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Business of Machining - Episode 7
314 Plays8 years ago
Welcome to the John Grimsmo & John Saunders Business of Machining Podcast! We (John and John) have talked every Friday morning for the past year and we realized how helpful it has been to share our successes, struggles and stories with each other! So helpful that we have decided to record our conversations and share as this podcast!
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Transcript
Introduction and Episode Number
00:00:00
Speaker
Hi folks, welcome to the business of machining episode, I think seven. I think it is. Yeah. Someone said we should introduce ourselves. So my name is John and my name is John Grimsmo.
00:00:13
Speaker
And how's it work, bud? My week has been awesome as usual. Just living the dream. Awesome.
Sleep Disruption and Mood Challenges
00:00:20
Speaker
A night light woke me up. It's been a controversy because it's been helpful to have a night light with the kids in the hallway, but it woke me up and I really had a hard time going back to sleep and it kind of put me into a bad mood, just to be honest.
00:00:32
Speaker
I was like, no, don't do this. Like you've got a great day ahead of you. You're sort of a snap out of it. And it's not, it's not easy to do, especially when you're in that mood and you're ticked, you're ticked and you were like, feel like you were robbed of sleep. And I'm super glad that I just, yeah, just snapped out of it. That's really funny. Cause the past, I don't know what it is, but the past two weeks I've had those nights where I'm
00:00:54
Speaker
literally laying in bed for three hours from two to 5 a.m. And I'm like, do I just get up? Do I get to work? Do I do something or do I try to go back to sleep or do I just sit here and think and call my phone or watch a movie or like, what am I going to do? I can't fall asleep again. But luckily I get a lot of thinking time done, a lot of planning during those times. That's good. For some reason, my allergies to Eric's dog have really kicked up the past few weeks. Oh no. Apparently like the dog's a year old, so it's like shedding more than normal and then it's going to stop shedding later. It's like a labradoodle.
00:01:23
Speaker
Yeah, it's supposed to be hypoallergenic, but I'm still super allergic So it's really getting me in the chest and I have a hard time kind of breathing at night, you know cleanly So if I wake up at 2 a.m And I'm not comfortable then I can't fall back asleep. So that's that's like not good, dude I know my wife is sick I was gone for four days and I came back and she's sick and I'm like you can't wish that away But I'm like you have to say healthy like she got so much going on with the kids and work and all that Yeah, absolutely was I could say the
Touring the Haas Factory
00:01:47
Speaker
You were going to say that you've been traveling, and you're going to tell us all about it. So I went to California. The folks at Haas asked if we wanted to come do a factory tour. And I said, absolutely. So I flew out to Oxnard, actually to Burbank, and drove out to Oxnard. It's kind of funny. Haas is kind of in the outer areas of LA, or outskirts. So it was a little bit of a ways away, even from the airport. And it was mind-blowing.
00:02:17
Speaker
I mean, when you think about, and we filmed a factory tour of the videos up on the channel, but a over one million square foot facility, actually, I think it's more almost like double that if you consider the outdoor storage for their castings that puts out something like multiple dozens of machines every day.
00:02:37
Speaker
It's amazing. And you know, people can say what they want about Haas being to me, it's still phenomenal machines. People can say, oh, you know, like Amish was ragging on, you know, because he was just at the DMG Moray open house in Germany, which I think it all looks like, you know, a surgical suite inside. But I got to say, Haas has their stuff down.
00:02:55
Speaker
I don't want to ramble too long because the video tells the story better, but think about all the processes in place to receive these castings, machine them, assemble them, quality control, check them, put in the electronics, put in the tool changers, and I think they had something like 250 or 275 vertical and horizontal machining centers.
00:03:17
Speaker
So the coolant management for those. Every 100 feet, there was another one of those vending machines with packs of inserts and packs of Renishaw probes. I mean, it's just mind blowing. It's fantastic. I'm jealous. It's amazing.
00:03:32
Speaker
It was cool.
Visit to Pearson Workholding
00:03:33
Speaker
Haas was awesome. I think for me personally, the bigger lesson and takeaway that's going to affect me today was touring a place called Pearson Workholding, which is kind of a guy like you and me. Jay Pearson, he's a little bit older than us. His dad was a sheet metal guy, so he kind of grew up in the industry, but not really.
00:03:53
Speaker
So kind of a self-taught machinist, started with a machine in his garage and has built this company that has sort of two products, a vacuum plate and a mini pallet, interchangeable pallet system, which is also air activated. And his products are super dialed in. They're really nice. But what blew me away, and I was, I appreciated Jay, he let us film there as well, is the lean stuff. He does lean.
00:04:19
Speaker
better than anyone I've ever seen it by far. And again, the video will tell the story better than me rambling on a podcast. But he had Kanban cards when they get low on inventory. Anybody can see, oh, we only have six boxes left to pull the card. The card goes in the order bin. The order gets placed at Uline for this product number. We order this many. That's estimated to last us this long. And then the card goes back on the rack. And then they had ways to schedule the machines. They've got
00:04:47
Speaker
four or six mils and two lays, and they're all run by basically one and a half people. He's got automatic parts loaders. He's got inventory systems. I mean, it was phenomenal. That's amazing. And he looked at me and he said, there were two days last year where I got really stressed. And I'm like, oh my God, that's like twice a week for me. Yeah. So I'm excited. We'll get that video edited up, and you definitely need to watch it.
The Process as the Boss
00:05:32
Speaker
Nobody works for me you work for the company I work for the company and he said at best only he says it we all work for the process the process is the boss and they have this chart with all their products and when things get low anybody can go ahead and Make that change and that adjusts the workflow and what's gonna happen on the machines and they just aren't and he's he was so cool about it because I think sometimes people think
00:05:43
Speaker
already excited to roll some of that stuff out here.
00:05:56
Speaker
that stressed and busy equals success and he has this very it's like southern california but not in a like i'm gonna go go surf all day and i'm like hey i'm not stressed because the process is the boss and the process knows where we're at and we have products to ship and orders and it was it was maybe one to just smile i love it now i want to go on more factory tours
00:06:19
Speaker
So what are you up to this week? Anything you want to talk about? I came up with a new way to fixture the Tormach plates that we're making, like full-size fixture plates. So it's pretty creative in that it'll make them two operations instead of three and actually create better
00:06:35
Speaker
tolerances so I just cut a bunch of parts to make that fixture finish them last night so after we get off this call I gotta go get that thing humming I've got one coming back from anodize it was a QC part that's a funny thing like part of me wanted to go for it because I already sent a small block to anodize to get tested for
00:06:53
Speaker
sizing and Then I made the first 440 fixture and I was like no just make one and send it to him It'll cost you whatever hundred bucks for shipping and anodize on a one-off But I'd much rather get one back and know it is done right then send them Five or ten and either have to sell them as blends or throw them away or whatever Yeah, it should be good to see yeah, so I'm excited for that
00:07:15
Speaker
And that's all I'm trying to go back to that whole like don't be a hero John It doesn't do you any good to make a list at the beginning of the day that looks ambitious and you never get through it So that's all I need to do. Yeah How about you? What's going on today? How was your week?
Increasing Knife Production
00:07:30
Speaker
week was awesome. Man, we are getting into such a flow of production on Mind Blow. Oh, yeah. You know, for the past year, I'd say we probably average two to four knives a week, which is not not great. Yeah. You know, some really good weeks, some know some nothing weeks, and we're just
00:07:49
Speaker
Not great, why? Because you think you can do better because you don't think that's like sustainable for numbers? What makes you say not great? Because I know we can do better and it's not sustainable but the numbers know with this show. Okay, got it. But Eric's been finishing this entire week. He did three knives on Monday, three knives on Tuesday, four knives on Wednesday. And yesterday we were basically chatting and having meetings and had the accountant come over and it was a slow day and he still almost finished four knives. Wow. A day.
00:08:18
Speaker
So that was three, three, four, four, so 14. Yeah. So like the thought of like 20 knives a week consistently is, is visible now. Yep. And it's like, good gracious. This is what we've been working for this entire time, like buying these big machines and having a shop and actually getting processes down so that we can get products out the door. Like that's so amazing to actually be here. Is, so it's 20, is that, well, that makes you happy. That number, is that the sustainable number or is it one of the, do you need more than that?
00:08:48
Speaker
that would be very, very good for us. Okay. Got it. Yeah. I just want to make sure it's something I've been thinking about a lot too, as an entrepreneur is making sure I don't get too greedy. Like what is, because somebody keep, people keep asking me this. Like, what is your goal? And I'm like, I don't really have a goal in that sense, but you know, it goes back to that. You make your own happiness. So like, I guess if you get to 20, are you going to want to all of a sudden get to 30 or 40? I don't know. That's a good point. But like, like having a goal, it gives you a roadmap to go somewhere. Otherwise,
00:09:17
Speaker
Eric and I can just come in and play and process and not really produce. But now that we're actually seeing the possibility of getting to and even achieving 20 a week soon, it's empowering and it's exciting and things are going smoothly. And I mean, we've got 200 more knives to get done that we owe people. And the sooner that happens, the happier everybody's going to be. You know, everybody loves seeing pictures online where we're posting several a day.
00:09:43
Speaker
Think about that, if you got to 20, you're not at 20 yet, right? But if you got to 20, that's 10 weeks, that's two and a half months. That all of a sudden sounds phenomenal. Yeah, exactly.
Innovations in Knife Production
00:09:53
Speaker
Yeah. Good for you, man. Thanks. What are you learning now that you're bumping up, you know, tool wear, fixtures, flow? I'm learning that I've been ahead of Eric in parts, like there's stacks of handles and blades and everything ready, and he's catching up real fast. Oh, really? I'm starting to get worried.
00:10:11
Speaker
Because that was the, that was your concern last week was his, Oh, is it because you're grinding on the Maury and thus you don't have to spend as much time finishing? Correct. That's phenomenal, dude. Holy cow. That's awesome. So the grinding wheel I have right now is a 200 grit, but apparently it's all wrong. Linda at Mesko.
00:10:30
Speaker
M-E-S-C-O tools. They're in California. They're like a distributor. She just ordered me up a 500 grit beauty of a wheel that she said it's going to cut like crazy and it's going to impress you at the finish. I'm like, let's do it. I'm sold. But that's so funny because if you are burning at 200 and you could burn with any grit, but you wouldn't think going, I mean, 500 is a pretty fine. It is, but she said the composition of the wheel is all wrong and the new one's just going to be perfect. So.
00:10:57
Speaker
Three to four weeks delivery on that guy. Can't wait to see it. Three to four weeks? Yeah, it's gonna be custom made. Oh, that's annoying. I know. But I've got this process down pat. It got Eric down from like 45 minutes down to maybe 20 minutes.
00:11:10
Speaker
of sanding work afterwards, so. That was awesome. So we, when we were at Pearson, Jay said, hey, I get all my stuff Blanchard ground like next door. Do you want to go see? And I was like, uh, yes. So we also got to, and they let us film. So we got, we got to film this, uh, small grinding shop. I don't mean to say small, but phenomenal. They had, I don't know, six Blanchard grinders. They had double disc. They had ID OD centerless. I was like in hog heaven because it's something I'm just so fascinated with.
00:11:39
Speaker
Yeah, I think you mentioned in one of the early podcasts that, you know, you'd stay up all night looking at blanchard grinders. I'm not getting a blanchard grinder. And I'm still not, but they're so freaking cool. But one of the things I learned is, because I asked, I was like, how often do you change the, I don't know what you call them, like inserts, because they don't have wheels. They have these big, chunky, they're like, they're square, they're a rectangle, but one of the long edges is, is conical. Like a face mail?
00:12:02
Speaker
The whole thing. Okay. So think of a Blanchard having like a giant face smell as, but instead of inserts, each area where there would be an insert has one of these little grinding chunks. And so those are, so I think it would have maybe four or six or eight, I forget. And I was like, so how often do you change them? Thinking he was going to say like, Oh, six months or, you know, a year or whatever, knowing that they're also a shop that runs these machines every day.
00:12:25
Speaker
And he was like, just depends on the material, you know, whether it's in bar or titanium or aluminum or steel, but you know, sometimes it's once a day, sometimes it's every two days. These are these, these each must weigh like five pounds. And I learned it's because unlike like surface grinding, or I assume what you're doing where you have a really
00:12:45
Speaker
Glued or bonded material and you only dress it to kind of Freshen it up or true it up or more exposed a little bit more Blanchard you trade way less I may be using the right terms, but it's way less glued together So basically the material is coming off all the time Which is why they can grind so aggressively because they never load up. Isn't that cool?
00:13:07
Speaker
Yeah, that's awesome. Double disc is something we use for our stuff. We get it done somewhere else. You get it sent out. Yeah. Yeah. That was cool. I wish I didn't, I don't think I was running. Maybe I was running the camera then, but well, you want to describe it to folks if they don't know. Yeah, sure. Double disc grinding. I have been to a shop where they explained it to us and they showed us how it's done. When I show people in person, I put my hands up side to side and I kind of switched them back and forth.
00:13:29
Speaker
And like the part goes between where your hands are. They're the two grinding wheels. The part gets kind of shoved in and out and in and out between these two circular grinding wheels that are getting both sides of the part at the exact same time, making the parts perfectly flat, and they can dial in the thickness to within tenths. Crazy, right. And leave a pretty good finish. You still get a swirly pattern on it. So oftentimes after double disc, which makes them flat and parallel, then our parts sometimes go into lapping, which will make one or both sides beautiful.
00:13:58
Speaker
Same place lapping for you? They, they send out to a local place. Interesting. So they don't do it. Yeah, right. The cool thing I thought about their double disc grinders were, were the fixtures. Cause like you were saying, it's a sandwich. You got two pieces of bread that are your granny wheels and then the meat goes in the middle, but they had these like basically these arms, they look like giant shifter arms, like on a stick shift that moves the part in and out of the wheel. You do it by hand, but they have all these different sizes and fixtures to hold the part.
00:14:26
Speaker
Yeah, because each part has to have its own basically water jet or laser whatever cut fixture. Awesome. What do you what are you trying to do today?
Lathe Bearings and Inventory Management
00:14:33
Speaker
What's the goal? Today, I'm making bearings on the lathe. So I'm turning dial or Delrin rods, and I'm milling the ball holes into them. So that's awesome. Eric yelled at me and read and tell me that we have like two knives left. So I gotta, I gotta make a lot more, which is good.
00:14:51
Speaker
So are you doing Kanban inventory cards on stuff like that? No, but we're really starting to track and manage our inventory. I've got these little Ziploc bags, so I'll put like a minimum quantity in the Ziploc bag. And the second you open that up, somebody's got to make more.
00:15:05
Speaker
or order more, whatever it is. Got it. Perfect. Yeah. Cause he had a, what did he call it? Breadcrumbs. So that was the term, I guess that's the clean term for there's more of these stored elsewhere, like back on the inventory rack, like fault, follow the breadcrumbs. And it's funny cause I cannot emphasize how much I'm not interested in.
00:15:25
Speaker
the BS lean. I'm more focused on being lean than I am on making a profit or making a product, but I gotta tell ya, it is impressive when you see things like they had dedicated Kaizen foam, set up mats that they would bring out when they brought up certain parts. So when they assembled something, they grabbed that Kaizen foam with all the tools in it, and yes, it means that you've purchased four extra wrenches that are all duplicative because there's one in each product. Who cares? They're like $7 a piece or something, you know? Yeah, yeah, that's amazing.
00:15:54
Speaker
Did you make your go no go gauge for? No, I haven't. But we talked about it here. I mentioned to Eric and my father-in-law that you and I talked about it. And I'm like, yeah, this is something we really got to do for every process. Like even have a perfect part that's just like zip tied to this go no gauge thing. So you can like visually inspect and make sure that this is the standard, hold the standard, you know.
00:16:15
Speaker
That's a word I'm starting to really like process. How's it working out with your father-in-law? It's working out super great. I haven't actually announced it on like Instagram or YouTube yet. I should probably do that. No, but he's been here for five or six weeks now and oh my god, such a just amazing. The value added that he's adding to the business. I mean, if we had hired like an 18 year old kid off the street who will just do what we tell him to do, it would have been okay.
00:16:39
Speaker
But as a first hire experience, he's the first person we've ever hired. Luckily, his family, we know him very well. We know how to work with him or how not to work with him. But he's bringing huge accounting to the table because he's an accountant for 100 years. You put up a video about your budget.
00:16:58
Speaker
And I had him watch that video twice and he knows all about that stuff. He's doing our budget. He's doing our cash flow. He knows how much our products cost now. He knows how much cash flow forecast and all this stuff and all this stuff that I should have been doing and I could have figured out, but I never spent the time to do it. He spent considerable time to put it together into nice spreadsheets.
00:17:20
Speaker
Now I have a pulse on the business before I was just guessing, you know? Right.
Family in Business: Hiring Experience
00:17:24
Speaker
No, and that's important, but I got to think you feel, because I think you mentioned he may not, he may have a finite period of time at Crimson Eyes, but like it's got, I've got to think it's helped you understand how you want to hire going forward, right? Absolutely. It's been such a wonderful experience. Now we have no more knowledge about what the next guy's going to look, you know, not look like, but, but how he's going to interact with the business and what kind of person we're looking for and,
00:17:48
Speaker
you know, what kind of skills they should bring to the table, because we can train what we need here. But if somebody can bring some experience or skills to the table, that's a huge asset. Yeah, and I'm pretty sure I mentioned before, but he's, you know, he's loading the fixtures, he's got heat treat nailed now, he's got tumbling nails, surface grating nail. It's so awesome. Like, it's amazing. And he's working on our inventory, and he's telling me when to order more handle material. Right.
00:18:14
Speaker
It's just wonderful. It's like everything's coming together and it feels like we've been stalled for so long just doing R&D and like pretending to be a business. But basically since he came on, I mean both it was the right time to bring somebody on, to bring him on. And he made such an impact right from the get go.
00:18:34
Speaker
It's just fantastic. Production's up. Awesome, dude. I was talking to one of the other instant machinists. I don't want to name him because I don't want him to... Well, I didn't say I was going to share this, but he was talking about really feeling like he needs to hire somebody. And I'm like, dude, if you need to hire somebody, if you feel that pressure now, then you need to hire somebody right now because
00:18:54
Speaker
what you really need to be doing is thinking three, six months out because that person may not work out or it may take time to get them trained up and you're gonna learn so much when it's your first hire. And I really believe you gotta do this on a trial basis because the person, it's not fair to you, to that person or to the business to just all of a sudden force somebody in there. Like what if your father-in-law didn't work out or what if the person didn't? So have somebody come in part-time or as an internship or a trial and even if that person is working
00:19:24
Speaker
full-time say okay then for me I would just say let's come in nights and weekends or take a couple days off work and come in but don't just I think that's so critical to get a test run right don't just jump in and hope it's all gonna work out
00:19:35
Speaker
You know, Eric and I each have our own jobs, and we've worked together now for five years so we know how each other works. But having my father-in-law here, there were times when he was, you know, standing around and asking me what to do. He's a go-getter, but I'm like, I'm busy. I don't know what to suggest clean. I already did. Like, now that he's been here for a couple of weeks, he knows what to do. I don't have to tell him to do stuff as much. He's busy. He's got his own jobs. It's, you know, it's less work for me to manage him.
Implementing Lean Processes
00:20:08
Speaker
But it's not you're gonna watch that video from Pearson and you're gonna realize why I could go work for Jay Pearson tomorrow and Within 20 minutes. I would know what to do awesome Because I would walk through the inventory racks. I would instantly see what needs to happen. They have You're gonna blow your mind. Okay next
00:20:28
Speaker
Next to the inventory on the rack that's unassembled, they have a QR code. When you scan that QR code, an unlisted private YouTube video comes up showing you how to assemble it. That's what Paul Eakers does at FastCap. Yeah, Jay was super into Paul, although we also agreed that Paul can be somebody that you want to punch.
00:20:46
Speaker
And I was like, yes, like this is phenomenal because it's what you just said. It means when somebody comes on, I don't need to explain to them where things are and why we do things. And oh, you got to be really careful. You don't strip this or put locked in this screw and not this screw or where's Oh my gosh. It was just, yes. Perfect. That all needs to be laid out in the process manual. Yeah. Eric and Barry and I, we've been talking about that all week. Um, after watching Paul's latest, uh, factory tour video.
00:21:10
Speaker
the QR code to the video and all that. I've been reading this amazing book called The E-Myth Revisited. Oh yeah. Have you read it? I think I read it too long ago. Me too. I got to reread it. I read it, somebody gave it to me five, six years ago and I read two-thirds of it and then I stopped and I was like, this isn't for me, it's whatever. I'm paraphrasing, but it's saying the only reason to start a business is to hire people.
00:21:35
Speaker
And at the time I was the technician and I was like the guy who just wanted to be on my own in the garage. But now I'm reading that book with a whole new light. You need to read that book. We'll put a link to it in the podcast description folks. Really good book. Yeah. The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber. It's a good book because hopefully it's raw in that sense of not giving you the disillusion about entrepreneurship.
00:21:55
Speaker
Right. It's very real. He says there's three phases of business. There's infancy, adolescence, and maturity. You and I have recently grown out of the infancy stage. We've started to hire people. It's becoming real. We're deep in the adolescence stage, and you and I need to move to the maturity stage where the business can be run with employees with the lowest possible level of skill because the process is the expert.
00:22:16
Speaker
Yeah, what's funny? I don't want to focus on having that makes it sound like you're you want to focus on bad people I want great people of course, but the process is king right for sure for sure I've been thinking about our next hire it's funny funny topic and it's like do I hire a Machinist or I hire a lower like a labor person that does assembly and little stuff that frees up other people's times that are now doing that stuff or do I hire an office manager slash assistant or do I hire a video editor and I've been
Hiring Dilemmas: Machinist, Office Manager, or Editor?
00:22:45
Speaker
trying to think back to what do I want to do? Because to some extent, so it's funny though, that kind of flies in the face of what is best for the company. But some to some extent, I want to make sure I continue to enjoy what I do because some of our company is is through the YouTube channel, my passion for manufacturing machinery. Anyway,
00:23:04
Speaker
What I realized is quality of life. What's going to help me understand how to grow this business and think, and the more that I have time to both think and to run machines. I miss running machines sometimes. So that made me think that what I need to do is stop. This morning I spent an hour, as I do on most mornings, on paperwork. I can get all that off my plate, but it'll take time once I find the right person and then get them brought up to speed.
00:23:30
Speaker
Yeah, you mentioned enjoying running machines. I'm actually worried about in the next year or two, not having my machines to myself anymore. You know, if we hire a machinist to keep them busy the whole time, they're no longer mine. I can't come in and play and make new stuff. And I'd have to schedule my own time for my own machines. Yeah, but but that's a good thing. You know, it's that's business. Right. And you'll grow you won't have just those two machines. And right? Yeah, it's a good thing.
00:23:54
Speaker
I've also become obsessed. It's like, I think my new focus, which is this idea of, I've always loved automation. It's kind of why I got into this from the get-go with this whole Arduino motors, but CNC machines, lays and mills should absolutely be automatically fed, whether it's robots or parts loaders or creative systems. And Jay at Pierce has done some really cool systems. He's got some others coming out that are super cool, like magnetic, hydraulic, pneumatic, super cool.
00:24:19
Speaker
So when's this video coming out? I'm so excited. I can't wait to watch it. We had a couple of different video editors to come part time or like on the side, help out local. And so the second we're working with one right now and she is coming by. I have, I think I have five or six different videos from the California trip. Nice.
00:24:38
Speaker
But it's been great because that's the other thing. It's like I was spending so much time editing videos and I kind of enjoy it to be honest. But it's by far the easiest thing to get off my plate and let somebody who's really good, really passionate do it. The tough thing is that until she or he or she becomes a full-time employee here, it's a little bit, it's not as much of a time saver as I'd like because I end up watching the videos
00:25:03
Speaker
at least once in a draft form, sometimes twice. Whereas if they were here, they could just basically flag the question points, grab me, we could go through them real quick. Because the way I film, I don't film that much extra footage, so I'm not too worried about them capturing the right, it's actually good that they aren't a machinist because it makes sure they understand how to tell the story in a manner that makes sense. Absolutely.
00:25:26
Speaker
Anyways, yeah, it's it's funny because I kind of enjoyed the process of editing videos But I would rather enjoy doing other stuff instead So I basically gave up on editing videos for the past six months or so
00:25:38
Speaker
I mean, I filmed your open house last year and never edited it, filmed IMTS, filmed Autodesk University, never edited it. You never did the IMTS video. I know. Do you still have the footage? I do still have the footage. It's halfway edited. Man, you should finish that one. I will, because it's an every two year show, so it's not going to get old soon yet.
00:25:59
Speaker
That's not a good excuse. I know. I know it sucks, but you know, I'd rather do other stuff. I've got more important things in my place. So I mean, I'm thinking of hiring video editor. You absolutely need one, but yeah, I understand your concerns about it. Not saving that much time. Right. In that scenario anyway. Yeah. What's anything, anything stressful going on?
Financial Clarity and Accounting Support
00:26:17
Speaker
I actually, I'm feeling a lot more liberated about money now that I have unaccounted on payroll. Good. Which is really good. Yeah. I mean, cause up until now I'm the only one who knows all the numbers and it's,
00:26:32
Speaker
airing all your dirty laundry and just understanding the whole picture and making a map to get out of it. And it's absolutely possible and we're going to crush it this year. Good for you. That's awesome. And you had that conviction just because it's not because anything has changed. Only thing that's changed is you just now understand the roadmap. The number's a little better. Yeah. I just have a better pulse and a better perspective and you know, better mindset about the whole thing. And the fact that production is upping too, it just, it looks like it's actually going to work out, you know?
00:26:53
Speaker
It's nerve wracking, sharing it completely and openly with somebody else.
00:27:01
Speaker
It's funny somebody in the comments on the budget video that we did was like what you said isn't net income It's actually you know some other technical accounting term, and I just wrote back, and I was like yeah I was nice, but you know you are exactly why I don't like accountants some accountants
00:27:17
Speaker
You are getting confused with you know EBITDA and depreciation and net operating process left less Accumulated taxes or stuff like no, this is not you know, we are not doing hardcore accounting Reconciliation here or variance reporting. We are
00:27:33
Speaker
understanding a cash flow forecast. Simple. Don't get, you know, the number, it's garbage in garbage out. You got to have good numbers. You got to be honest with yourself. And most people aren't honest. Most people underestimate the little expenses and probably overestimate revenue. But nevertheless, it's that that's why I think it's great just to have your own sort of budget that's different than what the accountants do that, which will get just that. Yeah, absolutely. You know, I'm certainly guilty of
00:28:03
Speaker
those two things you just said. And you know, I could have done what Barry just did. I just never got around to it. And I suggest that everybody listening who thinks they need to do it, just watch John's video, watch some other videos. Suburban Tool did a decent cash flow video on YouTube. Really? Yeah. I didn't see, I watched, I think a lot of their videos, I didn't catch that one.
00:28:22
Speaker
Yeah, it was very similar to yours just cash forecasting and all that and yeah, yeah, it's got done you guys. Oh my god I'm just relieved now. The other thing I'll say though if I've done this a lot over the last 15 years is in my opinion. It's ideal that the person Preparing the numbers isn't the one reviewing them. In other words. It's really helpful to
00:28:44
Speaker
Have somebody because when you when you spend all the time creating them you become sort of self absorbed in them And now that's not always the case when it's a solo endeavor or you're on your own so what I would say is Sort of spend some time preparing them and then go come back a couple days and try to review them from an outside perspective Or in your case, you know, that's when you can sit down with
Sharing Financial Data for Feedback
00:29:05
Speaker
with
00:29:05
Speaker
Your brother your father-in-law or there's somebody else just share them or if you're out there and you don't know what to do go share them with Somebody at the business incubator or chamber commerce or a business advisor or score Who cares I could care less about sharing my numbers with somebody right or your dentist or somebody else you know some other professional that you kind of respect and
00:29:27
Speaker
Yeah, and let them ask some questions and they'll give you a chance to explain them and make sure it's a logical way. And listen, the thing is, it's nerve wracking sharing your numbers with people. I always felt that way. I don't like to talk about money, really. But the second you do and you become comfortable with it and you get somebody else's perspective, then they'll tell you stuff you never thought about.
00:29:49
Speaker
Warren Buffett has a sort of a long-standing rule that when people try to convince him to purchase their companies or to get involved You need to I think this is there's another guy at a similar thing. I think it's Warren you need to be able to send it to me on a crayon using a crayon with one single sheet of paper and
00:30:09
Speaker
Tell me what you do, why your company is great, and how you make money. Don't give me 47 pages of size eight font with Excel, blah, blah, blah. Kind of goes back to the essence of keep it simple. Absolutely. Sweet. Sweet. Awesome. Good chat. Have a good Friday, bud. Crush it. You too. Take care. Bye. I'll see you. Bye.