Welcome to the Pet Grooming Business Podcast with me, Bill Betts, where we give practical business advice to help you grow your pet grooming business. This podcast is sponsored by Low Pay, the low rate payment app that gives you more. So without further ado, let's get going. Hi everyone. Welcome back to this next episode of this podcast. It's just me today. Just thought I'd pop in and register some of my thoughts here just to give you a bit of insights on what I'm thinking around failure.
Business failure. Actually, I don't like the word failure. I don't actually personally believe that we fail in business. Or is that. Is that right? I'm not sure. You might, you might think differently. Do we fail in business? I'm not sure. I think there's opportunities to fail in business, but as long as we're catching ourselves and we're catching our business before things go wrong, then I don't think that we fail.
Maybe a definition of failure in business is if we keep doing the same thing over and over again, getting the same results that could lead to the business failing. But yeah, I don't generally like the word failure, so. But I wanted to talk about some situations within our businesses that might, you might come across in the next whilst you're running your business and just to reframe your thoughts around them and think of them differently.
But I think one of the key aspects, and I was talking to my wife about this yesterday, my brother has been a business owner before and he certainly had to close his businesses, but there was a few factors in there, although I don't know loads about it, but from the outside looking in, there was a few factors in there that caught him out. And again, this sometimes can catch other business owners out.
The important things is obviously the, the kind of devil is in the detail, I suppose, knowing your numbers, making sure that you know exactly what's coming in and out of your, your bank account, knowing when you can spend money and when you need to conserve money, you know, and if you've got money coming in, if you've got a nice chunk of money coming in, it's very tempting to then spend it.
But working on a business buffer, so working on a savings goal where you save pro probably that's well, try and save three to six months worth of operating expenses, including your salary now that that won't happen overnight, that's something that you need to be intentional about and start saving now.
And even if you just create a, a saving space in Starling or a pot in Monzo or open up a separate bank account where you can just move a pound a week, even if it's just a pound a week you're starting to save. Just, just start, start in the, the good intentions of saving a business buffer. And a great example of this actually, and this is why I love working with other, other people within my business.
So I spoke to our accountant the other day and I said, you know, we'd really like to pay ourselves a little bit more money each month. And the accountant was like, well, yeah, understand that everyone wants more money, but let's try and get your, your savings buffer up to 20,000 first. And then once, once your buffer is at 20, 000, we conversation about increasing your wages. So he kind of reeled me in a bit and that was really nice.
It's always nice to have a second opinion or, or someone else opinion. If I needed that money, then obviously I'd have to take that money. But he was like, well, what would, what would it feel like if you had a bit more money in the bank before you started taking the money out? So challenge was accepted and within a month or two we've now hit the 20,000 pound business buffer. So when I have my next meeting with him, we'll be revisiting that conversation. But actually it was qu.
Nice putting that money aside and seeing that money grow. And that's sitting in a separate savings account with, with Tide and it's earning a little bit of interest as well. And I actually think, no, I've got into the habit now of, of putting some money away into that. So why not? I'm going to carry that on and see if I can hit 30000 or maybe 40000 because you know, when we have savings like that, it gives us and that reassurance, it gives us that options.
It gives us the ability to, to change our business if we need to or if we have a quiet month or if you want to go on holiday. It gives us that ability to do that. It gives us the ability to invest as well. And I've got some, some courses that I want to invest in coming up next year. So, you know, the business buffer can be a really good tool and a savior for your business. I kind of went off on a tangent there.
I wasn't really going to be speaking about a business buffer on this, on this podcast. But you know, these things come into my head so I thought I might as well share with them. Share them with you anyway. So, yeah, so even if you can just save one Pound a week, you know, just, just start it. And then if you could increase that to by 10 in a month's time, you know, £1 10.
Just, just look at, you know, the, the money you've got in the bank at the end of the month, at the end of the week and say, is there some money there that I can move over to my savings and start this buffer? But the cash flow is so important for your business, you know, and, and I do encourage people when they get paid in cash, to actually pay that cash in and account for it within their business.
Because quite often I see people receive like 45 pounds, say 50 pounds for a dog groom at last thing in cash. And then on the way home they have to stop for petrol or maybe they need to pick up some shopping or maybe the kids need a trampoline lesson or something like that. And that £50 that we've just taken in ca all of a sudden gets broken into and then gets used up. And then you, you kind of left thinking, what have I done? You know, I've done all this work this month.
Where, where is the money that I've earned? Well, you know, it's kind of like being spent on life and we're not accounting for it. And I come to see, like, cash flow. And cash is like the water that runs through your business and there's no dam, there's nothing stopping it. And we know what water's like. If there's a way water can get through somewhere, it will find a way.
So we've got to be careful and we've got to be mindful of how we account for the money in our business and make sure that, you know, we give the business a bear, respect. And they're paying. Yeah, okay, they're giving you the physical cash, but they're paying. Your business, your business is earning that cash. And sometimes there's a bit of a mindset reset or a different way of thinking at it, but it's not your money, it's your businesses and it's the businesses getting paid.
And then you can withdraw that money if that helps. That might help you with your mindset and controlling, controlling your money. But so, yeah, cash flow is really important, making sure that we get paid, we get paid as soon as we've done the job. So you might at the moment take bank transfers. You might find that you're waiting like days and days or weeks to, to get that money. It's not right. It's really not right. You should be getting paid for your work.
There and then deposits are great for cash flow because it can bump up your cash flow if you keep taking deposits off people. Because, you know, cash is king in a different way in business. You know, cash is the lifeblood of your business. Money is the lifeblood. Your, Your business needs money. Your money is like blood going around your body. It's. It's the same for your business. You need money to fuel that business all the time.
So. So, yeah, so when we think about this, when we start thinking about that money, money situation and how it's the lifeblood of our business, there's quite often some situations in our business where we need to start thinking about what's happened to our business and they might take a surprise. And we need to think quickly on our feet and start looking at our business model and, and reviewing whether we can change things or whether we have to change things.
So let's take the first one and, and this is her propped up, cropped up a few times for some of my clients, actually. And I have to take my hats off to them because this is probably one of the, the worst situations within our businesses that we can face. For me, it's very much linked to the word failure. It's very much linked to the word like failing or.
And I think the press, I think the, the general mood out there in the public is very much, you know, the business is failing if they're doing this. So the, the first one I wrote down is redundancy. So if you're a business owner and you've got staff making. So there's, there's, there's only a couple of ways that you can actually remove stuff from your business, probably without getting yourself into trouble. This podcast is sponsored by Low Pay. Low pay is half the price of sum up and Zettle.
So you keep more of the money that you earn. Rate starts at 0.79% and that's obviously sucking them. So, but there's a, there's a, there's a thorough process to go through that letting them go. There's a thorough process through, of disciplinary, you know, talks, written warnings, stuff like that, unless it's obviously gross misconducts and stuff like that.
And, and if you're going through that, I really recommend that you get professional advice about this because we don't want you on the wrong side of a, of an employment tribunal. And we want to make sure that everything's done fairly for your employee and fairly for you as a business owner. And I highly recommend that you get on board with the likes of Megan Snow, who does our, our HR stuff, and she certainly helped us go through a redundancy situation in our business. So let's.
So for me, redundancy is very much a negative word within my mindset. And it, for me, it's kind of linked to failure. The business is failing. You're not getting enough clients in, you're not making enough money and stuff like that. And it can really, you know, as small business owners, ourselves, when we're running these small businesses, these employees can really be like, really close to us and be real friends to us. So redundancy is extremely hard thing to go through.
And we have been through it as a, as a pet grooming business. And I think we would never have done it without the support of Megan Snow, Megan Saint at the time. And I think possibly we could have done it sooner in our business over the years, but never had the, never had the courage, the guts to do it. And again, there's that negative connotations around redundancy and failure and stuff like that.
So you've got to, you know, when you're looking at the business, your, your business, I'm hoping, is there to provide you with a lifestyle that you want. Your business is there to provide a service to pets and also pay your bills and add enrichment to your life. So you might find that you're doing your tax return once a year and, and you're like, oh, I've not made enough money. Or, or I do speak to many, many pet groomers who run salons and stuff.
And yeah, they, they pay the salon bills and they pay the staff wages, but they don't actually make any money themselves and they, they struggle to pay themselves. And it makes me very sad. And I have sat here and shed a tear with a few groomers before where we've been chatting about the situation. So, you know, and I think the fact that redundancy is such a scary word and has the connotations of failure and stuff like that, people shy away from it. It feels very complex.
So it's not dumb, but actually, you know, reading your numbers, looking at your numbers, getting to the point where you think, I'm just not happy to live like this anymore. I'm running this business for my staff rather than for me, then you might have to look at a redundancy situation. And it's a very brave business owner that makes that decision, because we all understand, if you've been through it, how tough that decision is.
But my thoughts around business are, you've put so much effort into this Business that you want to run and you want to succeed and you want it to provide a lifestyle for you. And you're probably missing, maybe missing evenings, working on the business, weekends. You know, you potentially sacrificing time with your children to run this business. It's got to work for you. So redundancy isn't a sign of failure at all. Now I'm starting to look at this in a completely different way.
Redundancy is a sign of a, of a, of a good business owner who understands their figures, who understands the market, who understands that the business isn't doing as well as it wants to do, and is brave enough to make difficult decisions to ensure that their business carries on and achieve the goals that they've got for it. So for me, I've completely flipped this on, on its head. You know, redundancy is no longer a sign of failure for me.
Redundancy is a sign of, of power as a business owner because you starting to realize that things need to change. And how do I change things? If you do the same thing, you get the same results, so you need to change it. So redundancy gives you an opportunity to restructure your business, review your numbers, reduce your overheads, reset, go again.
So it's an opportunity to really sort of look at the business from the outside in and make it a stronger business for you and any employees that are left. But again, as I said, I really wouldn't tackle this on your own. I wouldn't tackle this with the use of the Internet. Employees obviously have rights. There's processes that you need to go through.
And if you go through them well and well educated and, and you understand the process, you can actually make it a nicer, I'm not going to say a nice process for you and your employees, but maybe a nicer process for you and your employees and getting it, making the decisions the first hurdle, getting the consultation done is the next hurdle. And then making a decision and implementing it is the last hurdle. But remember, you know, your business is there to last for as long as you want it to last.
So you've got to take control. And if redundancy is the way to do that, then so be it. You need to look at that so the next one. And this often gives us this sort of sinking feeling in our hearts when an employee actually hands in their resignation.
Now, you know straight away, if an employee resigns you again, you could probably feel that you failed or you failed as a business owner, or you could get frustrated because you put lots of time and effort into them and obviously they're turning around and saying they don't want to work there anymore. And then the panic sets in because your diary is really busy. You don't know how to, you know, you don't know where to put people.
So there's a lot, again, there's a lot of thoughts and feelings and fears and worries and anger to sort of process when someone resigns from you. And I completely understand that. And again, we've been through this and I had a client the other day that, you know, has had an employee resign and, you know, I, I reframed it for them, you know, that it's a, it's an opportunity, it's a real opportunity. And they said, oh, we knew you were going to say that.
But it's a real opportunity to again, break in the business. Break what? You know, you've got a break in the business cycle. It's an opportunity to review, look at the numbers, look at the efficiency of the business, look at the staffing levels. Is there an opportunity to do more with less, in which in fact improves your profit? Or is it an opportunity to look at an apprentice, which again will save you money on wages and then start the retraining process?
Or is it an opportunity to do nothing and just see how it goes? You know, I think a lot of groomers, when someone resigns, sort of have the real temptation to jump into things feet first and go straight out and look for someone else. But this is a real sort of time of reflection. And, you know, what if you've got a diary that is super busy and full of appointments?
Well, what's actually happened is, is you've just reduced your capacity to, to actually service these appointments and you've become instantly over subscrib overnight. And an oversubscribed business is a very powerful business because you've got all these people going, I want to work with you, I want to work with you, I want to work with you. And now you're saying, well, you know, we've got very limited abilities, limited availability. So actually, how much are you going to pay to work with us?
What, What? You know, do you really want to work with us? It's an opportunity to start filtering out some of the red flag clients, the clients that give you that sort of like feeling in your diary when you see them booked in.
It's an opportunity to go out and put a price increase in place because again, if you decide not to take on another member of staff and you put a price increase in, you are Obviously losing that staff member's salary, you're then gaining more money through your prices, you're gaining savings through their salary and you might be able to find efficiency savings within how you run the diary as well. So it's an opportunity to have a really root and branch review of your business.
That's probably a very political term, isn't it? Root and branch, ground up, review, all that sort of stuff. But it's a real opportunity to get in there and go, right, something's changed, something significant has changed in our business. Do we need to recruit? Should we recruit or can we adjust, review, settle and then look at how we move forward? So again, you know, if someone resigns, it's always a good idea to understand why they've resigned.
Let's take the, the, we've got to take the sort of, the, the US out of it. So, you know, it's not all about us. It might be moving on to new ventures. They might want to give business a go themselves. You may be that you've inspired them to open a business because you made it look so easy. We, we had an apprentice resign a few months ago. She just finished her apprenticeship probably, I think she probably got a distinction, fantastic employee.
But she had an amazing opportunity arise where she could do a lot of traveling and it was like, it's a no brainer for you. You know, your, your, your resignation is, although it's a blow, you know, we'd be telling you to do it anyway because it's such a great opportunity for this person. So although it feels like a big hammer blow to the business, a resignation is also an opportunity. So I would like you to start thinking of it like that if you can.
I know it's hard and then the last, last sort of situation that I've been dealing with and helping a client with is a pivot. Now again, you could say your fear, you feel like a failure if you know the business isn't as busy as it is or isn't as you're not earning the money that you need or you're not getting the inquiries that you need. And this business is a new business.
And you know, if you're, if you're currently in employment, let's say you, you perhaps you're a public sector worker doing shifts or you know, you're doing like three days a week in an employment or you've got a great opportunity there to have some security behind you whilst you build your business slowly.
It's a real, it's something that I did in the Police is I, I decided that I wasn't going to retire in the place I'd already found business mentorship and I was doing the business journey and so I withdrew from the pension which freed up about £400amonth. I looked at what I could do with that £400amonth and that actually was, that actually enabled me to reduce my working hours down to 30 hours a week.
So I went to my bosses and said, you know, please could I cut my hours down to three 10 hour shifts, 30 hours a week. And then that gave me more what my mentor would call success time where I could then work on my business and, and accelerating it moving forward.
So, and it's something that, so if you are in employment and you, you're desperate to start your own business, just, just pause and just, you know, if you can hang on for, with employment for another few months whilst you build your clients, you build your websites, you build your, you build your business and then start to build some buffer behind you. That's always an ideal way.
However, you know, and it's something that my wife did as well when she, she did actually resign from employment and went and did her dog grooming course and while she was building her business she went out and got a part time job mucking out horses so that she could do the horses in the morning, then the dog grooming during the day. Absolutely knackering.
But if you, but you know, the situation arose that my client had no, no choice, you know, personally but to resign from her job and follow her dreams to build a business. Now she's, she's given the business a really good go but it's just not gaining that traction at the moment. And like all of us she's got bills to pay so we had a little one to one and you know, she looked very disheartened and very like upset actually about how things hadn't worked out the way she thought it would be.
And before the one to one we've been working my quite, quite often daily or weekly. Like how's the inquiries? Have you looked at this on your website? So we've been, we've been working together to try and pick up the inquiries but when you start getting stressed about money and situations, your creativity starts to close down. Your brain becomes flooded with all these, with all this stress and it makes it very hard to, to see the wood from the trees. It makes it very hard to think so.
So we sort of looked at the situation and she was like Bill, I need some money, I need to, I Need to earn some money. It's just not. The client came from a big corporate world so I suggested that, well, she'd been, she'd been searching for jobs and doing some interviews but not really getting anywhere. So she had a big LinkedIn presence. So I suggested that she put a, a post out on LinkedIn.
Just saying, you're looking for contract work because that's all we want is a little bit of, a little bit of a top up whilst we're still building the traction within the business and looking at the options around the business. So she went and did that and got snapped up quite quickly, got given a job interview and has pretty much been offered three days a week on about, you know, on a very, very good salary, which will take so much pressure off her business.
And yeah, don't get me wrong, you know, the dog grooming side of things and cat grooming, she does cat grooming now, that's definitely her passion.
But we've just got to step back and say, right, if this isn't working right now and I desperately need the money to pay my mortgage, am I going to carry on doing the same thing for the next six months and potentially it's not going to work for me and then we start getting into trouble with our mortgage and our bills and our mindset, or do we then make that brave decision to say, right, and you've got to face this, you've got to face these facts that if you're not making the money that you need
at the time and you're struggling to generate more business, you've got to face these facts and say, what can I do to sort this out? Well, I've got other skills. She had other skills.
She can go to market, get a temporary contract or a temporary job to start propping up her income, which then relieves all that pressure off her business, which then opens up her creative mind and allows her to keep building that business until such time when we've discussed, you know, putting some savings in place, renting out a table, she, she, we've gone through the figures, she can make more money from her business now by doing two days a week grooming and then three days a week doing her
job. Pressures come off, stress levels have come down and funny enough, her diary's gotten getting really busy again. She's become an oversubscribed business. But it's, it's, there was such a mindset issue here where she was like, no, I can't, you know, I'm failing, I'm failing. My business is Failing. And it was like, it's not failing. Okay, maybe stalling a little bit, but we just need some breathing space to then pick it up. So it's not failure. It wasn't a failure. It's a pivot.
So the pivot was going back to work three days a week in the, in the corporate world. And the power is in her hands because she's using it to fuel the job that she loves. And I'm sure there will be a point in time where she's like, right, my phone's really busy, my diary's really busy. It's time to transition across into the business again full time. And you never know what opportunities might come along as well in between.
So although she felt very much that she had failed and the business had, had failed and had no longer worked for her, we, we worked together and made sure that she saw it, it wasn't a failure. Failure would have been doing the same thing and bearing our heads in the sand and, you know, running the business into the ground to the point where she's like, I can't do anything. I just need to hand the keys back and close it, you know, and that passion would have been ruined.
So definitely not a failure. It was definitely a pivot and a reset. And we go again. So really excited to work with her over the next six months and see, see how this, this starts to, how this starts to take off. So three, three kind of topics there to wonder over. Might not affect you if you, if you're working on your own redundancy situation, making brave decisions, understanding, you know, when we need to start looking at this, if, if, if we have to.
Resignations, if someone resigns within your business, it's an opportunity to review, reset and go again. You know, can you be more efficient? We chose not to take on a new apprentice. We chose to go down that efficiency route, save their wage, do more with less and work a little bit harder. And then that decision to say, right things really aren't working. I need to make a big pivot and I need to change how I'm doing stuff and change what we're doing.
Remember, if we do the same thing, we get the same results. So the, the, some of the most dangerous words in business I think, is that's how we've always done it. You've got to be humble enough, you've got to be brave enough to look at your business, look at it on paper, and go, is this working for me? And if the words are coming around in your head is, no, let's pull your head out of the out of the sand.
Let's have a conversation and let's see if we can start moving your business forward and making it the business that you want it. All right, for now, take care. I hope you're enjoying the podcast and I'll see you all soon. Bye Bye. I hope you have enjoyed this podcast. Please make sure you give us a like or a review to help people find it. The podcast is sponsored by Low Pay. Head over to www.lopay.com to find out more about their payment solution.