Firefighter by Day, $1.2M Profit by Night

0:00I own a design build ADU company based out of city of San Diego. >> Design build? >> Uh design build. >> So we're general contractors. >> sorry. >> General contractor. And we use those verticals for our own infill development deals that we we just hold. So we just hold them long term, use the appreciation to offset that income. My wife's a real estate professional, so it works. >> Good old reps. Yeah. >> Yeah, thanks. So we do $5 million a year. Looking to go to 10. >> Okay. >> Incredibly supply constrained. I work with my dad, that's one thing I didn't mention.

0:27>> Isn't talent tradesmen? Workers? >> Absolutely. Absolutely. So the design So we the the margins are quite different on both. But in the design the the margins are like 80%. >> Yeah. >> It's ridiculous. On the construction we're about 30%. We do fine. >> Yeah. >> Um the One of the constraints is I work with my pops. Sorry dad if you ever see this. >> Yeah. >> Um he's yellow pad of paper guy and there's just no way around it. So um we do good job. He has We've never marketed once. We've never paid a dollar for anything. >> 80 or is he 60?

0:52>> He's 68. >> Oh. Yeah. He's got some years. He's got some years left. Yeah, yeah. >> No, he he's the man. He's >> 80 you're like hi. You can tough it out. >> [laughter] >> Yeah, right. So uh this is what's stopping me. There's a there's a uniqueness to this. So I'm actually professional firefighter and have been for the past 18 years. >> Okay. >> And so I have yet to go all in on this company because that's what >> Yeah, but go on. >> That's that's kind of like what we do and I work 10 days a month. I'm a servant I have a servant's heart. That's what I enjoy doing. There's it's a selfish endeavor, right? Like I I help people because it makes me feel good about myself.

1:23>> everyone does everything. Yeah, sure. Okay. >> um I'm I've At this point 3 years ago I should have been I should have been retired. I should have left the fire department, but I haven't. >> Okay. >> So that's what's stopping me. My question is what objective criteria should I use um to figure out when to sell, you know, the right time to leave the fire department? >> What are you making right now? >> At fire department? >> No, I >> Yeah. I make $168,000 a year. Yeah. >> Yeah, [laughter] right. Um so our our margins are are pretty good. We make net about 1.2 million a year.

1:50>> Are you you're 50/50 with your pops? >> Uh no, he wants to go 50/50, but there's there's a lot that goes back into it. The reason why I got involved because he got He was diagnosed with cancer. So, >> this was to make sure that his jobs weren't losing money. For a long time I looked at my pops you you paid $20 or you paid $20,000 to do their job. >> Yeah. >> So, they've now saved a million dollars in the bank and yeah, so we're not we're we're 70/30 but any point we could go 50/50 and I do everything. >> Okay. What is margin on the five again?

2:14>> Uh overall 1.2 it's between like 80 and 30. We're on the on the planning side of it and I work with other developers as well. So, I do their plans on the front end and they do the infill development because they do it cheaper than me. >> me just So, >> Yeah. >> 1.2 let's assume that if you pull the lever you'd be a 50/50. >> Yeah, for sure. >> So, the question is I make $168,000 a year and in one time and I make $600,000 a year in another thing.

2:40And I would like to know when I am secure enough with my $600,000 a year to make up for 168. >> Yeah, so to reframe it actually the reason >> I'm just I'm just trying to >> Yeah, no no no absolutely I love where this is going. The catalyst for this question [laughter] was me listening to your podcast this morning that you just did. >> Yeah. >> Um and that's I don't want to get it's not about money. Like I have I have more than I could ever have dreamed for. Like ever ever it would it doesn't matter, right? And so, you're going to get to the other side of this and say I've left and I'm I've created another job. I'm going to have to quit another job that I don't like, right? So, it's it just seems like you know, you having done that gone to the other side of it where are you going to find meaning? What do you do on the other side of this thing? Look for something else to do, right? So, I'm just

3:20>> Well, I think I'm a big believer that a man must have a quest. >> Sure. >> And I I am not religious but I was once and one of my favorite parts about this is that before God gave man a wife he gave him a job. And so, I see work as inextricable to how we live. Right? And so, you I mean fundamentally you started helping your pops out with this business and running this business because you had 20 days a month on your hands cuz you had do something right?

3:53>> For sure. >> And so this seems much more like a what do I do with my life question overall. And so if you were to leave the fire department, what like I guess funnily like why is there a problem? Because I think the premise of this was I'm at 168. I've got 600k a year waiting for me here and if I actually spend more time on it, I'm sure I could grow it, which I'm sure you could cuz you'd have the time back. Um but I don't want to quit.

4:20And so that was the premise of our discussion. And to me that's like then don't quit. It like you're like I don't want to quit. And if you tell me to quit, I'm going to tell you I don't want to quit and I'm like all right, then don't quit. >> [laughter] >> Yeah, but no, I I do want to quit and to be honest I was And I would ask a question about like all this but they when they're going over all the things key metrics, I just circled all of them. >> Yeah. And we're supply constrained. >> It's ridiculous. >> It's business and if you had 10 more full days a month back, you'd probably figure out some of these things.

4:47>> I think so, too. >> Yeah. So what are you going to do? >> That's a good question. >> Yeah. >> I've got a 45-minute flight tonight to figure it out. >> [laughter] >> Like what I like well, let's do it. Let's do it. Why wouldn't you quit? Cuz the money's not a thing. So the money's gone. So because you obviously numbers-wise obviously you quit and do the business. Okay. So why not?

5:14>> And forgive me cuz you got to all pay taxes. So I work for the most one of the most affluent fire departments in the nation. We work Rancho Santa Fe is a super affluent area in San Diego. Um I used to work for department that ran 20 calls a day. We run three calls a day. I work 48-hour shifts and I get more done at work than I do at home because of that. I've created key metrics because I can just do it at work. >> Yeah. >> And so to be honest, I go home and I have two young children and so I get all that work done. When I go home, I'm I am there. I coach

5:39>> You're like honey, I got to go to work. >> No, and she laughs. She's like all right, for sure. Whatever you want to do. I'm like oh, I'm so tired and it's like well, we slept all night. So it's like it would be insane um to walk away from that, and I have a a super like high seniority position as a captain. >> Yeah. Well, it sounds like you're getting paid for study hall. >> I mean I hope my chief doesn't see this, but yeah. >> Yeah. All right. Um well, fundamentally, if if you're working 100% of the time that you're if you're if like if you become less productive as a result of leaving the job, I see that as a double negative.

6:11>> For sure. >> So, if you quit the job, would you get more done in the other business? Let me just ask Let me just ask cuz like the math equation is can I make $168,000 more dollars of profit times two cuz you got to split it, right? So, 300 and whatever $40,000 of profit, and you guys are running 1 2 1 5, right? >> Mhm.

6:33>> And so, 25-ish percent margins. So, multiply that by four. So, 350 by four So, probably like, you know, another 1.2 to 1.5 million dollars a year, whatever the math is. Um of top line. If you quit the fire fireman job, that would be your break even. Can you do that? >> Yeah, for sure. >> For sure? >> Yeah. >> But, I thought the time you get back would be less productive. >> I mean, I say that because I'm doing other during the day, right? I'm doing whatever. I'm right? So, if I would, you know, dove all in, remain focused, and and and went for it. And you cut the parachute, you have no choice. I would have no choice. I would like to think that it's in my nature to make it happen.

7:10>> So, you'd like to quit. You're comfortable. You think you can grow this thing more. >> Yeah. >> And you're afraid to do it. >> There you go. >> And you rationalize why cuz of the other reasons, but you know that's not really true. >> It's like a therapy session, yeah. >> So, does that Does that give you the answer? >> It does. >> Cool. >> Appreciate it. >> Rock and roll. Appreciate you. If you are business owner and you are not growing as fast as you'd like, I'd like to give you a free gift. So, my team and I put together the $100 million scaling roadmap, which is basically 200 hours of us looking over all the portfolio companies we've had and what stages of growth they went through, and more importantly, where they got stuck and how they got past it. And so we broke it into these 10 stages, and we made this little kind of quiz thing where if you put in your business information, it'll tell you where you're at, and the most important part for you, what to do for each of functions of the business across product, marketing, sales, customer success, recruiting, IT, human resources, and finance. And so no matter what you're struggling with, someone else has already struggled with it and solved it. And so I'd like to give you this thing absolutely free. You can go to acquisition.com/roadmap, plug in your business information, and if you want us to actually help you deconstruct in the business, and you're trying to scale, we'd love to help you out. On the thank you page, you can just book a call with my team, and we will look at your business, see if we can help, and if we can, we'll invite you out to Vegas, and we'll do this in person live.