REAL AF with Andy Frisella - 308. Q&AF: Owning Multiple Businesses, Money Within Relationships & Increasing Your Prices

Episode Date: June 10, 2022

In today's episode, Andy answers your questions on if you should entertain owning multiple businesses or go all-in on your current business, what's the best way to handle finances as a couple, and how to effectively communicate to your customers about price increases during inflation.

What is up guys, it's Andy Priscilla and this is the show for the realest, say goodbye to the lies, the fakeness and del delusions of modern society. And welcome to motherfucking reality, guys. Today, we have Q and AF. That's where you submit the Qs and I give you the AFs. Where do they submit the Qs? Guys, email those questions in to askandy at andyfusella.com. And if this is your first time listening, that's DJ. Hey, guys.

Yeah. Now, we have multiple formats on the show. We have Q and AF, which is about what you're about to hear. We also have CTI, which is Cruise the Internet, which is where we literally cruise the internet, pick apart the craziest shit that's going on, try to deduce what little truth there is in the actual media headline, and then point out the problem and the solution. Solution always comes back to our own personal excellence, which is why we talk about that on the Q and AF. So we have CTI problem, Q and AF solution. Then we have real talk, which is where I come on and I just yell about some shit, all right? And some of you like it and some of you don't.

And if you don't, I don't care. Then we have full length, which is where I bring all my successful friends who have great stories, who have overcome shit, which is where I bring all my successful friends who have great stories, who have overcome shit, who most of the time make a lot of money. And if they don't make a lot of money, they made a lot of impact. And we talk about how they did it and how you could do it too. So that's the show.

And we do have a fee for the show. And the fee is very simple. Tell somebody, all right? We don't advertise on the show. I've never advertised on the show. I don't want ads for the show okay i work entirely off your word of mouth so if i do a good job if the team does a good job if dj does a good job which is very fucking rare i need you to share the show just kidding just kidding that's

fine that's fine that's fine oh really that's fine yeah you know what they say when it's fine that's not fine that's like when that's like when your girl says like uh go have fun yeah well this would be a great episode that's fine go have fun yeah i selected all these questions that's abort mission status all right let's get to the cues hey where do they submit the cues? Did you already say that? Yeah. Tell them again.

Email those questions in guys to ask Andy and Andy for selling. Guys. And the questions could be about anything. Okay. For those of you that don't know, I had the number one entrepreneur podcast of all time called the MFCEO project where all we talked about was personal development, kicking ass, making money and winning. And so I know a few things about it.

So you can ask me about anything. Ask me about what's going on in the world, but ask me about how to grow your business. Ask me about how to build discipline. Whatever the fuck you want to know, that's what this is about. So let's get started. Let's knock it out, man. Any question number one. I currently run a home service cleaning company doing about a hundred thousand dollars per month in revenue. We've grown quickly and I've reinvested everything to date in the past two years in order to grow so quickly. When I listened to other entrepreneurs,

they mentioned owning multiple businesses. Is that a path I should consider or should I put all my focus into my current business? That's a great question. So what he's, what you're talking about, what this person's talking about is there is now a culture of what people call serial entrepreneurship. And basically it's where these guys and these girls, they think that they got to have, you know, there's that famous meme that goes around that says, average millionaire has seven streams of income. And people think that that means they got to start

like seven different things at once. Right. But here's the problem. And these people almost always fail because it's easy to be a jack of all trades and a master of none. That's the entrepreneurship culture right now. So what I would say to anybody out there who feels inadequate because they don't own multiple companies is understand that there will be a time and place for you to do so. I own multiple companies, but I didn't own multiple companies until I had one company that was doing almost $30 million a year. Right. Okay. Right. So then I opened the second company and that second company then helped fulfill and support the first company. It was a vertical of my company. Okay. So if I'm this person, I am dedicating all my time, all my energy,

all my resources, everything that they're to say they're doing, they're doing exactly right and should continue to do it until they are the dominant player in their market space for what they do. Okay. Then when you get there and you're to that place where you have the systems in place, you have the culture in place, you have the employees in place, you have the training in place, and you are straight up able to turn the key and keep the engine running and dominate the fuck out of everybody else that comes in front of your face. Then you can start looking for little verticals that go within, I think he said carpet

cleaning? Just home cleaning services. Home cleaning. Yeah. Okay. Now you might want to start a vertical of your own home cleaning products. Right. Okay. Or your own home cleaning materials or something that goes along with that, that will be a vertical for your business, all right? Where now when business one, the cleaning business has to buy its supplies, it's buying them from you, all right? And you start to scale out and create verticals that way. That is how to properly become a serial entrepreneur. If you look at any of these fucking idiots out there that say, oh, well, serial entrepreneur, notice that none of their businesses dominate. Not a single one of their businesses dominates in any regard to anything

they do. Anybody that says serial entrepreneur in their bio, I automatically know they're full of shit. Okay. So that's not a cool thing. It's the culture of entrepreneurship. And you have to understand that counterculture of what's going on in the trend is usually the way to go. Okay. So build your company, dominate, develop the systems, develop the culture, develop the ability for it to operate and self-sustain and replicate talent, kick the shit out of everybody around you in your space, then add a vertical. Right.

Okay? Right. That's how I would do it. Yeah. Now, if you want to do it like everybody else and you want to be mediocre and you want to fucking run eight $2 million companies and walk around, call yourself a serial entrepreneur

and go on the speaking circuit and fucking say, oh, this is what it is, and be a very middle fucking mediocre person in all reality and still be chasing your bills and be faking it your whole life, become a serial entrepreneur. Or dig the fuck in and become the best at what you do and then look the vertical off of it. Yeah. See, the way I look at it, like i mean this is your area of expertise i

just like i i feel like there's a lot of shit that you learn and like you learned in s2 in those 10 years right before you even started the next project that like have you fucking jump started that you you wouldn't have been learning listen bro had i started all these companies the two or three years into my business i'd be completely broke. Yeah. Completely broke now. Yeah. And the other thing is too, and this is worth pointing out, you're correct. The lessons I learned in that first 10 years of fucking grinding my balls off are the lessons that make me literally hundreds of millions of dollars now. Right. Right. So when you learn how to dominate on a small scale, that translates to big scale. And most people never go through that entire process of totally building out their model.

They want to jump. You know, they're a little bit of this, a little bit of that, a little bit of this, and a lot of nothing. Yeah. Yeah. That's not what you want to be. And also, by the way, when you do have that one business that generates and is dominating, now you have a cash flow system

to finance the other fucking business right you don't need no capital yes you're financing the new vertical off of the purchases of the existing fucking company that you made this is the whole secret guys like if you don't do it this way then you're gonna get beat by people that do it's just reality you know these people who are like oh i i own a i own a this company and then you know i own a shoe company and then i also own a uh a concrete company and then i also own a motorcycle company none of this shit goes together those people get fucking beat right because dude you're competing against people who are dedicating all of their energy into that one thing right like if i own three different things and and you own one thing and you're putting all

your energy into that one thing yeah i got a hundred percent in yeah and i've got 33.333 because i got three things going right how much better than you do i have to be to actually win right to give my 33 and beat your 100 that's angotistical, arrogant fucking miscalculation that you will lose a hundred percent of the time because dude, every other human out there, no matter how good you are or how smart you are or how fucking you think you are, they're, they're not far behind you. And you have to remember that. That's fucking real, man. Yeah, that's real. Andy, question number two, Andy, my girlfriend and I are getting ready to move in together next month, and we're discussing money and bills.

What would you recommend being the best way to handle finances as a couple? I know that money is a major reason why relationships fail. I think it depends. I think there's lots of ways to do money. Lots of people do it different ways. You know, um, unfortunately in the system that we're in, if you're not making a whole lot of money, you, you kind of need two incomes to fucking provide. Um, I don't believe it should be that way. I'm working to build my

company so that, that families don't have that. Um, it's one of my main initiatives over the next two or three years is to create a new a new model that doesn't have to require both parties to work for them to survive right right um because i think that's what's hurting the fucking culture as a whole and i think if we want to sit here and bitch about the culture we need to be the solution as well i mean think about it you got both parents working you got kids in the situation now who's raising the kids that's right and it's different man it's different for everybody you know like how i would manage money and how you would manage money are two different fucking things um so i've never i've never been someone who uh like i don't know i know i i my my goal has always been like, make as much money as I

fucking can and build as much as I can and then worry about how to manage it later. Um, so I think getting in an offensive mindset about making money is the first step that you should probably both do. Um, because when we talk about budgeting and we talk about living as a couple, you know, most of those conversations are defensive in nature. It's like, how are we going to save? How are we going to live? How are we going to conserve money here and here and here? And the conversation of how are we going to make more money gets left off the table. Right. Okay. And you have to think about that in terms of like, you know, quantum realities and universal

realities is like, what are you telling the universe of your mindset as always? I gotta, And you have to think about that in terms of quantum realities and universal realities. What do you tell in the universe if your mindset is always, I got to scrounge and save? You're saying that money is hard to come by. And if you get on an offensive mindset and say, hey, I want to make fucking most money I fucking can, now you're in a situation where money will come to you more freely. So I think when you have the conversation of household management, it should also be along with the conversation of increasing the household income. So that's the first thing I would say. Second thing I would say is there are many different systems, none of which I'm an expert at, to be completely honest. I can tell you how we do it. Emily makes a lot of money

on her own. I make a lot of money on my own. And then we have a house account because i make more money than emily i fund the house account and and and we pay every all the shit out of the house account and that's how it goes yeah and it's that simple it's that simple like i don't i don't argue i don't fuck like dude i don't i my biggest pet peeve and all of you guys know this because you know me like in person but like i hate conversations about personal finance like if i go to dinner with you i'm paying the fucking bill yeah and you're not going to argue with me about it and if you do i just won't go to dinner with you again right you know i'm saying like i'm not i don't like petty i don't like petty discussions i'm not going to fucking like i had this person ask me um this girl dm me uh that that is part of our company and she was like hey i got a question for

you and this is i don't know if this is normal or not and if this is normal you motherfucking dudes need to grow the fuck up but she she said she was she's dating this dude who um basically basically would ask her to Venmo him 50% of everything that they did. So like, if he went to the store and got detergent for 15 bucks, he would ask for eight bucks. Yeah. To Venmo. And like,

this is like every, and she's like, is this, is this normal? And she was asking genuinely. And I'm like, well, fuck,

I don't know. Maybe it's normal for these dudes nowadays. But I can tell you this. I never did that shit. Like, bro, that's some weak ass shit. Like, be a fucking man. Take care of your career. Be the fucking earner.

You know? And you can sit there and say, oh, well, it's not my job to earn 50%. No, it's your job to earn 150%, you dumb motherfucker. Yeah. So, you know i i i personally think men are pussies i think they i think they totally underestimate their fucking earning potential i think we've lost the ability to go out and hunt and kill and fucking make money and and i think it should be celebrated and i think if you ask your chick to fucking venmo

you for a half of a detergent she's probably gonna be fucking another dude next week just being real yeah so um do you think that like that had to be relaxed though because of like the push for feminism of course it's like it's a two-pronged thing right yeah for sure dude and men started fucking buying into it and so they relaxed their standards and they're like oh yeah well we're equal you know like it's to the point now we're like dude these dudes walking out of restaurants some dude fucking disrespects your chick and that the dude's like well it's la well take care of it like bro this is not this is not how society's set up no we're the fucking providers we're the hunters we're the motherfucking protectors we're the killers and we need to get back to that and that's reality so how i would

manage the household is if i were the man which i am i would fucking make the most money and i would take care of the motherfucking shit that's what i would do and i would let my fucking girlfriend or wife fucking keep all her money do whatever you want with it yeah that's fucking real man i mean would you also say too i mean we're gonna go to the next question but like it is still important to make sure that you do have some like sense of like being financially responsible, especially when you're starting off. A hundred percent. Yeah.

Dude, listen, a hundred percent. I don't want people to hear that. I'm like, all right, cool. Hurricane, here we go. There's many different ways to do this. Like some, in some relationships, you know, like for example, like when Emily and I, when Emily and I first first started we first got together she didn't make that much money right you know and i comparatively i didn't really either

but i still paid all the shit you see what i'm saying like it was just it's just what the fuck i was brought up to believe and do right and uh you know when you're when you, when your finances need to be put together, that's fine. But, like, I think, you know, a big problem in culture now is that people want to nitpick in the household about whose responsibility is what. When in reality, the whole responsibility is to run the household. Right. So, like, you know, I see these people put i see this i saw this meme the other day i want a relationship where we both cook and we both clean and we both earn and we both this and we both that that's some weak ass shit that's some weak ass shit right because now you're tit for tatting

inside the household you know what the reality is it all matters so i don't fucking cook shit at my house but emily's also a fucking world-class chef okay so i let her fucking cook shit at my house but Emily's also a fucking world class chef so I let her handle that shit I'm good at fucking making a whole bunch of money so I handle that shit so I handle what I'm good at she handles what she's good at and we fucking work the house and that's how it works like I don't ever

we're never like oh you took the trash down today and you take it down fucking next week like that's not how it works it's a t it's a total collaborative team effort to run the fucking household yeah and it's not a you did this i did that or you know i made all the money so you do this like that's not that's not how it works and if you run it like that it'll destroy your relationship i know that for sure yeah that's fucking awesome you know i think both people

should contribute where they contribute if you're not able to contribute financially you should be contributing take care of the fucking house make sure the house is fucking clean when whoever when the when whoever comes home is earning the shit right you know like fucking do your part i mean i think it's that simple just do your fucking part yeah you know and take pride in think it's that simple. Just do your fucking part. Yeah. You know, and take pride in it. It's real. It's real, man. Guys, our third and final question for Andy. Dude, by the way, that goes both ways.

There's a lot of trash women out there that expect the men to come in and pay all their shit because you've got a vagina. All right, now. Come on, Andy. By the preacher now. All right, now. All right. Listen, lady. You ain't the only hot chick out there. You ain't the only chick with a vagina.

You ain't the only chick with all the shit that you think that everybody wants. It ain't made of gold. Yeah. All right? So maybe you should be working on bringing some quality shit to the table, too, other than just your fucking ass or just your titties or just your fucking looks. That's real. It's the truth.

That's fucking real. Dude, I saw some shit. It was a while ago, but there was a group. It might have been a podcast, bro. But these fucking girls are like, oh, you guys know we got to have the three sixes, right? And I'm like, what the fuck are the three sixes? What is it? It's like, oh, well, the three sixes are you got to be at least six feet tall as a guy,

have at least a six-inch penis, and make over six figures. Those are the three sixes that these young girls are now fucking. Yeah, she got three sixeses she's fucking six feet wide she can you can roll her you can roll her 66 feet and she's gonna fucking send you to hell with that third six exactly like bro like dude it's always these ugly fucking contribute nothing fucking troll women who say that shit yeah oh i gotta have you know you know what those women end up as the fucking cat lady we're 47 cats that's right same name that's right oh you know what i couldn't date this guy because he wasn't funny enough or you know he uh he i don't, uh, was five 11 and three quarters.

Like, dude, the fuck are you doing? Yeah. But, but then men are expected to look at some 400 pound chick on the fucking cover of sports illustrated and say, she's hot.

Right. Right. And then they get fucking Jordan piece and did they got fucking blasted when he did? Yeah. Well, he blasts them back. Yeah.

I mean, Hey, so Hey man, brother. it's it's it's the double standard bro it's out there oh yeah fucking dude's got to be earning this it's six foot and six pack and fucking 600 grand and this and that and this bitch look at you right right look at you. Right, right. Look at you. Like, dude, these women walk around acting like they're queens when they're fucking, you're queen of the dumpster. Like, what are you bringing to the table? Yeah.

Yeah. It's standards on both sides, man. That's it. And it's a big cultural problem. So while I may attack the men more personally because it's irritating to me that you guys are that fucking weak, the women are just as bad yeah because i mean dude what's that quote it says like you know you you are listen dude you are what you attract if everybody that's it if everybody became the kind of person that they wanted to attract then you would live a fucking that life. But the problem is we live in this world of entitlement where people who are

not of quality feel entitled to people who are of quality. And if people who are of quality do not appreciate the people who are not of quality, you're some sort of fucking bigot or this or that. I'm sorry, bitch. I put a lot of work into me. Yeah.

It's the way it is. Yeah. I'm sorry, bitch. I put a lot of work into me. Yeah. It's the way it is. Yeah. I'm not like, I'm not settling for your fucking dumpy bullshit. Right. Your one shower once a week, fucking posting your ass and your tits all over the internet, fucking not earning shit, not contributing shit, not doing shit other than how you like, dude, this is insane shit. It's common sense.

Listen, it is it's the truth yeah what you are is what you'll get and so if you're not happy with what the fuck you're getting become what it is that you want and you will get that that's the truth fucking real it's real guys andy our third and final question you're just mad because you're barely six foot huh i'm six one baby yeah six one well then what's that made me like six four you're like six no you're like six two six three in the boots all right yeah you're hired for another day yeah there you go andy question number three for you uh andy i own a small landscaping company here in st louis uh fuel has always been a major expense but the recent

rise in cost is affecting my overall margin. Most of my competitors have raised their prices. Yes. But I have not increased my prices because I don't want to add the cost increase my customers already experiencing everywhere else. Is eating these costs myself the right thing to do or if I should temporarily increase my prices?

Yes. Okay. 100%. Okay. Listen, dude, people understand what's happening they understand and and while i would here's how i would approach that if i was that person i would raise the prices the minimum amount that you needed to operate your business the right way right um and i would address it in like maybe a letter or in person with your customers say hey

listen we i i'm i'm raising at the minimum of what i got to raise it this is what it has to be address it in like maybe a letter or in person with your customers and say, Hey, listen, we, I, I'm, I'm raising at the minimum of what I got to raise it. This is what it has to be. And you have a real conversation and most people will fucking understand because they see what's going on in the world. And here's the reason I say you have to do it because at the end of the day, running a business comes down to math. And if you, and I've made this mistake before where I haven't adjusted and it's ended up costing me to the point where it almost put me out of business. So like, you don't want to, you don't want your good heart to put you out of business because you're trying to do,

you have to do what the fuck you got to do when it comes to that. So like, you got employees, you might have a family. So like, I would not, you do not use this as an opportunity to gouge because when things get better people will remember that use it as an opportunity and by the way i've been through two other times like this uh where we're in a recession which by the way we're in one yeah right now um if you do it in good faith and you do the right thing those customers will be there when this is over and not those customers will be there when this is over. And not only will they be there when this is over,

they will say, fuck dude, you know what? That guy really took care of me during that time. I know it was hard on him. And I think what you'll find too, is if you're honest with people, some of those people that you're nervous about raising the price on might even

actually pay you more because I know a lot of people that do that. I fucking do that. Yeah. Cause you did the right thing. Yeah. Yeah. I do that shit. Like,

like when people bill me and i know that they're struggling and and i know it's because of things going on like i'll maybe i'll throw in a few extra bucks you know what i'm saying yeah i think that has a lot to say too about necessities right because like you know you look at gas like everybody's complaining that gas is more you know getting high but yeah and by the way everybody's still paying for gas well hold on and and if you are someone who's doing well it is an obligation to take care of the people who take care of you that's real so when they're having a hard time and you're vendor the people who come and you know take care of whatever it is that you're having people take care of you know dude and you can

afford to help them do remember it's fucking hard as shit right now so so you know think about that be generous you know i think it's important for the people who have been fortunate to be generous in times like this. For sure. But you also, I mean, like, can you just stress to the importance of like, like how important is having that type of relationship with your customers? Like, I'm sure it's going to make the conversation easier to deal with. Right. But like, if you're just this faceless company moving around and you have no real relationship with your customers, how likely are they to take that fucking, that, that, that pay or a cost increase? It depends on how you present it.

Yeah. I think it's all how you present it. You know what I'm saying? Like if I had a big company, um, like I do, and we have to have a price increase, we generally, I generally write a little message and just send it out. And, and if they have problems or questions, they have problems or questions, they call or we have a conversation. But I think just you have to do what's right. You cannot gouge and you have to play for the long haul. And you have to understand that bear and bull markets and economies and

recessions and growth periods and all these things, these are all cyclical things. And a lot of people make mistakes in business because when things are rough like this, they see an opportunity, right? And when things get good again, people forget about those people. So it's all about doing the right thing. I think you should be treating your customers as if you're going to have your customers for the next 20 years. That's how you should be treating them. That's real.

Yeah. That's real. Well guys, Andy, that's three. Let's go pay the fee. Yep. Guys, if you got some benefit out of the show, if you enjoyed the show, if you thought it was a worthy of sharing, please share the show. Okay. Uh, the only way the message gets out about the show is if you guys share it. So I appreciate if you would.