0:00
welcome back to Callahan’s corner where
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you ask the questions and some live
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right here on Facebook I talked to a lot
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of Industry experts um and people who
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have gone out and scaled if not one but
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multiple seven-figure businesses uh not
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only in the service industry but in
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multiple Industries um and there really
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is one common denominator that I could
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find amongst the success of business
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owners that really break that seven
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figure Mark and get to that three to
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five million Mark and well beyond
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um and the ones that seem to kind of die
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out in that stage three business they
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start bumping up against that seven
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figure marker get just past it
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um and things kind of just fall apart
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for better lack of uh explanation there
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and I think there’s there’s a main
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reason why these businesses tend to fall
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apart
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um and then slide back to a comfort area
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and that Comfort area really is one of
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complete chaos
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um or just really not providing great
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service
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um usually the later the latter it is
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just really going in and um having a
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business that isn’t structured and be
0:58
able to control your time uh so we are
1:00
obviously big proponents of automating
1:02
your business and creating systems that
1:04
are scalable and delegatable such as
1:06
automation through life cycle marketing
1:08
as well as going in and creating systems
1:11
such as production rate based estimating
1:13
job costing
1:15
um how to use several different
1:16
softwares to accomplish that but the the
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biggest thing that I find for Founders
1:21
um and I fell victim to myself in the
1:23
early years is we need to figure out how
1:24
to manage our time
1:26
um but that’s not only the
1:28
uh the solution to part of this but it’s
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it’s only start the start of it because
1:32
really as we’re looking at it
1:34
our team members are falling victim to
1:37
the same issues that we are
1:39
um even if we do figure out how to
1:40
manage our time so I’m going to break
1:41
down some simple examples of how you can
1:43
actually use time management in your
1:46
service business or any business for
1:48
that matter and how you can actually go
1:50
out and coach in um support your team
1:53
members to manage their time more
1:55
effectively so as you’re looking at it
1:58
uh basically there’s really two sides of
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the business on the right hand side
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we’re going to call this working in the
2:04
business as Michael Gerber would say
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Obviously Michael Gerber uh profess that
2:08
we should be working on the business not
2:10
in it but obviously there’s going to be
2:12
some times that we need to work in the
2:14
business especially our team members so
2:17
what I’m proposing is about 80 percent
2:19
of our time is probably in a business as
2:21
it’s scaling is going to be working in
2:23
the business but we really need to do is
2:25
save the other 20 to be working on the
2:28
Strategic objectives and working on the
2:30
strategies setting the vision and where
2:32
we’re going
2:33
um so I’m going to show you some simple
2:34
tips or tricks that I use and how we’ve
2:36
I’ve mentored more than a few people on
2:38
my multiple businesses how to actually
2:40
manage some time and get some
2:41
Effectiveness out of their day and to
2:43
make sure the things that need to get
2:44
done on a daily weekly basis happen
2:47
um but how do we block out some time and
2:49
not be fighting fires all day so without
2:51
any further delay I’m going to pop open
2:52
my screen here and at the end I’m
2:54
actually going to show you
2:55
um
2:56
inside an online calendar such as Google
2:58
Calendar how I actually go out and work
3:00
with my team members to actually create
3:03
structure in their bit their day to
3:05
achieve the 20 of strategic objectives
3:08
in the 80 of being able to work in the
3:11
business with uh getting all those
3:13
things done on a daily weekly basis
3:14
because let’s face it folks especially
3:16
in the spring rush in most service
3:18
businesses
3:19
um it’s near impossible to get all these
3:21
things done so if we don’t guard our
3:23
calendar
3:25
um hey we’re not getting a run but B our
3:26
customer service is well it’s probably
3:28
gonna suck
3:29
um but by going in and blocking the
3:30
calendar not only are you going to have
3:32
better productive days that are
3:34
predictable and you and your staff will
3:35
be more happy but be your clients are
3:37
going to be more happy because they are
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going to get a predictable service
3:42
um Debbie sardone who runs cleaning
3:45
business fundamentals CBF
3:47
um
3:47
and one of her talks I thought was crazy
3:49
at first but I love Debbie and Debbie is
3:52
um just a mad genius when it comes to
3:54
business
3:55
um but Debbie said
3:56
in one of her talks while I was sitting
3:58
and we split a day doing a talk I
3:59
believe it was a Savannah Georgia uh
4:01
teaching lawn care and business owners
4:03
another service business Industries how
4:04
to go out and automate and run a
4:06
business
4:07
um she talked about your client only
4:10
um requires the demands 80 percent now
4:13
we obviously business owners want to
4:15
give 100 110 but really what she was
4:17
getting to is they want consistency and
4:20
if you can get them 80 percent
4:22
consistently on-time predictable
4:24
Services
4:26
um that’s the same each and every time
4:27
that’s where you’re going to win
4:29
um so same kind of methodology here uh
4:31
we your clients if you are not running
4:33
around with a chicken like it’s head cut
4:35
off are going to be more happy so I’m
4:37
going to show you how to really build
4:39
this into your schedule and actually
4:40
delegate this I’m going to do this as
4:42
two uh admin examples and then I’m gonna
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open up my calendar our test calendar to
4:47
show you how to actually start to build
4:48
this out for yourself and your team
4:49
members and let me tell you uh if your
4:51
team members have never been introduced
4:52
to this this is instrumental so it’s not
4:54
just enough to go out and block your
4:56
calendar and teach this but we need to
4:58
go out and start to support our team
4:59
members with this it’s how we grow and
5:00
scale a business and start to delegate
5:02
with predictable results and like Debbie
5:04
said we need to do 80 consistently and
5:07
that is going to win the game uh don’t
5:09
strive for 110 each time because it’s
5:10
not going to happen so this process will
5:12
create predictable results and it may
5:15
not be an immediate um
5:17
jumping on an issue when as soon as it
5:19
happens but it’s going to be consistent
5:21
predictable and that’s what people want
5:22
not
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um reactive every time something happens
5:26
so without any further delay I’m going
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to pop open the screen here and uh take
5:30
a look at it so this is uh potentially
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an admin position here
5:33
and what I’ve done is broken out a scope
5:35
of work of how they can actually uh
5:38
break this down here and what we’re
5:40
looking at here is I’m setting up a
5:42
daily Cadence okay and we’re going to
5:44
talk about what should be done on daily
5:45
Cadence on a regular basis and then
5:47
we’re going to break it down on each day
5:49
of the week what we should be doing so
5:50
create predictable results that are
5:51
measurable actionable and it’s very
5:53
clear at the end of the day and the end
5:55
of the week if this person has done
5:56
their job now the issue comes up is we
5:58
get an aggravated client a truck breaks
6:00
down we need emails to return and we’re
6:03
constantly working those things those
6:05
are going to be distractions I’m going
6:06
to show you how you break those into
6:07
your day for consistency as well but
6:10
what we’ve got here is a basic example
6:11
is uh daily this admin is going to be
6:13
doing uh social media so basically on my
6:17
team this person will be going in
6:19
uh we’re gonna be doing a Facebook live
6:21
by myself the team
6:22
um essay weekly we’re going to go and
6:24
take that video and create a podcast out
6:26
of the video that I’m making today we’re
6:27
going to post that video
6:29
um
6:30
in different areas based on live or post
6:32
recorded and it’s based on the cell
6:33
cycle working on our marketing document
6:35
they’re going to go into Instagram and
6:37
repurpose that video uh Twitter
6:39
and then on the sales Focus so that is
6:41
our social media area of the Day sales
6:44
follow up on hot leads
6:47
um go in communicate with the sales team
6:49
has things been updated uh has the data
6:51
been loaded into our sales
6:53
um Monday morning meeting agenda so we
6:55
can review that every Monday with the
6:57
team cover live chat
7:00
um YouTube they’re going to be creating
7:01
some thumbnails in canva to stick on
7:03
these videos that we’re making here to
7:04
actually get them in so we’ve got some
7:05
Cadence here
7:07
so that’s what we’re going to be doing
7:08
on a daily basis to make sure all the
7:09
social and sales are taken care of for
7:11
this position obviously
7:14
um we’ve got another admin probably
7:15
handing AR on a daily or twice a twice a
7:18
week Cadence uh weekly we’ve broken down
7:21
the things they may be doing every
7:22
Monday Tuesday Wednesday uh notice
7:24
Wednesday work on strategic objectives
7:26
so those are some of the things we’re
7:27
setting in for our quarterly and
7:28
annually goals what are the things they
7:30
have to do to do to get that done so we
7:32
need to block some time out on that uh
7:34
Thursday
7:36
Friday and then monthly
7:38
so now we have a clear Cadence of what
7:41
needs to be done
7:43
um on those days now if we go into
7:45
another admin position in the team uh
7:48
Monday the returning calls and emails
7:49
enter new sales and the install
7:51
documents post social media on sites
7:53
above on 9am
7:57
meet with Mike I’m in the financial team
7:59
to do overdue invoices on 11 to 12 team
8:01
meeting
8:02
once again Tuesday return calls and
8:04
emails so we’re going to start blocking
8:06
out the consistent things that need to
8:07
happen on a daily basis I’m going to
8:08
show you how we actually do that but
8:10
you’ll notice that this position here
8:12
has return calls and emails first thing
8:14
in the morning
8:16
um and each day there’s a different
8:17
Cadence that needs to be tackled here as
8:19
we continue to scroll down so the idea
8:21
is drop it into a Google doc block out
8:23
what it looks like what do you need to
8:24
do every day and then what are the
8:25
objectives we’re doing uh each day of
8:27
the week and then if there’s something
8:28
monthly or quarterly we’ll put that into
8:30
the calendar but uh this is really I
8:32
wanted to lay that as a foundational
8:34
piece but this is really where the
8:35
rubber hits the road here folks
8:37
um so
8:39
I was going to pull up my personal
8:40
calendar but we’ve got a lot of clients
8:42
names on there and different means that
8:43
I don’t really want to share on a
8:44
Facebook video but let’s say we’re
8:46
breaking this down for an admin or
8:48
um a manager of the cruise so really
8:51
what I’m looking at here is let’s say
8:52
we’re getting the cruise out at 7 00 a.m
8:56
um or maybe 8 A.M so maybe we’ve got a
8:59
Time block for the admin to go in every
9:02
day here and
9:04
from seven to seven thirty they are
9:06
going to go in and review uh
9:12
yesterday’s work
9:17
and update
9:19
routes
9:21
so that’s something there that that’s
9:23
going to happen in a service business
9:24
pretty much pretty much every day we
9:26
need to make sure we’ve got actual clock
9:27
in and clock out budgeted time and if a
9:29
job was skipped or there was issues they
9:31
couldn’t get into a backyard couldn’t
9:32
get into a house it was locked out at
9:34
the end of the day we need to put that
9:36
in there so this would be now assigned
9:38
to a particular person or if it was on
9:41
my calendar
9:42
um I would go in and then
9:45
potentially hit save here if it was a
9:47
meeting we could do a video recording so
9:49
this is great whether you’re in the
9:50
field on an iPhone iPad or in the office
9:52
but if we go to more options here uh
9:54
what we’re going to do is go in and does
9:57
it repeat yes it does and this is going
9:59
to be
10:00
um pretty much daily here or we could do
10:03
every day of the week Monday through
10:04
Friday so that would probably be the
10:06
plan there
10:07
um I would potentially say let’s go in
10:09
and put it daily because if we’re
10:11
delayed with rain or different issues
10:13
this would pop up on a Saturday or
10:15
Sunday if need be but now what we’ve got
10:17
now is we’ve got a daily Cadence that
10:19
this person is reviewing yesterday’s
10:22
work and getting
10:23
um
10:24
this work ready now we could be going in
10:27
uh at 8 am
10:29
once they’re already in the office and
10:32
this could be our time slots I would say
10:34
we would probably block out on this
10:36
methodology here maybe a half hour to 45
10:38
minutes now depending on the volume but
10:40
this would be uh return
10:43
emails now 8 AM maybe a little bit early
10:46
in some areas to return in phone calls
10:49
um so we’d probably go in or email
10:51
returning phone calls so we would
10:52
probably go in and say okay we’re going
10:54
to go in repeat
10:56
Monday through Friday and hit save
11:01
and we would probably go in and say
11:03
every morning by eight from 8 30 to 9
11:05
we’re returning phone calls now
11:07
obviously if there’s no phone calls from
11:08
the night before we’re good we move on
11:10
to the next objective uh that we need
11:12
but more options we’re going in now this
11:14
is how we’re going to go in and start to
11:16
build out a Cadence for our admin or
11:19
ourselves based on the roles and
11:21
responsibilities that we’ve highlighted
11:23
out on these Google Docs
11:25
so now that we have this we’re going to
11:27
go in and add this feature and we’re
11:30
going to do this
11:32
Monday through Friday
11:37
so now we’re starting to build some
11:38
Cadence in here so on Monday mornings
11:41
we’re probably going to have a team
11:42
huddle if you don’t I would highly
11:44
recommend it uh so this would be our
11:46
leadership role so in our business it is
11:48
usually from 11 to noon so this would be
11:49
just our Monday so this is our Monday
11:53
morning meeting
11:57
leadership
12:00
and what I would also recommend is we’re
12:02
starting to block this time here
12:05
we’re starting to make some of the
12:07
colors of these different so our
12:10
leadership meetings may be one color our
12:12
daily tasks or things that we need to do
12:14
are going to be uh in this default blue
12:17
color so we’re going to start to time
12:18
block this calendar as well to start to
12:20
guard it um now if we are
12:24
um potentially
12:26
a project manager or someone like in the
12:29
field we could potentially say okay at
12:31
one o’clock on Monday Wednesday Friday
12:34
this could be our
12:36
QC and site
12:43
and slash complaints
12:47
so as we’re starting to get this idea
12:49
here then we would go into more options
12:51
and we’re going to go into a custom
12:53
repeat and go in and actually start to
12:55
block this out so I’m going to do Monday
12:57
Wednesday Friday so the idea here is if
13:00
a complaint came in over the weekend it
13:01
came in on
13:03
um Tuesday whenever that is within 24 to
13:06
48 hours that complaint is now addressed
13:08
so we have good customer service but
13:10
we’re not leaving the office and running
13:12
out to deal with the complaint unless
13:14
it’s catastrophic like a lawnmower drove
13:16
through the side of a house or something
13:18
um this is now going to create
13:20
predictable ability for an admin or
13:21
yourself to block that time and actually
13:24
go out and manage those issues without
13:26
running around
13:28
um crazy this is where we’re starting to
13:29
build time and build Clarity and
13:31
consistency in the business so as you
13:33
can see here I’m kind of overlapping
13:35
some some roles but honestly uh
13:37
depending on the size of your business
13:39
this actually could be really applicable
13:43
um so with drive time that could
13:44
actually potentially be driven out maybe
13:46
to an hour and a half or two hours
13:48
once you update one they can update this
13:50
in following events or that events now
13:52
we’re starting to build some Cadence in
13:54
here uh so let’s
13:56
you kind of get the idea here but we’re
13:58
going to go in and then these are daily
14:00
activities that are responsive uh
14:02
leadership activities are probably going
14:04
to be in a different color quality
14:07
control and things like that probably
14:08
would be in a different color now where
14:10
I find a lot of value in this is Tuesday
14:13
Thursday are actually my strategic
14:15
blocks to work on the business and not
14:16
in the business so uh the team pretty
14:19
much knows unless I’m helping cover a
14:20
deep dive or on the road
14:23
um
14:23
from nine to probably about 3 P.M
14:29
I’m going to go in and color block that
14:31
but that is a
14:34
strategic block and this is where we
14:37
start to actually work on the business
14:38
not in it
14:40
um and this is really the instrumental
14:41
part so you can see I’m going in now I’m
14:44
blocking that out and then I’m going to
14:46
go in and repeat it
14:50
custom every Tuesday Thursday
14:55
and hit save and now that time block for
14:57
my strategic block to work on the
14:59
business and not in it is blacked out
15:01
now my admin
15:03
um and honestly to myself that’s my time
15:05
to work on the business now something
15:07
comes up or an emergency I’ve got that
15:09
built out every other day here Monday
15:11
Wednesday Friday so if there’s a massive
15:14
issue that
15:15
as far as quality control or customer
15:17
could service I’m still going to be
15:18
responsive but now I’m doing it in a
15:20
controlled time that’s going to create
15:22
predictable results and it’s going to
15:24
give me time to actually go out and
15:26
manage that issue on site with the
15:27
client if I need to in my service
15:29
business so these are the things that we
15:31
really want to be doing now
15:33
let’s assume that your business has
15:35
grown to a size and you’re a state that
15:36
does sales tax or quarterly taxing or
15:40
just something that needs to be done uh
15:42
what we can do then is go in
15:45
and say let’s say the sales tax is due
15:47
the 20th of every month which it was in
15:49
New York state
15:51
um
15:52
here actually still is we could say the
15:55
17th of every month
15:57
we’d go in and say okay at 9 00 A.M
16:02
this is our
16:04
sales tax obviously once you get to a
16:07
size of business you’re filing monthly
16:09
you’ll probably have someone doing this
16:10
but Tammy and my business would actually
16:12
go in and do this now if I’m happy
16:13
helping Tammy she’s more than capable
16:15
but in the early days let’s say Tammy
16:17
was having issues with this I would go
16:19
in and go under other and add the
16:22
calendars and then go in in a screen
16:24
share and you need with this person help
16:26
them build out their calendar but what I
16:27
would do then is say this is my time for
16:30
an hour to file a sales tax and then my
16:32
options is
16:33
uh going in and does not repeat and then
16:36
I can do monthly on the third Friday
16:39
or monthly on a certain date
16:43
um
16:44
in there so this is the idea is we can
16:47
set custom recurrences in here now uh a
16:51
service like service autopilot will have
16:53
tickets I’m going to recommend using
16:55
this because tickets are not going to be
16:57
able to block and manage your calendar
16:58
now you can use them in correspondence
17:00
with tickets but if you’re looking to go
17:03
out and literally
17:05
manage your calendar here and get this
17:08
done the ability to manage and own your
17:11
time is going to be instrumental in the
17:13
ability for these strategic blocks very
17:16
similar to my business when Amanda or
17:19
Andrea now are two full-time admin are
17:21
going to be able to go in and say hey
17:23
Mike you’ve got your 93 block does this
17:25
fit in can I override it or
17:27
traditionally they’ll just block outside
17:29
of it this is where you’re going to own
17:30
your schedule this is the way that you
17:32
can create predictable results from your
17:35
team members now you can notice we’re
17:37
turning returning emails and phone calls
17:39
only once in the beginning of the day
17:41
now if you’ve got an admin
17:43
or manager uh obviously this is probably
17:46
going to happen need to happen uh
17:48
obviously more than just the beginning
17:49
of the day so what I would recommend is
17:51
this is what we did uh with my team is I
17:54
clicked into those and said okay if
17:56
that’s the case let’s customize that
17:59
um
18:01
and add that in so right after say their
18:03
lunch hour if 11 to noon was their lunch
18:06
we could go in and I’ll create a process
18:09
there to create
18:15
return email
18:18
and calls
18:22
and we’d go in and set that in with more
18:24
options and now that would also repeat
18:27
on Monday through Friday
18:31
and then
18:33
we would go in and hit save
18:35
so once again we could start blocking
18:37
these and actually setting the colors
18:39
here so everything in blue is in the
18:41
office uh everything here for QC could
18:45
be set up so if I know if I’m on the
18:47
road that’s going to be say a purple
18:48
color obviously you pick the colors you
18:50
want but this is the idea and then your
18:52
strategic blocks are in this yellow or
18:54
something that’s completely different so
18:55
you then once we updated all of these
18:57
these on sites would be all in blue or
19:00
purple we’ve got the blue that’s in the
19:02
office so now we’ve hit our returner
19:04
emails uh in the morning after lunch and
19:08
then I would go in and say okay between
19:10
4 30 and 5 o’clock same idea return
19:13
emails and phone calls
19:23
we’re gonna go into more options and
19:25
literally
19:27
block that out so this is this is really
19:29
it’s very very basic stuff but it can be
19:32
game changing if you’ve never done it
19:35
um on a consistent basis so now
19:37
our admin would have the ability to know
19:40
the returning emails and phone calls
19:42
first thing in the morning at 7am
19:43
they’re reviewing and updating
19:45
um the schedules and getting updated
19:47
before the crews get in at 7 30 and
19:49
maybe we’re driving this to if they’re
19:51
starting at seven they may be ending at
19:52
four
19:54
from
19:56
that time there now they’re returning
19:58
emails and phone calls
20:00
and we’d want to click in if we hadn’t
20:02
actually create a reoccurring
20:06
process
20:08
so now we’ve actually started to time
20:10
block some consistent results for any
20:13
position in our business uh now
20:15
obviously your crew leaders your
20:16
technicians these things are not really
20:18
going to happen on a Google Calendar but
20:19
anything above a in the field operator
20:23
right up to the business owner should
20:25
have their calendar blocked out this way
20:26
to be able to focus on at least 20
20:29
percent of that business working
20:30
strategically and then the 80 percent
20:33
that we’re working in the business being
20:35
controlled and creating persistent
20:37
results and be able to get 80 percent of
20:40
whatever we’re doing consistently
20:41
predictable
20:43
um by doing so here this is going to
20:45
hopefully alleviate your temptation to
20:49
go out and firefight and run around and
20:52
be reactive let’s go in and be proactive
20:56
and set times into Cadence and structure
20:58
to the things that happen in our
21:00
business by managing the Google Calendar
21:01
setting it up after we’ve gone in and
21:05
scoped out what is
21:08
our weekly cadences of each day and one
21:11
of our daily cadences and monthly and
21:14
build those into the calendar so they
21:15
should happen and then every day when we
21:17
go into our Monday morning meeting for
21:20
leadership or the core group
21:22
um we can have those things reported out
21:24
for clarity and every time you clock in
21:26
on Monday by the time you clock out on
21:27
Friday you know you’ve done your job
21:29
because now there’s a clear expectation
21:31
of when it should happen and the
21:32
customer is going to be happy because
21:33
you set a clear uh repeatable system
21:36
that is not going to be chaotic but have
21:38
consistent services and customer
21:40
satisfaction Callahan’s corner you ask
21:42
questions we had some live right here on
21:44
Facebook we’ll see you again tomorrow