I had read this article in Forbes and title being, why should you buy a business instead of starting one? Right. And I talk to a lot of people about, you know, people are like, I’m going to go grassroots. I’m starting everything from square one.

And really the typical entrepreneur who’s starting a business, they have that really that five year hurdle, right, that most businesses, most new startups fail within the first five years. It’s a big statistic there, right? So I am starting to talk to more and more people about, you know, have you thought about what it costs to start a business? Did you know that there is a possibility that you could acquire a business that’s already started and whatever your thought is in regards to what you
could implement into that business, it’s a new vertical that you could add and potentially 10x a business, right? So within this whole article, you know, there were a couple of nuggets that they really had. One being, you know, when you buy a business, you bypass the toughest part of entrepreneurship, proving the concept to the marketplace in one.

And then another being existing businesses come with established goodwill that can position you ahead of the competition at day one. So that’s one topic that I’d like to explore with my guests today. Among others, welcome to Invest in you episode four.

Today we have Mr. Carlos Morales. He is the chief executive officer and on the board of directors for Reliable Residential. He’s going to be talking to us today about his journey into the space of acquisitions within a business.

And I’m super excited to have you. So thank you so much. Thank you for having me.

I appreciate it. Absolutely. You know, I always am trying to preach this idea of Invest in you.

You know, trying to get people out of the rat race and have more of a discussion in regards to money and financial literacy and the creation of generational wealth. And to have that be a less taboo conversation, you know, and you know, using this motto of really, they say it takes a village to raise a child, so why go solo with your finances? Right, Exactly. So that’s why I really like talking to people like yourself and having others hear what perspectives there are out there that might get them
out of that W2 rat race and into a position where they could make their own dreams come true.

Really awesome. So tell me a little bit like a brief synopsis about you, how long you’ve been with Reliable and what your journey’s been like. Yeah, started with Reliable.

Well, we weren’t always Reliable Residential. I started my journey working for a single owner operator here in The Clearwater Tampa area started from the ground up as a technician and you know, became manager and so on and so forth. And by the, towards the end of about three years ago or so, you know, it got to a certain size where the owner said, hey, I want to sell my business.

At that time I had become president of the company. And as we sit today, once we were acquired by another by private equity, then became CEO of Reliable Residential and we specialize in home services across the country. So that’s a pretty big leap from technician.

No, it’s, you know, it’s really neat. It, it, I’m proud of it. It gives a lot of hope to everyone in our company because everybody knows that you can go, you could start anywhere in the company and, and end up being a chief executive officer and or greater.

That kind of culture is definitely a company that I love it. Most people should want to work for. Right.

To have that promote from within and just endless opportunities is pretty fantastic. So at what point did you make that final leap, like going from, to get to president? Even before the chief executive officer? Ooh, it was really just learning, you know, getting a good mentor. And the previous owner was, was a really good mentor, still a good friend and a father figure.

You know, I will tell you one thing a lot of people don’t do. As I was going up through the company, I took a position that wasn’t just horizontal. I, I took a pay cut because I valued the opportunity to work alongside a great mentor and a businessman and that I can learn from.

So to me that was like going to college. And that’s how I ended up in the position I am today. And then, so thinking about the topic on the Forbes article, you know, what’s your stance? How do you feel about somebody, Obviously your journey is different from, from this, but what do you think about somebody going from a startup and avoiding that or buying a business? Okay, so I want to give a little kind of background color on this first.

Yeah, we started off with a single location here in the Clearwater Tampa area. And we now operate coast to coast. We’re in four different states, eight different locations, multi vertical.

You know, when I started with the company, we went, we were doing about 10 to 12 million, uh, 2024. We finished at 100 million on pace to 125 this year. And I look at deals all of the time.

Okay. And I look at both options. Single owner operators.

Right. Companies that already exist. And also starting your own company, which we, we would call that Denova White space.

Right. It’s. You’re starting with a blank canvas.

Okay. Both of them have their pros and cons, and. But if I were to pick a favorite, I would pick a company that is already up and operating.

It has massive advantages from my perspective. And also the speed. Right.

So, you know, if you’re investing money, the idea is to make more money to grow a company. And how fast or slow can you do that, especially if you’re borrowing capital. And so when, when I look at a business that is already up and running, me, that’s a lot more attractive now, you know, at that point too, you analyze what’s the upside.

Right, Right. Yeah, the upside on, on, on. On an existing business.

Right. So when you are looking at a business, you know, what are your first couple things that you would be looking at in an acquisition? Oh, okay. So first thing when I, when I look at a business is, you know, I look at the historicals.

Right. Trailing 12 months. And also the historicals.

You know, sometimes there’s, there’s, there’s outside factors, but that’s number one. First thing you do. And I will tell you though, the second thing I do is get to know the owner and the team that’s operating it.

Because if a company is not growing and it’s kind of stagnant or it is what it is, that is not a bad thing. Right. A lot of people like to look at companies that have a steady growth pattern.

Right. And you know, year over year. But when I go in, I look at what is wrong with this business, because that’s what’s going to give you the biggest upside.

Right. Is there marketing? Wrong. Have they not been able to scale? Did they not hire the right employees? You know, so those kind of things.

And what gets me more excited than a company that’s being run well is a company that is not being run well. I love it. I love it.

Yeah. Because that is the biggest opportunity you’re going to find if you know what to fix. Yeah.

Okay. So, you know, you’re talking about goodwill. Branding is huge.

If, if you start with, you know, a company from scratch, it’s how long is it gonna take your clientele to know who you are? Right, right, right. And so, you know, that’s, that’s one of the benefits that an existing company has. Yeah.

So I actually, when I’m talking to people about this possibility, because you, I’m sure you’re already finding out in the years that you’ve been doing all of this, but so many people, it doesn’t even cross their mind that an acquisition is even possible. They only think grassroots. Right.

And so my point is, if you could look at a business, especially if it is just an owner operator business, and you know that they had, they have the potential. Right. To just skyrocket, but you can identify either the people, the product or the process that’s having the issue.

Right. And you could change that. You could know potentially 10x a business overnight in, in rectifying that issue.

Absolutely. Okay. You know, so once you identify the issues.

Right. And, and believe me, I, you want to find a company with issues. If you’re, if you’re doing an acquisition.

Right. That’ll give you the most upside. You know, were they not marketing correctly or efficiently? You know, a lot of times the Google reviews will tell you if there’s like a trend.

Right. They always showed up late. They always showed up late.

They always showed up late. Okay, well, these guys never showed, you know, they never showed up on time. Right.

That’s, that’s an easy fix. Yeah. You know, what’s the average sale? Right.

So you know, there are some business owners that aren’t up to market on what pricing is going for and, or towards the top of the market. Maybe they, and, and that all stems from then not providing value to the customer. Right.

If, if a business has a, if they’re the highest priced in the market, then they’re providing some kind of value, right? Yeah. Sometimes you can find a company that’s not being run well, they’re not providing good value to the customer, so they don’t get the pricing. And if you can identify that and say, hypothetically, you know, this company’s providing a low value, they’re charging $50 a service.

But if we provide a great, you know, this other company that’s been run well is getting $100. Right. If we can fix that, then you take that into what the value of the company is.

We can take it from a $50 average ticket to $100 average ticket in a year. What type of value does that have? Right. And so those are the things we look for.

And you could also mathematically know where you’re going to end up. If I fix this problem, it’s worth this much. If I fix that problem, it’s worth that much and that one is worth that much.

And, and then after that it’s, you know, fine tuning the business and then scale. So a lot of people, general consumers, when I am discussing with them opportunities in not just commercial businesses, but commercial real estate, the same, same concepts apply. Right.

That just that simple, like a fifty dollars to a hundred dollar difference. People are like, that’s not very much money. But I mean, you just doubled it.

And they don’t understand that in valuations for businesses, it’s about your bottom line, net profit. Absolutely. So you just doubling that up literally, potentially did that multiple of, you know, taking it to a 2x or 3x multiple on a business to a 5x.

Right, right. So that’s just huge opportunity. And people also aren’t acknowledging that going into a business that’s already established and adding those verticals or making those tweaks in the business that really change the bottom line and then turning around and selling that for a profit in a very short period of time is absolutely possible.

Dino, we have a business right now that was in business for 40 years. Flat numbers for the last 10. I mean, just flat.

Right. And. And again, going in and just saying, you know what, we can, you know, provide a better service and, you know, we can raise the average ticket.

But this is a beauty. The beautiful thing about this business was that because he’s been in business 40 years. Right.

But let’s just take it. What if a business in business five years, they had branding and customer awareness. So the marketing expenses for that business are extremely low right now, mind you, maybe if you find a business that’s five years, okay.

But. But if you have some brand awareness and brand presence, people know about you. It’s.

It’s easier to fix a little bit of reputation than to have no reputation. Right. And that’s where it’s like, hey, let’s buy business that already exists.

Right. And hey, under new ownership, and now we’re doing things right. Give us a chance.

And here we go. It’s a lot easier than just starting from scratch. And it’s faster.

Absolutely faster. Absolutely awesome stuff. So when you.

And just to clarify for people who might not already be aware, the business that you’re in, Reliable Residential, you are trying to roll up various house service businesses. Correct. Could you explain, like what you mean by verticals and what kind of verticals your business has? Yes.

So we primarily started in the garage door space. So we started in the garage door space. We grew that company.

That’s one that was originally acquired and we have since also now got into, well, I’ll tell you the two verticals. Garage door space. Now into the plumbing space.

Okay. Also looking into electrical and H vac. Right.

So home services is what our specialty is. But you know, there obviously a zillion specialties. Whatever, whatever works for everybody.

Right. That’s what we’re focused on. The thing about home services, some more than others, is that they’re recession proof to a certain degree in the, in the garage door space.

Throughout every recession and throughout Covid and supply chain issues and everything, we grew. And also home services are considered essential services. Right, right, right.

And you know that the business don’t stop and they run seven days a week, 365 days a year, for sure. Everybody’s gonna need plumbing. Everybody’s gonna.

Their garage door is eventually going to break. Need like down here in Florida and myself, a hurricane proof garage door, you know. Right.

So absolutely. And are there other verticals that you guys are trying to get into? No, only because, you know, we, we look at the end of the day, all businesses are people. It’s about people, okay.

It’s not about the garage door, it’s not about plumbing. It’s about providing a service, being of service and helping people. Okay.

Any business. So, you know, it just so happens that the model that I’m in and what, what I feel we’re really good at is home services. Right now.

Just because I’m good in home services, does that mean I can get into commercial real estate and, and have the same amount of success? Probably not. Right? There are people that have expertise in that area. Ours is in home services.

And so we focus on that. But, you know, so we do look at different verticals also before we get into business, into business. What are the profit margins? That’s what I was about to ask.

Right. So, you know, yes, we’d like to get into some other verticals and then we look at their models, we look at the profit margins. Maybe there are businesses that are highly dependent on insurance companies or, you know, or so on and so forth.

But yeah, so we’re going to stay in our lane and there’s a lot of lane left and, and people can have other lanes and so on and so forth. So 100 agree. I mean, how do you feel that after Covid, you know, prices of materials and things, has that been an impact on business or have you guys tried.

Been fairly. Yeah. Resistant? Well, no.

So look, materials inflation, I mean, that affected all of us. Like none of us can escape that. Right.

From a business perspective, how do you. How did. Okay, the one who’s going to succeed is the one who manages the best.

Okay. So even during supply chain issues, at the end of the day, inflation and cost materials gets passed on, unfortunately to the consumer and, and some to the business because we’re trying to absorb as much as we can. And whatever has to get passed on gets passed on.

But again, back to people and back to service. Right. So who can, even in the middle of COVID Even in the middle of supply chain issues right now, in inflation, in an inflationary time period, who can still deliver the best service Right.

At. At, at the best price or at, at a great price that we provide value? And so during, when we were going through supply chain issues, we had a choice to make one, load up our facilities with as much product as we can possibly get and buy it from everybody at any price. Yeah.

Or not by product. Because it was very difficult to get and you had to pay top dollar as a business to. To get this product.

And it was either at that time, one of the smartest things we’re going to do or the dumbest thing we were going to do that year because. And the final decision came down to if you don’t have a product to sell, you’re out of business anyway. Right, right.

And so we went that route. It cost us an arm and a leg, but it allowed us to service our customers and allowed us to provide, provide service. And so our customers weren’t waiting 20 weeks for a door and they weren’t waiting 30 weeks for material and they weren’t waiting, you know, so we were still able to provide the same level of service at that time and nobody else could do it.

Awesome. With the potential economic climate as it stands right now, is there thoughts about doing that with potential tariffs changes or anything? Yeah, Looking at that. Yeah.

Funny you mentioned that today. This morning I put in one of the largest orders I’ve ever put in for some material. You know, expecting there to be some kind of inflation or some kind of tariffs, even though the bulk of our, our products are manufactured here in the United States.

We just don’t know. Right. We just don’t know.

And also, you don’t want a ton of product on your shelf either, right? Yeah. It’s not the most efficient, but I think what we all know at this point in time is that regardless of what business you’re in, there’s going to be a level of inflation or a level of tariffs that are going to affect us all in one way, shape or form. So I put a big order in today to hedge that bet.

I think thinking ahead is always the best not, not to be, to be proactive rather than reactive. Right. Then you’re back in the same spot.

So thinking back before the, you started this whole roll up and everything, what was the like how did it ever become a thing like the acquisition, was it something always in the business plan that you guys wanted to do or how did it even evolve to that? No. So, okay, a couple things. So from, from a single owner operator, it was never in his plans to be acquired, but it grew to a level that just became really unmanageable.

And no matter how big you get and as much money as a single owner operator had, he didn’t have what it took to scale it to the next level. Right. And so I think every single, if you’re a single owner operator, at some point, whether it’s the hundred thousand dollar mark, the million dollar mark, the five million dollar mark, the hundred at some point to get to the next level, to scale to the next level, there’s going to be, there’s going to, you’re going to need some injection of capital at some
point.

Right. And so it was never part of the, the plan, but that’s what ended up happening. And then, so when we started Reliable Residential one, you know, we consider ourselves best in class.

And so we have a model that we also believe is scalable and that we can stamp out not just in Florida, but across the entire country, which we’ve done. There’s also, you know, one of the biggest things to think about, I think, when you’re getting into a business is marketing and also the power and the grip that Google has on all our businesses. Right.

And so also when you’re buying a business, think about what the marketing is going to be like. How are you going to get your customers? Are you zip code confined or can you market? Let’s just say can you market to all of Tampa or are you zip code confined to Pinellas County? Right. And it could be either franchise agreement or business agreement, you know, and so these are all things to think about.

And so one of our, what our strategy has been, we believe there’s a lot of value in rolling up large metro areas. Okay. So instead of, you know, just saying, hey, we have a plumbing company here in Pinellas county, what we’ve done is rolled up Pinellas County, Hillsborough county, we rolled up the entire area from here to Orlando and said, now we have some great marketing capabilities, right? And from a service standpoint, hey, now we get to service and help more people, right? More effectively,
right? And with that also comes scale.

And in many ways. And so that’s been our strategy and again, we’ve been able to execute that here. Tampa, Clearwater area, this is our hometown.

This is where obviously I live here. And I love it. But we’ve been able to take this model and apply it to the, you know, across the entire country.

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Contact us today at infoaymancreative.com or visit our website at naamancreative.com to get started. When it comes to that first injection of capital that you need, whether you are thinking of, you know, maybe I’m teetering on am I starting a business grassroots or am I buying one? And I’m like, well, where am I going to get the money to do that? Exactly right. Or if you are at that growing paid stage where you’re like, man, I could do more but I’m at my capacity and I don’t know what to do.

Where did you even start with trying to find an injection of capital and how did you go about, you know, creating value when you’re at that? Well, okay, Peter, point. Okay, so one success attracts money. Okay, so you know, if I’m, you know, as a, you know, if you’re a single owner and you’re starting a small company and, or if you’re buying into a smaller car, into a company, you want to, if you want to attract capital, make it profitable and, or make it scalable, create a good management team,
you can have a business that is not super profitable, it’s not super scalable.

You have great management that, that can take it to the next level and you can find capital. Because right now, as you and I sit here right now, there is so much capital on the sidelines that, you know, they can’t put it to work fast enough and they’re looking for investments and they’re looking for deals. And I know people hear that and yeah, maybe that’s, you know, in a fantasy land or I hear that on the news or whatever, but it is real.

It is real. Even myself and, and my partners were trying to find like we can’t find deals fast enough and we can’t put capital to work fast enough. Money has to go to work.

Right? But I, I would say if, if, if you’re a owner operator, single owner operator, one, you know, if you have a business that’s profitable and don’t get me wrong, look, all investors know and you know, when you own a business, you have write offs and there are benefits and all that. So if, if it, if it looks, if, if, if your bottom line looks like, you know, you’re not profitable, it’s fine. Accountants know how to, how to decipher that and roll it back.

And we, we could still give it real value. Right. And investors are not the irs and you know, nobody’s looking at that stuff.

But you know, create value. Also, you may have a business where you say, hey, I, I want to get completely out. Right.

I’m ready to move on, or I just need injection of capital, I want to stay on as a majority owner, as a minority owner. All these things are highly available. And there are people like myself and like my partners that are actively looking to partner with great owners and great operators.

And it’s real, it’s, this isn’t a far off fantasy land. It’s a great thing for people to hear because there are so many owner operators out there. I mean, I don’t know, I know I heard this, but I can’t remember the correct statistic.

But I mean, at this point, people who are baby boomers are looking to retire over the next decade. The amount of opportunities for businesses is extraordinary. And those in that age bracket didn’t, weren’t, aren’t typically hip to technologies.

Right. Maybe don’t have the marketing campaigns like you’re talking about, like there’s such a huge potential for people to actually do that. But in that, again, that age bracket, I don’t mean to say just like no rumor aids or whatever, but now leads bracket, let’s talk about it.

This is real, right? So one of our models, again, a business, at the end of the day, I don’t care what kind of business you’re in, it’s about people. Right? So one of our models, we have baby boomers that have, let’s say somebody’s 65 years old and they built this business and they thought their son or daughter was going to take this over. Exactly.

And their son or daughter wants no part of it. Right? Right. And they think to them, so what am I going to do with this? Right.

So just close the door. Right, Right. Or, you know, so what, what this allows to happen is Financial planning.

Okay. So let’s just say, by the way, I’m 49, but let’s say I’m 65 years old. And I’m thinking, wow, I really can’t do this too much longer.

I want to retire, but I have nobody to run the business. And that’s where capital comes in. Right.

So what we do in that case is we’ll come out and either buy it out 100% or 70%. Right now they get 70% of what their business is worth, cash in their hands, and they can now plan, do estate planning and do wills and, and, and plan for their kids. Right.

Because they wanted that, they wanted their kids to have that all along. Right, right. Right.

So now we provide that service, and it’s fantastic. But that is a really big problem right now is that they have built great businesses and there’s nobody to take them over and run them. Exactly.

And so many of them are just like, well, I don’t. Who’s going to buy this? Who’s going to buy it? I’m just gonna close the doors, you know, and they’re just stepping away from all this money and all this potential for what they really wanted, that generational wealth. Right.

Just kind of. Yeah, let it go. It’s crazy to me how many opportunities and people do not realize that that is out there and that people who are trying to find businesses, trying to start grassroots, how much of an opportunity it is for them.

Sure. And then there’s the discussion that I, I, you know, I’ve been in lending for 13 years. I’m, I love talking about lending and everything, but creative finance, I’m just as passionate about.

And helping people retain the money that they’ve worked so hard for is also a passion of mine. So the opportunity of presenting to boomers to, to a certain age bracket and say, hey, just like you said, there is a percentage, we could buy a percentage of your business, you could sell, still stay within. Well, I don’t want to work on it.

I don’t want to do this. I just want to step away. Just, I just want the cash.

But not realizing how much of a tax issue that’s going to be for them and that their income just stopped, like, that’s it, you know, and so I try to, I’ve had some discussions with people about that, like, hey, I’ll talk to you about buying your business, you know, and then they’re like, well, let’s talk about an owner finance opportunity here. Let’s talk about you getting monthly income. No, I just Want to step away.

I just want to step away. But people don’t realize once they become the bank that that opportunity for tax write offs is huge. They’re going to pay the interest.

And granted, I’m not a tax professional, I’m not an attorney, you would want to consult them to get full, full knowledge of it. But what I do know is that it gives them an opportunity to defer a lot of those tax issues that they may potentially have and paying interest on just the, or paying taxes on the interest that they’re collecting. Right.

So much opportunity. I love, I love and, or, you know, you know, we also get people that say, you know, I nobody wants to take this over. I’m not quite, quite ready to step away.

They love it. They’ve been doing this a while. Right.

This is their baby. And mind you, there’s also value in either keeping them on as, you know, as 30% owners and, or keeping them on as consultants. Even if they sell 100%, I keep them on as consultants.

And so what happens at that point is that they get to, you know, sell 70% of their business or whatever, whatever that number is. 70% of their business. Right.

They get to stay on. Right. And still be a part of it, but with a much reduced a role that’s, that’s highly reduced.

That’s more in line with the amount of energy that I’m not 65 yet, but my energy declines every six months. But you know, you know, and it’s, it’s a great solution for them and they love it. And they still get to be a part of their baby.

Yeah. And here’s the other kicker. That 30% that they leave behind, if that business grows with, with our capital.

Yes. That 30% that they left behind can be, you know, way more, as I said, or it could be equivalent to the. Right.

They call it the second bite of the apple. Right. So you stay in, they grow.

We grow the business together as partners. And then they get a second pay out. Yeah.

When they’re ready to sell. Yeah. Awesome.

Awesome. I can talk to you about it all day. I know, it’s just.

So how about random question here? You’re doing a whole lot, right. So when you have a moment, you know, how do you continue to stay motivated and avoid burnout within your career? Ah, okay. So I tell people this right now.

I’ve never worked harder in my life. Yeah. I’ve never had maybe, you know, higher level of stress in my life.

But I’ve also never had more purpose. Okay. And it’s that purpose.

And, and I, I find. I tell everybody myself, everybody that’s in our organization find the bigger, the greater purpose of what you’re doing. Right.

And so my greater purpose, yes, it’s, you know, it’s. We’re in a business, but really it’s, it’s. I wake up every single morning and I look at our organization.

Mind you, within the last year and three months, we’ve gone from when we were acquired In October of 23, we had 157 employees. And today we have about 320 in about a year and three months. Right.

And. But that’s what drives me. I. We pay really well, we supply, we provide a good lifestyle.

We love paying our employees well, treating them well. My job is to serve them. And I know we hear all these things, oh, you know, servant leadership and all this stuff.

And people talk about it. I don’t say servant leadership. I just say servant.

I don’t have an ego and it’s just servant. And I serve them. And in doing that for, for our.

I don’t even like using the word employees for my co workers. Right. Then what they do is they pass that on to our customers, they serve our customers and they provide a high level of service and they.

It’s not about selling a product. It’s about filling the need. Right.

What, what need does that customer have? Their garage door just broke, their car is trapped, their toilets are backing up, their drains are. You know, let’s, let’s help with that. Provide a high level of service and you know, they’re happy and we’re happy and it just, it makes the world go round.

Right. So that. It’s the greater purpose.

That’s why I prevent burnout. And as tired as I get. So I, the only regrets that I have ever, is if I go home and I feel that I didn’t do enough to put food on the table for my organization.

That’s my driver. And if, and I, I rarely ever say I didn’t do enough, but if I ever do that, that’s, That’s a problem. So what I’m really hearing is that there’s really not burnout when you love what you’re doing.

Amen. Yeah, exactly. I could have summed it up with that.

I, I could have just summed it up with that. No, absolutely. Yeah.

I like that. I like that. There’s, there’s a passion and a purpose.

Right, Right. And it’s fantastic. And, you know, one more reason to, to, to stop being complacent in a W2 job just for the sake of.

I’m making money, I can put food on the table, everything’s fine. But you have no passion for the job. Make the world a better place.

Right. So I can tell you a couple things, Dina. I’m extremely proud of every 100% of the companies that we have acquired.

We have not fired one person. Oh, wow. And I know people say companies come in, they.

They’re tear it up. They’re going to tear it up, slash and burn. Yeah, Right.

We haven’t fired one person. And also on top of that, every single person in my organization is making more money today than before we acquired. Before we acquired them or before.

And so. And the reason is this one. If they’re.

And don’t get me wrong, there’s overlaps. Right. Like, you know, if you’re acquiring businesses, there’s kind of jobs that overlap.

Yeah. But again, it’s. It’s about people.

So if this person has a skill set and they’re a good employee and they want to do things and want to grow, if we plant, we’re a growing company, so we need more people. So what are we gonna do? Fire people? No, we’re gonna find their highest and best use in our company and put them there. That’s awesome.

Right? And. And pay them well. And so that’s our model, and that is my driver.

If I focus on taking care of our organization, my employees, and they focus on passing that on to the customer, everything else takes care of itself. Right. The.

The financial part takes care of itself. That’s definitely an accomplishment, Something to be proud of. No, I. I love it.

You know, people tell me all the time, hey, what’s going to happen? And I tell them, don’t ask me. I want you to talk to the companies that we’ve acquired and ask them their experience. Right.

And. And they. And they’ll do that.

And the feedback I get is, oh, my God, like, this was great. And, yes, it was scary. But, you know, once we partnered up with Carlos and his organization, man, I’m making more money.

And not just that. The culture. Yeah, right.

The culture is fantastic, and it’s. It’s a great place to be. That was actually a question that I had earlier in regards to culture, you know, like, how do you keep the culture or better the culture in a place that might have gone stagnant and everybody’s kind of burnt out and hasn’t seen growth? Yeah.

Like, how do you re. Inject that? Well, so first is Newton’s third law. So you Know, to think that you can go into a company and inject your culture.

So it’s Newton’s third law. For every, for every action, there’s an equal and opposite reaction. So if, if I come into your home, Dina, and I push you, what are you going to do? Push.

Exactly. Right, right. And if I push even harder, you’re going to throw me out the door even faster.

Right. So. Right.

You know, again, it’s about people. So when, when, when you buy a company, you can’t just say, hey, this is how we do it and this is where we’re going to do it. They have to have.

You got to get buy in. Right. And explain the why and the how.

And so, you know, hey, Dina, listen. So, you know, look, we acquired a company and the managers that were running that company said, okay, so you just bought us. What do we do now? I have no plan.

You guys have been managing this business and running it. You tell me what the issues are. Really? No, really.

And then my job is to provide you this. The resources and, and, and the, you know, the resources and to, and, and then get out of your way. And that’s the second part.

I left out. This. What? Extremely proud of.

You may not believe this, but it’s 1 million percent true. 100% of the businesses we’ve acquired. The management team that was running the company before is still the management team that is running it today.

Sometimes owners, knowingly or unknowingly, but they, they don’t empower people enough and give them the resources to succeed. And, but those, those, those managers that were managing these companies that were mediocre before work, by just empowering them and giving, giving them the tools to succeed, are setting record. Like they’re just, they’re even blown away.

Oh, my God. Like they could have been doing this all along. With the right help.

Right? With the right management. Yeah. Or ownership.

Awesome. Awesome. So when it comes to what’s next for you, I mean, let.

Outside of, you know, professional accomplishments, personal. Yeah. What’s a goal for you? What’s a personal goal for you outside the business? Jeez.

Yeah, that’s a, that’s a, that’s an extremely good question. I so have you ever, you know, you see all these memes sometimes on, on, on social media that say if, you know, if you just focus on your business for the next five years, it’s really like focusing on it for 15 years. You know, if you just give it your.

All right, so I’m in a stage right now where I love what I’M doing, and I’m just giving it my all. This is my purpose. And I really don’t have a goal set for myself outside of this because this is so satisfying.

I’m like, I’m achieving my goal every week and every day and every year and all this stuff. Right. I’m.

I’m doing what I want to be doing, but it’s not. What I want to be doing is not business. What I want to be doing is serving people well, serving the organization well, growing.

We do a lot of charity work, too, and that feeds my soul every single week, you know, and. And, you know, growing people and allowing people to put their kids through school and. And put them in sports and all these kind of things.

Right. You know, we. I don’t have kids, but, you know, if you have kids, you know, everybody wants to provide a better life for them.

Right. And so I don’t have any personal things outside of work, and I probably would if I didn’t enjoy doing this. Right.

But, you know, my focus is I love doing the business. You know, a week from now, I’m gonna have 20 years married. And my wife is my best friend.

Thank you. She’s. She’s my best friend.

And. And then I have dogs that, you know, we treat like children. And.

And that’s it. I’m. I’m totally fulfilled in life right now.

And so I believe that if I just continue doing what I’m doing. And mind you, the businesses that we’re acquiring, we really help the owners, Right. The people that sell us, the companies, they finally get to retire.

Yeah. And they finally get to step back. And all of them thank me.

I’m still in contact with everybody, and they thank me. When. When it’s all said and done, they’re like, thank you, Carlos.

Like, but by the way, it’s. If you think you’re just going to go into a company and it’s not important for the previous owner that you take really good care of their people. Right.

I mean, you gotta. Right. It’s huge.

Yeah. It weighs heavy on them. Right.

They’re stepping away from their baby, and I tell them, I’m gonna honor the work that you’ve done, and I’m just gonna make it better. Right. And I’m gonna treat the.

The people that you’re leaving behind in your company. I’m. I’m.

It’s my mission to give them a better life. Yeah. Right.

And. And, and so those are my goals, and they’re very satisfying. And so I. I think luckily or sadly I don’t have things outside of that right now that I want to choose.

I mean, I think when it comes to it, it really sounds like your goal personally is to help people thrive. Like to just continue to see people thrive. And, and there, you know, but, and, and again, back to what we said originally, like, yes, this is business, but what’s the greater purpose? Focus on that purpose.

Right on. And then put the other pieces in place that’ll achieve those things. And the business.

Well, yeah, it doesn’t take care of itself, but it really almost takes care of itself. Yeah. All right, so that’s awesome, man.

I really love this. Okay, so another. We’ll just throw a couple more at you and then I know I’m taking up a whole bunch of your day, so I appreciate you spending time with me.

It’s fantastic to hear your journey and what all is happening. It’s so exciting. I love it and I definitely feed off of it.

For sure. Yeah, no, it’s exciting. Okay, so if we talk about.

You already said that you had the gentleman who owned the company originally, that he was a mentor for you. Outside of him, who currently or prior, it doesn’t matter when. Who do you hold as those models in your life, those role models, and how have they influenced you? Yeah, great question.

Well, that’s pretty deep. You know, I, I pause on that because I think back at, at the really just three or four role models that have just had such a tremendous effect on my life and it’s. And I get emotional about it.

Right. So, you know, one is a junior high basketball coach I’m still in touch with. You know, when I felt like giving up in life in those teenage years, he went above and beyond and, and said, hey man, I’m here for you, and did things that, you know, 99.

9% of coaches wouldn’t do. Right. And, and then I, I get to the point here where, where I met the previous owner and again, just so willing to give and teach and, and you know, really ask, you know, what can I do to help? And, and it’s just so giving and even now this is really neat even, you know, it doesn’t end right.

So even though I have partners and, and we’re with private equity and stuff, those guys are real, right. You know, there’s this notion of private equity and investors and no heart. And these guys are real.

And so the chairman of the board that I sit on, he’s, you know, he’s in a private equity for a long time, but he’s originally A farmer from the state of Washington and grew up fishing in order to, you know, have spending money in the summers and stuff. And, and he went on to, you know, the last business he sold was for, for $5 billion. And this is one of my mentors and he says, carlos, I’m not just gonna, you know, as a chairman, I’m just gonna tell you what to do and you need to execute.

We’re gonna work together and we’re gonna grind together and we’re, we’re gonna, we’re gonna put in work and we’re gonna get dirty together. And, and so, and, and, but the reason being is, you know, he told me somebody gave him a chance. That’s awesome.

Right? And he goes, carlos, I’ve had multiple people in my life give me a chance. And, and so he feels like a responsibility to pay it back. Right.

Which is what, what I’m, what I feel like I need to do and do and, and even doing this podcast, it’s a way of just trying to give some of this back. Yeah, that’s awesome. And so obviously dealing with the roll ups and everything is talking high dollars and you gotta have a financial mindset yourself.

So if you had to think back, way back, what do you think the best financial tip that you got in your life was? Oh, geez. And when, when did you get it? Even if it was yesterday, it could have been yesterday from him. You know, I, I, yeah, it could have been.

Probably was yesterday. So, you know, honestly speaking here, you know, I, I grew up in, in Los Angeles in, in, you know, not the ghettos, but a, a community where what I’m doing was never even a consideration. It wasn’t even a possibility.

Right. And I think the greatest thing I’ve learned in the last couple years is just how people view money and capital differently really, at different levels of the economic ladder. Right.

And so no matter what ladder, if I can go back, no matter what ladder or what rung on the ladder I’ve been on, I would strive to try and understand it from a bigger perspective. I would try and understand it from bigger perspective. And so these things, instead of me thinking that they weren’t possible or that somebody who came from where I came from was never supposed to have these things, I would say that sounds impossible, but I want to learn about it.

Be curious. Right? I want to learn about it like, this is crazy and this doesn’t make sense and these people already had money and that’s why they’re able to do this. No.

Right. Find out what that is, how do they view capital, how do they view money, what do they do with it? Right. How many people are they helping with it? You know, be curious, learn all these things and then you know, at every step of the way.

So even today, and just the way I view capital and money and possibilities is completely different. And it changes quite literally every couple months because as we continue to grow and see the art of the possible and the deals get bigger or more and scale and all these things and I think to myself, wow, five years ago, 10 years ago, I wouldn’t know any of these things. I didn’t know these things.

I wasn’t curious enough. Right. And, and so mind you, there are people that are a lot more curious than I was growing up.

And you know, these are the 35 year old millionaires and the 30 year old millionaires and billionaires. Right. But even then, you know, regardless of that, I’m extremely satisfied because I have an opportunity in life to give back and give back in a big way.

And, and I’m gonna, that’s really my mission and my goal as a driver. Right. So that, that being said, you know, I, I, I said earlier, look, I’m tired and I’ve never worked harder yet.

I want to do more. Right, right. Because I’ll be able to help more people.

So when it comes to that, that financial tip, it’s really just about being curious, really, and finding, looking for your own. Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, I guess, you know, you know, I think I viewed that from a perspective of, you know, when I was starting off and I just didn’t think it was possible.

So I think that’s really the message. I was like, you know, don’t think it’s not possible. Yeah.

And you hear about people saying, well, you know, I have this great idea, but nobody’s going to want to invest. Yes, they do. You know, get yourself in front of people, make connections, right.

Network and you know, the one thing, and this is super important, nobody, okay, what people with, with that have capital or PE groups or investors, what they don’t know how to do and what they don’t have, they don’t know how to run the business. They don’t have the idea, they don’t have the know how, they don’t know your customers, they don’t know your neighborhood. Right.

Then this is your value. Right? And so, and, and that is why I go into a company and I say, listen, you tell me how to run. This is, you’ve been running it, this is your business.

Um, but you know, believe in yourself more, give yourself more credit. Um, people do want, you know, you just gotta find the right person, but they do want your idea. And you know, and, and not to get too sidetracked, this, this podcast started off like, hey, do, do I start from scratch or do I buy into a company and if I can, it’s two, it is possible.

And, and I’m doing both right now. I have, I have some that I’ve bought. Right.

And I’m doing Greenfield De Nova White Spaces, where we start from scratch. The start from scratch is a lot slower and it’s a lot harder. Okay.

So, you know, you know, find someone who’s ready to retire, you know, that has a good little business and is ready to retire and hasn’t done the things to take it to the next level. Maybe they have an integrated technology. Right.

Maybe they haven’t done the right marketing and they’re just been stagnant and complacent. Now what, what you’re also going to find and as an investor is in these small companies, a lot of people just have a lifestyle business. Right.

So why hasn’t it grown? Well, it hasn’t grown because this business has provided a great lifestyle, a great write off financially and they’re happy. Exactly. Like they don’t even want to grow it bigger because it’s.

No, really, it’s great. Yeah. You know, and so if you can find a business like that, somebody who finally says, hey, I want to retire or get out and you see all this potential.

Wow. They don’t even have a credit card machine or I don’t know, they’re not even on, on social media. Right.

And they don’t. They put $00 towards, you know, Internet marketing or whatever it is. Those are fantastic businesses to buy.

Yeah. And you know, again, those owners haven’t grown it by design. By design.

They haven’t grown it. So. Awesome.

Thank you so much. This has been fantastic. I think that you just summarize the whole thing right there, come full circle back to, you know, the opportunities are endless.

Yeah. Don’t stifle your own creativity and goals and dreams that there’s somebody out there that can help you get that capital to, to make that thing happen. You just have to see your vision and run with it.

So I love that. That’s what this is all about. Yeah, absolutely.

And again, if you can find a small business that’s doing well, you can grow it much faster. Yeah. A lot more.

It makes a lot more economic sense and you know, it’s it’s a sprint rather than a marathon if you do it that way. Exactly. Exactly.

Well, I wish you continued success. Always and Fretier. Thank you.

S. You do. I’m a fan of you and what you’re doing and.

No, I am. I am. That’s why I’m here.

That’s why I’m here. But no, thank you again and look forward to. To working with you in the future and.

And continuing to help people around us. Awesome. Thank you so much.

Thanks for listening in. This has been Invest in you Episode four. We’ll catch you next time, Sam.