STARTING a Business in 2025 What You Need to Know! | Episode 21 - The Real Estate UNLOCKED Podcast

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Joseph Marohn (00:12):
What up everyone and welcome back to the Real
Estate Unlocked podcast.
I am your host, Joseph Marohn,and today we're going to be
breaking down one of the corefoundations of true
entrepreneurship.
I'm talking about a provenstrategy that allows you to
create value, build your brandand set yourself up for

(00:34):
long-term success One of themost powerful paths to financial
freedom while building a legacyand shaping your own destiny.
Today, we're going to beshowing you, guys, how to start
your own business.
Starting your own business isthe process of taking an idea

(00:55):
and turning it into a profitableenterprise.
It involves identifying amarket need, creating a product
or a service to meet that needand building a sustainable
business model around it.
As an entrepreneur, you take onthe responsibility of making
decisions, managing operationsand driving growth, all while

(01:19):
navigating challenges andopportunities.
It's about creating somethingof value, building relationships
and shaping your own future.
Now, if starting your ownbusiness is something you've
been thinking about but don'tknow where to start, then stay
tuned, because we're going to begiving you all the tools and
resources you need to launchyour own business today.

(01:43):
Now you know how we do it onthe Real Estate Unlocked podcast
.
If we're going to do it, we gotto do it right.
We can't just bring on anyoneto speak about business startups
.
We got to bring on Mr BusinessStartup.
Today, our special guest on thepodcast is Jay Holder.

(02:07):
Jay is an entrepreneur who'sbeen making waves in multiple
industries.
This year, jay took histransaction coordination
business to new heights, growingit into one of the top
companies in its niche.
But it doesn't stop there.
Jay has recently expanded intothe business buying arena,

(02:29):
successfully acquiring asoftware as a service company.
Along with his entrepreneurialventures, he's active in real
estate, working alongside hispartners to purchase multifamily
units.
With over two years in the realestate game and a portfolio of
seven doors, jay's journey is aperfect example of how to scale

(02:51):
businesses and seizeopportunities.
Jay joins us today to show usnot only how to start a business
from the ground up, but alsohow to scale and maximize
profits with minimal investment.
So, without further ado I'vebeen talking long enough
Everyone if you will, pleaseallow me to formally introduce

(03:15):
to you Jay Holder.
Jay, what is up, brother?
How are you doing today?
I'm doing good, joseph.
How are you today, buddy?
I'm doing good, man.
Monday's rolling.
Good for you.

Jay Holder (03:30):
Oh yeah, man, Trying to, you know, fulfill a lot of
stuff that we had done over theweekend.
We started a Black Friday saleon Thursday and trying to get
people into our transactioncoordination company, and so
right now we're just goingthrough all those packages they
got bought and reaching out tothose different clients and
trying to get them onboarded.

So that's awesome man, some good strategies to
get that Black Friday going.
Man, you're rolling in somecustomers like that.
Huh, yeah, yeah, doing goodwith that, awesome, awesome.
Well, jay, welcome to the RealEstate Unlocked podcast brother,
a place where we bring value tonew and intermediate investors
by bringing on guests who areextremely knowledgeable, such as
yourself, and covering realestate topics on a very basic

(04:12):
level.
Now, jay, I'm pumped to diveinto this.
How to start a business is sucha powerful topic, and I
strongly believe that we don'thave more ownership out here
because we either feel failureor uncertainty.
Maybe it's a lack of capital ora time commitment, possibly
even self-doubt or a lack ofconfidence.
But one thing I know for sureis my audience is driven with a

(04:35):
strong desire to succeed andcreate something of their own,
and today, together, we get tohelp them gain some clarity and
get another step further alongthat journey to financial
freedom.
So thank you.

Jay Holder (04:46):
Oh, yes, sir, Absolutely.

Awesome, Awesome.
So let's just dive into it.
Let's help everybody gain someclarity.
So first question I want to askyou is what exactly does it
take to get started when you'rethinking about launching a
business?

Jay Holder (05:02):
Well, you know, when you're thinking about launching
a business, the first thing Idid and a lot of people teach is
first you got to figure outwhat you actually are good at.
You know everybody's good atsomething, even in like your
hobbies or your day-to-day joband then you got to figure out
how you can take that and thenmaximize that to work for
yourself.
Because ultimately that's thegoal of starting a business, is
that you get to work foryourself.

(05:22):
You get to build something foryou, for your family, and then
you go from there.
A lot of people take that riskwhere they're trying to fit into
a niche that they just don'tneed to be in Right right.
That's kind of how I got startedwas I started down a rabbit
hole one day on YouTube watchingGrant Cardone, like a little

(05:43):
over two years ago.
From there, like a pace videopopped up and then I started
down the pace more b rabbit holeum.
And then, once I joined up inhis team with gator the gator
method um that's when I startedtc.
And then from there I realizedhow good I was and how much I
liked it.

that's where I built my business, my first
business awesome, yeah, man, I'ma firm believer that.
You know.
Every single person at somepoint in their lives has thought
of a great business idea.
Now whether they follow throughwith that idea or not is a
whole other story.
But you know, starting abusiness from scratch can
definitely seem like animpossible task for some people,
and part of that is due to thefact that most people don't even

(06:20):
know where to start.
So, with that being said, youknow where, where do you begin?
What should your first steps bewhen you're starting a business
?

Jay Holder (06:29):
Yeah, I mean, the first thing I would tell people
to do and this is what I've toldmy kids to do, right, cause
I've got some kids that are incollege is, like I said, find
the thing you're good at, butthen study it.
Go find people who have alreadystarted that type of business
or a business in general.
Down with them, go over.
You know the pitfalls.
You know, learn from theirsuccess.
You know one of the guys I'mmentors me, or whatever.

(06:49):
One thing he says is you canspend 20 to get 20 years worth
of knowledge.
So, uh, again, don't getannounced by paralysis, right,
don't sit there, read everysingle book, cover to cover, and
never start.
But there are ones out therelike um, buy back your time is a
good one.
It is a great book that I'vebeen leaning a lot into that,
where you can learn thedifferent pitfalls and the peaks

(07:12):
right, the peaks and thevalleys of a business how to
start a business, how to run abusiness.
Study it, learn it and thenjust apply it.
Fail.
You're going to fail, like Ifailed on.
I failed multiple times, right,and you know.
But you can't quit.
So one of the things I do islike right now is.
I have a health consistencyjourney thing going and it's
just being consistent everysingle day.
Just keep pushing, just keephitting the button and it's

(07:35):
going to grow.
So that's what I would tellpeople is just figure out
something and then be dedicatedto it.

Yeah, man, I love the transparency because I've
also started businesses andfailed at them.
You know it's a learningexperience but, like you said,
you know you got to just dive inthere and you're going to learn
across that journey, in thatpath, as you start making those
failures.
You're going to learn fromthose mistakes, right?
So, main thing, like you said,just being consistent with it.
For sure, with it, yeah, forsure, yeah.

(08:07):
So you know, most visionaries,like myself, have these crazy
ideas constantly running throughour heads.
You know we're always thinkingof the next big idea or a way to
solve a problem.
You know, like I know youtalked about, you know, just
thinking of a business but like,how do you know that that
business is, if there's a needfor that business, right, how do
you define your target market?

Jay Holder (08:24):
Yeah, so for us.
So on the TC side, on thetransaction coordination side,
right, it was simple.
We're all members of the Sub2and Gator community.
We know what the need is, andthat one was easy.
The new business that I'm apart of is a software as a
service company, and we do PPCand AI generated landing pages

(08:45):
and things like that forbusinesses, and so that's what
we had to sit down and dorecently was because we just
acquired it.
Right, so we're taking whatthey were currently doing.
Now we're picking our actualtarget market, and so what you
have to do is you have to putyourself in the outside person's
shoes and say, if I was lookingfor this, what would I be doing

(09:06):
in life?
Right, like what would I?
What would my business be thatwe're attacking?
And so for us, it was anythingthat was service-based right now
.
So those services-basedbusinesses are the ones that we
target.
So that would be and this isgoing to sound crazy but it's
lawyers, like immigrationlawyers, it's plumbers, hvac,
all those companies that we'retargeting that need leads, and

(09:26):
they get leads through Facebook,they get leads through landing
pages, instagram, tiktok, and sothen it's like OK, great, now
how do we sell it to them andthen you start to niche down.
But you have to put yourself inthe mindset of sell it to
yourself, and if it's notsomething that you can see
yourself paying for, it'sprobably not a good idea at the
end of the day.

Yeah, that's interesting.
So are you using AI to actuallygenerate and pull these leads
and then you're providing it tothem?

Jay Holder (09:53):
So yeah, so our service is the lead generation,
so we it's.
It's building AI PBC campaignsthat go out on Facebook, google,
all the all the normals that goout on Facebook, google, all
the normals.
But then it's also building out, like, their landing pages,
their websites.
It's having a place to host itinside of a CRM so that they can

(10:13):
do all their communications tothe CRM, pull all that in and so
really it's done for youmarketing holistically.
I mean, our system even doesInstagram posts, all that for
you.
So it's a very interestingsystem and what's really good
about it is is we're able toniche it down based on what
you're into.
Like I said, we've goteverything from automotive to

(10:35):
zookeeper, like it doesn'tmatter, we could, we have it and
our generation will build it tothat, that niche or that market
, and then from there we evenhave it where it's geolocatable.
So we know, like, let's say,you're in Dallas, right, dallas
HVAC, we could even tell you howmany people you have

(10:56):
competitor-wise in that area,and then try to make the market,
try to make it to where yourmarketing matches or is better
than there, so that you're ableto help go after more of that um
customer base so yeah, that'ssmart man because, like you said
, man, you're, you'retechnically, you're just trying
to solve a problem.

you're trying to find, you know what people are
looking for and then creating abusiness around that right.
And, like you said, man, somepeople, like plumbers, for
example, they just want to getout there and get the work done,
right, like they don't want tospend time generating leads and
all that stuff.
So you're able to provide aservice for them, to simplify
their business and make iteasier for them to generate
income.

Jay Holder (11:35):
Yeah, and then my other businesses are tied to
real estate, so yeah, you know.

and then the TC business that was smart too,
yeah.

Jay Holder (11:58):
And then the TC business that was smart, too
right, because the sub twocommunity everybody's taught
there hey, use a transactioncoordinator for every sub two or
seller finance transaction andyou found what everybody's
looking for and just created abusiness around that.
I mean we, we.
So I started out in the, likeyou said, the Gator community.
I started TCing like two weeksinto the Gator community.
I didn't know what a TC waswhen I started my my first, my
TC business.
But then, once I joined sub two, I started working with my
business partner on some dealsand we ended up partnering
together and forming our currentcompany that we run together.

(12:20):
And then we, you know,recruited talent.
So we were probably one of thefastest growing tc companies.
As far as like staff, we wentfrom us two to 14 in the span of
like three months, um, and thenwe you know, it's like any
business, you go up, you go down, you go up, you down from from
a staffing perspective.
But we actually just hiredthree people, uh, today, they
started today, um, and so Ithink we're up to like 14, we're

(12:44):
back up to 14 people total, um,and so you just grow from there
and, like I said, we just tryto provide as much good service
as we can.
I think that a lot of businesslike, if you're getting into
business, you're starting abusiness, the first thing you
need to do is set your corevalues and don't bend um
important, and so we did that we.
We didn't do it when we firststarted it because we were in

(13:06):
the process of just figuring itout, but as we've grown, we've
set our core values.
Now we're planning for 2025.
We've got the core values,we've got the KPIs, we've got
the key performance indicators.
So the KPIs, so that we canthen track and measure ourselves
.
A lot of people treat KPIs asjust a tracking mechanism.

(13:26):
It's not.
I mean, it's good for tracking,but that's not it.
You got to measure.
And so if you don't have a goaland you don't know where you
are in your goal, how do youmeasure it right so anybody can
say I want to make a hundredcalls, that's great.
What do you do with thosehundred phone calls?
Are you converting those intoclients?
Or, if you're on the wholesaleside, are you converting those
into contract offers?
And then are you convertingthose contract offers into

(13:47):
actual contracts and then areyou actually selling those
contracts right?
So that's another part of ourbusiness that we've developed
for 2025 is our operator side,because a lot of us have gotten
the operator badge out of theSub2 community, the operator
badge out of the sub twocommunity, um, and so now we're

(14:08):
we're working towards how do weoperationalize people's
businesses for them and helpthem with how to develop that um
whole mindset and that wholeshift from just throwing money
at the problem to actually doingthe work and tracking the work
and measuring and making surethat what you're putting money
into you're getting money out.
So it's very interesting.

Yeah, no, and, like you said, man tracking KPIs
, it's not just like you'retracking numbers.
You know what are these numberseven mean, right, like so then
you know what you have to do.
Do I need to pivot?
What do I need to change tomake sure my numbers are
increasing or whatnot?
You're using it as a baselineto kind of build around your
business, right, and we've evenhad Jennifer Cortez on the
podcast.

(14:49):
You know, she was one of myearlier guests on and she
dropped a lot of value on whateven a transaction coordinator
was.
Right, because, like you myself, I didn't know what a
transaction coordinator was.
I always heard of the name, youknow, and I was like, what is a
transaction coordinator?
And Jennifer was one of thepeople I met early on and she
came in and dropped a lot ofvalue on the podcast.
So, awesome man, oh yeah, she'sawesome, yeah.

(15:13):
So now, one thing I've noticed,jay, is that every successful
business has is you know, we'veall seen it Is that that
business always seems to havesome sort of mission statement,
right, and so how important isit to have a clear vision or
mission for your business, andcan you explain why?

Jay Holder (15:31):
I think it's extremely important.
I think it goes back to thosecore values, right?
So when you're looking at, whatdo you actually want to
accomplish?
What value do you want toprovide to society or to people,
right?
And then put your core valuesaround that and so like.
For us, ours is to provide safe, secure transactions to the
best of our ability forinvestors and for assets, and so

(15:54):
what we say is we protect ourassets regardless of who our
client is right.
So, to break that down a littlebit for you, let's say you are
a lender.
No, let's say you're a borrowerand you're bringing us in to
transaction.
Coordinate the deal for you.
You're going to pay our fee.
You're going to do all of that.
You're our client, but we arethere to protect the person

(16:16):
giving you the money because atthe end of the day, that's who
needs to be protected.
So what I do is I tell all ofmy clients up front that's the
deal, it's in our serviceagreement, you sign it, you're
going to initial right besidethat.
But you understand we've hadpeople get upset about that
because I answer honestly.
If there's something a lenderasked me and I give them the
honest answer and the deal fallsthrough, there's nothing I can

(16:38):
do.
I have to give the honestanswer because at the end of the
day, the asset is the money orsame thing like a sub-2 deal,
right, like we're going to tryto protect the um seller as much
as possible and make sure theyhave everything in there.
And it's surprising how manypeople have old information and
so they still give it like, well, I told the seller I was going

(16:58):
to give them a deed in lieu sothey're protected.
I'm like a deed in lieu isgarbage, like it's not even
worth the paper written onbecause it's not accepted
anymore.
A deed in lieu after the factis accepted, but a deed in lieu
pre-signed nobody accepts thoseanymore.
It's like what else can we doto protect the seller?
We go through it.
So far I've only had two dealsin my I think I've done 1,200

(17:19):
plus deals in two years.
I think I've had two dealswhere the person when I told
them the answer, they backed outof the deal, and only one.
My client got upset.
So I think it's a pretty goodtrack record.

Yeah, no, and you know, what I love about TCs,
and especially working with yourcompany, you know is that you
guys kind of keep us investorsin check, right, like you keep
us on our game, because I've hadthem come back to me and say,
hey, did you explain this?
Did you walk them through thisportion?
Because you don't.
Last thing you want to do isget to the closing table and
then have a deal fall apartbecause of a miscommunication,

(17:52):
right, you know, on our part.
So it's, it's helped me becomea better investor by making sure
that I'm communicating properlywith my, my homeowners, right,
my sellers, because it's along-term relationship,
especially dealing with the subtwo transaction.
You want to make sure we'redoing right and they understand
what the transaction involves,right?
So good stuff, man.
Now, what are some of the keycomponents of a business plan

(18:16):
and why should every newbusiness have one?

Jay Holder (18:19):
Yeah.
So some of the key componentsof a business plan.
Number one is what are yougoing to be doing, all right?
Two is how are you going tomeasure success?
It goes back to those KPIs, butthat's not the full measurement
.
It's what's the actual successin the business plan.
And then the third part is agrowth strategy.
And those are all importantbecause you can get stagnant in
your business, like you canthink, just because you're doing

(18:40):
enough, you're paying the bills, you're putting a little bit of
money in your pocket, that youhave a great business and you
don't I mean it hasn't, you know, it's not there yet.
And so with a business plan,it's exactly what it says, right
, it's a plan, and for me, I dida three-year plan on my
business, and so it's like wheredo we want to be, year one, two
and three?
That's how we measure.
Obviously, we don't break downevery single detail for those

(19:01):
three years, because that'simpossible, right, I can't plan
things, I don't know, but I havea goal of where I want to be in
three years as a business.
Jennifer and I have the samegoal.
Our two minority partners,january and Jason, they have the
same goals.
So then you start to back downinto what can we do today.
This quarter For us, we do aweekly, monthly quarter and each

(19:24):
one has individual goals, andso the other part of a business
plan is, depending on thebusiness you're going into is if
you want to get funding, like alot of lenders you know, such
as like yourself right, ifyou're a lender and you're going
to lend on somebody as abusiness, you want to see
somebody that's actually tookthe time to think through as
much as they can about thebusiness.
Nobody's ever, ever going to be100%, but they can present to

(19:45):
you more and more data to showyou that they're taking this
serious, they're treating itlike a business.
It's not just a hobby, thingslike that.
And, like I said, if you evergo for SBA loans or anything
like that, it's required thatyou have business plans as one
item.
There's also projections andall kinds of stuff that SBA
requires.

Awesome, okay Now .
So at what point do you start?
You know thinking about abusiness model, and how do you
decide which one best fits foryour business?

Jay Holder (20:15):
So when should you start that?
Probably like when you firststart, you should have the idea.
We started our business modelprobably on eight months into
our business quiz.
We were learning right Likenone neither one of us.
I've been in the C-suite ofcompanies for the past 15 years,
but I've walked into people'sbusinesses and worked, so I
already had the framework.
They already had what theywanted to do.
I just tried to elevate theposition I was in With this.

(20:39):
It was my own and it wasJennifer's own.
We were just trying to figureout how to produce money and
produce time and build an actualcompany, and so I think that
our business model now is great,especially when you start
hiring people.
Like you really need to know adecent business model for you
before you start bringing peoplein, because there is a piece

(21:01):
when you start hiring W2 workerslike that, like you're
responsible for them.
So you want to make surethere's something that's
sustainable there and that'susually from a business model.
But yeah, I think that youshould have some kind of rough
idea, and that's why I saidtalking to people who've been in
business, learning what they do, asking questions.
Find a business mentor,somebody who started a couple of

(21:21):
businesses or runs their ownbusiness for a while and just
ask questions, find out whatthey did right, find out what
they did wrong and then try toput your put your spot in there.
Yeah, and.

I bring that up because you know, like, when I
used to first start businesses,like it was more of a hobby,
right, and then you startgetting into it, you're like,
well, you know, this is fun, man, but we got to start really
generating money because we'respending a lot of money on the,
on the other things.
So having a good business modelin place and making sure you
understand what your businessmodel is is definitely a key
component to having a successfulbusiness.

(21:56):
You know so now our job asbusiness owners is to keep the
business thriving and scalingour operations Right.
Keep the business thriving andscaling our operations Right,
and the way we achieve this isby focusing on profitability and
also making sure we remaincompliant with all the
legalities.
Now, because you're not a realbusiness owner until you've been
sued, right, jay.

Jay Holder (22:16):
What they say or attempted to be sued anyway,
right.

So all right, cool.
So while we are in this startupphase, you know what legal
steps should we be taking toprotect not only our business
but ourselves?

Jay Holder (22:29):
Yeah.
So number one obviously isformation.
Make sure you're formating theright type of business entity.
So whether that's an LLC, alimited partnership, s-corp, it
doesn't matter.
Um.
So I always say I've said, talkto talk to an attorney, an
actual business attorney.
Find a good tax CPA strategist.

(22:53):
That, um, preferably onethat'll work with you until
you're profitable.
But if not, like their work,their weight in gold, like I
just switched to one, who'samazing, they're actually
helping me with my previousyear's taxes Cause I don't think
they were done Right, and soI'm trying to say that way.
But those are two people thatdefinitely you got to have.
You've got to know that everyoneis insurance.
Look at what your service is,what your business is, and work
with an insurance provider tofind out what type of insurance

(23:13):
you need to carry.
So, as a transactioncoordinator, I don't need
personal liability insurance.
I don't have a building noone's coming going to fall down
in my parking lot or anythinglike that but I do carry E&O
insurance, arizona Missionsinsurance, which is essentially
general liability for any kindof technology and any kind of
that our team would make.

(23:33):
And so, by that, make sure yourinsurance is going to cover
whoever you hire, if you havepeople on your staff and outside
of that, like I said, part ofthat whole conversation with
those three groups again, definehow you're going to do your
business, which is your corevalues.
And so when you set those wecall core values, boundaries,
whatever, just make sure youlive within those boundaries.

(23:55):
And, for whatever you do, don'ttry to chase a dollar, right,
like I see a lot of businessowners even today.
Right, I see they're like I'lldo this and it's like you're
going to make 15 bucks andyou're going to do that.
Great, but this is how much youcan lose, this is how bad you
can get sued.
And I did it and I'm speakingfrom experience because I did it

(24:18):
too Like we, we did it.
We, we did things we weren'tnecessarily supposed to do, but
we didn't know either becausethey were.
There's's no regulation.
There was no regulation on whatwe did, um, and so that's
another thing is find out whatall the regulations are for your
business.
What are you required to haveand required to do?
Um, yeah, those are.
Those are the big things.
When it comes to like makingsure you're legal, the biggest
thing is your entity separateyour personal and your business,
because you don't want to loseanything personal over something

(24:41):
that happens on the businessside ever yeah, and, and you
know you bring up a good pointabout the entity and you know,
and and making sure that you,you know, start one of those
right away.

And you know I think it's a common thing for
people to not understand whichone to go with Right.
So can you explain, you know,the difference between an LLC, a
corporation and a soleproprietorship, and which one
would you recommend for someonethat's just starting out on this
business venture?

Jay Holder (25:08):
yeah, it depends.
So like for me uh, my firstbusiness I did sports cards and
so like bought and sold baseballcards, football cards, things
like that.
So I just did sole proprietor.
I didn't follow an entity oranything like that, because
there's nobody I can harm,there's no, there's no like
falseness I can do.
I either give you the card or Idon't.
So any ability to be suedreally wasn't a big thing for me

(25:29):
, right.
Then when you move into, youknow buying houses and things
like that, and then the businessof TC is we set them up as
limited liability companies orLLCs and so we're set up that
way because that separates mypersonal J from my business.
If finish line gets sued, I'min trouble with finish line,

(25:51):
that's fine, but nobody touchesmy personal side and vice versa.
So I guess who personally theycan't go after my business and
that's that's the big thing.
And then as you make more moneyor if you start to get into
payroll taxes and things likethat, and that's when you want
to again CPA, I'm not a CPA, Imean Joseph, let me preface that
in case anybody.
They said not a CPA, guys, butwe're a lawyer, but you want to

(26:16):
talk to a CPA or a lawyer aboutwhat level you should be at when
you do the, the S corp or the Ccorp.
Unless you're making millionsof dollars, c corp doesn't make
sense.
But but S corp makes sense fora lot of people that are going
to be paying payroll taxes andthings like that.
Um, and then you get into athing with llc, then s corpse,
which is where we're at rightnow because I've got multiple

(26:39):
llcs to where figuring out taxstrategy, and that's why the cpa
is important, because you doneed all those entities for tax
strategy purposes.
Um, but yeah, I think Ianswered your question around
about what.
Yeah, but yeah, my, I would say, look at it that way.
If it's just you doingsomething like trading goods and
sole providers, fine, you know,if you're building stuff for

(27:02):
somebody like I know there's alot of furniture making, my wife
likes those people, thosefurniture makers and all that
like to me, I'm getting an llcbecause if I sit on your chair
and fall and stab myself and Isue you, you don't want me to
take your house because I brokemy leg off your chair, like you
just want me to sue yourinsurance and move on.

Yeah, no, I think that's great advice.
You know, talk to your CPA andthey'll give you the best advice
on which way to go about it.
For me personally, I started anLLC, but your situation may
vary just depending on what typeof business you're going to
start.
So great advice on that.
Now, jay, many people feel likethey don't have enough funds to
even start a business, or maybethey don't quite understand how

(27:42):
to access funds to start thebusiness.
How much does it cost to startup a new business and maybe give
us a few options on how we canfund that business?

Jay Holder (27:52):
yeah, depending on, like again, what entity
structure you go to.
On the LLC side, let's just sayyou do what everybody in our
area does and it's two LLCs tostart.
Usually you're looking atdepending on the state unless
it's California, um, becausethey're very high, but any other
state it's going to be $500 orless per LLC Right On average.
So that's a thousand bucks.

(28:14):
And then you need your firstmonth's insurance premiums,
things like that, so you couldbe, you know, two grand in
before you start making a dollarRight.
But there's different ways todo that.
So for me personally, like whenI started the TC business, it
actually started.
I started it with my Gatorcompany, because when I joined
Gator, you know, we did thewhole.

(28:34):
I did the whole PCS thing whereI got three LLC set up at the
same time.
So it cost me like 1500 bucks,but I took one of those LCs and
that's what I turned into myfirst TC business and with that
I was able to finance that withcredit cards.
I know that sounds bad, but Idid a personal loan.
My accountant went in and tooka 0% interest credit card cash

(28:58):
advanced it.
Well, I didn't cash advance it,I did the credit building or
whatever, and then was able tomove that over into my LLC as a
loan and then I paid myself backout of that.
But there's lots of ways.
There's a company called Fundand Grow.
They're very popular where theyhelp you with.
It's essentially the same thing.
They help you with gettingbusiness credit cards, but they
like guarantee a certain amount.

(29:18):
They work with you on cleaningyour credit up.
So if you have any likenegative effects on your credit
that are going to impact youfrom getting credit lines, they
help you get all rid of thoseand dispute all that um, and
that's probably the best onethat I've seen.
There's a couple of smallpeople or small companies that
do it, but Funding and Grow isprobably one of the most popular
ones.
But they're going to cost youand so they have two ways of

(29:41):
paying them.
You can pay them up front andit's cheaper, or you can pay
them a percentage of whateverthey get you.
So if they get you, they mightcharge you I don't think 5%, 6%.
So if you get you know, if theyget you a hundred grand, you're
giving them six grand for doingit.
But that seems like a fair tradeoff, you know you know it's a

(30:02):
lot, but at the end of the day,like if they're going to help
you get it, who cares?
I mean, you're paying it backanyway.
The good thing is, like I said,it's zero percent interest for
12 months 18 months usually whatit gets you.
So that's a good thing.
You just make small paymentsevery month on it and what's
great is, if you get enough andyou do the consolidation of that
of those funds in the real cash, you can always just pay your

(30:23):
monthly fee out of that money.
So you never really come out ofpocket until the end when you
got to pay it all back reallycome out of pocket until the end
when you got to pay it all back.

Yeah, no, I think using business credit is a
smart idea, right?
Because if you don't have thecapital or the funds to start up
a business, you know leveragingcredit you know that you've
built up over time is a greatidea.
You know we've talked aboutbusiness credit on the podcast
before on how to start yourbusiness credit and how to build
it up.
So if you guys want, you canrefer back to that video.
But what are your thoughts, jay, on raising capital at this

(30:56):
early startup phase?
Is that a bad idea?
Is it a good idea?

Jay Holder (31:00):
I think it's a great idea.
Personally, I would raisecapital from people you know,
close people, because you wantthat relationship.
It's hard to raise capital fora new business that has no
capital in it, right, um?
But if you go to your you knowfriends and your family like,
hey, I'm thinking about startingthis business, here's what I'm

(31:20):
projecting.
Show them your business plan,show them your model.
You might be able to get themto throw some money into it,
knowing they might not get itback, right, like I've.
I've helped people plenty oftimes with businesses that I've
known personally.
Like you know.
Let me give you a couplehundred bucks and see if you see
what we can do.
And then you know I've nevergotten it back.
It's OK, because thosebusinesses didn't work out, but

(31:42):
it is what it is.
But that's the way I looked atit was go in, talk to your
friends, talk to your family andsee if they want to go into
business with you.
I'm not a big proponent ofgiving like cash equity out at
the beginning, because you needthe cash to stay in the business
.
You can always do like an equitypayout or something like that
at the end, where you're givingthem back their money plus a

(32:02):
percentage, but, but again,that's for my businesses.
So on my real estate side, wetry to bring in private money
partners to help us withpurchasing the houses and
renting them out, and then theyget equity position in the house
and we go that route.
So I think it just depends onyour business model.
But, yeah, definitely you got acapital raise for sure, whether

(32:24):
that's through credit cards,bank loans.
I mean, you're going to go intosome personal debt for business
.
I've never seen anybody not gointo personal debt to start a
business, right, but but but tome that makes you push more.
Um, that's another thing.
Like, like there's two thingsthat make me really push it's my
money, but it's my friend'smoney.

(32:46):
So like, if I borrow money fromsomebody, I'm gonna push to try
to get them their money back,because I don't want to be the
reason they're not able to paytheir bills in the long run.

So it helps.
It helps push you Right Becauseyou know you're you could be a
little more lenient with yourown money or like, ah, whatever,
I'll make that back.
But when you're actually usingother people's money, you have a
responsibility to pay thatperson back because your name is
on the line Right and our nameis on the line right and our
name is everything in thisbusiness right.
So you know and you bring up agood point about not giving up

(33:19):
equity early on.
You know I don't watch a wholelot of TV these days, but you
know, one of my favorite shows Iused to watch was Shark Tank.
Love that show, you know.
It's always inspired me eitherwant to invent something or
scale up a business so I canland on the show and pitch to
the sharks Right.
But probably sometimes thesharks wanted huge chunks of
equity of the company and aquestion that used to always go
through my head was how do youbalance bootstrapping your, your

(33:42):
business versus seekingexternal investors like a shark?

Jay Holder (33:46):
Yeah, and that's that was it.
It's it was for us, it was thecredit.
So, even like with the SAScompany, we did.
We we originally put out tobring on investors for the
purchase because we did a fullasset purchase, but we ended up
just self financing between thethree of us through leveraging
business loans, internalbusiness loans, business loans,

(34:12):
so like one of my businesseslent to my my purchase of this
business, and then throughcredit credit, stacking where we
just started, stacking all ofour available credit, getting
new lines of credit and thingslike that.
So that's the way webootstrapped it.
Cause the problem is with SAS ispeople don't understand it yet
and so, even though the profitmargins are amazing and things
like that with this company,when we were buying it, um, it

(34:33):
was hard to quantify that forpeople because they didn't
understand, like, how are yougetting such a high return on
your dollar?
Um, and it's because we'recreating something that people
buy, buy it once, pay a monthlyfee and they're using it a
thousand times, um, and we don'tcare how much they use it, um,
because they're paying monthlyfor it.

So right, but yeah yeah, so you know what what
investors typically look forwhen they're considering lending
.
You know, capital or investingin a business as an equity
partner uh, there's a lot ofthings that are.

Jay Holder (35:06):
You know that changes, man.
That's a great question,because used to it was what was
your pL?
What was your profit?
Last year it was like that.
Now, you know, depending onyour space I'll just talk about
the SaaS space for now.
Right, they're looking at MRR,which is your monthly recurring
revenue.
They look at your ARR, which isyour annual recurring revenue,
and you would think those twowould match, but they don't.
Because as you're runningcertain types of specials where

(35:28):
you're offering once a year oryou're offering, like, a
lifetime for cash injection,then you've got the monthly
recurring revenue which issupposed to go up year over year
, month over month.
And then they look at churnrate.
So how many people, if I bringon 100, how many of those people
stay more than one month?

(35:49):
Or, as I onboard 100, how manyof the last 100 off board?
And you really want your returnrate to be less than 10 percent
10 percent, but you want to beless than 10 percent for sure.
And then you they look at yourCAC, which is your, your cost of
acquisitions.
So how much does it cost you toget a client?
Like, are you spending threehundred dollars to get a client

(36:10):
that has a long-term value of,say, $200?
You lost a hundred bucks, rightLike.
That's how it looks, that's howyou look at it.
So, uh, it just depends on.
It depends on the investor.
But really and truthfully, youknow, if you know your MRR, your
ARR, your churn rate and yourcost per acquisition, you're
pretty much good.
Um, because as long as thosethings are all trending up, they

(36:34):
start trending down.

It's why are they trending now?
Yeah, I highly recommend youguys.
That was some great info there,jay.
I highly recommend you guyswrite all those down and really
look those up and look into them, because one thing I would tell
you is you really want to knowyour numbers and your business,
right, because when you go topitch it to an investor, if
you're trying to bring in anequity partner I've seen it time

(36:55):
and time again, even on SharkTank, right, like they ask them
a question and they don't knowtheir numbers.
They're like dude, I ain'tinvesting in this business.
You don't even know your owndamn numbers, yeah.
So make sure you guys writethat down.
It's all great info Now.
You don't even have to be abusiness owner to know that if
no one sees or hears about yourbusiness, then how are you even
going to generate money, right?
So what is your advice toapproach branding and marketing

(37:19):
when you're just starting outwith limited resources?

Jay Holder (37:23):
And that's a great question, because I'm just now
going down that rabbit hole of,you know, marketing myself.
What's funny is like peopleknow who I am because I'm in all
the facebook groups and I'm,you know, I put out value, but I
never thought about how tomarket that value.
Um, you know, it's getting outthere on social media putting
out things.
Just it's free for you to dothis, it doesn't cost a thing to

(37:44):
you know, if you want to spendsome money, get a 12.99 canva
subscription, go out your post,schedule them on Instagram,
facebook, things like that.
Just giving value right, likethat's the easiest way to start
getting clients is by giving outfree value.
Um, obviously don't give awayeverything.
You got to keep something youknow tucked away so you can make
some money off of it.

(38:04):
But you know, as you're, ifyou're putting yourself out
there, you're making yourselfknown, you're working on
followers and subscribers.
Um, I'm, I'm part of like twomentor not mentorships, but two
courses on, uh, social mediamarketing.
I bought them on a black Fridayspecial last Monday, so I ain't
finished them yet, but Ialready started using some of
the techniques I've learned inthe in a day of watching some of

(38:26):
these videos.
Um, and yeah, I could have wentto YouTube and I probably could
have learned all this for free.
All right, I probably wouldn'thave to spend.
I think I spent 60 bucks totalon both of these programs.
Um, but these are all rightthere.
I don't have to go to YouTubesearch.
But all right.
Now, how do I look up how toset my iPhone settings for the
right record?
It's right there.
I just click iPhone on the onthe course.

(38:47):
So don't be afraid to spend alittle bit of money.
Again, don't go crazy.
I don't recommend doing a$10,000 marketing mentorship
when you've never shot one videoon Facebook.
Probably doesn't make a goodsense of using your money.
Right, build up to that.
But go out there and find thoseeducations, those people, those

(39:08):
content creators who say they'redoing what they're doing,
research them, make sure theyare doing it and then get their
course.
If it's, you know, 30 bucks, 50bucks Hop on there and go.
And then another great way isAlex Hermosi has that program
School.
Go on there.
There's a ton of free groups.
You can get in and they showyou how to do this stuff.

(39:30):
Now are they giving you all thesecret sauce?
No, they got it tucked away fortheir paid group because that's
how they're going to make theirmoney.
But they're showing you enoughto where you can piece it
together if you don't have thefunds to spend.
Even if you do have the fundsto spend, you might not need to
because you might just be goodat it.
So I would just say, go onthere and learn as much as you
can about how to market yourselfand remember, it's about you.

(39:53):
Don't brand your business, brandyourself.
That's the way I'm doing it.
It's branding myself, where I'mjust putting myself out there,
where people can see me, becauseyou don't necessarily want to
just attract your niche.
You want to attract anybodythat wants to see a business or
make some money from thebusiness investment side, so

(40:13):
that when you step into a roomand you start talking, they're
like oh yeah, you own this, likeyou were talking about Shark
Tank.
Let's look at this KevinO'Leary, what does he own?
Nobody knows, you do?
I mean, we know he owns likeO'Leary Wines and things like
that, but you don't know all thecompanies he owns.
But you know who.
Kevin O'Leary is right, that'swho you know.
Mark Cuban you know Mark Cubanowns the Mavericks.

(40:33):
Yes, that's pretty much allyou're going to know.
He also owns a pharmacydistribution company.
He owns a bunch of other littlecompanies, but you don't need
to know that.
You know who Mark Cuban is, andso that.

(40:55):
Keep doing that.

Yeah, now that's.
That's super great advice, man,because I can't tell you, man,
like you know, one thing Pacetaught us early on was like, hey
, look, brand yourself first.
Right, because once you brandyourself and people know that
face and know who you are,anything below that now is
you're going to be able to growit.
Right, because if you justbuild everything, you put all

(41:18):
your marketing dollars andeverything about this company
behind it, and then that companyfails, or you close down that
company or you change the name,now you have to restart from
scratch.
Versus you branded yourself,like you just said.
Mark Cuban Everybody knows whoMark Cuban is.
Kevin O'Leary they all know whothese people are.
If they go start anotherbusiness tomorrow, they're going
to probably find successbecause they, not only because

(41:38):
they have the blueprint, butbecause you know who they are
and they can market it.
So a lot you know.
And one thing I always tellpeople is like leverage social
media, man, we live in a day andage where you can leverage
social media.
It's free, right?
It doesn't cost you anything tocreate a video.
Yeah, you could start puttingsome marketing dollars behind
that video to kind of push it alittle bit, but just get in
front of a camera and just talkto the people and tell them what

(42:01):
, what services you offer andand there's so many different
ways you can go about it at lowcost options to really brand
yourself and brand your companyRight.

Jay Holder (42:10):
So and what's really cool, it was Dan.
Dan Martell has a video aboutthis, and it was like and it
wasn't even a video about this,it was like a video of a day in
the life of a CEO.
It was following him around, heflew to like three, three
different cities in one day totalk on podcasts.
It was hilarious, but one ofthem he was in Nashville, and
this guy was like so how do Iget started in social media?

(42:31):
He goes you got your phone, putit out, start a video right
there, and said now, do I haveto post the video?
No, I don't.
I just started my social media,though, because what he did,
what he was saying, was justpractice, like, get out and talk
, talk on your phone, watch it,see if it's good.
If it's good, do a littleediting if you can, and upload
it.
If it's not good, you have thisgreat button called delete and

(42:53):
you hit the delete button andyou record whatever you want,
but it's it.
Man, that was one of the things.
When I saw that video, I waslike dude, I I try to make
everything perfect, right, like,I've got the fifteen hundred
dollar camera behind me.
I've got all that.
I don't even use it right rightnow because I'm just practicing

(43:15):
recording on my phone in thecar, in my office or wherever
I'm at in the gym now recordingthings, putting it out there If
it's good.
I probably record 10 hoursworth of video every couple of
days, but I only put out maybe30 minutes worth because the
other stuff is just garbage.
But it's just me talking andpracticing and learning how to
have that communication with thephone.
Uh, one of the things I hatethe most is seeing myself on

(43:36):
camera.
So I hate the selfie mode whereI'm talking like I try to get
my wife to hold the camera so Ican't see what I look like.
And I can talk all day if I'mnot looking at myself, um.
But if I'm looking at myself,I'm like, eh, I look funny, hey
man, we want to see thathandsome face there, brother.
Oh, y'all can't.
I don't want to see it, I justit messes me up.
But yeah, I think if peopleunderstood, like you said, it's

(43:58):
free, like you have a phone,just shoot it, just record it,
don't even post it, you do don'tmatter.
I'm like I don't care if peoplelaugh or whatever.
I don't care about none of thatbecause my name's getting put
out there on something and it'sgood.

Perfect example, too, is with the podcast.
Right, I have a name for thepodcast, the Real Estate Unlock
podcast but when I created theYouTube channel, I named it
Joseph Marohn.
I branded myself and that wayyou know, like I don't want to
be just known entirely for apodcast, I want to be able to
build off the podcast and buildoff the platform that I'm on by
branding myself and peoplegetting familiar with my face

(44:41):
and knowing who I am.
So good stuff, man.
Now let's talk about building ateam.
How do you know when it's timeto start hiring and building a
team?
What roles and job titlesshould we be looking for to fill
in our first hires?

Jay Holder (44:56):
So you know, when we started building a team, we
just started bringing on peoplethat could work files.
In my transaction coordinationcompany With the SaaS company.
The first hire we did was anexecutive assistant.
So we started looking at allthose little things that we were
doing that we didn't want to doLike I don't like to check
email, I can't stand chickenredundant emails.

(45:16):
So I think if Susan does thatand puts the important stuff in
a box for me and then I go lookat it once a day and I answer
what I need to answer, I don'tpay our bills like that's what
he does.
He goes into our account anddoes it and then I look at the
financials every day to see whatwent in and what went out.
But I don't have to actuallytediously click buttons Right
and so to be an executive, likesomebody to assist you with

(45:38):
doing all the menial things,like I said, I referenced Dan
Martell a lot because I'm on hisbook right now, but he talks
about that like the pain lineand all that, and then the um,
the ladder, and so the firstthing he says always is hiring
an assistant because they'regoing to take care of everything
that you don't want to do.
That opens you up and I likeone of the things he says is

(45:59):
like don't step over dollars tosave dimes, right, like multi,
multimillion dollar companiesare not built with $10 task.
So, um, I have somebody whodoes all of my social media
editing for me.
Um, obviously not the stuff Ipost, you know from the gym, but
like videos.
I actually put out podcasts,things like that.
She goes in, edits it and thenshe builds some of my um, some

(46:19):
of my material that gets put outthere, um, and she makes a good
payment for her.
She was happy with that's whatshe wanted.
But I'm not sitting therespending five hours editing a
video like she does that and,and you know, it cost me 20
bucks and it's worth it for me,but that's so, yeah.
So find somebody who can takecare of those menial tasks so
you can focus on the business.

(46:40):
Then, once you're doing that,you're going to get to a point
where there's new things thatyou don't want to handle and
it's OK.
Do I hire somebody to come inand do that, or do I keep it and
hire somebody to take X away?
So whatever that pain point is,whatever you're in pain with and
it's not literally I'm hurting,but like tired of doing it,
don't want to do it it'sphysically draining, mentally

(47:02):
draining, any of that stuff.
I'm hiring somebody that canhandle that and it doesn't have
to be an employee, it can be avirtual assistant, it can be
somebody you know in thePhilippines or in South America,
any of those things, dependingon what your business is and
things like that.
And then once you get up to tome, and once you start making
five, five ish million a year,now it's time to hire bigger,

(47:25):
bigger positions.
Like to me, that's when youbring in a cfo, a ceo, somebody
that's actually businessoriented, because then you have
a real business.
We've all got businesses right,but they're small businesses.
Small business, you're the ceo.
You're the ceo because that'swhere you're at in that uh
season and journey, uh.

(47:46):
But the reality is when you getto five million, now you have a
functioning, operating businessthat you're going to be bringing
in more people and so you needto bring in somebody who has
experience with running at thatscale, because once you hit five
, the next step is 10, 15, 20.
Right, and that's big money fora company, any company.
I don't care.
If you make 20 million dollarsa year and you're profiting 30,

(48:08):
40 percent of that, that's apretty good number.
So that's how I would do thehiring scale.
For us.
It was hiring more transactioncoordinators so that we could
produce more files in thetransaction side.

Yeah, I think the key here is what I always tell
people is, as a business owner,know what your time is worth.
Right, because, like you justmentioned about doing a
five-hour video edit five, knowwhat your time is worth.
Right Because, like you justmentioned about you know, doing
a five-hour video edit fivehours of your time is probably a
lot worth a lot more than $20,right, so you have to understand
that.
You know, in the beginning youmay not have all the money to do

(48:44):
that.
Right, you may have to wear allthe hats, and you know.
In fact, you know, jay, you mayattest to this, but one of the
hardest things for me to learnas a business owner was to
delegate.
You know, I want to wear allthe hats.
I believe I can do all thethings.
I'm saving money by just doingmore roles.
Now, how do you approachdelegation in the early stages
of your business and what tasksshould business owners focus on

(49:08):
themselves versus outsourcing?
What tasks should businessowners focus?

Jay Holder (49:12):
on themselves versus outsourcing.
So I'm still in that learninghow to delegate factor because
so at a nine to five, I candelegate all day long, but when
it's your own company, you'relike nobody can do it better
than me, right?
And that's a small businessmentality and a startup
mentality everywhere.
Like I said, don't try to be ifyou're not a.
I said don't try to be ifyou're not a bookkeeper.

(49:33):
Don't try to be a bookkeeper,like if you're not.
Obviously, if you're not payinga lot of bills yet and you're
not buying a lot of items, likeyou're not having a lot of ins
and outs, okay, do your ownbooks.
But when you start actuallydoing transactional funding,
where you're not funding butwhere you're actually having ins
and outs and you're actuallygetting complicated, don't try
to.
You know, go learn to be abookkeeper.

(49:54):
Unless that is your market,don't try to be a bookkeeper or
a bookkeeper.
You can hire a virtualbookkeeper for $300 a month.
Is what you'll pay for a goodbook, and that's including
QuickBooks, so it's not bad.
Um, if you're going to hire W2people, don't try to learn how
to be HR.
Don't try to learn all thestate regulations all that hard.
Go to gusto, pay them theirhundred dollars a month to do

(50:16):
all your people and you don'thave to worry about it because
they're licensed in every state.
They handle payroll, theyhandle taxes, they do all that.
You ain't gotta worry about it.
So, um, you know when you'regetting it and they'll do
insurance and everything.
It's great.
And then, um, like I said, theexecutive assistant quit trying
to answer all your emails, quittrying to allow people.
Um, I heard I forgot who saidit but I heard somebody say like

(50:37):
your inbox is really justsomebody else's complaint
department because they'retaskless.
Your inbox is their task list.
That's what it was.
They're asking you to do stuff,but it's your inbox.
You don't own it.
So it's like give it tosomebody to handle.
Make sure you stay on trackwith what you're doing.
Um, do a time audit.
Like people look at that.
Like you said, it's all aboutmoney.
Like, look how much money youmade this week.

(50:58):
Let's just look at this.
Take your business, everythingyou do in it, how much did you
make this week?
How many hours did you work inyour business?
Let's say you made freezingmath.
Let's say you made a thousanddollars and then you did 10
hours that week.
We all know that's not true,but let's just say that's what
it was.
You're worth a hundred dollarsan hour.
So, like you said, that, fivehours I spent in this video that

(51:21):
cost me $500 when I could havejust paid a VA 20 bucks, right.
So for me, my biggest thing isgetting on getting on doing this
with you right being onpodcasts, being on conversations
, being on meetings where I cantalk about my services, I can
sell our services and then moveon.
If I take five hours and I doseven Zoom calls and I sell four

(51:43):
people 20 bucks isn't eventhought about right, and so it's
like that.
And so it's measuring your timefor both money and energy.
Like again, if you're doingthose things like that just
drain you to where you're notgoing to be in that space you
need to be, to be creative or tohave impactful zoom calls to
where you can bring in clients,then don't do it Like, pay

(52:05):
somebody to do it and move on.
But those things that you'rereally, really enjoying or
you're really good at that makeyou money.
That should be what you focuson, and then everything else you
just figure out.
Either I'm going to do it on aweekend, I'm going to pay X
person to do it, or I'm going tohire this company just to
handle that.
Um, again, it's gotta beprofitable though, right, like

(52:28):
you can't hire out everything inthe beginning because you have
no money, like you're not goingto be having any money on your
profit line, but start buildingto those things.
So, like what we, what I dopersonally on my stuff is I look
at how much I make every monthfrom the businesses, or how much
the businesses bring in everymonth, and then I say, okay, if
I bring this person in and I paythem a thousand dollars a month

(52:48):
, that's one deal.
One more deal I got to do amonth to keep my current profit
margin.
That's the way I look at it.
I got to a certain what'scomfortable for our business for
the month and then every time Iwant to hire somebody and I
know what that salary is goingto cost me, I say, okay, that's
X amount of deals more over thisthat we have to do, and I think
that's a great way.

(53:09):
Then another way is leveragesystems, and it's not just about
technology Leverage, you know,repeatable systems to where
everything's done the same everytime.
Now you and I are both in realestate.
So we know nothing is the sameevery single time lives by is if
I can put, build a system or aprocess that will hit 80 of what
I get, that other 20 just worksout.

(53:34):
It always does.
And so, um, for us, like on ourtransaction side, we use like
I'll give you an actualapplication we use, we use
monday, that's how we track allof our deals and that's how we
track everything, we track ourkpis.
And monday we have, we have gohigh level.
We have all that too.
But we try everything in mondMonday because it's easy to use.
I built it because I startedworking on it a time when I was

(53:57):
doing all the hats.
I couldn't delegate.
I tried to delegate it and Ididn't like the way they did it,
so I took it over and did itmyself and that was horrible.
I should have just let them doit and pushed it out two weeks,
but I was ready.
But after that, everything'srepeatable, my.
But after that, like,everything's repeatable, my team
can go in there and when myteam goes, hey Jay, what do we
do about this?
I'm like, give me five minutesand I write something and it's

(54:17):
in Monday and I'm like, thereyou go, go, click on that loom
video, that's in Monday.
It'll tell you exactly what todo.
And then for new business ownersthat are starting to record
everything you do from day one.
So get a camera webcam.
You're going to need it anyway.
Get Loom it's free, or you getthe upgraded version for $10 a
month.
It'll be the greatest assistantyou've ever had.

(54:41):
Loom is the greatest assistantI've ever had because I just
turn it on and I just talk whileI'm working and then I can take
that and I can in there.
You can build SOPs from it, youcan transcribe it, you can do
everything right in the systemand then you don't have to ever
do it again.
I don't have to remember how Idid something.
All I got to do is go whateverlike wash the dishes, right and

(55:02):
the video comes up and I go okay, I do step A, step B, all right
, cool, we're done.
Have a good day, yeahno-transcript with my team,

(55:33):
right?

So instead of, you know, get on a meeting every
time with a new employee andhaving to train them over and
over, I just record a video andthen I put it in our own Google
drive, which is my own versionof a vault, and I go refer back
to that video and you'll seeeverything we covered.
And you know, even using youbrought up, using automation and
stuff like I use Fathom notetakers when I'm going inside of

(55:56):
meetings and stuff.
It's awesome, man, you leavethe meeting, it gives you all
the notes from the meeting, itbreaks it down and it gives you,
you know, your takeaways fromthe meeting and even what you
should be following up with.
It's.
It's such a great assistant,right where I don't have to
physically pay that person to bethere.
You typically you would needsomeone like a copywriter or
someone that's in there takingnotes for you as an assistant,

(56:18):
and now I have a free version ofassistance, right.
So now what?
What are some of the commonpitfalls you see, jay, that are
here of new business owners fallinto and how can they avoid
them?

Jay Holder (56:31):
man.
I think the biggest pitfall Isee is people relying on their
new business to supportthemselves.
I know that sounds bad, becausethat's what we all start a
business for is to be supported,right.
But when you're starting totake funds out of your business
immediately and not leavingenough in there for growth and
actually setting it up correctly, I think that's one of the

(56:51):
biggest pitfalls I've seen,where people are losing the ton
of money.
And then number two is nothaving a measure at all.
It's okay not to know what youneed to do, it's okay not to
know where you're going, butmeasure day over day, measure
week over week, right?
Measure month over month sothat you can make sure that you

(57:11):
are growing, you're growingsuccessfully and your spend is
right.
Um, I helped a wholesaler withthe deal with a thing one time
it's recent where he was tellingme he was making like 20 grand
a month and I was like all right, that's, that's good, I guess.
I mean, I guess that's good foryou.
I was like how much are youspending on marketing?
Because I don't know, I go,okay.
I said how much are youspending on marketing?
He goes I don't know, I go,okay.
I said how much are youspending on each of your

(57:32):
marketing channels?
I don't know.
I'm like, okay, but you'reprofiting 20 grand.
He's like, yeah, I go.
How many.
How many did you close in dealslast month?
He goes, I don't know.
I was like, wait a minute, youdon't know what you're spending
business.
He's like, yes, I was like, allright, cool, let's fix that.
So we went in and set up his kpi.
I went and set up his kpis towhere we actually tracked his

(57:55):
five marketing channels, howmuch he was spending of those,
how many each marketing channelbrought in contracts and how
valuable were those contracts.
And what we found was there wasone market where he was dumping
like six grand a month intothat was producing zero.
But he had this other market hewas only putting two grand into
that was producing like 30% ofhis profit and it's like, well,

(58:17):
let's close this market.
He's like, oh, but I need that.
I go, no, you don't.
It's clear, in three months youspent $18,000 for nothing,
where, if you took this one,theoretically right now, it's
still flushing out and it'sworking to a degree where I was
like, if you take 50 percent ofthat for now, just so, nine
grand instead of 18 and you dumpit over into this one that's

(58:40):
producing 30 percent of yourprofit.
At only two thousand dollarsyou should be up around 60
percent more profit, profit, Ithink.
Last month he closed he was uplike 33%, which is great,
because he's also up because hisspend is down, because he only
put half of what he was spendinginto it and the other half I
told him to keep into thecompany.

(59:01):
And so if he wouldn't havenever looked at, actually had
somebody look at his numbers andshow him that he wouldn't have
known that he was giving moneyaway, because that's his pitfall
is we become so focused on howmuch we're bringing in that we
don't realize we're losing money.
I'm not looking at numbers at amacro level.

(59:21):
We all look macro, right, weall say we're bringing in 50
grand, awesome.
But if you look at a microlevel and you can see that
you're spending 10 grand onthings you don't need to spend
on, then you end up making$10,000 more.
So now you're bringing in60,000 more and I feel together
my wife laughs at me because Ididn't look at our bank account

(59:42):
and apparently I was a member ofsomething that was charging me
50 bucks a month and I nevernoticed it.
Been doing it for a year.
Did a bank audit I was likewhat is this item?
And Noticed it been doing itfor a year.
Did a bank audit I was likewhat is this item?
And she was like you signed upfor that and said you were going
to cancel it.
I was like, well, okay, oh, Ilost.
You know I lost $600 because Ididn't cancel it in this, in the
window.

(01:00:03):
But uh, you know, and I do thatnow, like I've got applications
, I'm like I don't need thatanymore, cancel.
I'm like I don't need thatanymore and cancel.
But I've had it for threemonths and never used it.
But you got to do that auditand I just haven't done it.
And so I can speak for myselfDo your audits and make sure
everything you say you need oryou're going to do is there, and

(01:00:23):
track the money and you'll beprofitable, and profitability
means your business growth.

Joseph Marohn (01:00:28):
Yeah, it just goes back to what we were saying
earlier on right Tracking yourKPIs and knowing your numbers,
because now you can, you canpivot and you can.
You have a baseline and youcould see clearly hey, this
channel is not making any money.
Why do I keep dumping moneyinto this when I should be
applying it here, where I'mactually generating money?
So good stuff there.
Um, you know what?

(01:00:50):
What should we be focusing onin our first year to make sure
our business is successful?

Jay Holder (01:00:55):
I mean, I'd focus on getting your name out there.
That'd be number one, numbertwo just producing good work.
Don't worry about speed, don'tworry about time.
Worry about giving good, goodwork to people and get plenty of
recommendations.
So get your testimonials fromyour clients.
It's something we didn't do.
We're starting to do it now but, like, like I said, we've done

(01:01:18):
over 1200 plus deals and I thinkwe've got like 20 reviews on
facebook, because we don't wealways forget to say, hey, can
you give us a review at the endof a file, right?
Um, I know this.
One person was talking about howthey're.
They were a realtor and thefirst thing they would do is,
when they close a deal, they'dpull their phone out and record
their client and be like, hey,give me a testimony right now,

(01:01:40):
and it's like, ooh, that'spretty cool.
It's almost like holding themhostage, though you kind of
can't go.
Oh, they suck, because you'reon camera right there.
But yeah, so make sure you'regetting your customer reviews.
Build relationships like that's.
The other thing is is businessin general is a relationship
thing, unless you're amcdonald's or a walmart where

(01:02:01):
relationship doesn't matter.
Well, none of us are thosepeople, by the way.
Um, your relationships matterand so you know, be courteous,
be kind.
Uh, live by the rule, you knowtreat people how you want them
to treat you.
So you know I'm not saying thatyour client is always right I
don't believe that.
But you know they are yourclients, so make sure you're
taking care Absolutely.

Yeah, man, and you know there's.
There's just so much we canreally get into on this topic,
right, we can really get into onthis topic, right.
It's hard to really coverentirely how to start a business
in a one-hour episode becauseobviously there's so much that
goes involved with it.
But, jay, let's just giveeverybody a call to action right
now.
That's made it this far alongthe video.
If you could give one singlepiece of advice or an action

(01:02:46):
step for someone looking tostart their business today, what
would it be?

Post about it, post about the business you're going
to start.
That's it.
Don't name it, don't give allthe details, but just post hey,
going to start doing X andwhatever X is.
Put it out there, because Ibelieve that, I truly believe,
that if you put things out there, if one person sees it, your
accountability doubles.

(01:03:12):
If two people see it, ittriples.
And it built, it compoundsright, because, uh, I mean, I'm
wearing a shirt says consistency, because that's what I've been
posting on for the past you knowit was 47 or 48 and it's making
sure you're doing somethingevery single day to get better.
So if you post it, you're goingto keep, you're going to have to
drive for it, Um, or somebodyis going to ask you, um, in fact

(01:03:32):
, if you tag me, I'll be the oneto ask you about it.
So, uh, uh, because I I want tohelp people in general in life,
but I really want to helppeople in business, cause I
think that that that's theAmerican dream, is
entrepreneurship, and so if Ican help with any way and it's
just like message you going hey,joseph, you said you was gonna
do this man where you at justcurious, um, and you can ignore

(01:03:53):
me, right, that's the power ofthe internet.
But at the same time, I'm thetype if you're like me, people
do it.
You're like, oh, man did say Iwas gonna do that.
Uh, let me do that.
You know, um, I think you'rethe same way.
Just, I think if you post,you're gonna do something that
somebody calls you out.
You're like, oh, yeah, I'mworking on it.
You're immediately going tostart working on it because I
just think that's a, you know, atrait that we have.

(01:04:14):
But, uh, yeah, I think, yeah,post it, post it up that you're
gonna start work, start doing it.
Whatever x is, you know you'regonna start cutting lawns.
Put it out there if you'regonna start.
It's getting cold over here, soif you're gonna start snow
blowing, put it out there, um,and see if that doesn't help you
build your business or at leastjumpstart it.

And I love that man because you know I've been
seeing you, man, stayingconsistent, you're in the gym
and you're crushing it, man.
So I applaud that.
And you know it's posting notjust the business but it's, jay,
as a person, right.
So when I go on your profile Isee that not only do you do real
estate, you're also a businessowner.
You have a TC service company,but on top of that you're a

(01:04:55):
human being, right.
You're a family guy, you're inthe gym, you have kids, you have
a wife and people like to seethat stuff because now, you're
relatable, right, and it's notjust like he's some big guru,
he's some big real estate guy.
I actually relate to this guy.
I got kids too, you know.
Oh, I like the gym too.
You know that type of stuff youknow is good stuff and I really

(01:05:15):
agree with you on that.
You know, just post it, youknow, put it out there so
everybody can see.
Again, it goes back to whatwe're talking about the power of
social media.
It's free, you can do itanytime you want and you can
just pull your camera out andnever have to think about it, or
you can put some thought intoit and really put out some good
stuff, but yeah, man, good stuff.
So now, last question I want toask you, jay, before we close

(01:05:36):
this thing out, is you knowyou've proven to have what it
takes to become a successfulbusiness owner?
What is the biggest lessonyou've learned from starting
your own business, and how didit shape your journey?

Yeah, I mean, the biggest thing I learned was how
to how to set the boundaries.
Um, that's the biggest thing Ilearned from starting my
business and and the reason Isay that is I was a hundred
percent accessible, no matterwhat it was.
And you know people, you know,even though they're paying you,
they're clients, right, they're.
They're paying you, but theywill take advantage of that and

(01:06:12):
there's a certain point wherethat bleeds into your personal
life.
You know, I'm getting calls inthe middle of the night, I'm
getting calls when I'm out tothe movies, I'm getting called
at church and it's like look,there's got to be a boundary.
So figure out what you want todo your life, put everything
into it.
Like I'm saying, put every houryou have that inside your

(01:06:34):
boundary, into it.
But remember, it's a job, it'syour business, but it's a job.
So you need to set theboundaries.
Make sure that you're balancingyour personal life.
There's no balance.
There's no work-life balance.
Nobody, I don't believe in that.
But there is a balance.
Personal life, like if I'm goingon a date with my wife, I'm
with my wife, I don't care likefor me, my business is in the

(01:06:57):
time.
I'm dealing with title companiesand attorneys, title companies
that, working at six o'clockeastern time, they're closed at
five, so I am not getting on aphone call to talk about what
title needs to do until tomorrow.
If you need me that bad, emailme.
Um, and the best way I found toset boundaries around that,
especially working withinvestors, is monetary.
I will work with you afterhours, but it's going to cost

(01:07:20):
you X amount of dollars on topof what you're already paying me
, because that's what's in ourcontract and so yeah.
So boundaries contractualboundaries are really important
for me and I found any businessI work in or start we'll start
with that because, again, like Isaid, I do.
Like you said, I have a wife, Ihave a family, and the whole

(01:07:41):
point of being an entrepreneuris to be able to spend more time
with them, and so yeah, I lovethat man and I think you just
hit it right on the head, right,because I had that issue as
well.

You know, making myself too accessible right, and
we get into this space becausewe want financial freedom right,
we want to buy our time back.
But how are you buying yourtime back if you're making
yourself so accessible andeverybody could just call you at
any time of the day when I'mwith my wife and my kids?

(01:08:12):
I don't even have my phone nextto me.
You cannot get ahold of me.
My phone is off.
I am tuned in with my familybecause why I've already put in
the work earlier on in the dayand I think it's really just
getting back to.
You know, setting time block inyour day, having a calendar in
place and if you happen to havean assistant, you know,
eventually, obviously you can'tdo that early on, but eventually
you want to have an assistantto filter those calls in and
then they know they can, theycan have them scheduled on your

(01:08:34):
calendar, set appointments andand just really keeping yourself
not so accessible.
So I love that man, I love thatyou hit that on the head so
awesome.
Well, jay, I appreciate you forcoming on here Just pouring
knowledge on all of us, showingus how to successfully and start
a business.
Guys realize that people payfor this information and Jay
just gave it all to us for free.

(01:08:56):
I guarantee this episode isgoing to help so many people
take that initial step instarting their first business
and they're going to find a tonof success at it.
So thank you, jay.
You're a huge inspiration to usand I'm honored I get to call
you a friend.

Absolutely.
I appreciate you having me onJoseph for real, Absolutely Now.

Jay, where can people get a hold of you or
learn more about your TCservices?

The fastest way is just on Instagram.
It's at djholdercom.
At djholder, on Instagram,there's my link to my TC
services, me, my calendar, ifyou want, uh, my link to my TC
services, me, my calendar.
Um, so yeah, if you want to gothere and then my TC services is
, uh, finish line TC servicescom, um, but yeah, instagram is the

(01:09:42):
easiest way to get ahold of menow, um, and then book a call.
We have you know and love tohelp people in general, so let's
do it.

Awesome.
Now, if you guys are findingvalue from this podcast, don't
forget to show your boys somelove.
If you like what we're bringingyou, don't forget to subscribe.
It helps us continue providingvalue to others by reaching a
broader audience.
We're out here to serve, learntogether and help as many people
as possible.
Make sure to also smash thatlike button and drop a comment

(01:10:15):
down below telling us what typeof business you plan on starting
.
Don't be shy now.
Drop a comment down below andlet us know all about it.
Appreciate all the continuedsupport and, guys, stay tuned,
because we're pumping theseepisodes out every two weeks.
I got some awesome topics andguests coming up next that will
change the entire way you dobusiness.

(01:10:36):
You definitely don't want tomiss out.
Best believe I'm going to keepbringing you that fire.
Thank you, Jay.
Peace Later Rooks.
Thank you for watching.

All Episodes

STARTING a Business in 2025 What You Need to Know! | Episode 21

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know

Dateline NBC

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}STARTING a Business in 2025 What You Need to Know! | Episode 21