443 | The Finance Episode Entrepreneurs Can't Afford to Miss

Mar 6

[00:00:00] Colin Sandburg: I'll tell you how quick I've seen businesses in fairly short order. We're talking 90 days or less, get them on a radically different path than they've been on before. That's very possible. If you don't have premium pricing, if you don't know how to justify premium pricing, you are doing it wrong. That's a blanket statement I can make across industries, across businesses.
Doesn't matter what you do. It doesn't matter if you're a solopreneur or have a hundred person team. I don't care if you're a W2 employee, you should have a premium price attitude.
[00:00:28] Chaz: what's up everybody? I'm Chaz Wolf gathering the King's podcast. Coming back to you again today with another king on the stage. Another bearded king, my brother Colin Sandburg. How we doing
[00:00:39] Colin Sandburg: doing?
well man I got a little work to uh get to your level of beard but uh I'm
[00:00:43] Chaz: Hey, that's all right. Uh, you know, it just takes about an hour and a half a day. You know, there's a, no, I'm just kidding. I don't have, I don't have any sort.
[00:00:51] Colin Sandburg: beard team
[00:00:52] Chaz: Yeah. You know, there's a lot of people that that kind of think that, but you know, just keep it brushed and put some oil in it, you know? That's all about it.
About all I do.
[00:00:59] Colin Sandburg: Right
[00:01:00] Chaz: Colin, tell us what kind of business that you got. My man.
[00:01:01] Colin Sandburg: Yeah.
So I've got a few different businesses Uh my first couple businesses were in the manufacturing space Not not super exciting but uh good old industrial
[00:01:10] Chaz: Yeah.
then uh actually did another one that was a a industrial kind of distribution business And I still own those but the latest one I'm really excited about is called Fin Elevate and we are profitability consultants So you know you and I were kind of talking about this A lot of businesses have that that challenge especially as they start to grow they go the seven figures and and keep going
Yeah
[00:01:31] Colin Sandburg: Sometimes the problem is they're growing too fast and all of a sudden they're they start getting caught up in the idea of let me let me grow my way to profitability instead of you know sustain profitability as I grow So that that's one big uh challenge we help people with And and some are just you know hey they're making a little bit of money but it's not anywhere close to the benchmarks And the idea that You know they know within their industry is possible
[00:01:52] Chaz: Right.
[00:01:53] Colin Sandburg: you know we're we're kind of a I I hate to tell people fractional CFO because I think it has a little bit of the wrong connotation This idea of like let me give you this big strategy and then good luck
[00:02:03] Chaz: Yeah.
[00:02:03] Colin Sandburg: Man that's that's the opposite of how we work You know we know profitability is is kind of a day-to-day grind discipline
[00:02:09] Chaz: Yeah.
[00:02:09] Colin Sandburg: so we have a playbook and that's what it says right It's basically Hey you're here we wanna get you there We know what it's gonna take And just kind of grind it out and and get disciplined and let the business owner focus on you know making money through sales and good ops We help hold down that finance seat
[00:02:26] Chaz: I love that. Love that there's a lot of of wiggle room here that we're gonna be able to play with because you know, even in the companies that, that I've got this conversation, especially when you're in that scenario where you've just groan quickly. In fact, I was just telling you about one of our. Are gathering the kings members who, uh, you know, in essence went one to 10 million, like super fast, and was kind of looking around going, holy moly, what do I, what do I do?
And, and for the entrepreneur listening right now that it's like, well, you know what, what do you mean what do you do? Like, you, you're, you're rolling in money. It's like, well, I mean, possibly, but, but there's a, there's a lot of, um. You know, leakage when it comes to fast growth and, and profitability is attached to how well you are at those things, right?
[00:03:09] Colin Sandburg: that Yeah.
believe It or not to your point I think that's that's one of the common misconceptions People assume like if I if I grow rapidly i'll I'll make way more you know exponentially more money And the truth is leakage I mean you said that word that's the perfect word for it
[00:03:21] Chaz: Yeah
[00:03:22] Colin Sandburg: it's like you've got a boat with a thousand hole little holes in it and it
[00:03:26] Chaz: It won't take long.
[00:03:27] Colin Sandburg: of Maybe if you're a million dollar company the
[00:03:29] Chaz: I.
[00:03:30] Colin Sandburg: can plug every leak and own that Now it takes a team
[00:03:34] Chaz: Yeah.
[00:03:34] Colin Sandburg: you know the entire organization having discipline and that's a that's not something you snap your fingers and do overnight
[00:03:40] Chaz: Yeah, yeah, It makes me think of a, um, conversation I was having with, um, actually somebody that I had on the show here. Uh, pretty, pretty large business owner, but he was like, you know, Chaz, um. We were going through some numbers and some depth, and he's been part of the, the GTK group as well. But he's like, look, I, we had a miscellaneous category and we were buying things for projects, you know, water removals, you know, uh, shot backs and ladders and just stuff, you know, but he's like, but we had no process on where that stuff went after that project.
And so we were buying like $600,000 worth of stuff every year. Just on repeat.
[00:04:22] Colin Sandburg: Yep Oh my gosh
[00:04:23] Chaz: And, and you know, so for some people who aren't even doing 600,000 in revenue are like, oh my gosh, what a waste. But it's like, you know, again, it's, it's not out of malice. It's not out of, you know, like this business owner doesn't wanna win.
There's a lot of holes in the boat always, typically. And the bigger that you get, the bigger the boat gets, the bigger the holes get. Right?
[00:04:42] Colin Sandburg: And the further they are from you as the owner right
[00:04:44] Chaz: That's right. Yeah. good.
[00:04:47] Colin Sandburg: oh man
[00:04:49] Chaz: He is. I can, I can see. You're like, just let me get my hands on that guy, you know?
[00:04:52] Colin Sandburg: Well and hey I've been there So that's part of it is like you know don't don't don't misconstrue This is like I've got this perfect you know track record myself I mean I've I've lived through all these
[00:05:01] Chaz: Yeah.
[00:05:02] Colin Sandburg: um experiences myself so yeah
[00:05:04] Chaz: Yeah, I'm, I'm interested to kind of use this as an opportunity to bridge because, you know, you, you in essence come from what is, uh, Cody Sanchez. Oh, boring businesses. You know, you, you come, you come from a, an industry of boring business and, and now you've kind of got this new way of thinking about profitability and, you know, helping other entrepreneurs do the same.
That that's a totally different business. You're obviously excited about it, but, but why is my question what? Why the transition? Why, why put all your effort into something like this as opposed to the ones that are already on autopilot that you could probably just sail away into the sunset for?
[00:05:36] Colin Sandburg: that's a great question So you know when I came up through the business my first business uh small manufacturing company I ended up taking it over as CEO ran it for 15 years almost but I always came from a finance seat I So in other words you know I I wasn't passionate about sales I wasn't passionate about the operations product side I really just kind of looked at this from a you know just the way I gravitated in business when I first started early twenties
[00:06:02] Chaz: Yeah
[00:06:03] Colin Sandburg: to the finance seat And so I kind of ran the company that way Um and and really Change the company through the way I I looked at it from a financial standpoint so it always made sense to me I thought that was just kinda what being a business owner was didn't realize That was a little bit of a different twist than most people
[00:06:19] Chaz: Mm-Hmm.
[00:06:20] Colin Sandburg: it And so as I got into my second business and and helped you know my partner there he CEO helped him with kind of that finance piece and looked up one day realized I was doing this role for my different companies and Knowing a bunch of different entrepreneurs like you do I I realized you know man this is a pretty rare take on it you know most people in their business are like well I don't know Do I talk to my banker Do I talk to a CPA And it's like man those guys are not I help you make more money
[00:06:49] Chaz: No.
[00:06:49] Colin Sandburg: not what they wake up every day thinking about That is not what they're wired for And so it just kind of got me excited about this idea I know through Covid you know I was given advice to a lot of different business owners that I'm in contact with about how to look at you know what what was happening in the world And
[00:07:03] Chaz: Yeah.
[00:07:04] Colin Sandburg: so this was just an exciting uh you know opportunity for me to kind of extend that beyond just my own network into and how can I turn this into something that'd be value added for uh a lot of people
[00:07:14] Chaz: Yeah. Yeah. The opportunity there kind of presented itself, but as a business owner, like I can, I can see the different levels of course, like, you know, yes, it's nice to have the bookkeeping and have the good CPA and be able to have tax strategy and, and then. Uh, just the, the gap there of being able to kind of make better decisions really is what it comes down to.
Um, I also like how you're bridging, and I want you to kinda ex expound on this a little bit, but how, how are you bridging the gap between that finance, that, that, you know, gosh, we maybe we're not profitable or we are profitable, but we know we can be more profitable. But how is that linked specifically then to sales and and operations?
You kind of made that comment, but how does that work?
[00:07:54] Colin Sandburg: Yeah so you know one of the very first things that we do I would say two really clear things One first thing we do is dive right into people's data So I'll give you the example You know we work with di Digital Marketing companies as an example but it's true in any type of business is there It's frequent that we come into a business and they're sales and marketing kind of front end speaks one language Their operations speaks a second language and their financial speaks a third language Right And and what I mean by that is like let's take a project based you know digital marketing company you know however many projects they're doing Is the way the operations that's the way the team experiences it That's the story everybody knows But sales may be forecasting in terms of number of leads
[00:08:37] Chaz: Sure.
[00:08:37] Colin Sandburg: dollar amounts that they think they're gonna land And that's great but you can't communicate that easily back to an ops team
[00:08:43] Chaz: Right.
[00:08:44] Colin Sandburg: Hey we're looking to land this big deal it's much harder for people to really understand what that means to take that a step further let's say that it's the the projects that everybody's working on and we even get Push that into the sales But if the business owner and the executive team can't look at the financials and see how many projects that represents it's just now purely in dollars and cents You know that's not something you can go back and motivate a frontline operations person with
[00:09:09] Chaz: Yeah.
[00:09:10] Colin Sandburg: much money we we we generated over here
[00:09:13] Chaz: right.
[00:09:14] Colin Sandburg: as people become more you know knowledgeable a great to push them toward But to start with you know what we love is like we've got one they make videos so we've now brought it down to okay you know how many leads do you have in terms of number of videos It's not just how many different individuals that they represent or how many companies or how many dollars like how many Videos now how many videos you get done today this week this month
[00:09:39] Chaz: Yeah.
[00:09:40] Colin Sandburg: we're speaking that language Now when we do that with the financials as well and it's revenue and number of videos
[00:09:45] Chaz: Yeah.
[00:09:46] Colin Sandburg: you know how many videos we got done on the ops side It starts to change the way the the people within the team and now everyone's pulling in the same direction
[00:09:54] Chaz: Yeah.
[00:09:54] Colin Sandburg: so that's a that's a huge one is getting that you know I call it like a a common size So meaning we've got one common unit of measure that we're able to to bring across All areas then the second piece I'll add is you know getting the team up And how we do that is exactly through that same process So we start out with getting it to typically the the operational common size that everyone's already familiar with They know how many videos we're making
[00:10:22] Chaz: Sure.
[00:10:22] Colin Sandburg: by doing it with videos now we get the sales team speaking that language We get the finance side speaking that language
[00:10:28] Chaz: Right.
[00:10:29] Colin Sandburg: we can share with the team like Hey guys last month we did you know 47.6 videos That's how much our revenue was
[00:10:36] Chaz: Yeah.
[00:10:37] Colin Sandburg: And so people started to go like oh man okay I get it I get it And so then as you layer on you know okay what does revenue mean Why does a company have to be profitable What's happening on the balance sheet You start layering on more of the complexity and the
[00:10:49] Chaz: Yeah.
[00:10:50] Colin Sandburg: can take it in They can actually adapt to it And so like I said when you got a big boat can't have the a business owner trying to plug every single hole
[00:10:58] Chaz: Yeah.
[00:10:58] Colin Sandburg: get a a group that can do that And one of the best ways to do it is level up your team on the finance
[00:11:03] Chaz: Yeah. Well, in the common language, do you find that every one of your customers or maybe even all the businesses that are listening here today, is there a common denominator, um, product name, language, like video that you've used for that client? Is it, does that apply to every business?
[00:11:19] Colin Sandburg: would say every business can find one and and that really should be one of the very first missions Think
[00:11:23] Chaz: Yeah.
[00:11:23] Colin Sandburg: business right If you if you were to talk to your team tomorrow let's just assume you're not doing big time open book You don't have every number available to your team Let's just assume that For the sake of this uh example that's not the case Okay But if you walk into your facility whatever type of business you're in whether it's retail whether you running some sort of an online business whether it's a services business product and you say man we're really busy today We have blank
[00:11:50] Chaz: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:11:51] Colin Sandburg: is that blank
[00:11:52] Chaz: Yeah.
[00:11:52] Colin Sandburg: That's my starting point uh for figuring out what the best common size So like I was talking with a dentist last week and for the dentist office it's Hey we've got how many cleanings which is like a very recurring kind of a good baseline And then they've got like Hey how many big procedures are we doing
[00:12:09] Chaz: Right.
[00:12:09] Colin Sandburg: And so they've got two really clear common common size And
[00:12:12] Chaz: Yep.
[00:12:13] Colin Sandburg: when we're talking about what a busy week would be or we're looking at their financials we should be speaking in those two
[00:12:18] Chaz: Yeah.
[00:12:18] Colin Sandburg: I would say two or three maximum and again start in the middle with what everyone in the business knows and experiences what the story of busy or slow would mean
[00:12:27] Chaz: Yeah, that's good.
[00:12:28] Colin Sandburg: build your way out from there
[00:12:30] Chaz: Yeah, that's good. I think that, that, that storyline, um, even the way that you said the sentence of, you know, Hey, we're having a busy day today because we have a lot of. Blank. Right. Um, I think everybody would be able to answer that question and kind of lowers this. Or maybe it brings simplicity to what could be a complex situation where it's like, okay, well we've got lots of products or services.
I can, I can remodel all kinds of things in our construction business baseline would be, you know, whatever it is that, that you would fill in, uh, with that calm denominator. I, I love that
[00:12:59] Colin Sandburg: and I'll say that.
a lot of people because they you know people owners get lost in the sauce of kind of the financials It's like a lot of lines There's big numbers little numbers They start bouncing around right It's like
[00:13:09] Chaz: Yeah,
[00:13:09] Colin Sandburg: when I'm being too chaotic and I try and read I'm like I'm trying to get to the last sentence the first sentence in the middle all at the same time It's like none of it makes any sense right
[00:13:16] Chaz: Yeah.
[00:13:17] Colin Sandburg: So start really really simple Right.
If you're a restaurant it may be like how many butts in seats
[00:13:23] Chaz: Right
[00:13:23] Colin Sandburg: And what happens is people start going well there's a kid at a you know we got a kid's menu and then we got this menu and are they drinking or are they not It's like
[00:13:30] Chaz: No. No. Yep.
[00:13:31] Colin Sandburg: overcomplicate it How many butts in seats this week this month today
[00:13:36] Chaz: Yep.
[00:13:36] Colin Sandburg: there You can always add on wrinkles of complexity but you have to start like
[00:13:42] Chaz: Yeah.
[00:13:42] Colin Sandburg: simple
[00:13:43] Chaz: Yeah.
[00:13:44] Colin Sandburg: everyone on the team instantly understands simple But what we do is we wanna like share our knowledge and the nuance of the business
[00:13:53] Chaz: Right,
[00:13:53] Colin Sandburg: much more complex 15 layer system and then nobody ever understands it and so it doesn't go anywhere
[00:14:00] Chaz: Yeah, I mean, you're, you're bringing a lot of manufacturing, talk to accounting, right? Like you're, you're saying, hey, um, efficiency, simplicity, you know, all of these things matter really in every part of the business or in every industry. Not just manufacturing, but that's like huge in manufacturing.
That's how we make money, is to do it easier and faster. Um, and so. I, I like the, the theran or the, almost like you're pulling from your experience to be able to help. But I find that a lot of entrepreneurs listening here today, but also, you know, high level entrepreneurs that have been doing business for 10, 15, 20 years.
When you say finances, a lot of 'em go, ugh. I don't know. Like, I, they kind of stay away from it. A because there's a lot of complexity or that there appears to be, and as we've walked through several of our clients through just. Winning in all areas, as we call it, and gathering the kings. One of those is in your business, and, and I don't, I don't get as detailed as you do, but the reality is, is that it's not that difficult.
You've just had this big thing in your mind about what the finances are. It's probably made you a little nervous because you're not a numbers guy. Most entrepreneurs are a little all over the place, or a lot of it, and, and numbers in that don't really go well together, at least naturally. And so what would you tell that person listening who's like, I don't know man, like.
I'll just kind of stay away from that. It'll kind of work itself out. I it, I just look at the bank account. It seems to be there's some money in there and I'll work with it.
[00:15:24] Colin Sandburg: Hey that that's incredibly common right And I think that's how probably 95% of all business owners start I
[00:15:29] Chaz: Yeah.
[00:15:30] Colin Sandburg: I've got money in the bank I'm okay I've got less money than I I need to have I'm I'm not safe
[00:15:35] Chaz: Right.
[00:15:36] Colin Sandburg: I gonna do and interestingly you know almost every business owner started out and they had to figure out sales or they wouldn't have survived at
[00:15:44] Chaz: That's right
[00:15:45] Colin Sandburg: figure out delivery and ops or they wouldn't have gotten any more business beyond that first wave right.
[00:15:49] Chaz: Yeah.
[00:15:50] Colin Sandburg: so they kind of are like they they feel like with the finance piece exactly to your point it's kind of the skeleton in the closet for a lot of business owners Maybe up to half a million maybe up to a million You're able to get away with that
[00:16:01] Chaz: mm-Hmm.
[00:16:02] Colin Sandburg: to just run it off of the kind of bank balance and say Hey we're okay or we're not out how to make a little bit of money Now I I just kinda keep rolling it over Right But beyond that the complexity starts to kick in And again it's you can't lead someone who's you know not informed about the finance side you're not informed about the finance side Now they're making financial decisions on your behalf
[00:16:26] Chaz: Yeah.
[00:16:26] Colin Sandburg: That doesn't work It just doesn't work right And so you can either be you know the the financial expert which vast majority of people are not going to be can just recognize like Hey man one of the best things about being entrepreneur is being able to say like Hey I man I don't know Jack about that Like I'm gonna go figure something out
[00:16:44] Chaz: That's right.
[00:16:44] Colin Sandburg: I ever be great Probably not Will I get good enough where it's not the thing that kills me Yes I have to
[00:16:50] Chaz: Yeah.
[00:16:50] Colin Sandburg: and that's just kind of what I recommend to business owners Like Hey don't run in high man The skeleton's not leaving the closet
[00:16:55] Chaz: Mm mm-Hmm.
[00:16:56] Colin Sandburg: You know don't you don't have to become Warren Buffett You don't have to fall in love with it just like it's part of being a pro
[00:17:02] Chaz: Yeah.
[00:17:02] Colin Sandburg: part of being a pro Right
[00:17:53] Chaz: Yeah. Yeah, I agree with that. One of our core values, I guess probably as a business, but also just personally, I can see you in you as well. 'cause that's what you're talking about is basically the excellence, right? Be a professional, you know, don't just wing your business. Um, if you're gonna be a business owner and you wanna win, I.
At whatever level, like, why wouldn't you wanna do it? Well, or with excellence. And so some of the, maybe a mindset that I had to shift a while back, especially as a, as a personality, who kind of likes to, to be the orchestrator, right? I like, I, I I, I like being in, in the middle of all of it, you know? And, and some people might say that's control.
And I kind of like it. What I've understood though is that I can't always do it all, especially as my businesses have grown. And so the, the word or the phrase copilot. Has always served me well and it's, it's actually why I love your model, because I can be in the finance, I should as the entrepreneur, be in the finance.
I need to understand the finance and the reporting and understanding what the story is that's being told. I don't have to necessarily be the guy who is the expert in the finance. I can have a guy, I can have a CPA one, and I can have a guy like you that's helping me understand the story. I still need to understand the story and be able to make decisions in the business based on the story, but I don't have to be the guy, the only guy in the pit making like the, the make sense of the numbers.
Does that make sense?
[00:19:16] Colin Sandburg: Oh I love that No That's and to me no one has ever really reached the high levels of success we're all striving for Without
[00:19:24] Chaz: That's right.
[00:19:24] Colin Sandburg: finding you know that guy or that woman that you can trust that can take on that area
[00:19:29] Chaz: That's right
[00:19:29] Colin Sandburg: and have that level of expertise But to your point it is not a matter of abdication right.
It is not a matter of like oh man you know Susie's got that I'd never even look at it I'm not aware of it I have no knowledge of it
[00:19:41] Chaz: Yeah.
[00:19:41] Colin Sandburg: not what success looks like That's what getting burned really really ugly Looks
[00:19:46] Chaz: Yeah.
[00:19:46] Colin Sandburg: And so Yeah,
no I love that And and the best part is I mean once you embrace that that's part of uh you know the growth that you need to go on you'll you'll have a tremendous amount of pride as you level up one thing I've always found right There's areas of business that are not my passion I dive in I become competent not ever an expert but I become competent
[00:20:07] Chaz: that's right.
[00:20:07] Colin Sandburg: source of pride and confidence like Hey man yeah I I've got my chops I'm not a manufacturing guy per se but man we could we could talk manufacturing for hours
[00:20:16] Chaz: Right.
[00:20:17] Colin Sandburg: it was an integral part of my business to have that competence And so I'm gonna develop it
[00:20:23] Chaz: Yeah,
[00:20:23] Colin Sandburg: it's like lights me up or not that's just like you said it's being a professional
[00:20:27] Chaz: yeah, yeah. There's a lot of businesses, you know, kind of switching industries here, but I see a myself as well as others that I've seen that have been burned. As you've said, uh, by marketing experts and, you know, it's kind of like the new thing. If you haven't been burned by at least two or three of 'em, you're not, you're not a real business owner, you know?
Um, but, but that's what I've seen, uh, with all my own experience years ago. And then also now, um, you know, entrepreneurs now it's like I hired this guy or gal or team to take care of my marketing and, and I just let them do it. And then I got no results. And three months later or a year later, I spent all this money and I have no different situation.
And it's because I didn't actually know it well enough to be able to hold him accountable. And so that copilot piece is that I have to be competent enough to be able to say, not only do I understand, I don't have to be the expert, but I need to have a, an intelligent conversation with Colin about my finances to A, to know Colin's doing the right stuff, but also B, just to be able to understand what he is telling me so I can make good decisions in the business.
What would you say to that
[00:21:26] Colin Sandburg: Yeah no that that's the exact right way to look at it I mean that's that's where like I said I start with that?
story because everybody knows a story right Every business owner can tell you what's working what's not What what the good times feel like and look like and what's happening and what the bad times feel like and look like and what's happening
[00:21:42] Chaz: Right.
[00:21:43] Colin Sandburg: we have to do is tie that back to the numbers That's all it is Once you can associate the the story in your head with what the numbers say on the page
[00:21:51] Chaz: Mm-Hmm.
[00:21:51] Colin Sandburg: clicks and 95% of what you need to know you know I'm a big fan of the the Pareto principle right The
[00:21:57] Chaz: Oh yeah.
[00:21:58] Colin Sandburg: It's like man get Get the 20% of the knowledge that'll get you 80% of what you need
[00:22:02] Chaz: Yeah.
[00:22:03] Colin Sandburg: it's honestly not that hard to get Once you start once you have somebody who sits down and goes Hey remember this Yeah that that's represented here in your numbers Remember this that's represented here in your numbers Once you start to associate it and then you just basically watch 'em and you go okay I just experienced this part of the story I would expect that to look like And you look and go
[00:22:22] Chaz: Mm-Hmm. Ding.
[00:22:24] Colin Sandburg: I'm starting to get get what I'm talking about here and man that's it That's as hard as it is and and you know does that take a year of of kind of discipline and focus and looking Yeah but again you know I think I don't think it has to be miserable and it doesn't have to be you know accounting 1 0 1 and the
[00:22:40] Chaz: Right.
[00:22:41] Colin Sandburg: of you know it's not a textbook
[00:22:43] Chaz: Yeah.
[00:22:44] Colin Sandburg: it's your business and you can learn it and and then hey just like any other part of success once you click it into gear and it starts to work It's like you're on top of the world
[00:22:55] Chaz: Yeah, well, you start to understand how you can make decisions off of a sheet of paper or a spreadsheet as opposed to being in the business. And so really the the segue here is really how do I remove myself or work on the business, as I say, as opposed to in it. Well, this right here, or, or even just this methodology that we're talking about is truly the way, because I can even think back to my first business, uh, franchise.
It's like if I, when I understood the flow of production throughout the day, I didn't have to be in the store. I could look up the app, I could see what time it was, how many orders had been produced, how many were still pending. And I either knew we were either on track or we were behind. And then I could either make a phone call or I could do some other digging to figure out what the rest of the story was.
I didn't have to go anywhere 'cause it was right here and I could understand the story behind the numbers as opposed to having to be in the physical location. Well, when I had seven of them in three states, that wasn't possible.
[00:23:48] Colin Sandburg: Yeah And that's I mean to your point and I I kind of you know I'm old school guy going back to like E-Myth Michael Gerber and all that Right.
Is basically what you're describing is once you can kind of break your business down systematically like that
[00:24:00] Chaz: Right
[00:24:01] Colin Sandburg: ops side the sales side or certainly the finance side can then not only kind of interpret at just a glance What's happening good bad or ugly You then kind of know which which levers to pull to address Either optimize or improve or
[00:24:16] Chaz: Right
[00:24:16] Colin Sandburg: you know deal with the challenge the beauty is you know now that's the first thing you teach a manager Right. And then when you get really good is like hey uh it's your first week your frontline employee how we know whether this thing's working or not
[00:24:29] Chaz: Mm-Hmm.
[00:24:30] Colin Sandburg: man when your business is operating in that in that way it gets really really good
[00:24:35] Chaz: Yeah.
[00:24:36] Colin Sandburg: to your point I mean then you know I I so I love that that was kind of uh the E-Myth breakthrough was he said Hey run your business like it's a franchise whether you ever intend to do that or not just like you said there's it's amazing how leveled up you get when it's in three states and it's seven locations and you don't have a choice
[00:24:53] Chaz: Yep.
[00:24:53] Colin Sandburg: It's not optional
[00:24:55] Chaz: Yeah.
[00:24:55] Colin Sandburg: you're living down the street from your one business and
[00:24:57] Chaz: Yep. Pop over.
[00:24:59] Colin Sandburg: Throw effort at it
[00:25:00] Chaz: Yep.
[00:25:00] Colin Sandburg: You've gotta get smarter And so yeah if you treat your business like that whether you ever intend to have multiple or not to be able to take a vacation You start to be able to train competent people in your business that can actually make decisions on your behalf and not just you sit there you know from the command center and go do this next you do that you
[00:25:20] Chaz: Right,
[00:25:22] Colin Sandburg: We've all been there That's that's part of the development process man that doesn't scale
[00:25:26] Chaz: right.
[00:25:26] Colin Sandburg: that's a brutal existence That's honestly worse than being an employee in a lot of ways
[00:25:29] Chaz: Yeah. Yeah. 'cause nothing actually, you get, you have a false sense of, of control or a false sense of not being in it. You don't feel like you're in it every day. 'cause I'm not making baskets for the franchise or I'm not on the project, on the job site. But still nothing happens unless I'm in the command center.
In that example that you're, that you're giving there?
[00:25:47] Colin Sandburg: and and you know you feel the pressure the weight of entrepreneurship
[00:25:51] Chaz: Oh yeah.
[00:25:51] Colin Sandburg: is real I mean it
[00:25:52] Chaz: Oh yeah.
[00:25:53] Colin Sandburg: Even when times are good you know when you got a bunch of things going on or you got your one thing your all all your eggs in that one basket It doesn't matter where you are in your entrepreneurial journey the weight is real
[00:26:02] Chaz: Yeah.
[00:26:03] Colin Sandburg: if you feel that weight and you feel like it's you against the world horrible combination You know most of us have been there I get it I've been there man I've been there
[00:26:12] Chaz: Yeah.
[00:26:13] Colin Sandburg: days On my bad days I still feel like I'm there right
the reality is you never have a path out of there if you don't level up in the ways we're describing and and and start to take command in a way that is more systematic and data-driven and not gut feel and raw effort
[00:26:30] Chaz: Yeah. Yeah. You're, you're speaking right to something. I was talking with one of my coaches actually. Um, you know, and, and. The gathering the kings exists. One, to be able to pull entrepreneurs outta that isolation, that, that heavy I'm by myself. And it's not that ever goes away, but when you're with other people, one, and then when you can apply these certain practical things, whether it be in finance or operations or sales like we've been talking about, that's how you begin to really level up or be able to make better decisions.
And the community piece for him, he, he kept getting hung up on like, there's just so many better ways for them to be able to level up. And I was like, yeah, yeah, but first you have to realize that. They're alone, like you just said, that weight, especially when they're by themselves, is most of the time it's too heavy. And so the easiest way is to just get into a community and you recognize that like, oh, I'm not the only one with this problem. And even though maybe in that moment you don't have any solutions, and I'm not saying that community doesn't bring you solutions, but I'm just saying even if it doesn't. The fact that you just are not by yourself, and you recognize that this is not a big over the top, the world is on me problem, and oh my gosh, I'm by myself.
You realize that? Oh no. There's a lot of other people that are experiencing the same thing that are trying to figure out their numbers, and they're trying to find systems and be able to make good decisions. Oh, well, it now becomes doable. It becomes like, I can get courage going, oh, like if you can do it, I can do it.
And I can see where he's at and he's, you know, a couple ticks ahead of me, or he's maybe a couple ticks behind me and he is working on it like. Th now I have just belief to be able to reach out to a guy like Colin and go, okay, give me the practicals now to, to put this into my flow. Because I'm in, I'm a part of a group that says I should be winning in all areas, and guys like Colin help me in the specific area.
So I, I, I now have a courage to reach out and do the thing. Have you seen this in your own journey, kind of thinking of the isolation piece?
[00:28:16] Colin Sandburg: a hundred percent You know the one of the best things that ever happened to me in my life was at 24 maybe 23 24 I joined my first mastermind group And I mean it changed my life You know I
[00:28:27] Chaz: Yeah.
[00:28:27] Colin Sandburg: familiar with the concept uh going into that It was just you know Hey these guys are and I I was a kid you know but these these are some guys you can learn from They were twice major more
[00:28:36] Chaz: Right.
[00:28:37] Colin Sandburg: Um and they knew stuff I had never even thought about before
[00:28:39] Chaz: Yeah, exactly.
[00:28:40] Colin Sandburg: to your point the the that was the that was the initial appeal thing that stuck with me was the the comradery and kind of unity That having a group kind of a band of brothers uh and sisters who
[00:28:52] Chaz: Yeah,
[00:28:53] Colin Sandburg: you know really just want good things for you
[00:28:55] Chaz: that's right.
[00:28:56] Colin Sandburg: Get it like you said understand what you're going through have been there you know understand the impact on family I know you talk about that a lot
[00:29:02] Chaz: Yeah.
[00:29:03] Colin Sandburg: on you know on on family that business and that that it a uh maybe a a business which happens at times right
[00:29:12] Chaz: Right.
[00:29:12] Colin Sandburg: all the eggs in that basket we start neglecting the other side of the fence
[00:29:16] Chaz: Yeah.
[00:29:16] Colin Sandburg: All of a sudden you know you look up and you're like man my life is is a wreck
[00:29:20] Chaz: Yeah.
[00:29:21] Colin Sandburg: having business owners who are have been on that journey and can go like man I was there you know here's what I did Here's how I dealt with it Here's how I looked at it I mean there's nothing in this life that's to me that's more valuable than that that community
[00:29:34] Chaz: Yeah. Well, it, and I appreciate the, the backing there of, of why the community's important. I guess the piece there of the, the, it's the perspective change, right? So when, when you. When you're around other people who are like you and want good for you, like you're describing, it opens you up to now, okay, now, now what are the actual steps I need to take?
Because they might hear it today on a podcast. They might hear, okay, call Colin. He's your guy. You know, make, make these moves in your business. But, but we both know that the reality of that is slim to none. Right? They're gonna need to take some sort of a lower action first that feels comfortable, and then they're gonna go, oh.
I now trust Joe and Joe says Collin's, my guy. Okay, cool. Sounds good. And maybe they've been listening to the show for a year or two and they're like, I trust Chaz Collin's, my guy. I'm gonna go research him and, and I'm gonna use him as my, my, my financial guy now. But. The, the, the, the stepping stone oftentimes is the more comfortable piece.
So knowing that, knowing that maybe some people will take some action here, I actually do wanna give them a chance here for the ones that are action takers that don't necessarily need the, the feel good piece before, from your perspective, from a finance, from like what you do with your clients, what are some one or two things they can go do today?
And then of course, for the bigger things they're gonna need to reach out to you and work with you. But what are one or two things they can go do today?
[00:30:56] Colin Sandburg: So the the first one I'll say and I I'm I'm a big proponent of you know be smart with your pricing Okay The one of
[00:31:05] Chaz: So true.
[00:31:06] Colin Sandburg: of the oh man one of the most common uh pitfalls of early entrepreneurship and and you even see people who are scaling and still have this mindset is like Hey it's easier to sell if my prices are low Maybe that's true but the reality is once you sell that work you have to turn around and service it
[00:31:22] Chaz: That's right.
[00:31:22] Colin Sandburg: And so if you don't have premium pricing if you don't know how to justify premium pricing are doing it wrong If that's a blanket statement I can make across industries across businesses doesn't matter what you do Doesn't matter if you're a solopreneur or have a hundred person team if you are not charging a premium because I will tell you that the 99 point carry the nine forever percent of businesses are not Amazon You're not Walmart You do not have the scale necessary to have I'm a low cost leader so if you have that like well it works for them I should try that attitude
[00:31:55] Chaz: Right.
[00:31:56] Colin Sandburg: is That is a terrible strategy and that is a race to the bottom because again it's the money that comes from your pricing that you reinvest in your team
[00:32:03] Chaz: Yeah.
[00:32:04] Colin Sandburg: in developing a premium product that you reinvest in actually having profits So your business can be stable and you can put money in the bank so that you can actually invest in the next round
[00:32:13] Chaz: Yeah.
[00:32:14] Colin Sandburg: Of whatever you need to do to grow Right So
[00:32:16] Chaz: Yeah.
[00:32:16] Colin Sandburg: man that's a huge one I I get on that you know that I get on that uh um all all the time That's one you'll hear me drive people crazy with I just won't shut up about you know have a premium price
[00:32:28] Chaz: Yeah. Well, it's true.
[00:32:29] Colin Sandburg: no it's absolutely true right And I've I've yet to find any business that's like well hey Colin here's a caveat to that That
[00:32:34] Chaz: Yeah.
[00:32:35] Colin Sandburg: um because it's just the reality is what are we what are we selling We're selling experience we're selling customer service we're selling you know we we care more than the next company the next guy et cetera That's typically what being a small business represents
[00:32:49] Chaz: Yeah
[00:32:49] Colin Sandburg: you can't do that on the cheap
[00:32:52] Chaz: Right.
[00:32:52] Colin Sandburg: just can't It
[00:32:53] Chaz: Yeah.
[00:32:53] Colin Sandburg: work that way So um you know again don't be crazy Don't be you know be thoughtful about it but at the
[00:32:59] Chaz: Yeah.
[00:32:59] Colin Sandburg: have a premium price and be proud about it
[00:33:02] Chaz: The one thing that you said in there, uh, sorry to cut you off, but I wanna just highlight, 'cause you said such a good point there is that you said to be able to justify the higher level premium price, which is AKA, the experience that you're talking about, and so. That. Now we're talking about a whole.
Now pricing is finance, but over here now we're talking about operations. Again. I love you keep tying these things back together because on the operations, if it's an experience that is like none other, I. And I just keep blowing their mind over and over and over every single step of the process. Whether again, it's gathering the kings in a mastermind group and their membership experience, or over here in construction or in franchising with our, uh, you know, um, edible arrangements, Fran locations or, uh, in my real estate.
Like if I just keep going over and above in these opportunities where people have to live, then rent feels like no big deal, or their membership feels like no big deal, and I can still charge a premium. And it's still, they're like, I would pay double charge. Cha should charge me more.
[00:33:54] Colin Sandburg: Exactly
[00:33:56] Chaz: Right.
[00:33:56] Colin Sandburg: that that should be the attitude that your your clients have Right And if you you take that attitude that I'm gonna get them to there
[00:34:03] Chaz: Yeah.
[00:34:03] Colin Sandburg: I need to have a premium price to get it there Right It
[00:34:06] Chaz: Yeah, that's right.
[00:34:07] Colin Sandburg: it works for everybody Yeah, 'cause again the the companies the people you're working with they should have a premium price attitude I don't care if you're a W2 employee should have a premium price attitude
[00:34:18] Chaz: backed with a premium experience, uh, uh, delivery
[00:34:22] Colin Sandburg: delivery Yeah
[00:34:24] Chaz: because we know what it looks like for somebody to say, uh, I'm, I'm gonna demand a high price. And then like, wait a second. I'm getting the same thing. This is, no, no, no, no
[00:34:31] Colin Sandburg: yeah no.
you're right And and but if you have both Hey man you're gonna find a lot of takers
[00:34:37] Chaz: That's right. That's right.
[00:34:38] Colin Sandburg: Um so the other thing I would say is you know we kind of talked about tying your finances back to the story and your business One thing that I would always recommend is I call it the Simple Profit Formula
[00:34:48] Chaz: That.
[00:34:48] Colin Sandburg: looking at everything on your your profit and loss statement revenue on down Look at it as a percentage Of that revenue So in other words let's just say you're doing you know a million in revenue I wanna look at my sales and marketing expense my labor expense you know my other general overhead expense And then obviously if you're selling a product or have some sort of cost of goods look at all of those We know the cost of goods One that that's margin Everybody talks about that What people don't do often enough is really tie the rest of them back as just like a rough percentage and say Hey if I keep labor at 30% or less of revenue I'm golden What people get caught up with is they go like well I've got this guy and that lady and here's my team that I need Revenues are down but here's my team It's like again tie it back to data Don't make it about people I'm not saying not to care about your people or take good care of your people That's not at all what I'm saying
[00:35:43] Chaz: Yeah.
[00:35:43] Colin Sandburg: What I'm saying is understand the formula for how your business can make 20% bottom line or whatever that number is that
[00:35:49] Chaz: That's right.
[00:35:49] Colin Sandburg: be aiming for knowing that you could pretty quickly do some what if scenarios What if revenue went down by 30% What if revenue doubled Right You'll realize quickly some of those percentages and numbers just like margin automatically scale up and down with the revenue And some of them are kind of a fixed cost like your overhead So if I double my revenue and my fixed costs don't change
[00:36:12] Chaz: Now
we're in the money. goes in half Now we're making cash
Yeah, that's right.
[00:36:16] Colin Sandburg: so just really learning to look at your business that way And again I know it's a little bit of a a numbers game and not everybody's a numbers a numbers uh owner can do that on a simple spreadsheet You can do that on the back of a napkin You can do that in 15 minutes Just run your p and l Look at it group it according to those big groups and then just ask like which of these are an investment Which of these do I wanna hold down like overhead man rent How do I do twice as much revenue outta the same rent
[00:36:42] Chaz: That's right.
[00:36:42] Colin Sandburg: If I can do that I'm I'm I'm really on the path to making good money
[00:36:45] Chaz: Yeah, yeah. These are some of the same conversations that we have. So I just wanna encourage the listener that if a, if they're jiving with this, that, um, of course we're gonna put Colin's information. I'll ask him for it here in a second. We'll put it in the show notes. But if you're not jiving with this, you, if you're confused by this, Colin might be your guy to help you understand this because, um, this is important.
I can even think back, I'm in my twenties, I'm in the franchise world. Uh, seven locations, three states, 65 plus employees. I'm looking at a cell phone making decisions because that's where the app was, and I could look at the p and l. I can say, you know what, we're high on labor this week. We're high on fruit this week.
We're like, just check, check, check, check, check. It had nothing to do with. The actual location. Um, it had everything to do with those higher level, um, inputs that, that I could then move things around with levers. Um, and so this is, this is huge. And most people, you know, as I can think back to my story, it's like, well, how, how are you doing all that?
I was like, well, first off, it sounds like kind of crazy, but not really. When you really boil it all the way down, oftentimes that person that you're describing. Is doing less physical work. They're just way more efficient and they're making decisions at a, at a different level based on inputs and outputs.
'cause they understand kind of like how, how it works. Everything that you've been saying. Has this been the story that you've seen as you've helped entrepreneurs kind of get to that level?
[00:38:02] Colin Sandburg: Absolutely Yeah like you said it really is I like when you said boiling it down right So it's kind of simplest form what this really is is we gotta boil it down to its simplest form tie it to the story that you already know you know the story
[00:38:15] Chaz: Yeah, that's right. That's good.
[00:38:16] Colin Sandburg: to build it back up And we start to kind of add on layers of complexity but certain team members are only ever gonna get the simplest form right
[00:38:24] Chaz: That's right.
[00:38:24] Colin Sandburg: probably only ever gonna hear that simplest form Get your management team start leveling them up to where they really understand a little bit more of the the simple complexity let's call it then you know hey let's let's figure out what that goal is Where do you wanna be in three to five years Most business owners wanna build a business They can like Hey I can run it on vacation or sell it
[00:38:42] Chaz: Right.
[00:38:43] Colin Sandburg: golden Yep. happen If you're hu you know the human uh hole plugging machine that's trying to plug every hole in a giant leaky boat that's
[00:38:52] Chaz: Yeah.
[00:38:52] Colin Sandburg: a a great sellable business Not a a you know I'm gonna take a six week sabbatical that's not that business
[00:38:58] Chaz: Yeah,
[00:38:58] Colin Sandburg: we gotta build that from the ground up and and uh you know do it through the numbers
[00:39:03] Chaz: and give us, give us some hope here. Give, give the listener. I mean, maybe, maybe it's two different scenarios. Maybe it's the same if you've got a guy that's doing less than a million in revenue, or a guy over a million. Maybe it's the same, maybe it's different. I don't know, but I'll let you decide. How, how long can I anticipate I start working with you this week and I'm doing less than or more than, and I want to get it to that place where I can either go on vacation or I can sell it where truly I'm not that human element trying to, you know, plug all the holes all at the same time.
How long does that take?
[00:39:34] Colin Sandburg: I will tell you it's a direct reflection of the the the will of that CEO that owner what they're willing to do
[00:39:43] Chaz: Yeah.
[00:39:43] Colin Sandburg: it It's really that simple So I and and interestingly you know I've been in a business my first business was a turnaround was it was all kinds of messed up That's where I learned a lot of this
[00:39:52] Chaz: Yeah.
[00:39:52] Colin Sandburg: was that business was
[00:39:54] Chaz: And a lot of holes.
[00:39:55] Colin Sandburg: It had a lot of holes man A lot of holes And so for me like I very quickly got out of the mindset of like with what I've got It was like we're gonna have to change everything I'm gonna have to reevaluate you know the way we're approaching labor the way we do our cost of goods everything
[00:40:09] Chaz: Yeah.
[00:40:10] Colin Sandburg: gonna have to be redone and fixed so I I didn't there was no sacred cow right And so I'll tell you the how quick seen businesses We can fairly in fairly short order we're talking 90 days or less Get them on a radically different path than they've been on before very possible But it comes down to us coming in and saying Hey we're gonna have to take an objective look at this
[00:40:32] Chaz: Yeah.
[00:40:33] Colin Sandburg: candid conversations And then you're gonna have to make some tough calls based on that
[00:40:37] Chaz: Yeah,
[00:40:37] Colin Sandburg: they're willing to do that then that's that's the rate of change that
[00:40:41] Chaz: that's right.
[00:40:41] Colin Sandburg: rate of change And if you know just like in anything it's true in sales true in any type of part of your business true in your life right How fast you wanna get in shape
[00:40:49] Chaz: Yeah.
[00:40:51] Colin Sandburg: you know it's like well I can give you the best plan in the world It could be all the stuff the movie stars do You know they come out jacked after you know six months of training you know But if you're hanging out if you're on the couch not gonna be you It
[00:41:05] Chaz: Yeah,
[00:41:05] Colin Sandburg: matter what the plan is So
[00:41:07] Chaz: exactly.
[00:41:07] Colin Sandburg: that's a big thing that I push people with is like Hey you know how how leveled up or is your mindset to start this process And I'll tell you exactly what we need to do you know We'll we'll have a really candid conversation Again man I'm gonna be really respectful of this is your choice In the end This is your business
[00:41:22] Chaz: Yep.
[00:41:23] Colin Sandburg: businesses No one's coming in from the outside and just tell me what to do and I've gotta do it But you know your hunger will dictate your progress
[00:41:30] Chaz: Yeah. I love that. I mean that, that's true in every area. We, we both know this and I'm glad you made it obvious for this as well. Um, it's a phrase that I've, I heard long time ago, probably 15 plus years ago, but I've always kept close to the vest. It's, people do what they wanna do, and so if somebody wants to work with you, they will.
If somebody wants to work with you and not change. They're gonna work with you, pay you and not change.
[00:41:54] Colin Sandburg: Yeah exactly
[00:41:55] Chaz: somebody wants to level up and and go fast, that's exactly what they're gonna do. People do what they want to do. Um, which obviously comes down to a lot of the mindset piece. I think that the, uh, the more that we can do this, right, like the more that we can listen to shows, the more people that we can get around, like Colin who has done the thing.
Um, it helps us have a different perspective. It helps us have that belief that's like, oh, okay, well maybe I can do this. You know, a lot of guys, especially the guys that haven't hit the million dollar mark yet, they're thinking, oh, I can't afford that. Right? But you've already mentioned several times here it's like, no, I can help.
I can not only help you get to the million mark, but we can help scale you past that. So it's like even that in itself is. Is a perspective change for probably some people listening today going, well, I only do 500,000 or 600,000. I, I guess that's, that's for later when I'm doing millions, but I'm hearing no, like, let's get things in order now so that way we can get you there faster.
[00:42:46] Colin Sandburg: So Exactly hit hit that million profitably
[00:42:49] Chaz: Right.
Yeah, a lot of people start making that that false trade of like well I've gotta grow now not be profitable Now It's like no no no you gotta do both So
that's good.
[00:43:01] Colin Sandburg: I mean that's generally what we say is Hey I've I've worked with with clients as as small as a few hundred thousand dollars You know there are solutions that can help them uh dramatically be able to afford to put the pedal to the metal on growth And I think that's that's the trap people fall into is like well I'm gonna grow now but not be profitable now Okay but what are you gonna reinvest
[00:43:21] Chaz: Right, right.
[00:43:22] Colin Sandburg: So
[00:43:23] Chaz: Yeah. That, that old, uh, can I afford to grow? You know, question, and it's like, well, wait a second, what do you mean? It's like, well, growth is very expensive. And, or I mean, I guess that's a, that's a perspective, right? Expensive, right? Or it sounds like it can be calculated and it doesn't have to be, 'cause expensive to me is like a shock.
Like if I'm, if it's calculated and it's planned, then it's not expensive. It's just part of the, it's just. Part of it, and I can, I can choose to make certain decisions along the way that either help me grow or stabilize whatever that is that we're we're doing in that moment. Would you agree with that?
[00:43:57] Colin Sandburg: Absolutely Oh absolutely Yeah And and again it part of it's the business model so we we won't spend too much time on that but I I push everybody is like Hey What's your revenue model You know what's your cash income model You know what's the operational model that you have How much of your costs are fixed versus variable Every one of those in a business in any business is kind of a bit of a range
[00:44:18] Chaz: Yeah.
[00:44:19] Colin Sandburg: gotta push you to the high end the best end of that range uh for every business no matter what it is When you're clicking there and you're profitable man you'll have all the money to reinvest It'll be like oh dude we can we can do this We can we can have our cake and eat it too
[00:44:32] Chaz: That's right. I love that. Um, well, Colin, tell us first, um, actually, I, I wanna, I wanna, I wanna ask one more question. We got a little bit of time here. I got a couple more minutes. I wanna know. Um, I'm gonna, I'm gonna take a different approach here. I'm gonna take you, I'm more serious. We've been, not that this hasn't been serious, but I'm gonna, I'm gonna make it more about you.
We've been giving a lot of value to the listeners right now. Um, for you though, looking back, you name the time, but just roll the clock back and I want you to tap the younger Colin on the shoulder and you whisper something in his ear. Tell us what you tell him.
[00:45:03] Colin Sandburg: Hmm Wow That's a good one Um I I would say trust your gut with what's not working and act faster So again I went through a turnaround on my first business It took 10 years man and now it was ugly when we started but there were things where I kind of had those uh you know sacred things that were off limits that I didn't you know whether it was a team member who really wasn't bought in Whether it was a an advisor that really wasn't working whatever it
[00:45:36] Chaz: Mm-Hmm.
[00:45:37] Colin Sandburg: there were ones where you know my gut was like all the alarm bells are going off and I'm thinking you know if I just push through if I just keep after this I'll break through And the reality is I look up now and none of those things are still the same I Every one of those things that I I had the gut feeling about all fell by the wayside eventually And so I realize now the big the big sacrifice was the time I lost by not making those decisions quicker
[00:46:03] Chaz: The opportunity there that you're, you're gave to the listener to kind of go back for yourself even is huge.
'cause you're right. I mean, we look, we're even gonna do that this year. We're gonna, we're gonna slow a decision that we know that we shouldn't do or that we should have already done. The idea, I think, is that we just get. Better or faster each time it happens. Right? Just a, a, a more evolved, you know, process of mindset, uh, through those things.
So I just think that's super real. So thanks for sharing that. Um, how can we find you, um, listener right now is thinking, uh, I wanna follow this guy. I wanna check out some of his content, or, I'm ready to work with him. I can, I find you.
[00:46:38] Colin Sandburg: So I've got a lot going on on LinkedIn these days Um that's probably the easiest way just calling Sandberg at LinkedIn starting to get my Facebook up and rolling I'm not quite uh Chaz yet with the Facebook but uh it's that's coming We'll
[00:46:51] Chaz: Good.
[00:46:51] Colin Sandburg: we will get it going there And then you know my website finn elevate.com And and like I said man I'm a multi-business owner I just love I've been in the mastermind world since I was 23 24 That's my passion man I love other entrepreneurs I'm going this week to a entrepreneur group uh mastermind group that I founded 15 years ago I'm
[00:47:07] Chaz: Love it.
[00:47:08] Colin Sandburg: so you know that that that's just a passion of mine I love connecting with people whether we're
[00:47:12] Chaz: Yeah.
[00:47:12] Colin Sandburg: business or just get to know each other help each other To me that's that's the win
[00:47:18] Chaz: That's awesome. Well tell it. What's the name of the group? We'll put that in the show notes as well.
[00:47:22] Colin Sandburg: so it's just a small you know group We don't we don't have memberships or anything
[00:47:25] Chaz: Got it
[00:47:26] Colin Sandburg: group We call it. the Fort Worth Advisory Council
[00:47:28] Chaz: you go.
[00:47:28] Colin Sandburg: in my hometown Fort Worth
[00:47:30] Chaz: There you go. Love it, man. And, and honestly, um, you know, I, I even thinking back to Napoleon Hill and Think and Grow Rich, where the, you know, the Mastermind principle comes from, you can have. A group here, group there. Even this right here today is a great example of the mastermind principle.
So I, I don't think that it has to be, um, a specific one that's perfect for, for any one particular person. But I do think that there's, um, there's perspective adjustment. There's, there's mindset agitation right in, in a lot of places, so.
[00:47:58] Colin Sandburg: love it
[00:47:59] Chaz: Um, I so appreciate you for being here and sharing, not only just from your experience, but um, you're bringing just a unique, uh, service out there.
And I think that it's, it's needed, um, beyond the, the bookkeeping, beyond the CPA going, Hey, how do we take your mo your, your money and your business and your numbers to the next level? So I just appreciate the work that you're doing in the marketplace. Thanks for being here, brother.
[00:48:19] Colin Sandburg: man

Welcome to Episode 443 of the Gathering The Kings Podcast, where host Chaz Wolfe is joined by Colin Sanburg, the Founder and Visionary behind FinElevate. With a rich background in transforming business finances and a passion for educating entrepreneurs, Colin brings invaluable insights into making complex numbers accessible and actionable. From starting in a family-owned business at 21 to pioneering strategic accounting with FinElevate, Colin's journey is a testament to the power of understanding your business's financial story. In this episode, we dive deep into the essentials of business finance for the non-numbers entrepreneur. Colin shares his expertise on: Identifying key financial metrics to gauge business progress Simplifying the profit formula for business owners The importance of premium products and pricing for profitability Decoding the financial narrative of your business for better decision-making outside the day-to-day operations This masterclass in business numbers and finance is designed to empower entrepreneurs with the knowledge to grow their business, increase cash flow, and prepare for successful exits. Join us as Colin Sanburg demystifies the numbers and shares the strategies behind the "450 plays" playbook, drawing from his extensive reading in business and self-development. If you're ready to transform your entrepreneurial journey and master the art of business finance, hit that Subscribe or follow button and join the Gathering The Kings community today. Have insights or questions from today's episode? Drop us a comment below – we love hearing from you and often feature listener questions in future episodes. Plus, share this video with fellow entrepreneurs to spread the wealth of knowledge!

Colin Sanburg:

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colinsanburg/

Website: https://finelevate.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the.finelevate/

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/the.finelevate/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/colin.sanburg

Chaz's favorite morning drink to fuel him for his day

10% off Code: GATHERINGKINGS10