The Huddle - Episode 135 - From Side Hustle to Full-Time Business: How to Take the Leap
Sometimes, you’re never fully ready to take the leap from side hustle to full-time business—but that doesn’t mean it’s not the right time. In this episode, we talk about what it takes to pull the trigger, overcome fear, and commit to building your dream. We’ll share stories, practical advice, and insights on how to navigate the transition, from planning and budgeting to mindset shifts and embracing challenges. Tune in to learn how to turn your passion into a thriving business and take that next big step with confidence!
The Huddle Podcast is where the flooring industry comes together to connect, learn, and thrive! Recognized as the #1 podcast in the flooring community, we provide an unmatched platform for professionals to discuss everything from installation techniques to industry trends.
At The Huddle, we’re all about driving Forward Progress—empowering seasoned installers, contractors, and flooring enthusiasts to grow, innovate, and lead in their craft. Whether you’re looking for real conversations, actionable insights, or inspiration to take your career to the next level, The Huddle is your home for real discussions that matter.
Want to be a guest on The Huddle? Email forwardprogress@thehuddle.team
We want to send a special shoutout to our sponsors!
FloorCloud
FloorCloud revolutionizes jobsite management with its cutting-edge platform, allowing contractors to remotely monitor ambient conditions like temperature and humidity in real-time. Paired with rugged sensors and instant mobile alerts, their technology ensures installations meet manufacturer specifications, reducing liability and enhancing quality control. Learn more at https://floorcloud.com
Go Carrera
Create your FREE Installer profile at https://gocarrera.com and become part of the future of the industry TODAY!
GET TRAINED! Find a list of training dates here: https://gocarrera.com/resources/training/
Preferred Flooring
Preferred Flooring proudly introduces Stubbi Flooring Tools—designed by installers for installers. Stubbi tools are crafted for precision, durability, and ease of use, helping flooring professionals tackle any project with confidence. Explore the full Stubbi line at https://preferredflooringmi.com/stubbi
Please visit our new website! https://thehuddle.team
welcome back to the Huddle your weekly Playbook helping you gain forward progress in your flooring
career we're held we're here to help you guys win to our new viewers welcome to
the team what's up fellas how's it going up how are you
how's everybody doing I'm good man good did you get sick after uh after ties
no no thankfully I didn't I felt a little something like it wanted to come on and I just drank a lot of water and
some hot lemon tea with garlic in it and cayenne and I was good good to
go well you got the vampire Elixir home you got the home
remedy and uh I got sick right before T in fact I didn't know if I was going to
make it and then uh you know Jose was like dude you better get some Mano or
some Poole right away yep that's usually for a hang C bro
yeah it's it's a pregame too bro you got a pregame with it too well I I I don't got to worry about
that part but I'll tell you what I was uh I was really sick so we're got we got a little bit of echo going on we're
working on that in the background guys so welcome everybody all four of us back
from TY it was fantastic um I wanted to just give a
quick rundown and and see what your guys's key takeaways were and um and
then we'll move on to the topic which is you know how to how to move your side
hustle if you're one of those DIYs that really pretty um pretty handy
at the house and you you got that tile down you got the the lvp you've been putting in some rentals and you want to
move that to a career we're going to kind of talk about turning your hot side hustle into a a full-time gig
so first off I wanted to say that that was um that was an awesome event I don't
know that I got around enough to see if it was uh as as well attended did you
guys did anybody get out and about like past just to Alley and the the competition to see and what was your
what was your take I thought that well I got to check out just
usually the same people that I normally want to go visit so I went to go see uh NC products with their sewing machines
and the people from Bond just because I use their products all the time so I wanted to just go say hi but nobody
specifically that I wanted to see this year I think most of the people that I wanted to see I went last year by their booth and just talked to him for a
bit um so this year I stayed more in tool alley and just checked out more of the tools since it was closer by the
booth I couldn't leave the booth that much um so that was my my thing I didn't get to walk plus you were doing a lot of
training walking the whole thing sometimes you were doing some training I was doing and stuff like that
right yeah we were doing some seam prep on Wilton and also uh a hand sewing on
on on Wilton and regular basic AC standard action back carpet so that's
that that was fun uh I had a lot of Spanish-speaking individuals come by the booth uh just asking questions some
people had never seen those type of materials before so they were very curious on how they were installed did you did they
participate or did was it just a demonstration there was a demonstration
and on the hand sewing I had a couple of brave people that that were like you know what let me go ahead and it's
really not it wasn't me asking I'm like hey you want to try this try this out it was more of them hey you know what you
think I could give it a try and I had about two or three guys that gave it a quick try and you know one guy stabbed
himself with a needle and uh so yeah that that wasn't good
um but yeah you know we all we all tend to once you get tired or if your hands get a little sweaty they they you know
needle tends to slip and you could stab yourself so it's just getting used to the the the needle and and the
thread what about you Jose do you get out and no no you're you're you sound
terrible I bet I bet I do sorry yeah I don't know um did you
get out and about and and and get to um see how how well Ty was actually
attended it seemed busy I guess what I'm getting at it seemed busy but they're typically like 30,000 25 30,000 people
it seemed like that is pretty close but you know what you guys thought I thought
it seemed busier last year like I was only there for that
day the competition was busier this year for sure yeah the competition was busier
this year and we we got the privilege of doing some some uh interviews that was
kind of fun I was trying to play like a weatherman can you guys hear me better
now is that like I don't know what else to do here come
again so I don't know if you guys can hear me now I don't know what else to do here I'm trying to avoid the echo I can hear all of you all four of you
fantastic I don't know if you can maybe back up can you back up away from the
your computer like I don't know where your brother and you are situated but uh anyway bear with us
through technical difficulties if if you hear three Jose's you've probably heard worse things so it's all right he likes
to repeat himself anyway so this just kind of gives him a chance to do it all at one time holdan and I went over there
to Good Day Kevin to Kevin's Booth over there to Robert's QEP and seing some of
their awesome tools and yeah Kevin was having a good time
over there yeah Kevin knows how to put on a
show he just got up on the Sam B he just got up on that little stage new Sam bondino or whatever his name sond biond
yeah he always puts on the show I thought he was gonna grab the stretcher pole and start
dancing yeah all right guys so today no but it was a it was a good demo on him he he
did a good demo with a power stretcher and uh couple of his tools that he has so he he knows how to work up the crowd
that's for sure yeah I could tell he was having fun all right guys uh if you are joining
us live thanks for the comments what's up Kevin good to see you again my friend
and if you guys have any comments uh chime in this this could be when you
first got started a lot of people in our industry kind of fall in love with it uh
I've heard two stories like you you went to go work with your uncle for a weekend and here you are 25 years later and then
it's like the guy that uh you know did it at his house and just had a knack for
it you know gave it a shot and started getting better and and either one of you guys are uh welcome to chime in whatever
your background is let us know how you kind of got started if you started with the side hustle and then uh turned it
into a business so I'm going to give my story super quick I was working for uh I
was actually doing flooring so I was already full-time gig by the hour but then I started doing side jobs for a
designer and I I still had no idea what I was doing but it was wool carpet and I
somehow made it all work and they liked my work and kept hiring me I can tell you that and uh
kind of rolled that into doing some the exact opposite type of work which was
some uh used to be base housing now it's kind of lowincome housing that's owned
by like four people in the entire area so like say a couple thousand houses
owned by like four people so kind of a slum Lord City and uh on one I was
charging a little over $9 a yard to install labor only the other I was
selling carpet pad demo and and labor for $9 a yard so two total total
different spectrums but I did turn that into uh what steuart and Associates is today
um I I kept working at it uh saved up I paid myself a salary I've told this
story many of times I paid myself a salary after making a a pretty good uh
yearly uh income the year before when I quit my job and started my company I
just gave myself a $600 a week salary for a lot of years I think four years uh
before I gave myself any uh any raise or bought a vehicle or done any of that but so I just kind of lived off that salary
and stocked up uh cash and that's kind of how I started to uh the
company this is also for you guys who just want to get get on a crew or go
work for a flooring company or or uh those kinds of things so what do you think um that's that's kind of my story
I know your guyses are somewhat similar I mean you guys were working labor only and and installing and then turn that
into a business into a material full service business I should say yeah it
took us a few years to get to to that point but I think uh when you go on your
own what a lot of people don't realize is they they want to go out on their own because they think that they'll have
more free time but when you're especially when it's just you or you and one other person it's the exact opposite
you're working more than you ever had before in your life because you're just trying to get ahead yeah that's a good point to bring
up actually don't don't think you're going to get into starting a business now this isn't for everybody because
this podcast is really about like you you've got a you're doing a side hustle maybe you work at a factory and you're
doing some Kitchens on the weekend or some backsplashes and you want to know how to turn that into a full-time gig
because you really love it uh but also going in if you're going to sub and turn that into an actual business that is
very very key is your clients are now your boss you think you don't have a boss because you're the owner but I have
more people I answer to now than I did when I was an employee because an employee I just had one maybe two people
to answer to my the owner and whoever was running our crew uh you know the all
the schedulers or the scheduler um now every I've got clients and owners and
all my clients and so I tell you what uh it's it's a huge uh it's a huge time uh
uh killer on the other way you know what I mean we spent so I spent way more time than I ever did doing um doing by the
hour did did you see yeah uh he able to be listed without
insurance on go career because he doesn't want Jimmy to be the only five Hammer rated guy on here but there's two
because Jerry mcnight was the was the first guy yeah Jerry mcnight was our first five Hammer guy and and uh Jimmy
now and probably Kevin I would just guess I don't know what he's got in his
tool belt but to give you an idea uh keev uh Kev the we I am reaching out to
get the master listed so I got your text earlier I'm going to get that done and
then um I see that there's no need to carry it anymore yes you can upload it'll just
show expired and everybody you'll kind of you know no one will want to hire you because you don't have insurance but
you're not looking for that you just want to get your profile that's one of the great exciting things we're doing
this year is you're GNA be able to get just profile only get your accreditation
and get that skill score that's coming out 2025 and uh we're we're doing some
rebranding I cannot wait to like start uh leaking all this stuff out
so all right so um we got we got a little a little five
five score fight going [Laughter] here so I don't know I don't know if
we've ever talked about how you got started in the industry where you kind of like part-time or was it just like
straight in fulltime well my my pops always did
carpet installations since you know since the early 80s so I pretty much
would go with him every once in a while as a kid just go pick up trash he worked with another guy um who did really great
work and you know I would go pick up trash and he would give me five bucks and I was happy with five bucks I was
able to buy chips and candies and ice cream from the ice cream man so uh
little by little I just I would I would hustle little little rugs around the neighborhood the little carpet feet the
infamous carpet feet that I make every once in a while and I just that's how i' make my money and he'd take me on the weekends and
sometimes after school if if if needed and I'd go help him out uh in high school and in middle school at some
point and that was just my my way of making extra money and buying school clothes for the next year because he
wasn't going to buy me any Nikes or any any polos or tommies uh Tommy hillfigure he he was
like here's a $5 shirt and I I wanted the $70 shirt so he was like you want
Nikes and you want you don't like Chucks Converse so you're gonna have to go work for that so you so you know how money's
made now look at us trying to get so that made me a man and now I'm reverse I I get the $5
Chucks or the $20 Chucks and $5 shirts but uh no but I mean you know you
buy certain things depending on your comfortability and and and every once in a while I like to buy nice things just
to have it you never know like the young kid shirt say today you had to get that
drip that drip jeez you guys hear me okay now I like move my everything yeah
you're sounding better now you sound better we can still hear a little bit but don't be shy to just jump right in
so you know this is about the side hustle right so you know Daniel talks about when we
started and then how we evolved into what we're doing today but realistically
this and horad just reminded me the side hustle didn't start when we started doing flooring side hustle started when
we were all younger when Daniel was 12 I had that conversation with him about the you want nicer things you know Mom can't
afford it you want nicer things you got to work for it almost killed the dude in the stairwell making them contact
everything um like I dude I had no shame I worked in the school cafeteria at 11
years old to get a making 365 an hour to get a paycheck every like that was my
side hustle was just I always found a way to to to create my own income whether it
was bottles collecting cans from the the city or cleaning up leaves mowing lawns
working at the school and um starting in construction every weekend that was the
side hustle like pick something up like oh you need help with a roof I don't know how to do roofs but I learn really
fast oh you need help with some floors I just started doing Flor you want me to come and do your step and and that's
yeah the side hustle is a real thing the that that's uh you know you it's
anything you could do to make a little bit of extra dough you know what I'm saying but when in flooring I tell you
what when I was doing the the side work for I was still doing flooring as a full-time job and I was doing side work
for uh the designers and I parlayed that into a business it was it was pretty
special I made really good money for a 22 year old kid I had made you know I'm
48 now oh no I'm lying I'm 49 and so when I was
22 uh that year uh between my my company my hourly job and my side hustle I
turned in there may have been a little cash here and there but I I turned in about about 60 Grand in in payment which
is probably like 105 now I mean it was a lot more money back in you know 2000 or
actually that would have been 9 99 back in the 1900s back in the 1900s it went a
long way money went a long way back then yeah you could buy four dozen bags of chips were 99 Cents 99 cent or Penny
Candy bro can't even get that anymore yeah now it's like 250 for a bag of
chips almost three bucks 270 something yeah liter a liter a full 2 liter of Pop
was a dollar full two lit of Pop was a dollar 48 cents for for a 20 oce F oh you guys
don't know what Foo is probably but oh yeah 48 cents and then
all right so how I mean gas was a buck so how do you do this and I and you are
echoing I just want to be fair to the audience you are echoing still pretty bad no uh just if you got anything you
can do if not just uh I just thought I'd tell you are you hearing me or are you
is it just I'm hearing him his own voice re recycle um but how do we do this what
what you know what is some advice for guys who have you know know they've gotten pretty good on their
own uh and they want to turn it into either a real good side hustle which is
you know there was weekends I'd make a couple thousand bucks on just a weekend you know and uh even today that's
actually pretty good money if you can go out by yourself or take your your little brother or something and go bang out a
couple Grand but uh well they if they don't hear if the audience doesn't hear
the echo then you're good to go maybe it's just are you hearing it maybe Jeremy just can't hear anything
anyways that's possible too um so what's the first piece of advice
from from this panel on the side Hustler wanting to go ahead and turn his uh side
hustle into a career into either a career or a a full-time
business well I actually seen I'm going to pop this up on the screen because I seen it earlier on my
Facebook I think that kind of went really good with the theme today
right because you never know unless you just start and that's how I think a lot of us did it it was you were just in a
position where it's like if I don't do it I'm never going to do it sometimes you just got to jump right
in yeah well you out there in the audience had the benefit of the fact that we have already figured a lot of
things out along the way and we're here to share it with you so that is 100%
true I believe that's how all of us got going but I would say if I was going to
do things different I would first very first thing while I still have a
full-time job is sign up for uh you know some some courses I'd sign up for a
training at CFI or aft or ntca you know
ctef if you like tile or the nwfa and take some take a few online
courses and then if you still like it get get trained that would be my first
thing because you still have a job that can cover your training costs and and
then go off and uh once you get that then then you can have you know a bit of
a a bit of backbone to your sales when you're telling a customer yeah I know what I know how to lay your carpet and
not only do I know how I'm I'm trained I'm certified and you know you can you
know obviously the networks out with go Carrera you can get your uh your score
and you got something that you can really leverage to to get paid what you're worth uh the second advice I'd
say is once you've done that now know what you're worth and make sure you're asking for it don't be one of the I'm
gonna I'm gonna tick some people off maybe don't be one of them Bottom Feeders going down just getting the
driving everybody else's labor cost down just right what you're worth and go get
that work for that that the the guys who just worked because they want to be busy all the time so Kevin says use side jobs
to try new things and develop skills side jobs is where he learned how to do different types of
flooring than what he was typically installing at his 95 so
that's 100% correct right and that typically that's friends and family you're not going and trying to sell you
know entire houses or anything you're just like hey my aunt needs this these
stairs done let me go see if I can do this let me try refinishing something and my God how much of that was there I
mean I remember how much of that is there there's a ton of family and friends that'll call you and be like hey
man can you lay these stairs for me hey I'm going to get some new carpet for the bed bed uh the basement bedroom can you
do that you know just it's always there too so you and if you show yourself
skilled and you're not going back to your ants three times to re kick in her carpet because you didn't power stretch
a 15 by 20 room or something you know what I'm saying uh then then you can you
can actually get paid what you're worth and you know give your family and friends a deal but at the end of the day
when you go back out when you go out into the market after you've gotten your initial training um you know make sure you're charging
what what you should you're you're becoming a Craftsman so make sure to charge that that doesn't mean you're going to get top dollar but it can't
don't also you know do it for the friend fee forever yeah and like Ben says it's
like relatively low risk for lots of real world experience and
that's yeah amen you I got it yet sound
better now bro you sound great welcome back to the crew I had to take it off default for I love
it write that down another thing is re researching what tools you'll need for
that side job you know like at least getting some money from your normal job
and putting some aside for for tools that might be needed in the future that that you might need for that specific
side job as well because we all know it's hard to get all the tools at once it might be expensive for certain people
I me point a lot of the tool are expensive and that's why you start out with the cheaper stuff too right especially when you're doing a side hook
you don't want to go buy the best tool for what you're doing and then use it once and then never use it again I got
some great advice for you join the Huddle and post hey man I'm wanting to
kick off my my career who's got some used kickers some used you know tools
that I can buy from them that I guarantee you there's always flooring guys that got some old Tools around that
they they' probably uh part with not the nostalgic ones but you know some old
tools they'll part with that uh that they've replaced since yeah and
U Jeremy has a good uh point there that he says his family still thinks he
overcharges when he still does it cheaper than he normally would and that's something that I've I've it's
happened to me and a lot of my family doesn't call me to do some of their work because they think I'm going to charge
them a whole lot more but it's most of the times I'm doing it for free yeah um
so I don't I don't know my dad still helps some of my aunts and uncles but none of my cousins have ever called for
any work hey family's don't even ask how much I charge yeah maybe it's a good
thing one of those hard things I did early on when I started right and I learned something new a new technique I
did offer to my family to do things right and I never I never did it I never
did it with expectation of charging I just did it and then they would give me a little something afterwards right because I I was honest I was like hey
I'm learning how to do this you already want this done how about I practice here um yeah and and that's how that's how I
I got more practice uh I don't know maybe that's just me being a little bit too helpful I guess but it's no it's all
good you you just paid for some more experience you know in essence you did it for free and you got the experience
Kevin points out a good uh another good point is that the experience you get from just doing a a measurement putting
a quote together for for your family or figuring out a number even if it's just a verbal quote you give them even that
helps you when you go to go fulltime I know that um go ahead I say I
I know that that helps too like um and I'm gonna use the same experience right U for family is I know that I was trying
to save the money right so you kind of minimize the amount of material and like go I'll just put a a head seene here a
head seene there and we'll save you material you don't have to buy and have a 10 by 10 left over um you'll
learn what you don't want to do in the long run by doing things and you get really good at putting te- seams
together way better instead of 10 piece and eight foot by one foot fill piece
yeah yeah so I mean that's that's some great advice on how to get going and get
get out in front of the tools you're going to need get out in front of uh you
know the the um uh training making making sure you get trained and
certified and then you got the housekeeping side what's up Ralph um then you got the housekeeping
side and this is the the business side so one thing that I always encourage
people is personal development is important and learn learning how to talk and deal with customers if you can get
that down you will be surprised at how much more money you'd make um I was
really good at that and I still am I still love my customers I love dealing with them I love helping them it's a
part of enjoyment for me so learning that and then you got the good old nuts and bolts of getting a um getting a EIN
you know opening up that business get with an attorney open up your separate entity if if you can if you
don't if you can't you're going to go sld proprietor that's fine too just make sure you do you do get taxes are the
number one thing that I still hear got and I still see guys getting in trouble
with that gets them into a scenario where they're willing to scrub for money
or you know do do just they'll do just about anything just to work for somebody because they they've um gotten
themselves in a situation where if they have a bank account they got to take cash or else the IRS is going to take
all their stuff it's a it's a it's not the best uh position to be in so make sure you get
your taxes right and insurance that's so I I to and this is a A Life Lesson that
that I learned the hard way is if you do decide to go on your own and you want to partner up with someone um make sure you
understand who you're partnering up with and what uh what they might be involved with because uh for for instance I had a
gentleman I partnered up with a long time ago you know before preferred and uh he child support the government can
come and take whatever money you have if his name is on the documents or their name so make sure that when you're
partnering up that that it there's a a clear line or you don't want to put anybody's name on any paperwork that
could and take you take your funds is pretty much what it was
yeah I mean it that boils down to make making sure you you you partner with
good people I want to give a quick shout out to Ralph falina he's the new CFI
Executive Vice President I believe is the the term and he has that dude's a
ball of energy man I met him at he and uh welcome aboard to CFI my man and um
it was great hanging out with you and meeting you in we're GNA have to schedule a a deep dive
with them and bring them on and yeah very kind of talk about transition and
stuff Raphael sounds a lot better than Ralph man just go by Raphael that looks that's way better
Raphael in here all right so um here for now once you guys once once you get
going um do you get agree that you need to probably get a bank account
insurance and uh um you know get a a turn or accountant for taxes like those
three things in line ahead of time because I think that I got lucky when I
opened my company out had a partner that kind of knew that stuff I don't know that I would have known to do that to be
100% honest I started my we did not know to do that we did not know to do that and we were one of those PE one of
those they just turned light off on us but we were one of those companies that didn't keep you know we weren't good at
bookkeeping we weren't keeping track of anything um that's one thing
is get some sort of bookkeeping software to to to manage your stuff and ask
questions Black Market software like legit software well if you can I'll tell you
what if you I at least track it if nothing else on Excel spreadsheet or
Google Sheets right Google Sheets is free cells yeah Google Sheets is is free sales expenses at least track that you
know what I'm saying um or hey did you did you have the foresight to kind of
get those things in line before you got going or did you kind of learn along the way as well I learned along the way and
it was kind of forced into it because I work with a lot of wholesalers and a lot
of the builders decorators and designers they'll ask for that especially the builders they're going to ask hey do you
have do you carry liability uh and I need so much uh I needed to be this
amount because everybody is different so um yeah that was something that I had to get early on and the funny thing is my
dad was my dad and I have worked together for a long time and I'm I tend to keep most of my stuff a little bit
more organized uh but he um he was working with Lowe's I believe and we
were paying insurance through lows and we were also paying separate General liability I'm sorry general liability
lows general liability on the side for my stuff so we were paying kind of in a sense double Insurance uh so those are
certain things that you got to look at they're expenses and you need them anyway uh nobody's going to let you work
without them I can't use the general liability that I had through him at Lowe's so I had to use my own uh so you
know you gota you got to understand that these are expenses that the business is going to take and you need it you and
yeah insurance will come through for you I mean it's came through for me several times from my most recently cyber
security Insurance uh you don't know you need it until you absolutely need it and
I just wanted to touch on Kevin's comment here saying you know he can't say you know you can't say enough about
taxes it's the biggest mistake installers make when starting their own business I've counseled with many
installers that um have worked for our company by the hour and then went out
started their sub uh business and that's the first thing I tell them man you have
got to make sure you're you're covering your taxes you can like if you're behind
at least know you're behind you know like prep happens things happen you get
behind whatever you can call the the IRS or the state or whoever and kind of you
know deal set you up on a payment plan yeah yeah but do not run from them and
do not just ignore them those are the two attitudes towards it that will get
you really bitten I mean there's been plenty times in my career that I got behind on uh particularly on income tax
or something like that and I had to pay it like you know some penalties in interest uh six months late or whatever
that's just yeah that that happens here and there um even us with with sales tax
that happened to me like one time last year where I was like oh man I'm I'm like two days late and then you you cuz
they give you a discount if you pay it early it's like yeah I don't know $6 but if you're one day late it's like
$15 yeah yeah don't be late um yeah paying those things on time is important
the whole taxes thing too like even if you look you're 1099 you essentially own your own business you might just be DBA
versus LLC or or anything like that right you get a lot of practice as
proprietor with a 1099 for your taxes and you're all right Paul
that some people fly under the radar and some people do not some people are
stupid and call the IRS and say hey I might owe you guys some money and then hire a lawyer and then fire the lawyer
after spending a bunch of money and then just dealing with them ourselves um it is a is easy phone call it is easy at
least you made the phone call I know guys that don't make the phone call until it's so too late that they just
they don't know what to do um I've got a friend of mine that got into a sticky
sitchy um he finally faced it got an attorney and you know he's going to be
able to uh mitigate the the years of uh
I guess best way to call it neglect don't hate me if you're hearing this uh
but you know whatever it is you know facing it like dealing with it or at
least know that you need to deal with just ignoring it is the worst thing is my point and another um another thing
is how many good installers get destroyed by this thing that is that is
what I want to bring out in Kevin's comment the most like great installers
guys that are really good with their hands and not good with the business side you know I keep seeing where uh
people are asking for a business course I I have framework and I think I'm just
going to launch something this year something cheap and easy for someone to take and I've put an accountant friend
of mine that has helped me throughout my my entire business uh you know he's
acted as our Company CFO before and um you know put a put a decent little
product together for you guys if you're interested in that you know hit me up and let me know that you are I don't
want to go through the exercise uh but I'd be happy to put together a um
a um you know a little product or you know
we are we're also going to be launching for the Huddle this this year is an education series and so we could hit
that in the education series on our webinars and we're going to bring in experts on this uh we have a lot of of I
mean Daniel Jose Jorge we all have a lot of experience and dealing with this stuff but we won't give you direct
advice because we don't want to get sued but at the end right we can only tell you what we went through and what we did
we can't say that's the best thing that this is what you should do it's everything
is we don't know your particular situation so it's different for each person so I think I've seen this on
about a thousand YouTube channels you know this is not Financial advice I'm not a financial
adviser what we are is some experienced business owners that have been through uh both good and bad times and can kind
of give some guidance to maybe just see some of these pitfalls you're not going
to avoid all of them I still learn every I'm I'm going through a season of
learning right now uh you know so like it's just part of being in business
you're always going to learn new things but hopefully you have somebody ahead of you that can kind of chart the path and
and help you not have to you know fall every single time we did if we can help you you know fall 50% less I feel like
we're doing doing you a big favor and and uh providing you value here on the
Huddle don't take away from the fact that sometimes people need to fail or fall let's say fall right let's say
people need to fall so they can understand that it's okay to fall down and get back up and and and push forward
because uh it the experience of it um is a better teacher than someone preaching
it no matter if they're an expert or not
yeah yeah well you got to go through uh thanks Jimmy I think that uh at the very
least what we could do is even if we shoot it through the webinars we'll make sure those are really done in studio
professionally uh on the education series for those topics and then package that back in that people can have access
to later if they miss the webinar have a product that they can uh you know get
their hands on to to maybe help them Rollin says uh when you stop learning
you will learn you don't know at all uh I think that that's that goes back to
that old saying you know uh what did they say Jorge the smartest guy in the the guy that thinks he's the smartest
guy in the room is is the dumbest or some [ __ ] like that has it go it's something like that
like oh if you think you're the smartest guy in the room then you're not or whatever I can't remember but yeah
somewhere along those lines smartest guy in the room and real quick getting back to the taxes
thing the IRS it's funny to say that you know it's it's till you fail when I was
young in my my mid 20s I had a side hustle which was barbacking I still got a 1099 but I didn't paid taxes well I
paid taxes but something ended up happening where I did something different and they gave me a big refund
and uh then later on they questioned it they said hey we gave you too much money we need that back and I I was like well
I already spent the money kind of thing and I did ignore him for about a year and a half or two and on that on that
cause and they came back after a while and they I had a CD account with my mom joint where she put me on a CD account
and they took out the money and they charged me fees for taking out the money as well on top of the interest so yeah
my mom was just like hey you know they took out this money the IRS sent a letter and it's because of you you know
so you owe me money now and you know there's nothing like there's nothing worse in the world than me owing my
parents money I just don't like ever borrowing money from them and I won't ever hear the end of it yeah especially
like um I will I will add to that too like when you're going through um an accountant a CPA or even if you're doing
your taxes yourself uh you can still put insurance and all of that right that way if somebody's wrong um I mean you
submitted everything they asked for and if they they miscalculated that's what they have insurance for that's their fault um so
there there's ways to help out with that and and you're right about that sometimes as a 1099 you actually owed
money and you'll be surprised if you're avoiding paying taxes or at least filing them because you're 1099 you'll be
surprised some of those years that I ended up owing money on was because of penalties interest and fees because
originally they were supposed for just not filing for just not filing correct like I was supposed to get the refund and me not me not understanding that or
or it just it put me in a bad spot and I also was not generating a net a net
wealth right like I to the banks I was making zero giving it all to the IRS
well I was looking like I was making zero dollars too so when going and applying for loans and getting a car or
house and all that was very hard when it looked like you make zero dollars a
year yeah well that's going to be a pro uh that that's probably a longer term
topic but I'll tell you that's that's something you learn as a business owner going to buying things especially like
personal things like homes you got to then uh you know provide uh not only
your W2s if you pay yourself like I do a salary uh but then you got to provide
your company's financials for the last three years if you are over a 25% owner
of that company so uh that's just business stuff uh get again getting with
an accountant to me is key there's a lot of small to small accountants in just
about every town and Roland also uh fixed my saying he didn't say it all the
way but the saying is if you think you're the smartest person in the room you're probably in the wrong room that's
that's what I was trying to say you're dumb I like the way you said yeah that's pretty much what what
what it is but uh there you go you know where I fall on that whole category of things Kevin says he's seen the IRS
collect from the owner of a company for taxes owed by a sub
so I've never personally seen that if they were I I have not ever seen that um
so you know that's another thing well the thing is if they're misclassified if they're misclassified
that can happen you know if they're paying them like they're like or treating them like they're an employee
but paying them like a sub and then they'll the and the IRS determines
you're misclassified that employee uh as a sub then yeah you are and and I think
that's one of the misconceptions is that people think that they get to decide when everything is written on the IRS
IRS website that you can go to right now and look up and they'll give you and if you're unsure they can you can write
them they'll give you determination right answer these questions we'll let you know if they're a sub or an
employee 100% yeah so don't get ruined I I Kevin
brought it up we've all talked talked about it um I've seen a lot of really good guys get in really bad trouble and
like like almost stopped their career because and it's really sad when the
guy's really good at it and that's like the one thing he's really good at and I I have witnessed this um like what's
what's he gonna do you know where's he gon to go make the money he can make in flooring um and and he can't and so then
he's doing doing flooring cheaper because he wants to be paid under the table or you know paid cash and that's
about gone I mean I don't we never did that as a company but I think even the
companies that did that recently that's just about gone cash is almost out you know they track so much now
electronically that you're missing you know $110,000 in cash out of your
checking account they know it man you're not going to get away I think a couple years stay legal my
friends could I come and work for you for this much money just pay me under the table and I said what do you mean
you want me to pay your taxes for you no just pay me under the table like I'm not gonna be responsible for your taxes bro
like I don't even know what that means anymore I don't even know how that's because we we track everything like you
said like if I'm missing this much out of the bank account I have to say that it went somewhere where's this stuff
going yeah it's got go somewhere it's not just disappearing yeah when you it's got to get coded into your accounting
system like there's just not not many good ways to do that
anymore so keep yourself legal and keep yourself out of trouble I I uh I think
that we'll really focus on some of this in our upcoming uh educational series uh
of webinars and have Jorge um maybe if you're willing Jorge
we can even get those translated into Spanish for the for the audience definitely that would be
great yeah uh what do you think from your side Jorge and and you guys um what
do you think is the biggest challenge for you know our our Hispanic Community
you think it's access uh to and I'm not talking about anybody being here illegally I'm just
talking about in general Spanish is their first language not English do what particular issues
are they dealing with when it comes to you know kind of doing running a business and doing their
business um well one thing that go ahead yeah one thing that a lot of guys in the
Hispanic Community it really hurts them and and this is a must is just general
liability they don't understand that you need some of this stuff uh and we were
talking about that earlier how how it's very necessary but some people find that as just an expense that they're like why
am I why am I having to set up my own business and pay general liability so that's one of the main things that I
hear everywhere and it's like these guys are trying to get away from this stuff and you can't and and and a lot of the
times it's something real minimal if you just do carpet it's going to be basic anywhere between 850 all the way up to
1,700 bucks you know once you start getting into wood for the year for the year once you start getting into ceramic
and maybe wood it's probably going to be a little bit more but but most of the times I'm like that's really nothing you
know if if you're really working you're you're picking up a lot of jobs and that's going to be real basic because if
not you can't pick up those jobs anyway some of these people are going to demand that from you and say hey and and and
and some people will trick you you'll go in they're going to be real nice and they're going to say hey you know what
uh can you do this job for me can you start this day yeah no problem I've learned to say hey any kind of paper you
have paperwork you have you need to send it to me before I start the job because I'm going to send you an email let you
know I'm starting the job you need to have that paperwork sent over to me and a lot of these guys won't send the paperwork because they think you don't
have general liability or they might think you might not have one of these things uh but at the end of the day you
still have to get it in order for them to pay you so if you don't have it and they don't tell you you're going to be
last minute trying to get this general liability from somewhere and you're really not going to see any pricing
you're just going to go with the first one because you want to get paid so you're going to have to pay whatever there you know whatever they're going to
expect from you uh so that's one thing that I noticed I want I was going to
bring up a point to that is um in commercial they have to show like
we have to show that every that our subs are covered and that we're covered we have to list our sub suppliers and all
that when we do commercial work uh now we don't have to do it on every job but our bigger jobs we have to show them our
major uh labor suppliers so our major Subs um so it's just almost impossible
not to not have it and I'll tell you a quick story it just happened here in the last year our
truck our um delivery driver and a uh one of our subs was delivering tile into
a building and they damaged the storefront going into a school it was
like $6,000 and you know if if there's no general
liability there to cover to pay for that uh you know that that sub who was
kind of the main reason that the accident happened would have had to pay
that out of pocket you know yeah six grand that'll pay for your general liability insurance
if you're just you and another guy for like two three four five years man I
mean it just is not worth it and you don't need something like that or taxes and that's why I put those two at the
very top of the um of the list when it came to like housekeeping like the the
back end of owning a business because those two will take you out of business yeah if you don't have the proper
insurance or you don't have uh your taxes taken care of those two things can take you just take you out of business
and and make it difficult for you to ever enter the business yeah and for commercial it's given like you're you're going to need it um but a lot of guys
that do Residential because I'm main mainly residential they try to get away with that or they'll try just to Work
Direct with a homeowner and try to avoid those fees but then again you're only going to get so many people that are
going to call you direct uh you still have a lot of other people that are going to call you to do some work and
you have to fill out paperwork and fill out contracts and then they're going to expect for you in the fine print to have
your general liability um so some of these guys try to avoid that and you know it's it's up to the person you can
go your whole life avoiding it but then you're going to miss out on a lot of good on a lot of good work out there
commercial and residential real different yeah yeah um and I will say to add to to that whole thing is uh for for
one the question that you had asked and her her answered was resources right like um if if there's a language barrier
or if there's someone that is that that comes to the US and they starting a business it's resources and
understanding how to utilize and create the right the right template for them to start their business and to succeed that
is and this is not coming from me I sit on a council the Mosaic Council here in
Grand Rapids and it's a conglomerate of different ethnicities and backgrounds
and people from all over the world that come in and start businesses and they all face the same problems regardless of
who they are um two is is that the the
understanding that so just let me interrupt you for a second would you say that CH your local chamber is a good
resource to just start there 100% local chamber that's what I right and I don't
know the episode but we did a episode with our local chamber so you can get
back on that one and kind of see what they offer too yeah yeah and that's inside information from from them we we
had a representative from from the chamber on there um two is um you heard
has mentioned something about the insurance right like an expense and it it took it takes
look it's not easy but you have to look at some expenses as Investments right if
I invest in insurance and I invest in in coverage to protect me and my clients
potential clients and and employees or or people riding with me I am investing
in me and my group and turn it's you're going to get a return because it's that one time that you're not prepared for
that like like Paul had said $66,000 out of pocket like I can't imagine some of the things that
like uh that could happen and what would cost we had a Jeremy that worked with us dumped one
our demo machine oh my goodness we have family here who
obviously don't know how to use a light switch um but he D the machine yeah you're
right we would have had to pay out of pocket a ridiculous amount of money um to replace all the parts that were
broken one of our delivery guys hit our build building it wasn't our delivery guy well
he wasn't even a delivery well th those types of things
are kind of can also be covered in your your auto insurance right if you hit it
with a vehicle this was a hand truck on in the the example I was giving um I
want to touch on Rolland uh this was going to be the last uh subject that I
brought up was work C and what your guys's thoughts are about work comp and
because work comp in in our state if you have one or if you have one employee you
have to have work comp insurance so if you're a subcontractor or you're you're
working for shops you have to have work comp on that person now you can exclude yourself as the owner you could still
you can exclude yourself forever as an owner although that's kind of part of
the debate I wanted to see if anybody agreed or disagreed or where you stood
on that do you think um you should exclude yourself as the owner or do you
include yourself as the owner I personally exclude myself as the owner
um Texas is real different you can you can wave it here I'm not sure how it is in other states but they're real they're
real lenient on that so I'm able to to go ahead and uh wave it and I've been doing it for years
on yourself myself on yourself yeah but if you have an employee you still have
to have it in Texas too yeah we have a partnership my father and I so technically he exempts himself and I
exempt myself so sure yeah you're both owners but if
just a pure employee you would have you'd have to cover yeah you'd have to have yeah and that's why I've not
branched out and gotten more employees one I can't I can't I don't have enough
work for them to stay on on a regular basis it would be more seasonal uh so
yeah I it's just us two and whatever we can push that's where we're going to push and I'm I'm pretty happy with that
I'm not I don't want to expand any much bigger than I am anyway not not right now anyways
right yeah it's it's a little tough it's a little tough to expand here it's hard to keep the guys on can we we have to
exclude oursel as cop even as employees of our own business over here yeah okay
so it it it and Paul you're saying that you have the option to you have to we don't have to so you have the option to
exclude yourself as owners so and you do you exercise that we do but we have a
separate policy I think most business owners do well you gotta ask yourself this question if say something happens
you get hurt are you are you gonna go back on your own account policy or you
gonna well this is the question it depends really this is where the debate actually comes in and some experts
believe you should cover yourself because your no matter what type of
insurance you have it's going to go up if you have a major accident your regular health insurance you go have a
major accident next year it's going up but if you have a large so for example
some people have very large deductible more like catastrophic insurance uh to cover if it's a major
major thing um if you have that and your on workor C
you have a large gamut of your health and Health Care coverage outside of like
prescriptions and those kinds of things uh but like the stuff that really cost you and can kind of you know put you
down uh the a lot of that's covered between those two uh policies and that
then it's pretty cheap especially if you are not uh you know out there installing
every day so I've heard it both ways I don't I've Exempted my myself for the
entire entirety of my business kind of understand why why some business owners
don't especially if they're out there really working their business if I was subbing again and out in the field all
the time I probably hindsight 2020 would not exclude
myself and I think that's the thing right you just have to weigh if it's going to be beneficial for you like
Kevin says what are the benefits it's being covered like you said and not just just relying on the One Source insurance
you know if your health insurance is going up or if you can get other ways to pay things like that then that's
particular particularly if you have a family and your health insurance goes up for your entire family because of your
deal that could have been covered on work comp and then it's a business expense still so there's that type that
side of it right when you're paying your work comp that's a business expense it's not a business expense to pay health for
you to buy yourself health insurance so if you do have health insurance and you you are paying that that's not like
a a business expense that's deductible off your taxes so get with your attor
your accountants and your attorneys on these things again I'm not a financial adviser but it makes sense that if you
are paying work comp insurance and you're included that is a pure business expense and if that goes up at least
your personal life your personal income that you take from your company
is not impacted when your health insurance is and just and just know that workers comp starts off this big
especially in the construction industry but the longer you go and you're making sure you know you're keeping track of
your safety and you're you're trying not to get claims and stuff like that it does go down yeah there are companies
out there that do help uh create handbooks and give you insight as to
what to encor incorporate uh for safety to help your your cost go down as well
yeah your liability insurance will give you that stuff because they want you to be safe they don't want you to have
accidents either and have to pay out on a claim so you know uh there's a lot of
resources on safety um wow okay so we burned up an hour here telling people
how they can turn their side gig of flooring into a uh you know a long-term
business so check us out out go uh check out the Huddle uh you know remember
these topics come from you guys so if you have a topic that you uh want us to cover or get an expert on or you'd like
to have an expert opinion on uh we we have access to those people and we we often have guests on the podcast for
those purposes so let us know what topics you want us to cover if you're catching us on any of the social
platforms or any of our podcast platforms you know leave a like a
subscribe make sure to you know uh share it with everyone share share it with
everyone share it with everyone share share share give us some love you guys
are why we do this it's the support that that you guys give us that allows us to
do this every single week uh I want to thank corge for joining us today he is
the host of The Huddle in espanol so he does it what is it once a quarter am I
right on that yeah yes once every quarter and it's coming up next week I believe next week yeah yeah so make sure
if you are a Spanish speaker jump on Jorge's podcast uh you know uh the
Spanish version of the Huddle uh we we've got some good uh stuff coming out this next year that's going to support
him uh a little bit better as well and I I hope you guys enjoyed this episode I
hope it was you know maybe not a inspiring but maybe a little eye opening
to make sure that you can see why you need that work comp or why you need that liability I should say why you need to
make sure you're covering your taxes and you know check those boxes man you'll be a lot happier 10 down 10 years down the
road final thoughts final thought for me
is document your guys's processes from day one right that's gonna change oh that's great document everything
document all of that like if you have a specific way of doing things and it work for you write it down document it create
a system especially because later on you're going to you like you think you don't have time when you first start you really not going to have time later on
yeah yeah amen yeah don't forget your commercial vehicle urance
too yes yes forgot about that one yeah I get that let's stay legal
eagle here guys all right thanks everybody for joining us I appreciate all the comments it was a really great
participation today had a lot of guests lot of live viewership today so that was awesome appreciate you Jorge as as usual
Daniel and Jose I appreciate you guys so much it was great hanging out with you last week and uh we'll catch you guys
well we will catch Jorge next
week all right see you guys what he said [Music]
