virtual business has sensitive people operations needs. And companies like Boss Project are beyond the DIY Google HR that many online business owners have had to resort to leaning on. There are simply too many risks."  

Kira who...?

Remember when we said Kira slid into their DM’s? Well it couldn’t have come at a more perfect time. 

“I didn’t really know what was next,” Abagail remembers, “ And when you don’t know what is next, you don’t know what you need. If you don’t know what you need, it’s really hard to come up with a solution or a plan, so she kind of swooped in to help us figure it all out.”

But that doesn't mean it was an easy sell for Kira. 


"HR is misunderstood in online business: strategic human resources is about leveraging your team into positions designed to move the business forward while simultaneously building a culture.  Abagail and Emylee's passion for creating exceptional employee policies for Parental Leave, and diversity and inclusion as a primary consideration in developing the culture of Boss Project made this project challenging, and really rewarding. They are truly impacting the lives of their team in such an exponential way" Kira recalls. 

“It was a big investment for not really knowing what we were doing,” Abagail explains, “Many have told us we would need to transition to employees instead of contractors, and Kira was no different. At the end of the day, the biggest reason we pulled the trigger was to make sure we knew the appropriate steps to take to hire legally and run our team in a way that aligned with our values from the beginning, and after meeting Kira, Paradigm was the obvious choice to help us do that.”

SOME MIGHT SAY THIS INTENSIVE WAS… INTENSE.

To call this intensive action-packed would be a major understatement. From intake questionnaire to wrap-up call, Abagail and Emylee were making 👏🏻 moves 👏🏻. 


But Boss Project didn’t just ask for an employee handbook and call it a day.



“I really liked the intake questionnaire – it gave us an opportunity as business partners to think about what we really stand for. Now there is an intentional culture and the team is really clear on what our values are.”

Over the years, Boss Project had developed a company culture, but it wasn’t consciously spoken about or actively practiced in the day-to-day of the company. And that was really the missing piece for Boss Project and their understanding of the value of HR. They knew the process to set someone up on payroll and had done the research to organize benefits, but in terms of onboarding team and getting really clear on the culture and values of the company – that was uncharted territory for Abagail and Emylee.

“A lot of what was undescribed before [working with Paradigm] has been made really clear in the handbook and overview of our policies during the orientation process. It really helps take care of that critical foundational piece of building our team and setting them up for success, and I’m not sure we would have taken that extra step if we had continued on our own.”

"Even with experienced business owners", Kira explains, "planning for growth truly starts at the basics. We grow and change so much as CEOs and what may have been important to us when we started our business may have changed or evolved."


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Boss Project hired 4 employees, taking their team from nearly 20 contractors, to a tight knit group of 6 employees who are fully dedicated to the growth and success of the company and are complimented with several specialized outsourced contractors when needed. The best business models are a strategic blend of both. 

While there were some minor challenges to onboarding people so quickly, the benefits far outweighed the discomfort of that kind of rapid growth. 

The 90 day intensive is designed to carve out the path of least resistance for entrepreneurs to grow. removing the bottleneck of legal, hr, and strategic questions by having Paradigm at your fingertips yields rapid results; often the businesses we work with that are as committed and clear as Boss Project have potential right under the surface.

We really help to uncover it. 

“One of my favorite, surprising, takeaways was, they talk about how as a CEO you are supposed to be focused on the vision of the company, but when you are so stuck in the day to day it’s really hard to think about the future. Sure there are goal planning sessions and quarterly reviews, but once they’re done you’re immediately sucked back into the daily routine. Now that we have a team of people focused on that daily routine and the day to day success of the company, I can be really focused on 60 days, 90 days, even planning and visioning for 6 months to a year into the future.”

-Abagail Pumphrey 
Cofounder, CFO at Boss Project

Business as Usual Just Got A Whole Lot Better 

“With this transition I feel for the first time that we have a team that is focused collectively on one mission and we unify together with one trajectory in mind.”

 “Working with Kira leap-frogged our growth and gave us a really clear path for the future. We’ve already gone from 2 team members to 6 and we plan to hire 4 more people in the next year. We’ve already managed to accomplish so much and I truly don’t think that it would have been able to happen without bringing on the team members we have.” 

The Boss Project ladies are no strangers to managing a large team, but the shift from contractors to employees was what made the real difference. 

Abagail and Emylee already had big plans to close out 2021, but the clarity and increased support they were able to come out of the intensive with just made reaching their goals feel that much more attainable. With plans to revise and improve their product line up, add new opportunities to work with Boss Project (and now their team!) on a more intimate level, and have a bigger impact on their students, it wasn’t until the intensive that Abagail and Emylee realized how muchs support they would need.

"Kira hosted a workshop inside of our Collective Membership and it was incredible. She shared so much incredible value not only on how to hire but also best practices, when to hire an employee vs. contractor, how to look for the best person for your team as well as company culture! Kira has great presentation skills and her high energy keeps everyone engaged and excited about the topic!"

“Anyone who is making half a million or more, who is really ready to get into 7 figures and up, this is a total no brainer. You may not understand why you need the help. But it’s not just a shiny new employee handbook, it’s management support, growth strategy, and learning to think differently about the team you have.”

Connect With Abagail on Instagram

FIND OUT MORE

One thing we can all agree on is that growth is scary. Especially when it is so far out of your comfort zone. We asked Abagail what advice she has for other entrepreneurs in the same position. Here's what she said: 

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