Ep 220: Business Ownership: Hard Yes. Worth It? Also Yes.

Well, welcome to this week's episode of the Weekly Wealth Podcast. If you remember, last week's episode was about how hard it is to be a business owner.We talked about some of the mistakes that I see business owners make. We talked about some of the risks, and we talked about some of the things that just make business ownership difficult at times.But today we're going to look at the bright side and look at some of the really positive and awesome parts of the business ownership. So I hope that you enjoy this episode. And here we go. Welcome to the weekly Wealth Podcast. I am certified financial planner David Chudick.This podcast and my wealth management practice are both designed to help the mass affluent to live better lives by how they handle their money. We talk about financial strategies, prosperous mindsets, and simply how to build true wealth. So come on and let's enjoy this journey together.Well, hey everybody and welcome to episode number 220 of the weekly Wealth Podcast. My name is David Chudick and as you know, I am a certified financial planner with Parallel Financial and I work with a broad variety of client types.But I really love working with business owners. Business owners have a lot of challenges.They're very busy, they take a lot of risks, and just at my core, I'm an entrepreneur and I love working with entrepreneurs. So you'll remember last week's episode, the title was Owning a Business is Hard.We got real about the challenges of owning a small business because, yes, it's not always sunshine and cash flow. And quite honestly, I've had a rough couple weeks just with some unpreventable problems and some stress.But I do love what I do and I love that entrepreneurial roller coaster.But today we are flipping the script because despite the long hours and occasional chaos, owning a business remains one of the most powerful wealth building vehicles on the planet. In this episode, we're going to break down the benefits of owning a business. So if you've ever wondered, is it all worth it?Today's episode will remind you why the answer for you might be yes. Now remember, not everybody has it in their DNA to be a business owner. Not everybody has it in their DNA to take risks and everything like that.And that is fine. So if you're not a business owner or if you're not geared for it, that's fine. Make sure you share this episode with your business owner friends.But if you are a business owner, I hope that you'll enjoy this episode.So you'll remember in Last week's episode, episode 219, Owning a Business is hard I did talk about there are times when the business bank accounts may not be plentiful and there may be times where revenue is not plentiful and that creates some stress. Now the other side of that is that as a business owner your income potential is unlimited.So unlike a W2 job, business ownership has no salary ceiling.So in theory you have an unlimited earning potential and also your business equity allows you to build something that can go far beyond your earned income and be a very powerful wealth building tool.So as an example, a business that nets, let's say a quarter of a million dollars might sell for a million dollars plus in a whereas if you have a job and your job is a $250,000 salary, let's face it, you could get let go, you can get downsized and then you don't have any equity in the company. So the first major benefit of owning a business is the unlimited income potential.Now, a lot of the business owners and a lot of the entrepreneurial TikTok and social media posts, they talk about grinding and they talk about business betting on yourself. So think about what that means.If you bet on yourself and say, I'm going to start this business, I'm going to buy this business, I'm going to be in charge of this business and I'm just going to figure it out, I'm going to do the things that it takes in order to win. Then eventually you may have a very, very high income.Now, on the road of that income, yeah, you paid some prices, you may have had some long hours, you may have taken on some debt, you may have had to learn new skills, you may have had to learn to do new things, you may have learned to be somebody. But at the end of that road you may have a high income.And with regard to high income, I always talk about it's not about the money, it's about what the money can do for you.It's not about the money, it's about what the money can do in order to help you to provide a better life for the people that you care about and for yourself. So here's a hack here. Don't necessarily think about I want to make X dollars per year.Think about I want to have X lifesty, I want to give X money away, I want to be X generous, I want to have a vacation house and then reverse engineer. Go back and see what those things would cost and then you can almost build your business in reverse.You can say, if I want to have that vacation house at the beach, that's going to cost $2 million in 20 years. I need to put X amount of dollars away per year and I'd have to get my income up to a certain amount.And then you can, as an entrepreneur, as a business owner, you can tell yourself, we're going to do what it takes and we're going to get there, we're going to get to that goal. And then just think about, think about the day that you close and you have that house on the beach.Think about when maybe when you have your grandkids coming to visit you at the house on the beach and think about how that will feel.So that's a great way to have some motivation to do hard things as a business owner, because a lot of things that we do as business owners are hard, but we are trying to reap major benefits. And in addition to financial benefits, one of the major benefits that entrepreneurs are looking for is freedom.So Dan Sullivan, he's the founder of Strategic Coach and that's a major entrepreneurial coaching program. He outlines four freedoms that entrepreneurs strive for. And the business owner lifestyle uniquely enables these freedoms.So the first one is freedom of time.Now, when you start off in business, you may not have freedom of, you may be doing just about everything, but you are working towards the ability to control when you work, when you take time off, and to live life on your schedule. So with freedom of time, you're not bound by somebody else's calendar, and you decide when to engage in deep work, rest, or to be with family.So one of the first freedoms that the entrepreneurs are looking for are freedom of time. Now, the other one is freedom of money.And that's what we just talked about as the opportunity to make as much income or create as much value as you choose.So there are no salary caps or fixed promotions, but you also can, as a business owner, say, you know what, I'm going to slow down and I'm going to make less money. I'm going to live a slower life, and that's okay.Also, whereas the opposite of that, if you work for a company, they may have certain standards that you just have to keep reaching. And even if you're getting towards the end of your career or if you're willing to live off of less money, that may not be and an option.Now, his third freedom is the freedom of relationship. So that's the power to choose who you work with. And that relates to your clients, your employees, your partners, and your vendors.So you as the owner, you as the entrepreneur, you get to build a culture and a client base that aligns with your values. And here's the beautiful thing. You get to eliminate toxic or misaligned relationships.So when I'm working with a new potential client, we actually talk about in our first meeting that this is a time for us to get to know each other and decide if we like each other, if we trust each other, and if we would like to work together and enjoy spending time together. Every quarter, once a year, twice a year, three times a year, four times a year in a wealth management relationship.And you get to a point in your career where you might be thinking, occasionally, you know what, this person, they don't take my advice. Maybe they're argumentative, they don't return my phone calls. And I just don't really foresee myself enjoying working with this person.And you might just simply choose not to work with that person. But in a corporate environment or as an employee, you may not have that freedom. So freedom of relationship is a huge one for us to all look at.And then finally, we have freedom of purpose. And that's the ability to pursue meaningful work that fulfills you and makes an impact.So when you own a business or you're not just working a job, you're building something that aligns with your why. And your purpose becomes your ultimate motivator, not just making a profit. So you hear me say it every podcast.I believe that how we handle our money should positively impact our lives and the lives of those around us. And the beautiful thing for me is I get to make a living by helping my clients to improve the quality of their lives by how they handle their money.So that's my why, and I love it. And I feel incredibly blessed to do what I do. So what might be some of the freedoms that you might be looking for? In what way?If you had control of your time, how would your schedule look different? If you had control of your money, how would your financial situations look differently? Freedom of relationships.You have some relationships that maybe if you had total freedom, you would eliminate or maybe you would pursue more. And what about your purpose? Do you go home from your job and do you feel like you are blessed? Do you feel like you're.You're fulfilling your purpose, or do you feel like you're just punching a time clock?

Quick question. When's the last time you stopped to ask, where is my money actually taking me?If you're a business owner or high earner who's too busy to figure out if you're on the right path, we have created something just for you.It's called the 10 Minute Wealth Vision Call, a quick, no pressure zoom where we'll talk about your biggest financial question and help you get one step closer to your ideal future. No pitches, no fluff, just clarity, confidence and direction. Grab your spot now@weeklywealthpodcast.com vision. That's weeklywealthpodcast.com vision.Your vision deserves 10 minutes.

Now, if you're not a business owner, you may not have thought about this specific benefit of being a business owner, but have you thought about personal growth and mastery? So in your business, until it's big enough, you don't have a training department.So business ownership accelerates learning, marketing, finance and leadership. You simply have to figure it out yourself. You have to listen to the weekly wealth podcast.You have to watch YouTube videos, you have to take courses, you have to engage the service of a coach in order to build your mastery. But in the process, what happens? Well, what happens is that you become more resilient, you become resourceful, and you become capable.So it boggles my mind some days when I go home and think about all the things that I had to do and I had to know for that day. So let me give you an example. At least in the beginning, I had to know or figure out how to record a podcast.Now I know how to do that, but I still have to have the right software. I have to know how to market it or have to have the resources to pay someone to market it.But as a wealth manager, I also have to know the financial rules. I have to know the rules on IRAs and rollovers and investment strategies and things like that.But as an employer, I also have to know human resource laws and rules and I have to understand personal behavior. And then what are all the other things that are involved in running of my business that I have to know.So I've had to become very resourceful and capable so that I can get it all done. And there is no MBA that teaches what real life entrepreneurship teaches you.It simply doesn't exist when your name is on the sign and you are kind of the last line of defense in a business, that's something that they just can't teach in a college classroom. So there have been times where I've worked at home on a laptop late at night just getting things done that need to be need to get done.And college doesn't teach you that.College may give you some grit, college may teach you how to work hard, but there are things that your business will encounter that you simply do not have the ability to learn in a formal educational setting.And while a lot of people think that business owners might only be in it for the money, they're only in it to have a high income, it's in a lot of cases, it's actually the opposite. You see, when you own a business, a lot of times what you're looking to do is build something that can outlast you.And that means that you might have the opportunity to involve family members, you can pass the business on to children, you can sell it for a meaningful exit, and you can make a difference in your community through jobs and services.So at the end of the day and on the proverbial deathbed, a lot of entrepreneurs are very purpose driven people and they want for their business to be a vehicle that makes their lives better and also makes a difference in their community through jobs and through services and through the ability to give.And the last thing that I wanted to touch on today about the benefits of being a business owner is that if you do it right, your business can become an appreciating asset and it can actually become a highly valued appreciating asset.So when you compare your business to some assets like cars, gadgets, and even some real estate that has some upkeep, your business should be increasing in value every year. Now, most businesses are sold based on a multiple of profit or EBITDA or seller's discretionary earnings.And that can be quite lucrative if done correctly. So did you know that there are eight drivers of business value?And these eight things, if you get them right, your business can sell for a higher multiple when you're ready, or you can simply have an easier and more profitable life today. So here's what I would ask you to do is I would ask you to go to www.weeklywealthpodcast.com valuebuilderscore.And if you're a business owner, I challenge you to spend 10 or 15 minutes to get your value Builder score.So take the questionnaire and it will help you to understand which of the eight drivers of business value you're excelling at and which of the eight drivers of business value provide some opportunity for improvement. And here's the beautiful thing, it'll even give you an estimate of value for what you might be able to sell your business for.Now, this isn't a certified appraisal, but it'll give you a range of value and that is a great starting place so that you can know, right? So that you can, in your financial plan, you can count your business as an asset.Many of the business owners that I work with, they are sometimes rightfully concerned about their portfolio balance. Balance is, they might say, hey, my IRA went from a million 500,000 to a million 450,000, I lost $50,000.And yes, we need to be planning for those things. Yes, we need to have investment strategies, but no, we don't have direct control over that asset.We don't have direct control over our investment accounts, but we do have direct control over the value of our biggest asset. And that is our business.So one of my main themes in a lot of our episodes on the weekly wealth podcast is that we should be treating our businesses like assets.We should be building it to where it's not a job, to where it's not an ATM machine, to where it's a well oiled machine that a potential buyer would pay a premium for as opposed to paying a discount. And I always like to ask my business owner clients, how much would you pay for your business?Like seriously, if you knew everything about your business, would you pay a premium for it or would you want it as a discount? Because it is a train wreck. I have a lot of friends that own businesses and some of their businesses are train wrecks.Some of them they're just not run well. Some of them, they don't have systems.Some of them, they rely too much on one salesperson or one supplier and that just decreases the value of your business. So. Www.weeklywealthpodcast.com valuebuilderscore alright, so we've done two episodes, two weeks in a row.The first one was about owning a business is hard. And it talked about some of the mistakes that business owners make.It talks about some areas where it just quite frankly is difficult to run a business. But today I wanted to do the other side and I wanted to talk about some of the beautiful, beautiful aspects of owning a business and talk about that.You can have financial freedom and you can build a high income. Now of course, you may have periods where there is low income or even zero or negative income.You can have freedom of time, you can have freedom of relationships, you can have freedom of purpose. And then of course, you can build that business to be an asset.And that asset can fund your lifestyle and it can also fund the lifestyles of future generations.So it can literally, you can build a business that has generational wealth and can help your children and their children and their children to have meaningful impacts on the world. So I hope that you enjoyed this episode.I hope that this has inspired you and if I can ever be of any help to you, make sure that you email me davidarallelfinancial.com I'm always happy to spend 30 minutes with anybody to point them in the right direction and get to know them a bit.And be on the lookout for our series of webinars that's coming up about high net worth strategies and make sure you are checking out our social media. So on Instagram we are eaklywealthpodcast. You can also go to YouTube and just type in at the weekly wealth podcast.So that's the weekly wealth podcast on YouTube and Facebook. Go to Facebook, type in Weekly Wealth Podcast in the search bar and please join our group and help us spread the word.Help us to get the information out there that we are putting out. I believe that how we handle our money should positively impact our lives and the lives of those around us.And I hope that this podcast and all of our social media content can be a small piece of the puzzle in your life. And I would also be super grateful if you if you're not driving, take out your phone and look at five people in your contact list.Maybe five people that are business owners or five people that you think could benefit from listening to this podcast and just forward them an episode, forward them the link and introduce them to the weekly Wealth Podcast and help me to build this tribe. So let's not all forget to make the world a better place by how you handle your money. And until next episode, I wish everybody a blessed week.Thanks everybody.Investment advice offered through Parallel Financial and SEC Registered Investment Advisor able to conduct advisory business in states where it had registered or exempt or excluded from registration, contents contained herein or for informational purposes only and should not be construed as an offer or solicitation for investment advice or for the purchase or sale of any security, insurance or other investment production.