The Sweaty Startup

Nick / Dan / Max discuss businesses they love.

Things are changing fast in my world! I have hired 8 folks from the Philippines using https://www.supportshepherd.com/.   I launched a new podcast today called The Nick Huber Show.   Apple podcasts: https://apple.co/3r9O5BW   Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2Ta5IoC   Show notes: https://sweatystartup.com/the-nick-huber-show/   Also a real estate community: https://sweatystartup.com/rec/

Nick / Dan / Max discuss business ideas and how they would launch them.

Nick and Max go over their 10 favorite business books and what they like about each.

John Warrillow comes on the show to discuss the things you can do now to make your business more valuable and maximize the return if you ever sell. Sponsor: getjobber.com/sweaty Learn more about John: builttosell.com/sweaty

What businesses are you competing against? How good are they? Well, in the service sector, it isn't much. Nick gives you an example.

Nick, Dan and Max discuss business ideas and how you can start them.

An update on Bolt Storage, my self storage / real estate private equity company: In 2018 the self-storage arm grew as Bolt Storage purchased a facility at 53 Pinckney Road in Ithaca and added it to the operations at 1401. 2019 was a big year as Bolt acquired three properties in Erie County PA, a property in West Mifflin PA (Pittsburgh), and a facility in Lansing NY. In January of 2021 the student storage division (Storage Squad) was sold and the self-storage facilities were rebranded under the Bolt Storage name. By late 2020 and into early 2021 Bolt Storage was hitting on all cylinders, and with new financial partners on board, Bolt Storage began to grow quickly. Gloversville and Newfield were acquired in the fall of 2020, and in early 2021 Shippenville, East Liverpool, Troy, Horseheads, Elmira and Southport were added to the operation. As of May 2021, Bolt Storage owns and operates 20 facilities, 4,154 units and 536,300 rentable square feet of self storage in Ohio, New York and Pennsylvania. The media arm is also growing and Nick hopes to hire a manager for the Sweaty Startup. The team is also growing fast. Nick has now hired 4 filipinos using supportshepherd.com - which he highly recommends. The team is now up to 13 employees.

A lot of fields are numbers games. Sales, venture capital, startups, dating. It’s about taking a lot of shots. Try to get the batting average as high as you can, but take a lot of at-bats and something is bound to work out. But once you get the funnel whittled down and you’re about to take serious action... My golden rule: Quality > quantity. In real estate, one good deal can change your life. Like this one. We purchased that facility in October 2019 with $100k down and it will generate $40k in FREE CASH FLOW in 2021.  Damn. One bad deal can set you WAY back. Ask anyone who levered up and bought a lot of (non cash flowing) real estate in 2007. Many of them lost everything. There is nothing wrong with staying SMALL. Because guess what a big old real estate private equity company with $500MM under management has to do? They have to keep on doing deals just to do them. A great deal doesn’t move the needle for any one person. A bad deal doesn’t wreck the firm. They just have to do deals no matter what. You have an advantage. If you stay small and nimble, one good deal can change your life. And you can stop doing deals if there are no good ones to be had. Small business is the same way. A giant company with $50MM in overhead needs VOLUME. They have to move X amount of product to break even and anything above that is butter. But a small company, like my brother’s lawn care company, can do less work at a higher price point. He can make $150k a year working 30 hours a week 32 weeks a year and spend 20 weeks in the FL keys fishing. That’s because he has made the decision to stay small. To win less bids at a higher price. To only work with a certain TYPE of customer who values quality and speed over price. Going big is great. Hell, I’m about to do it myself.  But remember, if you stay small, you get to pick and choose WHAT you do and where you invest your time and money. A nuance: To choose quality you need quantity. You still need to cast a wide net. You still need to make 500 cold calls to find that one self storage facility. You still need 100 customers a month filling out a quote request form on your website to get 30 new (high paying) clients. But once you have the funnel full, be careful where you spend your time and money.

Decisions aren't easy. Make them the right way. Nick also discusses his latest endevours at http://boltstorage.com