#50 – Overcoming Daily Business Headaches

[0:00:15.2] Stephen: Hey, everybody. Stephen Esketzis here from Marketing on the Move. And I’m with here with you on a very fresh Thursday afternoon and I wanted to just quickly drop this podcast in.

I know on either side, we’ve had a couple of fantastic interviews.

We had Gale and we had Kim Barrett who’s crushing Facebook ads, both have been absolute superstars. So hopefully, you guys have watched that on either side of this podcast on this episode.

But I wanna talk to you about today is I’ll just give you a little story.

So what happened this morning was I don’t know, I might have mentioned in the couple of other podcast episodes, but one thing which I absolutely hate is doing the accounting and getting the numbers and getting all those sorted and just following it up, and the whole thing is just a mess.

It just drives me up the wall. So that’s one big thing which really just annoys me not because I can’t do it but because it’s just messy and I don’t know, I think my business, and I might be wrong here, but I think my business is a little bit harder than others because it is an online business.

It is an online Internet marketing type business. So I feel that it kind of runs into a few different things that other businesses might not run into.

So for example, I’ve got a lot of multiple currencies coming in and out, there’s hanging contractors and people’s payrolls and this and that, and money gone everywhere.

So one thing which I focused on massively is trying to dial all that in, trying to dial it in. And I think I’ve shared it in another episode that when you have a problem, when you can’t see anything, when it’s super chaotic.

The way I dial it in is you just charge at it face first because the reason why it’s so chaotic is because you don’t know the next logical step. And I think that’s just such a big thing because if you don’t know the next logical step how are you gonna get there?

The reason why you don’t tackle it is because you don’t know what to do first.

[0:02:13.2] So the first thing I did and I’ve been putting this off for ages, and I’m sure you guys have heard of the software called Xero, it’s an accounting software, and because I’m in the office on my own, so we don’t have accountants and things here, so I’m doing it on my own.

So what I wanted to do was get this set up so I can really take charge and know every single week I can do my reconciliations, make sure everything in there is as automated as possible. But to do that, I need an accountant, because there’s like five or six bank accounts, there’s money going in, money going out, expenses.

We’ve gotta do business activity statements here in Australia if you’re listening from overseas, same thing as to the government, know your tax. This, this and this. So it’s a bit of a process. So you’ve got to make sure that your account is set up properly. Now, the reason why I couldn’t do it is because it was just complicated.

The software is supposed to make it easy, but I’m pretty sure it’s supposed to make it easy for accountants, not for every day humans. So me, I jumped in and I set it all up. I got the bare basics going, I created the account. Awesome, and now, I just sort of been for the last two or three months playing around with it. I think I made it worse than what it was when I just started fresh, but we’ll see that happens.

And then I kept putting it off and I couldn’t figure it out. I think it was one thing I couldn’t figure out. I couldn’t figure out how to categorize an expense if it came in US dollars and it went out in US dollars or something stupid like that.

And it was just such a road block for me. It just stuck with me because for like three months, two or three months, I could not move over this little accounting this, this little accounting road block which if I asked an accountant, he’d get it like that. But for me, it was such a road block.

So after two or three months, I’m like, “Man, this is it. Screw it, I’ve got to actually just get over this,” because the longer I leave it, the longer all this tends to like just drown out and get worse and worse.

Because you know with accounting, every transaction needs to be accounted for. So the more I spend, the more I make, all of this extra stuff means I’ve gotta go backtrack it all. So I’m like, “Screw it. Let’s go back. Let’s find an accountant.”

[0:04:09.5] So yesterday or the day before, I literally spent a whole hour of my day, I’m like this is only gonna take 15 minutes, just to call up an accountants around Melbourne, around my area, and find someone who can do it. Because I’ve got my accountant, but he’s pretty busy.

He does a lot of other things as well, so I wanna find someone that could just set this up for me real quick, I can just pay one of and then I could learn the system and implement the system in my business.

So I jumped on the computer, started calling her. I called about 10 different accounting companies. Now, three of those ten didn’t even pick up the phone. And this was their main phone number on their website that they advertise.

And this was through Xero. So Xero has, the software, has a list of certified specialists or whatever they call them. And these were the key numbers to call.

Three of them didn’t pick up at all. And this is in business hours and everything. Nothing. And I think the other five or six all picked up and I’ve sort of got through and like there about three or four of them were like, “Yeah, the guy’s not in at the moment or he’s busy or he can’t reach the phone,” or “Let’s schedule in for an appointment.”

It was sort of beating around the bush. I just thought of one of them and answer now, what can we do? Like can we book in a time? Can you solve this? Can you have a look at my situation, see if we can work it out?

And then there were two, so one of the ones that I called was like, “Hey.” And the guy who picked it up was actually one of the names I saw on the screen, so one of the partners, small business, so only about four or five guys in the company.

So I said,

“Hi, this is Luke. How are you doing?”

I’m like, “Hey, this is Stephen. This is my problem. I can’t get this sorted. I came running into a road block.”

He’s like, “Yeah, that’s no problem. We can fix that up.”

It’s easy, this is just a one-off thing, I’ve already got an accountant.

He goes, “That’s not way.” He goes, “Usually, we throw this included with our packages if you’re a client. But if you just wanted this one-off, that’s easy done. Come in.”

He goes, “I’m flat out this week, but you know what? I’m going to make time for you and let’s get it in.” He goes, “When do you want to do it?”

And that stuck with me. I’m like, “Man, this guy’s flat out he’s run the middle of submitting all these statements and things to the government because it’s that time of year for the tax stuff, but he wants to make time.”

So I’m like, “Let’s do it.”

Called him up, picked the phone up and said, “Alright, I’m free this Thursday in the morning.”

He’s like, “Yep, let’s do it. Block it in.”

Today being Thursday, I went out to his office, we spoke for about, it was supposed to be a 5 – 10 minute chat, turned into an hour, and he pretty much answered all my questions.

A consultation like that probably should have charged at least a few hundred dollars if not more, so an absolute champion. This was one of the partners of the company, so it just shows you that the guy who can act quickly, who can actually implement, take what you’re saying, and just run with it, who makes the customer a priority, they’re the companies that are going to win.

They’re the ones that have the value that are going to win. It’s not that people that are going to pan you off or say it’s too busy or I don’t have a pencil, I can’t pencil you in. I can’t do this.

The ones that actually take charge go the extra mile for their customers are the ones that are going to win your business.

So I just wanted to share that today.

And yeah, it’s just fascinating how you see all these guys, they come up with excuses or reasons why they can’t even get to the phone or the phone doesn’t even ring. And it takes a lot of effort just to even give them business.

When this people out there who have issues that needs solving right now, be available to service their issues.

Go above and beyond what they want. So just an example is if you’re going out there just to get your foot in the door, create that relationship, build that initial relationship right up front, and that’s what this guy did.

He’s like, “Yeah, man. Let’s do it.” He sounded like he was super driven to give my problem a solution, get a solution for my problem.

[0:07:45.7] So, if you’re out there and you deliver a service or you deliver a product, go above and beyond.

Build that relationship with your customer and just start crushing it from the beginning.

Don’t be afraid and don’t fan it off to your system, don’t do this. If someone calls you, take it. Say yes, grab the opportunity, book it in and then work it out later. That’s the number one thing.

If someone’s there, give them your business, don’t risk it by saying, “Oh, it doesn’t work” or “I can’t do this because the system is broken.” If your systems are broken, you go back and fix them, but if someone’s giving you money or giving you business, say “yes.”

First thing you do is to say “yes” and then figure it out later.

Build that relationship and go forward. I think that’s just an important thing, and for me it was massive. I had a massive pain point there and now that’s going to be relieved.

So in the next day or two, I know the exact step now I need to do, I know exactly how much time we need to dedicate to it and how much he’s gonna charge me as well.

I got all my questions answered and I’m good to go. So I’m relieved for myself that I don’t have to do the accounting, it’s not as hard as much of an avalanche as I thought it would be.

But it’s still gonna be able to work. So now that I’ve got someone who knows what they’re doing was able to help me and relieve that pain. I’ll be able to go forward and hopefully have no more issues with it.

But just a lesson for you guys that if you’re on either the customer end or you’re on the seller’s end, keep it in mind that the guy who’s there who wants the business, who’s driven to act quickly, he’s gonna win.

The one who wants to solve the pain point for you, who’s not in it just to make it work for their business system, who has time for you, who’s this, the guy who wants to get your solution fixed as quickly as possible, and resonates with the customer is the one who’s going to win your business.

So I found that really fascinating. And I think that’s just a little lesson I wanna share with you guys. Hopefully you guys are doing well and we’ve got a lot more interviews coming up and we’ve got a lot of stuff happening on the website which I’m going to share with you guys shortly.

There’s lots of changes we’re making, and yeah, some really cool stuff on the way.

So shared that with you guys in another podcast, otherwise, I’ll speak to you soon. Take care.