Do you want to make your company grow?
Are you looking to magnify your health and wealth?
You need to buy your company. Every. Single. Day.
Wait a minute, Kenny, I’m not in the market to purchase!
I’m not sure what’s going to happen in the world. There are all kinds of changes and challenges and different things taking place.
What are you talking about? I’m not buying a business.
My friend, you buy every single day, whether you own any of the stock in your business, or you are a leader in your business, whether you’re a community leader, whether you’re a family leader, you are buying every single day.
Today I just wanted to share this exercise that I rolled out recently.
It’s going to teach you how to invest in your own company in a meaningful way.
Let’s make your business and life amazing, my friends.
Where This Idea Came From
I had the opportunity to do a keynote speech at a Blue Collar Success Group event.
I was on the session and talking about operator DNA, and I wanted to share this exercise I ran through because I want you to think about the purchases that you make every day.
Now, these might be mental purchases.
These might be intrinsic purchases.
These might be purchases with your time.
We’ll let that land for a minute.
They might be purchased with your time because your time is actually the biggest asset that you have.
We all have different amounts of money in the bank.
We all have different levels of skill and education, but we all share the same amount of time. You might challenge me on that, and I would love to have an offline conversation.
Hit me up by email via kennyATkennychapman.com.
Let’s talk about time because it’s such an important topic here.
The Investment Exercise
Step #1 Reflection
Here’s what I want you to think about.
Regardless of your industry, I just want you to think about three different types of companies that might have some similarity to what you do or the type of company that you manage.
First, I want you to think about what type of company you want to run.
Let’s go dream world, if you will, a kind of perfect ideal:
What would be the ideal type of scenario or situation?
I want you to just give that a thought for a moment and while you’re kind of thinking through that and coming up with that in your mind, I want you to think about three different types of companies.
My Own Company
The company that I’ve founded is the Blue Collar Success Group.
We coach a lot in the trades, and there are programs and training and coaches and all types of stuff available specifically for the trades.
When I say specifically for the trades, we’re really changing behavior, and helping people get out of their own way is a lot of what we do.
And then I’m able to focus on what we’re doing here today, going into the psychological side of things.
By the way, if you haven’t checked out my book, The Six Dimensions Of Change, you need to. It’s a great place to start making a difference in your life and the lives of others.
I’ve got an upcoming book about purpose and guiding leadership through purpose.
That’s where I hang my hat now.
I want to share this from a psychological standpoint.
So again, insert whatever company-type into this exercise.
But here’s what I did.
I want you to think about three companies.
One is a plumbing company.
One is an HVAC company.
Another is an electrical service business.
Those are the types of companies that operate.
It doesn’t matter what the names are.
You can insert any names that you want.
Imagine These Companies
One company, let’s say the plumbing company, does $4 million in revenue and has a net profit of $500,000 a year.
The HVAC company does $2.5 million in revenue and has a net profit of $350,000 a year.
And the electrical service business does a revenue of $2 million a year and has a net profit of $175,000 plumbing.
Here’s my question for you:
Which company do you buy?
I want you to just think about that for a moment.
If you’re into garage doors, I want you to think about that.
If you’re in the chiropractic business, I want you to think about chiropractors or massage situations.
Regardless of your immediate vertical if you will, I want you to think about what this looks like for you.
We had primarily plumbing heating and electrical contractors on this session that I was doing.
I had them type in the chat.
We were doing a virtual meeting.
So I had them type in the zoom chat box about which one they would buy.
We had all different people choose all different companies.
Now we can all agree that all of them are doing, you know, multi-million dollars in revenue.
All of them are doing, you know, from high single digits to low double-digit net profits, but they are profitable businesses.
Then we think about the psychology of why.
Step #2 Think About The Psychology Of Why
I want you to think about which one of those businesses you would pick.
Let’s say you don’t have any trade experience.
I didn’t at all when I bought my first small drain cleaning company on April 1st, 1994.
Friends, I had no business being in business, didn’t know anything about plumbing or the trades, and now have built multiple national companies and helped all kinds of people all over the world from $500,000 to hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue and everything in between.
I didn’t know what I was doing, but I knew the type of company that I wanted to get involved in and serve.
I want you to think about that for a moment.
Would you, in this case, buy a $4 million company that nets $500 grand in plumbing?
Would you buy an HVHC company at two and a half mil at $350 grand?
Or would you back that electrical service business?
What’s fascinating is that as we get to the why some people said:
Oh, well I would buy the plumbing company.
Why?
Because I’m a plumber at heart. I’m a plumber, I’m a master plumber.
That’s what I know. I’m third generation.
Then other people said:
I would buy the plumbing company.
Why?
Because I’m an HVAC and electrical company now. And I see that I can add plumbing to that.
It’s already a $4 million business.
Step #3 Take A Look At Your Leadership And What The Company Needs
It’s got to have some structure; it’s got to have some management in place.
It needs to have some things that I could bolt-on and make my overall offering more valuable.
I want you to just kind of take a step back and think.
For the operator that I am, the manager I am, the leader that I am, why am I making these decisions?
If we circle back to the way that we do anything, it’s the way that we do everything.
The things that you did yesterday reflect the type of company that you are buying every single day.
I was able to buy a small, broke, drain cleaning company and start my scaling process from there.
When I got into the coaching and training business, I ended up launching the Blue Collar Success Group as the founder from scratch.
Now I don’t work in the day-to-day operation of that business.
I’ve got a phenomenal team that allows me to focus on things like this right here, where we get to connect at the psychological level at the higher leader level to help you get out of your own way and step into your greatness.
But you need to be honest with yourself.
- What is my task list?
- Why am I doing the things that I’m doing?
- Why am I not doing certain things?
What were the reasons that you bought?
Was it because of the trade?
Was it because of the size, revenue, profitability levels?
Did you think about buying any of those based on your own confidence, your own desire, perhaps the culture, perhaps your own clarity, what would be the most fulfilling for you in some cases, what might stretch you the most?
What might challenge you the most?
This is how you overcome mediocrity and invest in your company in the best way.
Step #4 Invest In Ways You Can Sustain And Show Up For
I want you to take a step back today, my friends, and really think about this.
Regardless of the trade that you’re in, how are you showing up?
Why are you showing up in the way that you are?
Because every single day you purchase with your time.
As I mentioned before, it’s such a powerful asset.
I just really wanted to take a moment with this article and think about that.
You’re buying things with your money, emotions, and most importantly time.
Are you getting a good return on this investment of the most important commodity in life?
Look for areas in business and life where you get the most bang for your buck, and look for areas where you’re satisfied and happy.
For more on that, check out my post on making success a choice.
Look For Opportunity
We need to look for opportunities in everything we do.
But we need to make sure we’re really good at what we do.
Don’t just chase after the next shiny thing because it seems to be working better.
Now you’re splitting your time investment too thin.
Master what you’ve got, and then chase those opportunities.
Maybe you add another product or service to your business.
Maybe you revamp your systems to lower the overhead or raise customer retention.
Invest in what you’re strongest in and get help where you’re not.
Final Thoughts
There is no wrong answer here.
When I rolled this exercise in, some of the plumbers raised their hand and said, I would buy the plumbing company.
Why?
Because I’m already at a plumbing company.
Invest yourself where you’re strongest. If that’s plumbing, great!
I want you to think about it; there’s not a bad answer, but there’s only an answer of honesty for you for your own truth, for who you are, how you operate, why you do what you do, think about it.
What’s the company you buy every single day?
What’s the company you are choosing?
Do me a favor and share this post if you liked it on Facebook or whatever social media you’re on.
Manage that driven mind that you’ve been gifted with.
I’ll see you next time, and until then, make it a better-than-fantastic day!