ELITE : SIX Think Tank meetings are discussed over ZOOM with our members every Friday at 9:30am.
Facilitated by DANNY : DE HEK meetings are recorded for our Podcast, we’ve been doing this since COVID-19 if you’re interested in joining in with us check out our Website.
Transcribed by Otter
Danny de Hek 0:00
We have a riveting topic that we’re going to discuss with these lovely people in the Zoom Room today called learning about 2020. And we’re not going to mention anything about technology today with David Clarkson. Alright, so we’re gonna get straight into it. We have a mind map on the screen. I would like to just did that.
Shaun
Shaun Jin 0:21
Hey, mute.
Danny de Hek 0:25
I’m going to share my map. Hopefully it’s gonna work this week. We had problem with technology last week. Now you’re doing it might not work.
Rob Woolley 0:33
Did you mention the technology? Danny? Oh. words? Can
Danny de Hek 0:39
we see a big screen on the table? No. Okay. I got to do something here. We’ll just get this going starting this start? All right, I need to see what you guys are seeing. And just for the, for the people who are new here, we actually are broadcasting this on our closed Facebook group, but it’s not going public. But that means you can refer back to it later on if you’d like. I’m going to just get my screens in order. Right. So have suppose the what’s the people’s experience been in 2021? running the business would probably be a nice way to start off as a general question.
Rob Woolley 1:18
Fantastic.
Danny de Hek 1:21
Fantastic. Well, yeah,
Paul Starling 1:25
Best year so far.
Danny de Hek 1:28
Really?
Raymond Lum 1:29
I only wait sometime in September. So I was late to the party.
Danny de Hek 1:35
Right? And did you make a transition between full time? How did you make that leap?
Raymond Lum 1:44
Oh, I pretty much got made redundant from my previous job. Right.
Danny de Hek 1:50
I’d like to know other people that got made redundant who knit in the window, who now within themselves Anyone else?
Paul Starling 1:55
Yep.
Danny de Hek 1:56
Yep, I think Mark was as well weren’t you.
Mark Scown 1:59
I had already positioned myself from last year to be sole trader by March. So three weeks before the lockdown. I was sole trader.
Danny de Hek 2:08
Right. All right. And also, Paul was as well. Interesting enough, all right. Next question want to know is who has had to change their business around considerably this year?
David Clarkson 2:29
Well, I’ve had to chip, I had to change mine to take in sort of, look, teaching in locations other than where I’m actually physically beware actually physically reside. So I just finished a course just recently that I presented in Christchurch, but also had people coming in on Microsoft team to be part of the training sessions for an eight week. Sorry, for a seven week training session.
Danny de Hek 3:10
Right and you just knew were there. But didn’t you because you, obviously teach people to speak with their bodies. And when you’re doing things on ZOOM, how, you know, you’re just like it. They weren’t wearing face masks.
David Clarkson 3:21
This did, right. God got over that. And, and an actual fact is at a meeting this morning before this meeting, and got a tip on how to improve the presentations as well. So I’ll pick that up for next time.
Danny de Hek 3:39
Oh, good. That’s what is really good about our business networking as people share stuff. And I think that’s quite important. All right. I did have another question. Everyone asked me the question.
Experience, what’s been your experience that you’ve learned? I’ve learned that sitting on the sofa working, he makes sure all the muscles in your lower back get relaxed that you bet goes out.
David Clarkson 4:11
He doesn’t come back in the game though, Danny.
Danny de Hek 4:13
Now it was a she my big is stuff the last three months, I’ve had to literally go to a chiropractor every week, and also have hired a personal trainer. And I can’t actually sit for more than 45 minutes without being an old man when I stand up. But it was simply because I sat down for far too long in front of the computer. I thought well, while we’re under lockdown, or just work like a hero. And now I literally have to have some form of physical exercise every week in my life.
Mark Scown 4:42
So why isn’t like a chiropractor a member now as ELITE : SIX you’ve had so much personal.
Danny de Hek 4:50
Funny story gave me a book. My biggest fear is reading books. And I thought oh my goodness, he wants me to read a book. And then the next week he bought the book again. I said, look mate, don’t read books. I thought he’s gonna say sell it to me. And he said, no, no. I see because I’m dyslexic. So I’m dyslexic as well. And the reason I like this book, it’s got lots of diagrams and pictures and you can just look at those. So hit the laughter there. Yeah, no, it’s quite good.
Helen Oakes 5:13
We ended up I bought a new desk, a monitor and a seat to work from home. So I’m listed in there, because we were doing co working. And then what did you buy? You? Are you already had your monitor when your desk.
Danny de Hek 5:27
Yeah, I bought a cheer, which was in it’s a very good cheer as well. But you can adjust it three ways. So the the bit that you said, I’m going to actually slide in and out. And then I don’t know if you guys have ever been fitted on your chair before. But sClinton, Selby, who owns Ergostyle, he’s done a demo on how to actually adjust your chair. And he likened it when you jump in your car, you don’t just jump in the car and drive. So you need to have it set up properly. Interesting enough, the chiropractor was telling me that a lot of people sit on the front of the chair and slouch. And he went to a seminar and the guy in the seminar he said, that’s not necessarily bad, because when you’re doing that you’re using different muscles than you normally would. Hence why, you know, as you just don’t do it for long periods of time, and the trick of the secret is actually making sure you’re moving around while you’re working rather than staying in the same position for three or four hours.
Mark Scown 6:24
Yep, and Danny you’ve got a lot of you got a lot of experiences written down in the chat room to mate.
Danny de Hek 6:29
Oh, yeah, that’s the other thing. This one’s gonna say your honour for got. If you got stuff to say chuck them in the chat.
Mark Scown 6:35
We’re ahead of the game.
Danny de Hek 6:36
Yes. Oh, was exciting. This is Oh
Mark Scown 6:39
Mark been a prolific writer.
Danny de Hek 6:41
We can see things Roman, Mark Scown. Right. Here we go. So you got two of us there if you can put them in brackets for E for experiences, P for problems. That helps me a little bit. But we are talking about experiences at the moment. Is that right?
Mark Scown 6:57
Yeah, yeah.
Danny de Hek 7:00
All right. So what else have you experienced? Come on, guys. Who cares? Tell us how it is. Are you freaking out?
Mark Scown 7:06
Another one there was you? Yeah, got it? Yep.
Rob Woolley 7:11
She’s I experienced that everybody decided to go online. And now everybody’s aiming to get offline really fast.
Mark Scown 7:21
Yeah, that’s what I’ve noticed. Hey, Rob.
Helen Oakes 7:25
I think it’s gone back and forth, Rob, because people really embrace going online and thought, wow, this is really cool. And then they’re going No, I don’t want to be online. I’m sick of this. And then as we’ve Well, we had another Do we have another lockdown coming back. But anyway, the second sort of time, everybody was like, Oh, I think it will go back to Zoom. And it’s sort of gone on and off. And now people will use both.
Danny de Hek 7:49
Have our businesses now accommodate to the new technology. Is that what we’re talking about?
Lachlan McNeill 7:57
Oh, there we go.
Danny de Hek 8:00
I’ve got to introduce everyone. Does everyone not know anyone here? I’ve got Anna who’s relatively new. She’s trying to work into a Zoom meeting. I can tell. We’re used to that. Haha. does everyone know Anna.
Rob Woolley 8:14
Morning Anna
David Clarkson 8:14
I don’t know Anna.
Danny de Hek 8:16
All right. Sorry. Anna new to ELITE : SIX zoomies has been four meetings, she’s like a professional now. So welcome along. What do you do Anna? I Come on, tell me what you do.
Anna Hayes 8:31
And I do digital marketing and websites.
Danny de Hek 8:35
Yeah. understands Google and Google Adword. campaigns. Anyone else? You don’t know what they do here? We’ll pick on them and what they do. David clear wax ear wax. Yeah.
Shaun, you probably wouldn’t have Shaun does commercial cleaning entrepreneur he kill things.
Shaun Jin 8:58
Killed things, kill pest doing moisture inspections doing water restoration, flood control and now doing healthy home checks.
Helen Oakes 9:16
We have had two they actually give you two my property manager said you will get two and they are from different companies. So I guess a compare notes and just make sure it’s all kosher.
Shaun Jin 9:31
Wow, look at that. Which which property management again,
Helen Oakes 9:35
We are with Selwyn Property Management.
Danny de Hek 9:39
You one of the guys that come in today and speak to me. Yeah. He’s in the Chinese community. I don’t know about you. And he knew you by name, unfortunately. Yeah. Okay. Let’s get back on topic then. It’s nice. We know everyone. everyone happy. Good. Wake up. All
Paul Starling 9:55
I’m awake, don’t worry.
Danny de Hek 9:57
All right. We see all right. So what another experience. Yep, I got to do another experience. Yeah.
Helen Oakes 10:03
So my business, my online business, we crazier over lockdown. And I couldn’t keep up. And then it sort of went down again. So, yeah, I experienced a huge growth, but it has gone back down.
Danny de Hek 10:19
And then zero to something that’s happened to us. Because we’ve had growth, we’ve hit a really good financial year. And now we’ve died back off again, and which, and I’ve just talked to my accountant yesterday, and now they want us to pay the provisional tax. You know, and it’s all good and worrying things are great. And you know, it’s more than their tax bill. So he’s gonna do another set of accounts closer to that period and see whether we’ve gone broke again, and then see whether we need to pay that money. But it is quite alarming when that happens if you have success and fast growth.
Lachlan McNeill 10:54
Provisional tax, and once again, it’s very hard for people you have a big spike and you do really well but might be forgiven term might work on a project, then it drops off, then you get the provisional tax, because they think all you’re doing well, let’s crank that up. And then your normal tax as you get a double hit. Yeah.
Helen Oakes 11:10
Yeah, my accountant said to me, I’m going to have double tax next year.
Mark Scown 11:15
Worst part. That’s right. As you go into year three of your business. Yeah, we are playing both provisional and terminal tax last year, and it’s a double whammy.
Danny de Hek 11:27
So if you’re making a whole pile of money, the secret is to keep now sharp. But new people in business, so I say how long have you been in business? And if they say over two years, okay, I go, congratulations, you made it past the hump. Yeah. And then if you have a loss, that’s brilliant. third year lost you get money back?
Lachlan McNeill 11:48
Maybe?
Mark Scown 11:49
Yeah, I don’t say business plan, though. Danny.
Danny de Hek 11:53
I remember, when I was married, we two days before we went to saw the accountant, we walked past and first start buying a $50,000 convertible, Volkswagen, and then two days later in the accountants office, and they said are you provisional bill this year is $63,000 and needs to be paid off. So we gave them $20,000. And then we freaked about it for the whole year. And then we’ve finished up getting a rebate of $200. It was just it was at the time. That was like, it’s not known it made a stressful all year long, you know, probably made us a bit more money.
Mark Scown 12:27
But it also shows that you need to have a close working relationship with your accountant.
Danny de Hek 12:32
So my tax, my accountant bill the year after that was $14,000, because that’s what they said to me and I agreed to it. And then they did a set of accounts just about every six weeks. And then they charge me like friggin heaps for so you got to watch that side of it as well. I’ve now got a new accountant. Alright, so anyone that’s got any experiences, that’s my experiences once again, what did you learn this year? I’m sorry. Yeah. What did you want to learn this year might be a good one.
Lachlan McNeill 13:05
Good question.
Danny de Hek 13:07
Is there any more in the chat window?
Helen Oakes 13:08
No, I think that’s it.
Danny de Hek 13:10
All right. What’s the problem with this year?
Rob Woolley 13:12
We go back to an experience, I think you need to be agile, which means if anything, changes in the environment right there, you’re positioned to move.
Danny de Hek 13:22
That might be a solution there, Rob. So let’s put that in solution.
Rob Woolley 13:26
That’s very good point, Danny.
Danny de Hek 13:29
Yeah, we’ve got four parts of the meeting here. Rob, you come up with this for me.
Helen Oakes 13:35
And what?
Mark Scown 13:36
Flexible was it?
Rob Woolley 13:38
Yeah, yeah. Like you got to be positioned to move, you know, like, if your environment changes.
Helen Oakes 13:44
Yep, Got Yeah,
Danny de Hek 13:45
I 100% think that’s what I’ve been doing the whole year as making sure that I can move quickly. Yeah. And anything that takes three months to move is like having a oil tanker in the ocean. It takes seven kilometres for an oil tanker to stop. So why would you be in an oil tanker, you want to get one of those we Zippy jet skis and zip all around the river. I’ve had that example before.
Lachlan McNeill 14:07
So back to experiences, though. I mean, it’s quite interesting in recruitment, because what happened was, you sort of get hit by triple whammy, because first of all, the work you’re currently working on suddenly stopped. People just sort of stopped the data, what’s going on? Because I was working for projects where people required to go overseas renewable energy projects, you have the Pacific Islands. So suddenly, that stopped. So that’s the first thing that happened. The next thing that happened was that almost I suppose out of all people were trying to be nice to you and say, oh, we’re still looking for that. We’re still looking for that. But it was easy for them to say because I don’t get paid until I deliver it. So it’s almost like saying, Yeah, I want that. I want that. I want a roast meal. I want lobster thermidor. But if you don’t have to pay it until you actually eat it. That’s it. It’s you can anyone can say it. So you found you’re working on stefanescu really, people hadn’t thought of was really needed. And the third thing I had was a lot of people who, whose jobs are complete Lately fallen over, running around looking to to get an on your clients. So I suddenly the client say, Oh, we’ve had another five recruiters calling today. And they were just my client. So that became a really quite, quite tough.
Danny de Hek 15:12
Goog stuff Man, I can see that. Yeah. And, you know, try not they’re probably not trying to commit to change when they’re saying we’re still planning to stay on target.
Lachlan McNeill 15:23
They’re trying to be nice sometimes. And really, you know, I’d rather they say, you know, what, hold, you know, I had one client who just said, Oh, no, now we’re still looking. We’re still looking and when in I did a long process with through over 200 people came from the end got the shortlist, sent it through, they didn’t even look at them. And I spent like, 200 hours working on that.
Danny de Hek 15:47
Good stuff, it’s good. You’re gonna go to problems because I want to have a bitch session. We can do a bit of moaning. Yeah. Yeah, first of all my whole business elite six was built on been built on face to face business networking. I stopped giving the fingers people can see this. This is a Christian show. But like one point, if you want to do that you go get your own window.
Rob Woolley 16:14
About to be struck by lightning.
Helen Oakes 16:15
Yeah,
Danny de Hek 16:16
That’s good. Um, yeah. So my business was built on face to face networking is obviously what that just killed us. 120 members this time last year, boom, 35. Now. So you know, then you think well, let’s, let’s redesign it, let’s build a ground up. You know, as well as networking. Everyone keeps telling me I like face to face and like face to face. Like I say, like, I can’t do it.
Rob Woolley 16:39
So you know, no, no, no, no, hold, hold, hold. Hold on.
Danny de Hek 16:42
I don’t need to ramble from you just yet.
Rob Woolley 16:43
No, No, that was a choice you made in a lot of other people made choices on what they saw. And so they went into lockdown. Yeah, in they either weren’t able to operate, how they were operating, or they chose to change how they operated. And I think that a lot of the businesses that stayed true to this same model, as it successful and had done really, really well. Their model as what, before they still doing what they were doing. Not managers really changed, like a lot of people are saying dad would the everything has changed, right. But what has actually changed because the same business as it was successful pre lockdown. Still the same one successful post lockdown.
Danny de Hek 17:35
My accountant, they told me that he’s got some in the hospitality sectors that are doing really well. And that was nice to hear it say. So maybe that case, I could see some of that. But I’m we’re talking about problems. You mean, I’m not stories? Oh, I won’t sadism.
Paul Starling 17:53
I found small businesses that have struggled, have reduced their spending and then my typical customers that’s impacted us.
Danny de Hek 18:03
Now that’s an interesting one. I’ve noticed that when you don’t spin, you don’t get the big visa, but at the end of the month to pay as well. So obviously, you’re not doing the same tune either. But you don’t have the same running cost. So that’s why I feel sorry for people obviously lease business premises that didn’t change. But you could negotiate that to a certain degree as well. Couldn’t you?
Paul Starling 18:20
First month because yeah.
Helen Oakes 18:22
Interestingly enough on the news last night, they said that spending has absolutely skyrocketed last night this November, compared to the November before, so it’s actually going back up again.
Paul Starling 18:35
Is that individual spending up for Christmas.
Helen Oakes 18:38
It is Yeah
Paul Starling 18:40
You get anything.
Mark Scown 18:41
But they get to the end of November. Apparently. This is through bank card activity was 3%. Up on last year.
Helen Oakes 18:50
Yeah,
Mark Scown 18:51
There is another
Rob Woolley 18:53
Who’s actually done the spending as well though. Yeah, like if you have a look at Yeah, like because interest rates are down. Yeah. That’s right. It’s incredibly easy. Yeah, like to get extra money right and spend that extra money right but who’s spending it?
Danny de Hek 19:08
Yeah, technology might have been a bit that go with it. I’ve been looking at makes Garmin watch shop. And people are two girls come in and they were going to buy their mum $800 watch. They finished up buying themselves an $800 bike computer and forgetting about mum. I noticed that people online actually using after pay. And they’re doing it spread it over four months thing. Yeah, people maybe is you think I can afford what I used to but I’ve spent over four months so maybe they’re prolonging the agony.
Helen Oakes 19:35
So it’s after pay like a labour
Paul Starling 19:39
Drop four payments.
Danny de Hek 19:42
One a time
Paul Starling 19:45
You pay why four payments basically spread out? Yeah, but what they’re finding is a lot of people are taking that option up, paying the first couple of payments and then having issues and not paying so you got it It’s just another form of credit card. Really? Yeah.
Helen Oakes 20:03
What sort of interest? Did they wack on it?
Paul Starling 20:05
They don’t charge it. Well, I don’t know what the interest rate is if you default. But when we looked into doing it was about 10%. So I haven’t done it because some of my product doesn’t even have 10% margin built into it.
Helen Oakes 20:18
Yeah. So do they? Is there no interest? If you pay those four payments?
Paul Starling 20:24
If you don’t, if you pay on time, you don’t pay any extras? Okay, yeah. And at the moment in Australia, businesses are trying to get it so that they can pass those costs onto the customers. It’s a bit like Uber Eats and the like, if businesses don’t offer it, then the customers don’t come to them. Mm hmm.
Danny de Hek 20:47
Good stuff. Yeah. It’s interesting. I think it’s only a bit more, I think, pretty sure it’s four and a half percent or 5%. Ish, because they pay for it.
Rob Woolley 20:56
It is high, our end, huh.
Danny de Hek 20:58
All right. What’s affected your business guys? What did you freak out about think, Oh, my goodness.
Raymond Lum 21:07
Not doing contracts.
Danny de Hek 21:08
Say that again,
Raymond Lum 21:10
Not doing contracts?
Danny de Hek 21:12
Right. doing business on a handshake? You mean? Yeah. never gonna happening again.
Raymond Lum 21:20
I’m writting one now.
Danny de Hek 21:23
And it’s so important. I mean, we had hit a lawyer, that group is still in their group it she’s not a lawyer, there’s employment advocate. He said, a contract can be a tissue paper in a cafe. And you can write down an agreement and you can both sign it, put it in your drawer. And if it goes wrong, you can actually pull that out in a small claims environment. So, you know, that doesn’t have to be a big elaborate thing. And I don’t like the word contract myself. I’ve always had an agreement. agreements. A good word. Yeah. Because the contract seemed to always come like this. But agreement is like, it’s two way you know what I mean?
Lachlan McNeill 21:56
Yeah, but they are quite, they can be quite different things. You can have a what an agreement of have a generally good what to call it. Other memorable articles,
Mark Scown 22:06
memorandum of understanding
Lachlan McNeill 22:07
Memorandum of understanding? That’s right. General thing that’s we agree with, that’s what we’re going to do that contracts his contract. And yet, sometimes you need that. Because what happens to the purse, you’re talking person you might be talking, you might be I mean, I might be talking to you, Danny. Yeah. And you and I sign a contract, but later on might be different people, you might might be lawyers discussing no right through and they’ll say yeah, no, you know, someone was, Danny was right, that doesn’t say I have required that. And you need that. You need that robustness.
Danny de Hek 22:35
I think the problem I’ve always had and it is we’re talking $120 an hour, sort of, they’ve hired me for two hours, a havn’t paid my $240 bucks, that sort of money. I can’t afford to run away and get a contract for that particular client every time but I want a general understanding of my What do they call it your terms of trade or
Paul Starling 22:53
Terms Engagement
Lachlan McNeill 22:54
T&C Terms & Conditions
Helen Oakes 22:57
Yeah, and I think Raman we’re very trusting in New Zealand and we’d come up with the dough and be nice but they’re not Yeah
Danny de Hek 23:08
Always talk money first I reckon if they blink will look away or don’t want to discuss it then walk away.
Paul Starling 23:14
One thing we’re finding now in it is with all the hacking that’s going on. A number of companies that have had people doing their external it when they’re getting hacked, they’re actually suing the IT company because they’ve been hacked. And that proves how much you need a contract because usually a company gets hacked because of the incompetence of their staff, clicking on links, etc. Not being educated. So
Danny de Hek 23:48
Your project suspended Lance, what was that about? So you hit some overseas work?
Lance Hastie 23:53
Yeah, basically. So I hit the camera operation in Australia. Well, it’s completely gone. the Asia Pacific Rally Championship, it’s completely gone for this year. So all that income
Helen Oakes 24:06
Yeah, I had that two nights I hit a really big gym competition lined up to do the photos for and I was so excited because I’ve never done an international competition they were coming here and they were gonna do it next year. And now they’re not doing it at all. So
Mark Scown 24:20
I had a case similar but but but different back in October, and the insurance I took on a new client and all done and dusted seven half grand commission, which was reasonable. Within a month, an aspect of the business went sort of belly up, and they had to contract all of the expenditure yet, so mine was terminated. And as I’ve shared with some other people already, not only do I have to pay that $7500 back, it’s effectively a $15,000 hit because a seven and a half 1000 bit to get to zero, but I’ve got to earn another $7500 to get back to where I was. Yeah, yeah, that was pretty tough.
Helen Oakes 25:03
Spam, phishing, catching a lot of people that’s been massive over this this time. It’s been a week, a lot of hours. I mean, they’re only really little, but they were saying you need to pay your freight or something like that. And it was only something like $3 20. But they were sending people to this other site somewhere. And I know that’s still going on. But I think it’s sort of morphed into something else.
Lachlan McNeill 25:29
Yeah, that was it. Was that a txt one?
Danny de Hek 25:32
Yes. Well, I think it was both
Helen Oakes 25:35
Email as well. Yeah. Cuz we get, we got people going, I’ve paid for this. And I’m being asked to pay for it again. And we’re like, Nah, it’s a scam.
Danny de Hek 25:43
And that’s the sad thing about it, people actually fall for it. We were wises, there’s
Mark Scown 25:49
another theory, I’m actually trying to scam the one fellows in Nigeria. But you know, at this moment of my nothing
Helen Oakes 25:58
Funny we did that.
Lachlan McNeill 26:00
So typically, you’re more likely to have you to be scammed and money taken out of your back than some break into your house now.
Helen Oakes 26:06
Oh, that’s crazy. Crazy, isn’t it? Yeah.
Danny de Hek 26:09
So everyone’s pretty up with a play on that. But if every now and again, years ago, this was literally 10 years ago, yeah, eight years ago to exactly the guy ring me up. And he said, Danny, I’ve been following you for years. You’re an absolutely amazingly amazing character. And we’d actually like to come over and do a documentary on you and how you run your business. Now in a perfect American accent. He raved. And I just didn’t go for 20 minutes. And I thought, this sounds really legit. And then at the end, he said, this is we’re talking about doing a $300,000 documentary on you. And I go, Oh, I’m gonna be famous my head was getting really big. And he said, the only thing we ask you to pay is a $17,000, licencing fee. The language I could speak fluently. And I’ve heard you sleep at night. And you know, and so if you want to come on my documentary, let me know.
Paul Starling 27:07
Seems to be a lot of fraud. Like that guy. I keep getting them offering to put me in the CIO magazine. But it’ll cost X dollars. It’s basically people trying to charge you a advertising fee for something that will never get produced.
Lachlan McNeill 27:23
Well, there is there was a directory going around, it was called the business directory or something fairly bland in New Zealand. And they were catching a lot of people because they were sending these they were faxing, this is way back faxing. $99 bills, what happens? You see $99 is normally the figure whereby anybody and accounts can just to prove that it once is above above $100, then it has to go for someone’s to be signing and getting in directly. Now the thing is the was a directory. I mean, it was a rubbish one. No one ever saw it. But because typically, you paid $99 they put you in this directory, and they did a like a renewal as that was renewal with if it wasn’t, so therefore, they were very hard to actually take them to court. But I rang them up. You know, and that was quite an interesting phone call.
Danny de Hek 28:09
International, wasn’t it? Who had a branch in New Zealand as well, wasn’t it?
Lachlan McNeill 28:13
Yeah, it was it? Yeah, this
Rob Woolley 28:15
It is actually hitting new, because we got there earlier this year.
Danny de Hek 28:22
They don’t give up, you know, Alright guys, so good. So we’ve still any problems, the more problems you guys aren’t much of Winges, what problems we had come on.
Lachlan McNeill 28:32
Oh, way too much advice from people who really didn’t know anything.
Danny de Hek 28:40
The advice you gave me too Lachlan.
Lachlan McNeill 28:43
But what I mean, is what I mean is there’s all these people giving tips to work from home that we weren’t home for three days. Yeah,
Danny de Hek 28:50
Yeah.
Lachlan McNeill 28:50
I’m thinking you’d be working out for three days, I can tell.
Danny de Hek 28:53
With our shops, the amount of times the news and all those fairgos guys are warning people about online shopping and things to do. Yeah, everyone thinks that we everything we do is we were scamming people. So even if we’re running a legit business, I still think we’re scamming them as soon as something goes wrong, like I this is a scam and we get these emails and capitals. And, uh, you know, so all the hype about, you know, and then there’s one guy on the news, I think I talked about him previously, he used to sell these necklaces that go around people’s necks to sit in aeroplanes. And he had a thriving business and COVID-19 wiped him out. And he thought, What can I do? So then he started selling shavers. And he claimed to sell 200 shavers a day. And as soon as all my mates in the IT field saw that we just knew is full of shit. But it paints a picture for other people who are thinking about getting online businesses that there is the potential out there to have a business that thrives. And I you know, and that was where I didn’t like those sort of stories that mislead people a lot of the information you get.
Lachlan McNeill 29:52
Yeah, there’s also a lot of naivety, you know, in terms of business, and when you look at people that really hadn’t had a business be called, and they had this wonderful advice for people about being generous with all your employees. Just keep on paying them and stuff like that. announcements. You know, I took someone on, they had no experience, you know, or anything like that. And it turns out that they’ve got no employees. You look unlikely. So how can you have? When did you take them on? Exactly? Because on LinkedIn, you’ve got one person in your company?
Helen Oakes 30:21
Yeah, no.
Danny de Hek 30:24
All right, guys, well, let’s go some solutions. So what’s some practical stuff that we can do in today’s world, and I miss you. Financially, I probably had a good year this year. In my head, I feel like my business has been jeopardised a lot. So I sort of hasn’t been bad hasn’t been good. It’s probably been fear. But I’m looking forward to next year. And I’m not really like one of these new year resolutions, rah, rah. But I actually do feel like I’ve got lots more opportunities going forward. But there’s no real certainty we were going for, for example, I mean, there’s nothing stopping us and going back into a major lockdown. Potentially, we’re quite vulnerable, and it’s hard to build. I remember they say, never build a house on sand or was build it on, you know, sound foundation, though. Next year, I’m thinking, What What does next year hold for us? What sort of things can we do to make sure that we use what we’ve learned from this year? And trickle a little bit of that over to going forward? Hmm.
Rob Woolley 31:29
I thing if you make the decisions slower.
Danny de Hek 31:34
Oh, and it bores me straightaway, that slow stuff?
Rob Woolley 31:37
Yeah. Ah, look, I tell you what everybody wants, everybody wants the quick fix. And I can remember quite a few people saying, Hey, we’re going into COVID into COVID environments going to change? What’s the one thing that we are able to do to take advantage of it and make a million bucks? Well, there’s nothing if you couldn’t work it out in a stable environment, you’re not going to work it out and unstable one. So just relax. Take your time, decide slow, and then proceed forward. And everybody who’s done well, not everybody, most people who have done that are better off
Paul Starling 32:18
Just saying did you do due diligence? Really?
Danny de Hek 32:21
My point? Yeah, that’s what I mean. That’s what you’ve got to do. I mean, don’t make hasty decisions. He, I don’t think anyone he would make hasty decisions. I mean, we really just don’t me.
Mark Scown 32:32
See, in my business, I have to position myself that when a client presents themselves, I have to act. And given I’ve had, you know, coming out of a period that was pretty quiet. I’m just determined that every every bit that comes along, I act as quick as I can, and still maintain that high level of service. With them,
Helen Oakes 32:56
Would you would people agree to have a bit of a nest egg to have something? In case you needed? cash or?
Paul Starling 33:03
Well, they recommend that you just have six months cash in your savings? Yes, but they say that something like 80% of people that month to month?
Helen Oakes 33:13
Yeah, that’s right. And a lot of people just can’t say about that type of money. But if you can, it’s well worth it. Yeah.
Lachlan McNeill 33:20
But yes, small little bits every every week, just yeah, it’s an every week. That’s the way to do it. And most people, they all start next week.
Helen Oakes 33:29
Yeah, that’s right. We’ve Danny and I have both got our Kiwi saver in it’s called generate wealth. Yeah, and we’ve got the KiwiSaver. But we both now set up like term investments, they’re not really term deposits. It’s just like an investment, or it’s called a trust, trust investment or something. And you can get it out when you want it, which is what we want. Because you know, and you got money sitting in the bank, let’s say for example, 10K’s sitting in the bank, and you’re getting no interest whatsoever. And then you put that money into a KiwiSaver trust account. The returns are quite big. They really, we’ve had what do we get I just put a lump sum and my one and I made something not over $100 straightaway.
Danny de Hek 34:17
It could have been the other way but the moment sorry Mark
Mark Scown 34:21
Then again and I’m not a registered financial advisor but I often wonder and people like your position yes you get that maybe get a little bit of capital and go and buy buy a property you know as I’m sitting in my own home here at the moment it’s it’s depreciating in value six and a half $1,000 a month why people want to live in this region as what’s happening in the marketplace
Lachlan McNeill 34:49
we appreciate appreciate that appreciate going up. Okay, cool. No, no.
Helen Oakes 34:55
Yeah, I thought you mean down Jesus ain’t got my
Danny de Hek 34:59
Hey, when I sold out My house in the country for 540. In two years later, there’s sort of a 750. Gutting David that’s not funny. We don’t laugh at you!
David Clarkson 35:10
These these things happen, Danny.
Danny de Hek 35:13
Yeah, they don’t, Dave.
David Clarkson 35:15
Yes they do
Lachlan McNeill 35:17
In terms of solutions, Danny, one thing that I have never done and I really should do is just a quarterly meeting with myself with a checklist to go through. You know what I mean, to go through and take rockabilly this, then that then this that, and I, you know, I’m a real scatterbrain. And I love and I love checklists, because the saving grace is so many things I do, you know, cheese or whatever. But check this, you don’t have to think about it too much. That makes it easy. And if it’s easy, you’ll do it next time.
Danny de Hek 35:48
One thing we found quite good this year where we’re talking about solutions I’ll show you we have a piece of glass. And basically, it’s a daily to do list. Oh, nice. my list is the one on the side that I haven’t updated for a week. Yeah. When I get in front of the computer. Yeah, I think there’s five things I want to accomplish today. And I’ll just go drop them on the paper and we put this on the coffee table. Yeah. And then we cross it off when we’re watching TV, or we look at it and thank you. So did get something done today.
Lachlan McNeill 36:18
Good idea. The thing about diskusi I’ve got three screens sitting here. But the fact is you can switch them off and on. Whereas was written on, on, on on the wall. It never never goes away. Yeah. Yes. That’s a good idea. I found that you so
Helen Oakes 36:31
Yeah, I’m very like that. I’m writing things down.
Lachlan McNeill 36:35
But I think I’m totally the quarterly Warrant fitness is just have a quick, you know, finances What am I doing? I’ve gotten investments. Where do I want to put that? What’s gonna happen with my cash flow? data? I mean, most people say do it every week or every month? No, once every quarter go for me.
Helen Oakes 36:49
Perfect. And you know, you’ve got to do it. Because a lot of people including myself, don’t do that sort of thing. And then before you know it, you’re like, oh, where am I in my business? You know, you don’t really know where you’re sitting
Lachlan McNeill 37:00
just because what’s likely to happen the next three months? You know, oh, winter right. Okay, let’s have a think about that. That day, you know, hmm.
Danny de Hek 37:12
Good stuff guys.
Helen Oakes 37:13
Relax is a good one. It meditation future few drugs. walk a bit of alcohol.
Danny de Hek 37:19
Yeah, I bought a bottle of bourbon and it was faulty. It lasted for days. Tommy Yeah, that was another bottle. Oh, yeah. He
Helen Oakes 37:27
He bought some Gin. And just disappeared. I didn’t what happened to it?
Danny de Hek 37:31
I didn’t actually like it, It was that one over Blackball. And they must have put it in smoky barrels or something. But it was made to be beautiful, but I didn’t really get it handled like that.
Helen Oakes 37:42
I didn’t have much of it, though. Didn’t get a look in, huh?
Danny de Hek 37:47
All right. Well, it’s all word. I have a discussion about what we’re doing after for holidays. Anyway. So let’s just go straight into takeaways for now. So what did you learn from today’s show that you’ve come away with in your thought, huh?
Helen Oakes 38:05
You can let yourself get stressed work on the work life balance. That’s so true. Yeah. Or doesn’t mean you’re gonna do that. We went away again. We just take weekends away when we can. And we stay in really cheap places just get away really. And we went to Oamaru again. And then we came into this little town called Duntroon. Where they make what was it blacks, if they were blacksmiths, and it was fascinating. We went and they showed us all around, but it’s just, you know, Oamaru, not far away three hours, we just try and get away when we can.
Danny de Hek 38:42
Funny story. We they It was a we’ve got the luxury room with a spa bath that didn’t have any bubbles. They didn’t have any motor in it. And then we thought, oh, and then they had a blind with all put that down. It looked a wee bit broken. Yeah, I stood up on the chair and then put it down, put it down and come off the whole lot smash the wine and the glass everywhere
Helen Oakes 39:03
Red wine mash onto the floor. But it didn’t go on the carpet when on the tiles. So Danny goes to the little this little room attached to our room. And he goes in there and it’s like a store cupboard and he gets another wine places the broken one, and no one would have known the difference.
Danny de Hek 39:22
And then when I left I got the broken glass and put it in the next door people’s room and all the beer bottles.
Paul Starling 39:28
I find the red towel, spread towel.
Danny de Hek 39:33
We use the floor cloth.
David Clarkson 39:36
Don’t try and make another booking their Danny
Danny de Hek 39:41
Hey, what I was really surprised was $135 a night which is probably the upper end we like to pay. But the room was just outdated, you know, and they just.
Helen Oakes 39:51
We stayed in this other place that just had it. And that was like $99 it was brilliant. It was oh what was it Deluxe Room because the bottom right room is the skyline garriage around the back.
Danny de Hek 40:06
Look like they had their son running it and you know, hit a skyline and parked around the back no offence to skyline user, but boy racer, looking after a hotel, good stuff, guys, takeaways Come on, what do you got? What do you learn?
Lachlan McNeill 40:20
I certainly think the contracts that we sort of mentioned about contracts, but I think, have contracts ready, but learn how to deliver them, you know,
Danny de Hek 40:29
Were to you get them done.
Lachlan McNeill 40:31
And to get them done. Well, look, to be honest, I mean, recruitment, we have a standard contract that goes out. So I guess it’s a good thing. But sometimes, I mean, my wife’s listeners, she’ll say, always go to a solicitor. But even if nothing else, you go to someone else in a similar business and you say, Look at mine and see what contract use I say, here, use this one, you know, at least it’s better than nothing. But you should get us listed at some stage to chip through things because you don’t the holes, but I think half the contract thing is also learning how to present it in the right sort of way. And I like in terms of recruitment, you’d like to say, okay, we do this, and we’re going to commit to you. So obviously, good, good, good fences make good friends. So we have a contract, we both signed it. So we know what we’re going to do now ambiguity. And then often forgotten, but once you tell them, but but to do all the work, and then suddenly is trying to sneak shyly put a contract under their nose, then that doesn’t tend to work. If that makes sense.
Helen Oakes 41:24
Yeah. And I think I’m, like on a lot of people can get a little bit freaked out with contracts. Yeah, big thing in there. Yeah. So people do shy away from them as well.
Danny de Hek 41:36
The other side of it, too, is I’ve had when I hit my franchise, and I was dissolving it. And one of my master franchises was being naughty. I realised the only solution I had was to take them to court, my contract my franchise agreements of I paid a lot of money for theoretically, worth nothing. And then when we redid it, we come up with an agreement between facilitators. And then even when I’ve read through the agreement, the problem I had, you know, it was just so complicated. And I think the agreement, I think is always important. I think people need agreements and an understanding. And, but it all goes pear shaped. You’ve got to be prepared to go to court and spend 10 15 grand minimum,
Lachlan McNeill 42:15
Lawyers love ambiguity, it pays their bills.
Helen Oakes 42:17
Yeah, that’s right.
Lachlan McNeill 42:19
You’re the contract that say, this is how we do it that we do. And if you tighten it up and just spend a bit of time on it, this is what happens if it goes wrong, that data and you’ve put some stuff down there, then lawyers will say, That’s what it says, let’s do it. They don’t get what there’s one our work as opposed to lawyers are expensive. Yeah,
Helen Oakes 42:35
I just thinking for you, Raymond. And what I use is the New Zealand Institute of professional photography, they have resources that I use, say like for model releases, or company releases and things like that, and the contracts that you can find, you might be able to find some in the film industry, whoever, either knowings it on air or whoever Film Commission, they might have resources where there’s contracts already in there that you can use.
Danny de Hek 43:00
I just have robbed the winner. Do you want that comment to go? That novel?
Rob Woolley 43:08
You go to university, right. And you and you study about contracts is not a lot of motion needs to be in one.
Helen Oakes 43:15
Yeah. Right.
Danny de Hek 43:17
So is it a solution?
Rob Woolley 43:18
It’s nice to give us
David Clarkson 43:22
However, if you don’t have a lot of detail in there, and it gets to be litigation, then the less detail you have the higher the lawyers fees.
Rob Woolley 43:34
I think half of it is there for the amounts that we are likely to need one. Yeah, like we hardly ever going to, like, actually spend extra money in order to get the money. Yeah, it’s just to help you get paid. Mm hmm.
Danny de Hek 43:50
Good stuff, guys.
Helen Oakes 43:53
And Roman, you probably should do something like an upfront payment.
Raymond Lum 44:00
Non refundable deposit.
Lachlan McNeill 44:04
Pay attention.
Helen Oakes 44:05
Yeah,
Danny de Hek 44:06
yeah. The ultimate is obviously when I used to do websites as I used to get paid half up front of it all went pear shaped that covered all my costs. So it was paid a once I finished. But now like I said, the other day, I charged my time out of 10 hours a time and there’s a lot easier for me, because I should have figured out how long does it take me to do anything? Normally I can devise things and ten hours so I’ll just charge the teenager implements
Lachlan McNeill 44:30
Also Ray and one thing I’ve found that’s useful is to even ask your clients you say look, I’m just doing my contract Can you give me an idea of you know, you have other contracts? What are they doing ask for? You know, I’ve had guys who said hold on Okay, and of course the name off the top here Have a look at that. Have a look at that. And so I thought about the cut my competition ascending. superstar sneaky works really well.
Danny de Hek 44:51
I’ve actually been handed other people’s after I’ve gotten a job. Yeah, I’ve been handed other people’s contracts for me to have a nose it from the person I’m working for. Yeah. It’s really quite handy.
Lachlan McNeill 45:01
Always discover something other folder full of other code my competitors contract. Yeah.
Danny de Hek 45:08
I think it takeaways differently contracts are important. I have struggled for years trying to get agreements. I’ve got myself a years ago, I got an stuff newspaper, because one lady when she left me didn’t like me and and it’s one article I can’t get rid of. Yeah, it was all because I did have an agreement with the lady, but she didn’t like it. And, and then when the guy rang me up from Stuff raved about it. I said, Look, I’m gonna send you my agreement, I hit with that lady. And you can read it and tell me how she got that wrong. You know, he got to come back. So she didn’t sign it. And I said, but I, you know, whatever. But, you know, it still can go wrong. But you learn a lot. Just having a simple agreement can save you from so much grief. You know, every time I do a job, I hit the same level of understanding. I’ve seen everyone exactly the same. And this is how I work. Basically, this is the service I provide. Maybe it’s near called a term what they call it term of service? Yeah, looks like,
Lachlan McNeill 46:03
Look, it’s relatively simple. You say, this is here, look, with, you know, with a fraction less than 1% of contracts go wrong, whatever. But this is here to protect us both this this day. So you know, we’re gonna play. I’m not going to charge you more than that. If something goes wrong. This is what we do. Yeah, no.
Danny de Hek 46:22
Yeah, my responsibility is and your responsibility is.
Lachlan McNeill 46:25
Them if to both sides. That’s fundamental and delivering that contract.
Lance Hastie 46:31
Being being very careful and picking your battles, I know of two very solid contracts that ended up not being worth the paper they’re written on. Because the other party was so well resourced. They could frustrate the contract, they could frustrate the legal process at every turn. And placement was it and I dragged it out. One of them is a link that actually New Zealand’s largest building company. And I could just bring lawyers in and drag the thing out that at the end of the day, you just got off, I’ve had enough and you end up being the victim of your own success. You got to be very careful when it comes to contracts. Your better option is like Danny’s term of agreement. And just work through it and know where to cut your losses.
Danny de Hek 47:21
How many time have you actually worked for somebody known we shouldn’t have taken that job on.
Lachlan McNeill 47:26
You know, I’ve got to I have enough fingers for that.
Danny de Hek 47:29
Yeah and that’s where your gotta go with your gut instinct. You work with people. Yeah. You know, you’re like, doesn’t it? Sounds great cliche, but it really is true. All right, guys. Anything else we’ve got from today? Contracts is what I’m hearing you happy with? sorry.
Lance Hastie 47:45
We put we’ll put that in as a solution.
Danny de Hek 47:48
Yeah, that’s great. I’m happy with yourself this. Yeah, you’re proud of yourselves?
Helen Oakes 47:53
Yeah. Thanks.
Paul Starling 47:55
A reason not to be?
Danny de Hek 47:57
Yeah, I think we’ve made it to the end of the year. Whose it? It?
Mark Scown 48:03
Me, All are survivors.
Danny de Hek 48:07
I think that’s our nature as self employed people that that’s, you know, seriously what we in it for? It’s not it’s not being isn’t been in this game.
Helen Oakes 48:19
Just going back to the last conversation? Has anybody had someone that they know they shouldn’t really deal with? And so you’ve, you’ve charged them your top price? And then they’ve gone along and gone? Oh, okay. I’ll pay that you like or no, I still don’t want to work with you.
Lance Hastie 48:35
Two weeks ago? Yes.
Danny de Hek 48:38
And are you doing it for the money? Yeah, well,
Lance Hastie 48:40
I had to bail them out. But they did pay the bill.
Helen Oakes 48:43
Yeah, you think they’re not gonna, they’re not gonna go for my top price. And when they do, it’s just like, oh,
Danny de Hek 48:49
I’ve got a guy that’s not using my services anymore. And I set them up on G Suite, you know, used to host us website. And now he doesn’t want his website doesn’t want his G Suite. Now, he wants me to go in there and stop all his billing for his G Suite. Now I then just go and do it. So I wouldn’t need a login. And then at the centre, some two step verification to his phone. So I sent him a message saying, Can you see me that code and four hours later, I got the code, and then by that time of the writing, and then I said, hey, let’s do this together. It’s just booked some time. $60. And we’ll work on this together over screen and get it done. And I should have done it day one. But here, I would have spent 45 minutes tidying up because I don’t want it anymore. Yeah, you know, and the guy can afford it. He just doesn’t see the value. And he just knows me. And then he keeps saying to me, oh, we’ll catch up. We’ll catch up sometime next week. And this is why I’m saying we’re mates and I should do it free. And you know, I’m talking about Lachlan don’t you. Yeah, I do. It’s always the same guy and that’s how they roll. You know, in
Lachlan McNeill 49:50
Terms of takeaways, I tell you one thing I do every so often is I like to look at you know, a Bill Gates had a saying, which is, you know, we’re trying to do something, look at who’s done it and what can you who done it. Well, what Can you learn from them? But also, if you look at COVID? who’s done well? And what can they learn from now that’s quite a, that’s quite a good thing. And just you can take down and you get some good truths. There’s nothing wrong with picking your phone up and say, Hey, I like what you did there. Can I just give a bit of insight?
Danny de Hek 50:13
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s really good. Actually, look who’s doing well look at your competitors. And see, have you know what I’ve done? Well, some businesses have flown really well. But I reckon if I look at them, I see they’ve been really adaptable and move really quick. Yes. And I think that’s, that’s commendable. And also, I think, give praise to businesses, like you just said, Really, isn’t it? You know, you applaud them for doing well and being dynamic.
Lachlan McNeill 50:36
But in terms of takeaways, I’m just thinking, learning from them and almost making a bit of a note to yourself. You know, you know, people have pivoted really well into something else. Yeah, you know, just just find a bit of insight, because what they’re doing well off now would be quite happy to share.
Danny de Hek 50:52
Yeah. Okay. Next year, when we do our first zoom meeting, which will be on the round about the 15th of January, I think we’re 14th or 15th, whatever that is. What are we what would we want to kick the year off? We’re not doing New Year’s resolutions. It sounds so lame. Okay.
Helen Oakes 51:08
It’s talking about our holidays.
Danny de Hek 51:11
General get together. Who’s going to be trying to work through the holidays?
Paul Starling 51:16
A little bit of the business?
Danny de Hek 51:17
Um, yeah, I’m looking forward to I’ve got all next week to do something of my own my new my new idea, which I can’t tell you about? Because I’m thought of it.
Paul Starling 51:27
I’ve got an idea. Just putting it together. Yeah.
Danny de Hek 51:32
So is it goals? document accountability, straight off accountability? Because that’s where everyone goes talks about on week two of the beginning of the year, they talk about their new year’s resolutions. And then we finished up talking about accountability.
Helen Oakes 51:48
What about Lachlan thing were you do ya fitness for the beginning of the year?
Paul Starling 51:52
I’ve been out in the garden building building a warrant of fitness list? Yeah. Health health check.
Lachlan McNeill 51:58
Yeah. But it could be anything could be be slightly backward looking. It can be current status, it could be for future looking, but just a checklist. We if they were my guide, I use them for recruitment. Because when you go recruitment, you have to think, where do I start? The first thing is, hey, if someone asked me for somebody, have I done a previous role like that? It’s very similar. They might have people that have made all the notes and already interviewed them for you know, okay. First thing
Danny de Hek 52:21
Check list for the new year. Yeah. New Year. Let’s Check list 2021
Helen Oakes 52:26
Yeah, yeah.
Danny de Hek 52:29
You can do.
Mark Scown 52:33
See ya guys, I gonna cut, cut out
Danny de Hek 52:38
Checklist for 2021. Piper. Yeah, that’s cool. Yeah. All right, guys, I was gonna take it off Facebook Live, and also stop recording. And I will actually make this into a podcast because we had a really good meeting today. I just like to say, a big thanks for all your support this year. Follow me around and keeping it all going. Sometimes I had my doubts. But the other days, I used to leave these talkbacks.
Oh my god, it’s so awesome to have such an awesome crew of people around us. So I really appreciate that. And I think Helen and I wouldn’t have done it without you guys. Yeah. Because otherwise we would have just had to sit here in this room to each other. That’s really good. So I’m going to stop this share.
And I’m going to stop the broadcast. So anybody that’s listening to us, thanks for tuning in. And we look forward to seeing you in 2021
Transcribed by Otter
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