Chris Collins Unleashed: Episode 1 - A Great Idea? Or A Great Business...

I'm Chris Collins.

And I'm Gman.

We tackle the toughest problems faced by leaders, executives, entrepreneurs and business owners in today's changing world. This show is all about business performance. It's providing you with the tools to sell more, to create profitability, to market and get more customers and run a healthy, thriving business. Welcome to Chris Collins Unleashed.

All you have to do is listen.

Welcome, everybody. Hope you're having a great day. Say hello, G man.

Hello.

We have. This is our first show. We're really excited for Chris Collins Unleashed. It's a new format, kind of a new direction for us, but we are going to have a lot of fun with it. It's a little bit of a change and kind of liberating in some ways too, right?

Yeah, for sure. Hard on the sh. Unleashed.

Leashed. Leashed.

Got it.

If you don't know much about us and you're joining us for the first time, we as a company and as a team have made a career of turning businesses around. And so we're a little bit different in the market as far as we're not motivational speakers or the, you know, we're not talking about the idealized things in business. We're all about business performance. What's working, what is it that we have a pretty deep.

Catalog of things for business. Anything from pricing strategies, leadership, sales, training, hr, new streams of income. I mean, there isn't too much that touches business marketing, branding that we don't either have the best working with us or we're not the best at.

Right. Recruiting. Throw that in there.

And at the heart of every business is profitability. So it's like, you know, how well can you serve your market and how profitable can you be? Is it scalable? Do you grow? But those are things that we're pretty good at. The bulk of our income as a company has been on a commission basis going in and turning companies around. Not necessarily just struggling companies, but companies that want that law of the slight edge in their market and they just always want to be at the forefront. We in many situations have bet our income on the fact that we can, you know, double a business's sales or create new revenue. Something positive that we can, you know, be. And also, I think it changes our relationship with our clients in those scenarios because we're partners with them.

Yeah, yeah. We got skin in the game, right? Yeah.

We're not just guys, you know, like the consultant coming in and going, oh, do this, do that, hope it works. See ya. It has to work or we're not getting paid either.

Exactly.

We're more vested in the result and it makes a big difference. It's a huge, huge deal. So that being said, and thank you for listening to our little self grandizing intro there. It's kind of hard for me to do. I hate talking about us, but hey, we did it. We're the greatest.

Wow.

My toaster loves me.

Be like Trump. I'm great. Everybody loves me.

Was the best. It was the best.

Everywhere I go, people tell me, you're the girl. You're the greatest. Everywhere I go, people just want to touch my beard. So today's topic, which is very fun and something that I. I've ran into many times, and I'm sure you have two G, man, is determining the difference between a great idea or a great business, which a lot of people have ideas, but will it translate into a business, and profitability. So we have some, some ideas for you, some questions to ask and some experience in that that we're going to share with you today. That should be pretty, pretty fun. What did you learn? We both went to parties last night, right?

Well, I kind of had a little barbecue at my house. So my kids, My daughter invited her friends, her friends came up, and then my son had his buddy come up from San Diego, and then my nephew came over, and so we had just kind of a little family thing at the house.

My friend Michael, better known as Big Mike, had a party in Malibu, which is the world away from here. Like, literally, you need a helicopter. It took forever to get there and forever to get out, but it was. It was a fun party. His parties just keep getting, getting better.

I know, man. The last one I went to just was kind of over the top. I can't even imagine. Malibu would be nuts.

Yeah, he rents this big house there on the beach. It's kind of like celebrity row right there.

I don't know.

He had to have. I wouldn't even guess how many people are at the party, but it was a lot. It was. It was fun.

I will say this. I took my daughter to Nobu for her 21st birthday. She's like, that was her thing. She wanted to go there and have a drink. Malibu in Malibu? Because she's seen it on the Kardashians or something. And my wife was talking about, oh, maybe we could get an apartment out here. And we drove out there and back, and I was like, never. Not kidding. There's no.

You live in Malibu. I don't think you're coming out. Like, you got to be able to Just stay there.

I'm like, I'm not driving into Los Angeles every day from Malibu. No matter how nice it is, it would just be a nightmare. There's just no way. Beautiful place, but not a commute destination, you know, Not a place you can live and commute from.

Yeah, I know. Our offices would have to be there if we were gonna live there.

You're not coming out or you need a helicopter. You get a helicopter. You solve that problem.

No, but helicopters aren't that safe.

Yeah.

Of all the things, like. I don't know. That's long. My list of things I want to have.

There's a video on Facebook I just saw yesterday, a bunch of helicopter crashes. Yeah.

There's no. There's no one. Yeah, there's no easy way when that goes wrong to land those things.

Yeah.

They're dropping out of the sky and usually twisting and spin. It never looks pretty.

Yeah. It was one coming in for, like, a really soft landing, and you could tell it was windy. So he's trying to be careful. And then this gust of wind just came and flipped the thing over. The tail section flew off, and rotors went everywhere. And, like, I was like, okay, yeah, maybe. Maybe no. On the helicopter ride.

Yeah, no way. Okay. So if. If you're starting a business now and this. This happens to me sometimes, somebody mostly wanting an investment, Right. So they'll come and they'll say, hey, I got this business idea. You're gonna want to be a part of it. And then they proceed to tell you the business idea. And usually by the end of their presentation, you kind of have a pretty idea whether they're gonna make it or not. And 99% of the time, it's no. Right.

Because it's. It's tough. So I think. And that. That's one of the ones on the list that I made when I. When I was thinking about this and coming.

But I think 99% of the time, it never even sees the light of day.

Yeah.

Like, it doesn't even achieve liftoff, you know?

So the stats are staggering. Just to give everybody a little bit of perspective on. On what it's. What it's like. So one stat I thought that was really interesting is on this study, since 2008, there was about 400, 6,000.

New businesses coming in and 400 and basically 1,000 almost closures of businesses. So it's almost that even how many new businesses are starting to. How many are going out of business? Right.

One up and one down.

So is it more? 36% of businesses survive two years. Just crazy, right?

Yeah, that's crazy. Only 36%, man.

Yeah. And those, you know, all those stats kind of keep going that way, but they all kind of say the same thing, that it's. It's not a joke. Like.

Mm.

So the first one that I have, that I have on here, to ask yourself if you're. If you think your business is a great idea. The first thing that I would ask myself is, what is my goal? Because a lot of times people go into business because they're like, oh, well, I got my mom's famous cookie recipe, and everybody's gonna love it. And you're. You're like, okay, well, maybe. Maybe they're going to love it. But what's the goal here? Because you. If you establish what the goal is right up front and you have a clear idea, then it makes your decisions and your mindset and everything after that help. You know, it supports you, and everything has clarity. And I think it's something like 80% of people out there working in the business world don't have a clear goal. They don't. And so they're just kind of going around rudderless. So the first part, although it might seem goofy, is, what's your goal for this business? Is it to make money? Because a lot of times I talk to entrepreneurs, and at no point have they thought about how to make money. They're in love with this idea. But, like, are you willing to do this business for free? Like, is it a charity?

Right.

Or are you here to make money? And then if you are here to make money, let's be specific. Do you want to make a million a year? Do you want to make 50,000 a year? Like, are you happy with renting your surfboards in Jamaica on the beach with your little rental place, and making 30,000 a year? But you're living in paradise and you're happy, Right. Or do you, you know, do you want to be the next Steve Jobs and rule the world? But you have to be very clear up front, like, what. What is it that I want to do? Do I want to make money, or do I just want to get by? Because the thing that we see more than anything is people basically just create a job for themselves. Yeah, they're entrepreneurs that just created a harder job that they don't to do. And so there's some things you can do to kind of hedge that. That we're going to talk about.

Sure.

But from day one, you should be thinking about the money, about making the money, because it's hard, you know, it's not a joke.

Funny. I read a quote the other day. It said, the entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs, One of the only people that will give up working 40 hours so that they can work 80.

It's so true, it's hilarious. And you can tell that look on their face. They're just like, yeah, I love my mom's cookies, but oh my God. Yeah, I'm up making the cookies all night and then I'm out selling them all day. Right.

We just talked to a business owner not that long ago. It was the same exact thing. They were just like.

We had four.

Right.

Is that the one you're referring to? Yeah, four locations.

Yep. And they're working non stop round the clock, and they're just not making any money and trying to buy a ticket to come out to California so that we could help him. Seem like it was so far away they couldn't, they couldn't do it. And I told him, I said, what we need to start thinking about is you coming and visiting us in a private jet. That's what we gotta start thinking about. Like, get that mindset. Because you got four. They had five locations, really. They have four of a similar business and then one offshoot of that. And it was actually kind of genius the way they had it set up. But they just weren't making any money at it and they couldn't figure out how to get it to scale and grow and make money. It's, you know, they're just too far in the business to be able to work on it, you know?

Yeah. And the truth is they, I mean, looking at their numbers because we, we were doing a financial analysis for them, we could fix our profitability in just a second. Like there's two, two things you could do and then be profitable. And it's not that hard.

Yeah.

Once, you know, once you understand it. But they're just not thinking that way.

Right.

What happens? I think after a while, and I've been there before, like I understand it, you start playing not to lose instead of playing to win. And so it's better to have that conversation with your self upfront and understand, like, hey, do I want to make a million dollars a year or do I just want to do this? Do I just want everybody to try? My mom's cookie.

Right.

Is that winning? Then that's okay too. But let's, let's be clear about it because at some point you're gonna want to, you know, you're gonna want to reap some rewards for all your Hard work.

Right.

Let's decide now what that looks like.

Before you get so far in that you just can't see the light of day. You know, at some point you're just buried and then. And then that's what, you know, part of that 70% of businesses that fail, you know, is it. They're just. They just get buried and they can't find a way out and then they just shut up, close down shop and go do something else.

Yeah, we were. I actually interviewed a producer from Shark Tank and he said one of the hardest parts of Shark Tank is getting the businesses to come up with their numbers because they don't know what their numbers are. They're not watching profitability. They're barely surviving. And I think that it serves you very well to have a disciplined approach to your profitability and finances and bookkeeping and all that up front.

Yeah.

Because there's. There'll be a point you want to borrow money, there'll be a point you want investors, there'll be a point you want to pat yourself on the back because you made a ton of money. Whatever it is, you want to have a very clear perspective of that. And that maybe is a topic for a show later on on how to do that, because you can outsource that stuff. It's pretty easy.

Right.

But it's great to look every month and see if you want or lost and know.

To know what the. Know how it all breaks down. So, yeah, if you've got an idea and you're going to go out and execute a business and you're, you know, we actually have a friend that sells a product and he. I was talking to him the other day and I was asking him, like, which one of the things that he sells is the most profitable? Like what's his margins and which one's the most profitable. He didn't have any idea.

Which friend is this? He can't be our friend anymore. Yeah, our ex friend.

He's our old.

Our good old friend that now is dead to us.

I don't want to out him on.

The show when you're teasing the audience more. There's. There's a bigger audience in them. There is him without him.

Come on. But I mean, you know, make fun of him.

What's his first name?

It's Homer.

Oh, yeah. No, I've had that conversation with him before. He doesn't. But see, that's the thing. Like so on here I had, like, is. Is your goal monetary? Like, do you want to make money? Is visionary. Like, you Just have a vision that everybody eats the cookie. Like, so Homer's thing is he just wants everybody to have beard oil.

Yeah.

I don't think he cares that much about the margins. He figures he's making money, but, yeah, he's not that worried about it.

He buys the raw supplies and sells the stuff off, and at the end of the day, he's got more money in the bank than what he started with. And he's like, I'm good.

Yeah, I'm fine.

I was like, okay. Because I was like, which scent? Because he was asking me which scent I like better, because he gave me four or five of them. And I told him, I don't know. I think I like the original the best. And then I said, well, which one's the best seller? Which one makes the most money? Which one's the most difficult? I just started, you know, I was just making conversation, and he didn't have any of that. Those stats, which would be interesting because you'd want to ramp up production on the one that, you know, that seems to sell the best. But, I mean, I'm getting off on a tangent. You're right. That's probably another episode.

No, but it's very. It's very. It's very true. So then with that, like, what is your goal? Like, your goal then is going to tell you a couple things. Like, you want this to be scalable from the very beginning. Like, if you're opening, you know, cookie shops or a coffee shop or something, and you have a goal of making so much money, you kind of got to understand that whatever you're doing and the systems you're putting in place from the very beginning, think of it like you're going to have more than one location. So document all that, like, keep track of it. So you have a scalable system going forward, you want to think of it as scalable. If you have big goals, if it's just one location and you don't, then you don't want to think of it as scalable, and that's okay. But be honest about it up front, because I think a lot of times people go into something wanting to get rich but not having a specific idea of how rich they want to get. You know, and everybody that we hang out with that successful, they know the number.

Yep.

And then they hit that number and they come up with a new number.

Right? Yep, exactly.

The next one. And I. I mean, I think that Gary Halbert is the best example of how to describe this one. Right. So. But Gary Halbert has A funny chapter in a book called Boring Letters. Baron. Baron Letters.

Boron.

Boron Letters, which is letters from jail to his son, which is hilarious in itself. So Gary Halbert, greatest copywriter of all time, mentor to all the big copywriters. Dan Kennedy, J. Abraham. Who else?

Jeff Walker, Frank Kern.

Frank, yeah, but he was. He's kind of the godfather of copywriting and sales letters. And in there he's talking about a hamburger. In that book he's talking about a hamburger stand. And he says in some of his classes he would ask like, okay, we're gonna open competing hamburger stands, and I'll give you any advantage you want. What do you want? And a lot of people would say, oh, I want the best meat. I want a special cut of meat for my burgers. Some people want a special beer bun. Some people would say, I want this location. And he would say, okay, well, you can have all of that. Just give me the one thing I want. And they're like, well, what is it that you want? He says, I want a hungry crowd. And so a lot of times, I mean, literally somebody will go hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt, they'll open a location, they'll open a business to crickets.

Yeah.

It happens all the time.

Yeah, exactly.

And those are the businesses that usually like, oh, they don't last even 90 days usually. Yeah, but I've, I've seen it, especially downtown LA here. You'll see like a new restaurant pops up and it's gone. A new idea for a juice thing or whatever, and it's gone.

Right.

A yoga thing and it's gone. And so you gotta test, you gotta know that there's a demand and you want to craft your product for the demand, not for what you love. So the people that are voting with their money, like there's trillions of dollars changing hands every day. You want more people giving you their money than, than you want to love your product?

Yeah.

And so a lot of times people are in love with their product and in love with the way they like it, but it isn't what everybody else is buying.

Right.

So there isn't a demand for it. And so really understanding your demand. So I remember.

Years ago.

This little, these little coffee pop ups for Handsome Coffee. Now, Handsome got bought out not that long ago, but you remember Handsome Coffee, right?

Blue Bottle bought it, I think.

So whenever there was like a cool event, like there was an art opening at the Geffen, they were there with a little kiosk and they were selling bags of beans and making coffee. Right there, they had, like, almost like a little coffee cart. And so they were testing way before they opened up that. That big warehouse that they had downtown, which ended up, it was an amazing coffee shop. And they did great business from day one, but they were out testing. They were at every little event for free just outside, you know, trying to get a following. They already had people buying it. You know, they were selling beans. They had, I think, like, 80 wholesale accounts before they even opened their doors.

Wow.

And so you can test anything. Like, think about Wolf's mouth.

Yeah.

He great chef. Didn't have the money to open a restaurant and didn't even want that experience. So he just started having dinners in his loft where you could reserve and come and he would serve you dinner. And it was kind of an experience, but he was using his own loft to do it. Right. So you can test without spending hundreds of thousands of dollars and going through all the time it takes to open a bricks and mortar and. And then to find that it isn't a, you know, message to market match.

Right.

So testing anything can be tested.

I think the wolf's mouth thing is interesting, too, because he, like, I. I think on the surface, that idea seems terrible. Like, it seems like a terrible idea. And I think it also seems like, who's going to buy that? You know, but he, He. He's like, no, he knew what he was going to do, and he also knew that there was a hole in the market for that. I mean, he just. He could see it. He could see the hole. And so he went in and did it, and it took off, and he's, you know, he's doing well, making money. But the other side of it, too, is he is not in a position that's not going to scale. He doesn't want to grow that thing. He knows exactly what he wants to do. To go back to your first point of, like, having a goal and being very clear about what you want to accomplish. His goal is not to have. He doesn't want to be Wolfgang Puck. Right. He doesn't want to be, you know, Gordon Ramsey. He wants to do what he does. He just loves that environment, and that's it.

Control is more important to him. Yeah, control.

But he's clear and he's successful at it because I think he has clarity of vision. He knows what he wants to do is people know what. What they're there for. And so the idea actually kicked off and he, you know, he does a good business.

Yeah.

And.

And if you're not familiar with them, you should look him up. But amazing story. There's a, there's a little documentary about him on the New Yorker, I think, website, but it's Wolf's mouth. And he basically just started serving dinner in his loft for I think 12 people now. Maybe it was 24, I think when we went. Right. And he has a crew. It's, it is what's on the menu. They'll ask you beforehand if you're vegetarian. And that's the only difference there is.

Yep.

And then you're, you're getting what they serve. And so they're, they're getting the freshest stuff that's inspiring them. And they're creating like, I don't know, is it like 12 courses?

Something like that. And it's all unbelievable food. Like it's not even food.

Unbelievable.

It's crazy.

But he doesn't have a restaurant. He's test, you know, he could open one now, right?

Sure. Oh, absolutely.

Same thing with Egg Slut. That. A food truck. He tested the idea on a food truck. That food truck that those guys had for the longest time, like there were times it wouldn't start right. It wasn't. They didn't go out and buy a brand new food truck. They were just barely getting by. But they were testing the idea of Egg Slut. Now they're opening up everywhere and he's growing like crazy. But he tested it. And so I think the real thing to understand beforehand is test it. You can test things online with 500 bucks. You can drive traffic to a web page and see if it converts. Just put your idea up there. I mean, that's how Tim Ferriss came up with his name. For Four Hour Workweek, he tested a bunch of different names and the one that pulled the best is the one he used. And people buy that book just by reading the title, right?

Yeah.

I mean they don't have to know anything else but that it's going to teach them how to have a four hour work week. Right.

That's what I want.

Very, it's very clear. The vision is very clear.

At Egg Slut in Venice. There's a line around the building for that thing. As long as the doors are open.

Oh, every one of them. As soon as they open, there's a line. And the food is unbelievable. He does a great job. Yeah, his, his attention to detail and precision is unbelievable.

And crazy scalable business. Crazy scalable, crazy.

He's gonna franchise. He can do anything. So with that, we will be right back.

Welcome back, everybody. So what we talked about so Far when we're talking about determining the difference between a great idea and a great business, we talked about, what is your goal? Do you want to make money, or do you just want to have a business and create a job for yourself and spread your mom's famous cookies everywhere or whatever it is that your idea is? And going into it, understanding how much money you want to make, having a clear goal will change the way you do things.

You'll.

You'll shoot higher most of the time, and you will pay attention to the finances more, which is very important. And the second one we had is have a hungry crowd. Is there a demand for it? Test it. We talked about different companies that tested it. Then the next one that I have, and I know you like this one, is how committed are you?

Because a lot of times I think. People think, oh, I just got my little business idea. I'm gonna open my little shop, and then people are gonna come. But it's war. Like, it's war. Are you gonna burn your ships? Like, are you? I remember at one point, I made the conscious decision that I would sleep on my mom's couch again as a grown man before I would go work for somebody else. And once I did that, it changed the way I do things. Like, I'm not gonna work for anybody else. I'm a terrible employee. People just, you know, anybody ever worked for things smaller. Smaller than me, and they just get in my way. And so I'm not. I'm not a good employee. So I'll burn my ships. That's it.

Sleeping on your mother's couch is a good example of burning your ships?

No, but I had to tell myself that, you know, because what you do is you go through the list and. And I think this is a healthy exercise is Instead of worrying about it, let's just talk about the worst case scenario. So for me, where I ended up with the worst case scenario is if I couldn't make money and things didn't work, I could go sleep on my mom's couch. And I would rather have a laptop and wi Fi and sleep on my mom's couch than be an employee for somebody else. So once you kind of have worked through that in your head, everything's pretty clear now. You're gonna get to work. You don't want to sleep on your mom's couch. But worst case scenario, if that's what happened, that's what happened.

Yeah. You're still alive, you're still healthy, you're still okay. You still got another shot at it.

I Mean, I could sleep on Lucas's couch, right? Only doesn't have to be my mom. Can you imagine moving back in with my. Well, with your mom or no. Yeah, that'd be nuts.

No, I could not imagine.

Every time I go hang out with my mom, she's like, where are you going? What are you doing? What?

Yeah. Even my mother in law, who I love to death, I would not, I could not. She just comes and stays for a week. And again, I love her, but I just, I. I can't.

I love the, the hanging contradiction. I love her, but whenever something is followed with a quick but, it means I'm saying the right thing. But the truth is she drives me flipping crazy.

She drives me flipping crazy. Sometimes.

It'S like two of your wife, but one older and doesn't care about you as much.

Man, I saw. I tell my wife, I say, kat, you better be watching this because that will. You will turn into that if you're not careful.

So please, Maddie and Blake going to get that.

Yeah, please don't do that.

They probably get that already.

It's the guilt. It's the. Yeah, it's the questions about everything. It's the micromanagement. Like, it's the whole thing. Super nice lady, though.

Does. Does. Does the wife know that your handsome son called in sick?

Yeah, she does know. She does know. Speaking about not speaking about burning your bridges and being committed.

So. Yeah.

Yeah, chip off the old block there. Called in sick today.

That's a rough one.

I'm steering clear, man. I'm telling you. I'm trying to steer clear.

Genetics thing.

I just.

Gary's son called in six day. Evidently had too much to drink last night, which is not a reason to call him sick. Come in here and let's play Metallica really loud. That's what I wanted to do. Drink lots of Master of Puppets all day. Master, Master. Make him sit right there next to the speaker. I. Yeah, man, I'm climbing like clang some pans.

I think we've all been there, you know, like you, you know, maybe you've just stayed out too late. You did something. But you got to come in and you, you know, you grab a Red Bull and a bottle of Gatorade and, you know, you sweat it out.

Maybe don't. Maybe don't drink midweek.

Yeah, that's the other thing too.

When you're that young. Friday and Saturdays are for drinking.

Yeah.

But not midweek.

Yeah. Fourth of July, I think. Got a little carried away and. Yeah. So not very committed, unfortunately.

So he's not burning his ships. He's not committed. But if you want to start a business, no matter how good the idea is, there's going to come a time where you're going to run out of money, you're going to face a problem, you're going to get sued. Something's going to happen. And are you committed to push through that? Because even the greatest idea that sells itself and people are lining up.

Mm.

You're gonna run into something, right? Yeah, it's gonna happen for sure.

This also brings up another topic, too, that we could probably talk about later, maybe in another episode, because it'll take too long, but why you don't work with family.

Oh, that's the next. That's the next one.

That's probably. That's gonna be a timely topic.

Working with family is great.

We got some. I don't like it at all, so I'm against it. We. We can.

We'll debate it.

Yeah, but I'm against your.

You're welcome to your opinion.

And I've got several different examples, so I've done it a bunch of times because I'm a glutton for punishment. You know me, I like to go out and get hurt as much as I possibly can. So I keep doing it over and over again.

Okay, you read. Do you want to say anything else on committed burning your ships?

I think you're right. I mean, I think a lot of people, you know, I can't tell you, man, how many. How many conversations I've had in a bar where somebody comes up, like a, you know, friend of mine or somebody I've met, and they're like, yeah, I've got this great idea. I think this would be. And in some cases, they're really, really good. I got a friend of mine a few years ago, wanted to franchise food trucks before anybody was really doing that, you know, it. Food truck thing was kind of just starting to take off, and they had the food truck corrals everywhere. And so he was like, yeah, we should find a really good one. We should partner with the guy and try to create a scalable model for him and franchise it. Brilliant. Nothing ever happened.