0:01

Welcome to Contractor Cuts , where we cover

0:03

the good , the bad and the ugly of

0:05

growing a successful contracting company

0:08

.

0:13

Welcome back to Contractor Cuts . My name is Clark Turner

0:15

, I'm Jared Flo . Thank you for joining us again

0:17

. So this is part two of our annual

0:20

planning of how to

0:22

be looking and planning ahead . What

0:25

should we be looking at for today and

0:27

how do we plan the next 12 months going forward

0:29

? Yeah , last week we kind of covered the

0:32

importance of having a plan , how to build

0:34

a plan or really kind of how to assess

0:36

your first 12 months . And

0:38

if you go back to episode 60 and 61 , you

0:40

can see our two

0:43

episodes about blueprinting your company

0:45

. That's more foundational . How do

0:47

I blueprint ? How do I start setting up the foundational

0:50

structure ? That's right . So if you're starting

0:52

here , go back to the blueprinting one , start

0:54

there , come to last podcast

0:57

and now this podcast to

0:59

finish it all off on . So last

1:01

week we talked about our

1:03

retreat with Approach Art to Lions

1:05

, how we do the retreat , kind of the style and

1:07

why . But we also

1:10

covered baseline . Where

1:12

do we start on the retreat ? Pre-retreat

1:14

we send all of our attendees

1:17

. You got to fill out the prep

1:19

workbook . And it's not a 10 question

1:22

yes or ? No prep workbook . It's

1:25

going to take me two to three hours to really dive

1:27

into my company .

1:28

I think last year's was somewhere around 50 questions

1:30

, so it's pretty substantial .

1:33

And we use a lot of that to look at it before you

1:35

come to kind of go through and start

1:37

game planning without you , and then

1:39

when we sit down with you , we understand what's going on and

1:41

a lot of it you're going to use on the retreat to

1:43

sit down and say , okay , so that's the

1:46

truth and I answer these questions

1:48

. And all of this equals up to oh wow , I'm

1:50

definitely missing doing this . I've

1:52

got this thing missing . I need to do

1:54

this better next year .

1:56

Well , that's the big piece of it . It's

1:58

really easy when you're running the company and you're the boss

2:00

and all the stuff , to

2:03

kind of dupe yourself . You're

2:06

believing your own hype or not

2:08

in a prideful way , but you're

2:10

just running a gun in a go and you think you're doing everything

2:13

well , but being able to take

2:15

a real look and

2:17

like , how am I really doing ? So ? That's why

2:20

there's a lot of questions , because it

2:22

will help you get insight into like

2:24

okay , so let me be real honest with

2:26

this . And literally at the top it says as

2:29

honest as you're willing to be is

2:31

how much growth you can possibly get

2:33

Right . Like , be as honest with

2:35

these questions , assess yourself

2:37

, assess your company . This is

2:39

going to help you grow .

2:41

If we don't know , going into your

2:43

retreat , how you make a

2:45

mess over the last 12 months , how

2:48

can we plan to avoid making

2:50

a mess over the next 12 months ? And so the more

2:52

open you are about what didn't

2:54

work and what worked really well , the

2:56

better we can game plan , okay . Well then , this things

2:59

need to change and these other things let's double

3:01

down on , because you're doing great on those

3:03

and those are bringing in a lot of money

3:05

, or that's really a good way to grow

3:07

, and so we like to know . 80%

3:11

of the retreat is prep work , is looking

3:13

and knowing , and when we get to the retreat

3:15

, it is game planning , growth . What's

3:18

going on , how's that happening and where we

3:20

move forward ? So that's what we're talking about this week is

3:22

what's going on proactively

3:24

to forecast and adjust it , and how that

3:27

works , and also what happens

3:29

after the retreat . After you take this time

3:31

to do this , how do I ensure

3:33

that in 12 months from now , I'm not looking back saying , well

3:35

, another year wasted .

3:37

If that sounds familiar which

3:39

we've done many , many years

3:41

that we would have an idea of . This

3:43

is what we're going to do . This we're going to go . We've

3:46

got two project managers , so by the end of the year

3:48

we're probably going to be . Let's hire another three

3:50

, so we'll have five by the end of the year and

3:52

we'll be in these different divisions or whatever , and

3:55

then all of a sudden , we hire two more people

3:57

and three people quit .

3:58

We're down to one PM .

4:00

You know , like , so , going

4:02

along with that , that

4:04

happens . That's a part of how this

4:06

works . So you've you

4:08

know , you've taken the time to assess

4:11

, build a blueprint , you

4:14

know , calibrate the things that weren't

4:16

working well , that you need to adjust and change

4:18

, implemented new processes . We're

4:20

going to start doing things this way and

4:22

you've started to create . Okay , by the end of the year

4:24

, I want to be here . Yeah Right . So

4:27

you've got your plan . But that's

4:30

not where the adjusting and calibrating

4:32

stops , yeah Right . So

4:35

, as you've got to , now that I've got a plan , I

4:37

need to break those into bite size pieces

4:39

so that I can prep for it . An example

4:42

of that if I , if , in my plan

4:44

, I'm going to hire my first , next

4:47

hire in April

4:49

, march , whatever it is , then

4:51

I need to have that targeted out

4:53

there . That's what I'm going to do . That . Similarly , back that back

4:55

up , what do I need to do to prep for

4:58

that thing ? Yeah Right , I've

5:00

got to have my systems and processes in place , my hiring , my

5:02

HR stuff . I need to have some cash

5:05

set aside . So that's

5:07

now that I know , 12

5:09

months from now , this is what I want the company to look

5:11

like . Now I need to start plotting

5:13

that into bite size pieces of

5:15

what do I need to be doing ? To be continually

5:18

marching down the road ?

5:19

And let me say one more thing as we're going into this Uh

5:22

yeah , uh er . You might

5:24

be sitting in your car yelling at your radio

5:27

saying , but what do I need to ? Like

5:29

what's 12 months ? Look like Right . Like what

5:31

is my goal ? Like what are the goals that are attainable

5:33

? What should I be setting ? Cause a lot of guys show up to

5:36

asking that question .

5:37

I want to sell my company by the end of the year .

5:38

Yes , Well either too large , not

5:41

large enough you know whatever it is and knowing

5:43

okay , I understand guys , I get it . I

5:46

need to set goals of what 12 months success

5:48

looks like and but you're frustrated cause

5:50

it's like I set that every year and I never attain

5:52

it . I don't know what that looks like and what that means

5:54

. That's what we're here for . And so that

5:56

when you come on the retreat , I remember last year

5:58

we had a alliance partner it was this first year

6:00

coming with us and we sat

6:03

I remember both of us sat down with him one on

6:05

one , cause we do these one on one sessions while we're there

6:07

, and we were like , okay , show

6:09

me your plan . He was like well , this

6:11

, this and this and this , and

6:14

it was kind of some small bites and

6:16

we were like so , okay , are you going

6:18

to make a hire at any time ? Cause he was a one man show , and

6:20

he was like well , maybe next year he

6:22

showed us on his paper . He actually said do

6:24

not hire , yeah , and he was like next year . And

6:26

so we we literally said okay , why don't you want

6:28

to hire ? Well , it's just a lot of responsibility . Okay

6:31

, that's great . Is your goal

6:33

to hire in the future ? Yes , so how

6:36

quickly can we hire ? To where it's a smart decision

6:38

? And so we start breaking down his plan

6:40

and said look , you have this , this

6:42

and this in place . You've got this in place . You

6:44

are very organized here . You've got more clients

6:46

than you can handle . If you work seven days a week

6:49

and you still have

6:51

clients waiting for you

6:53

, that's a spot that you can

6:55

make the next hire . There's three

6:57

things you got to do before doing that . So it's

6:59

we're sitting in January . By March . If

7:02

you get to this spot , I think we

7:04

can check the box in in April . Start making a hire . That's

7:06

right . So we laid it out and said no

7:08

, we need bigger goals than that . You

7:11

know you're shooting for the very

7:14

low ring on success ladder

7:16

. Let's go up some to where you can be

7:18

. Because these things are in place

7:20

, you should feel good to make a hire Right .

7:22

And so on the other

7:24

side of that , we had another guy

7:26

that when he put in his

7:28

projection of I'm going to do this

7:31

amount of revenue this year , we

7:34

were like I don't know

7:36

that , how'd you get there ? How'd you come up with that number ? He's

7:38

like , well , that's really . I mean , I think I'm going to I

7:41

know I can double what I did last year and

7:43

I think I can do more than that and we said , okay

7:45

, well , let's break that down . Until we took

7:47

a calendar of 12 months

7:49

and said how much are you doing

7:52

per month ? When are you making hires

7:54

? How much is reasonable

7:56

by each PM that they can execute

7:58

, and revenue by month . And we just did

8:01

the math and spelled it all the way out

8:03

and we got him to a number that was

8:05

if all of these things go perfectly

8:07

, you should be able to hit this number . And

8:10

he was like , dang , I didn't even realize that

8:12

there's no way I can hit that other number , right

8:14

. So we pulled him back

8:17

with the reins back on him and

8:19

the other guy were like , hey , let's stretch

8:21

a little further . I think you're in a spot that

8:23

you you know . So it was really

8:25

helpful for them to kind of calibrate

8:28

that into really something that's attainable and

8:30

achievable .

8:32

I say this and we've kind of taken a pause

8:34

to be able to say this because we

8:36

can't tell you where you need to be in 12 months

8:38

on this podcast . Every single person

8:41

is different . Every single person is customized

8:43

path of where they need to go and

8:46

all we do is get feedback on hey

8:48

, we did it that way . That doesn't work . Hey , have you

8:50

thought about this ? We shoot holes in those plans and we help

8:52

build it , but we can't tell you exactly

8:54

what your plan is , because we need you sitting here

8:57

with us to be able to do that . And that's why we do these

8:59

retreats to get you in person

9:01

, sit down and let some

9:03

people who have been there before give you advice

9:05

on doing it , how to do it and what

9:07

we think would tweak and make

9:10

it better over the next 12 months

9:12

. So , going from there , we

9:14

lay out we've got the okay , this

9:16

is where we think 12 months success

9:18

looks like . Right , jared . So in 12

9:20

months I'm gonna have two hires here . I'm

9:23

gonna increase my revenue by 75%

9:26

of what I did , more on top

9:28

of what I did this year . So I'm going

9:30

from I don't know a million

9:32

to 1.75 million by next

9:34

year .

9:35

That's my goal .

9:37

And so if that's my goal , jared , how

9:39

do I start achieving that ? What's my next step

9:41

now that I've got a 12 month goal ?

9:43

Well , the first

9:45

thing that I do in that spot is

9:47

to make

9:49

sure that we achieve the goal

9:51

. If I just have the goal out there but

9:54

I haven't set mile markers

9:56

of these are the things that I need

9:58

to do and I haven't put them on something

10:01

tangible the

10:04

day to day . I mean , a lot of guys

10:06

go and they spend the time they do this thing and they're

10:08

working to be proactive and they're thinking

10:10

into the future , and

10:13

then they spend the next 364

10:16

days being reactive

10:18

. Right , they just get back into the same daily grind

10:20

, blah , blah , blah , blah , and they've got nothing that's reminding

10:23

them , that's tangible , to remind them

10:25

. Oh , I need to pause . I need to look back . What

10:27

did I say I was gonna do ? Where am I at ? So

10:32

you need to take that 12 months

10:34

and you need to dissect

10:37

it into bite-sized pieces

10:39

. So , if you want to

10:41

hire , what are the things that

10:43

need to happen to be able to hire ? Do

10:46

you have the business to be able to

10:48

increase and have some work

10:50

for that person to do ? Do you have the cash

10:52

flow to be able to float a guy for

10:54

30 , 60 , 90 days

10:56

until they can start obtaining their paycheck and

10:59

revenue and profit ? Do

11:01

you have hiring documents ? Do you have all

11:03

the necessary things to do that ? If

11:05

you don't have workers comp , do you need

11:07

to get All of those type of things that you

11:09

kind of got to dissect and then you work

11:12

those into bite-sized pieces .

11:59

Well , and a great example if I'm hiring

12:01

someone , I have to have a training process

12:03

. Okay , I'm gonna do it this and this . They

12:05

need to learn our software , they need to learn how

12:08

I deal with clients . They need to memorize

12:10

my CEA to be able to walk through clients . So

12:12

I've got a whole list of how I onboard them

12:14

. But to get there

12:16

, I need to build that list , I need to

12:18

systemize that stuff . So when we sit down

12:21

with someone it's a proactive organization yeah

12:23

, well . And what I love about the bite-sized

12:25

steps that we're getting into and we're about to talk

12:27

about is , with the bite-sized

12:29

steps where we break it down step

12:31

by step , you can feel

12:33

and measure success down to the

12:35

weak level . For some

12:38

guys like , okay , I'm gonna make two hires , my first hire is gonna

12:40

be mid-summer . Great , if you stop

12:42

there , you're not gonna feel success

12:44

until mid-summer and

12:47

Hiring someone is

12:49

the end of the race , right

12:51

, you've got to do every other step

12:53

to get there . So the steps to get there that we just

12:55

listed don't get done mid-summer

12:58

. You're like , okay , now is when I said I was going to hire someone

13:00

. How do I do that ? And you're starting

13:02

over and you're still three months away from setting up

13:04

that first hire , onboarding , all

13:06

of the HR stuff . How do I interview ? How do I

13:08

find people ?

13:09

We've got all of that planned out for you , but

13:11

you got to start earlier than

13:13

when you actually want to do that and

13:15

another example of something different than maybe

13:18

it's not a hire , maybe I want to

13:20

get into a different industry

13:22

, I want to create a secondary department

13:24

, right ? Well , most

13:26

guys go , okay , then I'm just going to work

13:28

to land a client in that arena

13:31

let's call it insurance or remediation

13:34

or whatever it is . I'm just going to go land

13:36

a client and I'm going to run that client

13:38

and the way that that side

13:40

of the business is going to run . I'm going to run

13:43

it through the way . I do everything else and

13:45

you're setting yourself up for failure . You

13:48

need to look at . That's where I want to go . By

13:50

April , I want to

13:52

start my first insurance

13:54

job , or I want to start my , whatever it is

13:56

. So well , what do I need to

13:58

have in place ? Well , I need to understand how insurance

14:01

works . I need to understand how

14:03

does the money get collected . Oh

14:05

, the money . There's specific

14:07

terms . There's 30 day terms . Once it's

14:09

the check is cut , I

14:11

got 30 days till I see that money . Okay

14:13

, do ?

14:14

I have enough Change orders . When do I do ? It's

14:16

accepted , it's not accepted .

14:17

Do I have enough cash to

14:19

take on that type of business Because I'm going to have

14:22

to float in a measure of business

14:24

for 30 days . Okay , I

14:26

do , I've got $100,000 that I

14:28

can run that direction . Well , that means I can't

14:30

take on a million dollars worth of work from them because

14:32

I don't have enough money . So

14:35

you're looking at that and saying let me set

14:37

the things up to set myself up for success

14:40

. Same way with the hiring . So

14:42

once you've assessed that , the

14:46

next step and

14:48

I think this is people people

14:50

jump over this one . They don't want to do it

14:52

, but you need to set up

14:54

strategic spots on

14:56

your calendar that you are set

14:58

aside . You've set aside time to not be

15:00

thinking about that client , not be

15:02

estimating jobs . You are this

15:05

is a spot on your calendar that are

15:07

recurring meetings with yourself to

15:09

work on company growth , to

15:13

reassess . Okay , this

15:15

is what I said I was going to do by the

15:17

end of the year and I'm in the first

15:20

month of that . So I'm going to have my month review

15:22

have I done those things ? Have I executed

15:24

those things ? And so you have

15:26

to start calendaring those things

15:29

and having spots to do that . And

15:32

where we're going next is where

15:34

are the different spots that I need to have

15:36

those meetings right ? So

15:39

the first one we've already talked about annually

15:41

beginning of the year , you need to be taking

15:43

a broad view of

15:46

where was I , where am I and

15:48

where do I want to go and start making a

15:50

plan .

15:50

Well , and we're about to walk through those too and , with that

15:53

being said , we have annual what

15:55

you need to be looking at on an annual basis , what

15:57

you need to be looking at a quarterly basis , what

15:59

you need to be looking at at a monthly basis and

16:01

what you need to be looking at week to week right

16:04

and so we've got it all laid out as to what

16:06

you should be doing on each of those . We're going to

16:08

walk through those next , but also want to let you know if

16:10

you want to subscribe to our Google Calendar

16:13

that has these put on a calendar

16:15

. Send us an email , go to the contact

16:17

us at pro-struct360.com . We will email

16:20

you a link that you can subscribe and

16:22

that will drop on your calendar for free

16:24

. You can have all of your time

16:26

blocks pre-built . You pick a day , we

16:29

set it up and it's a seven to eight AM time

16:31

block for you . But all you have to do is

16:33

subscribe to our calendar and it gets put on your calendar if you're

16:36

on Gmail or Google Calendar

16:38

, and that way everything we're about

16:40

to cover is preset for free for

16:42

you on your calendar and all you have to do is check

16:44

into those and do what's in the

16:46

notes . That's right .

16:47

Make it simple versus trying to . It's just one

16:50

fail , swoop . Now you've got those spots . Now

16:52

the hard part is you just have

16:54

to show up , show up , you gotta show up . You

16:56

know , we've said many times before , and this is something

16:58

that you've said a lot If you were

17:01

meeting with the CEO of Home Depot and

17:03

you had a one hour meeting with them whether it was in

17:05

person , on a Zoom or whatever would

17:07

you be on your phone , Would you be

17:09

checking emails , Would you show

17:12

up late , Would you ? You know , no

17:14

. You would be

17:16

at that meeting early , you'd be attentive

17:18

for the entire time and you know

17:20

these meetings you need

17:22

to view as you are meeting with the CEO

17:25

of your company , and that you don't need to be infiltrated

17:28

by anything else . That's right . You need to protect that

17:30

. If you have a team of people , those

17:32

people need to know . During this period of time

17:34

, leave me alone . I'm turning my phone

17:36

off . I'm not answering emails . If you emailed me during

17:38

this time , you're not getting a response until I'm

17:40

done . I'll respond to you , but just know

17:43

during this time that's what I'm doing .

17:44

Monday morning Clark starts at eight because I

17:46

know from seven to eight he's working on the company . So

17:49

eight oh one . I'm going to give him a call because I have a question

17:51

, but that's sort of mentality .

17:53

Yeah , yeah , you just it's . You

17:55

know everybody bypasses this because everybody

17:58

ends up through the reactive . You know

18:00

, firefighter , I'm just running and

18:02

gunning . I don't even look at my jobs , I just

18:04

get in my car , I crank the keys and I start driving

18:06

and that's how I spend every single day and

18:09

they don't put the value on

18:11

. You have to do these things Well

18:13

if you want to grow , if you want to get better and get off

18:15

the wheel .

18:16

You got this is the way , and not to make excuses

18:18

, but if you think , really

18:21

, if you are a person that plans

18:23

on doing this and you don't , subconsciously

18:26

a lot of the time , it's because you don't know what to

18:28

do when you get there . Absolutely Right , like , okay

18:30

, next Monday I'm going to plan for the company and I sit

18:32

down at seven am Monday morning . I'm going to

18:34

take an hour to do this . I

18:37

think I want to make a higher and then right

18:39

, and so that's , that's what you're doing

18:41

that week , which isn't that's not what you're supposed to be

18:43

doing on a weekly basis . You're not planning out

18:45

what you want to do . You are executing

18:48

the going up the growth

18:50

path to say , okay , next I need to be doing this

18:52

. This week I'm going to take one

18:54

hour and I'm going to really hone in

18:56

my CEA . Yeah , Next week I'm going to take one

18:58

hour and hone in my subconscious Right . And so

19:01

we have built , step by step , what

19:03

you should be doing . Just achieve

19:05

these little bites every single week , every single

19:07

month and annually your

19:09

company will get that growth . It

19:11

is unstoppable in terms of if

19:14

you are organizing and doing the

19:16

right thing , you will be growing . Yeah

19:18

, and the times that you don't is because , well , I just

19:20

didn't get get around to it . I mean , I had time

19:23

blocks there , but I didn't do it because you didn't know what to

19:25

do , and so it's a way if you feel like it's a waste of

19:27

time to sit down and do that , that's right , that's right .

19:29

Well , as we move forward , one of the things that

19:31

I just want to point out

19:34

when you start , you

19:36

know , when somebody signs up to become , you know

19:38

, coached as an Alliance member , the

19:40

onboarding process we talk about

19:42

three foundations

19:45

the place that we start , and that is

19:47

software slash , organization

19:49

, efficiency processes

19:52

, finances and

19:54

then time blocking . You know time management

19:57

. So , if you look at those three

19:59

key foundational things and

20:01

then you look at this list that we're about to go through

20:03

, this is incorporating

20:06

all of those skills . Yeah , that's why

20:08

the , at the beginning of

20:10

bringing somebody on to be coached , you have to be

20:12

able to be working on those , because this is

20:14

what we're working on on a yearly

20:17

, quarterly , weekly , daily basis . That's right

20:19

, Right , that's right .

20:20

So annually the

20:22

obvious one that we've been covering

20:24

annually we want to be assessing

20:27

and building our 12 month blueprint

20:29

. What is the next 12 months going to look like

20:31

? We use the last 12 months to help build that

20:33

. We look forward as the five year

20:35

goal to help build that . We start looking at what's achievable

20:38

and where you're at today , and

20:40

so that's the annual . That's coming on this retreat

20:42

or doing your own retreat in January . You don't want to come to

20:45

ours ? That's fine , but going and

20:47

taking two to three days to plan

20:49

out what the next 12 months should

20:51

look like for my company .

20:52

Yeah Well , and one of the things that's really helpful

20:54

that that taking that

20:56

time away does . It also

20:59

allows you to educate yourself on

21:01

the trends that happen in your company

21:03

that you may not see on when you're in

21:05

it and running a gun in . You can back

21:07

up and you can see . You know what are the revenue

21:09

trends in my company . You know what November

21:12

, december , january , february are always

21:14

like 50% of normal what I do

21:16

. Or you know you can start looking

21:18

at the . You're at a 30,000

21:20

foot view and you can see the trends that are

21:22

happening in the company . You

21:24

know clients are more agitated

21:27

during this period of time . You know whatever

21:29

and you can start planning and

21:31

calibrating and changing during that time . But

21:33

you're also looking at . You know what

21:36

kind of money do I need , what kind of hires do I need

21:38

, what departments , new clients , industries , which

21:40

we've talked about a little bit . But that's

21:42

the overarching . You're not getting into

21:44

the minutia of details . You're

21:47

looking at a 30,000 so that

21:49

you can start building the plan of

21:51

what am I going to be doing quarterly , what

21:53

am I going to be doing monthly and what am I going to be doing

21:55

by week . Well , let's dive into that . So quarterly

21:58

.

21:58

What we like to talk about with quarterly , when

22:01

you're sitting down once a quarter to look , what

22:04

you need to be doing is looking at your progress

22:06

and reassessing that blueprint

22:08

Right . So I've set this goal

22:11

for the next 12 months and I'm

22:13

three months into it . How's that going ? Am

22:15

I achieving ? Do I need to change the dates

22:17

that I'm doing time blocking ? Do I need to

22:19

actually start doing time blocking ? Have I

22:21

achieved what I was ? You know , I said I was going to be hiring

22:24

in three months and I'm ready to hire , so this

22:26

plan is great and so , quarterly

22:28

, looking at that and assessing that is going to allow

22:31

you to really start affecting

22:34

the direction of your path . Right

22:36

, we lay out a path for 12 months , hoping

22:38

, thinking from the knowledge and experience

22:41

we have , this is what 12 months success looks like . But

22:43

at three months is where I'm saying , hey , is

22:45

that still the right path ?

22:47

I got a great example for us on that too In our past we've

22:49

kind of used

22:52

this before as an example .

22:53

But in our past we

22:55

worked with REITs the

22:58

real estate investment trust that buy a ton

23:00

of houses and on one of our retreats , when

23:02

it was just Jared and I going on the retreat , we

23:04

said listen , these guys are

23:06

90% of our business . There's three

23:09

, four main companies that are sending us hundreds

23:11

of thousands of dollars of work each

23:14

year , which is great and we're happy for it

23:16

. But that's also scary . But it's very scary

23:18

, like if two of the four companies

23:20

say , hey , we're going to internalize labor on

23:22

all of our flips that we're doing our

23:25

company goes under , and so we looked at that

23:27

on the annual retreat and said , okay , our

23:29

goal by the end of this year is

23:31

that they are at 50% of our business

23:33

. We want to knock . We don't want

23:35

to lower what we're doing with them , but we want to keep

23:37

what we're doing with them and increase up

23:39

to the same level . Homeowners

23:41

, one-off jobs , the flow

23:44

of jobs coming in that's naturally

23:46

one at a time that's not dependent

23:49

on these companies and so I remember us also saying

23:51

so .

23:51

By the summer , we need to be this

23:54

at 75% we couldn't do

23:56

every three months because turning that

23:58

ship was a little difficult to like . Bring

24:01

on a new client , start taking more business

24:03

and shifting that percentage substantially

24:05

. So we just put it okay , by the summer

24:07

we should be at this spot .

24:08

And so we get there summer

24:10

. We're looking at it , we're like we're almost at 50%

24:12

. This is great . Let's readjust and try to get

24:14

them down to 25% . But let's also start

24:16

asking for more work from them Because let's grow

24:19

them slowly . As long as we're growing

24:21

the other branch and other division quicker

24:23

, we can still increase with them and take on

24:25

more work and maximize the revenue that's

24:28

available to us without being so dependent

24:30

on them . So we were able to halfway through the

24:32

year , at the second quarterly

24:34

check-in , say , hey , let's adjust this a little bit

24:36

, because the plan we had , we're killing it

24:38

and we're doing great and let's keep going and adjust a little

24:41

bit . So that's , that's the quarterly . The quarterly

24:43

is reassessing the annual and

24:45

tweaking it .

24:46

I look at that as you have three

24:49

additional mini retreats every

24:51

year . Right , you're meeting at the beginning of the year

24:54

doing the 12 month , the big retreat

24:56

, where you spend in a couple of days doing the stuff , and

24:58

then you have three more quarters that

25:01

you're going to basically

25:03

have a small retreat with yourself . It

25:05

should be about a half

25:07

day or even a full day just

25:10

to you , by yourself or you and

25:12

your team . You know , go and

25:14

assess . Okay , where are we at ? You

25:16

know that we said we wanted to be here

25:18

. Was there something major that happened

25:21

that's causing it to be the

25:23

end of the year trajectory ? Is that's

25:25

not possible ? We're actually we need to readjust

25:27

that .

25:28

Right and and with that being said

25:30

, those three retreats that you do by yourself

25:32

, we'll talk you through them , We'll

25:34

have conversation before and after them if you're an Alliance

25:37

partner . But those retreats get

25:40

out the company credit card and justify a cabin

25:42

trip with your wife and take that time to

25:44

actually work on the company . That's great . If

25:46

you've got a management team , bring that . Bring them

25:48

on the retreat . Have two , three , four of you

25:50

go and plan together . Do

25:53

not bring project managers , standard

25:55

employees , crew

25:58

leaders your best friend , right

26:00

? Don't bring those people because they have

26:02

different goals . They have personal goals

26:04

of growth , which is great , and my job is to

26:06

nurture those . I don't want

26:08

their job to be steering our ship . Their

26:11

job is to be steering their personal ship and growing

26:14

inside of this company , and so we don't

26:16

bring our project managers on our retreats . We bring our

26:18

management team . Only the people that that

26:20

have financial

26:23

responsibilities and are affected financially

26:25

with our growth , right , any management level

26:27

person . If we grow , they're making more money

26:29

, and so those are the people that have that

26:32

have the mindset of I'm going to help steer

26:34

this ship and I'm going to and I know

26:36

this company intimately to where ? That's

26:39

a great idea of what you're saying , but did you realize it's

26:41

going to affect this ? Yeah , right , those , those

26:43

types of support , are who you need on these retreats .

26:45

Well , and you know you also , you don't have to

26:47

go , you know , out to a cabin

26:49

somewhere We've done where

26:51

at noon we know everybody's

26:54

heading down to , you know , the local

26:56

downtown area and we're going to , we're

26:58

going to sit down , we're going to have a great , you know

27:00

, lunch , maybe have a couple of drinks

27:02

, sit there and talk , but

27:05

we also have . We don't just

27:07

go and now here we're , here . We

27:09

are on the weekly

27:11

. The week previous there

27:13

was some strategic thinking . What

27:16

are we going to be talking about ? Yeah , we're

27:18

going to go to lunch and I want to talk about this with everybody

27:20

, and then we're going to start looking at these

27:22

things and making decisions .

27:23

Even for that retreat we had one of our

27:25

one of our management team members lived

27:27

in a nice apartment complex that had , like

27:29

this this a rec

27:32

area or whatever that you could reserve

27:34

. And so we reserved it for the afternoon

27:36

. But , again , 80%

27:39

of the work was done pre-retreat , right ? We said

27:41

, hey , you got to do that . I assigned

27:43

each person . This is what I need from you , this is what

27:45

I need from you , this is what I need from you , and when we get

27:47

together , I'm going to call on that information from you

27:50

, or what have you thought through this and

27:52

delegate it out , kind of the different areas that we

27:54

wanted to discuss . So it was a three to

27:56

four hour meeting . It wasn't two days

27:58

long , but it was like okay , let's dive into your stuff

28:00

. All right , jared , you were in charge of doing this

28:02

. What research did you find ? What did you think about

28:04

this ? And so we were able to have an

28:06

intentional meeting , not a hang

28:09

around and talk about the

28:11

Braves you know what's going on there

28:13

but instead we're going to sit down and talk

28:15

through . Okay , jared , let's let's

28:18

, you're in charge of the meeting at this section

28:20

. Go ahead and lead us through your stuff that

28:22

you're supposed to do .

28:22

And so each of us had a job

28:25

for the meeting , but we also , we

28:27

turned our phones off . Yep , we , you know

28:29

, the people in our company knew we're

28:31

meeting . Unless the house is

28:33

on fire , Leave me alone . And

28:35

so we weren't , you know , checking emails , we weren't texting

28:38

, we weren't taking calls from clients . We were focused

28:40

for the three , four hours that we were all

28:42

together . We have executable things

28:45

that we need to be getting done .

28:46

That's right , and so that's , that's the quarterly , that is

28:48

, I'm reassessing the plan , I

28:50

am ensuring that we're on the right track

28:52

, or , if we've slipped off the path

28:54

a little bit , how do we get back on

28:56

it and what should the path look like through

28:58

the end of this year ? So let's

29:01

go down now to the monthly meeting

29:03

. When you're meeting monthly , when again

29:05

meeting meeting with yourself I'm

29:07

time blocking once a month to do this what

29:10

should we be doing in the monthly once

29:13

once a month assessments ?

29:14

So there's there's two major things

29:16

that you need to be focused on . One

29:19

of them goes along with everything that we've

29:21

been saying what are the action

29:23

items that should have been completed

29:26

in the past month ? We needed to

29:28

, you know , apply

29:30

for our GC license . We needed

29:32

to start reserving

29:34

. We needed to have about $10,000 reserved

29:37

for that hire that we're going to make . Whatever

29:39

, whatever your steps are , and

29:42

did you achieve those Right ? If not

29:44

, it's okay , things happen . Whatever Now

29:46

you need to be looking at next month . Here

29:49

are my week over week

29:51

action items that I need to be getting taken care

29:53

of by the end of the next month . This

29:56

is the things that I will have achieved right

29:58

.

29:59

And one rule with that if you bump something that

30:01

you didn't do from month one to month two , that

30:03

cannot be bumped a month three . Correct .

30:05

It becomes . It becomes the highest priority

30:07

. Yes , yes .

30:08

Because a lot of times you bumped

30:10

it because you didn't get to it , because it didn't

30:12

feel like a priority to you and it won't

30:14

. It doesn't say a priority to you . So what

30:16

we want you to do , it's a great rule . We

30:19

bumped it one month , and if I need

30:21

to bump it through a third month , let's break it down

30:23

some more , because you're not

30:25

achieving it for some reason . So , hey , man , it's

30:27

been three months now and you still haven't

30:29

written your onboarding training for

30:31

. Like , let's break that down a little bit more

30:34

. Where can you start with that ? What's the first

30:36

session that you can do with that , right ? And so we start looking

30:38

at it .

30:39

I really like that rule , and it's probably

30:41

just me that deals with this , but I

30:43

will have an executable

30:45

item that I'm not quite sure where

30:47

to start and I'm a little like unsure

30:51

of it , and so I'll bump it and

30:53

I'll bump it and then I'll bump it and

30:55

all of a sudden , it's literally because I have

30:57

a digital task management system

30:59

that I use and it will literally have

31:01

been bumped for month and month , and month and

31:04

month . And I'm like what ? I'm just doing it

31:06

, I'm spending this time moving this

31:08

, yeah .

31:08

Like , I don't delete it .

31:10

It just keep moving it and moving it . So I

31:12

really love that . If you move it from one month to

31:14

the other , it becomes the highest priority thing

31:16

, doesn't matter what it is . Yeah , you

31:18

know . And just a step

31:21

into a little bit of time management . If

31:24

you find yourself with something like that where you're pushing

31:26

it on a regular basis , it's probably

31:29

because it's something more difficult

31:31

. You don't understand it . You know you need some

31:33

education or you just don't like doing

31:36

it . Understand yourself . When

31:38

are you most creative ? When is your brain firing

31:40

the most ? Is it lunchtime ? Is it first

31:42

thing in the morning or I'm really great at that stuff

31:45

in the afternoon ? Plan it specifically

31:47

around a time where you are most

31:49

capable of achieving

31:52

that task . So that was a small

31:54

tangent , but I just I'm a time management

31:57

nut because I suck at it yeah so yeah

32:01

, the other thing on the monthly level that you need to

32:03

be doing and you need to , you must do

32:05

this every month budget . You

32:07

need to know your budget , not

32:09

do I have enough money in my account

32:12

, but where is my money going

32:14

? Am I overspending ? Am

32:16

I making profit ? But

32:18

also what a budget is

32:21

. It's not just a P&L

32:23

, it is what does the

32:25

next 11 , 12 months

32:27

look like ? Where am I spending the money

32:29

? Based on the trends , what's my

32:31

revenue ? And you've spent time building a

32:33

budget out and you need to look am I overspending

32:36

my money ? Because if you've got employees

32:39

especially if you've got

32:41

employees because you're in charge of being

32:43

a steward over the money and you

32:45

got to make sure do I have enough money to pay my

32:47

guys ?

32:47

Yeah . And month over month budgeting is not

32:49

how much can I spend next month and what

32:52

do I want to buy ? Yeah , month over month

32:54

budgeting is saying , hey , last month this

32:56

was the budget , where do we go over and

32:58

where are we making extra money ? Yeah , and assessing

33:01

last month so I can adjust next month and

33:03

saying , hey , listen , we're going into December

33:05

. Our December is always slow . We got to

33:07

cut back on the budget this month . Let's make sure we don't

33:09

do this . Hey , everybody , no one gets to use

33:12

your company card to go out to eat . I know you do it every

33:14

once in a while by pizzas for your cruise . We're not

33:16

doing that this month . Whatever it is , we're

33:18

going to tighten up the belt to make sure we hit our budget

33:20

. That's what the monthly budgeting is . It's not like

33:23

oh , I should buy shirts and

33:25

I should buy this . Well , that's a thing

33:27

you know what .

33:29

I need to turn up some jobs . So I'm going to spend

33:31

some money on marketing because

33:33

I need more jobs . Well

33:36

, can you afford to spend money on marketing ? How much

33:38

can you afford ? How much is there money

33:40

to be spent there ? And if there's

33:42

not

33:45

, are there line items that you spend

33:47

money on a monthly basis that you can say you know what

33:49

, this month I'm going to skip those and

33:51

I'm going to spend that on marketing ? Right

33:53

, so it's to

33:55

make good decisions in your

33:57

company , you have to be able to

33:59

know the finances . Finances are

34:01

what drive a good decision

34:04

. So you got to review those on a monthly basis

34:06

. After that , you're

34:08

week over week . That's

34:11

what you're . You're making

34:13

your weekly meeting . What

34:16

you're focused on is are

34:20

you , do

34:22

you have cash flow ?

34:23

Yeah , it's in the weeds . It's in the weeds . I'm

34:25

looking in the weeds as a company Cash

34:28

flow , what's coming in , what was supposed to come in , what didn't

34:31

come in , what's going out ? Who

34:33

do we owe ? What lines of credit do we have to pay

34:35

down ? When is that going to happen ? And

34:37

it is your weekly

34:39

number one job . There's more jobs , but

34:41

the number one job is you're an accountant . You're

34:43

looking at how much dollars are coming

34:46

in and how many dollars are going out and how

34:48

am I going to manage that ? That's right , even if you're

34:50

killing it Right . A lot of times you get that

34:52

way when you're tight

34:54

and you're paycheck to paycheck . But it's

34:56

just as important that when you're killing

34:59

it . I've got more work that I can handle . I got money

35:01

flowing . This is great . Mind

35:03

your dollars and cents at that time . That

35:05

is when you start nestling money away

35:07

, putting it to where you can save

35:09

it . You can start planning for the future . You

35:12

can start making a hire very soon

35:14

. But let's start taking some of that money and

35:16

not start just spending it because we have it

35:18

Right . But almost try to tighten the budget

35:20

even more next month and see how tight

35:22

we can get that , because that is the time

35:24

to sit and assess this week

35:26

. What are we doing ? How can I hide

35:29

a thousand bucks from myself this week ? How do

35:31

we do this ? That person said

35:33

they're going to pay last week . They didn't . How are we

35:35

going to collect that money this week ? That

35:37

crew still needs this check . I

35:39

promised them by Wednesday . That's a big check that

35:41

we got to cut . So who do we

35:43

need to collect from before then to make

35:45

sure that this week we're going to at least

35:48

break even or go above , no matter how much money

35:50

we have in the bank ? Our week

35:52

to week assessment of money

35:54

is I want to break even or

35:56

make money . That's right . So I don't care

35:58

if I've got $150,000 in

36:00

our checking account right now . That

36:03

doesn't give me permission to go negative 20,000

36:05

this week because we got some

36:08

invoices coming up in the future , that's right . I want

36:10

to break even . So if we got a big check going out

36:12

, I owe

36:15

Home Depot $30,000

36:17

on our line of credit this week . Let's say I've got

36:19

a job coming up . I got a bunch of lumber I'm

36:21

going to buy at Home Depot . Anyways , let

36:23

me go ahead and invoice $25,000

36:25

from that job , put it on Home Depot and

36:28

put that order in . I'm turning over my Home Depot line

36:30

. I'm going to get their order in and

36:32

I'm good and I broke even this week . That's

36:34

my goal weekend and week out , to where

36:37

money doesn't just start disappearing and slipping .

36:39

Yeah , well , and this should be

36:41

done in a meeting at

36:43

the same time every week . It

36:45

should be done every week at the same time , typically

36:48

the way that we do it . It is the first couple

36:50

hours of every Monday , so

36:52

that we can look at last week , we

36:54

can look at the bills that are coming and

36:56

we can make a plan . We're

36:58

being proactive with it . Most

37:00

people get to all right

37:03

, it's Friday , it's time for me to pay all my

37:05

guys , and they start writing checks or doing

37:07

deposits or whatever they're doing , and

37:09

the money goes whoop , whoop , whoop , whoop , whoop and all

37:11

of a sudden they go well , crap , I can't pay my

37:13

people .

37:14

Yeah .

37:14

Right . So at the beginning

37:17

of the week you know those numbers

37:19

, the software if you're on

37:21

the ProStruct 360 software the software

37:24

is going to help you with those numbers of know what

37:26

money is going to be owed . How much do

37:28

you have in subcontractor stuff

37:30

? How much invoicing is

37:33

coming in ? When are you going to collect checks and

37:35

be able to balance the ? Here's the amount

37:37

of outgoing I have $20,000

37:39

worth of outgoing money this week and I

37:41

have $15,000 worth of incoming

37:44

money . But I have $10,000 in cash

37:46

in my checking account . Great , I'm good

37:48

, I'm positive cash for the week . But

37:51

if you do it the same time

37:53

, typically Mondays that

37:55

gives you the ability to plan

37:57

, make a phone call to a guy and say

37:59

, hey , is it okay if I pay this next

38:02

week ? I'm getting a check from the client

38:04

for that work that you did next week . Is it cool

38:06

if I pay you for that next week ? Yeah , right , if

38:08

you do it reactively , you're

38:11

going to , you're setting yourself up to failure

38:13

. And here's the thing you're

38:15

not going to get a paycheck . No , no , you're

38:17

not going to , because you have

38:19

to keep your company running . So you've got to pay your people

38:22

, you've got to pay your subs , and so , at

38:24

the end of the day , if they don't show up

38:26

, your company doesn't work .

38:27

Yeah , right , I mean , how many times has it

38:29

been Friday at 3.30 and one

38:31

of our crew leaders call us and say

38:33

, hey , I need $8,000

38:35

or my guys won't show up on Monday ? Yeah , I

38:38

don't , I didn't know that . I remember

38:40

you said that last week , but I totally forgot

38:42

. I don't have the money for you . I don't know how we're

38:44

going to do it . Well , I told you last week

38:46

I needed it by this Friday and I

38:49

need it , or my guys won't want to have the money to come back

38:51

on Monday .

38:52

I mean , that's happened Time and time and time

38:54

, and time and so that is .

38:56

I am looking at that Monday . I'm not forgetting

38:58

about that conversation but I'm looking at every single job

39:01

and I'm assessing that and I am an accountant

39:03

that day on Monday . That's priority

39:05

number one for month . For that that time

39:08

block on Monday , yeah , priority number two . If

39:10

I've got my whole week planned , check

39:12

, I'm good . I know the money flow , cash

39:14

flow . I know what money is coming in , what money is going out

39:16

. I know all my crews are good . I know

39:19

what jobs are starting and not . Once I've got

39:21

all of the game planned for the week done , the

39:23

next phase of that meeting , the second half

39:25

, and I'm doing my weekly

39:27

bite sized pieces of growth

39:30

, right . So OK . So this Monday

39:32

I'm going to spend 45 minutes on money and

39:34

then I'm going to take another 45 minutes and

39:36

I'm going to write out and rewrite my

39:39

client engagement agreement because we've grown and

39:41

I made a hire and I need to change some stuff

39:43

in it . So that's my Monday . That's a successful

39:45

Monday . If I can , you know I need an hour and

39:47

a half .

39:47

So I'm going to get up at 6 , 30 to eight and I'm

39:49

going to do financial planning and

39:51

then my growth , my

39:54

weekly growth tasks , and I'm going to be doing Well , and

39:56

even even for us on this

39:59

side of the business , where we're not the GC company

40:01

but we're in the , you know , software and coaching

40:03

, every Monday morning we have a

40:05

standing meeting that our whole team gets together

40:08

and we talk about what do

40:10

we , what's important this week , what do we need to be focused

40:12

on ? And each person has a list of

40:14

action items of like these are the things that

40:16

I'm going to achieve this week , and

40:18

then the next week we roll around . Ok , where'd

40:21

you get on that ? Did you get that ? Were you able to ? Ok

40:23

, let's put that on this week . Right , and so

40:25

we're , because that's the only

40:27

way to keep consistent forward progress

40:30

and when you have a team of people , it also

40:32

creates connectivity of people know

40:34

what the other person's doing and all that stuff

40:36

.

40:36

So I'm getting my thing done . I now

40:38

realize you're dependent on that . That's right . Jared

40:41

needs me to get this done , so next week he

40:43

can take his next task on . So

40:45

it's a team mentality when you've got that

40:47

. If you don't have that , though and

40:49

we've said this a couple of times find

40:52

someone for accountability

40:54

on this growth plan . Maybe not

40:56

a weekly accountability , at least

40:58

a monthly . Once a month check in with

41:00

someone . Find a buddy who also

41:02

runs a company similar to yours in the

41:04

same industry .

41:05

I guarantee that that buddy would also

41:07

want the same thing ?

41:08

Yes , yeah , but reach

41:10

out to us . We've got different levels

41:12

of coaching , to where we do check in monthly , we

41:14

can do every other week . There's

41:17

all sorts of levels to where we know the

41:19

game plan . We've been there before and

41:21

let us give you feedback . Pat on the back

41:23

as well as hey , you shouldn't be doing that . Here's

41:25

your accountability Let us give you all of

41:27

that and and have a spot

41:29

that you can check in to do that . But no matter

41:31

where you find it , if you don't

41:34

have accountability in your life in all

41:36

aspects , then you

41:38

are going to fall and justify

41:40

it and stay down a lot longer

41:42

than if you had that accountability . Things get done

41:45

quicker and also you bounce

41:47

back and recover a lot sooner

41:49

. With accountability , oh yeah , accountability

41:51

doesn't mean you're going to do it perfectly or you're going to stick

41:53

to it . Accountability is a

41:55

little bit more of if I don't do this , he's going to ask me

41:57

about it .

41:58

So I got to get it done . Well , that's that's such a great point , because

42:00

how often do you ? You know

42:02

, ok , I'm going to do better and I'm going to create this plan

42:04

of things that I'm going to do , and then I put

42:06

my head down and it's gone three months and I'm like

42:09

, how have I not even thought about that

42:11

? Yeah , I haven't thought about that . 90

42:13

days If I have a once a month meeting

42:15

with a guy that I know I'm going to go , you

42:18

know , to the local restaurant for an hour and

42:20

sit down with him . I know he's going to

42:22

ask me questions . So even leading up

42:24

to that meeting , I'm thinking about it . It

42:26

forces it to stay on the

42:28

top of my thought process . So

42:30

I'm staying in front of it . That's right .

42:32

So that is how we do annual

42:35

planning and how we want you to time block

42:37

. Like I said , reach out to us , contact us

42:39

on our website . We would love to send

42:41

you the the Google calendar

42:44

invite so you can add it to your calendar . But

42:46

yeah , this is how we do it , and so

42:49

if you want our help doing this , sign

42:51

up for the retreat , reach out to us . Anyone

42:53

is welcome on the

42:55

retreat . We have different price points depending on what

42:57

level you are . If you are an unlimited user

42:59

of our software , which is 499 , it's

43:01

practically free . If you're on our Alliance partnerships

43:04

, it is free to come , and

43:06

so we we don't try to make

43:08

money off this . We try to break even on the retreats

43:10

because this is our launching point for the year

43:13

. That's a foundation for everything you know if

43:15

we can help you start growing , we're going to grow

43:17

along beside you . So please come

43:19

to this retreat If you , if you're interested

43:21

in planning next year's growth . We

43:24

have a bunch of events year round . Or fast

43:26

structure success , which is a day

43:28

and a half hyper focus on

43:31

how to set the foundational , what

43:33

you should be doing , how to set your org chart

43:35

, how to set core values , how to build

43:37

trainings for your team . It's a really good session

43:40

that we do , so check our website

43:42

on the events page , because we do those every

43:44

quarter ish , yeah , and so we'd love

43:46

to have you on one of those . Thank you so much

43:48

for listening and we'll talk to you guys next

43:50

podcast . See ya .