My Business On Purpose

How do you grow in a healthy way? And should growth always be the goal? Let's talk about that today. Good afternoon, Thomas Joyner with the Business on Purpose Podcast here.

We get this question all the time when coaching. Thomas, how do we grow the right way? It's a great question. Because what it implies is that there is a wrong way to grow.

Too many businesses only focus on top line revenue. Bring more in, bring more in, bring more in. And that is most certainly part of it. But top line revenue fails to set you up for responsible, long-term growth. Often times when revenue is the sole focus of growth, you can sacrifice long-term success for short-term spikes in sales.

So how do we grow in a healthy way? Well, here are the 4 ways we encourage our clients to move towards sustainable, long-term growth.

1. Figure out if you even should grow and by how much.

Now this sounds counterintuitive, right? But I had a conversation last week with a client and we discussed just this point. With more sales typically comes more employees to manage that growth. That, in turn, means more training, more overhead, sometimes taking on more debt for service vehicles or machinery. It means more administrative work and billing, more estimating and invoicing. It means 25% of all of that! So where does that time come from? Are you staying late, hiring more of it out? If you try to take on that with your current team it means paying overtime and that shrinks your margins! So is this what you want?

It's a valid question to ask. So often we think if revenues aren't growing, we're a failure as a business. And yet I applaud businesses who turn away more work as they realize more is not always better.

No, decide if you want to grow... AND BY HOW MUCH! I can't tell you how many businesses just throw a number out without every understanding why they came up with that percentage. It sounds good, but it hasn't been thought through. So know why you want to grow by 5%, 10%, 20%, or if you even want to grow at all and then move forward to the next step.

Once you've decided you should, in fact, grow and understand how much you would like to grow, it's time for the second step.

1. Revisit your ORG Chart to see if your current structure can support the growth

Most people have no clue why you build an Org Chart. It's just a picture of the structure we have in place. WRONG! What it should be is a picture of what the business should look like to hit your sales and profitability goals.

So, look at it. Break it down into monthly numbers. Can your current team support the growth? Do you need another salesperson? Another admin to help with collections or scheduling and material ordering? Do you need a Project manager to take some strain off you so you can do more estimating and keep the jobs booked out and work coming in?

What do you need as a business to grow? Because here's what too many businesses do. They add and add and add to the workload of their employees, expecting them to do more, yet never realizing they're at capacity! You can't always expect your employees to take on more. Sometimes, you have to change it up.

So, if you change your Org Chart by hiring, re-run your numbers to make sure you can maintain your margins. Make sure you have the cash and begin setting it aside for those hires in a separate account. Get a few months ahead to make sure that you won't be going into the red each month after the hires are made.

Your Org Chart has to reflect a business that can support the amount of revenue you want to do. Otherwise, you are looking at burnout for employees and they will begin to leave for greener pastures.

Ok, once you decide on growth, and review your Org Chart. It's time for step 3.

1. Build in short term metrics to measure growth and progress

Here's where the magic starts to happen. It doesn't all change at once. But what does progress look like? How can you measure it? What are the Key Performance Indicators that you can measure along the way? Revenue may not grow month 1, but is the team in place, and are we making progress? How many more jobs do you need to estimate? How many more hours do you need to bill?

Are you hitting those? It's why we push so hard for the 12-week plan. Build it out. Build out the 3 main goals you need to hit and then if you're missing the mark, you can adjust accordingly every 12 weeks! You can retrain and add support as necessary to make sure you are on track! Break it down into monthly goals and weekly goals to reach your numbers. It's not rocket science, but if you don't put a step-by-step plan together you WILL NOT HIT IT!

Put the plan in place to measure growth and progress...and adjust as needed.

Lastly…

1. Build in margin before your next growth campaign

This is a must! Don't fall into the trap of realizing 15 or 20% growth and then immediately jump into your next period of growth. Give your team some time to adjust. Some margin to make sure they're ready. Everyone wants their growth curve to look exponential...but in reality, it should look more like a set of stairs. Some years the growth needs to be intentionally less, to make sure the foundation is in place for the next period of growth. Some years it will be intentionally bigger!

But when you give your team a chance to breath, to celebrate, and to prepare, you give them the gift of margin. To retrain and make sure everyone is owning their role before expanding and hitting a higher mark.

Alright, so you have the 4 steps, but here's what it looks like in real life as I just did this with clients last week.

"We want to grow by 25%, we really think we can hit that!" They said as we were talking through some Vision for them. Now immediately in my head, I started to poke holes in that dream, but I just asked questions.

"How did you come up with that number?" "I don't know, that's just what we want to do and I think we can do it." "Ok, let's look at the numbers and see what that means."

I went into all of it, that means you have to do $10,000 in revenue a month. Can you do that with your current team (again, going back to the org chart).

No, we'd need another crew and another van. Ok, great what do we have to pay them, how much is the van, how much could that crew produce? Can you manage another team with your management structure?

No, we would probably need a PM to go around since I'm going to have to estimate more. That's right...you're getting it now.

"OK, so what do you need to estimate a week and how many jobs does your service team need to hit to reach this goal?"

We went back and forth until we had real metrics to make sure they were on it and had a realistic plan for how to hit their growth. We built-in time to make adjustments and they were on their way.

But they had a plan! Now they may hit it, they may not. But I can tell you they wouldn't have stood a chance had we not walked through those 4 steps.

1. Decide if you should grow and by how much.
2. Review your org Chart and hire to build the foundation if needed
3. Build in short term metrics to check on progress
4. Allow for margin in between growth initiatives

That's it. That's the way to grow long-term in a responsible, healthy way. So go do it! Put your plan in place today and please let us know if we can help.

As always, take a look and subscribe to our podcast and youtube. So much content being added weekly.

Thanks for tuning in!

How To Take Time Away From Your Small Business

The rock stood about 25 feet above the water hovering over Phelps Lake in the Grand Teton National Park. The water was cold and clear. You could see the bottom of the lake giving the illusion that it was far too shallow to jump. Having watched a number of others take the plunge, my kids and I decided to give it a go while Ashley agreed to be the videographer from lake level.

SPLASH.

The temperature of the water was matched by the exhilaration of the jump. It was cold and it was thrilling.

Throughout the hike into and out of Phelps Lake, we enjoyed elevation changes, landscape changes, spectacular views, and 10 different bear sightings, some within about 10 to 15 yards.

I can honestly say, throughout the hike, I did not worry about our business. It was freeing.

For context, at the time of this hike, Business On Purpose has been liberating business owners from chaos for 6 ½ years (founded in 2015). We have a team of seven people (including me), two of which are part-time.

A couple of things you should know... we are not a multi-million dollar business, as the owner, I am still very much involved in day to day coaching of clients, and I am not independently wealthy.

So how was I able to take a solid week away from our business, and the business actually grows and thrives and executes on our mission to liberate business owners from chaos?

First, I wrote (and continually update) our vision story.

The Proverb is continually true, "Where there is no vision, people scatter." This documented exchange between a Jewish prophet is also true, "write the vision down... those who read it will run... wait till it's appointed time... it will come true."

Every business owner that we serve has been taken through a vision story process. This is a written, multi-page, highly detailed layout of what they see as the future of their business personally, financially, corporately (team structure and size), culturally, and clearly laying out who they serve and who they do not serve.

This is a clear picture, and one written by faith (because we cannot see it yet), to help bring clarity to what we see not only for ourselves but also for our team.

Every two months we host a simple online call with our entire team called a "Vision Day". It's not really a full day, but one hour where I read fully through the vision story, provide some commentary on where I see our business and host a live Q&A so our entire team has an opportunity to interact with our vision.

It is exciting to see that the vision story process is being morphed from a nice-to-have document to a must-have, living, visual of the future of each business.

If you want to take time away from your business, you must have written clarity on the future of your business, and your team must have access to the same clarity.

Second, I planned this trip (and all of our others) about 9 months ago.

Time is a non-renewable resource. I mentioned earlier that our business has been liberating business owners from chaos for 6 ½ years. Those are 6 ½ years that are in the books... no way to get those back.

We believe that we can find time to do the things in our business that matter most. The reality is that we will not randomly find one of life's hottest, and non-renewable commodities (time). Instead, we must actively make or craft the time that we have in front of us.

In November of each year, I sit down with a calendar for the following year and I begin to make my schedule for the year. Much of your week is repetitious. Meetings, email, phone calls, making or creating, etc.

Many will say, "well my week is so unpredictable".

Not really.

It feels unpredictable because we have not made the time to stop and think through the weeks we've been given and how we will invest the currency of our time within each week.

When I began thinking through the days, weeks, months, quarters, and entire year it provided me with a sense of stability. My schedule became an anchored dock moored within consistently choppy waters.

No way that I hold to that schedule 100% of the time... but even a 50% hold rate is a massive game changer and gives me freedom to do the thing that I have schedule and have remembered to communicate precisely because it has been prescheduled!

Whatever time of year it is right now for you, make time to sit down with a calendar of the next 6 or 12 months and begin to mark out some blocked times for team gatherings, vision days, milestone events needed to push your mission, and of course, your time away from the business.

Just a note, your team, and your business need to see you leave from time to time. When you leave it provides them the encouragement that they can lead the business without you. It literally lends them courage to lead.

When you leave it also exposes parts of the business that are too dependent on you, that you can begin processing, and delegating upon your return.

Third, I spent the weeks leading up to our trip communicating with our team and with clients.

Something bazaar happens when you pre-schedule anything...it becomes gospel. Not religious gospel, but an immovable reality that has been calendared.

It gives you the confidence to simply say with plenty of warning, "team, we will be out on the third week of May." The team will simply respond, "got it".

Of course, if you are typically not away from your business, both you and the team may feel an uncomfortable nervousness, but it provides time to begin planning and to delegate all of the things that you normally do, that others can take over while you are out.

You begin communicating your time away weeks prior to leaving both with your team, and based on your business, with your customers and/or vendor partners.

In our business, I send a weekly communication to each client, so about three weeks prior to my time away, I go ahead and write my communication to each client for the week that I will be away and then use the powerful "delay send" feature on my email app.

I set up the email to send out the Monday that I am away as if nothing has changed.

Our weekly team meeting, and also our weekly individual one-on-one check-ins are also times that I share with our team a reminder that I'll be away and see if they need anything in preparation.

Of course, it will not be perfect, but at least it will be well communicated.

Fourth, I left trusting that the groundwork was laid.

We consistently work on culture ingredients like our weekly team meeting, weekly coaches, meeting, our 12-week plan and live events, our every other monthly vision days, our annual training retreat, and our Master Process Roadmap.

I must trust that the team will continue to lean in on those culture ingredients as much when I am not here as they do when I am here.

It is an exciting thing to be away as an owner, and not only is the team surviving, they are taking ownership in growing the business.

You will never know if you do not leave your small business for a short season.

You will never leave your small business for a season if you do not write a vision.

You will never write a vision if you do not make the time for it.

You will never make the time for it if you do not have a plan to communicate.

You will never communicate if you do not lay the groundwork.

Your business and your team need you to leave periodically. YOU need yourself to leave periodically, stand on top of a rock and take the plunge into a cold, deep mountain lake and be grateful.

Does your business back up its promises? Are you overpromising and underdelivering? Well... let's find out. Good afternoon friends! Thomas Joyner with Business on Purpose here.

I'll never forget one of my best Christmas gifts I ever gave my wife. It was going to be magical! 3 days in NYC a week before Christmas. I had planned the entire thing, managed to buy plane tickets, book the perfect hotel, found a substitute teacher to take over her classes she taught, even get her sister to take the train down from Boston to meet us for a surprise dinner one night. It was all ready to go!

So, we got on the plane as I finally told Rebeca where we were going so she could pack and we took off to New York City. Flights were great. Yep, nailed it. We jumped in our Uber from Grand Central Station to head to our hotel. I had checked multiple hotels in the area for a great view of the skyline in a historic hotel and found a great one that was affordable. We got dropped off, checked in, and took our bags up to the room before heading out on the town.

The moment we stepped inside our room, I knew something wasn't right. The luxurious king bed we had been promised was a full. I could kick the toilet from the foot of our bed it was so close and I could almost stretch my arms out to touch both walls in the room.

"At least the view is amazing!"

Nope, I pulled back the curtain to see... a brick wall 3 feet from our window. Zero skyline view.

What did I do wrong? As I went down to the concierge to ask if they gave us the wrong room? Nope, those are just the pictures of our 3 best rooms we use on our website.

I was hot! Not only had I been oversold, but there seemed to be zero concern for us basically being lied to.

Now, the trip was amazing. We look back and laugh about how bad that hotel room was. It was clean, the location was great, but it was not the luxurious experience I had hoped for. And it left me knowing that I would never come back to stay in that particular hotel again.

It's no way to do business. You can't survive on one-time customers!

So, if you were to take an audit of your business. The things you promise your customers? How many of them would you say you deliver on?

Go ahead, stop this podcast or video right now and write down what you think are the deliverables you promise. What do you hang your hat on as a business?

And rank yourself 1, 2, 3 on each of those things? If you looked at your last 20 sales. Where did you land on those deliverables? 1 meaning rarely, if at all, 2 meaning we were hit or miss but were pretty good at them, or 3 meaning we knocked it out of the park every time. Where did you land?

I can't tell you how important this is in today's business climate. At the click of a button, people can get on Google or Trip Advisor and see what others have said about you.

And here's the thing. Reviews are almost NEVER average. They are the people who are infuriated at your service or blown away by how great it was. So how can you audit your business in a way that leaves people blown away by OVER delivering on your promises?

Because we know this, all discontentment stems from unmet expectations. And if that's true, you must know first, what are the expectations our clients have of us and how are we meeting or exceeding them in EVERY. SINGLE. INTERACTION.

If you haven't read Jocko Willink's book, EXTREME OWNERSHIP, you need to grab a copy or listen to it in the car on audible. He outlines what most organizations or businesses problems are... a lack of taking responsibility or ownership.

Think about it, the last time a customer complained. To their face, you probably looked at them and apologized and fixed it. But what happened behind closed doors. What words came out of your mouth next?

"She or He is just difficult. There was nothing we really could have done. What are you gonna do? They're someone else's problem now!"

Isn't that what we do? We pass the blame. Never looking at it objectively and taking ownership.

What if we did this. What if we asked, how could we have handled that differently? Knowing what we know now, is there anything we could have done to preemptively keep that from ever having been a problem?

If you can answer that question? Holy Smokes you become a business that's going places. One that focuses on the customer experience from start to finish. One that takes ownership of the problems that are within your control, fixes them, and delivers exactly what you promise day after day.

So be real for a few minutes. If you dare, go to a few of your top customers, take them to lunch, and ask them? I'd bet they would be honored to get asked where you can be better? How you can better serve their business? Where you're not living up to and backing up your promises.

If you can implement this into your daily habits and take ownership of this process, you won't just settle for single-serving clients or customers. No, you will make customers for life! With steady business to grow off of, knowing full well, you back up every promise you make.

Man, that gets me pumped up!

That's all for today, friends! Hope you are subscribed to our podcast and YouTube. We are sending out so much more content that we want you to get your hands on, so make sure to subscribe.

Thanks! Have a great day.

Hey folks, Brent Perry with Business on Purpose.

The question on the table, can you do it for a day? 1 day.

I am reading a book right now called Win the Day by Mark Batterson. At the beginning of this book, he poses the question…" can you do it for a day?"

Let me explain a little further. He shares the story of Hall of Fame running back Emmit Smith, who has been known for living the 24-hour rule throughout his football career. Win or lose, Smith would give himself 24 hours to celebrate the win, or lament the loss. And then it was back to the basics, back to work.

So, in your business and in life, what is one thing, one action, one goal, one task that you need to do for 1 day?

One of my best friends is involved in a group called Alcoholics Anonymous. I'm sure most of you are familiar with it... have had loved ones a part of this powerful program, or maybe you yourself. When you ask my friend, who is now over 5 years sober how he does it, he gives a similar response to everyone... along with a few other things... a day at a time. We were driving in the car one day and I asked him to explain that a little deeper for me. He said, it's simple... it's too big of a problem to look ahead. Stringing days, weeks, months, years together seem daunting and nearly impossible. But when you can wake up and choose to live 1 day clean, I can do that. Apparently, that's a common outlook in AA. Powerful.

So we have Emmit Smith's 24-hour rule. We have a good friend saying a day at a time. What does that mean for us?

Batterson goes on to say, "identify a habit- any habit. Set a goal, any goal. Got it? Now let me ask you a question... Can you do it for a day"? And that's what we are going to do with your life and business right now.

What's one action, task, goal, accomplishment, to-do list item, habit that you need to start or stop doing right now for personal and professional benefit. Go on. Think about it.

And then, three easy steps to help us get there.

1. Write it down! Simple. When you write it down (either on paper or typing it out) it gives you power over the task at hand.
2. Share it with one person you know and trust. This isn't even for accountability as much as making it real to you. How many wonderful ideas and tasks get lost in your own mind simply because you never write them down and share them?
3. Start today. 1 day. That's it.

Thanks for listening. We'll see you all again soon.

How To Make A Formal Job Offer

Skip called me and said, "I am excited to call and offer you the open position of Sales Representative in Augusta, Georgia."

Wow, it was really happening.

My first "big time", full-time job out of my time as a student. Pfizer was allowing me an opportunity to be a part of their mission and I was beyond excited. I can still tell you where I was sitting when the call came in.

The final stage of the core hiring process (before onboarding) is the final offer. This is a time of both explanations, question answering, and a little bit of ceremony.

I prefer doing this step either in person or online face to face.

Before making that call or setting that time, make sure that you have all of your i's dotted and t's crossed.

Job role... check.

Notes from the interview process... check.

Onboarding process written out and available... check.

Compensation details and structure... check.

Written offer letter... check.

Employee Agreement prepared... check.

Next steps checklisted... check.

Start date on everyone's calendar... check.

Now you are ready.

Start off the meeting with the direct reason you are there.

"We are excited to formally offer you the open position of POSITION TITLE here at BUSINESS NAME."

Then explain what is about to happen.

"We will lay out all of the details you need to know, and then will check in with you to see what questions or thoughts you have. We will then give you two business days to think through your decision and set a follow-up time to take the next steps."

From there, lay out the job role again, the expectations of that person as an employee, the compensation details, and all of the other checklist items you have prepared and how they get each one of those accomplished.

Stop and ask if they have any questions and then it is time to wait knowing that you have put in the hard work upfront and you have created an opportunity that any candidate will have to remark about as being unique.

You are displaying your care and leadership through the entire process.

If you have been prepared and fair in your role layout, compensation, and expectations and they choose to not accept the position, then you must trust that the candidate would not have been a good fit in the future.

One note about getting into compensation negotiation. All compensation must be built through a view of business revenue and profitability. If a candidate requests an additional 10 percent of compensation, then you must demonstrate how their employment in that role will profitably generate additional revenue.

Do not be a business that compensates based on what the employee "needs"... be a business that compensates on what the business can afford to pay. Of course, your compensation must be fair and generous... and profitable.

This is an exciting time, and regardless of the outcome, you know you have put in the work that will benefit everyone moving forward.

The Most Unique Job Interview

I was sitting in a hut that was around 12 feet in diameter with a palm-thatched triangular roof, mud walls, and a compacted dirt floor.

The soft murmurs of a tribal dialect were casually being shared from family member to family member in an evening of conversation. I understand only what my friend could translate to me.

The Fulani tribe is a complex, migratory and historic community of nomads that are known for their sub-Saharan sprawl facilitating their livestock herds. This particular family was intermixing Arabic with Fulfulde, and an occasional English word to grab the attention and grin of their visitor.

I had seen thousands of Fulani across the Nigerian landscape in my travels, but never had I been offered a seat (and bed) inside the hut of a simple, rural Islamic Imam and his family.

This new environment was intimidating and confusing. But when we sat in the dimly lit hut around evening I began to feel a sincere hospitality. Then slowly, one after one, different members of the family would slowly and quietly deliver bowls of freshly prepared food that had been the product of lit fires all throughout their camp.

I had been invited to dinner. First watching my hosts put their hands in the starchy mix that looked like mashed potatoes I followed suit and began to eat with them.

The conversation began to then meander into all varieties and corners of our lives and we learned of each other's backgrounds, cultures, challenges, and joys.

All of the world's major religions have some connection to food. Food helps facilitate relationships and food helps break down walls. Shared food is a way of creating like-mindedness and yet still allowing for our unique differences.

Food, or at minimum a casual gathering, is just what is needed towards the end stage of the hiring process to allow both the employer and the candidate to peer into deeper spaces within each before agreeing to move forward in a deeper employee relationship.

At this stage of the hiring process, it is time to invite your candidate out for a meal together, or if you are meeting virtually, each of you agrees to bring some snacks and a drink and you casually hang out and just have a conversation about each other's interests.

The easiest way to start is to ask, "so when you are not working, what are you most likely doing?" The follow-up question is even easier, "Oh cool! Tell me more about that."

Again be a human... have appropriate dialogue where you get to know the candidate more and they get to know you more. You are not psychoanalyzing... you are having a conversation that is building relationship.

Also, ask about general things like what has stuck out to them about the hiring process, or what has grabbed their attention about the business.

Of course, you will offer to answer any job-related or company questions they or their partner may have.

We recommend having a significant partner (spouse, colleague, friend) with you and offering for them to bring a significant partner as well. This will allow both you and your candidate to have someone else come alongside and help you both make a wise decision.

So set your reservations, get excited about your favorite local spot, and enjoy a lunch or dinner together with the person who you are about to be connected to for a long time.

This can be a powerful, memorable time... if you make the time for it.

How To Walk Through A Job Description During A Job Interview

The internet is awash in example questions that you can ask during a job interview, it would be insufficient to try and give a thorough summary in a way that would bring value to you.

So we will skip the interview questions and do something better.

We have been programmed as humans to a "one-click" mindset. That one innovative button from Amazon that was patented in 1997 provided a twenty-year runway of revenue and profits that no other retailer would be able to match or come close.

Staple's easy button and Amazon's one-click button productizes a mindset that we have been conditioned towards; make it fast and make it easy.

Can you imagine if an online dating service advertised a one-click-to-marriage product or a counseling service marketed an easy-parenting algorithm?

Why does that seem so absurd, but a one-click button to purchase ballpoint pens to be delivered in one day seems reasonable and expected?

Relationships.

I don't have a relationship with a ballpoint pen. I have relationships with people.

Relationships cannot be reduced to one click, and the ones that are have little value.

Employers have been trying to figure out for years how to automate and one-click their way to a hiring process akin to pushing a metaphorical easy button.

Life is filled with examples of fast living leading to a shortened life, and intentional, slow living leading to a longer life.

Hiring is similar.

Either you will pay the price upfront and maintain the investment through consistent, predictable leadership, or you will not pay the price upfront and maintain your investment through hope, anger, frustration, and unset and unmet expectations.

Throughout the hiring process, you have done the methodical hard work of determining the gap in your business, writing a job role that will help fill that gap, budgeting the role to ensure alignment with revenue and expenses, finding the right people to talk to, casually getting to know those people, sharing your vision, mission, values, and culture, and evaluating their technical skill set and their motivational leadership.

All that leading up to this point of finally sharing the actual job role with the candidate. Pay the price now, and you will enjoy clarity later.

At this stage of the hiring process simply be a human. Pull out two copies of the written job role, one for you and one for them, and begin walking through all of the steps and tasks, and capabilities that this role will require.

As you go, be a good human... interact, ask questions, seek clarifications, field their questions, take notes, go deeper, and thank them for their time.

Provide insight as to who they will be working with internally, who they will be interacting with externally. What does a day or a week in the life of their role look like?

This is a great time of the hiring process to actually have an example ideal weekly schedule for this role so they can visualize a real-life week, and they can also see that you have put in the hard work of making sure there's a place for them. A lack of clarity on the front end will lead to significant and enduring frustration on the backed with real consequence.

At the time of this training being developed the recruiting and placement firm Monster.com reported results from a survey conducted finding that a staggering 95% of American workers are looking to leave their jobs and a significant number of them reported burnout as the reason.

Burnout is a direct result of chaos in expectations, chaos in planning, and chaos in blocking time. Essentially, we burn out when we see no progress towards the vision.

You can search the internet for the silver bullet question that will ensure you've landed the right person, but the reality is that you likely won't need them and can simply have a helpful, life-giving conversation using the written job role as your shared point of focus.

The right fit is less about their experience, and it is more about your preparation and leadership.

Near the end of the conversation, this is the time to explain the job role compensation structure. This is not the time to discuss specific compensation amounts (salary, incentive comp percentages, etc.). You are simply communicating…

This role is a liveable salary plus a commission of sales and will be paid twice monthly

Or...

This role has a base salary and qualifies for a quarterly bonus and will be paid every two weeks...

... or whatever the structure of compensation is. Again, this is not their job offer with compensation specifics. Just compensation structure.

Once complete with a substantive dialogue using the job role as your foundation and the compensation structure explained, wrap up and confirm no other questions, thoughts, or concerns.

Let them know that you will then take the feedback from this conversation along with the assessments you have had them complete, the feedback from their references, and any other questions they've had along the way, and you will put all of that together and invite them to the next step which is a partner interview.

One other word of note, many times it will also be a good idea to invite other current team members who would interact with this role at this stage of the interview process. Your other team members can help you interact with the candidate from their unique perspective. They will also get a chance to weigh in on the candidate since they are the ones likely to spend the most time with them.

We have even seen some employers bring in a customer or two to have them evaluate the candidate during this stage.

Avoid hitting the easy button now, and you will have a chance to hit it on repeat down the road!

We saved for years and made a decision that we were going to buy a new car and do it with cash. All that work saving and grinding, and then in a stroke of a pen, we would exchange it for a car.

You better believe we did our research.

When we hire, we are in effect, taking all of the hard work and energy that we, and others, have put into the business since its founding and in the stroke of a pen on an employment agreement allowing another person to come to operate behind the curtain of the business.

Too many times we do it with a mindset of "just get them in here so we can get some of this work done!"

Going into the hire we tend to spend a disproportionate amount of time on a person's experience, skill, and technical expertise, and less time on the true make-or-break details like mindset, desire, and motivation.

The world of sports is stained with a graveyard of former first round, five-star, blue chip athletes who relied on skill and talent through their amateur play and yet could not harness their mindset for the true challenge of a professional when every other player is as good or better than they are.

You are hiring professionals. Professional oil changers, bookkeepers, ice cream scoopers, trademark filers, superintendents, estimators, and on and on; all skills that can be built and developed on site.

The greater challenge is to find the right fit, the right mindset, the right intangibles. A business can overcome skillset hiccups far easier than overcoming mindset deficiencies. A world-class soccer defender can only bring value if she first cares to bring value and believes the value she can bring is worth the effort.

You are on the hunt for team members who will learn to ask, "what can go right" vs. "what can go wrong".

Team members who will appreciate systems, structure, and touchpoints, instead of running rogue with an "I work best when I'm left alone" attitude.

Testing for skill is much easier than testing for mindset. Testing for skill, simply provide your candidate with an actual task to do related to the job you may hire them for and them pay them for their time.

Testing for mindset means you pay attention to all of the intangibles surrounding the test project in relation to how they accomplished the task. Did they ask questions? Were they on time? How did they utilize or interact with others? How did they communicate?

Here is the problem, how do you objectively evaluate the subjective motivation of another person?

Business owners are best served when they can hold tangible evidence in their hand of feedback that has been provided both by the candidate and by people who know the candidate well.

Three things you should do during the testing and assessment phase of the hiring process.

First, you should administer some sort of challenge to the person you are about to hire.

If you are hiring a bookkeeper, then have them reconcile an old set of books.

If you are hiring an estimator, then have them bid an old set of plans.

If you are hiring a window washer, then have them wash your windows.

This will help you to actually see, objectively, how they work and with what expertise.

Offer to pay them for the time they committed to the task you provided.

Second, you should administer a personality assessment. We recommend the DISC profile precisely because it is simple to understand for busy business owners and allows you to quickly understand what gives your candidate energy, and what sucks the life out of them.

These assessments are so revealing of the motivation of a person that we no longer give hiring advice without an assessment to go with it.

Finally, you should reach out to a minimum of three contacts that have had significant interaction with your candidate. Simply ask them for a list of 5 people to reach out to with their names, relationship, and contact, and then you pick three you wish to speak to.

You may think, "what a waste of time... they are just going to have me call their friends."

You will be surprised how many of "their friends" are willing to tell you some helpful insights.

Do not overlook any of these three steps. They will take time, and they will give you irreplaceable insight into both their technical skill and their emotional intelligence so you avoid bringing a fixed mindset of pessimism into the mission of your business.

What do you want???

What do you want? No, really, what do you want? Who do you really want to be as a business? That's the question I want you to answer today. Thomas Joyner with business on Purpose here.

So... that question, "what do you want?" Is always the first question we ask a business when we sit down to meet with them. It's a powerful question because it always informs us of if the business really knows who they are and where they're headed.

Now, why do we ask this? Well, if we don't know where we're going... how can we make sure we are going to get there?

Let me put this in practical terms by giving you some examples. I met with a small contracting company recently and asked them this. Their answer was telling…

"Well, I don't really know. I mean, we were doing great doing high-end residential builds. We were a small crew and kept it pretty tight with the subs we chose. But then we got a great opportunity to start some high-end remodels. So now, we're kind of a builder who does some high-end remodels on the side. Does that answer your question?"

I kind of laughed, when I said…"NO! You just told me what your business has morphed into. Not what you want it to be."

And it's true, right? If we don't have a clear vision of what we want, who we want to be, and where we're headed... it's so easy to get caught taking a detour that we never intended. Now, obviously, sometimes these can be profitable. But, in this instance, the business had to hire another project manager to manage new sub crews, and had to add another admin to keep up with billing and invoicing, and ordering, all to maintain work that they didn't really want to be doing!

Another story for you…"What do you want? Another client new exactly the sales goal they wanted to hit, they knew the team size they needed to reach that goal, they knew the areas of their market they wanted to penetrate and the potential distractions to avoid along the way."I can't tell you the freedom that brings a business. To know where you want to end up! From there you can work backwards in knowing if your employees are the right people to chase after the VIsion. In knowing if your ORG chart can sustain your vision. In seeing if you're offering the right product/service mix to reach these goals.

Do you need to cut back somewhere? Do you need to add something? Are you being distracted in a way that is robbing you of efficiency and robbing you of your ultimate goal?

This stuff happens all the time!

Now, it has to be achievable. You can't throw out some wild, off-the-wall Vision that has zero chance of being accomplished. But, is there growth that is manageable in a 1-3 year window. Then at the end of that time period, figure out where the next growth can land you.

If I could give your business one gift today... it would be a crystal clear picture of where you're headed. That's it! And it may sound elementary, but as I said, the businesses that don't know where they're going will never accomplish what they want to accomplish.

So, what do you do with this? Well, set a meeting with yourself this week if you don't know what you want. Put it in the calendar right now. And if you do, set a meeting with yourself to look back at it and see if there's anything unintentionally distracting you from reaching it.

Ask yourself when you see this vision coming to fruition. Ask yourself if the business is helping you achieve the life you want for your family...and what is that life you want for your family? Ask what revenue and margins you want to hit. Figure out who you need in your business to make this happen. What products and services you need to offer... and then finally, what culture you need to cultivate to accomplish all of this.

That's the starting point... and so much more. If you can't answer these questions, you run the risk... day after day... of getting pulled away to a vision you don't really want.

So set the meeting with yourself... write it down. Revisit it often. And build a plan to get there... on purpose.

I hope this was helpful, make sure to follow us on YouTube and our the mybusinessonpurpose podcast.

Have a great week!

In- Person Interview Questions

I walked into an ice cream shoppe in Cincinnati to enjoy two scoops of Cotton Candy ice cream in a waffle cone with sprinkles on top. Yes, I am a grown man, and yes cotton candy with sprinkles is my preference.

Waiting in line I noticed the manager of the shop come around from behind the counter and sit with a lady who had just walked in wearing workout gear. My first assumption is that it was a friend or family member coming into say hello. As the two sat down the manager pulled out a piece of paper and began awkwardly asking questions…

"What experience do you have working with customers?"

"What jobs have you had before?"

"What do you think you would like about working here?"

I did not time their conversation, however, there is no way it lasted longer than 2 minutes. It was noticeably brief and the conversation was vanilla (sorry, the dad joke just came out!).

The interaction will be remembered as a waste of time for all involved.

In-person interviews tend to either be too robotic and templated, or too meandering and wasteful.

There is a better way.

The business owners that tend to experience less chaos are the owners who have a mapped out, purposeful, sustained hiring process that walks potential candidates through the various attributes of the business.

The exposure creates either desire or lack of desire. Imagine being guided personally throughout the various worlds of the Magic Kingdom at Disney. You don't ride the rides, but you take in the sights and the movement.

At the end of your tour, you either love Disney... or not.

Most in-person interviews are akin to showing someone a billboard about Disney and then asking them if they are ready to commit their lives to the cause based on a crafted, pass-by advertisement.

In order to earn the right to have a great live, in-person interview, you must first have gone through the hard work of the first sections of your hiring process:

• Understanding the gap in your business and writing a role to fill that gap
• Budgeting for a new role
• Writing out your vision, mission, and values
• Drafting your organizational layout or chart
• Initiating a phone call with the candidate before bringing them in

If you skip those steps, you are setting yourself, and your candidate up for a billboard-style job interview.

Once it is time to bring the person in face to face (or via video conference if remote), you will resist the urge to talk about the actual job role.

YES! You will resist discussing the job role.

Instead, you will focus on sharing the things that matter most: a) where you are headed as a business (your vision), b) WHY you do what you do (your mission), and c) how your business makes decisions every day (your unique core values).

You sit down with your candidate and hand them a written copy of your vision, mission, and values, and you will start to walk through each one pausing periodically to see what questions or thoughts they may have.

In the first in-person interview you will discuss ONLY the culture of your business.

Why?

It is of no value to discuss the role or compensation if you come to find out that this candidate has no desire to head in the direction that you are going.

Why would we share the details of their involvement in our trip to Kogi State, Nigeria, if we come to determine that our candidate would actually prefer to travel to Sarasota, Florida?

At Business On Purpose we do things a certain way with certain elements and it can feel invasive even though our entire team is remote. We are in each other's business and are obsessed with predictability and consistency through the tools we have built and expect each other to use.

Many businesses have the mindset of "get the work done however you get it done." We do not. For some that does not sit well... For others, they thrive with it.

A client of ours, a mid-level Architecture firm in the Southern United States came with this idea of only discussing culture in the first sit-down interview. Once complete, the candidate looked across the table shocked, and simply said, "wow, that helps so much".

As the employer, YOU lead the way. YOU set the tone. This is the culture that YOU and your team are building and it must be both protected and shared with thoughtfulness and preparation.

During the phone conversation, it will be best to let the candidate know the entire flow of your hiring process by simply saying,

"This is a six-step (or whatever) hiring process that will likely take 3 to 6 weeks (name your duration) to complete. After a casual phone interview where we start to learn your background, we will then invite you to an in-person live interview where we will focus our time on the vision, mission, values, and culture of our business. To be clear, we will not be discussing the specific job role or compensation details until the 2nd in-person interview (or whatever step that is for you)..."

The more structured you are in the hiring process the more confidence you will breed into your candidate as to what they are signing up for (or not).

You will constantly fight the urge to want to "move fast" to hire someone because you need their help.

Relationships rarely benefit from HASTY starts.

Your first in-person interview is about sharing culture, and then evaluating if that person matches the right ingredient profile of the culture you are growing.