Isaac
Appearances
The Ramsey Show
Stuck in a Financial Pit? Here’s How to Climb Out and Stay Out
So I guess to get more specific, so we have that business. I'm also a realtor on the side. And so any extra time I have, I'm, I'm spending on that, trying to sell houses and stuff. Um, I knew it that too, just a few months ago. So I'm just barely starting to make money. The business itself, the cookie shop, the cookie shop, isn't making really anything. We're just barely breaking even.
The Ramsey Show
Stuck in a Financial Pit? Here’s How to Climb Out and Stay Out
And then we're just doing all kinds of little side hustles where we can. DoorDash and Uber Eats and delivering for Walmart and stuff like that.
The Ramsey Show
Stuck in a Financial Pit? Here’s How to Climb Out and Stay Out
I can't figure it out.
The Ramsey Show
Stuck in a Financial Pit? Here’s How to Climb Out and Stay Out
Yeah, so we did stuff the stupid way because we hadn't found Dave Ramsey yet. And so a friend of mine, he's just a silent capital partner. He put in money up front and helped us get into it. We have a big loan on it. How much? It's a quarter million.
The Ramsey Show
Stuck in a Financial Pit? Here’s How to Climb Out and Stay Out
Yeah, so I owe, yeah, 70% of it, yeah.
The Ramsey Show
Stuck in a Financial Pit? Here’s How to Climb Out and Stay Out
And the rest you owe to your... Right, I'm the 70% partner.
The Ramsey Show
Stuck in a Financial Pit? Here’s How to Climb Out and Stay Out
Well, kind of. We think we do. So our sales were really, really good when we opened in the summer, and we would have made money, but we didn't have our expenses under control. Once we got our expenses under control, we cut payroll costs really down. We got control of our inventory costs, stuff like that. We're doing a lot better on the expenses side. But our sales went down and we hit the winter.
The Ramsey Show
Stuck in a Financial Pit? Here’s How to Climb Out and Stay Out
Part of that is because our marketing budget was kind of gone. So we weren't making as much because we just, our marketing was suffering.
The Ramsey Show
Stuck in a Financial Pit? Here’s How to Climb Out and Stay Out
Yeah, and in Missouri, the winters are pretty brutal and cold, so yeah.
The Ramsey Show
Stuck in a Financial Pit? Here’s How to Climb Out and Stay Out
Right, yeah, so we're just barely making it. But yeah, my capital partner, she's out in a different state. My wife and I are here, and we're operating the business.
The Ramsey Show
Stuck in a Financial Pit? Here’s How to Climb Out and Stay Out
We've been able to bring our sales up just a little bit, so we've been able to hire one more part-time person. But my wife and I are both, are each putting in about 25 to 30 hours a week.
The Ramsey Show
Stuck in a Financial Pit? Here’s How to Climb Out and Stay Out
Well, and I guess there's kind of another part and that's just, I'm really worried because I totally get what you're saying. And that's where my head is too. It's like, I need to, we need to get our sales up. We need to get our sales up. That's all we talk about with the business. And so I'm trying to reach out and get catering orders and stuff.
The Ramsey Show
Stuck in a Financial Pit? Here’s How to Climb Out and Stay Out
But then we're worried because the more time we dedicate to that and it's not a sure thing that money will, you know, the sales will go up. That takes away time where we're doing like door dashing and stuff and we're trying to pay the bills on the personal side. And so that's kind of where we're stressed.
The Ramsey Show
Stuck in a Financial Pit? Here’s How to Climb Out and Stay Out
But we were losing money. We've gotten to a point where we're either just breaking even or making about $1,000 or less.
The Ramsey Show
Stuck in a Financial Pit? Here’s How to Climb Out and Stay Out
So, So as a brick and mortar business, this is my first attempt at all. I've done other like side hustles and stuff like helped with marketing for other businesses, helped with bookkeeping for other businesses.
The Ramsey Show
Stuck in a Financial Pit? Here’s How to Climb Out and Stay Out
Hey, guys. So I'm 26. I'm married with two kids, and I own a business that we just opened back in June. It's really taking a lot of time from us. My wife and I are both working at it full time, and we're not making much money yet. And so we're just kind of stressed about bills and stuff. We're kind of wondering how we can organize our lives better to be able to make more money and move forward.
The Ramsey Show
Stuck in a Financial Pit? Here’s How to Climb Out and Stay Out
So it's a franchise that a friend of mine and I bought into, and it's a cookie store.
The Ramsey Show
Slow and Steady Wins the Race Every Time
60,000 before bonuses after bonuses probably like 70 to 75.
The Ramsey Show
Slow and Steady Wins the Race Every Time
Uh, go back to school for business. Why? Well, because in order for me to make more money in this career and move into like a sales manager job, the minimum requirement for any big company in the electrical industry is a bachelor's degree.
The Ramsey Show
Slow and Steady Wins the Race Every Time
Well, my company is a rep firm. We rep the bigger manufacturers, a lot of the big electrical guys you hear of in the industry. And I would like to eventually transition to being a territory manager for one of those bigger companies. And they have that as a requisite to even get an interview.
The Ramsey Show
Slow and Steady Wins the Race Every Time
So I'm 24 years old, and I currently work as an outside salesman in the electrical industry. I have my associate's degree, and I'd like to go on and finish my bachelor's. And my company has offered...
The Ramsey Show
Slow and Steady Wins the Race Every Time
to pay for it but they want me to sign a five-year commitment commitment with them should i do that or should i just pay for it myself five years from today yes or from the last time that they write a check five years from when i would start college it would be this fall okay but it's going to take you how many years working at night