The Harrow and Jett Show
Welcome to The Harrow and Jett Show — unfiltered conversations between two young business owners and Accountants who just merged their firms and are figuring it all out in real time.
If you’re a young entrepreneur, this is your podcast. We talk about the stuff nobody teaches you: creating a 10-year vision (and why you shouldn’t change the goal, just the path), staying disciplined while still having fun, learning from dumb mistakes like hiring too early, spending money you don’t have, using credit cards to “feel like a business owner,” and why paying yourself first is non-negotiable.
We share our real stories — selling golf balls as a kid, moving from Cuba with nothing, leaving cushy jobs, merging two practices, wearing all three hats (technician, manager, entrepreneur), building processes on the fly, and why having the right partner changes everything.
No corporate jargon. No theory. Just two Accountants who work with hundreds of early-stage businesses every year telling you what actually works (and what will sink you).
Perfect for ambitious founders who want to stop stressing about taxes, cash flow, and growth — and start building something that pays you and lasts.
New episodes every week. Hosted by the team at White Glove CPAs & Business Solutions.
Visit whiteglovecpas.com and let’s build smarter together.
The Harrow and Jett Show
Our entrepreneur's Journey!
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Jet hero business and dart. Let's get into it.
SPEAKER_00Let's get into it. Let's do it.
SPEAKER_05So how was your drive here?
SPEAKER_00It was good. It was good. As you can see, this is our like first pad. We we we still need to figure out the introduction part of it. The drive here was good. So I had a meeting with the client at 9 a.m. So I made sure I got to this coffee shop close here around 8 45. Nice. So but the drive was good. I was listening to some NF trying to get pump up. Since last night I've just been trying to get pump up for it. So how was your drive? What about you? It was good. It was good.
SPEAKER_05I had phone calls with our ops director. I had phone calls with clients. Perfect. Then there was an accident, of course. So it delayed me.
SPEAKER_00I get that. I get that. It's kind of crazy now. I guess so. We are here in the middle of Tennessee. Um people don't really know how to drive. And I was driving I-24, and there were pieces of ice just flying around, just by people done cleaning the roof. Perfect. And and I like to ask these questions, you know, that person, either. She or he, a male or female, she's just trying to figure out life and wants to do. And she wants to be able by the time that person is like uh 27 to 30 years old. She has followed the good foundation to be able to, I guess, be middle class, be middle class, uh you know, be able to have a family without worrying about anything. I know now everything's like people say, oh, everything's expensive, real estate is expensive, house is expensive. Well, what would be that advice? I think that would be the stuff they can take out of this podcast. What would be no?
SPEAKER_05That's a great uh that's a great question. I think for me, like advice would be like just stay disciplined, like find your goal. Like if your goal is that goal and passion. So, like something for me, like I always wanted to have my own business, and I have worked for so many people. I've had like little small businesses that didn't go anywhere, obviously. That's just part of it. Failure, right?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, part of it.
SPEAKER_05But like being disciplined and saying, like, okay, this is my goal, and like I always said, like, I'm going to have my own business, it will be successful, and that's what I'm going, I'm going to do it, and I'm gonna love it, right? And I do love it, and I like wake up so excited every single day, which I did not do like in school or like when I worked for someone else. Yeah, but I do now for White Glove, and it's just like I almost like jump out of bed. I'm so excited. I look in my phone right away to see like if any employees emailed me or like any clients or if they need anything. So I think just stay disciplined, like know your goal, and just track towards that goal. Like, there are going to be times where you get thrown off of that track, it's just a part of it. Don't like overly stress about it, just enjoy it and like learn from it and move on.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's a good point. I think stay disciplined and have goals. I think yes, I agree with you.
SPEAKER_05And have fun along the way. Like, don't turn down every single party invite. Because I'm gonna tell you at those parties, you're going to meet people who will become clients, who will work with you, who will be a good connection.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I agree with you. So I'm a big talker here, and I would tell and I like to say people I had like a 10-year plan. And this was my 10-year plan. So I think I think the first thing, the fair advice I would tell people is this sit down and figure out how you want your life to be. Let's say now you are 17, 18, figure out how you want your life to be at 28.
SPEAKER_05I like that. But I will and like I love that idea, actually. And I think that's a great plan. But I think every year you need to reassess it because every year like things will change.
SPEAKER_00I agree. However, well, I feel that 10-year goal, you really need to make sure that is what you want for your life. Yeah, yeah, I agree. And I think like, yes, you can you can reassess how to get to the goal, but you should not re-assess the goal itself. So this is what I did. Uh so and also like I love what you said about be being passionate. So, and this is kind of I think how I how I have been doing it. So, whenever I came here like 16, I don't know why, but somehow I was really passionate about Wall Street and finance, and I wanted to figure out how to make money quick on the stock market. You know, you see all of this day trading? Yes, I did that with $500 for my mom and I lost it all, and then Neville they traded so, but I always knew I wanted to have resources to have money.
SPEAKER_05Of course.
SPEAKER_00Have a good high high-earning job. And at the end of the day, I always knew I wanted to have I wanted to be a business owner and I love real estate. So from 16 to 18, I read a bunch of books. I read a bunch of books about real estate, finance, Warren Buffett book. So I read a lot and I gained a lot of perspective. I feel like whenever you're young, people are going to say, hey, like stop reading books and do more. But I feel reading and kind of and kind of having an idea of what it's going to be like, of what you are going to go through. It's going to give you, I think, the big goal, but it's not going to give you the step by step. And then make sure you have those goals. I was really passionate. I wanted to have a business owner. I wanna be I wanted to have a business and and put money goals to that. You know, I think I told one of my I think I told, I think I told one of my friends, hey boss, I think I'm going to be a millionaire by the time I am 28 or 29 or something. And he said, hey, put it on your calendar.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And whenever that thing pops up, like, what an idea. Just send me a text. I think that was, I was 20. And this was my plan. And he asked me, okay, how are you going to do it? I'm like, hey boss, I have a 10-year plan for it. And this was my 10-year plan. So and this is what I found out. So I guess to really make it, to really have a business, you need to provide value. You need to have something that you can provide value. And so, and uh, I did not really know how college was going to play into that, but something but something I was sure about is that like my mama wanted me to go to college and get a bachelor and get a master. And I'm like, okay, I'm going to make my mama happy. Whatever I do, I'm going to make sure I go to college, get the bachelor and get a master. But then whenever I chose college, I was like, I had the opportunity to go whenever whenever I was applying for colleges, I was I had big goals. I was like, oh, let me go to the big colleges. Like the Vanderbilt, the Harbor, the Stanford, all of that. Yeah. But it did not pan out. So but I had to choose between some local Middle Tennessee colleges. I I think I was down between Tennessee Tech in Cookville and MTSU. But then I choose to be.
SPEAKER_05Which those are popular ones. Like people aren't from here. Those are like people always like choose between those two. I feel like that's a very common.
SPEAKER_00I agree. And then I chose MTSU because I'm I'm like, okay, I want to be a business owner, I want to be closer to money.
SPEAKER_04They have a great business.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And I I everybody said that college is just a place for you to meet people and create those relationships. So I'm like, and create those relationships. So I'm like, hey, I want to be closer to where the money is, uh, to the uh to the university that is more connected to the capital. That way, because whenever you go to college, you're going to get speakers from these big firms that that you are going to create relationships with. So I choose MTSU because it's in Murfysboro and it's connected and it's more connected to Nashville. That is the capital of Tennessee. It's the capital of Tennessee, right? Yeah, yeah. It's not Memphis, it's not the capital.
SPEAKER_05No.
SPEAKER_00Okay, Nashville is the capital and it has it's connected to Nashville. Like I took the case.
SPEAKER_05But you know, fun fact, Murfreesboro was the capital first.
SPEAKER_00I I have heard about that, which is interesting. You know?
SPEAKER_05Because Murfreesboro is actually like right in the center of Tennessee.
SPEAKER_00Awesome. I didn't do that. So I guess I I live I live in Murfysboro in school. I love Murfheesboro. So I wanted to be connected to that. And then I went to college and I'm like, okay, let me learn something in college that I cannot learn anywhere else. And I started doing finance, and I realized like finance wasn't really going to cover it, it was just a sales job. So I I I took an accounting class. I didn't know anything about accounting.
SPEAKER_05I'm like, oh, I started off the same thing, finance. I was like, and then I like I loved the class, like I loved learning it. But I realized like the track finance really is just a lot of it's sales.
SPEAKER_00Yes, yes. You just don't know.
SPEAKER_05I want to be like in the numbers.
SPEAKER_00And I wanted to have a short salary after college. So a short salary after college. So I I took accounting, I was good at it, was the language of business. I went into accounting and it and it went really good. But this is what my thinking. My 10-year plan was this let me learn a skill. I use college for that to learn accounting. That skill was accounting. Let me learn a skill that I can install a business on.
SPEAKER_05And learn how to practice it by being employed and doing it. Learn from others, right? Perfect it, be better than them.
SPEAKER_00And then you jump on your law. So I did that. So I went to college, got my certification, everything. That took like five years. That was part of the five years plan. Then work for somebody else for three years. Yeah, you have to do that. And try to learn as much as you can from the other person. I did that. Like you're going to get, if you keep with them, you're going to get paid really well. And then jump out and give, and I always told myself to give the business three years. For the first three years, the first year, second year, it's going to be tough, but by the three years, you're going to see reap the benefits. You're going to reap the benefits. And I think now we are on the last eight years of that plan because the business has been around for a year.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, because this is the going into year two of business ownership. Um one thing I want to go back to when you talked about like when you're young, people are telling you to put down the book and like you know, work on some, you know, do your work or do things.
SPEAKER_00So yeah, or you'll get the work on McDonnell or I don't know, do something.
SPEAKER_05I mean, I like your point about that, but something that I kind of want to talk about because like we are young entrepreneurs, and like I mean, people can be entrepreneurs from the age of like eight. Like I'm telling you guys, like my first business was me selling golf balls. So I'll tell you the story.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_05My grandparents lived like on or not really on the golf course, but like obviously it was right behind their house. So sometimes golf balls would be hit into their yard. And I spent a lot of time with them. So I would go and get them, and like eventually we had like an egg carton full of golf balls. We had 12 that would just land in the yard. And I liked money from a very young age. Like I was like two years old, like wanting cash from my parents.
SPEAKER_00So that was good.
SPEAKER_05I set up, we had lots of cousins, but I set up a little table right in their backyard. Like there's like a tree line and then the golf course.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Okay. It's like in the fairway going to the first hole. So I set up a little table and I would get all the golf balls that these guys would hit, right? And I would sell it back to them.
SPEAKER_03Awesome.
SPEAKER_05And like um, it was at one point where we would I actually like enlisted my little or m my cousins, some actually were older than me, to like run through the golf course and get all the balls, right?
SPEAKER_03Awesome.
SPEAKER_05At this time I knew nothing about golf.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_05So what happened was is we were getting all of the balls, and it ended up being the balls that the guys just hit. Like, you know? So like we they lost their spot because we grabbed, like, they would hit it, we would grab the balls.
SPEAKER_00Well, that's a good old thing.
SPEAKER_05And like we would put it up in our carton for sale, like to sell it back to them. And like these guys were so nice to us though, because they were they would just buy it back. But I did have one guy, and like he was there frequently, so he must have been like just an avid golfer. And he said to me one time, he was like, I'm giving you this, but please don't ever take my golf ball again.
SPEAKER_03That is so funny.
SPEAKER_05He was like, This is my ball, because you see my mark, like, and he marked it. The people have their initials, they have stamps, all kinds of things. He's like, This is my ball that I just hit and you took it.
SPEAKER_00You were fast.
SPEAKER_05Yeah to try to get it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we were so So did that make you did that conversation was was that a scary conversation? You were like, How did you handle that conversation?
SPEAKER_05I was just like, Oh, yes, okay, sorry about that. Thank you. That's what I'm saying. And honestly, it probably should have stopped me, but it did not.
SPEAKER_00That's cool. I then I would uh did your pa did your grandparents knew what you were doing and like, hey, that's from you should not be doing that.
SPEAKER_05Not at first. It took a long time, but like back like then, like this was like in the 2000, early 2000 era, like 2002, 2005 range.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_05So like back then, kids just went outside and played, right? That was so like all my cousins would be over, like all of our parents would be inside, they would be probably like drinking and eating and like gossiping.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_05So finally, like, if I would if I wasn't going to be there, I would enlist my cousins to do that when I was gone.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_05And then I would pay them each a dollar a day for the work, and then I would make like 20, 30 bucks.
SPEAKER_00That's pretty good money. Yeah. Well, what will you do with that money though?
SPEAKER_05Well, I would do a combination of things. Mostly I would buy like candy.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_05Or like soda. Sometimes I would buy like a new Barbie or like something like that.
SPEAKER_00Oh, that's so cool.
SPEAKER_05I'm pretty sure I like lost most of it though, because I wasn't, I mean, wasn't good at keeping up with my stuff. I am on my third pair of AirPods at the moment, too. So maybe I'm just maybe that stuck with me.
SPEAKER_00That's a good point. Yeah, no, but yeah, there definitely like yes, entrepreneurship is at the beginning. I remember always kind of trying to make a back whenever I was young, just kind of helping my dad out, asking for money, or just or just stuff like that. Uh so yes, uh awesome.
SPEAKER_05So I guess we're talking about like young, so like I wanted to finish that thought. Sorry. But yeah. So for something that like entrepreneurship can start like from a young age, right? Like you can be like a little kid, or you could be like 80 years old and starting. No, it is, or you can be eight years old or anywhere in between. But something that I've realized, like as a young entrepreneur, you kind of get both people. So I get some people who are like, oh, you're young, you're fresh, like you're privy to all of the new stuff going on, all the technology, like you're fast, you're on top of it. Yes, I want to work with you. But and I get we get most of those. Every now and again, you'll get one who's skeptical. They're like, Are you 20? Like, how old are you? Like, how old? And you're doing accounting? Like, can I trust you? Like, do you have all the right qualifications, etc., etc.? And it's just interesting because and like we obviously don't let that hold us back. And usually we change their mind when we start speaking because we know what we're talking about. We're good at what we do, we care about what we do. But in my experience, like going up and like corporate or whatever, yeah, that's something that I kept running into. Like I would get promotion, promotion, and then they would be like, Okay, you're too young, you're too green to keep promoting you.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_05Which is so like, yeah.
SPEAKER_00That is why whenever whenever that happens, the the same thing happened to me. Like, just go out on your loan and take control of how fast you want to grow. Like, exactly. Whenever you start a company, you can you can put your title wherever you want.
SPEAKER_03Like, exactly.
SPEAKER_00My title is a partner, tax partner.
SPEAKER_05Your title is principal partner. Or it's um yeah, or whatever.
SPEAKER_00So, but the impressive thing is whenever I updated that on LinkedIn, a lot of people will reach out, oh wow, that was pretty fast that you became a partner. I'm like, of course, I started the thing. You understand?
SPEAKER_05Of course, my partner.
SPEAKER_00Of course, my partner. I started uh we started this thing. So that being said, something I like to tell people is this like nobody is going to hand you what you want. You have to go and fight for it and make a way for it. And then if a company don't see your value because they are not growing fast enough, because I feel now because we are a growing company.
SPEAKER_05If we have really ambitious people, we have a we have a young group, like everyone's fairly young. Like, and it's not to say that we wouldn't hire someone or won't hire someone who's older with experience. I think that has a value to but we're very young, we're very fast, like we're fast-paced, like we make sure that we're on every new trend, every new law, every new practice.
SPEAKER_00I agree. And the goal we see Ariv, uh also I feel you get to stop at all at other companies because they are not growing as fast as you would like to grow when they don't see how you can help them grow. Even the company I used to be at, uh they were not growing fast.
SPEAKER_05The ownership comfortable and complacent, and yeah, and that hinders the employees. So that that's something I think that we have in common. Like we we want our employees to be able to go and say, I'm a 22-year-old tax partner, tax manager.
SPEAKER_00That probably, yeah, tax manager. I can I can see a tax manager saying.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, as long as you I feel like I feel like in three years you can learn a lot. As long as you be intentional about it and you have that goal and you work on it, you can become that. And and if you want to grow that fast and if you are ambitious as a young person, you either gotta go to a really fast growing company that is going to grow as fast as you want to grow, and you are willing to learn and have also people you can learn from. Because also, whenever you start your career, you need to find the right company that they are going to teach you everything you need to know. Because let's be straight here. College doesn't teach you all the anything for your professional life. I think it's important to go to college, it teaches you the technicals.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. But even the technical, I feel like I learned more technical out of college than in the code.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, with the people from mentors you have. So you need to find a good company that they can teach you everything you know and you're willing to spend our three years, and then they also are growing as fast as you can, and they see how hard you're working and the value. And then like you also have to provide the value. You also have to be able to come like, hey guys, I'm providing this value. But now as we as now we are business owners, like, hey, if you're making us money, we're going to give you money back. You know, as long as like if you're asking for whatever salary you want, you need to make sure you're making us that money or more.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, we do a lot of bonuses. Like we gave like our accounting team recently like bonuses just for just for doing their job quickly. And like incentives. Like you have to, as a business owner, that's something that we find, like pay a salary that you can afford. So I wouldn't go beyond that, but also treat your people right. So if they're like if they're helping you build, like making sure things are done on time and like last-minute requests, give them a bonus, like give buy them a meal, like we did that recently. Yeah, give them money for like a wine night or a margarita.
SPEAKER_00Definitely, definitely. And then uh yeah, you you gotta treat your people right, and then also you gotta, you know, something with that is just cash flow. You know, in business, uh, you need to make sure your expenses matches the money coming in, and that's why we do bonuses. You know, okay, yeah, we're going to save, give you the bonuses, but we are don't give you a really high salary, but we are going to make it up with bonuses. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05But we do try to like do fair market salary. So it's not like we're like underpaying people. Yeah. Um I have a question for you.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_05So out of the has it been 10 or 11 years?
SPEAKER_00Here in the US, it's uh I came here August 2015, so it's going to be 10. It's about to be 11. Okay.
SPEAKER_05So out of all of those years, like if you had to say one year, like a number year, like 2025, 2021, yeah. What year do you think that you learned the most? Just about anything. Like abroad, like what year did you just have massive like growth? Like learning. Like, like what year? Like maybe it was 2020 when you first came and you learned like so much. Because I imagine like that transition from Cuba to the States is a pretty significant. I feel maybe it's like college business ownership.
SPEAKER_00That's actually a great question. I feel I learned a lot every year, probably except the last two years working for somebody else.
SPEAKER_04Okay.
SPEAKER_00Because I kind of feel on the first year I kind of competitive after that. Yes, the last two years working for somebody else. Because from the first year I had to learn a lot. I had to learn English. Then the second year I feel I had to figure out how college works and how this whole system works and how credit card works. Then the first year in college, you know, I was learning about accounting, how college works. Then all throughout college and people and networking and meeting people and all of that. And then the last two years in college, I learned a lot about accounting. And learned a lot about accounting. I didn't know anything about accounting, and I learned that in college. Then the first year in my career learned through internships. I learned that a lot. And then I feel the last two years in my career I worked hard. I didn't learn as much, but it's also a very important thing that you learn by doing a stuff.
SPEAKER_05Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. Repetition practice.
SPEAKER_00I agree. Last year in business, I feel in business you learn something new every week. You're figuring something out. You have a problem, you have to find a solution, and you know, you you know you build a process around it to make sure that doesn't happen again. So yeah, that's actually a great question. I feel all of the years I have been learning except the last two years in my working for somebody else.
SPEAKER_05But like one year. So like one year that comes to mind where it's like, wow, like that, like my brain was like so different from this year to this year.
SPEAKER_00I will tell you, uh I feel every year I learned a lot, but I feel last year I measured up a lot. Because I felt like, oh, now I'm a business owner, I have more responsibility.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So I felt I learned more how to measure up and about real life last year. Because like once you start a business, you're going to hit hard. You're going to get hit hard with everything going on like that.
SPEAKER_05But the employees, well, like legal stuff. We've learned that recently too. So like how important legal and documentation is.
SPEAKER_00I will tell you, the main things I learned is like, oh, a business is not only doing the work, that is a lot of other stuff that goes around being a business owner. That is the organization, people, human resources, building, building an enterprise, building people, delegating the processes.
SPEAKER_05Processes like I think processes like kicked our butt last year.
SPEAKER_00Yes, we didn't have any.
SPEAKER_05But I think we're like in a really good spot. And like they're always like they're changing. And I think if they're not changing, then you're dead.
SPEAKER_00Like I agree.
SPEAKER_05Especially with how fast like technology.
SPEAKER_00It's the first year, and we were merging, and I felt like for the first four months I had process figured out, and then we merged, and like, oh, now bring new processes, new softwares, and then new everything. And then trying to manage clients, clients, and internal admin work. Admin is a lot of things. Yeah, but thank God we we had we had a director of operation, and that was and she has helped out a lot in processes. And then in business, you have to find out what is not working well. I tell people, and this is the way I look at White Glove now, I find an issue, I choose an issue every week that is not working right, or that it's not working how it's supposed to work, and then you just go and fix it. And and if you are not able, if you're spending of much time on it, that is that is stopping you from doing the stuff that makes money, bring somebody, delegate it, or figure out, or grow you, or realize, hey, I need to grow my business by this amount to be able to bring a person.
SPEAKER_05And then you do it, like you hustle and do it, right?
SPEAKER_00You gotta hustle and do it for three, six years, but you need to make sure you are hustling for the pulpit and make sure at the same time you're growing.
SPEAKER_05Like that's something like for us. Like, I feel like every time, like for me, like when I was just in business by myself, yeah. I would say, I'm gonna make this much money this month, and I would make more than that every single time. Because I had that in my mind, like I knew how much that number was. Yeah, and I feel like that's something that we're doing too is we said, okay, we're gonna pay ourselves this much this month. Yeah, and we now and we did, like we hit every single goal when we did that. So I guess that's a note to like just pay yourself first.
SPEAKER_00Yes, always pay yourself in business. We had to do that, choose to pay yourself first, because if not, you're never going to pay yourself. Make that important, prioritize that because then everything else is going to get prioritized.
SPEAKER_05I think if we did that sooner, it would have been like and I did by myself, right? But it was like in a different circumstance.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I agree. You know, I agree. Yeah, it's definitely a lot. So, yeah, business is a lot, and then yeah, processes, but thank God we brought we brought the director of operations over. She's awesome.
SPEAKER_05And people, like we learned the hard way that like people, yeah. You can't hire like I mean, definitely like there's personality hires, right? But like those personality hires have to actually do some work.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we are really bad at hiring people. I'm glad we have a director of operations because uh I guess we all hire slow, fire fast.
SPEAKER_05It's something that we are implementing. And we did, we did implement it, I think. Yeah, but we didn't have the right control.
SPEAKER_00I guess what was I guess what was the biggest mistake that I think you made last year in the business?
SPEAKER_05Bringing on an accounting manager too early. Because it it like kind of but I will say I don't classify as a mistake. I pretty much say, okay, that was cool. Like I failed, so like I learned and now I know like what I what needs to happen. So I think that really taught us both like okay, as a new business, we need to learn that position first and how to do it and have a process for it, understand the time that it takes. And then we need to grow that position to where it is full-time. We have the cash flow to afford it and pay ourselves, and we have time to dedicate to that new person to train them to properly do that job.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yes, that is important. Having the time to train. I feel the um that is good. And about that, uh yes, you definitely like whenever whenever you bring a new people, I feel you have to decide if you want to pay them low. Like if that is on the lower market rate, it's most likely because they don't have any experience, and you will have to invest a lot of time training, which at the end can be more expensive. But then uh whenever you can start getting management level, make sure the business can afford it sales-wide, and make sure that there's enough work for them to do because like for us, like I don't think there was it it wasn't properly structured. Yeah, and I feel like something about that, and this is why we made we have made that mistake and I fixed a fixed up fast, and something I personally did before merging with um with Harold here, uh it was that whenever I started a business by myself, I was really optimistic and ambitious. Yeah, and I was spending money thinking in a growth that was going to come that never came.
SPEAKER_05And then But you have to have like a combination of that. You have to be ambitious and have that growth. You have to spend money to make money. Everyone knows that.
SPEAKER_00But also, you need to be able to manage that, like the entrepreneur mindset, being ambitious and also make sure that happens because if no, you're going to be spending money that you don't need to spend, and then you are never going to use those those resources. For example, I didn't know, I think I'm going to tell you about this, but before we merged, I hired I hired this outsourcing firm thinking that I was going to be really busy. And I had to sign a contract for three months and I was paying them $1,800 every month. And I never got to use them because we never grew to that. And I'm like, oh, make sure you have the work first before you bring people. No, not hire work, at least at the earliest stages, don't hire the people and expect the work to come because you hired that person. Make sure the work is there first and you are busy and then hire the person that can manage that work.
SPEAKER_05And when you do it that way, like you're right, but when you do it that way, you have to hire experienced people. Yes. Because that was, and that was my thing. I did not hire until I had the work, right? Yeah. But what I did was I hired people who maybe weren't as experienced as they should have been.
SPEAKER_00Just to save a little bit of money, but then it's more expensive.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, exactly. So it ended up being more expensive. I spent more time going back and fixing it, and then like it became this whole ordeal. But again, like that's where that's why business ownership is so fun.
SPEAKER_03Yes.
SPEAKER_05Because it's like, I mean, yeah, they're mistakes, but you have to be like willing to be like, okay, cool, I did that. Great. Okay, now what's next? Like, what can I do next? Like, how do I fix that? For sure.
SPEAKER_00You have to have daily goals.
SPEAKER_05You have to stay excited, I think, too. And you can't let like little things get you down.
SPEAKER_00I agree. And then uh yeah, I f I agree with you. So I think that was a mistake I made, uh, being too optimistic about it and making expenses before they were necessary. And then I feel this is my thing. I felt I had to spend the money to think I'm making it, but then you realize like, hey, bragging about your spending or spending like uh spending $1,800 a month on a person that that you are not really utilizing. Yeah, that can make you feel I think you may need to like that is not why. So sometimes me, I would be like, oh man, I spent like $3,000 sponsoring this event or something, and I would just brag about it, and that would make me like, oh, I'm in business.
SPEAKER_05Then you feel, yeah. And I think that's like that's something I think you're right. Like, I think that's a good point. It's a common thing with business ownerships, because typically entrepreneurs and like there's a there's a difference between entrepreneurs and business owners. Business owners are people who bought or came into like as G2 generation two of a business. So entrepreneurs, like they're creative, like they created it from like the ground up, right? Yeah, and what I find about entrepreneurs is that and I we're we work with them every day, so we know a lot of them. They there's a little ego, and you have to have that to be able to like venture out on your own and take that risk, right? So every entrepreneur has an easy thing. You gotta be crazy enough.
SPEAKER_00You need to be confident in yourself. Yeah, so they all have this ego. If you know you never you never made the change because it's a lot of risk. Yes, it's a lot of risk.
SPEAKER_05Laughing at you with your mic. Okay, so they have but they have this ego, right? So like that ego fuels spending because you're like, okay, I own a business, I want to have all these people doing all these things, right? I want to have this nice fancy office downtown Nashville. I want to have an office in Franklin, I want to have XYZ, right? I want to have the fancy espresso maker.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_05And that I think a lot of entrepreneurs run into problems when they start doing that. Yeah. Which, like, I did. I want to have a manager, right? I'm like, I need and you were like, I want to have these people to support me. But then you learn and you move on.
SPEAKER_00And I feel that ego change, and you put a stop in that ego whenever you focus on the bottom line. How much money you're paying yourself at the end of the month, and you're like, hey, do I want to have an ego or I want to get paid every month and just that? And then I feel you gotta put that in check. And something I see with a lot of clients is that they will brag about like, hey, I made like six million dollars in sales last year.
SPEAKER_05Oh, but sales is different than profit.
SPEAKER_00I see this a lot in construction companies. Like they brag about like all these products they're doing, like, oh man, I made six million dollars, I'm running a $20 million femme in sales, but they don't really tell you how much money they they're getting to keep. And and if you're making six million dollars and you're only keeping at the end of the year, $20,000, you're just stressing out about all of this, like again, hey, you are better off getting a job than just running a business.
SPEAKER_05If you're only making $20,000 in your business for the whole year, like uh And this is like if you're not paying yourself, of course, right? Like some some people might be like in a corporate where they're actually salarying out their self.
SPEAKER_00But I guess you need to make sure you're paying yourself. If you if you have a six million dollar, if you are going around bragging about how many millions you sell you have, but you are done paying yourself any money, and and make sure you're paying yourself out of the mo uh out of the business earning, know that the m the business is getting indebted, getting a loan to pay yourself. Yeah, uh, I'm like, yeah, hey, yeah, that's definitely the wrong thing to do.
SPEAKER_05Like that that's something I think I would put on like my dirty dozen.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Is like taking out like lending, like take using lending or any kind of funding to pay yourself. Like that's probably a really big mistake that owners make. So there's uh one on the dirty dozen list.
SPEAKER_00Yes, I feel too like about that. And we can come out with a dirty dozen. We can talk about that next. For the next episode, let's talk about dirty dozens. I feel like, yeah, the the next time we come out here and and recall, I like that. But yes, make sure you are not financing your own salary. And make sure, like, I guess something we have done with White Glove, uh, with White Glove is that like we don't use any debt. We don't have any credit cards.
SPEAKER_05And we are not, we don't plan to, right?
SPEAKER_00We're and we don't plan to unless unless maybe we go into I guess I guess maybe the only time we probably use debt if we're planning to merge and buy another business that's making money, maybe.
SPEAKER_05But even then, like um, and like my background a little bit, you know, MA, like uh Joaquin has been a part of an MA, like a merge acquisition um deal as well. So that like that's another thing we'll we can get into another time, but it's so interesting because like if we bought another firm or did something like that, there are so many ways you can do it without having to get financing. Yeah, there are so many like strategic and like creative ways, you just have to be again creative.
SPEAKER_00I agree. And I feel that is that I feel a good advice I would tell people. I feel like by you adding debt to your business, you are taking another level of risk because now the money that your business is making is you gotta use it to pay down debt, to pay interest, and then I'm like, that is money you could have done yourself. And I feel sometimes if you just if you cannot grow uh you need to figure out when you want to take debt because I assume like how you gotta understand your business first, and you gotta be really confident in your business. I probably wouldn't be a good idea to take debt in the first business of you starting a business. Now if you buy the first year or two.
SPEAKER_05But like that's where like an important like partner comes into place. Like that's something that we're working on right now, too, like internally. But I mean, obviously, like we're a great finance partner for you guys, like you know, but like I'm not trying to just say choose us, but that's where like that comes handy of having a great advisor who's been there and done that, who can say, Okay, now it's time to pull debt, or like, hey, you know, it's not a great time. Let's let's let's try to do these other things, like maybe make a new service. I agree. All that extra money goes in so you can later reinvest and do these things.
SPEAKER_03I agree.
SPEAKER_05So, like finding a marketing, like that's something we're working on, is like a marketing partner who can help us and make sure our branding is correct.
SPEAKER_00And yeah, it's I like the idea about the dairy dosing. Let's talk about that and the next the next the next pod. So but about debt so 30 dozen for business owners. Yeah, because business owners are. We are not going to put a staple on it.
SPEAKER_05Which like, well, I mean, thankfully, like it's interesting because I've always loved business and wanted to be like in business, but I didn't know that I would be like like we're pretty like deep in business if you think about it, because not only are do we own them, but we like for a living, we advise other businesses and see full picture.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we do the Lacani and we get to see them, we do the finance, see the full time.
SPEAKER_05We do advising and we have clients who we help them purchase the business that they have or start it, and then we are helping them all the way through. It's really fun.
SPEAKER_00So, yeah, we have a lot of experience.
SPEAKER_05I feel like we have seen south ends of businesses and we're like, and that helps us with our business too, because we say, Okay, that didn't work for them, so yeah, it's good having that. Yeah, and it and it helps with creativity though. I feel like seeing so many things in so many industries, yeah, and like we're in 17 states, so like we have more than that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we have clients around them, yeah.
SPEAKER_05So it's interesting to see, like, okay, it didn't work for them, so like, okay, let's not do that.
SPEAKER_00Let's yeah, you know, I agree. I agree with you. I agree with you, yeah. And then and about the debt, I learned that the hard way because whenever I started the business, I just wanted to do a stuff that would reassure me, like, hey, I'm deep in this. Like a way I look at debt too, is like, oh, now I have to figure it out, now I have to make it happen. But I have learned to use to don't see to don't use debt as a motivation. Because, for example, like we buy the house and we buy the house in debt. Yeah, my motivation is like, oh, I need to make money. I need to make money, I need to make enough money in three years that that I can pay off this mortgage here. I sometimes look at it as motivation, but in business, something so risky is really hard. Because what I did is the first four months in business, I got like I got in I got a I got in debt like $30,000 in a credit card.
SPEAKER_05Which you paid off now, right?
SPEAKER_00But it took me six months and six months of hard work, six months of earning, and I'm like instead of having that money in your pocket or putting on a card.
SPEAKER_05I had to pay off a credit card credit card.
SPEAKER_00And I'm like, hey, I don't think that would be. You know, free interest, 0% interest for 12 months, but that that made me realize and I'm like, hey, and with that being said, like, hey, if you cannot afford that expense with you with your debit card, with the money you have in the bank account, I should probably not be using a credit card.
SPEAKER_05At least for the first, like, I mean, honestly, I would even say 24 months.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Because the first year can be crazy.
SPEAKER_00Because it just brings out too much risk, and then whenever you're paying off that credit card, and now you have those high interest payments, and then something I have seen that is not good, and I'm like, man, I would not wish to be on your position. Whenever people start businesses with credit cards, I'm like, man, you're putting like it has to really work out really well, and you have to make sure this works out, and then you're probably spending the first two, three years just paying off credit cards.
SPEAKER_05Well, that's where it goes, like with planning. Like you talked about earlier that 10-year plan, right? Yeah. So like even if you say it's a one-year, two-year plan, that's where it's like, okay, during that time, like you're working a job, you haven't started your business yet, and you save. Like, maybe that means you don't get to do hot yoga for like six months. Okay. Yeah. Or like if you want it bad enough, you will. Maybe maybe you can't have Starbucks every day. Okay. Maybe you can't go to dinner once a week with your family. But once you do that, then you, you know, if your dream is entrepreneurship, yeah. It's worth it.
SPEAKER_00I agree. I feel like I feel we went about a different route because whenever I started a business, I'm I'm a single guy.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I didn't have any major responsibilities. And thank God because I didn't have a family. So thank God because I didn't have any BRs.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And I really had a good support system around my brother and my mom. I didn't really need to have a lot of money safe up. And I started the like one mistake I made is I started the business with no money, just like scrapping it, doing a job, getting getting money here, paying for the staff, and then just using the credit card.
SPEAKER_05But like you didn't need, I mean, well, yeah, I guess you did kind of need it, but you probably overspent with the credit card.
SPEAKER_00Yes, I spent with a credit card to do it. But also extend the helping my end is this, like because I was single, I made sure I was in a position where I didn't have any personal views. Like I don't have a car view. I drive a uh Mr. Jet here drive a 2013 beat up Kia Sorg with 200. Yeah, but I don't have any BL on it. So I didn't have any bills.
SPEAKER_04And it allowed you to like go after your dream and now look at you.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and then and then I had my brother and my mom, and because of what I was a family finance, you know, they could, you know, they could probably pay the bill for six months, and I didn't really need to provide anything because I was living with my parents. So I think in your early 20s, if you don't have any responsibilities, no beers. I didn't have any beers, yeah. But I know yours was different because you had families.
SPEAKER_05I was in my 20s when I started this.
SPEAKER_00But you had families, bills.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, and I was the breadwinner. So like my husband at the time, like was a stay-at-home dad.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_05And I went a little wild. But no, the plan was eventually to start a business. So we did have like money and savings, probably should have had more, but like thankfully we were fine, we didn't need it.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Um, but I'll say the first two months, like, I didn't make money. Like, I think I did get my first clients in the first two months, but it was like I mean, because at first the first when you're first in business, like you don't charge nearly enough because you don't know. Like, you know, like that's one of the hard parts, I think, at first, but didn't charge nearly enough. Worked so much for free, tried so hard. Also, it was during the holidays, like November, December.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_05And I took half of December off for holidays. Yeah. But it was like so. In January, I was like, okay, I really hope this works. Like, I only have like a you know, I have a couple months, like let's see what it seems.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_05And then like at the end of January, I was like, wow, like I did this, like I made triple what I thought I would.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Like, which was it was a small number still, like, don't get me wrong. Like, I thought I would just make a couple grand. Yeah. And then like February was the same thing. New goal for March, same thing. Yeah. And so on and so forth. The only time we slowed down, I think, was summer, which we wanted to. That was an on-purpose thing.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, on purpose.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, but then we really sped up like August, September, October.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And that was I was doing a lot of the vacations, uh, May, June, July, and then August. I'm like, hey, I'm not planning any any other vacation until we turn the business around. Yeah. And we got it. And I think we didn't get it. And like, and we were fine.
SPEAKER_05Like, we still have like those months in the summer were still profitable, but we weren't really paying ourselves.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I agree because yeah, because we we were also in that phase of merging. Hiring people before having to work and like trying to put it in. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04But it's just a it's a part of
SPEAKER_00But I see now that I started the business as single, I'm glad. Hey. Because I started the business with no responsibilities, personal responsibility, neither card bill, any of that. I'm like, I mean, I'm glad I did it now because I don't see myself, I don't see putting if I have a family and I had kids and a wife and being the breadwinner, I would be like, I don't think I don't think I could put my family through this for six months with no more. Don't bow with that being said, it's like it's just like kudos to you for doing it because that is an extra level of rigs that you want your family.
SPEAKER_05I mean, it's worth it though. But like for me, it was like obviously like I talked about this. I wanted a business. Yeah. But also it's like I want to control my time. Yes. Like I don't want a company saying, okay, we need you to work all this time and like you're missing out on your kids like play at school or whatever it is, right? Yeah. Like I want to be able to go and then come home and work. I mean, work like every like I at the time, like when we I first started my business, and you too, I know. I worked every day. I still do sometimes. But like I worked every day. Like sometimes I was taking calls. Like I remember I got a client who's still our client, great, great client. But I got this client, I was like at Sonic. It was like a Saturday afternoon. I was taking my kids and I had comment on a Facebook post. And like my kids really like wanted to have that time with me. Like, and I wanted to have it with them because they were busy. But it's just like a sacrifice you have to make.
SPEAKER_00I agree.
SPEAKER_05And he may have been like my fifth or sixth client. Like, so I was like very new, you know, it was like February, January, January, maybe, but I took them to Sonic, they're playing. And then the the guy called me and I was like, oh my gosh. So I sat in my car, the kids were like playing and they were like asking me for things, and I just took that call and then got a new client. That's just what you have to do.
SPEAKER_00Yes, it's why you gotta do, but I still think uh you took more risk than I did. So and now question about that. Did that put did that put way more pressure into you? Because I was like, hey, I'm okay with not making any money. I grew up in Cuba with nothing. I don't really need money. I'm still living with my with my mom. Thank God my mom and my brother can pay can pay the house be all. Uh you know, so I really I could I would have been okay making no money for a GI. But in Julien, you had beers. Yes, I mean like did I put way more pressure? You're like, oh man, I gotta make this whatever is new, like $3,000, $4,000 to make to make the beers, to make the yen, to make the yen made.
SPEAKER_05That's a good question. And plus my mortgage was like the biggest mortgage I've ever I've ever had, like at the time. I mean it still is, but um, that's a good question. And like like honestly, no, I probably should have been more stressed, but I'll say like I had and maybe have, but like I had the most unrealistic confidence in myself. Like I was like, it like I it's fine, whatever. Like I I'll say I was a little stressed after not making really any money like in November and December. Yeah, but then like I still was like we're gonna be fine. Like I'm not even worried about it.
SPEAKER_00Yes, and I feel in business you need that, you need that crazy confidence in yourself. If not, you're not going to start it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Because remember, if you're starting a business, it because a lot of the time, and if you started if you start a service business, it'd because you are really good at what you're doing at your job. You probably are making six figures, you're probably making a significant amount of money.
SPEAKER_05So that's kind of what I was thinking. I was like, if someone's willing to pay me this much and I did this for their businesses, yeah, you know, and I really helped them. Like I know that I did, and I brought more than that six figures that I was making like to their business. Yeah. So I'm like, okay, what can I do if I'm doing on a scale for multiple businesses? Like, how can I help all of them?
SPEAKER_00Because the math was this, the math in my mind was this, okay, I'm probably going to be making around 120k, 150k on my job next year or in the next two years. Do I think I can get there faster if I go out on myself? And you have to be really confident enough to think like, oh yeah, I can make that much money.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00I can I can get there with my own business. And sometimes uh, you know, sometimes like 150k, 200k is a lot of money. So you really have to be confident enough that you can make that money for you to quit a high-paying job, and that's why they call it the hand curve. And I can see that like, hey, 150k, 200k is good, and probably not most businesses. Yeah, business owners probably don't make that much money.
SPEAKER_05I mean, yeah, what percentage of business owners are making. That's a good we need to look that up. But the average um I think small business owner, no. At least from what I've seen, the average small business owner probably brings home like around 60 to 70,000.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_05And they work like no other people.
SPEAKER_00They work more than we do a W-2.
SPEAKER_05They, yeah, like these people are like, that's the people who I get a text from at like two in the morning on Saturday, like saying, Hey, I have like here's all my things. And I'm like, what are you doing? They're like, We're working.
SPEAKER_00Yes, you know. And I feel sometimes at that you gotta like, if you don't really see your business like making you more money than a W-2 job or something, or you see the benefit, I'm like, you uh I'm gonna go.
SPEAKER_05But some people like that flexibility, they want to control their life, like they want to be at their kids' school all day.
SPEAKER_00But is that at the risk of working? Like, you're probably going to work more than for a W-2 job. Yeah, is that worse than that?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I think, but like this is my thing. Like, yeah, my thing is like I think everyone does like should do whatever they want. I agree. Like if their goal is like whatever makes you happy. Yeah, like whatever doesn't make you happy. Like, if if their priorities are like, I want to spend time with my kids when they're home, yeah, then great. Or like I want to go on vacations whenever I want and party like all the time, great. Then like, but that makes you work a hundred hours a week rather than 40 or 60 hours a week. Okay.
SPEAKER_00That's good.
SPEAKER_05Like if that's what they want to do, you know.
SPEAKER_00That's good. Yes. Yeah, I think uh yeah, people need to see the pros and the cons. It's not as business ownership is hard. And then starting at something is.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, it can be stressful. Like you might get some crazy stuff going on with employees in the middle of the night or something.
SPEAKER_00I agree. And so, and I feel also, and then we we can also lead the conversation this way. Now I was telling you before, I was reading the e-mith book, and it talks about how to be a business owner you have you need to have three personalities. Okay. And three for the business. So you gotta be the entrepreneur. Okay. Entrepreneur is just the ambitious person, the goal setter. You need to have a director, directive mentality, like is security, and then you gotta be the technician. Usually, whenever you start a business, you've been the technician, it's like you doing the job. Like as tax preparer as you are now tax manager. Then you need the director putting order to everything, and then you also need the entrepreneur putting the big goals.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. Right now, wild hair.
SPEAKER_00What is it?
SPEAKER_05The wild hair.
SPEAKER_00Yes, the wild hair. So right now in our business, and I think this is like this is something we we haven't talked about. So this is what I have found out, and me thinking like, if you really, and then this can be a good leading, a good conversation of how we met and how we decided to join. I feel running a business by yourself is really hard because you have gotta do these three roles by yourself. I feel whenever you bring partners, and this is now that I have partnered up in business, I think it's my recommendation is like, hey, get something with the same goal as you want.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_00That helps you out. Because at the end of the day, if you want your business to be through self-full, you need these three people.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, you're right.
SPEAKER_00You need a technician.
SPEAKER_05But I will say we both wear all three of those hats. Yes. But we wear it in specific times and areas.
SPEAKER_00I feel now, I feel now, and you know, let's discuss this. I think this is going to be a good combo. I feel right now, like we all wear the three hats. However, probably the hearts I see at least as if from the outside, because you know, I don't I don't see your dead today. You're probably wearing out the more entrepreneur hearts. Yeah, which is more than me.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00More than me, because you know, you're the one about the taxi though. Yeah, you you're the one figuring out like oh how we grow in the business. You you you're the one bringing up new source packages, like where we want the business to make. I feel I'm going to wear the hat more in the summer. Summer is the time to for me to think big.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Now I'm definitely wearing the biggest the biggest hat I'm wearing now is just the technician hat.
SPEAKER_05Because it's taxis and which like you have to because you have to establish one, we want like high quality, obviously. But then also it's like establishing like knowing what we need and like knowing that role as white glove as we know it today.
SPEAKER_00And then our director is the one the technician does the work, but the technician doesn't have time to think about the business or create processes. Yeah. The technician is the person that wants to do it all by themselves, and you don't grow a business doing everything by yourself. You need to be able to create processes, train people, and delegate. And I think this is where I'm at, as now being active as a tax manager. You know, we have two tax preparers, they are great, they do a great job. Shout out if you're listening to this. You know, you know, who you are, the director. So the technician gets the work done and it needs to get done for a business. The director, I feel now we're director of operation. She's helping us a lot in that yeah. And is the one that put order to the chaos really quick.
SPEAKER_05It's almost A's birthday. So a big shout out and happy birthday to A. I mean, uh, I mean, not birthday. One year, one year anniversary. It's almost A's one year's anniversary with White Glove.
SPEAKER_00Ace, Ace, who's Ace?
SPEAKER_05Tax team.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_05Oh, yeah, let's call A. So A's.
SPEAKER_00Let's call A.
SPEAKER_05You know who I'm A1, A1, A1, A1, Day 1.
SPEAKER_00Probably employee one, A1. We can put employee ones, yeah. Yeah. Hey, yeah. For sure. Yeah, yeah, remember. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes. So hey, thank you. Thank you for everything you're doing. A? You know who you are.
SPEAKER_05A is great, like, helps me out, helps you out.
SPEAKER_00Yes, she is awesome. She's awesome. So, but yeah, so what do you think? Do you agree? You think every business needs to have those three kinds of personalities? If you really want a growing business, a business that I look at business like I don't like naming it a business if you want to create a company. Because I feel business is just one person, self-employee. But then I mean, but then the goal should be to create a company. You know, like think about like to create something bigger. Like if you want something on the millions, I'm making a lot of money, you need a company because you need a lot of people. You need all of these three roles. You need the technician, the director creating process system, and helping a lot of the operational admin side, and then you have the entrepreneur to have the vision that hey, we can be a 10 million, 100 million dollars.
SPEAKER_04The entrepreneur is the risky, is the big picture, the creative, is the you know.
SPEAKER_00And I feel a lot of people get stuck in this technician, and I see it all the time. And I feel the director and entrepreneur are the people like whenever you say people, whenever you see a lot of people saying, hey, you are spending too much time working in your business as the technician, not working on your business. Yes. And if you're in that situation, you need to make sure you are setting time aside to work as a director. And entrepreneur.
SPEAKER_05I bet I think director is the most like lost art form, I think, of the three.
SPEAKER_00Yes. And it's the most important, and it's the thing that will it's the backbone.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's the one that's going to create the structure of the city. I'm doing the job, and they're like entrepreneur, I'm growing, I have ideas, I have these things.
SPEAKER_00And if you decided to start your own business, you also have entrepreneurs. But I feel that dies down. The entrepreneur mindsets dies down whenever like you're taking care of, you're doing the job every day. I'm like, oh man, I'm just tired of this. I don't even have I don't even want to be in business anymore.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00No, so and then the direct doll is the one that help you, that help the entrepreneurs' goals get there because a lot of times they become a good idea.
SPEAKER_05That's where having a good like operations team though, to kind of help that. Because I will say, like, something about me, like I think that I know that that's an important piece. Yeah. But I do feel like my brain is in like, I mean, technician, because I'm doing that role too, like on the advisor side. Yes, you are. Not on the accounting side.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_05But I feel like you're right, like the entrepreneurial, like, it just doesn't go away from me. Yes. And I think that's something that I'm glad that we're partners. I think you're really good at the I mean you're good at the entrepreneur part too, but don't get me wrong. But like the director part, you're good at like going back and saying, hey, we need to process for this. And that's something that our operations is good at too. But I'm really good at like, hey, here's this idea, here's this new service, like, here's the things I want to do.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, the director is like, oh, let me show it it happens. And I feel every business needs needs that for sure. No, but I feel those things are really important. And and I so something that was killing me before we joined is wearing these three hats at the same time. Yeah. Wearing these three hats at the the same time, and I'm like, man, I cannot do this. And I feel that's why bringing the right partners with you is important because you can take these hats off, then you have more people to bounce off idea.
SPEAKER_05And I feel that the idea thing has been a big deal for me. Like, yeah, yeah, and like, and like you said, like if we if we're out on vacation, like I'm like, I got you, don't worry about it. Yeah. For like, say, like five screens.
SPEAKER_00For example, like right now, like, you know, uh uh you have staff you need to do from 3 p.m. to six pm with family. Like, yeah, I'm taking a client's meeting, and then you take them in the morning that white can work.
SPEAKER_01So I just done now.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's awesome. You know, uh, but uh this is what we I think this is what we should do. Okay, so so I know like something about us, and even whenever you started your own uh finance company, I started uh accounting company, accounting, advisory accounting, I started CPA FM and then we merged. But something we were pretty, I feel like we were lucky though, because I've seen lots of partnerships since then, and we've I've been helping some partnerships out, and like we were lucky, yes, but this is the thing though, uh we were not looking for each other because whenever whenever whenever we started our company, something I said, hey, I didn't want any other I didn't want any other owner.
SPEAKER_02I'm like, this is how I want control, like I want it to be me.
SPEAKER_00But then we started working together on some projects, and then we realized, oh, I can see I can see we can grow, we can grow, uh we can grow more together, yeah, faster and bigger, and faster and bigger, and it's true, and we have done it, and no regress on that. So, what do you think? Okay, so what do you think made it such an easy decision and why has it been so successful, this partnership for the business, merging the businesses, like running this thing together, and why we were so easy to change of mind whenever whenever we were so caught up, like hey, I'm not giving any piece of this thing to anybody else.
SPEAKER_05I think that's a good question. And and I the answer, at least on my perspective, I think it's that one, like we talked a lot on the phone. Like we talked just like we're doing now.
SPEAKER_03Yes, we do.
SPEAKER_05And I felt like instantly we had like our brainwaves were just like so in line. Yes. And we both had like the knowledge, like complementary knowledge, right? So like I had knowledge on this side of the accounting business world, you had knowledge on this side. Yes, right. Complementary knowledge. When and like and I realized that I'm like, that's something I'm looking for, and you kind of thought the same thing, I think.
SPEAKER_00Yes, and near the moment.
SPEAKER_05When it when it went in together, we were like, wow, okay, so it's like a powerhouse. Like we literally have both sides. Yes. And there's not we have a very similar thought process, though. It's like if we don't know it, we will figure it out. It's not like, oh, we don't know how to do it, we're not doing it. We don't know we're both like I don't know it. Okay, then like in five minutes we have an answer, or we have an idea to get the answer, or a person to get the answer from. But then also it's about values and ethics, which I think we discreetly found out. I don't think that was something top of mind. No, yeah, but I think during our conversations we found out that we both like you know, are I mean, we are ethical. Like, you know, we don't like you know, we like to be above board on things, like etc. And we really value like client relationships, we we value like high quality work.
SPEAKER_00We don't want to just be like another firm that's just pumping out stuff or like you know, throwing out your information into the wind and over seeing what sticks. But yeah, I agree. I think too, I think this is what I think we were so successful, and then why even though we were not looking for each other, we were so okay, let's do this. This is why I fell we had the same goals because I re I remember the first time we met, uh we had the same goal and we kind of had the same personality because I remember the first time we met, uh, me sharing the goal for because we met. Do you want to tell them how we met? Because you were you were you were the one reaching out.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we actually met on Facebook, right? Messenger, yeah. I'm gonna tell you guys like Facebook has been so good to us. Shout out to Meta. Yeah, but like so good for our business. Like, that's we get like I would say like 70% of our business like from organic Facebook interactions, the other 30% from word of mouth, which is which is pretty good, right?
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_05So but I'll say we met on Facebook. I think we're both commenting on the same, like, like we were almost competing, but not quite. Commenting on like yeah, yeah, yeah, different, but like we're both commenting on the same stuff.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_05So then we messaged, I messaged you maybe for like a client or something. I can't recall the exact reason. And then I I don't think we ever stopped talking.
SPEAKER_00I think I think you messaged me. I think the first message was like, hey, I would love to connect with you. I usually refer tax clients out, and I'm looking for a CPA. Whenever I'm going to tell you the first thought I had. So the first thought I'm like, so the same thought we have about financial advisors. When I have financial advisor, you know, all the time, I was like, oh man, a nedal bookkeeper that she probably doesn't know, doesn't know how to do stuff that wants to meet with me and just create a relationship because you know I'm a CPI Ghetta's client and she needs my work. You know what I mean? And but I'm like, okay, let's take this meeting. Let's take this meeting because I had the time. I was just trying to create a relationship. I was talking to anybody. Right now I'm more, you know, I'm more my time is more scarce for those type of meetings. And then we jump in the meeting and we start talking, and I really and I learn about your experience. Like, oh now, like, oh, this is actually a real person that study accounting and that have industry experience. And for a book and for an accounting person, accounting manager, an advisor, I really want somebody that has done it for other people and really know what they're doing. It's not somebody that went online and took a bookkeeping course and don't even have an accounting degree.
SPEAKER_05I mean, like, and that's great for technical. I mean, a lot of times, like that's fine for technical, but it's not okay for entrepreneurship.
SPEAKER_00But I feel but I feel even if you want to get your work done by a good, if you want your books to be done, you need to make sure like accounting is different. Like bookkeeping and accounting is different. Bookkeeping is shows that I entry. Accounting is making sure, like, okay, is this then done?
SPEAKER_05Journal entry, the preciation. And you need to go to college.
SPEAKER_00Yes, as a manager, you need to go to college for that. And if I was going to like whenever I refer a workout, I want to make sure they're going to get a good work. And I'm the I'm like, because I do the taxes, I look at those books and I know what is a good accounting or not, and then I don't care, like send feedback back. I'm like, hey, Shin D, that is wrong.
SPEAKER_05Which I don't feel like we ever had that happen when we worked for that.
SPEAKER_00So no, but so I'm like, okay, the first thing was check, okay, technical knowledge. Cool. I can refer referral hard work, and then I love your CFO experience. And I and that was a good idea.
SPEAKER_05So the MA, the MA really brought us together. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yes, because we had this client and we and we worked together on it. So that definitely complementary stuff. And then we had the same goals. I guess you were really ambitious or more ambitious than me, and we have the same thing, the same thing. Hey, we are in business, we have the same goal, we want to build a big firm, a big company, and make money. And that was the most important thing.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And then we started working together.
SPEAKER_05And we didn't want to be basic. Like we didn't want to be like all the other accounting firms.
SPEAKER_00And then we also agree, we also liked that we were doing the monthly fee, the fees fee, the stuff up front. I'm like, oh, I guess we view this business the same way. And we have the same goals, and we both have really good complementary skill set, and we both are really ambitious and we both have experience. So I think that was that was why it was a good fit. I feel it was a good fit because the goals part of it. Like whenever you come, I feel like a tip I would give people whenever you partner up with somebody, make sure they have the same goals as you.
SPEAKER_05Like sometimes I feel like that.
SPEAKER_00I'm like, okay, he's really Yeah, and then yeah, the same work ethic. And then something I liked it about us, and something I see, there is a lot, I feel a lot of partnerships go wrong because people that haven't done it or haven't done the business, they want to come together and start a business.
SPEAKER_01But they haven't never done it before.
SPEAKER_00Like something that we did, we already had our businesses going. We were hustling up, and then we decided oh, we are good to. Come together and we have worked together before, and I knew and I knew we knew what each other were bringing to the business. I think that is our thing.
SPEAKER_05We did it really fast though, which like I feel like in business, especially like in that first starting stage of entrepreneurship, you have to be able to make quick and good decisions.
SPEAKER_00And good decisions, yeah. And we yeah. And I think it's really so I think for me to summarize it is like have the same goals and the same vision for the business, not only ethics.
SPEAKER_05Like I feel like that's so important though, because in ethics and then life styles too.
SPEAKER_00And understand the thing. I was like, we also something that we agree a lot, is like, hey, during summer, I want to slow down because I enjoy taking two week vacation. Like during Christmas break, I want to make sure we don't have to work the last two weeks of Christmas. Family, the same values, and then also have complementary technical abilities. And then and then also like they are do that I want to see that they are also doing it.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_00Because I feel to start a business, people can just like tell you a lot of stuff they can they can do.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And then but they haven't never done it. They have never done, they have never run a business, so they don't know what it's like. So I feel those three things are really important. That's why it works out. So well, and then communication, uh, I think we have two minutes more. And then communication, uh, and then communication is really important. You you need to figure out you are able to communicate, take decision.
SPEAKER_05And it's almost like like we were able to talk like as friends. Like I mean, you know, and like I think that's important too. It's like it has to be yeah, you have to do that.
SPEAKER_00And I feel like and I feel for communication, something that that have worked out for us is like don't get caught up on the small details. The thing I asked for each time we communicate, and I feel this is good. This is good for the thing. Like, is that going literally I put it down, is that decision going to get us closer to reach the business goal, to make more money? Yeah. And then I'm like, oh cool. If that does, even though if I don't, if I don't see the vision, I'm like, hey, let's try it out, let's take the risk, and then I feel something about me that makes communication easy is that like I don't care about the mind stuff, you know what I mean? So I'm really like easy going in that sense. I'm like, hey, though the details don't matter to me as long as the vision and the intention is the right, and it can get us closer to that. Well, what do you think are keys now that we're getting closing up? What do you think are some keys for communication between business owners and in partnership? Because sometimes they cannot communicate and they just get crazy.
SPEAKER_05I would say consistent and listening. And like we both like to talk, and like we we know this, and as we do talk over each other, it's like and like I don't care, it doesn't bother me. Like, and I think you're the same way. Some people can get upset about that, but I think just consistent communication, and honestly, at first it needs to be almost constant. Like we were like I feel like tied at the hip. Like we were always talking, but we still do, like we talk every day at least once a day.
SPEAKER_00I think that that is really important too, talking every day about the business and what is going on. And you catch issues fast, you can fix issues quickly. I agree with you. Communication every every day is easy, and then even with new employees, and and whenever you're trying to be or something, I I have seen the importance of meetings and then just talking every week. Like we have a meeting every week with operation to see what they're doing, and then that way we can see what is important to us and make sure we are prioritizing the right stuff that next world.
SPEAKER_05So should we say ciao for now?
SPEAKER_00Yes, let's do it.
SPEAKER_05Okay. Ciao for now.
SPEAKER_00Ciao for now.
