Latest / Big Talk About Small Business / Ep. 115 - Solo Versus Scale: The Realities Of One-Person Companies

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Ep. 115 - Solo Versus Scale: The Realities Of One-Person Companies · Big Talk About Small Business

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_02: Like you're talking about some insane amount of like true dedication, intelligence, you know, luck in the niche, luck in marketing.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, there's a lot of stars that have to align to have a million-dollar business.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_03: No, I was just gonna say that we better get into our intro here.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_03: It's another episode of that.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_03: Big talk about small business.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, it is.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_03: And one of the unfortunate facts alike with small business is people leave.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_03: People leave.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_03: And sometimes they want to do their own thing and they want to be a one-person company.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_03: I didn't call them solopreneurs, though.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_03: No, you didn't.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_03: Didn't, but that's what they are.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_03: If they create something they can sell and make a boatload of money on when they exit, I'll call them a solopreneur.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_03: So Samantha is wanting to go and be a solopreneur, Marcus.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_03: Well, does she really want to be a solopreneur or does she just want to make money from doing her thing?
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_03: I really don't know.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_03: It asked me questions.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_03: I was so incredibly disappointed in her.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_03: I know.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_03: I can't blame you.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_03: She's the one that does these fantastic notes.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_03: If you didn't know, she guides us.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_03: I was just thinking today how great it is, you know.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_03: We get up in the morning, we do whatever we do, I had a nice breakfast in downtown Rogers.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_03: Come over here to the studio.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_03: Life's easy.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_03: It's all laid out for us.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_03: It's great.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_03: It's great.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_03: The mics are in the right position.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_03: The hat, the hat's out, the questions, which we don't really use.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_03: I'm not sure.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_03: No, we don't.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_03: No.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_03: But still, it's there.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_03: It's the topic is set.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_03: There's like research tidbits.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_02: And what's the topic today?
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_02: Which is, I feel, is a little self-serving here, Samantha.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_03: It was.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, you saw right through that.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_03: I I I'm a little slower on the uptake.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I mean, you are almost 80.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, come on, dude.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_02: I thought you said the last episode.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_02: You're about to be 80, you wouldn't.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_02: No, no, I didn't say that.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_02: How old are you?
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_02: I'm sorry.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_02: Should we not talk about that on the show?
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_02: 67.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, okay.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_02: Just freaking older than it's hard to believe.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_02: I think, I think in the last last episode you were talking about 13 years from now, you'll be 80.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's right.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_02: I'm just for in my brain, I thought you were almost 80 already.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_02: I'm sure you did.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_02: Sometimes I feel like that.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_02: And sometimes you don't.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_02: And sometimes I don't.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_02: That's right.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_02: That's right.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_02: So Samantha picked this topic, what we're talking about today, which is what?
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_02: Marcus?
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_03: The rise of the one person company.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_03: Uh solo founders are increasingly common.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_03: The share of companies founded by solo entrepreneurs, I'll still question that term, has more than doubled over the past decade, reaching 35% of new U.S.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_03: startups in 2024, according to Wall Street Journal.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_02: You know, first of all, I want to like really bring the hype and excitement of that way down because we act like this is some new cool thing.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_02: If you rewind 100 years ago, you know, back to the 1920s and before.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_02: Especially in the 1800s, and every time everything before then, I mean, it was always you were always a small business owner.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_03: That's just what you did.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_03: You had to eat, so you had something that somebody pay you for, right?
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_03: And so this isn't really a big it really isn't a new phenomenon.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_02: But then there were some folks that had the epiphany wait a minute, if I find a way to scale what I'm doing, or I charge a certain amount and I pay somebody else to do it, you know, I build a process behind it.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_02: I can grow this.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_02: And then it becomes a bigger business.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_02: Which then turn into the corporations that then sort of employ people by the thousands.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_02: That's right.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_02: So this isn't like some new phenomenon.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_03: Everything starts as a one-person company.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_03: That's how I always say.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_03: I love it when people come up with these like um proclamations that there won't be any mid-sized company.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_03: There'll be mega companies and there'll be small one-person comp.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_03: There won't be any mid.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_03: It's like, wait a minute, to go from small to large, somewhere you're going to be mid-sized in the middle, right?
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_03: There will always be companies in the middle.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_03: I don't accept that piece.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_03: I don't either.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_03: That's dumb.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_03: But anyway, um, yeah.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_03: It's, you know, I think if anything, though, today it's easier than ever.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's yeah.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's honestly, it's kind of always been easy.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, let's be honest.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_02: Like it just became not a social norm.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_02: You know, because people then started transitioning.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, you go work for a company, you get retirement, you get pensions, all these other types of benefits.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_02: And so that's what you should do, son, daughter.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_02: Instead of going out and trying to be a solo entrepreneur, yeah, you know, or a business owner.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_02: Go work for a corporation, they'll take care of you.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_02: You work for them for 50 years, you have great retirement, everything's great.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I mean, that's that's the way you should go.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_02: So society started doing that.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's right.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_03: You know, I know it's frowned upon.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_03: I always ask my students about that.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_03: What's that?
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_03: That, like, what would your parents think if you got went through this four-year degree here and then you decided you're gonna start a company that does trash collection or whatever.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_03: A lot of them don't think their parents would be happy with them.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_03: That that's somehow is like a failure.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_03: You know, that really what they should do is get a better job than the parents had.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_03: That's the whole point of the education.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_03: But it's not.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_03: But it's really not.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_03: No, not even close.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_03: That's not the whole point of the education.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_03: The point of the education is the education.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_02: There you go.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_02: And you no one can ever take that away from you.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_02: It's like one of the most precious things you could ever do.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, if my kids are doing their own thing and successful with it, that to me is a that's a tremendous accomplishment.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_03: That they're not dependent on the system.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_03: You know?
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_03: I'm thrilled with that.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I am too.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_02: I actually had my um my oldest girl, who she's uh she's at the University of Kentucky now, it's starting her sophomore year.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_02: Went down and visited her for parents or family weekend, which was awesome.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_02: It's in uh in Lexington.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, Lexington's a nice town.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_02: All the horse breedy.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, I know.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's just gorgeous.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_02: You know, did you know why they're the horse breeding is such a big deal there?
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_02: Because the limestone gives nutrients to the bluegrass, and the horses eat that and it strengthens their bones and their muscles.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_02: Did not know that.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_02: It's like some sort of natural phenomenon that happens there.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_02: But anyway, she was talking to me because she's been kind of going back and forth on what she wants to do.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_02: And she, you know, and I was asking her what she wanted to make her in school.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_02: So I think I'm gonna go back to marketing.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_02: She goes, because I really just want to own my own business.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_02: And she goes, but I don't think she said to me, she's like, I don't think though what I need to do is I need to graduate, go work somewhere, then start my own business, probably in like my 30s or something.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, why would you wait?
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_02: Like, what's the well what's the qualification to wait?
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_02: Like you don't have to wait to start your own business.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_03: You don't have to, but I mean I don't think it's necessarily a bad idea.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_03: No, I don't either.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_03: Because it's part of your education.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_03: I mean No, no, no, for sure.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, but I agree.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_03: You don't have to at all.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_03: But to think there's not an like you should not start it, you know, unless you shouldn't think that way.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_03: No, I agree.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_03: I I mean I think you you can go either way.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_03: You gotta know yourself.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you do.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_02: You know, you gotta know your risk tolerance.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_02: And I mean, you know, she's one of these people, though, that's like so um so mature for her age, and uh, and she gets stuff done.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_02: She's very meticulous, you know, she doesn't like hanging out and all that kind of stuff.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_02: She just has a passion, she doesn't.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_02: But I think she could be potentially successful because she's a self-starter.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's it.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_02: She's extremely disciplined, like you tough talked about.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, no, no, no doubt about it.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, that's great.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I'm sure you'd be proud of her if she did do her own thing, right?
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, no, no, for sure.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_02: No, no, on the opposite side, Samantha.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_02: I don't think she's gonna make it.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_02: I don't think she's gonna do well.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_02: I think she needs to stay here and keep working in the bus.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_02: You're so terrible.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_02: I was I'm kidding, everyone.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_02: Samantha, if you're listening, I'm kidding.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_02: He he doesn't really think that.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_02: I'm just trying to bring you down so you stay with us.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_03: No, I I I think the problem, though, uh for a lot of people is um they don't realize that how easy it really is.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_03: To get started.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_03: To get started.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_03: And then the other thing back on what you were talking about with your daughter, like she wants to wait till she's in her 30s or whatever.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_03: The only problem with that is you will you be better prepared mentally, knowledge-wise?
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_03: You will also have a lot more obligations, probably by then.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_03: That makes it a lot harder than starting when you have nothing.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_03: Agreed.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_03: Nothing to lose, nothing, you know, no overhead.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_02: And I'd say there's another key component.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_02: The older you get, the less energy you really have.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, it's true.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_02: You know, the mental energy, physical energy.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_02: Most dude, most people.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_02: When I was, I mean, I started my business.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_02: I think you did too.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_02: Like I was 22 years old.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_02: Like I don't even remember sleeping in my entire 20s.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_02: Like I was just always on.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I could sleep for three hours and wake up and crank it.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_02: I just remember hanging out behind my computer, then I'd be at events, and I'd be like selling ads, and then I'd go to the printer, you know, go fly down in Dallas and do some print checks, and then fly back.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's nuts.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_03: I remember getting my MBA at 22, and I was working about 50 hours a week and getting my MBA simultaneously.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_03: No problem.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_03: No problem.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_03: Eating ramen, man.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, like, and your diet's terrible.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_02: You're not exercising.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_02: Banquet TV dinners, yeah.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_02: Broke, dusting eyes.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_03: But and still having a good time.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_03: But you know, I mean, yeah, you it's true that you do have more energy when you're younger, but I, you know, I still feel like I got pretty much energy.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_03: At least I can direct it more effectively.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_03: That's fair.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_03: But they but the lack of overhead and family commitments, I think, is a great point of, you know, why starting early is easier, right?
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_02: I agree.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_02: I also think that there's something to be said about the salesmanship in a way.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_02: Like it's an interesting thing.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_02: I remember whenever I was early in my 20s, I was always a little pissed off because I felt like that the people that had like the ad money or whatever I was trying to sell weren't really taking me seriously because I was so young.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_02: You know?
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_02: But looking back, there were a lot of people, probably about the same amount, if not more, that were that were paying for ads or supporting me because I was young.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_02: You know, they wanted to, they they're like, this dude, you know.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_03: He's young.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_03: What's up him up?
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's good.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_02: I remember I remember like selling, like, for example, High Roll or Cyclery in my Get Out magazine.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_02: Uh-huh.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, that guy Chris, like, he was a super cool dude, but he I remember him just looking, he's like, he's like, man, we don't advertise.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_02: You know, and I this is like my third time I've been in there, like asking for them to advertise.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_01: It's such a little bit like it's the it was.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, look at the magazine.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_02: This is like all your same audience right here, you know, selling.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_02: He's like, yeah.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_02: Third time he's like, man, he goes, Um, we really don't advertise, and I don't think we're gonna get anything out of this, but I'm gonna give but I'm gonna help you out.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_02: It was like$300 for the issue or something, and then he put an ad in.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_02: But it was a big deal to me.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_02: It's very encouraging, you know.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, they just took an interest in you, they just want to help you out.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_03: That's true.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_03: I never thought about that.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_03: But you can get away with that when you're younger.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_03: You know, now nobody wants to help me.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_03: No, no, just to help me out.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_03: No, they no, they think you have everything and that you you should be giving them stuff.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_03: That's the way it is.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_03: It isn't.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_03: It's like whenever we have anybody coming over to work on our house, if it's a new subcontractor or something, I tell my wife, like, put the cars in the garage and shut the door.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, seriously, they're gonna think, you know, they'll look, they'll look at our cars and go, we're gonna charge new people twice.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_03: I'm I'm absolutely convinced they do that.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, yeah, yeah.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_03: I am convinced.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_03: If you live in a nice neighborhood, it's like a tax on that.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_03: It's like, oh yeah, that's the 30% tax or the 50% tax.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_03: It's like, dudes, we know I it was really interesting.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_03: I just had, well, I I'm not gonna get into it, but let's just say I had some bids on something by three different providers, and two of them were outrageous, and one of them was like literally 40% the price of the other ones.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_03: And I know the quality of the 40%er, it's not less than the others.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_03: It was just you got taxed.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_03: I got taxed.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_03: Somebody saw your cars.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_03: It's like shut the door, quick.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_02: So it this also says many small businesses in the U.S.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_02: are effectively one-person operations, around 82% of the small businesses.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, they are.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I believe that.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_02: And 82% have businesses or of small businesses that have no additional employees beyond the owner.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I think that makes sense.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, you everybody starts out like that, or not everybody, but most.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_02: You know, one big piece of advice I give to people, like when they're starting their business, I'm like, everything's great.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_02: If you can avoid hiring employees for as long as possible, it's one of the smartest moves you can make as a small business starting out business owner.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_02: And and why I say that is because it instantly adds an extreme amount of complexity to your business.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, it does.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_02: And overhead.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_02: And overhead.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_02: And responsibility.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_02: Big time.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_02: The second that you bring somebody on full time.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_02: And there is a breaking point, right?
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I mean, you should try that to you should try to do it all yourself as much as you can.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_02: I agree.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_02: And if again, you learn a lot from that, if nothing else, right?
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, then you know every nook and crane of your business.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_02: And especially if we're like you were talking about, if you're young, you can do a lot by yourself.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_02: You know, you can do about 90% of everything.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, there's so many great tools today.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_02: You can automate stuff, get some at a gym.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_02: AI, there's so many things.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_02: Agents working for you.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_02: You know, yeah.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_02: But the second, but then there's going to be a point where you have to kind of hire somebody full-time, it makes sense.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_02: But the second that you start going across that that yield, you've you've turned into a different animal.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, you have.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and the big thing is is is the taxes and the and the you know the all the payroll stuff.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_03: Well, that I always advise people farm that out.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, never deal with that.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_03: For sure.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_03: You're an outside payroll provider.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_02: There's no question.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_02: And you need to know the number one role is that from that point forward, it is no longer your check that's coming first.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_02: It's gonna be the employees.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_03: Now, that is the truth.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_02: And to that, like you, like you just you've got a responsibility for them.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_02: If anybody takes a hit, it's you.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_02: That's right.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_02: Because you what would happen if you don't pay your payroll?
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_02: They they're gone.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_02: Dude, they're gone.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_02: The government's coming after you.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I mean, it's nasty.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it is.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_02: It's about as nasty.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_02: Now it's not as nasty as sales tax.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_02: Have you ever messed with like the sales tax?
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_03: No, but I've seen doors like barricade.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, yeah, I messed.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_03: I know what sales tax is on online sales, so you got to file the monthly report.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, if you if you miss by like a day, do they?
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, they're the most relentless organization in the state that I've known of.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_03: Well, you've collected the money.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_03: You owe it to them.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you do, right?
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_03: If you didn't collect it, you wouldn't owe them a dime, but you've collected it.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_02: You owe.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_02: That's right.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's right.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_02: And they're they want the reports.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, everything's got to be top-notch because they will they'll kick it down.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_02: You don't mess with the taxing authorities, baby.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_02: No, you don't.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, that's one of the rules of life, man.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you got to pay your taxes, right?
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, the sales tax is a pain, and a lot of people don't understand it, especially when you start going to multi-state operations.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, yeah.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, every state's got its own rules, and there are service providers that help you with that.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_02: Software solutions.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_02: I think that when you're starting up your business, like those are the things to think about because you can work through companies, you know, like you know, a Shopify or Walmart merch, you know, marketplace that where they have all that stuff kind of taken care of for you.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_02: You're just selling through that part of it.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_02: You know?
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, Shopify figures out what the tax needs to be, but you still have to file the return.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's it can be true.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_02: So, yeah.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_02: eBay kind of has it figured out too, don't they?
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, you you just get eBay takes a cut, which is inclusive of what I know.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think so.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_03: I haven't sold it on eBay in a long time.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's been a while for me too.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_03: Facebook Marketplace, though, I love it.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_03: Do you?
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_03: Oh my god.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_03: I sold my motorhome on there.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_03: How long did that take?
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_03: Not very long.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_03: I had a tremendous amount of interest in it.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_03: Really?
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_03: Because it's unusual.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_03: It's the shortest diesel pusher ever made.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_03: How about how long?
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_03: 30 feet.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_03: Really?
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_03: But it's a class A diesel pusher.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_03: I might have known that.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_03: Really?
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_03: I might have purchased it.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I sold it to people.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_03: They're very happy with it.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_03: They just picked it up yesterday.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_03: Dude, why don't you tell me things like that?
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_03: I didn't know you had an interest in one of those.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_03: So think of me first before you sell anything else that you have.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_03: That thing was in really nice shape.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_03: But anyway, Facebook Oh, I know you would have taken care of it.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_03: I I did.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_03: Facebook Marketplace is amazing.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_03: You can put almost anything on there and it sells.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_03: And people.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, speaking of one-person businesses, I had a student.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_03: He was in here before.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_03: He came in and interviewed with Ray.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_03: Jacob.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_03: Jacob Ray.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_03: He started out, you know, buying and selling video games online, but then he did a couch business.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_03: When he was in college, he said there's some word you can put in Facebook marketplace, like curbside pickup or something.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_03: And that's where people put stuff they don't want.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_03: And he goes, I get couches.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_03: Clean them up and sell them.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_03: He said one month he made like five grand on couches.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_03: They got free.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_03: He get them, pick them up, clean them up, sell them, and deliver them to somebody else.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_03: That's great, man.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_03: So it's just another one-person business out there, of which there are so many, and it's so easy today.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_02: It is.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_02: It is.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_02: You can do more, you know, with as one person than you ever could before.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_03: And you could ex you can reach out to different geographies that's right that would be harder in the past.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, your your scalability's big, your ge geographical reach is big.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_03: And and your I think the other thing that's really great about today versus the past, maybe if you go back 20 or 30 years ago, is just how easy it is to be a specialist today in something because you can get discovered through the internet.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_03: Whereas if you wanted to specialize in something that's pretty narrow and has a small market in the past, it's extremely difficult to get the word out.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's crowded, it's noisy.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, there's a and there's a million providers.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_03: You can't, and there's not enough market for you locally to survive.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_03: So you tend to the tendency, I think, was to not be a specialist in whatever it is.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_02: There is now you can do it.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_02: You know, this next bullet point, the uh million dollar and beyond one person model.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_02: One person businesses are increasingly hitting significant revenue thresholds.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_02: The one person million dollar business is no longer theoretical.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_03: No, it's not.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, it's true.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_03: Again, I'll use Jacob Ray as an example with his buying and selling.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, he's doing unbelievably well.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_03: He'll probably hit a million this year.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_03: You think he will?
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_03: Total in gross revenue.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_02: And his his income is is you know a million plus.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_02: So because Sam rolled These things down for us to talk about.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_02: Like I'm sure she's going to listen because she might be wanting to be a one million.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_02: Well, she better be thinking about what the heck she's going to do, though, that makes that kind of exactly.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, Sam.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_02: But I mean, I think that part of this is I mean, I've been been hearing about one billion dollar, you know, one person things.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_02: And I think, you know, that's within the AI industry and program programmers and things of that nature.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_02: But it well, there's one thing about this that bothers me.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_02: Because our human nature wants to take the path of Lisa Rizzus, get as much as we can without minimal amount of work.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_02: Like you're talking about some insane amount of like true dedication, intelligence, you know, luck in the niche, luck in marketing.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, there's a lot of stars that have to align.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_02: To have a million-dollar business.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_02: And and and you just mentioned it before.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_02: Is are they when they're saying million-dollar, we count in gross sales?
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_02: Because you can have a million-dollar business and still lose half a million.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah, you can.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_02: Got one.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_03: So I can tell you all about it.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_03: Just multiply all that by three or fourfold.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_03: But these reporters are going how much, you know, how much you bring your home.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_03: Like there's a lot of people.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_03: No, no, that's true.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_03: But there are some great small businesses out there.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_03: Like I heard of a guy who did it all with um or with uh I was it oric vacuum parts?
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_03: Um, that's all he did is he buys up all the orc vacuums he can get, disassembles them, and sells the parts on eBay.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_03: I love that.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, and makes a fortune doing that.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_03: That's awesome.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, what it is.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_03: It supposedly he's doing over a million bucks.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_03: Another one I another business that um I saw that was a tremendous business.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know if I mentioned this on here or not before, but we were redoing our first house in Fayetteville 21 years ago, and it had six bathrooms in it.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_03: And they were my um then wife, they were all marble bathrooms, okay?
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_03: Every one of them.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_03: And the one in our master bath, though, had this mosaic marble.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_03: 312 pieces in a 12 by 12 tile.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, she found that she wouldn't, okay.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_03: Well, this tile cost 34, 33, 34 a square foot in our local tile store to get.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_03: That's a lot of money.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_03: Now, in all fairness, we only needed like 200 square feet of it.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_03: So it wasn't like gonna break the budget, but nevertheless, okay, it's a lot of money.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm like, I don't want to spend that.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_03: So I got the name off the back of the tile.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_03: I get online, I Google it, and I find out I can buy this stuff for seven dollars a square foot.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_03: So I get on, I I I see it online, I I call the number and the guy answers.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_03: He goes, Oh yeah, he goes, I'll send you a sample.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_03: I said, I want to make sure it's the same thing.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_03: He FedExes me a sample.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_03: It is exactly the same.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_03: Is it it is?
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_03: I order it from him.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_03: I pay seven dollars a square foot.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_03: I think we paid like eleven or twelve dollars a foot for shipping.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's expensive.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, but I'll go back to the to the first one.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_03: Not only was I paying$33 or$34, I had to pay shipping there, and then I'd have to send two guys over with trucks to pick this stuff up because it's so heavy.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_03: That it you can't even carry it all.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_03: So anyway, and that's time, right?
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_03: So the other place, so I ended up buying it from them.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_03: I pay the seven plus eleven or twelve, it comes out like 19 bucks a foot versus the 33 plus sales tax plus shipping plus my guys.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_03: And seven days later, it arrives via FedEx directly on my doorstep.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_03: Fantastic.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_03: So anyway, I called the guy after I got this and everything, and I said, Well, I hear about your business.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_03: How did you, you know, tell me about it?
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_03: He goes, Oh, right now, I'm sitting here, I'm on the Santa Monica up here.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_03: This is where my office is.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_03: I'm looking out at the ocean.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_03: He goes, I just work by myself.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_03: I said, How did you uh set this up?
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_03: He goes, Well, I used to work for a company that called on these companies in China.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_03: And he goes, I just made a deal with him.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_03: Like, if I want to buy your products myself and have you ship it direct to the customer, what will you charge me for the products?
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_03: And and I got a deal with them.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_03: He goes, So all I do is I put that stuff online.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_03: People like you buy it.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_03: I get your money 100%.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_03: I contact them, I pay them what they need, they ship it over.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_03: He goes, it's brokering.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_03: It's just brokering.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_03: Because it just allows me to do exactly what I want, work when I want.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_03: And sit here and look at the ocean from my office on, you know, Santa Monica.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_03: No, it's great.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, that's a great business.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_03: So there's a lot of these kind of brokerage type things that seem like they're pretty unlimited.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_03: No, they are for sure.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_03: You know, as to what you could do if you're if you're good.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_02: No, I agree.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_02: I agree.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_02: I do think though, I want to kind of go back to my statement though.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I mean, because it is exciting.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_02: But I mean, in all honesty, like if I if my business is shut down or whatever, or I've failed and everything falls.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I don't, I've always had a confidence that there's some way to make money.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you don't.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I just don't see myself being able to go work for somebody.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_02: You know, unless, you know, like I don't either when you think about what you're thinking.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_02: Great CEO is to call me and say, hey, I want you to be my I want you to come work for me.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I'll pay you X millions a year with these stock options.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_02: And I need you, but I need you, I need you for your renegadeness.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_02: Then I'd be there.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_02: I'd show up for that.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_02: But if it's a job where you get paid and they take out all those taxes.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_02: No, I can't, I can't see myself doing it.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_02: So, but I mean, but I do have a realistic perspective because my perspective would be yes, if I fell on my face and I had to do my own thing by myself and start from ground zero with nothing.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_02: You know, um, I can make it.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_02: But I have a very realistic understanding of how hard that would be.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_02: Like in the amount of work and labor that I'd have to put into it.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_02: And the fact that like I don't have any shiny idea that I'm gonna be making a million-dollar business by myself.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_02: You see what I'm saying?
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like people in today's culture.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's gonna be a lot of work because that you're saying it's not glorious.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_02: It's not, dude.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_02: And like that's the reality.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_02: That's I'm gonna go talk tomorrow in Jonesboro, right?
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_02: Better go talk to Sam about this.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_02: She's gonna listen to the podcast, but it'll be after it'll come out after she's gone.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_02: It's not gonna be fun, Sam.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_02: You're not gonna make any money.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_02: But I'm talking, I'm talking tomorrow about entrepreneurship for Arkansas State University in Jonesboro on a rail or something.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_02: That's nice.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_02: Did you get who got you sucked into that?
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_02: Uh Bolling.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_02: Uh and and so, but man, the things it kind of comes back to the same thing to me.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_02: Like, this shit is not glam glamorous.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_02: You just willing to do the work.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_02: You do anything.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_02: Like I would do anything for for you know revenue.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_02: Like, but that's my mentality.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_02: Like the same way.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_02: I don't have, I don't have, like, I don't have this attitude.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not arrogant.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_02: I'm very service-minded.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_02: Like, yes, and I'm very value-minded too.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_02: And so, like, if I was like, Mark, pay me a thousand for to do this, but in my brain, I'm going, I will never let this dude down.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_02: I am going to die before he has to come back and say, you know what, what I paid you for wasn't worth it.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_02: And if I if if I screw up, I'm going to do it four times over for you and without asking for money, because I want to prove to you that I will never, ever let you down.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_03: Right?
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, just think about all the businesses that if they functioned like that, that you would be doing business with.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, all the service providers.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_03: That's what I mean.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_03: We have so many service providers.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_03: It blows my back.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_03: If you stay at my house for the day and you watch the number of people who come and go, whether it's the guy who maintains your hot tub, it's the guy, it's the guy who cuts your grass.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_03: We have a woman who works for us who just does whatever we want her to do.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_03: She cleans off the roof, the gutter, she washes the RVs, she's cleaning out the garage, whatever we need.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_03: You got house cleaners, you got painters, we got guys working on our floors, we got guys working on uh putting ceilings in, uh-huh.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_03: And we got tree cutters.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, we all have these different providers, window washers, okay.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_03: You start thinking about all those service providers.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_03: If they just had that attitude that you expressed, that they're gonna leave and I'm gonna be delighted.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_02: We would be the greatest country that ever existed of all time.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_03: And they'd all be doing well.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_02: That's the thing.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_02: Everyone would be doing very well, and I would be happy about how I'm putting forth my money and investing it back in.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_02: Because, but I mean, like, but I don't think that like to your point, yeah, it's exactly that point.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_02: Does Sam, does the solo aspiring solo entrepreneur have that just relentless mentality?
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_02: Because it's gonna be hard to ever be that million-dollar one-person company that had some sort of mentality like that.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I think a lot of people just think the goal is sell all my time and I gotta sell it cheap.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_03: That's the worst thing.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_03: When you're totally busy and you still can't really make any money because you sell it all too cheap.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_03: That's that's that's a bad trap because then you make less money than you'd make in a job because you got no benefits, you're working all the time, it's all on you, and you make nothing.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_02: And in some of those cases, it's like if you would just push through, if you'd find some sort of efficient process, right?
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_02: You can go price yourself differently.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_02: You can fix it, package it, but you have to be willing to like how long do you stay in that bubble?
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, do you spend a year in it?
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_02: Two years, five years at White Spider, I spent a good eight years trying to break through a glass ceiling.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_02: It's hard, it's hard as hell.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_02: It really is.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_02: It really is so hard.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_02: And if you if you are adamant about being only one person firm and not hiring people like we talked about earlier, crossing that threshold, which introduces a whole new handbasket of hell.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_02: I like that term.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_02: Handbasket of hell.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's good.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_02: I gotta remember that.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_02: But if you're not willing to go across that, then I mean, then you know you have a choice of you're only gonna make so much amount of money on it, right?
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_02: That's right.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_02: So it's I mean it's very limiting.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_02: That's the the what you've just set up for yourself.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_02: The point of it is, in my opinion, and I and I just I have I don't know why I give so much of a crap.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_02: And just like tomorrow when I talk, or when I came to classes and I talk, I'm like, guys and gals, this is not fun, right?
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_02: Your I what is your idea of starting your own business and being a solopreneur or an entrepreneur, whatever?
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_02: It doesn't matter.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_02: What's going on in those little those brains could be completely off base because it's not something you can just study and do.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's not a do-it.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's it's not even a trade because you can be a tradesman and start and be a great plumber.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_02: That's not gonna mean you're gonna have a good plumbing business.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_02: No, it does not mean that at all.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_02: Right?
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_02: So when you go into this thing, man, like you you need to know what you're coming into because I I'm honestly fearful because of the way that we have created this society of of an employee mentality, we're trying to go into more business, these people, their expectations are whacked.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_03: I always say it it's it's it's it's the pop culture and what it promotes.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, it comes back to TV, movies, books, uh how it promotes it.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_03: Now that said, okay, I'm not quite as as maybe as negative as you are.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, honestly.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_02: Well, one more thing on that point, though.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_02: Do you mind?
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_02: Because I agree, is the pop culture paints this picture.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_02: But not realistic.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_02: But but then I would argue if I was listening to this, like, well, I mean, we did it back in the 1800s and before.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_02: Let me tell you something.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_02: There was not a pop culture back then.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_02: No, and when you started a business, you did it to freaking survive.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_02: Eat.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_02: And to eat.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_02: To live.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_02: It's a lot different than be watching social media, seeing homeboy out there, homegirl that's making millions of dollars as an influencer, and they look like they're having the best time in their life.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_02: And it's all a bunch of lies anyway, but you follow that, and then you think you're all you gotta do is take a couple of classes, and now you're an entrepreneur, and here you go.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_02: Start, you know, and I mean, and then you have no, and then you talk about it, talk about it, but you don't do it.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_02: You know, like you could, you could totally unrealistic.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_02: You could deceive yourself into a very depressive state.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_02: That's my point.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, I agree with that.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_03: Now, that said, you know, I I'm not gonna say that when I started my business, that's why group today, that there wasn't a lot of fun and that there wasn't a lot of joy coming from suddenly not having all the meetings and requests for information that I had to provide when I worked in a corporate job at a high level.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_03: For sure.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I had so much more time.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_03: That was I was really struck by that.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_03: I had a lot of time.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_03: Now I was, whether it's by luck or it was by intelligence, I did not give my time away early on.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_03: I charged a lot.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_03: My attitude always was, I'm not gonna work all the time, but when I do, I'm gonna get paid really well.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_03: The other time I'm gonna spend on my business to build my business and make it a better business.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_03: That's not the path most people follow.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_03: They think I'm gonna sell all my time cheap to stay busy.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_03: I didn't do that.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's and I was lucky that I made some good clients early that paid me enough that I could um start investing in things that made the business more successful.
• 34:47
  unknown: Yeah.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_03: But but I do think um that's it, that's where people go wrong a lot of times is they think I've got to stay busy, I've got to, I've gotta take this work, even if it's not with a good client or it's not what I'm there's a lot of red flags associated with it.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_03: That's that's such a dangerous precedent.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_03: It's really hard to claw your way out of it.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, you already said that.
• 35:10
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• 35:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, but I mean, I just for just for complete honesty, that's been more of my approach.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_02: Opposite of yours.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_02: Like I I actually appreciate and respect what you did.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_02: Because it's not an easy thing.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_02: It takes a lot of courage and self-confidence.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_02: It does take self-confidence, I won't argue with you.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, because it to look somebody across the table and know your worth and value.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_02: And then also have the real, like the real reality of what you are providing that has value that nobody else can can get, you know, um, especially really early on.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_02: By the time that I've fake it till you make it.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_03: I was trained well though.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_03: It wasn't all by accident.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_03: That's fair.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_03: I was trained by a guy who was the national sales manager for Xerox Corporation.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_03: He knew how to sell and he taught us a lot of tricks.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_03: And a lot of it is the psychology of yourself.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_03: Negotiating.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_03: Feeling you're worth it yourself and envisioning, you know, the where you want to be and who you are.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I didn't have that.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_03: Uh I was just like, man, you're out there on your own fighting that someone on your spot.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_02: Selling.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_02: You know, but at the same time, maybe, you know, I mean, actually thinking about that, maybe that's why like maybe a lot of my experiences weren't uh like you know how you just said earlier, I'm such a negative man.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't say that.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_02: Well, you said something like you're so damn negative.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_03: No, I just don't, I did not.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_03: I just don't want to only be negative about starting a business.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_03: There are positive aspects.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_03: No, I know.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_03: I'm not that I generally I don't disagree with you at all on any of this.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, no, but but I mean, like maybe that I did have probably some more negative experiences in the beginning.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_02: Because it was a little bit harder because I was taking more work, super busy, not making much money.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_02: You know?
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_02: Now I will say that I did find my way into a few projects along the way that where I would make a lot of money on certain things.
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_02: And so maybe it wasn't.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_03: Well, you were conscious of what you were trying to get to.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_03: I remember you saying that you were going to go work for these consumer product companies.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, Eric, why do you want to do that?
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_03: Boy, God, what an idiot I am.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, is all I can say.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_03: It's not the first time I've asked the wrong question.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_03: You're given bad advice.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_03: Because boy, that was pivotal.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_03: Uh the right thing to do, especially in the location that we're in.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, yeah, no, but that wasn't easy.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_03: There's a very risky movie.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, it was.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, God, I mean, you didn't have the real background in that.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_03: You just decided that's what you were going to do.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_02: Never never worked a day at Walmart or a supplier or a broker or an agency for later in my entire life.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_02: That's the thing.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_02: That's weird.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_03: The thing with you, though, see, I think one of the reasons why you've been successful and starting these things and everything is you make up your mind what you want to do.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, that's fair.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_03: And then you just do it.
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_03: You just don't let anything stop you.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_03: That's fair.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_03: Whether it makes sense or it's like rational, or that's where your particular knowledge base is or resources, it doesn't stop you.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_03: No.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_03: No, I get in a lot of trouble for it.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_03: You know, you just make the decision and then you just start doing what you need to do, which is back along the line of the grind.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I I'm always getting into this with people online about, you know, they want to have the work-life balance or whatever.
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_03: I saw this one.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I recently wrote an article um about it, and you know, quoting the LinkedIn, like, you know, if your employer doesn't want to do this, yada, yada, yada.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, do you want to get ahead or not?
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_03: You you you can follow all those things you just said right there, yeah, or you can get ahead.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_03: Answer your freaking phone on the weekend.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_03: That's right.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_03: All right.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_03: Return your emails at 10 o'clock at night.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_03: You want to get ahead?
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_02: That's what it takes.
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_02: And it never, I mean, that truth never stops, period.
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_02: Doesn't matter how well you've done or how things are going.
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_03: Employed or on your own.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_03: I always say you got a job, you might as well just be self-employed.
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_03: You just have one client.
• 39:36
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_03: It's exactly the same thing.
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_03: It really is.
• 39:42
  unknown: Yeah.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_03: If you got a job, you're you might as well consider yourself a solo preneur with an annual retainer.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, that's not a that's not a bad.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_02: Actually, that's what we kind of did when we started White Spider was we we had one client, you're a client, right.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_02: One retainer, I mean, that was risky to have all your eggs in a basket, but we we did not we absolutely provided the value.
• 40:07
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_03: It's and that's and that's a great way to launch a company.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_03: Agreed.
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_03: I think.
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I did the same thing.
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_03: I just had three clients.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_03: That just not one that paid me as much, but three that made up.
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_03: It's the same thing.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_03: And you have that before you start.
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, exactly.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_03: That's a good idea if you can.
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_02: The challenge is unique to the solo founder.
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_02: Succession, scalability, vacation, and burnout are hot and risk when this business, when the business is tied to a single individual.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_02: Um.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, like, yeah.
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_03: Push through it, you'll be the successful one.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_02: Don't do it, you'll won't be.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, that's to me, that's like, it's not unique.
• 40:48
  SPEAKER_02: I think that that's just the reality of doing business.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I don't care.
• 40:53
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I'd actually argue that this the solo life or even the very early startup life is a lot easier than the second stage growth.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_02: Of dealing with all the people.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_02: Gosh.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_02: And when you start getting into it, yeah, man.
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_02: You got a lot, dude.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_02: More clients, more employees, more problems.
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_02: More money.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, more money you're shuffling around, the more your revenue grows, the more you gotta have a team to support it or whatever it is.
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_03: And then you're more vulnerable.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_03: You really are.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I always quote you on like business is just a lot of problems.
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_03: It is.
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_03: I I constantly constantly quote you on that.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_03: And yeah, that multiply.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_03: So the solo founder, in a way, has less problems.
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_02: No, they really do.
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_02: You know?
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, they do.
• 41:39
  SPEAKER_02: And I don't know that they're and I mean, I don't know that those challenges are unique, right?
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_02: The succession.
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_02: Like that, I guess it's referring like what happens at I guess if you are a solo founder and you die.
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_02: It's just over.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_02: Business probably goes.
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's just over.
• 41:56
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 41:56
  SPEAKER_03: No succession planning with that.
• 41:58
  SPEAKER_03: No.
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_03: I guess there's some businesses though that you could do that, you know, that don't necessarily rely on your unique individual abilities.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_03: I I don't know.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_03: I don't think there's that many though.
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 42:11
  unknown: Okay.
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_02: No, and I mean, and even if you were doing something like e-com brokering, like you were talking about your buddy earlier, slinging tiles, like you've got to know who to call.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_02: You got, I mean, you gotta know the process of the business.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I am sure he doesn't, he's gotta periodically go back to China and renew his relationships with these factories or find new ones, right?
• 42:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and how are you gonna teach somebody that and be like, hey, look, I want to train you on all this, but by the way, I don't, I'm not gonna hire you.
• 42:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, these are the customs that you have to follow when you meet with these people.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_02: This is what I mean.
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_02: You're not gonna get paid while do, but in case I die, I want you to be able to come back in and take away like that's I guess that is a kind of a unique um vacation.
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_02: Like, go ahead and get vacation out of your mind.
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_02: That if look, you can't let's be honest, you can't have one foot in, one foot out.
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_02: You can't go into entrepreneurship wanting to be an entrepreneur with one foot stuck back in corporate America that came up with the idea of having vacations.
• 43:12
  SPEAKER_02: I know because the vacation thing is a is something corporate America came up with so that you would work for somebody.
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_02: It's true.
• 43:20
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you're right about that.
• 43:22
  SPEAKER_02: It is, yeah.
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_02: It's for it started with the Romans, even that are like the wealthy Romans that wanted to go on a vacation to see other places.
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_02: Like I'm sorry, it wasn't for the surviving entrepreneur that's trying to eat.
• 43:36
  SPEAKER_03: I still, at this point in my life, I still not gonna say I don't participate in things when I'm on vacation.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I just took a two-week vacation this summer, but I was still like on your phone emailing on my phone, talking to people, making decisions.
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_03: What else are you gonna do?
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, yeah.
• 43:55
  SPEAKER_03: Like I it's this weekend, I gotta go to California.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_03: And my wife said about one particular meeting that I'd like to have on there.
• 44:04
  SPEAKER_03: She's like, hey, you know, if you got to extend it, I do what you have to do.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_03: I totally understand.
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_03: It's my weekend, though, without kids, you know.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_02: So you give it up, man.
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_02: Vacations are not gonna exist.
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you gotta take care of business first.
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, okay.
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_03: You want the big bucks, you want the freedom.
• 44:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, or you want to be, let me get this straight.
• 44:29
  SPEAKER_02: You want to be a million-dollar one person solo founder with vacation and a succession plan, yeah.
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_02: You know, and not be burnt out.
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_02: Sorry.
• 44:43
  SPEAKER_02: You know, that's like, yes, I want to eat pizza and ice cream every day for every meal.
• 44:48
  SPEAKER_02: But I'm not gonna get fat.
• 44:49
  SPEAKER_02: But I don't want to be fat.
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_03: I know, it really is.
• 44:52
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, it it's it's the it's it's the same thing I always go through with these like starter home.
• 44:58
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's like housing is not affordable in this country.
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_03: Hey, it is if you go buy a trailer and you have a lot rent that you pay.
• 45:05
  SPEAKER_03: That's my first house.
• 45:07
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 45:07
  SPEAKER_03: Now, if you need to have a 2,700 square foot house with four bedrooms, three baths, and a three-car garage, brand new in a neighborhood with a fence backyard and uh two-story high living room and a luxurious master bath and a giant walk-in closet, and you think that's your first house, yeah, it's gonna be expensive.
• 45:28
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, good luck.
• 45:30
  SPEAKER_03: That's what's what it costs, man.
• 45:33
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's what's so distorted about things.
• 45:36
  SPEAKER_03: It's like it's a totally unrealistic expectation.
• 45:39
  SPEAKER_02: I think that's what the word is, right?
• 45:41
  SPEAKER_02: Expectations.
• 45:42
  SPEAKER_02: Like if you're listening to the show, you know, if you're Sam and you're gonna go out.
• 45:47
  SPEAKER_02: Get real, Sam.
• 45:51
  SPEAKER_02: We can't, I can't, we can't, no one can understand what's in your brain about your expectations.
• 45:58
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 45:58
  SPEAKER_02: And what we're cautioning people as just having our experiences and our small, medium-sized businesses.
• 46:04
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 46:05
  SPEAKER_02: You know, what are your expectations?
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_02: And you need to be cautious about that.
• 46:10
  SPEAKER_02: Are they realistic?
• 46:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 46:11
  SPEAKER_02: And I would even say, if I and I and I'll just share my own experience when I look back to when I was a young entrepreneur, not the second time around after you know, White Spire, but before that, when I was starting that, like I didn't have an expectation.
• 46:27
  SPEAKER_02: I had I had nothing and I expected nothing other than I wanted to solve the problem.
• 46:33
  SPEAKER_02: And I saw that the problem existed and I had an answer for it.
• 46:38
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 46:38
  SPEAKER_02: And so then the rest of it was a campaign to solve it, and just to get people to freaking rel wake up.
• 46:44
  SPEAKER_02: That was it.
• 46:45
  SPEAKER_02: That was the driving force behind it.
• 46:47
  SPEAKER_03: Wasn't to make money.
• 46:48
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I don't know.
• 46:49
  SPEAKER_03: People don't understand that.
• 46:50
  SPEAKER_03: No, not it's nowhere on the river.
• 46:52
  SPEAKER_03: It it it it's you need to make money in order to survive.
• 46:56
  SPEAKER_02: The business needed money, right?
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_02: Except I had to take a little something, but it was always check floating, not cotton.
• 47:03
  SPEAKER_02: I was always check-floating.
• 47:04
  SPEAKER_02: But that's the problem, is what is what drove you.
• 47:07
  SPEAKER_02: I get it.
• 47:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and uh, I guess.
• 47:09
  SPEAKER_02: I certainly never thought about vacation.
• 47:11
  SPEAKER_02: I certainly never thought about burning out, dude.
• 47:14
  SPEAKER_02: I bet you I was burnt out for probably 10 years of my entire life during that time.
• 47:18
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I think I've been burnt out for for a couple of decades, but you were still more productive, burnt out, right?
• 47:25
  SPEAKER_02: Than other people are.
• 47:26
  SPEAKER_02: And I don't mean to minimize that for other folks, but I mean, no, if I'm gonna be honest, like I'm tired and I don't want to do things.
• 47:33
  SPEAKER_02: Right, but you have the discipline to do it.
• 47:35
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and there's a and I got I got a desire to fix something.
• 47:39
  SPEAKER_03: If people don't have that desire to solve the problem, to fix something, to do a better job than what's out there now, and and feel like that's the most important thing.
• 47:50
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, don't do it.
• 47:52
  SPEAKER_03: That's right, because it's gonna be hell.
• 47:54
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 47:55
  SPEAKER_03: So there we are.
• 47:57
  SPEAKER_03: We're done.
• 47:58
  SPEAKER_03: It's been another great episode of this show.
• 48:00
  SPEAKER_03: It has been.
• 48:01
  SPEAKER_03: We're still looking for a sponsor, though.
• 48:04
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 48:04
  SPEAKER_02: Well, you and I are doing such a terrible job selling it.
• 48:07
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, let's be honest.
• 48:09
  SPEAKER_02: And I mean, I bet you do a lot of followers of this show.
• 48:12
  SPEAKER_02: No, we do.
• 48:13
  SPEAKER_03: It's going great.
• 48:14
  SPEAKER_03: But where's the sponsor?
• 48:16
  SPEAKER_03: Which I mean, if you want to sell something to small business, yeah.
• 48:20
  SPEAKER_03: You know, we can blame that on Parker Dotson.
• 48:22
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, let's blame it on him.
• 48:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, Parker, if you're listening to this today, you need to start selling some of our sponsors.
• 48:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, come on, Parker.
• 48:31
  SPEAKER_02: This is ridiculous.
• 48:32
  SPEAKER_03: Mark and I are doing our job.
• 48:34
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 48:34
  SPEAKER_03: You do yours.
• 48:35
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, Sam's letting us down.
• 48:37
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, she's leaving us.
• 48:43
  SPEAKER_02: Just back to our whole, don't you?
• 48:46
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 48:46
  SPEAKER_02: Just like when you're talking about earlier, if like your landscape, like people at work at your house, if these if Parker would show up to provide value and deliver, then I would be happy and you'd be happy.
• 48:59
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
• 48:59
  SPEAKER_03: But we show sponsorship.
• 49:01
  SPEAKER_03: I know we would.
• 49:02
  SPEAKER_03: Everybody'd be happy then.
• 49:03
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 49:04
  SPEAKER_03: And our sponsors would be happy because we're going to talk them up like ridiculous.
• 49:08
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 49:09
  SPEAKER_03: It's going to be the it'll be very disgusting.
• 49:11
  SPEAKER_03: It will be.
• 49:12
  SPEAKER_03: It will be just the most shameless disgusting advertisement you've ever seen.
• 49:20
  SPEAKER_03: Won't even be disguised.
• 49:23
  SPEAKER_03: It's not like we'll just subtly show you the cup with the company's name on it.
• 49:27
  SPEAKER_03: We'll talk about it.
• 49:28
  SPEAKER_03: We'll look at it.
• 49:32
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 49:35
  SPEAKER_03: All right.
• 49:36
  SPEAKER_03: Well, hey, Eric, it's been fun as always.
• 49:39
  SPEAKER_03: This has been another episode of Big Talk About Small Business.
• 49:51
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for tuning in to this episode of Big Talk About Small Business.
• 49:55
  SPEAKER_01: If you have any questions or ideas for upcoming shows, be sure to head over to our website, www.bigtalkaboutsmallbusiness.com, and click on the Ask the Host button for the chance to have your questions answered on the show.
• 50:09
  SPEAKER_01: Stay connected with us on LinkedIn at Big Talk About Small Business.
• 50:13
  SPEAKER_01: And be sure to head over to our website to read articles, browse episodes, and ask questions about upcoming shows.