Entrepreneurship vs Working for the Man #272

that's what this episode is all about. Man, we talk about entrepreneurship a good deal, so we're gonna make sure that we address this one as fairly as possible. I am excited to talk about this with you, my friend. Yeah, Man, should be a good topic, and it's something that that weighs on a lot of people's minds. I think in particular right now with kind of some of the uncertainty in the job market. It's like well, and and and also a lot of small businesses that have had a

difficult time lately. So yeah, entrepreneurship sounds great in a lot of ways. Um, and it is great in a lot of ways, but there are a lot of entrepreneurs having a tough time. There are also a lot of people in a traditional career that maybe have found themselves stuck. So yeah, there there is a lot to cover on

today's episode should be a good one. Yeah. One of the things you deal with when you are an entrepreneur is your prints are not necessarily working the way you wanted to, and then you have to beat it into submission office space style. You and I we have a little printer down here in the studio that we use to pronoun our outlines, you know, to pronounce some notes for our episodes. And over the past what maybe two

or three weeks, it's said warning low towner. And we keep side eyeing the printer like really like there's actual loads owner. I mean it still it still looks really good that it's still black on the paper there the ink is And until just recently I want to go hit prints and it said replaced owner, like literally, you're not allowed to print until you do it. It was fine, and then all of a sudden, the next time I try to print on it, it said, nope, can't do it,

replace your toner. And you and I we didn't like that, and so I called the printer's bluff. I went online and figured out what's going on with the printer here, and I found out, man, that there is a setting that you can go to on this printer. This is a brother printer, and you can go down to settings, go to replace toner, and you select continue instead of stop. And basically the I guess the printer is programmed to stop after a certain number of uses, even if there

is still toner uh in the cartridge. And so, man, this is kind of ridiculous, right, It's it's such a small barrier to figure this out. I think probably a lot of people maybe who are listening know this. But at the same time, maybe especially if you are working for the man. You are in an office and it says replaced toner, you're probably okay and just open it, pull it out, throwing the trash, and you're spending money on a brand new thing of toner when you don't

necessarily need it. Yeah, it makes me think of using up that last little bit of toothpaste, and yeah, there's something just gratifying about using all of of what's in there. And uh yeah, with the with the printer in particular, knowing that there's a quick by pass in order to I mean, I don't know how many extra pages of printing we're gonna get out of there. Maybe a hundred, maybe hundred fifty. That was That was a week ago. Now that and you have we've continued printing since then.

But we'll see how long it actually lasts. Man, it might be a while. Yeah, yeah, So I love that. Any anyway we can get the full usage out of the thing that we've bought and not throw it away prettymaturely is good in my book. Right. Yeah. Well, so back into episode two sixty six, we talked about planned obsolescence, and we specifically talked about printers, and I feel like this is such a clear way that companies out there, like, let's make sure, uh, let's let's make sure the quality

of your printing remains top notch. And you're gonna want to pull that cartridge, you want to pull that toner out before it's completely gone. But man, this is one area that you and I we do not care if it's top notch. That's right. Toner is not our craft beer equivalent. Yeah, And it's our way to fight back against some of that planned obsolescens, right, Like that to our cartridge is not obsolete yet, but we will use it until it actually is. Yes, And so that's something.

If you're out there and you've never heard of this before, just google whatever model number you have on your printer. And if if you think you're you've been victim to this practice, you can go in there and figure out how to extend the life of your town or there you go. All right, maw, Let's get onto the beer that we're having on the show today. This one's called Realities and it's a triple I p A brewed with honey, and it's a collaboration beer between Dissolver and Good Word

Brewing Company. Good Word close to us in Atlanta and Dissolver is up in North Carolina. That's right, man, this one's got some crazy can are going on. We can talk about it as well as uh the way this beer taste. Will do that at the end of the episode. But first, man, let's get to the topic at hand. Yeah, let's do it. We're talking about entrepreneurship versus working for

the man. And I guess you know, one of the questions that a lot of people have, especially as you're maturing in your career is should you work for the man or should you work for yourself? Which one is going to be better for you over the long haul? And there are a lot of things to consider when you're asking yourself that question. And there's also not necessarily a one size fits all answer. It's not like everybody you know fits into to the same categories, um and

so there are a lot of things to consider. There are meaningful trade offs depending on the choice you make, too, So we're going to try to cover some of the important things that you should think through when you're trying to decide whether or not you should be starting your own business or whether you're better off in the traditional

working world as an employee of someone else's business. And this question feels I think even more relevant, Matt, given the circumstances we find ourselves in with some people being furloughed from a business or lego completely UH industries kind

of in turmoil. Um. Certain sectors are doing incredibly well, other sectors of the economy are suffering tremendously so in this time of ements change, Hopefully this episode can help you think through what you want your future to look like in regards to work, whether that's working for yourself or working for the man. Yeah, let's go ahead first and clear up some misconceptions. You know, I feel like entrepreneurship it's kind of been put up on a pedestal

in our society. We hear a lot about startup successes and unicorn companies that soar two billion dollar valuations. But those stories, man, are obviously the exception, they are not the rule. Most people, they don't write about their massive failures. So we tend to to have a view of entrepreneurship that doesn't quite align with reality. Right And then at the same time, too, I think we're even guilty of

that to a certain extent here on the show. You know, listeners will often hear us talking about ramping up your side gig into a full fledged business. But taking the entrepreneurship route doesn't come without its risks and its hardships. It's not for everyone, and maybe uh more folks should stick with the traditional job, you know. So let's go ahead and dig in and discuss the benefits, the trade offs and more of each of these routes. Let's do it. Let's do it all right, So, yeah, yeah, there are

a few things to consider. Kind of these bigger, overarching things before we get into the specific trade offs that you're gonna make depending on which route you go. And and one of the first things to consider is that not everyone has this option. Not everyone has the ability to choose whether they want to become an entrepreneur or

whether they want to work for somebody else. Some folks are just happy to be working at all right now, completely completely, and yeah, so we understand, in particular, given the current state of things in the economy, a lot of folks don't necessarily have a choice that they can make, and starting a business, it often takes time and some

resources at your disposal. At the same time, though, Matt and I would encourage you to go back and take a listen to episode to forty seven with Alan donnegan because you can start a business for zero dollars or or close to it, and I think that episode was really helpful to to see things in a new light. We all often think that starting in business requires a lot of resources and a lot of money upfront, and

that's just not always the case. There are some businesses that can get started with a little elbow grease and next to nothing when it comes to money. Yeah, and another consideration is your age. Right, how old are you? The average age of a first time entrepreneur is between thirty nine and forty two, depending on what study you're looking at. Uh. The entrepreneurs that fail most often, though, are in their twenties. It's awesome because of the lack

of experience and knowledge. We learn a lot through working for the man you know, at least for a period of time. So that's an argument for working at nine to five. But on the flip side, when you're young, you know you have less to lose, You have fewer responsibilities and others counting on you, especially if you don't have a family yet and your expenses are minimal, it can be a great time to to run with that dream that you have and to build your own business.

I know when Kate and I started our own company Man, we were in our twenties. We had zero debt and so for us Man that was one of our motivators. That was one of the things we kind of kept going back to, if not now, when you know, like, there's gonna be no better time than than right now for us to pursue something like this. Yeah, if you have a mortgage and multiple children and all these other things on the table that you have to provide for

it becomes a riskier proposition. And so yeah, that there's that kind of dual side of way of looking at things. So of is it easier to start later in life or is it easier to start earlier? Um, And I think yeah, it's an interesting thing to consider. It's also important to ask yourself what's your temperament. Some people are just wired to do their own thing, while others lack the risk taking ability, and some people just work better

in a group setting. And Matt, I'm one of those people, right, So I don't think I ever would have started a solo business. If it meant me going out on my own and developing something solo, it's just not going to do very well because I work better in a group context. Starting a podcast with the best buddy though, that was a different proposition. I'm like, Okay, cool, Yeah, I can do that. We can build this at least one other person, Okay, ye, exactly as a team. And I think that is something

that you need to keep in mind. If you're the kind of person that's easily defeated, doesn't necessarily work well solo, then you know, starting a solo business, becoming an entrepreneur um alone is probably not best for you. You You gotta know yourself. You also gotta know what skills and what knowledge you possess. Man. You know, if you're looking to to take the entrepreneur path, then you're likely going to need to have, or be willing to acquire, right a

certain level of business acumen. You know, this is true of a lot of our photographer of our creative friends. They love the creative part of work for themselves, uh and doing something artistic, but developing the you know, like the sales and the administration side of things can often come a little bit more slowly, you know, maybe with a lot of difficult learning moments, and so that's definitely

something to keep in mind as well. Yeah, you might be a great artist, a great photographer, a great baker, but you've got to realize there's a couple of the things you're gonna need to learn at the same time. Baking awesome cookies is a great first step, but but then, yeah, you do have to develop that business acument at the

same time. And obviously with a more traditional job, it's a lot easier to have a very specialized skill where you can focus on on the things that you're good at, like if you bake great cookies working in a bakery, you don't have to worry about the business side, and then you can leave it to your employer to handle the sales, client services, payroll, insurance, basically all the things that might be a nightmare for others, the things you

might want to completely avoid. There's nothing wrong with either of these approaches, but it will affect the type of work that's required of you, and that's important to know before you launch a business. Just because you're great at a particular skill doesn't necessarily mean you have what it takes to become an entrepreneur, but that you really even necessarily want to go down that path. Yeah, alright, man.

So those are some great questions for us to run through and for individuals to think about before we even dive into the weeds of entrepreneurship versus working for the man. But after the break, we're gonna talk about some specific factors and you know, some of these different trade offs that we have to make when you are deciding between entrepreneurship and running your own business versus a more traditional nine to five and We'll get to all of those

right after the break. All right, we're back from the break. We're talking about entrepreneurship versus working for the man, and and either one of these routes can be good depending on Like we said, it's your temperament and the skills analogy that you possess. We we we talked about some of those broader overarching things, but let's get to some of the specific things that you need to consider before you dive in and you you make a decision before you

just side which one is right for you. And Matt, obviously, the number one thing that people are gonna want to consider is what kind of income can you make being an entrepreneur versus working for the Man's at the top of the list. Man It's act. It is. It is that that's going to of course influence people in the direction that they go in. A day job will give

you a steadier paycheck. Most folks who have a nine to five might not realize how great this is, but it's a pretty amazing thing to know that you're going to be receiving a certain amount in every paycheck every single two weeks or at the end of every month. However, you get paid, but also there are limits to that. You're only getting paid as much as your employer is willing to pay you. Raises are typically more limited when you're working in a nine to five context. I know

my raises that kind of mash inflation a little bit. Yeah, so really you're not really getting a raise. Essentially, in my last fifteen years of being employed for the Man, it's been, Uh, it's like an annual conversation where it's like, yeah, the max we can give you is a two percent raise this year. Um, But you've been working so well that I think we can give you the two percent um, And I feel bad for anybody who it's like, you haven't been working at great, so you get the half

a percent race, but be terrible. But that's like totally normal in the corporate context these days, especially with a

lot of larger employers. So it's not that you can't negotiate, um, it's not that you can't try to move up in the company, and we've discussed some of those things before on the show, but the earning potential upside is often far more limited in the corporate contact center is if you choose an entrepreneurial route, Yeah, Conversely, starting your own thing is uh, it's more of a an eat what

you kill approach. Right. The earning potential there is limited only to what your your industry would allow, not your company, and as well, you know, to the time and effort that you are willing to put into it. You know, the sky is essentially the limit in many ways to the income that you can produce when you own and

run your own business. But you know, to man, one of the biggest downsides to starting your own business is that income can be highly irregular and inconsistent, you know, especially early on, it can be difficult not only to have the systems in place that you know, that ensure that you have a study paycheck, but additionally, it can be really hard to have enough in reserves, you know, to ensure that you get paid every single month versus you know, a sort of thing where you get a

fat check you know, maybe once every few months. For a lot of folks who are used to getting that paycheck every two weeks or once a month, this can

be a pretty big shock. Yeah, that's a great point, man, I think, especially if someone is deciding to move into an entrepreneurial role, quitting their day job and starting their own business, they really do need to think about having, you know, more money in the bank so that they can weather some of those storms, because it is going to be different, right, You're you're in Consistent pay is a hard thing for a lot of people who are used to working in a corporate contexts, who are used

to getting paid every two weeks to kind of figure out and get accustomed to, and who may not be used to managing their their own personal finances very well. Right, you know, if they're just counting on sort of like that trickle of money every two weeks, it might be a little more difficult to to get behind. Okay, what do the next three months of living look like? Let alone, It's hard to do that when you're not very good at, you know, even managing two weeks at a time. That's

a good point. Yeah, so, Matt, you you kind of touched on this just now to another really important consideration when you're deciding which route works best for you is the time and balance side of the equation. Day jobs, I think, in a lot of ways are easier than taking the entrepreneurial route. A full time day job often allows you to check out after forty hours of work each week. That's not always the case, of course, but

but it is for a lot of jobs. Nights and weekends are likely yours to use how you like in many contacts. Plus in a lot of jobs, you've got two to four weeks of vacation. All right. It's a decent lifestyle that you can plan pretty well around. Whereas

entrepreneurship can kind of take over your life. You mentioned that which you kill approach, and I think because of that, sometimes it's hard to shut things down and it's hard to find much balance in in your life because you can let work take over and expand to as much as you'll get it. Yeah, it's definitely able to grow to fit that fish bowl you know, right that that goalfish that's in there. And man like I I often you know, refer back to when Caton I started our

own company. But we went fell victim to this right here, man like I swear the first four or five years, folks would ask, what, you know, how the business was going, and like what we would say is like, oh, it's going great. But it wasn't until after that that we were able to kind of look back a little bit and what we realize is was that the business sort of felt like this runaway train, you know, like we felt like we were constantly trying to catch up to

its versus us leading and guiding where the business went. Uh. And that's because, like we were excited about it, and that's great to be excited about it, but at the same time, it truly can kind of dominate your life. Man. And another consideration you know, you mentioned how like salary is probably one of the top things to consider when you're you know, considering entrepreneurship or or working a traditional

nine to five. But if that's first, then a very close second are the benefits that you receive from working a nine to five if you go the entrepreneur route. Health insurance is expensive because you are footing the entire bill. Oftentimes. I do think this is something that keeps people from going down the path of entrepreneurship a little bit more.

There are some routes you can go for this to to be you know, less of a thorn in your side, Like does your spouse have health insurance through their work it's so great, you know, or maybe your income is is you know, low enough that you qualify for some meaningful subsidies on the healthcare exchange, Like, that's cool too, But if you are paying full price for healthcare, just

know that it's gonna be a lot of money. The average annual premiums for a family are around twenty thou dollars, and typically when you're employed, your employer covers a lot of that. And so know that that's an expense that you're gonna be now burdened with. Yeah, a lot of employers covering fifty sixties seventy plus percent of the health insurance costs and and yeah, it's a big shock when

now it's all on your plate easily. Yeah. Uh. And you also won't have a company match, you know, when it comes to retirement benefits, but you do have access to tax advantaged retirement accounts that can allow you to invest a whole lot more as well. With a SEPI A, you can invest up to fifty seven thousand dollars every single year and at tax deferred account. That's a little trick that your four one K doesn't have. Yeah, it's sure, yeah,

four OK, nineteen five is your personal contribution limits? Seems pretty piddily compared to the step. Yeah, if you're a boller and you're and you're making tons of money, You've ramped up income, like we talked about, and you want to invest a good portion of it and live modestly. Yeah, you can quickly, um, invest a whole lot of money. I have at it. Yeah. Yeah. And on the note of benefits, Matt, obviously, if you're employed, traditionally there's the

health insurance thing. And we talked recently on the show about some of the great benefits the companies are now offering their employees. I feel like companies over the last decade have been offering all sorts of interesting new benefits that creative out there. They are they are so yeah, pto to go vote or or even volunteer at the polls was was something that is something that it seems

like more employers are offering this year. In particular, Google announced that they're matching for student loan debt payments, and other companies are taking student loan debts seriously as well and creating similar incentives and even just like the small perks, the small benefits of like free coffee in the break room. Um. And I don't know that that's some think that's on people's minds these days. Working from home in many ways, we'll not with a couple of granola bars there in

the break room. Yeah, yeah, I mean that was nice, man. I will say I miss that, like I missed going into the break room grabbing my coffee. It was one of those small parks, but it felt real and legitimate. And uh, remember we're our own bosses. We can have coffee down here too. But that's a good point. We can't. Let's do it all right, we're just cheap. We need to make that happen. But yeah, those are all the kind of things that employers are getting creative with the

kind of benefits they're offering. And now, if you want these benefits, they're up to you. You can pay yourself to go vote, I guess um, but you're gonna have to be proactive about kind of giving yourself some of these parks, just like Matt and I need to do get some coffee now here. Right, it's not being cheap. Those are the kind of things that you can incorporate, um,

but it's not this benevolent employer essentially providing it for you. Yeah, it feels a little bit different when it kind of comes out of your own pocket versus your employer covering the bill right right right One other things to man that the degree of autonomy and the ability to it to work when, how and and where you want. That

rank's pretty high up on the list as well. You know, when it comes to the different reasons that people want to leave their traditional job and strike out on their own. There's also the ability to to not have to deal with all the bureaucracy. You know, all those TPS reports that used to have to file. You don't have to deal with that anymore. No silly systems and busy work

as well. There's typically less flexibility with the nine to five man, although more companies are relaxing their work practices. You know, working from home has gained some real momentum, but there's still something to be said for having set hours when you're going to work, when you know that stuff is going to get done. Uh And I almost see that as as kind of like a like a benefit of a traditional nine to five because you kind

of have that accountability. Essentially, It's like when you go to workout, you have a trainer maybe kind of yelling at you, telling you that this is the workout for the day. When you are your own boss, and you have a lot of flexibility. You've got to make sure that you stay pretty self disciplined in order to get the work done that's gonna pay the bills. Yeah, that goes back to the temperament thing that we'll be right and talked about at the beginning. You've gotta be able

to set those goals, knock them down. You got to be a self starter. You've gotta be able to motivate yourself to get going in the morning, um, and to start crushing those goals. And man, I think what you just said about bureaucracy is an important point. I think a lot of people, especially if they work in a larger business, they have like creative juices that they're not able to expand, and in large part it feels like it's because it's this bureaucracy that they can't get past.

And I think that is one of the number one reasons people leave corporate America to start something else. Is like, there are all these other things that we talked about their benefits to pursuing an entrepreneurial route starting your own business, but some of it's just a feel of feeling and get out of a place where you feel stuck. And I think sometimes that that bigger corporate bureaucracy can can make you feel that and and just give you like

the itch to get out of there. Yeah, you can feel stifled when you realize that you're sitting there to spinning your tires and nothing is actually you know, nothing is changing, and you can see the inefficiencies that you can capitalize on and strike it out on your own. I totally hear you. Man, You're like, I've got good ideas,

but nobody's listening to exactly. So yeah, you're like, I guess I gotta to go to my own thing, all right, but we got a couple more things to get to that you have to con better when when you're making that choice of becoming an entrepreneur and striking it down on your own versus working for the man. And also some practical steps if you find if you want to find out if entrepreneurship is is the right next move for you, and we'll get to that right after this.

All right, we are back from the break talking about entrepreneurship or working a traditional job nine to five for the man, Joel, real quick before we kind of dive back into some of these you know specific factors we want folks to think through. You want me singing that Dolly Parton song, let me hear it working? No, I want to hear if you weren't in the audio media space right if if you couldn't talk for a living? Uh?

And I want to eliminate personal finances as well, if you couldn't say maybe you couldn't talk, but you could still write. You still can't sit down with somebody and write out how you're going to help them through with their personal finances. Uh. If you had to do something completely unrelated right now, uh, with with your life, what

do you think you would do? So my parents always say that I'd make a good used car salesman or a lawyer, And um, yeah, I probably one of those two professions honestly, like so because they're based in some of the things that I love already, in particular the spoken word, right, Like, I can just see myself in front of a courtroom arguing for you know, a defendant or something like that. So I don't know, probably probably

something like that. So maybe you'd be a d a okay, Uh, I would kind of I think I could see myself gravitating and leaning towards like contractor work, like in particular people's homes like spaces and how they use those spaces and different tweaks and changes, you know, not necessarily making things nicer, but like how could you change this space to make it, you know, work for you better? Like what are your goals? What are the things that you're

trying to accomplish with this home renovation? You know, things like that. You know, we find a lot of gratification, a lot of fulfillment out of personal finance and talking about this and man, we love hearing from our listeners and how they've been able to change their lives. But it's also see it based on either hearing a voice mamma, if they mentioned it in a question or if they send us an email. But to actually see something physical,

like something that you've built, something that you've created. Man, I've really enjoyed that as well, Like something that I've made with my hands makes me really happy. This is part of why I like when we go to the beach, always bring along with that that shovel. This isn't a this isn't like a normal kid beach shovel. This is

like a grown man's shovel. That that I always stick to the beach and I always spend like half of the day digging holes in the sand for the kids, whether it be tide pools or rivers or castles, you know, our giant moats, because I just I like doing that, and then I like sitting back and enjoying a beer and seeing what I've created. Yeah, I'm curious what you're

gonna say. That's not something we've talked about before, but it's uh, something I've always gonna have in the back of my mind for me personally at least, although as I get older to my body starts hurting and I'm like, oh, it'd be tough to be a contractor, you know, it's like hard on the back, hard on the knees. You could just be like a design consultant or something. What could do that? Or an architect there I feel like that's a little less impactful on the body. I could.

I can totally see you doing that too, for sure. Maybe all right, let's get too too. A couple more things you have to consider when when you're trying to choose between an entrepreneurial or a nine to five route. And then we'll get to some practical steps. But but another thing that is just of massive importance that you have to consider when you're choosing which direction is better for you is the mission that you're trying to and that you can potentially accomplish. Man, I feel like you're

touching on this just before the break. But when it comes to entrepreneurship, you get to define exactly what it is that you want to spend your time doing what you want to accomplish. Those ideas that you bring to a meeting that might get shut down, they don't get

shut down any longer because you're on the business right. So, yeah, with the traditional job, you might get a degree of personal fulfillment, but the mission of of the place you're working may not align with your personal mission as much as you'd like it to. So being able to define, create, and pursue the mission that resonates with you, I think it's this this priceless benefit of being an entrepreneur, of creating the exact thing you wanted to create and seeing

whether it succeeds. On the flip side, though not everyone knows what their mission would be if they were starting their own company. A lot of folks aren't even sure of what the perfect job looks like for them. Yeah, there's a lot of folks out there who are thinking, I don't know, I'm pretty happy with what I'm doing right here, you know, like they haven't necessarily looked beyond what they're currently doing if they had the option to. YEA.

And sometimes we have a personal mission that's separate from our work mission, and you know, we have things that we want to accomplish in life that we we can essentially get our complete mission fulfillment outside of the nine to five. And that's totally fine too. I just think for some people, they want their work to encompass that, and oftentimes it's really hard to accomplish that outside of

starting your own thing. Yeah, I think there are a lot of individuals who kind of take that approach right where they say, Okay, I'm just gonna work this job. It makes a lot of money, and I'm gonna make sure that I'm personally fulfilled in all these other areas in life. But man, personally, I like there to be

a little more overlap, you know. I want to see my life, uh kind of aligning with my career with how I'm spending you know, eight hours every single day like life's too short to to only find fulfillment in the eight remaining hours outside of sleeping and working, you know, like you only have a third of the day left, then find personal fulfillment plus all the other chores that you need to do. Like, there's just lots of life

that happens in those eight hours as well. And I was gonna leave a whole lot left with kids and chores there. Yeah, that that personal fulfillment amount of time that you it begins to dwindles, you can pursue that. Yeah, it gets cut down to next to nothing. I'd say, um, job security, that's nothing else that's important to cover here. Uh, it's job security is often considered I think, rock solid when you have a traditional job, but I think that

is often oversold. You know, even in non pandemic COVID times, your job is never as solid as you think it is. But now, man, people in all sorts of different industries are finding the other job either went away altogether or at least, you know, for a short period of time. Man. There's an article in the New York Times about people in the airline industry, you know, finally giving up on the prospect of working there. For years to come and

moving on. Um. Many people are now realizing that their job security wasn't quite what they thought it was, and they're learning this firsthand. Yeah, I think if I worked in the airline industry. We've got friends in that industry, Matt. They've taken a long firm low, or they've left completely. It's something I'd be rethinking right now, right And these are the kind of questions I'd be asking myself. Um. And and job security is definitely an interesting thing to

bring up. Entrepreneurship. Well, it obviously doesn't have the steady paycheck of the ninety five we talked about that you could maybe gain three clients and lose two others in the same month, But once you've developed your business a little, that job security is actually better, I think in a lot of ways than a traditional nine to five, where you could lose all of your income at once, like

with without a moment's notice. And most importantly, being an entrepreneur and calling the shots of your own business instills a sense of creative financial control over your life. It's basically the opposite of having a victim mentality, And so yeah, I think I had this like hesitancy towards entrepreneurship for a long period of time, towards starting my own business, because that idea of losing the job security and the consistency of a nine to five was a little scary

to me. But over the years, as I've kind of gotten my feet wet in entrepreneurial endeavors, I realized that it's not nearly as risky as it seems in the surface. Yeah, and plus, just like that whole mindset shift, you know, like when you have your own business, you're you're in the driver's seat. So in essence, I feel like like

it builds a certain level of resiliency. So when hard times do hit, I think entrepreneurs are able to kind of adapt and to pivot a little more quickly than somebody who is used to being, you know, told exactly

what to do. Being in a more traditional job, you're you're used to thinking a little bit more creatively when you do we're in your own business, for sure, and so those are some of the different trade offs that we are going to experience, you know that folks are going to experience as they're out there debating between you know, a nine to five or where they're running their own business. But let's talk now, let's get a little more practical. Let's talk about some of the immediate steps to take

when it comes to kind of launching into entrepreneurship. And the first thing that we want to encourage folks to do is just to dabble a little bit in it. You know, make the time to do it on the side, test out your your your business idea before you take this massive leap. You know, as an entrepreneur you're likely going to be working over forty hours for a while anyway, So kind of get used to it by dabbling a little bit on the side before you quit your job completely. Yeah. Man,

I feel like dabbling massively underrated. I dabbled in our friendship before I realized I want to be best friends. You know, sure, well, I know you you're seeing that as a joke, but like that's true though, you know, like like we are always kind of feeling things out, and so often in our minds we think, okay, nine to five or entrepreneurship. It's one or the other. It's either black or white. But that's not the case. You're never friends or not friends with somebody. There's a whole

continuum of friendship in between best buddies. Uh and I hate you. That's true, there is all right. So another the next practical step we would say is important to take if you're considering the entrepreneurship route is to find a community of people that will support you in it. And we talk about this with real estate investing. That joining a local real estate investors group can give you the confidence as well as some of the know how to to make a smart decision and to make the

right moves when it comes to buying rental properties. So finding that group of like minded folks can help you glean those insights without reinventing the wheel, learning it all from scratch. By going it alone, that group, that community can provide the encouragement that you need along with some of the know how. Yeah, and if you want to use some marketing language, you can just call it your mastermind group. And people are really excited about doing it right.

Exactly along the same lines, Uh, you can actually find mentorship when it comes to starting a business. Score dot org and is a great place to turn. This is an awesome free resource for anyone looking to start a business UH and get personal help from a mentor who has gone down that path before. On their website, there you can you can find someone locally based on your zip code. But due to COVID you can even remotely connect with the mentor these days, and they make it

really easy. You can search by keyword or by industry and you can get on there. And even you know, this doesn't have to be a mentorship or the kind of relationship where you do exactly what they say. It's also great to just to like hear what somebody does have to say, just to kind of bounce some ideas

off of them. I see this as a great way to kind of combat that temperamental that you mentioned before, or if you find it difficult sometimes to work on your own, having a mentor is a great way not only to get some insightful wisdom, but also to to have a friend someone to bounce those ideas off of. Yeah, they can be a great sounding board and the fact that you can get a mentor for free is pretty sweet. Score dot org is the website, by the way, uh.

And the last practical step would say is to develop permanent skills. I think that's probably the best advice we can give Matt, because young people will likely find themselves not only working for a large number of different companies in their lives, but also working in a bunch of different industries, very very different from the route that our parents took. Work is going to be much more fluid for millennials and Gen z ears than it was for

our parents. So we say, look to develop skills that will help you transition well in the future, whether you're working for yourself or for someone else. Right. Soft skills like humility and leadership, hard skills like accounting or learning a second language are great things to learn. Those are skills that grow you as a person. They're not just

work related skill sets. So honing those things and developing in your work career is gonna help you whether you go the entrepreneurship route or whether you keep working for the man in a traditional nine to job. Yeah. I feel like that's the kind of mindset shift that allows us to look longer term versus focusing on like the immediate steps that folks might be tempted to take now

in order to like earn a quick buck. Uh So, Joel, you know we've talked about like the trade offs of entrepreneurship versus a traditional nine to five and you know, these are helpful to know before you dive in head first, but it's also important to take that plunge right. Maybe it makes me think about the Polar Bear Challenge or whatever, the guys that like jump into the middle. And sometimes you've gotta have that boldness of spirit to just like hop in the icy cold waters and sit there for

a minute. You don't often see the guys just kind of easing into the freezing cold water. You gotta go for us sometimes, uh, And that's something we would encourage. If you feel compelled to to own your own business, think through, like what is the worst that can happen? You know, even if your business fails, it's going to be a learning experience. You can always start another one down the road. And if you realize that maybe a corporate job is more your speed, like what is keeping

you from going back? You can always go back to corporate America. You've only got one life to live, So we would encourage folks to pursue their passions. And if you ever feel, you know, like you get a little cold feet, think about the potential regrets. I know, I definitely don't want to kind of reach the end of my life or my working career, wishing that I had taken some some steps, had I been a little bit,

you know, a little more emboldened, a little braver. It made at the beginning of the the episode we mentioned Alan don again. Uh, you know, when it came to you know how you don't need a lot of money to start a business or any money at all. Uh. And so it makes me think of one of his life mottozo, which was fail fast and fail cheap. Is so that we would encourage folks to take that plunge, you know, don't overthink it. Uh, and at the same time avoid

that business debts. We wouldn't want you in that unfortunate position either. Yeah, beginning that startups, starting your entrepreneurship career with with very little or or preferably oh debt. I think it's great advice, Matt. Yeah, a good point. But that was a fun conversation. Matt. Let's get back to the beer that we had on the show today. This one is called Realities. It's a triple dry hopped honey triple India pale Ale by Dissolver Brewing and Good Word Brewing.

And so, yeah, buddy, what were thoughts on this beer? I really liked it. Man. I will say, this is a brewery, so it's dissolver and it's one of those cool spellings where they leave out vowels, so it's d S S O l v R. But this is one of the newest breweries there in Asheville, and Kate and I maybe a few weeks ago now, we took a little trip up to Asheville for the weekend and this is one of the one of the breweries that we stuck our head in and checked out and see what

was going on. And this is one of the beers they had on draft, and so I actually got this is the second time I've had this, Buddy, I had it on draft there with my lovely wife. But I'm glad you not got to share this one. But yeah, so this is a triple dry hopped I P A. And I will say, man, it has a lot of I p A flavor going on on the front end. I feel like you can definitely taste maybe some of that honey sweetness going on. But at the same time it as it meld and kind of finished out, it

kind of ended on that little dryer hoppy note. There was a nice little one to punch and I'm glad this is a beer that you know, I got to share. Man, what do you think about this beer specifically? What do you think about this artwork. That's the kind of artwork I'd put on my wall, man, you know that that's that's my style. It's got the little kind of funky folk RT vibe going on. Um. And but the beer was great too, man, Like I actually I think, honey, if it's putting an I p A and it's well done,

it can just add to the flavors going on. And I thought this one did like I thought the honey it did lend it that sweetness on the front end. And so yeah, just a well made, dry hopped I p A with that local honey tossed in there. Made for just a pleasurable drinking experience, I'd say. And plus it's good to have a beer that's got a lot of personality, you know. I feel like this is a pretty unique beer. The can art's really unique, The actual

brewery is super uniquely. They've got a pretty cool vibe going on. And so you know, we'd recommend for folks that check out this brewery if you are ever up in the Asheville area, no doubt. All right, Matt, that's gonna do it for this episode for for our listeners. If you want the show notes for this episod links to some of the resources that we mentioned, just go

to our website at how to money dot com. Yeah, and maybe you are listening to this episode and you've been thinking for a while, you know what, I'm going to start my own business, And maybe after listening to this episode, we have maybe just inspired you just enough that you're actually going to get the ball rolling. If so, you know, I think a cool place that you could let us know about your new business is over an

Apple podcast. You can leave us a review, and in a review, you can tell us what you're planning to do with the knowledge that you've gained from this episode. What do you think about that, Joel? I like it. And if you're particularly planning on starting a brewery once you get your first peers, can send us a few. We'd love to try them on the show. And that is a plea Matt, because we need more craft breweries in this country. I think a lot of folks might

think you're joking, but that's actually true. I don't think we've reached a saturation point. You know, the way that you and I like to see craft breweries is almost as many as there are neighborhoods, you know, Like I feel like each neighborhood basically needs his own unique craft brewery, just a place for people to gather and for folks who kind of hang out, even though we're not doing that quite as much these days. But maybe that's you, and maybe your new business is going to be a brewery.

I love to see. It'd be pretty rad, it would be well, that's gonna be it for this episode, Joel. Until next time, best Friends Out, Best Friends Out,