0:01 and where [music] are you going? What do you want?
0:13 >> Hello and welcome to People Making Money. I'm your host, Kevin Bemel, and I'm here every Wednesday at 10:00 a.m. Pacific time to talk about job hunting, starting and running a business, and building wealth. So the whole financial side of our lives. So today the subject is uh kind of timely and ironic at at at the same time. Uh so I'm going to be talking about uh what to do during the slow times of your business. Uh although it seems like everyone uh to whom I've
0:48 spoken so far this year has had a very a a furiously fast start to the year. I know I was crazy busy in uh January and now here now that February has started actually things have calmed down uh somewhat which is which is good uh because I don't think I could have taken the the January pace all year long. Uh but um in any event uh there there are times in our businesses where it seems like things have slowed down. We're start maybe we're getting nervous. Oh
1:23 no, I'm not going to get any more business. Uh but they're they're it's actually good to have those those um periods from from time to time. uh if if nothing else, they just give us a chance to to rest and uh you know, catch up from the hyper busy times. Um but they also allow us to really um invest time in our businesses. And I think that when we're busy and and you know, we're we're taking care of clients or doing our
1:58 regular marketing or whatever we're doing, we don't necessarily take the time to step back a little bit, look at the big picture, um get a sense of what may be working, what may not be working, how could we do things more efficiently. So I I came up with a half a dozen thoughts on what what we can do during the slow times and and so I I'm going to share those uh with you uh today. So uh you know I I I think one of the first
2:33 things to consider is just because um business isn't booming doesn't mean that you're failing. All right. Um there are lots of reasons why um your business may slow down. It may just be the sort of natural rhythm of your business. Look, accountants are the perfect example of this or I should say tax preparers or accountants who focus on tax preparation. So they're very busy the first, you know, three and a half, four months of the year um getting
3:09 income tax returns done. In the middle of the year, they tend to be much less busy and then toward the end of the year, they get busy again as they get involved in tax planning with year-end tax planning with their clients. Right? So, there's there's a natural rhythm to that business. uh air conditioning HVAC um contractors you would would be kind of the opposite in the sense that during the summertime they're crazy busy repairing or replacing everybody's air conditioning units uh less so in the
3:44 spring and fall and then in the winter they're replacing heating units right so I I think one of the key things is to figure out what is the natural rhythm for your business I know when I had my real estate company. Things would typically slow down in the summertime. Part of that was because my clients, a lot of my clients went on vacation. I had one client, they used to go to France for a month every summer. Uh, another reason is and and I I had a commercial uh real estate company, so we did property
4:19 management, things like that. people uh it it and the the buildings that that my company managed um tended to cater for single people or two single people. So um for the most part they weren't moving in the summer as opposed to families who tend to wait for the summer to move so that they're not interrupting their children's school. Uh and so again there was kind of a natural rhythm to to the business. Um and then it would slow down also around uh the the end of the year holidays. Um
4:56 and and so key is just because your business is slowing is slow, it doesn't mean you're failing. It doesn't mean there's necessarily anything wrong. Especially if you're new to business that there's a tendency to kind of freak out about that, but but give some thought as to why this might be going on. Okay? and and and approach it, you know, calmly. Now, um if you are new to the business and and you're you're sort of caught in that cycle of you do a bunch of marketing and then a bunch of new business comes in and so you stop
5:31 doing the marketing to take care of the new clients and customers and you take care of them, but since you haven't done any marketing, all of a sudden the business there isn't any more business and so now you got to gear up marketing again. That's a very that that's a challenge um with which you have to learn to deal, right? And and the key in that case is to figure out ways that you can continue to do your marketing even as you're servicing the business that's coming in. That's that's another kind of uh natural
6:07 rhythm to a business, but it's not a particularly good one because it's it's it's always a sort of feast or famine uh mo modality that's very and it's very difficult to deal with that emotionally and financially. And so, uh, part of maturing in a business is setting up systems and a schedule whereby you can be marketing on a consistent basis throughout throughout the year. Okay? So, for example, you know, week in and
6:42 week out, you see me doing three shows on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday mornings. And then of course I do my my every other Thursday afternoon show which is not a marketing show. That's just one I do uh for fun. But I do these shows week in week out and and over the time that I've been doing them I figured out ways to be able to support doing the shows even during my busiest period. So last month, January, I mentioned, was crazy busy. And, you know, I ended up having
7:17 to work on Sundays some uh sometimes, which I I had gotten out of doing [laughter] so that I could have, you know, a weekend off. Um, but, you know, when we have our own businesses when we're a solo entrepreneur, sometimes that is the, you know, that that is the solution or sometimes I worked in uh in evenings as well. So figure out how to do that. And and once you figure out how to keep a sustained marketing effort, then you can start
7:53 figuring out ways to handle that effort more efficiently, more productively. Okay? And that's always the process. and and in in my experience, we can always ring greater productivity and greater efficiency uh out of a process uh and and reduce our times with with tools like large language models and other AI um tools around. So it's it's in some ways easier than ever uh to do to to gain those efficiencies. Okay. So
8:30 uh you know the the when you have a quiet season or you know a month maybe a quiet month or whatever it is. So that's an ideal time to for example work on an issue like creating a sustainable marketing plan. Okay. Um and and it's also a good time to look at the metrics of of your business. So, if you're not doing monthly financial reports on your business, which I encourage you to do, okay, uh take the time to do that. Don't
9:07 just go back and do the the the the last month that was completed if you haven't done them in three or four months. Go back and do them for three or four months so you can compare month by month how the business is performing. Look at those look at those financial metrics. Look at the metrics on your client growth, on your customer growth. Look at how client satisfaction is progressing. If you don't know, take the time to reach out to your clients just to check just to touch base with them and check in. Hey, don't not
9:42 looking to do anything other than find out how things are going. how are we doing or h how did we do in in the last uh transaction or matter that we handled for you whatever that is right and the the the reason for doing for for checking in and analyzing those metrics client satisfaction team performance if you've got you know employees or independent contractors take a look at how they're doing and the reason for doing that is to look for incremental improvements Okay. This this this search for sort of you
10:18 know large business revolutionizing uh you know possibilities is not nearly as beneficial as finding a number of small improvements that you can make on an incremental basis that over time will really help your business become more efficient, run better, etc. So, and the thing about looking for big ways to improve the business is they take a lot of time and sometimes a lot of resources
10:53 to implement. Whereas, if you look for incremental improvements, so when you have a slow week or a slow few days, you can implement that small change and you'll get some benefit there. Um but if but if over you know a two or three month period you can you can implement a half a dozen of those small changes taken together they will have a lot more impact than trying to make some very large change that might take you you
11:28 know two or three weeks of concentrated effort in order to put it into place. Okay. All right. So look for opportunity in stability or opportunity in slow periods. So that's number one. Number two, invest in systems and infrastructure. So, if you've got a kind of a slow period, you know, where where pressure is low, as I was saying a minute ago, you can look for ways to upgrade processes, maybe take on the use
12:04 of a new software program or look at ways that you're handling workflow that you can make go more efficiently. So I know for my business I do a lot I I do weekly and monthly reporting depending on the type of matter the client etc. right and on the one hand it's valuable because it gives me an opportunity to periodically evaluate where things are at with a particular client. On the other hand sometimes it can be very time
12:39 consuming. So for example, I have one client for whom I I put together a monthly financial report. There's a number of of uh the client essentially owns a number of properties, owns a business, um has personal financial issues or matters uh that I handle. And so I've been working over the last several months on how I can efficiently put that information together. Uh first of all because it's it's something that I have to deliver to the
13:14 client but secondly so that I can spend the time reviewing the information not compiling it because I reviewing the information is is where the benefit is for both me and the client. compiling it is just the time to compile it. Right now, you say, "Well, why don't why don't I farm that out?" Well, that's a possibility, but until I've got a template that I like for presenting the information, right, I don't want to farm it out because the tendency then will be
13:49 to just, you know, let it be what it is instead of getting it as optimized as I can. And and what took me, you know, several hours to put together the first time I did it is now down to about an hour, an hour and a half. Um, one of the things I have to straighten out is getting reports from other people um that I need to include in this report. So, you know, how do I streamline those or how do I get those things happening automatically? Right? These are the kinds of incremental changes in my
14:26 workflow that can save me time. So, if I can figure out a way to get, for example, one particular port report on the operation of their business, if if I can get a way for that to be sent to me just automatically after the end of each month, that will save me having to email the person, explain what I want, and then if there's changes that need to be made, email her again, etc., etc., right? So again, these are, you know, working on workflow efficiencies. Now, this is kind of my thing. I like to work
15:02 I like to find ways to make my workflow go more efficient, be more efficient, I should say. Um be it's kind of a game I play with myself in terms of how can I, you know, get tasks done ever more quickly. Uh and I I it's been my whole business life that way. So, um, that may not be, you know, anything you particularly enjoy, uh, but it could be something that would help you out a lot. So, another thing to consider doing in terms of investing in systems and infrastructure is to document procedures
15:37 so that if someone a different person in your company has to uh take on a a you know, doing something, it's documented. you can just hand it to them and if they have any questions they can let you know rather than you're taking a lot of time to train them up. Okay. On the other hand it may be a good opportunity to do some staff training or some staff crossraining right so that if someone in your organization is sick or they're on vacation or whatever so the workflow can can continue u even though you know the
16:12 key person for doing that is not there. Another thing to do is is to look for ways to automate repetitive tasks to save time, right? Um, again, these days with AIS, etc., there are more opportunities to automate tasks than there ever has been before. So, um, whether it's setting up your bill payments to pay automatically, right, so that you don't have to write I is anybody writing checks anymore? I don't I I don't think so. I I mean that few people of course,
16:47 but you know these days with between credit cards and bank websites that will allow payments to be made automatically whether they're done through a whether they're done through you know the bank sending out a check that can all be automated. Okay. Now if if the payment amount varies. So then okay that that that may limit the amount the flexibility you have on automating payments. But I know for for credit cards, for example, my credit cards are set up to automatically pay um the you know the
17:24 not not the minimum payment, the the statement balance due, right? So I don't get charged interest on the one hand and on the other hand that that full payment gets made. And so on the credit card website, I can set it up to just pull that payment from my bank account. The only thing I have to be concerned about is that there's sufficient funds in my bank account to cover and and you know that's you know fortunately cash flow is not an issue and so hey you know that all works smoothly behind the scenes and then once a month I go in and I reconcile all my both my business and my
18:00 personal accounts. I generate my monthly income and expense reports and and a balance sheet and I know the state of my business. Right? So all of these ways of of creating better systems and better infrastructure, you know, again, you can just do a couple of small things. Maybe you have a slow day. You anticipated a bunch of meetings. For whatever reason, they got cancelled. Uh that that's kind of what what happened for me today. Today was supposed to be a jam-packed day. uh especially since I'm having uh dental surgery later this
18:35 afternoon and then a meeting right in the middle of the day. Uh the the uh person had to uh reschedu it and so I was able to move something else into that slot and I have much more of a relaxed day today and so uh I'll be able to look to you know a couple of streamlining tasks that I might other I wouldn't otherwise have been able to do. Okay. So invest in in in systems and infrastructure. That doesn't necessarily mean you have to spend money on these things. It may be just taking the time to set certain things up so that they
19:11 will save you time in the future. Okay. Next, um experiment with lowrisk innovations. So maybe you have a product or a service or a marketing strategy that you wanted to consider or that you've been thinking about. So if you've got a a a slow week or a slow couple of days, so that would be an ideal opportunity to test that out and see how it works. So in uh I believe it was November of last year, I had kind
19:46 of a slow period. It was getting toward the end of the year, you know, Thanksgiving was coming up and then of course on into Christmas and New Year. And I'd had it in the back of my mind to try out uh Google ads, which which is I I I use uh YouTube ads, but this in this case, this was kind of the broader Google ad strategy, and wanted to see how it might work. I I I know a friend of mine has had great success with them. And so I, you know, I took the time to get them set up and try them out. And once I got it running, then it was just a matter of taking a few minutes uh
20:22 every day or two to see how the ads were performing. And in the end, I concluded that it it wasn't useful, at least for uh the purpose for which I was uh using them, which was to grow the audience for one of my other media ventures called Probate and Trust TV. The cost of acquiring a new subscriber was just too high. So um but but that's the kind of lowrisk innovation or experimentation that that you can do when you have some slow time. In this case it was a marketing strategy. Okay, it didn't work. That's
20:59 fine. Uh not everything is going to work. Uh but what it didn't do was take away from my ability to take care of my clients. um in addition to you know being again too too costly on a prescriber acquisition basis. So so try those things out. You may you may have a service that you've been thinking about offering. So figure out a quick way to test it out to see if you think any of your existing clientele u might be interested in the additional service or maybe um you've got uh you
21:37 know you want to try it out to try and and target a new uh a a new potential clientele. So figure out a a a quick limited way to do that. get that set up during the slow time and then monitoring it typically doesn't take nearly as much time as the setup and so you can do that. Okay. Uh and then also, you know, the thing about experimenting with sort of lowrisk uh uh options is that you know the consequences aren't so huge
22:15 um when if if they don't work out. um you haven't lost time away from servicing your clients or taking care of your customers. You you know whatever monies may have been lost if you do it on a limited basis that won't necessarily be that costly. Um but having tried out tried the experiment um it you it may reveal some hidden opportunities that you didn't think about and now you've got something new to uh with which to experiment next time
22:52 you have a slow period. Okay. So you know think about think about what you and just keep a list of them right. Um, I I I was talking with u uh the the the staff of the comp one of the companies I oversee and I I work in the Apple universe. My the computer I'm using right now is is an iMac. Um the I have my iPad behind me. I have my, you know, iPhone, right? So, um, I use, uh, Apple reminders, which is
23:27 a a a terrific productivity tool. And if there's something that I need, you know, need to do, I can put it in there. And, um, here, this just gave me an idea. I need to create a separate list for, you know, ideas to test out, uh, kind of thing. So, after the show, I have to put myself a separate, right? um where there's not due dates on them, but if I've got a little downtime, I can click to that list and and say, "Hey, you know what? I'm going to I' I've got a couple of hours here that I didn't anticipate
24:03 having. Um I'm going to try, you know, this idea out." Um and just keep a running ideas list. So, the these are, you know, just just keep a list of them and that way when you have a few minutes, uh you can you can test it out. Okay, let's take a quick break and we'll come back and talk some more. [snorts] When life brings unexpected changes, managing inherited property shouldn't add to your stress. Magnum Properties specializes in probate and trust real estate management. We handle the
24:38 complexities while you focus on what matters most. From property maintenance to tenant relations, from legal compliance to maximizing value, we're your trusted partner through every step. Magnum Properties, Inc., turning property challenges into peace of mind. Call us today at 213-264-4396 or visit magnumprops.com. All right. So, uh, some other things that you can think about doing when you
25:13 have some slow time is, and and I mentioned this just real briefly at the beginning, uh, but, um, it is to strengthen customer relationships. So, uh, reach out proactively, uh, to your clients or customers just to check in or maybe offer some kind of added value to them. So, if you're if you're a professional and you've got, you know, a bit of a slow period. So, it never hurts to just reach out to your your clients. Um, now I it's it's
25:49 interesting. I was having this discussion with my friend Bill yesterday driving back from a meeting. Um we used to do a lot more reaching out by telephone to our client bases. Um but we found over the last I don't know year or two that that's not nearly as um um efficient I guess as it used to be because people don't pick up their phones anymore. Right. And and I'm the perfect example. uh uh there there are only you know a half a dozen to 10
26:26 people that if they call I'm going to pick up their their you know I'm going to pick up the call and if I if their name doesn't show up on my phone I don't know who it is who's calling so I'm not going to take my time to answer that call because too often they're marketing calls or whatever and I just I don't have the time to to deal with that. So uh you know if if if someone wants to market to me um then they need to reach out to me generally speaking through LinkedIn and work to build a relationship. That's my perspective on
27:02 marketing in in general. I I'm I'm I don't want to do business with someone who is looking for kind of a one-off situation, right? And and I do the same thing. So if if I need a new vendor, I reach out to the people I know either in that location or in that same, you know, business and say, "Hey, do you know someone for example who who uh handles insurance in Colorado, right? Um I'm I'm working on a a project for a client in Colorado. Don't know any insurance
27:37 agents there. reached out to uh someone with whom I was already um doing business in Colorado and said, "Hey, can you refer me to some insurance agents?" Happy to. Right. Generally speaking, people are happy to make referrals. It's it's useful for them because they're able to help somebody else out and it's useful for me. So, it's a win-win. It's a win-winwin, right? A win for everybody, right? So, those are the kinds of things that that you can do. Um, these days I tend to do that by email or telephone. I'm sorry, email or
28:14 text message I should say. Um, or in some cases by LinkedIn messages. Those are my three primary modes of communication. Okay. Uh, and the telephone is is really for me it's a meeting tool. Uh, so I might have a telephone conference with somebody to discuss a matter. uh but it but it's it's not a reaching out touching base kind of tool anymore um because again I think most people find it too disruptive. So uh you know in in that
28:50 case um you know send out emails to your best client or if you're on that kind of basis with them send them a text message. Hey, just touching base. Um, wanted to see how you were doing. If if there's anything you need, um, you know, or anything that you're working on, uh, that I might be able to help you with, maybe I have a resource for you or I can refer you to someone who can help you, you know, please let me know. Right? The also the asynchronicity of email and text messages, I think, is
29:26 very beneficial. I know it is for me um because sometimes I just I don't have the ability to pick up a phone call right then and there. But if there's a text message I can leave it unread and then when I have time I can respond to that text message. You know same with an email. So look for I would say asynchronous ways to strengthen your client relationships. Don't make it necessarily about selling them more stuff, but about helping them. How can I help you? If you if you know, if you're working on something um and and you're
30:02 you're missing a resource or you need um you know, some kind of input, um you know, my my you know, group of relationships is at your disposal uh to help you with whatever it is um that you're you know, with which you're dealing. Okay, so that's something you can do. um you know you can you could put together some educational content that you can offer to your your your existing clientele or some kind of referral initiative right so I you know my shows are primarily educational
30:38 content right and and it's there to help my clientele out whether it's the lawyers or the accountants with whom I deal or whether it's the you know heirs and beneficiaries or whether It's my, you know, family, multif family office clientele. Everything I do is geared toward helping them gain more knowledge, gain more insight and and and make their their business lives, even their personal lives better. If we can make our business lives more efficient, then one of two things will happen. either we can do more business and so we have more
31:14 resources to to use in our personal lives or we have more time that we can devote to our personal lives, right? That's kind of the point. So, in either way, look for opportunities to do that. Now, it's it's interesting. I I was um uh last Friday I was over on Montana Avenue, which is a a street in Santa Monica, California. My dry cleaners is there. I only go see her about every three weeks because it's it's a bit of a drive to get there. It's just I give a give her a free plug. Miam at Browns
31:49 Cleaners um on on Santa Monica on Montana Boulevard in Santa Monica. The best dry cleaner in all of Los Angeles uh bar none. Okay. Has never damaged any of the garments that I've brought to her now for we've been I've been patronizing her for I don't know four or five years. Um but but afterwards I was I was uh driving home and I happened to notice uh um a new store and I popped in there. Um the here here's the store. I'll give her
32:24 a free plug, too. There you go. It's called OV California for Olive and Vine, I think. California. Um the woman's name is is Tana Harris. So she sells uh um olive oil and balsamic vinegar. So because I could I keep kosher, I couldn't try the vinegar. Uh but I tried some of the olive oils. They are mindblowingly good, right? And so we started talking. Um she's new in business, just a few months, and we were
32:59 talking about different ways to, you know, market a business. And I mentioned to her that I recommended that she start doing a weekly um or a periodic video podcast. Her store is a beautiful space. There's artwork in it, you know, to see the olive oils and and the and the the bins in or in in which the the vinegar is kept and and she she makes these uh uh um canned they're in jars of tomatoes
33:34 and just beautiful beautiful stuff. And there's so much to talk about when one is is dealing with food. And and and as I as I often do in those situations, I I said, "Look, I I I do three to four shows a week. I'm happy to, you know, on a pro bono basis just explain to you how to get this all set up." And and she's like, "Oh, that's that's very nice. I appreciate." I said, "I but I will tell you a little secret. I've probably made this offer over the last four years a hundred times. You want to guess how many people have taken me up on it? And
34:09 she said four. And I said zero. Right. It's it it seems so daunting a thing to do, but you know to to do regular educational content on a YouTube channel, okay, is is a terrific marketing scheme. I I have built my most recent business, the one in which I am now, almost exclusively through LinkedIn and the shows that I do for my YouTube channel. The two work interactively,
34:44 right? and and so, you know, to be doing educational content, especially if you're able to highlight clients or potential clients in that educational material and help them market their businesses, it's a terrific way to build relationships, right? So, uh, the reality is taking the time to strengthen relationships during the slow times of your business will pay off in the busy season. There's no question that that's the case. Okay. Number five, invest in
35:22 personal and team development. Now, if you're a solo entrepreneur like me, so I don't really have a whole lot of opportunities to do team development, per se, at least not within my own business. Um, however, I oversee other companies in my role as a probate administrator. And so depending on what's happening with that company, I can I I have the opportunity to work with the the teams at those companies to look at doing professional development.
35:58 So, I was at a staff meeting for one of those companies yesterday, and one of the things I talked about with the staff was what opportunities they were considering for professional development. Okay? because we're at the kind of the beginning of the year and you know it it's it's time to kind of look forward into the year and and plan some of that out so that it can be accommodated within the workflow of of the organization right um and and that's
36:33 that's the kind of thing if you have team members in your own company that's the kind of thing to do now there this comes I think with somewhat of a philosophy So some people have the philosophy that they're not going to encourage professional growth among their team members because they those team members may outgrow their company and then they're going to lose them. Okay? Or they're going to gain skills and then they're going to they're going to end up having to pay them more and so they don't want to do that. I I think that's a shame to look
37:09 at it that way. I want all the people with whom I'm work with whom I'm working to grow their professional skills, grow their experience, have greater opportunity. If I can't accommodate that opportunity within the sort of the things that are within my purview, okay well so then you know they hopefully they'll find something better, more challenging for them and we'll maintain the relationship. um because I had a hand in helping them move up in their professional lives and
37:45 that can only come back to to help me and them in future times. Right? So my philosophy is just that I want to encourage everybody to grow professionally because it's for our greater benefit. Okay? And so I think it's important to let our team members know that we are committed to their professional growth. And I think it's okay to say upfront, look, you know, I I I hope you will always grow professionally. And you know if you feel
38:22 like you're stymied here that that your uh skills um knowledge, skills and experience have grown beyond what what I can offer you. Come come to me. Let's talk about that. Um it it may mean that you know you'll have to move on. But maybe there's some other way that we can continue to work together um where you can feel like you have continued opportunity to grow um but maybe in a different context than what you're doing now. I I think it's good to be uh candid
38:58 with people about that. Um, it'll avoid, you know, potential bad will because they feel like, well, you know, um, Kevin, you know, invested so much in my in my professional growth, but I feel like I'm stymied here, but I'll look like an ingrate if I if I quit and go somewhere else. No, no, no. That there's no point to that. let's have open honest conversations about these um and and and so everybody you know we we can raise the tide together so to speak. So I I
39:34 think that's really the perspective to take on uh team development, team member development I should say. Team development itself is a little bit different where we're work learning to work together better as a team. A lot of people don't like that. I I I get it. It's so much of that stuff is is so cheesy, boring, useless. Um, but I I think there there is a place for team development at an organization if it's done well, if it's done in the proper context and a slow period, especially if
40:09 if going back to what I talked about at the beginning of the show, if you've figured out the rhythm of your company and you know, for example, that you know July for is is a slow time. So maybe plan some kind of team development project for July that that will really be a worthwhile exercise that will actually generate good results. Okay. Now the the the other part of this is your own personal development. So uh you know you may want
40:45 to get some additional certifications. you may want to do um you you you know you may want to um branch out in in learning about another aspect of something that could connect with your business. And so a slow time is an ideal ideal time to do that. Okay. And and again just like trying out some kind of new marketing initiative or whatever it's good to explore even if in the end you you you conclude well h this is not really for me. Okay good. Right.
41:22 So that's one because those things tend to niggle in the back of our brains. Oh I really think I should try this out. Okay. Once you've tried it out if you've if you've concluded it's not for you good. It's not going to niggle in the back of your head anymore. that's one less thing, you know, distracting you um you know, each day or what, however often you you think about it. So, so, so look at those kind of opportunities. Take some classes, get involved in a certification program, uh you know, whatever it might be. Um do some staff training where maybe you do the
41:58 training. What I found and and I've been teaching one thing or another for half a century a more than half a century at this point is we never learn something quite so well as when we're teaching it. Okay, that's what I found as as a teacher and trainer. And and so because we have to learn it so deeply to be able to especially to be able to explain it thoroughly to people who are new to it. Okay. So, we have to be able to really break it down for them. And and it
42:33 requires much more knowledge to to explain something simply than it does to explain something in a complex way, right? So, so consider doing that. And that could be a team building exercise perhaps. Or maybe you put together some kind of program where let's say you have eight members of your team. Each one of you is going to teach something to the other members of the group. Maybe it's by way of crossraining or something like that. And so everybody gets to be a student, everybody gets to be a teacher
43:09 and that becomes a team development exercise as well. There's all kinds of things you can do like that. Okay. Finally, [clears throat] excuse me, look at to do look at doing some strategic planning for growth and cash flow. So [clears throat] take some time. So take some time to examine and reassess your goals, your budgets, your pro your projections. Okay? It's one thing to look at your
43:46 monthly financial reports. It's another thing to compare them to your goals. Okay? and and and assess how am I doing? Do I need to make alterations? Okay, I do that once a month. Okay, after as soon as I can after the month has ended. Sometimes on the very last day of the month when I when I know what the results are, usually the next day or at most two days later, I'm examining how I'm assessing how well I'm doing visav my conditions of satisfaction and my
44:21 goals. um both professionally and personally. Okay. Um so I don't I've made that part of my what we call in the military battle rhythm. But if you haven't done that, slow times are a a a great time to do that. Okay. Look at try look to identify opportunities to diversify your revenue or expand your offerings. Right? Where is there an add-on product or an add-on service that won't take you a lot of time to learn to do, but is something that your clients,
44:58 your existing clientele may may want. And since you already have a relationship with them, it could be something that you could do to extend to generate additional revenue and extend that relationship without a a big investment on your part. Okay? And and and finally, quiet time. It gives us the opportunity and and I'm I'm I'm ending up where I started. It gives us the opportunity to stand back, take a look at the big picture, and really assess where we're at. You
45:35 there's a a famous song by a singer named M. Davis. He was was still is one of my favorite uh vocalists. And the song is called you got to stop and smell the roses right now. He's talking about in the context of daily life, love your family, hug your wife, hug your children. I mean, it's a it's a fantastic song and and every all of that is of course true, but we need to do the same things for our businesses as well. we need to periodically take a step back
46:10 from them to get to gain the overall picture and stop and smell the roses of our businesses. Uh at this staff meeting I've already mentioned a couple of times uh for one of the people there. We've been working together now for a couple of years [snorts] and she was very frustrated about something and so we were talking about it. I was looking to help her kind of work it through and and one of the things I I mentioned to her was I know we've been so extraordinarily busy the last couple
46:46 of years. I hope you'll take some time to step back and see how much you have grown professionally over these last two years. You know, we we started working together under very stressful circumstances. There was a lot of chaos. It was just things were raining down on us and all we could do was tread water, you know, so that we didn't drown is what it felt like. I said, I just I encourage you to think about where this
47:22 company is now, where you're at now, the kind of things that you're doing today that I suspect maybe you'd wanted to be able to do for a long time, didn't have the opportunity to do, how well you're doing them, and just hopefully gain some satisfaction from that. Take that step back and gain some satisfaction with the business that you've built. Maybe it hasn't lit the world on fire the way you thought it was going to or maybe not yet pro would be the more appropriate way to express that. But take some satisfaction
47:59 in what you've built and and a slow period is actually a great time to do that because we can look at these different aspects of our companies of our professional practices and think about where we started, where we're at now. Okay? and and then use that as a springboard for additional growth. Okay, so that's what to do. Don't wait for a crisis. Take advantage of the slow times. Take advantage of the lulls and and we'll build you you know
48:34 you'll build an even stronger business than than you have today. So, uh oh, I've got a I've got a message here uh from someone watching from South Sudan, Juba City. Uh, I think it's uh Nyall Chan. I hopefully I pronounced his name right. Um, I'm just going to send him a quick message here. Um, okay. So, I thank you very much for joining me today. I appreciate your viewership and your listenership. Uh,
49:10 let's see. I'm going to double check on this before I say so. Yes. Uh, okay. Yeah. So, um, this is my last show for this week. So, full slate of shows next week, 10 a.m. Pacific time, Monday, Trust in Estates Weekly. 10:00 a.m. Tuesday, uh, Business Lessons from the Military, 10:00 a.m. Wednesday, one week from today, the next edition of People Making Money. And then of course, don't forget to join me at Jiggers's place every other Thursday at 5:00 p. p.m. Pacific time for a cocktail and a schmoo and
49:46 we'll talk about all the things that have nothing to do with finances. So, um, if you have any questions, comments, criticisms, uh, um, social media links are in the show notes. Feel free to post them. And if you're watching this on Spotify or Apple Podcast and and you like the show, please, you know, leave me a review. I'd really appreciate that. It would gives me an opportunity to potentially help more people. So, wishing you a wonderful rest of the day and signing off as I always do. Marie
50:23 darling, you are my bell. Courage at all times, my friends.