Entrepreneurship Struggles: Overcoming Capital Challenges

Podcast Description: Struggles: Navigating Challenges, Together

Are you an entrepreneur facing the daily grind of running a business? Welcome to Struggles: Navigating Challenges, Together, the podcast that delves deep into the common hurdles entrepreneurs encounter across all industries. From financial management woes to scaling a business and leadership tips, we uncover real-world stories, expert insights, and practical solutions to help you navigate your path to success.

In this episode of Struggles, Brian Butkowski of NCBI and guest Howie Gross discuss the financial struggles and challenges common in the entrepreneurial journey. Howie emphasizes that financial setbacks, such as having cars repossessed or utility services cut off, are often part of the path to success, not indicators of failure. The conversation touches on the critical importance of capital for growing businesses, highlighting how lack of funds can stymie marketing efforts, hiring, and operational efficiency. They discuss the mindset needed to navigate these challenges, the misconceptions of overnight success, and the necessity of having a clear purpose beyond just making money. Brian underscores the goal of achieving financial independence and creating generational wealth to help others. They conclude by encouraging listener feedback and inviting potential guests to share their own stories of overcoming struggles.

Keywords:

• Entrepreneurship
• Business struggles
• Leadership tips
• Scaling challenges
• Financial management

Time Stamps for Key Topics:

• Overcoming Financial Struggles [0:03]:
• Howie Gross offers a refreshing perspective on financial hardships in the journey of entrepreneurship, emphasizing resilience and breakthrough (00:00:03).
• Importance of Capital [00:58]:
• Brian and Howie discuss the pivotal role of capital in marketing, hiring, and system operations (00:00:58).
• Principles of Success [01:14]:
• Brian shares the fundamental principles that have propelled him forward despite ongoing struggles (00:01:14).
• Impact of Mindset [02:25]:
• Howie elaborates on the critical role of mindset in overcoming challenges and achieving success (00:02:25).
• The Power of Financial Independence [04:33]:
• Brian discusses his philosophy on financial independence and its importance in achieving true freedom (00:04:33).
• Value of Helping Others [06:12]:
• The conversation moves towards the purpose of helping people and how it makes struggles more manageable (00:06:12).
• Sales and Problem Solving [07:04]:
• Explore the concept of "Sales cures all" and how bringing in sales can solve various business problems (00:07:04).
• Solving Problems for Others [07:57]:
• Focus on the importance of solving problems for clients rather than solely chasing financial gain (00:07:57).
• Importance of Self-Care [10:09]:
• Howie uses the "oxygen mask" analogy to stress the importance of self-care in ensuring business sustainability (00:10:09).
• Listeners’ Interaction and Future Episodes [11:00]:
• The hosts encourage listener feedback and discuss the importance of storytelling and understanding personal "whys" in future episodes (00:11:00).

Tune in and discover how you can turn your struggles into stepping stones for success. Don't forget to subscribe, listen, and share Struggles: Navigating Challenges, Together with others who might benefit from these insightful discussions. Let's navigate the challenges of entrep

Chapters

• 0:00 Mindset is key to overcoming entrepreneurial struggles.
• 5:19 Living off savings provides financial independence
• 7:18 Helping others improves personal growth and success.
• 10:23 Seeking feedback on storytelling and personal motivations.

Transcript

0:03

You know, what I would say is, too, is just because you're struggling financially doesn't mean that you're on the wrong track. It happens. You know, if you listen to any of these big entrepreneurs, they've talked about cars being repossessed and lights being turned off and gas being turned off, I don't think they're doing it just because it makes for a cool story. Like, I think it's kind of embarrassing to a certain extent, too, right? I mean, but the point. The point of them sharing that story and is that they overcame it. So it's like, you can overcome it. And sometimes when shit's going wrong, it's a sign that you're doing the right things, too. Welcome to another episode of struggles, presented by NCBI, the podcast where we navigate challenges together. This episode, we join in on a conversation with Brian Butkowski of bomb Image and Howie Gross of gross investments. Well, I think the other common struggle, too, here in this space is capital, right? Absolutely. And all the other problems stem from it. Well, hey, my marketing's not good. Hey, I can't hire help. Hey, I can't get my name out there. I don't have time to network. Well, why? Well, you don't have time. You don't have the money to hire help. You don't have the money to do the marketing. You don't have the money to put in the proper operations and systems. Sure. So, you know, a lot of times that's step one. So I think, honestly, there's a lot of people that are in the position where they're not there yet, but they're on their way, which is where I. That's where I would categorize myself. Sure. So for me to sit here and say, like, here's the definite way you can get through things. Oh, yeah. You wouldn't know that. I don't know. I know the principles. I know how I've gotten as far as I've gotten, for sure. Right. But, you know, there's a group of people out there that are truly successful in their own right and have went through these problems and have gotten through them. Right. So that's. That's who you look to talk to. Right. And how much they share, don't share is ultimately up to them. I mean, a part of it is the struggle, right. I mean, you throw. You see it all the time. Like, if what's the saying goes, the second. The first generation founds a business, the second generation builds the business, the third generation kills the business because they never saw the struggle they never went through the hard times. They get money thrown in their lap, same as a lottery winner, whatever. So, you know, yeah, I think, well, there's a fine line with that. And I think that if we can talk to people that have overcome some of this, these issues, these struggles, I think part of it even is the mindset. It doesn't matter. The dollars and cents don't matter so much. The actual permutations on how and why we did these things in these processes may not matter. It might not even matter what type of business they're in, but getting the mindset, and I think that's the, I guess, that one limiting factor, defining factor. When we look at entrepreneurship and people with struggles and getting through things and finding a way, I think that's part of the story. It could be, hey, we had lights shut off, or, hey, I had to get my car repossessed and actually figure out a way through this. I think it does show that fine line where I actually saw, I don't know, it was about a month ago, somebody had written something about, hey, you know, this potential business owner was trying to figure out this, this and this, but they didn't want to do this, this and this. And I'm, like, thinking to myself, and I actually sent an email and I said, you might want to talk to this person. Like, I don't know that they're. They're in the right mindset to even want to own a business if these are the struggles that they're having. Like, you know, some of those simple things, like, hey, I don't know if I like the stress of not knowing where my next job's coming from. Certain things like that. Like good luck. Yeah. When some people fall into things, it could be like the lottery winner thing, or, hey, I'm gonna start a business because it's really cool. And so, and so did it, and I saw them, so I'm gonna do that. Well, there's a lot more to it than just succeeding. Now, on the flip side, there's so many people get lucky and succeed, too. I wish I had a little bit of that luck. I seem to fashion myself to always do things the hard way. Again, to your idea of struggle, that's not necessarily a bad thing, because you can work through it and understand where you came from and how to avoid that, or maybe how to, you know, let somebody else know how to avoid some of those things, too. Luck is a funny thing, though, isn't it? Oh, yeah. Because people think, oh, he's an overnight success. He got lucky, right? They don't see all the other bullshit that they've went through for ten years. And the harder you work, the luckier you get. Correct, 100%. But for me, I guess you have to decide why you want to be an entrepreneur or why you're doing what you're doing. Absolutely. For me, it's helping people create the financial independence, the financial success. We talk about it all the time. This country, people think they're free. In this country, they're really not, right? Because if you don't pay your taxes, your ass is going to jail. But how you can get closer to being truly free is being financially free and being financially independent of your w two job. Being financially independent of any situation where you have to do something that you don't want to do. If you've got enough money in the bank or you got enough money in investments, you could say, hey, I don't want to take your bullshit anymore. I'm out. Well, and as we all know, the more money that you have, the more you can get away with, too, because you can hire more lawyers, bigger lawyers, you can make things work. You can get better accountants, all those things. But even if you make it simple, if you've got $2 million saved, and I know that I shouldn't withdraw more than four to 5% of my portfolio to safely never run out of money based on a lot of financial models, things like that, if I've got $2 million saved up, I can live off 100 grandd. I don't have to show up to work every day. I don't have to listen to shit I don't want to listen to. I can do what I want as long as I'm not irresponsible with the money and don't spend outside of my means. You're not crazy rich, but at least you have some financial peace. I kind of did it. I don't have to work that hard anymore. Now some people will sit back and say, I'm good. This is what I've worked my whole life for. I'm going to enjoy it. I'm going to take vacations. I'm going to do my thing. Other people go, all right. Hey, now I got a good base, and now I'm not stressed about making ends meet and where my next meals come from, but now I can really get after it. Now I can really be aggressive, because I've got this. Absolutely. I've built myself this foundation. Every single person deserves to be able to do that for themselves, and they get the wrong information right. But my goal with my own self is to make enough money to become financially independent and be able to grow my firm and just continue to continue to get after it. I'm in the generational wealth business. Right. I want to build it for my clients. I want to build it for my family. I want that to mean something. Going all the way back to, everybody wins. You're trying to help them, and everybody elevates from that point. But having that purpose makes all the other bullshit. It doesn't make it go away, but it makes it easier. It makes it palatable. Whatever. If it were easy, everyone would be doing it. Right? More problems. Good. Cool. Let's work through them. Let's do it. More problems. Good. That reminds me of jocko. Yeah, good. Yeah. Yeah, this happened. Good. Yeah, we got a stumbling block. Good. Exactly. How do we. How do we turn that into an opportunity and make it better? Yep. So, no, I love that. And there is something you talked about, even making sure that you can finance your business, things like that. There is the saying, too, that sales cures all. I mean, if you can bring the sales in, that can solve some of your problems. Winning cures all, right. Yeah. You can start to truly move some things around and maybe take that step back that you weren't able to take. So I think that's one of the ones that, as I continue in 2024 into the next year, I want to take that to heart and really figure out that, hey, the more I help people, the better I help people. The better ways I help people will all help me and help provide me that base, kind of like even the retirement, that base to allow me to expand and do things the right way. That's what I'm looking to do. Trying to figure it out one step at a time. Yeah. I mean, your goal is to bring the value and to solve the problems. Right? And I'm talking money because I'm. I do, you know, but, you know, it's like if you know, the reason a business isn't. A business isn't in business to make money. A business is in business to solve problems. Right. The money is just the fuel that makes it go like. Just like your life goal shouldn't be to accumulate as much money as you want for the sake of accumulating as much money as you want. The money does something for you. Right. It can buy your grandkids an education. What does it create? It can create. You can pay off your parents mortgage if you're successful enough and give back to someone. That's giving you everything. Right? Like, that's like when I'm doing my visualizations and I'm trying to think about what I want from my life, and I can envision me writing a check to pay off my parents mortgage, or I can think about buying my friend a car because he's done so much for me. Like, that's the shit that, like, gets me going. That's what gets me excited. Right. And I'm not going to get there just by chasing dollars. I'm going to get there by doing the best job I can do, helping as many people as I can, you know? And that's what I think a lot of people miss. Sure. People want to get into business to become rich. It's like, honestly, there's, it'd be easier to make your money off of w two and just be a intrapreneur or a high level exec if your only goal is to make money. Right, right. I mean, that's, that's how I look at it. Like, doing financial planning and trying to get clients in the door for this. There's easier ways to make money. Like, no doubt quicker ways to make money. That's not why I do it. Right, right. Same for me. And if anything, I'm the opposite. I'm so worried about trying to solve problems and help people and make sure that they can tell their story appropriately so they can get more clients. I don't as much worry about myself. I'm not sure that I'm doing enough to make sure that I bring in enough money. That money thing is over here versus that problem solving here. And I'm so focused on that. I'm so focused on that next idea for that next thing that I don't always think about myself and either marketing myself, promoting myself, or even making sure I'm charging enough, looking back at things, taking those steps back, I'm so forward pushing it is a different kind of scenario. And I can't, I gotta make sure that I'm in business. It's like what they say about the, if you're on a plane, you know, sometimes you gotta take that oxygen mask first before you try to help other people. That's what I tell you to do. Yeah. And I don't always think about that. You have to. I don't always realize that I struggle with that too. Yeah. So, and I think that goes back to why you're in business or what you're trying to accomplish. And again, going to the whys and those are the things that I'd like to tell those stories about as we do any kind of forum like this. Yeah, what are those little things? And I think you've done a great job so far, even just giving us a little tidbit about who you are and why you do the things that you do. So I think for now, let's break for this. And again, if somebody's listening to this, we'd love to hear feedback. I'd love to hear feedback as to how we can help tell people's stories a little bit better, a little bit more about their whys, why they do what they do, and really what differentiates them. Love to hear what kind of questions people have that we can actually interact and ask more people. And we'd love to have more people on a forum like this. So for sure. So I always thank you to you. And yeah, we'll be on to the next one here soon, I'm sure. Thanks for tuning in to this episode of struggles presented by NCBI, where we navigate challenges together. Don't forget to subscribe, listen, and share this podcast with others who might benefit. We'd love to hear about the struggles you're facing or have overcome, and we'd be thrilled to have you as a guest on a future episode. Let's continue this journey together.