355. Worked the night shift, the past due letters are beginning, don’t invest in stress

Struggling to keep your business afloat or thinking about pivoting in your career? Meet Nathan, a gym owner grappling with the harsh reality of being $12,000 short this month, as he faces the daunting process of closing his gym. Share in his candid reflections on financial hardship and tough decision-making, as Nathan talks about juggling debts and crafting a strategic exit plan with his attorney. His gym might be on the brink of bankruptcy, but Nathan’s outlook remains pragmatic and focused on what lies ahead, rather than succumbing to anxiety over a plummeting credit score.

Nathan invites us into his world of resilience, drawing parallels between his current challenges and his past academic journey, where a shift from pre-med to economics redefined his path to success. Through his story, Nathan highlights the importance of recognizing when it's time to pivot and how personal growth often emerges from adversity. If you're navigating a similar storm or seeking inspiration to embrace change, Nathan's story offers insights and perhaps a bit of comfort, demonstrating that sometimes, the best way forward is to let go of fear and invest in the next chapter of life.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:32

And so it begins. The bank is now messaging me saying, hey, your line of credit, your past due $500. And in my head it's like, okay, well, now it's a game of juggling what debts and what things can I fall behind on? So we do a next challenge. So right now, this next month, we're going to get $23,000 in revenue. We're going to have $35,000 in expenses. That is a $12,000 shortfall. Right now we're not looking at the quantity of shortfall because it's I can't pay it. If we don't pay the SBA, that that is $6,000. If we don't pay rent, that's 14, or another eight, so that's 14. So we're break even if I don't pay the landlord or the SBA. So we're going to start falling behind here pretty quick.

Speaker 1: 1:14

I remember this year or like four or five months ago, I was two months late when I told the staff hey, we got to shut the doors down and they decided to double down. So I know, from that time I can be 60 days late and all I do is just an automated bot email when I log in. So I log into my bank account and they just say in an email like hey, nathan, you are behind. Please reach out to us at your earliest convenience. So I know what their. I know what their aggression looks like on that side of things. That was just the first time, not the second time. Uh, I don't know if they escalate in proactiveness, maybe not, but uh, challenge doesn't start for another week and a half. So if I have 60 days at that's six weeks into the 10-week challenge and I'm going to do one more run at it.

Speaker 1: 2:00

Honestly, there's no benefit to keeping the studio open, other than just more time for members to stay at the studio. I don't know Right now. All I know is I have payroll obligations and the studio is going to be wrapping up here pretty quick, and so send all the info over to my attorney. We're figuring out a game plan on how to close things up. Uh, franchisor is going to be pretty crabby. They're going to have two months of rent and that is too bad. Um, or they just let me close the place down. That's gonna make the most sense.

Speaker 1: 2:32

But the the first letter, oh no, look out, I got two letters to the house, I got one letter to the business and I am not scared. Whether I'm scared or brave, it's the same turnout. We're going bankrupt, the gym is closing and I'm not going to invest in fear. I'm going to invest in the next stage of life and getting punched in the face with a 300 score drop to my credit, and I probably sound like a psycho right now and it's because I'm going to do the best I can and let the chips fall and pretend you're studying for an exam and you get a hundred percent Cool, that's awesome.

Speaker 1: 3:14

Let's say you study for an exam and you get 100 cool, that's awesome. Let's say you study for an exam and you get a d or an f bummer, that sucks. Um. Did you study? Yep. Did you do your best? Yep. Did you get a d? Yep.

Speaker 1: 3:28

So maybe you're doing the wrong major, maybe you're not supposed to be in that class, maybe you're supposed to be doing something else or you truly did not do your best. That's possible. But if you did your best and like I remember in in college I wanted to be a doctor, actually, uh, pre-med biology and anatomy or biology and chemistry chemistry was great, biology was tough, but I made it. The first class was anatomy and physiology like you got to do that one and anatomy physiology too, just part of biology, or any pre-med student, the first class, like the terms, the courses or the coursework, the textbook. Like I was just overwhelmed. I could not keep up with even the 101 intro wording and I just knew right away I'm not gonna do thrive here, I'm not gonna be able to succeed. So after one class I bailed. I said sorry, I just can't do this. This is not work. I need to at least understand the words I'm hearing. And pivoted and economics and finance. It made sense. I dotted it up and you stumble into what makes sense.

Speaker 1: 4:29

And so for the business year um, I've had months of indigestion. I've had months where indigestion goes out the window, circling the shakes and the shivers. The worst night I was asleep and I woke up and like my whole body is like I'm almost like having a seizure or a spasm and that's all stressed out. I was and I'm not going to go back to that. Uh, I'm going to step back, take a deep breath and think about more important things other than the impending collapse that's about to happen. So call that what you want. I'm sure psychologists and therapists have good terms for it. I call it moving on.

Speaker 1: 5:14

And so I've worked the night shift tonight so people can still cover shifts and do other things. Sent off the final docs to my attorney, got some stuff taken care of for the studio and just weird. It's weird knowing it's all going to be wrapping up and right now I'm behind on my SBA payment. I'll be well, I guess. Technically I'm behind my rent payment because I haven't paid that and I'm like two weeks behind on that. No, I will be late on that one, nevermind. So it's gonna be up to the lender. If they want to shut the business down, that's going to be up to them. The landlord wants to shut the business down, that's up to them.

Speaker 1: 5:56

My intention is to start and finish one more challenge and after that wrap it up and call it good. If people close the doors before I can do that, that sucks for everyone involved. Ideally, I want to give people a 30-day notice. That is my dream outcome. I want members to have a chance to go elsewhere and to land safely. None of the staff are reliant on me for a paycheck. They get side cash money. So if no one got paid it would be unfortunate. But no one's going to miss out on rent or groceries, so that's important.

Speaker 1: 6:35

And, yeah, you never think failure is going to happen to you and you're going to beat the odds and that's a crazy thing about entrepreneurs. But yet again, I don't know the stat. It's something along the lines of four to five businesses close within five years, or 90 percent do something like that. Um and yeah, but deal under contract number 63.

Speaker 1: 6:57

I thought I would beat the odds and the odds beat me, so we're going to go inside. We're going to hang out with the wife and kiddos Kiddos are asleep so just hanging out with my wife, enjoy the evening. Tomorrow is a work day, tomorrow's Thursday, so we're going to do that and not invest in stress or anxiety or fear or depression. There's hope. There's a future. My Lord and Savior is still who he is. My identity is still the same, regardless of if I succeed or fail. And I may wake up one day and I can't even access the business. That may happen, for right now my keys open the doors, so we're going to have a good day. I've taken too long to get to the point, so we're going to call it good. That's where we're at, that's where we're going, that's where I can roll.