028: Take Charge of Your Business by Learning to Grow with Jon Toy

Got to be a lifelong learner and so many people don’t crack a book after high school, they just want things to be spoon-fed to them, or entertained and you know if you are going to be successful, you have to continually be learning.

#00:00:45-8# Neil : Hello, its Neil Ball here, thank you so much for joining me today on the entrepreneur way. The entrepreneur way is about the entrepreneur’s journey, the vision, the mind-set, the commitment, the sacrifice, failures and successes. I am so excited to bring you our special guest today, Jon Toy. But before I introduce you to him, I have a little bit of trivia for you. Paul Bloom said, ’empty heads cognitive science has taught us learn nothing.’ The powerful cultural and personal flexibility of our species, is owed at least in part to our starting off so well informed. We are good learners, because we know what to pay attention to and what questions are the right ones to ask. The entrepreneur way asks the questions. So we all get the insight, inspiration and ideas to apply in our businesses. Jon welcome to the show, are you ready to share your version of the entrepreneur way with us?

#00:01:51-8# Jon Toy Founder of Jon Toy Consulting, Fast Signs York Pennsylvania PA Owner : Absolutely Neil, thanks.

#00:01:53-7# Neil : Thank you for coming on the show Jon. Jon Toy loves businesses that work for their owners, not the other way round. He has owned a brick and mortar business, and he coaches other successful business owners and loves spending time with his family. He is the author of two books; he is a speaker and loves talking to smart business owners who want to grow. John, can you provide us with some more insight into your business and personal life to allow us to get to know more about what you do, and who you are?

#00:02:24-6# Jon Toy Founder of Jon Toy Consulting, Fast Signs York Pennsylvania PA Owner : Yeh Neil, I would love to, first thanks for having me on the entrepreneur way, I look forward to sharing some insight you know and as my bio said, I have just learned about business through the years, and now I am trying to use the opportunities of what I have learned to give back, while continuing to test what I am learning inside my own business. I grew up in the United States in Oklahoma, a small farm area and ended up going to school in Texas. Actually became a CPA, thought I would be a number crunch for the rest of my life, and realised pretty quick that, that was not for me. Having grown up in a small business family, that was kind of where I thought the world should operate from, not cubicle land, so I made the switch pretty quick. Ended up actually purchasing a franchise, a sign and graphics franchise. And opened that in 2004, so I have had it close to 12 years now, and through that, I have just learned the ups and downs of owning a business, had good times, had bad times, and learned really ultimately how to make a business work for me as opposed to me working for the business. Which is ultimately what every entrepreneur wants, and the same time along the way, I was able to get very passionate about how to do that, how to put systems in place. How to market, find the right customers, and really just develop the business that I wanted as opposed to having to constantly be putting fires out, and not reacting so currently I still own and operate the Brixton Water Business here, in York Pennsylvania. And now I am also doing full-time coaching with a variety of clients that I have acquired and helping them to implement the systems that I have put in place that work time and time again and in any different industry, because they are universal principles that work and then also I have written my second book which just came out not too long ago, and I am also doing some speaking opportunities, so it is a busy great life, enjoying what I have, and pleased to share some stuff with you.

#00:04:19-4# Neil : Great stuff. And what do you enjoy most about what you do?

#00:04:26-1# Jon Toy Founder of Jon Toy Consulting, Fast Signs York Pennsylvania PA Owner : You know, I love working with other business owners, you know not that I don’t enjoy running the business day-to-day, that’s always fun and doing things, but I just love talking to somebody who wants to get better, and seeing them understand what I am saying, seeing how they can apply it in their business and then ultimately taking action. So, that’s what I love the most, is seeing people that I work with take action and see results, because everybody wins that way.

#00:04:46-6# Neil : Mmm, it must be quite satisfying knowing that you have helped people like that. And what is it that drives you Jon?

#00:04:57-2# Jon Toy Founder of Jon Toy Consulting, Fast Signs York Pennsylvania PA Owner : You know, ultimately what drives me is just having the opportunity to spend more time with my family, and do the things that I enjoy, whether it be things that we are involved with, with my faith, or friends, or just being able to do things when I want to do them, rather than be controlled by when customers demand me to do them, and its something that I have had to work hard to get to, because ultimately in the beginning, owning a brick and mortar business did not have that luxury. So that’s part of the transformation that has happened, but ultimately, its being able to have that time with family and friends and doing the things that I would like to do,

#00:05:30-8# Neil : And I suspect your answer to my next question is going to be partially answered in what you have said there. So how do you relax when you are not working in your business?

#00:05:37-1# Jon Toy Founder of Jon Toy Consulting, Fast Signs York Pennsylvania PA Owner : Oh yeh, I mean again, its a lot of family time, you know, I have got three young kids, so we just enjoy kinda hanging out, and playing with toys, playing games whatever, their high level of energy wants to do, and I try my best to keep up with that whenever possible. But in addition to that, I love reading, I am a passionate reader and I try to get through as many books as I can, because I know that school was never out for the experts, so constantly trying to learn and get better at what I do. So generally, those are the two main things, and then obviously, my wife and I try to get away every now and then for some quality time together so, those three things keep me pretty occupied outside of work.

#00:06:15-3# Neil : Ok, just thinking about what you said about your business Jon, and its a franchise so what do you think the advantages for you having a franchise over having your own business that is not a franchise?

#00:06:27-4# Jon Toy Founder of Jon Toy Consulting, Fast Signs York Pennsylvania PA Owner : Great question, yeh so you know the key thing with a franchise is really helpful is for that person that does not really know a lot about business, I was quite a young guy when I got started and if I did not have a franchise, I would have probably fallen flat on my butt long time before possibly even been bankrupt and nowhere to go. So having that system and having a way to do something, you know, I was almost too stupid to fail, if you just follow the system with a franchise, you are going to at least get to the marginal level of success. So that really helped get things going, now there is a point of diminishing returns with franchise in a sense that we have eclipsed the volume where we begin to lose some of the payback that we would receive from the royalties that we pay into. But still a great network to be part of, I still learn a lot in the camaraderie from fellow franchee’s is helpful. So, it depends on where you are in your business journey, if you are buying a second business, or looking to get into something and you have extensive experience, you know then franchise may not be the best route for intake. Or just starting out looking for opportunities, or buying one that needs a lot of work. Then franchise are definitely a great way to go, because you get that jump start.

#00:07:31-1# Neil : So its been a good experience for you then? I mean I think with franchises, they sound like a good way of starting, I have never actually got involved with one, so its like having a business in a box almost, isn’t it? in some respects because you are giving everything to get going rather than having to figure it all out yourself, which is what you have to do if you set up from scratch, and whatever other idea you might have, so would you say that is a good summary of what it is about?

#00:07:56-3# Jon Toy Founder of Jon Toy Consulting, Fast Signs York Pennsylvania PA Owner : Yeh yeh, I think so and the support that you get from their corporate offices, is tremendous so, they are only a phone call away whether it is technical issues, or sales issues or marketing or ideas, you know. And they are going to be there to assist you, so just not being on your own is a big one, and that is part of the reason why I do coaching now is that being an entrepreneur can be a lonely world, you know a lot of your employees don’t understand what you are going through, sometimes our spouses and family don’t understand what you are going through, and so its important to have that community that you can associate with and fellow entrepreneurs are the ones that are going to get it, they are going to understand what is going on inside your head, and so a franchise helps you get that faster and then as you get smarter and bigger, you probably have to go outside the franchise community, because you are less and less able to find those that have the same mind-set as you, if you are really driven and trying to get to the top.

#00:08:45-9# Jon Toy Founder of Jon Toy Consulting, Fast Signs York Pennsylvania PA Owner : And do you have any entrepreneurial role models?

#00:08:50-5# Neil : Yeh gosh you know it’s a good question, I really love reading about anybody who is in business and more recently I have been reading about obviously go back to the icons like Steve Jobs and Richard Branson, and certainly they have set the model, but it seems a little more unattainable with the level that I am at, the things that I am doing. Someone that I have followed for years is Dan Kennedy, he is a great author, speaker, and he has just created a whole system of how to make money both in brick and mortar and also for the solopreneur that is teaching others and doing things. So, I would say if anybody, he is probably the one, he has been doing this for 40 years, and he has got so much content out there, that it is impossible to consume it all, but I try my hardest to get as much as I can.

#00:09:34-9# Jon Toy Founder of Jon Toy Consulting, Fast Signs York Pennsylvania PA Owner : Yeh and Jon, can we just talk about the time before you were an entrepreneur, and can you tell us about the difficulties that you had to overcome when you started your business?

#00:09:45-3# Neil : Sure yeh, now being that I was young and jumped into a franchise, I did not have a whole lot of experience to draw from, but I was in a corporate environment, I was doing CPA work, being asked to travel quite a bit, did not have any children at the time but certainly my wife and I did not enjoy being apart from each other during the week because every single week for a certain period, so decided that it just was not for me, and I was trying to look into that what I could use my talents for, to be an entrepreneur and had several ideas that we were going to launch from scratch and ultimately ended up doing the franchise because I had a family member who was also involved in it, and she was able to kind of be a mentor as well. So I think that is the key when someone is starting out to help overcome some of those challenges is finding a mentor who will be able to assist you. So before anyone launches a business, I would always encourage them to call at least 10, 15, 20 as many as you can afford to do, other business owners, and just ask them if you can pick their brain, most of them are willing to, if you are polite about it and respectful of their time. And you are going to pick up some key insights and probably find one or two that you really relate with, that can be a key mentor to you as you grow your business.

#00:10:54-4# Neil : Mmmm hmm, and did you have any doubts that delayed you starting your business?

#00:10:59-8# Jon Toy Founder of Jon Toy Consulting, Fast Signs York Pennsylvania PA Owner : You know, I really didn’t I was ready to get out in the corporate world, we were moving to a new location so for me it was kind of, we found the right plan and just decided to jump in, you know I was young and naive, so I figured I could not fail, and so I think going in with that mind-set really helped me.

#00:11:14-1# Neil : Ok and what mistakes did you make that slowed your journey?

#00:11:20-1# Jon Toy Founder of Jon Toy Consulting, Fast Signs York Pennsylvania PA Owner : Oh man, there is not enough time to go through all the mistakes but ha ha ha, I think you know the crazy thing is for me, even coming from an accounting background, when you start a business, there is just so many things that are coming at you and so many hats you have to wear. Two of the most critical things you have always got to keep your eye on, is profitability, so you have got to make sure that you are profitable, even in the beginning, and its super hard because you have all this overhead, depending upon what you started, and you have got a number that you have got to get to, so you are really trying to drive sales and yet sometimes you are willing to take on projects, that are not as profitable as they should be. Therefore taking away your time, causing you to focus on things that are going to slow you down, rather than keep you moving. So that would be one of my biggest mistakes, is that I just took any and all business that I could find rather than being a little more selective, making sure it was the right business and preventing my hunger from making bad decisions. And then of course leads into cash flow, which is the other cause of business failure for a lot of folks, and understanding how the cash flows in and flows out and if you are profitable, cash flow will take care of itself. But in times when you are not, it can really be a strain, I would say every business owner I talk to, the two biggest problems they run into is cash flow and people. So once you know how to manage those two better, it makes your life a lot easier.

#00:12:36-9# Neil : Mmmm, its interesting, what you said about time there, I think one of the things with a business is as you scale a business, you forget how much, how useful it is to be able to sort of delegate and give other people responsibilities and when you are a small business, you end up getting bogged down in small things that take an awful lot of your time. Whereas once you can start delegating those things to other people, it means you can start working at your business more than working in your business. I think that is one of the things that seems to come out from my experience, so its interesting that you say that. So what are some of the things that you did before you started your business? that would be useful tips to some of the listeners who have not taken the first step on the entrepreneur way?

#00:13:24-5# Jon Toy Founder of Jon Toy Consulting, Fast Signs York Pennsylvania PA Owner : Yeh, I think one of the first things is you have got to be a lifelong learner. And so many people don’t crack a book after high school, they just want things to be spoon fed to them, or entertained, and if you are going to be successful, you are going to have be continually learning, so if nothing else, if someone is considering it, I would encourage you as I mentioned before, interview other owner, take the time and invest in that, and then also read books, by famous entrepreneurs about famous entrepreneurs, about business in general, and learn what things are going to be out there, what challenges. There is so much that you don’t know, and I did not really pick up on that until I had been in business for three or four years, and then since then, it’s like a drug, I am just consumed by it, knowledge and learning more and trying to get as much in as I can, but if I had started that right away, I could have gotton further faster I think. So that probably would be the number one thing that I would say that I recommend people do as they are starting to begin that journey.

#00:14:19-6# Neil : That’s great advice. Now can we talk about your entrepreneurial journey itself, so can you tell me, do you think culture is important from the beginning in a business?

#00:14:30-8# Jon Toy Founder of Jon Toy Consulting, Fast Signs York Pennsylvania PA Owner : Yeh absolutely and we had talked about all the mistakes that had been made and I would say that is probably one of the ones I goofed up on the most in the beginning, it was not horrible, you know we had culture, and if you are going to have employees, culture is one of the key things that will figure out whether you can keep the best people that you find. And there are a number of ways in which you can nurture that culture. The two most successful ones for me through the years, is number one you got to meet with them more frequently. I think as a business owner and probably because of our corporate experience, most of us are used to an annual review and that’s about it, we are interacting with our superiors and talking about things, but rarely are we getting critical feedback as to how we are doing, as to how we can help. Or being able to give them critical feedback, and have them actually listen, so one way to really boost that culture, is just to meet with your employees or other folks in your business, more frequently, I am just this year trying to now do it weekly, which is a challenge, because it consumes the fair amount of a day, to meet with everybody, but I have already seen a difference that it has made, just in spending a little bit of time with each one. Sometimes, it’s only five, ten minutes, but just that time lets them know you care, gets feedback and you learn things that you would not otherwise know.

#00:15:45-5# Neil : Mmmm hmmm

#00:15:45-5# Jon Toy Founder of Jon Toy Consulting, Fast Signs York Pennsylvania PA Owner : And the second thing, that I have found through the years that really helps with culture is talking about the numbers. Employees like to know what is going on and while there is always going to be that challenge of an employee not understanding a financial statement or profit and loss, they are just going to see a number and say, ‘oh well he must be making millions of dollars.’ even though it is never the case. It is critical that they understand what they are working for and they can see progress and I definitely think that helped boost our culture when we started doing that.

#00:16:11-8# Neil : Ok, and knowing what you know now, is there anything that if you had known it when you started out, would have helped you to shortcut the learning curve?

#00:16:18-6# Jon Toy Founder of Jon Toy Consulting, Fast Signs York Pennsylvania PA Owner : You know I think the, ha absolutely, yeh the number one thing for me would have been understanding that I am not in the business of whatever I am selling. And let me explain what I mean by that, so I sell signs and graphics. Yet I am not really in the business of signs and graphics, that’s the deliverable, that’s the product that people are buying. If that’s all I wanted to do, then I would be half as successful and not enjoying what I did. What I really am, is in the business of marketing and selling, signs and graphics, and so you have to understand that as an owner, that while the deliverable is important, and ultimately what you may be judged against, the real thing you have to do is market and sell your product. And so once you become more educated on how to better acquire leads, what to do with them, how to take care of your customers and get them to buy more, you focus on that and let your team deliver the product. And even if it is still just you, you would be focusing a lot of your time on acquiring new customers and nurturing those customers, and the deliverable will come with that, because ultimately people are satisfied with your product and you can probably do that in a lot less time, than it takes you to really focus on how to get more and take care of them.

#00:17:28-2# Neil : Mmmm, its an interesting answer that actually, because I must admit from my own experience, I have had a similar thought on that, because I think with a lot of businesses, if you start off in a business with something that interests you, inevitably as the business grows, you end up administering that business, or organising that business, and running that business and working at that business and to some extent, the product is just one facet of that business, isn’t it? I think that is what you are really saying there?

#00:17:58-7# Jon Toy Founder of Jon Toy Consulting, Fast Signs York Pennsylvania PA Owner : Yeh, exactly, I mean ultimately they are paying for the product or the service, but you as the business owner, as the chief executive, you know as the one who is driving this thing, if you are not focusing on how to acquire more customers, and get them in the door to purchase that deliverable, you are going to go out of business and so, a great book is the e-myth Michael Gerber, he talks a lot about creating the systems to take yourself out of it, and you know, I wish he would focus a little more on the marketing side of it and how to keep bringing them in, but he definitely talks about how the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker get into business and then realise all of a sudden, I got a horrible boss, my customers are a pain, and I cannot fire my only employee. So you have got to be careful of that, because you are good at something, and saying ‘I can make a business of this’ and you probably can, but if you are not focusing on the marketing and the acquiring of customers, you are going to run out of money and opportunities at some point.

#00:18:49-6# Neil : Mmmm and how much does gut feeling influence your decisions in your business?

#00:18:58-7# Jon Toy Founder of Jon Toy Consulting, Fast Signs York Pennsylvania PA Owner : Well you know, I heard a really good quote, that said, ‘god does not give you the ability to make right choices, he gives you the ability to make choices right’ so we are going to make mistakes and a lot of times you got to go with your gut because it’s the only thing in front of you. But I would say it is a mix of data and gut. The more things you can track, the more things you metrics you have, the better decisions you can make, and your gut feeling will become better and better as you go through. But in the beginning, you are flying by the seat of your pants and trying to do what you can to keep afloat and keep things running. It’s a little bit tougher, but I think as you develop, as long as you have things that you are measuring and keeping track of, you will know how to make that right decision, the right time and so again your gut will become wiser I guess if you could say that and know what to do when you are there, but there are still a lot of times where you have got to go with that feeling of, ‘you know what, this is the right thing to do’ and then you just work to make it right.

#00:19:47-7# Neil : Life is made of constant change, whether we like it or not, and many would say, the only constant in life is change. Jon, how do you try to keep up with change?

#00:20:00-3# Jon Toy Founder of Jon Toy Consulting, Fast Signs York Pennsylvania PA Owner : Well, I will go back to what I said about reading and there is just so much information out there, that I think that if you are immersing yourself in things, that are going on out there, you are going to be able to keep up with change, so I read a lot of publications, I subscribe to newsletters, I read books, I read the newspaper. So you start to see these things and you start to get a feel for what’s out there, whether you are reading blogs or involved in forums and you are going to see what trends are, what things are out there, and so ultimately, you have got to be keeping an eye on that, and then trying to see how it might relate to your business. You cannot have the shiny object syndrome, so certainly, you cannot be going after every new thing that changes out there. But you do need to analyse it and see how it might affect, there are some advantages to being earlier doctors. But generally you can see how trends are affecting business and what they are doing with your competitors and with others outside your industry and get a feel for what to do, but I think that really the way to keep up with it, is to identify the ones that might best lead to profit for your company and help you acquire more customers, and then test it and get out there and then test it like crazy, and if its not working, don’t be afraid to just shut it off immediately, and move onto the next thing.

#00:21:13-3# Neil : And what is your favourite book on entrepreneurialism, business, personal development, leadership or motivation? and can you tell us why you have chosen it?

#00:21:22-3# Jon Toy Founder of Jon Toy Consulting, Fast Signs York Pennsylvania PA Owner : Yeh, that’s an easy one for me, I go back to the name I mentioned earlier, his name is Dan Kennedy, he has great resources on the internet and through his organisation that he has developed. But he has written a whole series of books called ‘no BS’ and there is a variety of different ones. The top two that I have read, one was called ‘Ruthless management of people and profits’ and again, I am not a ruthless person, so the title can be a little misleading to folks, but the concepts that are in there if you own a business, or you want to own a business, are critical. And they talk about creating systems for your employees and having checklists and accountability, and learning from the very beginning, that it’s your business, not the employee’s business, and they need to do it, the way you want them to do it, and you don’t have to be a mean person to do that. As I have discovered through my years, because that is not my style, is a little more blunt in his book, but certainly there are ways I can do that and still have that accountability that is required, because what I want to have happen needs to be happening every day if we are going to be successful.

#00:22:20-5Neil : Everyone, when you have a busy life, listening to audio books is a great way to expand your knowledge in the time when you may be doing other things, such as driving or when you are at the gym. We have a special offer of a free audio book of your choosing. To choose your free audio book, go to www.freeaudiobookoffer.com. As long as you have not already signed up, then you will qualify. Jon, what I would like to do now is go into the future a little bit and can you tell us, what one thing would you do with your business if you knew that you could not fail?

#00:22:54-7# Jon Toy Founder of Jon Toy Consulting, Fast Signs York Pennsylvania PA Owner : Oh you know, that is a good question, I think I would probably establish some sort of large scale coaching group, and you know that I know that I probably would not fail if I did that, it’s just a matter for me of being able to find the right group of folks who are interested in what I have to offer. So it is one of my next steps, it’s going to happen, what I mean by that is I would have some sort of a monthly or bi-weekly call-in for everyone who is involved in that membership group. And they would be able to learn the content for me, have some Q & A live and then get a copy of their recording, so they can keep implementing those things and options and you know, it’s a way that I can reach more people at once, I have got to be thinking about scaling, I can’t do scale-coaching business by doing it one-on-one or I am just trading dollars for hours and certainly that won’t allow me to have the time with my family that I want, so that’s what’s really kind of next on my horizon and establishing the systems to, to give me that point.

#00:23:49-1# Neil : Ok. Do you have a coach of your own?

#00:23:53-0# Jon Toy Founder of Jon Toy Consulting, Fast Signs York Pennsylvania PA Owner : Yeh, no great question and I do absolutely, and I think that anyone who is a coach and does not have a coach, then you know, you got to be careful of, because again, going back to that lifelong learner, we have got to always be investing in ourselves. So not just reading, but finding out from people who have done it before you. And you know, really people who, to say it bluntly, put their money where their mouth is, are the ones that are going to continue to have that knowledge, so I have worked with at least three different coaches, over the last five years. They have helped me to get this coaching business started on the side of my sign and graphics company. And so having that, has allowed me to focus on those items that I don’t know about. And I am consistently looking for further opportunities. I am involved in a forum now, and so it’s not a direct coach but I have direct access to the person in charge should I choose to, and I have gotten so much value for it for $100 bucks a month. So there are varying levels of what it cost to get a coach from thousands and thousands which I paid to less than $100 bucks a month to and everyone needs to find the right fit. And not be afraid to move on from that to a different coach or group, once they have kind of maxed out from what they receive from that content.

#00:25:00-5# Neil : What’s your opinion on masterminds? What do you think of those?

#00:25:05-0# Jon Toy Founder of Jon Toy Consulting, Fast Signs York Pennsylvania PA Owner : I am a firm believer, in fact I run a local mastermind here and for those that are not familiar, Napoleon Hill, ‘think and grow rich’ talked about it as one of the key skills in developing yourself, and becoming successful and really a mastermind is getting 2,3,5,10, 20 together and allowing each other to work on your problems, because so many times we are so attached to our business and our problems emotionally that we cannot see what is going on, and that is where the mastermind really helps out. For instance, my local group, I have got 8 members, and each time they will get a 15-20 minute, we call them profit-seat and they are able to sit there and tell you about some challenges they are facing, and everyone asks questions and offers advice and ideas and then they leave and implement the information and every month, they go away with very helpful insights as to how to move their business forward.

#00:25:53-9# Neil : Mmm hmm and what skill if you were excellent at it, would help you the most to double your business?

#00:26:02-1# Jon Toy Founder of Jon Toy Consulting, Fast Signs York Pennsylvania PA Owner : You know it’s really going to be the delegation and implementation of things that I should not be doing. I have hesitated on that, I am hiring a virtual assistant to kind of help me with my coaching side, so that I am not doing some of the things, and I am not excellent at it right now, so as I get more excellent at that and the training and management of someone who is not in front of me, which is a different concept to me, I know that I will be able to double my business because I will stop doing those $10 dollar an hour tasks and start focusing on the marketing and selling of my services.

#00:26:33-1# Neil : In five years from now, if a well-known business publication was publishing an article on your business, after talking to your customers and suppliers, what would you like it to say?

#00:26:45-4# Jon Toy Founder of Jon Toy Consulting, Fast Signs York Pennsylvania PA Owner : You know, I think I would like it to say that all of my customers were able to dramatically grow their business and change their lifestyle. You know, I believe that every business owner should have the ability to have fun, to have freedom, to have fortune and to be able to practise their faith and so those four f’s together are what I want everybody to accomplish, and so I try to work on that with my customers, and I hope that they are seeing that. And that as they own their business, they can achieve those dreams as well. So I would want them to able to test that the things that I taught them and helped them do inside their brick and mortar business, gave them that opportunity. And then inside of my sign and graphics then, I would want my customers and suppliers to say that we had the best service, the best relationship with them as a provider and that they never even were considering a competitor, because they valued the information and the product that we provided.

#00:27:41-4# Neil : Mmm hmm, we are now at the part of the show, where you share three golden nuggets with us, so Jon, what is your favourite quote and how have you applied it?

#00:27:52-3# Neil : You know, I have read so many quotes, its hard for me to kind of narrow that down to one, but I think, that if there was one quote that I learned from a local author and speaker here in Pennsylvania region, his name was Charlie tremendous Jones, and one of the things that he said is that, ‘you are the same person one year from now that you are today except for the books you read and the people you meet.’ And when I heard that quote and why it hit me is I thought, ‘you know I am always out networking, I am meeting new people, I am growing my customer list’, but I was not reading at the time and so I was the same person except for those people that I met, and a lot of times when you meet people, you may get business from them or have a relationship, but it is not really changing me as a person. So I started reading, and now when I combine those two, you know I have the double effect, where I am learning from the reading and it is changing me as a person every day and I am meeting new folks that are teaching me things such as yourself and others that I am involved with here locally and customers that I work with and I learn things from those as well. So it helps me to continue to change, so you are the same person one year from now that you are today except the books you read, and the people you meet.

#00:28:58-7# Neil : Mmm that’s a pretty great quote that isn’t it? It is a great quote, Charlie Tremendous Jones comes up with some good stuff. So Jon, do you have any favourite online resources that you can share with us that will be useful?

#00:29:12-6# Jon Toy Founder of Jon Toy Consulting, Fast Signs York Pennsylvania PA Owner : Yes certainly, I am a, I guess I would say a productivity junkie, I love to just get stuff done and to keep things moving fast. And the only way to do that is to have tools and resources that you use, so I will share one that is not really online and then two that I use online that I am sure many folks maybe familiar with, but the offline one that I use is a new journal that I picked up called, ‘the self journal’ and its based upon a 12 week planning process, and there is a book out called ’12 week year’ by Brian Moran, its a great book, helps you to kind of look at your year in terms of 12 weeks instead of 12 months. And you are able to get a lot more accomplished when you focus on one or two big goals over that period. So this journal allows me to script out every day, which I was already doing, but I was doing it electronically. So I went back to the pen and paper, it kind of gives you a chance to take notes, jot down your goals for the day, you are taught three things, that’s all laid out in a real nice fashion. The website is called bestself.co. If you can pick up the journal, they are great. But then online, you know two things that I use every single day, that are very helpful for me, one would be evernote, it’s a great way to capture all of your thoughts. It’s a free application, or you can pay to upgrade very minimal cost to upgrade to the premium version. And you can just copy things in there, you can send web pages to it, it basically becomes just this huge knowledge data base that is searchable and just try and throw everything in there and then organise it as I get chance to. So that I have those resources at my fingertips, when it is time to find them. And then of course, file storage, gosh it’s so hard to keep up with all the files and the things that are going on, so I use Dropbox for just about everything, I upgrade to the premium, and there is so much space that I, photos that are there now, my business files and I try not to save anything on my computers because drop box allows me to keep it all on the cloud and backed up. So those would be my three resources that can help any business owner get more done.

#00:31:06-4# Neil : Yeh I mean backing up to the cloud is a very wise thing to do isn’t it? Because you just don’t know what might happen and the worst thing that can happen is that you lose everything on your computer.

#00:31:18-1# Jon Toy Founder of Jon Toy Consulting, Fast Signs York Pennsylvania PA Owner : It happens too often when there is very inexpensive resources out there.

#00:31:22-5# Neil : Yeh and what is your best advice to other entrepreneurs?

#00:31:26-5# Jon Toy Founder of Jon Toy Consulting, Fast Signs York Pennsylvania PA Owner : You know, my best advice is ‘control your day’ because if you don’t then others are going to control it for you. And one of the key reasons why people do not control their day is they do not have the goals in front of them enough to keep them motivated to not want to have downtime. So I look at my day, and I do not schedule downtime and I have all the things I have got to get done that day, blocked off in 30 minute, one hour, two hour increments and I try and have a start time and an in-time, to everything and stay focused on that task. So yes, it makes for maybe not as exciting a social life when it comes to work, but I am not really at work to socialise, I am here to get stuff done and keep my goals moving, so that’s my advice, you know, entrepreneur’s time is very valuable and if they let others creep in and take over their time, they are not going to get those things done. And they are going to be the ones sacrificing other time outside the business hours to take care of that.

#00:32:16-5# Neil : Everyone, if you did not manage to get a note of Jon’s favourite resource, or his favourite book, you can find the links on Jon’s show notes page, just go to theentrepreneurway.com. and search for Jon or Jon Toy in the search box. Jon is there anything else that you would like to add about your business?

Interviewer:

# #00:32:35-7# Jon Toy Founder of Jon Toy Consulting, Fast Signs York Pennsylvania PA Owner : No, you know, I always love to get feedback on the book I have put out there, it’s pretty simple to read and comprehend, I just want to know if its clicking with other business owners, it’s called geared for growth, you can pick it up on Amazon for those that might be interested, it’s a very quick easy read, its written as a story, versus facts and figures, so you kind of get pulled into the story and can relate to the business owner that is going through things there, and just get feedback from that but you know again, I go back you hear me say it a lot, but reading is a key thing, so I hope that most people who are in business or considering being in business, know that all leaders are readers and so it’s important to keep up with that.

#00:33:15-1# Neil : Jon, it’s been an honour having you on here, in fact its great having a perspective from someone who has got a franchise, but is also doing other things as well, so thank you for sharing your wisdom and your ideas, you have certainly been inspirational for us and thank you very much.

#00:33:29-7# Jon Toy Founder of Jon Toy Consulting, Fast Signs York Pennsylvania PA Owner : Thanks Neil, I appreciate the opportunity and wish all your listeners the best success in the coming year.

#00:33:33-9# Neil : You are welcome, thank you.