Interview with Henry Lopez from The How of Business

You know, Shannon, a lot of the things that we talk about here could fall into the category of how to start a business or even the how of business. But we are not the how of business, are we?

That's right. Yeah. We've got a great guest here today and from the how of Business podcast, Henry Lopez is going to join us and he's got some great team tips about running businesses as well as expanding into other areas, which I really like his mentoring and coaching. And it's a great show. He's a great resource.

Yeah, you know, he has had, I mean, he has had his own experience. There are many parallels to a lot of the topics that we talk about here on the show all the time. Partnerships, you know, the whole, the idea of helping others, which for him falls into the coaching realm. But also his podcast, which is a fantastic show in its own right and well worth listening to. But you know, it was interesting. He uses score, which is something we've talked about a lot on the show here. And he kind of used that to test out the idea of coaching, which I really kind of liked. And of course he'll.

I like the concept too.

Yeah, we'll let Henry talk more about that because. Because that's why we had him on the show. That said, I want to talk first about our sponsor for this show, which is Linode. If you are running a business, you are going to need a server at some point for some reason. Heck, you might even need a server for your own stuff personally. But you're definitely going to need one for your business and you want one that's going to be fast and inexpensive. And this is how Linode works. Because they know that the thing that generally slows down your server is the slow disk speed. So what did they do? They got rid of that. They still have disks. Don't worry, you can store things on your server. That'd be difficult if you couldn't.

But.

But all of their disks are SSDs. Solid state disks, which means they don't spin and they're super fast. These are the types of storage that you have in your smartphone or your newer laptops. The things that make it boot up really fast. All of that, that's in every single server that Linode offers, including their least expensive $5 a month nanode server. Everything's connected to their 40 gigabit network. All have industry leading processors and you get to pick from any of their 10 and growing worldwide data centers. You can pay for the entire month if you want the server on all the time. Or you can use hourly billing in order to really kind of make sure that you're only paying for what you need. Fantastic. If you don't know how to use a command line, don't worry, they have their cloud manager that keeps you from ever even having to think about that. You just set up the type of installation you want. It takes care of all of the hard work, all of the nitty gritty, and boom, you're up and running with something like a WordPress server or a VPN server. Maybe at home you want a Minecraft server. I don't know, maybe you do. But what I know you want is a $20 credit to get started, which means you could have five bucks a month for those four months of a Nanode server. $20 credit. Visit linode.com SBS check that out with a $20 credit. And our thanks to Linode for sponsoring this episode. And this episode, you ask. Well, this is the Small Business Show. I'm Dave Hamilton. He's Shannon Jean. Let's go.

And as I've thought about it more and more, it's about this readiness that has multiple componen components. So the ready is the, the mental and emotional component of it. The willing is, is am I, am I willing to make the sacrifice of what it takes to get started in business? And then the able is, you know, can I afford it? Can I afford the money? Can I afford the time? Can I afford the. The energy, the health? So that's what I mean by ready, willing and able. I actually break those down. But at the heart of it though, one of the key components that comes out is are you ready to overcome the failure? And specifically the fear of embarrassment as a result of failure.

Hey, Dave, how are you, man?

I'm good, man. How are you?

I'm doing great. Hey, you know, we talk on the show a lot with business owners that have been very successful with one small business, some of them with, with a number of them. And it's great. You know, I love to see once someone has some success and, you know, then they kind of start branching out, they challenge themselves to new things. And today we have a guest that's definitely challenged himself. Henry Lopez, a serial entrepreneur. He's bought and sold businesses as well as starting brand new companies from scratch. And Henry's also expanded into business coaching and he hosts the how of business podcasts. So, Henry, thank you so much for joining us today. We're really happy to have you.

Oh, it's my pleasure. I'm excited to be here with you guys.

Yeah, we appreciate it. So let's jump right in and talk about your small business background. So as I was doing some research and learning about you and on your website, you know, I see multiple businesses that you started, some that you've invested in. So what did you do before you started your first company? And if you could speak a little bit, how you made the transition, I think, which is challenging for a lot of people, from employee to small business owner.

Yeah, absolutely. So the short of it is I started my career proper as a computer programmer back in the mid-1980s. And I then went from programming and back of the house stuff. Segued into sales and marketing for several different large software vendors selling software solutions to large corporations. But I always, from earliest days, wanted to be my own boss. I just either didn't have the wherewithal or the courage or the opportunity or what have you. I call it, you know, I didn't have the vehicle to get there, but it was always something I wanted to do. And early days, as I've thought back about it, it was about control. Then we can talk more about that. So, had a very successful career in sales and marketing throughout the 90s, but still had this desire. So in 1991, with a friend of mine as the guy who ran it day to day, and I kept my day job, I started my first business. We bought an existing franchise of a local pizza delivery chain here in the Dallas area. He ran a day to day and then on the weekends I was there working it, doing the financials, all that kind of stuff at night, marketing, that kind of thing. And it wasn't until the early 2000s that I got that business. We had three locations. It did okay, but never enough for me to quit my day job. Finally in the early 2000s, various things happened which is when I finally made my transition to be a full time business owner. So not only did I understand that challenge of transitioning, but also having that what, you know, now we would call a side hustle and then finally making that transition. So that's my background.

Yeah, that's great. I love that you, you know, saw the need to reach out to someone else, to partner with someone that could, you know, do the day to day stuff while you kept your foundation, you know, going until you could transition out. I think that's very smart and we'll get to this.

I know, but I prefer working in partnerships and so we'll explore that a little bit more. But I think that works best for me.

You're preaching to the choir. Here, Shannon and I are both of that mindset. I mean, don't get me wrong, as anyone who has worked in a partnership, successful or otherwise, will say, there are moments where you wish it was just you, but there are those of us that really thrive in partnerships, I think. And. And it sounds like we're. We're birds of a feather here. Yeah, for sure.

Yeah. So let's. Let's expand on that a little bit because it is such an important part of, you know, success for so many people is. Is finding a good partner. And. And I, you know, I know you prefer that. What would you say are some essential traits, you know, looking back on your career with, you know, working with various partners? Because, you know, you hear a lot of horror stories on that. But what, what are some of the traits that you've looked for that have made your partnership successful?

Yeah, no, great question. And by the way, I. I've done everything people tell you not to do. I've partnered with family, I've partnered with best friends. So this is something I've given a lot of thought to. And I think it comes down to two primary things in that person, mutually, rather. You have to have trust and respect. So you have to trust and respect that person. Now, the way that I then interpret that is I am unlikely. And as I stop and think, I don't. I never have gone into partnership. That doesn't mean I don't, may not bring in investors, but I've never gone into partnership with someone I haven't known for some period of time. Because this trust and respect, certainly there are ways that you can develop that quickly, but, you know, at the end of the day, it takes time. So my partner Renee, who was my partner with the pizza franchise, I knew him since childhood. My partner David, who's also co host of the show, and I have several businesses with, we worked together starting back in 1991, and we became business partners in 2011. So to me, that's the critical component. There has to be trust and respect. And then from a tactical perspective, and here's where I think most people make the big mistake, is you have to have those hard conversations. And I purposely use the word hard upfront about what this relationship is going to look like instead of going into that honeymoon phase and assuming, oh, well, we're all good, we're friends, we'll take care of each other. It's all good. No, no, you have to have those friend conversations. It's amazing to me, guys, how often, even with a partner like David, where we've partnered on subsequent businesses, and we'll have that conversation and we'll say, oh, I wasn't thinking that way. I'm glad, I'm glad we talked about that. Now, that gets boiled down to what I happen to call a memo of understanding. So here are the terms of this partnership. And then you must have a legally binding partnership agreement that covers all of the possible scenarios, including, you know, I might be. I want to be in partnership with you, Dave, but I may not want to be in partnership with your wife if something happens to you. That's right.

Yeah. No, for sure, you are.

So, so talking about all of those things. Yeah, Talking about all those things up front is as important as the fundamental components of trust and respect.

Well, it's part of trust and respect. Right, Good point.

Yeah.

You need to have that trust and respect in order to go into that conversation. Otherwise, whatever you say in there doesn't really matter if you don't trust and, or respect the person on the other side and vice versa. Right. But, but yeah, you. And you need to, I think you need some trust in order to have that hard conversation. Right. You know, if, if you don't have trust there, that, that's, Those conversations are even harder, I think.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that makes sense. That makes sense.

Yeah. And I. So you, you talk about this memo of understanding. Imagine it's similar to what we refer to as a working agreement that. Does that lead to this partnership agreement? Eventually you kind of work it out, this memo of understanding, and then that becomes kind of the framework for the agreement.

Absolutely right. Exactly. So it's just a bullet pointed. I mean, it could be an email exchange. It's about putting to paper the things that we're agreeing to. And then also it's about identifying, you know, in this area, we're going to need the help of an attorney. Now all of it gets boiled down to your point. Obviously, it all goes to an attorney at the end to draft a proper, legally binding partnership or operating agreement. But not only does it facilitate that conversation. So what I give to my clients is a checklist to kind of walk through all of. Not all of them, but probably 90% of the questions you want to ask, not only does that, that facilitate the conversation, but it then saves you a little bit of money also. Or it can with the attorney. Instead of walking into attorney and saying, hey, we want to be in business together, what should we do? So you've kind of addressed all. Then you use the attorney for those tough things like, I don't know, I think the buy sell should be structured this way, but I'm not sure about this. What do you think? And so it facilitates that conversation, even with the attorney.

Yeah, that's great. That's good. And I mean, and you may have had this happen as well. I mean, I've had prospective partnerships that we couldn't even get past the working agreement, you know, the. You just, you couldn't put it together and you're like, wow, I'm sure glad that we tried to do this, because if we can't agree on this stuff, I mean, it's. You don't have that good foundation to go from.

Absolutely. Right.

No, that's cool. That's really great. So looking at, you know, the list of businesses that you've been involved in, they're pretty diverse. And I was trying to come up with a. This thread of continuity with each of them, but I couldn't find it. So, I mean, am I missing that or did you expressly set out to do something different each time, you know, with. With a new type of business?

So the theme was not obvious?

Yeah, yeah. Maybe looking back, you can tie it in, but.

Yeah, exactly. No. So it has been. It's a great question and a great insight. It has been about opportunity. So I had been. My approach had been one of being opportunistic, either because somebody brought me something that I was interested in, or we came up with a new idea. Then it kind of began to mature to a little bit. For example, the, the software solution we have for maintenance in the car wash industry. Well, that was obviously a spin off or a spawn from being in the car wash industry. And now I, I tend to look at things. My primary criteria is will it. Will. It'll allow me the independence of location. I don't want to be tied myself to any brick and mortar location. So that's important. But really, you know, the, the truthful answer is that I suffer from shiny object syndrome. You guys talked about this in one of your episodes. I think it was episode 251. You were talking about shiny object syndrome. And so part of it has been about learning how to manage that more than anything else, to be honest.

Yeah, no, that's good. And I do like, you know, where you look, you're like, well, they're all opportunistic based. Right. I think that's a, a good insight. And then you kind of have to tether that, you know, with the shiny object thing so you don't go down too many rabbit holes.

But. Right, but.

But if you don't chase after some of them. You're going to miss those opportunities.

That's right. Now, what at least we'll get into is you got to be careful then. Are you spinning too many plat and what are you doing? Well, but, yeah, that's. That's why there is no theme there. It has been a matter of what opportunities have come our way. You know, we. We had a sweet salon business that you may not have even seen on there. Maybe it was. Yeah, yeah. So you were thinking, how the heck did I get in that business? In fact, I didn't even know what that was until I got in that business. But my family and I, that was our. That was my first venture with my brother and his wife, myself and my wife. And we looked for a business. We. We went through a search process for, like, six months. We methodically went through a search, and then my friend, actually David Begin, had a friend here who owned these two locations, said, hey, you should go take a look at this business. And we checked it out and was like, huh, this is interesting. This is really property management. We can do this. And so that's kind of, again, an opportunity that presented itself. And then in the process, we had hired them to help us build one. But as they got to know us and said, hey, we might be interested in selling ours, and so that's how we got into that business.

That's cool. Yeah, I love that. Those are. Those are great, great stories and being open to that stuff, you know.

So that's on your website, being opportunistic, right? Is.

I think so, yeah.

You know, I mean, I wouldn't be in the businesses that I'm in if it weren't for being opportunistic. Now, it just so happens that it's pretty easy if you. I think, although maybe that maybe my perspective is the least important one. It's pretty easy to draw a path back for me. Right. But. But the reality is, like, the day before we started Mac Observer, I had no intention of being in the publishing business. Not in the least, you know, but that it happened. Right. And the same with you and me with deals on the web, Shannon. You know, you came to me with that.

Absolutely.

And it was like, oh, yeah, this works.

An opportunity.

It's an opportunity. Yeah. Yeah. So you gotta be open to at least having the conversation. And I think part of the trick is if you're gonna be successful as an opportunistic entrepreneur, you've got to be able to make those judgment calls very, very quickly, because you will Wind up getting pitched a lot of ideas, and you gotta. You gotta be able to really evaluate it. And for me, it's mostly trusting my gut on stuff. I mean, there's. There's obviously some fundamentals that you can go through, you know, as well, but, you know, there's never a guarantee on anything. So you've gotta. You got to be able to trust your gut a little bit.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Absolutely. You were talking, I think it was you, David was talking about that on an episode recently of your show that you're not a big believer in putting together performance. I tend to lean that way. I'm analytical, but David is much more seat of the pants, kind of go with it. And so that's the other way, that in partnership, we balance each other.

Totally. Yeah. Smart. Yeah, that's smart.

That's great.

For sure. Yeah.

So on your podcast, the how of Business, you mentioned a few times, I've heard you talk about this concept of are you ready, willing, and able to start a business? And I really like how you put that together. Can you expand on that and share it with our listeners?

Yeah, absolutely. I think that what I have found in my coaching practice, I've also been a volunteer mentor with SCORE for five years now. And one of the things that, you know, I'm always looking at, what are these common things when I work with people that are excited about an idea, but then they get stalled or they do nothing? And as I've thought about it more and more, it's about this readiness that has multiple components. So the ready is the mental and emotional component of it. The willing is, am I willing to make the sacrifice of what it takes to get started in business? And then the able is, can I afford it? Can I afford the money? Can I afford the time? Can I afford the energy, the health? So that's what I mean by ready, willing, and able. I actually break those down. But at the heart of it, though, one of the key components that comes out is, are you ready to overcome the fear of failure and specifically the fear of embarrassment as a result of failure? So that's what I mean at a high level by are you ready, willing, and able to start your first business?

Yeah.

That's powerful. I can, you know, recall being in all those phases and even. Not really even wanting to put a sign on our building because I was worried that somebody I knew would drive by and. And. And if it, you know, and if things didn't work out the way I wanted them to. And it's. It's a Real challenge to come over that or to get over those, those fears. For sure.

Absolutely. You guys talked about some of this. I think it was episode two, 23. Focusing on your subconscious to help you succeed. I think is the title of that episode. I like that episode because it talks about some of those same things. What we really find is it's that story that, you know, we've either written for ourselves or unfortunately, somebody else has written for us. And it's all that indoctrination that is really designed to make us employees, not business owners, that that leads to this fear. And so what I have found, yeah, there are some people and this is part of assessing. Is it really because I don't, I'm not in a financial position yet, or is it really. The reason I'm not moving forward is that I'm afraid of the embarrassment of failure. And that holds so many people back from accomplishing anything in life really, but particularly getting in business.

One of our favorite callbacks to an interview that we had early, early on was when somebody was on the show and said, you know, I have to avoid making fear based decisions.

Brian Frist from Digistore.

Yep.

Said that.

And man, mean, that sent a shockwave through me when he said it was like, yes, this crystallizes it. That's it. You have to. I mean, look, we're afraid for reasons like, you know, it is important to acknowledge the foundation of any fear that you notice. But, but making decisions based on that, especially repetitively, can crater you. And I mean, that's a lesson I've shared with my kids. It's that, that goes beyond business. That's just a good life lesson. But yeah, man, yeah, you're right, you're right.

Yeah, it doesn't. You know, the word that I use is courage. To me, the definition of courage is not the absence of fear, but it's in fact the opposite. It's be having fear. But nonetheless, of course, you know, fear is there for a reason. It's hard, you know, in part it's to keep us from getting eaten by the saber tooth tiger. Right. So we got to acknowledge it and respect it. But often it's again, it's this fear of what others are going to think about me. I have to face those fears and move forward. And that's courage. Facing your fears and doing it anyway.

Yeah. If it's a fear of what other people are going to think that, that, that's not quite on the scale of the saber tooth tiger. I've.

It's not, it's Not.

Yeah, that's true.

You know the question I always ask people there is ask yourself this as you're getting ready to go into this first venture, especially if it's your first venture, what is my worst case scenario? What will it look like? I actually want you to think through that financially in particular, if this venture fails. And what I found is that for most people it's, well, yeah, it's good. It's going to be, it's not going to be good. I'm going to lose some money, but I'll probably just go get another job or try again. Right. If it's, it's going to be catastrophic, then you're probably starting too big. You may want to scale back a little bit, but usually that worst case scenario is not as bad as we make it sound like it could be.

Yeah. It's easy to talk yourself out of it when, when you have that fear. That's for sure.

That's right.

Yeah. So we're talking about your podcast, the how of Business. Tell us how you got started, what was the impetus for, for starting the podcast and, and what do you get? What do you focus on each week on the show?

So when I think back to when I started three years ago, the thing that drove me, as I'm, as you guys are, a big voracious reader of business related stuff, biographies, books, business books, it all is all great and I still read it, but it seemed to me like it was on bigger companies than my little micro business. So what I wanted to provide is a resource for that small business owner like me that wears all the hats, that's looking to grow and it's gonna, of course it's also evolved into. I've got a lot of listeners as we've talked about, that are looking to start their first business. So it's pretty simple. It's about having a diverse range of topics, guests as well as episodes that I just do myself for myself and David at helping people start, run and grow a small business. I focus on actionable information and hopefully a little bit of inspiration.

That's great. Yeah, we're huge champions of that, that type of person and I think it's awesome. The more resources that we can give them, the better.

That's right.

That's cool. Okay. Looking at your business list on your website@thehowofbusiness.com I also see you've purchased some existing small businesses, you've started some new one ones from nothing. Talk about the challenges of buying versus starting something new.

It's a big Challenge and a great topic. If I look back about five years ago, I would have said that I was in a position as an entrepreneur where I would probably not have considered buying an existing business. And I can't even tell you all the reasons why. I think it's a lack. Was lack of maturity. And as you develop in business, you kind of see things differently. And having guests on the show who have spoken to this topic in part has helped me with this education. David Barnett is a good example of a guest, a friend of mine, who focuses on helping people buy existing business. And it's really made me look at it a very different way. So I think not just me, there are advantages and disadvantages. If I look at a buying an existing business, the obvious thing is that hopefully this is an ongoing, profitable concern that has history that I can look at instead of trying to, you know, put together a financial performance, which is just a guess at best. Right. So there's something there that I can analyze and of course, that appeals to me to see that this is what it's done, here's what it's doing, here's what it can do. So there's something there. They've already opened the doors and people came. Right.

Okay.

There might be other advantages. There might be a brand that they've created. They may have a lease in place that's extremely favorable. They may have a territory if it's a franchise, franchise. And then the other component is that when it comes to lending, you are in a lot better position often to be able to borrow money for an existing profitable business than one that I'm building from scratch. Yeah, sure. So those are some of the obvious, I think, for me, anyway, advantages. The disadvantages are, and some of this is kind of maybe intuitive, but some people make this mistake is don't buy a business that's not profitable because you think, oh, I'll be able to save it. Right now we get off on that tension. But I see that mistake over and over. So you're in here. Are you inheriting somebody else's problems? Do they have poor financials to begin with? But the key thing, though, that can be an exposure or a disadvantage with buying an existing business is how critical is that owner or owners or those key employees, how critical are they to the business when they leave, leave? Do those clients go with them? Does the business go with them? And then what are you left with? Right, sure. So those are kind of the disadvantages. But, you know, it's just a matter of analyzing every opportunity very carefully and Looking at what. What are you really buying and doing the math there. I do believe that you have to look at the numbers, crunch the numbers and make sure that the return makes sense.

Even I would vote for that, for sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no. Yeah, yeah. When you're starting something out, that's where I feel like I've gotten. It's not that I'm against the numbers, maybe to clarify my position, it's that it's really easy to get lost in them. And perhaps it's that I've had the wrong types of partners in those scenarios where it. In. I mean, it sounds like you have a very realistic view. You paint. You paint the picture, but you know, the picture is false and you know, or is only one potential picture. It's not necessarily false. Yeah.

And I completely agree with you and I'm guilty of it. I'm guilty of it. Like what you talked about in that episode of, well, I'll just adjust the numbers and make them look the way I want them to look. So that is. That's real. You're absolutely right about that.

Yeah. And it's like, okay, well, we just got to get out there and start selling stuff, and then let's figure out what people are buying. And now, so. So that's where that, that's where that sort of resistance comes from is I've. I've gotten lost for like a year in, in one particular partnership where it was just like, we're just doing the numbers over and over again. So, like, are we going to be in business or are we going to be pushing a spreadsheet around?

But. Yeah, but with an existing business, if it's well run and the books are clean, then you can really look at it and understand that the challenge of the overarching. All of this, though, guys, is that, you know, people are very proud of their business. Right. And so it's like, I look at it kind of like with real estate, because I've dabbled in real estate as well. You got to look at 100 pieces of property before you get one or two that you're going to make an offer on. I think kind of that, that approach, maybe I'm exaggerating it there, but you're going to have to look at a lot of businesses before you find one where it makes sense and don't make the mistake, similar to the mistake we make in real estate of falling in love with the business and now you pay whatever the cost is.

Right. And I think a couple of points that I'd like to make one is I think it is a really good point looking at, okay, what's going to happen when the founder leaves. If you buy this business or a key employee, that's critically important. And I think you also, you need to know are you buying a business or are you buying yourself a job? Right. And if that's what you want, if you want a job, well that's okay, you can do that. But there's a difference there, you know, and if you're just going to take over the salary that the previous owner was making and you're going to go in every day, that's fine. But know that you know, if you're going to get into that, that's the way it's going to be. The other thing I would say is I do agree with you, you know, especially a new business owner thinking oh this company's not profitable so but I'm going to buy it and turn it around. I do think there are opportunities there, but you better have a lot of experience and a number of resources at your disposal to try to turn that business around. And I would say that comes with lots of experience. You know, financial capacity, your own know, things that you can bring to the table to make up for shortfalls that they may already have.

Yeah, I agree with that and I think related to that, you know, I kind of alluded to it with the financing. If it's a situation like that, then get creative about how you structure the deal. A lot of those kind of deals get structured so that there's an upside later if in fact I'm able to turn this business around. If not, then we both lose in that regard. Right.

Yeah.

But that ability to get seller financing and then to have those, those. There's a term for it that's escaping me but those kind structures where you'll get more later. If I'm able to turn it around in that example, that's another advantage that gives you that flexibility.

Yeah.

Or maybe and set it up to where maybe they, it's an earn out. So they're, they're going to stick around, they're going to help, they're going to try to help you achieve some results and get things going and then you know, then they benefit a little bit of it as well and they leave a more stable business.

That's.

Yeah, they might be willing to tell you more about the skeletons in the closet if they have a benefit in you avoiding them.

Them.

Yes, that's right.

Yeah. I think that's really important that buying a Business and just having everybody disappear, I think that's a big mistake. You need to be involved. And if that seems to be the sense of what's going to happen, I. I would be really worried about.

Have you ever bought a business? This is. I'm gonna. I'm detouring us temporarily here. Have you ever bought a business, Shannon, is that. We haven't ever. I don't think we've ever talked about that on the show.

No, I've sold them. I've sold multiples of ours, but I've always bootstrapped and started from scratch.

And, you know, is that. I wonder if is similar to me. It might just be opportunity. But I know for me, I always felt like, no, no, I'm the entrepreneur. I want to create this thing. So I think that was part of what held me back earlier on about thinking about buying a business. It took a while for me to come around. Like, I was like, you know, I don't want anybody else's problems. I'll create my own problem.

Yeah, well, I never wanted to work. I never wanted a job. Right. That was my thing. I haven't. I don't really feel like I've worked, you know, in 30 years because I've done this kind of stuff and created things from scratch. But I definitely used the resources I developed over time, you know, the manpower, the expertise of people that I surrounded myself with, the financial capacity that starting the next business was much, much easier than the first, and so on and so forth to where you just. You kind of knew which dials to turn and how to set things up.

Right.

That you've learned over time.

Time. Yeah. It's just. Why, if you would have asked me about investing in a franchise a couple years ago, I would have said, no, I. Probably not. But I. But I just did. I just invested in a franchise. So, yeah, that's awesome.

I guess maybe a good litmus test for those of us that. That are like. Like, evidently us, where, you know, we more comfortable. Although Mac observer technically was a business we bought. So, you know, full disclosure, although it was an interesting purchase, as I. As I assume, perhaps they all are. If you are the kind of person, if you've gotten to the point in your entrepreneurial career where you invariably are, you know, answering people's questions and coaching people on their businesses and saying, well, one thing I would do if it were me is I would do X, Y or Z. If you find yourself doing that enough, you might be ready to buy somebody else's business.

That's a good Point.

Yeah, that's a good point. Yeah. So. So let's. Since we're on that topic, let's talk about that. The coaching. I know that you offer that service. How did that get started and what areas do you focus on helping other business owners? Is it just, you know, newly getting started or people that are having specific problems? How does it work?

So I coach either people who are aspiring to start their first business or existing business owners. In fact, I just finished up a call before we got on this call with one of my clients. I've select clients because it's not the only thing I do and it can be time consuming. It came about, though, to answer your question. I've always loved sharing and giving back, as I know you guys do. I mean, that's one of the reasons you guys do the podcast. I also find that when I talk to other business owners, albeit in that coaching capacity, I invariably learn something. It stretches my thinking. And I, you know, I thought about this about. Probably about 10 years ago, I had this moment where I thought, well, I don't have a hobby. Like, people have hobbies and I don't have a hobby. I mean, I have activities. I do. I do bike riding and I do this, but I don't have a hobby, hobby per se. And then that's when I acknowledged and accepted and it was okay that my hobby is business. I love talking about business. I love everything to do with business, especially small business. So that's kind of what got me to say, you know, I might be good at this. I've done training before. I've done teaching before. And so that's why I started volunteering with SCORE to see if it would be something that I would enjoy doing, which I did. And then that's what led to starting the coaching practice separately.

That's fascinating.

Yeah. Yeah. SCORE is a great organization. And if you're a small business owner just getting out or you just need some help. Dave, I know you've recently used them.

Yeah, it's been a while. I was using them for a little bit and then stopped having the time to go and talk with those guys, which I guess was a good thing. But I had some kind of major things happening in the businesses a couple years ago where it was really helpful to do just, you know, I called it business therapy just to go talk with somebody that didn't have a vested interest on one, you know, in one outcome or the other, other than they. They had a vested interest in my success. Because. Because that's what SCORE is. There For. But other than that, it was just, you know, business therapy. Being able to go and force myself to go talk about the business as opposed to working in the business, you know, and. And yeah, no, it scores. Great.

That's one of the. As. As a business coach, one of if you're good at it, you do well is. Is it's not that you have the. All of the answers, obviously, it's that you help your clients themselves ask the right questions. So you help them think through that. And to your point, it can be, at least I know it has been for me, very isolating to be a business owner because that. That circle of friends that we have or family, while they're supportive and loving, they don't always understand. So just like you said, just to be able to think through a situation with. With someone who's been there is sometimes all that we need.

Oh, that's it. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

That's great.

Y.

So we've talked a lot about success on the show and it's, you know, great. We always love doing that. But we're also really big fans of mistakes here on the small business show because, you know, not just because I've made so many. I know Dave hasn't made any, but we learned so much from them, especially being able to look back and sometimes.

You have to get the.

That distance from them to really gain something out of it. But what would you say is your best mistake? You know, the one that really stuck with you and taught you a valuable lesson that you recall often?

Let me tell you, I mean, this is a great question and topic because I believe firmly in analyzing that and learning from mistakes, but it doesn't make it any easier. You know, everybody tells you, oh, fail fast, fail often. And I say, yeah, all right, but. But it's. But I hate it. Right? Yeah, but I've had so many mistakes. The way I put it is I've just been fortunate to have a few more successes than mistakes. Overarching. I'll start with that is what we've already talked about a little bit, which is I got myself into trouble by trying to do too many things at once. So that shiny object syndrome and then not doing any of them well. But specifically, the story that I thought I would share was when we had to close our second frozen yogurt location. So one of my businesses that we still have the first location on, it's called I top it and it's a self serve frozen yogurt business. You all have been to one of those before.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

So like Menchees or Yogurt Land or all of those. And so we. We got. I got swept up and in the craze of it, 2011, we opened. We were the first ones to open one in Colorado Springs, my partner David and I. And so that wasn't good enough to open one location. We had opened two at the same time. Right. And that second location, you know, the lessons learned there are so many. We thought it would be a great location. It was in the middle of a strip shopping center. At one end there's a Kohl's. At the other end there's a grocery store. I can't remember what the chain now, but in Colorado, if you've visited there because of terrain ingress and egress, is a little bit more challenging in and out of shopping centers. And this one in particular, you either come in and out at either end, so kind of keep that in mind. When we were looking at this space, and by the way, of course, we had a broker, we looked at the area, my partner lives there. We thought, this is a great space. It's going to be phenomenal. The right density in the area, all of those things seem great. But it was a failure, so we had to shut it down. Fortunately, it was kind of breaking even. So we waited till the lease was up. So we didn't have to break our lease, but we lost easily couple hundred thousand dollars on having to shut that business down. Fortunately, the first location is doing great. And it's. But it's still overall on that business, we're in the hole because of having to shut down that second location.

Yeah.

So it was embarrassing. It was, you know, it was. It was just a horrible experience. Now, in hindsight, I can see in part what was going on. We were getting lost in this shopping center because. And even I, as I was. I would drive through you as you drive by. You were just making sure you didn't kill somebody with a shopping cart. Not looking over to my little strip of 1500 square feet. They got lost in this bigger shopping center that had no visibility from the main road because of terrain and speed. No signage on the main road. All of those things seem obvious now, but we. We missed it. We just missed those things. Yeah, so that's one. And we did a podcast episode on it because it's just, you know, and of course, it was one of those businesses where we were excited and all our families knew about it and the grand opening. And then. Then you have to shut it down. So that. That's one that still stings, obviously.

Sure. Yeah. I've been in that warriors, like, we have to open this location. We gotta find a spot that's. That's good enough. Let's go. You know, and trying to get things going.

Yeah, yeah. And in this one, I would say that we took our time, even though. Which is the thing that's more so. I think that the big lesson is that on location, when you're talking about a brick and mortar business, as we are here, location will kill you, of course, and you never really know. So it goes back to that, you know, build it and they will come. Hence, why this kind of a business. If you look at an existing business, then somebody else has proven that. Right?

Yeah.

Right.

And one of the other reasons why, you know, brick and mortar businesses have their own set of challenges. But that's the takeaway.

No, it's great, Henry. There's some great tidbits here and really some great advice for new prospective business owners as well as, as, you know, existing owners. Tell our listeners the best way to learn more about your businesses, your podcast, and your coaching services.

They just need to go to the howofbusiness.com@thehowofbusiness.com they can find information about me, the coaching services, as well as the podcast, which is the how of business.

That's awesome. Well, I know Dave and I both, you know, we always say that we're the ones that learn the most on this show. And definitely on this episode, I picked up some great tips. And thank you again for being our guest.

Thank you. I appreciate it. Appreciate the opportunity. And. And I always learn something as well. That's. That's one of the reasons I do podcasting.

Yeah, no, that's. That's the best part. Thank you so much, Henry. And. And we'll see you next time. Man, I love smart people like Henry. That's freaking awesome.

Yeah, that was great. That was really good. I love, you know, the lessons about the partnerships, and I mean, there's just so much good info here. And I would just encourage anybody, you know, to add the how of Business podcast to your playlist. Just keep doing. That's great.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Well, and. And for full disclosure, you know, Henry's How a Business podcast is one of the shows we represent for the sponsorships here at Backbeat Media. So we. We already agree that Henry show is a great show, but. But for good reason. I mean, and you can see why we pick the hosts that we do and the publishers that we do, because, you know, folks like Henry, you're fantastic. It was great talking to him so many times. I felt like, I mean, not only did he do his research about us and calling back to all those episodes, which was fantastic and, and also a little flattering, but he, he thinks a lot like we do and, and it was, it was not nice to kind of get some validation on our, our, some of our crazy ideas here. So that's.

Yeah, it's great. I love the ready, willing and able concept and that's really good.

Yeah.

And you know, his willingness to help and everybody volunteering. We love helping you guys at home and starting. Whether you're just getting started thinking about it or you've been around for a while. We're glad to help. We, we'd love your feedback as well. One of the best ways to do it, and I know you hear this at every podcast, but it really works. Leave us a five star review at your podcast directory of choice. It'll take you about 30 seconds and it has a big impact on Dave and our lives together. So for sure. And on the small business show. So we bring in more people, get better guests for you. Those reviews really stack up.

Yeah. And, and so thanks for listening. Thanks to our sponsor, Lino.com SBS keep living that charmed life and we will see you next week.