Jeremy Shapiro emphasizes the crucial transition entrepreneurs must make from working in their business, where they focus on technical tasks, to working on their business, where they concentrate on strategic growth through marketing, sales, system implementation, and team building. It outlines the journey from being an employee or solopreneur to becoming a true business owner, as inspired by Robert Kiyosaki’s cash flow quadrant, highlighting the necessity of shifting focus from day-to-day operations to creating a self-sustaining business that operates effectively even in the owner’s absence. This involves embracing the mindset change required to take on the responsibilities of a business owner, including dealing with sales, ensuring profitability, and adapting business models for consistent cash flow.
Jeremy shares personal anecdotes and stories, like taking time off for family or dealing with unforeseen accidents, to underscore the importance of having reliable systems and a capable team in place. It stresses the need for implementing technology and systems, calculating an effective hourly rate, and hiring employees who align with the company’s core values and mission to grow the business while maintaining personal freedom.
https://bayareamastermind.com/
Jeremy shares personal anecdotes and stories, like taking time off for family or dealing with unforeseen accidents, to underscore the importance of having reliable systems and a capable team in place. It stresses the need for implementing technology and systems, calculating an effective hourly rate, and hiring employees who align with the company’s core values and mission to grow the business while maintaining personal freedom.
https://bayareamastermind.com/
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Episode Transcript
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(00:01):
Educate, empower, enable impact.Thank you for tuning in to that Will
Never Work podcast, where we shareinspiring information and personal experiences related to business
and the entrepreneurial journey from those whoare leaders in their respective field. Now
here's your host, author and businesscoach Maris I. Thank you very much
(00:26):
for tuning in today. I havea treat for you today. He is
a serial entrepreneur with a focus onSAS for some of you who don't know,
that is software as a service,technology and information marketing. His role
as a mentor and coach entrepreneurs,he has helped small business owners make the
transition from solopreneur to business owner,an important distinction that many entrepreneurs can easily
(00:52):
miss when working in their business insteadof on their business. And that's where
we're going to concentrate on today becausesome of us don't understand what that really
means, right, you know.So since nineteen ninety eight, he has
been helping entrepreneurs discover the core strengthsin themselves which is very important in their
business and realize that true potential,combining passion expertise to grow their businesses and
(01:15):
attain the freedom they deserve, whichalso as y'all well know we've been told
on that will never work. Isunderstanding your brand. Who are you?
You know how as you're building thisright. But one of the key things,
like I said, we're going totalk about today is understanding the difference
between working in your business and versuson your business. I thank you all
very much for tuning in. Iwelcome Jeremy, Jeremy, thank you for
(01:36):
coming on the show today. Thanksfor having me on. This is great,
sure, no problem. So soagain in your bio you talk about
working in your business, you know, versus on your business, and a
lot of times we don't understand justthat one little letter, you know,
I turn into I to a ooh to I rate you know, something
that small, but it has thegreatest impact. So what is that?
(01:57):
What are the differences? Yeah,So if you look at many business owners,
a lot of entrepreneurs get started aswhat we call a technician. If
you're familiar with Michael Gerber's The EmuthRevisited, he tells the story of Sally
who loves making pies and then shedecides to go open a pie shop and
realizes that, you know, thebusiness of running a pie shop is almost
(02:19):
nothing about making pies and has everythingto do with the marketing, the sales,
the hiring systems, the managing,the bookkeeping, the business stuff.
And so for a lot of businessowners, they also get started as a
technician. Maybe you're a plumber workingfor a plumbing company and you go hang
your own shingle right, Or you'rean electrician, or you're a developer,
or you do you know, you'rean SEO expert, whatever it is.
(02:42):
Many people work for a company andthen decide to go on their own and
do that trade or that skill they'reused to doing for a job, but
instead of for themselves. So thatfirst step out the door. If you're
familiar with Robert Kyasaki's cash flow quadrant, you know he talks about moving from
an employee to becoming self employed,and that's the first step. You know,
work for yourself. Congratulations, you'vegot a business. The business is
(03:04):
you, And in general that meansif you're not out there working and doing
the work of the business and thework in the business, there is no
business. But as you start togrow and build that business, you start
doing the work on the business,and that comes down to the hiring and
creating systems. For the people youhire to use and starting to make the
business far more than just you.None of that work is like client facing.
(03:30):
None of that work is you know, at the counter with customers or
under the car or whatever it isthat you do for your business. Right,
that's all sort of that bigger picturework on the business that allows you
to move from the side of thequadrant with employee and self employed over to
being a true business owner. Andthat chasm is huge. Right. The
business test I use, and youknow you can use this for yourself as
(03:51):
well, is to sit back fora mom and close your eyes and imagine
the situation you step out of yourbusiness for a day and you come back.
Is the business the same, Isit a dumpster fire? Is it
better than when you left it?Now do that same thing. You step
out of your business for a week, for three weeks, for three months.
(04:11):
If you can step away from yourbusiness and come back to the same
or a better business, then youknow you're truly a business owner because you
have the right systems in place andthe right people running those systems. For
many business owners, they actually havea glorified job. Right. You've got
all the worst parts of a joband all the worst parts of having a
business, whereas what we want isall the best parts of having a business,
(04:33):
which is true entrepreneurial freedom, whichmeans you have optionality. You can
choose how to spend your time,who to spend your time with, and
what you do during that time.Jeremy, here's my question though, right
for some of us who are still, you know, working on nine to
fives, right, and we don'tunderstand because we have been an employee all
(04:55):
our lives. You know, someof us started at twelve, some of
us started at eighteen, some ofus mind started at twenty five as soon
as we finish college, right,you know, So sometimes we don't understand
what it is to not be anemployee because we're so used to doing all
the work. So so how whatdo we need to do to change that
mindset? Yeah, so there's anumber of nuances that are different as you
(05:16):
sort of shift that mindset from beingan employee to being self employed to being
a true business owner. You see, when you have your own business,
especially if you're self employed, nothingis guaranteed. Everything is your responsibility,
and as a business owner, thebuck always stops with you, right,
So, especially as a smaller business, if you're the one responsible for bringing
in sales and closing new deals,but also fulfilling client orders or whatever it
(05:40):
is that you do. Everything isyour responsibility. So if you stop going
out to the job site, youstop getting jobs. If you stop going
out there to do the work,you don't get paid. Right in a
job, if you've got a sickday, or you have a personal day,
or you want to do something elsethat's not the work. You still
if you have a salary, collectyour salary and your benefits and everything else.
(06:02):
When it's your own business, everythingis your responsibility and you get all
the benefits, but you've got towork for those. So until you start
decoupling yourself as the business owner fromthe actual revenue coming in, you need
to make sure the company makes moneyso you can get a paycheck and get
the benefits and perks. Right,So let's look at your different business models.
(06:25):
If you have a continuity based business, this might be in the form
of you sell a subscription of somekind, or you maybe have a software
as a service business, or amembership based business, or an online learning
platform, something where your customers automaticallypay you every single month. Right.
If you find a way of deliveringon that that's independent of the time you
put in, That lets you havepredictable cash flow regardless of the hours you
(06:48):
put in, and a great numberto look at that employees never look at,
but you can look at it atA business owner is a two variable
equation. There's one number which isthe price that comes out of the business.
This is not your paycheck. Thisis the profit the business makes that
you get to collect as the businessowner. Right, that's one number.
So what's the profit that comes outin a month, a year, a
(07:09):
week, whatever, and how manyhours did you put in during that time.
So when you look at the ratiobetween those two, you can get
the effective hourly rate for you asthe owner of that business. Now,
when you first get started, that'snot going to be a very good number,
and that job is going to lookpretty attractive, I'll tell you,
especially as you start getting out thereand dipping your tone running your own business.
(07:31):
The security of a job, thefact that you can just collect a
paycheck and you have all the benefitsand the sick days and all those things
that can be pretty attractive. Andif you've got friends who also have stock
options and other perks and things likethat. That can be pretty attractive,
especially as you start out running yourown business and you don't have any of
those things. But as you buildthat business and start to replace yourself in
(07:56):
the business, that equation can turn. And sometimes it's by choice. You
know. A quick story I canshare with you is, you know,
as my wife and now we're startingour family. I shared the news with
my team. I let them knowthat, hey, you know, we're
gonna be having a baby in sixmonths, and you know, we're really
excited. And my team is wonderfuland supportive. And a good takeaway for
(08:18):
you is always hire people more experiencedand smarter than you. Right. So
my team, many of them hadfamilies, They all were excited for me,
and then they asked the question ofwell, Jeremy, how much time
are you going to take off?I don't know. I hadn't thought about
it. I've always worked for myself, so I just figured, like,
I'll take some time, like Ican, you know, it's no problem.
But they said, no, Jermy, you got to take you know,
(08:39):
some significant time off. But also, here are the systems we need,
here's the knowledge you have that weneed. To know and here are
the key hires we need to make, and we've got six months to figure
this out, right, right,And we did. And so when my
daughter was born, I was ableto take three months off nice That means
no emails, no messages, notchecking in, not looking at reports,
(09:01):
no meetings. That was three monthsof truly being offline and being able to
be there and be present with ournewborn. And when my son was born
a few years later, I gotto do that same thing again, and
the business was able to run independentof me, and I still got all
the benefits of running a business eventhough I wasn't showing up for three months
at a time. Now, thatwas a choice I made, and I
had the right team members in placeto support that, which was I'm very
(09:24):
fortunate, and that was a wonderful, wonderful situation, right. But sometimes
you don't get to make that choice. It gets made for you. Right.
I'll shore with you briefly the storyof Ryan. You know, he
started a business and they were doingdemolition work and he showed up to do
all the estimates and quotes and youknow, sell new customers into the services
and show up at the job siteto make sure the guys were there and
(09:46):
got the work done. He wasvery hands on the business, very much
dependent on his presence and his physicality. Well, one day he's at the
job site talking to talking to acustomer and he looks up to see the
trailer on the back of a trtruck with the Bobcat in the back rolling
down the hill towards him. Andhe looks up in time to see this
trailer just run him over, snapshis leg, breaks some ribs, drags
(10:09):
his body bleeding down the street,and finally comes to a stop. And
so he comes to in intensive care. He's just shattered, his body's broken.
And as he's you know, inthe hospital room, he's looking at
this and thinking like, well,what am I supposed to do? My
business depends on all the stuff Ido. So he took a beat and
(10:31):
realized, Okay, I'm gonna haveto hire someone to go out there and
give estimates to new customers. I'mgonna have to get the right systems in
place and the technology so his teamcould clock in on their phone from the
job site and know a geotag andtimestamp them being there at the job site.
Right, And so he started puttinghis systems and technology and people in
(10:52):
place in the business, and wouldn'tyou know it, he was working less
in the business and the business wasgrowing mm hm. And So sometimes this
math of the hours you put inand the profit that comes out is a
choice you make and other times Isort of forced upon you. But if
you're working in your job and youwant to start something, you got to
start somewhere. So start that sidehustle, start that business. But be
(11:16):
mindful that you're not just replacing jobsecurity with self employed insecurity. Go out
there with a plan of actually buildinga real business that is better than the
job that you have today. Sothere's two things that I want to touch
on real quick. One. Sometimesthem golden handcuffs they're too gold right,
(11:39):
and sometimes we want to break themthings, you know. So like you
said that that job deals benefits allthose type of things. Even when you
said something about taking time and all, you know, taking time off,
you know, some of us like, hey, you know what, I
can go this maternity leave over hereand I can still you know, I
still have time. I could juststill do this short time, you know,
short term just ability. I thinkthere's some things that you know,
(12:01):
keeps us, you know, tiedto the job. That's number one.
Number two I want to say iswhich is what I would like for you
to talk about when we when wethink of us being business owners, you're
talking about trusting someone else. Alot of times it's a hard that's a
(12:22):
really hard place for us to be, which is in a trusting situation,
especially if we we really don't believethat people see what our vision is and
our goals, right, you know. As and on top of something else,
you said, employ someone that's smaller, smarter than us. That's also
difficult, you know, So sohow do we build up that trust to
(12:45):
get to that next level? Soyou want team members who aren't just there
for a paycheck, right. SoI'd heard forever about this idea of like,
oh, yeah, you should haveyour current values and figure emission purpose
and like, you know, youwant the plaque on the wall and all
this great stuff. And I alwayssaid, yeah, that's great, So
(13:05):
how do we do that? AndI just kept hearing again and again about
why you should have your core valuesand why they're important, and and again
and again who's reinforced do it?But no one ever explained how to figure
that stuff out. And that wasuntil it came across a phenomenal book called
Traction by Gina Wickman. Traction wasthe first book I read that actually went
(13:28):
into not just here's what core valuesare, but like, here's the exercise
in the process to sit down withyour team and the question is to ask
and what to do. The outputof that conversation is core values. And
so after I read that, Iwent to my team and I said,
all right, guys, here's thisgreat book. I bought everyone a copy.
(13:48):
Go read up on this. Nextweek, we're having a meeting and
we're going to get into this anddo that and have that first meeting.
And so as I'm explaining and talkingabout what that process is, you know,
everyone got that. We moved onwith our meeting and we moved on
to a different topic, just thebusiness of the day, which was there
was a customer request about some newfunctionality to add to one of our products,
and there was sort of the easyway to do that and solve for
(14:09):
just that one customer, but wesaid, well, what's our more generic
way of doing this that helps notjust this one customer but helps all of
our customers, Right, And soas we explored this idea, we realized,
yeah, we could do something quick. But like when we do something,
we do it right. And there'ssort of a pause, and one
of my team members on this callwas like, well, Jeremy, I
(14:31):
think that was probably one of ourcore values right there. And so before
we even had this meeting around,you know, the core values, the
mindset was already there, and ourteam was seeing the culture we already had
and was starting to craft those corevalues ahead of time. So when you
figure out what your mission, vision, purpose and core values and all that
stuff are, that can suddenly bea part of all of your team meetings,
(14:56):
that can be a part of allof your customer communications, that can
live and breathe every where within yourcompany. And then when you're making decisions,
you're not making the decision about whatdo I want versus what do you
want? Versus what does a customerwant? All the conversations are within the
context of these core values. Soit's you and me together on the same
side of the table having a conversationabout how we are supporting the mission,
(15:18):
the vision, and the purpose.Right. So when we talk about trust
right, you're looking for hires andteam members who also believe in that mission,
that vision and purpose and are willingto do what it takes to help
us all get there. There's someflawed thinking I see oftentimes that becomes a
(15:39):
blocker for many solopreneurs, and thatthinking is that if they hire someone,
it's one of two things. Oneis that if I hire someone, they'll
never do it as well as Ido it right, and we'll come back
to that second. And the secondis, if I hire someone then teach
them how to do things, they'llgo off and start a business and compete
with me, right, correct.And these are both like really limiting beliefs.
(16:03):
So if you look at most people, most everyone has a job.
Entrepreneurship is for the select weirdos outthere like you and me. Right,
it's not meant for everyone. Itcomes with a whole lot of risk,
a lot of challenges, and alot of difficulty. No, most folks
don't want to start a business.Most people want the security of a job,
the predictability of a paycheck. Right. They want to be able to
show up and do a great joband go home. And those people can
(16:26):
make wonderful team members. So themindset of everyone's gonna go out there and
compete with me and sell against meis pretty limiting belief. Most folks want
a job. Right Back to thatfirst one, though, This idea that
no one can do things as wellas you comes from a perfectionist mindset,
right. There's a reason you're reallygood at what you do. And there's
(16:48):
a reason that artists can be reallygreat artists. It's because they're never satisfied
and they're always fine tuning and alwaysperfecting. That's what lets you deliver a
high quality of service and for awonderful product. Especially as a smaller business
owner. You're putting your name,your brand on that and for someone else
to go out there and deliver withyour name on there, Yeah, you're
(17:11):
spot on. There's a lot oftrust involved in that. But we also
have to realize that when we createa system, an important part of a
system is defining what success looks like. And once you define what success looks
like and you have a deliverable,one of three things can happen. One
is that the deliverable doesn't meet thedefinition of success, and you go back
(17:33):
and you have a conversation around wherethings fell short and why and how to
do better next time. Right,How does a failure of a person to
follow the system and you work witha person on that. The second possibility
is the person feels they met thedefinition of success and you realize it's not
what you wanted, and that comesinto a system problem. You didn't clearly
(17:56):
enough to fine what success is,so you dialing what that definition is,
right? And the third outcome isthat this what we want, is that
the definition of success is meant andall is well. You think about when
you go to a burger restaurant,right, I think McDonald's classic example of
repeatability in systems, the burger shouldcome out the same every single time.
(18:18):
You don't want someone back there freestylingand doing things their own way. Every
single burger should come out exactly thesame. If it doesn't, for coming
like McDonald's, that was a failureof a person to follow the system.
But as you start putting the systemsin place in your business, you're going
to realize that your definition of successversus what someone else hears may not be
(18:38):
perfectly aligned, and so you finetune and you refine what that looks like
until you have a clear definition thatsomeone can use as a rubric and look
at the output versus what it shouldbe. And when those two align,
you know you've got a good system, someone training the system, and a
predictable result that you're proud to putyour name on. So something I want
to backtrack a little bit you saida little earlier, but I think it
(19:02):
ties in with the McDonald's mentality.It might come off as if the product
that I'm presenting is generic. Right, you say somethingbody being generic, and
in that there is a level ofperfection, there's a level of sustainability.
There's a lot, you know,a lot of things that come out of
that generic mentality. Because sometimes inthis society we're too busy looking at somebody
(19:26):
else's shiny new toy. You dowhat I mean? You know? So
how important is it for us tostay in our lane regardless if it looks
generic? It feels generic and tous, but it might not be to
somebody else. Yeah, So youdon't want to be generic to your customer,
right, You don't want to bea commodity. Right. Once someone
can look at you and compare youto a few other companies and a few
(19:48):
other competitors, you've already lost thegame. You should be viewed as there's
nothing else like you. No oneelse is offering what you offer, and
you truly are unique and you standalone. Right, So, no,
you don't want to have a genericsolution. However, internally you want consistent,
predictable output from that system. SoI'm a coffee guy. I love
coffee, I love craft coffee.I love finding local great roasters wherever I
(20:11):
go. Like, that's one ofmy jams. We can nerd out about
that right now. Starbucks doesn't doa latte art, even though any good
barrista worth their salt knows how todo, you know, a beautiful artwork
predictably on top of their lattes.If a barista from a craft coffee shop
gets a job at Starbucks and triesto pull that, they are pulled back
(20:33):
with a no, no, no, we don't do a latte art here
at Starbucks. Well why is that? It's not predictable, consistent, trainable,
and so on, right, right, So Starbucks will have a consistent
latte wherever you go in the world. It's gonna be mediocre, but it's
gonna be consistently mediocre. And youknow what you're gonna get. You go
to a smaller coffee shop. It'snot a consistent experience, right, Sometimes
(20:57):
one barista does a better job thana differ for one. Sometimes there is
art, sometimes there's not. Sometimesthe foam is perfect, sometimes it's not
right. So, as a company, you generally want to have a consistent,
predictable output for your customers that ideallyis unique to your customers and differentiated
in the marketplace. But you stillwant that consistency. So, yeah,
(21:18):
don't be generic, but have asystem that you can train your team on
and that they can they can doconsistently and predictably for the customers. So,
you know, Jeremy, I youknow, I appreciate you coming on
today. Listen. You know thisidea of being generic but still standing out,
you know in the midst of thecrowd. I think sometimes we feel
like it's generic because it might beeasier to us, you know, because
(21:42):
we're we're in that, we're doingit. It feels that way. You
know, maybe that's just our gift, that's our talent, whatever it is,
right, it just comes easy.So so in that where can they
reach out to you, where youcan help them get to that next level
and understand that even though they're generic, they still stand out amongst the crowd.
Yeah. So you can find meand all my work over at Bayreamastermind
(22:03):
dot com b A Y A re A mastermind dot com. That's where
I talk all about the power ofthe Mastermind and how business owners can connect
and really get that community of likeminded, growth focused entrepreneurs who want nothing
but the best for you. Wehave a test drive process that lets you
get a peek behind the doors andactually join us for a full day Mastermind
(22:25):
where you get to spend the dayworking on your business instead of in your
business. And that's really where thosebig aha moments come from. And you
can find out more about our Mastermindgroup, that whole test dride process and
everything at bay areamastermind dot com.Cool Jeremy, I thank you very much
for coming on. Of course,this information will be in these show notes.
But you know what, Jeremy,Before I let you go, I
got to ask you one more question. Man. It's my question that I
(22:47):
ask everybody, is my would yourather question? Would you rather choose three
doors or a fork in a road? Would I rather choose three doors or
a fork in the road? Yes, so, would I rather choose to
three things versus two is up toyou. I don't have any parameters.
Interpret how you like. Yeah,that's a good question. I mean I
(23:07):
think three doors seems more restrictive,whereas you know, a fork in the
road you can venture off from theforest as well, So we talk about
like the road less traveled versus ifit's a true fork in the road,
you can still make your own way. And as entrepreneurs, we're generally always
making your own way, doing whatnobody else has done and no one else
is willing to do. So yeah, I take the forest wrap really nice.
(23:29):
Nice. I didn't I didn't thinkof the doors being restrictive some you
know, like most people kind ofwant more options. They think of it
as more options. I don't know. The wide open forest feels like a
lot of options to me. Ohyeah it is. It is most definitely.
Hello, that what a great question. You're cool, man. I
thank you man, you know,and I think you very much for coming
(23:49):
on today. Yeah, thanks forhaving me. That love the podcast and
all the work you're putting together,So thank you so much. This is
fun, cool, no problem,man. Continue to listen to that Whenever
Work podcast and I will talk toyou a little later. Thanks for listening.
Find us on social media at ChisholmGroup LLC and check back weekly for
new episodes until next time. Thatwill never work, or will it
Educate, empower, enable impact.Thank you for tuning in to that Will
Never Work podcast, where we shareinspiring information and personal experiences related to business
and the entrepreneurial journey from those whoare leaders in their respective field. Now
here's your host, author and businesscoach Maris I. Thank you very much
(00:26):
for tuning in today. I havea treat for you today. He is
a serial entrepreneur with a focus onSAS for some of you who don't know,
that is software as a service,technology and information marketing. His role
as a mentor and coach entrepreneurs,he has helped small business owners make the
transition from solopreneur to business owner,an important distinction that many entrepreneurs can easily
(00:52):
miss when working in their business insteadof on their business. And that's where
we're going to concentrate on today becausesome of us don't understand what that really
means, right, you know.So since nineteen ninety eight, he has
been helping entrepreneurs discover the core strengthsin themselves which is very important in their
business and realize that true potential,combining passion expertise to grow their businesses and
(01:15):
attain the freedom they deserve, whichalso as y'all well know we've been told
on that will never work. Isunderstanding your brand. Who are you?
You know how as you're building thisright. But one of the key things,
like I said, we're going totalk about today is understanding the difference
between working in your business and versuson your business. I thank you all
very much for tuning in. Iwelcome Jeremy, Jeremy, thank you for
(01:36):
coming on the show today. Thanksfor having me on. This is great,
sure, no problem. So soagain in your bio you talk about
working in your business, you know, versus on your business, and a
lot of times we don't understand justthat one little letter, you know,
I turn into I to a ooh to I rate you know, something
that small, but it has thegreatest impact. So what is that?
(01:57):
What are the differences? Yeah,So if you look at many business owners,
a lot of entrepreneurs get started aswhat we call a technician. If
you're familiar with Michael Gerber's The EmuthRevisited, he tells the story of Sally
who loves making pies and then shedecides to go open a pie shop and
realizes that, you know, thebusiness of running a pie shop is almost
(02:19):
nothing about making pies and has everythingto do with the marketing, the sales,
the hiring systems, the managing,the bookkeeping, the business stuff.
And so for a lot of businessowners, they also get started as a
technician. Maybe you're a plumber workingfor a plumbing company and you go hang
your own shingle right, Or you'rean electrician, or you're a developer,
or you do you know, you'rean SEO expert, whatever it is.
(02:42):
Many people work for a company andthen decide to go on their own and
do that trade or that skill they'reused to doing for a job, but
instead of for themselves. So thatfirst step out the door. If you're
familiar with Robert Kyasaki's cash flow quadrant, you know he talks about moving from
an employee to becoming self employed,and that's the first step. You know,
work for yourself. Congratulations, you'vegot a business. The business is
(03:04):
you, And in general that meansif you're not out there working and doing
the work of the business and thework in the business, there is no
business. But as you start togrow and build that business, you start
doing the work on the business,and that comes down to the hiring and
creating systems. For the people youhire to use and starting to make the
business far more than just you.None of that work is like client facing.
(03:30):
None of that work is you know, at the counter with customers or
under the car or whatever it isthat you do for your business. Right,
that's all sort of that bigger picturework on the business that allows you
to move from the side of thequadrant with employee and self employed over to
being a true business owner. Andthat chasm is huge. Right. The
business test I use, and youknow you can use this for yourself as
(03:51):
well, is to sit back fora mom and close your eyes and imagine
the situation you step out of yourbusiness for a day and you come back.
Is the business the same, Isit a dumpster fire? Is it
better than when you left it?Now do that same thing. You step
out of your business for a week, for three weeks, for three months.
(04:11):
If you can step away from yourbusiness and come back to the same
or a better business, then youknow you're truly a business owner because you
have the right systems in place andthe right people running those systems. For
many business owners, they actually havea glorified job. Right. You've got
all the worst parts of a joband all the worst parts of having a
business, whereas what we want isall the best parts of having a business,
(04:33):
which is true entrepreneurial freedom, whichmeans you have optionality. You can
choose how to spend your time,who to spend your time with, and
what you do during that time.Jeremy, here's my question though, right
for some of us who are still, you know, working on nine to
fives, right, and we don'tunderstand because we have been an employee all
(04:55):
our lives. You know, someof us started at twelve, some of
us started at eighteen, some ofus mind started at twenty five as soon
as we finish college, right,you know, So sometimes we don't understand
what it is to not be anemployee because we're so used to doing all
the work. So so how whatdo we need to do to change that
mindset? Yeah, so there's anumber of nuances that are different as you
(05:16):
sort of shift that mindset from beingan employee to being self employed to being
a true business owner. You see, when you have your own business,
especially if you're self employed, nothingis guaranteed. Everything is your responsibility,
and as a business owner, thebuck always stops with you, right,
So, especially as a smaller business, if you're the one responsible for bringing
in sales and closing new deals,but also fulfilling client orders or whatever it
(05:40):
is that you do. Everything isyour responsibility. So if you stop going
out to the job site, youstop getting jobs. If you stop going
out there to do the work,you don't get paid. Right in a
job, if you've got a sickday, or you have a personal day,
or you want to do something elsethat's not the work. You still
if you have a salary, collectyour salary and your benefits and everything else.
(06:02):
When it's your own business, everythingis your responsibility and you get all
the benefits, but you've got towork for those. So until you start
decoupling yourself as the business owner fromthe actual revenue coming in, you need
to make sure the company makes moneyso you can get a paycheck and get
the benefits and perks. Right,So let's look at your different business models.
(06:25):
If you have a continuity based business, this might be in the form
of you sell a subscription of somekind, or you maybe have a software
as a service business, or amembership based business, or an online learning
platform, something where your customers automaticallypay you every single month. Right.
If you find a way of deliveringon that that's independent of the time you
put in, That lets you havepredictable cash flow regardless of the hours you
(06:48):
put in, and a great numberto look at that employees never look at,
but you can look at it atA business owner is a two variable
equation. There's one number which isthe price that comes out of the business.
This is not your paycheck. Thisis the profit the business makes that
you get to collect as the businessowner. Right, that's one number.
So what's the profit that comes outin a month, a year, a
(07:09):
week, whatever, and how manyhours did you put in during that time.
So when you look at the ratiobetween those two, you can get
the effective hourly rate for you asthe owner of that business. Now,
when you first get started, that'snot going to be a very good number,
and that job is going to lookpretty attractive, I'll tell you,
especially as you start getting out thereand dipping your tone running your own business.
(07:31):
The security of a job, thefact that you can just collect a
paycheck and you have all the benefitsand the sick days and all those things
that can be pretty attractive. Andif you've got friends who also have stock
options and other perks and things likethat. That can be pretty attractive,
especially as you start out running yourown business and you don't have any of
those things. But as you buildthat business and start to replace yourself in
(07:56):
the business, that equation can turn. And sometimes it's by choice. You
know. A quick story I canshare with you is, you know,
as my wife and now we're startingour family. I shared the news with
my team. I let them knowthat, hey, you know, we're
gonna be having a baby in sixmonths, and you know, we're really
excited. And my team is wonderfuland supportive. And a good takeaway for
(08:18):
you is always hire people more experiencedand smarter than you. Right. So
my team, many of them hadfamilies, They all were excited for me,
and then they asked the question ofwell, Jeremy, how much time
are you going to take off?I don't know. I hadn't thought about
it. I've always worked for myself, so I just figured, like,
I'll take some time, like Ican, you know, it's no problem.
But they said, no, Jermy, you got to take you know,
(08:39):
some significant time off. But also, here are the systems we need,
here's the knowledge you have that weneed. To know and here are
the key hires we need to make, and we've got six months to figure
this out, right, right,And we did. And so when my
daughter was born, I was ableto take three months off nice That means
no emails, no messages, notchecking in, not looking at reports,
(09:01):
no meetings. That was three monthsof truly being offline and being able to
be there and be present with ournewborn. And when my son was born
a few years later, I gotto do that same thing again, and
the business was able to run independentof me, and I still got all
the benefits of running a business eventhough I wasn't showing up for three months
at a time. Now, thatwas a choice I made, and I
had the right team members in placeto support that, which was I'm very
(09:24):
fortunate, and that was a wonderful, wonderful situation, right. But sometimes
you don't get to make that choice. It gets made for you. Right.
I'll shore with you briefly the storyof Ryan. You know, he
started a business and they were doingdemolition work and he showed up to do
all the estimates and quotes and youknow, sell new customers into the services
and show up at the job siteto make sure the guys were there and
(09:46):
got the work done. He wasvery hands on the business, very much
dependent on his presence and his physicality. Well, one day he's at the
job site talking to talking to acustomer and he looks up to see the
trailer on the back of a trtruck with the Bobcat in the back rolling
down the hill towards him. Andhe looks up in time to see this
trailer just run him over, snapshis leg, breaks some ribs, drags
(10:09):
his body bleeding down the street,and finally comes to a stop. And
so he comes to in intensive care. He's just shattered, his body's broken.
And as he's you know, inthe hospital room, he's looking at
this and thinking like, well,what am I supposed to do? My
business depends on all the stuff Ido. So he took a beat and
(10:31):
realized, Okay, I'm gonna haveto hire someone to go out there and
give estimates to new customers. I'mgonna have to get the right systems in
place and the technology so his teamcould clock in on their phone from the
job site and know a geotag andtimestamp them being there at the job site.
Right, And so he started puttinghis systems and technology and people in
(10:52):
place in the business, and wouldn'tyou know it, he was working less
in the business and the business wasgrowing mm hm. And So sometimes this
math of the hours you put inand the profit that comes out is a
choice you make and other times Isort of forced upon you. But if
you're working in your job and youwant to start something, you got to
start somewhere. So start that sidehustle, start that business. But be
(11:16):
mindful that you're not just replacing jobsecurity with self employed insecurity. Go out
there with a plan of actually buildinga real business that is better than the
job that you have today. Sothere's two things that I want to touch
on real quick. One. Sometimesthem golden handcuffs they're too gold right,
(11:39):
and sometimes we want to break themthings, you know. So like you
said that that job deals benefits allthose type of things. Even when you
said something about taking time and all, you know, taking time off,
you know, some of us like, hey, you know what, I
can go this maternity leave over hereand I can still you know, I
still have time. I could juststill do this short time, you know,
short term just ability. I thinkthere's some things that you know,
(12:01):
keeps us, you know, tiedto the job. That's number one.
Number two I want to say iswhich is what I would like for you
to talk about when we when wethink of us being business owners, you're
talking about trusting someone else. Alot of times it's a hard that's a
(12:22):
really hard place for us to be, which is in a trusting situation,
especially if we we really don't believethat people see what our vision is and
our goals, right, you know. As and on top of something else,
you said, employ someone that's smaller, smarter than us. That's also
difficult, you know, So sohow do we build up that trust to
(12:45):
get to that next level? Soyou want team members who aren't just there
for a paycheck, right. SoI'd heard forever about this idea of like,
oh, yeah, you should haveyour current values and figure emission purpose
and like, you know, youwant the plaque on the wall and all
this great stuff. And I alwayssaid, yeah, that's great, So
(13:05):
how do we do that? AndI just kept hearing again and again about
why you should have your core valuesand why they're important, and and again
and again who's reinforced do it?But no one ever explained how to figure
that stuff out. And that wasuntil it came across a phenomenal book called
Traction by Gina Wickman. Traction wasthe first book I read that actually went
(13:28):
into not just here's what core valuesare, but like, here's the exercise
in the process to sit down withyour team and the question is to ask
and what to do. The outputof that conversation is core values. And
so after I read that, Iwent to my team and I said,
all right, guys, here's thisgreat book. I bought everyone a copy.
(13:48):
Go read up on this. Nextweek, we're having a meeting and
we're going to get into this anddo that and have that first meeting.
And so as I'm explaining and talkingabout what that process is, you know,
everyone got that. We moved onwith our meeting and we moved on
to a different topic, just thebusiness of the day, which was there
was a customer request about some newfunctionality to add to one of our products,
and there was sort of the easyway to do that and solve for
(14:09):
just that one customer, but wesaid, well, what's our more generic
way of doing this that helps notjust this one customer but helps all of
our customers, Right, And soas we explored this idea, we realized,
yeah, we could do something quick. But like when we do something,
we do it right. And there'ssort of a pause, and one
of my team members on this callwas like, well, Jeremy, I
(14:31):
think that was probably one of ourcore values right there. And so before
we even had this meeting around,you know, the core values, the
mindset was already there, and ourteam was seeing the culture we already had
and was starting to craft those corevalues ahead of time. So when you
figure out what your mission, vision, purpose and core values and all that
stuff are, that can suddenly bea part of all of your team meetings,
(14:56):
that can be a part of allof your customer communications, that can
live and breathe every where within yourcompany. And then when you're making decisions,
you're not making the decision about whatdo I want versus what do you
want? Versus what does a customerwant? All the conversations are within the
context of these core values. Soit's you and me together on the same
side of the table having a conversationabout how we are supporting the mission,
(15:18):
the vision, and the purpose.Right. So when we talk about trust
right, you're looking for hires andteam members who also believe in that mission,
that vision and purpose and are willingto do what it takes to help
us all get there. There's someflawed thinking I see oftentimes that becomes a
(15:39):
blocker for many solopreneurs, and thatthinking is that if they hire someone,
it's one of two things. Oneis that if I hire someone, they'll
never do it as well as Ido it right, and we'll come back
to that second. And the secondis, if I hire someone then teach
them how to do things, they'llgo off and start a business and compete
with me, right, correct.And these are both like really limiting beliefs.
(16:03):
So if you look at most people, most everyone has a job.
Entrepreneurship is for the select weirdos outthere like you and me. Right,
it's not meant for everyone. Itcomes with a whole lot of risk,
a lot of challenges, and alot of difficulty. No, most folks
don't want to start a business.Most people want the security of a job,
the predictability of a paycheck. Right. They want to be able to
show up and do a great joband go home. And those people can
(16:26):
make wonderful team members. So themindset of everyone's gonna go out there and
compete with me and sell against meis pretty limiting belief. Most folks want
a job. Right Back to thatfirst one, though, This idea that
no one can do things as wellas you comes from a perfectionist mindset,
right. There's a reason you're reallygood at what you do. And there's
(16:48):
a reason that artists can be reallygreat artists. It's because they're never satisfied
and they're always fine tuning and alwaysperfecting. That's what lets you deliver a
high quality of service and for awonderful product. Especially as a smaller business
owner. You're putting your name,your brand on that and for someone else
to go out there and deliver withyour name on there, Yeah, you're
(17:11):
spot on. There's a lot oftrust involved in that. But we also
have to realize that when we createa system, an important part of a
system is defining what success looks like. And once you define what success looks
like and you have a deliverable,one of three things can happen. One
is that the deliverable doesn't meet thedefinition of success, and you go back
(17:33):
and you have a conversation around wherethings fell short and why and how to
do better next time. Right,How does a failure of a person to
follow the system and you work witha person on that. The second possibility
is the person feels they met thedefinition of success and you realize it's not
what you wanted, and that comesinto a system problem. You didn't clearly
(17:56):
enough to fine what success is,so you dialing what that definition is,
right? And the third outcome isthat this what we want, is that
the definition of success is meant andall is well. You think about when
you go to a burger restaurant,right, I think McDonald's classic example of
repeatability in systems, the burger shouldcome out the same every single time.
(18:18):
You don't want someone back there freestylingand doing things their own way. Every
single burger should come out exactly thesame. If it doesn't, for coming
like McDonald's, that was a failureof a person to follow the system.
But as you start putting the systemsin place in your business, you're going
to realize that your definition of successversus what someone else hears may not be
(18:38):
perfectly aligned, and so you finetune and you refine what that looks like
until you have a clear definition thatsomeone can use as a rubric and look
at the output versus what it shouldbe. And when those two align,
you know you've got a good system, someone training the system, and a
predictable result that you're proud to putyour name on. So something I want
to backtrack a little bit you saida little earlier, but I think it
(19:02):
ties in with the McDonald's mentality.It might come off as if the product
that I'm presenting is generic. Right, you say somethingbody being generic, and
in that there is a level ofperfection, there's a level of sustainability.
There's a lot, you know,a lot of things that come out of
that generic mentality. Because sometimes inthis society we're too busy looking at somebody
(19:26):
else's shiny new toy. You dowhat I mean? You know? So
how important is it for us tostay in our lane regardless if it looks
generic? It feels generic and tous, but it might not be to
somebody else. Yeah, So youdon't want to be generic to your customer,
right, You don't want to bea commodity. Right. Once someone
can look at you and compare youto a few other companies and a few
(19:48):
other competitors, you've already lost thegame. You should be viewed as there's
nothing else like you. No oneelse is offering what you offer, and
you truly are unique and you standalone. Right, So, no,
you don't want to have a genericsolution. However, internally you want consistent,
predictable output from that system. SoI'm a coffee guy. I love
coffee, I love craft coffee.I love finding local great roasters wherever I
(20:11):
go. Like, that's one ofmy jams. We can nerd out about
that right now. Starbucks doesn't doa latte art, even though any good
barrista worth their salt knows how todo, you know, a beautiful artwork
predictably on top of their lattes.If a barista from a craft coffee shop
gets a job at Starbucks and triesto pull that, they are pulled back
(20:33):
with a no, no, no, we don't do a latte art here
at Starbucks. Well why is that? It's not predictable, consistent, trainable,
and so on, right, right, So Starbucks will have a consistent
latte wherever you go in the world. It's gonna be mediocre, but it's
gonna be consistently mediocre. And youknow what you're gonna get. You go
to a smaller coffee shop. It'snot a consistent experience, right, Sometimes
(20:57):
one barista does a better job thana differ for one. Sometimes there is
art, sometimes there's not. Sometimesthe foam is perfect, sometimes it's not
right. So, as a company, you generally want to have a consistent,
predictable output for your customers that ideallyis unique to your customers and differentiated
in the marketplace. But you stillwant that consistency. So, yeah,
(21:18):
don't be generic, but have asystem that you can train your team on
and that they can they can doconsistently and predictably for the customers. So,
you know, Jeremy, I youknow, I appreciate you coming on
today. Listen. You know thisidea of being generic but still standing out,
you know in the midst of thecrowd. I think sometimes we feel
like it's generic because it might beeasier to us, you know, because
(21:42):
we're we're in that, we're doingit. It feels that way. You
know, maybe that's just our gift, that's our talent, whatever it is,
right, it just comes easy.So so in that where can they
reach out to you, where youcan help them get to that next level
and understand that even though they're generic, they still stand out amongst the crowd.
Yeah. So you can find meand all my work over at Bayreamastermind
(22:03):
dot com b A Y A re A mastermind dot com. That's where
I talk all about the power ofthe Mastermind and how business owners can connect
and really get that community of likeminded, growth focused entrepreneurs who want nothing
but the best for you. Wehave a test drive process that lets you
get a peek behind the doors andactually join us for a full day Mastermind
(22:25):
where you get to spend the dayworking on your business instead of in your
business. And that's really where thosebig aha moments come from. And you
can find out more about our Mastermindgroup, that whole test dride process and
everything at bay areamastermind dot com.Cool Jeremy, I thank you very much
for coming on. Of course,this information will be in these show notes.
But you know what, Jeremy,Before I let you go, I
got to ask you one more question. Man. It's my question that I
(22:47):
ask everybody, is my would yourather question? Would you rather choose three
doors or a fork in a road? Would I rather choose three doors or
a fork in the road? Yes, so, would I rather choose to
three things versus two is up toyou. I don't have any parameters.
Interpret how you like. Yeah,that's a good question. I mean I
(23:07):
think three doors seems more restrictive,whereas you know, a fork in the
road you can venture off from theforest as well, So we talk about
like the road less traveled versus ifit's a true fork in the road,
you can still make your own way. And as entrepreneurs, we're generally always
making your own way, doing whatnobody else has done and no one else
is willing to do. So yeah, I take the forest wrap really nice.
(23:29):
Nice. I didn't I didn't thinkof the doors being restrictive some you
know, like most people kind ofwant more options. They think of it
as more options. I don't know. The wide open forest feels like a
lot of options to me. Ohyeah it is. It is most definitely.
Hello, that what a great question. You're cool, man. I
thank you man, you know,and I think you very much for coming
(23:49):
on today. Yeah, thanks forhaving me. That love the podcast and
all the work you're putting together,So thank you so much. This is
fun, cool, no problem,man. Continue to listen to that Whenever
Work podcast and I will talk toyou a little later. Thanks for listening.
Find us on social media at ChisholmGroup LLC and check back weekly for
new episodes until next time. Thatwill never work, or will it
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