Sree Kaluva built his career designing enterprise systems for global Fortune 500s. But what drives him now is helping small business owners thrive with the same kind of technology—without the cost or complexity. In this episode, Sree unpacks how leadership isn't just about people—it's about giving them the tools to succeed.

Drawing from his own journey, including childhood lessons from his father’s pen-and-paper business, Sree explains how the lack of real-time data and automation holds companies back. He shares how My Work Belt—his all-in-one business operating system—removes friction, reveals hidden inefficiencies, and delivers insights that help teams grow without burning out.

From automating invoices and tracking project profitability to empowering frontline staff with transparent data, Sree makes the case that true leadership is removing obstacles. And when employees have clarity and control, they don’t quit—they lean in.

Want to learn more about Sree Kaluva’s work? Check out their website at https://www.myworkbelt.com.

Connect with Sree Kaluva on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/skaluva/.

Key Points with Timestamps

• 00:01:21 – Intro to Sree Kaluva and his business, My Work Belt
  
  

• 00:04:11 – A 20-year-old builds a $1M business using just an iPhone and Excel

• 00:06:05 – Why legacy IT systems kept small businesses locked out

• 00:07:12 – Sree’s early inspiration from his father’s analog business

• 00:08:05 – Creating global systems for tracking production in real-time

• 00:10:16 – From billion-dollar boardroom decisions to small business needs

• 00:12:21 – Fax machines, 8-hour days, and how a tiny fix saved one company

• 00:14:00 – Why repeating reports manually is a leadership failure

• 00:15:11 – Automating quotes and invoices as a competitive advantage

• 00:17:00 – Real-time dashboards for faster, smarter decisions

• 00:18:32 – Leaders must ask: can this be automated?

• 00:19:17 – Most small businesses don't know their true cost of service

• 00:20:10 – My Work Belt lets owners track budget vs actuals mid-project

• 00:21:10 – A business is only as strong as its gears—Sree’s operating system model

• 00:22:46 – Accurate time tracking built into the workflow

• 00:23:09 – Giving small businesses enterprise-grade tools

• 00:25:17 – The power of unlimited training and removing fear of new tech

• 00:26:57 – One of the top reasons people leave their jobs? Lack of tools

• 00:29:19 – How to contact Sree and get started with My Work Belt

Transcript

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:30:16
Craig Andrews
I was in a coma for six weeks while the doctors told my wife I was going to die. When I woke up, she told me the most fantastic story. My team kept running the business without me. Freelancers reached out to my team and said, we will do whatever it takes. As long as Craig's in the hospital. I consider that the greatest accomplishment of my career.

00:00:30:18 - 00:00:51:08
Craig Andrews
My name is Craig Andrews and this is the Leaders and Legacies podcast where we talk to leaders creating an impact beyond themselves. At the end of today's interview, I'll tell you how you can be the next leader featured on the show.

00:00:51:08 - 00:01:02:05
Craig Andrews
Today I want to welcome Sree Kaluva I you know, I, Sree and I connected months and months ago, and we've become really good friends. And,

00:01:02:05 - 00:01:21:02
Craig Andrews
we recorded a show together called Biz Buzz. Actually, it's Sree shall he brings me on. I'm one of the guests. And Sree runs a company called My Work Belt. One of the things I appreciate about Sree is his desire to equip and empower,

00:01:21:02 - 00:01:28:11
Craig Andrews
businesses and because there's, you know, there's a bunch of little details that can kind of get in the way of running the business.

00:01:28:13 - 00:01:31:16
Craig Andrews
And from the technology side, Sree,

00:01:31:16 - 00:01:40:02
Craig Andrews
address those and tries to make life easier. So tune in. I think it's going to be a really neat discussion. Sree, welcome.

00:01:40:04 - 00:01:44:09
Sree Kaluva
Thank you very much for having me on the show. Craig. How are you doing?

00:01:44:11 - 00:01:48:12
Craig Andrews
I'm doing great. You know, we were. You know, we were chatting,

00:01:48:12 - 00:01:56:11
Craig Andrews
just a couple minutes ago about how much things have changed. You know, here we are. We're both,

00:01:56:11 - 00:01:58:22
Craig Andrews
we're both in our own personal studios.

00:01:58:22 - 00:01:59:13
Sree Kaluva
We have.

00:01:59:13 - 00:02:10:06
Craig Andrews
Yes, we have decent microphones. We have decent lighting. All of these things used to be something you would have to go and rent studio space to do.

00:02:10:08 - 00:02:13:03
Sree Kaluva
It is correct. I remember,

00:02:13:03 - 00:02:27:02
Sree Kaluva
one of my friend and a business coach. He, when he wanted to do a podcast, we are talking about 8 or 10 years ago, he had to go into a local studio, do the recording in a,

00:02:27:02 - 00:02:28:17
Sree Kaluva
they have, of course, the,

00:02:28:17 - 00:02:34:04
Sree Kaluva
videos, audio equipment, along with the soundproof room, but not anymore.

00:02:34:05 - 00:02:43:00
Sree Kaluva
You don't need all of that. And microphones have isolation microphones. You don't have to worry about dog barking behind you or anything like that.

00:02:43:01 - 00:03:10:22
Craig Andrews
Yeah. I mean, it's it's crazy. I mean, I have times where I'm recording and I'll hear all sorts of news or noise going on around me and I'll ask. It was like, do you hear that? They're like, no. And it's just amazing what's what's happened. And, you know, we see that in so many different areas that, you know, older folks are starting businesses.

00:03:11:00 - 00:03:17:20
Craig Andrews
You know, I think see the difference and appreciate the younger folks. Just assume, well, this is the way it always is.

00:03:17:22 - 00:03:21:11
Sree Kaluva
That's correct. Well, when the when they are born, they are born with,

00:03:21:11 - 00:03:25:20
Sree Kaluva
kind of a smartphone in their hand. Yeah.

00:03:25:22 - 00:03:41:10
Craig Andrews
Yeah. And I and, you know, the camera on an iPhone is a really good camera. You can do. I mean, I shot some videos for a client, and I was shocked. I mean, I was just really, really shocked how good the videos were.

00:03:41:10 - 00:03:52:08
Craig Andrews
And I know some other people that are, you know, professional videographers, and they had a little portable studio that they would use and the they would use an iPhone.

00:03:52:08 - 00:04:03:01
Craig Andrews
And this isn't a recent iPhone. This was over a decade ago where they were sitting there shooting commercials for clients using an iPhone.

00:04:03:03 - 00:04:11:07
Sree Kaluva
I'll give you an example before we dive. You know, a a for my office.

00:04:11:07 - 00:04:21:06
Sree Kaluva
He has a small business. I mean, as I, you know, that I have a passion for small business. He is a young, young folk, young man.

00:04:21:06 - 00:04:29:05
Sree Kaluva
Probably in 20 or maybe 21. And he started selling sports card,

00:04:29:05 - 00:04:30:14
Sree Kaluva
about five years ago.

00:04:30:14 - 00:04:52:20
Sree Kaluva
Four years ago, when he was a teenage boy. He started it. Now he developed $1 million revenue business just through iPhone. He has a set up iPhone. He dual, sales on TikTok. And he is selling, like anything. All the sports cards.

00:04:52:22 - 00:04:54:01
Craig Andrews
Wow.

00:04:54:03 - 00:05:07:03
Sree Kaluva
The major tools he is using is iPhone, internet connection, Excel file. And that's it. Probably 1 or 2 computers.

00:05:07:05 - 00:05:13:06
Craig Andrews
Well, and let's I mean, that kind of leads into your area. You you've you had a business.

00:05:13:06 - 00:05:41:01
Craig Andrews
It's still have as a managed service provider, but you also have my my work belt. You know, I was thinking, you know, I, I worked in, you know, I entered the, you know, corporate America back in the mid 90s. And I remember using outlook for the first time and one when I first took my, my job is, you know, 2 or 3 years, all of a sudden Microsoft started pushing this application called outlook.

00:05:41:01 - 00:05:44:15
Craig Andrews
And I'm like, well, this seems like a waste. And,

00:05:44:15 - 00:05:49:22
Craig Andrews
you know, I just didn't initially understand it. But then as I started using it,

00:05:49:22 - 00:05:53:04
Craig Andrews
I realized how powerful it was. And that's been, you know, kind of,

00:05:53:04 - 00:06:05:06
Craig Andrews
you know, a staple of, of businesses. But the other thing I remember was everywhere I worked, we had these big I.T. teams that made sure everything worked.

00:06:05:07 - 00:06:14:13
Craig Andrews
You know, things like being able to log in to the computer and get on the, you know, access the company files and one that was always a big deal was,

00:06:14:13 - 00:06:18:06
Craig Andrews
an exchange server, a Microsoft exchange email server.

00:06:18:08 - 00:06:19:11
Sree Kaluva
Yes.

00:06:19:13 - 00:06:28:12
Craig Andrews
And that was a barrier. If you started a business, you couldn't set up here an exchange server that was out of the reach of of business owners.

00:06:28:14 - 00:06:34:02
Sree Kaluva
Small businesses, particularly small businesses, a large corporations, they have their pockets and they have,

00:06:34:02 - 00:06:34:09
Sree Kaluva
you know,

00:06:34:09 - 00:06:44:15
Sree Kaluva
capital to accommodate and invest on all those technology. So that is where very beginning. See, when I came to America in 99,

00:06:44:15 - 00:06:46:11
Sree Kaluva
before that, I was a small business.

00:06:46:11 - 00:06:51:02
Sree Kaluva
My father was a small business owner, and we didn't have any of the technology.

00:06:51:03 - 00:06:54:14
Sree Kaluva
Everything was written on the books.

00:06:54:14 - 00:06:56:12
Sree Kaluva
And little book, pen on paper.

00:06:56:12 - 00:07:09:01
Sree Kaluva
And if any given point of time, if I, if, he wants to know how much business we did in this month. He had no clue. And he had to go to the accountant. And accountant has to calculate all those things and write down the pencil or not.

00:07:09:05 - 00:07:12:04
Sree Kaluva
So it's a quite tedious process.

00:07:12:04 - 00:07:13:06
Sree Kaluva
But I became,

00:07:13:06 - 00:07:31:09
Sree Kaluva
software engineer and started looking at this. It's like incredible change. Oh, my God, if I put this kind of a system, I think that he will be doing a cartwheels. Now, after I came to America, I started working with small, many businesses and,

00:07:31:09 - 00:07:35:07
Sree Kaluva
some of them are fortune 500 companies that I worked with.

00:07:35:09 - 00:07:40:14
Sree Kaluva
I wrote the software and that's being used. I'll give you a simple, simple,

00:07:40:14 - 00:07:54:01
Sree Kaluva
business case, a couple of simple business cases. But this is for a large corporations. But then that actually drove me how and why I need to put my thought into small businesses to help them.

00:07:54:01 - 00:08:05:02
Sree Kaluva
One of the fortune 500 companies, they needed to know how many widgets they are making in their plants all around the world, not just simply one factory.

00:08:05:04 - 00:08:26:04
Sree Kaluva
And they are located here in Troy, Michigan. They are not. They are no longer there. And they got sold and rented and all those things. But the business case was a simple question. Imagine Quentin was asking, I want to know how many widgets we have made in the entire world. Particular item, because it's a globalized,

00:08:26:04 - 00:08:27:09
Sree Kaluva
supply chain in those days.

00:08:27:15 - 00:08:30:05
Sree Kaluva
Even today, we have globalized supply chain.

00:08:30:05 - 00:08:46:17
Sree Kaluva
So I had I had to come up with an idea of creating a software that is small, compact enough that it can go onto a touchscreen, which will have a barcode scanner and a printer next to it. When the production line the port is coming out, they stick a barcode on it and then scan it.

00:08:46:18 - 00:08:57:05
Sree Kaluva
It will flush the numbers to the centralized database, and I was able to deliver that. And the software was able to was installed and implemented,

00:08:57:05 - 00:09:00:04
Sree Kaluva
in India, Mexico, Canada,

00:09:00:04 - 00:09:01:22
Sree Kaluva
Singapore, China,

00:09:01:22 - 00:09:09:01
Sree Kaluva
all over the world for giving the answer to that single question. And similarly,

00:09:09:01 - 00:09:11:03
Sree Kaluva
another business case that came up as,

00:09:11:03 - 00:09:22:03
Sree Kaluva
another fortune 500 company, the board of directors, they wanted to know how much work we have for all our work in the next 20.

00:09:22:05 - 00:09:49:03
Sree Kaluva
So what are we doing? Do we have a more workforce than the work we have available, or do we have more work than the workforce we have available? It is a simple planning that they needed to make Multi-Millions of dollars of decisions. They were working all on still data because by the time you collect the data from the branch and consolidate everything to the board meeting, you're already working with the data old.

00:09:49:05 - 00:10:16:06
Sree Kaluva
And that's not a good position for the board of directors to be in. I mean, you're taking one month's stale data and making a multi millions of dollars of decision. We are talking about $1 billion decisions they were making. So I ended up designing, developing a centralized mechanism that collects data from all 400 branches around the US. And then consolidated and give them the report instantly in one click.

00:10:16:08 - 00:10:42:07
Sree Kaluva
And the current data at the moment. So that made a huge difference for them. But then it dawned on me these are the large corporations. They have a deeper pockets to do all these things. But what about the small businesses like my father business back in India? They don't have deeper pockets. And I started talking to multiple small businesses and they said, oh, we don't have money to do that.

00:10:42:07 - 00:11:00:06
Sree Kaluva
We don't have deeper pockets. But then it's like, no, it cannot be that the using technology is a myth. Back in 1999, nine, 2000, 2001, in those days for small businesses, for large corporations, they have a lot of investment already done for the,

00:11:00:06 - 00:11:05:22
Sree Kaluva
technology applications. So then I had to quit all that corporate job

00:11:05:22 - 00:11:08:17
Sree Kaluva
and then start the small business,

00:11:08:17 - 00:11:12:23
Sree Kaluva
to help the small businesses on technology, applying technology.

00:11:13:01 - 00:11:36:16
Sree Kaluva
And we started right. It's software for small, small business cases that they would not have imagined. That can be done. And one of the project we have done early on is very simple. One small business with 20 employees, and they had all distribution that they do. The sampling, you know, in

00:11:36:20 - 00:11:39:20
Sree Kaluva
grocery stores, they do the sampling right.

00:11:40:01 - 00:11:54:09
Sree Kaluva
And those sampling people, they don't have a computer in their hand. But if somebody comes in, hey, do you have an approval for doing the sampling? They don't. They have to have. So this company 2020 people company, they take the orders from Kellogg's or

00:11:54:09 - 00:11:59:20
Sree Kaluva
post or any other people. They have to fax those orders to all these people.

00:11:59:22 - 00:12:21:15
Sree Kaluva
And the people who are sampling are not like young people. They are probably in 50s, 60s. They were sampling. They have to have a fax machine, and they have a dedicated person and dedicated fax machine faxing these orders to all their sampling people every single minute of the day. The person job eight hour day is to simply fax.

00:12:21:17 - 00:12:29:17
Sree Kaluva
Wow. Now guess what the problem is? If somebody want to fax them, the fax machine is blocked. Nobody could fax them.

00:12:29:19 - 00:12:31:21
Craig Andrews
Wow.

00:12:31:23 - 00:12:37:21
Sree Kaluva
So we end up writing a software that uses the computer. All you need to do is plug in the,

00:12:37:21 - 00:12:38:11
Sree Kaluva
plug in the,

00:12:38:11 - 00:13:00:09
Sree Kaluva
phone line into the computer. Now, computer is dialing the fax numbers, and it is sending the faxes through the computer after 5:00 and everybody is done. Now split up, and one person no longer need to be just faxing that person either can be the that position can be eliminated and can be used for a better productive purpose.

00:13:00:11 - 00:13:06:11
Sree Kaluva
For a small business 20 people. If you relieve one person from being,

00:13:06:11 - 00:13:10:14
Sree Kaluva
blocked in the family, it's a huge difference for them, isn't it?

00:13:10:16 - 00:13:30:11
Craig Andrews
It is. Well, in something you said a couple minutes ago about how you, you know, you created the software that would allow reporting across all these different industries and your points, right, that, you know, ten, 20, 15, 20 years ago,

00:13:30:11 - 00:13:35:02
Craig Andrews
that was something that large companies could afford to bring somebody in to do.

00:13:35:11 - 00:14:00:00
Craig Andrews
And the reality is there's so much reporting software out there that's been created and has interfaces with people's applications. So one of my firm beliefs is if you're asking somebody to prepare a report, if you're asking them prepare a particular report more than once you've failed.

00:14:00:02 - 00:14:00:12
Sree Kaluva
That's correct.

00:14:00:13 - 00:14:06:15
Craig Andrews
And any report that has to be prepared, you know, you have people like, well, I have to do the monthly report.

00:14:06:17 - 00:14:09:12
Sree Kaluva
Why that's not good.

00:14:09:14 - 00:14:14:11
Craig Andrews
Yeah. All right. Take it away. Is that not good?

00:14:14:13 - 00:14:19:22
Sree Kaluva
Well, and see, the businesses, one of the more,

00:14:19:22 - 00:14:43:03
Sree Kaluva
critical elements for any business. You are a business owner. I'm a business owner. We both know, but small businesses have a challenge to comprehend. The part that automation. Applying automation on a business is a critical element, that it gives you a cutting edge over your competitors. For example, sending invoices.

00:14:43:05 - 00:15:11:03
Sree Kaluva
You should not be manually sending invoices these days. If you are sending invoices manually, you are not using technology and you're not optimizing your business, meaning you are. Your money is gushing out of the window. Right? And take another example. Quotations. You will see so many small businesses. They come with the trifle. Try try car and the thing what you tell them.

00:15:11:03 - 00:15:50:21
Sree Kaluva
And they put the number and you one copy. They keep it. It is still a practice in but should not be the case, because now you and you're overcoming or decrease what is now your competition between. The customer agreed to get this, but you are not delivering this. Oh I, I I'm sure it's a nonce. You can simply have all this automated able to run very smoothly and be just business.

00:15:50:23 - 00:15:55:22
Sree Kaluva
You will be perfectly organized.

00:15:56:00 - 00:15:58:22
Craig Andrews
Yeah. You know, I used to,

00:15:58:22 - 00:16:22:16
Craig Andrews
a one that many years ago, I would prepare quarterly reports for my clients and it would take me, you know, for 4 or 5 hours to make the quarterly reports. At one point, I just put a stake in the ground. I said, I'm going to make sure that whatever we're reporting, we can report it real time.

00:16:22:18 - 00:16:35:22
Craig Andrews
And I'm not going to basically start with the assumption I'm not going to make another manual report unless I can prove to myself there's no other way.

00:16:36:00 - 00:16:37:09
Sree Kaluva
That's correct.

00:16:37:11 - 00:16:44:08
Craig Andrews
And the and there was one report that we did that was really hard, but,

00:16:44:08 - 00:17:00:12
Craig Andrews
we use a reporting tool called Data Box. And we eventually found a way to do that in data box. But we were not only able to do it in data box, but we were able to take it a step further that, you know, this particular client had a long sales cycle.

00:17:00:12 - 00:17:04:02
Craig Andrews
Their typical sales cycle was like 60 to 90 days.

00:17:04:02 - 00:17:19:10
Craig Andrews
But it was there was a distribution. It wasn't like somebody would come in and then 60 or 90 days later they were a customer. Some people would convert into customers right away. Some would convert, you know, in the first ten days, some would convert, you know,

00:17:19:10 - 00:17:20:17
Craig Andrews
you know, in the first 20 days.

00:17:20:17 - 00:17:29:07
Craig Andrews
And it was a distribution. And so we were able to make a report. So you had to go if we made a change in marketing,

00:17:29:07 - 00:17:34:18
Craig Andrews
it would be three months before we knew if that change was good or bad.

00:17:34:18 - 00:17:40:20
Craig Andrews
If they made a change on their sales team, it would be three months before we knew if that change was good or bad.

00:17:40:21 - 00:17:46:11
Craig Andrews
And so we were able to make a dashboard for them that would give them,

00:17:46:11 - 00:17:57:19
Craig Andrews
within two weeks of a lead coming in first week, it was a little bit too noisy in terms of the things, but within two weeks you could start seeing trends.

00:17:57:19 - 00:18:04:07
Craig Andrews
Are we ahead of target or are we behind target? And and I didn't have to prepare that report.

00:18:04:08 - 00:18:10:10
Craig Andrews
It was a automatic dashboard that they could check on a daily basis.

00:18:10:12 - 00:18:32:02
Sree Kaluva
See, most importantly, the management team or ownership group have to have the mindset that they got to be a way to automate this task. Yeah. And if whoever the listeners, if they are business owners, I would highly encourage them to ask this question repeatedly, because you're not going to get an answer in the one time you ask this question.

00:18:32:02 - 00:18:45:15
Sree Kaluva
You're and and once you start getting the pattern of asking this question, you will find a way to do it. I will give you another simple challenge that many of,

00:18:45:15 - 00:18:57:22
Sree Kaluva
customers that I've interface that are small businesses. I've asked them, do you know the cost of product or service that you are delivering? Yeah, I'm not talking about sale price.

00:18:57:22 - 00:19:17:06
Sree Kaluva
I'm not talking about the price. You mean. But do you know how much exactly it is costing you to deliver it? If you are selling a service $100, you need to know whether it is costing you to deliver $50, $60, $80, $120. Isn't it? Yeah, yeah. And that is where,

00:19:17:06 - 00:19:26:17
Sree Kaluva
nine out of ten times I receive answers is very it is a very, very, very visible pattern, I don't know.

00:19:26:19 - 00:19:43:22
Sree Kaluva
Then I, I follow up question, I asked him, how do you know you were making money or not? Well, knock on wood, cross my finger and look at the bank's bank statement. At the end of the year there is money left in the bank. Yeah, I am celebrating. If there is no money, I. I'm telling you, Craig, it is laughable.

00:19:43:22 - 00:20:10:02
Sree Kaluva
But that is the scenario of small businesses. Even till today. And that is why we created this. My work belt and it tracks everything and we created budget versus actual report on every single project they can run at any given point of time, budget versus actual report. They know, okay, I sold this. I sold this service for a $10,000.

00:20:10:04 - 00:20:25:15
Sree Kaluva
I am halfway through. I run a budget versus actual report. Guess what? I know I've already spent $6,000, but I'm only half way through. I better do something in order to bring this project back into the rails. So I am not losing my shirt. Yeah.

00:20:25:17 - 00:20:42:03
Craig Andrews
So I looked over my work belt and I was stunned by the number of things, the number of tools that you have in there. And so just briefly, what what are the different tools that my work belt does for a small business owner.

00:20:42:05 - 00:21:10:02
Sree Kaluva
As have it's essentially my work belt is a business operating system, right. Think about business as it gears multiple gears. Right. You have a sales gear, you have an inventory is a gear. You have a front door. You have to have a purchasing as a gear. You have to have a invoicing and account receivable. So think about all these gears.

00:21:10:02 - 00:21:35:07
Sree Kaluva
But they all need to be synced in order for the business to move forward. If any one of these gear is broke, it's not going to be able to move forward. And not only that, the whole business is going to collapse. And the more well oiled gears they are, the smoother and further you're going with the same amount of energy that you feed into it, isn't it?

00:21:35:09 - 00:21:36:02
Craig Andrews
Yeah.

00:21:36:04 - 00:21:58:13
Sree Kaluva
So this has like you have a sales module where if you have a 1 or 2 or all salespeople, business owner can click a button, he knows the sales report and click a button. He knows what is the commission that he need to pay to that particular sales guy. Because now you're tracking all of it. Not only that, you now know what is your pipeline.

00:21:58:15 - 00:22:19:08
Sree Kaluva
You can plan accordingly right now. Once the sales is done, then you have an inventory management. You can monitor all your inventory and you know how much is and if you are wanting to, if somebody wanted to sell their business, just coming up with the number of the and the amount of value the inventory they have on the on their

00:22:19:08 - 00:22:21:16
Sree Kaluva
shelf, it's a monumental task.

00:22:21:22 - 00:22:46:20
Sree Kaluva
They can come up with the number in a click, and they have to take a month to go calculate everything and do an auditing and then come up with a number. Or they pick a number from the hat. That's not good, right? And most important, as I was talking before, you collect all your time cards that anybody is working on the projects, all they need to snap a button and it starts the timer and then click a button.

00:22:46:20 - 00:23:05:14
Sree Kaluva
It stops the timer. Now whether it is 2 hours or 4 hours, somebody work on that project for hours goes into the cost of the project. So the system will allow you to track every minute spend on a project, and it will give you the most accurate budget versus actuals report.

00:23:05:16 - 00:23:09:18
Craig Andrews
Yeah, yeah, that's so cool. And it's the,

00:23:09:18 - 00:23:28:00
Craig Andrews
You know, the thing that I like about this is. It's it's putting the tools in the hands of businesses that used to be only available to the big enterprises.

00:23:28:02 - 00:23:29:17
Sree Kaluva
Indeed. Indeed.

00:23:29:19 - 00:23:34:16
Craig Andrews
And, you know, as as you're talking about, one of the things I'm picturing is,

00:23:34:16 - 00:23:40:07
Craig Andrews
I could see employees, you know, as as somebody would be investigating this, I could see employees,

00:23:40:07 - 00:23:47:04
Craig Andrews
being afraid of. If I implement this, this is going to cost me my job. But I don't think that's the case.

00:23:47:05 - 00:24:22:17
Sree Kaluva
No, no, no, it cannot be. See, 99% of the human being are sincere and honest. Yeah. If you put them into a wrong place and if you create discomfort or if you put they know their surroundings, they're going to come up with an answer. Not necessarily they're being malicious intent because they don't know. Now here is many of the softwares that are given to the small businesses or failed because small business owners don't

00:24:22:17 - 00:24:34:05
Sree Kaluva
understand the employees feedback is not because they the actual feedback is bad software because they don't know how to use that software.

00:24:34:06 - 00:24:46:22
Sree Kaluva
You know, now, as a human being, tell me, create if somebody don't know how to use it. And if you ask them, what do you think of this? What do they say? Will they say, I don't know what it is? How many people will say.

00:24:47:00 - 00:24:49:22
Craig Andrews
Nah, they'll say the software didn't work or something like that.

00:24:49:22 - 00:25:17:07
Sree Kaluva
It exactly. Software didn't work. Let's just easy soft target. That is because the software that doesn't back. So business management team are ownership what they think oh I trust Millie. And she said software doesn't work I don't want to use that software. But does owner have a critical question. Did I give enough training for Millie to understand the influence of any software?

00:25:17:09 - 00:25:47:16
Sree Kaluva
How confident this Millie? No. Every nook and corner of this software. Yeah. Very rarely ever anybody ask so why? Because all the software's in the market. They charge for the training and business owners is. Oh, no, I'm not paying for the training. I'm paying enough for the license already. Right? Hence is the reason why accommodated unlimited training part of the software.

00:25:47:17 - 00:25:51:22
Sree Kaluva
Yeah. So they don't have to have a fine print.

00:25:51:22 - 00:26:13:10
Sree Kaluva
So once they once the employees get trained on how to use the software once got a command on using that software, they will naturally comfortable to work with. And they're going to give more ideas to the business owners. Hey, guess what? This project, these kind of projects are not making money for us.

00:26:13:10 - 00:26:24:05
Sree Kaluva
We need to either increase the price on these kind of projects, or we need to get rid of them altogether. Yeah. Now how powerful is that for a business owner?

00:26:24:07 - 00:26:48:16
Craig Andrews
That's that's. Yeah. I mean, that's amazingly powerful. You know, as, as we as we wrap up the I think one thing I just want to stress is when I looked at the my work, I was shocked by the number of things that does. And, you know, as a marketer, I study human behavior and people are afraid of their their jobs going away.

00:26:48:18 - 00:26:59:03
Craig Andrews
I believe. That every business owner, if they could have another employee for no incremental cost or

00:26:59:03 - 00:27:13:16
Craig Andrews
very fractional incremental cost, they'd say, yeah, I have these all these other things that I need to do. And so if they look at bringing on a platform like my work belt, I think one of the important things is to communicate to the team, hey, this isn't going to take away your job.

00:27:13:16 - 00:27:37:10
Craig Andrews
This is, you know, we still need humans. Humans need to look at data because sometimes machines give us data that don't make sense. That's where the humans step in. And you know, but this is going to let us grow. This is, you know, not only is your job secure, but it's going to help us make your job more secure and let you work on more things where you're uniquely capable.

00:27:37:10 - 00:27:44:14
Craig Andrews
And I think it's I think it's important for businesses to communicate that clearly to their employees when they bring on these tools.

00:27:44:16 - 00:28:09:04
Sree Kaluva
When they communicate it words doesn't mean nothing. The action makes a difference when they communicate, hey, this is not going to take out your job. This is going to help us to grow what the way they can communicate is through the action. I am helping you to get trained on this so you can be comfortable on this now.

00:28:09:06 - 00:28:20:15
Sree Kaluva
People will. People will leave their job very, very commonly. Everybody answer this question. Why would people leave the job?

00:28:22:04 - 00:28:26:08
Craig Andrews
Well, I, I think there's a variety of reasons. Which one are you thinking.

00:28:26:10 - 00:28:27:12
Sree Kaluva
There, manager.

00:28:27:14 - 00:28:28:06
Craig Andrews
Yeah.

00:28:28:08 - 00:28:57:05
Sree Kaluva
Yeah, that's a very common response. Right. But guess what? Not just a manager. People leave the job for bad managers, which is by far the highest, but they leave job for lack of tools and that lack of tools will frustrate them. And when it adds the frustration from already frustrations that they are going through in their houses, in their personal life will bring it to a last a straw break the Camelbak.

00:28:57:07 - 00:29:08:10
Craig Andrews
Oh, you know, that's that's such that is a that's such a powerful point. I think it'd be hard for us to end on a stronger point than that is,

00:29:08:10 - 00:29:12:08
Craig Andrews
people leave because they haven't been given the right tools.

00:29:12:10 - 00:29:12:12
Sree Kaluva
Yeah.

00:29:12:14 - 00:29:14:04
Craig Andrews
And so,

00:29:14:04 - 00:29:19:12
Craig Andrews
for people looking for the right tools, how do they find you? How did they find my work belt?

00:29:19:14 - 00:29:44:10
Sree Kaluva
Well, simply go to the my work belt.com. My work belt.com. And there is phone numbers. Oh, it is out of the park. If you like. If you look at any software tools in the market, they don't give you a phone number to reach. We are proudly presenting our phone number on site, so we want to the people hold their hand, make sure they are successful.

00:29:44:12 - 00:29:53:17
Craig Andrews
Well that's excellent. Well Sheree, thanks for coming on leaders in leg season. Sure. And that and I do hope people reach out because I think you've put together an amazing toolkit for people.

00:29:53:19 - 00:29:54:23
Sree Kaluva
Thank you very much, Craig,

00:29:54:23 - 00:29:56:22
Sree Kaluva
for having me on the show. I hope I am,

00:29:56:22 - 00:29:58:15
Sree Kaluva
contributing to your listeners,

00:29:58:15 - 00:30:07:14
Sree Kaluva
to improve their business and be profitable and gain some peaceful time back into their pockets.

00:30:07:14 - 00:30:34:09
Craig Andrews
This is Craig Andrews. I want to thank you for listening to the Leaders and Legacies podcast. We're looking for leaders to share how they're making the impact beyond themselves. If that's you, please go to Alize for me.com/guest and sign up there. If you got something out of this interview, we would love you to share this

00:30:34:09 - 00:30:36:04
Craig Andrews
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00:30:36:06 - 00:30:59:14
Craig Andrews
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00:30:59:16 - 00:31:07:20
Craig Andrews
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00:31:07:20 - 00:33:09:21
Craig Andrews
It means a lot to my team. If you want to know more, please go to Alize for me.com. or follow me on LinkedIn. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time.