I’ve hired 30 employees outside of the USA with the help of Shepherd and it has been an absolute game changer for my business.
Underwriters in Colombia for $1,500 per month full time. Customer service reps with perfect english in the Philippines for $1,100 per month. Executive assistants for my construction team for $1,000 per month.If you haven’t hired an employee abroad, doing so will change your business and your life. I recommend setting up a call with Shepherd and getting the process started.–Who you think of when you think of a successful business person:Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Elon Musk.You know, spectacular unicorns who beat 1 / 1,000,000 odds and changed the world.The real world isn’t like that.Examples of rich people I know who had the courage to start boring businesses:1) 30 year plumber who got kicked out of my country club for trying to fight the starter.2) excavator who doesn’t know how to compose an email or put together a coherent a text.3) guy who started a solar install company, forgot to pay taxes, has to sell 30% of it, flies around on a private jet.4) guy who dropped out of school in 5th grade, raised himself, and owns 10 car dealerships.5) HVAC guy from South Georgia who wastes $500k a year sports betting as a hobby.6) 45 year old guy who bought and runs a few UPS routes, has been drunk since he was 18, smokes 10 cigarettes a day.What can we learn from this?A few lessons:
Wealthy people aren’t as special, smart, brilliant or spectacular as you might think.Life is hard and money doesn’t solve all of your problems (but it sure makes things easier).You can make a lot of mistakes and have a lot of blindspots and if you’re in a good business, you can win.A good business > being good at business.All of these businesses are boring. They didn’t try to raise venture capital and change the world. Therefore they were competing against other normal people, the bar was lower, and they were able to win.A couple of good business decisions can overshadow a lot of bad ones.Putting yourself in an entrepreneurial situation and sticking with the same thing for 10+ years is where the odds of success really increase.Hiring and delegation is the key. None of these people were afraid to partner and give responsibilities to other people.Overall:
You and I should be encouraged by this fact about the world (that normal people can win big).We don’t have to be spectacular to win. We don’t have to be Stanford grads. We don’t need to know how to code. We don’t have to move to San Fran and start a software company.Find a good business where normal people win (like self storage) and
get in the game, be patient, make good decisions, and delegate.—
Real estate investors:If you bought a property in 2023 and you plan to hold it for 3+ years:
GET A COST SEGREGATION STUDY DONEGet as much of that sweet sweet depreciation as you possibly can.I got 20+ studies done this year by RE Cost Seg and we’ll deduct $5 million+.I use
RE Cost Seg to do my studies. Here is how it works:
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Too many business owners step over dollars to pick up pennies.Beating people up on price in areas they shouldn’t, refusing to spend money where it is desperately needed.
A few examples:Buying a $500k fleet of vehicles but not spending another $20k to wrap them with graphics.Buying a $4m building but using the $200 a month landscape guy instead of the $250 one with weed control / fertilization.Spending $25k a month on local ads but refusing to use a reputable company to build a nice website, run that marketing or invest in SEO.Having $500k of payroll on a customer service team but refusing to spend another $50k annually to get 24/7 support by hiring abroad to supplement.Letting their best employee walk because he wants to pay $80k instead of $90k.Business owner leasing a building for 1/2 the price on a road with 1/3 the traffic.Buying a $100m portfolio of real estate but refusing to spend $100k to outfit it with excellent security.Paying an acquisition person $120k a year but refusing to get sales coaching for $1k per month to double that persons effectiveness.Spending $100k to launch a company but refusing to buy a $10k premium domain name that is short / memorable.A retail real estate owner refusing to invest in landscaping or power washing annually for $5k, collecting $50k less rent throughout the year.
Great operators are great allocators of capital and know where to invest. It is uncomfortable to spend good $ on quality tools for your business.But all the best operators do it. An investment is just that – putting $1 in and getting $1.50 out.Some people are just too dumb to recognize the obvious ones.Onward and upward,Nick HuberP.S.I switched my property and casualty insurance to
Titan Risk. They are my new
insurance brokers who helped me save $80k annually on the insurance premiums across my portfolio of 63 self storage facilites.I highly recommend
setting up a call with Titan if you own real estate. They do everything from multifamily to short term rentals to industrial and storage.
Melanie Baldridge