Latest / The Property Entrepreneurs Podcast with Alasdair Cunningham / The £2,000 Invoice I Cut in Half and What It Taught Me

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The £2,000 Invoice I Cut in Half and What It Taught Me · The Property Entrepreneurs Podcast with Alasdair Cunningham

• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Prophet Product Podcast.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Doc and I'm over 625 photos on the 700 reviews.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: I can show you the right place.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you're looking to build a frog to business, we're going to be coming to every single day at 7am with strategies, insights, and techniques at work today.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: Make sure you're full of notes.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: We're on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Audible.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Let's crack on it and let's build your business.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: And you're already doing more than 95% of the population by just trying to build a business of some description.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: Don't ever devalue that.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: Don't ever diminish that.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: And don't ever, you know, do yourself an unjust way of doing things because you don't feel valuable enough.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: We have a thing called imposter syndrome.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: Imposter syndromes where, you know, maybe you're doing something, but you're your inner being, your little voice, your your gut is saying, Should I really be doing this?
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: Do I have enough credibility to be doing this?
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: And is am I am I charging too much money for this?
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: And that little voice is going to hold you back forever.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: And let me tell you about one of the biggest lessons I ever took about value in business.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to take you back to when I was in the bus and coach world.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: So when I first started my bus and coach business, uh, I just left my job at Stagecoach Buses in Bedfordshire and I went out on my own.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: I started my first business with£483.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: That's how much money I had in the bank account, and that's what I used to start the business.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I bought an old Ford Transit smiley-faced van.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so it's old British Telecom Ford Transit shortwheel-based vans.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I found one on eBay for, you know, not a lot of money, a couple hundred pounds.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: And it was a sack of shit, I'm not gonna lie.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it was, it was a good strong engine, but the the rust and rot on it was pretty, pretty undescribable.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: Now, that was my first ever business vehicle, and what I did was I would go out and I would start sort of cold calling and speaking to like local bus and coach operators, transport operators, and I was trying to get some sort of mobile mechanic in work where I would go into the yard, fix the vehicles.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: Now, long story short, I let's fast forward six months.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: I met a gentleman called Christopher Day.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: He owns a company uh called Red Rose Travel in Aylesbury.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: So they're still a bus, uh, they're still in existence today.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: Uh they're a bus and coach company in Aylesbury.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: Sadly, Chris is no no longer with us, uh, rest in peace.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: But he gave me the biggest lesson uh of my business life.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: And here's what happened: I got a phone call from Chris to say, Look, Alistair, I've been I've been hearing a lot about you.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we we've got some buses that need um MOT and need repairing.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: And we'd, you know, do you fancy coming over for a chat?
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: Now, at the time, I really want to emphasize this.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: I could barely afford to put diesel in my vehicle.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: Like, honestly, I could barely afford to put 20 or 30 pounds of diesel in my vehicle.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I I remember I got this phone call and I and I was super excited about it.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: So I didn't even have the money to cover the diesel to get from where I lived at the time was uh in Sandy in Bedfordshire over to Aylesbury.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: Like I needed, you know, half a tank of diesel to get there.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't have the money, and I remember I had to ring my dad and ask him to transfer me, you know, money for diesel, which was, you know, it was a pretty low point in my life, but you know, needs must.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: You've got to do what you've got to do, and you always be grateful for people that supported you in your early days.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, I'd done what I had to do.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: I drove over to Aylesbury, had a conversation with Chris, and he told me about look, they've got this vehicle in the corner of the yard, um, and I always remember the registration.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: It was RR02BUS, and I remember it, it was a bright orange, short wheel-based Dennis Dart bus.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: And the vehicle had been out of MOT for you know six months.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: And he said to me, He goes, 'Look, I need to get that vehicle back on the road.' So if you want to do it, that can be your first job you do for me.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, great, I've got my first real job.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: Fantastic.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I got to work, I started going through it, I started getting it ready for MOT.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I spent all week doing it.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: I I literally slept in my van to get this job done.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: So I was working in his yard, getting the bus done.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: I was doing a trying to keep the bill as low as possible because I thought I've got to keep the bill low so he get he gets me back.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: And that was my priority.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: Keep the bill low, and if need be, like I'll work kind of, you know, at a very low profit margin just to get the the contract going forward and to get future business out of him.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: So anyway, I'd done the vehicle.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: By the Friday, we got it in for MOT, we took it for MOT, and the vehicle actually passed first time.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, it's a big thing in the bus and coach world if your vehicles fail their MOTs, because the people that govern it, Volsa, they basically say, look, if your fear if your vehicles fail in its MOT, that means it's not fit for purpose, and that means you shouldn't be operating them because at all times vehicles should be up to a certain standard.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: So it's very important for bus and coach businesses that their vehicles are up to a mean uh a minimum standard and they they're eligible to pass MLT at any point of the year.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: So I took the vehicle for MOT, it passed first time, no problems.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: And as I was driving it back to the yard, I was I was going over my head, okay, I need to sort out his invoice because I could really do with getting this money in because, you know, like I said, I had to borrow£50 off my dad to get diesel to go to Aylesbury.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: So I drove into the yard, and I always remember it just so happened that as I was driving in, Chris, the owner of the business who made the original phone call, he was walking across the middle of the yard and he saw me drive in and he he stopped outside my window, uh outside the window of the bus and he he said, How do we get on?
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, Yeah, all good, passed, no problem at all.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: And he just went, good job.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: Alright, get parked up and come and see me when you're when you're when you're done.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, you know, perfect, that's that's great.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: So in my head, I'm like, you know, awesome.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: So I parked the bus up.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um park the bus up and I then um I then go along and sort my tools out, get ready to go, get ready to do what I've got to do.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I walked into his office and I said to him, look, there's all the MOT certificate, there's the paperwork, um, you know, it's it's been it's been great.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um thank you very much.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um I'll I'll get an invoice sent over to you and get that sorted for you.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: And he went, no, no, no, if you just do it now, I'll I'll I'll pay you now.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: And honestly, that was like music to my ears.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: It really, really was music to my ears.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: Before I left the office, though, he went into his top pocket and he he's a sort of guy, he's a very old school businessman, so a lot of stuff's in cash, and he just he just opened up his um you know top pocket and he pulled out uh a handful of 50 pound notes and he reeled off six 50 pound notes and he just handed them to me and he goes, That's for that's uh that's for getting it through the MOT and I'm like honestly it's 300 pounds, it's not gonna you know break the bank here, but you you you have no idea in the relief that gave me straight away because I couldn't even put 50 pounds in my van to get to Aylesbury and you know I just got paid 300 quid, which you know really was pretty phenomenal.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, Oh, by the way, he goes, That's just uh that's just a thank you.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: He goes, get me the invoice and I'll get that paid right now.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: So I went out into my my car and I started looking at what can I get off this invoice to reduce the price because as I calculated everything, you know, it was coming in quite expensive.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: It was you know over£2,000.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: And uh my little voice said to me, Alistair, that's too much.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: He's gonna be so pissed off and so annoyed that that's that's too much money.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I started knocking things off the invoice.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: I started knocking off whatever I could, like, you know, I supplied parts out of my own vehicle and I thought, well, look, I can swallow the cost of that part, you know, because I'm thinking of the bigger picture here.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: I started reducing my labour costs down.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: Instead of charging them, you know, at the time I was£45 an hour.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: I I thought, okay, how can I reduce the number of hours that I allocate?
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: Because, you know, I'd spent a good number of hours in this property, in this vehicle.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: So I got the bill from, you know, just over£2,000 to just over a thousand pounds.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, I thought to myself, okay, I'm going to take the hit now, but I'm going to get a lot more work.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, back then it was, it wasn't uh, you know, an invoice written on Sage or anything like that.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: It was an invoice written out on carbon paper.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um and I I walked into his office and I said, Look, Chris, I'm I'm I'm off.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: There's the there's the bill.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember I folded the bill in half so that he couldn't see it.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: And in my head, although he told me he'll pay me now, in my head it was like, I'll give him the invoice and he'll give it to his accounts and they'll just send me a check.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um and you know, I I sat the invoice on his desk.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I wished him well and I said, Alright, I'll I'll um if you need me again, you've got my number, just give me a shout and we'll we'll we'll make things happen.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: And um he said, he said to me, he goes, Well, hold on, I'll I'll I'll uh I'll pay you now.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: So he he opened the bill, he looked at it, he pulled that ward of£50 notes out, and he just reeled off the amount of money and he he handed it to me and he goes, Thanks very much, um and you know I'll I'll be in touch.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, Is is everything okay with the bill?
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, Yeah.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: He goes, if I'm being truly honest with you, I thought it was going to be two or three times that.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: He goes, so yeah, it's absolutely phenomenal.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: And he goes, Hold on, actually, he goes, let me uh let me just give you a list.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: So he gave me a list and it was for the rest of his vehicles.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: And on this list was every vehicle he owned, the MOT dates, and he said, There's my list of vehicles and when they're due MOT.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: He goes, You're now my MOT man.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: He goes, so whenever the vehicles are due, he goes, I want you to come over the month before and get them ready for MOT.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: And he goes, and by the way, put your prices up.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: He goes, You're too cheap.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I walked out of that office, I was super relieved that I've just been paid, but I was also kind of kicking myself because I know the value that I was bringing to them, but I diminished the value because I was number one, I was scared.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: I was scared of you know upsetting the customer, I was scared of never getting work again, and you know, there's pros and cons to what happened.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: The pro is my gut was right.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: Go cheap and you know, take a hit in the first instance, you'll get a lot more work.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, it all worked out in the end, but the lesson is still the same.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: He was prepared to pay two to three times more than what I actually wrote the invoice out for.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I always remember that to this day.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: From that day onwards, I've charged appropriate money, fair money, and I've never diminished how much I sell my services for.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: So I hope you take a lesson from today, and I hope you realise that your value that you bring to your customers is always, always worth what you want to charge for it.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for tuning in today.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: Let's speak tomorrow, and I hope you took some value from today's lesson.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: That's it for today, folks.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for tuning in to the Prophet Entrepreneurs podcast.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: Hope you got massive value from today's show.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: Share it with a friend, make sure you're liking it, make sure you're following it so you get the notifications the next time the show comes out at 7am tomorrow morning.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: Also, jump over onto Instagram and Facebook, drop us a comment, let us know what you thought of today's show.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: Head over to AlistairFillingham.com for the main website to get free resources, free training, and keep up to date with what's going on in our world.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, property is all about building systems.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: Create a system, create a system.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: Go out and make your business out of this.