WEBVTT 00:00:07.810 --> 00:00:11.390 Welcome to the Business Abundance podcast, providing 00:00:11.390 --> 00:00:13.830 the tools and knowledge to help small business 00:00:13.830 --> 00:00:17.149 owners succeed. For additional resources, visit 00:00:17.149 --> 00:00:23.109 www .businessabundance .online. Hello and welcome 00:00:23.109 --> 00:00:26.070 to the Business Abundance podcast. I am back 00:00:26.070 --> 00:00:29.530 with Rowan and Ian. And today we're going to 00:00:29.530 --> 00:00:32.729 be chatting about whether you have too many employees, 00:00:33.250 --> 00:00:37.560 which I guess can feel a little bit. counterintuitive 00:00:37.560 --> 00:00:39.359 because if you're busy, you need more employees 00:00:39.359 --> 00:00:44.679 sometimes, but I have a story to tell. Yesterday 00:00:44.679 --> 00:00:48.539 I was in a cafe and I was sitting in the corner. 00:00:49.159 --> 00:00:52.060 I saw them come out with this really nice new 00:00:52.060 --> 00:00:54.759 leather chair. I heard sitting in the corner 00:00:54.759 --> 00:00:58.090 just thinking, oh. Yeah, just with all my friends. 00:00:58.289 --> 00:00:59.850 With the lady there with the laptop and bought 00:00:59.850 --> 00:01:01.710 one coffee for the day and sat there all day. 00:01:01.829 --> 00:01:06.510 Was that you? You got a problem with that? So 00:01:06.510 --> 00:01:08.909 sitting there, they've come out with this new 00:01:08.909 --> 00:01:11.629 chair and it was, it was a pretty chair. These 00:01:11.629 --> 00:01:14.750 employees put it down, shifted around a couple 00:01:14.750 --> 00:01:17.950 of times, nodded to himself, gone out, gotten 00:01:17.950 --> 00:01:20.989 someone else. They've come back. These ladies 00:01:20.989 --> 00:01:22.730 then moved it to another location. Which chair 00:01:22.730 --> 00:01:26.120 was this? It was just this. The leather covered, 00:01:26.120 --> 00:01:28.680 I don't know. So a fancy cafe chair. Yeah, fancy 00:01:28.680 --> 00:01:33.000 cafe chair. Yeah. And you've, you sit down on 00:01:33.000 --> 00:01:34.680 it and she's had a look around and she's gone, 00:01:34.760 --> 00:01:37.420 yep, no, that looks, that looks good. And, and 00:01:37.420 --> 00:01:38.980 I thought it was done with. And I was like, okay, 00:01:39.099 --> 00:01:40.939 took two people to do with the chair. Cool. All 00:01:40.939 --> 00:01:43.420 right, no worries. And I clearly must've popped 00:01:43.420 --> 00:01:46.579 out of my little, my little brain break. Anyway, 00:01:46.900 --> 00:01:49.680 they've come back with two more employees. So 00:01:49.680 --> 00:01:51.719 we've got four people around. It's been moved 00:01:51.719 --> 00:01:54.939 a third time and this took five minutes. this 00:01:54.939 --> 00:01:58.819 moment and it's been moved to another location 00:01:58.819 --> 00:02:01.859 closer to me so I got a good good look at it. 00:02:01.920 --> 00:02:04.659 Sat around someone said oh well what do I know 00:02:04.659 --> 00:02:07.239 I don't even know about interior design but hey 00:02:07.239 --> 00:02:11.319 this looks better and so after what was it five 00:02:11.319 --> 00:02:15.479 six people three different locations we've got 00:02:15.479 --> 00:02:18.680 a place for this that I think will be moved when 00:02:18.680 --> 00:02:21.550 a customer comes in. Once another chair added 00:02:21.550 --> 00:02:24.710 to it. Yeah. And then I look in front of me and 00:02:24.710 --> 00:02:26.370 everything clearly hasn't had the same amount 00:02:26.370 --> 00:02:28.949 of attention and you kind of go, oh, that's, 00:02:28.949 --> 00:02:31.229 that's a lot of people for one chair. Did you 00:02:31.229 --> 00:02:32.689 mess with them and just make comments? Oh, it 00:02:32.689 --> 00:02:37.949 doesn't actually. Terrible feng shui studies 00:02:37.949 --> 00:02:41.879 feng shui. Oh, I actually Instagram. Room feng 00:02:41.879 --> 00:02:44.939 shui, very cool. I'm just listening to this entire 00:02:44.939 --> 00:02:46.840 story and I'm like, can you pick the person who's 00:02:46.840 --> 00:02:49.000 not married? Because every time we get furniture, 00:02:49.180 --> 00:02:51.379 it moves 20 times before it's in the right spot. 00:02:51.580 --> 00:02:53.120 That's not a married thing, mate. It's not a 00:02:53.120 --> 00:02:55.379 married thing? No. Oh no, okay. I mean, I move 00:02:55.379 --> 00:02:58.060 my chair around. Do you? I'm not married. Yeah. 00:02:58.180 --> 00:02:59.960 Do you have someone else coming in and go... 00:03:00.039 --> 00:03:02.979 That looks good, but... No one would dare. That's 00:03:02.979 --> 00:03:06.699 my house. The question is, does Lisa listen to 00:03:06.699 --> 00:03:09.099 the podcast? No. So I'm really, really lucky. 00:03:09.680 --> 00:03:14.199 I could say what I want. Anyway, so moral of 00:03:14.199 --> 00:03:16.699 the story, more people doesn't necessarily mean 00:03:16.699 --> 00:03:19.939 a better outcome. Truth. How long does this take 00:03:19.939 --> 00:03:23.900 to move this chair? I mean because I became quite 00:03:23.900 --> 00:03:26.000 invested in how many people would come out and 00:03:26.000 --> 00:03:29.000 I was actually hoping for more. I think it was 00:03:29.000 --> 00:03:32.439 about 25 minutes between the time of impact that 00:03:32.439 --> 00:03:36.379 that chair made the floor to when it found its 00:03:36.379 --> 00:03:39.039 final destination. Now I am going back to that 00:03:39.039 --> 00:03:42.379 cafe. Wasted our time too. You just dropped two 00:03:42.379 --> 00:03:45.740 movies as well. The final impact and final destination. 00:03:46.120 --> 00:03:50.039 That's outstanding. I love this story. I'm going 00:03:50.039 --> 00:03:52.409 back to that cafe. either tonight or tomorrow, 00:03:52.530 --> 00:03:55.349 so I'm keen to see where that chair has made 00:03:55.349 --> 00:03:59.650 it. Maybe they did that on purpose. Oh, it was 00:03:59.650 --> 00:04:02.590 quite entertaining. For those of us in the chair, 00:04:03.210 --> 00:04:06.530 so you can update in the comments. Yeah, and 00:04:06.530 --> 00:04:10.129 it's moved. Imagine an Instagram story from that 00:04:10.129 --> 00:04:12.389 coffee shop, and then the chairs moved again, 00:04:12.490 --> 00:04:14.289 and then they just do that and build an audience 00:04:14.289 --> 00:04:16.050 around that one. Did you test out the chair at 00:04:16.050 --> 00:04:19.680 least, didn't it? Yeah, like it's, it's good, 00:04:19.800 --> 00:04:23.519 but like in the wrong spot, clearly I would move 00:04:23.519 --> 00:04:27.459 it if I were them. Yes. What day is that? That's 00:04:27.459 --> 00:04:31.620 a Monday. It's the normal wages. If it's 25 minutes 00:04:31.620 --> 00:04:36.240 and let's say half of the time, that's allowing 00:04:36.240 --> 00:04:40.579 for the other time than not. So what 15 minutes, 00:04:40.579 --> 00:04:43.959 10 minutes per person. Yeah. Yeah. Cause by the 00:04:43.959 --> 00:04:46.939 time they fluff around get that then get back 00:04:46.939 --> 00:04:48.680 to their work. Got a narrow wages, isn't it? 00:04:48.680 --> 00:04:50.120 Yeah, we're getting about a hundred bucks. Let's 00:04:50.120 --> 00:04:52.439 move a chair. That will move again. Do you reckon 00:04:52.439 --> 00:04:54.740 that will provide a benefit, cost to benefit 00:04:54.740 --> 00:04:58.319 ratio? Absolutely not. No. Might be a really 00:04:58.319 --> 00:05:01.639 good chair. It was a good chair, but like by 00:05:01.639 --> 00:05:03.199 the time - They move it every day for that same 00:05:03.199 --> 00:05:05.959 thing. Exactly. So that 400 - 700 bucks a week. 00:05:06.759 --> 00:05:11.530 Kill it. One chair moving. One chair. Absolutely 00:05:11.530 --> 00:05:14.949 horrible. Poor people. I do love this cafe. It's 00:05:14.949 --> 00:05:17.689 great cafe, but you just, you look at it and 00:05:17.689 --> 00:05:21.269 I couldn't help, but not talk about it because 00:05:21.269 --> 00:05:24.089 I know that this isn't the first time this would 00:05:24.089 --> 00:05:27.290 have happened. And that there's, there's clearly 00:05:27.290 --> 00:05:30.829 too many people involved when. So they're clearly 00:05:30.829 --> 00:05:33.430 not busy at the time. They might've been busy. 00:05:33.569 --> 00:05:34.829 They must've been busy, but they probably didn't 00:05:34.829 --> 00:05:36.370 get their jobs done. Cause they said we've been 00:05:36.370 --> 00:05:41.470 busy all day. People are often busy. Don't like 00:05:41.470 --> 00:05:44.569 being stuck around doing nothing. Yeah. So just 00:05:44.569 --> 00:05:47.009 busy, just doing things that you as an owner 00:05:47.009 --> 00:05:51.389 doesn't bring. So it could have been one of those 00:05:51.389 --> 00:05:53.569 situations. My sister used to work as a waitress 00:05:53.569 --> 00:05:55.910 and if they were quiet, they'd go out and wipe 00:05:55.910 --> 00:05:58.649 the walls or the mirrors and the tables because 00:05:58.649 --> 00:06:01.490 they had to be doing something where clearly 00:06:01.490 --> 00:06:04.509 that's an over -staffing problem because you've 00:06:04.509 --> 00:06:07.149 got too many people for that time period a day. 00:06:07.529 --> 00:06:11.949 Could be an example, yeah. Yes, but, um, I guess 00:06:11.949 --> 00:06:13.850 as a business owner, you want to be using people 00:06:13.850 --> 00:06:16.689 in a way that adds value as in billable hours. 00:06:16.850 --> 00:06:18.829 Yeah, exactly. Like what's actually bringing 00:06:18.829 --> 00:06:25.839 a return. Um, and, and in the same respect. someone 00:06:25.839 --> 00:06:27.620 might actually believe that that's a better out, 00:06:27.699 --> 00:06:29.699 like everyone has different ways of doing things. 00:06:30.199 --> 00:06:31.759 Absolutely. And that's, I think we've talked 00:06:31.759 --> 00:06:34.300 about in podcasts before, if you're trying not 00:06:34.300 --> 00:06:36.439 to micromanage, you give someone a result that 00:06:36.439 --> 00:06:38.879 you want. Don't micromanage how they get that, 00:06:39.139 --> 00:06:41.699 the process, basically. It's, it's the outcome 00:06:41.699 --> 00:06:44.839 that you're wanting, but for one person that 00:06:44.839 --> 00:06:47.540 don't over collaborate on a chair. That could 00:06:47.540 --> 00:06:49.439 have been a situation where the first person 00:06:49.439 --> 00:06:51.060 comes out and says, all right, well, I'm going 00:06:51.060 --> 00:06:52.699 to ask for forgiveness instead of permission. 00:06:52.939 --> 00:06:54.879 This is where the chair's going. If anyone doesn't 00:06:54.879 --> 00:06:58.360 like it, they'll say something. Does it get the 00:06:58.360 --> 00:07:02.120 desired result? Yes. Cool. Carry on. Could have 00:07:02.120 --> 00:07:06.959 taken 30 seconds. Yep. Yep. Yes. So I guess there's 00:07:06.959 --> 00:07:10.199 a few underlying issues that you can watch for 00:07:10.199 --> 00:07:14.399 when you're in business and that's the over -collaboration. 00:07:14.779 --> 00:07:17.339 It could also be under -stimulation. I mean, 00:07:17.519 --> 00:07:20.259 if your employees aren't necessarily interested. 00:07:20.560 --> 00:07:24.120 The board definitely slows things down. Yeah. 00:07:24.519 --> 00:07:26.300 Yeah. Filling their time with things that don't 00:07:26.300 --> 00:07:28.319 matter. That's not going to be good for employee 00:07:28.319 --> 00:07:32.259 morale. And to like the point I was just making 00:07:32.259 --> 00:07:35.459 about the lack of clarity on what they're like, 00:07:35.519 --> 00:07:37.379 they're not empowered to actually decide what 00:07:37.379 --> 00:07:40.480 they're trying to do. Basically, they don't feel 00:07:40.480 --> 00:07:42.660 like they have the authority to make that decision. 00:07:42.720 --> 00:07:44.720 So they need everyone else to come in and make 00:07:44.720 --> 00:07:46.740 that decision for them, because then at least 00:07:46.740 --> 00:07:48.740 - Back story there, couldn't they? Yeah. Someone 00:07:48.740 --> 00:07:50.199 did this once and then the owner come in and 00:07:50.199 --> 00:07:52.339 said, ah, what have you done? So we get heaps 00:07:52.339 --> 00:07:54.699 of different opinions and try and make sure it's 00:07:54.699 --> 00:07:56.620 right. And then it's not just me that's put the 00:07:56.620 --> 00:07:59.980 chair in this one spot. Yeah. I think a few recent 00:07:59.980 --> 00:08:03.779 client examples that, you know, sort of support 00:08:03.779 --> 00:08:06.319 the theory of you can have too many employees 00:08:06.319 --> 00:08:09.560 sometimes. And for years, they kept getting better 00:08:09.560 --> 00:08:11.839 service and doing more procedures to make sure 00:08:11.839 --> 00:08:13.860 that things weren't missed. And that was continual 00:08:13.860 --> 00:08:15.360 building, continual building, sure, build the 00:08:15.360 --> 00:08:17.220 procedures and do the training and make sure 00:08:17.220 --> 00:08:18.819 things are ticked off and then measure them to 00:08:18.819 --> 00:08:20.800 make sure that they're done and all these things 00:08:20.800 --> 00:08:22.379 that it could be more and more and more and more. 00:08:23.420 --> 00:08:25.980 And then - Sounds like a government department. 00:08:26.759 --> 00:08:31.439 No, we don't work with government. And anyway, 00:08:32.019 --> 00:08:34.220 we're looking at just the overall, okay, everyone's 00:08:34.220 --> 00:08:36.259 busy, you know, there's too much going on, things 00:08:36.259 --> 00:08:38.669 are getting missed. Bit out of control, hard 00:08:38.669 --> 00:08:40.330 to manage. You know, everyone sees we're working 00:08:40.330 --> 00:08:42.429 hard, everyone's stressed, everyone's unhappy 00:08:42.429 --> 00:08:45.009 about it. But then just looking at the budget, 00:08:45.090 --> 00:08:48.429 it was like they had more admin people than productive 00:08:48.429 --> 00:08:50.570 people in the business. So they had eight productive 00:08:50.570 --> 00:08:52.110 people and eight admin. I was like, well, how 00:08:52.110 --> 00:08:55.110 does that make sense? You used to have six productive 00:08:55.110 --> 00:08:57.750 people, one admin doing all the quotes and all 00:08:57.750 --> 00:09:00.529 that sort of stuff. So how did we end up with 00:09:00.529 --> 00:09:02.809 the same numbers? And I was like, we need it. 00:09:03.110 --> 00:09:05.049 But fundamentally just didn't make sense. And 00:09:05.049 --> 00:09:08.100 then at some stage we We sort of broke the cycle 00:09:08.100 --> 00:09:10.299 and then got rid of pretty much all of the admin 00:09:10.299 --> 00:09:13.139 and just changed systems, which was the fancy 00:09:13.139 --> 00:09:15.259 system, changed it to a simple system and lost 00:09:15.259 --> 00:09:17.879 out on a few areas. And then basically cut back 00:09:17.879 --> 00:09:20.580 everything that wasn't essential in the delivering 00:09:20.580 --> 00:09:22.419 value to a client list. So there's lots of things 00:09:22.419 --> 00:09:23.700 would be nice and I would check some balance, 00:09:23.840 --> 00:09:25.039 make sure bad things didn't happen, but it was 00:09:25.039 --> 00:09:26.960 fundamentally, is it valuable to a client or 00:09:26.960 --> 00:09:31.539 not? And then they've been getting by with two 00:09:31.539 --> 00:09:34.200 admin people getting more done. And then obviously 00:09:34.200 --> 00:09:35.840 that's a pretty big change to the bottom line. 00:09:35.960 --> 00:09:40.159 And then now the owner's working less than they 00:09:40.159 --> 00:09:42.799 were before. With more admin. With less admin. 00:09:42.840 --> 00:09:45.100 Then they had more admin. Yeah, correct. Yeah. 00:09:45.320 --> 00:09:47.620 So, you know, that's, that's when we had, and 00:09:47.620 --> 00:09:50.259 I know our business, once we, we went down 30 00:09:50.259 --> 00:09:52.919 % in people, we grew 50 % in income and then 00:09:52.919 --> 00:09:54.960 12 month period, which was, you know, the same 00:09:54.960 --> 00:09:58.240 sort of thing of investing in growth and resource 00:09:58.240 --> 00:10:01.179 development. But sometimes that can be too much 00:10:01.179 --> 00:10:03.159 and then it slows everyone down. And then we 00:10:03.159 --> 00:10:05.570 had another client recently as well. Two admin 00:10:05.570 --> 00:10:07.809 people plus one of the owners was an admin and 00:10:07.809 --> 00:10:11.529 they had a sales rep and the sales rep left. 00:10:12.190 --> 00:10:14.429 They were unhappy with them then they left. And 00:10:14.429 --> 00:10:17.389 then one of the admin people left and they were 00:10:17.389 --> 00:10:19.029 not sure how they were going to deal with everything. 00:10:19.490 --> 00:10:22.850 And then the owner that was an admin went sales 00:10:22.850 --> 00:10:24.909 and the other admin person's just doing the admin. 00:10:25.470 --> 00:10:26.769 And then they changed the systems around a little 00:10:26.769 --> 00:10:29.590 bit. They're killing it. Going way better. They're 00:10:29.590 --> 00:10:32.070 giving everything done with time left and the 00:10:32.070 --> 00:10:34.909 results are. a billion times better. Was that 00:10:34.909 --> 00:10:37.769 a conscious conversation or was that just a natural 00:10:37.769 --> 00:10:40.470 progression? What do you mean? In regards to, 00:10:40.889 --> 00:10:43.529 okay, something's not right. We're going to sit 00:10:43.529 --> 00:10:45.730 down and find out what's the problem. Say the 00:10:45.730 --> 00:10:48.850 one that had the same amount of admin to productive 00:10:48.850 --> 00:10:52.429 staff. Do they sit down and they go, righto, 00:10:52.710 --> 00:10:54.230 why aren't we making any money? We've got all 00:10:54.230 --> 00:10:56.009 these admin, we've got all this stuff, what's 00:10:56.009 --> 00:10:59.070 going on? Or is it just a natural attrition? 00:10:59.570 --> 00:11:02.590 I think it was the continual building up of the 00:11:02.730 --> 00:11:04.649 policies and procedures of the person doing this 00:11:04.649 --> 00:11:06.370 and doing the check. Or, you know, we got in 00:11:06.370 --> 00:11:08.289 trouble for that lucky mention before. So now 00:11:08.289 --> 00:11:10.190 we're going to make sure we do that right. Or, 00:11:11.250 --> 00:11:13.710 you know, and then people, it's maybe it's too 00:11:13.710 --> 00:11:16.409 mundane and they get bored and then they slow 00:11:16.409 --> 00:11:18.049 down a little bit or they make silly mistakes. 00:11:18.230 --> 00:11:21.169 And then there was just a comedy of errors when 00:11:21.169 --> 00:11:25.409 people weren't necessarily driven or we were 00:11:25.409 --> 00:11:28.190 adding procedures that didn't matter. But the 00:11:28.190 --> 00:11:30.000 final winner thing with the owner was that Yeah, 00:11:30.000 --> 00:11:32.139 we were all busy. We can't possibly change that. 00:11:32.360 --> 00:11:34.500 We need more if anything. Yeah, okay. Because 00:11:34.500 --> 00:11:36.000 that's the obvious thing that you can see is 00:11:36.000 --> 00:11:37.259 everyone's busy and everyone's stressed and the 00:11:37.259 --> 00:11:38.740 people are unhappy and they want to leave. But 00:11:38.740 --> 00:11:42.720 then the sort of weird thing is that that last 00:11:42.720 --> 00:11:44.940 example we gave, a couple of people left, the 00:11:44.940 --> 00:11:46.879 avid person was probably unhappy with how they 00:11:46.879 --> 00:11:48.340 were performing. They're probably thinking they 00:11:48.340 --> 00:11:49.980 were mucking things up maybe. Maybe they thought 00:11:49.980 --> 00:11:52.080 the owners weren't doing things right. Maybe 00:11:52.080 --> 00:11:53.399 they were making all mistakes and they're blaming 00:11:53.399 --> 00:11:56.179 the owners, who knows? But in reality, it was 00:11:56.179 --> 00:11:58.399 they were the issue. It was just complicated 00:11:58.399 --> 00:12:00.620 with two admin people doing one job, whereas 00:12:00.620 --> 00:12:02.919 one person could do it better. And the one person's 00:12:02.919 --> 00:12:04.879 probably going to have their time go quicker 00:12:04.879 --> 00:12:06.580 because they're more engaged in their job anyway. 00:12:06.679 --> 00:12:08.779 Yeah, and get better at it. Yep. So it's just 00:12:08.779 --> 00:12:10.659 an interesting one because we say it quite often 00:12:10.659 --> 00:12:12.840 and most people don't believe it or we talk to 00:12:12.840 --> 00:12:14.220 the business owner and they're like, nah, there's 00:12:14.220 --> 00:12:15.879 no way. Like, yeah, I understand what you're 00:12:15.879 --> 00:12:17.679 saying and do whatever, but there's no way. This 00:12:17.679 --> 00:12:19.159 is the way we've always done it. No, no, no, 00:12:19.159 --> 00:12:21.639 not that. We're all busy. I'm busy though because 00:12:21.639 --> 00:12:23.080 everyone's busy. Everyone's saying they're busy. 00:12:23.740 --> 00:12:27.379 I get what you're saying. I think that's correct 00:12:27.379 --> 00:12:30.019 for us. That's the thing. And then sort of that 00:12:30.019 --> 00:12:32.399 happened. So that last example, I think the salesperson 00:12:32.399 --> 00:12:33.700 left. They weren't expecting that. Like, well, 00:12:33.700 --> 00:12:35.659 what do we do? And it was a newer client for 00:12:35.659 --> 00:12:37.480 us. So there wasn't a continual plan to make 00:12:37.480 --> 00:12:39.639 it happen. We had to review certain things. We 00:12:39.639 --> 00:12:41.799 just fast tracked some of the reviews and then 00:12:41.799 --> 00:12:43.879 the admin left and so I could change a few systems, 00:12:44.019 --> 00:12:45.340 see what happens. And it was like, oh, this is 00:12:45.340 --> 00:12:47.480 actually looks better. So sometimes you're sort 00:12:47.480 --> 00:12:50.039 of forced upon the change. Another client, yeah. 00:12:50.220 --> 00:12:51.600 Another one of the examples, they were sort of 00:12:51.600 --> 00:12:53.480 forced upon the change. And then you came out 00:12:53.480 --> 00:12:55.470 the other side and like, oh. There you go. That 00:12:55.470 --> 00:12:57.009 was all right. But then for everyone else who's 00:12:57.009 --> 00:12:58.929 not forced to make the change, they probably 00:12:58.929 --> 00:13:01.309 have the same issue. Whether it's there's too 00:13:01.309 --> 00:13:03.549 many salespeople, there's too many people waiting 00:13:03.549 --> 00:13:08.470 customers. Like I was getting a coffee on the 00:13:08.470 --> 00:13:11.690 way to Launceston the other day by myself because 00:13:11.690 --> 00:13:15.149 no one came with me. And it just got me right 00:13:15.149 --> 00:13:16.809 in the heart. I think I waited about 20 minutes 00:13:16.809 --> 00:13:19.960 for this takeaway. Hot drink. Oh, wow. And they 00:13:19.960 --> 00:13:21.539 were, you know, they had enough people on service. 00:13:21.759 --> 00:13:25.159 One girl was taking orders and doing things. 00:13:25.159 --> 00:13:26.899 It was busy in there and the girl making the 00:13:26.899 --> 00:13:29.159 coffee was slow, but been going past there for 00:13:29.159 --> 00:13:30.799 a few months now and the girl's been there the 00:13:30.799 --> 00:13:32.799 whole time. It was a bit later in the day. She'll 00:13:32.799 --> 00:13:35.100 be a bit faster. She'll be a bit faster than 00:13:35.100 --> 00:13:37.519 she is. She'll make a sort of one at a time and 00:13:37.519 --> 00:13:39.940 she'll look at the tab and figure it out again 00:13:39.940 --> 00:13:42.139 and she'll clean everything and then she'll make 00:13:42.139 --> 00:13:44.419 another one. And they've got a big coffee machine. 00:13:44.559 --> 00:13:47.100 Did they have a chair? No. Okay. Just checking. 00:13:47.759 --> 00:13:52.759 Might have been the same place. Oh, I didn't 00:13:52.759 --> 00:13:56.720 even get that till then. It's talking about. 00:13:57.480 --> 00:13:59.620 And yeah, it's one of those ones where they had 00:13:59.620 --> 00:14:01.500 enough staff on, but then some people were running 00:14:01.500 --> 00:14:03.500 around like mad and some people were going really 00:14:03.500 --> 00:14:05.919 slow. And then the unhappiest customers were 00:14:05.919 --> 00:14:08.179 just waiting for a hot drink. It sounds like 00:14:08.179 --> 00:14:11.159 it might've been a Sunday. Yes. More money. Less 00:14:11.159 --> 00:14:12.659 productivity. But you go to other places, other 00:14:12.659 --> 00:14:14.909 coffee shops. And you've got 30 people waiting. 00:14:15.090 --> 00:14:17.070 It's like coffee coming every 30 seconds. You 00:14:17.070 --> 00:14:19.470 know, like so. Well, some of the places that 00:14:19.470 --> 00:14:22.070 just specializing coffee as well. Some of those 00:14:22.070 --> 00:14:25.370 sort of hole in the wall coffee shops, their 00:14:25.370 --> 00:14:27.190 productivity is amazing. You watch two people 00:14:27.190 --> 00:14:30.029 behind the coffee machine. And you just, wow. 00:14:30.509 --> 00:14:32.809 Yep. So where are we getting to with that? It's 00:14:32.809 --> 00:14:34.289 like that, that business would be one where you 00:14:34.289 --> 00:14:35.470 look, oh, we didn't have enough staff to wait 00:14:35.470 --> 00:14:37.730 until our times were too high. It's like a cafe 00:14:37.730 --> 00:14:39.629 as well. So we need more staff on when it's busy, 00:14:39.830 --> 00:14:41.679 but. Do we need that? Or do we actually need 00:14:41.679 --> 00:14:43.919 a better process or better training or a better 00:14:43.919 --> 00:14:46.220 person? Oh, the person costs too much, but what 00:14:46.220 --> 00:14:48.860 if they're working with so much faster? Um, might 00:14:48.860 --> 00:14:50.580 cost an extra $2 an hour, but they're pumping 00:14:50.580 --> 00:14:52.740 out five coffees in the time that that person 00:14:52.740 --> 00:14:56.080 makes one. Yep. Yep. So when we talk about resources 00:14:56.080 --> 00:14:59.980 or talk about resource capacity, maybe. So sometimes 00:14:59.980 --> 00:15:02.419 we think we need more employees for more resource, 00:15:02.419 --> 00:15:04.500 um, cause we need more capacity, but maybe we 00:15:04.500 --> 00:15:07.179 need to increase our capacity in another way. 00:15:08.360 --> 00:15:10.240 possibly, which I think that gets to when you 00:15:10.240 --> 00:15:12.700 get too many, then everyone's doing the wrong 00:15:12.700 --> 00:15:14.120 thing and everyone's trying to fill their days 00:15:14.120 --> 00:15:17.379 and then that becomes the new norm. So like that 00:15:17.379 --> 00:15:18.960 story with, you know, the monkeys that got put 00:15:18.960 --> 00:15:20.799 in a room and then they climbed the ladder to 00:15:20.799 --> 00:15:23.240 get whatever and they'd get water poured on them, 00:15:23.259 --> 00:15:24.779 I think. And then they replaced all the monkeys 00:15:24.779 --> 00:15:26.919 and then eventually they wouldn't climb the ladder 00:15:26.919 --> 00:15:29.019 because everyone knew it was bad, but no one, 00:15:29.080 --> 00:15:31.200 no monkey had actually seen it before. So if 00:15:31.200 --> 00:15:32.679 people come into your business and put everyone's 00:15:32.679 --> 00:15:34.840 unofficial, they're doing the wrong, not doing 00:15:34.840 --> 00:15:36.019 the wrong thing, but they're working on things 00:15:36.019 --> 00:15:38.019 that don't matter. Then everyone that comes in 00:15:38.019 --> 00:15:39.460 gets trained to do the things that don't matter. 00:15:39.799 --> 00:15:41.799 And then you get to that situation of people 00:15:41.799 --> 00:15:43.659 know why they're doing it. Yeah. We're not driving 00:15:43.659 --> 00:15:45.340 the business forward and everyone thinks they're 00:15:45.340 --> 00:15:47.039 doing a great job. And then the owner's upset 00:15:47.039 --> 00:15:50.139 because the end result's not happening well enough. 00:15:50.379 --> 00:15:52.480 And then people are frustrated to leave. So I 00:15:52.480 --> 00:15:54.379 think that's where you get to that situation. 00:15:54.799 --> 00:15:57.919 So when you go in and you ordered a business 00:15:57.919 --> 00:16:01.659 and you recognize that this is happening, those 00:16:01.659 --> 00:16:03.659 conversations with owners must be interesting. 00:16:04.240 --> 00:16:07.299 in regards to here's the advice and then the 00:16:07.299 --> 00:16:08.600 owner is like, well, there's no possible way 00:16:08.600 --> 00:16:11.379 we can get rid of five staff. How do you approach 00:16:11.379 --> 00:16:15.139 that? Just a question without notice. Oh, it's 00:16:15.139 --> 00:16:18.100 sort of like, it's an argument. You've got to, 00:16:18.159 --> 00:16:20.360 I guess, I've got to see how that's practical. 00:16:20.879 --> 00:16:23.080 Yep. You've got to see the issue first though. 00:16:23.659 --> 00:16:25.279 Yeah, you've got to see the issue first. So it's 00:16:25.279 --> 00:16:26.639 probably not more a discussion or review to get 00:16:26.639 --> 00:16:28.960 to that point. It's more, you can identify things 00:16:28.960 --> 00:16:31.139 like that budget. Obviously having the same admin 00:16:31.139 --> 00:16:33.990 to productives, not possible. It's possible. 00:16:34.370 --> 00:16:36.610 It's not suitable. So, okay, well, we need to 00:16:36.610 --> 00:16:39.009 look into that. Yeah. But then, yeah, if they're 00:16:39.009 --> 00:16:40.529 seeing one thing every day, they're feeling one 00:16:40.529 --> 00:16:42.529 thing every day and they're under the pump. Well, 00:16:42.610 --> 00:16:44.669 it's pretty, yeah, you've got to make a pretty 00:16:44.669 --> 00:16:46.090 good case as to how that's going to be different, 00:16:46.110 --> 00:16:48.629 but it's also a pretty brave thing for them to 00:16:48.629 --> 00:16:50.730 try because if they, they cut it down and it 00:16:50.730 --> 00:16:52.830 doesn't work, like there's more work for them. 00:16:52.850 --> 00:16:54.830 Yeah. Cause you're essentially talking about 00:16:54.830 --> 00:16:57.590 incorporating change and people don't really 00:16:57.590 --> 00:17:00.970 like change. In my experience, working with businesses 00:17:00.970 --> 00:17:03.879 that pay crazy amounts of money and then sort 00:17:03.879 --> 00:17:05.440 of don't take your advice. It's like, well, what 00:17:05.440 --> 00:17:07.880 did you hire me for? But I think it's focusing 00:17:07.880 --> 00:17:09.980 on what the end result needs to be. So the case 00:17:09.980 --> 00:17:12.200 for the, the, the admin to productive would be 00:17:12.200 --> 00:17:13.779 okay. Well, the end result is we need more productive 00:17:13.779 --> 00:17:16.259 people to be the admin. So, okay, well, the level's 00:17:16.259 --> 00:17:18.200 going to be this. How, how could we make that 00:17:18.200 --> 00:17:21.539 happen? We get them involved in what would need 00:17:21.539 --> 00:17:24.660 to change. Yep. Before that, in it, in figuring 00:17:24.660 --> 00:17:26.980 it out, when I said, identify the issue that 00:17:26.980 --> 00:17:31.519 there's little hints that you see it's the. We're 00:17:31.519 --> 00:17:33.519 getting things done, but there's a lot of problems. 00:17:34.059 --> 00:17:36.240 They're constantly stressed. They're pretty unhappy. 00:17:36.839 --> 00:17:38.079 There's all these like little - You're going 00:17:38.079 --> 00:17:40.460 to do that job. Yeah, who's going to do it. Yeah, 00:17:40.619 --> 00:17:44.440 exclusively you see that, well, there's the admin 00:17:44.440 --> 00:17:46.799 roles. Who's doing what? Oh, well, we all do 00:17:46.799 --> 00:17:49.339 that. Why are you all doing that? Well, because 00:17:49.339 --> 00:17:53.019 we need to do this. And no one's sort of given 00:17:53.019 --> 00:17:56.900 authority to make small decisions. It's sort 00:17:56.900 --> 00:17:59.700 of like a top -down. Yeah. All people get into 00:17:59.700 --> 00:18:02.420 authority as far as that admin role. That is 00:18:02.420 --> 00:18:04.059 a big job. You just don't understand what that 00:18:04.059 --> 00:18:06.799 job is. Yeah. You inflate it. Yeah. I was sitting 00:18:06.799 --> 00:18:08.859 with other consultants yesterday and we're going 00:18:08.859 --> 00:18:11.000 through like this, this, um, this business's 00:18:11.000 --> 00:18:12.900 bookkeeping was miles behind. It was pretty straightforward. 00:18:12.980 --> 00:18:14.559 We're sorting it, you know, while we're talking, 00:18:14.599 --> 00:18:17.500 we're getting a lot of it sorted and like, yeah, 00:18:17.539 --> 00:18:19.299 number one, we've got to, got to work with this 00:18:19.299 --> 00:18:20.559 lady because they're not going to get rid of 00:18:20.559 --> 00:18:22.660 her. It's a relation. I'm going to work with 00:18:22.660 --> 00:18:24.660 this lady to get her up to speed, process some 00:18:24.660 --> 00:18:27.059 training and, you know, and then, um, just like, 00:18:27.180 --> 00:18:29.740 oh, well. She's working 20 hours a week. So there's 00:18:29.740 --> 00:18:31.680 definitely capacity there. And we're like, okay, 00:18:31.779 --> 00:18:33.200 we're sorting out three months worth of problems 00:18:33.200 --> 00:18:37.900 in like an hour. So yeah, people think the job 00:18:37.900 --> 00:18:39.279 is bigger than it is because I don't understand 00:18:39.279 --> 00:18:42.460 it. Yep. Can be, can be part of it. Yeah. But, 00:18:42.500 --> 00:18:46.680 um, the thing is if you can look at, get them 00:18:46.680 --> 00:18:49.440 focusing on what would need to change. So it's 00:18:49.440 --> 00:18:51.000 easier for them to change when there's a, they 00:18:51.000 --> 00:18:53.940 have to, whether people leave or another reason, 00:18:54.140 --> 00:18:56.720 right. So the conversation with the client wants 00:18:56.720 --> 00:18:58.359 like, okay, we're going to change this. We're 00:18:58.359 --> 00:18:59.359 going to change this. We're not going to order 00:18:59.359 --> 00:19:00.740 this in ourselves anymore. We're not going to 00:19:00.740 --> 00:19:01.759 stock it. We're not going to change this. So 00:19:01.759 --> 00:19:02.900 we're going to order the freight because we're 00:19:02.900 --> 00:19:03.960 saving money, saving the freight. So we're going 00:19:03.960 --> 00:19:05.160 to throw all these different things that they 00:19:05.160 --> 00:19:07.279 were doing to save money and, you know, make 00:19:07.279 --> 00:19:09.099 things more efficient or effective or reduce 00:19:09.099 --> 00:19:10.940 damage. We're not going to do any of that anymore 00:19:10.940 --> 00:19:12.859 because we're going to get rid of everyone. And 00:19:12.859 --> 00:19:14.599 then we're just going to have a few people and 00:19:14.599 --> 00:19:15.920 get the stuff from you. And they're just going 00:19:15.920 --> 00:19:19.019 to get it and give it to us that day. I'm like, 00:19:19.119 --> 00:19:20.279 why don't we just do that now and keep all the 00:19:20.279 --> 00:19:22.180 people. because they wouldn't have any of that 00:19:22.180 --> 00:19:23.859 ambient cost, but we have way more productive 00:19:23.859 --> 00:19:26.460 capacity, we still get the same. Yep. But then 00:19:26.460 --> 00:19:27.740 you can sort of understand how they get to that 00:19:27.740 --> 00:19:30.259 point because each decision made sense, but then 00:19:30.259 --> 00:19:32.339 bring them all in practice. It accumulates. It 00:19:32.339 --> 00:19:34.059 accumulates. And then one thing wasn't working 00:19:34.059 --> 00:19:36.539 and it was them causing problems and then friction. 00:19:37.000 --> 00:19:38.700 If you just go back to something that's not quite 00:19:38.700 --> 00:19:41.160 optimal, but it's super efficient and easy to 00:19:41.160 --> 00:19:43.359 manage, they put that in place and it's like 00:19:43.359 --> 00:19:46.359 happy days. So is there like a magic wand kind 00:19:46.359 --> 00:19:49.319 of have a look at your business and have a light 00:19:49.319 --> 00:19:52.539 bulb moment? If you're, if you, you probably 00:19:52.539 --> 00:19:55.480 might think everything's going well, but you're 00:19:55.480 --> 00:19:59.380 not making money or there might be another signifier 00:19:59.380 --> 00:20:01.720 that you might be overstaffed. Is there any? 00:20:02.000 --> 00:20:05.500 Magic wand. Yeah, that's, that's kind of, everyone's 00:20:05.500 --> 00:20:09.980 chasing. The way I see it is you become very, 00:20:09.980 --> 00:20:14.299 um, very comfortable in what it is that you do 00:20:14.299 --> 00:20:16.420 day to day, because you've gotten to that point. 00:20:16.640 --> 00:20:19.259 with the best intentions. You've made these decisions. 00:20:19.259 --> 00:20:22.480 It leads to a full admin people and they're all 00:20:22.480 --> 00:20:24.559 doing their role. I'm trusting them because I 00:20:24.559 --> 00:20:27.039 employed them because, and it sort of becomes 00:20:27.039 --> 00:20:29.480 this environment where you're like, this is the 00:20:29.480 --> 00:20:32.519 best I could do. That something's not working 00:20:32.519 --> 00:20:37.339 and something's going against the grain. I don't, 00:20:37.339 --> 00:20:41.160 I don't like it. And that's, I guess why an outside 00:20:41.160 --> 00:20:44.049 perspective is always helpful because then you 00:20:44.049 --> 00:20:46.730 have someone who will challenge it. And in some 00:20:46.730 --> 00:20:49.750 cases, it might be a business owner's partner 00:20:49.750 --> 00:20:51.509 who goes, well, that doesn't make sense. Why 00:20:51.509 --> 00:20:54.869 are you spending money on that? And they could 00:20:54.869 --> 00:20:58.490 be very, very right. And if your gut reaction 00:20:58.490 --> 00:21:00.750 is oh, well, that's the way we always done it 00:21:00.750 --> 00:21:03.799 then. Can also, this is why it's really a messy 00:21:03.799 --> 00:21:05.079 one. Cause it could be the other way around. 00:21:05.420 --> 00:21:07.220 The business owner's wife could be like, you're 00:21:07.220 --> 00:21:08.339 never, you're never too busy. You're working 00:21:08.339 --> 00:21:09.599 at home and all that. You need more people. You 00:21:09.599 --> 00:21:11.359 just need to get admin for you. That's what everyone 00:21:11.359 --> 00:21:13.099 else is putting admin person. It's pretty stressful. 00:21:13.319 --> 00:21:14.819 It's an admin person. I was still busy putting 00:21:14.819 --> 00:21:18.839 that one in. It can work both ways. So I guess 00:21:18.839 --> 00:21:21.920 it's not a silver bullet, but the, the, the fundamental 00:21:21.920 --> 00:21:24.920 was you need a business model. So who do we have? 00:21:24.980 --> 00:21:26.839 What roles do we have? What resources can we 00:21:26.839 --> 00:21:29.400 afford? And then how do we make that model work 00:21:29.400 --> 00:21:32.150 with that? So if you're always coming back to 00:21:32.150 --> 00:21:35.369 that and what you're doing is different, then 00:21:35.369 --> 00:21:38.410 how can you get that in place? Yep. You can do 00:21:38.410 --> 00:21:43.009 an audit and look at, I know it's hard in the 00:21:43.009 --> 00:21:46.509 admin space because what they do doesn't necessarily 00:21:46.509 --> 00:21:49.250 generate income, but you can look at what makes 00:21:49.250 --> 00:21:51.769 an impact. So if they're spending a lot of time 00:21:51.769 --> 00:21:54.750 on organizing morning teas, as opposed to processing 00:21:54.750 --> 00:21:57.150 invoices. Or doing customers know when the delivery 00:21:57.150 --> 00:22:00.839 is going to be. Yeah. Then that's. that's two 00:22:00.839 --> 00:22:03.980 different impacts. Both are important because 00:22:03.980 --> 00:22:07.940 one's for culture and one's for customers, but 00:22:07.940 --> 00:22:10.539 in a hierarchy of importance. We're all busy 00:22:10.539 --> 00:22:13.220 about internal culture and no one's calling customers, 00:22:13.400 --> 00:22:15.480 so then customers are always upset and then they 00:22:15.480 --> 00:22:16.940 have problems all the time. We don't have culture 00:22:16.940 --> 00:22:19.650 because the customers are always at us. And we're 00:22:19.650 --> 00:22:21.170 going to have customers, but everyone's really 00:22:21.170 --> 00:22:23.109 happy because we're doing the right things, culture 00:22:23.109 --> 00:22:25.130 -wise. Yeah, we're all sitting around a desk 00:22:25.130 --> 00:22:26.609 and like, oh, where's the next dollar coming 00:22:26.609 --> 00:22:29.089 from? We've got no customers left. I've been 00:22:29.089 --> 00:22:30.869 hearing about someone's training recently, personal 00:22:30.869 --> 00:22:33.849 leadership and leadership training in an organization. 00:22:34.890 --> 00:22:38.750 And they got the choice to do a project for a 00:22:38.750 --> 00:22:40.730 group project to benefit the organization as 00:22:40.730 --> 00:22:44.640 part of it. And it's on wellbeing. And I keep 00:22:44.640 --> 00:22:46.579 laughing when I hear about it because, you know, 00:22:46.680 --> 00:22:48.119 well -being is important, of course, you know, 00:22:48.240 --> 00:22:50.579 don't get me wrong. But if it's a little leadership. 00:22:50.740 --> 00:22:52.740 Little snapshot into business abundance culture, 00:22:52.960 --> 00:22:56.000 right? Well -being. But if we learn about leadership 00:22:56.000 --> 00:22:58.019 and stuff, we've got a group of leaders. We just 00:22:58.019 --> 00:22:59.539 do improvements on like, oh, how can we make 00:22:59.539 --> 00:23:01.119 it nicer for people? And, you know, just to make 00:23:01.119 --> 00:23:03.700 sure it runs, you know, well off and blah, blah, 00:23:03.700 --> 00:23:06.900 blah. Like what on earth is happening for the 00:23:06.900 --> 00:23:09.059 actual leadership or the function of that business? 00:23:10.099 --> 00:23:13.109 Yeah, it's nice, but we. we need to actually 00:23:13.109 --> 00:23:15.789 be practical and do our jobs too. So it's really 00:23:15.789 --> 00:23:17.250 funny because then the frustration with the person 00:23:17.250 --> 00:23:19.069 training is they went to one session and it was 00:23:19.069 --> 00:23:20.950 about leadership and wellbeing, it was an update 00:23:20.950 --> 00:23:23.390 on both. And then they talked about who, what 00:23:23.390 --> 00:23:25.109 do we want to talk about first? They said leadership 00:23:25.109 --> 00:23:27.750 because we had some training to do outside of 00:23:27.750 --> 00:23:29.190 it. A few people hadn't done that. So like, oh, 00:23:29.250 --> 00:23:31.349 let's do wellbeing. So talked about wellbeing 00:23:31.349 --> 00:23:32.690 for the full session and then spent a minute 00:23:32.690 --> 00:23:34.690 on leadership. And I think that's probably a 00:23:34.690 --> 00:23:36.910 pretty good example of what Z saying, you go 00:23:36.910 --> 00:23:39.359 down, are we doing the important things? We're 00:23:39.359 --> 00:23:40.880 all focused on this thing. Everyone's happy to 00:23:40.880 --> 00:23:42.859 be on board working together, but then just sort 00:23:42.859 --> 00:23:45.079 of snowballs out of control. Everyone's doing 00:23:45.079 --> 00:23:48.599 the right thing. But what is the right thing? 00:23:49.119 --> 00:23:52.059 I had the opportunity to, my second job was for 00:23:52.059 --> 00:23:55.299 a large hardware company from a very large hardware 00:23:55.299 --> 00:23:57.579 chain in Australia. And they were opening their 00:23:57.579 --> 00:24:00.319 first large, large store. I'm trying not to say 00:24:00.319 --> 00:24:06.200 warehouse in Adelaide. And there was 120 staff 00:24:06.200 --> 00:24:08.839 for all employed at the same time. And we all 00:24:08.839 --> 00:24:12.240 had essentially into the CBD for a week's worth 00:24:12.240 --> 00:24:15.039 of training and culture and personality tests. 00:24:15.519 --> 00:24:17.440 And one of the key things that I remember from 00:24:17.440 --> 00:24:21.619 that was how tight a team we were. But also one 00:24:21.619 --> 00:24:24.980 of the things that was sort of rolled down from 00:24:24.980 --> 00:24:27.079 management was you guys are all new employees. 00:24:27.319 --> 00:24:29.500 We've been doing it this way for ages. You're 00:24:29.500 --> 00:24:31.670 going to have fresh eyes. Cause all the managers 00:24:31.670 --> 00:24:33.309 that come from other stores around the state 00:24:33.309 --> 00:24:35.089 or from around the country, you're going to have 00:24:35.089 --> 00:24:37.430 fresh eyes if you see anything speak up because 00:24:37.430 --> 00:24:39.049 you might have better ideas. And I thought that 00:24:39.049 --> 00:24:41.410 was a really good thing until it came into practice 00:24:41.410 --> 00:24:43.609 when you did see things and the management were 00:24:43.609 --> 00:24:45.009 like, nah, we've always done it this way. What 00:24:45.009 --> 00:24:46.890 are you talking about? In a, in a new concept 00:24:46.890 --> 00:24:49.009 for the stores as well, like having those warehouses 00:24:49.009 --> 00:24:52.349 instead of just the corner hardware stores. That 00:24:52.349 --> 00:24:54.710 would flow on heaps to small business as far 00:24:54.710 --> 00:24:56.769 as, okay, oh, no, we should do it this way. Oh, 00:24:56.769 --> 00:24:58.390 no, no, no. We've got that in place because we 00:24:58.390 --> 00:25:02.470 worked with that once. Um, then yeah, add on 00:25:02.470 --> 00:25:04.089 the, so that voice of, okay, we'll check out, 00:25:04.130 --> 00:25:06.170 we'll just do that. And then, you know, it's 00:25:06.170 --> 00:25:07.630 it, we get unhappy when we're in leaf, they're 00:25:07.630 --> 00:25:08.990 not going to buy in, they're not going to get 00:25:08.990 --> 00:25:12.009 work, work hard or, you know, be efficient. They're 00:25:12.009 --> 00:25:14.150 just going to cruise through and knock off. There's 00:25:14.150 --> 00:25:17.269 an interesting process for, I might've been 18 00:25:17.269 --> 00:25:19.910 years old at the time, I think. So way back then 00:25:19.910 --> 00:25:23.910 Z, but did they have warehouses back then? No. 00:25:25.210 --> 00:25:26.549 Well, it was the first one in South Australia. 00:25:26.930 --> 00:25:28.509 So I think it might've been the second one nationally. 00:25:29.109 --> 00:25:31.740 It's an interesting. thing to get exposed to, 00:25:31.839 --> 00:25:34.680 I suppose, because that's a multinational owner 00:25:34.680 --> 00:25:38.680 who has this arm of their business and they've 00:25:38.680 --> 00:25:41.660 imported these processes from somewhere. And 00:25:41.660 --> 00:25:44.099 just to see the onboarding process of taking 00:25:44.099 --> 00:25:47.680 a week with new staff, paying them and 120 or 00:25:47.680 --> 00:25:49.579 new staff at this one site. And I assume they 00:25:49.579 --> 00:25:51.400 replicated that for every new site around the 00:25:51.400 --> 00:25:54.220 country. Not everyone's going to have that budget, 00:25:54.259 --> 00:25:57.579 but you could kind of implement that at a micro 00:25:57.579 --> 00:26:01.940 level. Culture is a big thing. I think in any 00:26:01.940 --> 00:26:03.859 size business, even if you're a sole trader, 00:26:04.000 --> 00:26:05.980 you can have days where you don't really want 00:26:05.980 --> 00:26:08.440 to do this. But if you've got a solid purpose 00:26:08.440 --> 00:26:12.099 in front of you and if you want to move a chair, 00:26:12.119 --> 00:26:14.559 for instance, you don't need to get 27 different 00:26:14.559 --> 00:26:18.720 people to come and validate your decision. There's 00:26:18.720 --> 00:26:21.640 a few things, I guess, worth reflecting on when 00:26:21.640 --> 00:26:25.059 it comes to the case of the chair. The first 00:26:25.059 --> 00:26:28.180 one being, have you created a culture where Any 00:26:28.180 --> 00:26:31.779 activity needs multiple sets of approval or opinions. 00:26:32.240 --> 00:26:35.000 Like that's the first thing. Can anyone make 00:26:35.000 --> 00:26:37.220 a small decision? Like are they empowered? Do 00:26:37.220 --> 00:26:40.460 I need to look at a flow chat? If we just, from 00:26:40.460 --> 00:26:43.339 my experience, making a judgment call, um, you 00:26:43.339 --> 00:26:44.920 know, they feel like they'll get in trouble if 00:26:44.920 --> 00:26:46.480 they make the wrong decision for something as 00:26:46.480 --> 00:26:48.299 simple as a chair. So it's why everyone's got 00:26:48.299 --> 00:26:49.940 involved because everyone's, everyone's too afraid 00:26:49.940 --> 00:26:51.670 to do the last thing they have, you know. which 00:26:51.670 --> 00:26:53.730 is ridiculous. It's band -aided with them. Oh, 00:26:53.730 --> 00:26:55.529 I don't know. So they're getting trouble over 00:26:55.529 --> 00:26:57.569 probably things that don't matter. They can cause 00:26:57.569 --> 00:27:00.470 all those issues straight away. Yeah. But like, 00:27:00.569 --> 00:27:04.009 how do you avoid that? Go listen to our micro 00:27:04.009 --> 00:27:07.509 management podcast episode. So looking at you, 00:27:07.609 --> 00:27:08.970 how do you know if you've got too many employees 00:27:08.970 --> 00:27:11.069 or not? So how are they inefficient? You can 00:27:11.069 --> 00:27:13.200 check against other. businesses, other practices, 00:27:13.539 --> 00:27:15.220 obviously you get people in like we know a bit 00:27:15.220 --> 00:27:16.839 more about systems and what's possible, what 00:27:16.839 --> 00:27:18.880 people are up to, AI, or you know, like your 00:27:18.880 --> 00:27:20.619 accountant at zero and you've got the hub doctor 00:27:20.619 --> 00:27:22.200 automatically do bills and then people are still 00:27:22.200 --> 00:27:24.140 manually writing them in, you know, into their 00:27:24.140 --> 00:27:26.420 little books. So, you know, get someone that's 00:27:26.420 --> 00:27:28.559 up to date to show you what's possible and then 00:27:28.559 --> 00:27:31.140 go, okay, well, we could probably do that. But 00:27:31.140 --> 00:27:33.519 I think also just looking at what the value chain 00:27:33.519 --> 00:27:35.200 is. So if you can break down your core bit of 00:27:35.200 --> 00:27:37.940 your business. So, you know, maybe we sell. We 00:27:37.940 --> 00:27:40.680 sell trailers to people, right? So, okay, what 00:27:40.680 --> 00:27:44.759 happens? We order goods in, we forecast how much 00:27:44.759 --> 00:27:46.720 we think we need, we order goods in, we receive 00:27:46.720 --> 00:27:49.619 and put them somewhere, and then we get inquiries 00:27:49.619 --> 00:27:52.079 from customers. We need to send some information, 00:27:52.220 --> 00:27:53.960 have a chat to them, get them to sign up, and 00:27:53.960 --> 00:27:55.759 then we need to let them know how long it's going 00:27:55.759 --> 00:27:58.099 to be till they can grab it. We need to put the 00:27:58.099 --> 00:28:01.440 trailer together and then give it to them. Okay, 00:28:01.440 --> 00:28:02.900 that's a core process of our business. That's 00:28:02.900 --> 00:28:04.539 all we need to do in our business really. That's 00:28:04.539 --> 00:28:07.440 it. What bells and whistles do we put around 00:28:07.440 --> 00:28:09.240 it? So maybe some nice communication. We're going 00:28:09.240 --> 00:28:10.400 to notify them here, here, here. We're going 00:28:10.400 --> 00:28:12.339 to send an email here, here, here. Then what 00:28:12.339 --> 00:28:14.380 else do we really need to do? So anything in 00:28:14.380 --> 00:28:15.640 addition to that, we're probably just wasting 00:28:15.640 --> 00:28:17.440 time. So if you can, even if you've got an existing 00:28:17.440 --> 00:28:19.700 business, you can look at that value chain. What's 00:28:19.700 --> 00:28:21.220 providing value to a client? What do we actually 00:28:21.220 --> 00:28:23.259 need to do? Break it back to that and go, how 00:28:23.259 --> 00:28:26.759 far different are we? What can we just pull out 00:28:26.759 --> 00:28:28.700 and stop doing? I think that's the major benefit 00:28:28.700 --> 00:28:33.119 of employing an external eye or a consultant 00:28:33.119 --> 00:28:35.549 in this. situation because the consultant's going 00:28:35.549 --> 00:28:37.150 to come in, they're not emotionally attached 00:28:37.150 --> 00:28:39.630 to the business. They can look at it and go, 00:28:39.869 --> 00:28:42.109 you sell trailers. Why are you doing this over 00:28:42.109 --> 00:28:45.650 here? And at times that's exactly how Rowan will 00:28:45.650 --> 00:28:50.150 say it. What are you doing? If he already knows 00:28:50.150 --> 00:28:54.569 you. But that's advice that is needed, I think. 00:28:55.210 --> 00:28:57.069 And I've said this on many podcasts, the amount 00:28:57.069 --> 00:28:58.349 of times that Rowan's gone, what are you doing 00:28:58.349 --> 00:29:01.049 that for you moron? I don't call you those bad 00:29:01.049 --> 00:29:06.420 words. And Z's response right there says that 00:29:06.420 --> 00:29:09.720 that's a lie, but it's needed at times. And whether 00:29:09.720 --> 00:29:11.880 you've got that internally, you've got that sounding 00:29:11.880 --> 00:29:14.180 board internally, or you have to get that from 00:29:14.180 --> 00:29:18.000 external sources. It's not a bad idea to have 00:29:18.000 --> 00:29:20.799 a pulse check on your business, I think, because 00:29:20.799 --> 00:29:23.259 you might think it's all going well and you're 00:29:23.259 --> 00:29:25.240 leaking money and year over year. And then all 00:29:25.240 --> 00:29:27.819 of a sudden, oh, wow, what happened to the business? 00:29:28.380 --> 00:29:30.440 But it's been happening for three years. And 00:29:30.440 --> 00:29:32.559 now it's at a point where we need to make drastic 00:29:32.559 --> 00:29:34.900 change as opposed to keeping your finger on the 00:29:34.900 --> 00:29:37.400 pulse. And yeah, okay. Probably don't need that 00:29:37.400 --> 00:29:39.559 extra admin person and that salesman actually 00:29:39.559 --> 00:29:43.240 not even covering their wages. Yeah. The thing 00:29:43.240 --> 00:29:45.859 that I do when I for our, for us is like, you 00:29:45.859 --> 00:29:47.759 just keep your perspective of what other people 00:29:47.759 --> 00:29:49.880 do. So you don't need to know detail of the business, 00:29:49.980 --> 00:29:52.660 but if you know, like one business is doing a 00:29:52.660 --> 00:29:54.960 hundred thousand times what we're doing and managing 00:29:54.960 --> 00:29:56.740 it. Like you can't go, oh, that's not possible. 00:29:56.759 --> 00:29:58.319 That's too hard or not going to work. It's like, 00:29:58.460 --> 00:30:00.420 okay, well, we're obviously overcomplicating 00:30:00.420 --> 00:30:02.319 it. If it's something that can be done, someone's 00:30:02.319 --> 00:30:04.160 doing a way that much more. It's obviously a 00:30:04.160 --> 00:30:05.740 lot simpler than we think. Whereas I think everyone 00:30:05.740 --> 00:30:07.519 else goes, oh, it's way more complicated to be 00:30:07.519 --> 00:30:08.720 able to do that. Like, oh, that's way out of 00:30:08.720 --> 00:30:10.380 reach. It's probably not to do that. It's actually 00:30:10.380 --> 00:30:13.079 going to be simpler. So just give yourself some 00:30:13.079 --> 00:30:15.779 frame of perspective to go, well, do I need to 00:30:15.779 --> 00:30:19.359 overcomplicate it? And that's always been good. 00:30:19.359 --> 00:30:21.359 I'll find it's a reference. Yeah. And the other 00:30:21.359 --> 00:30:24.119 thing I think probably the last bit is where. 00:30:24.269 --> 00:30:26.670 you'd need to be able to give responsibility 00:30:26.670 --> 00:30:28.890 to the people that you have employed to make 00:30:28.890 --> 00:30:31.789 small decisions. Empower them. Empower them. 00:30:32.009 --> 00:30:37.390 That's right. example that comes to mind is where 00:30:37.390 --> 00:30:39.849 an admin team ended up putting together a social 00:30:39.849 --> 00:30:43.690 media campaign. The only thing that the manager 00:30:43.690 --> 00:30:46.349 said was, this is the impact. I want this much 00:30:46.349 --> 00:30:49.109 reach and I want this many conversions. Do whatever 00:30:49.109 --> 00:30:52.150 you need to do to get that. And they did it probably 00:30:52.150 --> 00:30:54.130 in the most unconventional way. I think they 00:30:54.130 --> 00:30:56.549 were Gen Z or something like that. And the owner 00:30:56.549 --> 00:30:58.769 was like, but that's not how I would do it. Anyway, 00:30:58.970 --> 00:31:02.980 they reached that, it excelled. the impact that 00:31:02.980 --> 00:31:06.099 they wanted. Even if it's not how you would go 00:31:06.099 --> 00:31:08.519 about it, you've got to be able to let your employees 00:31:08.519 --> 00:31:10.900 do their job. The outcome, not the journey. We 00:31:10.900 --> 00:31:13.640 actually did a episode on that as well. The young 00:31:13.640 --> 00:31:16.240 lads at the cricket club. Oh yeah. No experience 00:31:16.240 --> 00:31:18.319 whatsoever out of school and smashed it. Yep. 00:31:19.259 --> 00:31:21.579 I wrote something about that. your employees 00:31:21.579 --> 00:31:24.380 are adults or something like that, write something 00:31:24.380 --> 00:31:26.759 about that. Yeah, they're keen to do it. If you're 00:31:26.759 --> 00:31:28.660 keen to do it, go nuts. I think that keenness 00:31:28.660 --> 00:31:31.220 and enthusiasm goes a lot further than absolutely 00:31:31.220 --> 00:31:35.400 cash and slivers of experience. Exactly. So yes, 00:31:35.619 --> 00:31:39.200 if your team needs five people to decide where 00:31:39.200 --> 00:31:43.019 a chair goes, it's probably worth looking at 00:31:43.019 --> 00:31:44.380 if you have too many employees. Unless you're 00:31:44.380 --> 00:31:46.460 an interior design company, I suppose, maybe 00:31:46.460 --> 00:31:48.910 you might have. Several sets of eyes. I wonder 00:31:48.910 --> 00:31:51.410 if they're in the cafe, the sisters of the podcast. 00:31:51.549 --> 00:31:54.829 They'll be like, when was that recorded? When 00:31:54.829 --> 00:31:57.750 did she come in? I remember that chair. We've 00:31:57.750 --> 00:32:00.549 got another one. It took us an hour because now 00:32:00.549 --> 00:32:04.069 there were two. Yes, let's hope not. Anyway, 00:32:04.329 --> 00:32:06.670 all right. We'll leave you on that, everyone. 00:32:07.009 --> 00:32:08.730 We hope you have a good week and we'll chat to 00:32:08.730 --> 00:32:10.630 you next time. See you.