Latest / My Accounting Advantage / How To Hire With Clarity Using The Buyback Loop

Transcript

How To Hire With Clarity Using The Buyback Loop · My Accounting Advantage

• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: Hello and welcome back to the podcast My Accounting Advantage.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: My name's Lee Woodward, and joining us is our regular accountant who's not regular giving specialist advice every day.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: My Harris, welcome back.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Lee.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_01: Nice to be back.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: And today we're back in business mode.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: We've done so much on self-managed super funds and loans that it's been incredible.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: But let's bring it back to the people part of business here.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: And today's title is Don't Hire Someone to Solve a Problem You Don't Understand.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: Now, as a consultant myself, I see so many people think I'm in trouble, I'm going to get a person, but that's not the solution.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: And you can't fix problems with labor.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember doing some amazing study tools over to the Philippines as the Manila folder went to Manila and people thought outsourcing will fix it.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I always think, if you can't get it right here with people in front of you, what makes you think you can do it on the other side of the world with people who listen to you?
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: So, my what do you see as getting out of today's episode?
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_01: Today's episode is I just want to talk about, you know, this is from my own experience as well.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_01: That we all go through this business growth period and everything is chaotic and growth is great, but then people's strategy has to change.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: And there's more.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_01: There's always more for you to do.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_01: And there's more problem to come because because of the growth of the business.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: You know, the business is evolving, changing.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: And um I myself got stuck into doing more work and spending more time at work.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: And then I'm thinking to myself, how can I resolve this?
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: Because I this is not what I wanted to do and it's not sustainable.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_01: So automatically you think that you need another person.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: And really, if you don't really know what problem you are trying to solve in the first place, the new person who you're actually introducing into the business don't really know that problem in the like at all in the first place because you haven't identified it and you haven't provided clarity and clear direction for that person.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that person has no chance of solving your problem.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_01: So all of a sudden you'll be stuck with the same problem with more people to manage.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_01: So that's double the work.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_01: And then you get even more frustrated.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_01: So you circle back to where you were.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_01: So it is so important to identify what problems you are solving first.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: Ma, this is so important.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: And for all our business owners listening to this today, I want you to walk into your business.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: And this is the I would do this all the time.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: I had 22 staff.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: I'd walk into my commercial building, which was owned by my self-managed superfund.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: God bless it.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I'd look at all the staff and I'd ask myself one question.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: Are you adding or subtracting?
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: And there's a lot of people on payroll who are subtracting.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: They don't believe in the business, they don't like working there, they're there because we haven't worked it out yet, but they're not actually adding to the business.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone's either adding or subtracting.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: And right now, anyone everyone can close their eyes, see their staff, and you know who they are.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: They have a name and you know who's safe hands and who's not.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: However, you can get rid of that person and they'll turn up with a different name.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: Because the problem is, well, actually you've got to assess for all people.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: Is it a training issue?
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: Is it a beliefs issue?
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: What is it?
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: But what we're discussing today is you've got to identify the problem.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: And if you can't fix it, you can't hire someone to fix it unless they are more expensive than you because you just don't want the problem.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I know in my world, I learned many, many years ago, you've got to become your own mechanic.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: If you can't fix it, well then even if you find someone to fix it if they leave, you've got a gaping hole.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: So what's your advice?
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: My advice is that you know you really need to sit down, take a breather, and identified why you are feeling this the way you are feeling now, which is flustered and you feel like you're in this chaotic mode.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_01: So if you were to hire and you're under this chaos already, by hiring someone else without knowing what they're going to be doing for you, that you're just hoping that they'll just fix the problem for you, you're just hiring more chaos.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_01: So you just gotta realize that.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_01: So the principle that I follow when, you know, I had a chance to think about this, and also now I'm teaching other business owners as well to follow this principle is to, you know, follow the buyback loop.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_01: So, what is the buyback loop?
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_01: The buyback loop is when you audit transfer fill.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_01: So you need to audit your time to see what you are spending most of your time on and why is it that it's taking so much of your time?
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_01: Can someone else do these tasks for you?
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: Does it require you to actually complete this task?
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_01: If the answer is no, well then that's one that you put down to be, you know, documented and then you can transfer.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, often you are a bottleneck because you're just doing low-value work that you shouldn't be doing, but you didn't think that anyone else could do.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: So it's all about, you know, and just audit your time, let's just say for two weeks, and understanding how many hours you worked and what are you working on, and then making a point of writing everything down and then document things.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_01: You you can't fix anything if you don't measure it.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_01: So you need to measure first by measuring your time, where you spend your money, and where you spend your and what tasks you actually doing.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_01: And then step two is to identify, you know, what are the what are the things that you are what what are those tasks that you are doing?
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_01: And um, is it draining my energy?
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_01: Is it a repetitious task?
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: And like I said, does it require your expertise?
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_01: And if it's not, document them and hand them over.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_01: Create a system.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_01: So number three is to create a system.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_01: So what is the system?
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of people ask me that because I kept saying you need to create system, and I go, Well, what is it?
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_01: Well, after you identified, you know, what you spend your time on and you document the process, now you put in the sequencing, how the task should be done.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_01: So you define what done looks like for the person that you're assigning the task to.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_01: Because a lot of the time you we have this assumption in our mind that when we hire someone who's experienced in their field, and they will just automatically know what you want them to do.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_01: They don't because you do things differently to others and to them as well.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_01: So you need to define what does done look like and so that they meet your expectation.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_01: You create workflows and you know, you also provide them with KPIs to measure the success and the progress.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_01: So that's system.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so once you have done step one to step three, well, then that's when you are ready for the final step.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: Step four, which is hiring.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_01: So once you have all of those things in place, you're ready.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_01: You're ready to put put someone into that position to alleviate your time and to buy back your time.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_01: So unless you have done all of the steps, you are not ready.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: And unfortunately, yes, it takes time, but it's something that needs to be done.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_01: But once it's done, you don't have to do it again.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_01: The system's in place and you just keep tweaking it.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_01: So um you'll find that, you know, the next high will be much better than the one you one you had with no direction at all.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: Couldn't agree more.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: Repeatable performances is what we're trying to achieve here.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: And someone can get so good at repeatable performances that they do it better than you.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: What really struck me about that four-step process there, Mai, is every business owner should be thinking about the sale of their business every day.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: And if the business only works with you in it, it ain't worth anything.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yet if these systems are in place that repeatable performances, and I'll give you the best example I can of a repeatable performance.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: I absolutely love how a 16-year-old person can burn toast at home, can't cook, but turn up to Maccas and build Big Macs.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's a repeatable performance.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: There's steps in a sequence.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: And even the mums and dads are like, How did you build that?
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I just follow the steps.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: I don't have to know, I'm not a chef, but I can follow steps.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: And the McDonald's training system is one of the greatest in the world.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: If they can get all those kids to turn up and produce the food at the pace they do, and people keep coming back, it's an incredible business.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_01: And you know what?
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um, having a system for humans to follow is something that uh very close to my heart at the moment because I am implementing that system within my own business.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm encouraging a lot of other businesses to do the same because we need to build a sustainable business and a solid base if you want to scale.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_01: And many businesses that I've coached have done this.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_01: The the rate that they scale their business is immense, you know.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_01: So that's a really good base for every business to aim to because a lot of people go through the the pro the hiring process and skipping the audit process, going straight to delegation, and they don't really know what they're trying to achieve from hiring that new position.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: Molly, give us a business case study of recent times that really reflects what we're speaking about.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_01: So in in the past two weeks I met with a client who owns a medical practice, and um she has never had like never managed a medical practice before.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_01: And her husband is also, you know, specialist surgeon, and their business had triple in the past year.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_01: So they feel the need that now they need to establish a proper medical practice to commodate for the increase in revenue and patients, etc.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_01: So they straight away think that they should just go and hire a practice manager.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_01: So she had this conversation with me and she was quite stressed about the whole process.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, Look, what is the problem?
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_01: And she couldn't tell me what the problem is, what are the challenges that she is facing.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_01: She just said, look, we just don't know what we are doing because we never worked in the medical practice before.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_01: And I never managed a medical practice before.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_01: I've just been thrown into this situation because I'm trying to help my husband grow his business.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, Okay, fair enough.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_01: So what have you done so far?
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_01: So she said, We've advertised for a practice manager position already.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_01: I said, Well, okay, without um any job description.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_01: She said, Well systems.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's right.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_01: Or knowing what problems they are trying to solve.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, Okay, so what were you hoping to get as an outcome from hiring this practice manager?
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_01: She said, Well, I'm I'm hoping that once we hired this person, they just come in and they can just solve the problems.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm said, Well, what are the problems?
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_01: And she said, I don't know.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm just hoping that she'll just land and all the problems will go away.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: With the magic wand.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_01: And and I'm actually said, Look, I just really think that this is a bad idea because this person just going to come in and they're going to ask you because they're your employee.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_01: They're gonna ask you what they're supposed to do for you.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_01: But if you don't really know what they're supposed to do for you, how are they going to start working for you?
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_01: So they really don't know what the problem is.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_01: So that's yeah, that's quite concerning to me.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_01: So I said to her, look, you know, I think we need to just pause that for a minute and uh and then we need to look at your mindset shift that someone can just come in, solve your problem.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_01: That's not going to be the case because we need to identify what the problems are first.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_01: If you don't know what your problems are and what you need to fix first, well then you need to think about the who and not the how because you don't know the how.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_01: And by the time you learn how to run the medical practice, it's going to be years and we don't have that time.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_01: So I suggested that yes, let's do a bit of a shift.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_01: Rather than looking at the problem, we need a professional.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_01: So a lot of the time, you know, we so focus on solving the problem.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_01: And we asking ourselves, how can we solve the problem?
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_01: But we don't really know because we don't have that expertise and experience.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_01: So then you need to shift your mind to the who.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_01: Who can help me?
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_01: And that who could really save you time and money and energy and stress.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_01: Because why?
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_01: Because they've done it before.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_01: So before you actually, you know, making plans to learn how to do certain things that you've never done before and it's going to take you a long time and you're not an ex expert at that area, think about who rather than how.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_01: So that will fast track you into solution much quicker than you think.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: My today's episode is bigger than the episode.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's actually about business maturity.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: And there's I would urge everyone to go back through this particular topic because the answers are in the track.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: And you're even going through this yourself, as you mentioned in the beginning.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you've got this great opportunity of scale, yet the right person can't just turn up to your business and say, I'll fix it, because they've never been there before.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll give this point of importance.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: I've seen people turn up to businesses to fix them, and they completely change the business to the way they do business, which had nothing to do with the business success of the business, and then they go.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: And now we have another version of the business that no one understands, and that you've got to be your own mechanic, means I know the repeatable performances, I built the business, but I've got to pass it down the line clean, yes, completely systemized.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: And with AI today, there is so much you can do with talk it, transcribe it, and then build the system list.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: In your wrap-up of today, what's important to you?
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_01: Well, it's important that if you feel overwhelmed in your business right now, and before you post a job ad and hoping that that next person that you hire will just solve the problem for you, unfortunately, I think there won't.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_01: Like there might alleviate some pain, but they won't solve all the problems for you.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_01: So it's important for you to look back, audit your time to see what you are spending your time on, and then identify the bottleneck.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_01: Document the process, and then if you're stuck, you know, you don't look at how I'm going to solve this problem.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_01: Look for the who to solve that problem for you.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_01: And then once you've got all of that crossed out, you are ready to hire.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: My Harris, another great addition.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: I look forward to next week, and thank you for joining us on My Accounting Advantage.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Lee.