Clay Clark – head business coach and business coach program: Thrivers, I want to encourage you. This is going to be your year where you make the biggest gains in your business ever because why? Because you’ve decided it. You have to decide it. You have to ordain your destiny or you’re going to kind of drift around and all of a sudden, you’re going to look up and go, “Oh, no, I’m 40. Oh, no I’m 50. Wait a minute, I’m 70.” All of a sudden, just life happens so fast when you’re not intentional about how you spend your days and your minutes and your weeks. So, I encourage go to ThrivetimeShow.com and sign up there for in person workshops. Your first month of our Thrive15.com business school is always just a dollar. And that includes tickets to an in person workshop. You want to go to Thrive15.com, check it out. It’s the world’s best business school, and it’s just a dollar for your first month. Which, this just in, it’s like $55,999 less than Tulsa University’s business school. Wow.
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All right, thrive nation, welcome back into the conversation. It’s the Thrivetime Show business school without the B.S. and yes, my name is Clay Clark, the former SBA entrepreneur of the year in your ear sitting here to help you make that wallet grow. Our whole focus, our whole mission here at Thrive15.com is to mentor millions, and that includes you. And we want to help you have the good life, how to build that successful business you’ve always dreamed about. And according to Forbes, 57% of you right now want to start a successful business at some point. And so, we always go into our mail bag and we answer questions from great people like you. So, Robert, we have a question from a thriver, let’s go ahead and read that question, my friend.
Robert Redmond – business coach: So, there’s another company that I’m working with out in Nashville, Tennessee called Mason Transport. It’s a trucking company.
Clay Clark: Is it a country music company? Kind of a mask, kind of a front? it’s just my business coach mind running wild.
Robert Redmond: What they do is they transport country music stars in vans that play music while they haul their loads so that all the other people on the highway can enjoy the high quality country Nashville music.
Clay Clark: I’m so sorry to stereotype that everything in Nashville is related to country music. But, no, seriously, what do they do, my friend?
Robert Redmond: So, they really are a transport trucking company. They have different like 18 wheelers, transportation industry, and we were diving in the numbers and we were doing a preforma where we were examining, okay, what are all your expenses, okay, what’s your income, what’s your payroll? And after we dived into the numbers, we realized that she needed to get better understanding and control of her finances. They were totally out of whack. And so, what we began talking about is, “Should I hire a bookkeeper or an accountant and what should I look for when I’m looking for a bookkeeper to help me keep track of my finances?”
Clay Clark: Okay. Three things to look for when you’re looking for a bookkeeper, and Mel, you … Mel, have you hired a bookkeeper yet for your super business?
Melena Wright: No.
Clay Clark: Have you hired a bookkeeper there to work with your business? I mean, you guys at Bow and Arrow, have you hired somebody, yet? As a business coach for over a decade i know how important this is.
Megan: It’s my mother.
Clay Clark: Oh, okay. Okay, well, this doesn’t apply to you two, but fine. But here’s, mel, when you hire somebody because this might be a move for you, okay? So, there’s three things to look for. One, understand that bookkeepers as a general rule are disorganized and dishonest because they’re most people. So, according to the U.S. Chamber, 75% of employees steal. I don’t care if you’re a bookkeeper, a real estate agent, you’re a photographer, you’re a limo driver, whatever, most people are not accurate. So, a lot of is … there’s a thing I want to write down, Robert, this is big. All the Thrivers should write this down.
Robert Redmond: Got it.
Clay Clark: Move number one, when you delegate, don’t abdicate.
Robert Redmond: Oh, I remember my first day of me shadowing you, you told me that.
Clay Clark: So, abdicate is where back in the day when you abdicated, that would be like you vacate your throne. So, here’s an example. Robert, let’s say that Mel and her big army is attacking our castle.
Robert Redmond: Okay. Lets hear it business coach master.
Clay Clark: And you’re second in command, I’m the king. All right, you’re like the prince, okay? The prince, you’re somehow like, you’re second in command, but you’re not related to me somehow, that’s how it work, okay?
Robert Redmond: Right. business coach prince Robert.
Clay Clark: And you’ve always wanted to become the king and I see mel and this big army attacking me, you know what I mean I look at her over the walls and I’m like, “Robert, Robert, hey, look, quick deal if I could just grab your attention for just a second.”
Robert Redmond: “All right, all right, King Clay.”
Clay Clark: “I know I’ve been King for 27 consecutive years … “
Robert Redmond: “Yes, sir.”
Clay Clark: “That I’ve always said that you know I would never let you be in charge of the- of the throne.”
Robert Redmond: “Yes, sir.”
Clay Clark: “You know because I- you know, but … “
Robert Redmond: “You’re the king at being a business coach.
Clay Clark: “Just a moment ago, I was just thinking about some things and I’ve decided it’s time for you to be the king. So, just wear this little thing … “
Robert Redmond: “Oh.”
Clay Clark: “On your head.”
Robert Redmond: “Okay.”
Clay Clark: “I’ll be- I’ll be- I’ll be- you’re in charge now, good luck, we’ll see you later.” And then I just run out the back. I disappear, I just run out and all of a sudden, you just see me running I’m going, “Ahh,” and run away, right? Because I don’t want to get killed by the attacking army, I want you 2 be killed. Okay, you’re that new king. So, the thing is …
Robert Redmond: “thank you, sire business coach.”
Clay Clark: So, abdication is where a king would just abdicate his throne, that was a move, you didn’t want to be … you just said, “I’m done with it.” And you almost like retreat, you just run away, you know, you’re done.
Robert Redmond: Kinda cowardly, Clay. Can’t be cowardly when you are a business coach
Clay Clark: Yeah, that would be the move, though. That’s the deal. So, the thing is, that’s abdicate. Now, delegate is where you assign something nu follow up assuming that it’s wrong. So, you would trust, but verify like Ronald Reagan.
Robert Redmond: Even if they’re honest.
Clay Clark: I don’t … I mean, I think honesty something that you have to prove over time.
Robert Redmond: Yes.
Clay Clark: So, I can say this, Mel worked with us for a long time and Mel is somebody, I guess you could say is an honest person, not by being … not by virtue of Mel being born. I mean, I frankly don’t care whether she was born … I think I met her mom one time, but I have to assume that she’s not honest. Over time, I realized she was and all of a sudden I’m like she’s good people, you know? You have to … you can’t abdicate, and so many people hire a bookkeeper and they get a huge tax bill and they go, “What happened?” And your bookkeeper’s like, “Well, I got a little behind on the numbers.” You can’t abdicate. Mel, does that make sense?
Melena Wright: Yeah.
Clay Clark: So, you can hire someone because you’re the one liable for the taxes so do not abdicate your taxes to somebody else. Am I connecting there?
Melena Wright: Yes.
Robert Redmond: Yes.
Clay Clark: Okay, so move number two when you hire a bookkeeper, ask for 10 references. 10, 10, do you know, but don’t give them time. Don’t give them time to produce them. Just say, “Hey, I … Could you gi- … Can I get 10 references?” So, let’s imagine we’re role playing this, okay? Here we go.
Robert Redmond: All right.
Clay Clark: You’re a bookkeeper, you want my business. So, Robert, real quick, before we go, I loved your presentation. I need just to get …
Robert Redmond: Okay.
Clay Clark: 10 references. But I mean, just sort of real quick if you could just give me their numbers real quick, I’ll call them.
Robert Redmond: Why don’t you just give me your email, and I’ll get back to you in a month.
Clay Clark: I’d really want … I want them now, you know what I mean? I’m comparing between you and a couple of other people, I just want to get …
Robert Redmond – Business Coach: Oh, you know what? My wife is calling me. Soccer …
Clay Clark: Pause. Because anybody, give them like a week, they’re going to produce a bunch of references, right? I mean, you know my cousin, you know my neighbor, but you want 10.
Robert Redmond: Got it. 10 references.
Clay Clark: Move number 3, I call this the rule of three. You want 2 interview three of anything for anything in your life except for girlfriends. Or wives. So, as an example, when you’re married, don’t be going, “Well, I’ll just try, you know this wife and then I’ll try this other wife and I’ll try this other husband,” you know you want to be committed to that one thing, that one person. But I’m just saying like if you’re going to hire a contractor, interview three.
Robert Redmond: Right.
Clay Clark: If you’re going to hire a new key employee, you could probably speak to this there, Miss Broken Arrow, I mean when you built your … or not Broken Arrow, Bow and Arrow. When you grew your business here, you’ve obviously grown your business by hiring very, you know trustworthy people. I’m sure you’ve made a couple mistakes along the way, but you’ve been able to achieve time freedom and financial freedom by having some good people here. So, Megan, I want to ask you, I mean, do you try to interview a lot of people or do you just hire the first human that applies for the job?
Megan: No, a lot of the employees that I’ve hired have been references of other employees. And not all of them worked out, but I did find some good ones along the way, and another thing is i have a lot of siblings of employees. So, you know one employee that I found, she’s awesome, she actually moved to Nashville, so she’s not with me anymore, but her mom came into the store one day and I got to talking to her mom and right away, I could just tell that she was awesome. And she got to talking about her daughter, and I said, “you know this is really strange, but when your daughter comes back for school you know on her break, can she come in and you know I’d love to talk to her.” And sure enough, her daughter came in, three months later, exactly like her mom. And I hired her right there on the spot.
Clay Clark: I would just encourage you, Thrivers, kind of learning lesson here is good people know other good people. Okay? Well, if you’re going to hire a bookkeeper, I’m just telling you, one is do not abdicate, make sure you’re delegating. Rule number two, though is make, make sure you get those 10 references and call them all. Call those references. And three, the rule of three, you want to make sure you check at least three options. Now, the core question was, should I hire a bookkeeper or an accountant. When we come back, we’re going to get into the nuances and the differences of that, but I’m just telling you right now, if you’re an entrepreneur and you sell a certain product, your core focus must maintain … you must maintain focus on your main thing. Your main thing has to become your main thing.
So, for Mel over here, she’s a photographer so your main thing needs to be photography. You don’t want to spend all your time being distracted, running around, doing accounting. But you also don’t want to get a point where you’re so overwhelmed that you just hire the first living human that you run into, the first person with a pulse, you’re like, “Well, you have a pulse, and so I think he might be a good fit there.” No, you’ve got to hire people that know what they’re doing and you’ve got to do your research because you don’t want to hire the wrong person to handle your books. So, we come back, we’re going to talk about, you know should I hire an accountant, should I hire a bookkeeper, should I hire both? How do I do it? Stay tuned, it’s the Thrivetime Show on your radio. Learn more, ThrivetimeShow.com there is plenty of info on our business coach program.