Do You Have Unrealistic Expectations for Your Business?

foreign ERS of Ramsey Solutions this is the entree leadership podcast where I take calls from leaders like you about what it takes to win in any stage of business I'm Dave Ramsey I've been running Ramsey solutions for over 30 years we grew it from a card table in my living room to where it is today major national brand doing about 300 million Top Line and we did all of that the hard way no debt scratching and clawing doing a lot of stupid butt stuff and recovering from it and so no I'm not a a college professor with a tenure that's never made payroll I'm quite the opposite not mad at you if you're a college professor has never made payroll but don't really want your opinion on running a business this business has been run by and grown by people who actually do it we don't just talk about it and that's what this podcast is about it's for you you people that are out there leaving the cave killing something and dragging it home every day we do it so if you've got a question and you want to be on the show just call me at 844-944-1070 that's 844-944-1070 or you can fill out the form on the website at entreeleadership.com ask and be part of the program Ali is going to start off today in Houston Texas hey Holly how are you I'm doing great how are you doing better than I deserve how can I help hi uh okay so I am the marketing manager and I'm approaching my one year anniversary at my family business which is an I.T managed Service Company my father and mother have talked to my husband and I and we've discussed taking over the business when my dad retires but there's been little Clarity on how or when that'll happen and I'm not sure if I'm comfortable with how the business is right now so my question is how can I approach a conversation with my dad to learn if taking over this business will be a good idea relationally and financially or if it's time to grieve the loss of the picture I had of taking over the business okay how old are you I'm 24. and how old is she my dad he is I believe he's 56. okay so do you think he was planning on doing this in 10 years when he's 66 or do you think he's planning on doing it next month [Music] okay and how long has he been running this business 25 years this year okay and what is it that you've discovered in your one year's experience versus his 25 that he's doing wrong um so from I I'm we've been listening to your stuff for a really long time my parents raised me on the baby steps and everything and um I'm nervous because he's kind of gone away from the debt-free uh lifestyle and I'm not sure how the business is really financially doing since they're pretty tight uh on how that information is given out and he's pretty much always been on the treadmill stage there's not a ton of training or really guidance that's been gone on for my husband or my brother who are the technicians that help him out so those are the main things that really concern me okay how many people work in the business total so there's no one there that's not family correct you have any idea what the revenues are um I know that whenever in 2020 we were doing almost half a million and then we lost about 40 whenever my dad almost passed from covid uh we lost some business while he was in the hospital and we're still recovering from that wow yeah yeah um okay well the the only thing that there's a couple of things we know about successful successful transitions one is the more gradual that they are the more successful they are so starting now on a 10-year plan is a better idea than starting right before starting two years before the plan okay the second thing we know about this is is that it requires a ton of communication not only between the uh the the the buyer in your in this case you and the seller in this case him but also the rest of the team and even the vendors and even the customers need to know what the plan is because let's pretend he's 64 and still running this and your customers don't understand what the plan is when he steps aside then they are nervous customers and you're going to lose some of them so not communicating the succession plan to your customers is um it's bad marketing okay and so at Ramsey we've been very clear about what our succession plan is to everyone anyone that will listen will tell them you know over and over and over again we know exactly what we're doing we've got a game plan we've laid it all out and we're in in the you know the I'm in my late in my mid 60s and my early 60s so we're in the last few phases of it right of what the plan looks like and what's going to happen in our case I'll continue to do what I'm doing here on the microphone but I won't be the CEO anymore uh in a few years but in this in this period of time this next phase my son Daniel has become the president of the company and he and I are running it together and the three Ramsey siblings including his two sisters are are the owners of the company with the exception of I own the only voting stock and so um so I'm still in control today but at any point it'll be easy to flip the switch and the three of them are in control in charge and they're running things and the customers know that I just set it on a microphone uh the vendors know that the team members know that uh and you know we know the Ramsay personalities are able to step into the Ramsay show and the other shows that we do and you know fill my shoes including this show it wouldn't be hard at all and that kind of stuff so this is the kind of things you could share with your dad look Ramsey says the more gradual it is the better off it's going to be and the more communication there is we got no plan so we don't know how gradual it is and there's been almost no communication because we don't have any idea what's going on over there I just work here now I'm 24. I've been here a whole year so I don't know spit and that's your that's your line okay but I do need to know I'm not here to tell you how to do it but I do need to know where we're going and how we're going to get there because I if you expect me to go along blind for the next eight years and hope you run it okay uh that's not that's not good communication and that's not good openness it feels weird and uh it's not it's not that I don't believe in you it's not that I don't trust you but uh a proper way to do this is lots of communication and lots of knowledge you need to know all about the financials and he needs to be training you and then later on you need to be involved in the decision on whether we do this thing or don't do this thing today you haven't earned the right to do that but you have earned the right if he says he's going to hand it off to uh be involved in the communication and for a plan to be laid out if it's a 10-year plan that's fine but just tell me if it's a 12-year plan let's talk about it or if it's a plan based on certain check marks in our case we were not moving Daniel he's been here 10 years into a uh president's role until he had proven competency and until all of our senior leaders checked off on him being the leader and that proves his competency not just me and they did and so as a friend of mine said Daniel was elected president in the elevator not the boardroom and that and so you that's your job is to go be that person right you've got to earn the right to speak up but you just by your presence and the idea that you earn the right to hear what's going on you don't really get it your advice is not going to be adhered to and you need to pay honor to his 25 years your advice doesn't mean spit after one year there's not a one-year person on our team that's going to run this place okay we love them and we're glad they're here and the expertise you bring to the table is valid but not for running the whole place and you can ask questions about okay look I was ready You Raised Me on the Ramsay stuff and here you are borrowing money I don't understand how that works it feels inconsistent to me explain to me Dad that's a fair question okay but not you can't wag your finger and go we shouldn't be doing that it's probably improper way to run the business no you got you you're not in a position to do that at this stage of the game you're you're really really uh young to the situation and you're young so pay honor lots of honor to the founder but that doesn't mean you have to honor their misbehavior but you honor the position and you can ask a lot of questions and a lot of people around here have asked me a lot of questions uh over the years and I don't consider that belligerence I consider that wisdom and I don't mind if a young person that's you know challenges okay I don't understand how that fits with our core values okay that's a fair question um but the answer to it you might not like because you're the fact it might be that you really didn't understand you know the answer to some questions is you're wrong some questions as you're right some questions as you just didn't have all the information so those are okay questions if they're real questions but if it's a passive aggressive statement and you're being belligerent that's another thing so you got to be really really careful to be patient to lay in a plan to exert honor but it's fair to ask for a timeline game plan a roughed out timeline of what it's based on it's fair to ask for uh communication and openness about the books if you're expecting and then men on the purpose of dad Mentor me show me how to do this show me how to do what you've done what you've done here is an amazing thing you've grown a business and if you keep doing it with that approach you're gonna be okay but um you know when in doubt be super humble because that's the position you're in this is the entree leadership podcast you've all played the telephone game the first person Whispers a message to the second person who Whispers it to the third and so on around the table until the original message has completely changed multiply that confusion by a hundred if you run a business with different software systems that don't talk to each other that's why there's netsuite by Oracle in the early days of Ramsey we were using different systems for every business unit we needed one single source for accurate data netsuite was the software we used to optimize and take us to the next level netsuite gave us visibility into all our numbers so we could communicate across all departments and plan ahead better and as we grew it scaled with us netsuite worked for Ramsey and it will make a difference for your business too join the more than 34 thousand customers who trust netsuite to help them make smarter decisions and level up their operations to learn more get a free product tour at netsuite.com Ramsay that's netsuite.com slash Ramsay [Music] welcome back to the entree leadership podcast I'm Dave Ramsey your host our question of the day is from Daniel in Minnesota when you own your own business and are paying off personal and business debt how many months of cash reserves do you recommend keeping in the business before you take any extra cash to pay down debt Daniel what we teach people to do in business is different than the baby steps that we teach in personal finance if you're running a small business and you have debt it's personal debt you signed for it personally it's all personal debt now if you want to categorize some of it as business debt that's fine the law doesn't see it that way your business doesn't owe any money you do because Banks don't loan small businesses money they loan individuals money that own small businesses and so you're personally liable on this I'm almost sure now if you so set it over there call it business debt if you want so what we do is this we teach people to set your profit and loss statement up where you pay yourself a salary that is your minimum living wage what does it take you to survive that's all you need just enough to get by not Prosper but get by so let's say that's sixty thousand or a hundred thousand dollars or whatever right and you put that in your profit and loss statement and then after you've paid yourself that amount of money whatever's left let's call that profit because that is profit okay so you paid yourself as the manager a living wage nothing's fancy whatever their profit there is I want you to put a percentage of that towards debt and a percentage of that into retained earnings so probably like about 80 20 70 30 something like that meaning the big chunk seventy percent or eighty percent is going towards the debt and you're going to save 10 or 15 20 percent into retained earnings so let's say you made a hundred thousand dollars profit after you paid yourself your living wage of sixty or eighty thousand or whatever that is okay so and you apply your formula to whatever the profit is each month and uh if it's 80 20 we're gonna say Okay twenty percent twenty thousands going into uh of the hundred thousand this month that'd be a great month right um twenty thousand bucks is going into retained earnings and eighty thousand is going on the debt and um you can throw it at the business debt you can throw it at the personal debt because as I said earlier it's all just debt it's all just yours and so now I'm not talking about monthly payables those are part of your p l paying a vendor that you do a 30-day terms with that's not that's not a debt like we're talking about I'm talking about if you did an SBA loan or you got credit card debt that you used to buy crap in the business stupid people do that 38 percent of small businesses have credit card debt associated with the business dumb way to finance a business really dumb so be putting that in there work your debt snowball throw it at the debt throw it at the debt throw it at the debt and then when all of the debt is cleared personal and business then you change the formula and you say I'm going to put a percentage towards retained earnings to always grow retained earnings every month always be growing as your business is growing your cash position you're going to very seldom fine you have too much cash that's not something many people struggle with so I I have never caught up on cash we save a percentage and our goal is to have uh one half of a year six months of uh operating uh budget set aside and retained earnings we've always grown our operating costs faster than we've grown our retained earnings we've never caught up to that number so today even with 300 million Top Line I don't have six months of expenses in cash that would be a lot but um I got a lot of cash but I don't have anywhere near that much so that's what I would tell you to do put a percentage towards that but once the debt is cleared then you keep some percentage going to retain earnings and the rest of it you take home that's when you get a raise you don't get a raise till you get out of debt you'll get to take some of your profits home and screw around by a boat until you get out of debt so you get your debts cleared and uh also that p l includes some line items for equipment replacement you got some trucks that are wearing out you're gonna have to buy some trucks well you got to have a plan to do that so in your p l is a line item to cover that as well this is the entree leadership podcast if you want to be on call us and leave a message uh we'll get back to you make you a caller the number is 844-944-1070 Paul is next in Fresno California hey Paul how are you hey Dave I'm doing really really well how are you better than I deserve what's up so I'm a part owner and editor of a newspaper publishing company that runs two local weekly newspapers as well uh our Top Line is around two million dollars and we've got 30 employees overall mix between full-time and part-time and we just recently discovered the podcast and we kind of discovered that we've been in the Pathfinder phase but we've probably been there for quite a while uh and maybe not doing necessarily all the steps to to move past that but now we found you so okay perfect um but so so right when we were going through some significant growth last year and then we just had some key younger employees uh in pivotal positions just you know up and leave um you know a couple of them left for better paying jobs and benefits that were just outside of our range and then uh another has just left the industry all together so uh what I wanted to get your take on was you know how do we invest in our new and even current employees in a way that encourages them to buy into our mission and hopefully if we do a good job at that we can reduce turnover yeah yeah well we've had the highest turnover um in the past 24 months that we've ever had in our history and so has most every company in the in the nation we've the the nation has gone through as you probably know what we've called the Great resignation and uh companies our size have had a uh 29 turnover our turnover was nowhere near that but it was still double what we're used to and that's what you're experiencing you didn't have turnover much and all of a sudden booms from key people walked out and you really feel it I mean you lose five key people in a 30 person organization that's dad gum that knocks the wind out of you scares you and um if I were you that's what I would be feeling and so yeah so we're constantly addressing that right now and looking at it so part of it part of what we've done and I'd recommend is the recognition that this is a cultural phenomenon that came out of an existential crisis after uh after a pandemic after a quarantine people came out of a quarantine and went I I really don't know what I need to they're kind of wandering around with this deer in the headlights look and looking for happiness and trying to find it somewhere and I don't know I don't know if I really even want to work you know you know what I'm saying and it was all this weird crap going on almost like the 70s kick back in or something and so um you know we're losing people to that uh the work at home movement you know evolved uh or hit a different stride or whatever out out of that uh and it was accelerated because of covid because of the quarantine as well and so we've lost some people that want to work from home and we work from work so um it's not an option for us and uh it's our choice but it's your choice not to work here so that's okay so we've lost a few people from that and I'm okay with that it's okay you don't but we didn't change the program you did so so anyway one thing we've done is we recognized that this was a blip like a lot of things in the supply chain and other things the great resignation is about run its course it's followed up now by the great regret there's a whole bunch of people left their jobs for what they thought were better paying situations or better situations overall that are wishing they didn't because they jumped from the frying pan into a bonfire they got themselves into a mess with and corporate Americans turn around laying them back off and screwing them and so uh there's been a great resignation followed by the great regret this is going to smooth back out we're going to go back to more normal turnover ratios so number one it's not something you need to panic and over correct your what you've been doing number two it's a good thing to wake up and say hey we got to do what you're suggesting Paul which is how can we actually address this yes I want to address it but I want to tell you up front that even if you had addressed it before all of this you still would have lost some of those people because we did and we've got a great culture we've got an incredible work culture here so first thing is uh more that there's not a pay system that will cause you to retain people you got to pay fairly and I love incentive plans of any kind and chotskies and anything where we can help people but the biggest thing that retains people is two things one is really good open clear integrity-based communication with their leadership team where they feel heard and are heard and they're course corrected and they've got accountability they've got encouragement uh so you know if you're at the Pathfinder stage one of the things we talk about is weekly one-on-ones you guys gotta take that to an art form to where the person is being heard by their leader their leaders speaking into their lives cares about them personally uh in a sense pastors them knows what's going on with their sick dog uh their kids you know struggling in school whatever we know some you know we care about the people we love the people we spend time with the people and that open clear and clear communication on performance and mentoring on how to get better and uh people appreciate that so much they will do anything to stay in a situation like that uh the the second thing we find is is they have to tie their work to something that has meaning people don't go to uh uh the assembly line anymore and do Mindless stuff they won't stay with you even if you pay them unbelievable amounts of money uh and and so they they have to tie that okay you're in journalism that the work you're doing with these newspapers it matters it's work that matters we've got it all over the walls at Ramsey this is work that matters when you write a line of code here you're helping somebody with their money helping them save their marriage helping them change their family tree send their kids to college this is work that matters when you ship a book here in shipping you're not just a shipping guy or gal you're somebody that actually did work that matters something changed because you did that because that book got there on time and so you're engaged in something that has a noble purpose and you are Paul so you just got to communicate that a lot over and over and over until you're sick of saying it because they don't hear it until you say it nine million freaking times and then the one-on-ones you're talking about look you got to do this different because this is work that matters and you tie it back to that and I stand up in a staff meeting we have a staff meeting for the whole thousand plus people Team every Monday morning and I remind them listen this place is blessed we've got unbelievable Financial Resources Talent we've got uh brand recognition people love us in the marketplace and we were we are blessed but we are not blessed so that we just become blessed we're blessed so that we can be a blessing we and if you work inside these walls you work for the people that aren't here you work for the people outside these walls that's your job serve that customer help them change their lives and that's work that matters it has meaning and so when you work at Ramsey you're doing stuff that's meaning and Paul you've got the ability to do the exact same thing so if you get good clear communication and they see a path on how they are adding value and how they can move up in the organization they're getting they got good leaders that have integrity and are clear with them when they're doing something writer when they're doing something wrong they're plugging into work that has meaning and then on top of that you pay as you pay you know Market wages plus some and especially if you share some profits as we all win we win together that kind of stuff uh you know that's about all you can do and then still you're going to have stuff come along like the great resignation or the work from home movement or anything like that that's still going to take your knees out sometimes and I've lost some folks in the last two years that I love dearly and I hate that they're gone but and I think they made a mistake in in many cases but you know if you're making a hundred thousand dollars a year and somebody offers you 120 you walk out the door you may or may not have made a good move it sounds like on the surface that's automatically a good move but you might not have and in some cases I knew where they were going and I knew they were going into a cesspool and I knew that it wasn't worth the money and they're probably not going to last or they're probably going to get kicked to the curb but that you can't tell somebody that they got to experience it for themselves so all you can do is all you can do and that's enough on this subject but um lean into those kinds of soft skills make sure your comp plans are fair and inventive and creative uh and that you're bringing on good solid people the other thing we're looking for the last piece of this ball and I'm kind of spitballing some of this but telling you what we're doing right now real time is we have really tightened up our interview process oh yeah because I mean if somebody works here 90 days and then they walk in and go you know I think I want to work from home well that's our fault we shouldn't have hired that person right right I was going to ask you as well what is you know what are some of the things that you do in the hiring process they can perhaps you know cut down on some of the more regulars that fall out say after 90 days or is it just something that you you don't know I'm gonna dig in pretty deep on their maturity uh and go you know are they telling me the truth or are they just telling me crap to get a job you know and so we're gonna we're gonna interview them a lot we do a lot of interviews four five six seven interviews we don't never hire one on just one interview um and in that process different people are talking to them or we're trying to get a beat on it does this person really want to plug into the Crusade that we're doing here or are they looking for a job and if they're just looking for a job they're not going to fit in because the people that work here and that last they care deeply about this place they care deeply they will fight you you know and you're not going to like it if you're in here going I'll just here to get a check that you don't fit into this place so we want to want you to know that up front and so we ask a lot of questions leading questions about stuff like that in the process and try to ascertain is this person mature enough but we literally had a person leave in the last 90 days that had been here 90 days and one of my guys comes in and goes what's up with that and I'm like what's up with that is you're stupid you hired them you know it's our fault we something in our process let that person in the building and it's our fault so I'm not going to blame that little immature 20-something that couldn't find their butt with both hands and you know they they just they obviously wander into a building where we say very clearly we work from work we do not have a work from home program and then they discover while they're working here that they can't work from home well how dumb is that that's our fault that we let that person in the building they were not qualified to be in here maturity wise or anything else and that that's what we get into so yeah the interview process is something you'll find in Ontario leadership Elite we spend a lot of time on interviewing uh to to make sure we get the right people in the building uh man keep it crazy out of the building it's a full-time job man it's a dad gum because crazy will sneak in it's it's and it will drive you bananas running a small business so hey really good questions Paul and I don't have time to teach the whole thing out but that's just some thoughts I had and it's actually stuff that we're working on at this moment we've always been pretty good at it but we're getting even better at it every minute while we're here in some of those special challenges we've all had in the past 36 months or so we've learned how to do all new stuff in the process that's how we do it so really good question again if you want to be part of the program go to entryleadership.com ask type in your question the team will get back to you set up you to be a caller here on the entree leadership podcast yeah this is the entree leadership podcast we've been talking about the stage of businesses we're just talking about Pathfinder with Paul the road map that's going to help you grow your business we hope you're paying attention the stages are going to help you accelerate your growth like you wouldn't believe and the six drivers drive you through those stages so you're going to love it if you're a business owner and you're trying to level up to the next stage you're going to need more than just the high level summary that we give you here on the air you ought to attend entree leadership Master Series this conference is a five-day tactical crash course on how to grow a business we'll break down all the skills you need to advance through the stages of business like delegation hiring strategic planning the stuff I was just talking about in that last segment best part is it's not Theory we're really doing this these are lessons taken from what we've learned as we grew this business through the different stages and what we're learning today hands on the day live right there so much to talk about and we've even added an extra day this year it's happening November 5 through 10 at our headquarters in the brand new Ramsey Event Center here in Nashville you don't want to miss it we are almost sold out there's about 74 seats left as I do this recording today so if you want to join us don't wait go to entreeleadership.com Master Series get your tickets and that way you will avoid fomo it's a word I learned this week fear of missing out see even old people can learn stuff all right Jeffrey is with us in St Petersburg Florida Hey Jeffrey what's up hey how are you doing sir better than I deserve how can I help so um I'm the broker owner for a small residential real estate Brokerage in St Petersburg Florida we've been in business a little over a year now but prior to that I'd worked in a different Brokers company for the better part of a decade and I've been learning through this process there's a pretty big skill and knowledge gap between what I needed to be successful as an operator in someone else's business and what I've needed so far to keep our company going and try to make it the best we can be so I guess what I'm looking for from you sir is some wisdom on like what skills should I focus on as a new business owner I find myself dealing with things as they come up and I'm trying to I don't know what I don't know so I'm seeking wisdom on that from you okay well that's like uh how do I run a business that would be like a course right oh my gosh I don't know if how to answer that in a single single call here but um uh let me back up a second because I grew up in the real estate business um Mom and Daddy owned a residential company when I was growing up and I got my license when I turned 18. I've still got that license so um love the world that you're in I observed and we used to talk about in our family that uh sometimes what happens is somebody's a great salesperson and they get uh promoted to be sales manager or their great salesperson they said I don't want to split with a broker anymore so they go out and open their own shop get their own broker's license open their own shop and like you said I discover there's a different skill set between being a superstar salesperson and actually operating but you're taking it a step further I think you said you used to operate a brokerage for someone else free within so no I I said I did really well okay so you're a great sales yeah so it's like you know you can be a great heating and air person but that doesn't mean you know how to run a heating in their company it just means you know how to fix the heating and air you could be a great real estate salesperson but it doesn't I mean you know there's a so you you move from this the skill set of being a great salesperson a great marketer great technician to uh actually operating the business so what you're saying is is that the skills aren't uh they're not transferable it's a different skill set right one skill one skill is transferable and that's the quality in your case you have quality people skills right and that's certainly transferable uh but if you don't watch you try to sell everybody and then the team starts to feel manipulated so you gotta be careful with that I know I'm a Salesman so um uh all right let's back up then so the first thing we do is do what you did and we recognize we there's this recognition phase where we say okay what does it take to operate a business well the basic components of business right uh there's the Personnel aspects the the HR aspects in other words the hiring and firing of the team members uh there's the leadership aspect setting the Strategic business model in place you know how are you going to pay the Brokers that work on your team uh or how are you going to split with them are you you know doing 100 with them paying you a flat rate are you you know what's your split on the thing how's your business model work um you've got accounting functions somebody's got to do the accounting and how we're going to control the the cash flow the money coming in the make sure the expenses are paid and the uh the you know the businesses operated from a financial standpoint certainly marketing and marketing is different than sales because we're trying to put the brand of your company out there more than just the individual going and selling a house and uh so you've got there's a more efficient way to go about it than just trial or error I think maybe a better way for me to phrase it is when I was working in another company if you need training or you need resources you go to the broker when you are the broker you can give the training or resources to your agents for what their role is but you have no one above you you can go tap to say hey exactly how did you do this boss level stuff or this broker level thing yeah exactly well uh yeah that's you know you need to come to Someone Like Us that can show you how to do it uh and get you know get a one-on-one coach a business coach uh you know come to some of the events I'll tell you what why don't we do this you want to come to Nashville in November and come to the entree Master Series as my guest oh I would love that Dave all right you're coming as my guest let's just start there okay that's five days when you leave you're going to be mentally exhausted because I'm we're gonna you're going up to a water fountain to get a drink I'm gonna turn on a freaking fire hose okay because I can't answer this in one call on a podcast there's too much going on right because the hiring and firing lessons are six hours you know I mean it's like right uh uh that kind of stuff so there's uh you know but yeah you're right you've got to get the skill set you gotta you gotta tap into something like someone to teach and we teach this stuff as practitioners on operating a business we work with small businesses of all kinds lots of real estate companies by the way uh we coach one on one and uh they they have coaches in the real estate world like my friend Brian buffini or somebody like that but they also have us coaching them on the business side of it which is as you are recognizing and we are in this discussion there's two parts to this it's not just the real estate coaching so um now the first book I'm going to tell you to pick up is by my friend Michael Gerber the book is called e-myth E Dash myth it's the entrepreneurial myth and it's exactly what we've been talking about the e-myth is is that because I know how to make pies doesn't mean I know how to run a pie store right because I'm a chef doesn't mean I know how to run a restaurant and his His Brilliant observation that changed my life 30 years ago when I read his book was that you need to learn to work on your business not just in your business right and that's really the discussion you and I are having but you'll enjoy this book for that reason and then I think what you've got to do is basically start to say okay here's the segments of the business that have to be addressed obviously there's a small amount of accounting that needs to be done there's a small amount of HR that needs to be done meaning higher end firing and recruiting there's a small amount nothing's huge at this stage but you need to touch the bases on these different things a small amount of legal that needs to be done you got to decide if you're gonna you know what the ownership entity is is it a an LLC what are we doing here that kind of stuff you've got to get into every bit of that and and the different components of business and start to address every one of them as you go along and I think you'll be able to start to move forward you're probably instinctively doing a lot of them you just feel really inept because it's your first ride on this particular truck and that's so flying by the seat of my pants yeah learning things as they become problems I'm and I much prefer to be proactive yeah if you can get ahead of it it changes everything and that that that's working on your business instead of in it when you're in it right you're a fireman you put out fires all day long when you're working on it you've already got all the Fire Protection in place there's some arms up and other everything else the fire extinguishers are on the wall and you just you know we don't have the and so what I did over the years was uh every time we learn something the hard way uh because we did something stupid uh we we said I don't mind the pain of stupid I just don't want to do the same stupid thing next time all right if we're going to do a stupid thing it needs to be a new stupid thing right right and and so that that you will learn incrementally as you go along you can't keep from doing that but just you know don't repeat the mistakes is the thing figure out what you did do an autopsy on the the death of the patient and go what how'd we kill them what happened here you know what was the stupid thing we did and um you know we got to figure out to not do that thing again and that gets you there so uh honor to talk to you sir you're uh wisdom and your humility in the business that you're in is is refreshing and you're going to do really really well you keep you keep that posture for the next decade you're going to be a very wealthy man and you're going to be running a very powerful business because that that sense of curiosity is uh it's essential to being an entrepreneur and it's a type of curiosity that has humility laced into it and you got you got that in Spades man you're ready to go so that's why I'm giving you this ticket this ticket's multiple thousands of dollars I'm giving you for free but I want to invest in y'all be sure you be sure you meet me and we talk about this when you're up here okay this is the entree leadership podcast the five stages start with the treadmill operator you're you're the whole thing counts on you too much of the business relies on you in the next stage of business is the path finder and primary problem there is you like clear Direction you got to learn things like mission and vision and core values and role Clarity and communication and then you move to Trailblazer when you level up and you uh there you struggle with you lack the leaders in the plan to scale your business the second level of Delegation leadership delegation rather than just delegating a task now you're delegating Concepts and you move from there to Peak performer and that's where things are rocking primary problem Peak performers faces your business has become too comfortable and uh we help you re-energize it there when we're working with you in entree leadership Elite and then the last stage of business and there's no set number of years or months or dollar values that take you through the stages it's more recognition of how the business is run and operated the last stage is the Legacy Builder and the primary thing that the Legacy Builder has to work on is the concession or the six session plan there's some concessions involved but it's a succession plan Freudian slip all right you gotta love it all right this is the entree leadership podcast we're glad you're here the six drivers that'll take you through that as you work on you the personal driver you work on making sure your business is bigger than the bottom line that's the purpose of course we've got to work on people putting the right people on the bus or on people off the bus the right people on the right seats on the bus according to my friend Jim Collins then you lay out a plan no one wins by accident it's by plan of course the product delivers the Excellence and the profits take care of themselves the last one is profit and then you start again you get better yet again your people get better you drill the purpose even deeper and we work our way through these five stages of business Gary is up next Gary is in Syracuse New York hi Gary how are you hi Dave how are you thanks for your call for taking my call better than I deserve what's up how can we help uh quick question I'll give you some background I'm trying to understand how to handle and get your take on how to handle the visibility of Building Wealth uh as a leader and specifically me as a young leader um I'm a 31 year old plant manager at a drinking water facility for a large International Company we're geographically separate from the rest of our company co-workers um so we feel like a small business I feel like a small business owner I manage a team of seven and you know I'm really grateful for the position I've been in my wife and I have also gone through your baby steps for nearing baby step seven here in the next couple years which is awesome and I'm trying to understand how to how to handle this to build wealth and to whether to keep that secret from my my direct reports or to share that I'm dealing with some difficulty when it comes to discussions of pay and compensation for them and my feeling is that they think I am more fortunate simply because of my position and they think that I have a leg up on them and I'm making out while they're just grinding and working um just looking for your input what do they do what is their uh what's their job descriptions uh their operator and maintenance technicians at a drinking water plant so it's kind of turning a wrench fixing working all kinds of different stuff okay all right um so there's uh two types there's more than two but there are two types of cultures that can evolve in a blue-collar setting one is is that the blue collar worker the wrench Turner the heat and air technician the uh the carpenter uh the roofer sees their work as a craft and they take great pride in the fact that they are a Tradesman um and they have a level of personal maturity and a personal confidence that they carry themselves as if they're a doctor or a lawyer you know what I'm saying and there are cultures of people in blue collar that do that i i we work with a lot of heating and air companies for instance and I've talked to several people that they have these heat and air technicians take great pride and they're inside their thing as an example of being able to walk into someone's home and you know put on the blue booties and the you know take care of business take you know make sure the lady of the house feels safe all that kind of stuff in the whole process there's a whole customer service interaction not just turning a ranch on something but if they um the other culture is the negative culture which is what you're I think you're describing and the negative culture can be that they feel like second-class citizens and uh then they're supposed to sit around and figure out how to steal they're supposed to sit around and figure out how to not work and still get paid and uh the man has got his thumb on them and they whine a lot okay yeah I definitely have the first group um I think my folks are really proud of what they do um it could be part of this is my own paranoia of you know Building Wealth here and starting that and you know how to the visibility of me taking a two-week vacation with my family to Florida or for example you know I've talked to other other business owners and and they've they've told me how they kept their wealth sort of hidden from their folks yeah and I'm just trying to you know I I refuse to be ashamed of being successful because I have worked my complete butt off and if you don't like that I'm successful you need to go somewhere else you know yeah I'm not going to apologize now I'm not going to rub your nose in it but if you drive past my car in this parking lot it's a stinking fine automobile right but I've been working my butt off for 32 years I got socks older than you so don't be whining you know I'm an overnight success after 40 years so you know uh in your case you're a little younger you're saying I get that but and you don't have to be caustic I'm being caustic in my response and I don't really I don't really say that to somebody but that's my attitude in my head if you don't like that my wife and I can take a three-week vacation and you work at Ramsey then you don't need to work at Ramsey I'm good with that don't be here if you if you if you want to be pissed off because I'm successful with the amount of work I've done and how hard I've worked I don't have time for you but if you want to say hey man show me how I can do that I'll show you I'll teach you I'll be right there with you and I I don't have to work I work every day and I don't have to work so I got a better work ethic you know so we're not we don't need to work discuss work ethics so you gotta you know you're not gonna outwork me and I'm older than you you know I mean so that that's the the message that goes out but again I'm not going na na na na with my with the you know enjoying something and I don't rub people's nose in it but I don't drive a car to please or not please someone else I don't take a vacation to please or not please someone else I do it for me do it for my wife you know so I haven't bought a car because somebody else cared in a long time I did that I was that I was that shallow in my 20s I bought a Jaguar because I thought everybody think I was cool uh and then I figured out nobody gave a crap about what somebody else drives but for about 30 seconds you know they kind of go oh cool and then they move on you know but now I drive what I want to drive because I enjoy the vehicle you know because I like cars so that's an example but again we don't have to be caustic about it I'm being kind of bombastic in my answer to you you don't have to be quite that crazy about it but I'm hiding it I disagree I completely disagree because I think that someone working in your place can make enough money to become wealthy if they'll apply the principles that we teach at Ramsey and I'll show you how to do that and if you want to take a two-week vacation if you want to build wealth if you want to become a millionaire while you're doing maintenance tech in this thing I can show you how to do it what do those guys make oh they're making like seventy thousand oh good lord they could be millionaires of course and I I went through all six baby steps as in their level yeah and I think maybe part of my difficulty is that a lot of they're all older than me uh significantly older than me and it may I may seem like an overnight success to them they don't see me at you know nine o'clock at night on the weekend on my laptop I ran into a guy out here the other day okay he's I was uh I heard our lobby he's 24 years old okay he wrote an app on one of these uh game things okay I don't even know what games are but these are these games all right and the stinking app went crazy and the kid 24 years old he made 15 million dollars okay now I'm an old guy uh and I'm kind of going this is impressive you know but I didn't I didn't have to just because he's younger and he made a big pile of money doesn't mean I have to hate him for it I could just celebrate his success for him I was happy for him I think he's impressive I'm still trying to figure out what the flippy did actually but it was it was pretty cool I'm happy for him you know good for him way to go dude and uh you know I met another guy on social media the other day that has got like six million followers because he learned how to do a dance and well that ain't something I'm getting okay but oh my gosh that's so cool good for you man you're cool dude that's neat I'm happy for your success and so if they can't celebrate your success because you're young that doesn't say something about you that says something about them makes sense so you got to get comfortable with the idea that you didn't do anything wrong you didn't steal anything your wealth came from effort and from working a system and from being very careful and I'm happy to share my knowledge with you and encourage you and I'll be your biggest cheerleader I will not tolerate you disrespecting me or rolling your eyes you don't get to work here anymore if that's the case right right and we don't have to say it exactly that bluntly but that's the policy that's the policy if someone wants to and moan about my car they don't get to work here my car it's got my name on the outside of the building that ain't hard you know move on move on and uh that's never happened by the way that I know of but um well I hadn't fired anybody for that so I don't know but uh uh but we just don't hire people like that you know and so I think you're I think this is probably 80 in your head and nine and twenty percent in the head of one of the seven guys and the other six guys are fine and don't give a rip about this whole conversation am I wrong I think you're right yeah no you're right it's probably 90 of my head and this this is a big deal for me because I've only been in this position it's kind of like a life-changing you know you know why I have no credentials for it I just earned it I feel through time and yeah and I'm still getting used to that myself I guess you know what it's just the other thing you can do with some people if they're good people it sounds like these guys are good guys um you can just say out loud hey you know what sometimes I'm a little uncomfortable because I I I'm you know the leader here but I'm younger than you guys and sometimes when I I you know I get to the benefit of some of the money that I've got it makes me feel weird because I don't want to be weird with you guys I love you and I want you to win and I don't want you to feel like I'm putting you down because I'm not but it sometimes I just need if you just say it out loud you know what the bugs run to the corners yeah bugs won't stay in the light and you know sometimes if you get in a situation where you're just really feeling weird about you say it out loud and go you know once I say it out loud it loses its power that's true but just go you know because you're you're not being arrogant about you're being very humble if you're being arrogant I call you out man but you're you know you're you're going I'm concerned about this because I care about these guys I'm concerned about this because I don't want to be a jerk I'm concerned about this and you know if you just say that out loud to these guys I think they would really appreciate it you don't have to do it every day but you know if you're if you hit a high you know a peak moment where you're really feeling uncomfortable and awkward well maybe just let the air out and just go guys I'm feeling really uncomfortable and awkward about this right and uh you know you may not be thinking this but I'm worried that you're thinking this you know I get it and you know what that'll run off a whole bunch of it but don't ever get in a position that don't where you're rubbing your success in someone's face for the purpose of being the big dog and never get in a position where you apologize for your success and hide it instead let it be a beacon let it be the fact that uh I'm proud that we have won because it tells other people that they can win that's why I share how much revenue we bring in here I used to be afraid to say out loud what Ramsey's Revenue was because I was afraid somebody would think oh we're too big a deal and uh you know we're a big deal but we're not too big a deal you know but and but then I got to sing you know what we started this freaking thing on a card table this is a great American Dream if we tell people that you can start it on card table and have a 300 million dollar Top Line you know or 300 million dollar company that's dad gum impressive and you can do it too and you know we did it all by helping people so you can do that too and so I started realizing I need to do that as an inspiration for other entrepreneurs young and old beginners and and Old Dogs both and so yeah you're you're a light in that sense share your success without rubbing people's nose in it and then if you're awkward just say I feel awkward this feels weird first time I bought a nice car after I went bankrupt I felt weird and I had to just tell people I feel weird and it helped a lot and now I don't feel weird at all I couldn't give a rip less so I kind of got over that part hey guys if you want to help us out uh consider Following the show click the follow button or the Subscribe button on YouTube or on the podcast that helps us a bunch leave a nice review one of those happy ones that's got like five of them Stars those are helpful that helps our marketing and push the algorithm out share the show click a link and hit the share button however you're doing it let people know we're here you are our only marketing hey guys remember better a weary Warrior than a quivering critic leader serve leaders are active not passive leaders act on principle not appearances this world needs more high quality leaders so choose to lead I'm Dave Ramsey your host thanks for listening to the entree leadership podcast [Music]

Channel: EntreLeadership

Views: 38,185

Keywords: entreleadership, dave ramsey, Do You Have Unrealistic Expectations for Your Business?

Id: vJ6sVJBYnK0

Length: 55min 5sec (3305 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 07 2023