#25 - Replacing Your Salary with One Deal - Tej Singh
Dahab.
Tej:Oh, okay.
Dean:Have you seen the movie The Deepest Breath? I haven't. It's about free diving.
Tej:I've probably seen the thumbnail and thought this is looks really scary. I used to dive and, like, and I love swimming in the ocean and the sea, but, like, free diving scares the shit out of me man.
Dean:Yeah. Like
Tej:I know someone who learned in like a week to go from not being able to hold his breath to do like three minutes of free diving or something. He was like yeah you just have to learn how to breathe. I was like yeah cool sounds good. I'll let you do that. Yeah.
Tej:Yeah. Yeah. I know. Scary, man. We're rolling, by the way.
Dean:Okay. Nice. But yeah, free diving is, you know, it's actually
Tej:I do wanna watch it, but I'm just
Dean:Yeah. It's less actually about holding your breath and it's about actually fighting the urge to panic.
Tej:I've heard he said that as well. He said you have to stop wanting to take a breath. You have to just accept, like, sort of in that place Mhmm. When there's what 30 foot water potentially above you. Mhmm.
Dean:Because it's not actually that you need oxygen. It's just that you have too much carbon dioxide.
Tej:Yes. And that builds up and that can poison you obviously.
Dean:Mhmm. Not not under there but it's just that you feel the urge to breathe. Your body is like saying we should usually breathe.
Tej:Yeah. Yeah. Of course.
Dean:And you're like well, I'm underwater.'
Tej:It's not a good idea. Yeah. Yeah. Let's get
Dean:into it, man. So you you have a massive property portfolio.
Tej:Yeah. It's alright. It's alright.
Dean:You've bought many businesses. Yes. You mentor people. People. You have a podcast.
Dean:You do a lot of things.
Tej:Mhmm. But if
Dean:you had to start tomorrow
Tej:Mhmm.
Dean:With no experience, no network, and five k, what would be the first thing you do?
Tej:Would I still keep my good looks? Because then, it'd probably be only fans, wouldn't it? Yes. That's true. That's how you can make a lot of money these days.
Tej:Failing that, okay, $5. First thing I would do is not spend $5. I would spend £40 on Amazon. Other bookstores are available. And buy, How to Get Rich by Felix Dennis, Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss, and The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday.
Tej:I would read those and I'd understand the mindset it takes to survive in business and ideally in life. And they're all gonna teach you different elements of business and life that are super important. The the book by Richard Dennis, I think it's Richard Dennis, I think it's Richard Dennis, one of them, is a proper old school book and it's kind of written in a weird chapter y thing and he's this sort of crazy head, you know, weird looking millionaire, billionaire. But it teaches you so much about business. And so I'd read that first because I might I might read these books and say, some people might say, this is not for me.
Tej:I don't wanna do this. Like, I will get a job. Great. Get a job. I'm hiring.
Tej:Let's do it. Alternatively, once I've read that, I've got, you know, £4,950 left. I would not be in a rush to buy a course to, you know, buy a webinar. I would go to different networking events for different businesses, and I'd want to discover, well, what right now works, what has worked for ten years, what's gonna work for the next ten years. I wanna speak to you, mister, owns a waste removal business.
Tej:I wanna speak to the carpet salesperson. I wanna I wanna know what works, how does it work, what are the profit margins like, what's the good, what's the bad, could I do this, and how would I do it? And, again, we still got a couple of thousand pound left. Now if we're really starting from zero, you know, you go buy laptop, I mean, LinkedIn premium subscription, whatever. Sure.
Tej:If people wanna go into property, they can do rent to rent or deal sourcing if they really have to, or if you're if you're a prick, you can I swear? Too late. Or what I did a long time ago was recruitment, and you don't need much money. I mean, you'd have some a lot of money left from this laptop, LinkedIn premium, and a phone, maybe indeed. And you can pretty quickly you have to be very good at sales, as you know from, you know, having a sales experience.
Tej:And I would start a recruitment business. You could be making 3 to $4 a month with one placement from the first month, and that's what I did. So that's the kind of general steps I would look at. But then I'd also and this is free. Okay.
Tej:What are my bills, my rent, my mortgage, whatever it is? What's the minimum I need to live, and what's my first milestone that I can breathe? And then what's like the nice milestone? And then what's like okay. We're chilling.
Tej:And then what's the, alright. You're you're just making so much money. What you know, what are these milestones? So that I know in all of this stuff I'm doing and all of this money I I have, what is like, what do I need to earn annually monthly to make that effective? Like, where am I going?
Tej:Because otherwise, I could get into a business that's selling fine art. And I sell two pieces a year, and I make half a million pounds. But it takes a year before that to sell it that year. But I need $2 do you know what I mean? So it's kind of planning accordingly for where I want to be.
Tej:So I think I'd have a fair bit of money left over.
Dean:I like the way you started with books because, like, actually accumulating the knowledge and also understanding what it's really going to be like for you, I think it's a good good place to start because if you start with the gurus, if you start with the courses, you're gonna get told all the good stuff.
Tej:And What if you don't wanna do it? What if you spend the tank on a property course, but you're like, oh, hell no. It's too late.
Dean:Mhmm. Yeah. So you started then. I just wanna go back to, like, where you actually started because based on that first answer, you've obviously accumulated a lot of your own knowledge.
Tej:Mhmm.
Dean:But you started in recruitment after you were in sales. Yep. Like, talk talk to me about the journey from sales into recruitment. How did you make that leap?
Tej:Yeah. So before it wasn't technically sales. It was like medical marketing. K. So you could argue it was, you know, because pharmaceutical companies are obviously so ethical and they don't break the law and they're really there to help everyone.
Tej:So, you know, it was veiled sales, should we call it. You know? And I never had to do cold calling. I never had to do a cold email. It was very much account management and design and kind of marketing stuff.
Tej:Yes. But at a very junior level, I was getting paid $20.23 k when I first started, and then it went up to, like, 29 after, like, a few months. So that transition was quite abrupt, and it wasn't in my control. I was working my first job earning 22 k a year, and we kept working till 06:00. And my contract stopped at five.
Tej:Right? So there's an hour there. It's not on my contract. I haven't been logging this. So who's who's paying me for that?
Tej:And I went to my MD then who was just a typical sort of MD who comes in when he likes, just a schmooze, and, you know, he wasn't like the MD that you and I are in our businesses. And I said, name was Terry. I got Terry. I said, Terry. So how do we get paid for that that last hour?
Tej:He's like, yeah, we do. He goes, because we all do it. And he just goes, oh, Tej. So much to learn. Thanks.
Tej:Close the door on your way up. Okay. And then I sort of asked my colleagues, and they were like, why are you even, like, what do you mean? It's normal? Like, I was like, what do you fucking mean it's normal?
Tej:My contract ends at five. I'm not gonna pay till six. Normal for who? You know what? Idiots.
Tej:And our clients are we're working with such idiot clients. Like, we were the agency that had to babysit the dumb internal hires who were like, I don't know how to market. I don't know how to make me look good agency, and we would do the hard work, which is so common. Fine. We got paid for it.
Tej:Cool. So I thought, this is really weird. Like, I I can't deal with this. And then I kept noticing, like, you know, I wouldn't run for the train. It would be there.
Tej:I I could get it. If I run, I could get it. But I said, nah. I'm not scuffing my shoes. No.
Tej:And then lots of coming home just being like, I'm home at seven. All these things just added up. And I thought, this isn't like, no. This is not it. Like, family has never really been self employed.
Tej:My dad's a photographer, self employed, but, you know, none of them have really grown businesses. So I didn't really know I didn't see an example of I could do something different. I just thought, yeah. I can do something different. Like, f this.
Tej:Like, whatever. Got a new job, same industry, much bigger salary, closer to, like, 30 ks. Thought winning. Mhmm. And then I get called down from HR.
Tej:When you get called from HR, it's never good. Uh-huh. Alright? Either you're snitching or you've been stitched on. And she was scary HR.
Tej:Listen, all you HR people, you are scary. You got the same haircut, everything. Walked in, and she just goes, Tedj. And I was like, oh, what's up?
Dean:That's never good.
Tej:Yeah. It's never good. You know, pause, sort of the little HR little laugh because they know they got power. And then she said, yeah. You haven't been performing as you interviewed.
Tej:You interviewed so well. You thought you'd be so good. But they had me shredding. I was on 30 k a year, and they had me shredding paper. So I I just thought, this is stupid.
Tej:And she goes, you're in probation. You're you're dismissed. Immediate effect. Get stuff and go. Oh, shit.
Tej:So I grabbed all my food boxes, all my shoes, because I didn't wanna wear smart shoes on the train. There's as long train. There's proper commuter. And I went home, and I said to my mom, mom, it's not like that. It's mum, I've been fired.
Tej:She just looked at me. Silence. No words. That's even worse. No words.
Tej:She's thinking after what three years of a degree, you studied abroad, all this money, all this money out, you're just partying. I said yeah, I pretty much was. Get all the
Dean:right things.
Tej:Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. And I said I'm starting a recruitment business. Why that?
Tej:I used to have a friend who had a recruitment business and he sort of said to me what I said to you. Little money, a lot of time, a lot of phone calls, but you can make a couple quid. You know, you can do alright. And he had an office, it had staff, so I thought, you know what? I've got nothing else.
Tej:It'll teach me how to get rejected. It'll teach me life skills. Literally went on LinkedIn, created a website as well, created a brand, created a company, just started calling. And I started by recruiting recruiters, which is called Rec to Rec. Mhmm.
Tej:And wonderful people to work with, just like deal sources love recruiters. And I had my first placement in a month, and then it kept going and going and going. And every year, double profit, double turnover, and I hated it. So you didn't actually
Dean:like, how did you actually go, okay, recruitment is the business? Like, did did he sort of describe it to you as a nice clean business model that you could start with little to no capital?
Tej:Yes. I think he described that as simple. Right? It was find candidates, find clients, match them, make sure they turn up. There's a lots of bullshit in between.
Tej:Mhmm. But that that's the process. Right? Nothing else. Crack on.
Tej:And I thought, okay. I've not known anything like it before. Maybe it's always just been in me to be like, okay. New thing. Let's try it.
Tej:New food. Let's eat it. Like, New country. Let's go. I'm I'm not afraid to just jump in.
Tej:So I think I was just like, whatever. I lived at home. Food was there. Washing up was done. You know, I I wasn't like, oh, crap.
Tej:I've got a mortgage of 2 k a month. It was I kinda don't need to earn. I'm alright. But I did.
Dean:Yeah. That's good. Yeah. Yeah. And I actually like the business model of recruitment in particular because you're kinda just connecting people.
Dean:Yeah. It's like, I've got this person. You have this need. Pay me money.
Tej:You're a broker. Right? Yeah. Brokers make the most money. Airbnb, Uber, etcetera.
Tej:They're all brokers. They own houses or cars. Mhmm. But it's very it it's simple, but it's very, very difficult. And emotion, as you know from sales, is very difficult.
Dean:Sure. Yeah. You've got a lot of emotional clients.
Tej:And you're dealing with
Dean:humans. Right?
Tej:Like, if you're selling a software, the software can't say oh I don't want to work today, I'm not going in, you know, or you have a refund period but I'm gonna leave now. It can't do that like and you can fix tech pretty quick, you can't fix people, you can't make them turn up, you can't but people still have it as a product business in their head. So clients would kind of expect you. They wouldn't say it. Oh, yeah.
Tej:They're human. We know what it's like. They're thinking, make them turn up. Make them work. And that element makes it, like, even more difficult, I think, than, like, selling a product or an inorganic object.
Dean:And recruiters get a bad rap as well, don't they?
Tej:You fucking deserve it, most of you recruiters. They're shit. Like, in my cleaning business and my food business, oh, I've never had a single good candidate. The amount of recruiters I've, like, had to just get heavy handed with verbally, like, you're not still shit. Seven years later since I started, you're still shit.
Tej:You deserve the reputation. I'm sorry. Come at me.
Dean:How how do you handle that? Like, you know, an emotional conversation because, you know, as somebody who is, I'm in a service business at the end of the day. I've got I've got emotional people coming at me left and right. And I would say I've gotten better at managing my emotions even when someone else is very emotional. And despite wanting to tell them all the things I actually think about them, I would say I've gotten better at that.
Dean:But, like, for you, like, how do you approach things like that?
Tej:I think because I lack empathy, I don't even connect sometimes with the emotion. I'm kind of like I hear it. It's here. But then I'm like getting my way through it. Like where's the problem?
Tej:Like what is the problem? You're emotional that a cleaner didn't clean the desks. Okay. But what is the actual problem? Like, was it a swirl mark from a coffee cup?
Tej:Was it the I'm trying to just be like, give me the solute. Give me the problem. Here's a solution. Fuck all that other stuff. And we're fixed.
Tej:And I think sometimes that comes across as cold or uninterested. So the honest truth is I have to fake it because, yes, I've developed more empathy, and, yes, I'm trying to develop more empathy. But do I truly give a shit? Do no. No.
Tej:And so I have to hold on. I'm so sorry about that. Must be so annoying. You know, you're coming in, you know, long day at work. You come in the next day, and the cup's still there.
Tej:You know? Totally get that. Super annoying. And say that in a empathetic way and things like that. But the main thing for me is I always say, look.
Tej:Let's let me solve the problem. Like, tell me exactly what the problem is, and let's get through it. A lot of times people come at you with emotion. I had one the other day. Oh, your cleaner clocked in at, you know, they barely clock in for an hour on these days.
Tej:They come at, you know, 04:55 when we close at five. Cool. I said, so by the way, we have a geofence clocking in software, and here it shows three hours, four hours, five hours, three hours. Can you just let me know if those are wrong, please? Oh, maybe I exaggerated a little bit when I said that.
Tej:Okay. You know, people complain about things, but when you actually say, no, no, but hold on. What is the issue? You know, it kind of falls apart sometimes. And so that's my thing is just get to the issue, solve it.
Tej:It's the logical way. There's people in business who are way more empathetic than me and emotional who probably have better relationships with their clients. That's that's life.
Dean:Do you get emotional? Like if somebody has left a proverbial stain on your table, whatever that may be, do you get pissed off?
Tej:I wouldn't say I get pissed off. I get I think if I have briefed them correctly, and they've been trained, and they've been shown it, I will get frustrated. But a lot of the time, that frustration goes straight to how do we solve the problem. Like, so what did I not explain to you enough? Is it not on the checklist?
Tej:Do you have, you know, like, how could you not see that mark? You know, it's kind of like, you know, like, I mean, there's some instances, like, in the food business where I say to staff, because we're on a level, and I say, guys, you realize if, you know, you don't fix this issue and this site wanna kick us out or we don't get events, you lose your jobs. And they're like twenty, twenty one of us. And they sort of laugh and they, yeah, let me know. But they know I'm like that.
Tej:But I'm also telling the truth. They know that that will happen. And so I think sometimes having that radical candle with people means that I don't get pissed off because I can say what I'm thinking. Like, yesterday, I said to Saman Abdullah, I said, when I tell you something, if I put it in Slack, whatever, as soon as it leaves my mouth, it's left my head in my universe. Like, I will only chase you for it when you don't do it.
Tej:But once it's left me, it it's in you. It's with you. And if I don't do it, then there's a certain conversation. So, no, I don't think I get pissed off. I think I get frustrated.
Tej:And I just wanna solve the problem. There's an obsession with solving the problem over the emotion.
Dean:Such a man thing to do.
Tej:It's such a man thing to do, isn't it? Not engage with that and just say, how do I fix it? How do I Rather do I
Dean:fix this with solution?
Tej:Doesn't work. It doesn't work with your wife either. I know that from experience. Yeah. Listening is important and talking and understanding and explaining.
Tej:But that's different when you love someone like that versus, you know, but and that's where that's probably one of the areas I struggle on is like, well, how do I then how do I develop that? You know? How do I become and I think I have been more like that, having different businesses where you communicate differently to staff just because of the culture of each business. It's it's taught me that. And also watching others.
Tej:Seeing how others manage other people and helps massively.
Dean:Yeah. So going back then, untangling the emotions, going back to emotional jobs such as recruitment, you then went into property and you got 15 properties in nine months, which is not a bad turnover. Right?
Tej:It was quick. Yeah. It could have been quicker, but it was, you know
Dean:Why the leap from recruitment to property?
Tej:So recruitment, is what you put in is what you get out. Simple as that. You know? You put a hundred calls in, you're gonna make more money than the person who puts in 10 calls, usually. There's obviously rare occurrences.
Tej:But if I'm hitting KPIs, if I'm putting in numbers, I'm getting numbers. Right? Yeah. Sales. And that's fine.
Tej:I love that. Right? What I put in is what I get out. At my previous job, that wasn't the case. It was just like there was no sort of measurement.
Tej:However, I, after four years of doing it, going in house for a little bit, working for some cool companies, one of them is bankrupt now that had nothing to do with me, and I realized it's gold in handcuffs. I was making money, but I didn't enjoy it, but I was making money. And I wanted to the classic cliche, make money while I sleep. I wanted to if I get up one day and I wanna come here and do a podcast, I don't wanna have to worry that, shit, I haven't made a hundred calls because, you know, can we do a podcast at, like, 9PM, please? So it balances my cold calls.
Tej:Yeah. I just want it to be, like, you know, whatever. If my family need me, if, you know, I just wanted to just wake up some days and say, nah. I'm I'm not working. You know, because I was doing that in recruitment.
Tej:I wasn't making money.
Dean:I agree, man. This is like I try and explain this as one of the most subtle yet best luxuries I have in my life is that I can wake up and just I can kinda decide, look. Let me just move my day. Yeah. I'm actually gonna go to the sauna.
Dean:Gonna do a podcast. That is exactly what I'm doing today. I'm going to the sauna.
Tej:But you built that. Right?
Dean:Exactly. You
Tej:can't just have that life.
Dean:But it's like the choice. It's just the option, man. I I don't think people wanna be Jeff Bezos or whatever. Like, I think people just wanna have roughly the same amount of money coming in Yeah. And flexibility.
Tej:People people you're you're so right there. People want this say they want this empire, they want the jets. They go on Instagram looking at people who are showing off a certain life. Yeah. Most of you don't even fucking want that.
Tej:You just wanna sit home with your kids, watch Netflix, but be able to do that whenever you want and however you want. But you're not gonna be able to create that unless you're working your ass off, like, and unless it's a choice that you've made. Because some people then go down the thing of, well, I want to be a billionaire, so I'm, you know, I'm focused on that. And then I don't know. I think money is a shallow motivator compared to what we spoke about there, which is a way deeper motivator.
Tej:Yeah. Like, when I so I just signed on my third cleaning business, which will double the turnover again, to just under a million. What shame? Couldn't just be a million. Right?
Tej:It looked better on Instagram. Put a number on. Yeah. 99 fucking whatever. And I'm okay.
Tej:Yeah. It's bringing in another what was it? 6 to $8 a month net profit? Nice. Like, net.
Tej:That's the lump beginning of yours. I could, you know, buy again another month. I'm all I that's a nice number. Right? Whatever.
Tej:I see that as more holidays, more time off Mhmm. More time to settle my family Yeah. More doing podcasts, more just fucking around for the sake of it, like, more partying, whatever it is. And, like, but you have to reach a certain stage before you can think that way. When you're starting out and you need $2 to pay your rent, you don't think that.
Tej:You think, let me cover that. And that's like a whole another thing about how bit of a tangent, but I think when you when you reach a certain level of income that covers everything and then probably a bit more and then maybe a little bit more, a lot of people are on this hedonistic treadmill. New car, new house, want this bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger because the Joneses are doing it, whatever. A lot of people just can't stop and are addicted to entrepreneurship. Great, cool, whatever.
Tej:When you're 90 on your deathbed, you're not gonna wish you worked hard, you're gonna wish you spent more time with your kids, you did, you traveled more, you had fun, you fucking laid down on a beach instead of taking calls. Like, what is this? That's not what life is. But when you reach a certain level, you're almost reborn creatively because you're saying, so whatever I do now doesn't need to make x money. It doesn't need to fill a certain thing thing in my life like it did back in the day.
Tej:Like, everything's covered and then some. If I lose my property portfolio, that's fine. I got other things to cover it. If I lose that, I've got the property. So you can just be reborn and just do stuff you want to do and be creative and not be bogged down by, I need to make money now.
Tej:I've got this to pay for. I've got this. And when you're not on that treadmill, you can do that because you're not chasing some shallow, bag or whatever the hell it is. Like Yeah.
Dean:And it reminds me what you said there actually of my first year, and maybe you can relate to this. The first year you kinda are chasing, and second year probably as well. Like, you're kinda chasing just because you maybe wanna get away from your job or feel that sense of security. And then in year three, year four, it's like, then you've kinda got a bit of a buffer. And it doesn't mean the same or at least quite yeah.
Dean:It doesn't mean quite the same as what it did because you're like, alright. Well, I can lose that client. Fuck that client. You know? Whatever.
Tej:That's the reality of it. And it could take longer. You know? If you people are building some tech unicorn and you know, that could take ten, twenty years. Yeah.
Tej:But then the the payout's way bigger or or it flops like a lot of them do. But, you know, I think that's a fair timeline you've put on it. People underestimate what they can do in the short term. And so they overestimate what they can do in the short term. Yes.
Tej:Underestimate what they can do in the long term. Five years when you think about it, yeah, it's a long time but
Dean:Life is a lot longer.
Tej:Yeah. Hopefully. And you can achieve you can achieve a lot in that in that time.
Dean:So if I was listening to you say this now, talking about freedom, talking about options, talking about, you know, flexibility, I'd be like, right, give me it. And you've you've gone into m and a and you bought several businesses now.
Tej:Yes. So two businesses and one food business. Okay. Events, weddings, and then also we have a cafe and another site potentially.
Dean:Right. Let's talk about M and A then. So if I was listening to this and I wanted to acquire freedom with money, right, which is what we just said, I I I wanna just understand, right, how do I find a deal? How do I know what's a good business to buy? How do I find investment?
Dean:How do I do my due diligence? Where did you start?
Tej:Yeah. So I have a friend called d Ludlow. Last time, obviously, I was actually filming a podcast with him. Probably before I bought these businesses or
Dean:just I'll find him.
Tej:Yeah. Yeah. And so he taught me m and a because he does it massively in his group, does it massively. And so I I was at a point where I kind of a bit done with property, built a portfolio. It was fine.
Tej:Not really interested in doing more. Market kind of shifted. I just thought, yeah, let's see what else we can do now. And I was always going to start other business, like, that was just always gonna happen. I want to start a car garage, a physiotherapy business, blah blah blah, food business, whatever.
Tej:If I'm speaking to him and learning and and just doing the sums, spreadsheet does a lot for me, like, you know, spreadsheet says yes, I'm doing it. It just worked out a lot cheaper in some circumstances, a lot easier in some circumstances, and a lot quicker in some circumstances to buy a business. You know, for example, when you buy a food business, sometimes you might get a whole kitchen fit time included in the purchase price, as opposed to paying a hundred grand to fill out a commercial kitchen that then loses its value straight away. It's like buying a new car, drops. With a scaffolding business, you might get all the scaffolding within the price that you can finance quite smartly instead of having to spend a hundred grand on scaffolding.
Tej:I could start again by cold calling, by emailing to build up a cleaning business and start with such little money, and I teach people how to do that. Do I want to do that at that stage in my life? No. No. No.
Tej:No. I could pay someone to do it or I like to call it buying money with money. So I'm in a position where I have lots of investors from property, from social media who will give me who will chuck money at me and say, give me a percentage. See you in twelve months. I don't care what you do.
Tej:Just just see you in twelve months. Yeah. And for me, I was in a position where I thought I've got this money there if I need it. I did that with property. There's gotta be a way to do the kind of buy refurbished refinance model with business.
Tej:There's gotta be a way to buy businesses from people who are retiring, people who don't care anymore, wanna change sectors, distressed businesses, which my street business was and still is arguably such a difficult sector. And buying money with money makes sense when you don't have time. So when I was younger, I mean I have time, I just don't want to spend it. But when I was younger I had time and I had to spend it. Now I've got access to money and money and I'd rather spend that than my time.
Tej:Because like we said with freedom, I'd rather spend my time somewhere else. I'd rather be in Egypt in in the winter like you than be here doing cold calls. And so I read a book. I don't know who wrote it, but it's called Who Not How. Really, really good book.
Tej:I recommend it to everyone. It's very repetitive, but we need it. And it just kinda shows you to always question when there's a task, not how do I do it, but who's gonna do it. And now in my businesses, when, you know, say we got some job applicants come in, I just text my guy and I say, there's four applicants in there. So it up, please.
Tej:Done. You know? Oh, hey, Ree, can you develop new dishes for the specials next week? Done. So, yeah, I have to pay them x amount.
Tej:My hourly rate is in the hundreds. My staff's hourly rate, and in any business, the staff's hourly rate Yeah. Is maximum twenty, thirty, 40, 50. There's a net loss on me doing a task that they can do. Same with a VA.
Tej:Am I gonna you know, I don't edit my own videos. My guy does in South Africa. Again, there's a net loss if I did it, and it'd be shit if I did it. So, you know, one of your questions was that's, I suppose, the kind of overall thing of why I did it. Yeah.
Tej:You said, how do you find deals? So you can find deals from online sites like RightBiz, which is, like, the right move for businesses, but it's terrible. You can use business brokers. God. If you think estate agents are bad, business brokers, you're a lot of pricks.
Tej:I've not met a single okay. I've met one who's good. One. And I I speak to hundreds. Daily, I have the displeasure of dealing with these species.
Tej:Okay. They're different species. They're just terrible. They're just basically 18 year olds who wanna get into sales or admin. No clue how to value a business.
Tej:Oh, you're doing $20 net profit. Wow, mister seller. We're gonna get you 2,400,000.0. And the seller's like, oh, Ted, they said I can get 2,400,000.0, so that's all I'm gonna accept, a % upfront. And I'm like, are you Airbnb on a fucking 29 times multiple?
Tej:What the hell? And and they do this because not to them maybe to that extreme, but sometimes they do over and over and over again. So you can work with them, which, look, for practice, do it. Do it for practice. You can do director vendor.
Tej:Now I have 9,000 emails in one of my lists of businesses in The UK. That's this much. Out of how many that exist. I've now got another three or 4,000 from cleaning businesses coming. If you're in a cleaning business, you're gonna hear from me.
Tej:And you're emailing them over and over and endless. And you might get lucky in your first conversation. You might get lucky in your tenth, your 20 but it's like property. You gotta do a hundred viewings. You gotta do 40 offers.
Tej:You gotta do a hundred deal analysis before one is even worth considering. Same thing in m and a. And so by a combination of these things and also, referrals and network, I've had people come to me on Instagram saying, oh, you know, I know someone they never go anywhere. But, oh, I know someone selling their business. Are you interested?
Tej:Blah blah blah blah. That's how you find them. The other question was how do you analyze them or how do you know if they're a good deal?
Dean:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because like, yeah. Basically, how how would you then if you find one assess because like if I was listening to this and I had never done anything necessarily commercially, or like analyze the business, I'd be like, right, how do I know what I'm getting myself in for here and why is this person selling it?
Dean:How do I because for the sounds of it as well, you know, you could realistically buy one business and then that's your cash flow and you're good. Realistically, if it's if it's operating and you're not doing the day to day. So like how do you assess that? Where do you start?
Tej:Yeah. And on that note, it's interesting. My first cleaning business, the first one I bought, nets the same amount of profit annually as my whole property portfolio does.
Dean:Wow.
Tej:And I bought that business for $50, put $25 in. The rest was paid by the business. My property portfolio, I had to raise, what, a million pounds to buy it. And, yeah, that's a lot more headache. I guess
Dean:it's no comparison which is better.
Tej:It is no comparison which is better. However, I won't say better. I'll say they're different. And they both have pros and cons, and they both have benefits. And but it just shows you how powerful buying a business can be or even starting one as well.
Tej:Property is slow. And this country is so antiquated. So slow. It's so small money, lots of little money, depending on the strategy. But it's just slow.
Tej:Businesses are not. I bought that business in from sort of finding it, offer, whatever, took three months to then get the key three or four months. The guy was so slow. The property portfolio took me, yeah, nine months plus another nine months to mortgage them, refurb them, whatever. So, yeah, so people know that timelines are very different.
Tej:So if you wanna quit your job quickly, am I saying go buy vanilla by to lets in Durham for the next year? Maybe not. If you wanna build asset wealth or a pension or then, you know, it's potentially, you know, it's maybe the better thing to do. And that's why you need personalized advice, not just, oh, touch those m and a. Let me do m and a.
Tej:It's not how it works. How do you analyze a deal? So it always starts with the end in mind, like I said earlier, about, like, setting the goals. So, you know, I don't mean how much do you want to earn or how much you need to earn. It's more about, does this business produce a good end result?
Tej:Like, is the net profit a good percentage of the turnover for that sector? So food and beverage, like, 10%. So my cleaning business is, like, 33%, but average should be around 20. Is it in line with that? Okay.
Tej:And does it produce enough that it's worth the hassle? I offered on a cleaning business the other day. It's doing net profit of $20 a year. I offered $20 because it's a lot more of a headache at that size than it is if it was doing $200. And various issues with it anyway.
Tej:But when they get smaller, they're not necessarily easier because you're doing, you know, an amount of work for a much less for for a much smaller profit. And so this is where it gets complex because, you know, my business that the first one I bought was doing around $50.60 k a year net profit. It's not that much higher than 20, but it's high enough. And it's in a specific type of cleaning in a certain area that means it's worth a lot more than that $20 1. And that's the complexity of, well, what is the business?
Tej:What are the contracts? What's the strength in it? How long they've been going? What's the management structure? Who does what?
Tej:Have you got private? And so analyzing a deal, it's quite hard to, I suppose, give an answer here, but net profit percentage for the sector is key. What is the management structure like you mentioned earlier? Is it sort of run by staff? Is it the owners in it?
Tej:The best one is when it's owner operated and they got one member of staff, and they're like, yeah. But we're turning over $200. I'm like, but, Jeff, when you leave and I have to pay someone $80 to do your job, you then have zero net profit because the net profit is their salary. Yeah. But then you should do the job.
Tej:I'm not gonna fucking clean Jeff. I might come and sort it out. And so there's that difficulty of, well, how do you negotiate with that? You don't. You put the phone down and say, in six months when you don't sell it, you can come back to me.
Tej:Say it politely. I'll sit like that, but say it politely. And so those are the kind of key factors. Like, honestly, there's so many other factors, but the main thing is net profit and is it does it have a management structure or can we put one in, like, immediately, and is that costed in? Mhmm.
Tej:And then you go analyze accounts, you go analyze the structure, you go analyze the strength of the contracts, you go analyze the assets, how are they valuing them, the history, the client history, the audits. You know, you're doing I mean, I suppose it's like property, you know, where you're getting kind of
Dean:survey. Yeah.
Tej:But I think there's a bit more complexity in business because with a property, for example, if the street sells for half a mil, the house is probably worth half a mil?
Dean:Yes.
Tej:Yes. Business is worth what we value at.
Dean:And there's so much more nuances like you said, even like the contract. Why how strong are the contracts? Like, what's the management like? Who have they got in there?
Tej:And how do you know how much deduct to to deduct it by? Oh, you cleaned all those pizzas. Sounds amazing. Okay. Well, then strong contract.
Tej:No. Ninety day payment terms, one month ending. Oh, but you clean, like, little accountant firms and yeah. But twelve month, kinda contract on them, and there's lots of them and they spread risk. You know?
Tej:So it's like, well, how do you know which one's better?
Dean:If I was listening to this now, I might be thinking cleaning? Really? That's such a boring business.
Tej:It is. Right? It's very boring. Yeah. But do I look happy?
Dean:Very. Why is it though? Tell me. Why is it that and I I I hear this a lot. Like the boring businesses, they're the best ones.
Dean:Why?
Tej:Because they tend to have clear profit margins. I have turnover. I have chemical costs, staff costs, and oh look. The rest of it is profit. There we go.
Tej:You know what you're doing? The the ghost like, it's simple. Food business, oh, god. I got turnover. What?
Tej:This this this this this this this this stock or this and and then there's a little bit of pittance at the end of it.
Dean:Like, there's so many
Tej:flipping moving parts. My account, like, my bank's, like, account for my cleaning business is so simple. There's, like, three different types of transactions, and that's it. So they're usually really simple. Two, they're not necessarily gonna be replaced by AI or can be enhanced by tech too much.
Tej:The tech we use is like the geo fenced clocking them in, clocking them out, and like a HR software. There isn't much tech right now that we can put in or that we want to or need to put in. People need boring businesses usually, like cleaning, like launderets, whatever. Four, I think I think because they're boring, they don't get overcomplicated. Like, I have an Instagram for my cleaning business.
Tej:I didn't put I haven't posted on it for a year. Has that affected my business in the slightest? Not at all because people need it. And if we charge well, we'll get good jobs. If we do a good job, we'll continue to get good jobs.
Tej:I think also when it comes to exciting, fun, passionate businesses, I also think it's people that ruin them because they come in like, oh, I wanna put this in and that in and use that kind of paper and I wanna have the best steak ever and but you're in Milton Keynes. Why are you gonna charge for that? Like, you know, it's kind of, I think the people who come into those businesses come into it with a certain angle which you don't come into a clean business with that maybe then cost them more and reduces their profits and reduces their margins. Also, non boring businesses are very hard to make a lot of money. Look at Dragon's Den.
Tej:How many doofuses, yes, you are, walk in there, oh, yeah. I'm turning over, like, a hundred grand and it's taken three years and the net profit's like 10 and but next year, we're doing 7 and a half million. Yeah. Peter, can I have can I have a million quid for 2%? And you're like, and actually, when you watch that show, because it is super interesting.
Tej:Right? I love that show. Yeah. Right? I mean, you see you see people's growth.
Tej:Right? Today, I was watching a woman who has a for tying a shoelace or something like that. And it took her three or four years, and she's turning over $300, and next year projected half a mil or something. I said, okay. People don't wanna hear that because three years to only generate $300, and I think the net profit was $30.40, 50, something like that.
Tej:People don't wanna hear that. They wanna hear that one person who comes on a series who blows them away, who who's that unicorn. But when is that one person? It's because there is, like, 1% of 1% of people who grow a business at that speed. And so people come into the exciting businesses, Airbnb, Uber, Gary Vee stuff, and they say, well, they shot up to the moon.
Tej:So can I, which is why people lose money in crypto because they wanna ride Doge to the moon? And you could've, but most people it up because they want too much too quickly. Right? But the power of M and A is I I don't know. I don't know how I feel about it.
Tej:But I speak to businesses, and they say, oh, Tej, I'll be doing it thirty years, sixty now, seventeen. I'll be doing it ten years. Okay? We talk about the figures. So what's your turnover?
Tej:Oh, $200, 2 hundred grand, 5 hundred grand. And I say, bruv, you spent thirty years, and you're you're not in the millions. Like, and and there's nothing wrong with it. And this is why I don't know how I feel about it because if you're making enough profit from that, why go into the millions? It changes things.
Tej:Right? It turns out the structure, the cost. Cost. But I always just think, you know, when they say, yeah, we're super ambitious. Our biggest year was this.
Tej:I always think and the reason I think it is because if I've got to a million pounds turnover, just under, in three purchases I first bought $2.50 ks of turnover. Then I bought 5 what? Then it became 500, and then $2.50. And then I'm doubling it again with another just under 500 in the space of two years. Like, you've got to look at that and say, I could be doing it for thirty years and not make as much as I made from one business, but I'm tripling it in less.
Tej:And so it kind of blows my mind. Like the buy refurbished, you know, strategy did, it blows my mind as to how I can do this, and then the business pays half of the deferred payments anyway, so I'm only even paying half. It it honestly is mind blowing. Every time I every time we get signed, I'm just like, how have I done this? Like, I'm just laughing.
Tej:Like, this is okay. I'm in a privileged position. I have investors. I have experience, but I've earned the privilege of being in this position sure like no one just gave this to me it was knowing the right people paying the right amount it was but it is one of those things b r r and certain elements of m and a are magic Like, there's just no other way to do it. I'm not trying to upsell it.
Tej:I don't give shit, but there's no other way to describe them. The numbers speak for themselves. There's no comparison.
Dean:Mhmm. Yeah. Like, I mean, one of them sounds long, challenging, like, full of treacherous paths and difficult stuff, and then the other one just kinda sounds easier. No. Like, it's an easier access to money, which is why you're doing it realistically.
Dean:Nobody I mean, I think I speak for most cleaning businesses that most cleaning businesses probably didn't get into it for a passion for cleaning. They probably did it because they wanna earn a few bob.
Tej:Yeah. Yeah. And and it and it's simple to set up. I won't say it's easy.
Dean:Sure.
Tej:I would say pick your poison. Right? There's a million ways to make a million. Yeah. Pick.
Tej:Yeah. Pick yours.
Dean:Well, like, the most common thing that people will tell me that they want is just enough money to replace their nine to five income. That is it. It sounds like you could buy that with one business. You could buy that.
Tej:What's the average UK salary? $24? 20 6 grand?
Dean:Is it?
Tej:My first business was net profiting double that, and I bought it with 50 well, I put 20 I put $30 in. The business paid off the rest of the money. $30? You had more than that when you started. Mhmm.
Tej:So you could have done that, like, with the right knowledge, with the right teaching, with the right experience. But I don't wanna make it sound easy to do because it does take thousands of emails, hundreds of calls. I've got an m like, a a CRM tracking staff, and I've put out at the moment, maybe 12 offers. One, we're kind of in discussion. The other one, I'm not going higher, so we'll sort of say it's open.
Tej:And the other one is accepted, which we've signed heads of terms on, and we should complete in three weeks. But I've got another fifteen, twenty to have conversations with. I've had hundreds where it's just like, yeah. No. It's not happening.
Tej:Cool. Whatever. And so people might say, oh, that's easier than dealing with builders and solicitors. Maybe. Maybe it is for you.
Tej:I think it's easier. But, yeah, I don't want anyone to think they can just jump in and do it. I was just speaking to someone in my DMs who paid for, like, a one off call with me. She wanted to buy businesses. I said, how's it going?
Tej:It's been, like, a few months. She goes, I'm struggling. Haven't got the knowledge. Haven't got the experience. I'm not really getting through to anyone.
Tej:Blah blah blah. I said, yeah. Because you haven't got the knowledge or experience. When you get that, that comes at a price, time, money, whatever it is. Anyone can do anything, but most people won't.
Tej:Most of you won't. Mhmm.
Dean:Yeah. I like the way you phrase it as in the price is time or the price is money. Pick one. And one
Tej:of them you can make more of, the other you can't. So which one are you picking?
Dean:Yeah, I mean m and a sounds great.
Tej:It is. Don't listen. There's there's examples of people buying businesses effing up, having to shut down. There's, you know, people thinking they can turn around distressed business. There's lots of things wrong in m and a.
Tej:But some of the deals, like my deals are small compared to some in like that group. Some of the deals there are heavy, like 7 figure plus heavy, but being bought for money that you would look at and just laugh at. You'd be like, no way. No way. And I've seen it because I know the people.
Tej:And again, it's magic. There's no way to do it. I think the thing is once you know the right people, you have a certain level of money or access to money. Let's not like, you know, access to money. And you know how to structure things, whether it's conversations, whether it's the world becomes your oyster.
Tej:The the richest people aren't scrubbing the floors. You know, there might be that one uncle who's like, oh, I scrubbed floors twenty years and I'm a billionaire. Yeah. But your knees are fucked, man. I'm not trying to do that.
Tej:My mouth is too soft for that. You know, I'm the in that I'm trying to be in that class of business people who controls what's happening and is on the business and is facilitating things and I might have to pay you to do the facilitation I don't care you're happy getting paid to do it I'm happy paying you to do it. Yes. I make less profit, but I get more life. And like I said, one of them is infinite, one of them isn't.
Tej:So I pick accordingly.
Dean:I love the way you, like, describe the way you're doing it is suited to the way you want to be because I don't wanna be and I'm speaking for both of us here. I don't wanna be a recruiter banging the phones all day every day. Like, the only way I wanna be banging the phones is if it's to get a deal, something that will outlive the phone call, you know, that pays me for long after.
Tej:Mhmm.
Dean:And so that that that's something to consider, I think, before you go into anything really if it's property or m and a. It's like, what do I want my life to look like here? You know? And as somebody who's been in service accommodation and property, like, twenty four seven business, you know, you can get caught up in the day to day. It's crazy.
Dean:I've since removed myself, to a large degree at least. You know, I think that's a big thing to consider. What will my life be like?
Tej:Yeah. And don't get caught up in it. I don't want a private jet. I don't. You know, so like, I know I don't need to earn x amount because it's not in my interest, you know.
Tej:So it's according to what I want.
Dean:But I think one of the things that stops people is belief
Tej:Yes.
Dean:From even attempting. And I I one of the videos you did with, Jody, I think her name is, she asked you a question and you said, whether you believe you can get 100 k or not, if you believe you can, if you believe you can't, you're right. Yeah.
Tej:I think Tom Ford said that back in the day.
Dean:It's like, it it it's just it's so simple and I've kinda started to realize the power of how I'm talking to myself and how that impacts my actions and then outcomes because, like, if I go into it, like, even in the gym. Right? Right? This is such a bro example, but, like, in the gym, right, I'm doing a set of eight reps, let's say. And by the fifth rep, I start to get tired.
Dean:And I'm like, alright. I probably should pack it in at eight here. And then lately, I I had had a when I was in Egypt, I had some, like, really intense workouts with my mate, Tommy. He, like, works out like an absolute animal. And he pushed me.
Dean:And so after that, I just started saying saying different things to myself. I started saying, no. I can get ten.
Tej:Mom was saying, what happened? You got ten. I got ten. Surprise. Yep.
Dean:And and it and it's it's so small, but my god, it's like profoundly changed how I'm walking around the past four weeks. How did you start to cultivate that?
Tej:Yeah. It's interesting because self talk is a massive part of that. Like, same in the gym. I feel it at five and I'm like, And I think in that moment, you almost have a slight pause where you have a decision to make. And that decision decides who you are as a person.
Tej:It's do I give up at five, six, seven, eight? Or I know I'm not gonna get injured. That's the important thing here. Here I've done 10 before shut the fuck up get ten sometimes it's that sometimes it's more like come on most times it's just like come on man sort your shit out but those small decisions those micro decisions that you make in every set in every like in every rep sometimes every day for five years, makes you who you are. And so the only way I've developed that is by those micro decisions over time.
Tej:Now as I said earlier when, like, I started the recruiting business, I've clearly always just had a thing of, like, if you can do it, I can do it. She can do it, I can do it. Like, what? Like, what? You know?
Tej:Like, why why is the CEO getting paid pounds, I'm getting paid pennies, when I know in six months of getting trained, I could do their job? But obviously, the working world says, no. It takes ten years, dude. I'm like, no. It doesn't because, like, I am now an MD with less time than it takes for someone employed.
Tej:So I think I naturally had it, which great. You know? It's easy for me to sort of say that's the answer. But the real answer is those micro decisions, but also the discipline. But having discipline and actually carrying it out like you said.
Tej:You could have worked out with Tommy, come back and said, oh, I could do 10. I've done 10. Well, Tommy's long here. Fucking hell, six. You could have.
Tej:Right? Yeah. Yeah. And and most people would. Most of you would.
Tej:You know you would. Look at your arms. You can tell you stopped early. Yeah? It's the truth.
Tej:Look at them. And it's it's it's doing the thing, but then actually reinforcing you know, I did a thing, and I can I can feel and I can see the result? So next time I come, I'm a do it again. And I'm a keep doing it, you know. Just going to the gym.
Tej:In this shit hole of the country at 5AM when it's cold and it's dark and it's icy, do either of us really want to be up? No. The bed's warm. It's cozy. But are we if we yes.
Tej:That's not motivation. There's no emotion. It's discipline. 05:00. Yep, gym.
Tej:That and that's what you have to cultivate. And with that, then allows you to talk kindly to yourself because you've got proof of achieving things. So start with small things. The gym. Going for a walk every day.
Tej:Eating five foot and veg a day. But then also saying to yourself, hey. You did that. Nice. Yeah.
Tej:And do it for thirty days. Most you're gonna give up after a few days. Do it for thirty days, and then you can say, yeah, I do shit. And then it just builds and builds and builds and you make money. You you have contacts and you get more reinforcement of that you are actually the person who can do things.
Dean:And if you're talking to yourself in a way that is affirming that, like, I I I can't actually describe just how profoundly that's impacted me by it's such a stupid example. But I, because of the way I've just changed the way I speak, and I and intentionally by the way, like I'll catch myself saying something like, you're not gonna be able to do that. I'm like, woah. I am going to be able to do that. And I'll just say it like three times in my head.
Dean:I feel different. Instantly, I feel different. And whether it's true or
Tej:not true, doesn't matter. Doesn't fuck matter.
Dean:I feel better, and I probably will do it then anyway.
Tej:And it is it is probably biologically true. When we talk to ourselves in a certain way, different endorphins, different hormones are released. There's plenty of studies on that versus when we talk to ourselves negatively. Like, it's affirmations, like, the whole thing around doing that every day. Right?
Dean:I think affirmations is a little bit like woo woo woo. I almost didn't even wanna go there but it's like the the actual brain, like what's the chattery voice in your head saying at any given moment.
Tej:Yeah. But that and that is an affirmation, a positive Exactly. Yeah. Thought of thing. Yeah.
Tej:Like, when you said you had that thought about you're not gonna do that, that's my wife's voice in my head. When she said you're just in the house, you're not gonna do that.
Dean:That's got
Tej:that. Yeah. It's I I don't think I've ever, I have to hire some cleaners by sort of Monday, Tuesday next week. It's Wednesday today? I don't even know it's Wednesday today.
Tej:I've had had I've been struggling over the last two weeks to hire a supervisor for this, and I have three or four days to do this. Not once have I and I'm here with you chilling. Not once have I said, I'm not gonna do this. In my head, I've just said, dude, you always pull out the bag, man. Just, like, crack on.
Tej:Just do what you do and sort this shit out. Yeah. That's all I've said. Am I a little bit worried? Is it a bit clenched?
Tej:A little bit. Because I don't want to f things up. But I kind of just know. Like, yeah, I just I just never said to myself, you won't do that. Unless, like, it was dangerous and I was like, yeah, I'm not gonna do that.
Tej:You know, like, there's never been a time where I can remember saying, like, I've never proved myself wrong. I've only proved myself right, which is interesting. I've just kind of realized, which is interesting.
Dean:That's a good one.
Tej:Yeah. I might have to clip that into a real one. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Dean:Because if you're saying that you're this, you're right. And if that's bad or good, you're both right either way. You're never gonna tell yourself that you're shit and then do amazing. Well, I mean, you might but very unlikely.
Tej:Because your body is already primed to be shit.
Dean:Yeah. It's like it's predicted it. It's like the visualization thing, you know, and again it kinda gets lost in that woo woo shit. But I've been I've been like taking intentional time to try and do that and it just changes everything.
Tej:It's like when you when you hang around people and you have a network, when their voices are saying, oh mate come to the pub on Friday, don't worry about your side hustle, don't worry about that. Yeah. And then what happened three years later, what happened to your side hustle you were doing? Oh, I just I just chill with the boys. Yeah.
Dean:It's crazy, man. And, like, so going back to your journey because we've we've obviously had a beautiful little side quest there, but, like, going back to m and a, you've got the property business and the recruitment business and you're, like, where you are now and it shaped you to to to this, like, you know, very capable business owner now. And one of the things you did along that journey was start posting content, which is where I followed you actually.
Tej:Yeah.
Dean:I think, I think the first video I saw, you were slagging off people who rent, sell rent to rent courses.
Tej:You know what? I've done that video a couple of times. So, yeah. I I will own that.
Dean:I was like, this guy gets it.
Tej:There's a lot of, slagging off. There's a lot of realistic critique, you can call it.
Dean:Nice spin.
Tej:Yeah. Yeah. Totally getting sued.
Dean:But, like, if you go back to like your first video because I actually like I always say in this modern day you're not really doing a business well except your cleaning business without really having some sort of presence or at least a fucking website.
Tej:At least a website. Yeah.
Dean:You know. Like, how did you manage your fears if any when you post in like your first couple of videos?
Tej:I think because I'm I've always been confident speaking publicly. I've never been shy about doing that. I've I've generally just never given a shit what people think, and that is the one key tip for how to be a good public speaker or speak on camera. The only reason people don't look. We can talk about intonation.
Tej:We can say go up or down. You can talk about leaning in. You can talk about gestures, going fast, going slow, pauses, whatever it is. The main thing is, if 99% of people stop giving a shit how what people think, all of that stuff, that fancies that to 1%, you will be an amazing public speaker, but most of us don't. And so I think because I already had that and because I knew, well, I'm a beginner.
Tej:I'm not saying I'm experienced. I'm just saying, like, what I'm doing. I'm out of viewing. There's a crack there. I don't know if it's structural or not.
Tej:I'll update you guys when I find out. You know, I'm on right move analyzing deals. I'm putting offers in. I wasn't there trying to be an expert. Here's three tips that I've learned from someone else.
Tej:You know, I viewed this house. It it was just sharing what I was doing and how I was doing it. So in a sense, I couldn't get imposter syndrome cause I was only being myself. I couldn't talk negatively to myself cause I was just being myself. Obviously, people struggle to be themselves a lot, in in especially in today's world of social media, all the glitz and glamor, whatever.
Tej:And so there wasn't really a fear. And I say to people, like, who who are scared of it, well, that's, like, that's how I break it down logically. Like, you're just being yourself. You're not changing anything else. Stop caring what people think.
Tej:If they give you feedback or criticism, ignore the bullshit. Take the feedback from it. Don't take criticism, ignore the bullshit. Take the feedback from it. Don't take the critic.
Tej:Take the, okay. Yeah. You're being a bit pissy, but, oh, actually, yeah. The lighting is a bit off. Let me just change that.
Tej:And also, I say to people, it's just excuses. Like, you know when you were one years old, could you eat a steak? No. Okay. And could you eat a steak now?
Tej:Yeah. Hurrah. You learned. Right? Like, fuck me.
Tej:You couldn't talk when you were one. Now you're on a fucking podcast. Yeah. So, you can't make a video yesterday? Well, in a week, make a fucking video then.
Tej:Well, I think there's a lot of people being a bit too soft, like the world right now. And, oh, but I'm scared of this. I'm scared of that. No one cares. No one's gonna watch it anyway.
Tej:But no one's gonna watch your first video. So film it and get it out there. My mentees, I always shout to them. I'm like, who cares? Like, 10 people are gonna watch it.
Tej:Like, like, record it and get out there. Simple. Like, you have to jump in the deep end. You have to have that baptism of fire sometimes to just do it and then to be like, oh, that was alright. And I'm like, yes, it was alright.
Tej:We said that. You know what I mean? I just I'm just I'm at that stage. I feel like I'm 90. I'm just brutally honest.
Tej:I'm just like, come on.
Dean:Just do it. What I liked about what you said there is that you're just documenting what's happening rather than pretending to be a big know it all, which is kind of the sentiment or at least the the feeling you get when you go onto someone's page. You know when you go on someone's page and you're just like, you're selling me something. I don't know what the fuck you're selling me, but you're selling me something here. Lot especially in property.
Dean:Right? There's a lot of fucking Everywhere. Cowboys and that.
Tej:Yep.
Dean:But, like, would you say it's like a prerequisite? Like, do you have to post content if you're doing business?
Tej:I used to say yes. Could I go out and
Dean:buy a business tomorrow or would I put in a video out?
Tej:Yeah. No no one who's, bought a business off has seen my social media.
Dean:Right. I
Tej:think the second guy might have. He's a bit younger and a bit more on it. But even though I don't think he has. My staff only discovered it, like, cleaning staff have no idea. They wouldn't even be interested.
Tej:The food staff discovered it because when I turned up with a brand new car, they were like, what the hell is this? And then just kind of discovered it, which I think is good for them because they're quite entrepreneurial. So I kinda want them to see that and to see what can sort of come and what can happen. I used to on the last podcast I did, in all the podcast, I said, yes. You need to post content.
Tej:The reality successful cleaning business owner, one point five mil turnover, posts every now and then, but not really. Yeah. He's smashing it. I know all the ones I speak to who are doing really well, they're not their website is made on Microsoft Paint like Windows 98 shit. It's terrible.
Tej:They're making money Yeah. More than me, some of them. So lots of them are. So it depends on the sector. If you wanna sell courses, you want to sell, like an object, or product, or and potentially some services, it will help.
Tej:We both know communication nowadays is social media. People don't trust the news, right, especially in the West. People want to hear from you, not the news anchor, not the journalist. They wanna hear from you. What was your experience with this tool?
Tej:Oh, okay. I'm gonna buy that. TikTok shop is is, like, blowing up so many people because we wanna hear from each other. And crypto, it's decentralized. We don't wanna deal with banks because they're all corrupt and they're all fuckers.
Tej:We wanna deal with you and me. No one in between. And that's why it it's popular and it works, and people are trying to stop it working. So, depends on the sector.
Dean:Yeah. Like, I I remember listening to Tim Ferris on this. Do you know Tim Ferriss? Yeah.
Tej:Yeah.
Dean:Yeah. I listened to him, and he was saying in an episode that he did on his podcast about how to create a podcast that everybody in the world should have a podcast. And he said it through the lens of more so confronting yourself with your own speech, seeing how you talk.
Tej:Yeah. Practice then.
Dean:Exactly. Yeah. More of a Yeah. More of a practice. Yeah.
Tej:Because some people are boring. You shouldn't have a podcast.
Dean:I could see your reaction that said
Tej:it. It's the truth. It's the truth. But for practice and for like, yeah, % do it. Get on get on cameras while you're on it.
Dean:Mhmm. Yeah. It's a very good, way to analyze just your pauses, the the fluffy words that you use. And these things will go well for you in business. Like, if you can root out them, if you're in a m and a negotiation, if you're trying to close a deal, if you're reaching out to a thousand people, the way you speak is probably gonna make a big impact.
Tej:Facial expressions? I couldn't hide I don't hide my facial expressions. Obviously, I have to in certain scenarios. You don't
Dean:have me neither.
Tej:But it you know, it's good to know. Like, I'm aware of what I'm showing, but sometimes you you don't sometimes you're not aware of what you're showing. And unless you've seen yourself on a video, how are you gonna know? Yeah. Just someone else telling you.
Dean:So I have a funny question for you here. How much would I have to pay you if tomorrow we're sending you back into a nine to five? Like what would your salary like there's there's a point I could pay you. Like there's a point where you would say, yeah, do you know what? Give me the fucking nine to five.
Tej:What would it be? Is it $9.02 5 purely?
Dean:You're back in that office that you have to work the extra hour.
Tej:Oh, the extra hours, that's gonna put the price up a lot. Too far, I did like some of the staff. Like, I I didn't have beef with any of them.
Dean:It's almost hard, isn't it? Because like there it's like what would the number be? What like
Tej:And when could I even spend the money for four weeks a year on holiday?
Dean:Yeah. That's true.
Tej:Okay. If you if you paid me 25,000,000 a year and I was CEO, so I could get some nice dividends, and I could take longer holidays and stuff like that. Yeah. Sure. Why not?
Tej:I'll do it for a year. See you later, mate. Mhmm.
Dean:You know, I was because I I feel almost out of touch with just how, much I didn't like being in a nine to five and I'll I'll explain what I mean by that. So I'm sort of leaning into helping. I'm trying to figure out how I can actually help people because I shared the message on the podcast. I preach about why I did this, what how I got here and so on. But what I've realized is that it doesn't necessarily solve the problem that kind of illuminates it a little bit in someone's head maybe gets them to the point where they're like yeah fuck what do I want to do.
Dean:And so I've I've started to like mentor people for free and I'm just saying look I'm going to try and help you see if I can do this as much as you can do this and if I can facilitate that, right? And one of the guys I'm doing it with, I won't mention his name, but he was telling me he works for Aldi, in head office. And he was saying, all I was like, what do you really want from this? Like, what is it that you actually would prefer? And you said, I'd just like to be able to pop out at 10:00 in the morning, go to a cafe without worrying about my manager, messaging me on Slack.
Dean:And I was like, oh my god.
Tej:And that's all this thing.
Dean:I feel so out of touch with that. And that was like my big driver for getting out. Just that like we talked earlier, that little bit of freedom, options, not being controlled. And I was like, woah.
Tej:That's so much that one sentence is so much more meaningful and deeper of a drive than the money, the fancy things. And in reality, that's what most people want. Like, when I see people commuting to work or when I'm driving into London and I see people going the other way or or like in the morning when I look out my window and I see, like, people doing doing school runs, going to work, I'm just you know, oh I have to book in holiday, Let's go Dubai tomorrow, like I'm done, let's go. And I think you cannot put a price on that, that's why yeah 25 mil
Dean:That's what I mean, like how could you go back?
Tej:I don't think you could. I think also culturally, when I speak to people in nine to five jobs and they're like, oh, this person's so incompetent but they're in power or they just get away with it or, you know, it's such a toxic I'm like, I don't have that in my business because they get fired or they don't get hired. And if someone's a dick, I'll just tell them. You hire me for 25,000,000 a year, you're gonna fire me the next day, I promise you. Because I'm gonna be fighting everyone.
Tej:I'm unhirable. And once you've been out for so long, you just don't you just don't take shit. You know? We have a target, and we're going to meet it. Anything else in between is just get out of the way.
Tej:You know? And and you in employment, there's always things in the way. Bureaucracy, red tape, politics. And We can't say this, can't do that. I do what I want.
Tej:And so
Dean:yeah. Yeah. And it's such a small thing. It sounds so small, man. Just not being messaged on Slack or feeling that pressure
Tej:Yes.
Dean:That your world will cave in if you don't do what the boss says that your life is stripped. And you're doing it for that injection that you get every month on the last day of the month. Just putting up with that. And yeah, I I just felt so out of touch with that when he said that to me. I was like, wow.
Dean:Oh my god. God. That's all you said. I was like we are getting you out of here my friend. We are
Tej:getting you out.
Dean:Bless you. Yeah. Yeah. So what's your next move then to round things off? Like what's what's ahead?
Dean:You've got like a million pounds turnover you you know, well, close to.
Tej:Yeah. Almost. Close to. Almost.
Dean:I I
Tej:I don't even think I might just say it's a million. You know? Yeah.
Dean:Yeah.
Tej:I think Yeah.
Dean:What's the next twelve months? What are you what are you thinking?
Tej:So well, so the million pound target was actually my goal for the year. So if everything goes to plan and we close it in a few weeks, I suppose I can go back to retirement. Right? I kind of have periods of, hey, take it easy, run the business, you know, just just holidays, life, chill. And then I have periods which I've been on for January.
Tej:Like, I'm like, fuck this. We're growing. We're and I think I just get tired. Like, actually, I'm just like, you know what? We're done.
Tej:Like, I'm ill as well because I've been working so hard. She's not good for me. I shouldn't be more I should retire more. So I think there's definitely gonna be a period of downtime just naturally because it's just how I work. Once I probably once this business completes, it depends if my energy lasts that long.
Tej:But I'm still trying to buy another one or three. It will drop a little bit, and then I'll pick it back up in summer. You know, when the when the summer vibes come back in, you know Yeah. I'll pick it back up. I think now that, you know, we should be at just under a million, I need to really think about what my next goal is because so far and even when I get this one, this business has a very high profit margin for me me because I can run it anywhere in The UK with key staff.
Tej:I haven't needed, like, a middle manager. I do have one for my food business, who I'm gonna move across, who who's so keen on it, but I haven't had to put in that structure or an office or buy vans, or whatever. So when we start crossing the million mark, there's the potential where things can be a little fragmented, and smaller clients might get forgotten. And we might need to look at bigger clients. Of course we do.
Tej:The fifty, sixty thousand a year schools we can clean. And that then needs a different type of structure. So once this one is under the belt and we're good, I'm gonna sort of plan, well, what does the rest of the year look like? I think once you have a million funding and people's perception becomes a bit better, so I think the next acquisition would just be another million. It should be easier.
Tej:I mean, look, I'll buy whatever, but I would say end of the year, cleaning business should be anywhere between one to five million turnover. Food business, I've got a few targets in that in terms of, like, trying to get profitability. Very difficult. But mainly having fun in that one. Property, same old shit.
Tej:Mentoring, probably that a little bit. I do have, like, a full KPIs goals tracker spreadsheet that I track every week and, obviously, every month. Some fitness goals in there as well in terms of numbers lifted, times ran, whatever it is. But there isn't I think for me, it's always just more life. I wanna travel more, you know, I I wanna keep trying new experiences, new foods, like, new cultures, keep learning new languages, like, just to keep my mind going, but whilst also keeping up the scoreboard of success Mhmm.
Tej:On paper, which is the businesses. So really, yeah, you know, if if I've hit the million this early, I need to have bigger targets. But, yeah, just I just wanna be out of this country and just travel and live life. Like, you know, there's Yeah, man. You know, I I'm at a stage where I don't need to even though I have this very serious KPI tracker, I don't need to have the thing there.
Tej:I can just small life.
Dean:I felt that lately, man. You know, I told you before we came on that I was in Egypt and, you know, I I have these KPI's that I have and when I was over there, I was like, fuck it. I'm just I'm here. I'm living. I'm just enjoying life.
Tej:Yeah.
Dean:Who cares? All this pressure is self imposed. Why did I do all this? I just wanna enjoy myself. That's it.
Tej:You're not gonna say when you're 80, oh, I wish I did my KPIs. Yeah. Yeah. Damn it. You're gonna be like It's
Dean:a close-up deal.
Tej:Yeah. You're gonna be like, no. I had fun. Yeah. A lot of people live to work, but like I work to live.
Tej:You know? It's the other way around. Like, I'm not doing this. I enjoy the work. Don't get me wrong.
Tej:Even though it's not a passion project, I do still love the kitting business. But if I couldn't travel from it or have freedom from it or benefit from it, would I do it? No. It's just a nine to five then. Yeah.
Dean:I love it, man. Well, you've got a really cool and quite a unique journey, I would say. Say. I don't know of many people who've been in sales, recruitment, into cleaning, property, the works. So, I mean, I think you've got, a lot of wisdom to share.
Dean:Glad we shared it. And, yeah, man. This is great. Thanks for coming on.
Tej:Thanks for asking great questions. I think you you pulled out lots of parts of my brain that aren't often kind of used or spoken about. So, yeah, I appreciate it.
Dean:Fuck yeah. Nice. Cool.
