Million Dollar Days
Welcome to Million Dollar Days with Robby Choucair & George Passas. Your go-to podcast for a deep dive into the world of Life and Business Mastery.
Join hosts Robby Choucair and George Passas, a dynamic marketer and a seasoned Entrepreneur, as they navigate through an array of intriguing topics ranging from the everyday to the extraordinary.
Robby brings his marketing expertise to the table, offering insights into the latest strategies and trends. George, with his extensive experience in business, provides a grounded, practical perspective. Together, they explore everything from the feasibility of alien existence to effective goal setting, and even the nuances of religion.
Million Dollar Days is not just about business acumen; it's an exploration of life's many facets, wrapped up in conversations that are as enlightening as they are entertaining.
Tune in and be part of our journey, where every day is a million-dollar day, filled with learning, laughter, and the pursuit of mastery.
Million Dollar Days
Overcoming the Victim Mentality in Business
In an age where small businesses face mounting operational pressures, what truly separates those who merely survive from those who thrive? This raw, unfiltered conversation cuts through excuses and delivers hard truths about entrepreneurship in Australia's evolving economic landscape.
We tackle the recent 3.5% minimum wage increase and superannuation bump to 12%, but quickly pivot to the real issue plaguing most struggling businesses: a fundamental lack of business acumen. With refreshing candor, they challenge the victim mentality that permeates small business culture – the tendency to blame external factors rather than addressing internal deficiencies.
"Someone somewhere is paying premium for the service that you offer," becomes a rallying cry for business owners stuck in the cycle of undercharging and overworking. The discussion explores why most practitioners struggle with the transition to business ownership, highlighting the vast difference between being skilled at your craft versus running a profitable enterprise.
The conversation takes fascinating turns through Australia's economic safety nets, tax perspectives that separate the wealthy from the struggling, and why maintaining productive discomfort drives business growth. Beyond theoretical concepts, the hosts share personal experiences of pushing through challenges and the mindset shifts that enabled their success.
Whether you're a seasoned entrepreneur or contemplating your first business venture, this episode delivers actionable insights on pricing strategy, customer selection, and maintaining momentum through adversity. Stop blaming external factors and start mastering the fundamentals that drive business success. Your perspective – not government policies – ultimately determines your outcomes.
Did you know that sharks don't have any bones? What yeah, apparently.
George:Nah, man, nah, like You're tripping.
Robby:Yeah, it doesn't make sense. Someone said that to me and I was like you sure, nah, not as in like.
George:Is that, like 38% of all statistics are made up.
Robby:No, I think the person meant it as in you know how we have bones like you can't eat them. Yeah, like most fish, have they don't have bones that have that.
George:Oh, what it's made of.
Robby:Yeah, no idea. Do you know what I'm talking about? No, but they're bones.
George:Yes, I don't know. I'll look at it as a bone.
Robby:As in, like most of the time, you can eat it. Yeah right, I haven't done that before you don't know what I'm talking about. No, no idea. Yeah, fair enough Me either, if that makes you feel better.
George:Excellent. Welcome back everyone to another episode of Million Dollar Days. I hope you are having a million dollar day, because why wouldn't you, why wouldn't you? And good news if you're on the minimum wage as well, as of the 1st of July it's gone up by 3.5% and also superannuation has gone up to 12%. So good life as an employee right now, living the dream. So good life as an employee right now, living the dream.
George:But what I wanted to talk about today is some of the pressures that businesses do face with regards to the rising costs of really operations. You know, you're hearing more often than not about how these small businesses are struggling and not making money and going broke and it's so difficult to win out there. And there's a couple of things with that. I think just people in general are not equipped to deal with it properly. And also, as in the skill set, the knowledge they get into business, thinking oh yeah, I'm going to crush it, learn from their mistakes, sort of take that long route to being successful. But also there are external pressures to them too. What are the external ones? Oh, just saying, with the cost of actually operations, you know, from employees from making sales.
George:Like, as we've said before in previous conversations, most people aren't great at making sales. Most people suck, that's what I mean and they probably think they're good, they probably think they're alright, but there's so many things that they could be doing to actually skyrocket their business that they're not. And then they've got these other factors which they're not even considering. Okay, minimum wage Most people are getting paid more than minimum wage, so it's probably not going to really affect those people. But still, in saying that it is now a minimum, it's the benchmark. And then also, superannuation has gone up to 12% and it used to be 10%, so that extra 2% now that businesses have to pay their employees.
Robby:Yeah, but so it went from 11 and a half to 12.
George:Yeah, but it used to be a 10. For the longest time it's been 10% since it came out, I think. No, it was less. No, it was, it was less. Actually it was like nine yeah, nine, you're right. So it's gone up from like nine to 12. This has happened at like half a percent over the years.
Robby:Yeah, and it's gone from 11 to 11 and a half to 12 very fast.
George:It's been every 12 months that it's been going up. They had a goal from this point to a certain point to go up. Here's what I think, part of it is why does that bother you?
Robby:Because I'm sensing a sense of oh, no, it doesn't bother me.
George:It doesn't bother me. From that perspective, it's more. It's just another factor that businesses now have to face and incorporate. So like, okay, does everyone do all of their prices go up by half a percent on everything they're doing? Technically, yeah, it should, because now they have an additional cost to business and now everyone's complaining how everything is so expensive. Like you go to get a coffee now it used to be four bucks, it's now five5.50, $6, $7, whatever you're paying for your coffee. But all of these things have to get passed on and I think some of the problem lies here, I reckon, in small businesses in Australia. They should be really helped more as far as as far as the government yeah, from the government, even from a a tax perspective. They need to, they need small businesses need to win. You know, I think small businesses need to win for the good of the economy and too many are not winning. Too many are either going broke or not making enough money, and I reckon that's a problem.
Robby:Yeah. But you know what I'm going to? I'm going to take the other side yeah, good and I'm going to turn around and say that you're right, they probably are winning. But I'll tell you why. It's got nothing to do with half a percent on super of course not, it's just a contributor because they suck.
Robby:Yeah, you know what I mean. Like, like, genuinely, there's certain businesses, some businesses out there do one thing like you you have one fucking job. Your thing is like you've got one product, you serve this one food. Dude, nothing upsets me more than going and paying for a meal and saying I could have whipped this up better, yeah, and it's like I don't even like cooking. Yeah, yeah, do you know what I mean? Like I'm not a, that's not my thing, and I still could have did this better than you. Yeah, that's shame. Shame on you. Like what you don't mean, what are you doing? And then? And then you're gonna go complain, because that's the person who will complain. Oh, minimum wages are up, blah, blah, hey you can't even cook a good egg.
George:Yeah, yeah, ask for poached. How good, not hard-boiled eggs are good.
Robby:yeah, they're great, um, but you know what I mean? Like and then. And then there's businesses that provide a phenomenal experience, and then you're like, hey, we'll pay a premium Charge more.
George:Yeah, yeah, I've actually got a mate that's like that. I've got a mate that he does great work, and I think he was looking after me as far as I was buying something from him and I'm like hey look.
Robby:Do you want to give him a plug on the plug?
George:no, no, no, fucking why like oh, he's a good mate, yeah, give him a plug. No, I'll get him on. I said you should charge more. Charge more. You don't like it? What? No, no, I don't like it that much. Um, I said you should be charging more. Man, I go, you're too cheap. He's very busy as well. I said it's supply and demand. You've got to be charging more. You deliver a good product and I reckon you need to charge more. But again, that could be an element of what you're saying People suck at business. People suck at business. So he doesn't realize. He goes oh, no, I can't charge that much. Maybe it's a self-worth thing, maybe it's. Oh, I feel like I'm ripping people off. Man, the more money you make, the better service you can provide. I'd rather have 10 customers that pay me heaps and give them amazing service than a hundred that pay me fuck all.
Robby:And give me grief. Yeah, but most people live in the latter. Yeah, that's right, do you know what I mean? And they just scrape by and then they sit there saying you know, business is hard, and blah, blah, blah. And I think that because, like, business is hard yeah, it's not easy at all but I also think that thing of like it's ingrained into people.
George:Yeah, that it's hard.
Robby:Yeah, like kind of like the I'm the victim kind of mentality, yeah, yeah, absolutely Like, oh, poor me.
George:Almost permission to fail. Yeah, it's like. Oh well, I gave it a crack. Oh, it's too hard. Oh, it's this, it's this, it's this. Yes, there is an element of that, for sure.
Robby:Yeah, and I'm so anti that, so anti that and yeah, I think most businesses don't deliver a great job. So if you're struggling in business like fix it, Do something, Change something Do you know what I mean? Like there is if you were really good at what you do. Like someone somewhere is paying top dollar for the service that you offer, Whatever it is, I don't care what it is. You make breakfast, you serve pizzas, you clean toilets. Someone somewhere is paying premium for that same service. It's like why can't they pay that premium to you?
George:Yep, do you?
Robby:know what I mean. You say that thing Somewhere out there is the most expensive builder in Australia. It's not me. I'm pissed off, yeah. And it's like, well, how can that person get away with it? That's right. And someone's doing it right now. Yeah, people complain oh, I can't buy a house. People complain, dude, oh, all the time, I can't buy a house, I can't do this, rent is high, blah, blah, blah. And it's like, hey, someone just bought a house in Noosa for $20 million last week. Do you know what I mean? That person did it. You can go and say, oh, you know, rich family, blah, blah, blah. You can make every excuse you want Every single one, but is every single one of them self-made?
George:Exactly.
Robby:Do you know what I mean? How did they do it? And that's why I refused, like half a percent, sure, yeah, yeah, take one. Yeah, I'll pay you more. Give me the best employees. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, if you're paying minimum wage, that's a problem in and of itself. I agree.
George:Yeah, I agree with that completely. It is, it's a problem in and of itself, you're scraping the bottom of the barrel. You are better off paying more to get a better quality person that will deliver, as opposed to someone that's just going to go through the motions and way, way more return on a small improvement. Yeah, heaps. I think it's about 24 something an hour at the moment. That's the minimum wage, so give them 30.
Robby:So does that mean there is no job where you can earn less than $24 an hour as an adult? Yes, you know, I was looking. I had someone contact me, like a family member, quite young, and he called me and he just wanted some advice about accounting and things like that. He was like how do I do this, how do I do that? So I was explaining it all to him and I was looking at the tax brackets. Have you I recently did, funny enough, I was looking at it last night, yeah, and I was looking at it and I realized that, first of all, from what I recall, since I've been aware of it, it's always been zero to 18,000 or 18,200 is tax-free. What I didn't realize was when I started working I was an apprentice I made $12,000 in my first year as an employee. The tax bracket was six, so I paid tax on $12,000, dude for an annual income and I was like I'm not that old.
Robby:And I was like that's a significant jump, like that's a big same thing with Super. I think it was like that's a significant jump, like that's a big same thing with super. I think it was like nine percent, yeah, that's why I was kind of fresh yeah, um I think it was like nine percent at the time.
George:It's like all of a sudden there's been these big leaps to help the lower, help raise the lower bar yeah which is which is what Australia is all about, by the way, absolutely, and look, no one's going to live on $12,000.
Robby:No, but I was a first year apprentice. Yeah, it was scraping by. I used to use my overdraft every single day. I used to live my life in negative 500. Yeah, there you go For a long time.
George:Yep, how's that for stress?
Robby:I just had to make sure I had fuel. That feeling seems so Like imagine not going somewhere now because you're like no, I can't fuel, I like it. But the people that It'd be people like that, yeah, it'd be people like I can't. I've got one tank of fuel for the week. You know I need to make sure I can get to work and back. Yep.
Robby:That was the way I lived, but I was also making $200 and something a week. You know what I mean. Yeah, it's very challenging, and now you make $24. And yes, okay, the cost of living's gone up.
George:Yeah, I get it, but like make more money, make more money, make more money, absolutely. And yeah, that's great. And if you're listening to this and you're in that boat, that's what you have to do. And it's like, oh, it's easy for you to say and it's easy for you to do that it's you know, again, even you saying that is an excuse, if you, if you just keep putting excuses up in front of yourself, then that's all you're ever going to see. You're just going to see the excuses. You're going to be surrounded by the excuses and you're not going to find that avenue, that solution, whatever it might be, to get that change that you want in your life.
Robby:I think um. I think we're too comfortable in Australia. Yeah, have you ever felt? Have you ever been?
George:comfortable in Australia. Yeah, yeah, have you ever felt, have you ever been comfortable Me? Yeah, like in the sense from I'm doing all right, yeah.
Robby:I say it to so many people and most of the time I'm saying it to myself. Do you know what I mean. Like in the sense of like people always do this and I it's very common, I think, like I would say, I would go as far as to say like 99 people do this, they get some level of success and they take the foot off the pedal.
Robby:Yeah, I was definitely that, I definitely had that you go like, you go hard at something and you're like and then all of a sudden it's like you kind of hit a point you hadn't reached before, and then it's like, oh, like wow, you know what I mean. And then you kind of pull back, yeah, and then you coast, and then you fall behind or you stay stagnant, yeah. And there's people that do that and stay stagnant for the rest of their life and they hit a benchmark and hey, if that's what you want, by all means you won. That's right, if that's what you want, you know what I mean Like, if that's your goal and you're like, hey, I want to make $55,000 a year and work four hours a week, and I got it, and I'm doing that and I'm happy, you win, you've won. Congratulations. But I think it's human nature.
George:I think I find personally that I work better under pressure. You know, when it gets hard, like you know, when it's tough, when the going gets tough, the tough get going. Like I feel that that's really relevant for myself. Whether things are difficult, I don't know. I think it has to happen. There's no fight, there's nothing after me. Do you know what I mean? I can't be like oh, I'll just let it go, and that next guy, it's someone else's problem, I'm going to quit or I'm going to do it Like there's nothing.
Robby:It has to be me that does the thing, and so why can't you just do the thing anyway?
George:What do you mean? So why does it have to get tough? Things always do. There are times in business where it's difficult.
Robby:Yeah, no, no, but your statement was I feel like I work better under pressure.
George:Yeah, yeah, I do.
Robby:Yeah, so why do you have to be under pressure? Under pressure to work well? Yeah, like you just said, when the going gets tough, the tough get going. Yeah, so you feel like when it gets tough, all of a sudden you step up and I said why can't you just do the thing without?
George:it getting tough. Well, maybe tough, not the thing, maybe like a level of discomfort. You know, it's like, um, like you know you said, when you get comfortable, that's when you sort of start taking your foot off the brake. Yeah, and I feel when I get like that, it's it almost just happens. I take my foot off the off the pedal and I, when I see that happening, I then go okay, well, what can I do to make myself uncomfortable? What do I need to go and do to get moving again? I'm pushing, so I'm always under that pressure.
George:That might be employ someone else Okay, well, now we have another $100,000 salary that we have to cover. Or it might mean I've got to go buy an investment property or do something else, because I find that when things are easy, I'll start to go okay, cool, let's just relax a little bit, but you've earned it. You start having that talk in your head oh, come on, man, you've worked at that. Those last couple of projects were a killer. You've been working hard for six months. You deserve a few months off. Just take it easy, go on holiday, do whatever you got to, and whilst that's fine if you need to have that break, I just find personally that if I'm always doing something, if I'm always busy, that it drives me. Even this podcast, it's inconvenient at times, as much as I enjoy it. I look at it and I'm like, oh, I've got things to do, I've got places to be, I've got phone calls coming in. Right now there's a level of discomfort doing this, but it's also very rewarding too. I feel it keeps me on my toes. I always think, okay, well, when things get tough, I always think to myself well, you asked for this. Did you think it was going to be easy? You asked for everything you have got. Now go out there and work and get it done. As you said, find those solutions to problems. If, hey, something's not working great, well, cool, find the solution to it. What do you need to do to get it better? We're looking internally at this is at my construction business. How do we get more efficient at building things? Because at the moment and it's funny one of my employees who's based in the office he's an office-based employee I've got him on site for the week purely because I've got three people on annual leave and I said listen, just spend the week on site driving around. I need you to manage these jobs do X, y, z and he's like, yeah, cool, no worries, and it's funny. He called me up during the week and he's like man, he goes, people just fucking lie. He goes. They're telling me they're going to be here. They're not here. I'm waiting. It's eight o'clock. There's no one here yet. Now they've just called me. They're not coming till tomorrow. This isn't happening. Oh, the timber delivery. I said, mate, that's the challenges you're getting that the site guys get every day. I'm glad that you challenges in the office that the site guys won't see, but I'm like well for me. Really.
George:Since COVID I found that projects are taking longer to complete. It's no longer. Oh yeah, I can definitively say this is going to be done in 10 months, in 12 months, in 15 months. It's like I need a bigger contingency now because things aren't getting done. Things aren't getting done and that's a pain point for me in the business. I'm looking at it well, how do we build quicker? What's that gap? What do we need to fill? Is it better team? Is it someone that's a gun that I have to pay 200 grand a year that delivers projects in nine months? Or is it systems? Is it procedures? Is it everyone like we need to have weekly meetings. What is it to get that better? And that's a discomfort in the business at the moment. For me looking at how we deliver those projects sooner.
Robby:So would you say, you're going pretty hard.
George:At the moment. Yeah well, we are Everyone's. I feel like, again, the last six months been pretty hard for sure, in the sense of how much we're working to get stuff done. It's been a high-pressure time. We've had two projects, two milestone projects, coming to completion, which has been a great achievement. So proud of the team. Everyone's contributed, every single person has contributed, to these two particular jobs getting done.
George:But it hasn't been easy. People work Saturdays. They've worked overtime, they've had some guys work until eight o'clock at night. I've been here at 1.30 in the morning doing reports and shit like that. So it hasn't been easy.
George:But when you get to take a step back and look at what you've achieved and accomplished, you go, okay, well, that was great. But looking back as well, I look at that and go, well, how do I do that better, more efficient, more profitable next time? That's my next challenge and next thing to look at, because I could very easily say, okay, all right, we did it, let's move on to the next one and not make any changes. That's the comfort level. That's that person putting their head in the sand and not really fixing anything and just going project to project or customer to customer and go oh, this is hard. Building is fucked. This is no good. I can't believe. No client pays on time. Well, no, you need to put those systems in place to make sure you're getting paid on time. You need to put those things in place to make sure you're getting high quality trades, clients, suppliers, all that sort of stuff.
Robby:I feel like in the construction space, especially like in there, that it's very. You know, building is hard.
George:Yeah, without a doubt. Without a doubt, I play on that a little bit at events. I play on that a little bit at events because I'm trying to hit pain points when I'm speaking to them. But yeah, without a doubt, I speak to a lot of people, a lot of people, throughout the day.
George:I was telling you, my phone doesn't stop and I had a call from someone from the building authority the other day. He wanted to come and do an inspection on one of my jobs. I was like, yeah, no worries. And we just started chatting for like three, five minute chat, just random guy, I'd never spoken to him before. And he's like, oh yeah, how are you finding? I said, yeah, good, we're very busy, we've got lots on, and it's always a challenge at this time of the project, and so on and so forth. He's like, yeah, I used to be a builder, and he goes, I'm out. Now he goes. I've been, he was a builder for 30 years. He goes. It was just the worst, it was so hard, it was the biggest slog, and now I'm doing.
Robby:Yeah, I think it's a very common, because most builders most, not all, but most builders tend to be to come from like a blue collar background, right, like they're a trade or they had some sort of you know what I mean. They've worked on site, they've done something along those lines or have some sort of hands-on experience Not all, but I would say a large percentage and they always seem to have that. You know, oh man, like it's like I don't know anyone who I could go and be like the industry's fucked huh, and they'd be like no bro, it's great. This is sick, it's amazing.
Robby:I reckon every single person. If you went there and you said the industry's fucked huh, they'd be like, yeah, man fuck.
George:You a person. If you went there and you said industry's fucked, huh, they'd be like, yeah, man, fuck, you're very true, I'm dude, I'm fucking talk to. A lot of times I've had times it's good. Yeah, I've had time. Me too. I've had times where it's good and you say, yeah, it's fucking, we're killing it, we're doing really well, and but then, yeah, I've had times where I'm like this is fun about, like even I think that's what you're saying is a general. Thing.
Robby:I'm saying as a general thing, like industry specific. Do you know what I mean? Even in the good times, I reckon, when a builder's crushing or just signed a new job, you can be like industry's fucked up, that's so true it will.
George:It's so true, dude.
Robby:That's so true it's like always, industry's fucked up. Yeah, it's fucking prices, supplies going up, blah, blah, timber, blah blah. You're like all right, dude, relax, you're here, you're in love. What gravity. You know what I mean.
George:Be grateful you get to do this. This is an opportunity, dude. That's the reframe I always use. I ask for this, I get this is good. This is gonna be hard, man like when.
George:And I also genuinely believe that if you stick through these difficult times at the moment because, you know, the last time I was speaking to another builder again the other day, from new zealand, actually shout out to him because he listens to the podcast, what's his name? Uh, wade. Shout out to wade, shout out to w and he's from New Zealand and he wants to come to an event. And he's like hey, listen to your podcast, I want to come down. I was like, oh, awesome, mate, that's great Anyway, and we're talking, he goes.
George:I've been a builder since 2009 or 2008. We started our business, and he goes. We hit the GFC, so we even. And he was saying the same old story this is in New Zealand I know it's very similar to Australia, but still another country and he was saying the same thing he goes. Yeah, we're breaking even. And we had some really good years between there and then COVID happened and now we've gone back to zero again and he goes. I just feel like I'm he goes, I'm weathered, I just need to start going again and I goes. I want to reach out and have that conversation with you because I resonated with a lot of what you were saying on the podcast and I wanted to get to reach out and have a chat. But it's yeah, I think with that as well.
George:As you said, it's a blue collar thing where they're very good tradesmen and they're very good practitioners at what they do. But then when they step into that business world, it's a whole new ballgame. When you have to start thinking about payroll and tax and suppliers and clients and processes, it's a completely different thing. You're not even. You may as well go and like, fuck, I may as well go and start a marketing company. Do you know what I mean? It's completely different from what you were doing.
George:Yeah, talking cheese, you used to build shit with a hammer, and now you're not doing that and you're doing something completely different and you're expected to be a fucking gun at it, or you think you'll get at it because you know how to build. And that's the problem. This is not the same, and it's probably the same with every industry too. You might be a great fucking barista, make the best coffee, and then you go and open up a cafe and you're still making great fucking coffee, but you don't have stuff. Yeah, and then the tills doesn't balance and then you get bass and you're like what's bass stand for? What is bass? I don't understand. Why do I have to pay super and how do I calculate that? Does my accountant do that? Who processes this invoice at the end of the day, like how does it balance out? How do I reckon You've got to learn all that shit? And that is completely different from making a fucking coffee.
Robby:Yeah, and it's um it's ignorance debt. Yeah, that's right, it's not, it's what you don't know.
George:You don't know what you don't know. It's not necessarily your fault. It is your fault if you continue to do that for 10 years, if you continue to brush it under and just get by. That's the people that get in trouble. At the end of the day, they're the ones that are going. Oh well, I'm in debt on this. I don't know what to do. I don't know how to price. I've got bad clients, whatever it might be it might be.
Robby:That's a funny word. The same person who called me last night was talking to me about the whole blah, blah, blah. And I'm like cool, this is how tax works. Bayg, blah, blah, blah. So you need to go to accounting. Now it's the end of the financial, it's finished, so now you need to book with an accountant. It was his first full-time job, so he had never done any of this Young, and he's like cool, cool. He's like, um, oh man, I hope I don't have to pay a lot of tax. And I'm like dude, listen to me, I hope you do. Yeah, I hope you do. He's like why is it? Because that means you're making money. That's what it means. It's simple as that. And the government, the way it works, the government wants to take us. If you're making a lot of money, the government wants to slice. Yeah, and that's the way it works. The government wants to take a slice.
Robby:If you're making a lot of money, the government wants to slice. Yeah, and that's the way the system works. Okay, that's why we have clean roads, that's why you go outside and the air's clean and there's public toilets and blah, blah. Yeah, that's how it works, that's how the system works. Okay, and don't be afraid. Like he had this fear of paying tax and debt, and he's like oh yeah, but like you know, imagine, like you got to pay, you know and he was telling me about someone else that he knows that makes decent coins Like that person pays, you know, thousands and thousands of dollars a year in tax. I'm like so what? Yeah, I'm like dude, you can't be scared. If you're scared of that, you're never going to get it.
Robby:Yeah, yeah dude, you can't be scared.
George:If you're scared of that, you're never going to get it. Yeah, do you know what I mean? Just make your 18K a year. You don't pay any tax. How good will life be for you.
Robby:Yeah, I thought it was a very, very funny conversation no-transcript. That's what I think happened. How good.
George:Was this a cousin? Did you say, yeah, family member. Yeah, there you go. Yeah, so you know, I once had a mentor many years ago and he was telling me he goes. I hope my kids get taxed stupid amounts of money. And I remember looking at him why? Because if they're getting taxed, they're making money. Yeah, he goes, that's good, because obviously you can minimize your tax deficit.
Robby:Yeah, it's tax efficiency. There's ways to do it. Yeah, but like the person who pays zero is most of the time making nothing, most of the time, at least on paper. Yeah, exactly they, at least on paper. Yeah, exactly they make nothing. So tell me this half a percent increase. What does it change for you, george? Oh, nothing at all. Are you going to put your prices up?
George:Oh, I try to put my prices up at every chance I get, really.
Robby:I put it up every day. Yeah, why not? If you call me tomorrow, I'll cost more.
George:Hopefully you're better. You're better than you were yesterday. Yeah, look, my mentality isn't so much how do I put everything up a percent or do this or do this. It's just like oh, we'll look at a project based off its merit and I go this is how much money we want to make. This is a difficult job. This is an easy job, whatever it might be, and execute from that as we put a markup before you go. As we put a markup I'm talking about the construction business now but as we put up a markup on materials, goods, labor, all that sort of stuff, we're generally more expensive or making more money as a default, because if materials are going up and labor is going up, I'm putting a markup on that material and labor. So, as a result, I'll make more money putting a markup on that material and labor, so, as a result, I'll make more money. And then I just look at efficiencies within the business and go okay, how can we do this, how can we move that? How can I get that?
Robby:Okay, let's go back to the super thing though. All right. So from last year, the last financial year, to this one, if you pay someone $100,000 a year and you have to contribute an additional half a percent to their super, it's $500 a year. That's right. Okay, so it's $125 a quarter. Yep, that you pay because super gets paid quarterly. Did you do anything different? Nothing, so what? You seemed bothered by it.
George:I wasn't bothered. It was just the opening of the conversation with raise the minimum wage and then super. You know there's, I think. Do you like super? Do you think it's a?
Robby:good thing for people. Yes and no. I think most people should learn about it. I think people don't understand it Without a doubt. Yeah, and I think most people wouldn't even know how much super they have. Yeah, I and understand it Without a doubt. Yeah, and I think it is. Most people wouldn't even know how much super they have. Yeah, I think you should one. I'm actually reading a really good book about this right now. It's called I'll Teach you To Be Rich.
George:Yeah, cool, right, I'll check that one out.
Robby:It's good and yeah, there's a lot of basic stuff. Yeah, I find that with a lot of stuff where I'm like he'll be like, work out your expenses as well, and it's like and dude, like this guy's quite good, like he talks about funds, he goes into some complex stuff as well, but there's some levels of it that are like super basic and you're like dude, like if people aren't doing like. I know those like that's. That was like it wasn't even taught to me. I kind of worked it out. Yeah, kind of worked it out. Yeah, do you?
Robby:know what I mean, um. It's like, if people don't know that, like, let's say, the r word, but you're not very radical. Yes, you're very radical, you're very I'm gonna use that word every time. Now you're, you're a big radical, um, but do you know what I mean? And then i'm'm reading this book anyway and he talks about all this and I think with your super, there is a huge benefit, like one you know tax efficiency, contributing to it prior to everything happening, obviously, managed funds. It's going to grow year on year, compounding year on year.
Robby:I think Einstein coined the term, you know, compound interest is the seventh wonder of the world, eighth wonder of the world. How many wonders of the world are there? At least 30. 31st wonder of the world. But I think most people don't understand it and I think the downside to super is like you know how you hear now and I don't follow this too closely, but you hear like they're going to start, is like you know how you hear now and I don't follow this too closely, but you hear like they're going to start. How do they save the economy, dude, if everything tanks, like now with AI? If everything tanks, how do they save the economy? They'll start funding everyone and then they'll tax the rich, yeah. So then it becomes a thing of like okay, cool, right now the law is you're super tax-free Now they're about to change that, yeah. And tax-free Now they're about to change that, yeah.
Robby:And it's about to become like a, I think if you hit $3 million you're taxed on anything above $3 million, which is the downside, because all of a sudden, you invested all this money with thinking there are no tax implications, thinking this is all tax-free dollars and I'm going to get to pull it out when I'm $190 because we're going to live that long, and then, like all of a sudden, the law changes because it's so far away, yeah, and there's nothing you can do about it.
George:And the way they probably see it is most people won't accumulate $3 million in their super, so again, they're going for those wealthy people that have the $3 million. Yeah, I don't know how you would If you. I don't know how you would If you. If you, what do you mean? You don't know what. Sorry, surely you can accumulate 3 million If you're working a nine to five, probably not mad in your working career to make 3 million If you work. If you work for 40 years, you should get close.
Robby:You should run the numbers, dude. Yeah, I mean, it depends on how much you make. It depends how much you're making If you're making like 70k a year and 12%.
George:Now you know what I mean. On top of that, do you make your employment agreements including FIBA? Yes and no, I don't know, it just depends. I'll just look at it, because for me it makes no difference. I, I've got to pay them. That much money has to come out of my bank account. Do you know what I mean? It makes all the difference. No, as in the figure, yeah, so if it's 85 plus super, well, I don't look at it as 85 plus super. I look at it as what that total thing is going to be is what it's going to cost the business. So I just calculate it whichever way. No, no, I can make just whatever sounds better.
Robby:So if I say it's a hundred including super, as opposed to 90, plus when the super goes up it comes out of their wage, not out of. Does that make sense?
George:Yes, I know what you're saying.
Robby:So if your employment agreement is including super, like this is your thing including super, yeah, so it's like cool, the super comes out of that. So when the super laws changes and it goes from 11.5 to 12, we're just shifting a bit of their money.
George:I know, yeah, no, I don't do it like that. Yeah me either, I do plus, but yeah some people do. I think that's again small-minded thinking like you know what I mean, I'm going to save 500 bucks this year. You know what I mean. So no, I don't know, I'd always do a plus.
Robby:Yeah, fair enough. Um, what was the same for that? The super thing? Yeah, yeah, I think, um, I think super is good. Yeah, all in all. Yeah, the downside is limitation of control yes, yeah, that's, that's definitely it.
George:Because, again, you can't access your super to do things that you want to do. You can't access it early. I think that's great. Yeah to a degree. To a degree, I think there's a time you actually can access it early if you need to.
Robby:But the whole thing is like they understand people are impulsive and will take it, so it's like, oh, we need to just make it harder for you.
Robby:Yeah, super hard. So it's like, if you need to do it, hey, pardon the pun. Yeah, didn't even mean that. Yeah, um, but he's here all week. Um, yeah, I think. I think it's good all in all. The only downside is the level of control.
George:I don't like yeah, you can have a self managed super fund. It doesn't matter. Yeah, there's still levels to it, but you can do more with it.
Robby:You're just investing instead of them.
George:Yeah, that's right. Yeah, that's not the element I don't like.
Robby:I think most people should not invest their own money. I think most people should invest in funds. Do you know what I mean? I think Vanguard is going to do way better than, or Host Plus is going to do way better than you. Most of the time, 99.9% of people, yeah. And if you've got skills and you can go and you can develop or you follow business trends really carefully and you choose to study businesses and do a lot of analysis and pick particular stocks and things like that, sure go nuts, yeah, but most people, nope, aren't going to beat the thing. But even if you're in an SMSF, if laws change and they say, cool, like all of a sudden, now anyone over a million, we're going to tax you.
Robby:Yeah, you can't turn around and be like, ah, no of a sudden, now anyone over a million we're going to tax you, yeah, you can't turn around and be like, ah, no, no, you can't, I know, you know what I mean. Whereas if you have your money in a different avenue or account, you have a little bit more control. You can take it out whenever you want. You can move it.
George:Yep, yep, tax, that's right, that's right, good old tax. Yeah, I mean, look post-COVID, particularly here in Victoria as well. Like what you said, during hard times they'll give handouts and whatnot, and they did that massively here, massively. It's Australia, that's Australian. Our debt's huge, particularly in Victoria, though, like Victoria's debt's fucked.
Robby:We have one of the best like the bottom. If you look at the socio-economical. Like the people at the bottom live a decent quality compared to someone. Yeah, oh, dude, I reckon would be like top five. There would be very few places that offer as many subsidies and you know America's not that good. Like the people at the bottom of America struggle.
Robby:You know what I mean. And whereas in Australia you're like you kind of get spoon fed a bit. They look after you yeah, which is nice. It also makes you comfortable. Yeah, absolutely. But it also allows you to take risks and say cool man, worst case scenario.
George:I got this fail safe.
Robby:Yeah, worst case scenario, I'll be like these guys, we'll make it happen, yeah.
George:Yeah, absolutely so. You're going out there and going to look at employing more people, or are you worried about your minimum?
Robby:wage Super increase. No, I'm going to start sacking. Start culling yes. Start culling.
George:But look again in that you say start sacking. It is resource based as well. What? Do you? Mean as in if you now lose 10 clients, you lose 10 clients and the foreseeable future doesn't look like you're getting anymore. You've got to make that decision whether you start getting rid of people. You're not going to pay them to sit there and look pretty and go. Oh well, soon we're going to start having clients again, but in the same token, if you get another 10 clients, well, you've got to put people on.
Robby:Yeah, I think there is a. If you lose 10 clients at once, you've done something wrong. You are, in some ways, you've let yourself down somewhere, whether you're aware of it or not, but you've dropped the ball. You just got to pick the ball back up.
George:Absolutely. But yeah, because I always look at our current projects and what we've got on and how we're going to deliver those. And there's times when you are top heavy, I believe or for me personally anyway because we'll have projects finishing. Then we have new ones starting, like right now we've actually got two projects finishing but one starting. So it kind of balances us out again. But then I need to forecast and start looking in the future, and this is what you're saying. You've got to plan for that. You've got to plan for that. I know towards the end of the year we're going to finish another two projects, so we then need the next two or three projects to kickstart so we can get moving with everything as well. And yeah, that planning and that foresight and forecasting is massive in any business, not just in what we do, but in any business. I think you've got to be looking towards the future and seeing where it's all at and what you need to be doing. For sure.
Robby:Yeah, otherwise, what are you doing? What are you doing?
George:excellent, excellent, um. Do you reckon employees are pumped that they got an extra five, half a percent?
Robby:Did you ever notice that when you were an employee? No, no, never, I didn't even know what the percentage of super I was getting was. There you go. I didn't. You don't know. You're just like you don't even know how to check your super half the time, yeah.
George:Or how many funds you have or who you're with at the moment.
Robby:Yeah, it was, or who you're with at the moment. Yeah, it was also. No, I knew who I was with, but it was also. It wasn't as easy, like it wasn't. Now, if there's an app on your phone, you can look at it every morning if you want, whereas back in my day you couldn't. You'd have to like having an account online wasn't a common thing, wasn't a thing? Yeah, yeah, it wasn't like. Yeah, account online wasn't a common thing, wasn't a thing? Yeah, yeah, it wasn't like yeah, he said what's their website?
Robby:How do I find it? And then you go find their website, log on and what's my password? You know what I mean? It wasn't all the password Shout out to Keeper Dude, what an app.
George:You like it.
Robby:Ah, it's good.
George:Live off it.
Robby:Me too. But yeah, there wasn't all these password accounts to manage all the different login credentials you have. So yeah, it's definitely more accessible now than it was back then. But no, I don't think do. I think employees are pumped. I think most employees want to know. Let's find out this morning.
George:Go ask them all.
Robby:Guys, I would be Group huddle, I reckon. I reckon one person might know In our team, like in here the whole office. I reckon one person might know oh interesting, yeah, we'll ask after this. Yeah, as soon as we wrap up, we'll go ahead and we'll ask everyone. I reckon no one will even know. I don't think it changes anyone's life.
George:It doesn't change what you do at all in any way. Yeah, exactly, exactly, right.
Robby:The question is will it go up another half percent?
George:Yeah, at what point is it going to go up or down? Yeah, I think so. Yeah, I reckon the whole reason for super is to navigate that after employment life and for people to be living and not being on, you know, benefits, on the dole or whatever it might be, on pensions and stuff like that.
Robby:I think it's a great thing. Yeah, I think so too, whatever it might be on pensions and stuff like that. I think it's a great thing. Yeah, I think so too. I think it's great that Australia makes it mandatory. Is it mandates? Is that the word I'm looking for? Yeah, you know what I'm trying to say? Something they make it. It's a, it's compulsory. You can't not pay super. Yeah, they force you to put money aside for your retirement. Yeah, I think that's great. I think most people wouldn't do it. I think if you left it to the individuals and I'm sure if you looked at past history, you'd probably see that I think most people wouldn't save that money. They wouldn't keep it for later. Most people can't think in the long term. You know what I mean. Let's live for now. Yolo, you know they say YOLO and it's like make them do it, force it, force it down their throats. Yeah, I think most people should invest way more than they do.
George:Oh, without a doubt. Do you think you should invest more, like you personally now?
Robby:I, I I am. Do you think you should do more? I've literally, literally ramped it up as I read this book.
George:There you go. That's great. So the book's influenced your decision on what you're doing.
Robby:Yeah, it was. I was already doing it, but it was kind of like I should automate this.
George:Yeah, yeah, that's good, like a dollar cost average type thing. So putting in an X amount of dollars per week, per month, whatever.
Robby:Yeah, like, just make it, you ever sign up to a new subscription, you survive, right. Yeah, just add a new subscription. Yeah, do you know what I? Mean. Whatever it is Like, even if you can only do $20 a week or $100 a week or whatever you can afford, put something and just have it automatically and then, as you can increase it, increase it, yeah, and it's like the impact that will have later is phenomenal.
George:Yeah, my word, my word, very cool. Yeah, I think having an investment strategy is a whole topic in itself. I think that's definitely one thing, and my dad's massive on that too. He's always harping on about it to me and saying you've got to make money when you sleep. Make money when you sleep, don't just work for a job and do that. He goes.
George:Business is a great tool, I believe, to make wealth and generate some money, and then it's about using that money to then invest it and go do other things and expand 100%. Yeah, but got to get to that point where you're making money, your business is making money, and you guys need to understand the fundamentals. And if you don't read books, go to courses, connect with people, call a brother, cousin, sister, brother, father, whatever whoever it is call them. If you know, someone knows something more than you that can teach you something about tax, that can teach you something about business. Have the conversation and it's not that hard these days. You can jump on social media, you can jump on YouTube. You can educate yourself on the fundamentals, basics.
George:Oh man, you can fucking jump on ChatGPT and just ask it the question. Hey, explain it to me like I'm a five-year-old how does the tax system work here? This is how much I'm making, this is how I'm going to do it, this is what I'm thinking, and just explain it to me and then, as it spits stuff out, you can ask more questions and ask more questions and go by the way, here's my last pay slip. What should I do with it? And even though it may not be the best advice as far as what it gives you, it can still get you thinking Okay, yeah, that's good, that's good, maybe I'll do this, maybe I'll do this, maybe I'll speak to this accountant, and so on and so forth.
Robby:So it's your responsibility as a business owner to not be a practitioner anymore you know, when I was um back in the hell those, I bought a book called small business for dummies. Oh yeah, yeah, those yellow books, those yellow books. Yeah, I think they're great yeah well, they've sold millions upon millions of copies.
Robby:Um, it's just like it's the most simplified version of. I think there's one for Super. Yeah, it's like simplified versions of how it works, understanding how things work. Yeah, they're not easy to read. You would think they would be as well. Yeah, maybe I just wasn't. That's a good reader.
George:Could be that. Excellent, excellent, well, another episode down. Thank you so much for tuning in. The problem isn't these increases in super. If you're stressed about it, it isn't the increase in minimum wage. The problem is your attitude. It's your ability to understand the game and to rise above it.
Robby:So that's what you need to do.
George:Perspective. Yeah, absolutely Awesome. All right, thanks for tuning in, guys. We'll see you next week, as always. Hope you're having a million-dollar day and I'm sure Robbie wants you to pass this on to your mother. I do 100%, 100%. Look, he doesn't have a thing for mums, he just wants your mum to do well.
Robby:Yeah, and it's for you, it's for you, that's it. Awesome. Thanks a lot guys. Speak soon. Thanks everyone, yeah. That's funny. Phone's blowing up, huh.
George:I don't even know, like fuck, I hate cunts.
Robby:I'm talking. You seem like you got a lot of shit on your mind um, I'm just, I'm really close to finishing Curve.
George:Al, I feel like you were saying that for like oh man, I've said it for like six months Curve Al. I owe me 900 grand at the moment and it's fucking annoying 900, 900 grand, yeah, exactly and, and it's fucking annoying 900? 900 grand, yeah, exactly, and I've got like fucking I haven't paid me yet. No, but are they like? This has been difficult, dude, like I've got to call the director Are they doing a shifty no, like just trying to claim that they're not?
Robby:Are they? Is it going to come through? Is this time?
George:Yeah, it's time. Yeah, it's time, it's time. Yeah, and it was supposed to be this week and it's not. And then I just spoke to I went met simon yesterday and he's like, oh, he goes, they're not going to process it till next week and he goes, it probably won't hit your account till monday week.
George:I'm like monday week, bro, I go, I fucking haven't paid trades. I go, people are going to walk off the job and I'm not going to get them back. Do you understand? Like, how do you want me to finish a fucking project without money? I haven't been paid. How you like? You want me to come here and work every day. We haven't been paid. I've got to need this coin. You can't, you can't fucking around. I'm going to call the boss now, uh, this morning, and say listen, you've got to release at least half of it this week. I don't want to wait till monday week to get paid now because I fucking, I've bent over backwards to get black street for you finished, finished.
George:It's fucking there. We've done everything we possibly can. It's in it for them. Why do they not? I don't know, it's just fucking processes or some shit like that. They're just unorganized cunts themselves. You know what I mean. But what frustrates me is it makes us look unorganized too, because we're not paying our trades, haven't paid half these cunts. They're all messaging us fucking 24 7. You know where's our money, where's our money. So it's waiting, mate, I'm waiting. Normally I would pay, but it's just too much. It's too much to fucking pay cunts, you know, and I'm fucking cash flowing. Their business not on. It's bullshit. Yeah, that's fucked, it is it's fucked.
Robby:It's stressful it's fucked.
George:It is it's fucked. It's stressful. It's fucked on both sides.
Robby:It's like now we've even got that with CD construct and it's like he's not paying us because he hasn't received money from a job. And I'm just going to tell him like, hey, man, it's not your problem, it's not my fucking problem.
George:Yeah, I know the trades just say the same thing, which I agree to, but at Say Curve Al, go broke tomorrow. I'm fucked. I'm coming to work and applying to a job at OneCliff God bless, sick, make some fucking serious coin. But that's, it's not going to happen?
George:It's not, they're fucking multibus Curve. Al's done it and they've paid every single bill to date. Do you know what I mean? They're not that way in clients, but it's. Yeah, it's just frustrating, dude, frustrating. So, anyway, working through that shit, I can't serve fucking messaging and calling. Okay, also, these front doors, they are temporary or not, I'm going to need to get them. I don't know what this cunt's on about. Hey, how are you? Sorry, just go through it. Yeah, go through it. I can't really get your message. And what jobs are for?
