Dashboard: It’s Still About Hiring

[Music] welcome to another 21 hats dashboard I'm Lauren Feldman this week I'm here with Lou mosa to talk about the stories and issues we think business owners need to be following Lou runs American Management Services a consulting firm that helps small businesses all around the country thanks for being here Lou my privilege my friend I'm always happy to be with you I miss our days on uh Sirius XM uh we used to do this a lot more frequently unfortunately we haven't talked as often as we used to um I'm curious I'd love to catch up a little bit I'm I'm wondering what impact the last few crazy years have had on you and and uh American Management Services have has the pandemic changed the way you run the business in any ways I actually think that um in some ways while our Revenue dipped I think they were some of the best years we've ever had to cult cultivate management and people because it gave us the opportunity to spend time with people because our you know our history is to run as hard and as fast and as quick as we can the pandemic sort of froze Us in time a little bit so it gave us a chance to work more with people one-on-one to understand what matters to them to see how to develop them a little bit better and I think it's been I think it's been very productive in that regard I love hearing stories like that I mean obviously the pandemic has been extremely difficult for all kinds of business in all kinds of ways but I've also heard lots of stories along the lines of what you just said of people who used it as an opportunity and kind of figured some things out they were either because as you suggested they had time to do things they hadn't done before or they were forced to to make changes that it turns out they realized that maybe they should have made those changes all along well you know I I think um we got so used to saying covid-19 and the pandemic but reality is you know was a a very difficult couple of years with covid we've been through recessions that have taken years we've been through significant um crises that have taken years to get out of I mean when the when the mortgage World fell apart and the housing World fell apart 2009 101 that was three years of hell and you know to me whether a business owner has a solid plan Lauren to deal with every issue opportunity and crisis because opportunities and crisis sometimes go together what's crisis for one could be an amazing opportunity for another and it can happen in the same business the crisis and opportunity in different departments different ways of doing things but I've just always believed if you've got a solid plan and you've got a great balance sheet you know I'm of course terribly sad about the whole pandemic thing but that's how you get through problems is having a great plan and a great balance sheet have you guys been affected by the labor shortage actually we were for a short period of time I've noticed uh the last couple of months American management our recruiting efforts I'm not going to say I've gotten easier they're still very difficult because the world wants to be virtual and uh folks want to work from home and we've had to change how we look at things and when I say we I mean this old guy here but you know L we used to joke a lot when we did that radio show about people wanting to quote unquote work from home and you were not a big fan I'm curious about that have you adapted to the new remote uh Work World nope I haven't I I haven't adapted to it I don't like it but I have to live with it aded to it we we we well I personally haven't I don't work from home ever so I but I understand that people really see it as a benefit it's a way to reduce some of the stress folks have uh saves them a few shekels on gas nowadays which is certainly a bucket load of money and I I don't I don't we don't look to hire folks for virtual Lauren but if there is a place and a need and a reason to do so we're open to doing it now so you're you're now willing to hire people around the country that previously you might not have is that what you're saying we've we've done that um I shy away from it a little bit still I'm more willing to hire people that fit where I need them to be and if they need some accommodations or they need some assistance to work virtually on a part-time or some sort of basis I'm okay with that we've we've actually hired people from around the country to work 100% virtual for us and I hate to admit this but we failed miserably at it oh interesting so yep so at the moment that's not on my you tried it but it's kind of confirmed what you've always suspected yeah but I think it's our fault I don't ever think it's candidates fault I think it's always our fault so maybe we didn't try it as legitimately as we could have or as um sincerely as we could have maybe that's a reflection on me not liking it in general and it was more talk than reality but we tried it it failed miserably and I never ever ever blame a candidate like I never ever ever blame a client I'll blame an interviewer but I won't blame a client interesting you know one theme I've heard a lot is people who claim to have had success with root remote workers often say that the success comes with employees who have spent significant amounts of time working in the office and then went remote as opposed to being hired and starting from day one working remotely do you think that might be a factor for you well we we've we've done both of those too um we found some significant challenges in in training and legitimately onboarding folks 100% virtually um and then on the flip side of that we've had many people work for us that wanted to work from home we did we definitely did better with those folks because they had they had more of the DNA that y they know we need around here you talk to clients you have people all over the the country all of a sudden we're all reading stories about uh a looming recession what are you picking up what are you sensing in that area oh it's uh kind of bizarre to me because it's just about never that a client will talk to us and use the r word um they just don't do it they will talk to us about I can't get those damn raw materials or you know the bank's not being flexible or the cost of my product has gone up or I mean like you and I had a conversation long long long long time ago about my favorite little Italian restaurant here in Orlando and he told me about two months ago what it costs him to get chicken Now versus what it cost him 6 to nine months ago if he can even get it now but even he none of them use the RW my costs are going up my labor costs are going up my cost of fuel's gone up my cost of raw materials has gone up when I can even get it but I don't have clients use the RW and you know why because independent business owners they're just going to find a way to fight through it no matter what well I'm sure they're going to try but if it turns into a recession like the one you were referring to before back in 2008 2009 that that does make a difference doesn't it well of course it does and it depends on it certainly depends on the size and the breadth of what you do so I'll give you an example your good friend Gene Marx has all of his folks work um virtually yep if I remember correctly so he doesn't have big overhead he doesn't have big you know interesting L I don't know if you know this he's not a proponent of remote work he did it a long time ago but he's not a fan I read that and then on the flip side your other good buddy you know he's got all the storefront and all the bricks and mortar you're talking about Jay gos of course Jay Jay so you know to me you make an investment look look at think about Apple they spent billion do building that complex out in California and they can't get people to come right so I think I I think that we all deal with things differently but if you're an independent business owner whether it's recession inflation cost control fuel whatever that is again again if you have the depth of of uh a strong balance sheet and you have a plan and your people are all on the same page you have a good opportunity if you don't you're in trouble are you hearing anything from your clients um you know one of the things people are talking about a lot is the end of easy money are you sensing that there's a change in the relationship between your clients and Banks is it getting harder to finance things that's amazing you would ask me that because it is um it's almost alarming to me what we've seen lately we've had uh we've had probably a half a dozen clients in the last six months you know at any point in time half of our clients are in some degrees of distress uh money sales people profit banking Union taxes some degrees of Suess distress and about half are doing pretty darn good and want to lock it down and make sure they stay there so but the distress ones now we're seeing Banks uh send uh uh 90day out letters like like I brush my teeth it it's just it's just crazy so we have we've got one right now up in the Northeast that does about $40 million a year and they've got I don't know five or $6 million revolv with the bank and the bank sent them 90-day letter to get out it wasn't 90 days till let's work it out it was 0 days get out out of get out get out of the bank pay them off wow and and the company in all honesty that triggered by declining performance or what was the excuse sales had gone up profits were anemic absolutely anemic but the only reason Banks ever do that is when a client doesn't communicate properly with a bank but you know if if you if your Banker knows what's going on and what you're doing and why you're doing it they'll ride with you when there's some bumps and bruises but but we're finding more and more that once the banks decided they watch you out so we we got these folks rebank with an additional $2 million within 4 months and profitable wow and profitable because they needed a solid plan in a Direction but I I could give you numerous numerous I've got a guy right now just signed up with us yesterday that has more payday loans than I've ever imagined at 30% 30% because on 4 and a half million he's a break even company so I just I find the banking world's getting Tighter and I was with a few Bankers recently we did a mayor's event up in New York Westchester County New York and there were several Bankers there and they've been told straight up to look at deals differently the ones they have and the ones that are coming in and everybody's running to lock down their new money before rates go up even more what do you do for somebody who's fallen into the payday loan trap how do you get out of that it's a heck of a fight so first of all we got to look at how they're pricing to begin with so if your debt service on the these payday loans destroy is is beyond whatever your gross profit or your net profit is you can't get out of that so we need to restructure the payday loans they never want to do that so it turns into a hell of a fight even if that means we have to pull our clients money out of the bank and put in another bank so the payday folks can't grab it and I know they go crazy over that stuff but it makes them come to the table and talk to us you know when you were listening the uh challenges that uh clients come to you with or experience you mentioned one that I don't think you and I have ever talked about before and that is unions and I'm curious um there has been a lot of talk lately that uh unions are gaining some momentum um making inroads that they haven't in many years is that what you're saying no that that's not what I meant by that I I agree with your concept what you're saying you know the whole uh Starbucks Coffee stuff in Amazon and New York City right I I saw I saw a lot of that I don't look at it from that perspective I don't think Organization for the sake of organization is a bad thing I think Organization for the sake of U not being productive is a bad thing so I think all employees need to be held accountable whether they're technically organized and unionized or not where we see the problem is again um the union benefits and the cost to be a member of the Union um can go so high if our clients's margins and profits not where it needs to be it's another fight or another negotiation that has to happen and it's always about profit and cash flow that gets you in that position so everything revolves around the plan the profit and the cash flow you're not seeing a wave of unionization out there affecting small biz for a long time when I talk to business owners the biggest concern they've expressed to me has been the labor shortage but that's changed recently and all I hear about now is inflation is that your sense too that that's the biggest concern for for most businesses no I will tell you at least half of the people we meet with whether they use our services or they don't are looking for Quality folks some were looking for anybody and they would hope they would upt Trin them so it's still bad hiring totally and but some would look for anybody Lauren to try to plug a hole and hopefully train them and that just about never works um you know we have a philosophy here at American management if you didn't bring your aame we're not going to find it for you right we'll help you go from a b to a B+ but if you didn't bring your aame We're not gonna make you an a player what does that mean what what are you suggesting when you say if you didn't bring your aame so if you've got if you've got 20 years of business experience but your experience doesn't line up with what I need to be an amazing consultant I'm not going to turn you into an amazing consultant you might be a great accountant but I'm not going to turn you into an amazing consultant so we don't try to make you know matchboxes out of Cracker Jacks we don't try to do that now I will tell you this you know just in the last couple of days I saw Facebook froze hiring I saw wayf fars laying off people I saw Home Depot had a terrible quarter uh stock went down like a rock Target got blasted all right so that's going to put people back on the street I also think a lot of people that joined the great resignation are going to have take a little pause now and rethink about what they've done so I I will tell you from our perspective I've noticed in the last month that our the quality of the candidate we are getting now has gone up do you take Boomerang employees um on occasion I I historically have not I historically have always gone under the impression if you left our pastures to go to another one then that's it one chance and out however my thinking of late has been why I hate myself sometimes Lauren my thinking of late has been if they left for an opportunity that I could not provide I can't get upset with them if they left strictly over money or they left strictly over you know I'll may be willing to let them work virtually two days a week and not five that's different to me but if they left for an opportunity and they talked to us about it and I can't do anything to match or help or beat that opportunity and they want entertain coming back at some point in time I'm open to that I used to not be Luma is COO of American Management Services you can learn more about Lou and his company at amserve rv.com thank you Lou Lauren I love chatting with you you've been a great friend for a long time and I wish you nothing but great success you be well all appreciate that you too always a pleasure have a great week everyone