What if you could take control of your finances, decrease stress, and increase profitability in your business without losing your passion for your trade? Join us on this transformative journey as we explore the Profit First system with our esteemed guest, Katie, a certified Profit First professional and the author of Profit First for Trades. Sharing her insights and expertise, Katie walks us through the benefits of implementing Profit First, revealing how it can revolutionize the financial management of your business, no matter the size.
Ever thought about the impact of a trusted financial team that aligns with your values or the significance of having clients who echo these values? We've got you covered. This episode tackles these topics head-on, highlighting the crucial role effective bookkeeping practices and a dependable financial team can play in your business's growth. Moreover, we share a real-life narrative about a client who discovered an unnecessary expense because of an expense review, underscoring the importance of this often overlooked practice.
Do you find numbers intimidating? This might just change your mind. We delve into the common challenges faced by tradies when it comes to managing their numbers and share strategies for mastering efficiencies with proper financial systems. Katie shares her experiences of tailoring the Profit First process to an individual's needs and goals, emphasizing the importance of customization and long-term planning. Listen in as we shed light on financial efficiency and share practical tips that can lead to financial success. This episode is more than just a business discussion – it's a blueprint for a prosperous and stress-free future in the construction industry!
check out Katie here...
katiecrismale-marshall.com.au
We're on a mission to elevate the professionalism of the residential construction industry, and help everyone enjoy building and renovating homes.
Easy to use Quoting software for Builders. Produce professional and accurate proposals. Quickly and accurately measure and markup plans in minutes. Win more jobs and track costs. 21 Day Free Trial.
check out more podcasts here...
https://levelupwithduaynepearce.buzzsprout.com
What if you could take control of your finances, decrease stress, and increase profitability in your business without losing your passion for your trade? Join us on this transformative journey as we explore the Profit First system with our esteemed guest, Katie, a certified Profit First professional and the author of Profit First for Trades. Sharing her insights and expertise, Katie walks us through the benefits of implementing Profit First, revealing how it can revolutionize the financial management of your business, no matter the size.
Ever thought about the impact of a trusted financial team that aligns with your values or the significance of having clients who echo these values? We've got you covered. This episode tackles these topics head-on, highlighting the crucial role effective bookkeeping practices and a dependable financial team can play in your business's growth. Moreover, we share a real-life narrative about a client who discovered an unnecessary expense because of an expense review, underscoring the importance of this often overlooked practice.
Do you find numbers intimidating? This might just change your mind. We delve into the common challenges faced by tradies when it comes to managing their numbers and share strategies for mastering efficiencies with proper financial systems. Katie shares her experiences of tailoring the Profit First process to an individual's needs and goals, emphasizing the importance of customization and long-term planning. Listen in as we shed light on financial efficiency and share practical tips that can lead to financial success. This episode is more than just a business discussion – it's a blueprint for a prosperous and stress-free future in the construction industry!
check out Katie here...
katiecrismale-marshall.com.au
We're on a mission to elevate the professionalism of the residential construction industry, and help everyone enjoy building and renovating homes.
Easy to use Quoting software for Builders. Produce professional and accurate proposals. Quickly and accurately measure and markup plans in minutes. Win more jobs and track costs. 21 Day Free Trial.
check out more podcasts here...
https://levelupwithduaynepearce.buzzsprout.com
I tell all my clients if you're not going to work on the data and you're not going to build your financial systems to get your data, just sit at home and go broke. Please don't go and work yourself into the ground and burn out and then go broke anyway. So either sit on the lounge or make the decision that you're going to put some time and energy into looking at your financial systems.
Speaker 2:G'day guys. Welcome back to another episode of Level Up. We've got Katie with us today from Profit First for Trades, which is the Australian version of Profit First. How are you, katie?
Speaker 1:Good, thank you. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2:No worries, I'm definitely excited about this one because I think it's where so many builders and tradies fall over. We're very good at running business, doing the building side of things and working outdoors and all those types of things, but when it comes to the business side of it especially the numbers, generally the sort of hardest part for most people to get their head around I know for me it took me a very long time to get my head in a position where I understood what everything meant and get to a point where we actually yeah, the money's building up in the bank, not just coming in and going out the door again.
Speaker 1:Yes, it is super, super common.
Speaker 2:You're a published author. You've got your own podcast as well, but obviously numbers is your passion. Can you explain to us the profit-first thing and what makes your version different to Because I know a lot of our listeners will know the Sean Van Dyke version the profit-first for contractors, but I imagine yours is very tailored to suit the Australian trades industry?
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly so. For those that don't know, profit First is a way to manage your cash using multiple bank accounts in a really basic, basic level. Mike McCallowits wrote the original Profit First book and created the system, and then Sean is one of what we call a certified PFP or a certified Profit First professional, which means that he's done all the training and the ongoing training to be able to teach and use Profit First, which is what I've also done. Sean's obviously based in America, so he is for contractors, which is what they call our kind of tradies, and it's American-based and it is great. My version is specifically tailored to Australian businesses because clearly that's where I'm based and it come about.
Speaker 1:I'll speak about four or five years ago now. I was actually at a lunch with Mike and we were just chatting and at the end of lunch he was like you really need to write the tradie version of my book. I of course thought he had lost his mind because at this stage he'd written maybe six or seven business books that were really highly regarded. And then I looked at him and realized he was dead serious, and so I don't mind a challenge and I am a numbers person. I've always worked in finance. That's my passion, so to write a book was definitely not something that I had thought about doing, but for me, not writing the book and not being able to help the tradies that I worked with, that was enough for me to figure it out and find the people and find the specialists who would help me do everything I needed to do to write the book, which is three and a half. It arrived on my doorstep just as we went into first lockdown, so that was fun.
Speaker 2:So I got in books to.
Speaker 1:Western Australia in lockdown. I got them to England quicker than I got them to Western Australia.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you've always been in the building industry, so you're a counter.
Speaker 1:No, so I was a financial planner, so I actually wanted to be a motor mechanic. My dad was a mechanic. I grew up in sheds helping dad build bikes, boats, cars, whatever it was. I had my head in it. I love anything that goes fast with a motor.
Speaker 2:And I actually wanted to. I was in the shed today.
Speaker 1:I was like damn, we're missing out on the shed. Sheds are like my happy place. I wanted to be a motor mechanic and I finished high school and then I decided to go on an exchange year and went to America as an exchange student instead. And then, when I come back, there wasn't really the opportunity and I'm not super old, but when I was in high school it wasn't really common for females to go and become motor mechanics and I'd always been good at numbers. So I went into financial services, become a financial planner, become an auditor to financial planners, loved it and then had my kids and then just went. I don't want to go back to the corporate world. I thought I loved it. I didn't love it and I have always grown up like my. As I said, my dad was a mechanic.
Speaker 1:If you look at our family tree, every male is a tradie of some description. I'm married to a carpenter, my in-laws have a building business, my brother's a landscape, but, like you, just everyone is a tradie. So I started a bookkeeping business, originally because I thought that I would be able to change small business owners lives with zero, because now we had a system that could give you up-to-date numbers. So I thought that was going to be able to solve everybody's problems. And then I realized that actually that could change. It could give you access to your numbers that were current and that would make a difference. But there was still something missing. Between the clients I used to see as the financial planner and getting the bookkeeping up-to-date, there was still that missing piece of the puzzle in the middle there. And then that's when I come across Profit First and I was like, oh, this is that missing piece.
Speaker 1:So I have a bookkeeping business efficient tradie bookkeeping where I have a team who are amazing and they help our clients make sure that their zero is being used properly, that their job management system is connected correctly, that all the information is flowing as it should, that payments are all coming in where they should, and then from there we can then use that data from Profit First perspective so we can actually help you improve the business from a financial perspective. Because if we just hope it's gonna change when we get materials or when we can get staff, or when the economy picks up or when interest rates go down, it's not a very good strategy. It doesn't usually happen. We have to do something, and that's where I spend all my time now is just working with lots of builders, lots of tradies, helping them implement Profit First so that they can actually take back control and put in a financial system.
Speaker 1:When I was listening back to your first podcast talking about systems and processes, and we are very quick to put those in our business and they make huge differences. But we tend to either forget or just overlook the financial system because often it's not super exciting and it's often uncomfortable to face our numbers sometimes. So it's either forgotten or purposely forgotten.
Speaker 2:And that's where.
Speaker 1:Profit First comes in to play.
Speaker 2:It's funny, isn't it? Because you think tradies, any trade, you're generally working, you have to be good at mass and things to be able to do your trade and get your licence and those types of things. And then you're working with numbers all day, every day, especially if you're a carpenter. But it's a very different way of looking at numbers and I think you just pointed it out. Then I feel because I know I did it for a long time that you don't dive deep into the numbers because you know that it's gonna be disaster, so you just keep doing what you're doing and not, I think so many people I guess make excuses Like if they don't know, then it'll just keep ticking away and they're just digging themselves a deeper and deeper hole.
Speaker 2:But I also think there's a lot of just from my own personal experience in the early days and even just some of the stories we hear now from the builders that get in contact a lot of accountants can explain the numbers very differently. And one thing that I'm a like I'm a big fan of looking at big pitch in there. But you can't just look at the numbers today. You need to know work in progress, what's coming in, what's going out. There is a lot to get your head around and there's plenty of stories out there where, like, builders are told that, or traders are told they've made really good money but they're like, well, where is it? Like there's none in the bank, like what's going on? Or they get told they've made a heap of money, they go and spend the money but then there's never any consideration into all the bills that are outstanding or still coming or whatever. So, like, how does your, how does a profit first separate that? Like, what do you do to get traders in shape, I guess, with their numbers?
Speaker 1:Firstly, trading is actually real. As you say, they're really good at numbers. You're actually really good at following a system. Once you have a system. I've never worked with a trader that hasn't been able to pick up profit first. And I have heard it all. I've heard that I left school in year nine. I've got all these other issues. I'm not great with numbers, but when you're given a system, you are actually really good at following the system.
Speaker 1:You just have never been taught a system, and that's what I always explain to clients. I'm like, if you think back to like day one of your apprenticeship, could you read plans properly? Could you like plan things out? Could you map out the next six months schedule? Could you do any of that? No, it's the same with your financial system. You've never been taught. So we have to go back to that like day one of your financial apprenticeship and start from the beginning. And that's super uncomfortable for most people, which is why they ignore it.
Speaker 1:And what I find is I always talk about your financial team. You have to have a really amazing financial team to help you in your business. Just like you've got great staff members and great subbies and so on, you've got to have a really solid financial team and unfortunately and this is not all of them, but for the most part accountants are amazing, but sometimes they lack a little bit of being able to explain the financials to a client in a way that really is just simple and basic and makes sense to them and what we do. When I did myself originally when I was in my business have that conversation with the accountant, You're like I'm not really sure what he's talking about, I won't ask the question because I feel like an idiot, and then next year you have the same thing, and then it just kind of snowballs and the same with many bookkeepers. They're great at their craft, they're great at what they do, but they're not so great at being able to communicate what's needed, what's missing, what areas need to focus.
Speaker 1:And I think, because of my financial planning background, I've always looked at where are you now, where do you want to be, what's missing, and I've always had that kind of mechanical mind. I've always wanted to pull things apart, see how it works and what's not working, and then let's put it back together so it actually works. And I think that plays well for me, because that's what I do with businesses. I may know if become the motor mechanic, but I'm certainly a mechanic when it comes to looking at businesses and whilst I have a bookkeeping business, I don't refer to myself as a bookkeeper.
Speaker 1:I kind of sit between the two and I can almost interpret what they need to tell you and then be able to explain it to you in a way where you go, oh okay, I get that, that's easy, they've just said that, and it's just because everybody's kind of speaking a different language and you just need to have that team around you. We need the amazing tax account, we need the amazing bookkeeper. You also need the person who's going to be able to help you put the financial systems in place so they all talk to each other and they all make sense in a really simple and efficient way. And that's what I find. When Profit First is set up properly, it should be a 15 minute review a week max.
Speaker 1:Yeah, even if you're a multi-million dollar business.
Speaker 2:It's funny. So one of the first things we do when we get builders into a live life bill, we've created what we call our overhead calculator so we get them to fill it out, put all their data and stuff in and then they can book a call and we talk about goals and things, and not until they attend that first call it ends up being completely chewed up just getting them to understand what it's actually costing them to run their business. And I know for me, like that years ago when I was doing some like spoke to Sean. I went on his podcast because we were doing lots of the same stuff and we started implementing his version of Profit First. It was very good because, like you have no choice, but when you do the Profit First way, like one of the first things it does, that shows you will. I need to know what's taking around my business, so I need to increase my income, because when I do the Profit First, there's nothing left. So it makes it very clear on where things are going wrong.
Speaker 1:And I always say it raises that red flag for you. And then you have to consciously go I'm going to ignore that Like it's there for all to see that you don't have enough money in that particular bank account for those bills or whatever it may be. You can't hide which is uncomfortable for the business owner to start with. But once you get through that initial phase like anything when we do something new it's uncomfortable for a while but the benefits far outweigh that uncomfortableness and just knowing that you've got money in the bank to pay the wages or to pay the BAS bill or to pay, you know, the end of month bills it's the one piece of feedback I get from everybody I work with is like, oh, like I didn't realise how stressed I was until you take that stress away and then they're like oh, actually business is not as stressful as we thought once you manage the financial side of it.
Speaker 2:So for people that are listening that don't, don't know, I've never heard of Profit First, like in a nutshell, like what, what is Profit First? So what's the principles of it?
Speaker 1:Yeah. So quite simply, if you think back to our grandparents or our great-grandparents, you know our grandfather would have gone out, he would have done his work for the week, he would have come home with some cash, given it to grandma and she would have put certain amounts in each different envelope for different purposes and once that envelope was empty, you had to get resorcell. And it's a similar sort of concept but for business, and we use bank accounts nowadays because we don't need to be getting cash out, so you will have a number of different bank accounts. So when we set up Profit First my version we start with seven bank accounts, which may seem extreme and it may seem like it's more complicated, and for the bookkeepers and accountants out there that may send warning bells off in their head. They're like that's going to be a disaster.
Speaker 1:It actually makes it easier when you have your different bank accounts labelled for a specific purpose, so all the income comes into the first one and then from there you make sure you put your money aside for your GST, you put money aside for your materials and stuff. You put a small portion away for profit to start with, because most businesses aren't profitable and we want to put a little bit aside. We make sure we put money aside to pay ourselves, because if we are not paying ourselves properly out of the business, we need to do something about that, because we just have a really big headache. We want to put money aside for tax and we want to put money and what's left is our operating expenses. And you do it in that specific order and there are other bank accounts depending on the business, but that's kind of the basic framework. And if you don't have enough money in your operating expenses to pay those regular bills at the end of the month, then that is not Profit First, not working.
Speaker 1:It's Profit First working because it's showing you that there could be something wrong with your pricing, your quoting, your timing. Are you sending invoices out when the job finishes or are you sending them three weeks later? There's a whole range of things. Are your operating expenses just too high? Are your staffing expenses just too high? And by having the different bank accounts, it tells you where you need to look, whatever bank account you don't have enough money in, and then it's like, okay, great, so for this one, then we'll look at this. So, coming back to the expense review, very first thing I do with all clients is do an expense review. It's something that they dislike the most, but the amount of clients that it's not one of my favorite things.
Speaker 1:I love it because it's really easy to find. So I always explain it. If you think about your operating expenses account as a bucket, it's got all these holes in it, but you don't know what's causing the holes, but you just keep working hard, thinking the bucket will fill up eventually. If I just work harder, I work harder and what happens is you burn out and you get sick and the money still leaks out. So we have to patch that bucket first. And how do we do that? By doing an expense review. And the amount of times I always use one client from many years ago. I had encouraged him to do this expense review for a number of months and he was like no, we're all good, Like the business was going okay, don't need to do it. And when he finally did it, he found a insurance policy $72, still coming out of his bank account for a car that he had sold five years prior.
Speaker 1:He called the insurance company. Thankfully, they refunded him two years worth. But that all adds up and I use that example every single time and the amount of clients that laugh and go oh, that's ridiculous, like that would never happen and then come back to me and go guess what I just found. It's happening every day I think yeah, because we don't pay attention to it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think you're just touching on there, like because I don't know. I know I've been in this scenario Like you. You have this process and it's setting up the seven bank accounts and, like you know the success that can happen when you do that. But there will be a lot of tradies and builders and whatever out there going away and going, oh, like I'm going to set up all these bank accounts and the first thing they're going to say is, oh no, you don't need to do that.
Speaker 2:That's just going to take me more time and more, more effort, but reality is what you're doing is separating everything into these buckets so that everything becomes so much more clearer.
Speaker 2:But the other thing I like about it is because, again, we know from all the data and everything we collect in our live, like build business most, like I actually think most I reckon the numbers would be over 90% like of companies in the building industry or trading and solvent, and the sad part of that is, like I know because we did it for a long time as well, people aren't getting paid.
Speaker 2:Like people are running these companies and they may as well shut up shop and go and work for someone else because they're not paying themselves. And like I like to explain about like you need to get into a mindset that you are an employee to your company and you need to be treated just like everybody else in the company and you need to get paid for the role you play. And if you, if your role is running a business that's turning over two, three, four, five million dollars and you have responsibility or that, like you need to be paid sufficient amount of money to do that role, because if you weren't doing it and you had to pay someone to do it, you'd be paying like a lot of money. So treat yourself as an employee and I guarantee you when you do that exercise and you get them all to set up their seven bank accounts, there'd be very little money going into that. That. I'm not sure what do you call that account the?
Speaker 1:the owners salaries or pay account is when most people just put what's left on next week, next month we'll you know, we'll, just, we'll fix it up and it doesn't happen.
Speaker 1:And going back to that question, that point about the multiple bank accounts and the account or the bookkeeper freaking out yeah, they will freak out if they don't know the system. But again, when we set this up correctly, it literally will add 10 seconds to your bookkeeping each week. So if anybody is listening and they're doing profit first and it's taking you more than 10 seconds to reconcile your transactions in zero every week, you're doing it wrong. There's an easier, simpler way.
Speaker 1:And the other thing I say when clients have a conversation with me and they like come back and they're like, oh, our accountant doesn't think it's a good idea for us, I'm like OK, cool, so what else did they suggest? And they're like, oh, they, they didn't. I'm like, ok, well, that's no solution. Like you're, I'm happy for accountants who don't understand the process to not be as excited about it as I do. But if they don't understand it and they don't give you another solution because this isn't the only way to manage your cash, it's just, I think, the better way to do it but if they don't give you another solution, I would be not super excited about listening to anything they have to say, if they can't even be bothered to say hey, actually I don't think that's a good fit, but why don't you try this?
Speaker 1:Cool, but if they don't even have another option for you, it's time to find a new accountant because, like you, say so many are trading in Solvent and what I see in my bookkeeping business this year is such an increase in business has been run really poorly but also getting really poor advice from their accountants and their bookkeepers. Now again, like any group of people, there's good ones and there's bad ones. But we we can't. We can no longer just think that our accountant bookkeeper is going to give us the best advice Again. They're very good at their, at the technical side of what they do, but not everybody is excited about helping you grow your business or helping it become more profitable. They're just doing the do. So we can't rely on that and I think I've seen a massive increase.
Speaker 2:That's probably one of the biggest things that I, or one of the earliest things that I learned, because I was bought like most of the people cousins, dad, like uncles, like most people in my family, were trades and even doing my apprenticeship and you, just you, continually seeing people doing things a certain way and hearing stories spoken about on job sites and lunchtimes and things, and so you start going down that path and, like I know, for multiple years, like I built a very successful carpentry business in my early 20s that was had huge amounts of money coming through it and I had no idea what I was doing and I was dealing with the the mate of a mate's bookkeeper and the mate of a mate's accountant. And, yeah, like, honestly, probably one of the first and biggest lessons I ever learned was I think I was 23 or 24. And it was only through. It was an expensive lesson because I think it was a work cover inspector or someone come inside and then that float into super, that I wasn't paying for people and but you need to pay good money to get the right advice and like these days I think it's a no brainer.
Speaker 2:It's easy for me to see you and say it now, but, like for anyone out there that's in a certain position, you need to look for people that are experts and that doing what they're doing, like if you were out there struggling. You're in the industry. You look at people like yourself, that you're a published author, you've written a book. Like you're creating success for other businesses. Like go and spend the money with people like yourself and get the right advice, get the right systems and processes. Like don't, oh, my mate said this. Like, oh, I'll go and see that accountant.
Speaker 2:I know he's doing me a really good deal, like it never works, like pay good money, and I think it's. It can be quite hard because, like we've touched on, you're in a position where you're working your ass off and you're not seeing the bank accounts grow and in your mind you're just telling yourself I can't afford the better account, or I can't afford the better bookkeeper, or whatever it may be, but I don't know, it's, I don't know.
Speaker 2:I struggle with this now because I just do it, just do it Like spend the money, but like spend the money, and you'll get the returns very, very quickly.
Speaker 1:And the thing I find is a lot of the I guess probably the biggest objection I get is oh, it's great, but I don't have the time right now. I'll come back to you. And those people always come back to me and you know, the very first thing they say to me is I should have done it sooner. I should have done it when I first spoke to you. I'm like I know that, but I can't make you do it earlier. And I think, as you say, it's.
Speaker 1:I always say to anyone I'm talking to when you're talking about your financial team. Ask yourself the question do you love your accountant, do you love your bookkeeper? And I ask that of anyone that I talk to, and it's always. I can tell what the response is going to be by the amount of time it takes them to respond to the question. The longer the time, the less they love their accountant. And we should love our financial team. We should be like yes, like again. If we have to invest good money, that's great, but we have to be making sure that they're a good fit for us and what they might be a good fit for your mate, they may not be a good fit for you. I say this to everybody. I'm like I do.
Speaker 1:Things are very particularly particularly in our bookkeeping business. I'm really stringent on we must have proof of purchase for everything. So if you're the type of person who wants to put stuff through your account, that shouldn't. You're not for us. There's plenty out there who will do that, but that's not for us because I have a game. Coming back to those audits, I want to make sure that when our clients are audited, it's a stress free process because we have proof of everything already in your zero file, same as doing profit first. There's plenty of people who are certified to do profit first and a number of them who work with tradies. We all do things slightly different and I'm not for everybody because, again, I'm very we're going to do it like let's get in and do this.
Speaker 1:Like when we're not messing about, because I know the outcomes that you can have. So I'm I don't let my clients, I'll do it next week or I'll do it next week. It's like no, no, no, like said we're going to do it this week. What do you need? What can I do to help you? Let's get it done and that's perfectly okay, not for everybody, I'm not for everybody.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and I think that I think that's a really good suggestion because that ultimately needs to be what you need to do for everything in your life. Like don't do things because your mates doing it or your family's doing it. Like just find someone and that's how we talk about our clients in our building business. Like we don't take on any job.
Speaker 2:We take on jobs where we fit with the client, because if we don't fit with the client, I'm not going to butt my heads and like have it paining my guts every time I need to talk to someone and like you've got to find people that you gel with and connect with and, like we said, doing good things in their field. Like you want someone that's passionate about what they do. That's going to get you the result, but I find it's. I think it's funny. You touched on the you want to know where everything comes from, because like that old school mentality of our industry where cash is king, like like I just think that's such an old school thing. Like you want for me anyway. Like you want to put everything through your business and tax isn't a dirty word. Like if you're actually using the right bookkeeper, the right accountant, you do all the things properly and you're meant like there's ways of minimizing your tax and things, but it affects other parts of your business.
Speaker 1:Minimization is the strategy. This is what I see all the time. It's like people are like I don't want to pay tax, I don't want to pay tax. And then they want to go and buy an investment property or something and the income doesn't support it. And then they complain about it.
Speaker 1:It's like you can't have it both ways. It comes back to we should be having businesses that need to pay tax, because that means we're actually profitable. If you are not paying tax year on year, on year, you have a job with a hell of a lot of stress, but again, you don't want to pay too much tax. You want to have a good tax account and who is going to know what your goals are, not just now, but into the future as well, so that he can structure it in a way that is legal and that is going to give you the best outcomes. And the only way you can do that is by having your financial team who knows what you want, can help you, help guide you if you're not really sure what you want, and to be able to ask the questions and answer those for you, because you're gone are the days where we can just write things off just for the sake of it.
Speaker 1:We don't want that and for me that comes back to one thing that bothers me about the industry and keeping in mind I've worked in this space for over 11 years is that the mentality is around we don't want to pay tax, run everything through the business. You can, I don't care. My accountant said you can, so you should be able to, even though it's clearly not allowed. We've just got to work harder and harder and harder and it's like no, we are getting sicker. More injuries.
Speaker 1:The amount of clients again in this year that I have spoken to who have been on the verge like there's been a number of times where I've had to say, hey, here's like the lifeline number you really need to contact them, and I've seen a massive increase this year. And yes, there are a number of factors, but so much of it comes down to the financial side of things Because, as you said, they're really good at what you do. You're really good at their craft. They just haven't ever been taught how to manage their money and if we can solve this problem, everything else becomes easier. They have a profitable business that has healthy and happy staff, which then have healthy and happy families, they can pay their bills and then it has that flow and effect and I think, for me, that's one of my most favorite thing.
Speaker 1:I know if I help one trader, in fact I'm helping so many people just by being able to help that one business.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and look, it doesn't have to be stressful, difficult, like it. And it might be a bit of a shock when you first get told that what your numbers look like or whatever. But you can't have success if you don't know where you are and do a review on things and like I love the numbers, like every single Tuesday we read, like I know exactly what's coming in, what's going out, where we're at, like we forecast everything, we've got data shoot, we can price their jobs accurately because we're tracking every single cost in the right allocations, all those things. And, as you've said, like once you get it set up, it's not hard, like things just go in their place, you enter the data in and like everything's good, just keep flowing on.
Speaker 1:It gives you back control Once you like. If you remember back to when you were a little kid and you had a bandaid that you didn't want to take off because you knew it would hurt and your mom or dad would come and like rip it off, I knew that same analogy. It's like just rip the bandaid off, have a look and see exactly where your business is financially, because once we know exactly where it is, then we can start fixing it. Like, until we actually get really really honest with everything and I've seen it all, like I've seen it all there's nothing that surprises me anymore but until we actually have a look at it and go, okay, right. So this is the priority we need to get this solved first, and then this one, and then this one, and just give the trade a bit of a guideline.
Speaker 1:We're not going to wave a magic wand. It's going to be fixed overnight and some businesses I've worked with they've had like hundreds of thousands of dollars of ATO debt and just by being able to map it out they've been able to pay off that debt, continue to trade, make enough money to still live, pay bills, pay off the debt and once that debt's paid off there's fair money for them. But you have to be willing to go. I need help. I know it's going to be uncomfortable, but let's dive in and when you have the right support around you it makes that process much, much easier.
Speaker 2:But ignoring it is not going to solve the problem. No, definitely, but everyone just sticks their head in the sand. What's your thoughts? Like I, have a laugh every time it comes in to financial year and all the ads on the radio and stuff are like oh, I saved, spend money now and save on tax, but you've actually got to have the money to be able to spend it.
Speaker 2:So, like so, many people just are in the minds of like oh, if I spend $4,000, I'm going to save $2,000. But you've got to spend four to save the two.
Speaker 1:So, so every year all my clients will get an email around me saying do not spend any money unless you absolutely need it. But I'm happy for my clients to spend money. I don't like the word budget frugal, tight. That's not how I roll. Like when I talk about doing an expense review, it's so that you can spend money on the things you want to spend money on. I don't believe that you should have to scrape and be stingy on every little thing. And that comes again with all the advertising that happens at the end of the financial year, like oh, get the, you know the Makita pack or the Milwaukee pack. And I'm like how many bits and pieces do you need? Like no, if you need it, go and buy it, but if you don't, don't. Because again it gives you that full sense of if I spend this for I'm going to get a little bit back. You didn't really have the four to spend. And then it just compounds and makes it worse.
Speaker 1:And we don't realize how bad that small expense then flows on.
Speaker 2:But yeah, all my clients were like Trades are definitely good at spending money. They've got the new dual cabs and you've got to know the tool, trials and things and this is what I'd say as well, though.
Speaker 1:Like, if you want to have a fancy car or a boat or whatever it is like cool, I'm the first one to be the cheerleader for that. But we have to make sure that the business can afford it and that you can afford it. I've got so many clients who want particular types of cars and I love a good car so I'm like right, what are we getting? What do we need? And then we put a plan in place. Okay, you can't afford it now, but you're going to be able to afford it in, you know, three months time, six months time, 12 months time, if you start doing this. And then we've got a goal in place, we've got a plan, and then we start doing it.
Speaker 1:Because I don't think we should do without, but we need to make sure that we plan for it so that something else isn't going without just because we want a fancy car.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I like to you touched on it before we started recording today that like when people come to you it's tailored to them, like even if you have two builders, same business and those types of things like you actually deep dive into the business, their wants, their goals and all those types of things, and you tailor your profit first process to suit every single individual.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because everybody is different and for me it's a about long term change. And if I just said this is profit first, this is the framework and everybody gets it the same, we're not going to have the lasting effect. We're going to have some change and it's going to last a little while, but just as humans, we're not going to stick to it. Also, that's very boring from my side of things and I don't like to be bought. So for me, one of my I guess my specialties is that customization. So if I'm talking to two builders of the same turnover, same team size, you know they want the same wages for themselves. It's still going to be set up slightly differently. Because I'm going to dig into what else do they want? When do they want it? Do they have a family of three? Do they have a no family? Do they want to buy?
Speaker 1:I've got a builder at the moment I've been working with for 18 months who he wanted for investment properties by the time he hit a certain age. So we worked with him with that, he's got that. Now we're on to the next one. So everybody's different and this is where people, we don't spend enough time on what you actually want out of the business to put that plan in place, because the customization is the key and the customization whilst it's more work initially, it makes it easier ongoing because it's suited to you and your business and what you want. It makes it so much easier to maintain it as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I look I hope everyone more people jump on with people like yourself and get their head around this. I was strolling back through your Instagram just to get some notes for today and there was a few things on there that really stood out for me that I'd like to jump into there's. You had a blog post on there that ties in with what we're talking about and it was called from burnout to breakthrough. Mastering. Mastering efficiencies with proper first-for-trade is that. Can we dive into that a little bit?
Speaker 1:Yeah, sure, as I said, I'm seeing more and more tradies who are burning out, getting sick, and that doesn't end well for anyone.
Speaker 1:It doesn't end well for the trade, the business, the team, the family and, as we say, it has that flow and effect. And the key, the common factor I see, is that the financial aspect, the financial system, is not there, or it's kind of like somebody else's responsibility and we've kind of outsourced everything and taken our eye off the prize and then it gets out of control. And I don't believe you as the trader. You should be the specialist in the financial team, but you should have a system that tells you the key information that you need really quickly and easily, so then you can make decisions Like, if you know you've lost money on that particular job, well then, when you quote another job, don't do it the same way as you did there. But if you're not tracking those numbers, there's no way you can compare it. And then you keep doing the same thing and then all of a sudden we're three years down the track and you're like in a very big hole.
Speaker 2:It blows. This sort of stuff blows my mind. Like I said, we love the data, but I can tell from some of the trades that do work for us and you see the fluctuation in their pricing from job to job. And I often have conversations and like, mate, do you even track anything? Like do you know how many hours you spent on that last job that you did for us? Like how can you know that you're going to be profitable on the next job you do for me if you don't know if you're profitable on the last?
Speaker 1:one.
Speaker 2:Like, and it's funny, like so many traders I actually have a couple of old school traders and I think a lot of the industry is like this and they price the job on how many days they think that it's going to take them to do the job. And so they do the old one, two, three, four cross one, two, three, four, cross, like oh, it's going to take me 15 days, like, and I'm $600 a day, so that's the cost of the job. And there's no, there's nothing in that Like you're always going to go backwards or have or hit walls and have problems. If that's the type of way that you're running a business, like, data is key, isn't it, to being successful?
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and if you're not a numbers person, that can feel overwhelming. I always say to my clients if you like, even if we think back 10, 15 years ago, we didn't have the, you know, the apps and the programs and the zeros and they're all those to be able to capture this information that we do now. Yet we're still working like we don't have access to those tools. It's like if you were going to. It's like digging the foundations out of a house, out of a house with a shovel, like we're not doing that anymore.
Speaker 1:Like let's not work on our financials like we were previously, because it just doesn't work. And when you get the system set up it is so easy to see how much money you need to actually cost out that particular job. And then, if you did it one way and then you can track and go, actually we didn't make any money out of that one. So guess what Next time you learn from that? That's feedback. Let's take that feedback, improve it so we don't continually make the same mistakes. Because I tell all my clients if you're not going to work on the data and you're not going to build your financial systems to get your data, just sit at home and go broke. Please don't go and work yourself into the ground and burn out and then go broke anyway.
Speaker 2:Like that doesn't help anyone. Just sit on the lounge.
Speaker 1:It's going to have the same outcome, except you're still going to have your health if you just stay on the lounge now. So either sit on the lounge or make the decision that you're going to put some time and energy into looking at your financial systems and you don't have to dive in and spend a heaps of money with somebody like myself straight away. All of us have so many free resources podcasts you reach out and have a chat. There's so many things you can do. For me, it's about education. My goal with every person I talk to is to leave them more educated about numbers than what they came to me with, and if that means they're a client, great. If that means they don't become a client, at least I know I've done my little bit to help them take the next step.
Speaker 1:But we can't just ignore the data anymore.
Speaker 2:It's very easy to burn out, but when you don't know your data, isn't it? Like I think people have this fear that improving is going to be lots of work. And it may be a little bit of work in the beginning, but like if you're, if you don't know your numbers and you're just sitting around, or you're living week by week and your partner's complaining because there's no money in the bank account, or you're getting anxiety because you can't go on a holiday, or you want to do something with your kids but you're not sure if you're going to afford it. Like there's all these things that tick away in your mind and that burns you out.
Speaker 1:But that mental load.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if you know your numbers and you can plan for things and to me it's an absolute no brainer. Like, if you know your numbers and you can go into every single project you do, knowing that you're going to make profit, like it just the weight's gone, like you're floating the weight's gone you can plan your life, you can plan your goals, you can plan that holiday because you know in six months time you're going to have this much money in the bank account. Like it just makes everything so easy.
Speaker 1:And that's the thing I always say. It's like you can make a decision. Now. The decisions aren't always oh, that's an amazing decision that's going to be great and beneficial for me. It could mean oh actually, if we do this, I'm going to lose this money or I'm going to have this, but you can make the decision based on facts and figures rather than just kind of hope and pray. Oh yeah, it'll be right, this will be a great job, I'll get it done in five days, and then it blows out to 10 and you can't charge anymore.
Speaker 2:Like just. You have a post on your, on your Instagram, that says, like, the next winning job won't solve all your problems, and I think, I think that's a mindset that so many tradies are in. But they, they, they think they're. Oh, yeah, we're just ticking along. Oh, we didn't make any money of that job. There's no money in the bank. Oh, I've just won this $50,000 painting job, like, I'm rich again, like. And then they just they get on the next hamster wheel and the process starts again.
Speaker 1:And one of the things I love this industry, as I said, I've worked with it forever and I could never imagine myself working in a different industry.
Speaker 1:But this is one of my biggest frustrations is that the mentality around if I just win this big job, if I just get this staff member, if I just get this thing, all my problems are going to be solved. And I get really nervous when somebody comes to me and they're like, oh, I'm in this hole, but it's fixed now because I've just won this you know $50,000 job and it's going to be all okay. And time has shown me that when you win those bigger jobs, if that's not something that you do consistently and you're not tracking your numbers, you are going to have a worse outcome than what you have had when you had a smaller job. It just amplifies the problem, it doesn't solve it, it just makes it worse. And I see it, I've just seen it so many times over the years. There's not something out there that's going to solve our problems. We have to solve them. And how do we do that? Through education, educating ourselves on our numbers.
Speaker 2:I love it, that's a solution.
Speaker 2:We've seen that exact thing happen through COVID, with the amount of tradies and builders that are going into bankruptcy. And it's funny, isn't it? Because you're in that mindset that winning that job is going to solve all your problems. And yet the job you've won is probably price wrong and you're actually not going to make any money out of it. So your hole is just getting deeper and deeper. It's easy to see how people get on this handster wheel, because they're just so stuck in the routine every single day that they can't get out of it.
Speaker 1:And what I find is that, as an industry as a whole, if you think about all your self-employed tradie mates, it's quite common to talk about oh I lost money on this job or this team members sucked, or they didn't turn up on material shortages. That's all really normal. And what I find because of that, when that happens to us, we just go oh, this is normal, this is just what's going to happen, and we just take it as that. That's the only option that we've got. Instead, I say to my clients I want you to be the guy at the barbecue. When all your mates are talking about this stuff, you can go oh, actually, I've got money in the bank pay to my bills, everything's up to date. You're actually good. I'm like I want you to be that guy. And I said and know that you will probably get hassled for being that person because you know, as Aussies we like, to make sure that we don't have anybody doing better than the rest.
Speaker 1:But I don't want you to have to say it in a way that you're smug about it, but just that you've taken the time to do the work and invest in yourself and not just do what we've always done. That is not going to get us anywhere except injury, illness and burnout. I love that You're 100% right.
Speaker 2:Like everyone just thinks that that's the way the industry operates and it is what it is. And like if you listen to podcasts, you would have me say it all the time. Like the amount of people that said to me in my early days are trying to try and improve it. Mate, it's hard enough. That's just the way the industry is. And last year I got a.
Speaker 2:I don't know how I got tied up in it, but I ended up in this messaging group of builders that on Friday afternoon they would just send a message out to say, hey, whatever the group was called, I hope everyone's had a cracking week. Blah, blah, blah. And these builders thought they were doing a good thing and they were. They were checking on each other. But then the messages would be like oh, I've had a shit week. This week their clients ripped me off or the clients not paying. Like this told me they're not going to pay me. Like there's all these just stories and I just got shit. Like the shit was seeing it come through all the time and I ended up having to delete myself from the group.
Speaker 2:But it's the same in some conversations I have now Like you and I liked that you pointed it out and like it's okay to put your hand up and say, well, yeah, I'm doing really well, like because I get better. I was quite often say to me again, cool, or whatever. And they'll have a wing of their client hasn't paid their final invoice and they've got had to go to a lawyer and now it's going to cost them a certain amount of money. And they'll say, well, you know, that's just how it is. And I'll say, well, no, it's not. Our clients are fantastic. Like, yeah, we pay our bills on time. Like some clients pay me, like within half an hour of a send in a bill, like it's fantastic. And look, I don't do that because I don't want to rub it in their face, but it's possible.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And so how I think about and how I explain it to my clients because, again, culturally for us Aussies it's really difficult to say and even myself with my own businesses, it's even difficult for us to say, actually we're doing, we're doing okay.
Speaker 1:And so how I kind of get my clients to reframe it is, rather than being like trying to think of it like you're doing really well and you're rubbing their face in it, you can put like give those mates of yours an opportunity to see what you're doing and be like, hey, like this is what I did. Now you don't have to sit down there and lecture them for an hour about everything you've done, but you'll be like, well, hey, like I read Prophet First, or I like have listened to this podcast, or like you can just drop little things in and just help them open their minds up to something that they don't know exists. They just think that this is what the industry is like and this is how it is and we should have, you know, complaining clients and those who don't pay us and all that type of thing, but it can be different. So if we can just take the opportunity to just help educate them as well, without bombarding them and making them feel like shit. Really, we can slowly change the industry, is my hope.
Speaker 2:Well, that's what we're doing now. We're leveling it up. Yeah, we're raising the bar, like the like. It must be very rewarding for you to see clients come in and not be in the best position and then like seeing them improve and like obviously, because it's not just like everything I'm doing, it's not just about making them a better look for you, I'm sure it's the same Like you're not just making them a better business, like you would be changing your, changing people's lives.
Speaker 1:And so I my parents had a business for my pretty much my entire childhood. I actually swore, black and blue, I'd never worked for myself. I mean, I had a great childhood but I never had mom and dad together in 12 years. We went on one holiday for one week together because of the business. So I swore I would never, ever work for myself.
Speaker 2:So then we'll talk about that. That's the sort of tournament like you were stuck, like you thought that was the norm.
Speaker 1:That's what I thought, was it? And I was like I'm not having that. And then that's when I went into corporate, become a financial planner, and I was going to change self-employed people's lives that way because I was going to help them invest the money from their businesses. And then I realized they were working their butts off and they hadn't had money. And then that's how I come to the bookkeeping part of it and then finally to the profit.
Speaker 1:First, and it's just for me, it's really important to be able to show people that there is a different way and we don't have to just keep doing what we've done and the changes I see. Like making more money is great, that's wonderful. Everybody loves that. But for me it's about them being able to have time off and go away with their kids. Them being able to have a Friday. Like I've got a builder client who was in a world of trouble when we started working together. By the time we'd finished he'd start at like 11 o'clock on a Friday because he takes his kids to swimming lessons and he just has a half day, like he was working like 50, 60 hour weeks when we started up.
Speaker 1:They're the things that I love, that you can't put a price on those being able to take time out of work because you need to go and help an older relative who's fallen sick or you know all of those things that aren't really dollar related. But just to be able to have that time to know your business is still going to run and you're able to do those other things, that they're the best that's the best part of it for me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm the same. I just everything I'm doing is nothing to do with the dollars, it's just being able to help. Like hear people say that you've saved their business or you've saved their life or you've saved their family. Like, for me, that's a big one. Like everything I do for me is about getting more time with my wife and my girls, and like being able to help other people do that. That's enough for me. Like, if that's all I ever get shown, that's all I need. The other thing I saw on your Instagram page was you have a seven step guide to help trades businesses cut their expenses by 10%. I'm pretty keen to hear what your suggestions are for this.
Speaker 1:As I mentioned, this is my favorite step to do, least favorite for my clients. It's actually really I've never worked with a client who I haven't been able to do an expense review on and find at least 10% savings. Never, ever, ever. Whether they've been one man banned or they've had 20 staff, I've never done this process with them and not found at least 20, at least 10%. Most often it's higher than that and it really is nothing groundbreaking.
Speaker 1:We look at the last 12 months worth of transactions. We go through it not super exciting line by line. I do it in a CS, in a spreadsheet now, so I can sort it all via description. So we're looking at everything in chunks because I like it to be simpler and more efficient. And then we just go through and it's like, right, do we actually need that expense? Can we get rid of it or can we get a better deal for it? And just categorizing in those three ways and red is obviously we don't need and we're not going to spend money on that for the next 12 months. It's really really simple, like the insurance example I gave before.
Speaker 1:So many things just slip under the radar, particularly now as well, with subscriptions you know you would have signed up for something. You did the trial, and then you don't use it anymore and you forget about it. And then all of a sudden, 50, 100, 150 is coming out once a month, or sometimes, like Adobe is good for the once, a year once, and then you forget about it. Then it comes out. Then you're like I'll do something about that. Then you don't. It's just about spending time, literally half an hour, half an hour, and we can do it. So not, as I said, people don't like bash on my door to be excited to do that with me until we do it the first time. And then they're like, oh, okay, great, because that money that we save can then be spent on something that's more important to them.
Speaker 2:It might be paying bills.
Speaker 1:It might be paying down debt. It might be actually paying them a wage, whatever it is, but that's the very first thing that I start with with all clients.
Speaker 2:Well, like when you do it as much as you do, it's a no brainer. But like something as simple as that, like that money that you save could pay the fees for them to get you to do that, do the thing, and that is an extremely good point, because that is exactly what I say to my clients.
Speaker 1:I'm like I guarantee you when you work with me that in that one step alone we're going to find at least the investment you're making in me in that first step. So you can tick that out of your brain like checklist in your head and then everything else we do is a bonus and then you can focus, because for me, as I said, education is important for my clients but also for me. I have my own business coach. I have a profit first mentor. I'm always investing in my own skills to make sure that I can do better for my clients and I know that I know something's a great investment and it's going to up level my skills. But we all have that. Have we? Have we invested the right amount of money at the right time for the right thing? Like, oh my gosh. So that's what I tell my clients. We do that. One step, you tick that checklist in your brain.
Speaker 2:How important do you think it is to do, get coaching and mentoring, Like I think it should be? I think it's something that should be done at every level. It doesn't matter where you're at. You should have a coach or a mentor.
Speaker 1:I think I've had a coach. So I've had my bookkeeping business for 11, 11 years. Very soon after I started that business, I invested in a business program that was far, far, far out of my financial reach. But I went on a payment plan and I did it. And if I had not have done that, I would still be doing things very, very, very differently. And I've always had a coach at least one coach and sometimes I have more than one coach. It just depends on what I'm doing as to what specialty I need help in.
Speaker 1:But I'm a big believer in. I'm really resourceful. I can do a lot of things quite well. But I also realized in business, if I want to help more people, I need to just focus on the things that are really fun for me and that is my specialty. And now I just have people come in and help me with whatever the thing is I need. Now again, can I afford it all the time? Do I have like loads of money in my bank accounts? No, my businesses are just like yours. They have their ups and their downs, but for me it's about. I know that if I do this thing, then I'm going to get that outcome and that's going to help my clients. Therefore, it's a no brainer for me. It also helps push me in my business. When I get a bit comfortable, like we all do, I know if that expense is coming out, I've got to do those things that I may not want to do, because the outcome is I'm going to get that education, I'm going to get that skill, whatever it may be.
Speaker 2:Anyone that's having any kind of success in their life or business is generally getting some sort of help behind the scenes. And then there's all these people out there that have all this Like everybody has so many opportunities to and like these days, especially like there is the audience of people out there Like it's like we touched on earlier, like find someone you gel with, that you connect with, that has similar interests or whatever it may be, and go for it, spend some money on coaching and mentoring, and yet they hesitate, they can't do that, I can't do that, and yet everybody that's doing it is doing well.
Speaker 1:Like it's an over and again. You listen. You listen to like Ben down the pub go. I invested money in this coach and it was crap and it just cost me a whole heap of money. Why? Why did that? Was it a bad fit? Was it like, was it just a terrible coach? Did they just make a really rash decision and it wasn't the best one for them? Don't just take that as oh see, that's why I don't do it, so I'm not going to do it. After those conversations I know every business coach will have a chat with you to see if you're a good fit. Book those calls in and and work out what who's going to be the best fit for you.
Speaker 2:But trying to do it all ourselves. Yeah, you've got to look at the person to like you. Like Bob sitting down the pub wind in about his couch is probably not the best person to be recommending a coach.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and also like for me in my businesses. Yes, numbers have always been my thing and I've loved it, but because it's my own business, sometimes I'm I can't see what another person can see into my business and I can think things are going well and they'll come in and go what are you doing here? It's like, oh, actually, yeah, okay, I didn't see it from that angle. So I have a money mentor and this is what I do all day, every day.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it's, I think it's incredibly important. I think everybody, anybody that, anybody that's doing well, has one. Like it's a no brainer, like you put in the time, put in the effort, spend the money to get the rewards. But can you just tell us quickly, like who, for people that are listening out there, like, how do they work with you? Like, do you do stuff online, do they have to be in the same state or city as you? Like, how do they work with you?
Speaker 1:No, so everything is zoom based. I was using what was it before zoom Skype.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Skype I was using.
Speaker 1:Skype before zoom. I've always been online because, again, I don't think it's efficient to be driving places to to see people, so I've always done it online. How I work with most people is in my online program and, again, it doesn't matter if you're a small one man band or you're turning over you know a few mil or whatever it may be. Everybody starts in the profit first for tradies kickstart program and that's like the foundations. That sets it all up for your business and gets everything set up that you need to be able to successfully run that and then, depending on some people, like, cool, that's all we need, and then others are like great, now we've realized profit first has shown us that there's all these financial areas we need to dig deeper into and then they move into my online monthly coaching that way. But again, there's. If you just want information, listen to my podcast, you can read or listen to my book. There's so much information out there.
Speaker 2:What's your podcast called.
Speaker 1:Profit first for tradies. So I keep things simple Profit first for tradies is the podcast name. Profit first for tradies is the book. My business is profit first for tradies and my kickstart program is profit first for tradies kickstart.
Speaker 2:So we like to just keep things very simple in my world.
Speaker 1:I don't like complicated and I think that's one of the things that I realized that I do for clients. I take their complicated financial system lack of system and help them craft a system that is really simple and efficient for them so that they can not only use it now but down the track and it doesn't cause more stress. It actually takes the stress away.
Speaker 2:So I always joke.
Speaker 1:If there's three steps, we have three steps. So I'm not giving you five steps if we can have three, like. Let's just make it as as concise as possible.
Speaker 2:Well, I think everyone should go and type in profit first for tradies and see what comes up and get on board. But before we get out of here, I'm keen to ask you you've got? It looks like an H or something there behind you.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:What's what's the deal?
Speaker 1:So H is my all time favorite car. I have owned three of them over the years. It was my very first car. It's only been the last couple of years that I haven't had one and there was a definite gravy in process when I got when the last one went and I look forward to the day to be able to buy another one, I always joke that if I win the lottery, I will just go and buy a bunch of H's.
Speaker 1:That would be the very first thing I'll do. Then I'll worry about where to put them.
Speaker 2:So yeah, Now I think it's.
Speaker 1:I think it's a healthy habit Mocking around with old Aussie muscle cars and I think that's good to say it's and that, like, as I said, like my dad was a mechanic, I always had my head in a boat or a car or a bike or something, so it's shed to my favorite place to be.
Speaker 2:Actually Shay had some notes here. When I left out at the beginning he said you're into speedboats.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I live on the Hawks River on the Hawks River, grew up on the Hawks River at Lower Portland and live not far from there now, and so it's renowned for its circuit boat racing, which all family and friends have always been involved in. And, yeah, I've been the secretary of our local powerboat club for 15 years now.
Speaker 2:So awesome? Is that where they do the? Is that where they do the Southern 80?
Speaker 1:So the Southern 80 is down the New South Wales Victoria border and they do ski racing so we did that. They do ski racing on the Hawks River as well, but circuit racing is just boat in person, no skiers. But you know they can do up to 150 mile an hour it's quite good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's moving, especially on the water.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's nuts, it's absolutely nuts, but so that's your.
Speaker 2:That's your, your break out and that's that's your thing, like chilling out with the kids about club.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that is fun to me being able to help organize events for the boat racing, and then I always stroke that. One of my favorite smells is like methanol or any avocados really, because I grew up in Sheds where that was all all there, like that was just normal to me. So, yeah, that's, that's my idea of relaxing.
Speaker 2:But it's really awesome. I've always joked you might have one of my recent podcasts. Actually, Nathan from Newfound Building was talking about two stroke and stuff. I've always joked that either burning rubber or methanol should be a deodorant.
Speaker 1:I would agree to both of those as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, look, it's been absolutely fantastic having you. Thanks for taking the time out to join us and look for anyone that's listening. I can't recommend highly enough you reaching out to Profit First for tradies. It's a, it's a no brainer, like we use a Profit First thing in my business. We have for probably four or five years now and it's definitely made a big difference. So before we head off, kate, is there anything you want to add to it or like your Instagram, facebook socials?
Speaker 1:Like again. Everything is super simple Profit First for tradies. Facebook page, Facebook group, Instagram If you look up that on any, whatever your preferred platform is YouTube, it's all under that. So don't be afraid to reach out. Send me an email, book it a chat, tell me. You heard me here and, as I said, I rather have a chat to you and then be able to point you in the right direction if I'm not the best fit, rather than you sit there and think, oh, I'm going to do that one day and then you don't.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no guys, what you heard it here. It's all online, so it doesn't matter where you are in Australia, new Zealand or wherever you are like. Jump on board and check it out and I hope you get every trade and builder in Australia doing the Profit First for tradies and I hope you have a lot of success with it. Thank you so much. Thanks for having me Awesome, thank you. Are you ready to build smarter, live better?
Speaker 1:and enjoy life. Then head on to livelikebuildcom forward slash elevate to get started.
Speaker 2:Everything discussed during the level up podcast with me, duane Pierce, is based solely on my own personal experiences and those experiences of my guests. The information, opinions and recommendations presented in this podcast are for general information only, and any reliance on the information provided in this podcast is done at your own risk. We recommend that you attain your own professional advice in respect to the topics discussed during this podcast.