How to Survive & Make Your Business Thrive | 36 Minutes of Expert Advice

All right everybody, welcome to the Evan Carmichael Show. We are talking about entrepreneurship. I'm excited to have everybody here on the line again. If you have a question with your business, if you're struggling, if you want to talk to me and get some advice on how to get your business to that next step, I am here to help you today. The number to call in is 1-888-454-3378 or Or you can also tweet me. I am @EvanCarmichael. Now to kick off the show, I have some really exciting news. This show is now official. A couple weeks ago, I went in and we did a pilot. Everybody really liked it. Thank you guys for listening, for calling in. And now this is our official time slot. So every second Thursday at 11:00 Eastern Standard, we're going to be talking entrepreneurship. The first thing I want to talk about is how a lot of entrepreneurs focus on the wrong thing at the start and they end up failing because of it. When you are first starting a business, the most important thing to think about is not the big picture, is not the million-dollar idea, is not landing that huge client. It's survival. Entrepreneurship is hard. It's one of the hardest things you're ever going to do in your life, and you need to get to the point where you have enough money coming in to support yourself and support your family and put food on the table, you don't have to go back and get a job working for somebody that you hate, doing work that's beneath you, and watching somebody else get rich off of your idea. So the very first thing you need to do is think about how can I make enough money to support myself. This isn't glamorous, okay? This is a lot of hard work. This is grinding it out. Every day getting up, maybe not even seeing many results coming in, but still every day doing something to get your business going forward. And you have to learn to land those early deals. Even if it's not working with ideal clients, you need to figure out ways to get to that point of survival, have a little bit of money coming in so that you don't have to go back and get that job. Right? You left that business, you left working for a company for a reason. Right? Maybe you want to be your own boss, maybe you want to live up to your own potential, maybe you want to set your own hours, maybe you want to create a different life for yourself and your family. Those are all really important reasons. And to be able to get to that point with your company, to make sure you don't fail, you have to be around. So Phase 1 think about survival. Just making enough money to come in however you do it so you can still operate another day. I know it's hard. I know it's not glamorous. I know it's not sexy. I remember with my first business, I wanted to work on those big deals. I spent half a summer working on this one huge deal that I was trying to make happen. And in the meantime though, we were still landing these little tiny deals. And those don't get you excited. You know, we were making $300 at a time. That wasn't anything to get all excited about and write home about. But it kept us going. It gave us a little bit of breathing room. And we weren't comfortable by any stretch. You know, if we had something we wanted to celebrate, we went to McDonald's. Having a Big Mac combo with, you know, large fries and a drink, that was celebration time for us. So we weren't out spending a lot of money. We were just basically surviving, working out of my partner's apartment building, going over there every day, keeping our expenses as low as possible just to give us the best chance at being able to stick around and still have an opportunity to grow our business because the last thing I wanted to do was have to go out and get a job when I saw so much opportunity in my business. I didn't want to have to go out and get a job and work for somebody else and see somebody else capitalize on my idea and make big money while I was out working for somebody else. I think that's the problem for a lot of entrepreneurs is we see so much opportunity opportunity ahead. We see so many things on the horizon, what we could be, and we focus only on that and not about the small steps that we need to take every day to get our business going a little bit forward. Most businesses fail because they run out of money and they run out of time. You have to make sure that you're still able to stick around, you're still there to allow for momentum to grow and build to be able to let your company get to that next step. Okay, so this is not common advice. Everybody says, you know, think about that million-dollar idea, push forward every day, get that, that business going. But I don't want you to forget about the idea. It's still important, really important. But you have to focus on getting past survival at the start. I want to take your calls. If you have a question, you can call in. It's 1-888-454-3378. Or you can tweet me @evancarmichael. We have our first caller on the line. Terry, how are you doing? Where are you from and how can I help?

Hey there, I'm in Dallas, Texas and I am in film and television production. That's my business. There is a lot more production work in Austin than there is in Dallas. The thing is, in Dallas I'm not making enough money to make an easy and comfortable and straightforward move to Austin. But I really want to get to Austin for my business. Some of my work I can do virtually, but the rest of it I need to be down there interfacing with people. How, on a very shoestring budget, can I move my business and myself to Austin?

Great question. Thanks for calling. Do you have a family as well that you have to worry about moving out there?

No, I mean, I need to be proximal because my mom My mom is 80 years old. I mean, she's still spry, but who knows? But I don't have any contact. I mean, I have some business contacts down there, but I don't have friends down there that can say, "Come and stay at my house for 10 days or a month." Right, and your mom is still in Dallas?

Correct. How's the distance? How far is it from Dallas to Austin?

4 hours, 200 miles. It's commutable. It's on the edge of commutable.

Okay. It does make sense. How did you start your business here? Did you bootstrap it up?

I did bootstrap my business up. I had some ups and downs with it. My original business was a little ahead of the curve with internet radio and video. Subsequently, we couldn't maintain advertisers because they didn't get the advertising. This was a couple of years ago. Then when that business closed, due to being underfinanced, I went to work for a corporation where I do production work for them. Actually, what I do is scheduling and coordination for production. So I do it either for myself or when people hire me, I do it for them.

Right now, is this your business full-time or are you still working for the company?

I'm still working for the company, but I'm still maintaining a trickle of my own business. Because I can use my skill set and become an artist manager or a talent agent in Austin And there is so much work down there, but I don't know how to get there. I don't know how to restart, you know, go in with a— because the other caveat is that I had a business closure from my internet radio and video network, and I can't get a commercial lease. But the smart thing to do when you're small is work out of your house, I guess.

Well, absolutely. And you bootstrapped your first business. Do you have to quit your job? To go and move to Austin to make this happen?

No, but I have to give them a real good case for keeping me on. Although it would be advantageous to have an Austin presence down there since they're a corporation and they can't monitor me. I don't know that they will.

Uh-huh.

Have you pitched that to them?

Well, I didn't know what— I don't know what I want to pitch to them. I don't know how I can make this work for them as well as give me the independence I need.

Well, what's the benefit of them going to Austin?

Way more business, way more potential business for their company.

Well, that's the start of your pitch. Do you think the CEO would buy that?

Well, you know, they're a 35-year corporation and when I talked to him about it he said, "Oh, there's no plans to go." They were considering Houston before Austin, believe it or not, which is unbelievable because Austin, you know, in 2 years, 1.5 years, $1.36 billion in production revenue went into 10 Central Texas counties.

All right, well, I hate spending money until I'm making money. It's not a great way to start a business, right? And it sounds like you're on the same page here. I would have a frank and honest talk with, with the CEO and let them know, hey, you're thinking of leaving, you know, you want to be able to get to Austin, you want to pursue your passion, and you see a huge opportunity here with the business, and lay out the case for them. And it's not only a good business opportunity for them, but they get to keep you on board. And in the meantime, you know, they're helping pay some of the bills for you while you can, on the part-time, start up your business and hopefully launch a huge successful enterprise.

Well, do I divide, you know, when I make the pitch to them on compensation, do I say this is a salary position or is it an hourly position or do they just pay the overhead for a small office or how?

I don't put the heart— don't put the cart before the horse here. You got to get them to believe in this mission before you go out and actually discuss compensation. If he's on board, if he says yes, this is a good idea, let's find a way to make it work, then you can find a way to make it work. If it's hourly or salary or whatever it is, you guys can figure it out. But first you have to make him believe that this is the path that is right for both you and for the company.

And so in my mind, I guess I need to define more clearly what I want to, what I can do for them as well as what I'm doing for my own company.

Yes. Make it worth their while to go out and do it.

You're great.

All right. Thanks for calling in. I hope you guys, uh, I'm, I'm on every 2 weeks again. So if you want to call in with an update, please let me know. I'd love to hear back from you. Thanks. I will. I want to talk about sales techniques. An entrepreneur friend of mine recently came to me and said, "What sales techniques can I use to land more business?" If you go online and you look up sales techniques, you'll find a million different names for things. A lot of them are interesting names. You'll find the puppy dog close. You'll find pour on the honey, negative reverse selling. There are a million different names out there. The most important sales technique that you need to have is passion and confidence in what you're selling. Reading from a script, memorizing a process is not going to help you unless you have strong passion in what you're selling. If you don't believe in what you're selling, there's no way the people that you're talking to are going to believe in you. Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart, used to say, "Passion is like a fever, and if you're excited about something, other people will catch it." like a fever and they'll be passionate and excited about it as well. So it's not so much about trying to memorize something. You don't want to be reading from a piece of paper. If somebody gives you a sales objection, you don't want to flip to page 32 in your manual and give them the standard answer. That's not going to help. All of the sales techniques in the world will not help you unless you really believe that what you have is going to help the person that you're talking to. It's so critical. If you don't believe in your product and let that shine through in everything you're saying, then there's no way you're going to close that sale. I want to get to the lines again. The number here is 1-888-454-3378, or tweet me. I'm @EvanCarmichael. We have Kristen on the line. Kristen, where are you from and how can I help?

Hi, I'm from New Jersey.

Welcome to the show. What's going on?

All right, so I, ever since I was little, I always loved going go-karting, and I felt like a lot of the places I went to didn't like meet my expectations. So I've always wanted to like open up my own. Okay, because I had like a lot of cool ideas. I just don't know how to fund it the right way because I definitely don't have enough money to do it myself.

Have you looked into how much it's going to cost?

I mean, kind of, not really. I mean, definitely I know it's going to cost a lot and you have to find the right land and everything.

What made you want to start this business? I don't know.

I've always, like, when I was younger, I always loved going to these places and I noticed there wasn't a lot around. Um, like from where I live currently, there's one that's like 45 minutes away and that's the closest one. And I don't know, I always, I, when I was younger, I always thought those were so much fun and I always wanted to open one up and be able to design my own one.

Okay. What do you do right now?

Um, I'm currently in school.

Okay. So is this something you want to do as you get out of school? It's your dream job?

Yeah.

Or yeah. Or in the future, like something like that. But I just wanted to like start thinking of how I can like fund it and all that. Stuff.

Have you ever had any business experience before?

No.

Brand new?

Yes.

Okay, it's exciting.

Yeah.

The first thing I would actually recommend doing is thinking about going to work at a go-kart place before actually jumping in and spending all this money and time to see if you like it.

Okay.

I don't know if you've ever done any internships as part of your, your schoolwork. Have you done that yet?

Yes, I have.

And did you enjoy that experience?

Yes, I did.

One of the great things about doing internships is you not only get experience about the industry, but you also get to figure out, is this thing for you or not?

Yeah.

Right? And often you find once you get into the business that, oh, this is crazy, this is not what I wanted at all, you know, I don't want to be in this kind of business. And it's great to figure that out. Before you actually dive deep into it. My advice would actually be to start by going to work at one of these closed go-kart places and see if you like the business. Try to get as close to the owner as possible. If he's an entrepreneur, probably super stressed out, has tons of things on the go, and if you step up and offer to do more than what you were just hired to do, You're going to learn a lot about the business. You're going to get skills and experience and connections that will help you and also figure out if you want to have this kind of business or not.

Okay.

Does that make sense?

No, yeah, it makes perfect sense.

Am I shooting down your dreams too much here?

No, no, it's fine.

It's a good start.

It's definitely a good start.

It is really tough. I know you came in thinking about how do I get this funded. It is really hard to start up a business without having any kind of experience in it. And a lot of people do, right? And you could, you could finance it. You could take out a big loan. You might get friends and family involved. You might get investors involved. But if you don't know what you're doing and the business ends up failing, you know, you're going to feel like you let a lot of people down.

Yeah.

And so I don't want that for you, right? I love the opportunity for you to be able to launch this business. And, you know, be your own boss. And if this is something you do like next year or somewhere down the line, really exciting opportunity. But I also want to make sure that it's done right and that you're happy with it and your friends and family are happy with it as well.

Yeah.

Do you see an opportunity anywhere in the— like, could you do something over the summer or something, you know, next year part-time during school to start learning about the go-kart business?

I mean, probably more likely at school. I haven't really looked. I mean, I've only looked around where they are by my house. I go to school in North Carolina, so I never really looked to see if there's any down there, but I could definitely do that.

Okay. As you learn about the business, you'll also maybe make some interesting connections that will help you grow it with your own company. Maybe even the owner of that business will say, hey, I really like the ambition of this employee, and if you say you want to open up your own place, place, they might help you fund it and give you resources as well. You never know what's going to happen.

Yeah. Yeah.

Until you get into it. But I think doing it yourself, getting in and actually experiencing a little bit will make you more confident and comfortable in eventually being able to launch your own company.

All right.

So some of the best entrepreneurs in the world, that's how they started. They started as interns. They learned the ropes. It doesn't have to be something that you spend 10 years working at a go-kart place. Yeah, but just enough to give you the experience, make some contacts, and then be able to help get you to that next step and decide if you want to launch it or not. Yeah. Did that help?

Yes, it helps a lot. Thank you so much.

All right. You know, I'm on every 2 weeks now, so if you want to call back and give me an update or you have further questions, just let me know.

All right. Thank you so much.

All right. No problem. Thanks for calling in.

All right.

Bye.

So for those of you who are like Kristen and who are thinking of starting the business, It is really important to have some kind of experience, right? To know what you're doing a little bit. And some of the best experience you can get is working for a company that's already doing what you want to do. You're basically getting paid to learn about your business instead of having to take a course or sign up somewhere or pay for consultants to help you out. You are getting paid to make mistakes. And learn about the business from somebody else. It's one of the best ways to get some experience, make some contacts, make your early mistakes, so that when you're ready to go launch your business, you have it all lined up. You're ready to go. Your chances of failure will go down dramatically because you already know what you're doing. You have easy ways to hit the ground running compared to if you just start up, you raise a bunch of money, and you have to give that all back and feel guilty that it didn't work out. We're going to talk about living a healthy lifestyle in this segment, and I have a special guest, Jamie from Almased, on us here today. Jamie, how are you today?

Good, wonderful.

It's great to have you on. I'm feeling a little bit under the weather, got a little bit of a sniffle and a cough, so I'm excited to be talking to you today. Can you tell us a little bit about, about your company, Almased, what it's all about?

So Almisaid is a company from Germany, and we have a branch here in America. And what we have is a great supplement. It's a supplement made with high protein, and that's made of soy, fermented soy. We also have yogurt and honey, probiotics and prebiotics. And the protein helps you stay full when you're using it. It's a powdered formula. You can mix with your favorite drinks, like, you know, if you like almond milk, water, even skim milk. So you can mix it up and it keeps you full long while helping you to burn fat and protect your muscle mass.

So this is something quick that entrepreneurs on the go can quickly grab, you know, take it to work, not have to worry about too much prep time. Is that right?

Exactly. It's a meal and you can take it with you. It's a great way to get all the nutrition you need without having to spend a ton of time doing it. You can use it for weight loss. I don't particularly am trying to lose weight, but I love to use it because it's such a quicker breakfast for me.

Can you use it for muscle building as well?

Yes, you can use it for muscle building. So if you, you know, do strength exercises You can use it within 2 hours after a workout and that will help protect your muscles and also build them as well.

Interesting. So I'm a pretty skinny guy. I don't want to lose weight, but I'm really busy and that could be helpful. And I'm trying to put some muscle on too. So that sounds really interesting. How did you get involved in the company?

So I started with the company about 3 years ago. I have a nutrition background. So that's kind of how I got invited in working with Almased to really help support the nutrition side of the product and also help people, guide them on using Almased with our diet plan. So we actually have a diet plan that people can use if they're losing weight or they're replacing their meals with it and eventually, you know, they're adding some of their own meals and it helps them with weight loss. But I also help those who are, you you know, looking for a different way of dieting, such as yourself, you know, if you're gaining weight, you're looking to, you know, gain some weight or muscle mass, I help them use the product, the product in a different way.

Great. Now, is this something that you would have multiple times a day or just for breakfast or how, what does your plan look like?

So it depends. When you're losing weight, we recommend to replace 2 of your meals with Omniset. So you would replace your breakfast and you would also replace your dinner. And you know, you might sound hesitant, but the thing is it keeps you full. You're not hungry. You're not hangry, you know, when your anger is fueled by hunger.

Yeah, absolutely.

So you're not hangry and you feel great because it gives you good energy. And you know what, you get 27 grams of protein and most people aren't even getting that in their meal. Replace a meal, your meals with Almis Med, and that's how people usually use it. Now if you're looking to build some muscle mass, you can just add it as a supplement to your diet. So if you're eating, you know, 3 times a day, your regular meal, you can have your Almis Med after your workout.

Got it. And this is now powder then that I would mix in with a drink? Is that the idea?

Yeah, so you can mix it into a drink. Some people even add it to a smoothie, but I say, hey, you know, watch for the sugars and the calories. So the lighter you make it, the better weight loss results you'll get. But of course, if you're building muscle mass, it's okay to add a little bit more calories to it.

That's great. Do you have any success stories you can share?

Oh yes, absolutely. So I have a coworker here. So I started here 3 years ago, and when I met her, you know, she would come into my office office. She would tell me, you know, what her goals are, what she's looking to do. And, you know, people talk about their diet all the time, and I didn't, you know, expect much of it. Of course, you know, I was always, you know, encouraging. 3 years later, she's down 70 pounds. So she actually used Omniset, and she stayed on it pretty, you know, rigidly. And it's just great to see that success right in front of me. I mean, I can literally see her, you know, from the other side of my office and it's just amazing. She looks like a whole different person and she's, you know, happier, she's healthier, she's in a greater mood. So that's one, you know, face-to-face success that I've seen. But I also talk to people all day. on the phone as their nutrition expert to guide them to use our product. And, um, I've, I've talked to so many people who've had great success in using Almiset and losing weight.

So she's a believer.

Yeah, totally. And I'm a believer too.

That's great.

Now a lot of people have a hard time sticking on these diet programs, right? Like they start it up, it's great for a month, and then whatever falls off the rails. How easy is it to stick to using your product?

Well, slip-ups do happen, and that's something you have to expect, you know, either with dieting or in life, that, you know, things might get in the way. Maybe it's a holiday, or, um, you know, you're at your office and somebody happens to bring in dessert or cookies. So slip-ups are going to happen. And, um, the thing about a diet that makes it What makes it easy to stick to is it actually makes you feel good and full, so you're not craving anything, so you're not giving in to those slips. You're able to pick yourself up from it very easily. What's great about Omniset is if you do happen to slip, it's just so easy to go back on. All it takes is just powder, water, and your favorite fruit. Flavors and you mix it all together and you can just dump back onto the diet.

What's your favorite flavor, out of curiosity?

So I really like almond milk with cinnamon and flaxseed. It gives it a nice flavor. Yeah, and a little bit of spice from the cinnamon.

Interesting, interesting. Well, that's great. And are there recipes that you recommend that people can download or they get with the package?

Yeah, absolutely. You can create your own recipes, but we also have recipes online at almasfed.com. That's A-L-M-A-S-F-E-D dot com, and you can download it from our website. Also comes with all the brochures, and it really guides you through the program. You can also call us directly at 1-877-256-2733, and we always have someone someone on the line that you can talk to, um, whether you're starting on the diet or you're in the middle of the diet and you, you really need some, you know, more advice to help you keep going.

That's great. Now you talked about if you're losing weight, you want to take it twice a day instead of your meals. What do you recommend for more of a maintenance program? What's the minimum, I guess, that you want to use Almased?

For the maintenance program, it would just be replacing one meal a day and keeping your other meals light and healthy and higher in protein. So you have your lean meats, you have your whole grains, and also a variety of vegetables. Around, you know, around 500 calories a meal, you have your shake. You can choose which meal to replace it with, which is so great. You know, if you have family, you want to eat dinner with your family, maybe you're on the go for breakfast, so you could just replace your breakfast meal and still enjoy your meals with your family.

Do you see families doing this together?

Yes, I, I absolutely do. I have people who have tried it themselves and encouraged, you know, their wife or husband to use it, and they go on a weight loss program all together, and that's great in itself. Then I also have parents who you know, go on this diet and also have maybe their teenager using it as a supplement, not exactly for weight loss, but more of a supportive nutrition while they're growing.

That's awesome. Okay, so we've got 2 minutes left. Can you just quickly tell us maybe a little bit about how much it costs and where we can find out more information?

So Almasec, you can once again find on our website, um, the information, almasec.com, A-L-M-A-S-E-C.com. M-A-S-E-E.com. It comes in a can. There's 10 servings in a can at $37.95. That's $37.95. So that's about $4 a meal. So it's hard to find a full nutritious meal at only $4 nowadays. So that's a great investment for your health and your diet. And you can also find our products at local stores, at your local health food stores and GNCs.

That's great. Thanks so much for joining us. I really appreciate the information. I'm going to check it out myself too.

Great. Thank you so much, Evan. And be sure to give us a call if you ever have any questions.

All right. I appreciate it.

All right. Bye-bye.

Bye. So, you know, I do have my regular workout routine. Protein and I do have a protein shake, so this is interesting. I'm going to check it out. Now I recently made a big mistake and I want to talk to you guys about it today. I put on a webinar a couple of weeks ago and I spent a month promoting this webinar and preparing awesome content for it and I really wanted to get on and help people. This is a free webinar. Come time of the webinar, everybody is logging in, they are ready to go. They are turning on their computers, they are sitting down with their cup of coffee or whatever it is. I press start and it doesn't work. It doesn't really matter why it doesn't work. The technology failed on us. But all these people came, they set out time of their busy day. Entrepreneurs have busy schedules. They set it out to come and listen to my presentation and it didn't work. You can't let customers and prospects go away unhappy with your business. You have to find a way to make it up to them. Somebody who is not happy with an experience they had with your company are going to tell other people. Tell other people about the bad experience they had. And word of mouth is so important for an entrepreneur, right? We can't afford to spend the big budgets going out and taking out radio ads and TV ads. We need word of mouth to help us. You have to provide great experiences, but if you make a mistake, you know, slip-ups are going to happen. Nobody is perfect. If you make a mistake, you have to make it up to people. Quite often, if you do make a mistake and you do make it up to somebody, that person is going to become a really loyal customer. You can flip them around from someone who is going to badmouth you to somebody who is going to rave about you. So what I did, I told everybody I'd run the presentation again so they wouldn't miss it. I gave everybody a free worksheet that I normally sell from my website, and I offered them a free one-on-one conversation with me to talk about their business. That was all for a free webinar that they missed. But you have to go way above and beyond expectations. That's going to take a lot of time out of my schedule to help these people out, but it's worth it because you cannot allow people to walk away from your business with a negative experience. I want to get to your calls. Again, the number is 1-888-454-3378 or you can ask a question on Twitter. I am @EvanCarmichael. We have Lisa on the line. Lisa, where are you from and how can I help?

I am from Fullerton, California.

Welcome to the show. What's going on?

Well, I have a business. It's called Spirit Intervention Services, or SIS Paranormal Services, and I've had it for the past 30 years. It's been very low-key. I kept it, you know, out of the mainstream, and within the past few years I've brought it to the public. Recently I did a show for Bio— it was a pilot called I'll Haunt You When I'm Dead— and from that we've got I got a lot of response, which is really, really great, and I have a lot more people to help, which to me is wonderful. But my company is nonprofit.

Okay.

Any money that I use comes out of my household for my company.

Okay.

And now I have people across the state that I can't reach because I don't have the funds in order to do it. And I need to find a way to generate income into my business so I can help more people.

That's a very worthy initiative. Uh, what kind of stuff do you do with your nonprofit?

Okay, so we do—

I'm a psychic medium and I specialize in exorcisms and cleansing. So if they have a ghost or spirit problem or demonic problem, I go in and take care of it for them.

Okay, and that has to be— you have to go to somebody's house, right?

Like, that's travel time and there's actual I've adapted it over the past 30 years for clients that I can't get to. I can teach them via the internet what to do.

Okay.

What I would like to do is maybe do a DVD, and with that in turn use the sales to put back into the business in order to help people and get to them personally.

And are you charging for this service of yours when you go out?

Never.

Never. Okay.

Okay.

Because I believe someone's been given a gift that they need to return the favor and help other people. I haven't charged in 30 years. I never intend to charge.

So here's the thing. A lot of people want to help people, and that's part of any enterprise, if it's, if it's profit or nonprofit. But if you are making money, you're going to be able to help more people, right? Like, if you're not still able to support yourself, you're not going to be able to help that many people anymore.

Exactly, that's why I thought if maybe I could find a way of getting a backer, which I don't know how to do that, to help me promote a DVD and make a DVD to get it out there, and in turn they get their profit back and then we have money back into the company, I can reach other people.

Are you full on your schedule, or is there a lineup to use your services?

It comes sporadically, sometimes I'll have 2 or 3 people a week. 4 clients in a week. Sometimes I won't have any, sometimes I'll have 10. It totally depends because it's such a unique type of business.

So the first point I made in this show was about survival, right? You have to make enough money to make sure that you're still around, you can put food on the table. And I know it's a challenge that sounds like you're facing, you know, right now to keep this business going, this nonprofit business going. So you got to find a way to bring money into the company. A couple of ways that you might be able to do it. One is, I know you want to give this all for free to people, but it's going to limit your ability to help more people, right? If you are not able to pay your bills, you're not going to be around to help people. So maybe you have a cap. Maybe say the first 5 of the week or the month are free, but then beyond that it costs whatever it is, $100, $200, something, some nominal fee at least to support, you know, keep the electricity running at your place. If you want to look at other products like DVDs, I would put the word out to the people you've already helped because these guys all have connections and I'm sure that they feel very grateful to you for the work you've done for them. Am I correct?

Yeah.

Like you've helped them with a major problem, right?

Yeah, we get letters of gratitude all the time, how they've gotten their lives back and how grateful they are. They of course send new clients. The most rewarding thing is helping them and getting their lives back.

It feels great, right, to know you helped these people?

Mm-hmm.

I'm sure they love you. Why not write to them and let them know what you're doing? I'm sure somebody who you've helped either has made a DVD themselves or has a contact who can help make a DVD who will do it for you either at low cost or no cost or some kind of partnership. You've built this community up. You should use it to help you grow your business. Does that make sense?

I never really thought of that.

Okay, we're bumping up against the clock, but I hope you'll apply that to your business. I'm here every 2 weeks, so if you want to call back and tell me about your progress, I'd be happy to help you out a little bit more.

Okay, well, thank you.

I greatly appreciate it.

No problem. Good luck with the business. For everybody else who is trying to bootstrap your company, Look to your community. If you have helped customers or if you are a nonprofit and you have this base of people who you have helped, look for ways that they might be able to help you out as well. Get to your next step. Thank you everybody so much. I have had so much fun. It is crazy how fast this time always flies, but I am here every 2 weeks. So 2 weeks from now I am going to be on again. Call in. Go visit my website, EvanCarmichael.com, and I will see you guys soon. Take care.