0:01

Welcome to Contractor Cuts , where we cover

0:03

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

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Jared Flo . Thank you for joining us again

0:18

. So this week we are talking about the three

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things you can start doing today

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to start towards growth systems

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and building your company to the next

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level . That's right . We covered , you

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know , if you're in a bad spot

0:32

, or even if you're not in a bad spot , the

0:34

guys that are just kind of in the

0:36

mouse wheel of running

0:39

and running and running , and running and running , and I can't get

0:41

anywhere and I feel like I'm running and saying , and I'm back where

0:44

I was three years ago , keep in and up in the same

0:46

spot . There is a reason for that

0:48

, and so what we talked

0:50

about last week is a lot

0:52

of times you want to change things , you

0:54

start getting some speed

0:56

, some pipeline of

0:58

jobs that are coming , and then you stop it , and

1:01

that's where you stop . And so the question is

1:03

what do I have to do to keep going

1:05

beyond that and where do I start ?

1:08

One of the biggest principles of that was shifting

1:11

from reactive to proactive , and the

1:13

things that we're going to talk about today

1:15

are the proactive things

1:17

that you need to start with

1:19

that are going to build the foundation

1:21

of when you your growth and

1:23

direction . You have to have these things

1:25

in place .

1:26

What we talked about was self-awareness and

1:29

shifting from reactive to proactive . All

1:32

of that building to I . Can I

1:34

have a vision of where I'm going ? I'm not looking in

1:36

the weeds , but I'm looking up and say , ok , this is where

1:38

I need to be in six months , this is where I need to be in a

1:40

year , and understanding the direction I'm

1:42

going . Then , from there , I'm going

1:45

. What was the next step that we

1:47

talked about from ?

1:49

eating the elephant , that's right .

1:51

From there it's like OK , that's where I want to get in six weeks , six months

1:53

, one year . I need

1:55

to figure out one step at a time .

1:57

How do I get the elephant ?

1:59

one bite at a time , because that's going to allow

2:01

me to take those steps to where , when I

2:03

look back in six months , I've now

2:05

done a ton of stuff , because I

2:07

just did one or two things each week to

2:09

get to that spot . That's right . And

2:11

then the last thing is accountability . How am I going to take

2:14

those bite-sized pieces and

2:16

get them executed to where I'm

2:18

on to the next ? And that's having

2:20

someone there to say , hey , this is

2:22

what you're doing this week . Ok , let's talk next week , let's see

2:24

if that actually happened , if you had issues with that

2:26

, let's help . Again , that's where our coaching comes in

2:28

, with guiding you through those

2:30

steps , guiding you through what six , 12

2:32

, 18 months should look like , as well as

2:34

every step you need to take . And then the accountability

2:37

piece of how to execute that . But

2:40

to do all of that this week

2:42

, there are three things that are our base

2:44

fundamentals . These are the bottom of the pyramid

2:46

that you can't grow anything else unless

2:49

you have these three things . That's right . So

2:51

, diving straight into that , the first of the three

2:54

things that you have to have to have

2:56

to have is time management

2:58

. Everybody wants

3:00

to spend your time to

3:02

suit what they need your employees , your

3:05

customers , your wife , your kids , your

3:07

kids' school , staying in

3:09

your life , wants to spend your time . So

3:11

if I'm not managing my time , if I

3:13

don't have a calendar where

3:15

I can set aside time blocks

3:17

to work on my company and

3:19

abide by the calendar , that's the second part

3:21

not just having it then there

3:23

is no way to do anything else . So

3:26

that's why it's one of our first base

3:28

fundamentals . Jared , if I'm coming in and

3:30

I'm saying , hey , I'm just all over the place , I kind of use

3:32

a calendar , but I

3:34

just have to get to the night jobs and I feel like there's

3:36

so many fires up in those out . Where do I start

3:38

with owning my time

3:40

and time management ?

3:41

Yeah Well , the reality about

3:43

this business and really any business , but specifically

3:45

the construction and contracting world

3:47

if I'm not working to be

3:49

proactive in owning

3:52

my time and owning my schedule

3:55

, I will end up with

3:57

everyone else running my time because

3:59

it is a forest fire of

4:01

things going on and everybody needs your time and

4:03

everybody wants something from you , and so you

4:05

just , if you are not working to manage

4:07

your own time , you will end up in

4:09

that space over and over and over and over . And so

4:12

the very beginning of this is

4:14

just

4:16

setting up a basic weekly

4:18

calendar . We have one

4:20

that we go over with all of our

4:22

coaching clients . That is a suggestion

4:25

for , on the project manager

4:27

level , people that are running jobs . How

4:29

do I organize my time ? Because

4:31

, as a project manager , everybody's coming at me

4:33

, right . I've got my subs

4:35

that need something , my vendors that need something

4:37

, my office that needs something right

4:40

, and I can end up just spending

4:43

my wheels and never executing

4:45

anything with excellence . I'm just when

4:48

it needs to get done . I just I spend time

4:50

and I get it done .

4:51

Well , and a good way to start blocking that off

4:53

. If you're trying to implement some of the stuff today

4:55

, don't try and spend every 15

4:57

minutes on your calendar on something and

4:59

fill it up . What we're going to start by start

5:02

doing is every single

5:04

day is kind of blocked off right Day

5:06

block so day one on Mondays

5:09

is our field days . I'm visiting on my job sites and

5:11

there's a whole list of stuff that you should be doing on

5:13

Monday . On Tuesday , 100% office

5:15

day . I'm not doing estimates . On Tuesday , I'm not

5:17

visiting job sites on Tuesday , I'm not doing

5:19

. I am doing these seven things

5:22

in the office every Tuesday to ensure

5:24

that communication happens . Wednesday , thursdays are

5:26

free , open days . I could be on the field , I can do , estimates

5:28

I can do . And then Fridays are going to be 50

5:30

, 50 , 50 , 50% of the

5:32

day . The first four hours I'm going to be in the office organizing

5:35

. The second half of the day I could be going out running jobs

5:37

, not to get too much in the weeds , but that's what

5:39

we want you to do is start looking . Okay , these are the days

5:41

I'm going to do this stuff and that way , when someone calls us hey

5:43

, can you come for an estimate ? Yes , I can . How

5:45

does Wednesday sound ? Because that's my day that I'm

5:48

going to be out there .

5:49

If you have a system of organization

5:51

, you have something to point other people

5:53

towards . Yep , right , you have a

5:55

. Yes , just like you just said . Client calls

5:57

and says I need this from you

5:59

. Will you drop everything and come here

6:01

? I've got an emergency , whatever it is . You

6:03

normally go to the place of like okay

6:05

, customer services do whatever they need me to do to

6:07

make sure they're happy . Yeah , I'm going to drop what I'm

6:09

doing . I'm going to go out there , right , most

6:12

of the time that's a waste . Yep , because

6:14

tomorrow I was planning on walking out there

6:16

anyways , because I know the flooring is getting finished

6:18

and I want to walk the property after flooring

6:20

is done to make sure it was good , and so

6:23

I was already planning on being out there tomorrow . Yep , right

6:25

. And so if I have my week

6:27

, a system of organization of

6:29

my time , then the people that come

6:31

at me asking for time I

6:33

can point to the spaces that I have for them . Yep

6:35

, exactly .

6:37

And along with that I

6:39

have accountability on myself , to

6:41

where I have catches on each of these days , to

6:43

where stuff doesn't drop through . So again , we're not going to

6:45

go too deep into the how to organize your calendar

6:47

. We do that if you're a coaching client and

6:49

it takes a lot of time to walk through that . But

6:51

the goal is the first

6:54

way that Jared was talking about , where I'm kind of shooting from the

6:56

hip and just putting out fire . Someone needs an

6:58

estimate . I hop in my truck and go out there and I'm

7:00

living that way with my schedule as

7:02

to my the biggest fires

7:04

and needs or what dictates to where I go today

7:07

. Yep , if that's the way you're keeping your calendar

7:09

, your calendar , it's not going to

7:11

work long term , that's what's called the hamster wheel

7:13

? Yes , and it's not duplicatable and , more importantly

7:16

, the trust that your clients

7:18

have in you drops off because

7:20

you will drop balls . You will make promises

7:22

that you can't deliver on . Hey , I'm

7:25

going to send you that estimate tomorrow . Three days later

7:27

, the client reaches out hey , where's that estimate ? Oh

7:30

man , I was this , this and this . You

7:32

are going to start hurting your reputation

7:34

if you are living that way and

7:37

letting your calendar run you , where all you're

7:39

doing is firefighting day in and day out . So

7:41

if you're living that , the

7:44

number one thing to do look at your calendar

7:47

for next week . Just plan

7:49

what days I'm going to be in the office , what days I'm

7:51

going to be out on job sites . If you're

7:53

not , if you're not that spot , if you're

7:55

, you know you're still

7:57

swinging a hammer . Let's say All right

7:59

, these are the days that I'm working . I'm going to do a half

8:01

day on Tuesday or a half day on Thursday to do

8:03

paperwork . So I'm going to let my client know

8:06

I'm cutting out at 12 on Tuesday because

8:08

I've got to go do some other things . Whatever it is

8:10

, look at what you need to do in a normal

8:12

week and let's start making days and

8:14

time blocks of when that stuff's going to get done

8:16

and then let's honor ourselves

8:18

and our company by abiding by that

8:20

, because I can plan all

8:22

I want , but if I don't stick to it , it's not going to happen

8:25

. Now I'm not going to lose

8:27

customer service or customer care because

8:29

my calendar is more important , but if

8:32

I have a week where things go sideways and I don't

8:34

abide by any of it , no problem .

8:35

Next week I'm getting back on the track . New Me Monday

8:37

.

8:37

That's right . Right , we're going to start over next week New

8:40

Me Monday . My wife

8:42

and I say it every weekend . That's why we eat real bad

8:44

on Saturdays and Sundays , Anyways . So that's

8:46

that's kind of what you need to do when

8:48

it comes to time management . We need you

8:50

to own your calendar and know what's

8:52

happening , and by doing

8:54

that , we can start blocking time

8:57

to do step two of our three

8:59

steps .

8:59

Well , and that's the , that's what I was

9:01

about to say why

9:04

this fundamental is where I start

9:06

with all of my coaching clients

9:08

If

9:11

you don't have control of your time

9:13

, you don't have the ability to

9:15

give your space to work on your

9:17

company , because that's what's coming next , right ? If

9:19

you're wanting to move to the next level , if you're wanting

9:22

to grow , if you're wanting to develop , if you're

9:24

wanting to duplicate yourself and hire

9:26

people , and whatever it is , if

9:28

your intent is to grow from where you are

9:30

, you have to have space to work

9:32

on your company , not in your

9:34

company . And the only way to

9:36

do that is to change the order of the

9:38

way that your time is spent , not letting

9:41

other people spend it , but you're in charge of that

9:43

. So that's why everybody balks

9:45

at it and they're like ah , time management . I know it's

9:47

so vitally important . If you want to grow , you

9:49

have to have time to create growth

9:51

.

9:52

Yep , yep . I

9:54

mean , look at any successful businessman that's

9:56

out there . They have a

9:58

very , very , very detailed

10:00

calendar that has time built in

10:02

for family , that has time built in for whatever they want

10:04

to do . But this is how I do meetings

10:06

. This is how people can have

10:08

space . If they come to me , they have to come to me this way

10:10

, and so we're going to organize and require that

10:13

of the people around us , because we have

10:15

a systematic way that our time is spent and

10:17

people will fit into that right . Customers understand

10:19

that . Now , if it's a Tuesday and

10:21

we spill a five-gallon bucket of paint

10:23

on these hardwoods , I might hop

10:25

in the truck and go to the job site because we got a big

10:27

fire . But that should be the outlier

10:29

not the norm .

10:30

I had a call from one of my guys this morning who I was

10:32

supposed to meet with early this morning and

10:34

he called me and said hey , man , I've got a reschedule

10:36

with you . I've got a client , they had a

10:39

main pipe burst and all

10:41

my PMs are slammed , so I got to

10:43

go out and handle it . Okay , cool , go to what you

10:45

need to do . I get it . When do you

10:47

want to reschedule this ? For ? Yeah , he's like , can

10:49

we do it tomorrow morning ? Okay , great , I

10:51

didn't bump it right , we rescheduled

10:54

it right . So , because there was a value

10:56

, we need to have that time to be working on

10:58

our company .

10:59

So you can't do the next two steps unless

11:01

you have control of your time . So that's why we

11:03

always start there and

11:05

we talk about eating the elephant one by at

11:08

a time in the last podcast , where I need to just do

11:10

one or two things every single week to help my

11:12

company grow , you don't

11:14

have time to do one or two extra things currently

11:16

in your schedule . So we got to find that time

11:18

somewhere , and so being efficient with your time

11:20

where I'm not going to visit the

11:23

same job site five days in a row I'm going to have

11:25

a systematic way of when and how I visit those

11:27

is how we get efficient and start finding

11:29

those free hours in your time without

11:31

you sacrificing your home life

11:34

and your weekends . Right , so

11:36

that's number one time management . How do we control

11:38

our calendar Once you have

11:40

that down ? The second base

11:42

fundamental that we have is organization

11:45

. How do you organize

11:47

everything ? This is the systematic way that

11:49

we can start delivering what we

11:51

promise , what we do . This

11:53

is what started our software nine

11:56

, 10 years ago was . We had 17

11:58

spreadsheets . We had three different softwares . We

12:00

were using they all . Then we had to go and update

12:02

QuickBooks with it all and our organization

12:05

system maxed out at Jared

12:07

and I couldn't hire anyone else to

12:10

run this because you had to have a PhD

12:13

in our crazy

12:15

spreadsheet layout to understand

12:17

how the system works . And

12:19

so we actually combined all that into the software in a year over

12:21

a year , said okay , it'd be really cool if it did this . So what

12:23

if we sent work orders to cruise from here ? What if we did it ? And

12:26

so , year over year , we kept improving it to where , three years

12:28

ago , we're like let's spin this out and let other people use

12:30

it because it's super powerful . But

12:33

the software itself isn't magical . It

12:35

is a systematic way to run jobs

12:37

to where , if we build our systems around

12:40

it and tan them together , that

12:43

is how you get successful . Success

12:45

is built on systems , and the software is

12:47

the systematic way that automates

12:49

a lot of your system .

12:51

And so we had some clarity on that real life example

12:53

. Clarity you just mentioned all

12:55

the different things that we had Yellow Pads and spreadsheets

12:57

and QuickBooks and all the stuff that we were doing . Trying

13:00

to manage all the work that we were doing . We

13:02

were spending four or five hours

13:04

a week just updating , managing

13:07

spreadsheets , making sure the data was correct , then

13:09

getting that information to clients and there

13:11

was a lot of quick books .

13:12

Updating QuickBooks .

13:13

Right , there were at least four hours

13:15

a week minimum we were spending on all that stuff

13:17

. Now it's an hour At

13:20

most .

13:21

At most , and it's automated when you're honestly

13:23

, most of that stuff is automated through the software

13:25

when you're doing the normal tasks

13:28

that you're doing . Right , if I go

13:30

and say , okay , I want to mark these things complete

13:32

and send an invoice , I click a button and sends an invoice

13:34

. The client pays , the payment , goes into

13:36

the software , updates the software and goes to your QuickBooks

13:38

and updates the QuickBooks . So I now don't have

13:40

to receive the payment , update this . I

13:42

then have to go into QuickBooks , add the payment in . All

13:45

of that goes away because of the software

13:47

. Now we're really pushing the software pretty hard

13:49

because we love it , but the truth of

13:52

it is Software alone

13:54

doesn't fix your system issue . You

13:56

have to have . The software that we have is

13:58

based on the systems

14:00

that work in the construction company .

14:04

If I have a software and

14:06

I've got it , it's there . But

14:09

then I jump back on the hamster wheel of letting everybody

14:11

run my time and I'm just head down and I'm running jobs

14:13

and getting stuff done and making sure clients

14:15

are happy and collecting checks and paying

14:17

crews doing all that stuff out in the field

14:20

. Software is worthless . It's

14:22

not updated , it's a filing cabinet

14:24

.

14:24

You're spending $200 on a filing

14:26

cabinet . You don't need to do that . So

14:29

, really , what we

14:31

want . That's why the name of the company

14:33

is ProStruct 360 . It is a 360

14:36

degree view of your company , because software

14:39

could be a tool or it could be the

14:41

main battle station of

14:43

how I start at and build

14:45

what's happening this week . I always call

14:47

it my mission control .

14:48

It's the mission control See everything that

14:50

was going on and direct my troops and connect

14:52

with clients and vendors and crews . That's

14:54

right .

14:55

And if you just want a filing cabinet

14:57

, use our free software , that's fine , just do

14:59

that . It's estimates and invoices . It's

15:01

a way to send those . That can happen on

15:03

that Once you're

15:05

ready to step up to the plate and actually organize

15:08

and build these systems . It's $89

15:11

. Or if you want the QuickBooks integration , you're at

15:13

$199 . It's $200 a month , which is over

15:15

$1,000 cheaper than the next guy that has the same level of

15:18

software that we have . Yeah Well , and again .

15:20

We were running five hours worth of

15:22

labor to manage all the different stuff

15:24

. We decreased that down to at least

15:26

a minimum of an hour , so we've saved

15:28

four hours , or what

15:31

is that ? 16 hours a month and you're

15:33

paying $199 for a software . I

15:35

guarantee the efficiency that a software

15:37

is going to bring is

15:41

going to be worth

15:43

the spend . No doubt about it .

15:44

So the second step is organization

15:47

. We use software to organize , but then not

15:49

only having a software there

15:52

, but actually a systematic

15:54

way that you organize the software . This

15:56

is how we upload photos . This is how we

15:58

market to this status . This

16:01

is when we do it this way . This is how we put jobs

16:03

on hold . I have systems built

16:05

around the software as

16:08

a tool and this is how we utilize it . And

16:10

this is where the organization

16:12

piece is , where we're going to start building

16:14

, step by step by step by step , right

16:16

the time management either we're going to own a calendar

16:18

or not , and there's some steps in terms of

16:20

let's start time blocking for this , let's add

16:23

this in , let's change this around . That's tinkering

16:25

with that , but that can be set up pretty quickly

16:27

the organization baseline

16:30

a software ProStruct360.com

16:32

baseline software and from

16:34

there we're going to start building the systems

16:37

around how that tool and

16:39

how the process work . So

16:41

it could be my mission control to

16:43

start managing everything I can know

16:45

and see the levers I need to pull when

16:47

it's time to pull them and have full control

16:49

of my company versus everything's

16:51

in my head , and my brain is a system

16:54

, which means everybody needs my time

16:56

to access the system Right , and

16:58

that's what we're shifting through the

17:00

coaching program . And what we want you to be

17:03

doing is looking at how

17:05

do I organize the jobs

17:07

, because once I have that , I can

17:09

start training people on how to do it my way .

17:11

Yeah Well and what you are in essence

17:14

doing is you're

17:16

creating a replicatable

17:18

client and vendor

17:21

and employee experience

17:24

. Right , every one of them

17:26

is experiencing how

17:28

your company runs in some form or

17:30

fashion . The goal is for your client

17:32

to have always have a replicatable product and

17:34

experience . It's not the

17:36

paint and the flooring and the thing , it's the experience . We're

17:39

in the customer service industry . We

17:41

just happen to be the ones that are putting paint and sheetrock

17:43

and flooring in . Right , it's

17:46

the experience that we're creating

17:48

that becomes replicatable . Once

17:50

I can do that , then I can hire somebody

17:52

and that person can just press the levers

17:55

, do the things and have the same replicated

17:57

product that I'm doing and I've

17:59

duplicated my bandwidth of business

18:01

. Yeah , right , when you

18:03

guys come to us and they're like there's just nobody that wants to work

18:05

, there's no good people out there , they're all . They

18:08

don't know how to do anything , they're not smart enough . Whatever

18:10

it is , anybody

18:13

can come in and have character , moral and

18:15

ethics and then follow a process

18:18

. Yep , right , so that's the that's . This

18:20

is the baseline fundamental of

18:22

paving the road , of going there

18:24

. That's where we want to go , this is the

18:26

baseline start . You've got to start at this , this

18:28

organization with a software

18:30

that will eventually create the experience for your

18:32

.

18:33

We had a past week or two . We've had two

18:35

different people come into the coaching program , two different

18:37

companies , and both

18:40

companies started on the software and they were in the software

18:42

, using it , and then and they're like this

18:44

great , it's working . You know , we , we

18:46

, we love the organization of it . And then

18:48

they'd go through our initial onboarding

18:50

like a two hour . This is basic

18:52

systems that we want you to start with understanding and

18:55

you see the light bulbs go off , so like , oh

18:58

, that's why it works this way , that's why

19:00

and so , understanding it's a two phase

19:02

, it's a two prong system . You've got the organization

19:05

tool , the software

19:07

, and then I've used that as mission control

19:09

to run my systems through it . Right , so

19:11

it works on its own . You don't have to run our systems

19:14

to run the software , but it is

19:16

. It is , if you've got both combined

19:18

, it is a recipe for success because

19:20

it is a way that you start organizing and

19:22

building to where we can start giving those bite

19:24

sized pieces that we're , that we're going to start using in

19:27

the time blocks we've created during time

19:29

management .

20:08

Yeah , well , and going into the next one

20:10

, the software

20:12

. Our software is a major piece of this , because

20:15

the next one is financials . Yep , right

20:17

, financials , quickbooks , finance

20:19

management is always the thing that

20:21

ends up on the backpack burner , right

20:23

, everybody's like I know I need to do it

20:25

, but really my pressure relief valve is

20:28

I can hand my receipts to my CPA at the

20:30

end of the year and they just figure it out . Yep

20:32

, right , that's Fine

20:35

To keep you

20:37

out of jail from the IRS , right

20:40

, but that doesn't allow you to

20:42

make strategic decisions in your business

20:44

based on educated

20:46

financial decisions , right ? So our

20:49

software connects with QuickBooks and it pushes

20:51

all financial transactions associated

20:53

with your jobs into

20:56

your QuickBooks and categorizes and organizes

20:58

them for you , saving you time

21:00

. You need to be doing that . You

21:03

need to be managing your finances so that

21:05

you know how much money do

21:07

I have , how much money can I afford

21:09

to spend . Can I afford to make this decision

21:11

? And the only way that you can ? You know most

21:13

guys go in and they pull up their you

21:16

know BOA or Wells Fargo

21:18

or you know whatever online and they look

21:20

in and say , yeah , I've got $10,000 in the bank , I

21:22

can do this thing . That

21:24

is not how you run a business .

21:26

Yeah , because you've got an $8,000 check sitting out

21:28

there that someone didn't cash yet and so you think you

21:30

have money . You don't . It's the pot

21:32

method . I'm going to put all my money in a pot

21:34

. I'm going to spend from there and see what happens . That

21:36

is the way most contractors run . Most contractors

21:39

live by . I got this much

21:41

in the account , so that's how much I can spend , and

21:43

that is not a single successful

21:45

company runs that way . You

21:48

can run that way for a year or two or three years

21:50

as a one man show , but there's

21:52

no growth , there's no company there , it's

21:54

just you run in that way .

21:55

Because there's no system of organization right

21:58

. So the goal is is like I've

22:00

got to be able to have a system like

22:03

a quick books to organize my

22:05

finances and then I have to organize

22:08

them Right . That's the very , very

22:10

basic beginning of I've got

22:12

to start doing that and building time

22:14

with my time , blocking my time management , to

22:16

spend time working on my finances Well

22:19

. And then the directional goal

22:21

is to get to a place where I

22:23

know what I am strategically

22:26

going to do with every dollar . I

22:28

have a annual company budget

22:30

, not just a monthly budget , but I have

22:32

an annual company budget that helps me understand

22:35

in my on track for the year . I

22:37

have a bucket system of different

22:39

accounts where I put different

22:41

money for taxes , for payroll

22:44

, for operate right . That's the

22:46

directional goal of where we want to get

22:48

. But that's the you know 301

22:52

level right , coaching

22:54

and development . The beginning of that is

22:57

you have to focus on

22:59

your finances , you have to organize them .

23:01

And why finances is so . The

23:03

financial piece of this is so important is

23:06

a we're not going to be caught

23:08

with our pants down financially . We're not going to be like

23:10

oh crap , we have no money or

23:12

I bounce checks , right , because you know

23:14

where every dollar is going , where every dollar is coming

23:16

from . But more importantly I

23:18

mean as important as that is I

23:21

can now take my financials and

23:23

that is going to be my indicators as

23:25

to what's broken . Am I healthy ? Am I ?

23:27

in trouble .

23:28

Well , I can look at this project manager

23:30

A and say , okay , this guy's bidding

23:32

jobs at 35% , and

23:34

if I look at his jobs after the fact

23:36

not just when we think we're done , but all the

23:39

17 go backs that we ended up having to pay for

23:41

, we're at 6%

23:43

profit on this job , and so then I pay him

23:45

I'm upside down . What's broken

23:47

in this guy versus my , you know

23:50

, pm number two , who doesn't

23:52

have that issue , and so you're going to start finding issues

23:54

of what's working , what's not working . Once

23:57

I know my finances , my financials , as

23:59

well as some other

24:01

data that you have from organizing your software

24:03

, I can look at hey , these jobs are going

24:05

over 30% , 40% , time

24:08

wise , and so every day I'm on the job side

24:10

, I'm not making money somewhere else . That's a huge

24:12

, huge hole in your bucket because I

24:14

might have made money quote unquote

24:16

on this one job , but the job went from three months

24:18

to five months , and so , instead

24:20

of making an average of $1,000 a profit

24:22

a day on it , I now are making $600

24:25

a day because it went two extra months . And

24:27

so you don't realize

24:29

that that leaky bucket's happening because

24:31

, like well , we still made the profit on the job

24:34

.

24:34

I closed the job out . The client was happy and

24:36

they paid me .

24:36

Yep , and so a lot of what we do

24:39

with the strategy of growth

24:41

is all based in the

24:43

financial numbers and what we can see , and that

24:45

all starts by organizing

24:48

your company to where you're updating financials

24:51

, you're putting in the receipts , you're doing stuff that

24:53

you don't really want to do and when you're a one man

24:55

show , honestly you don't need to do because it's all in your

24:57

head . I get it , the $10,000

24:59

in the bank account . I remember I cut a guy an $8,000

25:02

check , but as soon as I have two project

25:04

managers and we've got a payment system

25:06

that our office manager is sending out payments

25:08

to crews , I can't keep all that

25:10

in my head and that's where it starts falling apart and

25:12

that's the hamster wheel that I'm

25:14

falling back into the original

25:16

whales running things where I am , the system

25:19

in my brain , and that's the only way

25:21

that things run . So those are really

25:23

the three base fundamentals that

25:25

we start with with every coaching client . That if you're

25:27

listening to this , you don't want coaching , no problem

25:30

. This is where you start Time management

25:32

find time and organize your week

25:34

to where you can look at exactly

25:36

where your time is going to start building

25:39

in spaces to work on the company taking control

25:41

of your own time Taking control . Step

25:43

two , organizing the

25:46

software . A baseline of how

25:48

jobs are gonna run , from first

25:50

lead through final invoice we called our project

25:53

management process . That's what we do

25:55

. Day one with our contractors

25:57

is this is every step

25:59

in those 10 steps of project management

26:01

. This is how we do intake , this is how we do estimates , this

26:03

is how we do invoices , how we run the jobs on site

26:05

, start to finish , and we give you all of that

26:07

. But having that down and then

26:10

implementing that into the software and

26:12

keeping accountability on that is most important

26:14

. And once you do that , the third phase is

26:16

looking at financials and understanding those . You can't

26:18

do that unless you've organized , because

26:20

that doesn't happen . And you can't do organizing

26:22

until you do time management . So if you can

26:25

do those three things , you have finances put together

26:27

to where I could say , hey , give me a

26:29

month over month report on profitability

26:31

and revenue for your company . If you can pull

26:34

that up in five minutes , that's success

26:36

. You've got your financials in order and

26:38

we can then help consult from that spot

26:40

. If you're not there , let us help

26:42

you get there , because there's a way to organize , to

26:44

do that to where we can use that information

26:47

to really start pulling

26:49

levers and tinkering with what should

26:52

happen next . When can you hire ? How should you

26:54

hire ? Who should you hire ? How much do we have

26:56

to spend on that next hire ? How much do we

26:58

not have to spend Because we're gonna

27:00

wait three months because this is happening ? We

27:02

see this on the calendar coming up

27:04

. We've got these three big jobs starting next year , Whatever

27:07

it is . We need that information

27:10

to make smart decisions

27:12

about the company . So those

27:14

are our three base fundamentals .

27:16

I would say this a applicable

27:20

takeaway right ? If

27:24

all you need to do is you can start working

27:26

on these today . We're rolling

27:29

into the end of the year , rolling to the beginning of

27:31

the year the

27:33

time management , organization

27:35

and systems , and financials . So

27:37

plan a spot on

27:39

your calendar . I don't care if it's weekly

27:42

, once a month , whatever it is to

27:45

do . Plan a space , an hour

27:47

, to just focus on what are my systems

27:49

, how am I organized and

27:51

how do I want to replicate that ? Right ? And

27:54

then here are my financials . I

27:56

know I hate this , I'm not good at numbers and whatever , but I'm

27:58

gonna plan time that that's when I'm focused on

28:00

it . You're already , just

28:03

by doing that , you're executing the beginning of

28:05

all three of those things . And then just

28:07

start there a small spot

28:09

of setting that up on

28:11

your calendar and stick to it

28:13

, and you will set up and start

28:16

rolling towards creating the base fundamentals

28:18

that you can grow .

28:19

And if you want help with

28:21

the financial side , tune

28:24

into our next podcast . Our next podcast

28:26

we're gonna talk about how you should be looking at money , monthly

28:29

, weekly . How am I managing

28:31

and what am I looking at in my finances to

28:34

understand what levers I should be pulling

28:36

today , for this week , this month

28:38

, next ?

28:39

month .

28:39

So we're gonna dive deep into that next week . But again

28:42

, we gotta start with this week's stuff . We

28:44

gotta go through the time management and

28:46

starting to organize and then we'll work

28:48

in the financials to get it going

28:50

. So if you wanna talk with us , hit us

28:53

up . Prostruct360.com . Love to talk

28:55

to anybody . We have a pro server . If you

28:57

go into the one of the tabs

28:59

on top you can find pro server lines . That talks

29:01

about the coaching programs . Honestly

29:03

, we build those around your needs . So we've got kind

29:05

of two main levels on that . But we also have

29:07

a bunch of different options depending on what you're looking

29:10

for , whether it's heavier on our paperwork

29:12

side or heavier on the accountability

29:14

and coaching side . We can really

29:16

kind of hear what you need and see if there's

29:18

a fit for you and if not , no

29:20

problem . We'd love to just chat with you and interact

29:23

, whether you're on our software , come into one of

29:25

the retreats or whatever . We'd love to chat . So

29:28

talk to you guys later . See ya , put

29:31

your name out there on your

29:33

debut you

29:40

.