6: Smart Money Moves: Financial Wisdom For Young Entrepreneurs With Gabriel Chapman

Gabriel Chapman [0:00 - 0:20]: If you're a young person listening to this, be smart about your money. Have some roommates if you have to, you know, whatever it takes, make sure you're putting asides, whether it's with investing or if you find that really great startup or acquisition. I'd say also the acquisition entrepreneurship space is something that's really interesting, and I think there's just starting to be all these resources around it. When I was in school, no one talked about that.

Narrator [0:29 - 0:59]: If you've ever wondered what it's like to be in the shoes of some of the most successful entrepreneurs out there today, look no further. Each episode, your host, Joe Simon, takes short walks with some of the most successful entrepreneurs in the game today. These inspiring leaders have successfully crossed the coveted seven figure mark in their businesses, and these candid, insightful conversations will inspire you to look at your business and your life from a new perspective and get it to the next level. So put on your walking shoes and let's skyrocket that success together.

Narrator [1:02 - 1:44 ] Welcome back. In this episode, Joe Simon is thrilled to be reconnected with a good friend of his, Gabriel Chapman. You might remember the name from a few episodes ago, Sunshine, who kicked off this podcast series. Joe and Gabriel have an insightful chat and Gabriel shares his journey as a tech entrepreneur. From tech startups to a successful exit in the ERC tax credit space, Gabriel shares some golden nuggets for young professionals, emphasizing the importance of smart money management and the potential of acquisition entrepreneurship. They also delve into the challenges and adaptability required in business, especially in the ever changing tech landscape. Gabriel also provides a sneak peek into his future plans and some last minute advice on the ERC tax credit. This is definitely one you don't want to miss.

Joe Simon [1:48 - 2:00]: Welcome everybody, to The Millionaire Mile. This is your host, Joe Simon. I'm with a good friend of mine today, Gabriel Chapmandhe. You will recall his wife was on this podcast a few episodes ago. Gabriel, introduce yourself to the audience and let them know a little more about yourself.

Gabriel Chapman [2:01 - 2:25] Hi, I'm Gabriel Chapman. I am familiar with Joe, a great mastermind group we're in. My background is in technology and I hold an MBA from University of Florida. Done some tech startup stuff in my background and worked in tech space and was partnered in CRM Salesforce consultancy for a long time. And now kind of doing a big exit from a company that helped businesses get ERC tax credit.

Joe Simon [2:26 - 2:44] - Amazing. And you've had so much experience in a wide variety of places. Let's start a little different. What advice would you give someone that's just starting up. That has not made their first million yet. Yeah. Or probably just coming out of college and they just kind of figure out like, hey, what do I do with my life? Right? So we have a lot of those people they're listening

Gabriel Chapman [2:45 - 4:27]: Yeah, Yeah. So be smart with your money, first of all. Right? There's a culture in colleges, culture of young people to just kind of blow what they have and be smart. I think my path was a little bit different than probably a lot of people that you talk to in this group. My first million was really through slow investment. That's more like the Warren buffet path than the entrepreneur path. I had a hard time with entrepreneurship really hitting my stride. It took a long time, but I was always setting aside and making sure I put aside investments in the IRAs and things like that every year. The minute I graduated college, I was doing my maximum contribution that I could and max out my 401 ks. Even as I started businesses, I made sure that I kept those investments rolling in and tried to be really smart about that. So I think, don't blow your cash on stupid crap. This is what so many young people do, right? Youth is wasted on young these days. So don't be that young person. If you're a young person listening to this, be smart about your money. Have some roommates if you have to, whatever it takes. Whether it's like I did the beginning with investing, or if you find that really great startup or acquisition, I say also, you know, the acquisition entrepreneurship space is something that's really interesting, and I think I, there's just starting to be all these resources around it. When I was in school, no one talked about that. I was in tech. It was all about startups. You know, come up with a killer idea and build a great app and get customers. Startups fail 90% of time, and I've captured a couple failed startups. But buying a business that's already making cash and by which the SBA will fund, like 90% of the business cost of acquisition. If you're young, you don't have a lot of expenses yet. Before you get married and have kids and a ton of expenses and buying that expensive car and all that. Go acquire a business that's making money. Right? Find a million dollar business and scrape together some investors or money you save and put 100 grand down, SBA loan the rest.

Joe Simon [ 4:28 - 4:59 ] That is great advice. You gave so much information in a short period of time. I want everyone to listen to that one more time, because that's really smart advice to get, especially if you're just coming out of college, right. And if you're coming out of college and we dabbled and we talked about buying a business and people, look, there's a fear involved with it, right. And I think there's a fear involved in anything that they do. They're trying to find a job. There's gonna be a fear in it. What are some of the fears? And, you know, obviously the trials and trivia that you guys have to go through in Europe or in buying a business

Joe Simon [ 5:00 - 7:20 ] With the ERC business especially. Cause I know that's our biggest thing we've done, and it's more recent and fresh on my mind. I think it's great to talk about that because there were so many challenges with this. Right. So there's tax credit that came out post Covid. It was a really big deal, super lucrative for business owners if they were eligible, and a lot aren't. Right. But the challenges were, we were early adopters in trying to help business owners get this. And early on, no one had heard of it. Everyone thought it was a scam. And then later it was like there was all these entrants and there's all these people. It was like no one. I don't know who to trust. So I think for us really reinventing ourselves, I would say about every two to three months, we revamped our marketing, we revamped our business strategy, our go to market strategy. You know, also working with J. Abraham has been huge. He helped us with some of that. So that's how we overcame some of those challenges. But it was like we saw our competitors who started early, who dropped out, they couldn't adapt. And ones that came later, that disappeared quickly because they couldn't adapt. One thing, I'm very lucky. Me and my wife, who's also my business partner, are both very adaptable people. We can turn on a dime. And I think that's really important for entrepreneurs. You know, some people get really held up, like, this is my plan. I'm doing my plan. It's like, well, as the market conditions have changed, your plan is no longer valid. You know, it's not. Be willing to change. Be willing to cannibalize your own market. Be willing to ditch your own plan for a better plan if it's not working or you see a better opportunity in the market, like, be adaptable. On that front, one other piece of advice I drill on to young people is learn about yourself and what you're good at and what you love. Don't just do things to chase money and chase dollars. Right. You might go, oh, I can have a job at the stock market. But if you hate doing that sort of stuff. Right. You're not gonna succeed at it, or you're not gonna be happy because you're good at. And so that's try a lot of things. Also do a Kolbe test. Do a DISC test. You know, figure out and I think Kolbe's great. Right. So there's a second one follow through of the. Kolbe has, like, more things. Ask for follow through. And especially if you understand your Kolbe, score partner with people that have different, different stuff. You're low and quick start. Find a business partner who's high in Quickstone. Right. If you're high in Factfinder, find someone that's high in follow through. Right. Balance it out with the right people to work with and stick with people who have integrity, man. If someone is seeming, like, edgy, itchy, but they're really successful, they're bringing this great deal of a lifetime. Yeah, don't do it. They're probably lying to you anyway. I think a lot of people get drawn into that glitz.

Joe Simon [ 7:21 - 7:42 ] Love it. Again, a lot of information. And like I said, these are bite sized episodes, so I wanted to just touch points. I want the audience to touch base on a couple things. You said the number one thing you said was about the personality profile of the Kolbe. Right. And we'll put a link in it as kobe.com is their website. Great for testing employees, great for testing yourself. Yes. Great for testing future business partners and positions. Right.

Gabriel Chapman [7:43 - 7:54 ] If you're hiring someone, you can Kolbe test with that position and tie it to their manager and see are they a good fit. And while it's not perfect, I found it to be really helpful, and it's generally been more predictive than not.

Joe Simon [ 7:55 - 8:07) So, look, if we were guiding people along the pathway, giving them options of what to do next, and now we're saying to ourselves, okay, they make some money, now they're working. But as you know, breaking the first million is probably the hardest.

Gabriel Chapman [ 8:08 ] Yes.

Joe Simon [ 8:09 - 8:15 ] And the biggest challenge most people have is they lose track. Right. They don't focus enough, and they, you know, squirrel brain, they go to the next shiny object.

Gabriel Chapman [ 8:16 - 8: 55 ] I think that's a really great point, Joe. There's all these podcasters out there, and I. People doing, like, Facebook reels and tiktoks talking about, oh, you know, the wealthy have seven streams of income. So these people think, okay, I gotta, I gotta invest in stocks, and I gotta invest in real estate, and I gotta start a business, do ten things or seven things or five things. Find one that'll get you started and get you over the hump. Add another one when you've got it under control and grow slowly. Those people that got seven revenue streams that are multi millionaires didn't do it all at once. They didn't all overnight. They probably didn't even do all of, get all of them started in a five year span. So be patient with yourself. Well, take your time with it. Get it right. Be focused on quality.

Joe Simon [ 8:56 - 9:03] It's great. It's great. One last question before we let you go. If, and this is going to be an important one, what's coming up next for you guys? What are you working on?

Gabriel Chapman [9:04 - 9:58 ] Gabriel Chapman [ That's a great question. I'm re getting to know myself. We want to acquire something. Yeah. So we're interested in some kind of acquisition. And it's probably something totally different that we're kind of blue sky right now and living in a space of, like, creation and expansion. I want to make sure that it's something that what we acquire is doing well operationally. And what it needs is what Sunshine and I are really good at. Last piece of information on the ERC credit still available. You can get the full credit if you qualify for a few more days. The 2021 credits you could still apply for if you haven't yet, and that could change any minute. There's been some movement in the government to possibly shut that, that program down early. So I would say if you've been nervous to look at ERC, you might still want to look at it. The 2021 credits are still pretty lucrative. If you had two employees, if you were affected by the pandemic due to government orders and you haven't looked at it for whatever reason, do it fast, do it soon.

Joe Simon [9:59 - 10:02] Thank you so much for your time. Is there somewhere where someone can find you? Is there a website?

Gabriel Chapman [10:03 - 10:04] where they're at your eliteresourceconsulting.com

Joe Simon [ 10:05 - 10:06 ]thank you, buddy. I appreciate it. Have a great day.

Gabriel Chapman [10:06] Thank you, Joe. I appreciate you.

Narrator [10:08 - 10:27]: Thanks for listening. We hope these walks with successful millionaires have inspired you to take the next step in your entrepreneurial journey. No two stories are the same, and it's inspiring to learn from those that have walked the path before. To read full show notes for each episode, which includes guest contact information and ways to connect with Joe, visit themillionairemile.com.