Money Talks: Financial Independence chats with Tracy Irwin - Episode Nineteen Steve Lees

No qualifications, a chip on his shoulder, and a call centre job. Steve Lees, better known as Frankie Grit, went on to sit in boardrooms, become a partner at a law firm, and run medium-sized businesses as chief exec. Then he lost it all and started again two weeks later.

This is not your typical "look how successful I am" conversation. It is the honest, no-nonsense truth about what building a business really looks like, and what most solo entrepreneurs are getting completely wrong.

In this episode, you'll discover:
💚 Why knowing your numbers is the foundation of everything (and no, it's not complicated) 
💚 How to price your services based on your ideal life, not what everyone else is charging 
💚 The feast and famine roller coaster that traps most business owners and how to get off it 
💚 Why working ON your business in 90-minute chunks changed everything (and still does) 
💚 The moment a business went bust and what happened just two weeks later 
💚 Why asking for help is not a sign of weakness, it is just common sense 
💚 How Steve wrote a business book he never intended to write and why it is unlike any other

Perfect for you if:
💚 You are a solo entrepreneur who feels like you are constantly busy but going nowhere 
💚 You want straight-talking advice that does not assume everything always goes to plan 
💚 You are tired of seeing every business online look like it is smashing it when yours feels hard 
💚 You know you need to understand your numbers but do not know where to start 
💚 You are thinking about leaving corporate life and want an honest reality check first

Resources:
💚 Steve's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/frankiegrit/ 
💚 Steve's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/steve_coach_for_growth/ 
💚 Steve's Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61554739558232 
💚 Steve's book: Search "Frankie Grit" on Amazon 
💚 Get Shit Done Club: Join for free alongside the book

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🎯 Perfect for:
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🎬 SUGGESTED VIDEOS Don't forget to watch 📽 my other videos. Please check them out:
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▶️ Friday Finker – Your Easter Weekend Challenge for Time Freedom & Success https://youtu.be/MBd4LjyVa00

Stop Guessing: The 6 Numbers That Will Make or BREAK Your Business!

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

What does financial independence mean to you?

SPEAKER_00 0:02

You need enough money to enable you to live the life that you want to lead.

SPEAKER_01 0:06

What activity you need to do to create that ideal life?

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Start with how much money do I need to live the life that I want to lead?

SPEAKER_01 0:15

How do you help them to transition into outsourcing?

SPEAKER_00 0:18

We need to increase the price for the customers that we've got so that your growth continues but you don't burn yourself out.

SPEAKER_01 0:24

Welcome. I'm Tracy Owen and I'm passionate about financial independence and wanted to share stories of inspiring entrepreneurs to prove it's possible for everyone to strive towards financial freedom. Today I'm talking to Steve Lees, who's probably better known as Frankie Gray, the no bullshit business coach. He lives in rural Scotland with his six dogs and helped solo entrepreneurs become professional business people through his get shit done community. So thank you so much for joining me, Steve. I'm uh looking forward to this conversation. Um, so just whilst we get going, I always ask the same question first. So, what does financial independence mean to you?

SPEAKER_00 1:08

Okay, well, first of all, good morning, Tracy, and thank you for the invite. Um I love talking about me, so I it's it's it's great. So financial independence. So I I I'm a great believer in everybody needs to have a destination, everyone needs to know what their ideal life looks and feels like. Um, and finance is a part of that. Uh, it's just about the ability for you to live the life that you want to lead, whatever that might be, which means you don't have to be a millionaire, you don't have to be a billionaire, you need enough money to enable you to live the life that you want to lead. Uh, and I think everyone should be striving to live the best life they can. And financial freedom and independence helps them to do that.

SPEAKER_01 1:52

Yeah, I think it's interesting when you said about like knowing what your ideal life looked like. So I'm quite a visual person and quite crafty. And I remember years ago trying to do this exercise back when I owned the accountancy, and I did a vision board of what I wanted my life to look like in five years. That's what I wanted. I was like five years' time, and one of them was not to own TI accountancy anymore. And when I looked at the date in which I'd done it, I'd actually sold it within 18 months. And I think having that thought process of knowing what your ideal life looks like can actually make things like personal manifestation, for instance, it's kind of like things happen without you actually realizing it because you've actually created that in your mind and your subconscious noise.

SPEAKER_00 2:39

You're right. Um I I work with solo entrepreneurs, that's my you know big part of what I do. And for me, the the one of the biggest gaps that most of them have got is they've lost sight of why they're doing it and where they want to get to. So I I'm not a life coach. We'll talk about my life if you want to realize why I'm not a good life coach. Um but I start with it's it's about you as a human being, you as a family. Where do you want to be? You know, in a year's time or two years' time, when you're drinking your your pina colada or your cup of tea, whatever it, whenever it might be, and you're sitting there going, Do you know what? I think I've made it, I think I am where I want to be. You need to understand what that looks and feels like.

SPEAKER_01 3:23

Yes, it's the feeling like, isn't it? Definitely.

SPEAKER_00 3:26

And it's about that why, then, isn't it? It's about, you know, so if if the why is big enough, then no matter what obstacle people put in front of you, and and they will, whether you're a business owner or not, people love putting things in the way. You will find a way of going round it, under it, over it, or knocking the sodding thing down to get to where you want to get to. Yes, that's the starting point. So if in the world of business actually starts with you, it doesn't start with your business. You are not your business, you are separate entities. So, where do you want to end up? And I think if you get that clarity, a bit like you ended up with your vision board, it's amazing how all of a sudden your decisions start to take you towards where you want to be rather than just meandering around aimlessly.

SPEAKER_01 4:10

Yeah, that's where it's gonna do. Yes. So obviously, living in rural Scotland, that is not a Scottish accent that you have right now. Is that like do you want to tell us a bit about how you got to being Frankie Grit?

SPEAKER_00 4:24

Uh wow, okay, yes. How long have we got? Um I I originate from Cheshire.

SPEAKER_01 4:29

Which is where I am now.

SPEAKER_00 4:30

Which is which is where you are now, just down the road from where you are now, in fact. Um and I lived in the same town, pretty much in the same house for the first 40 odd years of my life. I got married, I had kids, um I I flunked school completely. I left school with no with pretty much no qualifications, but a chip the size of a tree on my shoulder, thinking that life uh I was owed something. Okay. Um, and I and I drifted uh until eventually uh when the kids came along, you're gonna have to settle down at some point and get a job that means something, which I did. And I was one of those people sat in a call center, you know, just churning it out and working nine to five and and not thinking about it. And then I had what I think lots of people have. I had one of those moments where you meet someone and that person sees something in you that you haven't spotted. Um and the guy's name was John Ewell. I can I can remember to and and he changed my life. And he was he came in as a new manager, uh, and he'd chuck things up, and he and I didn't think much about it, and he came to me and said, You need to apply for one of these jobs, Steve. And it was like, Why? He said, Because you're capable, and and off I went, and and that was my supervisory's journey started, and then you know, on top management and into leadership. Uh, and I've I've had that moment three times in in my life where I've met someone who's gone, you're capable of more than this, Steve, and they've pushed me into doing something that I was uncomfortable doing. Um so so I became pretty successful. Uh you know, on if you go to the corporate greasy poll, I was I got to the top of the greasy pole, and I've I've sat around the boardroom table at uh you know quite large organisations. I believe it or not, I became a partner at a law firm, even though I'm not legally qualified. Who knew you could do that? Um uh and I ended up running and became chief exec of a couple of of medium-sized um businesses, so I I reached the top, if if if that's the right phrase. Um and I made truckloads of mistakes along the way. Just just you know, catastrophic mistakes, and and and and it still hurts now. We talk about um money and financial freedom. One of the businesses I ran went bust. Um and I can sit here and say, well, it wasn't my fault, you know. It was all to do. We work in the energy business, it was at the time that Russia invaded Ukraine, all of our customers went out of business. And hey presto, so did we. But you still carry as the as the person sat in the hot seat, you carry some of that around with you.

SPEAKER_01 7:13

Of course you do. I totally get that. Because at the end of the day, everything is our responsibility, even if it's not our fault.

SPEAKER_00 7:19

Yes, yes, and I you know, I made 140 people redundant two weeks after Christmas. That must have hurt. It was just um, yeah, it was really painful, and it's still painful now. Um, but then you dust yourself back off, and two weeks after that, we set a new business up and we re-employed some of the people that we made redundant, and we we went at it again. So there's something in my head about persistence. I'm I'm quite a persistent individual. I don't like saying, I don't like failing. I I accept that I fail, it's part of life, and you learn loads of stuff.

SPEAKER_01 7:52

I was gonna say we don't fail, Steve, we learn lessons.

SPEAKER_00 7:55

Well, yeah, yeah, however you want to describe it. The um Tommy Fleetwood, very famous golfer, said, Um, I either would or learn. Yes, brilliant, absolutely brilliant. So so that's it. So um, so we did that, but then and and at this point along this journey, I'm moving further north. Started in Cheshire, moved to Lancashire, moved across the Pennines to follow my heart, where I met my my wonderful wife now into Yorkshire. We then moved to Northumberland. Okay, um, and and then we ended up in Scotland. But so people say, you know, be be mindful of risk and don't take too much risk at the same time. Um, so we we moved house. I left my um uh my corporate job and moved to a different country where we didn't know anybody all at the same time.

SPEAKER_01 8:44

Do you not think sometimes like that that perfect storm is actually what you seem to see people need sometimes and everything happens all at the same time?

SPEAKER_00 8:52

Yeah, I mean I I I wouldn't recommend it. But if you go back to the where we started this conversation of what does your ideal life look like, we found it. Yeah so Kirsty and I and the dogs found it. We we we we wanted to move north, we decided Northumberland, it was getting a bit too too touristy for us, and we said we're gonna move to Scotland. That that was the that was the brief. Now I'm married to an accountant, Tracy. So you won't be surprised that my life is running around spreadsheets.

SPEAKER_01 9:22

Spreadsheets are amazing.

SPEAKER_00 9:24

I know. So we have a spreadsheet of everything the house that we needed to buy that our was going to be our forever home. Yeah. There was a spreadsheet for it, and then I was disp and there was lots of checking on right move, and and and then I was dispatched northwards to Scotland to go and do the initial recis around all these houses.

SPEAKER_01 9:42

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 9:44

Um and we just couldn't find the right one. We sold in Northumberland, so we rented so we moved to Scotland, but we rented somewhere. Um and then we were coming to Dumfries and Galloway, this wonderful place that I now live, to see a different house.

SPEAKER_02 9:57

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 9:57

The one that we actually bought, the one that I'm sat in now, didn't get enough ticks on the spreadsheet.

unknown 10:03

Right.

SPEAKER_00 10:04

But because we were going to Northumber to Dumfries and Galloway, we said, well, wow, we might as well make a day of it. So we so we did, and we came to this one first, and we got to the end of the driveway, and we both looked at each other and said, This is it. Hadn't you even been in the house? And when we went around the house, Kirsty didn't even look round all the rooms because you're in the room.

SPEAKER_01 10:25

She doesn't knew. And and that that for me proves that sometimes things that are written on paper that should be good or shouldn't be good, like you've that feeling it's that it creates whatever it is, your business, your life, your house, you know, anything could not look perfect on paper. But actually, when you actually go to it and feel the emotion that it brings, that's what is um it's all about, really.

SPEAKER_00 10:51

It just becomes that connection. And and and the and the reason I say this is because what what what we ended up doing is that we found our ideal life. So we you know we've been married for 10 years plus, don't know my exact time because I get it wrong, although I do remember our anniversary and she doesn't.

SPEAKER_01 11:07

Curse is gonna hate you for that.

SPEAKER_00 11:09

I know we might cut that bit out. Um and and and staining, it's staying. So we so we found it. But so so this ideal life, all of a sudden we'd found it. Now, Tracy, there was there was a problem because actually couldn't bloody afford it. Okay, because it was above what we wanted to spend, but we we we were just head over heels in it. It was just like we'll we'll make it work. Yeah, we'll make it work. So don't forget, I'd just left a job that was paying me quite a lot of cash. I'd setting my own business up. We took out we bought a house that was too big for us, we took a mortgage on the house that we couldn't afford. You know, it wasn't it wasn't the best plan, okay. But you know what? It just felt right, and I've been pretty successful through most of my life, so I thought, well, I'm gonna carry on being successful, aren't I? And everything's going to be fine. But oh boy. Yeah, yeah. It's been an interesting two years. It's been an interesting two years.

SPEAKER_01 12:12

I think it is, and I but that mindset, that's what separates business owners, isn't it? It's like we'll find a way, like, or you know, we blame everything else, or you know, there's there's you know, there's there's no they can't we need to find pro solutions to a problem, and it's just understanding there's a business owner that is primarily what we we need to do, become adapted.

SPEAKER_00 12:36

Um and we um we have to find the right solution for us, and that might look fundamentally different than a right solution for somebody else. Yeah, so you know, I'm I'm I spend a lot of time talking to people who work with me and just other business owners, you know. If you look online, every single business owner is a millionaire, everyone's business is doing fabulously well, you know, it's it's honestly just brilliant. In reality, less than 20% of businesses are actually performing well. Yes, most people are struggling, and some are broke, yes, and they just haven't accepted it yet. So I think getting clarity on everything is really important, and and you know, music to your ears, I'm sure, one of the things that brings that clarity is for God's sake, know your numbers.

SPEAKER_01 13:26

100%. It's the foundation of everything.

SPEAKER_00 13:28

Like it's just like I don't mean the numbers you give to your accountant, although you know that it's the numbers that are inside your business that make it move and make it tick. How many of these do you need? How many of those do you need? How much cash have you got? It's just it's it's not difficult, it's not complicated. You don't have to be a mathematician. You just need to understand the core numbers really well. Because when you do, you make better decisions.

SPEAKER_01 13:51

Yes. And I think you can understand when you understand your business numbers and you know what activity you need to do to create that ideal life, suddenly everything else just peels into c enter insignificance. It's like, let's concentrate on that. You know, it isn't like I speak to people who are like, well, I'm doing this marketing and that marketing and everything. I'm like, yeah, but do you actually understand what your gross profit margin is? Do you understand like how much of every pound that you bring in needs to go to actually delivering that service? Because you know, if it's not fundamentally like feasible, then you can't outwork a pricing problem. And people people think they can. Like they think, I just throw some more money at marketing, it'll get all cut, it'll small sales will come in, I'll be fine. I'm like, sometimes that's gonna make it just bust quicker.

SPEAKER_00 14:41

Exactly. And and you know, and you know, there's you and I come from from a similar background because obviously we we both have got connections with the entrepreneur circle, we've both been through Nigel's kind of processes.

SPEAKER_01 14:51

Yeah, we do speak the same language, Steve.

SPEAKER_00 14:55

And to the point where actually I became a certified coach for Entrepreneur Circle. So so so so it's the it's the core things, isn't it? Where do you start with money? You don't start with what the market thinks it can afford, because let's go back to it 80% of the market are doing it wrong because they're not making enough money. So if you follow them, don't be surprised if you don't make enough. Start with how much money do I need to live the life that I want to lead? Okay, now how many customers do I need? Oh well, that's too many. I can't deal with that. Well, you need a different sort of customer then that's willing to pay more with more value. You've got to start from the right point, and you're building your pricing strategy for you, not the rest of the market. Actually, not really buying it for sending it for the customers, you've got to find the right customer. What do I need?

SPEAKER_01 15:41

Yeah, 100%. It's and so many people freedom, yeah, financial independence, isn't it? It's like, you know, and and it's just so many people do price from what everyone else is pricing. And I I mean I did it yesterday. Somebody was telling me that their prices are like on par with everybody else's, and I'm like, yeah, but what does that make your life look like? And she's like, Yeah, but it's the same offer. I'm like, change your offer.

SPEAKER_00 16:08

Change your offer. If you're average, but are you is your service average? Because if your service is average, charge average prices, but I've yet to come across a business owner that says their service is average. So if your service is good, charge valuable prices. I I had a conversation with a client yesterday, uh uh who had just come up with a new pricing list for a new venture, and and by the end of the conversation, it had gone up by 40%. Awesome.

SPEAKER_01 16:33

Everyone needs the franchise.

SPEAKER_00 16:35

I still think it was too cheap. So so yeah, so that the numbers become really important um because it's what drives everything else. Go back to this business being your business and you are separate, your business is only there and can only deliver two things time and money. Yeah. How much time do I need to live my ideal life? How much money do I need? Those are the goals that your business set. It can't it can't do anything else, might give you some satisfaction if you if you're doing something you're doing. You're helping people, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:06

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SPEAKER_00 17:50

Um, but you need to understand what time and money you need so that you can then set appropriate targets for your business. But when those things join together, by God, you can make some progress.

SPEAKER_02 17:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:00

Because it all starts to make sense.

SPEAKER_01 18:03

So the fact you you deal with solopreneurs and people in their infancy, I'd say, of like their careers and their their businesses. Like, what's the biggest like mistake most people that you see make that people could actually think, oh, I do that and change it?

SPEAKER_00 18:19

If only there was one.

SPEAKER_01 18:21

Oh, go on then. Have you got a top three?

SPEAKER_00 18:23

There's a few. So I think I think the the the first one we've talked about, and that is they aren't really clear on where their destination point is. So I think that that's something they need to get to because you need to act like a satnav. And to be a sat nav, you need to know where you are and where you want to get to, and then it will plot the route for you. I think the second thing is that they actually don't really understand what their product is.

unknown 18:49

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 18:49

And they find it really difficult to describe and articulate to people what it is they actually do. They intrinsically know what they do, but finding the language and the and the packaging of what their product is, people find quite difficult. Because they'll go, well, well I'm a well I I um you know you know, I paint people's nails just just like everybody else.

unknown 19:12

Right.

SPEAKER_00 19:13

And then well then you'll just be like everybody else. We have to find the uniqueness of your product and your and your service and your and and your business. And do you know what that is? In a hundred percent of occasions, come on. You it's you, the only unique thing that your business has got is you. So that's that's the second thing. Numbers absolutely just if only people understood numbers. Um and don't get me wrong, I I'm not a numbers expert, I'm married to a numbers expert. But if you asked me what my core numbers are, uh I can tell you.

SPEAKER_01 19:58

Yes, and that's the point, isn't it? It's not the numbers aren't, you don't have to be an accountant to understand the important numbers in your business. Things like your, you know, how much activity you have to do to be able to get a client, so your rhythmic acquisition of a client, you know, your your lifetime value of a client, those kind of type of things are not mathematical equation, they are mathematical equations, but they're sensible ones because people see the tangibility of them and um it they are so easy.

SPEAKER_00 20:23

So yeah, I I know, and I'm gonna come back to a second on one of the other problems, but I know I need to put 10 leads, 10 qualified leads in the top of my sales funnel.

SPEAKER_02 20:32

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 20:33

And if I put 10 leads in, I will get three prospects.

SPEAKER_02 20:36

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 20:36

And if I get three prospects, I'll get one client. Perfect. I know that because that's what happens. I've built over time, I've built it, and that's what happens. And sometimes it changes. Sometimes I need to put less leads in, sometimes, but overall, 10, 3, 1. If I want a client a week or a client a month, I know how many things I've got to put in the top of the pile. And I also now know the activities that sit underneath it that put those people into the top of the pile.

SPEAKER_01 21:02

When I when I learned this from Nigel Bottle and the Entrepreneur Circle back in 2010, I had all the data there in my accountancy business. Like I literally, you can imagine, it was like Christmas for me. I went home and I pulled all the data together, and I knew when I needed more clients or less clients, I knew what activity I could turn it up, turn it down. It was brilliant. And then I became, once I sold a business and I became a new business, I suddenly was like, oh, I don't have my numbers. Oh god, I haven't got any numbers to track. I've been tracking so much in the last six months to try and understand. And I'm doing exactly the same thing. I track, I do a money mindset sprint every single month. I know how many people register, how many people turn up, how many people fill out the feedback form, how many people say yes to like accountability, and how those people say yes, how many people join the circles? And I am just tracking it and tracking it and tracking it so that I can be confident. In another six months' time, exactly what I need to do to get people into the circle.

SPEAKER_00 22:06

And I think that's the in the world I I operate, majority solo entrepreneurs, they're starting without any of that data. So we don't know what your conversion rates are going to be, we don't know what activities are going to work, so we just have to start, and then we have to review, and then we have to tweak and go, Well, actually, you know, well, we're doing all these activities, but we're not getting the result we want. Well, so either they're the wrong activities, or we aren't doing enough of them, or we aren't doing it well enough. Follow up change. Follow up, no one does enough, God almighty. There's the other thing, no one follows up anywhere near enough. As much as they should do, I know. Everybody, me included, and I've got I try and preach follow up, me included, by the way.

SPEAKER_01 22:52

Yeah, and I do follow up, but I know it's not as often as I should, because I've got other things going on. But yeah, I I totally agree.

SPEAKER_00 23:01

And I think that the the fight the final the final jigsaw puzzle for me for for particularly early stage entrepreneurs, ones that mean that they're up and running, you know, but that they've reached that plateau and gone, shh, I need to I need to become a professional business person, is actually understanding who their clients actually are.

SPEAKER_01 23:20

Right, okay.

SPEAKER_00 23:23

There's still this view of well, well, anyone can buy this. Well, well, that's true. Anyone could buy it, but everyone isn't going to.

SPEAKER_02 23:30

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 23:30

So again, linking it back to the money. If you need uh your average client to pay you this amount of money, there is no point marketing to people who can't afford it. Yeah, so we have to find the right marketplace that matches the value. And I I I I work for Digital Boost. I think you do a bit of digital boost.

SPEAKER_01 23:48

I do, I do webinars and free mentoring for them, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:51

Yeah, so I had a free mentoring session, this is going back quite some time with a chap, and all he wanted was some help with pricing. Okay. That was that that was that was his point. I said, okay, tell me what you do. I'm I'm a wedding photographer. Okay, brilliant. Who do you f you know whose weddings do you f do you photograph? What do you mean? I said, Well, I can't help you pricing until we understand actually what your ideal customer looks like. And he just not, he could not grasp it. So I end up going I end up going, right, okay. So let's imagine you've got two people coming to you. You've got Janet and John, who live in the local council estate, who went to school together, and they're gonna get married in the local registry office, and they're going to the local pub for a for a buffet um lunch. Okay, that's client number one. Okay, what you're going to do for them is take photographs.

SPEAKER_02 24:37

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 24:37

Okay. Over here, you've got Katie Price, marrying whoever the next person is at Katie Price. You're going to go to marry, you know, and she's flying to Hawaii and Barbados, and there's a 500 people going, and it's a five-star luxury resort. And you know what you're going to do when you're there? You're going to take photographs. How much are you going to charge for each of them? And all you see the light bulb suddenly come into his head going, okay. Because you're doing the same thing, but they value it differently. Very much so. You understand your ideal customer helps you to get your pricing model to a level that supports your ideal life. Hey, it's not all these things are linked. It's amazing, isn't it? It is. You know? And none of it, none of it is complicated. It's hard. It's hard work. It's not easy. And and I don't care who you are, how long you've been doing it for it, you're constantly making mistakes and you've got to make changes, but you don't need to be a brain surgeon unless you actually want to operate on people's brains. It's it's just you need to know what to do. So you spend all of your time doing the stuff that you should do. Whereas most business owners spend lots of time doing stuff that's not going to bring any value to them.

SPEAKER_01 25:50

Yeah. But lots of business owners go on this like the roller coaster. So like they go networking, they do lots of activity to try and get customers in, and it goes up here and then they get busy. And then they do the work. They don't do anything, they don't go to networking anymore. And like again, I'm we're probably doing a little thing for Nigel here. But when I first heard Nigel speak, he stood on a stage in 2010 and said to everybody, What's the first thing you do when you go to work? And everyone was like, emails, talk to the team, make a bro, that kind of stuff. And he was like, I get clients, I just work to keep clients like clients. And I like I actually got in Nigel's book when you talked about it, but I literally grew my business in 90 minute chunks. It was the best advice I've ever been given, and I still give it to this day. Give it to me yesterday on a digital booth. Because she was like, I've been really busy because luckily I got some referrals. She said, and now my website and everything isn't ready because I to launch because but those clients have gone. And I was like, why weren't you working on your business throughout that busy? I didn't have time that you did have time.

SPEAKER_00 27:01

You have to you didn't prioritize it. So you have to act so I I I I almost every conversation I have, uh certainly with new people, it goes um uh something like something like this. If you put your client list on a piece of paper with the most important client at the top and the least important client at the bottom, because this isn't communism, there are more important clients than others. Yeah, you will miss one. I guarantee it. And that's yours. Your business goes at the top of that list. Yeah, you have to work as hard on that business as you do anything else. How do you do that? You have to craft time, and then I get Nigel's book out and I say I I don't recommend very many books other than my own. Sorry, plug.

SPEAKER_01 27:46

You can talk about that in a minute.

SPEAKER_00 27:48

I recommend Nigel say read this book, it will take you no more than a couple of hours to read it, it'll change the way you approach your business. You have to find the right amount of time at the right point, and you never compromise on doing that. Yeah, and I have a poster above you can't see it because it's a and it and it's a big A3 poster, and it just says, What are you doing today to get and keep customers? Perfect. Because I have to remind myself, and I can't miss it, it's literally in my line of sight. If you don't do it, you don't your pipeline doesn't grow, and then you get this. Oh bloody hell.

SPEAKER_01 28:22

Yeah, it is, and it it is, and it's so many people still do it, and like I mean, I'm lucky now, I can work my entire morning on my business and then work in the afternoon. That's a choice, but you know, when I on the counter sea, like I couldn't, I had to physically shut the door and tell people they were not allowed to talk to me, and it was a new thing for them, it was a new thing for me. But honestly, the the growth between that 2010 and 2014 was phenomenal, and I thank the I thank my 90 minutes for that.

SPEAKER_00 28:53

Yes, I I thank Nigel's book uh to the point where um I have a sign that goes out because I have a this is my office, it's a lovely little place. There is a sign that goes on my door, a bit like Nigel has a sign that went on his, but my sign says piss off, I'm busy. And and and you know, there's only there's only one more person in the house. You know, the dogs don't ignore, but you know, she don't ignore it. She she bought it for it goes on if if that sign's on the door, unless unless the building's burning down, leave me alone because I'm busy and I'm doing something that's important.

SPEAKER_01 29:26

That's really sensible.

SPEAKER_00 29:27

If you get that now, yes, 90 minutes is great. If you can't do 90 minutes, do 60. Yes, but do something in your diary, have that time blocked out and don't bloody change it.

SPEAKER_01 29:40

Your business is successful, so why do you feel so miserable? Here's the thing success doesn't always automatically equal freedom. I see profitable business owners every day who can't take a holiday, who can't switch off, and they feel completely overwhelmed by their own achievements. Sound familiar? Well, I've created a simple quiz that pinpoints exactly why you feel stuck in your business. It will give you the clarity you need to move from being trapped to being free. Why don't you take the quiz now? The link's in the description below. And and I know people, some people are night owls, and but for me, and I do say there is a caveat because some people do work better in the evenings, I get that. But willpower is a it's it's not a muscle, it's more like a tank of fuel. And what happens is when we go to sleep, we replenish what like our bodies. So in the morning, we do have more willpower, which is why people who go to the gym in the morning tend to be more successful than people who go to the gym in the evening. Especially like if you're a business owner, you're making decisions every single minute of the day. By the time you get to tea time, a decision of do I go to the gym or do I go on and sit on the couch is you know, it's a harder decision than what it was first thing in the morning. So I tell people that as well, just because people need to under people think that willpower is like a muscle, and the more you use it, the the easier it gets, but it isn't. You know, we we've plenished it every single day. So get the important stuff done first thing in the morning.

SPEAKER_00 31:15

I I think that that's a bit for me is that that that if if you do the important stuff first, and the important stuff for me is this bit, you're working on your business, whatever that might be. When you've done that, don't matter what happens in the rest of the day. Doesn't no it can be complete lots of chaos. So you can all go to to to oh you know, I was gonna use the word ratchet, but I won't. You can all go to rat shit. Um it doesn't matter because the important bit has been done. If that chaos is happening during the day, the last thing you're gonna do at the end of the day is then do good work on your business. Yeah, you just don't so so yeah, that there's there's um so again, but it's it's basic, it's not not complicated. Yeah, but if you want your business to grow, you have to work at it as hard as you work on doing your but your whatever your business is for your largest, most important client. If you can't work at that level, why is your business going to grow?

SPEAKER_01 32:09

So how how do you help your businesses like your clients when they get to a point where they're at a ceiling? So they're kind of doing everything themselves, but actually you know they shouldn't be doing everything themselves. Like, how do you help them to transition into outsourcing usually, probably if it's a sole or solopreneur?

SPEAKER_00 32:27

So we we I I've got I have a couple of a couple of techniques.

SPEAKER_01 32:30

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 32:31

Giving giving away my trade secrets. No, no, no, but in general, the the first one is is we have to go back to numbers. I will I will have helped them build a financial plan. And that final plan will have will have number of clients, average client lifetime value, therefore how many clients you need to hit the revenue and the cost. So we we've got now we I don't fixate on the forecast. The way I operate it is we we we build it, we don't look at it for three months, we then review the three months, and what can we learn? Is the next three months the same, or do we need to change the forecast up or down? But and this stretches over 12 months or more. And there's usually an inflection point in that to go actually you can only deal with this number of customers because if you're a sole entrepreneur, you've only got so much time in the day, we know how long it takes you to deliver your service, therefore there's and that ceiling isn't when you're at 100%. Yeah, because you can't work at 100%. You can't so the ceiling three for me is always at about 75%.

SPEAKER_02 33:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:27

Um, okay, so you so there's an inflection point there, you have a choice. We either say, Well, we don't want more customers, we need to increase the price for the customers that we got so that your growth continues, but you don't burn yourself out, or as we as we come to that inflection point, we have to provide support around you to take away the jobs that you now shouldn't be doing, of which there will be plots.

unknown 33:52

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:54

At that point, we and and then ahead as we're building up to that point, we'll start to think about a VA, someone do a bookkeeper, um, someone doing your social media marketing, or and we'll just list all the things that are potential, and then we'll usually I'll I'll get them to start thinking about you're too close to the reflection point now. So you're you're at you're gonna start working harder and you're and that it's okay short term, but at some point you're gonna burn yourself out with it, so we have to do something. You might have to say, well that my business at this point now is the right size, thanks very much. I don't want anymore. And that's that's fine. I'm at that point, Tracy. Okay, I I I don't I don't need more customers now. I've got the number of customers I need to generate the income I need from that part of what I do to hit. That's fine. So I don't need to suddenly find but I'm an old git. You know, you know, and so and uh so but if you want your business to become more than just you, if you want your business to become valuable, yes, it has to operate without you. It does. And you then start to build support around you, usually, as you say, outsourcing to start with before you employ people, but then ultimately you start to bring other people into your business that can do it better than you can.

SPEAKER_01 35:09

Yeah, which is what my book's about, by the way, just to say that. But I've got so on that note, please tell us. Tell us what what is the book about?

SPEAKER_00 35:21

So I I hate business books.

SPEAKER_01 35:25

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 35:25

So I I no intent I'd never intended to write anything. Um, but I usually at the end of each conversation I have with people, I'm I'm writing some notes or or actually Fathom now writes them for me.

SPEAKER_01 35:36

Yes, yeah, and that's a very sensible outsourcing, by the way.

SPEAKER_00 35:40

Absolutely. Why the hell would you?

SPEAKER_01 35:42

I mean, I still got a pad and pen in front of me, but yeah, but you can be more present, can't you, with your clients when you you're a note taker somewhere else. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:51

Absolutely. It's it's yeah, it's fabulous. But when I started to review notes, not surprisingly, there are patterns that emerge. This you know, so that lots of the lots of people have the same problems, they just use different language to describe what they are.

SPEAKER_02 36:05

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 36:06

Um so I was I was kind of building up this this view of there are some core things that people just need to be good at, a bit like Nigel did with his, but I've gone off on a slightly different tangent on some of them. And at the same time, I was I was crafting the answer to the question that every solo entrepreneur hates, and that is so what is it you do? Because nobody likes that question.

SPEAKER_01 36:33

No.

SPEAKER_00 36:34

Um and then if when you've got the answer to that one, and then they go, So how do you do it? So and I was right all the time, and all of a sudden, I just had this moment. I thought, you know what? There's maybe a book in this, and I immediately went, Oh god, no, the book's business books. Then I remembered um there is a a uh a leadership program called um the the the I can't remember the exact phrase of it now, but it's basically the the the five habits of really effective leaders.

SPEAKER_02 37:04

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 37:05

And it's by a chap called Patrick Lencioni. Okay, and I've been and I've been through that programme, and the start of that program is you read this book. Um business book, but it's not, it's a fictitious book, it's a story about a group of people in Silicon Valley building a business. Okay, it introduces characters, and in the the conversation and the narrative of that, it introduces the the issues around the habits of highly effective teams.

SPEAKER_01 37:32

Right.

SPEAKER_00 37:33

And I thought I really enjoyed reading that book. I wonder whether I could do something similar.

SPEAKER_01 37:37

Ah, that's where the idea came from.

SPEAKER_00 37:40

So my book is a fictitious story about a guy who was a chief exec, it's not me, but there are elements of of my journey in it. Yeah. He decided that he'd had enough of that. He wanted to go on his own, he decided he got on his own. Of course, it'd be really easy because he've got all these connections, all these contacts. Um, and then he goes into the real world and finds that actually is bloody hard. Um, he then goes off on a little journey and he meets this person called Frankie Grit. Yeah, maybe enough, who retrains him on how to become a professional business person. And then he goes back and he starts to implement that into his business and he sees his business improve. So all of the all the things I think people need to be really good at are in the themes in this book. Awesome thing. And it's a really easy read, it's you know, it takes a couple of hours if you read at a reasonable pace. But I think it's one of those books that you're gonna start writing on and marking to just to go. I need to go back. What did Frankie say with this one?

SPEAKER_01 38:39

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_00 38:40

Just to help people realise that actually you don't have to, you don't need flashy new objects, you don't need all the sexy stuff that's out there. If you understand what the basics are and you do them consistently and you do them well, your business will be successful.

SPEAKER_01 38:58

I've already heard it's helped so many like solopreneurs um that are in our circle as well. So I do know it can help so many more. So um I'm gonna put in the description of like where they can get the book and stuff.

SPEAKER_00 39:11

Um I'm sorry, it's on Amazon as much as I hate us, it's on Amazon because it's the place that everyone goes to look.

SPEAKER_01 39:18

It's easier, it's well it they they can get it the next day when you try and do it yourself. It's like the the the barrier, the friction for a client is oh, I can't get it till next week. Like my my more my excitement's gone by then.

SPEAKER_00 39:30

So but uh exactly and and and I I'm gonna put one more plug in it because I know there's one plug in my book. But if you buy the book, if you then join the get shit dung club, yeah, and you can now join the get shit dunk club for nothing, yes. There is a two and a half hour video series that expands all the stuff that's in the book to add what you do next with it.

SPEAKER_01 39:50

So all right, we'll put the link in as well. So there we go.

SPEAKER_00 39:53

So yeah, yeah, so and but but an unexpected author, I still find it quite difficult to say it's uh actually yes, you've authored a book, it's like ah, you'd be proud, stand up.

SPEAKER_01 40:03

I love that I am I am a best-selling author. I've got two books, and I'm I'm very proud of that. So you need to start it from the rooftops. So if if there's a if there's a person out there who is in corporate life and uh really would like to be, like to go into I wouldn't have no idea why they would want to really want to go into the world of small businesses because you know, and we've said it is hard, but it's also very fulfilling at the same time. It's brilliant. I I do get satisfaction by the way from my business, so I'm lucky in that respect. Um, like what's one piece of advice you can give them? Where do they start?

SPEAKER_00 40:40

Right back at the beginning again. Be clear about where it is you want to end up.

unknown 40:46

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 40:46

And I know I sound like a broken record, um, but it but but it it's the most, it's the fundamental. Don't just jump and expect everything to sort itself out. Be clear about what you want it to do. Because what it what it what it's unlikely to do as you start off is give you loads of freedom and time. It's likely to do exactly the bloody opposite. It is, it will, it will eat your life if you if you let it. Yeah, so be clear about where you're going, you're clear about your boundaries. Um, I am I'm I hate the phrase work-life balance.

SPEAKER_01 41:19

Me too.

SPEAKER_00 41:20

Work is just part of life.

SPEAKER_01 41:22

It is, it's back priority.

SPEAKER_00 41:24

But there are boundaries, exactly. There are there are you know you business is important, but you're only doing business so you can live this wonderful life that's over here. So make sure you commit enough time to that one or that wonderful life will bugger off.

SPEAKER_02 41:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:39

So just real clarity, real clarity, and and this is not a plug for me, get help. If you if you learn to drive a car, which most people have done, yeah, you don't just get the keys, sit in it, and go, oh fuck, you work all this, excuse my language. I'll just work this out as I go on. What does this lever do and that button of this thing? Because what you do is you bloody crash. Exactly. Yeah, you get someone sat next to you to go, let me show you how this works, let me learn the skills, and then have someone to help you implement the skills. That's my advice. Now it doesn't have to be a paid business coach, it needs to be someone who's run their own business. Yeah, can't be Jim down the pub who's worked for ICI all his life, who's full of great ideas because they don't know. They're not they're not stupid, they just don't know. So get someone who can sit next to you and go, let me help you. And you end up, you end up, once you don't crash, you have little dings, you have little dints because you don't have that big screen.

SPEAKER_01 42:48

And that's not gonna be a write-off, is it? I have a few scratches, but it's not gonna be a write-off.

SPEAKER_00 42:54

And if you think about it, in just about every other part of people's lives, if they want to learn something, they go and get help. But all of a sudden, when it's about setting your own business up, oh, I'm not asking for any help, no, no, no, no, that no, that's a sign of weakness. Yeah, I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_01 43:10

Well, as as we've gone full circle, I think that is perfect. We've just gone right back to the start. So don't worry about repeating. I think it's a really, really important, um important thing to think about if you're ready to jump um into uh small the life of small businesses. So but thank you so much for joining me. I have really enjoyed this. I knew I would anyway. Um, but um, yeah, it's been absolutely amazing, and I think it would help it's gonna help lots of um small business owners actually realize they're not on their own.

SPEAKER_00 43:40

I think that's gonna be a bit of you're not but and and the and the the other thing I finish on is that most other small business owners will help because they've all been there, they've all been where you are, create that little support network around you, and they'll help you through those times that get really tough because we all go through those tough times.

SPEAKER_01 43:58

We do. We do. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 44:00

Thank you for the invite, Tracy. It's been a wonderful conversation.

SPEAKER_01 44:02

You're very welcome. Thanks for coming on.

SPEAKER_00 44:04

No problem at all. Bye-bye.

SPEAKER_01 44:06

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