0:01

Welcome to Contractor Cuts , where we cover

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the good , the bad and the ugly of

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growing a successful contracting company

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.

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Welcome to Contractor Cuts . My name is Clark Turner , I'm

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Jared Flo . Thank you for joining us again , welcome

0:17

back . So this week we are diving deep

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into how to do annual

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planning , how to assess what you've

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been doing , what's been going on over the last 12

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months , how to look forward to the next 12 months

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. A few months ago

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probably episodes 60 and 61 , if

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I remember correctly we did a

0:36

blueprinting your company . That's kind of the

0:38

foundation of today's episode . That's

0:41

kind of the standard After you blueprint

0:44

. Continuing from there . This

0:46

is what we're going to do . So if you haven't listened to those

0:48

, go back and listen to them . They're very , very helpful in terms

0:50

of setting the foundation of the dos

0:52

and don'ts of planning . But

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today's episode is more making

0:57

a plan . How do we build

1:00

a systematic

1:02

way to look back

1:05

, to assess where I'm at today

1:07

, what's going well , what's going wrong ? And

1:09

then next week we're going to really kind of land the plane

1:11

on how to plan

1:14

for the future , how to time

1:16

block properly . How do you motivate

1:18

yourself to actually do something Right ? And

1:21

then sometimes what we do is we say , hey , here's my

1:23

plan for 2024 . I'm going

1:25

to sell $8

1:27

million of revenue and I'm going to hire three

1:30

people and you don't assess that plan

1:32

again until December

1:34

2024 .

1:35

You have that moment where , like I'm going to do better

1:37

, yep , right , and

1:40

we've found that taking the time to

1:42

break away and actually assess

1:44

that and make a plan and

1:47

organize it in a fashion

1:49

that you can execute those things , that's

1:52

a reassessment plan , correct ?

1:54

Where you need to constantly . It is a

1:57

living organism , your company with this growth

1:59

. So we're not looking at planning 12

2:02

months today and in month 11 , if I'm

2:04

not doing exactly what I planned in month one

2:06

, I'm wrong . What we're doing is saying , hey

2:08

, this is , if everything goes perfectly

2:10

to how I'm laying it out , in

2:13

12 months is where I'm going to be , but

2:15

in month one , this is what I'm going to be looking for

2:17

. In month three , this is what I'm going to be checking

2:19

. In month six . I should be here and

2:21

have these checking points that we're going to lay out

2:23

for you , of reassessing , making

2:26

sure we're on the right path , making sure the path

2:28

we chose is the one we're still on , and

2:30

whatnot . So , that's kind of what we're going to be covering

2:32

this podcast . Next You're going to hear us talking

2:35

a lot also about our retreat . We do this once

2:37

a year , every January . We take

2:39

all of our alliance partners and

2:42

bring them on an annual retreat . We go

2:44

to a casino in North

2:47

Carolina and we sit down and

2:49

we plan out and we do what we're going to do today

2:51

and next podcast together

2:54

with them and we guide them through how

2:56

to do this and it really sets

2:58

the rest

3:00

of the year in motion . It really allows

3:02

us to lay out and say , hey , as we're

3:04

coaching , as we're guiding along

3:06

the path that we've built together

3:08

, this is what you said you wanted to do . Why isn't

3:10

that happening ? It gives an accountability

3:13

touch point for us as coaches

3:15

with guys that are going along , so you don't have to be in the

3:17

coaching program . There's ways to come on that retreat

3:19

if you're not being coached

3:21

, but go to our website . We can talk about that . But

3:23

again , a lot of this is stuff that we're covering

3:25

now that you can do on your own , but if you come on

3:27

the retreat , it's kind of super charged .

3:30

Well , and if you're a person that's here in this and

3:32

this is not something that you do , this

3:34

obviously is going to be great for you . But

3:36

this is also if this is something you do on a regular

3:38

basis . But you find yourself

3:41

at the end of the year going crap

3:43

, like I spent that two days

3:45

or a day and pulled away and I made

3:47

this big plan . I got the end of the year and I just

3:49

didn't execute those things

3:51

. This

3:54

can help with getting some more

3:56

information , kind of learning

3:58

some different techniques to be able to make

4:01

that plan and then execute it . But

4:03

one of the biggest reasons that we found for doing

4:05

this the annual retreat that you

4:07

just talked about . It was born out of

4:09

many years ago , you

4:12

and I saying you know what we're

4:14

going to pull away at the beginning of the year . We're going

4:16

to get away from the jobs , we're going to get away

4:18

, get away from the clients and all the

4:20

chaos . And just take a minute

4:23

and look at where were we ? What

4:25

did we want to achieve ? Where do we need

4:27

to go ?

4:28

And take a step back from that that was born

4:30

out of . And if you're listening

4:32

, tell me if this sounds familiar . Hey , we

4:35

did more work this year than we did last year

4:37

and I'm looking at the bank account and it still says

4:39

$4 . Right , there

4:41

were so many times that year over year , we

4:43

felt like we were doing so much more

4:46

. But we look at the bank account

4:48

at the end of the year and where did all the money go ? What's

4:50

going on ? What's happening ? We

4:52

haven't done anything that we wanted to do . All right , well , next year

4:54

let's do it . And nothing would come

4:56

of it . So that led us to doing

4:58

these retreats for ourselves . And we did our retreats

5:00

for ourselves for years for our construction

5:03

company , and then , as we created the alliance

5:05

and started coaching , we brought other guys in and

5:07

it's a really good camaraderie thing where we

5:09

all go together , we help each other , build each other's

5:11

companies . It's not to gurus

5:14

talking about it , because we are not that .

5:16

Most of the time , the wives are going

5:18

. Oh , you're going to a casino .

5:20

But we work .

5:23

I mean we put in a lot of work on the days

5:25

that were there . We do have fun at night , but we put

5:27

in a lot of work because this is so valuable

5:29

and , I think , one of the biggest things . This goes

5:31

along with everything we say all

5:34

the time . The biggest reason

5:36

for doing this is that it forces

5:39

you to be proactive in

5:41

your planning , if this

5:43

business will cause

5:45

you to be reactive there are fires

5:47

all the time and taking

5:51

a moment to create a plan that helps

5:53

you to have some targeted spots

5:55

of being proactive in the

5:57

growth of your business . If

5:59

you don't do that , you're

6:01

on the hamster wheel . You'll get to the end of the year . You're

6:03

at the same spot , your bank account looks the same

6:05

and what you want to do achieve , and you're

6:07

going to ask yourself at the end of the year why the heck am

6:09

I even doing this ? Again

6:12

, I'm at this spot . So this is

6:14

a key principle to be able to

6:16

actually move off that hamster wheel and

6:19

be making strategic steps up the mountain

6:21

of growth to the direction you want to be at .

6:22

Getting to where you want to go is two-phased

6:25

. If I want to learn Spanish , the

6:27

first phase of that is a game plan

6:29

how I'm going to do it , how do I learn

6:31

, what information

6:34

do I need ? What's the systematic way

6:36

to learn ? You're going to buy some

6:38

sort of app or some sort

6:40

of agenda of this . Is how you

6:42

do it . Phase one , phase two , phase three you got to learn

6:44

this and the verbiage and all that . And then

6:46

the second part is accountability

6:48

to actually completing those courses . To go

6:50

through the courses that you're supposed to be doing

6:52

, one doesn't work without the other . If I

6:54

say you know what I'm going to do it , I'm going to

6:56

learn Spanish . I'm going to practice every

6:58

single day , what does that mean

7:00

tomorrow ? What am I going to practice

7:02

tomorrow ? How am I going to do it ? So , anything that

7:04

you're trying to achieve , you got to

7:07

have a game plan that is proven and

7:09

works , that other people can achieve

7:11

that same goal . That's proven

7:13

as to happen . And secondly , you need the

7:15

accountability along the way and someone saying , hey

7:17

, what about this ? Why don't you do this ? What's going on

7:19

with this ? Whether it's us , whether it's

7:21

your business partner , whether it's your wife , whoever

7:23

it is . It's a two-phase

7:26

plan to

7:28

get what you're looking to get out of that grant . That's

7:31

right . So where do you

7:33

start ? Where do you start , jared ? So we

7:36

talked about the blueprinting and kind of the foundational

7:38

side a few podcasts

7:40

ago . Why should you be blueprinting

7:43

? When we're talking about blueprinting

7:45

, laying down okay , this is what I think

7:47

we can do A blueprint is just the

7:49

beginning of your game plan of how and

7:51

why you're executing the way you're executing

7:53

. Why is that so important ?

7:55

Right . Well , it's really important

7:57

and I think a lot of it we've covered in

7:59

what we just talked about is it

8:02

creates a direction . If

8:04

I have a plan , if I have

8:06

something that I've planned out , then

8:09

I have something that I can calibrate

8:11

, I can edit , I can update , right . And

8:13

so where you start with that is

8:15

you kind of look as far

8:17

out as you can look and

8:19

that starts with what's your point

8:21

. Yeah , why are you doing this ? What's

8:23

your end goal ? Is your end goal

8:26

I want to make ? I want to be making X amount of money

8:28

, right ? Is your end goal I

8:30

want to create a generational company

8:32

, something that I can pass along to my kids

8:35

or I can bring my family into

8:37

, or is your

8:40

goal ?

8:40

Grow it and sell it .

8:41

I want to grow it and sell it , or I want to grow multi-state

8:44

. I want you know , or I eventually want to you

8:46

know , convert this into a 501c3

8:48

and be a

9:34

non-profit and be doing something really cool

9:36

for the community with it . Whatever it is , determine

9:39

what your end goal is , because

9:41

then now we have a direction that

9:44

is going to determine the individual steps that

9:46

we're going to take . So that's the very first place

9:48

that you start , and then from

9:50

there , I think

9:53

the best way to go about it is

9:55

use your imagination

9:57

and look at okay , my end goal is

9:59

to sell it , my end goal is , whatever

10:01

that is , what does the structure

10:04

of a company look like ? Every aspect

10:06

of it that you can think about . How many employees

10:08

do you have ? What kind of systems and processes

10:11

? Do you have a software that you're going to use

10:13

to be able to do that ? And write out

10:15

a whole list of these

10:18

are all the things that are going to have to

10:20

be in place for me for

10:22

that thing to be done right , we

10:24

have a list

10:26

of that already for you to sit down

10:28

with people .

10:29

But one really important thing

10:31

the tool that we use a lot

10:33

is our org chart , and what we've done is

10:35

we sketched out from a one-man show

10:38

, from working out on your own

10:40

swing and a hammer , every hire

10:42

, every step , every piece of growth to

10:44

get to a multi-state company . And

10:46

so wherever you want to stop on

10:48

that org chart , growth chart that

10:50

is where we can work you to and we have spots

10:53

. This is where you make money , this is where you're investing

10:55

and you're not going to make money . And so every step along

10:57

the way , you need to know okay , that's

10:59

my next hire , I don't need an office manager

11:01

yet , I need them at this point . I don't need this

11:03

person yet , I need them at this point . So we lay

11:05

that out , and that happens during our Fast

11:08

Track to Success event , which we're going to do

11:10

a virtual one a few weeks

11:12

before the retreat . So if you haven't even attended

11:14

one of those , we've got a virtual one coming

11:17

up that we'd want to invite you guys

11:19

to go to our website , prostruct360.com

11:21

, to find out more about our events . But again

11:24

, that is laying out the org chart to say

11:26

, okay , this is where I'm at today . I am

11:28

a one C and

11:30

by the end of the year I think

11:33

my goal is to get to a two B

11:35

, and that means I need to make this one hire

11:38

and the second hire towards the end

11:40

of the year . And so we lay it out

11:42

what is achievable , what's

11:44

going to happen in the next year , two years , five

11:46

years and where where's your goal on this ? Not

11:49

everyone wants to be multi state , right ? Not

11:51

everyone's the overhead

11:53

and the stress and the

11:56

top heaviness of a company that's in four

11:58

or five , six states . A lot of times it's

12:00

hey , I want to be able to make $150,000

12:03

a year and not have me work in 60 , 70

12:05

hours a week . Check in and coach my

12:07

team twice a month , like how do I get

12:09

there ? And we've got a spot for that right . So Wherever

12:12

you want to go , we custom build

12:14

around . Well then , this is the steps in the path

12:16

you got to . You got to walk to get there .

12:18

Well , and a couple of things , just a A list

12:20

of things that , when you're looking

12:22

at , what are the ? What are the things that might have

12:24

to take place ? Yeah , between now and

12:26

that end goal ? Obviously we want to

12:28

talk about processes , purchase procedures

12:31

, structure , software , staff

12:33

and employees . But do I need to bring

12:36

on a partner ? Is there , you know , is there somebody

12:38

? Is there a finance person that I need to bring

12:40

in ? Do I need to look at strategic

12:42

Partnerships that could help me get to

12:44

that end goal ? Maybe

12:46

, maybe investors , or Is

12:49

there education that you need ? Right

12:51

, if , to get to that spot , I

12:53

really want to master the Restoration

12:57

field . Well , I got to get certified

12:59

in restoration and I've got to take that to the next

13:01

level , you know . So looking at those

13:03

things and saying , okay , well , I can't , you

13:05

know , five , ten , fifteen years from now , that's

13:07

not what I'm gonna start doing , that stuff . To get there

13:09

, I got to start . We're walking

13:12

down the road of that . So what you

13:14

do in this process is now We've looked

13:16

all the way out and kind of created

13:18

our North Star or our waypoint

13:20

, whatever it is , and then you start

13:22

Strategically backing that back

13:24

up and typically you look okay

13:27

, so if that's eight , ten years

13:29

from now , then I'm gonna back it up to five

13:31

. Where do I need to be in five

13:33

years ? What is that company gonna look like ? And so

13:36

what I do in that spot is okay , here's all of

13:38

that list of things that need

13:40

to be in place for me to sell the company

13:43

, to go . You know , whatever the thing is five

13:45

years from now , what are the things that that

13:47

one's not necessary , that one's not necessary

13:49

at five years ? And you kind of Cut

13:54

that list down to a little bit more . These

13:56

are the executables , right ? Then

13:59

you take that list and you go , okay

14:01

, let me look at these . What's the highest

14:03

priority ? Well , if my goal is

14:06

to become , you know , one of the one of

14:08

the nation's top restoration companies

14:10

, number one

14:12

, I got it . I got to start getting certified . Yeah

14:14

, right , I don't need to go buy all of

14:16

this equipment and all these things . First I

14:18

need to get certified so I understand what

14:20

systems and equipment and all that stuff that

14:22

I need , right ? So look at that list

14:25

and start prioritizing them one

14:27

by one , right ? What's the highest

14:29

priority thing ? Again

14:31

, that starts dictating the steps

14:34

of what I'm gonna do Tomorrow

14:36

, yeah , next month this year .

14:38

I was talking to that . That was he

14:40

ran trim . He just was carpenter

14:42

, doing trim all the time . And when I talked to him you

14:45

know Talking through like what he's looking

14:47

for where he's going he said I want

14:49

to be a home builder one day . I'm like well , how long have you wanted

14:51

that ? Well , since forever , I like that . That's always been

14:54

my end goal . Well , what are you doing to get there

14:56

? Yeah , I mean I . I mean

14:58

I , I don't really have a lot of time . I'm

15:00

doing this , I'm doing that , I'm running trim all the time and

15:02

that sort of thing . And I said okay , here's

15:05

my advice Close your company

15:07

down and go work for a home builder Free

15:11

education . Yeah , you're gonna work for someone else for

15:13

two or three years . You're in your 20s , you got the time

15:15

to do that and learn the intricacies

15:18

of it . Go find a home builder and work for him . He

15:20

didn't like the Answer . He wants to be his own boss . Okay

15:23

, fine , then what are you gonna do

15:25

to learn those trades , learn those skills

15:27

? That's beyond just laying trim , right

15:29

, there's . So you have to kind of your trajectory

15:32

of .

15:32

I'm gonna learn it on my own by laying trim

15:35

. Yeah , that's a long road

15:37

. Yeah , right , yeah . And so that's

15:39

a that's great advice of go

15:41

learn from a master . Yeah , go spend a year

15:44

working for a guy and you're . It's

15:46

like go into a university or go into college

15:48

, right , yeah , you're , you're getting that education . Yeah

15:51

, you know similar , you know . If you're

15:53

, you know you don't have your GC license

15:56

and you're putting this Okay , to do what I want to do , I

15:58

need to get my GC license . Well , to do that , either

16:00

need an X amount of number of years

16:02

or I need a GC who can sign off on

16:04

me . Yeah , so you can start Looking

16:07

at those opportunities . Is there somebody

16:09

that I can kind of pair up with

16:11

, be mentored by for a couple of years

16:13

, that he could then sign off , that I can Go take this

16:15

test ?

16:16

We had a guy in Texas that was

16:18

running a company . He's really good

16:20

at business but didn't know construction that well

16:22

and I was like what

16:24

you need to do is Is get

16:26

a course for general contract

16:29

, getting your general contractors license , and pay

16:31

the 1200 bucks by the books and go through

16:33

the whole course . And he was like , oh no , we don't need licenses

16:35

for for being a GC in Texas . I said

16:37

I don't care , that's how you

16:40

learn like that is an education start

16:42

to finish , of learning what you

16:44

need to do and what you need to be looking out for , just

16:46

to integrate yourself into

16:49

what GC's are learning , right .

16:50

And so also a leg up with a client to

16:52

say , yeah , it's not required , but I'm

16:55

certified in all of these things . I've got my

16:57

GC license , so I know the

16:59

code . I know you're not gonna end up at

17:01

the end of the job with major issues of code

17:04

issues because I've taken the time to

17:06

be educated On it , which Texas doesn't actually

17:08

mean , or yeah , yeah .

17:10

So , with creating the plan , I think

17:12

one thing you hear us pushing

17:15

the software so much pro-struct 360

17:17

software it is a killer software . And the

17:19

reason we push that and the importance of

17:21

it is not because you need a software . Right

17:23

, nobody needs a software in this business

17:25

. A yellow pad works Just as fine

17:27

as a software if you're just

17:30

running crews in this business

17:32

, as a contractor , as a painting contractor , pool

17:34

, whatever you are . Why

17:36

you need a software is because software

17:38

is the structure behind a

17:40

system . Right , we do it this way every time

17:43

and I can check it this way and I can keep

17:45

my clients accountable , I can keep my employees

17:47

accountable , I can keep my labor accountable , and

17:50

Systematically , this is how we do it every

17:52

single time . Right , so then I can grow

17:54

to the next level in terms of now I can hire

17:56

someone because I can teach them the system . So , again

17:59

, we harp so much on you got to get software

18:01

. Even if you're not on our software , get any

18:03

sort of software . Right , ours is

18:05

built around the systematic way that we've

18:07

grown from a One-man show , the multi-state

18:10

, yeah , and every level works in this software

18:12

. So the way we've built it is the price

18:14

levels . We have a free , free level

18:16

of the software . If you want to do estimates and invoices

18:18

, because the guys that are just starting

18:20

out of that are at that level don't have

18:22

the money , absolutely . For software

18:24

, so listen we'll give you that for free because we know

18:27

when you grow you're already in our software

18:29

and you're going to need more support than the things

18:31

that we have . Once you get

18:33

there the eighty nine dollar level , you have work

18:35

orders you have , you know a bunch of different things

18:37

go from free to the most expensive .

18:39

It actually tears up as people are growing

18:41

. Yes , right , it gives people options .

18:43

You're doing a little bit better . You're making the room money . You can afford

18:45

eighty nine bucks a month for software . Great , step up to

18:47

that level . Yeah , now you're integrating quick

18:49

books , you're doing a gantt chart , you're doing reporting

18:52

. You're you're really assessing , you're hiring

18:54

somebody . Possibly let's go up to

18:56

the one , ninety , nine , the complete level where you have the

18:58

whole software . Right , and so we have these

19:00

levels to where we want you to grow with us and

19:02

if you're not there yet , use our free version

19:04

, that's .

19:05

OK .

19:05

That's what we want for you , but the goal

19:07

is we have a systematic way to

19:09

grow the company , step by step , so as

19:12

you get bigger , your foundation

19:14

is large enough to

19:16

hold the structure that you're building .

19:18

That's right . That's right . Well , and

19:20

going along with that , you know , while you're , while

19:23

you're in this spot and you're taking

19:25

the time to look at where am I going ? You're

19:28

, you're also , this is a spot . If

19:30

this is something that you do on a regular basis or

19:32

you know you don't , you also

19:35

are trying to look at your processes

19:37

. What processes

19:39

do I have ? What ? Where are

19:41

their spots ? Where , you know

19:43

, I tell people , look

19:45

at your jobs and tell me , over the

19:47

last 10 jobs with clients , what

19:50

are some repeatable things that

19:52

have happened over and over and over the

19:54

last 10 percent of the job , I just can't exit

19:56

, I can't get out . Or my

19:59

clients are always holding the money . Or my

20:01

clients , you know

20:03

, I invoice them and they get me a payment a week , 14

20:05

days , 20 days . You

20:07

know I , there's

20:10

always clients that are frustrated with what's happening

20:12

when it's going to happen . They

20:15

don't . There's not any clarity on the job . So

20:18

you're looking at the processes

20:20

of the way that you're providing your customer service , the

20:23

way that you're handling your subcontractors

20:25

, the way that you're engaging with clients to land them

20:27

on jobs . You're

20:29

looking at all of those things and say , ok , how come that's not happening

20:31

? How can I calibrate these things ? That's

20:33

where our CEA came from . Is

20:36

that , year over year , we would implement

20:38

? Here's our new , updated

20:40

CEA , based on the stuff that messed

20:43

up that we didn't anticipate last year . Here's

20:45

some updated things that we added in .

20:47

We fixed holes in our system , so they , so

20:49

people , can't fall through them anymore .

20:51

That's right . That's right . And so you're constantly

20:54

calibrating . You can't just implement

20:56

a process and that's it , and that's the way it's going to be forever

20:58

Right . So you can't just assess it and say

21:00

can I make it better ? And

21:02

the goal of that , like you said , is that

21:05

we're not looking to just do

21:07

better , we're looking to grow and duplicate

21:10

. You know everybody and we talk about this

21:12

on tons of podcasts Everybody's wanting to

21:14

hire and everybody says

21:16

there's nobody to hire . There's a bunch of jack

21:18

wagons out there . Nobody's worth hiring

21:20

. And it's because everybody's looking to hire

21:22

themselves and what you're instead

21:25

of doing , that you're trying to find somebody

21:27

who is capable , quality

21:29

, morals and ethics and they can

21:31

follow your system and your system

21:33

duplicates you . That's right . So you're constantly

21:36

looking to calibrate that

21:38

and tweak it and make it better . So in

21:40

this spot , just look back

21:42

over the year and remember the things that were like yeah

21:44

, that , I remember that sucked . And

21:47

most , most guys in that spot go

21:49

yeah , it's up , because that client was nuts . Yep

21:51

, they were bonkers . Yeah , well

21:53

, if you've got multiple of those happening

21:55

, I don't care if the client was bonkers

21:57

. Where is the spot where you could have

21:59

done better and can you implement

22:01

something to make it where you don't make that

22:04

mistake again you put boundaries around the bonkers

22:06

.

22:06

You're not going to allow them to win . That's right , right . And

22:08

so how do we set up those boundaries to

22:10

where a crazy client can

22:13

never take advantage of us , can never catch

22:15

us with a gotcha , because we've got our systems

22:17

in place to where even the worst

22:19

clients still get a great experience with

22:21

us . That's right . If you can hit that , you're doing

22:23

good . So now that you've got your system , though , right , we've

22:26

got this plan , we've got this . We

22:28

know we're trying to get this system

22:30

. We're going to start tiptoeing

22:32

into what the annual planning is , and

22:34

next week we're going to our next podcast . We're going to

22:36

cover , actually , how the final

22:39

part of it , more specific steps of it ?

22:40

Yeah .

22:40

Where what we want to do . When you're sitting down

22:42

to do your annual plan , you want to get started

22:45

by looking at the

22:47

past . We look at the last 12 years . We

22:49

look over what 12

22:51

years .

22:52

You look at the last 12 months .

22:54

You start saying , okay , before the retreat

22:56

, we send you a questionnaire and we say , okay

22:58

, I want you to write down the best

23:01

things that happened and the worst things that happened

23:03

. Right , what were you planning on that didn't

23:05

happen ? And what were you planning on that you did well

23:07

? And what were you not even planning on that just

23:09

killed it ? Right ? And so we want

23:12

you to start by assessing and looking

23:14

back with clear eyes and

23:16

saying , okay , that was a

23:18

bad , bad decision . I should

23:20

have never bought this truck . I'm in over my head and

23:22

this payments killing me , but it is

23:24

what it . Anything from that to , I

23:26

shouldn't have hired that guy . It was a terrible hire

23:28

. I should have fired him six months before I did . That

23:31

cost me a lot of money . I

23:33

shouldn't have done that . I shouldn't have said yes to

23:35

this job . I started with yes to this

23:37

job . It's now been 90 days

23:39

. I still haven't gotten paid . I knew I shouldn't

23:41

. I'm not set up for commercial work yet . I knew I shouldn't

23:44

do this . Whatever it is , we want to look back

23:46

at the last 12 months because when you're

23:48

going to start your annual retreat , you

23:50

need to know when am I actually

23:53

at today ? Right ? I mean , that's one of the things

23:55

that we've . We found from

23:58

talking with people coming on . The retreat is like

24:00

Self-assessment is hard

24:02

and when you have a

24:04

Pro-struct Alliance and guys that are helping

24:07

you do the self-assessment , it kind of cause

24:09

you out on on . Yeah , you're right . You're

24:11

right , I am a little bit that way . You're right , that was a little

24:13

bit bad .

24:14

Well , going along with that , I think

24:16

the value of that coming

24:18

on that retreat is that you're

24:20

able to bring others into

24:22

it . Yeah , and and so you

24:24

can do that . If you don't have an annual

24:26

retreat , you can do that yourself by

24:29

inviting other people into it . Yeah , so

24:31

if you have employees , send out

24:33

, send out a , you know , a

24:35

document that says , hey , would you fill out this questionnaire

24:37

about the company ? What do you think ? Anonymous , I

24:40

just want to know what do you think about the company

24:42

? Are you happy ? What would you like to see different about

24:44

management ? What would you like to see about our clients

24:46

? Where would you , you know , invite

24:48

them to give feedback ? If you don't

24:50

have employees , you can ask some of your trusted

24:53

subcontractors hey , what , what are some

24:55

frustration points ? That the way

24:57

that we do business , that you would like to see things

24:59

different ? You can also , depending

25:01

on you know , clients , you have to be specific

25:04

in the ones that you ask , but you can go

25:06

get some feedback from clients of , hey

25:08

, I'm doing it . I'm always looking

25:10

to grow and I'm

25:12

doing an assessment so that I can kind

25:14

of calibrate what I do versus

25:17

where I want to go . Could you give me some feedback

25:19

on the job . How did that go ? What would you like

25:21

to have seen differently ? You know , how

25:23

could it have been better ?

25:24

Yeah , there's no better Reputation

25:27

builder . You're going to clients

25:29

and saying , hey , I'm working on myself , I'm

25:31

trying to make my company better and

25:34

I know that I know you're happy with your

25:36

kitchen , but I know that there were some

25:38

things that I missed along the way . Can you give

25:40

me some feedback on next time I do

25:42

a renovation ? If it was , if I was doing your bathroom

25:44

next , where are things that you would like to be

25:46

different ? Yeah , I mean that alone builds

25:48

your reputation with those people and gives

25:51

you really good feedback . Right and so they're

25:53

like oh , this guy's working on himself . Even if

25:55

I didn't have the best experience the first time , next

25:57

time , next time that he's growing .

26:00

What's , what's interesting with that is that you're you're

26:02

essentially asking a client Will

26:04

you pour into my company ? Yeah

26:06

, and it creates this bond there

26:08

of like , oh , you want my feedback , yeah

26:11

, sure you know . And so there's . And then

26:13

the next time they need a kitchen , a bathroom

26:15

, a remodel , whatever it is , you're

26:17

probably gonna be the first one that pops in their brain

26:19

, even if they weren't happy with Exactly

26:22

how it went . Like , I like this

26:24

guy , I like the way he thinks about things

26:27

and I've kind of invested in his company by giving

26:29

Feedback and you know , so it's a

26:31

. It's a really , you know , it's kind of strategic . You're

26:33

getting a lot of benefit from it , but

26:35

there's a secondary value from doing that as

26:38

well . Same thing with your employees , same

26:40

thing with your subs . They feel a

26:42

sense of connection that

26:44

like it's not just a dictatorship . He's

26:46

asking me how would

26:48

I like to see things different ? And then all sudden

26:50

, they see something they say get

26:53

implemented in their company .

26:55

They're in , they're connected , yeah something else we

26:57

want you to do pre-retreat , leading up to the , when

26:59

we're reflecting on the last 12 months , is I

27:02

want to see your numbers . I want you to

27:04

print out at 12 months I Quick

27:06

books report . You know , whatever

27:09

you have to show , what did you do

27:11

over the last 12 months ? We're gonna be diving , diving

27:13

deep into those . But to

27:15

get there , you need to be tracking

27:17

. You need a software that's tracking money

27:19

and money out , like ProStruct 360 or some

27:21

way that you can track all of that . So that's

27:24

what we're doing leading up to the retreat , looking

27:26

at what happened . I want a clear

27:29

, clear picture of the last 12 months

27:31

the good , the bad and the ugly . Even

27:33

if it's , there's gonna be ugly . We all have ugly

27:35

and it's what's funny is . On these retreats you

27:37

will have guys like yeah , I'm just , I

27:40

did this , it was a stupid decision , I

27:42

don't know why we did that , baba . And and you'll

27:44

see people surround him like hey , hey , we've

27:46

, we've all done that . Stop it . Like

27:48

we're not gonna do that again . Let's

27:51

move forward together and and building each

27:53

other up , which is a great part of I can't tell you

27:55

how many guys I've when I've go to a review

27:57

afterwards .

27:58

They're like you know what . It was just good

28:00

to hear other people struggling with the same thing

28:02

.

28:02

I struggle with yeah .

28:03

I feel kind of like I'm on an island by myself

28:05

and I'm the only one making dumb decisions , and

28:08

it was nice to be like oh , I've

28:10

done that stupid thing . Yeah , you know .

28:12

So well , that's it for

28:14

as far as we want to walk today . The next

28:16

podcast we're gonna dive deep into . So

28:18

what does annual planning mean ? How do I look

28:20

forward for the next 12 months ? How do I take

28:23

the data from the last 12 months , implement

28:25

it in today and move it forward ? We're

28:27

gonna walk you through it in the next podcast

28:30

. If you really want to be walked

28:32

through it , come on the retreat with us . Yeah

28:34

, we have ways to do it , even if you're not not a

28:36

being

28:39

coached by us , contact

28:41

us , there's way . If you want to just get away for a retreat

28:43

, let us know that we'd love to have you on

28:45

the retreat with us . It's such

28:47

a great , great time . And how often do

28:49

you take two , three days away from your

28:52

day in and day out to plan and work

28:54

on your company .

28:55

Well , and that goes along with . The last thing that I want

28:57

to say about this is that at the

28:59

at the very end of this , invite

29:02

somebody else into your

29:04

plan . Yep right , find

29:06

a way , what , whoever it is . You mentioned it earlier

29:08

, at the very beginning , but I want to restate it because I think

29:11

it's really important invite somebody else

29:13

. Somebody else knows that the Plan

29:15

that you've put in front of you to help

29:17

you stay on track whether it's your wife , a friend

29:19

, another business , you know whatever invite

29:22

somebody that you can kind of process with on

29:24

a regular basis . That will help this

29:26

to be more of a stick to it plan than

29:29

just a one-off . I just wasted some time

29:31

.

29:31

That's right . If you want our software pro struct

29:33

360 comm . If you want to sign up for

29:35

the retreat , go to the events tab

29:38

there . If you want to talk with us , you

29:40

can contact us on our website , pro

29:42

struct 360 comm . Thank you so

29:44

much for listening . We'll see you guys next podcast . See you

29:46

then , bye .