Marc Watters - Construction Business Blueprint

The Construction Business Blueprint #005 - The Q4 Blueprint Every CBO Needs to Finish the Year Strong

• Marc Watters • Season 1 • Episode 5

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What would I do if I had to rebuild momentum and end the year on a high, without burnout, chaos, or last-minute stress?


In this episode of The Construction Business Blueprint, I, Marc, map out a practical Q4 plan for construction business owners who want to walk into the new year with confidence and control.


Reflection turns into action as we focus on founder energy, team alignment, systems, finance, and momentum.


You’ll learn:


 ✅ Why Q4 sets the tone for Q1 success
 ✅ How to review wins, challenges, and lessons to expose blind spots
 ✅ Founder energy strategies to protect time and drive clarity
 ✅ How to align your team with clear targets and better weekly meetings
 ✅ The key to systemising for speed under pressure
 ✅ Cash forecasting, early invoicing, and ring-fencing overheads
 ✅ Why keeping your marketing live now secures your Q1 pipeline
 ✅ The opportunity cost of inaction versus the reward of decisive moves
 ✅ One simple action you can take today to create immediate momentum


 Subscribe for more on construction business systems, estimating, cash flow, and leadership.


COMMENT below: your biggest takeaways and what you want me to create next! 

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the construction business blueprint boardroom breakfast. So for anybody who's not familiar with how we run things in here on the on the calls, we're going to go through a bit of workbook you see in front of you. So the house rules kind of are that we're going to give everybody an opportunity. I'm going to describe or talk about what we're going to do in the workbooks and then we ask any questions, get them out of the way. If you're unsure what it is you need to write down, but get them out of the way then, and then I'll sort of set a timer and everyone's just sort of silent while we're filling out the workbooks. Let everybody get any bit of a flow, let everybody concentrate on what they're doing, etc. etc. Why we're here and what we're doing, we're here to plan for Q4. So Q4 is obviously a very, very important time of the year. It's a close out, and we're going to show you how to end on a high and not on a come down. If you're new to this, by the way, so for anybody who's not used to doing and going through these things, I know Nathan, you've probably done similar things in the past, but um in terms of being really you know implementing these things in your business, and before we dive in, when you're doing the workbooks and stuff like that, there's no ready-wrong answer. I've had guys in here in the past who weren't clans and they got a bit overwhelmed with things, but the guys will tell you this is uh, and even anybody who's sort of new to the new program, even um that it is on is on board, but there's no ready-wrong answers, go through, answer them as best as you can. But if you're if you're at the beginning of this, don't expect to have all the answers. That's the reason why most people are here. It's trying to find these things out. Uh, again, this is this is always going to be a transition, like we always say, from from tradesman to business owner. Um, so don't expect it all just to come out and come to the forefront straight away. So if you're struggling, it's fine. If you want to ask any questions at any point in time, also fine. So the key there is just don't overthink it. So we'll go into why Q4 matters, and I already explained to it there. It's the final stretch of the year, and it's either continue the momentum for how the year's been so far, if it's gone really well, or it's to sort of draw a line in the sand and think what are the lessons here that we've learned through the year. Draw a line in the sand, take action and change things. So it's either good or bad. Again, it can be for the lads who are flying now, it could just be in a case of you know, don't slow down now because it's the end of the year and you think you're nearly there. Maintain the momentum and utilize it as best you can in order to start Q1 on the front foot. So no matter how it's gone, it's going to be relative. And like I said, I had a YouTube video out there on Monday, and it was all about the review, clean, and reset. And that's a great time of the year. Q4 is a perfect time for that because you can review everything you've done so far to date, good or bad, or indifferent or whatever else. Um, you can clean everything up, so anything that you're backlogged on, anything, any mistakes or any lessons you need to make, now's the time to write any wrongs and then reset. So you can use this last period to really accelerate things closing in. So it really is a great time of year. And a lot of guys who are new to this as well won't have uh won't have much experience in even talking about their business in months or quarters or years or anything like that. Usually it's just day by day, week by week, and firefighting. So again, this might all be new to you, but it's all good. Um, so again, what people are are always at fault of doing at this time of year is burying your head in the sand, um, putting the blinkers on and just thinking, right, I'll go as hard as I can and just stop at Christmas with no plan, no direction, and yeah, then you wait and hope that any of the problems that you've had up for this year will just all of a sudden have they'll have a miracle before Christmas and it'll all solve themselves, and you'll start with January like a different business. But unless you put the work in now, that won't be the case. So any problems or issues that you have now will just go into the new year, and then how do you shake that down in January? So that's exactly why we're here now. So Q4 is your chance to do three things, like I said already, correct course, maximize what's left, and set the stage for Q1. So, again, an absolutely crucial, crucial time of year. Um, and I was excited about this. And inside the program, what we always do is for the guys that don't know this, we do most of us didn't get an opportunity to do the start of the year stuff, some of the guys like shaming stuff did who were here are in early doors. Before we draw a line under it, what we're gonna what we can say here is like we yes, inside the program, what we do is we will do this regularly, we will do a quarterly review, but then we also do a 30-day review because the review is what's important. It's it's important to take stop and take stock. Like you guys were saying earlier on, it's easy to get caught up in being busy. You miss variations, you miss things. So it's important for every now and again. We do every 30 days, every quarter, every six months. And we've done the the last live event was a six months, and then this is the end of the year. So, but again, the last quarter is really like the last stretch, the last pitch of the race, or whatever else you want to say, the time to really make the most out of it. So, before we just draw a line under the year so far, we're gonna do a bit of a reflection piece. So, I want everybody to open the workbooks just on the first page there. And it's quite simple. Um we'll just go through that in terms of 2025 so far. So, what's been your biggest win this year? No matter how big, no matter how small, it can be personal, it can be business, it's entirely up to you, it's completely personal. What's been your biggest challenge? So, try and think of the the single most biggest challenge you've had, whether you know, getting time to work on the business, you know, thinking of ways to grow, uh no matter what it could be, it could be anything at all, and again, it could be personal or business. We obviously try and keep it focused on business, but some of the guys who are flying, you know, there could still be challenges there, challenges of what's next, challenges of whatever else. What's the biggest lesson you've learned? Again, good or bad, hopefully good. Um mistakes, things go wrong, they're not really mistakes, they're not negatives unless you don't learn something from it. So if they keep happening time and time again, you don't draw a line in the sand, then they keep happening, then it only then is it is it an issue. And then what achievement are you most proud of? Because it's important to recognise and take recognition and stock of how well we're doing. Alright lads, everybody happy enough for their thereabouts? Does anybody want to anybody want to go ahead and share? Go ahead, Jimmy. Uh the biggest win this year is uh just becoming a better businessman. Um the biggest challenge this year has been becoming from a tradesman, the businessman. Um the lessons that I've learned this year is to have systems and programs in place for the business to run the way it has to run for more profit time and control. And the biggest achievement this year has been the the person I am today because of the programme. Yeah, 100%, Jimmy. And yeah, 100%. Because one of the big things, even in the last few months, has been that like how you're how you're approached everything. Like I always say to Graham, I'm constantly on Graham approach, approach, approach, and he's all sick of hearing me saying it. But the approach to things, so now you're you're thinking and approaching problems and issues in a completely different manner, where it was all reactive and everything else, so now you're you're you're hitting it harder. So anybody else want to share? I'll share the one. Go ahead, yeah. No. Go ahead, Nathan. Yep. So just read all of them, yeah. Go ahead. So, what's been your biggest win? So getting the big uh the big contract, 750 houses in Dublin and the aluminium apartment. Yep. Um, what has been my biggest challenge is getting organized, leaving control, go on my business. Um what is the biggest lessons I've learned? Don't rush into things and don't always say yes to jobs. Uh and to lose control in your business is okay. So what I mean by that is like all the things. Having Lindsay now doing all this stuff, yeah, it makes me freak out. Is she doing it right or not? But you just have to trust him, you know what I mean? Um what achievements am I most proud of? Being the person I become, getting the big contracts, not drinking any alcohol, and meeting big entrepreneurs and how far my business has become. Fair playing of it? Yep, well done, Mill. Does anyone else want to put themselves forward? No? Graham, good man yourself. Excellent. Uh the biggest win this year. We've had like this has been our best year so far in turnover, but fighting the bill to get external help to run the business has been has overcome that, like that's the best. Um biggest challenge, time management. That's what we're learning on. Um getting that right is gonna be game changing for us. Um biggest lesson organization over plan and approach is everything. Um what achievement. Um we've done really nice bespoke stuff this year, but again, back to back to taking ownership and running the business better has been the best achievement, and I'm happy I've done that. Brennan, for a pedigree, yeah, excellent. And again, you're only only early doors, but already the the thinking and the approach has changed. It's it's even that, even when we're not, you know, we're not conquering the world in the first month, we are we are aware of what's going on and we're aware of what the problems are and etc, etc. Which will lead us in the right direction. Like every lesson that I do inside the program, I always like to not just highlight what the issues are and throw a load of fear into it, we like to show you how to solve the problems. So we went through their challenges, wins, etc. etc. So we've both got we've got lessons and we've got momentum, like we talked about at the start. So this is where we double down on it, and this is nearly went there, five focus points on exactly how to do everything we said about finishing 2025 strong and setting us up for quarter one. So, number one starts with you, the founder and founder energy, so the business owner, and everything again, like I said, I think I just touched on there, it's the approach and your awareness, the everything. So, how you approach good and bad situations, how you approach the business, how you you approach everything, and then your awareness, like I said there with with Graham. Being aware of what the problems are, being aware of your your energy, how you're turning up and everything else is absolutely crucial because how you show up matters, it filters down to everybody else in the team at home and it affects business decisions, it affects everything. So, how you show up every day matters, and that's why it's important then to do this second thing was protect your time and energy, which is one of the most difficult challenges in construction. Because, as we all know, a phone call, an email, or something could change, could change everything. But again, it's it's how we approach it. Instead of just being reactive, it's a case of when we get the bad email, we get the bad phone call, taking a step back, taking stock and saying, right, why has this happened? Like we always say, being the aware, having the reflection piece, instead of just flipping the lid and diving into something and just going hammering tongue at it, it's better to step back, have a look at it, because you need to protect your time and energy. Don't just react to things and jump in and sack everything else off. You need to try and look at everything strategically and again be intentional with everything you do. So you need to actually really be have a good have a yeah, just take stock, take stock. The likes of the daily diaries and things like that. When you do get these bad things coming in, when get these uh things coming in then daily, you need to you know review that and see why things are going wrong, where they're going wrong, and try and fix the cause rather than just reacting to it. And it's easy to revert, it's always easy. The easy option is every time something goes wrong, or anytime you get a chance, is to just bury your head in the sand, jump back on the tools if that's the case in your business, um, and just be busy. Because being busy is a very, very good distraction, um, and it's a good excuse. You know, I can't do that because I'm busy, I didn't get to do that because I'm busy, etc. etc. So again, we have the resources, we have the tools, I'm there as well. Inside the program, do we deal with these things like the review and reset, we'll have the daily diary and plenty of other resources there to help us with it? So they're the four main things are about founder energy that need to be taken into account. Number two, then would be your team alignment. And a good question for everybody here in the room if you have a team, some of you do, some of you don't, whether it's an apprentice or there's a gang of God knows how many, and whether it's subcontractor team, does your team know what to expect in quarter four in your business? So, are you communicating with your team? You might know on you might have all these plans, but if the team aren't aligned with what you're saying, you can't expect it to go well. So everybody has to not even need every nitty-gritty detail, but it's important to involve them in what the plan is, how we're going to close out the year, what's coming up, what they expect, etc. etc. So in Q4, people, what happens in quarter four? We've got Christmas coming up, and Christmas and everything, people know that that's that's looming. There's two or three months left at the end of the year. People get tired, people get distracted, and people try to slow down towards the end of the year, and they think, well, the year's nearly over, etc. etc. So team, if you do that, team will be doing that on a bigger scale because you know they don't have the responsibility to keep keep pushing hard. So you need to ensure that everybody is rolling in the same direction in the team. So how do we make sure everybody's rolling in the same direction is we set those clear targets and have clear accountability. So clear targets equal clear accountability. So unless you're setting targets and challenges for your team or letting them know what needs to be done and then holding them accountable, you can't expect things just to happen. And I'm sure you all have experience of that anyway. So you need to be as clear as possible, let them know what's going on, let them know what their targets, what do you expect of them, and then hold them accountable, and then they hold themselves accountable too. And they can also hold you accountable. So, in other words, if they need something from you, then they'll hold you accountable too and say, I can't do what you asked me to do because of X. And it's that sort of feedback back and forth and make sure everybody's rolling in the same direction. A big one that people always fall back on, again when you get busy, is the weekly meetings. So a good way to ensure that communication is a weekly meeting, and it doesn't have to be like I'm against having a meeting for an hour or two hours, it's a complete waste of time. A meeting should just be about specific points that you want to discuss and then having an agenda and actions, and it could be a site meeting in the morning just to give everybody an update of how we're and what's happening next week, what needs to be done, or where are we up to date. Usually the norm here for a weekly meeting, by the way, and I've talked about it before, is a Friday. But why having meetings on a Friday is a bad thing is because nobody cares on a Friday. Genuinely on a Friday, everyone just wants to finish the week. Whatever has happened in the week has happened, and it's nearly the weekend, so whatever, we'll deal with it on Monday. So nobody is really enthusiastic about coming forward with challenges or problems or anything like that. They just want to get the meeting over, finish their day's work, and go home early on a Friday. A key for weekly meetings are is to try and have them on a Wednesday or ideally on a Thursday. Because what you can do then is you can highlight any discrepancies, any issues that are going on, and you have then the remainder of the Thursday and the Friday to correct them to ensure that you're starting Monday then on the right food forward. Same as what we're doing here for the quarter and quarter four and the quarter one. So having weekly meetings, it doesn't need to be sitting in a fancy boardroom or anything else, it could just be getting a huddle on site or multiple sites or doing whatever to make sure you're communicating with the team, they know what's happening because the more they're informed and up to date with things, the better. And again, we're not talking figures and financial stuff here, it's just what you expect of them, their targets, and holding everybody accountable. Define success. So define success for your team. Let them know what success in the team looks like. It's not just turning up doing the minimum and going home again. What does success look like? We talk about in inside the programme, we talk about KPIs and targets. Anyone who's been in the program for a while will have these for the guys. I know Dan, Shami, you guys are doing the feedback forms with massive success. The guys are all coming to you and showing you exactly you know what they've done, how they've done it, and giving you feedback on things, and again, that builds ownership. So when people, rather than you being the dictator of things, when you have a team and you're just going out and you're pointing this, that, and that, and that, and that, they're walking away and they're going, fuck him, no, whatever. Do you know what I mean? Whether it's done or not, it's no skin off my back. Building ownership into things, giving people the responsibility, giving them giving them a bit of yeah, ownership and responsibility is crucial because if you do it in a very controlled way, people will want will want to do well and want to succeed, and if they don't, then it identifies bad team members. So make sure everybody's rolling the same direction, would be point two on that in the team side of things. Number three, then, is systemize for speed. And that's it. Shame he was talking about there about the systems and processes. Q4 squeezes you if your systems are loose, cracks will appear. So we all know Q4 can be a really busy time of year on the run up to Christmas. And again, usually it's just head down, arch up and push on. But if you don't have systems and processes in place, then cracks will appear. Things will start to get things will start to get hurry, and they'll go they'll go south. So pressure tests your processes. So when there's pressure, that tests exactly what you've got. Your processes for invoicing, side handovers, site audits, VOs, procurement, no slippage. So Mac and Junior News were saying earlier on about the hotel you're working on, and highs were getting dragged into all the changes and variations, and because you guys were involved in the tools and everything else, you didn't have the citizen processes in place there, and you left money on the table. That's just a pr that's a prime example of exactly what we mean now when we're talking about that. If the processes aren't there, or if you neglect them on those things, then that's when you know it'll really cost you financially time, pressure, your headspace, everything else. And what is good enough in quiet months will fall apart with Q4 pressure. So what might what you might have got away with up to now in the year, because it wasn't just as busy as it will be in the close up to Christmas or preparing into January 24, because there's a lot of planning involved here in this quarter. What might have been good enough in the quieter months won't be good enough in quarter four. So it's good to keep that in mind. So it's not a case of let's just run what we have. You may need to stop here for a few hours or a day or so and just look at and review things. And again, like I talked about at the start, it's that review, clean up, and reset. That's very, very important here. And if everybody took an hour or two hours to do that, you'd be in a completely different place um next week. Streamliner simplify where possible, and then review. So review is is the key there. Uh like Graham, I was chatting to you during the week there about the daily diary and things like that. Like this is this is a prime example of that as well. So we have the daily diary inside the program where we review the day in black, or we we plan the day in black pen, we add in any unforeseen's in blue, and then we review at the end of the day in red and plan the next day. So, what we can do is then that identifies throughout the day those blue things that crept in. We're reviewing that and saying, Why did that happen? Why did I have to run to the suppliers or why did whatever anything it could have been? I'm sure you've a million and one things that creep in during the day, the phone calls. There's always a reason why that happened. And if you just can't if you just keep asking why, it's never usually the surface level issue, it's not like oh well, I forgot. It's usually well, I wasn't organized, I didn't, I missed something on the drones, or blah blah blah. There's always a reason why, a deeper meaning as to why these things keep creeping in. And when you're constantly reviewing this, you'll also see patterns appear. It'll be the same issue and the same blue, unforeseen task coming in time and time again. And again, it's usually it's usually the problem and the core of the problem is usually the business owner. So we need to look at these issues or look at what the processes we have here above, and we need to streamline or simplify where possible. The goal here in in the in our construction business, construction-related business, trade business is to try to make everything as simple as possible. And that's exactly what we do inside the blueprint. We try to keep things streamlined and efficient and make it easy. And remember, a key point here to remember is that Q4 chaos equals Q1 chaos. So again, it's important every action, every step you take in this quarter is going to affect how you start off in quarter one. So you need to have that in mind. With every decision you make, with everything you neglect, you need to have that awareness that we talked about in the previous slides to say, okay, I can't let this slip because I'm going to have to be the one to fix it in January because no one else is going to come and do it for you. So anything you're putting by the way, side or baron on the person under the carpet will come back to bite you in Q1. So it's important to keep these things in check. Number four, everything that makes the business go round, financial clarity. So control the cash, and you'll control the quarter. So cash flow is the number one choke point in quarter four. Thinking of supplier payments, valuations, retentions owed, clients delay in payments, all because of things like Christmas shutdown. So the holiday periods, we're just came off the back of the summer as well, and you know, you've all been there. We've had that conversation earlier. Our accounts girl isn't in Sun holiday, she'll be back next week and can't pay you. So she's the only person that we're looking to push a button on a computer to pay you. So we've all been there. So cash flow is the number one choke point in Q4. So, with all these things in mind, it's important just to keep stock of everything and where you are. Now, anybody who's in the program again will have uh trackers for things like this, and we usually are should be anyway, keeping on top of all these figures and they have everything at hand. I know the guys who've been in for a while have got everything like that. So here's a couple of tips that you can do to have financial control in quarter four. So cash forecast until January. Take a look at your calendar, take a look at what's coming in up and up until January and see what's coming in, what's going out, and where you're going to be financially. Um, at a really high level, you could do that. Obviously, we can do that on a much deeper level for the guys who've been for a while to have it all there on the trekkers. But for anybody who doesn't have anything that in place now, a good way to do that would be just to look at look at what you've got coming up, where and your duty be paid in those jobs, also what you've got in terms of overheads, etc. etc. What's going in, what's coming out, and where you sort of want to be left at the end of the year. It's good to have a look at that and and keep that in mind because what can happen is in kind of we've been here ourselves personally several times, and you can let things slip. But if you let things slip, say in October or November, and you think, well, okay, it'll come in in December or whatever else. A lot of guys, like the the cutoff for the Christmas period, and they'll say, Well, our cutoff period is a certain time in December. So you've actually got less time. So then you'll rule into the end of January. So you could be if you don't get paid in November, you might not get paid at the end of January. Like as simple as that. That's that's what you could be looking at. So it's important to really have you know what's coming in, what's going out, what you're due to be invoicing. Don't just wait until December to send an invoice. You know, have a look at that now, have a discussion with your clients and team to say, okay, here's where we're going to be up to this point. Can we invoice early and make sure we're getting paid? Check the payments, check when your your client payments are stopping for December, etc. etc., because you could be left short. Track projects, and again, like we like we said, busy equals broke. So track projects in terms of finances, but also um program percentages as in completion, because you need to for guys in here, a lot of guys are stage payments, um and a lot of guys are just value um variations and valuations from sorry, valuations for percentage complete. So check on your projects to see where you're gonna be, and you know, to have the help of that cash forecast will really will really ensure that you don't go broke being busy, and that's what generally happens. If you just get too involved, too busy, put the head down and don't lift your head to check those things. Even I know guys would talk about not working in the evenings and weekends if I can, but if you take two hours on a Saturday evening to just review something like this, it could really mean the difference of having a good Christmas or a bad Christmas or a good January, good Q1 or bad Q1. And then, like I always advise, ring fence overheads. So I always bang on about overheads, overheads, overheads. Most people talk about turnover. A lot of other coaches, a lot of other people in business will talk about overhead or talk about you know turnover, etc. etc. We're all about profit and profit after overheads. So not what you've got in the bank, it's it's about what you've got left in the bank after your overheads are cleared. So every all my guys will all be pricing, we'll be doing cost plus overhead plus your profit margins. So ring fence all your overheads and sure everything is covered because there will be a period or it could be a period of a few weeks or whatever that you may not have something coming in. So you need to ring fence your overheads, make sure everything's covered, take a stock of what needs paid out and have a look at that. Decide December downtime now. So now not in not in November, not in the start of December. Decide now in October what's gonna be what you're gonna have in terms of in terms of holidays, maybe your paying lads a bit of a bonus or whatever else, whatever it may be. Decide December downtime now. That's that's crucial uh in business. Number five, then try to build momentum. So this is another crucial one here. I know we've got a lot to think about here, but but what we're gonna we're gonna work on here in the workbooks very shortly. So we're doing all right for time. So don't coach the Christmas. Like I've touched on that already the whole way through, the whole way through the session here. Most businesses wind down too early, relying on new year, new start, but that's a mistake. And I've again I've already talked about it. Why it's a mistake is because the problems you have now won't miraculously fix themselves over the break. So, unless you have a plan in place for starting the new year, if you're taking time off like most of us do, it's generally the only time of year in construction that any of us get any time off that the phone won't ring um for a couple of weeks because it gets sort of a global holiday that everybody takes. So don't be relying on new year, new start, because that has to come from you. No one's gonna come and do it for you. Santa's not gonna come down the chimney and bring you um a business plan. So that's a mistake. Q4 is about closing the year strong, um, and that means starting the new one stronger. So we've already touched on that in the beginning. Big a big thing here to do is to maintain your marketing. Again, getting busy, getting just just busy is gonna be a problem um for everything here in your Q1 pipeline. Maintain your marketing, don't slow down in the market. I know some of you have guys doing the market and stuff for you, but don't start reaching, don't stop reaching out for inquiries thinking I've got enough to do me for the end of the year. You need to be secure in your pipeline for quarter one, and that's not just for January, that's for January, February, March, April. Secure your Q1 pipeline. Again, the guys on the program are all quite uh well organized in advance, you know, at least three to six months of work there in advance. Some of us are even way beyond that again, which is great. So that's not something you have to worry about. But for those who don't, it's important to maintain your marketing, keep chasing the secure Q1 pipeline, and again ensuring those finances are there as well. How you're gonna start that. Think about obviously that downtime. If there's jobs starting right at the say the 5th of January or the 7th, I don't know what day it lands on next next year. But it's important to at the end of the year make sure that you're not just ready for closing for Christmas, that you're ready to start again in the new year. Don't wait until the new year to start again because you are gonna start off in the back foot. So you have these are the kind of things you have to have awareness of, we have to be thinking about and ensuring that we're that's gonna set us uh in the new year even stronger than where we are now. And speed while competitors are scrambling. So this is what's gonna you're gonna create speed here and momentum, like we talked about. Most of the guys that are in here already have momentum, they're already going well. How we maintain momentum is is is crucial, and again, don't let the break slow us down or have you know have a disconnect. This is gonna ensure that we have speed while your competitors, because I can guarantee nobody else, especially in this country or across the UK, are having this conversation right now about coming into Q1, unless they're huge uh corporations, but yeah, you're gonna be a step ahead of everybody else. You're gonna be a step ahead of your clients, you're gonna be a step ahead of your suppliers, you're gonna be a step ahead of everybody, and that's gonna put you, more importantly, in a great place mentally going into the new year. You're gonna be closing off the year, refreshed, ready for ready for rest, recuperated and starting. Not not enjoying the first sort of few days of the Christmas break, and then when it starts to go over, you're you're you're hitting panic stations again. You can't wait to get back because you're going shit. I've what I've got here coming in the quarter one. Think of it that way. You're you're gaining speed and momentum while your competitors are all scrambling. So staying a step ahead. So get the workbooks out there and have we look at the the look ahead. So we're gonna look ahead and what we're gonna expect here into quarter four and beyond. Um, and we've got a couple of simple questions there. What's going to make the biggest shift in quarter four? So I know we went through a lot there. I always like to try and get as much value as possible to touch um to touch a point in everybody's business or everybody's circumstance. What's going to make the biggest shift in quarter four? And don't worry about filling these in now, we're going to have a timer. What action or focus will have the most impact in your business? So, we're in terms of processes, in terms of team, in terms of your founder energy, your finances, all those five things we talked about. What action or focus will have the most impact in your business? Because, again, for anybody who's new or is new to this kind of work, who's in or is early to the program or not on the program yet? Unfortunately, we can't fix all five at once. It's important to focus on what is impacting the business the most, what's causing the most stress or most headache, and working on that first. So that just go through one thing at a time because you won't be able to fix all, that only causes overwhelm, and overwhelm is just a lack of action, but you can't take action on a million things at once. So, what do you hope this will deliver in 2026? So, by taking these actions, by doing this, by decide deciding what's going to you know make the biggest shift. What do you hope that this will deliver in 2026? So, what are you looking for to start off the new year results? Lifestyle in terms of taking a step back from the business and having more time to actually live your life? Is it growth or yeah, freedom? Sort of the same thing as the lifestyle. So, yeah, we'll have a look through those questions. We'll take a couple of minutes again. I'll gauge the room just by looking. Any questions on those? Anyone unsure of what's expected there? Okay, they're all gonna get stuck in. Everybody there, thereabouts shouldn't keep ready. Anybody finished? No, we had looking for just You finished Dan? Yeah. Do you want to just quickly run through? We'll just take one share and we'll just run through that thing of course. Yep. So I'm going to focus on that and the details and the um and the high-end materials and stuff. Which I started there last week and there is more than I've already got text saying, like, think you're who I want to do it. It's a really high spec job, and it's mad how quickly just a lot of things. And that was the same the last time. The last shift the market was a bit weak shift. We shifted it to food garden transformation. Boom, I was all starting getting. Yep. I hope to deliver in 2026 results. Results for these higher end jobs or higher-end material jobs with a higher spec finish and really hone honing in on those customers that only want me to deliver the job and they're not going around getting a million different prices. Yeah. Because they just want me because the level of finish we can deliver. 100%. Well done, Dan. Yep. Great job. So opportunity cost. So what is opportunity cost? Opportunity cost is the cost of not taking action. So again, like we touched on early lads, Mac and Junior. Just because you've come through a difficult period and you think, okay, we're okay now. You know, what caused the difficult period? What was the issues there? What's that that's an opportunity? Now is an opportunity. This downtime, this quiet period is an opportunity to make the fixes, to me, to fix the business, to fix the issues that and the concerns you had or challenges you had throughout the year, because otherwise, what's going to happen if you don't fix them? You're just going to have another eight months or nine months of the same of the same thing on another job. And you can never, in this game, you can never blame a bad time in business on a project. Or when this project's done, I'm sure everybody in the room has said, when this job's finished, I'll do this. That doesn't happen because the next fucking job's going to be the same or worse or whatever. So it this is construction. Every job can be a challenge because of the type of clients we deal with, the kind of the kind of work we do, etc. etc. the kind of the people we deal with. So don't be relying on this job finishing, then everything will be okay. So like this, if exactly lead me on to that. That wasn't um, I'm gonna let on have done that on purpose. If you're the same business in January as you are today, you've already fallen behind. So again, even if you're doing well, like I said, it's about it's about making changes or maintaining momentum. So if you're getting momentum now, I don't think it's okay with coach because if you're not actually moving forward, then you're falling behind. If you're staying stagnant, you're falling behind because other people are actually moving forward ahead of you and potentially taking over. So let's look at what are the costs. What are the costs of leaving opportunity table, of not taking action, of leaving here today with a page and throwing it in the van or throwing it in the car and never looking at it again? What are the costs gonna be for your business? So the big one, the first one is financial, financial cost. The financial cost of inaction or not taking action. Again, we touched on it, delayed invoicing. So if you're late submitting invoices, don't be expected to get paid on time. If you're not paying people on time, don't be expected to get paid on time. That's just the way it works. Missed variations. So again, we've had two conversations about that with two different businesses this morning. When you're too busy, not you know, when you're not when you've got these problems in the business that involve you having to constantly work in the business and being too involved, you're missing things like missed variations, week forecasting, program, project delays, things like that that are causing a major impact. And you may think that that's only time, but it's not, it's having the rule over onto the next job and the next job, you're having to bring in additional labour to make up for things, and that all leads to not just money left on the table, but again opportunity on the table. So you're missing you're missing a lot of things here, leaving far too much on the table. And what does that cost? Over three months, six months, it compounds. So when every month you ignore it, it just gets worse and worse and worse and kicks on and kicks on and kicks on. And one missed opportunity can mean tens of thousands lost later, or in some cases here, millions. Um, some of the guys here are larger companies, it could be millions uh left on the table. Some var some guys here, clients who came on the program yesterday, uh, secured a two and a half million pound job, uh, which took a lot of work. If they weren't able to have a business that afforded them time to focus on that, there's two and a half million left on the table. So it's important to look at it in terms of where you are in your business and thinking, you know, putting a cost against it and thinking, what is this actually costing me? Not just headspace, but it's costing me late payments, mispayments, misvariations, misvaluations, all those things are all compounded and adding up. So every month, like I said, you don't take action, you're leaving serious, serious cash behind, and that's why whether you believe it or not, that's why we're all in business. We're all in business to make cash unless you're a charity, and nobody in the room is a charity. So let's look at the mental and emotional costs. If you're carrying the same stress, the same overwhelm, the same firefighting mindset, then it absolutely drains your energy. And like we talked about at the very beginning on the founder focus, how you show up affects everything and everybody in your business. So if you're letting these financial, like and and everybody I'm sure gonna agree, when you have financial stress, it's the worst kind of stress you have, it filters through everything else. Money again, you know, people say money don't, you know, money doesn't make world growing or whatever else doesn't money doesn't make you happy, but it makes your life a hell of a lot easier. So and it makes you a lot less stressed. I mean, there's plenty of it in the bank. So low energy at the top creates a low belief in the team. So when you're not turning up, the team don't lose belief in you, they don't take direction, they get frustrated. And that frustration that you're feeling, that your team is feeling, that your clients are feeling, filters into your family, your health, your confidence, and your belief system. So your belief system is a massive one, and it's something that's maybe not touched on in maybe this industry or whatever else, we don't talk about our beliefs and our feelings and whatever else. But it's easy then just to blame the easy things, like the jobs, the clients, and whatever else. So that was because of that, that was because of that. But you know, having the belief system of what's really causing the issue here, and at the end of the day, it's you. And if you're just making excuses for things that are going on, it's easy then that just that that falls into your belief system of what's why things are going wrong, but generally it comes from the founder. Which leads on to the cost to your future self or the future business. So Q4 decisions, again, we've touched on it several times already, but it's it's worth it's worth repeating. Q4 decisions set the stage for 2026. Inaction today equals limited choices tomorrow. So if you're missing missed opportunities, you don't want to be scrambling. The trend find opportunity because that leads to then not every opportunity is a good opportunity, taking on bad jobs, and again, we've all been there before. So by January, depending on what way you take action here, leaving the room or taking this on board, you'll be walking into the new year with clarity and momentum, or like I touched on there, if if we're not identifying what the problems were, if we're not taking stock of what's going on, then you're going to just be repeating the same cycle, and that's what happens to everybody in this game. They just get stuck on that cycle. This is just how it is, and that you know it's shit, but it's just suck it up and get on it. This is the the path I chose. That leads us into the opportunity cost. Let's go through these. We're again we don't need warm pieces. If you just go into the workbook there, we'll look at the opportunity cost. So just the opportunity cost page, and we'll quickly run through those. Um, so we'll look at what is the cost of not taking action. So, what will it mean to you personally if nothing changed? In Q4, what impact will it have on your business if you keep running the same way? How will it affect your finances? How will it affect your time and energy? And how will it affect your family and personal life? So, this isn't just if things aren't going well. If if things are going well, think of if you didn't keep chasing and maintaining momentum, what would it mean to you personally? You may be demotivated, you lose interest, you'll get bored. What employed having your business if it keeps running the same way? Well, it'll just coast along, but then somebody else will come along and take good clients. How would it affect your finances? They'll be stagnant. How will it affect your time and energy? Again, you'd be bored, you you know, you get fed up. So it's not just even if you are if things are going well, it's about momentum as well. So everybody, everybody should be able to answer that. And we'll just take a quick minute or two to go through that, and then we'll pause for breakfast there. Okay, so we talked about the cost to the future self. Um, so now we will we will flip the script on it and we will look into the reward of action. So we'll try and end on a hi. Think of your 2026 self. And I know this sounds a wee bit erry-furry, right? But what would they thank you for doing right now? So, in other words, what way you can do that in in in in simple terms is what could you do now that you'll be thankful for? You'll go, Thank God I done that and back in in October or November in January. So when you're sitting in January, you go, Thank God, cash in the bank is healthy, pipeline is healthy, I'm healthy, I'm recharged, I'm rephrased, I've had a nice break and I get stuck in. So try and think about it that way. Like, what will your future self thank you for in 2026? So we'll quickly look at the pretty much the opposite of what we just talked about there. The reward of action. So, on the other hand, taking action pays you twice. So, two things that we again we've we've been we've been talking over and over again about. You close 2025 strong, you start 2026 already ahead of the game. Okay, so you're well prepared, you're well planned. Again, the cash in the bank, everything else, your pipeline is full. You'll feel later, maybe not, maybe not physically after Christmas, but clearer and more in control, and then your team will feel the shift and hopefully then rise with you if you've got if you've got a good team and the team morale. Like some of the guys in this in the program are having with massive success. It's great to see such small teams having such a massive impact in the business. Um, so yeah, your team will feel the shift and they'll rise with you. So they know that the job's secured coming into the new year, they know that they've been paid well, everything else, no issues around that. Before Christmas, they're all coming back, knowing exactly what they're doing, where they're going, how they're doing it, and what they expect. Like we say, same conversation we had now with our team for quarter four. Let them know what they expect in quarter four, same as that. You know, before you break for the end of quarter four, have a talk and conversation with the guys in the team that let them know what they expect in the new year in quarter one. Um, so everybody has that in the back of their minds. So, I know you're all eating there. That's mostly just finished toppy days. So, we'll quickly just run through those points, and again, we'll got through them quickly the last time. So, the reward of action. So, if you do achieve your goals in quarter four, again, same just the opposite of what we're doing. If you do achieve your Q4 goals, what will that mean to you personally? What would it do to you mentally? What would it do for your business? And how will it impact your lifestyle going forward into 2026? So, even if you're thinking further down the line, if the momentum that you you build or you maintain in 2026 or in 2025, how will that push into new? Even this time next year, where could you be? So get creative, have a think about it, um, and jot some ideas down. Any questions on those? There's a couple of guys finished. So, what we'll do is anyone who's still writing just straight away, anybody who's finished, we'll get a quick share. Graham, I'm gonna pick one you flew through that. If I achieve Q4 goals, what will it mean to me personally? Uh personally it'll be lighter, I'll be more calm, um, which would be big for me. Uh what would it do for you mentally? Um, more confidence, more room for forward planning, which will lead to growth. Uh what will do for the business? Um, more recognition, more opportunities. Uh and then how will it impact your lifestyle? Uh more time to be present in personal life with a partner, Jim, doing stuff the house. Excellent. Great targets made. Well done. Okay, burn up. If you do achieve your Q4 goals, it'll be better headspace, more money in the bank, and growing business. And then um what will it do now? Um give me more freedom, more free time. And then um what will I do for the business? More profit, more growth. And um how will it impact my lifestyle going into 2026? Yep. I haven't really entered that yet because I kind of have a good afterward relationship. Yeah. Do you know what I mean? So I'm not sure. Well, how's the energy whenever things like recnater and those little status? It'll give me more energy, yes, because at the minute it's kind of taking a lot out of me. Because you did that because I know you were quite strict with your routine, but then you were missing training sessions and things like that. 100%. Yep. Great stuff. Well done, Sammy. Well done, mate. Okay, so uh touched on this very briefly. So this is the difference between leaving here with just ideas in a booklet or leaving here with actions that actually change your business. So again, I've been to several of these things, different types of you know, seminars, uh, whatever else over the last lot of years, and it's easy to write stuff down on a piece of paper and then just leave it at your arson and never look at it again. So it's important like like everything we do inside this, we don't just we don't just tell you what you need to hear, we show you how to implement them in your business. Now, again, we can't go into every nitty-gritty detail here in the time we have, but that's what we work on inside the program. We always make sure that any of these issues or whatever's being highlighted, we show you how to make the fixes and show you how to implement it in your in your business specifically. Um, because everybody has everybody's business is different, every every founder is different. So that's what's important here. It's important to take stock and see what the changes need to be and actually taking action on them, not just recognizing them and then moving on, because again, we'll get stuck into that repetitive cycle. So the cost of waiting, we talk keep talking about the cost, the financial cost, the mental cost, all that. The cost of waiting is too high. Make your next move now. So don't wait like that, thinking it's okay, I'll wait until the new year to do this, keep putting things off. Waiting costs an absolute fortune, it costs you more than you know. And again, we touched on all those points here. So if you're gonna take action, take action on it now. So there's just a last, there's just one last section on that immediate action just on that point, right? So we obviously talked about a lot of things there. What is one physical actual thing that you can go ahead even today? That you can leave this room, you can go out, you can make a phone call, send an email, contact me, do whatever it is. What can you do right now to fast track this shift? And what is the one key move, one key move you can make immediately that will create real momentum? So, what what would you um hopefully achieve out of that? Really, you could sort of put down there. Um just take we'll just take a minute to go through that. Right. Okay, we'll just take a couple of just a couple of shows. Everybody gets something there, because it's important everybody leaves with something. Mine would be just after sitting here. Today would be to get signed up with Mark, probably. Happy days. ASAP. Um like I say, we talked about it before, but probably weren't in the right wasn't the right time for us, but I feel now after having this experience, it'd definitely be more beneficial to us and our business. Burnett, happy days. Just move it over to Dan then. We'll just take a couple of shows. Um mine's sorting out the website and the marketing and then the key movement immediately. I've already got Alan coming over to the house today because there's a specific video we want to talk about um on trying to attract these customers and I want to hone in on for next year. Burn up. Graham? Yep. Uh for where we are at, um I really need to organise my schedule to allow for more space. Because right now we're it's something's not right. Um and then again, what we can make immediately, um be a daily dairy review, start building and understanding what's going on where, and then we can start fixing and getting some space. What I can do in October is to get the programs and schedules on for the next uh three to six months. Yeah, and then uh one can be today is to block the calendar just like keep myself busy. Nathan, you happy to go? Yeah, um stay in the present moment and get more organized, and I definitely need to get ex get a new I don't get a new team in Belfast and add a salesperson to the business. Um and the next one is by knowing I can do it, have things in place to be more organized and focus on these big massive contracts. Good stuff. Happy days. Alright, lads, but look, has anybody got anything? Anybody got anything that they want to run over on anything they're unsure of? Any questions out of that session at all? Feel free to ask.