Business Podcasts | What Is Your Business Worth? How to Determine What a Business Is Worth With the Founders of Peak Business Valuation (Ryan & Kelly Hutchins)

Get ready to enter the Thrivetime Show.

(singing)

Yes, yes, yes, and yes. Thrive Nation, on today’s show we are joined by an incredible guest. This is a longtime client and a friend of the Thrive Nation, a guy who’s diligently grown his business by diligently implementing the practical plans that we’ve taught him. And because he offers a great core service, people really do enjoy working with today’s guest. What he does is he evaluates businesses. He figures out what a business is worth, and oftentimes what a business is worth in the mind of the business owner is very different than the value of what a business is worth in the mind of a potential buyer of the business. And here to talk about it is Ryan Hutchins from Peak Business Valuation. Welcome on to the Thrivetime Show. How are you, sir?

Oh, I’m doing fantastic this morning and I’m not alone. My wife Kelly is with me because she loves this topic that we’re going to chat about this morning.

And real quick, we’d like-

Hi, Clay.

Hi, Kelly. We like you more than him, so we’ll focus on you. No more questions for you, Ryan. You’re done. It’s been a great interview. No, I’m just kidding. Ryan, what’s your website first off for people who want to look you up there?

Yeah. Website is peak, P-E-A-K businessvaluation.com.

Peakbusinessvaluation.com. We go there. I’m on the site. For anybody out there that’s watching online, you can see the website. It’s peakbusinessvaluation.com. Peakbusinessvaluation.com. Now I have five questions I want to fire through with you guys. So first off, for your incredible life, Kelly with a business, if I own a business, I’m listening right now and I’m doing a million dollars a year of gross revenue. I know there’s a lot of detail that goes into this, but if I’m doing a million dollars of gross revenue, if I’m listening right now, a million or more, what’s the rule of thumb of how to determine what a business is worth?

I’ll turn that over to Ryan, because Ryan actually does a lot of this part of our business.

Okay, Ryan?

Yeah. So rule of thumb on revenue is very hard to determine. Really what it comes down to is assessing the cashflow of the business first. So for instance, if your business is doing, on a million growth revenue you’re doing 200,000 in net profit, like a generalized rule of thumb that most people use without thinking of industry is like three times. So you could sell the business for 600,000 essentially.

So you’re saying that using the sort of general rule of thumb that a business and a business is worth three times its annual profit? Is that kind of a good rule of thumb at least to place to kind of start the conversation?

Yeah, to start the conversation, yes.

Okay. And then what about assets? Let’s say I’m a basketball coach or I own a gym of some kind and I’m making 200,000 a year of profit, but I have a lot of stuff. I’ve got weights and I’ve got the bench press machine and the cardio equipment and an infrared sauna. And I’ll let either one of you answer that question. Where does that stuff fit into determining the value of a company?

Great question. So ultimately all your fixed assets are in place to help you drive that revenue and therefore profit. And so in certain business models, inventory and fixed assets are treated differently, but in all case and purposes fixed assets are typically included in the value of the business, which we determine based on that three x on your profit.

Got it. Okay. So let’s do it just to make sure I’m understanding this idea. So if I’m listening right now and I have a home remodeling company and I did a million dollars of revenue last year and $200,000 of profit, you’re saying as a rule of thumb the business is worth three times its annual profit. And if I go, “Yeah, but I’ve got a bunch of screw guns, and nail guns, and just a lot of trucks that are old, they’re awesome to me, and a chair, and this lamp, and this thermos and a shopping cart, and this commemorative picture of me and my friend of mine who … He got a photo with Trump and he sent it to me and that made something, and this hockey jersey, and this stapler, and this computer and just all this stuff. You’re saying that’s not an additional value added on to the value of the business?”

Not necessarily. The picture of Trump might be if it’s signed, just because that’s a non-operating asset. But everything else if it’s assisting in driving revenue, it’s included and already captured in the value based on your net profit.

Got it. Now you and your wife work together on this business, is that correct?

That is correct.

How did you two meet? Kelly, how did you meet Ryan? Did you lose a bet or what was the relationship like? How did that happen?

Ryan and I met playing volleyball, so he was in short shorts, got the whole look going on one-handed playing volleyball, and I told him, “Maybe you should use some two hands, might go better.”

Did you play volleyball in college or high school there, Kelly?

I played in high school.

Really? And were you pretty good?

Well, I was better at javelin. I did that in college.

Javelin, are you serious?

Yep, I’m serious.

Is that considered a weapon? Is that considered a weapon [inaudible 00:05:59]?

It depends on who you’re aiming at.

Okay, okay. So back to this here now. Ryan, I think a lot of people will reach out to you every day. I mean, we’ve worked with you for a long time and have had the pleasure of doing so. In a typical week, I mean, when people reach out to you, what are the most commonly asked questions that people have for you?

So the two most common questions are what’s your price and how fast can you get it done? But outside of those two questions, it’s always around what’s the process in valuing a business and what information is needed in order to determine an accurate value?

Okay, so what is the price and what is the speed of the process, those are the two most commonly asked questions?

Correct.

Okay. I’m taking notes here. Okay, of evaluating, okay. And so what kind of stuff do people need to send to you if they go to peakbusinessvaluation.com and they do schedule a consultation? What kind of stuff do they actually need to have ready to go to value their business?

Yeah, so the primary information that we ask for upfront is one, what’s your revenue on an annual basis or the last kind of 12 months? And what industry do you operate in? Because ultimately revenue is a good way to gauge the size of the company and complexity and the industry in which you operate in. For instance, if you’re a subway franchise, that business model is more straightforward than if you’re a CNC machine shop. Every business is just very unique. Some are more complex than others. So industry and revenue are the primary two questions that we ask people are prepped with prior to our conversation.

Got it. So this is something that people, if I’m going to have my business evaluated, I’m going to need to know the annual revenue for the past three years, and then I have to know what industry I’m in. I can’t just say, “I don’t know what industry I’m in. I mean, I do it all, baby.” You’re telling me I have to know what industry I’m in?

Correct, or for instance, oh, this is a good one. So this last week we worked with a company down in southern Utah and my team thought they dealt with gun safes. And when I asked them the question, “What industry do you think you operate in?” They came back with pre-fabricated burial vaults, which is vastly different than gun safes. So either if you don’t know your generalized industry, just knowing kind of what you do, and I could place you in your industry, so yeah.

Now this is good stuff here. So again, I’m taking notes here folks just to recap for anybody out that’s watching here. Step one, you want to assess the cashflow of the business. If you want to figure out what your business is worth, step one, you want to assess the cashflow of the business. Step two, you want to use the following rule of thumb, business is worth three times its annual revenue. Step three, fixed assets and inventory are typically not added onto the value of a business. The most commonly asked questions are about valuing a business are what is the price, what’s the speed of the process of evaluating a business, and the items that you need to determine the value of a business. Or you need to have, what is the annual revenue for the past three years, your annual revenue for the past three years, and you have to know the industry you’re in. Now tell me this, how often do people want to argue with you about this?

Oh, consistently. So ultimately everyone has their own perceived value of what their business is worth, and it’s primarily driven off of emotion or what they heard from … They chat with their buddy and they’re like, “Oh, I sold my business for x times my profit.” And it’s like, okay, vastly different industry, your margins are significantly lower, and your operations, your marketing, your conversion, your people also impact the value of your business. So you can’t go straight off numbers because it sometimes is misleading.

Now a lot of times when working with people in your industry, I find that you almost become an accountant/a life coach for people that reach out to you because somebody wants to reach out to find out the value of their business usually because they have to sell it or they want to sell it. Kelly, how often do you guys have to get into the weeds and sit down with the owner and really figure out where they’re at financially? Maybe they have no idea where they’re at financially before calling you guys?

That’s a great, great problem. I think that’s something we run into a lot with small business owners is they don’t have the preparation behind them to start talking about the value of their business. So it’s really important that you have your financials organized when you’re getting ready to do a business valuation. We typically ask for three years of tax returns. And so knowing your numbers, having them in place is really important. So honestly, it starts with your bookkeeper. It starts with having an accountant that can help you work through those numbers because when it comes down to business valuation, we do, we take a look at the numbers, we take a look at the operations of your business, and then we kind of dig into the weeds of what’s really driving your business, driving your marketing, your operations, what your efficiency looks like compared to competitors. And so ultimately all of those things play into the value of a business.

How did you guys get involved in the business, Ryan? What drove you to getting involved with Peak Business Valuation?

Yeah, so, well, long backstory. So I was working as a tax consultant in San Francisco with Deloitte, and I wanted to get married so I moved from San Francisco to Utah, found Kelly within a year after going through a numbers game with dating. And then Kelly was getting her MBA-

Quick timeout, quick timeout. Are you telling me that you went on multiple dates to find your dream woman?

Correct. I would go on average between five and six dates a week because I knew I needed x amount of first dates to get the second dates and x amount of second dates to get the third dates, and I needed to eat, so might as well spend money on someone else.

It’s very interesting that you have this dating strategy because that was my dating strategy as well. I’m like, I recognize that in the game of life I’m not a 10. And I was looking for an incredible woman that was smart and sharp and kind and who wanted to have kids and raise a family. And so I went on so many dates where they just didn’t go well because our values weren’t aligned. And so how long have you guys been married now?

We’ve been married close to six years.

Awesome, awesome. How did we first meet you, Ryan? How did you come in contact with us?

So I was listening to a podcast, Entrepreneurs on Fire with John Lee Dumas where you were being interviewed. And I listened to it and I’m like, “Okay, it’s my birthday coming up in a week. I’m going to schedule an appointment with Clay Clark,” and it’s everything is history. We’ve been working with you since May 8th, 2020.

Last time I checked, I think you guys have grown by 149.4%. I think that was the number, 149.4. Are you continuing to grow or things are at least booming?

That is very accurate. We’ve had a killer January where we’re up about 70% over last January.

Yeah.

The hardest part in our industry is finding adequate and good people because most individuals within the business valuation space either are already partners or they’re just leaving and going somewhere else. And we just hired an individual that I worked with for four years in business valuation that left and worked at Lowe’s Corporate for four years. And he is like, “I want to come back.” And I’m like, “Good, I got an opening for you.” And even though I’m creating that opening, it’ll help me figure out how to get him into sales, trending him there, managing a team, and alleviating time for me to grow quicker.

One thing that I have found in your industry, and I’m not saying this about you, but in your industry, I’ve found a lot of business evaluation companies will literally tell the owner that their business is worth whatever the owner wants it to be worth. And I’ve seen this, I’m serious. I’ll see a guy who’s getting divorced and he is trying to sell his company and he has a bunch of businesses so he is trying to get the business to be evaluated for more than it’s worth. I see people trying to buy a house, they’re trying to leverage what it’s worth. I see people trying to lie on their life insurance claims. I see people playing games. How often do you have people reach out and go, “Hey, could you add a couple commas on that, maybe a comma, maybe a couple zeros, maybe.” How often does that kind of situation present itself?

Probably one out of every nine conversations. So we’re dealing with a company right now down in the south that they have a number in mind and we’re far below it. And they’re like, “Okay, let me give you a new set of financial forecast for projections.” And I’m like, “Okay, now you’re just playing a game. I’m not going to help you get to that point.” Because the average small business, when you think about it, the standard of value that we follow is what is a willing buyer, willing seller hypothetically transacting at?

And the average small business is when a transact is being financed by a loan. And so if a bank is not willing to loan on it, then the business is worth far less for those two people. And so there’s a lot that goes into understanding what two people should transact at and going off of what one person wants the value to be, we don’t play that game, so we don’t really deal with divorce or a lot of certain cases where they want a certain number, because it’s not fair for all parties involved. What’s a fair, reasonable value?

Now one thing I’ll say that’s great about you guys, again, Peak Business Valuation, you guys offer a free business valuation consultation. And I would say that what you do is very analogous to a home appraiser and you’ve actually been to my house before. You’ve been to my home and my home is in Tulsa. You’ve been to it, you’ve seen it. You’ve seen the pool, you’ve seen the office, you’ve met my wife. Well, my house, if you took my house and moved it to California it might be worth 10 times more than it’s worth, or maybe it’s worth less. And there’s a lot of variables there. It depends on how the economy’s doing, and my house in a big boom, it might be worth more than if the economy’s turbulent. And so there’s a lot of variables there, and you guys really do a good job setting up that free consultation.

So I encourage everybody today, if you’re wanting to have your business evaluated, you want to figure out what it’s worth for whatever reason, whether you want to sell a business or buy a business, say you’re thinking about buying a company and you want to have it evaluated, or you’re looking to sell a company and you want to have it evaluated. Say you’re looking to obtain an SBA loan, maybe you’re looking to sell the company, maybe you’re looking to buy a franchise. All of these are things that are services that you guys provide. They’re all services you provide at peakbusinessvaluation.com. Ryan, Kelly, thank you guys for joining us today. Ryan and Kelly, I’ll give you guys the final word. What’s the final thing you want to communicate to the Thrive Nation?

Even if you have a question around what’s the value of a business, we are always happy to chat and have that conversation because whether or not we work with you, we care more so about the education in helping you start thinking, especially when you’re growing a business. If you’re working with Thrive, all those elements and the 13 point assessment and working on your hiring system, tracking your numbers, your marketing, your conversions, your website, all those elements come into play. And most people don’t think about it until they actually have a conversation with someone else that kind of turns on the light bulb in their head. So if you’re interested in understanding the value of your business or what metrics to focus on to build a company, feel free to just give us a call. We have our web form. We’re always available to just chat and just point you in the right direction because we care more about education and helping people grow their businesses and be successful than doing a business valuation report, even though that’s our business model. We just want to help people.

Well, I love what you guys do. I’m glad your wife knows the game of volleyball. I’m glad you guys met. Kelly. Have a great day. Ryan, have a great day and we’ll talk to you next week, okay?

Thanks.

Okay, sounds good. See you, Clay.

Take care, guys. Bye-bye.

Bye.

I played basketball at the University of Oklahoma and my father was a high school coach. When I got out of college, what I wanted to do was coach. I coached in college for about four years, and then I had my son and life changed. And my son was terminally ill. He had muscular dystrophy, what’s called Duchennes. At the time, I was working for a school. I needed to make more money because of all doctor bills, all that kind of stuff you got to buy and everything. And so I started doing just a side program with score, just doing a few basketball lessons. My schedule filled up. At the time my son was in a wheelchair. It got to be quite a struggle with him. And so it was a constant fight every day of do I work, do I spend my time with him? How much time do I spend with working? But what I learned from all of it is you still got to get your job done.

Well, I’m not a business owner and I’m probably a terrible business owner back a couple years ago, because I had parents tell me all the time, “Well, I wish I’d had known about you three years ago,” or “I’ve never heard of score.” We get that all the time. And then doing the finances, doing just everything that I had to do was just eating me alive. It would take hours every day. And so I needed to get smart about doing my business. All of us need a game plan and Thrive15 has helped me tremendously with that game plan. We changed how I was charging. We changed the programs we were doing. We changed the advertisement we were doing. We started doing everything smart.

We’re the largest basketball facility in this three or four state area. We have people that call us from all over Oklahoma because of our website. My time has been freed up tremendously because I’m not involved in all the little things. It’s just streamlining your business so it’s not taking just all of your time away from your family, because my wife’s very important to me, my kids. I got to have some of that as well. And as a business owner, if you allow your business to eat you up, it’s not really worth it. You got to have a value of life as well. We wouldn’t be where we’re at today without Thrive15.

Yes, yes, yes, and yes. Sean on today’s show, I am fired up because we are interviewing a longtime client who’s having massive success. Sean, you told me, you said, “Clay, I might not be able to participate in this interview because if my client texts me and I have to go, then I have to go.”

It’s a true story, yeah.

So you might be here for a minute or two, or you might have to leave right now.

Yeah, no, we’re good. We’re good for now.

We’re good right now.

We’re good right now.

I need you a hundred percent focused, but available for your client.

Okay.

All right. All right. Now, Ryan, you’ve been a client. How long have we worked with you, sir?

So we’ve worked together since my birthday in May of 2020.

And how did you originally hear about us? What poor series of life choices did you make consecutively to end up getting hold of us?

I listened to John Lee Dumas, Entrepreneur on Fire.

And so John Lee Dumas, we love John. The reason why we buy ads on his program is we do conferences every two months. Our next one is December 2nd and 3rd. December 2nd and 3rd. For anybody out there who doesn’t know they’re two day interactive business workshops. And what happened was seven years ago or eight years ago, I get a email from John Lee Dumas asking if I’d like to be on his show as a guest. Were you working with us at the time?

I heard that show before I started working with you.

Oh, really? And I had no idea who he was. I’m like, “Sure I’ll be on the show.” And we had thousands of people reach out and say, “Hey, I want to attend your workshop.” And I was thinking that was kind of fun. So I thought you know what we should do, we should probably advertise. So I think I spend 10,000 a month every month on the John Lee Dumas Show promoting our conferences. And then during the scamdemic, during the pandemic, whatever that was, when everyone was saying, “You can’t possibly have a conference, you’re going to kill people.”

I’m like “Well, the Amish, the Amish.” Think about this folks. The Amish are not dying in droves and they’re not social distancing, they’re not wearing masks. And I thought, “You know what? I’m going to keep it Amish.” And people are going, “What does that mean?” I’m like, “I’m going to keep advertising.” So Dumas is going, “You want to advertise your conference in the pandemic?” And I go, “Absolutely.” Okay. So you heard about it through John Lee Dumas, and what was the next step? Did you fill out a form? Did you call us? Or what did that next step look like?

Filled out a form, had a 13 point assessment with you. And I must have smelt good that day because we started working with Andrew the following week.

Now what’s the name of your company? What’s your website for anybody out there who doesn’t know about your brand?

Yeah, so the name of the company is Peak Business Valuation, and the website is peakbusinessvaluation.com.

And how much growth have you had since you’ve been working with us as a percentage or numerically? How could you quantify that?

Yeah, so since working with Thrive, we’ve grown 149.4%.

149.4% growth. Now look, I want to make sure people get this, and I’ll put a link to this on the show notes here, Inc Magazine, Sean, I’m pulling this up here, says that 96% of businesses fail.

Yeah.

Now I want to make sure people understand statistically how challenging it is to become successful so we get this idea, just so we understand the math of it. What percentage, Ryan, of people do you know that you know are self-employed? I mean, is it 10% of the people you know anecdotally? Or Sean, what percentage? I mean, what do we think?

Oh, less than 10% easily.

Yeah.

And I won the SBA Entrepreneur of the Year award, so I was really inundated with a lot of SBA facts and statistics. But I’ll just tell people this. The SBA was reporting at the time that basically about 30 million small business owners exist. 30 million of them. And there’s 330 million Americans. So we could say basically 1 out of 10 Americans tries the self-employment game. 96% of those businesses fail. So if 10% is only 33 million, and 96% of that fail, I’m doing the math here-

Yeah, like a 0.4% of a person succeeds or something like that.

I’m going to do the math here. 33 million people, okay, start a business or have a business and 96% then fail, so 4% make it. That means, let’s see the math here. This would be 33 million. Okay. Oh, did Google just change the calculator thing, is that the move? Is that what they’re doing to us?

Oh, no.

Okay. I’m going to do the move here. Okay. Calculator. Okay, we need a calculator. Calculator. Stay on target. Got it.

I’m staying on target right here.

Got the calculator. Where is it? Okay, here it is. I got it. Okay. So 33 million business owners x 0.4 because that’s how many make it. So that means there’s 1.32 million business owners that are doing well in a population of 330 million people. So what percentage is that? I mean, it’s like 1 out of every 330 people are successful. Ryan, think about if we had a conference. Say we went to the average building, a church. We said, “All right guys, motivational talk here. We got about 600 of you standing up. Everybody stand up. Okay, great. Now I want everyone to sit down except for you two because that’s the only people who will be successful.” I mean, it’s just statistically not very encouraging. But yet our average client grows by 104% annually. That was last year. And you grew by 149.4%. So Ryan, what do you do? What is your core business?

So at Peak Business Valuation, we help individuals who are looking to buy or sell a business. We help them understand the value of that business.

So you’re all up in the data. You see people that have a dysfunctional business or a functional business. What do you think is the common denominators of a functional business? I know this is off the cuff, I’m just trying to get your take because you live in this space. What attributes do you see that are common amongst functional businesses, and dysfunctional businesses?

It really all lines up with your 13 point assessment. So systems and processes, if those are in place and the owner from a day-to-day operations has a good management team around them where he is not putting out fires all the time, because everyone’s following a system, those companies seem to always be functioning well. And then business owners who care about their bottom line and the cashflow of the company, I love working with those individuals rather than individuals that try to hide all their personal expenses in the company trying to pierce the corporate veil.

Now listen, I’ve never done this before on the Thrivetime Show, I just sent a Zoom link to someone who wasn’t expecting to be on the show. Let me see if he actually joins us.

My client just text me.

I noticed you were pretty distracted.

See you later, Ryan.

Jonathan, are you there? Are you there, Jonathan? Can you see us? Jonathan, can you see us? Is he there? Can you see Jonathan’s head there, Ryan? Do you see his head?

I do.

Jonathan, what’s up, man?

It’s [inaudible 00:28:23].

Hey. Real quick, I want to do an impromptu interview here to see. This is Ryan. Ryan’s on the show here. Ryan, how long have you been a client?

Since May of 2020.

And you’ve grown your business by how much?

149.4%.

And Jonathan, how long have you been a client?

About 16 hours, maybe not quite.

Nice. Nice. Okay. So we’re going to talk about Ryan’s success here because I think there’s a lot you can learn folks if you’re out there. So Peak Business Valuation. First off, if anybody out there is listening, who’s an ideal client for you, Ryan? Who’s an ideal client?

So really anyone who’s looking to buy a business, who needs that feeling of confidence when making the decision, “Oh, should I buy this business?” We’re there to help as part of the due diligence in buying that business. And then also individuals looking to sell who know who they want to sell to, but don’t know what price they should sell at, that’s where we step in.

And so as a consulting program, again, you look at people’s businesses, that’s what you do. You evaluate companies. So what made you want to reach out and become a client when you did? Because now you’re at the other side, you’re having the massive growth. What made you want to reach out?

What made me want to reach out was we had worked with our consultant before who was like, “You guys do everything I tell you to do and I don’t think I could take you to that next step.” And he is like, “You should look for another consultant.” And so I spent months looking for someone that had very similar characteristics and attitude. And I heard you on Entrepreneurs on Fire, and I’m like, “Oh, that guy’s a firecracker. I need to work with him.”

Now just to go with Jonathan. How did you hear about us again, Jonathan?

I had listened to some of your videos on Rumble.

Oh, Rumble.

I’m not sure if I just happened to cross them or if another podcaster had referenced you and learned that you do business consulting there.

You know and what’s so crazy, and I want to get your take on this, Ryan, is I do business consulting, but I don’t … To me growing a business, I have a haircut chain, okay? So today we’re going to cut, well, we do 4,000 haircuts a month and we got 26 days a month we do haircuts. So we’re going to do 175 haircuts today, something like that. And I’m not going to cut anybody’s hair. And then the dog training business, got 14 locations and we’re going to do, we’re probably going to train 200 dogs today. And behind me, we have a great member of our team, Ashley, she’s talking to somebody about something. I don’t know what she’s doing back there. She’s doing something. And behind me, there’s a whole team of people doing the things that they’re doing. And I do all that so that I can do what I really want to do.

What I really want to do is help people like Ryan grow your business so that you can pursue your passions. And what I really want to do is I did this week and I took my kids to the drive-in safari where you can see the rhino and see the baboons. The baboons are kind of interesting characters. You can see the little gophers that dig and I’m excited about that. But it takes money to buy goods and services. So to me, a business just exists to create time freedom and financial freedom so you can do it whatever you want to do. And this ReAwaken America Tour, if I didn’t have the time freedom and financial freedom to do it, I mean, if I didn’t have the money, I mean, Ryan, have you ever tried to organize a large conference before?

No.

Well, let me just tell you, step one, what you do is you got to get a ton of porta-potties. I’m not kidding, you’re spending like 12, 14 grand on porta-potties. You got to get big old jumbotrons. You got to get the videographers, the security, metal detectors. You got to get parking attendants, you’ve got to get flights, you got to get hotels, you’ve got to get print pieces, gift bags when you walk in the door. I mean, all of this, there’s so many details. Then you got to have speakers that people actually want to see, a lot of details there. And if I didn’t have the time freedom and financial freedom to do it, I couldn’t do it. So I want to ask you, Ryan, what drives you? What makes you want to grow your company? Because you are a diligent client, you’re having massive success. What makes you want to grow your business?

That’s a loaded question. At the end of the day, I just love talking to people about their business and providing the value, telling you, “Okay, this is what the value of your business is,” is great. But I love having the conversation afterwards. It’s like, “What can you do with this value from here? How can you grow it?” And that’s what I enjoy. I like being an advisor, kind of helping people with the little knowledge that I have.

So let’s do this now. What I’m going to do is I’m going to talk about some of the specific stuff that we’ve worked with you on. The hiring process, was it challenging for you at first, Ryan, to find good people?

Yes. Extremely.

So you were super busy all the time, is that correct? I mean, because you didn’t have-

I’m still super busy and we hired someone that … So my wife and I had a son that was born on October 5th. We had someone start on October 4th. We had someone start on October 11th and someone that started on Monday so October 18th.

Wow. So you’re hiring people now. My understanding is, Jonathan, that’s one of your biggest limiting factors in your business is hiring people.

It is.

And can you tell the listeners out there, what do you do, and don’t make it morbid, by the way, what do you do for a living?

We do cemetery memorials.

Oh, you’re sick. Hey, I got to ask-

This is an art, not a tragedy.

I got to ask you-

It’s to bring comfort.

I’m going to ask you, are sales up?

Are sales up? Sales are busy right now. The last two years we’ve been busy.

What a crazy business you have. So you have a business, this is what you do. And hiring good people, that’s been a challenge. So we’ve helped Ryan do that and we’re going to help you too, Jonathan. Now let’s talk about this, the implementing the processes, Ryan. What’s some of the processes that you’ve implemented that have allowed you to find good people the fastest?

So the group interview system, which is by far the most mind-blowing concept when I tell people about it that we work with from evaluation, “I’ve never heard of that.” And I’m like, “Oh, you should look at the Godfather, Clay Clark and just look at Thrive and learn about it.” And so we post on LinkedIn because that’s where we find the most qualified candidates. And I have a vast network. My wife has a vast network. And so we get a lot of inquiries in without having to sponsor. And from there, because we break one rule, my entire company is virtual.

Oh, wow.

We don’t have an office.

So you’ve had to adapt. It’s like a proven system. You had to adapt it to make it work for you, right? Is that correct?

Correct. And so instead of doing an in-person group interview, we do a Zoom group interview. And it’s like a couple weeks ago we had about 18 people on and you could tell immediately who-

Who is a good fit?

… who is a good fit. And we didn’t have to expend any other energy besides sending an email.

And just as a teaching tip for anybody out there, the group interview, by the way, I have a book called the BOOM book. And in the BOOM book I wrote on the cover of this Clay edit version, because every conference we do, I edit it. Every conference I do, I’m editing, I’m always doing updates. So if you come to a workshop, every one is a little bit different because we’re always improving, refining, that kind of thing. It’s like a art form kind of. But basically the group interview is every week you want to post. You never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever want to stop posting that you’re hiring ever. So yesterday, yesterday was October 18th, folks, for anybody out there who’s unaware of what day it is today. Today is October 19th. October 18th, which is usually before the 19th. On yesterday, October the 18th, I had two people come to me and they said, “I think I need to turn in my two-week notice.”

And one guy did it with class. It was like, “Hey, I got to put in my two-week notice.” And we’ve got one guy who had been here I think six years. And you know what? Great news. He has a wonderful job opportunity and we’re excited for him. And I said, “That’s great. Let me write you a letter of recommendation,” and I did. It was awesome. And I had a guy shadowing me, a business owner shadowing me. And he goes, “Did you just have a top employee who’s been there six years tell you he’s moving on and you said that’s great?” I go, “I did say that’s great. That’s great, high five, fist bump.” And he was like, “How does that not bother you?” I go, “I have got a list of people I call the A list, I keep this on a spreadsheet I have, of people that want to work for us right now and I don’t have a spot.”

So I picked up the phone, [inaudible 00:37:30]. “Hey, you’re a fabulous person. Remember you came to the interview a month ago. Are you still looking for a job?” They go, “Absolutely.” I said, “Boom, you’re hired. Boom.” I brought in a new person and guess what? We are going to have an excited person joining the team. Then the next person says, “I got to put in my two-week notice.” I’m going, “Are you dead because if you are dead I know they have a funeral guy here, you can make your …” But they look dead when they, you know what I mean? You’ve seen this Ryan, where they’re coming to work, they look dead. They’re, “I needed to let you know I’m putting in my two-week notice.”

So I just said, “Okay. Hey, no big deal. No big deal.” “Really, no big deal?” “No big deal. No big deal.” Because I’ve got people. Step one, never, ever, ever, if you’re taking notes, folks. Step one, never stop, never stop your now hiring ads. Ryan, would you agree with that statement?

I would agree with that statement. And another business that I own that we work with, Sean with, one of my partners wants to stop some of the ads.

No, partner.

I’m like, “No, no, no. We can’t do that. We got to keep it going even if it’s $5 a day.”

Now step two, you got to put a now hiring button on your website. You got to have a now hiring button and never take the button off. Let’s always have the button, okay? And by the way, if you’re out there looking for a job that will not require you to take the Covid-19 vaccine, I’ve created this really incredible button on timetofreeamerica.com. It’s a secret code button. You’ll have to see if you can get through the cryptic code. It says, “Find jobs that don’t require the Covid-19 vaccines.” I wonder what that means. If you go right there, you click it, we have employers reaching out every day. If you’re an employer right there and you’re looking for good employees, just fill out the form. It’s a free listing. And we have people reaching out every day. I talked to a guy yesterday, he had 11 candidates yesterday, qualified candidates that reached out and he’s able to hire remotely.

And he said, “Dude, this entirely filled my now hiring problem.” So again, if you want to just go to timetofreeamerica.com. If you are an employer looking to hire, just go to timetofreeamerica.com, click on the button that says … Right here, that says, “Find jobs that don’t require the Covid-19 vaccines.” And if you’re an employee, just fill out the form, boom, matchmaker right there. And you don’t have to pay any money. You don’t have to make a secret account. It’s all good right there. Okay, so step three, you interview all candidates at the same time. Interview all candidates at the same time. Now someone says, “What?” Yes, tomorrow I’m driving to Utah. You live in Utah, don’t you, Ryan? You live in Utah?

Yes.

You know I’m driving to Utah tomorrow.

Nice. Do you want to come to into [inaudible 00:39:58]?

I’m driving to Salt Lake tomorrow.

That’s a long drive.

Where do you live?

I live south of Salt Lake City in a town called Lehi. It’s about 20 miles south.

I will for sure be there tomorrow. Tomorrow’s Wednesday. So I’ll be there Thursday. I’m doing an event. I’m not doing a ReAwaken America Tour event, but I’m MCing an event. And so the words got out that I host events for free if they’re all about saving America. So I’m going to go do that event, but I’ll be there driving. And so when I say driving, I’ll mostly be sleeping. But the point is I’m doing the group interview before I leave. I will not hop in the vehicle until I complete the group interview, because the group interviews every Wednesday at 5:30.

So I will do the interview, then I’ll hop in the van and it’s eight seat white van will drive there. And then step four, if you like a candidate, have the qualified candidates shadow. Ryan, why is that so important to have a qualified candidate shadow or do a little bit of work for you, maybe a day’s work? Maybe you hire them for a day or two, they shadow for a day or two, whatever you want to do there. Why is it so important you have them shadow a little bit or have them work in front of you for a day or so before you actually commit?

Well, it’s really during that shadow if they don’t ask questions, they don’t say anything to you, you show them what you’re doing. They’re not interested. So you’re saving yourself from accidentally hiring someone that doesn’t care about what you do.

True.

And it’s a good way for them to actually see what you do on a day-to-day basis. Because most jobs, it’s a black box where you just show up to day one and you’re like, “Oh, what am I going to do today?”

True. Now the next, your business has grown, we’ve worked together. It’s grown by 149.4%, folks. That’s 149.4%, peakbusinessvaluation.com. So we’ve worked with on the hiring process, the Google reviews, it’s so important. Online reputation, it’s massively important that people by the name of Jonathan that you get Google reviews that people by the name of Ryan, we get Google reviews. Everyone gets Google reviews and video reviews because even potential job candidates, employees, potential employees read reviews. Potential customers read reviews, humans on the planet Earth read reviews. Somebody called me yesterday, I talked to them. They said, “You’ve got over a thousand video reviews up here on thrivetimeshow.com from your clients. That’s a huge number, wow.” And I go, “I’ve been doing this since 2006 and it works.” Ryan, why do you got to continue to get Google reviews and video reviews when possible?

To show that one we exist and we’re not [inaudible 00:42:29] disappear. Video testimonials have been one of our pain points and struggles, but Google reviews we average between three and four a week. And it’s just consistency. It enables us to kind of stay in contact with some of our clients. And just like we’re the top-rated and most reviewed company and valuation firm in America.

You are. And you’re ranking out top nationally, I believe for search engines.

Yeah, yeah. No one comes close. And it’s like everyone does a net promoter score. And it’s like, what does that actually mean? Here I got a physical quantity of people who’ve left reviews that you could just look at and read and actually get a good idea.

For anybody who doesn’t know what a net promoter score is, you’re smarter for not knowing what a net promoter score is. We could get into the Harvard case study on that. Just throw that away mentally. What you want to do if you’re listening right now and you want to grow your business and your name is Jonathan or not, you want to get a Google review every day from every happy customer. A Google review and a video review, Google Review, video review, Google Review, video review.

And also from happy employees. For Elephant In The Room, our haircut chain, eitrlounge.com. Elephant in the room. I get employee reviews. A lot of employees come to me and they say, “Clay, I’m making more money now than I’ve ever made in my life. I love my schedule. Thank you.” And I go, “Can I get you on video saying that? Because that will really help potential candidates.” And we add that to the website. So again, those are moves. Final things, final three minutes and final three questions here for you. The actual creating of processes. We’ve worked with you to create processes, checklists, systems that have freed up your time. Is that correct?

Correct.

Okay. We don’t have a whole lot of time to get into that. But again, folks, I’m talking about checklist, processes so other people can do it. You want to make it if you’re the only person that knows how to do the job, it’s just a job. But if you want to build a business that gets you out of just a perpetual busyness, you got to build checklists and processes simultaneously while you’re recruiting great people. You got to recruit people, recruit people. You got to recruit the people. It’s more of a must recruit people. There it is. Recruit people. Must recruit people. Busyness is [inaudible 00:44:39]. Must recruit people. Must build systems, build systems, recruit people, distractions, chamber of commerce, net promoters scores, rumors, gossip, lunch, new ideas, group interview, group interview, build processes.

That’s how you do it. You got to stay focused on those two things. That’s how you do it. Next thing, we have these workshops we do. We do a workshop every two months. Our next one is in December, December 2nd and 3rd. You can get your ticket by going to thrivetimeshow.com. Thrivetimeshow.com. It’s two days. It’s interactive, high octane, a 45-minute sprint followed by 15 minutes where you can ask questions or get up, grab a coffee. You can write your questions on the whiteboard. Ryan, have you been to one of the two-day interactive business workshops and if you have, how would you describe it?

So I’ve been to two and by far the most entertaining workshops I’ve been to. And it’s great to learn about your 13 point assessment and kind of the steps to build a great company. But my favorite aspect is just networking with the different people who are there, the entrepreneurs who have that same diligent doer attitude. They just want to learn, absorb, go home, build, create.

Now final thing I want to share here is that so many people they … I’m very transparent with what I charge. So if you’re watching this video right now and it’s 2021, I charge $1,700 a month. And somebody says, “Yeah, but what do you really charge?” It’s month to month. Somebody says, “Yeah, but when do you really screw people over? When is there a big contract?” We don’t. It’s just month to month. It’s $1,700 a month. They go, “Yeah, but what does it really cost?” I mean, Ryan, is it $1,700 a month, month to month?

It is.

It is. So that’s how that works. Now let’s be clear here, folks, with $1,700 a month, that’s what I charge. I’ve been doing this since 2006. I make a 20% profit margin, okay? That’s why it used to be 1,500. Now it’s 1700, haven’t raised the price in a couple years. But we include you can come to the workshop as part of that. You just pay an extra 75 bucks for the workbooks and stuff. But all of this is included, the workshops. You can come shadow me. You join the community of 160 successful business owners. We do videography, photography, search engine development. We run your ad reports. We do workflow design. We actually look at your numbers. We help you hire, help you fire, help you brand, help you market, help you graphic design. Everything you need to optimize a website to run your online ads. It’s all included in that $1,700 a month.

And that’s what we do. And that’s what allows me the time freedom and financial freedom to, I’ll tell you the two big projects I’m working on this week, guys, and then I’ll let you go. I have a lot of turtles that congregate on a rock in my pond. And I’m working on a sign that says, “Welcome to Turtle Rock.” So I called Frederick Sign, I’m having a sign engraved, and they go, “Does this, is this …?” I go, “No, no, I want it to look like this. I want it to look like a sign from a sign from a state park or something like a national park.” And I have another sign I’m putting up that says, “You’re welcome to pet the squirrels,” because it’s not possible. And then I have another sign I’m putting up that says, “[inaudible 00:47:47] farm tours start tomorrow.”

So when you come to the conference, you’re going to see all these signs. And I’m building a massive pond that it allows the koi to free-range. I mean these koi, they might not have to go to the same part of the pond twice in their lifetime. I mean, this is a massive pond. It’s going to be a glorious pond. We’re able to do the ReAwaken America Tour. I’m in the process of buying two Nubian goats, two Jerusalem donkeys. I’m getting the 60 additional silkie chickens right now. And we’re right on the precipice of finding two incredible llamas. And I’m buying them from my friend named Joe who runs Safari Joe’s.

So I’m able to do those kinds of things, drive to Utah, do the things. But again, none of those things are possible unless we implement the proven systems and processes. So I just encourage everybody out there, if you are Jonathan or you are Ryan or you are, anybody out there, you can do it. Ryan, what would you say for anybody out there that feels like they maybe don’t qualify or they don’t have what’s required, they don’t have the skillset, they don’t have the money? What would you say to somebody who’s thinking about reaching out for help?

Oh, it never hurts to call because either you’re going to hear, “No, we can’t help,” or “Oh, heck yes, we can help you.”

Now, Jonathan, do you have any final questions for Ryan before Ryan has to hang up on us here?

Not that I know of. It sounds like he’s doing all right and I hope I’ll be doing the same.

Absolutely. Well, thank you for joining me for this impromptu interview. I’ve never done an interview where I didn’t ask somebody in advance if I could send them a Zoom link, and so I just sent him a Zoom link, because I talked to him last night and I was like, “Wouldn’t it be cool if you guys met each other?” So hope that was a good connection there.

This is good.

Ryan, thank you so much for being on today’s show. One more time, what’s that website and what are the solutions you could provide for any of our listeners who may be listening to today’s show?

Yeah, so website is peakbusinessvaluation.com. And if you’re looking to sell a business, buy a business and want to understand the value of that business, just give us a call. 435 359 2684.

And my name’s Clay Clark. And if you’re out there and you’re looking for somebody to help you come up with witty designs for your hobby farm, I’m unavailable right now because my mind is consumed with coming with witty signs for my hobby farm. But I’m telling you, when you guys, are you coming to the conference, Ryan, and are you coming in December?

I still have to get approval from my wife.

You just had a baby.

But yes, I told Andrew to reserve two tickets.

Dude, you have to be, I’m telling you. You got to see the fire pits. The fire pits are hot, the pond is great. Your mind will explode. You may not want to ever leave Tulsa-rusalem. You’ll come to Tulsa-rusalem. You will find the new promised land. You will love it. All right. Take care, man. Have a good day. Take care, Johnathan. Bye-bye.

All right.

And I know that most successful people do this, and I hope that you can be inspired by what I do.

And I need you to understand that the bigger your dream is, the earlier you going to have to get up.

I am quite famous in my community, at least for my commitment to my morning routine. I do not deviate. I do not deviate. I do not deviate from it for any reason. Even when I travel, even when I’m on vacation the morning routine is preserved. And I figured this out a long time ago, realizing that as an entrepreneur working for myself, if I didn’t start the day off the way that I intended it, my day was just going to run me over. I wake up in the morning around 6:30 without an alarm.

Get up 5:10 most days. My wife and I. We work out, we eat a healthy breakfast with our children. I usually get in a good 30 to 40 minutes of reading and this is all before I get on my email or anything else, right? This is all quiet time. There’s a lot less distractions in the morning.

Oftentimes I’ll get up about 5:45. I start to rock into my day and oftentimes by about 8:00 I’ve got some phone calls set up. And I always try and get a workout in there because if I’m not working out, then I’m not creative. I have routines that I like to place in there where they fit, but I never compromise.

The latest I’ll get up is 6:30. Sometimes I’ll be in the office as early as maybe 5:00. The first three hours of the day, what I try to do is get to the office as fast as I can, so I try to spend the early part of the morning before other people get in doing study time because the office heats up around 8:30 or 9:00, and so I’m most creative in the morning, and that’s when I’m knocking out the kind of stuff that I study.

I just want to be the hardest worker in the room, like I refuse for anybody to outwork me. So I get up at 4:00 right away. Then I focus on one thing that I’m really proud of yesterday, just a little thing that I was really proud of yesterday. Get that dopamine hit of success right away.

Get up at 6:00 AM every day. Just do it now.

Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up. Wake, wake. Wake up out of your sleep. Wake up.

I get up at 6:00 but from 6:00 to 7:30 is sort of my private time.

Wake up.

I get ready. I get all prepped to do my day and I don’t really get on to anything like emails or anything else until I’ve had at least an hour and a half acclimate for the day. Set out my goals. I look at my calendar, what have I got to do today? Check it out, but kind of pre-pave the day as opposed to when you have to jump out of bed and run straight screaming into the office. I will always make sure I have time in the morning.

Get up at 6:00 AM every day.

Get up at 6:00.

6:30 without an alarm.

I get up at 4:00.

I get up at 6:30.

I usually get up around 6:00 in the morning. I’m at work usually around 7:30, and that gives me about an hour before most people show up, so I have some time to prepare even ahead of the day starting.

When I wake up early, usually before 6:00, and that always gives me a chance to clear my head.

I usually came in very early at 5:00.

I get up early. This morning I got up at 3:00 and I don’t always get up at 3:00, but I typically have to get 4:30 or 5:00, and I do that because that’s the only part of the day you really control.

Usually I get up at 5:00 AM. Every once in a while I’ll go to 5:30, 5:40, anywhere between 4:30 and 5:00 every single morning.

Between 4:00 and 6:00 I have my morning routine, like most great truths in life that seems counterintuitive, but the reality is if you want to get more done.

Wake up.

I’m usually up between 6:00 and 6:30.

Getting up at 6:00. That’s the ideal time for me to wake up.

I up like at 6:00 in the morning.

I wake up at 5:00 every day. I actually find that it really works for me because my brain is clear and I can go to the most important things right away.

I wake up around 5:00. I think it was an effective way to live.

Plan your day before your day. I get up around 4:30.

I wake up at about 5:00, 5:30.

I’ll be up at 4:30 in the morning every single morning.

We’re usually up by 5:30.

I’m a early riser so about 6:00.

I get up at 5:55 AM. I know it’s very precise and strange, but it’s just my time to get up an hour before my world starts to get busy and I focus on myself.

Wake up before 6:00.

Just do it now.

So I’m up at 5:00. I look forward to it.

Those four hours are crucial for me. It sort of sets up my day, my mental space. I’m up at 4:30.

So I use this strategy because I had to get up at 4:30 in the morning, just took a page out of the wealthy people, the self-made millionaires in my study. That morning routine been paying off like crazy for me, and I think that’s why wealthy people do it.

And I wake up every day around 6:30.

During the season it’s usually 4:35.

By 5:30 I’m getting up in the morning. It’s a way to win the day before the day starts.

Oh yeah, I’m up every morning at about 4:30. The first hour is for me. Why did I make it 4:30? Because nobody else is awake. Nobody’s going to bother me. That time belongs to me.

I have never woken up on the morning of a speech any later than 2:00 AM.

But I’ll wake up at 3:00 and I’ll look at the clock, I’ll say you got to be kidding, it’s 3:00 AM And then I’ll say to myself, “Look, you’re not going to sleep anyway, so you might as well just get up and go in.”

Walk to my office 6:15. I spent and I took that time to plan my day, answer all my emails, [inaudible 00:55:35] just get myself set up, know exactly where I’m going to spend the day, what I’m going to do, what I’m not going to do, answer people, then it’s chaos for the rest of the day.

What if you’re not the only one that wants what you want? What if there are thousands of other people who want what you want? You have to outwork them. You got to out grind them. You got to get up earlier.

When you hit the snooze, you lose. And now the rest of the day, you just kind of feel bad. The Thrivetime Show, today interactive business workshops are the highest and most reviewed business workshops on the planet.

You can learn the proven 13 point business system that Dr. Zoellner and I have used over and over to start and grow successful companies. I mean, we get into the specifics, the specific steps on what you need to do to optimize your website. We’re going to teach you how to fix your conversion rate. We’re going to teach you how to do a social media marketing campaign that works. How do you raise capital? How do you get a small business loan? We teach you everything you need to know here during a two day, 15 hour workshop. It’s all here for you. You work every day in your business, but for two days you can escape and work on your business and build these proven systems so now you can have a successful company that will produce both the time freedom and the financial freedom that you deserve.

You’re going to leave energized, motivated, but you’re also going to leave empowered. The reason why I’ve built these workshops is because as an entrepreneur, I always wish that I had this, and because there wasn’t anything like this I would go to these motivational seminars, no money down, real estate, Ponzi scheme, get motivated seminars, and they would never teach me anything. It was like you went there and you paid for the big chocolate Easter Bunny, but inside of it, it was a hollow nothingness and I wanted the knowledge. And they’re like, “Oh, but we’ll teach you the knowledge after our next workshop.” And the great thing is we have nothing to upsell. At every workshop we teach you what you need to know. There’s no one in the back of the room trying to sell you some next big get rich quick walk on hot coals product.

It’s literally, we teach you the brass tacks, the specific stuff that you need to know to learn how to start and grow a business. And I encourage you to not believe what I’m saying. And I want you to Google the Z66 Auto Auction. I want you to Google Elephant In The Room. Look at Robert Zoellner & Associates. Look them up and say, “Are they successful because they’re geniuses, or are they successful because they have a proven system?” When you do that research, you will discover that the same system that we use in our own business can be used in your business. Come to Tulsa, book a ticket, and I guarantee you it’s going to be the best business workshop ever and we’ll even give you your money back if you don’t love it. We’ve built this facility for you and we’re excited to see you.