The Ramsey Show - App - How to Respond to Negative Reviews of Your Business (Hour 2)

Episode Date: February 25, 2020

Christy Wright, Business Boutique Theme Hour, Career, Taxes Tools to get you started:  Debt Calculator: http://bit.ly/2QIoSPV Insurance Coverage Checkup: http://bit.ly/2BrqEuo Complete Guide to Budgeting: http://bit.ly/2QEyonc Interview Guide: http://bit.ly/2BuGnZE Check out other podcasts in the Ramsey Network: http://bit.ly/2JgzaQR 

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studio. This is the Dave Ramsey Show, where you learn to take control of your money and create a life you love. I'm Christy Wright, certified business coach and author of the book Business Boutique, and I'm so excited because I get to join you for a special Business Boutique theme hour. We're taking your questions about life, about business, whether it's a side hustle or hobby business, or maybe you just want to start something to earn a little extra money to pay off your debt snowball faster. We're here taking your calls. It's a free call. 888-825-5225. I'd love to help. I'd love to help you, whether it's from marketing or getting your idea, selling, taxes, trademarks, all of the things about business. I know that business can get

overwhelming and it can feel lonely, but it doesn't have to. We're here for you in this next hour. We've got a call coming in from Erica in Kentucky. Hey, Erica, how are you? I'm doing well. How are you? Good. How can I help? So I had a question for you a little bit about life balance and shifting seasons. I have a fitness studio here called SoulFit and I ran it for five years. It's my passion. I love it. But I recently became a mom and I'm finding it extremely difficult on learning how to just balance between this new season and, you know, when's the right time to maybe shift directions? Yeah, that's a great question. Let's dig into it a little bit because people use the word life balance and they can mean different things. For me, a lot of times when I think of life balance, I think of mom guilt. Some people mean time management. Some people mean, you know, prioritizing. So walk me through what's kind of

going on that makes you feel anxious or stressed. What's kind of going on in your life right now? So I think for me, it may be a thing of time management. But then again, just with my industry being a physical studio, you know, people don't exercise in the day. They come out at night. So I'm home. I'm there at 7 o'clock at night. And, you know, my husband, I made the comment. And he'm home, I'm there at seven o'clock at night. And, you know,

my husband, I made the comment and he's like, I just wish you were home for dinner. And it really just kind of hit me because I want to be home for dinner too, you know, but for me, it's like shutting the studio. I've contemplated going to online wellness because, you know, you can do a lot online now, but shutting my studio feels almost like a failure. But then again, I almost feel like it's the right direction for this season of life to do more online and be able to be home for dinner. That's interesting. I like how you said that where you're like, this almost feels like it's right for this season, because you can look at anything through a different lens. You could look

at something as a failure or as a choice you make based on your season of life. So when you kind of project into the future, let's just pretend for a second, Erica, let's project in the future and let's say that your physical studio is closed, okay? And you're running something online, whether it's online courses, online subscription service, there's lots of things you can do online, like you said, through fitness.

How do you feel when you think about that possibility? Oh, honestly, it feels quite free. Not to have the overhead not to have the time of just all the cleaning you know all the things that come along with it it does really feel freeing um so I just struggle like am I giving up too soon you know or quitting when I shouldn't be but I heard your podcast a couple weeks ago about you know backing out of the marathon when you had trained for so long. And that was really encouraging to me that maybe it is just a time to focus on something else. Yeah, well, I think you just answered your own question, Erica.

And I'll tell you just exactly how you describe that is usually in my life how I know that a decision is right. When I imagine a certain decision and I feel relief, I feel my shoulders drop like, oh man, I just feel such relief at that. That's how I know it's the right decision. So I definitely think you're on the right track that this is not a failure. It's not you quitting or giving up. You are intentionally pivoting to build your business for what you want for your life, which that's why we get into business in the first place. Your business should support the life that you want and you're a new mom, which is awesome. And you want to be home for dinner, which is awesome. And your business

should support your life goals first and foremost. So I think you know what you need to do. And the great thing, Erica, is you already have the strength of all of your past experience through your fitness studio that you can take into this new medium. So you've got lots of lessons learned, lots of platform growth momentum that you can take. You're not starting from scratch. You're starting from actually a really good place. And I think you're on the right track. So you just tiptoe into this new space. And I think you'll look up and you'll feel that freedom you just described when you get to be home with your family, but you're still running your business and pursuing your passion. It's a great,

great, great question. I'm so glad you called. And I think this is a really important point because often in business, when it's time to pivot or change courses, we think of that as a failure. Like, oh, I'm giving up too soon. Well, what if you're not giving up at all? You're not giving up. You're changing your mind. And as the business owner, you have the right to change your mind. You have the right to pivot your business based on what you need and what you want.

And I can't give it all away right now, but we're in the middle of some really fun stuff with Business Boutique. Y'all, you'll see it in the next few months where we're actually making some pivots and some additions and some changes based on the marketplace, based on what we're sensing God is doing. And so that's true in any type of business. This is not a set it and forget it type of a thing. We're always having a conversation with the marketplace and we're adapting and adjusting based on what they need and what we feel like is right and that type of thing. So I love that question from Erica. All right, we've got a call coming in from Cassie. Cassie, how can I help? Hi, Christy. So my question is, so what I'm wanting to do is start a line of graphic tees for like a graphic tee boutique that are screen printed.

And what I keep running into is how do I make those contacts to make that happen? I kind of feel like I keep hitting a wall and I kind of can't get past the middleman, so to speak, so that I can make my pricing more affordable. Okay, so you're just talking about specifically getting the t-shirts made. You're talking about vendors, is that right? Yes, affordable. Okay. So you're just talking about specifically getting the t-shirts made. You're talking about vendors. Is that right? Yes. Yes. Okay. So, so what you want to go past the brick, you're trying to get wholesale. Like who are you, what brick wall are you running into that you're describing? So I feel like I'm, I'm running into, like I said, kind of the middleman, like I'm content. I'm not getting past the person who's wholesaling to me to get to who is wholesaling to her. Like, you know, I'm not sure if that makes sense. Yeah, like that you're still going

through some type of company where they're charging you a retail rate. Is that what's happening? You're not paying the wholesale rate? Yes, exactly. Okay, that's interesting. So I don't know a ton about screen printing about the t-shirt business, but here's what I do know. If that is what has happened so far, most likely it's just going to take a little bit more digging. I know that's frustrating. A lot of times in business, it just takes persistence, like just continuing to beat on the door till you get the answer you want. The other thing I would encourage you, we have a Facebook group. It's an open free Facebook group for the business boutique. And if you join that group, it's got thousands and thousands of members.

Post in that group and just ask if anyone else is in the t-shirt type of business. What's so amazing about the Business Boutique community, and we've intentionally created this, is that it's kind of this circle of trust where everybody helps each other. And I guarantee you there are other women in your shoes doing something similar that they may be able to give you some advice of who they go through, give you a referral, what companies they use, and that type of thing. Because I know that can be really frustrating. And that's why I love that resource of just having that free Facebook group, which for

any of you all listening that just want some encouragement, help, the Business Boutique Facebook group is a great place to just connect with other women that are chasing their dreams, that are doing this thing. And that can give you a little bit of help and referrals, especially if you need something specific, like, oh, I need a graphic designer, or I need someone to help me with this or that. So great question. Thanks so much for calling.

Give us a call, 888-825-5225. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. We'll see you next time. We've been voted one of the best places to work in Nashville 11 times. You want to know how we do it? Well, our team has been using LinkedIn jobs for years to find the best people from all over the country to come and help us change lives. Think about it. LinkedIn has more than 600 million active members. I'm talking about people who come to LinkedIn to make connections, grow their careers, and discover new job opportunities. In fact, 90% of LinkedIn users are open to new opportunities, but not actively scanning job boards. This means LinkedIn Jobs gives you access to an entirely different demographic.

Don't wait. One hire can change the direction of your company. Post a job today at linkedin.com slash Ramsey and get $50 off your first job post. That's linkedin.com slash Ramsey. Terms and conditions apply. we're back taking your calls this hour for a special business boutique theme hour i'm christy right sitting in for dave ramsey today give us a call 888-825-5225 whether you've got questions about your small business or side business hobby business or maybe you don't have a business but you want one i would love to help give us a call All right. We have Sarah on the line from Oklahoma. Sarah,

how are you doing? Hi, I'm so excited. Oh, I'm so glad you're here. What's going on? I needed some Christy wisdom. Let's have it. I'm leaving my family business. I am also a homemaker with small children. And I need to bring in some income. Obviously, I need some flexibility. My husband's job has no flexibility. So I'm, you know, kind of a mama. And I'm just a little bit lost. How do you start? How do you find? How do you do this? I don't know how to do this anymore. Because I've been in my family business for so long. Totally. So are you focused on the idea here? You're saying like, how do we find an idea before we even get started?

An idea or an income. I don't even know how to look for a job anymore. I don't know all the new things. Sure. Okay. Well, that's a big question, Sarah. I like it. Let's dig into it. No, it's great. So there's a couple different ways you could go about this. If you want complete flexibility, then starting a side business from home, a home-based business, a freelance business where you charge for your skills, your knowledge, that type of thing, a service-based business, that's a great way to do it. Because when you run the business and you don't work for a company, then you set the hours, you set the schedule, you set the, the, you know, how busy it gets, how crazy it gets, you can stop taking clients if you, you know, if you don't want anymore, if you're maxed out. So there are a lot of jobs,

where you can work from home and have some flexibility. Ken Coleman is great at helping people find their dream career and that type of thing. If you wanted to go the traditional route of working for a company, part time or or full-time, you know, at home or with flexibility, that type of thing. But if you want complete freedom, and we know it's not complete freedom when you're running a business because you're responsible to yourself and the business, but you do get to set what that looks like. You set the hours, you set the pricing, you set the amount of customers you help and that type of thing. So if that's something you're interested in doing, what I would encourage you to do, Sarah, is to start with what you have.

And really what's great is this is a good way to even approach looking at a career if you wanted to consider that option. But I tell people, start with what you have. So your skills, your strengths, and your stuff. And what's interesting is when you start with what you have, it can give you an idea for a business. So let's just do this live right now, Sarah, just for fun. What do you have experience in? What are some of your skills? What are some of your strengths that you're really good at or skills that you have background, education, experience, that type of thing? What are some of those things? I have an English degree. I've been an event planner for 13 years. I spray tan all my friends. I love it. Spray tan, English degree, event planner. You are a Jane of all traits. Well, the spray tanning came because I think I'm in an event. And then I have experience

doing books for businesses. Okay. Okay. Of those four things you just mentioned, is there one of them that you're like, this is the most fun? This is the most exciting to me. If I could pick any one of these just based on what I like to do, this is the one I would pick to continue to pursue in some fashion. I would. Oh, gosh, I'm a little bit lost. I don't know anymore. I've kind of, I haven't thought about that in so long. I'm going to have to you know, a tenure, goals and vision, all that can feel overwhelming. I just want to look, I want to encourage you to look inside yourself, Sarah, and look around you at the things that you have. You know, you have a computer, you can write, you have an English degree, maybe you have a swimming pool, you could teach some lessons, you have a sewing machine, you can sew, you have a spray tan booth, you can spray tan, you know, your friends. When you look around you and look inside of you, and you start with what you have, your skills, your strengths and your stuff, you make it so easy on yourself to win. You make it so easy on yourself to earn a profit quickly.

You make it so easy on yourself to gain momentum, to gain clients, to become known for something in the marketplace. You start with a higher level of confidence because you've already done this thing. You're not going out trying to take classes on a totally new skill or idea, trying to branch into an industry you know nothing about. You're starting so much further ahead. You're giving yourself such a great jumping off point. And so I would just encourage you to start there. Start with what you have. And this is for any of you all that are in that same position where you're like, I want to do something, but I'm not sure what. Start with what you have. Look at the skills you have. Your skills would be your education, your experience, your credentials, your certifications, anything

like that. Your strengths. So your gifts and talents. What are you just naturally good at? Maybe you've never had a job doing it, but you're just really good at doing spray tanning. Or you're really good at singing. You're really good at doing hair. You're really good at landscaping. Look at your strengths and then look at your stuff. What types of things around you could you maybe monetize? I know it sounds silly, but years ago I lived on a farm. That farm had an 11 stall barn. I saw that 11 stall barn and a house I couldn't afford. And I thought, you know what?

I'm going to start a horse boarding business. I'm going to board horses to help pay my rent. And that's exactly what I did. So I looked at my stuff. I had a barn in that case. So starting with what you have will give you not only ideas for a potential business, but it will help you bring that idea to life even sooner. That's such a great, great question. All right. We've got a call here from Brittany in Missouri. Hey, Brittany, how's it going? Good. How are you? Good. How can I help?

So I have a fairly new Etsy shop, which has actually transitioned from a different Etsy shop that I opened before. I had a situation in the past when I very first opened my shop, and that's where my question stems from, so I'll just ask it to you. Do you have any advice on what to do when another small business owner publicly and purposely tries to make your business look bad? I mean such as commenting inappropriately on your social media posts, sharing them, etc. Okay, so this is a bit another competitor. It's not a customer of yours? Right.

It would be like this particular business sold similar items to mine. And you're sure they're not a customer. So they're not giving you negative feedback based on an actual experience with you. They're just being hateful for no reason. They're being very hateful. Oh, okay. Well, this is really easy then Brittany. Here's what I would do. And this is, this is a little bit taboo in the social media world, but I want to tell you, this is something we all stand behind as a company. Your social media pages, your accounts are yours. So you don't have to allow people to be jerks on your page. You don't have to allow people to distract from what you're trying to do. Now, if someone has a legitimate negative feedback, they had a bad experience with you,

they got their product, it was broken or damaged. That's something absolutely you not only want to allow, leave it public, you want to super serve them, make it right, resend them a product, that type of thing. Absolutely. But if this is a competitor, then you can block that account. If there's someone, when we've had this on all of our pages, I've had this on my pages, where someone is just, they're just stirring up trouble. They're just a troll. They're there just being hateful for no reason. They have absolutely no basis for it. We block them because here's the reality.

They are distracting from what we're trying to do. If there was some legitimate basis where we need to take care of this person, we're going to do it. But if someone is just being hateful and we know those people exist on social media, unfortunately, then you have the right, not only the right, but you have the responsibility, Brittany, to protect your page, to protect your business and protect your customers because that can be such a distraction that it takes away from your other customers, legitimate paying customers, their experience. It's a distraction.

It hinders your ability to serve them and help them. And so I know that there can be this belief in the social media world that you just let anything go, that anybody that has an opinion gets to say whatever they want to on your page. And we just don't believe that. It's your page.

And if someone is going to be a jerk for no reason, then they get blocked. And they unfortunately asked for that by how they were behaving. So it's kind of the same principle in life and in business. You teach people how to treat you. I think that's true on social media. You teach people how to treat you by what you allow and what you permit. And if you're allowing people to be hateful, then they'll continue to do it. And it will take away from your business and the customers that are trying to have a positive experience with you. But if you don't allow it, then the people that want to be there that are

behaving properly will get to stay. So that would be my encouragement to you, Brittany, is just block those people. And if it's happening on your Etsy pages within whatever functionality you have to delete those comments. Again, anything legitimate, you want to take care of those people. You want to serve those customers. We want to take care of bad experiences. And we know that all happens. Even if you're running a good business, bad things can happen. Take care of those people. But anyone else, you have the right, not just the right, you have the responsibility to protect your business. And that includes your social media pages. This is the Dave Ramsey show. If you do this one simple thing that we all do,

you are literally at risk of being hacked and someone stealing what you've worked so hard for. Do you ever use public Wi-Fi? I'm talking about getting online at a coffee shop, a store, the airport, or even at home. Hackers can use a simple $100 device to mimic Wi-Fi, and with just a little bit of skills, they can take over your financial life. This means you may think you're on your bank's site or app or securely making that purchase online, but hackers could see and steal that information. That's why I trust CyberGhost VPN. CyberGhost thinks about cybercrime so you don't have to. You can try it for free for seven days, protect up to seven internet devices,

and keep all of your internet connections secure. That's CyberGhost VPN. Download it today from your app store and be secure in seconds. I'm Christy Wright sitting in for Dave Ramsey this hour where we are doing a special business boutique theme hour. We are taking your calls about all things business, small business, side business, hobby business, all of the things. We've had some great calls. We've got another one here with Kira from South Carolina. Hey, Kira, how's it going? Hi, Christy. Hi, what's going on? So I just got your book for Christmas and I've been reading it and enjoying it so much.

I'm kind of stuck on a certain part for my business, really finding the foundation, nailing down the specific purpose and vision and goals, I guess, for my business. I'm a certified essential oil coach and herbalist. So I've started out small by selling my own blends of essential oil products to alleviate basic symptoms from day to day that we can have. And I'm trying to decide how to or whether to sell my products or focus on doing one-on-one consulting online or doing webinar trainings on natural health remedies. Just what are the pros and cons of each of those or should I do the consultations and not do sell the products or try and sell the products and not do the consulting. Okay it's interesting I want to dig into this with you because a lot of what you just described sounds like the how like how you're going

to serve your customers but what you mentioned at sounds like the how, like how you're going to serve your customers. But what you mentioned at the beginning was about your foundation of the purpose and the vision and that type of thing. And that's a lot more about kind of the why. You know, why are you doing this? What's the purpose? What's the driver for you? So what do you feel like is more of the holdup? Is it kind of the purpose and the foundation of the why?

Or is it specifically how you're going to get from here to where you want to be in the future? Yeah, I guess it's kind of more finding where I want to be. I don't know if I want to always sell products, but I know that for me, probably my passion too is creating the customized products for people who are trying to alleviate symptoms. So, you know, trying to find, okay, do I make products just for them that are customized and do that through the consulting, or do I actually just sell general products on the side or make that my focus just for anyone and everyone to grab and use? Okay.

So this is interesting. There's several ways you could go about it. Everything you're talking about though is still under the essential oil umbrella, correct? For the most part, yeah. I mean, I'm trying to do more nutritional education as well. So it's kind of like a combination of just wellness when it compares to alleviating symptoms using essential oils or using herbs or just focusing on nutrition. So it's kind of, do I just focus on one of those things or can I combine them all and still move forward with a vision, you know? Yeah, absolutely. So when you're looking at your business model and you're looking at the different types of business, whether it's product based, service based, online based, or some combination,

what you'll find is once you spend a little time kind of dabbling in each of these, you'll probably find one that number one, you love more than others. Number two is working better than others. Hopefully those of course are the same thing. And so I just want to encourage you. I don't want you to feel like you have to have it all figured out today. What I want to encourage you is you can test, test and experiment, try a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Do a little bit of your customized products while doing a little bit of consulting. If you want to have a product based business and have services that support that or a service

based business that have products that support that, that's a great business model. You've got variety. You've got products that are supporting the consulting that you're doing and the coaching you're doing. So when you're helping someone achieve these results, well, here's the products that make that possible. It helps your sales. It helps your credibility.

It helps you lead to the life change that you want for these people. So I just want to encourage you. It doesn't have to be all or nothing. You don't have to have it all figured out today. And really, it's kind of like what we were just talking about a little while ago. Business is a conversation with the marketplace. And what happens as we build a business, and we put things out there, a little bit of this, a little bit of that, a few products, a few services, we try some of this, try some of that. What we learn is we learn what's working and what's not. The marketplace will tell us, hey, I like this, but not this.

Do more of this, less of this. And then we go back and we iterate and we make changes and we make improvements. You might change your, even your formulas of your customized products. You might change your service offerings of here's how I'm going to consult people differently based on the problems I'm seeing, based on the patterns they're telling me. And so I just want to give you some permission, Kira, to just experiment. You can have a vision for your future and say, hey, I want to help this many people by this time in this, you know, in this capacity to lead to this life change as a big vision. But how you get from where you are to that point may vary. It may change. You may be pivoting like we were just talking about a little while ago. And maybe you change your plan in six months, in six years,

and that's totally fine. You have permission to continue to make changes and iterations in your business as the market needs it and also as it fits your life and your passions and your strengths and that type of thing. So that's a great question. I just want to give you permission that you don't have to have it all figured out today. You can try a little bit and see what's working and then when you figure out what that is, do more of that. That's a great question. Thanks for calling in. All right, we have Michelle on the line from New York. Hey, Michelle, how's it going? Hi, I'm well. How are you? Good. What's going on? Well, I am working on setting up a business on Etsy, selling resources for teachers. And while researching taxes, I found out that in 2018, the Supreme Court ruled that online businesses have to pay sales tax to the state of the customer.

From that, several states are requiring the marketplace to collect and remit the sales tax. However, there are some states that do not have the marketplace requirement and require the seller to collect and remit the sales tax. A couple of those states require you to pay sales tax on your very first sale. So I'm just looking for pretty much any advice on this topic. Okay, when it comes to taxes, Michelle, and I know this is probably not what you want to hear, but this is what I always refer people to. I'm not a tax expert, but because tax law differs by state so greatly, just like you just described, that's something where I always recommend people have a professional help them. And what's interesting is when you have a CPA, when you have someone that knows tax law, especially

in your state, they will save you more than they cost you. So even if you have a little tiny business and your business isn't making a ton of money, those people will help you make sure you're staying legal. You're not going to have any kind of fines from the IRS. You're not going to get audited. You're not, you know, cutting any corners that you may not even realize. They're going to help you file taxes properly, charge tax, pay tax exactly where you need to, to whom you need to pay. And so I just want to recommend, Michelle, that you check with a CPA and have them help you at least even in the setup. So maybe it's a one time thing you get set up, figure out who you're supposed to pay where and then you run it from there, keep your books and all that on your own.

You're totally welcome to do that. For those of you all that need help with your taxes or insurances, by the way, many of you might know this, we have a program called our Endorsed Local Providers. These are ELPs. These are people that work with us, that are partners with us, that we trust. They teach and advise people in line with our principles, the Dave Ramsey, Ramsey Solutions principles, so you know they're going to steer you in the right direction. We have that for taxes. We also have it for insurance. Many of you know, I just had my third baby and those life changes

make you remember, hey, wait a minute, I've got to get some things in order. Are all of my taxes right? Are all of my insurances right? Maybe you've got to update your insurance when you have a major life change like getting married or having a baby. These ELPs will guide you. They'll even show you also if you're eligible for any kind of discounts, and they end up saving people hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars for whatever they are getting,

whether it's through taxes or through insurance. You can go to daveramsey.com slash ELP and click on insurance to get started. If you need insurance for taxes, if you need help with taxes, they can guide you in each of these major areas of your life. We want to make sure that you are set up for success and you are not overwhelmed. Now, I want to also remind you all that just about a week ago, the business boutique conference went on sale every year. Somehow y'all this gets

better and better. So this November, I better. So this October here in Nashville, October 22nd through the 24th, we are going to have our Best Business Boutique Conference yet. Chris Hogan is going to be speaking alongside me. We're having Lisa Bevere. If you've never heard Lisa, she is incredible. Pat Flynn, Gigi Butler, our own favorite Annie F. Downs, Elizabeth Hasselbeck, Kelsey Humphries, and more. Now, it's early bird seats right now for $149. Go ahead and get your seats to get that savings before price goes up. And also, this event will sell out. It always does. Go ahead and get your seats at DaveRamsey.com. This is The Dave Ramsey this hour as we are doing a business boutique theme hour.

We're taking your calls about all things business. We have a call on the line from Russ in Georgia. Hey, Russ. How's it going? Hi, Christy. It's going great. Thanks. How are you? Good. How can I help? I have been contemplating starting a side hustle for a long time now. I work my day job as a structural designer, and I used to be a home builder. I have been putting together a drafting system separate from what

I work with my company because I work out of the office in my home. My question for you, I have two questions, and the first one is, how would you recommend me starting out as a small business on a side hustle, whether I should maybe just design some plans and build a website and sell them, or should I find somebody who's doing that and see if I can't work for them a while, which will help me get cash quickly to cover the software cost. Okay, talk to me about that software cost. What's that for? Yeah, I'm looking at the drafting software called SoftPlan, which is real useful,

and it's similar to and compatible to what I use every day for designing structures. And they're $3,000 for the software, but they have it on special where you can do it $2.50 a month. It still comes up to $3,000, but you could pay it monthly with no interest. Okay. And you want this to be – you're going to use this software for building your business, right? Is that what I'm understanding? Like you're using the software to create the products or services you're providing through the side business? That's correct.

See, I've noticed and had a problem here. I was trying to find somebody to do some drafting for me. I used to do all my own. But there seems to be a deficiency of people to do small residential drafting. You can get architects to do it, but they want like $20,000. Yeah. When typical plans run $1,500 to fifteen hundred to two thousand depending on the size of the size of the house gotcha okay um what what baby step are you and do you have the cash

for the three thousand to just pay it well i do not have the cash for the full three thousand okay we are on uh we're working on investing now we We've got our 15% going into retirement. Okay. And we've got everything paid off for except the house. Okay. Well, you're in a great spot. Like, Russ, you're in a great spot financially. Realistically, if you got serious, how quickly could you get the $3,000 just to pay it?

Because we don't want to do the payment plan and all that nonsense. Like, how quickly could you just get $3,000 whether it's through, you know, like you said you could work for a company, but even just through your regular job right now and your regular income, how quickly could you save up $3,000? Well, that's just it. I'm a little concerned about the size of our mortgage. It's not – it's just slightly less than 25% of our take home. But with what's been

going on in my family, I've been having a lot of trouble trying to coordinate with my wife and get her on board. And we've been doing this for 20 years. Yeah, we hear that a lot. Yep. Yep. And so the problem is I still consider this house poor, and we have, though two of our daughters are grown and out. In fact, I just had my first grandchild last weekend. Oh, congratulations. Thank you so much. But anyway, so we've got three and a half more years of high school for our youngest.

We had one child well after the others, and my wife doesn't want to move or change high schools until that time. And right now, I just feel that we don't have the spare money. Now, I make it whenever I get some in. I move it into savings, and that's what I've been using. I built up a computer system, bought the monitors. I'm buying things secondhand, anything I can do to finance this business out of pocket. Yeah. Okay. I hear what you're saying. This sounds like to me, and this is just kind of a snapshot view, obviously, Russ, I don't have the full picture of all your financials, but it sounds to me like a value decision. Financially, you're in a good spot. You're even in a good spot with your house. I totally get it if you want to pay it off and you don't like that hanging over your head. But it sounds like to me that regardless of where

the money comes from, you want to feel like that this is in addition to the money you're using to pay for this drafting software is in addition to whatever you're currently bringing in. So whether you do that through doing some drafting services for another company, doing something similar to bring in the cash, if you start a different side hustle, and Dave says, you know, do leaf blowing, do pizza delivery, whatever,

almost like back when you were in baby step two, just to bring in the extra income to be able to pay for it so you feel good about it, so you don't feel like you're stealing money from your savings or what would be going to the house or whatever, if that would make you feel better about it, then do it. But at the end of the day, if you think that this software program is going to help you build a business and you're going to be able to make that money back, which it sounds like

even just what you were saying, the fees, $15 to $2,000, you're going to be able to make it back pretty quickly, especially because it's filling a felt need. It's solving a problem in the marketplace, which is the basis for business, then when you get that paid for, you get it in there, that money is going to be coming back in and then some and you're going to be in a good spot. So I just want to encourage you, if you want to make that money from some other place to be able to pay for the software, that's fine. And if you want to take it from, you know, this, this additional income, you just save it up and pay cash. Let's say you do it in two months or three months. That's fine too. You're really in a good spot, Russ. And I think for you, it's more

of the value of feeling like the business is paying for itself than feeling like you're taking it from somewhere else. But I just want to encourage you, you're in a really good spot. And it sounds like that that is something that you're in a good position to do. And I'm excited that when you start that program, what I loved is you talked about how it solves a problem. There's not a lot of people out there doing this for small residential drafting, and that's something you know and you can do. So I think that's a great idea, and I think you're on the right track. All right, we've got a call coming in from Latia in North Carolina. Hey, Latia, how can I help?

Hey, hey, thanks so much for taking my call. Absolutely. So I am a homeschool mom and a former music teacher, and I've totally had an idea that is totally in the opposite direction, and I'm not sure if this really qualifies as a hobby or if it actually can be a business idea. Okay, let's have it. I've been shopping farmers markets in local businesses over many, many years, and North Carolina is a big ag state.

But recently we've lost a lot of local farms and a lot of local businesses, and it's really troubled me. And so I thought about starting a blog, but not really like on a blog site, but mostly like social media. And just what I was doing on my personal page was hearing about farms and businesses or doing that on a public page and just trying to get it out there and trying to promote our local farmer's market. But is that just a hobby or would that actually translate to a real business?

Well, I was actually just talking about this to Russ. So the basis of business that has the potential to be a business is it needs to solve a problem. And when you solve that problem, you are able to monetize it. You're going to charge for solving that problem. That's your basis for charging. It's your basis for figuring out your target market. Your target market are people that have that problem. It gives you your value proposition. What are you going to talk about in your business? You're going to talk about how you solve that problem. So what I need to understand is this idea. Talk to me about what problem it solves and who's solving it for. Well, I'm hoping to solve the problem of our local farms closing up, but not being able

to generate enough income by getting their names out there to our community to be able to patronize them, as well as also local businesses, you know, letting people know what local businesses we have in the area. Sure. Well, it sounds to me, and again, this is kind of a snapshot here, but it sounds to me more like an advertising model, which is still a model, but it's not a traditional business where you're charging for product or service. You're charging for advertising. So you would potentially build up this blog or Facebook page or social media pages that have lots of followers. And then you would then charge these businesses or these farms for being promoted or featured

on your pages, which is very much like an advertising type of model. Does that sound like something you want to do? Or does that sound like different, like not? No, it sounds pretty interesting. It's like I say, it's like totally in the opposite direction. One of my local businesses, and I've gotten actually a lot of great feedback from people excited that I'm putting them out there. She said you're referred to as an influencer. Okay.

I have no idea what that is. I'm like, okay, that sounds funny. Yeah. No, no. Here, you've got a great idea, and when you're passionate about something, it's really tempting to think like, oh, this thing is going to be my business. I think that it can be, but I think you need to do a little bit more work about how you're going to monetize it, because these farms, if they're struggling, they may not have the

money to pay for advertising. So I think you're on the beginning of something. I think you need to do a little bit more research and digging to figure out how it's solving a problem and how you're going to monetize it. I want to thank producer James Child and filling in for Kelly Madison Browder. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, it's Kelly, associate producer and phone screener for the Dave Ramsey Show. If you would like to do your debt-free screen live on the show, make sure you visit DaveRamsey.com slash show and register. We would love for you to come to Nashville and tell Dave your story.