199. Re-introduction of who Nathan Platter is and where I want this journey to go

Embarking on the exhilarating yet daunting adventure of turning from a salaried employee to a self-reliant business owner, I've walked the walk through the intricacies of tech and fitness entrepreneurship. I pull back the curtain on this transformation, offering a play-by-play of my own journey, from the nuts and bolts of establishing an LLC and EIN to the more nuanced dance of building a network and positioning myself as a credible authority in this space. As I recount the highs and lows, I'm not just sharing stories; I'm handing you the map I used to navigate this terrain, complete with markers for legal advice and content creation that could steer anyone towards becoming a mentor or coach.

This episode isn't just a chat; it's a masterclass in crafting your exit strategy from the 9-to-5 grind. I lay out my strategic blueprint for transitioning into a consultancy role, peppering our conversation with insights on engaging in speaking gigs and developing educational courses that are fundamental for any fledgling business owner. And let's not forget the bread and butter of business management—understanding financials, mastering payroll systems, and decoding legal jargon. Join me as I share how I'm amassing a portfolio of resources and experiences that will cushion my leap into full-time entrepreneurship and consultancy. Whether you're on the brink of making the jump or simply flirting with the idea, this episode is your springboard to the other side.

Business Buyers Club
Enter 070499 at checkout. Network and connect with other Acquisition Experts!

Learn DIY Due Diligence
Get training from an Acquisitions Attorney to become a DIY Due Diligence buyer!

SanterMedia - My goto Marketing Agency
My studio was struggling with leads and this agency goy my lead volume to 150% of goal.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Chapters

• 0:32 Transitioning From Employee to Business Owner
• 11:58 Crafting a Path to Entrepreneurship

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:32

it's kind of a self-reflective episode. Um, this morning was battling negative self-tech. I finished that episode like an hour ago. But I'm wondering, like, as I think to myself and talking to professionals and peers, like when is the right time to like fully leave a day job and take on being a business owner? And for me, like selfishly, I'm going to be like a coach or a mentor for for you, everyone so like he's trying to make this big leap and jump out of a day job, a bi-weekly paycheck, and either own a business and that's your focus or make this leap into like be a coach.

Speaker 1: 1:06

I hate the buzz phrase coach, consultant, entrepreneur. Because, guys, that's like the most, that's the most annoying tagline. It's like, yeah, I'm a coach, consultant, entrepreneur, life coach. It's like, yeah, anyone give advice, but do you have street cred to give advice? Probably one of the funniest things I ever see is like, hey, I'm an 18-year-old, I'm a life coach. Like, yeah, what kind of life have you lived 18-year-old? Like you can charge money for what you've seen through high school. What have you actually gone through you little pump. And so I hate the buzz phrase coach, consultant, entrepreneur.

Speaker 1: 1:39

But for me personally, like what I'm aiming to do for personally is I'm aiming to be a friend to folks that are trying to figure out. How the heck do I even start? How do I make my llc, how do I file an ein number, how do I evaluate a business? Because I want to do it all myself. I want to bootstrap this. I don't want to payrap this. I don't want to pay a CPA, I don't want to pay a lawyer. I would kind of do this on my own. I don't want to start small and grow something, and I don't need to buy a full-fledged business. I want something that I can make a couple bucks on. How can I grow this? And so, for myself is I'm going to need future assets. I'm going to need future content to establish myself that, hey, I've gone through this.

Speaker 1: 2:19

Here's my journey Cards on the table. Here's my diary. Here are my high points, here are my low points. You get it all and I'm not going to be hiding. I'm not going to the journey you go through. Mine just happens to be in the gym space. I work in the tech space.

Speaker 1: 2:44

If you're a cement layer and you're trying to buy a lawn care business, I want these episodes to still be relatable to you, because the journey is similar and so if someone that I really look up to and someone that I've really gone through this highs and lows with, I'm just pulling up the business book as well Scott Greenberg's the Wealthy Franchisee he had a franchise, I think it was in Edible Arrangements and he documents what it was like being a franchisee. Cool, that's my journey. I don't think Scott went through the employee to business owner leap. I think he went from like a speaker, professional speaker, a professional coach, into being a business owner, and so mine's kind of a little similar but different. What I'm trying to figure out is how do I position myself as an everyday employee, went to undergrad, got my bachelor's, happened to get my grad degree, my MBA, but how's a guy like me with very golden handcuffs, how do I make the leap? And how do you make the leap from a paycheck to business ownership where you have equity in your work, you have skin in the game, and so for me, I need I had to. I knew earlier than I would need to establish assets because I could get fired tomorrow, because it's the tech world and that happens, and so I need to build something else. I could get fired tomorrow because it's the tech world and that happens, and so I need to build something else so that, if I like, all right, I have no bars holding me back, because right now I'm holding back. If my day job knew that I was building up assets and these like this content, and going on this journey outside of the day job, they probably would let me go because they don't want me to be sidetracked. And so I need to be building up these things on the side so that, whether it's time to launch it while I have a day job or they let me go because of mass layoffs, now I have something to run with and I'm not scrambling to create content. So be building up the skill sets and building up your network as you do this thing, know how you're going to have a legal people help you evaluate things, what kind of value you can be providing, what kind of people resonate with your message.

Speaker 1: 4:37

And when I tell, like friends and family, like hey, this is what I'm doing, here's who I want to help down the road, it's like, oh, yeah, hey, man, like how, how do I set up an llc? Like how do I file an ein number with the irs? How do I get a business bank account. When it's like, oh, it takes like a half hour, like, wait, what I? What I thought it would take like a week. Like no, it takes, it takes like a day or two, like if you wait for the bank, but like you can get it done in a day, like you don't need to wait a long time for this. Oh, can you sit down and show me? So yeah, I can. So okay, so here's someone who's doing that.

Speaker 1: 5:09

And folks that are candidly like here's my to make feel, not skill set. They may not have the same boat that I'm in as I. I'm being pulled back like as the. The folks that I'm working with and they like resonate with this. They're making between, like their household income is probably between two to four hundred grand a year, maybe five hundred. They've built, they've contributed to their 401ks, they have high incomes. They like, if they leave their job, that their eight hundred,000 house might be on the line. Their kids may have to go out of private school. They can't buy the golf simulator in the basement or they can't renew their grand Cherokee every three years because they take a financial hit. Okay, so that's my avatar.

Speaker 1: 5:57

Folks that are probably under 40, they're above 25 because their career's starting to pick up and take momentum, probably in that 30 to 45 range. They're a manager. They're above 25 because they're in a career starting to pick up and take momentum, probably in that 30 to 45 range. They're either a high-producing contributor like a senior software developer or a senior sales executive, or they're a manager of a team of 10, or they're a director of 30, and they have a handful of years of experience. They've worked in multiple departments. They know how to grow revenue or stay compliant. They know how to go find deals, or they know how to have a high income skill where they're making that 200 to 500 grand, but they don't know how to do it for themselves, and so they're trying to find something that they can buy, park their money and own a business so that they're fine, taking a small financial hit, but they can't do it for the long haul.

Speaker 1: 6:47

An entrepreneur is willing to sit to like live on beans and rice and ramen and tomato ketchup sandwiches, but my avatar is kind of in a cushy lifestyle. They're trying to figure out how do I take this leap without taking a hit, because they're not that diehard entrepreneur. They're wanting to redirect their work so that they can still maintain a decent lifestyle Doesn't have to be extravagant, but they can start taking their professional experience and apply it in a smaller environment. Smaller environment meaning fewer employees, fewer bosses, because they're the boss and they want to do this smartly, because they're intelligent, they know how to produce, they know how to get results, they know how to get raises, they know how to climb ladders, but they don't know how to run people and set that up for others below them. So how do you find a business that can do that? And so that's my avatar, that's my audience.

Speaker 1: 7:37

They're probably not 50 or older, because folks that are 50 plus are thinking about retirement. A lot of them have either made the entrepreneurial leap or they don't want to start over with the franchise, because now you're building something that takes 10 years and at 50, you're probably planning for retirement. You're not trying to accelerate your life or make a life pivot. Most likely, you're probably seeing retirement in the next 10, 12, 15 years. And so now you're trying to maximize time with your kids because they're off to college. You don't want to do the startup scene all over again. You don't want to overhaul and reset, but you're still in a very good spot. So, for better or worse, the days of risking things are probably behind you.

Speaker 1: 8:22

Happy to work with those folks, but usually it's the 25 to 40 year olds that they're growing in their career. They're making a very good income, they have a very high skill sets, they know how to manage teams or deliver incredible results. And those are the folks that, when I tell them what I'm up to, what I'm doing, those are the folks that are like oh, yeah, that's cool. You know, can we grab lunch? I want to hear about that and that's how I'm figuring out who it is. One example my wife works at a hospital right now. There's three doctors and they're all vascular surgeons. So, yes, I'm sure they make a boatload of money I don't know what, but they're making up a number. They probably make 700 to a million plus a year.

Speaker 1: 9:06

Of the doctors, the two doctors that are probably like 55, yeah, let's see here. Yeah, probably 55 to 60. They're like, oh, that's cool, that's really. I'd love to see how it goes for you. I was like, okay, cool, but one doctor who's like 35 or 40, he's like, oh man, that's awesome, let's grab lunch. I'd love to talk to you about that. Okay, he's still a doctor, still doing vascular surgery. No, he's not going to buy a gym, make an 800 grand a year, but he's the kind of person that might be a partner on something down the road, whether it be like buy a business and he wants to put money in, or maybe he wants to buy a medical practice. I don't know. I can help him figure it out. And he resonates. He's a 35, 40 year old guy that resonates with what I'm doing, as opposed to the 55 to 60 year olds. So, figuring out age ranges, I'm not even going to cap the income range, but the folks that are in that income grouping usually resonate.

Speaker 1: 9:52

So know what you're building up and build up these assets. For me it's voice memos. I'm sure I'll be on YouTube one day, but my destination is to be an affordable, relatable mentor that helps people DIY business acquisitions or a small level done for you. When I say DIY, you're doing the due diligence and I'm telling you how to do the due diligence. You're not going to hire. I'm not telling you like, here's how you. You're not going to hire me to do it for you, because those are other folks that want to do it.

Speaker 1: 10:22

I want to help folks want to bootstrap and make the leap and have that pride of self-fulfillment for at least right now, and I want to help other folks figure out how to do it, because this is a calling on their life and, with that being said, I'm building out my avatar. Now, as for where we're going with that, I want to be invited to speak at franchise conferences. I want to be brought in by franchisors on how to find and hunt down franchisees. And of the future, how do you find your marketing? How do you create your, your word copy? How do you develop a game plan in funding?

Speaker 1: 11:02

These folks Cause, right now, like I fit the avatar, a lot of peers fit the avatar, but I'm getting hit up by, like, franchise sales reps Like, hey, nathan, I see you're a high ranking professional, they've done well in your career. I present 400 brands. I'm like, okay, cool dog, that's way too much. Like. At the end of the day, people are not interested in a brand, they're interested in a lifestyle and or an alternative investment and they don't know where to go or how to start. And so, all that to say, I think I want to be invited by franchisors to be brought into their sales departments. I want to consult founders of franchise companies on how to reach the next generation. That's completely different than the folks that are exiting franchises or selling off businesses. I'm going to be hired by folks like the doctor at my wife's workplace that wants to invest in a business and either own it or have their staff operate it.

Speaker 1: 11:58

And there's all these folks that want to be that bridge between the folks that are aspirational, but also, like the other side of the coin, the folks that are trying to pull folks into their franchise system, their business system, but they don't know how to speak the language to the high working individual. They don't know how to develop a career path or a franchisee growth path, an expansion plan. Here's how we're going to map out. You got to talk to both audiences. So that's what I'm, that's what I've crafted out, that's what I put pen to paper on. And so, as you're working this um, as you're making and prepping for this big leap, you got to know, like, what your future looks like.

Speaker 1: 12:37

And for me it's consulting with those people, it's speaking at different events, doing actual like into coaching with individuals that want to do this, putting together a coursework where people can go through how to read financial statements, how to evaluate payroll systems, how to how to put together a decent letter of intent and a purchase agreement and confirm closing documents on your own Not that you've replaced professionals, but you're able to read it and you're not outsourcing everything to someone else. And that's who I am, that's what I'm up to, and so that's why I've been doing all these. I know the day will come where I wrap up with my employer. That might be sooner than later, that might be a long time from now, I don't know when, but I'm not going to stay at my current job forever. No one really does.

Speaker 1: 13:31

The days of the 30-year-old, the 30-year company commitment, are kind of rare, and so, whenever the day comes, I want to build up assets and content so that this can be launched and it can be released and there's some runway and there's some traction. So as you're making these efforts, I'll lend the blade here. As you're working a day job, a paycheck start figuring out who you want to be and where you want to be going, because you need to see very clearly what you will be doing on a day-to-day basis as a future business owner, and that's what I'm crafting for myself right now. I'm going to be a high paid individual and a business owner, because I like doing work. I really do enjoy that. So that's where we're at, that's where we're going and that's a little bit of a reintroduction to myself and who I am and what I want to be working on. Let's rock and roll.