134. How To Focus With Russ, Dani and Andy

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Then you can pretty much accept that nobody in the team is going to be focused.

Welcome to Professional Builder's Secrets, the podcast for building company owners wanting to grow safely and securely. I'm your host, Will Blunt, and today I'm joined by Russ Stevens, the co founder of apb. Russ, welcome to the show.

Thanks so much, Will. Great to be here.

Always great to have you on. And we've also got Andy Scarda, our head coach. Andy, welcome to the show.

Thank you, Will. Thank you for having me back.

Always a pleasure. And for the very first time, our head of sales, Danny Sadie is here with us. Danny, welcome.

Thanks, Will. Great to be here today.

Great to welcome you to the Professional Builder Secrets live community, I guess.

No, it's great to be here. I'm looking forward to the first podcast episode, joining all of you guys.

It's going to be a great one. So today we're talking about how to focus. Now, Andy, I want to throw to you to kick things off because you've got a lot of experience working with builders and it's a common thing that tends to come up is every now and then they will lose focus on their objectives. So what typically triggers that from a coaching perspective?

I would probably take it back to a combination of factors, starting with a lack of planning. You know, the reality is that builders are juggling multiple things we always talk about they've got a whole bunch of plates spinning at the same time. And that naturally means that to keep everything running, they've got to be able to move between different disciplines depending on what's happening in front of them. What tends to happen with this focus thing is although we are switching disciplines in each discipline, we need to be focused. And the reason that I went to planning as the foundation is that what planning will do for you is prioritize each of the disciplines to make sure that they happening at the right point in the process to keep focus on where the particular builder wants to end up.

Russ, what do you see affecting a builder's day to day operations if they do lose focus in those different disciplines?

Well, I think once, yeah, once they do lose that bit of focus, then motivation can fall away pretty quick because I think like Andy just said, I mean you've got to have a plan, but you've also got to be visiting that plan and staying very clear on what needs to be done. And I think the problem that affects a lot of builders is they get caught up in the, in the day to day and doing too much of the activity that maybe should or could be delegated to other people. So they stop working on the business and start getting sucked into spending a lot more time working in their business. And when that happens, you're fighting fires. You're missing the big picture really. And yeah, it has an effect on your own motivation and that in turn has an effect on the team as well. Because the pace of the pack is going to be set by the, the, the lead dog. So once the, the leader of the company gets affected by motivation, gets demotivated, it brings down the whole company. So it's not just you that's being affected, you're, you're affecting the whole company there.

And I think the important thing just to add to what Russ has said is that one of the functions of leadership is to lead. So you know, if the leader loses sight of the main thing, we always talk about keeping the main thing the main thing. If he loses sight of that, what tends to happen is everybody else literally follows suit. So it's kind of this almost the self fulfilling prophecy of if the leader isn't focused well then you can pretty much accept that nobody in the team is going to be focused. I think practically we've got to accept that for a lot of our members and listeners, they may still be in that place where they are the team. And that obviously makes this a little bit more difficult. But it's a great example of if you are the team and you wanting to grow, we've proven over and over you're not going to grow unless you've got a team, which now means the main thing is getting that team. And therefore your focus should be on setting the business up in such a way that you can bring people in to help you so that they can take exactly what Russ said, those things that they can handle on a day to day basis which allows you then to stay focused on the strategic stuff that's going to move the needle.

Danny, I'm keen to bring you into the conversation here because you're talking to builders every day. How are the symptoms playing out? Like, what are they telling you that you're, you're tying back to this lack of focus in their day to day operations.

It's definitely coming back to when they talk about I haven't had time, like that's the number one thing they're really saying, I don't have time for this, I don't have time for that. And when we really drill down and ask more questions and delve into that, a lot of it is they don't have the focus and as Andy and Russ just said, the discipline to actually look at their plan or a lot of the time don't have a business plan or strategic plan plan to refer back to. So it's, it's kind of like, you know, just running around with you blindfolded and. But trying to get from point A to point B and you've got no idea which way to go or what to actually action.

Yeah, I just want to jump on what, what Danny said there because it is a common thing, isn't it? Not just in this industry, although it probably can affect builders more than a lot of other people. But you hear it in small business a lot. I don't have time. But the fact is we've all got 168 hours in the week. And when you look at the most successful people, you think, well, if you don't have time running a company of this size, what about these guys that are running massive companies? How do they find the time? Well, it's, again, it all comes back down to leverage. Having a plan, having focus, having discipline and making sure you're working on the things that matter. That's, you know, so, so important for business leaders.

And I mean it's, I'm, I'm at currently in the process. As most of you will know, we run an annual strategic retreat and in fact, we've just got back from our most recent one. And the thing that struck me in preparing for this year's retreat was it there's a, there's an element of bravery that's got to come into this. It's not, it's not only just focused or just a plan, it's ignoring the things that are all screaming at you to be done that aren't going to move the needle and being able to identify those things that will make a difference and ignoring those other things to get this done. It's prioritization, I think is a big part of this in terms of making sure you are investing the time you have available, however limited that is, into what is most important right now, not what is most urgent.

Yeah, it's definitely, don't you think, you know, taking one piece of that or one bite of the elephant at a time. It's that old chestnut that people talk about because it can feel so overwhelming when you look at everything that needs to be done. But when you break it down into those tangible bite sized pieces, you focus in on that one item, get that done, get it done well and it really does free you up to, to then focus on the next task and continue to move forward.

That, that's part of it, isn't it? It's being smart enough or having the focus and the guidance to know what you should be working on first. Because you know, if you, if you go into the APB members portal, there's you know, 50 or 60 different action plans that a lot of builders will look at them and think, yeah, they want to go through them all. But you, you, you can't. But it's identifying, well, which one is it that you need to be working on first? Because you got to find the things that are going to free up more of your time to allow you to work on the business more and more. So that's a real big part of it. It's not always having to fix the biggest issue in the company. It's fixing the issue that's going to leverage your time the best.

And I mean that lack of time thing is a symptom if you, if you take that back. Exactly as Russ said, We get 168 hours in a week. If you look at some of the well known business leaders, one thing that is common across people like Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs and these kind of guys is once they identified that thing that would make the difference, they were single minded in injecting themselves into that thing throughout the business. So I mean I heard that the only meeting that Steve Jobs chaired every week was marketing. The only one. When he first joined the company, he took them from 18 products down to two. A laptop and a, and a desktop. That was it. He literally, he brought that focus in terms of we too dissipated. Zuckerberg realized about 20 years ago that the future lay in mobile. And he brought in an edict that every single team in the company had to have a mobile engineer as part of the team to make sure that part of the platform went mobile. So you know, if we, if we look at these, these guys that are international successes, this thing of focus and priority and single mindedness, I always say to my coaching clients, if a terrorist organization injected a toxin into the water supply of your city and the only way you could get an antidote to save your children's lives, Gee, it's getting emotional now. You can hear the, you can hear that music. If the only thing you could do to save your kids lives was to get the most important thing in your business sorted out, would you do it? And the answer is always, yes, of course I would. And that's, that's the thing is it's not really, I don't have the time. It's, I'm not prioritizing my time to make sure that I'm doing the most important things. That's the key.

And I love that example about Steve Jobs as well. This is when he came back to Apple, wasn't it, after, after being booted out. And like you say, he, he looked at it and he took the company from all those products down to, down to a couple. And I think, yeah, if we think about our own businesses, think about your building company, think about all the things you might be doing, you might be trying to do. It's one of the reasons that, you know, when a lot of builders that we speak to, they, you know, we ask what they're focused on and they say new homes and renovations. Now the fact is they are two very completely different business models. And you can't optimize for profit by doing both those models. You know, it affects your marketing, affects your sales process, but most importantly, it affects your operations as well. And by eliminating the secondary, which is generally the renovations, and focusing on your primary, you'll actually end up doing more of your primary. But even if you didn't, they will be more profitable because you can gear your company up for it. And, and that's what we're talking about here. You know, in terms of focus, that's just another example. Yeah, I love that example you got there, Andy, because I think that just sums it up beautifully.

You know, we always talk about whichever part of the world you're in, niching or niching, you can take this concept of focus as far as you want to. The reality is if your niche is tightly focused, everything within the business is focused on you doing a limited number of things incredibly well. And if your team are all doing the same things in the same way every day, they become very good at them, which pushes up the efficiency, which pushes up your margins. Which means you've all of a sudden got the cash to grow. So it's. I mean, it's whether we talk macro or micro, whether it's one person on their own doing one thing a day, or whether we take it to. Let's even take your business and make sure that it's focused. The power of focus is incredible. Everything you focus on improves. And there's that wonderful Chinese proverb that says, the man that chases two rabbits goes home hungry. Mean, that's pure focus, nothing else.

Yeah, I love that, Andy. I was thinking about it. Even just from the perspective of where our focus goes. When you're trying to, whether it's, you know, write your strategic plan, then if you've got so many different eggs or plates, you're juggling whatever it is you want to do. My proverbs are nowhere near as refined as yours, Andy. So we'll just go with the plates or the eggs juggling there. But it's really about, you know, when you're trying to put that much detail into a business plan plan, but you're talking about three areas, four areas, whether it's new homes and renovations, again, you're diluting your focus down and spreading it out. So even that in your plan, doing the strategic plan, it does allow you to focus in and see, have you got too many plates in the air? And if you're still on the tools, like, it's going to take even more time. You're creating actually more work for yourself.

Absolutely. I mean, it's one of the things in our. In our business planning workshops that we run that we specifically, in everybody's strategic plan, there is a stop doing list because we acknowledge that everybody's busy. All right? And we always talk about it's easy to be busy, but what you've got to be is effective. And I think that's the difference that focus makes. It takes you out of that. I'm doing a lot of things, but I'm not making much traction. I saw a horrible definition of burnout as being exactly that. You're working incredibly hard, but it's making no difference. That's what brings about burnout. If you're actually making progress as a result of the work that you're doing, you are going to be fulfilled and satisfied. You're not going to burn out. In fact, you're going to be energized. You're going to. You're going to get more energy. But we literally have a portion of the strategic plan that is called the Stop doing list on the basis of if you've got 168 hours in a week and you're going to sleep occasionally, you going to stay married, your children are going to call you dad or mom, not uncle or auntie, and you're going to run a business. Something's got to give. It can't be in the first three, in fact, and your health even more important. So literally what you've got to be able to do is to say, what am I going to stop doing to create the time that I need in order to do the things that I should be doing? And that's where the focus is going to come. Having that level of testicular and ovarian fortitude to make those decisions is what, is what will bring that focus.

Russ we've spoken a lot about the day to day symptoms and potentially mistakes builders are making around prioritization. But what does that look like in 5, 10, 20 years time? How does it play out?

I think it results in disappointment, doesn't it? Despondency. Because we've actually seen this in a lot of builders that we've spoken to and it's quite sad to see because everyone starts their own business with this big vision of how they're going to do it better. Because it's the E myth, isn't it? It's technicians that start businesses, not entrepreneurs. And they start businesses because we feel we can do it better than the person we were working for or another business that we've seen. We think we can do better than that. So we start businesses and we have this great vision and we get beaten down over time. And none more so than builders really, with everything. They have to face the demands on their time, the admin demands, et cetera. And when they get to 10, 15, 20 years down the track and they're still on the hamster wheel, they've hit a glass ceiling they haven't been able to break through. It's, it's quite a sad sight. And we see it as well, Guys get to that point, they get a, they get a bit bitter as well, and they almost refuse to believe that there is a, an easier, better way of doing things. And that's probably why we see such a difference in the results of the builders we work with based on their age. So I'd say like as a ballpark, you know, anyone below the age of 25, we see massive results very, very quickly because they, they have no preconceived ideas, they have fresh energy and they just implement, they have no preconceived beliefs that things aren't going to work and they get incredible results very quickly. Then you get the next range which is kind of 25 to 35. That yeah, they've taken a few knock, they see the big picture, they believe it can be done but they're just a little bit skeptical because they've been through some hard knocks. So they do get results but it can take a little bit longer because they're not jumping in with both feet. And then we get the older guys. Typically it's the 55 plus age group and if they've been doing things the hard way for too long and been hitting that glass ceiling for too long and kind of trapped on that hamster wheel, they almost don't want to believe, believe that there is an easier way of doing things and they kind of refuse to allow themselves to believe it. And they might look at solutions but they rarely implement them. And yeah, it's, it's very frustrating. It's got to be incredibly disappointing for those builders that have been through that journey. But equally, you know, we always get exceptions to rule. It never is too late. You know, there's, there's always guys that have turned it around later in life.

And we see a lot of interesting. I never thought about it from that perspective, but we see a lot of father son combinations where the son is the driver. Like dad has hit the jaded ceiling and he's going, nah, this doesn't get any better.

And blissfully, blissfully ignorant in you.

There we go. I mean it's. I've got a wonderful situation developing it with one of my clients at the moment who's who comparatively speaking is a relatively young builder but he got involved with us fairly early on and has been a really good implementer and he's ended up with a very successful, successful business to the point that one of the other builders in his city who's been a builder for over 30 years has actually come to him to ask him to help him to revamp his 30 year old plus business. And I mean this epitomizes exactly what Russ is saying. A young man with a bit of go get spirit who implements and gets results is now going to go and help somebody who on paper should be significantly better off than what the young man is. But that's not the case. Why Focus literally did the right things at the right time in the right order and that's what got him the results.

I love that there was a. You made me think of a newer member that I've been talking to. At the moment to Andy, who is actually the father. So it's one of the exceptions to the rule here, Russ. But he and the kids were sitting around talking. It's a third generation business and they've like, it's got to be easier than this. And the dad would talk about all the stories he had from his time. He's like, you know what? And he picked up the phone and he rang through our main line. We connected, had a conversation like, I don't want them to go through all the stuff I went through. This was hard. Like, it was, where were you guys 30 years ago when I was starting out? 40 years ago, we were in school. We don't need to talk about what age I was at them. But anywho, that whole point that he went, went, you know what, they don't need to have it that hard. There is the answers and solutions out there, but they need to have that focus and dedication to want to do it. And he's like, so. And when we were chatting, he goes, no, I need them to book this next call with you because I want them to be focused and ready to take this change. So it was great to see that he was able to identify where it needed to go next because it's what he wished he'd done. So amazing that he's instilling that now in that next generation.

Yeah.

Andy, what would you say to the builders out there that might wear many, many hats and wear it as a badge of honor as well, working 60, 70 hours a week, but almost using that as a way to say, like, you know, pump up their ego a little bit.

Quick, quick discussion. Stop it. Seriously. I mean, it, it. No matter where you look at the impact of that on them or their family or their marriage or their back pocket, it's. Nobody in this industry makes significant progress by working hard. I mean, you can, you can achieve a certain level of success if you've got a team that is prepared to work 80 hours a week and you've got a couple of things working in your favor. But the reality is you. You're working against yourself in all of the other areas. So you're driving your car with a handbrake on, essentially, which just makes everything that much more difficult. So it's the message to them would certainly be, let's get you some help to identify. I normally look at two things at the same time. What are you really bad at and what do you hate doing? And they're often the same thing. And if we can get that off their plate, Just that one thing off their plate that puts them in a place where not only do they now have some extra time, but they actually have some. There's a bit of spark now because they're looking forward to the other things they're doing rather than being put off by this thing that they've got to do that they hate. So it's, it's kind of. The sooner they get themselves out of that realm, the better would be the advice.

Yeah, like this is, this is an interesting one as well, because, you know, seeing a lot of guys like this and they are incredibly focused. They're working extremely long hours, they're working incredibly hard, and they have, you know, great focus, drive and determination. However, they're focused on the wrong things. This is the, the issue and it's not sustainable. I had a conversation with a builder. It was literally just a couple of weeks ago. And this guy has done incredibly well in a. In literally three, maybe four years, he's gone from nothing to 30 million. And he's done it with a very, very small team as well. I was amazed at just how few employees. I think there's just four or five of them building a lot of homes. But he's doing it on a very low margin, unsustainable margin, which is why he needs to be incredibly efficient. So he's leaving a lot of money on the table there, but he's also working seven days a week. And I said to him that's, that's just not sustainable. And he's kind of struck his shoulders and said, well, I'm managing now. He's literally working every day to make sure he processes invoices and pays his subcontractors straight away. And that's how he kind of gets more out of the guys as well. And it's difficult to, like you. You have to be careful because, you know, you can't coach or help people when they're. They're not ready. I think there's a saying, you know, when, when the student's ready, the teacher will appear. So, you know, you kind of have to hold your. Yourself back. But great example there of, you know, he, he, he's been successful in rum respect, but it's a train wreck waiting to happen because he won't be able to sustain that pace. And, and he's missing out on doing what he should be doing, which is creating a great business. All he's doing is creating a great job at this moment.

You know, that saying, Russ, of, you know, when the students ready, the teacher will appear the conversation has been almost on repeat in the past couple of weeks with all of the members coming through at the moment. And it's. They know they've been focusing on the wrong area, but that's so easy to focus on being on the tools, being out on the sites, doing those things, rather than where they really need to be because it's uncertainty and it's uncomfortable for them to go into that moment. So it's easier to run that hard and be busy. I say in inverted commas there, but it's about recognizing that that focus is going to go to something that's actually going to give you that long term reward and those goals and things like that. And that's where the plan comes in. Knowing what your goals are, how you're going to get there, and then having the discipline and focus to work on those things that your muscles kind of aren't trained in at the moment, you've got to grow into that.

Yeah. And I think a lot of guys tend to fall into the trap of thinking, well, no one does it as good as I do. We hear them say, I might as well do it myself. You know, it takes me so long to show someone how to do it, I might as well do it myself. It's quicker. And then a lot of people getting frustrated with the quality of employees, you know, they're saying that the staff are hopeless. You know, it's, you know, it's just too hard. But the reality is, as the owner of a building company, the other leader in your business, everything that goes wrong in your business is your fault, or at least your responsibility. And once you accept that fact that everything that is going wrong is down to you, once you accept that, you can actually start work on improving your company and building a systemized company that can operate without you.

Yeah. There's a great book by Jocko Willink called Extreme Ownership, and it's an entire book about that exact subject, that no matter what goes wrong in an organization, it's the guy at the top that needs to fix it. You know, and I mean, just when you're talking, Russ, I was thinking about the reason that those guys that are working 90 hours a week have got such terrible employees is because they don't have the time to recruit properly.

Yeah.

And train properly. So it's, it's this, it's this cycle that they've got to break, you know, to kind of get to the point that they're employing quality people who can do the things they can't do or can do the Things quicker and that'll give them then the breakthrough into the space they need.

Yeah, and that's the answer, isn't it? Like, how do you break out of that cycle when you're already working long hours and flat out, I mean, the answer is you work even longer and harder in the short term. You know, get up an hour earlier. Yeah. Doesn't matter how early you're getting up, get up earlier. You. If you don't change something, then nothing's going to change. So, yeah, you've got to dig even deeper, but only temporarily. It will, you know, you'll start leveraging up your time and.

And you know what, you might be the best person at doing that now. And you can do it faster than the first time somebody else does it, but if you take the time to teach them how to do it the way you do it. And I mean, we always talk in our coaching cohort, we talk about cloning yourself in the things that you're good at. So if you're good at something, make sure that when before you delegate that you convert that into a documented system and then you efficiently train your team members to do it exactly the way that you would do it. And what that does is it removes this whole fear of delegation because we, I mean, we had a mastermind session. This must be three years ago. One of our members was on a golf cart on Hamilton island on his phone as part of the Mastermind. And I started the mastermind saying, what would your team need to look like for you to be completely comfortable to delegate? And his immediate answer was, I'd need nine of me. And I said, that's exactly the correct answer. That's what you want. If you are doing everything in the business and it's working, although it's clunky and it's hard and it's seven days a week. Well, guess what? Convert that into systems. Employ people, train them, and get them to do it the way you would have done it. And you don't need to do it anymore.

However, be open to the idea that there are people out there that can do things better than you can. I always thought I was the greatest marketer in the world until Will joined the team. So, yeah, you can bring people in. They can actually do things better than you can.

Well, and I mean, it's one of our fundamental principles. If you're going to lead a building business, you want to eventually be the least intelligent person in the room. You literally want to surround yourself with people that can do what needs to be done. Better than you can. That's a really good leader.

So relationships then, isn't it? It's all about. Yeah, relationships. Building relationships.

Yeah. No, yeah.

I think there's some great points in there around needing to work a bit harder in the short term, Russ. But also, Andy, you were mentioning, like it's, there's no short term fix. You can't just hire someone and it's all going to be better because if you don't put the training and effort into onboarding them, then it's probably going to create more issues than what you had before.

Exactly. And I mean it, it go. It goes back to everything, you know, understanding what makes you successful in those areas so that you know what kind of people to look for, you know, to employ all of that takes time. It takes, I often say to people, you need a day, a week that you can go and sit under a tree and examine the fluff in your belly, but just, just give your brain time to kind of breathe a bit and get creative again. Because that's the biggest problem with these guys that are working 90 hours a week. They have no creative juices left. So if they are faced with a problem that needs a creative solution, they've got nothing left to give. And that's when this thing starts to unravel very quickly.

I don't know where you get all these anecdotes from, Andy, but they're brilliant.

They'Re sensational. I, Andy, every time I, you know, want to say something, you come up with a new one that's there. But I was, I was going to add to that before you even said. I don't know about picking the belly button fluff, but having a space for you to physically go to is such an important part in this as well. And I don't think we've mentioned it as yet. The, you know, that part of having that focus and dedication is having spaces that's dedicated. So when you are building a strategic plan, when you're working on these things like where are you going to do it? Because if you're sitting in your kitchen with your family running around screaming and trying to have family time while you're doing work time as well, you're actually completely distracting yourself and adding another element to it that's just not going to allow you to be present with it. So you'd better off having somewhere where you go, whether it's under that tree and you know, whatever you want to do while you're there. But grab a book, have a dedicated space, something where you can own it and really hone in on it and. And allow that peace and quiet to come in and have your focus and look at your plan and. And do all that. It's such an imperative part of the entire setup for a building company owner.

And let's. Let's just shoot one myth in its head right now. Scientifically, nobody can multitask. Despite what our wives tell us, nobody can multitask with that. I'm sorry. There are people that can switch very quickly from one subject to another. Yes. But the truth is our brains can only focus on one thing at one time, and distraction is terrible. You know, Danny talked that. That picture of a builder trying to do the right thing, sitting at the kitchen table, trying to work on a strategic plan with his kids naturally wanting his attention. He's just. He's just created even more of a problem for himself because he's not present for the kids, and neither is he present planning. So both suffer. You know, so it's. It's. It's. I agree with Danny 100%. Go to the gym, go to a co working space, go for a walk with your headphones in, listening to a podcast from the APB, then join the APB, then work through our 60 action plans, and then the problem will go away. It's actually quite simple if you think about it.

I was one of those people who used to think I could multitask, and I realized that the errors that were coming in, I thought it was just that I had a lack of attention to detail, and it wasn't, you know, in the last 20 years of my career, working through, I realized it was. I was actually trying to do too many things at one time, and it just reflected in a certain way for me, and that was missed detail. So I 100% agree. And as much as I can juggle a lot, and I'm probably one of the most organized people you'll ever meet, like, everything runs off a calendar. But I know you cannot do both of those things. They are actually mutually exclusive. When I want to be a mom, I'll go and sit up there. But when I'm working, it's office time. And when the doors shut, it means no one comes in because mum has to focus.

Yeah.

And you need that division. And smaller chunks of time can make it work even better. If, you know, it's an hour of time down there in that dedicated space to focus on that one thing, get that done, you can be with your family. It's amazing how much quicker you actually get through things. As well. When you've got that set time in that set space, it's dedicated and then you can transition and go and enjoy that well deserved time with family, friends, at the gym, under the tree, wherever you want to be.

Yeah, well, the other thing that I think we do, we need to talk about under this subject is the fact that a lot of builders are very, very good builders. But as Russ alluded to earlier, we all end up in most forms of education as a technician in a particular discipline. So you know, a lot of what we've been talking about. Why do guys stay on the tools? Well, because it's the easiest thing for them to do. They're good at it so it's comfortable. But you run into this thing called, you know, I don't know what I don't know. And the problem is if you stay in that space and you don't get to understand what's involved in running a business in as a whole, you know, at the end of the day you can't be on the tools if you don't have any work and you can't be selling while you're on the tools and you can't be selling if you don't have leads. So you need some marketing and then you've got to look after the money and pay people. So I mean it literally becomes, as you start to understand there are all these other things that I know nothing about. It's having the openness I think as Russ alluded to earlier, to say I need help and go and either find that help in terms of outsourcing those things to somebody that does know, but even if you're going to do that, good idea for you to understand the principles and the protocols around that thing so that you can properly manage those people that you are delegating or outsourcing to.

Russ, I want to get into some tactical advice now if you can, around prioritization. How do builders go about prioritizing all of those different things they've got on their day to day lives?

Well, they, they got to put in place a business plan I think is probably the, the single most important thing any, any business can do really. And this is something that gets neglected in small business. On the state of the Residential Construction Industry report where we colle at the back end of 2023 for the 2024 report we found that only about a third of building companies actually have a business plan created. What we didn't then ask is how old that business plan is or how many times it's getting referred to. So you know, that would be an interesting one for, for next year. But only a third even have a business plan. Now when you compare that to large companies, 19 out of 20. So 95% of large successful businesses have business plans. So there's obviously a reason that they have the business plans in place and it clearly shows that there's a, a big opportunity for small business to, to really improve in this area. Now I think the reason a lot of builders don't have a business plan is because a lot of time they simply don't know where to start. And there's a few components to the business plan, but all of it will help build a focus because you'll establish your company culture and your core values within your business plan. For instance, so if you find yourself constantly time poor because you're constantly being asked questions by staff, that will come down to culture and training, SOPs, et cetera. But a large part of that is culture. It's how you, you train your team to operate. Doing the wrong things as well, which Andy has already covered off in the, the dad, delete, automate, delegate. You know, if we're doing too many low value tasks, we're going to run out of time. So we've got to be disciplined there, identify our area of genius, where the key skills are in the company, where the, where the company lacks key skills. Make sure we're bringing those people in. Having the organizational chart in place both for now and the future. But also a big part of the business plan which I think really helps focus because it's kind of my go to when I feel my focus wavering. You've got your business plan, you've got your quarterly goals, your annual goals, your five year plan, etc. So you've got that broken down. And what I find is visiting that whenever I find myself getting a bit consumed and going off track, you kind of need to zoom out and look at the big picture. So I'll look at exactly where we're heading over the next five to 10 years. And seeing that big picture, it allows me to regain my focus and then appreciate or focus on what's important. Because too much of the time the reason we lose our focus is we're doing things that aren't important. And when you actually break it down well, is what I'm doing going to get me to where we want to be in five or 10 years time? The answer invariably is no. So I find that massive help in doing that. Reset. Personally, yeah.

And I think Russ, just to add to that, you know, prioritizing those things we're talking here, Will said, let's talk about some tactical things. I always try and do the most important things that need to be done in the beginning of the week and the beginning of the day so that the needle movers get the attention. We always talk about rocks. We borrowed that from Stephen Covey, obviously, who spoke about the fact that often what happens is when we do any kind of planning, we get it factor brunt. We put the wrong things in place first and they keep us busy. And the things that are effective don't end up getting done because we're too busy to get there. So making sure that if you've got that business plan you revisited regularly enough to know what should be happening first this week and then what should be happening first every day of this week, that's going to keep you focused and on track.

I was just going to add to what you both said as well. It's having that network around you as well. So whether it is you've got someone who's coaching or mentoring you or that community that can come behind. Having a strong network too that you can lean on when you need to communicate or help with what sequence you need to get those things done in to ensure that you are focusing on the right things is super important as well. We can't always do it all on our own. And when your team's not big and you're a smaller business, having that person investing into that is super important. So you know you've got that one person who's there to make sure you can bounce off and speak with regularly or that network's there to support it as well.

Good tips, Good tips. Russ, I want to round out this conversation with a discussion about technology quickly. How can technology help builders gain better focus?

Well, technology, I think is everything in business today, especially in terms of leveraging up your actions so that you can focus on what's important. But I think maybe an important thing to mention here, we can use technology in a number of ways. There's a lot of different platforms out there. There's a lot of tools that will really help builders become more organized, more systemized and deliver a better service to their clients. But it's one thing putting these systems in place. Something that gets overlooked is the exception reporting because we got to know when we the more automation we put in, we got to know when things aren't going to plan and we've got to pick up on those things really quickly so that we can improve our processes and actually deal with those exceptions as well. So every time you put something in place, you use technology to put something in place. You always got to think about the exceptions, the things that are going to slip through that net. How are you going to pick them up? You know, you need some kind of reporting that's going to identify them for you.

Can you just give an example of what an exception reporting in practice would be for a builder?

Yeah, well, I guess like a simple one might be, you know, if you're, if you're doing and stage claims, for instance, the bigger you get automation. I mean, it can be technology, but it can also be people kicking off. They can be the triggers for different things. But if you're progressing through a build and you need stage claims going out at certain points on completion, well, when the system works, that's great. But what about when a claim hasn't gone out, what you have in place to actually alert you as the business owner, because you're sitting at a much higher level now, you're not going to be digging into every little thing, actually making sure that you're the trigger. So what can highlight to you exactly when something hasn't worked?

Great.

I think it's important will just with this one as well to understand that technology really can only replace something that you have already systemized. It's not, unfortunately, a lot of people end up thinking if I get this piece of software, it will fix my problem. When in fact that piece of software is never going to be able to be effective if you don't have a system in place that it is going to automate for you. So, you know, I mean, Russ's example is a beautiful one. In your manual world, before you brought the technology around, how did you know that that payment or that invoice didn't go out? You need to make sure that although you brought in the technology, the process to flag that lack of payment would be the, the key to this thing.

Great example. Danny, you were talking a bit about using a calendar before. That's another piece of technology. How to, how else do you see builders being able to use technology to improve their, their focus?

Well, it could be between having something like Dropbox, things like that, what you need for your team, it's the software that's there, whether it be, you know, that's going to help your team on site and streamlining the communication. So there's multiple different, you know, technologies there to support you and really streamline and allow that focus to be there. But again, it's going to Come back to your strategic plan and what, what you need to do next, either be delegated, automated or dropped as well before having a look at it. Because everyone can get caught up in that kind of shiny, oh, shiny object syndrome. Let's jump on board and automate all of these things. It may not move the needle in your business, so can reel off 20, 20 different pieces, but you know, it's how it's going to make your business more efficient. So you need to look at size of your team, what the problem is you're solving. And like Andy and Russ said, like what processes are already there that you're going to streamline and use this and technology to tie in with that templating.

You know, we're talking about simple things. You sending the same email to every supplier around a payment in, you know, paying the invoice, template that template that email, have a, have a library of templated emails that you can draw from that. Instead of reinventing that email every time you send it out, just select the template, bang, add the names, and away you go. You just saved yourself five minutes. Do that across a hundred emails in a week and all of a sudden you've got time to go to the gym or play golf.

Yeah, whatever. Whatever floats your boat, right? Andy, I know you're very passionate about planning.

Yeah.

Where should builders go next after they've listened to this episode to get started?

Well, I mean, it's. Obviously I'm going to be biased in terms of saying I think we have some really good tools to help them. And I say it often in jest, but one of the things that really affects particularly our coaching team emotionally is when somebody gets to us too late, that if they just come to us six months earlier, we could have helped them to avoid, you know, whatever situation they've ended up in. So going back to what we said earlier about being honest with yourself, about I need help and then getting that help, we'd like you to come to us to get that help, obviously. But if we're not available or for some reason you don't like us, I don't know why you would not like us. We're very, very nice people. But get that help. Get, as Danny mentioned, get that mentor, get that coach. Read a book. I mean, the book that Russ and Sky wrote. I mean, if, if ever you wanted an overview of how to be successful in this industry, that book is an unbelievable resource. Read the book, understand the protocols, determine which part of your business is causing you the biggest angst at the moment, and then make that your focus until you've dealt with it. And when you've dealt with that, then pick the next one and literally move through it sequentially. Why do we, why do we exist? Well, we exist because in a lot of cases, having a coach who is experienced in the process of planning, particularly in this industry, we kind of know what the priority. Not we kind of know, we know what the priorities are, we know what the things are that move the needles. And therefore we can help you to save a lot of time and, and shortcut the process by focusing you. There's that word again. On the right things at the right time, in the right sequence. My clients will tell you I always talk about sequencing because it's critically important. Get up in the morning, tomorrow, put your socks on after you've put your shoes on and see what sort of day you have. Not going to be fun. You'll get through the day, but it won't be comfortable, you know, so something as stupidly simple as that, put your socks on before you put your shoes on. That's simple, right? But get it wrong and you're in a world of pain.

My favorite analogy from you, Andy, was about the fact, or not even analogy, but statement. It's, you'd never build a home without a blueprint, so you're going to build a business without that. How do you expect to focus on anything? Because at least with that blueprint, every time you walk onto that site, you know exactly what the next step is, what the next stage is within your business. You've got a system to build it.

And so if you, if you think about it, building a home or remodeling a home is an incredibly complex process. There isn't a single builder on the face of this earth that lacks the intelligence needed to be successful in business. If you can build a house, you can build anything. It's just a different skill set and a different. Be back to that word. It's a different focus in terms of building your business. If I'm going to be very specific, you need to join the APB and you need to do a business planning workshop asap. And you will literally get every element that we've discussed today in a five hour deep dive straight away. And then the most important thing, go away and action that plan. It doesn't help you to have the plan if it's just a theoretical exercise. It needs to be a document that you can actually action and implement as soon as you've got it sorted out.

There you go, there's the blueprint to focus.

The Blueprint to focus. Read Professional Builders Secrets, which is Russ and Sky's book. So we'll add a link to that in the show notes and do a business planning workshop. I think you've nailed it there, Andy.

You know, I mean, we do run them twice a year for non members even, you know, so it's, there's no excuse. It's not, it's not even as much as we want you to become a member of the apb, you don't have to. We will teach you how to do a business plan if you join one of our boot camps twice a year. So even there, there's an opportunity to get involved.

Yeah, great tips. Anything else to round it out?

Ross?

I think we've covered quite a bit here. Got some great actionable tips there for the guys to implement. Certainly got enough room to get started on this journey and break through that glass ceiling and live a better life. I would say it doesn't have to be that hard.

Yeah, I love that. Well, let's, let's wrap it up there. Russ, Danny, Andy, I appreciate you all coming on today and sharing so much great advice for builders looking to focus better and kind of get their business going in the right direction. So thanks for coming on.

Thanks, Will.

Great pleasure.

Thanks, Will. Thanks, guys.

Also, a big thank you to our listeners wherever you are in the world. If you like the show today, please subscribe to Professional Builder Secrets on your platform of choice. And if you're feeling generous, leave us a review. But until next time, have a great day. Today's episode of Professional Builder Secrets is brought to you by Build Earn Construction management Software. Build Earn isn't just another software. It's a comprehensive, all in one solution designed to make every step of the construction process as smooth as possible. Whether you're estimating to win proposals, focusing on project management or tracking financials, Build Earn has you covered with Xero and QuickBooks, two way integrations, invoicing, takeoff, client communication and many other features. Build Earn ensures that every project runs efficiently. Learn more about build earn@buildearn.com that's ERN combination.