December 25, 2024 • 8 mins
Struggling to keep your business afloat or thinking about pivoting in your career? Meet Nathan, a gym owner grappling with the harsh reality of being $12,000 short this month, as he faces the daunting process of closing his gym. Share in his candid reflections on financial hardship and tough decision-making, as Nathan talks about juggling debts and crafting a strategic exit plan with his attorney. His gym might be on the brink of bankruptcy, but Nathan’s outlook remains pragmatic and focused on what lies ahead, rather than succumbing to anxiety over a plummeting credit score.
Nathan invites us into his world of resilience, drawing parallels between his current challenges and his past academic journey, where a shift from pre-med to economics redefined his path to success. Through his story, Nathan highlights the importance of recognizing when it's time to pivot and how personal growth often emerges from adversity. If you're navigating a similar storm or seeking inspiration to embrace change, Nathan's story offers insights and perhaps a bit of comfort, demonstrating that sometimes, the best way forward is to let go of fear and invest in the next chapter of life.
Nathan invites us into his world of resilience, drawing parallels between his current challenges and his past academic journey, where a shift from pre-med to economics redefined his path to success. Through his story, Nathan highlights the importance of recognizing when it's time to pivot and how personal growth often emerges from adversity. If you're navigating a similar storm or seeking inspiration to embrace change, Nathan's story offers insights and perhaps a bit of comfort, demonstrating that sometimes, the best way forward is to let go of fear and invest in the next chapter of life.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
And so it begins.
The bank is now messaging mesaying, hey, your line of credit
, your past due $500.
And in my head it's like, okay,well, now it's a game of
juggling what debts and whatthings can I fall behind on?
So we do a next challenge.
So right now, this next month,we're going to get $23,000 in
revenue.
We're going to have $35,000 inexpenses.
(00:22):
That is a $12,000 shortfall.
Right now we're not looking atthe quantity of shortfall
because it's I can't pay it.
If we don't pay the SBA, thatthat is $6,000.
If we don't pay rent, that's 14, or another eight, so that's 14
.
So we're break even if I don'tpay the landlord or the SBA.
So we're going to start fallingbehind here pretty quick.
(00:43):
I remember this year or likefour or five months ago, I was
two months late when I told thestaff hey, we got to shut the
doors down and they decided todouble down.
So I know, from that time I canbe 60 days late and all I do is
just an automated bot emailwhen I log in.
So I log into my bank accountand they just say in an email
like hey, nathan, you are behind.
(01:04):
Please reach out to us at yourearliest convenience.
So I know what their.
I know what their aggressionlooks like on that side of
things.
That was just the first time,not the second time.
Uh, I don't know if theyescalate in proactiveness, maybe
not, but uh, challenge doesn'tstart for another week and a
half.
So if I have 60 days at that'ssix weeks into the 10-week
challenge and I'm going to doone more run at it.
(01:29):
Honestly, there's no benefit tokeeping the studio open, other
than just more time for membersto stay at the studio.
I don't know Right now.
All I know is I have payrollobligations and the studio is
going to be wrapping up herepretty quick, and so send all
the info over to my attorney.
We're figuring out a game planon how to close things up.
(01:49):
Uh, franchisor is going to bepretty crabby.
They're going to have twomonths of rent and that is too
bad.
Um, or they just let me closethe place down.
That's gonna make the mostsense.
But the the first letter, oh no,look out, I got two letters to
the house, I got one letter tothe business and I am not scared
.
Whether I'm scared or brave,it's the same turnout.
(02:15):
We're going bankrupt, the gymis closing and I'm not going to
invest in fear.
I'm going to invest in the nextstage of life and getting
punched in the face with a 300score drop to my credit, and I
probably sound like a psychoright now and it's because I'm
going to do the best I can andlet the chips fall and pretend
(02:41):
you're studying for an exam andyou get a hundred percent Cool,
that's awesome.
Let's say you study for an examand you get 100 cool, that's
awesome.
Let's say you study for an examand you get a d or an f bummer,
that sucks.
Um.
Did you study?
Yep.
Did you do your best?
Yep.
Did you get a d?
Yep.
So maybe you're doing the wrongmajor, maybe you're not supposed
to be in that class, maybeyou're supposed to be doing
something else or you truly didnot do your best.
(03:03):
That's possible.
But if you did your best andlike I remember in in college I
wanted to be a doctor, actually,uh, pre-med biology and anatomy
or biology and chemistrychemistry was great, biology was
tough, but I made it.
The first class was anatomy andphysiology like you got to do
that one and anatomy physiologytoo, just part of biology, or
(03:26):
any pre-med student, the firstclass, like the terms, the
courses or the coursework, thetextbook.
Like I was just overwhelmed.
I could not keep up with eventhe 101 intro wording and I just
knew right away I'm not gonnado thrive here, I'm not gonna be
able to succeed.
So after one class I bailed.
I said sorry, I just can't dothis.
This is not work.
(03:47):
I need to at least understandthe words I'm hearing.
And pivoted and economics andfinance.
It made sense.
I dotted it up and you stumbleinto what makes sense.
And so for the business year um,I've had months of indigestion.
I've had months whereindigestion goes out the window,
circling the shakes and theshivers.
(04:08):
The worst night I was asleepand I woke up and like my whole
body is like I'm almost likehaving a seizure or a spasm and
that's all stressed out.
I was and I'm not going to goback to that.
Uh, I'm going to step back,take a deep breath and think
about more important thingsother than the impending
(04:31):
collapse that's about to happen.
So call that what you want.
I'm sure psychologists andtherapists have good terms for
it.
I call it moving on.
And so I've worked the nightshift tonight so people can
still cover shifts and do otherthings.
Sent off the final docs to myattorney, got some stuff taken
(04:54):
care of for the studio and justweird.
It's weird knowing it's allgoing to be wrapping up and
right now I'm behind on my SBApayment.
I'll be well, I guess.
Technically I'm behind my rentpayment because I haven't paid
that and I'm like two weeksbehind on that.
No, I will be late on that one,nevermind.
(05:16):
So it's gonna be up to thelender.
If they want to shut thebusiness down, that's going to
be up to them.
The landlord wants to shut thebusiness down, that's up to them
.
My intention is to start andfinish one more challenge and
after that wrap it up and callit good.
If people close the doorsbefore I can do that, that sucks
(05:37):
for everyone involved.
Ideally, I want to give peoplea 30-day notice.
That is my dream outcome.
I want members to have a chanceto go elsewhere and to land
safely.
None of the staff are relianton me for a paycheck.
They get side cash money.
So if no one got paid it wouldbe unfortunate.
(05:58):
But no one's going to miss outon rent or groceries, so that's
important.
And, yeah, you never thinkfailure is going to happen to
you and you're going to beat theodds and that's a crazy thing
about entrepreneurs.
But yet again, I don't know thestat.
It's something along the linesof four to five businesses close
within five years, or 90percent do something like that.
(06:19):
Um and yeah, but deal undercontract number 63.
I thought I would beat the oddsand the odds beat me, so we're
going to go inside.
We're going to hang out withthe wife and kiddos Kiddos are
asleep so just hanging out withmy wife, enjoy the evening.
Tomorrow is a work day,tomorrow's Thursday, so we're
(06:41):
going to do that and not investin stress or anxiety or fear or
depression.
There's hope.
There's a future.
My Lord and Savior is still whohe is.
My identity is still the same,regardless of if I succeed or
fail.
And I may wake up one day and Ican't even access the business.
(07:04):
That may happen, for right nowmy keys open the doors, so we're
going to have a good day.
I've taken too long to get tothe point, so we're going to
call it good.
That's where we're at, that'swhere we're going, that's where
I can roll.
And so it begins.
The bank is now messaging mesaying, hey, your line of credit
, your past due $500.
And in my head it's like, okay,well, now it's a game of
juggling what debts and whatthings can I fall behind on?
So we do a next challenge.
So right now, this next month,we're going to get $23,000 in
revenue.
We're going to have $35,000 inexpenses.
(00:22):
That is a $12,000 shortfall.
Right now we're not looking atthe quantity of shortfall
because it's I can't pay it.
If we don't pay the SBA, thatthat is $6,000.
If we don't pay rent, that's 14, or another eight, so that's 14
.
So we're break even if I don'tpay the landlord or the SBA.
So we're going to start fallingbehind here pretty quick.
(00:43):
I remember this year or likefour or five months ago, I was
two months late when I told thestaff hey, we got to shut the
doors down and they decided todouble down.
So I know, from that time I canbe 60 days late and all I do is
just an automated bot emailwhen I log in.
So I log into my bank accountand they just say in an email
like hey, nathan, you are behind.
(01:04):
Please reach out to us at yourearliest convenience.
So I know what their.
I know what their aggressionlooks like on that side of
things.
That was just the first time,not the second time.
Uh, I don't know if theyescalate in proactiveness, maybe
not, but uh, challenge doesn'tstart for another week and a
half.
So if I have 60 days at that'ssix weeks into the 10-week
challenge and I'm going to doone more run at it.
(01:29):
Honestly, there's no benefit tokeeping the studio open, other
than just more time for membersto stay at the studio.
I don't know Right now.
All I know is I have payrollobligations and the studio is
going to be wrapping up herepretty quick, and so send all
the info over to my attorney.
We're figuring out a game planon how to close things up.
(01:49):
Uh, franchisor is going to bepretty crabby.
They're going to have twomonths of rent and that is too
bad.
Um, or they just let me closethe place down.
That's gonna make the mostsense.
But the the first letter, oh no,look out, I got two letters to
the house, I got one letter tothe business and I am not scared
.
Whether I'm scared or brave,it's the same turnout.
(02:15):
We're going bankrupt, the gymis closing and I'm not going to
invest in fear.
I'm going to invest in the nextstage of life and getting
punched in the face with a 300score drop to my credit, and I
probably sound like a psychoright now and it's because I'm
going to do the best I can andlet the chips fall and pretend
(02:41):
you're studying for an exam andyou get a hundred percent Cool,
that's awesome.
Let's say you study for an examand you get 100 cool, that's
awesome.
Let's say you study for an examand you get a d or an f bummer,
that sucks.
Um.
Did you study?
Yep.
Did you do your best?
Yep.
Did you get a d?
Yep.
So maybe you're doing the wrongmajor, maybe you're not supposed
to be in that class, maybeyou're supposed to be doing
something else or you truly didnot do your best.
(03:03):
That's possible.
But if you did your best andlike I remember in in college I
wanted to be a doctor, actually,uh, pre-med biology and anatomy
or biology and chemistrychemistry was great, biology was
tough, but I made it.
The first class was anatomy andphysiology like you got to do
that one and anatomy physiologytoo, just part of biology, or
(03:26):
any pre-med student, the firstclass, like the terms, the
courses or the coursework, thetextbook.
Like I was just overwhelmed.
I could not keep up with eventhe 101 intro wording and I just
knew right away I'm not gonnado thrive here, I'm not gonna be
able to succeed.
So after one class I bailed.
I said sorry, I just can't dothis.
This is not work.
(03:47):
I need to at least understandthe words I'm hearing.
And pivoted and economics andfinance.
It made sense.
I dotted it up and you stumbleinto what makes sense.
And so for the business year um,I've had months of indigestion.
I've had months whereindigestion goes out the window,
circling the shakes and theshivers.
(04:08):
The worst night I was asleepand I woke up and like my whole
body is like I'm almost likehaving a seizure or a spasm and
that's all stressed out.
I was and I'm not going to goback to that.
Uh, I'm going to step back,take a deep breath and think
about more important thingsother than the impending
(04:31):
collapse that's about to happen.
So call that what you want.
I'm sure psychologists andtherapists have good terms for
it.
I call it moving on.
And so I've worked the nightshift tonight so people can
still cover shifts and do otherthings.
Sent off the final docs to myattorney, got some stuff taken
(04:54):
care of for the studio and justweird.
It's weird knowing it's allgoing to be wrapping up and
right now I'm behind on my SBApayment.
I'll be well, I guess.
Technically I'm behind my rentpayment because I haven't paid
that and I'm like two weeksbehind on that.
No, I will be late on that one,nevermind.
(05:16):
So it's gonna be up to thelender.
If they want to shut thebusiness down, that's going to
be up to them.
The landlord wants to shut thebusiness down, that's up to them
.
My intention is to start andfinish one more challenge and
after that wrap it up and callit good.
If people close the doorsbefore I can do that, that sucks
(05:37):
for everyone involved.
Ideally, I want to give peoplea 30-day notice.
That is my dream outcome.
I want members to have a chanceto go elsewhere and to land
safely.
None of the staff are relianton me for a paycheck.
They get side cash money.
So if no one got paid it wouldbe unfortunate.
(05:58):
But no one's going to miss outon rent or groceries, so that's
important.
And, yeah, you never thinkfailure is going to happen to
you and you're going to beat theodds and that's a crazy thing
about entrepreneurs.
But yet again, I don't know thestat.
It's something along the linesof four to five businesses close
within five years, or 90percent do something like that.
(06:19):
Um and yeah, but deal undercontract number 63.
I thought I would beat the oddsand the odds beat me, so we're
going to go inside.
We're going to hang out withthe wife and kiddos Kiddos are
asleep so just hanging out withmy wife, enjoy the evening.
Tomorrow is a work day,tomorrow's Thursday, so we're
(06:41):
going to do that and not investin stress or anxiety or fear or
depression.
There's hope.
There's a future.
My Lord and Savior is still whohe is.
My identity is still the same,regardless of if I succeed or
fail.
And I may wake up one day and Ican't even access the business.
(07:04):
That may happen, for right nowmy keys open the doors, so we're
going to have a good day.
I've taken too long to get tothe point, so we're going to
call it good.
That's where we're at, that'swhere we're going, that's where
I can roll.
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