Richard Anthony & Anil Puri Podcast Transcript.
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Rich
Hey guys, it's Rich here from the Rich Mix and we are now on episode 3 and I'd love to introduce our awesome guest, Anil Puri. Thanks for coming on board, Anil.
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Anil
Thanks for having me, Richard.
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Rich
No worries and little about Anil, he runs his own coaching, consulting business called the profit coach and it's been you've had that business now since 2005 helping business and the name actually speaks for itself. So we all know why people want to join up to get more profit, make more money. So and just to let everyone know, Anil and I work on a side project together as well, which we'll talk about later on in the episode. So yeah, thank you for giving me a little bit of your time, Anil. I appreciate it.
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Anil
No, all good, Richie, all good. Good quick intro there.
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Rich
Yeah, that's it. And now, so tell us a little bit about your your background and how you got just a little bit from the from the early days.
Anil
I made early days, you know, from school days. I went to uni obviously after year 12, did a Bachelor of Commerce degree majoring in accounting. So hopefully your audience, that doesn't put off your audience. So I'm an accountant by trade originally, worked in corporate for a lot of years. Also some smaller businesses, I was the financial controller for some businesses, you know, with around about 50 staff. But I worked at NRMA, Origin Energy, a lot of these big, you know, big corporates, did a stint overseas as well. So I think it was 98 and 99. My wife and I lived in London for a couple of years, came back, did a bit of work and then decided to start my own business and got into business coaching. So that's a bit of the, bit of the background. What's that? No, no, no. As, as with every business, it's not all smooth sailing. And I think that's, uh, And if most of your audience here are listening and they have businesses, they understand that it's a, there's a lot to learn. It can be lonely. And there are ups and downs, you know, I think what, what people who don't have businesses don't appreciate is, you know, the steady cashflow that comes from a regular job. So, and I've been the same, you know, I've had to build, I've had to bring on like take on clients in the early days that I probably wouldn't take on now.
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Rich
Yeah.
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Anil
It's the same normal story for every business, I think.
Rich
And that's what I going to ask you. Like, can you share that journey into that business coaching and early days and what inspired you to start?
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Anil
So after my accounting qualifications, I also did a Masters of Management degree and and through that process, you know, working with other people as part of the course, they were from marketing backgrounds, HR backgrounds. I realized that I could talk more than just the numbers, you know, and I really enjoyed doing that. I didn't want to just be a numbers person. And then I was up at Noosa with some friends, holidaying, and back in the day when there used to be magazines, there was the BRW, which we'd probably remember, but maybe some of the younger ones wouldn't. It's a business magazine. And there was a big insert in there for a coaching group that was advertising. And my original thought was, oh, let's join a coaching group and get paid to learn about small business. But then I got talking to them and I found out that it was actually a franchise operation. So I actually ended up paying them to become a coach. It was, but I learned so much, you know, so, so I learned so much from that group because they were very entrepreneurial, very sales focused. Whereas my focus was my background was more business management and financials. So I learned a lot.
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Rich
Yeah. Good marketing on there.
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Anil
I really appreciate that whole experience. And the reason I suppose I wanted to do it is because I just wanted to get out of corporate where you just a cog in the machine and just work directly with businesses, with business owners. I tell the story sometimes that my father's a doctor. He used to be an orthopedic surgeon. And so, he's got his own office. He goes and helps people, works with them directly. And I thought I could do something similar to that like in a business setting.
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Rich
Yeah, perfect. And what I've been like the most common challenges you've seen in business, that business face over the years. Yeah. .
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Anil
Um, I mean, there's so many, obviously, I've already touched on a few, but, um, I think, I think one of it, it is when you, when you leave an employee, you know, being employee and start your own business, you think you've got all this freedom and that's why we want to do it. We want freedom, we want financial rewards, but that lack of accountability, I think people miss that. They may not think that they're going to miss that, but then a lot of people I work with, they want to work with me because they want to stay on track. They want someone to keep them accountable, someone to help them with direction. So I think that it's that piece that I think a lot of people don't realize they're going to miss, that having someone else to talk to, having a boss or a team or someone to help discuss the direction and then keep them on track. So that's one of it. And the rest of it is just, there's so much to learn, which I think people may not realize straight up, they're normally good at what they do. They could be a great, you know, hairdresser or beautician or trades person, but they need to learn about marketing and sales and managing a team and financials. There's all this stuff to learn. I think that's, you know, that can be a big challenge for people.
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Rich
And has the landscape changed at all, like since you started in the early days?
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Anil
Yeah, so I've been doing this, as you said, since 2005. So nearly, I think it's 19th year this year. So early on, there wasn't really a lot of awareness of business coaching. So so I think in some ways, it's a lot easier now, because if you mentioned business coaching, people understand it. Well, they've at least heard about it. And so I think that's, you know, so there's a moral of awareness, so you don't have to explain as much about what you do. But I think that the main changes have been there's a lot more niche coaching. So people are specialists in their particular area. So it could be a specialist physiotherapist coach or beauty or cosmetic type coach or lawyer coach. So I think that's really changed. And when I first started, it was all one -on -one type of coaching. So you just work with one client directly at a, well, you obviously have a few clients, but you work with one at a time. Whereas now the trend is more around having a community of clients. Like that's whether you call it group coaching or more of a community based coaching approach, because I think what people have realized is that not only can you learn from the coach, but you can learn from each other and you can support each other. Everyone's got different ideas. They're trying different things. And, and, and when I get my clients together for these, um, group days like planning days, they learn less from me and more from everyone else. And that's, and sometimes I've been teaching them or telling them to understand this part of their business. And it's sort of, you know, it's in there, the message sort of gets in, but it's not until they hear someone else implementing that strategy, it really clicks. And I think that's, um, so that's a good trend. It's more of that community style of engagement with businesses.
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Rich
Yeah. Yeah, no, that's awesome. Now, is there any story that like a success story that stands out that from a business that is completely like significantly like transformed after working with you?
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Anil
Right. It's, it's been so many over the years. I've been doing it for a while. Actually, one comes to mind, which is I only just had lunch with this, this couple last week, actually, husband and wife team. And I work with a lot of husband and wife teams and family type of businesses. So we got up for lunch and, and last year they, so they run a landscaping business. And I've been working with them for, I don't know, probably about five years or so. And over that time, there's been a lot of changes. But just in the last couple of years, they've really got things really well sorted. I've got a fantastic team, great systems in place. Last year, they've taken about, I'd say last year, about 16 weeks off to travel with their young family in their caravan around Australia in different times. I think there was a there was a 10 week block and then a couple of other, you know, two or three week blocks along the way. And so they've gone from really not having much of an idea at all. Um, but they're super keen to learn. And I think that was the key to now being still being on the tools a little bit because it's a small business. So you've got to, you know, it's not until you get a decent size where you can get off the tools. But, Anil
you know, it'd be on take time off. They've got their team doing quoting, managing the jobs, spending time with their family, making a ton of money. And which, which for me, as the profit coach is key. But I think it's a, it's, some people think that you can't, you can't have both. Yeah, some people think you can't. If you want more time off, then you're going to sacrifice money. But that's not the case. You know, if you,If you set things up right and you have the right team, then yeah, yeah. So that's the really, and it's for me, it's satisfying because it's, they've got a young family. They can spend time with them. Uh, before that they were just stressed and there's tension between the, in the relationship as well. Um, so even though I'm not a marriage counselor, it's, uh, it's just fulfilling to know that, you know, you help someone in business, they make good money. They've got time. There's less stress.
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Rich
Yeah, consistent with the people. Yeah., definitely.Yeah, that's fantastic. And especially family business can be a bit tricky, you know? Yeah. So how do you keep up with latest trends in the business coaching, like, you know, the new methods and things like that?
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Anil
Yeah, yeah, and you've probably seen it. You've been in business for a long time yourself. Um, yeah, I've always even before I started coaching, I've always been a reader, you know, I used to even I was at school or uni, apart from obviously just the, you know, the uni type books, I always read about self development. So I'm always looking for opportunities. So reading is a big one for me, just in general, to, to keep up to date with new techniques or new ways of managing a business or managing people. I go to seminars. So that's another big one. So I go to seminars, I have a look at what other business creation groups are running, go to their seminars, learn from them. And I've also got just, so I've been doing it for a while and I was part of this other coaching group. I've got contacts that I speak with regularly and we share ideas. So a little bit of like a mastermind group. So it's, I think it's important just to have that forum or that group you can share ideas with. But I'd encourage anyone just to stay, just to keep trying to learn about the industry, about business. I go to a lot of networking events as well. And I learn a lot from talking to people, just find out what they're doing, get ideas, left field ideas that they're doing in their business that I think...Mate, I could do that in mine or I've got clients that could really use that sort of, uh, you know, that approach. So a wide range of things, right? A wide range of things.
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Rich
That's it. And you can't just say, Yeah, you need to get out there. And that was and so what advice would you have for a new entrepreneur facing you know, uncertainty in today's like market at the moment?
Anil (12:43.246)
Yeah, I suppose it's probably particularly tough at the moment with, you know, interest rates, cost of living pressures, especially if you're doing B2C type work, because people tend to pull back a little bit. I think whether it's whether it's the markets a little bit tougher or not, you need to reach out to people and find find good people that you can work with because you can't be good at everything. So either you work with them to help you get stuff done. So it could be marketing, it could be, you know, bookkeeping or whatever. Or you just reach out and you learn from them. You know, so I think that's, as we just talked about, and you made a comment, you got to get out there, you got to get out there and meet people, people within the industry, people outside of the industry. So just be always open to learning. The other thing, what was that?
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Rich
Yeah, you just can't be a one man band, you know, you got to be able to, you can't be a one man band.
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Anil
No, and even if you've got a team, you can't share a lot of the issues you've got and ideas you've got with your team because, you know, a lot of time they look to you to, and you want to be positive for them and, and, and be confident and know what you're doing, but you still need other people to talk to outside of the team. The other thing I'd really focus on is, instead of just learning about what to do in business and strategies, it's, it's focusing on developing yourself. So the way you think, your confidence, positive attitude, those sorts of things. Because I think then when you're talking to other people, they want to be around positive people. So whether it's your team, attracting people, they want to work in a positive environment. When you're networking or talking to other people, they want to be around positive people. So I think just focusing on being positive, even when things are a bit tough.
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Rich
Yeah, yeah, 100%. Definitely.
Yep. Yeah, 100%. I definitely agree with that. So like in your experience, what is the key fact factor that distinguishes a successful business from, you know, from a struggling business when you when you first do those initial chats?
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Anil
Yeah, okay. Why? That's a big one. Um, I mean, there's so many factors. I because I'm a focus on the numbers. And even though the numbers is not everything because and it's not all about making money because it's all about but you need to. It's hard to hard to reward your team and and to give back the community or whatever is important to you if you're not making money in the first place. But back to your question, rich, I'd say Knowing your numbers, there's a few things. Knowing your numbers, don't be afraid of knowing your numbers. I know it can be confusing and sometimes financial people that you might be talking to like your bookkeeper or your accountant may not be the best people at explaining the numbers and they might even make it more confusing. But once you learn about the numbers, then it unlocks so much potential in your business.
So that's one thing, definitely marketing, being able to stand out, be known for what you do in some way, whether it's great customer service or whether it's a specialist product or service. I think looking for that angle to get known. And then as I said before, being positive, being able to manage people because as you grow, you're going to need to work with people, whether it's your team or whether it's suppliers, whether it's consultants, partners. You got to be, you know, just learn how to, and there are a lot of tools you can learn to become better at working with people. So, so I suppose the big thing is with all of that, it's all about be open to learning and, and don't, and don't just accept that this is the way I am and I can't get any better. I think you've got to be open to, yes, I can become a better people person. I can learn about marketing. I can learn about financials. It's not as difficult as you might think, especially when you find the right people that you can learn from or work with.
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Rich
Definitely, and I think, yeah, a lot of business owners, they're really good at their skill set and they literally palm off everything else to other people, but still don't know exactly what's happening in their business, you know, and that's a big issue. So they need to do a bit of, yeah, their own learning and development in, especially in numbers.
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Anil
And it doesn't mean that you like they should do everything themselves. That's definitely not the case. But you need to, if let's say you're doing marketing, you need to learn the fundamentals so that when you're working with a marketing consultant, you know, you know, you've got to, you know, that they're doing the right thing or because there's so many people out there who sure you can trust, but they may not always be doing wrong thing. And that's something and coaching is the same, you know, coaching is the same. I've, there's one example, I don't know if we've got time, just one example, what, when I was part of this coaching group, there was a business locally that had worked with another coach in the group. And that business was so unhappy that they were going to take the coaching group to court, like they were going to sue them. And so they asked me to go and talk to this, this client, which was difficult because that obviously already had experience. But because that coach had tried to do a cookie cutter approach to this business. And once I looked at the numbers and understood what was going on, you know, luckily, we could turn things around. So I don't know why I brought that up now. But anyway, that's an example of, I suppose, don't just you can't always trust the the consultant need to learn a bit about what makes sense, you know, what, how business should run, you know, learn a bit yourself. Obviously, if you can find, I mean, I've got a really great network now that I just, I recommend my clients use. And they trust me, they know I've done a good job. So therefore, you know, they automatically have that trust, but not all businesses have that network. So you've got to learn, talk to people, learn for yourself. And then over time, you'll find those people that you can trust and, and suss them out.
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Rich
Yeah. You really answered that next question because the other one was like, you know, how do you tailor your coaching to make unique needs, unique needs from different clients, you know, different businesses, because it is not that cookie cutter approach. You need to be able to understand it. Yeah. Yeah.
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Anil
No, and I've got, I've got models, you know, I've got standard models I use that provide a framework, but then it's the variables are obviously the type of business, the stage of the business, because, you know, a smaller business compared to a larger business with a bigger team, it's going to have different issues. And then the person, you know, the personalities in the business. So some people are really structured and you can give them tools and advice that suits them. Other people are unstructured. And that same advice is not going to work for them. And they might need a different approach. So it's a couple of things. One is the personality, stage of business. So it's all tailored. And then the other thing is I really look at the numbers, look at the financials. And that tells me a lot. It tells me what's working, what the real situation is. Because sometimes people, either they don't know themselves or they wear rose -colored glasses. So yeah, so it is about having some common frameworks that I know work well, but then picking bits of that to work on as priorities for different people and different approaches. So it can be tricky, but it sort of becomes second nature once you've done it for a while.
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Rich
Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely. So finally, so what's next for you? And what's going what upcoming projects or goals are you're excited about at the moment?
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Anil
Well, I suppose this links back to what you said at the start of the podcast that we're doing some stuff together. So that's really a big focus for me this year, Rich, as you know, you know, so we're building a business and a range of services under the Glam Growth Hub, that group. And the Glam Growth Hub is all about services for the beauty, cosmetics, industry, that sort of related industry. That's why it's Glam. And it's not just business coaching, it's bookkeeping, marketing. We've got all these partners on board, as you know, I don't have to be telling you, but I'm super excited about that, about working with these people that I know and I trust and providing a solution that I think a lot of people in this industry in particular need. A lot of people in this industry, they love working with people. They love what they do. But all the other stuff is just a headache or they're not sure how to go about it. And so the whole idea is to be able to take that load off them. And yeah, so yeah, super excited about it.
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Rich
It's not just an awesome unique concept, but it's actually going to be really helping people in different facets in their business, you know, from, yeah, as you said, coaching to marketing to, and, and they're the things that those points, you know, when it comes to bookkeeping, it's just boring stuff. They don't like dealing with this palm it off. They forget to do it. But if someone else is one person looking after all these different things, it's going to be so much easier for them.
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Anil
Yeah. And the whole idea is that we can coordinate. So if we've got the bookkeeper working on a client, I can liaise directly with the bookkeeper to find out what's going on and get things done rather than going to the client, the client then having to go to the bookkeeper, not sure what to ask them, you know, and same with marketing, you know, it's, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But I think it's, yeah, no, it's exciting because, yeah, it's just about helping people
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Anil
Thanks for having me, Richard.
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Rich
No worries and little about Anil, he runs his own coaching, consulting business called the profit coach and it's been you've had that business now since 2005 helping business and the name actually speaks for itself. So we all know why people want to join up to get more profit, make more money. So and just to let everyone know, Anil and I work on a side project together as well, which we'll talk about later on in the episode. So yeah, thank you for giving me a little bit of your time, Anil. I appreciate it.
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Anil
No, all good, Richie, all good. Good quick intro there.
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Rich
Yeah, that's it. And now, so tell us a little bit about your your background and how you got just a little bit from the from the early days.
Anil
I made early days, you know, from school days. I went to uni obviously after year 12, did a Bachelor of Commerce degree majoring in accounting. So hopefully your audience, that doesn't put off your audience. So I'm an accountant by trade originally, worked in corporate for a lot of years. Also some smaller businesses, I was the financial controller for some businesses, you know, with around about 50 staff. But I worked at NRMA, Origin Energy, a lot of these big, you know, big corporates, did a stint overseas as well. So I think it was 98 and 99. My wife and I lived in London for a couple of years, came back, did a bit of work and then decided to start my own business and got into business coaching. So that's a bit of the, bit of the background. What's that? No, no, no. As, as with every business, it's not all smooth sailing. And I think that's, uh, And if most of your audience here are listening and they have businesses, they understand that it's a, there's a lot to learn. It can be lonely. And there are ups and downs, you know, I think what, what people who don't have businesses don't appreciate is, you know, the steady cashflow that comes from a regular job. So, and I've been the same, you know, I've had to build, I've had to bring on like take on clients in the early days that I probably wouldn't take on now.
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Rich
Yeah.
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Anil
It's the same normal story for every business, I think.
Rich
And that's what I going to ask you. Like, can you share that journey into that business coaching and early days and what inspired you to start?
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Anil
So after my accounting qualifications, I also did a Masters of Management degree and and through that process, you know, working with other people as part of the course, they were from marketing backgrounds, HR backgrounds. I realized that I could talk more than just the numbers, you know, and I really enjoyed doing that. I didn't want to just be a numbers person. And then I was up at Noosa with some friends, holidaying, and back in the day when there used to be magazines, there was the BRW, which we'd probably remember, but maybe some of the younger ones wouldn't. It's a business magazine. And there was a big insert in there for a coaching group that was advertising. And my original thought was, oh, let's join a coaching group and get paid to learn about small business. But then I got talking to them and I found out that it was actually a franchise operation. So I actually ended up paying them to become a coach. It was, but I learned so much, you know, so, so I learned so much from that group because they were very entrepreneurial, very sales focused. Whereas my focus was my background was more business management and financials. So I learned a lot.
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Rich
Yeah. Good marketing on there.
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Anil
I really appreciate that whole experience. And the reason I suppose I wanted to do it is because I just wanted to get out of corporate where you just a cog in the machine and just work directly with businesses, with business owners. I tell the story sometimes that my father's a doctor. He used to be an orthopedic surgeon. And so, he's got his own office. He goes and helps people, works with them directly. And I thought I could do something similar to that like in a business setting.
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Rich
Yeah, perfect. And what I've been like the most common challenges you've seen in business, that business face over the years. Yeah. .
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Anil
Um, I mean, there's so many, obviously, I've already touched on a few, but, um, I think, I think one of it, it is when you, when you leave an employee, you know, being employee and start your own business, you think you've got all this freedom and that's why we want to do it. We want freedom, we want financial rewards, but that lack of accountability, I think people miss that. They may not think that they're going to miss that, but then a lot of people I work with, they want to work with me because they want to stay on track. They want someone to keep them accountable, someone to help them with direction. So I think that it's that piece that I think a lot of people don't realize they're going to miss, that having someone else to talk to, having a boss or a team or someone to help discuss the direction and then keep them on track. So that's one of it. And the rest of it is just, there's so much to learn, which I think people may not realize straight up, they're normally good at what they do. They could be a great, you know, hairdresser or beautician or trades person, but they need to learn about marketing and sales and managing a team and financials. There's all this stuff to learn. I think that's, you know, that can be a big challenge for people.
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Rich
And has the landscape changed at all, like since you started in the early days?
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Anil
Yeah, so I've been doing this, as you said, since 2005. So nearly, I think it's 19th year this year. So early on, there wasn't really a lot of awareness of business coaching. So so I think in some ways, it's a lot easier now, because if you mentioned business coaching, people understand it. Well, they've at least heard about it. And so I think that's, you know, so there's a moral of awareness, so you don't have to explain as much about what you do. But I think that the main changes have been there's a lot more niche coaching. So people are specialists in their particular area. So it could be a specialist physiotherapist coach or beauty or cosmetic type coach or lawyer coach. So I think that's really changed. And when I first started, it was all one -on -one type of coaching. So you just work with one client directly at a, well, you obviously have a few clients, but you work with one at a time. Whereas now the trend is more around having a community of clients. Like that's whether you call it group coaching or more of a community based coaching approach, because I think what people have realized is that not only can you learn from the coach, but you can learn from each other and you can support each other. Everyone's got different ideas. They're trying different things. And, and, and when I get my clients together for these, um, group days like planning days, they learn less from me and more from everyone else. And that's, and sometimes I've been teaching them or telling them to understand this part of their business. And it's sort of, you know, it's in there, the message sort of gets in, but it's not until they hear someone else implementing that strategy, it really clicks. And I think that's, um, so that's a good trend. It's more of that community style of engagement with businesses.
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Rich
Yeah. Yeah, no, that's awesome. Now, is there any story that like a success story that stands out that from a business that is completely like significantly like transformed after working with you?
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Anil
Right. It's, it's been so many over the years. I've been doing it for a while. Actually, one comes to mind, which is I only just had lunch with this, this couple last week, actually, husband and wife team. And I work with a lot of husband and wife teams and family type of businesses. So we got up for lunch and, and last year they, so they run a landscaping business. And I've been working with them for, I don't know, probably about five years or so. And over that time, there's been a lot of changes. But just in the last couple of years, they've really got things really well sorted. I've got a fantastic team, great systems in place. Last year, they've taken about, I'd say last year, about 16 weeks off to travel with their young family in their caravan around Australia in different times. I think there was a there was a 10 week block and then a couple of other, you know, two or three week blocks along the way. And so they've gone from really not having much of an idea at all. Um, but they're super keen to learn. And I think that was the key to now being still being on the tools a little bit because it's a small business. So you've got to, you know, it's not until you get a decent size where you can get off the tools. But, Anil
you know, it'd be on take time off. They've got their team doing quoting, managing the jobs, spending time with their family, making a ton of money. And which, which for me, as the profit coach is key. But I think it's a, it's, some people think that you can't, you can't have both. Yeah, some people think you can't. If you want more time off, then you're going to sacrifice money. But that's not the case. You know, if you,If you set things up right and you have the right team, then yeah, yeah. So that's the really, and it's for me, it's satisfying because it's, they've got a young family. They can spend time with them. Uh, before that they were just stressed and there's tension between the, in the relationship as well. Um, so even though I'm not a marriage counselor, it's, uh, it's just fulfilling to know that, you know, you help someone in business, they make good money. They've got time. There's less stress.
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Rich
Yeah, consistent with the people. Yeah., definitely.Yeah, that's fantastic. And especially family business can be a bit tricky, you know? Yeah. So how do you keep up with latest trends in the business coaching, like, you know, the new methods and things like that?
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Anil
Yeah, yeah, and you've probably seen it. You've been in business for a long time yourself. Um, yeah, I've always even before I started coaching, I've always been a reader, you know, I used to even I was at school or uni, apart from obviously just the, you know, the uni type books, I always read about self development. So I'm always looking for opportunities. So reading is a big one for me, just in general, to, to keep up to date with new techniques or new ways of managing a business or managing people. I go to seminars. So that's another big one. So I go to seminars, I have a look at what other business creation groups are running, go to their seminars, learn from them. And I've also got just, so I've been doing it for a while and I was part of this other coaching group. I've got contacts that I speak with regularly and we share ideas. So a little bit of like a mastermind group. So it's, I think it's important just to have that forum or that group you can share ideas with. But I'd encourage anyone just to stay, just to keep trying to learn about the industry, about business. I go to a lot of networking events as well. And I learn a lot from talking to people, just find out what they're doing, get ideas, left field ideas that they're doing in their business that I think...Mate, I could do that in mine or I've got clients that could really use that sort of, uh, you know, that approach. So a wide range of things, right? A wide range of things.
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Rich
That's it. And you can't just say, Yeah, you need to get out there. And that was and so what advice would you have for a new entrepreneur facing you know, uncertainty in today's like market at the moment?
Anil (12:43.246)
Yeah, I suppose it's probably particularly tough at the moment with, you know, interest rates, cost of living pressures, especially if you're doing B2C type work, because people tend to pull back a little bit. I think whether it's whether it's the markets a little bit tougher or not, you need to reach out to people and find find good people that you can work with because you can't be good at everything. So either you work with them to help you get stuff done. So it could be marketing, it could be, you know, bookkeeping or whatever. Or you just reach out and you learn from them. You know, so I think that's, as we just talked about, and you made a comment, you got to get out there, you got to get out there and meet people, people within the industry, people outside of the industry. So just be always open to learning. The other thing, what was that?
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Rich
Yeah, you just can't be a one man band, you know, you got to be able to, you can't be a one man band.
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Anil
No, and even if you've got a team, you can't share a lot of the issues you've got and ideas you've got with your team because, you know, a lot of time they look to you to, and you want to be positive for them and, and, and be confident and know what you're doing, but you still need other people to talk to outside of the team. The other thing I'd really focus on is, instead of just learning about what to do in business and strategies, it's, it's focusing on developing yourself. So the way you think, your confidence, positive attitude, those sorts of things. Because I think then when you're talking to other people, they want to be around positive people. So whether it's your team, attracting people, they want to work in a positive environment. When you're networking or talking to other people, they want to be around positive people. So I think just focusing on being positive, even when things are a bit tough.
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Rich
Yeah, yeah, 100%. Definitely.
Yep. Yeah, 100%. I definitely agree with that. So like in your experience, what is the key fact factor that distinguishes a successful business from, you know, from a struggling business when you when you first do those initial chats?
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Anil
Yeah, okay. Why? That's a big one. Um, I mean, there's so many factors. I because I'm a focus on the numbers. And even though the numbers is not everything because and it's not all about making money because it's all about but you need to. It's hard to hard to reward your team and and to give back the community or whatever is important to you if you're not making money in the first place. But back to your question, rich, I'd say Knowing your numbers, there's a few things. Knowing your numbers, don't be afraid of knowing your numbers. I know it can be confusing and sometimes financial people that you might be talking to like your bookkeeper or your accountant may not be the best people at explaining the numbers and they might even make it more confusing. But once you learn about the numbers, then it unlocks so much potential in your business.
So that's one thing, definitely marketing, being able to stand out, be known for what you do in some way, whether it's great customer service or whether it's a specialist product or service. I think looking for that angle to get known. And then as I said before, being positive, being able to manage people because as you grow, you're going to need to work with people, whether it's your team or whether it's suppliers, whether it's consultants, partners. You got to be, you know, just learn how to, and there are a lot of tools you can learn to become better at working with people. So, so I suppose the big thing is with all of that, it's all about be open to learning and, and don't, and don't just accept that this is the way I am and I can't get any better. I think you've got to be open to, yes, I can become a better people person. I can learn about marketing. I can learn about financials. It's not as difficult as you might think, especially when you find the right people that you can learn from or work with.
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Rich
Definitely, and I think, yeah, a lot of business owners, they're really good at their skill set and they literally palm off everything else to other people, but still don't know exactly what's happening in their business, you know, and that's a big issue. So they need to do a bit of, yeah, their own learning and development in, especially in numbers.
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Anil
And it doesn't mean that you like they should do everything themselves. That's definitely not the case. But you need to, if let's say you're doing marketing, you need to learn the fundamentals so that when you're working with a marketing consultant, you know, you know, you've got to, you know, that they're doing the right thing or because there's so many people out there who sure you can trust, but they may not always be doing wrong thing. And that's something and coaching is the same, you know, coaching is the same. I've, there's one example, I don't know if we've got time, just one example, what, when I was part of this coaching group, there was a business locally that had worked with another coach in the group. And that business was so unhappy that they were going to take the coaching group to court, like they were going to sue them. And so they asked me to go and talk to this, this client, which was difficult because that obviously already had experience. But because that coach had tried to do a cookie cutter approach to this business. And once I looked at the numbers and understood what was going on, you know, luckily, we could turn things around. So I don't know why I brought that up now. But anyway, that's an example of, I suppose, don't just you can't always trust the the consultant need to learn a bit about what makes sense, you know, what, how business should run, you know, learn a bit yourself. Obviously, if you can find, I mean, I've got a really great network now that I just, I recommend my clients use. And they trust me, they know I've done a good job. So therefore, you know, they automatically have that trust, but not all businesses have that network. So you've got to learn, talk to people, learn for yourself. And then over time, you'll find those people that you can trust and, and suss them out.
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Rich
Yeah. You really answered that next question because the other one was like, you know, how do you tailor your coaching to make unique needs, unique needs from different clients, you know, different businesses, because it is not that cookie cutter approach. You need to be able to understand it. Yeah. Yeah.
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Anil
No, and I've got, I've got models, you know, I've got standard models I use that provide a framework, but then it's the variables are obviously the type of business, the stage of the business, because, you know, a smaller business compared to a larger business with a bigger team, it's going to have different issues. And then the person, you know, the personalities in the business. So some people are really structured and you can give them tools and advice that suits them. Other people are unstructured. And that same advice is not going to work for them. And they might need a different approach. So it's a couple of things. One is the personality, stage of business. So it's all tailored. And then the other thing is I really look at the numbers, look at the financials. And that tells me a lot. It tells me what's working, what the real situation is. Because sometimes people, either they don't know themselves or they wear rose -colored glasses. So yeah, so it is about having some common frameworks that I know work well, but then picking bits of that to work on as priorities for different people and different approaches. So it can be tricky, but it sort of becomes second nature once you've done it for a while.
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Rich
Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely. So finally, so what's next for you? And what's going what upcoming projects or goals are you're excited about at the moment?
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Anil
Well, I suppose this links back to what you said at the start of the podcast that we're doing some stuff together. So that's really a big focus for me this year, Rich, as you know, you know, so we're building a business and a range of services under the Glam Growth Hub, that group. And the Glam Growth Hub is all about services for the beauty, cosmetics, industry, that sort of related industry. That's why it's Glam. And it's not just business coaching, it's bookkeeping, marketing. We've got all these partners on board, as you know, I don't have to be telling you, but I'm super excited about that, about working with these people that I know and I trust and providing a solution that I think a lot of people in this industry in particular need. A lot of people in this industry, they love working with people. They love what they do. But all the other stuff is just a headache or they're not sure how to go about it. And so the whole idea is to be able to take that load off them. And yeah, so yeah, super excited about it.
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Rich
It's not just an awesome unique concept, but it's actually going to be really helping people in different facets in their business, you know, from, yeah, as you said, coaching to marketing to, and, and they're the things that those points, you know, when it comes to bookkeeping, it's just boring stuff. They don't like dealing with this palm it off. They forget to do it. But if someone else is one person looking after all these different things, it's going to be so much easier for them.
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Anil
Yeah. And the whole idea is that we can coordinate. So if we've got the bookkeeper working on a client, I can liaise directly with the bookkeeper to find out what's going on and get things done rather than going to the client, the client then having to go to the bookkeeper, not sure what to ask them, you know, and same with marketing, you know, it's, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But I think it's, yeah, no, it's exciting because, yeah, it's just about helping people
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Rich
Yeah, that's right. It's all the right language. You know, that's the main thing, you know. No, awesome.
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Anil
And you've obviously got so much more experience in this sector and in this industry than me. And I think you've already shared this idea with people and they're really excited about it. So let's do it. Let's make it happen.
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Rich
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And it is definitely it's a really creative creative bunch of businesses that we can definitely work with. So all right, so enough about business. So what tickles your fancy when the business shirt comes off and the coaching hat comes off? What are you what are you doing your pastime? What do you do after work or on weekends? What do you love?
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Anil
Um, yeah, it's a, I love, I love my downtime. Um, family's really important to me. So I spent quite a bit of time with family. Uh, so, so I suppose I can summarize that family, friends, food and fitness. So family, yeah, obviously I like socializing, but I really love my food rich. Um, as you probably know.
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Rich
I love how serious my business is.
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Anil
So my father's Indian, my mother's Chinese from Malaysia. So I've grown up with lots of different food, but not just Asian stuff. I just love trying all sorts of food and I like to stay fit. So I run, I go to bootcamp. I try to eat healthy, but sometimes you got to sacrifice the healthy for the tasty eating.
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Rich
Yeah, all about the food. That's it. Yeah, yeah. No, that's it. All things in moderation for sure. But, um, well, fantastic, mate. Yeah.
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Anil
Yeah, so no, but I love but I do love business and I love I'm doing a course at the moment. Part of another coaches like I'm actually doing a coaching program to help me develop some things at the moment. So so even though I might not be working with clients on my, you know, I still I still like enjoying I enjoy learning that.
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Rich
It's your own personal professional development for yourself to learn new things to help your clients in the end of the day, you know, so.
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Anil
I travel. I've got to start. I've got to find a word that starts with F that means travel. I love visiting different countries and cultures and eating their food.
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Rich
Yeah, that's it. It all comes down to eating. No matter where we go, what's on the plate? Well, fantastic, mate. Well, look, I really appreciate your time. And, you know, thanks so much for coming on board. And, you know, I'm sure a lot of the information that's given out, it's going to be quite enticing for a lot of people, you know, they're gonna love it.
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Anil
Yeah, no, thanks, Richard. I think I think what you're doing here is fantastic. And yeah, hopefully people get something out of it. And and yeah, I'm happy to get some feedback.
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Rich
Oh, fantastic. Well, thank you. Thanks again and enjoy the rest of the day. And yeah, my hope will be catching up soon, I'm sure. Thanks, Adil. Thank you. See you, mate. Bye bye.
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Anil
All right. Thanks mate. Talk to you. Bye.
Rich
Yeah, that's right. It's all the right language. You know, that's the main thing, you know. No, awesome.
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Anil
And you've obviously got so much more experience in this sector and in this industry than me. And I think you've already shared this idea with people and they're really excited about it. So let's do it. Let's make it happen.
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Rich
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And it is definitely it's a really creative creative bunch of businesses that we can definitely work with. So all right, so enough about business. So what tickles your fancy when the business shirt comes off and the coaching hat comes off? What are you what are you doing your pastime? What do you do after work or on weekends? What do you love?
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Anil
Um, yeah, it's a, I love, I love my downtime. Um, family's really important to me. So I spent quite a bit of time with family. Uh, so, so I suppose I can summarize that family, friends, food and fitness. So family, yeah, obviously I like socializing, but I really love my food rich. Um, as you probably know.
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Rich
I love how serious my business is.
.
Anil
So my father's Indian, my mother's Chinese from Malaysia. So I've grown up with lots of different food, but not just Asian stuff. I just love trying all sorts of food and I like to stay fit. So I run, I go to bootcamp. I try to eat healthy, but sometimes you got to sacrifice the healthy for the tasty eating.
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Rich
Yeah, all about the food. That's it. Yeah, yeah. No, that's it. All things in moderation for sure. But, um, well, fantastic, mate. Yeah.
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Anil
Yeah, so no, but I love but I do love business and I love I'm doing a course at the moment. Part of another coaches like I'm actually doing a coaching program to help me develop some things at the moment. So so even though I might not be working with clients on my, you know, I still I still like enjoying I enjoy learning that.
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Rich
It's your own personal professional development for yourself to learn new things to help your clients in the end of the day, you know, so.
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Anil
I travel. I've got to start. I've got to find a word that starts with F that means travel. I love visiting different countries and cultures and eating their food.
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Rich
Yeah, that's it. It all comes down to eating. No matter where we go, what's on the plate? Well, fantastic, mate. Well, look, I really appreciate your time. And, you know, thanks so much for coming on board. And, you know, I'm sure a lot of the information that's given out, it's going to be quite enticing for a lot of people, you know, they're gonna love it.
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Anil
Yeah, no, thanks, Richard. I think I think what you're doing here is fantastic. And yeah, hopefully people get something out of it. And and yeah, I'm happy to get some feedback.
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Rich
Oh, fantastic. Well, thank you. Thanks again and enjoy the rest of the day. And yeah, my hope will be catching up soon, I'm sure. Thanks, Adil. Thank you. See you, mate. Bye bye.
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Anil
All right. Thanks mate. Talk to you. Bye.
