hi I’m Evan Carmichael welcome to
another edition of ask Evan in today’s
episode I’m going to answer a question
from one of my newsletter readers Amy
who wrote in asking about the
landscaping company that she’s working
for the owner’s name is Dave and she had
a couple questions so she wrote in
saying I’m the office manager at this
company I’ve discovered that I’m not
qualified for this job but I’m trying to
succeed and have a couple questions how
do I begin creating the structure
processes and procedures to the business
so that anyone could walk in and run the
office and manage the employees many
office staff has had turnovers resulted
in total dismantle of our processes and
procedures that Dave the owner has
implemented over the years and then how
do i create a sales compensation plan
that would attract the sales person but
be structures of the company does not
lose money help so Amy thank you for the
question in a really tough situation to
be in you know congrats on on owning up
to the job and trying to make it your
own and be successful at it and for
reaching out for help so to kind of help
answer those questions the first part
about sales sort of the procedure
systems and all that getting that going
for your business I think the first
thing you need to do is talk to the
people who have done that job before so
it sounds like Dave is probably your
best bet and as the owner I know he’s
probably running around with a million
thing to do but if he’s done that job
that has gone out and he knows how he
wants a certain thing done then he’s
probably the best person to sit down and
talk to what might be an easy way to do
it is instead of having him right manual
which can be really time-consuming and a
lot of entrepreneurs don’t like to do
that you could do in either audio
recording so you could just ask some
questions do an interview or you
couldn’t film him on the job so you can
go out to a job with him and say this is
how we cut the grass or this is how we
lay sod or whatever it is that you want
to lay out your systems and procedures
for and having those videos could be
really instructional for new people who
are coming on board to just watch
exactly how it’s been done and not
always then have to use up Dave’s time a
quick example my wife runs a salsa
dancing business and she started off
being the only instructor
15 7 days a week and was burning out and
you know she was the only one doing what
she was doing and it was hard for her to
find people to come on and teach under
her and as she expanded her business she
realized you know she can only be one
person for so long to grow I have to go
beyond myself and she created videos
that laid out exactly what she did in
every class so that when she brought on
her new instructors they could watch the
videos and teach it the same way that
she had done and it doesn’t mean that
she has to go and teach them every
single time herself so it could be the
same example with Dave where he can go
and greet these videos and you can just
do really rough cuts it doesn’t have to
be professionally edited it’s only for
internal purposes and maybe it’s up to
you to then kind of cut out the best
parts and and see what’s really relevant
and it’ll save a lot of time compared to
you know Dave having a writer formal
manual the other option would be to go
and try to find people who have done the
job for the company in the past you said
there’s been a lot of turnover maybe you
can find somebody who’s who’s been
really good in the past and had to leave
for you know whatever reason hopefully
they’re still on good terms with the
business and approach them to say now
we’re trying to create a video series or
training manual to help people who are
coming into the job you know would you
mind sitting down with us for half a day
or day and you know helping us know if
I’m remembering what you did before on
the job so you have your former
employees come and help you out that’s
assuming you know they like the business
and they had a good relationship with
you guys and you can still contact them
but you have to start talking to
somebody who’s gone through the process
so start with Dave and he’s able to do
it that’s great and if Dave doesn’t know
then start trying to contact your older
employees and you’ll see if they’d be
willing to come back and help out for a
day or half a day and the important
lesson kind of going forward is start
documenting everything now right so if
you’re in the office think about all the
things that you’re doing on a regular
basis and how can that be documented to
somebody can come in later on and do it
really easily so it could be again just
you know paper documents that you’re
writing in a word document you send
people I found that that can work to
some degree but it’s better if you can
do some kind of videos as well so if
it’s office type of work at my business
we use a software called Camtasia which
will record your screen and a lot
talk into a microphone so people can see
exactly what you’re doing and can hear
your voice as you explain what you’re
doing so it’s a lot better training than
just looking over a word document so
hopefully that will help videos are
definitely great where to go and it can
definitely be you know super low budget
doesn’t have to be high production
quality if it’s only going to be used
for internal purposes for the sales
compensation it really depends on your
business and your margins so if you have
a high margin business you can afford to
give up a greater percentage when I was
in software sales I had my own software
company we hire salespeople to come work
for us and organizations to come you
know help sell the cell the software for
us and we would give up between 25 and
35 percent commission just no top top
line revenue to give them a huge
incentive to want to go and sell to our
you know potential customers now you
probably couldn’t afford that because
you have much higher costs associated
with your business and we do in a
software type of company so you have to
find something that makes sense
depending on your margins usually I mean
it’s great to try to get a sales person
comes on a commission only on that
scenario then you know you’re not
spending anything until you’re actually
getting money coming in the door but
it’s usually pretty hard to track sales
people to do commission only from the
start there’s usually a ramp-up period
it could be you know a couple months if
it’s not too difficult a business and it
shouldn’t take you know too long for
people to jump into but you want to
support your sales people and you know
you want to try to make that investment
so say it’s three months to get ramped
up to start making sales then you know
you have to support them with some kind
of salary or you can see a draw against
commission so that you know their
eventual goal is to be commissioned only
but you got to get them to that point
where they’re able to support themselves
that will help you attract a higher
caliber sales person because they show
that you know you’re really believing in
them and you’re a solid company and
you’re going to help support them
through those first couple months where
they’re still learning it is a financial
outlay so that’s the kind of downside
but you’re more likely to get highly you
know talented people instead of the ones
who will come on just for you know
Commission and they’ll probably leave
you really quickly when they can
get another job that pays faster so you
don’t necessarily just want to go for
those one hundred percent commission
people reckon the start so hopefully
that helps you know I feel too bad for
situation but but hopefully there’s some
information here that can help you you
know get that business going again and
you know reignite Dave’s passion for the
company if you have other questions feel
free to leave a comment under this video
and I’d be happy to answer them and for
everybody watching if you liked the
video please give it a thumbs up it
makes you want to do more of these
videos for you and if you have a
question or no comments for a me as well
feel free to leave it under the video in
the comment section so thank you and
we’ll see you on the next episode
you
another edition of ask Evan in today’s
episode I’m going to answer a question
from one of my newsletter readers Amy
who wrote in asking about the
landscaping company that she’s working
for the owner’s name is Dave and she had
a couple questions so she wrote in
saying I’m the office manager at this
company I’ve discovered that I’m not
qualified for this job but I’m trying to
succeed and have a couple questions how
do I begin creating the structure
processes and procedures to the business
so that anyone could walk in and run the
office and manage the employees many
office staff has had turnovers resulted
in total dismantle of our processes and
procedures that Dave the owner has
implemented over the years and then how
do i create a sales compensation plan
that would attract the sales person but
be structures of the company does not
lose money help so Amy thank you for the
question in a really tough situation to
be in you know congrats on on owning up
to the job and trying to make it your
own and be successful at it and for
reaching out for help so to kind of help
answer those questions the first part
about sales sort of the procedure
systems and all that getting that going
for your business I think the first
thing you need to do is talk to the
people who have done that job before so
it sounds like Dave is probably your
best bet and as the owner I know he’s
probably running around with a million
thing to do but if he’s done that job
that has gone out and he knows how he
wants a certain thing done then he’s
probably the best person to sit down and
talk to what might be an easy way to do
it is instead of having him right manual
which can be really time-consuming and a
lot of entrepreneurs don’t like to do
that you could do in either audio
recording so you could just ask some
questions do an interview or you
couldn’t film him on the job so you can
go out to a job with him and say this is
how we cut the grass or this is how we
lay sod or whatever it is that you want
to lay out your systems and procedures
for and having those videos could be
really instructional for new people who
are coming on board to just watch
exactly how it’s been done and not
always then have to use up Dave’s time a
quick example my wife runs a salsa
dancing business and she started off
being the only instructor
15 7 days a week and was burning out and
you know she was the only one doing what
she was doing and it was hard for her to
find people to come on and teach under
her and as she expanded her business she
realized you know she can only be one
person for so long to grow I have to go
beyond myself and she created videos
that laid out exactly what she did in
every class so that when she brought on
her new instructors they could watch the
videos and teach it the same way that
she had done and it doesn’t mean that
she has to go and teach them every
single time herself so it could be the
same example with Dave where he can go
and greet these videos and you can just
do really rough cuts it doesn’t have to
be professionally edited it’s only for
internal purposes and maybe it’s up to
you to then kind of cut out the best
parts and and see what’s really relevant
and it’ll save a lot of time compared to
you know Dave having a writer formal
manual the other option would be to go
and try to find people who have done the
job for the company in the past you said
there’s been a lot of turnover maybe you
can find somebody who’s who’s been
really good in the past and had to leave
for you know whatever reason hopefully
they’re still on good terms with the
business and approach them to say now
we’re trying to create a video series or
training manual to help people who are
coming into the job you know would you
mind sitting down with us for half a day
or day and you know helping us know if
I’m remembering what you did before on
the job so you have your former
employees come and help you out that’s
assuming you know they like the business
and they had a good relationship with
you guys and you can still contact them
but you have to start talking to
somebody who’s gone through the process
so start with Dave and he’s able to do
it that’s great and if Dave doesn’t know
then start trying to contact your older
employees and you’ll see if they’d be
willing to come back and help out for a
day or half a day and the important
lesson kind of going forward is start
documenting everything now right so if
you’re in the office think about all the
things that you’re doing on a regular
basis and how can that be documented to
somebody can come in later on and do it
really easily so it could be again just
you know paper documents that you’re
writing in a word document you send
people I found that that can work to
some degree but it’s better if you can
do some kind of videos as well so if
it’s office type of work at my business
we use a software called Camtasia which
will record your screen and a lot
talk into a microphone so people can see
exactly what you’re doing and can hear
your voice as you explain what you’re
doing so it’s a lot better training than
just looking over a word document so
hopefully that will help videos are
definitely great where to go and it can
definitely be you know super low budget
doesn’t have to be high production
quality if it’s only going to be used
for internal purposes for the sales
compensation it really depends on your
business and your margins so if you have
a high margin business you can afford to
give up a greater percentage when I was
in software sales I had my own software
company we hire salespeople to come work
for us and organizations to come you
know help sell the cell the software for
us and we would give up between 25 and
35 percent commission just no top top
line revenue to give them a huge
incentive to want to go and sell to our
you know potential customers now you
probably couldn’t afford that because
you have much higher costs associated
with your business and we do in a
software type of company so you have to
find something that makes sense
depending on your margins usually I mean
it’s great to try to get a sales person
comes on a commission only on that
scenario then you know you’re not
spending anything until you’re actually
getting money coming in the door but
it’s usually pretty hard to track sales
people to do commission only from the
start there’s usually a ramp-up period
it could be you know a couple months if
it’s not too difficult a business and it
shouldn’t take you know too long for
people to jump into but you want to
support your sales people and you know
you want to try to make that investment
so say it’s three months to get ramped
up to start making sales then you know
you have to support them with some kind
of salary or you can see a draw against
commission so that you know their
eventual goal is to be commissioned only
but you got to get them to that point
where they’re able to support themselves
that will help you attract a higher
caliber sales person because they show
that you know you’re really believing in
them and you’re a solid company and
you’re going to help support them
through those first couple months where
they’re still learning it is a financial
outlay so that’s the kind of downside
but you’re more likely to get highly you
know talented people instead of the ones
who will come on just for you know
Commission and they’ll probably leave
you really quickly when they can
get another job that pays faster so you
don’t necessarily just want to go for
those one hundred percent commission
people reckon the start so hopefully
that helps you know I feel too bad for
situation but but hopefully there’s some
information here that can help you you
know get that business going again and
you know reignite Dave’s passion for the
company if you have other questions feel
free to leave a comment under this video
and I’d be happy to answer them and for
everybody watching if you liked the
video please give it a thumbs up it
makes you want to do more of these
videos for you and if you have a
question or no comments for a me as well
feel free to leave it under the video in
the comment section so thank you and
we’ll see you on the next episode
you
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