EP 145 : Mastering Business Priorities
Introduction :
Welcome to the DYB Podcast, where we dive deep into strategies for doubling your business and making a positive impact in the community.
In this episode, we explore the importance of branding vehicles for marketing, managing debt on work trucks, organizing equipment, and targeting specific clients for painting services.
Our speakers share their big wins, from increased community engagement to improving the customer experience and handling employee challenges.
We also delve into tools and methods for estimating, appointment booking, and managing conflict.
Join us as we discuss the power of marketing to higher-income clients, finding recurring revenue, and engaging in “stay interviews” to maintain a positive work environment.
Stick around for valuable insights and practical advice to help you double your business!
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Transcript :
Speaker A [00:00:00]: Welcome to the DYB podcast where each week we share strategies and stories to inspire you to double your business so that you can have financial freedom, time for your family, and make an impact in your community. Did you know you can get the DYB system PDF for free? We sell the dyb system poster for a $100, but you can get your dyb system PDF for free. Get your copy at dybcoach dotcom backslashdybhyphensystem. And now this week's episode. Speaker B [00:00:33]: Hello, and welcome to Mastermind. Our mission is to build 1,000,000 and multimillion dollar businesses so that we can have financial freedom, time for our families, and make an impact in our communities. Let's kick it off. Some big wins. We'll shoot up to Alaska and ask Ben to lead the way. Speaker C [00:00:50]: Big wins, and it's Alaska style. All last week, I was fishing on my father in law's ocean boat out in Sitka with no cell service, so I had nobody calling me. No work. No nothing. Fishing for halibut. Went to some some wild hot springs. Sat in the hot springs and just put it around, and it was a very much needed relaxing trip. Speaker B [00:01:12]: That is awesome. So was the salmon running? Speaker C [00:01:16]: No. We were in the ocean. So Speaker B [00:01:18]: Oh, out in the ocean. Okay. Speaker C [00:01:19]: Yeah. So we didn't catch any salmon, but we were probably doing something wrong. So Speaker B [00:01:23]: Yeah. But you guys have a good time. Speaker C [00:01:26]: Oh, gosh. So nice. Speaker B [00:01:27]: Yeah. No cell phones right now. Yep. Okay. Awesome. Very good. Thank you, Ben. Jason. Speaker B [00:01:34]: Impossible Speaker D [00:01:35]: to follow, Ben and Matt. Thanks, Ben. No big wins. Let's see. Checking out my first b and I on Thursday. Thanks to Steve's recommendation, last week. So that'll be yeah. Hopefully, that'll produce some fruit. Speaker B [00:01:53]: Yep. So just a little extra encouragement, Ben. How's networking been for you? Speaker C [00:01:58]: At BNI, it's phenomenal. I just won a huge commercial building, and I was the highest bidder, but it was strictly because of my relationship with them from BNI. And it was all just because of BNI. That's what he told me too. He's like, nice to have that relationship with you through BNI. Speaker B [00:02:13]: So There you go. Right on. Cool. Thank you, Sharon, Ben. Alright. Alex, go ahead and unmute and, show your big wins, please. Speaker E [00:02:22]: Hello, everyone. Yeah. Big wins. Our crew stays busy all the time. Projects are coming on profit. So, yeah, we're hitting 45, 50. 1 of them came up to 30, but, yeah, that wasn't a big project, but it was a good one. So, yeah, it's just everything's going smoothly now. Speaker B [00:02:43]: Awesome. Good deal. And it's always sunny in San Diego. Right? Speaker E [00:02:47]: Always beautiful. Yes. Yeah. Right now, yeah, we're 7074, so it's good. Because the past days has been a little hard for us. Yeah. We're spoiled. Yeah. Speaker B [00:02:56]: Okay. Right on. Absolutely. Let's go up the road just a little bit. Now I see a little bit. It's a few miles, but depending on if you jump on 4:0:5, it's 5 hours. David Cooley. Big winds there up in Torrance, just outside LA. Speaker F [00:03:10]: Hey. What's up, guys? Yeah. So I got to go to the Liberia, Africa for 8 days, and then my uncle had a funeral. So we we got to get a lake house in that area. So it took off about 2 weeks. They came back. Everything's going good. Speaker B [00:03:27]: Yeah. Fair enough. Where was the lake house? Speaker F [00:03:31]: It was up in Victorville. There's a little area called Spring Valley Lake. Speaker B [00:03:36]: Oh, okay. Speaker F [00:03:37]: And so we camped out there throughout the funeral and everything. Got to see family. It was really nice. Speaker D [00:03:44]: And you Speaker B [00:03:44]: said 8 days in Africa? Speaker F [00:03:46]: 8 days. Yeah. Wow. Liberia. Okay. Speaker B [00:03:49]: Iberia. Yeah. Yeah. Never been to the, continent of Africa yet, but, okay, you know, one day. It's on the body list. Let's check it out. Speaker G [00:03:56]: It is Speaker F [00:03:56]: an awesome mission trip. Yeah. Speaker B [00:03:58]: Pretty good. Thank you. Jeff? Speaker H [00:04:01]: Big wins is we finally finished that, church that we had a 85 foot lift out there at a 100 degree days, so that was fun. We finished that, and we've hired a a couple of new ones now. We're up to 13, I think. Speaker B [00:04:14]: My favorite was getting open those 16, 80 foot lifts and forgetting the wasp spray and coming up on a great big nasty mess. And be like, back it up. Flow reverse. Quick. Quick than this. 15 minutes back down. Right? So, yeah, that's good. Glad to hear that. Speaker B [00:04:32]: Alright. Let's swap to Finland. Sam, big wins. Speaker G [00:04:35]: Hello. Hello. Last week, we had couple video drafting days, so we were able to shoot lots of content for our marketing and branding. So it was a nice experience, and now we are all stacked up for long periods. Speaker B [00:04:55]: Okay. So you said video crafting? Speaker G [00:04:57]: Video shooting, photos, videos, and Yeah. That kind of stuff. Yeah. Speaker B [00:05:02]: Okay. Fantastic. Yeah. And I'm seeing the one come out there with your with Mike, which we were talking about here before we started the meeting. So very cool. Looking forward to seeing the rest of them come out. Thank you for sharing that too in the community. Alright. Speaker B [00:05:16]: Jason, you're up. Speaker D [00:05:17]: I have a gazillion things going on in my business right now, and I'm trying to figure out what's the best way to just get rid of the the things I gotta get rid of and start start over and build the right system. So I can use any of your guys' advice, obviously, on that. Speaker B [00:05:37]: Just to clarify, because it this is, yes, pretty general. You feel overwhelmed. You have a live one on. You just need to figure out how to prioritize or Speaker D [00:05:46]: how to delegate. I've been painting for 30 years and wasn't up until a couple months ago that I ever heard of such a thing as a tech stack. Right? We've obviously used things along those lines. So the life of lead, the well, how do you what's the best way to capture your clientele and put them in a a list that you can easily access so that you can stay top of mind with them. There's just when you look at a business from start to finish, there's just there's a lot of different things that we've done, and there's a lot of things I think we can change or be more productive and efficient in. So I'm I'm probably just looking for some encouragement because I'm going over a Speaker B [00:06:32]: classic overthinker. Keep going. We've got this. Yeah. Speaker H [00:06:36]: And it does get better because that whole thing, especially after we've been doing stuff for a really long time, can get overwhelming. And when you get whether it's you can book me or whoever and you get one thing done and then you just move on to the next one. Because, otherwise, it it can paralyze you to where you don't Speaker B [00:06:55]: Do you anything done. Speaker D [00:06:57]: Do you guys thank you, Jeff. I was hoping to hear from you. Do you guys think that concentrating on one thing or another is more important, especially right now in this I'm just gonna call it the the beginning stages. Is it making sure the website funnel is intact? Is it getting our client list production? What's the main focus, you think? Speaker B [00:07:21]: Yeah. So this is good. Chunk to Speaker D [00:07:22]: do on, ain't it? Speaker B [00:07:24]: Yeah. See okay. What you wanna do is take yeah. You do wanna focus on 1 project at a time. The key is to figure out which one is gonna give you the 80 20 leverage. Right? Which one is the most important, gonna gonna either free up your time or create more profits for you the fastest out of everything else that's going on. Right? Time or money. So take a look at your projects and which one is gonna free up more time and or create more profits for you first, and then that becomes your priority priority project, number 1. Speaker B [00:07:56]: And then, yes, focus on that one until it's completed, and then go on to the next one. But if you keep jumping around, it's gonna just drag everything out much longer than it would take. So there's a fun exercise that I like to do for proving that multitasking actually slows us down. And the exercise is do me a favor. Entertain me, Jason. We'll just walk through this real quick. And the exercise is count to 10 as fast as you can. Ready? Go. Speaker B [00:08:27]: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Nailed it. Okay. Now I want you to say your ABCs. I think it's through f, I think, at this time. As fast as you can. Ready? Go. No. Speaker B [00:08:38]: It's not. B b c b. I have to. Nailed it. Wham. Got oh, okay. Ready? Here's multitasking. I want you to alternate. Speaker B [00:08:49]: You want me Speaker D [00:08:50]: to count into Speaker B [00:08:51]: the alphabet? Yep. Back and forth. To 10 into I. Ready? Go. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. It's no. 1 a, 2 b. Oh, gee. Speaker D [00:09:02]: Now you're just trying to because we're on video. Speaker B [00:09:04]: No. No. No. I'm not trying to embarrass anybody. Speaker D [00:09:06]: Listen. I've I've done this Speaker B [00:09:08]: exercise with others. 2b Mhmm. 3c4d Speaker D [00:09:13]: 5e Tough. Right? This is Speaker B [00:09:15]: c e. Okay. So this is it. It's just an exercise to prove that multitasking is not an asset. It's not a skill. It slows us down. And Darren Hardy's got this great video on multitasking on YouTube, and he says CNN, reported this study. I forget who did the study, but they said that when you multitask, your IQ, actually, no one is this. Speaker B [00:09:38]: So when you multitask, your IQ drops 10 points or something. When you when people, not you, when people who get high smoke drugs, their IQ drops 5 points. So, essentially, when you multitask, you're twice as dumb as a stoner. So the point is there's really no such thing as multitasking. And the principle is to single task on one thing and just crush it. Because all the interruptions, yeah, all the interruptions, they cause time, they go back and forth, and you have to rethink where was I. You know? Thank you. Speaker G [00:10:09]: I know it may feel frustrating in the process at the beginning when you're trying to build the business. So it's always nice to get some country real results. There won't be one thing to focus. I would make sure that your Google My Business is really well set up and start to ask those positive reviews from your customers because you've been waiting 30 years. I believe you have amazing customer experience, so get them online. And once you get lots of good reviews, the leads just start to flow, and it always feels good to eat. Speaker D [00:10:53]: Thank you. Speaker G [00:10:54]: Then it's easier to focus on other stuff too. Speaker H [00:10:57]: One thing, Jason, is for for example, you can book green page that that we got hooked up. And and and the one thing at a time worked really well because, yeah, otherwise, my head starts spinning, and I'd I'd never get anything done. And that's where Steve and April helped tremendously. Just keep me on task for one one thing. Let's finish this one thing. And now we're starting to go back a little bit, and we're revising some of those just a hair to where we ask them on the You Can Book Me page. Hey. Are you earlier are you available for an earlier time? And then another one is the best way to contact you is it's amazing how many people say text, but I think it's way better to have something done than perfect. Speaker H [00:11:47]: Does that make sense? Speaker D [00:11:48]: Yes. You just scrolled me out on Speaker B [00:11:50]: 2 more things, though, Joe. Yeah. Right on. Ben, you have any thoughts? Speaker C [00:11:57]: Yeah. Hey, Jason. Do you have a customer list? Speaker D [00:12:00]: I do. Yeah. Yep. Speaker C [00:12:02]: And do you have all your old passwords? I'm sure you've been in business a while. Like, how many do you have everyone from your past customers in this customer list? Speaker D [00:12:12]: I got I think I went back to about 2018, and that's when I started working with my current administrator, I guess, as administrator assistant marketing guy. Speaker B [00:12:24]: Yep. Speaker D [00:12:24]: So it's been a it's yeah. I've I've spent I've had Brandon's his name, and I've had Brandon spend a lot of time getting that list accessible. Right? Because we collect the data. We so in part, we know where we got the lead from, which I think is important. It's not necessarily super critical, but but when it come time to because we do a monthly newsletter. And when it come time to do that, it's just like we're it was a free for all. We're sending people that we did that maybe gave us a bad review, or we'd be sending it out to somebody that had no business even getting it, say, a commercial general manager or something, which not to say that you can't produce something from that, but it just seemed like there was a lot of excess and overlap. And people getting it, they probably shouldn't have gotten it. Speaker C [00:13:25]: Yeah. You're always gonna have to update your customer list. Like, I just sent out my newsletters, and I got about 13 back. But the ones and and this is I don't wanna throw more in your plate and everything else. Speaker D [00:13:37]: No. I love it. I'm taking notes. Speaker C [00:13:39]: 1st, you need to delegate everything you can possible. I have a virtual assistant, and he does all the mundane stuff that I don't wanna do. Data entries, updating customer lists, all the back end stuff that I just really don't wanna do and enter in. And then the other thing that's made my life so much better is the automation. And because it's 2024. There's so many things to automate. So I don't have to enter in. When someone hits accept proposal for me, it gets automatically all their information gets sent on the customer list. Speaker C [00:14:08]: So nobody has to do anything. It just gets automated and zapped right into it. Those aren't the things you probably wanna start in right now, but I will tell you, my my customer list that is actually accurate is absolutely pure gold that I am busy year round because of that freaking list. I got a 1000 people on there. But if you have that to a detail of everything, and then you just keep updating it, so you're not just spending money by sending people things. You're always it's mail's always gonna come back or something's always gonna come back. But just get that really detailed in in line, because then that's been a huge benefit that I've just really focused on is making sure my customer list is perfect. Speaker D [00:14:49]: Yeah. I I feel I feel the same way about that. I think that your leads are gonna close at a higher rate when you're it's repeated for a business. Right? So when concentrating on that versus new spend new spending money on strangers. Yeah. Speaker B [00:15:07]: Thank you. Awesome. Alright. Moving along. Alex, you're up. Speaker E [00:15:11]: Thank you. Yes. The only thing I might know why you're gonna answer. Right? But taking advantage, we have a couple commercial painting companies here as well. And the the one project, that we just finished a month ago, it was a big project residential, but he owns a large business on Sprinkle Systems and security and all that. So it's a multimillion business. And they had a they have a building. They own the building where it's like a 2 story, and he wants me to quote, if I want to, only the metal of the front glass of the building. Speaker E [00:15:49]: So it's 3 elevations, not super big. It's something that I feel capable of doing it, but I'm not sure if I need to take this project, taking the chance, or I'm knowing also there's not a first time doing it. And I'm gonna be dealing with team like, a owner. So it's, like, somehow not going through all the hoops of bigger management companies. So I don't know if I should take on this project that I feel I can handle it, or shall I just say refer to someone else? Speaker B [00:16:23]: Yeah. Good question. So I'm gonna I'm gonna leave here because I have a little more, context for your situation. But now how off the top of your head or just to guess, how many weeks do you think you'd be on this project? Speaker E [00:16:37]: 2 weeks. Speaker B [00:16:38]: 2? Okay. So it's not too big. It's big, but it's not too big. No. Okay. Being that you already know the owner, he's already a raving fan, You're working direct to owner. If this is something that you'd like to do, I'd go for it. And, don't give it away either. Speaker B [00:16:55]: Right? Because she's already a Raven fan. So when you bid it bid it well. Speaker E [00:16:58]: Yes. Now on pricing, because I don't know if it's a make a difference when you're pricing commercial versus residential. On his house, he's on the construction business as well. Also, he knows when it's expensive, when it's shipped, and because he shared that with me that my pricing, it was okay for him on the interior. But on the exterior, he said that somebody else painted for cheap, so he knows the difference. Now I don't know. For me, 2 weeks is 2 weeks, but I don't know if I should take something else in consideration being a commercial project versus residential. Speaker B [00:17:35]: No. Just bid it for what you wanna make on it, for which one again. Yeah. And it sounds, yeah, it sounds like he's looking at numbers. Bid it well because it's not in your wheelhouse. It's not something you typically do, but it's something you can do. And I would just make sure you you bid it well and that if you get it, you'll be happy that you got it and it makes money. And just know that you might not get it. Speaker B [00:17:58]: It's okay. Yeah. Any other thoughts you guys for Alex regarding this? Speaker C [00:18:02]: Yeah. Bid it to make your profit margin. And we'll try to give him a deal for it. And if Mhmm. He has bid shopping that it is what it is then. There's always gonna be a painter that does things cheaper than us. Always. And it's just a race Speaker B [00:18:14]: to the bottom. Contractors. Yeah. Speaker C [00:18:16]: Yeah. It's just a race to the bottom to try to get a job. You're not doing this for fun. You're doing it to make a living. Speaker E [00:18:22]: Yeah. No. I think he's not price shopping. I think he's very fair because he was, yeah, on the interior. This is one of the customers that I did, like, the process of prequalifying over the phone. I said, you know, when I go into your project because he found me in Google. So when I said, when I go see your resident, project, I would like to have a yes or not on the spot, you know, for to be respectful, and he agreed to that one. So when I present my pricing, I pretty much, like, price it where it's supposed to be into place a because I didn't know the person. Speaker E [00:18:57]: And he says, okay. I know that I agreed to this one, but I'm not taking my wife to the airport. But, I'll get back to you in the week because that was a weekend. He did. He approved the project, and everything went smooth. He paid me, on time whenever I asked for payment. Speaker B [00:19:13]: Okay. Speaker E [00:19:14]: And he just keep repeating, like, I'm very happy with your service and your professionalism. So he instead of when he mentioned the other guy was cheaper, on the exterior, it was I didn't project exterior, but he says, can you fix something? Because the other guy didn't do well. So he pretty much allowed me to be up higher instead of lower. So I think Yeah. It's gonna work out because I mentioned everything that Steve bring up. He's the owner, so we're gonna be dealing directly. And I said, I don't do this type of projects every day, but I have done in the past couple of them. Mhmm. Speaker E [00:19:51]: So I think it's good. Speaker B [00:19:52]: Yeah. K. Bay it to make money, and let us know how it goes. Thank you. You're welcome. Jeff, you're up. Speaker H [00:20:00]: Alright. And one of the things that I'm currently doing is I'm going going back a little bit and revising my mission statement, my, vision statement. Speaker B [00:20:11]: And then I'm I'm at Speaker H [00:20:13]: the core values stage so that as I'm looking at as I'm doing interviews and stuff, there there's certain core values that I wanna be looking for. And I used the the 11 questions, but I'm trying to take it a step further than that. Has anybody used has anybody done that? Speaker C [00:20:33]: I have all my core values, vision, and all that mission statement. I can send it to you, Jeff, just so you can look at it and brainstorm and bounce off it. But, yeah, I have it. I can email it to you. Speaker H [00:20:43]: Yeah. Exactly. We had our, 1st Monday morning meeting. When I sent it, to you guys, I didn't see it. You know? It didn't show up. The first picture didn't show up, so I resent it. But that went really well. We used to do those every Monday. Speaker H [00:20:59]: And so we're gonna do them for the next 4 just at a little restaurant that's got a little room off the side. And so we get to buy there's only a $132 to buy everybody breakfast. Speaker E [00:21:11]: You Speaker H [00:21:11]: know? So that was better than the 26.50 a month to rent a shop. Speaker B [00:21:18]: Oh, yeah. Right on. Yeah. Good deal. Then DYB's values, education, inner encouragement, ownership, integrity, and gratitude. Yeah. It's good to get them together. And when when you get your values together, when you have an idea of what they are Mhmm. Speaker B [00:21:33]: Then what you wanna do is have a team meeting or at least with your leads, if not with everybody, and come up with your values together with your team, but coach them in a way that you draw out the values that you're looking for. That makes sense. So that way, they have ownership in you creating your values. Speaker H [00:21:50]: Gotcha. That's good. Speaker B [00:21:52]: And thank you for sharing with them then. Mhmm. Samuel, you're up. Speaker G [00:21:56]: Alright. I was just wondering that do you guys paint everything on-site on the customer project, or do any one of you have separate space for finish spray finishing cabinets or something like that? Speaker B [00:22:14]: Yep. Good question. Go ahead, guys. Speaker F [00:22:16]: We we do everything on-site, and we just create, like, a containment on-site. We have all the gear. So the the team will we have a couple sets for the cabinet shops. They'll come, they'll pick everything up, and they'll take it to the site, and they'll build it right on-site. I like doing it that way because there's less room for error. Like, things aren't gonna get banged up. And I just make the deal with the customer when I sell the job. I let them know we we come to an agreement on how we're gonna set up where we're gonna set it up and everything. Speaker D [00:22:48]: That's what we did. Anybody anybody else doing it, in a shop? Anybody else? Or is everybody else on-site? Jason? I got a shop. I guess we we do everything from pulling interior doors, cabinets. Most of our cabinets, we do in the shop. It's we've struggled with containment on-site a lot, and some projects, they just don't have big enough space. Wintertime, you're not it's really hard to set up out in somebody's garage or take up their basement. So we've tried to do it every way that I think that there is, including setting up a tent outside. I think in the better weather climates or you can probably be a little bit more on-site wise, but here in Minnesota, it's it's to the shop, especially in the wintertime. Speaker D [00:23:39]: Keeps the you in control of the temperature a lot better. You can keep the bugs out of there, keep the dust down. Yeah. Speaker B [00:23:46]: It's disappointing. Think about that. Yeah. Speaker D [00:23:48]: Things end up a lot nicer in the spray booth compared to somebody's basement for us anyways. Speaker B [00:23:55]: Yeah. We're in Florida. We didn't have any issues with snow. Speaker D [00:23:58]: Bugs or alligators? Oh, there are Speaker B [00:24:00]: lots of bugs. You just wanna make sure you're using the right products set set fast enough. Speaker D [00:24:05]: We do we do tent off a kitchen. We run air scrubbers and things like that on-site, so try to keep the smell down. Speaker H [00:24:14]: And I've done it both both ways. I had a shop for, like, 20 years, and and it was great. It just got to the point to where it just wasn't I filled my shop with a bunch of stuff that I I didn't need anymore. Red got too high. So we're we're gonna be doing it on-site at this point. Speaker G [00:24:34]: Why did you give up the shop? Speaker H [00:24:36]: Why? Because rent from went from 1100 to 16 100 to 26.50. You know? And when I had that's not including the $600 it takes to heat it in the wintertime. And so when I had 15 employees, it was doable. But, like, a year ago, we struggled with hiring employees. And so I got myself in a bind over that deal. So it just got to the point to where I needed to cut that out so I could take care of some other stuff. And when I did that, I was able to throw a lot of that stuff away for $900. So 3 40 foot dumpsters and the dump fee cost me $900, and that way I don't have to pay that 26.50 anymore. Speaker H [00:25:20]: I'm not saying I might not have a shopping yet, but I just filled that one up. I'm getting to an age to where I didn't wanna leave that mess for somebody to clean up. I needed to clean that up, and so I I was able to do that. Speaker G [00:25:36]: Yeah. But do you think what's, were, like, the pros and cons on having the shop where you can paint cabinets and that kind of stuff? Speaker B [00:25:45]: But for me Go ahead, John. Speaker H [00:25:48]: A couple 2 or 3 years ago, I ran a cabinet commercial there for, like, 2 months. We ended up doing a set of kitchen cabinets a week for 6 months off of that deal, and I would not have been able to do that otherwise. And so that was good. I think we ran it once after that, and we weren't we didn't do 6 months' worth. We did enough cabinets to pay the rent of the shop and the employees and everything else for probably 2 months. But that first time we did that, we did a set of kitchen cabinets a week for 6 months, and it doesn't take us a week to do those. We have a pretty good system of doing that. But it was just I was at a point to where I needed to make a a bunch of changes, not just that one. Speaker H [00:26:31]: And so far, I haven't missed it. I've got these cruise units full of stuff that, I can still put 15 people to work. I've got my garage full of stuff. So that way, as the vans come and go from, like, my house but so far, I haven't missed the shop. And the people weren't taking care of it as as much as I'd like, they'd come and they'd leave a mess. And then all of a sudden, now I'm a baby, and they don't have that option at this point. Speaker B [00:26:59]: Yeah. The one thing similar to watch out for is if you decide to go with the shop is that, guys will start clocking in as soon as they get there, then they'll make some coffee. They'll go to the bathroom. They'll start chatting with the others as they come in. And, yeah, it becomes it can get sideways real fast. And so there's a lot of extra overhead that comes in that we don't plan for us. The in some states, countries have laws that say if they show up at the shop, you have to start paying them. And so Jeff was saying, now this is in Florida. Speaker B [00:27:27]: We were using we use storage units throughout town strategically. Speaker C [00:27:31]: Mhmm. Speaker B [00:27:31]: And we just we had we had same items in every storage unit, and nobody hung around the storage units. They got what they needed, and they were going to the job. And they kept it nimble. And it's yeah. It's not some guys use them, some don't. I prefer it be nimble. And my personal preference was to I had a shop back in Michigan. We had my company in Michigan. Speaker B [00:27:49]: And so guys, you come and hang out and park in and and all that fun stuff. Speaker H [00:27:54]: The one good thing about the shop is that we have our Monday morning meetings there. And so then when I have new people, we could teach them to put a 6 panels course, for example. They could paint them. They could spray them. And so it was an excellent place for training for a really long time. Speaker G [00:28:09]: Mhmm. Yeah. So at the moment, we have, like, 500 square feet warehouse office space, and we are thinking about trading it in the bigger one. If we like the whole brand, we will get 4 times more bigger place. And it will if we go to bigger one, it will give us new opportunities to also set different type of customers that kind of who cannot who don't want, like, cabinets to be painted on-site. So we were we are just thinking about it. And but now when even that we have the office space, our painters doesn't start to work there. They go straight to the site, and only management uses this office space. Speaker G [00:29:00]: So it has been working quite well. Speaker B [00:29:02]: Good to hear. Right on. Speaker A [00:29:04]: We'll continue with the rest of this week's show in just a moment. But first, do you have your copy of Steve's book, How to Double Your Business? It's for sale on Amazon for $37, but we want to give you your free copy instead. Just cover the 6.95 for shipping and handling. Get your free copy of the dyb book@dybcoach.com backslashfreehyphentyb hyphen book. Speaker B [00:29:30]: David, you're up. Speaker F [00:29:31]: Alright. Yeah. The the same thing I've been working on for probably 3 years. I just haven't got it done. It's the same thing. It's just just I think I overthink a lot as far as, building our estimating system. I have all the PCA standards. I have the stuff that I need, and I have all the material pricing. Speaker F [00:29:53]: It's just a matter of inputting it and getting it done. Speaker B [00:29:55]: For estimating? Speaker F [00:29:56]: Yeah. Estimating. So I need to build out PaintScout, put all the numbers in there, and biggest fear is that I'm gonna bring in new people who are good at sales. They're gonna put together an estimate where it's not gonna be profitable enough. Or I just don't wanna have to deal with the headache of, getting things wrong. Like, it's really important to me to make sure that we make a profit on every job. Yeah. But my goal is to bring in another salesperson or 2. Speaker F [00:30:29]: Mhmm. And that way, they could do sales. So Speaker B [00:30:34]: Okay. So let me just hear back real quick. Yeah. Where we are, because we're not using an estimating app with production rates. We really can't bring on 1 or 2 more. Speaker F [00:30:45]: Yeah. I'm using the estimating app. I just not I've had it I've had paying stuff for a couple years. I build really nice proposals, but I'm just not Speaker B [00:30:55]: in the production. Yeah. Speaker F [00:30:57]: Yeah. Speaker B [00:30:58]: Yeah. So if we don't do it, then we're not gonna have the data we need to bring on the guys anyway. So you're worried about a problem that's not even a problem yet. Also, you can't get to the next level if we don't solve this problem. And the good and bad is there's always a problem. It's a theory of critical constraints. So whenever we solve this one, it's just gonna reveal the next constraint. Right? The problem of business is never finished. Speaker B [00:31:24]: It's never done. It's not like a puzzle, 500 pieces and we're done. Each time we solve a problem, it just reveals the next one. Right? So when we figure out the production rates here for the estimate, we start sending more pieces down the conveyor belt to the next machine in the factory in the assembly line. But now we're sending more than what it's used to. So now it's oh, no. We got a couple salesmen. We're bringing a couple more salesmen there. Speaker B [00:31:50]: And, a little bit of adjusting, a little bit of tuning in, and then we get them rolling. Mhmm. Now nobody's probably ever gonna sell as well as you do. But if we can get them 80% of the way there, and then if we can get 3, 4 of them, 80% of the way there, man, you're in Africa, more mission trips, and you're coming to Tennessee to visit me. And and we're off doing a lot of fun things and more freedom. Problems will never go away. When we solve this one, it's gonna reveal the next one, but don't let that hold you back. Don't let that scare you. Speaker B [00:32:21]: We begin to step out of our comfort zone and into the magic zone. That's what it is, and it never goes away. The theory of critical constraints. Yeah. Speaker F [00:32:31]: Yeah. Speaker B [00:32:32]: Just gotta grab this bull by the horns. Speaker F [00:32:34]: Yeah. I'm pretty close. I'm just so then what would be the practical solution? I was thinking that I was gonna upload all my stuff into the system from the PCA standards, upload that into the system. And then from there, I was thinking about just going and visiting job sites. I have 5 different types of houses. So trying to figure out Speaker B [00:32:56]: Let me jump in here. Let me jump in here. Okay. One is they should have those already, and they should be able to upload them for you so that you don't that's gonna save you all the data entry. They should be able to just upload them for you. Message them. Say, hey. Drop the production rates for me. Speaker B [00:33:10]: 2, start simple. Just start with an interior room. Just start simple. Alright? And just start with an interior bedroom, even just the walls, and check it out. Alright? Once that one's tuned in, then go to a bathroom and go to a living room and then maybe a whole interior or just a typical job. But just start simple, start small, and just slowly go from there. Get them tuned in. Speaker F [00:33:38]: Alright. Speaker B [00:33:39]: David David, are you Speaker D [00:33:40]: having a is it the getting the verbiage to match up with it's hard to get the system to say exactly what you want it to say and make it look like one of these killer estimate that you're putting out together with the production rate? Is that kind of what the hang up is? Speaker F [00:34:00]: That's a detail that I'm gonna have to figure out as well. Right now, I have beautiful proposals, but they're not connected to the numbers. I'm doing the numbers just by looking at man days and hours, but the hang up is more so just getting the accurate numbers and being able to sell right. Because I know, like, I'm gonna sell so that we're gonna make a profit, but if the I have different crews that produce at different rates and just I'm a little bit of a perfectionist as far as the numbers go. I wanna make sure that I get the numbers right. I've had sales guys that came in and would sell a $100,000 job for $50,000 and then that hurt us. So I wanna I wanna avoid that as much as possible, just getting the accurate numbers. Speaker G [00:34:47]: I think it's also not all about the estimation system. When you have sales guys, you have to manage them, and you have to check all the estimations at the beginning before you can start fully trust their expertise. Mhmm. So it's also coaching them. But as Steve just told, couple of minutes ago, I started like he advised. So at first, I added in the system only, like, interior wall estimator. And when I got it going, then I added ceiling, then the doors, trims, and now it has expanded. There's everything in there. Speaker G [00:35:32]: And if I see one one stuff is little bit wrong, I will just I'll use it every time I need to. And, also, when all the systems and professional data is in there, easier to recruit, and teach the new sales professionals to do their job in a way you want them to do it. Speaker F [00:35:56]: Yeah. Thanks, guys. Yeah. Speaker G [00:35:58]: That's it. Speaker B [00:35:58]: You're welcome. Just one step at a time, buddy. You've got this. Alright, gentlemen. It's time to roll out with takeaways. Jason? Speaker D [00:36:07]: I think the biggest takeaway is probably just the multitasking, focusing on one thing, get it done. Also, starting simple with the estimating, the production ratings, whatever that's that kinda hit home. Awesome. Speaker B [00:36:19]: Very good. Thank you. And thank you for sharing, and thank you for walking through the exercise, with us. Appreciate that. Alex? Of course. Yeah. Speaker E [00:36:26]: I'm just gonna take away, what Ben was sharing, which is to work more deeply into my CRM so I can have a good outcome out of that. Speaker B [00:36:37]: Fantastic. Thank you, Alex. Jeff, takeaways? Speaker H [00:36:40]: I I I really like that line that you spurted out the problem of business has never finished because that's I'm getting to practice that at this point. Speaker B [00:36:49]: Yeah. Right. Okay. Alright. I'm catching on. Yeah. Right on. Thank you, Jeff. Speaker B [00:36:54]: Samuel? Speaker G [00:36:55]: Yeah. I like what Jeff said, and stay focused on solving one problem at a time. Speaker B [00:37:03]: Mhmm. That's it. Right on. Very good. Thank you. And, David, close us out for takeaways, please. Speaker F [00:37:08]: Yeah. Like, the critical constraint theory, I think. Just as Samuel had mentioned, getting one thing done and getting it completed. And then like what Samuel said, just to manage them and check-in on the estimates so I could slow the process down instead of closing on the spot. I could while they're in training, I could review their estimates with them and not close on the spot. Just review the estimates with them and then send it out. So just focusing on doing maybe I'll do 1 week at a time. Just keep going. Speaker B [00:37:45]: Awesome. Very good. I like that. Fantastic. Thank you, David. Gentlemen, I appreciate you guys. Wanna encourage you to continue to dream big, hustle smarter. You've got this. Speaker B [00:37:54]: Have a great day. Speaker H [00:37:55]: Thank you, guys. Speaker G [00:37:57]: Thanks. See you. Speaker A [00:37:58]: I hope you enjoyed this episode. If this was please share it with a friend to help inspire them to double their business. Again, this is April Burnett. Steve and I are the founders of Burnett Painting and DYB Coach. We want to take a moment and thank you for making us the most rated podcast dedicated specifically to painting contractors. Celebrate, we want to help you break through to higher success. So Steve is now giving away free strategy calls. Just click the link below in the show notes that says free strategy call. Speaker A [00:38:27]: There are only a couple of openings on his calendar each week, so get your free call with Steve now. Thank you so much for listening, and remember to dream big, hustle smarter. You've got this.