How To Remove Toxic Culture Fast | Confession Booth

We are going to prepare for war on this one. The longer the cancer stays in, the more of these technicians he's gonna pull away and potentially put the business at risk. You cut the cancer out and the rest of the organism thrives. Everyone gets like 30% more efficient. We have never fired someone where I'm like, "Man, I wish we wouldn't have fired them." There's never been a time 6 months later I'm like, "I wish I had them back." It's just human nature that I feel like I'm entitled to more, and if there is no way for me to make more, I will find a way. So find someone that will do operations really, really well, And then as the business grows to like $3 million, then you can replace yourself at the sales level. Welcome to the confession booth.

Good to be here, good to be here.

I have a pool cleaning and maintenance company. We do around $620,000 a year. You know, I got around 6 techs and I got a dispatcher and admin person.

Wait, is that 2 people?

Things are going pretty smooth.

The admin person, do they dispatch?

No, they—

Just 1 person?

One person, one person. Yeah, sorry about that.

You're good.

Yeah, so essentially, you know, we've been having some slip-ups due to quality, and primarily I try to put some things in place to, you know, kind of tighten everything up. And I have a senior tech pushing back pretty hard against me. You know, he's been with us for about 4 years. He's a great guy. The guys really love him, but, uh, you know, I'm thinking he's kind of doing some shady stuff behind my back.

Like what?

Uh, just last week, uh, I found out that the senior tech, uh, had been texting customers from his personal phone, and he can tell— he's been basically telling them if anything ever changes that he's there for them. Um, and, you know, uh, believe it or not, two of the younger guys or saying they might leave with him. So I'm just, you know, I'm— I don't know what to do, Mike. You know, I'm scared about firing the tech because I'm scared some of the guys are going to run off with him and start their own thing. You know, like I said, he's a great guy. He's been around for 4 years. I just, you know, it's kind of hit me out of the blue and I'm just wondering what to do.

So for your pool business, the $620, is that almost all recurring revenue, like cleaning, or do you do installs and like repairs as well? A little bit of both?

No, we're strictly just a pool cleaning and a maintenance company.

That's it. That's all we do.

All right. So if someone, if an employee is, have you confronted him about this or is this just like you've heard about it from customers or like another crew member tattled on him?

Well, you know, I've heard it from a couple other, I obviously don't wanna say too much, spill the beans out there or throw anybody under the bus, but You know, I've heard it from one of my guys that, you know, he's been kind of looking around and, you know, I've actually gotten a message the other day from another customer just, you know, letting me know that, you know, he's been reaching out and he gave them their personal number and that he's been there if they ever need any extra side work or anything like that.

Okay, so we are going to prepare for war on this one. When someone's doing that, they're basically preparing to tear down the business and they're gonna potentially take some of your team. We're past reconciliation. This is past, like, let's have a conversation. We are going to prepare to let these people go, i.e., this one lead, all right? Now, we have this asterisk next to these other two team members. Like, first, what is he saying? Like, to poison these guys, what is he saying? The lead technician, like, what is he telling these guys? Something weird?

Well, basically what happened is, you know, like I said, whenever I called previously, we've been getting some, you know, quality complaints more or less. And I put a couple of things, you know, in process there. Like, you know, say, for example, I put in a, you know, a plan to do some GPS tracking, require some photos after the job's done. I did say no cash side work after I got that text message, just being very clear. I didn't point him out or anything like that. I said no cash side work, and then I also said no skipping stops. And he kind of pushed back hard on that, and he said that he's been with the company for 4 years, he doesn't feel like I trust him or the guys, and that's kind of where it all went down.

Okay, so I do think that if we were to replay this, how we position some of these changes to the systems of the biz, maybe we could have positioned that slightly different to the team and explained to them the why of why the GPS is important, why tracking things inside SoftwareXenter is like, that's important, that's like part of running a business. We've crossed that line and now you have someone sour against you. We gotta get the cancer out. The longer the cancer stays in, the more of these technicians he's gonna pull away and potentially put the business at risk. And so if I was you, I'd be trying to find a replacement for not just this person, but probably one other technician. Yeah. Now, the good news is you got 3 technicians that sound like they've not really been poisoned by this guy. So, I would be as fast as possible looking to hire 2 technicians. If you hired, so hire 2 techs. If you had these guys in your back pocket, you would immediately fire this person knowing you can get the work done. Now, I understand he's like your top performer, he's been with you for a while, but when a culture has a cancer, you cut the cancer out and the rest of the organism thrives. And so I have seen it time and time again where I go into a bad culture or a culture in, a cancer in our organization, you cut out the cancer and all of a sudden everyone gets like 30% more efficient because all of a sudden they don't have to spend all their discretionary effort towards rumors and saying stupid stuff about each other or about the boss or about customers. There's not this underlying tension of what's happening inside the company, is my job even safe? So like, you have to get rid of the cancer, you have to. Now, you're not doing it and you haven't done it so far because you're afraid that if you do that you're not gonna get the work done. The good news is you have recurring revenue. You don't have one-time projects that are time-sensitive. And so, I would highly recommend you fire this person. There's no conversation. They've already talked to customers, they're souring the culture. We need the cancer out as fast as possible. We have never fired someone where I'm like, "Man, I wish we wouldn't have fired them." There's never been a time 6 months later, I'm like, "I wish I had them back." So go hire the 2 technicians, Tell them, hey, I'm starting you on this date. So like, today's May 4th, you're starting, what is it, May 18th or 20th. Give them 2 weeks, this is the date you're starting, and then you're gonna fire this person right before that. And if you have to let this person go before that, at least you know very shortly you're gonna get these 2 technicians to be able to get enough labor force to get the jobs done. Does that sound like something that you can do?

Yeah, I just—

Go ahead.

I just don't know, you know, if I should give it, you know, a little bit of time as far as like a buffer to when I should fire him or should I let him go immediately? Because like I mentioned before, I mean, I got two guys that potentially might leave with him and I'm just trying to figure out, do I do it now or later? I just kind of feel stuck.

Look, I'm on board with cutting this guy today. I'm on board with that. The problem is if these two guys leave with him, half of your labor force is gone, and you will likely have a huge detriment to the business. Now, I'm a fan of that. As I've done more firing, I have seen time and time again that ends up actually being the best move. I also am hearing you, and the reason why you haven't done this already, 'cause you know you need to do it, is because you're afraid that you're not gonna get the work done. And so I'm trying to straddle both by saying go hire the technicians, have them ready to go, and then go fire the person.

Mm-hmm.

'Cause like, I would say no matter what, you need to fire them. If it's today or in 2 weeks, you gotta fire them. But I happen to believe you won't fire them today 'cause you're afraid they're gonna take 2 other guys and now you're stuck with 3 technicians. If you think you can limp this business along for 2 weeks with you and 3 technicians, I would do it today. You have to cut the cancer out.

Issues like this business owner brought up where employees all of a sudden just leave is why it is so important to use a CRM. It's why we built HomeWorks software to be able to record every call note, every visit note, and make sure that everything is documented regardless if an employee leaves tomorrow, doesn't show up for work, creates a mutiny and takes half the team. We've gotta have everything documented. Because if you do that and you're professional, your employees doing side work for a customer, that customer isn't gonna want that. They're gonna want automations. They're gonna wanna be able to call in the office and have fast communication. So use the software today. I don't care if it's HomeWorks exactly, but definitely try it out. It's completely free. Go to home.works today.

Next caller. What can I do for you, man?

Oh, I don't know, man. We did about $1.3 million last year. Started 5 years ago from nothing. I've had 2 general managers to help, like, you know, 'cause I know I'm the bottleneck of the business. But each time I've had both general managers, basically I've caught both of them stealing from the company. So now the company keeps growing and I'm just holding everything together, but I feel like I've been burnt so many times that like I know I need to hire a GM, someone with the skills to help us, uh, you know, so take some stuff off my plate. But I'm just wondering, what is like your vetting system? How do you know someone's How do you give someone the range, trust that they're not going to be able to steal from you?

Yeah, the first thing is incentives. Them stealing from you should hurt them just as much as you if the incentives are appropriately aligned. Let's first start with comp. For these GMs, were they base salary? Were they profit sharing? Were they getting a percentage of revenue? What was the comp looking like? Profit sharing.

They were both just salary.

Was there any upside or incentives?

No.

Okay, okay. And were these GMs that you hired previously technicians in the business, or did you hire them from the outside?

No, both of them were more like, they both had that gift of gab. They were good talkers, good salesmen type skills.

And was their role sales-based?

One was familiar with it.

Would they have to sell throughout the day?

Yeah, most of them. Yeah, exactly. Their skill sets was more towards sales. They weren't really operation guys.

What if you hired a salesperson and then as the business grew past $2 million, you hire an operations person?

Oh, well, I don't wanna hire the salesperson because I kinda want, I wanna do that. You know what I mean?

Okay, yeah, totally.

So this is what I— That's what I want that to be.

Great, this is what I would recommend. Don't hand off sales yet. You're asking them to do a job that they, is very hard to find. Like, that's you. I want them to do operations.

Yeah.

And that is managing the crew. Their bonus should be massively tied to the profits of the business, or at least the efficiency of the crew. 'Cause that's what operations is, doing the work efficiently and profitably. You focus on sales.

Okay.

As the business gets closer to $3 million, then you can think about hiring someone to do sales. But asking a GM right now to do the job that you're really good at is gonna cause frustration for you and for them. And if they don't have any incentive for the business doing any better because they only have a base salary, the only way for them to make more money is to steal. And as much as that stinks that they have that level of morality, it's just human nature that I feel like I'm entitled to more, and if there is no way for me to make more, I will find a way.

Yeah, that is true. I never thought of that.

And so I—

That's a good point.

I would strongly recommend looking at it as right now, you have likely delegated all the admin in the business. Awesome. $1.3 million. Very good. Right now, you're doing sales and operations and you're trying to find someone to be this role in between. This is why, in my opinion, if you're gonna hire a GM to take over both these things, you gotta keep the business smaller. 'Cause at 1.3, sales is a full-time job, operations is a full-time job. You are going to what we call the GM+ model inside the Copy and Paste Millionaire book. And now, what I want you to do is focus on just finding someone to do the work. Operations. But the business is too big for this person to also do sales at this size by themselves. And so find someone that will do operations really, really well. And then as the business grows to like $3 million,