Welcome to the Business Abundance podcast, providing
the tools and knowledge to help small business
owners succeed. For additional resources, visit
www .businessabundance .online. Hello. Hi. Whoa.
Whoa, cut off your intro. Here we go. That's
going to be one of those ones. Okay. Yellow one's
up. Welcome back to the Business Abundance podcast.
I'm Z and I'm here with Rowan and Ian. Totally
mess with your flow there. I know. She just went
straight back into it. Yeah. See? Skill. Chill.
Adaptility. Must be getting old of this. Adaptability.
Oh, English. That's a big word. Anywho, today
we're going to be chatting about trying to be
everyone. No, everything for everyone. I think.
No. The topic today is thinking about what you
do in business. Yeah, that's what I heard. Yeah.
That is what I said. Yeah. Before the episode
started. Now you've pivoted. Now we're being
everything to everyone. Is that not the same?
I don't know if it is. We thought about what
we're going to do and we're going to do it. Yeah.
So we're going to stick with that. Yeah. Oh my
gosh. I see what you guys are doing here. That's
cool. I don't see what we're doing at all. No,
we do. Oh, cool. Excellent. I'll just be the
dumb guy in the corner as usual. That's good
from you. The number one thing we see is people
are doing stuff, they're working hard, but they're
not thinking about what they should be doing.
Ain't that the truth? No one thinks about what
they should be doing. What should they be doing?
Whatever they want to be doing. Oh, the right
things. Oh, then I wouldn't be working at all.
For their business. The right things. Ah, whatever
they want to be doing. Well Ian, you have a business.
Yes. And you do websites. Yes, sometimes. Mostly
logos and branding. Well then why do you do websites?
Because it's a natural extension. What about
social media? Don't even get me started. I'm
not even allowed to talk about it. Rowan put
a gag on me. That's so Ruthless. Yeah, that was
Ruthless from you. So we think about like in
business, the number one thing people do, they
do what they do and they're hard at work, they
get up and they're like, I've got this and this
and this to do and they go do all those things
and they generally like doing the things that
are easier for them to do or the things that
are more painful. The fun stuff. Perching them
at the time so they go deal with that and I'll
give you an example with my to -do list is always
quite extensive and there's things that don't
get done very often. but generally the things
that have a large impact or consequence get done
and that that's a fluid thing but I do make sure
every day I think about what's what is the most
important thing today even though I said last
week I'll get that done by Wednesday and then
that's got closer it's like well is that still
the most important thing because we only have
so many hours we only have so much time and it's
not just us with our time but it's about our
business what's going to give us the biggest
impact so for most business owners they're busy
doing things but they're not at any time thinking
about what they should be doing. What other people
should be doing. Well, they looked at it two
years ago and they never revisited it. And that's
where we're on the grind, we're running on the
hamster wheel, and we might be making money,
we might not, but we're just working. That's
it. I have to bring up social media But that's
the I should I be doing tick -tock because everyone
else is doing tick -tock debacle or Everyone's
on Instagram. Why am I on Instagram? Oh, they're
on social media. Why am I on social media? Those
sort of things that do I need a website where
everyone else does so I need a website those
sort of Issues I guess I guess the easy easy
way to triage any of that is What's your intention
and what are your expected outcomes? so it's
It's used a lot in business and and it's a trend
now in the educational realm as well that here
are our learning intentions So what are our intentions
for starting a social media page, and then what
are the outcomes I? I desire to achieve from
having a social media page. What's the intention
of having a website? Or even go full macro, what's
the intention of even having a business? And
what outcomes do I want from this business? And
then funnel it down into little niches of opportunities.
But then you look at Rowan's which is sort of
on the not so... big picture but important day
-to -day tasks is me responding to that sales
inquiry actually going to make a difference today
or can it be done later? Yeah, do we take the
loss? What's the impact we're looking for? It's
not just our time. It's the activities that we're
doing that day. It's the which processes do we
have its what prices are we setting or products?
We're offering we had a client a few weeks back
and we went through pricing We're looking at
different jobs and they price them all the same
way and we we have a little way to do it Which
which is pretty cool and you can see what's actually
the most profitable which is completely different
my favorite and This guy's gone. Oh, I've known
that for six months. I should be doing more of
that It's like we're the mayor's I hate these
other ones. We're not for it. It's like six months
a banging his head against the wall dealing with
his stuff and he could have spent two days just
not done anything else taking the pain and dealt
with it and changed it and I think that's where
most people probably you can relate it doesn't
have to be on those topics but you think about
it man I spent a little bit of the time thinking
about what's the right thing to do and then I
just changed what I did to be the right thing
again like when you start a business you you're
hustling you're doing what you need to do you're
getting the work in you're making money and then
it grows and then you stop making money People
often say that, and it's because you stop thinking
about what's the right thing to do. People are
doing stuff, but when you start, you are doing
the right thing to do because you know what you
need to do that day. And then as it gets bigger
and as it gets more complex, people lose that
ability to go, does that actually make sense?
How do they then identify? So let's say you've
been in business for 24 months, two years, and
you've got through the grind, you've got a steady
flow of customers, and you're busy. you're finding
yourself 65, 70 hours a week, maybe more. How
do you then triage your to -do list? Well, if
you're looking at your list, what's having the
biggest value? So it might be a tangible, like
mean money or something happening, or it might
be an intangible as someone feels, or a result
with a person for example, and you prioritise
what are the big hitters here that I should be
spending my time on? And what are the things
on there that are important but don't have too
much consequence or I need to change resources
to someone else to be learning to do those. And
I think there's never really a case where someone
else can't do something and there's very few
things that happen in business that are going
to be critical as far as this destruction if
it goes wrong. And if you're dealing with a doctor,
it takes three months to go see a specialist.
and we expect that. You want to talk to your
lawyer, that's two weeks free. You get an appointment.
They didn't even read what they were going to
do. They're going to read in front of you. Then
we look at our business and we're like, if we
didn't get something done in two hours, that
customer's going to be upset. That's the small
business mindset. So the worst thing that can
happen is we didn't respond to that inquiry.
Requirements are really important. Oh, they never
got back to me. Bad word of mouth. But if something
else was going to get you $100 ,000 worth of
work or you stopped the job going bad, that was
going to cost you five grand. what was more important.
I think having the ability just each day look
at that and go what's important, what's not,
which ones I'm going to do first. So we're kind
of flipping it to the lesser of evils I guess.
Yeah. So instead of thinking about what's the
best, what's the worst case scenario on my list,
all right I better deal with that one. Yeah well
it could be the worst case scenario. It could
be the best. It doesn't actually matter that
much. That would be terrible, that happens, but
this one's better, so you know let's do that.
But you can't do everything every day. So, it's
a difficult one because a lot of people go into
business and they want to make everyone happy.
I want all my customers to be happy. Everyone
wants that. Yeah, the only way you're gonna do
that is selling ice cream. We can't, we can't.
There's lactose -free people. Yeah, well, there's
lactose -free ice cream. And there's people who
don't like ice cream. Yeah, I know, weirdo, he's
my son. Crazy. Well, it's mint, that's it. But
anyway, toothpaste. Yeah, freeze your toothpaste,
put it in a cone. Well, it's a market. Everyone's
favorite topic is themself, is where I was headed
with that. And so you're going to have a disappointed
customer, no matter what you do, eventually.
So again, why, why burn yourself out? It sounds
terrible, but here's a customer who's going to
spend a hundred bucks a year, once in their life.
Or a hundred thousand. Or a hundred thousand.
Here's a customer here. Yep. Yep. And then here's
a lifelong customer. over here who has consistently,
they've learned how you communicate, you've had
them for five years and they're going to forgive
you a mistake here or there. Who's getting your
attention? Who's getting your attention? And
sometimes you've got to be ruthless. People don't
think about that and they'll go, this new client,
we need to get this new client in. So you said
in another episode, like, we have a car, I could
do work with that person in the future. They're
not paying me at the moment. It could be one
in the future. And they never focus back on that
old client. It's like, if you've got a client
that, you know, rings me. They get my full attention
regardless of what's going on. I might not be
able to help them straight away. I might then
say, Hey, it's going to be a couple of days,
but you get my attention. And if there's someone
new coming in, they're not getting the attention.
Like we could get something out of it, but it's
what's, what's the priority. That's, that's one
section with, with customers, but it's, it's
what services are we offering? Okay. This service
is something that everyone in our industry offers
or a product, but it fundamentally doesn't make
sense. We don't make money. We're not good at
it. It's annoying. It annoys everyone. Should
we bother or should we be with the one business
that doesn't do it? This so basically if you
want like the You want to see an example of it?
Oh, yeah random, but Gordon Ramsay so he visits
Restaurants, it's you know goes and visits the
restaurants. I'm sure people have all seen these
clips never heard of it Ramsey's kitchen nightmares
So good anyway, so they go why am I started saying
anyway? Too much time on TikTok. I don't have
it. How? He's gone into this restaurant and he's
looking at the menu and it's like 10 pages and
it's got just recipe, item after item after item.
Every restaurant he goes to. Yeah, but it's like
got so many different cuisines and then they're
also trying to mix cuisines and they're like,
oh, we're going to have an Asian nachos or I
don't know if that's possible it just came in
my head. You can actually. Probably. But anyway
but they they went in going we're going to be
a steakhouse and now they've got this and this
and this and all of a sudden they're doing this
cuisine and this cuisine and this cuisine. Means
they're rubbish at all of them basically. Part
of the cost control right they've got more wastage.
And then the chefs. Because they're not doing
as many steaks. Yeah the chefs are just completely
overwhelmed because they're trying to cook. 100
different things that they're not used to. Yeah,
and so that suffers and then the quality suffers
and then the waiters and waitresses can't remember
essentially what it is that's happening unless
they're writing it down furiously instead of
being like, oh, it's one of our 10 items that
we excel at. They can't go in confidently because
they've not tried the food and it all just crumbles
and then the person sits there and like, oh,
you don't actually have chicken wings. We'd better
get chicken wings in because that's the market.
And so they chuck that on the menu. It's just
an absolute shambles. And that is the best representation
of what it's like when you see a business who's
like, oh, well, we could do that. So we're going
to do that because someone asked for it. So we
should be doing it because obviously there's
a market for it. And now you've diluted your
service offering. People are creatures of habit.
So there's a majority of people that do whatever
else does. and we feel good about that and safe
about that. So providing those services sometimes
are dealing with those people, but if you didn't
give them that option, then it's not going to
be an issue whatsoever. So I think that's one
part of it. It's like what services do we offer,
but what processes do we follow? So, you know,
if we're dealing with a customer and we have
to give them this paperwork, this paperwork,
we've got to do this, we've got to do a handover
afterwards, whatever that is, you know, are some
of those things required or some of those things
just kind of nice? Like, what are the big hitters
there on the value chain that make any impact?
What if you just did those and nothing else?
Like, should we be doing the rest? Like, yeah,
we could, but does it really matter? Like, that's
the thing. Does it really matter? No. Get rid
of it. Don't do the broccoli. Don't do the social
media management. Yeah, a lot of people spend
a lot of time on Facebook. They learn how to
do it. They get the photos. Does it really matter?
Or do you just need a few little jobs on there?
People look at you and go, oh, they look pretty
good. Like, every now and then. We found that
focusing just on the branding side of things
instead of, yes we'll still do websites here
and there but not making that the core offering.
The core offering is here's your pretty pictures
and this will tell the whole world who you are
and that's what we're good at. As soon as we
did that life got amazing. Not just the fact
that there was work but the fact that I enjoyed
the work. And we weren't going, oh crap, now
I've got to learn how to put this piece of code
in here and this piece of code in here and now
they want to do social media over here and they
want to do this as well and oh yeah, we can probably
do that as well, we'll charge you this, we'll
do that, we'll add it on. It's all custom and
different for everyone. Yeah. And that's fine
if that's the aim, but if it's not. So you know,
is this creating value for the business? Is this
going to grow the business? Is it going to make
someone's life better? If it's not really hitting
those things, then there's no point. And I know
people that have dealt with me personally will
know that I don't care about everything. I'm
very easy going with a lot of stuff. It doesn't
really matter, it doesn't really matter. Most
of the time, I'm super pedantic at the same time
about some things that don't seem that important,
but about 20 % of things that make 80 % of the
difference. And you can get 80 % of things completely
wrong, not bother with it, full stop. Any numbers?
20, it's good. And so whether we're talking about
pricing, we're talking numbers, we're talking
about process of products, or people, or staff.
So even how do you treat your staff? Sometimes
you've got to think about it and look at it and
go, well... Who's actually dominating and who's
sort of not? Like, do I want to keep doing the
not or do we want more dominators? We don't think
about that. You know, we just go, well, that's
our team. That's how it is. People will say they
do, that frustrates them. But they don't get
frustrated about it. They think about it that
way. They want to think about what if I change
it? What does that actually mean? OK, well, if
I got rid of that person, oh, we're going to
have to always work. OK, well, who would do that
work? Well, we could probably get through it
by doing this person and this person thing. Okay,
well that will annoy them. Okay, we need another
person coming in. We can get another person coming
in. It's gonna take six months to train them.
So, okay, well those three people. What if I
talk to them? Hey, would you mind doing a bit
of extra work for three months? Why? I've just
got an opportunity coming up. Oh, yeah, I could
probably suck it up for a couple of months. No
worries. Okay, well we could get rid of them.
We could replace them. We could train them. And
then we get here. No one thinks about it in that
detail. They just go, oh, it's so annoying. It's
hard to find people. Oh. get someone in but they
would have to train them. That's the level people
think. So that was a very good insight into Rowan's
brain just then. You've got to have seen that
before. Oh yes, but maybe people haven't heard
that before. I'm confused. No, just the depths
of thinking that, again, you've said most people,
ah, it's going to be too hard. Whereas you talk
to Rowan and he goes, yeah, it is going to be
hard, but... It's gonna be worth it if you do
it this how do we get this? I was talking to
someone this morning here, and it's like I don't
mind having a problem Someone give me a problem
even if I'm busy. I've got the worst stuff happening
in the world Because it means I can put some
time. I know I can allocate and we can get better
I don't mind everyone being upset if we're gonna
be better. I don't mind working harder if it's
gonna get better I don't want to work hard Doing
something because I have to yep And I don't think
there's anyone in the world that would disagree
with that. It's probably never been explained
to them like that. Well, yeah. I don't know why
the thinking is, but it's that what we're talking
about here, we've got to think, are we doing
the right thing? What makes sense? And we lose
that when we're there day to day. Once you've
rat -raced it up, you... It's easy for me because
I consult the businesses. So I see them once
a month or once every six months or whatever,
once a week, whatever it is. I'm not there day
to day. I don't see their struggle. It's, oh,
I frustrated the tires more. I don't see any
of that. Oh, you were going to do this a couple
of months ago because it made sense. You haven't
done it yet. Like, what are you doing? Oh, yeah,
you're right. Oh, we couldn't do it because of
this. Oh, no, you probably... No, I'll go do
that tomorrow. It's a pretty valuable perspective
to be able to have as well, which is the value
that business abundance brings, I think, as an
external entity, watching business abundance
work and being able to walk into a business that
is maybe very emotionally bankrupt. Perhaps in
regards to worn down not emotionally bankrupt
and as in treating clients like crap Just worn
down had enough and then to have someone like
yourself or Z or anyone from business money Yeah,
it really is. Yeah, and then just taking that
The blinkers of this is in front of me and I'm
really stressed and oh my god And then having
some other person go, you know, you'd be less
stressed if you just did this this and this And
they would know that's the answer, but they can't
join the dots or they don't have the faith to
emotionally attach to the outcomes. But there's
also things like in my house, things get moved
and I have no idea. Yep. And then, you know,
Claire will be like... Did you see what I moved?
See, I noticed all that stuff. It's obvious.
And I have no idea. That's the difference. Complete
no idea. But then certain thing happens in the
house. Oh no, straight away. She's like, how
does your brain work? Like, a room can change
colour and you're like, dunno. You can walk past
something that's been on the floor, you know,
however many times, dunno. Didn't see it. The
Kettle's facing the window instead of the lounge
room. The Kettle's moved to somewhere that's
slightly in the way of something else. Boom,
straight onto it. It's like a like for like.
It's just a little movement. If I don't see it
as consequential, I don't know where it goes.
Yep. But that's training. So I continually look
for, okay, we're new baby at the moment. this
one's pretty straightforward because we've already
deep dived last time but the first time is this
bottle is taking an hour and a half to feed this
kit. Special needs. Those babies like an hour
and a half for a bottle is ridiculous. Everything
I could was how can we get this faster? Like
this is ridiculous. I could get up here for three
hours, it takes an hour and a half to feed, you've
got an hour and a half to clean up and blah blah
blah and then it's not even asleep anyway so
then you've got it just doesn't make sense. So
we bought every single kind of bottle. We tried
every bottle. which is a lot of waste of time
and a lot of effort, right? But then we got it,
and we got down to 50 minutes, which is still
long, but it's been a lot better than an hour
and a half. And then we had burps because we
had a vent and we had all this, you know, boom,
and we figured it out. Sorry, the baby had a
vent? No, the bottle. Details don't matter. The
point was, we had this issue. Most people would
be like, they'd fight and they'd go, I've just
got to get through it. They'd complain to their
friends and friends would emphasize and I just
missed the part of my brain for empathizing.
I could do it. But the default is like, how do
we fix it so I don't have to listen to this anymore?
If we fix it, everyone's happy. That's what I
see. It's not that I don't care. It's like, we're
all happy if I fix it. And everyone else is going,
can we just complain about it? We're talking
about thinking about doing the right thing. You're
in your business every day, going back to the
example of wall color changes, I don't notice,
but if the kettle moves to next to the microwave
and it's annoying, like I'll notice within a
second, you see everything in your business with
your eyes and see it every day, you're not picking
them up. It's not just that you have blinkers
on or you're stressed, you just don't notice,
you don't see it. It's normal. If you went away
for a month, you came back, you're like, what
were we doing? But you don't have that chance
to go away. I can confidently say that that's
the first time I've heard a vent in a baby's
bottle as a metaphor for fixing everything in
your business. Outstanding. But... So just thinking
about that... It's made my day. The would -be
that if we had to feed every three hours and
we had to do that twice feeding and all that,
there was a lot of effort to go through to try
to fix it when we're already under a bit of pressure.
Yeah. But sometimes you've got to work hard.
You do it, but you're doing the right thing.
and that's the thing you don't have that focus
to do the right thing but you know in their business
sometimes we don't have the right model we don't
have the right process so you know the receptionist
can't do their job and they're frustrated and
you know they're always getting told off because
there's mistakes but have you got the right process
like how can we change the process you know and
then keep everyone happy oh no we can't do that
because we're doing this and this okay but what
if we could do that and we could do that we do
that that way and then does it work oh i don't
think so oh it does work let's give it a go see
what happens i'll work it's very cool you know
yeah it's like the You know that what you're
doing is right. Don't just scrap it because it's
not working exactly the way. So for example,
you've got your service. You like it. It's what
your business needs. Don't just scrap it and
try something else completely because you think
that's going to be better when it's just like
completely pivoting your business. Just watching
Rowan talk then made me think of passion. in
a perfectly platonic way. We're going to talk
about passion. You listen to Rowan talk about
and watch, for those that don't get to see this
in person, you watch Rowan talk about processes
and improving businesses and he gets a spark.
And I bet when you started your business, whoever's
listening, when you started your business, that's
what the reason you started your business was
there was a spark. and it was something that
you couldn't shut up about. You explained it
in ways that made people go, geez, I want to
be a part of that. And somewhere along the lines,
and I see this every single day when talking
to business owners, you lost that spark because
the grind got you. You had to do this, you had
to do that, you had to do this instead of, I
want to change the world with this fuzzy widget
that I've created. All of a sudden, You're now,
I have to do this, otherwise I don't get to keep
putting this fuzzy widget out into the world.
But you don't have to do it. You can do whatever
you want. Yeah. Think about it. It's very exciting.
Yeah, you can always, the business is not going
well, and yeah, you lose some money, but you
can always shut it down and do something else.
Yep. Some of the most successful clients lost
50, 60 employee businesses and houses and things,
and then they, you know, retired very successfully.
Yep. So, you know, there's always, can we? Yeah,
we can do that. You've got a different opportunity.
But it's, it's an interesting thing because I
never used to think about it that way. It was
like, well, if I lose my business, my metaphorical
business, then it sucks. Like I've failed. I
can't do it again. I'm going to lose all my money.
All those sort of things. Well, we back up one
job. It's the same thing. It's just, yeah, I'm
not going to have any clients left. I'm done
for. I'm going to be labeled a failure. But when
you do think about it, let's just say business,
you've decided it's not necessarily working and
you're like, well, this is taking way too much
effort and I could be doing something else. You
just kind of remove the emotion attachment behind
it. Yes, obviously you're attached to the idea,
which is why we always talk about high purpose
instead of what you actually do. Yeah. It means
you can pivot eventually, but Yeah, you're removing
the emotion behind it and going, nah, this is
a waste of time. I'm going to do something else.
And it's, well, I always think at least you tried
and you're going to do something else. If you
think about any sport, you know, the best sports
people fail and then, you know, talked about
for half a week and then two years later, no
one remembers that. I just remember how good
they were when they succeeded. So people love
talking about failures, but people remember successes.
So you, you know, you hit one six and everyone
goes, wow, that was a big one. You suck 10 times
and everyone just remember, oh gee, that can
hit a long ball. You know, like that's the, that's
the kind of things. But maybe just to help you
ask the questions and think about what you're
doing. If you can't do this yourself, you just
need someone else to think about it for you.
But a couple of different areas that you might
look at. It's not all about making money, but
does this protect us? Okay. process that we're
doing or this thing that we're doing protecting
us. So that might be risk, it might be reputation,
it could be a few different things. Does it make
us money? A pretty big one on business. Does
it create us, does it give us any clarity? So
does it help us make good decisions or does it
help us see what's going on? So maybe this part
of the process doesn't make us any money, doesn't
make us any value for a client but allows us
to see what's happening in our business to make
good decisions that could be highly valuable.
And does this help us help the right clients?
Okay, so we don't need to help every client.
Probably there's 20 % of you, the age 20 rule,
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. There's 20 % of
the clients that cause most of the problems.
They call the most, they annoy the most, and
there's probably two or three that everyone hates
dealing with. If you got rid of them, you'll
have 80 % less work to do admin -wise. So we're
not talking about how does this help us look
after the bad clients. Okay, we need to put this
in our process so the bad client won't be upset.
No, don't worry about it if you don't want to
be upset. What do the good clients want? Our
best clients, does this help us deliver value
to them? That's the only bit that matters. I
think those four questions really cover quite
a lot. If I'm thinking about something, it's
not just money, but it's also are we doing the
right thing for the right people? Are we making
money? Can we see what's going on? And is it
safe? That's the factors. Yep. And on that note...
I don't think there's anything, I think it's
just take some time to jot that down if you're
listening and do a bit of self reflection. Go
have a think about yourself. Go get a mirror,
have a good eye on yourself. A proper think.
Alright everyone, we'll chat to you in the next
episode. See you.