Supercharging Your Business

Matthew: Sure. So at this point, my life I think I would call myself a serial entrepreneur. Although I didn’t start out that way. I had a typical middle class upbringing, work for companies for most of my life. And then about 10 years ago, I decided to take the leap, join someone to start a national restaurant chain, which when I never knew anything about restaurants at all, and then did an E commerce business. And now I own a virtual assistant business where we help busy entrepreneurs get out of their day to day grind, and just get the very good people. So it’s been a while, I would say the entrepreneurial roller coaster, right. i It really has been, you know, highs and highs, lows and everything in between. But it’s been a really, really fun ride. You know, in my personal life, I’m married. No kids live in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. So you know, like to say I’m five minutes from the lake, five minutes from the ski lift, which is really nice. And just, you know, run out completely remote business, and have done this for at this point about six years.

Neil: Well, thank you for giving us the overview of your entrepreneurial journey so far. And also a bit of insight into your personal life. Fascinated to know a bit more about this restaurant chain that you created. How did you end up starting the restaurant tray chain when you’ve never done that before?

Matthew: That’s a great question. Yes. So I worked on Chicago 2016 Olympic bid when Chicago was thinking we were competing with London for the 2016 Olympics. And while I was there, my boss was the former president of McDonald’s. And so we just developed the relationship after we lost the bid. We decided, you know, he we went our ways. I went back to management consulting, which is what I was doing. And one day he just gave me a call said a guy’s pitching him on a big idea to create a healthy national restaurant chain. And when I come see him, I lived in New York at the time, I flew out to Chicago to see him and listen to the pitch. And at the end of it. He said do you want to start a restaurant company with me? By a guy like that? You know, I was 34 at the time, guy like that asked you to start a business with him specifically any restaurant business, you just say yes. And over the next four years, I just figured it out.

Neil: And did it? Did your lack of experience in the restaurant industry help or hinder you?

Matthew: So, it’s a both, right. You know, for me, I wasn’t constrained by any preconceived notions about how fast we could go what we needed to do. And you know, what is possible? Because a lot of, you know, restaurant tours, if you’re working for a big business, you know, let’s just say in this case, McDonald’s, you know, they have their way of doing things. I wasn’t constrained by that. What hindered me is, I obviously didn’t know anything about the restaurant business. Fortunately, we had a team who were world class experts. And so they were able to support you know, in any areas and guide me and you know, it just tell me where I wouldn’t you know, I shouldn’t go off a cliff.

Neil: So you’ve now got, you’re not you’re not doing that anymore. But you’ve now got more than one business. Can you talk about the businesses you’ve got right now just give us a few more a bit more information about what they do and who you serve in those businesses?

Matthew: Sure. So the business one business is I own an E commerce portfolio, which comprised of four websites in the wedding favor and gifting space. So gift baskets are things you give to people, the holidays are two of them. And two of the sides are wedding favors, which are little trinkets to give to people at your weddings. So I own those four sites as a portfolio, which led me to learn about how to outsource to the Philippines and I started a now very fast growing virtual assistant business, where we find mid career professionals out of the Philippines. So people have been working 10 to 25 years, and placed them in companies in the United States to help entrepreneurs just get out of the day to day grind.

Neil: What do you enjoy most about what you do?

Matthew: I absolutely love helping my clients get, you know, just helping them get out of their business. So they can just focus on other things. You know, one of the things I learned, and this is really, because of what I learned in my ecommerce business, and the mistake I made personally, which is crazy enough, I spent the first three and a half years of owning that portfolio, thinking that what I did an operations mattered, right that, you know, if I created this better process, Matt, you know, this is really what’s the secret sauce of the business. And the truth is, all I did was suck up my time and make me work 14 hour days. It wasn’t until I figured out that, hey, this stuff doesn’t really create value that and hired someone who was better than me at it. And who replaced me, I’m not even kidding you 45 days replace, you know, not reduce my hours by about 85%. Until I did that, I just really didn’t realize like what I was doing was just spinning going on the hamster wheel and spinning. I love helping clients do the exact same thing I did we just get out of the grind, and just focus on growing their business or focus on spending more time with their family, whatever they wanted to.

Neil: So with your your experience of running a restaurant with the restaurant chain, how was that experience to help you in what you’re doing right now?

Matthew: I think how that helps me is well, first, I got to oversee people at scale. I think at one point, I had a few 100 people working for me, right from when we started now. They’re, they’re working in a restaurant, one restaurant had 50 people so you can imagine, you know, it’s scale. So I got to see employee management at scale. But I think most importantly, it helped me just jump into things I knew nothing about specifically ecommerce. I you know, I was selling stuff on eBay. But that’s not ecommerce on scale, right out of small eBay business. But it really just gave me the confidence to do something you know nothing about and have the will to succeed.

Neil: What drives you to do what you do?

Matthew: Something is probably wrong with me in my head. I think I just just really have this internal perseverance to just see a goal and just shut everything else out and work towards it. It’s just something I’ve always had. There’s no real rhyme or reason. I think it’s just I like to try difficult things.

Neil: How do you relax when you’re not working in your business?

Matthew: I love to snowboard So for me, you know, this winter, I’m going to clock out at like one o’clock every day, and I’m just going to snowboard almost every day of the week. And I just for me, I get outside, I really just enjoy the fresh air, you’re by yourself, sometimes you’re with a group, it’s just really fun for me, you have to have some sort of balance, you know, otherwise, you’ll go crazy. My wife and I, we also love to travel. Right. And one of the things, you know, talk about what drives me to do what I do is also because I run a completely virtual business, right, I get to travel and live in other places, with while generating an income last year, we were in Colombia, and New York City and Peru. This year, obviously, we’re nowhere. But you know, generally speaking, we love to travel, it’s just really just learned so much about life and people.

Neil: Do you have any entrepreneurial role models?

Matthew: You know, I have a friend of mine, who is a role model for me, I know everyone talks about, you know, very well known people like Richard Branson, or Jack Welch. But for me, it’s the people in my life. And my friend has been an entrepreneur for 20 years. And he’s had multiple businesses, he’s had to reinvent himself. And most importantly, he’s survived. And he really taught me you know, that perseverance is the key to a lot of success.

Neil: I think it is, you got to be careful with perseverance because you can persevere on something that might be wrong. Or you might be going the right way.

Matthew: And– that’s, I mean, 100% true. And by the way, that that has happened to me. So talking about my E commerce business, you know, it took me three and a half years of chasing it before I realized, wait a second, this isn’t going to go the way I want, it’s not going to grow the way I want. And at that point in time, when I had that epiphany is when I actually hired someone to do my job for me. 

Neil: So you got to think you’ve got to also know when to pivot, haven’t you? I think that’s the thing with perseverance, you’ve got to have that ability to see that you’ve got to change something and go in another direction, because it just isn’t working. Otherwise, you can just end up hitting a wall and never getting anywhere. 

Matthew: Oh, absolutely. You really, you know, one of the things that was someone said to me recently is you have you know, you have to time clock, your commitment to a business. So, get it say if I don’t achieve x by y, you know what, I’m not gonna, you know, I’m gonna go do something else, or I’m gonna go, you know, sell the business this way. You’re never chasing something that may never happen. You know? I’m not saying like, not an extra month, but in my case, I should have, you know, pivoted a year and a half prior, because it was very evident, it wasn’t going to do what I wanted to do.

Neil: So really difficult Cola, or isn’t it? Because, oh, when you’re in the thick of it, you could quite easily pivot or change the business completely. When actually, if he just kept going a bit longer, maybe put a bit more whatever into it. It might have worked.

Matthew: Yeah, look, that’s ego, right? I mean, for me, it was right. Like, it was always just around the corner, there was just one thing that was getting better, you know, and it’s just, I mean, it happened like six times and my wife, you know, what’s what’s great about her, and she told me, I was seeing very directly. I was chasing it, you know, the way only your wife could tell you. And I didn’t listen. And so I got the once I realized that I got out of it. She was like I told you, so? You know, so I deserved it. But it is true. Yeah. So many times, like, it’s just so easy to think that all your effort is going to pay off. And sometimes it just does it. And this business, the E commerce businesses as a large enough business where, you know, you would say, well, it’s still generating good living and all these things, and you’re making a lot of money. But the truth is, none of that matters if your goal to do something is different than the businesses performing, right? So you just have to it’s just you got to talk to people, and you got to just just put it down on paper. So remind yourself.

Neil: Matthew, with sorts about your business and your personal life. Now what we’re going to do is go back in time and talk about the time before you were an entrepreneur, What difficulties did you have to overcome when you started your business?

Matthew: So I’ll go back to the ecommerce business because it was a little easier when we did the restaurant business because I had a team with other experts and I was just the guy to get stuff done and we were well funded. So it was just it was a different experience. Then, when I acquired my ecommerce portfolio, it was just me. The biggest difficulty I had to overcome is I did not No eat or understand, frankly, what ecommerce was at scale, right? Well, you’re doing 1000s of orders a month. And I just had, you know, I forget who said this, but I read it recently, everyone has to pay tuition, right. And I had to pay tuition by really just getting punched in the face multiple times on a regular basis, you know, where I made large monetary errors, because I didn’t know any better. And where now I would be able to avoid those errors again, hopefully, I think it’s, you know, just jumping into something that you know nothing about, and you’re putting a lot of money on the line, you just have to have humility and understand that you’re gonna make a lot of errors. And I don’t think I truly understand understood how many errors I would make.

Neil: Did you have any doubts that delayed you starting your business?

Matthew: No, I honestly, I didn’t. The one thing I would say is I had doubts. I, you know, I wanted to be an entrepreneur for a while, I was thought to be really fun. I like the idea. I had a lot of doubts prior to really cutting the cord from corporate America. And I think it’s very common for people, right? You just like, what would I do? What happens? You know, where am I gonna get get the money, you know, get my money and all these things. So I doubt before, but, you know, once I jumped in, I, you know, I think that like, you know, it was just I jumped in, and that was that. Right? I’m in now, I had a lot of doubts, you know, during while running these businesses, and they and I think also that’s very common, right? I have doubts on a regular basis, whether I could do it, or I’m an impostor rate. I would I imagine, though, and from talking to others, it’s a pretty common thing.

Neil: What mistakes did you make the slow journey?

Matthew: The biggest mistake is one that I talked about earlier, I thought that my involvement in operations mattered. And the truth is, it just does not. And that that I mean, I would say that was a critical piece of my ecommerce business, not scaling. And you know what I would say that every entrepreneur listening to this or future entrepreneur, is get yourself out of, you know, the grunt work of operations way sooner than you think. Because that’s how you’re going to scale focus on marketing, focus on growth, focus on you know, anything else, but day to day operations, there are people that could get paid a lot less than you and do it more effectively.

Neil: What are some of the things that you did before you started your business? That will be helpful tips to some of the listeners who haven’t yet taken the first step on the entrepreneur way?

Matthew: Things that I did talk to a lot of entrepreneurs about what entrepreneurship actually is, you know, for me, and most people, I know, some of them are extremely successful. It’s it, no one had a hockey stick growth day one, right? The way I always describe it is, there’s one Mark Zuckerberg, and you’re not it, and neither am I. And so just recognize that that it’s a very difficult journey. And talk to a lot of people who will tell you the truth about that doesn’t mean it’s not worth it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it. Just know you’re not going to have success day one, or you’re not likely to have success day one, if you do fantastic, but be prepared for it not to happen. And so just constantly just talk to a lot of people.

Neil: Matthew, we’re now going to jump forward in time and talk about the time from when you became an entrepreneur. Do you think culture is important from the beginning in a business?

Matthew: Yes, so I’ve started two business and acquired one. It is you have to set the stage for your internal team about how you expect everyone to conduct themselves. And that will come through in their interactions with every clients or everyone they interact with. Give them the respect First, decide what you what you value, and it will actually help your business grow exponentially. Because you’ll have happy clients and happy clients beget happier other happy clients.

Neil: How do you made sure that you hire the right people so that they fit with the culture in your business?

Matthew: I wish I had a methodology for it. US, it’s been a multiple interview process that has really worked. So my team is 100% in the Philippines. And what we do is we have three to four interviews for every hire, and this is for my clients or for myself. And at each stage, everyone is actually looking for something different. So my recruiter is, let’s say is, could does she believe that the person could do the job? My chief of staff is saying, okay, knowing what she knows about Filipino culture, and American culture, is it a good match? And does she believe the person can do the job? And at the point it gets to me, I’m saying, I’ve interviewed the client, or I know ourselves, do I think it’s a good fit? Right? So when you have multiple people looking for different things, in my experience, you can actually you can hire the right people.

Neil: Knowing what you know, now, is there anything that if you’d known when you started out, that would have helped me to shortcut the learning curve?

Matthew: Yes, I think this was taught to me and it’s easier to it’s easier said than done, I talked about earlier, I talked to my clients a lot about firing yourself from a business every three to six months. And this was taught to me. So I wish I lived that. It’s so it’s not something I wish I would have known, I just wish I would have lived it. And, you know, taking the advice I give other people, you have to look at what you do every three to six months, and determine if it’s a you task, or someone else. And a you task is something strategic that really requires domain expertise. A other person task or strategic and tactical task is you know, it’s things like your email, drafting your proposal, anything that is more operational focused. So that is really what I wish I would have lived not just known.

Neil: But it’s also because you didn’t take notice of that, or no that initially. And now you do that when you give people that advice, it has more weight to it, doesn’t it?

Matthew: I’d like to think so. Neil, you know, it’s one of the things that I truly believe is that there is some authenticity when I talk to clients about the challenges they’re facing. Because not only did I do it for myself, I run a business in the way that I’m advising them to. And I, you know, I know where to tell them to go a little left a little right. And I know the kind of person that they would need. So I would like to think that it helps for an out.

Neil: So you, you mentioned that you’ve, you’ve also bought a business as well as starting two businesses. What are your thoughts on buying a business rather than starting your business? Which do you prefer to do?

Matthew: I would say I don’t know. So until my current business, so if you would have talked to me when before I started the virtual assistant business, I would have said buying a business is better, because it’s the quickest path to Cat path to cashflow. Right, so you basically, you know, how businesses you purchase are valued? is it’s a multiset? It’s really simple. It’s a multiple of cash flow, or how much cash does the business generate at the end of the day? Right? So you would say your salary, right? And so it’s, you know, you know exactly how much you’re gonna get day one, right, you know, less than a financing. So there’s a lot, there are a lot of advantages, the advantages to that, you know, they’re an existing team processes. And so it works. So that’s great. But you likely have a note, so you’re paying every month paying it alone down. As opposed to my current business, I really think that I enjoy this time starting a new business, because I there is that authenticity. And when I talk to clients, the sale is fairly easy, because I understand their needs in a different way. So it really just depends. I mean, this is also fun, right? If I get to create something from scratch, there’s no legacy issues. I can leverage my experience from buying and still, you know, starting a business previously and buying one to create the business I want. So it’s a long winded way that’s really not concise. I would say between the two you have to look at where you are in life and make that decision then at some point it’s going to be better to start something at other points. It’s going to be better to buy something.

Neil: How much does gut feeling influence your decisions in your business?

Matthew: A lot. So Wayne Gretzky and I’ll screw up the quote. People someone asked him once and I’m sure you’ve heard this the great hockey player, he said, you know, they always asked how do you how are you always where the puck is going? He goes, I don’t, you know, everyone looks for where the puck is. And that’s where they skate to, I look where the pucks going to be. And that’s where I go. And he said, that’s what makes me great. And he obviously said it a lot, you know, more succinctly and concisely. But I think the point is, you have to use your gut data will only give you so get you so far.

Neil: And when do you when do you decide when to use your guts? And when to use data? Or both?

Matthew: I wish I had a good answer. You know, you’re like everything else, you read what you can, and then you make a decision. So I think you have to gather information, which I would call the data stage, at a certain point, you have enough data, then you have to say, Okay, here’s what I believe that data says, Oh, here’s where I believe everything is going to go based on my interpretation of the data. So I would say once you finish gathering information, then, you know, go towards, you know, make your decision and go with your gut.

Neil: What makes you uncomfortable as an entrepreneur?

Matthew: When things go too slowly, you know, the example is right now, what do we have 40 However, many people, 45 people or whatever it is, and I want to have 100 people by September one, I don’t you know, to me, I’d love to have that by March one, I just want to go faster and faster, to really just get that exit velocity. And when I’m not going fast, and things aren’t moving fast, I get very uncomfortable, nervous, like it’s all going to blow up.

Neil: What do you think, is some of the secrets to success Matthew?

Matthew: Perseverance, I think that is, you just gotta you know and not listen, that’s what got me into trouble. When I didn’t call it quits with my ecommerce business where I didn’t pivot. But perseverance is so important. You just got to stick with it. And you have to learn running a business is a skill, like everything else. Most people did not learn. I certainly did it and I went to business school, right? You know, they don’t really teach you how to run a real business. Right? They’re teaching you spreadsheets are teaching you models and strategy. They’re not teaching the nuts and bolts of especially what’s like to want a small business. So just perseverance, recognition of making mistake and a lot of humility.

Neil: Life is made of constant change, whether we like it or not. And many people say that the only constant in life is change. Matthew, how do you try to keep up with change? 

Matthew: Think you have to just be open to it. You know, evaluate things as it comes in. Try not to be emotional. Look, it’s very, very difficult. I mean, look what happened. I’ll use my own example, in the pandemic we talked about earlier. My main ecommerce business is a decent sized business and the wedding space, you can imagine what happens in their pandemic winnings are made illegal, you can’t have group gatherings. Okay, so you know, that happens. I had to take a step back, meditate a lot, and say, you know, how am I going to save this business for the future? Because when is the comeback? And then what do I want to do next? But I had to just accept that it happened. I couldn’t, you know, pretends that the pandemic didn’t happen and weddings were illegal. I do accept it, and pivot. And I think you just have to just be open to change and roll with the punches.

Neil: What is your favorite book on entrepreneurialism, business, personal development, leadership or motivation? And can you tell us why you have chosen it?

Matthew: Sure. What Got You Here Won’t Get You There by Marshall Goldsmith. I think not sure if you read that book. But I Okay. I think it’s a really, I think it’s just phenomenal. And it really kind of hit me like it really hit me like a lightning bolt. What it talks about is whatever made you successful up to this point, is not going to make you successful, to get to the next level. And it really applies to your corporate life. Whether you you know, whether you just got promoted as a manager or you want to get promoted and apply certainly applies. If you’re an entrepreneur, if you want to take your business to the next level, or you want to just jump in, we all have to recognize that, you know, we need different skills to move on throughout life. And you have to be open to it and you have to be open to it and you have to work at it.

Neil: Folks, when you have a busy life, listen to audiobooks is a great way to expand you All knowledge in the time when you may be doing other things such as driving or when you are at the gym, we have a special offer for you of a free audio book of your choosing. To choose your free audiobook, go to www dot free audiobook offer.com. As long as you’ve not already signed up, you will qualify. Matthew, are you ready to speculate about the future?

Matthew: Yes! Let’s do it.

Neil: Oh good. Oh, good. What one thing would you do with your business? If you knew that you could not fail?

Matthew: I would hire as many salespeople. And as many recruiters as humanly possible, I think you know it, because that’s the lifeblood of my business. Right? I would have a team of 10 recruiters and 15 salespeople, and I would take out debt to do it. And if I can, no, I couldn’t fail, that means my business would grow exponentially.

Neil: Well, skill, if you were excellent at it would help you the most to double your business.

Matthew: I think the skill is somewhat related. So it’s really PR and marketing there. It’s really one skill set. But I’ve really of the two, I have to say PR, because getting on earned media is just a way to exponentially get in front of a lot to get in front of a lot of people. And if I was able to get on television, and radio and podcasts, everything I want, it would make growth so much easier, because more people would know about me, versus playing the SEO game with Google, where you’re sitting here playing by a whole set of rules that are very difficult to decipher.

Neil: How can you get on how can you get better at PR and marketing?

Matthew: I don’t know what I will likely do is hire an expert. And then you can work at it right? So of course, the I could sit here and I can read books and I can try different techniques. But the truth is, you need a team. And it’s okay, if I don’t know PR, I can hire a PR agent. It’s okay, if I have not great if I’m okay at marketing, I can hire a great marketer. And it’s something that you don’t have to be good at everything. And nor should you be, in my belief as an entrepreneur you to be great at creating a team that is like a symphony and makes beautiful music together.

Neil: And five years from now, if a well known business publication was publishing an article on your business after talking to your customers and suppliers, what would you like it to say?

Matthew: I would want my customers to say that we made a difference in their business and in their life. I don’t think there could be a higher compliment paid.

Neil: –is no time for three golden nuggets. Matthew, what is your favorite quote? And how have you applied it?

Matthew: Sure, I think my favorite quotes actually have to, but my first favorite quote is by the Coach of the University of Michigan football team, which is a big football team and my Alma alma mater. He said, It’s got impulsion black post Schembechler and it’s the quote is the team, the team, the team. And what he’s talking about is we win together. It’s not about AI, it’s about us, and how I live that is I try to create the best possible working environment for my team to be successful. And through that, I believe we will be successful as a company.

Neil: Did you have a second quote so?

Matthew:  I did. The second one I am people. And this is again, a theme you’ll notice it’s by Steve Jobs. If you look really closely, most overnight successes took a really long time. You know, and how I this is something I just remind myself, you know, it’s the 10 year overnight success. It takes time, you’re going to fail. And in failure, you’re going to find success, but it takes time. It’s hot, again, talk to you just look at all these people that created world class businesses. It took them a long time to do so. And you just have to constantly remind yourself that and I do it to myself all the time. That it’s just time. That’s it like everything else.

Neil: Do you have any favorite online resources you can share with us that will be useful for other entrepreneurs?

Matthew: Yes, app Sumo. It’s a PP su mo.com. It is an incredible website to buy to buy lifetime subscriptions or near lifetime subscriptions to software as a service products that are just launching. So you

I would set few examples instead of using an existing product like DocuSign, you get an upstart for like 60 or $100, for a lifetime subscription that does the exact same thing. And they have, they’re constantly putting out new deals, and it just saves you a ton of money.

Neil: What is your best advice to other entrepreneurs?

Matthew: My best advice is that failure is okay. pick yourself back up and stick with it. You don’t know everything, it’s impossible, you’re going to fail. That’s okay. But if you stick with it, learn and don’t get your ego bruised, and just realize everyone has to pay tuition. And this is just your your time period to pay tuition, you will eventually figure it out and be successful.

Neil: Folks, if you didn’t manage to get to notes of Matthew’s favorite resource, or his favorite book, you can find the links on Matthew show notes page, just go to the entrepreneur way.com and search for Matthew, or Matthew Yahes in the search box. Matthew, is there anything else you would like to add about your business?

Matthew: Sure. So at extend your team, what we do is help busy entrepreneurs

get freedom from the grind, we help them grow, and we help them be more successful. If you’re interested in learning more, go to extend your team.com/freedom take an assessment. And at the end of it, it’ll let you know kind of where you are, and your delegation and growth journey. And there’s also ways to contact us book a meeting, I’d love to help you even if you’re not sure if you’re right client. I just like talking to people about how I can help them to be more successful. And thank you, Neil, I really appreciate the opportunity to meet you be on your show. And talk to your audience. 

Neil: Matthew, You are very welcome. And thank you for saying that. But Matthew, I also appreciate you coming on the show today and telling us about your journey and how you’ve got to this point on that journey. As we’ve chatted, you’ve reflected on that journey. And you’ve thought about some of your experiences and share them with us. You’ve shared some of your thoughts about what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur. And you’ve also shared some good tips as well. So thank you very much for coming on the show today.

Matthew: Thank you, Neil. It’s been a lot of fun. I appreciate it. 

Neil: Matthew. I’ve had a great time as well. And thank you. You’re welcome, folks. You have been listening to Neil Ball chatting with Matthew Yahes on the entrepreneur way. If you’ve enjoyed the show, please share it on social media and subscribe to our email on the entrepreneur way website. Also, please add your comments on Matthew show notes page on the entrepreneur way website at WWW dot the entrepreneur way.com and search for Matthew Yahes in the search box. Thank you for listening, and then silver next episode tomorrow.