A YouTube monologue by Mike Andes covering three main developments: (1) he returned from Australia to find a lawsuit served after a franchisee/employee auto accident and is coordinating with attorneys and insurers to remove himself and his entities from the suit (21-day response window); (2) difficulties securing an SBA loan due to Ameritrust underwriting requiring 80% building occupancy by the borrowing entity, prompting him to pursue conventional commercial financing; and (3) a local memorial/celebration of life for a team member (Mark) who died by suicide, including reflections on the impact of life and mental health.
Chapters
It is 1:20am Got back from Melbourne, Australia to be welcomed back by some attorney letters, certified mail. One of our franchisees got in an accident, one of their employees got in an accident. And so of course person, the injury lawyers just go after everyone they possibly can. So they've listed me on there, all my entities.
So this is gonna be a fun one to fight.
Today's catch up day.
Literally every single entity I own is going to be just catching up after the past week of being away. The big thing is the attorneys. I gotta talk with them first thing. But today's actually a bit of a tough day because we are having memorial service for Mark, the individual that passed away at our local team and took his life last week. And we are having a local kind of funeral celebration of life for him because the actual memorial is taking place out of state, but yet his family is here. So we're inviting his family, all the Augusta team locally. And mental health is a real thing and it's not something we talk about a lot. And I don't know how much I'll share of the actual service, but I think it's something we should talk about more and we should make more open and honest about how we discuss these things in entrepreneurial circles. And so with a little bit of heavy Hart today, I'm going to be thinking about what I'll be saying this evening in front of the team for just a few minutes.
So in case you're wondering, on a, when you have a summons and you are listed on a lawsuit, which this specific person is listing, every one of my entities, me personally, everything on this lawsuit. So you have 21 days, typically from the time that you are summoned to have to respond. And so right now I'm hoping that the franchisee had their insurance buttoned down and then it'd be up on, you know, on them. If they don't have like additionally insured or things like that, they could be weird things like that, then it'd fall in my insurance policy. So I have my insurance broker involved, my attorneys involved, and it's just like I gotta get myself off of that lawsuit by filing back against them and, you know, getting off of that as a franchisor, I'm not liable for what a franchisee does, however, because we're kind of business partners and there is a business relationship. When there is a lawsuit, people will try to just throw the book at everything and everyone that is associated with that company. So I have a feeling something's going on with the insurance though, because if there's regular auto insurance and someone gets into an accident, they should be covered. And at the very worst, it comes back to my insurance, my general liability insurance that I have for the franchise, which would cover me anyways. So this is just the headache of what happens almost every single week when something across the country happens.
Really good news on the loan stuff. Here's the bad news. The bad news is that the reason that the SBA keeps, keeps declining me is ameritrust, sort of one of their underwriters that they use. So if you ever get an SBA loan, it's usually through a bank, but that bank has to do underwriting and all the back end due diligence through ameritrust or another provider that the SBA uses for underwriting. Now here's the problem. I was told from the get go that 50% of the building's occupancy has to be with the entity that signs on the loan. So we're like, no problem. We got the franchise, we got the media group, we have the local shop, the corporation, all those, no problem. Split up the building according to the size. And that's why the finances should make total sense when all those financials are combined. Here's the problem, that number is 80%. And that's why Ameritrust keeps declining us, is because we keep saying that, hey, we're giving 30% to the local shop, 70% is going to the franchise or the media group or whatever. So that was a big hang up. The thing is, I'm done with dealing with them. They're so slow. So it looks like we got a commercial lender that's willing to provide about half of the debt. And that's enough for me to be able to be like, let's go and pull the trigger, the deal. So I think we're gonna go through with that, just get a regular conventional loan. The terms aren't quite as good, but I don't expect to not pay this off within the next three to five years anyway. So a little extra interest isn't gonna kill me.
So this evening is the memorial and celebration of life for one of our.
Team members that took their life a couple weeks or last week. And so I actually just listened to the Friday morning meeting that the team had the morning after with everybody and just explaining everything.
So I just want to take a quick walk here.
This is a place I go a lot of times to run. I just want to take a quick walk and just kind of get my.
Thoughts together, kind of what I want to say.
For maybe 10 minutes this evening at the memorial. We are inviting his family and. Or I should say his those that are close to him locally because they're having the actual funeral in Montana and so just want to console.
There's quite a few of the guys.
That were really close to him on the team and he was actually doing estimates and I was very, very much trusted on the team. So yeah, just trying to console and say a few things and just wanted to gather my thoughts before that.
Thank you all for being here tonight. It's not a common thing for someone who's just worked with someone's a co worker, employee necessarily be at some memorial service. But I think it. I just appreciate all of you for coming out showing us the poor. I have a few thoughts. As most of you know, I just got back from out of town from Australia this past week. But on my way back I was just thinking about Mark's life, what he meant to all of us and just some of the words that came to my mind and I just wanted to share those. Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow, for what is your life? It is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time and then it vanishes away. And sometimes when we read that scripture, it can almost be fatalistic or seem like a bad thing. It's like, well, what's the meaning of life? Like does it really mean anything? It's just a vapor. Is it meaningless? Is it void of any value? Is it that meaningless? And here for a moment and then gone. And I thought about vapor. And if you look at other versions in the Bible it says it talks about the wind. Talks about the wind. Stay here for a moment, then it's gone. And the wind can't really be seen. This evening as we have these fans out and everything, you can't really see the wind. It's not super visible. But the impact of that wind can do a lot of things people. That wind in general can create an entire canyon in rock or in sand or in dirt crevices, make massive tunnels or canyons. You can move a ship a massive hundreds of thousands of tons. And now with a wind, that ship is moved and the impact of that wind is felt. And that wind doesn't actually receive any recognition, doesn't receive any athletes. We talk about this massive structure like a wind turbine we create or we talk about the food that was created using a vapor, using something that was wind that created canyon massive amounts of power. But we can't even see it. There's no recognition no accolades, no real awards that are given out to the wind. Mark's life on Earth is over. Like a wind or a vapor, he is gone. But the impact that that wind, that that life made on each of ours remains. How loud someone is, how rich they become, how famous they are, does not measure the impact that they have. This was written on the whiteboard of our office this past week. And Mark wrote these words just a couple days before his passing. It was right in the office as they walk out the front door. And Marcus had just recently allowed the guys to write whatever they want in terms of a qu. And I don't think it was without prompting. He just decided to write this on the board last week. Every moment away from fear makes a man immortal. That's what he wrote. That was from Alexander the Great. It's amazing that someone that had accomplished so much and achieved so much in this earthly world, such as Alexander the Great, recognized just the importance and the immortality that is felt when a man strays away from fear. Those things are quickly gone. Body possessions, quickly gone. But the impact that Mark made, he made on all of us stays eternal. Mark was here and now he is gone. But the impact he makes on each one here day continues to live on.
