Latest / The Life-First Solopreneur / 73. Your Solo Business Growth Roadmap to Thrive and Enjoy Life with Martin Riley
Transcript
- Martin Riley (00:00): What The Business Jet Engine does is it helps people look at all the things you have to have right in a business for it to really work at its best. It's a little bit scary because as we learn about business, there are about 17 key parts that have to be got right, and that can look a little bit overwhelming. Intro (00:20): Welcome to the One Person Business podcast, the show for solopreneurs, consultants and contractors who are ready to take charge of their business and reclaim their freedom. Join us as we bring you inspiring stories, invaluable insights and practical strategies from successful solopreneurs and industry experts, empowering you to create a flagging business that aligns with your unique goals and allows you to live life on your own terms. Here are your hosts, Joe Rando and Carly Ries. Carly Ries (00:50): Welcome to the One-Person Business podcast. I'm one of your hosts, Carly Ries. (00:55): Joe Rando (00:55): And I'm Joe Rando. (00:56): Carly Ries (00:56): For us solopreneurs, sometimes we have a great idea and we're so excited to dive into it, and then we realize, "oh, we have to run an actual business to make sure this idea takes off". And it's like, oh, we don't always know what we're doing with that, which is why we're so excited for our guest today, author of The Business Jet Engine, the Simplest Guide to Boost Your Business. Martin Riley is a business and leadership coach with over 20 years of experience in the coaching industry. His core skill using The Business Jet Engine, which we'll talk about, is getting business owners focus on the task that really matter so they can make stress-free, profitable progress year over year to build the business of their dreams. Martin, you are speaking our language with that. Welcome to the show. Martin Riley (01:41): Thank you very much. It's a pleasure to be here. Carly Ries (01:43): We're very excited. I was just talking about The Business Jet Engine and that basically gives people the clarity and confidence to effectively build their business. So I believe you have three steps to that. Can we just dive in and you can walk us through it? Martin Riley (01:58): Sure. Let's go as a step before the diagnostic tool and the planning tool. What I find is a lot of business owners are passionate about doing something, they've got a skill and they dive in and start trying to sell that skill, that product, that service they care so much about. But it's so easy to get that wrong. There are three key parts to getting a business model. If you're happy, that's kind of the first stage, to get the fundamental business model. Then you've got to say, what do I need to do to deliver that business model? That's when the whole of jet engine diagnostic and planning process comes in. And then the third is turning that into actions and checking you're actually doing what you're meant to do. So that first bit, I like to think of it as three circles for the business planning. There are three circles that are going to intersect. (02:47): We've got a sweet spot. But the first circle is that thing that you love to do, you are great at doing, you're hopefully expert at doing, but you also need to make sure you have some kind of edge, a competitive advantage. Over here we have the soccer leagues and if you are in the top three or four teams, you get all the best players, you earn all the income, it's always the top three or four always competing. The people in the middle, the people at the bottom tend to struggle. And we don't want to ever in our industry, in our niche be the one struggling at the bottom. So we need that competitive edge. The way we do that is we have to look at, with our skills, what are also the blood, sweat, tears, the things we have learned over time that are hard for others to copy. (03:32): What have we invested in that allow us to deliver what we do in a different way to others so we've got that edge. That's the first thing. What do we love to do? We've got some edge, some uniqueness. The second circle is, and often not enough thought is given to this, Who are the customers, the clients who really have that problem? And will pay to have that problem. We have to understand them intimately, why they want that solved. But then the third thing that often gets missed is getting what I call mutually attractive, mutually winning pricing. A lot of business owners don't do some simple maths and go, how many of these are what price do I have to sell to make a profit? And then will those customers who I've identified, will they pay that much and value what I do? It's an easy sale and often if people haven't thought through those three things and found the sweet spot, they're overemphasizing one of those areas and the business is struggling. (04:29): That's the first fundamental mistake. People can get so passionate about what they do. There was a shop locally that opened up and I couldn't wait to see what it was going to be. I had a few failed businesses and there they were selling carved African sculptures in my little seaside town. I'm sure they were great at going to Africa, getting these sculptures at a good price, bringing them back. But who in my town really wanted them? They might buy one, two, but how many were going to buy 3, 4, 5? It should have been an internet business. They might've been much more successful and they were gone in a month. And then there's other business who go, "what can I sell that people want and will buy, but I don't care and I'm not good at it". And the minute someone turns up who's got that edge, who really cares, you're going to move, you're going to change. Then the third is if the pricing isn't right. There are businesses doing great work for people who love what they're doing, but they can never make any money. They're not charging enough. They haven't got the right people who can truly afford them at the price they need to be charging to earn a profit. Joe Rando (05:34): I have a question on this. When you talk about the edge we're talking about, the obvious thing, I'm better at something than somebody else in some way. Maybe I've got a more skill or I can source it and price it cheaper or something like that. But what about, especially with solopreneurs, sometimes they have a skill, they're good at something and they want to be solopreneurs and they're not necessarily the best in the world at something, but there still could be a potential market for what they do. Any suggestions for how to go about creating that edge when it's not necessarily that you have to be incredible at something compared to the population of people in the world that do that thing? Such as a graphic designer or a photographer? Martin Riley (06:21): Yeah, because often it's someone in your area who needs you, who can't afford the best in the world. And that's what I love about that. Normally you have to be 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 rungs above the person you are helping or serving because the person 20 rungs above, they can't afford them. And that's where looking at the price model is so important. And normally, yeah, am I the best coach in the world? I'm probably not, but for my area and for the people who value what I do, I'm pretty damn good and they can afford me. So it's the right person and the right fit. It's always about fit. The other thing I would say, I love what you're saying, yes, ideally it's about you are better, you're smarter, you are sharper, you have some better pricing, more streamlined processes, but sometimes it's just all the things you've learned in life. (07:11): For example, my first career, I was a product designer. I learned how to make complex things simple and easy to use. I brought that to coaching, which is why I've done what I've done. Other people will have had other life experience, other career experiences that they bring to something new and they're innovating and there's someone who will value that, someone who gets them or allows them to have a unique insight into the problem that customer has. Whatever it might be. If you've had a background in a particular industry of healthcare and you are helping a particular customer base who have that problem, but you are serving them a different way. It may be to do with domestic appliances, but you've got an understanding of people with a certain ailment and they have unique needs. That's where you get that lovely intersect of giving you edge because your average appliance in store is not going to have that knowledge. (08:05): So that's the wonderful, What do I bring from life, from other careers, to what I'm doing now? That just means there'll be someone out there who really values that and we all have it. I find with clients, they often look a bit scared when I go, what's your edge? This thing that's unique and hard to copy. And they kind of look at me, well, we haven't identified it. And there we go through all the things they've learned in life that allow them to do what they do. All the things they've learned in their career that allows them to do what they do, courses they been on, equipment they've invested in, and then they go, "Wow, actually when I look at my list, I'm pretty good. For the right person. I'm pretty damn good. Joe Rando (08:39): That is so true. Martin Riley (08:41): Everyone has it. They just have to list it out and be proud of it and find the person who valued it. Carly Ries (08:48): I think it's also the experience you provide. People think that the edge has to be your product or your service, but I find a lot of the times for me, I choose people because I like working with them. I like their personality, I like their transparency. It doesn't even necessarily have to be a product or service. It could genuinely just be you. Martin Riley (09:06): Yes. And very often with the solopreneur, it's you their buying, so your personal story, your background, all those things are so valuable to be sharing. Joe Rando (09:16): Sometimes you can just carve out a niche. I just love this example, it's my sister. She was on the podcast a few years ago and she's a photographer. She's very good. She has her own photography with solopreneur agency that she does, but she has basically taken over in her market, the bar mitzvah. And she's not Jewish, but she learned enough and she does a great job and there's such a network of people talking and sharing and saying, oh, I had Sarah, she was great. They're talking at Temple and they're talking at other Bar Mitzvahs. She doesn't even market herself and she's booked out two years. Martin Riley (09:55): That's such a great example. Presumably she's doing it at a price that they think is great and she cares about it. That's the magic. So all three circles overlap and that gives the sweet spot. Carly Ries (10:08): I love that. I'm so glad you tied it back into the three circles. I want to continue to hear more about The Business Jet Engine. Where do you want to take it from here? Martin Riley (10:18): So when business owners have thought through their business model and they don't have to overdo it, they have to just spend a couple of hours or a couple of days really making sure they've thought that through and it makes sense. Tthen they've got to go out and test it and make sure that people actually want it. But normally what we're doing is saying, okay, for the kind of numbers, the kind of clients you want to attract or the kind of numbers you want to attract, we've got to have a plan. We've got to have a plan to deliver that. What The Business Jet Engine does is it helps people look at all the things you have to have right in a business for it to really work at its best. It's a little bit scary because as we learn about business, there are about 17 key parts that have to be got right. And that can look a little bit overwhelming. So I put it (11:07): Against a kind of fun, easy to understand metaphor. I'll give you the basic parts. The heart of business is the heart of your jet engine. What we're trying to do is get an aircraft up in the air, and there are three core parts to that. One, there's your product or service that you deliver. There's your customer service, how well you look after people and then there's your operations, how efficiently and effectively you deliver that product or service. Most people starting a business go, that's what there is in business. I'll be great because I've got lovely product, I'll love my clients and I'll deliver it. But then they realize it's like having an engine with nothing else going on. You've got to get air in the engine and that's your sales and marketing and out the back of the engine still part of the whole sales and marketing cycle. (11:52): You need happy customers. You've got to get customer feedback. You need to market back to existing customers and ask for referrals because that's like your supercharger and you need to get long-term market intelligence. That's getting the air in the engine. In our story of a business owner, they work two or three years, get much better at sales and marketing and then they look around and go, there's no money in the bank. I wasn't paying enough attention. That's when they realized you don't just need air, you need fuel. So there's the finances to get right. That starts with pricing. Pricing throughout the back of the engine, make a profit. That's your exhaust gases. Your exhaust gases can be used like a turbocharger to boost the engine. Use that profit to reinvest. It also goes other places, but one place is to boost the engine and you need your engine management system, your management accounts to make sure that's all going to work. (12:42): Then our business owner, they've got their engine going much better. But what they've done up to now is maybe got subcontractors who aren't up to scratch or they're just not really using the right kind of people around them. That's when they've got to be much more careful about who are the people in my outer team that I'm outsourcing to. If you've got poor people you're outsourcing, if they're not really up to scratch, they're letting you down. It's like having an upside down wing, it's just going to grind you down. If you've got average people, it's like a no profile wing. You'll use all your money, time and energy going out of the runway, going nowhere. If you get the right people around you, that's when you can take off and grow. That's what gives you lift. So we're up in the air now, almost there, but you still can't do that. (13:28): That's illegal. You've got to have a pilot in the cockpit with their KPIs, their dashboards, their targets, your flight plan. Have someone there look at are we on track? Do we know where we're going and are we on track? So that's your plans, that's your targets, your KPIs. By the end, there are 17 key parts. I'll try and keep this fairly simple, what I do with clients is we have those 17 key parts, we lay it out as a diagram and then we score each area to deliver your business plan in a year. How well set up are you to do that? Which of those parts are working well and which aren't? We'll put scores out of 10, 10, they couldn't be better. Five, they're just good enough. Zero has neglected. And when we see the scores as a system, we can see the cause and effect relationships. (14:17): The question I then love to ask is if we just fixed one score this year, this is where the de-stress the whole thing comes in because 17 things to get right sounds pretty tough. So if I just fixed one score, which would have the biggest knock-on effect? If I just got more efficient at delivery or if I just got better at marketing or if I converted better or actually who I'm outsourcing to are letting me down, if I just outsourced to smarter people or automated, we can look at those or we go, our pricing's low, the pricing just isn't good enough. We're never going to make a profit. We've got enough work, we're efficient enough. So if I just fixed one score, what it would be? Then if I improved a second score and if I improved a third score, and then we just make a simple action plan and tackle them one by one and it's about iteration. (15:06): We try and create a very simple plan for the year ahead so we can go, I'll do the first one and I'll get to the other two later. I can relax going let's get that underway. But it's about not overdoing it as well. It's not over perfecting it's iteration. When I used to design things, what I would find was say doing a big machine, a high tech piece of machinery, if I perfected one corner, moved to the second corner, moved to the third corner, by the time I got to the fourth corner, all the problems were in the fourth corner and I couldn't resolve it. I had to start again. Whereas I learned to rough out the first, second, third, fourth corner and go, what's working? What isn't? Now let's go round again, and business growth should be the same. Don't overdo it, do it. So it's just good enough, move on and get your whole business, all these different elements good enough. Then see where you're at against your business model. Rinse and repeat. Carly Ries (15:58): Gosh, I just love this jet engine metaphor. A question on that is, you said there's 17 parts of those 17, is there one area that is a bigger barrier to growth than the other 16, or is it just kind of dependent on the client? Martin Riley (16:15): There are some common ones. The first is that the basic business model isn't right. The product or service isn't right for the people you're trying to attract. And that's a big no-no. The second is pricing. You're not selling it at the right price to ever make the profit you need. Then for small business owners, very often it's the marketing. They're busy doing the doing and don't have time for the marketing. Then it's the management accounts because they're not actually tracking the numbers. They're working really hard, but never stop and look, am I making money? Am I doing this profitably? It's about getting simple numbers in place. Not overdoing anything, but just trying to get all of those done simply. That's the essence here, find the simplest way of doing these things. Carly Ries (16:59): It's so funny because we have a community of solopreneurs and we hear time and time and time again that marketing is by far the biggest obstacle that they run into. It's just such a beast. I'm in marketing, that is my profession, and sometimes I'm like, Ugh, world. There's so much to tackle and I think it can be really intimidating. Martin Riley (17:20): Can I jump in there because please. A common mistake I find, because business owners haven't really stopped and thought through their numbers and asked how many clients do I really need a month or a year if I'm charging the right price? And for a lot of solo or small businesses, the numbers aren't huge. They're often doing quality, not quantity. They're not set up for vast quantities. And if you only need a few clients or customers doing a whole pile of very clever internet marketing out to everybody in the world, if all your customers are down at your local golf club, get a social membership. Ask what's the simplest way to get 10 customers or look them up in, what was the phone book? Look them up on Google Maps, go and talk to them. Go out and try and just introduce yourself, get on the phone. Marketing used to be so simple before we had all of this tech, and I think we've got a bit confused. Sometimes old school, very simple ways work. Come and say hello to someone. (18:22): Choose 10 people in your local area you'd love to work with and go and introduce yourself. But start with the person that's not quite on your list because you're going to get it wrong a few times. Go and practice it. Joe Rando (18:34): Yeah, send a letter. Back in the day it was so much junk mail and now send somebody a letter and they're like, oh, wow. Somebody cared enough to actually write. Carly Ries (18:44): My dad, when I was interviewing during college and after college and everything for my career, in the beginning he was like, write a thank you note. I remember being like, I'm just going to email a thank you note. No one writes thank you notes. And I would always write thank you notes and I would always get comments on them. To this day, and we were talking to another guest, Sarah Murray, who was on another episode, and she said that she just keeps thank you notes in her car because it just separates you from everybody else. It's just going back to the basics. Martin Riley (19:20): And that's where I think people get over complicated. They think there's this big thing called marketing where it's in the end you're just trying to explain to someone how you can solve challenges and problems for them or help 'em get what they want. Joe Rando (19:32): We've had such great luck reaching out to people on LinkedIn. Just finding people that meet the profile of who we want as part of our community and just sending 'em a little note and inviting them to an event and it's amazing. Martin Riley (19:45): Yeah, just a nice personal touch. Carly Ries (19:48): Martin, you were so thorough in explaining the different parts of the engine, and I really appreciate that. When I was trying to think of the questions to ask you, of course I was on your website as well, and you mentioned quite a bit about diagnosing your business. What is that and where does that fall into all of this? Martin Riley (20:02): Well, this comes back to when we lay out the system. It's a bit like creating a map or an x-ray. Before you treat a patient, you want to know what the problem is before you solve any problem. The better you understand the problem, the more the solution appears. Or if you want to navigate to somewhere, you've got to know where you are first. So the diagnosis is going, okay, against our business plan, against our business model, the numbers we need this year, we need to know how well set up we are. If some bits are strong and some bits are week, the weaknesses will let us down. We need to understand what they are. Typically, most business owners will have built their business around their strengths and they will be letting themselves down around the areas they're neglecting. This is a reminder, you can be working your socks off, but if you're not looking at the numbers to make sure you're making a profit, wow, that's a lot of work. (20:59): That's a lot of love. That's a lot of life energy. You are just giving to someone else. Wonderful and beautiful as that is, but what about you and your family and the people around you, you want to serve and care for and look after too? You've got to look after you. If a lot of small business owners are scared of their numbers, but if they keep 'em simple, they don't need to be. They need to do those. Others are passionate about the numbers, but they're not really caring for the clients in the same way. They're not people pleasing in the same way. So it's developing those other areas. It's a rough reminder. The diagnosis is really check where you are and then decide how you're going to get where you want to go, and that's where the planning then follows from that. Carly Ries (21:41): Yeah, absolutely. I'm actually so happy you said something you said you have to look after you. And the one other question I wanted to ask you today, which is kind of pivoting from this. This can all seem very overwhelming. There are 17 parts of a business you have to look after. That can be a 25 hour a day job around the clock, really stressful. How do people continue to find the joy in building and growing their business while also maintaining that family life, that young person life, whatever it is. Do you have any recommendations for that? Because this is a lot. Martin Riley (22:14): Yeah, it is. It can so easily be overwhelming. I want to give you a practical suggestion, and I want to give you a philosophical suggestion because it is such a great and important question you're asking. Stress is a huge issue and it's a killer. The first practical one is by doing what I do where we lay out just simple plans. What am I going to tackle first, second, third? I'm not going to over perfect them. I'm going to do them so they're just good enough and move on. We're going to iterate. When you have that sense, "okay, these are things I'm going to get to" and there's a lot to do. The simplest tip I've got is something I call three notes on a post-it or a sticky note, and it's using the 80 20 rule. I'll look at my week's to-do list and I'll go, okay, for today, if there were three things that will take 40 minutes to an hour to an hour and a half, three main tasks that are going to make the biggest difference today, what are they? (23:09): I put those on my sticky note and my whole day focuses around getting those done. Now, if I know a task is going to take far more than that 40 minute hour timeframe, I chunk it down. I go, what bit of that task? If I've got to write a presentation, rather than try and write the whole presentation perfectly, I'll go, let's get the bullet points down in that 40 minutes, and then I'll come back at a later date and flesh it out. And then the third time I'll come round and perfect it. I won't try and kill myself in one go. I have those three key tasks on my sticky note, and then I have three nice to haves that are those 10, 15, 20 minute tasks. That phone call, you tend to procrastinate or that tax return that you tend to hold off on or that email that's a little bit complicated, but you've got to send it and you keep delaying. (23:56): I put those hot but shorter tasks that I keep delaying that will move me forward again. I like to write those out the night before. So my unconscious, "that is what I'm going to do". I go to sleep knowing what I'm going to do, and in the morning, my whole day focuses around those. I turn the phone off, I don't have distractions, I turn the emails off. It's just focus time to get those big chunks done. It might be I do a big task and then I fire off some other stuff. I'll give myself a time limit, and then I'll get onto the next chunky task and then clear some of those other bits, have lunch, have a break, then come back and get the third one done. And also it's knowing what your energy is. (24:39): When do you do task best? Really focused, creative or writing tasks or planning tasks or thinking tasks? For me, they're best first thing in the morning. So I really try and make sure I protect that time. If I get to later in the day after lunch, I'd rather do something more practical. If something needs organizing or I need to go and go out and get something, I'll do those at a different time of day. So the three notes on a sticky is really, really useful. The philosophical suggestion, so many people are living on the basis "When I get somewhere, then I'll be happy. When I'm bigger, better, stronger, faster, richer, more successful, then I can be happy." Now working with stress and business owners, so often I say, well, when you get there, what is it you really want to be able to do? Well, then I can relax and I've got money in the bank. Well, what would you do? Well, I'd go and play with the kids, or I'd go and lie on the grass and look at the clouds. I say, "well, you can do that now. (25:35): What's stopping you right now from doing that?" "Well, I can't till I know I've got enough money in the bank." I think we have to recognize happiness never really comes in the future. If we can't be happy now, we're never going to be happy when we're bigger, better, faster, richer, stronger, sexier, there's always someone bigger, better, faster, stronger, richer, sexy when we get there, or we're going to lose it soon. So we've got to hang onto it. That's another thing to be scared of and not happy yet. We've just got to learn to be happy in the present and (26:07): Love working when we are working. Then go, "I've done my best. Now let's go and do the other things that make me happy." Let's play with the kids. Let's spend some time with my partner. Let's go and lie on the grass and look at the sky, knowing I've done my best today. I've got my three things ticked off, and if I only got two, so be it. I'm doing my best. Joe Rando (26:26): I love that. That's a lesson I had to learn over years. And this afternoon, normally I'd be at it till 6 30, 7 o'clock, but I'm taking off at five o'clock and going to trivia with my daughter and son-in-law and wife and granddaughter. She's not going to help much, she's only two. But those kinds of things, you're so right on. Martin Riley (26:54): Yeah. Carly Ries (26:55): Thank you for saying that. I feel like that's one of the biggest things that gets put on the back burner for solopreneurs. I really wanted to shed light on that, and I knew you'd be a good person to ask. Martin, you spend your life trying to help people create their own success. So we have to ask you, what is your favorite quote about success? Martin Riley (27:18): This I think helps lead to success, and it's the Einstein quote, which he may not have even said, but it's always attributed to him which is "we can't solve today's problems with the thinking that created them". I'm a creative problem solver so I love the idea that if you're stuck, if you're not solving the problems, you need fresh input, get some fresh ideas. That will move your thinking onto a new level and help you solve your problems at a new level. So that's one, that's the practical one. The philosophical one comes from Joseph Campbell, who was a mythologist, and he mentored George Lucas who did Star Wars, and he created the Hero's Journey that's very well known in Hollywood. A lot of the great movies follow this script. One of his favorite phrases was "Follow Your Bliss", which is that idea, which I don't totally subscribe to. (28:11): "When you do what you truly love, you'll never work another day of your life". I've worked some hard days in my life, and I love what I do, lots of other things I love to do as well. But it is that find your passion, follow your bliss, find what lifts your energy, what excites you and stirs you. If it doesn't feel meaningful and it doesn't raise your soul what you do because in some way you are serving, then find something that does. I think that's so key because it's all part of the edge. That's when you do better, because you have that edge if you balance it with the other two. So follow your bliss. Joe Rando (28:47): Sometimes it can be a challenge when you find something you love too much. Because I had this years ago, I had to give up programming computers because I could start at 6:00 AM and then it would be midnight, and I had a family, and it was like, okay, I have to hire programmers because I can't control this. Kind of like people with cigarettes. It's like I was addicted to it, so sometimes your bliss can be a little too blissful. Martin Riley (29:16): Yeah, self awareness and someone else pointing it out. Carly Ries (29:20): Well, Martin, this has been so wonderful. I really appreciate your perspective on all of this. I think it's a unique take with the metaphor. If people want to learn more about you or reach out to you for your services, where can they find you? Martin Riley (29:33): Simplest way is the website businessjetengine.com or .co.uk. It links to both, obviously. It's all one word businessjetengine on the homepage at the bottom, there's my socials, or they can join an email newsletter, or if they go to the button free tools, there are a few things they can download, including a freebie version of The Business Jet Engine, the diagnostic tool that they can have a play around. Carly Ries (30:02): Please do. It's funny, my daughter is still in the phase that she likes to look up at the sky to look for airplanes. So we do that almost every day. Now I'm going to look at it in a completely different way. Now your metaphor is just always going to be in my head. Martin Riley (30:17): Fantastic. And if anyone wants to email me, they can always email me Martin@businessjetengine.co.uk I'd love to hear from any of you. Carly Ries (30:24): Wonderful, Well, thank you so much for coming on the show. We really appreciate it. I had a great time. Listeners, we hope you feel the same. We're sure you will. Don't forget to listen to us next week and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts or on YouTube. We'll see you next time. Closing (30:43): You may be going solo in business, but that doesn't mean you're alone. In fact, millions of people are in your shoes running a one person business and figuring it out as they go. So why not connect with them and learn from each other's successes and failures? At LifeStarr, we're creating a one-person business community where you can go to meet and get advice from other solopreneurs. Be sure to join in on the conversations at community.lifestarr.com