Episode 74 Podcast Transcript
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Do this smart hiring like we talked about. If you can reconcile in your mind the mindset you need to have to turn this around and let go of that idea of I’ve got a time problem, turn it into, I’ve got a prioritisation problem, and follow these steps as we’ve gone through them, you’ll learn to delegate better. You can start that journey of playing to your strengths, which is where you build momentum, and then you start to be on the right track.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Hi everyone. Rob Kropp and Dan Stones here from Pravar Group and welcome back to another episode of The Trade Den, good to have you back Dan. How are you?
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Hi Rob. Good to be back. Hi everyone. Yep. Today we’re back with another matters episode, A Time Matters episode. If you’re like most business owners, there’s a high chance you’re probably spending way too much time doing the wrong work. The answer, pretty simple, stop doing the wrong type of work. Right. The trick though is knowing how to start. A lot of guys get really stuck on this, but the simplest place that we’ve found after coaching hundreds of clients through this exact same process and question is really to sit there and say, well, what do you suck at? What do you hate doing the most? It sounds simple, but that really is the best place to start. And Rob, most people work on autopilot. They never really explore that question, and it’s understandable when you’re caught right in the thick of things.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
When you’re working 60, 70, 80 hour weeks just to try and keep the wheels moving in a business, it’s hard to take a step back and be objective to be able to go, or what can I delete or what can I delegate out to someone else? Especially if you’ve got that mindset of the longer and harder I work, the more money I make and no one’s as good as me. It just saves me time and energy and money if I just do it myself. If you’re in business with that mindset, then it’s hard to be objective to be able to go, well, what do I suck at and who and what can I delegate out?
Speaker 1 (01:55):
And this is for many people that at least come to us and it’s their first time with coaching. This is their first experience of that part of coaching where it’s looking at someone’s blind spots or pointing things out that they can’t notice themselves even though they’re involved in it.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Yeah, definitely. And especially with the clients that we meet who are really rubbing up against that, trying to break through that million dollar barrier that so many trades businesses get stuck at. You’ve already had the experience of putting on an apprentice or two or got a couple of tradies around them, so they already appreciate the power of delegation and leveraging through somewhat of a ground crew. But what they find is that there’s this whole other thing that’s called running a business and they are starting to phase themselves off the tools and start to get into the office, but they’re doing stuff that is just not their sweet spot. They hate doing it. I want to go as far as saying they suck at it yet they feel compelled, obliged, and it just becomes a part of their daily grind that they don’t like doing.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
Have you got a top five list?
Speaker 2 (03:02):
I do. I know you do. We see this all the time with clients and it’s things like being a delivery guy, like picking up materials and dropping stuff off the site just to keep the guys busy and it’s like, mate, what are you doing? That’s an apprentice’s job. Get one of your tradesmen doing that. It’s like that’s such a low value task or an LVT as we call it.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Absolutely. Any others? Come on, that’s one. I know you’ve got more.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
It’s all the administrative and the bookkeeping function within the business, and I don’t want to downplay the role that these people do in the business. It’s such an important part, but you’ve got to realise it’s not an important part for you as the business owner. And that’s the distinction.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
That’s an important thing. I think when we talk low value task, we’re not belittling the task itself. It’s low value in relation to your role as the business owner and the capacity that you should be operating at within the business, not just the fact that it’s easy, it’s simple. Anyone could do it, it’s not low value in that sense.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Yeah, correct. It’s things like drafting invoices and sending an invoices to customers and following up on accounts receivable and reconciling your transactions and your accounting package. It’s dealing with the apprenticeship boards and tapes and stuff, the apprentices ordering, helping ordering materials or draught quotes or pull together job packs or data entry in your job management system. I could go for days here that this is the role of an admin person and a bookkeeper and you pay someone 30 to $40 tops for a really, really good person in your business and they love it. It’s their job, it’s their profession, it’s their career, and they’re really good at it. You suck at it, so you’ve got to ask the question, why are you still holding onto it? You’re not good at it whatsoever.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Exactly. And I think this comes down to our second thing we want to focus on, which is knowing the value of your time, but that sort of is, there’s a mindset shift that then has to happen. You have this realisation that I suck at it, I shouldn’t be doing it. Alright, that really feels shitty, but then what happens next is you get this idea, I just don’t have time. How else would it work? But knowing the value of your time’s really important.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Yeah, this is a really hard one because when a business owner’s at their point where they’ve got cashflow problems, they will do things to save money, so they will do these tasks to save money, but they struggle with the concept of spending money to buy back time when they don’t have any money to spend. And so instead of if you’re honest with yourself, if you are listening, you’re probably doing anywhere from 10 to 20 hours a week of shit you hate and suck at and shouldn’t be doing, you’re probably doing it at nighttime at the expense of spending time with your family. It’s that whole mindset shift that instead of doing those things to save money, imagine if you spent $35 an hour for someone to do 20 hours a week, which is $700 a week, plus you’re on costs of that person. Imagine if you just spent a thousand dollars a week for that person, how much could you do with that 20 hours a week? And that’s a complete different mindset, especially when you’ve got cashflow problems like a lot of small business owners do.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
And if you’re thinking, well, what else would I do? Things like going out and winning more work. Could you win one extra job which would well and truly cover your 700 bucks a week in most instances at the levels we coach at? I think that’s a no-brainer when you start to break it down that way. The other thing I think that comes into it is it then becomes not so much a time problem, but a priority problem.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Yeah, correct. And we say this all the time here on the podcast and with our clients is that you don’t have a time problem As a business owner, you’ve got a prioritisation problem. You’ve got 24 hours in a day, seven days a week, 365 days in the year, and you’ve got the same amount of time as everyone else. And if you are stuck working long crazy hours and not feeling like you’re moving your head, it’s not because you’ve got a time or a time management problem, you’re just not prioritising the things that matter and it’s often a reflection that you’re doing shit that you shouldn’t be doing. It’s not best use of your time, and they’re the low value tasks that yes have to get done but don’t have to get done by you as the business owner. And if you were just honest with yourself around that and delegated that stuff out, you would be happier, healthier, and the business would run so much more smoother when you got that stuff off your plate.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
For sure. And let’s just make that point and stress it that hiring smart doesn’t mean hiring expensive. You don’t go out and you start, and we’ve had guys do this, right? They think, well, the best thing to do is make myself redundant. That’s almost their goal in business, but that’s not what we’re saying here when we start this process, when you’re hiring smart to do something like that, that’s going to replace what you are doing in terms of LVTs. It’s not an expensive exercise like you outlined before.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Yeah, correct. And I think the business owners treat their time. It’s free, so that’s why they’ve got this mindset. It’s like, well, I’ll spend five or 10 hours a week picking up materials and going to the suppliers just so I can keep my guys busy on site, but it’s like doesn’t cost you anything, but it’s like, well, mate, there is a cost because what could have you have done in that 10 hours? That’s opportunity cost. So send a bloody apprentice who you’re paying what, 20 bucks an hour, get them to go and do the suppliers runs and you use that 10 hours a week to go do business development. So it doesn’t have to be expensive. You just got to be smart around what and who you delegate to and that’s what gets your time back to focus the things that matter.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
And you’re not just saving time. It’s like you just said, it doesn’t cost you anything in dollars for you to go and do it. Sure. But there’s opportunity cost. Same thing. When you get this in place and you start doing it, you’ll save more than time. The business speeds up, for instance.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Yeah, correct. And delegate through a good bookkeeper, delegate through a good operational admin, those resources cost you $30 to $40 an hour, and as you said, not only does it get you your time back, but we’ve seen it so many times with clients where they’ve got someone into this role and all of a sudden invoicing gets done consistently, data management gets done consistently. The business runs so much more professionally, there’s so much better communication with clients. All the data entry gets reconciled into your accounting package consistently. It’s not just a time thing. The whole professionalism of the business goes to a whole new level because someone who loves this stuff is taking responsibility for it rather than you doing it at 11 o’clock at night when you’re tired and worn out and you hate it and resent it. That’s the difference When you delegate this stuff out and give it to someone who actually thrives on these tasks.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Things like cashflow, improve profitability, improves your job management improves the margins get better. You haven’t got the wastage now focused on things that you’re good at. And I think that brings us to where we want to go is that’s the whole goal is to build a business that’s built around what you are great at, and that becomes focusing then on your strength rather than what you suck at, what you shouldn’t be doing. You turn tail and you go, well, what are the strengths? What am I good at? And where do I need to bleed my time into? As you get this time back, we’ve had guys that sit there twiddling their thumbs in the office going, well, what do I do now? I don’t know what to do, I’m just sitting here. But if you can then turn the corner and say, well, let’s focus on strengths again, the game changes.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Yeah, correct. You buy back those 10 to 20 hours per week that enables you to do more business development. Imagine if you just blocked out five hours a week and connected with builders through Instagram, social media picked up, the phone started dialling, and you did that week after week after week after week, you’d probably realise that you don’t have a pipeline and a cashflow problem. You’ve got the problem of too much work. And so if when you buy back your time, you get to focus, as you said, on the things that you love and you enjoy and you’re good at, and you feel fulfilled and happy in business doing the good stuff that you really enjoy. So business development and getting into sales and following up on quotes and learning to manage your team and understanding your numbers and actually running the business or heaven forbid, going to the gym or going to having hobbies or spending time with your family. That’s where business and life becomes fun because you’re not bogged down in the shit you hate doing and you’re not good at, and it’s not the things you wanted to do when you first got into business in the first place.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Yeah, 100%. I think then even focus on your leadership, the things that you’re going to enjoy doing, and there’s that future that you can see yourself growing into, which is why presumably you started the business in the first place for all that stuff. This is the step that you need to take. Let’s look at wrapping this up. I think as final messages go, I think if you’re stuck doing what you’re bad at, you’re always going to be slow. You’re going to be stressed, you’re going to feel capped out. It’s going to feel like you’re fighting a losing battle. It’s just a never ending struggle. If you do this smart hiring like we talked about, if you can reconcile in your mind the mindset you need to have to turn this around and let go of that idea of I’ve got a time problem. Turn it into, I’ve got a prioritisation problem and follow these steps as we’ve gone through them, you’ll learn to delegate better. You can start that journey of playing to your strengths, which is where you build momentum, and then you start to be on the right track.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
To build on that. It’s that concept we call here at Pravar, which is shed to grow and you’ve got to be able to shed things off your plate to be able to make way for things that are going to contribute to the growth. And when you do that, it’s not about giving up control. You don’t give up control of the running of your business. What you’re doing is creating leverage and leverage is what creates a successful and profitable business. You’ve got to remember, one man can only do so much in this business, so it’s about hiring. Well, it’s about delegating better. It’s about playing to your strengths and getting a great team around you who are going to enjoy what they do and contribute to the success of the overall business. And that’s when you create a win-win win environment where you win, they win, your customers win, and everyone gets to enjoy what they’re doing and have an environment where people are happy and healthy.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
Yeah, that’s exactly what it should sound like, and that’s exactly the journey we want people to go on as a call to action today. I was thinking about this. I think let’s sort of just couple of quick action steps, but this episode really can be an episode that does flick the switch If you give at the time, it sounds very simplistic this whole episode, but there’s a lot in here and a lot of changes that can come off the back of this one little shift. If you can write down some tasks that you’re doing now that someone else should be handling some things that you really know you shouldn’t be doing, and it’s the first time you even had that sort of realisation outside of the frustration of Shit, why am I sitting in traffic delivering materials to site? If you can move beyond that, but if you can actually write some stuff down, that’d be a great first step.
(14:32):
And then going from there, it’s around, well, what can I do with that? Can I just stop doing it? Just can I just stop? It’s amazing how much people do that they just shouldn’t do and don’t need to do. Can I delegate it to someone else like an apprentice like you said? Or is it time to go out and look at, Hey, can I afford that 35 bucks an hour, whatever, and hire someone in to do this for me? If you can just start taking those steps, that’s really a perfect sort of action step or a flow out of this episode. So that’s where we’re going to land on our call to action this week. And of course, Rob, if people are still wrestling with the idea of whether there’s a mindset blockage, there’s just something that doesn’t feel right, there’s a kink in their business that might seem a bit different or a bit special in the situations and circumstances they’ve got, they can always book in and have a discovery call to go through this.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
Yeah, jump across to strategysession.com.au, get that discovery call booked in and let’s see if we can identify at least 10 to 20 hours a week of things that you suck you hate and you don’t want to be doing in your business, and let’s see if we can get you to delete or delegate them or hire someone in to be able to get them off your plate so that you can focus on the things that actually matter within your business that’s going to take your business and life to the next level. Hopefully, you’ve enjoyed Today’s Matters episode around time and it’s really challenged your thoughts around what you are doing compared to what you know you should be doing. If you’ve enjoyed today’s episode, make sure you hit that follow button and looking forward to coming back to you next week with another episode on The Trade Den. Talk to you then.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
See you soon.