Mastery Through Mentorship – Pricing Your Products (Part 1) – a Look Under the Hood

Show Notes

On this episode of A Look Under The Hood with Paul Hood of Hood CPAs Paul and Clay Clark are getting into the details of how to price your product and knowing what your expenses are and should be.

  1. The good and Bad of a relationship
    1. Financial Advisor
      1. Walk away if all they want to talk about is the “product” that you want to invest in
      2. A good financial planner will continue to ask you “why”. Why do you want to save and invest? What are your goals?
      3. NOTABLE QUOTABLE – Be greedy when other people are fearful and fearful when other people are greedy – Warren Buffett
    2. ACTION STEP – Schedule an appointment with your current accountant and ask them to help you make a proactive plan.
      1. Then schedule with Paul Hood and Hood CPA’s and compare the pro-active plan with your current accountant.
    3. NOTABLE QUOTABLE – “With no feedback, no coaching, there’s just no way to improve.” – Bill Gates (an American business magnate, investor, author, philanthropist, humanitarian, and principal founder of the Microsoft Corporation.)
    4. NOTABLE QUOTABLE – “No one lives long enough to learn everything they need to learn starting from scratch. To be successful, we absolutely, positively have to find people who have already paid the price to learn the things that we need to learn to achieve our goals.” – Brian Tracy (Brian Tracy is a Canadian-American motivational public speaker and self-development author. He is the author of over seventy books that have been translated into dozens of languages.)
    5. NOTABLE QUOTABLE – “The advice that sticks out I got from John Doerr, who in 2001 said, “My advice to you is to have a coach.” The coach he said I should have is Bill Campbell. I initially resented the advice, because after all, I was a CEO. I was pretty experienced. Why would I need a coach? Am I doing something wrong? My argument was, How could a coach advise me if I’m the best person in the world at this? But that’s not what a coach does. The coach doesn’t have to play the sport as well as you do. They have to watch you and get you to be your best. In the business context a coach is not a repetitious coach. A coach is somebody who looks at something with another set of eyes, describes it to you in [his] words, and discusses how to approach the problem. Once I realized I could trust him and that he could help me with perspective, I decided this was a great idea. When there is [a] business conflict you tend to get rat-holed into it. [Bill’s] general advice has been to rise one step higher, above the person on the other side of the table, and to take the long view. He’ll say, “You’re letting it bother you. Don’t.” – Eric Schmidt (Eric Emerson Schmidt is an American businessman and software engineer. He is known as the Executive Chairman of Google from 2001 to 2017 and Alphabet Inc. from 2015 to 2017)
  2. MYSTIC STATISTIC – 63% Of Americans Don’t Have Enough Savings To Cover A $500 Emergency
    1. https://www.forbes.com/sites/maggiemcgrath/2016/01/06/63-of-americans-dont-have-enough-savings-to-cover-a-500-emergency/#5fc25b424e0d
  3. MYSTIC STATISTIC – 70% Of Your Employees Hate Their Jobs
    1. https://www.forbes.com/sites/carminegallo/2011/11/11/your-emotionally-disconnected-employees/#8732c1042d5c
  4. How to know how to price your products and services
    1. Start with the end in mind
      1. How much money do you want to make.
      2. Do not be apologetic for what you do. Be Proud and not scared to raise prices if you need to.
      3. List out your fixed and variable costs.
      4. Begin with the end in mind.
    2. NOTABLE QUOTABLE – “You know you have found market price when buyers complain, but still pay.” – Paul Graham (Paul Graham is an English born computer scientist, entrepreneur, venture capitalist, author, and blogger.)
    3. NOTABLE QUOTABLE – “When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.” John Lennon (John Winston Ono Lennon MBE was an English singer, songwriter, and peace activist who co-founded the Beatles, the most commercially successful band in the history of popular music)
    4. NOTABLE QUOTABLE – “Financial peace isn’t the acquisition of stuff. It’s learning to live on less than you make, so you can give money back and have money to invest. You can’t win until you do this.” – Dave Ramsey (David L. Ramsey III is an American businessman, author, financial broadcaster, television personality, and motivational speaker.)
Business Coach | Ask Clay & Z Anything

Audio Transcription

Broadcasting from the business coach thrivetime show studios in beatbox. That ross is toast everyone cpa in every way, but he’s a gentleman it’s time to take a look under your financial hood with paul hornalright hood nation. Welcome back to another exciting addition of a look under the hood with paul hood tulsa’s number one cpa in every way or talking about today is the mastery that can only come from mentorship. It’s the mastery that can only come from internship with me now 2 page 66 of a look under the hood i. Don’t have that book. Will you can get it? You can even get the book, but you had to schedule a consultation with a paul hood. By put a hood cpas.,, then the book page 66 paul’s book he writes as stated earlier. The scariest thing is, you do not know what you do not know. One of the most important things that you can do is try to surround yourself with a team of independent advisor. Independence simply means your interest comes first above the advisors in above the business coach  company. The advisor might work for or representthe find me. The best defines you pay an advisor. Should we turn to you tenfold at a minimum. You should consider these funds as an investment. As a matter of fact, if you choose the correct team of advisors, this investment will be the most fruitful one you ever make. Your team will guide you and educate you and areas. You wish you would have learned in college I want them into work. I have been for at least 10 years or so I’ve been just buying random stocks for a long long time, and you know what financially okay, if I’m honest, I’m financial in the crap, okay I’ve invested a lot of things. I bought a lot like a few months ago. I was in the bitcoins I bought them hi and I sold him low, and then, a few years ago, I got into real estate and I bought a couple houses to flip and I bought those babies, hi and I sold them love. Okay.

So now you got to a place where your life, because it begin here in the car right now listening and nobody else knows. You’re listening and you’re you’re saying to yourself. I actually am in the financial crap. So what you do in this is the this. What happen probably last week and your desperation jamaica, to make a return, cuz you’ve lost so much money invested in the past. You found some hyphy guy, and this guy is going to quote you he’s going to promise you, the moon, he’s going to give you a high fetus advisor he’s charging you a high upfront fee to teach you the secret moves, paul walker’s through why that is a bad strategy and what a good strategy of a financial advisor, independent, visor or mint, what what a relationship should look like versus what you know the hyphy guy looks like one of the easiest thing is:if you go and sit and talk to him about financial advisor in the first thing and or the majority of the time they spend is on what to invest in. That’s that’s a good business coach indicator that you need to walk away the first question and the primary question for a very long time as why. Why are you here? What are you wanting to accomplish? Because, the actual what you fund your financial vehicle with his is kind of this, the easy part there’s not not rocket science, but the y is, is what’s going to determine which direction you go and just like what you were saying. The bitcoin, and all of that that is those are reactive people. Those are people that, like we’re in warren buffett’s book by the way I’m giving away.

He says that the you should be. You should be fearful when other people are greedy and greedy when other people fearful-and you know when other people are fearful and fearful when other people are greedy. It’s it’s a follow the crowd mentality that that it was what causes most people to not have financial success, because they’re always jumping on the boat. You know assets thinking instead of you know, at the at the early stages and the reality is, as you don’t need to worry about all that stuff. If you got a plan, a comprehensive, deliberate action plan that that investment sign the financial side takes care of itself. We show people clay. The bottom line is as risk. We show people had a harness risk, we show people how to to transfer rate, and-and you know it so what people typically try to do is just time if you, if you’re going in and you’re trying to time risk, you got problems play one in and you’re saying to yourself. What is one action step I could take. What is what is one action step I could take, I would just recommend this is. This is my this is what I would do. I would schedule a one-on-one business coach consultation with hood cps. Your current account and I would ask mister count mister count, you know what I have been with you for a long time and I don’t feel like you’ve ever help me make a proactive plan and I would like to hear what is the practice plan that you would recommend for me and then I would go and I would go to hood cpas., I’d schedule a consultation with hood hood. He will take a look under your financial hood and he will give you a proactive plan and you might ask yourself why didn’t i? Why did my give me a proctor point earlier and maybe have a great accountant today, but I was encouraged you to meet with your account in your financial planner and make a proactive financial plan up.

Bill gates? This is the guy who’s, the co-founder of microsoft. He wants row, he says with no feedback, no coaching, there’s just no way to improve. Now we have andrew on the show they are video ographer in, are you kind of? Are you call him the code sure because he can code, and he also is coaching with some clients, helping them implement the proven path over the drive time show andrew talk to me about. Could you work with me a lot of shattered me and coaching me:did you see me work with client? Can you talk about the importance of giving clients feedback and how they didn’t get me back with what you think would happen by default yeah he didn’t give people feedback and they wouldn’t go anywhere and they wouldn’t learn anything and they wouldn’t approve. You know same reason as we give our team feedback with her calls, or you know again like it with her client. We constantly have to give them business coach feedback that way. They know what they’re doing wrong or what they could be doing better. When you first started making cold calls. How long ago were you making, okay and so 6 or 7 months ago? This is example:how old are you right now right now, I’m 19, so you’re 19, so you’re out there tonight and early coaching early feedback that I gave you this early little tips that help you a little bit yeah with the my first calls. It was really just slow down and austin sounding like you’re reading a script or sounding like you’re, making cold calls. You have to really be intentional, intentional about you, know, being slow and reading the script and knowing the script as if you’re not reading it, but you were actually reading a script and I’m not exaggerating. Andrew went from really really bad too.

Two, like a b+ in probably 3 weeks and i, know a lot of business owners that are still a d minus in the area of sales, but they’ve been doing it for 30 years wrong and I would say that again, you got better as result of feedback. I think right now, you’re kind of tablet that b+ a- category because you’ve been getting so much feedback I think it would be insane for you to be out there investing your money in your in your finances when your finances are time is money I’m in the more money you have the more time for them you have. It would be insane to be investing your money into something without getting feedback. Now, there’s a notable quotable hear from brian tracy who’s, brian, tracy, new, york, times, bestselling books, he’s renowned speaker, and he says that no one lives long enough to learn everything they need to learn starting from scratch to be successful. We absolutely have to find people who have already paid the price to learn the things that we need to learn to achieve our goal. No one lives long enough to learn everything they need to learn, starting from scratch to be successful. We absolutely positively have to find business coach people who have already paid the price to learn the things that we need to learn to achieve our goals. Paul. You know and I want to add something here, because I think we have a tendency to think well, I’m different in and maybe that’s a positive thing or bad thing. The reality is, as we all need advice, I have people that come to my office and i. Don’t care if you make $20,000 a year. Are you make 2 million dollars a year? I’ve had doctor’s coming sit in my office there and worst financial shape than somebody that lets. You know an hourly person, so we all need that help.

We all need that advice. We all need that guidance and it’s it’s a really a principle of accelerating success. It’s cutting out that the you know shrinking that that learning. So that you can go from you know ignorant if you will have the financial thing to being very, very successful and I just pulled out. I didn’t work so well, but that’s just tiring man’s the timing, just timing, it bad luck, i, just i, got bad side of the government. Success is not complicated it. You know you have to be delivered and you surround yourself with people that can guide you instead of you having to come up with the answers. You know why not learn from somebody else’s mistakes, so go to hood, cpas., calm and let’s sit down and talk whatever he needs. Whatever your business coach needs are and I wanted to tell you you’re, pre-approved ulysses actor that you’re the one of the finalists and all I need to do is get you. If you’re, not there. For me, I need to go to curve above your feet. Your telephone number and your credit card number there’s a saudi, arabian prince I keep a good friend of mine and he would like to transfer a large amount of the diary into your account. I just need to get your number I mean there, people that do that and I don’t even care. They don’t even feel bad about it. They literally don’t feel bad I mean you’re watching youtube. If you watch youtube at all you’re going to see a guy now he’s on the jet, so I’m returning right now from seminar big seminar around a lot of celebrities and I’m on this jet here with these with these single ladies and I I love books, I’ll tell you, I love books and if you weren’t allowed to drive the lamborghini ride this jaden and I’ll do what I do it’s like really simple, I got 57 quick steps. Easy moves, learned the system of the time. So we can, you have to learn already had success in their own lives.

Eric schmidt, eric schmidt, is the former ceo of google, and he says this I love, I love snow, but the best advice, I ever got device that sticks out I got was from john door. My advice to you is to have a coach. The coach she said:i should have his bill. Campbell advice, cuz I’m, the ceo of google, because after all, I was the ceo I was pretty experience. Why would I need a coach am I doing something wrong? Man argument was how. Could a coach advise me if I’m the best in the world at this ceo of google that had the battery semi settled at I’m, like what’s going on on the ceo of google, how you doing interviews, google, cuz, I’m, the ceo of google i, mean everybody, uses your product every single day, I’m sure you feel pretty good about yourself. That’s not what it doesn’t have to play the sport as well as you do. They have to watch you and get you to be your best in the business and the business context. The coaches, not repetitions, coach, hey business coach, it’s somebody who were somebody looks at something with another set of eyes, describes it to you and his and his words and discusses how to approach the problem. Talk to me about how you coach your clients, financially paul. What is that look like you know what it looks like again. We start with y and I want to add this one of the reasons I really enjoy meeting with people’s eyes. I learned from my clients to-and you know we learn from each other-it’s a process and then I can take that knowledge. That I’ve learned, say I make say:i work with ristorante and then I’ve got. These are the restaurants over here, I can learn and I can heat, help them to help them guide you because

I’ve the decisions that they make once or twice in a lifetime. You know I’ve seen thousands and thousands of time you can speak of restaurants, I’m getting kind of hungry, I’m sure the listeners are breakfast coming up here, so you’re encouraged to do during the break. Go cook up some bacon cook up some bacon, get the bacon bacon, takes about 45 minutes cook that cooked that bacon in the commercial break and then go to hood cpas., com and schedule your one-on-one consultation taste better than bacon while schedule a101 consultation with paul hood. That’s a combination that I’ve discovered it’s truly incredible and I know that paul will eventually stop sending me copies of warren buffett’s book the snowball but I’m telling you that you’re giving up giving a free business coach coffee for all of us. Free copy, if you’re listening right now, you have a sound mind, he’s offering you one of the best books, I’ve ever I’ve ever read what are the best books, I’ve ever Read:i’m telling it is an incredible book. It’s called snowball. It is a great great book and I would encourage every single person out there. If you have not claimed the book-and you have a sound mind, you might be saying i, don’t even know what you’re saying right now, but I can’t find my pants. If that’s you don’t worry about it, but if you know where your pants are you’re, probably wearing them, you have a sound mind if you have the motor skills needed to cook bacon, go to hood cpas., com and schedule a one-on-one consultation with the man, the myth, the legend of paul hood, your products, services correctly, how do you price your products and services correctly? Stay 2 jesse from the thrive time show studios in beatbox.

That ross is toast everyone cpa in every way, but he’s a gentleman it’s time to take a look under your financial hood with paul look up with paul hood and yes, you finally have a voice. You can listen to. That is looking out for your financial future. I really want to shock somebody today and to waking up cuz. It’s what happens. A lot of people get in this cycle of I go to work, I go to church i, go home, I got to work, I go to church i, go home, I’m 40 i, go to work, I go to church i, go home, I’m 50 i, go to work, I go to church, I go home and I’m 16 I got to work, I go to church I broke my hip, oh i, can’t go to me. Can’t go to work now now I got a cool deal. Cool deal going on. I was looking on that classifieds can’t wait to see the ad too much do I buy my my grandson’s reading it to me here, but walmart. Looking for a greeter, okay and I’m thinking to myself. Well, jello doesn’t taste too good night have something I don’t end up in a business coach government. Housing I got have something going on. You know in in based on my investment. I’ve got $7 saved up right now. You know, cording does not bad, though cuz I’ve got $500 in a different account. I have $507. I was looking this up and I found the federal reserve, the federal reserve of the united states. Did a research I want you to put this on the show notes into excited, for the average american has less than $500 saved, regardless of income or age. They got to be thinking about this. Okay, what the hell you on this idea work. Okay, so the way I’m going to tell you something, give you the fax all right. So we know this to be true and he said yeah, but you know you know it’s pikachu out my love, my love, my love, my job, my love life is my passion, I love! It’s about doing, work that i, love and I would say to you.

70% of americans hate their jobs, as reported by gallup, as cited in forbes 70% of a 70% of people, hate their jobs and then, after working at your job, you have less than $500 saved and I’m not done yet. But I want to get your take on this picture and accounted if you take the number 7 right and you think about the number seven and you can cut you go what percentage if I had 5 if i, if I had 5 5 days, I’m working 5 days and I’m only alive for 7 days a week, what percentage is that it’s 71.44% of my life at a job, I hate and not getting ahead, and so this is what I would say to anybody listening right now, if you are not where you want to be financially, please take notes. Please tune-in! Please go to hoods ph.Com! Your wallet I mean your. What your wallet just was your wallet sandy right now your wallet is saying to you:i just want i. Just would love it. If you would just to have some something in here, because it is so I feel so alone. It says empty in here:there’s nothing inside this is echo echo inside this wall. That I want all I feel all I see is nothing i. Just did you just give me a little bit of that just makes it all just be just a little bit of green makes me. You know i, just I haven’t i, haven’t like a nickel mechanical teen fiend for the green i. Just want that. Just give me some free come on and I know it’s not used to going to cbs.Com and schedule. Your one-on-one business coach consultation. Yes, he’s talking about how you have to take action is because, yes, we’re talking about planning your finances in your future, but really what you’re wasting right now is your time you’re wasting your time that you have to start building those assets in building to the future and headed towards those goals and guess what happens when you waste time? You can’t make any more of it so take action. Now, action leads to inspiration. Take action, get a hold of paul over a hood cps.Com. Can he not you just other people? Oh yeah, this is the paul how to how to know how to accurately price your products and services. How do you know how to do that? Because of a finite amount of time paul give us the truth. Can I get? How do we know how to price our products and services?

You know people may think I’m a broken record, but you start with the end in mind. You know how much money do you make do you want to make, and then we back into some water or fix cost wii controllers cost more variable cost and in one of the biggest things I see click play when christ come in. Is there almost apologetic for what they charge for what they do right? You know if you’re not proud of what you do. You’re, proud of your product than other people are going to pay for it, pay for it, so the biggest move as they can raise their prices, but the way you determine how to price your product is, you got to decide start with the end in mind and then back into it, and so maybe you don’t go out and lease that new copy, or maybe you you downsize in your office space, because you have a certain profit in in mind that you want to make, but yours those constraints on what you can price your product at, and so you have to back into the numbers that you have or you want to determine what profit percentage you want to determine the price you make yes to the 1990s, the rapper I just want to call juvenile cuz. He said back that, thing, up back it up and find out what the whole business coach point you begin with the end in mind. So paul graham said you know that you found the right market price. When buyers complain, but still pay so they’re still paying yummy. They got starbucks you going to starbucks. Why is it $4 for anything? Why is it? Why is it? Why does starbucks charge $5 for a coffee, six. It’s, because they figured out the model? Actually, a friend of mine who works for starbucks, you hear this starbucks labor cost percentage of the total revenue their labor makes up again. They have a $100 or $10,000 that came into the store this week. What percentage of their gross revenue is that do they pay out and lay brick it again sports? Well, I I can tell you the national average for food cost and labor for restaurant is 50% total, so I would say:labor cost normally I mean i, don’t know what that says. 25% this is well you’re just blow your mind. 13% only go 13% revenue out in labor, though, would be a big fan of howard schultz, the founder of starbucks and is pressing bottle. Cuz john lennon the beatles all you need is love all you need, is, love, all, you, need, is love love love is all you need, okay. So this is what john says when I was 5 years old. My mother always told me that happiness was the key to die when I when I went to school. They asked me what I wanted to be and I grew up and I wrote down happy and they told me i, didn’t understand the assignment and I told him they didn’t understand. Life have a scottish to your starbucks. Do. You think they pay their people. Less I went deep. I went by myself to buy socks every week. This is what my dad buy. New socks are in starbucks i, always I just buy new socks every week, I really hate wearing socks at 1 before I do the same thing with t-shirts.

That’s been a goal in mind since I was about 12, so I admire that yeah I just go in and I just i, don’t like the regular socks and a shirt and I go in there to buy that the socks at famous footwear over there by the target in broken, arrow I go over there and this lady I said:hey I’m, always I’m, always nice to the people working there I just one thing:i do i, try to be nice to the hourly people. I said:hey, it’s just intentional thing:i do I grew up, you know without financial resources and I try to just be really kind and people matter what their butts up with her job. Is it’s a very intentional? What are you doing that? What you said, I used to work at starbucks and I said really I’m asking is:can you learn something pop everybody? As you said as a business coach, when I said to one of the labor cost percentage you pay out over, all my store was 13%, the average is 14 or 15. We will get kind of in trouble for that goes over 15 got into this whole conversation about pricing and how they do it, and it blew my mind, but do not know how to price your products, but I would encourage you to do. Is you need to begin with the end in mind, like paul said,, give you none of a quotable from dave ramsey, going to give you a specific actions. Dave ramsey says financial peace. Isn’t the acquisition of stuff it’s learning to live unless you make it so you can give money back and have money to invest. You can’t win until you do this. So here’s the example when I ran my company dj connection.Com. We provided entertainment for what and I had a goal to make $100,000 a year, $100,000 club and realize that the average won the most weddings that we could do in a year. Paw at the time was like a thousand weddings, so I thought I just have to pay myself $100 for wedding, so i, actually just tacked on the price. A certain amount, $100 and I made sure that after expenses, I was able to pay myself $100 and some major companies doing like what is for $700. How much do you make $100 and so I made book? Let you know I had a client in my office most of the day talking about coffee shops and she was sitting there and we were discussing. You know trying to figure out where busness coach margins are in and she really didn’t feel like she’s making much money, but she’s got a great client tail and I said the razor prices 5%. She said what raise your prices, 5% and problem-solving. The bottom line is, as people are going to come to you now, if you’re trying, if you’re trying to be a walmart near the low price you in person, then that’s a different story, but my point was with with the starbucks in there they’re paying the same. The people the same amount that they’re paying down the road. The difference is, is they’ve created an environment that that they can price their products to get what they want. If you have not gone to hood cpas today and schedule your free consultation, you got to do it, go to hood cpas. Com, get a free copy of warren, buffett’s books, no ball and a free consultation to get to get that it put cpas, we’ll see how to look at a bug with all, but

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