July 31, 2024 • 27 mins
Ever wondered what it takes to transform your side hustle into a flourishing full-time business? You'll discover the essential steps and mindset shifts needed to make this leap, along with the critical importance of having an exit strategy from the get-go. Addressing a listener's question, we unravel why early planning for an exit can fortify your business's future and financial health, whether you aim to nurture it for the long haul or plan to sell eventually.
Listen as I recount a powerful story about a high school friend whose side hustle, despite having excellent marketing, couldn’t sustain itself. Through an eye-opening breakfast conversation, we explored the tough decision he faced to close his business and return to the workforce—a move that might just reignite his entrepreneurial spirit later on. I also dive into my own experiences of balancing a principal business with side projects and why treating new ventures as side hustles initially can be vital for long-term success. Packed with actionable insights and real-life anecdotes, this episode equips you with the knowledge to navigate the challenging path from side hustle to thriving business.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey everyone, what's going on?
It's Jonathan Wagner and youhave tuned in to another episode
of the Business Guide.
Thank you for being here.
The Business Guide is all aboutthe ins and outs of everything
business.
I started my business years agoand I've noticed, as I've
networked with other businesses,we all come into contact like
(00:23):
we're all dealing with the sameissues all the time.
So I love talking aboutbusiness.
I love helping people throughproblems.
I've had a ton of struggles ofmy own that I've been able to
overcome.
So if I can get together andget you on this podcast or
whatever platform you're seeingand we can work through maybe
some struggles I've been throughand hopefully it avoids
struggles that you may gothrough.
(00:44):
So on today's episode it isgoing to be the side hustle
start transitioning from sidehustle to a full-time business.
Now this one really resonateswith me because you've heard my
story before of how I startedcarpet cleaning, got into adding
a service on and then becominga full-service water damage
restoration provider.
There's a little bit more tothat story and I really want to
(01:07):
go over that and share that withyou.
We're going to go over justkind of what I think about the
side hustle approach, start orthe side hustle kind of start
approach.
Yeah, again, see Tongue TiedPodcast raw love it.
Thanks for being here.
Let me jump into this.
So, number one this is prettycool.
Thank you for listening, guys.
It sounds like you guys arekind of receiving these episodes
(01:31):
and I'm getting some feedback,which is really cool.
We've got our first questionfrom somebody that responded to
me saying, hey, send me amessage.
So thank you for that the textmessage on the platform that
you're using.
So that was pretty cool.
So this question is from Kyle,and he asked the question when
(01:51):
building a business, when do youstart thinking about an exit
plan?
Now, guys, this episode isreally the.
You know definitely how westart small, where we're going
from a side hustle into afull-blown business.
But I want to make sure I getto these questions.
That way, if somebody's dealingwith something, they can go
(02:12):
through it.
So bear with me, as this is nota part of the episode but, I
think, a valuable piece ofcontent for everybody to know.
So, specifically, when buildinga business, when do you start
thinking about an exit plan?
So I'll tell you, when Istarted my business, I didn't
think about an exit plan.
It didn't come until yearslater.
(02:34):
That was definitely a mess up.
When I was first in businessand I was kind of making my
rounds on the networking circle,I remember talking to a guy and
he said look, I love startingbusinesses and I love selling
them and that is super lucrativefor me.
Not only do I get to make abunch of money, but on the flip
side I get to sell it and make abunch of money.
So that was kind of foreign tome.
(02:56):
I was like you know, I'mstarting a business to be in it.
Why would I want to get out ofit?
I don't understand that.
I'm building like a career formyself.
So it was a little foreignlanguage.
Now, when going into newbusiness ventures, there is
always an exit plan.
There's an exit plan in mybusiness.
There always needs to be anexit plan.
You don't know what's going tohappen.
Are you going to get sick oneday?
(03:17):
And you want to make sure thatyou're valued at what you need
to be valued at, whatever it maybe.
Oops, so anyways, yeah, I mean,I think if you're new in
business, of course you don'twant to put too much massive
energy into really crafting thisexit plan, unless that's a part
(03:39):
of your business strategy.
Now, for that gentleman that Ihad met with, that was his
strategy.
He liked building thebusinesses and he liked selling
them.
So if that's in your model,then you need to be thinking
about an exit plan sooner thanlater.
But when we start our businessesas small business owners and
we're hustling and we'regrinding, I think the last thing
we're thinking about is how canI get out of this or how can I
(04:03):
sell it?
So you know it's important tostructure your business at any
time so it can sell at itsmaximum value.
And I have learned that aftermy kind of years in business.
You never know what's gonnacome your way and you always
need to be ready.
Now it doesn't mean you have tosell, but if you are
financially structured the waythat you need to be at any time,
(04:25):
it just makes for an overall,just a healthy business, right,
and you know, of course, asyou're building a business, you
might be, you know, dumping alittle bit more money in
marketing and things like that.
So you know, I just know thatsometimes, when these guys come
in and value businesses,sometimes they, you know, they
want to see that you're alreadythere.
(04:46):
So, um, yeah, I think an exitplan is something that you need
to be maybe looking at yearly.
Um, I think it would be a goodidea again, unless it is your uh
, your strategy to build abusiness and get out of it right
away.
So, thank you, kyle, I don'tknow where you're from.
I'd give the shout out location, but don't know where you're
from I.
So, thank you, Kyle, I don'tknow where you're from.
I'd give the shout out location, but don't know where you're
(05:06):
from.
I appreciate the question andany listeners.
If you have questions as simpleas they are or super long and
you want to get a questionthrough, please do.
I would love to work through it.
If it warrants its own episode,I will definitely give it its
own episode.
And, kyle, I am sure at somepoint we will be talking about
(05:26):
exit plans.
That is not in the future rightnow, as far as the next maybe
10 episodes, but moving forward,we'll definitely probably have
an exit plan in place.
So, moving on, let's see.
Moving on, let's see.
(05:53):
So, specifically on the side,hustle start is where I'm
getting at with this episode, is.
I'm not talking about youwanting to maybe create a little
bit of extra money to offsetyour income from your job that
you're working.
Now you could decide to start aside hustle to then pay for,
maybe inventory for your newbusiness that you want to start.
But this is really treating thehow do I put it?
(06:17):
It's overall treating thebusiness like a.
I want to start a shoe storeand I need to slowly start
building up my inventory,building up my customer base
before I quit my job, butultimately you're going to start
(06:37):
a shoe business.
Same thing to say with, maybe,a car wash business.
Maybe you're working yourfull-time position and you've
got this side hustle which iswashing cars, but you ultimately
want a detailing business.
So this is really that.
It's not.
You know, I'm going to have aton of side projects while I'm
starting my business and I'mjust going to kind of see what
(06:59):
sticks.
It doesn't work out and I canspeak from experience on, you
know, maybe biting off more thanyou can choose.
So, specifically, going back tomy story, I think this is where
we're at right now.
So, specifically going back tomy story and the side hustle, so
you guys know that I was acarpet cleaning company that
then merged into a water damagebusiness and the rest is kind of
(07:21):
history and now current times.
But before that, right out ofhigh school, I cleaned carpets
and I worked for two differentcompanies.
One of those companies didcarpet cleaning and a bunch of
different things, but also diddryer vent cleaning.
Recession had hit.
That particular gentleman justdidn't do dryer vent cleaning
anymore.
(07:41):
Times were getting slow, and soI was talking to him and he
said, hey, why don't you justpick up my dryer vent cleaning
anymore?
Times were getting slow and soI was talking to him and he said
, hey, why don't you just pickup my dryer vent cleaning stuff?
I don't want to do that anymore.
And it was a relatively slow ornot slow relatively low startup
cost.
So I kind of jumped in on that.
I was like, yeah, I'll startdryer vent cleaning, I'll start
my own business.
This is going to be great.
And I, full on, went intobuilding my own business and let
(08:06):
me tell you, I failed horribly.
So there's a couple of thingsthat you know caused me to fail.
Let me grab a sip of water realquick.
A couple of things that causedme to fail there, but I think,
number one being is I wasn'tplanning to get into business.
(08:27):
It was more.
We started to have more of thiskind of slowdown and we could
tell that the economy was kindof stalling.
There was kind of an issuethere and I just needed a job
and I thought that I could startjust a business.
I didn't plan it.
So when you're planning tostart a business, obviously
you're thinking about thecapital you need, you're
thinking about marketing plans,you're thinking about your
(08:48):
business plan.
You're really thinking abouteverything.
And for me it was just more ofoh, I'm going to be a business
owner, I'm going to start, I'mgoing to go offer my service and
people are going to use me.
I was also really young.
I do think that you know anddon't get me wrong there's a ton
of young people out there thathave been very successful on
starting businesses.
I'm not knocking young.
(09:10):
In my situation, I think I wasjust a little too young.
I didn't think about thecapital reserves.
I didn't think about savingmoney for a rainy day.
I didn't think about dumping aton of money into marketing.
I wanted to go hang out with myfriends.
These things were just kind ofan equation of the business
never took off.
Now, in my quick three monthsthat I was in business, I did
(09:35):
have clients.
I mean, I remember going outand definitely bootstrapped my
marketing, but I went out and Iprinted these flyers and I
walked, me and my friend walkedeverywhere and we put these
flyers out.
It was educational material onhow you could prevent a dryer
fire and people started callingand I was like gosh, this is
(09:56):
great, I'm making money, they'recalling me.
This business is going to bethriving, going to be thriving
and you know to realize thatthat side hustle money wasn't
money to actually live off ofand thrive in for business.
(10:19):
So I just remember being superdisappointed that I felt like I
put everything I had into it andthe business bombed.
I ended up then getting a jobat Walgreens and working my way
through kind of the ranks.
Yeah, I was disappointed.
I think that the lesson therethat was learned is it was okay
to fail.
I actually needed that becauseyears later to help my business
(10:43):
when I started it in Thrive nowI had something that I was able
to work my way up.
I worked my way up from groundup, I went into management, I
learned management and then Iwas able to actually save money
and start planning to start abusiness.
So when I had the idea to startmy business.
I now had capital to do it.
At the time I was wonderingshould I buy a house or start a
(11:06):
business?
That's kind of where I was.
And then I took my managementexperience and those are things
that I did not have for thatfirst side hustle business.
Did it give me the experienceto start?
Absolutely.
But my bigger lesson there ittaught me that it's okay to fail
(11:27):
.
That's the lesson that Ilearned there.
So definitely okay to start theside hustle.
That side hustle did kind ofhelp propel my carpet cleaning
business because, as I was kindof getting to my end in
Walgreens, I started fillingsome of my off days with dryer
vent cleaning and I don't knowif I've mentioned that on
previous episodes, but that'swhat I did is.
There was a time where I knew Iwas going to start my business.
(11:51):
This was a non-starter now.
This was something I was goingto get into and I was going to
do, and so then I startedtacking on well, let me go make
this money because, again, lowoverhead to get into.
I ultimately knew it was goingto be one of the services that I
was going to offer.
And then I was going to tack on, of course, my what do you call
(12:12):
that?
Your flagship product or storeor whatever it is?
Mine was carpet cleaning.
So, yeah, it definitely wentright in line with my hand or my
right, in line with my business, started to provide some
revenue for this non-existentbusiness, and then you know, of
course, the rest is history onceI started.
(12:32):
So that side hustle approach isokay.
It's okay to know, hey, I wantto start my business and I want
to get into pool cleaning, but Iknow that there's going to be a
ramp up into pool cleaning.
You're not going to be able togo out.
I mean, I don't know.
Drop me a line in the commentsof what a pool cleaner charges.
You know, weekly it's probablyminimal, maybe 15, 20 bucks a
(12:53):
week.
But this ramp up of maybeyou've got to get a truck,
you've got to get chemicals,you've got to prepare for the
slow season with capitalreserves, things like that
there's a ramp up in there.
So if you were maybe alreadycleaning pools and you decided
to start your own side hustle,ultimately with the goal of
starting a pool cleaning company, then that is a good approach.
(13:18):
So the side hustle start.
It goes right in line withanother episode that we talked
about, which was start small,think big.
That is this and that is in mybusiness worked.
So I don't want you to getdisappointed or distracted.
You know, don't get, don't behard on yourself if you're
(13:38):
starting into a side hustle andyou don't think that you can
compete with people, becauseabsolutely you can.
Matter of fact, big companiesApple, facebook, instagram
either started as a side hustleor a side project and then were
able to figure out how tomonetize and grow that way.
So you never know where yourside hustle is going to develop
(14:01):
into.
But don't lose focus of it.
I'm going to get another sip ofwater real quick.
I want to tell you a story.
A couple months ago, probablyabout six months ago, there was
a gentleman I went to highschool with real nice guy.
He started a business probablyabout maybe a year, two years
(14:26):
ago.
It was totally a side hustlebusiness.
He had a full-time job.
He made it known that this washis side hustle and the product
that he was able to put out wasgreat product.
He really had the contentcreation down.
He was a master marketer.
(14:46):
The guy did a great job andessentially was working two jobs
and I kind of watched from adistance.
I watched from a distance Kudosto him, we talked to him a
little bit, but we never reallysat down.
So probably about six monthsago he asked me for a sit-down
and he really wanted that.
(15:08):
The goal of this sit-downmeeting was for him to pivot
from this being a side hustleinto a full-blown business.
With that being said, I satdown, we had breakfast it was
probably about three hours andat the end of it I told him I
(15:30):
don't know how this businesssurvives.
What you are describing to meis either a hobby or a business
that you will always have a job,but I really don't see the way
that you have the model, itbeing a full standalone business
.
And so I could tell it kind ofhurt his feelings, and I didn't
mean for it to hurt his feelings.
Trust me, I am the one thatwants to encourage entrepreneurs
(15:52):
, but sometimes you need thatoutside source or you need to
come to the realization, if youwill hey, this business isn't
going to thrive and I need tomove on and adapt before you get
burnt out and before you putout the fire that you have for
running the business that youwant to run.
(16:12):
And unfortunately, in hissituation.
You know, he walked out ofthere and disagreed with me.
He said, look, I'm going tofigure out a way to push this
business and I said, hey, morepower to it.
I would love to come back ifthere's anything you have to.
You know, any questions, youhave anything there?
And probably about two monthsago he decided to finally just
pull the plug and no longer havethat business.
(16:35):
He has since went back and gota job.
I have not spoken to him.
I've reached out, butunfortunately I think he's more
just a little discouraged rightnow and that's me just kind of
guessing.
But I don't want to see thathappen to anybody.
Where you lose the fire forwhat you want, don't get caught
up into.
(16:55):
This is the business and it'sgoing to work.
Because I'll tell you my exampleand I think I use the example
in my meeting is my businesswould have never survived if it
was just a dryer vent cleaningbusiness.
It is a great add-on businessor service, excuse me.
It is a great add-on service toan already established business
(17:18):
, but it is not a goodstandalone business, just not in
my situation and what I wantedto do Now.
There are people out there thathave successful dryer vent
cleaning businesses and theirmodels are different than what I
wanted, but nonetheless, thisgentleman came to the
realization of like hey, thisisn't going to work out, and
ended up closing shop, and Ireally hope what I see with him
(17:42):
is that fire not gone.
I hope that he does restartback up, because that's what I
had to go through.
I had to go back and getanother job.
I had to take my newexperiences and new experience
and put that towards my business, which then helped me thrive
into a bigger business.
I do want to mention matter offact.
(18:02):
Before on this episode, I wastalking to somebody else that
has a relatively smallerbusiness that is looking to go
larger, but they have not quiteleft their job yet.
So this is something common.
This is what most people aredoing.
So, guys, if you're looking atthat business, maybe they've got
a great Instagram page, greatcontent, marketing, whatever it
(18:23):
is hey, it might be a sidehustle and you would never know.
So it is okay to treat yourbusiness as a side hustle to
start.
Matter of fact, I prefer that.
Anytime I get into a newbusiness, I am treating it as a
side project, because mybusiness currently, now and then
(18:44):
the I don't want to say whichone, but my main business water
damage restoration business thatbusiness has kind of taken it's
taken the lead right.
So anything outside of that isa distraction and it's a bad way
of looking at it.
And the reason I'm hesitant totell you about the other
business is because it is stillin its growing and emphasis
(19:05):
stage on one that I think isgoing to be very lucrative and
probably shadow my water damagerestoration business.
But starting that as a sidehustle is important.
You can start making money.
It's great.
It does take a little extratime and resource, but remember
(19:25):
don't get it twisted and don'tbe confused that you have a main
business for a reason if that'swhere you've gotten and this is
a side project, that you areturning into something
legitimate.
And I think that on a couplebusinesses that have failed for
me that is a takeaway that Ilearned is it's okay to fail
(19:48):
because I didn't dedicate thetime, because I thought it was
just gonna start making moneyright away and I will tell you
the stuff I have done in mybusiness to make it succeed.
That is kind of the.
I have to be able to recreatethat on every single business.
And if I don't give it thatthought, then the business is
(20:09):
probably not going to work out.
So, yeah, guys, side hustle,start.
It's okay to do it, youinspiring entrepreneurs out
(20:36):
there.
I know that this, this episode,is probably it's probably
already been passed up, maybe bymost business owners that are
already in it because this is,this is more for the smaller guy
, kind of getting going,thinking about business,
thinking wins the time to kindof pull the plug or not to
actually do it.
So yeah, and then you know, Ithink, just going into it being
your side hustle, this is reallygoing to be a good opportunity
for you as you're dealing withit, especially if you don't have
any employees, no partners,anything there.
This is really going to giveyou an opportunity to dive into
the niche of your industry.
You know, I think that whenpeople go in and they spend, I'm
(20:59):
I don't want to tip that, tipthe next episode off, so sorry,
but I think when, when businessowners go in and spend a bunch
of money on something that theythink is going to work and it
doesn't work, it leaves you at adisadvantage.
(21:21):
So, being able to have this as a, you've got your cushion right,
it's such a.
It's such a big cushion.
You've got your job or whateveryou're doing and now you're
starting your business.
You're testing the waters andyou're finding your niche.
Maybe you wanted to go in andyou wanted to bake cakes and you
start selling your cakes andyou're realizing nobody's buying
(21:41):
my cakes and then all of asudden you whip together cake
pops and they sell like crazy.
Well, you found your niche.
So it does take time and, trustme, I'm the first one to say
this you want to be in anopportunity where time is not
costing you money.
And if you are in the safetynet of maybe having a job or
whatever it may be, and it's notcosting you money, then that is
(22:04):
the best.
And it's not costing you money,then that is the best.
Unfortunately, with mecurrently, if I start a side
business or a side hustle and Ireally have to put my time to it
, so am I giving myself enoughtime to that business?
And if I'm not, the businessdoesn't succeed.
But if that business ain'tgoing to work, then I'm wasting
(22:24):
my time and my time costs memoney because there's other
things that I could be focusedon.
So diving in, starting small,get that niche, get the
reception from your clients.
Figure out, you know, figureout what they, what they like,
what they don't like.
I'm kind of like this podcast.
This podcast is going to becrafted to your you know your
liking.
So you know Kyle's questionearlier.
(22:45):
If I start getting morequestions about an exit plan,
you best believe I'm going toput an entire detailed episode
together about an exit plan,because that's what you want.
That is me starting small.
It's definitely got the sidehustle.
Now, transparently, this willnever take over a business.
This is just.
This is for fun.
Take over a business.
(23:09):
This is just this is for fun.
This is because I enjoy sharinginformation with other business
owners.
So, yeah, I mean, I think thatthat side hustle approach is
just crucial into making surethat you you know you can figure
out a business that can thriveand survive.
You can find your nichecustomers, customers.
This is going to give you asuper, super, like hyper local,
(23:33):
targeted campaign on like.
You don't have a thousandcustomers right now you got five
.
Figure out every single thingabout those five clients and
obsess over it and obsess overhow you can make your product
better for those clients.
Again, this podcast as anexample.
I want to obsess.
(23:53):
You are the driving factorbehind these.
So, yeah, find your nicheobsess over that customer
satisfaction and your productbeing delivered to that customer
satisfaction and your productbeing delivered to that customer
.
But the side hustle approach isdefinitely where I think every
entrepreneur needs to start.
Now there's going to be somebusinesses that don't allow for
(24:15):
that, especially like franchisebusinesses, things like that
Like, hey, it's either all ornothing.
You're going to hear me too.
I do want to chime into thisthat most of my stuff is crafted
to just the regular businessowner that's going to start up.
Of course, it can be applied inso many different ways, but I
think crucial on kind of thisfirst season, if you would is
(24:37):
definitely more towards the rampup of starting a business,
getting going, really more likebootstrapping.
Not so much of hey, I have halfa million dollar liquidity and
I decided to put it into afranchise and now I'm dealing
with running that business.
Those episodes will bedefinitely later to come.
I definitely don't want to loseyou as a listener or a viewer,
(24:57):
so please bear with me, but wewill get into those.
So, guys, you prefer to startsmall, start small, create it as
a side hustle, keep your job,do whatever you need to do, work
out the kinks, figure out yourniche, obsess over the customer
and thrive into a massivebusiness.
(25:18):
I hope that out of this entireepisode, that's what you were
able to kind of understand andreally point back to.
So, as a reminder everyone, I'mnot a professional podcaster.
I'm just a guy that enjoysbusiness, that wants to get you
quality information.
So and this is unedited it'sraw.
So if there were any maybe intongue tied or whatever it may
(25:41):
be I do apologize.
I'm sure at some point I willget a little bit better at this.
Whatever platform you're viewingthis podcast on, please give it
a like, give it a subscribe, afollow, whatever it may be.
I'm doing it for that.
Right now I want to make surethat we're getting the
engagements and people areliking the content.
I would love to hear in thecomments if you have a comment
(26:02):
section or, like I mentioned, Iadded a little text message
button to send us a text message.
Send me your feedback.
What did you think about theepisode?
What would you like to hear inthe future?
Do you have any questions?
Any struggles you're goingthrough?
I've definitely been through myfair share of struggles.
So if there's anything I canhelp navigate you out of or
(26:22):
speak on that, then you don'thave to deal with that struggle.
Then the podcast is a success.
Yeah, just leave me somefeedback.
I would really like to hear it.
So, everyone, thank you so muchfor joining me on another
episode of the Business Guide.
As mentioned before, I'mJonathan Wagner.
I really appreciate you takingthe time to listen to this.
(26:45):
I'll see you on the next one.
Hey everyone, what's going on?
It's Jonathan Wagner and youhave tuned in to another episode
of the Business Guide.
Thank you for being here.
The Business Guide is all aboutthe ins and outs of everything
business.
I started my business years agoand I've noticed, as I've
networked with other businesses,we all come into contact like
(00:23):
we're all dealing with the sameissues all the time.
So I love talking aboutbusiness.
I love helping people throughproblems.
I've had a ton of struggles ofmy own that I've been able to
overcome.
So if I can get together andget you on this podcast or
whatever platform you're seeingand we can work through maybe
some struggles I've been throughand hopefully it avoids
struggles that you may gothrough.
(00:44):
So on today's episode it isgoing to be the side hustle
start transitioning from sidehustle to a full-time business.
Now this one really resonateswith me because you've heard my
story before of how I startedcarpet cleaning, got into adding
a service on and then becominga full-service water damage
restoration provider.
There's a little bit more tothat story and I really want to
(01:07):
go over that and share that withyou.
We're going to go over justkind of what I think about the
side hustle approach, start orthe side hustle kind of start
approach.
Yeah, again, see Tongue TiedPodcast raw love it.
Thanks for being here.
Let me jump into this.
So, number one this is prettycool.
Thank you for listening, guys.
It sounds like you guys arekind of receiving these episodes
(01:31):
and I'm getting some feedback,which is really cool.
We've got our first questionfrom somebody that responded to
me saying, hey, send me amessage.
So thank you for that the textmessage on the platform that
you're using.
So that was pretty cool.
So this question is from Kyle,and he asked the question when
(01:51):
building a business, when do youstart thinking about an exit
plan?
Now, guys, this episode isreally the.
You know definitely how westart small, where we're going
from a side hustle into afull-blown business.
But I want to make sure I getto these questions.
That way, if somebody's dealingwith something, they can go
(02:12):
through it.
So bear with me, as this is nota part of the episode but, I
think, a valuable piece ofcontent for everybody to know.
So, specifically, when buildinga business, when do you start
thinking about an exit plan?
So I'll tell you, when Istarted my business, I didn't
think about an exit plan.
It didn't come until yearslater.
(02:34):
That was definitely a mess up.
When I was first in businessand I was kind of making my
rounds on the networking circle,I remember talking to a guy and
he said look, I love startingbusinesses and I love selling
them and that is super lucrativefor me.
Not only do I get to make abunch of money, but on the flip
side I get to sell it and make abunch of money.
So that was kind of foreign tome.
(02:56):
I was like you know, I'mstarting a business to be in it.
Why would I want to get out ofit?
I don't understand that.
I'm building like a career formyself.
So it was a little foreignlanguage.
Now, when going into newbusiness ventures, there is
always an exit plan.
There's an exit plan in mybusiness.
There always needs to be anexit plan.
You don't know what's going tohappen.
Are you going to get sick oneday?
(03:17):
And you want to make sure thatyou're valued at what you need
to be valued at, whatever it maybe.
Oops, so anyways, yeah, I mean,I think if you're new in
business, of course you don'twant to put too much massive
energy into really crafting thisexit plan, unless that's a part
(03:39):
of your business strategy.
Now, for that gentleman that Ihad met with, that was his
strategy.
He liked building thebusinesses and he liked selling
them.
So if that's in your model,then you need to be thinking
about an exit plan sooner thanlater.
But when we start our businessesas small business owners and
we're hustling and we'regrinding, I think the last thing
we're thinking about is how canI get out of this or how can I
(04:03):
sell it?
So you know it's important tostructure your business at any
time so it can sell at itsmaximum value.
And I have learned that aftermy kind of years in business.
You never know what's gonnacome your way and you always
need to be ready.
Now it doesn't mean you have tosell, but if you are
financially structured the waythat you need to be at any time,
(04:25):
it just makes for an overall,just a healthy business, right,
and you know, of course, asyou're building a business, you
might be, you know, dumping alittle bit more money in
marketing and things like that.
So you know, I just know thatsometimes, when these guys come
in and value businesses,sometimes they, you know, they
want to see that you're alreadythere.
(04:46):
So, um, yeah, I think an exitplan is something that you need
to be maybe looking at yearly.
Um, I think it would be a goodidea again, unless it is your uh
, your strategy to build abusiness and get out of it right
away.
So, thank you, kyle, I don'tknow where you're from.
I'd give the shout out location, but don't know where you're
from I.
So, thank you, Kyle, I don'tknow where you're from.
I'd give the shout out location, but don't know where you're
(05:06):
from.
I appreciate the question andany listeners.
If you have questions as simpleas they are or super long and
you want to get a questionthrough, please do.
I would love to work through it.
If it warrants its own episode,I will definitely give it its
own episode.
And, kyle, I am sure at somepoint we will be talking about
(05:26):
exit plans.
That is not in the future rightnow, as far as the next maybe
10 episodes, but moving forward,we'll definitely probably have
an exit plan in place.
So, moving on, let's see.
Moving on, let's see.
(05:53):
So, specifically on the side,hustle start is where I'm
getting at with this episode, is.
I'm not talking about youwanting to maybe create a little
bit of extra money to offsetyour income from your job that
you're working.
Now you could decide to start aside hustle to then pay for,
maybe inventory for your newbusiness that you want to start.
But this is really treating thehow do I put it?
(06:17):
It's overall treating thebusiness like a.
I want to start a shoe storeand I need to slowly start
building up my inventory,building up my customer base
before I quit my job, butultimately you're going to start
(06:37):
a shoe business.
Same thing to say with, maybe,a car wash business.
Maybe you're working yourfull-time position and you've
got this side hustle which iswashing cars, but you ultimately
want a detailing business.
So this is really that.
It's not.
You know, I'm going to have aton of side projects while I'm
starting my business and I'mjust going to kind of see what
(06:59):
sticks.
It doesn't work out and I canspeak from experience on, you
know, maybe biting off more thanyou can choose.
So, specifically, going back tomy story, I think this is where
we're at right now.
So, specifically going back tomy story and the side hustle, so
you guys know that I was acarpet cleaning company that
then merged into a water damagebusiness and the rest is kind of
(07:21):
history and now current times.
But before that, right out ofhigh school, I cleaned carpets
and I worked for two differentcompanies.
One of those companies didcarpet cleaning and a bunch of
different things, but also diddryer vent cleaning.
Recession had hit.
That particular gentleman justdidn't do dryer vent cleaning
anymore.
(07:41):
Times were getting slow, and soI was talking to him and he
said, hey, why don't you justpick up my dryer vent cleaning
anymore?
Times were getting slow and soI was talking to him and he said
, hey, why don't you just pickup my dryer vent cleaning stuff?
I don't want to do that anymore.
And it was a relatively slow ornot slow relatively low startup
cost.
So I kind of jumped in on that.
I was like, yeah, I'll startdryer vent cleaning, I'll start
my own business.
This is going to be great.
And I, full on, went intobuilding my own business and let
(08:06):
me tell you, I failed horribly.
So there's a couple of thingsthat you know caused me to fail.
Let me grab a sip of water realquick.
A couple of things that causedme to fail there, but I think,
number one being is I wasn'tplanning to get into business.
(08:27):
It was more.
We started to have more of thiskind of slowdown and we could
tell that the economy was kindof stalling.
There was kind of an issuethere and I just needed a job
and I thought that I could startjust a business.
I didn't plan it.
So when you're planning tostart a business, obviously
you're thinking about thecapital you need, you're
thinking about marketing plans,you're thinking about your
(08:48):
business plan.
You're really thinking abouteverything.
And for me it was just more ofoh, I'm going to be a business
owner, I'm going to start, I'mgoing to go offer my service and
people are going to use me.
I was also really young.
I do think that you know anddon't get me wrong there's a ton
of young people out there thathave been very successful on
starting businesses.
I'm not knocking young.
(09:10):
In my situation, I think I wasjust a little too young.
I didn't think about thecapital reserves.
I didn't think about savingmoney for a rainy day.
I didn't think about dumping aton of money into marketing.
I wanted to go hang out with myfriends.
These things were just kind ofan equation of the business
never took off.
Now, in my quick three monthsthat I was in business, I did
(09:35):
have clients.
I mean, I remember going outand definitely bootstrapped my
marketing, but I went out and Iprinted these flyers and I
walked, me and my friend walkedeverywhere and we put these
flyers out.
It was educational material onhow you could prevent a dryer
fire and people started callingand I was like gosh, this is
(09:56):
great, I'm making money, they'recalling me.
This business is going to bethriving, going to be thriving
and you know to realize thatthat side hustle money wasn't
money to actually live off ofand thrive in for business.
(10:19):
So I just remember being superdisappointed that I felt like I
put everything I had into it andthe business bombed.
I ended up then getting a jobat Walgreens and working my way
through kind of the ranks.
Yeah, I was disappointed.
I think that the lesson therethat was learned is it was okay
to fail.
I actually needed that becauseyears later to help my business
(10:43):
when I started it in Thrive nowI had something that I was able
to work my way up.
I worked my way up from groundup, I went into management, I
learned management and then Iwas able to actually save money
and start planning to start abusiness.
So when I had the idea to startmy business.
I now had capital to do it.
At the time I was wonderingshould I buy a house or start a
(11:06):
business?
That's kind of where I was.
And then I took my managementexperience and those are things
that I did not have for thatfirst side hustle business.
Did it give me the experienceto start?
Absolutely.
But my bigger lesson there ittaught me that it's okay to fail
(11:27):
.
That's the lesson that Ilearned there.
So definitely okay to start theside hustle.
That side hustle did kind ofhelp propel my carpet cleaning
business because, as I was kindof getting to my end in
Walgreens, I started fillingsome of my off days with dryer
vent cleaning and I don't knowif I've mentioned that on
previous episodes, but that'swhat I did is.
There was a time where I knew Iwas going to start my business.
(11:51):
This was a non-starter now.
This was something I was goingto get into and I was going to
do, and so then I startedtacking on well, let me go make
this money because, again, lowoverhead to get into.
I ultimately knew it was goingto be one of the services that I
was going to offer.
And then I was going to tack on, of course, my what do you call
(12:12):
that?
Your flagship product or storeor whatever it is?
Mine was carpet cleaning.
So, yeah, it definitely wentright in line with my hand or my
right, in line with my business, started to provide some
revenue for this non-existentbusiness, and then you know, of
course, the rest is history onceI started.
(12:32):
So that side hustle approach isokay.
It's okay to know, hey, I wantto start my business and I want
to get into pool cleaning, but Iknow that there's going to be a
ramp up into pool cleaning.
You're not going to be able togo out.
I mean, I don't know.
Drop me a line in the commentsof what a pool cleaner charges.
You know, weekly it's probablyminimal, maybe 15, 20 bucks a
(12:53):
week.
But this ramp up of maybeyou've got to get a truck,
you've got to get chemicals,you've got to prepare for the
slow season with capitalreserves, things like that
there's a ramp up in there.
So if you were maybe alreadycleaning pools and you decided
to start your own side hustle,ultimately with the goal of
starting a pool cleaning company, then that is a good approach.
(13:18):
So the side hustle start.
It goes right in line withanother episode that we talked
about, which was start small,think big.
That is this and that is in mybusiness worked.
So I don't want you to getdisappointed or distracted.
You know, don't get, don't behard on yourself if you're
(13:38):
starting into a side hustle andyou don't think that you can
compete with people, becauseabsolutely you can.
Matter of fact, big companiesApple, facebook, instagram
either started as a side hustleor a side project and then were
able to figure out how tomonetize and grow that way.
So you never know where yourside hustle is going to develop
(14:01):
into.
But don't lose focus of it.
I'm going to get another sip ofwater real quick.
I want to tell you a story.
A couple months ago, probablyabout six months ago, there was
a gentleman I went to highschool with real nice guy.
He started a business probablyabout maybe a year, two years
(14:26):
ago.
It was totally a side hustlebusiness.
He had a full-time job.
He made it known that this washis side hustle and the product
that he was able to put out wasgreat product.
He really had the contentcreation down.
He was a master marketer.
(14:46):
The guy did a great job andessentially was working two jobs
and I kind of watched from adistance.
I watched from a distance Kudosto him, we talked to him a
little bit, but we never reallysat down.
So probably about six monthsago he asked me for a sit-down
and he really wanted that.
(15:08):
The goal of this sit-downmeeting was for him to pivot
from this being a side hustleinto a full-blown business.
With that being said, I satdown, we had breakfast it was
probably about three hours andat the end of it I told him I
(15:30):
don't know how this businesssurvives.
What you are describing to meis either a hobby or a business
that you will always have a job,but I really don't see the way
that you have the model, itbeing a full standalone business
.
And so I could tell it kind ofhurt his feelings, and I didn't
mean for it to hurt his feelings.
Trust me, I am the one thatwants to encourage entrepreneurs
(15:52):
, but sometimes you need thatoutside source or you need to
come to the realization, if youwill hey, this business isn't
going to thrive and I need tomove on and adapt before you get
burnt out and before you putout the fire that you have for
running the business that youwant to run.
(16:12):
And unfortunately, in hissituation.
You know, he walked out ofthere and disagreed with me.
He said, look, I'm going tofigure out a way to push this
business and I said, hey, morepower to it.
I would love to come back ifthere's anything you have to.
You know, any questions, youhave anything there?
And probably about two monthsago he decided to finally just
pull the plug and no longer havethat business.
(16:35):
He has since went back and gota job.
I have not spoken to him.
I've reached out, butunfortunately I think he's more
just a little discouraged rightnow and that's me just kind of
guessing.
But I don't want to see thathappen to anybody.
Where you lose the fire forwhat you want, don't get caught
up into.
(16:55):
This is the business and it'sgoing to work.
Because I'll tell you my exampleand I think I use the example
in my meeting is my businesswould have never survived if it
was just a dryer vent cleaningbusiness.
It is a great add-on businessor service, excuse me.
It is a great add-on service toan already established business
(17:18):
, but it is not a goodstandalone business, just not in
my situation and what I wantedto do Now.
There are people out there thathave successful dryer vent
cleaning businesses and theirmodels are different than what I
wanted, but nonetheless, thisgentleman came to the
realization of like hey, thisisn't going to work out, and
ended up closing shop, and Ireally hope what I see with him
(17:42):
is that fire not gone.
I hope that he does restartback up, because that's what I
had to go through.
I had to go back and getanother job.
I had to take my newexperiences and new experience
and put that towards my business, which then helped me thrive
into a bigger business.
I do want to mention matter offact.
(18:02):
Before on this episode, I wastalking to somebody else that
has a relatively smallerbusiness that is looking to go
larger, but they have not quiteleft their job yet.
So this is something common.
This is what most people aredoing.
So, guys, if you're looking atthat business, maybe they've got
a great Instagram page, greatcontent, marketing, whatever it
(18:23):
is hey, it might be a sidehustle and you would never know.
So it is okay to treat yourbusiness as a side hustle to
start.
Matter of fact, I prefer that.
Anytime I get into a newbusiness, I am treating it as a
side project, because mybusiness currently, now and then
(18:44):
the I don't want to say whichone, but my main business water
damage restoration business thatbusiness has kind of taken it's
taken the lead right.
So anything outside of that isa distraction and it's a bad way
of looking at it.
And the reason I'm hesitant totell you about the other
business is because it is stillin its growing and emphasis
(19:05):
stage on one that I think isgoing to be very lucrative and
probably shadow my water damagerestoration business.
But starting that as a sidehustle is important.
You can start making money.
It's great.
It does take a little extratime and resource, but remember
(19:25):
don't get it twisted and don'tbe confused that you have a main
business for a reason if that'swhere you've gotten and this is
a side project, that you areturning into something
legitimate.
And I think that on a couplebusinesses that have failed for
me that is a takeaway that Ilearned is it's okay to fail
(19:48):
because I didn't dedicate thetime, because I thought it was
just gonna start making moneyright away and I will tell you
the stuff I have done in mybusiness to make it succeed.
That is kind of the.
I have to be able to recreatethat on every single business.
And if I don't give it thatthought, then the business is
(20:09):
probably not going to work out.
So, yeah, guys, side hustle,start.
It's okay to do it, youinspiring entrepreneurs out
(20:36):
there.
I know that this, this episode,is probably it's probably
already been passed up, maybe bymost business owners that are
already in it because this is,this is more for the smaller guy
, kind of getting going,thinking about business,
thinking wins the time to kindof pull the plug or not to
actually do it.
So yeah, and then you know, Ithink, just going into it being
your side hustle, this is reallygoing to be a good opportunity
for you as you're dealing withit, especially if you don't have
any employees, no partners,anything there.
This is really going to giveyou an opportunity to dive into
the niche of your industry.
You know, I think that whenpeople go in and they spend, I'm
(20:59):
I don't want to tip that, tipthe next episode off, so sorry,
but I think when, when businessowners go in and spend a bunch
of money on something that theythink is going to work and it
doesn't work, it leaves you at adisadvantage.
(21:21):
So, being able to have this as a, you've got your cushion right,
it's such a.
It's such a big cushion.
You've got your job or whateveryou're doing and now you're
starting your business.
You're testing the waters andyou're finding your niche.
Maybe you wanted to go in andyou wanted to bake cakes and you
start selling your cakes andyou're realizing nobody's buying
(21:41):
my cakes and then all of asudden you whip together cake
pops and they sell like crazy.
Well, you found your niche.
So it does take time and, trustme, I'm the first one to say
this you want to be in anopportunity where time is not
costing you money.
And if you are in the safetynet of maybe having a job or
whatever it may be, and it's notcosting you money, then that is
(22:04):
the best.
And it's not costing you money,then that is the best.
Unfortunately, with mecurrently, if I start a side
business or a side hustle and Ireally have to put my time to it
, so am I giving myself enoughtime to that business?
And if I'm not, the businessdoesn't succeed.
But if that business ain'tgoing to work, then I'm wasting
(22:24):
my time and my time costs memoney because there's other
things that I could be focusedon.
So diving in, starting small,get that niche, get the
reception from your clients.
Figure out, you know, figureout what they, what they like,
what they don't like.
I'm kind of like this podcast.
This podcast is going to becrafted to your you know your
liking.
So you know Kyle's questionearlier.
(22:45):
If I start getting morequestions about an exit plan,
you best believe I'm going toput an entire detailed episode
together about an exit plan,because that's what you want.
That is me starting small.
It's definitely got the sidehustle.
Now, transparently, this willnever take over a business.
This is just.
This is for fun.
Take over a business.
(23:09):
This is just this is for fun.
This is because I enjoy sharinginformation with other business
owners.
So, yeah, I mean, I think thatthat side hustle approach is
just crucial into making surethat you you know you can figure
out a business that can thriveand survive.
You can find your nichecustomers, customers.
This is going to give you asuper, super, like hyper local,
(23:33):
targeted campaign on like.
You don't have a thousandcustomers right now you got five
.
Figure out every single thingabout those five clients and
obsess over it and obsess overhow you can make your product
better for those clients.
Again, this podcast as anexample.
I want to obsess.
(23:53):
You are the driving factorbehind these.
So, yeah, find your nicheobsess over that customer
satisfaction and your productbeing delivered to that customer
satisfaction and your productbeing delivered to that customer
.
But the side hustle approach isdefinitely where I think every
entrepreneur needs to start.
Now there's going to be somebusinesses that don't allow for
(24:15):
that, especially like franchisebusinesses, things like that
Like, hey, it's either all ornothing.
You're going to hear me too.
I do want to chime into thisthat most of my stuff is crafted
to just the regular businessowner that's going to start up.
Of course, it can be applied inso many different ways, but I
think crucial on kind of thisfirst season, if you would is
(24:37):
definitely more towards the rampup of starting a business,
getting going, really more likebootstrapping.
Not so much of hey, I have halfa million dollar liquidity and
I decided to put it into afranchise and now I'm dealing
with running that business.
Those episodes will bedefinitely later to come.
I definitely don't want to loseyou as a listener or a viewer,
(24:57):
so please bear with me, but wewill get into those.
So, guys, you prefer to startsmall, start small, create it as
a side hustle, keep your job,do whatever you need to do, work
out the kinks, figure out yourniche, obsess over the customer
and thrive into a massivebusiness.
(25:18):
I hope that out of this entireepisode, that's what you were
able to kind of understand andreally point back to.
So, as a reminder everyone, I'mnot a professional podcaster.
I'm just a guy that enjoysbusiness, that wants to get you
quality information.
So and this is unedited it'sraw.
So if there were any maybe intongue tied or whatever it may
(25:41):
be I do apologize.
I'm sure at some point I willget a little bit better at this.
Whatever platform you're viewingthis podcast on, please give it
a like, give it a subscribe, afollow, whatever it may be.
I'm doing it for that.
Right now I want to make surethat we're getting the
engagements and people areliking the content.
I would love to hear in thecomments if you have a comment
(26:02):
section or, like I mentioned, Iadded a little text message
button to send us a text message.
Send me your feedback.
What did you think about theepisode?
What would you like to hear inthe future?
Do you have any questions?
Any struggles you're goingthrough?
I've definitely been through myfair share of struggles.
So if there's anything I canhelp navigate you out of or
(26:22):
speak on that, then you don'thave to deal with that struggle.
Then the podcast is a success.
Yeah, just leave me somefeedback.
I would really like to hear it.
So, everyone, thank you so muchfor joining me on another
episode of the Business Guide.
As mentioned before, I'mJonathan Wagner.
I really appreciate you takingthe time to listen to this.
(26:45):
I'll see you on the next one.
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