Jimmy’s House

Ok, so I read THIS story at Yahoo.

You can read it if you want but I’ll be glad to sum it up real quick for you. Washington wants to give another 15,000,000,000.00 (billion but you need to see the zeroes) to banks and ‘encourage’ them to loan that money to small businesses to help us out.

So, the same people who forced banks to loan money to people who couldn’t pay it back are now going to force banks to loan money to people……who…..might….not…..be….able….to…..pay…..it….back.

Look, if your business has to borrow money to make payroll then maybe you don’t have a business. How in the world does a company, who can’t make payroll without financial assistance, plan on paying back a payroll loan? Look, I’m speaking from experience here. I tried to borrow money once to help me make payroll. That worked for about a month and then something strange happened. I got a bill! Imagine that, those crooks wanted their money back! To this very day I’m making interest payments on payroll from two years ago!

Borrowing money to ‘fix’ your business is just hiding the problems. Let me explain. Last spring I decided that I was going to save my company. After listening to Dave Ramsey I realized that I wasn’t going to be able to borrow myself into profitability. I won’t go into great detail here because the details are boring. I’ll just say that I cut everything I didn’t need to keep the doors open. I completely quit borrowing money. I spent hours and hours digging through my P&L statements trying to figure out where I was losing money. I had to make A LOT of hard choices. It included cutting my income in half and therefore causing us to move out of our brand new home. By the end of last year I was able to cause a $150,000.00 swing in our P&L statement. I did this on the exact same revenue as the year before. There is no secret formula for this kind of success. It’s exactly what Dave teaches. As a business owner you have to figure out how to get your business to live on less than it makes, too!

I paid $1,000.00 a month to match my employees Social Security and Medicare contributions last year. Do you realize how much money that is? For a small business in this slow down that is a lot of cash. Why is it Washington is willing to hand out 15B to a bunch of banks but won’t let me keep a portion of MY money! It’s because they want control of that money. They don’t think I’m smart enough to know what to do with it. Washington thinks I’m an idiot.

Well, I’m not an idiot. I did something with my business last year that Washington, with all their statistics and their big offices full of help, can’t seem to do. I balanced my own budget and made my business live on less than it makes.

Washington, get out of my way and stop offering ‘help’. I have work to do…

This weekend while in Franklin, TN I was able to stop by Brentwood, TN and stop in at Dave Ramsey’s offices.

Because of some work being done around the building I wasn’t able to see Dave while he was on the air. I didn’t realize this but right as you walk in the front door of his building they have these large glass windows where you can watch Dave while he’s on the air. Frankly, I was shocked at this fact. I can’t imagine being on the air and trying to help someone while people are watching me from a window and taking pictures. Here is what I think it comes down to.

Dave LOVES what he is doing. He is doing what God called him to do. When he is helping someone I believe it is effortless. Dave is doing the work he loves. When you can take what you love and do it for a living you will find yourself having a hard time telling when you are at work and when you are at play. In fact, here is Dan Miller’s favorite quote.

The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he’s always doing both. -James A. Michener

Anyway, Dave paid for the building with cash that he saved up over a 5 year period. I just love that. He is 100% committed to staying out of debt forever. Well, this week I’ve been listening to Dave live, which I rarely do. I usually just podcast him. Well, he got a call from a guy that had spent a couple of years getting out of debt. Dave was really excited for the guy and then the guy did it, he told Dave that he found this great house (what would be his second house) that he wanted to borrow 200k for. I could hear the disappointment in Dave’s voice. Well, I couldn’t resist so I sent Dave an email. I had a pretty strong feeling that he would read my comment on the air and I was right. Incidentally this is the second time Dave has read one of my emails on air. The first time was February 29th last year at ,ironically, the exact same minute in the exact same hour as last year. Here is Dave reading my email and commenting.

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Most bad days I have around here can be traced back to my debt. Believe me, I have A LOT of debt I’m working through right now. When you are in business you have so much to deal with on a daily basis. A bunch of debt hanging over your head will effect your decision making. When you have a lot of debt in your business you give a certain amount of control of your company away to your creditors. I really identify with Dave when he talks this way. You can’t show me something I’d be willing to go into debt to have either.

I’m sick of it, I’m done! I’m not doing this anymore! AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Debt is the slavery of the free. -Publilius Syrus (Roman author, 1st century B.C.)

Nothing happens unless first a dream. -Carl Sandburg

I had the incredible pleasure of spending this last weekend at Dan Miller’s House. Now, if you are a big Dave Ramsey fan then you already know who Dan Miller is. For those of you who don’t let me explain. I’m not sure if there is anyone who has more of a passion to help people find the work that they love. Dan Miller is the author of 48 Days To The Work You Love and No More Mondays. Dan really believes that the work you are most likely to love is the work you create for yourself. Simply put, Dan is an expert on entrepreneurialism.

A lot happened over these two days so instead of trying to write it all out in one post I will try to take the two days and break them up into 2-3 posts. Please check back soon for further updates!

First, let me give you some proof that I was actually there!

Ok, you got me figured out. I just wanted to show off. That’s ok, I don’t mind admitting it. Well, I’m not done showing off yet…

That, my friends, is the office of a New York Times best selling author (sorry Dan, I couldn’t resist). I don’t feel so bad now.

Ok, so I’ve spent the last few days trying to figure out what I wanted to share first. I finally figured it out.

This was a very small intimate group. There were only a total of 50 people allowed to register for this event. There was a very wide variety of people there. We all had one thing in common. We all want to be in business for ourselves. We all believe that Dan and his group of coaches have the knowledge and experience to help each and every one of us reach our ultimate goals. For the majority of the first day we were separated into two groups and each one of us was given 15 minutes to get up, introduce ourselves, and talk about our specific business and get answers to some of the issues we are facing.

One thing that my entire group had in common was our desire to help others in our business. Every single person who got up made it very clear that ultimately, they wanted to help others. I believe that if you can integrate a passion to serve others into your business then you can create something that is truly special.

Well, that’s all for now. I have so much else I want to say but I need to break things up or I’ll start to ramble.

You are not here merely to make a living. You are here to
enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, and
with finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich
the world. You impoverish yourself if you forget this errand.
- Woodrow Wilson