Lighting for Profits - Episode 194

This week on the show we welcome Dan Platta — the self-proclaimed nerd behind Best Damn Bookkeeping. With a background in corporate life and experience scaling home service businesses, Dan now helps small business owners make sense of their finances… with a side of humor. If you're into serious business talk with a not-so-serious tone, this episode is your jam. Tune in as we dive into money, mindset, and a few unexpected laughs.

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Episode Transcript

Ryan Lee is the host of Lighting for Profits. All Light, all light, All Light

Welcome to Lighting for Profits.

All Light, all light, All Light, powered by Emory Allen. Here is your host, Ryan Lee. All right, all right, all right. Welcome, welcome, welcome to the number one. We're still going strong. The number one landscape lighting show in, where we. Where are we? Number one? Oh, yeah. White Bear Lake, Minnesota. The number one landscape lighting show in the White Bear Bear Lake area. There's some other towns around there you may have heard of. Maybe not. But guys, I'm excited because it's Tuesday, 5pm Eastern, which means it's time to light it up. And, I'm Ryan Lee, your host of Lighting for Profits, in case you didn't know. Powered by Emory Allen. Thank you, Emory Allen. And, we got an awesome show lined up. We got the one, the only Mr. Dan Plata. Dan Platt is going to join us. And, I know before you leave, when, I announce his name, we're not just going to talk about finance and recruiting. And I'm not even going to tell you what we're going to talk about because it's you. You wouldn't guess. Let's just say that you would not guess. sure, we might sprinkle in a little finance and a little recruiting and a lot of the Dan Platter stuff. But, we're going to talk about a different topic today. So I'm excited about that. If you're looking to start or grow a lighting business, landscape lighting, permanent lighting, holiday lighting, you're definitely in the right place, guys. We're here to educate and motivate, to help you dominate. And, this is the place to be, guys. So, thank you guys so much for those of you that have been willing to do those five star reviews on Apple or Spotify. Thank you, thank you, thank you so much. it's awesome, as you guys know, to get a five star review and, when someone says something nice about your show and your guests and all that and how we're changing lives, it's freaking amazing. So it keeps me going. Thank you so much. And, we'll keep begging those of you that have not. Right now we've got like 76, 75 or 76 on Apple and like 40 something on Spotify. So according to my calculations, that's like 110. So, I feel like my mom has done probably 40 of those. So, like, there's got to be some other people out there, you know, listening. I don't know, maybe not. So, again guys, in just a few minutes we got Dan Plata with Best Damn Bookkeeping. I love the name of his company best. Damn Bookkeeping. if you do need help with your books, you know who to call before, we have him.

Parkinson's law says work will expand to fill time allowed for completion

Come on, guys. I want to talk about something that, honestly, it's killing your business. And, it's like a silent killer. Silent but deadly, if you know what I'm talking about. And, the thing is, it's not going to show up on a P and L. And I'm not even sure if it's measured. I'm not. I'm not the guy, like, don't come to me to be like, help me measure something. Like, that's. That's probably Plata. but I'm pretty sure this doesn't show up anywhere. And you guys can Google it later, not right now, because we need your focus and attention. But it's called the Parkinson's law. Parkinson's law is this law. It's a law, and it's like, work will expand to fill the time allowed for its completion. So if you're like, hey, I got to get ready for this proposal that I've got to present next Monday, and today's Tuesday, it means that you're probably not going to do much today. It's like Sunday night activity, right? And if you do, you might do some of it, but you're not going to do all of it. Right? And, if you guys have ever, like, if you ever, once you become aware of this, you'll realize, like, it's so true. we basically fill the time allowed to us. So if we have 40 hours to do something, we usually take 40 hours. You tell your crew they have all day to do a job, they're going to take all day. The chances of them getting done early is very low. Right? So it's true for a couple reasons. Number one, because procrastination exists, and humans are the number one procrastinator in the world, probably. I actually don't know if that's science or not, but sounds good. And then number two, I mean, if you think it like waiting until the last minute, who. Who waits until the last minute to get ready if you're going out tonight or you're going to do something, like, just a lot of people just wait for the last minute. But then there's people that don't procrastinate. And why do they still fall susceptible to Parkinson's Law? Well, when you have more time for a project, for example, let's say you're like, okay, well, I'm going to put together an sop. I'm going to put a process in place to really document, or I'm going to get a new CRM. Okay, I got two weeks. I'm going to give myself a deadline. Two weeks to do a new CRM. M. Well, you actually could get that done in, like, 24 hours. But the fact is, you gave yourself two weeks. And so now that you have more time, what ends up happening is you start looking into it and you're like, you know what? Not only do we need a new CRM, we might need this new accounting system. We might need this, and we might need this. And you have two weeks. So you find more holes, you find little rabbit holes, and you start going down these different trails. Because, again, you have two weeks. You don't just have two hours. You don't just have 24 hours. You got two weeks. So it opens up a can of worms, and you find more problems than originally anticipated because you have more time. It's like, what the heck? So you go down that rabbit hole, you check it out and do this, and it causes delays. And here's what's crazy about Parkinson's Law, is you gave your. Because you gave yourself too much time. Sometimes you don't hit the deadline. Have you ever done that? I've done that. You're like, I gave myself two. I, gave myself two weeks. That's plenty. But because you go down rabbit holes, you find new things. You're like, well, it's okay that it's taking longer, two weeks, because we did find these other things. So now we have three weeks. And so you actually. It slows down your entire life. It slows down your business, and it's a problem. So.

Generally, we give ourselves too much time to get things done

But let me. Let me break this down. I want to give you kind of my take on it. Generally, we give ourselves too much time to get things done. Why? I don't know. I'm literally asking why. I don't know why, but I think I actually might know why. unless your back is against the wall, like, unless you really have no choice but to succeed in this moment right now, today, we typically let life happen to us. We're not that intentional as just human beings. Right?

If we don't have to sell a job today, then we'll be like, well, I don't have to sell jobs, so I'm going to build systems. I heard someone say I should build systems. So I'll watch YouTube. I'm going to watch YouTube on how to build systems. Right? which, you know, maybe That's a good start, but probably not, right? most people are not intentional enough about their success. They're do.

They're.

They're just doing enough to get by, then staying kind of in that comfort zone. And that's normal. You know, like, no judgment. I like to be comfortable. I like to not stretch myself. It feels good to be lazy. And it's not even lazy sometimes. Just, like, I'm rewarding myself. Like, I worked my ass off. I just want to sit here for a minute. but here's the thing. Like, if you want to get to the next level, which most of us do, like, most of us are trying, like, we want to be better, right? It's going to require more effort and more discipline. So we fill the time allowed with busy work instead of productive work.

Are you a business owner or a busyness owner? There's a difference

But I want to ask you, are you a business owner or a busyness owner? There's a difference. Business or busyness. All right? And it's not really not easy to spot the difference in a lot of cases. Sometimes you're like, am I being busy or productive? I don't know. Like, what's the difference? Like, can you give me a chart that shows me? And that's not always true. But what. What will tell you is if you measure. If you look back six months ago, have you significantly advanced personally, your relationships, your business? Like, it doesn't have to be everything. You're not like a superhero in six months. But if you're not progressing significantly in the last six months, then you're probably. It's probably a good indicator that you're doing too much busy work instead of productive work. Okay. To me, busy work is like research. Going to conferences, listening to podcasts. I mean, other, you know, not lighting for profits. That one doesn't count. But it really is. It's like the learning. Right. and it's not that busy work is bad. It's just not going to move the needle. It's just going to keep you existing, keep you content where you're at. But you need to move up. You need to level up. Okay? So productive work is implementing the things you were busy with. So if you went to a conference, then what are you going to implement to be productive? If you're going to listen to a podcast, what are you going to implement to make it productive? So the top of my chart, at least, is like, sales and marketing. Okay. increasing your number of quality leads. These are like, measurable things. So how many leads did you get last week? If you got two leads last week, then this week, like, you need to be intentional and get productive on how are you going to get four? that is your productive task. Like, get shit done. Figure out how to go from two to four closing deals on the spot. How many did you close on the spot last week? Zero. Well, then get one. Just try to get one this week. That's being productive.

Learn how to shift from busy to productive with disciplined intention

Okay, so it takes first being aware of the fact that you're experiencing this Parkinson's law, that it exists, and then getting the disciplined intention behind it. So I want to share with you real quick before we have Dan join us, that I put together this busy, framework, B U S Y B standing for. And by the way, if you have not used chat GPT I threw in all this, like, my thoughts, ideas, my scrambled thing. I say help me create a framework that people will remember to implement this busy framework, because I want to give you guys something that you can utilize and remember. So busy is be be aware of the law. Just knowing that this thing exists, that work expands to fill the time available, is useful because now that you're aware of it, you know that you don't have to give yourself so much time, because if you do, you're going to waste time. So the first step is definitely awareness. Be aware. You understand the trap. Humans procrastinate and overcomplicate things. You know, this too much time leads to these rabbit holes. Analysis, paralysis, perfectionism, okay, That's a common trait amongst entrepreneurs. you're likely doing enough to stay busy, but not enough to grow, right? So that's the problem. Like, doing the busy work feels good, right? It like, checks that box for us. So understand that it is a trap and you got to be intentional about productive activities versus busy activities. So be be aware. You understand the trap s shift from busy to productive. Busy are, those kind of learning activities and research productive is doing. So you're going to shift from learning and research and, well, what's the next secret? What's the next thing? Like, just take action. That's productive. again, busy work feels good, but it doesn't move the needle. Productive work is uncomfortable. So when you feel that resistance, you're like, oh, maybe that's a good indicator I'm doing something right here. And then why? I couldn't figure out anything else, but this is what CHAT came up with. Your back must be against the wall. It started with Y, so technically it's true. your back literally must be against the wall because urgency drives clarity and results. Okay? So stop giving yourself so much time. Like, create intentional urgency. Wake up like you're broke. Okay. And some of you are like, no, I literally just did. But wake up like you're broker, set real deadlines and outcome driven goals. Okay, so, finally, if you haven't progressed significantly in the last six months, chances are you've been living too comfortably doing the busy stuff. So stop getting ready to get ready, and let's take some action. Start producing the results with disciplined intention. All right, guys, so apply the busy framework. I want to see you guys crush it. I want to see you get to the next level. And it takes this disciplined intention, understanding that chances are you're wasting a lot of time that you don't need to give yourself shorter timelines to complete tasks, and you'll find yourself being much more productive and you'll be running a business instead of being a, busy ness.

Dan Plata says he has a cure for Parkinson's

All right, it's time to get our guest on. Let me know if you guys are ready. If you have questions and you're here live, that's cool. Let's ask Dan. Let's go. Welcome to the show, Mr. Dan Plata.

Oh, baby.

Hey.

Nice looking. wow.

Yeah, man. You look so good today. I don't know what it is.

It's probably the. The light coming in.

Yeah.

Off the, you know, the lake. It's all about lighting. It's about lighting.

This is the first time ever this has happened where we're just twinning it up, dog.

Very unintentionally. But I did tell you before we jumped on that, the only alternative I had was I was topless because I had just, like, went for a run. Then I mowed the yard before the in laws came over. And then I jumped in the pool because, you know, it's 82 degrees in Minneapolis for no good reason in early May. And, so I'm literally. I still am standing here in wet shorts. But aside from that, I do. I do have to quick say that I have a cure for Parkinson's. that the one that you were talking about? Like. No, no, not that one. That's. What? That's way out of my league, man. but. But did you say it was like the Parkinson's rule? There's a different park?

Well, it's the Parkinson's law. There's probably a rule.

There might be a rule too, but there's the law, there's the disease. Who knows if it was actually the same Parkinson, we should look into that because it would be the same guy.

That'd be fascinating.

Could have been the same Gal, I don't even know if it was a guy. I don't know why I assumed it was a guy.

Mrs. Parkinson's.

This is. Could have been Mrs. Parkinson. but strangely enough, I was talking to. To a guy in the poop scooping industry or, a couple hours ago, and he was saying how he has, like, one guy, that man, miraculously, like, he will either just do more or do less, and it'll take him the same amount of time no matter how much work he has on his plate. And I was like, yeah, man, I didn't know it was called Parkinson's, though. But if you pay somebody hourly, they will always make a job take as long as the amount of time that they have. You could double their route, and they would still get it all done in a day. paper performance is a hell of a cure for that. Like, once people are paid a percentage of the work instead of based on hours, then there's no need for them to sit around and make a job take any longer. So it tends to fight back against the law, the Parkinson's law, and they just get their done and go home.

I love it.

Dan Plata writes about finances for small business owners

Yeah, we. We should definitely talk about that. I don't. I don't want to, like, disappoint people and be like, well, wait a minute. You said you were gonna not. Not talk finance.

I'm not. I haven't talked about bookkeeping at all yet. That's not a bookkeeping thing. It's a production rate metric thing.

Yeah, I just. I just consider anything with a number bookkeeping.

There are no other numbers. Hey, sales are numbers. No, they're not. Different numbers, they mean different things.

I was actually. It's funny. I was reading your, bio.

I changed it. I changed it up a little bit.

You did? Yeah. It's pretty good. Do you care if I read it?

No, go for it. I kind of wrote it so that you would read it.

I mean, the way you wrote it, I kind of thought that. So it says, dan Plata is the nerd responsible for all other nerds at best. Damn bookkeeping. Dan has done the corporate world thing. He spent a number of years scaling home service businesses, and now he spends his days obsessing about finances of small business owners. That definitely is nerdy. And his nights obsessing about weird stuff. He could write in an intro bio to be funny. He once farted in church and cleaned out the whole pew. He just,

You get it? The. The whole pew part?

Yes.

Okay, thanks.

Cleaned out the whole pew.

Pew. It's Double meaning it's funny.

That's funny? Yeah, because I said it's funny.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. I just wanted to make sure you caught that.

I. I should have emphasized the whole pew.

Yeah, the pause helps. I just. Yeah, no, I know that.

You know, he just had to see if I would read this. So if you like taking your business seriously, but yourself, not so much, and you like talking about business, then buckle up. Let's have some fun. Nerding out on business with Dan.

Yeah.

That's the first time I read a bio, on this.

I think that's why I wrote it, so that you would want to read it, because who wouldn't want to read that bio? Like, bios are usually lame, and everybody, like, checks out, so your bio's got to be not lame. Yeah, I mean, bookkeeping is lame. Most people check out. So you got to make it not lame. Your bio lame. Gotta make it fun.

Dan was the closing keynote at Light It Up Expo a couple months ago

Well, a lot of people in our community know who you are. You're actually one of our facilitators, one of our coaches in landscape lighting secrets. So that's cool. but there's still a lot of people that don't know you. And, I just always share the experience of. When I first met you, I, was at a conference, and I didn't know you, and it was, like, 10:00am, 9:00am and you were cracking.

I think I was the second person on stage that day.

9:00Am cracking a beer. I was like, isn't he supposed to be in charge? Isn't he supposed to, like, teach us something right now? But it got my. I paid attention. I sat there and, like, took notes. So I was like, this guy is either an alcoholic or a genius or both.

I don't think Kurt Kempton actually gave me the best compliment ever, which was, dan, I always see you with a beer in your hand, but I've never seen you drunk. And I was like, I appreciate that that's intentional, because being drunk sucks.

Yeah.

Like, being an alcoholic would be awful. No, thanks. But I do have a bush light here right now because, Because I was thirsty, and I was out mowing the yard, and then I jumped in the pool, and then I knew I was coming on here, and I figured I better koozie up this tasty bush light.

Well, and it was just, a couple months ago, we were at Light it Up Expo. Dan was our closing keynote. I don't know if you know that, but that's what I'm calling it. back in the day, keynotes Used to end the thing. I thought, yeah. Didn't they?

Like, it's the bookend, man.

Yeah. Like Tony Robbins. Oh, he's gonna close the conference. Where something happened in the last couple decades where they're like the keynotes at 8:00am I'm like, most people, we're also ADD.

They're not. Yeah. Like, they just don't expect people to stick around anymore. Everybody's so add. They get distracted before the end of the day.

I think that's true. But not at Light It Up Expo.

No, that room was still full.

Still full. You are closing keynote, and you got tell everyone what you did.

Oh, I did. Like, this wasn't. There's a lot of things I do that aren't planned, but JC and Angela had a bunch of beers left from the hospitality suite that they had for sales boost. And naturally, those beers ended up at my trade show booth, since I'm that guy that does the beer stuff. And then naturally I'm like, what am I gonna do with two coolers full of beer? Besides, when I get up to talk, I'm gonna wheel them on in. I got the koozies, I got the bottle openers. All, I need is a whole bunch of people to open their beers all at once. And so I got up on stage and I was like, before we start, you know, doing really nerdy stuff, let's just. Let's see if we can make a cool noise. Like, I'm gonna count to three, and then everybody crack open a cold one. And we did. And, and it was awesome. And then I walked off stage. And that was it. That was the end. Done. Ain't gonna get any better than that.

It was cool. I mean, you walked off stage after a badass keynote, but.

Oh, yeah, yeah, we did have some fun.

Yeah. But everyone opening at the same time was, I think it was a world record. We didn't. It wasn't official.

I don't need another plaque, man. What am I gonna do with the plaque?

Yeah, but it was so cool.

It was the loudest. It was cool. I've never done it before. It's like, I was just curious. I was just having fun. That was a blast.

In college, you had a fishing comedy series called the Mor

I forgot we had comments. What's up, Joe Robino, the developers.

One that you. That I totally sidetracked you with. That's me. That was me. Because you were talking about, people in the world and. And if they're the most. Oh, humans are the most procrastinating species. And I said, at least in white Bear Lake. They sure are. And you looked at it, but you're like, who is this and why are they typing stuff?

You're devils.

I'm devils, man.

Wow.

Yeah.

When did you become Devilbers?

in college, we had a fishing comedy, not a fishing show because that'd be amateur, not fishing videos. That's amateur. We had a fishing comedy series called the Mor. Dvd. box set is in the fish house if you ever want to see it. And so. And. And we had a buddy named Kyle Devillers. And he was just. He was. He actually, like, was in some of the videos. He. He stunt doubled in one of them because my buddy Steve, I'm fishing walleyes this. This next weekend with more Shaster. Steve. Actually, we had a fishing team and we ran. We ran our rod and gun club at the University of Wisconsin Eclair. The Harvard of the Midwest. And like, I was president, he was vice president. We were. We had a fishing team. We were the fishing team. And we would run tournaments on the Chipwood River. The Mighty Chip. and part of the requirement to fish in one of our tournaments was you had to have an awesome team name. And, we came up with the More Shasters and Devilbers was what we would, like, call ourselves. We like, in our videos we'd be like, yo, developers. And be like, what's up, Devillers? And we just kind of like, we hijacked Kyle's last name because we just thought it was a badass last name.

It is cool.

When we created the YouTube stuff for it, I just went with. This was like 15 years ago. I went with Devilbers and owed to, our boy Kyle Devillers. There it is.

So is the b. Does the be silent sometimes?

I just threw that in there to be a smart ass.

Oh.

Because that was. That was what we'd say after a few beers. Instead of developers, it became Devil Burs.

That's cool. I legitimately didn't know if it was silent in Minnesota or something.

It should be. Maybe we'll just. I'll just play it that way next time.

That's cool. Developers.

That was me.

You had a stunt double for a fishing video

Okay. In the house, Jeff.

Hester's in the house. What's up, Jeff?

I'm interested more in the fact that you said that there was. You had a stunt double for a fishing video.

Yeah, well, Steve was like, studying abroad for a semester, so. And we still had to, like, do a tournament. So Kyle fished with me in place of Steve. So he was a stunt double.

Stunt double. Is it dangerous?

Like, I Mean, you're climbing down shorelines, right. On a. On a river in the springtime, it can get touch and go. You don't want to fall in. The water's cold and moving. So, yeah, stunt double.

Most of the time you do your own stunts. It's just everyone.

You always do your own stunts. Yeah. Everybody else always. You always have to do your own studs. It's just. Unless you're in a different country and you can't be there for the video, then the stunt double actually just replaces you for the whole video.

Interesting. Yeah, they. There's different terms up there in, in the north. The north, yeah.

But we caught a bunch of fish, so clearly, you know, we had it figured out.

So you. You decided that. That. Or did the world decide that that series wasn't going to take off or what? Netflix didn't? No.

So, so funny, funny conversation. Like, Steve and I had a discussion as we were departing from college about if we wanted to make a go of it. It was right when YouTube was starting, and we, illegally borrowed some classic rock songs in our DVDs. And so we couldn't upload them to YouTube. We would have had to. To re edit them and change the music in the background. and. And our first ones were like, okay, kind of funny, a little too long, but by the end of it, like, they were moving and they were funny and we were catching fish, and they're kind of. They're truly like fishing comedies. And so the discussion did happen. Like, do we want to try to do this as a channel? But. But Nobody was doing YouTube videos like that. Nobody was monetizing. And so we literally, like, we. The other conversation we had was maybe we should brew beer, and we'll brand outdoorsy beers and that'll be it. And then that and our merchandise, we have a, badass logo. Pardon my French. But we had, like, cool logos, cool videos. And so we're like, man, maybe we take the Mor. Shaster brand and make it a beer brand and sell, you know, like, gear, and then we'll start rolling out videos. but he. He went back to school to become a teacher. I was in the corporate world, and he. We live, like two hours apart. So we just got too busy doing other stuff. So. But. But the conversations did happen. Like, before being a YouTube channel, like, that was a thing. Like, my life could look totally different right now. Yeah, I probably would still be doing the same. I'd be hunting and fishing a lot and drinking a lot of beer, but I would just Be doing it making videos for YouTube instead of sitting here making videos with you.

Yeah, it sounds like you made the right choice.

Yeah. Who knows?

Mr. Beast is like, wait, what?

Yeah.

So, that's cool. Yeah, I would support that. Like, if you decided to call me one day and you're like, hey, do you want to invest in this?

I'd be like, yeah, more Chesters. That sounds like a worthwhile.

Yeah, I don't even need to see a business plan. I just trust the process.

Yeah, yeah. I'm sure you guys figured. Figured a thing or two out.

That's the stuff that, like, you watch. I, mean, that's the stuff that, like, sells. Like, people want to watch mindless stuff. They don't want to learn how to make millions of dollars.

They just wait till you come ice fishing. That's the only place you can watch them.

I got the full box set in the fish house. We had three of them out there. Mine and two more. We rented. It's

I got the full box set in the fish house. It's on dvd. You can come watch it.

Can I, Can I get my private fish house? Yeah, I'm like, seriously? Like a VIP suite?

Sure. We rented. We had two other ones this year. We had three of them out there. Mine and two more.

All right. That's probably the only way I go in because I just, I don't know, I get weird as I get older.

A bunch of smelly dudes farting in a fish house. You don't want to be around that. Rob Anderson got freaking, like a stomach bug with Cole Sickafus and I. So Rob was like. The three of us were in one of the fish houses, and Rob spent a day hauling plastic garbage bags out of the bathroom in the front, which is mostly just a closet with a five gallon bucket, toilet seat lid type of thing. Rob spent a lot of time in there on that. That one day.

I'm gonna need something more luxurious. I'm bougie. Any the older I get, the.

The fish houses are bougie. Like, they're very. I've seen it.

They look great, but just not. like, I, like, I would never share a room. Like at bbb, people like, hey, man, you showed a room. Like, no, I'm not.

Well, that's funny. I would prefer not to have my own room because I'm too extroverted. I'd be like, somebody's got to share this room with me.

I know. Like, you've invited me and I'm like, no, you weirdo.

No, you weirdo. Yeah. Yeah, well, I'm a weirdo. You don't even have to say the weirdo. Part we all know. We all know.

Yeah.

Look at me. I'm, like, here talking about numbers and stuff.

I need someone who has questions to go on the fishing trip

All right, so you did mention pay for performance, which I do think is a great topic. Ties in nicely to Parkinson's, syndrome. And what is it? You cured Parkinson's disease.

At least for the technicians. For technicians and the law.

yeah, Joe's in. Joe can take my spot.

Yeah, you absolutely can. Write off the fishing trip. It's a business trip. It's only business owners. Only business owners get to come.

Joe take the spot, and then I need recon. I need someone who's not weird to go out and just tell me, like, if I could handle it or not. I don't know if Joe's. Joe, Joe, you might be weird. Maybe you're fine.

Like, he's already in. He didn't even filter. Yeah, he didn't need to filter anything. He's like, I already know. This is awesome.

I need someone who has questions to go on the trip.

Better questions. Joe doesn't need any questions.

He can still go, right.

There's no. You don't need any questions. You just go sit in a fish house, eat shitty food, drink too much, catch fish through the floor, go into the bar every once in a while, and maybe do karaoke. If they got that going on, I'm.

Fine with half that.

Yeah.

How do I start pay for performance? How do I figure this out

All right, so how do you fit? How does someone go. They've been paying their person hourly forever. How do I start pay for performance? Do I figure out a percentage of labor that I. That I got to be allocating to these jobs? How do I figure this out?

Yeah. So, usually your books tell you, but kind of like by industry, we already know books. Yeah, that's why I'm not. That's why I'm steering more towards the. Or the per industry. We already know what the percentages should be that work in the business model. In. In landscape, lighting specifically, it's 10% per truck. Like, if you have one guy out or two guys out, they split it. Or three guys, they all split it. But the truck can pay 10%. Usually you've got 30% to 35% for the supplies, materials, tools, and equipment. The 10% that you're using is like a paper performance threshold. By the time you add in payroll taxes and training new guys and any spiffs you want to give, it's pushing 15. So now you're 30, plus you're 15. You're, at 45. And that gives you, like, another 5% of wiggle room for fuel, merchant fees. Like, we want your cost of goods sold in total to be around 50 or better. And so we know the percentage in the lighting space. Now if you're doing holiday lights because of, you know, year one and holiday lights, depending on your model, year one is usually expensive, Year two, three, four, five, the rest is like you're making bank. Usually you're paying like 15 for a put up or 10 for a put up and maybe 5% on the takedown. So you can afford a little bit more just because once you've bought the supplies, you get to keep using the same supplies over and over again. So the model gets a little bit different as you massage it. when you implement it, though, there is a right way to implement it. Like generally, again, those, those are the percentages to use. when you implement it, you always take your fastest guy or your fastest crew and basically say, hey, for the next week, I'm gonna, you know, I'm gonna calculate your normal hourly pay, but I'm also going to calculate pay based on this percentage rate and we're gonna see how much work you can do. And your paycheck has no limit, right? The more work you guys do this week, we're gonna freaking. You're like, if I pay you each two grand this week, cool, right? You have your, there's no limit to how big your paycheck can get. It's just how much you can produce. And of course you always pick your, like, fastest people and your, your loudest people that, you know, talk to everybody else. And everybody else is watching what they're doing. Because if you just try to implement paper performance, your crew, their, their mindset is generally, oh, Ryan's trying to make more money off of us, right? He's trying to pay us less. So, so they like view it as, you're moving their cheese and it, they, they immediately assume it's a negative. And so you pull aside your fastest crew. You say, hey, like, no matter what, I'm going to pay you the hourly rate. But my goal would be that this commission percentage is significantly more than what I'm paying you hourly. And so we're going to see, like, if you guys get done early, I'm gonna throw another job at you, right? Like, you're working till 4 or 5 every day. We're gonna push it and push it and push it for a week. We're gonna, we're gonna go as hard as we can go. And I'm, gonna make sure your schedule's super Full. And I'm gonna give you guys all the upside if it's landscape lighting again, if you guys produce $40,000 this week, the truck's gonna get four grand. You guys each will get 2,000 bucks. Like, let's see how much you can produce in, in an entire week. And then you get your percentage of that, right? And so immediately that now the rest of the team sees what they did. It sets a production threshold too, by the way, because now it's like, well, now I. Now we know how much we can produce in a week, right? You can't, you can't run sprint speed all year long. We know that, right? There's a reason why 100 yard dashers only run 100 yards and don't run a m mile at that pace. is a human body. Like, you can't sprint, sprint, sprint, sprint, sprint. But there's times where you can go faster. And really, like the day of running a business is more like a 400 meter type of run where it's like you're damn near sprinting, just not quite at the same pace as the 100 meter guy. But. But the team can keep up that pace. What you said earlier though, with Parkinson is totally true, which is, man, if you, if you give them the same amount of time to run 200 meters, they'll run 200 meters in the same amount of time that they could run 400 meters. Like, they will just use up the time in a day to produce what they need to produce. So to switch to paper performance, using your fastest crew and like giving them the opportunity to go do it without, you can talk about it with the rest of the crew, but you got to make it like special instead of like something that you're forcing on the team. And then what happens is that crew sells everybody else on it. They all talk, right? They all know who's making what. And that crew will get everybody else on board because everybody else is going to know these guys just made two grand each this week. And they're gonna say, ryan, that's not fair. Why do they get to make two grand this week? And then you're like, oh, yeah, you want to get on paper performance too? Yeah, definitely. Let's get you going. so it's. That methodology for transitioning is super helpful.

Yeah, I like it.

Dan: Some business Owners have been hesitant about implementing this technique

Guarantee them like, hey, I'm going to pay you this anyway. This isn't so I can pay you less. It's actually so I can pay you more. That's genius. And then, I know some business Owners have been hesitant because they're like, well, they come up with excuses why it won't work because even though it's proven that it works, they're like, yeah, but what if, how do you handle it if they screw up because they're moving so fast now that's, that's like the number one thing I hear. Well, now they're gonna cut corners because they're gonna. They. I agree with you, Dan. They're going to do twice as much in the same amount of time because they're going to get paid double. But now they're going to f. Shiz up.

They will once, maybe twice if they're really stupid. which tells you that you should have fired them anyway because they're a bad employee if they don't do a good job anyway. they might try to cut a corner once, but the minute they have a callback and realize they have to spend two hours on their time and their dime, right? Like, if you're not charging Mrs. Jones for them to go out and reset this fixture or go rerun that wire or whatever it is that they did a half assed job at, reposition these fixtures, if you're not charging Mrs. Jones, they're not getting commission on it. So they might be hitting this hourly minimum, but it's just eroding the commission they've spent all week building up. And so effectively they are making $0 to go out and do any touch up or redo. And man, it's. I had one guy, Renee, he, he was the ultimate corner cutter. He would skip windows and stuff like that. And one day it bit him because he was out and he was fast. But, but we kind of like knew he was skipping some windows. And one day he was out and it was the last job of the day and he was rushing and he was trying to get to whatever he had to get to and skipped some windows. And Mrs. Jones called and Renee was 45 minutes from the shop. And he got back to the shop and he's like hustling out. And I was like, hey, Renee, you got to get back out to Mrs. Jones house. You missed the windows on the top over here. You got to go get those done, man. And he's like, no, man, I gotta go to the thing. I'm like, hey, you were out there, right? You're the one that missed them. You need to go back out there. Not today, not, not, not tomorrow, not the next day. Like you need to go right now. And this has got to be painful for you. Because you need to learn to never skip another window. So yeah, you gotta drive out there and it was 45 minutes coming back. I bet it's an hour and 15 now because it's rush hour. You're not going to be back here for three or four hours. Remember that. Right. Every time you think about missing a window or not double checking your work, remember that one time when it took you four hours on a Friday afternoon and you were trying to go hang out with your buddies, but instead you had to go back to Mrs. Jones's house because you skipped a window? Right. So like you can have that conversation in advance. In, in reality, I should have fired Renee before that. Like he wasn't a good fit because he would rush. but, but like they, it will happen once with a lot of guys where they will try to cut a corner and the minute they have to go back and do a redo, they're. They either quit because they're like, oh, this sucks. Like I can't win, right? Because I'm not going to do a good job. I was just trying to do a fast job. Or they that like straightens things up. And I would always tell people when I hire them for any paper performance role, even I do this in our bookkeeping business. Now my account managers and my bookkeepers are all paper performance. I remind them all that they have to be fast and they have to be good. You can't be fast and cut corners and not be good because it will bite you in the ass, it will undermine you because you have to go do the redos and you'll lose clients. And especially in a recurring service business, if you, you lose clients, you have no revenue, you don't make any money. but if you're super good and you're slow, then I have to fire you because you're not productive enough to hit the thresholds that we need to hit in order for me to even pay you well. Right. It sacrifices the business model and we can't have that. Even though not. We're not going to talk about bookkeeping. We know what the percentages are.

10.

Yeah. So it's got to be fast and good. You can't be one or the other. And I've also found over time that my best employees are also my fastest employees. Like they just are. They care more. They know how to move. Right. The ones that are the, the that try to be fast and suck and the ones that are good and slow, they're never actually the best and they're never actually the fastest, the. The best ones that are actually really good at the job, that are, The people we're looking for are usually fast and good by their nature. Like, they just have that skill set. Not everybody does.

Yeah, let's not talk about recruiting. But we could right now.

No, we got to talk about goal setting. I want to talk about goal setting. That's my. That's my topic for the day.

Oh, yeah, that's the surprise mystery. We're gonna talk about goal setting.

The business should still try to make money even when it's raining

But before we do, I do want to finish this pay for performance. So how do you handle? You have, three days of rain.

Sucks for everybody, right? Nope. Nobody. The business isn't making money. So how is the business going to pay people when it's not making money? one is. Who gives a. Get your asses out there. Right? Like, if we can. Whatever we can do safely. We need to go produce. Right. The business should still try to make money. When we. When we're cleaning windows, if it's raining, and I. I just have this reference from our window cleaning business. If it's raining, we are still cleaning windows. Right? We have boots. We have rain gear. rain doesn't make windows dirty. Dirty houses and dirty windows make windows look dirty when you clean them. It doesn't matter if it rains. That's not what gets the window dirty. We do have old ladies that fight us on that, but we're like, you have no risk, Mrs. Jones. We're gonna come and clean it, and if there's spots on it tomorrow, we're gonna come back and clean it again. Like, it's not gonna cost you anything. So we're coming out to clean your damn windows today. Because if we reschedule stuff, that's a future client we don't get to serve. So we're, like, adamant about working through the rain. Now. If it's lightning, that's a different story. But we have historically found a big storm front like, that is over within 30 minutes.

Yeah.

Like, it doesn't lightning all day. It pushes a, big front like that. Lightnings for 30 minutes. Maybe you might have some waves of it, depending on the storm system. But then it's rain after that, and we can just sit in our trucks and wait the lightning out for 30 minutes. We don't need to call the day off, wait it out, and then get back out there and keep working. And there's so many of our jobs that there's still a lot of stuff we can do even when it's raining, to be productive and be Ready to generate more revenue within the next hour, waiting it out. So we always try to push on that.

We used to have a guy, he was on like a salary type thing. and he would call about 6:30. Hey, are we working today? Why, why would we not work today? You, you already have the email. You already know what we're doing. Well, yeah, but did you see the forecast? Like, pay for performance would completely eliminate that because, yeah, I saw the forecast and it's gonna be done raining by 8:30. So.

Yeah. Do you want to go make money today? Like, we got work on the schedule. Do you want to make any money today or do you want a smaller paycheck this week?

Yeah, okay.

What do you want?

That's awesome.

Paper performance takes what is otherwise a win lose situation and makes it a win win

All right, guys. So looking to pay for performance, it's about 10%. So, you know, you figure landscape, lighting, average jobs, about 10 grand. So $1,000 for the day. if you're really lean and you want two guys to do that. Well, sometimes they can actually, but it might take three or four guys to do that. So you can divvy it up how you want three guys, you might have your form and get paid a little bit more than your, you know, your junior technician and your senior technician or whatever. But, great way to motivate them. I like it.

Yeah. And the, the best part about paper performance is it takes what is otherwise a win lose situation and makes it a lose lose or a win win. Right. If you pay somebody hourly, by its own nature, it always becomes a win lose. In order for you to win as the business owner, you need them to get the job done faster so you can pay them less, which means they're losing. But that's how you make the most amount of money, is when they lose, vice versa, they win. When they drag it out and you have to pay them overtime, that's their incentive is to make more money that way. Yeah. so they win, but now you lose. Right. And so there's this constant tension between the employer, the employee. That's, that's really unhealthy. And it stems from the fact that you don't charge your client hourly. Right. If you could charge a client hourly and say, hey, Mrs. Jones, we're going to build this at 200 bucks an hour, and it takes as long as it takes. And now I'm going to pay this employee 25 bucks an hour. Well, now you know what your margin structure is, right? You've got it built in. And so you don't have the risk as the Business owner, right? And so paper performance does that. Now you know your clients doesn't want to pay you hourly because they're like, well, I don't know how long this should take and what if it takes you forever? Right? So the client isn't willing to take that risk. And so in turn, we as business owners end up taking the risk. If we pay our employees hourly, we have this mismatch between we have a fixed price to Mrs. Jones based on how many fixtures or whatever we use to get to that price that we give them. But now we have a totally different pricing mechanism for how we price our labor because we don't price them based on a fixed cost. We price them based on how long it takes them. And now we have the risk because we can't change that price. But this cost input is changing based on how fast these guys are in. Paper performance totally aligns that like you no longer have the risk as the business owner. Now the employee has the risk, which is good. Like they should have the risk, they should also have the upside. Right? If they're paper performance and they get a ten thousand dollar job done by themselves in a day, go ahead and pay them a thousand bucks, right? Like hell yeah. That's, that's the best paycheck you could ever write. You'd be thrilled to write somebody that check for a thousand bucks if they got a ten thousand dollar job done in a day.

Awesome. I do like it too, because it's easy as a salesperson or a business owner to get excited about. Guys, we just added another 300, 000 or whatever, but okay, I'm getting paid the same over here. Now everyone's aligned on the same mission and vision of like, hey guys, what can we do to be more productive? What can we do to be more efficient? I like it.

Yeah. Win, win.

Paul had a good point and I think the tables have turned. Now it's us saying, are we working today?

Call every day. And has that.

Is it raining? I think a lot of lightning forecasted today.

Dan Crooton says setting goals is important because money doesn't buy happiness

all right, so you were chatting before. I was like, wait, what are we going to talk about? Because I had all this, you know, traditional bookkeeping stuff. ABC always be Crooton. goals. I didn't know you set goals, Dan.

I said I set goals. But I actually, I'm more interested in observing other people setting goals. and this is like just. I haven't read a book on this. like I told you before I went live, I feel like, I'm a comedian with Some jokes that I haven't, you know, gone up on stage to tell yet. So this is just me testing out some new material. But I, I expect that the next time you guys see me on a stage, this is going to be like a fully vetted one hour long. Dan, drink a beer in front of you on stage, presenting on this, because it's something I'm really passionate about. I don't. And it took me a while to get back to this, actually. When I was in the corporate world, I was in a leadership program. And one of the presidents, at Cargill, which was the, the company I used to work for, she was asking me, like, what motivates you? What, what do you, what are you trying to, like, bring to the table? And my answer was happiness, right? That's, that's it for me. I'm not money motivated. I'm absolutely joy motivated now. Like, money is a component of that. as Daniel Josh once said, you don't see anybody, like, frowning when they're riding around on a jet Ski. but the, like, it is true that money doesn't buy happiness. And I've watched it happen, right? And I get to see it from a bookkeeping perspective. I see who's successful, I see who's not. And it's not actually the money that makes people happy. It's the opportunity and the pride from, from working through things and solving problems. You'll see it in your employees too, right? Like they're in, in your kids, right? There's a reason why people that grow up rich aren't any happier. And frankly, like, if, if you grew up with rich parents, but you don't have the chance to earn things, those people are unhappy, right? They have everything they could ever want, but they're just, they're just unhappy because they don't have a mechanism to, to earn pride. And so I always look at goals as what are we really, really trying to achieve? We set a lot of goals based on revenue or numbers or things that we think we want, but it's not actually the thing that brings joy or happiness all the time. and I have noticed it too, in, like, people's workout goals, right? And things that they think they want to achieve, but they're setting a goal based on, a static result that isn't sustainable revenue. is the perfect example, right? If you say, I want to get to a million dollars of revenue, okay? You get there and you're like, oh, oh, I guess my goal now is 1.5 million because now I'm here and I actually don't like it. Running a million dollar business sucks. And I didn't know all these problems were going to be here. and like there's no happiness derived by being a million dollar business. It's just a new set of problems. and then you have to come up with a new goal and you're just going to raise your revenue goal because I guess that's what I'm supposed to do. But there's no, that person running a million dollar business isn't happier than the dude that just started out that's at a hundred thousand dollars. Like there is no more joy to be had. But it's because they're focusing on the wrong thing. I also see a lot of million dollar business owners that are like not making any money because they're focused on the wrong thing. They're just trying to do a million dollars because apparently that's the cool thing to do and that's what we're supposed to do. I see the same thing happen in exercise. I saw it happen a lot and I'm not trying to dog on this program, but I saw people suffer depression after doing 75 hard. They would do this static goal that was like, I want to be disciplined and I want to achieve this thing. And whether they did or didn't, if they failed at it, that would, that could really reel them back. But I know people that got through it and would get through it and then be like, now what, right now what do I do? I guess I could do, could do the next part of it, right? There's like another part of it. But you hit, you hit like a static end. and I, I think that can be risky is setting a goal with a static end. Not to say we shouldn't have a budget and a lifestyle we want to achieve. But I, but I think the goal setting based on the inputs is more important because that's the thing we can control. It's when we set a goal based on a result when we get there it's like got it or didn't get it. And now here we are.

One of the things that I tested in my bookkeeping business is to have one goal

so one of the things that I tested in my bookkeeping business is to just have one goal, one metric. That's all we track. Of course, like I track a whole bunch of, to like see how we're doing. But, but I only preach on one thing to our team, which is we don't lose any clients. Zero client attrition. That's, that is forever and for always the goal we don't always hit it. Sometimes our clients go out of business. sometimes they bring it in house. We call it graduating. If, if they get big enough, there's just a point where they bring it in house. We actually lost three businesses to one client that he's like, I just have, I just got to bring this in house because I have three different businesses and they're, they're all doing well. I was like, well, glad we could graduate you. so it's not that we're always going to hit that goal, but a lot of times you don't hit the goal, and that's okay. But it's not a static goal. It's a recurring goal that it is always true. It is always out there to be chased. And so when we hit it, we get to celebrate it. And when we don't hit it, we get to keep working back towards it. And I think that's a super healthy goal in my mind, because it doesn't disappear, right? It's a constant effort. And I think the same could be true in exercise, which is you could say my goal is to run a marathon. Well, is it really? Nobody gives a if you run 26 miles. but your kids and your spouse probably care if you're fit and in shape. The goal is, I need to work out three times a week or four times a week, or I want to run this many miles every week or, or exercise for this many minutes out of a day or out of a week. Like, that's the goal. It's repeatable. Who gives a if you ran a marathon? None of us care. Right, Cool. Cool for you. But again, after you're done, like, well, now what? and so I, so I think there's not to say don't, don't do those things. They can be super fun, right? But don't make the goal around a, static event that will lead to a. Now what? Make the goal around the behavior, right? Like, get in the behavior of exercising. Because the reason you run a marathon is just to be healthy for your kids and to live a long time and like, enjoy the run. I. I reference. Actually my in laws are over right now. My father in law back in the day, trained for a marathon, completed a marathon, ran it really fast, damn near got divorced. Like, it is the number one thing that Darlene points back to and be like, when you had to do the marathon, right? Like, we had four kids, you're always out running, right? It's like, nobody gave a, that he did a marathon who cares? Like his wife really cared that he was out running all the time and wasn't there to be a dad with four kids. and so it's like, I think that's super important is what's really the goal. Right. The goal got construed into I need to run farther. I need to run farther. Because that seems like a worthwhile thing, but is it really just to, like, be in shape so that I can be a good dad to my kids? Like, I, I think the static goal tends to mislead us sometimes versus what is actually really important. And I think it's worthwhile to reset our goals back to those recurring themes rather than the, the static one time things that don't actually bring joy and happiness sometimes deteriorated. Like in the case of their marriage.

Yeah, that's a good point. I mean, I've had, I, guess kind of similar. When I, when I read the book Atomic Habits a few years ago, like, I always had this desire to get in shape, but then I would, like, want to go hard because I'm trying to live someone else's goal or dream or whatever. So you go to the gym, I'm like, and then I can't walk for like three weeks. And so I was like, no, I'm just going to do this thing. And I know I can do 20 pushups a day the rest of my life. And am I going to miss? Yeah, I've missed days, you know, and then I went from 20 to 21 to 22. Now I'm doing 200 pushups a day. And I know I can do that every single day the rest of my life. Now if I'm, if I miss, then that's on me, but I can do that. I don't have to be at a gym, I don't have to be anywhere. I can be camping. I can do that pretty much anywhere. And that's something that I just, like, there is no destination for that.

Yeah.

Now I am training to do a destination thing, which I can talk about as well. But, like, that's just so I can be in good shape and, and teach myself discipline. That's literally the only goal there.

And competitions are still a lot of fun. Like, I'm not saying don't go do a marathon. I did a 10k two weekends ago. and they're, they're still fun, but like, have them be fun for the right reasons. Right. Don't, don't let those growing a massive business should be fun and not miserable. Right. And I watch people do it. Miserably, Right. I see people so focused on the money side of it and I like, this is weird for me to say I am a money guy, right. I, am the finance dude. It is the thing I look at. But it can be very unhealthy when that becomes the driver. Instead of the joy and the happiness and the lifestyle that you actually want and the marriage you want and the parenting that you want. And it is funny. It's like if you miss a day of doing 200 push ups, whether you get zero or a hundred, well, it's like, okay, tomorrow it's just a reset.

It's like I don't even get guilt. I'm just like, no, I, I didn't do it.

Yeah, it's not debilitating. It doesn't actually set you back. because you can do 200 push ups the next day or maybe you do 300.

Dan: Do it for enjoyment, enjoy. No one really cares about making a million dollars

Make up for it, right?

So I don't even do that now. Now you're making me feel bad.

You don't need to. You know, you can do whatever the hell you want. Right?

But, but I think I stuck to 200. It wasn't, I'll do 300 if I miss. It's like, no, it's just 200. And if you miss, you miss. Just don't miss again.

but, and, and I will say I have noticed you're, you're, you're fit. Like every time I see you, you look like you've been doing healthy things. And I think that's the important thing, right, is like, you don't need to enter a bodybuilding competition. We don't give a if you enter a bodybuilding competition. but we do care that you're healthy and you show up healthy and that we get to see and hang out with Ryan Lee and that he's fit and his marriage is good and that his parenting is good. Like, and that he's on here teaching us stuff. And health brings a lot of that. It brings a lot of energy, it brings a lot of confidence, it brings longevity. Like that's what the world cares about, right? We don't, we don't care about your one time static thing, but do it because it's fun, right? Do it for enjoyment, enjoy. But don't, don't do it because you feel like an obligation to set a weird ass goal that you're going to get done with and be like, now what?

I think it's really good, dude. This is good material that you're testing on our show because My shows, you know, this shitty show out there that you're gonna just. That no one's gonna hear, but you just want to get practice and then you go to the real stage. I appreciate that, Dan. Yeah, it is really good because I, I'm guilty. I'm pretty sure everyone's guilty of it because I think it's social media. And, and you see, you see people who, they're freaking young and they build these multi million dollar businesses and you're like, damn, what's like, why can't I do that? Like, I can do that. I'm gonna do that. And then you're like, I'm. It's just sacrifice. They had to sacrifice. I'm gonna sacrifice. It's okay if I'm not there with my kids, my wife. Like, it's like, that's, that's what's required. And the truth is, it's not what's required. Like, yes, there is a season for everything. But at the same time, like, you ask yourself what has to be true? Well, you need happiness is the thing that's gonna. Like, that's why you're doing it. No one really cares about making a million dollars. Like, like you said, it is kind of fun to ride a jet ski.

You know, it's kind of fun.

It does put a smile on your face.

So money can't make sure your friends have jet skis. It's miserable to own your own jet ski. They always need maintenance. And like, for sure, make sure your friends have jet skis. That's all you need.

Money can buy happiness. Just have your friends buy it and then you go on their boat.

Yeah.

but it truly is about like. No, just live in the day, live in the moment. And if it's not fun, if it's not amazing, then maybe you shouldn't be doing it. You know, maybe you should do it differently or maybe you should get a job.

There's, there's. I don't know if there's a term like Parkinson's Law for this. Maybe this is plot as law. We're m gonna call this plot as law. But there's definitely a thing too where it's like, by focusing on the end result, sometimes you actually make it harder to attain. Right. Versus focusing on the behavior or the thing that will actually get you there. Like, think about sales, right? We all have this aversion to the used car salesman. And our aversion to that is just because they're so concerned on selling us a car. Right. Did you ever Go into the buckle in the mall when you were younger or even walk past the buckle. Do you know what I'm talking about?

Yeah, Like, I was in there last.

Week, dude, back in the day, man, you couldn't walk by without getting put in a headlock, right? They were so intent on selling you something. It was like the most annoying experience in the world. and it was because they were so, like, they were so focused on the sale that they just forgot about, like, how to treat a person and be helpful like, that they, they would just overdo it big time. And so I think sometimes the best way to sell is to not even try to sell anything at all, right? When I'm on a demo, if I don't try to sell them anything at all, they generally sign up, right? It's just expectation setting. I could make it way more awkward by, like, trying my ass off at selling. But if you do the process right, if you listen to Ryan and how he teaches you to sell it, you don't even need to feel like you're selling them anything, right? You don't focus on the sale. You focus on the process and trying to help them find the solution that's best for them versus, oh, God, I got to sell these guys because I need some more money, right? And so I think we can look at that reality and so many different cases of when we set a goal based on revenue and that's all we focus on.

All of our goals were centered around making more money, right?

We generally don't build it very healthy. We generally don't focus on our employees and our customers the right way, and we're unhappy. I know that I had a business with seven unhappy businesses, and I was unhappy running them for six years until I repositioned some stuff for me. And I was unhappy because all of our goals were around revenue, right? Like in, in. Even when we talked about employee engagement, it was only so that we could make more money. It was always, always about making more money. And always, always, and I'll be dead honest, we sucked. As a result, we didn't make a lot of money. Our businesses were garbage. my fault, that was my leadership. And focusing on trying to make more money caused us to make less money in this business. I, I, like, I pointed out to our team the other day, we're a year and a half in to best damn bookkeeping, and we just hired employee number 18, and we're working on number 19 right now. We're freaking. I'm not going to talk revenue, because who gives a. About revenue? but, but like, our pace of growth is ridiculous. And again, we have one metric, and that's client attrition. We just don't fucking lose clients. That is it. And we, we still have a lot of processes to work on, right? We still look at a P and L a lot. I look at mine like freaking daily. Like, I want to see if our processes are working, but if I just make sure we don't lose clients, it tells me a whole lot about how we're doing.

Right.

It tells me that our quality is good. It tells me that our team is really happy and they're treating their clients really well. It tells me that our clients believe they're getting value for what, what we're doing for them. and what we're charging. Like, it tells me all I need to know about our business. I don't need to worry about our revenue or profit that happens. That's a result. The, the driver of everything is super happy clients and super happy employees for us. So I just got to focus on happiness. I don't need to focus on revenue. If everybody is happy, we're doing something right. And like I said, there's so many different situations in our life where we get so concerned about the result that we forget about the thing that is the driver of that result and, and having fun along the way. Right. Man, if you're your own business and you, you, you're a business owner, there's a reason you don't have a job, right? You did it to have more fun, right? Like, if having a job in the corporate world was more fun, you could go do that tomorrow.

Yeah.

right. You chose this path because this was going to be more fun. And I see a lot of people having a lot of fun, but I see a lot of people that aren't having fun and they're miserable and they're the ones looking at social media posts of everybody else and being jealous about how many trucks they have or how much revenue they say they do or whatever the case is. But they're focused on the wrong thing. Right. Their goals are chasing somebody. Like you said earlier, they're chasing somebody else's goals instead of what their true goals are.

Yeah, and like I said, I've been guilty of that too.

Focus first on what makes you happy before you start building a business

What are some, like, as you're putting this framework together, I guess, what are some inputs that we could focus on that business owners could maybe shift? Maybe they know, okay, this is the trajectory. I want to head this direction because like you said, a million dollar business, there's a lot that comes with that. And that that might not be. It might be to where you need to get for your business to get freedom. But for me, my, my goal is freedom. You talk about happiness, it's probably the same thing, but I get happiness through freedom from not feeling like I have to go to work. Like, if I. If I feel like I get to go to work every morning, I'm happy.

Yeah.

So there's certain stages of different types of businesses and stuff like that, where all of a sudden you're like, dude, I have two salespeople in place, which means if one is out, one can fill in for them. I, have two crews. I have, like, redundancy in my business. There is a spot where, like, business is really good. And then there's the grind phase. Are there, Are there inputs that we can, like, okay, we define what our trajectory is. Maybe we want to get this size so that we can have freedom, happiness, whatever. But are there specific inputs you've identified that we could focus on?

I would, I do need to build a framework for this, but now my head's spinning on it. I would generally start with focusing on what makes you happy, and I would look at it in your business, in your personal life, in, like, in your marriage and your family, in your religion, in your hobbies, focus first on what makes you happy, right? Because it, frankly, it might tell you that you should go get a job and not have a business, right? If your business makes you miserable, it should immediate. It might immediately tell you you either need to like or get off the pot, right? You either need to sell that thing and start over, go get a job, whatever the case is. So I'd first start with happiness before you start trying to build something bigger that already makes you miserable again. I got caught in that trap for, like, six years of building something where I was like, oh, like this. The thing I wrapped myself into was the same reason I left the corporate world. Like, oh, crap, what am I doing here? and it. I mean, we're humans, right? It's a constant evolution and constant learning. So it's. It's like, I don't regret it, right? But. But lessons learned along the way. So I would start looking at what are the happiness drivers in all these places? Define that first. Then go back and define what are my profit drivers. Like, what are the activities that I can do that are going to go grow my business? There's probably overlap between things that make you happy and things that grow your business. For me, super good example, like me doing a bunch of bookkeeping. Stuff does not make me super happy. Me building systems and processes, I'm miserable. And so I'm a business owner and I, I'm well aware that businesses are only as good as their systems and processes, and I'm well aware that I suck at it. and so I am not the lead system and process dude on our team. I had to be when I first started, but it was like, man, I got to get that off my plate. Like, that is not a thing that drives happiness for me. going on shows, super fun for me. Talking to clients is a whole lot of fun. I don't even care if I'm getting paid for. Like, I, I love helping business owners. I said earlier today, I'm helping somebody with paper performance stuff. Now we're talking about goal setting. anytime I can work with business owners and learn from them and have them learn, learn from me, that's my freaking favorite. Right? So it's like, how do I make sure that my day is spent doing things that fill me up where I can also add a lot of value? Like, it, grows our business a ton, but also fills my cup, gives me some happiness.

Yeah. There's a tool from EOS Traction, their, their hiring tool. Get it, want it capacity. And I, I think we forget to put ourselves through that as well.

That's a good point.

Like, I do all the time. I'm like, why am m. I. Why am I not happy right now? It's because I'm doing things that I don't like.

Yeah, I get it. And I, and I kind of have the capacity to do it, but I don't want it.

Yeah. Like, I don't want to do most of the stuff. So I'm like, crap. Like, I think if you just run yourself through that tool, you realize you're doing so much stuff on a daily basis that you don't want to. And then, then it's fun. Like when you can breathe again and you're enjoying life and you get that space, then I think you can identify those inputs. And I love, I love what you're. Where you're going with this. So can't wait to see when you actually know what you're talking about. But.

Right. I'll work on it. Working on it.

I will come see you on a stage one day. but it really is true because, like, because then you can identify these inputs and this is going to help you with your framework. I don't know how, but it's going to. And so, like, if you're Trying to build your business and you need another person. Well then what has to be true for you to be able to afford an $80,000 person? Well, you have to make more money. So how do you make more money? You get more sales. Okay, but instead of just like that's the goal to make more money. That's kind of a weak ass goal. So it.

If every day or every Thursday you had intention behind contacting referral partners

But what would be is if every day or every Thursday you had intention behind contacting referral partners because you enjoyed reaching out to luxurious home builders or interior designers and networking with them. If that was part of your daily, your weekly habit, like you're going to succeed over time. It might be not as fast as you want. You might not get the exact thing. But those are the inputs that lead to long term results for sure.

Heck yeah. I have a, I was talking like I think parenting is similar to this. Business ownership is similar. This health is similar to this. and I mentioned earlier I ran a 10k a couple weekends ago. I didn't have a goal to run a 10k, but I do have a goal to stay below 200 pounds. and I. This ebbs and flows. Ice fishing season is always a challenge. You got like two months of just sitting static, eating and drinking and, and so there's usually a little comeback down to my goal after that. And in the summer, like if I can get it down to one night below 195 and maybe sniff 190, cool. But, and I, and I, like I said I ran.

Is that preparation for winter? Like get it.

I gotta give myself a buffer, buffer zone because I'm gonna eat it away pretty quick. But like even today I don't have a goal of how fast I want to run. But I ran basically a 5k today. I ran three miles. and I ran like 8:11 pace, which is, which is like trucking for me. Usually at some point in the summer I'll get below 8 minute miles. Although like I'm hitting 40 now, so I don't know if that's going to keep happening. but it's like I don't have a goal on. Well, I gotta run this fast, but I don't need a goal to try to run faster. Right. As I get more in shape, I'm just gonna run faster.

Yeah.

I don't need a goal to run a certain distance again. My goal is I want to be as healthy as I can be. I don't want to get hurt. I've, I've overdone it before where I get Hurt. And that's so like self defeating because you push too hard. Either you lifted too many weights or you ran too hard or you sprained your ankle or whatever. And so I've learned like I need to be in shape, but I also need to be healthy. And like I can't get hurt because I got three little kids and I need to be useful. So I try to like keep that in mind of yeah, I want to push myself and it's cool if I run fast, but I don't have a goal to run a sub 8 minute mile. Like, nobody gives a if I run a sub 8 minute mile, why should I care? will I run a sub 8 minute mile?

We've all we've got together and we're like, I wonder what Dan can run a mile. Like we ask. That's pretty regular weekly where we're talking about this.

Yeah, I know. Weirdos. You thought I was a weirdo, clearly.

But I do like it because yeah, it's like, okay, now you're doing this for you. You're happy. And now just because you want to squat a certain amount or bench or whatever, like now you're hurt and now you can't provide for your family. So when I did my Spartan race and I've still got more to come, that was my number one goal too, was not to get hurt. People like, how fast do you think you're gonna do it? I'm like, I actually don't give a shit.

Have fun, have fun. Don't get hurt.

I'm just gonna like go my pace and you know, every once in a while someone passes me, I would run faster to try to catch up or.

Whatever I was gonna say. Then you stick your leg out and trip them a little bit.

Yeah, I'm like, I'm still competitive but I just wanted to finish and not get hurt. So. And that, that was victorious for me. I was like, dude, this is freaking awesome. So I think that's how business is too. You can use the same analogy. Like there's a lot of different ways to get hurt in business and, and screw yourself up where it's like, oh man, that was a terrible decision. You should have kept your full time job.

And a business is like the ultimate marathon, right? There is no end. Like, and that's where I think those goals with ends can be so self defeating because like there doesn't need to be an end. It just needs to be wrapped into what perpetually is going to continue to make the business succeed and, and drive happiness and again for me, it's like, I know if we don't lose clients, my customers, I mean, and if we start losing clients, there's more digging to do, right? But if we're not losing clients, customers are happy, employees are happy. Man, if those two groups of people are happy, I sure as hell I'm happy. And if we're not losing clients, and this is a recurring service business, then we're growing like crazy, right? Because Val. Val just checked in. Val has sent multiple people my way. She's a client of ours. And when you do a good job for people, like, they also like to talk about you and send people your way. So if we don't lose clients and they like us and they talk about us, we're just going to keep. The more clients we have, the more clients we're going to get. We don't need to worry about revenue. We don't need to worry about, like, it'll happen, right? Those are the results that will happen. We need to worry about doing a kick ass job all the time. So we never lose clients. That's it. That's all we got. Simple.

Dan Plata got hacked on Facebook and now banned from the site

All right, dude, as we wrap up here, and by the way, if. If you guys want to, hear Dan's, upcoming goal, setting framework, it's coming, soon to a stage near you. Let's see.

We'll see. It'll be the next presentation I give. I'm gonna have slides to it.

This is cool. Dan, the new Dan plata. Dan Plata 2.0 coming at you. but tell us, how do people stay in touch with you? Where do they get a hold of you? Tell us about your podcast, all the good stuff.

So I got the home service happy hour podcast. You can check that out, although I don't. Ryan, are you aware that I'm banned from Facebook? I'm out. I'm no longer available on Facebook. I don't exist on Facebook anymore. both damn Platas, they shut my. So for those that aren't aware, got, hacked. That account got shut down. Thank God, because somebody's trying to, like, rob people from my Facebook profile. with. With slinging crypto. I created a new Facebook account, but they shut that down for impersonating my hacked account, which I thought was quite hilarious, but also really frustrating. I tried to create a third one. When they shut that one down, they shut the third one down in like an hour. So they're just like, they got all my IP addresses on lockdown. and I just don't feel like Fighting with them. Right. It's like, I don't. It feels like in sports, where you see, like, a dude kick another guy in the nuts in a football game, and then the dude that got kicked in the nuts, like, steps up and pushes the other guy, and they throw that guy out of the game, the pusher, when it's like, no, that guy kicked me in the nuts. But they missed it. I feel like I got kicked in the nuts. I got up and was like, I want a new Facebook account. And they're like, no, you can't have it because you're copying a hacker. So it feels like that where it's unfair, but there's just nothing you can do about it.

have you thought about calling it Plan Data, or is. Is it really the IP address?

I don't know.

Maybe it was just too close. Did you do two two ends on the Dan or something like that?

I tried. I actually did try a few different versions of my name to see if that would sneak past them. But, you know, the funny thing is.

I didn't know that that happened. And I saw the. The. You were real New Dan Platta come, and I was like, hackers? No, I. I ain't gonna accept this. He's got 14 mutual friends. This is not the Dan I know. But it really was you.

Yeah. And I think partially it was that people flagged that account when I friended them. Like, ha, this is a imposter account. Yeah. And so. And I grew it really fast because I was like, oh, I gotta get my audience back. I gotta find all my business owner friends. so, yeah, they shut that one down. So if you want to find me, go to best damn bookkeeping. com and just, like, book a call with me. Go check out my YouTube channel. Home service Happy Hour. or Instagram or Tick Tock. We got Home Service Happy Hour and all the places you can find me on LinkedIn, if you want to hang out on LinkedIn, if you're that cool. Dan, LinkedIn. Yeah, I'm there. I'm super professional, Dan.

I'm surprised they haven't kicked you off.

Yeah, right. Like, I just don't fit in there. I don't know why they let me in in the first place. I. I mean, I joined when I was back in the corporate world, so it's like I just grandfathered in. Probably. Probably.

Do you have, like, a collared shirt on or something?

I don't know what I got.

Yeah, you. I'll bet you do. You probably have a tie on. Or something.

Probably something lame. Yeah, definitely not the T shirt, not.

The T, not the tea, but I love it.

Dan's got the best bookkeeping deck. Seriously. Highly recommend ten out of five

All right, so reach out, guys. Home service happy hour. Check out his podcast. and then best, damn bookkeeping dot com. Highly recommend ten out of five.

Holy smokes. That's a good goal. Going for ten out of five, baby.

Yeah, Reach out, though, guys. Seriously. He's, Dan's been helping, a lot in our community the last several years. I know we have tons of clients that are using him and very happy, so definitely recommend him. Best damn bookkeeping deck. What? Best.

That's the one.

You know it out dot com. All right. Thanks for coming on, brother.

Thank you, man. Love it.

Everybody set some M goals and stuff, right.