The Hub
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The Hub
Starting a business in White House Tennessee
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Local White House area experts weigh in on starting a business here in our community.
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SPEAKER_06Hey everybody, this is Crystal Mercer with the Thrive Hub. And today on the episode of The Hub, we are talking with several local business professionals, and we're going to be helping you learn how to start a business, specifically in the White House area, with some of our favorite local entrepreneurs. Today we have with us Taylor Shadoen from Edward Jones. We have Amanda Dixon from Volunteer Bank. We have Chance Summers with Valerie Webb and Associates, and we have Christian Reed with Mark Reed Insurance. I'm Crystal Mercer, and we also have Sarah Ricardy with us today, taking some behind-the-scene pictures, and we're super excited to be here together tonight to share with you and support you in your future business endeavors. First, to get started, we're going to go through have each of our guests introduce themselves and tell a little bit about what they do so you can get to know them before we get started. Chance, will you go first?
SPEAKER_02Hi, so my name is Chance Summers. I work at Valley Web and Associates, as Cruzland already said. So my primary practice as an attorney is generally focused around real estate. However, I also do work with business organization documents. So that includes the filing of your initial incorporation or articles of organization, acquiring an EIN, drafting an operating agreement, basically just getting everything set so that you can begin operating as a business. And that's how I would be able to assist you in this type of thing.
SPEAKER_06I love it. Next up is Amanda Dixon.
SPEAKER_03Yes, I'm with Volunteer Bank. I'm currently the commercial loan officer there. Um been there, gosh, 20 years now. So long time. That's awesome. My primary though is to help businesses get started with maybe working capital line of credits, things of that nature. But I am a you know personal banker, so I can do the checking accounts and stuff as well. So get you on the right track for that.
SPEAKER_06I love it. And next up is gonna be Taylor Shadowen.
SPEAKER_04Hey guys, um, this is Taylor Shadowen. Um, I work at Edward Jones here in White House locally, um, and I help, gosh, individuals, families, businesses. Um, you know, I'm gonna mention a lot that, you know, you shouldn't wait to say for retirement and things down the road. Time goes by so fast. So, you know, sometimes you need those gentle reminders every once in a while. But yeah, I think a lot of people think I work with individuals, but we also work with businesses on um, you know, even setting up 401ks and things like that, too. So yeah, great to be here.
SPEAKER_06Awesome. And last but certainly not least is gonna be Christian Reed.
SPEAKER_01My name is Christian Reed. I'm with Mark Reed Insurance, and I primarily work on the commercial insurance side. Um, anything from your business auto, work comp, general liability, uh, if you add equipment in the marine, et cetera. Uh, but we also do personal insurance and we can do employee benefits and life as well.
SPEAKER_06Awesome. You guys all do so much for the community, and I'm grateful for your time being here today. And we're going to continue on this kind of popcorn method here by asking a couple of questions. So, first to start off is what is one thing that you wish every business owner knew before getting started, specifically in the field that you're representing? And chance, you can go first with that.
SPEAKER_02So, off the top, uh, and this is just my pet peeve, overarching pet peeve with a lot of things, the internet has a lot of information, and a lot of it is wrong. Um there's a lot of different pitfalls that you can fall into. Um and they prey on that type of thing. They understand that you would like to get a business started or various other things, and they will put everything in front of you and they will offer it to you at the low, low price of $500 or some some amount of money. And in reality, they'll just do exactly what you could do on your own, or uh do substantially cheaper with someone that knows what they're doing. Um that would be the biggest thing to me, is just if you are into this and you don't have any background in starting a business or any background navigating this type of information online, I would highly recommend reaching out to someone in the field. Um, doesn't have to be me, but someone that can help translate the information so you understand it better.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, I definitely agree with that. I think that's a good piece of advice. What about for you, Amanda?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, definitely going on to the same there because um mine is talk to the CPA, accountant, lawyer, somebody to make sure you have the proper documentation, setting up your EIN, doing those things to make sure you're the legal and we can go from there.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, I definitely agree with that. I think that's super important. And I also think that sometimes people don't know exactly who to ask or where to get started. So I think this is a good example of like, yeah, go and ask your CPA, go and ask your lawyer, and also don't be scared to ask. I think that the biggest issue that a lot of entrepreneurs have getting started is that they're scared that they're going to look dumb or like they don't know enough. But ultimately, if you go on that path for too long, you're gonna come out on the other end looking way dumber, honestly, because you're gonna have to deal with those consequences of that. So I definitely agree.
SPEAKER_02And kind of piggybacking off that, a lot of people have an idea of what those professionals will charge.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um in reality, if you reach out, a lot of times a consultation will be free or much significantly less money than if you screw it up and have to fix it on the back end.
SPEAKER_06Yep, true. That you pay now or you pay later. Like that, bankers are free too. So all right, Taylor, what about for you? What is one thing you wish every business owner knew before getting started?
SPEAKER_04Um, well, I actually wrote this down for like personal as well, because one thing I've learned is protecting your time. Um, not all of us, like not every person you're gonna want to say yes to, that's for sure. Um, and I think one thing that, especially our firm, they kind of push, they say, okay, know your customer. So who are you targeting? And then when you have a specific person in mind, then you become friends with them, and then that's what generates referrals. Yeah. We all know those people that they're you see their name pop up on the phone and your stomach drops, and you're like, oh my gosh, they're calling again. So, you know, I think going into knowing who you're targeting, who you're going after, and things like that, I think it's gonna be really important.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, I agree. That's a good one. All right, what about for you, Christian?
SPEAKER_01Mine would probably be not all businesses are created equal. So whether you're doing something similar to a friend of yours or somebody you know, or you're doing something completely different, that doesn't mean that you know you'll make the same, your insurance will be the same, your expenses, all of that, because there's so much that goes into everything, whether it's driving record or um, you know, permits you have to pull and things like that. And I feel like that's something I run into pretty often is people think like, oh, my buddy, you know, does this and I'm really doing something similar. Why and why am I not getting the same outcome? So I think you know, just realizing that every situation's different, yeah, um, is the main thing.
SPEAKER_04Like don't compare kind of thing.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah, you can't because I mean you're a it's like comparing me and you, like we've got differences, we've got similarities, but yeah at the end of the day, everybody in here is completely different people.
SPEAKER_06For sure. And we're better because of it. So I love that. That's awesome. All right, Chant. So we're gonna roll in and I want to ask a little bit about you and your expertise. I want you to tell us some of the things that you think are important about your line of work and just a little bit more about the in-depth of what you do. I like how you mentioned the cost and it being less. And so to just share a little bit about that and your knowledge that you have on sole proprietorships and LLCs, that would be helpful because you're the expert in that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And so, just off the top, uh, an LLC is a legal entity um designed to separate your personal assets from your business assets so that in the event you're you you mess up, you're now being held liable for something you did under uh your LLC, they cannot access your personal assets. They can only take that liability against your business's assets. Um that's what it's designed for. It is also designed so that multiple people can be under one organization as opposed to a sole proprietorship, which is only going to be there are single-member LLCs, and that's the very reason I just described is why those exist is to protect personal assets. Um but in other iterations it's so that you can get multiple people and have an agreement between them on top of having the protections for their personal assets. Um as far as like my expertise in it, I'm able to do the things in which sometimes it's it's kind of busy work, or like I just I I can see it and know it without someone having to look up the additional information to translate it for them. Um so as far as like what we would charge for something like this, our legal fee on top of the state filing fees is only six hundred dollars to start at LLC. However, if it is overly complicated and we're gonna have to do several rounds of drafting the operating agreement, which is the document that governs how the the LLC is to be managed between each member, um, it's kind of in a way the constitution of a of a business. It sets out how members' interests or it sets out each member's interest and then how those interests relate to their management of the LLC. Um so that's really the the tricky part. And that one it's hard to give like specifics on because it's very case-by-case specific. Yeah, um, as far as what goes into the operating agreement, and that's where you if you're going to have something that needs to be uh complicated in order to protect everyone's interest in that and document it in the way you'll want it, the having an attorney drafted, not chat GPT or Clause drafted for you, you will you will be benefited greatly in the in the long term.
SPEAKER_06I love that. I agree. And I think something else, like as I'm hearing you talk about LLCs, and I do agree that obviously that's the biggest purpose is to protect your assets. But I also think with our other professionals being in here, like how needed it is for almost every single step of business you're gonna do, no matter where you go, where you turn, they're asking for that information.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and kind of piggybacking off that, like not every time for every situation, as Christian was talking about, businesses are different. Not every business needs a legal entity off the jump. Um, there are certain called side hustles or what have you that you can do on your own for a period of time and and you can cover your liabilities through insurance policies if you have excessive liabilities. But though oftentimes your exposure isn't that great because it's not that large of a business. So you're only doing so much.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. Um you can't really scale it that way.
SPEAKER_02No, and but you can at least figure out if you have something to go with. Right.
SPEAKER_06Test it out.
SPEAKER_02You can actually see if you're you have a business worth investing more time, more money, and more infrastructure into, yeah, as opposed to doing all of this very formal work on the front end only to find yourself six months down the road and just doesn't pan out. Yeah. And now you have to unwind everything you just got done building. Right. I think that's a good thing.
SPEAKER_01I think that's something that uh people don't really understand either, at least when I deal with them insurance-wise, is like if they start out as a sole proprietor, they don't realize that eventually they can form into an LLC later on. They just think that that's kind of they're better. Like that, you can do that a hundred percent. Yeah, especially if you grow.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. So and oftentimes it's the growth that would be the the catalyst for making that step into forming a business entity, being an LLC or corporation or whatever, yeah. Matches what you need.
SPEAKER_03Well, we see a lot of LLCs too that are just sole, you know, sole member LLCs. And then so for the banking world, we just need a form filled out that just says I'm the sole member. I'm authorizing myself to do all these things under this LLC. Yeah, and that's it.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Um, you don't have to have all these formal documented, you know, documentation for that. So yeah, awesome.
SPEAKER_02Glad to hear that because not every bank is that way. We're still small, right? It is one of those things that it ceases to to to amaze me in that a single member needs an operating agreement because they're going to disagree with themselves.
SPEAKER_03And that's why we made it a little bit easier.
SPEAKER_02There you don't need to determine how a vote is to be settled between for sure. It's very nonsense.
SPEAKER_06You're own back and forth. That's funny every day.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_06All right, Amanda. Now we're gonna move into the banking side a little bit. So I'm wanting to know a little bit about how people can set up their business finances correctly and then what that's gonna look like over time. Obviously, this is gonna differ a little bit from your personal finances. So I'm curious and what that looks like.
SPEAKER_03Well, the main thing is to separate it from your personal versus business. We have all our ingredients on that. Um, but the main thing is really gonna be the documentation. Um, you have to make sure you register with the state of Tennessee to do business in the state of Tennessee. We require that. Um, staying organized and and keeping your books separated. Uh documentation, though, is the the key to it. Um whether it's you know the single member LLC, sole proprietorship, yeah, you know, or a full-blown corporation, yeah. Document keeps your you know business safe, the safeguards on it. For sure.
SPEAKER_06I love that. That's awesome. Um, are there any different like business offerings that you have right now going on at Volunteer State? We have several Volunteer Bank. It's my volunteer state.
SPEAKER_03I know it's hard to get rid of that. Um we have several different business accounts. So for the small investor, all the way to the big, cool, we're gonna charge you no fees all the way to some fees, depending on what your account needs. If you're in there and you're doing wires and ACHs and, you know, a lot of moving parts, then we're gonna have to charge you a little bit of a fee. But if you're just JoJo mowing yards, yeah, we're gonna not charge you probably that fee.
SPEAKER_06I think that matters a lot for local and small businesses getting started doing too to succeed and not be paying fees. Yeah. And something that I notice from you guys when I'm going out to ribbon cuttings and things, one, you're always there, but two, the people who are there know you and have known you for a long time. So that's something that I I notice and respect a lot. It's important. So congratulations to you guys. Thanks. Yeah. All right, Taylor, you're next. I want you to give us a lowdown on investing and then what this looks like for investing for your business. So I think a lot of people are familiar with 401ks and the stock market and this and that, but what does it look like when you're trying to do it for your business?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, well, when you're starting a small business, you want to make sure your business looks enticing for people to come work for you. So one thing to do that is to have benefits, obviously. People are always looking for, you know, insurance and you know, retirement plan and things like that. So what we do is help businesses set those things up. But it's not only good for employees to come in and work for you, but it creates a lot of tax advantages, which is going to be really important whenever you start a small business. Um, it goes back to the LLC and how they're taxed and keeping everything separate and things like that. Um, so you know, setting up retirement is super important. Also having like short-term cash strategies, like what do we need to keep liquid, what what expenses are coming up, things like that. Um, and so having those two things planned out are going to make your life so much easier, especially just figuring out the cash flow and things like that. Know your numbers, yeah. Yes, exactly. Because everything costs money and it all adds up really fast. Um, so I think those things are the most important. Um, you know, I won't get in the weeds, but we can help with, you know, exit strategies, you know, what's gonna happen to your business when you if you pass away, you know, your kids, all these things. So, you know, that's just kind of the top layer of what we deal with, but we can go much deeper than that if you really love that.
SPEAKER_06That's exciting. It's good details. All right, Christian, what about you? Tell us about the insurance world and how things look for you on the commercial end.
SPEAKER_01Uh yeah, I mean, every business should at minimum have a general liability policy, mainly because there is so much that can come back on you for something that's pretty inexpensive when you're starting out.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um, and you can get up to a million dollars worth of coverage depending on what you're doing for you know, six, eight hundred dollars when you're first starting out. Um, and the the second thing that people I think get very confused on is I started a business, I'm excited, I'm gonna go wrap my car and drive downtown. So I'm advertising for myself. Well, if you have that covered on a personal auto policy, it's not gonna get covered if you get into an accident. So that's something that I wish that like you can put a sign out whenever you're whoever's wrapping your car, like they have to tell you that legally because you know, unless you tell your insurance agent or you tell whoever, you're not gonna know that until it's a little too late. Um, that was a good point.
SPEAKER_06I'm sticking that in my pocket. When I see somebody wrapped in, be like, is that personal or business?
SPEAKER_01No, seriously, I I would because you could save them a lot of money and a lot of heartache.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And, you know, I've seen it before, unfortunately, where that's happened to somebody and it ruined the business that they were trying to start up. And so um, you know, not being in the hole is the whole part of wanting to not wanting to start a business because you want to get out of that hole.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um, and so the other thing is is being mindful as you grow to make sure that you were getting the correct policies, like work comp as you get more employees, and um you know, you just never know what's gonna happen until it's too late. That's what I always say. I'm everybody's least favorite person until they need me. Yeah. So that that's one thing I always tell people is just be mindful that sometimes being overinsured in your head is a better thing than being underinsured or not insured at all because you never know when something might happen or a building catches on fire or anything.
SPEAKER_06So yeah, for sure. And then also while we're here, will you tell us a little bit about Mark Reed insurance and why it's special and a little bit different than some of the other ones? So you guys actually scope out all the different rates, right?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so we're a broker. Um, we're not landlocked to just one carrier. So, you know, come your renewal time if we get it back, we're like, whoa, you know, that kind of jumped up pretty quick. Or we're even if we get new carriers that specialize in exactly what you're doing, um, we're able to kind of look around to see where the best fit is. And one thing I always do is I don't go solely off a price. Yeah. Because at the end of the day, you're getting insurance to be covered. You're not getting insurance because it's cheap.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um, and you know, that's that I would rather you be covered than not. So sometimes that may be a way better price, uh, but sometimes it may be the exact same, but your coverage is a lot better.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and I would like to add that you definitely need a local insurance agent. Yeah, because I get so many people that do like progressive or something, and they don't have an agent. And if there's a problem, good luck getting in touch with somebody. And so it's nice to go into an office, I don't care who your agent is, but sit down and talk to somebody. Exactly.
SPEAKER_01And when you do those, a lot of times, it's well, when you go online yourself or you call somebody, you're the one that's really writing your policies. So I don't know how confident everybody is in writing insurance, but that I mean, at the end of the day, that's really what you're doing. They're just taking down the information.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, and then like even more than that, like when you go to your local sporting events and you see them being represented and things like that, like it just matters so much. But yeah, well, my local insurance agency is here, you know, I'm representing. Yeah, I think it matters so much. I love that. All right, thank you guys all for sharing a little bit about what you do. We're gonna continue on with just a couple of questions here. So the next one, and a lot of these I feel like that we're hitting on, but I'm interested to see what you think the answers are specifically. So the first one is what is a common business mistake that you are seeing happen over and over again early on? And we'll start again with you, Chance. What is that common business mistake you're seeing early on within small entrepreneurs?
SPEAKER_02Fortunately, I haven't seen too many mistakes. Wow, that's fantastic. How exciting. But the ones that I have relate back to my pet peeves, and that is people being a little overzealous and finding the first like clicking on the first Google result that says they will do all of this for them, paying a bunch of money only to call me because it didn't work.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um that's really it is you're piggybacking off the having the the a local insurance agent, having local professionals that be your CPA, your your attorney, your bank, your insurance is is wildly important because you can have. Like an actual conversation with them instead of a chat box or a a total number that you never actually get to talk to anyone. Like I said before, like these these services know that you're excited and they want to take advantage of that excitement and and cash in on something with no no requirement to actually fulfill the obligations they said they would.
SPEAKER_06I agree with that. Just ask and have your people in your corner.
SPEAKER_02And too, like the documents you do get from those services are not generally personalized to you, or they're drafted by people that aren't actual attorneys, or and then they're just like given a last second review by an attorney who's actually not doing it. Um you just wind up with a bunch of stuff that doesn't work, or it's gonna have to be it's gonna have to be revised almost immediately to suit you personally and what you're doing to make sure it actually addresses your needs instead of catch-all.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, I like that. I think that's good advice. All right, Amanda, what about for you? What is a common business mistake you're seeing early on at the bank?
SPEAKER_03I think probably the biggest mistake is not keeping your business finances separate from your personal. Um, you need to have two separate checking accounts. You can pay yourself every week into your personal, but keeping those business expenses separate, um, I think people just don't realize the importance of that come tax time, especially. Yeah. It's so much easier to look in that account and know that that my business is making this amount of money instead of, I don't know, my wife's got my debit card. Yeah, literally. Yeah. So I definitely think that that's probably the biggest mistake I see. Okay.
SPEAKER_02And it's not a mistake that I see on the front end, but piggybacking off that if you are operating an LLC, it is imperative that you maintain that split between personal and and business assets because if you blend them in such a way that someone doing business with you isn't sure if they're doing business with you personally or the business itself, any protections offered by the LLC will be will be done away with by a court called piercing the corporate bell. Uh and and it's it's hard to find yourself in that position if you do things appropriately, but if you are lax on how you transact business or how you manage your your accounts and your your bookkeeping, then it's pretty easy to lose what you've built.
SPEAKER_01It actually hurts you on the insurance side too, if you get audited, because then you have all of it kind of goes under whichever one you did, and then you gotta show proof of it.
SPEAKER_03So yeah, and even if it's a sole proprietorship, you can keep that separate. Yeah, totally separate bank accounts just keep it separate.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, all about that. All right, Taylor, what about for you? What is a common business mistake you are seeing early on?
SPEAKER_04Um, so on my end, I think that people wait a little bit too long to seek professional help. Um, and we've talked about it already. It's like go ahead and nail down a CPA, find a financial advisor, find a bank, keep things separate, create a taxable or tax account to just kind of already assume 25 to 30 percent is gonna be taxed, you know, whatever you end up doing. Um and, you know, not having a retirement plan with financial advisor. So, you know, I think if you have a little team put together, you know, have an attorney, get the right LLC or soul prop together. Um, I think while you have a team, it's gonna make you more confident and it's gonna really reduce a lot of the mistakes that you can make.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, 100% and it also frees you up to do what you're good at.
SPEAKER_06Right, your actual business.
SPEAKER_02The skill that's making it possible for you to start a business, you should accentuate that and let people that are also good at what they do handle the other things. Yeah. Because if you are trying to put on every hat available and do everything possible, then your time is going to be stretched so thin that your business is likely going to suffer in the long term.
SPEAKER_06Sure, that I agree. And I really going back to the fact that, like you saying, the consultation is free, it's really not as much as you think it is. The banker's free, you know, there's a lot of things that are just offered to you, or you could at least check into, you know, without having to worry so much about the cost. I feel like that's something really important to hit on because I think that's one of the biggest things. When people are getting started, oh man, I've already put all this up front cost. I don't have money for insurance or for a lawyer now or this or that. But like in reality, like you guys are in the corner and want to succeed. And also thinking about how you said like those people online are banking off of your excitement, right? And they're like, okay, yeah, like we're we're gonna get you in while you can. And I think that too about these local businesses, but in a total opposite way, where it's we're excited for you because we want you to be here and we want you to succeed. So, like, which kind of excitement do you want pulled in, you know? So I like that. All right, Christian, what about for you? What is a common business mistake you're seeing early on?
SPEAKER_01I think the one I see the most is people try to skimp on price early, they try to do whatever's the cheapest. And that's great if it works for you, but a lot of times that means that things are just getting left out and then you're kind of playing catch up as you're trying to grow your business. Um if you can't, if you can't financially afford the beginning of it, then you know, wait a little bit if you need to, because it sucks when you have to, oh shoot, I need to add blank and blank and blank, and then it hits you all at once rather than spreading it out throughout that whole term because you assumed you can always take stuff off if you need to, but uh I think that's the biggest mistake is is people try to cut cost as much as they can, and it ends up biting them on the back end.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, 100%. I agree with that. And kind of on that same note, so we know those common mistakes that they're having early on. And so now I'm wanting to know from each of you what should they be first prioritizing? What is your very first step? Hey, I want to start this business. We talked about getting that team, but what else can we do in the actual front end of things? What things are you seeing in this community that are working? And maybe even for your own personal business in terms of marketing, networking, collaborating, what are you doing that you feel like is important to prioritize first up when you're getting started?
SPEAKER_02I mean, from a legal standpoint, and it goes back to just the LLC and the operating agreement, is just having a general understanding of what you're wanting to do, and if you have partners, how y'all are going to work together to manage this company. Um on the front end, you're going to start a process and it's just going to be a lot of spinning and circles until that is taken care of, because otherwise you'll be doing business without any kind of agreement between multiple members. And things can go sideways and and then you don't have a way of resolving that. Um so it is just also I mean to continue off that though, is also just getting everything documented and formalized so that way you're operating from firm ground instead of trying to put it all together as you go.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, I definitely like the term firm ground. That's something that I think of a lot is when someone's getting started excited about starting a new business and you're in a room with them, they're like, hey, I'm getting started on this in a couple weeks or a couple months, and you hear this chatter and this excitement, and then maybe it's time for that to come and you don't really see it happening, or you don't see this, or don't see that. And so I think making sure that you're standing on that firm ground first and foremost, then you're able to branch out and do so successfully is a big first step in a new business.
SPEAKER_02And none of it's sexy, yeah. Right. It's all of the stuff you it's like getting going to the dentist or any other thing. It's like it's a bunch of stuff you don't really want to do, but you need to do. Yes. Um, and don't get wrong, the the swag you can buy with your new neighbor is fine, but it will do you no good if you're you're you don't have a foundation to work out.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I agree. So I'm gonna, yeah, definitely go off of that. I feel like a lot of the times people don't think it through. Yeah, you need to know your business and you need to have those conversations with yourself up front. Yes. Um, I call it the business plan, right? You need to know what's insurance gonna cost me, what is my swag gonna cost me? Um, do I need to get a loan? And if I do, what's that payment? So then what do I need to do daily to make sure that I can make these payments? Yeah nobody wants to see you go bankrupt. And so we're gonna ask you those questions up front. You know, have you looked at this? How much does this cost? What, you know, and be realistic with your numbers. Definitely a business plan is what I feel like you've got to have that in your mind. If you're going and starting that business, what do I have to do daily to make sure I can afford the things that I want? For sure.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, exactly. That's what I was thinking too. And not only that business plan for the current, but also for the future, planning ahead. Okay, what is this going to look in five years? Will this be sustainable for me over time? And also, like one thing for me personally, I started my business in high school when I was just a girl. I was a teenager, I was young. And um, one thing that I realized is just like undercharging yourself early just hurts yourself so much in the long run. So really knowing your worth and setting that and and also adding in all of those expenses into your cost that you're charging your people, you know, because you don't want to get started in the business and then six months later you're like, oh, I've got a lot of expenses, I'm gonna have to raise my prices five dollars an hour. Oh, where did all my business go? You know, and so I think that's a for me personally, I'll jump in to say I feel like that is an important part is knowing your worth and knowing what that value looks like in comparison to everything else you're paying too. I love that. Taylor, what about for you? What do you think businesses should be prioritizing whenever they're getting started?
SPEAKER_04Um, I'm kind of with Amanda on what the way she was talking. So I'm kind of in the same type of industry as she is. So the first thing that came to mind was, you know, having a business plan and knowing your cash flows. Um, you know, look into a good bookkeeping system or a person or something to keep track of those numbers because it can get pretty sticky, you know, once you start make getting expenses and things like that, um, you know, start coming out and it gets to be very overwhelming. So, you know, those are kind of the things that you know I would focus on the most um to get started, especially from the financial advisor standpoint.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, that's for sure. And QuickBooks is an easy program. It's yeah, it's really user-friendly. Yeah, it does cost a little bit of money, but not a lot. And I feel like that's a great start for people. I think so too.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, and then even if you're to the point where like, oh, well, I don't even know how to use QuickBooks, like literally asking another local business professional, hey, do you use QuickBooks? Would you mind sitting with me for a few minutes? That's definitely something Thrive Home would be willing to sit down and chat through. For sure.
SPEAKER_02And like that also goes to any type of software you need in your business. Yeah. Oftentimes people will skimp on the front end and have a miserable experience that causes them to lose sales or delays or various things. If you just kind of a little bit more for the actual industry standard software, it will pay off in the long run.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, it's easier to use and you'll actually understand what you're doing as opposed to and be happy doing it instead of having to deal with all the oh, we'll have to get pro for that to work.
SPEAKER_01That's brutal.
SPEAKER_04The collective mess. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um, I would say mine is is find like a mentor that either does the same thing you're doing or similar industry, or you know, maybe something completely different, and you know, just jump ideas off of them. Um, obviously, my dad would be one of mine, but my uncle, Donnie, and uh my grandfather was another one. And then um, I mean, there are people around here that I just you know bounce ideas off of because you, I mean, there's so much that changes over time that you may not know about that they do, or they gotta, and and you can just get good ideas off of things, and you're not trying to steal business from somebody. Um, at the end of the day, you're just trying to figure things out. And I I think having a mentor just kind of hold your hand throughout it helps.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, I love that drive hub is, right? I love that. That's a perfect answer. I am. Yeah, I definitely 100% agree with that. You want someone to what we say is we want to be your best friend in business, we want to walk alongside you and know that you have someone in your back pocket to call and say, Hey, well, this has been a really crappy day. What can we do about this? How can we make this better for the next time, you know, and things like that. So that's us, and we want to support. So I love that so much. We're gonna get ready to wrap up here pretty soon. So before we get ready to wrap up, I just wanted to ask really quick if any of you had any thoughts moving into this that you wanted to share that you felt like was important that I haven't asked, or any extra touches that you want to throw in. It's totally okay if not.
SPEAKER_02I mean, I guess just like to put a bow on it. Any one of us you'll talk to. Um and the conversation may not always go the way you want it to. And that isn't us trying to be mean or uh belittle you or or try to take your dream away. But there are some harsh realities once you start trying to set a business up and get it going, that if you don't have the boxes checked, it will be your downfall in the end. Yeah. Um or you may have a solution that we aren't aware of. But that's what I guess to my one big thing would be it's not always gonna be criticism, it's just trying to help you make sure you're in the best place to be the best you can be. Um and it's like I said, sometimes it's gonna be hard and it's not gonna be it's not gonna feel nice. Uh, but if you do the work on the front end, it will pay off so much in the long term.
SPEAKER_06I agree. And I think back to like even getting started in a business and those small business owners, you know, having that fear of getting started for all of those different reasons, and maybe even that, you know, maybe hearing that they don't they don't want to hear what they don't want to hear, but also knowing that you have someone who will tell you those things is super valuable too. So I agree with that.
SPEAKER_03Well, we definitely don't want to see anybody fail at any business. So we definitely want to have them succeed. And if it means not right now, yes, let's wait a minute, let's take a break, then that's what we're gonna offer.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, I love that so much. I think that's super valuable. I think that's exactly what our community needs as a bunch of people who care about that. So we want to end on a sweet, happy, good note. So I want to go around and see what is some of your final advice or encouragement for some of our future entrepreneurs who will be here in the White House communities. Yeah. So my advice and encouragement is going to be to think long and hard and then to go for it. Because the worst thing that can happen is it closes out, it's done, it's over, whatever you learn from the experience, and we can move on and try something new. But I think if you don't try it, you'll never know. So let's let's let's give it a try. What do you think, Chance?
SPEAKER_02I mean, just kind of the summation of what we've been talking about here is just go for it, but also make sure that you've done the lay work on the front end to set yourself up. Otherwise, you'll be picking up the pieces at every step along the way to get things in order that you didn't take care of on the front end. Yeah, it's back to just it's like going to the dentist. Like it's not fun, no one wants to do it, but after you leave, you're like, I'm glad I did that. Now it's gonna be great moving forward.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, and you'll be confident. You walk out with your smile. That's a perfect example because yeah, you walk out and you're like, Okay, I have my team, I know I can do this well, and same thing with the dentist.
SPEAKER_02You have things you need along the way. Yeah, yeah. It's uh and don't be scared because you can reach out to these people to help you. Uh, don't feel like you're in it alone because there are professionals that have gone to school and worked many years to develop an expertise in this that you don't have to. Um, and you can rely on them to to take care of those parts you don't know anything about and allow you to excel at what you do do well.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, heck yeah, that's an encouragement.
SPEAKER_06All right, what about you, Amanda?
SPEAKER_03Mine is knowledge is power. Definitely rely on your resources that you know, your free resources, those consultations. Don't be afraid to ask anybody. Yeah, um, nobody's gonna like scream at you and yell and say that's the stupidest idea. You know, no knowledge is power, ask the questions.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, I agree. I like being one of the younger ones in the room a majority of the time, it was something that I struggled with the last several years, but recently I've decided to embrace the questions, and I've can tell a huge difference in just my knowledge and my just collaboration overall. So I agree. Ask the questions, Taylor. What's your advice and encouragement?
SPEAKER_04My advice is you know, your your first version of this does not need to be perfect. I mean, set goals, improve, adjust, um, do it every year. Try to figure out what worked, what didn't, those kinds of things. Um, and I always think that systems create freedom too, you know. I mean, I think having a set plan and things like that, um, you know, you won't feel as overwhelmed. Knowing me, like I have a checklist and marking off each thing makes me feel so good. Right now, exactly. So, you know, having that discipline, having that, you know, set standards and things like that, I think it's gonna be really important for you and your business. That's for sure.
SPEAKER_03I love that too.
SPEAKER_01I think something I've meant to say earlier is find people you trust to do the things that we talked about, whether it is any of us that are talking right now or if it's someone else, find someone that you can trust to do that. But the main thing is actually trust them. Don't push back on them and tell them, oh, well, I saw this or I saw that, because at the end of the day, we're not here to like do wrong. At the end of the day, you're coming to us, we build a relationship with you, we want to do you well, but at the same time, you pushing back on us only damages that you know trust or relationship that we have on our end too. Uh uh, you know, knowing what you're gonna do out there is what you're saying. So um trust in the people that you put trust in, but make sure you're trusting the right people.
SPEAKER_06Wow, that looks like a mic drop right there. That's a good one. I like it. Yeah, that's a good one. All right, and I think that wraps us up for how to start a business. I want to thank everyone again for coming. I appreciate all of your time. I know each one of you is really easy. I feel good about it. And so um, this will be airing soon. So you guys can all listen, share to your people, and that's it for us. All right,