BLM

Congrats man! ESOPs aren’t for everyone. We’re young enough to be able to accept getting paid out over 6-7 yrs. That 2nd bite of the apple is going to be sweet!

Also, we sold 100% so the company paying no taxes in perpetuity is going to be extremely powerful for growing and scaling the businesses over the long term for the employee owners. The young leadership folks will end up with millions after 20 more years.

We’re in blue collar trades industries…construction based businesses. The secret sauce is a lot of things. You have to obsess about everything. Starts with sales, then you have to run the work as good or better than the competition. You have to understand billing and chasing money with anyone who gets a day behind. Don’t be too proud to beg but always be providing the highest level service you can. You have to be a good operator and or be able to do it successfully long enough until you can find people to hire and delegate those tasks to. We created a lot of relationships across the industry with owners, GC’s, developers, brokers, property managers and design firms in our first career. When we started we were simply calling on relationships where we already had a lot of relational capital. That can be an absolute game changer.

You need to be brutally honest about who you are and where your strengths lie. Don’t try to be someone you’re not…you’ll run out of steam quickly as it sucks your life force. We’re entrepreneurial, love selling and love creating. We don’t like doing all the work but could do it for long enough until we were able to hire studs to run it.

In general, operators don’t have great long term vision bc they’re always focusing on the problems right in front of them. Vision people don’t do all that well at operating. That’s who we are so we rushed to bring in great people. I’m to the point now where I don’t have as much interest in the businesses as when we started. I’m ready to get back into startup mode or venture slowly into acquisitions.

Be obsessive about EVERYTHING. Do not ever take anyone’s word for anything more than face value. Trust but verify everything. Most people on this planet are just looking to get by without putting out 1/2 of what you will. Be a force of nature.

Solving problems is what will get you going the fastest. The amount of success you’ll have and the money you make will have a direct correlation with how important the problems are that you solve…and how big or small those problems are.

Hurry up every chance you get…SENSE OF URGENCY!

Most people are risk adverse. If you wait until your lifestyle gets past a certain point most guy’s wives aren’t willing to take the lifestyle hit. Have an unbelievable wife. I do and my partner and I don’t start our biz until he divorced his first wife. Short sighted and unsupportive females will absolutely throw a wet blanket in the fire.

I’m forgetting some stuff but hopefully you get the drift.

I’m doing the same next yr. HD11 crew for the win! Went and sat in one a few weeks ago. Good bit of little tweaks but still better room and storage than a ranger. I like the heat but don’t care about ac. Haven’t really used the ac on my current limited model. Also get u a winch in the bed. I used the crap out of that thing with my kids last yr who couldn’t pick up the light end of a heavy doe or bigger buck.

Picked up that crossover climber from Lone Wolf and the 2.0 lockon with sticks. Ready to climb some trees!

Always liked the flounder at Vic’s on the River. Also, Husk is a good dinner spot. Some good eating options down there.

West GA, southern MS delta and southern AR delta. Bout time to start killing some animals!

Out of all the semi auto 20’s the benelli is my favorite. Got the 28ga last yr and it’s badass too. I only shoot Beretta in 12ga. U should check pawn shops and see what they have. That’s how I got my first Beretta when I graduated college.

Partnership LLC…that’s what we were advised on for our commercial real estate properties. Real estate is tax advantaged and partnerships give more optionality than s corps.

You’re not going to get rich off buying a rental house or two. Generally speaking real estate is a slow burn towards financial freedom…especially if it’s your primary vehicle towards making it. It’s different if you’re just diversifying your wealth by investing in some real estate. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. You can get lucky with timing once in a while and catch the market just right. Doesn’t happen with a lot of frequency tho. We had the 08-09 crash that created opportunities and then we had 2020 inflation of assets while rates stayed stupid low. Those events were 11-12 yrs apart. Not saying don’t invest in RE, but consider all options to make sure it’s the best.

I sound like a broken record with this but go find a construction services business that has been around for a long time but doesn’t have an exit strategy. Right now is one of the best times in history to execute this plan due to so many boomers leaving the trades.

Like others have stated it won’t be easy but you should have an idea of this if you’re heading down this path.

Be prepared for it to take time to become successful. Too many ppl looking to hurry up and make money. Take out only what u need to live and reinvest the rest for as long as you can stand it. There’s a direct correlation between delayed gratification and how much you can scale and hire others to do what you’re not good at. My partner and I went 7-8 yrs of reinvesting and it allowed us to scale up with amazing ppl. We’re finishing yr 9 now and our people can run the businesses for the most part. I think 10 yrs is a pretty good timeframe to lock into your mind for how long it’ll take to get to cruise control. That also depends on how big you want to grow and how well you’re able to delegate.

Make quick decisions, always set the tone with a sense of urgency, know how to sell and be good at attracting talent. Of course it would be best if you already have these skills but if not they’re learnable to certain extent.

Almost forgot…my attitude toward leaving a career job is you can always go back and get another one of those if this doesn’t work out. It’s not that big a deal. Sack up and make it happen. If you can’t get over this then you’re likely a massive overthinker and not meant to be running your own company.