The Ramsey Show - App - Answers to Your Career and Small Business Questions (Hour 3)

Episode Date: July 30, 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 am Ken Coleman. I host the Ken Coleman Show on Sirius XM, leading into the Dave Ramsey Show. And I'm thrilled to be joined in the studio by my good friend. She is the best-selling author of Business Boutique. Christy Wright joins me this hour. Christy Wright, how are you?

Hey, great. Glad to be here. Good to see you. Thanks for having me. You are always planning something big. Got a big fall lined up for Business Boutique and a lot of things happening there. So fun, fun, fun. Good to have you with us.

Thanks. All right, so here's how this works. It is your show, as Dave says. 888-825-5225 888-825-5225 888-825-5225 is the number to get in on the conversation. We have a great group of people. Yeah, I'm so excited.

Fantastic looking people out in the lobby here at Ramsey Solutions watching the show and I might add that when you come to watch the show we give you free baked goods. You get hit by a force field of the smell. It's a delightful smell when you walk in. And sweet tea, lemonade,

coffee. So we've got the hot drinks, the cold drinks. And so we've got a great crowd out here. And if you just click on Visit Dave there on the website, you can find out when Dave is here and all that goodness. And he comes out twice an hour and says hello and takes pictures. So always a great environment when you come here.

888-825-5225 is the number. Let's start it off with Ariana, who's on the line in Chicago. Ariana, how can we help? Hi, Christy. How are you? Hey, good. So two months ago, we took SPU at our church, and we learned so much, and we decided to get on base plan. We sacrificed to pay off all of our debt.

After selling our home, we paid off $51,000 of debt, which was my student loans, thank you, our car, credit card debt, and other miscellaneous things. Shortly after that, we purchased a home on a 15-year mortgage. And so now we have a $200,000 mortgage and we're looking to pay off our house by the age of 35. Today is my birthday and I turned 30 years old. Well, happy birthday. Thank you. I wanted to ask you for some advice on getting passive income through social media. I have a blog, but I'm not sure how to make money with it. I am a full-time working mom and wife, so I decided to open a blog because it was something that would allow me to be available to my family. I am a tech person, and I'm stuck on the tech portion of the blog because I want to make it perfect.

But I'm not really sure how to make much money through blogging. Gotcha. Okay, this is a great question. So, Ariana, I'm going to challenge you a little bit on the blogging idea, but stick with me here, okay? What I want you to do is I want you to think of ways to use your skills to start a business from home or start freelancing from home, something that's going to make you money faster. And the reason I'm saying that is because you said your goal is to pay off your home in the next five years. That's a really aggressive goal. I love it. I think it's awesome. I think you can do it. I think you will do it. You may not do it through

blogging if you don't have a current platform, because the way that you make money through blogging, social media, YouTube, those types of channels, you're paying it traditionally, or you're earning it traditionally through advertising, and advertisers pay for eyeballs. It takes a lot of time, Ken, to build up this base of views and visits and fans and followers. That's not a bad thing. It's a great thing to do.

But if you've got an aggressive time goal, like five years, then you could probably look at doing something different that will earn you a profit and personal income faster. So Ariana, here's what I'm gonna do for you. I have a new course called the Business Idea Bootcamp, and this is a four-step course that helps you come up with your best business idea. You can throw blogging in the mix

when I take you through my format and through the curriculum, throw blogging in the mix, but also I want you to brainstorm other ideas as I walk you through how to do that to find your best business idea. And what comes out on top may not be blogging. It may be something else that you can still have the flexibility to work from home, which is what you want, but it's going to get you to your financial goal faster.

And that's what I want for you because I don't know that blogging is the best avenue to do that. So I hope that helps stay on the line. Kelly can get you that course and get you there faster, hopefully. I mean, you see what I'm saying? It's not a bad business idea. It just doesn't drive to the goals, I think, in the way that she wants to. Well, I think your advice is spot on because if she just, even if it's not a business, but she just goes and gets gainfully employed, good money, and they knock that debt out quickly, five years from now, she gets to put all of her energy into blogging. So it's one of those things.

Keep blogging. Right. Keep doing it. But I think your advice is great because it's just, if it can't pay what you need it to pay, that's the need, then do something else until you can put all of your energy into it. And at that point, you're very fulfilled. And I always find that in this situation, the advice you gave her is great because she

can still strive towards that full-time blogging idea, and it'll keep you motivated. Totally. But if not, if you've got this financial goal of paying off your home in five years, which is aggressive and really good, then it will turn that blogging business into a burden instead of a blessing. That's right. Because you're like, oh, it's not making money, and you start getting frustrated. You don't enjoy it. That's right. It sucks the creativity.

You can still do it on the side, dabble in it and have fun with it. But if you want something to drive to that financial goal, you've got to have something a little bit more quicker turn on that, I think. And I think what you just said is also brilliant because let's just say she goes and gets a $40,000 a year job. Let's just make it up. And she keeps blogging like you're saying here. She keeps going with it. And she can start to move that into a couple hundred bucks a month. Well, that just goes on top of that $40,000

towards paying everything off. But you've got some amazing momentum because you go, hey, I actually brought in some revenue on my blog. Well, she's a working mom. She has a full-time job. She does have a full-time job. In addition to this,

she wants to do the blogging on the side. So yeah, we're talking about in the extra hours around the kids. Yeah, you can make a little extra. But I mean, to your point, it's like let's bring in the extra money and that's when momentum takes off. Yeah, that's right.

Oh, that's good stuff. All right, let's go to a question from Twitter. This is interesting. Dan tweets, if I am a candidate for hire into a small privately owned business, is it considered inappropriate to ask questions about business finances

such as a profit and loss statement in an effort to make sure the business is successful. I like this question because it's tricky. I love the question. Okay. Who goes first? You want me to go first? You go.

This is your area, but I want to jump in here. I'm excited. I'm going to go first here. I don't think that it is good sense. I don't think it's inappropriate with the way we look at the word. So I don't want to mince the definition too much. But I would tell you not to do that. A question I think you can ask to get at this is, you know, as you're further down the line,

let's say there's a third or fourth interview, and now it's getting close. When you feel that you've earned the credibility through other relationships excuse me other interviews where they brought you back then you can ask a question of hey just curious about the health of the company what's the growth plan where are you at would you say that we're we're that we're still in the developmental phase have we had a play that i feel like is a little bit better way of asking but they're still not i'd be shocked they're still not're still not going to go, hey, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to email you the P&L. Sure, yeah.

That's not going to happen. Right. So if you want to get a perspective on where they think they are, you can ask that in a roundabout way. Yeah. But please don't ask for the P&L. Well, and they might think it's a little weird if you ask it that directly anyway, just from a social standpoint.

But I think to your point, if you ask in a sneaky way and you say, you know, where are you guys want to be next year? And where are you today? And, you know, how does that kind of match up? You seem interested, but not inappropriate. They're still going to give you a snapshot of what they're willing to give you. That's all you're going to get. Just do it in a tactful way. That's good.

My goodness. Don't ever ask for a P&L. I would end the meeting and tell you to leave. Funny how Dave would have answered that question. I think he would have just laughed out loud. Good stuff. Christy Wright, Ken Coleman, sitting in for Dave Ramsey this hour. Don't move.

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It's listed for a dollar with no bids. That's not a good investment. Now, I know I'm just adding salt to a very old wound, but look, if you tried calling the resort and they won't take it back, if you tried selling it and no one will buy it, call Timeshare Exit Team. Timeshare Exit Team will get you out. You'll have to be patient.

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You are listening to The Dave Ramsey Show. I'm Kent Coleman, joined in studio by Christy Wright. We're both Ramsey personalities, and we're taking your calls. You've got a call about your career. You've got a call about your business. You want to grow your business. You want to start a business. We are here for you.

888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. I was just telling Christy during the break, it's amazing where we sit here in 2018. For the first time in many, many years, we now have more jobs that are available than people who are unemployed. It is a good time to be looking for work. And speaking of a great place to look for work, Ramsey Solutions. Ten times we've been voted the best place to work in Nashville, and we've got 14 digital products in various divisions, and we need help.

We are currently on the hunt for sales and marketing professionals. If you want to work on life-changing products like our Foundations Curriculum, Financial Peace University, and more, you need to apply. If you love what we do here and you want to help us spread the message of hope and transformation, we want you. So here's what you do. You go to DaveRamsey.com and you click on the Dave's Hiring button on the right side of the homepage. That's DaveRamsey.com and you click on the button on the right side of the homepage. That's DaveRamsey.com, and you click on the button on the right side of the homepage, and it says Dave's Hiring right there, and it's going to take you to those positions. And as you apply, you probably should go to KenColemanShow.com

and get our resume template that we've talked about here on the show. So you stand out, tell them Christy Wright and Ken Coleman sent you. There you go. That will absolutely move you to the top of the pile. So good stuff there. 888-825-5225 is the number to join the conversation. Let's go to Lori, who is on the line in Suwannee. I used to live in Suwannee, Georgia.

Lori, how can we help? Hey, Ken. Hey, Christy. How are y'all? Hey, great. We're doing well. How can we help? Well, I'll tell you what. I am a CPA.

I have mostly a tax practice where I do tax planning, preparation, resolution, you name it. If it has to do with tax, I'm involved in it. And I typically work with small business owners, and I've been doing this now for about 32 years. So I'm pretty good at it, but I will say that after that many years, I feel like I've sort of grown stagnant. I'm not really learning anything new on a regular basis. Just feel like I'd like to take my tax knowledge to a little deeper level, and I'm just looking for ideas on how to go about doing that. Let me ask you this.

Do you have the freedom, if you wanted to explore some things, to keep the current CPA practice going, meaning you've got some team members who could take care of existing clients and allow you some freedom to explore? Well, I don't have any team members. I do work for myself, by myself. But I do have some flexibility for doing some other things if I found something that made sense and was a good fit.

How much financial flexibility do you have? I've got a pretty good. I mean, I could do some things. I've even looked into the idea of teaching and haven't really been very successful at that. Well, let me ask you this on the teaching. Is that something that if I could snap my fingers and give it to you right now, no challenge, no nothing, just boom, I give it to you, what would you want to be teaching and would you do it right away? I wouldn't start tomorrow. And I tell you what I give it to you, what would you want to be teaching and would you do it right away? I would start tomorrow, and I tell you what I would love to teach is I just got my master's in taxation last year, and I would love to teach at that level.

Okay, so how have you struggled to become a teacher? Tell me what that means. Okay, well, I don't have a PhD. As I said, I just have my Master's. I am actually on the roster for two different local colleges as an adjunct professor. And in their accounting departments. But I have yet to receive a phone call asking me to teach a class. And I think part of that is I'm not as excited about teaching accounting as I am about staying in the tax area, and you just don't see a lot of that at the undergraduate level. Well, I think there's two things, and Christy can weigh on this as well. I'm going to say that you need to go start teaching anything that you can.

So you may not love teaching accounting, but if teaching accounting gets you closer to teaching taxation, but if teaching accounting gets you closer to teaching taxation, then teach accounting. You know, I wanted to be in broadcasting many, many years ago, and I had to do some things, Christy, that I just simply did not love to do. In fact, did not even like to do it, but I knew that if I got in proximity, which I talk about all the time on my show, that that gets me in there. So you're on the rolls. You've already done a lot of the work that I was going to say to do, which is start meeting people.

But I want you to get back in touch with those people that help get you on the roster, whatever that means, and say, all right, I'm willing to teach this, this, this, what's available. I just want to teach. And once you do that, start teaching. And then you're making more connections. And I would look for other opportunities to start teaching online. There's so many opportunities to teach. It doesn't have to be a traditional education environment. You just need to start teaching.

And when you do that, you're going to get some momentum. It's going to lead to other relationships, people, and other places, opportunities where you can teach. Christy? You know, Ken, when I started out speaking, I spoke at family reunions, high school reunions, Kentucky County Libraries on a Friday night. Now, was my life's dream to speak at a Kentucky County Library on a Friday night about finances? No, it wasn't. But to your point, you've got to get started somewhere.

You know what popped in my head, though, that I want to throw out there just for consideration? I love how you said online classes where that's a way to teach in non-traditional ways. But you could be a consultant because I'd be willing to bet in 32 years of experience of running your own accounting practice, you could probably teach other accountants how to run their accounting practice from your 32 years in experience. That's teaching. It's not in a classroom, but it's a way to use the skills and experience you've gained in a different way. And you're not waiting on a phone call to make that happen. You just do it on your own, and you start today. So whether it's that or classes or, like you said, teaching accounting,

getting started out somewhere, I love that variety. And do all of them. Get your hands in all that, and then you'll start to see what your next step looks like because you'll see what you love the most. I like that. Go, go, go, Lori. That's all you've got to do. Let's go to Cassie next, who's on the line in Bismarck, North Dakota.

Cassie, how can we help? Hi, Ken and Chrissy. I'm so excited to be talking to do. Let's go to Cassie next, who's on the line in Bismarck, North Dakota. Cassie, how can we help? Hi, Ken and Chrissy. I'm so excited to be talking to you. I have been wanting to start my own music business for quite a while now. And I'm finally in a place where I'm financially stable. However, I've never been very good at like the business side of things and numbers and data. And I'm just needing to know where I can go to get, you know, the simplest, quickest way to get some training on mostly the business side of things. Yeah, you know, Cassie, I'll tell you, the way you even described it, the numbers and the data, that feels really big and overwhelming in business, but it's because it's the thing you don't know. It's actually about 5% of your day-to-day operations. 95% is operating the business, interacting with the customers,

which would be great news for you because that's the fun stuff. It's teaching the music. It's the stuff that you know. And so I'll tell you what, Cassie, I'll have Kelly go ahead and send you my book, Business Boutique, and that is cover to cover, a step-by-step plan to start your business. That is a great starting point. And then we've also got the Business Boutique podcast. That's what we do is to teach you the nuts and bolts of business so you can do more of

what you love, less of what you don't. I hear it in your voice. I know it feels overwhelming, but it's really not. It's less percent of time and effort and energy than you think it is. And once you know it, you can get back to all that stuff that you know and love. You don't have to take a ton of classes. You don't have to do a lot of things. You just need to know the basics, and then you can get back to it.

That's so true. I'm thinking back to the business my wife and I ran before I came here to Ramsey Solutions. All I had was a basic, and I mean basic in all caps, Christy, understanding of the accounting functions. And I just decided whatever it cost to get a good bookkeeper to help me with some of those processes, make sure I did everything the right way, I was going to pay it. If I had to go sacrifice a little bit myself or go make a little extra, I just needed to understand what she was doing, which is what you just said. That's right.

So I think that's really true. I think a lot of people get overwhelmed by all the stuff that they don't want to do and that they're scared of, as opposed to, wait a second, it's actually not that much. It's not that complex. Right. It just feels big because you don't know it. So it seems like this dark shadow and so intimidating. But if you realize it's like a very small percent of your day-to-day.

Day-to-day, you're dealing with your customers. You're doing your thing. Just get that part figured out. Get help there. And the book or an accountant or whatever help you need, if you get that, it'll all seem a lot less intimidating. Yeah, really good stuff. For those of you out there that are in the same boat there as Cassie,

Chrissy Wright, Business Boutique Academy, everything she's doing, businessboutique.com, great place to go. They're going to take good care of you, number one. But number two, they're going to take all that fear out of the way because they've got the answers. They can shine a light on what you need to do. All right, more of your calls about your career, your business. It's up to you, America. What do you want to call in and talk about? Chris, you're right. Ken Coleman sitting in for Dave Ramsey. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. Can you believe this real estate market?

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Welcome back, America. You are listening to The Dave Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman, sitting in for Dave Ramsey this hour. Also joined in studio by Christy Wright. We're taking your questions. 888-825-5225. Got an idea? You think it's a business?

You're not sure how to get it started? We're here for you. Got a career question? You're stuck? You're searching? We're here for you. 888-825-5225. Let's go next to Tammy,

who's on the line in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Tammy, how can we help? Hi. Thank you for taking my call. Sure. Chrissy, I've read your book, and I went to the live event in Grand Rapids earlier this year. I really enjoyed that. I went with my husband. Awesome. Thank you. Yeah. So I told my tax advisor recently that I'd like to change my selling hobby into a business this year.

And I'm kind of going through your process in the book and realized that I need to either get a DBA or LLC. And my tax advisor suggested getting an LLC or making it an LLC because of the liability. If I alter someone's wedding dress, then, you know, they can't come after me if I mess it up kind of a thing. So my question is, should I do a sole proprietorship or should I do a partnership with my husband? Because, you know, Dave Ramsey says to keep the finances together. So I don't know the answer to that question.

Well, it feels more complicated, I think, Tammy, than it is. And granted, I'm going based on 2% of the information here. So your tax advisor typically will have the best, most in-depth advice for you based on your specific situation. But I will tell you as a rule of thumb, we in our organization, Ramsey Solutions, always recommend a sole proprietor. Unless you are in a high liability business, which, believe it or not, weddings are not a high liability business. I'm assuming you're in the wedding industry.

Then it feels like you could always say, well, what if this happened? What if this happened? Yes. But unless the liability is both common, where it happens on a regular basis, and expected. Like, this is just a regular part of operations. Like, for example, Tammy, I wanted at one point 10 years ago to start a horse boarding business. Well, if I put kids on unpredictable horses, that's high liability. The wedding industry is not.

So my recommendation would be that you do operate as a sole proprietor. You don't need to operate as a partnership because there's almost no tax benefits that I know of for having a partnership. You would just choose one of you to be the sole proprietor in the relationship for the business. And that's how you file your taxes. You just keep it simple, keep it streamlined. I will tell you, though, that for your tax advisor to tell you to operate as an LLC to get incorporated is very normal. Many people in the tax industry and, for that matter, in the legal industry will say, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, you have to be an LLC. You have to be an LLC because what if this happened? If you ask any attorney, they'll all say LLC. But the practical side of things as a

small business owner, you're probably safe, especially starting out when you're starting small for those first few years in an industry that's not highly ability to operate as a sole proprietor. So I hope that helps encourage you. And if you want to get a second opinion, you know, Kim, we've got a great ELP program, our endorsed local providers. If you go to DaveRamsey.com, we have unbelievable tax professionals that advise and teach in line with what we teach, and they're trusted. We've vetted them. They're great people. And there's a lot of great people out there, but if you want advice in line with what we teach with Ramsey Solutions, that's a great resource for you to go to endorse local providers to find a tax professional to help you.

But you're probably safe, Tammy, operating as a sole proprietor. It doesn't mean your money's not together. You're just choosing one of you to operate the business through. She is Christy Wright. I'm Ken Coleman. We're sitting in for Dave Ramsey not together. You're just choosing one of you to operate the business through. She is Christy Wright. I'm Ken Coleman. We're sitting in for Dave Ramsey this hour. You're tuning in to The Dave Ramsey Show, 888-825-5225 is the number to jump in. Let's go to Elizabeth, who is on the line in Lexington, Kentucky. Elizabeth, how can we help?

Hi. I feel like it's a bonus getting Ken and Christy. Yay! Well, I appreciate the business critique so much. It gave me the tools and the confidence I needed to start a side business. But I wondered if, Christy, you found other women like me who were reluctant to share with family and friends about their new business. I think there were reasons why, but I just wondered if it was common among women and what should we do about it, if anything? Yes, Elizabeth, I will tell you, almost everyone.

So I hope that comforts you. Almost everyone, regardless of their age, their industry, their stage in business, everyone experiences some level of fear. Maybe it's in relation to your family. Maybe it's what do people think of me on Facebook. So I will encourage you that fear is normal. Even if you conquer your fear of doing one thing because you do it and you get more confident, the moment you push yourself outside of your comfort zone, which by the way is where all

good things are, when you're challenging yourself and trying new things, you're going to be a little scared again because you've never done it. It's new areas. I love how Joyce Meyer says, new levels, new devils. So I do want to encourage you that it's normal. If you remember from business boutique, my whole second chapter in the book is on fear, but it just is a quick kind of practical tip for you and anyone else listening

that might be facing some fears and putting yourself out out there in business. The antidote to fear is action. Nothing will silence your fear of doing the thing like doing the thing. So if you're worried about sharing it with family and friends, you know, starting out, you don't have to if you don't want to. Instead, you could just go do the thing and then let your results speak for themselves. After a while, when you get more reps and more wins under your belt, you may have the

courage to talk to them about it. But even when you do, just share your heart and share your story. It doesn't have to be a big presentation. But when you get those wins and you have proof that you can do this, it'll be much more easy to do it the second time. Yeah, I think it's important to point out, folks, that all of us have to deal with fear and pride at some level. They're like cousins.

They sometimes look alike, sound alike, act alike, and it's just normal and it's okay to be afraid. I think sometimes we think, Christy, we become adults and then we become parents and we're dealing with the little fears that kids have. You've got two little guys and they're getting into nightmares and all that kind of stuff. But then somehow as adults we feel like, oh, I shouldn't have this fear. And it really does paralyze. It's just the fear itself and we're a little embarrassed by the whole thing. Right, and you feel like, yeah, like you said, maybe if I got good enough, if I performed well enough, if I could graduate out of it or mature out of it, but the truth is there's going to be new fears at every stage of the journey when you're doing new things you've never done before.

You know, you and I, we walk on stages. We've conquered that fear, but then there's something else we do we've never done before. It's like, oh, I don't know. I've got to learn this. You're a beginner. It's okay. You know know you just learn the most by doing both you and i stepped into fear different points of our career uh early on and we didn't starve when we failed and our friends and family did not disown us yes when we failed yeah just just want to put that out as a public service announcement it's not fun though let's point that out too like it's not one of those things that when you fail you look back oh man go, man, I'm so glad that happened. No, I'm not glad any of those happened. Instead, I'm just glad I kept going anyway. That's absolutely right. Let's go next to

Bree, who's on the line in Phoenix, Arizona. Bree, how can we help? Hi, Ken and Christy. It's so great to talk to you both. Thank you so much for taking my call. Sure. How can we help? So I am a marriage and family therapist. I earned my doctorate last year, and I wanted to start a business of developing self-help books and kind of get all of the knowledge that I gained over the past 10 years out there for, you know, the average Joe to read.

My problem that I'm having is that I don't want to be sued because I don't want people to think like, oh, this is a substitute for therapy. So I'm curious, what kind of disclaimers do I need in my self-help books and on my website if I do plan on putting advice and things like that on websites? And then how do I direct traffic to my site? Well, Brie, I'll tell you, that's a two-part, three-part question. I'll give you the basics to get started, and Ken, you jump in here as well. The disclaimers are not going to cover you, most likely. You can put some disclaimers, but I wouldn't lean on the disclaimers. What I would do is if you have an attorney or any type of family friend, someone in your church community that's a legal counsel, they can give you some

verbiage. You can Google it, Bree, some basic verbiage to put on your website to cover your bases. But what you really want to do is you just want to make sure that you know the area you're going into. I would advise you to meet, find some people that are doing or have done what you want to do. Ask them, how did you do it? How did you get yourself into this space and that type of thing? I don't think the concern you have is as big as it feels. It's more about just how to get started in that industry. Kim, what would you say?

Yeah, I agree with you on the disclaimer. You don't need the disclaimer. Nobody does that. Anybody writes a book, you don't have to write a disclaimer. So you don't have to worry about that. I think you want to expand what you're offering your current clients. Yeah, what you're currently doing. Through the form of writing.

Yeah. So the cases or the clients that move you the most right now, I would start writing without revealing their details, but I would think there's a lot of people that are just like the people you just shut the door on as they left. I'd start writing for those folks and then the topics that move you

the most. That's going to be the best writing and start to get it out there. Papers, blog posts, whatever. Let's see what people, how they react to your writing. That's where you start. Books and everything come much later. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. Are high health care costs

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And our members have shared over $2.5 billion in medical bills. To learn more, visit chministries.org. That's chministries.org. Christian Healthcare Ministries is a proud sponsor of Dave Ramsey Live Events. chministries.org. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Welcome, America. I'm Ken Coleman, sitting in for Dave Ramsey this hour and joined by Christy Wright as we take your calls about business and career. 888-825-5225.

That's 888-825-5225. Today may be the day that you get the clarity you need to be able to confidently step forward. Let's start off with Lavina, who's on the line in Dallas, Texas. Lavina, how can we help? Yes, hi. How are you guys? We're having a great time. How are you?

I'm good. I had a question for Christy Wright. Hi, Christy. Hey, how's it going? Good. I had a question for Christy Wright. Hi, Christy. Hey, how's it going? Good. So I am looking to quit my full-time job and start a virtual assistant business. And I have been reading your book the past several months now. I think I'm on Chapter 7 or Chapter 8. Anyhow, I've been enjoying the book.

My question is, how do I get my husband on board? A little bit more into my story my husband is working a full-time job but he also has like a five part-time business and when we discussed it and I told him my dreams and my aspirations about starting this uh this business of mine his number one thing was as long as it doesn't interfere with what I'm doing, then you're good. So I'm like, okay. So, you know, we have a child, we have a toddler.

And I'm like, well, you know, can we like work around each other? You know, let's set a schedule so that if you have something going on with your business, I don't get on top of you and vice versa. And he's just saying, well, you know, I'm the breadwinner. So just let's just, you know, lay that down the line. And I agree with know, I'm the breadwinner, so let's just lay that down the line. And I agree with that. He is the breadwinner, and I'm not trying to overstep him, but he's like, as long as it doesn't stop me from what I'm trying to do to provide for y'all, then you're good.

So I'm just wondering if you have any advice for that. Yes. Okay, Lavinia, I want to encourage you that this is one of the top questions that I'm asked by people, is how do I get my husband on board? In fact, it's so popular that one of my most recent podcast episodes, it went out in mid-June, is completely around that topic. So,

LaVena, I want you to go to the Business Boutique podcast and search the second to last episode, How to Get My Husband On Board, because it's a whole hour which goes into even more depth than I can quickly on this call with you. So I want you to listen to that. But here's what else I want you to do. I want your husband to listen to it with you, because I speak directly to the husbands in this episode. And I answer some questions from husbands and even interview my husband, Matt, right. So that'll be a fun conversation kickoff

for you guys. So I will tell you that. But the other thing that I think would encourage you is one of the things that I think we miss is we tend to think I've got to guess what type of information they need. So maybe I'll share why this is so important to me. But what they're really worried about is how much it's going to cost. So what I want to encourage you is a really quick starting point, Lavina, is I want you to ask your husband what information he needs to get excited about it. Is he concerned about the cost? Is he concerned about how much time it's going to take?

Maybe he just needs to hear how much this means to you. Because sometimes, you know, Ken, for example, I'll guess and hypothesize about what Matt needs to get excited or whatever, and I've completely missed the mark. Instead, if you just ask him, like, hey, this means a lot to me. What do you need for us to get aligned on this with our values, with our dreams, that type of thing?

When he tells me, I'm like, oh, okay. And then you can give him that information. So every person is different. Every husband is different. Every husband's fears or motivations are different. So if you ask, a lot of times that might just be the information you need to be able to relieve those fears. I'm going to throw it back to you.

It sounds like LaVena gave us a little bit of what her husband is feeling. He said, basically, I'm paraphrasing what she said, as long as it doesn't interrupt or hurt what I'm trying to do to provide for you all. So it sounds like to me he's going, as long as you starting this business doesn't cost us more money or cost us too much money. I'm not, again, not trying to completely project, but see, here's a guy who's going, he's not, doesn't sound like he's against her doing it. It's just, uh-oh, I'm nervous about expenses. So maybe he needs to know how much this would cost them. Right, right.

But there's a cost, even if it wasn't a financial cost, there's a cost, meaning Lovina needs some time to work on her business, so maybe he takes care of the kids more than he's used to, and he's like, well, I'm too tired to go to work. So this is a fun conversation. This is a really important conversation to have. And there would be some alignment. I'll tell you, Ken, as a little teaser of this podcast episode. So I asked Matt Wright.

I said, Matt, the number one thing I'm asked from women is how do I get my husband on board? And I said, what would you say to them? He said, well, I don't think women should try to get their husband on board like a partnership in a business. He goes, you're her husband. It's your responsibility to support her dreams. I was like, oh, that is good. Like that's, I love his perspective of

we should support each other because we're married. So let's figure out how to do that. What does it look like to support each other? It's not optional to support each other. That's what we do because we're married. So I love that. Levina, I hope that's encouraging to you. Listen to that podcast episode. Have your husband listen to it each other. It's not optional to support each other. That's what we do because we're married. I love that. Levine, I hope that's encouraging to you. Listen to that podcast episode.

Have your husband listen to it with you. But just start maybe by asking him the question. Ken, you are the king of this. I learned this from you of asking questions. When you ask a lot of questions rather than talk at people, it demonstrates humility and curiosity and interest. It leads to such better results than saying, hey, I want, I need.

And so I'd say, what do you need? What would this look like for our family? How could you be involved? What would excite you about it? Ask a lot of questions, Levina, and I think he might even be more responsive. Yeah, you're right. Just the add-on to that is he won't be defensive. If you ask him how he's feeling, what he's most concerned about, what are his ideas,

how could she do it, and how could you do it. Get his advice. You know, all of a sudden, before you know it, he's taken ownership of it. That's good. We talk about that in the episode, too. It's like involving him on things that interest him. And then he's like, oh, yeah, let's do this. Let's get this started. It's fun.

Especially if he gets to the point where he goes, wait a second, you're telling me that this many months down the road we can make this extra money? Now, all of a sudden, he's like your number one stockholder. Oh, yeah. That's right. Hey, what do you need me to do? You know, there's a funny story Dave tells about a woman that had a side business, quote unquote, side business, and he thought it was real cute, Ken, just so cute.

She made little t-shirts. It was so cute until they did their taxes, and she was making $400,000 with her cute little t-shirt business. Tell you what, men do know results. They're like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. All of a sudden, he's a t-shirt mogul. That's right. She hired him. Oh, yeah. That's really good, he's a t-shirt mogul. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, he's all of a sudden.

She hired him. Oh, yeah, that's really good. That's good. All right, let's get one more in here real quick. Tiana is on the line in Huntington Beach. Tiana, how can we help? Hello. I hope I don't get in the penalty box for sound.

Not in a super good area. My question just is, if you thought it was a good idea to go ahead and make an initial investment in a business, a side business, or if it was better just to wait until you're done with all your debt snowball to do anything like that for a side business. Currently, I can pick up overtime at work to make extra money, but I also have an idea that it could potentially bring me into working at home. What's the business? It would be good.

And I'm kind of going two ways, which I can do a creative business I've done before. I'm a pattern maker and a designer, but I wasn't doing very good on my own. I did it for 10 years, and so I went into billing and coding, medical billing and coding. So currently I'm employed with the health plan. And I wanted to get back into sewing, maybe like princess dresses and things like that for children. But I would have to go out and rebuy the equipment. So I just, I wondered if it was good to do that, even a sewing machine would, you know, get a cheap one, kind of offer up prices. How much debt do you have left? I'm still, like, from going into the billing program, I actually incurred about nine grand

of student loan, and then my car is about $9,000. Okay. All right. Good deal. You know, Ken, what I would say, and this is a very similar question to one we got on Facebook from Kelsey.

It's basically, I'm in baby step two. Should I invest in getting this business off the ground or should I wait? Here's my advice. I think a lot of the things

we think we need, we don't. It was kind of like when I graduated college and I needed all new suits to go interview for a job. Like I didn't have perfectly acceptable interview clothes. Get scrappy.

For Tiana and for Kelsey, get scrappy and try to turn a profit from day one. You can sublease. You can rent. You can buy used on Craigslist for your equipment. You can even take advance payment on orders to where you use the money from that order to go fulfill the order in fabric where you never put any money in. I'll give you an example of this is Melissa Hennett of Grace and Lace. She's a Shark Tank success story. Never put a dime of money into her product-based business.

She got scrappy. She used what she had, and she took advance payment on order. So my encouragement for Tiana and Kelsey on Facebook is I don't want you to take out any more debt, obviously, and I don't want you to put money that could be going to your debt snowball into the business. I just want you to get scrappy and resourceful with what you have and try to turn a profit quicker. If you didn't have that $1,000 investment as an option, what would you do?

Could you still do it? I bet you could. Dave Ramsey started this business on a card table in his living room. You've just got to take that option of that big investment off the table and you'll find a way to do it. Real quick, how much is a used sewing machine? Oh, I bet you could get one for easily $25.

Oh, my gosh. Yeah. That's scrappy. They're brand new, $100. Hey, I want to thank our producer, James Childs, our associate producer, Kelly Daniel, Christy Wright for hanging out. Thank you, ma'am. Yeah, I'm sorry. And you, America.

Thank you so very much. It is your show. We greatly appreciate you listening. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, it's Kelly Daniel, associate producer and phone screener for The Dave Ramsey Show. Did you know that in 2017, Dave Ramsey Show listeners paid off $50 million of debt? That's pretty impressive. And it could be you this year.

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