The Ramsey Show - App - Don't Keep Your Job Just Because of the Benefits! (Hour 3)

Episode Date: May 4, 2021

EntreLeadership Theme Hour Sign Up for a FREE trial of Ramsey+ TODAY: https://bit.ly/3rZTUAx Tools to get you started:  Debt Calculator: https://bit.ly/2Q64HME Insurance Coverage Checkup: https://bit.ly/3sXwUn5 Complete Guide to Budgeting: https://bit.ly/3utmVXi Check out more Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3fHhbVE

Music Music Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. This is a small business entree leadership theme hour.

If you own and operate a business or you're a leader in a business and you want to talk small business, any questions you've got about business, this is your hour. We're going to talk to you because you are heroes. You are the backbone of the American economy. Most of the jobs in america are provided by you most of the job growth is provided by you you were the last to shut down and the first to open up because you have to you don't have a choice you get get up every day, you leave the cave, you kill something and you drag it home. And at Ramsey, we love Entree Leaders. We are Entree Leaders. The combination of entrepreneurs and leadership.

That's where I got that name. I made it up, and it's the title of a New York Times bestselling book. Number one bestselling book. Entree Leadership. How to own and Operate a Business. It's our playbook of how we run Ramsey and continues to evolve as we take on new challenges running Ramsey, new things to run Ramsey with. And so we're here to help you today.

Open phones at 888-825-5225. You guys make the world go round out there. You You guys make the world go round out there. You gals make the world go round out there. The ones that do this are the place that this is the free enterprise system. You're proof that capitalism is alive and well, that the free enterprise system works. And we love you for that. So we're here to help you today. 888-825-5225.

Amy's with us in Hays, Kansas. Hi, Amy. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hi. How are you, Dave? Better than I deserve. What's up in your world? Well, I have a question.

I am a small business owner, and I'm wondering to know when to quit my full-time job and follow my massage therapist career. I'm wondering if this is a good economy to depend solely on my business. when to quit my full-time job and follow my massage therapist career. I'm wondering if this is a good economy to depend solely on my business. My full-time job has a 401k that matches up to 6% and has really good health insurance. I can get health insurance through healthcare.gov or CHM. So is staying with my full-time job worth the six percent matching funds on my 401k currently i'm okay no you go live your dream you don't keep a job for benefits well i'm currently what you do have to have is you have to have money okay so you can't be making three dollars as a massage therapist and walk away from $103,000 as a job.

No, I don't. I make just as much with my massage therapy as I do my full-time job. How much? I make, last year through my taxes, I made $43, 595 at my full-time job in massage therapy i did have to close for two months so i only made 38 153 but the last year i made the exact pretty much the exact same amount and are you single it sounds like you are no we i'm married okay so what does your husband make he makes um he's actually retired this year what does he make he makes uh 36 000 a year okay so if your income goes from a hundred thousand to seventy thousand are you going to be okay because that's what's going to

happen uh yeah we're we're actually doing the baby steps now and we're in baby step two and $70,000, are you going to be okay? Because that's what's going to happen. Yeah. We're actually doing the baby steps now, and we're in baby step two, and we should have baby step two done in June. Okay. Well, it would be good to have that done and have the emergency fund in place, right? Right. Yeah, and then so probably a September kickoff or something like that. And here's the thing. Obviously, you're going to make more than $38,000 at massage therapy because, A, therapy because a you'll be full-time and b you don't have the pandemic to deal with like you did

last year right correct yes okay so kansas is open you got not no you gotta not have any issues except for the handful of people who are freaked out still right yes exactly okay cool good for you very good well i mean you're going to see a drop because you've been running this side hustle that's very profitable, and you're going to lose the full-time income and be down to the side hustle income, but you're at the point you should do this. Okay. Yes, in September you should do this. In between now and September you should go bananas and pile up as much money as you can pile up and be debt-free.

Okay. And just set yourself a goal of September 1, my emergency fund is complete, and then some extra just for the fun of it, because we're just going to go bananas here through the summer, and we're going to be debt-free, have a big emergency fund, plus a little extra slush, and then we're going to go boom, boom, and go ahead and have a big marketing launch and a blowout plan to go big or go home September, October, November, December. Like I want all of your customers giving certificates for your services as Christmas presents next year, all of them.

You need marketing plans. Yes, I have that already started. You're fun. You're going to do this. You're incredible. Well, thank you. Get started. You're fun. You're going to do this. You're incredible. Well, thank you. Get them. I love it.

See, that right there is what causes business to happen, right there. And listen, folks, there is no benefit on the planet that causes you to want to work for somebody else the rest of your life if you have in your gut to be an entrepreneur. Listen, I love the folks on our team. We have 1,000 people on our team. I've got some people be with me the rest of their lives here, and I hope they are. And they're very entrepreneurial inside this building, and they're happy with that. I don't want anybody staying here because we've got a good 401K plan. If this is not your dream anymore, go dream somewhere else.

When your spirit leaves this building, you ought to take your butt with it. And that's true of your job, too. And did you hear her spirit? her spirit is not in a job anymore hadn't been there in a long time and so let's lay out a plan here get the boat up next to the dock and jump baby get in the boat make her done i love it that's so cool this is how it works right here this is entree leadership this is what we do every day inside of this brand and we're pumped right now we're going to do our summit event our probably the leading leadership event in the nation maybe in the world and that's not an exaggeration this is freaking incredible

it's going to be in dallas may the 16th through the 19th and you can watch it as a live stream it's sold out of course but you can watch it as a live stream it's sold out of course but you can watch it as a live stream if you want and uh it's got listen listen this lineup man this is unbelievable all the ramsey personalities so you know ken coleman christy wright dave ramsey not all of us but a bunch of us are going to be there marcus buckingham jaco willing i can never say Jocko's last name. Willink. He's fabulous. He's fun. Craig Groeschel, pastor of Life.Church.

Pat Lencioni, best-selling author of the Ideal Team Player and many other books, The Advantage, everything else. Good friend. My good friend John Maxwell is going to be there. John is just like the grandpa of all leadership. Sorry, John, but you are. I love you, man. I mean, we're all like your grandkids. We all learned from you, and now we're grandpa of all leadership. Sorry, John, but you are. I love you, man. I mean, we're all like your grandkids.

We all learn from you, and now we're out here teaching leadership. You're just incredible. I talked to him yesterday morning on the phone on my way to work. And Dr. Adrian Sternberg is going to be speaking as well. Dr. John Deloney is going to be speaking. The lineup for this thing is unbelievable. You want to join about 1,000 other business owners watching this online? You can.

Three days. My entire leadership team is going to be watching the live stream event. Not working. They're going to be watching the live stream event so that when they get back to work, they're going to be smarter. That's how this works, baby. Text SUMMIT to 44222. Text SUMMIT to 44222. Our famous $10 sale is back. This time last year, a lot of folks got behind with their money.

But this spring, there's hope. Our famous $10 sale can help you get control of your money and feel good about your future. We'll be right back. over and everyday millionaires these books will help you make a plan today to hit your money goals faster so shop our ten dollar sale at our online store at ramsey solutions.com that's not all we got a gift for you too you can enter to win our ramsey cash giveaway we're giving away five hundred dollars cash every week and a grand prize of five5,000 cash. Enter daily for extra chances to win. No purchase necessary. Must be 18 or older to win. To enter our giveaway, go to RamseySolutions.com slash giveaway. It's a small business entree leadership theme hour. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host here on The Ramsey Show.

If you have a small business and you have a question about business, you want to start a business, you have a question about business, you're running a business, you've got a question about leadership, we're here to talk to you this hour. Open phones at 888-825-5225. I started this business on a card table in my living room, and I've grown it with the help of a lot of wonderful people and God's blessings over the last almost 30 years now to a $350 million a year business, never borrowing a dime, and having an absolutely

incredible culture inside the place. It's a place everyone wants to come to work. The people love each other. They drive for excellence. We strive. We argue positively, not because of politics, but we argue because, not corporate politics, but we argue because we're fighting to win. We're fighting to be able to serve you guys better. Open phones here at 888-825-5225.

Brendan is with us in Richmond, Virginia. Hi, Brendan. How are you? I'm doing wonderful. Thank you, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? So, my wife and I started Your Baby Steps back in 2019, and it couldn't have come at a better time because while everyone else around us was sweating through the pandemic, we were in a better position than most. Cut to, here

we are, 2021. My family and I have been running a business together since 1986, and I was looking at our finances recently, and I'm starting to wonder where the parallels between your baby steps might find themselves in line with small business finance. That's a great question. We don't use the baby steps in business, but we use the principles that formed the baby steps to form a financial strategy for business. Now, what are the principles?

The principles are the easiest way to become wealthy is to get out of debt and stay out of debt, so I don't borrow money in business either. The principles are in the house of the wise or stores of choice food and oil. Smart people save money. Businesses have retained earnings. Right? The principles are live on less than you make. Businesses need to live on less than they make, thus create a profit.

And so these are basic principles that we kind of all know we would call them common sense. But how do we weave them into a business situation then? Well, we're going to avoid debt, number one. And that's a hard one because there's always some kind of crap to buy in your personal life or in business. There's always some piece of equipment. There's always something that's going to make it easier. There's always a piece of software. There's always a new hire.

There's always something that costs money that I don't have today that I'd like to do to move this business tomorrow. And that temptation to go into debt is always there. Would you agree with that? No, for sure. Yeah. So you've got to draw a line in the sand and say no debt. So how are we going to do it? Well, we're either going to do it slower or not at all because we're going to cash flow

this puppy. So if you've got debt, and when we're teaching entree leadership this is what i teach people in a thousand people two thousand people three thousand people in a room and by god they're about to be there again go figure um and so it is i tell them you know if you've got debt you need to put yourself in your case it sounds like your family is eating out of the business on a basic living wage not minimum wage a basic living wage and not minimum wage, a basic living wage. And so let's say the business is making a profit of $300,000 and the owners are splitting that up.

Don't split it up anymore. Live off of a salary until we get a retained earnings in place and until we get the debts cleared off. And so what I tell people to do is run your profit and loss with a salary, a basic living wage, and all profits then should be divided. The lion's share of the profits going towards clearing off any existing debts, and then a smaller portion going towards the continual building of retained earnings. And so in my example a minute ago let's say a 200,000

profit after you paid yourself a hundred thousand dollar salary instead of taking home 300 we're taking home 100 with our salary the other 200 then we're going to put uh 80 percent of it 160,000 towards debt and 20 percent of it towards retained earnings and so we got 40,000 in retained earnings this year and we've got 160 in debt because you're going to need the retained earnings to and so we got $40,000 in retained earnings this year, and we've got $160,000 in debt. Because you're going to need the retained earnings to do the next thing to avoid future debt while you're cleaning off the old debt. It's different than the baby steps. Is that logical to you?

It is. There are certainly parallels to it, but, you know, we wouldn't call it baby steps. Exactly. It's more of a formula. But what you do need is you need the principles in place and out of the principles the principles are debt-free live unless you make or save money but and then and then we're generous and so those principles are in place and with those then we develop a formula where it's almost automatic since um let me think here 1998 four years five

years after we started the business we we put the formula in place. We've never had any debt, but every single month we run our profit and loss statement. And every single month we take a percentage of that profit and grow retained earnings with it for future growth and for possible downturns. We were really glad when the pandemic hit that there were millions and millions of dollars in that with 1,000 people on payroll because it became our emergency fund. Does that make sense? Yeah, and that's exactly – well, that's one of those principles.

That's in your rave steps, have an emergency fund. And as a business, a small business, that's one of those principles. That's in your rave steps. Have an emergency fund. And as a business, a small business, that's absolutely essential. Yeah. Now, you've got other family members in your business, right? Correct. Are you one of the owners or you just work there? I'm one of the owners. Who owns it with you?

Your parents? So it's shared between my mother, my father, and my sister and myself. So four of you are owners, okay. And can you get all of the owners on the same page on these principles? Slowly getting there. They have all seen what my wife and I were able to accomplish in 2019. In less than 10 months, we're on to Baby Step 6. Excellent.

We got crazy about it, and they looked at us a little strangely but they get it now they're starting to understand yeah and it's just you ask yourself the question in business you know when the pandemic hit if i had no debt and had millions of dollars in retained earnings would i feel differently than i had millions of dollars in debt and no money because millions of dollars of no debt of debt and no money is called closed now they're out of business and so those companies didn't survive and that's the the question you ask mom dad sister is like look we've got to always be ready for the upside for growth what's the short what's the best way to continue to grow in good times and when the bad times come and the big bad

wolf huffs and he puffs and he tries to blow our house in, we won't be the third pig, baby. We won't be in the brick house. And, you know, so that's how you get ready, which is exactly what you did at home, Brendan, and now you're trying to transfer that into the business. Very wise to do. Very wise to do. Dylan is in Indianapolis. Hi, Dylan.

Welcome to the Ramsey show hi dave how are you better than i deserve what's up in your world all right so me and my father have just recently uh decided to open up a small business um we do stonemasonry work um and right now uh i have one builder and then another you know another builder that is a very good chance for us to make a deal with them. Now we're still stuck on the fact of the marketing and making connections with people to get more consistent work for us. And I didn't know if you had any tips or advice on being able to make more connections or stuff I could do to try to get my name out there, you know, our business or anything like that. Okay. Well, the first thing I would address is I'm not really wild about partnerships.

I would prefer one of you own it and the other one get a percentage of the profits as their pay. And I'm guessing that you are the one concerned about marketing. Your dad's more concerned about laying stone. Actually, we both lay stone. I mean, I love to do it. It's sort of in the blood. I didn't say you didn't know how. I said he didn't call me asking about marketing.

You did. No, yeah. That's me. You're thinking more like an owner. That's me. putting a bid in and then once you've done a few jobs lots and lots of pictures and a nice website showing your work if you're wanting to do work for builders it's one set of pictures and work and details and specs you're doing work direct to consumer it's a whole different marketing push and so that's which you need to decide which or how you're going after both if you're going after but it's it's straight up, man. Go to the job sites.

It's a small business theme hour here on the Ramsey Show. We're going to talk to you, small business people and business people, about your leadership and business questions. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Our Entree Leadership Summit is our largest event of the year for business owners and leaders. It's happening May 16th through the 19th. You will not find a bigger or better leadership event. I promise you that. It's absolutely incredible.

Of course, I'll be teaching. Marcus Buckingham will be with us. Jocko Willink will be with us. U.S. Navy SEAL officer, best-selling author. Marcus, of course, best-selling author of Strength Finders and many other books. Wonderful communicators, both of these guys, along with my friend Craig Groeschel, the founder and pastor of Life.Church. We used to call it Life.Church.TV. I think they're rebranding. Also started a little thing called the YouVersion Bible app,

which has only got like a half a billion users now. Craig is an incredible leader and good friend. And Pat Lencioni is going to be with us, best-selling author, another good friend, and great friend of the Entree Leadership Tribe. All of you love Pat. He's always one of our top-rated speakers when he comes. The grandpa of the leadership world, the dean of the leadership world, Dr. John Maxwell, a good friend of mine for a couple of decades, is going to be there.

It is always an incredible honor and pleasure to have John speak anywhere. He is a wealth of knowledge, probably written 80 different leadership books, many, many multiple best-selling books, Thank you. sold out. However, you can still attend via live stream, and you'll be joined by over 1,000 business owners and their teams who have already registered to attend online. You can get in touch with our team, and they will set it up to where you and your whole team can sit and watch this. And we recommend that you set aside a couple of days and watch these incredible leadership think thought leaders, incredible leadership communicators these lessons are absolutely amazing let me tell you what i've got 174 people on our leadership team here at ramsey all of them will be sitting and watching all three days they will not be at

their desk they will be watching all three days some of them will be in attendance live and some of them will be here in nashville in our offices and we've set aside just you know you're you're not at work you're at summit and you're going to be watching the live stream because it's too important uh i mean you leave on fire your team leaves on fire you you get new ideas there's nothing like an event like this to get you moving again, especially after something like a pandemic. We need to heal and move on, right? We got stuff to do here. So to register, text SUMMIT to 44222.

That's SUMMIT to 44222. And we'll see you on the live stream. I'm telling you, this is world-class speaking, world-class content, world-class production values. This is the leadership event in America this year, and it's absolutely incredible. We're so thrilled to be in Dallas. We'll be there at the Omni, a wonderful company to work with.

They are absolutely very customer-centric. They take great care of us, and we're excited to be there with them. We were scheduled in Nashville, but the Nashville mayor, Comrade Cooper, has got us all screwed up up here on COVID, so we had to move it. And so we moved it to Dallas, and we'll be broadcasting it from there. It's going to be absolutely fabulous. Angelo is with us in Asheheville north carolina hi angelo what's up hi dave how are you better than i deserve how can i help i have a couple of questions for

you i'm 67 years old and i plan to retire in perhaps two years at 70 when i get my full social security i'm interested in starting a miniature golf course, which would be on my main street in my hometown, which is a tourist town. I run the numbers and everything looks good. And speaking to my wife of 43 years, I hope she's not listening because it could be 44. But I think I got everything squared away. The one thing that we cannot agree on is who's going to do the books. So my question to you is, Dave, can I just hire a retired guy with a calculator, maybe a CPA retiree to do my books? And does he have to come in daily to pick up the receipts? And I have a guy who does my taxes. So I guess at the end of the year, we just bring it over to him. So I don't know how we could settle that issue. Who does the books? What is your wife wanting to do?

She wants to sell the land. Oh, she doesn't want to do this at all? I don't think so, no. Well, I mean, selling the land would kind of keep you from doing it. Yeah, and she says if you do it, you've got to do it. And so she doesn't want to get stuck doing the books. And I'm like, okay, well. She doesn't want you to die in her own miniature golf course.

That's what she doesn't want. Yeah, well. Sounds like my wife. I don't think that would happen. That sounds like something Sharon would say. Sharon has figured out I'm going to die first, so we have to plan everything that way. Yeah, that could be my case, too. But if I want to go ahead with this.

Number one, I don't go ahead against my wife's wishes. So you need to get an agreement on this that you're going to put together a system by which she has an exit strategy on this if you pass away before she does. We're laughing about this, but she's seriously concerned about it. And you need to solve this because very few people are successful in business against their spouse's wishes. So we need to get to some conclusions about. I think she's probably concerned about not running a golf course after you're gone. So you need a way to exit her from it if something happened to you before she passes. And so that's thing one.

And then thing two, to answer your question on who runs the books, I don't want you to think that the person that runs the books is running the business. You've got to go run the business if you're going to open this, or you're going to have to hire a manager to run the business on a daily basis, and the manager is going to take the receipts and put them in the bank and enter the stuff into the computer is what it amounts to. Right. Okay. And so what kind of profit are you projecting on this?

Dave, I low-balled everything and had the business running at 20% calculation, 20% capacity, and I figure it will be open from April 1 to after Thanksgiving, and that's 200 days. I cut it back to 150 considering weather days, and I figure $69,000 net take. And that is not including T-shirts, ice cream, water, a possible food truck. Did you pay a staff out of that pro forma? No. Who's going to run it? You're going to run it by yourself.

I would like to. 150 days a year, you're going to do everything there by yourself. That's not realistic. Well, okay. I mean, if you get the flu, the thing's closed. I see your point. While you're taking tickets at the front, there's nobody sweeping up the mess somebody made in the back. Good point.

So you're going to have to rethink this. You need to go visit some people that are running miniature golf courses and see what their staffing looks like and get advice from them. Somebody in a different area that's not a future competitor of yours, and just go around and take a little road trip and go visit. You're in Asheville, North Carolina, run over to Pigeon Forge in Gatlinburg. Run over to Tennessee. There's probably 73 of them up and down that strip.

And, you know, talk to some of those guys in those resort areas like that very similar markets uh very similar area you know what what are they doing for staffing what's their profit look like what are they doing for their pricing model study their businesses for best practices and um then you'll find you'll learn a bunch that you don't know today because you don't know what you don't know so you need an exit strategy your wife. You need some better best practices to build your business on. And you're going to have to look at your staffing because zero staffing is unrealistic in a retail thing like this, even in a resort community. You're not going to want to do this by yourself every day, dude. That just doesn't sound like fun of anything, no matter how much you love it. This is The Ramsey Show. our scripture of the day romans 12 12 12. Rejoice in hope. Be patient in tribulation. Be constant in prayer.

Albert Einstein said, In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity. Dave Ramsey said, In the middle of every opportunity, a small business guy showed up. This is an Entree Leadership Theme Hour. Thanks for joining us. And we want to hear about your opportunity. We want to hear how we can help you and serve you at Entree Leadership.

We thoroughly enjoy working with and are honored to work with business people from all over America, particularly small business people. John is in Tulsa. Hey, John, how can we help today? Hey, Dave. It's a pleasure to speak with you today. How are you? Better than I deserve, sir. How can I help? Yes, Dave. It's a pleasure to speak with you today. How are you? Better than I deserve,

sir. How can I help? Yes, sir. So just a little bit of background here. My wife and I are both 30 years old. We're on baby step seven. We have an opportunity to take over a family waste hauling business. Long story short, I walked away from the business in 2014 due to some toxicity with my father, and he passed away unexpectedly in 2015 and left it to my mom. I came back to help run the business in 2016, and we now have it running somewhat smoothly. She's looking at transitioning out of the company, and I'm the only one out of 30 siblings that has any interest in continuing to run the company. So my wife and I are 15% owners in the company. We're not extremely passionate about the work that we do,

but it allows us a good income, a time off to pursue the things that we're passionate about, the ability to give. I went to school for heavy equipment operation and truck driving and stuff, so I'm pretty good at what I do. With all that being said, do you think it's a wise choice to pursue purchasing and running the company and trying to make it into something that my wife and I both enjoy running. What prohibits it from being something that you enjoy? Is it what you do or how it's done?

Well, I think my mom and I got just kind of thrown into it. Like I said, my dad passed away unexpectedly, and we were both removed from it. And so I just don't know if— I mean, you've been running it for four years. What is it you still don't like? I think it's probably just more the people issues and things that I'm not very skilled in dealing with. I think it's probably one of my—

You mean your team? Yes, sir. Yeah. Okay. Well, let's pretend for a second. I'm trying to do the culture shift. Yeah, it sounds like you've got some cleanup to do. Yes, sir. Yeah. Okay. Well, let's pretend for a second. Trying to do the culture shift. Yeah. It sounds like you've got some cleanup to do. Yes, sir. And you've not been able to do it due to your ownership position yet.

But if you owned it and ran it, and you trimmed the dead wood out and the thorns out, and you replanted and grafted in some beautiful vines would you like running it with people that you wanted around i really think i would i think you know it would be it's a profitable business you know we're debt free and i i really i think we can make a go out of it you know i think you can make a go out of a lot of stuff i'm just asking is it what you want to do is the toxic people situation your only thing that's stealing your joy or is it the general space that you're in you just don't want to do this every day i think yeah i think it's more of like the it's not necessarily toxic i think it's just you know

shifting the culture and getting it getting it to where you know we would uh maybe not be as stressed and dealing with the personnel issues i think would probably be the well i you know, we would maybe not be as stressed in dealing with the personnel issues. I think it would probably be the better way to do it. Well, you know, here's what I will tell you as a guy who's done this for 30 years, and again, started with no team members, then I had 10, and now I've got 1,000. The folks on my team are my biggest joy, my biggest blessing, and my biggest heartache. Yes, sir. Some of the stupid butt stuff some of these people do to each other, biggest blessing and my biggest heartache. Yes, sir. Some of the stupid butt stuff some of these people do to each other and to me is ridiculous.

And then I just have to fire them. And it just breaks my heart because I love people and I pour into them. And it's always going to be a source of pride, a source of love. Some of my best friends work inside this building. And I truly, I mean, they're some of my best friends. And we work together, we argue, we fight through things together. And then some of the meanest, nastiest things in my life have been done to me by employees and former employees. And so it's just – and some of them claim I did that to them, which I didn't.

But, you know, there's all that kind of stuff that goes with the territory of managing people, leading people. It's going to be a dance between the ugly and the beautiful. And the reason you know it's beautiful is you have ugly to look at it to compare it to. So that's going to come. But you can make it where, you know, I got a thousand people and truly I don't have anybody in the building I don't want to keep because I wouldn't have kept them past sundown. Yes, sir. I've given up on trying to make people behave.

So, you know, we're going to work together. We're going to love each other. We're going to treat each other with respect and dignity, or you're not going to be a we. And so I think you can do this. I think you should do this. So, yeah, I think you need to start talking about how you're going to buy your mom out. How are you going to do that?

We have listened to some other, you know, podcasts about, you know, what your advice was about, you know, giving them a percentage of the profits until the business is paid off, and I think that's probably the route that we would go. Good. How long will that take? Probably five to seven years, maybe. You're paying her too much. Okay. If you're giving her the lion's share of the profits, you're living on almost nothing in order to clear her out, and it's taking you five years. You're over her the lion's share of the profits. You're living on almost nothing in order to clear her out, and it's taking you five years.

You're overpaying her. The business is worth, after salaries are paid, including your salary and her salary, because you're there running the businesses every day, after a basic salary for you to a reasonable salary for you to management role is paid, whatever the net profits are after all of that, times four, maybe times five is what this is worth. So you should be done in four or five years if you just live on your salary and her salary disappears. Yes, sir. Okay.

You see how that formula works out? Yes, sir, I do. So y'all work that through, and that's fair to her, by the way, and that's fair to you. Yes, sir. Because you want this cleared off as soon as possible in the meantime you're you own a hundred percent of it you and your wife and you guys can begin to learn this people skill thing and it's the um it's the art of healthy conflict lovingly saying this is the goal this is the excellence mark we're all going to work towards excellence together. I'm not perfect.

You're not perfect. We're all going towards that, and we're going to treat each other with dignity along the way. And if any of you can't do that, then you're not going to be a we, because we are doing that. Yeah, that's good. And we have that talk around here every day, every day. And sometimes somebody doesn't, they forget it, and so we have to sit down and explain to them again. This is what we're doing.

And we don't talk about each other behind each other's back. We're not trying to cut each other's throat. We're not trying to climb on each other's body to the top or something like that. We're not going to use up people. We're just loving each other. We're a team. We're working together. We're trying to score touchdowns so we can win

the freaking Super Bowl. And if you're doing together we're trying to score touchdowns so we can win the freaking super bowl and if you're doing something other than trying to score touchdowns and win the freaking super bowl you don't get to be a week you don't get to stay and we're not mean or nasty or sarcastic to people but we will let you leave and work somewhere else if you decide you're stupid enough to run to sit around and tell everybody, all your friends, how dumb you are, how dumb Ramsey is, or your husband or your wife's dumb enough to tell everybody how dumb Ramsey is.

We'll fire you because that's not, that's not, people don't do that to people that love each other. You don't, you don't do that. That's wrong. That's morally wrong. And so we will fire you.

And, and you know, you gotta, you gotta be willing to do that kind of stuff, John. And it's like you're going to be on this team. We're going to work together. We're going to love each other. You're going to treat each other right.

You're not going to misbehave. You're not going to make ladies be uncomfortable in the building. You're not going to, you know, we're not going to have that. We're not going to talk. We don't have. And it's not a matter of being woke or politically correct or something like that. It's a matter of loving people well and reaching to ring the bell of excellence together. And if we can't be unified on ringing the bell of excellence together, and if you're going to be an impediment to that rather than a cause of that,

then you don't get to be a we. We will move you on somewhere else. And if your husband or your wife decides they hate where you work, the place that pays you money to feed your dadgum kids, then you don't get to work here anymore. And, well, Ramsey's a cult. Well, if you want to call that a cult, that's fine, but cults don't usually tell people to leave,

and we tell them to leave pretty regularly around here. So this is how it works, folks. This is a real freaking world. That puts this hour of the Ramsey Show in the books. We'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. Hey, it's Kelly, associate producer and phone screener for The Ramsey Show.

If you would like to do your debt-free scream live on the show, make sure you visit theramseyshow.com and register. We would love for you to come to Nashville and tell Dave your story.