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Prioritizing People over Payroll with Charles Read · The Heart-Led Business Show

• 0:01
  Speaker: Welcome to the Heart Led Business Show, where compassion meets commerce and leaders lead with love.
• 0:09
  Speaker: Join your host, Tom Jackobs, as he delves into the insightful conversations with visionary business leaders who defy the status quo, putting humanity first and profit second.
• 0:20
  Speaker: From heartfelt strategies to inspiring stories, this podcast is your compass in the world of conscious capitalism.
• 0:29
  Speaker: So buckle up and let's go.
• 0:31
  Speaker: Let your heart guide your business journey.
• 0:36
  Tom Jackobs: Ladies and gentlemen, take a seat and tweet a greet for our nimble number night.
• 0:41
  Tom Jackobs: The chuckling Charles J.
• 0:43
  Tom Jackobs: Read, a heroic Vietnam vet and former IRS advisory council member.
• 0:49
  Tom Jackobs: Who crunches cash calculus and tax tasks with charisma and charm.
• 0:55
  Tom Jackobs: It's not all dollars and cents with Charles.
• 0:57
  Tom Jackobs: He's mastered at making payroll a parade.
• 1:01
  Tom Jackobs: So butter your earbuds as he shares the heart throbbing hustle behind his brainchild, Get Payroll, right here on the Heart Led Business Show.
• 1:10
  Tom Jackobs: Charles, thanks for joining me.
• 1:11
  Charles Read: Tom, thanks for such an interesting introduction.
• 1:15
  Charles Read: It's a pleasure to be here.
• 1:16
  Charles Read: Thank you for having me.
• 1:17
  Tom Jackobs: Absolutely.
• 1:18
  Tom Jackobs: That was a, one of the more tongue twister of introductions that I've had.
• 1:23
  Tom Jackobs: Thanks for being patient as I went through that.
• 1:25
  Tom Jackobs: The first question that I always like to ask my guests is what's your definition of a heart led business?
• 1:31
  Charles Read: And you know, that's, I'm an accountant.
• 1:33
  Charles Read: I'm a CPA.
• 1:34
  Charles Read: We're numbers people.
• 1:35
  Charles Read: So, I got into business with my wife and my wife was very much of a people person.
• 1:41
  Charles Read: So, it was her influence that in the beginning that created a lot of what our business is and became.
• 1:48
  Charles Read: And so a heart led business is, you know, you can define it in itself.
• 1:52
  Charles Read: You mean from your heart, but it's one where you value things other than just analytical things.
• 1:58
  Charles Read: It is, it's very much amorphous.
• 2:01
  Charles Read: It's not easy to quantify particularly hard for an accountant, but it is being in tune with your people, both your clients and your employees.
• 2:10
  Tom Jackobs: Nice.
• 2:10
  Tom Jackobs: So that in tune with the clients and the employees what all is entailed with that?
• 2:15
  Tom Jackobs: Cause I, you know, we hear a lot of the corporate mumble jumble about, you know, people first and things like that, but what does that really mean, especially for you and your company?
• 2:23
  Charles Read: You accomplish the mission at whatever it takes.
• 2:26
  Charles Read: That's the first goal.
• 2:28
  Charles Read: Then you take care of your men.
• 2:29
  Charles Read: And only after you've taken care of your men do you take care of yourself.
• 2:32
  Charles Read: So, if there's ever a time paychecks have to be shorted, it's mine.
• 2:37
  Charles Read: If there is a benefit available, it goes to my employees first.
• 2:42
  Charles Read: Not to me.
• 2:42
  Charles Read: My job is to take care of them, not to take care of me first.
• 2:47
  Charles Read: And that makes a great deal of difference.
• 2:49
  Charles Read: Then you apply that to your customers as well, to your clients.
• 2:53
  Charles Read: You bend over backwards for your clients.
• 2:55
  Charles Read: One of my favorite sayings is there's never a traffic jam on the extra mile.
• 2:59
  Charles Read: If you go the extra mile for your clients, you will stand out because your competitors won't.
• 3:05
  Charles Read: So, that's taking care of your employees and taking care of your clients.
• 3:09
  Charles Read: For instance, our bereavement policy is you take what you need.
• 3:13
  Charles Read: I'm not going to say you, you have to do it in three days.
• 3:16
  Charles Read: One of my ladies here she ended up being the person responsible.
• 3:20
  Charles Read: Her father died and she was responsible for everything.
• 3:22
  Charles Read: It took her several weeks to get it all done.
• 3:24
  Charles Read: We just paid her.
• 3:25
  Charles Read: I didn't even think twice about it.
• 3:27
  Charles Read: Replacing her.
• 3:28
  Charles Read: The cost of paying her for two weeks was a fraction of the cost of replacing her.
• 3:32
  Charles Read: So, why be stupid about it?
• 3:34
  Charles Read: Yeah, will some people take advantage of it?
• 3:36
  Charles Read: It may happen.
• 3:37
  Charles Read: But if you've got good people, it's not going to happen often.
• 3:39
  Charles Read: So, it's profitable to do so.
• 3:41
  Tom Jackobs: Do you then say about the philosophy of paying yourself first, like that's, you know, a lot of accountants or financial folks talk to business owners about paying themselves first before paying everything else out.
• 3:56
  Tom Jackobs: What how do you balance that versus you know, thinking of the employees first and paying the employees first?
• 4:01
  Charles Read: Well, if you pay yourself first, then you're not going to have any employees, so you're going to be very limited in the size of your business.
• 4:08
  Charles Read: If you don't take care of your employees and put them first, because they are your most important asset, okay?
• 4:15
  Charles Read: You can't do it all.
• 4:16
  Charles Read: If you want to be a sole entrepreneur, and a lot of accountants are, they just have an office and they do the work.
• 4:22
  Charles Read: That's fine.
• 4:23
  Charles Read: Pay yourself first, okay?
• 4:24
  Charles Read: You know, stiff the landlord.
• 4:26
  Charles Read: Fine.
• 4:26
  Charles Read: But if you're going to employ people, you have to take care of them.
• 4:29
  Charles Read: Otherwise you're going to, the morale is going to suffer.
• 4:31
  Charles Read: You're going to have high turnover, which is training costs and replacements and bad hires and all the other things that go with it.
• 4:38
  Charles Read: We haven't had to hire anybody in, I think five or six years now.
• 4:41
  Charles Read: We just, we don't have turnover.
• 4:43
  Charles Read: Because we take care of our people.
• 4:44
  Charles Read: They're paid well.
• 4:46
  Charles Read: I mean, they're not the highest paid people probably that you can find, but they're paid well.
• 4:50
  Charles Read: We have good working conditions.
• 4:51
  Charles Read: We don't allow politics to be played.
• 4:54
  Charles Read: It's a good, happy, friendly environment.
• 4:57
  Charles Read: We're very understanding.
• 4:59
  Charles Read: You know, you gotta go home and take care of the kid, you go home and take care of the kid.
• 5:02
  Charles Read: Michael, my, my videographer, wants to come in and explain, Oh, his wife called, he's got to go.
• 5:07
  Charles Read: I said, Go! You know, your wife called, she needs you, go! I don't need any explanation, tell me later! Just go! You know, family comes first.
• 5:14
  Charles Read: It always has, it should.
• 5:15
  Charles Read: If you try to tell employees that the business is more important than their family.
• 5:19
  Charles Read: First of all, it won't work.
• 5:20
  Charles Read: Second of all, you're an idiot.
• 5:22
  Charles Read: And third, they won't respect you.
• 5:23
  Charles Read: And fourth, morale is going to suffer.
• 5:25
  Charles Read: Fifth, turnover is going to increase.
• 5:27
  Charles Read: So, how much more mistakes do you want, you know, in doing that, in forcing them to choose the business, your business, over their family?
• 5:35
  Charles Read: Yeah, right.
• 5:36
  Charles Read: Good luck with that.
• 5:37
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah, exactly.
• 5:38
  Tom Jackobs: So, why don't we back up a little bit and just tell us a little bit about your current business.
• 5:42
  Charles Read: We provide payroll and payroll related services to small and medium sized businesses around the United States.
• 5:48
  Charles Read: We are probably the smallest of the national services.
• 5:51
  Charles Read: We've been in business a third of a century.
• 5:53
  Charles Read: We started in 1991 in December, it'll be literally 33 and a third years.
• 5:59
  Charles Read: So, we've been around for quite a while.
• 6:01
  Charles Read: But we provide payroll and payroll related services, HR, helps with benefits handbooks consulting and so on.
• 6:07
  Charles Read: Our unique selling proposition is compliance.
• 6:10
  Charles Read: I'm not only a CPA, I'm a U.
• 6:12
  Charles Read: S.
• 6:12
  Charles Read: tax court practitioner, which means I can take my client's problems that the IRS creates to U.
• 6:17
  Charles Read: S.
• 6:18
  Charles Read: tax court without involving an outside attorney if I need to.
• 6:21
  Charles Read: There's about 200 of us in the country that are allowed to do that, that are licensed that way.
• 6:26
  Charles Read: And I, as far as I know, I'm the only one in the payroll industry, but I may be wrong on that.
• 6:30
  Charles Read: So, we can do things that our competitors can't and won't do.
• 6:35
  Charles Read: So that makes us very unique.
• 6:37
  Tom Jackobs: So, you know, from the leading that you do clearly sets the tone for your company and how well you take care of your employees.
• 6:45
  Tom Jackobs: How do you, as a leader, how do you set that tone?
• 6:48
  Charles Read: You care about them.
• 6:49
  Charles Read: I mean, literally, you care about your employees.
• 6:52
  Charles Read: They're, they become friends.
• 6:53
  Charles Read: I mean, my right hand person, she's been with me 25 years.
• 6:57
  Charles Read: I mean,
• 6:58
  Tom Jackobs: that's awesome.
• 6:59
  Charles Read: you know, I employ her daughter.
• 7:00
  Charles Read: I know her grandbabies.
• 7:02
  Charles Read: Her oldest granddaughter is 13.
• 7:04
  Charles Read: So, and she used to play in here when she was a baby.
• 7:07
  Charles Read: So, you know, we've not really set up a formal one.
• 7:10
  Charles Read: We've had an informal daycare here off and on for many years.
• 7:14
  Charles Read: And if they need to, you know, if they need to bring the kid in, they bring the kid in.
• 7:17
  Charles Read: You know, hell, I've got five.
• 7:20
  Charles Read: They're all grown.
• 7:20
  Charles Read: So, you know, I understand that, you know, being a parent's not easy.
• 7:24
  Charles Read: Michael just had a baby.
• 7:26
  Charles Read: You know, I've met his wife.
• 7:28
  Charles Read: I've, I think I've met the baby, but I'm sure over the course of the next couple of years, maybe he'll be in here a bunch.
• 7:34
  Charles Read: They always are.
• 7:34
  Charles Read: So, You gotta care about your employees.
• 7:37
  Charles Read: They're not just numbers.
• 7:38
  Charles Read: They're not bean counters.
• 7:40
  Charles Read: And, you know, you can call me a bean counter if you want.
• 7:42
  Charles Read: Make that mistake that it's all numbers and that doesn't work.
• 7:47
  Charles Read: The best way to destroy a company is put a real bean counter in charge, in my opinion.
• 7:52
  Charles Read: I've watched American, I've been a critic of American business management for many years.
• 7:56
  Charles Read: More than 50 years and most American business management is rather poor at best.
• 8:02
  Charles Read: And bean counters make terrible managers for the most part.
• 8:06
  Charles Read: If they're not tempered like, like I've been by having a wonderful wife that was very much of a people person and taught me a lot of it.
• 8:12
  Charles Read: She was one of my saviors when we started in business because she was much better at hiring people than I was.
• 8:18
  Charles Read: There's only one time I overruled her and I regretted that.
• 8:20
  Charles Read: Both personally and professionally.
• 8:22
  Charles Read: Because after that hire failed, she never did let me forget it.
• 8:25
  Charles Read: But you know, that's life.
• 8:26
  Tom Jackobs: That's funny.
• 8:27
  Tom Jackobs: Well, so what are some of the policies that you have in place then that solidify that relationship between the employer and employee, that creates such a great atmosphere where people are sticking with you for 25 plus years?
• 8:40
  Charles Read: Well, the bereavement policy is one you know, and you take what time you need off.
• 8:45
  Charles Read: We're we track certain of it because of tax purposes.
• 8:49
  Charles Read: Because if you are sick or you're taking care of a kid we can get a tax credit for that.
• 8:53
  Charles Read: And I have taught my, all my clients how to do that.
• 8:56
  Charles Read: It's 45 s under the IRS code.
• 8:58
  Charles Read: A lot of people don't know about it.
• 9:00
  Charles Read: So we track it for that purposes.
• 9:02
  Charles Read: But, you know, I don't worry about it.
• 9:03
  Charles Read: We don't have the office has to be manned, but we don't have hard and fast schedules to in a lot of cases.
• 9:09
  Charles Read: People work from home, particularly since COVID.
• 9:11
  Charles Read: We all work from home during COVID now.
• 9:13
  Charles Read: I don't think anybody's in all but one spend some of their days at the house, which is fine.
• 9:19
  Charles Read: We're probably going to turn into a virtual company here shortly and get rid of the office.
• 9:24
  Charles Read: technology's changed.
• 9:25
  Charles Read: The world's changed.
• 9:26
  Charles Read: We provide them with training.
• 9:27
  Charles Read: We provide them with the best equipment and best software we can get a hold of.
• 9:32
  Charles Read: We send them to conferences and seminars and other things.
• 9:36
  Charles Read: We talk to them.
• 9:37
  Charles Read: We listen to them.
• 9:38
  Charles Read: We treat them more like family than employees, and I've worked for major companies before I started my own.
• 9:44
  Charles Read: You know, I worked for Texas Instruments and J.
• 9:46
  Charles Read: C.
• 9:46
  Charles Read: Penney's and other people.
• 9:47
  Charles Read: So I've seen American business management up close and personal.
• 9:51
  Charles Read: And I won't put up with most of what they put up with.
• 9:53
  Charles Read: I'm very much of a fan of Tom Peters and his books.
• 9:56
  Charles Read: And he emphasizes the whole idea of hiring good people that can do wonderful things.
• 10:02
  Charles Read: And it works.
• 10:03
  Charles Read: It's worked for a third of a century.
• 10:05
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah, I mean, that's amazing, and it's a real testament to the, you know, the longevity of your company is a testament to taking care of people at such a high level.
• 10:19
  Tom Jackobs: I'm curious, though, like, Early on, or maybe in cycles as business does go through cycles.
• 10:25
  Tom Jackobs: there times where, you know, cash was tight and you're like, Oh, I might have to let somebody go or where you were really forced to make a decision.
• 10:34
  Tom Jackobs: And that decision, it was, you know, between the heart and the head and, you know, obviously the heart probably won out, but how does that, how do you kind of mix that together and help kind of move the business forward without selling out your heart.
• 10:48
  Charles Read: Well, we've had to make tough personnel decisions at times over the years.
• 10:52
  Charles Read: We've never been in a situation where we've had to lay people off.
• 10:55
  Charles Read: Now there's been times I've taken a salary cut.
• 10:57
  Charles Read: And But we've been very careful about hiring people and making sure we have adequate revenues before we, we add the headcount.
• 11:05
  Charles Read: And that makes for some long hours sometimes.
• 11:07
  Charles Read: In the beginning, there were nights I'd be working until, you know, midnight.
• 11:10
  Charles Read: As an entrepreneur you know, 80 hour weeks are to be expected from an entrepreneur.
• 11:14
  Charles Read: But when you hire good people, You don't hire jerks.
• 11:18
  Charles Read: You hire good people and you take care of them.
• 11:20
  Charles Read: They'll put in the hours necessary to get the work done.
• 11:23
  Charles Read: And they don't mind that because they feel like they're part of the business and they are.
• 11:28
  Charles Read: I'm 70.
• 11:29
  Charles Read: I turned 75 next month.
• 11:31
  Charles Read: I'm getting ready to retire.
• 11:32
  Charles Read: I'm working on that right now.
• 11:33
  Charles Read: The business is going to the employees.
• 11:35
  Charles Read: I'm going to sell it to them at a substantial discount from what I could get from one of my competitors.
• 11:39
  Charles Read: I don't want it to go to one of my competitors.
• 11:41
  Charles Read: I mean, you know, it'd be like going over to the dark side.
• 11:43
  Charles Read: I mean, ADP and Paychex call me all the time and want to buy it, and I just, I'm not interested.
• 11:48
  Charles Read: I wouldn't do that to my clients, let alone my employees.
• 11:51
  Charles Read: So, I've got people trained up.
• 11:53
  Charles Read: My Operations manager has his EA and is getting his tax practitioners license and it'll be able to do those things for our clients.
• 12:02
  Charles Read: So they're going to be buying the business from me.
• 12:04
  Charles Read: It'll just add a little bit to my retirement.
• 12:06
  Charles Read: It's going to be a deep discount, because they deserve it.
• 12:09
  Charles Read: And they helped me build it.
• 12:10
  Charles Read: They, this is not done by me alone.
• 12:13
  Charles Read: I couldn't be where I'm at in terms of size and revenue on my own.
• 12:17
  Charles Read: No, you can't do it.
• 12:19
  Charles Read: I mean, look at any company.
• 12:20
  Charles Read: Tell the CEO of Texas Instruments he needs to do all the work himself.
• 12:25
  Charles Read: It can't happen.
• 12:26
  Charles Read: Okay?
• 12:27
  Charles Read: Well, once you get above one person, it doesn't happen.
• 12:30
  Charles Read: Once you start hiring people, you can't do it all yourself.
• 12:33
  Charles Read: So your people are just absolutely critical.
• 12:36
  Charles Read: And they're Your most important asset.
• 12:37
  Charles Read: I'm sorry.
• 12:38
  Charles Read: So I don't know where I was going with that.
• 12:40
  Tom Jackobs: No, that's great.
• 12:41
  Tom Jackobs: And that's such a, you know, I've heard of business owners selling the company to their employees and or creating some of those, programs for the employees to take over the company.
• 12:52
  Tom Jackobs: Which is, it's always refreshing.
• 12:54
  Tom Jackobs: You know, you hear these stories of you know, business owners that sell their business for millions of dollars.
• 12:59
  Tom Jackobs: And then, you know, the employees are kind of left unless they had stock options or what have you to kind of figure things out.
• 13:05
  Tom Jackobs: On their own, go to another company or do something else.
• 13:07
  Tom Jackobs: So where did you get the idea that to sell the company once you retire to the employees?
• 13:13
  Tom Jackobs: And I mean, I think the real question there is how did they take that when you announced it?
• 13:18
  Charles Read: They're very pleased with the idea.
• 13:20
  Charles Read: And that makes them more interested in getting the company more profitable because it'll be more profitable for them.
• 13:26
  Charles Read: So they're building their own future.
• 13:28
  Charles Read: They're not building a job.
• 13:30
  Charles Read: They're building their own business.
• 13:32
  Charles Read: And I get that feeling from them.
• 13:34
  Charles Read: So to me it's just, it's a win-win.
• 13:37
  Charles Read: It enhances my retirement.
• 13:39
  Charles Read: And it give it, it leaves a legacy.
• 13:41
  Charles Read: It's my business.
• 13:42
  Charles Read: It's my baby.
• 13:43
  Charles Read: I spent, you know, a third of century growing it.
• 13:45
  Charles Read: I don't want to see it die.
• 13:46
  Charles Read: I don't want to see it get consumed by.
• 13:48
  Charles Read: My arch competitor, so yeah, to me, it's a lasting legacy, and it's a plus for them, it gets them far more involved in the business, it increases morale, it cuts turnover, it increases efficiencies.
• 14:02
  Charles Read: It makes them think about what they're doing and what are better ways to do things more profitable ways of doing things.
• 14:08
  Charles Read: That's part of why we're going into a, become a virtual business is one of my people who handles the bills looked at that and said, you know, we're spending all this for this damn building when, you know, we work from home part of the time.
• 14:18
  Charles Read: Why don't we sell the building or whatever.
• 14:21
  Charles Read: And I said, well, you know, I own the building.
• 14:23
  Charles Read: Personally, I built it here.
• 14:25
  Charles Read: And I'm going to turn it into, probably turn it into executive suites, or lease the thing out to somebody else.
• 14:29
  Charles Read: Which will help enhance my retirement.
• 14:31
  Charles Read: But, you know, they basically helped me pay for the building.
• 14:34
  Charles Read: Because it was paid for out of the business.
• 14:36
  Charles Read: So, they're going to benefit and they want it to be successful.
• 14:41
  Charles Read: You know, when your employees want you to be successful, it's hard not to be.
• 14:45
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah,
• 14:45
  Charles Read: Excuse me, I mean, you know, that's a win for everybody.
• 14:48
  Tom Jackobs: Absolutely.
• 14:49
  Tom Jackobs: So then talk to me then about the customers.
• 14:51
  Tom Jackobs: So putting those, the customers first and how do you create that heartfelt relationship with your customers, especially with, you know, with a lot of people and myself included, what's called payrolls.
• 15:02
  Tom Jackobs: Thanks, sir.
• 15:02
  Tom Jackobs: rather dry industry, so to speak.
• 15:05
  Tom Jackobs: So how do you create that dynamic
• 15:08
  Charles Read: Well, when you're in somebody's pocketbook every two weeks, you hopefully become friends, okay?
• 15:14
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
• 15:15
  Charles Read: I have clients that have been with me for a third of a century.
• 15:18
  Charles Read: And I have the kids of people that I contracted with years ago, and the kids are now running the business, okay?
• 15:25
  Charles Read: Normally, if the business gets sold, they say, You know, keep Charles.
• 15:29
  Charles Read: One of my favorite clients, they've retired and I've picked up the business as they've sold it to their employees, basically.
• 15:36
  Charles Read: And Carol used to say, you know, she would get calls probably once a week from people who wanted to do their payroll.
• 15:41
  Charles Read: And she said, no, I'm perfectly happy.
• 15:43
  Charles Read: Then she would, they'd say, well, we can do it cheaper.
• 15:46
  Charles Read: And she'd say, I don't care if you can do it for free.
• 15:48
  Charles Read: I'm not leaving Charles.
• 15:50
  Charles Read: She was also the one who would take letters from the IRS and just stack them up on the shelf until I'd come into the office one day, and then she'd hand them all to me.
• 15:57
  Charles Read: So But we were always able to solve her problems.
• 16:00
  Charles Read: You know, the IRS makes millions of mistakes a year, and people get hit with stuff that they can't handle because they don't understand.
• 16:06
  Charles Read: You know.
• 16:08
  Charles Read: It's like putting a soccer player at second base in Yankee Stadium.
• 16:12
  Charles Read: They don't know what they're doing.
• 16:13
  Charles Read: So you got a businessman that's successful and likes his business, handles his clients, makes money, you know, on and on.
• 16:19
  Charles Read: The IRS comes in and with some BS, they don't know what to do.
• 16:23
  Charles Read: They're not trained in it.
• 16:24
  Charles Read: We are.
• 16:25
  Charles Read: So we handle those clients, those things for our clients and they love us for it.
• 16:28
  Charles Read: And they happen, you know, 40 percent of small businesses get hit with a tax penalty every year.
• 16:33
  Charles Read: So, you know, our clients about every three, four years, they get one.
• 16:37
  Charles Read: And we solve it.
• 16:38
  Charles Read: Lots of times we solve it before they even know they got it.
• 16:40
  Charles Read: And that's kind of what makes us unique.
• 16:42
  Charles Read: It makes us friends, and they just expect us to solve those problems, and we do.
• 16:47
  Charles Read: And you become friends with your clients.
• 16:49
  Charles Read: We've gotten big enough that I don't know as many as I used to, but my staff does.
• 16:53
  Charles Read: My staff knows every client and talks to them all the time.
• 16:56
  Charles Read: Our clients can call and talk to the same person over and over about a problem and get the same person.
• 17:00
  Charles Read: It's not a call center.
• 17:02
  Charles Read: So they can call and talk to Chris or Christy or myself or Pete or whoever and a week later call back and talk to the same person.
• 17:11
  Charles Read: That already knows what the problem is.
• 17:13
  Charles Read: So it makes a difference.
• 17:14
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah, that, that's great.
• 17:16
  Tom Jackobs: And you know, by put putting the employees first, they're gonna put the customers first.
• 17:21
  Tom Jackobs: 'Cause a happy employee is gonna take care of clients.
• 17:24
  Tom Jackobs: Client's gonna be happy, they're gonna refer people to you.
• 17:26
  Tom Jackobs: The business just grows and grows.
• 17:27
  Tom Jackobs: So, I mean, there, there's a great case study.
• 17:30
  Tom Jackobs: For having a heart led business instead of just looking at the numbers and just being that bean counter that just, Oh, you're, you spent too much on you know, paper this year.
• 17:41
  Tom Jackobs: So let's stop using paper altogether.
• 17:43
  Tom Jackobs: It's just some of those decisions don't make sense, right?
• 17:46
  Charles Read: Should be using 2.
• 17:47
  Charles Read: 3 rolls of toilet paper per employee per month.
• 17:50
  Charles Read: You're up to 2.
• 17:51
  Charles Read: 4.
• 17:51
  Charles Read: You got to cut back on using it.
• 17:53
  Charles Read: Yeah, exactly.
• 17:54
  Charles Read: Look, I'm a bean cutter.
• 17:56
  Charles Read: I'm an accountant.
• 17:57
  Charles Read: I understand how all this works.
• 17:59
  Charles Read: But it's a mistake to manage that way.
• 18:02
  Charles Read: You've got to manage using your heart.
• 18:04
  Charles Read: You've got to manage by loving the people that you work for and work with and cherish them because they are the most important thing outside of your family that you're ever going to have as a business owner.
• 18:16
  Charles Read: And if you don't take care of them, they won't take care of you.
• 18:19
  Charles Read: And I've worked for some terrible bosses over the years.
• 18:21
  Tom Jackobs: Haven't we all.
• 18:22
  Tom Jackobs: So what is like one big piece of advice other than obviously taking care of the employees very well that you would give to another heart led business that might be struggling right now with making those choices between maybe selling out a little bit and because they need to make payroll next week.
• 18:39
  Charles Read: You're going to fail.
• 18:40
  Charles Read: It happens.
• 18:41
  Charles Read: You've got the wrong product in the wrong market, or the wrong message.
• 18:44
  Charles Read: It happens.
• 18:45
  Charles Read: And I feel for those people and I understand it.
• 18:49
  Charles Read: I've seen it.
• 18:50
  Charles Read: It's happened to some of my clients.
• 18:51
  Charles Read: So you start again.
• 18:52
  Charles Read: I mean, life goes on.
• 18:53
  Charles Read: It's not the end of the world.
• 18:55
  Charles Read: Do the best you can.
• 18:56
  Charles Read: Take care of your people.
• 18:57
  Charles Read: Motivate them.
• 18:58
  Charles Read: Keep morale up.
• 18:59
  Charles Read: You'll be amazed what can happen.
• 19:01
  Charles Read: If it comes down to it, sit down with them and talk to them.
• 19:03
  Charles Read: And say, hey look, I'm here.
• 19:05
  Charles Read: We're going through some hard times.
• 19:06
  Charles Read: This is why.
• 19:07
  Charles Read: This is what's happening.
• 19:08
  Charles Read: We need to do this or we need to close the doors.
• 19:11
  Charles Read: If you guys want to work with me and do this, if it works, in the end, you'll get rewarded.
• 19:16
  Charles Read: If it doesn't work, well, we tried.
• 19:18
  Charles Read: And sometimes you just have to be honest with them.
• 19:20
  Charles Read: Honesty goes a long way, rather than trying to hide it.
• 19:22
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah, that is so true.
• 19:24
  Tom Jackobs: When you're transparent about what's going on in the business, employees really appreciate that.
• 19:29
  Tom Jackobs: I mean, the 1st business that I had, I was just very closed off and I wouldn't tell the employees and you know, we almost went broke in the first six months for a number of reasons, but once I changed that whole mentality, the business took off and, you know, it, it really helped out quite a bit, just having a different mindset when it came to, you know, the employees and sharing information with them.
• 19:51
  Charles Read: And one thing is, you think you may be hiding things from your employees.
• 19:55
  Charles Read: It's like your children, you probably aren't.
• 19:57
  Tom Jackobs: They know, everybody knows.
• 19:59
  Tom Jackobs: Right.
• 19:59
  Tom Jackobs: Cool.
• 19:59
  Tom Jackobs: So, Charles, how can people learn a little bit more about your business and kind of the movement that you've created there with your company?
• 20:07
  Charles Read: We're all over the web, we're all over YouTube.
• 20:09
  Charles Read: We have a lot of educational videos and a lot of fun ones.
• 20:12
  Charles Read: My staff has a Good time making up some fun videos and some satires and so on and some takeoffs so we have a Godfather one and we have a 2001 a Space Odyssey one and we do a Halloween video every year and the last one with the IRS as the army of the living dead it's kind of fun.
• 20:32
  Tom Jackobs: Great.
• 20:32
  Charles Read: So get payroll Well, I know the, I know, I knew the last commission.
• 20:36
  Charles Read: I don't know the current one, but yeah we have fun with the IRS.
• 20:40
  Charles Read: But yeah, getpayroll.com.
• 20:41
  Charles Read: We're all over the web.
• 20:43
  Charles Read: The phone number is 972 353 0000, punch one for payroll.
• 20:48
  Charles Read: And if you want to talk to me, just ask for Charles.
• 20:50
  Charles Read: If I'm in the office, I'll talk to you.
• 20:52
  Tom Jackobs: That's very gracious.
• 20:53
  Tom Jackobs: I don't think I've had anybody share their phone number on the show before, but we'll link all that up into the show notes along with how to reach you on social media as well.
• 21:03
  Tom Jackobs: So, Charles, this has been a great conversation.
• 21:05
  Tom Jackobs: I love what you've done, especially in such a kind of a steady industry.
• 21:09
  Tom Jackobs: I was going to say boring industry, but a steady industry as payroll is to create a really nice heart led business is really refreshing.
• 21:18
  Tom Jackobs: So thank you for sharing your story with us and thanks for being on the show today.
• 21:22
  Charles Read: My pleasure, Tom.
• 21:23
  Charles Read: Thanks for having me.
• 21:24
  Tom Jackobs: Absolutely.
• 21:25
  Tom Jackobs: And to our show listeners, thank you so much for listening and watching to the show today.
• 21:29
  Tom Jackobs: We really appreciate it.
• 21:31
  Tom Jackobs: So make sure what you're checking out what Charles is doing and all that information is going to be down in the show notes.
• 21:36
  Tom Jackobs: And then also, if you could do us a favor and share the show with a friend or family member that could use the advice that Charles shared with us today, that would mean a lot to us.
• 21:46
  Tom Jackobs: Mean a lot to Charles too, I'm sure as well.
• 21:48
  Tom Jackobs: So until next time.
• 21:49
  Tom Jackobs: Lead with your heart.
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: You've been listening to the Heart Led Business Show, hosted by Tom Jackobs.
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: Join us next time for another inspiring journey into the heart of business.