4 LIES business owners BELIEVE

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On the Built4Profit Podcast, we unpack the strategies, systems, and mindset behind successful entrepreneurs and franchisees, turning experience into actionable insights. 

In this April Fool’s Day special of the #Built4ProfitPodcast, Sha and Elizabeth share the “dirty four” habits that business owners think are responsible but actually drain time. They explain how these patterns create self-inflicted stress, limit profitability, and keep owners from focusing on their unique ability, offering takeaways like committing to hiring, making proactive decisions (including using a #CEOday), delegating with accountability, and changing habits rather than waiting for the calendar to clear. 

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Transcript

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In the spirit of April Fool's Day, we decided to release a special edition of the Built for Profit podcast to talk about things that business owners often fake. They're being responsible and help make them productive, but they're sucking your time and we want to help you see what those are. So that's what we're covering today on the Built for Profit podcast. Remember that we are on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube now. So you can get us on any of your favorite platforms. And make sure to hit that subscribe button. We don't want you to miss an episode or a guest with some of the things that we've got lined up for quarter two. You're gonna be blown away. Welcome to Built for Profit Podcast, where entrepreneurs share real stories and strategies that actually work. We're here to inspire, challenge, and give you the playbook to profit with purpose. Let's get into it. Let's do it. This is coming in. We've changed seats. The funny person is now on the left. I'm Shay Gronden from IQ for Profit. And I'm just E. I don't give any of the rest of the letters. Man. If we were selling product, we could go, look, you too can have your IQ for profit folder where you can count your money. And also, if you know of a franchisee or a franchise brand that you want to have spotlighted on Built For Profit, go to IQforProfit.com and submit. Yeah, submit that application. We are excited to review them. All right, so let's jump in. We're talking about things that I have been guilty of every one of these. I just want to preface this list is from our own experience, and you're gonna hear our stories throughout it. Right. And it's pretty consistent. We we've worked with business owners for so long, and us being them, it's pretty consistent about the things that we do. And so we kind of spotlight the top dirty four, if you will. I'll jump out first. Hello, my name is Shay. I am guilty of the number one offender. And that is I'll do it myself. We delay hiring, I'll do it myself. I can do it faster, I can do it better. I don't have time to train someone, I don't have the money to train someone. And really, you have your unique ability. And there's actually a book about that by Dan Sullivan. And that's your superpower. And that's usually the thing that makes you the most money. You want to be doing more of that and not the other things. I did the same thing. I'll I'll actually tell the story. I'm sorry, there will be real names used in this story. So brand new advisor. And if you know how that works, you are building a business and you're scrappy, right? And I am not very good at scheduling, follow-up, you know, verifying appointments, you know, still love numbers, not the paperwork part. And there's a lot of paperwork in financial industry. Did you know that? Yeah, I can imagine. Yeah. High paper. And I was trying to do all these things. I was double booking myself. I wasn't confirming my appointments. I wasn't as prepared for my meetings. And everybody's like, you need to get an assistant. You get a high-level functioning assistant. And I'm like, I can barely make my mortgage. What am I signing up for someone else's mortgage? And it's really a true thing. Once you commit to someone else's mortgage, it's amazing how you make it. So my first assistant, and this will be a shout-out for Chris Hundel. He is a financial advisor now. He was very talented, had experience. He came right in. Oh my gosh, we doubled our production that year. We had better client service. I was less stressed. It was game-changing in that commitment. And we just did so many things. And so my superpower was sitting down with the strategy in the client's meetings. And I got to do more of that than trying to, in between meetings, verify the appointments, schedule the follow-ups, get the messages off the phone, and all the antiquated things we did back in the day. That was a big commitment. But I think how many times are you doing something that someone else could do as well, if not better? What is the one thing that you need to do more of that makes and drives your business to be more profitable? And mine, I was doing stuff I wasn't even that good at. Yeah. And every owner can relate to that. Every owner listening to this podcast right now, they're going through in their mind what that is for them because we're usually the last to relinquish stuff. And not that it's out of a scarcity aspect, but wouldn't you say it's more like we're thinking of if I let that go, what does that mean? And we think of the negatives instead of flipping the script and thinking, if I let that go, it'd free me up to do this. Looking at kind of the positive and the abundant mindset. Uh, yeah. He had much better opinionship. I should have been a doctor. That's all I'm gonna say about that. So I'll take the next one that I'm guilty of that one too. And I just think that's important to recognize that we're not here preaching on any of these topics. You're gonna hear us share our own stories of where we went wrong. So that hopefully you don't. But you gotta do it the right way, Elizabeth. You gotta, hello, my name is Elizabeth. And then you gotta do it the right way. Hello, my name is Elizabeth, and I have been guilty of delaying decisions, saying I need more time to think about that before deciding. And I don't want to call it indecision. This is what it is. I will wait until I completely cannot handle something or a decision needs to be made, usually before making it. That way I am so certain I have thought through it. I have gone through all the pros and all the scenarios, all the cons. But guess what that does? It takes up a lot of space in your brain thinking about that kind of stuff. And it also usually means that by the time a decision is made, it's forced. I'm going through in my head, probably maybe justifying things for them. Oh, but then I'm gonna have to hire someone new. Let me just think it through. I bet I can find a way to solve this. And again, like these are great traits of an entrepreneur, and that's why a lot of entrepreneurs have that. But by the time something happened that this person had to be let go that week, well, now you're up a stream without a paddle. Now you have no employee. Now your workload is higher and you need to interview, and then you're just in this overwhelming situation and you go, I should have done this sooner. The overwhelming self-inflicted stress. Yes. My takeaway here is really implement a CEO day. And you all have heard us talk about that. But HADA that having CEO days at that time, it's different looking at things and sitting down and saying, I'm making a decision on this this week, than it just constantly every day hitting your mind going, I need to address that situation. It changes how you show up. And I say it a lot, and we've all done it. We overthink something, and I always say, Is it a tattoo? Is are you given a kidney? Is it something that you can't undo or change or even hiring someone? You know what I'm saying? You take time to make decisions that need to have time. But yeah, everybody is a little guilty of doing that. Yeah. And uh but put yourself in the driver's seat. That you know, that would be my takeaway for you is put yourself in the driver's seat so that you're making the decisions strategically with the right information and proactive is the underlying thing there. Would you agree that the best leaders typically, and you can pull from anyone, they take the best information they have at the time and make the best decision. And sometimes, like you said, the delayment of the decision can cost you more things than the back end. Yep. There you go. So let's see. My name is Shay. I think something that I'm very guilty of and I see a lot micromanage. Yes. And that is where you think you need to be in charge, oversee every little detail and every little thing that goes on. And I think it's like, dare I say, control issues. And a lot of entrepreneurs have them, right? Because that's they've they have been scrappy, they've done everything by themselves from the beginning to the end of every process and stuff. And then when you start bringing people in, you have a hard time delegating or letting go of it. And the difference between the leader is you're not giving up control of what's going on, the result. You're hiring really talented people and empowering them, freeing yourself to go do the things you do best that drive your business forward. And it's not saying give up control of knowing what's going on, but do you really need to make sure if someone ordered the paper towels for the office? That's a true story. Sorry about that. I think some of the things that were very difficult for me to let go of, and you can review things as being very much involved. I mean, like, why not let them go do it and then bring you in to review it? So I would be very hands-on with people I hired and pay them to do what I'm trying to insert myself to do. That doesn't make very good business sense, does it? Right. But that that is micromanaging. And no employee, no team member ever wants to have that experience either. And there's so many studies that are done that show when people are involved in the decision making from start to finish, as in give them a project, yeah. The way that they show up and contribute and the satisfaction that they feel with their job is astronomically higher, you know? So it's almost giving them a gift to say, hey, you've got input. I'm here if you need me. Like you said, like the signs of being a good leader. But like, this is you, you know, be creative, have fun. I'm excited to see what you've got back from that. It's a win-win for both situations. And the ownership of it is silly different than like whatever. They're gonna drive it, own it. They may come up with better stuff than you ever would have. Yep. That's what I'm seeing now. But back in the day, you're just thinking, I gotta make sure all these plates are spinning, everything's okay. Probably to some degree, yeah. But some of them not so much. Right. You're not gonna make or break you. I agree. And the last one is I'm Elizabeth, and I have been guilty of this quite frequently, is saying, once things slow down, I'll get organized. Once revenue picks up, then I'll start doing this, whatever that is. And usually it looks like once things slow down, because as a business owner, that is a story we are telling ourselves every day. I hate to be the one to burst this bubble, but things will not slow down. And you don't want them to. But also, like the chaos, you can get more organized in different areas, but it's one of those things that I think there's two ways that we look at this. The first one is that you use this analogy a lot when you're talking about time. Your activity will expand to fill the time you allotted. Yes. Parkinson's theory. Thank you. Right. And so if you give yourself two hours, it will take you two hours to do it. And if you give yourself 30 minutes, you find a way to get it done in 30 minutes. And so it's similar with this. If things are that busy, you get done the most important things and it forces you to prioritize. And they're just not going to slow down. You know, we think, especially in the line of work that I've been in, like it's tax season. And once tax season is over, then I'll be able to do this. Or once we get through the launch, we just need to get through the launch. Well, guess what? Once you're through the launch, you have another launch probably coming up either for a new product or a new location, or now you're working on a customer service issue. And you know, we just say life keeps life in. Like there are constantly challenges. So you put yourself back in the driver's seat and you start making things happen to get organized, then organization comes. So the lie that we tell ourselves is that time or the end of an event or the beginning of an event is what is gonna change the organization, the revenue, whatever your insert your thing is. But the reality is that you have to make changes in your habits or what you're doing. And then that opens up space for organization, revenue, time. It's just always gonna be the next challenge, the next thing. I mean, think about the first day you've got in business, the first month, the first year. The things that challenged you are nothing to you now. You're like, whatever. You just got a new circle of challenges. The universe has a development program for you. Welcome. Because you're, I mean, just like anything, there was a level of challenges that were daunting at the time, and now they're nothing. And then you're just gonna keep going because that's what you want. I mean, how boring would it be? Everything was peachy. It's just like it was yesterday and the day before and last year. I know. And we tend to draw in new challenges, consciously or subconsciously. We are drawing those in because we have mastered something already. It doesn't mean the instinct or the inclination doesn't come up. It's addressing, like, oh, look, I'm wanting to go insert myself into a project that I don't need to be in right now. Or if if I did this decision, what is the worst thing could happen? What's the downfall if I made that decision today versus a month from now? So it's really just having more mindfulness around how you show up in those habits because everybody's guilty of them. So we really take this advice, and this is feedback that, yes, we've experienced ourselves, but also you've heard these stories on the podcast if you've been listening to what the guests have been sharing. These are things that have slowed them down. And, you know, our whole goal with starting this and why we wanted to bring the podcast to life for you is because we have such a drive and passion for entrepreneurs. We think you are amazing. You stepped out and took a risk on yourself. And that is something to be celebrated, but also given certain tools. And, you know, if you're in the franchise system, you get some of that with the franchise franchise or in that franchise system, but we really want to come in as that other lever. And that's what we're doing with the podcast and getting that out to you. So don't find yourself falling into these traps. Be aware of them. That way you can drive your business differently and make decisions. So if you have a franchise or franchise brand that you would like to see featured on the podcast, we love dropping one of these every once in a while where we get to just talk to you, Shay and Elizabeth. But obviously, we're you normally featuring the franchise brand. So we want to hear about who you want to hear from. So visit iqforprofit.com and submit the application. There you go. And happy April Fool's Day. But I'm gonna leave you on this. Let's see, Elizabeth. Oh gosh, is this a joke? What enables you to walk through walls? Doors. Yes, she did it after many years. All right, and on that note, see you in the next episode. There you go. I almost want to do another joke now. I have a joke. Okay. What did the police officer say to the snowman? Are you an ice officer? Praise. It's actually a good. You should keep your membrane. There you go, right? I thought you were being relevant in timing. And this is so sad. Get your joke on. It's funny. One of the heaviest loads business owners carry are taxes and expenses. They can make or break your bottom line. Yes, we see it every day. And that is why we have partnered with Lightening the Load, expert tax strategists, and CPAs. And they help you get a deep dive on those numbers, uncover different strategies, and keep more of what you've actually earned. They don't just file returns, they lighten the load for you with confidence. And that way you can grow and scale your business. So check out, it's in the show notes below. We got a 30 minute free consultation for you with lightening the load, and you're talking to a CPA. Unbelievable. So click on the link below and take advantage of it. We'll see you in the next episode.