CV Hustle
A Podcast created to educate, inform & inspire entrepreneurship here in our Coachella Valley.
We will be talking to some of the best & brightest entrepreneurs in the Coachella Valley about how they started their journey in entrepreneurship.
CV Hustle
Ep #2-The iPay Solutions Story: Crafting a Legacy in Payroll and HR Services
Have you ever felt the electric thrill of stepping into the unknown world of entrepreneurship? That's the story we're sharing today, along with our co-host Angel Chavez, as we pull back the curtain on the birth and growth of iPay Solutions. You’ll hear about the hurdles and wins that come with operating in the Payroll and HR service industry, especially in the vibrant and challenging market of California. If you've got a hunger to start a service-based business, our anecdotes and insights could be your next best move.
Navigating through the maze of business ownership can be as daunting as it is exhilarating. Join us as we recount the tale of our transition from employees to company successors, complete with the twists and turns of valuation and negotiation. We lay bare the complexities of stepping into the shoes of an established business, considering partnerships, and the crucial role of expert advice. Plus, Angel Chavez lends his unique perspective, illuminating the entrepreneurial path with his own experiences and insights.
As the conversation shifts, we delve into the personal connections that fueled our growth and the strategies that differentiated us in a competitive market. Discover how a local company's sale became our gain and the business decisions that not only drove our expansion but also defined our customer service. Finally, we're excited to share our commitment to community growth, through creating jobs that elevate the local economy. Tune in and join us on this incredible journey, right here on CV Hustle.
Welcome to CV Hustle, the podcast created to educate, inform and inspire entrepreneurship here in our Coachella Valley. Alright, hello everyone. I'm Robert Maraz and this is Fina Maraz, and this is CV Hustle, episode number two. Cv Hustle is a podcast dedicated to educating, inspiring and guiding local entrepreneurship here in our Coachella Valley. And today, nothing but illustrious guests we got a special co-host today. We got Mr Angel Chavez, desert Underground himself joining the show today to help a guest host. Thanks for showing up, man.
Speaker 3:No, thank you, coach. Thank you, Fina, for letting me be part of the first couple episodes of the show.
Speaker 1:And truth be told, Angel is kind of the inspiration behind all this Absolutely. We're more than gracious that you came to join us for a second show today. Today, we're going to be talking about my company, I Pay Solutions, which was founded in 2017.
Speaker 2:Your company, our company, and just kidding.
Speaker 1:Our company, of course, 50-50, right, but yeah, so we're going to kind of go into that backstory. So, if you're into accounting or payroll really exciting things, HR, I mean, wow, very exciting stuff. But there is a need for it, especially here in California for small businesses. So this is the podcast for you Any service-based business. We're going to kind of give you some tidbits on how we started and where we're going and little things that maybe, if you're thinking about opening a service-based business in that industry, you're going to get some tidbits from us today.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. So you're going to shed some light on this accounting world. Yeah, very exciting stuff. It's very cool. It is. It's pretty interesting to me how your business runs versus my business runs and things like that. It's pretty cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, two different worlds, totally, Totally two different worlds.
Speaker 3:So before we talk about I Pay Solutions. So like, what's Tesla liberal your backstory? So I want to know, because I know you as a coach, like you coach me in high school. I'm not old that I coach this guy, so you're the kid. So how's Tesla? Liberal, you grew up in the valley, were you from somewhere?
Speaker 1:else. So originally I was born in LA, long Beach to be exact, and then my dad bought a dental practice here in the 80s or in the mid-80s, so he moved us all it was just me at the time and he moved us out to India.
Speaker 2:And it's called Super Smiles.
Speaker 1:Yeah it's called Super Smiles. It's still in business. My brother took it over, actually, so my dad moved us out here from LA. He's an LA native, from Los Angeles his whole life and yeah, so I basically grew up here. I went to Indian High School. Shout out to the Rajas, shout out to Rajas.
Speaker 3:We haven't had that bell in a long time 2012.
Speaker 1:It's been a while, it's been a while Me and Angel are very upset about that. But yeah, so I graduated from Indian High School, played football, did the whole thing. I was a 97 graduate of Indian High School.
Speaker 2:How many brothers and sisters do you have? We?
Speaker 1:got a clan, so I got three brothers and one sister. I'm the oldest.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And everybody's doing well. We're pretty tight knit families. I'm sure they're all watching. Shout out to you guys yeah, sure, but yeah. So I went away to school. I was smart enough to know that I needed to go to college to get out of here. So I did an enroll in UCSB in the fall of 97. Yeah, the fall of 97. Yeah, went to UCSB, got a political science degree, which I don't know what that's really good for, except for being a politician, but it was one of the degrees that I found interesting and you know something that I actually like to go to class for. So we kind of kind of went that direction. Graduated in 2001. And then in 2000.
Speaker 1:Did you play college football? I did not play. I saw it. I'll tell this story now. It's kind of interesting. So I had offers coming. I was like an all DBL player and I was decent. I wasn't the superstar or anything, but I had offers to play at smaller colleges. They actually recruited me and called me and wanted me to come out and visit their campuses and stuff like that. But I also was like it's not US, my dream is always USC or UCLA division one. I want to be a player when that was like looking like it wasn't going to happen, I kind of opened up my mind because you know football is a very jealous mistress.
Speaker 1:Football is if you're going to do it right, it takes consumed your life. You're working out, you're working out like all year round. You're at practices, you're in meetings. It's a grind and it consumes your life, so it becomes your identity. I think for me I'd played for 10 years at a place that I was a kid I was in high school kind of thinking, you know, hey, maybe if I'm not going to get a division, one scholarship, but I'm not that good of a player, then maybe I need to use my brain for something.
Speaker 2:So before you bang it up.
Speaker 1:So I did have offers and I'll tell you a story because my dad still reminds me of this. I had offers to play at different places, like smaller colleges, but I went and visited UC Santa Barbara and I just saw an academic kind of visit. You know, go check out schools.
Speaker 2:And I went to the real reason you think.
Speaker 1:I'm going to get. I don't want to get kicked under the table. Oh, I went to UC Santa Barbara and went on my visit and I saw these, you know blondes and bikinis right around because, UC Santa Barbara is right on the beach. I mean, it's a beautiful campus and it was, you know, in the summer, and the girls were in bikinis and riding around on the bikes and I was like, hey, this is probably where I'm going to go to school.
Speaker 2:I'm going here. I don't think.
Speaker 1:I'm going to be playing football anymore. I think I think my football days are over. But it ended up being a really good choice because it's a really great school. You know football is. You know it ends badly for everybody anyway, you know, unless you're like a superstar. So I kind of checked out early and went and went to UC Santa Barbara. So that's what we did. You know, my dad still reminds me of that story. You could have played, I'm like you know we have my brother.
Speaker 1:My brother actually played division one, my brother Billy yeah division one college.
Speaker 2:So my dad got to live by carously through him.
Speaker 1:So he worked out for him. So, um, but you know, no, just kidding, I'm just kidding. But, um, shut up, billy, yeah, shout out to Billy, hey, okay To me, yeah, um, so I went to school, came I, you know, I was kind of in between you getting that graduation mode where you're kind of in between, like, what are you going to do? I and I remember coach Machado, yeah, yeah, I, he was my coach and I I played for him and he always used to tell me, hey, when you're done playing, you're kind of like a coach on the field, come back and I'll have a job for you.
Speaker 1:You know, if you want to coach football, so, being, you know, 22, 23 years old, I was like, okay, well, I don't really. Santa Barbara is beautiful but it's really expensive. So I knew I couldn't live there. So I was like, okay, well, let me, let me explore this option. So I went and did get that head, that assistant coaching job, and took to it. I loved it, still do that to this day. Um, but at the same time I was going to okay, well, I'm going to be a coach, I might as well be a teacher, right? Isn't that the kind of like the isn't that kind of the stereotypical thing that you do? Yeah, you substitute teacher, and so I, I signed up to do all that and I quickly realized coaching, I don't want to. I don't want to be around these guys more than this. You know, like these guys are some of these guys. I'm dealing with the good kids, I'm dealing with the athletes. Imagine, in the classroom, you know, I was like yeah, the good kids yeah.
Speaker 1:The kids that are at least motivated. Yeah, that's extra curricular I mean teaching such a tough professional? Shout out to all the teachers man, I don't you guys.
Speaker 2:You guys deserve a lot, oh, absolutely, that's a hard job.
Speaker 1:So shout out. But, um, I was just like you know what I'm not, I'm not going to do this, I got to find something else to do. So I love the coaching, but the teaching thing was like I had gone to school to get my credentials and I'm like you know what I'm going to have to find a nine to five, you know, kind of fall into it, you know. So, you know, I, I, I got a job, you know, just like a temporary job, at a, at a CPA firm, and they were doing taxes, you know, and I was like you know I used to.
Speaker 1:There was quick cast during the tax season, yeah, and um, you know, I was like, okay, you know I'm pretty smart, I got a college degree. I couldn't figure this out, it's not hard. And, um, you know the next thing, I know they're throwing me in the bookkeeping department, they're throwing me in the, in the tax department. And then I remember the payroll lady like decided she didn't want to do payroll anymore. So they basically threw me in the department and I was down the head of that department Like in, like I had no idea what I was doing.
Speaker 3:You just figuring out as you go.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I just like, okay, so you do it and this and that, so you know I got thrown into that, that side of it. And then I, you know, I kind of took to it and I liked it much better than bookkeeping. I hate a bookkeeping because it is always different. Your clients kept it, kept it interesting. Oh, I need to fire this guy, I need to do this, I need to do that. Like the hours are different, it's always moving parts to payroll. Even though it seems kind of boring, it's really not like. Your clients will definitely keep it, keep it interesting. So I kind of took, took to it pretty well. So the next thing I know, I mean that's when, um, kristi and Vicki kind of stepped in and hide me away Right.
Speaker 2:That's when I was working for the first tile lady. She had a friend who needed um right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they'd opened the business and they they were working out of their house and they wanted to expand.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so my boss at the time knew them and I think they were doing her payroll and they had said, hey, we're looking for somebody to do payroll. So I mentioned that to Bobby and Bobby fit perfectly, you know, and they were working out of their house for a little bit.
Speaker 1:They gave me. I went to work for some ladies working out of their garage.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I might put like to start the payroll career and um, but it was actually turned out to be a blessing because it was the agreement that we they were going to get an office and expand. That's why they hired me. So we kind of we did that within the first year and then we got the office and you know, kind of it took off, was just us three, you know, and I was just learning and I was learning the industry.
Speaker 3:So that was like your first client, as like part of your own business or leading you towards the entrepreneurial route.
Speaker 1:That's what I'm saying, is the blessing in disguise, because really it was just me. You know, it's two owners and me. Yeah, I had to learn every aspect of that business.
Speaker 3:You're pretty much part of the business I'm saying.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I had to learn every aspect. So today, like in my company structure, there's departments yeah, the tax person doesn't really do the sales and the processing and production side doesn't really do the taxes. Back then I had to learn everything.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So that was a blessing. So it really was a blessing to be hired by Christine Vicki to kind of come in and learn the business, and I learned it from scratch. We went from their house to an office and then from there we grew it to they doubled their business just by moving it. So it was really a blessing and that's how I kind of got started in the payroll game and the payroll HR world. And she told her story and then you had brought up a good question when would you be if you took another job? It's very true, it's very true. I learned the ins and outs of that industry and then you learn what to do and what not to do. So it's kind of cool. So, yeah, that was kind of the. I didn't know it at the time, because I'm not and that's part of the reason we're doing this podcast is because I was not an entrepreneur by heart, even though my father was a dentist and he had his own business. Yeah, I was terrified to go off on our own.
Speaker 2:You know, like I always, I always you know, well, I think that you're reserved and you're cautious and that's kind of why we work right. I'm a risk taker. You're like hold on. So I think you're also proof of concept. You know, like you talked about you putting down things on paper and seeing if it worked, and you know this and that Once you saw my business and where it kind of took off, you were like, oh, I can do this, because you know we really did push you out and kind of kick you out of the nest, if you will, but it was. He's got a great story Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So you know, that was kind of the genesis of getting into that industry. And then when? So I worked for them for seven years, you know like a long time, but I was the office manager. We grew, we had, they had, I had employees working under me, and then what was 2000, what 2016? I really I, you know, as we got into it, I saw things that we could be doing better. Yeah, so like there was the technical technical, they were older ladies, so their technology wasn't as good as it should have been in terms of what the industry was offering at that time. And so I there was things that I kind of already knew, just being there, that we could do better. And I think you know they were older, so they were ready to get out.
Speaker 2:And they had always posed it to him and to all of their clients, like he's going to be the guy that's taken over and I was the heir apparent. Yeah, he was absolutely and it was always, and so we always kind of thought that that's the way it was going to go as well, you know, and it was just, we just didn't know when, yeah, so yeah.
Speaker 1:So we got, you know, seven years of managing the place and they're they're getting ready to retire. So the the discussion has become a lot more, a lot more serious about actually, you know, taking over and buying the business. So I remember, you know, me and her were like okay, well, how do we even, how do we even buy a business? Like the stuff's even doing that, you know, and it was like we had to, so it forced us to do our homework on what the business was actually worth, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but you're going to head it yourself. We need to talk about how, how it actually all happened and how we got to that point of how you buy a business.
Speaker 1:I'm getting into that. I'm getting into that, but that's what I'm saying. Like we, we did our homework and I I kind of figured out what the valuation of the business should have been, you know, because you know there's an industry standards for every business. So when it came time for us to kind of sit down and negotiate with them, they gave us a crazy high number, you know, and we kind of were like, first we were like almost fell over seats, right.
Speaker 2:Well, wait, well, how did it get started? Let's talk about I think we're going to need to rewind. And how did how did it come? Like hey, we're going to get out of this business. Do you want to buy it? Like, how did it? How did that happen?
Speaker 1:They were ready to retire and they were ready to ready to move on. You know, I think they had kind of seen the writing on the wall and were ready to kind of sell it to the young guy and let him. Let him take it over.
Speaker 2:But what were the details?
Speaker 1:What'd they say? What they say. You remember this better than I do, apparently. I don't remember what you said I just remember the sequence of events.
Speaker 2:I think it was like hey, we're, you know we're going to retire and we want you to buy the business and didn't. And then didn't they give you like a proposal.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and this is what I'm getting to like. We got the proposal and we almost fell out of the seat right.
Speaker 2:Cause it was it was over a million dollars. It was crazy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, you know, looking back on it now it's kind of like a funny thing. But it was like we, you know, we kind of at the time were like what the heck, you know there's no way this is worth.
Speaker 1:And the other thing is I was the manager of the place, so I knew where all the bodies were buried in terms of the business Right. I knew where all the like the pitfalls of the business were, where you know where our profit centers were and this and that, and I kind of you know so. So I had a better understanding of what the thing was really worth, you know so.
Speaker 2:And they had. They had also given us like we all went out to breakfast one day and they had handed us their tax returns for, I think, a couple of years or something. And again, I don't do the numbers right, like I could probably figure it out, but I don't want to. That's kind of his deal. But so we took those numbers and then he started looking at him going holy shit, like everything that they're bringing in they're spending. And I remember in my business I was told not to do that. So, and that's fine, and that worked out for them. That was great. But I think that's when Bobby was like I don't know, I don't know. And we, we had talked to Gus, who was our CPA, right, we had talked to his parents, we talked to everybody, and then at one time Bobby was talking about possibly, well, why don't we open up a let's go into partnership with them? Remember that conversation, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:That was. That was a thought for a quick minute but my dad came in and squashed that real quick because my father here's, you know your educational piece. My father, when he came out of dental school, did have a partner and it was. It was a really bad breakup. You know it's hard to. It's hard enough to run your own business, but it's really hard when you have somebody else that has input to your, your destiny as a business. You know so, for us it was like partnership. Partnership was, was not going to be a good thing for us.
Speaker 2:You know, but I think the reason why Bobby was talking about let's go into partnership because that was that was still. They were still kind of a security blanket, right, they were still in the business, but not really.
Speaker 1:I also felt a lot of loyalty to them.
Speaker 3:Correct, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean, they taught me a lot, like everything, about that business. So I, you know, even to this day, I have nothing but respect for them, oh, absolutely. It's just that that moment of time you know you have to make a decision that's in your best interest, you know in the best interests of your family. So you know. But you know they were like they were, they were taught me everything.
Speaker 2:So I I really respect and appreciate the time I was with them For myself, I was like I am not doing a partnership because to me marriage is hard enough and you're basically married to these people too. Right, if you're doing that because you've got money, you've got all these big decisions that you would all have to make together, and I was not about it. I was like no, we're not, we can't do that. And then your dad's saying not to do it. It's really a no.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, so we we looked at the numbers and we kind of looked at each other.
Speaker 2:Can we offer them something?
Speaker 1:No, we never made a counter. We didn't Well cause. The number was too high. We never really made a counter.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I kind of, I kind of told them.
Speaker 1:hey, I did something, I did some research and I think it's not.
Speaker 2:Your business was only really like, or at the quarter of that, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:It's not worth what you're, what you're trying to sell us. And then so that was. We went back and forth a little while with that, but then we kind of we kind of made a decision that hey, we're going to have to do this ourselves. You know, and I was totally at first I was totally not really feeling that because I knew you go, I'm, I'm going from managing a, a firm that has 300, you know, 300 clients to, I'm going to go back to zero and start start Trying to find one.
Speaker 3:Yeah, trying to find one. Well, I have one.
Speaker 2:Me his parents and our mechanic.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So I, I knew that that was going to be a grind, because you know that's going to. I have to go from managing a big firm and doing things a certain way to doing it, basically everything myself again, answering phones, doing sales, you know, and that's what and that's what you ultimately took. But I knew that going in and I was, you know I was not thrilled about that, but at the same time you have to make the best financial decision that you can in those situations. So we kind of determined early, like right after that that meeting, that we're probably going to have to do this ourselves.
Speaker 2:Well, why don't you talk a little bit about he did some research again, of course, that's, that's what he does, right? And he did some research and he found a couple of software companies that he was interested in and it was like, well, how much would it cost to start up with these guys?
Speaker 1:Right, and then he started to work on a new software game and software and SaaS and all these services.
Speaker 2:One of the things I want to touch on is at that time. That's when I had just expanded my business to the breaking down the walls and we went to that double building. So guess what? He didn't have to pay rent at an office because he could just move to the office he was sharing with you.
Speaker 1:I took the back desk in the room.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he did. Yeah, Mary was like, I pays first. He had his own phone number.
Speaker 1:First the original origin.
Speaker 2:So what did you find out about? You know the software and stuff, all that.
Speaker 1:So you know, no, I knew that we needed. That was the main thing that I had expressed to the ladies for a while that we needed to do something about this because their software was very antiquated and not cloud. It was not cloud based, it was all you know, just paper trail hardware based. You know, and, and it was. You know, you can only work on one computer at a time. You know, just very 2001,. You know stuff.
Speaker 1:So, you know, I knew that needed to be upgraded. So you know, I went, we actually and I was the one pushing this before I decided to move, like I brought this other vendor and that was doing like the upgraded software, and I and we did a, we did a, we did a whole, like you know, whole presentation, whole demo. And then they decided it was too expensive. And then that's when I was like, okay, so we're not, you know, we're not going to be growing this business, we're just going to keep it. Can I keep?
Speaker 3:it going.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Don't fix it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean we want to spend on this, so, but that that turned out to be a blessing, because when I decided we decided we're going to go to the first people I called was that salesperson that I had a demo with and I'm like, hey, this is what I'm thinking about doing. You know, what are you guys pricing? So I already had an in in the industry.
Speaker 2:Right and one of the other things remember, was we saved, saved, saved.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:So to start his business. It was going to be like 20 grand or whatever it was, but we had the money, yeah.
Speaker 1:So it was initial investment of the software. It was basically, and you had a business. I mean because I had the knowledge on how to do it. It's just I needed the software so we could just buy software and have a business. So, like I said the first, well, going back to the, to the, to the story where you know we're in negotiation, basically at that point we had decided, okay, we're going to do this ourselves.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And that turned into be a very awkward situation for me Because, like I said, I was very loyal to the ladies. I love the ladies. They treated me very well. I have nothing but good things to say about them, but at the time I needed to like Best decision for yourself.
Speaker 1:Cut Just cut out Because I regret this decision. Now I think I can talk about it now, but I just basically gave my letter of resignation and bounced. I didn't even give him two weeks. And I'm like ahead, dude, and the reason I did that, and at the time it made sense. Now I wish I would have did it a different way. So, if you're listening, I apologize, but I wish I had to give him the two weeks. But I didn't want to be in there them knowing that I was going to do my own thing, because then there was going to be accusations of like oh, are you going to steal our clients, are you going to steal our? Yeah?
Speaker 3:of course.
Speaker 1:Because in that industry it's very competitive. So, looking back on it, I wish I'd have did it a different way, but I just formed my letter of resignation and turned it in and I was out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but some places. I mean. Think about it today If somebody came into your business and said, hey, I'm going to give you two weeks, but I'm going to start my own payroll company. You would have said sorry, no, today's your last day, so I think it kind of worked out for you.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, but I do. I've frayed the relationship that I had with them for a couple of years. I've seen them since then and I think it's OK now. They kind of understand now. But so that's something that I was not too proud of, but I had to do it, so yeah. And then the next day I went to her office and put my laptop down and we had a business. And then I went from managing a company that had like 300 clients to having three, three clients.
Speaker 2:Three clients, well, you were able to start on your logo. You were able to do all these things because you didn't have that big overload starting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely so. Unlike you said, it's a blessing, but at the time you think it's the worst thing in the world. It's scary.
Speaker 3:Scary because you go from security and safety to the unknown.
Speaker 2:Well, and see, and then it was like, oh my, my, my, how the tables turn. Because, remember, in the beginning he was like I was the only one working. And now I was the only one working. And he wasn't bringing in a paycheck, so we were like holy shit.
Speaker 1:We took turns. On that one, we sure did. So, I mean, it was terrifying and exciting at the same time. But the number one thing that the blessing was I didn't do sales, you ain't doing no business.
Speaker 1:And I know, I know like it's hard, especially for my accountant people out there, if you're listening, and we're not salespeople by nature, we're numbers people and, like most accountants you meet, are not going to be able to sell anything. But when you're forced to do it, you learn how to do it. And I learned how to do it. I went to every B&I, every chamber, anything I could think, anything I could come across. I went to it and I learned. And it was horrible those first couple meetings. I mean I'm sure they were horrible my presentation, but you learn, you learn, you learn and you have to get out there and sell your product and so that was one good thing that I did learn in that time when I was sitting there with three clients and had all the time to figure out the network and hit all the spots and I think also one of the things I want to say about you was he did not go after their clients Because he was like you know what, I'm going to do it on my own.
Speaker 2:He's always a good man like that, Like you know what, Let them have their thing. I'm not going to go after their clients, I'm going to go get my own clients. But he was at business, and that's another thing. Like you know that, we both emotionally owned our businesses before we went. He was the face of that business and they let everybody know that. So people, once they found out he was gone, it was like whoa.
Speaker 1:What happened?
Speaker 2:Because, they knew they were on shaky ground. They knew that they were going to eventually sell. So what happened with that business?
Speaker 1:People started following me to where I was. You know, Especially the people that I handled their accounts. They used to talk to me like every week you know, so we had relationships.
Speaker 1:So we did, were able to build off of that slowly, but it was definitely. I remember a time where, you know, early on, like maybe the first couple of months, I had one guy that was a good accountant, he had two businesses and I was real close to him and he's like, yeah, you know, he's talking to me about me leaving. And he's like, yeah, I think I'm going to come over. And then he ended up not coming over and I remember thinking that day, as I was driving home, I'm like man, this is going to be harder than I thought. You know, I got to reevaluate what I'm doing here, so I better learn how to sell this thing, you know. And that kind of drove me to like, ok, I got to go to every sales thing I can get my hands on in this valley.
Speaker 2:Networking events.
Speaker 1:Networking events, everything, just so I can put my name out there and grind it out, and that's really what you got to do. If there's any lesson from this, it's like there's no substitute for sitting there and grinding it out and just being determined and getting after it and trying to sell your business, because if you're not going to do it, ain't nobody else going to do it. So one thing about being an entrepreneur is you better learn how to sell yourself and your product and your business, because if you don't, you know it's going to be tough. It's going to be tough. So, yeah, so that's kind of the genesis. I started in her back office. Eventually we worked our way up to like 25 clients.
Speaker 2:I loved it because he would bring me lunch every day.
Speaker 1:Right, I was working out of her office and we worked our way up to 25 clients. We got a big account. Remember one of my old clients came over and it was a big weekly account and that was a big celebration. And then I needed to kind of hire because I was doing sales and I couldn't be in the office now because I was trying to get out there and stuff. I made my first hire and she worked right alongside me in that back office and we didn't even have no sign we didn't like people would come pick up.
Speaker 2:People were like walking to a tile store.
Speaker 1:They were going to go to a tile store to pick up their stuff and confused and yeah, I mean that was what it was at that point.
Speaker 2:But you want to know what else was kind of cool about him being in the back of the tile store was my clients started using him for payroll. Oh nice so it was like such a crazy thing. We both really were kind of cross promoting each other at that point and I got business from his place.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I was going to say to someone. Oh, yeah, I was looking to redo my shower and all these options.
Speaker 2:That's cool. So it worked out. We just did what we had to do.
Speaker 1:Right, it was quite an adventure.
Speaker 3:You were in the back of the showroom and then, once you started doing your own version of that business where you like oh, I wish that that business would have done this differently you started implementing more things that you wanted the other business to do, or how did you approach it?
Speaker 1:The good thing about being like in that up, like coming up, you know kind of growing with that other business is I learned what to do and what not to do. You know and learn where the end what our industry is.
Speaker 1:Um, it's very like that's not a high cost industry, so it's all about volume. So I realized that pretty early on we got to do a lot of volume to make some money, you know. So that was that was my key. My key thing was building out a sales team. Right, right, when I opened this one, I was already thinking about how we do sales, because the company I worked for before they had no sales team. It was just processing yeah, there was nobody trying to get me just going off referrals and I was like we need to get out there and we need to hustle and put our name out there.
Speaker 2:Didn't you even put out some like mailers?
Speaker 1:I did everything. Mailers, we did, you know. Social medias, we did. Email blasts, we did whatever we could to get our name out there, just to, to, to, so people knew. I even walked into CPA's offices and bookkeepers that I didn't know with candy and business cards.
Speaker 3:To donuts.
Speaker 1:Because if you give them candy, they're not going to throw it away If it's stapled to, if your business card stapled to something holding candy, it's not going to get thrown in the trash. No, like, they're like, look at it. At least you know. Absolutely. I did whatever I could to like get in front of people and just tell them what we were doing, because it was all it was about just being being the name on the top of their mind when they needed the service.
Speaker 1:You know, because our service you either need it or you don't. So you know, just being top of mind when I hey, I got to pay somebody or I got to do this, you know this, this payroll tax return or something like that, think of I pay to do it. So you know, I really learned what worked and what didn't work in that, in that, in that time and it was, it was quite an adventure, you know, going from an accountant just working on accounting numbers to actually learn how to sell you know it was.
Speaker 2:It was a transition. I'd like to interject here because I think too, and you're dealing with people's money, right, and you're, so you're dealing with all, and you're dealing with really personal information, social security numbers, all of that stuff, right, Birth dates, all of that stuff. So, I think you kind of had the proof of concept with your, with those ex-clients also the clients that you used to service, because I think they wanted to, wanted to do business with him, but they also were like I don't know if he can do this.
Speaker 3:Yeah, right.
Speaker 2:Like. This is a big deal. You're dealing with our money and our employees' monies, right? And so why don't you talk about what happened with with the company you were working for and what happened ultimately, what happened with them?
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, so I was getting to that. So you know we're trotting along, we're trotting, you know we're gaining, we're slowly gaining traction right In the market. And then here that the Christine Vicki actually sold. They wanted to sell, they wanted to get out, they found a buyer and and we heard that they had sold to some company on the East coast. And immediately I was told well, that's not going to work.
Speaker 1:No because we've been set, because the business was set up to be a local company. You know, like you know, you could walk in and see your processor, you could see the owner.
Speaker 3:That's what that clientele liked and that's what the slower pays of, at least you know, more, more communities in their market wanted that.
Speaker 1:So if they didn't want that, they would go to the big box stores. So, you know, as soon as that happened, I remember going well, we're going to get hit. And sure enough, you know, as soon as that happened, my phone started ringing and all my old, all these old clients just say hey, we're coming back this and that. You know. We want to, we want to deal with people, we know.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And and that was really a boom to the, to the business, I mean, that gave us enough money to get out of her back over, you know her, her office and actually rent our own space, you know. So that was, that was one big, that was one big boom to the business. Right there is when they actually sold it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but are you going to touch on? Touch on the guy calling the lawyer on you?
Speaker 1:Oh, so the guy who bought it, the guy who bought it must have found out that everybody was coming to me and sent me like some.
Speaker 2:so Ceaseless, but it wasn't even there was no real merit to it.
Speaker 1:You know it was like you know there was. Did he call you? Even called my office? Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and.
Speaker 1:I think we cursed at each other for a little bit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was awesome. And then I hung up on him.
Speaker 1:I was like what the hell was that? I told him don't ever call here again. And I hung up but we exchanged pleasantries on the phone and and, but you know it did. It did. But that was. The good thing is we found our lawyer from that because we sent him all that stuff that they had sent us and he was like this is nothing, don't worry about this, yeah, this is scare tactics at that point, you know, and it's like we must be doing something right, because they're scared of us.
Speaker 2:You know absolutely, and I and I think too he he knew that they weren't local. How can you possibly service people that are down here? You know they had.
Speaker 3:they also had fired everybody right, they had let all of the other employees oh, and they were going to implement their system Exactly.
Speaker 2:And they hired one sales guy.
Speaker 1:They hired one sales guy. We'll get to him in a little bit, but so, yeah, so that was a boom to our business. I'm selling, you know, because you know people want to come back and find me, you know, so that was a nice little boom. And then, you know, just grinding it out, we did, we created our own delivery service, which everybody loves, you know, because in the Valley we're, trust me, I've tried to push people to go paperless and just pay everybody and they can go on the app and see their pay. You know, like, yeah, like 21st century stuff, but in the Valley we have, we have companies and contractors, especially. You know, you know those guys. They want checks. So I still got a, we still have a check printer in the office, we still do checks, we still have fax machine, but so with checks you've got to have them delivered on time to your office, right?
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So what we did is we did. We devised a delivery service here in the Valley and people love that. It's our own delivery service and we have our own car and I have my driver, carla. Shout out to Carla you do a great job. But and that's one thing that separates us from the competition is because the guys that are not here, they can't print a check and run it over to you same day. You got to fire somebody or you need a check, you need to pay somebody that day. So that's something that separates us. That separates us and that's something local that nobody else can do. Unless you're here, you can't do it.
Speaker 2:Well, and I think, like I always. I always think I'm busy during my day. The last thing I want to do is stop what I'm doing to go to drive to pick up my damn payroll. Yeah, like no, as it is, it's so it's. When it just walks in the door you're like, oh it's, it's here and done Boom. Right. So it was such a convenience and you know people want convenience these days. We want convenience yeah.
Speaker 3:Well, that's what it is. It's all these industries that deliver food to your home, so absolutely Over eats. All these are convenience. People don't want to leave the home anymore. And then, especially since we all got kind of like fast forward into that digital world since 2020, you know, everyone was at home for a while, so all these services and you had to learn how to do zoom and you had to learn a little bit. You know we're still not there yet, but I feel like slowly, people are going towards the, like you said, 21st century modern technology.
Speaker 2:Well, I think too, like he's got, you know, in our Valley he's got clients in Palm Springs. Do they want to drive out here? No, they don't. You know, he's got a client way out in where Sharoko.
Speaker 1:Sharoko stomach.
Speaker 2:So, and they drive out there.
Speaker 1:And the reason we got that account is a nice big account is because they were using UPS and FedEx, the big box guys, and they were always late. We could guarantee delivery because it's our driver, we know she's going up there, yeah, and she's coming back, so we could guarantee delivery. So we want, we want that account.
Speaker 2:And I think you tried, huh, you tried doing it like well, I was.
Speaker 1:I was the driver. So that's the thing. Like I was the driver at the beginning because I couldn't afford to pay somebody to drive.
Speaker 3:To just drive yeah.
Speaker 1:So I would I'd leave the girls in the office to do the, to do the processing. I was the driver at first. You know I drive a little.
Speaker 3:I paid car around and I was, so that's the thing about being your and that's cool too, cause then you get to talk to every, every one of your clients and Priscilla, oh, so, yeah, oh, and you got any concerns or what's going on?
Speaker 2:And you bought the Prius. Why?
Speaker 1:Brought the Prius to drop off payroll and wrap it?
Speaker 2:No, because of the gas?
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, because it's a hybrid too yeah.
Speaker 2:So that was one thing you know so.
Speaker 1:Save on gas. But so that service really was one of the reasons we've kind of grown. I think is because it convenience man, that's so cool.
Speaker 3:I never heard like a local business doing that.
Speaker 1:No, and it's a. It's like we call the door dash of payroll. You know you go on your you go on your phone and you order some checks and they show up at your door, you know, a couple of hours later. So you know, and and obviously we can only do that here locally but it's something that really separates us and it helps us, you know, fight against the big box guys, you know. So it's one thing that kind of separates us. So we're kind of proud of that.
Speaker 3:So yeah, I see, I see in your car, I see. I see everywhere right, I mean, it's a. It's a great advertisement too. People drive you see it going back and forth and your logo is just you call yourself consciously selling whenever they need it, then they know where to go. Yeah, that's a moving billboard man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's another great thing about it. So so, yeah, we've done that. So we've grown, I mean, from that time of being in the back of the back of the her office, you know we got our own little place. And then, you know, and then we've always wanted to. You know, we've always, we've always been told that you want to buy a building for your business if you can. So in 2019, when we're able to do that, we found a, we found a place. That was pretty cool, right? Yeah, absolutely, I mean it was.
Speaker 2:It was meant to be right. It was meant to be. Should we tell the story?
Speaker 1:Yeah, go ahead and tell the story. Okay, here we go.
Speaker 2:So my dad passed away September 19th, 918, right, and we had made the decision that we were going to go ahead and buy a building. We had had a two story house and we sold that, and so with that money we had a nice down payment to put on on a business right.
Speaker 2:That was kind of a business decision we made. We're like, well, we got to sell this thing and there's no way else we can afford this and the building that I found. The selling price was 918,000. And it's such a weird number. You know, normally it would be like 925,000 or 950,000. No, it was 918. And I told Bobby, that's my dad, that's my dad saying this is the one you know. And so we, we bought it and it was a piece of shit. Yeah, it was a total. It was horrible inside and the guy we couldn't get the guy out.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, we had a squatter. Oh the guy. We had a squatter in the building for a couple months.
Speaker 2:It was crazy, so we couldn't get this guy out and it was, but anyway we put both of our businesses into that building.
Speaker 2:We were back together again, you know, but it worked because again we didn't. We were scared to make that jump because now we had this huge rent payment too, right, but we were able to. I paid the majority of it because I had the majority of the space, but it was like peace of mind, like oh, we're both paying this big note, so that I think that was another smart move that we did, was we really were there for each other.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So that was a big, another, you know, big milestone for the companies. We kind of doubled our space, built out our own space. I mean we're still still under the the umbrella the tile store, but it actually helps you sell more tile because I have clients that never went in your showroom came to pick up their checks and like, oh, this is beautiful in here.
Speaker 2:And vice versa. Again, we were back to businesses definitely helped.
Speaker 1:You know, it was definitely a good thing for both of our businesses.
Speaker 2:And what's so funny is like, in fact, one of my clients, nick, he'll be like hey, tell your husband, uh, I need this from the blah blah blah. And I'm like, and I forget that he, that my husband, does his payroll.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I'm like Call them yourself.
Speaker 3:I don't want to be responsible for that.
Speaker 2:So it's kind of funny like that. I forget about that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I mean it was a good move. It was definitely a good move, and we grew, we grew, started to grow from there too. It's almost like proof of concept as clients see your business growing.
Speaker 1:They're like oh, they're actually doing pretty well, let's refer them more business. You guys know what they're doing and then, plus, you have proof of concept with them. When you've done a good job for them, they're going to refer you. So early on it was just, you know, I was back to where I was with the other ones, all referral based. You know we were doing sales but I didn't have a sales person. I didn't have like somebody going in there trying to sell it. You know I was doing all that, but I was also doing the taxes. I was also doing the driving, the driving and everything.
Speaker 1:I mean you've got to do everything to get that thing off the ground.
Speaker 2:You should touch on the part where you were like man when I worked for that other business. 5 o'clock came Friday 5 o'clock and I didn't think about that business again until Monday morning, absolutely. Now what?
Speaker 1:Well, I mean, that's the thing about an entrepreneur is you know that stuff never leaves you, and you know this says you're building your little empire too. It's like you're always thinking about what's the next step right, 24, 7,.
Speaker 3:yeah, how do I make this better?
Speaker 1:How do I make more profit out of this? How do I monetize this? You know it never leaves you, like when I was on 9 to 5 guy. You know I was managing a lot of people, but I come home I'm not thinking about those people until Monday morning. Man, if there's a problem, I don't give a shit. It's not my business, not my problem, it's not my problem, but now you've got to be comfortable with not being uncomfortable sometimes because, you're not going to ever have a lot of peace when you're building this thing out.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so you're a business owner, but it's more like you're a problem solver. Most of the time it's just like oh, we got to do this.
Speaker 2:You're a firefighter. You're constantly putting out fires.
Speaker 1:You're constantly putting out fires, so it never leaves you. As the people out there that are thinking about opening their own business just realize that it's going to be a lot of work. There's no cheat codes. There's no easy way to do it. It's a grind.
Speaker 2:You've got to grind, but there's a lot of freedom that comes along with it.
Speaker 1:But the freedom is. What is your payment at the end, anyway?
Speaker 2:Tell us about the phone call you got one day from Mr Hen.
Speaker 1:OK, so back to the story of the other company that I used to work for sold and they fired everybody, right yeah. So they brought one guy in to do three girls' jobs. So they set this guy up for failure right away and his name was Brian and he was trying to do his best. But at some point he figured out he was in a lose lose situation. This company kind of set him up to fail. They didn't give him the tools he needed to keep everybody happy.
Speaker 1:And they're losing accounts and they're losing accounts, and so they started to get a call from Mr Brian at this place I used to work from and hey, how's it going? I just want to introduce myself. I heard you guys are you know? I heard you guys maybe looking for a salesperson and you weren't and I don't think I was at the time, I think Brian was- just being a salesperson, absolutely, and selling himself and that's why he's good at sales.
Speaker 1:So I was like, well, who is this Like? Why are you calling me from my competitor? And so actually we went out to lunch and talked about it and he was like, yeah, I'm ready to make the switch and get out of here. You know, it's like they're setting me up for failure, you know. And so I was like, well, this guy sold me on him, so obviously he can sell some payroll and some services to other people.
Speaker 2:So one of the cool kind of aspects of that was he had never had a salesperson who had salespeople I did. So we were like, how do we structure this payment? Is it commission-based Right? My people make commission plus a base, and so it's like we kind of looked at what I was doing and then, of course, he did some research about how other people were getting paid and how he was. I don't think they were paying him. I don't know what they were doing, but anyway. So that was something that Bobby had to really figure out, because this was a completely different, brand new position. And how do you pay that person and keep them there as well?
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 1:So, the whole new ballgame. I mean, salespeople are the good ones. You've got to pay them, otherwise they're going to go somewhere else, so you've got to keep them happy. So there's no limit on their commissions. In my company they can make as much as they sell they can make. There's no cap. He sells it, he gets it. So good salespeople are not the easiest thing to find, and she can attest to that. So Brian, to this day, is still with our organization. He's the manager of our business development department. He's doing a great job. He's part of the reason I think he is the next step into it. All my staff is awesome. All my staff is better than me at everything else. But when we hired the sales guy, that really took the business to the next level because we had somebody focusing on bringing in new accounts all the time.
Speaker 3:Is that like if you started a new business? Would you recommend who would be the first person you hire if you started a new business from scratch?
Speaker 1:I want to say sales, because sales drives your business. But also learn how to do everything yourself, because at some point that sales guy might get a better offer. Something might happen. You've got to step in. So if my sales guy, if Brian, calls out sick, guess who's taking that sales call that day?
Speaker 3:It's me.
Speaker 1:I'm taking the sale, like if my driver calls out sick, guess who's driving Me. So that's the blessing and the curse of the small business owners You've got to know how to do it. Do everything but sales. I mean, like everybody says, nobody's doing anything until somebody sells something in your business. So sales is just very important. So that was another accelerant on the business was hiring Brian and getting him and just focus on bringing in clients. And I mean since then, since what? It was? At 2020, maybe 2020?
Speaker 1:So then three years during COVID, and I mean we've grown leaps and bounds since then as well.
Speaker 1:So, we're real happy with where we're at with that. But the key is really, if you want to grow your business and this is something I have to learn is hiring people better than yourself at those particular jobs Because, like I said, I know how to do everything in my business, but I'm not the best one to do it. You don't want me running your payroll account rep because I'm not the best at it anymore. I have three people that are better than me at that. Our team is very good, like Addy and Carolina and Ethan. They're all very good at that. They're experts at that. They're experts at keeping their clients happy and they know the ins and outs of their accounts.
Speaker 1:And then I have Elizabeth, who's my GM now and she's better at me than at everything. Basically in the company. She's the one that oversees everything and she's been with me for a long time five years almost and she's very, very good. So team is all about team. You've got to hire people better than yourself at those particular spots and just let them go Like. One of my big mistakes in business is I wouldn't let anything go. I wanted to be calling the clients to talk to me. I wanted to make them check, being controlled.
Speaker 1:I want to check all the work going out and making sure it was correct, and I had to be able to let that go in order for the business to grow.
Speaker 3:Take a step back and select the team leaders. I was kind of a control freak and I didn't even think of myself as a control freak.
Speaker 1:But I was very control freak about my business, my baby, but I had to realize, listen, you cannot grow this and you do everything. You have to find better people. And so, luckily, my team is awesome. I mean, to this day, I mean I could not show up for two weeks and they'd be totally fine without me. I mean I still have to do some things. Right now I'm more focused on marketing than sales, but I still have to do some tax stuff and stuff like that.
Speaker 2:I think there's one very important aspect that you're missing and that you haven't talked about Koya. I shouldn't say you're missing, but what sets you apart from the big box stores, payroll companies to you?
Speaker 1:The ADPs and the paychecks of the world, I mean. So we have to beat them every day at customer service and likability, basically because they're big corporations, the ADPs, gustos of the world. We're not going to beat them in budget and technology, because they have millions and millions of dollars, resources and all that stuff. So we do a good job with that stuff and we're really competitive with them. But what we have to do every day and I preach this to my team is we have to beat them in customer service. Our customers have to like to pick up the phone and call us and they have to like their rep.
Speaker 2:And they have to want to deal with them. What happens when you call ADP or paychecks? You're a number.
Speaker 1:What.
Speaker 2:You're a number.
Speaker 1:They're a number.
Speaker 2:No, when you call ADP or paychecks, you don't get the person that's doing your payroll.
Speaker 3:No, you get automated Religiousness. Get a computer.
Speaker 2:You got some random person that's trying to figure out your account With his business. You got your own dedicated personal payroll person within your company, right.
Speaker 1:You have your account rep, who knows your account inside and out, and you're going to talk to them every time, so they're like the payroll HR department within your organization Absolutely so. It's a good safety net for our clients.
Speaker 1:Because, a lot of our clients are small business owners like us. They don't have time to think about oh, is my handbook updated? Or what's the overtime law in California now? Or what's the sick time law which has changed, by the way, so call me if you don't know about that. But they don't have time to keep up on that stuff. They got to make money. They got to go out there and do things that produce money. So where we come in is we're going to be that backstop for you.
Speaker 1:If you get a love letter from the IRS or the Edd you don't know what the heck it is it might as well be in Chinese for some of these people you send it to us and we'll decode it.
Speaker 3:So if you're a business right now, what kind of business will be looking to contact? Like IP solutions or any business, or like they have to be a certain amount, or I'd say 90% of our clients are here in the Coachella Valley.
Speaker 1:We do have other states. We've had clients leave and take us with them and we've had. You know, our marketing has gotten to the point where we are getting out of state's calls now and our website is driving traffic for and our because our pricing is pretty competitive. You know, we're not.
Speaker 1:We're not the most expensive game in town, that's for sure, but you know we can work with anybody you know, if anybody that has that pain point of payroll and HR that you know they're just sick of, they have a company that they're just not responsive or they're too big and you're sick of being on hold for 30 minutes to talk to somebody about fixing a check, you know, give us a, give us a call, we'll give you, we'll give you a, we'll give you some alternatives that are that are local and that are, you know, much more customer service based. You know we want to be, we want to be right there with you as the, as the business owner. We want to stand right there with you and help you. Not, you know, you're not just another number in our company.
Speaker 2:And I think you and you've also added a big portion which is HR.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that's another thing that we've recently not recently added, but we've upped our game in the HR space.
Speaker 1:So, going back to Mr Brian, our sales guy, it's funny how the universe works on the same page sometimes, right? So, brian, wife, who's? Who's really cool she's, she's amazing. Her name's Amanda, she's the head of HR, she's a HR professional, she's the head of HR here at the YMCA and she's worked at multiple spots like that. And you know, as our kind of client based grew, we were seeing more. We have HR service, but it's, it's all web based. It doesn't have that personal touch that our payroll service does. So what we did is one day I think we were out to dinner, like for the birthday or something like that, and I just had mentioned to her like, hey, what you know, what would you charge me to talk to some of our clients that need, like they need a person. They can't go on, they're not, they're not, they don't want to go on a website.
Speaker 1:They don't want to go on a website and ask a question and like the, the web based stuff that's out there right now, what would you like? How, okay, what would you charge me to do that for a client? We got to talking about it and she's like I can totally do that. So, so that little light bulb went up above my head and I'm like well, hey, well, why don't we make this good for everybody? And you know, you come in and do some HR for our company and so for the last two years she's been kicking butt, I mean she's really good and she's like her number one client right here is.
Speaker 1:you're always on the phone with her and she's she's very knowledgeable, very professional and what she's just you know. She gives you that peace of mind, right.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and we've used her many times, yeah, so it's been great, great resource for us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that's another thing that we've kind of added over the years Timekeeping we've our game on that with the timekeeping solutions. If you need a timekeeping, you know we're 401k, retirement plan help, assist to set those up and you don't got to do anything, you just got to sign up for it and then we take care of it all in the back end, all the reporting and all that stuff. So just a never a never growing solutions for, yeah, just a small business, all small business based, you know, and and we really want to take care of our small business owners.
Speaker 1:Because, like I, said it's a grind out there. You know you've got to get out there and make money. That's the number one thing. So if we could take this off your plate, then that's, that's our goal.
Speaker 3:How many businesses do you guys have now?
Speaker 1:You guys started with three, started with three man I have my mechanic, I have my parents and I have my wife's business. So this day we're about. We have about 350 active small clients.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:And the team now built is not just me. You know I still in the office, but I won't answer the phone anymore. Well, and I think what's?
Speaker 2:what's great, too, is I'll. I'll be like I have a plumbing issue and I'm like hey, who's on your pl? You know who's on your payroll that does you do plumbing for it? And that's who we use. Yeah, they're using our business.
Speaker 1:That's one thing about going local is that, like ADP and Paychecks, they're not going to refer you to business. That's right. They're just a big corporation. Using them, use them. You're never going to cross cross that referral. You know, networking with them, with us, I'm always trying to get. We're like I said, we're always trying to help our businesses grow. So if I have somebody on my roster hey, I need a roof. Or hey, I need an electrician, and we got somebody on our roster, the first people we're calling are your own clients.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you want them to get more business like a Q grow yeah, Success is our success Of course, yeah.
Speaker 1:We want. We want the longterm success of them as well as us.
Speaker 3:So that's, that's what you know, that's what separates us as well, and what's next for IP solutions? What's? Uh? You just want to keep growing, maybe branching out, or yeah, like I said, I mean growth is the key.
Speaker 1:We're going to continue to add services. We're going to continue to do a real good job of getting out there and putting our message out there and and just you know, I see, you know the my. Another main thing that I you know that's not touched upon them like a lot by a lot of the small businesses here is I want to, I want our companies to create middle and high class paying jobs down here. There's not a ton of white collar jobs in this valley. There's not a lot of white collar businesses. I want to, I want I pay to be one of those companies that's leading that charge and we're going to. I mean it might not be a lot of them, but I want, I want you know white us to be an industry standard is setting, you know, setting the standard for creating white collar jobs.
Speaker 1:You know, and and and high executive paying jobs and that's something that's a goal of mine to get in. That that just helps our whole community. You have, when you have higher paying jobs in the community, higher, higher demand on skills. It's just it. It it lists the whole community up. So you know, that's my, that's one of the things I'm kind of focused on obviously growth, you know, obviously getting our message out there, but you know, just kind of building, building a community of entrepreneurs out there to support system for that, and that's what we're trying to do. So Like and subscribe, uh CV hustle and hit us up on all socials at CV hustle 76. Oh yeah, we're out here, we're going to be, we're going to be uh getting in front of more of the tightness of business in the community here. We're looking forward to it. So she has always been leading New York folks because I love helping people out.