hello I’m Gary Shotton and I’m here as a part of Inspiring Better Business we hope these are very helpful to you is business entrepreneurs and those that want to be a business owner so today we’re going to talk about working smart we have had other lessons on the value of work and that comes up pretty regular and so we are here to really take this to another level of when we are working how do we get the most out of our time how do we get the most end result at the end of the day or end of the week into the month and to kind of take care of something quickly here we’re not going to endorse anyone that’s lazy so working is a part of business ownership and we’re just going to take that off the plate up front if you’re a person that’s lazy can’t get away from the TV never finishing projects you know you’re going to frustrate relationships I know more than one marriage that was basically nullified or ended in divorce because one of the two spouses just turned out to be totally lazy and the other spouse didn’t want a life ending up with that result so take that off the plate and be a worker we are going to talk about not being a workaholic because that’s the other end of the spectrum we have people to lose relationships on that that they’re never home they never take care of the home life they’ve always got something else to do always working never letting themselves at rest or enjoy life so let’s take that off the plate also so we need to be in the middle of the stream here or willing to work but we’re not work to the detriment of our lives or families and relationships but how do we actually work smart I’m going to give two examples of my two ownerships and I have no expectation of telling me you that I’m an expert because I have yet much to learn in this and I’m going to share some things that I’ve done in those two areas after I give these key points number one I’m a hands-on person so I happen to be one that if I’m gonna manage something or delegate something or lead something or hone something I probably I’m only gonna do that if I personally can have some first-hand knowledge that’s not long-lasting but I’m going to know what is going on in order to manage correctly or in order to lead correctly there’s just impossible for me to fathom that I’m gonna have something in my control that I don’t understand pretty well I’m gonna learn something about what I’m managing or leading I’m gonna work to learn that it’s an effort to learn ask question do research experiment the things necessary for me to be indoctrinated into the my business per se there’s a problem when we get into that and that’s one of the things i phi is that sometimes i get into something and this is probably number two that i’ve got to be willing to let go of certain things my time is not just an issue of do I have time to sweep the floor I still will bend up and pick something up off the floor that’s not my job I don’t do it on the regular basis but I’m not above the work but once I’ve got something mastered or understood and put it into a system and a process man I’ve got that’s a hard for me I’ve got to let go let someone else take those systems and processes and improve them I just don’t tell the people just do whatever you want I want to see their system and process I want them to be to be able to see what procedures they go through and that they can repeat that because that’s the only way we’re going to anticipate a guaranteed end result that’s predictable so I’ve got to create systems and processes that allow that now we’ve also got to look at the reality that there’s lessons we’ve taught already on working in not working in the business but working on the business when you can let go of something when you can create leadership and guide people and and turn it over and not actually feel that you have to inspect every move then you are working on your business I will say from another lesson I’ve taught that an a key indicator working on your business and working smart is is is whether or not your personal net worth is increasing if you don’t make a personal net worth report where on one side of the ledger you list all of those things that you own that’s your assets and you list all those things that you owe that’s the dollar amount that you owe other people if you subtract it – that’s your equity that’s really a balance sheet and that’s what we could call our personal net worth and I’ve done that the same worksheet over years and years and years where I see and watch my personal net worth change hopefully up increasing over time that would probably mean that you’re working smart so there’s certain indicators that you can see that are people following you are they willing to follow your lead are you accomplishing something I mean you know whether or not that’s working or not now I’m gonna use my two examples number one back in the early 80s I moved to a new town and I could not find a job in my profession I’m a skilled and graduate engineer in the area of minerals processing there was nothing I was more adapted into construction there was nothing I had no opportunity for a job and I had responsibilities for a family of five which included three small children and I started a horse a moving and storage business with just a horse trailer pulled behind my family car and we started moving people it started out of necessity and then it ended up into owning it for 17 years but here’s my example I was willing to work I wasn’t lazy but I had to guard against being a workaholic but I started creating in systems and processes from day one on how to load trucks I used recordings on how to how do I talk people how to get their commercial driver’s license I did a video on that because I saw that was a repeat thing and I just grabbed an old big old VHS camera and and did a video so people could learn but I did it once so I had a system to do that so I was trying way back then to work smart I put together a data collection system where I arranged and scheduled all the way from all the five salesmen that we had how to land a sail how to record it in the computer and so I believe I was in a fledgling way learning to work smart with that first business and we reached the point of 65 to 75 employees on a regular basis year round a few more in the summer time and we reached a point of about three million in sales annually I sold that business now let me tell you about business number two I’m talking about the subject of working smart I purchased a machine shop you see the evidence of that behind me and now is over thirteen years ago that I did that but when I bought it I knew nothing about the machine shop business I had skill sets in the business side of owning and operated operating a business at about that level about that size I had sold a business was 65 to 75 employees I bought a business with 41 I had sales at that time in my other business around 3 million I bought a business that had about 4 million in sales now we’re up to 10 million in sales now so we’re putting sauce processes and systems in place to create that but right away I started learning about this new business now I cannot actually make a part or even measure a part but I do know how it works I do understand I have to catch a headache so I work on understanding what’s going on and I work on putting together in systems and processes and then I work on encouraging and leading our workers to improve and make those systems and processes work because they are part of the process they are part of the ones building the systems and processes that’s probably the best thing I could say for working smart is to bring other people in and you don’t have to give them necessarily financial rewards you’ve got to give them fair pay I’m also now in a spot leading inspiring Better Business this ministry I have just a few workers that are under pay in some way and I have a host of volunteers I’m understanding and understand virtually everything that needs to be done but if I try to do everything it’s gonna be a one-man band a one-person doing this so I hope you see this is something that’s close to me something I’m interested in it’s something I’m trying to perfect and by no means have I learned what all about doing working smart but I’m sure sure and have an effort there well thank you for being a part of inspiring better business I bee bee bee talks calm Up next A