Episode Transcription
[0:00:00] Glenn Harper: Hello, everyone. Welcome to another edition of Empowering Entrepreneurs. I’m Glenn Harper.
[0:00:04] Julie Smith: Julie Smith.
[0:00:05] Glenn Harper: What’s up, Julie?
[0:00:06] Julie Smith: You know, it got warm and now it’s cold again, and I don’t know that I like it.
[0:00:09] Glenn Harper: Oh, man. If we’re only in Lake Tahoe right now, are we getting like 2ft today?
[0:00:13] Julie Smith: Just today.
[0:00:14] Glenn Harper: Just today.
[0:00:14] Julie Smith: Plus the 2ft from yesterday, right?
[0:00:16] Glenn Harper: Yes. And you get one of those big Arctic snow machines would be awesome. All people around.
[0:00:21] Julie Smith: I don’t know if they have ten keys in those, though, but I bet you could get one installed.
[0:00:26] Glenn Harper: Well, today we got a little special treat for you. We just want to kind of do a top three things that’s going to obviously have lots of subsets of what, as an entrepreneur, we’d like to see happen at the beginning of the year. We don’t like New Year’s resolutions because those really don’t work. You need to have purpose. So I think the first thing we’d like to think that entrepreneurs should be doing this is pretty much anybody, probably. But it’s about review. You want to look at your prior year and get all the analytical data, the factual statements. What did you make? Where did you spend your money? What were your taxes? What actually happened that you can actually measure and see what really did?
[0:01:02] Julie Smith: And I think this is the only time in the year that you’re ever looking backwards.
[0:01:06] Glenn Harper: That’s correct. Because what happens is a lot of entrepreneurs are so busy forging forward, they forget to evaluate how they did. And if you don’t evaluate how you did, how are you going to know how to improve?
[0:01:17] Julie Smith: Right? What can you do to make it better? Or if there’s something that you’re doing really well, how do you leverage that?
[0:01:23] Glenn Harper: Right? Because when you look at where your revenue sources coming from, what are your margins, what are your fixed expenses, what are your variable expenses, what can you cut? What can you improve? What do you need to throw dollars at? You have to have a solid set of financials and have an understanding of the we’ll call it the financial check up of your business. And that comes with just looking at your financials. Here we are. January. You should probably have your statements done by no later than January 15 so you can see what happened.
[0:01:49] Julie Smith: Well, and I think to your point, too, it’s also looking at it operationally. Are you running a lean organization? Do you have the right people in the right seats? Is everybody doing exactly their strengths? And are you able to kind of move some of those weaknesses around to, again, create a little bit more efficiency internally to run that lean organization that everybody wants to have?
[0:02:09] Glenn Harper: It’s called the State of the union. And if you can’t measure it, how can you possibly evaluate the state of your union?
[0:02:17] Julie Smith: But I think to that point, you have to know what you’re measuring, too. And oftentimes I think we find entrepreneurs are just head down, moving towards that next task, that next project, and not even understanding maybe that their profit margins or where their expenses are, or maybe this would have been the best decision instead of this one. And just being able to kind of reflect, have some awareness and move forward.
[0:02:38] Glenn Harper: And generally when you do your financials and you put those things in order, you’re going to have comparative statements. So you’re going to see year to year how you’re progressing. If you’re a new entrepreneur, you have one year to look at. But if you’re in business for a few years, look at the multiple years and see what your trends are and then that’s you have to do that. And then I guess you would have a basis to make the next thing that you need to be as an.
[0:03:03] Julie Smith: Entrepreneur and even set those goals right as you move into your second thing that I just took the thunder from.
[0:03:10] Glenn Harper: Well, there’s thunder, there’s lightning. The next thing would be the plan. And the plan would be after you evaluate where you were and what happened, the next thing is to like, okay, what do we want to do as an entrepreneur? And it’s a combination of you as an individual, how are you going to be a better individual, whether that’s a spouse, a parent, a friend, the leader of your company, yourself, health, all those things, what do you want to do? What is that plan? To be the best you can be, to put you in the best position to execute on those items. After you do that, then it comes down to what does the business need? What are we going to do with the business? What’s the goals? Right?
[0:03:54] Julie Smith: So I think you’re saying trying to find the purpose for the next twelve months, whether that be personally, professionally, and then breaking it down, have someone who can hold you accountable, write down exactly what that is, 90 days, 120 days, what are you going to accomplish at the end of the year? And whether that’s sharing that with some of your trusted advisors so that they can help hold you accountable or it’s a friend or it’s a spouse, whatever that is, make sure you’re writing it down and you can be held accountable. Because as we all know, something that’s not written down, it’s not a plan until it’s a plan. It’s not executable, it’s a dream.
[0:04:26] Glenn Harper: And the reality is you as an entrepreneur know what you know, but you don’t know what you don’t know. And what I mean by that is engage with your trusted advisor, whether that’s be your CPA, your financial, whoever that person or people are on that team that can give you different perspective of what this looks like. Like, hey, you as an entrepreneur thought you made X dollars or you thought you spent money here. But the reality is if you look at it through somebody as a trained professional to look at it in a different way. Oh, that’s a wholly different thing that happened and you may not be aware of it. So engage your trusted advisors at the beginning of the year to make sure that they can poke holes or advise you on a better way to do things and just a different lens because you’re going to be in the little tunnel vision probably.
[0:05:12] Julie Smith: And I think it’s just about that perspective, right? Because oftentimes, like I said in the beginning, entrepreneurs have their head down going to the next task during the next thing. When you’re able to kind of pull yourself out of that and see the big picture, possibly there’s another perspective or something else. You see, like you said, in a different lens. And that just sheds a whole different light and a whole different road that you could possibly go down.
[0:05:34] Glenn Harper: But Julie, I’m an entrepreneur. I’m so busy. I don’t have time for that. I just can’t do it. I’m stretched too thin. What do you say to that?
[0:05:42] Julie Smith: I mean, do you not have time to not do it? Because I think at the end of the day, if you don’t do that, you’re going to be in the same place you were next year and you’re going to commit it to doing it next year because you just don’t have time. And I hate to bring it to you, but you’re going to be even busier next year.
[0:05:55] Glenn Harper: So, like, I’m going to be a hamster on a wheel again.
[0:05:58] Julie Smith: That’s right. And how are you going to get off of that wheel?
[0:06:01] Glenn Harper: So entrepreneurs, please take hold of it. Literally. It doesn’t take very long. You just need to commit to putting that time down to evaluate and review and then make your plan. And we’re not talking you take six months to do this. We’re talking a few hours. Everybody can find a few hours.
[0:06:19] Julie Smith: Well, and I think sometimes Glenn and I, when we sit down to strategize or even talk business, it’s in a 20 minutes setting and it’s just taking the time to have that brain dump so we know what each other is thinking or doing and being able to really map out that road. And then it might be 20 minutes the next day. So we got here, we’re going to go here, and so maybe it takes place over week and that’s perfectly fine as long as you’re committed and being held accountable. And again, I think it’s just getting out of your own way and making sure that you understand where you want to go, where you want to be, and how are you going to do whatever you need to do in order to get there. And it might not be you doing it and that’s completely fine too.
[0:06:57] Glenn Harper: It’s even better if you can delegate. But you stand around and look as an entrepreneur, you look at other businesses, other companies, other entrepreneurs, and they’re like, well, how come they’re doing it so well? I’m going to tell you why they’re doing it so well. They’re doing it so well because this is what they do. They literally review their things. They plan it accordingly. And then that gets us to the next item that you should do, and that’s the actual execute the plan. A plan that is not violently implemented and follow up on and reviewed and done is just a piece of paper.
[0:07:29] Julie Smith: Well, I mean, I think the first step is definitely writing it down on that piece of paper and making it come alive a little bit, right. But I definitely think it’s then backing into something that’s bigger than yourself, essentially, and being able to say, hey, these are the steps I’m going to take to do this again the next 30 days, the next 90 days, then whatever that time frame is and holding yourself accountable. Hey, stick it on your computer. Stick it on wherever it is that you see every day. Maybe it’s your bathroom mirror just to remind yourself of where you’re going and what you want to do. And you’re creating a proactive approach instead of a reactive approach like you said. What if next year you didn’t do it? Well, you’re still being reactive to what you didn’t plan for.
[0:08:09] Glenn Harper: Well, if we do it the same way, we know exactly the same results we’re going to get. We’re going to be burnout. We have no opportunity for advancement. It just is what is. We’re buried. We need to break that cycle.
[0:08:19] Julie Smith: And I think that’s called insanity at the end of the day, but I’ll let the professionals deal with that.
[0:08:24] Glenn Harper: Entrepreneurs are insane, but in a sane way. I get it. And I think that the plan that we talked to. Step two, I think it comes down to I like to call it have your own manifesto, like, who am I and what do I want to do with my personal life and also what I want to do with my team of my business and being an entrepreneur, what do I want to do? What does this look like? And listen, you will be amazed as an entrepreneur when you tap into that piece of your brain that says, why am I doing this and what do I need to do? You will execute on it. It’s inevitable. But if you don’t write it down and you don’t tap into it, it will be shadowed on the easy way, which is the way I’ve always done it.
[0:09:05] Julie Smith: And I think if you manifest something like you said, writing it down and manifesting it, it’s going to come true. You’re going to work towards it, whether it’s subconsciously or consciously.
[0:09:15] Glenn Harper: You’re saying, I can self prophesy something?
[0:09:18] Julie Smith: Just saying you have to believe in yourself.
[0:09:19] Glenn Harper: Correct. And again, the great thing about this is that when you plan and you start to execute and you have purpose. It’s amazing how people will come with toward the goal or toward the mission when you’re uncertain and you’re down on yourself and you’re down in the organization, you’re just not happy and things aren’t working well. People don’t want to work for that. They want to work towards something. So it’s incumbent on you as your entrepreneur in your own world, your own faiths in that. You have to be that leader. And to do that, you have got to get out of your own way and figure out how to make that work.
[0:09:59] Julie Smith: I 100% agree with you.
[0:10:01] Glenn Harper: Fantastic. Well, hopefully all your listeners out there will take some to heed some of this advice. And I’m telling you what is the absolute worst that can happen.
[0:10:11] Julie Smith: Hey, you’re right. You use a piece of paper and you got to throw it away later. But at least you use a piece of paper.
[0:10:17] Glenn Harper: At least you are now more aware. You’re more cognitive. What’s going on? You may not execute anything, but you’re going to be aware. And now that should be your call to action. And the worst that can happen is you’re going to be better. How can that be bad?
[0:10:29] Julie Smith: Or you might act with some sort of purpose.
[0:10:32] Glenn Harper: That’s crazy talk. But no, that’s how it works. And again, as entrepreneur, you don’t have to do this alone. You can get yourself some advisors, you get yourself some teammates, but you have to start this. You have to be an impetus to change. You have to be the person that sets the tone 100%.
[0:10:48] Julie Smith: Agree. We don’t normally agree, but I’m with you on this one.
[0:10:50] Glenn Harper: It’s about time. Well, appreciate everybody listening in. We wish you the best in the beginning of this new year. I’m looking forward to seeing on the next podcast. This is Glenn Harper.
[0:11:00] Julie Smith: Happy New Year. Julie Smith.
[0:11:01] Glenn Harper: See you.
Episode Show Notes
It’s a new year, and a new beginning for all of us as entrepreneurs. Here’s our opportunity to start the year in the right direction.
In this episode, we talk about the importance of planning and goal setting, the benefits of engaging with and seeking advice from trusted advisors, and how to create and implement a personal and business manifesto. We dive into the unique challenges and rewards of entrepreneurship and empower aspiring entrepreneurs to take action and bring their vision to life. We hope you will walk away with the knowledge and motivation to make the most of your entrepreneurial pursuits in 2023 and beyond!
