I AM BROKE: Where I Spent EVERY Dollar of My Lawn Care Business Profits!

Hey everyone, it's Mike Andes here. And today I'm going to be answering the question, what should I do with my profits and what should I be doing with the money once I've made it from my lawn care business? So usually in this channel we talk about lawn care, we talk about landscaping, and today is about that in one sense, but a question I get asked so often, the time is, well, I'm profitable, but what do I do? Do I just keep growing the business? Or is there another step to generating wealth for yourself personally after you've grown your lawn care and landscaping business? And that question today is going to be answered by really one statement. So let me make the statement and you want to bail after this, that's fine. And it's a bit of a statement. It's something I've never said publicly, but it's something that I am using and I'll explain in just a moment here. And if you like information like this that I share today, definitely consider the link below. There is another channel that I have talking just about investing stocks, real estate, making passive income, etc. But today I'm talking about the statement and that is this. My businesses exist to create cash flow to fund and purchase real estate. That's really the genesis of today's video because I truly believe that as we make more profit in our businesses, whether you're lawn care, landscaping or making money on YouTube, making videos about lawn grass, whatever it is, I believe the goal of everyone personally should be how do I take cash flow from my business is and turn it into an asset that is more long term, lasts longer than my business is going to be here for generations to come. And more importantly, generates money passively. Because this is the thing, as you're growing your lawn care business, you've got your lawn biz here and it's generating cash. Now I want first preface all this by don't think this is going to happen in year one or two. This is usually around year three to five is when you are going to become profitable at a very good level in your business. Do not expect this in year one or two, three, you start getting the hang up. You're like, man, I'm profitable, great, I can invest in my business, keep growing. Five, six, as the business begins, a little bit older though, seven, eight, nine years old now you have real profits. And at the end of the day, having cash sitting in a savings account is a horrible, horrible idea. If that doesn't make sense or you think that's wrong, might want to check out my other channel. Check out other people talking about what inflation is going to do to money. Cash sitting in a bank account right now, you're going to earn 0.01% on that in a savings account. When you can put that into real estate or even the S&P 500 or some other form of asset that generates income passively over the next generations to come. Because the thing about your lawn care business is as you make more money, as money goes up, typically risk and effort also goes up. Okay, so as you risk more of your money, you put more and more money into the lawn care business, you get more crux and more equipment. Unfortunately, when it comes to your lawn care business, a lot of the assets that you buy, trucks, equipment, are depreciating. Meaning over the course of five or 10 years, they go down to nothing. You can't write them off. And from a tax standpoint, you don't have any more leverage. You can't amortize them for 30 years like you can with the property. On real estate, there's not as many tax benefits. To me having a business and making a bunch of profits, it's hard to protect that money. Real estate's a great way to protect yourself from this money getting taxed. So in your business, you work hard. The harder you work, the more money you make. And you're making money now, great, let's go. But I don't want to keep working harder and harder and harder to make more money. I eventually got to get to the point where my money worked hard for me and that comes in the form of leverage. So I'm going to go get 25% down on a property maybe I spent $100,000 down to buy a $400,000 property that maybe generates $1,000 in monthly recurring passive income from the renters. Now, is there a risk? Yes. But I truly believe that a property that you might buy the day is going to be still existing beyond when Facebook, Google or Apple are still around. Those companies will be extinct before my real estate is ever gone. Right? People are always gonna need a place to live. People are always gonna need a place to raise their family. And I truly believe as home ownership gets more and more expensive, renters is the way of renting is the way of the future. It's gonna become more and more the way of what people do. So in your long term business, you're starting to make profits. Maybe you're five, six, seven, you're starting to make a lot of profits. I recommend plow that money into an asset.

Asset like stocks or real estate, that is going to be more passive because now I don't have to keep plowing this money into the business or into assets like trucks and equipment that depreciate over time, become zero, worth nothing. I can actually put it into an appreciating assets, appreciating assets, things that go up in value over the course of time. Most real estate goes up in value over the course of time. The S and P, the stock market over the course of 10, 20 years on average goes up. And it's going to be a much better return than money sitting in the bank. Because guess what? Idle hands are the devil's playground. You know what else is the devil's playground? Money sitting in a bank account doing absolutely nothing. All of a sudden you start going on vacation, getting a nicer vehicle. And that's the reason why some people always ask me, why do you have all these businesses and yet you live in the closet of your office? Because that's what I do. I literally live in a closet that's about 15ft from me. It's six by six. Why do I do that? Because I want to keep my money at work for me. I don't want my money sitting around doing nothing. Idle hands on the devil's playground. Idle cash sitting a bank account is the devil's playground. If you have a struggle with spending money when it's sitting in your bank account, start being diligent and being relentless about getting your cash out of your business and into appreciating assets like real estate and the stock market. Put yourself on a schedule, whether it be an automatic transfer every single month. You know what? Hey, we're consistently making $1,000 a day, every week in profit. I'm going to put 500 of that automatic deposit into an account for my brokerage for stocks, or I'm going to put that money aside, it's in a different account. And when I get, you know, be able to put 10% down on a property, get an FHA loan, I'm going to go get myself some real estate and go get myself a duplex, fix it up, put some renters in there and start making passive income. Is there risks? Yes. Is everyone going to scream about how the eviction moratorium, It's a horrible idea to be a landlord and all the rest of it? Yes. With any great investment comes risk. The reason your business was the most risky thing you've ever done. It's the most risky thing you've ever started. It has the highest Rate of being a failure ever. Whereas real estate, the stock market as an index fund is gonna be much less risky than your business. And more importantly, it's gonna put that money to work for you instead of sitting in a bank account waiting for you to spend it on something that's never gonna provide value. I'd much rather sacrifice today for the next five or ten years living in a closet and getting my money to go out and work for me than spending that money lavishly. Car, a big house, big vacations, doing a bunch of stuff that's not going to profit myself. And more importantly, it's not going to profit anyone else around me. And more importantly, all my extra money when it's sitting in a bank account. Once it hits a savings account, it basically means it's been taxed the highest possible rate. I want to plow that into an asset like real estate, that I can get depreciation over time and I can get great write offs and benefits from my taxes for the fact that I'm creating a full housing at a much cheaper price than the government could ever provide it. So is this a video that's a little bit different for the lawn care community? Yes, but this is why I created my second channel. I truly believe it's important as you pass that five, six, seven year running your lawn care business and listening to everything we talk about becoming more efficient, more profitable. Now you have a great crew, you have a great management team, you have great systems, you're generating solid profit margins. You better be putting that money to work for you. Because if not, that money will spread legs and walk away. It will leave in the form of a new car that you don't really need and a second house that you don't ever go to. And all of a sudden you're buying brand new trucks that you don't really need. You got to put their money to work for you and go get yourself some real estate. So I now currently have 10 units that I rent out, five duplexes, and I'm purchasing right now another 10 unit apartment complex. And as time goes on, I'm simply going to take the equity that I get in the stock market market and I'm going to keep plowing that into real estate. And any profits in the business go into real estate because that real estate will be here for 30, 40, 50 years. Do I think Augusta is going to be around that time? Yeah, I do. But I promise you one thing. I would bet more money on me not getting killed in the next 30 years than my real estate disappearing. So I truly believe this is the way to build wealth for you personally. Don't have to starve your business. Don't have to keep your business small because you're taking all the siphoning all the cash out. No, wait until there's a profit. Wait until there's something you can take and then put that money to work for you. If you want more information on this, more about investing and stuff that I do, check out the link below my second channel where I talk more about investing and putting your money to work for you. I'm Mike Annies. We'll see you tomorrow.