Big Talk About Small Business
Hosted by Mark Zweig and Eric Howerton. Our Mission is to inspire, empower, and equip entrepreneurs with the knowledge and insights they need to succeed in their ventures. Through engaging conversations with industry experts, seasoned entrepreneurs, and thought leaders, we aim to provide valuable strategies, actionable advice, and real-world experiences that will enable our listeners to navigate the challenges, seize the opportunities, and build thriving businesses.
Big Talk About Small Business
Ep. 76 - Traps, Myths, and Barriers to Small-Business Success
Are you ready to take the plunge into entrepreneurship but feel held back by myths and misconceptions? In our latest podcast episode, we tackle common traps that prevent aspiring business owners from realizing their dreams. It's often said that you need a significant amount of money to get started, but what if we told you that many businesses can launch with minimal investment? We explore this foundational myth and provide real-world examples of creativity and resourcefulness in action.
Throughout the episode, we discuss the vital role that networking plays in a successful business journey. Whether through formal organizations or informal connections, building relationships with fellow entrepreneurs and mentors can provide invaluable support. Fear of failure is another theme we examine, emphasizing that failure is not the end but a vital part of the learning process. Embracing this mindset shift can free you from the paralyzing grip of self-doubt.
Additionally, the misconception that entrepreneurs must do everything themselves is dismantled as we highlight the importance of delegating tasks to others who are better suited. This not only fosters a more efficient work environment but also allows business owners to focus on growth.
Cash flow management is another critical element we address. Even the best product ideas can fail if cash flow is not carefully monitored. By understanding the intricacies of cash flow, entrepreneurs can make informed decisions that steer their businesses toward long-term success.
Join us in this insightful discussion as we shed light on the barriers to entrepreneurship and inspire you to embrace the journey with confidence. We invite you to share your thoughts and experiences with these myths and connect with us for further resources and insights. Don't miss our call to action, subscribe, and join us next week for more engaging conversations on building a successful small business!
hey, hey, we're back again. Yes, we are. It's gonna be another great episode of big and talk about that small business. That tripped you up on that one. Oh, you're right, you tripped me up big time did you see that last episode?
Speaker 3:we did and whenever like it looked like a mistake on her podcast? No, I did not, because it went silent and I was like what's going on? And I look at it and it's me watching you on your phone. We were in the middle of production and you're over there just hammering down on your phone like doing text messages and emails. So rudely.
Speaker 1:I'm sorry, it's okay, make me feel bad. Why don't you, why not just edit that out? Did you just want to read?
Speaker 3:that. Well, no, because I asked the editor specifically to keep that. Oh okay, Just so I could throw you on a bus and I feel better about myself now.
Speaker 1:Was there like a little caption underneath there's nothing. It was awkward. Like you know, man, I always thought you guys edited that stuff out.
Speaker 3:No, we do.
Speaker 1:It's just not that specific part. I don't remember what I was doing. I'm sure it was important, I'm certain it was. I wasn't like shopping online or something. I can assure you. It's true, it's a lot going on, man, a lot going on, yeah, buddy. Well, what are we going to talk about today?
Speaker 3:Man, we're talking about traps, myths and barriers about small business. Yeah to entrepreneurship. Yeah, man, I'm trying to bust them out. I think a little bit here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that's great. I recently put a post on LinkedIn about how I thought that a lot of our and I say our, I'm not necessarily talking about the Walton College at the University of Arkansas, but I'm saying colleges of business in general are really missing the mark with the education that we provide on entrepreneurship. That we provide on entrepreneurship. You just see the same things that are glowing voids let me say absences that need to be filled, and then other things that I think are very low probability that you'll need. The information is what we teach in a lot of cases.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that was actually an excellent post. It's inspiring, you know, when you post that, because I think that you laid it out very nicely, but you had like five or six points like specific ones of where you've seen. I mean, I think we all agree, but I mean, I think the overarching theme in my opinion is that a lot of the institutions and even on the private sector side of whatever you want to call it a workshop, a conference, whatever it is it's always about some big, glorious plan.
Speaker 1:The entrepreneurship ecosystem, yes, the whole ecosystem.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's just, it's always this high freaking, you know, sell out big, big money. Everybody wants to be a freaking billionaire, you know. And I mean it's like, man, you don't it confute. That makes people feel like that they're not going to be able to start a business. And you know what? I've seen? A lot more of really true entrepreneurs that start up a business that end up over time having an exit. Yeah, you know, and that's it's a very fruitful exit too, because I mean, you might sell a company for 100 million bucks, but if you only have one percent of that company or 10, yeah you know, that's a lot different.
Speaker 1:I call it get rich slowly. Yeah, it's, it's not get rich quick, right? That's true, it really is. It's get rich slowly most of the time. Yeah, it's a building process, yeah, and you know.
Speaker 3:I heard a good quote by a fellow entrepreneur, actually Dan Pena. I don't know if you ever listened to this dude.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 3:You just need to YouTube his name Dan Pena How's that spelled? P? How's that spelled? Okay? He calls himself. I think it's the trillion dollar man now, but I mean, dude, he is like you would love him, Like you guys remind me of each other, actually, but he's like he's been in oil and a bunch of other stuff in his life, but he does spit out a lot of truth, a lot. One of the things that he's mentioned, though, is that you don't. You know, in most cases, you don't get wealthy through one transaction. It's through a series of transactions. The serial entrepreneur yes, Like you, build a little business.
Speaker 3:Right, you work your way up, work your way up in business, just like real estate. Yeah Same thing man, just like at a job, yeah you claw your way up from the bottom.
Speaker 1:That's it, man. Every one rung at a time.
Speaker 3:That's right, and so when people are trying to go out and raise capital and do these big tech things or whatever it might be, they get thrown into this theoretical scenario and, honestly, a lot of times the investors are the ones benefiting significantly more.
Speaker 1:Yeah, if they're the ones putting the money into it, the investors, what do you expect, right? Yeah, money wins, man. But yeah, I mean, it's only like one of 400 or 500 new businesses actually get startup capital from, like, a VC or angel equity investor. What did you say? One of 400 or 500. Really, out of 400 or 500. That's how low it is. That's a legit stat. Yeah, that's not just me pulling that out of my rear end, and you know, I mean, if you think about it, it makes total sense. The majority of businesses don't need it and wouldn't be of interest to those people, Right, because they don't seem to have the same growth potential, right, and then you know, on top of it you know the average new business they get their financing from either money saved by the founder, borrowing from friends and family, and bank borrowing. You know, that's, I mean, everybody's got to deal with a bank, which is another permutation on this conversation. But so, yeah, they don't get it from VCs at all.
Speaker 3:You know, I wonder if a lot of this is due to, like, the media coverage. Oh, sure it is Right, Because I mean prior to. I mean honestly, if you look at it like the VC, PE markets, markets, all that stuff is relatively new. It is in history, right? I mean, you think what back in like the the 80s, is when vcs really started to when I went through college, business school in the 70s, nobody ever talked about vcs.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean private equity rarely ever existed.
Speaker 3:Yeah, now the public market's been around since like the mid-1800s, right, so right after our Cornelius Vanderbilt kind of kicked, kick, started that puppy off. But I mean, but you know, but historically, most businesses, I mean like the media would just cover like somebody starting a business, and that was what people knew how to start up a business. And now, yeah, we got into all this media flash, you know where the only thing that's being promoted about business is this VC talk, this investor, this capital company, this founder, you know, and it's big tech, it's big this, I mean. And then, oh, by the way, there's a new restaurant and it's open, but you don't have a story. No, nobody says how did you start this?
Speaker 1:business, but it's just like good news. Nobody cares about good news. You know what I mean. That's right. That's the kind of thing. You've got to have something. It ain't selling ads, baby. Yeah, exactly, we're not going to get eyeballs on that, it's just here's Joe. He bought his brother-in-law's plumbing company, that's right, you know, when his brother-in-law got sick or whatever. We're just not going to see that. My other theory on that is that really the entrepreneurship education and quote entrepreneurship ecosystems they started in Silicon Valley, wrote 128 Bell to Boston, you know, maybe Austin, and so that's where those programs started in the higher education institutions. And then all the rest of us are all just like trying to play catch up. We, you know, we admire the Harvard's and Stanford's and people like that. Obviously, you know Harvard business school and and, and you know and, and those are the schools that really started focusing on entrepreneurship. Yeah, and that's where all the VCs were in the tech companies, right, so it's sort of just, you know, we've just taken that and sort of exported that to the heartland.
Speaker 3:It's like it becomes this thing, and we want some of that, exactly Because money does flow through it, right yeah, everybody wants a little bit more kizash.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and they don't want. I mean, it was sort of conventional wisdom that communities wanted knowledge workers, higher paid knowledge workers. We're not trying to start jobs where we hire a bunch of factory workers for 22 bucks an hour. There's no glory in that, even though those are very necessary jobs, Absolutely Fundamental, yeah, but it's yeah, it's more of the you know, and so if we want knowledge workers, that's what we're going to focus on.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Because those kinds of businesses where we can pay 200 grand to get software writers and stuff.
Speaker 3:But yeah, you know. The only thing I disagree with you on, though, when you brought up silicon valley, austin and boston, because I don't believe that boston was really part of it like I don't. I don't think that's in part of the equation, it's really just austin, silicon valley.
Speaker 1:Well, there's nothing that goes on in boston here just pulling my leg there, I mean boston's, where it all really started. It was they had high-tech companies there before they did it For the reader, just for their knowledge.
Speaker 3:Like you're from Boston.
Speaker 1:Not originally. I lived there For how long? David, 17 years.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, I mean, that takes you from there. Where are you from? Originally Kirkwood.
Speaker 1:Missouri. Man Dang, how'd you get up to Boston? It's a long story. It's a long story, I love Boston. It it's not. It's a long story, I love boston yeah, it's a great city to live.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's cool. It's too cold, it's too crowded, it's got fantastic history to it.
Speaker 1:Oh, it's great. Everything's there and so many higher ed institutions. There's something like 180 colleges and universities in the boston metro area. Are you kidding me? I'm not kidding, it is just huge. Everybody is educated, everybody. It's the most educated large city in the country, really, yeah, huh. So now you learned something new today I did.
Speaker 3:Hey, should we pull something out of this wagon? Sure, why not? The swag hat you want me to get?
Speaker 2:it?
Speaker 3:Yeah, you can, you're always like we're always doing it, so I want you to have all the glory.
Speaker 1:I don't want all the glory. Go for it, okay.
Speaker 3:You ready for this one Yep? Move the needle.
Speaker 1:Oh gosh, move the needle, mark, let's do a deep dive on that and lean into it while we move the needle For a big pivot, yeah for the pivot. Pivot on this is what I like to say, is it no? Move the needle and pivot on this. Yeah, move the needle. I don't know why people say these things. I mean, and it just, I was in a meeting recently with somebody and, honestly, it was like a caricature of you know something you'd see on, like you know TikTok or Instagram, where people are making fun of business speak, yeah, just every single certain sad, sad bullshit. Yeah, you know Acronym, yeah, acronym buzzwordswords. It's just unbelievable. Anyway, I mean, it's hard to keep a straight face and not say what did you just say?
Speaker 3:Well, if you said this word in a meeting, it's like man, that's all you do in business is move the needle. You're either going or you're dying.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, we do need to move the needle, depending on what the needle is, yeah, Whether it goes up or down, right, sure, but yeah, I mean sure, and we've got to have the proper metrics on our business and we've got to monitor those and we've got to share those with everybody. Yeah, right, I mean that's a big part of how we move the needle. It's just making everybody aware that there is a needle in the first place right.
Speaker 3:It's hard to move a needle if you don't know that you have a needle. Yeah, you don't know what that needle is. Measuring needles measure things right that's it.
Speaker 1:yeah, the gauge is on the business. I always think of it like some big old boiler or something. Yeah, it's got all this stuff going on, you know, yeah, and we got to make sure all those things are in the right, all those dials are in the right place.
Speaker 3:It's true man and you do a good job. I've watched you like multiple times through different businesses. Like you do, have a good, a good perspective as to what those gauges are well, it takes you a little while to learn whatever the industry is.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, certainly in the architecture and engineering world that come out of that.
Speaker 3:But I mean it, you know you do have to get some knowledge of the industry to come up with the right needles, yeah, but whatever business you're in, the first thing you do it is look for the gauges because, like I've seen one recently I don't know if we talk about it openly here yeah, whatever, this business that you're in, like, which is not something that I've seen you do or known that you were involved in before, right, you quickly got in there and you started assessing and started figuring out where the gauges were for this business like. What is it? Is it the supply? Is it the? You know what's going on with the cash? You the standard stuff, but then what is it that's breaking down the operational flow of this business? And you start calculating that. And then you hold people, you ask them and then you hold them accountable.
Speaker 1:That's what you're supposed to do. I know you are.
Speaker 3:You're like this master, you're the master megamind. Looking at this boiler of gauges.
Speaker 1:I don't know about that Screaming at people. I was thinking today about a new spreadsheet I want to do for that business, though yeah, it's going to be pretty complicated, yeah, um, but I want to take all the inputs on how long it takes to get stuff and how much cash flows out and what the delay is, and then when the product is built and then when we actually get paid, I'm going to put that all into a spreadsheet so I can really accurately predict how much working capital you need, and I always track working capital in a business. If I see that going up, I start feeling more confident. If that's going the other way, then I start getting real nervous.
Speaker 3:Let me ask you a question that plagued me for years and still does Not as much interesting, maybe because I'm almost 50.
Speaker 1:Probably also because you've got a lot of cash in the bank. That helps. Don't add anything. Go on, go on with your story all right.
Speaker 3:so I would spend so much time in like analysis, prowess or procrastination because I thought that there was like some specific, correct way to spreadsheet stuff out or to calculate right, or whatever it might be. Like I felt incompetent, you know, and like I felt like that I needed to go 20 more years of school to learn the right way to do this, or else I was making a big mistake. Oh yeah, that's I. I know exactly what you're talking about. So, but like your spreadsheet, like I mean, can you like probably give confidence to the audience that, like what I've been finding out is actually it's just whatever tool that you create because you're trying to monitor something?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's going to evolve. I mean, you're never going to have a perfect system, by any means, but you want to have a system that gives you as much early warning on problems as you can get, because then you have time. That's right. Time gives you options. Yeah, the problem is, when you don't have the gauges and the systems and the spreadsheets to do the predictive stuff, that you run out of time. Yeah, and and that's the big thing, especially in undercapitalized bootstrap businesses where cashflow is everything. Yeah, I mean, so many of the metrics relate to that. It's just, you live and die by the cash flow. That's such good wisdom, dad. Hey, thanks, son. But I mean my own kids. They don't care about any of this stuff. They don't care about anything you say they never. They don't read my books, my articles, they don't listen to the podcast. No, nothing, they don't care. The only one that might is my oldest daughter. She's the only one, do you?
Speaker 3:feel like that maybe our kids are going to listen to this after we die and be like oh, there's my dad, it was cool.
Speaker 1:It may just be wishful thinking. They're never going to notice. There's my dad. He was cool. Okay, they're never going to notice. My daddy was cool.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:Let me find something to mess with his mouth. It'd be nice if they did, but I'm not going to count on it Anything. To rewind time a decade and be confident in just my thinking about the business, like as rookie as I might have been at the time but just to have the confidence, just to sit there and work my own system, whatever it might be. You don't have to have freaking QuickBooks to read a business, you don't? You're right, you know. I mean like just look at the bank account, watch that, build your own little spreadsheet. You don't have to be a freaking Excel genius, it's so true. You just need to learn how to do the simple formulas in there and then just watch and monitor the person, the squeaky wheel that's watching that, like your mega mind behind the boiler looking at all the gauges. That's how you're winning right there. It's not a class?
Speaker 1:No, it's. That's how you're winning, right there. It's not, it's not. It's not a class, no, it's not. And I think you made a really good point, though that the first stuff, you can't ignore your intuition. But secondly, if you're a small business owner and you don't open the mail every day and you don't see the cash that comes in Every day and you don't see every dollar that goes out, whether you're actually writing the checks or just signing them, yeah, you're crazy, because that's how you find out what's really going on. You've got to have extremely close attention paid to the inflows and the outflows of whatever it is the money, the customer complaints, the problems, customer complaints, the problems, I mean. If you're keeping tabs on all that, then I think you're going to develop a better sensibility about where things are going.
Speaker 3:Hey, can I ask you a real question? Sure, will you take over my companies?
Speaker 1:For a fee Dang that. Come on, man, for a fee Dang that.
Speaker 3:Come on, man, you can use them as case studies for big talk about small business man.
Speaker 1:Are you tapped out? I am feeling like I really am. I got a lot to do right now. I mean it's amazing. I mean you know how it is. Yeah, it's like I don't know why we do it. There's something wrong with us, dude.
Speaker 3:I think about that about every day I'm like what the hell am I doing? Yeah, it's, and I can't help it.
Speaker 1:But you know, in the way, it's not cocaine and it is. It's a drug, it's addictive. On the way out of the door today I go into my garage and I'm like I've got these. My gas struts failed on the front hood of my 911. And they're really, you know, it's a simple part. You can buy them for like 20 bucks on Amazon.
Speaker 1:But it's what keeps the trunk lid, which is in the front of the car, because it's in the back, keeps it up. And I always throw my briefcase in there. Yeah, of course you do. And so, like I go to get my briefcase out and my you know trunk hits me on the head while I'm in the ufa parking deck. It's not too swift, you know, or a good way to start, uh, start with class getting whacked on the head, yeah, although it's very lightweight, but anyway. So I step out there. Today now I've been on the phone, I've been emailing, I've been working all morning and I think, think to myself, you know what I bet I can really quickly change those struts in the front of my car.
Speaker 1:And I did on my way out the door. Then I was dirty. I got dirt on my pants so I went over and got some Fantastic off the shelf and sprayed them that's awesome Cleaned the spot off, got it in the car and hit it over here. I thought about putting new wiper blades on my daughter's Mini Cooper too, but I said you know that would be cutting it a little bit close.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it'd be pretty tight and you got here on time. I got here on time.
Speaker 1:But I'm just saying it's just the way we're wired. We're going to keep trying to do stuff productive, large or small.
Speaker 3:It's kind of fun to, it keeps me entertained. I mean, because if I don't, if I don't have something to do or I'm not being forced to do something, yeah right, it's not. It's not really good like I get. I mean, I just get kind of lost, yeah, and I get depressed, yeah, depressed, real fast, I know, yes, exactly.
Speaker 1:You start knowing what's wrong. What's the point? Get everything on my do list done. I was thinking that last night. That means if you have everything, then you're not busy. I know, don't worry, it all piled on immediately. This morning I thought, ah yeah, shit, that's right.
Speaker 3:I got to do this. I had a good 2.30 in the morning wake Just worked for like five hours, passed out for 30 more and then got back to work for the rest of the day. It was awesome. I freaking won. Yeah, did you write? Did you do some writing? No, no, I just worked on like spreadsheets and marketing plans and crap. I see Ridiculousness. I don't even really remember what exactly I did. To be honest with you, it was kind of weird. The whole experience was a little dark and weird and lonely. It was just me and my computer. All the girls were still sleeping. It was like 3 o'clock in the morning.
Speaker 3:And I'm playing some Viking War music on YouTube. Oh man, yeah, it's like drums just beat for like four hours straight and then I feed the dogs and everything beat up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was up last night myself until about three, 30. Um, but I went back to sleep. But yeah, um, let let's talk a little bit more about some of these myths. Okay, uh, I need a lot of money to start. Well, that's a myth.
Speaker 3:Well, okay, so it depends Actually. No, I would say you don't, like you could actually go about it, about any kind of business. It seems like you know, because you don't specifically need more money, but you could go, get the money, raise the money, whatever it might be. Or you know, there's that category, so, like, if you're going to build a factory, you obviously have to go. You can't, right, you got to have some money to build a freaking factory, but there's a lot you might be able to borrow most of it. Yeah, borrow it. You could get grants. There's a whole bunch of different stuff. Sure, I'd probably do. I don't know how, I've never built a factory before but there's some ways I've done commercial buildings with absolutely no cash, I mean.
Speaker 1:So you can't do that Absolutely. You get construction loans. It's all about construction loans. That's how you do it. But yeah, you're right, I mean, there are those. I mean, the other thing is, why does it always start a business? How about buy a business? Buying a business is something that's easier to finance. You may be able to get that with no money at all. Yeah, because owners trapped. Yeah, they want out.
Speaker 3:Yeah, okay, if you, if there's like, if people got to understand this too. It's like if you start a business or say somebody starts a business and they get into it whether it's plumbing or whatever it might be Say it was plumbing business, right, they worked 30 years on this business, you know, whatever it might be. Say it was plumbing business, right, they, they worked 30 years on this business. You know it became their daily life. It's their.
Speaker 1:You know what they did to make to earn, but they never had an exit plan, right or they never built the business to sell the business very typical they were just basically sucked all the money they could get out of, which is okay, yeah that's fine business, small business, good, well done.
Speaker 3:Now you have a new owner young, that's fine Small business, small business is good, well done. Now you have a new owner young, that's ready to rock and roll, yeah, you know. And they literally may not even have to pay much for that business, right? Or they could pay it out over time. Yeah, through owner financing of the business. Yes, exactly, and then your no money into, it is the existing customer base, and then you just go in and you make some modifications and you grow the business to exit if you want to get a big check, lower risk than a startup Much lower.
Speaker 1:It's proven. It's a proven business. It's got a history. Yeah, as you said, it's got customers or clients. It's got employees. It's got suppliers.
Speaker 3:I want to do that in my next thing. I want to do that in my next thing. I want to buy an existing business. Maybe it depends on what it is. I think it'd be just something fun Not fun, but practically useful.
Speaker 1:It's got to have some potential. Yeah, I like businesses that people need when they really need it. Like a plumber, it's rare I've been in one of those. Most of the business is like, no, they don't really need that. I think they need that, yeah.
Speaker 3:And all we're doing is like how do we sell the best that we possibly can sell? You know how do I go have drinks with that person and then be showing people? You know it's like the relational side of things.
Speaker 1:But like a plumber man, like if you need a plumber, you need a plumber yeah, I mean I got like shit washing up, bubbling up out of my yard because my sewer line broke. I need a plumber. Yes, there's, my dogs are out there lapping it up. I mean, I've had that. I don't know why they're so fascinated with that, but no, it's like you need them. I've seen businesses that cater to certain client types, like industrial clients in the manufacturing world. One of the best ones I ever saw was this company that all they did is work on refractories in factories. Refractories are used for heat treating and curing paint. Okay, so if the refractory goes down, the whole production process stops. You need them. You need those guys. You don't argue with them for price, okay. No, you just call them and you get them there as fast as you can and you pay them whatever it takes, because you're losing millions of dollars a day, possibly, yeah, by not having your plant going. That's so that they cost you 100 grand for it's four hours.
Speaker 3:You don't even care yeah okay, yeah, that's the kind of business I like yes, you know, a lawyer is kind of the same way too, when you're in need of them like yeah, depending on what kind of lawyers they are.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no question about it.
Speaker 3:I mean, yeah, necessary. A good way to get in without any money, that you don't need a lot of money, is to buy an existing one. Yep, owner finance that thing. Do something that's people need. You're going to be, you're going to have a security floor, and then your job is to think about how you grow that. How do you exactly scale it out? Yeah, if, if you want.
Speaker 1:People fit into one of two categories. They either like to take something that exists and make it better, or they like to do cold starts with a clean sheet of paper.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Myself. I've done the cold starts multiple times. I actually prefer to take something and make it better. Yeah, I can see that. Prefer that take something and make it better. I can see that the constraints in a way make your job easier when you start a business like this podcast videos. You've just got a clean sheet of paper. I have no idea what's going to happen. You don't know what's going to happen. There's just so many options. I don't know if the market's going to happen. Yeah, you don't know what's going to happen and there's just so many options. I don't even know if the market's going to like it. Yeah, well, that's the risk in a new business versus an existing one. You don't know if the market's going to like it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I just believe it needs it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, and you're obviously getting some traction, so somebody yeah but the thing is I've actually been talking about this recently on that subject is that you've got an innovative type of business, clean slate of paper. Like this type of business, you have to go ahead and expect the amount of education and inspiration that you have to repeat over and over and drive to the audience. It's like 10 acts, oh sure. Like you cannot run a campaign and then say, oh, that didn't work, they don't know they need it. They don't know they need it Exactly and they're nervous about it.
Speaker 3:Everyone's always I mean, who wants to be the first person to try something out? Everybody's always like that man, you know, you got to focus on education big time. And then relentless repetition, repetition, and then say it 20 different ways right, you know. And then, and then you know, then it takes all the testimonials, the referrals, the branding, all this stuff just starts aggregating and over time you start my, you start building something thank god you have the marketing knowledge that you have, because if you didn't have, I mean you had a marketing agency.
Speaker 1:It certainly helps. Yeah, oh yeah, you know most people don't, yeah, and they just start and they just think I'm going to put this out there and everybody's going to come and beat my daughter Crickets, bro, it ain't going to happen, man, it's so hard and I, man, it's so hard and I don't devote near enough time to the marketing I should.
Speaker 1:I'm getting a little bit better at prioritizing my time, but well, you can do a problem. You got to do it, but anyway. Um, so yeah, I need a lot of money to start, and then some businesses are just cheaper than others. We used to have students go through an exercise. Say, you got a hundred bucks in your pocket and a working pickup truck, what are you going to do what? What's your business? Um, you know there's a zillion businesses like that that don't cost anything to start. No, did.
Speaker 3:You could buy a bag of trash bags and start picking up dog poop that's true, and there are dog poop cleanup businesses around here.
Speaker 1:They make money. Yeah, and it's necessary it is, unless you have, like I have at my house, which is a dog-only yard. Oh, and it's big enough and it's all gravel that I don't pick up the poop very often out there.
Speaker 3:What do you do? What do you do? Do you spray it down or just let it dry out?
Speaker 1:Just let the rain just wash it. Wash it out, the rain and the sun, the sunbeams just disintegrate, exactly as long as it's big enough that they're not like stepping in it yeah yeah you know, but anyway, no, that is a business, that's one that people are doing. I mean, there's a million of those window washing, car cleanup, beyond work, yada, yada, yada doesn't always have to take a lot of money, it just depends on what the business is. Here's another one um, I must do everything myself. What do you think about that?
Speaker 3:so that's a complicated statement to me, because I know better than to do everything myself, but then sometimes I have to do things myself.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's a really good way to look at it, you know it's not an either, or You're right, it's an and, and you need to find the balance to know when to do it. Right Now, typically, my strategy, I guess, is and again, this isn't a written strategy, it's just one that my gut tells me the practice, yeah, is I do intentionally not do things and I do hire or partner or whatever it is, so that somebody else will do that specific thing. Usually it's something I'm not strong at or something I don't really care too much about, right, you know? I mean because I'm not passionate about it, so I'm not going to work hard on it. Right, yes, you know, but at the same time there are it's, you know, I end up having to do things myself to make sure that it gets done the correct way. The problem I always run into is is I have to do things myself because they weren't done exactly right the first time by other people. If everyone would do their job correctly, there wouldn't be nearly as many problems in business.
Speaker 1:Well, we wouldn't need managers if everybody did their job correctly. We just have doers. I mean, Matt Lewis said that last night in my class and it's truly.
Speaker 3:It's profound why is it so hard?
Speaker 1:if everybody just did what they were supposed to do what they're supposed to do they doubt. There's a whole lot of reasons we can get into that on another episode of this show. I think I'm a terrible manager, mark.
Speaker 3:Well, I, well, I don't know about that.
Speaker 1:Are you multitasking again? I'm always multitasking. I don't think you're a terrible manager, but I do hear what you're saying. I mean, there's times when you've got to delegate, you've got to park with it. It's not the best use of your time. You don't want to do it, you're not good at it. You delegate that. You get other people. That's how you multiply your. Oh yeah, you have to.
Speaker 3:it's essential well, the thing is, you have to you. You cannot do everything yourself right, you won't grow right exactly. So there's that paradox if you try to do everything yourself, you're not going to be able to grow the business, yeah, but if you don't do everything, if you don't, I guess, feel responsible for everything, that's a good way to look at it yeah, yeah, and then get into stuff when you have to and when you need to get it done right, then you're going, something's going to happen, like it could be the books, it could be, you know, it could be customer support, it could be looking at the customer, a job needs to be done.
Speaker 1:A job needs to be done, you. Job needs to be done. Job needs to be done. You got to jump in and do it.
Speaker 2:Got to do it.
Speaker 1:And it also sets a good example for other people. It makes them feel like you're not too good. Oh yeah, you don't think you're above. You know cleaning the toilet or whatever has to be done. I'm not, it's really. It's so true. My wife told me she went to a fancy store with my stepdaughter to buy new ballet shoes in Tulsa and you have to be fitted. She's a dancer, she's really amazing, she's really good at it and anyway she goes. You know she's at the store and the people are, all you know, a little bit snooty. They're ballet people, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're ballet people yeah it's an upmarket store, you know. And she said my wife tells me she goes to the bathroom. She said the bathroom was absolutely filthy. Oh, that's terrible. She was just like they're all too good. You know she goes. I almost said to him you got some rubber gloves and some. I didn't see something. I almost said to him you got some rubber gloves and some. I can see some rubber gloves. You might as well just get in there and just clean it up. You know, get it done, baby. But that's the kind of thing Sometimes the business owner has to do, that it sets an example and it says I'm not above doing whatever needs to be done.
Speaker 3:That, and sometimes you just got to do it because no one else is getting the job done right, yeah. And then you need to set a standard. Not only are you leading by example, but you're setting the standard of what's important in that business.
Speaker 1:Yeah if you're good at it. I mean, there are some things that you're just you can't set the standard because you're not going to be the best, yeah, but yeah, I think it's also important for you to like, know, like, if you can try every job, then you know what the frustrations are, you know what the inefficiencies are, you know what the problems are, that if you don't do those jobs ever, yeah, then you're not in tune with the thing you know. Yeah, I, I have this fantasy at at janice motorcycles, that the, you know that the founder, the and myself will all build a motorcycle at some point. Oh, yeah, like, each of us get one on a stand and build it. Who? Not for any other reason other than it might be a really good way to learn? Absolutely, it probably would be. I mean, like, are the parts all convenient? Is everything there that you need Right? Do you have the tools that you actually need to do the job properly and fast? Yep, are the conditions tolerable Right.
Speaker 1:Is the sequence that everybody's using really the best sequence to assemble something? I mean, I just think there's a whole lot of questions you could answer yeah, but none of us has done it that I know of, At least you know. Maybe they did at some point in their early genesis that I'm unaware of.
Speaker 3:So they're just disconnected. But even if they did earlier on, so much has changed.
Speaker 1:Right, it's different now. Now you've got like 8 or 10 people working on that. You know what I mean, yeah, so, yeah, I do think that makes a lot of sense. Here's another one of the myths Entrepreneurship is a solo journey. I mean, we've had a whole episode devoted to partners.
Speaker 3:Yeah, what do you have to say to that? No, I mean, I don't think it isn't. It doesn't have to be. No, it doesn't have to be. Yeah, I mean like you can. I mean, first of all, like you can do what we're doing, right. You have colleagues. You have fellow entrepreneurs Right, it's good to start associating with that with other winner entrepreneurs, right? Yeah, that you can discuss these things and get advice from.
Speaker 1:Absolutely that you can discuss these things and get advice from.
Speaker 3:Absolutely, it makes a huge difference to people. And then you know, obviously, having a partner is one of the best things you can do, but the partnership has to be as significantly considered as a marriage, if not even more. So you know, because, I mean, you do deal with some hard stuff and you've got to know you know what your lanes mean. You do deal with some hard stuff and you've got to know you know what your lanes are. What about the traps, though? What about, like, how waiting for the perfect product delays progress and drains resources?
Speaker 1:That's a trap, yeah perfection's the enemy of good. Yeah, don't let perfect get in the way of progress. I am telling you that is such a common problem. People have progress. I am telling you that is such a common problem people have I. I deal I'm dealing with this right now in another business with a individual at a high level who will not produce a report that is necessary, that the business is certain information that the very business may depend, its existence may depend on. That's right, because he can't guarantee it's perfect. That's right. Okay, I'm serious, I am dealing with that right now. It's like your priorities are completely wacky, so the operation's a success but the patient dies. You know that's sort of the same line of thinking, I think. No, it's true.
Speaker 3:You know, yeah, and I would say it's not necessarily product-related, but what I've been experiencing with this business recently, no, it's not always product, you're right, it's marketing. Yeah, that's another area that you can paralyze yourself. So our team here is pretty non-tenured in marketing, right? I mean, marketing is such a big world, by the way, it is.
Speaker 3:It is so complex it keeps getting more complex, like in our last podcast when we were talking with Jeremy about how it's so broad. Talking with Jeremy, yeah, talking with Jeremy about how it's so broad but what I did was this is like here's a thousand bucks that you'll spend on digital media, and that was my direction. Now somebody else would be like oh, wait a minute. What about how you want your brand to look? How do you want this to be? What platform should we do? Should we do this and do that and get your agency?
Speaker 1:involved hangs everything up, but he's like exactly no marketing is going on at all, exactly, and guess what?
Speaker 3:who's the best teacher?
Speaker 3:your own self, with your own failures it's so true and man, they, they learned, they, they graduated and they I don't know if they can really even see it yet, because they probably live in a pretty stressful circumstance, but the growth that they've had in the last four months has been tremendous, like I mean, they've learned what works, what's not working, why is it working? They forget things, they repeat the same mistake and then they're like but it's bearing into their brains. Now they're becoming like self-sufficient in a lot of the things. But but guess what? We have gotten our name and our brand out in the market. Yes, you know this, this entire time, yes and uh, and I feel like that we're ahead and, by the way, we can apply all those learnings to our clients, of course, you know so it's.
Speaker 1:I mean that is such a good point. Here's another trap poor cash flow management. I mean that's just that's what kills businesses. Yeah, it's, it's. They do not teach that in school. No, I, I, you know. You see, you could say, business plans should have a cash flow forecast in them, and, and they often do, and they should have. But how good is that? And what about once the business is operational? Does that mean you stop doing your cash flow?
Speaker 3:planning Right? No, and I can tell you, what kills cash flow plans are when the unforeseen expenses pop up. You work with attorney, right, and you're trying to set up your LLC. You find out and you set, expenses pop up. You work with attorney, right, and you're trying to set up your LLC. You find out and you set it all up. Then you find out that you're in some sort of trademark infringement, potentially because you didn't do the research beforehand. Now you've got to spend that same $1,000 over again, sure Right, and that knocks your whole entire cash flow and that's going to happen 100 times in business there's things like that, and there's just things like not understanding the difference between selling something, earning revenue and actually getting paid for it.
Speaker 1:You know, when you've got, let's say, your business relies on large corporations, like a lot of companies here do not to name any certain large corporations, but we've got some biggies around here, right, yeah, they don't, I mean they don't pay very soon. No, they, I mean 60 days, 90 days, 120 days, maybe it depends on what it is, but it's somewhere in there, yep, yep. And so you could go out of business waiting to get paid, even though you made a big sale, yeah, and you earned the revenue. Mm-hmm, sometimes you don't even really earn it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I know Right, like sometimes you're just counting it in a way you know and you're not. I mean because if your contract, especially if you're working with a big company, like they expect, like they might set up terms with you, but their terms are that they could cancel with a 30-day notice, exactly. And if you made $100,000 in January and you go out and you blow that money to either catch up with what's happened because you're bad cash flow management in the past or you're still practicing bad cash flow management and you blow that $100,000 and they stop in April, we're not paying you anymore.
Speaker 1:Now you're still practicing bad cash flow management and you blow that hundred grand and they stop in april. We're not paying anymore. Now you're really screwed. So yeah, I think it's. It's super important. There's just a million. The other thing, you know and and I heard matt lewis and his brothers talk a little bit about this on their podcast is just people don't understand. They get so worried about um, you know, thinking they got to make their margin on every sale. Oh man, instead of get the sale, get the cash go out. Reinvest that cash in something else. Get the sale, reinvest that cash in something else. People don't understand that cycle. They're like like I'm going to hold out, okay, well, that could be what puts you out of business.
Speaker 3:My philosophy has always been like your profit margin really comes into play once you have a process, the right people, the right seat on the bus with the right process in place and you become efficient and effective at what you do. That's when you can really start looking at that profit and expecting more out of that. In the beginning, man, it's like especially if you're building a business like there's no way, if I make a $20,000 sale today and it's just me, I need to go out back to that. One other point about like I've got to do everything myself in that myth, I have got to offload my time and so I'm going to hire somebody but I'm not profitable. Or I'm still scraping, sure, but if I sit there, like to your point, and I go, wait a minute, but my profit margin needs to be this, because my accountant told me that I need to have a 30%, yeah, I should make it three times my raw labor cost.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, because my accountant said it and I'm a very well-educated person and I'm going to follow the exact rule, because everything's perfect and linear. Right, you know, you're going to start growth, you're going to expand the time horizon, or you're just not going to stunt growth. You're going to expand the time horizon or you're just not going to do well.
Speaker 1:Well, the whole cash flow and the cash conversion cycle is something that people need to understand with their business. I love businesses that are always cash flow positive. What's an example of that Online marketing business where you drop ship? Yeah, it's true, it's like I. I mean, the only thing you could be out is the marketing dollars trying to drive people to your website. So you could be out that. But maybe you just rely on social media. You get a sale, you get paid for it, you got all the cash. That's right now. You get your supplier to fulfill, then they fulfill, then you pay them. Yeah, I like that model. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Okay, that's good, like any kind of subscription-based models like that too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, where they're front-end loaded, you get paid in advance, like our surveys. Beckett's wife, exactly Cash. His letters used to be like that yeah, I mean cash, yeah, cash. I get all the money and then it takes me 12 months to fulfill it. Yeah, okay, yeah. So there are certain businesses that have inherently better cashflow associated with them. Again, just like those that take less capital, there are those that take less money to operate because the cashflow is fundamentally better. That's right.
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Speaker 1:So how about barriers?
Speaker 3:So this one's talking about fear or a failure and mindset challenges. Now, that's about a hundred episode conversation, but would you consider fear and failure a fear of failure and mindset challenges being one of the big barriers for entrepreneurs?
Speaker 1:Absolutely. Yeah, I mean, you know I. You always talk about how much work it is and I don't disagree with that and yes, it is risky. But it's not as risky if you do the work. Okay, I mean it. You know what I'm saying. If you just do the work, it won't be as risky. But a lot of people have inherent fear of failure and they don't do the work, yeah, and the? Then the failure manifests itself, right, um so, or they don't get into it, yeah, at all. I mean I, you know, we talked about this in the show before. It's like, if I can't come up with an idea that never been done before, I can't do anything.
Speaker 1:No, no, maybe that's yeah, that's so you know. Yeah, it's like if I can't get out of um the walton college with my degree in business and get a job working for walmart, jb, hunter, tyson, I might as well just go work at starbucks as a barista. It's about the same. You know what I mean. Yeah, it's like there's a lot of stuff in between there. Yeah, you know.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and businesses don't really have to be that different. They don't To do better or even take market share, they might grow the market.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because they're there. Yeah, yeah, that's a good point, you know, and I think the mindset it's not like the market share, the market is necessarily fixed. No, not at all.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, and I mean I think that the you know, the fear of failure obviously is a barrier. But this mindset challenge. It's kind of interesting to me that the mindset that you have to have as a small business owner like you have to be optimist, oh dude.
Speaker 1:That's the title of my next article I wrote for this white letter. It's not published yet. Really, that's what it's all about. You have to be an optimist, you've got to be an optimist, and how to maintain your optimism. That's right. It's hard, that's right.
Speaker 3:And that's the mindset, a hundred percent, I mean because? Because you will have nothing but problems.
Speaker 1:You're going to have a zillion problems. Some of them are your making, some of them aren't Right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there's going to be a lot of them, a lot of them all the time, and you have to be optimistic that there is a way to overcome them, or there's a way to just ride along with them. Yep, you know, there's certain problems that I've never been able to overcome in business.
Speaker 1:Well, the serenity prayer. It always makes sense, yeah, knowing the difference between the things you can change and those you can't. True, the wisdom that that takes. Yeah, if it's things you can't change, you can't let it depress you because you can't do anything about it.
Speaker 3:I've watched a lot of folks in business. You know, leaders, really great leaders, that man I mean there's just certain things, boy, that would just tear them up Like they would. I mean they would miss work because of it, whereas, like I mean, yeah, it's troublesome for me in some of these things, but it doesn't. You know, it's like man, I mean, what are you going to do? It's just crappy. You know, you just got to roll on with it. The situation changed, Just got to power through. It Just got to power through and then you got to. You know, just find a way to just navigate that a little bit. And you know, and typically, if you, like you said, if you work your way through it, it works out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's not blind optimism. It's optimism, as you said, with a plan of action. That's right Behind it. That's right, okay and so. But it is absolutely essential. People who are negative, people, who always see why something won't work, and a lot of very intelligent people are like that. Okay, I mean, it does take almost a willful ignorance, I hate to say.
Speaker 3:No, it does, man. I'm just sitting here thinking about my wife. In a way she is so. Everything has to be in this perfect square, all stacked up and perfectly, which is beautiful.
Speaker 1:I mean she runs a beautiful life like well, think about she had a military background and she works in health care. Right, there's standards that have to be met, all procedures, there's processes, there's, it's codified. If you screw this up, somebody could die, okay, yeah, therefore, you are going to be, I mean, yeah, that's your orientation in the system that you world you grew up in. You are going to be, I mean, yeah, that's your orientation in the system that you grew world you grew up in. You're going to respond to that. I forget that all the time.
Speaker 3:Yeah, like I've never remembered. I'm like, babe, I keep forgetting you're in the military for like 18 years. That's a major, just pretty. You know're white in the military. Huh, really, I've never seen anything. I just don't remember. Because I see her and she's so pretty I just get my breath taken away more. That's so sweet, thank you. But what's funny is even with her, when it snows outside it cracks me up because her OCD kicks into high gear. She hates when the snow starts to melt. In the driveway it's all slushy and then there's these snow piles that pile up on the side that never melt. She goes out there and kicks them and she immediately wants the driveway shoveled and cleared.
Speaker 1:How are you going to deal with that when you move to your new property? Oh, I know, with that driveway. I know there's no way that's going to be clear. I know it's a problem, man, trust me, I've been thinking about it. You need to stay over there, where you are in Shadow Valley, okay, where everything's all perfect. No, the perfect world, I don't want that?
Speaker 3:I don't want that. But you though of where like? I'll let the snow just happen, and the snow just melts away.
Speaker 1:Same with me.
Speaker 3:I didn't plow my driveway at all, that's just selling my should be out in the next what two or three weeks?
Speaker 1:Or it's going to be two or three days, dude, yeah, it just never lasts. It'll just melt off.
Speaker 3:Yeah, everything's going to be fine. You know, and I I mean I think you have to like not let a lot of things bother you. And yeah, because you cannot be in control. Yes, in business, you're entering into a world of non-controllables well, it's also.
Speaker 1:This is such a great analogy for marriage and life. It's the same thing. If you want to stay married, you can't be worried about the uncontrollables. You gotta let go of those things. Yeah, you know. Yeah, you do, you can't. I mean, like, I knew a guy he was so anal that, you know, he had like six kids and he just went home every day and like screamed at his wife and kids if anything was out of place or whatever can't live like that. You know, he made everybody miserable, including himself. Yeah, it's true, you know, including himself. Yeah, it's true, you know. It's just not a you can't control everything that much. So, yeah, those are things I mean. I do think, though, education is one way to get over fear of failure. If people feel like they've got the tools, their knowledge and their equipment equipped to make it happen. Maybe, maybe more than overcome.
Speaker 3:Or they get too educated and then become even more fearful.
Speaker 1:Well then they always want more information, and then the information's never certain, and then they die. Yeah, so yeah, that could be the case. You also have limited networks or mentorship as one of the barriers. That's a good point I never really thought of.
Speaker 3:But if you don't know who to go to to ask for help, no, or you don't know where to go to be in the presence of your clientele and market so that you can be introduced to people, or you can't. You know, that's one of those B&I like these business network groups, and what was the one you're part of? Vistage? Vistage, yeah, they're actually very valuable, especially for a new business owner.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the Vistage. They tell you we are not a business networking group. Okay but the reality of it is it functions like that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, people do business with the other companies that are part of their group of course I mean that's well, but that's because it's a you're networking with them, you're getting to know you get to trust, you build up trust, you find out what they do and you like them, and so yeah and stuff happens.
Speaker 3:But I mean, like, if you can't, if you can't network in those areas and be able to get help, you know, and to be able to meet your clientele and be introduced to them, you know, showing up at the right places I mean like it's definitely going to be a barrier for your business. Yeah, and dig into the Chamber of Commerce. I mean nobody really leverages the Chamber, I know.
Speaker 1:There's just like so many businesses there. It's so true. I can remember a member of Chamber of Commerce multiple times. I was on the Borea one, and boy. You're absolutely right. I always encourage small business owners to get involved with the Chamber, and you have to go down there and drive it, man.
Speaker 3:I mean, they're not there to make your business successful. They're there to connect you and help you with your network. It is a network, it is a network.
Speaker 1:It is, it really is. It's a great easy network to get.
Speaker 3:I think that's a hard argument to say that if somebody was like I have a barrier for my business because I don't have much of a network. I'd be like dude, have you gone to the chamber? Yeah, I signed up for 300 bucks, but I haven't seen anything, I know. But have you gone down there and talked to people, or get?
Speaker 1:involved and get involved in the chamber, right, yeah, that's a really good point. I mean the other thing, too, like fear of failure because you don't know something. My God, there's so much information on that oh yeah, it just absolutely blows me away. Yeah, I mean it really does me away. Yeah, I mean it really does you. Can, you can find out of anything immediately, just anything it's out there. It is crazy on how to do it, yeah, and it shortcuts the process.
Speaker 3:It just like I was doing something the other day about a business and I was just curious like on how it operated and I just google-ized it and then I was like, oh well, cool, I just figured that out, yeah move on.
Speaker 1:I know it's so true. I mean, even again, I have to go back to my struts on my hood. Yeah, I said to my wife the other day it's like I can't see exactly how those things go on. They got these little clips. I'm worried that if I pop that clip off it'll go fly and I'll lose one and then I'll be all pissed off because I don't have another one like that. But let's see exactly how it goes on. Two minute YouTube video. I don't take the clips off at all. It totally explained it to me. Okay, it's like anything you can find, like that. I can find out how to cashflow forecast. I can find out how to make websites people buy stuff from. I can find out how to hire people. There's so much information out there that's available to you today.
Speaker 3:So this conversation I know we're out of time, but this conversation right here is almost like duh in a way. But man, what I've noticed I got my three daughters right. They're all in their late teens and they've had a phone their entire life, yep, and I've also worked with some younger folks in the company. Yeah, you know that are in between up to like 30s, mid-30s. I've noticed something that has absolutely I would have never thought Okay, this. A lot of the folks have never seen this thing as a tool of information.
Speaker 1:This has been an entertainment box, yeah, and communication and communication Occasionally.
Speaker 3:They don't like. I'm literally like. I talk to my daughter, I'm like honey, why don't you just Google that? Right, why haven't you Googled that? Yeah, why haven't you Googled that? Why haven't you gone to YouTube yet? She's like but then I'm like, then some of the folks I work with, I'm like why am I telling you these things? Like, this is something you could have found out in literally 30 seconds. Yes, and you could have prepared to show me what you're showing me right now about your work. Yes, have prepared for me to show me what you're showing me right now about your work. Yes, and if you would have spent 30 minutes researching online, you would have had. You have been taught. You've been teaching me now, baby yeah, you know what I'm saying like there's no need, like the whole paradigm has been shifted a little bit as far as a lot of the tools and availability, but there's an ai makes it even exactly.
Speaker 3:You know more so but the crazy thing is, is the mindset like of, like they just don't think about, like that they have this power? That's an interesting phenomenon. I'm wondering, like, if somebody's really studying, you should google that, I should google. That was shady, but you're right, I didn't think about. But you're right, I didn't think about it, but you're right.
Speaker 1:I should have just Googled it. That's how we find out if they're yeah, they're making it is true, though you know right now there's a law that was passed that we're not going to have cell phones in public schools in the state of Arkansas.
Speaker 2:I don't know if you're aware of that.
Speaker 1:But you know, and honestly I think that's a good idea, okay, and and honestly I think that's a good idea okay only because these kids, they're not paying attention on school at all, they're missing out on all the things that school could be. You know, especially I'm thinking of, like my 13 year old. You know what I mean. They got to get off of that so they're not on tiktok or whatever all day, but as a tool to find information and capture information, they're they're missing out by not being able to use that the school all day mark.
Speaker 1:Don't have any worry, because the school has never taught them that yeah, I know that's the sad sad part about it, because I keep all my notes in here, being able to take pictures of things. There's so much you can do to organize yourself your calendar.
Speaker 3:You could be a 15-year-old entrepreneur making hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Speaker 1:They are out there, yeah yeah.
Speaker 3:There should be hundreds of more, you know, but they just don't think about it that way. It's the most interesting thing.
Speaker 1:Well, we do have a lot of information that's available to us. Obviously, it's not all good. Right, you do need to consider the source, right? Sure, but you can find damn near anything you want on your phone. Hey, damn near, I mean, it really is true, damn near. That's what I say. All right, man, all right. So we got to wrap it up. Yep, we want you to like and subscribe. Share, if you like our videos, our podcasts, share them with your friends, put them out on social media. We want to get the word out about what we are doing here.
Speaker 3:Hey, man we're getting a lot. We got a lot of guests getting lined up. Yeah, that's good, that's exciting, yeah, yeah, I'm actually getting approached quite a bit on LinkedIn about folks entrepreneurs want to come on the show. So I appreciate all you listeners out there Me too Pushing us around. I mean, we're up to like 35, 36 million listeners now, something like that, and 10 million downloads.
Speaker 1:I know Joe Rogan was getting concerned. I heard him the other night talking about why we had so many listeners. Yes, it's crazy he was worried. But no, seriously, we are going to be bringing some more guests. I mean, for those of you who wonder about guests, we just want people who've been successful in business. We're not looking for people who are basically living off other small business owners as individuals. That's not what we're interested in. Okay, not trying to slam all the coaches and one-man marketing consultants out there, but that's not what we're looking for.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and we're not looking for billionaires to tell stories, because, you know, I mean, we want just entrepreneurs that get at it, that have gotten at it and that have come on the other side, so you can share and encourage other people to get through these myths, traps and barriers, like recovery day yes, because those things are real. Yeah, we all need inspiration and we want to make american entrepreneurial country again like it was before the 1900s yeah, well, it certainly seems like there's many opportunities for people to totally do something if they want.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely all right. Well, until next week.
Speaker 2:This has been another episode of big talk about small business see ya, see ya, and click on the Ask the Host button for the chance to have your questions answered on the show. Stay connected with us on LinkedIn at Big Talk About Small Business, and be sure to head over to our website to read articles, browse episodes and ask questions about upcoming shows.