Episode 14 - Navigating Business Challenges with Marvin Salcido

[00:00:00] Hey everybody, it's Libby again with Fearlessness. What is Fearlessness? It's the underlying grit

[00:00:05] that empowers us to forge ahead even when hope seems distant. It's the courage to walk through

[00:00:10] those fires of hell knowing we'll come out stronger on the other side. Stay tuned and learn

[00:00:15] how to get Fearlessness. I'm Libby your host and today we have a guest and I'm going

[00:00:21] to let him introduce himself. Go for it.

[00:00:25] Alright, my name is Marvin Salcedo and I am a serial entrepreneur out of a little

[00:00:31] bit of account called Tyler Texas. And I do everything from lawn maintenance, landscaping

[00:00:38] and fertilization we control basically everything in the green space. And then we recently expanded

[00:00:44] our company and added home remodeling, housekeeping, garage doors and HVAC services. And then

[00:00:52] I also have a mechanic shop and a hot rod restoration company as well as a small real estate

[00:01:00] company. And then I do business coaching and I love absolutely love working with small

[00:01:07] businesses helping them to grow their companies. And they can learn from all the mistakes

[00:01:13] that I have made in business and hopefully not have to go through that same headache and

[00:01:17] heartache themselves. And so yeah, that's who I am.

[00:01:21] So what better guest to have on Fearlessness where we talk about struggles, the stress,

[00:01:26] the mistakes than Marvin how many exactly companies are is like 17 I thought you said.

[00:01:34] So not company. 17 divisions because you have them all under one arm.

[00:01:43] Yeah, they're all under one umbrella. Well, the mechanic shop and the hot rod restoration

[00:01:49] company those are all separate but it's 10 different divisions under one umbrella and then

[00:01:55] we're adding more this would go as time goes on. So I'm actively looking for a electrical

[00:02:02] company and a plumbing company to take over.

[00:02:07] You know, what is your what's the end game? What are you trying to achieve is my I guess

[00:02:13] a great question. Because you just were very specific and what you were looking for.

[00:02:18] Yeah, so I've taught a lot of about that over the last few years because originally my

[00:02:23] end goal was to just create this monster that just printed money and which I think would

[00:02:29] be a fabulous goal. And I think I'll get there within the next eight years or so.

[00:02:37] My ultimate goal is to hit right around 100 million and they're probably sell off.

[00:02:45] You're going to look at my phone and I did million dollars.

[00:02:49] The I remember seeing that last time I was with you. Yeah, absolutely. So it gets to 100

[00:02:55] million and then sell it to private equity or to another firm that wants to buy a sell

[00:03:01] and then exit and then create generational wealth. And then, you know, just build my own

[00:03:07] little empire privately. Whether that's through real estate, something that can just print

[00:03:13] money for me and I'll never have to work another day in my life and then I can go and do

[00:03:18] what I really love to do and I can pick and choose and that's that's coach and consult.

[00:03:24] And you know, if there's a company that needs help and they can't really afford me, then

[00:03:29] I will be in a financial place that, you know, I'm saying like, Hey, let me, let me

[00:03:33] help you out and then jump in there, get in the thick of it with them and help them

[00:03:37] help them do something great. So I laugh inside when you said, so I never have to work

[00:03:44] again because like you're never going to stop. So many ways to go on this.

[00:03:53] I love the have to. I love, well, it's a different have to because you're going to have

[00:03:59] to keep yourself sane and happy, right? Very true. Different have to very true. So, you know,

[00:04:07] I have a mentor, Damartel, and he has a statement about empire, right? What is an empire?

[00:04:15] And so I feel like it's a great topic because it's different to everybody. Right? Sometimes

[00:04:21] it's, it's wealth. Sometimes it's happening. Happy to like happiness, health, wealth.

[00:04:28] Sometimes it's assets. Like you know, everyone's version of building that empire is different

[00:04:33] and he has a statement and it's that he wants to build an empire or he wants to build a life

[00:04:38] that he never wants to retire from.

[00:04:42] Do you want to do it? I like that. So I like that.

[00:04:46] That's really never has to retire from.

[00:04:49] Yeah. It's great because it encompasses everything that you just said, right? You still want

[00:04:55] to work but you don't have to retire from it. And then in the SaaS world they talk about and I

[00:05:02] started to look at my home service company this way. They talk about it's not about how much money

[00:05:06] can you make. It's about how fast can you make the money? Because if you focus on how fast can

[00:05:15] make it like your CAC, your customer acquisition costs, the life cycle when it comes to marketing,

[00:05:20] the payback period. How fast can you deliver the service? How fast can you invoice for the service?

[00:05:26] What's SaaS is about how fast can you make the money? It's not how much can you make because when

[00:05:30] you get down how much how fast can you make it that turns into the money making machine.

[00:05:37] Yeah.

[00:05:40] So that's interesting.

[00:05:41] You know, I was having a conversation with a good friend of both of ours, Jonathan Petotianick.

[00:05:47] And he was talking about in the service world if we started looking at our clients the way an

[00:05:54] investor looks at clients rather than the way a business owner looks at clients, we would

[00:05:59] spend more money acquiring clients than a business owner typically would because we're looking

[00:06:06] at the end game looking at that in mind rather than today's world. And so if I can go in and long

[00:06:14] term those clients are going to be worth when I exit let's say you know six or seven hundred

[00:06:20] dollars a piece well why would it not pay up to say five hundred dollars a client whereas in

[00:06:27] our world maybe it makes more sense for us to spend up to a hundred or a hundred and fifteen maybe

[00:06:32] two hundred dollars a client to acquire them but look at it as an investor not an owner and you

[00:06:41] start playing the game a little differently. Yeah, I think really big in that SaaS world that

[00:06:47] that's sort of software world they're huge on like the CAC payback period which is our customer

[00:06:52] acquisition payback period which means how long is it until realized revenue hits so how long

[00:07:00] is it from when I market to when I actually have the money in my bank account. And I don't think

[00:07:05] we look at it in service that way because if we did we would be spend we would be willing to

[00:07:09] spend more money. Yeah, but industry terms especially in cleaning say oh I can only pay two

[00:07:17] hundred and fifty dollars per recurring customer so I can't spend any more than that or

[00:07:22] the overspending. Yeah, or I'm overspending so it's a great topic. I think that I love both of them

[00:07:33] especially you know the empire the customer acquisition cost and spending money. So out of all

[00:07:41] the businesses out of all the services what's your favorite?

[00:07:48] Maybe I really like favorite things like maybe ease or profit ability. So I love my

[00:07:56] yeah so I love my hot road restoration company but it's more of a hobby that I get paid for and

[00:08:07] I mean I don't make a ton of money off of it but I love that artistic side of it so it's very

[00:08:15] it's very pleasing it's very fulfilling to watch my guys out there and just see them create

[00:08:22] not something out of nothing. And so for my favorite goes I really love the hot road restoration

[00:08:28] because I really love my service companies. I mean because they just you know you kind of get

[00:08:36] the instant gratification as well whenever you go in and you solve somebody's problem right then

[00:08:40] in there whether it's mowing the yard or cleaning the house or whatever and you know it looked horrible

[00:08:46] before you go in you fix it you solve it and man it looks great afterwards but we've been able to

[00:08:52] as far as on the business side of that. We've learned throughout the years how to how to fine tune it

[00:08:58] and we've gotten it to where it makes really good money in the margins that we have in what a lot

[00:09:06] of companies out there is their loss leader long maintenance. We actually make really really good

[00:09:13] money in long maintenance and that's just simply through fine tuning our routes and making sure that

[00:09:22] you know we're all the systems and processes that everybody should be doing that they typically

[00:09:27] don't do. We were actually implementing them following through making sure they're being done

[00:09:33] and it's paid off in droves. I mean where it's not unrealistic for us to hit 20-25% net

[00:09:42] in something that a lot of companies they're hoping to break even yeah and we're doing 20-25% net

[00:09:51] consistently. I think it's really really important like the systems and processes that's my jam

[00:09:59] for aiding them but I think that people you know I just give a presentation about this

[00:10:07] I'm pointing a new term I'm pointing micro playbooks. I've always talked about playbooks. Micro is because

[00:10:14] that's the way our employees consume it. It's more of the tic-tac style so I have it down to it should

[00:10:19] be this many words. This mini like this much long of a read if there's an accompanying video it

[00:10:26] can only be under so many seconds because we've done that and it works really well for us

[00:10:32] and it's really changed a lot of things and it makes you more profitable because there's less

[00:10:37] confusion, less questions so it's less dead time downtime or dead time

[00:10:43] yeah and and I think people get scared because they don't want to take the time to make them

[00:10:48] because they're like I don't have time so how am I going to have time to stop and make them

[00:10:52] or I don't know where to start. So it's definitely a struggle for a lot of people especially

[00:10:57] entrepreneurs because you know we're all a little sparkly in our brains

[00:11:04] so I have another question for you

[00:11:08] I'm going to get into acquisition because I ask a lot of people questions more about like

[00:11:13] biggest struggles failures how do you handle the stress but I want to get into the acquisition side

[00:11:18] because that's what Marvin specializes in actually in his coaching and consulting he's known

[00:11:25] and he goes around and speaks on this topic and what would you say is like the biggest mistake you

[00:11:32] made in acquiring a company. Every single time without fail that I have made a decision,

[00:11:43] an acquisition decision based on emotion it's cost me money every single time

[00:11:51] and so I've had to learn throughout the years to take the emotion out of it and look just at the

[00:11:57] facts and if the facts don't support the numbers the facts don't support the they're asking price

[00:12:07] or whatever it may be then you have to maintain your walk away power and be willing to walk away

[00:12:14] from the deal even if it's all the way at the closing table because years and years and years

[00:12:20] and years ago this is probably 15 years ago we used to have a division over in Dallas which is

[00:12:26] about 90 miles from here and we were having some troubles with some management and so we decided

[00:12:31] that we were going to buy some management by buying out another company and we went in we looked

[00:12:36] at this company seemed like seemed to be a great deal it's going to solve a couple of problems for

[00:12:40] us it was an irrigation company and so it was going to you know help us on our irrigation side

[00:12:45] of things plus it was going to give us some on-site management and there was a bookkeeper and you

[00:12:52] know so it's going to be you know great solve for us so looking at the numbers we noticed a

[00:12:59] trend that his numbers went down and down and down over the last five years and so I talked with

[00:13:03] the owner trying to figure out what's going on and he explained it away as well he was getting ready

[00:13:10] to retire so he kind of took his foot off the gas and stopped advertising and so it's just kind

[00:13:14] of trail down and like okay yeah I can see that I can I and so I talk to myself into it

[00:13:21] and uh and then we kept asking for the final set of books you know the the year prior to us

[00:13:29] buying the company and he did not give us the final set of books until the closing table

[00:13:35] and that first of all should have been a red flag but second of all I'm looking at the books

[00:13:41] and what he sold us as a $800,000 a year business that had gone down a little bit

[00:13:49] uh well actually it got down quite a bit but it went from like 800 to 600 to 500 to 300

[00:13:57] and then the year prior it was at like 130,000 or something like that I don't remember all

[00:14:03] the figures but it was really low and I was like wow what yeah and I'm trying to justify it

[00:14:13] my mind and I talked myself into it because I was already emotionally

[00:14:18] body into buying this company that it was going to solve our management problem it was going to

[00:14:23] solve our irrigation problem and I went ahead and signed the deal and we ended up shutting

[00:14:30] that company down within six months because it was it was too far gone and we had overpaid for it

[00:14:37] and it was we were bleeding we were just pissing away money and turns out it was going to be cheaper

[00:14:44] for us to close it down and make zero revenue over there and just make the payment to the bank

[00:14:50] than it was to continue on and just bleed money and so that's what we ended up doing we shut it down

[00:14:56] killed that whole entire department and just paid the bank off and so I mean it cost me

[00:15:03] it cost me over a quarter of a million dollars. That's um a big

[00:15:09] big almost probably like at least from my perspective if I had to go through that big ego

[00:15:15] pilled a swallow would have to close it down and face the fact that like

[00:15:20] I got to close it. It was a ridiculously hard decision. Rather just

[00:15:26] pay the payment. It's like yeah well I'm the eternal optimist oh I can fix this I can go in

[00:15:32] and we can change this or we can do this and you know I can fix it.

[00:15:37] Like I could fix this. So we're all owners that's why I feel like we shouldn't be doing

[00:15:42] interviewing. That's a whole other topic because we want to fix everybody or save everybody.

[00:15:47] Um yeah so you know hearing how you said take out the emotion and um you know you're letting

[00:15:55] the number speak. I think sometimes um well I know we are all risk junkies. We love the feeling

[00:16:03] that it gives us and sometimes we know it's a bad decision. It's a dopamine high.

[00:16:08] Like we know it's a bad decision but we kind of still do it because it was

[00:16:13] that risk even though it's a bad one a lot of business owners do it because they like the feeling

[00:16:20] of being alive. They like the feeling it gives them. Yeah and sometimes we do it just for the

[00:16:25] feeling subconsciously not knowing it. I did not come up with this theory. I heard someone teach on it.

[00:16:30] Um that we do it. It's our first time you heard it second time second time you say hey as I

[00:16:37] always say or no you speak it and you you reference the first person third time you say as I

[00:16:43] always say by the fourth time it's your saying so. Okay um but you know as you know you look back

[00:16:54] or you can consult even if we consult other peers or people for advice on like the risk we're

[00:17:00] going to take and they give us the perspective we still do it. It's because we're looking

[00:17:05] at feeling sometimes. We're looking to feel alive or maybe we're bored in our current company

[00:17:12] and um it's such a interesting thing that we do as entrepreneurs. We want to save it. We want to fix it

[00:17:21] it makes us feel good um and then we beat ourselves up when it doesn't go well. Yeah. Now it's

[00:17:28] it's tough it definitely is but like you said they're chasing the dopamine high and I can fix it

[00:17:35] I can I can make it better and sometimes it's better just to set it down and admit defeat. Yeah

[00:17:42] I think as I've got I've gotten older I don't need the dopamine high as much anymore.

[00:17:51] Yeah um it's it's settled and it's kind of like oh my god I'm too tired to try to fix this

[00:17:57] it's kind of where we're having now. Our dopamine our dopamine highs are a lot bigger

[00:18:05] um because we're chasing selling a company or building a hundred million dollar empire your

[00:18:12] your dopamine high is really big and then when you sell that or you hit that goal then that's huge

[00:18:19] and so this is our highs are different now. Yeah so looking back

[00:18:25] you know when you first started this journey right because you started in the green industry

[00:18:30] right is that your original company. I did. So looking back to when you first started

[00:18:35] oh so I've got several. Oh you have? I have yeah I built my very first one up in Tulsa,

[00:18:44] Oklahoma and I sold it off um so a guy is still owes me about $850. He's a brother-in-law I think

[00:18:56] anyway um and then I started another company um I've started several companies that never even made

[00:19:02] it off the ground um and then built a company up merged with another guy we grew it really big

[00:19:11] and that was a company I left in 2016 um and then I started over in October 2016 and I've rebuilt

[00:19:20] from there so no I've had several over the years. And so I know that you're also big into partners

[00:19:27] or you're okay with going into partners with people um what is what's the one thing that

[00:19:33] you would share with other people about partnering? I used to be a mindset that you've made when it

[00:19:43] comes to or advice. Yeah because I've had a really really bad partnership before that I mean it

[00:19:51] went toxic and it almost destroyed my life. I almost lost my marriage over it almost lost. I got

[00:19:58] super depressed like it was it was really really really bad um and I used to be a mindset the only

[00:20:06] part- the only ship that doesn't sell is a partnership that's what Dave Ramsey always says. And

[00:20:10] but the more I've gotten into it the more I realized that partnerships they can be amazing

[00:20:16] like they can really work but what I've seen is that partnerships either really work or they really

[00:20:21] don't you never hear anybody in right in the middle I'm not partnering he's okay no they either

[00:20:26] love when they hate them but the biggest thing that I've seen is you have to have lots of clarity.

[00:20:32] You have to be willing to talk through stuff you need a good partnership agreement and

[00:20:37] that partnership agreement needs to be a living breathing document. A lot of people think that well

[00:20:43] we started our partnership five years ago we have a partnership agreement and that's it for

[00:20:49] the you know until the end of time well your business is not the same as it was five years ago

[00:20:55] when you partnered up. Your your business is grown or strong your roles have changed in the

[00:21:01] business and that should be renegotiated that should change your your partnership should be

[00:21:08] re-adjusted to accommodate the growth or the decline it should have been adjusted to accommodate

[00:21:15] the different roles that you've taken on in the business or if you've taken on more responsibility

[00:21:20] or have given more responsibility away it needs to be renegotiated and I think that partnership

[00:21:26] agreement should be renegotiated every year or two at the most because your businesses change

[00:21:34] and especially in this crazy world that we live in now they change fast. I mean you know

[00:21:41] crap in 2020 you could start a service business up and you could scale to a million dollars

[00:21:49] really fast because they were giving money away at such a massive rate people were just spending

[00:21:56] money out into the market and now it you know money's not flowing the same way it was and so a lot

[00:22:02] of those people that were riding that high are like what's wrong now having to go back. My business

[00:22:08] I nobody calls nobody it's well no they're not. It's settled back into normal like yeah it has

[00:22:17] it has and and then you know so they were riding that way then that way crash and now they're

[00:22:23] having to go in and try and figure out the business side of business. No you actually have to work now

[00:22:30] you actually get it. You actually have to work to get a lead and spend money in marketing.

[00:22:35] You do and so it's you know they're not just handing them out anymore. It was great back then

[00:22:44] I rode the high too but were those of us that have adapted or re-adapted back to how things were

[00:22:53] are going to be the ones that come out on top here in the next year or two after this recession

[00:22:59] and settles and things go back to normal whatever normal is those of us that come out on the other

[00:23:05] side are going to be stronger for it but I mean I'm seeing people fail left and right businesses left

[00:23:11] and right. I've had multiple people come to me as a hey will you buy us out we can't do this anymore

[00:23:17] and you know we'll go into negotiations top back and forth and we either come to an agreement or we

[00:23:22] don't but I was talking with one local landscape company and he's like I'm just I'm tired I can't

[00:23:28] do it anymore and you know we've taken it as far as we can and I'm and I committed for it I mean

[00:23:34] he had done some you know some good stuff but he he what he wasn't adapting the way that he needed to

[00:23:41] and it's showing up now and I was like look if you want to save this I can help you save it I can

[00:23:47] coach you I can help you get headed in the right direction or here's my offer to buy you out

[00:23:53] and he chose option C which was just continuing looking so yeah that's his choice we're

[00:23:58] power to him but you know when you have to adapt you have to you have to be nimble and be able

[00:24:04] to make decisions on the fly and you know what what worked in advertising two years ago it doesn't

[00:24:11] work today or you know does that mean that you you know I'm some people I try Facebook Facebook

[00:24:19] doesn't work well yeah it's just I mean I get it is hard but I get tons of leaves for Facebook

[00:24:26] tons of leaves for Facebook so we quality leads but it's a long-term play I can't just throw

[00:24:33] one out out one time they're forty dollars behind it and that's gonna magically solve my business

[00:24:39] now I'm spending hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and thousands of dollars a month on Facebook

[00:24:44] and we're we don't just put one out out there we're putting multiple ads and we're changing and

[00:24:49] adapting and putting new stuff out there and keeping it fresh and alive and not everything we do

[00:24:54] as a cell people don't like to be sold to but people absolutely love to buy so if you can go in you

[00:25:02] can show your value then they want to buy from you and they will buy from you but you have to

[00:25:08] prove your value first I am so inside one of the groups I'm in he always brings in other

[00:25:15] mentors to come teach us and so he he's brought in her name is April Dunford and she talks about

[00:25:21] she's all about sales but she's more about sales from a positioning standpoint and I think there's

[00:25:27] so many things that happened I want to go back to the partnership but I wanted to talk about our

[00:25:32] positioning in the home service space has changed because COVID because of the COVID influx of

[00:25:38] money we present we were positioned to like sell and raise our prices and we were like this was

[00:25:43] our positioning but now that's over and we have to rethink that positioning and positioning is

[00:25:48] nothing different than like the Stanley Cup right it's the same cup they're just talking about it in a

[00:25:52] different way it's the same thing as a brand muffin versus like a gluten-free paleo friendly breakfast

[00:25:59] bar same thing they're just repositioning the way they talk about it to make it attractive to the

[00:26:05] current market but one of the things she says all the time in her books is selling isn't hard

[00:26:12] buying is hard because there's so many choices we need to be their guide on the journey

[00:26:19] inform them and educate them versus trying to sell to them

[00:26:24] and I've done entire educational videos for our market teaching people how to find a good

[00:26:32] landscapeer whether or not they use me I don't care there's enough there's enough grass out there

[00:26:36] for everybody but that's fine this is what you want to look for this is this is how you find a good

[00:26:44] landscaper and are they are they licensed do they have insurance do they have workments caught do

[00:26:50] they have you know do they train their employees do they have good equipment are they reliable

[00:26:55] you know do they give you a quote or is it just you know randomly surprises are going to change and

[00:27:01] and just teaching people how to the signs of what to look for in a good landscaper and you know

[00:27:07] what I got a I got quite a few pleads off of that I got quite a few clients just from that video

[00:27:12] and I wasn't there was zero sell none yeah like I think my entire sales pitch at the very end was

[00:27:18] hey if you need some help give me a shout I'd love to help you out that's it that's my whole cell

[00:27:23] beyond that so I'm just putting value out there helping people out we do one educational video a

[00:27:28] week and organize it about cleaning and organizing um and that gets us tons of traction and it's

[00:27:35] purely teaching like last week mine was the difference between when someone asked for a cleaning

[00:27:40] company on Facebook in a Facebook group and actually shared the snippet of the question and some

[00:27:44] of the responses you know I'm eighty five dollars and this person's two hundred and why is it different

[00:27:49] so I explained why it's different from an eighty five dollar individual solo cleaner and they have

[00:27:56] their place and a company that's charging you two hundred dollars for the same thing and they have

[00:28:01] their place yeah um we got a ton of traction off that one video and all I simply did was break down

[00:28:07] why it's more expensive and where do the costs go so I think people understand it especially in

[00:28:14] the home service they don't really understand the cost that are incorporated but also the

[00:28:22] protection as we get older and we have more assets to protect I kind of want to choose that safer

[00:28:27] bet that has insurance and workman's comp they can't come after me or my businesses if they get hurt

[00:28:32] on my property um versus when I was younger and 20 sure I didn't have a lot of assets to protect so

[00:28:38] an eighty five dollar cleaner was great for me at that time yeah but a lot of people don't realize

[00:28:44] that when you hire a service company and you hire chucking a truck and they come out yeah they're

[00:28:50] they're cheaper we're gonna be cheaper they don't have nearly as much overhead they probably are

[00:28:53] not insured uh matter fact I know they're not insured um you know they're very just fly by night

[00:28:59] they throw some sort of price out there uh they don't know their numbers and uh if he falls or

[00:29:05] she falls while she's cleaning they can sue you personally and because it happened on your property

[00:29:13] even if they're a hired a hired hand somebody that you hired in to do the some work for you

[00:29:19] they can sue you personally but that's one of the reasons why we carry workman's comp

[00:29:24] because if it got forbid somebody gets hurt and I've had employees get hurt uh had an employee

[00:29:31] accidentally fall off a roof one time and he busted his ankle and nothing happened to the client

[00:29:38] nothing at all my my workman's comp immediately took that over and it compensated the employee we

[00:29:45] paid for all his medical bills were made sure he was taken care of paid time off all that kind of

[00:29:49] did stuff and life continued on but had we not had that stuff in place and for whatever reason

[00:29:57] the employee got a straight hair they could have gone after that hormone personally and so this

[00:30:02] is just a protection and yes we are more expensive but we we are more expensive so that we can help

[00:30:08] protect you as a client yeah and then absolutely I'm right there with you. So I love that partnership

[00:30:15] about um it needs to be renegotiated every two years so I used to have a partner in Wutwick

[00:30:19] Routes we're still great friends but it did evolve over time and our job shifted and we noticed that

[00:30:25] we were not working the same amount or the same things um and it's a great tip to renegotiate it

[00:30:32] to have that partnership agreement someone and I don't know who said this quote but it was all

[00:30:37] partnerships 100% of partnerships end in divorce 100% of business partnerships end in divorce

[00:30:45] and 50% of marriages end in divorce and the reason they said that is because you either sell the

[00:30:50] company you buy them out or you die so 100% of business partnerships end

[00:31:02] um and that's because one way or another they will end yeah and that is because one of you will

[00:31:07] die because you won't you won't die at the same time one of you guys will buy each other out or

[00:31:12] you'll sell the company so they will there's a hundred a hundred percent of them in and I never

[00:31:15] thought about it like that um and I think that there's such a big space trying to talk somebody

[00:31:22] into doing this for um like fractional business partner therapy like a third person a third party

[00:31:32] that is non-biased that can help talk through things or ask questions like a therapist but for

[00:31:39] business partners yeah because like you said they're either great or they're horrible

[00:31:47] but sometimes you don't have you never hear about mediocre partnerships no but you don't have

[00:31:52] that third party to kind of help you work through things talk through them typically people feel

[00:31:57] defensive or picked on um I was lucky that when we dissolved our partnership um I had I see

[00:32:05] a oh who was that person helped both of us through it or otherwise uh it probably wouldn't

[00:32:11] end well because you do get emotional you do get attached and he was so great how he helped us

[00:32:18] through that walked us through it to make sure that we were all comfortable okay and all on the same page

[00:32:27] um so I and it didn't burn me because I still have partners I'm partners with um

[00:32:34] um uh Joel and Rick from Deep Lawn uh we're partnered in service cart yeah so it didn't burn me

[00:32:41] you just learned my lesson um I mentioned you did things a little different second time around

[00:32:47] yes so my uh I have another question for you you know knowing what you know now

[00:32:54] what would you have done differently what's we talked about this before even started

[00:32:58] recording like oh my god we would be millionaires but uh 100 millionaires by now

[00:33:03] yeah what would I have done differently like the younger

[00:33:09] verse I would tell my tell my younger cell to know my worth

[00:33:16] I would encourage what I'm worth and advertise I remember 20 years ago 21 years ago when I first

[00:33:28] started my first business I thought I couldn't afford to advertise and you can't afford not to

[00:33:37] I mean people are not and I tell people this in my business coaching all the time people are

[00:33:41] not going to magically conjure up your phone number when they need your help you know if you don't

[00:33:47] tell people about you they are not going to know about you and I worked with one guy and for nine

[00:33:54] months he argued with me about advertising and finally it's like did what the crap are you paying

[00:33:58] me for if you're not gonna listen to what I say please just go put an ad out there push it

[00:34:04] out there into the market and do something uh I was at a conference last week and they said even

[00:34:11] bad marketing is better than no marketing oh yeah some traction something out there in the market

[00:34:18] and and I was like put something out there he put an ad out there on Facebook and he called me up

[00:34:25] he was so excited he's like coach they're calling I was like I've been telling you for nine

[00:34:30] months nine months I've been telling you this all you have to do is tell people about your soul

[00:34:35] I mean it's not all you have to do but you know you got to tell people about yourself and that's

[00:34:40] what he was if we start doing you start attracting more clients but they're not just giving clients

[00:34:47] away like they were in 2020 you have to go out and find them well I think you have to find them

[00:34:52] but also you have to they want more value for the same money yeah so you gotta provide that value or

[00:34:59] show them the value that you do provide or that does not mean discount your service people

[00:35:06] no value they want more value so you know and that's hard for

[00:35:12] companies now to adjust from like the leads are falling in my lap I can't close them fast enough

[00:35:18] I don't have enough staff to oh crap like they're shopping around now they want more value for their

[00:35:24] money so learning how to do that you can do that through your customer service through like

[00:35:31] answering the phone imagine that by you answering the phone is providing value

[00:35:37] I can't tell you how many times we get calls and people are like you're like the ninth company

[00:35:42] I've called and you are the only one to answer the phone

[00:35:46] So for all of our new small businesses out there we are I'm in Oklahoma right now

[00:35:52] that's why I'm in a different setting and my sister is helping launch another location she's

[00:35:58] kind of doing some of the investigating for me and so she called cleaning companies in let's see

[00:36:07] like four different areas like the Tulsa area more over by Durant more over here in the

[00:36:14] Paris area and then she did another area I don't remember which one it was and she goes we were

[00:36:19] she was reviewing and she's putting I wanted pricing for what all the cleaning companies charge in

[00:36:23] the areas I want all the price and she goes nobody answered their freaking phone like nobody

[00:36:31] she goes out of like all the companies I called one lady gave me a quote over the phone and answered

[00:36:36] her phone she goes a couple of them said oh I need to schedule an in-home consultation we have to

[00:36:40] come look at the property and then she goes then the rest no answer no call back she can you

[00:36:47] get a hold on nobody and I think sometimes that difference between when we set a solo per newer

[00:36:53] versus a company that's also one of the differences as the consumer is you guys complain about

[00:37:00] the quality of the work or they won't answer the phone or they can't get a hold on nobody but

[00:37:05] you're paying the eighty five dollar cleaner and that's what comes with it and I understand it

[00:37:13] because I was once the eighty five dollar cleaner but you know when you have to staff an office

[00:37:20] or schedulers that's also why it's more expensive we answer the phone

[00:37:27] but to the solo per newers out there just answering your phone alone or responding to voicemails

[00:37:34] would really help too as well especially for paying for marketing if you're paying for marketing

[00:37:39] please do that or you will bleed money and you will die because it is a slow death but you can't

[00:37:44] sustain it if you're paying for marketing but you're not answering the phone

[00:37:51] yeah like why are you paying for these leads if you're not gonna respond not gonna answer the phone

[00:37:58] not gonna respond back to them I you're just you might as well just take a hundred dollar bills

[00:38:02] outside and burn them I mean that's all you're doing you're just burning burning money don't waste

[00:38:08] your money capture these leads talk to these people get quotes back to them in a reasonable amount

[00:38:14] of time yes it should not take weeks or months to get quotes back I bought a company out one time

[00:38:23] and the process like I that was one of the first things I had to change was the process of how they

[00:38:30] put quotes together and it would take weeks and weeks and weeks for them to get a quote back to

[00:38:36] somebody and it's like this now these these leads are stale by the time you get back to them they're

[00:38:42] calling in to get their yard mode and it's gonna take you four weeks to just hold that graces and four

[00:38:49] weeks oh my gosh they hired somebody three weeks ago by the time you call them back I've wasted all

[00:38:56] this marketing money and I mean what why why are we doing this well and so we had to change that

[00:39:05] process so that we could shorten the timeline and get get get quotes back to people in hours

[00:39:10] rather than days and it massively changed everything but that goes back to my original statement when

[00:39:17] we first started was it's not how much money can I make right it's how fast can I make it

[00:39:26] and that is kind of like we don't think about it that in that way enough because again that's a

[00:39:31] SaaS term so software term but essentially serve our service businesses or sasses I'm calling them

[00:39:38] services as a service they operate the exact same way it's so interesting but it's not how much money

[00:39:50] can we make because I know 17 or 20 million dollar long care companies right that doesn't matter

[00:39:55] you can make as much money as you can dream up it's how fast can we make it because if we can't make

[00:40:00] it back we're paying office staff admin staff marketing and you can't make it back fast enough you

[00:40:06] won't have enough money left yeah so before we wrap up my last question is what's in the future

[00:40:16] what you got cooking anything exciting so I've got a couple of companies I'm looking at buying out

[00:40:22] right now so I did tell Marvin that it talks with both of them I think I was going to give him an

[00:40:28] intervention so he'd stop buying companies yeah the last time I saw you in Atlanta I think I think

[00:40:33] we need to give you an intervention yeah it's in my blood I can't help it um I also said I

[00:40:42] needed to fight you over the police hey hey this actually wasn't the hat I wore in today I brought

[00:40:49] this just for this podcast so no I've got a couple of businesses I'm looking at buying out

[00:40:59] got another one or two companies that I want to start but I'm looking for the right partners

[00:41:05] to partner up with those because I'm a visionary I'm not a integration person and so I need

[00:41:13] an integrator so I need and need that that key partnership so that we can kick those off

[00:41:21] and and meanwhile I'm actively growing my current companies um but you know I was what I was

[00:41:28] going to say what frees me up to be able to look and chase these other companies down

[00:41:32] does that have amazing people that work for me and so I don't have to worry about things at home when

[00:41:36] I'm out you know working or chasing leads down or talking with these companies uh matter

[00:41:42] fact I was talking with my director the other day and I was telling her about a couple of companies

[00:41:46] that I want to buy and she told me she said hey I got it here so if you need to go go and uh I don't

[00:41:53] have to worry about anything I mean I was just gone for a week and uh I got zero phone calls while

[00:41:59] I was gone like I don't have to worry about anything now I'll touch base with my team and make sure

[00:42:04] everything's headed in the right direction but they're not escalating problems to me if an if a

[00:42:09] problem ever gets escalated to my lab it's a big deal and somebody's not going to be happy

[00:42:18] so they usually take care of it before it gets to me

[00:42:23] awesome so we'll make sure to put information about Marvin in the show notes

[00:42:27] so if you guys want to reach out to him you can definitely get in contact with him

[00:42:32] I want to thank everybody so much for listening if you want to find more podcasts you can

[00:42:36] visit libbyd.com and so guys that is a wrap for today's journey into fearlessness remember every step

[00:42:44] we take uh take uh well I messed that up I was like I think I can edit it out.

[00:42:52] I got the tagline that started over. Remember every step we take is a step forward

[00:42:58] in our strength and into our journey keep walking through those fires because on the other side

[00:43:03] lives a version of ourselves that's unstoppable. I'm libby reminding you to embrace your fearlessness

[00:43:10] until next time stays stays brave stay strong stay bold and keep pushing forward