MA Business Success 35: The Life of a Multiple-School Owner

https://soundcloud.com/tima-38/tima-podcasts-episode-35

Alex: They can talk to me today about a day in the life of being a multiple school owner. It sounds absolutely terrifying. Graham, what's the answer, how on earth do you? Graham: Goodness, you know, just looking across at Phil now, there's one word that you say multiple times, manage, manage, manage. You've got to manage people, that's something that as you grow in schools, you don't necessarily get as much time to teach frontline, you're more in human resources and managing people and putting out spot fires or inspiring others so they can take that material down to their subordinates, to their staff. Because really when you look at it, you're increasing your staff base, they need to make sure there's a consistent message across however many locations that you may have, so you've got that brand integrity, so you really do need to make sure that you're there to assess if everything is smooth sailing. You're the captain on the ship steering, you know, steer clear of troubled waters but with more and more people to keep an eye on you need to be very much aware that then, you know, structured in regards to your meeting times and when you are available to be bombarded. I know personally myself and Phil, we did some research and, you know, stock standard office, you get interrupted on average once every 11 minutes and therefore if you are trying to do a project or a task that is important to get completed and you just got this barrage of people coming to you, it's going to be a very unproductive day or week. So having structured scheduled meetings to make sure that you are there with open ears and completely present to answer all those questions is important. Don't get me wrong, we don't turn people away if they've got that challenge that is urgent, but if it's just a remedial tidbit, we obviously say save it for these particular time slots. So managing your time as well as managing your staff is vital. Alex: Yeah, absolutely. Phil, come on, you're exhausted just thinking about it. Phil: Yeah, well you know, we're talking about managing multiple schools. Well, to give a bit of background, yes, we have three martial arts schools and well I call them three different businesses because if you just put a line in the sand, they would all be completely separate businesses if they wanted to be. So there's three martial arts businesses that we run there, plus we have another three businesses that we run on the exterior as well that are a little bit aligned with martial arts but also with speaking and all that stuff. So again, TIMA with the online martial arts business coaching consulting. We have another contract with, or another business called International Defensive Solutions where we provide all sorts of different types of training to corporate, government style, you know, Army, Defense Force, airlines, so there's all sorts of things going on, not just in the martial arts realm but outside of that as well. Alex: I don't think I'd be alone when I say I'm exhausted just hearing what you're doing. Phil: If anyone has every juggled before.... Alex: And they say men can't multitask. Phil: Yeah, I can juggle three balls but not six, you know what I mean?. It is, what it comes down to, like Graham said, first and foremost you've got to understand that you start managing more people, but just like you structure and systemize your school, you have to structure and systemize your time. Most important. We talk about, a lot about, in our seminars, when we come to our personal professional star seminars, all about fueling yourself first. Everyone wants your energy. Everyone wants your know how. Alex: You take your oxygen mask first and then you can, yes. Phil: And that's a smart analogy as well, it's you know exactly what they say on the planes, give yourself oxygen first before you give it to others. So I look at going, all right, well I know with my time I don't book anything unless it's important or I have to, on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. So I don't work those days, they're my family days, unless something very important come up. And I have to try and stay true to that because.... Alex: Yep, so how often would something really important come up? I need to know the reality. Phil: It just depends. Like literally this Friday, we're traveling to Melbourne to speak at a Martial Arts Summit, so obviously there's travel on a Friday. But in my normal general week, I don't work Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, although.... Alex: Is he being truthful about this? Graham: Yep, and that goes for both of us. Phil: Yeah, and then, but that's not saying on the weekends, I mean the kids are asleep, I wouldn't mind pounding a little bit on the computer. You know, there's times for it, but family, that's what we're all about is about family so why not structure that first? The second thing I'll structure is my time, when am I training? When am I giving my, you know, time for me? A workout or personal development or whatever it is. So my time's most important because if I'm not fueled, I can't fuel everyone else. Then for us, we have businesses, we go, well, all right, let's just say we got the six businesses, there's only seven days in a week, but what day can I focus on, who you gonna work for? Alex: Yes, I know, I've done the math already. Phil: What day can I solely focus on a particular business or project and know that when I come on a Monday, this is solely focused on this area of my life or my business. So for us, Mondays and Tuesdays are generally sort of our WAYMA [SP] martial arts and TIMA stall days. So two days there. And the other three, the other two, there we go, then they're balanced between our other businesses as well. All right, but we know that on these days we're not really focused on WAYMA stuff or TIMA stuff, it's focused on these other areas. So it has to be structured, like your time table's got to be tight. Alex: I mean, it's massive discipline, that, because I think most people would say, "Well my run in the morning is the first thing to go when I'm busy. And if somebody interrupts me and they need this thing, but I'm not necessarily concentrating on that particular thing at the moment, I'm just going to go over to them and help them out because..." so you have to be enormously disciplined don't you? Graham: You do, you most definitely do, and it's just allocating those times down, you know, we don't manage by crisis and that is, "Oh goodness, there's something's popped up and I need to run and save the day." That's what we train our teams for and it really comes down to educating your staff to be able to really deal with those challenges if they arise. I'm not going to say that we don't stick our head in if there is something that is really in urgent need of us. But at most, often enough, we do have it structured really, really well that we are providing the training, and really that's where myself and Phil have put our time and efforts in over the last few years is training the trainers. Having our guys educated enough to make the decisions that we would make without us having to jump in and save the day. And when it comes to multiple locations, really that's what you're on about because they're not all going to be able to come knocking on your door when they're in separate places, so we need to empower them to make the right decision and if it wasn't up to the same standard that we would have done, you know, you give them a pat on the back, say, "Fantastic effort, glad that you did really, really well, took action. Here's how maybe I would have done it to get a better result." So it's never crush them, it's about rewarding their efforts and helping them improve. And that comes to training again, so if you look at a day in the life, and I want him to go day in the life, because we go a little bigger now in regards to, on a monthly training system to those guys listening. You know, Mondays and Wednesdays is compulsory for all of our staff as in, Martial Arts instructor staff to train for two hours. And what that does it trains between the hours of 10:00 and 12:00 where we get to assess where they're at physically. Everyone comes together, so we're getting quality control. So there we're able to manage that and see ok we're happy with their level. We don't need to assist.... Alex: And you guys are at that? Graham: We are, so we take those guys for our own training, but they benefit by being alongside us. We're getting the win from that. Then on a Tuesday of every week we'll go through our manager meeting and that's where the four managers come together from the different locations and a general manager, and we basically just have a really good chat from the top down. Then they'll move off to their own locations and speak to their staff. So it means that we don't have to go, they manage that. And once a month we'll have an entire staff training, so what that does, it means that all of our fulltime staff and even part-time will come into a brain training for two hours on a chosen day. And it could be through sales, or our WAYMA Welcome, so that's customer service or customer experience, problem solving this issue or that issue so everybody's in the same place. So I can't reiterate enough, it's through training that helps us to be able to manage multiple locations, I won't say seamlessly, but with a lot more ease that I'm not running around putting out spot fires. Alex: Sure. You just can't afford to micromanage at any point can you? You have to have that relationship. Phil: Yeah. And I think what we're trying to get at as well, Alex, is, you're saying the first thing to go is my time, or my jog, or whatever, and that's the pitfall of most unsuccessful or stressed out business owners. Its because they are trying to spot the fires and put them out and they're trying to, well you know, the business is going well, but eventually you'll burn out. You know, the thing is, you know, for me, I know Graham's just started, I only just heard of it today, that he's starting a 40 day challenge where he's going to get up at 4:00 in the morning. And for myself... Alex: To add to your... Graham: Yeah, just add to the... Alex: ... to your boring life? Yeah. Phil: And I know for me, my thing is I like to have a quick little jog in the morning, my kids wake up at 6:00 am, sometimes 5:30. If I'm going to go for that jog, it's gotta be at 5:00. So that's a sacrifice I have to have. I have to sleep a little less to go out for that jog. But I know that the effect of that jog is that I feel better and I'm ready to start the day with much more gusto than I would if I just slept in until 6:00 and let the kids...you know, shaking my head going, "Wake up, dad." So sacrifice has to happen, you have to sacrifice to win and sometimes it is on sleep, sometimes it is on, sacrifice on your business a little bit. But the most important thing if you want to be successful in any business, because it's going to get busy, it's going to get stressful, is book yourself, give yourself time. Fuel you first, both physically, mentally, emotionally, and nutritionally as well, so that you can be best serving everyone else that you need to serve. Graham: I think, Alex, you know just going on with this and resonate with some of the guys listening is, if you're structured and as Phil sort of pointed out, you understand the sacrifices, the reward comes and you've got training times that you know you're educating your staff, bonus. Therefore it frees you up a little bit more to be able to then pursue personal development or your own physical training elsewhere and also then that comes back to benefit your company anyways. So you can run around like a chicken with your head cut off and really be unproductive, you know, I've heard a lot of people say recently, "How's your day?" You know, "Jeez I'm busy." Well everyone could be busy, it's about being productive, and that's something that we work on constantly to make sure that we're not only doing that ourselves, but empowering our staff to make sure they get the tools to be productive in their day. Alex: I was going to say, you're leading by example. This is how we do it and this is how we expect you to do it. Phil: Absolutely. Graham: And it's a learned skill set and it's a habit forming, then there's going to be staff that embrace that and have got those traits naturally. There's others, it's like nails down a chalkboard for them to be systemized in all areas and it just takes time but we're there to educate and obviously assist wherever possible. Alex: Yeah, and I mean, it sounds perfect. The balance sounds brilliant when you get it right but I suppose still, at the end of the day you've got to have your finger on the pulse and make sure that you are totally over what is happening at each site. But the way to do that, I guess the takeaway for me is in order to do that you've got to have the right people working for you that can report back so that you're not just dealing with, as you say spot fires, you know, they're everywhere. Phil: I'll chip in there with something that we used to say many times is, especially as you're developing yourself and thinning yourself out with what you're doing, and empowering staff, we always gotta come back to the 80/20 rule. You know, I'd rather empower someone to do something 80% of what I can, rather than me have to always be in there doing it. So it's okay, I accept that 80% from a certain staff member. Although I'm going to try to get 100% but 80% is acceptable when growing your staff, growing your business. Eventually one day they're going to be 100% as well and people are going to flock to see them. But you've got to actually take a step back and go, look, I'm prepared for this person to fail a little bit, I'm prepared for them to learn and I'm prepared to step away and maybe, you know, one step back, two steps forward, whatever it may be, so. And the other thing, probably just a last finishing point is as a business owner, you mentioned it before, finger on the pulse. Know your numbers. Be statistically driven. You know, know where you are, see the curve, because you are exactly what Graham says, you're steering a ship. You're navigating the business and if it fails, well then really it's your fault for not warning the crew of the messy water ahead. Alex: Yep, absolutely. Some great advice, thank you very much indeed. Phil: No worries. Thanks.

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