WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.520 The biggest mistake that I see entrepreneurs who were at, you know, two million, three million 2 00:00:03.520 --> 00:00:08.480 five million is that they are trying to solve their business growth problem by just coming out 3 00:00:08.480 --> 00:00:12.640 with thing after thing after thing after thing after thing for that audience rather than thinking 4 00:00:12.640 --> 00:00:19.520 maybe I should expand my audience. Welcome to the game where we talk about how to sell more stuff to 5 00:00:19.520 --> 00:00:23.520 more people in more ways and build businesses worth owning. I'm trying to build a billion dollar 6 00:00:23.520 --> 00:00:27.840 thing with acquisition.com. I always wished pesos, musk and buffet had documented their journey, 7 00:00:27.840 --> 00:00:30.000 so I'm doing it for the rest of us. Please share and enjoy. 8 00:00:33.280 --> 00:00:39.040 Mark Bell just flew out. Awesome guy to do a podcast here with me in Vegas. We worked out, shot 9 00:00:39.040 --> 00:00:43.840 the shit. It was a great time and there was this really important point where he said, you know, 10 00:00:43.840 --> 00:00:47.600 I wish more people would just peel weight off the bar. He said, I always respect a guy who's 11 00:00:47.600 --> 00:00:50.960 lifting with stronger guys and says, you know what guys? I'm going to peel some weight off so that 12 00:00:50.960 --> 00:00:55.680 I can do this weight the right way. And I thought it was such a beautiful parallel in business and 13 00:00:55.680 --> 00:00:59.520 one of the most common mistakes in business that I see entrepreneurs at all levels make. 14 00:01:00.160 --> 00:01:05.440 So acquisition.com probably talks to 25 new companies a week that are coming out, you know, 15 00:01:05.440 --> 00:01:10.800 approaching us about us potentially, you know, investing in their companies. And one of my biggest 16 00:01:10.800 --> 00:01:17.280 pet peeves, comma entrepreneurial mistakes that I see across the board, especially in that like 17 00:01:17.280 --> 00:01:24.320 sub five million range is something that will destroy your business for the long haul. 18 00:01:24.960 --> 00:01:30.560 And the reason is not because the strategy is wrong, but because it's too advanced. And I will 19 00:01:30.560 --> 00:01:36.960 explain what I mean in a second. So the easy analogy for what I'm going to try to explain is 20 00:01:36.960 --> 00:01:40.960 something that you that hopefully people can resonate with at the gym. So if you're working out 21 00:01:40.960 --> 00:01:46.000 with someone and one person stronger than the other person and the strong guy goes first and has 22 00:01:46.000 --> 00:01:51.120 three plates on the bar, doesn't really matter. The weaker guy might go up and if he has an ego, 23 00:01:51.120 --> 00:01:55.600 give it a shot, even though it's above his pay grade, it's above his strength level. And even if 24 00:01:55.600 --> 00:02:00.000 he could pull it off, it'd be poor and it'd probably be risky because he isn't strong enough, right? 25 00:02:00.720 --> 00:02:07.680 And business is a lot like that in ways because oftentimes entrepreneurs will have the right 26 00:02:07.680 --> 00:02:12.560 strategy lifting the weight and lifting heavier weight is not wrong and it's the right way to get 27 00:02:12.560 --> 00:02:17.600 strong, but it's just too advanced for where you're at right now. And it takes humility like the 28 00:02:17.600 --> 00:02:21.040 guy who says, you know what, I'm going to peel a plate off because it's like I can do that weight 29 00:02:21.040 --> 00:02:25.920 better so that I can someday level up and get strong enough to do that more advanced thing. 30 00:02:26.480 --> 00:02:32.080 In weight and lifting, it's linear because you just add plates to the bar. But in business, 31 00:02:32.080 --> 00:02:37.680 it's about complexity. And so the adding the weight to the bar is complexity in the business, 32 00:02:37.680 --> 00:02:43.920 whereas simplicity oftentimes is what scales. So you might imagine, imagine somebody comes up to 33 00:02:43.920 --> 00:02:48.400 you and says, Hey, I want to start a digital bank because I think that all of this stuff should 34 00:02:48.400 --> 00:02:53.520 be central and we could have payments and blah, blah, blah. That's a hard business to build. 35 00:02:54.080 --> 00:02:59.760 Elon Musk can build it because he's a thousand pound squatter. It's not to say that if you try to 36 00:02:59.760 --> 00:03:06.080 build it, you're wrong for the idea. It's that you just might not be there yet. And so 37 00:03:06.880 --> 00:03:10.480 back to what I was saying with the entrepreneurs that we talk to on a regular basis, 38 00:03:10.480 --> 00:03:14.000 the biggest mistake that I see is that they put on shoes that are too big for them. 39 00:03:14.000 --> 00:03:18.160 And the way that they do that is that they have something that starts working and then they let 40 00:03:18.160 --> 00:03:25.920 this insipid phrase melt into their mind and take over their actions, which is I'm leaving money 41 00:03:25.920 --> 00:03:31.440 on the table. And so they have this thing that's working and then they think to themselves, well, 42 00:03:31.440 --> 00:03:35.360 why don't we refer that business out? Because like they should get that for me and then they try and 43 00:03:35.360 --> 00:03:39.360 glob that. They're like, oh, yeah. And then I need to do this too. And I need to glob that so 44 00:03:39.360 --> 00:03:47.040 that they get more money in every customer. Is that a great strategy? Yes. Is the execution of 45 00:03:47.040 --> 00:03:53.680 that strategy very advanced from an operational perspective? Yes. And so here's the thing. I had 46 00:03:53.680 --> 00:03:58.320 a buddy from high school approached me and he was like, hey, this is what I'm doing with my 47 00:03:58.320 --> 00:04:03.520 contracting business. So he's a general contractor. And he was, he was, he was roofing primarily. 48 00:04:03.520 --> 00:04:06.320 And I was like, okay, sweet. So you're just going to see how you're roofing business. He's like, 49 00:04:06.320 --> 00:04:11.280 yeah, but I also do some like flips in real estate because we like, you know, fix some stuff there. 50 00:04:11.280 --> 00:04:16.480 And I was like, okay, so you do roofs and you do real estate flipping. He's like, yeah, but I mean, 51 00:04:16.480 --> 00:04:21.120 we also do some general contracting work just kind of like fix stuff inside of houses. I was like, okay, 52 00:04:21.840 --> 00:04:27.520 so you do roofing. You do general contracting work and you flip houses. And he was like, yeah, 53 00:04:28.240 --> 00:04:33.600 I was like, okay, why? He's like, well, you know, we have these resources. I'm trying to like make 54 00:04:33.600 --> 00:04:37.200 the most of all of it. And I, you know, some of these clients, we fix the roof and like, hey, 55 00:04:37.200 --> 00:04:41.520 can you fix something in my house? I'm like, I could do it. So then I do it because I don't 56 00:04:41.520 --> 00:04:47.040 want to leave money on the team. And the question is, what problem are we solving? If the goals to 57 00:04:47.040 --> 00:04:52.320 grow the business, do we think that we could have a hundred million dollar roofing business? 58 00:04:52.320 --> 00:04:56.000 The answer is yes. Do we think we could have a hundred million dollar general contracting 59 00:04:56.560 --> 00:05:00.960 business? Answer is yes. Do you think we have a hundred million dollar flipping houses business? 60 00:05:00.960 --> 00:05:06.640 The answer is yes. Can you have all three? Very unlikely. Unless you're an Elon, 61 00:05:06.640 --> 00:05:10.640 unless you're a freak, but most people aren't. And that's okay. It's normal. 62 00:05:14.080 --> 00:05:18.560 Most of the nation real quick, if you are a business owner that has a big old business and wants 63 00:05:18.560 --> 00:05:24.000 to get to a much bigger business, going to $50 million plus, we would love to talk to you. And if 64 00:05:24.320 --> 00:05:27.600 you like that, we'd like to hear more about it. Go to acquisition.com and you can plan 65 00:05:27.600 --> 00:05:31.600 anywhere on the page and talk to one of our team and see if we can help you get there. 66 00:05:34.000 --> 00:05:37.520 The biggest mistake that I see entrepreneurs who are at, you know, two million, three million, 67 00:05:37.520 --> 00:05:43.360 five million, ish is that they are trying to solve their business growth problem by just trying 68 00:05:43.360 --> 00:05:46.960 to glob as many different things as they possibly can. You know the people I'm talking about. They 69 00:05:46.960 --> 00:05:50.880 have an audience. And so then they just start coming out with thing after thing after thing after 70 00:05:51.280 --> 00:05:56.960 that audience, rather than thinking, maybe I should expand my audience and keep selling the thing 71 00:05:56.960 --> 00:06:00.480 that I'm really good at. The thing that I'm best at. The thing that's the best leverage for my 72 00:06:00.480 --> 00:06:06.480 opportunity, my skill sets. And so it's hard for people to say or even peel back. So this is you 73 00:06:06.480 --> 00:06:10.400 and you've got five different products. You sell to different avatars. You sell very clearly 74 00:06:10.400 --> 00:06:16.000 different services. You might want to say, okay, which one of these are my best at? In which one of 75 00:06:16.080 --> 00:06:19.840 these do I think I could serve the most people with? And find the one that Chris, you know, 76 00:06:19.840 --> 00:06:23.280 Chris crosses those two things and say, I'm going to forget about the rest of the stuff and go 77 00:06:23.280 --> 00:06:26.240 all in on this one thing. Because the problem that we're trying to solve is that we're trying to 78 00:06:26.240 --> 00:06:31.840 make more money. And so us doing all these other things, it distracts from the core business 79 00:06:31.840 --> 00:06:37.600 opportunity. And so that's where we need to peel weight off the bar. We need to peel things down 80 00:06:37.600 --> 00:06:43.200 and focus on the weight that we can do and get more repetitions in it that this weight so that 81 00:06:43.200 --> 00:06:49.680 we then can earn the right later to maybe add one thing in at scale. Maybe when we have someone 82 00:06:49.680 --> 00:06:56.080 who can run that and drive that rather than you, right? And so it's probably the number one red flag 83 00:06:56.080 --> 00:07:02.720 that I look out for. It also tends to stem from a little bit of greed and people like they're looking 84 00:07:02.720 --> 00:07:06.160 at other people's paychecks. I'm sending this guy so much business. I'm sending that guy so much 85 00:07:06.880 --> 00:07:13.200 good. Great. Get into the commission. Call it a day. Move on, right? And they try and bring 86 00:07:13.200 --> 00:07:18.160 these things in house. And a lot of times they're not cordial. It's just it's just it's globbing. 87 00:07:18.160 --> 00:07:22.400 And then you have this amalgamation, this Frankenstein looking business that no one wants to touch. 88 00:07:22.400 --> 00:07:26.080 Because the first thing that we do with a business like that is we would simplify. We'd peel 89 00:07:26.080 --> 00:07:30.880 weight off the bar and we'd say we need to do more reps and more volume with the weight that we've 90 00:07:30.880 --> 00:07:37.200 got. And that parallel applies so beautifully in entrepreneurship that I felt the need to make 91 00:07:37.200 --> 00:07:42.080 this because so many of the entrepreneurs we talk through are making this mistake. And I say this 92 00:07:42.080 --> 00:07:48.800 because I, before I started making money, had a car practice agency. I had a dental agency. I had 93 00:07:48.800 --> 00:07:54.640 a gym turnaround business. And I also had five locations, six locations, whatever that was, six 94 00:07:55.600 --> 00:07:59.600 locations. So I had this many businesses at the same time. And I wasn't making no money. 95 00:08:00.480 --> 00:08:05.440 And so I do I think that I could own all of these businesses now. Sure, I'm strong enough to own 96 00:08:05.440 --> 00:08:10.560 those businesses now. But then I wasn't. And so what did I have to do? I had to peel weight off the 97 00:08:10.560 --> 00:08:16.800 bar until I was left with one. And then I did more reps with that one with the one plate on the bar. 98 00:08:16.800 --> 00:08:22.080 I did as many reps as I could. And then I was able to level up my entrepreneurial skill set on a 99 00:08:22.080 --> 00:08:27.120 clear opportunity of all of the opportunities that I was best at. And you have to just say no. And 100 00:08:27.120 --> 00:08:31.920 this is just like the woman in the red dress saying no to increase in attractiveness as you get better. 101 00:08:32.640 --> 00:08:36.640 When I was starting out, I might consider a thousand dollar a month thing. But when you're making 102 00:08:36.640 --> 00:08:40.160 a hundred grand a month, you probably aren't as interested in a thousand dollar a month thing. 103 00:08:40.160 --> 00:08:43.840 You just ignore it. But you have a harder time ignoring another hundred thousand dollar a month 104 00:08:43.840 --> 00:08:49.680 thing, right? But you have to say no to that to get to a million a month. Because what happens is 105 00:08:49.680 --> 00:08:53.440 you get to a hundred and then you do another thing and then you're attention split and then you 106 00:08:53.440 --> 00:08:57.680 can't get past here. And so you have to peel the weight off the bar and then you do more reps. 107 00:08:58.320 --> 00:09:02.160 And the thing is that even at that next level and you're at a million a month, you look at 108 00:09:02.160 --> 00:09:05.360 this other thing, you're like there's this other opportunity in some million a month. But usually 109 00:09:06.080 --> 00:09:10.080 peel the weight off the bar and you do more reps. And so the only reason you shouldn't be doing 110 00:09:10.080 --> 00:09:14.240 more reps and adding to the bar, adding to the stuff that you sell is that you literally have no 111 00:09:14.240 --> 00:09:19.600 more people to sell to. And until you have that problem, you should focus on the one thing. 112 00:09:19.600 --> 00:09:23.840 And the secret is that most people really never get into that problem because they're not even close 113 00:09:23.840 --> 00:09:28.800 to the size of the market. So most of your nation, your entrepreneur, focus on the one thing, 114 00:09:28.800 --> 00:09:32.960 peel weight off the bar, do more reps at the weight that's appropriate for you and then wash your 115 00:09:32.960 --> 00:09:35.040 gains with financial and physical stack.