You've done a great job building up your junk removal business where you finally are having to hire people. Your business is moving into a completely different stage where you go from making sure you do all the work correctly to making sure your team members do. How do you keep them motivated to do a good job? And what do you do if they stop performing. Lee Godbold with JRA teaches you the JRA Way with managing people in this video.

Welcome guys! Everybody, another episode of Junk Removal Made Simple brought to you by the Junk Removal Authority. My name is Lee Godbold, myself and my business partner bill up Junk Doctors junk removal and hauling to a $2,000,000 a year business by the end of year 5 out of North Carolina. I’m the president of Junk Removal Authority, your source for consulting and support services for the junk removal industry. Providing a complete business package, AdWords management, Search Engine Optimization management, call center campaigns and general consulting services to the junk removal industry. Reach us at +1 919-466-9322 or visit us online at junkremovalauthority.com. Rolling right into it today on Junk Removal Made Simple. We’re talking to you about having a results-oriented organization. We’ll call this a “Roo (Results Oriented Organization)”. What is a Roo? Roo is a company. Roo has a company culture where it is known that results matter. So, everybody from the company and the president, which is likely yourself. It’s me in this case. From the company president down to the janitor that cleans the floors and washes the bathrooms. We know that Roo, the company culture has the results.

Achieve The Results You Want

We know that results matter. So, what does this mean? This means that you clearly outlined what’s expected to get done. A timeline on getting those tasks completed and standards to which those tasks are expected to meet. If the task is finished but not up to standards or if the task is not complete then the people don’t go home until it’s done. They are expected to stay until the task is complete or at least to the point where they are at a good stopping point. If they plan on finishing a certain task and the deadlines, they stay however long it is until the task is complete and it’s up to standards. You create a culture about that. I can’t stand when people gets to be 5:00 o’clock and everybody right at 5:00, they’re out the door. They didn’t hang around at 5:01. That is not happening in a Roo. Roo has it where tasks matter. It’s not time, but it’s task. So, completing tasks is the important thing and people stay until the task is completed. Again, that goes all the way from yourself as the president all the way down to the janitor cleaning the facility.

This right here is going to make your people more efficient. So, what do I mean? I mean if people think that they are going to get off at 5:00 no matter what. Then they’re going to be taking a little extra long coffee break. They’re going to be cutting up, talking and stuff like that without working.  In a Roo, with the results and the organization, your people know that they are expected to stay until the task is complete. That will make the people more efficient. For example, we have a policy that any of our stuff, any of our items that come into our facility before 3:00 PM for sale, so we sell items. Those items that come into our facility for sale are listed. Every item we get before 3:00 are listed for sale by the end of the day. The particular person that handles that knows it doesn’t matter if he’s finished at 5:00 or 5:30 to get those items listed or it could be 7:00 or 8:00. He’s expected to stay until everything is listed. He’s paid hourly. That particular guy was paid hourly, so we’re paying for that extra time. If he’s still being slow, sometimes you got to say “You got to pick the game up. You got to pick it up, this only be able to be done by 5:00 or 5:30” but he knows no matter what, he is expected to stay until the task has been completed.

Honing Your Team To Be The Best

People need to be called out. People called out over poor performance. If somebody, doesn’t matter how long they’ve been with the organization, their title or anything. If they are not performing, not getting their task complete and they are not performing up to standards that need to be called out. Sometimes this may happen in public. Generally, not in public. It is generally a private meeting. It doesn’t matter all the way from the top, you yourself as the president to the right beneath all the way to the bottom. Being the janitor, cleaning. Calling out people in poor performance is a must.

Recognize people, on the opposite end recognize great performance. Don’t just tell somebody they’re doing a great job if they are not really doing a great job. Recognize for great performance. If they’ve been busting their tail going above and beyond. Getting their tasks done, they weren’t really expected to do to. Recognize this people for great work and pay them for great work as well. Give them bonuses. Raise the pay. Do what you got to do because you got people like that. You got to make sure you pay them right. These people are very loyal, but at the same time there’s going to be a time where somebody else is going to notice how good of a job they’re doing. Even if they themselves aren’t going out there looking for another job. An opportunity is going to come to them. People that are ambitious and people that work hard, they put off something that people like myself and other Go Gators. People can recognize how. People see that. They smell and see it. They’re going to be like, “Hey, what are you doing right now? Would you like to come and work with me? I can pay you this much amount more.” Always make sure you’re getting those guys with good payment or you will lose them. People like that are few and far between. You got to make sure you hold onto them.

You know what guys, you can tie their pay in with performance or sales or combination of both. Get them feeling like the harder they work, the better they do these tasks, the better job they do, the more money they’re going to make. Tie them in. Make them feel like they have a little piece of the pie. If they’re going to go out there and work hard, make them feel like they got a little piece of that pie. They can enjoy some of that pie by getting that raise from doing a job well done. Your top performers, make it where they could make serious money. Our content marketing creator is coming in. He’s already getting started at a part time, hourly basis. His first official date is June 1st when he goes full time. I told him, we did his pay structure where he gets a base salary and then he’s tied in with the sales of the organization of Junk Removal Authority. The better JRA does for sales, the more people we reach, the more people we help, the more achieved success they have it before then our sales is going to keep going up. If we do something good for one person, they’re going to buy the products from us. That means our sales are going to be going up. One of our first things we got to do is make sure we’re reaching those people. Make sure we’re giving out enough content to those people that realize what we’re talking about. Make sure we give enough content that are actually helping people regardless of whether or not they’re using our services.

We’ve tied his performance into that. He got the potential to come out and make $100,000 over this next year. I told him ” Man, I hope you make $300,000. I hope you make as much as you possibly can.” Some people that do this, they tie pay into performance. They tie pay into sales and then they cap it. What kind of stuff is that? Is your pay cut? No, you’re paying cut. Your pay is not cut. Why are you going to reward somebody when they get you up to the point where they make $150,000 and then you’re going to cap them for anything over that. It’s selfish. If you’re doing that, simply because you want to make sure that person is not making a ton of money and it could be making more money than you.

Listen, if he’s going out and making $300,000. He very well might make more money than me for that particular year. Long-term, the value that company is going way up. The value of our company, myself and business partners we have in Junk Removal Authority. That equity is going up and that values coming up. There’s a good chance he’s staying at $300,000 and he’s taking that at home. That $300,000 we might make, it’s going to be back into that business because we’re going to improve that business for more services. We’ve got just a huge list of an app we want to develop. We want to improve our services even more than they already are now. We’ve got a course. I can’t elaborate a lot of that. We got some great video training, operations manuals that are going to come out.

It’s going to be like nobody’s ever seen before in the service industry. So, all the money we made, it’s going to back out. It’s going back into that business. This guy right here could very well, I hope to God he does. I hope he makes more money than I do. I hope he makes $300,000 over the course of this next year. It is going to be tough for him to do it yet. I hope he does it. If I’m going to cap it, I won’t cap it. I’d love to make beyond a million dollars in a year. Do not cap this if you’re setting sales goals and performance goals. If you’re tying somebody’s pay into performance, don’t put a cap on it. Let them make as much money as they possibly can. Don’t be so selfish by capping the amount of money your people can make for great performance. It should not be done.

Getting People For Your Business

You need to constantly be bringing people in. Always be hiring. Always be bringing people in. Bring them in and kick them out. I can’t remember. It seems that there was a song about that. You got to bring them in and give them a shot. If they seem like they’re good in the interview, bring it on in. If they seem like they can hang and operating the results-oriented organization, bring them in. As soon as they can’t perform and you’ve addressed it. You’ve tried to train them a little bit and you decided it isn’t going to work. You’re going to kick them out. Bring them in, kick them out. You got a whole cycle going on. Bring them in and kick them out. Always be bringing new people into your organization. Keeps everything fresh. Keeps people from getting comfortable. That’s a good thing.

Comfortable people do not perform. Comfortably, that goes to yourself. One of the biggest mistakes you can make as a business owner, as an entrepreneur is to get to the period you’re comfortable. I got a neighbor, friend of mine making good money he makes. He makes quite more money than I do. Bringing home over a million a year and he had some years that he probably made 2 or 3 million dollars. Bringing home not gross income. He is smart and he got comfortable. He settled down a million a year. He’s happy enough. He’s much older than I am and he’s thinking about the time that he should have started this 20 or 30 years ago. He got comfortable. He got comfortable 15 years ago and he should have kept riding that thing hard. Grow it as big as possible.

When you get comfortable, you lose productivity. He could be making and bringing home $10,000,000 a year now. It’s a phenomenal product. He’s a phenomenal guy. Just a great guy all the way around. Had he stuck with it and had he stayed motivated? He works hard now, but he takes periods off. Does he had a motivated outlook all the way through? You’d be making $10,000,000 a year. You’ve got to stay motivated. As soon as you get comfortable, that’s when you go down in flames. I can’t remember the exact statistics, but it’s something like between 100 hours and 250, it’s dangerous. For 250 to 500 hours, it is not that dangerous because you’ve gained skill. 100 to 250 hours, you’re no longer flying with an instructor. You’re new so you don’t have a lot of skills. That’s your dangerous stage. From 250 to 500 you’ve gained some skill, but you’re still not comfortable. Between 500 and thousand hours, that’s the point right there. I think you’re more likely to screw up between 500 and thousand hours than any other period because you get comfortable. They say if you hadn’t screwed up that time on thousand hours, there’s a good chance that you will. A lot of people screw up between 500 and a thousand hours because their skills gotten better. So, they’ve gotten comfortable and they mess up. Once they mess up and if they survive it. If it did not kill them or it doesn’t run them out of business, a lot of times they won’t make that mistake again. They might, but a lot of times they won’t. The same sort of thing, do not get comfortable in your business.

Aim For Top Quality

People will recognize when mediocrity is not accepted. We’ve had this happen before. We let guys get a bit comfortable. They didn’t want to become a team leader, but we started hiring. We started hiring and we started promoting people to become team leaders. We had enough people where other guys that weren’t performing we’re getting hours. They’re like, “What? What’s going on?” Why you’re not performing? All of a sudden, they pick their game up and they became a phenomenal team member because of that pressure. You got to give them pressure. It’s like treat them like a sports team. The people that perform get the playing time. The people that do not perform ride the bench or get cut. That’s the way it is. Treat it like a sports team. LeBron’s production dies off, he isn’t going to play. He might not get cut because he got a contract. It is sure that he isn’t going to play as much if he starts averaging 6 to 7 points a game. Turning the ball over and all that kind of stuff. It’s not going to happen. One of the greatest players of all time, some would say the greatest. I say Michael Jordan is the greatest, but if he stops performing. It doesn’t matter what he did 10 or 15 years prior. If he stops performing then he starts riding the bench. That’s the point right there, longevity doesn’t matter.

If somebody had been working for you for 2, 5 or 10 years and their production, all of a sudden drops. You don’t them a whole lot of slack because they’ve been there a long time. You meet with them and say, Hey, what’s going on? Why have you dropped off? We need to get your performance and productivity back up or you got to leave.” They say, “Man, I’ve been with you for 10 years. What’s going on?” I said, “Yeah man, you’ve been great for me for 10 years. You aren’t great for me right now.” The present moment is what matters. This is one of the biggest mistakes that management makes. The federal government is the world of work. We got probably 80% of the federal government workers out there comfortable.

They violated every single principle right here. If we had somebody come in and clean the house. Run the federal government like I’m talking about running this right now. Everybody’s taxes can be lower when we have a surplus. That they are a perfect example. They don’t feel any pressure at all. They’re not going to lose a job, so they don’t have any pressure at all to perform. So, longevity does not matter. It does not matter 1 week, 6 months, 2 years, 10 years, 30 years, or 50 years. Performance drops off, they got to pick it up or they’re going to leave one or the other. Somebody that are with you for a long time, maybe it will not sound harsh. You take care of them and you do whatever. The point is they have to go if performance has dropped off.

This is one thing, you always hear. The general consensus in most business books that college professors and whoever else, is that turnover is a bad thing. On the other hand, believe turnover is a good thing. Brings in fresh faces and ideas. Keeps people on their toes. Right there, guys that is why turnover is a good thing. Again, bring them in and bring them out. Bring them in, kick them out. I want to remind everybody that always have a rotation of talent coming through. The people that perform the best get playing time. People that don’t, have their hours cut back. They either quit or they’re moved out of the organization. You always keep a constant rotation. Keep people uncomfortable, keep them on their toes and keep up performance for you. That’s the reason you have team members is for them to make the organization money. That is the one reason you hire anybody to save you time which makes you money because your hourly rate goes up. You’re working a little bit less. You’re working on stuff that’s more productive and bringing in more money or just to increase the amount of money that you are making.

You’ve got to remember, I’ve been guilty of this. I’m talking real tough right now and I’ve gotten pretty tough on my team members. Fair, respecting fair. Some people don’t like me. A lot of people we let go doesn’t like me. They didn’t perform. We moved them out of the organization, but we’ve got some more that would probably get ready to move down too. That’s constantly, I’m making this like one-time thing. Constantly, so many people coming in, people going out.

You’ve got to remember you are the boss. Every organization needs one person that makes the final decision. Take input from many people. Your best team members and your most valuable team members. Take input from your business partners. Take input from experts in the field you’re working on. Whatever you’re working on, take input from one person that makes the final decision. It could be you have a vote. It could be you have a round table. This is my decision so far, convince me otherwise. You have people that give you negative arguments all the way around the table.  Your mind very well might get changed, but one person makes the final decision. Generally, your instinct is correct. It doesn’t mean your first choice is correct. That doesn’t mean the very first thing you thought is correct, but when it comes down to it. If deep in your soul, they have not convinced you that what they’re saying is the right way to go.

Almost, always go with your instinct, but often times you’ll get convinced. My initial thought on stuff is quite often. I would say the majority of the time, but quite often I’m convinced. Otherwise, from making a decision maybe 15% of the time and that’s a lot. Those parts for the most part have been good. Remember, you’re the boss. You take input from many people, but you make the final decision or one person makes the final decision.

Okay, this is a big point. Everybody will go lame race horses, all race horses.  What’s the name of that horse right now?  They just won the previous Kentucky Derby. I think its name is Justify. That could be few years back. I was racing too closely. This horse won two of the three triple crown. At some point, he’s going to go lame. It could be the next race. It could be a couple of years from now. At some point, he goes lame and he has to be gotten rid of. He becomes a breeder and when he’s not good for breeding then he’s not healthy anymore. At that point, he might die and you put down. At some point everybody goes lame and that includes yourself. What do you do when people go lame? One, you either get rid of them or two, the first thing you need to do is why are they going lame? Are they bored? Are they tired of this job? Do they have talents that we could utilize somewhere else? Including your own. I have gone lame with certain things. I will go lame with certain other things and what we do at that point is we find somebody else. Probably better than that particular thing than I was. Anyway, we bring them in. We get to the point that I’m doing what I’m best at and what I enjoy doing. We have other people in place doing what they’re best at and what they enjoy doing. I got my hands on every single part of the organization. I’m involved in everything within Junk Doctors and Junk Removal Authority. When I go lame on something. I’m going to bring in somebody to replace me. When you have people go lame, it’s your obligation to your organization, family, yourself and other employees that you get rid of a lame person or you get them in a position where they are no longer lame. Where you figure out what’s going on and you correct the lameness. Everybody goes lame. Don’t let it cripple your organization.

One of the biggest things I want you to take from this though is all this tough talk. All this toughness right here. You must hold yourself to the same level and expectations. For example, I’m hearing it here tonight.  I’m recording this video about two hours later than I want to. I’ve got other things I can do. However, what was one of those rules? If it was a task as supposed to get completed today, it gets completed today. I’m holding myself to the same exact standards. I hold everybody else within the organization. People always talk about push or pull management. Pull as far as rewards and incentives. Push as you do this or you’re not going to be working here anymore. You do this because you’re expected to do this, that’s push. You need both. A lot of people and business books say you need pull. Pull is good and it does work. Push and pull organization is best.

Taking Care of Your Team

Recognize good mark. Give bonuses. Sometimes you send incentives for good stuff. You got that push that this gets done or you don’t work here. You push and pull. You do both for the best results. I want to make this clear. You owe it to your family and yourself to get as much from your people as possible. You’ve gone out. You’ve quit doing your previous job. You might be making good money before. You’ve taken debt out if you own your business. You bought all this equipment. Your thought and mind are almost always on business. You work a tremendous amount as a sacrifice you’re making. You’re away from your family. A lot of times when you’re working and even sometimes when you’re with them, you’re thinking about business. That can be a problem right there, but that’s my point. Right there is everything.

Your business consumes literally everything within your life. You owe it to your family and yourself to get as much profit for each person that you bring into your organization as possible. What you’re going to also find is you owe it to your team members. To those team members that are doing their part. That are working hard. That you set up a pay structure that they get bonuses for success. That you’re not putting up with people that are not performing and still making good money. You’re not putting up with people that are not performing, that is negative. You’re not putting it up with that in your organization. You owe it. Again, you owe it to yourself. I’m going to say this again. A lot of business owners make this mistake. You owe it to yourself to make your business as profitable as possible, so you can make a bunch of money and have a lot of freedom in your business. What you’ll find is by you doing that, all your team members are also going to have a better life, the ones that stay. The ones that are not good are going to leave. The ones that stay are going to have a job that they enjoy. Another episode of Junk Removal Made Simple on results-oriented organization. Always call us at +1 919-466-9322 with any questions. You all have a wonderful evening. I hope everybody’s junk removal business. I hope this was beneficial to everybody’s business. We will talk to everybody real soon and be back next week. Thanks guys.