EntreLeadership - Our Business Is in the Red (Is It Time to Lay People Off?)

Episode Date: August 11, 2025

Today, we’ll hear about: •             A business owner considering potential layoffs due to declining revenue •             A leader struggling to talk to his team about their pay differences •             An employee wondering how to best support his leader •             A business owner who is considering moving or selling his business 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 the Entree Leadership podcast, 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. I was doing this stuff today. If you got a question you want to ask on the show, fill out the form on Entreeleadership.com slash ask or call and leave us a voicemail at 844-944. 1070 844-944-1070. Brian is with us in Grand Rapids. Hey, Brian, how are you? Hey, Dan. Just the same, sir. What's up? Well, I run a consultant firm here and I have about six employees. Last year we did about $2.5 million in revenue. And the problem that I'm running into right now, Dave, is that since fourth quarter last year, we've seen a significant dip in revenue due to economic factors that's happening here in

Michigan and suffered a pretty substantial loss in Q1 of this year. And I'm considering reducing my staff headcount. The problem is that I have an amazing team that's been with me for quite some time. They all buy into our mission. They're aligned with our vision. It took me a long time to get to this place. and I'm hesitant to let anybody go because of how hard we work to get to where we're at with them. So I just need your guidance on this one because I don't know how much longer we can sustain before I really have to start cutting even more.

Yeah. Ouch. So the thing is literally in the red. You lost money. We lost money in Q1. we're down by about 50% already this year compared to last year. How much money did you lose in Q1, actual dollars? 40 grand. Okay.

And you just had the cash to cover that, obviously? Correct. Okay. So what's Q2 trending on? We're still going to be low, probably in the red as well, not as bad. I'd say probably going to lose another 10 grand. Okay. the um so what happens when we're facing something like this it's a type of trauma and i faced it myself and

you know we all faced it like during covid as an example right how am i going to make payroll for 1100 people uh when entire divisions departments in this company just evaporated like live events we obviously weren't doing any right uh that kind of thing so how do we keep how do we keep the people here what we do we're all facing these decisions and one of the things we learned during that exercise which was more than just an exercise it was an extremely stressful situation um what was dr john deloney he talks about this all the time he says when you're in trauma or when you're in a uh crisis scenario the way to keep your thinking clear and you is to say facts are my friends because what happens is we all have a drama queen between our ears and it wakes up and goes into a full Broadway show.

And it makes everything feel worse at 2 o'clock in the morning than it actually is. Does that make any sense to you? Does that sound familiar? That's pretty darn accurate. I think I wake up at 2 a.m. every day. There you go. And so, yeah, and it's like, and things are really dramatically better than reality or dramatically worse than reality. and the key word here is dramatically.

We're drama queens, all of us. And so when you're in a high-stress scenario, a threat is coming at you. Our brains are designed to shut down thinking if a lion is approaching to eat you. You don't need to have a discussion with yourself and do critical thoughts. You need to run.

And so the prefrontal cortex is flooded with dopamine and other things and it shuts down critical thinking skills. And that's normal and a trauma thing. So you have to stop and rise above that as an intentional act and say, facts are my friends. Now, when I say facts are my friends, then what you're asking me about is, is it time to lay people off? Okay. What are the facts telling us about, okay, we're burning 40K.

We're not going to burn as much next quarter. we can't keep burning money. There's an end to that. That's a fact, right? But are we able to, have you been able to make some corrections with the market and get revenues heading back in the right direction so that maybe Q3 you don't lose money? Because if I'm breaking even and making no profit

on my way back to making the profit I used to make, I'm not laying people off, would you? No, I'll take break-even all day right now. Yeah, for a while, on my way back to, but not break-even as a five-year scenario. I'm not doing that one. But break-even as a way back to where we were from a $40,000 loss

and the bottom of the valley would be Q1 of 2025 and by Q1 of 2026 were profitable again and heading toward, heading back, you know, the lines are heading in the right direction again. if I can see my way that, then we don't end this. And I don't know your business well enough or your environment well enough. But, you know, can you see a way where this thing, you know, hangs on by the skin of your teeth until you finish turning it positive?

If you can, then it's not time to let people off. But if you think this is a death spiral and this thing's going to settle out at 50% of its former revenue, then you're going to have to be a 50% of your money. former staff. So that's the, what we're doing here is forecasting with facts, not with drama. And I don't know that, but I like the trend, and you do too, that I'm losing a little money but less than the quarter before. And if I can think that that's probably true about Q3, that I lose a little less money than

Q2, then this is a downturn you can absorb without laying people off because you're heading back in the right direction. Does that make sense? It makes total sense. I think there's still a lot of uncertainty in Michigan on what it's going to look like. It's not up to Michigan. It's up to Brian. There's always been uncertainty in Michigan.

There's always been uncertainty in Tennessee. When you opened your business, there was uncertainty. And so, yeah, there's some outside variables that are playing havoc with you. But I'm not making my decision on the outside variables. I'm asking, if I'm you, I'm looking in the mirror and saying, and Brian, can I in this current environment turn this thing? If I come to believe that I cannot turn it, then yes, you have to lay people off. And that should be a result of factual analysis.

But when you started the business, Brian, there were people standing on the sidelines telling you it couldn't be done. And it took several years for you to finally believe them. I'm telling you it maybe can be done, you know? and, you know, but I'm not waiting on Trump to take on your stupid governor, and I'm not waiting on any of that kind of crap to bail you out. You're going to be the answer to your, you're the secret sauce on your sandwich. And so I'm trying, and so you've got to sit down with your top two people and say,

in order to not lay people off, we have to come to believe that we're trending back up. What has to be true for us to believe that with facts? not with wishful thinking. Or are we going to come to believe that the environment is so tough we can't exist anymore? If that's the case, then you're going to own it and let people go. So I don't know the answer to the equation. But necessary endings come, according to Henry Cloud and his book, Necessary Endings, when you have lost hope that you see a way forward.

I no longer see a way forward. and I'm not there yet in this discussion because I can tell that you are making you're losing less money in Q2 than Q1. You did not continue down. You did something to stabilize. You brought the nose of the plane up before it hit the ground.

And so what did you do to stabilize and can you do some more of that? That's the in the current environment that you're in. I don't know any other way to do it. So, yeah, that's where I would land on it. But if you come to believe that it's going to continue to go down, it will be irresponsible to the people you're going to keep to not let the people go that need to go.

They're the first ones out the door. And, you know, so the way we lined that up at COVID was, we said, okay, we have a certain amount of cash. We told our team this, by the way. We have a certain amount of cash. we don't have any debts. If we start actually losing money and burning the cash, the first thing is we're going to burn the cash down to a certain level.

The second thing is leadership will stop taking pay. And the third thing is we're going to hold your pay. And then if that's not working, then we're going to let you go. But we're not going into debt. And we're not going to do any of that. So anyway, and we just told them that's exactly. The good news was at Ramsey, we were able to bring the nose of plane up, even though it was heading down, before it got in the red, before we were actually

losing money. So we never even got to the burn the cash part, much less leadership not taking pay. But I was willing to not take pay rather than let people go, just like you, Brian. And our leadership team was too. And that makes it easier to not lose money, right? And so we can keep the nose of the plane heading up into the sky. But if the environment with the shutdowns, and all the bull crap stuff we all went through was going to keep us from doing business, then, you know, people were going to end up losing their jobs at the end of the story.

And but we told everybody that. We said, you're going to have plenty of notice because we're going to tell you everything that's going on. And this month we did not lose money. We made less than we thought we were going to make, but we did not lose money. This month, we did not lose money. This month, we did not lose money.

And every time I say that, you get to keep your job a month longer. And so, and we kept telling us. everybody that so everybody knew what we were facing and i think you start telling your team that and um and tell them what your plan is and go we got to get this revenue back up and if we don't get it back up there's no Santa Claus doesn't live here you know we can't we cannot keep paying you guys and that's a mathematical fact and that that's what you're getting into so you're good man you're good man for fretting over this you're a good man for wanting to protect your people you're wise for all of those things things. So, wow. If you're spending most of your workday digging out of your inbox, scheduling meetings,

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Download Belay's free resource, the ultimate guide to working with an executive assistant today. Just text Entree to 55123. That's E-N-T-R-E to 55-123. Entree Leadership Master Series is already over 90% sold out. Yeah, even more than that. So if you want to join us this October 19-124, you're running late. It's time to act. Just a tiny window here for you. Master Series is a five-day business conference where my leadership team walks you through the exact tactics we use to grow

Ramsey to a $300 million company. You'll leave with a custom plan to grow your business. So to join us in Frisco, Texas this October at the wonderful Omni Resort, go to Entreeleadership.com slash master series or click the link in the show notes if you're listening on YouTube or podcast. AJ is in Minneapolis. Hi, AJ. How are you? Good.

Hi, Dave. What's up? Say, I'm a manager for an engineering company where I oversee about 10 staff. Half of my staff are union, half our non-union. So my question is, how should I approach conversations regarding wage differences between, you know, the union versus non-union? members. They're doing the same job? They are not doing the same job.

The union is more of like the field crews and the non-union is more of the project management type. So it's not the union that's causing the issue. The issue is they do different jobs. I mean, if I've got someone that's, if I've got someone here that is a salesman and that brings in $20 million in ad revenues or $5 million in ad revenues, he or she is different than someone who's an entry-level accounting person. It's apples to oranges.

They should not even be on the same. I mean, it doesn't matter if they're union or not. It's just they get paid different because they do different jobs. The non-union at one point were at a higher rate than the union, and that is now flipped. Yeah. Doesn't matter, though. They do different jobs.

Okay. I mean, there was a time that, I don't know, somebody in this place made more than somebody, and that flipped because of the changes in technology. That could be the same thing here. So, I mean, like, give me an example of an office staff who used to make more than union that doesn't now. Like my project managers, they are now less than my field engineers.

And they're managing the field engineers? They kind of are, like, distributing workload to them, whereas the project managers receive the projects in, and then they will assign a field engineer to their project. And the field engineers are a union? They are, yep. Really? What industry is this?

Yeah. It's the electric industry. Hmm. Okay. Oh, okay. Electrical engineer. Okay. Yes.

Huh. And how? Yes. Listen, it's interesting. Yeah. It's just, okay. If you were out, I'm looking at, I can look at either one of these people and say, if you didn't have a job right now and you came over here to apply for a job,

you would apply for a project manager or you would apply for a union field engineer. And a project manager pays this, and if a union field engineer pays that. And you just, you know, are you qualified for the one that pays more? If you are, you probably would do that one unless you just don't like that type of work. And so, but basically what you're telling me is the marketplace is flipped. So your competitor is facing exactly the same thing. So your project manager can't jump to a competitor and make double, AJ? No, no.

No. So the vice versa is that the field engineer can't go anywhere near what they're getting paid. If they went to a non-union shop. Correct. Yeah. Yeah. So they're stuck, but that's the union deal. That has nothing to do with that.

Hmm. Okay. Is there a, okay, so if a, and there, so there are electrical engineers in your area that are non-union. Hmm. So why are you union and paying more? I guess that I don't know the history on how it started, but that's, I guess where we're at now. Hmm. I don't know the legalities of that. I'm not trying to bust a union, but I'm just thinking from a business perspective. why am I paying more? If I can waive a one and not be union and pay less, and that's what my competitor is doing.

I'm probably wanting to do that for other reasons other than your call just because I don't want to overpay. You know, I don't have a, from a profit motive perspective, I don't have any loyalty to the word union. I'm not mad about it, and I'm not trying to bust something here, but, you know, anyway, that's a side issue, I guess. So your question is, is how do I talk to my team about the pay difference is, look, that position pays this,

this position pays that. The position is just pay different. It's not a personal thing, and I didn't do it, and the company didn't do it. It's what the marketplace pays. Union electrical engineers make this, and we have union electrical engineers. Project managers make this, and this is what you make. And I don't think they have a gripe. I don't know why they would go, oh, that's not fair because it's just it's what you make. You can't go somewhere else

and make different. You know, if you were underpaying your project managers, that'd be a discussion to have. But the reason you're underpaying him is not what the field engineer, union field engineers are working.

The reason you'd be underpaying him is what the competitors pay in that position. Right. And I think generally we're overmarket in both positions. Yeah. So you got no gripe.

You chose project manager, you know, this is what you chose. I mean, if you choose to be a, I don't know, pick a job in the marketplace that makes more than another job, you chose that direction. You could have gone the other direction hypothetically. You know, you chose to be, but, you know, yeah, it's like the old joke of the plump, the lawyer calls a plumber and the plumber comes in and in 30 seconds he fixes the thing and the, the guy goes, he says that'd be $250. And he goes, $250, you're here for 30 seconds. I'm a lawyer. I don't make that.

And the plumber says, I didn't make that either when I was a lawyer. I mean, that's the kind of thing you're looking at. It's like, so, you know, what in the world? So, you know, you make what you make for that role. And that's what the marketplace is bearing. And so I don't know why anybody, I don't have to, I don't have to explain that to somebody. and if I do, there's other issues with that person of maturity and other things going on. So, you know, that's all I can help.

I don't feel like I've been much help there, but oh well, it's my best shot. Thanks for hanging out with us, America. We're glad you're here. If you want to help us out, we could use some help in a lot of ways, but you could help us this way. Please click the follow button, the subscribe button, leave a nice five-star review, share this show, tell people about it. Ask them to join us right here on this podcast. And you can tell them what's going on. And gosh, if you want to be a caller here, just dial the number at 844-944-1070.

844-944-1070. Jake is with us in Springfield. Hey, Jake, what's up in your world? Hey, Dave. I work with a remodel construction company. We did about $2 million last year in gross revenue, and we've got three full-time employees, which I am one of. And my boss last year went to Nashville to one of your leadership conferences,

your entrepreneurial leadership conferences, came back, and he was just really excited about it and shared a lot of it with me. My question is, is how can I support him through this, having not been to the conference, having a lot of personal investment in this company? How can I support him as he's trying to grow as a leader? great question um well one of the things he probably came up with when he was with us was i've got maybe i'll just make up a number he may have said i got 10 things i want to work on based on what

i learned right and the first thing i'm going to work on is this the second thing is this the third for shrank them the third thing i'm going to work on so i'm not going to work on all 10 at once and um you know you if he did do that um then you can simply ask and say all right what are you working on and how can I help? And I want to help you get there. And explain to me, teach me the concept that you learned. And so I can come alongside you and not be wondering what the flip you're doing. I'll be instead helping to push the car up out of the ditch.

Let's get it going. And so do you have any examples of what you think he's working on from what he learned? I mean, we've gone through a lot of it since I don't remember. It was October, November, September last year, but we sat down and we had an off-site. We had our first off-site meeting together. Cool. Talking about strategy for this year, which is great. I feel like we set a lot of good goals, that kind of thing.

And now we're in the nitty-gritty. We're super busy, which is great. That's a good thing. But I feel like the conversation has fallen off, and we've moved into more of the day-to-week-week stuff. So maybe it's just time to revisit some of those things we talked about. Yeah, I would ask if you could have a 30-minute bi-weekly meeting for him to tell you what your part, what you need to be working on to help hit those strategy and the goals

that came out of the strategy. Right. And we've started doing a weekly scheduling meeting, which has been great, and that keeps us on track for lots of different things. But maybe we could include. We laid out this grand scheme, and the grand scheme has 47 moving parts. What, you know, what do I, what do I need to push on the 47 things to help you get the grand scheme? And in other words, I want to be, I don't want to be working on the wrong thing.

I want you working, I want to be working on what you want me working on. Okay. And just get clarity in your, and you five minutes, ten minutes in your weekly scheduling meeting will do that. And just go, okay, remember the, remember the strategy, and the strategy gave us these goals. And the goals, when you're looking at that, that's a desired future. And then you say, what must be true that's not true now in order for us to hit that goal. And so which of those things that aren't true that we're trying to make true, do you want me to help with? Okay.

That's a very good question. And by the way, you're a prize. I'm glad he's got you. He's good to me and my family, so he deserves it too. Have you ever trained a leader and they've come to you two years, five years, ten years later and said, man, once I found someone that was willing to do this, things really started happening. It usually had to do with, if you're finding someone, it usually had to do with a specific discipline or skill set. And, you know, like, you know, you reach a point in size where you need a really good accounting person,

and that frees you up to go do business because you're not going to screw with the accounting. You reach a point in size where someone's handling all the day-to-day scheduling, and since you don't have to mess with that, you can work on strategy and you can work on moving bigger clients in and that kind of thing. And so what you're doing is you're all-floating areas of the business, disciplines within the business to someone, and in each time you do that, it frees the leader, the owner up to go to the next level on the things you're working on. and you take a $2 million business, make it a $4 or $5 or $10 million business. Right. And so, but there's not a certain singular position. It would be more unique to each company.

In my case, it was, you know, when I brought in people that could, the first guy I hired, I was doing financial counseling, and he was a financial counselor. So I wasn't having to do one-on-one coaching across a round table in a conference room with couples that were hurting. Instead, I'm over here working on the business,

and he was over there doing the counseling. And so, you know, somebody did the work that I was doing, so I was freed up. But that was the very first hire that I ever did. His name was Russ Carroll. And he stayed here so long he retired from here. He's a wonderful friend to this day. But it's someone does some of the work that you were having to do

that allows you to do bigger thinking work and bigger idea work. And so, you know, I reached a point several years ago where I felt like God told me I was only to work on things that were big or broken, things that were big or broken or brand new. I can help with some of those things. But things that were operating that weren't broken

and that weren't huge, I need to let the guys run and I'm running them, run them. And I need to work on big, broken, new. And I spent most of my life working on the big things around here, the broken things and the new things around here to make sure they all get up and move. And so that's the case here, and that may or not be the case there, Jake, but you're asking really, really world-class questions. Yeah. Dude's got him a world-class right-hand man there. You know, I recommend a book to you. It's called Rocket Fuel. Y'all have to look at that one, Jake. It talks about the number one, how key a number two man can be or number two woman behind a number one.

Pick up the book, Rocket Fuel, and you and your leader read it. Because at the stage you guys are at, it might be helpful for you. Entree Leadership Master Series is over 90% sold out. So if you wait any longer to get your tickets, you're going to miss it. At this five-day tactical business conference, my executive team, my leadership team, will walk you through the strategy we used to grow Ramsey into a $300 million company. You'll leave with a custom plan to grow your business and lead your team to Join us this October 19 through 24 in Frisco, Texas.

Go to Entreeleadership.com slash master series or click the link in the show notes if you're listening on YouTube or podcast. Thanks for hanging out with us, America. We're glad you're here. The phone number is 844-944-1070. This is the Entree Leadership podcast. I am your host, Dave Ramsey. Will is in Miami, Florida. How are you?

I'm doing well, Dave. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. What's up? So I'm the owner-operator of a fishing products brand that grosses 1.3 million with seven employees. I'm wondering if I should sell or move my business. You're an owner of a what? A fishing products brand. Fishing products, like lures or rods and reels or fishing line or that kind of thing.

I'm sorry? Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Anything that catches fish. I got you. Okay, cool. And you're in Miami. Okay.

Why are we considering these two options? What's wrong with just doing what you're doing? So to give you some context, I made the decision to move my family about two and a half years ago during COVID. I moved it about two and a half hours away from the business. Essentially, I've been operating the business remotely. And I've come to the realization over the last few years that I really can't take the business from the Pathfinder stage.

that we're in into the trailblazer stage. So it's kind of a unique situation. I don't know too many people have done exactly what I've done. So I'm just trying to figure out, do I sell it or do I try to move the business? Okay. I ran into some guys that do millions of dollars of freshwater lures. And a year, and they are in an interior state, but they're freshwater guys primarily. I think they probably have some saltwater product.

I'm guessing if you started in Miami, your stuff might be primarily salt water. That's correct. Yeah, we do a little bit of fresh water as well, but primarily focused on salt water. What I'm noodling is because these guys were in a state that had nothing to do with the ocean, and really, you know, they're selling stuff to... you know, every bait shop in America is buying their stuff, right, on every lake around anywhere. Is it necessary that this business is on the coast? No, not necessarily.

It definitely does not have to be on the coast. I think that there's some benefits of it being on the coast. Like testing stuff or whatever? Yeah, absolutely, for testing products and, you know, to get the right type of culture. You know, it's kind of a unique industry. It's a little bit of a smaller industry that we're in. So you really want to get people in, at least that I've found, you know, have a general interest in solar fishing. So the further interior go, the harder would be.

Yeah. And did, so if you did move it, you would move it close to home? That's correct. And is that going to be too far interior with the discussion we're having? No, no, it's still, we're still near the coast. It's definitely a smaller area. There's not, you know, quite as much industry going on where we're at. But you're not just selling the stuff local, are you?

No, no. So we're, I'd say, more regional, southeast United States from Texas up to Virginia. Yeah, if you're doing a million three, you said, right? Correct, yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, you're probably doing a large portion of it online or distribution through some kind of retailers, right? Correct. Yeah, we have a good mix between selling wholesale to retail retail accounts and also selling online. It's about 60-40. I don't I'm not in the focus group I don't hate fishermen or fishing I just don't do much of it so I can't I'm trying to think what I can relate it to that I would be trying to put my put the customer shoes on I don't know why this is not 90% online I think mainly because of the fishing industry still is pretty heavily brick and mortar

and early on the early on the business we made a decision to work with mom and pop retail shops and we really try to honor them and those relationships as best as possible. So while there is a huge opportunity online, we just have those good lasting relationships with shops. And so we've tried about... So if you move it to where you are, though, you've still got to run those mom-and-pop distribution strategy from where you are,

or you've got to run it from Miami. So there's no downside to moving it. Correct. In terms of it doesn't destroy the business model. Because it's either going to be online or mom-and-pop distribution, and you're fine with that. And you've just got to get more mom and pops to go from a million three to two million six, right? To double.

Yeah, that's correct. And you can do that from hometown. So why would you not just move it? Why are you thinking of selling it instead? So I have some really good employees in place when I made the decision to leave the business. You know, that was my decision. I didn't really have the idea in mind of bringing the business with the team was operating well. How many?

And total we have seven employees, four, four. time, three part time. So you have four employees. You're not going to not move a business for a part-timer. Right, right. So we're talking about four people. Yep. Are you sick of this business? I'm sick of working remotely right now, and that's, you know, coming to the last year. I think you need to move it. Okay. And if you need to be kind of financially to the four people that, if any of them don't want to come, if any of them don't want to move, you can be kind to them financially. And, but it's not, let me tell you,

they'll quit the minute that they see a better job anyway, even though, and not because they're, but just because it's human nature, I mean, if somebody comes along and offers them double, they're going to go work for somebody else. And so, you know, that's not, that's all, that's the way life is, and that's okay, they should. actually. That's not, you would want that for them if they could make double.

And so, yeah. Yeah, I had a guy leave a few weeks ago that he was making almost double. And I'm like, you know, let me help you pack. Oh my gosh. And so, you know, the, um, hmm, yeah, move it. And just, because the only thing keeping you from moving it is not that you're, the only reason you would sell it is so those four people kept their job. That's a dumb reason. No. Don't do that. With that said, what do you think is the best process? You know, I am removed from the business. So I'm a little bit hesitant to just, you know, giving them a lot of time just because I'm not close to the operation.

You know, I do go up once a month or so. Well, you're going to get your hands dirty again and get ready for the move. Absolutely, right. So get your butt in the car and get back down there. Yep. And get up to your elbows in it again so that if they all walk out on you, you're not dead. dead in the water. Right now, you don't even know what the flip's going on. And so, and, you know, what I would tell them is, I'm here, and then after a week of you being there,

you ought to be reacclimated to almost everything. And then after, and then in the second week, say the reason I'm doing this and getting reacclamated is we're talking about moving it, and here's our timeline for moving it. And I'll pay your moving expenses if you want to come, or I'll give you some severance if you don't want to come. And help me finish this thing up. days we're going to move it or whatever the timeline is and go ahead and tell them the timeline once you've gotten back in the saddle but you're vulnerable until you're back in the saddle is what you're saying yeah that's that's definitely what it feels like for sure yeah well let's get let's get back in the saddle then and uh because you got to do that anyway when you move it you're going to be

back to work you're working two days a week craps over you're getting ready to run a business again yeah you're getting ready to run a business again because it's going to be in your backyard and you're going to work every morning yep another wrong with that another wrong with that at all that's not a sense and if you look up and you say i don't want to do any of that i'd rather just have the money and sell it then sell it i don't care you don't have to but i didn't hear any reason to sell this business um and i it's not healthy the way it is because you're not giving you're not rocking your own baby enough other people are rocking your baby and so it's not going to grow it's not going to be everything it should be it's you know with you working remote and and and it

poor good guys, even though they're good guys, they're not ever going to take it to where you would take it to. And so you either need to sell it or move it. I agree with that. Because it's not being maximized. It's not going to hit the level of excellence that you want to hit. I really like where you are, though. It's a cool discussion.

And the good news is you were good enough and are good enough at this business that it gives you choices of what you want to do. But if you decide I just don't want to be in this business anymore and I want to sell it for that reason, then that's an okay reason. But to protect four employees that might leave anyway, no, I'm not going to do that. That's not. I'll protect them other ways.

I'll take good care of them if they move or if they don't move. That'll be the plan. All right, folks, hey, remember better a weary warrior than a quivering critic. This world needs more high-quality leaders. So take courage and leave. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. Thanks for listening to the Entree Leadership Podcast.