Ever wanted to know how to turn a start-up into a thriving business? Let's walk that path with Joe Haslam, an acclaimed business and financial consultant, as he unveils the secrets of his industry. Joe recounts his experience with a client who doubled their size under his guidance, left his services, and returned twice, an echoing testament to his value. We dive into the art of identifying the perfect client and determining pricing based on keen market research, underlining the merits of a flexible pricing scale in fueling business growth.
Joe also takes us through the crucial role of problem-solving in running a successful business, pulling examples from giants like Enterprise Rent-A-Car. His unique approach in crafting solutions for small to medium businesses and the implementation of secondary and tertiary products and services for enhanced customer value will get you thinking. The conversation further expands into innovative business strategies and techniques to acquire clients, emphasizing frankness and sincerity in all dealings.
When it comes to setting and reaching goals, Joe unravels a fascinating tale of a farmer and his son to demonstrate the significance of clear vision. The power of mentorship and accountability also takes center stage in our discussion. Plus, we have a bonus segment where we delve into the complex case of marketing two buck macaroni and cheese to the right demographic. As we wrap up, remember this episode isn't just for aspiring entrepreneurs or established business owners, but anyone intrigued by the world of business.
Ever wanted to know how to turn a start-up into a thriving business? Let's walk that path with Joe Haslam, an acclaimed business and financial consultant, as he unveils the secrets of his industry. Joe recounts his experience with a client who doubled their size under his guidance, left his services, and returned twice, an echoing testament to his value. We dive into the art of identifying the perfect client and determining pricing based on keen market research, underlining the merits of a flexible pricing scale in fueling business growth.
Joe also takes us through the crucial role of problem-solving in running a successful business, pulling examples from giants like Enterprise Rent-A-Car. His unique approach in crafting solutions for small to medium businesses and the implementation of secondary and tertiary products and services for enhanced customer value will get you thinking. The conversation further expands into innovative business strategies and techniques to acquire clients, emphasizing frankness and sincerity in all dealings.
When it comes to setting and reaching goals, Joe unravels a fascinating tale of a farmer and his son to demonstrate the significance of clear vision. The power of mentorship and accountability also takes center stage in our discussion. Plus, we have a bonus segment where we delve into the complex case of marketing two buck macaroni and cheese to the right demographic. As we wrap up, remember this episode isn't just for aspiring entrepreneurs or established business owners, but anyone intrigued by the world of business.
Today on the Idiot's Guide, we are talking about having an interview with Joe, about Joe, a story about the man in charge, and while most people are out there in the wild economy just trying to save a buck anywhere they can, a Wisconsin noodles and company had to literally save a buck, dear that is. I'm your host, adam Richardson, aka the profit hacker, and I'm joined by the man in charge, mr Joe Haslam. Welcome to the Idiot's Guide. Well, we have a little bit different of a format that I think we're going to pursue today and, you know, while we've dropped little morsels of wisdom about our business expertise and things like that throughout our episodes, a lot of it is just kind of, you know, unintentional I guess, and so you know, we do draw from that in a lot of different aspects of what we do professionally. But at the end of the day, what about getting down to the nitty gritty and just actually going like, hey, I want to start something, I want to do something, and I don't know why I'm from West Virginia all of a sudden. But you know, you get to this point and you go. I want to start a business, I want to get it going, and a lot of times.
Speaker 1:It's an opportunity to glean from the success of someone who's down the road, and that's what we do best is. You know, as idiots we try to project what we've done or accomplished or not accomplished and from that be able to give you some wisdom, hopefully, from it. So Joe has volunteered to, in proxy, kind of go through some of these interview questions and our hope is that you can take from this some information about you know, how do you pursue, what are you looking for? Those sorts of things. So I guess you know before I jump into this, do you have any disclaimers that you want to put out there? Just in case you know, if I ask the wrong question you might cuss a little, I don't know.
Speaker 2:I don't think so. This is just one individual's opinions. I've been doing this for a long time, but you know, we talked about in a lot of our adulting subjects finding mentors, finding someone that you can look up to and someone who can teach you, direct you, help you understand. I had mentors who helped me learn a ton about business and how to properly run a business, how to work with individuals, all those kinds of things, and that's what made me successful. I've had my own failures in business. I think it was because I was ahead of the curve in some of those but just understanding and knowing a lot of this is going to be really important for anyone looking to start a business, whether it's, you know, selling handcrafted stuff on Etsy or looking to be the next Elon Musk.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's ambitious, possible, really ambitious.
Speaker 2:It covers the entire spectrum.
Speaker 1:All right. Well, let's, let's. I. What I want to do is I want to dive in a little bit different of a direction at the front end of this and just kind of say, like you know, one of the things that we thrive in is, you know, our client interactions. It depends on what you do, of course, but you know I do. Do you have like a, a shining star example, something that you feel like is your best, that you can go back and you always think of it? You're like man, that was a good one, you know.
Speaker 2:I do have a client that I always use them as an example just because of the success that they've had with some of the stuff that I do. So we've talked a little bit about in the past. I think some of the interview questions go into a little bit more detail about what exactly I do. But I do business and financial consulting, accounting, all of the kitten caboodle that affects all that funny money stuff, you know finances and operations.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I've got one client.
Speaker 2:They've been a client for well, I don't even know how many years now probably six, seven years at this point and they've left me twice and come back both times.
Speaker 1:I love it. That's a good thing, I think.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, Well yeah, the reason they left is because they were. They felt that they had graduated beyond my services and they kind of had I work with. We're going to talk a little bit about ideal customer and all that stuff. They had gotten a little too large for me. I've actually had a couple of clients that have left and come back, but this one specifically. So they got, they felt they were too big, they needed more information. So they go out and find other companies that tout that they are in this other industry they can do more, provide more information, and both times it was just a mess when they left. You know three months of no information, no reports, and they're used to getting information on a weekly basis.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so to go three months as a business owner without any detail of how your business is running financially. That's a long time.
Speaker 1:Especially if you've conditioned them to kind of have that expectation and and oh wow.
Speaker 2:And and that's what I talked to them about the first time they came back I said you know, here's the reason why this was so bad, why you guys have this negative feeling to you know, outside services is you got spoiled? Yeah, you were spoiled. This was so when I started working with them, they were making maybe 500,000 in revenue a year selling a product online, and so I mean it's somewhat successful. I mean, they weren't making a lot of net income yeah, a lot of revenue, but that net is what it comes down to. It's how much you get to keep. They weren't having a lot of that, and so from that very beginning timeframe to where they are now, they have let's see what is that 10, 14 times the revenue from where they were back then to where they are now.
Speaker 1:That's impressive, and so and that's in.
Speaker 2:Like I said about, I think seven years is how long they've been a client. But when I started working with them really had no knowledge about what to look for with metrics really good with sales, really good with marketing, but just not anything, for they didn't have the financial, the operational, all that extra stuff that takes you from a small business to a much larger business. And so it was really the first couple of years was a lot of education, a lot of teaching, and they were getting those weekly reports. They were getting that weekly data and yeah, well, I'm not the one that's running their operations. They are. They take the credit for building their business to where it is today. I do take credit for them having the right information at the right time to be nimble and to make the best decisions possible. And so if they didn't have that information, they may have still been successful, but I don't think as quickly or as robustly.
Speaker 1:I think one of the things that I kind of get to with that is to go like you've been at it for a number of years. It sounds like Obviously not longer I mean longer than that of your clients. But also, you know, just to think, like I hear it always. I always said this way is doing something that you love. You know, and because you love it you can rinse, repeat, rinse, repeat, and then you're gonna run into hurdles, but you're doing what you love doing and so it's something where you're like, meh, whatever, cool, let's drive on and you're gonna do it and you're gonna push past that. Would you say that this, what you do here, seeing the success of different clients is one of your passions, or I mean, I don't wanna assume that.
Speaker 2:So one of the things that I this is kind of a long answer to that, okay, one of the things that I do on the sides is not my main job. I like doing a lot of research. We've talked about this. I do neurologic research, physics research. I do a lot of different things in my quote, unquote spare time, and you know, one of the things that I do neurologically is you look at, what are the things that give you serotonin and dopamine, what are these activities that help you be happier?
Speaker 2:And for me, because of the way that I was raised in a very competitive atmosphere not a healthy competitive atmosphere, but a very competitive atmosphere growing up, praise and getting a lot of those results of this is great, you're awesome, you're a help to succeed. That's one of my big dopamine factors and so that's what gets me a lot of that. So a part of it is just getting that praise. That's one of the, I guess, passions is actually getting those results and so seeing that, that's great.
Speaker 2:Another one of my passions is just data. The more information you have, the better choices that you can make. It's learning, it's experiences, it's more information, and so data management and being able to answer a complex problem is rewarding for me. I love solving problems Even from the time I was a little kid like I'm talking. Like kindergarten I was doing those logic puzzles where you get those charts and it gives you the eight questions or eight statements and you have to figure out all that. I've been doing that since I was a little little kid and so it's solving puzzles, solving the riddle of a business to be able to take it to the best it possibly can be is just another one of my passions.
Speaker 1:I can agree with that, Like I think that me personally, that's a big thing that I enjoy is to be able to dig in and discover and find a little bit more definitive proof of something to be able to solve.
Speaker 2:And I do wanna say that's an important thing. As a business owner, you have to understand what is it that gives you that result, because I'm an accountant. Okay, that's a very broad concept. What is an accountant? Is it bookkeeping, is it taxes? Is it audit? Is it business consulting? What is it, as an accountant, that you actually do, and what is it that you enjoy doing?
Speaker 2:And so you may get into a business because you have a passion for it, but then, as you get into it, you start getting away from that passion, and so if I were to ever not do the actual one-on-one consulting that I do and do the business management side of my own business, I would hate it.
Speaker 2:I would no longer want to own a business and financial consulting firm because I'm not doing the business and financial consulting that I like doing. I'm not getting the praise that my brain desires in order to be happy, and so it's those kinds of things that you have to recognize, and a lot of business owners get into this. They start a business selling widgets. They like the idea of the widgets, but then the business grows and they become CEO of a business selling widgets. They're no longer selling widgets, they are running a company, and so the best thing that a business owner can do in that situation is stay within your passion. If that means that you are the owner of a multi-million dollar business, but you're sitting on that factory line doing the actual manufacturing, because that's what you love doing, do it. Hire someone else to be the CEO. You don't need to be the CEO, you don't need to be the manager. Work on the line.
Speaker 1:I would even add if you've developed the process to get a business to do what you want it to do. If it's widgets, sell another widget, do another one, create the next line in that model, whether it's in the same sphere or because you have something where you're like right now, online sales is kind of the biggest thing, and in online sales, if you have something that you've been able to really build the system around, well then the system is what you actually created. The widget is just applied to the system and blew up, and that's perfect. So now you go, okay, well, because I have this system, I can now take this and duplicate it, and now you have two systems running, you have three systems, so on and so forth, and then Joe's super busy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think that's the biggest thing is recognize what your passion really is. It's not about being a business owner. Now, some people do like owning businesses. It doesn't matter what they're doing, it could be doing anything they're just good and passionate about running businesses.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And so if that's who you're, great. If that's, and you should never be on the line. If that's who you are and you have to rely on your manufacturers, on your teams, to actually do what needs to be done. But find out what your specific passion is and stick to it. Don't go beyond your passion, because then you'll find that your business starts to fail because you're not focusing on what is important and valuable to you.
Speaker 1:So let's talk about you know. I mean you kind of alluded to it, but how did you land on your ideal customer?
Speaker 2:So it was actually through trial and error, figuring out what kinds of businesses and what level and stage of businesses are gonna benefit the most.
Speaker 2:Now I say that because my ideal customer, so I do business and financial consulting, and so we look at, we create what we call a weekly operating report and some of my clients have very simple operating reports. Some of my clients have 30 plus page weekly operating reports that are very complex, going into very detailed information, and so when you're looking at this kind of work so you know, analyzing a business, telling a business what they should do, figuring out what their whole picture as a business is, their best clients, their worst clients, their demographic regions, what state is best for them, what state is worst for them All this individual data sometimes a small business doesn't have any value to that. So if it's a really small business, so I'd say less than you know, 500,000 a year, Even 500,000 in revenue a year, is kind of small for some of this data. I look at those clients more as my educational clients. I'm going to teach them how to run their business and kind of help them.
Speaker 1:They can't afford one or you'll graduate from daycare into preschool, and so on and so forth.
Speaker 2:It's okay, guys, oh yeah, and so I teach them, and a lot of times those clients can't afford the prices that I charge, because there's value to what I do and I have to make sure that there's value. If I could give it away for free, I would, because there's just high value to it, but then I wouldn't be able to do what I do.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And so, in order to make sure that I can do it at the best way that I can, the price point is fairly high Still a lot lower than what other companies that don't need to do near what I do charge, but still relatively high. And so those smaller clients can't do it, and so you've got to look at the market. And what can the market afford? So that's one of the first things when you're looking at your ideal client. If you're building a widget, and that widget is meant for small businesses, but to manufacture it is going to price you out of those small business markets. You're not gonna have a business.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And so you've really got to look and analyze what is the market for that? And so for me the market is, and usually for those $500,000 revenue clients. I look at it. I'll give them free or lower price services in exchange for sample data. So I love having sample data. So when I talk to new clients or prospective clients, I wanna be able to share something. This is what it looks like. This is a real informational company. If I try to make it all up, it's not gonna make any sense whatsoever, and so I trade that for that. But my ideal client is that probably a million to $5 million mark, maybe a little bit more, one million to 10 million revenue work A lot of e-commerce clients. But I've got clients that are in the medical industry. I've got clients that are service, product all different ranges, because every business needs this kind of work Right now. E-commerce is just popular Right, so a lot of my clients are e-commerce.
Speaker 1:I think one of the things that I could point out in this in my experience is when you talked about like these the sample data clients is the sliding scale Typically it comes from as your business grows, I grow, my costs grows, mainly for the sense that the workload increases as your success is there. So building that into how you're talking and seeking out a client is to go look, I'll work with even a low-end or smaller revenue client. However, as they grow, it's a sliding scale. I will grow with you. So know that my costs will increase, but know that I'm doing that to offset how much more work I'm going to produce for you.
Speaker 2:So yeah, I look at those little clients as obviously I shared. The one example started out at 500,000, now they're at a whole lot more than that, so that's a big win for me. They're at full feet. Actually, that client is still at a little bit lower fee because I still use their sample data. I like having their story, I like having their data of showing the history of where they were to where they are today. So they still get a little bit of that. But they grew, like you said, and so they became a regular client at that point.
Speaker 2:But I look at those how attorneys or other individuals look at pro bono work. It's an opportunity for me to do a free service to help a business out in the hopes that it will either grow, which is obviously the end goal for any client, but they all have friends. We talked about networking and our adulting topics. Referrals is such a big thing when you're talking about if I'm going to be able to give you something for a lower rate, and then here you have 10 other people who are saying who you can send to me, say, hey, he gave me a great rate and he's helping me out big time. He can help you guys out as well. He's kind of expensive but he does really great work. I just got potentially 10 new clients and at my rates that's a whole lot of money.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And so it really is a big benefit. So you've got to look at not only your ideal client but within that ideal client, what are your standard deviation steps out? Because you can still have clients within those one or two standard deviations from your base, but you're not going to have all of your clients in there, if that makes sense.
Speaker 2:So I have a few that are in that lower range, and I have a few that are in that much, much higher range than, I'd say, that $10 million mark, and it's just because it's a little bit different that I do with them.
Speaker 1:But I think it sounds like historically, you scale with them. So if they start out at a lower range and grow into that, having these returned clients that are going like, wow, we've really outgrown you, joe, and then they go back and we're like, wow, we really miss you, joe, like it's a compliment, that's a great thing, and to know that that means that these companies are experiencing the success and knowing that it's because of you, and that's impressive.
Speaker 2:And there's a high end to that as well. So for what I do, the high end of that is you're looking at a lot of these companies that are above that mark have entire teams of people doing this themselves, and so they have a team of people. A good example of this is Enterprise. So Enterprise rent a car, not a sponsor.
Speaker 1:It's just I've worked with someone who worked with them in the past, but if you would like to sponsor us, we will be happy to.
Speaker 2:I do prefer commercial breaks, but I should have said that.
Speaker 1:So I worked with.
Speaker 2:I worked with an accountant who had worked with Enterprise for a few years, and Enterprise does a lot of the same reports that I do. The only problem is they have a team of at least three people per region that does the reports. That are again similar to what I do managing the operations, looking at the financials versus the operations data to make better decisions and they are usually reporting that two or three months after the end of the month. That's being looked at, okay, and so they. Their systems are really antiquated, or at least they were when this individual was working with them and just it was not allowing them to be nimble and so. But Enterprise is a good example. They have entire teams of people doing this operational data, and so Enterprise is not a good client for mine. Now I could go in and probably tell them how to do it faster and better, but that's a one time consulting fee and then I'm done.
Speaker 1:What do you think, from you know, looking at your ideal clients? Obviously, we've kind of talked, we've alluded to your expertise at this point, but when you're bringing on a new client, is there usually a common thread as far as what you are solving? I mean, the only reason why I ask that is because typically, if you are a service, you want to go at it like a solution and, and no matter what it is lawn care, it, everything about car detailing to you know, to financial coaching and business success, you know, seeing how this is, there's usually a common thread that you're the solution. You've provided the solution for what do you feel like in yours, in your experience?
Speaker 2:Well, I would add, even in product sales, you are providing a solution, right? So any business is providing a solution, no matter what the business is, and so if you're selling, I mean, if I, if I have like a Viking Hornstein, it's not really a solution, but it is.
Speaker 1:No, no, I was so. Ok, I know the neuroscience behind it. It's probably right there.
Speaker 2:So I was going to say an example. So if you sell unicorn headbands for babies, ok, how is that a solution to a problem? No, it is a solution to a problem. You want your baby to look cute, and so how is your baby going to look cute? Now, most babies are cute, naturally, but you want to enhance that for a picture, and so you go out and you look for anything that's going to enhance the beauty. That's really why any of us wear clothes. You know we have clothes preferences because we think we look good at it. We are solving the problem of our own internal critic of not looking good enough. The Viking beer steins. You want something either as a knickknack to show what your heritage is, which I am a Viking. So, yes, I have that Norwegian blood in me.
Speaker 1:For root beer, of course of course no.
Speaker 2:So growing up there was a restaurant that we always went to that was called Steerenstein. I had no idea what it meant growing up. It was only until I think I was in my 20s before I finally realized what Steer and Stein meant Beer and beef Right.
Speaker 1:That's awesome.
Speaker 2:But anyway, it was my dad's favorite restaurant. But I'm saying but I'm a lot in this, so I apologize, I it is, it is a habit that I try to get out of, but I find myself getting into it, because my mom did a lot of that in talking and so I learned her talking mannerisms. So I apologize for saying but I'm so much apologize, it's OK.
Speaker 1:Here's, here's, the here's, the that's let's zero it back in that way. That way we can zero it.
Speaker 2:So the idea here is you are always solving a problem, no matter what the product is.
Speaker 2:Yeah you need something to drink out of that looks cool. And so what's the solution to that? A Viking mug of Viking Stein. It looks cool, it speaks to your heritage, whatever.
Speaker 2:And so, when you're running a business, what problem are you solving? That's the exact question that you asked me and that's what you have to ask yourself as a business owner what problem am I solving? And am I solving this better than any random schmo on the street could do? If you don't, or you can't, it's probably not going to work as a business. And so unicorn headbands for babies. What makes your unicorn headbands better than someone else's? Why should they buy from you? If you don't have an answer to that, you're probably never going to get a large percentage of the market share.
Speaker 2:What I do is I provide a slew of business information, business insight for small to medium businesses that they cannot get anywhere else. It's impossible. I've talked to a lot of clients. I've talked to a lot of very well networked individuals, and I can tell you that, in the United States at least, I haven't talked to people outside of the US, so I don't know outside of the US. The services I provide are the only company that provides these services. I am the only one that provides these as an outsourced service.
Speaker 1:Naturally, I think one of the things we want to be careful about in this is we're not here to push your product specifically. However, I would ask around. This is to say, I use the terminology sweet of products. I like that because it sounds sophisticated, but it's really just a list of other things. So when you usually have this solution that you bring to the table and you're like, well, bam, here's the solution. And then all of a sudden you go and you go okay, well, also around that solution, are these things over here to entice you as well? And in product sales, when you're talking about some e-commerce product typically that's your upsell You're going to have, oh, come and buy this. And then the next click, it's, but wait, there's more. And then another click, but wait, wait, there's more. And you're like, each time you have the opportunity to say no, of course, but do you have things that you've also padded around that that make it so that you have a little more? I don't know if the word's rounded sweet.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and they actually. So you're talking about secondary and tertiary products or services. So these are related products. There's an economic term and I can't remember what it is right now for what those are, but it's so. Those products or services are what you're doing, in addition to what you do. That don't take a lot of extra, but by providing that you get a well-rounded system. So let's talk about you go to a car dealership. Okay, you go there to buy a car. Is that all you're going to do there?
Speaker 1:No no.
Speaker 2:Now some dealerships. That's all they do. They just sell cars.
Speaker 1:I'm going to get the Rubicon package and I'm going to have the lifted tires with and eventually I'll get out of there with a $135,000 vehicle.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And so car dealerships realize that they're selling cars. Well, cars need maintenance, so let's add a service department, and so, or a maintenance department, so that's oil changes, things like that. And then they realize, well, these cars are going to need service on them, they're going to need new tires, things are going to break on them. We can offer that too. And so you go to a car dealership we still call them dealerships. You go there to buy a car, that's their main product. But then they've got these secondary services and products that go along with it, which are maintenance and service.
Speaker 1:On dealerships sell cars every three to five years, like that's typically the lifetime of a car owner, and that's just the statistics. So everything else that you have there is the bread and butter of the industry, especially the way that vehicle processes are.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and more and more you're finding the used cars are better. They're doing more for the service because people are lasting longer on their cars. But for my suite of services they actually started out as the main product and they've gone down into that secondary product category. So where, when I started out with just doing accounting so it was bookkeeping it was some analysis, but then slowly I started developing these reports that were, across all of my clients, basically the same. Now some of the key data. So you're looking at how many products are you selling versus how many services are you selling. You're looking at what regions are better or what provider is better. All these different things that kind of go into that. They're slightly different, but you're all looking at the same basic comparisons of data, and so that solely became the main product that I sell, and so I'm selling information that shows this is what your weekly break-even is. This is what your monthly break-even is. This is what you need to be selling or earning per week in order to stay in business. This is what you need to do if you wanna be making $100,000 a year or whatever.
Speaker 2:It is Building out Proformas, building out a lot of these extra things, and then you look at the secondary services. Okay, well, if I'm already looking at their reports, if I need their financial information, well, let me do their financial information. So that's the bookkeeping side of it. So, providing bookkeeping services If you're selling something online, that gets really complicated nowadays because of the Wayfair ruling, and so a business owner who sells something on Amazon or on their own website, how do I do sales tax? I'm already dealing with their financials. I might as well do their sales tax too, and so, and then we've got people that are businesses that have employees. Okay, well, they're not versed in payroll law or any of these human resources stuff. Well, that revolves around operations and finances. You usually find in a lot of businesses that the human resources is under the CFO.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was just gonna say that's typically CFO work.
Speaker 2:Exactly, and so we help with payroll.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And so all of these secondary services that are related to the operations data that we provide, the financial and operations data it all fits. Now, not everyone's gonna use that. They're gonna have their own bookkeeper? Okay great, we'll just make sure we have their data. And when the bookkeeper doesn't provide data in time you know that your bookkeeper was really slow in updating those financials we can provide that for you, and so it's some of those extra things that you're saying. You know I could advise you on this or I could just do it for you.
Speaker 1:So I wanna, I think, in this collection of basically your solution that you bring to the table your suite that supports that, and then looking at that and saying you know the question that You're trying to cough out.
Speaker 1:Trying to cough out. Yeah, the question that comes to mind that typically is I'm gonna ask this to somebody that's looking at their business opening is why is a client gonna buy from you instead of the person down the road? And I wanna chime in on this real fast, only for the sake that I think you know we've really gotten, you know, into some of the details about the being the solution and also having that suite of products. This is the profit hacker speaking. So I'm gonna give you a hack Do your homework, go, look up businesses that are your competition, that you know. You've met them at networking meetings. You've seen them see what they offer and do everything you can to be better and faster than they are, and not the same thing. Don't do the same stuff, because faster of the same stuff just means they're going to move faster too, but be unique in the fact that they can't even catch you. That's what makes the difference between you being a solution for them or just getting into the fold of all the other competition that's out there.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And so, going back to the car example, why does someone buy a Toyota instead of a Ford? Why does someone buy a Chevy instead of a Dodge? Why are any of these different solutions out there? Now we can look at the rankings on the cars which ones are better, which ones are worse as far as overall. So for me, I always buy Toyota, and the reason for that is because I don't really do a lot except for commute. I don't need to haul anything. I don't need a high performance vehicle. I don't need a little tiny sports car. I'm not that insecure yet and so what I need is a good, long lasting vehicle. Okay, I'm going Toyota. Now for my daughter, who just got her license, we bought a good old Ford F-150. It is built tough, isn't that Ford's? I think that's Ford's.
Speaker 1:No, it's yeah, cause Chevy's like a rock.
Speaker 2:Yeah, cause yeah, I know all the jokes. Chevy like a rock, it just sits there on the road.
Speaker 1:I'll take the tires off and use them on something else.
Speaker 2:If you're listening, these are just common jokes. We're not, you know, trying to say anything bad about these companies.
Speaker 1:Although, chevy, I will be in your favor. If you want to sponsor the show, that's fine.
Speaker 2:I won't cause. I like Ford's, I'm a Ford family, but no. So we got my daughter of Ford, because this thing is massive and she gets an accident. She is going to survive, and so it is something that is rough, robust and it may not last long, or as long as a Toyota or a Honda, which are known to be long lasting vehicles, but a Ford, if she gets in an accident, which all teenagers will she's going to survive, something that isn't necessarily the case for Toyota's or Honda's. Toyota's are relatively safe. They get really high ratings on the safety, but Ford's, generally, across the board, are safer. They also haul better, and so we looked at it. Okay, well, we want to do some hauling, we've got some junk and stuff to take the dump. Okay, we'll get a truck.
Speaker 2:And so it solved a couple of solutions, solved a couple of problems, and so you're looking at what is my product going to solve. Now, like I said, I'm the only one in the US that does this as an outsourced service. No one else in the US does this. Now more people probably will, but for right now I'm the only one, which is great, because I'm solving a problem that no one else is solving. What is your? Why is your product different? Why is yours better than someone else's? Do you have some kind of innovative system, innovative solution? Do you have something that's different from someone else? And you have to look at this? Now, sometimes this doesn't always work, so I'll talk about one of my failures.
Speaker 2:We ran a health clinic which was designed for people who had bad insurance or no insurance, and so we weren't looking to make a profit on this. I did put a whole lot of money into it in order to help it to survive, but we went out and we were looking to. We had an entire sales team and Adam was with me on this project. That's actually where we originally met was on this project and when we were, when our sales team were contacting people about this program. So we had a membership fee.
Speaker 2:You could come in, you could see a nurse practitioner, you could get a massage, chiropractic, physical therapy basically just about any service that you could need from a wide range of different places all in one, and as we started talking to businesses that they would advertise it with their employees as an alternative to insurance, which is where the industry is going. Insurance is getting way too expensive. People cannot afford it. They are public companies, which means they are paying shareholders, which is not what insurance companies should be doing. In my opinion. People are looking for more of that holistic medical resource.
Speaker 1:I think the word is community care, and a lot of them in that community care aspect is you're getting the same care, if not better, because of the fact that your network is close quarters to you, and so you have a lot more of that family oriented aspect of this that provides the same or better care. Now, granted surgeries are where that plays the role. But yeah, carrie.
Speaker 2:I'm sorry, and you keep your insurance for the big stuff, the surgeries or anything like that. That's what you use. That's what insurance was originally designed for. I've done research into insurance and where it started, but the problem was when we were calling people, the answers we were getting were oh, that sounds too good to be true. You can't really be doing that.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And it was so disheartening because we were essentially just ahead of the curve. We were too innovative because people weren't ready for the change yet. Now, hopefully, in 10 years time, we may try it again and we'll be in line with where everyone wants to be and maybe have a lot more money to spend and get a little bit more traction. But as it was, it was just too innovative and I lost a lot of money on that program.
Speaker 1:I think one of the things that I like about it is I loved the model. I loved how it incorporated so many different things. I think the problem was just like you said it's too ahead of the curve, too good to be true and, honestly, the way that it was received by business owners, the ones that took advantage of it, were just head over heels. They loved it, it was fantastic. But it was just one of those things where you also had the administration, the government, saying, well, we're going to penalize you if you don't have this and we're like, okay, it's not traditional insurance, it doesn't stick you in this revolving circle of death until you spiral down. And maybe that's another conversation we can have. But I learned a lot about healthcare and it is, at this point, the only thing that exists to be is a necessary evil. That is it. It is designed to hurt you and, yeah, we'll have another podcast about that.
Speaker 2:But yeah. So and I think that's an important thing to recognize is, when you have a failure in business, it doesn't mean you're a bad business person, because I'm extremely successful in what I do for my financial and business consulting. I do really really well with that. But with this other one it didn't work so well. I don't think we did anything wrong. I think we were just ahead of the curve, we had the proper team in place, we worked really hard at it, but it just, in the end, wasn't something that people were ready for. And you have to admit as a business person, okay, that was a failure. And then you move on, you learn from it and if you try to hide those failures from yourself, it's you're not gonna be as successful as you possibly could be.
Speaker 1:One of the things I brought it up because I've read this book.
Speaker 1:It's a fantastic book and it really walks you through a story at the front end of it about his own personal success, but then walks you through the math of how to do all this and, really honestly, what it is is if you feel like you have something that's cutting edge, something that's out there, that's just gonna be like, wow, this is maybe potentially ahead of the curve.
Speaker 1:The book is called Ask period and it is by Ryan Levesque. Basically it's talking about it's like a survey style. So you are bringing in and doing test groups like a community center, using a space there and bringing and inviting the community of individuals and bringing and having them sit together and question them and talking and getting opinion to see where this is just to kind of pinpoint some of those traction points. Now, if you're not interested in doing that, don't read the book, because it will lay out details about how to do it. But at the same time, if you know, hey, man, I've got this business plan, it's worked. And, like I said earlier, if you have a system that works and you're just replicating, replicate please don't change what isn't broken.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so.
Speaker 1:I remember dreading the day having the conversation with you and saying, hey, we gotta cut our losses, man, like I'm sorry to say this, but it's just too soon. You know that was a difficult conversation, but sometimes you have to face it.
Speaker 2:Those are some dark days in our past, but yeah, you know you move on. I mean, that was one that was innovative, but it was too early. I've got another one. It's innovative I'm the only one in the US that does it but hey, it is extremely successful.
Speaker 1:So it's fun working with this guy because he has so many crazy cool ideas. It is every day could be something completely revolutionary and I just I'm excited because I get a chance to work with him. So one of the things about like how you do this is, historically, clients coming your way. When you get that first client, you know there's some best practices that are out there, but how have you experienced kind of that growth in a certain way?
Speaker 2:Yeah, for me it's all word of mouth. I don't really even have a website. I'm working on one. I've had one in the past for this, but the problem is the clients that you get for what I do at least the ones that I got off of. The website and advertising that I did previously were just crap. I think the worst one I got was-. Thank you for your honesty.
Speaker 1:Yeah, hopefully the listener that listens to the podcast isn't that crap. Yeah, but if you are, thank you for listening.
Speaker 2:One guy literally called looking for my services. He was still a student in college and just had an idea for some business and he was gonna end up being a multimillionaire in six months.
Speaker 1:Last name Zuckerberg? No, not at all, just curious.
Speaker 2:But I mean, that's the caliber of people that I've had off of website advertising, things like that. And I prefer word of mouth because, honestly, that's how I get better resources, that's how I get better clients, because they know how I work. You know, I'm not the most personable of people, so when I'm working with someone I'm very straightforward. And I've got one client right now. I talk with them every Wednesday and for the last month or so they have hated talking to me because they're in a little bit of a downturn and we're talking about ways to bring some better things, get more appointments, things like that to help improve things. And this last week we actually had a lot of good news. So it was great, that's good.
Speaker 2:But you know, their office manager or business director I don't know what her title is she says you know, this week I'm just listening to the good things, I'm ignoring all the bad things. And she was walking out and the other two guys who run it kept having to tell her okay, come back, he's got some good stuff, don't be ignoring all this. It was more joking, I mean, she wasn't all that. But you know, sometimes I have bad news and I'm not gonna sugarcoat it. You know, and not everyone wants that out of their consultant. You look at the Dilbert commercials not to bring him into this because he's got his own controversies going on. But you know, dogbert is the consultant and so there are a lot of bashing on consultants with Dogbert and that is a lot of.
Speaker 2:What you get out of consultants is they're just gonna give you what you wanna hear, whether it's good or not. They're just gonna tell you what you wanna hear, that everything's sunshine and roses. I'm not gonna do that. If your business is heading downhill, I'm gonna tell you your business is heading downhill. I had a conversation a couple of weeks ago with a client and I said you know, when it comes to their busy season is during the winter and I said, well, we've gotta find some way to increase our business during the summer so we can keep these people in our install teams around. I said no, you have to fire them.
Speaker 1:Or seasonally hire them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's. You cannot keep them on, you have to fire them. I spent 20 minutes just telling them you have to fire them. You cannot keep them. You can tell them you're gonna hire them back. They said, well, that's not a possibility because of the type of people that they're working with. I said, well, that's just what you gotta deal with. You cannot keep them and not everyone can deal with that.
Speaker 1:That's a good coaching point, because it's something that you have to be for the success of the business. You have to be sometimes that kind of person. You don't wanna be that person. You wanna care about their life and what that's going to do to them. But if it is at the demise of your business because of the fact that you care so much, your business is going to bomb and you could have prevented it had you not been afraid of something that is absolutely necessary.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's the thing you have to be. I'm a very straightforward individual, and so when I have people that talk to me, I'm straightforward. If I think you suck as a person, I'm gonna tell you. You suck as a person.
Speaker 1:I mean, I've known you for a while and you haven't said it ever. So, winner, you're safe.
Speaker 2:But that doesn't work when you're just getting random clients coming in. The clients that I work with know who I am and so they know who to refer to me that are actually gonna work in the system and do well. I had a couple of clients where I would be very straightforward with them and they just ignored everything that I said and then would blame me at the end because they didn't listen to me. I'm like guys, you gotta do what I'm telling you. You can't. Just now, with these guys that are firing their solution this was honestly the solution that they decided that they are going to fly me to their location when they're ready to lay these guys off for the summer and they're gonna make me do it. I really don't mind.
Speaker 2:I'm a straightforward person, I can do that and so. But, like you said, as a business owner, you have to be willing to do that sometimes. But that's how I find clients because it works best for me. Now we are gonna be starting to do some more online advertising, a little bit more targeted, with specific questions, things like that, to weed out some of these crappy resources. So hopefully that will bring in a lot more Within the accounting world and the consulting world.
Speaker 1:It really there's not a lot that comes from advertising, but you don't need a lot, and I think the other side of this is that most accounting professionals or financial professionals aren't salespeople. Oh no, they're very good with numbers, very good with data and very unapologetic about presenting that data.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But the finesse of getting somebody in the door and that sort of stuff. I would say your first bet is just exactly like Joe said was word of mouth, and on the flip side of that is you don't always have to wait for somebody to say something about your business for that word of mouth. You can always go to your clients that are happy and say who around you do you feel like would benefit from this, yeah, and that in and of itself can tenfold what you're doing in business.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the market research is really important. You have friends that are working in these things. That's market research. Now, for other companies, they do a lot of online advertising.
Speaker 2:One thing that I do with a lot of my e-commerce and some of my non e-commerce clients is looking at where their clients coming from, and so we count how many new clients come in from Facebook or Google or Instagram or any of these other resources that they use. How many are coming in from email blasts, how much was the cost on that? And then you're looking at okay, so Google is the cheapest to get new customers, but you're capped out. You're only ever gonna get X amount of new clients, no matter how much you spend, whereas on Facebook you're gonna get fewer, but or it's more expensive, but there's no cap on the number that you're bringing in, or vice versa. You're looking at all that data to figure out what is the best use of my advertising funds to get the most clients in, and this is one area where a lot of companies don't understand the information because there's no good resource out there. There are some websites that do it, but even as we've been looking at over those websites that these clients have subscriptions to, they're not giving them all the best information, because we're looking at all of the raw data and so we're looking at if you're spending X amount of dollars, is there a cap?
Speaker 2:So I have one client where, if they spend more than $8,000 on a specific site, they are only getting an incrementally fewer number of new clients or of new new customers. Okay, and so if it costs, say, $80 per customer, between four and $8,000, which is their sweet spot anything less than 4,000, they're actually losing new customers. So four to 8,000 is their sweet spot If they start, and if it's $80 per new customer once they get above 8,000, now it goes to like $120 per new customer. And so, yes, you're getting new customers, but it's a 50% increase in cost. And so is that worth it to get that new customer? That's going to cost 50% more than to just stay in that sweet spot of advertising.
Speaker 2:And this is another really important thing, not necessarily when you're starting up, but as you're getting into business is what is the best use of your money? Because that's coming out of your pocket, you're not going to make that net income because you're spending it on advertising. So you want to get the most efficient advertising possible to get the best result and to get more money in your pocket, and so it's really important not just looking at what is what type of advertising is best for you, but where are you getting that customer from what avenue of advertising, what software, what site is coming in and what's that cost. And so there's a lot that goes into it. That's really important, as you're looking at all this, to figure out how to make the most money.
Speaker 1:I think you know. To wrap this up as far as this, you mentioned at the very beginning how you've been around fantastic mentors and people who have been that accountability in your life, and it comes down to having particular goals in mind. You know, if you're, if you're venturing down the road of trying to get a business off the ground and and see the success. I recently heard one that was basically just talking about what's his name. I can't remember his name all of a sudden, but just mentioned about ambitious goals.
Speaker 1:There's this argument Do you want to be conservative in your goals? Do you want to be ambitious in your goals? Honestly, you know, as an entrepreneur, the entrepreneur mind is going to say they thrive in risk. That risk means that you want a big goal, you want something that's like that's going to be ridiculous to try to get to. But the reason why you put that goal there isn't to be like two weeks from now I'm going to be that, you know. But and this came from somebody who was on he's a billionaire and Grant Cardone, that's his name. So fantastic business guy. No, just, just just.
Speaker 2:I will disagree with you with that, okay. So Cardone is, in my opinion, an awful businessman. All he does is builds on the hype and he has no idea what he's doing, in my opinion. Well, sorry, I have issue with him specifically.
Speaker 1:So so I in in in referring to goals. I'll stay in that lane.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:Goals in the sense of setting that big thing that just seems untouchable. It's actually about the micro that we're talking about instead of the macro. When you have something large, you're going to look at this and say, hey, you know, what am I going to do tomorrow to, or today to, to make a difference, to get to that goal? Am I you know I'm? Do I have to make so many contacts? Do I have to design something specific? Do I need to understand what my unique selling proposition is? Do I need to do these little little things that will impact the greater goal? But, but each one of those you have to look at it and go like, when I've completed this task, it is an accomplishment.
Speaker 1:Under that big goal. With that big goal comes huge reward. However, it's the, it's the micro, where the work is, and you're putting the work in and it feels like it's hard work and you're like, oh, come on, I want to get to that over there. And you're like, well, it's a lot of work, but praise those little goals as you make that progress and you have that next stepping stone, because in mind is always the big goal. So what about you, joe? So?
Speaker 2:I've actually got a really good story in this that I had years ago. It's about keeping your eye on the goal and making sure that it's a solid goal as opposed to goal that keeps moving. So a farmer tells his son to he's going to start learning how to hoe the rows in the field. And so the farmer a very experienced farmer tells him to make sure you have the straightest lines, find an object in the distance and keep your eye on that, and so long as you have your eye on that, you will hoe a straight row. Okay, and so, giving this piece of wisdom to his son, sends his son out there to start hoeing the rows. So his son comes back feeling very successful and says dad, I did it.
Speaker 2:And so the dad goes out there and to inspect and these rows are just going all over the place left and right and crossing over each other. And he looks at a son and says how did you do this? This is all over the place. Son says I did exactly what you told me to. I looked out to the horizon, I saw that cow out there and I just followed wherever that cow went. And so for every row he was following this moving cow that was just going through the field and so it was all messed up. So the idea is, when you have that goal, make sure it's a solid goal.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And make sure that you're actually following it, just like those rows it's. You're not just doing one thing and you're done with a field. You have to row each individual row in order to have that entire field, and if you don't do each one individually and don't have the right goal in mind, as you're doing each individual step, you're going to have not so correct results, and I think part of that is the accountability aspect of it is you're not by yourself and don't try to do it by yourself.
Speaker 1:I think that having wisdom spoken into your life is an essential ingredient in that success, whether that's a coach, whether that's a consultant, whether that's a dad telling you not to follow cows or We've talked about this.
Speaker 2:Eventually on this podcast, we want to be able to do that mentorship program through memberships or Patreon or whatever those different resources are, when we actually have more than one listener, because as it is, we can do pretty well with just one listener giving random advice, but eventually we would like to do more and be that mentor to people who don't have that resource. So, listener, please share this podcast, please leave comments that we can get more feed on this that we can hopefully reach out to more people. You are our avenue to the rest of the world, right?
Speaker 1:now, yes, and honestly I'm not typically the fan of organic growth, so it will be motivated financially because that's the road that. Yeah, organic's cool, neat, but it never is the whole. You don't put all your eggs in that basket.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it depends on the industry. It really really does. If you try to do word of mouth by selling a product online, you're never going to get off the ground. But it really depends on the industry. Some things if anyone likes the movie Tommy Boy, the entire point of that movie is they're going around trying to sell their product to their main distributors and so they're a manufacturer of widgets and they go out and they try to get their distributors to sell those widgets and the whole thing is about the warranty. Right, that's what makes them different is there's a no warranty. They don't need the warranty because their product is so good and so he finally gets that in the end. But sometimes it's that in-person visit like Tommy Boy, where you have to go out and sit down with people. Sometimes it's word of mouth, sometimes it's advertising, sometimes it's advertising on Facebook, google emails, sometimes it's all of the above. But find what works best for you to build that business and get more out there.
Speaker 1:So, speaking of a really good business, noodle's and Company Fantastic.
Speaker 2:In my opinion, everyone's going to know that I'm going to say something bad whenever I say the words. In my opinion, I am. This is what I'm telling you. I have to find the right clients with me, because I'm a very straightforward individual. Noodle's and Company In my opinion, it is way too much money for how little food they give you, true? I'm just going to throw that out, okay, anyway.
Speaker 1:I'm in pretty much everywhere right now is that way, so it doesn't.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're worse than anything. You buy a little thing of gnocchi and it feeds like a baby. You know it's, and it costs 20 bucks for gnocchi.
Speaker 1:We're not bitter, though, guys.
Speaker 2:No one of my daughters. Her favorite places Noodle's and Co. I know I'm completely destroying your transition here, but her favorite places Noodle's and Co. This is why I know so much about it, because she likes to go there and I have to order like three or four servings of their gnocchi before it actually fills me up.
Speaker 1:More. Another one. Come on, chef, bring them out. I you know well this Noodle's and Company was actually on the video. Very busy there was. Pretty much every table in the place was full.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:And in the process of them enjoying their lunch and getting their meals and putting an order in, whatever it is all the hustle and bustle a deer, a buck, through, just just jumped through like a window or something like through one of the windows in the doorway and then pushed through the door and then came charging through and through everybody, like you see everybody scatter and up on the tables and in their boots, and just getting away, and this, this deer, cruised through the main area, the main eating area, and they made its way back to the kitchen and checked out as, like, what's, what's for lunch? Do you guys? Do you guys have any berries or you know some grass? I'm not really a pasta guy, but maybe I could probably do some grain, I don't know. But. But then one of the employees managed to prop the back door open and the buck eventually made its way out of the of the store and I'll link the video with with with our video. But I think the funniest part about it is, like you know, they like it's just weird.
Speaker 2:Like you're sitting there eating like I'm eating my mac and cheese and they're just like that's a deer, oh, deer and um yeah the only thing I can think is you know they're, they're getting their uh, or the buck stops here, uh, maybe they're getting their bang for their buck. So I, they got a buck for their bank. So there you go.
Speaker 1:They uh. The next day, they did uh mac and cheese for two bucks, which I didn't. It did make sense to me because it would have been one buck Like one buck, mac and cheese would have been relevant to the actual store.
Speaker 2:They were trying to encourage another buck to come through.
Speaker 1:That's probably what it is, or at least they're used to jacking their prices up to outrageous, so they're like one buck is way too cheap. I can't do that, I just can't, you know. But at least you revealed your profit margin, thanks. That's huge guys and ridiculous If you get two bucks for your mac and cheese and you know in our opinion.
Speaker 2:Sorry, my bad.
Speaker 1:Greedy In our. You are the reason we're inflating.
Speaker 2:In our opinion.
Speaker 1:Hey guys, I gotta stop. I gotta stop because I'm going to. I'm venting at this point.
Speaker 2:Oh, but that is pretty good, two buck macaroni and cheese, hoping to get that second buck in the door, just yeah. It's allure I don't know if they were advertising through the right market, though, in order to get that buck in the door. How do you advertise to bucks? I usually is there like a road signs or?
Speaker 1:something Like the deer smell. Yeah, they're deer calls and yeah, that's about the only thing you can advertise, but I don't think it's not the best scenario for the deer. I mean depends on who you ask.
Speaker 2:They probably should have worked on their marketing a little bit. I don't think they got that second buck in. I've been like two bucks, two buck mac and cheese, because then they could have done three buck mac and cheese for a dollar you can upgrade to deer meatballs. No thanks, no thanks.
Speaker 1:All right, so we have reached the end of our show today, thankfully. Hey guys, life's too short. Keep laughing, keep learning and remember idiots have way more fun. Check your shoes.