Where to Start when Starting a Business and without Fear (LA 1448)
Transcripts:
Steven Butala:
Steve and Jill here.
Jill DeWit:
Hi.
Steven Butala:
Hey, welcome to the Land Academy Show, entertaining land investment talk. I’m Steven Jack Butala.
Jill DeWit:
And I’m Jill Dewitt, broadcasting from sunny Southern California.
Steven Butala:
Today. Jill and I talk about where to start when starting a business and without fear.
Jill DeWit:
What is this?
Steven Butala:
So it’s not just about starting a land business. It’s just basically starting a business. I think this confuses a lot of people. For other people, it’s just very natural. It’s a logical extension to having a W2 job. But this is really just about that initial twinge like, “I really want to start a business and I don’t want to do it with fear. I want to know that it’s going to work within reason and I just need a first few steps to check it out.”
Jill DeWit:
Perfect.
Steven Butala:
Before we get into it, let’s take a question posted by one of our members on the landinvestors.com online community. It’s free.
Jill DeWit:
Buck wrote, “I have a buyer who wants to immediately move his RV onto a property where I’m providing owner financing. The county requires that septic be installed and that he have a temporary use permit for the RV to be legal. The buyer says he’ll get the permits. What would you do?”
Steven Butala:
Run the other way.
Jill DeWit:
Wait, wait, wait, wait. Hold on a second.
Steven Butala:
I would never allow this.
Jill DeWit:
Why not?
Steven Butala:
There’s too much legal issues.
Jill DeWit:
No, no, no. Oh, owner financing. Sorry.
Steven Butala:
Yeah.
Jill DeWit:
That was my thought. I’m like, “Wait, wait, wait, wait a minute. Where are you going with that?” I had to take a step back and realize it’s owner financing, because most of what I do is cash.
Steven Butala:
You bought a $10,000 property. You posted it for sale on Craigslist for $2,000 down and $150 a month for 15 years. And you calculated on your little calculator that you’re going to make about $22,000 on this deal when it’s all paid off. And so you’re jumping up and down around the kitchen. Well, the fact is that a very material percentage, more than 50% of these properties, when they get sold, you get the down payment, they make five payments, then they go dark and you just never hear from them again. And so there’s something wrong. This person has a lot of money to do all this RV stuff and these improvements, but they don’t want to buy the property outright. There’s some issue there.
Jill DeWit:
So that’s what you’d do. Number one, you say, “Look, owner financing, I’m not comfortable with this. Can’t do it. You want to buy it cash from me, now it’s yours and everything’s on you. Knock yourself out.” That’s the first solution, is right there. And I would even say, “Look, here’s the deal.” Most people do that. When the people that I’ve seen, they have a cash price and they have a seller or an owner financed price, and it’ll be obvious, you cash out, it’s definitely cheaper. So if you don’t even have that, offer them a great cash price. “Look, I’ll give you a 20% discount if you want to just buy the property and then it’s yours and then I won’t have a say in it. You can do whatever you want.”
Steven Butala:
Jill’s an expert at this. I’ve heard her on the phone. If you’ve got to list a property for, here’s my example, you bought it for 10, just say you sell it for $15,000 or $18,000 cash, and if the property is worth 50, he’d be shocked at how fast whoever they are can come up with their money from their relatives or whatever else just to get them into the property, all of it.
Jill DeWit:
Right, they really want it.
Steven Butala:
As an owner with no liens.
Jill DeWit:
But I agree with Steven. I mean, the bad news is it’s just too much that I could be liable for and I don’t want to do that. I don’t want the county calling me saying, “This guy’s out there. He needs to move it.” And it’s mine, so I’m responsible to get somebody out there to get them to move it. Do I want to get even the legal authorities involved? Heck no. I don’t want any of that. And let’s just leave it at that.
Steven Butala:
Yeah. Today’s topic, where to start with starting a business and without fear. This is the meat of the show. Number one, my number one concern or advice to anyone who’s starting a business is to get involved from the beginning in something that you care about or something that you actually truly in your soul enjoy. I truly in my soul enjoy data analysis and manipulation. I always have. I also enjoy land. I grew up around it. I grew up in Michigan. Some of the best memories in my life are going to rural parts of Michigan with my parents and my family and my friends. And so, and I was mesmerized as a tiny little kid about putting up a log cabin then riding a motorcycle around shooting guns and stuff. It was an amazing part of my childhood and it stuck with me forever.
Steven Butala:
The data part, I was interested in being an accountant mostly because I wanted to make money from early on. So this just makes a lot of sense to me. I’ve owned businesses. I’ve owned manufacturing companies. Jill and I recently owned and unowned a pizza chain. Never had any fun in any of those businesses. Never really cared. Not enough to do a podcast about it. Not enough to get a partner like Jill. And so the real potential, those business has never worked. And yesterday I talked about the librarian example of getting into the camping business. They don’t want to do that. So if you’re going into a business purely for the money, chances are it’s not going to work. If you’re going into it because you really are interested in it, because there’s going to be good days and bad days, there’s going to be fatal days, and you need to unfatalize those days. And if you’re truly interested in the business and believe in it and believe in yourself, then I would take it to the next step.
Steven Butala:
That’s my second point. You’ve got to believe in yourself. If you don’t believe in yourself, owning any business is not going to work. You have other work to do on yourself.
Jill DeWit:
I was going to write notes. I was going to play a game. When you want to give your point, I have two things to say. One on the first one, and then I have a story to tell.
Steven Butala:
Okay, go ahead.
Jill DeWit:
Oh, okay. Well, first, I was going to say, you’re right as far as, you’ve got to be into it, and I was going to play a quick game with you, because I thought it’d be fun.
Steven Butala:
Yeah.
Jill DeWit:
I’m going to name cars. Well, that’s one. That was a little hint. I’m going to name of a bunch of businesses and you could say, yes, you’d be into it, or no, you’d be into it to give our example, because it’s so flipping funny.
Steven Butala:
Okay.
Jill DeWit:
Okay. Number one, classic car sales?
Steven Butala:
No.
Jill DeWit:
Why? Classic?
Steven Butala:
And I love classic cars, but I’m so emotional about it I make bad decisions.
Jill DeWit:
But you wouldn’t want to be in a business like that?
Steven Butala:
I was. I had a classic car dealership.
Jill DeWit:
So the answer is yes.
Steven Butala:
And I lost my ass.
Jill DeWit:
Well, the answer is yes, you want to do it. Doesn’t mean you’re going to do it well. Okay, let me back up. Businesses that you would be passionate about, yes or no? Not at how successful.
Steven Butala:
All right.
Jill DeWit:
Let’s just start with passion, number one. Okay, classic car sales?
Steven Butala:
Yeah.
Jill DeWit:
Okay. The downside would be, yes, you’d never sell any. That’s what would happen.
Steven Butala:
Yep.
Jill DeWit:
Okay. Number two, pizza place?
Steven Butala:
Nope.
Jill DeWit:
Nail salon?
Steven Butala:
No.
Jill DeWit:
Massage parlor?
Steven Butala:
Nope.
Jill DeWit:
Any restaurant?
Steven Butala:
Nope.
Jill DeWit:
Fishing equipment?
Steven Butala:
What kind?
Jill DeWit:
Fishing?
Steven Butala:
Yeah, I could maybe get into that.
Jill DeWit:
Carnival?
Steven Butala:
No. You’re missing the good ones.
Jill DeWit:
Teaching children to weld?
Steven Butala:
Yes. I would actually love that.
Jill DeWit:
All right.
Steven Butala:
And that’s how I see some version of retirement for me, just teaching young people that they can do stuff.
Jill DeWit:
Growing your own herb garden?
Steven Butala:
Yeah. Not as a business, but I have interest in that personally.
Jill DeWit:
Thank you. See, this is good. Selling anything online?
Steven Butala:
Yeah.
Jill DeWit:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Steven Butala:
Yeah. I mean, those are good companies.
Jill DeWit:
How to set up a studio?
Steven Butala:
Nope. No.
Jill DeWit:
That’s awesome. Relationship advice?
Steven Butala:
Nope. I’m supposed to be good at something before you teach it.
Jill DeWit:
I was going to say. Some of these things you’re good at it. You just don’t want anything to do with them. That’s what’s so funny. How about owning a race horse?
Steven Butala:
No. No.
Jill DeWit:
Gambling?
Steven Butala:
Nah, I don’t want any part of that.
Jill DeWit:
Okay, I’m done. That was fun.
Steven Butala:
I love education companies. I love real estate companies. I love real estate data companies. Anything to do with data, I’m in. And I love software as a service models. NeighborScoop is a software as a service. And I love marketing stuff. If I believe in it, we can market the heck out of anything.
Jill DeWit:
Yep. So that was good. Then I was talking about, I was going to speak to my whole thing about fear. When I was years ago learning to fly and I got my private pilot’s license, this is just who I am, and I used it in this example too. I study the heck out of something. If I’m worried about something or nervous about something, I go all in. I will put blinders on.
Steven Butala:
Really?
Jill DeWit:
Yeah, I really do.
Steven Butala:
That’s amazing. You should teach that.
Jill DeWit:
I study and read everything I can about it. I have flashcards. So this is my private pilots. I read everything. I was so good at my ground school, and then when it came time to practice for my FAA-
Steven Butala:
It’s an amazing, amazing personality trait.
Jill DeWit:
Thank you. My big FAA test, I was ready. And this is how I went into it without fear. I spent weeks with different people with flashcards and studying and watching and reading and practicing and reviewing.
Steven Butala:
Because you wanted it.
Jill DeWit:
I did. So that’s my thing. That’s my best advice to get over fear, is to really be immersed and very knowledgeable about it.
Steven Butala:
It’s an amazing story. I’ve never heard it before.
Jill DeWit:
So here was the end result. It was so great. And, of course, I’m shaking this is a big deal. I’m taking my FAA test, and I’ve got to take this guy up. But first, what is it we do before that? He’s going to sit down and ask you some questions and you have to show him your flight plan, and how did you get all this information? And just the core basic questions, this guy I’m sure has a bunch of questions in his head that he just always runs through every person. And we didn’t get, I don’t know, five, 10 minutes into it, he stopped asking me questions. And he said, “I don’t need to ask you any.” I’m like, “Well, I thought this was going to take an hour. I thought this initial whatever part of the test before we go fly was going to be an hour long and I’m all ready for it.” He goes, “I don’t have to ask you. You know your stuff.” And it was done.
Steven Butala:
That’s a huge compliment.
Jill DeWit:
I was relieved. And he was right, every single question he asked me, I knew it exactly. I would study the wording to make sure I used the right terminology and I phrased it correctly. He’s like, “Wow.” He was blown away. So that’s what I want to say about fear. So if you’re coming into this and you’ve got the passion part, you love it, we just did the test, you know you love it. You drive around, you drive your family nuts. You’re always online looking at property like, “Wow, why is this priced this way, this priced that way?” You’re in. Now, to take the fear out of it, you’ve just got to get into it and be all in. Start playing with data. Start following people in their transactions. Follow their companies. Look at all of their videos. Watch their videos.
Jill DeWit:
Watch our videos, watch what we’re buying, watch what We’re selling. See if you could anticipate where we’re going to do stuff next and see if you’re right. See if, “Oh, I watched these. I think I heard her talk about they’re buying these things. I’m going to go look them up and see what they bought them for and what they sold them for.” Because, you know what? You can. Get all into it. That’s how you overcome, or I do anyway, overcome the fear. I’m just pro.
Steven Butala:
When you’re good at owning a business or starting a business, which are two different things, by the way, starting a business and buying one and owning it are completely different, I’m talking about starting a business, because that’s what Land Academy is, whether you start Land Academy or an online retailer or you get a partner and start a small manufacturing company that manufacturers one or two parts that somebody really needs in your garage, you’re going to succeed or you’re going to fail. Because the first thing that happens when you start down the path of owning a business is something comes up in your life. This happens to everybody. It happens to Jill and I all the time. Right now, she’s looking at her watch because she has to plan for a call that’s in 40 minutes so she’s going to start kicking me under the desk here.
Steven Butala:
And that’s just the latest example of stuff that goes on. And so if you can’t roll with things and say, “Well, we’re out of money. We’re out of money twice as fast as I thought and no one’s buying our stuff,” all that’s going to happen. And if you can’t deal with that and get a partner that can deal with that, there’s no business that you’re going to do well in.
Jill DeWit:
Good advice.
Steven Butala:
None of them. Not land. Not manufacturing. Not owning a convenience store. And you’re probably not going to do well in a marriage. You have to roll with stuff in life. Don’t you think?
Jill DeWit:
You had to bring that in there.
Steven Butala:
Yeah, of course. It’s the same thing. Having a successful relationship and having a successful business are the same. It’s the same skill set.
Jill DeWit:
This is actually funny. I don’t want to put anybody down and say like, “If you can’t do this, you can’t do this.” No. If you’re on your fourth marriage, I’m not sure Land Academy is for you. I’m not going to say that.
Steven Butala:
Or maybe you need to marry Land Academy.
Jill DeWit:
Maybe you will be successful at that.
Steven Butala:
Because Land Academy’s not going to talk back.
Jill DeWit:
Oh my gosh. Your land business will go and do whatever you ask of it, unlike your ex-wife. That’s hilarious.
Steven Butala:
I know you’re pressed for time.
Jill DeWit:
Okay. Thank you. That was fun. Happy you could join us today. Five days a week you can find us right here on the Land Academy Show.
Steven Butala:
Join us next week for another interesting episode. You are not alone in your real estate ambition. Those were fun episodes.
Jill DeWit:
It was good. Good ending. Thank you for tuning in. We hope you find our content valuable and we really do appreciate your support. If you haven’t already, please check out our YouTube channel, hit the subscribe button, and give us feedback on the shows that you love. We are Steve and Jill.
Steven Butala:
We are Steve and Jill, information …
Jill DeWit:
And inspiration.
Steven Butala:
… to buy undervalued property.
If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to email me directly at steven@BuWit.com.
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