If you’re growing, but still getting pulled back in because the back office cannot keep up, this conversation will feel familiar.

That is a common Messy Middle problem in owner-led businesses. One bottleneck gets solved, growth continues, and then a different part of the business starts falling behind. The work is still moving, but the systems behind it have not caught up.

In this episode of Self-Made Is a Myth, Coach Tim Campsall sits down with Tanner Atkins from UTS Engineering & Construction.

Earlier in the company’s growth, Tanner was the sole reviewer for all engineering work going out to clients. As the team grew, the work stacked up, deadlines slipped, and more engineers did not solve the problem because all final review still ran through him. It created late nights, stress, and a process that would not scale.

To work through it, Tanner promoted two strong engineers into management roles, brought them into the review process, and helped build SOPs around how engineering work and reviews should be done. Over time, those managers became the final reviewers, and the quality of work improved.

Now the pressure shows up somewhere else. The current challenge is in the back office, where financials have fallen behind, invoicing is complex, and too much of the work is still manual. That creates stress, weakens financial visibility, and makes growth decisions harder because the numbers are not where they need to be.

This is what the Messy Middle looks like when progress in one area exposes a different system gap somewhere else. The business is no longer bottlenecked by engineering review, but it is still being held back by back office systems, financial visibility, and the difficulty of changing old ways of operating.


What You’ll Learn:

• Why solving one bottleneck often exposes the next in a growing business
• How owner-led review processes become unscalable as the team expands
• What changed when Tanner built managers and SOPs into the review process
• Why weak back office systems create stress, uncertainty, and missed opportunities
  
  
  Looking To Scale Your Business:
  Did you know that only 9% of businesses make it to $1,000,000 in revenue and less than 1% reach $10,000,000. The hustle and grind that got you to $1,000,000 will not get you beyond it. To scale past the Messy Middle, you need stronger systems, clearer structure, and disciplined execution. Book a Discovery Call to see how our ActionCOACH Business Operating System (ABoS) and coaching help you get unstuck and move toward sustainable scaling so you can achieve your personal dreams and business goals. https://tbcactioncoach.com/discovery-zoom-call/
  

  
  Timestamps:
  (00:11) Tanner as the sole reviewer and the bottleneck
  (00:30) Late work orders, missed deadlines, and a review process that would not scale
  (01:00) The personal cost: late nights, stress, and physical strain
  (01:27) Promoting engineers into managers and redesigning the review process
  (01:55) Letting managers take over final review and improving quality
  (04:01) The new problem: back office work pulling Tanner into the day-to-day
  (04:11) Five months without financials and manual credit card entry
  (05:05) Invoicing complexity and falling behind on both income and expenses
  (05:52) Flying blind on growth, investment, and planning decisions
  (07:28) The real issue: reasonable staff, weak systems, and delayed change
  
  
  Tanner Atkins was raised in Mooresville, Indiana and still lives on the south side of Indianapolis. He helped start UTS Group with his father in 2018 and is now a second generation business owner.
  
  #MessyMiddle #ScalingBusiness #BackOfficeSystems