Donald Miller

I'm sure there's times when you've walked into a business and they have a really nice facility and they're handing you all sorts of swag and 20 minutes into visiting their business, you have no idea what they do because they can't State it clearly. And you're asking yourself, how in the world are these people making money? And you realize they're not making money.

Too much.

Well, the problem is your business isn't worth anything. You know, if somebody comes to buy your business, one of the first questions they ask is what happens when you leave?

What somebody wants to see if you want to value your business at 4, 5, 6, 7, 8x EBITDA is they want to know that you can go to Turks and Caicos and lay on a beach for two months and never answer your phone and the business gets stronger. That's what they want to know. So the problem in my life at that time was this business depended completely and totally on me.

They're actually just living off private equity or venture capital money. And all they're doing is living off somebody else's dollars. And this plane is going down. It looks successful, but it isn't successful. I have zero interest in helping anybody listening to the sound of my voice look successful. I have no interest in that.

I have enormous interest in you opening up your bank account and seeing a ton of money. That's what I'm interested in. And so these are the basics of how to actually run a successful business without lying to ourselves. This is how it has to be done.

I was the guy who was actually necessary for this business to go and grow. Today, we have close to 800 certified facilitators, coaches, and guides who go out and teach these frameworks. Now, if I left, we would need a new host for our podcast. And that's about it. We would need a new host for the podcast.

And quite honestly, I think we could find a better one pretty easily, but I'm not willing to give up the job at this point. So we're way further along than we were about four or five years ago.

Too much.

Well, the problem is your business isn't worth anything. You know, if somebody comes to buy your business, one of the first questions they ask is what happens when you leave?

What somebody wants to see if you want to value your business at 4, 5, 6, 7, 8x EBITDA is they want to know that you can go to Turks and Caicos and lay on a beach for two months and never answer your phone and the business gets stronger. That's what they want to know. So the problem in my life at that time was this business depended completely and totally on me.

Let's look at the airplane and talk about the airplane analogy as a decision-making filter. We know that we've got a good sales team. There's a couple people who are selling a lot of stuff for us. It's really great. But we've got this product, and we're getting many calls, many calls. Customers can't figure out how to log in or something like that, and the sales team is answering those calls.

I was the guy who was actually necessary for this business to go and grow. Today, we have close to 800 certified facilitators, coaches, and guides who go out and teach these frameworks. Now, if I left, we would need a new host for our podcast. And that's about it. We would need a new host for the podcast.

That's a common problem in a small business. So we decide, okay, we need a customer service representative. The customer service representative, for a really good one, you're going to pay between $60,000 and $80,000. You're going to be right in there. You want somebody who can grow and run a management, manage a customer service team.

So you're going to go ahead and spend a little more money on that. That money, you've got to say, okay, is that money going to the right engine, the left engine? Is that money going to the wings? Or is that money going to the body of the airplane? A normal customer service, they're going to save you some sales.

And quite honestly, I think we could find a better one pretty easily, but I'm not willing to give up the job at this point. So we're way further along than we were about four or five years ago.

They're certainly going to save you some negative chatter, but it's pretty hard to put that money on the wings or the right engine, the left engine. So what we're going to do is we're going to say, well, we're going to pay you a base salary of $50,000, but we're going to give you some incentives.

Let's look at the airplane and talk about the airplane analogy as a decision-making filter. We know that we've got a good sales team. There's a couple people who are selling a lot of stuff for us. It's really great. But we've got this product, and we're getting many calls, many calls. Customers can't figure out how to log in or something like that, and the sales team is answering those calls.

For every retainer purchase, that is a subscription service that sticks around, who we know calls you and talks to you or emails you or chats you, we're going to give you 10% of that. And we think you can save X number of sales a year, which is going to get you to between $65,000 and $85,000. What did we just do?

That's a common problem in a small business. So we decide, okay, we need a customer service representative. The customer service representative, for a really good one, you're going to pay between $60,000 and $80,000. You're going to be right in there. You want somebody who can grow and run a management, manage a customer service team.

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