What Makes Someone READY to Own a Business? | Will Fry | AO 66

America doesn’t have a shortage of small businesses.

It has a shortage of people ready to take over.

In this episode of the American Operator Podcast, JC sits down with American Operator founder & CEO Will Fry to talk about one of the biggest challenges facing Main Street America:

Finding the RIGHT people to step into ownership.

Because buying a business isn’t just about money.

It’s about:

•  leadership 
•  character 
•  grit 
•  trust 
•  adaptability 
•  and surviving chaos when everything hits the fan. 

This episode pulls back the curtain on what actually happens when ownership changes hands inside a small business.

From employee mutinies…
 To legacy owners who can’t let go…
 To operators who look perfect on paper but collapse under pressure…

This is the real side of entrepreneurship nobody talks about.

In This Episode

•  Why ownership transitions are like an “open heart transplant” 
•  The difference between technical operators and people leaders 
•  Why charisma matters more than most people think 
•  The hidden “art forms” inside every business 
•  Why estimation can make or break a trades company 
•  What American Operator looks for before backing an entrepreneur 
•  The role personal finances and character play in ownership 
•  Why past hardship can actually be a GOOD sign 
•  How old owners can accidentally sabotage transitions 
•  Why some businesses survive entirely because of culture 
•  The challenge of finding operators willing to move to small-town America 
•  Why meaning and impact matter more than status 

One of the strongest themes in this conversation:

“The American Dream stays alive when someone is willing to step into the owner’s seat.”

And right now…

That’s getting harder to find.

American Operator

Stories from the people building, operating, and protecting the backbone of America.

Real operators.
 Real ownership.
 Real leadership.

Join the Movement
Tactical insights and behind-the-scenes stories from America’s operators:

• Website: www.americanoperator.com
• AO In Action: https://www.youtube.com/@AmericanOperator
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theamericanoperator
• Newsletter: https://americanoperator.substack.com
• Locally Owned and Operated: https://www.locallyownedandoperated.org/

Transcript

00:00:00:01 - 00:00:01:13
Speaker 2
Which one would you rather have?

00:00:01:13 - 00:00:07:01
Speaker 2
An operator that's highly charismatic, strong people leader, but technically a little weaker.

00:00:07:04 - 00:00:08:14
Speaker 2
Or someone who is

00:00:08:14 - 00:00:15:08
Speaker 2
very technical, understands the the analytical parts of things, but maybe a little bit of a tree trunk.

00:00:15:11 - 00:00:19:18
Speaker 1
It depends on the industry. It's like the super annoying answer

00:00:19:20 - 00:00:49:01
Speaker 1
All right, y'all. Today we have William Fry, our CEO on the show. We're going to dive right into what American operator is all about, which is keeping the American dream alive. But it is so dang hard to do it. Why not? Because there isn't enough folks who want to step into ownership. Just finding the right folks. We're going to cover war stories, the particular skill sets we're looking for, and more importantly, the top of personality and character that can step right into these small businesses and really take the horse by the reins.

00:00:49:02 - 00:00:50:04
Speaker 1
Welcome to the show.

00:00:50:08 - 00:00:55:03
Speaker 2
All right, y'all, we're back with William Frey.

00:00:55:05 - 00:00:56:06
Speaker 1
Glad to be back.

00:00:56:07 - 00:00:56:14
Speaker 2
Man.

00:00:56:14 - 00:00:57:02
Speaker 1
Thanks for having.

00:00:57:02 - 00:01:10:01
Speaker 2
Me back. Dude, this is a guy, like, look, he's busy, man. Running all over, man. You just got back. I mean, we had National Small Business Week right where you were. I mean, had yet at the white House. Had the white House a little bit at RK.

00:01:10:03 - 00:01:10:19
Speaker 1
Yeah.

00:01:10:23 - 00:01:12:17
Speaker 2
I mean, there's a lot going on in the world right now.

00:01:12:18 - 00:01:13:20
Speaker 1
In whirlwind.

00:01:13:22 - 00:01:16:09
Speaker 2
Anything interesting from the travels and, and just.

00:01:16:11 - 00:01:21:09
Speaker 1
The most interesting thing is I was getting my haircut yesterday and.

00:01:21:11 - 00:01:39:07
Speaker 1
I don't think we were chatting about occupational licensing. I don't know if she liked the conversation that we were going in, but I was nothing out about. You started it, I started it. And then because it's actually really bad for for hairstylists, like you have to go through like a ton of school in like continuing ed hours to just cut people's hair.

00:01:39:08 - 00:01:54:17
Speaker 1
You have to do more of that than to be an EMT tech. Anyways, you're talking about that. And then somehow, like DC got brought up and then the conversation went a certain direction, so I just kept my mouth shut. But, you know, people have their opinions.

00:01:54:18 - 00:01:57:13
Speaker 2
Well, this is what it means to be with the people. Yeah, yeah.

00:01:57:15 - 00:02:05:04
Speaker 1
Yeah, they are right. I don't think we're in fascist America, but if that's what you want to talk about, what? You do have the scissors. So.

00:02:05:05 - 00:02:07:14
Speaker 2
Well, maybe give you.

00:02:07:16 - 00:02:09:03
Speaker 1
Just be quiet.

00:02:09:03 - 00:02:12:02
Speaker 2
I'm gonna let you finish around the ears, and then.

00:02:12:04 - 00:02:15:12
Speaker 1
I'll share my real thoughts once I've stood up.

00:02:15:18 - 00:02:24:16
Speaker 2
What? What do you. If there was a glimmer of hope from DC that you think is maybe more positive than sometimes gets painted, especially in the world of small business? What would you say?

00:02:24:17 - 00:02:51:23
Speaker 1
Yeah. I don't know. I think just it's like a cultural vibe shift. It's like the biggest thing which obviously is like, not very articulate, but people are just optimistic. On Main Street, there's a bunch of really great work. And I know you and you and Kelly chat about the other week that a variety of folks in both federal and, frankly, states have done to make it just easier to run small businesses.

00:02:52:01 - 00:03:08:23
Speaker 1
There have been a build up across all the states and federal of just like rules that made it impossible for you to run a small business to the point where, like, you wake up in the morning and you're breaking some code, you just don't know what code it is. Yeah, because we're really good at adding laws and we're bad at removing them.

00:03:08:23 - 00:03:30:19
Speaker 1
So I think that's cool. You have a bunch of great funding opportunities out there. So yeah, I think people are optimistic. Like it's it's a hectic time regardless of whether you're in small business or not. We're in like an on again off again not war baby war conflict depending on who you ask. And then you have the tariffs which have kind of cut both ways.

00:03:30:21 - 00:03:53:10
Speaker 1
So I think it's not like things are easy, but I think people are optimistic. And the cool thing is that like the people in power care about small businesses, and you're seeing a shift in corporate America where they care about them as well. And so I think owners appreciate that, and they're grateful for finally having a little bit of limelight despite, you know, working 60 hours a week for so long and kind of being an afterthought to most people.

00:03:53:11 - 00:04:12:08
Speaker 2
Yeah. Singing about this the other day, like, as much as it's kind of a pain right now to kind of be going like, especially as an owner trying to grow through what you're doing or anybody in a way that it's almost necessary in order to ensure that those that do make it through this are like foundationally strong. Yeah, because they're like went through these storms and uncertainty and all this other things.

00:04:12:08 - 00:04:28:00
Speaker 2
So like at the other end of it, you probably have some really deserving and well-earned folks that should be there. Yeah. Whereas like, if it was a little too rosy street and nobody wants to hear this, but if it was, you might question that when the storm does hit, is that business, or is that person or family around when that does happen?

00:04:28:01 - 00:04:49:01
Speaker 1
Yeah. And like I like the approach that the federal government is taking right now, which is move fast and try a bunch of things like that's how we operate, like most stuff we do is not necessarily going to work internally. It may feel like whiplash, but it's just like iterate, iterate, iterate. And I think the administration is doing that, which is cool.

00:04:49:02 - 00:05:05:05
Speaker 1
That will mean that they'll do stuff and you're like, God, did we have to try that? But but I think it will lead to kind of the same sentiment, which is like, you're going to go through some pain, but you're going to end in a much better, much better spot, which is, you know, very similar to how our operators feel as well.

00:05:05:10 - 00:05:08:01
Speaker 1
We had our fair share of chaos the past couple of weeks.

00:05:08:03 - 00:05:10:15
Speaker 2
Well, speaking of which, that's what we're here to talk about a little bit.

00:05:10:17 - 00:05:30:18
Speaker 1
Hey, y'all. Quick break here at American operator. We believe that small business is the backbone of this country, but more and more Main Street getting swallowed up by big corporations, wall Street or some of them are just shutting down. If you've ever thought about building something of your own, or just being a part of saving the American Dream, head on over to American Operator.

00:05:30:19 - 00:05:41:08
Speaker 1
It's your one stop shop for inspiration stories, and you'll get to join this really great community of patriots to believe our country still worth fighting for. All right. Back to the show.

00:05:41:10 - 00:05:57:08
Speaker 2
Man, we're going to give folks a little insight. So for y'all tuning in today, the reason I wanted to get well back on the on the show here is, you know, we talk about how hard it is to make these new marriages happen of old business, new business owner, go forth and conquer.

00:05:57:08 - 00:06:26:17
Speaker 2
And it seems to be that there's a lot of interested people on both sides of want to make it happen, but it is really hard to find the right people and the right chemistry and all the things that happened. So what I wanted to do today is just share kind of three buckets of how hard it is, like how hard it is to find the right folks to take over these businesses, focusing on like the technical aspects of it, you know, like what are the ones and zeros and the certs and all the things, their focus on the culture fit and chemistry.

00:06:26:18 - 00:06:43:22
Speaker 2
Yeah. And then lastly, it's like the old owner gets a big vote and not even a vote. I think people realize like they get a vote in a way that sometimes they do crazy things with their business that the new owner has got to be on board with to clean up, figure out employee issues, mutinies, all kinds of weird stuff that.

00:06:44:00 - 00:06:45:02
Speaker 1
Crush the rebellion.

00:06:45:03 - 00:07:02:13
Speaker 2
Yeah. So that kind of thing. So if you want, I'd love to just kind of take them step by step. And I think to the extent that we can share any specific antidotes. Yeah, sure. So I don't know. Let's start on the technical side. Like what have we found here at American Operator? Just be like clear what it needs to be that person's Quarles, but just so damn hard to make happen.

00:07:02:17 - 00:07:29:09
Speaker 1
I think a lot of it gets back to like, what is the art of the business? Like you have some amount of like, government regulation where you need a master plumber's license to run the shop. And from our vantage point, when we're partnering with these operators, we don't want to be in a scenario where we're relying on some other employee at the business that has that license to stick around when they have, like both, no skin in the game from a debt perspective, but also no material ownership in that business.

00:07:29:11 - 00:07:55:08
Speaker 1
They could, you know, you don't really know how strong the culture is from the outside looking in. And so if there's not a big kind of mechanism to either keep them there from a pain perspective, like if you walk away, you lose a lot of money or keep them there from a positive perspective, which is like if you say you're going to make a lot of money, you're going to have a great impact, then it's just kind of like a big risk of like, if that person leaves, then the business can't operate compliant.

00:07:55:10 - 00:08:22:06
Speaker 1
So obviously kind of the government piece is and licensing piece is important. But on the art piece, oftentimes in business there is some element that is like a learned skill that you can't learn from a textbook that can make or break the business. So like in the trades, a common one is estimation. So like if you overestimate a job, you're not going to win any work because you're the most expensive bid in town.

00:08:22:07 - 00:08:43:16
Speaker 1
If you underestimate the job, you're going to win a bunch of unprofitable work. So like both of those are bad. So you need to be in this, like kind of sweet spot. At the same time, if the prior owner had positioned their company as more of a premium service, and you're not able to adapt to that and you come in and start bidding at kind of like average or below average, and you're more of like a value cost.

00:08:43:17 - 00:09:08:18
Speaker 1
Play. The financials that we were kind of baking on may not necessarily pan out. So that's like kind of in the trades in other businesses in distribution, for instance, a lot of those businesses have like a huge sales rep contingency and the business is really made or broken over. Can you hire, train or fire a ton of sales reps and manage them?

00:09:08:18 - 00:09:38:19
Speaker 1
And then can you manage inventory? Both of those things are like kind of arts in a way of like what products to start, when to reorder, how to kind of read the market of like how much to carry and at the same time on the on the personnel side, knowing how to attract someone when you don't have like the resources of a fortune 500, you're not dumping a bunch of benefits on them, you're not dumping a bunch of pay on them, but then also knowing like, hey, it's kind of 90 days in your up or out, maybe you get a draw for a little bit of, of time to kind of cover your expenses, but

00:09:38:19 - 00:10:05:15
Speaker 1
then you need to be able to kind of pay for yourself and, and sell product and build good customer relationships. So that's kind of like how I think about it is like you have the kind of like legal technical, like what do you need to do in order to just be able to have the business operate? And then you have like the art form of the business, and we ideally have operators who have both of those because then there's less risk in the business of like, oh, we are reliant on X, Y and Z in that person decided to pursue some other opportunity.

00:10:05:17 - 00:10:22:08
Speaker 2
Do you find that on the art piece of it? What is the what are we finding are the indicators right now that we know that the person has it and has the ability to quickly adapt and become good with the brush in their hand? Like how does that how does that muster out?

00:10:22:09 - 00:10:40:03
Speaker 1
I mean, I would say right now we're for like the key art form. We try not to assume that they can figure it out on the job. We want them to come in with it. And that kind of gets back to our general strategy, which is like, It's American operator. Like, go find the the great operators, help them become owners.

00:10:40:09 - 00:10:58:15
Speaker 1
Don't try to kind of like get get someone in chair and hope they can operate really well. So then the question is like, okay, well, how do you know that they're good at doing that? And I would say we have kind of two approaches right now. One is have they actually been responsible for that for multiple years in a row.

00:10:58:15 - 00:11:17:01
Speaker 1
And the story had a happy ending, because you have people who are responsible for it and made a story, didn't have a happy ending. You also have people who like manage someone else who is responsible for that, but they don't really know it. And then the second approach is, and you've shared the story of a bunch of these folks as our advisor program.

00:11:17:01 - 00:11:32:06
Speaker 1
So like, we're not I'm not an expert on any of these industries. Our team is an expert on any of these industries. And so a lot of it is like, okay, let's work with the advisor to identify what is the art form. If it's an industry we haven't been in before, and then to have them assess, are they good at that art form.

00:11:32:06 - 00:11:57:12
Speaker 1
And so oftentimes that's just a proxy like spending time together. And then we actually had a number of advisors who flew out to businesses that we've partnered with the past two weeks, where they were riding along with the operator and actually like focus on coaching on that art form of like, hey, this is how you should have handled this customer call or like, hey, this is probably how we want to bid out these types of jobs to make sure that all the the eyes are not in the teaser cross.

00:11:57:13 - 00:12:18:21
Speaker 2
Yeah. That's a it's and it's so custom tighter. Right. Like because even if you're able to find the art form in this particular trades type business, you you move a state over and it's a whole different equation again, because everybody in that town like doesn't give a hoot what you think about. Some are plumbing services. Everybody cares like how well you can get them out of a bind when their septic is frozen.

00:12:18:22 - 00:12:41:21
Speaker 1
Totally. And like even within the industries, like you say, plumbing. But what it means to run a commercial versus a more maintenance versus like a new housing, it's like vastly different, same within many different forms of manufacturing. So a lot of it is just like really understand the business and understand what it takes to be successful and spend time doing that.

00:12:41:21 - 00:12:46:23
Speaker 1
Before we start thinking about like, okay, from the network of operators, we have, who's the best fit.

00:12:47:00 - 00:13:05:05
Speaker 2
From a from like a preparation perspective, somebody considering this path right now, if they're tuning in, what would you what advice would you give them based on our lessons learned, that if I want to be the very best qualified operator, based on what you just said is an important value, what should they be thinking about or doing now to kind of prep themselves to do that?

00:13:05:06 - 00:13:25:23
Speaker 1
Yeah, I would say it's kind of one broader framework that I like to use. And then kind of the tattoo advice, the broader framework is like, especially if you're younger or you're doing a crazy career pivot like you're leaving corporate America. What I was always told, like when I was in high school and college was like optimized for learnings per day of like, you just want to be a sponge and get as many reps on random stuff as possible.

00:13:25:23 - 00:13:48:06
Speaker 1
You don't know what necessarily is going to be relevant down the road, but you'll rarely regret that kind of approach to your professional life. And then the second thing is, for folks who are wanting to get into the ownership seat, is to understand, like in the industry that they're in, what does the owner typically do? Can I go do that for the owner?

00:13:48:07 - 00:14:12:07
Speaker 1
Like a lot of times owners nowadays their managing the customer relationships and they're doing like the bids and the estimates and whatnot. And so they may not love doing that. It's just like the last thing that they haven't delegated because it is an art form and you have to get it right. And so if I am kind of like the number two or number three at a, at a small business and I want to become an owner, they want to start something myself by the owner I work for, maybe by another business or partner with us.

00:14:12:09 - 00:14:28:17
Speaker 1
What I'm going to try to do is understand, like, okay, this is what the owner does today, that he's kind of kept his I didn't ask like, hey, do you mind if I ride along with you while you go and do those bids? Or you go and see those customers and then, like, if it's okay with you, could I start trying to do some and then you kind of spot check where I am?

00:14:28:19 - 00:14:47:17
Speaker 1
Because the hard thing about a lot of this is like, if you're starting from scratch, you are not going to get good without just burning your hand on the stove. That's how the owners got good. And so if you can have a safe environment to like, learn that, that's awesome. Yeah. Because you're not you're kind of playing with House of money at that point.

00:14:47:20 - 00:15:03:13
Speaker 2
Such good advice. Yeah. There's like they did it from a point of survival. They the owners. Yeah. Like they're starting off like oh shoot that didn't win me a deal to do this next time. Oh that won me a deal. But I just went I lost all my savings on it. Yeah, because it was way too expensive of a project, you know, get that just right.

00:15:03:16 - 00:15:23:01
Speaker 2
Yeah. You know, reading it. Yeah. Okay. Let's switch to, it's culture and character. I call it culture. I'm more kind of thinking about like chemistry of like that, that operator moving into a company. That company has a personality where people realize it or not. Yeah, but maybe even before that, starting with the with the character of these operators.

00:15:23:01 - 00:15:42:00
Speaker 2
And I'll just put this straight up out there on the table. We meet really great technical folks who probably nail the art, but gosh, man, their personal life and finances are just a wreck, which makes it very difficult for anybody to feel comfortable backing it. Like, are you going to be able to steward this business yet you can't keep your own housekeeping.

00:15:42:01 - 00:15:49:02
Speaker 2
Yeah. What insight. Do you have there and or anecdotes that we have seen that might be helpful?

00:15:49:04 - 00:16:26:09
Speaker 1
I think generally to the degree that you can live a life where you're fine with everyone, you know, picking up the rug and seeing what's underneath, you'll rarely regret that. What we find is that sometimes in folks personal lives, they don't pay as much attention to what's going on as their professional lives. And from our vantage point, like when you're going to partner with someone or you're going to take out a loan, or you're going to do anything where someone is taking a big bet on you, rarely are they going to be able to look for an exact example of someone taking the same bet on you in the past, like maybe this is

00:16:26:09 - 00:16:44:05
Speaker 1
the first time you're getting a mortgage, or this is the first time that you're getting a big loan for your business. So this is the first time you're partnering with someone in a business context. And so what they have to do is they have to look at other parts of your life and be like, what? What example can I find that's like the closest proxy to what I'm about to jump in bed with Joseph over.

00:16:44:05 - 00:17:01:23
Speaker 1
And so for us, when we're thinking about like, okay, can they manage finances decently and be a decent steward of capital, like we're not expecting anyone to be Warren Buffett or some crazy finance person. But like, if we give them a dollar, are they going to take decent care of the dollar? You may have not owned a business before.

00:17:01:23 - 00:17:19:22
Speaker 1
And so we're like, okay, well, like how do they treat their personal finances when we look in there and there is, you know, you have a credit score that's below 600 and you have a bunch of crazy loans. And the reason you took out loans is to buy stuff that you didn't really need, and some fancy car, some house that you can't necessarily afford.

00:17:20:01 - 00:17:39:18
Speaker 1
It makes our job really tough of trying to like, find reason to believe that you're going to be a good fit. And we always approach it probably to a fault with like a glass half full mentality of like, we believe in humans, we believe in really great operators. We understand that everyone needs second chances and that shit happens in life.

00:17:39:18 - 00:17:54:03
Speaker 1
But like, do we want to be the provider of fifth chances? Like maybe not a great business strategy. And so I'd say like to the greedy, you can make sure that you kind of keep your house in order rarely. I actually have never heard of anyone regretting that.

00:17:54:03 - 00:18:11:20
Speaker 2
No, it's a good policy, man. Just good way to be. Can you also talk about how when we do find something that's a little bit like. All right, it's got a little trashy smell like it seems like you didn't keep that part in your house in order. Yeah. Talk about how we kind of double check that second chance.

00:18:11:20 - 00:18:23:07
Speaker 2
Worth it or not. Meaning? Like, when we press folks on it. And then it's important to us to understand or to hear how they respond to the things we find. Can you give any examples of of where it went well, or maybe where we're like, yeah, that's short.

00:18:23:12 - 00:18:45:01
Speaker 1
Yeah. So so I think generally speaking, like throughout the kind of evaluation process, it's like it's a two way street. One of the hard things about finding opera is like it's the skill, it's the cultural stuff and the values. It's also the obviously the kind of personal financials and risk tolerance of the individual. But a big piece of it is like partnership.

00:18:45:03 - 00:19:09:12
Speaker 1
And we're doing stuff where there's two cooks in the kitchen. That's how this this setup works. You become the majority owner and have control over the business. But that's not the first handful of quarters or years. It's very much kind of close to an equal partnership. And so when you're thinking about partnership, you want to be able to have trust and be able to speak bluntly in one of our company values is to shoot straight, and we want to be able to do that kind of both ways with the folks that we work with.

00:19:09:15 - 00:19:28:01
Speaker 1
So on that note, if we find something in your background, whether it's like on a background check or kind of your personal financials, and it's not so rosy, we're not immediately going to kick you out. Like, as I said, we're glass half full. We're going to be like, tell us, like allow us to understand why this happened, what you learn from it, why it's not going to happen again.

00:19:28:02 - 00:19:48:20
Speaker 1
And so like on the kind of financial side of the House, we've had instances where people kind of like minimize, minimize the problem. And then we're like, hey man, like shoot a straight like what happened here not so good at response would be like, I just decided not to pay it. It's not a good response for like a couple things.

00:19:48:20 - 00:20:12:02
Speaker 1
One, like I believe like you have some amount of moral obligation to try to make good on the debts that you take out and just deciding not to make good on it because you didn't want to. Maybe not so great. Two we're in a business. We're about to back up the truck and back you. So if historically you decided, no, I'm just not going to do that.

00:20:12:04 - 00:20:15:14
Speaker 1
What about us? What if you're just like, no.

00:20:15:16 - 00:20:17:03
Speaker 2
Not today.

00:20:17:05 - 00:20:40:21
Speaker 1
Nice try. And then third, it's just like a level of thoughtfulness of, like, even if you were a bad actor, at least have some of the EAC to kind of bullshit us, like like, like bullshitting me. Like, like best, best scenario is like something bad happened. You got into, like, some medical issues and it just kind of spiraled.

00:20:40:23 - 00:21:00:05
Speaker 1
You have three years of making good. You've worked out all your credit. Sure. Maybe your credit report doesn't look great, but like you have shown like month over month of like just chipping away your on time with everything that the creditors are thumbs up. We can pull your spouse's your spouse has good credit. It's like okay, you went through some hard times, you're out of it.

00:21:00:06 - 00:21:18:23
Speaker 1
Or maybe like you had some dust up, you know, ten years ago with with the law, it's not really a flexion of like your character. You didn't murder anyone. You didn't commit fraud. Maybe you did something you probably shouldn't have done according to the law in your past. That so so so that would be like, okay, we have reason to believe we can kind of get reference checks, whatnot.

00:21:19:00 - 00:21:37:05
Speaker 1
Second would be like you did something bad and like you bullshit at us and like we catch it, right? And then it's like, okay, well, he at least was like savvy enough to try to get by. And then like, the worst is just like flipping us the bird and being like, I don't care. Like this. Like how of course I just didn't decide to do that.

00:21:37:07 - 00:22:07:03
Speaker 1
So there's definitely like spectrums. And then obviously, you know, I should caveat the very best is that you've lived a law abiding great life founded on good values, and you haven't had any scuffles with creditors or the law. And it's, you know, blank, blank report. And we're like, let's ride, baby. But, you know, I think one thing that we've come to understand is that specifically on the finance stuff is like we do have an affordability crisis in the US, and people on both sides of the aisle acknowledge that.

00:22:07:09 - 00:22:28:20
Speaker 1
And it's expensive, more expensive than ever to just have a family and and try to make ends meet. And so people aren't going to have the, the credit or the assets that maybe they would have 40, 50 years. And we're very reasonable about that. We just want to make sure that we can understand the circumstances and have confidence that we'd be good partners.

00:22:28:22 - 00:22:47:13
Speaker 2
Yeah. So much that the the worst case I don't give a hoot is because, like, we're we're really concerned that you might not call us when something's going to happen or you walk out. Yeah. The second bottom from the worst of like the guy or gal who's just kind of BS in their way through it, you can at least respect their creativity.

00:22:47:14 - 00:23:08:14
Speaker 2
Yeah. Like the fact that, like, they're trying to find a will to win there even though it's a little shady. Yeah. But you still can't trust that. Still a little bit of a snake. Yeah. I find that for us that the the perfect. Yeah. The kind of the A+ student. But there's actually nothing wrong with the second one too, because in a way, you know that like the problem with A+ students sometimes is that they want to be perfect as soon as there's a blemish.

00:23:08:15 - 00:23:23:05
Speaker 2
Yeah. Which will happen in the business and you're in small business ready to get punched in the face. You want to tell you want to know that they're good to tell us. Yeah. Like, hey, man, I just screwed up this entire estimation for this quarter. We're going to make no money this quarter. You know, that kind of thing.

00:23:23:06 - 00:23:27:10
Speaker 2
Yeah, I know it's a talk about an art, man. That's an art to trying to figure out where the thread that needle.

00:23:27:11 - 00:23:47:02
Speaker 1
Yeah. And like, you want someone with a chip on their shoulder. And sometimes that comes from, hey, I've spent the past decade working for someone else, and, like, I want to get mine. Or sometimes it's like I took a big loss and like, I want to win and I want to prove to myself and prove to my spouse and prove to the people I care about that, that I'm a winner.

00:23:47:02 - 00:24:11:10
Speaker 1
And this is just kind of a blip on the radar. And like that type of drive and chip on your shoulder, I think is healthy within reason. And so I definitely agree that, like, you know, pass hardship is a good indicator of grit and kind of pushing through and being a good fit for small business. As long as the past wasn't too bad, you know?

00:24:11:12 - 00:24:11:22
Speaker 2
Yeah.

00:24:11:23 - 00:24:16:09
Speaker 1
As long as it's a blemish and not like it's broken. So.

00:24:16:11 - 00:24:21:01
Speaker 2
I'm in America because I'm wanted in seven countries right now. You know, back.

00:24:21:01 - 00:24:43:15
Speaker 1
In the day when we were doing sell side work and like working with owners, I would chat a lot more directly with the owners. And I came to understand that there are certain people who go into small business, there are certain people who are in small business because every other door in their life has been closed and normally closed because of their behavior.

00:24:43:17 - 00:24:44:12
Speaker 1
It's like, okay.

00:24:44:13 - 00:24:45:10
Speaker 2
This is the.

00:24:45:10 - 00:24:52:23
Speaker 1
Career of last resort. I see what and some of them are very successful, but it's like interesting backstory here.

00:24:52:23 - 00:25:07:07
Speaker 2
It is kind of Odd World, man, where you get like this really high standard of like the greatest owners in the world are just these like stand up humans. Yeah. And then on the other side, man, you've been to I mean, I go to a restaurant the other day because I met the I saw the, like, owner's name on the thing.

00:25:07:10 - 00:25:11:15
Speaker 2
I wish I didn't do that. Yeah. There's a reason he's. He owns a business.

00:25:11:16 - 00:25:11:23
Speaker 1
There's a.

00:25:11:23 - 00:25:13:08
Speaker 2
Reason not working somewhere else.

00:25:13:09 - 00:25:37:19
Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah. At some point, like five years from now, I'll share one of the craziest stories from one of the owners. We partnered with it like it's nuts to the point where, like, he had an offer for to be featured on America's Most Wanted. And his second wife wisely advised that that maybe wouldn't be a good idea. And he declined.

00:25:37:19 - 00:25:42:20
Speaker 1
But he told me the story and the 90s were an interesting chapter in his life.

00:25:42:21 - 00:26:04:00
Speaker 2
So yeah, man, there's a disclaimer. It's mostly good and bad, but when it is bad, man, it cuts right through the because right through the noise, man, the stories are intense. Okay. Culture side kind of let me restructure that question or that that bucket a little bit. It's more like this is kind of like bucket to be.

00:26:04:02 - 00:26:23:13
Speaker 2
It's the adhering like the organ, the new operator adhering to the body, you know, not getting rejected. What are some of the learnings we have there about, you know, you got owner in the new operator get along. We like the new operator all this other stuff. They enter that door, cross the threshold and the employees all of a sudden are either in or not into this person.

00:26:23:14 - 00:26:36:16
Speaker 1
Yeah. I think there's this like tension of of who we're looking for. We're like, on the one hand, we want people who will bet on themselves and.

00:26:36:18 - 00:27:10:09
Speaker 1
Almost to a fault, they're like, I'll figure this out. I'm not worried. I'm not fazed. Because those folks are cool under pressure. They're always going to push. They're not going to get into some type of spiral. And generally speaking, other teammates will live off of that energy when stuff's hitting the fan. At the same time, we want someone who is self-reflective enough and always like improving themselves that they're not going to do the same mistake twice.

00:27:10:09 - 00:27:30:12
Speaker 1
And the Joseph of this morning is always better than the Joes of yesterday morning. There's tension there because like oftentimes what we'll find is like, you'll have the Rambo person who thinks they're like God's gift to the world and like, I'm great. Like, of course I bet on myself every like, everyone should bet on me. Look at me.

00:27:30:14 - 00:27:52:01
Speaker 1
And that's not the vibe. That's like a flavor within that, that kind of like personality trait. But that's not the the flavor exactly that we want. And on the flip side, you have the folks who are kind of like, overly analytical and always like trying to kind of have shiny object syndrome. And they're super academic and they don't have a bias to action.

00:27:52:03 - 00:28:26:08
Speaker 1
And so where that ties into culture is like at close with any of these ownership transitions, it is the scariest, most risky point of time in that business is life since it was started. Essentially what you're doing in small business is like an open heart transplant. And there are doctors who are really good at that. We're trying to be the best and people at open heart transplants in small business, but it's very much an open heart transplant because you have this cult of personality with the owner.

00:28:26:08 - 00:28:44:02
Speaker 1
You have, please, who've been used to that owner for ten, 15 years. You have all of these kind of like promises that have been made that the owner forgot about when we were asking them about what promises they made. And so you're like, and then you're like putting in this new heart and you're like, I fucking hope it's the same blood type.

00:28:44:04 - 00:29:00:13
Speaker 1
And so, like, what you're looking for from, from a person is like, they're going to keep beating the operator. They're going to keep on pushing the blood throughout the body, and they're going to be like, stuff's going to hit the fan. It's all good. We're going to figure this out. We're going to one foot in front of the other.

00:29:00:13 - 00:29:24:20
Speaker 1
Let's go. But at the same time, you want them to be like adaptable and self-reflective enough to know that, like, hey, how I come across to this group of employees, it's probably slightly different than I should come across to these. And this is like, actually what motivates this group is like we were I was at an ownership transition a couple of weeks ago and one employees is like amazing.

00:29:24:22 - 00:29:46:11
Speaker 1
And she was just like really anxious about the whole thing. And I pulled her side in. Like the biggest thing that she was anxious about was like, can I still show up in like a t shirt and jeans, literally. And it's like, so you need to be able to flex up and down of like for these other employees that are a bit more hard charging and like, why didn't I take over the business or like, is my book of business at risk because of what are you all doing there?

00:29:46:11 - 00:30:01:04
Speaker 1
You kind of have to draw the line a little bit and be like, hey, we're we are like good people. We're not screwing anyone over here. We're going to back up the truck with resources. We're going to help you win. But we need to be able to run this playbook. And like, you have to decide by the end of this week, are you in or out?

00:30:01:04 - 00:30:16:02
Speaker 1
And you need an operator who's like, if they pick out like, game on, I'm going to go into hiring mode. I've already tapped my network for who I'm going to find, like, we'll figure this out. And on the other hand, you need like the kind of like soft empathy side to be like, oh, for these people, they're just like, scared.

00:30:16:03 - 00:30:31:04
Speaker 1
Like they're there are people who are used to the people they work around. Their slightly more like anxious on the margin. They just need to be reassured, like, hey, everything's good here. We got your back, your job still here. Show up in like, whatever the hell you want to wear to work. Like we're not the size of people.

00:30:31:07 - 00:30:40:11
Speaker 1
Like jeans and a t shirt, if you turn the camera around is how most of the people here are dressed. And so I think that's kind of like the tension on the culture side that we try to tease out.

00:30:40:12 - 00:31:00:12
Speaker 2
Yeah, it's a it's a moving it's a moving target for these folks. I think they realize that the you got to be authentic, but you got to be a bit of an authentic chameleon, right. Like as you're in there trying to do these things. Yeah. I remember, a piece of advice I used to give, like these young officers used to come up and, like, take her like, hey, what do you need recommendations I can do with the boys?

00:31:00:13 - 00:31:20:18
Speaker 2
And I always say two things. Do not become their friend. And not because, like, they're not, like, worthy of friendship. Sure. Just because, like, it'll spoil things where, like, at some point you're gonna have to make a call, and you can't, like, friends don't make other friends do certain things. So like your job is different. But the other thing that I used to tell them, I said, make it so that the boys never want to lose you.

00:31:20:20 - 00:31:40:18
Speaker 2
Yeah, right. Because, like, they end up becoming protective and want they like. That's a good officer. Yeah, right. And he's really good. Takes care of us. I'll do everything to make sure he never gets chopped. Yeah. Rider gets moved. And it's like what these employees want. They want a new owner that they're just like, oh, okay, I can live with this guy or gal for a long time, but you don't show them that.

00:31:40:18 - 00:31:46:17
Speaker 2
And there's a lot of ways you show them that. One is like technical competency, but the other stuff just just being a good human.

00:31:46:18 - 00:32:11:03
Speaker 1
Totally. And then like the way that we try to tease out the kind of like self-reflective and hard charging pieces, I would say two tactics that I found. Well, one is like, never ask someone what they would do in a situation or hypothetical because you learn nothing and people can just make up like, I would walk on water..

00:32:11:05 - 00:32:12:04
Speaker 2
If you.

00:32:12:05 - 00:32:33:13
Speaker 1
Can't prove that, I can't. So like, you go back in history and then you're like, okay, walk me like, tell me the most stressful time in your life and then like, triple click on that. It could be like, my brother committed suicide. My wife cheated. Cheated on me with another dude. My business dad poured my heart and soul and went bankrupt.

00:32:33:13 - 00:32:53:01
Speaker 1
Whatever the example is. And then like double click on okay, like what was actually happening in your head? What like behaviors were you doing? How did you cope with it? And that's like, okay, now knowing everything that you know, how would you do it again? So that's the hypothetical piece and that you're testing like a was their initial reaction decent.

00:32:53:01 - 00:33:15:04
Speaker 1
And then two, are they self-reflective enough to know like how they do it better next go around like how they do it. Grieve how they do a trauma, what is their advice to someone else? And then on the kind of adaptability piece is looking for like, have they done random crap before and done it decently? And it can be as simple as like, hey man, I've been like working on cruise for the past ten years.

00:33:15:04 - 00:33:41:15
Speaker 1
I haven't bopped around between a bunch of different jobs, but like, I started coaching my son's YMCA soccer team or I got involved with a church in this type of leadership mentality, or I started doing this like side hustle or side project, and you're starting to see that they can like go into an environment where like the way that you deal with your crew or deal with a customer is hopefully quite different than you deal with a bunch of four year olds playing soccer.

00:33:41:17 - 00:33:56:19
Speaker 1
And like if you're doing that multiple years, the chances are the other parents thought you were also good at that. So it's like, how can we find the instances where there's like kind of adaptability? And then we know that the adaptability worked because sometimes it's like I tried a bunch of things, but it was all for six months.

00:33:56:20 - 00:33:58:13
Speaker 1
It was like.

00:33:58:15 - 00:34:14:17
Speaker 2
And what I've learned is that I'm really just kind of a lone wolf, you know? And I just like taking walks by myself for 17 hours a day even. Yeah. No, those kind of things are I think that's like the the weight of things folks don't realize it has to go through. Yeah. It goes man. It's pretty personal.

00:34:14:17 - 00:34:18:22
Speaker 2
It's like, well, because this thing is I know it's a business you're buying, but what you're doing is extremely personal.

00:34:18:23 - 00:34:44:04
Speaker 1
Totally in your personal life affects your affects your business life and vice versa. So I think how people deal with like trauma and stress is normally I like digging in there because it's like, will they be vulnerable with me because like, I'll be vulnerable with them if they ask me the same question. And then I think the other piece is like, we, I want to know that you've gone through something because we're about to go through a bunch of stuff together.

00:34:44:09 - 00:34:49:11
Speaker 1
We don't know exactly what it is, but we will do. We all know shortly.

00:34:49:13 - 00:35:14:09
Speaker 2
Yeah, there could be some things that are kind of immediately fun to laugh about, and there could be some things it might take us a couple of years or whatever, but it's like, we're in on this, man. Thanks, Will. Okay. Last one. Man. We're coming around third base here. I think the thing that folks don't appreciate or realize on these businesses is the old owner has a vote in the weirdest way as possible.

00:35:14:09 - 00:35:29:06
Speaker 2
Not just like. All right. Yeah, this guy or gal will be great for my business, but there is an entire body of complication, and I mean that nicely. I mean, it's a different word here. There's an entire, like.

00:35:29:08 - 00:35:50:19
Speaker 2
Intense 30 years of just human history that has happened with this person. So adhering to that thing is also its own unique challenge. And if you can make it through, there's a lot of things that new owner is going to have to be ready for. In a lot of ways. You alluded to any insights there you can give folks just like that might even be the toughest thing to sometimes crack.

00:35:50:20 - 00:35:56:09
Speaker 1
Yeah, I think the hard part is that there is no.

00:35:56:11 - 00:36:19:22
Speaker 1
Formulaic way to deal with it. I think that there are certain companies out there, like your average private equity shop, who comes in and buys like 67% of the company. So they have control over it, and the owners are staying on to kind of get a second bite of the apple, sometimes apples poisonous there. They have like a playbook because it's always the same.

00:36:19:22 - 00:36:49:17
Speaker 1
And it's like my way or the highway, blah blah for us. Like there are instances where we need the owner to stay on and we want the owner to stay on, and we have really healthy relationship with the owner. There are other instances where like the owner staying on, although we may have a really healthy relationship, it's not helpful for the operator because it's like it's too small of a company, there's too much of a personality, and it becomes that kind of like issue where like, am I going to ask mom or dad?

00:36:49:17 - 00:36:57:04
Speaker 1
And like, dad's not going to be the answer I want, so let me know. It's actually the opposite. Mom's not going to be the answer I want. That's how you.

00:36:57:06 - 00:37:02:09
Speaker 2
Dig the candy, man. Oh, wait. Jars full for you. Yeah.

00:37:02:11 - 00:37:02:22
Speaker 1
And.

00:37:02:22 - 00:37:03:14
Speaker 2
So.

00:37:03:16 - 00:37:19:15
Speaker 1
I think, like for us, the kind of motion that we're moving into and I would probably recommend if folks are acquiring businesses or going into partnerships not with American operator is to kind of set the expectation of like, hey, man.

00:37:19:17 - 00:37:48:20
Speaker 1
We'd love for you to stick around for three months as part of this thing. We don't know what we'll need you for, but we do know that you are the reason this business is what it is today, that you have a ton of great knowledge in your head. What we're going to do is every two weeks kind of have a check in on like what level involvement we need for you, because the last thing we want to do is like, you feel like, you know, you're having to kind of go in and just stare at the wall all day and you're not really doing anything at the same time.

00:37:48:20 - 00:38:04:09
Speaker 1
We don't want to be in an instance where the operator is trying to get their feet under themselves, and employees are still kind of coming to you with stuff, and we're not really like helping establish them as kind of the core driver of the business anymore, because what that will allow us to do is kind of flex up and down.

00:38:04:10 - 00:38:22:23
Speaker 1
What we're doing early on is like, always stay around for three months. And what we found is like some instances is really helpful. Some instances it actually wasn't helpful. And then it's like an awkward conversation of like the owner retiring owner didn't do anything wrong. But it's like, hey, do you mind kind of taking a step back? So I'd say that's kind of one piece.

00:38:22:23 - 00:38:51:00
Speaker 1
And then from the operator's perspective, what we found works decently well is try not to change too much up front. Unless stuff gets super chaotic. There will be instances where something happened and it's just chaos season. Then it's like, all right, let's just make all the changes right now. Like while people don't have their feet under themselves, but otherwise it's generally a good strategy to like, try to keep things similar to what they were.

00:38:51:01 - 00:39:16:04
Speaker 1
Ask the employees for ideas of like a couple of things to change, and find 1 or 2 wins that don't really matter to the business, but would mean a ton to the employees. That can be like when payroll goes out. Super simple like that. It could be like how the scheduling is done. Like, hey man, old owner used to do it like super late at night and say, like, I have to drop kids off.

00:39:16:04 - 00:39:35:20
Speaker 1
And I didn't know my route until the morning. Do you mind trying to get it out by like 5:00 the day before? And it's like a huge quality of life improvement. So I'd say like those are kind of two tactical approaches. And then from a, from a learnings perspective, it's like knowing the questions to ask before closing day actually comes.

00:39:35:20 - 00:39:57:23
Speaker 1
And so certain owners are like always pulling lovers in the business and iterating on it. Like, if I get smacked by a bus this afternoon, someone else could come in here and they don't need to worry about like, am I going to change things too quickly? That's not going to be there. They'll be concerned about other things. And so like certain owners that way.

00:39:58:00 - 00:40:13:15
Speaker 1
And so the opera can feel like, oh, I have a lot more leeway. But if it's been more of like, hey, it's like the last owner, we still don't have a CRM or company emails or tracking inventory. It's like, okay, maybe we kind of slow play what we want to do here.

00:40:13:17 - 00:40:35:16
Speaker 2
The light going on in that one. Yeah, man. If you had to choose between the two like an owner that was a former owner, like current owner, old owner, like a cult personality like very much the energy in the room, you know, or this other one that was like a disengaged owner. Yeah. You know, kind of a little bit raining from the castle.

00:40:35:17 - 00:40:45:21
Speaker 2
People didn't really see them that much, but also didn't bother. Which do you feel like is an easier one for a new operator to step into? Assuming everything else is about the same, there were some systems, yada yada. Yeah.

00:40:45:23 - 00:41:13:09
Speaker 1
That's a good question. I think it's hard because for the first one, a lot of employees and customers are there because of them. And if you get someone who's a little bit more kind of like technical or ops oriented, there's a chance they don't fill those shoes, and then you have folks leave or you're not getting the customer volume at the same time, if you have the latter, it's just a different form of risk.

00:41:13:10 - 00:41:42:00
Speaker 1
On the surface, you're like, oh, they're disengaged. So someone could come in here and they don't have to worry about filling the shoes of the kind of cult personality. More often, what's actually happening is someone else in the company has filled that role. It could be like a GM or a VP or a crew lead or whatever. They don't have skin in the game in the company, they don't have upside, and they've just gotten passed over for someone else to be the person at the helm.

00:41:42:00 - 00:42:01:06
Speaker 1
And so there's actually risk that they are like, oh, I'm out. And so like, are like the perfect version of the world, one of the ones that we're working through that we were chatting about before we go on is like, it's kind of the latter, and we're backing the person. Who is that in the company? That's like easiest, like pencils down, easiest.

00:42:01:10 - 00:42:23:08
Speaker 1
Otherwise you want an instance where like they're they're somewhat disengaged and the business doesn't really require someone who's like a huge personality or is a personality, but they're no longer like talking to customers anymore. They're still like when they walk in the office, you know, they're in the office. But like, that personality isn't what keeps the business clicking anymore.

00:42:23:09 - 00:42:28:21
Speaker 1
So you kind of have to like, double click. I don't I don't know if I have a quick answer like off the top of my head.

00:42:28:23 - 00:42:32:00
Speaker 2
This is good question. It was why? This stuff's hard man. Yeah

00:42:32:06 - 00:42:52:02
Speaker 2
Oh, well. So if you got you're coming in. We got these operators. Which one would you rather have? An operator that's highly charismatic, strong people leader, but technically a little weaker. Or someone who is very technical, understands the the analytical parts of things, but maybe a little bit of a tree trunk.

00:42:52:04 - 00:43:13:22
Speaker 1
It depends on the industry. It's like the super annoying answer at the margin. I would pick the first one, pick the one who's just like dialed and is going to figure things out because you're never going to have someone who has 100% technical knowledge of whatever they're walking into. When I say it depends on the industry, you have certain industries that require a bunch of like technical knowledge to be successful.

00:43:13:23 - 00:43:35:11
Speaker 1
Good example is actually some of the trades like electrical and plumbing. Most of the owners there came up from actually being electricians and plumbers, and they have like a really deep technical knowledge. That's how they have the respect of their crew. And so if you come in and you don't know it, not only could there be safety hazards and whatnot and you can mess up jobs, there's also a chance that the crew won't necessarily respect you.

00:43:35:11 - 00:43:53:17
Speaker 1
But most industries look kind of like roofing. Roofing is kind of weird. We're like, your average roofing owner does not know a thing about shingles, except whatever he has to say to get the customer to sign on the dotted line. And it's like sales folks who come up and they love being around people they know how to assemble, like a door to door sell screw.

00:43:53:18 - 00:44:12:04
Speaker 1
They know how to go find, like the crew to actually do the installs on the roof, that everyone at Home Depot knows them. They're kind of like characters and super hyped up, I would say. Like, that's also typically true. And like the distribution industries where you don't need to actually be like a product expert. You just have to be like, really good at sales and have like a really charismatic attitude.

00:44:12:04 - 00:44:20:17
Speaker 1
So I would say, generally speaking, it depends on the industry. But at the margin, I'm going to pick this. The person who's, you know, jacked up and ready to win.

00:44:20:18 - 00:44:37:19
Speaker 2
One of the things that's tough is for us is finding an operator who wants to move to a great business that's in the, like, middle of nowhere population 15. Yeah, but it just happens to be where, like, this thriving business is. What would you tell someone as a way to consider potentially moving out to the middle of nowhere?

00:44:37:19 - 00:44:43:20
Speaker 2
Why is that? Maybe a reasonable chapter of life to take on.

00:44:43:22 - 00:45:03:09
Speaker 1
The pitch for them is that you're going to go have all the merits of small business, like dialed up to ten, right? So like if you think about like impact and you want some amount of purpose, you want to impact on your community. Some of these businesses that we partner with, they literally employ like actual percentages of the town.

00:45:03:13 - 00:45:30:14
Speaker 1
And if the business goes under, the town goes under. Double digits, double digits, like you cannot have more meaning and purpose than that. Yeah. And then I would say the other piece is that a lot of people like small business because it gives them some element of like freedom, this kind of return to like building things with your hands, delivering value for your neighbor, understanding exactly how everything works and knowing the faces behind the counter.

00:45:30:16 - 00:45:50:14
Speaker 1
And you really get that at these. And it's an opportunity for folks to really, like, build the life that they want to live. You're not kind of like living in New York City and then trying to work backwards from like, how do I make sure I don't go insane? It's instead of working up from like, okay, I have this, like, blank slate to build the life that I want.

00:45:50:15 - 00:46:11:05
Speaker 1
I have, like, high meaning. High purpose. What do I want that to look like? And so I think, like for certain people, you could not give them a better pitch than to be like, hey, this business is in the middle of North Dakota. It's town of a couple hundred people. It's a great cash flowing business that's like needs the next generation of ownership.

00:46:11:10 - 00:46:29:12
Speaker 1
You get surrounded by the outdoors, you get high levels of impact. You're going to walk around, know everyone on Main Street. And I think you're like that type of DNA. You have other people who are like, take me out back and shoot me. So like it's more of like, you kind of, let's make sure we're talking to the right operators.

00:46:29:13 - 00:46:30:13
Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah.

00:46:30:15 - 00:46:35:16
Speaker 2
No, I'm like, no, we're at in San Mia. But for some other folks, like I would never be able to convince my wife.

00:46:35:21 - 00:46:46:19
Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah. That's the other thing is, like, they have this other part of the decision making party and we haven't met them yet and they're not so thrilled about. So where's the Whole Foods?

00:46:46:21 - 00:46:49:14
Speaker 2
It's 1700 miles from where you're at.

00:46:49:14 - 00:46:50:10
Speaker 1
But that's not to it.

00:46:50:11 - 00:46:57:07
Speaker 2
Yeah, but it's about the same price flight ticket in the bill. Hopefully. So, like, just double your thing. Yeah.

00:46:57:09 - 00:47:26:00
Speaker 2
man. Will. Okay, so we cover the technical. We cover the culture chemistry side, the character side of it house. And then kind of the last piece here where the owners coming in. Any other parting thoughts? Just like on maybe more so. Like the thing that keeps going through my brain, especially as you were talking through all this stuff, is what are what is like some final thoughts for folks who are really trying to become new owners can really just keep top of mind of like, really develop developing to be the very best folks to actually step into the arena if they ever

00:47:26:01 - 00:47:26:21
Speaker 2
get the chance.

00:47:26:22 - 00:47:55:23
Speaker 1
Yeah, I would probably say like three things come to mind one, like get the technical experience stuff we're starting about earlier. If you're already like in the industry, you probably got in a decent amount already. If you're leaving corporate America, like go work at a small business, go intern at a small business, make sure that you like before you even get good at something, make sure you actually want it and you want the real reality, the real version of it.

00:47:56:01 - 00:48:14:04
Speaker 1
So I'd say that that's kind of like piece one. Piece two is like, surround yourself with people who like raise your your bar that you're like, I shouldn't be friends with these people, or I shouldn't have them as mentors their way too good. They'll they'll pull you up, they'll force you to or they'll stop talking to you. And then, you know, and.

00:48:14:04 - 00:48:16:01
Speaker 2
So like some dude, ain't it?

00:48:16:02 - 00:48:33:02
Speaker 1
Yeah. And so like, I think like the advisor work and the community work that we do, obviously we'd love to meet people and help connect them with folks who could be great mentors. And there's a lot of folks out there who are looking to give back and invest in kind of a younger version of themselves. So I say that's the thing to.

00:48:33:03 - 00:48:58:00
Speaker 1
And then thing three is like, I would not shy away from understanding, like the business or finance side of whatever you do. Most owners, despite them not talking in the finance lingo, really understand how the thing ticks of like, oh, my accounts payable or my accounts receivable are is delayed because I don't get paid until the GC gets paid.

00:48:58:00 - 00:49:20:02
Speaker 1
And this is like what influences how quickly they get paid is like, don't take jobs if you're getting subbed out from this kind of like top level company or like the way that I manage my inventory is always buy it at like this time because then have like relatively high likelihood that like the money is going to come in thereafter and they kind of know how the business ticks from a cash perspective.

00:49:20:02 - 00:49:36:07
Speaker 1
And I think some people kind of poo poo that of like, oh, like I just really want to be good at kind of like the technical skilled and like leading the crew and like, that's all well and good and that's, that's two of the three things that you mentioned. But the other piece is like you also need to know, like how the business ticks to keep the thing, keep the lights on.

00:49:36:07 - 00:49:57:22
Speaker 1
And so now a days, there are so many great resources out there for folks to like, invest in getting better at that. There are like free Google courses. I've been chatting with SBA and they're going to roll out some stuff here shortly. To be honest, Goldman Sachs I'd never thought I'd say this. And it has built like an incredible resource for small businesses.

00:49:57:22 - 00:50:17:20
Speaker 1
It's called B. They've educated over 17,000 small business owners and operators, and what they did is they went and partnered with a bunch of community colleges to do. I think it's like eight week long courses where it's like in person with other owners and operators, and you're mainly running through, like how to build a business plan, how to think about finances.

00:50:17:21 - 00:50:36:00
Speaker 1
I would get some of that in your system, like you're not going to regret it. It's going to help you think about the business better. Regardless of whether you decide to start a business by a business, whatever. Knowing how to think about it and how to do some amount of planning and how kind of everything kind of fits together, the numbers, it's ultimately going to open doors for you.

00:50:36:01 - 00:50:45:06
Speaker 1
You're going to be able to get that loan. You're going to be able to get that investment. You're going to be able to track those employees because you kind of have your your house in order.

00:50:45:08 - 00:50:58:00
Speaker 2
Well, you heard it here, y'all. We'll fry just gave you the answers to the test. I don't know, the hard part about this test is you got to take it while blindfolded. Yeah. Walking upside down on the ocean bed of a floor. Yeah, yeah.

00:50:58:00 - 00:50:59:06
Speaker 1
It's true. It's not easy.

00:50:59:06 - 00:51:00:01
Speaker 2
But it can be done.

00:51:00:02 - 00:51:02:00
Speaker 1
It can be done there. Millions have done it.

00:51:02:01 - 00:51:02:14
Speaker 2
You're hopeful.

00:51:02:15 - 00:51:05:23
Speaker 1
I mean, yeah, I'm default. Default optimistic.

00:51:06:00 - 00:51:18:09
Speaker 2
Yeah. You have to be, man. Plus, like when you do meet the right folks, man, they fire up about humanity. Totally. You're just like, oh, thank God there's another person that acts like that. I mean, it just makes you like, all right, we're all right. Yeah, we're in good hands.

00:51:18:09 - 00:51:34:16
Speaker 1
For sure. And I think, like, the cool part is, like, the character and drive is, like, somewhat innate. By the time we meet these people, like, there's the rest itself. You can round out in decent order, you know, if you don't have great character, I don't know what advice we can give.

00:51:34:16 - 00:51:57:09
Speaker 2
You, but I just. Yeah, yeah. I don't go to church. Yeah, yeah. Go find Jesus. Yeah. I do think those are the things that, That gets me excited, man. So we'll really thank you for coming in again. As always. Any time. We'll keep doing these. I love coming and doing this like call it from the field, but it's almost like an overview brain dump of all the things that happened underneath the Earth's crust.

00:51:57:09 - 00:52:05:07
Speaker 2
That is American operator that that will keep doing. So. If you all enjoy this, please just let us know that we do and we'll again, thanks again for jumping on.

00:52:05:07 - 00:52:06:10
Speaker 1
Thanks for having me.