#213 - Put Down The Tool Bag - WorkWife's Christy Carter

So there's different stages in somebody's business growth.

And I don't actually know, thinking of my own audience specifically, which is a mix of business owners, but then there's also a lot of the younger generation, just because here we are in a digital platform, right, that's listening to a podcast, and it might be a service technician or foreman or somebody, someone else employed by a company, but meanwhile, in the back of their mind, they're thinking, yeah, I really like this, and someday, I either wanna buy this company or I wanna start my own company, And what is it like, or where do you see the hurdles when someone's at zero, and then they're going to get to something, let's say it's 200,000, and then it's 1 million? What are the hurdles along that growth from zero to something?

So I think in the beginning, like the very beginning at zero, all the hope in the world, like the dollars don't matter as much as the hope and the dream.

And like, you've got faith that it's all going to be okay.

And I think at zero, you survive on hope and wishes and you still have those.

And then after a little while of reality, the hope and the wishes aren't enough, you know, to be able to get you through.

So there's like that, then you don't have the, then it becomes an emotional struggle too.

Because like now the dream feels heavy.

And like you start doubting, am I doing the right thing? Should I back off? Should I go forward? And I think like that's why they, honestly, I feel like that's why they say that like a lot of businesses don't make it a year.

I think because the first time you hit that wall of hopes and dreams aren't enough right now, you have that choice of like, okay, am I going to go get a real job or am I going to make this something for real? And I think that decision happens in that first year because you start, everybody starts a little.

It's pretty rare that you can just jump straight in and there's no sacrifice.

And that hope and dream piece of it, I think gets you through to a point.

And then you have that breaking point where you have to make that decision.

And then I believe that once you make it, you hit that barrier again, because then you start to make money and things feel okay.

And then at about, I would say like somewhere between year two and year three, you realize how much help you actually need to be able to get any bigger.

And then you almost go backwards again because you haven't dealt with employees and you haven't dealt with structure and you haven't dealt with volume and you haven't dealt with real marketing.

It's mostly been referrals.

So you kind of knew the people that you were getting into business with.

And then you start moving into a space where you're working with strangers.

And like, what kind of marketing did you pick? Is your marketing...

getting you really terrible people who complain about everything? Is your marketing getting you like people you enjoy being around? Like in that state, I think two to three years is like, it's another place of, oh, I thought I had this figured out and maybe I don't.

And then at this point though, I feel like it's not about hopes and dreams.

It's about, am I ready to be a leader? Or do I still want to do this as my job? Because that's when your job changes from being the guy who has the skills, from being the guy who leads the guys that have the skills.

And I think that's a big mindset shift that people struggle with too.

Do you see particular financial patterns, meaning are there...