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EVERYBODY WANTS SOMETHING FROM ME! · SliderCuts This Is Ownership Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Today has been one of those days that I feel like only owners understand.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: One of those days where everybody wanted a piece of me.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody wanted a slice.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: And it's one of those situations where I just feel like no one seems to understand around me how busy I actually am.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: And this is what you get when you're running a small business.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason why I say this is what you get when you're running a small business, because I just feel like if you're running a medium to large business or a large business, some of the things that small business owners get and some of the questions they have and people contacting them, you just wouldn't get.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: And in my situation, it's always like I've got structures in my business.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: And even though I tell people what they should do, the people they should contact, they seem to have this issue.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I find it that small business owners understand this.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: They people feel like, you know, but no, but I want to come to you.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: And they don't realize I run a business and there's different departments.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: So sometimes you may feel like you want me to deal with it, but I don't know how to deal with it.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: Because that's why I've got a PA.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: That's why we've got receptionists.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: That's why I haven't got one right now.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: But before I had a publicist, a PR company.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: That's why we have other barbers that work here.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: That's why I got barbers that specialise in certain things.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: That's why I've got an accountant.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: That's why I've got an in-house bookkeeper.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: So that I can focus on the things that I do best.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: But if you want something in my business that someone else can do, I will direct you to that person.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: But people seem to have this issue where they feel like you feel like you're too good or you're too big, what you're too big to respond to messages now.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, if you don't know who I am already, my name is Mark McKyver, and this is The Slider Cuts.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: This is Ownership Podcast where I talk all things real business, ownership, and beyond.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm talking about running a small business and how people don't respect small business owners because they just feel like you must have time to do everything.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: So I'll give you examples of things that happen.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: We've got receptionists in the shop, we got a booking system.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: So you can go online and book.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: Book yourself in.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: If it says I'm not available, I'm not available.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: But if you want to, this is what I've told people I know.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: Call the reception, the receptionist, because there may be something that could be done.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe I may be deciding to open up early tomorrow.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe I might decide to stay later.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: Speak to the receptionist.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: So there's a couple people that message me.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: I've told them this.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: But they still message me.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: And then they still get annoyed when I don't respond.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: But they can get the thing which they want by going to the source that I directed them to.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: This happens all the time.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm just like, when they call the receptionists, they get the thing they want.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: But there's something inside people where it's almost like, no, but I want to deal with you, and why are you not dealing with me?
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: Even though, even if we didn't have receptionists, we've I've got a booking system for a reason.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: I stopped taking bookings over the phone a long time ago, and the reason why was because it was taking up too much of my time.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: It was actually affecting my relationship, my marriage.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: Because I was spending four to five hours every night on the phone, just messaging people back, just going through appointments, booking people in, and it had to stop.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: But this is just one element.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: I've got clients that are contacting me because they want haircuts, even though there's other methods to go to, right?
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: Other places they can go to.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: They've been directed to those places as well.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: But I run a family.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: I've got a wife, I've got children.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: In my day, I'm running about, drop my kids to school.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: I had to go to a dentist appointment today, come back, had to do some stuff, help my wife with some stuff.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: Then I had to go to a meeting that I had, which was like from 12 to or just like quarters of 12, 12 to like half one.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: Then straight from there, I had to go pick up my son because he had an orthodentist appointment to go straight there, got him, picked him up, took him straight there, to come straight back to pick up my other son and my daughter from um school and nursery to come home, then help my wife, because she's having a birthday party, go help her, you know, pick up some chairs.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: Then I had to squeeze in, um, looking at some content that I had to kind of like, you know, um put out today.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: Then I forgot to mention this at some point in my day.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: I realized, you know, yesterday when I was going to pick up my children from school, I had a flat tire.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: So today I took my bike and my daughter's bike that's not working earlier on to the bike shop and I got a full service and so on.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: So then later on I got the message it's working, cool.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: So my son has to go to football, cool.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: Then I go get my bike, I go pick up the stuff.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I pick up the stuff for my wife, then I get my bike, then I go straight from my bike back to my son to watch him playing playing football, training at football, come home, food, just put all the kids to bed, and now I'm up here.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: Because this is just a list of things I've done in my day.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: But the thing I haven't actually mentioned is all the people that have contacted me today, all the people that want my attention, some of them for good reasons, and some of them they have other options, but they choose not to go there.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I always look at this and say, and I'm not saying you know, us small business owners or me what on this same level, but you wouldn't look at the owner of YouTube or Google or Facebook and say, hey, do you know what?
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: This thing isn't working right now, so you know, just because you know the owner of Google, you know the owner of Facebook or whatever it is, you wouldn't go to the owners and say, Oh, you know what, my thing was glitching yesterday, can you sort it out?
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: You wouldn't, and the reason why you wouldn't is because you know they don't probably do the coding and the fixing and all that stuff there, there's other departments.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: But when you run a small business, even when you show people the other departments, they still feel that you should do everything.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: Like I have people even in my shop that do this, where like, and it's funny because this happened to me yesterday, two days ago, and this is no offense, is this is light, so it's not even like you know, if the person watches it and realizes I'm talking about them, it's not like it's anything that deep, but it's just a real situation where one of the barbers said to me, Hey, um, can you edit something within their appointments, right?
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: But here's a couple things one, he can edit it and he can edit it himself.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: Two, why is he asking me and not the receptionist?
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: The receptionist wasn't in yet, but the receptionist was coming in in like an hour because it was in the morning.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: But he could ask the receptionist, right?
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: Or wait till she comes in and ask the receptionist to do it.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: Now, he hasn't done that because he's thinking to himself, I should ask the receptionist, but no, I'm just gonna ask Mark instead.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's just instinctive, but people don't know, like, and I didn't, and I said to him, Oh, cool, yeah, cool, cool, cool.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: But I didn't do it, and why did I not do it?
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: Why don't they just slip my mind anyway?
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: And also, I'm working, I'm I was busy, it's not on my it's not in my head, it's not in my mind, right?
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: But this is just an example of what I'm saying, where it's like when you're running a small business, everybody expects everything from you.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: My barbers don't realize how much I speak to all the barbers because and I've said this in meetings, I say to them, look, when I speak to you, no one else here knows that I'm speaking to you.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: So, how do you know how many people I'm speaking to?
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: Because I never come out and say, Hey guys, I had a really long meeting with one of the barbers just letting everybody know.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: So, why do you feel like you're the only one contacting me?
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I'll be on the phone and I'll be talking to my PA.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: And as I'm talking to my PA, and I remember showing one of my barbers this one time, I was like, Look, look, look, look at this.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: As soon as I got off the phone to you, look, before I got off the phone to you, my PA was ringing me.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: So then when I got off the phone to you, I'm speaking to my PA.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: As soon as I got off from speaking to my PA, the in-house bookkeeper was calling me.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: I got off and spoke to them.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: As soon as I got off there, look, the receptionists are calling me about something, I got off the phone to them.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: They said, Look, my wife is calling me.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: Look, this person's calling me.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: So when you message me or I miss a call and you're thinking I want to call you back, it's not that I'm intending not to call you back.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's because I forget and other people are messaging me.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: Or when you message me, right, and you're saying, okay, it's just a quick, you can just give me a quick answer.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: What you may not realize is if you look at my phone, you've messaged me now, so you're at the top.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: But by the time I even look at my phone properly, I may have had five to six or seven other messages.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: So now your message, which is at the top, is now going down, down, down, down, down.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: And when I finally look at my message, I might look at this the last message and deal with that message.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes I see all these messages, but it's just too much for me to deal with.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's difficult to, especially when I have an infrastructure and there's so much people that just don't respect it.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: And even the people that do respect it, it's sometimes it just slips their mind that they don't understand that you can be that busy.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: And when you speak to small business owners, you'll find out yes, it is that busy busy, and the reason why it's even also so busy is because a lot of times with small business owners, they actually are doing all the different departments, or they are working in the majority of the departments in their business because they can't afford to yet have all these different sections.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: I've got different um sections in my business, but there are still things that I have to do because I just maybe haven't got the funds right now to be like, okay, or it's not we haven't got the money right now to be like, okay, I'm gonna um hire someone to be head of that department.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: But as the business makes more money, I will, right?
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: But it means that my time is just taken up.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: And when I started off this podcast today, when I was saying everybody wants something from me, this is how it feels so often, where it's like everybody wants something from me, and it feels like no one appreciates the time that I'm given to them because they see it as it's a given, you should just give to me.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: And no one's thankful for the time I give to them, but everybody is disgruntled when they don't get that time.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: So when I don't respond back to your message, or when I don't get back to you, or when I'm not responding to your messages about booking a haircut in because you have got the options or things you can do, but you're choosing not to, or you're forgetting, just thinking, okay, I can't be bothered.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: Mark would Mark should just do it, right?
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I think what is also hard is just that people just don't believe that you can be that busy.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: Like, and there's other people which be around you, right?
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I've had this before, I've had it, it happens where people who feel like they're in the same situation as you because aesthetically it looks like you guys are the same.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: And what I mean by that is you could work with someone, right?
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: You could have, you could both be married, you could both have exactly the same amount of children.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: Your children could be the exact same age, you could work the exact same amount of hours, you could work, let's say you work 40 hours a week, you could be working 40 hours a week each, right?
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: You could you could live next door to each other, go to the same shops, your children could go to the same school.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, everything about your life is similar, it's a it's a mirror.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: You're both the same age, your wives are the same age.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, everything is the same, right?
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: Or is aesthetically on the surface level looks the same.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: But your life isn't the same.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: Because I've because, as an example, you don't realize that when you finish work, yeah, you get a couple customers contacting you, but when you're running a business, I've got customers contacting me as well.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: But I've also got you contacting me because you have an issue with something that's happened in a barber shop.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: That could be a dispute with someone else, that could be something that's not working, that could be there's a leak in the shop, that could be their chair is broken, and then another barber contacts to say, actually, yeah, um, there's loose flooring here.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: Another barber contacts and says, You know what?
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: This other barber keeps doing this thing, I want you to resolve.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: Then the receptionist calls and says, Hey, um, there's a complaint in the shop.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: Some some customer said that they're not happy about this thing there.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: What should we do about it?
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: And then my in-house bookkeeper comes in and says, Hey, I just want to go through with you some finances and some figures.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: You're like, okay, cool.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: Then my PA contacts me to say, Look, you've got this email saying that they want you to be part of this um brand endorsement type thing.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: And you're like, okay, cool.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: And then my social media manager or social media assistant calls me and says, Hey, um, have you approved this thing?
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: Can I put this out today?
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: And you're like, okay, and on and on and on.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: So on the surface level, it could look like, yeah, we live the same life.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: We got we're doing exactly the same thing, everything about our lives mirrors each other.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: But no, you haven't got all these other responsibilities because you don't run a business, and that's not like a shot to be like, oh, well, you don't run a business.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: No, it's just it just means there's more work, and there's more work than you could even imagine.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it's the people, especially.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: Because what people also don't see is people come with your their problems, and that could be a staff member that I mean, this staff member, the barbers, the receptionists, the back-end problems that you have to deal with.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: And what's difficult about it, you could say, is I'm not gonna talk about it to anyone else.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna come out to everyone and say, hey, just let everyone know I'm dealing with this problem that this staff member has.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: So no one sees it, so it's not even fully their fault to some degree, but they just don't see it, and they just feel like when you do not respond to them going back to the beginning, they have an issue with you, and they just can't fathom that maybe there's just so much going on in your life, it is difficult.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: But this is ownership, this is ownership, and when you run a small business, especially, no one fathoms how busy you can actually be.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: And not only that, how busy you are, they don't actually don't realize that because a lot of people think, well, if you run a business, you're making money, and don't realize that most small businesses aren't really making as much money as you think they are.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: Most small businesses are treading water, trying to survive, which means they're even more busy because they've always got on their mind, okay, how am I gonna make this money back?
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I need to pay this tomorrow.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, the rent's coming out, oh, business rates is coming out, oh, I need to pay this, oh, this is decline.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: How am I gonna get the money for that?
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: So even when they're just sitting down and it looks like they're doing nothing, you don't even realize they are thinking about all the things that's going on in their business, but then everybody just wants a piece of you.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: But I guess this is what comes with the territory of running a business.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: It just comes with it, it's not gonna change.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: And those who do not run businesses or have never run a business may not understand.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: And what's funny is even those which have run businesses before and been in that situation, as soon as they become, let's say, like an employee or a staff member or a friend or whatever it is, right?
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: They just switch up, and it's almost like I'm not our owner no more.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: That's not my mindset.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: I don't care, I want your time.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's almost like they just forget, like, like you know, the um in Men in Black when they their memory's being wiped, so it's just almost like they don't remember any of that no more.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: Or just that people are selfish and they just care about themselves.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: Listen, I want what I want, whatever it is, right?
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: You just find yourself being pulled in different directions.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: But like I said, I guess this is ownership, and today's just been one of the days where I've been so busy with all these things going on, and on top of that, just everybody wanting my attention, and it's difficult to give it to them.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not because I'm too bougie or I'm too big, it's just that I am busy, you know, and that's what's really hard on a heart level that it annoys me that people think that, oh, you think you're too good or you think you're too big.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: I remember like 10 years ago when I got a PA, and I remember people saying to me, What do you mean you got a PA?
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: People used to be annoyed by that.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: What do you mean?
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: What would you what would you mean why do you need a PA for?
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: You're a barber.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: What do you mean you got a PA?
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: People getting annoyed with me that have no business with me, right?
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: But just annoyed that, you know, what do you mean you think you're just you're big?
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: Like, why would you have a PA for?
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: What is that?
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: Why are you irritated?
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: And then I say to people, because people complain about me getting back to people, so now there's a way, like, you know, if you want something from me, email me, my PA will pick it up.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: Or at the time I said, you know, contact my PA, and people will be like, I'm not contacting your PA.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: What do you mean?
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: Why can't you deal with it?
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: And it's just like, you can't win, can you?
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: You want something from me, I've worked out a way through to get it, and you're annoyed now because ultimately people just feel like it makes them feel like you're above them, and it's not that, I'm just trying to get things done.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: But this is ownership anyway, and this has been another episode of The Slider Cuts.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: This is Ownership Podcast, where I talk all things real business ownership and beyond.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: If you've enjoyed the episode, please let me know in the comments.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: If you're an owner and you can relate, please let me know in the comments.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: Also, if you are a barbershop owner, or to be honest, a salon owner and you want to learn how to run your business better, put better structures in place, how you can maximize the money and more, join my School of Owners community group.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: The link is in the description.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: And if you join, I'll see you inside.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: And if you don't join, then you can see me next week, or if you're listening to me, listen to me next week.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: Peace.