Ep 163 - Who Should Be Your First Hire?

Hello, happy Monday and welcome back to another episode, episode 163 of Electric Pernur's Secrets, the Electricians Podcast, or rather, as we kind of redubbed it last week, the Premium Electricians Podcast. Back with you Joseph Lucanian, clay Neumeyer just a couple of master electricians with business addictions here to help you five days a week, master sales, simplify pricing and deliver premium-level electrical service. Joe, how was your weekend, brother?

It was absolutely amazing. One of those days where I got to see some family who I haven't seen from now and south, I was able to have a really nice reined-in weekend with the girls. Honestly, man time with the family and time with friends you can't ask her better than that. What about you, brother?

Absolutely. Yeah, I did a little road trip. Went to a good friend of mine fellow electricians wedding Zika to marry his best friend. That was fun, did a little shop talk, got out of there and visited some other friends, all in the Okanagan, which is a beautiful area which has recently actually been plagued by forest fires. Really, yeah, the whole town got swept. We had it pretty bad this summer but it's raining currently. Looks like it's raining in the forecast for a while. But I'm all right with that. I can embrace a little bit of fall weather. You getting the rain too, joe.

Yeah, no, the leaves are starting to turn. One of the beautiful things about being in New York is that we have some awesome foliage, as I'm sure you guys do up in Canada, so it's just really really nice being able to. I want the rain to stop, but I enjoy not having to sweat it out in 110-degree weather, so take the other bag.

A little dichotomy there right. Who doesn't like a little suntan right on the top?

Yeah, you could tell, I'm definitely prepared for it, right.

Yeah, yeah. Anyways, guys, if you're with us, let us know how your weekend went and, even well, how'd your week finish up last week, How's your week starting off on this magnificent Monday? As Joe always says, it's a great day to have a great day, and this is going to be a great start for you to help motivate you guys, to help think and perceive your business a little bit differently as we talk through. Really, who should be your first hire? Because I know there's some controversy on this one and we're going to take kind of the unbeaten path a little bit and help you guys and explain a bit of why you might consider that as your solution. Let's start here, though, Joe In your experience, what are people's first kind of and most obvious hire that electricians tend to go with?

Yeah. So we all have this particular problem, whether you're first starting out or whether you've had business experience in the past. Usually it goes like this You're one electrician or two electricians and you say to yourselves well, how do we grow this, how do we make this so we're not having to do all the work ourselves? And almost all of us come to the conclusion of oh well, I know, I'll hire an apprentice and then I'll train the apprentice to be a journey person, and then I'll get a service van and then I'll have them in the service van and then I'll have that journey person train their apprentice and then I'll work myself out of the van. And you realize that it's all focused on just doing electric work and not actually running a company. We've come to the conclusion that we've made a lot of errors in judgment as far as what business we're really in.

It sounds like a lot of like stuck in the field, stuck working in the business instead of, as we've all heard said before, working on the business. But what the hell does that even mean working on the business? What's so bad about being stuck in the field? Yeah, well, and what's really the problem here?

Well, let's see. So there's a couple of different particular points that we want to draw into this. The first is that we're not in just the electrical business, we're in the customer service business, and if we only focus on turning tools, that's just another way to race to the bottom. You may focus on doing the best work possible, but if you can't communicate that, or you're only communicating that while you're putting in work and answering on a headset, you're never going to come across as premium, as you want yourself to be portrayed as. So just focusing on getting more vans and more texts, though it might seem like the correct direction, actually takes you away from the overall mission you're trying to serve. Does that make sense?

Totally man, and in my experience it kind of keeps us stuck with this micro management problem. That tends to happen Because, honestly, we usually rush into this, we bring someone into help, and we've heard this with the apprentice example over and over and over again. I hired an apprentice. Now I really can't leave the site. Now I'm stuck, Absolutely stuck right, and you're having to micromanage that person because of their lack of training. I put training before skill here and experience right, and if you don't have that process to even train to well, you're kind of you're floating here, you're stuck.

Yeah, because it actually creates a really risky situation too as well, Because if you front load everything meaning that it's you and an apprentice or you and a journey worker, and you're in one van and you've built your business off the deliverables, that can happen from two people. Now all it takes is that person to get sick or have a new reason to have a day off or even leave to join someone else. Now you're really stuck because you're now answering the phones or running the business, doing the work, doing the sales, and you have no one to help, support and delegate to. It seems like a situation that a lot of us don't want to be in but often find ourselves in, and that's why there's often so much push to say how do I find workers? How do I find workers? Because we've put ourselves in this box. But there's another way to look at it.

Yep, and just to touch on that micromanagement piece again, I mean, show me a leader or a company or you know an ex-staff that say well, I just didn't like being micromanaged. Yeah, I worked with Joe, but I just didn't like being micromanaged. And I'll show you a business that's just void of systems and void of training, because without that, how else do you confirm the quality, the expectations are being met by micromanaging? And just to give clarity to what that means what is micromanaging, joe, and how would you describe that?

So there's what people think micromanaging is, and then there's what it actually is Right. So what micromanaging is conveyed to be is someone just stand like some office pencil pusher, standing behind you, looking over you, telling you to click this and click that, and click this and click that, while you're working on the computer. What micromanaging really is, though, is being able to look at a process and look at something that someone is doing at almost a such a small scale to say. I know every individual cog that, when they answer the phone, if they do this, it turns this, and if they do that, it does this, so saying if this result isn't happening, let's look at the gears and figure out what isn't being done.

Hmm, I like that Bit of a spin on it. So I think what you're saying then, in conveying is like how people use it routinely, is more thinking of that person that just won't get off your back. Yes, and they're just constantly there, and that's kind of the problem. Micromanaging, but in fact you're saying that that term actually implies that there's something that's understood between two people. To even micromanage, to even be at that level of detail, that's actually a really interesting split and I myself hadn't related the two that way. So I appreciate that you took us there. It's my pleasure. But that of course points out the big problem, mm, hmm, right, and with the diverse nature of electricians and the work that we do. Of course, some, with their fat price books, tend to think there's thousands of things that we do In residential service. I'm of the belief that there's really basically about a dozen, depending on specialty. Everything's relative, with different environmental differences. Would you agree with that?

Yeah, I would say for the most part. I mean, obviously there's more tasks that you can do, but if you can break them down to 12 core factors, it becomes easier to manage them, because then you're like, okay, I have a process and a play for each of these individual tasks, and if we notice a dip in one of them, I know where to spin the wheels 100%, and that, to me, is what makes quality management a reality and possible, because we can apply a general process across bundles of work like that.

But of course, we're still talking about the main problem here, which is how to properly manage these field staff, and should they be the first hire Joe, maybe now is the time to just unveil the big controversy here.

Yeah. So, personally, I do agree that your customer service manager should be the first person that you bring into your team, because of, one, the massive amount of delegation that you'll be able to do, but two, that it solves something that allows you to stay in one lane of your business and not have to put your feet in both sides of the bucket.

Yeah, I like that, and most people were in conversations with hundreds, if not thousands, of electricians at this point at various times. Most of them say this exact phrase Well, I got into business but I was never trained in it. I'm an electrician so I don't know what I don't know. I'm trying to pick that up from you guys. You ever heard that before, joe?

Oh, my God, yeah.

So here's the point If you're not trained in this stuff, if you yourself didn't come up through systems and processes, that's actually pretty likely. By focusing, though, on your set of queen bee skills, of the queen bee role, meaning like, what can you do best? What are the half dozen things that your time is most valuable when put forth on those items? Those items would not include answering your own phone, right. Actually, the management of office activities, even marketing management, anything that's keeping you attached to the office invoicing, drafting up you know paperwork and emails that stuff is is really not your queen bee role. Would you agree with that?

I do, and a lot of times we found that we had a front office manager whose name was Lauren, who I still love to this day, because she was a wonderful person, and the amount of delegation that can be done to a properly trained person Is astronomical. The amount of load that will take off your shoulders because things like Okay, well, I can make this person a notary, I can make this person contact utilities on my behalf. This person could be drafting permits and going to and from, because this office only does triplicate forms. So there's a lot you can do with just one person, if they're the right person and you're willing to put time to train them, because then they become the voice of your company and the smile.

Hundred percent, and I can't wait to dive deeper on that right person later on in this week. And we're getting some great comments, guys. Thank you, james Dorian, for joining us. James, we're happy to help. Brother, let's let's have a chat in the DM's after. The biggest thing here, though, is just for today, recognizing that this is move number one. If you're the best sales person in your business, shouldn't you be out there talking with customers, potential customers, selling your product and service?

Yeah, and you're the best installer in your business.

Just to finish my rant, sorry, joe, shouldn't you yourself be out there helping drive the install sale? Tell that process is refined and the training is refined to actually have people replace you at those tasks.

I agree wholeheartedly.

Awesome. Now here's the added upside, unless you want to jump in still, or I can keep going.

Violins keep going.

All right, here's the added upside. When you put someone in your office position and you free up all the time that was spent on that shit that you don't need to be doing, now you've actually got enough time to work on designing systems and processes and training your field staff to do what you do best. Does that sound important, please?

I want to jump in on this because I want to share something personal. I think would really help in this argument Is that I remember there was a period of time when we were doing the installs ourselves, we were doing the phone answering ourselves, we were doing everything. And when we hired our front and manager, it was such a huge relief and I actually found that I was a better sales person because I didn't have to invest so much mental equity into one bucket. If you imagine where your attention goes, it's numerous boxes of different categories. But if you were able to take all the coins out of one bucket and redistributed them in the ones that actually make the most movement, wouldn't that be a huge integral part of growing your company? It's just saying I'm going to take my focus from where it doesn't matter right now and put it where I can create the biggest amount of wins. And now, with that extra momentum, you can carry yourself to another level of your company just by reallocating the time, which reminds us to our you know our coin analogy as well, right?

Yeah, 24 coins, brother. That's all you've got. That's all you've got. Of course, that's an analogy for the time of the day, but as soon as you start looking at this like coins, ladies and gentlemen, you'll absolutely treat your time with more value. It's hard to it's hard not to do. If you're thinking of that, if you went through the physical exercise of putting coins in a jar, you'd be a little more careful with those coins. Definitely, Absolutely. Dorian says completely maximizing your time coins Absolutely, definitely, brother. Here's adding to this weight. Right, if you can systemize and train that, then what happens is you get to take one of your 11 hats off and put it on someone else. It's no longer your job to perfect a process, it's your job to make that process to. They'll take it to 80%, to be present with it and build it up to a point where they get it. And now this is your full-time job. Joe, I'm going to reach over and put the hat on your head. There you go, how you get to guess what? Focus on that full-time. What are the chances that the person with the right attitude and the right skill set and now the right systems, is going to take that run, that play full-time like I never could as the owner of that business, and you'll actually improve it and make it better than I ever could. Is that what happens?

It's actually a pretty significant chance. The reason why I say that is this is that if you were to take everything you're looking at, like you mentioned 11 hats, and that's what most business owners have right, we stack like a 10-gallon hat of assignments we have If you were able to just take a one hat off I talked about taking coins and relocating them into the bucket If you were only able to do one task, like my role is just to answer phones and to refine this process. That's what I do. That's what I eat, sleep and breathe it would almost be foolish to think that that person is not going to have a better handle on it than you will. Within like a month, Within two months, shouldn't they be able to see the gaps and improve it, because that's all they're doing every single day?

Definitely, definitely, definitely, definitely. I mean bold, italicized, underlined double exclamation mark, add emphasis right Voice inflection, pause. Think about that for a second, guys. You need people to take your business to the next level. As we say, your greatest success will be realized through the leverage of people. Anyone who's listening to this right now I know we've got a few millionaire listeners. They already know and could communicate to you that at some point this just becomes an HR business. Guys, your actual job as a leader is to maximize the potential in people and systems, or big piece of that. And why not start with the systems on the office yet? That you shouldn't be doing in the first place, so you can stop working the jobs and answering the phone like a prick. Forgive me, I love you and I don't mean to call you out, but if you're not happy and smiling when you're answering the phone, should you be doing it? Absolutely not, absolutely not. If you get that feeling when your phone rings oh god, another customer. Should you be doing it?

No, if anything, that's what you're paying them to do. If you really think about it, isn't it such a weird dynamic where you're like man, I want leads to happen. Let me put all this money into LSA, and then the phone rings. You're like god damn it, why are you calling me?

It's like because you paid me to do so.

Look, I literally did this. Lead me alone. You can always be leading with that enthusiasm saying I love when the phone rings. It is the happiest five minutes of my day, Every single time it happens.

Joe, I love this topic. We're going to have a lot of fun with this this week, but, speaking of T coins, we're going to maximize hours. We don't have all day today. We got to wrap this up with a couple action items. Okay, folks here, a little better off. What do you say?

I'm so down. Let's make this happen.

All right Action or all star?

I would say action, because I can think of something that anyone can do right now.

All right, let's hit it.

Okay, the most bare minimum action is for us to understand what is actually the problem. The problem is that you're wearing too many hats and you don't have someone to answer your office phone. Right, that's the main reason why we're trying to be here. The most bare, bare minimum action is for you to have the understanding that you are already overwhelmed. So a lot of people say, well, I can't hire someone, I don't have the time, I don't have the money. Okay, let's follow that logic. Take every single task that you have similar to how we've designed it and literally list every position in your company that you're doing and put your name under it. If you were to do that, you would start to realize wow, I am already doing all these things. And with that being said, are you willing to add all those up to 100%? If you add it to 100%, that's 100% of your time, energy and commitment. And if you're only giving a 30% commitment to the phone, do you think your customers deserve that 30% commitment? Do they deserve more than 30%? Definitely deserve more. So wouldn't it make more sense to have someone with 100% next to giving the best service over the phone? Definitely. So our bare minimum is simply just saying okay, analyze to what percentage of you are you giving to this task? If it's not 100%, it's less than what your customer deserves.

Definitely. And as you say that, joe, I've got to kind of reiterate something that will lead to this all-star action. But ultimately, guys, recognizing that those later hours you're spending the extra time, you know what I'm talking about. Right, the day couldn't quite end at 5 pm, could it? The day couldn't quite start at 7 am, could it? We had to either get up at 4.30 or 5 to make ends meet, or we had to, after putting the kids to bed, come back and work 8 to 10, 11 midnight, god forbid. Right? This happens to us all, gentlemen, it happens to us all. But are we filling that time with just reactive? Are we just doing other people's emergency stuff that we couldn't find time for? Because my challenge for you is to, actually, if I'm going to work late, if I've got to put an extra time right now, it's to build out this system, to build out this process so that I can delegate it. There's no other reason for it other than to catch up, and I'm tired of catching up, joe, aren't you? Yeah, I'm with you there, man Time to get ahead. So let's actually simplify systems for you and just make this easy. It starts with a simple bullet point list. Think of an exact activity that you no longer need to do like engaging with an Angie's lead. If that's part of your lead's dynamic, then write down the steps of what you do to qualify, get to that house, improve your value so that someone else in an office position can do that for you, or any other thing that's keeping you up at night. Just make the list, start that. It doesn't have to be anything more than a notepad and bullet points so at least when you go to hire someone you can say look, here it is. This is what I need help with. I made the exact bullet point list of how I did it. I need you to please help me with this. You do it now, do it once with them, do it twice with them, whatever, but that list will be fundamental to it. Guys, we are out of time. I hope that qualifies as an all-star action. Joe, what do you think?

I think that was pretty damn solid.

All right. Well, that concludes this Monday on Electricpreneur's Secret, episode 163. Who should be your first hire? We're well on our journey, gentlemen, to help you master sales, simplify pricing and deliver premium-level electrical service. I cannot wait to see you guys again tomorrow for Tuesday, episode 164. Cheers to your success. Can't wait, that was).