The Ramsey Show - App - A Proven Plan for Your Financial Journey (Hour 3)

Episode Date: October 3, 2018

The show about you

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, this is The Dave Ramsey Show. It's where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life and your money. Sitting in for Dave Ramsey this hour, I'm Ken Coleman, host of The Ken Coleman Show on SiriusXM. It leads into The Dave Ramsey Show daily. And I'm thrilled to be joined in studio by the best-selling author of Business Boutique, Christy Wright. Christy, good to be with you. Hey, this is fun.

I'm excited about this. You and I always have a really good time. We have big fun. And we are going to be talking about career and business. They are many times one and the same. This is what Christy and I are dedicated to. We're excited to take your call. So for this hour, you've got a career question.

You've got a business question, something you've always dreamed of starting. Maybe you just started it. Maybe you haven't started it yet. Oh, my goodness, Christy Wright can help you out. We're going to have big fun. If you've got some confusion you're dealing with in your career, maybe you're scared. You know exactly what you want to do, but you're just terrified. Well, there's no shame in that.

We all face those fears, and we've got to step into those fears. And maybe you're just stuck. You're stuck in a job where it's just sucking the life out of you, and you can't wait to get to Friday afternoon. If that is you, today is your day. Make the call. We're here to help. 888-825-5225.

888-825-5225. 888-825-5225. We'll start it off with Katie, who is on the line in Ogden, Utah. Katie, how can we help? Hi, Colin. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. Well, I'm feeling really confused about life right now. So a little background.

About five years ago, I stopped going to school when my husband and I found out that I was pregnant. And since then, I've worked all kinds of odd jobs to pay for him to finish. So he recently finished. He's got a great job now, and we're starting to kick our debt with Dave Ramsey's help, which is difficult. But to help out, I've been applying to places that I don't really want to work at just because, you know, we need that money.

And I don't have, you know, much else going for me. And I'm 26. I've got two kids. I'd like to stay home. But, you know, I want to work and I want to help out. And I just, I feel like I've lost myself. And I have no idea where to even start to find my interests or my strengths. Yeah.

Well, I understand that you feel that way, but that is an absolute lie, so you have to acknowledge the fact that that's just a lack of confidence. There's some self-doubt that's creeped in because you've been at home for a while. And here's another reality. The reality is that right now, Katie, in America, we have more jobs that are available than there are people who are unemployed. It is a fantastic job market, even for stay-at-home moms, meaning you'll want to stay home but work from the home. And so what you have to first do is get very, very clear.

You're in that first stage, and that is the stage of discovery. So you've really got to get clear on what you do best. And if you're struggling with the confidence on that, I want you to sit down with two or three people in your life in the next two or three days. I mean right away. Make this urgent. People who will tell you the truth. And I want you to say to them, what do I do best?

Of all the things I do well, what do I do best? And then the second question is, what do I love to do? You've seen me. You've been around me. I'm 26. There's been enough work history for you, or even in high school and college, the subjects, the topics, the people that you are interested in. What moves your heart?

What makes you come alive? Now, that's what you're going to ask somebody else, because that's going to give you some valuable feedback, because you're struggling with some self-doubt. But I want to put you on the spot. Tell me, what do you do best? What have you always just done well? Maybe it was a subject that came easy to you. It's a task that people have said, Katie, you're really good at that.

I know there's an answer. You do too. Say it. Well, I did well in math in school I liked math and I've always done well with children you know I did child care and things like that

and I feel like those are two strengths but not necessarily complementary I guess but well but there's a strength with math so what about math what were you good at with math it's the solving of problems. It came, this idea of how you solve a math problem. Very difficult for me, Christy.

I mean, I'm not kidding. I'm terrible at math. My brain's not wired in a way to be able to break an algebra problem down. But Katie, you are good at solving problems, correct? Correct. All right. So that is a starting point. Now, what work have you ever dreamed about doing?

Or you've just wondered, hey, this would be amazing if I could do this. At some point in your life, you wondered about something. What did you wonder about? When I was a kid, I wondered about, you know, rocket ships and, you know, getting into space and, you know, what would it take to get them up. And, you know, the whole NASA idea when I was a kid was really fascinating. Okay, so here's what we've got. We're not going to solve it on this call, but Katie, here's what you've got.

You've got a starting point to go take those homework questions I gave you, the people that know you, and get the answers. And here's what you're going to find. You're going to find that there are some patterns and there are some themes're going to find. You're going to find that there are some patterns and there are some themes that continue to develop. So there's already, Christy, a tie between being good in math and being

fascinated by rockets. Because every NASA person, I've not met a lot, I've met about four or five, every one of them are very good in math and science. So you're beginning to develop some themes here and you're beginning to see some patterns. Now for you, you have a very specific challenge. You need to work ideally from home.

So this is online work. This may be not available to you in an online form. But the reality is that you begin to discover different jobs that you would enjoy because it allows you to do things that you're good at, like math, like the science, like the problem solving. And then you'll begin to see things. Wait a second. I enjoy that because I'm good at, like math, like the science, like the problem solving. And then you'll begin to see things. Wait a second. I enjoy that because I'm good at it.

But I know you run into this a lot. You know, here's the thing, Katie. I just want to speak to you from mom to mom. It's so easy to lose yourself in motherhood. Like I hear that voice in you of like, I don't know. I feel like I've lost myself. It's so easy to become consumed with your kids, consumed with supporting your spouse. It's so easy to do that.

But I just want to encourage you exactly like Ken said. You're still in there. You're still in there. Your things that make you come alive, those things that you were good at are still good at. Maybe have just lost touch with. They're still in there. And so it's going to take a little bit of self-reflection and discovery, just like Ken said. I will encourage you this.

I wrote in my book, Business Boutique, five E questions that help you know your strengths. I'm going to give them to you really quickly. What do you enjoy? Where do you excel? What do others encourage in you? What gives you energy? And what types of things come effortless to you? And your answers to some of those questions will start to lead you in the direction of your strengths, exactly like Ken's talking about. And you can ask other people, what are the patterns of what people say? Hey, you're so good at that. Or man, you ought to do that for a living. What are the things where you excel in relation to other people? Just like Ken said, what are you good at? I know you're good at things. And so sometimes we get really overwhelmed with identifying our strengths. We get all squirmy, like, oh, I just want to be humble. I'm

not good at anything. But you know what? If God made you good at something, Katie, own it and lean into that. And I think as you start to explore this, those questions that Ken gave you, talking to those people and just remembering and having confidence

you are still in there, even though you love those kids like crazy, you're still in there and you can lean into those things that make you light up. And I know you will. And I'm proud of you and I'm excited for you

because this is the beginning of that discovery thing Ken was just talking about. Yeah, there's a lot of doubt there because you heard in her story. A lot of people listening, and I know you experienced this with your tribe. She supported her husband. She did everything to help him. And what happens is, and then you become a mom, and all of a sudden you feel like, well, I'm serving everybody else.

You're like, where did I go? There's just nothing else for me to do. Where did I go? That's right. That's exactly right. And it's doubt. You can overcome the doubt by doing that process. Those are great.

Those five E's are fantastic. And anybody at home that heard those E's, you can do those. That is the discovery process. And then you get the clarity you need to confidently step out. Clarity leads to confidence. You can do it. 888-825-5225. More of your calls about your career and your business next.

This is The Dave Ramsey Show. Are high health care costs getting you down? Are you confused trying to navigate your options? Do you wish you could find an affordable, biblical solution to your health care costs? Based on New Testament principles, Christian Health Care Ministries, or CHM, helps Christian families, churches, and ministries join together as the body of Christ to share their major health care costs. Christian Health Care Ministries is the original health cost-sharing ministry. A Better Business Bureau-accredited organization,

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That's what we're taking this hour. Come one, come all. 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. And we're going to go to Patrika, who's on the line in Tampa, Florida. How can we help? Hi, guys. Thanks for taking my call.

Sure. Definitely. So, Christy, I've been reading your book and seriously taking notes. I love it. Because I'd love to open a yoga studio that functions as a wellness center. So I'll offer not just yoga but financial coaching and other things for physical, mental, and emotional health. But I was thinking about selling my house and buying a duplex where I would live upstairs and downstairs would be the wellness center. My concern with that is that would there be some sort of liability?

Well, go ahead. No, like if someone was to get hurt, I know I can apply for an LLC and they can go after, if I were to be sued, they can go after the business. But if I lived in the same building, would that be, I don't know, I'm wondering if that would be an issue. Well, you've got a couple things going on here, Patrika, and I want to spend a little bit of time on each of them. First of all, that's probably going to be state-specific, so you definitely need to

look at the laws in your state and any type of them. First of all, that's probably going to be state-specific, so you definitely need to look at the laws in your state and any type of regulations. You're going to have liabilities regardless, whether it's a standalone studio or it's where you live. So you're going to have liabilities if someone gets hurt, and you need to know what those are

and to protect yourself with insurance, professional insurance, product-based insurance if you have a product, that type of thing. So you want to look into that. But I do just want to challenge you on one thing, Patrika. I love your idea.

I love the idea of a wellness center. I love the idea that you're helping people. But here's what I traditionally encourage people to do. Because you don't currently have a yoga studio and you don't have the idea validated, I want to challenge you to start a little bit smaller and a little sooner. So I'll give you an example. Where is there a wellness center, community center, yoga studio, Pilates studio, somewhere where you could start your business, sublease their space and their off hours, build your brand, build the demand.

You have no risk, no overhead, no upfront cost, and you're able to validate your idea until the business justifies you getting your own space, be that a duplex that you live above or your own standalone space. I'll give you an example. There are a lot of churches that will operate when they're getting started out of elementary schools. The elementary school right next to our house, well, they don't have school on Sundays. So they rent it out to a church that uses it on Sunday, and it's this great deal to win-win its additional revenue for the school.

The church has a place to go without having to afford a whole building seven days a week when they can't justify it. And I've seen a lot of businesses do this. So I don't think your idea is a bad idea. I would just challenge you to start smaller and sooner on a lower risk level, lower cost level and validate your idea and build those relationships,

build your brand and your demand. Get that going. And then when you're ready to have your own studio, it's the next logical step. It doesn't feel like a terrifying leap. So you definitely want to look into laws and regulations for liabilities, but I also want you to think about your space before you make that big commitment. Patrika, are you working full-time right now? Right, and that was my other question. I work full-time, and I'm an RN,

and I was planning on also going back for my nurse practitioner, and that way, obviously, I'll be making more money, but it'll help me to fund my business as well. Yeah. Well, Chrissy, I just wanted to know that fact, because that piece of information plays beautifully into what you're saying. She's going to have to do this on the side anyway. She's not in a position to open up anything.

I don't think you would tell her to go right now and open it. I just want to see you maybe do a little bit of yoga for some people, maybe two or three moms. Maybe see if you can get a small group that they'll pay you because it's everything you just said. But it allows you to tiptoe into it. The nurse practitioner thing, that's going to school to get that to be able to make more money. I love that, too. It's going to allow her to cash flow, have more cash piled on when it's time to operate. So, I mean, you nailed it there. I just think, you know, don't rush into this.

Well, and the other thing I want to call out for anyone listening right now that has a service-based business so like a yoga studio you have a tendency to think that the studio is the business it's not it's you that's a great you can go anywhere you can go to people's houses you can go to the park outside they're coming and paying for you so don't feel like you have to have a location before you can start your business because you are the business so you can start tomorrow patrika out of your living room if you want to or the park on the street. And by the way, you should. Yeah. Like, go ahead.

Totally. Yeah. Don't wait for the studio. The studio is not the business. You are the business. Great point. People don't care. I know.

They don't. They're coming for you. As long as they enjoy it. They're coming for you. They're not coming for the building. 888-825-5225. 888-825-5225. Ken Coleman, Christy Wright, sitting in for Dave Ramsey this hour, taking your calls about

your business, your business idea, a career, career change, career question. Let's go to Bill, who's on the line in Detroit, Michigan. Bill, how can we help? Ken and Christy, it's an honor to get to talk to you guys. Thanks for calling. How can we help? I've been in the IT field for about 20 years and to this point

it really hasn't been, I haven't progressed as far in my career as I originally hoped and wished I would. Long story short is back in January my wife and I went through FPU and as we're about to baby steps, we're on baby step two right now.

Going through some of our stuff, planning to get a garage sale going, we came into some old home movies, some stuff that she had gotten from her dad when he had died. And through all these things, we found we had a lot of old 8mm, old VHS, and all this stuff. And it's like, okay, we have all this stuff. I started converting it, and I really found a passion for that that I haven't had in IT for quite a while. And I'm thinking, okay, this sounds like something I could turn into a great business and love doing going forward. So my question at this point...

Bill, let me interrupt. What is the business with the 8mm? What is the business? Converting legacy formats like 8mm, VHS, slide films and all that to digital content and properly preserving them. Okay. And so what's your question for us then? The broader question I have is just how to get started.

I definitely want to get started, and I just want to make sure I'm stepping through it properly. Tell you what, Bill. Bill Christie is ready to go. She can help you. Because we only have a little bit of time here, I want to be able to get to your solution. We want to make sure we help you out. Here's the thing, Bill.

The great news is when you are entering a space where there's already people doing what you want to do, it means the idea is proven. So you're not doing something that's never been done before. There are actually businesses that have similar type services. What you then know is, yes, you're solving a problem. And if you're solving a problem, it's a viable business idea. You just have to find the people that have that problem, that have the eight millimeters, they want to preserve them. And you're going to learn who that person is. You're going to go after them and build a business for them. So you're going to price for them. You're going to create marketing that person is. You're going to go after them and build a business for them. So you're going to price for them.

You're going to create marketing language that speaks to them right where they are. The best part about this, Bill, is you know the idea is valid because it's been done before. What you're going to do is you're going to build your business and you're going to do it better. And you're going to serve your customers and they're going to want to come to you because you make a unique space for yourself in that market. Bill, I know my book is for women, but I'm going to send it to you. Men read it all the time. The business principles are the same, and it gives you the plan to take that idea to market.

I hope it helps, and we'll send that to you. Send it your way. That's right. It's a great plan, so follow it. And here's the thing. Christy, a lot of Bill's out there. He said something that's interesting. He finds these old things, and he realizes, wait, I'm super passionate about this.

And you're giving him the steps. The book is going to walk you through it. But I want to just add one thing. Try it. Just test it on a small level. Just like the last caller. Here's why. Some passion should be hobby level.

It changes things when you turn it into a business. It changes it. But you made a great point. Other people are doing this. He's just got to find people that are willing to pay him to do it and keep paying him and tell others, hey, if you need this done, let me tell you about Bill. He's great. So start really small, but start right away. Stop thinking about it. Stop planning. Just dip your toe in the water. Sure. Just do it. 888-825-5225. Coming up, more of your questions about career, starting a business.

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It is a career and business hour here on the Dave Ramsey Show. Welcome, America. I'm Ken Coleman, joined by Christy Wright, as we sit in for Dave Ramsey this hour, 888-825-5225, 888-825-5225. More of your calls in just moments, but I'm really excited to tell you about our newest book. It's entitled Everyday Millionaires. It's going to be coming out by Chris Hogan, and over 20,000 people have already pre-ordered this book, Everyday Millionaires,

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Chris Hogan's book, Everyday Millionaires, destroys millionaire myths that are keeping people from building wealth. So go get it today. DaveRamsey.com or ChrisHogan360.com. I know, Christy, we're excited about this. The research was eye-opening for all of us. Oh, just the book trailer gave everybody chills when they showed it in staff meeting. It was amazing. All right.

We're going to get to your business questions, your career questions. You stuck? Are you confused? Scared? Got an idea? You're ready to launch but need some advice from Christy? We're here for you. 888-825-5225.

Let's go to Katie, who's on the line in St. Paul, Minnesota. Katie, how can we help? Hi, Ken. Hi, Christy. I'm honored to speak with you both, and I'm excited to hear what advice you might have for me. Thanks for calling.

I'm married to three kids. I work about four to five jobs primarily in the architecture field. I'm the primary breadwinner right now. I'm very excited about what I do, my passion for architecture. I'm very hesitant to quit my day job. However, I have no idea how long I can really keep up with this work pace. It's been about a year and a half.

I've been working about 60 hours a week, which is a lot for me, especially having a husband and family life. So I wanted to know what you'd recommend I can do if I don't burn out, but I really want to pursue this passion of being a self-employed architect, hopefully in the near future. Let me ask you a couple of quick questions here. Are these hourly contract jobs, four to five of them? If I understood you correctly, you've got four to five that you're spinning, like plates, all in architecture. Is that right? Correct. So one of them is a 40-hour salary job.

The other three are, yes, contract, project by project hourly. Some here, some, you know, long distance. Okay, so the reason I'm asking this is it'll color our advice a little bit. What happens if you back off? Do you have to work 60 hours to make a certain number for you all to be comfortable? Is that what your reality is? So right now, yes, my husband will be returning to work in the beginning of next year. We decided for him to stay home. We had a baby about a year and a half ago. So our financial

situation will change come January. But right now, yes, we're out with baby steps. This is the work I have to do. And then just to clarify for Chrissy and I, the ideal dream is for you to have your own architecture firm. Is that right? Correct. Be fully self-employed, yes. Okay. And you want to know the best path to get there? Correct.

Okay. I'm going to say one quick thing and let you go. Here's the deal. Hang on until the hubby gets back to you. You know what I mean? You've got to hang on. And you can do it. Here we are in October.

First of the year is coming. Right now, you have to do it. So I think that motivation, just hang in there, and then Christy's going to, we'll talk about the plan to get there. Quick follow-up question, Katie. The contract jobs you're doing in addition to the full-time salary job, are those something you're running independently already, or do they go through the main company that's paying your salary?

So they're different companies. Okay. Two of them are kind of actually my own projects I work on out here in Minnesota. The other one is through a company I used to work for years ago that I do contract work for. Perfect. They don't pay that salary, yeah. The reason I'm asking is because when you go out on your own, even if it's just getting that first client or two, that can be the scariest part to validate, can I do it on my own? And can I make the sale? And can I run this whole thing without having a boss that kind of backs me? And you're already

doing it. And that's why I'm so excited for you, Katie, because you're just going to do more of what you're already doing a little bit. And just like Ken said, you've got this light at the end of the tunnel when you're going to start to increase your family household income in other ways through your husband. But in the meantime, if you want to spend the next two to three months building up the demand, the clients, the relationships, even just taking people to coffee, starting to gather interest of other independent projects you could run on your own that could run through this new architecture firm that you're going to run as an independent person, you're building that up.

And of course, it will be crazy for a season because you're getting more and more demand. But then when you decide to leave your full-time job, it's the next logical step where the business can support you. The income is there. Of course, that's only going to help when your husband has income. So you're already, I would say, 20 to 30% down the path of doing this. You're not starting from scratch. You're not like, I have a full-time job and I want to do this totally different thing. How do I start up? You're already doing it. You already have clients you're working with. I just want you to do more of that. And in the next few months, as you build that up, that will start to ramp up as your husband's income comes in. And then it looks like first of the year, you probably should be able to comfortably leave your day job.

Yeah. And it comes down to a formula. You got to work Dave's baby steps. Dave's baby steps fund the dream. So when you put enough money aside, plus the side business is there, and then that's how you get to that number where you can step aside. And to Christy's point, it does not have to be a Geronimo jump. Right.

It should be a nice move. And it just takes a little bit of time and patience. But she's on her way. The light at the end of the tunnel is an important point, Ken, because so many people feel like, how can I sustain this? Well, you're not. It's still January. And when you have that light at the end of the tunnel is an important point, Ken, because so many people feel like, how can I sustain this? Well, you're not.

It's still January. And when you have that light at the end of the tunnel, you know this is first season. I'm going to put my head down first season, but I'm going to have the rewards, and it's going to be worth it at the end of the tunnel. That's right. All right, let's go to Ray real quick in Orlando, Florida. Ray, how can we help? Hey, how you doing, guys? Okay, so I've been in the IT field for the past 18 years, and I love the field.

The past six years I've been doing IT security, which I love even more. I feel, though, where I'm at, I'm sort of the next level to go up would be manager level, and I don't honestly want to be a manager because I love doing so much of the technical aspects of IT security. So I was wondering if it's possible to try to start something on the side related to IT security consulting. and I'm just not exactly sure how to go about that because it would mostly be for businesses, and it may conflict with my current job. Well, let me ask you a question. Is the only reason you're considering starting an IT security consulting business

because you want to make more money? No, not at all. Well, you love what you're doing now. You're in security right now you love it that was your statement but you said the only way to move up was to be in management so i think you feel like you're trapped so the consulting business feels like oh this is a way to allow me to see a ladder is that right yeah sense of progress you just want a sense of progress that makes sense it does but again the question here that I have is, wait a second,

have you looked at all of your opportunities within IT security? It's a big world, bigger than I'm even able to understand, for you to move up. So where are you at now financially and where would you like to be? Well, I mean, I'm almost. Just answer. What are you making now? $84,000. And what do you want to make?

Dream a little. $150,000. All right. And so, okay. I just want that. Because consulting business, we can answer that. Sure. But I just wonder if it's the right time, Ray, for you to step out and start a business.

Where are you at? Do you have any debt? What's your financial situation? Yes. Right time, Ray, for you to step out and start a business. Where are you at? Do you have any debt? What's your financial situation? Yes, we are heavily in Baby Step 2 due to lots of student loans that we are working on paying off. We just moved to a new house. Okay. I have three children. My wife also works.

She has a good job. Gotcha. So I'm just looking to possibly start something on the side to see if I would like to take that over full time. Hey, Ray, I don't think it's a bad idea to test it, but here's the thing I want to encourage you. You said you didn't want to be a manager in your current company. You started a side business. You're managing something still. You're managing the business, and you're managing you.

I just want you to try it. Try it with one or two clients. Make sure it doesn't conflict or compete. And then you'll get a taste of if you want to do more of that before you go all in. That's right. Great advice. All right, folks, more of your calls coming up. Don't move. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. Welcome back, America. You're joining the Career and Business Hour with Ken Coleman and Chrissy Wright here on the Dave Ramsey Show. Thrilled to have you with us. 888-825-5225.

That's 888-825-5225. Let's go to Ruben, who's on the line in Phoenix, Arizona. Ruben, how can we help? Hi, thanks for taking my call. My question is, we have a small electrical contracting company, and obviously construction is booming in Phoenix. And over the past three years, we've shown about 25% growth. We've recently been approached by a lighting company

about buying our business. And there's a lot of things that are exciting about that opportunity. One is allowing the business to grow into something that really we haven't been able to accomplish with kind of our shoestring budget. But we have a large client base of repeat customers, and we see even more growth in the next year. So we just wanted to kind of get some advice on whether to sell or wait another year knowing that this client, this prospective buyer may not be around. Why would they not be around?

That's interesting information. Well, I mean, they might not. Oh, they jump off. They're going to have to move forward one way or another. I got you. They build it in-house or buy another company. Well, I'm going to start with the good old-fashioned grandma sitting at the dining room table, and you've got a piece of paper, and you draw a line right down the middle.

On the left side, you write pros, and on the right side, you write cons. Because here's the deal. You are experiencing growth. What do you think, just a moderate projection over the next two years, that growth could be? Moderately, I think we could probably, I'd be confident almost saying we could double our sales. Okay, so here again, Christy, I'll turn it to you in a second. But I'm just saying, I would not do anything until I had a list that said there were double the amount of pros with crazy upside than there are cons.

And right now, on the surface, Christy, I don't see what the pros would be unless I'm missing something. She's going bananas. My arms are flailing, Reuben. I Christy, I don't see what the pros would be unless I'm missing something. She's going bananas. My arms are flailing, Ruben. I yield the balance of my time to the lady. Ruben, here's what jumped out to me. And I hear this in your voice because I have got entrepreneur in my DNA. We get so excited about shiny and new and someone has an opportunity.

Here's my question for you, Ruben. If they had never approached you, would you want to sell the business? Were you thinking about selling the business? Is selling the business something you want to do if the opportunity had not presented itself? Because that's your motivation. It's in line with your goals. It's your game plan. Is that something you're excited about if that person never came to you? Well, that's a difficult question because most of the time I love what I do, and half the time I want to, you know, pull my hair out. Hey, that's the entrepreneurial journey.

That's just real life. You know, so I think if the situation were right, then we're absolutely interested. You know, I understand what you're saying. It's difficult for someone like me to think about working for somebody else. But these people, you know, that are interested, we believe our values align. You know, we talked about keeping us on and the staff on and continuing to grow and operate more or less how we are now. All right. So let me put you to the test, Ruben. Let's say you say yes

to this. They've made you a financial offer. You don't have to say it, but you know what the number is, correct? We're not quite there yet. Okay. Well, okay. Even more so. Let's say that it's a very attractive number. And I want you to say, okay, they give us a really attractive number that raises my eyebrows. And then I want you to think, if they do what they say they're going to do, and you stay around for a little bit, but then eventually you're out. If you get the number that makes you really excited, but you know that it's possible that they push you out at some point in the near future, and you are just left with the number

and memories, are you going to be okay with that? I think that's what Christy said. It's really shiny and it should be shiny. I think there's a lot of shine. But let me ask you that. But is it what you want? Are you cool with that? Two years from now, you would be cool with that? Yes, I think I would be.

Okay, then, you know, hey, at the end of the day, you've got to go with your gut on that. Well, and that's the thing is like in business, we would love for there to be an absolute formula that says this is always right, this is always wrong, there's black and white, and there's certainly some of that. But a lot of times as business owners, we're making a value call. There's going to be risk either way. Either way, you're going to take on risk of, okay, I'm going to sell it, and then I'm out. Like, I'm out forever.

I'm giving up this baby. I'm giving up ownership to what the growth could be in the next 3 to 5 to 15 years. Or you could stay with it, and you're like, man, there was a risk where I gave up that awesome offer, the shiny thing. So that's the thing in business. You're really asking, Ruben, I think, a value decision of what do you want? What's in line with your goals? Where do you want to be in three years? Do you want to be sitting dreaming about something new with that awesome amount in your bank account?

Or do you want to be in the business and you actually taking credit for all that growth? Both could be great. It's really up to you, Ruben. It's your business. It's your life. Go with your heart. Run the scenarios. Use common sense.

Go with your heart. Let's go to Adam who's on the line in New York, New York. Adam, how can we help? Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my call. So I'm in a career, very steady career, decent income. My wife and I paid off pretty much all of our debt except the house. And it's come to the point right now where I had this idea for the past 15 years and don't know where to start to kind of launch this business idea. So what it is is I'm looking for a pet-friendly public place that offers food and beverage to, you know, bring the community together. Found a prime location.

Landowner wants $200,000 a year for a lease. And basically it's just kind of, I know there's a demand out there for it. I've researched. But from there, don't even know where to start. How would you monetize this, the sale of the food and beverages? Yeah, so it would be sale of food and beverage along with kind of like a membership fee to get inside the premises. Just so you can eat and drink with your dog? Kind of like a mix between, it's a mix between like a gym membership and a public dog park that offers

just you know unlimited access to the facility but then also food and beverages for public okay i've got a question for you for this market because you said you've done research you said there's demand for it for this particular market that you're going to serve that's going to pay this membership fee and so on what problem are you solving for them through this business? So in the area that I'm in right now, they don't have any type of public access dog park for at least 25 miles. It's all private for town residents only. So this is a dog park meets food and beverage meets tech? Yeah. So Adam, she's asking, what's the core thing thing there's no place to take your dog isn't that the big issue there's no place to take your dog to run around there's no public dog park

so there are um but what the town does is they're constantly limiting the hours of the type of access or anything like that so this is kind of just a blend between all three. Primarily, yes, dog park. But then also, it's kind of like a gentrified type of situation where, you know, if I want to go there and have some type of craft beer or food truck style food, you know, all that is on premise. All right. So here's what I'm going to challenge you with, Adam, because I know we're running short on time. I don't think your idea is bad. And you seem like you've done your research. And I totally get this. I could totally see hipsters with their dogs and their laptops, you know, drinking expensive. Like I can totally see it. What I want to challenge you to do is think of a 1.0 version.

That's the 10.0 version. I want you to think of what is the lower lowest hanging fruit. What is a way to baby step your way into this business without the risk and the commitment of 200 grand that you may or may not have when the demand may not be there yet how can you start this up on the ground floor organically in a local park in your backyard on a really unimpressive version to justify it get some revenue coming in before you take the next step i just want you to prove the idea before you take out some risk and cost and that type of thing so i just want to challenge you. That's the big dream. What's the baby version of that dream that you could test first?

That's really good advice. This is an idea. I don't know if it's a good idea, but I got to give it to him. This might be a thing where you start to sit down with local town leaders and go, hey, we need a full public park just for dogs. Like no limits, none of this stuff. Just anytime you want to show up, you show up. That's meeting the first need.

Then go, hey, what are the chances that I could get a license to sell something? I mean, you've got to try stuff. That's your 1.0. You've got to start getting minds in the room because the $200,000. Well, and it's hard, Ken, to get people to pay for something they expect for free. I don't know what it's like in New York, but in Tennessee, dog parks are free. No, I think he's going to sell the food and the drink. All of it, though.

Yeah, but people have a free place to hang out to get food. They don't want to pay a membership fee. I don't know. I just got to understand what problem you're solving for them. Yeah, that's good. All right. Hey, Chrissy Wright, thanks. This is fun.

I want to thank our producer, James Childs. Today, our associate producer, Zach Bennett. And, of course, you, America. Thank you so much for listening. This has been The Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, it's Kelly, Dave's phone screener. We finished 2017 with a bang as the fourth most downloaded podcast of the year. Thanks to all of you for listening and helping us spread the word.