Hey guys Mike here. Look I just wanted to talk to you guys today a little bit about being in business for yourself coming to you from Clearwater Beach, Florida today. A lot of you have reached out in the comments and asked about wanting to start your own business and I know it's a scary thought so I just wanted to share with you a little bit about my decision to go into business for myself and it wasn't easy. I was around 19 years old and I've been doing concrete since I was about 15 and I was working I was actually working I was doing mostly commercial stuff so big flaws and I was working for my girlfriend's father and I had to go in and tell him you know he was like he was like a second father to me he was really really good to me but I did I had a burning desire to be in business for myself and I had a good friend of mine who was doing concrete foundations at the time mostly residential stuff who just kept telling me you know Mike you should go into business for yourself you should go into business for yourself and probably if it wasn't for that guy keeping on me about it and giving me the confidence to do it you know I might have never done it I might have just stayed working for that commercial guy but it was the hardest decision I had to make up until that point anyway I had to go in and and give him his my two weeks notice and I was still dating his daughter too and I mean our relationship was really really good but the decision was hard and unlike a lot of you probably I was I was pretty young I didn't have a lot of responsibilities you know I didn't have a car payment I didn't have a house payment I didn't have kids so in that aspect of that decision was pretty easy but still I mean it was it was a it was a big risk for me it was it was a big I didn't know anything about being in business for myself going from working for somebody for you know four and a half five years being told what time to be there in the morning being told what I was going to be paid to having to have all that responsibility myself finding work where's the next paycheck kind of come from you know that was that was what was scary to me you know was I gonna have any work and the guy the guy that was doing the residential foundations his name was Rick he did tell me he would give me all his floors so I mean that that helped a lot so he did 50 to 100 foundations a year so that was that was quite a bit of work right there for you know a 19 or 20 year old statin out on his own but for you guys thinking about it you know and you're on the fence and you're not really sure what to do I would just say start small you know start doing some stuff by yourself on the side maybe you already are and maybe you're maybe the hard decision for you is when to go full time but I would say you know hey make the leap make the leap you got to you don't want to look back you know years down the road and said geez I wish I had I would say make the leap try it you'll you'll make it work if it's if you're cut out for it you'll make it work you'll make it happen one way or the other for me you know I just have a burning desire to be successful you know something inside me won't let me fail not saying I've never done jobs that it failed but it just me personally I'm gonna I'm gonna keep persevering I'm gonna keep pushing until I feel like I'm successful and that's just me that's my nature that's my that's in my DNA and it's it's what it's anything I do it's not just my work but I want to be the best at anything I do so for those of you thinking about going in the business for yourself I mean what is holding you back let us know down the comments what are the what's the one or two main things that's just holding you back and you know what are you telling yourself is it doubt is it money is it commitment I mean is it just afraid of not being able to get enough work just what is it that's holding you back so we can all help you guys we can all give you confidence and get you over the hump the thing about finding work is you know this there's all kinds of work out there it's just the hardest part is finding it especially when you brand new but once you get once you get that one connection then they just keep adding up the key for you is when you know when you're doing jobs for yourself you got to do you got to do good work you got to go beyond what you think is expected to you and then it just snowballs from there once you start getting word of mouth advertising you're gonna pick up another connection I mean that was one of the keys for me is you know I got I got that one foundation guy and that was that was good you know I was kind of lucky in that sense that you know I I met him at a young age we ended up becoming really good friends and then I did his work for years and years and years until he retired but it was it was another connection that I got that really put me over the hump and that connection was I you know back when I started this we didn't have cell phones like this to video on we had a matter of fact we didn't have any cell phones when I first started the first cell phone I had was a bag phone if in a lot of you might not even know what that is but some of you will so when I would put in my concrete orders you know I either have to call from either home or call from a pay phone or actually go to the concrete plan and talk to the guy and put in the order there and that's what I did a lot so I became really good friends with the concrete batch man you know where I got most of my concrete and then what happened was eventually he he put in a good word for me with a with a really successful foundation company that did a lot a lot of work and that one connection right there that one and I still do for us for them today I still do I still do a hundred jobs for them to this day and I first started doing work for them in about 1988 so that's been a really that's been the best connection I've had really good people they pay really good they you know you just call they call you up say I got this job here this job here every week every week those jobs and then they don't ask for prices and you just go do it you bill them and they pay you so those those are hard to find those types of people to work for but they're out there and then from there getting other work you know as you're on all those jobs you're working for builders you're working for general contractors you're working for homeowners you just got to do the best job you can and that and that's gonna be every single day non-stop and then what happens is you know those people don't forget you they call you back and they call you back and they call you back and they recommend you to friends and then everything just keeps going from there and that's how you build your reputation and once you build your reputation like that then everybody eventually knows about you in your area so it'll it'll happen it just takes time you know sometimes sometimes you'll find that one guy right off the bat you know he may already have a concrete guy maybe his concrete guys not doing very good work he's sick and tired of him and he's looking you know he's looking you never know when they're looking for somebody else so you've got to be ready for that opportunity when it shows up and then you got to you got to perform you got to make it happen when it does because you don't want to lose that chance so just a little hope for you guys out there wondering you know if you've already started on your own you don't have much work you know just you got to build those relationships in the business with everybody the concrete drivers you know the concrete batchmen the testers whoever you work with in your area you got to build those relationships with you got to ask them how they're doing you got to ask them about their families how their families are doing you know just show that you care about them and they'll care about you so I hope that helps guys and I'm here to help you anything I can do you know down in the comments just email me and let me know I'll help you the best I can but I'm here for you the other guys the other guys in the community are here for you so just let us know down in the comments what's holding you back what you need to help with the most and and we'll we'll see if we can help you guys and you guys that have been in business a long time like now I've been in business for about 40 years let's help some of these other guys out that are trying to make that decision you know let let them know down the comments what was what was the hardest thing for you when you when I was you working for somebody and then you went on your own was it a family business what helped you get over the hump of starting your own business you know let me know down the comments and then let's help these other guys out because the more the more of us out there that are successful the better off we're all gonna be so let's help these guys out and make this thing work for them thanks for watching guys we'll see you on the next one