The Void #5 ** Core Episode ** Systems and Processes (2 of 3)

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[Music]

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hey everybody and welcome to the void a

00:06

show dedicated to filling the void

00:07

between being an employee and becoming

00:09

self-employed most people refer to

00:12

starting your own company as taking the

00:13

leap as if they’re blindly jumping off

00:15

of a cliff and into the unknown

00:18

this show is to help you understand that

00:20

it doesn’t have to be that way

00:22

i’ll share with you the process i used

00:24

for starting my company and you too can

00:26

soon be on the way to starting your very

00:28

own service-based business

00:31

we’ll work through some of the common

00:33

issues that are preventing you from

00:34

starting your own company and fulfilling

00:36

your own true potential

00:38

as always if you like what you’re

00:39

hearing on the show please do us a favor

00:41

and help share the void with someone who

00:43

might also be wanting to start their own

00:45

company

00:46

we saw an opportunity to help others

00:48

understand that self-employment is most

00:50

assuredly within your reach

00:52

just as our businesses have grown

00:54

organically and by word of mouth we want

00:56

this show to do the same thing

00:59

it takes two things for that to happen

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we have to deliver you guys some great

01:03

content and you guys have to help share

01:05

our valuable message

01:07

we know that many of you are on

01:09

different social media platforms out

01:11

there for your various trades and skills

01:13

and crafts

01:14

facebook groups for instance are begging

01:16

for this kind of information virtually

01:18

every day so if you see somebody asking

01:21

questions on social media about what

01:23

they should do to start their company do

01:25

us a favor and drop a link to the show

01:28

i’m your host mitch smedley and with me

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as always is david mitch good morning

01:33

good morning good morning normally we do

01:35

these in the afternoon and evenings yes

01:36

we’re we’re morning working today we’re

01:38

more mourning working on the struggle

01:40

bus sometimes we have cocktails this

01:42

morning we have coffee

01:44

so we have a cocktail but it’s not

01:46

alcohol right you know it’s it’s a

01:48

morning drink but yeah good morning good

01:50

morning good morning and we’ve got our

01:52

producer back here marcus

01:54

hey how’s it going how’s it going how

01:55

are you doing marcus i’m doing it he

01:57

just woke up

01:58

yeah two seconds ago

02:00

he’s sleeping on a futon i don’t know if

02:02

marcus ever sleeps he’ll think he’s a

02:04

night guy he goes like midnight to 7 a.m

02:06

and then sleeps a little bit and then

02:08

comes in later i’m trying to get the

02:09

brunch guys i get he’s got to get that

02:11

brunch

02:12

i get emails from him at like three in

02:13

the morning

02:15

so like i don’t think he’s one of those

02:17

guys he’s like the bionic man

02:19

something’s wrong with him yeah it helps

02:21

that he’s young yeah you know that helps

02:22

like at 9 30 my clock’s like hey dumbass

02:25

10 years ago i might have been able to

02:26

do some 3am stuff

02:29

i mean okay i’ll give you 10. yeah i’ll

02:31

give you 12. i’ll give you 10. oh man

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all right um this show is based off of

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six core adversities that you’re gonna

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need to overcome in order to be

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successful with your business venture um

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we’re always gonna kind of go over these

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six core adversities at the beginning of

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every show so dave why don’t you share

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with them what those six core

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adversities are the preparation

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adversities the first three adversities

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uh one personal finance preparation that

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was episode one and two yep go back if

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you’re just now jumping in

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uh number two business finance prep uh

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that was just one episode episode three

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a lot of great stuff in there yep um and

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now we’re on systems preparation which

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is the third uh

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preparation step

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the fir the third preparation adversity

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and and we are on the second episode of

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that so we’re on episode five because

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there’s so much stuff in that yeah and

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then after that we’ll be getting into

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the

03:32

the beginning adversities after you’ve

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done all your prep and you’re ready to

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go then we’re going to jump into those

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and that’s i’ll go over them just real

03:39

quick community involvement work number

03:41

five six wake up do the work repeat

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and i’m sorry that was five not six and

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six is evaluate performance make

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adjustments and improve yep

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so so basically those core adversities

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are divided up into two groups you have

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your preparation adversities and then

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you have your beginning universities and

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we want you to work on those two groups

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of adversities separately from each

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other

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and the reason why is if you’re trying

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to work on beginning adversities before

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you’ve done all the preparation work

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you’re going to fail so get all the

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preparation work done

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start your business and then be mindful

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of the adversities that you’re going to

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need to face very early on in your

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business and if you face those and

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overcome those early on and you know

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what they are

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you’re you’re on a good path for success

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yeah and today we’re you know we just

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said we’re on the third well that’s

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systems prep well that’s not really a

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breakdown because we’re on the second

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one of systems prep and that’s gonna be

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quickbooks banking accounting behaving

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like a customer right and mitch is gonna

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start reading those off here yeah we’re

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going to jump right into it today yeah

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we’re going to we’re going to jump right

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in so today’s today’s episode is going

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to be over quickbooks and banking they

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kind of go hand in hand um and then it’s

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going to we’re going to cover some

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accounting and then we’re also going to

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talk about how to behave like the

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customer you want for your business

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so first up on the docket today is

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quickbooks and bookkeeping

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i say quickbooks this could really apply

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to anything there’s a bunch of different

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bookkeeping software’s out there yeah

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you don’t have to be in quickbooks no no

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um i say quickbooks because we use

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quickbooks online so it’s just the only

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word that comes to mind for me i used

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peachtree accounting right always did i

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mean and it’s a lot harder to use than

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quickbooks quickbooks is more uh

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beginner user friendly yeah um but i

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just had access to a free copy yep you

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know so when i was outlining you know

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how much money am i gonna spend i was

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like oh well you know i could save some

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serious money right here right so i’ll

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just learn to use that yeah but you know

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and there could be other ones that that

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people use too yeah and there’s a lot of

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free ones out there now with the

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benefits of modern technology today and

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everything being cloud-based a lot of

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this stuff has gotten cheaper over the

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years oh a lot cheaper than it used to

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be so accounting software used to be

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really expensive and right now i’m

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paying 35 bucks a month for my

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bookkeeping software it’s super cheap

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it’s not bad

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and it’s reliable at that price yeah

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yeah very reliable so

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quickbooks or any other accounting

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software is a vital piece to the new

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business puzzle

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without a smooth operating bookkeeping

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system your business will fail

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quickbooks is one of the most popular

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bookkeeping systems out there

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and your your accountant will appreciate

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you using quickbooks or anything similar

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your crm as we talked about in the last

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episode the software that that manages

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all of your scheduling and all of your

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invoices and everything else your crm

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should be x-core exporting to your

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accounting software uh they should talk

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to each other um all of the great ones

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do so if yours that you’re looking at

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doesn’t then immediately move to a

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different one go to something else yeah

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it’s a huge time saver

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problem saver i mean it just when that

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stuff works flawlessly together it just

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makes a huge difference makes your

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personal life a lot easier yeah yeah so

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your workflow once you’re up and running

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your workflow is going to go something

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like this

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your phone rings and you book a call or

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book a client into your crm system your

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customer relationship management system

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then you’re going to run that call or

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perform that repair or or take care of

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that customer whatever your business is

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for me i was running service calls but

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you might be cutting that person’s hair

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or or mowing their lawn or whatever

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you’re going to perform the task that

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they scheduled you to do

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and when you do that you’re going to

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generate revenue right you’re not doing

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this for free they’re going to pay you

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now you’ve just created a taxable event

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you’ve brought in money

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your crm

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will export that financial piece of

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information to quickbooks

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now quickbooks guided by a good

07:43

bookkeeper will take that information

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and put it into what will eventually

07:48

become clear financials for your

07:50

accountant to file for your taxes and

07:52

bookkeeper you know people

07:54

think bookkeeper and accountant are the

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same no those are complete two

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completely different things yeah

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bookkeeper works for you they’re they’re

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organizing all of those things yeah and

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then getting them to the account yeah so

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a bookkeeper kind of organizes

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everything for the accountant and um

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your accountant

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is specifically working between you and

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the irs to make clear

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um

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clear and concise accounting

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principles so that you’re paying the

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right amount of taxes you’re not

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overpaying but you’re not underpaying

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and you’re not gonna like

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you know get your ass handed to you in

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an audit yeah and so if you’re doing

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your bookkeeping and you’re nervous

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about it don’t be because your

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accountant is the filter yeah before it

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gets to the irs and he’s gonna straight

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he or she is going to straighten you out

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yeah you know and it doesn’t take long

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so don’t be afraid

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you know it doesn’t take long to

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to kind of get your feet underneath you

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yeah yeah as you’re going so like with

08:49

quickbooks i don’t know about the others

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because all of my experiences with

08:52

quickbooks with quickbooks every time we

08:54

do any kind of a transaction um

08:57

we can code that transaction to put it

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into whatever bucket it needs to go yeah

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yeah but peachtree is the same let’s say

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it’s a new code or a new transaction

09:05

that we’ve never done before and we

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don’t really know what to call this

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thing right well we can code it ask your

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accountant and my accountant also has

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access to my quickbooks yeah and so he

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can see all those and then he’ll call us

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up and he’ll say oh yeah when you come

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across this again it just needs to go

09:22

here or it needs to go here so yeah your

09:24

accountant will help you a good

09:25

accountant will help you with your

09:27

quickbooks and he has his own

09:29

system

09:30

yeah okay and so he has certain things

09:32

that he likes to see yeah and so that’s

09:34

why you work so closely with them right

09:37

and then and you do kind of what he says

09:39

on those things because when he sees it

09:41

it’s just boom yeah i know where that’s

09:42

at i know where that’s going down the

09:44

road we go and that saves

09:46

you know depending on how they’re

09:47

billing you that can save you money yeah

09:49

yeah so um

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um we’re going to get into accounting

09:53

here in a little bit we’re going to stay

09:55

on the bookkeeping side of things for

09:56

now so um you know you say that all of

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these things work

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interflow between each other yeah and

10:02

that’s why they’re all in the same

10:03

episode because they do bounce off of

10:05

each other greatly so

10:07

um quickbooks is incredibly easy to use

10:09

and it’s something that you can do

10:11

yourself or if you um

10:14

it’s something that you can do yourself

10:15

especially if you have an accountant

10:18

that’s willing to help you out early on

10:20

they will they will help kind of get you

10:22

up to speed eventually on a long enough

10:25

timeline quickbooks

10:27

can almost become somewhat automatic

10:31

for instance

10:32

um

10:34

if you’re not branching out into other

10:35

things and you’re staying in your lane

10:38

yeah it will almost automatically do it

10:40

for you so like uh every time you make a

10:42

purchase that has to get coded in

10:43

quickbooks every time you spend any kind

10:46

of money that has to get coded in

10:47

quickbooks every time you bring in

10:49

revenue that has to get coded in

10:51

quickbooks and you have to file it away

10:53

as to what was this purchase was it

10:54

material was it labor was it a

10:57

contractor was it taxes was it vehicle

11:00

interest was it vehicle principal on a

11:02

loan was it client and customer meals

11:05

you took somebody a big customer out for

11:07

dinner right right and you have all of

11:09

those things the reason they have to be

11:10

coded differently is because they have

11:12

different tax implications yeah so

11:14

that’s why there are those groups and

11:16

then he knows i’m gonna take this one

11:18

i’m gonna put it over here in this i’m

11:19

gonna take this and this and and all

11:21

those inner cross and get you into

11:22

different tax liabilities yeah so like

11:24

at the date we’re filming this show um

11:27

meals and entertainment uh meals are

11:30

deductible at 50

11:32

entertainment is not deductible at all

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no but when i first started it was yeah

11:36

so you could take them and when i say

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entertainment you could take them to

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like for your christmas party this year

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you took all the guys to the

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trans-siberian orchestra so you used to

11:45

be able to that was part of a tax

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deduction yeah but then but at this time

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it’s not right right now the business

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can still pay for it it just does not

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lower your tax liability no you’re

11:53

paying taxes on the money you spent to

11:55

do that yeah and so that hits a certain

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line in your quickbooks to say this is

11:59

entertainment and so that way it

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separates that out and it’s not a tax

12:02

liability yeah we’re not trying to bore

12:04

you here but it’s important yeah yeah

12:05

yeah yeah um

12:07

if this seems a little too daunting for

12:09

you bookkeepers are not that expensive

12:12

and they’re worth their weight in gold

12:15

so

12:16

don’t

12:17

don’t be hesitant at all if you need to

12:19

hire a bookkeeper a good one yeah a good

12:23

one don’t hire your buddy vet them out

12:25

really well yeah i can do it yeah come

12:27

on um

12:28

bookkeepers will have access to your

12:30

quickbooks and they’ll help you kind of

12:31

get all of that stuff organized so

12:34

um it just kind of depends on how

12:36

familiar and how adventurous you are in

12:39

that area so

12:40

keep that in mind

12:42

when when i started my business we were

12:45

spending 250 a month for both my crm and

12:50

my quickbooks

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so

12:52

that 250 was incredibly valuable

12:56

compared to the stress and strife that

12:58

comes with trying to do all that stuff

12:59

manually i can’t imagine trying to keep

13:01

a manual schedule and trying to keep

13:03

manual invoices and then prepare all

13:06

those books and everything

13:08

manually that that’s just crazy so to me

13:10

the 250 was a drop in the bucket

13:12

and this is an area where you’re going

13:14

to want to balance

13:15

up time versus downtime uptime is time

13:19

where you’re making money in your

13:21

business

13:22

downtime is time where you’re working on

13:24

the business and doing all of the back

13:27

end stuff that the business has to do to

13:29

stay

13:30

legal and has to do to stay above board

13:33

but it doesn’t make you any money and so

13:36

you need to find that balance and for me

13:38

our uptime is incredibly profitable and

13:41

our so our downtime

13:43

is is nothing and so we’re losing a lot

13:45

of profit during the downtime so for me

13:48

it made sense for me to have a high

13:50

quality crm

13:52

to have a great bookkeeping system and

13:55

uh to have an accountant that was that

13:57

was awesome as well so

13:59

um

14:00

yeah in layman’s terms it frees you up

14:02

to do what you do yeah yeah you know and

14:04

a lot of people

14:06

um

14:07

i don’t include you in this group but

14:09

a lot of people want to just do the work

14:12

and they love doing that right and so it

14:15

benefits them

14:16

i mean

14:18

just just to have even if you had to

14:19

have one or two people

14:21

for those people to be doing that job

14:23

freeze them up not just

14:25

um time wise but mentally yeah to just

14:28

go get it well and it frees you up to

14:30

spend more time with your family you

14:32

know a lot of people start in business

14:33

and then they they fail early on or they

14:35

choose to close it up because they you

14:37

know was i was working 40 hours a week

14:39

and then i was working another 20 or 30

14:41

hours a week at night just doing the

14:42

books

14:43

it’s tough working eight or ten hours

14:44

then going home and doing four hours of

14:46

bookkeeping right right so so but it’s

14:48

easy to pay your bookkeeper 500 a month

14:51

because keep in mind your bookkeeper is

14:52

doing books for like yeah they can be

14:54

doing it for a lot of guys a lot of

14:56

businesses yeah they don’t work for you

14:57

solely right you know they’re they’re

14:59

they’re a contractor they’re a 1099

15:01

employee yeah basically is how that so

15:03

so they’re doing your books and they’re

15:04

doing you know 20 other companies books

15:07

and so you’re i mean even if you’re

15:09

paying them 500 bucks a month yeah that

15:11

is 500 bucks a month worth of weight in

15:13

gold because now you get you just freed

15:14

up three or four hours a night to

15:17

spend time with your friends yeah and

15:18

you’re thinking oh man they’re not doing

15:19

that they’re not gonna work for four

15:22

hours a day

15:23

uh five days a week but guess what it

15:25

takes them 30 minutes yeah

15:27

what takes you three or four hours a

15:28

night takes them 20 minutes yeah they’re

15:30

like oh click click click click yeah

15:31

done it’s the same and it’s the same in

15:33

my field i’m a plumber i can go i can go

15:35

do a plumbing repair in an hour that

15:37

would have taken a customer seven or

15:38

eight hours and fourteen trips to home

15:40

depot to do yeah so

15:42

um and they would still they would still

15:44

do it wrong much like you might in your

15:46

quick books exactly so exactly it’s it’s

15:49

worth

15:50

if if you’re if you’re unfamiliar in

15:52

that territory and you’re not willing to

15:53

embark on that journey just

15:55

budget in a bookkeeper and let’s say the

15:57

other

15:58

let’s go the other way say you’re only

15:59

doing 60 grand a year and you like doing

16:02

that stuff and getting in there yeah

16:03

don’t be afraid to do it no you know

16:05

like we talked about earlier that

16:06

accountant is the filter between you

16:08

yeah if you think you can do it and you

16:09

have the time to do it do it but if you

16:12

don’t and it’s wearing you thin pay the

16:13

bookkeeper yeah i was fortunate enough

16:16

that my wife uh so my wife was not

16:18

working before i started um on on the in

16:21

i gotta preface this my wife’s a

16:23

stay-at-home mom she works harder than i

16:25

do okay we get that out of the out in

16:27

the open

16:28

okay yeah

16:30

um but my wife was um

16:33

doing all of this uh

16:35

for me so she my wife has this gift

16:38

where she can get into any computer

16:40

system and very quickly understand how

16:42

it works at a very high level and it

16:45

doesn’t matter what the computer system

16:46

it was so some people are just good at

16:49

that yeah that’s like her niche in every

16:51

every job she’s ever held she would very

16:54

quickly understand how the computer

16:55

system works so she very quickly

16:57

understood how our crm works she knows

16:59

how our crm works better than i do

17:01

because i’m out there doing plumbing and

17:02

she’s yeah yeah yeah yeah um and she

17:04

understands how quickbooks know your

17:05

role right you know right so um my wife

17:09

was able to do all of our bookkeeping

17:11

for us so that helped me out a little

17:13

bit

17:14

um but um for you it may be different so

17:17

um

17:19

next up on the docket is going to be

17:21

banking

17:22

um

17:23

this is

17:25

you wouldn’t think that there’s much to

17:26

talk about with banking

17:28

and there’s not a ton but what there is

17:30

to talk about with it there’s a few

17:32

important points about it yeah what

17:33

there is to talk about is very very

17:35

important um something so simple can

17:37

make your business life easier um if you

17:40

make sure your bank has a few features

17:41

so

17:42

make sure your business bank is

17:44

completely separated from your personal

17:46

bank

17:47

not just different accounts either

17:49

different banks

17:51

completely different banking

17:52

institutions you want complete

17:54

separation between personal and

17:56

financial okay

17:58

this literally creates a physical

18:00

separation between your personal

18:02

finances and your business findings even

18:04

if it’s just for

18:05

um when you look at the checks one

18:07

check’s different than the other check

18:09

right that can help you a lot i i’ve

18:11

i’ve had friends i’m just going to name

18:14

drop u.s bank for i mean that’s that’s

18:16

where we have our personal banking so

18:17

name i’m just going to name drop u.s

18:19

bank i’ve had friends that have like

18:20

their personal and business accounts at

18:21

u.s bank and they’re accidentally using

18:24

the wrong card

18:25

for purchases they bought groceries and

18:27

they accidentally used their business

18:28

card or they took a client out to lunch

18:30

and they accidentally used their

18:32

personal card yeah

18:33

i’m gonna ask why yeah that’s a big so

18:35

like i could see the mistake happening i

18:37

know if it was like a psychological

18:38

thing or something here’s here’s what’s

18:39

funny now listen we’re gonna i’m gonna

18:40

just say right now i use the same bank

18:43

and i always have but they they are not

18:46

only are they different accounts but

18:47

they’re different cards yeah so like the

18:49

card comes from a

18:51

um

18:52

their commercial side right and and i

18:55

have a really small bank so it’s it’s a

18:57

lot different than using like a

18:58

community america or something like that

19:00

and

19:01

i in the beginning i did screw up just

19:04

like you’re talking about and then i had

19:05

to learn okay i need to have discipline

19:08

with that yeah and so you know now it’s

19:11

two different cards and all and i’ve

19:12

never had that happen again but if

19:14

you’re just getting in the business and

19:15

you’re doing a lot of work

19:18

it is it is easier on you yeah to just

19:21

have them separated and and it’s really

19:22

easy to screw up too so like it is re

19:25

i’m very detail oriented right and i did

19:27

it the first year right so like so like

19:30

for me how i keep all this stuff

19:31

organized here’s my money yeah we got

19:32

money okay we got what do we got we got

19:34

some money out here 50 uh baller uh so

19:38

here’s my money clip and and what we’ve

19:39

got on here is on one side is my

19:42

personal bank on the other side is my

19:44

business bank so i keep them completely

19:46

separated on the other side of that and

19:47

that way

19:48

we are

19:50

we’re separated so i can i can

19:51

immediately know okay my cards look

19:53

different and and it keeps all of that

19:54

separated so i’m not out there making

19:56

that mistake and it’s easier to hide uh

19:59

a bank account from your wife later

20:02

stop

20:03

stop that

20:05

you didn’t have any uh personal numbers

20:07

and stuff on that card did you get no

20:08

we’re good let him use it

20:10

promo freeze frame take that out of

20:12

there yeah no work and then send me

20:14

something nothing hold up a little thing

20:16

later with my address on it nothing on

20:18

that all the numbers are on the backs of

20:19

cards now he’s trying to make the post

20:21

editing a little different no no no no

20:22

we’re good we’re good well you got to do

20:24

something so

20:25

um complete separation between personal

20:28

and business finances is key okay

20:31

another thing that you’re looking for is

20:34

you want to make sure that you’re using

20:36

a bank that will connect with quickbooks

20:38

so if you’re in a tiny small town and

20:40

you’re using you know jim’s national

20:43

bank down on main street in your town of

20:45

200 people

20:47

if jim’s national bank does not have

20:51

internet connectivity through their

20:52

banking and quickbooks i’m sorry jim but

20:55

you’re not gonna get the banking

20:56

business

20:57

um you need your bank to talk to

21:00

quickbooks and so like we use quickbooks

21:01

online

21:02

at any time i can log into my bank and

21:05

it’ll tell me what my balances are or i

21:06

can log into quickbooks and it’ll tell

21:08

me what my bank balances are yeah

21:10

because they connect to each other yeah

21:11

and if you and it’s easier now than it

21:13

used to be yeah because now everything

21:15

if you

21:16

you can take a picture of a check and

21:18

send it to your bank account so don’t

21:19

feel like it has to be right down the

21:21

road because hopefully you’re not going

21:23

there all the time right you know

21:26

and if and if it’s 20 minutes away it’s

21:28

probably worth it i shouldn’t say it’s

21:30

probably it’s definitely worth it

21:32

to have all that stuff work together and

21:34

and you just brought up a good point

21:36

that’s not in our not in our notes um

21:38

make sure your your business bank will

21:40

do uh mobile deposits as well so um

21:43

because a lot of customers are going to

21:45

pay you with a check and and we want to

21:47

make sure that that check goes through

21:48

well and having uh having to drive to

21:51

the bank every day

21:52

uh is kind of a pain in the butt so um

21:55

you know

21:56

if you could do it once a week like say

21:57

you do accept checks or maybe maybe she

22:00

goes on so you’re working on saturdays

22:02

too

22:03

maybe she goes or he goes on tuesdays

22:06

and fridays right you know two trips two

22:08

trips but you can hold those checks

22:10

holding a check for three days that’s

22:12

not a big deal hold it for seven

22:14

you know and depending on the amount too

22:16

yeah so when when yeah

22:18

thousand dollar check yeah when we do a

22:19

large job i’m wanting to get that check

22:21

in the bank quickly because typically

22:22

there’s a lot of material costs

22:24

associated with that job so i’m wanting

22:25

that money in the bank yeah to pay for

22:27

that material and now listen as you

22:29

and we’re not telling you exactly what

22:30

to do but as you get bigger you can take

22:33

on

22:34

more of those overhead costs and cushion

22:36

those for a few days so it’s not a big

22:38

but when you first start out like you

22:40

just said yeah you know if you’re in

22:41

week two and you just spent twenty three

22:44

hundred dollars on

22:46

material

22:47

a septic tank or right you know pvc pipe

22:50

i’m just i’m not a plumber so

22:52

you know but you don’t want to have to

22:54

be holding on to that you want to be

22:55

able to get that check in right right um

22:58

so mobile deposit is key they’re going

22:59

to have kind of a limit on it it’s like

23:00

a rolling limit yeah it’s a rolling

23:02

limit most all mostly good banks are

23:04

yeah

23:05

we use mobile deposit a lot and that

23:07

helps a ton and this is kind of funny so

23:10

we do our bookkeeping and we are 100

23:13

above board we all know those people

23:15

that will take like if a customer pays

23:18

in cash

23:19

all of a sudden that invoice disappears

23:21

from their crm that invoice disappears

23:22

from quickbooks and the cash goes into

23:24

the business’s pocket never to be talked

23:26

about it doesn’t go into the businesses

23:28

it goes into the owner’s pocket right um

23:31

we don’t do that and and so much so you

23:33

said above the board that’s what he

23:35

means by that he means

23:38

you know this is the line of honesty

23:40

ethical and honesty this is the line of

23:42

under the line of i’m keeping the cash

23:44

right right the rest of you so so that’s

23:46

what he means by that yeah and so what

23:49

i’m like i take it so far that if a

23:51

customer says is there a cash discount i

23:53

actually reply with

23:55

we don’t have a cash discount but we’ve

23:56

actually thought about charging more for

23:58

cash because when you pay me with cash i

24:01

have to drive to the bank to deposit

24:03

that whereas if you pay me with a card

24:05

it goes in the bank automatically and if

24:07

you pay me with a check i can mobile

24:09

deposit that check so half of the people

24:11

listening just went you jackass right

24:14

right and that’s hey and listen we’re

24:17

we we’re trying to teach you to be

24:18

upstanding in your community yep we’re

24:21

not going to tell you you’re a bad

24:22

person if you take cash okay because

24:24

guys do it yeah all right we’re not

24:26

we’re not downing you one way or the

24:28

other so

24:29

we’re just trying to those are our

24:31

principles here and so we’re just we’re

24:33

saying hey yep that’s what we do you

24:36

need to just you keep after it we uh um

24:40

it’s funny last week i was reading a

24:42

story on facebook of one among the

24:45

plumbing groups i’m in and this guy was

24:47

griping like he was trying to get

24:48

sympathy this this facebook group has

24:50

like 30 000 members and he’s trying to

24:52

get sympathy because the irs just froze

24:55

all of his bank accounts and seized his

24:57

life savings

24:58

and and he’s trying to act like they’re

25:00

out of line for doing it and it was

25:02

nothing

25:04

more people are above board than not it

25:06

was nothing but comment after comment

25:07

after comment of

25:09

dude at the point they’re seizing your

25:11

bank account you’ve been doing it a long

25:12

time bro and you didn’t take a hundred

25:14

dollars a week for two years you took

25:16

serious money though they seized forty

25:18

thousand dollars yeah so he was taking

25:20

some serious money yeah and and you’re

25:23

never gonna like we all have that uncle

25:24

who’s been like trying to scam the

25:26

government and trying to underpay his

25:28

taxes and all of that stuff well guess

25:29

what sometimes that uncle ends up in

25:31

prison

25:32

yeah and it just happens and let’s talk

25:34

about it just for a second because i

25:35

don’t want people to get the wrong idea

25:36

i hate the government i think they’re a

25:38

bunch of greedy losers and they’re not

25:40

good they’re not good with the money we

25:41

give them yeah but there are legal ways

25:44

to keep money yeah okay and that’s where

25:47

you’re accountable and we’re going to

25:48

talk about that next yeah if you have a

25:50

good accountant he’s going to say hey

25:52

you know if you bought another vehicle

25:53

here

25:54

right you know i think it was last year

25:55

it may be now too um you know that’s a

25:57

100 tax deduction right right right

26:00

maybe he’s like listen maybe you ought

26:03

to just do that

26:04

and keep that money and and and then use

26:06

that vehicle to make more money yeah and

26:09

so

26:10

you know we’re not we’re not

26:11

pro-government we’re not pro hey

26:13

everybody pay

26:15

more taxes than you should no no i’m not

26:17

encouraging people to go out there but

26:18

you have to do it the legal way because

26:20

it could bite you in the ass down the

26:22

road we run we run our business so above

26:25

board

26:26

that

26:27

i’m like

26:29

it sounds silly to say i’m looking

26:30

forward to an audit

26:32

because what’s going to happen is

26:34

they’re going to audit us and they’re

26:35

going to realize we got nothing yeah and

26:37

then they’re going to be like we’re

26:39

never auditing them again that’s not how

26:40

it works i know i know i typically when

26:42

you get one you get a bunch of

26:43

follow-ups later because they think

26:45

they’re trying to go from red flag right

26:47

even though and then you prove then you

26:49

just go to yellow flag yep you know and

26:51

they’re like okay he’s already at this

26:52

level they don’t drop you all the way

26:53

down they

26:54

right middle of the road so but as long

26:56

as you stay on that track then every

26:57

time they come you can just be like

26:59

right you know here’s here’s the thing

27:00

though when it comes to taxes and all of

27:02

that stuff

27:03

um a lot of people have this

27:04

misconception that oh when you want to

27:06

be in business you want to pay as little

27:07

taxes as possible well the only way to

27:09

pay as little taxes as possible is to

27:10

show as little profit as possible well

27:13

you’re never going to grow your business

27:14

if you’re showing as little profit as

27:16

possible but there are there are ways to

27:18

do that where you can use that profit

27:20

and not pay taxes on that profit to grow

27:22

your business and that’s why those are

27:23

there yeah because they

27:25

they actually want you to grow your

27:27

business because then you make more

27:28

money and then you give them more money

27:30

right you just have to be spending that

27:31

money

27:32

uh honestly in ways to do that right

27:35

right so that they’re not on you yeah

27:38

so in in previous episodes we kind of

27:40

talked about um i call them boomerang

27:42

businessmen or business women where

27:45

they start a business for themselves and

27:47

then they come back out and they are

27:50

you know a year later they’re like oh i

27:51

had to shut it down it was too much i

27:53

was working 80 hours a week or

27:55

they come up with some random excuse on

27:58

why they had to shut it down and and

28:00

after about five minutes of talking to

28:02

them you can learn real quick

28:04

that they don’t really even know why

28:05

they had to shut it down and it’s

28:07

usually because they did not have some

28:08

of these processes in place but it’s

28:11

also

28:12

because they are

28:14

um

28:15

they’re they’re too busy trying to

28:17

scheme and skim all of their taxes and

28:20

not focused enough on just make some

28:22

freaking money make enough money to pay

28:24

for the taxes so rather than focus

28:26

myself on trying to go down my tax

28:28

bracket by a couple of points i’m like

28:31

let’s make a couple extra 20 or 30 grand

28:33

and pay for that and then just pay for

28:34

it and then it’s then money ahead and

28:36

not everybody and you know some people

28:37

and we’ve talked about this in the

28:38

previous episodes some people um they

28:41

jump into business and then they realize

28:44

you know what this wasn’t for me right

28:46

and they go back that’s not who he means

28:48

by boomerang jumping back and forth

28:50

that’s just you know sometimes it’s not

28:52

for you yeah you know and that’s not

28:54

everybody

28:55

so as as you’re doing this and you’re

28:56

going to be getting advice from people

28:58

do not take advice from people who have

29:00

failed at business

29:02

i understand there’s a lot that we can

29:04

learn from failure however you want to

29:07

be taking advice from people who are

29:09

where you want to be

29:11

you don’t want to be taking advice from

29:12

people who never made it to where you

29:14

want to be yeah so you don’t want to be

29:16

taking advice from that guy that was

29:18

like yeah i was working you know 10 hour

29:20

days and then four hours of bookkeeping

29:22

at night and then the taxes were just

29:24

crazy and then payroll and then my my

29:26

vendors were just coming after me for

29:28

money and all like you need to separate

29:30

yourself away from that dude hard

29:32

because he’s not helping you out at all

29:33

yeah and when we say you know take

29:35

advice you’re not necessarily sitting

29:37

down with them taking advice but you may

29:39

just be watching them right you know and

29:41

if you watch a guy and he’s struggling

29:42

all the time and you’re oh this guy’s

29:44

doing this and you know he can’t do this

29:47

you know maybe just realize oh if i do

29:49

it i’m not going to do it that way right

29:51

that’s right

29:52

yeah yeah um

29:54

let’s flip over to accounting here um

29:57

accounting again second step of

29:59

bookkeeping right bookkeeping is is

30:02

monitoring your books day to day

30:03

accounting is taking those and preparing

30:05

them into good financials for taxes

30:08

you are the master of your craft okay

30:12

whether it’s lawn mowing hair cutting

30:14

plumbing electrical doesn’t matter

30:16

you’re the master of that craft

30:18

much like your customers

30:21

leave your mastery and your skill set to

30:24

you you need to leave the accounting to

30:26

the professionals as well

30:28

your accountant is your financial

30:30

cheerleader

30:33

if you keep giving them something to

30:35

cheer about they can be one of your

30:37

biggest motivators so search for an

30:39

accountant who specializes in emerging

30:42

small businesses okay

30:44

find one that that helps get businesses

30:46

off the ground

30:47

there’s a big difference between

30:49

accounting for a small business in its

30:50

early years versus accounting for bigger

30:53

business in their later years of

30:54

existence

30:56

i was fortunate enough to experience

30:58

both within my first three months of

31:00

business

31:02

i started with an accountant who came

31:04

highly referred from some other small

31:06

business owner friends

31:07

and um i ended up firing them two months

31:11

in

31:11

um

31:12

and in this when i say firing them

31:14

there’s no

31:15

not necessarily any hard feelings here

31:17

um

31:19

things seemed okay when we opened our

31:20

doors but

31:22

when i would ask them questions it

31:24

started i started getting some seemingly

31:25

dodgy answers and just not real clear

31:29

uh responses to when i was asking them

31:31

questions i had a goal in mind when we

31:33

opened our doors i wanted to pay our

31:35

startup costs off in three months

31:38

as i mentioned in previous episodes it

31:40

took me 30 thousand dollars to start our

31:42

company

31:44

i wanted to pay that off in three months

31:46

and i was willing to pay myself as

31:47

little as possible as long as i could

31:49

pay those startup costs off in three

31:51

months and you were able to do that

31:53

because you had done the preparation

31:55

steps right and you had set aside money

31:58

for okay i may not get a check for three

32:01

months right you know what i mean but

32:03

when you did make the money you had the

32:04

money to

32:05

to get through so you were able to spend

32:08

the business money on paying those debts

32:11

right paying the startup costs off now

32:13

um

32:14

so so i wanted to pay those startup

32:16

costs off in three months it’s 30 000 so

32:18

that’s 10 000 a month that the business

32:21

the business account needed to grow

32:24

so that i could achieve my goal at the

32:25

end of three months not gross income no

32:27

no no

32:28

it needed that the net

32:30

money in the account at the end of the

32:31

month right so uh one month in

32:35

um we are we our bank account’s got an

32:38

extra 10 grand in it you’re like yeah

32:40

and i’m like

32:41

we’re one third of the way there and

32:42

we’re one month in this is awesome and

32:43

so i sent a message to my accountant and

32:46

and the messages that i got back were

32:48

kind of humbling they were like well you

32:50

make sure you’re not overworking

32:52

yourself make sure you’re not working

32:53

too hard don’t get burned out and and

32:55

you know make sure you’re paying

32:55

yourself fairly and all this stuff

32:58

okay whatever

32:59

two months in

33:00

now we have 20 grand in the bank

33:03

and um again i’m not paying myself very

33:06

much at all i haven’t heard this story

33:07

i’m yeah i’m actually i’m into it and so

33:09

now we’ve got 20 grand in the bank and

33:11

and again i’m not paying myself very

33:13

much and so i send a message to the

33:15

accountant again and and i’m assuming

33:16

she’s like keeping an eye on this on our

33:18

quickbooks yeah um but maybe she wasn’t

33:20

maybe i don’t know but but again i was

33:22

met with okay but you’re still not

33:25

paying yourself very much and don’t

33:26

don’t burn yourself out and and like

33:29

nobody pays off their business startup

33:30

costs in three months so don’t get your

33:32

hopes up you never know what the

33:33

future’s going to hold and all this

33:34

stuff and i made the decision right then

33:37

and there that this is not the

33:38

accountant for me i’ve got very specific

33:40

financial goals that i want to meet and

33:42

if my accountant’s not on board with

33:43

that and if they’re trying to pull me

33:45

down away from that i need a different

33:47

accountant let me play devil’s advocate

33:49

just just for a second to give people

33:50

maybe a little perspective maybe she was

33:52

used i don’t know if it was a he or she

33:55

um was used to

33:57

um

33:58

dealing with lower end businesses

34:01

maybe those guys failed a lot and maybe

34:04

she had seen things and maybe she was

34:06

actually like we’ve talked about before

34:08

was coming from a place of i’m concerned

34:11

about coming up a place of empathy right

34:12

yeah right right and maybe she just

34:15

and you know accountants are like

34:18

everybody else they got different

34:19

personalities and there are different

34:21

levels of accountants there are

34:23

accountants

34:24

that have been in business 20 years and

34:26

they couldn’t go to a bank and do their

34:28

accounting right you know what i mean

34:29

because they’re in this this is their

34:31

level and that’s okay you know that’s

34:33

their wheelhouse you need to find

34:35

somebody that is at your level and is

34:38

used to dealing with things at that

34:40

level you may grow out of they may come

34:41

to you one day and be like dude

34:44

you’re getting you’re out of my

34:45

wheelhouse you’re getting to the point

34:46

where i can’t do it yeah or i’ve got to

34:48

pay for people to help me you need to

34:50

make we need to come together and maybe

34:52

find you somebody else yeah and a good

34:55

stand-up accountant is going to do that

34:57

yeah so

34:59

yeah and again there’s no ill will on

35:01

this account i don’t you know i don’t i

35:03

don’t you know dislike them or anything

35:05

else and looking back on it now

35:07

they came to me through a referral from

35:09

my friends and and that were business

35:11

owners and looking at my friends

35:12

businesses

35:14

no no no okay um looking at my friends

35:16

businesses that they own they are

35:19

different styles of business they’re not

35:20

as fast paced as mine and they they may

35:23

not have the margins that mine did and

35:25

so

35:26

that may have been

35:28

again unknowingly that may have been why

35:31

this accountant didn’t work very well is

35:32

because they were

35:33

they were they were unfamiliar with the

35:35

types of margins that we work with in

35:37

our business

35:38

um but nonetheless

35:40

um i had already been introduced to a

35:43

different accountant uh previously and

35:45

so i called up that accountant and

35:48

started talking with him and

35:50

um

35:51

he’s still my accountant today um he

35:53

checked out all of our financials kind

35:55

of i met with him for like three and a

35:57

half hours just started going over

35:59

numbers just started going over

36:00

everything and everything else and and

36:02

he was like this is awesome he’s like

36:04

you’re gonna do you’re gonna do great

36:05

he’s like you’re already on pace to pay

36:07

off everything in three months and

36:08

you’re gonna do it and i know you’re

36:09

gonna do it and this is really freaking

36:10

cool yeah it’s nice having cheerleaders

36:12

yeah yeah so i that day i flipped

36:14

everything over to him and lo and behold

36:18

one month later

36:20

we had 35 000 in our business bank

36:22

account paid those loans off and so i

36:24

paid i was i would say loans it wasn’t i

36:27

mean you know what i mean but i borrowed

36:28

the money for myself personally right so

36:30

it’s a personal loan i paid myself back

36:32

yeah and let the now the business is off

36:35

and running and freestanding on its own

36:36

on its own it had

36:38

the only debt the business had was a

36:40

vehicle payment on a truck and that was

36:41

it so

36:42

um that was a very very relieving

36:46

feeling because now the business has

36:48

substantiated it’s on its own and it is

36:50

its own entity that’s not supported by

36:53

any other finances

36:54

so

36:55

look what happened though when

36:58

i switched accountants i went from ten

37:00

thousand dollars a month

37:02

on my first month ten thousand dollars

37:03

on my second month once i had a

37:05

financial cheerleader in my corner and

37:07

an accountant we did fifteen thousand

37:10

dollars

37:11

in in addition i’m not saying that’s

37:13

directly related but part of that

37:15

positive motivation could have been some

37:17

of the driving force to get you there

37:19

yeah and that’s

37:21

you know people talk all the time about

37:23

you know

37:24

think about it and it it’ll happen you

37:26

know well if you have someone in your

37:28

corner that’s just extra motivation all

37:30

the time you know they’re just

37:34

the the power of you know positive

37:36

perspective is a huge thing well what

37:39

happens if you don’t have a good

37:40

accountant in your corner is you can

37:42

somewhat get to the point of why am i

37:44

even doing this all this money just goes

37:46

to cover taxes and all this stuff well

37:48

when you have the right account in your

37:49

corner and they’re kind of telling you

37:51

like

37:51

the moment like so i i look at it like a

37:54

teeter-totter scale the moment we break

37:55

x amount of revenue a month everything

37:58

else from that like we’re profit just

37:59

starts climbing because we’ve already

38:00

covered all of our costs

38:02

when you have an accountant that talks

38:03

to you in that language it helps out

38:05

tremendously yeah perspective is a great

38:07

thing yeah yeah so more or less and

38:09

that’s why we also just real quick

38:12

that’s why you need to vet people yeah

38:14

and

38:15

and you know you said that was a

38:16

recommendation but just because you get

38:18

three recommendations doesn’t mean

38:21

um you shouldn’t vet them

38:23

and sit down and talk with them and and

38:25

try and look we all make mistakes but

38:27

just try to do as much research as you

38:29

can so that you are as prepared as you

38:32

can be yeah when you hire someone like

38:34

that and i don’t regret my first two

38:36

months with the other accountant at all

38:38

because it taught you it taught me and i

38:40

now value my current accountant twice as

38:43

much as i would have before because i’ve

38:45

known i’ve seen it firsthand the other

38:47

way yeah so

38:48

um

38:50

moral of that story is your accountant

38:52

has a key impact on the success or

38:54

failure of your business and if you have

38:55

bad feelings about your accountant

38:57

you’re probably right and there’s

38:59

nothing wrong with if you do have an

39:00

accountant and you’re not sure going to

39:02

someone else and saying hey would you

39:03

give me a second opinion on this yeah

39:05

you cannot when you’re in business for

39:07

yourself you cannot be afraid

39:09

of anything you can’t be afraid of

39:13

and these some of these are just going

39:14

to be examples you can’t be afraid of

39:15

firing somebody you can’t be afraid of

39:17

looking outside your own comfort zone

39:19

and saying hey maybe i need to do

39:20

different maybe i need to

39:23

you know change things up a little bit

39:25

and we’re going to talk about later

39:26

constantly evaluating your situation and

39:30

this this is one of those um situations

39:33

that you can evaluate before you even

39:35

get into business yeah yeah

39:38

not to beat that

39:39

horse to death but well that’s it it’s

39:42

very very important yep

39:44

last thing we’re going to talk about

39:46

today is behaving like the customers

39:49

that you want for your very own business

39:52

when you think about your future

39:53

customers what do you think

39:55

how do you want them to treat you

39:57

how do you want them to act

39:59

i’m betting that you probably want

40:01

trustworthy customers who value your

40:04

skill set and your expertise

40:06

i’m guessing that you would rather have

40:08

customers who trust you to proceed with

40:10

your suggestions

40:12

without going and getting five to seven

40:14

other bids and pitting their bids

40:16

against yours

40:18

we’ve all lost work to the lowest bidder

40:20

and if you’re good at what you do

40:23

it hurts when you lose work to the

40:25

lowest bidder

40:26

the reason it hurts is because you know

40:29

how well you can solve their problem

40:32

and you know that that lowest bidder is

40:34

probably not going to solve your

40:36

customer’s problem and so it hurts you

40:38

to lose the work but it also hurts you

40:41

because you know your customer is

40:42

probably going to have a less than

40:44

perfect experience with that lowest bid

40:47

so

40:48

as you’re going through business

40:51

are you setting the example

40:53

of being the customer that you want for

40:56

your business

40:58

all too often i see people start a

41:00

business

41:01

and they learn very quickly that they

41:03

need to outsource certain things like

41:05

accounting and printing and embroidery

41:08

and uniforms and graphic designs and

41:10

material suppliers and vehicle repair

41:12

and all of the things that it takes to

41:14

run a business

41:16

for your business to be successful

41:18

you use your time and talents and

41:22

resources you use the time and talents

41:24

and resources of others to help you now

41:27

you are becoming a customer of theirs so

41:30

here’s your chance to become the

41:32

customer that you wish to have for your

41:35

business okay

41:37

do your research

41:39

on who you want to work with

41:41

um

41:42

trust your own research

41:44

and then lay out expectations and

41:46

desires and and put a let let them put

41:49

together a price agree to that price on

41:51

the spot with no pushback do not ask

41:54

them for a discount

41:56

and then once you’re done inspect the

41:58

work and and provide timely and direct

42:00

feedback that’s exactly how what you

42:03

want your customers to behave for you

42:05

so you need to behave that way for your

42:07

customers

42:09

my point is you know exactly what a

42:12

perfect customer looks like to you

42:15

so make sure that your business is a

42:17

perfect customer for others as often as

42:20

it can be

42:21

do this in your personal life too when

42:23

you go out to eat and you have or you

42:26

have any service performed on your home

42:27

or your car practice the same process of

42:30

trusting your research laying out

42:32

expectations and then letting them work

42:34

and agreeing to their price do not ask

42:36

for discounts

42:37

once satisfied provide timely feedback

42:39

leave a five-star review

42:41

it feels good to be a great customer and

42:44

the more you practice being a great

42:46

customer the better you’ll understand

42:48

how to create the experiences that

42:50

result in your business having great

42:53

customers as well

42:56

um i i think there’s some good points in

43:00

there um you know at the beginning

43:02

you were talking about

43:04

um

43:05

you know if

43:07

if you lose a customer to a lower bid

43:10

if you do that you know a lot of times

43:12

even if that customer gets something

43:14

faulty and it’s not real great and

43:16

they’re thinking man i wish i would have

43:18

paid smedley plumbing they’re probably

43:20

not gonna call you yeah they’re cause

43:22

they’re embarrassed they’re embarrassed

43:23

they’re they’re like they’re

43:25

ashamed isn’t probably their that’s kind

43:27

of a strong word but they’re just like

43:29

man

43:30

they regret you know what they did

43:32

they’re not going to call you right half

43:34

that now some of them will some of them

43:35

will call i’ve had guys call me and say

43:37

dude

43:38

hey man

43:39

i know i had you out

43:41

i didn’t replace that unit i replaced

43:43

the compressor instead

43:45

this guy came out put it in and we’re

43:47

down again right you know and then you

43:50

you know just as an example i went out

43:51

there on one and so he had changed the

43:54

compressor instead of the unit and and i

43:56

gave him a price to change the

43:57

compressor too but it was it was high

43:59

you know and he was

44:01

he didn’t want to pay that so he got

44:02

somebody else to do it i go out there

44:04

well he had changed the compressor out

44:06

and he had done a nice job he didn’t

44:08

change the capacitor to the correct size

44:10

that that compressor needed capacitor

44:12

was out great work wrong repair is that

44:15

is that um a huge deal no you know back

44:18

then

44:19

you know it was flat price it was only

44:21

200 bucks i charged the guy 200 bucks he

44:23

was happy to pay it right but you know

44:25

that doesn’t happen all the time right

44:26

and then but from then on i had

44:29

uh had his service yeah customer for

44:31

life yes yeah i just

44:33

you know it’s just it’s it’s one of

44:34

those things

44:36

sometimes those things are tough to deal

44:38

with from a mental standpoint on your

44:40

own oh man you and when you’re first

44:42

starting out you feel real down yep

44:43

don’t feel down right just

44:46

make an adjustment yep an evaluation

44:49

and do what you got to do

44:50

you know to move on from there yeah yeah

44:53

um

44:53

i’ll tell you guys a quick story about a

44:55

place that i used to work this was a

44:57

medium to large size plumbing heating

45:00

cooling company

45:01

and they had a very nice facility and

45:04

they were always i was a manager at this

45:06

place and the the ownership and the the

45:08

gm’s

45:09

they were always pushing for us to be

45:12

the most professional customers out

45:14

there we are the best highest you know

45:16

highest service best service most

45:17

professional and

45:19

um our customers need to be okay paying

45:22

our price because they will not get

45:23

better service than anywhere you know

45:24

from

45:25

they’ll get better service from us than

45:26

anywhere else were they were they

45:28

providing that service were they doing

45:30

that they were preaching and then for

45:31

the most part those guys were doing that

45:33

for for the most part they were

45:34

delivering every once in a while okay so

45:35

they were bought in the employees the

45:37

employees were brought in right that was

45:38

my point there they

45:41

the

45:42

one of the things though is is the

45:44

employees their buy-in was not very

45:46

durable it wouldn’t it wasn’t it didn’t

45:48

last it wasn’t everlasting right and and

45:50

here’s why and that’s why they had to

45:52

constantly be beating it into them

45:54

they’re constantly beating it into them

45:55

and there’s there’s a little bit of

45:56

turnover going on there and um and so

45:59

that means they’re having to like beat

46:01

it into the new people you gotta like

46:02

start over that’s tough man turnover

46:04

companies are tough to work at one of

46:06

the things that i was able to recognize

46:07

so this place had an elevator

46:09

okay it was a two-story building it had

46:11

an elevator in it i haven’t heard this

46:12

story either yeah actually learning a

46:14

lot about mitch today so this place has

46:16

an elevator in it and um

46:18

this elevator had a problem um it’s only

46:21

going up one floor and i don’t know why

46:23

but it took like 30 seconds for this

46:25

thing to go from first floor to second

46:26

floor okay so it’s like world’s slowest

46:28

elevator halfway up this elevator had

46:31

like this hiccup in it to where it would

46:34

like drop six or eight inches and then

46:36

just keep going like nothing ever

46:38

happened

46:39

well i think the

46:40

downtown courthouse one does that too

46:43

maybe

46:44

this thing janky old turd this thing was

46:47

scary like it would literally scare the

46:48

crap out of you if you were holding a

46:50

coffee cup you’d probably spill it like

46:51

were there customers ever in those no no

46:53

it’s just them just boys

46:55

but as your employees it’s kind of scary

46:58

to be like oh let me go take the

46:59

elevator to the second floor and boom

47:01

and this thing likes

47:02

a little more than you thought so

47:04

for one they were really slow to fix

47:06

this elevator well it’s fine it hadn’t

47:07

hurt anybody and you know all this stuff

47:09

that’s not the message you want to be

47:10

sending to your people right we’re

47:12

professional but we’re okay with a

47:14

subpar elevator right well then they’re

47:17

finally like and they’re they’re trying

47:19

to celebrate this they bring out an

47:20

elevator repair company okay and so

47:23

we’re all kind of like oh great they’re

47:24

finally fixing that freaking elevator

47:26

this elevator repair company they may

47:28

have well have been called like skeeters

47:30

elevator repair guy shows up in a truck

47:32

that’s got rusted out fender well

47:34

sketchy.com paperwork piled up on the

47:37

dash like everything you don’t want to

47:39

see yeah and and this guy’s wearing like

47:41

jeans and a no-name t-shirt and he

47:44

starts working on this elevator

47:46

and he’s got four tools in his back

47:47

pocket who knows like

47:49

well anyway he gets all done and he

47:51

leaves guess what elevators still

47:54

bouncing and slamming around right

47:56

three or four visits later they keep

47:58

going back to skeeter and skeeter keeps

48:00

giving them subpar work

48:02

and so what’s the message that they’re

48:04

sending to their entire organization

48:07

we want profession like we want you guys

48:09

to be the professionals and we want our

48:10

customers to be okay

48:12

right we don’t care who we hire we

48:15

we want professional on this hand but we

48:16

want cheap and unreliable on this hand

48:19

yeah you can’t go that route right and

48:21

then your employees are obviously

48:22

thinking dude why would i want to be up

48:25

here when you guys aren’t even right

48:26

lead by example is a huge thing full

48:29

story i ended up leaving that

48:31

organization i left on great terms by

48:32

the way great company i’m not going to

48:34

name who they are because it doesn’t

48:35

matter great company okay every company

48:37

is going to make mistakes this was just

48:38

one of theirs um i ended up leaving that

48:41

organization but like in the few weeks

48:44

right there before i left

48:45

they finally got the message oh they get

48:47

somebody good out they got like the

48:49

company that works on elevators and the

48:51

high rises downtown legitimate company

48:53

right now here’s the cool thing they

48:55

show up in newer vehicles that are

48:56

clearly marked very clean

48:58

and they put these like this is how you

49:00

know they’re a great company they come

49:02

up and they they’ve got these like

49:03

guards that they set up around all of

49:05

the elevator doors to let everybody know

49:08

we’re working on this yeah and and the

49:10

whole time skeeter was out there it’s

49:11

just like you’re people are out there

49:13

pushing they’re pushing buttons and it

49:14

ain’t working right like oh man stairs

49:16

and so like these guys were legit and

49:19

i uh to full disclosure did you know i

49:21

have no costume i have no clue okay and

49:23

and i have no clue if they ever and fix

49:25

the elevator or not um okay i know what

49:27

left about i left about the same time

49:28

however they finally got the message

49:30

that we can’t expect our employees to

49:33

deliver professional quality work unless

49:35

we show our employees that we want

49:37

professional quality work within our own

49:39

business that’s a good story yeah

49:40

um

49:42

let’s talk about coffee for examples um

49:44

as we’re talking about different levels

49:46

of what your cups are might want um

49:50

there’s about a million different ways

49:51

to get a cup of coffee in this world you

49:54

could go to the grocery store and buy

49:55

some folgers and brew your own okay

49:57

ironically that’s what’s in my cup is

49:59

some folgers i love folgers um you could

50:01

run down to mickey d’s and get a cup of

50:03

coffee for a dollar roastery i like the

50:05

roastery too yeah i like grinding up my

50:07

own beans um you could do oh yeah yeah

50:09

that’s the middle ground right yeah

50:11

that’s good you could do dunkin donuts

50:13

and and grabs what they claim is

50:14

high-end coffee for about three bucks

50:16

right i hate dunking or you could go to

50:18

starbucks and get the premium coffee

50:20

that’s brewed to perfection and it’s

50:22

handed to you with your name written on

50:24

it you’re gonna get me riled up about

50:25

the stupid starbucks your name’s

50:26

probably written wrong but uh they’re

50:28

gonna charge you like seven bucks for

50:30

that coffee right so uh which customer

50:33

are you after for your business do you

50:36

want the folgers customer the customers

50:37

have a debate gonna do it for themselves

50:39

feel it coming do you want the mickey

50:41

d’s customer or do you want the

50:42

starbucks customer okay um which do you

50:45

think has a higher in a higher

50:48

engagement level from their customers

50:50

well it’s definitely starbucks right

50:52

which do you think is more likely to

50:54

talk about their experience with other

50:56

people

50:57

probably starbucks probably starve but i

50:59

know a lot of old guys that go to

51:00

mcdonald’s and sit in their little

51:01

groups and drink their coffee right

51:02

right nothing wrong with that and then

51:04

they tell me about it and they’re like

51:05

oh we were at mcdonald’s yeah getting

51:07

that coffee for i think if you’re over

51:09

55 it’s like it’s a little bit free or a

51:11

quarter or something

51:13

um

51:14

so

51:15

which uh

51:17

which of those customers do you think

51:18

had a better experience oh definitely

51:20

starbucks definitely starbucks now

51:22

listen

51:24

your name well they’re saying your name

51:26

wrong it’s like when you go to a really

51:27

nice restaurant and the food’s a little

51:29

more expensive but the atmosphere in the

51:32

restaurant it’s not there’s candles on

51:33

the table yeah yeah it’s real classy

51:36

you know what i mean that that’s really

51:38

what he means by or you can go to the

51:40

local grocery store and get a pound of

51:42

meat and grill it up yourself right then

51:44

yeah but then you’re eating it at your

51:45

kitchen table you’re not getting you’re

51:47

out of candles yeah and you’re not that

51:48

kid’s screaming in the background you’re

51:49

getting service right yeah so

51:52

we when we’re talking about

51:53

service-based companies right right

51:55

right so um now do you think starbucks

51:58

coffee costs them seven times more to

52:00

make than mcdonald’s coffee no it

52:02

doesn’t right so what you’re paying for

52:04

is experience starbucks is literally

52:07

charging you money out of thin air

52:09

simply to deliver you

52:11

an experience and you need to be doing

52:13

the same thing for your company and the

52:15

coffee may be just a little bit better

52:17

right that’s not where the money’s going

52:19

right right right right the the money’s

52:21

going to the experience

52:22

um

52:23

so and part of that that’s why starbucks

52:25

spells your name wrong on the coffee you

52:27

think so i know so because what are you

52:29

gonna do

52:30

right they’re gonna you’re gonna tell

52:32

them your name’s marcus right right and

52:34

they are gonna write down m-a-r-k

52:36

space

52:38

us mark us

52:41

right

52:42

how does marcus marcus is m-a-r-c-u-s

52:44

right right marcus okay right but

52:46

they’re gonna they’re gonna put it in

52:48

two words mark us

52:49

and then and you’re gonna take a picture

52:51

of it you’re gonna share it on social

52:52

media and ironically they write it just

52:53

so the starbucks logo is in the corner

52:55

and you’re gonna be like look at these

52:56

clowns at starbucks i told them my

52:58

name’s marcus and they wrote down marcus

53:00

and in the shitty world we live in now

53:02

there’s no such thing as bad publicity

53:03

right right so

53:05

i’m telling you i’m telling you

53:08

that’s serious right but how many people

53:11

look at that it creates an experience

53:12

say 25 000 right just 25 000 people saw

53:15

that right you know

53:17

and it’s and it’s not it’s not a bad

53:19

experience right no it’s it’s kind of

53:21

funny no it’s quirky right so that’s why

53:24

they do it yeah so um again that’s why

53:27

they’re ahead of the game i feel like

53:28

you’re gonna need a letter from

53:29

starbucks any day now

53:31

well i’m not bad mouthing them that’s

53:33

true so and here’s the crazy thing about

53:34

all three of those customers maybe

53:36

they’ll sponsor us

53:38

starbucks

53:40

here’s the crazy thing about all those

53:42

is is the homebrew guy

53:44

yeah no i wouldn’t i’m full i’m full

53:46

ahead uh the homebrew guy he’s perfectly

53:49

happy making his home coffee yeah the

53:50

mcdonald’s guy is perfectly happy

53:52

drinking mcdonald’s coffee the dunkin

53:54

donuts guy is perfectly happy at dunkin

53:55

donuts and the starbucks i mean

53:57

starbucks has a line around the corner

53:59

where are you going with this what i’m

54:00

going with this is your customer is

54:02

perfectly happy at whatever service

54:03

you’re providing so don’t feel like the

54:06

only way you’re going to be in the wrong

54:07

here is if you’re delivering mcdonald’s

54:09

quality and charging starbucks prices so

54:12

you’re saying there’s a customer for

54:13

every price point yes this is where

54:15

you’re going with this okay exactly okay

54:17

i got you so okay you can charge i wish

54:19

we would have talked about that earlier

54:21

i don’t like wrote that down the whole

54:22

time i’m thinking he’s just babbling

54:24

about coffee no no one is going to care

54:26

what he’s saying

54:27

you can literally charge whatever you

54:29

want as long as you’re delivering the

54:30

service to back it up i got you okay

54:32

okay um i like it i think that’s a good

54:35

point got one more story for you guys

54:37

before we wrap up today um i

54:41

yeah um i live in a house that’s got two

54:43

garage doors on it and luckily when we

54:45

built our house about 10 or 11 years ago

54:48

my third garage my single door

54:51

i built that garage big enough to park

54:53

my plumbing service trucks in not your

54:55

personal

54:56

um business truck but no where you were

54:58

working at this time

55:00

and they gave you yeah i started our

55:01

business two years ago so this was this

55:03

was you know i was working for other

55:05

people in this and you have a plumbing

55:06

home okay yeah and so um i wanted to get

55:09

into a warm plumbing truck every day um

55:12

in the winter and in a colder plumbing

55:13

truck in the summer and everything else

55:15

we’re in kansas city so winters get cold

55:17

summers get hot yeah chiefs are playing

55:20

today by the way yeah so um

55:23

um you know it gets it it’s cold in the

55:25

winter uh what’s it been this week like

55:27

10 in the morning there was there were

55:29

two tens and i was zero one morning yeah

55:31

so like wind chill of like negative 15

55:33

and all that stuff so we’re not living

55:34

in wisconsin so it’s usually short

55:36

bursts yeah but that makes it worse i

55:38

feel like yeah it’s like it’s supposed

55:39

to be 55 next week right it’s the end of

55:42

january right

55:43

and let’s just be honest if you have the

55:45

means to do so why wouldn’t you park

55:46

your van inside right so i built our

55:48

garage to park inside well now that i

55:50

have my own company i’m still parking my

55:51

van inside and that door is like 10 or

55:54

11 years old that garage door and it

55:56

started sounding kind of funny and

55:57

everything else and the first thing that

55:59

pops into my head is if that door breaks

56:02

i can’t get my van out and i can’t make

56:04

money

56:05

so

56:06

that door is now all of a sudden and you

56:08

have to reschedule calls right a huge

56:10

hassle yeah so now that door is like

56:12

really important that it needs to

56:13

operate smoothly and so i got a i got a

56:16

friend of mine that has a garage door

56:18

company i’ve never had the opportunity

56:19

to use a service but everybody loves

56:21

them he’s got great reviews he’s got a

56:23

perfect 5-0 rating on who is it

56:25

it’s state line door and lift and

56:27

they’re in grain valley missouri okay

56:28

now now listen they didn’t do it for

56:30

free no gosh no gosh no no no okay so

56:33

that’s part of the story we’re not

56:34

taking perks here not to say that we

56:35

wouldn’t if you want to send us

56:36

something this is me behaving like a

56:38

customer i want for my business right so

56:40

i call them up and i schedule an

56:41

appointment and i say there’s nothing

56:42

really wrong it just sounds it sounds

56:44

bad and and i’m worried that it’s going

56:46

to leave me stranded one day so

56:48

they send a guy out uh first of all

56:51

they send me a text confirming of the

56:53

appointment i just made with them oh

56:54

good crm software good crm

56:57

or they didn’t maybe they didn’t have

56:58

software but they took the time to

57:01

actually text you that i have seen guys

57:03

do that you could do that but you could

57:04

for 200 a month you could let your crm

57:06

do it yeah exactly so um in this i’ve

57:08

talked to them it’s just good it is crm

57:10

oh okay it is just that’s just good

57:12

customer service too so then on the day

57:14

of our appointment i get another text

57:16

saying my text my technician’s getting

57:17

ready to head that way and it gives me

57:18

the technician’s name oh that’s nice so

57:20

that’s kind of cool i know i know who’s

57:22

coming so he shows up checks everything

57:24

out looks at both doors and he says you

57:26

know this this one door did you ask him

57:28

to look at the other door yeah yeah yeah

57:29

i looked at everything both of them and

57:31

my big door that my plumbing band hides

57:32

behind it uh um it was like noticeably

57:36

louder like than the others and it’s a

57:38

big door it’s 10 feet wide and 11 feet

57:40

tall so um

57:42

he’s like this one we definitely need to

57:44

do some work on it’s not sounding good

57:46

so he replaces all the rollers in it he

57:48

makes some adjustments to it it was kind

57:50

of sticking a little bit and kind of

57:51

binding up

57:52

and it was like i can’t even remember it

57:55

was like it was like 189 or 249 or

57:58

something like that but that’s not too

57:59

bad it’s not too bad that’s reasonable

58:01

the moment he got done and he hits that

58:03

opener

58:05

oh my gosh it was like whisper quiet

58:07

and i’m like

58:08

that’s freaking amazing and do you think

58:10

that was worth more than what he chart

58:12

or what he charged i don’t i mean it’s

58:14

up to them to determine their prices

58:16

like 400 would you pay that if so

58:18

knowing what you knew after so

58:20

yeah so here’s the thing

58:23

they’re the experts in the door industry

58:25

i can only imagine so i was watching him

58:27

work just because i i’m not the guy that

58:29

like overlords on people when they’re

58:30

working

58:31

i

58:32

i totally admire various craftsmen right

58:35

so if i’ve got somebody working in my

58:37

house and they’re doing a craft i watch

58:39

because i like my dream job would be

58:41

mike rowe with dirty jobs he gets to he

58:43

gets to play with all the other people’s

58:45

crowds dude you’re up i don’t

58:46

want to be digging around and

58:48

although you do that’s what i do every

58:49

day right you know

58:51

i guess i just you know insert foot here

58:53

i love watching this guy work and it’s

58:55

not because i’m like wondering how he’s

58:56

doing it so i can do it myself next time

58:58

or anything else i just like watching

58:59

other craftsmen do their craft right see

59:01

the tips and tricks yeah that’s just

59:03

kind of neat and so he started replacing

59:04

these rollers and i’m like well that’s

59:06

actually kind of easy well then it gets

59:07

down to the bottom rollers that the

59:08

chain the the cable hooks to where all

59:10

the tension is and he has to replace

59:12

those completely different and he says

59:14

well yeah if you do these wrong like

59:15

your door will explode and i’m like yeah

59:17

because the tension’s got to be right

59:18

i’m going through in my head like holy

59:20

cow i would have done that and my door

59:22

would have blown up like oh my gosh

59:24

right gotta pull the center panel out

59:25

and so a couple of weeks goes by

59:28

and um

59:29

now it’s like eating at me my one door

59:32

is so much quieter than my other door

59:36

and so i call the company back up and

59:38

and they they answer the phone hey mr

59:40

smedley and this is the owner of the

59:41

company um

59:43

he says hey mr smedley so i’m kind of

59:44

surprised again good crm software he

59:46

knows who’s calling good game service

59:48

and so

59:49

i said hey hey man i had you guys out a

59:51

couple of weeks ago to fix my one door

59:53

and he goes uh-oh and i’m like no no no

59:55

everything’s good everything’s great

59:56

it’s it’s better than great

59:58

it’s because everything’s great that i

59:59

want you back i’m like your guy said

60:01

that my other door was probably okay but

60:05

he fixed my my big door

60:07

so well and it’s so quiet i need him

60:10

back to do the other door yeah so he

60:12

comes back again does the work he gives

60:15

me a price up front i’m like yeah you

60:16

know again agree to them at their price

60:18

they are the experts on price so

60:20

especially if you’ve already had one

60:22

under your belt right right you trust

60:23

them 100 yeah and so now they come back

60:27

out they do the same thing to the other

60:28

door get it all taken care of now both

60:30

doors are whisper quiet and it’s awesome

60:31

and i’ve got full confidence but though

60:34

that opportunity gave me a chance to be

60:37

the the customer that i expect for my

60:39

business right yeah and you’re damn

60:41

right that i gave them a five-star

60:43

review

60:44

because they earned it and and you

60:47

told me about it right you told your

60:50

buddy about it right you know and next

60:51

time someone says man this garage door

60:54

something’s going on they may not even

60:55

be asking you and you’re going to say

60:57

hey

60:58

i had these guys out they did a great

60:59

job if you ever need somebody and you

61:01

don’t even realize that you’re telling

61:04

that you’re advertising for them right

61:06

you’re just you’re happy with what they

61:07

did for you and that’s free

61:08

advertisement for them later people want

61:12

deserving people to succeed yeah if your

61:15

business deserves to succeed people will

61:17

help make sure that happens right

61:21

yeah yeah so um ironically today chris

61:23

jones

61:25

plays for the chiefs

61:26

defensive tackle he is one

61:29

sack away from a 1.25 million dollar

61:33

bonus

61:34

if he gets one sack today you think he’s

61:36

not blitzing

61:37

rags is gonna be like dude i’m sending

61:39

you on every opportunity so what’s funny

61:42

is people will cheer for chris jones

61:44

because they want him to get his 1.25

61:46

million dollar bonus here’s even if

61:47

they’re jealous about it right they

61:49

might be mildly he’s my guy i want him

61:51

to get it they’re not paying the bonus

61:53

so of course they’ll cheer him on right

61:55

small businesses

61:56

you asking for a discount is taking away

61:59

the bonus from the small business

62:01

yeah

62:02

you paying full price

62:04

without asking for a discount that gives

62:06

the small business the bonus that

62:07

they’re looking for that makes them

62:09

deserve to get their bonus so

62:12

that’s part of behaving like the

62:13

customer that you want for your business

62:15

so ironically um i’m wearing a shirt

62:18

from stateline door and lift

62:20

of course you are no no notice it

62:21

doesn’t even matter

62:22

listen they’re not advertising no no

62:24

they’re not he doesn’t even know i’m

62:25

talking about him for all i know he

62:26

might get mad that i talked about him

62:27

nah but um you know what he might be

62:30

this is their motto

62:31

punch today in the face like they

62:34

literally

62:35

they literally go out every day to just

62:37

dominate the day punch today in the face

62:39

okay and that means deliver the best

62:41

service at the best quality at the best

62:44

price they can

62:45

and and just win the day and have great

62:47

customer service right and that’s what

62:48

they do so it’s it’s pretty cool

62:51

um guys that pretty much wraps up

62:53

stories today man yeah that pretty much

62:55

wraps up today’s show um

62:58

remember if you like what you’re hearing

63:00

please do us a favor and help share the

63:01

void with anyone else you think that

63:03

might be wanting to start their own

63:04

business

63:05

we saw an opportunity to help others

63:07

understand that self-employment isn’t

63:09

out of your reach and just as our

63:10

businesses have grown by word-of-mouth

63:12

referrals we would love for this show to

63:14

do the same thing so if you see somebody

63:16

out there on social media asking

63:18

questions about how to start their own

63:19

company drop a link to the show please

63:22

it’s going to help them out it’ll help

63:24

you out

63:25

you’re helping us out by helping share

63:26

the show

63:28

we’re for sure on youtube and we’re

63:30

working right now on getting onto

63:31

spotify and itunes and and some other

63:33

platforms so it won’t be long it won’t

63:35

be long please uh please do us a favor

63:37

and help share the void and uh we’d

63:39

really appreciate you helping us out

63:40

until next time have a great week thanks

63:42

guys love you

The Void #5 Core Episode Systems and Processes (2 of 3) – Jan 22, 2021

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The Void #5 ** Core Episode ** Systems and Processes (2 of 3) – Jan 22, 2021

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The Void #5 Core Episode Systems and Processes (2 of 3) – Jan 22, 2021