Main Street Business

#513 The Smartest Route To Beating Inflation

• Mark J Kohler and Mat Sorensen

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Join Mark J. Kohler and Mat Sorensen in their newest Main Street Business Podcast episode as they tackle the pressing issue of inflation and how it’s reshaping daily life for Americans. From taking on side gigs to mastering budgeting hacks and debt management strategies, they’ve got you covered during these difficult times.

Here are some highlights:

  • Mark and Mat discuss and break down the impact of inflation on average Americans.
  • Mark and Mat map out strategies to combat rising costs.
  • Emphasize the benefits of side hustles to increase income.
  • Solutions like house hacking to reduce housing costs.
  • Examples of low-cost business ideas and starting small.
  • Significance in taking on any available work in order to make ends meet in difficult times.
  • Importance of self-respect and perseverance.
Speaker 1:

I don't know what to do, so I do nothing, or it's got to be perfect, and there were so many times I had no clue how to do it. I'm going to figure this out.

Speaker 2:

Sorry, if you're waiting for the government to solve this problem for you, you're just waiting for the wrong thing.

Speaker 1:

You either cut your costs or make more money. I lost my job. They shut the door. I'm not an essential service. I got to go make money. How am I? There's ways to make money. That's the secret math 50% of Americans go to a day job they hate.

Speaker 2:

I want to be producing and contributing more rather than taking and consuming more, and this is not get rich quick, it's get rich slow. You're good at it, like it and it makes money. You need to hit those three things.

Speaker 1:

All right, welcome everybody to another episode of the Main Street Business Podcast. My name is Mark Kohler, I'm here with the illustrious Matt Sorenson and we're talking about a serious topic today. This is going to be tough. We've got some good info and some insights, I think, but it's not an easy topic.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's not an easy topic. Of course, everybody follows the news and hears about inflation and the Fed and all of that, but the reality is people are feeling it in their pocketbook. Every American has had to deal with this in one way or another, and so we want to talk about strategies and how to combat the rising costs that you're facing. There's this YouTube video out there, this social media video with 20 million views. A guy goes to reorder his groceries from a prior order. It was like a hundred bucks and now it's $400. It's insane and this thing's taking off because people feel it. It is real.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and Matt and I are parents, we have kids in their 20s and they call us up and they're like everything costs more. And we're like really, you know, maybe because we're on the other side per se of our career, and yes, things are costing more at the register at Costco, at Albertsons or Safeways or wherever you do your grocery shopping. But when you're at an income level where that's a bigger percentage of your disposable income, it hurts. It hurts a lot harder. And people that are going into retirement on the other end of the spectrum are saying my social security check is not cutting it and I don't have enough for retirement to begin with. What do I do? So today's show we're going to give you a secret weapon, a secret sauce, a silver bullet, a strategy you may have. It's so obvious that sometimes we don't see it.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and can I say that the secret weapon is not the decision you're going to make when you go into the ballot box in November. That might be important to you, but that's going to have zero bearing on how this is going to affect you day to day. I'm just sorry. If you're waiting for the government or you're counting on some political candidate from one side or the other to solve this problem for you, you're just waiting for the wrong thing. You cannot control the wave. This is a wave of what's happening in the economy. We can't control it, but we can't control the surfboard, and I'm going to give you one more.

Speaker 1:

Set this up.

Speaker 2:

The surfer in you didn't like that little analogy. No.

Speaker 1:

I loved it. I'm just saying I'm deep in thought. Okay, I was actually thinking of what I'm going to say to after you more than a reaction.

Speaker 2:

Cause I was like man, cause it's just.

Speaker 1:

It's just hard Cause when I talk with people around the country and Matt and I are out on the road talking at workshops and again on other people's podcasts, it's. I was just going to say it's easy to complain and bemoan and get frustrated, but what are you going to do tomorrow morning? And people need to have something that they can grasp and do differently. And I'm going to say it right here. Should I give my first stab at it? Yeah, you either cut your costs or make more money, and I know all of you out there are already pinching pennies and trying to cut anywhere you can. So what's the other option?

Speaker 1:

I got to make more money and people the side hustle, the small business, is an exponential way to make more money. It's not I'm just going to go out and make more money and pay taxes on it. You might be able to set up a structure or take a strategy or a plan or a course of action where you actually make more money per hour and it's tax-free. I know that sounds weird, but we're going to explain it. That's my that's my.

Speaker 1:

So how would you describe this silver bullet?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and I think a lot of people in the decision-making they get frustrated, they get angry and they take drastic measures that are mistakes, and we face this a lot. We see people come here it's like I'm so frustrated with this, I need to be a business owner. Okay, and we love that. We want to help clients be business owners. We're entrepreneurial. We're helping new business owners every day on our law firm at KKOS Lawyers.

Speaker 2:

That doesn't mean you quit your day job. That means you start a side hustle, okay, cause we got to work our way through this and so if you're feeling that frustration, you're not getting ahead and financially you're going negative. Well, how do I get out of that? Well, like Mark said, you got to make more money or cut your expenses, but we're not going to stop the money that's already coming through from the so to speak day job. So I, like you, actually said side hustle, and I think that's what we need to start with first. I just want to say that, from a financial standpoint, the keyword being side, yes, is the keyword is being side, and that doesn't mean it can't turn into your main hustle. So many businesses are side hustles. I mean even the biggest companies in America that you know Apple. Okay, it started in a garage, as a side hustle as a side hustle.

Speaker 2:

They had jobs still okay, like we can go down the list from Microsoft and everything else, all right, and so that's okay. Feel free to start small in the garage, in the, like you know, kitchen table, whatever it might be, to start figuring out ways to earn income, and we'll talk about these.

Speaker 1:

Some are obvious, but we'll talk about a lot of ideas Now. I know some of your. I'm trying to preempt some of the thoughts or feelings some of you are having right now. I was literally with one of my kids last night at the kitchen table working on a real estate project and there was tears because they're like I just thought this would make more money. And then the next thought was I don't have any time, I don't have time to go make more money. And then we started to unpack it. I'm sorry, I just get a little emotional about it because when you start to unpack it, it's this impression that I don't have more time, it's this impression that I can't do this, it's too hard, when in reality it has never been more, there's never been more opportunity.

Speaker 1:

This was during COVID. We had the big formation. There was over 20 million side hustles that got started during that two-year period in COVID because people said I lost my job, they shut the door, I'm not an essential service. I got to go make money. How am I going to do this? They started driving Uber. They started doing DoorDash. They started mowing lawns. They started doing janitorial. I was a janitor for eight years. I know it's not that hard to walk out tomorrow and knock on someone's door and go can I clean your garage? Can I clean your office? Can I clean your house? If you're willing to work, there's ways to make money.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and I know we want to talk about the other side of this equation too, but maybe we start and we just unpack this. But I want to come back to cutting costs too, because I do have some ideas there, and again, we might sound, you know, you might not like the medicine we're going to give. Let me just say that, but let's be honest, a lot of people's financial struggles right now are because of debt. It's because of consumer debt. That's why Dave Ramsey is a huge success is because he's figured out a way for people to combat it. That is the number one.

Speaker 2:

That is one of the number one drivers of why people are struggling financially, and we've got massive student loan debt and there's so many things that have hit from a little bit of a slowed economy. We've got the student loan. You know payments are back, and people don't get that forgiveness anymore, and they got to start making them like this. We get it, and so I want to come back, though, to the cost side of the equation, too, because we want to increase the income, and I that's that's the most important thing to me. You got to increase income, yeah, but we got to start working on the cost.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's a two-pronged approach. Now let me give you this. Okay, I'm going to say it this way too. Here's the secret math of a side hustle If I go out and work for someone else and make $1,000, first of all you're going to have a ceiling on what you can make per hour. And you're like what the hell? I went out and worked on the weekend as a second job working for someone else, and that thousand dollars really ended up in my pocket at about $600. And then we even feel worse about ourselves.

Speaker 1:

The secret math of a side hustle is, if I go out and create a thousand dollars on a 1099, where again, let's just say it, uber there's something that everybody understands I'm going to go out and be a subcontractor and earn a thousand dollars on Uber because I can now write off my cell phone, some dining, some auto expenses, some home office, some to supply some equipment, some marketing, who knows what. I can drum up a thousand dollars in write-offs every month for a client they're called personal conversion expenses. We talk about it all the time here. So I can take those write-offs and offset that thousand. The secret I get to take home a thousand, a thousand dollars tax-free. I could go work for someone else, which is cool.

Speaker 1:

Get the second job If it's too mentally difficult to think of. I can be an entrepreneur with this little side hustle. I'm going to go earn a thousand and take home 600, or I can go earn a thousand and keep a thousand. That's the secret math. So if we're trying to fight inflation, we can do it faster and exponentially better with a side hustle rather than working for someone else, even though I do keep the day job and the benefits and all that. But I supplement it. I supplement it to make the difference.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, there's a great quote out there about how to make more money. That's to acquire skills. Skills that are valuable, drive income. Income buys assets. Assets create wealth. Okay, so we got to come back here to the skill side of it, and I don't mind the Uber or the DoorDash, and I think if you're like I need something next week, those are readily available and that might be something you go out and do immediately is.

Speaker 1:

I just need the extra money right now. It pays, now I can do it next week.

Speaker 2:

I don't need to come up with a business idea, I don't need to get customers. I fricking download the app and I click, you know except ride.

Speaker 2:

you know, whatever I mean my, kids did door dash and stuff through college and everything, and it was a great way to get a little extra income. Okay, what I like better than that, though, is I like the side hustle. That's a business that can turn into your main business. That's a side hustle that turns into your main hustle, and I think the first thing you should look at is what do you do already? What skill do you have that is highly valuable already? You might be like well, I'm a plumber and I work for eight. You know Joe's plumbing. Maybe you do some plumbing on the side.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, 200 bucks an hour.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and and that that can turn into your side hustle where you start getting customers and business making relationships, that now you have the main hustle and you're making more money. And so so just look at what you already know and the skillset. You have the main hustle and you're making more money. And so I so just look at what you already know and the skillset you have to go offer at a higher value to others.

Speaker 1:

Again, I get two, two suggestions there. Two words thumbtack and Upwork. Those are two platforms, thumbtack being the little Craigslist for services. It's on almost every city in the country now where you can say, during the week I'm a plumber, but on the weekend I can charge a higher rate and be a plumber on my own. You're on Thumbtack. Upwork is where I'm a consultant in bioengineering during the week as a sorry, I'm working bioengineering during the work as a W2, but on the weekend I'm going to do consulting on Upwork as a bioengineer consultant. That's Upwork.

Speaker 1:

So, right there, that's using a skill. I like it. And, matt, I want to add one other one real quick is I'd like how you say, hey, stop the bleeding, do some Uber or DoorDash, cool, but I like your idea of what is your skill. Here's another X factor I like you starting a business where you're making money while you're sleeping. So if you can create a business model where you're selling something online you're selling a product or something where you're now doing affiliate marketing, where you use a skill strategy, I love that. But I also want to use the. I can make money on click with clicks at night by creating something where I can make money even while I'm at my day job.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and a lot of people do that. Everybody's situation is different. Maybe you have a large social media following individually, maybe you're just the salesy outgoing person, or you're into marketing. Your day job is in marketing. Those are places where take that skillset to go, apply it to, where there's income opportunities from a side hustle and affiliate marketing. Something has grown significantly. Another example I'll just say this is I have a client that transitioned to become a personal trainer, like full-time. They make six figures as a personal trainer out of a corporate job because they just got into working out and they realized, hey, I can run this as a business, telling my expertise and what I've done, and it was easy for them to market and they just, they just the fees that they can charge and the packages they sell. It's like I can do that and so you should hire them.

Speaker 2:

I'm just not ready for it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I'm looking at you right now and I think you could do some things.

Speaker 2:

I'm just saying you know, I'm, I'm, I'm getting pretty jacked, Just watch out, watch out.

Speaker 1:

So I love it. All right, and you know what that factor was that you just brought up. I'm going to put a word to it doing something you love. So you, you might have a skill, you might be able to create some revenue online while you're sleeping or at work. Or third, yeah, side hustle, develop something that you love doing. Holy shit, 50% of Americans go to a day job. They hate not our employees here. They're looking at us. They're so stoked. Right, tristan loves what he's doing here, but, um, but so many people go to work and they hate it, so why not start a side hustle doing something? I? But so many people go to work and they hate it, so why not start a side hustle doing something else? I had a client that was up in Idaho that started doing fly fishing guiding on the weekends. Yeah, and he got such a clientele. He quit my job. He's working for me. It was like damn it quit listening to my podcast, but he went off and started doing full-time fly fishing guiding because he was passionate about it. Remember that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and that's cool, and I think this will help you get some ideas on what to do. And I think, remember, start with the side hustle. Don't think, oh, I'm quitting the day job, you know, and you want to have that satisfaction and be like I'm an entrepreneur, I'm a business owner now.

Speaker 2:

You still are with a side hustle. Okay, start small, be careful, throw into this. Don't go buying some, getting into more debt and all these other expenses and having to create more problems, more stress on the opportunity to create more income. Go at it at a measured pace. That's why a lot of those things we've given here are examples of those are very low cost barriers to entry. I'm not like you need to go get an SBA loan or go raise money, you know, or all these things, which is which is fine, we're going to. We talk about those in other ways to start a business. But when you're in a financial struggle, the solution isn't to go to borrow more money. The solution is how can I create more income and then get rid of the debt, which I do still want to come back to here.

Speaker 1:

Okay, Well, just which I want to come back to and I'll just set the stage for maybe part three or four of this is we make it sound so easy that you're going to take write-offs. I want to unpack that a little bit here in a moment too. You're going to make this money. How do you track what those write-offs are? How do you really make that thousand dollars tax-free? So I'm going to come to that too. I don't want to just sound like smoke and mirrors there either. So, okay, what did you want to say about expenses? Austerity? This sounds really bad. Can you? You like Mary Poppins, can you give me a little sugar for the medicine? Well, something is there.

Speaker 2:

Well, here's, here's the problem, here's the big thing. I think one of the largest expenses that have gone up is just housing. Right, home affordability is the. It's the most unaffordable it's been in a few decades, and so people can't buy a home. At the same time, rents have been going up drastically, right, and the issue of course for home affordability in particular is mortgage rates, and it's the same actually for rent too, because multifamily apartment owners have to go pay higher interest rates too to go buy the properties they have. So we've got a higher home affordability. Now there's also some social dynamics happening right now, and one of the big social dynamics is delayed formation, family formation, okay, and so because our generations I love.

Speaker 1:

I love how we can't talk about sex but we can talk about delayed family formation. This is what the Bureau of Labor Statistics calls it. Okay, the Bureau of Labor Statistics calls it. We're still out, we're just not making rabbits. The rabbits are doing something, but they're just not making families. Okay, all right.

Speaker 2:

Well, they're not getting married. That's the issue. It's not about the family. Kids cost money. Okay, that saves you money. You're like you were like broke. Don't have more kids. That's the worst thing you could do, okay, kids are so damn expensive. Okay, all right, this is from a dad, you know. Okay, I got five, you know, between my own.

Speaker 1:

We don't let our kids listen to the podcast anyway.

Speaker 2:

So, okay, but here's this is serious. Okay, this is serious because it's out there on the statistics is people in their twenties and thirties are delaying living together. Now, living together. Why does that help? You cut your expenses in half? Someone else is sharing the rent. Yes, you know, and, um, even like the roommate situation, that the the percentage of people who it's like starting to come back. Okay, we actually have roommates again where we're typically at it, and so that's starting to come back to as a as a way, and I not. And again people might be like well, man, that's not fair, I don't want to have to do that. Well, I know, I'm just saying the stats have gone that way, which makes it more expensive to live by yourself, on your own. It's just more expensive.

Speaker 1:

Okay so let's give solutions rather than us. Expensive. Okay so let's give solutions rather than us. Just this is a great point you bring up. Solution is the house. That's tough, unless you're going to marry a real estate professional. No, here's the solution that I was just talking with some clients that were going to a conference on this two weeks ago is house hacking. Where you go buy a house, I said this hear me out, hear me out but you're renting rooms, the room. There's real estate conferences now where they're talking about house hacking and taking a home that's a 3-2 and turning it into a 6-3. They're turning it into six rooms. People, they're sharing the kitchen, they're putting in two fridges, two stoves, they're creating smaller bathrooms and they're basically creating these little homes that are mini apartments and it's allowing people to save money on rent, still have a social experience. They're not isolated, they're not alone and it's it's happening all over Phoenix right now and it was. There's this conference on it. It was really fascinating.

Speaker 2:

There's a company called pad split that's big in that too.

Speaker 1:

That's right yeah.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, they'll, like they go, split up the rooms, and that's actually for real estate investors. It's a great little strategy they've been using too, because they've realized that there's a anyways there's. So I think that's a great option for you to go in, acquire a property, get some additional income off of it, live in it, have ownership in it. You can also turn it into a rental when you leave, and so that's a great asset strategy and a strategy to build income and save on your own housing costs.

Speaker 1:

And I want to throw out food. Of course, that's one of the podcasts we led with. That are YouTube videos. It's out there. That's quite popular. They're talking about the cost of household goods and food and I what I've given my kids the suggestion of and I've been trying to practice it too Eating out is so expensive.

Speaker 1:

The problem is to feel better. To buffer is sometimes a term out there. When I'm stressed out about finances, I'm going to go out to eat. And then we go out to eat and we ended up spending more money on food, and it's a vicious cycle where we're it's almost like an addiction, where you're like I'm trying to feel better and I made it worse. And so the suggestion I've been talking about more and more, and I'm trying to do more, is eat at home, buy more in bulk, make my own dinner and then in look forward to a night out where I can. Okay, I'm going to go out, I'm going to eat out and I'm going to enjoy it, but then I'm going to go back during the week and cut costs by eating at home more.

Speaker 1:

And I know some of you that are a little incredulous. Mark, we're already doing that. Hey, some people aren't, and so I just want to suggest cutting down on the Starbucks coffee. What's it, holy crap? How about $10 for a, you know, a grande, tall, whatever? I can never. They always flipped the way they say it.

Speaker 1:

So a venti, A venti. You get a venti iced coffee, whatever free espresso shots, You're out $10.

Speaker 2:

You know, I just refuse. I just say medium, large, small. I make them figure it out and I know they hate me for it.

Speaker 1:

And I'm just like I refuse to comply with those sizes. These are maybe dumb ideas.

Speaker 2:

I think Dave Ramsey would be very proud of us right now for this moment on the podcast.

Speaker 2:

Because, we don't talk about this topic a lot, but it's out there right now and you may be feeling it. Some of your family members may be feeling it, and if you're like Matt and Mark, I'm crushing it right now. I need all these tax strategies you typically talk about. Well, share this with your friends and family that might be struggling a little bit to give them some ideas. Now let me say one other point on it, because I just want to put a little bow on it here.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I love your comments.

Speaker 2:

I thought this one, that's this, I see if you like it, okay. Okay, if you're really struggling financially, you need to be delivering DoorDash, not ordering it. Oh, wow, right.

Speaker 1:

You like that one?

Speaker 2:

I like that I like that. Because and I think that's a mindset type thing, necessarily I don't mean it literally, but I mean it could apply to you literally. Maybe you do order way too much DoorDash.

Speaker 1:

Maybe you should be driving Uber, not riding in it.

Speaker 2:

But think of yourself as a producer, not a consumer. I want to be producing and contributing more rather than taking and consuming more, and if you think about yourself that way, that's kind of a good mentality to go out and start really making money and deal with your financial situation.

Speaker 1:

No, I love it. Now, on the tax write-off side, since we're talking about expenses, is that? Here's the concept, everybody, just if this is new to you and you're like, okay, okay, I'm going to think about this side hustle concept, I'm going to make some extra money. Online services, product, whatever. The IRS code, code section 62, says any expense incurred in the production of income is a tax write-off against that income. So if I'm going to go out and make a thousand dollars in my small business, any expense that I have to spend to make that thousand is a write-off. So you say, well, I need a cell phone, I need a laptop, I need an iPad, I need a computer, I need wifi, I need a little space in my house for an office or I need to drive my car, I've got mileage. I've got to buy some pay for dining, to go out and meet with partners or customers or clients or networking. I've got to buy marketing space online. I've got any expense and this is what we talk about all the time on this show.

Speaker 1:

Track it. Put it on a spreadsheet. Yeah, you don't. You people don't rush out and set up an LLC yet Don't rush out and say I got to have a business bank account or get this SBA loan or all these extra expenses. Before you do this, just go, just go and track those expenses on an Excel spreadsheet. If you have to put the receipts in a shoe box, you'll learn and figure it out along the way. Sometimes you have to build the airplane in the air.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and don't feel like you need to go set up an LLC or a corporation. I mean our law firm. We set up 500 of these a month and we love to set them up, but you don't need that yet. Ok, we'll get there. All right, If you're in this financial struggle right now, don't feel like you have to have that. Just go be Matt Sorensen Enterprises or whatever the hell you want to be. Just go out there and be a sole proprietorship. This is going to hit schedule C on your tax return. Now, one of the things I just want to make sure everyone understands the point Mark's saying on the taxes is and I know some people might be listening to like okay, Mark, I made a thousand dollars, but I had to spend a thousand dollars. How am I ahead? Okay, it's a write-off, but I'm still at zero. What we're saying is, of that thousand dollars, 500 of it is stuff you're already spending on.

Speaker 2:

It's already the internet, it's already the home office stuff that you see something in your apartment or your home, something that that's how it's creating that tax-free income.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and just another example is you may have kids junior high, adolescent to high school and you start this little business. What are you spending most of your money on? Helping them get through school and school clothes and all the functions and the cost of housing for them. Well, if your kid is helping you in your business, you can pay them in your business to pay for those things you were going to pay for. And let me repeat that Quit paying taxes and paying for your kid's stuff. Pay your kids in the business. Let them pay for their own stuff. They don't pay taxes on that first $14,000 because that's their earned income.

Speaker 1:

And we teach this on podcasts. We teach this in the book. If you're new to our show and you're just popped onto this topic because you're looking for a solution, we've got 500 episodes. People that unpack all these. You know hundreds of other ideas, so start consuming a podcast that helps you make money. And this is not get rich quick, it's get rich slow and that's the secret. So much of life success is not chasing the silver, flashy thing, it's just, day in, day out, being smart, taking it slow, being careful. Yeah, not sexy, but what does it?

Speaker 2:

All right, I'm going to stay away from the sexual innuendos. I was tempted.

Speaker 1:

That wasn't innuendo. That's not an innuendo, it was just direct. It's not exciting, Okay, so um.

Speaker 2:

All right, we talked about, on the income side, the best way to tackle that side hustle. I'm just going to say it the best way to tackle is a side hustle. There might be another way, within your work or what you do, to try and get a promotion or a job that creates more income. I'll say one thing to think about is sales. Most organizations, throughout every company, sales is typically comp the highest, and if you can be effective at sales, you're probably going to make more, and so that might be another thing for like well, I like the business I'm at. I'm just in a role that doesn't pay well.

Speaker 2:

Okay, maybe figure out a way to get into sales and that could be a way to to to more income. But I would just focus on what you're good at. What do you have a skill at? I know Mark mentioned like the fly fishing example, and that might be attractive to some of you, but you better be fricking good at it. You better not just like, like it. Okay, I know people like well, I love this and I want to do this for my business.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, making pottery and selling it is not going to make you money. Yeah, maybe. Yeah, you've said this before.

Speaker 2:

You're good at it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you, you've said this before on a prior podcast. Yeah, making it, being good at it?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, there's like there's like the three things this is the Venn diagram that you want to hit. If you get all three of these, it's a no brainer. You're good at it, like it and it makes money. You need to hit those three things Now. You can be good at it and it can make money and that can solve your financial situation. And if you really, if you make a lot of money on it, you're going to like it actually.

Speaker 1:

Okay, yeah, but if you don't like it, is it sustainable? Is it sustainable?

Speaker 2:

There's a lot of dentists that don't really love what they do, but they're good at it and they make a lot of money on it.

Speaker 1:

Okay, and I'm going to ask the fourth factor. So you're good at it, it makes money and you like it and it's legal. I'm just going to add that part.

Speaker 2:

It helps you know.

Speaker 1:

You don't want to be looking over your shoulder.

Speaker 2:

A little caveat Now there's some exceptions there you know, in Oregon and certain States where they've legalized some certain things.

Speaker 1:

You know Vegas, you know who knows, that's true, oh my gosh, yeah, but I I'll add another again maybe some of these little golden nuggets that might cause. It's funny how Matt and I will say things five different ways and then it's just that one statement that just resonates and the light goes on for someone, sometimes for us. I'm sitting here listening to Matt, and I love hearing your little examples. I'm going to just say this too. Another key thing is I'm going to go back to building the airplane in the air. That's a term that's used a lot out there, in sometimes good ways and sometimes bad ways, and I want to use it in a good way.

Speaker 1:

So many people get into procrastination and take no action at all. They're just like I don't know what to do, so I do nothing. Or it's got to be perfect, because I'm embarrassed. I can't go out on social media and say I'm doing this because I'm going to look like a failure. Or we have all these self-judgments and issues that hold us back from just taking action. People, it's okay to build a plane in the air In this situation. You've got to, and I'll give one example.

Speaker 1:

So when I was I said earlier I was a janitor For eight years. I owned a janitorial business when I was going through undergrad and my in law school. And what was funny and this was pre-YouTube this was back in the 90s. Back in the 90s I don't want to give my age here, pre-youtube but I was still so confident that if someone called up and said, hey, can you wax this floor or can you paint this or can you fix this wall or can you do this, I remember the city would have bids to go out for different things and back then you'd go down to the city and get this report that would say do you want to bid on this job?

Speaker 1:

And whatever. And there were so many times I had no clue how to do it, but I I was like I'm going to figure this out. So I'd go to the home Depot and I'd say, how do I do this? And learn how to do it on the job. And sometimes it took a little longer, but I still made money and I figured it out along the way and so it's okay, you don't have to have the plane built before you get going off here. Go just figure it out. Youtube university. It's pretty cool.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean, that's the interesting set before YouTube, how he'd had to figure stuff out it's, and now we just that's a but. That's a really important point. It's like you're going to figure out so much stuff on YouTube, but here even this podcast, you know. So here's another way that they talk about it. Even in like venture capital funded businesses, like like sophisticated investors that are putting their money into other people starting a business, they do the same thing of building the plane while it's flying. Okay, they call it a minimum viable product. They call it your MVP. Mvp is not most valuable player, it's your minimum viable product. What is the minimum thing you can get out? That is a viable product that you can sell.

Speaker 1:

Not make the best product.

Speaker 2:

Exactly that gets us going. Don't get the best product out there. We're not telling you to get the best thing. We're saying start with a minimum viable product. And so when you're starting a business, you need to think in that mindset. And, like you said, a lot of people get in this analysis, paralysis. They're trying to perfect it and then they do nothing. They don't. They don't have one customer. It's two years in.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and you're. You're, for example. You might say. One last example because we have a lot of clients in this landscaping industry is they may say well, I want to put in sprinkler systems. Sprinkler systems make a lot of money. Okay, cool, that's a great project and I'm going to do Christmas tree lighting. I'm going to do sprinklers in the summer, christmas tree and holiday lighting in the winter, snow removal. We have clients that make well into six figures just cracking that code and it's not that hard.

Speaker 1:

But you don't have to go out and buy the trailer. You don't have to go out and do all this and get five employees and all that. Just start mowing someone's lawn. Can we just start there? Can you just go out with a little business card and go, can I mow? I'll tell you right now because I've been working on a house remodel up in Idaho. If you just return a phone call and you provide landscaping, you will be swamped. I just say that Our place up in Heber and Midway. I've been begging for a month to find someone to just come mow something down and I can't even get someone to do that and but. But I can't make any money right now and inflation is this. And if I, on a weekend, go out there with your damn lawnmower and mow someone's lawn, you can make some money. I just, it's just. I just don't get it.

Speaker 2:

I've been there and I've done it. My neighbor came over to me and he asked for the referral to the landscaper site using. I'm, like you know, not worth referring. The problem is I can't find anyone better.

Speaker 1:

I'm not telling you because I said so.

Speaker 2:

I said so do you want their number? And he's like no.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's what. And there's these industries that I think I'm going to put one last twist on it. We have to eat a little humble pie too, because there's side hustles out there that are ripe for the taking, and you know who's grabbing them the immigrants, if you will, the people that may not have a full-on citizenship, or people that are, you would say, are down on their luck, so they have to do this. Well, you're not able to pay your bills. Maybe you're in that group a little bit. Maybe you can go in that group and dominate that industry and provide work to others in the long run and be a winner in an industry that needs someone like you. We can be humble about this and go into. I would go out and start doing janitorial again tomorrow. I do not mind getting dirty, going into a building, emptying trash for three hours and cleaning toilets. I've done it. I did it 24 hours sometimes, and I go to class the next day in law school with no sleep, because I had to do it. I had to make ends meet.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I know this is a tough topic and if some of you are like struggling through that because you've really felt like this is a tough time, I think getting engaged in this process and having a plan is something that actually gives you peace. It's work, but knowing that you're working on something and that you have a plan and you're attacking it, even though you might fail I'm going to be honest, some of these even side hustles fail, some of these small businesses could have fell, but the fact that you're taking action and trying to improve it is a little like self-respect you get for yourself that you're trying to solve the problem and I think and frankly that's one of the things that just makes.

Speaker 1:

America, great it does. And Matt just said get engaged in the process. I think we're going to say go get married, yeah or just get it.

Speaker 2:

You know, you just get in a relationship where you live together, I guess you don't have to be married but you know, I mean it's your cost yeah, I didn't mean it to come out that way, but that was one of the stats you know it's friends with benefits in a different way. You're friends with the benefit of saving costs that's it you're splitting costs there you go, you can even share, like netflix stuff, the costco membership. Now we're bam, now we're commuting, now we're talking Bam.

Speaker 1:

Now we're talking, yeah, commuting. Now we're talking. Well, everybody. I hope some of these thoughts were helpful, insightful, motivating something, maybe inspiring or a lifeline of some sort. I appreciate you, matt. These are great ideas. You always bring it, thank you.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, thank you and thanks everyone for listening. We'll be back next week with an amazing episode of the.

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Mark J. Kohler

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