SPEAKER_01 0:00

But I think it can be anything. It could be like to serve like and this is a goes for nonprofits too. Maybe it's to serve ten people a month or to be able to provide meals for twenty people a month, etc. Right. I think or maybe it's like okay to stay in business for six months, right? Like I mean you could have very bare minimum goals, but I think without any goals, you have no plan, you have no foresight. Jet.

SPEAKER_00 0:28

Hero business. Handor.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

Let's get into it.

SPEAKER_00 0:32

Let's get into it. Let's do it. So hero, we're back.

SPEAKER_01 0:35

We're back.

SPEAKER_00 0:36

Second episode, right?

SPEAKER_01 0:38

Round two.

SPEAKER_00 0:38

Round two. So I guess today we're talking about uh the dirty dozen. Dirty dozen. And we're going to start with you.

SPEAKER_01 0:46

So the business dirty dozen.

SPEAKER_00 0:47

The business dirty dozen. Okay. So uh how you do being? How's business going for you? Hope.

SPEAKER_01 0:53

Business has been good. But again, like it's busy season for us. So it's been a little crazy. Um, I will say it's easier with the team, I feel like, and having a partner to kind of bounce things off list. Yeah. What do you think?

SPEAKER_00 1:07

Yeah, business is going good. We're going through a lot of changes right now with the team. We're building our team right now. We're building our wall operations team. They've been crushing it. The tax team, the tax department is doing pretty good. Uh we have some goals, some financial goals, which by the way. I meant to tell you that next week we have to sit down and figure out cash flow through April 15. Because that that is going to be a big the a big the line for us. So I want to make sure that we are on for that. So I guess over the last two weeks, what has been I don't know, what has been the most impactful thing in business or the highlight, the I guess the happiest moment over the last two weeks in business.

SPEAKER_01 1:55

Okay, so I guess that the happiest or moment or highlight would be finishing a big project for one of our clients. Okay, that we really did a big deep dive for the diligence work and just like finding out the leaks and random things going on with their business. So that was a really big deal. That was a big win. Um something that we did differently is we have like the executive assistant for me. Yes. That has been a game change. Like I told you earlier, she's been compiling little tasks that I need to do, like small tasks that it takes no time, but that you just don't do on a daily basis. And this morning I was able to knock them all out. That's real.

SPEAKER_02 2:34

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 2:35

Right, but she's been doing it for like a week and a half now.

SPEAKER_02 2:37

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 2:38

Finally, she had it like pinned to my email box. Okay. And I grabbed it and knocked them out.

SPEAKER_00 2:43

That's awesome. That's awesome. I love that. So I guess in my end, uh probably the highlights in business. So I feel now Monday through Friday is just like grinding every day. Then comes Friday night at your rest. But it it has been a very productive last week. Uh we have been getting a lot of stuff done, a lot of process improvement. Yeah. Definitely the highlight was last night.

SPEAKER_01 3:07

Yeah, what was last night?

SPEAKER_00 3:08

We got paid last night.

SPEAKER_01 3:10

Oh, yeah, we did get paid.

SPEAKER_00 3:11

We got paid, so that was good. That was good. Also, like something else in the in the personal side is this. So uh and this is something about me. I like uh meeting people, and so I started going to the gym on Saturday morning. You know why? Why can you mind why I started going to the gym? No, girls. No, so I look at myself in the middle last Friday and I'm like, man, I'm a fat. I'm getting fat. So I'm like, okay, let's get let's get to it.

SPEAKER_01 3:50

But like for tax season, so like at like the firm you used to work at, yeah, I feel like that's a probably a normal thing. Like January through April 15th, like you don't do anything except for like tax work, right? Like you're in the office, or like no one works out, right? So they probably at the end of that, they're like, okay, summer body, where'd you go? Like, I have to build a stack and build it quick.

SPEAKER_00 4:09

So, but uh, so these are the things somehow I felt the need and I started doing 75 heart again.

SPEAKER_01 4:16

Did you?

SPEAKER_00 4:17

Yes, I'm on day six. I haven't like we we we're talking about it now. So I'm I'm in day six today. So today we have a busy night, so I'm I'm a child gamer to walk out during the morning.

SPEAKER_01 4:28

And you can't have any drinks tonight or boot me though.

SPEAKER_00 4:32

Yes, wow. What are we doing about it? Yeah, so uh but uh funny thing was uh I started I I went to the gym on Saturday morning and there was this dude playing Bashata music loud in the speaker uh in his phone. So I'm like, man, are you are you listening to Bashata music? He said, Yeah. Then we kick it off. We we became gym bodies, and then like I went back on Sunday, yeah, and he saw me across the the gym and he just yelled. He just yelled, yeah. Did he? Yes, out of the gym. So that was pretty good. That was pretty good. Somebody yelling my name is from the middle of the gym. He's Puerto Rican. He's a cool dude. Uh he he's a cool dude. So that has been good. It's been busy. So I know today we wanted to talk about the dairy docent. And uh the way we're going to do this is I want to hear your dirty dozen in business and how you want to do it, and then we can uh we can disclose disclose them. Yeah. Sounds good? You wanna you wanna get started? You wanna you wanna talk Mr. Your Dirty Docents?

SPEAKER_01 5:40

Okay, so number one, this is one that we actually mentioned in our other podcast, uh the first one. So number one on the dirty dozen list is taking loans or any kind of funding or investment money to cover the owner's salary or owner personal expenses.

unknown 5:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:59

Like that's a big deal.

SPEAKER_00 6:00

No, that's a big deal.

SPEAKER_01 6:00

That that can get you in the red really quickly.

SPEAKER_00 6:03

That is a big deal. So I guess uh how often do you see that happening in a small business as in and in what stage of the business?

SPEAKER_01 6:11

Yeah, no, that's a good question. And I mean, we see it happen frequently, I would say maybe like 30, 40% of the time.

SPEAKER_00 6:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 6:19

Um, and then what stage? It's a good question. Because sometimes, I mean, you see it at a variety of stages.

SPEAKER_02 6:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:26

Like you'll see it sometimes at the very beginning. Um, but usually closer to that six month, one-year mark.

SPEAKER_02 6:32

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 6:33

You know, so usually the first three years, people are doing that. The first three years of because you're trying to get your business off the ground to actually start making an income.

SPEAKER_02 6:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:42

But instead of using that money to better your business or for marketing tools or for um, you know, new tools or whatever the new special like special softwares, things like that that will actually help you serve your clients better, you then become a little selfish, you know. And when you're a business owner, you can't be. You know, you have to be a little bit, but you can't be overbearingly like selfish and taking money from the business. Because the business has to eat first, or it doesn't eat, or you don't eat pretty much. If the business doesn't eat, you don't eat.

SPEAKER_00 7:15

So did you do that at starting your business? Did you take money to call your loans?

SPEAKER_01 7:22

I had no debt.

SPEAKER_00 7:23

Okay, how how were you how were you able to do that to don't to don't take any money?

SPEAKER_01 7:28

That's a good question. So I did a couple of things. The first thing is I had not only an emergency fund, but I had an excessive emergency fund because I had planned this. Like I knew, okay, I'm going to be without income for a little bit. Um, so I planned that. I did like personally like have car loans and a mortgage, right? Okay. And that's not ideal if you're starting a business. So if I could go back, I probably would have fixed and not had the car loan. The mortgage, you really can't do anything about that. Yeah. Or maybe a smaller mortgage. But honestly, I wouldn't because I I think it drove me a little more to say, okay, I can't drain my savings and spend five grand a month for my savings to cover basic bills. So it kind of drove me like where okay, you have to at least bring home like this five grand or seven grand to like live bare minimum.

SPEAKER_00 8:16

That makes sense. So, and then uh so I guess how much money did you have? I mean, like for how many months of living expenses you had money saved up for?

SPEAKER_01 8:26

Like, I had almost eight months.

SPEAKER_00 8:29

Right.

SPEAKER_01 8:29

Because like supposed to have like three to six, right? But I had like just shy of eight months saved up. And honestly, like I went through two months really quickly, right?

unknown 8:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:39

Because like November and December, and December's a high spin month because of Christmas. And then my kids, like two of my kids have birthdays in November and December. Oh wow. So like they were really high spin months, and I went through a lot of money. Pro I think I went through like three and a half months of my my savings. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So that was a really and like I didn't bring money in. Like maybe I maybe brought in a couple hundred dollars.

SPEAKER_00 9:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:07

I don't know, maybe, maybe like a grand or so. But it was like so minimal that I didn't, and I like from things that I purchased, it just I lost money.

SPEAKER_00 9:15

That is so cool. Uh that that is cool. Uh actually, my situation, uh I kind of got a little bit in in the hole with debt, with credit card debt, but but but you weren't using it to pay yourself, right? No, I was using it to pay for the stuff that I that I really that I didn't really needed. Okay. Just because uh I was investing in growth, but that growth never came.

SPEAKER_01 9:42

And so invested a little sooner.

SPEAKER_00 9:44

A little sooner than that. So that that usually uh that happened, and then the growth never came and I did not utilize all of those expenses. So I always tell people like don't spend money before you have the growth for it. Like, don't spend like don't I don't know, don't hire somebody like if you cannot keep them busy or something, something like that. And then uh in my situation, it was really easy for me to have to take loans because uh You had no bills. I had no bill. I thank God I I still lived with my mom and my brother. They were a good support system for me. And then I think I didn't contribute anything to the house for like four months. But then at the end of four months I just paid off my brother. I I think I ended up owing my brother like $8,000. And thank God I was just able to pay off to pay off uh for all of that. But it definitely like having no beach, being single, and no responsibilities at all, the the it definitely make it easier. But for people like you with a family and kids, it's definitely harder to make the jump.

SPEAKER_01 10:59

But you can do it. I mean, people do it at that.

SPEAKER_00 11:01

You just have to be ready, prepared, and then yeah, your family gotta be involved with it. Because I yeah, because sometimes like I talk with my uh merry friends, and the thing is that they cannot get their spouses on board to make that to make that reason like, hey, benefit be single, like you know, singleness runs. Yeah, singleness is good. So what what do you have for number two?

SPEAKER_01 11:26

So for number two, that on the dirty dozen list is not knowing your numbers.

SPEAKER_00 11:32

Okay. Why what does that mean?

SPEAKER_01 11:36

So, and this actually is more common than you think. This is more common than number one. So I would say close to like what 60%, would you agree? Business owners don't know their numbers. And when I say don't know your numbers, like it depends on the size of the business, but for smaller businesses, especially just starting, they should understand like what it costs them to make the product or to produce the service or provide the service, or what it costs them in monthly operating expenses, like OpEx is what we call that, just so they can understand like what it's actually like what they need to bring in to break even. So a break-even number is really important. So that's the amount of money you need to bring in to cover all of your current costs. So that's fixed costs with your cost of goods, which can be a variety of things like your like for construction, it would be like your like your wood and things like your nails, things like that. And then for like us, it would be our cost of goods, cost of service would be like our people, our software, things like that.

SPEAKER_00 12:39

That's awesome. Yeah. So uh and I feel if you don't know your numbers.

SPEAKER_01 12:44

You can't understand, you don't know your business.

SPEAKER_00 12:46

Then you probably also will will will fall in number one as well. Because if you don't know your number, you're taking debt, and you and you realize and you don't realize you are taking that debt to pay to pay for personal expenses. Yeah. To pay to live. That happens.

SPEAKER_01 13:03

So I mean it happens for small and big. So like people on the smaller side, like, yes, and people on the bigger side, maybe, yeah, maybe it's that you don't know how much money you're spending on meals every month, but you need to know your margin. So then if your business is much bigger, like in the millions plus, you need to know, okay, my cost of goods is 20%, 30%. How can I get that down? How can I increase efficiencies? And then you should know, okay, my net profit is 8%, 7%, whatever it is, right? You should at least understand those numbers.

SPEAKER_00 13:34

So, how do business owners uh avoid making that mistake? Not knowing the number, like what do they need to invest in, or what do they need to do?

SPEAKER_01 13:44

They definitely need to need to invest in some sort of accounting system, even if they're not using an accounting firm like us or another accounting firm and potentially people like either a support staff or like external outsourced accounting. So something like that, even if they decide to do it theirself, at least they have something going into a software like QuickBooks, like Xero. There's so many of them.

SPEAKER_00 14:08

Okay. Can I ask you this question? Yeah. Which one do you like more? QuickBooks or Zerox?

SPEAKER_01 14:13

Oh, I like QuickBooks, but like what is the difference?

SPEAKER_00 14:16

Have you used Zerox before?

SPEAKER_01 14:18

I've used Xero, but and we have a couple of people on our team who like Xero better than QuickBooks. But I think it's all about like what you're most familiar with. So I'm more familiar with QuickBooks, so obviously I like QuickBooks better. But I do feel like QuickBooks is better for most business owners because it's really good for super small businesses, and I've seen it work really well for businesses that are making 25 million a year. So it can help it can grow with you and you kind of maintain consistency of having one platform with all of your data.

SPEAKER_00 14:48

That works. And then uh I I have never used Xerox. I actually was talking to somebody yesterday, and I have talked with two clients, and and they have been considering Xerox.

SPEAKER_01 15:00

Yeah, but we have a couple people who are certified, like zero specialists.

SPEAKER_00 15:04

Awesome. So, like uh in my in my mind, I am under the impression that Xerox is for bigger businesses than for a smaller business and QuickBooks is police. So is that it's the same thing as they're like direct competitors. Awesome. Pricing around the same?

SPEAKER_01 15:22

Pretty close.

SPEAKER_00 15:23

Pretty close, pretty close.

SPEAKER_01 15:24

I think zero might be a tiny bit cheaper, but again, when you have QuickBooks, you have so many more like I feel like integration options. So like if you're using Shopify, like if you're an e-commerce brand, it's great because it works right with QuickBooks. And there are various other things that integrate well with QuickBooks as well.

SPEAKER_00 15:44

So let's assume I don't know anything, I don't know nothing about the counting. Uh and I started a business, and the business is start going really well, and I'm also frugal. Uh what will you what would you recommend me? Because whenever I have clients, usually they don't know anything about the counting.

SPEAKER_02 16:06

Yeah, sure.

SPEAKER_00 16:06

So how can they learn to understand the numbers if they don't know anything about the counting, if they don't know what the balance sheet of PL means? Like, what would you advise them to do? Do they have to, I don't know, take a mini course or hire somebody to sip with them? Or I don't know. How would it go about it?

SPEAKER_01 16:22

I mean, that's a really good question. I think that there are so many options now, because we have Google, we have Chat GPT, we have Grok, right? Like you like name your poison. So there's so many options. And yes, you can hire a professional, but I think for the very basics and not advisory work, I would not recommend like getting advisory work in Chat GPT or Grok or Google. But I think you could learn that like the very bare minimum. Someone who didn't want to or didn't have the funds to be able to pay someone to teach them or to explain to them or to advise them, just using those resources to say, okay, how do I know if my business is healthy? How can I know my numbers? Super easy stuff. And I think it'll give me very basic information. It's not all going to be 100% correct or appropriate, likely, especially for industries are all different. But I think for the very basics of like understanding, okay, here's my revenue, here's my cost of goods, here's my expenses, net profit.

SPEAKER_00 17:21

That is awesome. Yeah, I agree with you. And this is what I I recommend. So I guess what what would be your recommendation for people to avoid this issue? Some actionable step. Like, I don't know, do they have do they sit down once a month, choose a day, Saturday morning for two hours, kind of uh categorize everything, try to do some reconciliation, then look at it, and make sure everything looks good and think about it. Like, what would be your recommendation for business owners?

SPEAKER_01 17:48

Yeah, good question. I think it varies depending on the size of the business. But I say if you're a small business and I mean like producing under $500,000 a year.

SPEAKER_02 17:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:59

Like in revenue, then I say like yes. I think once a month would be fine to sit down. But if you're on the upper end of that, like you'll be really pushing the envelope, you know what I mean? So once a month is fine, but the larger you are, the longer it's going to take you, and the harder it's going to be to manually categorize that. But something to consider is is your is it worth your time sitting there and doing that? Outsourced accounting. And like, I'm not trying to pressure people to like get outsourced accounting, but it's so affordable. Yeah. Like we have like super some super micro businesses who get outsourced accounting from us. But it's so affordable. I would recommend to even just ask an accounting firm, like, hey, what's the pricing? Can you give me a quote for this? Because it's going to be, I think it's so much more affordable than people think for Motley Farm.

SPEAKER_02 18:48

I agree.

SPEAKER_01 18:48

But then if that is out of your budget or is not going to work with you, then yes, like take one day a month, I guess it's Saturday, Sunday, whatever day, doesn't have to be a work day, and sit through and categorize and organize everything in an appropriate form. So whether QuickBooks, Zero, Net Suite, whatever you need.

SPEAKER_00 19:06

That works. And then this is this is what I tell people, and I see a lot of clients uh because they are in the day-to-day of the business and they are working in the business and and not on the business, they are paying the accountant or the bookkeeper, but they don't sit down to look at those reports, to to look at those PL. And I'm like, hey, you are wasting like you are not wasting money, but you are not getting the most of it. Because at the end of the day, at the end of the year, you will need those those numbers for taxes to go to the bank and do a lot, uh, to go to the bank and get the loan and all of that. So definitely know know your number, invest in accounting, and then spend some time looking at it and and understanding what what it means and and seek professional help.

SPEAKER_01 19:57

And even if it's that's a good point, even if it's only like once a month, I mean once a quarter, even. You know, I think once a quarter for really, really small businesses is fine too. But again, like for as a really, really small business, when I was first starting out, I was looking, but again, I'm an accountant, so like I looked at my numbers every single day, sometimes multiple times a day.

SPEAKER_00 20:20

So yeah, same here. I I don't really look at the numbers, but I am but I know what targets we're gonna hit, and I know how much money we need to bring, and I focus on the revenue, and then once a month, I look at the numbers and I go through it, and we have our little CFO session, which is really helpful for sure.

SPEAKER_01 20:39

I look at the numbers less frequently now. I think I'm more on a weekly basis now.

SPEAKER_00 20:43

Yeah. But I I'm all at the monthly basis, but I'm always looking at the bank account.

SPEAKER_01 20:49

Yes. We look at daily.

SPEAKER_00 20:51

That and what we need just to make sure we can hit our personal goals, for sure. So I guess those those first two ones have been really good. So what is the number three?

SPEAKER_01 21:01

All right, number three, this is something that we've experienced recently. Yes. It's execution issues.

SPEAKER_00 21:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 21:08

So the inability to execute, and we see this a lot with business owners too, is that they're very creative. I think we talked about this also during our last podcast.

SPEAKER_02 21:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:20

About how entrepreneurs are like inherently creative, but they're not always great executors. Like they want it to get done and they don't realize that they sometimes are the bottleneck.

SPEAKER_00 21:31

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 21:32

I'm good at that.

SPEAKER_00 21:33

Yes, yes, I will give you that.

SPEAKER_01 21:35

Yeah. I do that. I've been here. Hi.

SPEAKER_00 21:38

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 21:39

Um, anyway, so I think that's something that we're hiring admin team, an executive assistant, director of operations, or even having a business partner who's more like directional can really help someone out who has all of the ideas, but none of the execution.

SPEAKER_00 21:57

Yes, I agree. So I guess uh let me put you in the spot. Uh how do I guess how do you fix that? Like so I guess executions as business owners, as entrepreneurs, I feel that we have a lot of ideas. Yes. And we throw a lot of ideas out there. But sometimes what happened to us, or what has been happening to us, is that we don't prioritize them and then we keep jumping idea and young and jumping to them.

SPEAKER_01 22:31

I guess we're working, like you know, we're doing zillable work, we're doing non-billable work, we're doing various, we're doing multiple, wearing multiple has so how have we improved that in our business? So definitely I will say our director of operations EA area, executive assistants, yeah. I think empowering them to take more control and like holding each other accountable. So like our new service that we have coming out, like you holding me accountable, I can't make sure we have these information by this date, and involving our director of operations also, where she can kind of streamline and make sure, okay, you have this done by this day. Okay, great. Now we just need our content, now we just need X, Y, and Z.

SPEAKER_00 23:16

Yes. Do you feel uh the execution will have been harder without a partner if you are by yourself? Let's assume I am out of the picture. I am out of the picture, I'm not your partner. Will you will you think execution will have been harder, or can you hire an employee to become that uh that that get it done type of guy? Or will or do you or will you need a partner with ownership? What do you think about that?

SPEAKER_01 23:47

I think every situation is so different. Okay, but I do know that it would be very expensive to hire someone with that level of like drive for someone else's business. Yes, right? Like you and I have this drive for our business because we are both tied to it, perhaps.

SPEAKER_02 24:06

Yes, we are.

SPEAKER_01 24:07

Yes. And like our director of operations, she also has the drive, like she's great.

SPEAKER_02 24:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:11

But I think it would be so hard to find another person. Like, we're lucky that we found her because she has like Yeah, you follow her. Yes, yes, that is true. If we're lucky we have her.

SPEAKER_02 24:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:21

Um anyway, so that being said, yes, like I think it would be hard to replicate like the dedication a partner has to I guess the commitment of execution.

SPEAKER_02 24:35

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 24:36

I mean, it can be done, yes. People can find those people. I mean, big corporations have them every day, but they're very expensive.

SPEAKER_00 24:43

Yes, because get I think they are expensive because they get things done. Yes, and more than that.

SPEAKER_01 24:48

Well, they and they're they're they're worth it. Like they're worth that value, but a small business, a startup, yeah, doesn't really have the capacity to pay those people. So let alone to pay themselves.

SPEAKER_00 25:00

We might be empowered, you know, what did I telephone to ask her for her salary?

SPEAKER_01 25:08

Hey, she's gonna come back to me and be like, uh I saw the podcast. Thanks so much uh for raving about me, and now where's my race?

SPEAKER_00 25:15

Yes, so no, uh she she's doing really good. So but let me dig deeper into it though. Uh so whenever I was running the business by myself, before I merged with Stew, I felt my mind was going to employ to explode because in the service industry because I felt the same. Yeah. So because in this in a service industry, I had to be doing the job. I had to be taking care of the taxes. And then at the same time, I had to be taking care of admin.

SPEAKER_01 25:50

And marketing.

SPEAKER_00 25:51

And marketing and networking, all of that takes time. And then if you do one, you cannot do the the other thing. Um yeah, sometimes the if you spend too much time outside of the business by yourself, the quality of work or the client service slows down, or if you focus a lot in the client, in getting the work done, the growth stop because you are not ideal. And then as a small business owner, uh, to make that jump that you can bring somebody uh is really hard because it's expensive, and then it's somebody that is not made producing money. So but I feel that when we partnered up, that was easier because now you have the business had two people that we can we could uh we could delegate the staff. Like I felt during the summer and during the later part of last year you were focusing a lot on business business development. I was inside of the business taking care of staff, and I think that helped out a lot. Yeah, and I could not have done that by myself because I cannot be at two places at the same time. So, what would be some good action items for this? Uh, how can people fix that at the beginning?

SPEAKER_01 27:12

For execution issues?

SPEAKER_00 27:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:14

I would say a couple of ways. If you're too small and not able to have a partner or someone who you can hire and afford to actually help keep you um consistent and like hold you accountable for that, I would say like what what did I say? Eat the frog.

SPEAKER_02 27:30

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 27:31

Like it's the worst thing, but it's like such a saying. It's like eat the, and I think I told you that before too. It's like do the hard thing. People usually say in reference that, like when saying do the hard thing in the first thing in the morning. But I would say just like you'd have to just sit there and say, Okay, this is what I'm doing. I have to execute it and give yourself a hard deadline and maybe make micro goals in between the deadlines. So, for example, for the new service, it's like this is something Morgan, um, our operations director did for me.

SPEAKER_02 28:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:02

Is okay, here's our timeline. This is the deadline. So by this day, you have to have all of the pieces of the service done. Okay, by this day, you have to have all the processes ready. Okay. So you might make those micro goals and they're all they will all come together by that deadline.

SPEAKER_02 28:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:20

So that I think for really small businesses who can't have a partner or can't afford to hire someone, that would be the best way in focusing on one thing at a time and then keeping a notebook or keeping like a OneNote or a Notes app, whatever it is, of all of your other ideas, because they're probably good, but you can't do them all at once. And we know because we failed when we tried.

SPEAKER_00 28:40

Yeah. And you know what is the the tough peel to swallow?

SPEAKER_01 28:45

What?

SPEAKER_00 28:46

Operations is just a lot of little small stuff that only takes like five 10 minutes. But I don't have intricate. Yes, but I don't have the time to spend five ten minutes to get it done. This is why I say AI is not taking everyone's job. Because even in operation, business owners don't have the time to even tell AI to do something.

SPEAKER_02 29:09

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 29:10

We need somebody to tell AI to do to do stuff. So my practical tip would be this. And this and I felt this is what this is the way we did it. So, first of all, uh don't I will I I advise business owners to try to get an admin person as fast as you can, somebody that can help you with the Julie mail, with Julie Mail, that can help you with invoices, can help you with replying, can help you with the phone. Trying to get an admin person as fast as possible. Then once that admin person gets comfortable, make your sector of assistant that runs your whole thing, your whole life. And then for this admin sacrof assistant, it's going to be expensive, but maybe not though, remember?

SPEAKER_01 30:01

Because so you can, I mean, the world's at your fingertips now with technology. Yeah. You can hire them. Like we have a client who hired one from Mexico, you can hire them from the Philippines, you can hire them from India, like all over, where they're just quite frankly, where the cost of living is so much cheaper that you can afford to pay someone a living wage while it still being pretty cheap for you, like $5 an hour, $8 an hour, $10 an hour.

SPEAKER_00 30:27

Yeah. It is a little investment.

SPEAKER_01 30:30

It is. It's definitely worth it. That is something that I say that was a learning curve. It was like a failure for me, but it was good because I learned, I learned my lesson that I did not want to remember, I did not want to spend money on admin because I was like, they're not revenue producing, it's a waste of money. That was proven to be untrue.

SPEAKER_00 30:50

Yes, because the admin frees up more your time. You spend less time on doing the admin stuff, and then yeah, and then it just helps. And then the other thing would be like take take advantage of part-time people, part-time hourly. Like in if you cannot afford a full-time salary, yeah, blink flexible and make it part-time uh for them. So yeah, and then yeah, that that is an execution issue. So, like, hey, in business, you gotta execute. We have a lot of opportunities at the front, but if we don't execute, if we don't make it happen, we don't grow about it. And I love how at the beginning of this conversation you mentioned timeline. Uh I sometimes what happens is that like we put one year timeline to staff and then we don't reassess the staff every year. I feel in business and more if you are starting out, every week you can improve something. So I I encourage people to every week sit down and reflect what is something they don't want to be doing, what is something that is not working well, and what is something that they can improve for next week, and make sure that thing gets improved and it doesn't become an issue next week. And always in business, every week an issue is going to arise. And we as business owners, we just we just gotta problem solve everything that that comes up. So also good stuff. You've been you've been you've been kicking it. So what what about number four?

SPEAKER_01 32:18

So number four is not knowing your employees' value or your team value. So I call this A, B, and C players. There are lots of people in the world who've written about this and who've studied it and who talk about it, frankly. So A, B, and C players are it's a way to assess your employees. So, like not every business this is going to relate to. If you're a really small business, you won't need this yet, right? Eventually you will. So take time, and I would do this yearly or semi-yearly, so semi-annually. And see, so your A players are going to be like your perfect employees, the employees that make you money. Even if they're on admin, they're just doing everything perfect 99% of the time. They're showing up, they're doing the going the extra mile. That's where you want everyone to be. Like you want everyone to be an A player.

SPEAKER_02 33:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:08

Then you have your B players who are very average, like they do a good job, but they're not going above and beyond. Sometimes maybe they're late. Sometimes maybe they're not as responsive as you would like, but they do their job, bare minimum.

SPEAKER_02 33:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:23

You know, so they're doing it. They're showing up every day most of the time. And then you have your C players. Your C players are the ones who are like riding your coattails, I guess. And they're just kind of there for the ride. They're people may call them personality hires sometimes, but they no, I'm kidding. Personality hires can be A players too, but so your C players are the ones who are missing deadlines, not responding to clients, not finishing projects or tasks and put you in a hole in six months.

SPEAKER_02 33:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:53

Um, your C players are the ones, they're the bad egg, like, right? Then they kind of like rub off on others too. If you kill if you leave them there long enough, yeah. They have a bad attitude, they they refuse to join meetings, they keep their camera off during meetings, etc.

SPEAKER_00 34:09

Yeah. What is the the dairy dozen here? Like, make sure you're you have a make sure you know each one of your employees if they're A players, B players.

SPEAKER_01 34:18

Understand who your A players are because you want to keep those.

SPEAKER_00 34:22

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 34:22

So if you have A players, you need to make sure they're happy, they're comfy, make sure that they're that they're getting their reviews because your A players are going to be that type A person who's going to want reviews. They want to know what they're doing good, like what they what what they need help on. They want to have that touch base with their leadership. They want to be able to educate and to grow and to take classes and to learn and to move up. Keep them happy. Because if not, they will go somewhere else and keep another company happy. And be an A player there. They will, and they will exceed and do well. And they will continue to do that. Maybe they'll open their own business. I don't know. But keep them happy. And then your B players, what you do with them is you turn them into A players. Oh, so you find out what drives them. You do touch bases. Do that's why one-on-ones are so important. And we do that frequently, we do that monthly with our people. Because that you can really learn about your people. So any direct reports you have doing one-on-ones monthly, huge, huge game changer. And you can learn, okay, this person's a B player, but they're really motivated by money, or they're motivated by like vacation time, summer Fridays. They're motivated by health and wellness. Maybe we give them a stipend for like the gym. Yeah. Right. Or maybe they're struggling in this area. So we do what we can to help. We give them some education.

SPEAKER_00 35:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:44

And turn them into A players.

SPEAKER_00 35:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:46

The C players you have to let go.

SPEAKER_00 35:48

That works. How do you avoid hiring C players? Or how do you identify C players during the interview process? And how do you avoid hiring them? Because it sounds like they're a wasting a waste of resources. You spend time hiring them, treating them nice, paying them well. And then during that time, sounds like they will they will slow the thing down. So I guess how do you how do you do that?

SPEAKER_01 36:11

That's a great question.

SPEAKER_00 36:11

Well, how do business players do that?

SPEAKER_01 36:13

I'm the wrong person to ask that question to I've hired a couple of C players in my time. Yeah. Quite a few, actually. But I would say definitely to weed out any C C players, I would say having like a tiered structure where it's not just you, the business owner, because apparently we make poor hiring choices. Um but I think having like a second person and someone who is not just you. So like having an operations HR, even if it's an outsourced, that would really help you identify. And someone who's experienced in doing that and dealing with people help identify those characteristics before it becomes a problem for your business. However, I've seen A players turn into C players.

SPEAKER_02 36:56

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 36:57

So it's really hard to say that you mean you can't you can't really filter through all of it, but you can, I guess, do what you can to avoid it. But A players can turn into C players if they don't get trained like A players.

SPEAKER_00 37:10

That works. Yeah. I that's a good thing. That's a good statement right there. I were you whenever you were an employee, were you an A player?

SPEAKER_01 37:25

I mean, everyone's gonna think that they're an A player, I feel like. But yes, I feel like I but I always got promoted, right?

SPEAKER_02 37:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:31

But I do feel like I was an A player for the most part, and I think I went into like some slopes where I would become like more of a B because again, like I was too green for maybe some promotion. So I was like, you know what? And then I would snap back into it and start working and like doing my thing and become myself again.

SPEAKER_02 37:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:47

But I think that's true for a lot of people though, because I s I've seen it, like other people who maybe were co-workers or even bosses, or people who even like worked for me.

SPEAKER_00 37:56

Yeah. I feel, and I guess how do you I guess we haven't gone through this, but about what will happen if one of our wallet players wants to start their own business, want to start their own CPI firm. How will you handle that?

SPEAKER_01 38:13

I mean, they have two tide of restrictions right now from all the paperwork they had designed to work with us.

SPEAKER_00 38:19

That's a good point.

SPEAKER_01 38:20

Um, to do so. But I think if they did, I would tell them good luck.

SPEAKER_00 38:24

Yeah, I think like I think I would be really happy for it because I'm like, hey, I'm making I'm really, really confident. Confident, professional uh people that want to take some risks and that feel prepared enough to uh to start their own business. In my personal situation, I worked for I worked for a CPFM for three years, and I feel I always was an A player because I knew I was going to go into business and I wanted to learn as much as I could from the business in those three years. And whenever I got to a point where I'm like, hmm, after this promotion, which was the manager position, like after this promotion, I'm like, I don't think I have anything more to learn and the stuff I can learn. I can probably learn it by running a business. And then yeah, I made the jump. I'm like, okay, this is the time. Now I feel confident enough, I have the knowledge, and I have a good understanding of the business to make the jump. So that was also what motivated me. And then I was also truly money focused, and my company went to my company had the way they would do bonuses out there. And I was one of those people that I would calculate my bonus and I already knew what I had to do. I did the exact same thing six months before to get how much money I wanted, and I already had how I would use that money playing out, and I'm like, okay, I'm doing this because I want to buy, I want to help my mama buy the house, or I want to go to a vacation. So I really tricked the system and then uh I think I treat the system so bad that like that by the time it was ended, I was leaving my company changed the compensation bonus plan. They did. And I and they and everybody was like, man, like you messed us up. Like because of you that getting it, because of you, they changed this compensation plan, and then with that compensation plan, I was going to make less money than before. I was getting promoted. I'm out, hey, peace out. I'm out, like I don't agree with a compensation plan. And so and then I just left. And and yeah, but that is why knowing your numbers, going back to knowing your numbers is important because I had other uh I would talk to my uh world ex workmates, however you call uh co-workers, thank you. Um to my ex-cowker, and I'm like, hey, you don't understand the plan. Like calculate how much money you're going to make. And then they couldn't calculate how much was their bonus. They just they were just waiting, and uh I'm like, how do how you don't know numbers?

SPEAKER_01 41:19

I'm like, I really know my workers like that too, who were like, oh wow, this is my bonus. I'm like, you shouldn't know. I didn't calculate that, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:26

But I knew and I would be the one send, I would be the one like looking forward to it and sending and sending those emails, yeah, for sure. But definitely, yeah, good people, people make us and what we do in the service industry, everything's about people and good employees and key and keeping those employees around. So, what about what is number five for you Dirty Dos?

SPEAKER_01 41:47

Number five is lack of controls, which is processes and assign team members to each task. Yes. So this is something I mean, we we ran into this, and every business owner will, and these will continue to change. Yeah. This is like not stagnant, so it will change over and over and over again. But what we see is a lot of new business owners and not some old business owners too. Some have been around for 30 years, they just don't have controls or processes or avenues put in place and that their business suffers. They suffer. Like then they're up at two in the morning trying to figure out why this customer did not get, you know, whatever finished, right, in time. And that's because they didn't have proper processes. No one knew that customer needed to have that done because they didn't have proper software or proper protocols in place and a team member who handled that. So then everything's left on the business owner to scramble at two in the morning or get a frantic phone call or a bad Google review. And then you're trying to figure out what happened, who that client was or the customer was, and why it went wrong.

SPEAKER_00 42:59

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 43:00

So being reactive rather than proactive.

SPEAKER_00 43:03

I agree. It's vice versa.

SPEAKER_01 43:05

Yeah. It's being that the owner they are being reactive than they're proactive, yes.

SPEAKER_00 43:12

And we and um and we talk about that a little bit before. So I see a lot of small businesses in that situation.

SPEAKER_01 43:19

And like even once some that that have been around for 30, 40 years.

SPEAKER_00 43:22

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 43:23

Actually, especially those, because they didn't have the technology to be able to create some of the processes that we do now, and they're so set in their ways, but they're used to like going back and chasing and going back and chasing. But they're so stressed and they're losing money doing that.

SPEAKER_00 43:40

Yes, I agree. Yes, and I see it all the time. What are some of the most common lack of processes that you see on new business owners, on business owners, on new businesses?

SPEAKER_01 43:52

I would say definitely like tracking the job of the client or the customer. So tracking it from Um, when the client or customer first reaches out to making sure that's finished and finished properly.

SPEAKER_00 44:05

Yeah. And I feel like nowadays that there are so many softwares out there for each different for each different industry that can solve that issue. And I I always encourage clients hey, find that software, find that whatever is at CRM. We use a practice management software, that business management software that is going to help you because it's up there and it's going to keep you live.

SPEAKER_01 44:30

And it's usually more affordable. Again, like more affordable than you think.

SPEAKER_00 44:34

It is.

SPEAKER_01 44:34

And if it's not, buy it. You still need it.

SPEAKER_00 44:38

Yeah, uh, I see a lot of lack of processes in cash flows. Uh I feel that uh, for example, a common so easy lack of process to fix is that uh people, businesses don't have the right payroll payroll dates. For example, like they pay, they don't be like one week or they don't buy a month in there, or they are paying invoices, or they are paying their people every other week, but let's say uh let's say the from the 1st to the 15th, and they make payment the 15th to the employees. And I'm like, that is not good, like make your life easy. And that was, I think on the cash flow side of it and the accounting side of it, we were able to be all good processes we knew about it. Uh we knew about it and experience and and we knew how how important how important uh that was. But then also now I I work with some construction companies that they don't they haven't trained their subcontractors uh to say, hey, you you send me an invoice, I'm going to send it within 10 days, and then every week they're scrambling to get the money to pay their their subcontractor for work they did that week. And I'm like, hey, that is not a small stuff.

SPEAKER_01 46:04

But similar clients, they don't know how much their subcontractors cost.

SPEAKER_00 46:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 46:10

And to that effect, it's like you have to understand their costs to know how you can price your clients and customers.

SPEAKER_00 46:17

I agree.

SPEAKER_01 46:18

If you don't understand their costs, then you're probably losing money.

SPEAKER_00 46:21

I agree. I agree. I I tell people if something is stressing you out in your business or you don't like something about your your business, you're probably right. Probably you need to create a better process for that and change it. And that's why a director of operations or somebody admin that can see that can help you a lot in that. So what about number six?

SPEAKER_01 46:42

Yeah. Number six is tangible and defined goals.

SPEAKER_00 46:46

Awesome.

SPEAKER_01 46:47

So not having tangible and defined goals isn't the number six on the dirty dozen list.

SPEAKER_00 46:53

Uh how different is this from a smart goals or something like that? I can put it to them below some more.

SPEAKER_01 46:58

Yeah, pretty pretty similar to smart goal. I mean, smart goals are great if that's the I mean bare minimum, any goal. Any goal is better than none. So you can have a smart goal, you can have a dumb goal, whatever, right?

SPEAKER_00 47:09

I love that. How about that?

SPEAKER_01 47:11

So and I would call it dumb goal of saying, like, I want to make a million dollars this year.

SPEAKER_00 47:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 47:17

That that's better than nothing. But then I say, okay, if you want to make a million, then how do you get there? You break it down by the four quarters of the year or the month of the year. Then you say, okay, can I do that? How do I okay, I can do that, but how do I do that? Do I need 50 clients a month? Do I need 50 jobs a month? Do I and consider in like, do you want to make that in profit or do you want to make that in revenue? Because those are different things. Very different things. Yes, very different things.

SPEAKER_00 47:44

They are. Yes, and I feel also uh this is my thing with goal. Uh I don't like losing. I don't like feel like a loser. And I hate losing missing the old goals I pulled myself. So that being said, uh if you want to be, if you want to gain confidence and gain self-esteem, no, don't put low goals, put reasonable goals, yeah, and goals that you know you can do, and then do everything you can do to achieve those goals. I know last year we put some money goals for ourselves or how much money we are going to pay, and then we put those and how much money we were going to pay ourselves each month, and we put those goals like six months in advance.

SPEAKER_01 48:34

And we did, hey, December surprised me.

SPEAKER_00 48:36

Yes, and we didn't know like I was I was there like November 12th, and I didn't know how we are going how we were going to get December money. And but I'm like, hey, I'm not the loser.

SPEAKER_01 48:46

That's a big goal.

SPEAKER_00 48:47

Yes, I'm not losing this.

SPEAKER_01 48:49

And a slow month we're accounting. She could be close for two years.

SPEAKER_00 48:52

Yeah, and I was like, I'm not letting myself down, I'm not letting my team down. I'm I'm not letting my my business partner down. I'm not letting my mom down. I told her how much money I was going to do. So we gotta figure this thing out. And and I told people, like, man, I I hustle her so much from like November to December. And then whenever we achieve the goal and comes Christmas, I'm like, it feels so good to put yourself a good goal, yeah, work for it, and achieve it. That felt so good. So goals, don't let yourself down, and that's how you be your confidence in your business. That's how you how you be your, you know, you have to greet it out and then three goals down.

SPEAKER_01 49:31

Right. I feel like after that, after we met that goal, it was pretty big.

SPEAKER_00 49:35

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 49:36

After we met that, I feel like now we're like, okay, so we can get to 100 million. Easy. Yes. 100 million of nothing.

SPEAKER_00 49:44

Yes, and we were.

SPEAKER_01 49:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 49:46

We will. You know, just and it's all about having that confidence and you giving the confidence to yourself. And then that also helps your team see, oh, cool. Like these guys are doing what they say they're going to do. And that builds a lot of confidence around uh around your team members as well. But for tangible and defined goal for us, for you, does that always mean uh you got to put it is it is related to money and put that?

SPEAKER_01 50:13

I mean, me personally, yes, it's always related to money. But I think that's why we work with numbers because we like it. But I think it can be anything. It can be like to serve, like, and this is it goes for nonprofits too. Maybe it's to serve 10 people a month or to be able to provide meals for 20 people a month, etc., right? I think, or maybe it's like, okay, to stay in business for six months, right?

unknown 50:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 50:38

I mean, you could have very big or minimum goals, but I think without any goals, you have no plan, you have no foresight. It's almost like you're treading water, like you're trying to stay afloat.

SPEAKER_00 50:50

And this is what I recommend people. And this is what I tell business owners. Whenever you start your business, put big goals to yourself. Like I tell everybody and have tell you this uh we are going to build a billion-dollar CPA firm. And I think those goals are important. Like, if you're going to start a business trigger, like it's going to be a billion-dollar business. That way you build it the right way. You know, you gotta think about your business and build your business like a billion-dollar company. That way, now you invest in accounting.

SPEAKER_01 51:27

No, you're right. That that's a really good point to make. Because people are thinking, like, okay, well, we're small, so we'll just put a band-aid over it for now. Yeah. And that band-aid turns into 15 band-aids high, and then it rips open one day when you're maybe big enough to become eventually a billion-dollar business, and then it erupts.

SPEAKER_00 51:45

Yeah. But I feel like to build a business the right way, you gotta be thinking about 10-year gold, 20-year goals. That way, that way you are building the right, the right foundation for it. So uh to wrap up this episode, uh, to wrap up the first part of this dairy uh docent list, and then on the next episode next week, we are going to go through through through the last six. Uh, can you summarize, can can you repeat all of them again, and then can you can you tell like what what do you wish people would take from this or what what would be your your pet peep from this dairy dosing and what people were doing?

unknown 52:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 52:26

Okay, so to sum them up, the first is taking any lending, loans, credit cards to pay for personal expenses or to pay yourself, especially in the first couple years. Um, the second's not knowing your numbers. To me, that's a big one, and it pretty much covers all of them. You know, like you can't make any decisions without knowing your numbers. Number three is execution issues. Four is knowing your team members, so A, B, and C players, identifying if they're a good employee, a bad employee in the middle. Five is lack of controls and processes. Six is tangible and defined goals. So I think it all really comes down to numbers for the most part. If you're in business, you know, are you in the black or in the red?

SPEAKER_02 53:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 53:09

It's all about numbers. So I think understanding your numbers is probably the most important one. Because if you understand your numbers, the other ones can fall into line later.

SPEAKER_00 53:18

Yeah, that's awesome. That's awesome. Hey, I think the this was a good pad. Oh, thank you. Thank you so much for getting those ready and getting it ready, and then we will see you next week. I think we gotta we gotta create a close out. Well, what should we do? What should we do for the close out? Just peace out, fat. Yeah, I guess just subscribe, leave a comment, uh, give a fire style, give a review, whatever you listen to this, Spotify, uh, Apple Podcasts, uh, whatever. You agree with our yeah, and let us know what you think. Yeah, and let us know what you think about this 30 dozen, and if you want us to to spend uh further in that. And if you have any questions, leave it down in the comment section, and we will uh and we are going to do a QA here pretty soon where we can go and answer all of those questions. Awesome guys, see you next week. Thank you. If you stay to the end, thank you for watching this. Okay, I appreciate you guys. Love you, peace out.