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Show Notes
Even if you’re starting a business today, it’s important to think long-term. How can the steps you’re taking now help you succeed ten years down the line? While entrepreneurship will always mean trial and error, Nicholas Coriano, principal consultant at Cervitude Intelligent Relations, is here to walk business owners through those first few steps and beyond.
How do I register my business? Who should I surround myself with? When do I outsource? How can I scale my business? Whether you’re interested in entrepreneurship or you’ve got an established entity that feels stagnant, the answers to these questions can define your success. This episode of Amazon Seller School breaks down how to jump-start your Amazon business and prepare you for the ultimate sale (your own)!
Filing: Who, What, Where
There are several different entities to choose from but we’re here to demystify the differences. If you’re just starting out with limited capital, file as a sole proprietorship. This allows an entrepreneur to open a bank account but doesn’t include much liability protection. It’s relatively low risk. A partnership proprietorship is the same idea but with two or more people acting as partners.
Per Tax Free Wealth, it’s beneficial to file in states like Wyoming and Nevada where the entity protection laws are strong. However, if you’re in the early stages of business and looking to form an LLC, choose a limited liability partnership or corporation in the state you’re in. If you’re outside of the U.S., register in a friendly state where you’ll likely do business.
When choosing a state, remember to research not only the upfront filing fees but fees on the backend as well. Some states are cheap to file in but hit you with steep annual charges. While choosing an entity can be complicated, it’s important to at least register your business for tax purposes. And remember, you’re not subject to taxes in the state that you register in but the state that you operate in.
Go From Me to We
As an entrepreneur, you’re used to hustling solo; doing everything yourself, depending on your own work ethic, being your own boss. But your business will never grow if you don’t let other people in. Once you’re ready to beneath you, start with a virtual assistant so you’re outsourcing every aspect of your business, not just one. Your goal is to grow your business enough to eventually remove yourself from it. If you’re at the beach, the business should still run!
Scale To Success
Nicholas has two big tips for scaling your business: templates and technology. Anything you find yourself doing twice a week, create a streamlined template for yourself those you hire. Once you’ve nailed down a template, incorporate technology to automate the process and save time.
Think Positive
You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. Entrepreneurship is a tough game that requires grit and a can-do attitude. Surround yourself with positive influences and those interested in your professional success.
Overall
Nicholas’ goal is to make hungry entrepreneurs millionaires. Check Nick out on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube, and check out Think Tank Mastermind events to connect with other entrepreneurs. You can text – (203) 685-0346 – or email Nicholas to set up a consultation. And remember, the mountain is steepest before the peak. Keep going and you’ll reach your entrepreneurial heights!
Resources From This Episode
- Cervitude
- Nicholas’ website
- Nicholas on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, & YouTube
- Think Tank Mastermind
- Tax Free Wealth
- Zig Ziglar
- Contact Nicholas!
Outline of This Episode
[00:00:18] Todd’s introduction to the episode
[00:07:19] How to choose an entity
[00:33:52] The importance of outsourcing
[00:47:53] How to scale your business
[00:54:43] The power of positivity
[01:03:14] Todd’s closing thoughts on this episode
Transcript
Announcer: 00:00:01 Welcome fellow entrepreneurs to the Amazon Seller School podcast where we talk about Amazon wholesale and how you can use it to build an eCommerce empire, a side hustle or anything in between. And now your host, Todd Welch.
Todd: 00:00:18 What’s up everybody? Welcome to episode number nine of the Amazon Seller School podcast and today we are jumping on with Nicholas Coriano. Nick is the principal consultant over at servitude and he has been helping businesses form and grow since 2006 literally hundreds of businesses that he has helped. And today we’re going to be talking about how you can get started in your business and set your business up for success. So you’re definitely going to want to tune into this whether you are just starting or if you already have a successful business. We’re going to talk about if you’re just starting, how to form your business and the different entities that you can set your business up, why you should pick certain ones versus other ones. And then we’re also going to talk about how to scale and grow your business beyond just yourself. If you’re looking to build a big business, eventually you’re going to have to hire people and get help because you only have so much time in the day.
Todd: 00:01:31 So we’re going to talk about scaling business, building your business processes, and building your business. So maybe one day you can sell it as well. So definitely stay tuned for this episode. A lot of really golden nuggets that we talk about in here, including having a positive mental attitude and how that can help you in your business as well. And if you want the show notes and any of the links that we talk about in this episode, make sure you head on over to Amazon Seller School.com forward slash nine as this is episode nine. So with that, without further ado, let’s go ahead and jump into this episode with Nicholas Coriano. All right, welcome to another episode of Amazon Seller School. Today I have with me Nicholas Coriano. He is the principal consultant over at servitude where they’ve been in business since 2006 and have literally helped hundreds of businesses start their business from entity formation to building their business processes, to even helping them value and sell their businesses and get their businesses ready for sale. So today we’re really going to dive into those topics and it’s really going to be something you’re going to want to pay attention to and listen closely because even if you’re just getting started, it’s important to set your business up for success from the very beginning. So with that Nicholas, why don’t you go ahead and just tell us a little bit about your background, how you got into this and where you’re currently at in your business.
Nicholas: 00:03:14 Yeah, so I’ve been a business consultant. We have, let me, so we started the business in 2006. Oh, I’ve been helping clients write business plans form their LLCs copyrights, trademarks, intellectual property, like you said, business processes, mergers and acquisitions. I went to business school university, Connecticut, went to law school graduated there, worked on wall street for awhile, intern at the New York stock exchange. Worked at a boutique investor relations firm after law school. Well then I ventured out and started serving to intelligent relations. I’m on there, my umbrella company and that’s where we help clients as I mentioned before with a bunch of business consulting. So a lot of business planning, a lot of business writing a lot of proposals, government grants, RFPs, et cetera. But that’s basically who I am. I’m a lifelong entrepreneur. I’m running several businesses myself in addition to doing the consulting and yeah, I love entrepreneur. So I had to be on this podcast man
Todd: 00:04:18 For sure. Yeah, I see you on social media all the time. We’ve been in touch and have known each other for about a year now. I spoke at your conference this last year, which I recommend people check that out, think tank mastermind that you can find that on your servitude websites. I spoke there last year with you in may and we’ve kind of stayed in touch since then. And I have to say that you are, you have a ton of energy online. I don’t know how you post all the content that you do, but you’re all over. So if people want to check you out what, what kind of places should they check out at?
Nicholas: 00:05:00 Yeah, just Google me. Nicholas Coriano. Coriano C, O, R, I, A, N, O, You’ll find my Twitter. You’ll find my Facebook. You’ll find me on Instagram if you Google that too. But my Instagram is thinking nice brands. But yeah, if you just Google my name on my, all my social profiles will show up. If you Google me on YouTube, you’ll find my YouTube channel.
Nicholas: 00:05:21 So yeah, I try to stay live on as many platforms as I can, as many as I had the energy to
Todd and N: 00:05:26 For sure.
Todd: 00:05:27 And I like it because it’s always positive and motivational, you know, pick you up and get you moving and keep you motivated to move forward. So I definitely recommend people to follow you on whatever channel they they prefer. But what we really want to dive into today and what I get a lot of questions about is one, you know, how do I start my business if I’m in the United States, you know, should I create an LLC? Should I create a corporation? Should I just be a sole proprietor? So let’s go ahead and touch on that. But then also after that we can really dive into people from outside of the U S because the amazon.com market is the biggest in the world and everybody wants to sell there. So I have a lot of questions on that as well. Like how do I start a business in the U S if I’m outside of the U S and Canada, UK, Australia, wherever in the world they might be. But let’s start in the United States. Somebody lives in the United States, where do they even begin with deciding on how they should form a business?
Nicholas: 00:06:38 So, oddly enough, those are, those aren’t really separate topics cause then the United States, or it wasn’t really much distinction about whether you’re outside of US are trying to start a business or inside the US trying to start a business. There’s a lot of rules and regulations as to whether you’re, if you’re an outsider in the US trying to get, you know, healthcare and stuff. But as far as starting a business, it’s pretty systematic for both sides. They’re both formed the same way. There’s no special rules if you’re out of the country as opposed to in the country. So it’s really the same process with, with, you know, a national or a or somebody outside or a foreigner. Right. So the process either way starts at, at with choosing an entity. So like you said, there’s different types of entities. You have a sole proprietorship, you have a partnership, you have a limited partnership, a limited liability company.
Nicholas: 00:07:30 You have a limited liability partnership. You have the corporation, which should turn, has the S Corp, the C corporation. So choosing, the first thing you have to do is figure out which entity you’re going to put together. Right? So if there’s not a lot of risk or not a lot of capital, you’re just starting, you’re not sure I recommend the sole proprietorship. These are not really business entities. These are kind of like a DBA doing business as it’s kind of like a trade name. Most sole proprietors can be formed in your local town hall or your local County. Some counties it’s really just acts as a trade name. So the difference with the a sole proprietor versus a limited liability company or corporation, is that right? There’s really no liability protection for the entrepreneur. It just really allows them to open up a bank account.
Nicholas: 00:08:20 Once you have a sole proprietorship, you can get a, what they call an EIN, an employer identification number. In the United States, everybody has a social security number. It’s kind of how we identify ourselves in the United States. And every business has an EIN number and an EIN number is basically a way of the government saying that it’s the business is kind of like its own entity. And I’ll get into that a little bit more when we talk about, you know, your LLCs and your corporation. So the first is is your limited lie is your sole proprietorship. Then you have a partnership, right, with two or more people that can also be a business entity, kind of the same situation as sole proprietor. There’s no liability protection there, but it is a legal way to form a business. When you have two or more people on partnership up from that you get to the limited liability company, then the corporation limited liability company is formed by state.
Nicholas: 00:09:12 So as opposed to, you know, a sole proprietorship that is local, well limited liability company is formed in whatever state you’re in. So there’s 50 States you can pick whatever state you know you reside in or a state that you don’t reside in and you form your LLC or corporation there. The way you do it as you go to the secretary of state and usually the secretary of state website so you know, secretary of state of Texas or the secretary of state of Connecticut, you go to their website and they’ll have the forms there. So form your LLC usually it’s your, it’s articles of organizations or articles of incorporation, articles of organization for a limited liability company, articles of corporation incorporation for a corporation. And you follow those forms there and you’re up and run your business. Really, that’s really all it takes.
Nicholas: 00:10:01 After you’ve formed the LLC or corporation, you get an employer identification number from the federal government and that allows you to again, operate as a business. In the United States, in the United States, our business is really considered a its own person, its own entity. And what I mean by that is a business like a person, can buy property, they can Sue or be sued. It’s really a standalone entity. So what happens is it protects the owner from liability, right? So if you start a corporation because it’s a separate entity, the corporation gets sued and Nick doesn’t get sued or, or Todd doesn’t get sued, right, because it’s a separate entity. Foreigners, same thing. You go to the secretary of state and you can form the businesses as a foreigner. Some States require that you have an agent for service of process in that, in that state, which means, and there’s services for this, for the service of process, but it basically means that if you got sued, if the company got sued, the state has an address that they can send out a Lawsuit too.
Nicholas: 00:11:10 That’s basically what it means.
Todd: 00:11:13 Okay. All right. Very good. And yeah, just one note on the EIN as well. That’s super important because technically as soon as you start doing any kind of business activities, you’re automatically considered a business whether you register or not, right. When you’re selling wholesale, which is what most of us do, are buying products from a distributor or supplier, they always require that EIN from the company basically to prove that you’re a real company. So it’s something that you have to do if you’re looking at buying products and stuff like that. So it’s super important to get registered for that at least.
Nicholas: 00:11:53 Right. And when you file your taxes too, you’re going to need it. If you open up a bank account, you’re going to need it. And these are the things you want to do because it’s part of the advantage to filing your own company. In the United States, we starting a company in the United States is writing off the expenses, right? If you’re not a company or you don’t register as a company, if you know you sell $100 worth of goods and it costs you $75, you’re going to get taxed on $100. You’re not going to get a taxed on. The difference between 75 and a hundred as a business would because a business can write off their expenses here. So it’s very important to, you know, after you register right away really to get the EIN number.
Todd: 00:12:32 Yup, for sure. And now when you’re registering your business, most people think that they have to register their business in their home state. But that’s not really true is it?
Nicholas: 00:12:45 No. You can register the business wherever you want. You can register in any state that you want. One of the biggest misnomers is that you are subject to taxation in this state where you are registered, which is not really true. You’re subject to taxation in the state that you’re operating in. So if you touch it, which is, so now it’s actually a really hot topic in the United States, right? Especially with e-commerce. Amazon and eBay and these e-commerce sites have really push the envelope there. So originally what happened in the United States was we had this tax-free system among States. So to encourage trade amongst, amongst States, among the 50 States, what we said is if you buy something from one state and bring it, and it’s getting sent to another state, there’s no taxes. So what happened for the longest time and encouraged trade, you know, before the internet.
Nicholas: 00:13:41 Well, what happened is you wanted to go to New York, you bought something, you brought it back. You didn’t pay the taxes if you were not a Stater. And again, this was to encourage trade between the States. When the internet came about and e-commerce came about, all of a sudden people realize, or the government I should say, realized, Oh, wait a second, we’re missing the boat here because now everybody’s buying a line. And as long as you’re buying from another state, you have those no taxes. Well, why would I go to Walmart? And it’s not that I care that I’m paying the tax at Walmart just happens to be that the Internet’s cheaper. Right? So I was buying this product from the internet and now all of a sudden the federal government is missing out on all this revenue and they’re quickly changing that. They’re quickly changing that. So we get taxed on everything. Which is actually making it super convoluted. Right now we, there’s people, I’m on these Amazons and eBays that are paying taxes and a lot of States, right? So have you had, have you experienced something of the sort?
Todd: 00:14:40 Yeah, I have. So it, it got really complicated. And thankfully it’s getting better now what I use as a service called tax jar. And so they pull in all my Amazon sales and tell me where I owe sales taxes and stuff. And technically you’re supposed to pay that tax in every single state and you know, a tax accounting and all that, they’re going to recommend you do that. Not everybody does that, unfortunately or fortunately, however you want to look at it. What’s really nice now is because all of these States are getting upset, they’re all passing laws now that require Amazon and eBay and third party platforms like that to collect the taxes for them. So I’m actually down to maybe one, I think maybe two States, two or three States that I actually have to collect taxes for now.
Nicholas: 00:15:37 Yeah.
Todd: 00:15:38 Have all 50.
Todd: 00:15:39 So it’s, it’s come down, gotten a lot easier, which is really nice that that’s actually happening. I think Amazon has the resources to deal with it a lot more than we do.
Nicholas: 00:15:48 Yeah, for sure. Right. That was that for sure. I’m super glad to hear that because I think that’s the move, right, is have Amazon take care of it because for us to maneuver 50 States of taxes and tax laws, it’s going to kill you if you’re making, you know, even $1 million a year that that’s, that’s the kind of stuff that will kill a business, you know?
Todd: 00:16:07 Yeah, yeah. The paperwork is, is the pain and doing the paperwork every month or every quarter for 50 States you know, filling out those for 50 States is just time consuming is the biggest problem with that.
Nicholas: 00:16:22 Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I could see that for sure.
Todd: 00:16:24 Yeah, absolutely.
Todd: 00:16:26 Yeah, so, you know, I was recently reading a book called tax free wealth by,
Todd: 00:16:32 yeah, we talked about.
Nicholas: 00:16:33 right loop poles of real estate that I was reading.
Todd: 00:16:38 That’s why I kind of brought up the being able to form your entity in a different state because they were talking about in that book that ideally you’d probably want to form your entity in either Wyoming or Nevada and not necessarily for the tax benefits, although there are some, but because they have some of the strongest entity protection laws in the country. So if you were to get sued, it’d be a lot harder for anyone to be able to get anything from you personally.
Nicholas: 00:17:11 Yeah. So, so, eh, that’s true. Right? That’s true. So and what happens is, so that’s true and it’s not true. So it’s true in the sense that you’re actually writing Nevada. Wyoming have better laws for the longest time it was Delaware was the go to state to form your corporation. The problem comes when You actually get sued. So for example, I’ll give you an example. I am currently in New York. I haven’t my LLC, I phoned in Connecticut cause I grew up in Connecticut. I started my business in Connecticut, right. If I got sued today from someone in New York can technically
Nicholas: 00:17:50 Say, well, you have to Sue this company in Connecticut. Now if the activity or the event happened in New York, they have a right to hold me in court in New York, right? So the issue always arises as to where the activity happened and is it, Oh. The government, what they want is to streamline the process. They don’t want to make it hard for people to get justice, right? So what happens is a lot of people are forming these, these co, these companies in Wyoming, right? But if you have a customer in California and an and another customer, and let’s say New York and there’s a lawsuit, the courts are more than likely gonna put that lawsuit in a New York court or in a California court, regardless of whether the, they’re suing a company from Wyoming just because both parties are there. And the only reason you did it was to kind of form this, it, this protection that it’s not really what the protection was meant for.
Nicholas: 00:18:46 The protection was meant for him. And here’s another little tip for LLC owners. Incorporation owners, corporations and LLCs. Historically, the limited liability protection there was formed to protect the better good of a company. And when I say a company, I don’t mean run through the bag incorporated. I mean three or more people, right? A company, a company of people. So what the government rationale, the rationale behind it is, Hey, Nick is in business with Todd and a third guy, Mike. And while Nick and Todd were doing a podcast, Mike went out there and was lighting off fireworks at the factory, right? And once he blew up the factory, but Nick and Todd shouldn’t have to pay him for Mike’s being being a clown, right? So because of that, [inaudible] have this limited liability structure where it’s like, well, take the assets of the company sue the company, but you can’t come after.
Nicholas: 00:19:45 My assets, right? I like my watch. They can’t come after Todd’s house. He needs his house to live, right? And historically, the companies sued. So what happens? Fast forward. Now do you have a ton of people forming single member LLCs as single member of corporations? And what they’re doing is they’re, it’s really almost limits the limited liability protection because of course the rationale, the whole rationale was we can’t take down the whole company for the, for the wrong acts of one person, but when there’s only one person in the company, if there are wrong acts, it’s not like they’re protecting the company, it’s just Todd or just Nick. Right? So a lot of people now are confused and practitioners and consultants have really pushed this agenda, right? Because they’re saying, well, you need an LLC for limited liability protection. Or they’re not telling you is that when you’re a single member LLC, the limited liability protection is very small, right?
Nicholas: 00:20:42 Because you’re not protecting a company. You’re trying to, in essence, you’re saying, well Nick, you know, it wasn’t me, it was a company, but if it’s only making the company, it was you. Right? And this is what people don’t realize until you go to court, right? They don’t really, this doesn’t, not even an issue until something happens, something actually happened. So one way to protect yourself against that is actually form a company, right? So my limited liability company, which owns all my.com there’s 10 of us there. So if something happens, it’s not just me, right? And then I’m going to say, look, the company can’t take down all these members because of something I did or he did or she did, right? Whereas if you, if it’s just me and I do something wrong, right? It really is just me, you know, so that, that liability protection doesn’t extend.
Nicholas: 00:21:28 So as far as the other States, what, what does work and what has worked is not that. So for example, Wyoming and Nevada, right? That’s a perfect example. In the book I read, same thing. They had a great example of how you set up the Wyoming LLC and because it’s harder, right? But the problem is the court system wants a fee efficiency, right? The core system wants to make it easy to get justice. So what happens, let’s give an example. Todd is in Utah. I’m in New York. Todd’s LLC is in Wyoming, right? There’s something, you send me the effective product or whatever, and we have a lawsuit. Okay, I sue you right, and I sue you in Wyoming, but you’re not in Wyoming and I’m not in Wyoming. I might call. My attorney can ask to move the jurisdiction in the court right now. You can appeal it, you can argue it, but if they find out you’re not in Wyoming and I’m not in Wyoming, they’re going to say, this guy’s just trying to perverse the laws.
Nicholas: 00:22:26 Let’s move it to a state where somebody is in so we can actually move this case forward.
Todd: 00:22:30 Yeah.
Nicholas: 00:22:30 Well, what’s happening though, the real protection that’s happening is the game that some of these entrepreneurs are playing where it’s basically, let’s see if I can bleed you dry. Right? And this is something that most consultants are not going to tell you, but this is what it is. Right? Todd has a, an LLC in Wyoming because in New York, Todd is in Utah. There’s a lawsuit. I say, let’s move jurisdiction. Todd says, no, let’s move it to New York. Let’s move it to California, more or less. We went to Wyoming, right? I’m in Wyoming, I am an attorney in Wyoming. Okay, maybe it goes, stays in Wyoming, maybe it doesn’t, maybe a move. Right? And then when it moves, there’s another lawsuit, right? Cause now it’s, now it’s a process.
Nicholas: 00:23:12 We are, we did, we started the lawsuit at point a, right? In Wyoming. We had a move it, now we continue in the lawsuit. And what I’ve seen work really well is for example, in real estate, they’ll form a Wyoming LLC, right? And then they’ll have that Wyoming LLC form another Wyoming LLC. Here’s a little tip that most people don’t know. A company can actually form another company. So because you have an EIN number, you’re kind of like a person. That LLC or corporation can now form another LLC. So what they do is they have one, a Wyoming company set up another Wyoming company. And then that Wyoming company sets up a new Yorker LLC. And then New York LLC buys real estate, right? And that other Wyoming company sets up another New York LLC. So now there’s this, you know, spider web of LLCs down here that’s owned by this Wyoming company that’s owned by this other Wyoming company.
Nicholas: 00:24:03 And they’re running all the revenue to this one Wyoming company, right? Or Nevada, coming to whatever’s at the top. And what happens is, let’s say you get hurt in this property in New York, they’re going to Sue first, they’re going to try to Sue me. I say, well, Nick’s the owner and I’m gonna say, no, I’m not. The owner of the LLC is the owner. They go to court here. And I say, Oh no, the assets of this company are owned by this Wyoming LLC. You’ve got to move it. And what happens is now a guy like Todd, let’s say, you know, fictitional a guy like Todd that was making, you know, a hundred thousand, 90,000, 70,000 a year may not have the resources to keep fighting it through every stage and they give up. And this is what a lot of a proficient in that.
Nicholas: 00:24:46 And as a perfect example, Donald Trump or president, right? Who has, for some people, regardless of what you think of them, a lot of people understand he’s a really good businessman. This is, this is a guy who’s, you know, has navigated the waters where regardless of how, you know, he ended these deals, he’s navigated the waters really well and that’s something that he’s, he’s done very, very well. He has a stream of corporations. Mmm. You know, that are all InterCall mingled that if you try to Sue him over here, he’s already moved the money over there. If you try to move more him there and, or if you try to Sue him over here, he may bounce you 12 different ways and you may run out of breath or gas. Right. So it’s, it’s sometimes it’s a matter of do you have the financial stability or wherewithal to win the case or on the
Nicholas: 00:25:32 On the flip side, if you’re trying to protect yourself, did you create a web deep enough? Right. And so some cases that the, the person is going to get tired of suing. So many organizations, right. Or going from state to state or from venue to venue trying to fight this claim. Will it become not worth it. Right. So if you’re suing me for two or $3,000 and I made you go to three or four, if you’re going to quit, yup. But the end, the attorney’s going to charge you more than what it would take. So that’s one way that bet the liability protection is really being utilized today by entrepreneurs.
Todd: 00:26:04 Yup. For sure. For sure. And we went down a rabbit hole there, which is awesome. But I want to make sure people understand if you’re just starting, don’t worry about any of this stuff that we’re talking about.
Nicholas: 00:26:15 It’s just kind of fun to talk about.
Todd: 00:26:17 Yeah,
Todd: 00:26:19 you got to get started first.
Todd: 00:26:20 Correct.
Todd: 00:26:21 When you’re making 100,000 then.
Todd: 00:26:25 if you’re just getting started, you want a form, a limited liability company or a corporation in the state you’re in. That’s really, that’s really the key. So you were, you mentioned Nevada and Wyoming. And the reason I veered off of that is because there, so that idea and then what ends up happening is because you’re doing business in the state in, you’re almost forced to do that anyway. So what I recommend, you’re right, we didn’t go down a rabbit hole, but so when did you first get started? Really the biggest thing, go to your secretary of state in whatever state you’re in and formed a business there. If you’re coming from out of the country, a foreman in a friendly state, they you think you’re going to do business in the future. That’s the simplest way it is simple. If you’re forming an LLC or corporation, try to bring on more people with you. It will help with what they call Pearson, the corporation avail, which means they’re going to save you guys as a collective as opposed to a singular member
Todd: 00:27:19 For sure. And would that even include like a wife if it was a husband and wife as the partners, then you’d have two in there. So that would make it
Todd: 00:27:27 A little more difficult.
Nicholas: 00:27:28 Correct. Correct. Correct. And one of the biggest tips I have for clients is keep everything separate. So don’t buy that sandwich on that corporate account. Right. Cause what happens is they want to see is the business separate from the human right. So yeah, while the life is good someone that’s not related to even better right cause it’s, it is going to show up. And giving someone ownership or percentage doesn’t mean you’re giving them control. Right?
Todd: 00:27:57 Yep.
Nicholas: 00:27:57 So keep that in mind as well.
Todd: 00:28:00 Yeah. And something I just thought of, if you’re coming from outside the company, obviously you can kind of pick and choose where you want to set up business. So maybe Wyoming or Nevada might be a good idea, but you also want to look at that. Every state’s fees that they charge to set up that business is different as well. Like I know New York is a lot higher than like Utah or Wisconsin, which are almost free.
Nicholas: 00:28:24 Yeah. And then you want to look at the backend fees. So you’re right, right. Some States are super expensive in the front to set it up. And some States are super expensive in the back. So almost all States have a requirement for an annual report to file an annual report. It’s just a way for, again, this goes back to because you’re a company or an LLC or a corporation, you want to be able to tell the members or the stock holders what you’re doing. This is not really the case when you’re a single member LLC, right? Cause you tell yourself what you’re doing. But because you have to file that fee, like you said, some States it’s a hundred dollars associates is $300 to follow the LLC, but then on the back end to file that annual report, right? Some of the States that are cheaper, they charge you more for the annual report. So we’ll find out what it costs to form with the form of the company with the secretary of state, and then find out what the LLC fees yearly are. Because that’ll tell you the true cost of the LLC. For example, Connecticut, it’s really cheap to form an LLC but it costs $250 a year to file that annual report. In some States it’s $500 a year to file the annual report. So you have to be careful cause that’s, that’s really that fee that you’re going to keep paying later on.
Todd: 00:29:36 Yeah. And it’s probably important to to mention right now that neither of us attorneys or accountants, so you definitely talk with an attorney or accountant before you do anything. But one thing that I just thought, I believe Texas is a fairly good state to open a business in. They’re pretty business friendly. A lot of businesses are leaving California, going to Texas and leaving New York on a Texas, things like that. And Texas is one of my largest States that I have sales in. Probably after California. I think it’s Texas. So that might not be a bad idea because if you’re selling on Amazon, you’re going to have a lot of inventory in Texas.
Nicholas: 00:30:19 Makes sense. Makes sense. And I don’t know how this is going to play out. And this is a little left field, but I can see businesses getting set set up later internationally in regions that are free trade zones. Like for example, my company looking to expand in Dubai and we’re looking at some free trade zones over there. And no personal income tax, no corporate income tax. No, I mean there’s no taxes, you know, and they’re really trying to incentivize people to move out out there, you know, and do business there. So I’m, I’m curious to see how that unfolds into the future where we are living now in a more flat space, you know, where we can touch the other side of the world as quickly as they can touch us. So I’m curious to see how that, how that plays out was we have new participants enter the marketplace and kind of things get, you know, hashed out in terms of where do we set up the business, where are we operating through, right? If, if we are living in a digital world, that almost goes to me, we can set up from anywhere, right? So it’s going to be interesting to see that for sure.
Todd: 00:31:22 And that’s something that you actually help people do, right? You can kind of consult with someone if they’re don’t feel comfortable doing it themselves or they just don’t want to do it themselves. How does that process work if somebody comes to you and is wanting to set up a, business
Nicholas: 00:31:41 Yeah. So the first thing that happens is we have a conversation. All right, that’s a first and it happens. A have a free 15, 20 minute initial consultation. I try to find out exactly what they’re doing and then I recommend the course of action, whether it’s forming an LLC, you know, once they are a corporation and other state. Mmm. And then we take care of the entire process. So we file with the secretary of state, we put together any appropriate documents, some, some filings are more extensive than others. For example, in New York, there’s a publication requirements. So I have to, you formed a limited liability company. You have to run ads in the newspaper to announce to the world that you’re doing. So we take care of the entire process, all 50 States. From a to Z, you just have to give us a call, 15 minute conversation, and then from there, once you make the payment, the company is set up in less than 14 business days. It really depends on the state that we’re filing with. Some of them are set up same day. Well, really just takes some, our initial 15 minute conversation, we’ll out exactly where you stand. Well, yeah, we can absolutely help you with that for sure.
Todd: 00:32:43 Perfect. Perfect. Yeah, so it’s not super complex. A lot of people, I can figure it out. If you’re someone who likes to dive into it and figure it out in your own, you can definitely do that. But if you don’t and you don’t want to worry about it and you just want it done right, know someone like yourself would really help in that situation.
Nicholas: 00:33:02 Yeah, you know, Todd. You’re absolutely right. Right. It’s really not that complex. And I love to tell client, and I told him, I said, you don’t want my money. And I say, no. Well, if you want to do it, you know, I, my goal here is to help entrepreneurs. My personal vision, if anyone ever searches Nicholas Coriano applying my first video on YouTube, they’ll know that my, my vision is to help a billion people become millionaires. So if I can help and just progress that, I feel like I’ll be in a better spot. But you’re actually right. It’s not that hard. It’s really not that hard. If you go to most secretary of state websites, they had a structures, the bigger States actually even even better for you because they will have the instruction sets on how to do it. But as Todd said, if you don’t have the time, the energy or the, you don’t want to learn it,
Nicholas: 00:33:44 I can definitely help you with them.
Todd: 00:33:45 Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Sometimes you’ve got so much stuff on your plate, it’s just easier to let someone else do it.
Nicholas: 00:33:52 I always recommend, you know what I mean? I’m a big advocate of the you know, outsource most of your life, you know, so if you want to grow your business, you really shouldn’t be doing most things. You know, it’s like going from, from me to we I say is I was having a conversation with a client the other day. The biggest issue with companies has gone from me to we, right. It’s going from the entrepreneur who does the taxes, who does the scouting, the buying, you know, the whole nine, two, and all of a sudden not really doing anything and having to shove off all these job functions. It’s one of the hardest things. It’s where a lot lot of companies stagnate.
Nicholas: 00:34:29 And then even once you do figure it out, it’s figuring out the cost control. Right. Being able to finance going from me to we as a whole nother conversation.
Todd: 00:34:37 Yeah. Well for sure.
Nicholas: 00:34:38 You know, if you, if you have a general income generating activity, I always recommend focus on that and try to outsource everything else for sure.
Todd: 00:34:46 Yeah, for sure. As, as entrepreneurs, especially in the business, as solo entrepreneurs, we get used to doing everything and we become like control freaks and you know, I’ll do it myself, I can do it better. And that’s a hard mentality for a lot of people to get over and it can really slow down or completely stop the growth of your business because you only have so many hours in the day, no matter how much money you have or how much power you have. We all have 24 hours. So every business that grows, and if, if you’re trying to build this business to a big business, some people just want a side hustle and that’s cool too. You can definitely keep doing that on your own. But even they’re hiring a VA or a virtual assistant that stands for somebody to do some of those tasks that you don’t like to do, can help you growing
Todd: 00:35:38 Bigger. So.
Todd: 00:35:39 yeah, no, I 100% agree. I always say the difference between it, you know, one of the things that I encourage my clients is like if you wanted to, like you said, some people just want a side hustle, but, and that’s cool, you know? But if you want to build a large business, I always say, look, there’s no such thing as a billion dollar company that was running with one person.
Todd: 00:35:57 Yup.
Nicholas: 00:35:57 So if you’re trying to get there, at some point you’re going to have to go to we. And you know, when you talk about your virtual assistant, I’m a big advocate of that. I have a team in India that I, I, you know, I leveraged to no end because I realized I can’t do it all by myself. I can’t grow this to $100 million. And it’s just me, you know? So the virtual assistant and know now 37 and I’ve had quite a few business ventures, the most successful, the best power move I ever made was hiring an assistant.
Nicholas: 00:36:25 My first few times I tried to scale my business. I tried to hire a number two. And what happened was, for example, I’ll give you, I’ll give you two examples. In my Amazon business, when I was on Amazon, when I was scaling, the first person I hired was to put up listings, right? And well, I can tell the story, I’ll tell a story, another podcast of how that, you know, and in the, and I got off of there, but my point was that I shouldn’t have hired someone to do listings. I should have hired a number two that could do everything that I could do. Same thing in my in my consulting business early on. And then again in my construction business back 10 years ago, my construction business, I hired a carpenter. What I needed was a clone of myself because in the, in the growth phase, you know, your initial, for example, my business plan writing business, I hired the first time I tried to scale.
Nicholas: 00:37:23 Now I, I kind of feel like I’ve figured it out. But the first time I tried to scale, I hired a business plan writer. Well, what happened when you’re scaling my business? Right? It’s not just more business plans, it’s more everything. It’s more marketing, it’s more taxes, it’s more paperwork, it’s more emails, it’s more inbound traffic. And I realized I was just outsourcing that one fifth of the job. So right before the first thing take mastermind, this is going back two years. Shameless plug, think tank mastermind three common soon. They take mastermind three.com great event to get around people that are doing it. But what, what I do is I hired an, an a amount assistant and when I hired him I said, look, your job is to be my clone. If I need you to do laundry, you’re going to do laundry, if I need you to file taxes, you’re going to file taxes.
Nicholas: 00:38:13 If I need you to write a business plan or anything I do, you should be able to do. And that I saw significant sustainable pivot in my growth at that point. Cause what ended up happening is I wasn’t just outsourcing that one piece. I was now able to outsource everything at whatever rate I needed. So the virtual assistant is something that now almost strong, strong advocate for. I tell people, your first hire your first hire, number two, it should be a clone of view. It shouldn’t be relieving that big job function that you think you have. So a lot of people say, yes, well I’m getting a ton of calls, let me hire somebody to pick up the phone. And then you realize that, okay, you got that covered, but there’s still these four other elements over here, five other elements that are growing that you didn’t even touch and now you might have to outsource that, you know?
Nicholas: 00:39:01 And it’s too hard to outsource five people at the beginning, sometimes better just to get one that can do all the other five and increase your bandwidth.
Todd: 00:39:09 Yup, for sure. And that was my first hire was a a administrative assistant is what I called her. But she does lots of different things for me, from replying to customer emails to posting some things on social media, to checking our repricing software and entering new costs in there for new products and just all over the bar and lots of things that are like busy work for me. And if I wasn’t doing them, yeah, if she wasn’t doing them, I wouldn’t be able to be growing the business. So it’s super important to be able to hand off. A lot of that stuff.
Nicholas: 00:39:51 Yeah. I always say work. Work on your business, not in your business.
Nicholas: 00:39:54 Right. And I think me and you have a lot of same thought processes on this, and for me personally, you know, I didn’t mind. I don’t mind working. I love to work. I love what I do, but I’m a big advocate that if you’re, if you’re not growing your business to remove yourself from your business, you’re really just created a job for yourself. Yup. So my, for me, die hard, die hard entrepreneur. I say to myself, a business is something that can run when you’re not there, which goes back to why you know the kind of the conversation about the single member LLC, right? That’s why they become a company is three or more. Why I can’t. If my company can’t make money while I’m on vacation or while I’m out somewhere, then what I, what I created was a job. I didn’t create a company.
Nicholas: 00:40:37 So I’m super focused on that. Especially now my career. It’s really how do I build something that I can step away from? How is this still making money when I’m asleep? Because if it’s not, then, and I have other goals in life, but for example, I have an executive assistant, right? I had this team in India. If this company can’t run without me, that means that day I’m gone. Their job has gone right. And I mean, personally I don’t want that, right? I want to grow something that I can be able to employ people. I can be able to create infrastructure that employs people later and that my services are still around, right? I have, there’s business plan writing service to these company formation services that really do help entrepreneurs. And if I go and those dental services go, you know, so I’m really focused on how do you build that company with ’em they can operate.
Nicholas: 00:41:26 And as part of what we do in servitude too right is build these processes and systems to put in place to make sure that we can scale our companies without us there.
Todd: 00:41:35 For sure. And that we can definitely loop back to that cause this fits right into that. But one thing I wanted to mention we mentioned, you know, for hiring a clone of yourself and in reality the clone part is just of the functions that you’re doing.
Nicholas: 00:41:54 Yeah.
Todd: 00:41:54 Really want someone who’s the opposite of you because a lot of entrepreneurs are very like add, right? And we’re always looking at the next big thing and wanting to do the next big thing and you need to hire someone who is very organized and task oriented. Detail oriented is just going to do this and this and this and this and go along and get things done.
Todd: 00:42:19 And your time.
Nicholas: 00:42:21 That is so true as well. If it’s really funny you’re saying that because it’s the, first of all, it’s so true, right? So I always say the second guy should be the clone, but the second guy right away with it, it should, there should be a third guy that is like a checkbox guy, right? He’s, I call him compliance. Right? He’s in, he’s in compliance. He helps you out with all the paperwork. But it’s funny you say that. I just had a meeting with ’em but a gentleman, old retired guy. Right. And I’ve realized me personally and maybe on left field, maybe the listeners will tell us what we think right in the comments section or through email. Hit up Todd and tell us what you think. But one of the things I was saying to myself was, yeah, there’s this large population of retirees that are, have a ton of experience, a ton of free time.
Nicholas: 00:43:08 They have the resources to basically work for free and they’re not utilized. So I met this gentleman here former retired executive, old timer, but he’s the opposite of me. And your absolutely. I think you’re absolutely right. My best partners, quote on quote, or people that were the exact opposite of me, I am, I’m going to move fast, I’m going to execute fast, I’m going to make a lot of mistakes. It’s like a tornado when I come through and then I kind of need someone else behind me with the broom kind of saying, okay, this is, we did it right, we did it right, but let’s just clean this up here. Right. And I realized that, me personally, I like to have someone younger than me in my organization, which I, I treat as my clone and that’s the person that I teach to do everything that I can do.
Nicholas: 00:43:50 And they can probably do it faster because they know technology better and they’re, they’re just a little quicker cause of younger. And then I need that older person that’s been in business, been there awhile and can kind of pull the reins back on me when I’m moving too fast and kind of organize everything that’s already had pointed up here because I did, I wrote their names up here and I pulled underneath that book, compliance, compliance and accounting and what, what was the other thing going on up there though? Compliance of colony and my folders. I put a little note because I said organize it, organize it. All right. Because in the last year I went from, you know I got 30 websites. Yeah. Over 40 properties across the United States. You know, outside of consulting, I do a lot of other business ventures. I throw the think tank mastermind.
Nicholas: 00:44:34 Yeah. All of these things going on. I’m trying to open up offices internationally and I know I can do it, but then putting it in order, it’s something that I probably could do, but I’m not as concerned with it as I should be. So to your point, right, you kind of need that, that other side. Now, here’s a caveat, a caution I had in a water company. I started, I had one of the best partners I could ever in. You’ve met him, Jared a bit, the intellectual property consulting. Talk at the think tank mastermind. Jared is the exact, I was a former partner, great friend of mine. We’re going to Mexico this year. He is the exact opposite of me, right? I am fast, quick, I’m going to ask you to fast and he is more, he’s very diligent. He’s never going to miss a punctuation Mark.
Nicholas: 00:45:20 Right? And the issue there is you gotta be careful between employees and partners. Cause a partner like that, we’ll slow down the process, right? Whereas an employee there can help you organize it, but a partner there, there’s going to be a strong pull back, right? They say go when you want to go fast. Go to the goal alone when you want to go far go together. So just keep that in mind that the employee from time to time to definitely, right, right. You need that employee to kind of straighten you out, keep you organized. But be careful about bringing too many people with a lot of opinions that kind of slowed down the process too.
Todd: 00:45:57 Yup. Yup. It’s always a balancing act that’s, you know, that all ties into growing your business. And some of the other things that you guys do over at servitude is like helping people develop business processes and then also helping them sell their business value, their business and stuff like that. So talk to us a little bit about that. Like what kind of things should people be doing at the business or at the beginning to set their business up for success?
Nicholas: 00:46:26 So part part of what you said right is get somebody on the other side to organize everything, make sure everything’s organized, make sure you have your QuickBooks in place. That’s the biggest thing. Having your QuickBooks, knowing how much you made, how much of it was profit is critical to success of selling your business. So making sure that you are an LLC, making sure they all your taxes were filed, making sure, making sure to show enough about profit that it’s incentivizing someone to buy. And most companies in America don’t like to show a profit because if they as many expenses as they can write off, the less tax they could pay. Unfortunately when it’s time to sell that business now it becomes really hard because you’re not showing any and you profit. So that’s one of the first things is make sure your, all your paperwork is in place.
Nicholas: 00:47:08 I have a folder that has your, you know, your articles of incorporation. You’re a QuickBooks accounts or taxes or even a digital folder, right? It could be online where you have all this information.
Todd: 00:47:18 I have a Google drive,
Nicholas: 00:47:20 exactly. A Google drive folder that has all that stuff. So that’s for selling the business and then make money, right. Be profitable is probably the most understated piece of advice to being able to sell it.
Todd: 00:47:31 Not much else is going to happen otherwise.
Nicholas: 00:47:33 Yeah, exactly. Yeah. That’s it. That’s a focus. As far as growing the business to get there to that level, again, you want a business. This is why I always go back to you want a business you can step away from, most people don’t want to buy a job. I’m not saying you can’t sell a business. Yeah, there’s a job there. There’s plenty of businesses that are sold like that.
Nicholas: 00:47:53 So I don’t want to connotate that. But you’re going to get a higher multiple and you’re going to get a lot more buyers if they’re buying a business that already has the processes in place to run itself. So what do I mean by processes? Cause people say business process. What does that mean? So I’ll give you the viewers or listeners two tips that will definitely help them scale their business. And it’s the, I call it the two T’s of scaling of business templates and technology templates and technology will help you scale your business. What do I mean? So for example, in our business plan writing business we get a lot of inbound traffic right? On an email. Let’s say we’ll get a ton of people. You know, today we probably got a dozen or so people email, Hey, I need a business plan. Hey, I need a website.
Nicholas: 00:48:35 Hey, I need a LLC. If you send out that email that’s hypothetically speaking to a service provider or a product company out there, let’s say with Amazon, right? They’re on Amazon, they’re selling on Amazon, and they constantly get asked this question about their product, that he, that response, that email response, there should be a template. You should not be writing that out every single time, right? So, at this point, I’ve been in business, you know, doing business plans for a long time. So pretty much any question they ask, I have it saved in a draft folder I just copy paste and send it out. Most people don’t think it’s a big deal. It’s a huge deal when you’re scaling. You can’t do a thousand, you know, request at that rate. So templates, that’s what I mean by templates, right? So that means your responses anything you’ve caught yourself doing more than twice a week, right?
Nicholas: 00:49:26 Or it’s going to be continuously done in your business, you should have a template for them. So that’s number one. Templates. So same thing. For example, in the my business family writing business, people filled out a questionnaire at the beginning when I first started the business, I would call them and get the question. Now the questionnaire’s on my website, right? There’s a template there. I know what to, I know exactly what to ask, which leads to my second point technology. So before that I had, I initially had a template questionnaire. I run through it. That saved me a ton of time, right? Having that template to understand what to ask the person, but then I put that questionnaire on a Google form on my website and now people can fill that out and audit automatically send it to me. That technology aspects saved me considerably. I think last time me and my assistant went through the numbers.
Nicholas: 00:50:13 We want to say as same as about three months of man hours over the course of the year. That is ginormous. That is so used. So technology affords us these aspects that can save us time. Whether you’re talking about automating social media, right? It would be, I don’t know, the podcast called the speed. You’re saying how you’re always on social media, you have so much energy. I have a team of people that puts together templates, right? And use technology to make sure I’m automated in the organic fashion that it makes me look live. So there’s days where, you know, a couple of weeks ago I was sick in bed, my Instagram and my Facebooks are still running, you know, and I’m over here, I’m over here sleeping, right? So I always say that the two teasers of growing your business templates and technology and if you’re doing something, if you catch yourself doing something more than twice a week, three times a week or something that’s going to be done all the time, create a template for a creative system that I always say, ask yourself, if you weren’t around, how would you teach someone else to do it?
Nicholas: 00:51:13 How can you put it on us as a game plan in place to have your VA do it right? So templates in technology and then utilize all the technology you can to save time. How do you, are you cutting out time from your processes? If there’s something, anything that you do weekly, daily and you do those two things and you implement some kind of template and some kind of technology it will cut that time back. And the more time you get cut back, the more profitable you are. That’s just how it ends up being.
Todd: 00:51:42 Yeah, for sure. I mean, I do all of that. You know, you, you master whatever task you’re doing. And like you said, if you’re doing it over and over, write it down step by step. And that way when you are ready to hire your assistant, you can just give them those files probably digitally and they can just follow it step by step and do it the same way you did it.
Nicholas: 00:52:03 Exactly. And then if you know, and then as a technology progress, because what happens is a lot of these things that we’re doing manually now, eventually there’s a technology that pops up that allows us to automate it. Right? So, I mean, I remember three years ago sending my VA the list of tweets I want her to put up, you know, and now it’s like, well now we can just put it in know TweetDeck or sweet or a buffer and let them do it, you know? So I always say the templates will lead to the technology eventually. Yeah, for sure. All right, very good. So we’ve
Todd: 00:52:38 Covered a lot of really good stuff here. Any last things that we should touch on? If a, as someone who’s maybe just starting a business
Todd: 00:52:47 Or maybe even the people who have been running for awhile and they’re looking to grow?
Nicholas: 00:52:52 Yeah. Again for the people that have been running awhile and looking to grow, I think I’ve got to give him advice to bolts. So people that have been running and looking for, you know, trying to grow their business and maybe they feel that they’re at a stalemate. I think that those people, cause I, I’ve been there, I think you have to look in the mirror and ask yourself, do you, are you really taking the action steps? Do you really want to grow this business? Or do you want to be a solopreneur? Because a lot of people get stuck in the grind and to your point, the conversation, they think they can do it better. They have to do everything. They’re on their own. Don’t lie to yourselves, you know, lie.
Nicholas: 00:53:25 If you lie to yourself, you’re probably never going to get out of that rut. So really ask yourself the question, am I taking the action steps necessary to actually build this into a business that I can step away from? If not, if nothing changes, nothing changes. If not in a year, you’re going to be in the same position and you’re going to wonder, you know what, you got started before it happened to me. So I’m guilty of that personally. It took me a long time to understand, Hey Nick, don’t do everything yourself. Hey, outsources, Hey, there are people competent out there that can do these things. It took me a long time to realize it. So if you’re in business, make that realization. If you’re just starting a business, I’ll give you advice that I got that I kind of pushed against when I first started.
Nicholas: 00:54:04 Keep good energy people around you and keep bad energy people away from you. When I first started I remember taking a class on entrepreneurship, which almost sounds insane to say because it’s hard. How can you teach entrepreneurship? But yeah, my professor there was a book by Zig Ziglar and it was, Oh, this motivation, you know, and if you follow me, so, you know, I’m always hyped up. I’m always amped up. I try to be at least, you know, I try to wake up in the morning and put myself in a mindset where I’m going to win no matter what happens. And I remember this professor spending all this time on motivation and energy in the class and I thought it was useless cause I want to get down to the bare bones. What about accounting? What about sales? What about all these things that matter?
Nicholas: 00:54:43 Right. And to be honest, after now being an entrepreneur my whole life, you know, since 18 I realized that the only thing that’s kept me in the game was my attitude. So if you’re just starting, I understand that if you’re happy, if you can be okay and happy and motivated when the times are rough, it’s going to get you through because it doesn’t get easier. You get stronger. Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, these guys have bigger problems. Do not think it’s all great, get $1 billion and we have billion dollar problems. So learn, learn to get tough, you know, with your mindset and stay positive and never quit. The most successful entrepreneurs I know are just still in the game 15 years later. It’s not like they did anything crazy. They just never gave up. They just never gave up. And they figured it out after 15 years of swinging at the play. You know, they figured it out, you know?
Todd: 00:55:31 Yeah. That’s, that’s so important that the entrepreneur roller coaster, as they say, as cliche as that might be, it’s just so real. You can go one morning and everything’s going good and you feel like you are the King and nothing can stop you. And then something happens and the next day your like, I don’t know anything,
Nicholas: 00:55:53 I don’t know what not, I’m going to fail.
Todd: 00:55:56 And so you have to have that positive mindset and be able to get yourself through those things.
Nicholas: 00:56:02 It’s so seasoned, it’s so seasonal, right? Like, and I think if you, to, to your point, if the entrepreneur understands that, like understand that hard times are going to come, which will help you with a couple of things. Your mindset, your budget, you know, you can’t blow all your money today because those hard times are gonna come. I remember I graduated law school and I had started on Amazon I did so well one year that I look, I never forget, I looked at my brother and my brother goes, all you’re doing okay. Huh? And I was doing really good, you know, and I looked at my brother, I said, it’s never gonna stop. I will always be like this. And a year later it had stopped. It has stopped. And I had one of the worst years of my life financially, and I bounce back from it because I didn’t quit.
Nicholas: 00:56:44 But those tough times are coming. They’re coming as you know, regardless of what you’re doing, you know? But the more you get a system in place and, and you know, you’d define yourself in the market, the easier it is to prevent those bad times too.
Todd: 00:56:58 Yeah, for sure. And, and just having the mentality to keep pushing through, like you said with the baseball analogy, just keep coming up the bat. No matter how many times you strike out because so many people, they give up, you know, right before they’re going to pass. Because right before you’re going to have success is almost always the most difficult point because you’ve been figqhting and struggling and nothing seems like it’s happening and you’re probably so close that if you just keep going. And that’s how a lot of successful business people get there. The overnight successes, right. That took 15 years ago.
Nicholas: 00:57:39 It’s this quote that I love. It says that the mountain is steepest before you reached a peak.
Todd: 00:57:44 Yup.
Nicholas: 00:57:44 You know, and I, I truly you’re so right. And I’ve seen it in my businesses where it’s like you almost feel like you’re at the breaking point and that’s when it happens. Like right after that is when it happens. So. Yeah. It happens. A roller coaster ride happens for everybody. I think that the misconception is that I can’t wait to get to this level where I don’t worry about this. It’s like there isn’t a level there. Right. Zuckerberg and Bezos are worried more now. Yeah.
Todd: 00:58:15 Then there’s always the next level to struggle with. It’s just, it’s just, it’s a never ending game, but it’s fun. It’s a what I think you get up in the morning and, and just keep pushing forward.
Nicholas: 00:58:28 Yeah. It was like, it’s like the hunters, you know, I talked to some model hunt, you know, but I talked to some hunters then for them or already doing fishing, you know, you said he saw some fishing, some of these fishing fishermen.
Nicholas: 00:58:39 For most of them, it’s not about catching the fish, it’s the journey. It’s the process. It’s being out there. Same thing with the Hunter and I think in entrepreneurial-ism that’s where it is. If you’re happy with the chase and you’re enthusiastic about that, that’s what’s going to keep you alive because the winds are a moment in time, you know, the, the, the big sale or the big rush that they’ll be there. Those are a moment in time. It’s really, are you having fun along the way? You know, it’s structure, right? Because it’s, it’s, it’s a little more fun when you’re making money.
Todd: 00:59:10 For sure. For sure. I mean if you, if you don’t eventually get there, then you’re going to burn out. So that’s why you got to do all these things we’re talking about with setting up the templates and the processes and hiring people
Todd: 00:59:22 To do different things. If you’re looking to build it to a big business, not necessarily true. If you’re just trying to do, make an extra thousand bucks a month, then that’s a different story.
Nicholas: 00:59:33 And I, I, one of the things that I think is under valued and on the snow buddies, keeping people around that are like-minded. So I, I went out of my way to throw that thing, take mastermind to run into people like you. Right? And now, and as you can tell that you’re, you’re one of those, well I don’t know if you can tell, but you’re one of the few people that, you know, when I go online, I know I’m going to vibe with what Todd says because I’m in. I know I’m in line with Todd, but I had to get out of my comfort zone to go find that person and surround myself with that person. And I think that that’s most successful entrepreneurs, they definitely do that, right? They get out of their comfort zone and they get around people that want them to win, that understand the struggle is like, I can’t go and complain to anyone that I had a roller coaster ride the last month unless they truly understand it. Whereas I can go, I can reach out to Todd and you know, I’m reading that, that what is it loopholes, a real estate book right away. You’re like, Hey man, I’m reading another book. Right? So get inside of a circle where they want you to win, you know, and it makes it a little bit,
Todd: 01:00:33 Yeah, you’re, you know, there’s a lot of truth to, they say you’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with. So it’s super important and the internet makes that a lot easier cause you have to live in New York. I live in Utah, but we can still communicate, hang out, whatever. And so it helps a lot just to, yeah, you definitely got surround your self with
Nicholas: 01:00:54 I try. I agree with that. I know it sounds cliche, but that average of the five people, I’ve taken that so seriously the last two years and I’ve definitely seen it play to my advantage, like just being around the rich one, financially richer people. You know, more motivated people, more people that are in line with what I’m doing. All of a sudden the opportunities grew, you know, the advice and the advice was is priceless. Like surrounding myself with people like that. Like I said, most people are never going to get suggested to read the book on how, you know, avoid taxes and stuff. Just by surrounding myself with a guy like you. It’s like all of a sudden my inbox is full with all this energy is filled with all this advice that I otherwise wouldn’t have got if I was around people that aren’t trying to do it. So I’m definitely a big advocate about that.
Todd: 01:01:41 Oh, sure, sure, sure. All right. Well Nick, this has been fantastic. I think we covered a lot of really great stuff that people are going to like.
Nicholas: 01:01:48 If I appreciate it.
Todd: 01:01:49 somebody who is just starting out and wants your help to maybe form their business or maybe they’re doing really well already and they’re listening to this and they want your help in growing their business, what’s the best way for them to get a hold of you?
Nicholas: 01:02:04 Text me my cell phone. (203) 685-0346 text me or you can email me. My information is on my website, nicholas coriano.com but I would say text me, man, we’re in a digital age. You can reach me. 24/7/365 (203) 685-0346. If you text me, I’ll get back to you right away.
Todd: 01:02:26 Perfect. Yeah, that’s awesome. Given out your phone number. So
Nicholas: 01:02:29 Yeah, that’s it man. I realized, you know when, when everybody’s going right go left. So when everybody’s trying to automate, I think it’s a faster, you know, less intrusive way, quick to the point and eventually, I’ll automate it Currently I do not have that automated. Eventually you’ll probably receive an automated reply and text and send you to a schedule, you know, somewhere
Todd: 01:02:49 Perfect. And we’ll put that in the show notes so people can check that out and get your phone number there, links to your website I’ll go and throw some links on there for your social media so people can check those out. So with that, Nick, I really appreciate you coming on and we’ll definitely stay in touch.
Nicholas: 01:03:05 Hey, I appreciate it Todd. Thank you. And thank you everybody for listening and watching. Subscribe to where Todd. Put this up and again, I appreciate it, Todd. Man.
Todd: 01:03:14 All right. What did I tell you? That was a fantastic episode. Lots of great nuggets there for whether you are a new business owner or an established business owner, and if you want to get help or anything like that. From Nicholas, we’re going to have all the links that we talked about at the show notes. Again, that’s entrepreneur, adventure.com forward slash nine since this is episode number nine, I really appreciate you all watching the show. If you’re over there on iTunes or Stitcher or wherever you’re listening, please make sure you leave us a review. Hopefully we’ve earned a five star review, but if not, let us know that as well. I love to hear what you guys think of the show and I’ll be reading those on future episodes as well. So again, really appreciate you tuning in and so with that, this is Todd Welch with the Amazon Seller School signing off. Happy selling everybody.
Announcer: 01:04:14 This has been another episode of the Amazon Seller School podcast. Thanks for listening, fellow entrepreneur and always remember success is yours if you take it.
