Jimmy Huber: And welcome to another episode of the InfoTech Podcast. As always, I'm your host, Jimmy Huber. And you'll remember that the InfoTech Podcast explores the intersection of business and technology. My guest today is Todd Krauss. Todd is a business consultant. He's got years of experience growing his own business, and now he is helping others in their own struggles and helping them grow. He's the founder of Silver Sun Consulting. And I'm excited to have you on the programme today, Todd. Welcome.

Todd Krause: Thank you so much. I appreciate it. It's what an honor to be on your show, Jimmy.

Jimmy Huber: Yeah, you bet. So for the benefit of those that might not know, who is Todd Krause? Give us a little bit about your background, kind of your origin story and and how you arrived.

Todd Krause: Origin story, my gosh. I actually, believe it or not, grew up in southeastern Wisconsin, went to school in Milwaukee, spent more than three decades working in Chicago. Most of that in the Chicago business loop. I have over three decades of experience in alternative investments. And you say, Well what is that? Hedge funds,

Jimmy Huber: Yeah.

Todd Krause: private equity, venture capital. So you look at my resume and it it looks like all these big corporate jobs, but really what my work involved was setting up companies to hold investments, running their operations in accounting and finance when they weren't needed, liquidating and shutting them down. So it it let me touch a lot of different industries while really I had an investment or and fund administration type position. We were touching and handling all these different companies, all these different investments, and I got to touch bottled water vending, alarm vending, large multifamily real estate, oil and gas, family office structures, just to name a few. Along the way I was part of a small investment advisory. Company and they wanted to take the back office and literally put it into another company so that that company could charge for its services. Guess what? I was the one spun out with the operations, and that became Trident Financial Services. We the investment company itself never survived 9-11. But here I was with my partner, and we we started and grew this company from a startup to two billion dollars. in assets that led to being

Jimmy Huber: Billion with a B?

Todd Krause: recruited by AB and Amher LaSalle Bank who wanted to start a fund administration business. They didn't know how. They brought me in to be part of the launch team. I was the industry expert and we grew it to 14 billion. So now we we

Jimmy Huber: Wow.

Todd Krause: fast forward to 2020. I'm working for a l global fund administrator in one of their operations centers in Indianapolis. And my job ends. It's March sixth. And if we remember where we are in the calendar, that's what is it about ten days? I mean a week to ten days before

Jimmy Huber: Yep. For COVID. Sure.

Todd Krause: the pandemic lockdowns. OMG, what am I gonna do now? I found this cleaning company in my area, which was good size, producing good income for sale. And I went ahead and I bought it in the middle of the pandemic. I had to make the buy or sell buy or no buy decision in the middle of the pandemic, but what I saw was it had customer base over six hundred. It was servicing wealthy areas of Indianapolis. These areas were growing. And we knew that the pandemic, while it wasn't unpleasant experience for all of us wasn't gonna last forever. At some point we would come out of that. At some point life would return to something that we call normal.

Jimmy Huber: Sure, sure.

Todd Krause: And it did. It it took probably twice as long to actually finalize the purchase as it would have without the pandemic. So that didn't finalize until September. But in the meantime, what happened in Indianapolis was we went through the dip. At the end of June, going into July, governor opened up Indiana. We're we're open for business. We ripped the mask off. The only places we still needed them was our doctor's and dentist office. And we went back to work. So then all of a sudden the the business before I actually finalized the purchase was back to pre-pandemic levels of operations and growing. And I I grew it since. But what I did is I applied all the things that I learned over the years. I saw things that worked really well across industries and things that didn't work. There were commonalities. And that is exactly what I implement when I work with my clients to not only get their operations humming along well, but then to put this cultural wrap around it. that beats out the competition every time. And that's really the secret sauce there.

Jimmy Huber: Definitely want to get into that. But yeah, I think this is the first time that a guest has used the word billion or billions on this podcast. So yeah, your bona fide is definitely precede you. I I think that's really fantastic. That yeah, the the delay there for closing a deal during during the pandemic actually helped you. Cause by the time you got through it, it was already back to normal. It's almost like you know, you planned it that way. So you're still operating and or and owning the cleaning business and doing Silver Sun, is that right?

Todd Krause: That's correct. I'd I'd won franchisee of the year twice and and people kept asking me, Well, why does what you do, even though it seems so simple, work so well? And and then I started expanding that into the there's a business here, both a public speaking side of it, where I teach it from the stage, and working directly with business leaders and their management teams to implement it. with them and for them in their own businesses. I thought what what a great way to expand the message out to a broader audience and and make a real impact.

Jimmy Huber: Yeah, I love that. I mean, there's definitely synergy there. And it's not the first time that I've heard, you know, a business that has a core offering and yet along the way learns other pieces that are tangentially related that can grow into another offering, which is kind of what you've done here. So I think that's great. what are some, you know, the biggest turning points, you know, in your business? You you hit on a couple of those, you know, in in the investment side and then the cleaning business, but you know, there's gotta be a couple of of Of events maybe that you point back to that really hit the nail on the head.

Todd Krause: I go back to when I was only second or third job out of school. And when we think back to when we're just out of school we hop hop hop. So I don't think I was in those first couple of jobs much more than a year. I'm s roughly my mid twenties and I I work for this large investment firm down right in the heart of Chicago. They put me on a plane and send me to Los Angeles to figure out why one of their investments wasn't going well. I'm thinking, my God, I can't believe I'm sitting on this airplane. And the part one of the most senior partners in the firm sent me out here to find out what's going on. And then I got back and they really listened. They really wanted to hear what I had to say. That was an amazing experience. He's one of the same partners that we we would work for several weeks, long hours getting things done, and then he would hand some bills to his assistant and say, buy pizza for everybody. We w and for an hour or two we'd sit around his big marble top desk and get pepperonis and pizza sauce all over it, chatted up.

Jimmy Huber: Yeah.

Todd Krause: Eventually he'd stand up and go, well. Time to get back to work. But they cared. And we as employees, we felt seen and heard and valued. how amazing was that. But then I go to some of the other ones, including that position I had just before the pandemic. Com night and day difference. Turnover in some departments in that company was a hundred percent. Per year. The amount

Jimmy Huber: my goodness.

Todd Krause: of brain power coming in and flying right back out those doors is just staggering. I watched Young people come in so excited to be hired by the company only weeks later to have this deer in the headlights look. What did I get myself into? Did I

Jimmy Huber: Yeah.

Todd Krause: make a mistake? And within three to six months, they were gone. They put their resume right back out on the street, said I'm available, and kept right on job searching. Attitude in that company was just grow, grow, grow, grow at any cost. People are coming in at seven, seven thirty in the morning and working till eight, nine, ten o'clock every night. Not

Jimmy Huber: my word. Wow.

Todd Krause: just during busy periods, every night. It was just expected. Get it done. Get it done.

Jimmy Huber: Yeah. I mean that's gotta be a good way to just kill culture. I mean and those people are gonna tell everyone else, hey, this is this is really bad, you know, to work there. So would you say that was kind of when the idea was born, like, hey, there might be a better way to do this?

Todd Krause: I I've applied what I I'm teaching people and what I'm implementing in their businesses all through my career. When it was in alignment with the senior management and the ownership of the company I worked for, my experience was very good there. When it was at odds with the philosophy of the company, my personal experience really didn't go very well at some of those companies. I have been at companies where employees were valued and respected, and I've been at places where they didn't care what was going on in your life, they didn't care what was happening to you. It was just get it done no matter what. Your car broke down, so it's your problem, you have to be here. Someone in your family's sick or injured. It's your job to be here and get it done. And what a difference. I found myself always protecting the people who worked for me throughout the years. And there were times when that didn't go so well for me. It led to my leaving a position sooner than I intended.

Jimmy Huber: Yeah. Yeah, I think we all have those moments in our careers where it just it wasn't a good fit. It didn't work. And yeah, I've gotta believe that the cultures that are intentionally created, the founders, the leadership teams pour into their people. Yeah, I mean that takes longer, I guess, to to grow, maybe to develop people, but I gotta believe that's the long term, a way better play, not just for the environment and employees, but financially too, right?

Todd Krause: It does, and there's real math behind this. This is more than just a a fluffy HR feel good thing. I can give you numbers from several examples. So let's start with my cleaning business, which is currently operating at more than $4 million a year in revenue. During the time that I've owned it, operating expenses have decreased by more than eight. Even though we are bonusing people in ways that they were never bonused before I bought the company and the rewards that we're giving them. That is an additional. Keyword additional, $320,000 a year in profit on top of the profit the business was making the old way it operated.

Jimmy Huber: Including bonuses and rewards.

Todd Krause: Including bonuses and rewards. So when I tell business owners about this, many times the reaction is, those bonuses and rewards sound expensive. And I say, no, it's not. It actually makes revenues grow faster while operating expenses decrease. So if you don't know what to do with $320,000, I've got some ideas for you.

Jimmy Huber: Well, it's counterintuitive, right? I mean, some people think they look at that's a huge, you know, payroll increase, it it's a big expense, like they said. So it's almost like it may be an investment in the people that then you're getting your return from.

Todd Krause: Well here's where how it works, and it comes from five things. We've already have people working for us who are trained. They know our customers, they know our processes. When we retain them, then we don't have to go out and spend all the money hiring and training new people. Those people have relationships with our customers, and relationships are sticky. This is a great thing for a business. People will go back to the company that treated it well, provided good quality services and goods, and it allows the company to charge higher prices. So number that's number one. We're retaining knowledge and experience. Yes, these people get raises, but they get their work done faster. They make fewer mistakes. Mistakes cost

Jimmy Huber: Mm. Yeah.

Todd Krause: money. Mistakes hurt relationships with customers. Mistakes require someone to go out and to check and inspect money, money, money every time that happens. Experienced workers know what to look out for to prevent problems. They tell other people what a great place to work. That makes hiring easier. Oftentimes people come to us asking to work for us. We don't have

Jimmy Huber: Sure. Yeah, referrals. Yeah.

Todd Krause: to pay as much to find the people. We don't have to pay as much to hire them. We're because we're retaining staff, we have less training expense. And let's not forget New employees don't have the experience. They make the new employee mistakes. They go through a learning curve. They're slower. That costs money, money, money.

Jimmy Huber: Yeah.

Todd Krause: So we've retained our customers, our employees, we've made hiring new ones easier. Now it leads us to the third one: that relationship we have with the customers. Not breaking that relationship and providing consistent, high-quality goods and service along with customer service. That's great quality. Those are the three things that any customer asks for a business. Give me high quality goods and services, do it every time, and when I need help, be there for me. So we do that, and we retain our customers. Now we don't have to replace customers. When we find new customers, it adds to it. It's a creative. Happy customers

Jimmy Huber: Got it. Yeah, that makes sense.

Todd Krause: tell friends and family and neighbors what a great business you have. They come to you. Already pre-sold on how good you are. You don't have to sell them. You sign them up. So it's easier to find new customers and grow. That's number four. And then the fifth one. This this one's like gold. In today's world, glowing reviews about what a wonderful experience it is helps accelerate the business growth. And here's why. We are so overwhelmed by information coming at us from every direction. We can't possibly review every option for every product or every service, whether it's on Amazon, on a Google search, or otherwise. How do we filter that down to a manageable number of options? We do it by looking at reviews. This product has 15,000 reviews. This product only has 3,000. Well, I'm going to check out the one that has 15,000 reviews on Amazon.

Jimmy Huber: Sure.

Todd Krause: Same with Google search. look, this business has 1,200 reviews. This other business only has 160 reviews. So you go to the 1,200 review business and say, tell me more.

Jimmy Huber: Sure, sure.

Todd Krause: It pre sells customer. Plus, it just takes the stress out of running the business because your day goes so much smoother as a business owner.

Jimmy Huber: Yeah, I love that. I think we just heard a master class on on how to improve your bottom line in five steps. You know, if you keep your nose clean, Todd, you might have something here as as a as a consultant. no, I I think that's fantastic. I can think just in my own journey at InfoTech, definitely several of those pieces have have come into play as we've learned how to find the right people, put them in the right seat on the bus, and then imp and increase their compensation as they provide more value to the business, right? And Our customers come back. I mean, I I get text messages all the time from our larger customers and we call kudos at infotech, like, hey, if something comes through, we want everyone to know that because those relationship pieces that our long-term employees have developed, it's hugely beneficial. I mean, to the the if you're what you say it was turning over a hundred percent a year, I can't imagine how that business is still in play. Like the amount of extra cost to do that is is just a astronomical. so how have you seen customers, I guess, get on board with what you're trying to say. Is there resistance to that? Or once you explain it, they're they're a little more open to to seeing the benefits? Cause that's definitely, I don't think where s most people would start. That's something that has to be taught.

Todd Krause: Correct. That is not where most business owners start. Most business owners come to me and say, I'm not growing, everything I've tried isn't working. How help me find new customers? A second problem to come with is I have high turnover and I'm having trouble stopping it. Then the third group of problems. In that order of frequency, would be we have a quality problem. The customers are complaining, the staff is not happy, help us fix that. And I've I've had clients in each of those categories, but most of them have growth problems. So I go out and I fix their growth problems, I fix their operational problems for them, at the same time building the culture. That puts them ahead of the competition. As we work together, they begin to get it and internalize the value of having the right culture combined with a well-oiled machine and a smooth-running operation. Most of these small to medium-sized businesses have really never standardized how they deliver. their services, most of them have never sat down and actually thought about why are we pricing our products and services the way we are? Are we a premium or a white glove service? Are we a good value for the money service? Are we a discount provider? They they haven't intentionally thought about that and picked where they want to be in the market. And that that's where I start my engagements with them. Because once we know their price point, we can work backward to make sure that we're hitting the profit margins that they should be getting. A well-oiled business can easily generate 25 or 30 percent profit to the owners and should be.

Jimmy Huber: Sure. Yeah, no, I love that. I think those are timeless principles and I can see the fact that I would think once somebody trusts you enough to start down the journey and they actually listen to what you're trying to have them do, you see results pretty quick. I mean, you know, it it's it's not I wouldn't think it's a huge long drawn out process depending on on the business. And once you get a little taste of that, then it kind of accelerates from there. Would you agree?

Todd Krause: Y you're absolutely right, and I structure how I work with people to get them benefit almost immediately. We're not going to go through a big prolonged evaluation process and and write up some huge proposal that nobody reads. We're going to start and work side by side, piece by piece so that they have immediately actionable items that make a difference. tomorrow. And as we work together over the next few months, the cumulative of impact of each of these improvements just grows and grows and grows. I I see no value in dragging out the whole analysis to a long process of weeks or even months and writing up some gigantic presentation. These people need help and they need it yesterday.

Jimmy Huber: Yeah. I love that. And I think your your genuineness and and your you know sincerity to actually help people comes through. Cause like some people like it's it's eat or or go home, right? Like this is their livelihood, they have to get clients or whatnot. You've got some other assets, some other businesses here, so I gotta believe that you're maybe doing this because you really want to, not just because you have to. And I think that's a really good spot to start for for companies because your passion to actually help them shines.

Todd Krause: It's I j I get a lot of personal satisfaction out of seeing other people succeed and being a part of helping them succeed. To me that that just really makes my day.

Jimmy Huber: Yeah. That's that's really cool. And it it it definitely shows. Todd, let's shift to the future here a little bit. What are you excited to build and and what are some challenges that you might see you know, coming here in the next six months towards the end of the year? where do you see, you know, Silver Sun going and and what are the the new things that that you're struggling with or that might be coming up?

Todd Krause: SilverSun it delivers the same message two different ways. One is from the stage. I do keynotes, I do presentations, I lead sessions, occasionally sit on panels, and the other one is working directly with business owners. The public speaking side of it is gaining momentum, and I'm happy to see that. I'm always, when it comes to working directly with business owners, looking for a way to just improve how I connect with the business owners and get the message out to them that there's a better way to do this. You don't have to work as hard at it as you think you do. One of the ways I'm getting the message out is right now, the way we're having a conversation. Your audience hears it and it's people that I might not otherwise reach without having the conversation that we're having today.

Jimmy Huber: Yeah, I love that. Yeah, so I I think that yeah, the TED talks, the stage presence and as many different forms of media that you can get your word out, the better. there's just so much noise these days. It's like you almost have to be really intentional about how you get your message out to reach, you know, the the right kind of audience. And I think you're doing a great job of that. I think you're you're one of the guys that really articulates well. You can tell it's not your first rodeo, and that comes through, I think really, really well. what advice would you have for someone who maybe is somewhere along the same journey as you, just maybe not quite as far, and they're realizing, hey, like I'm learning a few things that I could maybe pass on, you know, to other businesses, and they're they're just kind of kicking that idea around. What advice or or you know tidbit could you give them to take the next step?

Todd Krause: There's always the more we give of our experience and the more we give of our knowledge, the more it comes back to us. There there really is something to that whole go-givers idea. That in the act of giving we actually gain. And I found that to be true in life too. It always seems like the more I give away th the more abundance I find.

Jimmy Huber: Yeah. Isn't that funny? I think the the Bible even says that it's more blessed to give than to receive. and I think that that also shines through too. And you're playing the long game, right? It it's not about short wins, but it's about pouring into people, like you said, at your own in your own teams and now pouring into other businesses so that they can kind of pay it forward in their own way, which I I think is just fantastic. there's a lot of I think in our culture today, people that are only in it for themselves. it's, you know, their way or the highway. And it's just not a good long term strategy. I mean we're we're the humanity is designed, I think, to help each other, right? Like we're relational beings and I think that definitely you know business is not immune from that. If anything, business is where it should be the most, right? we're ultimately helping each other. So I I think that's fantastic.

Todd Krause: It it has to be that way. No business or organization of any type can exist without people. When we try to automate everything and replace people with AI, we're forgetting that most fundamental thing that if we remove people f completely from the equation, what's left? It's just one AI agent talking to another, their computer code. They have no needs for anything, th so there's no need for the business to exist.

Jimmy Huber: Yeah. What do you I mean, you hit a huge thing. That's a whole episode I think right there is talking about the effects of AI. Are you using that in in your business or how do you deal with companies that I'm sure across the board are s are, you know, trying to come to grips with how they integrate AI and hopefully for the better? but how are you dealing with that?

Todd Krause: We use tools and technology. We we're not anti-tools and technology. We have the philosophy that that's exactly what they are. They are a tool. They are there to support our staff and to enable them to do a better job. They shouldn't be a replacement for our staff. AI and technology is the electronic wrench. That a mechanic would use to fix your car.

Jimmy Huber: Yeah, I love that. Sure.

Todd Krause: It's a tool that helps our people who talk to our customers do a better job of working with our customers because those people are our ambassadors to our customers.

Jimmy Huber: Yeah, I love that. Yeah, not replacing but enhancing what you're already doing with your teams. man, our our time flies when we're we're talking about cool things. I feel like we just skimmed the surface, Todd, but what's the best way if people want to learn more about you, you know, your companies, maybe even book you as a speaker, what's the best way to get in touch with you?

Todd Krause: All of my information is on www.silversunconsulting.com. Sun is S-U-N. Feel free to browse all the media pages and blogs and everything. But on the about page, you're going to find my personal email address and a phone number that rings right here. Call me. I will

Jimmy Huber: wow. Okay.

Todd Krause: grow your business and I will give you the culture that beats the competition.

Jimmy Huber: I love that. We'll definitely add that to our show notes so it's it's easy for people to reach out. And Todd, I really appreciate the time today. I I've learned something myself just from listening to you and and your your five points there. I think those are excellent. and I can see why you're in demand for for other people to to grow their businesses too. So really appreciate your time and thanks so much for joining us today.

Todd Krause: Thank you so much. What an honor to be here.

Jimmy Huber: You bet.