Show Notes
Marcus asks: "My business is good right now. Maybe too good. I've got more deal flow than I can handle. I talked to a guy last Tuesday and still haven't followed up. I know I'm losing business, but I can't just ignore new leads either. I feel like I'm playing whack-a-mole and losing. How do I get ahead without hiring someone I can't afford yet?"
In this episode, Scott calls out Marcus's false narrative ("I can't afford to hire" is an excuse, not a fact), reveals the two reasons you hire (capability vs. capacity), and challenges Marcus to flip the question from "I can't afford this" to "How CAN I afford this?" You'll learn the Uber model for hiring (pay for finished products, not hours), discover the real reason Marcus is stuck (control issues and fear of letting go), and understand why every time Scott hires someone—even when scared—the business grows.
The bottom line: You're not stuck because you can't afford help. You're stuck because you're afraid to let go. Name the fear, hire smart, get out of the way, and let magic happen.
Got a business question? Ask Scott here: scotttodd.net/ask
📜 Full Transcript (Click to expand)
Scott Todd (00:00)
Welcome to Fix My Business, the show that helps you, our business owner friends, get unstuck so that you can keep growing your business. And the way that we do that is we answer your questions. And today's question comes from Marcus and Marcus says, hey Scott, my business is actually good right now. Look, that's a good thing, right? Maybe too good. I've got more deal flow coming in than I can handle. For example, I talked to a guy last Tuesday about his property.
and I still haven't followed up. I know I'm losing business because of this, but I can't just ignore new leads either. I feel like I'm playing whack-a-mole and losing. How do I get ahead of this without hiring someone I can't afford yet? ⁓ Marcus, I think that you're being short-sighted and...
I also think that you're giving yourself an excuse when you say that you can't afford them, you're giving yourself an excuse and out. And that's just, I think the wrong approach. You see, there's two reasons that you hire someone. Number one is capability, meaning that no one on your team has the capability of doing this task or the desire to learn it. And that includes you.
The second reason that you hire somebody is for capacity. You have a capacity problem. You can't take on more work. You're at your limit. You are now the weakest link. You are now the bottleneck. And the only way out of this loop is to hire someone. There's no other way out of it. Now, when you say that you can't afford someone, what I would challenge you with is to turn that around and say,
How can I afford to hire someone? See, if you and I were sitting here having this conversation, you would probably say to me, well, I can't afford this because I can't afford a full-time person, or I can't afford because I have other expenses. The reality is that you're leaving money on the table, and you're accepting that false narrative as the truth.
But now if you turn it around and put it into a different context and say, listen, okay, maybe I can't afford someone full time. Maybe I can't afford someone at a higher hourly rate. What can I afford? Can I afford to pay someone for a finished product? Think about this one for a second. Right now, all over this globe, there are people doing side hustles. There's Uber drivers that are not paid by the hour, they're paid
for a finished product. They're paid to get somebody from point A to point B. That's it. That's how they make their money. Uber sits back and says, we don't pay anybody unless they're collecting money for us. That same concept can apply to this situation, for example. Instead of saying to someone, I'm going to put you on the payroll. You're going to get 40 hours and I don't know, healthcare or whatever it is. Why don't you say to them,
I will pay you for every property that you buy. That's it. That's what winning looks like. Winning looks like buying a property. So for every property you buy, I'll give you 50 bucks or whatever the number is. doesn't, I mean, I don't know what the, I don't know what your margin is and all the other stuff, but what if you turn that around and offered it? Now, here's what I think. I think that there's a bigger underlying problem, I think that the bigger underlying problem is that
you're having a control issue. In the muddy mile framework, control keeps you in the loop. It keeps you stuck because you're afraid of letting go of that. You're afraid of somebody overpaying for a deal. That's what I think. I think you're afraid of somebody overpaying for the deal. I think that you're afraid of losing control, maybe buying too many, maybe not having the money to go buy these properties. And so,
in some way you've injected yourself as the bottleneck here and you're doing it for some reason that has nothing to do with you can't afford to hire somebody. That's a secondary reason. So I think that you have to examine why it is that you feel like you have to control that situation. And then when you unblock that, when you remove that block, all of a sudden you now have a clearer path forward.
and when you remove that block and put it to the side, well then you remove the bottleneck, you remove the obstacle, and then the spigot will flow again, and it will flow faster. I've always found in my business that whenever I hire somebody and I just give them the keys and I tell them, okay, look, just don't wreck the car, but here's the keys, let's go. I'm doubling my time, I'm doubling my out.
I'm more effective in what I'm doing and you know what happens every time I hire somebody even when I'm scared to do it the business grows. Okay if you're hiring a players you're putting them in the right seat the business will grow but you have to challenge yourself here why am I afraid to let this go and until you do that you'll just keep making excuses that you can't afford somebody and you're going to stay stuck here so
Your action is you're going to go out, you're going to first sit down and figure, ask yourself, what am I afraid of? Okay, I'm going to get over that. I'm going to go out and I'm going to hire somebody in a way that I can afford them. You're going get out of the way, let magic happen. And then you're going to come to me with a different problem. All right, Marcus, there you go. And if you have a business problem, challenge that you want attacked, let me know. Head over to scotttodd.net forward slash ask.
and I'll be sure to tackle your problem. See you in our next episode.
Welcome to Fix My Business, the show that helps you, our business owner friends, get unstuck so that you can keep growing your business. And the way that we do that is we answer your questions. And today's question comes from Marcus and Marcus says, hey Scott, my business is actually good right now. Look, that's a good thing, right? Maybe too good. I've got more deal flow coming in than I can handle. For example, I talked to a guy last Tuesday about his property.
and I still haven't followed up. I know I'm losing business because of this, but I can't just ignore new leads either. I feel like I'm playing whack-a-mole and losing. How do I get ahead of this without hiring someone I can't afford yet? ⁓ Marcus, I think that you're being short-sighted and...
I also think that you're giving yourself an excuse when you say that you can't afford them, you're giving yourself an excuse and out. And that's just, I think the wrong approach. You see, there's two reasons that you hire someone. Number one is capability, meaning that no one on your team has the capability of doing this task or the desire to learn it. And that includes you.
The second reason that you hire somebody is for capacity. You have a capacity problem. You can't take on more work. You're at your limit. You are now the weakest link. You are now the bottleneck. And the only way out of this loop is to hire someone. There's no other way out of it. Now, when you say that you can't afford someone, what I would challenge you with is to turn that around and say,
How can I afford to hire someone? See, if you and I were sitting here having this conversation, you would probably say to me, well, I can't afford this because I can't afford a full-time person, or I can't afford because I have other expenses. The reality is that you're leaving money on the table, and you're accepting that false narrative as the truth.
But now if you turn it around and put it into a different context and say, listen, okay, maybe I can't afford someone full time. Maybe I can't afford someone at a higher hourly rate. What can I afford? Can I afford to pay someone for a finished product? Think about this one for a second. Right now, all over this globe, there are people doing side hustles. There's Uber drivers that are not paid by the hour, they're paid
for a finished product. They're paid to get somebody from point A to point B. That's it. That's how they make their money. Uber sits back and says, we don't pay anybody unless they're collecting money for us. That same concept can apply to this situation, for example. Instead of saying to someone, I'm going to put you on the payroll. You're going to get 40 hours and I don't know, healthcare or whatever it is. Why don't you say to them,
I will pay you for every property that you buy. That's it. That's what winning looks like. Winning looks like buying a property. So for every property you buy, I'll give you 50 bucks or whatever the number is. doesn't, I mean, I don't know what the, I don't know what your margin is and all the other stuff, but what if you turn that around and offered it? Now, here's what I think. I think that there's a bigger underlying problem, I think that the bigger underlying problem is that
you're having a control issue. In the muddy mile framework, control keeps you in the loop. It keeps you stuck because you're afraid of letting go of that. You're afraid of somebody overpaying for a deal. That's what I think. I think you're afraid of somebody overpaying for the deal. I think that you're afraid of losing control, maybe buying too many, maybe not having the money to go buy these properties. And so,
in some way you've injected yourself as the bottleneck here and you're doing it for some reason that has nothing to do with you can't afford to hire somebody. That's a secondary reason. So I think that you have to examine why it is that you feel like you have to control that situation. And then when you unblock that, when you remove that block, all of a sudden you now have a clearer path forward.
and when you remove that block and put it to the side, well then you remove the bottleneck, you remove the obstacle, and then the spigot will flow again, and it will flow faster. I've always found in my business that whenever I hire somebody and I just give them the keys and I tell them, okay, look, just don't wreck the car, but here's the keys, let's go. I'm doubling my time, I'm doubling my out.
I'm more effective in what I'm doing and you know what happens every time I hire somebody even when I'm scared to do it the business grows. Okay if you're hiring a players you're putting them in the right seat the business will grow but you have to challenge yourself here why am I afraid to let this go and until you do that you'll just keep making excuses that you can't afford somebody and you're going to stay stuck here so
Your action is you're going to go out, you're going to first sit down and figure, ask yourself, what am I afraid of? Okay, I'm going to get over that. I'm going to go out and I'm going to hire somebody in a way that I can afford them. You're going get out of the way, let magic happen. And then you're going to come to me with a different problem. All right, Marcus, there you go. And if you have a business problem, challenge that you want attacked, let me know. Head over to scotttodd.net forward slash ask.
and I'll be sure to tackle your problem. See you in our next episode.