Jonathan:
Today and for the next two days, we have 30 something individuals in town. They’re part of our academy group and these individuals represent those that are part of Academy Elite. And I was just having a conversation earlier today with one of my friends in the group, and he’s running a company that’s probably about six million dollars, and he was showing me a tool. And there’s a point to this.
He was showing me too. And it’s just a technology tool that they’re using at their company to help with the sales estimating process and making sure that some of the promises made to the client are happening. And it’s just a simple little tool and it’s about 20 dollars a month per user.
And I was asking him about it and he was showing it to me because it’s a solution for some number of companies and he made the statement, “While this is great, I don’t think a lot of the smaller companies will use this because they would have to pay 20 dollars per month.”
And that’s the point of the video. So if you don’t think this way, I’d like to share a thought with you. Whether it’s a tool that you would use out in the field or it’s a piece of technology or it’s your cell phone or it’s a better quality Mac or laptop that you’re using, we so often hire individuals and pay them an hourly rate or hire contractors and pay them a rate, and that’s perfectly okay.
Of course, we don’t want to pay too much. We’d like to get that rate down so our work can be more profitable, but at the same time, we don’t get upset about paying somebody 16 dollars an hour or 20 an hour or whatever they’re worth. We know we have to do it. And we know we have to pay them that money so that the work can be produced.
But for many, when it comes to buying a new tool or a better tool, or investing in a piece of technology or upgrading our cell phone from the least expensive Android phone to a higher quality phone, we think about the ongoing monthly expense and rightly so, or we worry about the cost or the incremental cost over the cheapest version.
Yet those things are just like labor. When we invest in a better piece of technology, a better cell phone, a better computer that allows us to work faster or some way to record audio messages versus having to type everything and type all the job notes, we are buying back time. We’re buying back our own time. We’re buying back the time of our team members. So we’re paying somebody 16 dollars an hour and if I can save them an hour every day and it only costs me 20 dollars a month to do that, that’s the greatest return on investment, the greatest trade ever. I’ll trade that every day.
And so the next time you’re thinking about upgrading a tool, technology, software, piece of equipment, a laptop, everything that I just named, be careful not to think in terms of, “Oh, this is gonna cost me an extra 80 a month or 300 a month or 20 a month.” Or, “This is gonna cost me an extra 2000 dollars. I could buy the cheaper version.”
Rather, do the analysis and say, “How much time is this gonna buy me back so I can go work on my business or I can just be free to actually show up at my kids game or have a personal life? And how much time is it gonna buy back my team?”
And that’s how you make the decision and you probably know that. But sometimes we both need a reminder, and so from the conversation I had earlier today, it prompted me to remind you, think about return on investment. Think about buying back time. Don’t just think about cost. Take care.
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