Learning How to Run a Business (LA 1853)
Learning How to Run a Business (LA 1853)
Transcript:
Steven Jack Butala:
Steven and Jill here.
Jill DeWit:
Hello.
Steven Jack Butala:
Welcome to the Land Academy Show. Entertaining land investment talk. I’m Steven Jack Butala.
Jill DeWit:
And I’m Jill DeWit broadcasting from the valley of the cheese.
Steven Jack Butala:
We’re in Wisconsin today.
Jill DeWit:
Yes we are. You know what? And I’m looking for that chocolate cheese. I’ve had it. I know of it. I don’t know where to find it but I’m on a mission.
Steven Jack Butala:
If anybody knows where to get the chocolate cheese, we’ll be here for a while. Please let us know or staff know or put it in there.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah.
Steven Jack Butala:
YouTube or anyway, you can get to us.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah. Please tell me the home of the chocolate cheese. Because it’s so good.
Steven Jack Butala:
Today Jill and I are going to talk about learning how to run a business. As I said yesterday, an integral part of what we do here. It takes up at least 50% of the time of what we talk about during career path. From people who have been running businesses their entire professional life. And people who are brand new. I always learn something new and make those changes based on what goes on in career path. So there’s a lot of career path talk right now because we’re starting to back up. The next session is in October and we just had the career path alumni call, which we have once every-
Jill DeWit:
Month.
Steven Jack Butala:
Once every month. Before we get into it, let’s take a question posted by one of our members on the land investors.com online community. It’s free. And I hope you know by now we have a full blown printing company to send your offers to owners.com. It’s called offers to owners. The number two, we send out between 500,008 or 900,000 mailers a month on behalf of members and non land academy members.
Jill DeWit:
And ourselves.
Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah. And they do our mail.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah.
Steven Jack Butala:
Completely born out of our frustration, Jill and I of having to deal with commercial printing companies that didn’t understand mail urges or what we’re doing or how we’re doing this.
Jill DeWit:
Our urgency, or why we’re doing it.
Steven Jack Butala:
Trying to sell us color printing. When we know we don’t need it.
Jill DeWit:
Stuff like that.
Steven Jack Butala:
Things like that.
Jill DeWit:
Exactly. Matt wrote, “Hello, all I’m closing on my first piece of land and selling it retail value. Looking for advice on the best way to go about selling it. Should I get a real estate agent? Is there an inspection process I should go through before buying it? Soil test. See if something’s available? Where is the best place to list it on the MLS?” Is that more of the question there? Okay, “So I’m buying it for $7,000 and I think it’s going to retail between 25 and $30,000. I often use flat fee listing companies when selling houses because I haven’t sold land yet. So I was considering an agent as I’m not exactly sure what information I need to market it appropriately.” You want me to go first?
Steven Jack Butala:
Sure.
Jill DeWit:
Okay. So yeah, if you are not sure and you’ve not experienced with this then I think getting an agent is stellar.
Steven Jack Butala:
Me too.
Jill DeWit:
You can do flat rate MLS postings, just like you did in the past. There’s companies like… Can’t think of the one that we used to use out there. But now I use Broker Direct, MLS.com. Because they cover all over the country and they’re a great service to help you put it up there. So the great thing about those companies, if you do flat rate listing service, you’re going through a title or going through a real estate agent, I should say, but they’re not taking a commission. You’re just paying them a fee to use them to get on the MLS. They’re going to send you the forms you fill them out. They’re going to say how many pictures you want? What order you want? And they’re just going to spit it out there. Not make it pretty or anything. They’re going to do exactly what you tell them because they’re just the resource for you. But the flip side is, and now you’re selling yourself. You’re taking all the phone calls, the emails and everything like that. You’re acting on your own behalf.
If you go get a real estate agent. I love that. Especially when you’re new to an area. Why not? And you know what, Matt, you’ve got the numbers to support it. Buying for seven selling for 25 to 30, this price point. They’ll either going to take a 10% commission. So be like 2,500 to three grand or they’ll have a dollar amount that they’ll say, “Hey, I’ll do it for… Fill in the blank amount.” Because it’s got to be worth their while. Either way say they do the 10%, which a lot of land people do. I think it’s worth it. Think about it. You’re buying for seven. You’re selling for 30. You do no work. They take 3000. Okay. So now you’re in it for 10. Right? So you’re going to profit 20. Again, they’ll take the photos. They’ll pay for the photos. They do the drone shots. They take the phone calls. They manage the driving people around and the emails and so on.
Steven Jack Butala:
This is a really popular topic. This was the very beginning of a… This is the first question that Matt asked that sparked probably 20 answers in discord.
Jill DeWit:
That’s good.
Steven Jack Butala:
From all different… And everybody. I think without exception said, you’d need to get a real estate agent here.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah.
Steven Jack Butala:
You need to get a land specific, very successful local real estate agent to tell you exactly how much it’s going to sell for what you need to do or not to. And pay that person well. To pay them 10%, you’re going to buy for 7,000, sell for 30,000. You’re going to end up paying that agent three grand. It’s totally worth it.
Jill DeWit:
I’m sure people are going, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. What happened to three or 6%? A little different with land and a little different with smaller numbers. That’s why. My best guys are 10% up-
Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah.
Jill DeWit:
To a hundred thousand dollars. Sale price to make it worth their while I agree. And then over a hundred thousand dollars sale price they rock it back to 6%.
Steven Jack Butala:
But the amount of consulting and free advice. Not free but advice that you’re going to get. The agent might come in and say yeah, you think it’s 25 or 30. I probably can get 60,000 for this.
Jill DeWit:
Right.
Steven Jack Butala:
And then you would never have known that.
Jill DeWit:
That’s true.
Steven Jack Butala:
When it’s a good real estate agent we never ever regret it.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah.
Steven Jack Butala:
We only ever regret hiring a real estate agent that we hired. Because they blew a lot of smoke, which doesn’t happen too much anymore. Because we have some experience.
Jill DeWit:
Right.
Steven Jack Butala:
But they blow a lot of smoke in the beginning and the property doesn’t sell.
Jill DeWit:
And then they come to you and say, I guess we should reduce it. I’m like, I guess you should sell it. Well, thanks. I’ve paying you to sell the thing.
Steven Jack Butala:
Hey, stop it. Learning how to run a business. This is why you’re listening. Jill and I spent the last two or three days driving through Nebraska and Iowa. Nothing but agriculture in every direction.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah.
Steven Jack Butala:
This month it’s September.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah.
Steven Jack Butala:
The middle of September. So where there’s leaves they’re changing. Harvest season is coming up and all I had was questions. Because I knew nothing about this.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah.
Steven Jack Butala:
Nothing about agriculture. So I’m sitting in the passenger seat and half the time researching. How much is a bushel of corn? How much does it cost it make to grow it? Is it subsidized? Why is there so much corn? Why are there beans? Soybeans. And then I see sporadic cattle and I look up how much it costs. It costs three, $400 or 600 close to $600 to raise cattle throughout its lifespan. And you sell it for 1600. Usually net a thousand dollars cattle. My numbers are probably off here but that was the result of my research. Knowing full well I know nothing. So then I start to think, well a thousand heads of cattle, I can buy land cheap. We know about how to do that. But what if I start doing this? What if we buy a ranch? Then I’m thinking to myself and sometimes telling Jill when she puts up with it. Why would I do this? Why would I ever go through a learning curve like that?
Jill DeWit:
Pizza.
Steven Jack Butala:
Well, no. Why would I ever go through a learning curve when I don’t know about it? What I would do is get to know if I was serious about it which I’m not. Get to know… But I’m serious about buying land here. Get to know-
Jill DeWit:
I would go to cattle academy.
Steven Jack Butala:
Or no. What I would do is at this age is get a partner. And I would go to cattle academy if I knew there were people in there that knew how to raise cattle profitably.
Jill DeWit:
Right.
Steven Jack Butala:
And they’re flying around in their own helicopters. And they’re in that group to learn more. That’s what Land Academy is. So if you don’t know how to run a business, this is the topic now. You need to be hanging around people who have been successfully running businesses for a very, very long time. I don’t care if it’s a manufacturing business or a land or investment business. But that’s what goes on a career path and I’m not selling anything here. Every single time I talk to the people in career path-
Jill DeWit:
I am. Just kidding.
Steven Jack Butala:
I find out something, well, no, no. This is how we do our taxes. And we file these this form and this is the reason. And so I learn a lot. I would never start a cattle ranch without standing right next to somebody who’s done it 42 times. And they’re saying sentences like, yeah, you think this is going to work out but this is how it goes. This is where we should get the water. I know this guy over here, we’ve had a long relationship. Yeah. We used to auction the cattle off when we were done. Now we do this. It just makes complete sense. So why would I have go through that learning curve. And what I’m bringing to the table is a ridiculously cheap land. Undervalued land I should say. So as far as learning how to run a business. Please. And everybody who’s listening to this either is running a business or wants to run a business. Put yourself in front of people who already successfully run businesses.
Jill DeWit:
This is a natural progression in Land Academy as you grow, we have a lot of people that come in with WTWO jobs still working the WTWO jobs doing this on the evenings, doing this the weekends, getting up early and they get to a point where they’re making so much money and they can replace their own income. Right. That’s usually the… Sometimes they replace their own income or sometimes they hire somebody. Right? But there’s a progression and a shift that happens they’re like, okay, I see it now I can turn transition here. And then it starts to turn into a company like you said. And it turns into a business and it turns into, I can look at my taxes differently and I got to hire people. And really, you are running your own little business even if it’s just you. You could be running a business with you’re the only employee but you’re still running a business.
So that’s one thing I want to think about. And that’s like you said, it is true. It’s stuff that goes on all the time within our community. People don’t realize that. They think you just land academies. I’m just going to show you how to buy it, sell it and let you just see ya. That’s it. No, no, no. We’re going to take you all the way to the end. We’re going to help you make this as big as you want it to be. If you want to be like us rolling around in an RV and in the rain buying chocolate cheese. Don’t you think it’s great? Because I do.
Steven Jack Butala:
Don’t be like us.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah.
Steven Jack Butala:
Whatever you do.
Jill DeWit:
I do. I clearly. When you get out here and you go, I had no idea that I’m a land person. I just love it. You know what I mean?
Steven Jack Butala:
Me too.
Jill DeWit:
It’s beautiful. I love this green grass. It’s so fun. My second point is that some of our best people in Land Academy are former business owners. So you don’t have to be that. Coming into Land Academy will help you grow into that. But/however if you have experienced running a business and all the trials and tribulations and things that you have to do to be successful running any kind of business and you just have a hint of, oh, I know there’s money to be made in real estate, buying and selling this whatever. I just don’t understand the nuances about that product. Those are some of our best-
Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah.
Jill DeWit:
Best members and we welcome you. Especially, I love those too because you bring something different.
Steven Jack Butala:
Yes.
Jill DeWit:
It makes me think like Lori. Our sweet member, Lori Phillips. Lori has so much executive experience from a prior lifetime, if you will. So she came to us learning what the heck is this buying and selling land thing? And then she could apply corporate America stuff. Like I said, just some of her life experience to this and make it great. And I love it. Because then I learned something too. You want?
Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah. My second and final point on this is the title of this episode is learning how to run a business. Now more than ever you choose where you can learn. And learning how to run a business is that topic is plastered all over YouTube or the internet or wherever you get information. So-
Jill DeWit:
I didn’t know that.
Steven Jack Butala:
Learn from people that you can identify with somehow. I’ll tell you there are probably five or six or more and more tiny little popup shops here about how to learn to buy and sell land without exception. Well, one exception is Jack Bosch. But everybody else has been a Land Academy member.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah.
Steven Jack Butala:
And if you really press people to ask them how many deals they’ve done or when were… You ask them when were you a Land Academy member?
Jill DeWit:
That’s a good one.
Steven Jack Butala:
Maybe they’ll lie. Maybe they’ll tell you the truth. But all I’m saying is-
Jill DeWit:
Wouldn’t that be funny?
Steven Jack Butala:
Just please have this thought. Whoever you’re going to learn from make sure that they have some experience and make sure that you identify with them somehow. For us, we do really well with people who take this very seriously. Jill and I, we have a lot of long, long time loyal members that do incredibly well because we all get along. We all seem to identify with each other and want to learn from each other. And most of the people out there that are learning to buy and sell land from other resources, maybe resources that have been educated at Land Academy. Don’t take it as seriously. I think. So if you are in one of those groups and you’re like, (beep) this is not what I expected. It’s because you’re probably not taking it that seriously. So-
Jill DeWit:
Will help you.
Steven Jack Butala:
So part of… It’s not just buying and selling land here. It’s all cumulative years and years of experience that we all have of running a business.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah. That’s for sure. Including other kinds of businesses.
Steven Jack Butala:
That’s what all this gray here is right now.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah. Exactly. Happy you could join us today. Five days a week, you can find us here on the Land Academy Show.
Steven Jack Butala:
Tomorrow the episode of the Land Academy Show is called Jack’s Career Path Alumni Advice. You are not alone in your real estate ambition. Here’s that career path-
Jill DeWit:
Is this your career path week and I didn’t know it?
Steven Jack Butala:
No, it just ended up being that way.
Jill DeWit:
Okay. Got it. This on our minds.
Steven Jack Butala:
Again, we had this call. The monthly call was because there are more and more and more career path, diverse types of career path alumni. These calls are getting great. So…
Jill DeWit:
Oh yeah.
Steven Jack Butala:
I was asked to give some advice, which I’ll share here tomorrow.
Jill DeWit:
You know it’s funny. We only have 500 people that I keep at in Land Academy. The career path alumni group is even smaller.
Steven Jack Butala:
Oh geez.
Jill DeWit:
Because we only do three a year.
Steven Jack Butala:
I bet it’s probably 40 people. What do you think?
Jill DeWit:
A little more than 40. I mean, because we’re on number five but-
Steven Jack Butala:
Oh sure. Okay.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah. We’re going into number five right now. But it’s a really tight, solid group. Yeah. We’ve only done four of them. That’s pretty cool. Thank you for tuning in. By the way, Jack and I are fully aware not everyone has a couple hundred thousand dollars lying around to buy a property like we do. Not to worry. We are here and happy and ready and want to fund your deals. What the heck am I talking about? Go to landfunding.com or you can go on one of our online communities which is landinvesting.com and you’ll find a deal funding tab at the top. Either place, we’ll get you the same thing. Or if you’ve got some great deal and you don’t have the [inaudible 00:15:47] to get it done. Submit it to me, I’ll look at it. And if it looks great to me too, I’ll be your bank. And we’re happy to do that. And then even within Land Academy there’s millions of dollars. We have never had to deal. We just had someone put like, what was it about three million self or eight million?
Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah.
Jill DeWit:
They got funded into the community.
Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah.
Jill DeWit:
So if you’ve got a great deal. You will find the money within our group. I promise. We are Jack and Jill.
Steven Jack Butala:
We are Jack and Jill. Information.
Jill DeWit:
And inspiration.
Steven Jack Butala:
To buy undervalued property.
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