Insights From the TenTen Wilshire Rooftop, Tequila Meet-Ups, and Delegating The Challenges At Hand

Gabriella.

Yep.

What are you doing?

What's that?

What are you doing?

Gabriella?

I have a new hobby. Gabriella.

Hey, how are you?

Chris, do you know what my new hobby is?

No, tell me. Tell me.

I'm gonna start smoking pipes.

I was Bluto for Halloween, like Bluto from Popeye.

Oh, do you remember when you and I. Do you remember when you and I met? Are you gonna smoke the ones like the ones my dad used to make?

What are those? Wait, no. I'm smoking tobacco.

Oh.

Do you remember when you and I met up on the rooftop? I showed you a picture. You look just like my dad.

Oh, I do remember that. Was your dad smoking pipe? Like a corn. Corn cob pipe.

Oh, no, he made pipe, and it wasn't for tobacco.

Yeah, see, your head's in the gutter. I'm smoking tobacco pipes like Bluto on Popeye. Although I haven't got my tobacco yet, but I have a pipe, which.

Oh, I think you need your tobacco then, huh?

Yeah, but I'm not a big weed smoker. Do you smoke a lot of weed?

Not in.

Quite a number of years. I don't like the way it makes me feel. So.

So what have you been doing since I saw you on the beautiful 1010 rooftop? What's going on?

Not much, but a lot. I know that sounds like totally opposite.

We're going to have fun here. Because you are complicated. You're giving me mixed signals already.

Yes. Sorry. So I was listening. I caught you, you popped up in my feed and I was like, oh, hey, awesome. I get to watch Chris Collins today. And I was listening to you talking to an earlier guest, and I like, clickety click and said, corey, can I ask him a question?

So you know my main business, I have a company that we do bookkeeping for small businesses, and we help out a bunch of other small businesses. And we started out as a micro business and have grown. We're almost at two and a half years, and we have quadrupled since our first. Since our first year, we have quadrupled our revenues, and we are on massive growth, which is fabulous.

Yeah, it's awesome. We have some fantastic referral partners that send a lot of business our way. We currently have 50, 60 active clients and about 100 clients total. We don't do taxes, we just do. We do bookkeeping throughout the year. So here's the problem, and this is what triggered me to call you. I heard you talking about systems, and, you know, bookkeeping is a very, very systematic, very meticulous, kind of a Business. And when we were small.

And everything was in my head, it didn't matter. Then we grew and I had several 1099s and one employee. And it was okay that it was still mostly in my head and he was learning and it started to. And started to create documentation, but a lot of it was still in my head. Now we're up to four W2s and a team of nine or 10 and we need to get it out of my brain on paper or systematized. And we've gotten about 20% of the way there. And it's very overwhelming. I've reached out to. I have a pro bono business consultant group, but they haven't really been able to do much. I have attorney working on certain things. I have marketing coaches and all that's great. But I was hoping maybe you could shed some light, offer some resources and suggestions. We're working on checklists and bullet points and procedures and all that great stuff that one needs to have in a company in order to sustain the growth.

So when you say it's in your.

Head.

Which part did you understand? The quaternity. How I broke that down. Did you hear that part.

Two people ago, not the last guy, but the guy before.

Yeah, maybe. Sounds right.

I mean, I, I was listening to it and I. But now I was in my head trying to think of the question I was asking you. So.

Okay, so there's the way that I.

Would answer your question when I. When you say, well, it's in my head. Like we do a needs assessment to the clients in order to determine what they need from us. Like, I ask questions and I know what the questions are. They need to be on a piece of paper so anybody can ask the questions that it's that my business can run while I'm in Bahamas for three weeks.

How long would that take us to write those questions down? If it was me and you sitting here right now, what's the first question you ask them?

What's your name? What's the company name?

What's the second question?

What's your business structure? LLC, corporation, etc. So we, we have a three step and we've created the first step. The questions you're asking right now, we created the first step. You need to move into the second and third step. Do you need accounts receivable? Do you need accounts payable? What are your bank accounts, Whatever.

How long would it take us to write that down?

Somewhere between 30 minutes and two hours.

Okay. And then you just got to do it once. Right? Like, do you Need a consent for that. Because you could pay me, I'll come do it with you.

I think about that. I could come down there or you could come here.

Where are you at?

Eagle Rock? Not that far.

I'm kind of a homebody.

Well, I know where you live, I think. Aren't you at 10:10?

I mean, yeah, I'm a. What do they call it, a hermit? No, but I don't. I don't know that it's. That. That's twelve dollar an hour stuff. Gabriella, you literally could pay somebody to sit there and just type it up for you as you go and. Yeah, be done. I think the problem is you doing it and you're making it into more of a production than it has to be. Oh, is there a possibility of that?

I'm so overthinking it.

Yeah.

But also part of the reason I'm overthinking it is because I'm afraid of missing questions.

Oh, yeah, you'll figure that out later. But just, just know, just know you're going to mess it up the first time. Just. It's built in. You're going to be okay. The customers will forgive you, they like you, you do a good job, it's gonna be okay. Don't be a perfectionist. You're a perfectionist, aren't you?

In some things, absolutely. Yeah.

Yeah, That'll kill you. Be more of a slob like me, but just do it.

I'm not really a slob, but you know what I'm saying, Just do it. Just set aside an hour or two a day or just have literally, you know, for me. Here's the thing and tell me if you can relate to this is people look at me and they're like, oh, he's so disciplined. He's in such great shape, blah, blah, blah. But the truth of the matter is, if I don't pay a trainer a bunch of money, I'll sleep in. And so I pay a trainer a ton of money. And then it's so much money that I couldn't live with myself. And no matter how tired I am, no matter how late I was up, no matter whether I could sleep or not, I get up and I do the thing because I'm paying. So pay somebody $12 an hour or something. Set a little budget aside and do it in steps. Like, it sounds like you kind of have it broken out in steps. I think you kind of would understand how to do it. But I'd be happy to sit down with you if you want to come down here. And I'll kind of go through it, but I would. You know, it's operations, it's the sales process, it's the onboarding, and then it's the fulfillment. And break them into those sections. Do your. Do the best you can, but get it done like it's the same thing. If you're going to write a book like you, the hardest part is getting the first draft done. And the first draft is garbage, but just getting it done and then you can go back and start fixing stuff.

Yeah. I was talking to my assistant and like I said, say things to her all the time. And she types it up really fast and then I go back and edit it. I can edit. She takes me 10 minutes to say it to her, and it takes me 10 minutes to edit it. If I were to try and type it up out of my own brain, it would take me three hours.

Yeah. So that's it. I don't think you need anybody else. You just got to do it and stop wanting it to be perfect and just get the first draft done and start.

Yeah.

Break it into those sections.

The other thing is like, you're right. You're absolutely right. And then I go and I Google to see what other stuff is out there. Customer feedback forms and client intake. And client intake is always medical, and we're not medical. Right. And then there's this other, like I've put in the keywords and it's kind of sits back stuff that doesn't make sense. And then that just makes it seem even more overwhelming.

Yeah. The $12 an hour person is the one that pulls feedback forms, prints them out, and hands them to you all. Like, find the best five feedback forms you can print them out. Don't go on Google. It's an endless hole.

Ten minutes turns into two hours, and then you still don't have what you want.

Right.

You're too emotionally attached to it. The $12 an hour person can just do it.

Yeah.

It's the same thing with research.

When I'm researching something for a show or for a book or something, people are always better at research than me because I get in the weeds and then I'm reading a study about.

I don't know, BDS and M in Germany or something. And it has nothing to do with customer service whatsoever. It's just a. It's a pit.

Yeah.

So that stuff will save you. You're like me. You got too much ADD and you're a perfectionist. So delegate. You know, there's a great saying, you can accomplish anything. In life as long as someone else does it.

Oh, that's awesome. You're so. You're so right.

You can accomplish anything in life as long as someone else does it.

Yeah. And then interesting things, like you said, interesting things come up and next thing you know you're in a rabbit hole and it's like four hours later and.

It'S nine o' clock at night.

Are you.

Nine?

No. Like you're researching and all of a sudden it's 9 o' clock at night and you haven't left the office?

No. Last night I went to sleep at 1:30 because I finally was like, oh, shoot, I gotta hang up. I gotta turn off the computer.

What time did you get up?

I think I got up the third time. My alarm went off around 7.

Tell me a little bit about your strategy here with your clients. You got 50 clients. What's your average client spending with you?

Not enough.

Give me a number.

Our billing rate is 50 an hour, but we're going up to 60 an hour. And we're adding on a technology fee. So we're going to be coming in 60 to 70 an hour. Our clients range from two to four hours a month, up to 10 hours a week. But most of them are 12 to 16 hours a month. So I don't. So 600 to $1,000 a month.

1,000Amonth?

Not. But I'm not making 50,000. I'm not making $50,000 a month.

What's the. What's the top client spending with you?

The top client this year was probably.

Close to 12,000amonth or for the year? For the year.

You need to offer more services.

Get all this stuff in writing and let's figure out an A, B and C plan. But you should be offering more to them. You, you in the business you're in. We should try to get that up to like a couple grand a client a month.

Yeah, I don't charge flat rates and that's kind of important to me. I refuse to do that. But what we are doing, we've added in a couple of things and we are launching headhunter services in the bookkeeping space because we get enough requests for it. But I need. I need to the insurance and the legal contracts to protect myself first, which they are. I do have an attorney that is in process of putting that stuff together. Like somebody money for that.

I.

Mean, it's hard getting a straight answer out of you, Gabriella. But just yes or no. Payroll. Yes or no?

We don't.

Why not?

We don't process payroll. In house.

Wow. There's another stream of income for you.

I don't know. Maybe next time you call, can we talk about how we can add some streams of. Of revenue? Because I think we could double your sales on the same 50 clients.

Yeah, I mean, unless you don't want to make more money.

I don't.

We work with.

I don't want to waste your time.

Oh, no, no. We work with payroll. External payroll services. And then we can click the buttons to run payroll, but we don't actually process from like, here's the number of hours in the pay, and go calculate it yourself. And I don't want to take that on. The risk and the liability and the timing and everything is something that I don't want to take on. But taking on the headhunter services, which two years ago I said I never would, and now I am. I'm open to things that make sense. Processing payroll doesn't. Headhunter services does.

I would say exactly the opposite, but. Okay. The headhunter thing's a huge pain in the ass. And then you. They hire somebody and they don't like them, or they don't pay you, or they hire them around you. It's a huge pain in the ass. Payroll is, like, consistent. It happens every two weeks.

The head hunter thing, I'm telling you, is a whole nother animal. I've done it.

Is it?

Yeah. Like, they'll hire them around you. You're constantly chasing.

A huge, huge pain in the ass.

Well, just to be clear, we're not doing temp to permanent. We're not doing any temp services. It's pure headhunter. We present somebody, you give us a deposit. You like them, you hire them, you pay us.

People, chemistry showing up on time. They are who they say they are.

Yeah. You get 30 days to figure it out. You can't if you don't know by 30 days.

Okay. I mean, try.

You should know by 30 days.

Telling you payroll is easier. But I don't know, maybe payroll and headhunters aren't the thing. Maybe we could figure out another thing. But I would love to help you with that. Maybe on another call?

Yeah, definitely. Or because you got a good thing going on.

Maybe I had some streams of income.

Yeah.

Let's diversify. Going into this recession in the next couple years.

I know, right?

You know when you and I first met. Cannot remember her name. Super nice lady. You have two ladies that work for you. Corey and your girl. Your lady.

Corey's a really sexy lady.

No, there was three women in Corey. It Was your girlfriend Sylvia? There was. I'm sorry, Sylvia.

I can't remember anybody's name. There was a really nice.

Latina girl. There was the lady who worked with you years ago at the Mercedes or BMW. There was your girlfriend. And there was Corey.

Lori or Sylvia. I think both of them worked with me before. Blonde?

Yes. Probably a couple years older than you.

And I. Yeah, she's great.

Yeah. So I was supposed to have coffee with them or whatever and then of course, life happened. So.

I would love to come down there and have coffee with you guys and if. And see.

If. If I fit into your coaching program or if there's an hour of time that I would pay you for or whatnot. That would be awesome.

I would spend an hour with you just. Just to hang out. So. It sounds great. Let's do it.

Oh, cool. Yeah, I'm 20 minutes away.

Okay, we will do it, I think.

Yeah, I'll. I'll message. Corey, I. You have an amazing brain. I would love to pick your brain and. And give you a. Some tequila in. In return.

That's the sweetest thing anybody said to me all day. Thank you.

Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. Nobody else said anything.

Nobody said I had a beautiful brain. Corey compliments me on my amazing arms. My huge arms. He's jealous of my arms. Thank you. I gotta wrap up, Gabriella, but. No, hit us up. We'll hang out.

Cool. Thank you for your help. I appreciate you always.

Thank you. We'll talk soon.