Show notes
We'd love to help you to get from here to there in terms of eliminating waste in your business. When you're focused on getting those things done and when you've got processes and procedures in place to allow you to accomplish it more quickly, then everything gets a whole lot better.
David: Hi, and welcome back. In today's episode, co-host Kevin Rosenquist, and I will be discussing eliminating waste in your business. Welcome, Kevin.
Kevin: Great to see you. David. Excited to be here.
David: I'm excited to have you here.
Kevin: Yeah, so we're talking waste, obviously waste in business. There's different kinds of waste.
A lot of people will immediately think of money, but that's not really what we're talking about, is it?
David: Well, some of what we're talking about, I guess. Yeah. There's been a lot of talk about finding and eliminating waste in the news. So I thought, how does that really apply when you're operating a business?
Kevin: Mm-hmm.
David: Anyone in business, particularly small to medium sized businesses, must be aware of the fact that there is always likely to waste in the business.
And as you pointed out, I mean, very often it starts with money. We're afraid that we might be wasting money, and in many cases we are.
Kevin: Sure.
David: But for most businesses who are reasonably run well, that's usually not the biggest thing.
Kevin: What would you say is the biggest thing, or can you give me like your top three?
David: Okay, sure. Yeah. I think for most of us it probably starts with time.
Kevin: Yeah.
David: Because the time that we waste is something that we can never get back.
I think I heard Brian Tracy say this years ago. If you lose money, you can always make more, but if you run out of time, that's it. All the money in the world won't help you. That's pretty much how it went.
Kevin: Yeah. I mean, there's no going back. So far they haven't figured out a way.
David: No. We have not figured out a way to do that.
So when we look at our days, weeks or even hours, we look at things like meetings. Are our meetings productive?
Are our processes organized or disorganized? What are the distractions like during the course of a day? Because when we're focusing on one thing and then we're distracted and we have to switch back and forth, it requires flipping the switches in our brains and getting ourselves adjusted to the new thing that we're thinking about.
All of those things consume time, which is, in many cases, even worse than money when we start wasting it.
Kevin: You brought up a good one, meetings. And I think that's something, especially in this day and age of Zoom calls and all that stuff. I have a lot of friends who are in the corporate world or in the business world, and they talk about the needless meetings, the constant need for them, for people to feel like you got to get the crew together.
Why are small businesses and medium sized businesses so focused on that and how can they like pull back?
David: Yeah, it's a great question. I think there are some people who just feel like it's necessary. I think there are some business owners, some managers who feel like their presence in everyone's day-to-day life is critical
Kevin: Right.
David: And that's true more of some people than others. Some employees are happy to be able to just do their own thing and get everything done. Others do need more interaction.
So it is an individual kind of thing. I think most business owners have to take a look at that and say, how much of me do they need? How much of their sales managers do they need?
But being aware of the fact that each time we force everyone to get together, the clock is running. The clock's running on everyone. And when you have a bunch of people on one meeting, that means that all those people are tied up for that period of time.
And if it's not productive for everyone on that meeting or in that meeting, then it may make sense to do things a little differently.
Kevin: Yeah, we've all been in that situation where someone calls a meeting and you're just like, "oh, come on. I have so much to do, I don't wanna do this!"
David: Right. Yeah.
Kevin: Yeah.
David: It's funny because I think in a lot of cases, employers are thinking that way and employees are thinking that way, but the one is not thinking that the other is thinking that way necessarily. Right?
Kevin: Of course.
David: So there's that disconnect sometimes. But I do believe that time is probably one of the biggest things that we need to look at, particularly in small to medium sized businesses.
Beyond the time then, you mentioned the idea of money, obviously that's the first thing that most people think of when it comes to not wanting to waste things inside your business.
When I think of wasting money in a business, some of the things that leap to mind first are things like marketing that doesn't work, marketing that doesn't convert.
Kevin: Mm-hmm.
David: And things like that. That can be a time waster as well as a money waster depending on what you're doing.
Kevin: Yeah, well, a lot of marketing, you know, we're both marketing people like the, a lot of marketing efforts are very time consuming. They're very all consuming, you know, as far as if that's your job. It's like that kind of becomes your focus for whatever period of time to get that rolling.
And if it's not successful, there's waste right there.
David: Yeah, exactly. And when we think what we're doing is supposed to produce a result and it doesn't, then we really have to start reevaluating what's going on.
I think a lot of that boils down to the tracking that we're either doing or not doing to see how well our activities are actually paying for themselves in that regard.
Kevin: What about data? Like I feel like we're so obsessed with data right now, and for good reason. I mean, like it's so available to us now. Do you feel like people might spend too much time worrying about the customer data or how to use it effectively? Trying to collect every piece of data they can?
David: Yeah, it's a great question, and I think in some cases people do. I think the opposite is also true, maybe in more cases than not. Where sales representatives are maybe not capturing the data they need to be able to advance the process. I think a lot of times in a sales situation, the focus is on closing in a lot of cases, which is important.
I'm not taking anything away from that, but when you're having a conversation with someone and you say, "alright, what do I need to advance the sales process in the next conversation," right?
Kevin: Mm-hmm.
David: Is it a piece of information that I need? Is it something specific that I'm waiting for to be able to sort of seed the ground and say, okay, so when we get together on Thursday, let's make sure we have this, this, and this.
We can make sure those things are lined up so we have access to the things that we need to move forward. In fact, that's probably a good topic for a future podcast. We should look at that.
Kevin: Yeah, I would say so.
David: All right. but those types of things are really critical in terms of what are we going to capture?
In a lot of cases, one of the biggest things we want to capture is what is the next step for the next meeting?
When is it going to happen, and what needs to happen in that meeting? So that each contact that we have with a prospect or a client has purpose and we know what that purpose is and we know what to look for in those conversations.
Kevin: Another example of waste, of wasted conversation, wasted time with clients, wasted meetings. Those meetings don't just have to be internal, they can be external as well.
David: Right.
Kevin: Where you're not getting to the point where you need to get to.
David: Yeah. And that tends to happen a lot. When we look at these different things, you look at time waste, you look at money waste, there's another one that I think is big, which people may not consider, and that is energy.
I mean, we each have a limited supply of energy in the day, right?
Kevin: Yeah.
David: Some people are morning people, some people are nighttime people.
So our natural energy peaks at different times a day. And just looking at that sometimes and saying, okay, well, how can I make sure that when I've got the most energy, I'm being the most productive?
Because if I'm wasting my sort of personal prime time, then the likelihood of success goes down quite a bit.
Kevin: And speaking of energy mine's at a dipping David, so don't expect much from me for the rest of this episode. Okay?
David: Okay.
Kevin: You kind of led the talk about what's going on in the news and stuff like that. And of course, that comes down to talent, to people. Like that's what is happening. A lot of people are getting let go of their positions, whether it's the government or the tech sector. You're seeing it a lot.
Obviously there can definitely be waste with people. How can business owners and companies identify where that waste is in their talent without resorting to mass layoffs or without putting too many people out.
David: Yeah, in the kinds of business that we interact with, with small and medium sized businesses, it's a different thing. I mean, 'cause obviously you're not going to have mass layoffs in a small company.
Kevin: True.
David: But most people, particularly, you know, when the economy's a little uncertain, people aren't really sure, do I need to start cutting costs from a personnel standpoint?
It's a big decision, and in those circumstances it usually makes the most sense to say, okay, where are the holes in the bucket, essentially?
In most small to medium sized businesses, it's very likely that there are people who are probably the go-to's when it comes to not pulling their weight.