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You're listening to Shorts and Suits conversations about business leadership, culture and families through the eyes of two entrepreneurs in the small business community with Ben Kaulfman and J.W. rayhans.

Okay, so here we are talking today about when you get hit by the bus. What does that mean exactly? Right.

Well, hopefully it's piqued some curiosity, you know, because as business owners, there are some things that we tend to take for granted. There's some things that we just kind of go in motion, some things that we decide we're just going to get done. But what happens when you get hit by the bus? And what do we mean by that, Ben?

Yeah, so what we mean by that is when you find yourself in that situation where you're out of commission and the business has to run without you as the owner and as a small business, that's. That's a big deal. Because a lot of times the businesses, at least you and I, are super reliant on us as the owners to kind of make sure they continue to function, whether that be through sales or the operations or all the different assets of the business. Wherever you are in your business world, it's understanding what happens if I'm not available for a period of time, for that matter, right?

Oh, absolutely. And I mean, let's just share with it. But we decided on this because this recently happened. That's right. And so you've had some stuff recently that kind of took you out of commission. So, you know, share whatever details you want about that. And I'm going to share a story, too, of when this. When this happened to me as well. So maybe that'll give everybody who's listening a reality check of why this came up for us and why now.

Yeah, this is totally going to date this episode because it's a sign of times, but I got hit by the COVID bus. Right. I didn't expect that. I'm not opposed to the vaccination. I just didn't get my lazy butt out there to get it done. And it hit me, and it hit me hard. It actually put me in the hospital. And I was out for a good two, almost three weeks of just not being able to operate in the business. And when you're in that kind of situation, there's really nothing you can do because medically I was out. Like, I was checked out. Right. And so that product, straight up front for the business, you know, and I've got a couple businesses I run, but the one, Rocket Media, the core business, actually did beautifully. I was really, really impressed And I attribute that to my team because a lot of them stepped up. But I think it's also because of the last time. You know, over the years we've been building, we've been putting systems in place and processes in place. And, you know, the aspects of the business that I still have my hand in heavily is the sales and marketing. And then of course, just kind of the vision and operations side of it. And so those were the areas that were kind of like halted, you know, and in it to the two large degree that was halted. But ironically you're not. Ironically, thankfully, a lot of the things continue to carry on as they should.

Yeah.

And that was reassuring to me after the fact that, hey, as far as Rocket Media is concerned, I have a lot of that stuff in place, which is amazing and I have a great team, so that's why it happened. But it also made me start thinking about those areas of the business where I need to establish more foundations, more processes, more documentation. You know, it's silly things like nobody had a master key, so they were like, how do I get into this room?

Right.

You know, that kind of stuff. And just other things like that that just happen as you kind of think about it, because we have our own building.

So let me ask you, it didn't happen by accident that your team was ready. Right. So you didn't know that this was coming. But there's certainly things that you've done over the last few years that prepared for something like this if it should happen. And like you mentioned, I mean, some of the little details that it kind of gives you a greater awareness to say, oh, yeah, well, maybe I need to make sure that somebody knows about this, but maybe share just a little bit about what have you done to prepare your team for this moment and why did they handle it so well?

Yeah, Preparation goes back several years. I think it was maybe five years ago, I started working with different training programs that helped me see the light of what I need to get fundamentally done. And they asked those questions, like, what happens if you're not available? Or what do you want to have the business become without you someday? And those things kind of started putting me in line with documentation of like really just creating a. We call it the Rocket Way Manual. Really is what it is, like how to. How to work the Rocket Way and documenting those type of things. So we know in these situations now it's impossible to do everything. Yeah, I mean, I think. But there's. Because there's always. Things are going to pop up, but that's that's some of the work that we did or that I did as a. As an owner, because I know that I don't want this business to be. I want the business to be able to run without me at some point in my life. Right. I. Nobody is forever. And so I want. I'm not thinking, like, exit plan, but I'm thinking more exactly like this. What happens if Ben gets hit by the bus? And I did. And I think about that for everybody in the company. In fact, we talk about it in that way. We, like, hit by the bus rule is kind of what we call it. Right. So anybody is out there that's running their business, if you're starting it, it's a different mindset because you're kind of in go mode, and it is really reliant on you. But even in that stage, you should start thinking about that, like, what happens if I get by the bus? Will this thing can keep going?

Yeah.

And for how long? Not only from a financial perspective, like, how much cash do you have in the bank to be able to support if you have to just completely stop for some reason, but more of like, will your team know what to do? Will someone be able to step in and help out and not regulate? And so now I'm heavily thinking cross training, and I'm thinking about the holes in my business that I want to get associated. We're listing positions now because I realize that now, you know, and I want that not ever to happen again.

Yeah. So let's capture a couple things there, because I think for anyone listening, there's. There's some prompts in what you just described, and one of that is you had people asking you the questions, Right. They were asking you, what do you want this to look like in the future? What do you want it to look like if it can run without you? You know, what. What needs to be in place? And so for anybody listening, be thinking about that, you know, where do you want your business to go and what will allow it to continue beyond yourself, if that's your aspiration. Yeah. So some of those promptings were what helped you. But then you also mentioned just the people. Right. And in a way, you are leaning towards, how do I make sure that the right responsibilities are in place? How do I make sure that we've got the right people doing the right things? But the other thing that I want to help us capture for anyone listening, too, is how you learned from this experience. And you said, okay, what else needs to be in place? Who else do we need to have. And so for any of us, we can be thinking about that too. And that's how we learn from one another, isn't it? You know, we're allowing people to learn through your experience to say, okay, I really should be thinking about this because you never know when that stuff might come up. None of us can predict our own health that clearly. And there's going to be moments for any business owner when something like this happens. Yeah.

And I dare say another way to kind of test this now is give yourself a week vacation, go away for a week. Can you do that?

That's right.

Is your business able to allow you to do that? I think about that and like I haven't been on vacation a very long time. It's not that I don't want to go vacation, it's just, you know, we just haven't.

Right.

But I should because that is going to be a huge litmus test of the ability of your business to run without you. And you know, then you're still available, I suppose, if you needed to step in and help in emergency situation, but you're kind of in control that a bit more as opposed to health related or, you know, more detrimental than that even. And that's a way to test. So that's something people should be thinking about, I think is a great way to.

It's a great idea. Yeah. Take a test period, you know. And you know, something else that you mentioned that really kind of hit me a little bit too is when you were able to see, here's the aspects of the business that still rely heavily on me. And so let's just assume for a moment that this wasn't just two or three weeks, that it was like two or three months or six months. Any of us could ask ourselves, how critical are those components of the business? In other words, you mentioned sales and marketing. What position would Rocket Media be in if you weren't there to do the sales and marketing for two or three months rather than two or three weeks and really evaluate that a little bit. That's not necessarily something that you need to share details on the podcast with, but more of thought provoking for us or anyone listening to think, what if it is prolonged? What if it's something extensive where you really have to be away for a long period of time? Who takes that spot? Who takes over for. For whatever time period that is.

Yeah. And in that exact situation, you think about sales marketing, that tends to be the lifeblood of almost any business. Right?

Yeah.

Unless you've got some crazy business that can live off some RMR model that you don't need to do sales. Yeah. You know that that's vital to the success. And so you got, you know, to the answer that question. Your question also is, well, how much long, how long can your business survive without any new sales really? Is what that would be or who would do that if you didn't? Because obviously you wouldn't. That's great questions. Those are, those are the things that run through my head now. And so, you know, beyond just like reserves of cash in the bank kind of stuff, it's really operational at that point, like making sure you have people that can support you in that way. And again, that cross training idea, because we're talking about us as owners right now and that's super relevant to what situations we have we're sharing. But what about key employees? You know, same thing with those. I always tell people this, this is kind of an interesting segue in of sorts. But I always tell people when they start with us, the best career you can have is one you create yourself. And what I mean by that is, you know, we have a specific role that we want to hire you for and we outline those duties and responsibilities as best we can. So you have framework on what we need you to help us with. But almost everybody, JW that I've had come into the business, we've uncovered their true talents that they are passionate about that are sometimes related but sometimes are not. And I think as an operator, that's our responsibility to uncover those and figure out those are a fit for the business too, because that's what's going to keep people ignited and sparked. So where am I going with this? Well, that creates kind of a unicorn position sometimes in the role of a small business world. Right. Because corporate, you've got plenty of hands to kind of support different areas of the business. There's a lot of overlap. Right. There's many people in the same roles. Small business, there's typically one.

Right.

And so you get the. When I mentioned this unicorn position, what I mean by that is you hired somebody for, let's just say sales, but they are really good at this and this too. And so you start having them do this and this. And so now after a few years, you've got somebody that's kind of become integral to your business.

Yep.

Maybe not one other person could just fit. Suddenly you maybe have to have two or three people to support that role that they had. You see where I'm going with this?

I do. Yep. I absolutely do.

I Think that happens over and over, over in small business. And that's where this key aspect of just having the overlap so that you have accountability and you have support when they get hit by the bus. It's vital.

Yeah, and it's interesting that we're talking about this too, because we, we just recently had some of these discussions on our team as well, because we do. We do have people that have involved evolved into positions like that where it's like, yeah, they started out in a certain role, but as we had discoveries of where they're great, we added those to their set of responsibilities to where now they kind of handle two, three, four different things. And as you mentioned, this is common in small companies. Right. Most people within a small company wear multiple hats, if you will, have lots of different responsibilities. And so if that one person is gone for an extended period of time, there has to be a plan in place to cover that. And that's probably what this conversation is leading towards, is to get anyone thinking about where's that coverage. I'll give you another example of something we recently did within our team, which is really got more specific on what lots of companies call individual development plans. So it's a development plan that's unique to that person of not just where they're at, but where they want to go. And you know this about our company. We're very focused on what people's strengths are. We're very focused on what they're great at. We're very focused on the belief that if we put them in the right environment where they can do what they're passionate about, the majority of the time, they're going to perform at a high level. Well, part of that is ongoing development because we all change. And so that development plan then leads us towards, okay, where are we going to have gaps in the future if this person wants to be at this spot two years from now, what do we need to backfill, if you will, or what do we need to find someone to be able to accomplish in that moment? So I think this is a valuable conversation for us to have because even as we were casually visiting before we started, our personal health is one of those things that we can take for granted until you're kind of stripped of a piece of it. And when you're stripped of that piece of it, then the reality hits you of, oh, my goodness, maybe I can't just go get it done all the time. So I think that's why it's valuable for small business owners to really plan and think through this of where does that coverage come from? What are the most critical components of your business? And what would you do if you were gone for an extended period of time?

Yeah, your priorities definitely get checked. When you're in the situation that I was in, where I'm out, you know, you realize what's important in life and you realize how vital health is. Right.

Yeah.

I hope nobody listening ever has to go through something like that. But the reality is we probably will at some point, some way, somehow. But you're right. That coverage is. You know, another thing to add to that just a little bit is, is that future forecasting as well as you're looking at your. Your org chart and as you kind of as operators. You know, recently I heard Simon Sinek say that, you know, the role of a CEO, and I'm just kind of paraphrasing what he wrenched, but I liked what he said is, was basically there's really no true definition of what a chief executive officer does in the business. Really in his word, it should be C, chief executive or chief visionary officer. So. Cvo. Sorry, cvo. And I like that because that's really what our roles are, is we're supposed to charge the vision and keep it going. But anywhere I'm going with that is simply that we just got to make sure that we're looking to the future with our org chart as well. And sometimes I don't do this very often, but I should do it more. Is forecast where I want these positions in the company to go in the future? Often I think we fill the holes that we feel like we need to.

Yeah.

And so we look at the org chart and say, okay, we got this person doing this, we got this person this, and we have a void here. We need to figure out somebody for that. Okay. That's because it's the immediate need. Yeah, but what about stepping back and thinking and exploring the ideas of the business ahead of that? Like, what's it going to look like at three or four or five years from now? And where do I want it to go? You know, that's. I don't think enough people do that, especially from an org chart perspective. Maybe with like services you're going to provide or things like that or revenue that you want to grow to, but what about the people that are supporting that? You know? And I think that's a plan that I'm working on now that I want to have. And again, it's kind of a callous from the experience I just went through. But knowing that plan, I think will give me some insight into where the direction the company is going to go from that perspective as well. Absolutely. I can start thinking about when those opportunities come up and when I can afford it, where that's going to take me. And it'll be directly tied to, you know, the services we provide and maybe the revenue we grow. But absolutely, it's another way to think about it, I guess, when it comes to people management and people growth and building your team.

Yeah, it sure is. So man, thanks for the conversation. Appreciate, appreciate you just kind of sharing a little bit of what's recently been going on with you. And yeah, even though it kind of puts a timeframe to this, there are some timeless aspects to this particular conversation because we don't always know what the future holds and we don't know when we may either be able to choose to be away from the business for a period of time or when it gets forced upon us. Either way, I think there's some good nuggets within this conversation that we hope any of you listening take from and utilize in your own businesses. So we wish you great success. We enjoy the fact that you continue to listen and it's just a lot of fun for us just to share some things that are going on.

Yep. Good conversation.

Yeah. Thank you, thank you.

Thank you for listening to Shorts and Suits. Your hosts are Ben Kaulfman of Rocket Media, a digital marketing agency, and J.W. rayhans of Rayhans Financial, a financial investment advisory firm. For more information, go to shortsandsuits.com if you find this podcast helpful, please help us by telling a friend and rating us on itunes. Subscribe to our Tribe and learn more@shortsandsuits.com.