Latest / Big Talk About Small Business / Ep. 95 - Great Service Doesn’t Auto-Reply

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Ep. 95 - Great Service Doesn’t Auto-Reply · Big Talk About Small Business

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: It's just this.
• 0:01
  Speaker 1: I mean, I love professional service businesses.
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: They probably should never have done anything else.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Okay, and because you and I both understand it's all about service, okay, yeah, give it, yeah, it, just be involved personally, know what the hell you're doing and serve your clients Well.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and you will do well.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, I'm back in the studio here with my buddy and partner, mr Eric Howerton.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Hi, marcus Zweig.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: How are you Good?
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: By the way, it's Zweig not.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Zweig.
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: I heard somebody say the other day yeah, you do that show with Mark Zweig.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: I'm like no.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: Zweig, bro.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's long.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: I like Budweiser.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: That's what I always tell my students and they can remember it.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: Would you call it Budweiser?
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, would you call it Budweiser?
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: The other one is they get A Zweig.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: Zweig.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: I'm like no, or they go Zweig, Zweig, Zweig yeah it's like why is it so hard?
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: so march lag, thank you.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: Another episode of big talk about small business.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: Hey, today we're going to be talking about dealing with professional service providers.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: Love it.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: I got some opinions.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: I do too.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: I've got a lot of experience with them.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: I think it's important.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: I mean, every small business needs qualified professional service advisors for accounting, tax, legal, it, many times marketing, right, yep, hr, recruiting yes, there's a million different avenues that one can pursue finding professional, quality professional service providers.
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and those are things that you don't really want to try to learn yourselves or cut costs on.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: Because they will always bite you.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: Exactly.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: Or you know, I notice here we've got one of the things.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: So I notice here we've got one of the things.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: One of the points is that outsourcing, a lot of it, is about cost savings.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: I don't necessarily think of it as cost savings, I think of it as quality.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree, you know Same thing A hundred percent, like our HR person that we use, kathleen Hoffman.
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a hundred percent about.
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: I know she has experience, she does the right thing, she knows the rules, she knows how to handle situations, the paperwork filing.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: You're never going to know this as well as Kathleen, never, never, and I don't want to know, no, yeah.
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: And she's just awesome.
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: She's the best that I've ever and I've been using her for golly man 15 years or something, yep, and she's just incredible and she's fair.
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: Yep, you know, but 100% is about the quality, it doesn't, I don't.
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: My first question isn't like how much are you going to charge?
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: No, exactly.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: I mean, well, when you have a really good relationship with your professional service advisor, you trust them, or provider, you trust them, You're.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: I don't ask for costs, I just have people do it.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I might need a cost in like an audit.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Right, that's a.
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: That's another matter where there's a really defined scope.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: But yeah, I mean it's, it's so true.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: I mean I had a question about um raising equity capital and I deal with one guy here locally now in the AE business.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: I deal with somebody who specialize in that.
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: But when it comes to these small entrepreneurial ventures, I deal with Luke Renier here, who's taught at the law school.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: He's got a company law firm called startup boutique.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: He's super helpful.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: I can go.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: What about um?
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: Uh, direct public offerings.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: What is your?
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: What do you know about that?
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: I mean you know, two hours later I get a complete rundown on everything what the costs are, what the forms are, what the risks are.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: How am I gonna possibly learn that?
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: Right, you know what I mean.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: 100 it's.
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: It's invaluable, the advice you get from the right professional service providers you know one thing on here like it talks about, you know it goes through about marketing human resource and then brings customer support.
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: That's something that I don't know, that I really would agree with that.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: I want to outsource yeah, oh, this is when you say it says here this is the sheet that we get, yeah, from somebody on eric's staff at podcast videoscom that they prepare for us um, before every show and um, it's uh that the uh headline says outsourcing is prevalent among small businesses and eric is citing um, some of these things digital marketing 34 of firms outsource that development.
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: I don't know what development means.
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: 28%.
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: Probably like software development.
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: Okay yeah.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: Human resources 24% and customer support 24%.
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: He said he doesn't know if he agrees with that Boy.
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: I'm with you, that's coming from exploding topics as a source, but I mean, like I just can't.
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: I'm 100% with you, I would never outsource that.
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: Why would you want to disconnect yourself from your customers and their problems?
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's bad news Now, objectively, have we ever called somebody and obviously received an outsourced customer support hotline?
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, but it's a massive frustrating experience.
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: Oh, dude, those are for commoditized companies like internet.
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: You know water.
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: Whatever it might be right, whatever that is that you that you need utility type stuff, airlines airlines.
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: I hate dealing with the outsourced but I mean, there was no way I would do that for a small business, me neither.
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: I agree with you a hundred percent.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: You need to get the feedback directly.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: You need to be responding quickly and talk about representing the brand.
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: the right way Exactly.
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: You don't know.
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: Number one.
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: This is either an existing paid client or somebody that's just started, or hell if they've been more impactful.
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: They've been with me for a year and they call somebody and they talk to somebody that has no connection to my business.
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: No way, it's going to happen, no way.
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: And people do that for prospecting too.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't like that either.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: Okay, I don't like that either.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: I'll never forget when I first came back to Swag White, which is today's Swag Group, and it was owned by the lender, they had outsourced and you were there, you might remember this they had outsourced a lot of outbound calling to the Philippines.
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: Do you remember that?
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: I do.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I got a recording of a voice message sent to me by one of my clients and friends, whose board I was on, of his company before we sold it for many years, and he was like holy cow, this is who you guys have out there.
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: Guy couldn't even pronounce the name of the company.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: That's not good man.
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: You know it looked terrible.
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: We pulled the plug on that.
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: So yeah, not everything is smart to outsource.
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: You know, going down this tube.
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: We're talking about challenges with outsourcing include managing remote and hybrid teams.
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: So what the stat?
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: 58% of knowledge workers today work in hybrid arrangements.
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: 78% desire flexibility regarding where they work, and I guess that's referring to the, to the actual outsource team.
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: But I'm here to say that as a small business, I don't even.
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: I do have a couple of suppliers that are outside the area, but mostly, especially with the main ones the legal, the HR, the IT, marketing Dude no way I would even hire.
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: I don't use firms outside of my local area.
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: I think that's really smart.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: I mean, yesterday I had a significant IT issue and I called this Y group, support people, which is Megabyte right here in Rogers.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, and I know the guy that owns it, wes Yep, and Wes wasn't there.
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: I didn't ask for him, I got one of his guys.
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: But the fact that they know us and have known us for a long time, yeah, there's so much more motivated, I think, to do a good job, yeah, and to help us out.
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's a genuine desire to help people.
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: They know what's that worth.
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: What's worth millions, mark, it's actually.
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: That gives me a comfort to think that my team that's employed, and all my providers want to help each other be successful.
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: Exactly, it's a mutually beneficial thing based on relationships, the people who actually care about each other.
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: Like, if you don't, if I don't, provide the service that you're paying for, and it's going to hurt your business, it's going to hurt your team, it's going to hurt the community, you know.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: And the thing is is like You're so right about that local, though.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: I mean I never really thought about that.
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: I mean, some things are so narrow and specialized I'm not going to be able to get local, but we're in a big enough area where most stuff is local.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: I mean, just like the attorney I mentioned, luke, I'm having lunch with him on Monday.
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, lunch with him on Monday.
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, nothing special to talk about, by the way, that's good.
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: Okay, it's just, we just talk.
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: You have a relationship.
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I care about him.
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: I want to see him be successful.
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: He cares about me, he tries to help me out.
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, no, I'm with you, man.
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: I tell you and here's, here's, a service provider that I would not do business with is somebody that wants to have flexibility in their life, in a, and be able to work remote because it's good for them.
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I'm not going to subscribe to that.
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: I'm not going to pay you.
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: If you say that to me, I'm actually not going to use you because I don't want a service provider who I'm depending on and when I need your help, yeah they're like I'm not working, now I've got my work-life balance you're out again.
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: I mean I hate to keep just plugging Luke on this, okay, but I can text him at nine o'clock at night and I'll hear back from the guy.
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: He's not like, well, I'm shut down now I'm on personal time.
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: He's got kids, he's got.
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean it's like.
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: It's like this business, man, it's always business.
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: It's always time for it.
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: Bro, like dude, my client texts me at nine o'clock at night.
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: I'm going to respond.
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: No, you're going to say send him an auto-reply.
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: I'll be back in the office at 9 am.
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: You taught me one of the best lessons in the world and I see it happen all the time, like I see it in my own company.
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: Speaking of, we had an episode talking about procrastinating and talking about things that bother us.
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I need to nail this one ahead too, like I have like, but when somebody says has an auto reply I'm out of office, on vacation, won't return for next week.
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: You taught me a long 15 years ago, if never, ever, ever, do that I hate it.
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: People still argue with me about it like no man, I like the thing is, I always like the people arguing with me about it.
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: And then I look like the thing is, I always like the people arguing with me about it.
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: And then I look at him like how successful have you been?
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: How many businesses did you personally own?
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: okay, right right, so you know, and you shouldn't have auto response like I don't.
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: I have not had one in 15 years.
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: No, because of what you taught me, mark now, that's nice of you to say yeah, but it is.
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: But I mean like, but the responsibility is okay, I might not get to it, but I will get to it, probably within 24 hours of the wait.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, it won't take you that long, especially if it's something that needs attention.
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, right, like I constantly watch my emails and my texts, of course you do.
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, now, some I do postpone.
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, now, some I do postpone response.
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, there's some things that are just not urgent.
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: They're just not urgent or important, right, right.
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: But I would shame myself if I had an autoresponder that says I'm out for a week.
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: A client or somebody, a partner, sends an email and it pops back over to them immediately I'm out for a week.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: I don't want them thinking in their mind for a minute second that I will respond to them, or, but here's what they'll say I'm out for a week, but you can call my assistant, who doesn't know shit.
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: Oh, he's gonna help you.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: No, they're not gonna help me.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: I don't want to talk to your assistant, right?
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: They're so far removed from you and what you know.
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: I have no desire to talk with them.
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's not who I'm calling, it's not helpful for me yeah, why did you even put that in there?
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: people think that that excuses it, though, if they throw somebody in there as their assistant.
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: I never had an assistant, and neither did you, though let's be honest, yeah, okay no, I know, I know I've had people trying to get them to me.
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: They've asked to be, they've asked to help.
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: I don't even.
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: I had somebody just not even six weeks ago, says I can really help.
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: You, take this stuff off your plate, I can help.
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: I'm like, and immediately.
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: That request is overwhelming to me.
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: Oh, me too.
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: It's like oh, so you're going to disconnect me from everything.
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: I need to be connected.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: I have somebody check my emails for me and reply or make my calls for me outbound calls.
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: Would you like Mr Swag, hold for Mr Swag, get to me on the phone?
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: Have you ever had anybody do that to you?
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: Yes, I have.
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: That is such a power play, isn't it?
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: I'm sure I said this, I probably told you this before, but I had a guy do that to me once and I hung up on him twice and the third time he called me.
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: He's like this must be.
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: Please hold for Mr Whatever-His-Name-Was.
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: I'm out?
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm out.
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: It's the same thing like on emails yeah.
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: Hey, I'm so, and so my boss sent me this message to reach out to you.
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: I'm like I'm out.
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, let me talk to your boss, then why can't he call me?
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like, no, I'm out.
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: Well, out back on professional service advisors then, yeah, okay, where do you find good ones?
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: Generally, my experience is that it comes from two places a I try, I try people and see if they perform.
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: If they don't, I never use them again.
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: Or B referrals from other people I trust and know 100%.
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: Mostly it's referrals, yeah which, yeah, 100%, isn't it?
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I ask around, I mean I have a.
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: I mean, when I was building my house I was asking about parts.
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: Sure, like I mean, why would I spend all this time?
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: And I trust you, right, I know that you're not going to put up with any crap.
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: I've done it yeah, but you already have put up with the crap and gone through those weeds and so I'm just going to call and ask, like, who do you recommend?
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: Yep, 100%, or my HR?
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: You know, kathleen, kathleen, I'll call her and ask her.
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: Sure, she's going to know people, she's going to see how certain companies handle things.
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: Exactly.
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: I mean I just last night no, well, night before last we were at Eastside Grill and ran into Gary Head there.
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: You know Gary, he's the founder of Signature.
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: He was on our show once.
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: Great guy.
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: I love Gary, done a lot of business with him.
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: I sent so many clients his way.
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, and he introduced me to this guy.
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: He was a developer and had a design build um, contracting and development company, commercial and residential, moved here from little rock recently and said that he was looking for a new bank.
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: Um, when he introduced me to him and I let me tell you about this guy, okay, first off, dealing with Signature Bank, you're going to have a low friction experience.
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: They know how to make it easy and I really like that.
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: But I said the second thing is I've been doing business with Gary for 20 years and you know why I first got Gary.
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: I asked around.
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: I had two people tell me.
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: My accountant and a real estate agent who's also an attorney said call Gary Head, I had an issue.
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: I don't know the guy.
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: Okay, give me his cell number.
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: I call him.
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: He answers the phone.
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: He's in Cabo San Lucas at Tyson's Place Vacation.
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: He answers the phone.
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: He talks to me for like 20 or 30 minutes.
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: Okay, who am I gonna do business with?
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: the person that answers and talks to you at it, or I mean because they want to do business yeah, now, before I found him, I was dealing with another bank.
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: That's a big bank and they sent me into their system, which is horrible inquire online.
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: You can't even get anybody to talk to.
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: You can't find your phone number.
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: You got to submit an online request.
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you get called by somebody you don't know outside of the area.
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: Who am I going to deal with?
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: You know?
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: Gary's.
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: Gary's been a master at that relational thing.
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: You talk about somebody that, really, and he was on our show and he talked about it a lot and he, you know.
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: He had Merle Haggard as a client.
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: For God's sakes, there you go.
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: How can you lose that?
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: But the fact that you have this passion, like if you, I mean, and this?
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: You don't have to be an entrepreneur for this, although he is, but if anybody cares, all you've got to do is care about what you're doing for other people and recognize how important it is he never says he doesn't have enough time to talk to somebody.
• 17:09
  Speaker 3: How do you do?
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: that, with all the locations and the billions of dollars, they've got, because he knows, at the essence of it, it's him caring Because he legitimately cares about being a banker.
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and so About helping people, I know, after we saw him on Monday night, my wife we go home and she's texting Gary because she's got a client who's got a problem that needs Gary's help.
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, and the guy's, like you know, he's responding at frigging nine o'clock at night and he's going to deal with the guy and I know he'll help him.
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: He's got a great business.
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: He's got a horrible bank that's not responding to his needs after 20, 30 years, or whatever it is, of building this business.
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: He's dealing with a mega bank whose name I won't mention, who's not responsive and doesn't care about him.
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: And yet Gary will take the time.
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: Okay, and my wife's like the guy is unbelievable Always take the time.
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: He's always going to take the time to sell a new client.
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: Okay, this is a good point because I think it's so subjective and I think it's important for people to hear.
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: But when we think we've gotten too big for our own britches, like there's a threshold, I've been there, I've acted like that.
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: Oh, I have too, I've behaved that way, right, like I don't need to deal with the $1,000 a month clients month clients I only deal with twenty thousand dollar month clients.
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's the beginning of your time.
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: Yes, it is, it was.
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: It's so demoralizing and you lose yourself and yeah, and shit starts breaking from underneath the foundation.
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: Right, I know, it's so true, but what that's what I think I appreciate about what gary is doing, is that he, he, he has found the reality of don't ever, you know like, because what your wife was texting him about a client that needs help.
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: I'm sure this probably isn't, like you know, like some mega.
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: It's not.
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: It's a small business, but it's a solid one.
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: But, gary, he's not too big for his britches.
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: No, fix that Exactly.
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: It keeps your concrete in man, dude it's funny.
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: In fact, these guys do foundations.
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: It's funny.
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: You said that Okay, I mean wow, I can't believe how profound that is.
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: But yeah, exactly.
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: But see, that's what I want out of all my.
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: I consider a bank, a professional service advisor, by the way, 100% 100%.
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: They're not just a source of money no, okay, but that's what I want.
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: By the way, they're a consultant 100%.
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: They're not just a source of money no, okay, but that's what I want out of all my professional service providers.
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: I want that mentality.
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: That mentality, yes, and no job is too small, no questions too annoying.
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: When I hear of a professional service provider that's starting that because they're tired of working so hard over here and they want a balance of life and they're, you know, they want to stay at home so they can be with I don't even hear about that.
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: I don't know if you're dealing with somebody.
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: We even say that I hear about that all the time.
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: Well, you deal with these software guys and I'm like, well, okay, maybe they think they can get away the computer jobs.
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the lawyers and the accountants and stuff, they understand that ain't going to fly, the good ones.
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: Right, that's what I'm talking about.
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: I've had people that are in those services that are talking like that's, they leave a big attorney firm because they want to have a better, balanced life.
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: I'm like dude, you're out, like you're the opposite of what I want, exactly Worse than the big firm.
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, because like they at least have other people, maybe they can bring in if you're not available, or whatever Right, right Exactly, they're not buying what I want, yeah.
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: You know just somebody?
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, like this is bull.
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: You know somebody else and fire how much I'm doing?
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, there's been some uncomfortable things.
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah, you got to fire that.
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: Not the whole firm, but the person.
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, like this person, I did it.
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: I've gone around people before I did it, like about a year ago at a legal firm.
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, like this person is not providing me sure what I need.
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: And so they, they responded, yeah, congratulations.
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: But it comes down, that person that cares.
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: Like now if a service provider comes to me and says, hey, man, I I don't.
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: I want to provide better service, I want to grow this, I want to help the community, I want to provide better service, I want to grow this, I want to help the community, I want to help my clients.
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: I'm passionate about that, I care.
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: I'm like now you're talking, yeah, like I might switch, because if you care more than I have that cares, then I'd rather be with you.
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, let's be with you.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: Who do you want to be friends with?
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: Somebody who really cares or somebody that doesn't?
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: I mean, think about that.
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: It is that simple, isn't it?
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: It is 100% that simple.
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: I mean, I know, if they really care, we're likely to care about them and I'm not going to invest my time in anybody who doesn't.
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: Because, as an entrepreneur, the whole reason you're getting it like you want employees that care Right, you want partners that care right, you want partners that care.
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: You want clients that care.
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: All we want to do, we have a dream and a passion to do to build something nice, good quality that that helps out of nothing.
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: Out of nothing, yeah, that's excellent.
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: That's excellent and we, and the only way you can build that excellence is if everybody that's part of it cares yep, you're only as good as the weakest link, dude.
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: It's so true, it really is.
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: It's like a chain man the weak link breaks the whole chain.
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: The rest of them can all be strong and you should not discredit.
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: I think that's a really good analogy, because you obviously see that with your employees, your full-time staff, sure, that's an obvious, it's the chain right, but part of that chain is also your professional service contractors that you're dealing with.
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: It really is, yeah, and if you have a weak link, in hr or weak link in legal whatever or banking I'm telling you, or accounting yeah, or it support yeah, so I'd use tds here locally.
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: Uh, tim stanley, they're fantastic, man.
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: I mean, they drop of a hat, they set you up, they come, they service it.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: It's fantastic, it's what it takes yeah, it's what it takes to be successful 100 care on top of I bet tim stanley still involved with the business oh, he totally is.
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, totally, yeah, he totally is.
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, speaking of a service provider, like you know, this is personal, but we had past right, yeah, and I know that I have some friends that own a heating and plumbing business.
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: You'd probably be pissed at me saying this, but the truth is they came out, they fixed something and they came out on a courtesy call to go and double-check their work.
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: When is the last time a contractor did that?
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: I know, man, but they are showing that they care about their work, about your property, about what you pay them to do.
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: I mean, dude, I'm sorry, but that's—.
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: That means a lot it does.
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: Just yesterday I had a problem with electrical in my garage.
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: Means a lot.
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: Listen, just yesterday I had a problem with electrical in my garage.
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: I blew out some outlets and I could not find the gfi or circuit breaker to bring these outlets back.
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: I sent a text to my electrician at like nine o'clock at night.
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he responds.
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: Guy who owns the company.
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, he responds.
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: He goes, he calls me the next or text me the next.
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: I'm going to send so-and-so out.
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: He'll be there in about two hours.
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: Sends these two guys out.
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: I know the guys Fixed the problem, then sent us a text and said there'll be no charge for that today.
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: Who is this?
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's Shane Hall, shane Hall Electric.
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: It's such a beautiful thing.
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: Who does that for you, you know?
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: I mean it's like you think I'm gonna refer him to other people, or not?
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: yeah, I know we're gonna refer them to our millions of listeners that we have on the show yeah, do you think I'm gonna be out there like, um, I need to shop shane, because no, the last they came, they charged me 180 bucks to do something and it only took them 30 minutes.
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: That seems like a lot.
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: No, I'm not going to.
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: No man, I trust him.
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: They fixed the problem.
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: Responsive, responsive.
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: Responsive to set up the call.
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: Responsive to actually show up.
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: Showed they cared.
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: It's just this.
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: I mean, I love professional service businesses.
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: They probably should never have done anything else.
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: Okay, and because you and I both understand it's all about service, okay, yeah, give it.
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it just be involved personally, know what the hell you're doing and serve your clients.
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: Well, yeah, and you will do well, okay, that's who we want working for us.
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: It's.
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: We're not doing this to save money.
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: I can't believe it.
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: 83 of organizations have reduced costs through outsourcing.
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: 59 use outsourcing services specifically to cut costs.
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: I think those are probably big companies.
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they have, don't.
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: They have to be small companies.
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: I mean, you know you wouldn't do that.
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: No, because it's not about the cost savings.
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: Now, there are certain scenarios if I have a full-time, you know, and there's an agency or somebody that can do more services with better quality than a full-timer, yeah, you don't need the full-timer either, Right?
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: Right, yeah, but I'd probably wouldn't make the move because they're cutting costs.
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: No, you do it because of quality, exactly.
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they know better I can get.
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: So it's kind of like fractional CFOs is a good example.
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: You know that's a big thing.
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: There's a lot of companies out there that provide that service now and you know people like well, why do I want a fractional?
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: If I'm going to pay 150 for a fractional cfo, I can go hire a real one for 150, not the one you're getting from the fractional cfo company.
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: True, that person might be a three or four hundred thousand dollar a year cfo.
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: You're getting them for 150.
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: You're getting the best of them.
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: Okay, so you get a better.
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: I don't need them there full-time right, there's not full-time work to be had, exactly, but I want quality, yeah, that's I don't want to have to, you know, to go through some hell a year or two from now.
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, because of these practices right.
• 27:11
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• 27:12
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• 27:20
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• 27:21
  Speaker 3: Visit podcastvideoscom and elevate your podcast today.
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: So that's why I mean I think, a lot of times people.
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: To me, the reason to go fractional or outsource is quality.
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: It's expertise that I cannot get on my own Okay.
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: And I would say that there is like, on the fraction, like you might, you would save money from having to spend 400 grand to the 150.
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: But, like I said, like you can mean there is some savings there, but it's because you don't have full-time need for that.
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, let's say I'm a $5 million company.
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: I can't afford savings there, but it's it's because you don't have full-time need for that.
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, let's say I'm a five million dollar company.
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: I can't afford a four hundred thousand dollar cfo.
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: I'm not paying myself 400 grand anywhere.
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: I'm not right.
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, um.
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: So yeah, it's interesting, um challenges.
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: Uh.
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: 58 of knowledge workers today work in hybrid arrangements.
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: 78% desire flexibility regarding where they work, according to NetSuite.
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: I don't even want to talk about that stat.
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: It infuriates me.
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, importance of clear communication and expectations.
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: Risks of long-term contracts with auto renewal clauses.
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: Here's the deal, man If you work for me full-time, you're coming to the office.
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: I know Well, I'm with you on that.
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: I'm also a believer that I think this four-day work week stuff's crap.
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: I'm not going to get the same productivity out of people in four tens that I'll get out of five, eights or whatever.
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: I can't believe the blinding bull crap that we have, that humans have changed all of a sudden from the dawn of time that since 2020, we're all now just have this awakening that where we're so much, have so much more productivity and we do more work than we ever have before in our lives and we don't have this negative passivity, emotional thing that just sucks us down to the abyss of I don't want to do shit, but I want to get paid more.
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: Call them bullshit on the entire planet Earth right now it doesn't exist.
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: If you put me.
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: Well, that's why some of the foreign countries are beating our brains out.
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: If you, came and you said Eric, here's a million bucks, you don't have to really work that hard to get it.
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: And actually I don't want to have you know I'm going to take the million bucks and not do anything.
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: Of course you're not.
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: You'd be stupid not to.
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: You'd be stupid not to.
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: Right, but the problem, the difference is it might take a year or two for me to realize like I didn't earn anything and I'm not going to get another job.
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: Well, you know, I keep talking about this book that I got for Father's Day, where I have to write these assignments.
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: It said how do you decide when?
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: The right time to retire was one of the questions I had to answer.
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: My answer was I'll never retire.
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: Don't, just don't retire.
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: Where did retirement come into the equation of life, man Like, since the 50s or something?
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: It's like I don't know, it's like I'm never going to do it for two reasons A I need to make the money, yeah, and B I wouldn't know what to do with myself.
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: No one would, I don't want to.
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: You're not.
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: No one.
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: Nothing on Dude.
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: I was thinking about this the other day.
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: I was going to take my girls out and say tell me, tell me one thing on the entire planet that is not struggling.
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: Tell me one thing that is just staying the same.
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah and good, doing great.
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: It'll never change Nothing.
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: I can't think of anything that's either not growing or dying.
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: It's a good lesson, as a parent, to give them this thought to ponder.
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's the same thing in humanity If you stop moving, you die.
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: Look, dude, again.
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: Nobody is happy if they're not accomplishing anything.
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: It's the source of happiness.
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: It's not what you have, it's not how many vacations you can take, or places you go, or where you go out to eat, or what you drive, or how big ass your house is, or whatever.
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: None of that leads to happiness.
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: The only thing that leads to happiness is accomplishment Achieving.
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: Why would you give that up?
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: It's like I'm going to give that up now and just be a resource consumer.
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: Oh man, I suck, I don't put anything back.
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: Everybody has to contribute.
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: It's the key to happiness.
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: You don't contribute.
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: You're depressed, Exactly so we're not going to retire.
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: No, dude, Forget that.
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: No, no, I don't even want to talk about it.
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: Take me out of here.
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: People ask me like, well, when are you going to stop?
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: When are you going to retire from the university?
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: I said when they carry me out of here on a freaking gurney is when I am.
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: Now I probably will die with all the steps that go between the parking lot and the College of Business building.
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: I in the College of Business building.
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: I can see myself collapsing and that'll be it.
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: I'll look up.
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: I'll be 82 years old.
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: I'll look up at the sky and see, dude, if I'm there, you know what I'm going to do, I'll be fine.
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: You know what I would do if I was with you.
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: What's that?
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: That last moment I'd pull your smokes out, I'd light up a cigarette, a drag, and hand it to you and let you smoke but I mean seriously, though we're not going to give up, and we don't want professional service providers who are interested in doing nothing.
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, or hybrid work, or balanced lifestyle and all that crap.
• 32:50
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: No, we don't care about any of that because you don't care about my business so the let.
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: the moral of the story is you want to learn the truth?
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: Tune in to Big Talk about small business Until next time.
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: Okay, until next time.
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: We'll see you later.
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: From the studios of PodcastVideoscom.
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: We're here in beautiful Rogers, arkansas, home of PodcastVideoscom, oh yeah, and everything else.
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: We've even got a PF Chang's here, folks, it may be.
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: Arkansas, but you'd be surprised.
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, and the nicest Walmarts in the country.
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: It really is.
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: It's great you come to Northwest Arkansas where they they're based.
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: You're gonna see some nice walmart's.
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: I got news for you.
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: You wouldn't even believe the one in downtown bentonville, that walmart neighborhood market.
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: It's beautiful, oh my gosh well, the one there uh, the one right there off, uh, elm springs, it's where I think, yeah, yeah, sure, gorgeous, that has all the innovative stuff.
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's fantastic beautiful all right, we'll see you all next week.
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: Thanks a lot.
• 34:02
  Speaker 3: Thanks for tuning into this episode of Big Talk About Small Business.
• 34:05
  Speaker 3: If you have any questions or ideas for upcoming shows, be sure to head over to our website, wwwbigtalkaboutsmallbusinesscom and click on the Ask the Host button for the chance to have your questions answered on the show.
• 34:19
  Speaker 3: Stay connected with us on LinkedIn at Big Talk About Small Business and be sure to head over to our website to read articles, browse episodes and ask questions about upcoming shows.