Unlocking Entrepreneurship: Navigating Financing, Acquisitions, and Overcoming Challenges with Beau Eckstein

Ready to leap into entrepreneurship but don't know where to start? Join us as we chat with Beau Eckstein, a financing specialist whose mission is to help small business owners, start-ups, and existing businesses secure the funds they need to thrive. In our conversation, we uncover the challenges of commercial lending, discuss the significance of establishing relationships with lenders, and highlight the opportunities presented by retiring baby boomers and the rise of franchise entrepreneurship.

Beau shares his expertise on business acquisition financing, explaining how aspiring entrepreneurs can benefit from these opportunities with little to no money down. We also explore the different financing options for business acquisition, such as SBA 7A loans and owner financing. Beau breaks down the components of SBA 7A loans and shares his insights on the importance of equity injection and bringing in an investor partner to provide the required equity for a successful business acquisition.

The path to entrepreneurship is paved with challenges, but Beau Eckstein believes anyone can succeed with the right strategies and determination. We delve into the importance of having a coach, overcoming limiting beliefs, and building confidence in your abilities. Beau's invaluable advice and guidance will inspire you to take action, embrace the entrepreneurial mindset, and finally achieve your dreams of owning your own business. Don't miss this enlightening episode that will empower you to chase financial freedom and success.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: Hey guys, ryan Diment from Chasing Financial Freedom podcast. I hope you guys are having a great day. Today on the podcast, we have Bo Eckstein and Bo helps Small business owners existing businesses, start-ups with financing and we had a pre-call and started talking about some stuff. But the cool thing that he talked about and I was a little aware of it, but we'll go into a little more detail about is SBA financing to acquire a business, and Bo has some great knowledge And some great tips on it and he just closed a deal and I think you might be able to share that and walk through that. So, bo, welcome to the show. 

Speaker 2: Thanks for having me, ryan, glad to be here not a problem. 

Speaker 1: So before we get into all the nuts and bolts and going down some rabbit holes as I say, little bit about yourself, your background, and then we'll start to see where we can go. 

Speaker 2: Sure, 45 years old, got started in real estate lending at 20 years old, started as a residential mortgage broker, quickly got pretty good at originating loans and Helping people navigate the home buying process. Then I actually moved to Nevada, moved to Lake Tahoe and I started buying up properties, not really knowing when I was gonna did what I was doing. And then 2007 rolled around 2008, and We got Nevada got wiped out. I owned about eight or nine houses at the time, so I had an early midlife crisis in my 20s going through that debacle. Anyways, fast forward, you live and learn. You got to pick yourself up and figure out. Okay, i wasn't the only one that went under, it was a banks, because it's a pretty bad time. But I realized I didn't know a lot about investing. I was speculating and so move back to the Bay Area. And then I started working with some private mortgage funds and I started doing a lot of rehab loans back one. We have so many foreclosures. So I started lending money to all these flippers and these builders and And I quickly said, if these guys can do it, i can do it. And then we started flipping properties and I had terrible credit because I defaulted on a bunch of loans and Really wasn't in a really good financial position. But I said how can I do this right? So I found a money partner Obviously knew how to get hard money. And then I partnered with a contractor So we would do these deals and I would basically run point on all these deals and I would get a third of the profits. And so I did that numerous times. 

Speaker 2: Over time I got, i started a real estate investor club. I owned a real estate brokerage. I got found. I did a house flipping show on hgTV in 2013 called flip at the winnet, which was a fun experience, and then I really wanted to dive more into commercial lending. So I taught myself how to originate SBA loans, how to structure deals, and that leads me to like where I'm at today, where Mostly what I do is work with business owners and I they call me and they're like hey, i'm trying to buy this type of existing business or I'm trying to start a business, and I basically helped them navigate the process. 

Speaker 2: I work with banks, credit unions, non bank SBA lenders, both SBA 7a 504 and express loans. And what I love about SBA Because I got burnt out I still do fix and flip loans. They still have the whole. I still have all my investors And they call me for money. So I can place pretty much anything investor business related as far as debt and equity type of financing. But I really love placing business loans and SBA financing in particular. So I I'm a member of the National Association or government guaranteed lenders. 

Speaker 2: I've gone through trading where most it's mostly bankers. I'm like one of the only kind of advisors or brokers in the space, so I invest heavily into my education. It's that's amazing. What I do, too, is I build relationships Because there's not one lender that has a certain. They all have different buy boxes of what. What's the other thing that I do? I have a different business business type. Some of them like business only if there's commercial real estate involved. Some of them will do just straight business acquisition where there's no collateral. So I help business owners, investors structure this and get to the finish line. 

Speaker 1: That's a journey, and in 2007 2008, i was in Nevada. I was in Las Vegas, to be precise. Man, what a disaster that was. I lived through that. I wasn't investing in fix and flips, but it's when I started my journey and I started buying defaulted mortgages and had no clue What I was doing. It was introduced to me and I was like, wow, i can do this. Great, and they were. They were selling for 15 10. I even saw five cents on the dollar. Nothing like that today. But that's strange, it's your Nevada at the same time, just northern Nevada, and I was in southern Nevada. 

Speaker 2: And now I live in Las Vegas. 

Speaker 1: So actually living that's right, you live on the east side, right? Yes, yes, cool. So that's been a journey. And so What got you moving into that commercial space? because that's I really like it. I'd like to be able to diversify what we're doing and add on some businesses that could be beneficial for our real estate and our real estate business. And I think we've talked about a little bit and we've talked about a book, about buy and build book, and we can go into that detail, more details. But What got you there? What really pushed you to that? that point of saying I want to get out of fix and flip and I want to get into commercial I like bigger deals. 

Speaker 2: I like challenges and Structuring. Business acquisition financing is awesome. What I really love about it is I can help, with little to no money down, aspiring business owners. Acquisition by, or entrepreneurship by, acquisition. You can take somebody that's a W chip employee, that has bigger dreams and help them find a new cash flow stream and that's what we do and that there's something to be said about Helping somebody that's been in their corporate grind and burned out and you're like it's not that you can go buy this two or three million dollar building with a hundred grand out of pocket. Let me show you or less Let me show you how to structure these deals. To me That's amazing and in it with sba, there's got stacks of guidelines but once you get into it you're always learning. I learned something new. I just learned about a new program I didn't know about in california Which mimics sba, but it's different. In certain ways You can do bigger deals. 

Speaker 2: I like the structuring of Loans and it really what I do. It. Where I excel is I'm constantly networking with banks, credit unions and the bdo's the business development people at the banks and really finding Who's get at what is really my skill set and then Facilitating the deal. I kind of work as a quarterback in the beginning and then I place the deal and then the banker typically takes over. I sit in the background, so I'm using the skill sets I like to use and then helping people facilitate. The other reason I really like doing it is because the more deals I structure, the better I get for my own individual business and investing career. The fact that I could show people, hey, like we can go buy this two million dollar business and I'll show you how to do it with none of your own money That to me is amazing, because you can go in and walk and get 200 300 grand a year cash flow stream for $1000 a year cash flow And in day one. If you're buying an existing business And with so many baby boomers retiring it, i literally think it's the gold rush right now for this It is. 

Speaker 1: I think we talked about it and I saw the data, but I don't know if I'm off. 12 and a half million baby boomers are retiring That don't have succession plans in their small business owners or business owners. That's crazy. 

Speaker 2: Yeah, that's similar numbers to what I've read too. So, yeah, the opportunities and really when, if you listen to Cody Sanchez, she would talks about buying boring businesses, hvac companies We're talking about Home service businesses. I do a lot in the franchise world too, or I'm starting to do more. I should say, and it's amazing, even starting a franchise, you can get in with 100 150 thousand dollar investment, which most of these are eligible for SBA financing. So you're coming in with 10 or 15 percent of total costs And the the top line revenue of some of these home service-based businesses is amazing and people are recouping their Investment in a year and a year or a year and a half very quickly for the right franchise concept. So, not only a business acquisitions, but I think we're seeing a big uptick in franchise entrepreneurship as well. 

Speaker 1: So you gave an example when we first started talking a w2 employee that's burnt out of their job and they want to aspire to something bigger. Let's go through that situation and talk about it. How can that w2 employee Get to that bigger aspiration? by acquiring existing business or a franchise? 

Speaker 2: Yeah, first you have to commit in your mind that, hey, listen, i'm done doing what I'm doing. I'm going to use it for the next two or three years as I step into my other business full time and then really diving deep on what type of business and lifestyle you want. A lot of people, like what I see in the franchise world, they'll come in thinking they want to buy a quick service restaurant. But then when you think about how many employees you need and staff and brick and mortar, maybe there's a better option of a home service-based business where you're doing, you sell for it and you have a mobile van and you go to people's houses and some of these businesses are doing $2 or $3 million of top-line revenue. But in the franchise world we use like a disc profile It's called a Zoracle profile. It really it's good matching. That helps the franchise Zor and the franchisee and the franchise broker find the right concepts that might work best with their skill set. So that's what they do in the franchise world. That really helps all parties. 

Speaker 2: As far as buying an existing business, i think you got to really you got to find something that aligns with your skill sets. Maybe you're really good at project management, you're a good team leader, or maybe you want to be an owner operator. You buy a business where you can come in and you're going to run the day-to-day operations Just really where your skill sets align. and what you might think of a business that you want to buy, you might end up saying that doesn't really align with my lifestyle and interests. You might find something completely different. You might always thought, oh, i'd love to own a gym. Would I really love to own a gym? And that's like what you have to uncover, i think, really, at the end of the day. 

Speaker 2: I just had a conversation with a guy that bought an existing tree trimming business about three and a half years ago I think. He paid $3.2 million, got SBA financing. Last year he did $4.5 million in revenue. Last year he did $6.5 million. He said this year he's on a pace to do $10 million in top line revenue And it's a darn tree trimming business. And so then what's top line? What are the average margins? that will actually be your net cash flow after you pay large mesas and debt. So I think looking at that could be interesting. So, even though maybe owning a tree trimming business isn't sexy, when you're making $500,000 net a year from that one business. 

Speaker 2: Is that sexy? Yeah, i think it's sexy. And then you're seeing equity private equity come in and they're doing rollups and they're buying. So you're also building an asset that's sellable in the future. Or, just like you're buying the existing business, maybe you start expanding and you do a mini-rollup and then you sell that off to private equity. So there's lots of options. 

Speaker 1: What would you say that tree trimming business? what skill set did he have that's growing that top line revenue? Is it just didn't have any marketing and he's out there pounding the pavement? or what skill set did he bring to that business? 

Speaker 2: He's expanding territories. You told me he'll move, go to a new territory. It's about $750,000 for working capital and equipment for each new territory. He's in Florida, he moves to another city within Florida And then that one territory, i think, does $2 million in top line. That new territory that costs $750,000. So he has that. He's like basically created little mini franchises of his business And he's just opening, expanding. His concept is a non-franchise business But I think he just systematized and wanted to grow A lot of these baby boomers that are retiring. 

Speaker 2: They just want somebody to take their baby right, like this Marina, for example, that we just acquired. He got a fair price at the end of the day. He did a little seller carry back, seller financing and he's happy because he got $2 million and he can go and do what he wants. And also it's a process to get to the finish line. So building a relationship with the seller is advantageous, right, because they're going to help the transition. 

Speaker 2: You're not going to know a lot of different things, like on the POS system, the point of sales systems you're going to have to really get in there and figure it out. But for this Marina there's management in place and so forth, so the owners isn't going to be there day to day, but really going to run the business. As Michael Gerber says, we're on the business, not in the business. That's the concept. And what other value add can you bring to the business? So let's just use this Marina, for example. We can increase boat rentals. We have a couple boats, we get more boats, we're going to put a water and ice machine, a vending machine, everest, right. 

Speaker 2: Those things can do 30 to $40,000 net a year in the right location. We have additional acreage we're going to build boat and RV storage. We also have additional acreage where we're looking at doing some tiny homes for short term rentals. So where can you stack? I personally like real estate type of businesses because that's my background, but you can do straight business acquisitions with no real estate. But I'm seeing a lot of people reach out. I've got a guy right now buying a motel in upstate New York. That's two young guy, has two Airbnb's and he loves the business and now we're using SBA and we're bringing in investors and he's going to move up there and run this 10, 11 unit motel, remodel and increase ADR average jelly rate, increase occupancy, use technology like Airbnb and the RBO and really optimize, because this has just been like owned for the same family for 50 years. So there's lots of opportunities everywhere you look. 

Speaker 1: Yeah, and that upside is huge, especially those businesses that have been around forever. They're more than likely not using technology. I call them swimming along. They're doing their steady income. They got some SDE of $200,000 to $400,000 a year. They're happy, but there's a huge upside to it. My question on the other side of that is when you come in, let's talk about the marina and you're stacking these additional lines of business within that business, are you guys waiting to increase the revenue of the marina first, or are you going out and raising more capital so you can bring in these additional revenue streams? 

Speaker 2: I like to leverage. Show this ice and vending machine, that's that we can get equivalent finance. We can finance 100% of that. So boom, that's easy and that's going to have an ROI quickly. If we do tiny homes, those are financeable too. If they're not fixed to the ground, you can usually get some kind of RV type of financing. 

Speaker 2: So I'm always looking, because I don't have a million dollars sitting in my bank account. So I'm always looking. How can I get OPM? How can I get other people's money? How can I utilize bank and credit union debt? How can I utilize sellers carry back, and so by structuring that if I have more cash, i can go out and get lines of credit. There's banks right now, for example, that if you have a solid operating account, you go to you move your banking relationship with this bank and they'll give you, sometimes they'll give you lines of credit secured against other real estate. So there's ways of just getting more cash flow. 

Speaker 2: But on something like this, the SBA 7A is only got on a. Anything that has a longer term than 15 years has a three year prepayment penalty with SBA 7A. So it's a declining prepayment penalty 5% the first year, 3% the second year, 1% the third year. So, worst case scenario, we just paid off the year three If we've increased revenue at NOI and we can justify a much higher valuation at that time, especially with all the stuff we're doing. So I think there's opportunity there. So, yeah, you can go back and get secondary SBA financing for working capital and different things in equipment. You can get equipment financing with SBA. You can regular equipment financing through different alternative lenders. So what I look for is how can we leverage right, because at some point getting bank debt is going to be a little bit more challenging with the recession we're in or going into or whatever we're going into. Banks are definitely being more conservative right now. But what I love about SBA is banks are more. Sba loans are going to be done SBA 7A loans. 

Speaker 2: Banks make a ton of money on these deals. That's why they love doing them And a portion is guaranteed depending on the loan amount and loan size. 50 to 80% is guaranteed. So if you do a million dollar loan or whatever, it's just 750,000 is guaranteed. So what the banks do this is why they love doing SBA 7A is that guaranteed portion. When they close on the loan, they immediately sell off that SBA guaranteed piece in the secondary market And they make anywhere from 8% to 15% premium from my understanding. Wow Off that. So from day one they're making on this $2 million deal let's just say the guarantees a million. Buy 8% to 15% of that they're making a huge premium. So that's why these banks, credit unions and non-bank SBA lenders love making SBA loans And also their risk levels minimize If they follow the guidelines. So they usually a lot of them have in-house counsel, but they have to make sure that they can justify that they didn't do anything wrong where they would forgo the SBA guarantee, because then they would be on the hook. Because, let's base it, no other loan program out there will do 90% loan to cost with a collateral shortfall And to me SBA financing is like an amazing tool that you really need to use. 

Speaker 2: It's tedious, don't get me wrong. You'd be getting them to the finish line Anytime you're dealing with banks, we know commercial loans. It takes a little bit of elbow grease. But where else can you get this kind of financing? God bless America. We're all quick to complain, but let's face it. Where can you go and go buy an income stream with little to none of your own money? Let's go. 

Speaker 1: And it'd be guaranteed for the banks. It's a win-win. So, comparing the SBA 7A to owner financing, is it a good idea to have a mix of both? Are you like to do deals based upon a mixture or is it just deal by deal basis? 

Speaker 2: I think it just depends. For example, sba 7A raised right now are because they're tied to Wall Street Journal Prime. But like anything, i always give this analogy When I flip a house and I borrow money, if I'm paying 12% and 3 points, or whatever I price it in the deal, is there still a big profit at the end? I don't care, that's what I look at. I look at the interest rate. The interest rate doesn't really matter as long as at the end of the day, if I perform and this flip makes me 50 or 100 grand, do I care if I paid 30 grand in interest? No, because I wasn't able to get it. But yeah, it's tied to Wall Street Journal Prime. 

Speaker 2: Most 7A lenders are variable, which is quarterly adjustment. So you're dealing with that, although we should at some point start going back down Prime rates at eight and a quarter. Prices are anywhere from 1.75 to 2.75, so you can figure out what your fully indexed rate is. Some SBA lenders will offer a fixed rate and we'll give you a super good deal. Meaning, like some of my partners, if it's a really A plus deal with real estate, you can get like a three-year fixed or a five-year fixed in the sevens. So it just really depends, and on a business acquisition, unless you're a high net worth borrower which most of us aren't. 

Speaker 2: We're a $20 million, a couple million in the bank, $20 million net worth or greater. Sometimes banks will bend over backwards for those type of clients. But at the end of the day, most of these tougher deals with hair on them are 10 and a quarter to 10 and a half rate right now, fully indexed. But, like I said, does it still pencil out? Does the deal make sense? What's the value add component? And then I look at SBA 7A financing as bridged debt. Really It's get you in high leverage and then in a couple of years you're going to take it out with long-term. 

Speaker 1: So, compared to for the Marina that you just did what? if you can share it or not, the owner financing piece? what was it like compared to the SBA 7A loan? 

Speaker 2: All right. On a business acquisition or startup, sba guidelines say we need at least 10% equity injection. Okay, now here's the secret. The seller can carry back 5% on full standby. So now I only have to come in 5%, right? Full standby means there's no balloon payments got to run for the terminal loan. It can accrue interest, but you don't make me buy it. So he or she essentially the owner of the business that's selling leaves that equity in and at some point it's going to be cashed out. Either they go the terminal loan or the buyer refinances and pays them all. 

Speaker 2: But on most business acquisitions there's some component of seller finance. If you get 5% on standby, then you need to come in with 5% equity And you can negotiate more. Seller carry back maybe a little bit of the favorable terms. You can structure this anyway, but the 5% needs to be on standby. If you want to make a small secretary, then I have to come in 5%. Now that 150 grand or that 100 grand or whatever that 5% that needs to come in. That can come in from an investor partner. It can't be borrowed funds. But I could bring you in, ryan on this acquisition. I know I can say Ryan, you put up the 100 grand. You don't have to guarantee the loan. I'll give you 15% ownership. You get 15% of cash flow. You're part owner of this business. You can do that. 

Speaker 2: That's actually another business I'm working on creating because so many people reach out and they find this awesome business and they're short on the equity. I'm in the process. There's an industry called Search Fund And Search Funds that's what they do. They do on a bigger type of deals. My kind of forte will be smaller real estate business acquisitions mostly, and so I'm going to put together some investors and that's what we're going to do And then we'll form like a small holding company and own a piece of, hopefully lots of businesses And then, over time, hopefully, we can use our skill sets for helping them become more successful And then we can use our book tech solutions we may use, and that's essentially what these Search Funds are doing in a bigger scale. 

Speaker 1: That's really cool what you're doing. I'd love to stay and connect with you and stay in contact with you on that, because that's something definitely we could use down the future because, as we, i've put out a goal this year I'd like to be able to acquire four. I don't know if I'm going to hit it, but I'm going to sure try to acquire four. Is Cody Sanchez? as boring businesses. I call it non-tech because they're just straight up Here in Phoenix. 

Speaker 1: Just a side note a lot of the HVAC companies that I've looked at, it's fragmented. You have one huge player and then you have probably four or five middle-of-the-road players and then a ton of these mom and pops that are running three to five trucks, maybe six on the outside, all those mom and pop places. They're basically saying I'm walking away because we don't have anybody that wants to take over our business. It's like when you look at their websites, they're from like the and I joke 1990s. They need a lot of help, but they have no scheduling. There's just so many things that are missing that you can come in and do and increase that top line. It's crazy, but I don't and I guess I'm getting into a long-winded question here. I'm sorry is why don't more people look at business acquisition instead of going after startups? Because startups have what an 80% 90% fail rate Right. 

Speaker 2: Yeah, and so we were talking about Walker and his Biden build book, which is phenomenal. He failed when he started a business, then he bought a business and then he bolted on the other business that failed. So, yeah, i mean, i think there is something to be said and that's why some people go to the franchise route, because they're buying a system right, they're buying a blueprint where there's other franchises in the system that are successful. I was looking at Crumble and like these cookie companies, right, oh, yeah, those are good. 

Speaker 2: Yeah, i just had it for the first time, but they're doing a billion dollars in revenue now and they're able to scale. I interviewed another guy on the podcast and he does like the Aseah bowls. He bought into a franchise and he just rate and cost him I think he said about 400 grand, all in open a store, a unit, and he just now he has no debt He brings in 400 grand from the investors, boom, boom. I think he's open like 10 of them already. Wow, and it's just, it's amazing. 

Speaker 2: So that's why I also think that the franchise world I've looked at senior care. There's a lot of senior care companies out there now. There's a lot of baby boomers that are 90% of them want to stay in home. There's mobility city franchise, cause there's so much you could really do, and it just figure out what makes the most sense for you. Like lifestyle wise. I don't. That's what I'm in my mind, what I deal with. What would I want to operate? I don't want to be an operator and that's my focus, but I being a business owner where you have the right hires, that makes more sense. So if you can have the right systems in place and you can be the shock caller and you're good at that, then I think the sky's the limit, like these HVAC companies. You're exactly right. I just look at like when my water heater just went out and it was just leaking your water everywhere and replace the water heater in a while, i'm like boom, i'm calling around, i'm like quickly, and it's like it really comes down to who's picks up the phone and is responsive and you'll get a quote. Maybe you'll call one other place and they're going to go with who you like the best. So if you're, have a Google my business and you're ranked there and all these simple things that some of these boomers aren't doing, because they've just run the business and they've been successful. And if you can implement those strategies and even like you could rank websites, you could own websites like plumbinglosvaguscom And then you just now you're moving into Scottsdaleplumbingcom And I think, using those type of strategies, because that they who gets the call and answers the phone is going to get the meeting. 

Speaker 2: And then my garage store. I was having problems with it. It was like there was a sticker on my garage store and I caught in. Yeah, i called him and then the service man came out and he was telling me how successful this owner of this garage store replacement company is Unbelievable. Like some stupid business, you don't even think about Just making millions of dollars a year coming and fixing your garage door open or replacing your garage door or fixing the bottom part of the ceiling. There's money in all niches, there's riches in the niches and that's so true Like I think you just got to get hyper focused with what you want business wise. 

Speaker 2: And Walker talks about the buy box right The same thing with when we were house flipping What are we looking for? What's zip code? What kind of house You got to create? a same similar buy box for a business? What business type am I looking for? And then I think what's going to get really hyper focused is off market deal sourcing, just like we saw in wholesaling, how these wholesalers drip dialers this and that off market deals and like they're finding the diamonds in the rough, because I think only one in five businesses this is a quote I heard so don't market only one of five businesses on biz by sell into that website. Yeah, actually sell. So really that's not the place. 

Speaker 2: And then the business broker world is so fragmented because most of them they don't list on like a multiple listing service. They don't cooperate and they're going to double end it and get huge commissions. I think there's huge fragmentation there. So I think over the next five years, this business will evolve. More people are going to talk about it. You're seeing more ads on Facebook of all these gurus now in the business acquisition space. So that's what really appealed to me, though, like I do, i see like tremendous opportunity. And then I also like the fact, like it just makes sense, i can go out with very little money out of pocket and acquire a business that's been running for 20 years And I pretty much know what the cash flow is going to look like. And then I could figure out, okay, their websites. It does not even mobile ready And most people are looking on your phone And I think those people that can win using tech stacks like you're talking about, ryan Yep, that's where it's at. 

Speaker 2: And then also, what can be outsourced Can you use virtual assistance or any of this stuff? Can I, can you go to the Philippines and get virtual assistance? And I think that's important thing too. Like what could be outsourced, i know this one large non-bay hard money fund that does fix and flip loans. They have a staff of 70 in India Whoa That are helping like everybody, because you're paying a quarter of the price, in fact. Right. So what can we do using virtual assistance? They could be handling appointments, they can answer the phones, they could do scheduling, they could do be dispatch, they can do accounting, they can do bookkeeping. Then you could be leading me and then you could have your technicians or whatever. 

Speaker 2: So I think, if we think big like that, i think there's so much opportunity and that's what's really exciting. My friend bought, i gave him a course on Airbnb and he went out and just started buying single family homes and he bought at the right time, got fixed rate, like when money was 3%, and then he found a virtual assistant that had a hosting experience and my friend works three to four hours a week in the business, has six Airbnb's and is grossing 60 grand a month, probably netting 20 to 25,000. In two years time he just replaced his day job and he now doesn't need to really work, which is pretty amazing. So I think there's a lot of opportunity in all this. And that brings me to the last thing before I'll shut up is that for these Airbnb people, there's huge opportunities in these boutique motels which are mom and pop owned and you can get SPA 7A financing more 504 for that. 

Speaker 1: Those are all awesome stories and I think it boils down to and just like in the book Walker's book is that I think he says one in five or one in seven people will not ever, or one in seven people will actually buy an existing business because they don't put the time and effort into it. Is it something like that? I can't remember. It's a high number that are going to fail. Yeah, oh, yeah, okay. So where I'm going with that is all the things that you're talking about the stacking, the technology, thinking big, using virtual assistance. Just to be straight up honest, when I was in corporate America, that's not some of the stuff I thought about. So is there anybody like yourself or maybe you're doing this already and you haven't talked about it that can help and work with these individuals, that can get them to that place of big thinking? 

Speaker 2: I have a coach. I hired a coach. I think everybody needs some sort of coach. But yeah, we all have limiting beliefs to some degree. I had a lot of limiting beliefs I still do And I said you know what? I was talking to a friend actually out of my podcast. When we ended I said, hey, i'm looking to hire a coach. And he happened to yeah, i know a great coach. And so he introduced us. I did a Zoom kind of meet and greet And I hired the coach. I meet with him once a week. He thought, gee, but I look forward to that hour a week to early. He's not a coach. 

Speaker 2: That's like holding me accountable. It's really just strategic thinking and then learning to think bigger. And we all have limiting beliefs instilled in us for certain reasons as we're growing up and it's really figured out. Okay, how do I think bigger? I have friends. I have one friend in particular I do a show with on every Friday And the guy is like crazy, he buys like $60 million apartment building right And he raises millions of millions of dollars And the guy has no fear And where I always have that underlying sense of oh what if something goes wrong? and this and that I'm so worried about things And so just unleashing that and getting an appointment, okay, deep breath, you can do whatever. 

Speaker 2: You have more talent and understanding that it's okay to let people know. Hey, i have talent. I spend the time when you guys are out drinking beer. I'm the one that's taking a class, i'm the one that's going to this learning how to put together these SBA loans with a bunch of bankers, and I'm a broker. Right, i'm doing the extra amount of work I'm putting in the work because I want to be successful And so it's okay to let people know what you can do. And then don't doubt yourself. Sometimes you'll see somebody that just goes and does it and you're like he or she didn't know anything about the business And they just you're like how the heck did they do that? It's because they didn't have those negative, limiting beliefs in the back of the mind. They just said, hey, i'm going to go out and do it. So I think we all have to work on that And also just talking to people like, oh, like I'm scared to call this business broker or whatever They don't know. 

Speaker 2: You learn to talk Like you can get on the phone with anybody And like I have another business where we do expense reduction. We go in and help companies to expense like different categories and help them save millions of dollars. But we have this one program and some of the guys and girls in the company. They're literally going out and going out to their connections and they're putting together deals where it's going to pay them for the next 10 years, Like seven figure deals. 

Speaker 2: I'm talking And like I've been saying, oh, I got to go after I got to do it. Like something in the back of my mind I wasn't doing it right, Because I have underlying limiting beliefs. Oh, like I can't make a cold call, I can't do this. But if you want it, you have to push through and you really got to work on yourself. I think that's the biggest thing. 

Speaker 2: Don't be one of those people that's in your deathbed that says I wish I would have done this, I wish I would have done that. Sometimes they go back and go oh, all these houses I flipped. If I would have just held some of them, I would have been so much further ahead. I hear myself saying that I don't want to ever see that kind of stuff again. Yeah, are we going to make mistakes? We're going to make mistakes. You got to be able to understand that business is stressful. Sometimes You're going to make mistakes. But those who can work through the mistakes right, Like that one flip that cost you an extra 80 grand and you didn't have that 80 grand and you put it on your credit cards and you're all stressed out. Yep, Being able to work through those stressful times and not go bury your head in the sand is the key. 

Speaker 2: I think if you have that grit and that passion and desire, anybody can go do this. You could be the blue collar person that works as an auto mechanic and then all of a sudden your boss is retiring and you're going to let some other knucklehead come in and buy that business. No, you should be the one buying that business. It happens all the time. You're in the net. And now there's some strategies too, where you can do partner buyouts and you can leave that owner in and come in with a little bit less money so they can help their employee buy the business. So lots of strategies out there. 

Speaker 1: Man, we could go on for hours and talking about this. I love what you're talking about and what you're doing. It's great We're coming to the end. But I wanted to wrap up with just one more other question or two, sorry. One is if I'm a W-2 employee, i'm back to that and I'm wanting to grow bigger and get out there. I'll put a link to Walker's book Buy Than Build in the show notes. But what other things? coach-wise, i got that. But what's one other thing we could do if we wanted to become an entrepreneur acquisition or a business acquisition entrepreneur? 

Speaker 2: What I always do every morning pretty much, is when I go to the gym. I walk on the treadmill and I listen to entrepreneurs, people, entrepreneurs. I'm always plugging in to motivate me and I'm getting. Also, there's a lot of online groups, whatever you want to do, i have a YouTube channel and I want to grow my YouTube channel. So what do I do? I go and I invest in a program where I'm around other people that are growing their YouTube channels and they're. 

Speaker 2: So don't be afraid to spend the dollar to invest in yourself. I spend so much money on coaching and groups. I'm in and I don't really care. I'm probably right now between coaching and a couple groups. I'm in at least spending 40 or 50 grand a year right now on all that extra stuff. But I look at it like you know what? I didn't go to college. I went to. This is my college. My college will never end because you can never, ever stop learning. Once you stop learning, you start dying. So that's my concept. So I'm just plugging in in groups like whatever your goals are. There's a lot of like business acquisition groups you can get involved with. If you're growing a YouTube channel, you can join groups there. So I'm plugging in. I'm usually plugging in doing searches on YouTube on things I want to learn. Recently, i just started going through the International Business Brokers Association. They have a bunch of training stuff on there and I'm like I don't know if I want to be a business broker, but I also want to learn what they're thinking, and so they have five free videos on their website that are really good and you start learning the difference between Main Street businesses, which is like the HVAC businesses We call Main Street right. So I'm always acquiring the language and learning so I can go have a conversation with anybody and feel confident. Now, i'm not the best. One of my weaknesses right now is spreading tax returns and what ad backs you can go back in. But you know what? There's classes on it where you can figure out how to figure out what an ad back and what's not, and a couple hours of my time. It just makes me a little bit better at something. So I think you should always be perfecting your skills and just have a can do attitude. 

Speaker 2: If you're a W2 employee right now, whether you're, you look at some franchises. Maybe you start a franchise. Figure out, hey, i can spend 20 or 30 hours starting this franchise. It's a home-based franchise with a plan of three years from now that I'll be able to get rid of my W2 job. I don't think quitting your W2 job today and saying, oh okay, i'm an entrepreneur is the best job. I think you should be leveraging your W2, whether you're a real estate investor, you want to acquire a business because you know what. Getting an SBA loan when you're making six figures as an IT person, in tech or whatever it makes you you're going to get approved a lot easier. Oh, they're going to keep the job. He's making 150 grand a year. Use that right now as a competitive advantage. Get the financing with the end goal being like, hey, i have a two-year plan to quit the W2 job. 

Speaker 2: As we all know, getting bank financing for rental properties and everything, if you have W2 income, it's sometimes a lot easier. So I would have that mindset and just be learning and I would be talking to business brokers. I'd be looking on biz by cell. I would be, as you're, having conversations with these business brokers on their listings. Oh, we have this pocket listing. You're starting to find stuff out, but first you really got to learn enough of the language. So, like going through Walker's book, listening to his podcast, like that's what I do to get in grain and stuff. When I wanted to learn how to structure SBA financing, it was like at first I was like, yeah, this is going to be really complicated And now I feel like I really get it now. I'm learning every day but I know how to play steal If you go to, like most people, what they'll do. 

Speaker 2: So the guy that was buying is trying to buy this motel And we just got him a term sheet. Last week He called me first because he was recommended by somebody and then we had a conversation and said I'm kind of the need list of what he needed to get me And then a couple of days later he said hey, i was just at the local bank and they know the project, they really like it And I'm going to go with them. I said, okay, fine, i never want to badmouth anybody, but I always know that most of the time the outcome is going to be this. And, sure enough, a week later he calls me back and he says they're willing to do it, but they won't do any of the $400,000 of improvements that I want in the loan And that's the point. So anyway, if he came back to me because most people think, oh, i'm going to go to my local bank, but probably is where my competitive advantages in this whole mix is that if you go to your one bank, you're only going to hear what they're willing to do. And it could be like a US bank and they say, oh, we'll do this deal, we need 20% equity, where I could have got the deal down with 10% equity. 

Speaker 2: Or they go to one bank and they decline it And then they go to one other bank. They get declined. Oh, i can't get finance. No, you just didn't take it to right lending institution. That's what I help them streamline and figure out. And, the best part, 99% of the time I don't even have to charge for my consulting services because I can pay to referral fee by the bank, credit union or whatever. So on SBA, on other programs, i have to charge some fees and that, but that's also a value add. So, like you come to me, you're not going to get charged any additional money. I'm going to put you to the right bank or lender and get you the best terms possible and get the deal done. Got to make it better. 

Speaker 1: That is awesome. There's so many things we can talk to you about. I love it. We're wrapping up here Before we go. what is the single place that people would get a hold of you if they want to talk? loans and business acquisitions? 

Speaker 2: They can go to my name boexteenbiz B-E-A-U-E-C-K-C-E-I-N. Biz Takes them to a digital business card And they call it. call all my YouTube channels called investor financing podcast. We talk about structuring SBA, financing all sorts of financing. 

Speaker 1: I will link that in the show notes so everyone can get a hold of you. Sir, thank you for coming on the show. It has been a wonderful conversation and all the information you shared is just priceless. There's so much out there to do. You're limited by our own thoughts, and you've really shared a lot of great actionable things we can do. 

Speaker 2: Thanks, i love it. It gets me excited doing these things because then I always tell my coach if I can work out in the morning and then get energized through a conversation and this kind of stuff gets me energized. right, your days are just so much better. 

Speaker 1: Amen, that's the only way to go about it is be energized and being positive all day. Thanks so much. 

Speaker 2: I appreciate it. Thank you, sir. Relaxing and.