Asking Small Business Owners How Much Money They Make

what's your name and what do you do how fast did it take you guys to expand from one location to the second location then all the way up to 36. what are some of your favorite text write-offs or Tax Strategies that you implement or maybe help some of your clients Implement you're talking like a very seasoned entrepreneur right now it sounds like you may have had employees in the past why are you so keen on not wanting employees how much money did it cost for you to start your business how much revenue does your company make right now um we're up in the tens of millions I'll say 10. you know soon it'll be 10 and then it'll be hundreds and it will be a billion dollar business what's going on guys Sean here and today I'm at a networking event here in Atlanta Georgia and as we know business credit is very important to any company and so what I want to do is interview business owners to ask them questions like how they use business credit how much money they make and any tips they have to share let's get into it what's your name and what do you do my name is William Collins and I have and I own a 360 photo booth business in Atlanta what inspired you to start your 360 Booth so pretty much I'm an entrepreneur I do graphic design it was like the easiest way for me to make more money at a time and it said I can make six figures so I just tried it out how much money did it cost for you to start your business roughly it's cost me about three thousand dollars including all the fixtures and then I just grew from there did you use business credit or a loan or how did you get the three thousand dollars so I pretty much use my personal money um to get funding but eventually I started using different credit lines to fund more actual equipment for the business so now I have three and companies I'm sorry I have three different machines so I can go all over the city how much does a machine cost uh roughly between fifteen hundred to three thousand they have manuals they have automatics I pretty much started out with a manual but I am progressing to an automatic how much money do you make right now in your business 50 to 60 000 yearly is it just you right now in the business or do you have a team of employees or anything like that uh so I do have a team um I go to a majority of the events but I do have like my friends my cousins their go-to events too what advice would you have for somebody who might want to start up their own like event company or maybe they're on 360 Booth um I would pretty much say look for something that's within a budget because every event has a budget so just try to find like a niche within the events it could be decorating it could actually be the lights that you use for the background it could be anything but as long as it's in a budget they're gonna pay for it yeah I think that's probably one of the another big question people have is how do I actually get into events and how do I find clients and customers what do you do so pretty much I would just start off trying to have a good product and then they'll honestly find what's your name and what do you do for a living well my name is Julianna Santos and I'm one of the owners for Brazilian wax by Andrea we have 36 location here you know around Georgia Tennessee Florida North Carolina South Carolina I do hair removal so it's the beauty industry so when did you all start the business and how how fast did it take you guys to expand from one location to the second location then all the way up to 36. well she started at 2005. when she came here she noticed that the waxing waxing industry was big but not big as far as you know the Brazilian Roots so she brought in the Brazilian roots to United States with that it actually expanded really fast from all location to two three four five in one year we had seven locations and then he kept on growing and now 36 and we're still growing how much does it cost for you all to open one location cost I mean there's there's a lot behind that like finding the place doing research you know talking to landlords the rental it depends it depends on the location I mean you can start by one bedroom with 500 buying one bed to 200 000 300 000 to start in a a great location a really good place a nice Plaza you know nice location with trafficking and all of that do you guys leverage business credit or personal credit to get the funding to open these locations well usually I'm sure at first when we first started yes we did but now no we actually go and we do everything out of pocket so you guys are basically using the cash flow from other locations to fund new locations and expand your operations it makes a lot of sense and can you walk us through the numbers on maybe one location how much money it may make we probably make around half a million dollar on that specific location so if somebody wants to open up you know a beauty business maybe get into the waxing industry like you're you all are in what advice or tips would you give that person number one thing I would say get your license your cosmetology license don't work without a license and as my aunt I call her mom says with your faith in God because we are Christians we strong believe in God but I'm at first don't ever lose your motivation save money say because you won't grow without saving and without spending now really quick before we move on to the next interview I want to talk about today's sponsor Mercury as an entrepreneur you know that making smart financial decisions for your startup is key and let's be honest startups haven't exactly had the best time recently when it comes to keeping their money safe sound and working for them that's where Mercury comes in Mercury provides banking for startups over 100 000 Venture back and bootstrap startups to be exact Mercury also protects your funds with up to five million dollars in FDIC insurance through their partner Banks and sweep networks so listen if you want to make sure you keep your startup money safe if you want the ability to issue employee debit cards and credit cards with customized limits and you want to be able to pay vendors and employees through ACH wires checks foreign exchanges and more then look no further than Mercury do me a favor and head to the link down below to learn more about Mercury's banking solutions for startups and with that let's go ahead and move on to the next interview what's your name and what's your business hi my name is Vance Morris from the Eastern Shore Maryland and I show businesses how to designify their experiences company name is deliver service now can you elaborate on that a little bit more like what this doesn'tify your business means sure it's all about creating experiences out of the mundane so we all have mundane things we do in our business every day answer the phone send an email send a proposal most of the time they're just boring so we show businesses how to create experiences out of those so you know if you're going to send a proposal if it's a ten thousand dollar proposal don't just send it by an email put it in a nice box send some chocolate send something with it create an experience for the person who's receiving it how long have you been operating this company uh 10 years why did you decide to start this business because customer service in America absolutely sucks and if I can help them one business at a time get a little bit better then I've done my work how much money did it cost for you to start your company start the company cost me nothing honestly uh but investing in it all the time uh you know I mean we I've written a couple of books so there's an investment in getting them published uh you know doing trade shows like this you know investment in the trade show and everything else so you know my other guy owned a couple other bricks and mortar companies um and you know I bootstrap those best way to do it boots on the ground about how much revenue does your business make uh let's see the Consulting business we're just a tick under seven figures a year and so zero costs seven figures a year do you have any employees or what would you say are some of your biggest expenses right now uh business expenses are coming to things like this and doing lead generation um I don't have employees because I don't want them it's a lifestyle business I've designed the business the way I want to work I don't want employees um and that's just the way I I put it together not saying it's not right now do I have you know an assistant in the Philippines or a couple of va's that help me with stuff so certainly but as a as an employee no way you're talking like a very seasoned entrepreneur right now it sounds like you may have had employees in the past and you've dealt with that before why are you so keen on not wanting employees well I worked for Disney for 10 years uh when I left Disney I was a senior leader and I had 500 employees that reported to me uh so yeah it's not like I had to write 500 reviews but they were headaches um I've spent another 25 years in the hospitality industry uh had tons of employees there I owned three bricks and mortar businesses in Maryland I have employees there this business I don't want any employees I understand me yeah sometimes dealing with employees you deal with the moves the swings the inconsistencies it can be a little bit of a headache what would you say is probably the biggest tip you would give a small business owner who's trying to maybe retain or their clients and maybe increase their customer experience now first and foremost you got to stay in touch with them 100 the only time they hear from you is when you want to sell them something is a bad way to communicate you know so I strongly encourage people do newsletters uh you know so that it's not a salesy thing that's the way to retain them because it's not the customer's job to remember you it's your job to remind the customers why you exist what's your names and what kind of business do you all have so my name is nzinga Braswell and I'm a licensed esthetician and I have I'm a spot owner and an educator and my name is Tamara ice and I'm a licensed esthetician as well and I'm a spa owner and I also have my own product line and you both are business partners right yes are y'all 50 50 Partners yes pretty much what inspired y'all to start the spa um actually me and Tamara at one point we were both working at two separate jobs and we ended up getting fired on the same day so um we just got together and we were like we're gonna do it on our own like we don't have to worry about getting employment from other people so two weeks later we were in our own Suite doing our own thing and starting our businesses so we both went to study school and now this story is pretty similar we both used to hide out insecurities with makeup we basically wanted to wanted women to feel more confident in their natural skin so we were like okay we're going to go to aesthetic school we became estheticians and so now we just listen to people skin concerns and we try to make them feel more confident and feel beautiful in their natural skin so what services do y'all offer so we offer anything from basic facials back treatments Advanced treatments microneedling chemical appeals she has a product line so we have skin care as well we do private consultations and I also teach classes for Advanced Aesthetics and then she's working on marketing classes as well so we do everything exactly sounds like you guys have a lot of things going on for you so let's talk about maybe some of the financials the numbers behind your business how much money did it cost for you guys to start it up everything that's in my Suite MSA probably cost five thousand dollars but we didn't buy everything yeah we didn't buy everything all at once we just we did everything as you go how do you raise the 15 000 did you use business credit what exactly did y'all do to get the 15 000 to start so fortunately for us like she said we have a village so my father is a business owner so he of course helped us out a lot like that and my mom so they would give us money Christmas is around the corner when we first got it too so we had a lot of big Christmas lists and they bought us most of the stuff that we needed um and then other than that it was like like business funding a little bit but it really was just us working we were both servers at the time as well so we both served in the beginning to kind of make money to put money back into the business so we were hustling on the weekends and at night time so that we could put all of our money back into our business so having a job really yeah absolutely I love that you bootstrap you don't worry about too much of trying to get a loan or a grant and said you use the resources you have to get started and about how much revenue you guys make right now in your business oh well for me I would say between 30 and 50 000 a year and for her yeah I'm at um I'm over 100k so you guys are 50 50 Partners but I'm hearing different Revenue models how does the relationship work between you two so basically we have our own businesses but we work together in the space so we are both our own entities but we have the same space at first we were in the same room started sharing um two separate beds and we were just going in and out but now we have our own building where we have our own rooms and stuff like that so we still have our own finances and all that kind of stuff we just work in the building together yes what's your name and what's your business my name is Irving and my business is royalty hardscapes and we specialize in hardscapes for people who don't know what are hardscapes uh hardscapes is pretty much masonry work stone work concrete pavers tile stuff like that and wouldn't inspire you to start your business uh honestly not having to work for anybody but myself how much money did it cost for you to start your business honestly it costs nothing really you didn't have to buy materials or do marketing or anything like that materials you buy them however you you know whatever work you have that's how you buy your materials uh you just have to buy tools and stuff like that but in our business the tools that you're buying they're not crazy expensive so you won't end up spending like a hundred thousand or anything like that yeah so for the most part you get the materials once you get a client correct so then how do you go about getting new clients uh honestly it's just you have to grind it out you have to you know of course be on social media um you have to go out depending on you know what you want to accomplish I mean you can even go door to door you know go to Expos like this and talk to people and see what they do and see if it benefits you and about how much money does your business make of course you know depending on the size of the work that you get as well because you know you have your small small jobs you have your big jobs so it all really depends but you can make pretty good money I'm talking about maybe like 100 200 a year and is that ballpark where you're making 100 200 a year around there yeah what advice tips would you have for an entrepreneur who wants to maybe be in the construction space or start a business honestly just know the feel that you're going to get into and just jump into it don't be afraid of anything you know because problems you're always going to have problems so just jump into it like I said know the business though know the business don't just get in it thinking oh you know they're making all this money that's what I'm Gonna Make You Know You Gotta of course you know have your years that you're gonna you know be just grinding it out grinding it out what's your name and what's your business my name is Tatiana Talley and my business is boss Mama's Cove so what do you do at boss Mama's coat so what we do at boss Mama's Co is we help mothers boss mamas turn their focus and their Hobbies into money so basically helping mothers become business owners can you describe the process of doing that how does someone turn their passion into a business okay so what I do is I sit down and I talk with them and I ask them you know what would you be doing if money wasn't an issue because it's kind of hard for people to decide because money is is everything so they'd be locked in these jobs to where it's just money based so I want I sit down I ask them what their strengths are what they're good at what they're bad at and what would their friends say they're good at because that's really how they figure it out of what their friends say they are so when I get the list I go over the list and I put together different jobs for them what different businesses for them to start and that's it and then we sit down and we go through all the process of what they have to do starting off how to LLC it um so to see what type of certifications they need for the business and I help them I give them like a plan a budget on how much they need to put into it and things like that so you're basically assessing their skills their passions and then giving them business ideas and showing them how to actually set up the business the correct way yes and I help them set the business up I do all the research for them what would you say has been your most successful client someone who may have started from zero and you helped them start their business where are they at today my most successful client name is Desiree and what happened was she didn't know that she wanted to make candles but she loved candles and she loves scents so I sat down with her and I told her I was like you know you're going to work but you love candles maybe you should start making candles and she was working for a job so she started making candles and they started selling like that people picked up on it very fast and it was soy candles so she does good with that let's talk about your business for a second maybe the operations behind it did it cost you any money to start up no Google I got on Google start researching like I said what I do for other people other clients I researched everything it doesn't cost anything to start a business you just start doing it just jump in there yeah yeah yeah and about how much money does your business make oh yeah about 200 000 a year what is your business registered as it is the LLC and why did you decide to register as an LLC because it's only me and I don't want to be liable if somebody threw me I don't want it to touch any of my efforts loc offers that limited liability protection just in case you have a client that's a little bit you know and tripping tripping upset yeah yeah what are some of your favorite text write-offs or Tax Strategies that you implement or maybe help some of your clients Implement so basically everything so your clothes what you buy materials your electricity bills bills that go into your business those are my favorite tax write-offs in shopping um buying clothes for your business shoes for your business all of that because I love to shop what's your name and what's your business uh haziq Ali and the name of my company is Novae and what does nobody do oh we're a fintech based company that provides solutions for consumers and small businesses our stated purpose is closing the wealth Gap by closing the ownership how long have you been in business we've been around since 2014 now man yeah yeah so soon we'll be making our 10-year anniversary you know it's funny you ask that though because most businesses go out of business in the first couple years and it's mostly because of access to Capital you know you figure it out you know you make some mistakes you stumble you fall you get up and before you know it you know Master's your formula but now you're out of money and so our thing is to get people the funding they need so we can extend the life expectancy of the entrepreneur yeah like I said a popular headline is nine out of 10 startups fail within their first three years in business absolutely sounds like that was that's what you're speaking to us absolutely how did you start it did you have to raise any capital or anything to get it off the ground no we bootstrapped it uh my partner had already built multiple multi-million dollar companies his name is Rico mccambrey and um you know he he basically linked up with me through a mastermind how is business credit directly impacting your company oh listen man um we've we've got uh now we're to the point we got all kinds of platinum cards and all of this stuff but I think what you're really asking is how do we see it like in real life like like when you're watching businesses in real time struggle oh what I tell people is that whenever you're in a market and you see one I don't care if it's a flower shop one flower shop is struggling and the other one is flourishing what you're looking at is business credit or the lack thereof like business credit is why that flower shop has a second location business credit is why that flower shop has more company cars business credit is why that flower shop has a marketing budget but 50 of the businesses in America right now according to the small business administration they're using their personal credit to run everything and the power is in the business credit because with personal credit the more you use the lower your score goes that's called utilization but with business credit the more you use the more they give you so you can get to the point where you can transfer the debt from your personal credit over to your business credit and then both scores will go up it's like a magic trick but it ain't it's financial literacy but where was you supposed to learn that when you go to business school and your business school teacher didn't even have a business how much revenue does your company make right now um we're up in the tens of millions you know yeah yeah yeah um we we uh well I shouldn't say tens but you know I'll say 10 you know soon it'll be ten and then it'll be hundreds and it will be a billion dollar business so there you have it guys we met some amazing business owners we got some good feedback in terms of how they use business credit they broke down their business models so much more hope you guys enjoyed it coming up next I have two more videos where I'm interviewing and asking people different questions so check those out if you haven't already and I'll see you over there foreign

Channel: LYFE Accounting

Views: 2,630

Keywords: lyfe accounting, what do you do for a living, asking entrepreneurs how much money they make, asking how much money they make, asking small business owners, entrepreneur advice, entrepreneur advice for beginners, asking small business owners for entrepreneurship advice, sean with lyfe accounting

Id: YpWGf0kaxPM

Length: 20min 30sec (1230 seconds)

Published: Tue May 16 2023