EntreLeadership - My Dad Built A $50 Million Company But Won’t Let Go

Episode Date: November 3, 2025

Today, we’ll hear about: •             A son concerned that his dad runs his $50 million business like a start-up •             A mother-in-law whose controlling behavior is destroying the family business •             A business owner who doubled her revenue in one year by taking Dave’s advice •             A young owner trying to grow his business quickly    Next Steps: ·      📞 Have a question for the show? Call 844-944-1070 or send us a message: https://ter.li/ask-us ·      📚 Learn about the EntreLeadership System™: https://ter.li/system-p ·      💻 Get EntreLeadership Elite™ for your business: https://ter.li/elite-p ·      ✉️ Sign up to receive tactical tools, advice and resources in your inbox every week: https://ter.li/enl ·      🏢 Attend EntreLeadership Summit: https://ter.li/summit  ·      🎤 Attend EntreLeadership Master Series: https://ter.li/masterseries  ·      📖 Order Dave’s new book, Build a Business You Love: https://ter.li/b4kru2   Connect With Our Sponsors: ·      💼 Go to Belay Solutions or text ENTRE to 55123 for their free resource! ·      💻 Visit NetSuite today to learn more. ·      🧾 Visit Payority for a free consultation! ·      📈 Grab Sales Gravy's free resource to help you hire and lead better. ·      📝 Use code ENTRE15 to get 15% off your first year of Trainual.   Listen to More From Ramsey Network: 🪑 Front Row Seat with Ken Coleman 🎙️ The Ramsey Show 💸 The Ramsey Show Highlights 🧠 The Dr. John Delony Show 🍸 Smart Money Happy Hour 💡 The Rachel Cruze Show💰 George Kamel   Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, this is Entree Leadership, where I take calls from leaders like you about what it takes to win at any stage of business and leadership. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host, with over 30 years of experience leading in the trenches right alongside you. If you've got a question you want to ask on the show, well, fill out the forum at Entreeleadership.com slash ask or call and leave a voicemail at 844-944-1070. That's 844-94-9-4-9-4. 14-1070. Love to have you, boys and girls.

Jonathan's with us in Los Angeles. Hey, Jonathan, what's up? Hey, Dave, how you doing? Better than I deserve. How can I help? Hey, so my dad's company is a subcontractor for doors frames and hardware out in SoCal down here. And they're doing about 40 to 50 million in revenue a year. And I started kind of like a side hustle, wholesaling some of the material. And now that's doing about $12 million a year. Wow.

Good for you guys. So, yeah, so things are going really well. My dad, unfortunately, is still kind of like a treadmill operator at that size, which is a little bit intense. Yeah, that's very intense. How many team members have got? We got about, my dad's got about 100, and we have about 26 at my building. Okay. So you own your thing and he owns his?

Yeah, and then we kind of run like an internal department for him. It's kind of outsourced to us. but you're so you're 12 million is like an internal department for him it's not your business not it's not it's not uh pass through it's 12 million outside of what we do for him okay i'm sorry you also in addition to the 12 million run an internal department for him yes oh okay i'm catching it's about eight million dollars for the hardware each 10 million a year i got you okay cool all right and so he's got you got a hundred team he has a hundred team members working for and he said a treadmill operator?

How in the world? Pretty much. Pretty much. All these guys directly report to him. Yeah, basically, there's really no middle, mid-level management. Wow. What do they do? Yeah.

So we have basically a team of project managers that run all their projects. We have, you know, more senior estimators. But definitely, like, he still runs the estimating meeting. He runs the project management meeting where they schedule labor. He runs all those conversations. So, you know, he over looks at the invoices. Yeah, so he's putting in a ton of hours. And I'm trying to do my part here to get him down to like two to three hours a day and enjoy his life.

How old is he? He's 60. Okay. I mean, I don't know that he has to work two or three hours a week, but he's also, it's not a very efficient way to run a business, period. No, I don't care if he's 40. I don't care if he's 10. I mean, I just, I mean, we're not trying, I'm not worried about him retiring. I'm just worried about the efficiency of this.

And so he's struggling with delegation. Yeah, definitely. Okay. All right. My question really is, how do I help him feel comfortable? Because he'll often ask a question like, who else can run this company? Like the whole thing. And I frequently tell him, no one can run it like you.

But that's why we kind of have to recreate this. Well, thank God, because we don't want to run it like him. No, no, no. I don't want to do that. You sure don't want to do that. No, the deal is this, okay? He's control freaking, and he's setting up a thing, A, that is not scalable, B, it's not sustainable, and C, no succession plan will work with the way he's doing it.

And so it's really dangerous for him. He's really an attenuous situation. So the thing I would tell him is this. I learned to delegate, and he has delegated some things. There's a lot of stuff he doesn't do anymore. Correct. You know, but he's still got his hands on a lot of other things. I learned to turn over sections of this Ramsey company

when I can trust the person's competence and their integrity. Okay? Right. And so the reason he hasn't turned over the estimating meeting is because he hasn't hasn't found someone that he trusts their competence and their integrity. And that usually is going to come from first tapping someone on the shoulder and then training them, mentoring them, discipling them to become someone that you can trust their competence and their integrity.

If he thought it was being done right and he knew he could trust the person, then you can turn loose. Until then, you shouldn't turn loose. Right. But he's not even working toward that. That's what's disturbing for me. And consequently, he's carrying a lot of weight. He goes home very tired at the end of the day.

Yeah, exhausted. Yeah. I know. I used to do it. That's how I can, you know, you just flop down on the couch and go, what'd you do today? Crap, I don't know, but I did a lot of it. You know, it's just like, geez, man. And so it's like a run around the fire extinguisher all day, putting out fires.

Yeah, that's what we always joke that he's a fireman. Yeah. the first thing I had to learn to do was to delegate stuff I didn't know how to do. The second thing I learned to delegate was things I didn't want to do. The last thing I learned to delegate was the things I was good at and didn't mind doing. You know? So I, you know, and, but eventually you should always be working on your bench depth. Everyone in every position, in every organization ought to be working on their replacement at all times.

And that means you're training, disciplining, mentoring, teaching someone that can finish my sentences in this particular subject. So like project managers, he's delegated to them. Yeah. He's not running those projects. Right. So he's already done that. So he's, he has experienced this emotion. But what it amounts to is, is he's really good at estimating.

It's second nature to him. and he doesn't and he doesn't hate it. That's why he hadn't turned it loose. Right. It's the last stage of delegation, the delegation of something I like doing and I am good at. That's the thing.

Yeah, I think he feels like, yeah, it's probably what you said, that he feels he doesn't have a qualified person that he feels comfortable releasing the reins. But he needs to identify and start to pull somebody in of that. You got a head estimator in there that can do this stuff. Oh, yeah, definitely.

You know, and so, okay, I trust what he does, but do I trust he's going to do it my way? That's important. That's part of competency. You know, just because you know how to do something doesn't mean you know I do it the Ramsey way. Right? Right. You got to do it the Ramsey way for me to turn it loose to you because this is Ramsey. Yeah.

And it's just sort of might have a little different flavor to it. It might have a little more spice on the gumbo or whatever, right? So, or less, I don't know, whatever. But that, you know, you got to, that's what you're looking for. So that, that's the, that's the way. What I think I should be doing like from my kind of because I'm like I would consider me and our controller like our two closest is too closest confidence. Yeah. Just say that, dad, dad, dad, dad, that.

In order for us to scale this and for us to create it to be sustainable, we've got to train people to where you can trust their competency and their integrity. And until we do, you should not turn this loose. Right. But we need to be working to cause that to happen. and how can I help you get that done, but I don't want you to turn it loose until then because it'll get screwed up and he'll go, because that's what he's thinking.

You need to say what he's thinking back to him. Right. And then go, but we got to fix it together by getting somebody that you can trust their competence and their integrity. I'm going to send you a copy of the little book we did, a little quick read we did on delegation, and it'll help you, you know, you guys can read through it and you'll go, oh, yeah, that's it.

That's what we're doing. You guys can read through it. It's like 37 pages. I mean, it's like a chapter is all it is. And so they're called quick reads, and this one's on delegation in the Entree leadership materials. What does the future hold for business? Ask nine experts, and you'll get 10 different answers. Economic growth or a recession?

Business taxes will go up or down. AI will help us do work or replace us all. But there's no such thing as a crystal ball. That's why more than 42,000 businesses have future proofed themselves with NetSuite by Oracle. The number one, AI Cloud Enterprise Resource Planning System. Ramsey Solutions uses NetSuite, and you should too. Whether your company is earning millions or even hundreds of millions, NetSuite helps you respond to immediate challenges,

challenges and seize your biggest opportunities. With one unified business management suite, there's one source of truth for the visibility and control you need to make quick decisions. NetSuite's real-time insights and forecasting can help you see into the future with actionable data. And when you're closing the books in days, not just weeks, you spend less time looking backward and more time focusing on what's next. And speaking of what's next, download the CFO's guide to AI and machine learning at netsuite.com slash Ramsey.

It's free at net suite.com slash Ramsey. We just opened registration for Entree Leadership Master Series 2026 and over 200 of the 800 available spots are already claimed on day one. So if you want in, you better register. You're going to have a little fomo. Fear of missing out. Yeah, except it won't be a fear of. you will be missing out. So Master Series is a five-day business conference where our executive team, and I will open up our playbook and show you the exact tactics we have used to grow Ramsey

solutions into a $300 million company. You're going to walk away with a custom plan to scale and a network of small business owners who face the same challenges you do. Thousands of attendees have called Master Series the most tactical and transformational events they've ever attended. So if you're tired of winging it and you want a proven plan to scale and get the wrinkles out, baby, well, you need to be at Master Series. November 8 through 13, 2026. Yeah, that far off. Don't wait. Tickets are already going fast. Claim your spot today. Entreleadership.com slash master series or click the link in the show notes. Nicole is in Los Angeles.

Hi, Nicole. How are you? I'm good. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? So I am the bookkeeper-slash office manager of my husband's family's auto body shop. We have about 12 employees and we did about $2.5 million in revenue last year.

And my question is, how do me and my husband know if it's time for us to step away from the family business to protect ourselves? Protect yourselves? Yes. Why would you need protection? So there, it is a family business and there's a lot of hard family dynamics within the family business. No, within the family and it shows up in the business. Exactly. So about a year and a half ago, we actually were setting up to kind of walk away from it and restart kind of our careers. and I actually ended up going back to school, and he ended up staying because his family said that there was no reason for him to leave and that he was going to get the business in the will. And so he ended up staying, but it was kind of under the condition that he would be allowed to actually make changes to the business that needed to be made because it's not profitable right now.

So he actually asked his mom for a raise last week. And the conversation was kind of just like, no, we don't make money. And that's it. There is no conversation of like, why aren't we making money? How can we get the business back on track? And it just feels like anytime we try to actually solve anything that's wrong within the business, there's no conversation that can be had. So it just kind of feels like we're on like a hamster wheel going in circles and we can't actually make any forward progress with anything.

So his mom works there. His dad work there? His dad more so than his mom. I have kind of taken over all of her responsibility. She always did the book. And then why did he ask his mom for a race? She doesn't work there. He still kind of controlled the, his dad.

kind of answers to her and then she kind of makes the final decision on everything. So even though she's not in the business, she still is the one that says yes or no or vetoes, pretty much vetoes any ideas that we have to try to actually make changes. So that's kind of where we're at a point where he's set to quote unquote get the business in the will. But how old are they? she is 63 and his dad is 70 so are they in bad health no they're in great health so so it's going to be 30 years for you get the business exactly and so my husband is kind of at a point where he's like he's 30 turning 31 and he kind of just feels like at what point do I keep holding on for something that I may not even get the keys to if we can't even keep this thing surviving and should I, you know, start exploring other options.

But it's hard because- Why are you back there? Why am I there? I'm only there part-time because when I, like a year and a half ago when we had like a big family falling out, I quit. And then his mom asked me to come back and I wouldn't have like a set, because I'm in nursing school. She's like, you don't have to have a set schedule. I'll still pay you, you know, X amount and, you know, she didn't want to go back to work. So after I left, she kind of asked me to come back.

And we need the money still because we're not really financially where we want to be to where, you know, we can just live off of my husband's salary. And so it was too late by that time to try to like kind of find another job while I just started nursing school. so it was kind of more for us so that we wouldn't have to sell our house. How much do you like completing nursing school? I like it a lot. How much to lack? How long before you complete it?

Oh, I have about a year left until I'm done. So what does your husband do? Is he the general manager of the auto parts business? He is, so it's an auto collision center. So he is the production manager, like, on paper. But in reality, he kind of runs the entire thing. So this is a body shop. Yes.

All right. And so if he was working for another company doing the exact same thing, what would he be paid? He would be paid around $110,000 a year. Why don't you just go get that job? I think that he feels guilty. I know. Like leak his dad. But there's no reason.

There's no reason mechanically he couldn't just go get that job. that job? No, there's no reason. No. Okay. In which case you could go to nursing school and not work there? Exactly. So then you just got to decide. You have decided, but he hasn't apparently. Yes. So he

that's kind of where we're at right now is deciding do we... No, you've decided. He just hasn't. He hasn't decided, yeah. He isn't ready to leave and you are. Mm-hmm. And so, you know, the thing I do on these kinds of things is I extrapolate it and say, okay, 10 years from today, where are we going to be if we stay? Mm-hmm. Well, the story you have told me, to the extent you're being accurate, and I assume you are, is you're going to be sitting exactly where you're sitting. These people aren't going to change anything.

Yeah. And mother rules the roost and is a bit of a control freak. Yes, that's pretty accurate. Yeah. Well, that's the way you've told the story anyway. You didn't mean to, but you did. And so, but I mean, she sits back in the background and throws grenades in the middle of stuff. Instead of actually coming over there and getting crap done.

I don't want to work, but I do want to screw with everything, you know, and everybody. So, and then she's a travel. legend for guilt trips if he decides he's going to go somewhere else. So I would ask myself, what would have to be true for me to want to stay? Okay. And I can tell you if I'm in your shoes what that's going to be. Okay. An option to buy them out in the next five years and management control in the meantime.

Okay. If you will not surrender those two things, I'm going to have to do something else. Okay. Because they are not willing to make changes that are going to allow you do this gradually, so it's going to have to be more abrupt. Yeah. Because they lied before. Yeah.

They said we're doing the changes. We'll let you do changes, and then they didn't. And so, guys, we're going to make these changes. I'm going to be running the shop. Does dad work there every day? Pretty much. What does dad do? He just, he kind of just runs around and does what he just can't fit still.

So he doesn't really do much of the. I mean, if I gave him a title, what would he be, what was title be? Is he the manager of the whole place and your husband runs production? He's manager when he wants to be and he's manager when he doesn't want to be. So they sell my husband, it's your shop. your shop, what it's convenient for them to go do what they want to do. But then when he wants back in the driver's seat, then he takes back the rain. So it's very messy. There's no clear. Yeah. Well, I'm going to address that if you, but you can't do it. Yeah. You're going to end up

being the wicked witch of the West in this story. Yes. The evil's, the evil daughter-in-law who messed up everything. Everything was fine to you came along. If you keep running your mouth, that's where you're going to be. So you're going to have to, your husband's going to have to grow a backbone and decide where he stands on this. Is he finally going to stand up to his mommy or not? And is he going to decide, okay, mom, these are the terms. If you violate these terms, you are firing me because I'll be leaving. So you are deciding for me to leave if you take back the reins again. You are deciding for me to leave if we don't execute on the option for me to purchase this business from you all. And if you don't want me here, it's okay. I can go over there and make $110,000,

and Nicole can go to nursing school, and we're fine with that. We love y'all. We want you to win. We want you to have a good life. We're not mad at you. But if you want me here, I cannot stay in this limbo environment where you've got one foot on the dog and one on the boat and the boat's leaving. Yeah. And it's just, it's driving me nuts, Mom. And so mom and dad, we're going to sit down, and if you even attend the meeting, you don't say a word. Yeah. You just, and don't, do not open your trap, period. I'm serious. Because this woman is going to tag you and label you, and you're going to get stuck with this for the rest of your life with your kids and her grandkids. And you've got to keep this clean because she's used to being in control and when she realizes she's not, it's going to be

a harsh experience for her. Yeah. And if it gets labeled on you, you don't want that, kiddo. I promise you. Yeah. I've done a bunch of coaching around this stuff. And so one of the things we discover with family businesses is family businesses are only as functional or dysfunctional as the family is.

Yeah. And this family was operated by mom, not by dad. Mm-hmm. At home. Yes. She wears the pants. And then that translates down there. And she's used to throwing her weight around and getting her way.

And her word is the word. And, you know, that's okay. You're allowed to do that. If you own the business, that's what you do. I expect that around here. I'm own the place. I want people to listen when I say something, right? So I don't blame her for that.

But you can't mix those metaphors back and forth. and then, you know, go, well, we don't make any money, so I can't, I can't pay you. Yeah. But I won't make the changes it takes for us to be profitable that you're suggesting. So, anyway, all that to say is this deal's over. Y'all just need to, if you want to give it one more shot, the one more shot is very clear expectations, calmly laid out in person. And I really would prefer your husband do this.

But I'm not sure by himself without you there. But if you need to go just for moral support to make sure he actually does it. Because he gets in there and he crawfishes too. The script he's been taught since he was a little boy is when mom speaks up, you back up. Yes. Yeah. And this time when she speaks up, he's got to step up. Mm-hmm.

Okay. It's going to disrupt the family script. It's going to be bloody. Yes. But you need to be kind and calm, no raised voices, no cuss words. And if that starts, you guys just exit the building and go, gosh, guys, I'm sorry, I didn't come here to fight with you. I came here to love you. Okay.

Let's just slip out the back door and listen, we'll let you know. I'm going to go ahead and give you notice now that we're going to move on, okay? Okay. And, you know, just be kind and calm, but we're not going to be abused and we're not going to use your mom voice on me. I'm a 35-year-old freaking grown man. Yes. Okay. Okay. And so that, you know, you just kind of have these things in your head before you go in there and then lay out very clearly, where do we want to be? And I don't think, I don't think they'd change.

Yeah. Unless they just completely divorce themselves of it and walk away, which is what I'm asking them to do. Yeah. Okay. So I would pay Dad's salary and not let him come in. He doesn't even take a salary from the business anymore. Then he needs to not come in. Yeah. He needs to quit coming down there and puttsing around screwing up everything.

He's 70 years old. You know, it's time. Go do something else. You know, because you're jerking around on this thing. That's the whole thing. So, oh, my gosh. I'm sorry. Wow.

That's a tough one. It's a hard one. But, yeah, Nicole, you're over it, I can tell. And the question is, when your husband's finally over it, is he actually going to give them one more shot to turn it, or is he just going to walk? That's really what you're down to. And if you just want to walk too, that's okay.

Because this is a mess. You're right. It's a jumbled mess. Sales gravy understands that managing a sales team is one of the toughest jobs in the business. You're trying to get your team aligned, motivated, and paid in a way that drives real results, not just busy work. But let's be real. If your commission plans aren't working, that mission turns into a daily battle. You're fighting to spark the right behaviors without setting your budget on fire.

And instead of leading with confidence, you're not. stuck second-guessing every comp plan that's rolled out. Sales Gravy walks this road with sales leaders just like you every day. Leaders who are tired of chasing short-term wins and ready to build something sustainable. That's why Sales Gravy created the sales leaders' guide to incentives and compensation. The ultimate roadmap to help you lead with clarity. This is a battle-tested blueprint that shows you how to build comp plans that align with your goals, motivates your team to hit their targets,

and gives you the confidence that your compensation is a strategic asset. not a liability. And here's the best part. This guide is free, but only at one place. Salesgravey.com slash entree. It's exclusive for our entree leadership audience. Again, that's salesgravey.com slash E-N-T-R-E. Go get it.

One of the things we know about small business in particular is that leadership is lonely. And one of the things that goes with that loneliness is there's not anybody you can really go and just when you're having it, when you're killing it and you're getting a trophy and you're cashing the checks and you're winning, there's no place to brag. You can't tell your buddies because it sounds like you're bragging. And there's not a bunch, you know, there's no place to go to celebrate when you're winning in small business. Well, we fix that. This is the place. We want you to come here and celebrate and brag.

And we're going to blow trumpets to throw confetti with you. that you're smart and that you're winning and way to go. And Ashley is one such brag call from Fort Worth, Texas. Hey, Ashley, brag a little. Hi, Dave. I'm so happy to be talking to you. They thanks for having me on. Sure.

Tell me what good's going on, kiddo. Yeah, so I'm the owner of a wedding planning company in the DFW area. We have six full-time team members. I've been in business for about 10 years. I actually called in to the show last summer, just needing some guidance on where it should go next, and your advice really helped out clearly because here I am calling. So at the time, we were averaging about $300,000 in revenue.

But after the advice he gave me, we're on track to hit about $500,000 this year. Whoa! I love it. Way to go. Excellent. Yes. What did you do? What was the big thing that made the difference?

Yes. So during my last call, we were really just at a crossroads with the company of what kind of weddings we were servicing at the time. We weren't fully serving the luxury market, but we were also starting to price out of the lower-end weddings, and we just seemed to be in limbo. And so you had encouraged me to split the brand, where I would create a lower-end brand to serve the lower-end clientele and leave my current business to continue growing and moving upward. So I honestly had been considering a similar idea. So for you to hear my story for less than a minute and immediately recommend that same thing was just extreme confirmation that it was going to be.

the right move. Cool. And it worked. And your revenues are almost double. Yes. Yeah. So within a week of our call last year, I had my team on board, got them to see the vision, where we were going. Within 45 days, we officially launched the split. And within our very first month of the split, our luxury brand booked three of the highest weddings we've ever done in 10 years. And our lower end brand booked eight weddings in a month. So it was pretty crazy and pretty immediate. That is so cool. I am so proud of you. Way to go. Very, very cool.

That is exciting. You did it. You did it. You did it. I don't know what else to say. That's about as good as it gets right there, actually. Man, well, it's rewarding to me to hear that I actually said something that worked. That's good, too.

Because sometimes we say these things that we never hear back. We don't know what happened. Did you go try it or did you do what we said to do? Or did I give you bad advice? You know, I think it's a good advice or I wouldn't give it to you, but wow, that's so cool. Doubled your revenue by a simple brand split strategy and your hustle and your alignment and your strong leadership. You can tell she's a great communicator and is a great leader as well. Actually, I'm so proud of you.

Way to go. That is absolutely amazing. Very, very well done. Touchdown, boys and girls. Brag a little when you win. Master Series 2026 just opened for registration. and already on day one, over 200 of 800 spots are gone. So if you want in, you've got to register today.

At Entree Leadership Master Series, my executive team and I will open our playbook and show you the exact tactics we used to scale Ramsey solutions into a $300 million company. You'll walk away with a custom plan to grow your business and a network of small business owners who face the exact same challenges you do every day. This may be the smartest investment you make in your business in the next year. Thousands of attendees have called Master Series the most tactical and transformational event they've ever attended.

So if you're tired of winging it and want a proven plan to scale without working 70 hours a week, you'll need to be at Master Series November 8 through 13, 2026. But don't wait because tickets are already going fast. Claim your seat today at entreleadership.com slash master series or click the link in the show notes. Hey gang, if you like this show, you can hit the subscribe button, the follow button. It helps us with the algorithm. It causes the show to get pushed forward into people's face. We appreciate when that happens.

And the old, you can share. If the platform you're on has a share button, use that, or click the, or just cut the link out and send it to somebody go, hey, this guy's crazy, but he's got something. so or whatever, whatever description you want to use for the show. I'll take any of them as long as they're positive. Oh, and those five-star reviews, that helps the algorithm too.

Thanks a bunch, guys. Ryan is in Minneapolis. Hey, Ryan, what's up? Hey, Dave, how are you doing? Better than I deserve. How can I help? Yeah, so I run a construction company that we do about $1.4 million in revenue,

and I build basically pole buildings around the area. and I'm looking to kind of double my revenue and just look at advice on that. Okay. Well, I mean, you already know there's two possibilities, right? Double your prices or double your volume or some combination of the two. You already knew that before you called. Yep. And we'd be looking to, I guess, double our revenue with basically I'm kind of set up.

I think I have the ability to run two crews. I run one crew. I employ three guys right now. And I think I have two foremen's with me, and only one's an actual foreman. And so I'm looking to kind of, you know, see how I can market my way into doubling, you know, the amount of projects we can do. Okay. How long have you been open? About a year and a half.

Okay. And you've already done 1.4 million? Yes, yes, sir. Okay. So you think there's a ton more business that is like low-hanging fruit. You can just go pick it. I kind of do, yeah. I need to advertise better.

I'm just looking for ways to do that. But from what I'm seeing, there's a lot of work in the area, and I think I can do it. and I just want to kind of start, I guess last year we started, like you say, kind of crawling. This year we're kind of walking, and next year I want to start running. Yeah, okay, so what I want you to do is grow at the speed of quality hires. Yep. I don't want you to double your volume and hire some don't.

I want thoroughbreds on the team. Can't win the Kentucky Derby with a donkey. So you've got thoroughbreds now, and you're a little bit spoiled with that, and you're automatically extrapolating that into double. And that's good. I like that. That's good ambition. But the naive part of that is that you're just assuming you can get another set of

thoroughbreds. And honestly, in business, it is not unusual to say the number one. or number two problem is attracting and keeping high quality people to get the job done. Correct. It's like the hardest part of business. I have, I have some, I have three guys. Like I said, I have two that, you know, one's an actual foreman. One, he's 23.

He can be a foreman in the next year or two. We want to take care of them. And then I have a summer help that's, you know, working part-time through college. Yeah. And he's actually, I mean, he's got to duplicate that exactly. lineup. You got to have that many more to do the same volume at the same quality. Yep. And that's where I've been, I've been very blessed with that. I'm just trying to figure out. What was your profit on the 1.4? About 20 to 25%. Okay. So you made a quarter million dollars.

Correct. Yep. So last year we did about, last year we did about a million at 20%. Yeah. This year it's going to be about 1.4 at 20%. And I'm kind of at the point where I guess my one crew is the reason I ask that is I would go ahead and hire the next three for the next crew even if you don't have the work sure you can afford it you've got the margin okay and then as soon as you get them in there and you know that they know what they're doing you're working alongside your existing crew to prove them their worth to prove their competency then that gives you a lot of comfort to lean into the marketing hard and go get a bunch of work and separate the crews.

But you don't have to go get the marketing done and then hope you get the crew. That is very true. That scares me. I would get the crew on the ground. It's going to be hard to get the same guys I have times two. It's going to be very hard to do that. I do understand that completely. Yeah.

So I'm going to go ahead and start working on that now. And even if you don't have enough work for them, you put them on payroll because you got the margin to pay them. Okay. And as soon as you get them on the payroll and they're out there swinging a hammer and they're putting up pole barns and you're ready to go, then you go, okay, I can now I can comfortably with confidence lean into the marketing and go ahead and get that volume up because now I've got the guys in place. I'm afraid if you go get the marketing that you're going to feel the pressure to hire and end up hiring donkeys instead of thoroughbreds. I've done that. I've gotten something that was booming so hard that I had to have the help, had to have the help, had to have the help.

And the pressure to do that caused me to lower my standards. And then that created cultural problems and all kinds of idiocy inside my building. And I had to have a crazy eviction and evict some crazy. And a donkey ectomy, right? And so, yeah, you got it. And they're painful. They're really freaking painful. So you don't want to do that.

You want to get the thoroughbreds in the saddle, ready to go. and get them ready to, you know, get them out there swinging a hammer, and then you're going to make it happen. That's pretty cool, man. Congratulations. You're doing really well. Very proud of you. Very, very, very done.

Folks, remember better a weary warrior than a quivering critic. This world needs more high-quality leaders. So take courage and lead. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. Thanks for joining us on Entree Leadership.