Ep 277 Why VAs Fail (And How to Fix It) with Barbara Turley
Profit Answer Man: Scaling with Profit First & Beyond
Release Date: 07/08/2025
Profit Answer Man: Scaling with Profit First & Beyond
Hourly Billing Is Nuts: How to Boost Profits with Value Pricing with Jonathan Stark Find Rocky Lalvani @ or email him at Most business owners don’t realize the hidden cost of hourly billing. It’s not just that it can feel annoying. It’s that it can cap your income, misalign incentives, and create friction and distrust with clients—especially when estimates blow up. In this episode of Profit Answer Man, Rocky Lalvani sits down with Jonathan Stark, former software developer and author of Hourly...
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Mid 8-Figure Exit Lessons: How to Avoid Millions in Taxes and Regret After the Sale with Nathan Collins Find Rocky Lalvani @ or email him at Most business owners think the hardest part of selling a business is the deal. But the real danger often shows up after the sale: the taxes you didn’t plan for and the identity shift you didn’t expect In this episode of Profit Answer Man, Rocky Lalvani sits down with , a former CEO who sold his business for a mid-eight-figure exit—and then realized he wasn’t personally...
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Find Rocky Lalvani @ or email him at From Bankruptcy at 24 to $35M: Building Profitable Business Through Discipline and Purpose with Mike Chaput What if the worst business failure of your life became the foundation for 26 years of unbroken profitability? At 24, Michael Chaput bought a business that went bankrupt. At 50, he runs a $35 million company that hasn't had a single unprofitable month in 26 years—not through 2008, not through COVID, not ever. In this episode, Michael shares the hard-won lessons from hitting rock bottom and how financial discipline, tough...
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How to Legally Pay Less Tax as a Business Owner with Former IRS Agent Carlotta Thompson With Former IRS Agent Carlotta Thompson Most business owners believe high taxes are just the price of success. They’re wrong. In this episode of Profit Answer Man, Rocky sits down with former IRS agent turned tax strategist Carlotta Thompson to reveal how the tax system really works, what actually triggers audits, and how profitable business owners legally keep more of what they earn. This is not about loopholes or risky moves. It’s about understanding the rules well enough to play the...
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The Financial Model Every 7–8 Figure Business Needs for Predictable Profit with Salvatore Tirabassi Most business owners don’t lack data. They lack clarity. They have a P&L, a balance sheet, maybe even a dashboard. But when a real decision shows up—Can I afford this hire? Should I scale marketing? Why did margins drop again?—the numbers don’t give a clear answer. That’s where growth starts to feel chaotic. In this episode of Profit Answer Man, Rocky Lalvani sits down with fractional CFO and former private equity investor Salvatore Tirabassi to unpack...
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How to Build a Business Fortress: Liquidity, Cash Flow, and Exit Readiness with David Barnett Build a Business Fortress: Why Liquidity Beats Leverage and Most Businesses Never Sell Most owners assume the big payoff will come when they finally sell the business. The hard truth is that roughly 80 percent of small businesses listed for sale never actually sell as going concerns. The real payoff is in the years of ownership: the cash flow you extract, the wealth you build outside the business, and the resilience you create so you can survive the next punch in the face. In this...
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The Referable Client Experience with Stacey Brown Randall Most business owners say they want more referrals. Very few are actually drowning in them. The default strategy is to do good work, hope people notice, and maybe ask for introductions when things get slow. In this episode of Profit Answer Man, I sit down again with referral expert and author Stacey Brown Randall to talk about why that approach does not work and how to build a truly referrable client experience. Stacey has spent years helping small business owners generate referrals without asking, without incentives, and...
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How to Build a Business You Can Actually Sell with Saul Cohen Most business owners say the same thing: “I want to grow as big as I can.” But when you press them on what they really want—time freedom, a great income, flexibility with their family—they’re actually describing a lifestyle business, not a high-growth scale-up destined for a huge exit. In this episode of Profit Answer Man, Rocky Lalvani talks with Saul Cohen, an accountant and advisor who helps ambitious entrepreneurs grow through acquisition and prepare for a successful exit. Together, they unpack the...
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From Chaos to Cash Flow: How Business Owners Can Scale with Less Stress with David Forster “Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.” If you’re stuck reacting all day, this episode with David Forster hands you the blueprint: clarify roles, codify the 80%, install scorecards that measure what matters, and make Profit First automatic so cash is where you need it—when you need it. In This Episode, You’ll Learn: Why “boring, repeatable systems” beat heroics—and how to build them for people who crave structure. The clarity–consistency–accountability trio: what...
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Profit First with Megan Schwan Most owners chase revenue and wonder why cash keeps disappearing. In this episode, Rocky sits down with Megan Schwan—CEO of Sidekick Accounting and a certified Profit First Professional—to unpack the simple systems that turn chaos into cash: clean books, pricing discipline, expense sweeps, and a short list of actionable KPIs. If you want fewer surprises and fatter reserves, start here. In This Episode, You’ll Learn: Why “good books” are your #1 tax saver—and the foundation for pricing and fraud control. How Profit First creates...
info_outlineEp 277 Why VAs Fail (And How to Fix It) with Barbara Turley
If your A-players are bogged down in busywork—or worse, you’re the bottleneck—then this episode is your wake-up call. The true cost of bad delegation isn’t just time—it’s lost momentum, missed profit, and mental burnout.
Why Your Team’s Wasting Time (And Bleeding Profit)
Most business owners know they’re leaving money on the table—but they don’t realize just how much it’s costing them.
The real profit leak? It’s not your marketing. It’s not your pricing.
It’s your people strategy—or more accurately, your lack of one.
When your A-players spend half their day buried in tasks a trained assistant could do, you’re not just wasting time. You’re eroding profit, burning out staff, and stunting growth. In this eye-opening episode, Barbara Turley exposes the hidden cost of messy operations, bad delegation, and hiring without process—and offers a blueprint to fix it.
In This Episode, You’ll Learn:
- The #1 reason delegation fails (hint: it’s not your VA).
- How to build systems that free your best talent to focus on growth.
- Why your P&L doesn’t show your biggest profit leak.
- The profit-first approach to optimizing human capital.
- What scalable delegation really looks like in a 350-person company.
Key Takeaways (A.K.A. Expensive Blind Spots):
- Hiring a VA without systems is like putting a race car driver in a junkyard car.
- Most businesses bleed profit by forcing A-players to do admin work.
- Bad delegation isn’t about bad people—it’s about bad process.
- High growth with low structure = burnout, churn, and cash chaos.
- Without an operational foundation, strategy is worthless.
Meet Barbara Turley:
Barbara Turley is the Founder & CEO of The Virtual Hub, a 350-person global VA firm that’s helped over 200 founders escape the weeds and scale smarter. With a background in equity trading and financial strategy, Barbara brings a sharp operational lens to business growth. Her company boasts a 95% Net Promoter Score, a 4.8-star client rating, and a track record of 50% year-over-year growth. She’s the systems whisperer behind countless business transformations—and a fierce advocate for optimized human capital.
Links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/barbara-turley/
FREE Delegation Masterclass:
https://www.thevirtualhub.com/outsourcing-mastery-masterclass-sign-up/
Your Business Is Only as Scalable as Your Systems
If your A-players are bogged down in busywork—or worse, you’re the bottleneck—then this episode is your wake-up call. The true cost of bad delegation isn’t just time—it’s lost momentum, missed profit, and mental burnout.
Listen now and discover how to systematize your delegation, optimize your people strategy, and finally scale with sanity.
Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@profitanswerman
Sign up to be notified when the next cohort of the Profit First Experience Course is available!
Profit First Toolkit: https://lp.profitcomesfirst.com/landing-page-page
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Profit Answer Man Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/profitanswerman/
My podcast about living a richer more meaningful life: http://richersoul.com/
Music provided by Junan from Junan Podcast
Any financial advice is for educational purposes only and you should consult with an expert for your specific needs.
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