Entrepreneur | Creating a System for Managing and Collecting the Cash from Your Customers

Audio Transcription

Get ready to enter the Thrivetime Show! We started from the bottom, now we’re here. We started from the bottom and we’ll show you how to get here. We started from the bottom, now we’re here. We started from the bottom, now we’re here. We started from the bottom, now we’re on the top. Teaching you the systems to get what we got. Cullen Dixon’s on the hooks, I’ve written the books. He’s bringing some wisdom and the good looks. As the father of five, that’s where I’mma dive. So if you see my wife and kids, please tell them hi It’s C and Z up on your radio And now 3, 2, 1, here we go We started from the bottom, now we’re here Started from the bottom and that’s what we’ve gotta do Business Startup 101, Phase Number 4 Create a system for managing and collecting the cash from your customers Specifically, the goal of this training is to teach you the specific and proven 10 steps for creating a step-by-step system for managing and collecting payments from your customers. You know, Clay, before I turn it over to you, I’m going to read you a notable quotable. Then after that, I’m going to read the step, and I’m going to let you unpack it. How does that sound? Sounds great, brother. All right. So the first notable quotable from Michael Gerber, bestselling author of the book, The E-Myth Book. Great, great book. That book is phenomenal really every thriver should have the E-Myth e-book or the book it’s so good very good stuff and sometimes it helps to that tangible little bedside guide great great books. There you go there you go so this is what he’s saying in this incredible book most entrepreneurs are merely technicians with an entrepreneurial seizure. Most entrepreneurs fail because you are working in your business rather than on your business. Anything you want to add to that? Well I would just say as we work on creating these systems, I’m all about creating a system, okay? So with one of my businesses I’m involved in, we do photography. And I don’t actually take photos. I don’t really know how to take photos. I don’t know anything about cameras. Some people find that hard to believe. I own a PR firm and I don’t do PR. I don’t make calls to the media and I also am involved in a haircut business. I don’t cut hair, don’t know how to cut hair, don’t even know what equipment we have in there. But I can tell you I know that we have a system and I hold people accountable to that system. And so we’re trying to build a system that allows you to achieve your life goals, not a job that keeps you just over broke. All right. That’s excellent. So the first step on creating this system Clay is this ask yourself if you truly need an accounts receivable Billing department unpack this for us. Well, okay a lot of times and I’ll just give an example And if I’m missing something here Jose you feel like I’m not being clear You tell me no sure, but a lot of times let’s just say for the haircut business for an example If you came in to get a haircut today Would you expect me to give you a receipt for what you paid or an invoice? A receipt. Okay, so if you went to a grocery store and you bought some avocados, right? Would you expect to get a receipt? Like, hey, here you go, thanks for buying today, or an invoice? Same thing, receipt. Okay, so a lot of thrivers are getting this wrong. We’re getting it twisted. What’s happening is a lot of people, a lot of thrivers, they’re giving people an invoice because that’s what everyone does. But if you look at the statistics, I want you to put the stats on the screen here. But according to the Small Business Administration, at least two-thirds of businesses fail every year. So, a lot of times people are loyal to dysfunction. This is something that doesn’t work. It’s never worked. So, to give an example, years ago I was working with a home remodeling company, and when he went in to fix your kitchen, this is what he would say to you. He would say, well, Jose, your total would be $12,000, and when I’m done with it I’ll give you an invoice. I would ask you why did he do that in your mind? You know because he just did it. Because that’s what everyone does. Yeah. Right? His dad did it. That’s what he did. Right. That’s what he does now. So I said check it out. If you give someone an invoice how long do they have to pay? He says oh 30 days. I said how long do they on an average pay? He goes oh some people it takes months to track them down. Wow. I said okay so you’re kind of a bank. So, what do you mean? I said, well, you’re lending people money and then you have to track them down later to get payment. It sounds like a bank. And some don’t even pay. Do you get interest? He said, no. I’m like, you’re right, some people don’t pay. And I said, so what does this person do? He goes, oh, his job is to collect payment. I said, so you have a full-time person. All he does is collects payment. He goes, yeah, that’s all he does. I said, really? Crazy, right? So, I went in and I said, look, here’s what we’re going to do. This little game we’re going to play. For the next five jobs, tell the customer, hey, to get started on the job, it’s half down, so it’s $12,000 for the kitchen remodel, $6,000 down to get started, and $6,000 done when we do our final inspection. We walk through together and you approve it. You only need to pay that day. We’re just going to give you a receipt. We’re not going to give you an invoice. And he says, well, what would I do with what’s-her-face? And I said, what do you mean what’s-her-face? He’s like, well, her job is collecting money. And I was like, that’s what I’m saying. Like she wouldn’t even need to have that job. She can spend her time marketing. They’re so programmed to do invoicing. So literally, I’m not exaggerating, what we did was this person quit invoicing. They quit collecting money. And all they did was spent their full time marketing. So this person who’s making about $40,000 a year, he’s already paying $40,000 a year. No one got fired. But he said, instead of spending all your time reacting and chasing old money, you’re going to spend your whole day going and getting new jobs. And guess what? Their profits went through the roof. And this happens over and over. I work with a landscaping company that found themselves over $80,000 in debt. And they’re having someone full-time collecting money, trying to get money from customers. We changed the system. Now they have nobody doing collections. Everyone pays up front. If you don’t pay, you can’t play. Wow. That really, in my mind, is kind of a knowledge bomb. If you’re watching right now and you’re like, you mean I don’t need to have a collections department? I mean that’s a… that’s unbelievable. Which, which it flows with our second step Clay, which is ask yourself when the customer truly needs to pay. Yeah, when? So does the customer need to pay when you, like do they need to pay half down to start? So our photography business, we require, I think it’s a 25% deposit to book the date. It’s non-refundable. It goes towards the cost. And the remaining balance is not due until the week of the wedding. Why don’t we take payment after the wedding? Because they will not pay. They’re in their honeymoon. Right. And then why don’t we take payment after we give them the phones? Exactly. Because they’ll take them. We can’t hold them accountable. Yeah, exactly. So the win might be wrong for you. You might have a win problem. I worked with a chiropractor a few years ago. This is a doctor, chiropractor. And guess what he was doing? He was billing insurance companies. Are you kidding? What percentage of most people who are watching this, if you’re a doctor, you have to deal with insurance companies. Guess what percentage, if I’m a doctor and you came in today for an adjustment and it was $75, guess what percentage of the money I actually get paid by the insurance company usually? If I invoice the insurance company for $75, what do I usually get? I’m not gonna even take a guess. It’s like a quarter. 25%? Yeah, sometimes. Wow. So can you imagine though, so your dentist bills you, I’ll tell you, $100. Yeah. And then he only gets $25. I mean, I’ve been talking, I deal with dentists, doctors, orthodontists, lawyers all over the country. This is a problem. So I said to this chiropractor, I said, what if you just told people you don’t accept insurance? All you do is if you want to work with us, it’s cash pay and it’s only $30 to $5 a visit or something like that. And he goes, let me think about that. So he starts thinking through the math and he’s going, I would actually be farther ahead if I charged a third of what I’m currently charging and didn’t have anyone collecting and billing insurance. So I just took cash only or credit card. And literally that’s what we did. And we changed the business. So these are things that you can do, asking yourself when, can absolutely change the game. Yet another knowledge bomb. Amazing. Step number three, determine your policies for collecting cash. In other words, are you a bank or are you a grocery store? You highlighted this. We talked about this a little bit earlier, but I want to make sure we get it. You have to determine your policies. What are your policies? Really think about this, okay? Really think about this. Are you a business that’s going to allow people to finance their purchases? They can pay over time? Or are you a business that says, like a grocery store, you can’t leave without paying? It’s a new mindset, I mean, for some people. I highly recommend that everybody listening to this, that you would ask yourself this question long and hard and say, you know, do we really need to finance things? And if you do, consider if a customer says, do you guys offer credit? If you’re in the medical business, say, absolutely. We work with a company called Care Credit, which you can work with, which will finance the purchase. And Care Credit, what it does is it pays you immediately as the doctor. As a doctor, you get your money right away. And now the customer’s making payments to Care Credit. There’s another company called Synchrony. It’s S-Y-N-C-H-R-O-N-Y. A lot of furniture stores work with Synchrony. So if you want to get financing on a furniture purchase, Synchrony will supply the credit. But the store gets paid right away. Amazing. Just think about it. And we’re flowing into step number four. This goes hand in hand. Step number four, determine whether you will provide receipts instead of invoices. Big question. Ask yourself. Moving forward, I mean, I’m just telling you this as a speaker, I no longer invoice at all. What I’m hearing you say, this is revolutionary when it comes to collecting money for somebody’s business. If you’re somebody who spent your whole life collecting money and you’re collecting money right now and you apply this, this will absolutely change your life. So let me tell you this, as a disc jockey back in the day, I used to go entertain for schools, weddings, birthday parties, and at the end of it I would give you an invoice and I would ask you to pay me. And I would literally spend almost half of my week Desperately begging people who I had already supplied services for to pay me and you’re probably already mentally exhausted from doing the event Yeah, so now I changed it So it’s like it’s a 25% deposit to book the date and if you don’t pay me before I start DJing I’m leaving it makes a person commit and actually pay you Absolutely, so I just want to make sure that we’re all getting that because if we’re not doing it, what we’re having is we’re having kind of this false romance. I want to give you an example of kind of a false… You’re kind of going, hey customer, I like you and you like me. We’re a happy family. And why can’t you just… You’re going to pay me. I’m going to invoice you and you’re going to go ahead and you’re going to pay me as soon as you have the money to pay me. You’ll pay me within 30 days. You’re going to treat me the way I want to be treated, because you are the customer. But you know what the reality is? Is that the customers, not all, but about a third of your customers are deadbeats, and they will not pay you unless they’re forced to before they receive the product or service. Perfect. Step number five. Determine if you want to accept checks, cash, or credit cards. Why is this important? Because there’s a lot of businesses who are just being dumb right now. What do you mean by that? Not talking to you, maybe it’s somebody on your account who snuck into this thrive 15 experience but Somebody says I’m I talked to I talked to a guy last week. He’s a thriver and he says yeah I don’t take credit cards. Why well cuz I don’t want to take it 3% of my money and I’m like Think through this, please Why don’t you take the what you charge and raise your prices 3% this year and don’t tell anybody. Be secret. Then just take credit cards. He’s like… I mean, but like how many people, I mean, how many people, think about it, how many people are buying almost everything on a credit card now? Everybody. When I own my kiosks at the mall. Everybody pays on a credit card. Yeah. Very few people have cash. Even… Don’t we all get frustrated with the guy in the line at the grocery store who uses the check? You know, you’re trying to get… He’s trying to buy avocados, and you’re trying to get a huge grocery cart full of stuff, right? And you’re trying to check out because you’re going to go watch a game that night, or you’re trying to go spend time with family? The Patriots are playing. The Patriots are playing. Yeah, you’re going to go watch the game. And so you have this whole like… This whole look, he busts out the checkbook. When he gets out the checkbook, you look at him and you go… And it’s only like $1.99 to write the check. And he’s like, now who do I write the check to? And they go, um, to Safeway. Now, is that safe? Two words or one word? And he’s like, well let me enter it into my deduction book. How did you spell that? 99? Yeah, and it just becomes $1.92 out of 100. And then they forget to sign the check, so the cashier has to call him back to sign the checks. They go, do you have an ID, sir? And the whole thing is just ridiculous. So I’m just saying, you want to go and determine, do you want to take checks? Do you want to take cash? Do you want to take credit? I know there’s a lot of small businesses out there right now who are not offering credit because they just feel like, I don’t want to lose 3%. But you really need to be a little smarter than that. That’s perfect. I think this step coming up, step number six, is very vital. It says this, step number six, create a checklist to verify the payment has been received and that nobody’s stealing from you. Okay, now this is a big thing. I want to encourage you to think about this. I used to do speaking events a lot, a lot. I mean, we’re talking, dude, like I would do, this is before you started teaming up with us here, but this was about, even up until like three years ago. I mean, I think I did maybe like 13 speaking events that month. So we’re talking like, you know, like 175 a year, you know. So I would go speak, I’m speaking all the time and they’re paying deposits and whatever. And the guy who works with me, his job is to collect the payment. So I get back from one of my events and I’m going through and I have a checklist for this and I said, Hey, did you collect final payment from the client? He’s, Oh yeah, absolutely. I’m like, what was the check number or what credit card did they pay with or when do they pay? And he goes, crickets. And he’s like, I thought you were going to get the payment. And I go, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, And he couldn’t provide that. He’s like, well, I’m pretty sure I just forgot to enter it in. Well, by doing that, I was able to break it down and discover they didn’t pay. So I pick up the phone, call the customer, collect the money, it’s all good. But what if I didn’t have that checklist? I would then have forgotten to get payment, to collect payment. And that’s happening all across the country. There’s people who are out there not collecting money. A lot of contractors are doing this. A lot of doctors are not collecting money. A lot of people of all different incomes and different business types, they’re not collecting money. You have to assist them. And I love what you say when you’re mentoring Thrivers and other people. It’s, you don’t have to have to remember things. Get a checklist to help you remember your things. You shouldn’t try to remember things. Right. Some of the most successful entrepreneurs ever, Einstein, scientist, genius, Thomas Edison. Lee Cockerell. There are a lot of these people who are famous for saying, you know, quit trying to remember things. The mind will forget. The mind is for making decisions. It’s for connecting emotionally. It’s to motivate. It’s to synthesize things and make decisions and make strategies. The mind is not for remembering. Quit trying to remember. Just write it down. I feel like you’re gonna come up with a quote or something. Well, I’m telling you, make sure that you focus on using your mind for what it was meant for not for trying to sit there and memorize all these facts. You know in high school where you had to take the test yes which one you had to list every state’s capital. So I’m like Maryland, I think it’s Annapolis yeah okay great great. Now Iowa, Des Moines, Texas, it’s Dallas, no it’s Austin. Okay, it’s a galleria And it’s a you started what happens is you start to you start to memorize these things But as you get into the world of business you start to realize no one cares about your vast knowledge of things you memorize It’s really to do to do things Napoleon Hill says this action is the real measure of intelligence. There you go in memorizing stuff It’s just a great way to get a B on a beer and a class and to do well on Jeopardy. So we’re talking about creating a system for collecting cash for your customers. So now that you have the checklist, step number seven is this. Determine a weekly time to verify whether you have been paid or not. Well what happens is if you don’t do that, you get so busy that you didn’t check your account balance. You get so busy you didn’t figure out whether you got paid or not. You have to have a specific time where you sit down with your team and you say, team, how much money did we not collect from customers? Do you like to do that on Monday, Friday, Wednesday? Does it really matter? I do mine on Fridays. Every Friday. Every Friday I do it at 11 o’clock between 11 and 1130. And then when I’m done with my 1230 meeting, I usually will do it again at 1230 if I need to. So I have an 11 to 1130 blocked out. And I also have a 12.30 to 1 o’clock time blocked out. But that’s just right now. Sure. On a bigger principle, I do block out hours of time each month to look at some certain financial documentation. Okay. And you need to put it in your calendar. And you put it in your calendar. Because most of my financial review stuff, I try to do in the mornings so I can be alone and I can have those hours to think about it. So just right now, as an action item, go ahead and think about, you know, when are you going to block out time to do this? Go ahead and schedule it. When are you going to… Go ahead and schedule it. It’s very, very important we do this. So now, step number eight is hand-in-hand with step number seven. Step number eight, determine the weekly time that you will meet with yourself or your accounting team about collecting the cash you are owed. Now, this is… I want to make sure you guys understand the distinction between these two different steps, okay? Because the first step here is you want to determine a weekly time in your calendar to ask yourself whether you were paid or not. Right. That’s very different from talking about, hey, we need to collect what is going on. Why isn’t this person paying? You can have all these meetings at one time, but I know a lot of businesses that are like, well, we weren’t paid. Well, how are you going to collect it? We don’t have a plan for that. But they just kind of like know they weren’t paid. You need to have aggressive plans. There’s some things, right? I mean, I literally, we had to send people to debt collection before. You have to figure out a payment plan with the customer maybe, but you’ve got to have a very aggressive mentality and have a strategic plan about how you’re going to get collected if you’re one of those people who has unfortunately found yourself with a lot of customers who owe you money. Yeah, you got to write it down and you keep yourself accountable. Yep. And keep them accountable. Step number nine, determine a system for dealing with late payments. Why is having a system to deal with late payments essential and important? Yes, we’re having a party. This is the kind of thing that we need to get excited about. It’s a barrel of fun. It’s a barrel of fun when you’re getting paid here, folks, I’m telling you, it’s exciting. Seriously, when you’re getting paid, it absolutely is a barrel of fun, but you know what? It’s not a barrel of fun when you’re not getting paid. It’s also not a barrel of fun when you’re thinking about making a policy to deal with people who intentionally do not pay you on time. So this is what’s bad. When you’re trying to collect money, and Jose, I’d encourage you to put these up on the screen. This will be huge for Thrivers. There’s three reactions you’re going to get from customers when they owe you money. Oh, these are fun. And I had a guy this month who, by the way, played this game with me. And this is not unusual. Are they super moves that they play on you? They are like anti-super moves. These are idiot moves. There’s three idiot moves, okay? I like the title. So idiot move number one is they go, I didn’t know. And it’s like now they’ve just given themselves 30 more days. So you’ve sent them the invoice and they’re like, I didn’t know. And so, well, as soon as I get an invoice, I’ll go ahead and pay you.” See, they just created another 30 days. I didn’t know. The second is to act as though they are being taken advantage of. So they will put their stress on you. So, I can’t believe you would call me at work to tell me about this. Do you realize? I mean, I’m trying to take care of my family, and you’re out there calling me at work, interrupting my job. The guilt trip. No, they totally do it. It’s a total smoke screen. Right? Sure. And then the third move, the third move is to question your motives. All the time. So they’ll say, are you guys hurting financially? I had a guy literally this week say to me, he goes, you’re kidding. No, the guy owes me a couple thousand dollars. And he says, yeah, I mean, I didn’t know that I owed you, but are you hurting financially that bad where you need a couple thousand? I mean, is that the issue? I’m like, no, but if I didn’t collect payment from everyone like this situation, I would be hurting financially. So you need to pay me. So are you okay financially? I mean, is this a deal? And he just goes through all the moves. He tries to do the personal attack move. No personal illness on himself. Seriously, yeah, but it’s all about like, I didn’t know. First thing, I didn’t know. And then it’s immediately like, oh, thanks for telling me. Are you guys hurting for cash? Is that the problem? And I’m just saying, this is what people do. And meanwhile, you have to have a system that’s a process, a written down documented system that you will follow regardless of what they say. And don’t drink their Kool-Aid. Yes, this is what, this is the systems I recommend for you. There you go. If somebody pays late for every day that they’re late, I would charge a flat fee. So you say for every amount that I’m, every day you’re late, there’s a $20 late fee added to it. So if you’re late for 30 days, it’s $600. If you’re late for, and I would do something like that, or I would do a flat percentage. You know, if you’re late. So your money appears. Yeah, I would do that. Or I would have the zero tolerance. People know that you’ll take them to court every time. You know what I’m saying? But you need to have some sort of, but before you even need to have those late payment policies, make sure you’ve asked yourself, do you even need to accept payment after the service is rendered? I recommend that you, if at all possible, no matter what you do, try to have a system where you don’t have to invoice people. Invoicing people requires you to chase checks. Not good. Perfect. And our final step, step 10, if you do have to collect money or payment, step 10 says determine the right person to collect the cash. Now I have a little bit of a story on this, and I want to make sure everybody hears this story. So this is a true story. Here we go. I was working with a doctor’s office and there was this lady who her job was to run the office. Great lady. Sharp lady. Hard worker. There was a guy that she’d hired to collect money. And he is like typing and he’s just like, oh yeah, okay. Here’s exactly 2.2% growth this week versus last week. Our sales are up 1.7%. Our accounts receivable is at this much?” And he just loves the numbers. And she goes, could you go ahead and collect money from people who owe us? And he’s like, oh yeah, absolutely. I will do that. Okay. And what would you want me to say to them? And she goes, you’ll need to say, you owe us some money, and I’d like for you to go ahead and pay us. Do you have a credit card or a debit card? He’s like, oh, okay. Well, when I call them, if they’re not available, what do I say? And she goes, seriously? Yeah. Well, you’ll need to say this. And he’s, well, and okay. And then if they don’t respond, what do I do then? You’ll need to call them again. I respect people enough where I don’t really want to have to call people all the time. I don’t harass people. She goes, they owe us money. Well, I just, I feel like if you look at it from their perspective, I mean, I feel like what, I mean, isn’t that harassment? I mean, can I legally call them at work? I mean, is there, what email should I send? She says, well, you need to call, text and email until you get payment. Oh, well, I would, do I need to use my personal phone? Cause I don’t know if I feel comfortable calling from my personal phone. Can I get a separate phone? And he’s just wearing her out with questions. So that guy, and I hate to say this, was not the right fit for that job. He’s not aggressive. If you’re going to have someone collect money, don’t give it to your passive, you know, beta analytical accountant person. There’s good people out there who are passive. But you don’t want them collecting your money. You want the guy collecting money who’s like Johnny Leadpipe, and he’s like, hello. Yeah. So is this Craig? Yeah, Craig, hey, check it out. You owe us $110, and I want to make sure this doesn’t get serious, you know, I want to make sure it doesn’t get a little crazy. Go ahead and do you want to do debit card or credit card? Well, I didn’t know I was… Yeah, you definitely do. You came in here, you signed off on, I will be at your house tonight or tomorrow, debit card or credit card, and it’s like the kind of guy that… You don’t want some… I mean, don’t get me wrong here. You don’t want to threaten people, but you want to have the kind of guy working for you in this position who would say… The kind of guy who thinks these… This inner dialogue. He wouldn’t say it, but this is what he’s thinking. He’s going, now if you don’t pay us, you know, I could, hypothetically, I know a guy who would make you sleep in the river, you know what I mean? Put the concrete shoes on you, you know what I mean? And you’re like, did I say that out loud? I was just kidding. I would never do that, but I know people who would do that. You know what I’m saying? I wouldn’t actually physically want to hurt you if you don’t pay your money, but I could if you know what I mean. You know what I mean? So let’s just go ahead and pay, you know, because I don’t want to, you know, you want the guy who, you feel, you want the guy who’s collecting money to be the kind of guy who you visually assume he has a lead pipe in his hand and he’s ready to crack your skull with it. That’s the kind of guy you want in terms of collections. You want somebody aggressive. You do not want these passive people to be in charge. And a lot of companies right now are, I don’t want to free you up from this, your mom is in charge of debt collection. She’s a sweet lady. Your dad, sweet man, happy man, great guy. Your dad’s like Santa Claus. And for some reason you have Santa Claus in charge of debt. You have a cousin, Vinny, and you have your dad, who’s like Santa Claus. Why are you putting your dad in charge of debt collection? Get Vinny in there. Vinny’s crazy. Vinny will mix it up. Vinny will fight you in a bowling alley. That’s the kind of guy you want in charge of debt collecting. If you’re going to collect debt, let’s get serious. That’s the money people owe you. Get the right person to collect. Yes. There you have it. That’s our 10 steps for creating a system for managing and collecting cash from your customers. Always, if you have any questions do not hesitate to email us at info at try 15.com we’re here to make you successful and see you succeed awesome baboon alright JT so hypothetically in your mind what is the purpose of having a business to get you to your goals so it’s a vehicle to get you to your destination. And would you need profits to get there? I mean, when you have a business that’s successful, in your expert opinion, would you need profits to get you to your goals? Yeah, because if you have a $15 million business, but you have $15 million of expenses, it’s kind of pointless. Holy crap! All right, so the question I would have here for you, if you could take, like, I don’t know, 10 minutes or less, and see if you could save $3,000 a year by reducing your credit card fees, would you do it? Yes, absolutely. Holy crap. Why would somebody out there who’s listening right now, who has a sane mind, why would they not go to Thrivetimeshow.com forward slash credit dash card, Thrivetimeshow.com forward slash credit dash card to schedule a 10-minute consultation to see if they can reduce their credit card fees by at least $3,000 a year. Why would they not do it? Yeah, why would they not do it? Maybe because they don’t understand how you set the website. This tree is a symbol of the spirit of the Griswold family Christmas. No, that’s clear. Okay, so that can be true. So I encourage everybody to check out Thrivetimeshow.com forward slash credit dash card Thrivetimeshow.com forward slash credit dash card what would be another reason why someone would not be willing to take ten minutes to compare rates to see if they can save three thousand dollars or more on credit card fees maybe they think it is a waste of time and it won’t it’s not possible for somebody out there that’s making more than three thousand dollars every ten minutes they’re like not that’s not what my time We getting mad money. There’s probably someone out there. OK. They would think that. Well, I’ll just tell you, folks, if you’re out there today and you’re making less than $3,000 per 10 minutes, I would highly recommend that you go to thrivetimeshow.com forward slash credit dash hard. Because you can compare rates, you can save money. And the big goal, in my opinion, of building a business is to create time, freedom, and financial freedom. And in order to do that you have to maximize your profits. Holy crap. Now one way to maximize your profits is to increase your revenue. Another way to do it is to decrease your expenses. It’s a profit deal. It takes the pressure off. JT is there any other reason why somebody would not be willing to take 10 minutes to compare rates to see if they could save a total of $3,000 a year on average I Am at a loss and I cannot think of any other shampoo is better. I go on first and clean the hair Good. Yes, no, it’s better. I need to hair silky and smooth Oh really fool, really! Huh, huh, huh, huh, huh! Hmm? Stop looking at me, swan! Well, let me tell you a good story here real quick. I actually, years ago, compared rates with this company here called IPS. It’s Integrated Payment Services. And I scheduled a consultation. I don’t know if I was skeptical. I just thought, whatever, I’ll take ten minutes. I’ll compare rates. I can’t tell. You can tell me I’m a doctor. No, I mean, I’m just not sure. Or can’t you take a guess? Well, not for another two hours. You can’t take a guess for another two hours? And in my case, in my case, my particular case, I save over $20,000 a year. Holy crap. Wow. Which is like groceries when my wife goes to the organic stores. Find everything you need today? Yeah. Great. Okay. Oh, God. Everything okay, ma’am? It’s just that you’ve only scanned a few items and it’s already 60 bucks. I’m so scared. Okay, I’m a trained professional, ma’am. I’ve scanned a lot of groceries. I need you to stay with me. It’s just that my in-laws are in town and they want a charcuterie board. This isn’t going to be easy so I need you to be brave all right? What’s your name? Patricia. Patricia all right I need you to take a deep breath we’re about to do the cheese. You know that’s the difference between eating organic and not organic. So because my wife eats organic I had to take the ten minutes needed to compare rates to save the twenty thousand dollars a year on credit card fees just for one of my companies. One question what’s the brand name of the clock? The brand name of the clock Rod, do we have it? The brand name of the clock, it’s an elegant from Ridgway, it’s from Ridgway. Let’s buy the clock and sell the fireplace. I encourage everybody out there, go to thrivetimeshow.com forward slash credit dash card, you schedule a free consultation, request information, a member of our team will call you, they’ll schedule a free consultation, it should take you ten minutes or less, and they’re going to compare rates and see if they can’t save you more than $3,000 a year off of your credit card processing. You were hoping what? I wouldn’t owe you money at the end of the day. No, you don’t owe us money. Because at the end of the day, at the end of the day, the goal of the business is to create time, freedom, and financial freedom, and in order to do that, you need to create additional profits. The number of new customers that we’ve had is up 411% over last year. We are Jared and Jennifer Johnson. We own Platinum Pest and Lawn and are located in Owasso, Oklahoma. And we have been working with Thrive for business coaching for almost a year now. Yeah. So, so what we want to do is we want to share some wins with you guys that we’ve had by working with Thrive. First of all, we’re on the top page of Google now. I just want to let you know what type of accomplishment this is. Our competition, Orkin, Terminix, they’re both $1.3 billion companies. They both have 2,000 to 3,000 pages of content attached to their website. So to basically go from virtually nonexistent on Google to up on the top page, is really saying something. But it’s come by being diligent to the systems that Thrive has, by being consistent and diligent on doing podcasts, and staying on top of those podcasts to really help with getting up on what they’re listing and ranking there with Google. And also, we’ve been trying to get Google reviews, asking our customers for reviews. And now we’re the highest rated and most reviewed Pessimon company in the Tulsa area. And that’s really helped with our conversion rate. And the number of new customers that we’ve had is up 411% over last year. Wait, say that again. How much are we up? 411%. Okay, so 411% we’re up with our new customers. Amazing. Right. So not only do we have more customers calling in, we’re able to close those deals at a much higher rate than we were before. Right now, our closing rate is about 85%, and that’s largely due to, first of all, like our Google reviews that we’ve gotten. People really see that our customers are happy, but also we have a script that we follow. And so when customers call in, they get all the information that they need. That script has been refined time and time again. It wasn’t a one-and-done deal. It was a system that we followed with Thrive in the refining process and that has obviously, the 411% shows that that system works. Yeah, so here’s a big one for you. So last week alone, our booking percentage was 91%. We actually booked more deals, more new customers last year than we did the first five months, or I’m sorry, we booked more deals last week than we did the first five months of last year, from before we worked with Thrive. So again, we booked more deals last week than the first five months of last year. And it’s incredible. But the reason why we have that success is by implementing the systems that Thrive has taught us and helped us out with. Some of those systems that we’ve implemented are group interviews. That way we’ve really been able to come up with a really great team. We’ve created and implemented checklists that when everything gets done and it gets done right, it creates accountability. We’re able to make sure that everything gets done properly, both out in the field and also in our office. And also doing the podcast, like Jared had mentioned, that has really, really contributed to our success. But that, like I said, the diligence and consistency in doing those, and that system has really, really been a big blessing in our lives, and also it’s really shown that we’ve gotten a success from following those systems. So before working with Thrive, we were basically stuck. Really no new growth with our business. And we were in a rut, and we didn’t know. The last three years, our customer base had pretty much stayed the same. We weren’t shrinking, but we weren’t really growing either. Yeah, and so we didn’t really know where to go, what to do, how to get out of this rut that we’re in. But Thrive helped us with that. They implemented those systems, they taught us those systems, they taught us the knowledge that we needed in order to succeed. Now it’s been a grind, absolutely it’s been a grind this last year. But we’re getting those fruits from that hard work and the diligent effort that we’re able to put into it. So again, we were in a rut. Thrive helped us get out of that rut. And if you’re thinking about working with Thrive, quit thinking about it and just do it. Do the action. And you’ll get the results. It will take hard work and discipline. But that’s what it’s going to take in order to really succeed. So we just want to give a big shout out to Thrive, a big thank you out there to Thrive. We wouldn’t be where we’re at now without their help. Hi, I’m Dr. Mark Moore. I’m a pediatric dentist. Through our new digital marketing plan, we have seen a marked increase in the number of new patients that we’re seeing every month, year over year. One month, for example, we went from 110 new patients the previous year to over 180 new patients in the same month. Overall, our average is running about 40 to 42% increase month over month, year over year. The group of people required to implement our new digital marketing plan is immense, starting with a business coach, videographers, photographers, web designers. Back when I graduated dental school in 1985, nobody advertised. The only marketing that was ethically allowed in everybody’s eyes was mouth-to-mouth marketing. By choosing to use the services, you’re choosing to use a proof-and-turn-key marketing and coaching system that will grow your practice and get you the results that you’re looking for. I went to the University of Oklahoma College of Dentistry, graduated in 1983, and then I did my pediatric dental residency at Baylor College of Dentistry from 1983 to 1985. Hello, my name is Charles Colaw with Colaw Fitness. Today I want to tell you a little bit about Clay Clark and how I know Clay Clark. Clay Clark has been my business coach since 2017. He’s helped us grow from two locations to now six locations. We’re planning to do seven locations in seven years and then franchise. Clay has done a great job of helping us navigate anything that has to do with like running the business, building the systems, the checklist, the workflows, the audits, how to navigate lease agreements, how to buy property, how to work with brokers and builders. This guy is just amazing. This kind of guy has worked in every single industry. He’s written books with Lee Crockerill, head of Disney, with the 40,000 cast members. He’s friends with Mike Lindell. He does Reawaken America tours where he does these tours all across the country where 10,000 or more people show up to some of these tours. On the day-to-day, he does anywhere from about 160 companies. He’s at the top. He has a team of business coaches, videographers, and graphic designers, and web developers, and they run 160 companies every single week. So think of this guy with a team of business coaches running 160 companies. Every 6 to 8 weeks he’s doing Reawaken America tours. Every 6 to 8 weeks he’s also doing business conferences where 200 people show up and he teaches people a 13 step proven system that he’s done and worked with billionaires helping them grow their companies. I’ve seen guys from start-ups go from start-up to being multi-millionaires teaching people how to get time freedom and financial freedom through the system. Critical thinking, document creation, organizing everything in their head to building into a franchisable, scalable business. One of his businesses has like 500 franchises. That’s just one of the companies or brands that he works with. Amazing guy, Elon Musk, kind of like smart guy. He kind of comes off sometimes as socially awkward, but he’s so brilliant and he’s taught me so much. When I say that, Clay doesn’t care what people think when you’re talking to him. He cares about where you’re going in your life and where he can get you to go. That’s what I like him most about him. He’s like a good coach. A coach isn’t just making you feel good all the time. A coach is actually helping you get to the best you. Clay’s been an amazing business coach. Through the course of that, we became friends. My most impressive thing was when I was shadowing him one time. We went into a business deal and listened to it. I got to shadow and listen to it. When we walked out, I knew that he could make millions on the deal and they were super excited about working with him. He told me, he’s like, I’m not going to touch it. I’m going to turn it down because he knew it was going to harm the common good of people in the long run. The guy’s integrity just really wowed me. It brought tears to my eyes to see that this guy, his highest desire was to do what’s right. And anyways, just an amazing man. So anyways, impacted me a lot. He’s helped navigate any time I’ve gotten nervous or worried about how to run the company or navigating competition and an economy that’s, like I remember, we got closed down for three months. He helped us navigate on how to stay open, how to get back open, how to just survive through all the COVID shutdowns, lockdowns. I’m Rachel with Tip Top K9, and we just want to give a huge thank you to Clay and Vanessa Clark. Hey, guys. I’m Ryan with Tip Top K9. Just want to say a big thank you to Thrive 15. Thank you to Make Your Life Epic. We love you guys. We appreciate you and really just appreciate how far you’ve taken us. This is our old house. Right. This is where we used to live a few years ago. This is our old neighborhood. See, this is nice, right? So this is my old van and our old school marketing and this is our old team and by team I mean it’s me and another guy. This is our new house with our new neighborhood. This is our new van with our new marketing. And this is our new team. We went from four to 14. And I took this beautiful photo. We worked with several different business coaches in the past. And they were all about helping Ryan sell better and just teaching sales. Which is awesome, but Ryan is a really great salesman. So we didn’t need that. We needed somebody to help us get everything that was in his head out into systems, into manuals and scripts and actually build a team. So now that we have systems in place, we’ve gone from one to 10 locations in only a year. In October 2016, we grossed 13 grand for the whole month. Right now it’s 2018, the month of October. It’s only the 22nd, we’ve already grossed a little over 50 grand for the whole month, and we still have time to go. We’re just thankful for you, thankful for Thrive and your mentorship, and we’re really thankful that you guys have helped us to grow a business that we run now instead of the business running us. Just thank you, thank you, thank you, times a thousand. The Thrive Time Show, two-day interactive business workshops are the highest and most reviewed business workshops on the planet. You can learn the proven 13 point business systems that Dr. Zellner and I have used over and over to start and grow successful companies. We get into the specifics, the specific steps on what you need to do to optimize your website. We’re going to teach you how to fix your conversion rate. We’re going to teach you how to do a social media marketing campaign that works. How do you raise capital? How do you get a small business loan. We teach you everything you need to know here during a two-day, 15-hour workshop. It’s all here for you. You work every day in your business, but for two days you can escape and work on your business and build these proven systems so now you can have a successful company that will produce both the time freedom and the financial freedom that you deserve. You’re going to leave energized, motivated, but you’re also going to leave empowered. The reason why I built these workshops is because as an entrepreneur I always wish that I had this. And because there wasn’t anything like this, I would go to these motivational seminars, no money down, real estate, Ponzi scheme, get motivated seminars, and they would never teach me anything. It was like you went there and you paid for the big chocolate Easter bunny, but inside of it, it was a hollow nothingness. And I wanted the knowledge, and they’re like, oh, but we’ll teach you the knowledge after our next workshop. And the great thing is we have nothing to upsell. At every workshop, we teach you what you need to know. There’s no one in the back of the room trying to sell you some next big get-rich-quick, walk-on-hot-coals product. It’s literally we teach you the brass tacks, the specific stuff that you need to know to learn how to start and grow a business. I encourage you to not believe what I’m saying, but I want you to Google the Z66 auto auction. I want you to Google elephant in the room. Look at Robert Zellner and Associates. Look them up and say, are they successful because they’re geniuses or are they successful because they have a proven system? When you do that research, you will discover that the same systems that we use in our own business can be used in your business. Come to Tulsa, book a ticket, and I guarantee you it’s going to be the best business workshop ever and we’re going to give you your money back if you don’t love it. We built this facility for you and we’re excited to see it. We go back eight years ago. Think about the number of clients you had back then versus the number of clients you have now. As a percentage, what has been the growth over the past eight years, do you think? We’ve got to inspire somebody out there who just doesn’t have the time to listen to their call. somebody out there who just doesn’t have the time to listen to their phone. Well, okay, so Clay, it’s like I would go up and down from about $10,000 a month up to about $40,000, but it’s up and down roller coaster. And so now we’ve got it to where we’re in excess of 100 clients. That’s awesome. And so I would have anywhere from 5 clients to 20 clients on my own with networking, but I had no control over it. Without the systems, you’re going to be victimized by your own business. For somebody out there who struggles with math, if you would say that your average number of clients was 30 and you go to 100, as a percentage, what is that? I have doubled every year since working with you. So I’ve doubled in clients, I’ve doubled in revenue every year. That’s a hundred percent growth every year I’ve worked. Now so I’m looking, we’ve been good friends seven, eight years and I’ve got doubled five times. Which is just incredible. I mean the first time you do it that’s one thing but when you do it repeatedly, I mean that’s unbelievable. We’re working our blessed assurance off this year to double. We’re planning on doubling again. We’re incorporating some new things in there to really help us do it, but we are going to double again this year. I started coaching, but it would go up and down, Clay. That’s when I came to you, as I was going up and down, and I wanted to go up and up instead of up and down. That’s when it needed a system. So creating a system is you have nailed down specific steps that you’re going to take no matter how you feel, no matter the results, you lean into them and you do them regardless of what’s happening. You lean into them and it will give you X number of leads. You follow up with those leads, it turns into sales. Well I tell you, if you don’t have a script and you don’t have a system, then every day is a whole new creation. You’re creating a lot of energy just to figure out what are you going to do. Right. And the best executives, Peter Drucker is a father of modern management, he said, the most effective executives make one decision a year. What you do is you make a decision, what is your system and then you work like the Dickens to make sure you follow that system. And so that’s really what it’s all about. So with a script here, we have a brand new gal that just came in working for us. She nailed down the script and she’s been nailing down appointments. Usually we try to get one appointment for every hundred calls. We make two to three hundred calls a day per rep. Right. And she’s been nailing down five and eight appointments a day. Somebody out there is having a hard time. Call them in script. So she’s making how many calls a day? She’s making between two and three hundred calls a day. Whoa. And our relationship is weird in that we do, if someone were to buy an Apple computer today, and or let’s say you buy a personal computer, a PC, the computer is made by, let’s say, Dell. But then the software in the computer would be Microsoft, let’s say, or Adobe or whatever that is. So I basically make the systems, and you’re like the computer and I’m like the software. It’s kind of how I would describe our relationship. Tim, I want to ask you this. When you and I reconnected, I think it was in the year 2000 and, what was it, maybe 2010? Is that right? 2011, maybe? Or maybe further down the road maybe doesn’t 13 2012 okay, so doesn’t 12 and at that time I had five years removed from the deep from the DJ business And you were how many years removed from tax and accounting software. It was about 10 11 years we met How did we remeet? What was the first interaction or some interaction where you and I first connected? I just remember that somehow you and I went to hideaway pizza. But do you remember when we first reconnected? Yeah, well, we had that speaking thing that- Oh, there it was. So it’s Victory Christian Center. I was speaking there. My name is Robert Redman. I actually first met Clay almost three years ago to the day. I don’t know if he remembers it or not, but I wasn’t working with him at the time. I asked to see him and just ask him some questions to help direct my life, to get some mentorship. But I’ve been working with Clay for now just over a year. The role I play here is a business coach, business consultant. I work with different businesses implementing best practice processes and systems that I have learned here by working with Clay. And the experience working here has, to put it real plainly, has been just life changing. I have not only learned new things and have gained new knowledge, but I have gained a whole new mindset that I believe, wherever I end up, will serve me well throughout the rest of my life. Since working with Clay, I have learned so much. I mean, I would like to say it was everything about business in terms of the different categories. I haven’t learned it all, but I’ve learned all about marketing. I’ve learned about advertising. I’ve learned about branding. I’ve learned how to create a sales process for organizations in any industry. I’ve learned how to sell. I’ve learned how to create repeatable systems and processes and hold people accountable. You know, how to hire people. It’s almost like every aspect of a business you can learn. I have learned a lot in those different categories. And then, again, the mindset that I’ve gained here has been huge. You know, working here, you can’t be a mediocre person. You are a call to a higher standard of excellence. And then as you’re called to that standard here, you begin to see those outcomes in every area of your life. That standard of excellence that you want to implement, no matter what you’re involved in. I would like to describe the other people that work with Clay are people that are going somewhere with their life. Marshall in the group interview talks about how, you know, the best fits for this organization are the people that are goal-oriented. So they’re on their own trajectory, and we’re on our own trajectory. And the best fits are those people where there can be a mutually beneficial relationship that as we pursue our goals, and we help the business pursue those goals, the business helps us pursue our goals as well. And so I say people that are driven, people that want to make something of their lives, people that are goal-oriented, they’re focused, and they’re committed to overcoming any adversity that may come their way. Clay’s passion for helping business owners grow their businesses is, it’s unique in that I don’t know if there’s anyone else that can be as passionate. You know, whenever a business starts working with Clay, it’s almost as like Clay is running that business in the sense that he has something at stake. You know, he’s just serving them. They’re one of his clients, but it’s as if he is actively involved in the business. Whenever they have a win, he’s posting it all over his social media. He’s shouting it across the room here at Thrive. You know, he’s sending people encouraging messages. He can kind of be that life coach and business coach in terms of being that motivator and that champion for people’s businesses. It’s again, unique because there’s no one else I’ve seen get so excited about and passionate about other people’s businesses. The kind of people that wouldn’t like working with Clay are people that are satisfied with mediocrity, people that wanna get through life by just doing enough, by just getting by, people who are not looking to develop themselves, people who are not coachable, people who think that they know it all and they’re unwilling to change. I would say those are the type of people. In short, anyone that’s content with mediocrity would not like working with Clay. So if you’re meeting Clay for the first time, the advice I’d give you is definitely come ready to take tons of notes. Every time Clay speaks he gives you a wealth of knowledge that you don’t want to miss. I remember the first time that I met Clay. I literally carried a notebook with me all around. I was looking at this notebook the other day actually. I carried a notebook with me all around and I just took tons of notes. I filled the entire notebook in about about three or four months just from being around Clay, following him and learning from him. And then I would say come coachable. Be open to learning something new. Be open to challenging And then I would say come coachable. Be open to learning something new. Be open to challenging yourself. Be open to learning and adjusting parts about you that need to be adjusted.