Seth Said It
Welcome to Seth Said It, the unapologetic podcast where real stories meet raw truths. Join Seth Mills as he dives into personal experiences, business growth, and the highs and lows of life’s journey. From lessons learned the hard way to the wins worth celebrating, Seth lays it all out with unfiltered honesty and a touch of humor.
This podcast is for those who value authenticity, aren’t afraid of a little controversy, and believe that growth often comes with a bit of discomfort. Whether it’s a deep dive into entrepreneurial struggles, personal growth breakthroughs, or just telling it like it is, Seth Said It is your go-to for real talk that inspires, challenges, and occasionally ruffles some feathers.
Tune in, stay curious, and remember: if it needed to be said, Seth said it.
Seth Said It
Charting a Course for Business Growth and Payroll Harmony
Embark on a voyage through the tempestuous seas of business expansion with your seasoned navigators, Seth Mills and Nik Dawson. We tackle head-on the reality that an employee's dedication is often not a mirror image of an owner's—unveiling strategies to bridge this gap and foster a culture of commitment. Through our personal encounters, we dissect the pros and cons of commission versus hourly wages and how these financial frameworks can impact the quality of work from your team. Plus, we share our own struggles with entrusting new team members with the pillars of our businesses, and how to scout for that rare gem of a hire who can elevate your company to the next stratosphere.
As the captains of our respective ships, we chart the course through the choppy waters of small business expansion, where every decision can feel like a gamble on the high seas. We exchange tales of navigating treacherous pay rate negotiations and the siren call of investments that promise growth. With a firm hand on the wheel, we confront the dilemma of delegation versus control, steering through the complex process of putting trust in the hands of new hires when it comes to company assets. From tackling payroll discrepancies to the importance of accountability tracking, this episode is a treasure trove of insights and strategies for entrepreneurs ready to hoist the sails and catch the wind of business success.
Welcome back to the astro craft, grow, influence, invest podcast. I'm your host, seth Mills. Joining me today is Nick Dawson. He is going to be your co-host, as he has been on the majority of the episodes, if not all of the episodes we've released every video so far.
Speaker 1:Yep. So uh, today's episode we are going to be discussing and going into detail on how we're going to be growing our companies, how we would grow another company If we were in y'all's position, um, and then kind of just going over what we look for in employees and individuals who are going to be joining the team.
Speaker 2:Expectations of hiring other people too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely Definitely going to get expectations. So and I know you have quite a bit of experience in this too Um, because you you were looking at hiring- somebody last year, weren't you?
Speaker 2:I was looking to hire in somebody last year, a couple of people last year actually. Um, I mean, I've got some experience with trying to do that, but also have experience with hiring people working for other companies too.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That's never what you think it is.
Speaker 1:No it isn't. And I will say one thing you will never find an employee or somebody else that you can hire that will do exactly what you will do. It was as far as terms of quality and quantity.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Cause they're never. I think we've said before you're never going to find somebody who wants to run your company or embrace your company, Even 80% of what you want.
Speaker 1:No, or the way that you would run it. Not at all. They, uh, you can't find somebody who who's going to put in the effort. And if you do find that person, then just know they are very, very soon to be running their own company. They're going to be leaving you and which is fine If they can help you grow your company beyond the point that it's already at. But at the same point and at the same time, you still want to find somebody who you can hire, train and use to progress your company.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if it all possible, I feel it'll possible. But sometimes we don't know is get that luxury. And sometimes I mean that was the thing whenever I was working the my first job was he knew I was going to start my own thing. Yeah, even from the very beginning he knew. But he also wanted to keep his company. He didn't want to be like big, widespread, having employees everywhere. He knew I was doing it to run my own company someday. So I mean, if you've got the expectation of that, I almost feel like that would almost give more determination, like it did for me. It was like, okay, I'm not just doing this for him, I'm doing it for me in the long haul.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for the experience. I um, I think that a lot, a lot of business owners put a lot of expectation into who they're hiring, which they should write Well. At the same time, they also need to understand that You're hiring an employee to do a set amount of tasks reasonably well. You can't expect the employees to always. There will be one in every hundred probably that will go above and beyond and do a better job than the majority of them, but as a business owner, you have to understand that you're never going to find somebody who will be 100% giving their all.
Speaker 2:No, no, especially if it doesn't benefit them, especially with everybody who wants to make money for doing nothing.
Speaker 1:Well, and that's the other thing is if you put employees on a commission and I've had this issue I've put a few guys on commission based right, so they get paid per job that they complete, and what they would do is they do a shitty job but they'd get quantity. And to me I'm like, okay, well, I prefer quality, obviously, over quantity. It's so easy to call a client and say, hey look, we need to reschedule. I know it may not benefit you, but we need to reschedule because we can't keep up with the work we have.
Speaker 2:How is the thing with pools is? It was, if you pay them hourly, they're going to take all day long to get back and finish their route. You pay them by the pool, they'll do double what they normally can in one night. But instead of spending 30 minutes on a pool or 20, they spend 10 and they're just booking it in and out.
Speaker 1:So, and you can't always that. I mean if you're spending 10 minutes on a pool, you there's no way you're going to be.
Speaker 2:No, you barely had time to test Kim's and add Kim's.
Speaker 1:Exactly.
Speaker 2:So I don't know.
Speaker 1:That's yeah. I don't know. As a business owner like you, it's hard. It's also hard for me to trust somebody. It's hard for me to put in the trust, give the potential employee my equipment that I've spent thousands of dollars on to use for the day, or go out and do a client's house because my mind's always thinking, hey, will the clients probably about to call me and say that he broke a window to use that for almost paranoid? Exactly, you're paranoid. And then you're also paranoid that your equipment's going to go down the drain, yeah, or if somebody's going to steal it. Employee is what I'm talking about.
Speaker 2:Thank God for insurance man. Yeah, that's about it. But like I don't know, you got to find somebody that you trust and that's where the the one guy I mean. I still, I just hung out with him in Tennessee, yeah.
Speaker 1:A couple weeks ago.
Speaker 2:So I mean, great guy trying to figure out what he wants to do, nothing wrong, but he was had every intention, was very, very adamant about wanting to come and move here from Georgia yep to, to work for us, work for me, learn everything. And I was like those family, all those there very, very close to his family, and I was like, how long are you planning on staying here, or are you playing on making this like the long haul? Oh man, like at least a few years, that's. That's kind of what. I'm okay and we talk again be a little bit different. But he really, really wanted to move here.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:I was working numbers for him how much I could pay him looking at trucks to get him in a truck I'm Trying to look for not me pay for it, but looking for like apartments and stuff for him, just doing a little stuff like that. And it came to be a pretty decent Like salary because I wanted to pay him salary, wanted to make sure that he knew what he was gonna make. Yeah, give him a couple of weeks vacation to start and Just see where it went. But by the end of it he's like yeah, man, I think I might you know like by the time I was finishing up my stuff it was like maybe, like you know, like six, eight months, maybe a year, kind of a slap in the face.
Speaker 2:Well, not really a slap in the face, it's. It's a lot of work that went into, so I mean kind of a slap in the face, but kind of like Not everybody understands that whenever you're running a company, that you need some sort of certainty.
Speaker 2:Yeah, especially as a small business Like I, couldn't have gone out and bought a brand new truck or even a used truck. Get his salary, get his payroll going. Direct deposit, making sure that he's good insurance is good, add him on there. Yeah, all the stuff that encompasses that To go. Okay, I've probably got three or four years that I can help figure out what's going on. Yeah, six months to a year. Dude last year flew by oh 100% and I visited 1400 homes last year.
Speaker 1:Yep, I didn't. I didn't even go to visit a fraction of those or that many, but I mean I fracture. I visited, I believe I Think mine was a lot lower. Mine was like 180. Yeah, but was still.
Speaker 2:I mean, my tickets are much higher typically per home much higher and You're you're looking for your work. Yeah, my work gets sent to me. Yeah, to go run calls, so you do more quantity by far.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I do less quantity but more Like higher paying job. Oh yeah, more high paying jobs for sure, yeah, so I Don't know I. I See where you're coming from and I didn't mean it in any kind of way when I said slapping the face, right, no, no, no.
Speaker 2:And I and I was just like like I didn't take it just cuz I know the guy and I knew he was pretty indecisive of what was going on, so I kind of expected it. But I was like it was either Like hey, I don't think I can do this right, oh okay, cool. But to hear like a six-month deal, I was like man, like that's gonna take six months to even yeah, for somebody who's never been to pull in the straining.
Speaker 2:It like industry to be in the pool industry and not know anything about it. Like I Can teach everybody pretty much everything in about a month.
Speaker 1:Yeah, to get started 100% what.
Speaker 2:You're not gonna understand everything unless you're in it for at least six months every year. So I'm gonna train you the whole time. You're basically gonna ride around with me and then by the end of the year You're gonna leave. So I trained you just just. Uh, they basically waste my fucking time.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I do it. So I've got a year where I'm trying to make more money than the last. I Think that's all of us both and I'm not trying to to get Somebody around, around with me. I mean I've got. I talked to a guy, an old friend of mine, I like an old family friend. There's his I guess their son, my friend's brother, anyways, he's not really working right now. He's working on becoming a like full-on personal trainer.
Speaker 2:Oh well like get his license and everything. Yeah, like do that, because he's got people that want to hire him, but he's got to have the right licensing and everything as well. He's not really working. So he's like flipping cars and I do stuff like that. So absolutely I'm like dude, do you want to make a little bit of money during the week?
Speaker 1:Cuz like.
Speaker 2:I might even text him tonight because I've got like nine lights to pull tomorrow All throughout Montgomery. So how much you paying. I haven't discussed numbers just quite yet, but I was gonna. I was gonna my pocket up a decent amount and buy him lunch. I got you just to make it worse.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, absolutely so.
Speaker 2:We'll see.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't know. I always gotta ask people how much they're paying, so I know how much to pay my guys.
Speaker 2:So Well, this is, this is kind of like you're just.
Speaker 1:I know it's like a.
Speaker 2:And I'm just gonna, whenever I need them for sure, come pull lights, come Help me lift heavy stuff. That's pretty much it, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, cuz I'm getting tired of coming down to help you.
Speaker 2:I'm playing, it's okay. I Don't blame you. Come on a minute. You just get lonely when come hang out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, sounds about right. I Get bored, so that that's my issue. I get bored really easily, but that's getting off topic. Back on topic. As far as business goes, where do you want to take it this year? Do you want to hire employees? Do you want to expand?
Speaker 2:I'd love to expand. I'd love to hire employees the, I Think for me. I know where I want to expand to, but it's a pretty hefty Investment that I'm willing to do, whether I got to go get a loan or not, cuz it'll pay for itself and Months, yeah, but I want to get into. I'm not gonna say it right now, just cuz I have.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna is this what you told me?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so cuz it'll end up being probably a different DBA, yeah like I just did under the company.
Speaker 2:But my thing is is I need to hire somebody to do what I'm doing now, so that way I can learn. Do all the classes to learn the new setup, yep, so that way I can hire somebody else to do that so I can go learn something else or do something else, or yeah, it's hard Trying to figure out exactly what you want to do because you need somebody else to cover what you do. Hmm, I need somebody to help me cover 1400 homes a year.
Speaker 1:Oh no, that's like. That's like me. This year I want to get in. We've discussed what I want to get into. I currently under a NDA, but you know, you know.
Speaker 2:I have a son nothing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, but you were grandfathered and you you knew about it before it was public or before it's Gotting closer any more public than when it was yeah, um, or it was a different idea. Yeah, exactly. So the whole issue I'm having is Window cleaning is so easy, right? Yeah, I mean, can't find anybody who wants to do it, cannot find anybody who wants to pay them?
Speaker 1:enough, for what's the deal? I'm starting at 18 an hour. I'm starting at 18 an hour and then up, like I mean. Obviously you increase your pay up to 27 an hour.
Speaker 2:You should it's not people, I mean, if you, if you with the ask what are they gonna do? They? That's what I'm saying. It's not like they're gonna be out in the freaking elements other than maybe some heat and cold. Everyone said a blue moon here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, so that's a gas car. Yeah, it comes with a gas car. She, oh, four days that you're working, obviously, right, right, I mean, it tracks, the system tracks when you're clocked in, tracks when you're clocked out. Funny enough, I was actually going through and doing some paperwork yesterday. Yeah, into the year, stuff from a 1099 guys. I, one of my employees, back in May, was running the clock for over 28 hours. Really, I think somebody's like yeah, I remember that I think I text you. I said, no, you text me like two days prior to that that you actually Didn't clock out. And then he then he's like oh, I must have just forgot. I'm like Sure, oh, sure, so now I've got a, I've already paid him, so I gotta get all that fun stuff done. But that's another thing is employees. You can always Trust them and I hate to say it because I love employees.
Speaker 2:Why do you do? But I mean, that's, that's kind of where Like, if I'm gonna do something, I'd rather have my guys, not 1099, I'd rather have them work directly for me to W2.
Speaker 2:Basically just have them in a company vehicle that is tracked. Have them a company phone that way they make all business calls on a business phone. Yeah, any business money that goes out comes, you know, business related tools, whatever, yeah, but it's finding somebody that you can trust in a Damn near or, if not, brand new truck, because what's gonna end up happening is I'm gonna swap, they'll be in that truck and Then I'll be in a new one, just to kind of keep it.
Speaker 1:Going, but it's like do.
Speaker 2:I trust. Who would I trust? But then it's almost like you kind of have to get off of the control factor of it too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you have to kind of give up a little bit of control, because I mean there, you're never gonna. I mean obviously so nobody's ever gonna treat the customers and their houses the way you do.
Speaker 1:They're also not gonna Ever treat the stuff you own like a vehicle, like you do, unless there's a rare person like like me or my family, like we always return. If we borrow something, we return it in better condition. Oh yeah, I mean, yeah, it's just. Oh no, like, whatever I sell a vehicle or try to vehicle in, obviously the dealership is gonna detail it. Right, I go and I pay 300 bucks to detail. I mean, all I've ever had is trucks. Every truck that I've traded in I think I'm on my fourth truck now I have brought to the dealer. The detailer Spent $300 full interior and exterior detail before even bring it to the fucking dealer.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean, if you're gonna try, if you're trying to sell A vehicle, kind of want to bring it looking clean, well, so we buy our vehicles through the same dealership and we've we know, we have a personal relationship with them, so they know, like what we have, that they'll just give us a, an estimate, right? So they don't see the video, it's sight unseen or maybe a couple of pictures, but before their flatbed gets here with a new vehicle and before they load it on there it's detailed, but the whole point of it is You're never going to find an employee or somebody to treat your equipment the way you would. Right?
Speaker 1:I think that for me, going into 24, I do want to hire, I have to hire somebody, I have to get somebody hired, but I don't know if I want to put them on an hourly or a commission-based. If I do commission-based, I know that I'm going to have a little bit of a decrease in quality. If I do hourly, I'm going to have a decrease in quantity. So I don't know what I want to do with that. I would rather have a decrease in quantity than a decrease in quality, but even an hourly it could be a decrease in both if I don't find the right person. That's what I'm looking forward to in 24. I want to expand and I want to grow, and then I want to start that very soon, but we'll see if it works out.
Speaker 2:I'm trying to see when I can get this going, because if I can, I mean it's basically like behind a truck yeah, how much it costs to just get this thing started.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That's why I'm a little hesitant now, but probably just going to bite the bullet, are you? We'll see. I got to talk to my partners first.
Speaker 1:Yeah, 100%, 100%. Yeah, I completely understand it, but I know it's getting close to that time where both of us have conference calls to jump into. Yeah, I appreciate you joining us and thank you, guys for tuning in to this episode of the Azure Craft Grow, influence, invest podcast. I'm your host, seth Mills.
Speaker 2:And your co-host, nick Dawson.
Speaker 1:And we hope you guys had a great start to the new year and we will see you next Friday. Peace.
