EP 152 : Handling Team and Financial Reports
Introduction:
Tired of juggling team troubles and financial headaches? Join us on Episode 152 of the DYB Podcast as we dive deep into the strategies that will propel your painting business to new heights.
Discover how to:
- Revitalize Your Team: Learn how to build a rockstar team, delegate effectively, and navigate the complexities of employee vs. subcontractor models.
- Conquer Your Finances: Unravel the mysteries of P&L statements, tame overhead costs, and streamline your bookkeeping.
- Handle Challenging Clients with Grace: Master the art of setting boundaries, addressing scope creep, and closing projects on a high note.
- Ignite Your Motivation: Tap into powerful mindset shifts and practical strategies to overcome obstacles and stay motivated.
Tune in to Episode 152 and unlock the secrets to achieving financial freedom, work-life balance, and a thriving painting business – and doubling your business!
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Transcript :
Steve Burnett [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. How would you like to know if somebody is going to be a great hire before you hire them? Now you can with our 11 interview questions, and you can download them for free. Just search d y b coach 11 interview questions or go to the link dybcoach.com backslash11hypheninterviewhyphenquestions. And now this week's episode. Speaker B [00:00:37]: Hello, and welcome to Mastermind. Our mission is to build $1,000,000 businesses so that we can have financial freedom, time for our families, and make an impact in our communities. Let's kick it off with some big wins. Craig, lead the way, please. Craig [00:00:49]: I guess not yet to be a big win, but, in my networking group this week, I've got a joint presentation with, the interior designer, and we're gonna talk about color psychology. So, hopefully, we'll get some good content off that and maybe something for a community spotlight later on. Speaker B [00:01:04]: Oh, that's cool. Okay. Right on. Yeah. Color psychology. That's it. Ask her do me a favor. Ask her, which brilliant designer got everybody to promote gray? Craig [00:01:16]: Yeah. Gray seems to be coming to its end. Speaker B [00:01:21]: Good. Way. Hallelujah. Finally. Daryl [00:01:24]: I'm painting 2 houses right now with gray. Speaker B [00:01:27]: No. This is good news. If gray's coming to its end, guess what? They're gonna be calling you in a couple of years saying, hey. Look. I need to go to Taupe or whatever is cool now. Daryl [00:01:35]: Yeah. Taupe was it for so long. Oh my. Speaker B [00:01:38]: Yeah. It was. Daryl [00:01:39]: I'm still tired of Taupe. Craig [00:01:41]: Just as long as they kick Chantilly lace to the curb, I'm good. Speaker B [00:01:44]: Oh, man. The yellow in Chantilly lace kills me. If coverage, forget it. Yeah. Okay. Alright. Isaac, big wins, buddy. Isaac Mumma [00:01:53]: Yeah. I would have to say my team is just doing great. Just off of the holiday weekend, we started a new project, and they're hitting the ground running. And it seems like my crew leader is just, like, really in it, dialed in, and I can just really it's seriously just amazing to be able to now have a solid crew and be able to just go, okay. Now I can focus on what I need to do and just know that customers are getting taken care of, and I just continue to get more and more feedback on how great they're doing when I go to close out a job. So, yeah, definitely my crew would be my big win. Speaker B [00:02:33]: Yeah. Awesome. I'm Isaac. Way to lead. Way to hire for a character too. So Isaac Mumma [00:02:37]: Yeah. Thank you. Speaker B [00:02:38]: Absolutely. Daryl, big wins. Daryl [00:02:40]: Yeah. Yeah. I follow along with that with with Isaac. I was thinking just this morning how good things are going. It's you gotta keep pursuing your team like you do your wife. I've said that numerous times on here, but things are going really the the new guy that I hired a couple months ago, Rex, I've already bumped him up $2 an hour on last paycheck. And then I got a call from an employee that he used to work with at his old crew where Rex had left from because he didn't like the environment. And that guy's like, I had to quit my job. Daryl [00:03:06]: It was so bad here. He goes, I wanna work for an a team. You guys are great. And he just he wants to come on board, but I've gotta talk with my other guy and make sure that this guy is not part at least a small part of the reason why he left Speaker B [00:03:19]: because I Daryl [00:03:19]: don't wanna have any bad culture coming to our team. So but it sounds like he's not part of the problem. So it may be cool, but I'm gonna I'll I'll interview my my newer guy and and make sure that he wants him on because I will not hire anybody my team doesn't want. So that's pretty good. Speaker B [00:03:37]: That's awesome. Mhmm. Go ahead. Daryl [00:03:39]: Thing, I'm sorry. Will, we're starting the 5 levels of leadership, I think next week to get him going in leadership. So yeah. Oh. Sonia Garcia [00:03:48]: Pretty good. Daryl [00:03:48]: So it's been going really well. Speaker B [00:03:50]: Fantastic. So being we're on the theme of culture, I'll just throw in my story, and I've shared it before. We had one of our leads. His friend offered him a job, paid him $5 more an hour. And it was on good terms. We he didn't wanna go, but he the money back then, this was 15 years ago. It was that's when $5 was a lot. You know? And and so he he gave a notice and he left. Speaker B [00:04:13]: But after 6 months, he call he came he called back and said, hey, guys. I really missed the team, and I missed the camaraderie. What he meant was culture. Mhmm. And what so what he found was that culture was more valuable than it was an extra $5 an hour, and so he came back for culture. So good job, guys, on the culture. That's everything. Yeah. Speaker B [00:04:32]: Keep that going. Sonia, good morning. Big wins. Sonia Garcia [00:04:37]: I'm here. Speaker B [00:04:39]: Yay. Alright. Yeah? Okay. Awesome. We're glad you made it. Very good. Thank you. Alright. Speaker B [00:04:48]: Craig, what is the one thing that we could brainstorm such that might make everything else easier and or unnecessary? Craig [00:04:54]: I don't know. Much the same as some of the previous weeks, I'm still struggling with with bookings, which is one of the reasons why I implemented the community spotlight so I can get more content so that I can get drive a little bit more engagement on social media. So I have been getting leads in, and I have booked some stuff for, I have booked some stuff for January, which is good, but I'm still needing to fill my December in. December has a few jobs, but but certainly not enough. And yeah. So there's that. And, also, 2 of my best employees, one is gone for the month of December, and one is gone for the month of December January. Yeah. Craig [00:05:35]: They they're taking extended vacations. So that leaves me with the both the newer guy, the newest guy, and one who I have to check up a little bit in terms of quality. Still, like, a good guy, but just is at one of his job sites and just had to straighten out some of those cut lines and and whatnot type thing. Speaker B [00:05:57]: Okay. Alright. So more work. Right? Instant leads. Instant man, that book would be, like, a bestseller. Instant leads. Bam. Yeah. Speaker B [00:06:07]: Alright. So the number one is always a customer. Open opportunities, right, is always number 1. How many open estimates do we have? Now Yep. You you've been here. You've been around. I'm sure you've gone through that one. Yeah. Speaker B [00:06:16]: That's fine. Going through the I'm just going through the process. I'm sure you've crushed that one. 2nd one is customer list. That's your second most valuable. Instant lead source is customer list. And so what that means is stay on top of mind. The fastest way there, obviously, you wanna send them GIE, emails, send out cards, connect to them on social. Speaker B [00:06:37]: But then the biggest opportunity here in these situations are just phone calls. Go through them all and call them. But call them as a friend. Call them with relationships in mind, not business. They already know who you are. They already know what you do. Just call them with as a relationship in mind. And so you just go through the list, start with your best customers, and work your way down. Speaker B [00:06:57]: And you just say, hey, Daryl, Steve, Bernat. Just calling to see how you're doing. How's how's that neighbor's pesky dog? How's your kid? How's your boy how's your boy doing in college? Did he make the football team? And just let the conversation take its natural course. No expectations. Okay? And just call one after another and watch what happens. Craig [00:07:17]: Yep. I, yeah, I can double down on the phone calls. Speaker B [00:07:20]: There you go. Yep. So pick that up. And then it's Daryl and Isaac and Sonia, what what else would you encourage Craig to do? Daryl [00:07:29]: Yeah. Sounds like a lot of what you needed. You've been called. Did you go through we talked a few weeks ago about your tick texting. You're if you're gonna be calling your clients and texting wouldn't matter. But what I did last last winter or winter before last, I went through my iPhone. I scrolled all the way down. It was, like, 2 years ago, and I went to those clients and just texted them, did exactly what Steve did only in a text. Daryl [00:07:52]: And I got a couple of jobs off of that. And what's really cool is I'm doing a job in a few weeks from one of those ladies from her, a person who's buying her house. And then now this lady that I reached out to 2 years ago to do another job for, she's moving into another house, so I might be doing some painting for her. And so that was all from scrolling in a text message year before last. So I'm still benefiting from texting clients 2 years ago. So that's pretty cool. Craig [00:08:23]: I actually yeah. That brings to mind the story. So I had I was calling around for my annual touch ups, and and one of the ladies had had actually moved. So she's I don't even live in the house anymore. I'm like, the new people that live in, I can do touch ups for them. Can you put me in contact with them? So she put me in contact with the people that bought her house, and I did touch her for them and then subsequently became they became one of my customers after that. Speaker B [00:08:51]: That's beautiful. I love that. Great execution. Well done. Isaac Mumma [00:08:55]: Yeah. Have you sent your community spotlights to any of your email list? Craig [00:09:01]: Yeah. I haven't wanted I haven't wanted to bombard them because I I've got 4 in the hopper, so I'm spacing them out. So I did the first one. I should I'll probably drop the second one sometime this month. And then, yeah, just spacing the note just so I'm not emailing people every 5 days. Speaker B [00:09:21]: Sure. Craig [00:09:22]: Yeah. But, yeah, I've got yeah. It's great because I've got a couple of emails planned, and I just need to hit the send button on them. So that's yeah. That that's Right on. It's awesome that Daryl's texting, reaching out, keep Speaker B [00:09:36]: in touch. I do recommend phone calls. Okay. Texting is better than nothing. So I'm not criticizing texting. Texting is better enough. That's awesome, and it's working. Phone calls are a little more effective. Speaker B [00:09:47]: You can hear their tone. You can engage, and they can feel that your that your purpose for calling is to genuinely check up on them first. Craig [00:09:56]: Yeah. And I think at this point, it would be it would be good because it's heading into the holiday season, and, and it's just a natural hope you're going to have a good holiday, especially because our postal service appears on strike. Daryl [00:10:11]: And Speaker B [00:10:11]: Oh, no. Really? Craig [00:10:12]: Yeah. So Christmas cards might be like Valentine's Day cards at this point. Speaker B [00:10:18]: Craig, you feel like you're good there? Do you have enough to go on? Craig [00:10:21]: I think so. I think I just need to yeah. Yeah. It's obvious that the next step is to to pick up the phone. I've done the rest of this stuff. I've done the groundwork. Speaker B [00:10:30]: Okay. Cool. Yeah. I'm good. Thanks. Awesome. Alright, Daryl. You're up. Daryl [00:10:35]: So going back to my guy, Will, we're starting the 5 levels of leadership next week. The reason why I haven't I didn't wanna do it before Thanksgiving because I want some time to think. Speaker B [00:10:44]: But I'm Daryl [00:10:44]: trying to figure out the best way, and I think I know, but wanted some feedback for maybe you. That is an amazing book. I've went over it 2 or 3 times in the last years. But my thinking is to give Will, like, every week or maybe even biweekly, maybe biweekly just to give time to to let you on the chapters. But my thinking was to give him the book, go through the first chapter, and then we're gonna meet for lunch and then for an hour and discuss it and then pay for his lunch, pay for his time, and then also give him a $100 every time he finishes a chapter. And Will is not somebody who needs to have extra money for me. It's not at all, but he has a ton of respect for me. Speaker B [00:11:25]: But at Daryl [00:11:26]: the same time reading this book, I know it's making him a better person and a leader, which is helping him out, but it's also helping the business out. So I I wanna know what you thought, Steve, on the business end of it as far as because I like to give him a $100 every time we meet when reading the chapter and make him excited about it. Yeah. But I also don't wanna go too far on that end, but Will's not somebody who's always got his hand out expecting bonuses and stuff. He's not like that at all. But I also wanna I wanna value his time. Speaker B [00:11:56]: Yeah. This is great. Couple thoughts. One, I really like this too. I would make it weekly. If you go 2 weeks and he reads it and then he waits 2 weeks, he's if if he doesn't write it down or summarize his insights, which most people don't, he's likely to forget most of what he learned. So I would make it weekly, and I would stick with crispy fifties. Daryl [00:12:15]: Okay. Speaker B [00:12:16]: The my experience is it's the same emotional impact as a 100. Daryl [00:12:20]: Okay. Speaker B [00:12:20]: But, again, go to the bank and get some Krispies. Daryl [00:12:23]: Yes. I I will I will do that. It's gonna be a lot different than other leaderships that we've had, other team leads, because most of them have just they'd known how to do their job. They know how to run the job or whatever. Just let them do the thing. We've talked about it. But this time, I wanna implement what does a leader look like. Because I don't know if you guys have not read 5 levels of leadership. Daryl [00:12:42]: It'll totally change your attitude on leadership. Speaker B [00:12:44]: Yeah. Who's read it? Raise hands? Yeah. It's Isaac Mumma [00:12:48]: it's all the way through it. Daryl [00:12:50]: Yeah. It's one thing for us to read it, but it's another to to get your team lead to read it so they can really own on on there. And and, Isaac, sounds like you've got an amazing culture. I would recommend going through that with your team. Not that I know what that looks like at the moment, but I think it's gonna be an amazing thing how it's Yep. Craig [00:13:07]: You get your Speaker B [00:13:08]: team to lead it. That puts you at a level 4. Speaker G [00:13:10]: Yeah. Yeah. Speaker B [00:13:11]: Pretty cool. Mhmm. Yeah. I love it. One of my favorite leadership books. In fact, it's it's kinda Maxwell's written over 80 books, and that one's my favorite by far. Hands down. Yeah. Speaker B [00:13:22]: It's a field guide. It's a field guide for leadership. It's not even a book. It's a field guide step by step habits, behaviors for each level. Yeah. That's a great idea. Daryl, any other thoughts for Daryl, guys? Gal? Guys and gals? Peeps? Isaac Mumma [00:13:34]: So are you pulling them off the job site for all those lunches? Daryl [00:13:38]: Mhmm. Yep. Yeah. It's gonna be 1 hour. It is gonna be time well invested, I believe. Another thing with Will, he's really good at organizing and getting things done. I've actually stepped back a lot on my things, like, we've got a $28,000 ex exterior that we we start we're starting tomorrow. And Will pulled off the job yesterday to go meet with the client to make sure we've got the right color, make sure confirm he wants to use satin paint, figure out where we're gonna park our trailer. Daryl [00:14:07]: And so Will did all of that. And so for me to to pull him off for another hour for lunch, yeah, I'm I'm paying for that. Absolutely. Isaac Mumma [00:14:18]: Yeah. Cool. Speaker B [00:14:20]: Okay. Fantastic. Daryl [00:14:21]: Yep. Speaker B [00:14:22]: Right on. I'm looking forward to seeing how that goes in the developments there. Thank you, Darrell. Isaac. Isaac Mumma [00:14:29]: Yeah. Just wondered are your guys' thoughts on tactics to get finances a little bit more dialed in, and I'm finally getting my profit margins in a better spot. I went through after job costing and, yeah, I realized that my production rates was just not quite right. And so when I was chatting with you guys, I after that, I adjusted some things, and things are going a little bit better there. But looking at the accounts, it's just I don't know. I'm I'm trying to figure out how to have more control on seeing exactly what's going on, and maybe the simple answer is just that I need to get the bookkeeper in place and just have everything gone through line item by line item. But I don't know. It's just surprising that we're doing, like, 58 to 60% gross margins, and it's still, like, in in between jobs having to, like, do last minute transfers to make sure that everything can go through. Isaac Mumma [00:15:30]: It's what the heck? We're making money. What's going on here? So, yeah, is there anything I'm missing that you guys are just like, here's the main two things that I always focus on to make sure finances are in order. Are you doing those? Like, it does anything come to mind there? Speaker B [00:15:47]: So okay. Pull out your p and l. And whether it's year to date or the last month, it's good to look at both. And then you you just start with the high end benchmarks. Right? There's revenue, cost of goods sold, materials. Those are direct expenses together. Right? The balance leaves you gross profit, then your expenses, then your net operating profit. And you make sure all of those are within your benchmarks. Speaker B [00:16:14]: Whichever ones are not within the benchmarks, then you take time to zoom in on that area. If if material's beyond 18%. For example, if if your gross profit gross profits vary from business to business, but ideally, it's 50%. Some of their goals are only 45. But whatever you set your goal to be, as long as it's within there, it's good. Slide it right. Because it's not we can chase we can chase needles in haystacks or or whatnot, but sometimes it's just not profitable or effective for us to dig down on little things. And so we don't wanna spend too much time going over all the numbers. Speaker B [00:16:48]: So just look at the high end benchmarks. And then whichever ones are out of line, zoom in on that area and try to figure out what's going on. It's usually if excuse me. Usually, it's the labor that's out of line. Usually, material's good. Usually, expenses are low. But if one of them is out of line, it's usually labor. And then if it's labor, it's one of 2 things, culture, accountability, and production rates. Speaker B [00:17:13]: Accountability, meaning we're not holding them accountable to show up on time, to execute, to finish jobs on time, and or culture's not there. I know that's not an issue for you. Culture's strong for you. A lot of times, speaking of 5 levels of leadership, we get stuck at level 2 leadership. Pop quiz. What's level 2? My 5 levels of leadership graduates. Daryl [00:17:34]: Visible. Isaac Mumma [00:17:35]: Yeah. So is that where, like, they like you and everything is good except maybe they're not, like, fearful of you. Speaker B [00:17:46]: Yeah. Yep. Mhmm. And most owners, that's so common, most owners get stuck there because we like being liked. Right? Who likes being liked? We all like being liked. Yeah. And so the last thing we wanna do is not be liked. And so we struggle to get them to produce profitably because we don't want to be mad at us. Speaker B [00:18:05]: We don't want to not be liked, and and we like having them and feeling friendly and whatnot. But that, in fact, is what level 3 is, becoming a production leader. And that is where they not just, like you, but they respect you and produce for you. So if the issue is that the production rates aren't where they need to be, go back and review level 3 to find the behaviors and beliefs, right, the beliefs and behaviors to own level 3 so that we can get them to it's good that they like us. That's step 2. But then or level 2, then level 3 is where they produce. That's in level 3. So what are the behaviors and beliefs to help get us there? And then once you get cranking, level 4 is you start creating leaders, right, from there. Speaker B [00:18:49]: Yeah. Mhmm. Okay. Isaac Mumma [00:18:52]: I think I just jumping back to the financial part of it. I'm, I think, unfamiliar enough with QuickBooks and P and L and all that. Would you say that rather than me spend the time to, like, really figure out exactly how to work with all those documents and get all that that I just need to hire the bookkeeper and go through all that with them? Yeah. Speaker B [00:19:16]: Yeah. I believe everybody should hire a bookkeeper. It's not worth our time. You should be able to get a bookkeeper for $300 a month. And all you wanna do is be able to pull p and l's. So listen. I need you to make sure everything is, connected, updated, you know, reconciled so that I can pull p and l's and occasionally balance sheet and just scan through it 15 minutes a week, and you know exactly where you're at. Isaac Mumma [00:19:41]: As far as, like, just adding cost after cost onto your, like, monthly statement of things that whether it's send out cards, bookkeeper, like, just all the different expenses start stacking up, like, how do what's a good benchmark for percentage for overhead? Is that 10%, 15%? Speaker B [00:20:02]: What which part? So expenses need to be this is this falls under expenses. Expenses should remain under 30% total. So as long as your full expenses are under 30% overhead. As long as your overhead, your fixed cost Isaac Mumma [00:20:16]: Yeah. Speaker B [00:20:16]: Remain under 30%, you should be fine. Craig [00:20:20]: Under 30. Speaker B [00:20:21]: Yeah. I I imagine you're running pretty lean. I would that should not be an issue for you. Isaac Mumma [00:20:26]: Yeah. Speaker B [00:20:26]: Mhmm. And bookkeeping is an easy one. And so it's what's the percent that varies? So another way to look at it is what's your hourly responsibility value. Right? How many hours would it take you to reconcile these books, and how much do you hate it? Now one time I was running an executive office, and I was in the conference room, and I hated doing the books. I hate it because I knew I should be out there selling and networking. That's what I wanna do, closing business, not necessarily QuickBooks. So in order to get myself to do it, because I didn't have a bookkeeper at the time, I would put myself in the conference room. And I was the only person in the whole office. Speaker B [00:21:01]: And I would get my laptop in there, and I would have to turn off all the lights and leave my phone in the other room so there were no distractions so that I could focus and get it done. And the my landlord came in, real nice guy. And he came in, and he looked in there, and there was just me with in the in the dark with a laptop. He's like, Steve, what are you doing? I'm like, that's why I'm watching. I said, like, hold on. It's QuickBooks. Okay? I said, let me explain. It didn't look right. Speaker B [00:21:24]: And he laughed. He goes, oh my goodness. He goes, you get the lights off for QuickBooks? I said, I hate doing the books, man. And I need to get rid of every distraction I can to force myself to do it because I hated doing them that much. And so yes. But your hourly responsibility value is is it's worth it. $300, hire it out, and just look at the reports because you can spend all you have to do is well, I have one more job, and it pays for it. It's just it's an easy expense to justify, especially as much as we generally hate doing the books. Speaker B [00:21:55]: But yeah. Absolutely. Daryl [00:21:56]: Weak word. Isaac Mumma [00:21:57]: Generally, they should they just Speaker B [00:21:59]: Pardon me, Daryl? Daryl [00:21:59]: Oh, I said general generally is a very weak word in my hate. Speaker B [00:22:03]: We hate doing the books. Oh my goodness. Isaac Mumma [00:22:06]: Generally, how what should they be producing for you every month or every week? Is it just the p and l document? Speaker B [00:22:15]: So they should, okay, they should have your QuickBooks reconciled monthly, and you should be able to pull a p and l by like, for my CPA, I just asked that we had it by 15th of the following month. And she had it anywhere between the 5th 10th, usually. Isaac Mumma [00:22:32]: Yeah. And the p and l just helps you to see where you're at as far as, yeah, profits and losses of just okay. Here's how much we made. Here my how much is coming out. Mhmm. Speaker B [00:22:43]: Yep. Yep. P and l is everything. Those are your financials. There's that in the balance sheet, which shows your assets and your liabilities, which you don't need to pull as often. But the p and l, you do need to look at that on a monthly basis. So say on 15th of every month, as long as the bookkeeper has everything reconciled by the end of the month, or after the end of the month to close it out so that you can pull a p and l. Mhmm. Speaker B [00:23:02]: 15th at the latest. They can get it by 10th. That'd be great. Isaac Mumma [00:23:06]: Okay. One other just tiny little thing. Daryl, with with you doing this so long, and I'm wondering when you go to the big box store and get some supplies and stuff, like, how are you categorizing that per job so that you know that your materials is still under 10 or 12%. Like, how are you splitting that up so that you can see where you're at financially as far as when you're getting a good amount of materials that aren't just like paint for that job? Daryl [00:23:36]: That's actually a pretty good question. Steve's talked about this too, but I don't nickel and dime the sundry items. I do buy those in bulk, but masking tape, paper, I don't I don't even worry about that cost as far as how much how many rolls of tape that I use on this job. You you will waste more money than it's worth figuring that out. The I wanna know about my gallons of paint just so I know I'm estimating properly, not wasting money on paint. But the sundry items, that's a given on every one of my jobs. I mean, I'm I'm looking at 5% or 3%, whatever. Yeah. Daryl [00:24:08]: That's just what we're Isaac Mumma [00:24:09]: with your rolls of tape being $7 a pop? Daryl [00:24:12]: Do what now? Isaac Mumma [00:24:13]: Rolls of blue tape are, like, $7 a piece right now. Daryl [00:24:18]: Yep. Great. They are. But if you're buying in bulk and you're trying to tell your guys, let's separate this job from that. Your team is taking that extra 30 minutes a day organizing all the sundry items from this job to that job. It's not the sundry items are not itemizing the sundry items. It's just not worth it at all. Steve might since sounds like he's agreeing there. Speaker B [00:24:40]: Percent. 100%. Daryl [00:24:41]: The actual It's Speaker B [00:24:42]: not worth it. It's like 1%, maybe 1 and a half. Craig [00:24:45]: The actual paint itself, when when you're at the paint store, they can tag it to a job Speaker G [00:24:51]: so Craig [00:24:51]: that it becomes searchable by job so you know how much paint you've used on Speaker B [00:24:55]: a particular Craig [00:24:56]: project. And usually usually, I'll put some sundry items on those bills as well so that I can track as much as possible. But, yeah, there there's just those sundry items that you bought buy in bulk that just tagged the sundries. Speaker G [00:25:11]: Yeah. Okay. Isaac Mumma [00:25:13]: No good stuff. Super helpful, guys. I appreciate it. Craig [00:25:16]: And and you can even tag them in Hubdoc if if that's the if you're using, like, a software to to take pictures of your receipts. You can tag them in that software as well. Isaac Mumma [00:25:28]: Okay. Speaker B [00:25:29]: So just We'll Steve Burnett [00:25:30]: 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.comback/ free hyphendyb hyphen book. Speaker B [00:25:55]: Sonia, nice DYB mug. Five cool points for you this morning. Sonia Garcia [00:26:00]: Thank you. I feel like I've fallen like I mentioned, I'm just happy I'm here. I guess a big win was Speaker B [00:26:05]: And so are we. Yeah. Sonia Garcia [00:26:08]: Thank you. I'm, under the weather, and I I couldn't sleep anyway. So I was like, let's get on there. I I I guess a win I did have was I've got a treadmill, those little walking pads that can run up to 8. So at least I'm doing something, and I'm not worried about yeah. And I like to do. So that's I have my pull up bar still. I at least got the bend, and I'm, like, right here. Sonia Garcia [00:26:29]: Yeah. Daryl [00:26:30]: And I'm Sonia Garcia [00:26:30]: paying, and I go this way and this way. So that's that. So those are wins. As far as the fuels, I have fallen off the wagon. I just feel like I wanted to throw in the towel. My feels are still all over the place. I and and I know a lot of it has to do with like, I hear the culture and I hear this, and we're still we still use contractors. And so I haven't gotten myself to where I've leaned in and sold. Sonia Garcia [00:26:54]: I I'm not consistent. And I get frustrated with myself on that because it just my mindset, my feel I see mindset. I'm looking at all your, like, what books does he have there? And I just get the 5 leaders leadership ones. I just I know. I was like, oh. But I I did I I have the book, the one he showed earlier with the 5, levels of leadership. Speaker B [00:27:13]: Mhmm. Sonia Garcia [00:27:14]: That but but literally, I'm just dry right now, and it's more I'm I feel like I'm I know I'm purposely doing it because I don't want the issues. I'm just like, I ran into that GC. He's still a pain in my side, but I'm not let I'm trying to just keep going, and I have gotten work for my BNI, which is nice. But I'm not making any extra efforts to find anything else. I'm just letting wait waiting for stuff to come to me. And then I'm taking forever on my estimates. Like, I usually I was doing them on the spot, and I'm not doing them anymore. I'm just, like, a week later, a couple of days later, it's not. Sonia Garcia [00:27:48]: I am in a funk, like, Daryl [00:27:50]: a heavy. Okay. Isaac Mumma [00:27:52]: So Sonia Garcia [00:27:52]: I'm like I said, I'm glad I'm here. I'm glad I came because I was, yeah, drifting off. Isaac Mumma [00:27:56]: I Yeah. Speaker B [00:27:57]: Another book for you. Oh, here it is. Yeah. You only need to read the first, like, 3 or 4 chapters. It's it's awesome. Sonia Garcia [00:28:06]: Mhmm. Jeff hating them, the motivation. Speaker B [00:28:09]: Or Jeff hating. Yep. Yep. The motivation math. Daryl [00:28:12]: No. It's funny. I have I have a question. Just it's it's not a criticism at all. It's just curiosity because it's I I'm not a big proponent of contractor or, I'm sorry, subcontractors versus employee. I don't have a preference as far as what other people should do. But it sounds like the two problems that I hear or the two concerns that I hear from you quite often is the the contractors, which you wanna divorce, but also having some issues with the subcontractors. And so now you're you're hating life a little bit. Daryl [00:28:41]: Have you thought about maybe switching to an employee model? Not saying it's what you need to do, but have you thought about that? Sonia Garcia [00:28:49]: I have. I really have. And and I'm thinking I guess, because I'm afraid of not being able to consistently provide for them or have Daryl [00:28:57]: more That'll push you. That'll push you to make you better. It really will. And the only reason I bring that up is because you're hating life right now. Hating is a strong word, but you're not liking life right now. But if you're still doing the subcontractor model and you're still working for the contractors, then we've gotta we've gotta change something because we all know the definition of an of insanity. You know? So if we keep doing the same thing, we're not we're not gonna get any better in our head. So maybe looking into the employee model might be it. Daryl [00:29:26]: I'm not saying that it is it, but for you, it it might be. That's what I'm thinking. Sonia Garcia [00:29:34]: Because it is it is challenging to have because they're their own I I even have a colleague that has both and but he it has its pros and cons for either way, but just from but it's definitely quality control is very difficult to the promises that I speak about when I sell it don't match up. Speaker G [00:29:56]: Sonya, I run both. Right? I've done both. Right now, I'm small, and I I understand. I'm in a bit of a funk, my Sonia Garcia [00:30:06]: Oh, no. You froze. No. Daryl [00:30:08]: Did we freeze him? Speaker B [00:30:10]: He is frozen. Daryl [00:30:12]: Bryce Bryce froze. Craig [00:30:15]: Just mid sentence right there. Yeah. He's got to bestow pearls of wisdom. Speaker B [00:30:20]: And The ultimate cliffhanger. Daryl [00:30:23]: Yeah. But I would look at I would at least do some research on the employee because that might be what you need to change. That'll help you with your head headspace going Yeah. Sonia Garcia [00:30:33]: Then scheduling and having to call them and say, okay. What's the schedule like? Which is there's so many things in there that Yeah. Craig [00:30:41]: And you could always just start with 1 employee crew type thing, and then just give it to the jobs that you need to knock out of the park. Daryl [00:30:49]: Because right now, you don't really have much accountability from what you're saying. Because if you don't get if you don't work next week, it's no big deal. You'll have an employee to take care of. But if you have an employee to take care of, you'll you will hustle. Believe me. Craig [00:31:02]: Yeah. That's hugely motivating because, yeah, I'll do more to book work for my crew than I will to book work for myself. Speaker B [00:31:09]: Yep. So there's this really good podcast on how to stay productive in tough times, and it's really all about the strategies that we use to get out of a funk. It's episode 78. What's it called? Oh, the DYB podcast. That's what it was. Yeah. Sonia Garcia [00:31:26]: Is that the one that you put the link in? Or Speaker B [00:31:29]: Yeah. That's the blog article with it. And you can listen to it on the blog article. Okay. And there's some quotes in there. That is the link. But it's episode 78 on your FM dial. Your favorite podcast app. Speaker B [00:31:43]: Pardon me, Darryl? Daryl [00:31:44]: It said FM is going away. Speaker G [00:31:46]: Hey. Can y'all hear me? Daryl [00:31:48]: Yes. Yep. Okay. Speaker G [00:31:50]: Fine if I continue for 2 seconds? Daryl [00:31:51]: Yes. Go for it. Speaker G [00:31:53]: Okay. Sonia, I do both, but I have a team of some contractors that I can call and then have I currently operate, like, on the ladder a lot, which I know is not ideal. But I have an in there have been times where I've had employees and I'm not on the ladder at all. And one of the reason that I really like it is because I can offer kind of 2 separate tiers of service. Right? I have my subcontractors for the clients that call and basically, hey. We're selling this house. It needs to be done pretty quickly, and we need to have it at a reasonable amount of money, but it needs to be a competitive bid. And they just want in and out, and it's really not like a labor of love for them. Speaker G [00:32:35]: Right? But then I have other clients where I can say, hey, my a team, what we do is we do the highest tier quality work. And I'm very upfront, and I'm very honest with them. And I say, hey. Not gonna break bust through this in 2 days. We're gonna take our time. We're gonna make sure everything's correct. We're gonna use all of the top tier processes and pros and product to all that sort of good stuff. And so when we do those types of projects, I end up having a whole lot more in my heart. Speaker G [00:33:11]: I know for a fact even if the job is frustrating because we do a frustrating it's a frustrating industry that I know that it's a labor of love. And I I save that our a team services for people where it's like they love their home, they plan to keep their home, and they're looking for to be wowed. And that really helps. And when you're setting your expectations, that's one thing that I had to get away from is overpromising. I try really hard not to overpromise. I try to be very upfront. K? Especially if the project is complicated. And typically, what I find is that I end up upselling like crazy on those jobs. Speaker G [00:33:51]: They see what we're doing. They start seeing results, and they're like, oh my gosh. They're like, can you do this too? Can you do this too? Can you do this too? Can you do this too? And, like, I've you got a project we started. When we first got started, it was like a $62100 project. Now we're almost at $11,000. The job almost doubled. And and it it works out because I told the client up front, hey. We're not gonna blow through this. Speaker G [00:34:17]: It's very it's much more, hey, a service professional is going to be here at 9. He will work until 5:30. He will leave at 5:30. It could take from this many days to this many days. If you add on work, it'll completely get sewn out. And at that point in time, we're here to accomplish it and and doing daily check ins and all that good stuff. And then I know for you, just I'm not there yet, but I know for you, think about how how much fun you would have with your design and mind and creativity if all of a sudden you can now, like, design, like, uniforms and, like, eventually have a work vehicle, and you can get really tight with your branding. And all of a sudden, you've got a product and a set of processes that you can be really proud of. Speaker G [00:35:02]: And it's instead of being like, oh, we have a great crew. They're great. I'm like, oh, they're really quick. They do great work and they're in and out and all that sort of good stuff. I feel like you would do really well if you had both because then on the projects that you're not very excited about, your subcontracting crew can go bang that out if it's not, like, a retail client. Like, we got a project right now where we're painting a house, where the guy doesn't who owns the house doesn't even live there. It's an investment property. He really doesn't care if we show up in our sparkly whites. Speaker G [00:35:33]: Or if a crew comes out and bangs it out in 2 or 3 days, he'd probably prefer it to be banged out in 2 or 3 days. You know what I mean? So I can call myself. You guys go bang that out while we're working on our retail clients. And then just for me, personally, the really important thing that helped me get from a to b was coemployment. So, like, an ADP or, like, a company. And the reason that we had to do that was that allowed me to get workman's comp insurance. So that was reasonable. Right? And then after several years, I didn't need them anymore. Speaker G [00:36:11]: And now I get workman's comp rates that are very reasonable in house, and I don't need to have that coemployment situation. Because if that's what that for me, that was the one big sticky thing that I said, I can't have employees because I can't get the workman's comp coverage on them. That coemployment was the thing that got me from a to b. Speaker B [00:36:31]: Put it Sonia Garcia [00:36:31]: on. Thank you. Speaker B [00:36:32]: Thank you, Bryce. Okay. Speaking of Bryce, you're up. Speaker G [00:36:37]: I need to I've got a troublesome client who's just he's just he's a client. I can't fire him. We're almost done with this job. We're almost done with this job. But he's just been one of those clients where everything is a complaint, and he's, oh, I don't want you here before noon. Okay. Yeah. Because my wife sleeps until noon. Speaker G [00:37:00]: Okay. And then we get there. We work. We're doing a lot of exterior stuff. It gets dark at 5:30 now. So we come in. We work. We do our thing. Speaker G [00:37:10]: And then he's just working half days being critical over something that he set in play. Know what I mean? Mhmm. Mhmm. So we were supposed to go do a walk through on Saturday, and he said, well, do it in the afternoon. Let's do it in the afternoon. I don't wanna do it in the morning. So we set it for 2 o'clock in the afternoon. I show up, and he's drunk, like, really drunk. Speaker G [00:37:33]: And basically, you're you're gonna have to leave. You gotta get I'm not ready for the walkthrough right now. I'm like and he keeps adding stuff, And I get to the point where I'm like, hey. I'm trying to figure out the language to manage this guy. Literally, like, yesterday, we were there, and 5:30 in the evening, he was like, hey. Let's add another door. Let's do and I'm like, and I tried to say, hey. We're we have other jobs we need to get to, and we need to put a cap on where our scope creep is, all that sort of good stuff. Speaker G [00:38:02]: And he got fussy about it, which is unreasonable. But I'm trying to figure out how to navigate this the difficult client situation. Is he keeping me from awesome clients when you've got a bunch of great work coming up? Speaker B [00:38:16]: Oh, well, hold on. He's keeping me from awesome clients. Is that above or below the line? Speaker G [00:38:21]: I would say that's below the line. Speaker B [00:38:24]: Cool. How could we be above the line? Speaker G [00:38:27]: Maybe that's my question. Speaker B [00:38:29]: Okay. We could be above the line if we reframe it as I'm allowing him to keep me from better clients. Now you have the power to do something about it. Speaker G [00:38:42]: Okay. Speaker B [00:38:42]: But while you believe he's keeping you stuck, it's external. Speaker G [00:38:46]: Gotcha. Speaker B [00:38:46]: And and maybe this is why we're stuck. But if you say I'm allowing him to keep me from other clients, now we have the power to change it. See? It's these little things creep in here and there, and it's it's easy. It's easy enough to do. So one is is there any money outstanding? Does he still owe you money? Speaker G [00:39:04]: Yeah. He does. Speaker B [00:39:06]: Okay. Just we just gotta score up, have a closer conversation with him, say, I'm sorry. I have another client that I have to get to, and I have to honor that commitment. We need to score up where we're at. Let me go service these clients, and then we'll see about circling back to paint the one panel of your one door one day. Speaker G [00:39:24]: I already did it. I left it, like, 6:30 last night. I already did it. I took care of it. And now we're just like he just keeps putting the walk through off, putting it off. And he's scaring me because he keep he's one of those clients who are like, oh, we're gonna look we're gonna look at everything. And I'm I know we did everything right. Speaker B [00:39:39]: But Yeah. Speaker G [00:39:41]: I I don't like that warn you, like, a week in advance. Oh, we're really gonna walk it, though. Daryl [00:39:48]: Hey. I have a question, Bryce. Just for the rest of us, when you interviewed this client and walked through with your proposal and everything, is there anything that you're looking back on that was a red flag that you probably shouldn't have been on that? I'm not saying there was. I'm just asking if there was. Speaker G [00:40:04]: The one was, like, he had 6 or 7 people look at the work, and nobody got back to him. That would be that's one of them, but I I put that more on them. Because a lot of the job was very there were just lots of bits and pieces throughout the project. And so it was one of those where, like, we ended up with 30 line items, and they're all, like, weird stuff. Paint the trim in the kitchen black. Paint the exterior this. Pair this. Do this. Speaker G [00:40:31]: And I have a bet and I'm really I need to get away from it big time. When I'm on-site, I definitely expand the scope of what we're willing to do far beyond just painting. And, like, light repair is reasonable, but I definitely have gotten to the point where we're doing, like, practically, like, handyman stuff as well. And I'm I'm waffling on this because in doing, you end up with all of the tools necessary to do most of the small handyman stuff. And really, a lot of times, the painter us as painters and finishers are perfect position to do some of the final finish handyman stuff to some degree. But it's a bad, it's a bad habit and a bad model for me because it's nearly impossible to delegate a lot of that stuff to somebody who's been hired specifically as a painter. And I've considered potentially, you know, do I find a handyman as like an outside contractor and have him do and close out projects and that sort of good stuff? Or do I hire a guy who explicitly has a lot of handyman skills? Because I do upcharge. Like, we're at about $60 an hour for paint work. Speaker G [00:41:51]: But as soon as we get into handyman work, I'm, like, like, $80 an hour plus materials, which is how I've justified doing it for myself. But then we've difficulty where, you know, the difficulty of delegating that type of stuff. Not that it's impossible. It's not impossible to delegate it by any means, but it's just it's definitely become a limiting factor. Speaker B [00:42:14]: Yeah. Just, reach out to him. And you need sounds like we seem to be a little direct. Say, I I really need to close this out. I've got guys to pay the families to feed. And can we meet Wednesday to do the final walk through, please? He jerks you around. Let him know you'll need to lean on. Say, listen. Speaker B [00:42:31]: My guys need to be paid. My paint store needs to be paid. My truck needs gas. And, yeah, I'd like to eat too if there's some left at the end. Craig [00:42:40]: I'm just I'm just I'm wondering where you found this person so that we can Speaker G [00:42:43]: You found me. We Speaker B [00:42:44]: couldn't oh, no. Speaker G [00:42:45]: Luckily, we're we've done very well on our Google stuff. And in our area, we have our area is filled with lots of poor quality competition, which is awesome because then I'm getting a lot of calls, and I am typically the one that people call when somebody else screwed the job up. But that also tends to I find I definitely have noticed the the better my Internet presence in this market. The I get a lot of I get more of the high end clients that want to be fussy just because they enjoy being fussy. I'm not sure. Craig [00:43:24]: If there's something that you can do, on the front end of your prequalifying process to, like, perhaps exterminate those people, that that might be handy. That might be handy for for implementing. And if you, yeah, if you find something that works, share it with the rest of us. Speaker G [00:43:42]: I'm gonna one thing, I've talked to Steve about this, and I really need to and want to do this. I want to have, like, a really long checklist of, like, the sent to them at the estimate and say because I've been running into this, like, this whole summer was a nightmare with, like, where client expectations weren't realistic. We had a project summer where we painted the interior of this house and it looked amazing. And we used all of the most expensive products and we sprayed all the trim and we really went through and dialed it in. And the client gets there because the house was vacant. They had just purchased it and everything. I was like, how does it look? It looks great, but it doesn't feel smooth. Put your finger here. Speaker G [00:44:29]: This doesn't feel smooth, and it's Woah. Yeah. That doesn't have anything to do with me. No. I'm sorry. And where was that? It was like, you didn't sand all the trim in the house? No. Where was that on the line item? And it was just like he expected us to sand all of the trim in the entire house before we painted it. And it was like, I'm sorry. Speaker G [00:44:49]: That was not in a scope. You can't paint it, not refinish it. Speaker B [00:44:55]: Yeah. To Craig's point, we need to improve our prequalifying process and, be able to recognize these red flags. Mhmm. Cool. Alright. Fellers and lady, let's roll out with takeaways. Craig, lead the way, please. Craig [00:45:08]: I guess I'm getting on the phone and calling some people. Speaker B [00:45:10]: Awesome. Way to be. And then keep us posted. Let us know in the mastermind chat how that goes for you, please. Yes. I will. Thank you, Darrell. And, Darrell, you get multiple 5 cool points. Speaker B [00:45:21]: You've got the system on the wall, dream big on the wall. I'm sure above the line is on there up there too if I recall. I'll be in there. Daryl [00:45:27]: Yes. Yes. It's it's Speaker B [00:45:28]: Over by the dartboard? On Daryl [00:45:29]: that wall. Speaker B [00:45:30]: Okay. Right on. Daryl [00:45:30]: It's not too close to my dartboard because I'm never good at darts. Speaker B [00:45:34]: You just try to aim above the line. Daryl [00:45:37]: I'm gonna I'm gonna work with my guy, Will, and, do the crispy fifties every week, and we're gonna do it weekly and not biweekly on our meetings. So I'm excited. Speaker B [00:45:45]: Okay. Awesome. Looking forward to seeing how that progresses. Isaac? Isaac Mumma [00:45:51]: Yeah. All the bookkeeping advice and keeping overhead under 30%. I'm also gonna work through 5 levels with my lead. That sounds like a good idea. Daryl [00:46:03]: We'll be Isaac Mumma [00:46:03]: in competition. What's that? Daryl [00:46:06]: We'll be in competition and see who gets it done. Isaac Mumma [00:46:08]: That sounds good. Speaker B [00:46:10]: Hey. Yes, sir. Daryl [00:46:11]: Accountability, maybe that's the right word. Speaker B [00:46:14]: Yeah. Nice. Alright. Sonia. Sonia Garcia [00:46:18]: Alright. And the whole list of what we all do. So the phone calls but first before the phone calls, and then I should probably look at the phone calls. But 5 levels of leadership, the myth one, the motivation myth. And then looking at the the employee model. Speaker B [00:46:33]: Yeah. Yeah. Cool. Okay. Awesome. I hope you feel better. Sonia Garcia [00:46:36]: Thank you. Mhmm. Speaker B [00:46:38]: Alright. Bryce, close us out with your takeaway, sir. Speaker G [00:46:41]: We need to really dial in our 3 piece, and we need to dial in our prequalifying process for sure. Speaker B [00:46:47]: Right on. Awesome. Alright. Thank you, Bryce. Thank you all. I appreciate you guys. Wanna continue to encourage you to do exactly what it says behind Daryl's head back in the corner. Dream big. Speaker B [00:46:58]: Hustle smarter. You've got this. Craig [00:47:01]: Have a great day. Guys. Steve Burnett [00:47:02]: Bye. I hope you enjoyed this episode. If this was helpful, 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. To celebrate, we want to help you break through to higher success. So Steve is now giving away free strategy calls. Steve Burnett [00:47:29]: Just click the link below in the show notes that says free strategy call. 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.