Part 7 - Mastering the Art of the Exit with Joshua Aguirre

Welcome back to another captivating episode of Scaling Side Hustles! In Part 7, co-hosts Hill and Val sit down with serial entrepreneur Joshua Aguirre to delve into the intricacies of partnerships and the importance of knowing when to make your exit.

Joshua shares his personal experience from building a successful dropshipping business with two co-founders, one of them being Andrew Mabrey. He sheds light on his decision to exit the partnership and how that pivotal moment inspired his current mission of empowering freelancers.

Throughout the episode, we explore:

1. Joshua's journey with his dropshipping business and the lessons learned from working with co-founders.
2. Identifying signs that it may be time to exit a partnership or company.
3. How Joshua's entrepreneurial journey shaped his passion for supporting freelancers.
4. Practical tips on how to achieve financial stability while chasing your vision.
5. An in-depth discussion about the balance between partnership commitments and personal growth.

This episode is packed with wisdom and practical advice for any entrepreneur navigating partnerships and considering when and how to make an exit. Join us on this journey with Joshua as we continue to give you the tools and confidence to scale your own side hustles!

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Transcript

0:05

Why did I start this in the first place? Terrified that I was gonna lose my arm. They're afraid of not having that strong vision, challenging themselves in such a deep way, because that's when you find the most scary things about yourself. Have you ever felt like a mosquito in a nudist camp? I'm betting you have for anyone starting a business or even just going through life. It's easy to get bogged down with the day to day tasks and miss the bigger picture. What results is often a feeling of heightened stress and anxiety, maybe even decision paralysis. And David Allen's must read book Getting Things Done the art of stress free productivity. He describes the overwhelming feeling shared by many budding entrepreneurs of having identified what we need to do, but not knowing where to start. He says, I am rather like a mosquito in a nudist camp. I know what I want to do, but I don't know where to begin. Now I bet you can relate. So how do we organize our days when juggling multiple ventures? How do we center our work around a solid vision? How do we get a solid vision? This is a jam packed episode. So stick with us. And if you're feeling like you're already behind, struggling to even take the first step. Always remember it's a journey with pitfalls and successes, like speaking of which hang around until the end as we continue Joshua's story and the event that brought everything to a screeching halt. Okay, so wait, where are we at? Let's check in right just happened? Oh, no, I'm so glad I don't have to. Mysteriously right you as the mysterious girlfriend or God your identity has been revealed that has been fully revealed to the audience. What have we covered so far? The big moments. Joshua's birth. Oh, the dog bite. Right. That was a few episodes back. The dog bite and then what was the big event afterwards? He did get another broken arm because got hit by a car. Right? The maybe the parents divorce? It's always a big traumatic thing. Yeah. And then he's over that. Well, yeah, well, you know. And then they moved. But of course, the mother's health. And I'm trying to keep track of all the different things that Josh is struggling. So last episode, we talked about how you guys started this nonprofit. So you're working on starting? Oh, so not that far back? All the way to the beginning. I was kidding. With Josh's work. And then you just picked it up like at age 10. Got it. So on the last episode, last couple, yes, you're right. So the start, because we were talking about he has a startup a nonprofit, a not for profit, right? And what are the differences between all those so what's going on right now. So at this point, we started a nonprofit, because of the red tape of just doing things on our own and feeding people. So we started that we're living in Charlotte, North Carolina, moved from our hometown, away from our family and friends. And now Josh is basically working full time at home. And juggling between in a new state, the nonprofit and his for profit businesses, you know, that are that are still very new. And then he's like, doing freelance gigs on the side for big companies. Okay, you know, just to have some fun. What kind of gigs was he doing? Was it all like tech related? Yeah, I guess tech and creative because he did a lot of like photography and editing as well, for different companies. So it's just a lot of little things like that, in the creative slash tech world. What was like his main focus when you guys moved to Charlotte? Was it with this drop shipping company? Or what was his main? He never had like, just most of his days on one, it it was always he was really good at I think time blocking. I don't know if that's when it started. But he was really good with saying, all right, I'm gonna dedicate this time for my nonprofit in this time for the drop shipping, and then whenever he had a gig outside of work outside of the house, he would just jump into that. So he always thought of the nonprofit as a priority. However, there wasn't always a whole lot to do. Because he was also focusing on finding freelancers. And that's when he developed his relationship with like, Harold was his first one and then like a few other people down the line. So he always stayed pretty busy, but I wouldn't say like all of his day was all with one company. Yeah, there was juggling a lot of different things. But exactly, depending on where you're at. What I wanted to talk about today was this idea of vision. Having a vision because I know for Josh, it seems like he's always had a clear one. Or is that just is that an outsider's perspective thinking that so because he seems so motivated, he has a clear vision? Well, how do you see it safe to say that he had a clear vision. However, there was plenty of like pivoting whenever he saw that it needed to pivot like, Okay, now this needs to we need to adapt to this because of whatever reason he was good at, he wasn't afraid to make that risk and pivot. How do you think he got that vision? And I guess we could just ask him, but, I mean, like, was it a vision of like, I want to be a successful business owner or? Well, I think I think he got really motivated through. He was he was reading a lot. And he was looking for mentorship. Wherever he went, whether it was at racquetball any played with like older gentlemen, and they would give him like nuggets of wisdom or and saw him saw them like a spa, their figures, but most of the business mentorship came from just finding people online. Like the Robin Sharma isn't like the Tony Robbins, and those people, Tim Ferriss that have like, great, great visions, and they really motivated people, which gave him a lot of fuel, to just keep on going at it. And he saw himself like, I could do a lot of this. And I think that's when he realized he's like, I don't have to have like one passion, I could do multiple things, because these guys would often talk about basically being a serial entrepreneur. Okay. And at the time, that wasn't a really like common term. I think nowadays people like say that, like a little bit too often. a buzz word, yeah. But at the time, he definitely saw himself as like someone that was like a serial entrepreneur, having multiple interests, wanting to be really good at multiple things. Okay, moving on to where we're at. In the story. Joshua is working on bootstrapping his businesses. One of these is a drop shipping company. He started with two other partners. They named it green supplies online. It was a vaping company with a drop shipping model. The idea was a good one, especially as they were anticipating the probability that marijuana would soon be legalized. Enter Harold Harold is from the Philippines. He worked for them part time to process orders on their dropshipping website, starting off at $4 an hour. I know that sounds like nothing. But in the Philippines, it was a standard wage, especially back in 2016. But Joshua's goal wasn't to hire cheap labor. He wanted to invest in freelancers. Soon, Harold was making $15 An hour and achieving his personal and professional goals and the dreams he had for himself and his family. So not only was Harold's life transformed. So it was Joshua's company, win win. So then Joshua began to connect the dots transported back to RadioShack, when the idea first came to him about helping people with ideas, start businesses, but here was a whole community of freelancers from around the globe, a whole lot more heralds, but not just ideas, but incredible untapped talents. More on this Freelancer marketplace, Joshua would call invest in future episodes. But now back to the Drop Shipping Company. Like I knew that we needed to get this off the ground as fast as possible and, you know, increase the amount of customers we had on the website, the customers that were converting, and we realized that there was a big barrier in the way that the platform was built. When we realized that processing in order was too expensive for the sustainability of the platform, we found out that we would need to automate certain aspects of it. So I you know, really put put pen to paper and, and brains paper and try to figure out what is the best way to to build some sort of technology that can automate the orders that are coming through the websites? How can we leverage, you know, a remote worker that's offshore in the Philippines to help us you know, lower our overhead, who is the really the Creative Cloud that like built the website and all the security systems and all that stuff. So that's Andrew Mabry, my former partner at Green supplies online, Josh created this really cool thing where it would like he would purchase the shipping label, and then the system would automatically email the supplier, the invoice with the shipping label, so all they had to do was print it off, put it in a box, ship it to the customer. And when we had like found other services that did that it was like super expensive, which didn't make sense for a startup. So like, you basically created a proprietary service for ourselves. Which is really cool. That's impressed. I didn't realize that it saved us a ton of money because then we didn't have to pay. I don't know how much website that would cost to, like, outsource at that time. But it was basically what what started that next step of a three, I'm going to drop ship business. He was the Creative Cloud that like made that happen. Here's a question. This might be more me projecting. How do you support yourself financially when you're bootstrapping? Great question. So I think there's a balance between knowing how much money you need to start certain things. And that would be, you know, more formally called budgeting. So I think it's really helpful to budget for the initiatives that you want to start. And this is something that you learn as you grow as an entrepreneur, like, you can never have too perfect of a budget. You know, if you start to budget for something, and just try to get some general general research done to understand how much things cost and what ways you can save money and cut corners, to accomplish the same thing. A perfect example is, you know, we're looking at some diagramming tools right now for our nonprofit. And, you know, I'm immediately going to every single diagramming tool, subscription online that I can find and asking them if they offer nonprofit discounts, you know, not just taking up the first one that I find that's really well known and saying, like, Okay, I'm gonna pay them, you know, $10 a month, it's $10 a month, but it's still, you know, coming out of my money. So, budgeting is super helpful. The second thing is like, you know, picking jobs that align to your mission or your vision. And if you don't have that already, you need to create that you need to spend some time in nature, creating your vision for your next 10 years, like, where do you want to go? And how does everything that you do today? complement that 10 year vision? Now, why is this all important for bootstrapping and funding your own way, because it keeps you focused on the most important money. The most important money is the money that it's really valuable. Because you're spending time in those areas. I've made lots of money doing things that aren't related to my mission or vision. And, and while it was valuable in dollars, it was a waste of my time. So pausing for a second, with this whole topic of vision, I don't want to just assume that it's easy for everyone to have this grand vision for life. And I might just be projecting, inserting myself into this story. But I didn't want to breeze past this whole part about vision casting. Because for some of us, me, it's hard for me to know what I want. In 10 years, let alone like what I want for lunch. I'm just not a planner. Anyone else out there live in the moment people? Raise your hand. Yes, we see you. Yes. You can put your head yes. One, two. pan back on the wheel. It's like no, obviously you want the pastor's like, every I closed every head bowed. Raise your hand if you've accepted. Yes, yes, I see you making cute that's it's a nice observation. No, totally. Like, not everyone has a clear vision. I think that's like really common. I think Josh is really clear about having good mentorship, because that really helps you like stick stay on a path. But I gotta say like, the day to day and the, the jungles of the day to day is like, you just get bogged down with those things that you don't realize, oh, a year from now, five years from now tell you, you have like an idea, but you don't really write it down. Yeah, but nowadays, I feel like people are really big into like vision boards and writing things down and journaling things. Cuz you know, also another buzzword people are always like, I'm gonna be manifesting this, I'm gonna manifest whatever, beach house or something. So the importance of is a vision is that it speaks into your day to day. So I think it's safe to say that we aren't all visionaries, and that's okay. But even those who are need to understand how their long term vision should shape what they choose to work on each day. And as matter of fact, it's the existence of this vision that allows us to build purpose and direction into the mundane tasks of the day to day. So how do we do that? Let me explain. Actually, let's let Josh explain. He's better at it. So I felt a lot of times a lack of motivation and a lack of discipline. But 99% of those times I can attribute it to not being focused on what is important for my long term vision. So the more adept I got at understanding what this vision was for the future, the more clearer it became where I was wasting my time. And that time wasted was always related or correlated in some way to my lack of motivation. And so I just became really gung ho about understanding, vision and mission, understanding your life purpose, and spending time focusing on that, because it's more important than where your next dollar is coming from. But there were days where I remember, I needed to do something for the dropshipping company. And even though I was invested in supporting my partnership with my other two co founders, I wasn't tied into the vision of the company there what there wasn't really a big vision for the company, it was to chase profit. So if our vision is to chase profit, that it doesn't matter what product we're really selling? And do we really even care about the customers at the end of the day, or if they get the product they need? Like, yeah, of course, like, I care about people, and I want them to get the value that they've paid for. But if you don't believe in the product, you're not going to have a really strong, intrinsic motivator to go sell it or to go build another technology for it. And so I was really excited about building that first thing of automating the Drop Shipping. But I felt this disconnect after things started to become more, I don't know how to say it. Like they, they just became more about doing business, like your day to day operations, and it wasn't fulfilling for me anymore. So I felt a lot of times, this isn't what I want to do. And you know, what's next? And how do I, you know, what when's the best time to get out of this situation. But if you're talking specifically about, like what roadblocks I've hit, aside from lack of motivation in those areas, it was not being on the same page, as my partners, if you're going to partner with someone, it's like a relationship. So like, you'd have to, like the person that you're gonna go into business with, you have to trust the people, and you have to like them. Otherwise, it's like, you're gonna show up to work every day and not like what you're doing, which could be like what you're doing at your job. Now, I think this is where you really need to separate, like, a company has a vision, and an individual has a vision. And so you know, everybody uniquely has their own vision for their life. And the more they spend time crafting, that the more on fire, they will be if you can find a way to adapt them to your company. And that's not like a manipulation of their, their personality. It's it's an alignment of people who belong in certain companies. And it's important to distinguish that because, you know, if you get into a company, and they say, you know, what we say is we'll build your position around your personality, you have to know that they actually mean what they say. And they're going to do that in a way that is beneficial for your intrinsic motivators. If you feel like you're suddenly disconnecting and in extrinsically motivated, like, you need to reevaluate that with the owner of the company, you know, and I think that is something that I started to feel with my co founders is like, I wasn't attached to any sort of vision. They weren't attached to any shorter vision, we were all chasing profits. And so now it's a very cold hard decision of when do we exit the company and why? And so we all decided, like, we're gonna get this company up to a certain points, and we're gonna turn around and sell it. We, we had a disagreement, I voted for selling it and I think it was June of 2016. And the partners vetoed me and said they wanted to do one more marketing push. And so you know, it's a third vote for each of us. So, you know, I conceded and they decided to do another marketing push, which cost a few more$1,000 and we weren't as successful we I think we barely broke even. And then in 2017, the company received so many barriers with processing payments because we were selling vaping supplies that we had to declare that we were not profitable, and just the first few months like we could project that we were going to start hitting a loss really soon so we needed to sell now. So we put put it for sale reactively instead of proactively six months prior, and we broke even again, you know, our partners exited with their initial investment, and I exited with nothing but my I sweat equity put into the business and got nothing out of it. So I learned in that process like, Okay, first value my time, like every single hour that I put into the company, I need to quantify. And then value like, my gut instinct, like I need to make decisions about when to let go based on what feels right. And, you know, if the more you get to learn about business and how you are holding on, you know, hold on for something that's intrinsically motivated, not something that's purely about profit. Recovering from that experience, Joshua began investing his time and what really motivated him, the Joshua wave, and advanced up because he was still so new to Charlotte, he lacked mentors. So he began to find them in books, and through the source of all knowledge, YouTube. That was what was it like to be around Joshua, during this time, you mean someone that was super motivated up at four in the morning, just ready at the crack of dawn to get his day started, he probably was already up a couple hours before the sun was, a lot of times I was already I was still sleeping. So I didn't notice some of it. But he definitely tried to motivate me. It was at times a little bit difficult to watch because it was like, so go, go go. And I really wasn't I was just like, you know, work in my nine to five, just getting things done that way, coming home and wanting to relax. And his vision of fun wasn't my vision, no fun to just relax and like sit on the couch, watch a movie chill, order a pizza, although he loves pizza, and he wouldn't say no to that. But it was more like let's watch something that is going to help you know us to be calm, more productive and more. And it was always at one point or another. It was like that often. And I was like, I'm just so done. I just want to turn my brain off and chill. And I feel bad about exactly not feel bad about me wanting to laugh at like a stupid Will Ferrell movie or whatever. So so it was a little little tension there a little bit, you know, I'm not gonna lie. But for the most part, it was awesome. Seeing him motivated, excited. And on top of things, like it felt really secure. Yeah, I felt really secure. Like, oh, gosh, he got he has this. He has this under control. He has the spreadsheets with all of our whatever, office spreadsheets. You know, it was a feeling of like, he knows what's happening. But I didn't have the full grasp of what was happening. Because he had it all down, Pat. Yeah. So you know, was it great? I mean, at times, did you ever get up at four in the morning with him? A couple times, he really tried to, to get me to get on that train with him. But, you know, it wasn't for me didn't really last. I think that's an important point to make, too. Like, we're talking about Josh's story. But we're not talking about it, like a formula that that's what you need to do. We're just sharing his experience, his experience, how he did it. And everyone's built differently. Everyone is wired differently. And so if your experience looks different, that's okay. Just try to tap into, like, what makes you passionate, like, exactly like, those things didn't make me tick. So it wasn't that exciting. But that's alright. Like, he didn't fault me for it. If anything, I put the pressure on myself for not being just as you know, we start comparing Yeah. But at the end of it, like no, he's my husband, he has his own fun. Whatever activities, and we rolled with it. I think there's common themes, though, that the whole idea of mentorship. I think whatever you're doing wherever you're at in life, it is important to have those people that are speaking into your life who have gone before, whether that's in the realm of business, or spiritual mentors, or whatever it may be, but I think that it's cool. I think it's cool that he even though you were in a new city, maybe there weren't people that you were getting to know yet that he was still able to find a way around that. And, you know, the digital age now. Oh, so much information. And different people and speakers and Oh, yeah. And it's and it's interesting, because he's the introvert. I'm the extrovert. Oh, I know yet he you know, yet he wanted to go to all the meetups, all, I mean, the meetup was huge. And was really, you know, have a leg up.com Oh, okay. You know, an organization that would just meet up depending on interests, and he would find tons in Charlotte and he would go to a lot of them about technology about just digital form, you know, transformation or whatever it may be. And I wasn't going to go to that, like he wanted to network. As an introvert. He was like, super extroverted, I felt, but he calls himself kind of a learned extrovert. Like he put himself out there. A he was interested in that topic. B He wanted to excel in that. So we always try to find people that were smarter or bigger than him to look up to, you know, and So I didn't even go to the many of those things with him. But I know he had a great time. He did a couple himself. He did a couple as in, like, hosted a little bit. Yeah, it's some of the topics. Do you remember crypto cryptocurrency? Like the very beginning? Not the very beginning, I guess because that would have been like, a way Oh, no, I don't like millionaires. Oh, gosh. Incredible. Why didn't you get in earlier? Why isn't there a time machine? Let's go back. No, no, who knows what of what would have happened but it was it was about that topic. Just, you know, just to be with the like minded people and see what's going on. This was a formational time, that sweet spot in every entrepreneurs journey, where motivation is at an all time high hours spent at the computer and lost in books fly by like seconds. Because this is the dream right? To be building something that matters. Even though Joshua was writing high of the honeymoon phase period. For his business, that is the battle speaking of that, did you guys get married? Yeah, we definitely got married. It was lovely. You're not throwing shade. I'm just wondering when did that happen in the process? Right, smack dab in the middle. No, that was great in 2016 2016. Sorry, honeymoon just made me think of that and realize that we never announced that. We said you were the girlfriend, not the wife. I know the fiance and then the the next big reveal. I'm just kidding. That's not. That's exciting. But congratulations. Thanks. He still had a lot to learn about managing his time. Enter the mosquito in the nudist camp. See, I told you it was relevant. Getting Things Done was one of the most influential books Joshua read, to learn how to organize his time while juggling so many dreams and ideas. He even built his own course on productivity, because why not? We'll link this in the show notes. But just as every honeymoon period has a beginning and an end. So unfortunately to Josh was next time on scaling side hustles. One day I went out to work with an individual experiencing homelessness. I went to his 10 sites and I felt spiritually unprotected. Okay, so I think that is, at least for me, a lot of information was taken. Oh yeah. For for today. So we're gonna put a pin in it there. Yeah, so head on over to scaling side hustles.com You can fill out a mini Lam analysis about the business you have or wanting to start. We'll go through the submissions and select some of you to come on podcast for a free consultation. Everything you need is in the show notes. So go check them out.