What’s up, guys? Sam Taggart here with door-to-door con and D2D Experts. Today I’m going to talk a little bit about what is a controversial topic. I’m just going to call that straight out because I’m going to talk about how to become a dealer or a business owner when it’s the right time, and how to do it. Now, a lot of you guys watching this, you probably ask yourself like, oh maybe I should just start my own roofing company, or I should go start my own solar company, start my own whatever.
The E Myth
My first piece of advice is to really ask yourself- do you want to do that? I watched a lot of guys go down this path and literally make so much less money than they were at their current company and then I watched some guys go down this path to make a hell of a lot more money than where they were at. So, there are both sides to this story so I don’t want to just talk to one side. I’m going to talk to both sides because the reality is, that there’s a book called The E-myth which is this entrepreneurial myth of salespeople. We tend to be a lot more over-ambitious than we really are and sometimes on a spreadsheet, we like our automatic millionaires according to some of the pricing and payouts that there are in you know past solar alarm satellite roofing kind of owning your own business.
Who Are You In The Business?
When I broke off and ran and I recruited dealers and I’ve done a lot of this kind of stuff what hit me in the nuts that were harder than anything else was I realized, I’m a visionary, I’m a mover, but I was missing certain pieces of the business. Things like the manager, the technician, certain aspects that take really running a company, and sometimes a guy that’s a technician who likes to tinker. It takes different roles to accomplish business goals. If you’re missing those pieces of the sales engine and you’re missing the creative mind of the brain you’re going to end up tanking on this business and not driving any revenue so you’re going to end up sitting there with a great website and some business cards and some nice shirts and no sales. It’s like you have the manager who is like okay I’m a manager I’m going to have this amazing business, but they’ve not created any of the website and the processes and finance departments and the fulfillment and the paten and all the pieces that make a business. Then the visionary and the entrepreneur guy is all the hype in the world but then he goes out and sells all these deals and doesn’t realize he’s got to fill on him he’s got a he’s got to have a back-end, a process, and you’ve got to hire an admin. Now you hire an admin at 60 grand a year and it’s like, oh that comes out of my check. Then you have to hire a finance team. Then you have to pay for legal contracts. There are so many other things you run into and you start to realize that your spreadsheet didn’t calculate all the things that go into a business.
Ask Yourself, Are Willing To Weather The Storm?
My one thing is to ask yourself first. Before you start your own dealer or run that route. You are just on a spreadsheet and not really calculating shirts and swag and incentives, you’re overlooking all the things that your current company does for you, competitions, prizes, and technology. Just signing up for a CRM will cost you hundreds of dollars a month and training platforms. Things like that are expensive, but those are the things that have proven themselves. This will help you build up enough cash reserve to go weather a storm.ย
I’ve interviewed hundreds of people and some of the best business owners in this business so I’ve got to pick the brains I’ve consulted over a hundred companies and I’ve got to lift up the hood and I’ve seen awesome ones and I’ve seen ones falling apart. What I found is that those owners who are willing to say I’m not in it for the money, initially. Meaning, you’ll make more money being a salesperson at your own company. When you own your own company you would have made a lot more money just being the sales rep. But, if you can think long-term, not short-term it’s a great avenue.
A lot of salespeople, with their ADD brains, run into a problem. They run into- I want quick money and that’s why they start their business is because they think oh, I’m going to get paid more running my own business and I’ll have a bigger piece of this pie. What they fail to realize is when they’re wearing every hat, they’re not selling, they’re wearing every other hat therefore their production goes way down. Then they have to find out how to hire manage and outsource, which costs money and now your now you can’t get into the selling role. But, if there’s a trade-off there when you can structure organize build that side of things to replace the sale or the operations that you left at your old company. This is a magic sauce this is where people win. This is where guys thrive and they make a lot of money. But, they don’t realize that it takes a year two years three years and they don’t have the patience. It will be six months in they realize they’re broke, but on a spreadsheet, they were supposed to be a millionaire and they really weren’t. So ask yourself, am I really weathering the storm? Do I have enough reserve or am I a broke sales dude that just wants more of the pie? I’m just gonna be honest. So the people that win are the ones that are ready to weather that storm and how do you do it?
There are two ways. Either you can go be a dealer, meaning there’s a lot of fulfillment companies, meaning there’s an EPC company, and solar that’ll do your installs, proposals, engine earrings, and all of that and you be the sales and marketing arm. You can do that in pest control, you can do that in satellite. You go sign up with AT&T and say I want to be a dealer in sales and marketing arm and they’ll do a lot of the operation stuff for you. You still have operation issues that you’re going to have to deal with wherever you go, but they try to take a lot of the load off you.
The other route is you do everything from start to finish. I just got off the phone with a pest control owner. He literally is a two-man shop where he sells it he goes to the truck, he pulls up, and he sprays it right then and there. He’s playing both sides. He is selling and fulfilling. He doesn’t have to sub it out and pay these guys. He gets to keep all the cream there. The reality is that could he have been selling more had he not been spraying and taking the time it took to fulfill his own stuff? so just asking the two
People think sales should make all the money and this is where they overlook the overhead costs it takes to run a business. So, don’t get super greedy. Don’t be like, I need this pricing or No matter what if I’m gonna open up a dealer. Like guys, what happens is if they’re giving you such a low price point and they don’t even have skin on the bone to actually operate their business how they need. Jobs won’t get fulfilled like they should. Now you look bad to the customer because they’re getting crappy service because you’re not paying them enough meat on their bones to operate the fulfillment side. So, don’t get too greedy. Just know what you’re getting into, eyes open before you’re like screw these companies, they’re taking all my money. I should have made a million dollars this year. And I’m like, no, you didn’t make a million dollars this year. Maybe you brought in the revenue of a million dollars, but you didn’t account for all the little things that go into running your business. So, just keep that in mind.
Hopefully, you know, obviously, I’m here to help like reach out like we’re here to support you. Reach out to us. Go listen to the D2D podcast on any of your favorite podcast apps, and follow us on YouTube. Follow us on Instagram on D2D Experts or the Sam Taggart Instagram. Check out our event D2DCon. We’re here to provide value and answer your questions because you found the right vehicle. This is the vehicle and you just have to drive it the right way.
