The Ramsey Show - App - How to Navigate Starting a Business With Your Spouse (Hour 1)

Episode Date: June 2, 2020

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🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is donned, cash is king, and the paid off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. My co-host today, Ramsey personality and number one best-selling author, Christy Wright, is joining me to answer your questions about life and about money. The phone number here, if you want to talk to Christy and me, 888-825-5225. So, Christy, many months ago, we scheduled today. Yeah.

And so we stuck with today yeah to be the launch date that's right of a change of name in your podcast and uh an official new show launched in your name the christy wright show launched today that's right so let's talk about what the christy wright show is what's different about that than the Business Boutique podcast that was there before in that slot, and why? Yeah, so it's interesting, and you and I love to teach business principles from what you're doing here in our organization. I do the same thing from kind of behind the curtain of Business Boutique, but this whole movement really, you know, this whole change really was a response to the market, and you and I have talked about this for the last year or two where I started to notice a pattern. I'd be out in public or run into someone and they'd say, man, I love the Business Boutique book or I love the Business Boutique podcast.

Or I came to the event and I loved it. And I would say, oh, well, do you have a business? Do you have an idea you're working on? And it became such a pattern that people were always responding, no, I don't have a business. No, I don't want one. No, you just help me with my life. No, you just help me with my goals. No, you just help me build my confidence. You help me do it scared. You help me in my relationships. And so we started to see this pattern of people kind of saying, hey, can I pull up a seat at this table? And also internally,

we're going, maybe God is calling us to this new direction to help people in more than just business. So if someone wants help with building a business or turning their idea into income, we have a path for that. We have a plan for that. We have books and resources. But now we're just making a change to expand, not even pivot, expand and say,

hey, we're going to help you in a lot more ways than just that. So the Business Boutique podcast, which has been focused on business, is turning into the Christy Wright Show where we're going to help you build confidence in every area of your life, including business, but in more ways than just that. So it turns out the skills that we use, the interpersonal skills,

and the personal skills that we use to deal with the person in the mirror for business, also work for life. It's interesting because, yes, I've been putting everything through the business filter, but these principles about goal setting or personal responsibility or balance, time management, all of have enough money. I don't have enough. You know, I got to fix my mother-in-law. I've got to fix my husband. I've got to fix my kids. And we're working on the external areas of our life. And then we don't really see lasting change. And so what I love helping people do is work on their life from the inside out to really control the only thing they can control, like we've been talking through this whole pandemic, which is themselves. And so giving them a path to work on themselves,

which then affects their relationships and their resources like time and money. So it's been a really amazing process to work with our team on building this. And then today was the first episode. So it's on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts. And I'm really excited to see what God's going to do through this. You know, for general life change that applies for money. It applies. We for years have said, you know, debt is not the problem. It's a symptom. And so your shortness of time, your sense of being out of balance, your lack of motivation are not the problem. It's not the head knowledge. It's the behavior. You always say that. They're the symptom. And there's something else that's driving that, that if you go down inside and fix that. Right. And so your whole

process is an inside-out process, not an outside-in process. Yeah, exactly. And in a sense, that's what Ken Coleman does on careers. It's what I do and all of the Ramsey money personalities do on money. We're saying, hey, the person in your mirror, contentment might be the most powerful financial principle ever, as an example, that kind of a thing. And that's what you're doing, but just in life in general. And, you know, it's smart to observe how people are using the tools and the information that you're giving them. And that's what we've done here at Ramsey with your brand, including you, obviously. But I mean, it's like, you know, we went to, I'll never forget the first time someone said, you know, standing outside a Financial Peace University class,

I was teaching it with an overhead projector, and they said, you know, Financial Peace University saved my marriage. And I'm like, what? I'm not doing a marriage class. A sex class is down the hall. What are you talking about? What are you talking about? And they went, no, it's the first time in 12 years of our marriage

we've actually had a good, solid conversation. Wow. And it revolved around money. We use money as the starter but it's caused us to really in the last you know 13 weeks to change our whole relationship and i kept and after i heard that like 20 times i started to hear it right starting okay you know this is a marriage thing money stuff is impacting our marriages and we need to talk about marriage while we're talking about money we can't separate the two and that's exactly what's occurred here. We just kept listening to how the folks were interacting with you and what they were, what their takeaways

were with the tools and the motivation to change their life. And it turns out Business Boutique was just a part of it. Yeah. And it's interesting, too, because at the same time that we're seeing that trend in the marketplace, I'm experiencing God's kind of prompting and leading in that way too, in the things that I'm doing. So you remember I spoke at Propel Women, the events all through fall of 2017 with all these amazing Bible teachers. Internally, I've had the opportunity to do a devotional every single year. As I have this opportunity to speak on things that were non-business, it was like something in me lit lit up something in me came alive to speak about this and i thought okay god i see i feel you here hanging out with beth moore and christine

that'll just happen okay you can't not that's just gonna happen you get smarter just by being in the same room well and motivated to you know be just a tenth of as good as they are i mean oh my goodness that's right that's right so it brought it brought something to light in me that i didn't even know was there while we're seeing the trend in the market. And then as a company, we said, hey, let's go after this thing. So today's kind of the first step. And there's going to be more steps this year, which I'm excited to see unfold as the year goes on of what we've been working on. But today's a really big step to say, hey, we're putting this out there to provide hope and inspiration in every area of your life, not just business.

Okay. So where do they find the Christy Wright Show? How do they consume this content? Well, if you want to watch it, it's on YouTube, but you can also just listen to it audio only wherever you listen to podcasts. So just like you would the Business Boutique Show, you'll just find it and listen to it wherever you listen to podcasts. So iTunes, Spotify, YouTube. Yep.

And the first episode launched this morning. Yeah, I was actually live chatting with them. It was really fun. I was in the chat at 8 a.m. while it was premiering, and so getting to chat with people, it's been really fun to see kind of that interaction there. Okay, so your tribe all knew about it as it came out this morning. Yep. And now another 17 million people know about it. Yeah, just a few. There we go. Well, it's obviously, as the CEO of Ramsey, I previewed the podcast before it went out and it was fabulous. Frankly, I thought you guys were doing more of a podcast and YouTube was just kind of an afterthought, but the production

values of it make it look like a dead gum TV show. I mean, you guys did a great job with that. Yeah, we love to try to, you know, maximize the effort. So if we're going to have the team, have the space, the mic, the equipment, then let's put it as many places as we can because people consume content differently. So let's help them. If they're in their car or at their computer, we want to help them. The Christy Wright Show podcast, wherever you do podcasting. That's iTunes and Spotify for most of you, Google Play, and, of course, now on YouTube as well. So yet another addition to the Ramsey Network.

Actually, not an addition, a name change with a content expansion. Let's call it that. The Christy Wright Show. Christy's here answering questions as my co-host today on the air. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Folks, save cash by fixing your major appliances yourself. Get your parts from my friends at Appliance Parts Pros. We just heard from a listener who said he saved his family at least $500 by getting his parts and expert advice to fix his leaky fridge and dishwasher from Appliance Parts Pros. These guys carry over 2 million appliance and outdoor power equipment parts and offer easy returns. Order your parts today at AppliancePartsPros.com.

Thanks for joining us, America. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Christy Wright, Ramsey Personality No. 1 bestselling author, is my co-host today. We're starting this hour off with Amanda in Virginia. Hi, Amanda. Welcome to the show. Hi, Dave. Hi, Christy.

Thank you for taking my call. Sure. What's up? My question today is in regards to the appropriate hat in a family business and how to figure out who wears what. Just a quick background. My husband and I have just started a very small online business. It's our business, but I am predominantly working on it and investing the time in it. And my husband is focusing on medical school.

However, we both bring in value to the business itself, but we're trying, we're struggling to figure out how to wear what hat and who wears it as a husband and wife. So I'm asking for your advice. Okay. So have you guys already been working on the business? So very briefly, I would say about two and a half months. Okay. How's that been going? Like, like as far as roles and what have you been doing up to this point? So up to this point, we have had lots of arguments and then we stepped away and said, okay,

you know, we need to purchase as not as a husband and wife, but as team members. But from right from there, we don't know how to do it. We're trying to figure out who has the leadership role. There's kind of this tug of war of who has the final say. And then we just strive to unify with each other, but we don't have that quite figured out.

Okay. Well, this is interesting. I actually really like this because it's an interesting dynamic to talk about it from a husband-wife perspective, but also, like you said, from a business perspective. So just in a real practical sense, a really easy starting point in terms of your roles, I would say to sit down with your husband and y'all kind of identify, okay, here are the strengths that I have, you, Amanda, here are the strengths that he has, and go ahead and figure out what those are. What are your sweet spots, the things that give you energy, that come effortless to you, that are fun for you? Man, I'm excited to do that, to check that off. That's going to kind of fall in my lane because you're going to have the most fun in your business when you're staying in your strengths. The quality is going to be the highest of the business when

each person's staying in their strengths. Now, even after you do that, there's going to be a whole lot of things that you still have to do that may not fall in your strengths or isn't really fun for you, isn't fun for him. And those are the types of things you just have a conversation and divide up based on what the week is, what month is what you know his schedule is with medical school that type of thing but as far as the final call this is an interesting dynamic so I'll tell you my husband and I one of the the kind of practices we have in our marriage because we'll disagree on uh purchases or parenting decision you know in in marriage you disagree on things what we do is we lean into the conflict we We lean into the discomfort. We never say, well, I'm going to go

buy that. You don't disagree. I'm the final call. Or I got this paycheck this week. So I'm going to, we don't move forward on a decision that affects both of us until we're on the same page. And that may take some work to wrestle through. It may take some work to say, hey, let's get to the root. What's your fear here? What's your concern here? Is it the time? Is it the money? Is it the what's going on with our children? That works for us. But I think that if you and your husband sit down and figure, OK, here's our decision making process here. Here's your fears. Here's here's the thing we keep running up against. That will give you a framework to work with them without it being a hierarchy that feels awkward because you're married. Amanda, I'm hearing you say you're doing all the work and he still wants to be the boss.

Is that what's going on? Tell us the truth, Amanda. You're doing all the work and he wants to be the boss because he's the husband. It's not because he's the husband. It's not because he's the husband. I think this is something that he has had a desire to do. But he doesn't do it. He's in med school. Yeah, he doesn't.

You're doing all the work, aren't you? Yes. He lost his vote. Okay? You're theo of this organization uh he's the husband of the ceo he has a husband's input like my wife does has a wife's input of the she's the wife of the ceo her little bud is not down here working 16 hours a day like I am. And so she does not get to come down here and interfere when we order copier paper. But that's how y'all set it up.

Like, Amanda, is that how you want it? I mean, is that how you're setting it up? Is that the expectation? It is set up that way. But at the same time, Dave, that's exactly what's going on is that I'm putting most time in. And, again, he definitely has a role in this. I definitely need him. What is that he's got a big intellect and a big ego he's going to med school so he's really smart he's a really

smart guy he's probably got some wonderful additions that he could throw in as a consultant but he don't get to be in charge here what's his role right now you said he's got a role he's got a role what's his role what is he doing said he's got a role. He's got a role. What's his role? What is he doing right now besides telling you? Go ahead. Yeah, so this is something he's definitely, like, this is part of his decision. He wanted to do this a couple years ago and asked me to be a part of it, and I said yes. So as far as his role is, I need him to figure out all the numbers aspect of things

and do worksheets and things like that. And whereas I'm going out and I'm actually bringing in those products and I'm putting the sweat into it, I guess you could say. Okay. If I was going to buy your business from you, who would I hire to do what you're doing? What would we call them? What are you? The CEO. Okay. The president. What would I hire him to do? He's the CFO managing the numbers and giving input on the business decisions from the CFO seat. Am I missing something? The chief financial officer, the day-to-day operations of the business, the marketing ideas, the product conceptions. He's speaking into them.

You are taking that advice and your own ideas and spinning up all the work. Am I missing something? No, but the only thing is, like, this is still our business, and we could still have that separation, I guess you can say, and still it can be considered our business. Oh, I didn't say that. That's fine. Okay, listen here take this out if you got a pencil handy draw three circles that overlap like uh like olympic rings okay a venn diagram okay one of them says owner one of them says

family and the other one says business member or employee okay uh it we all You are all three of those, okay? He is all three of those. But when he is standing back and as an owner speaking into this, he's interfering in the day-to-day operations. If the owner tries to run the business from the owner's chair instead of from the CEO's chair, That's where you're getting your conflict. That's where the hats are coming off. And so he needs to adopt a board of directors type position as an owner. And so my wife is an owner of this business. She speaks into this business, you know, when she wants to.

But, again, she doesn't come down and interfere in the day-to-day operations. Big decisions, like Christy said, she's in on big decisions. We don't buy a $14 million piece of ground like we did a while back without her speaking into it. Do you think this is a good idea as an owner? But then the actual execution of the development of that property and putting a building on it, she didn't even know how we did it because she's not involved, and she shouldn't be in the day-to-day tactical and she's not down here interfering while people are trying to get their work done which is what's happening

here so so dave you pointed out what you heard that she's doing all the work and he's you know want to make decisions what i'm hearing is this is what we're talking about right here what dave's saying is the conversation you need to have amanda because i'd be willing to bet he doesn't know that if this is the setup if this is what's going on, that's not— Well, he thinks it's his idea, and he's the guy with the numbers, and he's the smart guy, and so she's supposed to take orders from him. We've got to reset expectations. We've got to reset expectations in line with what we're unpacking here, what Dave's unpacking.

But you've got to sit down with him and talk about that. Absolutely. Exactly. So I think you're right. So, you know, the fact is you have identified that you have a problem. And the way we function around here is we say, are you functioning as an owner? Are you functioning as the CEO in this this business. She also functions as a Ramsey personality, and she also functions as a family member of the Ramseys. And you have to stay, you have to decide when we're having a conversation, which one of those are. Are we having a husband and wife conversation, or are we having a CEO to Ramsey personality conversation? Are we having a father-daughter conversation, a Papa Dave to the mother of my grandbabies,

or am I talking to one of my Ramsey personalities as the CEO? And that changes the tone, the process, the decision-making flow when you get your hats straightened out. And that's what that Venn diagram will help you do. Good call. Good question. This is the Daveave ramsey show hey folks father's day is just around the corner. If you're looking for the perfect, unique gift to give dad, I've got it. Grip 6 belts.

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Well, me and James and 20 other people, but just the same. Human beings are good to have around. Thank you for joining us on the debt-free stage. Moises and Sandra are with us. That means they're here to do a debt-free scream. Where do you guys live? Urbana, Illinois. Oh, cool.

Welcome to Nashville. And all the way here to do a debt-free scream. How much have you paid live? Urbana, Illinois. Oh, cool. Welcome to Nashville. And all the way here to do a debt free scream. How much have you paid off? $178,000 in 36 months. Wow. That's pretty cool. And your range of income during that three years? So when we started our debt free journey, our salary was $142,000. And then we bumped it up to $180,000. How'd you do that? We worked extra hard. So through promotions, salary increases, and we also did a lot of side hustles, up to nine side hustles in addition to our two full-time jobs.

What were some of those? Yeah, so Sandra worked in the post office. I worked FedEx during winter break. She also taught courses. Extra courses were the summer, winter break. I was a proctor. She was a proctor for standardized tests. What was the best paying?

For me, it was consulting. I did consulting. Consulting? On what? I work in education, and so I did consulting for different districts. Oh, yeah. That's great. Very cool.

Good for you guys. What kind of debt was the $178,000? Yeah, $108,000 in student loans and 35 000 in two card notes 28 000 credit card and 7 000 in personal loans y'all were just like normal people normal people wow plus a little yep but you're a little extra normal that's a lot how long you guys been married seven years all right very cool so what happened three years ago? So it actually for us started about five years ago. Our church was giving FPU. At that time, we didn't know what FPU was, but our pastor told us he wanted us to go through it. Wow. So we wanted to grow in that

area. At that time, we were living paycheck to paycheck. And so in December of 2016, we decided to go on this cruise that we thought we deserved, that we could not afford. And when you have to pay to get off the ship, right, because you swipe the card for everything, we didn't have the money to cover it. And so we were in panic mode, calling the credit cards to increase our limit because the check we were supposed to get didn't clear. And so that was really our I had it moment for us where we were like, draw a line and Sam, we're done. I need to get it. I mean, yeah, they won't let you off the cruise. Well, they will, but they'll hold you there on the dock in a little cell.

Yeah. Exactly. Oh, yeah. That makes your heart skip a beat and you're like, oh, this is a problem. Definitely. Okay, so you came home. Did you go through Financial Peace University then or you'd already been through, and you're like, oh, this is a problem. Definitely. Okay, so you came home. Did you go through Financial Peace University then, or you'd already been through it and you failed?

We had already been through it and we failed. We had done the budget, but at that time we were so tight and we weren't willing to cut our lifestyle that we couldn't even do Baby Step 1. Like, how do we get $1,000? Yeah, so you came home and opened the book back up, or did you go back through the class or what? We opened the book back up. What really motivated us is we started doing the debt snowball and looking at it, open the book back up or did you go back through the class or what? We opened the book back up.

I start, what really motivated us is we started doing the debt snowball and looking at it. And if we stayed with the student loans on the 10 year plan, we weren't going to finish until our oldest went to college. So I saw us being in student loans forever. Wow. That's depressing. So you opened the book back up and you just, you kind of revisited the lessons for the class, but you didn't go back through. Mm-mm. We actually— So we listen to a lot of your podcasts, YouTube. We hear you on our car radio all the time, so the kids know the answers to many of the questions.

That's a good thing. Smart kids. And then we're very fortunate to be coordinators during the fall semester. So we coordinated a class last fall semester. And right now we're actually doing a small virtual reading group around your Total Money Makeover. There's nothing like leading a class and really putting your feet to the fire and say, you know what? This is what the plan is. We're doing the plan.

We've also struggled. We stumbled many times. We couldn't even get $1,000 during our first try. We're doing the plan. We've also struggled. We stumbled many times. We couldn't even get $1,000 during our first try. So you could do it. And it just really encourages you. It does. And it makes you do this stuff.

Yeah, the virtual coordinators, you need to try that for Financial Business University. Yes. That's working so good because it's the exact same thing. And, you know, you might have a group that's people scattered all over the place, but then you're still giving them the encouragement and the accountability. And our virtual coordinators are on fire right now. There's a bunch of them honking it. So, yeah, man, that's very cool. I'm proud of you guys.

That's awesome. I love how serious y'all got, too. Like, I love you looked at the 10-year path. You're like, man, this sucks. Like, we don't want to be doing this for 10 years. Dave, I've heard you say before, you can wander into debt, but you can't wander out. And that is so true. You have to get fired up and get serious, and you guys did.

That's amazing. Well done. And with each little victory, we just got fired up. That's right. We wanted to do it faster and faster. We originally, our plan was to finish in five years, and then we brought it down to three years. That's incredible. That is incredible.

Very cool, you guys. So, now you're virtual coordinators and virtual group leaders and been a coordinator you did it you paid off 178 000 dollars what do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is the key for us was dreaming about the future where we saw us as a family what did we want as parents to our kids we wanted them to realize that you could live life without debt. And we wanted them to be free of debt. And we just wanted them to be successful. We wanted them to see that through hard work, through sacrifice,

through delayed gratification, you could accomplish many, many things. And that's what really motivated us. Very cool. Yeah, Rachel Cruz says more is caught than taught. They're watching you. And they're going to do what you do more than what you say. We've always known that as parents. Pretty incredible, man.

How's it feel now that you did it? It's just liberating. It's just like no other feeling. And it's very true what you say about that emergencies become inconvenience because i was in march i was actually in spain when the whole um pandemic started to blow up and they had announced that they were not allowing trips for back from europe yeah and so we were in panic mode but we already had the emergency fund started right we were in baby step three and so it's just like well i'm booking a flight now it

was first class because that was the only thing available so i got to fly back in luxury nice but it was just inconvenient but you got home you get trapped with the lockout yeah yeah with the whatever when they shut the border yes yeah i was sitting with one of our uh with our team in new york city when they're getting ready to close new york city down we're up there on a thursday monday they closed it down and And that Thursday night is when Trump started closing up Europe. And one of their college kids was in Europe. And I'm like, get up from the table, walk over there, book a ticket right now, no matter what it costs, get her out of there.

Because she's 18 years old. Get her out of there. Because she might be stuck over there for 60 or 90 days. And so, yeah, you can do that when you've got money. It's an amazing thing. And it does. It turns a crisis into an inconvenience. And that's a very powerful, very powerful thing.

Well done. Now you can go on a cruise, and you can just not even worry about it when that cruise is over. You celebrate it. Maybe not. Well done, you guys. We've got a copy of Chris Hogan's book for you, Everyday Millionaires. Without a doubt, you are on track to do that.

And you brought the kiddos to do the debt-free scream with you and their names and ages. Jose is 15. Hector is 13. And Esme is 7. All right. Have they been practicing? Yes, definitely. You said they can answer the questions on the air, but can they debt-free scream?

We will know in a minute. This is a test, ladies and gentlemen. You guys are amazing. Thank you. We're so proud of you, heroes. Thank you. And thanks for leading the class. We really appreciate you being coordinators.

That's pretty incredible. It changes people's lives. Very cool. All right. It's Moises and Sandra and Jose and Hector and Esmeralda. I love it. $178,000 paid off in 36 months, making $142,000 to $180,000. Count it down.

Let's hear a debt-free scream. All right. Three, two, one. We're debt-free! They did it. Woo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo! They did a good job. Well done, guys.

The practice paid off. I love it. I love it. And Christy, when people get the tools for their life, whether it's money or whether it's the stuff you're walking them through, and then they have the inspiration, the motivation to apply those tools, this is what you get. You not only get life change, you get an entire family tree change.

That's right. I remember my moment, my never-again moment. They had one on the cruise. I remember mine. It changes everything. It changes everything. You need a never-again moment, an I've-had-it moment. No more!

I'm not living like this! Some of you had one during COVID. You might want to check out the free 14-day trial for Financial Peace University at DaveRamsey.com slash hope. It's a free 14-day trial. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Business leaders now more than ever, we need people with the right skills to support our communities, especially the frontline workers who provide resources and care for those most in need. To help, LinkedIn is offering free job posts for healthcare and essential service organizations that need to quickly fill critical roles with the people who help us all.

If you are hiring for one of these organizations, free job posts on LinkedIn can help you quickly find the right people for your frontline. LinkedIn jobs can help by screening candidates for skills and experience you're looking for and putting your job post in front of qualified people who have what you're looking for so you can find the right person to quickly fill critical roles. To post a health care or essential service job for free, or if you're in another industry and have hiring needs, visit linkedin.com slash Ramsey.

LinkedIn.com slash Ramsey. Terms and conditions apply. Christy Wright, Ramsey Personality, number one bestselling author, is my co-host on the air today here on the Dave Ramsey Show. Our question of the day comes from Blinds.com. Find out for yourself why Blinds.com is the number one online retailer of custom window covering. You get free samples, free shipping, and with the new promos they run every month, you'll save even more. Use the promo code Ramsey to get the best deal. Yes, so today's question comes from Christine in New York.

She visits DaveRamsay.com to ask. She says, hello, Dave and Christine. I just sold my first wholesale order to a nearby boutique. Should I be following up to see how things are going or just wait to see if she places another order? This is a newly opened boutique and she has opened amid COVID. So I'm not sure how sales will be for her. You know, Dave, we're always listening for the nuances in a question. And here's what I am hearing in this question that I hear from a lot of people. They're so scared to get on someone's nerves. They're scared to follow up. They're scared to annoy. And the truth is following up is how you

build a relationship with someone. Your relationships with vendors or businesses or retail, it's like any relationship. It's a human being. Of course you should follow up. You want to just continue. Hey, how's it going? Hey, do you need anything? How are sales? Can I do anything better?

Right? Yeah. And, you know, I think it's all in how you approach it. Yeah. If you come off salesy. Right. Instead of serving oriented, then you would. I always just tell folks, I say, you know, there's a fine line between great service and pestering and i want to be right on that line

i want to be right up there right to where i'm close to pestering you because my service is so amazing yeah and so hey it's covid time you're you're over there struggling and fighting i've been thinking about you i've been praying for your business and your your prosperity and if you need anything i just want to check in and see how you're doing, if there's any way we can help. That's all you've got to do. Well, and even as a consumer myself, there's things that I might get a quote on, you know, for our house or for something else. And I just forget. I've got three little kids.

I'm just busy. I forget to follow up with them. When they follow up with me, when it's in that same heart of like, hey, just wanted to check in with you. We sent you the quote a couple weeks ago. Are you still interested? How can we help? I actually appreciate it. Oh, yeah, I really do want that thing or i really did mean i appreciate the follow-up because i'm busy and i just forgot so actually it is it is great service

when you follow up something as simple as you know somebody wanted to go to dinner right you know i mean a social situation a basic follow-up but it's you know i don't drive you crazy but i just want to see if you don't want to do this just tell me totally just checking in just checking in with you and um what's up with that and uh you know sometimes all you need is a gentle nudge because not everyone is a um you know ocd about cleaning out their inbox by the end of the day like some people i know maybe me and christy both okay so i mean not you know in other words everybody doesn't follow up themselves there she's busy. She's running her new boutique. The lady is.

But she'd just appreciate knowing you're there to support her, that you're thinking about her, thinking about the new business. It's a tender time to open a business. A lot of wild things going on in our world. And to open a business in the middle of these days is wild, wild west. And so, you know, you just think just think about my goodness i was thinking about you i just want to check on you and make sure i can if there's any way i can help i don't want to be a problem i don't want to pester you but just let me know and it may open some doors where you call the person you're like hey how are things going she's like you know what i keep getting this

question about your product and i don't know the answer can you help me it's an opportunity for you to just continue the relationship to train her on the product to see how you can help in different ways that maybe you didn't think of. And that dialogue just opens up that opportunity. That's very good. Good stuff. All right. Let's go to Morgan.

Morgan is with us in Tennessee. Hi, Morgan. How can we help? Hey, y'all. I'm so excited to talk to you both. You too. My question is I am trying to make the decision, I guess, to renovate a building behind my house to turn into my home bakery. I had a storefront. I closed it about a year and a half ago.

I've been using it kind of as baking as my side hustle since then, but I'm wanting to go back to it full time. And the house I bought has a building that I think would be perfect kitchen space, but it needs to be renovated. And I'm still working on paying off my student loans. So I don't know if the opportunity cost of not having that space and having to turn down orders is worth maybe putting baby step two on pause to save money to put towards the building, or if I should just suck it up and pay off the rest of my loans. How else could you do it? Another building? towards the building or if I should just suck it up and pay off the rest of my loans.

How else could you do it? Another building? Rent a place that is already fully equipped that you don't have to renovate? Well, I've thought about that. I just feel like it would be silly not to utilize this space since I'm making a house payment. You know, I'm already paying rent on it. I wouldn't have to put money into it what's the cost how like what kind of renovations are we talking here like well it's it's just an older building so it needs updated electric it needs to be tied to the sewer line i think those would be the two biggest

expenses and then putting equipment just getting the equipment to put in it which i'm a savvy shopper so i'm not worried about that part what are you talking about 50 grand oh no no no well yes i'm thinking i'm thinking um maybe around 10 it's a solid building it just needs updates you're going to run all new electric in a sewer line and new equipment for 10 grand well it has the electric it has a fuse box it just needs to be updated but it's already tied to the house so yeah okay so if you spend 10 grand how much more do you make because you did that well i guess i need to run numbers like that i mean i mean if you make ten thousand dollars the first month because you did that yeah let's talk about doing it if you make ten thousand dollars over the next 20 years because you did that no yeah yeah one of the things i would uh offer morgan and dave just

mentioned this but i have worked with so many businesses that have done this and that is where you sublease the space so i had a friend jake that started a cookie company company here in nashville he sub leased a commercial kitchen in their off hour so he worked some crazy hours but he just sub leased it it did not have a high uh commitment or overhead he used their kitchen he had all the equipment until he had enough cash in his business the business could stand on its own and pay for its own space i would just say you've got more creative options than just taking out 10 grand. Sublease a space until your business makes that 10 grand for you and then your business is telling you it's ready to expand and own its own place. Exactly, exactly because I don't think you're going to ROI this like you think you are. The rule of thumb on business is it costs twice as much as you think, it takes twice as long as you think, and you're

not the exception. Those are the three rules. It like she her quote is based on how i get my quotes from my house dave and it's like i just make up a number in my head based on nothing whatsoever and then i get quotes and it's like four times that like well well where'd your budget come from i'm like i don't know i just felt real good about that number i just felt real good about it it's so funny i just thought i knew that i just i just felt good about that number valerie is with us valerie's in wisconsin how are you valerie great how are you guys better than we deserve what's up yeah thanks for taking my call so i've been a follower of christy ever since the business boutique book launch. And then I joined the Academy. Cool. Awesome, Valerie.

Yes, I'm excited. I went full time with my business in 2018. This year is just a bit more challenging. To say the least. My question is kind of just tactfully, like as a small business owner, what is a tactfully way to collect payments do from other people you know are struggling as well in this time with with maintaining a generous heart and being understanding and all that what's your business i'm an equine massage therapist and a hay producer can you equine massage therapist can we just camp there for one second what does that mean yeah she massages horses i'm so curious for like what for like that for like performance okay thoroughbreds okay yeah that is so cool like are these show horses

yes show horses backyard ponies everything the whole gamut wow that is so crazy i didn't know that these people these people have a 250 000 horse and they haven't paid you for what uh called it called it we're not talking yeah but i'm am i wrong um well i mean some of them are not yes i work on everything from backyard ponies. Okay, so who's not paying you, backyard pony or thoroughbred? What backyard pony needs a massage? So a lot of times, the ones that are, it's the other, like the trainers. So they, too, like their lessons have been canceled and that kind of thing. Sure.

So, like, they're, like, in the same boat. So I don't want to be. I'm sorry, wait a minute. The trainer pays you out of their funds the owner doesn't well that's the situation because sometimes because this whole fiasco is covid so the owner is lax on their payment so they might not be doing a trainer and then yeah yeah well i mean you just have a conversation go look we're all small business people here you're hurting we're. How can you help me? But I also think rethink my model, and I'm going to bill the owners direct in the future.

They're sitting on a $250,000 horse. On the front end. Yeah, they need to pay their bills. Yep. If you're going to have a horse that big, you ought to be able to pay for the bill. That puts us out of the Dave Ramsey Show in the books. Hey, guys, this is Kelly, associate producer of The Dave Ramsey Show. Did you know over 16 million people listen to The Dave Ramsey Show every week? And a lot of those people listen on one of our 600-plus radio stations across the country.

To find a station near you, head to DaveRamsey.com slash show.