If it's all about money. Sure, you can make a lot of money working for another company and you have less headache, you have to worry about payroll and everything else, and you can be very successful. Or you can run a business and you can make a little bit of money but be extremely happy. This is Boosting your Financial IQ, where I help business professionals with financial responsibility to elevate their careers and run profitable companies. My hope is that you'll apply these lessons to achieve your greatest ambitions. Cheers and enjoy. My hope is that you'll apply these lessons to achieve your greatest ambitions. Cheers and enjoy.

This episode is for Cameron. Thanks for reaching out. Today. I want to answer your question about should you work for a wage or own a business, and understanding your true potential. Did you know you could reach out to me? If you're a business owner, you can reach out via coltivar. com, and if you want to talk about your business, that's a great place to find me. If you want to just ask a question or you want me to dive into a topic, like Cameron did, you could always find me on LinkedIn, and I get a lot of messages from the community. I appreciate connecting with everybody. I love hearing from you, so feel free to always connect with me on LinkedIn and shoot me a message, and if there's a topic that's burning in your heart, hey, I'm happy to cover it. So let's jump into this one.

And I want to start with a backstory. When I was 15 years old I don't even know if it's legal I got a job at Dairy Queen. I was almost 16. All right, but I was 15 at the time and I was making 4.25 an hour, which was super low. That was minimum wage and, yes, the cost of living was a lot less in the nineties. But also it was just it's nothing. I was working for peanuts, literally All right, not peanuts, but I was putting peanuts in the blizzards. I guess, all right, but nonetheless I was making 425 an hour. It just wasn't cutting it.

And here I was riding my bike from my sister's house, because I eventually moved out of my mom's house when I was 16, because she was married to this total punk. He thought he ruled the roost. He's this total jerk. He's like it's my way or the highway. So I left and so I had to make money. I had zero safety net. It's not like my mom had any money. She was a single mom and then she married this guy and then he didn't work and she ended up working and supporting the entire family. Yeah, my mom is like such a rock star Like I look up to her so much.

Anyways, this is a shout out to any single woman or single parent out there busting your butt, raising kids, trying to make ends meet. This is for you because, like I, have so much respect for my mom In fact, we've had conversations since that time and she's like I'm so sorry that I couldn't provide you the lifestyle that you deserved, and you're going to be like your friends and live in this gated community and play at the pool and play basketball. And I was like mom. That would have made me weak. That's not what God wanted me to do. He wanted me to experience these hardships and these trials so I can get this ambition and this work ethic to go out there and do what I do today, and that's why I'm here on this podcast.

All right, that was a little side note, but that was me riding my bike for my sister's house, making 425 an hour, and then my friend came to me. He's like Steve dude, you could come work at this other company. You could take your shirt off. You work outside in the summer, make 10 bucks an hour, and it's great. And I was like doing what he's like doing sprinklers and landscaping. I was like sprinklers what the heck are sprinklers? I didn't even know what they were. He was talking about underground sprinklers that you put in the ground to water plants and turf, et cetera. All right, so I'm like cool, I left Dairy Queen, I started working at this company, making 10 bucks an hour, and sure enough, I could take my shirt off.

If you've seen a picture of me, I'm actually like fair skin. I'm very pale, so it's more like getting sunburns and blisters on my shoulders, but nonetheless, hey, it was great. I was working outside. Making 10 bucks an hour is double my money, right? So I did that for a couple of summers and then I went back to go work at the other company in my junior year and they were gone. They're out of business. I was like what the heck? You know that's my summer job. And so I was like what should I do? And I was talking to my sister and she's like hey, you know, I work at the tanning salon, so why don't you just drop off some business cards and I'll put them at the front desk and then, you know, people come in all the time. They could grab a business card if they need sprinklers or landscaping and I was like cool, so I didn't think much of it.

I went to Kinko's which is FedEx Kinko's now, I think and got some business cards and it was Steve's sprinklers, black and white, so generic. And I put my sister's phone number on it like the home phone number, and that's what I did. And people would call and like my little niece, she was like I don't know, like three or four years old at the time. She'd answer the phone. She'd be like hello, you know. And they'd be like is this Steve sprinklers? And it's like blah, blah, blah, you know. And I was like, oh my gosh, give me the phone. Now. That's how I started out Very basic, very grassroots.

Out of my sister's house, I converted a part of her garage into my little business area. I built shelves, had all my parts, and the key was is I started charging 50 bucks an hour for these repairs. So I'd go out to somebody's house. They'd have a broken pipe, they'd need a sprinkler head replaced, they needed a new zone added for their plants or for the grass, whatever. And I was doing all this work 50 bucks an hour, and then I was marking up my parts double right, and that's because, like, some parts would get broken, some would get lost, I'd have to hold this inventory, et cetera, but nonetheless I would go on an appointment and make sometimes 200, 300, $400 in one hour with parts right my labor, and I was like, oh my gosh, this is way better than 10 bucks an hour. And so that's what I did, and I did that through the summer.

And then I graduated high school and I went to college, and when I was working in college I was, like, obsessed with the business. So I was making flyers, I was making brochures that was at the time before the internet was super pervasive and I just focused all my time on this print media that I'd go distribute to potential clients when I'd go back home for the weekends, and so I was highly focused on my business and that's what I was doing. And then I was going back home more and more because I'd have these projects to do on the weekends, but I'd go home and I'd make a few thousand dollars over the weekend and then go back to school and a lot of my friends were working on campus making like five or six bucks an hour because minimum wage went up, and I was like, wow, this is like so much better, so much better. Then I could just like focus on my studies and kind of chill and have fun with my friends, like from Sunday night through Thursday, and then I'd go home Friday and come back on Sunday and I'd come back with a bunch of money. That's what I did.

My junior year of school is like the last couple of weeks of class a sitting in class, my pager was going off. My cell phone is ringing out a pager back in the day, if you know what a pager is. That's what I had and I was like what am I doing? And I left. I left class, I packed up my truck and I just headed back to Denver and I was like I'm committing to my business full time and I was like peace, see you later. School I'm not recommending dropping out of school, all right, I have some regrets there, but that's where I was at the time.

And then I built this company for the next 13 years and I grew it into a multimillion dollar business. But here's the thing I didn't have the financial literacy skills and I'm not just saying this because it's a financial podcast but I didn't have the financial literacy skills to really understand how to read financial statements, then leverage financial statements to get more cashflow and increase the value of my business, and therefore I left a lot of money on the table and I made a ton of mistakes. So don't go down the same path as me. Okay, definitely, go through my free financial pro program that I'm providing you. Right, it's totally free at byfiqcom. Seriously, it's like over a hundred videos, I think.

But anyways, I didn't know how to read financials. I didn't know how to put in place a strategy, as it's lacking in certain skills as it relates to running a business. You may feel the same way. That's okay, just don't stay stuck there. But that's what I did. And then that company I ultimately transitioned to and then I went back to school, finished my degree in accounting and finance, and then I went and got my MBA and my CPA and I spent all this time in school and I started up my consulting firm. Like in the midst of all that and that company's Coltivar. It's transitioned since then into a tech platform with advisory, but nonetheless, with all that said, cameron's like oh my gosh, steve. I just wanted a simple answer but nonetheless, that was an incredible journey that I took and I would never go back.

I worked for other businesses, okay, as a CFO of a billion dollar company, as a CFO of a fintech company. I've been a CFO of other firms. I've worked for a few other businesses, like as a W2 employee, and for me it's just not for me, because I feel like I have a greater impact in the world of business, doing my own thing and adding value to organizations like I do. That's just me, that's just Steve. So for you, cameron, you may find that your path is working for wages, but you may find that that's not for you.

So what I've learned throughout my life is that there's a difference between advice and counsel. So I try not to give like specific advice to individuals. So if you ever reach out to me, you're like hey, steve, I want your advice. It's hard for me to give advice. I can give counsel. And here's the difference. And this could apply to your relationships in your life. And maybe you're the one giving people advice and you want to switch things up. But advice is when you take your experiences right what worked for you or what worked for somebody else and then tell somebody what to do based on what worked for you in those specific circumstances. Versus counsel is when you understand somebody else's circumstances and their issues and you ask questions and you get them to think about how they could apply some of the things that you've learned to their life. So you're not telling them what to do based on your experience, you're helping them to find their own answers. And so, cameron, I can't give you like specific advice and say, hey, work for wages or start your own business, because, who knows, you may work for wages and become this super successful executive one day and running your business could be disastrous. But I can share my experiences.

I believe business is the best vehicle to bless the lives of other people. That's me, that's Steve. My whole purpose at Coltivar is to elevate lives through better business people. That's me, that's Steve. My whole purpose at Coltivar is to elevate lives through better business. Some people bless lives through their hands. They're doctors. They save lives. Some people bake things and they bring joy and happiness to somebody who is in the hospital or a mother who just had a baby. Right. They bring them a pie or a pastry or something like that, or dinner. Others bring joy through art. Others bring joy through coding and programming. There's so many ways to add value in this world and so many different paths For me.

I love business, like people love sports. I'm obsessed with business, in fact. I just got back from Rio de Janeiro with my wife and we spent a few days at the pool, which is rare. Normally, when I go visit countries, we're all over the place doing bike tours and going around the city, but on this particular trip is more chill and we're hanging out at the resort, and during this time, I spent those three days thinking about my business, studying finance and strategy and just doing all this stuff. My wife's like oh my gosh, take a break. And I'm like this is a break. This is relaxing to me because I'm figuring things out for my company, I'm getting clarity and I'm learning and I'm just applying things and I just love it and I was like so happy doing this. That's me, and so the reason why I'm so passionate about business is because there's leverage there.

If you start a company, you should expect the first call it five years or so being a grind, and you may not make a lot of money. You may actually go negative, you may go into debt, right, doing this. But if you find a good business, a good business model, then you're going to start creating leverage, because then you have profit right, so that's great Profit. You can live off the profit, you can reinvest the profit. But then you also have a multiple on your business because there's value of owning a business and therefore you have leverage with profit and you have leverage with your valuation multiple. And really business owners where they make their money is through an exit or some type of liquidity event. So they'll sell their business one day and they will make 5X profit or 7X profit or whatever. They'll make this huge multiple on their business. And then they're going to pay taxes at a capital gains rate versus an ordinary tax rate Okay, Like if you're getting paid wages. So I just think there's tremendous value.

And you have to ask yourself okay, what am I trying to do If it's all about money? Sure you can make a lot of money working for another company. And you have to ask yourself okay, what am I trying to do If it's all about money? Sure you can make a lot of money working for another company and you have less headache, you have to worry about payroll and everything else, and you can be very successful. Or you can run a business and you can make a little bit of money but be extremely happy, right. So it's hard to give like precise guidance here. I just know for me like the biggest upside is business. Right, you can grow a business, you have leverage in so many different areas. The valuation is huge and the majority of millionaires out there like the IRS did a study the majority of them make their money on capital, not from wages. So that's the big difference.

Anyways, cameron, I wanted to answer your question and just provide a little bit of a backstory for you. I know others are listening to this and they're wondering the same thing. I would just say, like when you're young because I was just having a conversation with somebody else, another 20 year old, and I told him I was like just go out there and try different things, get skills, like build skills, like do the grunt work, and that's what I did. I've spent thousands and thousands of hours in Microsoft Excel, building financial models, pouring through financial statements, doing analysis. I reconciled bank accounts, I used to enter receipts into the accounting system, doing bookkeeping. I've done it all Okay and because I've done this all, I have multiple skills that add value to companies. I could go into a business and I can pinpoint with precision where to focus on to increase profit and cashflow, because I've been there. I can empathize with the business owner because I've been there, like struggling to make payroll. But I wouldn't have these experiences and I wouldn't have these valuable skillsets if I didn't put in the work.

So when you're young, like, put in the work, put away your phone. Maybe you have to sacrifice going out with friends, maybe, instead of going and playing basketball with your buddies or hanging out at the pool, you need to study, you need to build some skills, you need to go to a workshop, whatever it is. Make the sacrifices early on, because when you're older like me I'm in my mid forties then you'll start reaping the fruits of your labor. But if you don't put in the effort right now, like yeah, it's going to be a struggle. Unfortunately, the world is so competitive out there and so many people are going to be working to steal your lunch and eat your lunch, metaphorically speaking. All right, that's what I have for you, cameron, and for everybody else. Thanks everybody for being such great. Members of the BYFIQ community, I hope you have a great week. Feel free to reach out, like I said, and until next time, take care. Cheers.