I Tried Starting a Business in the Middle of Nowhere

I cannot come home until I've doubled my money. Every no is closer to a yes. When in doubt, sell water. All it takes is one yes. Oh, got money. We found some good people. I owe my time. I owe my paycheck. And it's worth it. Look at that, 30 bucks. This just feels good. If you don't end up selling these, what's going to happen with them?

I'll keep them here til the car runs over.

We don't want that to happen.

Their mama got hit when they was about, oh, no, three weeks old.

What are we going to do about those puppies? Well, I've got a creative solution to that. I have a map of Texas and a dart. Wherever this dart lands, I'm starting a business. I'm kind of secretly hoping that the dart lands somewhere up here because I don't want to drive six hours today. So, shall we? All right, we got Houston down on the bottom right. San Antonio bottom left. Austin in the middle. Dallas, Fort Worth up top. Oh, okay. Where are we? Flats, Texas. Let me look this up on Google. Usually when you look up a city, there's going to be like an outline of a city. You go to Flats and you see an intersection. So the closest city is Emory. Let's look up Emory, Texas. 1390 people in Emory. All right, well, we're going to Flats. We're going to Emory. We're going to start a business in the middle of nowhere today. All right, let's talk about the rules of the game today. Three rules. Number one, I can't use my audience or influence to grow or start this business. Number two, I can't drive all the way out in the middle of nowhere just to start an Internet business. Now can I use the Internet for research, for looking at Facebook Marketplace in the Facebook Marketplace, absolutely. But I can't just drive out all the way out there and start an Internet business. Number three, and this is the most important, I cannot come home until I've doubled my money. I cannot see my kids, my wife, my family. So, yes, that means I'm gonna have to stay overnight if I don't double my money. And it's also a double edged sword. If I find a couch on Facebook Marketplace that's worth $400 and I buy it for $200, I've got to sell it. I cannot come home until I sell it for $400. But if I use much or grow this business, 10, 20, $50, then I have to double much less. But I have less to work with. So I'm probably going to be looking at more service industries, more service businesses. I don't know what I'm going to do yet, but we're going to talk to some locals, see if they have any good ideas. If not, then I'm going to have to kind of start this subscribe. All right, 20 bucks. That's a wrap. All right. We are eight minutes out from Flats, Texas. It's pretty flat out here. I can't remember the last time I paid cash for gas pump two, I think. Anything else? That's it. All right. 3.638 gallons. It's gotta do it today. The thing is, even though we're in the middle of nowhere, every mile or two we see homes, and every single one of these homes needs something done. I guarantee you they're gonna be more willing to pay me to do it if I sell them my story. Because people buy the why, they're not necessarily buying the what. So if my why is I want to see if I can start a business in Flats, Texas thing, I'm curious. I like a good challenge. That's a story. That's a better story than I charge $100 to pressure wash your driveway. There's no story there. That's just. I'm just stating facts. All right. If anyone knows what business to start in Flats, Texas, it is going to be the post office of Point, Texas. I don't know if they just love geometry here in Texas, but we got points. We got Flats, rhombus, triangle. I don't know. How's it going?

Good.

How are y'? All? Good. This is very random, but I'm wondering. I want to start a business in Flats, Texas today. Okay. What would you start if you or me? I'm not really for sure. I mean, Flats is pretty small, right? Yeah, I mean, I would start.

I'd probably start, like, an online business.

What if I were to start a business that just sold a service, like gutter cleaning or something?

Maybe a new restaurant or something like that?

Have you heard anything or do you have any friends that are business owners?

And I never really pay attention to that kind of stuff.

Okay, cool. We're just looking for ideas. Okay. All right. Thanks, man. Thank you. Yep. We are not starting a restaurant today. This is Flats. This is Flats, Texas. It's this one intersection. I see a few cars. I think we gotta go start knocking doors. Maybe the camera will help dissuade people from shooting me. Oh, look at the sign. This is our first sign. I'd turn back if I were you. And then it says, warning there's trespassing. I'm gonna do it for the. I don't know if anyone's here. Should we try this mobile home? That second knock was either a good choice or a bad choice. I got nothing. Let's go try that house. All right. Hey. Hey, guys. Hey. Hey. Oh, there's some cute puppies. Cute puppies. Oh, my gosh. How's it going? Oh, good. Sorry to bother. I'm Chris. Okay, this is very random. You're gonna have to hear me out for a sec. I'm not. I. I threw a dart at a map of Texas this morning. And I told myself, wherever it lands, I'm gonna start a business. And it landed on Flats.

Lots of luck, Chuck.

Are you the population of Flats? One person.

Here I am a person in Flats.

How many?

My name is Danny Raven. I was born in Flats.

I'm Chris Kerner.

I'm Rascal Flats. I am the Rascal in Flats, Texas.

Okay. I like it. So if you were me, wanting to start a business in Flats, what would you start?

You have to have some kind of idea or whatever.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Because you can't walk out to something.

Flip a coin and walk off something like home service. Like window washing or pressure washing, something like that.

I see. That'd be a tough line. You do better in lawn care.

Lawn care. Okay.

Cause not a lot of people around here make a pretty good living in lawn care. Around.

What kind of puppies you got here?

Oh, man, them are pit bull and lab. I need to get rid of all of them but one. Their mama got hit when they was about. Oh, no. Three weeks old, man. And I've raised them, so I've got attached to them.

You don't want to sell them if someone was buying?

I would sell them if somebody walked up here and poke money in my hand. Yeah, but they're a mixed breed like that.

I just got a business idea. How about that?

What's that?

What if I take pictures and videos of them, list them online, find you a buyer, and we split the money?

Sounds great to me. Come here, Robert.

Come on. Oh, man. Adorable. Do you ever list stuff on Facebook? Marketplace?

I don't mess with none of that. I don't know how to turn a computer on my smartphone is so much smarter than me. It's unreal.

So if you don't end up selling these, what's gonna happen with them?

I'll keep them here til the car runs over. Somebody shoot me.

We don't want that to happen.

Hooked me up electric fans, but they run through it and yelp when they get through it.

Okay, we're gonna be back later this afternoon. Is that okay?

That's great with me, man.

Okay, Danny, I'll see you later today.

Okay, y' all have a great day.

Thank you.

Nice to meet you guys.

Likewise. Alright, so Facebook does not allow any rehoming, selling, giving away of pets. Free, paid or otherwise. Not Facebook, groups or marketplace. So we still gotta do something with these poor dogs. So I'm going to find some animal rescue places, some dog shelters, give them a call and see if they can take them. Like maybe worst case, we just put them in the back of my minivan here and go drop them off. These videos take a lot of effort, time and money to make and if you find any value in them whatsoever, it would mean the world to me if you would just hit subscribe and maybe even share with a friend. Oh, he's got a no soliciting sign. But we're not soliciting. Well, we are definitely soliciting, so. Hey, the first sign that we saw today said, I will shoot you, basically, so this is an upgrade. I really feel like someone's home. I don't want to waste this. Hey. Hi. I have a very random question. I'm wondering what business should I start in Flats or in Emory, Texas? I came from Dallas. I literally threw a dart at a map this morning and it landed on Flats. I never heard of Flats. And I'm just asking people what I should start here.

I'm not sure, Maybe another food place.

That's what everyone says. There's no food here.

I mean, there's not really good coffee shops either. I mean, they're okay. They're not like great.

Well, I don't even drink coffee, so that wouldn't be a good choice. Is there anything you guys need done around the yard or anything? Any bushes planted or trees planted?

I don't think so.

Alright, well, thank you for your time. Sorry to bother you. The people I just spoke to, they don't have any landscaping, Any trees. Their next door neighbors here, they have about six or seven fruit trees. They've got a couple oak trees, They've got beautiful landscaping. And so it'd be really easy to say, oh, I need to go to these guys because they don't have landscaping yet. They don't have landscaping because they don't value it. The customer that already has landscaping is my customer. Because they're probably already thinking, I could really use some hedges out front or I might need to Put some landscaping edging around my. My trees so the weeds don't grow in on it. Hey. Yes, ma'. Am. I'm just wondering if you need any work done around the yard or anything. No. Gutters cleaned, windows washed? No. No. Okay. Well, it looks like you take good care of your yard, so you must find enjoyment in it. I do. Okay. Do you know of any. Anyone else that might need anything done in the yard? Sorry, I don't. No worries. Thank you so much. Yep. I'm back on a mission. All right, Chad, GPT. I am in the middle of rural Texas and there are five mixed breed pit bull puppies that I need to safely rehome. I need some creative solutions for these local.

Word of mo, chat up neighbors.

Hope that helps. What if I only have like 5 hours to work with?

In 5 hours, just swing by any busy local store or cafe and ask around. Sometimes a quick chat finds a home faster than you think.

I got an idea. So instead of leading with what business should I start? I'm gonna lead with the puppies. That's my icebreaker. Hey, how's it going? Do you speak English? The Internet is. No working. Okay. Lo siento. That is the most awkward thing ever. If you had any assumption that I was like some door to door sales whiz, I'm not. I'm not good at selling. I'm an introvert. I don't like selling. So if I can do this, anyone can do this. But to be determined if I can even do this. We want to go where the people are. Okay? That is a requisite to a transaction. There needs to be two people. Takes two. Two to transact and tango. So we're going to go yonder down this road right here towards emory, Texas. There's 1400 people here, which is about 1400 times as many as are in flats. And if we can't make it work in Emory, then we're going to have to go a city bigger because we're not quitting. So let's go to Emory. I go. We are in Emory, Texas right now, population 1400. And we're trying to do several different things. We're trying to make some money. We're trying to find out what to do with these five puppies that we don't want to die. So we're going to come into this puppy grooming place and see if they have any ideas. And we're also gonna see if they'll buy anything from us. Dang it. Oh, these poor puppies. All right, I'm Feeling a little dejected. We don't have any revenue. It's 2:53 in the afternoon. I need to call in some reinforcements. So if you remember my friend Kyler from the appliance rental video, he's actually in Texas right now. Kyler, where are you at?

I am in the middle of nowhere.

Where are you at?

I'm also in the middle of nowhere. I need your help. I need to sell some services and or products. Can you come to Emory, Texas and help us out?

Where the fetch is? Emory, Texas.

That's what Google Maps is for. Alrighty.

I can. I can be there.

All right. Thanks, buddy. All right, we're meeting Kyler at this grocery store. He should be here any second. Then we're gonna go in here and try to find a way to make money. And I'm legitimately having anxiety about this because it's just awkward. What's up, man? What's up? Thanks for coming.

Of course. Ready to make some money?

Yeah. I'm gonna go ask this kind store manager if we can sell puppies outside of the store.

Okay.

Maybe we can wash his windows. Maybe we can pressure wash.

Sounds good.

Another thing we can do while we're here is be thinking of what we can buy and sell. Or we have $10.

The Ryan Trahan glitch of buy a 24 pack of water and resell it.

We have. We've talked about that. We could sell popcorn at the fair. Oh. Oh, I see someone. Here we go. Here we go. Excuse me. I have a question for you. We found a gentleman in town in Emory that has five puppies that he needs to give away or they're going to get hit by a car. Is there any way we could give those away in front of the store? Let me ask you a different question. Is there any like, window washing or anything that you guys need here that we might be able to do?

We think we're good.

All right. Thank you. All right, so the day's not going that badly. We're just broke. I can't go home and see my family. I can't buy an energy drink. I can't buy lunch. And five puppies are gonna die. It couldn't be worse, right? Okay. So the best way to make money is to sell things to people that have money. So I'm pulling up Zillow right here and I'm going to find the part of Emory, Texas. Texas, that has the most expensive homes. Where do you want to go? Do you want to go by the lake or do you want to go to this nicer neighborhood up here. Here's the thing. Sell it before you have it. They don't have a ladder. And they say, yes, you can do it. You have a ladder? No. Let me be right back. I'll go to Home Depot. I mean, honestly. Side note, can I borrow a couple hundred dollars for a ladder? Can you pay me up front? I will let you hold my iPhone as collateral. Another framework is find people that have homes for sale. They probably need stuff done right. This neighborhood has three homes for sale. Look at all. Look at all that crap in those guys. Look at that freaking stuff right there. All right, Kyler, get in there. Okay, we're gonna take a picture. Big cheesy grin. We're gonna post on Facebook Marketplace. Now, of course, Facebook Marketplace doesn't want you to post services, but if I do pressure wash, then they might think I'm selling a pressure washer. All right, it's in review. There it is. Now, you think we're just gonna sit around and wait? Wait for our phone to ding? No. No. Because we may say our prayers on our knees, but they're answered when we're on our feet. Write that down.

Alrighty.

Read that twice. Hey, what's up? How you doing?

All right.

Hey.

Echo.

It's okay. So is there anything you need done? Gutters clean, pressure washing, weed eated? Where I can earn 50 bucks?

Just had it done.

What about weed eating?

That's my job.

What about gutters clean? You don't want to break your back.

I'll get it, man. I got it.

Okay. Do you know anyone that wants any puppies by chance?

County's full of abandoned pets.

Do you know anyone in this neighborhood that might need something done?

No, man, I don't. We just kind of stick to ourselves.

Okay. I appreciate it. All right.

Take it easy.

Yep. All right. On we go. Hey. Hey, buddy. All it takes is one.

Yes, it might be, huh? Got three cars.

Hey, how's it going? So I know this is random. I'm filming a YouTube video right now, and we're entrepreneurs, and we are not going back to Dallas until we make 100 bucks. Is there anything you need done around? Firewood, chopped weed eated, gutters cleaned, Anything? This is another random question, but we found a gentleman with five puppies that he's trying to get rid of. Do you know of anyone that needs or wants a puppy? I free myself. I'm good. Do you know of, like, a shelter or anything? No, like, we don't have anything around here for that. I'm sure if you drive down the road, you'll see some dogs that are dead on side of the road, stuff.

Like that, just because they're.

Yeah, yeah. Thank you anyway, man. Appreciate it, guys.

Well, you gave us $100 to leave. No, I'm just. I'm just kidding. Have a good rest of your day.

You're like, I'm only kind of kidding. Hello. Hi. I have a question. It's very random. We drove from Dallas this morning. We're filming a YouTube video. We're entrepreneurs. I have four kids. And we promise ourselves we cannot go back home until we've made $100 doing some sort of a home service business. Do your gutters need cleaning by chance? Well, they probably do, but right now is not a good time for me to be able to pay you anything. Okay. I appreciate it. I hope you have a good day. Thank you.

Look, there's a stick.

Oh, there's sticks up in the gutters.

It's a numbers game, Chris.

I know it's a numbers game. It's all a numbers game.

We just got to knock a lot of doors.

All right, this woman is mowing her lawn, and I'm going to go offer to do it for her for 10 bucks. Got a question. I know this is very random, so I'm. I film YouTube videos. Oh, yeah. And I drove here from Dallas trying to see if I could be an entrepreneur in the middle of nowhere. Do you have any interest in letting me mow your lawn for, like, 20 bucks? Really? 20 bucks? Oh, you're the best. Promise I won't steal anything.

You do better in lawn care.

We got it. We did it, boys. We did it. 20 bucks. All right. I've never been more excited to mow a lawn in my life. All right, so you want me to get everything in here? Okay. What about a weed eater? I can do that. I will. Thank you. If this is my after mo interview, should call me post mo loan. Am I right? Am I right? So, first of all, this is like the hardest $20 I've ever earned and the sweetest $20 I've ever earned because I earned it. I own this. I owe my time. I own my paycheck, and it's worth it. So this will be the best mowing job I ever do. Judge me in the comments. I don't care, because I'm happy with it. Okay. The mo must go on. Thank you so much. All right.

There you go.

Okay. It should be there. All right, we are good. Wow. You made my day, Leah. Thank you so Much. You made my day. Because I was about to have to mow. Yes. You didn't look happy out here. So look at that. Thirty bucks. Thirty bucks for what? An hour's worth of work? You do that 40 hours a week. That's $60,000 a year working for yourself. This just feels good. I don't know what to say. Let's go check in on our puppy friend and give him an update. Hey, Danny. We're old pals now. Remember me? How you doing?

I'm doing pretty good.

Good. So I tried to sell them. Facebook won't let me sell dogs.

Okay.

But I'm gonna post about them on Instagram and see if I can get people to adopt them. Okay. How does that sound?

Good as anything.

Okay, well, we'll get these dogs off your hands.

All right.

Okay.

I've got a John Deere MT tractor.

Okay.

The last year they made MTS or M series tractor was 1952.

Wow. Are you trying to sell it?

Yeah, I'd like to get rid of it.

What do you think it's worth?

I'd take $500 for it.

Can I take pictures of it?

It's wrapped in trees. Right back over there.

All right, we'll go look at it and be out of your hair.

All right.

Thank you, Danny.

Have a great day.

Thank you. Got some bamboo. I see a gate. There we go. Look at you. Look at you looking at that washer. Barbed wire right there. I think I see it. There she is. In case you haven't me talk about it already, I do have a private community called TK Owners where me and about 500 other people are actively building and starting and growing businesses. So if you ever want to hang with people that are doing cool things like yourself, check out tkowners.com and we'd love to have you. What the. Dude, is that a smoker? Smoker. Hardly know her. This is like an authentic offset at Texas Smoker. This is where you put the wood. Always post oak. Oh, yeah. Needs new tires. Need to clean it up. Tail lights. This could literally sell after restoring it for $3,000 legitimately. Let's go ask him what he would sell us this for. Hey, look how cute we did. What about that smoker back there? That offset? Are you interested in selling that?

Oh, hell. What are you giving me for it?

Well, it's pretty rusted out, and it needs tires and brake lights and all that, but I'd do 400 bucks for it.

I mean, my money.

I need to come back with my truck. I've got your number.

Don't give me 400. You can come back in. Damn. Damn. You want me?

Okay, well, I got pictures of it, so I'll see what I can do with it. All right, thank you, Danny. The sunset. And we stopped by Danny's house to follow up about his puppies. We're gonna find some good homes for him. He was happy about that. And most importantly, we found an authentic Texas offset barbecue smoker. After fixing it up, it's probably worth 2, 3, or $4,000. And he said he'd let it go for 400. He said, and I quote, I don't even know how to turn the computer on. So the chances of him ever selling anything on the Internet are exactly zero. So if we could do that for him and take 10% or take anything over what he wants to get for the item, then it's a perfect win. Win. So we're going to go ahead and list all this stuff on Facebook, Marketplace, see what we can fetch for it, and then hopefully come back to Danny with some good news and some cash. Yeah, something like that. We're basically like Ryan Trahan, except no one's ever heard of us. I got a question for you guys. This sounds really shady, but it's not shady. We have five puppies that we need to place in a good home. Do you guys know of anyone?

I don't really need another one.

I already got a corgi. Do you guys know of anyone that would want them or anyone with.

I find somebody at the fair.

Honestly, what time does it start? Do a lot of people go to it if we don't want to spend any more than $20? We spent 10 on gas. We have $10 left. We have $1 poster board. $1 poster board, $1 sharpie, $5 water. 32 of them. If we sell all this water, we can make $32. We can more than double our money today. But we can't have ice. We can't have a cooler. The ice is $2.30 a bag. The coolers are $26, and the bags are 250. So no matter what, we're gonna have to sell lukewarm water, which means our positioning, our Riz, our sales acumen has to be off the charts. But I'm up for the challenge. Are you guys going to the fair tonight? How much would you say a bottle of water is in there? Three bucks. All right. Thank you. I feel like water's the old standby, right?

Everyone needs it.

When in doubt, sell water. Oh, my Gosh. Oh, my gosh. This thing does not draw. How about that? The great reset. All right, if we don't sell the rest of the water in this bag, I don't go home tonight. Okay. Is it cold? No. Does it have the illusion of cold? Because I happen to find this in the back of my wife's van. Cuz she uses this for her Costco runs. Yes. I'm not telling them it's cold, but they're assuming it's cold. And that's on them.

You think it's we can get in this way?

Of course we can. I have no idea. But if you say it with confidence.

You can just do things.

That's right.

Oh, here we go.

Here we go. Water.

Room temp.

Water.

Hey. Some people prefer room temp. Hey. And the closer we are to the fair, the more likely they are to think that we're with the fair.

The sign.

But assumptions. That one might give it away. That one might give it away. This reminds me of my very first business, selling used golf balls at the Logan River Golf Course in Logan, Utah. I found my most customers standing in the parking lot of the clubhouse. It's the first time I got cussed out. Any interest in supporting a starving YouTuber?

Maybe on the way out?

We just ate. Well, we'll be out here when you come back. Have a good time. Good evening. Okay, we'll be out here when you come back. Thank you. Have a fun time. Every no is closer to a yes. This could be a lesson in price anchoring. So I stand up there, three dollar water, like, oh, no, no, no. Then you go back here at $1 water. That's a bargain. We're colluding. It's like price fixing, but not.

They have to say yes.

They have to say law. It's three bucks in there. One dollar right here. Okay, understood.

My water's cleaner.

It's three bucks in there.$ One buck right here. Any water, one buck or three for three dollars. Or even ten. I'll do ten for ten. Three for three, whatever. What'd you say? Five for five. Three for three for three. You are the man. First sale of the night. You know what? I'm gonna throw in one for free. Just because you made me so happy. Thank you so much. Really appreciate it. Enjoy.

We did it.

Water's three bucks in there. I got 20 waters. I got 20 waters. You got change? Yeah, I got three. I got three bucks. You only have a 20. Do you think you could break it up over there? I'll give you three for Free if you do. I've got four kids at home, and I can't go home until I sell the rest of these. So you'll be supporting families. Okay. Thank you. I'll be right here. Well, it's getting late. The sun's almost down, the fair is almost closed, and we are $3 away from hitting our goal of doubling our money. If we do not do it, then we are staying the night in Emory, Texas, and I have yet to even see anything other than a motel. I really want to be home by bedtime. So we'll see. $3 away from hitting our goal. No. Okay. Thank you.

$1.

Water. You're not thirsty? That's fair. That's fair. I'm $4 for my goal. $4. I swear on my life. Oh, dude, you would be the. You would be the best. Oh, man. $3 for my goal. Thank you so much. Oh, man. Oh, that's okay. That's okay. Oh, you got money. We found some good people. You don't know how many times we been told no today. Here. Thank you. Take it all. You guys are the best. Thank you. All right. Hey, this video might get, like, a million views. For real? Yeah. Thanks, man.

Yes.

Let's go. We're rich. All right, we got 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, $8. Plus insert screenshot here. Venmo. $30. That's $38. We more than doubled our money. I can go home and see my kids tonight. So the highlight of my day today was leah giving me $30.50% tip for mowing her lawn. So we're going to say thanks to Leah by multiplying her. All right, let's do it. It's a good looking yard, man. This is my husband, Steven. Hey, Steven. We want to tell you we hit our goal. We went to Dollar General, bought some waters, went to the fair, held up a sign that said, the fair is a rip off. $1 waters. That worked. And we wanted to thank you for being kind. And so we got you money for a new weed eater. Oh, my. There you go. You don't have to do that. Oh, I know, I know. But we got rejected all day until we came to this house, and it really meant a lot. Well, you guys were very kind. I was having a very tired afternoon, and it looks fantastic. The world's full of good people. There you go. And you're one of them. Oh, thank you. Thank you, too. Thank you. So I've been thinking a lot today about what my takeaways are from this experience. Number one, it's really hard to do things in rural areas. It's really hard to sell things when there aren't people to sell to. That's one thought I had. The other thought I had is that it's really hard. It's hard out there to make money and to be an entrepreneur. Going door to door, that's one of the hardest things you can do. Getting rejected to your face. So I'm proud of what we did today. The headline of this, the title of this won't be, you know, I made $1,000 in three hours doing almost nothing. Passive income guaranteed. But the the headline of this will be entrepreneurship is alive and well. America is a great place to be an entrepreneur. People are good. I'm grateful for the people that said yes. It makes me want to say yes more when people knock on my door. And just to support small business and entrepreneurship, what are we going to do about those puppies? Well, I've got a creative solution to that. All right, follow up update. We were able to save the puppies. I joined a bunch of Facebook groups in Emory, Texas. I posted this. Some people were like, yeah, I'll take one. But they didn't really commit. They wouldn't respond to me in the messages. Finally, Arlie, this mom with seven kids who places puppies as a passion of hers, said, hey, I'll take them. She lives two hours away. She drove all the way there on a Saturday. When she got there, Danny actually said he wanted to keep three of the puppies, and so she was only able to take two of them. But hey, that's better than zero. You can't force Danny to give away all of his puppies. And as for the tractor and the smoker, well, stay tuned for part two. Share the Kerner office with a friend and we will see you next time.