Get THE EDGE for your Business in 2021 [HERE'S HOW]

- Hello, all viewers and listeners it's Chris and Nick here from Up Coach with our very first podcast episode for 2021, Coaching Conversations. Thank you so much for being with us and I hope you've had a good break. Today we are going to be breaking down, how you can get the most out of your business in 2021. Nick, hello and welcome to Coaching Conversations for 2021. Tell us about your break. - Hi, Chris, thank you so and pleased to be here.

Break's been awesome as you can see, I'm nice and tanned. - Very tanned. - I'm tanned. - Yes.

Yes. - Which is far more than I'm normally tanned. - Who helped with the tanning oil on you? - (mumbles) yeah, that's time for another podcast. That's the night-time podcast. - That's the nighttime edition? - Yeah, the nighttime edition. But it was really, really good.

This year I did something a little bit different rather than going for a long two weeks away. We did short one week, short four days and it was really good 'cause we got the best of both worlds. And one thing, actually we're gonna be talking about in this podcast is sometimes you just need to kinda re-edit what you do and change things around because you need to be innovative, right, especially today border changes, all of those types of things within Australia and then overseas as well. So yeah. - Yeah, very much so.

- It feels really good. I love the beach. I love being in the ocean. I'm an ocean baby not a mountain baby, so it's a-- - Oh, a mountain baby, definitely ocean, ocean. - Well, I'm a Cancer as a star sign, so the crab. I'll feel best in the waters.

- Yes, you're at home near the beach. - I'm at home. - Very good. Today as I said in the intro we are gonna be breaking down how you can get the most out of your business in 2021.

If you're wanting to gain the edge, if you're wanting to get the edge, if you're wanting to do things differently with your business this year, now is the time to take some notes. So Nick's got some valuable gold sitting next to him. And he's about to deliver three main key areas that you need to highlight really, put some energy into with your business this year. So Nick, can you unveil what those three key areas are? - Yes I can. So number one, I think in 2021 you need to get super focused on the numbers and there's some key critical numbers obviously that we need. Now, why is 2021 different than 2020, 2019 or any years in the past? It's interesting I was just before this, we were just talking to, about one of our clients that just has been to Gold Coast.

And usually in Gold Coast (indistinct) I went to a location called Terrigal, which is New South Wales. Holiday destination Crown Plaza. Usually it is booked months in advance, right? Last week, we booked three families three different rooms for a week. And it's unheard of like, - Wow. - Now, is there people? There is people there but it's not to the capacity of what it is. So now why do I say that? Because in 2021, there's a lot of uncertainty.

We don't know what's happening. We don't know what the economic impact is gonna be. We've got an idea of what's going on. Now, if you're in a trade and construction industry you're in a pretty good industry to be in, to start with. But if you're not in the trade and construction industry, if you're in a cafe, if you're in a motel, if you're, you know, I don't know, it's a travel agent, any of these things have severely been affected by COVID. If you don't know your numbers and you're looking after every cent, this could be a problem for you.

So here's some key numbers. Number one, you know what, first of all once you break it, you know, you need to know this. You need to know exact, to the dollar what the break-even is every month.

And I get it, it fluctuates up and down. But if you could project it, the usual stuff rent, leases, wages all these things are important. So break-even is really, really critical. Number two, I feel that you need what your target numbers are every month. And let me give an example. So I was speaking to a friend of mine that lives up there.

He's been there, 14 years up on the Coast, very, very, very, very very successful business owner. He's in roads, they build roads in my, in (indistinct) new South Wales road. They're doing, I think Queensland as well. They do tunnels. This guy's 90 million to $150 million business.

- Right. - Yeah, cool dude, worked hard, but he said, "Look, you know, like numbers can fluctuate." Now, in his case, he's guaranteed. He's got contracts for another seven years but it doesn't mean that, hey we ended up there, there's other works coming along.

I mean, he needs to make sure it's good, because he's doing five type of major earthworks at each given point of time. So in saying that 120 plus employees, big infrastructure, offices, it'd be good if all that was profit, but it's not. You make small margins, but big volume. Also numbers are really critical. So you need to know what's coming.

So every month, what are our target budgets, very important. For us same thing we do. So break-even and I think, what your goals are every month I don't make over a year, so if you don't have a great month, well, you'll need to pick it up on the next end, right? And, you know, - Right. - from a number point of view, I think the third one is, what do your sales and marketing numbers look like? You know, what's coming? What type of marketing are you doing at the moment that's gonna generate the numbers that you need where it comes to reaching that target objective? 'Cause even this guy, seven years he doesn't make enough to worry about, like, any of that top stuff, right? He just can go ahead and he's still making money, he set up all this stuff, beautiful property, three and a half acre property, all of this stuff, but he gets it. He goes, man, I still need to know what's coming, we're not resting on that because that could change, boom. COVID, Council goes or the State Government goes, sorry we're gonna put this on the back-burner.

And there goes four years of your seven year contract. - Yeah, right, okay. So just for some clarification, Nick, around those sales and marketing numbers for people that may not be familiar with it, when you're talking about that, you're looking at what's is your, what's the annual target in terms of sales that you wanna do and then breaking that down into monthly chunks, right? So reverse engineering, that large number into small, 12 smaller numbers, I guess and with your marketing metrics, knowing what sort of sales in terms of units or volume or whatever you're selling to make up that monthly portion, is that right? - Yeah, correct.

And the last one is to notice the numbers, obviously that, your bottom dollar numbers. - You mean profit? - Yeah, well that and what your break-even numbers are. - All right, okay. - Yeah, because break-even

can fluctuate if you've got, let's say a lease that's coming up or it's coming to an end, you got a balloon payment on it and you're not ready for it, and it's three months down the line where maybe it's slow time for you, then you've got a problem. I mean, here's a perfect example, if in Gold Coast, which is, Australia's my job of tourism, I rely solely on tourism, not local tourism but external tourists. - Heavily, yeah. - They're not busy now. January now, the prime, prime.

February prime, prime. When do you catch up then? If you're in construction, and you're not on top of it. You don't have builds in the process. You don't have kitchens need to get happening for January, February, March. All of these things are cyclical, right? Because some people are gonna come off JobKeeper .

Some people are gonna start looking for work and there isn't, some people are gonna put stuff on hold. And I think we're gonna see that impact into 2021 that we sort of erode a little bit in 2020 because it was a falsely pumped economy. There's people relying on JobKeeper and JobSeeker Payments to get them through. And then in Christmas you sort of cruised into it. But I just saw some economic numbers and there was, in December, there was $13 billion less spent on credit card debt and shopping.

13 billion, it's 30% down, and that's huge, all right? You know, we've not seen a number like that before. So numbers are critical, those though. So you need to prepare for what's coming effectively, and you know, - Perfect. - tighten the belt up a little bit and put in those numbers. - Noted, very good.

So knowing your numbers, absolutely critical, guys. That's the first, I guess, item on the agenda. What's the second thing, Nick? - Yes, so number two, I think time. And here's what I mean by time, time's the most precious commodity we all have. If you've been a bit blase with it in 2020, 2019, you know, if you've gone, you know, I'll work like, I'm just gonna work all the time, I'm just gonna do 110 hours a week.

I was just talking to a prospect that wants to join us in coaching. And I said, he filled it, yeah, in one of the forms that we ask prospects to fill in. - Yeah. - And he put down his time (indistinct) is between 100 to 110 hours a week of working. So you know, that's a chunk, he's make really good money, but 110 hours, he said, first thing, you gotta make yourself sustainable.

And, you know, I noticed that today like I've been able to get away, you know when people are sort of coming back, it's off today, instead everyone's back and, you know we plan to kinda come back today, which is good 'cause I don't usually work Monday. So, you know I think time is really critical from the perspective of what are you gonna give your time to? Are you gonna use an outdated model of time, where all you do is work? Even if you're making the money, it's cool. But in 2021, we've just realized that, you know what going into the office everyday, you don't need to. You know, being onsite every day, you don't need to. - Yeah.

- If you don't have the right systems and processes in place, it just now's the time to do it. You know? So at time I think you need to be really really effective with it. What time you wake up? What time is you time? What time is family time? What time is the business time? And if business time means that you work from eight till you know, seven till seven, you do that three or four days a week.

And you can have time early before that. And then time after that, or you can say, hey, Mondays and Fridays I'm gonna start work a bit later or whatever it may be and not do Sundays 'cause you press it down into five days. Well, it makes sense.

Now a lot people are gonna push back against this but probably not in their head when they're hearing this. And they go, yeah, right. But how do I do it if I'm absolutely flat out? Well, how do you do it if you're absolutely flat out? You see what I mean? Like it's this double-edged sword. - Yeah.

I think there's two other factors that people need to consider based on what you just said. You know, people will be laughing at this guy. Oh, that's great. But time only comes to those who create it not to those that try and find it.

So you really need to think about planning and prioritization. I think you've spoken about that before but those are two big factors when you're looking at time. - I was talking to somebody else that had a heart attack (indistinct) to me and I said was, you know, stance and all that stuff. Actually the guy that owns the big company, you know.

And he said, yeah. I said, dude, so did you learn from it? He goes, yeah. He goes, I've set it up that, I mean with a company like that it's got pretty good staff and all the rest of it. And he said, you know, my number one priority is time for me. He's getting back into the gym. He had to get a couple of hip replacements, and this guy is like my age, two years old, and he-- - Yeah. - Football, so it's kind

of all arthritis, and can't turn his neck and he's worth millions, millions, millions, millions. Now they gotta be three, four times that for his company already. He could easily retire. But you know, time, he needs to spend time in the game. So time's important for him to do that 'cause he wants to live a legacy.

- Right. - So do you see, if you do this and then the things that you wanna do, I mean, think about it, if you're in a position that you're working so much, but not seeing your family when do you take the time to do it? And if not now, when? - Very true. - You know, that's the real key to it, I think. You know, it's important for us to be very critical of it.

'Cause time you can't get back, money you can make. - That's right. - So in 2021, it's your choice, man.

You can either just keep on working, you know and that's how it is or do something bloody about it. That's all it is. - Yeah. That's one of the things that we work with, with our clients, day one. It's like what sort of time are you investing? And how are we gonna shift that? Because you know, people have said, you kind of look at it holistically, if that's what you wanna say, sure.

But you know, we do look at time as a portion of, hey, there's you time, there's family time, and there's obviously work time. We need to really balance that out. Sometimes work takes priority, I get that. But it's also about how you plan and prioritize and what you prioritize into your calendar.

That makes the difference. If you prioritize work at 110 hours a week, it's up to you. The time will come to those that wanna create it.

- And by the way, here's the important part, he's not making this up. He's not just going on, just do 110 hours a week for the sake of bloody doing 110 hours a week. He's saying that he's so busy, 'cause I've seen the contracts and all of that top stuff that he has, right? The prospect that wants to join us. That man, he's running everything himself.

And that's the other thing, he said, it made a toll on me. So what happens if something happens to you for your family? You're the guys I didn't think about. And so (mumbles), you know. He's got plenty of work. Like he could, I mean, hopefully we're gonna help him grow the company five times bigger. That isn't a problem, but he's also come to the realization that he understands that in order for him to grow that, he needs somebody to go, hey, manage your time well.

He needs that accountability. So time, you need accountability. And it's always gonna be a big knock on the door by the Grim Reaper, accountability. Sorry, you didn't listen.

This (indistinct) take your debt, ultimate and unmanagement. You've got all the time in the world forever forever to try to figure it out, right? Or are you gonna get a bit of a knock on the door from the, you know, the Mini Grim Reaper that isn't about to kill you but it's a-- - The doctor, the doctor. - The doctor.

Mini Grim Reaper called her, you know, doctor, or you're gonna get one from a divorce lawyer if you're married. - Yeah. - You know, so these are the important parts that we need to really work on here.

- Very good, time, managing your time and owning your time. Right, what's number three? - And number three I think is really, really exciting for this year especially. I think it's innovation is the new game.

You know, I think if you innovate today, you know getting ready for 2021 or, you know, we're in 2021, if you innovate, I think you're gonna end up in front. And what I mean with that is if you you're not running a software for your CRM, if you're not running software for your management systems, if you're not running software for personnel, if you're not innovating on how you can systemize better and create procedures better, if you're not just getting that edge well, you know, in 2021, you think about it. I just bought like a helmet for a motorbike, right? And they're cheaper than what they were in 2020, and I asked the guy, is this is last year's model? He goes, that's this year's model.

So why are they cheap? And he goes, I don't know. And he goes, the manufacturers have just made them a bit smaller and more refined. It's brand new.

It's cool, great reviews, great write up, all that stuff. And it was like 20 or 30% cheaper than the previous model. You know, I went with Phillip to buy some clothes, my son, Phillip, to buy some clothes just prior to Christmas and I was at like H and V, you know, I'm not into a whole bunch of brain stuff and all that stuff. - Yeah. - H and V, they like had these plants for like 18 bucks. And everyone goes, dude, how much are they? 200, their cool, their funky.

I just look while everyone goes, man, they're the coolest plants. Did you pay a high couple hundred for them? Because that's what they should be. And now they reduced from like 80 bucks to 18. Yeah. And what's the moral of that?

The moral of that is to try to say that today you need to over-deliver of higher value versus what you're charging because everybody else in competition, especially in 2021 when things get stuck, when things get tough people just drop their pants and go, hey I'll do it whichever just to get the job. - That's right. - You know, the good thing with construction at the moment there's so much work, you know, stimulated by the government for newer housing market, all of that stuff, it's cool, but there's gonna come a time where, hey, not everybody's gonna get that contract. You know, in civil work, as an example the Mid-Tier civil guys that are you know, 15 million, 18, or 10 million, 5 million they're like, there's no work for them.

The only reason my mate's at that level is 'cause he does all the big stuff, you know, 20 year career at that level of doing it. You know, (indistinct) with people has got 30 equipment to set up, I mean he's boring tunnels. You know, like he's set up and there's not that many people that do, but he's gotta jump through hoops, same thing. The margins are lower and lower and lower because tipping phase and all of that stuff are really, really expensive.

So once again, I think innovation is ultra critical. How can I do it better in 2021 than what I'm doing? And the best way to do it is just break down your business. How's marketing? Can I do that? Then selling.

Can I automate that? Systemization, can I use technology and video to do it? Can I screen record stuff? You know, money, finances, you know can I have, I don't know maybe off shore bookkeeping done for me? Not that you can't but they may be a bookkeeper. Can I use things like Xero that can pick up, you know, things like, you know invoice numbers and add them straight into Xero? So you don't have to manually do it. And by the way, it's a game of one percenters. And that 1% here, 1%, 1%, 1%, should relay, or 15 and 20% better than what you were in 2020.

So innovation is critical and you know we're looking for this ourselves, you know. - Constantly. So it's really just a matter of looking at ways to improve your efficiency or on the customer side of things, you can improve the efficiency but also leveraging that form of value.

How can you offer more value through innovation to your customers this year? - Yeah. Because he or she who offers the most amount of value I think keeps you in the good books for when the times get tough. It's not when the times are good everyone's got money, it's all cool, but when the times are tough.

And I think we still haven't seen that. I mean, Australia is fed pretty well because we don't have you know, a hundred million people living here. - Yeah. - Surrounded by four borders. People are understanding, you know, my friends in the US at this current time are looking at, you know, if you're listening to or watching this podcast and you know, it's January 21. And you know, at the moment the US is, thousands of deaths every day. I mean, it's a disaster.

(indistinct), shops, closed. All of this, and like I don't know what Biden thinks he's gonna do, but it ain't gonna be much. - And he's gonna have start again. - Yeah, because it takes years of economic recovery.

Look at Australia. I would hate to own a commercial property in any major city today. - That's true.

Especially downtown CBD. - You're gonna have to innovate, you're gonna have to figure out, how do I fill this? You know, I've purchased it in 2017 when things are good, I've got a $3 million mortgage on it. It can't be empty, 'cause if it is, you know, a year at 3 million at 5% is 150 grand, you know. You're gonna be buying it for 150 grand a year.

- Yeah, that's right. - 24,000 a month empty. So how do you do it? What do you, you know like, so innovation is critical. I think A, digital innovation is critical. Forget the old school way of doing stuff. I think strategic innovation is really critical.

And number three, operational innovation is critical and the most important one is mental innovation is critical. Can't keep thinking like you did. - That's right. - Shit's changed. - Very good. Very good.

If you, I hope you got a lot of value out of that podcast, guys. There's so much in there that you can grab hold of. If 2021 is gonna be the year for change for you, let's make it happen. You can use those three areas that Nick's covered today. If you need any help with this reach out to us at ask@upcoach.com.au. We would be happy to help you with a strategy to get ready for 2021.

Again, thank you so much for your time, Nick. - Thank you. - Good. And we'll see you all again and speak to you all again very soon.

Bye now.

2021-01-31 13:59

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