Ep 311 - Replay - Electrician Cash Management Secrets Pt.2

0:03 hey guys, welcome back to Electropreneur Secrets, the Electrician podcast. We're here with you five days a week to help you. Master sales, not pricing. Today I got it right master sales, simplify pricing and deliver premium level service. This is so, so, so important. And today we're actually going to be breaking this down as we go into part two of electrician cash management secrets, because yesterday we actually ran out of time and we were just getting into one of our favorite uh mentors, authors in industry, um, mike mccallowitz. Oh, you can't see it, joe, there it is. I know I got profit first. Right there it's in my hand.

0:44 It's a blank, invisible thing, but I had to turn it this way. We're gonna have to highlight this and send that to Mike. I'm sure he'd be proud to to have those honorable mentions. Guys, I've got a sideways announcement for you too, actually, on the Mike McCallowitz for those of you that have just read profit first, he's actually got multiple books and some of them are really, really helpful. I would say all of them actually have some great nuggets. We're actually going to touch on the profit first model today and some of the stuff that's both intuitive, counterintuitive, productive and counterproductive. I feel personally, joe agrees right but also there's another one called Fix this Next, and they touch on some really important stuff and so cash management secrets.

1:27 Here we come. Enough of the monologue, joe, how are you doing today? I'm doing really well. I mean, granted, you know, still got the man cold, but otherwise I'm powering through it. I love helping electricians master their sales. So life is good. I'm happy every day that you show up sick, because otherwise sure your head's in a fishbowl and you're making noise. But I'd have to do this alone or play a replay, and playing a replay is just no fun. Honestly, man, this is one of the times and I don't mean to just stitch this here but I honestly feel like the podcast we do together is some of my favorite times of the day because I'm just hanging out with a person I consider one of my best friends. We're talking about things that we really are passionate about and that we know are going to help others, and we have fun while we're doing it.

2:13 Absolutely, you can't ask for a better hour to spend. Absolutely. I appreciate that. And on that note, if this is your first time here, I'm your host Clay Neumeier, with me, as always, my esteemed co-host Joseph the sales bot Lucani. We're just a couple of master electricians with business addictions here to help you rise. Joe, there's an apology. I told you I was going to put you on the spot here. This morning something strange happened. Do you remember? Do you know what I'm talking about? What happened? On the inside track, we had a sales class. In fact, we have one every Wednesday morning. Oh yes, this group got a special tease to that because we always have our upper tier clients in that class with us and then we stream it through Facebook Live on Wednesdays into our client group and today we accidentally put it right here in the entrepreneur group for the first five minutes or so.

3:10 Totally accidental, it can happen. Thank you, facebook, for making streaming live such a pain in the butt. You got to choose from like a thousand groups, but hey, I'm not here to complain. All I'm suggesting is you gave them a little tease. Should we just complete the thought? Can you just tell us like a high level summary of what was discussed in the class this morning, like a two? just three minute summary. Put me on the spot. But you're right, it's totally able to do that Because otherwise they're disconnected. They just got it got taken. That's not fair. So if we're going to try and sum up the hour-long lesson that we did, I would say it's this Our process is meant to establish multiple commitments prior to ever getting the customer to see a price.

3:56 We've gotten the concept where every word that you use either moves you further or closer to the sale. Either moves you further or closer to the sale, Because the first impression isn't when they first get to the door. The first impression is when they first see you, and that could be done via camera. That could be done when they're looking out a window, and how you hold yourself going from the van to the front door, as well as the transition statement from that front door into walking into the foyer, really is going to set the stage of whether we're making a sale today, whether we're just getting an estimate at this point, or whether we're going to have to disqualify ourselves because this isn't the right fit.

4:36 So the ultimate goal of what that was was establishing that understanding that we are going to be moving this forward or we are going to ensure that we have a second commitment that we're going to come back for a two-call close. I love that and would you say, those commitments are actually helping us eliminate objections later. That's the whole goal. Yeah, the main point of what we're doing and why we want to get commitments is when people give you yeses, they don't always have to be big yeses. The more yeses you get, even small ones, they start to build momentum. That's why we ask questions that are formulated to get positive responses even on the smallest level, so that momentum builds throughout the call and at the end, when you finally got your point where you're giving a presentation, you already have all the objections ready to handle, because they already told you about them ahead of time and you got underneath them and you had a reason why you're able to handle them.

5:35 So then, when they mentioned things like oh yeah, well, my wife's not here, okay, I completely understand. What was she hoping to accomplish when we first got here? What did you say that you were hoping to do when we were here? What was your wife expecting to come home to? And now we're able to take all these little things and now convert them. So you're right, it definitely does help with handling objections. Love that. Thank you for the share and for the record. Again, if you're new here, you haven't heard this before. Is there some evidence backing? this process. Has it worked for anyone? Before setting you up a little bit oh god, honestly, we're not bragging people. We don't say this often enough. There is proof. So can I just set you up for it this one time?

6:17 Go for it. Just tell us a bit about the credit that the process deserves. Okay, so I can speak to myself and the things that I've done as far as following this process. It's an amalgamation of every training I've ever done, every book I've ever read, every therapy session I've ever done. It's all this big conglomeration of sections that aren't scripts per se but are more just mindsets and lines of questions that you can follow to lead you to a better answer. This process allowed me to achieve something I didn't think I was ever going to get to, which was I was able to hold a pretty consistent 80% close ratio and in addition to that, I was able to generate 1.3 million out of my van on a yearly basis.

7:07 So the benefit was is that you go into calls. I had a $2,800 average ticket for demand calls and a 5,500 average ticket for opportunity calls. That is a replicatable process because while I was doing that, I was also running a company and doing service and occasionally, while I was doing that, I was also running a company and doing service and occasionally not all the time occasionally install. If I could get this process into the hands of someone who just does sales or just does service, I have no doubt that person would come better than me at it, and that's actually my goal. I'm looking to find the person better than me. And a shining light just came down on Edwin Castro, who's with us, live in the group. Guys, if you're listening to this in the replay or on the podcast, please know that you can join us in our Facebook community and be sitting VIP engaging with us being a part of our show.

7:56 Edwin actually just before the show I believe we were giving props to, because last week Edwin went double platinum for the first time. What does that mean? Double platinum, joe. So our process is designed where we're offering a range of choices, six to be exact. Now we design our choices between platinum, gold, silver, bronze, economy and, if you want to have fun, tinfoil. But all the way at the top means that if he sold two platinums, that means he designed choices not only for this year but the ongoing services for the years to come, including first class memberships or additional maintenance agreements.

8:36 That means that they bought the absolute finest of what he had to offer, and it usually came in a premium. And in this case it did, I believe had to offer, and it usually came in a premium and in this case it did. I believe, edwin if I'm quoting this right, it was a 17k upside last week. So congratulations on that and, by the way, that's helping them get what they want. So that included two club memberships and, I think, five, five star reviews for last week. So, uh, big applause to you, edwin, congratulations again and thank you for joining us. Uh, once again in the podcast. So that is what you missed this morning. That's our little hiccup and that's the rollout of everything we're trying to help you guys with. And this is a perfect, perfect, perfect tie into Mike Michalowicz's book Fix this.

9:19 Next, here's why. In this little book, guys, what you'll find is he compares your business and gives it a hierarchy of needs, much like the comparison of people and Maslow's hierarchy of needs. I know I've talked about this before, but it ties directly into our cash flow problem and the management secrets that we're talking about today. Here's why have you ever heard that 80% of businesses fail in that first three to five years? Unfortunately. Yes, it's a sad reality that a lot of people are facing. And we've talked about it and we continue to talk about it routinely. And here is why it's important 80%.

10:03 We don't want 80% to fail. We're trying to upset that number. That's part of our mission is to reduce that number to help you guys. That's why we're here giving strategy away for free, to help you with this, giving proven strategies Like Joe just said, proven million plus dollar strategies from a single van. And what that stuff was is relating to sales and what Mike McCallowit said was the first step in this pyramid, the business hierarchy of needs, and I agree wholeheartedly with sales. Joe, can I just ask how long will a business survive without sales? How well, how strong are their accounts? That's really all it is.

10:44 I mean, realistically, if you said we're not making any more sales from today forward, I mean, yes, Could you survive? Sure, you got a house, you got a car, you got some assets, maybe some banks, but you're going to lose. You need sales as if you need oxygen. Sales is what allows you to breathe first, and a really, really good example that came to me actually, my financial mentor taught me this. He said imagine sales as the oxygen mask that drops out of the airplane. If you don't secure yours first, you have no oxygen to assist others.

11:27 So if you really really care about others and you want to actually help them and you want to be the resource that can support them, you need to secure yours first. First off, great metaphor. Second, tying directly into that sales is cashflow. Sales is that exchange Sales are. I might have a plural singular problem there with my english. It happens. It's all good we got rid of the fancy shit like english rules for this podcast. Point being you need that cash flow. It's the lifeblood of your business, so you do need the sales. Here's the problem. This is a bit of a generalized term. That first step's a big step. It's not like you're just going to come into business or continue being successful in a business just by saying I'm working on sales today.

12:09 Get granular with that, right. Really, we're talking about understanding one's value, articulating value, would you say. Joe. Is communication a part of that sale? Ah, if I may. Please jump on in. Realistically, this is the most important thing that we could talk about, because for so many people we've all believed that if we're great installers and we do great work and we do all these things right, the tools are right, that that should speak for itself. But even if you were the finest electrician that money could literally buy, if you cannot communicate that value, you just end up becoming the most unemployed or unemployable electrician that money can buy.

12:56 You need to be able to communicate that in a professional way that says yes, I am different than my competitor. Here is why and here is why customers continue to choose us, even though we're more. If you can't make that statement happen, you will always end up losing on price and conditions. Absolutely, and there's so much important in that that we're going to dissect today with everything we, with everything that we can in the next 20 minutes here. But there's more so articulating value. But then marketing ties into this. How do we attract people to our brand and we've done episodes on this, right, we could never tie into all these things in a single episode.

13:39 But just to see the list that comes from that sales block alone, there's six, let's say, just fairly, there's a half dozen hats that you're wearing to actually get to organic, strong, consistent, sustainable sales. That's very accurate and that's important. And the next step is, according to Mike Michalowicz in the Business Hierarchy of Needs fix this. Next Another plug profit. So your pricing and your cash management leads you to your profit, right, how you're managing your cost of goods sold, how you're managing your fixed expenses, controlling those expenses.

14:19 Things like insurance creep up on you In a couple of years they ask you what you're making now and guess what they do to their rates. It's going up. The insurance guy honestly makes more money off the contractor than anyone else Do. You guys think your material costs a lot? You think your employees cost a lot? Look at what you're paying for insurance. I guarantee that's the highest. Absolutely so. Secret one, just to make sure I didn't skip over it there's no excuses here. Mastering sales If you want to upset and not fall into 80%, the wisest thing you can possibly do is master the exchange at a sustainable rate. So get rid of the self-objections at a sustainable rate.

15:03 So get rid of the self-objections. Master that value and that communication. Just get people to do that handshake with you. Get them to trade their cash for your product or service. Now, as we talked about yesterday, though, the net 60, even net 30, net 60, net 90s that stuff will rob you right. So we also have to master that we should be getting a 50 deposit on every job we lock down to take claim to what you said yesterday, which was interest-free loans from your marketplace, correct? and I was just going to say, when you mentioned net 90, it literally was almost an involuntary reaction of like ugh, if anyone's done net 90 before, like I have, it hurts.

15:44 It hurts so bad. So that's why these lessons are going to be really, really important. Absolutely. So we understand that mastering sales really is that first step. We need to work on that. What better place to invest? In fact, if you're a contractor out there thinking I got to get through these first three to five years and you've got money spent on marketing and no money spent on learning or developing a sales process, that old dog won't hunt, as my mentor used to say. Are we expecting to shoot from the hip until something sticks? Or, as we keep saying, or keep hearing from contractors who are just winging it? They always say the same thing.

16:24 When I ask this question isn't winging it, winning it? It's a resounding no, it just isn't. So get that right. Then we focus on that profitability. And when you begin to know your sales metrics, when you know you're closing 80%, I mean, for example, what happens if we're closing 85% or 90%, Joe? What should we do then? It's actually a real problem. 80 should be the absolute max that you're selling, and even for someone like myself, it ebbs and flows. There's going to be some days where you're great. There were other days when I dropped down to 60. And then you readjust and you go back up. Some days where you're great. There were other days when I dropped down to 60. And then you readjust and you go back up.

17:05 You're constantly in this flow state. But if you ever find yourself over 80, I want you to time out. I want you to pause right now, because what that's telling you is either A you're not offering premium enough services, meaning you're more likely selling the mid-range to economy packages, or if you are selling platinums, your pricing needs to go up. You don't want to close. 80 should be the max. If it's anything over that, you raise your price. Absolutely 100% agree. So cash management secret number two coming out right here at this level and there's a couple there One was increase your prices. But I want to give you a why, joe, did you know that, assuming the same number of tickets and the same average ticket number price rather okay in comparison to a not raising your price 10?

17:57 To a raising your price 10, that should should equate to, at least by an Excel spreadsheet, a 50% profit increase on the bottom line. Nothing else changed. I would actually I would 100% believe that. And let me the best I can do to explain this on a podcast. Let me give it to you this way through a series of questions, we increased 10% price. Let's use the example of a hundred thousand dollars. So one thing on the left we get 100k last year. Let's say the one on the right is a hundred and plus 10, 110 000. Would you agree with that? yeah, it cost a good sold increase when we raised our price. Cost more labor, cost more materials?

18:40 No, just a price increase. Okay. So now we've got an extra 10 grand at gross profit already. Now what about fixed expenses? Did any of the expenses go up when we raised our price? Nope, no. So that 10 grand carries all the way to the bottom line. Now if you were at a 20% net profit margin, you had 20K from the 100,000 you earned originally and you just added 10K. So you went from 20,000 net profit to 30,000 net profit. That's not a 10% increase, that's substantial, that's a 50% increase. So this profit secret, partially, is controlling your costs but also increasing your price.

19:23 I've got one more secret for you. At this level, if we wanted to increase profit from just that standpoint of the P&L, still we got 100K. We've got 20,000 in net profit. I just want to increase that net profit and I'm not going to increase my price. I'm going to do this through cost control or sales increase. Would you think that I should first focus on getting more sales, reducing cost of goods sold, or jump right down to the bottom and start reducing those fixed expenses like insurance? What would you do first?

20:04 Personally, my logic, if you're putting me on the spot, is I'd want to tackle all three on the same time. But I'd like to explain why. So understandably, you know that I want more sales first, at least in my mind. I know that if I don't have more sales, this expense, this effort, is not really going to go anywhere. If I then cut my fixed expenses, whatever that means, as long as they're unnecessary expenses, it's moving it this way, meaning that my price has gone up, my cost has gone down. If I just did one, it would work. If I just did the other, it would work. But in doing them together is when I'd see maximum impact.

20:47 So, hopefully it wasn't a roundabout way of answering your question, but that's at least my interpretation. I did put you on the spot and you're absolutely right. And guys, just so everyone's aware, this is my area of little nerdy expertise. I absolutely love these little hacks and knowing these secrets. So let me explain it to you this way. If we knew, we had a hundred K, all things the same, and if a 60% gross profit margin, so 60,000 gross profit, and then a 20% net profit margin, so 20 K left after all expenses paid. And I asked you, hey, should we get more sales to make more profit, to increase that $20,000 at the bottom line? Should we decrease cost of goods sold or should we decrease fixed expenses?

21:30 That was really the question here what to do first. And you said all three and I agree 100%. But think about it this way with me Only one of those moves has a hundred percent profit impact and it's actually not increasing sales because currently every dollar I make I keep 20 cents okay and cogs is still a good move, but currently that's for 60% gross profit margin. So every dollar I make I keep 60 cents Fixed expenses has nothing left to deduct when we call that insurance broker back and put them in check and go shopping.

22:12 If we save a dollar there, it's 100% profit at the bottom line. I could see that, and when you explain it that way, it makes a lot more sense. Yeah, and I probably didn't set it up great. But point being that is a cash management secret right there, and Jason joined us, said cut overhead 100%, that's profit. Question is, how far can you go? But also, doesn't that lead us to thinking, hey, we ought to pay attention in there. That stuff can cut us deep, go ahead. Yeah, no, I was going to say. I remember when I was working with my financial mentors and learning a little bit more about finances.

22:52 It was really an interesting thing because it was all right where's your money going? Do you really truly know where the money is going? I know where it's leaving. I see the money disappearing from the account, but sometimes these micro transactions or these small reoccurring subscriptions or renewals those are the things that are most easily cut when you actually can look at it. So what I found worked really great for me was if you can get only one credit card where all your expenses are off of. Every month they get a statement from me. When was the last time you guys looked at your statements and said green pen, red pen or green pen, red pen, yellow pen what is absolutely essential, what can I obviously cut and what am I not familiar with?

23:37 Yep, and you want the absolute acid test for this. I that pen theory. Here's something to help you choose that color does this make me or get clients? In fact, let's just rephrase that to does this get me clients, does it get me cash flow or does it keep my clients? That's how you know your expenses are actually investments. So one of my great mentors, keith Cunningham, said there are no expenses in business. One of his managers came to him from the hundreds of companies he owns and he said well, what's going on here? This has changed. Our profits are out of whack. She goes oh, you know, expense creep, the expenses really got us this month.

24:20 And he said no, I don't know, there are no expenses in business. There's just money we spend to get customers and money we spend to keep customers. And that's actually how the government looks at it too. From a very generalized 30,000 foot view. They want to see that the write-offs that you're claiming helped perpetuate that business Makes a lot of sense. I honestly wish that I can get an apartment and do a 30,000 foot view, because obviously helped perpetuate that business Makes a lot of sense when you break it down. I honestly wish that I can get an apartment in your 30,000 foot view because obviously I can imagine the level of clarity that you can get from that view. It's an important place to be, just like the details are that you so masterfully approached there as well.

25:00 So, with that said, I also want to give you guys some help here with how to cut cost of goods sold, because we did give a net or, sorry, not a net a fixed overhead cut. But let's talk about cogs for a second, because some people go well, how do you cut those? Reduce your shopping. So if you're buying a plethora of materials over and above what a job takes, stocking stuff outside of your routine material use, buying extras of things that you're only going to use once this year, that's something that accountants call inventory turnover, and the more stuff you have that isn't turning over, the worse for your business, because I mean, you might sit here and call it a liquid asset, but it does affect your cost of goods sold and thus affects your gross profit margin.

25:49 Things like managing overtime, making sure any performance pay you have is is fair and applicable, and maybe it's only after you hit your monthly target. So you start to get some ideas of how we can manage the cost of goods sold. Does that make sense, joe? Yeah, I want to add one thing. If that's okay, yeah, do it. So when people talk about promotions and SPFs and commissions, I had always been taught a different phrase and I think it'd be really applicable for this exercise. Love it, and that's the concept of profit sharing. People assume that commission is wherever the company makes. I don't care, I'm getting this percentage of the total sale.

26:33 But if the total sale the commission actually costs the company and put them into the red, is that in a relationship that you feel would benefit your long-term employment at that organization? Obviously not. But if you were to say, okay, the company made profit on this and, as a result, I'm going to receive a share of that profit, now you can actually see what this is doing for the company and therefore you have a stronger backup of listen. Every one of my jobs is at 60%, like I'm doing great on these. Therefore, I'm entitled to this compensation plan because I hit the group where we needed it to be, so just a little mental shift would be helpful for that Totally Perfect contribution.

27:19 Once again, this is taking longer than I expected, Quickly becoming a three-part series, but I do want to tie this loose end up with Mike Michalowicz's book. Guys, we just gave you about four secrets there, between level one sales and level two profit. Level three is order. That's the next step, that's the next thing you work on and guess what? When you get this stage right, you're passing the fishing test. Speaking of orders, have you ever had a McDonald's cheeseburger that didn't taste like every other one on the planet? God, I love McDonald's cheeseburgers. The typical American me right.

28:00 Here's the thing about this. It ties perfectly into what we're talking about. Here's the thing about this. It ties perfectly into what we're talking about. A 13, 14 or 15 year old kid made that, whose parents have trouble getting them to brush their teeth. How does McDonald's do this? They have a phenomenal structure and training. Plan meaning that if they can replicate, they can scale. Plan meaning that if they can replicate, they can scale. That's why the franchise is so important, because the franchise is really where the money is. We have the standard operating procedures, we have all the trainings, we have all the manuals. They're here. I can take a 14-year-old kid and turn him into a sustainable employee. That's a business that people want to part of.

28:45 Absolutely 100%, and you said something really important that I want to call attention to, because getting to a point where we have all the processes written in our business is a difficult place to get to. Yeah, that's not really something that is tangible for most people. This takes a long time. I know a guy who did this for himself in a pressure washing business Extreme discipline, extreme, and this is the extremity I'm talking about. Six days a week he would get up an hour and a half early, go to Starbucks, put the headphones in, be on his laptop and spend 60 to 90 minutes dedicated to writing up SOPs for his business.

29:25 He did that for two and a half years before finally compiling about an 80% present. Not perfect. Here we go. This is how to run a pressure washing business. That's not a short stint right, that's intense An hour and a half every morning and, honestly, even just at the Starbucks every morning. And that's pressure washing Right. No code book, pretty pretty standard operation, really. No offense to any pressure washers listening. I'm not sure why you're here, though. For electricians, there's more to it than that, right. Our sales process alone. There's more to it than that, right. Our sales process alone.

30:06 There's more to it than that. So this really becomes that question of okay, am I going for the long haul, taking my time and making exactly what we do through trial and error? Keep in mind, right, there's going to be mistakes plan, do, check, act, plan, do, check, act, plan, do, check, act the whole way? Or am I getting help with this from professionals who've already done it with a proven process? Who can help me install that in my business? And then, the important thing you said was phenomenal training every week, little nuggets, little reminders, little pieces of it in the workplace every day. Please jump in.

30:47 You said something. I didn't want to interrupt your flow, but you said something there that I want to address and you said once a week. Now I agree that's great, we have to do training. But I want everyone listening to this to say once a week training is the minimum bar to hit. Realistically, you could say I'm going to take 30 minutes every day, every single day, and we did that on my team Every day we'd come in and we would have something to talk about, whether it's reviewing the work orders, whether it's going. It doesn't have to be a long training either five, 10 minutes. Talk about what they're doing and how they can better serve their customer, 100%.

31:28 But those little intervals add up so fast. So I recommend, if you're going to do it, you should have once a week for customer service training, once a week for installation training and then, if you want to double down at any other particular topic, add week for installation training and then, if you want to double down on any other particular topic. Add that in as well. Couldn't agree more Absolutely. If you thought about it like, hey, I want to compete in the Olympics with this business, but an Olympian just train once a week, oh God, no, not even close, right. So we got a bit away from the cash management piece only because we're climbing this pyramid with mike mccallowitz, that business hierarchy of needs. But we got to level three. If we get guys, level one sales, if you dial that in, if you take advantage of some of the profit secrets we gave you at level two and now if you're picking up what we're laying down about level three getting order, having a process, a trainable process, and then bringing people in and training them to your process, which is already proven to bring in sales, already proven to be profitable then with this level three you're passing the phishing test, which means you've got a well-oiled machine.

32:36 Well-oiled machine that runs with you or without you. That's something you can step away from, so long as the measurements in place. You can manage it. What is measured is managed, amen. So, as Michael would say, at that point you got level four and five, which is impact and legacy. Isn't that where you'd like to live with your business. I'll throw my hand up to that. 100% right. Right, guys, we just ran out of time again. It turns out mike mccallowitz is on to something there. We've said his name multiple times. Like I said, we're going to send him this podcast and try to be friends. Maybe we'll be able to have him on one day, but ultimately, this was a fantastic conversation around fix this.

33:20 Next, we did, uh, fulfill our little obligation of passing out some financial, some cash management secrets there for you guys, and tomorrow then we're going to have to finally tackle profit first and some of that stuff that we've been pumping up for now. Two episodes. I love that. Yeah, I'm pumped because we actually at my company, we specifically followed that model, so I'll be able to use some real-time examples of what we can do I love that and you know what I think. Right at the end there we really did tie into the action and all-star actions. Would you say that training might be one of those? yeah, I'm with you there. In fact, the training could be both.

34:00 In all honesty, it could be, but I don't want to get too far away from the cash management stuff too, so I'm going to drop some nuggets there too, okay. So what do you want? Action or all-star? I'll take the action. Are you going with the training then? You already know where I'm at man. When it comes to training, discipline and routine. That's on me. I love that. You got this. So if we're going to say what is the minimum action that you can take, right, we're talking about money, we're talking about finances and financial literacy. Your bare minimum action. I know you may think, hey, are you training your team? But I want to say the bare minimum action you can do is are you knowledgeable on finance? The absolute, most bare minimum you could do, and a lot of times we do this when we're bored.

34:51 Have you ever done an online financial quiz? Just, do I understand financial literacy? Go and take it, see what happens, see what you come up with, because the odds are. Even if you think you're like I know money, okay, test it. Do you truly understand how it works and how to make it work for you? If you don't, then you need to know where to train on. But you won't know where you need to train until you know where your gaps are. So, at the bare minimum level action, go online, type in financial literacy test and then just take it and where your gaps are. That's the arrow that you're going to focus on to improve from I love that, and you reminded me of an einstein quote.

35:31 Actually, have you heard his quote on compound interest? yes, it is the uh, I think eighth wonder of the world eighth wonder of the world. Those who understand it earn it. Those who don't pay it, it's true ouch, ouch, right. So the all-star action today, guys, wrapping this whole thing up, is I want you to know your numbers, I want you to actually go back, take advantage of a couple of the secrets that we shared, because there's 100% profit in that If you audit some of your fixed expenses expenses, if you'll audit some of those cost of goods sold that are happening under your nose, if you really spend a bit of time with that, I guarantee you there's a grand or two sitting right there under you.

36:15 And that's for the small guys. For a bigger company, tens of thousands, sometimes a hundred thousand dollars or more. When they do that once every few year, kind of cut clean, revise right, revisit the insurances and actually look at all these extra expenses that accumulate when we're getting fat. What do I mean by getting fat, by the way? I was going to say I want to let you finish that thought, but I have another thought that I want to add, but please continue up. But I I have another thought that I want to add. But please continue. Well, just getting fat being. When we're in the high season, complacency happens, just like we say train for slow season. But when we're in that high season we start skipping shit and we start getting loose on fixed expenses.

36:55 We start getting loose on little company benefits with staff uh, extra this here, extra this there. And then we find when a thing like covid hits all of a sudden, holy shit, there's a lot of fat to trim here. We start digging into this stuff. We find that it's actually been a mess. So much better to make a routine of that and be on top of it proactively. Please finish us off, joe. I appreciate it and I'm so sorry to have interrupted you. It was that I thought of in a very easy way, that people can actually do that action assignment, and that would be when was the last time you changed your credit card? Realistically, we have our expenses on credit cards and for the most part, they're all listed off of several business accounts.

37:42 What I found was the best way to manage your expenses is by canceling your credit card or replacing it with something else, and then you're forced to go through each bill and reallocate that card to it, and if you're worried that you might miss something, don't worry, they'll call you and let you know, and then you can determine from there whether this is an expense you want to continue or not that's superpower right there. I love that, guys. We've absolutely jam-packed this. We've gone long. I'm reading about 40 minutes on the ticker here another long episode. We just love to talk, to talk amongst each other and with you guys and help you rise.

38:22 We're here five days a week to help you master sales, simplify pricing and deliver premium level service. And guess what? We're going to do it again tomorrow. So pumped, can't wait for doing that. Cheers to your success. Bye for now, take care.