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Mike sold his business for $16 million. But seven years ago, he almost backed out of buying his first franchise because of seven lies that he believed about owning a business. And lie number four, that one almost got me too. So let's break them down. The first one is that you need some brilliant, original idea to succeed. But the truth is execution beats innovation every time. People look to Zuckerberg and, and Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos and all these like, mega rich people and say, like, I want to do that, I want to build the next Facebook, or I want to do these massive, new, innovative things, but most of those companies end up failing. Yes, you might raise some money and yes, you may get some prestigious award, but many, many end up failing. But you know what doesn't fail are boring businesses where people are spending money on these services every day and you can come in and just do it a little bit better. Better. Or you consolidate. You're able to buy a bunch of these things and build a bigger company. You know, I did the combination of both in building a automotive repair portfolio that does $50 million a year in revenue. We have 34 locations across, you know, two states. And we aren't the best operators. We don't have the highest revenue per store, but we do a good job. We have great people. We, we meet the customers expectations of, of what they need and we've consolidated a bunch of them. So we get economies of scale, we have buying power, we get margin power. Like, we have created a ton of synergies and cash flow by buying a lot of them. But it's not like we're the best at, or we created them. I just like copied what other people were doing. And I didn't solve any new problems. I didn't invent anything new. And that is where a lot of wealth is created. It's just finding something that you can go and execute on and let some, somebody else take care of all the innovation. There will be another Elon Musk, there will be another Jeff Bezos. Great for them. But there's probably tens of thousands of other people that will fail in the process. I'll just be the guy who has a reliable, healthy business and let them handle that. Number two is that you need a ton of money to start. Most people think that you need $500,000, a million dollars to start a business, but that's total nonsense. My first acquisition was, was in 2016. We needed $130,000 down, and since I had a business partner, I only needed 50%. So $65,000 each is what we put into the business, and we got a bank loan for the rest. And since then, we took all the money that the business was making and we rolled it back into buying more locations. This is like the best part of a franchise, is that it's like rinse and repeat. And that once we're able to figure out, like, the unit economics and reliably profitable and all that stuff, like, we can, we can do more acquisitions. We can open new stores from scratch. And it gets easier and easier as we get bigger. And as we get bigger, we were able to get better relationships with banks. We were able to do some very creative seller financing deals and other structures. We pay cash for them. So, like, we still own 100% of the business today. We have a couple million dollars in debt, and all from $130,000 down. That was like the only cash we ever put into the business. All the other money that we reinvested was from the cash flow. It was from money that was like made with that money. So it's like it gets created and then put back, and then it just escalates. It escalates. And many successful people do this. They reinvest capital back in the business and just compounds and compound. So the skill isn't necessarily that you have money, but it's knowing how to put deals together. It's knowing how to be creative. It's knowing to find out, like, what other people want, especially in these seller financing deals. Like, we bought a business for $2 million for $50,000 down, $50,000 down for a business that was making $500,000 a year, something like that, because that's what he wanted. He wanted 12,000amonth or whatever we're paying him for the next 10 years. And he trusted us more than any other place you could get that money. But that is my relationship. That is the reputation. Like, that is more valuable than the money. Honestly, and especially in the franchise system, this is like, way easier. One of my clients put down $100,000 and got a bank loan to get into a home service franchise that made $800,000 last year. And I'll probably do over a million dollars this year in the same four territories. So, like, you don't need a ton of money to get get started, but you need hard work, you need to have drive, you need to have grit. Like, it's not necessarily easy, but it's not like you need millions of dollars to do this. All right, Number three is that business ownership means freedom immediately. This one's painful because it's half true. And yes, owning a business can give you a lot of freedom eventually. But at first you trade one boss for hundreds of bosses. All of your customers, employees, your lenders, your vendors. Like everyone is relying on you and you get to choose every day what you're going to do. So if you want to go and work your ass off and have a ton of success, like great. Or if you want to go golf all day or take vacations, like the business is going to suffer, your cash flow is going to suffer. Everyone who's in your world is probably going to suffer unless you have a team and systems around that. So for me, for the first two years, maybe even three years after buying my business, I worked more hours than I ever did. So six days a week on Sundays, I would like be on the computer the morning of the night. And it was rarely draining. Like my phone would literally die because I got so many phone calls and overheat. It was like 100 a day. And later, like after I hired people, after I was able to build systems to replace myself, that's when I started to unlock freedom. You need to be very intentional about that. You need to build the business big enough to, to have the payroll to hire the people who are capable of taking the tasks that you would normally do. And then you can start to work on higher level tasks. Or even today, like I have a ton of freedom in my schedule. Like on Monday I took my kids to the zoo because it was a sunny and I didn't have much on my calendar. Like last minute. Like that may seem like I'm not doing anything, but I work on much higher level tasks. I work on deals that can get our company from 50 million to 100 million. And those aren't the types of things that, that I'm gonna like. I need a hundred calls a day to do. Those are ones that I strategically work out, that I build relationships that I'm looking for opportunities. And as you business gets bigger and bigger, that's what happens. So when you're just starting out, yes, you're trading your time for money and you're working. But then as you start to grow now you start to work on how do I build more strategic relationships with bigger, you know, B2B sales or other opportunities. How do I build relationships with other franchisees? So now I can do acquisitions. How do I get involved in the franchisor on the franchise advisory committee so I can be more public? How do I host calls with franchisees to share best practices and get known so I can structure these really creative deals. Like, this is exactly what I've done. And that's like what I spent my time on. So while I maybe wasn't in the stores, I was investing my time choosing to invest my time in these other things. And that's the type of freedom that you get. And that freedom has a lot more flexibility, which allows you to live a better life. And so that's what we're all after here. And so you're not gonna get it immediately, but over time it is earned. Number four. Is that a big one? This is the one that like almost wrecked me. I think a lot of people is that you have to follow your passion, right? Is that you need to find something that you just like, absolutely love and you should do that. This is like the worst advice ever given. Like, just because you love food doesn't mean you should own a restaurant. Just because you love dogs doesn't mean you should go start like a dog poop pickup business, right? I'm not a car guy yet. I own 30, 34 automotive repair shops and I don't care about cars. But you know what I care about? I care about building a business by making money by helping other people succeed in our business. And through, you know, eight figure franchisee, I help tons of franchisees build their dream franchise businesses. Like, that's what I really love to do. That's why I make content, is because I want to help other people succeed. And even in our organization, we have a guy who started as a mechanic for us making $14 an hour, who, who eventually became a store manager, who eventually became one of our best store managers, probably making $100,000 or more this year. Like having that path and having that story that we can point to other people. So like when they join our organization, even as an entry level technician, we can say, hey, there's a path for you with unlimited income and responsibilities if you work hard and you know, are a good person that we want on the team. Right? It's as simple as that. And so don't follow your passion. Instead, look for business that has challenges that you enjoy solving. So for me in auto repair, like, I enjoy the sales process, I enjoy the funnel of how do we get people from marketing to dial the phone to convert that phone call into a visit and turn that visit into an estimate and close the sale and finance it and get paid. And like they have a good experience. So they come back and they tell their friends, like that entire sales fun funnel, it's very transactional based, like, that is my skill set. That is what I enjoy solving. Like, I'm not the B2B relationship sales guy. Like that's fostering it and following up and dropping off coffee and all this shit. Like, I don't. This is not me. So, like, I would not be good at running that type of business. So find a business that you would enjoy running, has the problems and find joy in the business itself, not the actual widget or service that you do. Number five is the best time to start the business is when everything is perfect, right? Like a lot of people, I don't wanna start now because of the economy or the tariffs or like, whatever it is. The truth is there is no perfect time. The market, the economy, everything will always have uncertainty. Your personal life will always have complications. You'll never get that question answered. There is no perfect time. And while you wait for perfect, someone else is gonna be stealing your market share, is gonna be building wealth. And every month that you wait, it's just costing you cash flow, it's costing you opportunity. And like, I think about the same thing when expanding our business to say, is this the time to buy more stores, to get into another brand, to expand into a new state, to start a new business? Like, I think about all the time and then I'm like, back to. Well, like, there's no time like the present. If I look back to five years ago, I did not buy a bunch of businesses because I had lost face. I didn't think it was the right time, whatever, all these excuses. And that cost me like $10 million a year in revenue that we would have today if I wasn't such a wuss about it. And so don't wait for the perfect time to start. It's today. There's the answer, and you can just get going with it. Number six is that you need to know everything before you start. Now, I knew nothing about the auto repair business before I got into it. I still don't like, unless you count changing a battery, swapping out a flat tire, or changing a tail light. I have never fixed a car in my life. But, like, that's not my job, right? My job is not to fix cars. I hire great mechanics who can fix the cars. My job is to find people, to get them to see the vision that we're trying to build and to ensure that we are holding everybody to the expectations of our customers. Right? So what I need to be really got at is finding those great people, setting the expectation, having the vision and setting them up for Success, Success. So you can learn as you go. You can build your knowledge along the way. How you eat an elephant is, you know, one bite at a time. And so a lot of people think you've got to have this whole plan mapped out. The only thing you really need to know is the next three steps. And once you get to step number three, like, you're going to have a pretty good idea of what the next three steps you're going to have to do. And then you do those and then the next three and you just keep going and going. Like there is no perfect map to follow. It's just, get in the game, start making moves, and you'll start to see the next steps from there. Number seven is that you need to be a natural born leader to own a business. Some people think that they're born and not made, which is complete nonsense because running a business isn't this like magical talent. It's a set of skills that anyone can have. And like, in the beginning I had skills that were, you know, I was really good with organized. I was really good with numbers and, and like in money and finance. But like, I never had a sales job before, so I had to learn how to sell. I never managed people before, so I had to learn how to manage people. And like, yes, like, I had many problems in the beginning, especially because of, you know, my age and most of me that works for me, like double of like gaining respect and having them listen to me and like do the things I wanted to have them do. And so, yes, there are plenty of people who would not do those things. Right. Who obviously don't work for me anymore. And that was okay. Like, I learned how to manage. I learned that with some people had, I'd have complete baby gloves because they'd be a mess if I was able to just like, talk to them straight. And there's other people who, you know, I had to, I had to give it to them straight. There was no beating around the bush. They just wanted it like straight shoot and done. And so you learn like, how to deal with these things. There's no book to read to figure this out. You just, you just, you just start, right? That's a lot of it. And so I've worked with hundreds of people who ended up buying businesses who become franchise owners, like former teachers, engineers, veterans, like, tons and tons of people, all these different backgrounds and like, they all had different skill sets, but the thing they had in common was a desire to win, a ability to follow a system and just wanting to continue to learn. So if, like, you don't know accounting, great. Go figure it out. It's not that hard. You don't have to sell, you know, learn how to do it. Like, listen, overcome objections. None of it is special. It's just a matter of willingness to succeed. So there you have there the seven myths that almost held Mike back from buying his business. And many of these hold a lot of people back. And so if you're serious and you want to build wealth, I would highly recommend looking at franchises. They've been great for me. If you want my help in finding a franchise, you can click the link below and I'm happy to help you. And if you have any questions or comments, drop them below and I'll see you in the next video. Cheers.