1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:02,660 What is your goal for being on the show? 2 00:00:03,600 --> 00:00:04,700 Help the audience. 3 00:00:06,220 --> 00:00:08,360 I think the key, everything I'm doing this for 4 00:00:08,360 --> 00:00:12,240 is to help people from getting into a business 5 00:00:12,240 --> 00:00:17,240 and struggling, losing money, getting discouraged 6 00:00:19,780 --> 00:00:20,700 and giving up. 7 00:00:24,680 --> 00:00:25,980 Can you tell me more about that? 8 00:00:25,980 --> 00:00:30,360 What do you do exactly to help the audience? 9 00:00:30,360 --> 00:00:33,440 Well, I think answer tough questions. 10 00:00:33,440 --> 00:00:36,880 What do I do to prepare, 11 00:00:38,400 --> 00:00:42,200 what do I do to prepare to go into business for myself? 12 00:00:42,200 --> 00:00:45,640 And I think the answers will surprise them. 13 00:00:45,640 --> 00:00:50,640 Most people go into business with a kind of, 14 00:00:50,800 --> 00:00:53,960 I'm gonna jump into it mentality. 15 00:00:53,960 --> 00:00:56,140 I've made the decision, let's go. 16 00:00:57,360 --> 00:00:58,880 And I think that's a mistake. 17 00:00:58,880 --> 00:01:02,000 I think they should be much more cautious, 18 00:01:02,000 --> 00:01:07,000 do much more research and be much more deliberate 19 00:01:07,100 --> 00:01:09,200 about getting into business for themselves. 20 00:01:11,920 --> 00:01:12,760 Wow. 21 00:01:12,760 --> 00:01:17,760 And most often they are so excited about the prospects 22 00:01:18,980 --> 00:01:22,400 that they're blinded by the positivity 23 00:01:22,400 --> 00:01:26,400 without thinking about have I prepared for this? 24 00:01:27,280 --> 00:01:29,360 So whether it's real estate 25 00:01:29,360 --> 00:01:34,360 or any other entrepreneurial aspect, 26 00:01:36,280 --> 00:01:38,800 they really didn't, many, most of them, 27 00:01:38,800 --> 00:01:42,160 most a high percentage probably have not done enough 28 00:01:42,160 --> 00:01:45,800 research and analysis of really questioning 29 00:01:45,800 --> 00:01:47,160 what's the survival rate? 30 00:01:47,160 --> 00:01:49,900 How long does it take to become profitable? 31 00:01:49,900 --> 00:01:51,900 What's my upside potential? 32 00:01:51,900 --> 00:01:54,440 And what will be involved in getting that potential? 33 00:01:54,440 --> 00:01:56,240 And they don't do that. 34 00:01:56,240 --> 00:01:58,200 Tips for early entrepreneurs then. 35 00:01:59,800 --> 00:02:01,480 Early on what? 36 00:02:01,480 --> 00:02:02,840 Entrepreneurs. 37 00:02:02,840 --> 00:02:03,720 Entrepreneurs, yeah. 38 00:02:03,720 --> 00:02:06,120 I think the first thing is, 39 00:02:06,120 --> 00:02:09,320 the first question they should ask is, 40 00:02:09,320 --> 00:02:14,320 where do I go to understand the business 41 00:02:14,880 --> 00:02:17,860 that I'm getting into or that I seek to get into? 42 00:02:19,280 --> 00:02:21,440 Where are the sources of information 43 00:02:21,440 --> 00:02:26,440 that allow me to do an estimate of the situation? 44 00:02:27,920 --> 00:02:32,920 In other words, going into financial planning, for example, 45 00:02:33,200 --> 00:02:36,400 are there resources that would provide me with details 46 00:02:36,400 --> 00:02:41,400 or analysis or information that tells me the survival rate, 47 00:02:42,780 --> 00:02:45,560 that tells me what the likely income is going to be 48 00:02:45,560 --> 00:02:47,900 in the first one, two, three years? 49 00:02:47,900 --> 00:02:49,540 Are there associations? 50 00:02:49,540 --> 00:02:52,200 Are there, for example, in real estate, 51 00:02:52,200 --> 00:02:54,640 there's a National Association of Realtors 52 00:02:54,640 --> 00:02:57,240 which has significant amount of information, 53 00:02:57,240 --> 00:03:01,880 surveys of agents and how much profit they make or don't make. 54 00:03:01,880 --> 00:03:05,640 And that was a tremendous resource in writing my book 55 00:03:05,640 --> 00:03:08,320 because it gave me the statistics of how many people 56 00:03:08,320 --> 00:03:10,520 were failing in the first two years, 57 00:03:10,520 --> 00:03:14,220 how many people were limping along making minimal income. 58 00:03:14,220 --> 00:03:16,200 It gave me the average hours worked. 59 00:03:16,200 --> 00:03:18,240 It gave me statistical data 60 00:03:18,240 --> 00:03:20,760 that I could assess this estimate of the situation. 61 00:03:20,760 --> 00:03:22,280 And that's a very important term. 62 00:03:22,280 --> 00:03:27,000 The estimate of the situation is what is the industry today 63 00:03:27,000 --> 00:03:30,000 and how will I survive in that industry 64 00:03:30,000 --> 00:03:33,640 and what's my likelihood of success being open-minded 65 00:03:33,640 --> 00:03:36,000 about the positives and the negatives of that 66 00:03:37,400 --> 00:03:40,000 and not having a tunnel vision 67 00:03:40,000 --> 00:03:42,920 that I'm so excited by this 68 00:03:42,920 --> 00:03:45,640 and I'm so enthusiastic to do it 69 00:03:45,640 --> 00:03:48,660 that I ignore the warning signs. 70 00:03:48,660 --> 00:03:50,800 And when a person goes into real estate 71 00:03:50,800 --> 00:03:52,200 and finds out that, 72 00:03:52,200 --> 00:03:55,120 well, Harry, I'll just give you a real good story. 73 00:03:55,120 --> 00:03:56,480 A gentleman called me up 74 00:03:56,480 --> 00:03:59,820 and knowing that I was one of the very top-producing 75 00:03:59,820 --> 00:04:01,960 real estate agents in our area, 76 00:04:01,960 --> 00:04:05,520 he called me up and I had helped him purchase a home. 77 00:04:05,520 --> 00:04:06,360 And he said, 78 00:04:06,360 --> 00:04:07,720 Sonny, I'm thinking about going into 79 00:04:07,720 --> 00:04:10,080 the real estate business. 80 00:04:10,080 --> 00:04:13,320 And I asked him, how much do you make per year 81 00:04:13,320 --> 00:04:15,920 in your current job, your current assignment? 82 00:04:15,920 --> 00:04:18,120 And he said about 200,000 a year. 83 00:04:19,480 --> 00:04:21,840 And I said, it will take you, in my opinion, 84 00:04:21,840 --> 00:04:26,840 three to four years to equal that in net profit 85 00:04:28,080 --> 00:04:30,240 if you go into residential real estate 86 00:04:31,320 --> 00:04:32,480 from the very beginning, 87 00:04:33,600 --> 00:04:34,420 three or four years, 88 00:04:34,420 --> 00:04:37,000 to equal what you're currently making. 89 00:04:37,000 --> 00:04:39,560 Now, and there's no guarantee of success, 90 00:04:39,560 --> 00:04:44,560 but if you're very good and you study and you really try 91 00:04:45,120 --> 00:04:47,040 and you devote the time to it, 92 00:04:47,040 --> 00:04:48,920 you could probably work your way up 93 00:04:48,920 --> 00:04:53,140 to making about $200,000 a year in three or four years. 94 00:04:53,140 --> 00:04:55,860 This man was a talented, successful businessman. 95 00:04:56,880 --> 00:04:58,440 But a lot of people go into real estate 96 00:04:58,440 --> 00:05:00,600 and they think it's gonna be so easy. 97 00:05:00,600 --> 00:05:04,600 I'm gonna turn on the engine for my new business 98 00:05:04,600 --> 00:05:07,800 and I'm so enthusiastic, I'm so excited 99 00:05:07,800 --> 00:05:09,680 that I ignore the red flags. 100 00:05:11,040 --> 00:05:12,160 And that's a problem. 101 00:05:13,960 --> 00:05:18,440 Yeah, I have so many names of people 102 00:05:18,440 --> 00:05:20,960 that come to my mind who are going down this path. 103 00:05:21,820 --> 00:05:24,180 And I see it, I see it. 104 00:05:25,060 --> 00:05:29,160 Hopefully they make it with their grit and enthusiasm 105 00:05:29,160 --> 00:05:31,240 and they do it and they prove me wrong. 106 00:05:31,240 --> 00:05:33,600 But I also see the pain coming from the other side. 107 00:05:33,600 --> 00:05:35,800 I'm like, oh my gosh, I should have switched 108 00:05:35,800 --> 00:05:38,000 five years of my life, I didn't realize why. 109 00:05:39,200 --> 00:05:43,860 Well, in my book, I tell a story of a brilliant man. 110 00:05:44,860 --> 00:05:48,640 He was president of a medium-sized corporation. 111 00:05:48,640 --> 00:05:50,780 And I mean a pretty good sized corporation. 112 00:05:50,780 --> 00:05:53,480 If I said the name of it, most people would know it. 113 00:05:54,520 --> 00:05:58,880 And he, a medium-sized meaning about probably 25, 114 00:05:58,880 --> 00:06:01,480 30 million per year in revenues. 115 00:06:01,480 --> 00:06:03,980 That's not a bad business. 116 00:06:03,980 --> 00:06:06,600 And he retired from that business 117 00:06:06,600 --> 00:06:11,000 and had been successful in everything he had ever done. 118 00:06:11,000 --> 00:06:15,000 And he started a business and he hired me to come out 119 00:06:15,000 --> 00:06:17,680 and evaluate the business and tell him 120 00:06:17,680 --> 00:06:18,780 what was going wrong, 121 00:06:18,780 --> 00:06:22,000 because he was losing about $20,000 a month 122 00:06:22,000 --> 00:06:23,820 in this small business that he started 123 00:06:23,820 --> 00:06:26,960 after being president of a medium-sized corporation, 124 00:06:26,960 --> 00:06:29,640 having lots of employees, et cetera. 125 00:06:29,640 --> 00:06:33,080 And I did the analysis and determined that he would lose, 126 00:06:33,080 --> 00:06:36,680 was losing 200 to $250,000 per year. 127 00:06:37,920 --> 00:06:41,000 And that his likelihood of continuing to lose that money 128 00:06:41,000 --> 00:06:41,840 was pretty high. 129 00:06:43,280 --> 00:06:46,440 He did not have a business marketing plan, 130 00:06:46,440 --> 00:06:49,000 a business plan or a marketing plan. 131 00:06:49,000 --> 00:06:53,680 He did not have the marketing strategies and tactics 132 00:06:53,680 --> 00:06:56,360 that would allow him to be successful. 133 00:06:56,360 --> 00:06:58,720 He had a boat with no captain. 134 00:06:58,720 --> 00:07:01,720 Even as highly knowledgeable as he was 135 00:07:01,720 --> 00:07:04,440 of running a big corporation, keep in mind, 136 00:07:04,440 --> 00:07:07,240 he had captains of all the different areas. 137 00:07:07,240 --> 00:07:09,400 That's going back to what you said a minute ago 138 00:07:09,400 --> 00:07:12,040 about your most recent activity. 139 00:07:12,040 --> 00:07:16,040 When you look at, you've got to understand financial. 140 00:07:16,920 --> 00:07:21,920 You've got to understand marketing, technology, personnel. 141 00:07:23,040 --> 00:07:27,040 You have to understand your marketing strategy 142 00:07:27,040 --> 00:07:28,840 and the marketplace. 143 00:07:28,840 --> 00:07:31,000 You have to know who your target audience is 144 00:07:31,000 --> 00:07:33,720 and what's going to be the hot button for them. 145 00:07:33,720 --> 00:07:36,760 There's so much you have to know that when you start 146 00:07:36,760 --> 00:07:39,640 a very small business as an entrepreneur 147 00:07:39,640 --> 00:07:43,560 and you don't have expert, subject, expert, expertise, 148 00:07:43,560 --> 00:07:46,720 subject area experts in those other areas, 149 00:07:49,160 --> 00:07:50,520 it's going to be risky. 150 00:07:51,320 --> 00:07:53,000 And the fewer of those resources 151 00:07:53,000 --> 00:07:54,920 that you have available to you, 152 00:07:54,920 --> 00:07:57,520 the more likely it is for failure. 153 00:07:57,520 --> 00:08:00,760 And one of the biggest problems is that someone 154 00:08:00,760 --> 00:08:04,440 who's been highly successful in something else 155 00:08:04,440 --> 00:08:07,800 has a false sense of knowledge and security 156 00:08:07,800 --> 00:08:10,120 because they feel like I've been successful. 157 00:08:10,120 --> 00:08:11,640 I've done it before. 158 00:08:11,640 --> 00:08:12,720 I can do it again. 159 00:08:12,720 --> 00:08:15,240 It doesn't mean that when they started the endeavor 160 00:08:15,240 --> 00:08:18,000 that they're in currently or previously, 161 00:08:18,000 --> 00:08:20,520 that they were maybe an employee or a team member 162 00:08:20,520 --> 00:08:21,360 or a partner. 163 00:08:21,360 --> 00:08:23,760 But when they have to start over and do everything 164 00:08:23,760 --> 00:08:25,880 from the beginning in a different environment, 165 00:08:25,880 --> 00:08:28,560 in a different world than maybe they were in 166 00:08:28,560 --> 00:08:32,760 when they started, it could be catastrophic. 167 00:08:32,760 --> 00:08:37,040 And this particular man said to me, almost in tears, 168 00:08:37,040 --> 00:08:42,040 if you can imagine a 68 year old man 169 00:08:42,280 --> 00:08:44,000 who has been highly successful 170 00:08:44,000 --> 00:08:46,280 in almost everything he's ever done, 171 00:08:46,280 --> 00:08:49,000 losing 400,000 dollars in cash, 172 00:08:49,000 --> 00:08:51,600 in the first two years of his business, 173 00:08:51,600 --> 00:08:54,800 seeing his retirement funds dwindle 174 00:08:54,800 --> 00:08:58,000 as he funds a non-profitable business, 175 00:08:58,000 --> 00:09:00,080 he looked at me almost in tears and said, 176 00:09:00,080 --> 00:09:00,920 what do I need to do? 177 00:09:00,920 --> 00:09:01,760 Help me. 178 00:09:03,240 --> 00:09:07,040 And the first thing we went dead was we went back to basics. 179 00:09:07,040 --> 00:09:08,240 What is the audience? 180 00:09:08,240 --> 00:09:09,360 What are they looking for? 181 00:09:09,360 --> 00:09:11,280 And how do we appeal to them? 182 00:09:12,600 --> 00:09:15,120 And we corrected the shift, 183 00:09:15,120 --> 00:09:18,160 but it took another year to get back to normal. 184 00:09:18,160 --> 00:09:20,240 But it took another year to year and a half, 185 00:09:20,240 --> 00:09:23,680 and he lost over $500,000 186 00:09:23,680 --> 00:09:25,240 before he started making money. 187 00:09:26,360 --> 00:09:29,520 Well, it took him a long time to recover the 500,000. 188 00:09:30,480 --> 00:09:32,320 I don't want that to happen to people. 189 00:09:33,480 --> 00:09:34,880 I don't want them to go into real estate 190 00:09:34,880 --> 00:09:38,400 and work two years and make a little bit of money. 191 00:09:38,400 --> 00:09:39,720 Maybe they make as much 192 00:09:39,720 --> 00:09:42,720 as they would have made working for someone. 193 00:09:42,720 --> 00:09:45,680 And to that extent, maybe they believe they're successful, 194 00:09:45,680 --> 00:09:47,720 but that's not business ownership. 195 00:09:47,720 --> 00:09:50,640 Business ownership is owning a business 196 00:09:50,640 --> 00:09:54,040 that not only pays the key people who run the business 197 00:09:54,040 --> 00:09:56,760 a meaningful or reasonable wage, 198 00:09:56,760 --> 00:09:59,560 but also makes a profit. 199 00:09:59,560 --> 00:10:02,040 And I said, first thing, I'd do the research. 200 00:10:02,040 --> 00:10:04,160 But then I'd also ask for, 201 00:10:05,640 --> 00:10:07,360 I'd look for some mentors. 202 00:10:08,200 --> 00:10:11,160 I mean, for example, let's just say that someone, 203 00:10:12,720 --> 00:10:14,200 and I'm not volunteering to do this 204 00:10:14,200 --> 00:10:18,240 because I don't do this for a living, meaning mentorship. 205 00:10:18,240 --> 00:10:19,640 But let's say that someone said, 206 00:10:19,640 --> 00:10:22,440 I want to go into real estate or insurance 207 00:10:22,440 --> 00:10:25,760 or professional services businesses of some type. 208 00:10:25,760 --> 00:10:30,720 They would need to look for someone like me, okay? 209 00:10:30,720 --> 00:10:33,280 That would give them the hard truth. 210 00:10:34,800 --> 00:10:36,680 That would tell them, listen, 211 00:10:38,200 --> 00:10:39,600 I'll put it this way. 212 00:10:39,600 --> 00:10:44,200 There's a brilliant man who's probably a billionaire. 213 00:10:44,200 --> 00:10:45,800 And I was going to take a project 214 00:10:45,800 --> 00:10:50,640 to list 2,000 acres of land surrounding a big lake. 215 00:10:51,920 --> 00:10:54,760 And I went to this gentleman and I asked for his advice 216 00:10:54,760 --> 00:10:59,760 and his opinion of the likelihood of success 217 00:11:00,000 --> 00:11:05,000 in selling that 2,000 acres for a lot of money around a lake 218 00:11:05,000 --> 00:11:10,000 to develop as a, let's just imagine Vail, Colorado. 219 00:11:11,760 --> 00:11:13,960 That's the kind of environment it would be. 220 00:11:13,960 --> 00:11:16,280 Well, that was a billion dollar project there. 221 00:11:17,840 --> 00:11:20,440 It would cost about a billion dollars to develop that. 222 00:11:21,320 --> 00:11:23,280 So you got to sell it to someone 223 00:11:24,640 --> 00:11:27,880 who can put together a project with an expense 224 00:11:27,880 --> 00:11:31,800 of over a billion dollars over a period of 20 to 30 years 225 00:11:31,800 --> 00:11:36,800 that would develop into a Vail, Colorado or Beaver Creek. 226 00:11:39,600 --> 00:11:42,640 And I told him some ideas I had 227 00:11:42,640 --> 00:11:46,640 about how to market this 2,000 acres of land. 228 00:11:46,640 --> 00:11:47,760 Now I trust this man. 229 00:11:47,760 --> 00:11:49,160 He's a billionaire. 230 00:11:49,160 --> 00:11:51,920 He's been successful beyond measure 231 00:11:51,920 --> 00:11:53,760 compared to most people. 232 00:11:54,720 --> 00:11:57,680 And he said, Sonny, a lot of people have good ideas. 233 00:11:59,160 --> 00:12:00,360 That's the easy part. 234 00:12:00,360 --> 00:12:02,960 A lot of people have a great idea 235 00:12:02,960 --> 00:12:04,720 about a business they want to get into. 236 00:12:04,720 --> 00:12:08,080 They have a great idea about something 237 00:12:08,080 --> 00:12:11,280 they think the public can use, would pay for, et cetera, 238 00:12:11,280 --> 00:12:12,520 but they don't know it. 239 00:12:13,600 --> 00:12:15,200 They just think it. 240 00:12:15,200 --> 00:12:18,680 And it may be a tremendous idea with no potential. 241 00:12:19,880 --> 00:12:21,800 So you got to have people you can go to. 242 00:12:21,800 --> 00:12:24,160 Like if you came to me and said, Sonny, 243 00:12:24,160 --> 00:12:26,840 I'm thinking about doing this business enterprise 244 00:12:26,840 --> 00:12:28,920 and probably I'm going to be able to do it. 245 00:12:28,920 --> 00:12:31,480 I'm thinking about doing this business enterprise 246 00:12:31,480 --> 00:12:35,600 and probably in about two hours and about 20 questions, 247 00:12:35,600 --> 00:12:37,840 I could probably tell you, Perry, 248 00:12:37,840 --> 00:12:41,640 you are or you're not on track to success in that 249 00:12:41,640 --> 00:12:44,600 because I would ask you important questions. 250 00:12:44,600 --> 00:12:46,520 Who is your target market 251 00:12:46,520 --> 00:12:48,440 and why are they going to buy from you? 252 00:12:48,440 --> 00:12:52,840 Why would they go to this lake with this 2,000 acres 253 00:12:52,840 --> 00:12:55,240 when they could go to Vail or Beaver Creek, 254 00:12:55,240 --> 00:12:58,840 which is already developed and very, very popular? 255 00:12:59,640 --> 00:13:00,480 Wow. 256 00:13:01,200 --> 00:13:03,240 Sonny, go ahead. 257 00:13:03,240 --> 00:13:04,080 Thank you. 258 00:13:06,240 --> 00:13:09,720 Having a good understanding of the market, 259 00:13:09,720 --> 00:13:11,520 the estimate of the current situation, 260 00:13:11,520 --> 00:13:13,080 great way to say it. 261 00:13:13,080 --> 00:13:14,360 What is the current market? 262 00:13:14,360 --> 00:13:16,280 What is happening in this industry? 263 00:13:16,280 --> 00:13:17,760 How many people are successful? 264 00:13:17,760 --> 00:13:19,200 How many people are failing? 265 00:13:19,200 --> 00:13:22,160 What is the prospects for success? 266 00:13:22,160 --> 00:13:27,160 Having mentors to test you, to really answer you honestly 267 00:13:29,440 --> 00:13:30,880 in your best interest. 268 00:13:32,040 --> 00:13:36,880 And then asking yourself a very hard question. 269 00:13:36,880 --> 00:13:41,880 Do I have the financial ability to sustain myself 270 00:13:42,160 --> 00:13:44,160 through the early years of this project 271 00:13:45,560 --> 00:13:50,560 or do I have to produce 80, $100,000 per year in income 272 00:13:50,560 --> 00:13:53,280 year one or I'm going to be in trouble? 273 00:13:54,240 --> 00:13:56,080 And that's the acid test. 274 00:13:57,080 --> 00:14:00,880 Can I survive long enough to be here? 275 00:14:00,880 --> 00:14:04,120 The old last man standing concept, right? 276 00:14:04,120 --> 00:14:07,320 Will I be here or will I be the last one standing 277 00:14:07,320 --> 00:14:10,440 and successful when all the other people have failed? 278 00:14:10,440 --> 00:14:11,800 Thank you for being here today. 279 00:14:11,800 --> 00:14:14,280 I'm really happy that you tuned into Vision Pros Live. 280 00:14:14,280 --> 00:14:16,960 I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions 281 00:14:16,960 --> 00:14:19,200 as these episodes continue to move forward. 282 00:14:19,200 --> 00:14:21,040 This is going to get more and more fun. 283 00:14:21,040 --> 00:14:22,840 We'll have more and more engagement as well. 284 00:14:22,840 --> 00:14:24,960 We'll invite people to participate in the show 285 00:14:24,960 --> 00:14:27,280 and thank you for giving us your time and attention. 286 00:14:27,280 --> 00:14:30,000 Have an excellent time building out your vision 287 00:14:30,000 --> 00:14:57,000 and becoming a Vision Pro yourself.