New Year Business Planning: Stay Focused, Fund Growth & Know When to Quit Your Job

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Speaker B: Uh, happy New Year, everyone. We welcome you into a new edition, a new year of, um, Scrushy on business. My name is Dave Green, joined as always by Richard Scrushy. Richard, Happy New Year. How was the holiday season for the Scrushies?

Speaker C: It was great. It was busy. It was great. Got to spend a lot of good time with the wife and children and it was just great. Um, you know, it's just a wonderful time of the year. Not only just to celebrate the holiday and everything and you know, the birth of Christ and then now the new year, starting a brand new year, but you know, just spending quality time with family and of course, I don't know about you, but I think I gained 10 pounds.

Speaker B: A lot of good eating.

Speaker C: A lot of good eating, man. So, you know, I've started the diet, uh, I think everybody does, and back to the gym. Really hitting it hard, you know, with a, with a plan to lose about £25. Hopefully I can, I'd love to, if that's possible. Then I'd be able to wear some of my nice clothes, you know.

Speaker B: Well, as they say, Richard, 20, 25. I just wanted to lose £20. I got 28 to go. A new year. And uh, you see a lot of, a lot of folks at the, at the gym in these early parts of the year. But I'M curious, as it relates to business, did you ever have, uh, any things that you did that were rituals for you as a new year would begin or how you started a new year every year?

Speaker C: Absolutely. Yeah. That's really a time to reflect on not only what you've accomplished over the last year, but, you know, putting your, making sure you have solid plans for, for the new year and, uh, meet with your team. You know, that's when you sit down and you say, okay, guys, girls, let's, let's go over what we did wrong last year and let's put together a plan to make sure we don't have a repeat on any of that. But let's also talk about what we did good and how we can enlarge that and how we can expand that and how we can even do more of that. So, yeah, this is absolutely a time of reflection on the past and also to focus on the future. So, yes, very, very important. And, you know, I found myself as I was out doing my daily walks over the holidays thinking, uh, through that. Just personally, you know, what, what are my goals for this year? What, uh, do I really want to accomplish and, and how am I going to go about doing it and whatnot. And one of the things that I love to study, you know, Dave, and we've talked a lot about it on the show is, is the funding of transactions. And I will say this, one of our viewers did call me over the holidays, been watching our broad, watching our podcast, and, and he has a company that he is going to take public. And he said, I've really enjoyed watching your show and you've inspired me. And I want to tell you about my company and you tell me whether or not you think this is a company that I could take public. And he began to explain to me he had a little bit of loose ends out there. Uh, he was focused for the most part. And I would say 75% of what he's doing is, and this is important for our listeners out there to talk about this so they can kind of get a feel for it. He was focused on about 75, 70, 75% of his business. In other words, he, he, he had it. It was, this is what we're doing. But then there's this other 25, 30% over here has not a whole lot to do with that main focus that he's doing. And he actually asked me about adding another business line. What did I think about it now? And I listened to it, and that business line that he was thinking about adding has nothing to do with his core business. And I told him, I said, now, if you're getting ready to go public, you don't want to do that. Do not do that, because that's a distraction. So when he would sit down with investors, you know, that are looking at putting money into him as he's doing a roadshow and trying to raise money on an initial public offer, and they're going to ask him, what are you doing that for? You see what I'm saying? So it's a distraction. And they. And then he. How's he going to explain that? Well, I just decided that I, uh, wanted to do that too. Well, here's the problem with that. I'm telling you right now, investors like Pure Place, and you, uh, probably heard that, Dave, they don't like somebody scatterbrained that's trying to be a whole bunch of different things. And because that, you know, then you get focused on this and which one are you going to put all your focus in and where are you going to really grow it? How are you going to build an international national company and scale it when you're trying to scale three or four different businesses? Because you're going to have to have different management teams on, you know, the people managing the core business, they ain't got time to go over here and manage all this other stuff. That's a distraction. So, uh, just. It was just an interesting call, but, uh, after listening to everything and he explained the size of his business and how he's doing and what he's doing, and he has met with the initial venture, uh, investor. Uh, so he's. I'm not investors, but bankers, investment bankers. So he's getting ready to hire an investment banker. And uh, I told him, after listening to it, I told him I thought it was a great idea. I really think that the young man, and he's in his 30s, he's just primed right now to build a great successful business. And, uh, he has a few partners, but primarily his family had money and they have put most of the money into the company. So they own a majority of the company now. So they'll have to take some dilution when they take it public, but they should be able to get a decent valuation because the business he is in is. It's actually a good business and it supports, uh, it supports other businesses because they have a huge, uh, software program that is, uh, working in the health care sector. And it, it's, it's in. They already have a pretty good, uh, you know, a Lot of customers that are using the product. So his, his program, I mean, his product is proven. That's what I'm trying to say. So, you know, and so when investors look at that and you're able to say, well, here are my customers and here's what I'm doing and here's how I price it and here's what my margin is, and here's. And he was telling me, I asked him, I asked him the tough questions. Dave, you'll love this. I said, well, uh, are you. Tell me how much the business is going to grow over the next few years. How much do you believe you can grow each year? Because this is the way the market's going to look at you. They're going to say, can this business grow 15%, 20%, 30%, 100%? What can it grow? So he began to talk about that. He said, I think I can grow 30 plus percent a year in new customers. And he said, just based on what we've been able to do. And I said, well, if you can do that and you're willing to sign on that and commit to that, uh, go for it. Uh, and I said, if. And so he said, well, when he said. And then he asked me the real interesting question, you know, what would be my exit strategy? And you know, for our listeners, that's when do I get out of this? And I said, well, let's look at it this way. You say you can grow 30% when you think that you have peaked out and you can no longer grow at 30% and it becomes a 15% growth or a 10% growth, and you don't think you can keep it going. I said, that's when you probably ought to be thinking about before you hit that. Now you don't want to wait because if you go public and you're growing at 30% and all of a sudden you go out and you tell Wall street, hey, we're not going to grow at 30% anymore. Now they've invested in a 30% growth. And keep in mind that investors invest in future.

Speaker B: Yep.

Speaker C: Objections. Not on what you did in the past because they, they're buying into your future. That's why. That's what drives the stock price up. So when you come out and say we're not going to grow at 30% anymore, we're going to grow at 10%, you're going to get a dive. Nosedive in your, in your valuation. So you don't want to be in a situation where you wait and exit, you know, and here's the other thing. Uh, there are always companies out there that are bigger and stronger and are very interested in. And they're looking to grow. They have to grow so much every year. So they're looking for acquisitions. And a public company, uh, merging into another company is going to give you a higher valuation anytime versus selling a private company. So it makes a lot of sense. But here's the other thing you don't want to do. You don't want to get so close to the dive that you get out and then the next quarter it drops, because that's when the, that's when the investors are going to come and say, now wait a minute, you sold your stock, you got out, we lost money on the deal. And then the next thing you know, the plaintiff attorneys are all over you sue, uh, and they're suing you because you knew it was going to go down. So it's what I'm saying. I'm not saying when you know something is not going to grow. I'm saying when in your mind, as you're working so hard over a period of years, and you say, no, you know, I just don't think I can keep this going. And you remember we had the young man on that, uh, the entrepreneur that was, that had built the trailer parks, right? And, and he reached a point where he just didn't think he could grow it anymore and they sold it. That's what I'm talking about. You know, he, they just got. And that was a private company, but he knew when it was time to exit because he just, number one, he didn't want to do it anymore. He was tired of it. And then, number three, he didn't know that he could continue to grow it like that. So that's the thing that we, we have to be careful about. But at the same time, you will know, you will know if you're the, if you really know that industry and you know the business. Now here's another thought. Is there an opportunity to expand and diversify at that point where you can add on and grow this company? Uh, you, uh, know where it makes sense. So you're, you've got an. It doesn't have to be, it doesn't have to be exactly what you're in, but if it can be connected onto it, you know, you look at horizontal and vertical integration and, you know, how do I grow this and expand it? And I'll give you an example. Um, I was in the healthcare business. We were building rehabilitation centers for people who got injured on the job People that got injured playing sports and, um, you know, they got injured and when they had the injury, they, they typically, they had to have a diagnostic test, right, that they would go get an MRI and an X ray and they cats, uh, can, whatever, and they would determine, well, you got a break or you got a this or you got to that, and we're going to have to do surgery. And that was the next thing. So you have a diagnostic test, then you have surgery. Well, after you have the surgery, they put them into rehab, right? So there's a continuum. So as I was building the rehabilitation business, I began to notice, I began to think, well, you know, what, if I'm going to grow, why don't I go ahead and add the surgery in? So we do the surgery and then we guarantee after we do the surgery, the patient comes to us for rehabilitation. And then over a period of time, we said, well, you know, we ought to do the testing too. So we, we added the diagnostic testing. So we built the imaging centers and bought imaging center companies, and we ended up with several hundred imaging centers all across America. So we would. And then we also realized this, that most of these injuries were happening either on the job or a lot of them were athletes that were getting hurt. And we were doing a lot of orthopedic surgery. So we took a look at how many high school, you know, athletic programs, football, baseball, basketball, you know, are out there. And then also colleges, universities, professional teams and whatnot. And so we said, well, that's. We need to be in that business. So we didn't want to be in the business of owning a team or doing any of that, but we wanted to be on the field with them. So we went out and started working with schools and we said, look, we'll provide you with athletic trainers. We'll provide. We have doctors that specialize in sports medicine. So we were able to then contract with schools, colleges, universities, with thousands of contracts all across America. I think we had like 125 colleges at one time and, um, all kind of teams. So we had these contracts where we provided the medical care and we would, we would put. We actually didn't charge them to put the athletic trainers out there. They were an extension of our rehab centers, but they were there. And so they would work with the schools and they would help them. So it was a great service. But at the same time, it was a catchment program to bring those injuries into. So we got them for the diagnostics, they came to our doctors, we got them for the surgery, and then we Treated them from a rehabilitation standpoint. So then we were able to build a nationwide business and that's how we ended up in all 50 states and you know, every major city, uh, in America. All the MSAs. We had multiple, multiple programs. We were dealing with baseball, basketball, football teams, running track, Olympics. We work, we had a relationship about 110 different Olympians that we had worked with. We had PGA, LPGA. But it became, you see what I'm giving you is an integration. You know, you look vertically, you know, how do we, how do, how do we do this? You see what I'm saying?

Speaker B: Yeah. Makes perfect sense.

Speaker C: Yeah. And as long as you can explain that Wall street will get it as long as it makes sense. But if you say, well, you know, I'm over here in the software business, but we're getting into the real estate business, well that, you know, how do you connect that?

Speaker B: Right. And we get, we get this question a lot, which is, you, uh, know, Richard, what do you see as the biggest mistake entrepreneurs make? And I think you hit on something obviously very important there, which is at the beginning. Mhm. Right. You're, you can't go to that investment banker and have a three hour presentation and you know, we're going to do this, this, this, this and this. Because you can't do it all at once.

Speaker C: That's right.

Speaker B: Start as you said, with that main focus and then you're able to branch out once you've proven that success. But if you walk in with, you know, 300 different ideas, they're going to wonder, you know, I, I've met those people, right. And, and there are a lot of them out there who are really good at coming up with ideas. But once they come up with that idea, their goal is to come up with the next idea. Not really execute.

Speaker C: You're so right. And here's the. Look, let me just be honest with our viewers, okay? You're not, uh, you're going to really struggle getting that financed. And here's the sad thing. These people that have all these multiple focuses that are not connected, they don't, they're not integrated, they usually fail, I hate to say it. And then, you know, mom and dad and family members and cousins and friends put money into those things and they never get a return. And they're basically money pits. Uh, they need more money. And then this entity didn't do well and we got to put more money in it. And that one didn't, we got to put money in that. So it, it's a money pit. And um, investors continue to get diluted. Diluted, diluted, or you keep adding debt. So you're right. And so Wall street smart. These, these fund managers, they're brilliant and uh, they didn't get their job managing a billion dollar fund or a 2 billion or a 5 billion dollar fund because they were stupid. They got it because they were smart and they look for these things. You know, I just got to share this real quick. I was looking at uh, you know, the global funding and really what took place in 2025. And it's been estimated that it was 425 to $512 billion worth of actual money that went into the top, top investments, uh, last year, which included AI, uh, it included uh, FinTech, uh, building of infrastructure and programs to support financial institutions. Uh, um, lots of um, you know, things along those line. And Health Tech. Health Tech was another one. Uh, and so, um, very interesting. So I was looking at some of the evaluations and I was looking at this one and uh, they had put, they had raised $25 billion put into this and they had a $300 billion valuation. Well, just for our listeners, you calculate that and you say, well, if they put $25 billion into a company at a $300 billion valuation, how much of that company do they now own? Well, if you divide that 300 billion valuation into that $25 billion investment, it says they own 8.3%. So $25 billion. Now, uh, just think about this. I mean this is mind blowing. $25 billion only bought 8% of a company now, now. And, and I kind of laugh at this because you know what, uh, Dave, I would love, and I'd love to get a hold of that presentation that they made to Wall Street. Now I think usually if it's public and they're out there making it, uh, I should be able to find that. And I'm going to start looking for it on the Internet. So I can see what they said. Now on the venture capital side, of course, um, that was not a public company, so that wouldn't be available. And so typically what happens is on public companies when you see the kind of money raised and whatnot, you usually can get access to that data. But on these private companies, they're going to sign an NDA and they're not going to let anybody get a copy of that except for the people that they're trying to raise money from. So getting your hands on it's pretty hard. But I would love to see what they're going to do with the $25 billion. Wouldn't you. And wouldn't you love to see how they pitched it to get a, uh, $300 billion valuation? You know, I got to looking at it, and the top 70% of the money that was raised last year on the big deals was in AI.

Speaker B: Yeah, I bet.

Speaker C: So what, so when you, you put hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars into it, what the heck are they doing with the money and what are they building? And so you got all of these AI firms, you know, over 100 of them. And, you know, so we go on Chat GPT and, and, you know, we find stuff out, or right now, I mean, you just Google something and it'll give you an AI report. Right, right. And so who's the. Where's the brain behind all of that? And then all these other companies, what are they doing? Um, and how are they going to. Are they tied into that? Are they separate from that? Or do they build in their own center that would carry the, you know, do the same thing that Chat GPT is doing and some of the others. What are your thoughts on that? I mean, this is crazy.

Speaker B: It is crazy. And it's, you know, people see those numbers, and as you said, it's. It's about future. Because the next thing you're going to hear about those companies is how much money they've lost exactly, operating it.

Speaker C: None of them are making any money.

Speaker B: That's the thing. And you hear those. But as you said, it's about future. Now, you also said this, uh, a couple episodes ago, which is, you know, AI is only as good as the next version. Right? Because somebody's going to come up with something better and something different. And, boy, I wouldn't want to be on the wrong end of the $300 billion projection if another company came in, you know, and did something on top of that. So it's a very difficult space, but I would, I would have guessed that's where a lot of the money went, because right now it's sexy, Right? That's what most people are talking about and looking at it, we're doing it in our business. Where can AI help you, uh, in addition to what you're already using? We've said this before, but a lot of people are using AI. They don't even know they're using AI, uh, with different apps and things that they use in their daily life. But everybody is trying to figure out, how can you use it to make your life easier, to cut down on your expenses. Right? All of those things. So the more People hear that, hear buzzwords like that, the more money there's going to be involved in it.

Speaker C: How do they get, how does this investor get a return? They put $25 billion in. And I mean, I'm using AI and I'm not. I don't think I'm, I'm not paying much for it, am I think I pay. What is it? Just $10 or $15?

Speaker B: Fairly minimal for the, for the ones that we would have access to. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker C: Ah, yeah. I mean, it's not like a lot of money. And I mean, and so when you start talking about 25 billion, you know, and then you. Where is this money coming from? Who. Where did they get 25 billion to put into it? I saw where, uh, Meta put like, I think it was 14 billion in one of these deals and invest it. So I know that the Elon Musk of the world and, and the Jeff Bezos and, you know, the Meta and all these other groups and you know, Google, not. They have the billions and Apple and I mean, they can put money into it. They can write a stroke, a check for 10 billion or $20 billion because they have those kind of resources. But I'm thinking about the wealthy individuals. Just the average guy that's worth a billion dollars, I mean, he might put, would he put 10% of his billion dollars in a deal, 100 million into an AI, into. I don't think he would. I mean, I, I certainly, if I had a billion dollars, I don't think I'd take 10% of 100 million and stick it over in something like that that only owned 8.3%. So out of 25 billion, if I put 100 million in, I would own less than 1% and I would put 100 million in. I, uh, mean, son of my. So I mean, I could see those guys investing, you know, 3, 4, 5, 10 million. If you were worth a billion, or 20, maybe or 50. But certainly you wouldn't give 10% of your. I mean, that. I don't think that would be smart. So, I don't know, I'm looking at, you know, where do they get the money? I mean, even, you know, you look at even Trump's net worth, I mean, he wouldn't be putting a billion dollars in anything. Uh, so, um, I'm, I'm just. Where's all the money coming? I think it probably is coming from other countries. Uh, and, um, you know, you've got money coming in probably from, you know, Dubai and from Saudi Arabia and China and, you know, other uh, areas of wealth across the world I would imagine. Wouldn't you think?

Speaker B: I. Nothing surprises me these days. Yes, I absolutely believe that, that other countries are putting that money in. But you know, again, nothing surprises me. We have people buying four and five million dollars college quarterbacks these days.

Speaker C: Well that's true.

Speaker B: Where, where, where all this money comes from, I have no idea.

Speaker C: Well, you know, in the cost to go to college now is outrageous. It is just totally outrageous. I mean it's got to the point now. I mean they do have a lot of income and also buy a ticket to a college football game. Now you might pay 150, $200 just to get a ticket. Uh, you know I served on the board of several universities for a period of time and I had an opportunity to see how much money the football brought into those universities. And I mean one of the universities I was only was over 100 million a year.

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Speaker C: So I mean they were bringing in a lot of money and uh, so they, you know, they have money and then you have all the supporters. But I'm going to flip to something else real quick. I'm going to flip to all of our guys out there, like this guy that, that I just met with that are they're out there looking for, they're not looking for billions of dollars, they're looking for a few million. Okay, so where do they go to get that? So I kind of did a little bit of study on last year in 2025 some of the top companies that did deals that had a 25 million or less valuation. Okay, so that's A whole different ballgame. And there's a company called Jumpstart Ventures that funds uh, a stage, you know, a being, you know, the uh, seed funding for companies. They do deals under 25 million. There's another group, it's a London based company called Verb Ventures. They do the same thing. And then there's schema, they're located in San Francisco and they do it. Also there's a company called Gilder Mash Ventures and they focus on the fintech industry which again fintech is computer software support for financial institutions and whatnot. Uh, and then there's a company called uh, Harper, Harper Count and uh, they do deals. And then um, and there are a few others out there, but there are companies that would look at a, uh, an early stage company and most of the things there. And then I went to see, you know, where was most of the money put, where were the investments made? And it was made in the following AI. Ah, even the small AI, uh, deep, uh, tech. They call it Deep tech. We have to see what all that includes. I'm not 100% sure on that. B2B continues to be a major, major area for investors. Climate tech was one showed up, Health tech and of course fintech. Again, those are the areas that have been the, you know, primary areas. So you know, I, I think in, in talking with some of our people out there that are listening, they don't fall into this category. Okay. This is not. And I mean now the guy that called me the other day, he does a little bit because he's into the health tech side. So. And he has built a very successful, profitable business that he thinks he can grow over 30% a year. So he's looking to take that company public. Now that's. That, that, that is one that is, you know, the guy was, he is listening to us. But there are a lot of them, a lot of people out there that, you know, Dave, they, they're in businesses that are absolutely 100% needed for us to live the lives that we live in America. And that includes every kind of business out there from landscaping to roofers to plumbers to, you name it. Hey, by the way, I got ripped off from a plumbing, Plumbing firm over the holidays.

Speaker B: Oh no.

Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. I got to tell this. I just, it just hit me. But I had a, uh, one of our bathtubs and you know, I have daughters and they have long hair.

Speaker B: Yes, I have the same issue.

Speaker C: So he got stopped up, right? So the guy came in and he said, uh, I'm on. It's going to be. Yeah, I'm just going to tell us. He hit my wife and I for over $300 to. For that drain. And we thought it was some major issue.

Speaker B: Right, right.

Speaker C: He went in there and he was out in 10 minutes.

Speaker B: Stuck his little deal down there, pulled it all out.

Speaker C: And I said, uh, don't you think that was a little bit much? He says, what a charge? And I said, well, how much would you charge to install a sink if we. Because we were talking about replacing our kitchen sink with a newer model. Eleven hundred dollars. And that doesn't include the buying the sink. He said, you'll have to go buy the sink. He wanted eleven hundred dollars to pop it out and connect the hoses and put the, uh, garbage disposal on. On it and do that. And I said, you got to be crazy, man. I said, I promise you I will crawl under that sink myself with the wrenches and do it myself before I pay somebody eleven hundred dollars to do that. But it's crazy. But anyways, the plumbing business and, um, you know, it's a business and H Vac and lands, like I said, landscape and painting and, uh, you know, you might be in the furniture. Everybody's got to have furniture, you know, and all kinds of different health care services. You name it, it's all out there. But there are entrepreneurs in every single area. And not all of those look like they might be some attractive area that you didn't go out and raise, you know, some huge amount of money under some AI deal. But I will say this. I don't care what business you're in. If you can show that that business is going to grow substantially and you can continue to grow it, uh, and you've got the expertise to go out and get the clients and grow it, there are people out there that will invest in that business. And I know that for a fact. Uh, I've seen all kinds of businesses get funded. And so, uh, there are funds, angel funds and other funds out there that people will put money. But you got again, we're back to don't over divor diversify. Make sure everything is fully integrated. Make sure it makes sense. Make sure you got the right team, make sure you put it all together, make sure you truly can scale this business and you'll find that there are investors out there. It doesn't have to be AI or high tech.

Speaker B: Yeah, no, there's definitely opportunities, especially now if you're looking for them, with a lot of businesses that will change hands over the next decade and, uh, always want to remind people they can email in infooshionbusiness.com just like the listener Richard talked about, they reached out to him and got some insights into his business, uh, and potentially taking it public. We can get to some listener questions here in just a second, but first I want to tell you about DraftKings Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of the NFL, which of course makes every playoff moment feel bigger. We are at that time of the year where everything now is bigger. And the playoffs, of course, uh, one game, you're out. We've got a lot of road favorites coming up this week, including one double digit road favor with the Rams and the Carolina Panthers. Lot of action. And DraftKings has your back with early exit protection. If the player in your eligible NFL prop bet goes down at any point in the first half, you still get paid in cash. So you've got that back up from DraftKings. Download the DraftKings sportsbook app and use code SCRUSHY. That's code SCRUSHY. S C R U S H Y to turn five bucks into 300 in bonus bets. If your bet wins in partnership with DraftKings, the Crown is yours. Gambling problem. Call 1-800-Gambler. New York Call 877-8-HOPE NY or text HOPE NY Connecticut. Call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org on behalf of Boot Hill Casino in Kansas. Wager tax pass through May apply in Illinois 21 in most states. Void in Ontario. Restrictions apply. Bet must win to receive bonus bets which expire in seven days. Minimum odds required for additional. I'm. Excuse me. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources. Cdkng CO Audio limited time offer into the NFL. I know you love college football, like the, uh, NFL and Houston's chances. Richard?

Speaker C: Yes.

Speaker B: You like those Houston Texans?

Speaker C: Oh, gosh. Well, I mean, you can't. I mean, I have to support them, right? I live here and, uh, you know, I do go to some games. I had a friend that's got a box, so he'll invite me every now and it's on the 50 yard line and I love it.

Speaker B: Look at you. Yeah. The Pittsburgh Steelers, uh, is who their opponent will be and can have a lot of fun with that with DraftKings. We thank them for supporting the show. All right. I mentioned listener questions. A lot of the ones that we got over the holidays had a similar theme, which was something you kind of talked about a little bit, uh, earlier. When you're, when you're an entrepreneur, you have that mind, but you're working, you have a full time job, you want to be able to get out of that full time job to be able to chase your passion, your dream, uh, the idea of entrepreneurship. And a lot of people ask a simple question, when do I stop the one and go for the other. What would you say to people who ask that question?

Speaker C: I would say that once you have tested it and you know that you have the, you know, you can build the revenue stream and the profitability to be able to fund your, whatever your family's needs are to pay your bills and support yourself. Um, now sometimes, um, you know, you get the, the business is a good business and you're able to get financing, you're able to get investors, meaning, you know, people put money in and you know, if, let's say that um, you have a say and let me use something simple. Let's say you have one store and let's say you're going to build and I'm going to use hardware store just for, or restaurants or what, it doesn't matter. Let's say that one store, you get it and that's a concept and you're doing this on the side and you've got another full time job and you get that store to profitability and whatever the concept is, whatever it is, whether it's like hardware, some kind of restaurant, health restaurant, whatever, but it's making money and it's proven okay, and you're doing that on the side and then you say, well, you know what, uh, and you look at the demographics and you say this, this business can be successful in this demographic needs to, you know, this is my demographic, it's making money, it's got a really good margin, 15, 20% margin, whatever. I want to build a hundred of these. Okay? So with that model, you probably, if you had least one, possibly you've built a second one, but you could probably raise money and it might not be making enough money to fund your family and grow the business at the same time. So if you can add in additional investors, you're gonna have to take some dilution but bring in a partner or put more money in then uh, you would find yourself using some of that money to pay your salary. You put yourself on a payroll. Now that, that, you know, when, when I built HealthSouth, uh, that first year I didn't pay myself anything, uh, but I did have to pay my other people that I hired in the business. And uh, and, and so um, but I used my own money and then I was able to raise venture capital and then once we had venture capital raised, we put our board of directors together and we still were not cash flow positive overall, because we knew, but we knew that our core business work because our first facility and our second facility began to start making a profit. So we said, now we can go out and build 100 of these, and we know what the margin is going to be. So 100 of these is going to generate X amount of dollars on top line, X amount on the bottom line. So, uh, we started taking a salary and. But when I started putting the company together, I was working, I had, you know, working for another company. So once I had the business plan put together, I had everything laid out, and then I was able to use my own money to finance and then later venture capital, I was on my own. But I think you just have to, um, either have the financing to pay yourself and cover your. You can't be totally stressed out, you know, broke out here trying to build a business. It'll never work. You've got to have income. You got to take care of your family and not be worried about that so that you can put 100% of your efforts focused on your business. So when you get to the point that you, through either bringing in a partner, through having bank financing, or, uh, you have enough money of your own to put into it and get it started, improve the model, then you'll know. You'll know. I mean, Dave, you'll know, okay, I got this covered. I can now drop that other job, go 100% on this. Uh, now, a lot of times people will start a business on the side and it'll fail, and they'll be so glad they didn't quit their job, they thought it was a great idea and it turned out it wasn't.

Speaker B: Yeah, I would say the truth is people probably generally do it too early, wouldn't you think?

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker B: Excited. You want to get out of that company, you're working for the man. You want to get out of there, and you're really trying to do everything to get out. But as you said, you really want to think about, are you not just okay for now, but are you okay for a year from now, two years from now, how you have that set up and planned before you leave that regular income?

Speaker C: Timing is important. And, uh. But I think most people will know. I think they'll, they'll, they'll see it. They'll know, well, this is working, or they'll know it's not working. I mean, I've seen, look, I see it all the Time. And you do, too. Uh, I watch in these retail centers. You know, these developers will build these retail centers and they'll have like 15 different storefronts, right? And all of a sudden you'll see this restaurant, this little business, and this little boutique and a flower shop and a coffee shop, and this. And all this stuff opens.

Speaker D: Right?

Speaker C: Well, you watch it because, you know, like, I'll drive by every day and I'm looking to see if they have customers. And then you see, well, this one or two businesses, they don't have any customers. And so over a period of time, you feel it. And then about 18 months later, it closes.

Speaker B: Right.

Speaker C: Well, they've now spent all of their money that they had saved up. Uh, that was their dream to get that thing up and running. But here's the problem. They had another job. That other job actually kept them from being able to do what they needed to do to grow that business. So you see, it's. If you're working full time over here and you. And you know, and you don't have time to come over and take care of this, then this could fail and you could have put all your savings into it. So. Yeah. And that's when sometimes people make the wrong decision, Dave. They don't bring in a partner to help them fund it so that they could drop this other job. Now, if that business that you started on the side is truly a great business, and, you know, it's a great business. And you, you believe that, uh, with your. All your heart and you've got some kind of vision that God has given you, that this thing is going to explode, drop the other job and go take the risk. I mean, I'm having to come back to this side because I'm an entrepreneur and I don't fear the risk. And if I, if I think that business is good, I'll drop that other job and go full time on this. Because if I. But I've checked it out and I've verified it, and I know that it is, in fact, going to be very, very profitable. And I believe a, uh, 99% of, you know, and I'm in. I believe it's going to be very successful. And I already see how it's going to be successful. So I've got that mapped out in my mind and in my plan. So it's really, uh. Do you have to quit the job to be able to give it the energy that it needs for it to be successful? But again, I'm riding by these, these places and I see them Open up. And I see them close. And I'll tell my wife, I'll say, you see that place right there? It's not going to make it. And they usually done. And I saw a beautiful, beautiful Italian restaurant that opened. Uh, and Leslie and I were driving down the highway and I said, leslie, you see that Italian restaurant back over there? And she said, yeah, I think I said. And it was a horrible. Dave. Location. A horrible location. Matter of fact, you couldn't really see it. Well from the highway you wouldn't even know it was there. And the name of it, if I told you the name, you think, why would you ever name an Italian restaurant that? It was horrible. So I've been driving by and yesterday I drove by, they had three cars out front at lunch. Now Dave, I'm here to tell you, if you only got three cars in there and it's 12, 30 something, you're not going to make it. It's not going to make it. And they got this big building and I see it and I'm thinking, so every time I go by there, I count the cars. One time it had five. Okay, you can't pay the rent. So how long will that owner be able to. It's not a chain. This is a one off. Uh, there's no way that he's going to be able to sustain that unless he's multi millionaire and he just wants to and he's just funneling money through there for the heck of it using as a tax deduction or something. You see what I'm saying? So location, management, management, management, all of these things are important. So if you're going to build a business and you're going to put money in it, you got to decide, can I leave that? When can I leave it? How much time is it going to take? How much energy have I got to put into it, what's it going to cost me? And all of that, you just don't jump out there and do it. And you got to make sure that those things, uh, everything is in place. We beat that to death. But that's really the bottom line.

Speaker B: Yeah. And you, you mentioned something about this in your answer. So I want to finish on this one. This week Mark from Pittsburgh had written in and asked, how do you deal with fear of failure when starting something from scratch? That, that, that fear is going to be there. If you're not nervous about it, there's something wrong. Uh, but Richard, how, how do you tell people, uh, about that fear of failure when you're starting a new business?

Speaker C: If you really afraid that you're going to fail, you probably shouldn't, but do it. I'll be honest with you. I've never been afraid to do what I did. And if I was afraid to do it, I probably didn't do it. It's kind of like, you know, there's certain things in life we come across, uh, that we are afraid to do, you know, and, and it's like pulling out in traffic. You know, you got to make sure you got a clear place to pull out and everybody's going 80 miles an hour. You know, you, you, you want to make sure that you're comfortable doing it. And you, and because if you're afraid and you got that, you probably. That's not what an entrepreneur. I mean he, he's not going to go do something he's afraid to do. He. And you know, that's a real entrepreneur, believes in what he's doing and really doesn't have any fear and is not afraid to take the risk of building a, building a business. And I truly believe that. Um, and that's why they're able to do the things they're able to do because they, they. And in their mind they're convinced that they're right and that they can achieve what they're doing. And so they stay at it and they have the persistence and they have the ability to work at it and really hard and to sell it and explain it to people and prove it and, and get it to profitability and show people that, you know, I'm right about what I, my idea. And I had that and I, and, and I had it in several businesses that I was able to start. You know, I built a construction company and uh, you know, I developed, uh, uh, properties that were resort properties and, and, and was very successful in that. Sold every one of them. Made a lot of money doing that. But I bought an expensive piece of property, uh, with a huge lakefront. I built out all of these, uh, uh, homes, uh, in that area. But I had uh, uh, estate lots that I built and you know, made a lot of money doing that. And so some people would have said, I can't believe you spent that much money and bought all that acreage down there on that lake. And well, I believe that I could do what I did. And so that's just another example. Same thing for the drug companies. We invested in and, and built that and sold it to a, uh, huge pharmaceutical company and, and the uh, the medical, uh, management businesses that were all the different things. And even my Wife building her pajama company. You know, it was unbelievable. She was in 40, uh, two states and she had, gosh, I think 250 boutiques around the country that were selling her pajamas. And she never looked back. She just was like, this is a great product. You know, I, uh, still, we still have people. We had a lady called us, uh, called her yesterday and was talking about still wearing those pajamas, loves those pajamas. So I'd love to see Leslie get back in that someday because she makes, made a great product. But anyways, yeah, uh, if you're afraid to do it, you probably ought not to do it. That's the way I feel.

Speaker B: We'll end it there. For this week, we thank everyone for writing in their questions again. Infocrushionbusiness.com Follow us on social media as well. If you're watching on YouTube, hit that, uh, subscribe button and the bell notification so you know when new content has come out from us. And we will be back next week. Answer more of your questions, talk more about building your businesses and Richard will give you the final word.

Speaker C: Well, I just again, uh, wish Everybody a great 2026. I hope you have a wonderful, wonderful year. Work your plan, work your dreams, and then I'll just keep moving forward.

Speaker B: We'll see you all next week on another edition of Squishy.

Speaker A: On.

Speaker B: The

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