Adapting to Business Cycles – Small Business Show 209

The Small business show episode 209 for Wednesday, February 6, 2019. Greetings, folks, and welcome to the Small Business show here at BusinessShow co. The show that's by four and you got it about small business. Sponsors for this episode include express vpn@expressvpn.com SPS we'll tell you a little bit later about why you want to go there and what you're going to get. For now, here in Durham, New Hampshire, I'm Dave Hamilton and out on the.

West coast where we actually got some snow today in the Bay Area. This is Shannon Jean. How are you?

I am good. I heard about that. It's the end of days, man.

Strange, strange things out here. Yeah, that's very odd. Yeah, we get snow up in Tahoe, which is a few hours away from us, but usually down here in the. Near the ocean. So that's pretty cool.

Exactly, exactly.

That's freezing. So I got my heater on today, so if you hear that in the background, you'll know, which is highly unusual.

Yeah, there you go. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We've actually had. I, I was joking yesterday that it went from zero to 60 here in a week because last week it was below zero and Yesterday it hit 60. So there you go.

That's. Yeah, that's cool. Yeah, it's good stuff.

Causes avalanches in Colorado though, so I don't know that that's cool here, but yeah, it's fine.

That is crazy when you come down the hill to go into to South Lake Tah, where we go a lot. Yeah, there's this huge structure and I've only seen this a couple times, but they, they open these big doors and they have some sort of giant, you know, gun or sonic. I don't know what it is, but they blast the side of the mountain to cause the avalanche, to get the snow, you know, to kind of settle down. And I'm always, I always tell my kids that and they didn't believe me for a long time until they saw it.

That's really smart. You know, the avalanche is going to happen, so let's make it happen when we can monitor and protect for it, huh?

Yeah. Close the road. Close that road. They blast it.

There's a business lesson in there somewhere, man.

Yeah. Preparing for a disaster.

Well, or if you know, like, I mean, like anything, right? You know, you have a server that runs all your stuff. Do you want to wait until it dies or do you want to like, replace it? Either way, you have to go through the pain of you know, and the time of reconfiguring or paying someone to reconfigure and do all this stuff and migrate all your crap over and all that stuff and it's your choice. Do you wait until you have to do it by surprise one day or do you take a look and learn the cycles and be a little proactive on it? There's lots of examples like that, but that's one that's on my mind. So there you go.

And you probably have to get hit once, maybe twice with the disaster version versus the planning version before you start thinking, hey, put that on the calendar to check these things and figure that out. That, that, that stuff out. Yeah, yeah, it's pretty interesting. But you know, the thing about it is it's, you know, we're talking about like the weather because we're a couple of getting older here. I always say I'm not going to talk about the weather because it's such an old man thing. But you know, things always change at zero to 60. You know, we were wearing shorts out here last week and you know, we always talk about it here on the Small Business Show. That change, you know, you have to embrace it here. It's the only constant thing that's going to happen with your business.

Constant change is.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you know, you can't fight it. And one of the things that happens with your business is that it goes through cycles in its lifetime and you need to adjust to those cycles because you know that that change is coming and you have to adjust your attitude, your met, your management style, the activities that you, that you take. So I thought it would be a good thing to discuss on today's episode is, you know, some examples of what these cycles are and how that may impact what you're doing with your business.

I'm in. Yeah, man. Yeah, I like it. Yeah.

Ye. And you know, I was doing a little research, I was looking up and I'm not a big fan of consensus because I don't, I don't believe it a lot or I've kind of gone against it and been successful with many things. But there's tends to be like four or five, you know, different types of cycles that they talk about. You know, startup or launch growth, peak maturity and then one, hopefully you won't hit, but is decline.

I think you will hit decline like you have to eventually.

Yeah, we've done it, I mean we've done it with businesses that we've run together.

I mean it's a norm and I, I've done it with businesses that we haven't owned together too. Yeah, but like, that's a normal thing. And I think the point, the trick with decline is you have to compete against yourself. Right. And, and sometimes that means pivoting your business. Right. And letting.

Yes.

One side of your business, you know, decline while you're growing another. Or it's while the entire business is declining. Okay. You know, recognize that. Don't put your head in the sand and.

Yeah, for sure.

And accept that. Okay. Like we're declining. Do we accelerate, like, you know, to the point with the avalanche? Do we make the avalanche happen now so that we don't waste a lot more time and money and just kill this thing off? Like, do we see a future here? Or if we don't want to, just kill it off quickly, what's the future look like? Because we can't just ride the same train we're on. Yes. It's, you know, we know where that's going. So let's change course, let's build new track, you know, whatever.

I love that. And yeah, your first part, we're like, okay, well, we're seeing decline in these areas of our business and we're going to talk a little more about that versus, hey, the whole thing is, you know, tanking and going away. But I, I, yeah. And I do value that and I see that, you know, I have this overly optimistic streak that usually helps me but sometimes can hurt me too.

Well, that's the problem. I'm the same way. Yeah, you have to, you have to temper that optimism with reality sometimes. Yeah.

Yes. Yeah, yeah.

But you can be optimistic in a decline. You can say, okay, I accept that the business is declining, but yes, I have this great idea and this is what's going to save us, you know, and then, and then you're writing your own story.

Yeah, no, I think that, I think that's great. And the one thing I noticed when I was looking at these different cycles and research papers and on the web and all that kind of stuff, there is no cycle that says idea or talk, you know, and what I realized that is what we say here all the time, it's like, you really don't have a business without action. Right. If you match your ideas with action, that's how you create a small business, you know, that that could morph into a large business. But unless that action, part of, you know, the magic dust gets sprinkled on your, your talk over beers or whatever your ideas are. Because, you know, Dave and I hear these ideas all the time and it's fun and it's great to chat about them. But you know, one of Day's phrases, you know, your idea is only as worth the dollar amount of the bill that you write it on. You know, the $100 bill.

You want a hundred dollar idea, put it on $100 bill. That's it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I really like that because I was like, great, okay, so to, you know, have that but you know, let's start with the, you know, launch and talk about what's going on at, you know, at this phase. It's exciting time. I mean, maybe terrifying depending upon your, your what kind of risk you like to handle. But you know, you're sure you have a great idea, you know, you're going to get things started, you're taking some action, which is awesome. This, this is often where people fail right out of the gate because they don't realize you need to get through the gate and to start, you know, start putting it maybe a little bit of money. I heard a comment earlier this week, or I read a comment and it was up on LinkedIn where a business advisor was talking about where people often fail. And lots of people, when they're trying to get started, they focus on, okay, I need to go raise some money, even just a small amount of money, 2,000, 5,000, 20,000. And this consultant's comment was, well, why don't you take it out of your savings? Why don't you go get a home equity loan from your house and if you're not willing to risk that small amount right now, what makes you think someone else is going to risk that on your idea? And you're going to have to convince them. So I thought that was really powerful because that is really true is so many people are trying to start things and not looking for money. It's like, well, you need to see if you can get started with a little bit of money. But if you take some action, just that's awesome. You know, you've got through the gate, you're a risk taker, you're the cheerleader, you're motivating either other people or yourself. And you're also trying to figure out logistics and accountability. I mean, there's a lot of hats you have to wear at this stage and it's fun and exciting. This is where if you have your partners, you can start creating a working agreement that we've talked about here on the show or even just for yourself. You know, the working agreement is kind of a casual business plan and I'm gonna have an article up on the website here in the next couple weeks, a little bit more about the working agreement. And then you're gonna start marketing, you know, getting things out, building your, you know, customer base, starting, you know, growth. It's super fun. The sky's the limit. You know, this is where you're creating your own reality, which we talk a lot, you know, about on the show. And I think this is. This is probably one of the funnest times of, you know, the business cycle, in my opinion.

I agree. I think you need to be careful to take the right action there. There is the fun action, right. Where you're just brainstorming and all that and that. Like. Like you said, that's cool. But don't. Like, for example, don't get so lost in. Well, we need a formal business plan. And so we're going to dedicate six weeks to really, like, putting that together. And, man, that's what we need to do. And it's action. And I can log hours. No, no. That working agreement is often the only business plan your company will ever have. I was going to say need it. Often you don't even need that.

That's right.

But it is a helpful thing, especially if you've got partners to just kind of make sure you're all literally on the same page. Beyond that, let it go.

Just, you know, move. Yep. Everybody knows what they're accountable for. That's a great thing about the working agreement. It just kind of lets it, you know, gets it out there. You can come revisit it if you need to, and you can update it as time goes on, or if you add partners or things, doing it. And eventually it could morph into, you know, your business plan. But it just kind of happens organically, you know, naturally, versus, you know, I. I talked to a new business owner not too long ago, and he was convinced that, okay, I'm almost done with the business plan. I gotta go send it to my attorney. And I was like, oh, man, that's crazy. I just think those two things. Your attorney's not a small business owner. And yeah, it's great. You're gonna be super safe. But at this point, you need to be hustling.

What are you. Yeah, exactly. You just gotta hustle. Yeah. So I will encapsulate it by saying, get on the same page and then dispense with the paperwork, like, to be done. Make sure you're on the same page. And then. Good, great. We know what we're doing. Let's actually Go do it. And that's.

Let's do it.

Yep, let's do it.

I think that's really good. So, you know, and then the next one is you, you, you got things working out, you're, you're making progress, you've got your product or your idea, your service, whatever it is, and then the growth phase, you know, you got things off the ground, you're starting to see some revenue. Maybe it's small, but that's okay. You know, you have a viable business. Awesome. Congrats. You know, that's. It's a huge thing. Again, it's a big step that the funnel just continues to get narrower and narrower here because there's lots of people that fall in love with the fun part of launching a business and never get past that to letting it get grow and get a little bit older. They always just want to run to the next idea and get it off the ground and then it kind of peters out.

And that actually can be fine. If you're the type of person that can attract either a partner or a team that can take the business that started with your idea and go and make something of it like that, that's fine. But there's a lot of self awareness involved in that. Right. And you need to, yeah, you just need to know, oh, is that me? Okay, if so, then let's do that. Yeah. And I think if you're someone who's starting a business, you have some level of that in you, regardless. Now, it might, you know, but, but it's not, we're not all at the same level. Some people are, you know, it's like, well, it's going, we just got our first customer. Cool. What's the next thing I can do? Okay, like, that's extreme. But there are people like that know yourself and, you know, get others involved sooner or later, depending on who you are and how you do things.

That's all. Yeah. And, and the sooner you realize that, the better. And if you, then you tell people like that, hey, I'm really good at this part, but I'm not good at up systems and you know, the back office or the warehouse or whatever, you know, and that's okay. Like, you say that, that's fine, but it's not okay if you don't have that other structure in place. Whether they're employees or partners, you don't always need a partner. But you're going to need to bring in some people that have that experience and that are maybe passionate about logistics or passionate about, you know, developing a Kanban system for your warehouse or whatever it is that, that, that's important.

I, you know, having an operations person or someone who thinks about that stuff and can implement that kind of stuff is vital. If that's you, great. If it's not, you find someone and probably partner with them for life, but find somebody because that's what it takes to actually make it happen. Ideas, as we said before, are fantastic, but you need to keep doing things at your company and you need to be efficient about those things. And so you need that ops person.

Yeah, yeah. Or if you, like you said, if you're the ops person, then you need to go find this, the crazy sales guy that's constantly trying to come up with new ideas and marketing all that stuff. So, you know, identifying your personality and is, you know, we could probably do a whole other show on that, you know, about who are you taking time to identify that before we get started and looking. How do I fill the holes with who I'm not? You know, I think that's, I think that's great. You know, so you're the thing.

I'm going to stop you right there, my friend.

Yes, sir.

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It's a great way they can do that too. Good that protection. Okay, so we're talking about growth here. The one thing I also want to caution you is, is not to fall in love with the numbers too much at this point because you know, your sales, you're going to have the hockey stick. Right? Things are growing so rapidly. But don't forget, you started at zero. And you know, I always see these like the Inc 500, Inc 5000. Look at their, their growth is 5, you know, whatever, increased 1600%. Okay, I get it. And that's awesome. And you should, you know, here I'm always talking about how you have to kind of program your brain. Yeah, I'm all about that. But just don't get so enamored to it that you don't think, okay, are you gonna get 1600% growth next year? Are you gonna start thinking about that? You're starting at zero. Don't fall in love with that number too much. On the same side, you need to really watch your cash flow because growth is awesome and you need it, but it can be very expensive. And that's so many companies run out of cash at this Stage and you wind up either, you know, you can fall apart right here, or you have to go out and get outside investment. You know, we don't talk about, you know, venture capital really on this show. It's not really the demographic that we, that we are, you know, working with here. Yeah, yeah. We don't say we're small business, you know, folks that are just grinding it out, bootstrapping, typically. And so if you run out of cash here, you're. You're going to have to look for someone else. And when you're out of money, is not the time to be asking people or the bank or other investors for money. You lose your leverage.

I have a. I have a rule for my. Myself, I love to look at the P. Ls right where I can see I'm turning a profit, all that stuff. I do not let myself load that report in my accounting software until I look at my cash flow report. And my cash flow report also includes seeing my date, my bank balance as of, you know, right now. But it's also looking at, okay, what's our cash flow been like for the last month compared to the month before? If you can. If you're in a business where you can do those sorts of predictions based on invoicing and that sort of thing, look ahead at your cash flow, then allow yourself to bask in the glory of the numbers that you can manipulate to make your. Because that's the thing. You can make your P and L look really good. And that's cool and it is a valuable thing. But don't let that mislead you. Let it inspire you, sure. But don't let it mislead you. You need to be realistic about your cash. And that's something I learned from my good friend Shannon Jean here.

So, well, I always look at the bank every day. That's my first thing in the morning. I have to get up having coffee and I hit all the bank accounts, all the PayPal accounts, because I have been there where, you know, someone has when I was young, much younger, and somebody came and said, hey, there's nothing in the bank. I was like, wait, how can that be? We look at the profit. Look how much we made last month. And he's like, no, no, especially if you. Yeah, especially if you're in the inventory business, which I've been in, you know, pret. My whole life. You really can get behind the eight ball there. So the start of every day for me is a around the world trip bank accounts and PayPal and whatever other financial Stuff we're using, I always take a look at it. It's really important.

It's super important. Yeah. And this way you're not going to ever lose sight of that. If you're seeing that bank balance every day, then you're going to know it. And there's no way you're going to get caught off blindsided, or at least far less of an opportunity to get caught blindsided. It may still happen, trust me.

And I found it useful on two fronts. One, it allows you to inflate the balloons of people that may be down, maybe their department's not doing good. You can go in and go, hey, I checked the bank this morning. We're doing pretty good. I know maybe you're having trouble here, but the cash is still coming in. That's something to be happy about. Or it also allows you to pop the bubble that somebody comes and says, we're killing it, man. This kind of thing, you can go, well, that's great. But in this growth mode, it's really important not to grow just for the sake of growth. I've done this before too, where you're just like, okay, we grew 1600% last year. Now we have to go 1800. Because then I can't tell the story of this climbing hockey stick that I want to tell to everybody. Now is the time to start thinking about who your most profitable customers are and to start thinking about focusing on that niche. Because there's a next stage that we're going to get to talk about in a minute that that is even going to become more important of who you know, where you're at, what customers are really generating the most profit for you, and they're going to be with you the longest time. Really important.

Yeah, yeah. No, just like we talked about, self awareness for yourself, your person before, self awareness for what your business is and who your business is and who you serve is equally as important.

Yeah. And that's critical. And, you know, at this stage, you've really become more of a manager than, you know, quote, technician. And I'm not saying that as a technical business, but technician. You know, you were the salesperson, you were the whatever. But now you're really managing your team, working with your staff to oversee things. You're working less. This is, you know, from the E myth, less in the business and more on the business. If you've kind of set things up correctly and hopefully you have, and you.

Need to give up a lot to.

Get to that point, you really have to. And you can't overstate that in order to gain that freedom to look at the business like from a dashboard level and to be able to see how things are moving, you have to give up a lot. And again, this is another area where small business owners really can have problems with because they never get beyond the technician phase of, you know, I'm the guy has to go out every day. I'm the guy that has to, you know, and when I say guy, I'm, you know, it's just a gender neutral whatever. I say it all the time. I'm the guy that has to go make all the sales. I'm the this on the that. No, you know, you're, you're not going to last it if you keep doing that. You need to step back, get somebody else, pay somebody. At this stage, maybe you're paying somebody more than you're making. You know, your salespeople should be making tons of money, you know, and, and giving good bonuses because they're going to drive all that good business and you're going to be to guide them and explain to them why, you know, giant corporation Z, even though they're going to, they bring you this huge gross dollar amount may not be the more most profitable business for you. What is your net, you know, and what is it costing you to manage that relationship? You need to have the time and the freedom to look at those customers and decide which ones are really the best for you.

Yeah, for sure.

Yeah. So then after growth, you know, is this is peak and it's not a bad thing, but you're kind of at the top of this cycle and it may take you years to reach, but it comes sooner if you don't embrace change. Because if you found your niche and you go, great, we've got it, we found our horse, we're going to ride it, ride it, ride it. If you haven't maybe branched into other areas or developed multiple revenue streams with your revenue stack, it can happen a little sooner. So the longer you focus on one product, one niche without changing, without trying new things, the sooner you're going to hit this peak stage. You're going to see more competition because people are watching you. And if you're successful and you're telling your story and you're building your brand, every people are going to see it and they're going to go, well, there's an opportunity here and I'm better at X or I have my unfair advantage is why. And I can save money here and I can sell that product for less or whatever. And that means you're working in less of a niche, you're making less profit. Profit on your sales or on your services. Your growth is going to slow. You know, your sales may continue to grow, but it's probably going to be at a higher cost. So your profits are going to take a hit and your cash flow, you know, probably still pretty good because you've, you generated all this kind of stuff. Again, you may have time to embrace change here, but you need to be quick. And the bigger your business has become, I think the harder it is. You know, think about Bill Gates waking up to the fact that, you know, hey, this Internet thing is, is going to be a big deal and all these desktop apps we're selling are going to be gone someday or changed, you know, turned into subscription models or online, you know, this kind of thing. And he turned the whole, they turned the whole company around. But it was a massive wake up call to them that, that, you know, almost cost. You mean your business could have.

Yeah, they, they arguably waited too long to do it but had enough momentum.

Yes.

To carry them through.

Yeah. And enough powerful, you know, a huge guy, a motivator and someone clearly that had stepped out and was working on the business. Right.

Yes.

And it's, you know, if you've made it here, you've been an effective manager, you're a dashboard person, but now kind of like, you know, Gates did, you probably have to jump back in. You may have to jump into the details to shift the company into new opportunities, you know, new services, new products. And maybe, maybe you've done it along the way. That's awesome. And to Dave's point that he made earlier, as you start to peak in certain channels or vertical markets, maybe you've got other ones coming up and that's great. And you see Apple do it all the time, you know, where they make their own products obsolete. Right?

Yeah.

And that's a huge lesson right there. It's like, well, if you don't do it, someone else is going to come along and do it. And like, you know, we're talking big billionaire companies who are trillion companies. You know, like Jeff Bezos says, you know, your margin is my opportunity. And no one has proven that more than Amazon because they would just squeeze and operate at a loss for years. To get to become the market leader.

In a certain monoprice is that way too. Right. They started in the cable business and they're like, this is crazy, there's way too much margin here. We can take those cables, reverse engineer them, figure out what the benefit is. And then go. And, you know, make it with the same parts. And now they do it with everything. They do it with screens.

I'm looking at a monoprice monitor right now. Same, you know.

Yeah. And it's fantastic. It's the same glass that's used in the Dell, one that costs twice as much. But I want to circle back to something you said, which is jumping back in. You said it might be time where you have to jump back in and actually, you know, get back into the details. Don't let your ego stop you from doing this. You know, I have been there. And it's. In retrospect, it's so easy to see how stupid and silly that is, but it's also super easy to see how natural it is. It's like, wait a minute, you know, I've hired people to do this stuff. I don't need to jump back in. I was smart enough to build this thing and get the. No, no. Sometimes you are the best one to get back in and do the work and, and retool things and then hand that off to your people and, and show them the new way of doing things or the new thing you've added. Whatever that is, you've got it. And like, I would say, make this a part of your. Your culture, right, where you're just getting back in and doing things and. Yeah. All the time.

I love that. That's such a good point. And to. I mean, and if you're not that type of person, you may even have to, like, you know, put it on your calendar, you know, every three months or every six months or whatever. And not only does it keep you connected, but it also kind of shakes things up and lets people know that, oh, wow, this, this person, they really do know the business, you know, or they're. They're seeing what's going on. They're not just, you know, focusing on this or, you know, promoting the company. You know, they're. They're involved in it. I think that's. That's a really good point that you make there.

Yeah. Yeah.

So, you know, after this peak things, you know, if you don't embrace change and if you haven't been able to kind of shift things, your business is going to mature. And maybe this is just a certain, you know, channel, like I said, or vertical within your company, but that maturity, you know, you're going to start to see revenue decrease. You know, maybe your profit margin's getting thinner because you did not adapt and you didn't do it. You know, things are kind of stagnating in the business. Maybe you're bored.

Yeah.

Maybe you're. Maybe it's time for you to do something else. Maybe you're not the guy anymore to. To be the leader of. Of that company. You. If you're not paying attention to that stuff and. And I've done it, I will be the. You know, I have absolutely been in this position before where I thought I could just turn it over and then go do something else because I've done this. And it's been, you know, whatever, five years, 10 years. You know, that stagnation is time to. It can really wake you up. And my comment here is like, you remember change. If you can grab it and embrace it like never before, maybe you can still do that. But you might have lost the opportunity. But you could try to reimagine your business if you haven't yet. Get that cheerleader hat back on, motivate your team. But the odds are really against you. But you still might be able to do it. If you have a story about coming back from that and being stagnant, we would certainly love to hear it. Get with us@feedbackusshow.co or visit us in the small business support group at BusinessShow Co Facebook and tell your story. And we would love to celebrate that because the next step is decline. Like we talked about. You didn't listen. You haven't heard this episode of the show. You didn't bring change. You thought things would stick the same forever. And you're hearing from someone that has absolutely done this. Your cash cow. Cow is about out of milk. Terrible, terrible analogy. Terrible pun.

It sometimes happens. Your business has run its course on that course. Yeah, that's right.

And I have a company right now that I've had forever. And I just see it and it's because I just don't like. I'm not into it anymore. And I had a few good customers and the market shifted and it's like, I don't know if I have the energy really to jump back in and do it. And to your point earlier, Dave, that's probably okay. I've taken a ton of money off the table in the company over the years and very happy with that. I have some great relationships, but I just don't know if it's worth it. Like sales, profit, cash flow starts declining, and now it's time maybe think about your options. If you're not motivated, can you merge with somebody else that has the energy to take it back to another level? Can you sell it Is there an opportunity for a different type of business owner to come in and, and take it on and grow it again? You know, you got to look at all these things or is it time just to say, hey, this was a great company while it lasted. Now maybe we should, we should move on. And, and I think we've both done that, you know, here.

And it's hard to do it again. It's one of those things, you look back and you're like, oh man, I should have shot that thing three years earlier or whatever. But it's really hard because it's to your point. It's the thing that supported you, it supported all these other people that you employed and it's hard to sit there and say, oh yeah, it's done.

It's like a child, you gave birth to it. You fought so hard to grow it and get it going and carve out that niche. And this stuff is not easy. And then over time you had some success and it became part of your story and, and then, you know, you look at it and go, oh, this is not, not the way it used to be. And lots of stuff, yeah, lots of stuff changed. It's be beyond your control. Entire markets disappear. Right, right. I mean, you know, look at all the businesses that are gone or niches that are gone from. Because like the smartphone, you know, I mean, who's got an alarm clock, you know, the, the standalone low end camera business. I mean, on and on and on, you can look at that. But I think the lesson here is that again, coming full circle, nothing is going to stay the same. Bad things don't last forever. Good things don't last forever. The sooner you get ready for change, the more you can adapt, the more you can take advantage of these business cycles and you work to avoid this negative decline, maybe a natural decline that you have to adjust to, maybe sell your company or something and go on do something else, but you just want to be ready for it and talk about it all the time. Because now, once you've embraced it, now you're going to convince everybody else, your employees, your partner. You've got to be talking about change, you know, soon, as soon as you start half success. Okay, how do we, how do we. What's the next thing?

What's the next thing? Yeah, yeah.

How do we protect this, this niche? I mean, and then at the same time develop, you know, ancillary channels and ancillary different products. But you know, I love this cycle. These, all these cycles, it is stretches you and you learn a lot and once you go through them a few times, it allows you to be ready for each one and have a, have a pretty open attitude like, okay, this is the normal cycle, this kind of thing. And I would encourage you to, you know, think about each one and try to step out and look and see what, what stage we're in.

Yeah. Simply being aware of what cycle you're in at any point in time is probably put you ahead of, you know, 90% of other business owners. And that's not a bad place to be.

Yeah, you got it. And that action folks, remember, there is no idea or talk phase. You are starting. You are getting something going, you know, taking those steps and that's the way you're going to get there.

Yeah. The idea is table stakes. Right. Like you have to have the idea, but it doesn't need to be your idea. Right. You can look at another business and say, hey, you know, to Jeff Bezos point, I can do that better or I can do that in a more profitable way. Or you know, I can do that and serve a market that they're not serving because that's not who they're focused at. You don't need to come up with the next billion dollar idea. No, no, no. What you need is the next thousand dollar idea and then you can turn it into a $10,000 idea and then $100,000 idea. Right. Like just do something and that's what you need that figure out the rest along the way. Do something.

Do something. That first thousand bucks, I would argue strongly that that is more, more important than the, than the 100,000 or whatever. And the world is full of people that don't want to get off the couch unless it's for big, big dollar amounts. And that is a huge, huge mistake. If you can develop something that can start gener and then you can start tweaking it and adjusting it and putting your foot down on the gas if you will, and feeding it. That's how you build long term success. And you may hit a peak with one company like, well, you know, this business only generates 10 grand a month, but wow, I only have to spend a little bit of time each day now what other business I can do? And you know, we're going to talk a lot about the revenue stack later on, you know, during this season of small Business show. And that, that is a fantastic way to do it where you can have these different reven streams coming into you. It really can build you into your own solid brand that is ready for these inevitable business cycles. And Allows you to be really flexible.

I'm going to sort of dig in for a minute here into what you just said. You said, well, this business hit a peak and it only generates ten grand a month. I know there are people out there that either are just getting started or haven't yet started who say, oh, that would be a dream, right? Like to have a business that I don't have to do a lot of work at that generates ten grand a month. Here's the thing, it's really not that hard. You need to be willing to put in the work, no question. But all you need to do is worry about how to make a hundred bucks because then you just repeat that and suddenly you're at a thousand and then you're at 10,000. This can happen very, very quickly if you're able to be, you know, dedicated and just put in the work. It's really, when you, when you talk about that and it just comes off very casually, it's because it is, it, it's a casual thing with the assumption that you're going to put in the work anyway and that's how it's going to be. Yeah, it's great.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just that action, just, you know, take action, start, just start and do something and you'll learn right away, oh, you know what, this isn't really going to go anywhere and you're investment will be small. Most of it'll be time and test and see how things go in it. Now it's never been easier to do this type of thing and grow your own small business and the benefits in getting you to that part where we talk about the charmed life all the time. The tax benefits, the credit card points and travel benefits. I mean just on and on and on of getting something going. Even if it's not your main source of revenue, even if you work for someone else, but you have a size small business that generates a little bit of money. That is a big deal.

Totally deal. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Well, thanks for listening to us everybody. We've, you know, love talking about this stuff and we'd love to hear from you. Like I said. FeedbackusinessShow Co or come share your story at BusinessShow Co Facebook. Come over to the small business support group.

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