Dashboard: Do the Math. Lean into A.I. Play Squash

[Music] welcome to the last 21 hats dashboard of 2023 brought to you by our sponsor the great game of business I'm Lauren Feldman and I'm here with Jean Marks welcome Jean hey Lauren well the great game of business has stuck with you the entire year amazing I give them a lot of credit that's loyalty thanks Jean good for them I know they appreciate all the nice things you say about them and maybe that's one reason they stuck by they're awesome and obviously they know a good thing when they get it so good for them I'm glad they I'm glad they're working out me too uh Jean you wrote a piece for entrepreneur recently about your nine money-making habits for entrepreneurial success in 2024 I thought we'd uh see how many of those we can get through uh in our time here today sound good yeah I guess so I mean you know so here's the thing right like I hate reading articles like this you know I see them on like these websites you know and it's you know like oh boy and then like they so I usually don't and then like my editor and entrepreneur asked me to write you know to write this and um you know and and I just you know I want to just preface this by saying for anybody listening like and for anybody who's been you know hearing us before like I'm not some tech you billionaire you know I mean I'm not running some giant I didn't build something from scratch and sell it for a zillion dollars I mean you know I have a 10p person company I've been running it for 20 years it's which is why we enjoy talking to you and listening to you Jean we want the reality yeah it's reality and it's been great and you know and it's provided a nice livelihood it's it's been I think it's been successful I think you know you know it's done well so like when they ask me to write this I'm like all right well you know for what it's worth these are like the nine things that I do and that I will reaffirm doing in 2024 So for anybody who like gives a crap you know this is what they are so I guess you give a crap Lauren so let's let's talk about some of these things I do and would suspect that most of the people who listen to this are more interested in nine h of genan Marx's habits than nine of Alan mus habits because I think yours will be more relevant and relatable okay I appreciate you saying that and that's probably true certainly compared to him so well we'll find out let's give it a shot let's go so the the the first one's completely ridiculous though I gotta say you start every day at 5:00 a.m. you don't what time do you get up 7 jesz seven you you sleep in that late wa what do you think I'm a teenager that does that sound ridiculous to you dude like since my kids were young I mean I've always gotten up at 5: in the morning and I get more done between like 5 and 8 I mean when 7 o'clock in the morning comes I feel like my day is half over La when you're just getting your lazy butt out of bed I'm like I've been cranking for twoo solid ass and by the way I don't shower work out I don't even drink any coffee you don't shower ever oh I mean you know infrequently but I I mean I just I jump right up and just go right to my desk and start doing my thing and I don't know like I mean I guess I can't speak generally but I you know most of the successful people I know get up really early as well and you know it's the it's it's it's sort of like the best functioning time of the day I I'm with you to a a point that's I that's my favorite time of day I get more done right after I get up and I'm I feel like I'm more energetic more creative um there's something about things percolating in the brain overnight uh I write better headlines stuff just happens um that said Seven's okay for me I don't need five and and there's one key question which is what time do you go to bed that's a great question uh around like around 10 like between like 9:30 10 o'clock is usually when that's not too bad yeah it's not so bad it's like you know what if there's a good game on no I don't I usually don't stay up for it it's pretty rare and even if it is I mean if there are times where I have to stay up later um I still get up at 5 I mean my body's kind of used to it so I just still do I feel like I'm letting myself down if I don't get up at 5: in the morning I'm telling you Lauren like I like you crank I mean it's it is a very very productive time of the day so people you know yeah you ask my editors asked like what do I do you know when I run my business that's what I do I get up really really early that's what I do all my writing all right number two is a little bit more about actually running a business it's about the need need to understand a little bit of accounting yeah I mean the title of this uh of this column was adopt nine money-making habits for success in 2024 well you know my most successful I'm an accountant so there you go but I mean my most successful clients know they're know how to buy something for a buck and sell it for three so they know their accounting you know they they know their margins they know their costs you cost per products they they know how to read a p&l and a balance sheet and they they F they know their numbers I mean it's it's the core basis of your business so you I guess if you're listening to but most people don't go into business because they know how to handle numbers yeah well you don't have to go into business for doing it but it's it's it's a damn important thing to to know I mean if you're going to be and run a business you you need to know your numbers you need to know your accounting and it is if you don't feel comfortable with it then you should make it a priority in 2024 to learn accounting uh or do at least have a really good account and explain to you um how your numbers are working because in the end businesses I care how sexy your business is it all comes down to boring numbers whether you're making profits or not and uh you know my you got to know the math you got to know the math do you have a suggestion for somebody who's in the throws of running a business got into it because they knew something else they they you know they sell a product or a service they it's not they didn't get into it because they understand accounting but they recognize that you're right and that they need to know more how can what's the best way for them to learn enough to get them going my advice actually is if you have an accountant who uses verbs and I know that could be stretching things a bit knowing a lot of accountants out there but if you have accountants that an accountant that can communicate to have an accountant teach you your financial statements and tax returns um is probably the best way to do it and people say like well you take a class or you do something online but that's all sort of out there um my you know my advice is you know for your own accountant to sit you and walk you through your financial statements and your tax returns maybe 10 times until it SNS in because that's your numbers so you'll relate to it the most that's how you learn accounting and if your accountant doesn't communicate well find one who does find one who does I think a one-on-one thing is is the best way to learn and I think oneon-one using your data is just it that's what will keep you engaged with the lesson you're not going to hear that from Alon musk why what's Alon musk going to say I do you think he knows accounting that's an interesting question I absolutely think Elon mus knows accounting yes I do next what do you have against Elon Musk you don't like Elon Musk um not a big fan no I'm not taking away from some of what he's done but fair enough fair enough love that guy love him keep going really yes yeah he that's another story another topic for another day yes uh your next suggestion visit clients yeah yeah yeah yeah and I I do that um I'm I'm reaffirming that every year because sometimes it's harder than than easier said than done but I mean come on any you ask anybody who's been in business they close more deals and they have Closer Closer relationships with their customers when they actually see them face to face yeah it's fine to do zoom and or talk on the phone or email and all that that has a role in life but there is nothing better than just going out to a customer uh for an hour and checking in with them uh maybe pitching them on a new product maybe taking a walk around their facility because you're going to see things where you might be like hey here's a opportunity that might you know present itself um visiting you know customers is great I just had this conversation with a client uh just two weeks ago about you know we were looking at his loss you know sales that went down from existing customers and we're looking at each other we're like dude you got to get on the road and visit these people next year you know because they want to see you so face to face with your customers even if it's one or two a month I just think is absolutely critical pick out your top customers and resolve to make sure you see them it'll make a huge difference I know it does for me your customers welcome this opportunity they do they always do if you have a good relationship with them and you know it's a matter of um pitching an hour meeting you know it doesn't have to be a big deal but you know Sandy I'd love to stop by I've got a few thoughts and some advice for you or some ideas for you that might help or some questions how's it going how can I help question but I think what you want to do is I think you want to go in there pitching um some some help for them not about you so it's like you know listen I've been working with you I've been selling your products for a number of years I think I've got a few a few ideas for you I think that might help your business um why don't we get together for 30 minutes and let me talk and that opens the door that's the pitch to meet with them and once you meet you know like any business meeting it might be for an hour you wind up spending 40 minutes you know shooting the which is great and then the other 20 minutes actually talking real business but you walk out of there with a little bit of a connection and a better relationship it's it always makes a big difference next read and listen yeah make just making it a point to obviously read and also to um you know I I say listen when I like consume content I think is what I'm trying to say um you always got to stay up on what you got to do not necessarily business content you're saying no actually no in fact you know what's funny like I I read a lot like I I read before I conch out a 10 um I usually read for like you know 30 to 45 minutes and um and I I like to read novels I mean I'll read the odd history book or biography but um it's not business related but I find when I read really good writing and really good novels I understand people more you know what I mean and that helps me in business so no it doesn't have to be even listening to different P I listen to a lot of podcasts and some of them are business but a lot of them are like comedy and you know things like that and it makes me laugh but I also learn um so you know I listen to you know one of my my go-to shows recently has been um wait wait don't tell me on NPR you ever listen to that show it's great great it's great and it's like a news show and it's funny and it's you know comedy or whatever but like I laugh but I also learn from the show and I've actually use some of their stupid news stories and some of the presentations that I give because it makes other people laugh so consume content I guess is what I'm saying there's a lot out there but if you're running a business you got to make sure you're on top of the stuff that impacts you play Squash okay you don't necessarily have to play Squash okay I I I just want to be clear on that I do and I love it about two to three times a week I often times play in the middle of the day like I'll play at like 1 in the afternoon and it's like a 60 to 90 minutes out of my day and it breaks up the day you know you sweat you burn calories it's a little comp competition but it also takes you away from the nonsense during the day doesn't have to be squash ride a bike go out for a run go to the batting cages take Pilates you know I mean it just do something like physical you know I mean Lauren my you're like you're in Fairly good shape I mean you're like do you do you do anything like do you run or something or do anything not as much as I'd like to I have to admit uh but I ride my bike a lot that's that's I go out for an hour as often as I possibly can what do you do in the winter can you do you ride it indoors um yes but I I'll go out in the winter too wow I heard some great advice at a conference I went to recently you know somebody was talking about how they they try to schedule the time to exercise but they struggle with it and you know it's hard to fit into the schedule and they just changed their approach and decided you know what I'm just putting this in my schedule every day I'm going to do something to work out every day and I thought that was a great idea and one of these days I'm going to adopt it yeah I I don't I hate when I hear people be like oh I get so busy and I can't find the time to exercise I'm like if I gave you a million dollars every time you exercised you think you would find the time yeah because I wouldn't have to do the other stuff right well okay but you know we're all making choices and priorities and you know I can tell you this much my sister I think you ever met my sister but she's a family doc in South Philadelphia and she's been doing this for 30 years she's seen countless patients and she says old people that she that she takes care of particularly old men Lauren right the ones that stay active both physically and mentally they live longer yeah you know sure and active is you know it's not just you know being active in your mind but she says I mean you know my older patients again particularly men you know they're out there walking or they're playing pickle ball or they're whatever they're just doing something and I think as business owners we need to be doing the same thing it's just physical doing something physical is really really important it really is all right back to business your next piece of advice is lean into AI yeah last week I spent a full day in New York at the Javit Center for an event from uh Salesforce and uh oh my God it was unbelievable boy do these guys know how to run an event but it was a full day of just AI topics what' you learn oh my God I mean like pages of notes but it is a um the people that were there Lauren were technology people it was resellers like me and you know implementers and uh and and developers and integrators and you know a lot of Salesforce people um but you know I walked out of they're saying okay I have I have to do a lot of you know taking this writing and speaking about this in such a way that my audience business owners will understand in other words I gota I got to translate a lot of this information um into what really impacts them the most but I can tell you this much if you're running a business um you have got to be talking to your software vendors right now whether it's Salesforce QuickBooks epicore I don't know all of your software vendors and you have to be asking them what AI features are you rolling out in 2024 and believe me when I tell you they've got a bunch coming and then you need to say great when is it coming and what do I need to do to learn them and then you lean into them in 2024 take advantage of the new Ari capabilities that your software provider is going to be providing to you this year don't shy away from it don't run away from it or poo poo it lean into it uh because it will significantly increase the productivity in your business and man did I see examples that at the Salesforce conference for those of their customers that decide to really take advantage of this automation they're really going to be ahead of the ball game we all need to make sure we do that in 2024 my sense was that you were already doing doing it I mean you've given us a lot of tips throughout the past year yeah yeah I'm I'm actually not already doing it I'm talking about it because it hasn't already come out do you know what I mean I'll give an example like I just published on Friday a piece in Forbes because Google came out with a new um there a notebook app that was using Ai and it was like oh you could upload documents to it and then have like a chat GPT like conversation with it and it'll answer questions and give you advice and I'm like holy that sounds unbelievable let's do this so like I'm I'm looking for an administrative assistant and I'm sitting on 30 resumés right now and I wanted to upload them to this Google thing you know the Google notetaking app and then start asking it questions like you know hey who's got the most Financial experience of all these resumés you know or who's the you know who's got the most highest college experience or who would be the best candidate and it just failed it's just I there I had a whole bunch of problems uploading the stuff to it and the answers weren't that great I my point is the AI stuff isn't it's not there yet do you know what I mean it's like they're rushing to to get this stuff out of the market and it's exciting what's going to happen and it will happen soon but it's not there yet but we should be leaning into it I tried leaning into this Google notetaking app it wasn't great but I see where it's going and I'm excited about what it's and I'll be ready as it matures I'll mature along with it so you you got to lean into this stuff this year you got to do it here's one that I find a little intriguing focus on on people hey man I have told you Lauren since the very beginning I my I have very low turnover I have very dead again I overpay my people Jean I I know that to be a fact it is a fact and yet you're like oh Gan hates employes I think you're a split personality you are the Gan marks who actually manages a business and the Jean Marks who who writes about how terrible most employees are oh screw you Lauren I'm going to tell you right now my employees are great I I just not your employes all the employees that aren't great not mine you know I believe that you have a great relationship with great employees at your business but I think you when you write you tend to assume that most employees are trying to get away with something at least the ones that I write about that's for darn Shore why that's what I'm talking about so it's more of a warning um but yeah I mean one of the other things to commit to in 2024 and I do this every year I mean I I love the people that you work for me and I I look at their compensation I don't want to lose any of them so you know I I worry about that and and I want to make sure I'm overpaying them and I want to make sure that they're happy and that they're you know they're enjoying the work and their Challenge and I'm checking in with and I do that a lot I check in with them a lot uh just to make sure things are cool remember I run the world's most disfunctional company I mean we're a virtual company so I don't see people in the office so I have to you know I have to I make it a point you know I try my best to meet people either at a client or for lunch or out for coffee just to like hang out and you know BS with them and you know just make sure they're cool and they're happy and they like that so I I think it's really really important to make sure that you are looking after your people particularly if they're because they're the ones that make you money I admire all of that I I think you probably understand why I think it's interesting that you say that you are eager to overpay your own people while at the same time saying minimum wages are generally too high um but um again I think it's the difference between the way you treat your people and the way you write about uh employees in general do you know what Lauren people are complex okay let's leave it at that all right fair enough complex guy uh next meet with your accountant in May and September which is interesting cuz you are in fact an accountant yeah but I don't do taxes cuz you know I would be in jail by now you know but let's face it I mean you did used to do taxes didn't you no I never did I never I did audit you did Audits and things like that didn't you yeah but not tax audits financials you know like I I when I was a KPMG I was the guys going into those publicly held companies and auditing their accounts receivable you know like not taxes but got the point though is that uh it taxes take a giant bite out of your you know I I get so many questions right now like you know I'm doing some some TV segments between now and the end of the year and these people at these TV networks they're like oh let's do like a year-end tax tips segment I'm like dude it's like December like the end of December there's no yearend tax tips now you know like why why weren't we doing that in May or September wait you had some good tax tips last week yeah I mean it was like that was last week their last minute but it's and I think I and I say in my article if you look at it I mean I say this isn't a great time to be doing tax tips you should be meeting with your accountant at least twice a year in May after their busy season in September adjusting your estimated taxes looking ahead making sure they're up to date on any significant transactions that you might have had uh and and and talking about your year so that you're you're minimizing stuff there's going to be a lot of changes in taxes over the next couple of years a lot of things from the 2017 tax and jobs act are expiring by you know after 2025 and um they're going to impact a lot of us and and we need to make sure that we're keeping up on that because it's a big bite out of our income we've made it through almost all of them there's just one more and that's to enjoy your family yeah I mean that's it you've met right you met a couple of my kids I mean like you know if I had your family I would enjoy them too they're fun and it's kind of important to do and uh I just uh I just just remember you never remember the times you spent in the office you remember the times you spent with your family um and it is you it's just a it's not doesn't even have to be a commitment hopefully you enjoy being around them but it is absolutely something that my most successful see people define success in different ways and again this article is about for successful entrepreneurs well I consider somebody successful when they not only have a good business life but they have a good personal life and a lot of that has to do with their family so I appreciate them I can't imagine anybody disagreeing with that I do know that there are business owners who you know depending on the phase of their Journey they struggle with getting done everything they want to get done and finding time for everything they want to find time for did did you go through periods like that um no I I the stuff that I did um that was going to take you know that was going to take time away from my family was discussed in advance with my wife you know so I never went into I mean my biggest thing I can say is um you know it's funny because I just had lunch with with a friend of mine from from KPMG where I you know I worked almost nine years and you know I had the opportunity to stay there for you know and be partner there at some point and uh and that was a mutual decision me and my wife I was not going to go down that road because it was going to be too much of a a strain on a relationship you know and um that's when you decided to start a business yeah yeah it really was it wasd when I I actually take a job and then ultimately start a business because at least I could do that locally and not you know when you work for a big company you know KPMG says Hey Jean you're doing great now we want you to go to our you know our office in Oklahoma City and you know get that together and then after that moved to Austin you know what I mean and it just wasn't a lifestyle we wanted to have so we made that decision early on and I just think that when you're running a business or taking on any large responsibility um sometimes you put your ego in front of other people and I just don't think people should be doing that if you want to have a successful you know home life you have to be thinking about your other half and um and and again my most successful clients and I mean success meaning you know financially and personally um they they involve their spouses or their significant others in all decisions so um it's a mutual thing so you've done that Lauren you know I mean tried yeah I've had better periods than others but I've tried I'm not saying you know every time you know it's you know you do it the right way or we all whatever but you know for the most part it should be a mutual decision Gan marks is a CPA who writes weekly on small business for the guardian the hill the Philadelphia inquire the Washington Times the Chicago Daily Herald Forbes and entrepreneur you can also hear them on ABC radio's I on the world with John Bachelor Jean hosts two small business podcasts with paychecks Corporation and the Hartford this episode was brought to you by the great game of business which helps businesses use an open book management system to help build healthier companies you can learn more at Great game.com thank you Jean it's been a pleasure all year this is our last one of 2023 but I look forward to seeing you in January should be a great 2024 Lauren and I uh look forward to speaking with you every week have a great holiday everybody