114 | Harnessing the Power of Social Media W/ David Scott

Dec 30

[00:00:50] Chaz Wolfe: What's up everybody? I'm Chaz Wolf gathering the King's podcast. I'm your host today. I've got David Scott on the King stage, my brother. How you

[00:00:57] David Scott: doing? I'm doing great, Chaz. Really glad

[00:01:00] Chaz Wolfe: to be here. Good man. Uh, we just had some great time off air. I always try to mention a couple of things here, but man, we talked about just in like 15 minutes, talked about crypto.

We talked about where in the countries we are or where in the country you're in. Beautiful, uh uh, Northern California, you got your hands in a lot of cookie jars. As you said, you got a great business that you're looking to maybe get into some others. Um, I'm interested for this conversation. I'm, I'm glad that you're here.

[00:01:24] David Scott: Yeah. Yeah. You know, I, I think it's an exciting time just because of how many opportunities the internet has brought us. You know, we talked about cryptocurrency. This is stuff 10 years ago that most people weren't even able to, you know, even trading on the internet was just becoming something we had enough bandwidth to do.

Yeah. And so, so many opportunities. Times

[00:01:44] Chaz Wolfe: are changing my man. Well, what, what's your main business right now and, uh, let's, let's jump in here.

[00:01:49] David Scott: Sure. So I own Scott Technology Group. It's a family business. Uh, my dad started it actually in the mid nineties. We sell copiers, multifunction printers, scanners, and uh, of course now moving into cloud software to help sure companies digitize and manage their document.

Um, a lot of companies are looking to automate time consuming tasks like payables. Yeah. Human resources, especially as workers are remote now. Yeah. You know, any kind of automation that you can build around those processes helps save money and make everything run more efficiently.

[00:02:22] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. You know, it's interesting that you say that because I think every entrepreneur, we know that we need to automate, but sometimes we don't know what or how.

or at what timeframe? You know, like we just, we get caught, like we were just talking about earlier, you and I, we were kind of talking about this warrior to king transition and, and the warrior being this day-to-day just grind, right? I'm wearing tons of hats and eventually if you stay there for too long, you just, you just fizzle out.

Um, But automation is one of those things that obviously you can do to lighten the load, if you will. And so how does someone know, like, lemme just kind of get into your business here. We're, we're off the script here a little bit, but how does someone know when to automate what? To automate? How, how, what should the entrepreneur be thinking, um, in that

[00:03:11] David Scott: way?

So that's, that's a great question. I actually, Dove in headfirst myself, uh, to starting this side business. It was, it was, and I, I, I learned the hard way because, you know, when you're a salesperson selling automation software, you view it from your perspective. Yeah. Not necessarily always from the business owner or the, the customer's perspective.

Right. But a few years back, I started this other company, we were gonna be selling these water coolers. Okay. And, uh, it was like, you know, a monthly rental. So I hired a team. Uh, my admin gal, she needed to store the contract somewhere, and so I had to make this decision. Do I use one of the tools that Scott Technology Group sells, which is gonna have a little bit more of a learning curve, or do I just tell her, use Dropbox and, you know, we'll, we'll just store stuff and Dropbox.

And so I went with Dropbox, even though I'm a big believer in this other software to keep things automated and and organized. And over the next five years, it became such a mess. We had contracts we couldn't find, we had records that, uh, were just wrong. And when I went to sell that business, I actually ended up selling it for less than I could have.

Uh, the, the buyer actually found product that was in the field that had never been recorded and we'd never build for, and just, just a mess. I lost, uh, at least five figures in potential revenue on that sale because I didn't keep good records. Yeah. So, The, the lesson I learned the hard ways is just, you know, bite the bullet and do things right from the beginning.

Yeah.

[00:04:45] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. So the listener here today, six figure business owner. They're not maybe at the very beginning, but what you're saying is don't wait another day. You should be thinking about some organization in some and some automation. How, how does a, how does an entrepreneur. Move forward with taking action around organization or automation and as opposed to analysis paralysis, right?

Like what , I feel like there's this, there's this, this balancing act that we have. Sure. Some are probably more prone to analysis just based on their personality as opposed to others. We're we talked about the ready, fire, aim, uh, attitude. We talked about that at the beginning here before we jumped on the recording.

Some are, some are, uh, in one of these camps. How, how do they. Prepare, plan, organize, automate, uh, without getting stuck.

[00:05:34] David Scott: Yeah, it can be difficult. I, I'm a big believer in processes, so I think the biggest thing is take what you have and just. Make a policy around it. If, if, if they're using Dropbox fine, work with it.

But make a policy so that everybody's doing things the same way. Everybody knows where these documents are gonna be stored, how they're gonna be stored, how to access them. And there's, there's just a process in place so that stuff doesn't get lost if, if a worker just suddenly quits. Um, All that, all their work is not, it's not a mystery.

You don't have to get a forensic accountant to go back and figure out where everything is. So there's been times where I've felt that though. Absolutely. Me too. So I think having a, having a written process and a written policy is the starting point. And then you'll start to see where the pain points are, Hey, we're doing this, but we're spending a ton of time scanning and doing data entry.

Uh, we're, we're still moving paper physically around, we're still emailing documents back and forth, and they're getting lost in emails, and then we can start to plug some of those gaps or address those bottlenecks.

[00:06:39] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, a hundred percent. Yeah. And it always doesn't have to be the entrepreneur either.

Right. We take a look at, maybe I've only got two or three people on my team. I'm a pretty small entrepreneur, but we have them write out what they do, they're gonna know it better anyway. And then, like you said, we can take a look at that and we can identify some areas of opportunity for automation. I love actually, um, going to my team.

I try to do this a couple times a year where I'm like, okay, write a list of everything that you're doing, especially the things that you. Every day, multiple times a day repeatedly over and over and over again, because that's a super easy way to go. Okay. Surely there's gotta be something somewhere, somehow that I can, uh, I can find an automated tool or a, a rule, or Zapier or whatever Absolutely.

That can help me out with this, you

[00:07:27] David Scott: know? Right. Absolutely. That's the place to start. Once you've got it written down and you can understand it, and you can assign somebody to, you know, find a few possible solutions, or you can go yourself and see what's out.

[00:07:38] Chaz Wolfe: Exactly. Okay. Good stuff. Well, so, um, my first question, , now that we're minutes in , I wanna get to it finally, but I, it's the same question.

You said you listened to some shows, really appreciate that before you jumped on here. Um, it's always the same and I think it sets a really, really awesome tone for guys like you that have had enough success where maybe you don't feel like you're done yet, you don't feel like you've maybe reached it.

The, the top level. Man, there's gotta be a reason at this stage that you're still going. I wanted to know what that is,

[00:08:10] David Scott: man. I've always had this desire to play in the largest arena. You know, I wanna be in the major leagues and. When you're an adult, that's business. Um, when I was a kid, that's, I think that's actually why I, so I was in the Marine Corps when I was younger, okay.

And I had this, this point when I was 17 of trying to decide what, what I'm gonna, what am I gonna do with my life? And the Marine Corps, to me just seemed like the, the largest, most meaningful, most impactful thing I could do. And, and this huge challenge to be accomplished. And if I could do that, I could do anything.

Yeah. And, uh, and. It really set my confidence very high, and then it, it also just set my risk tolerance very high. So now, now I feel like I'm just constantly chasing my own potential, trying to see how far I can push. If, if I'm not reaching my potential, I'm get, I'm, you know, kind of discouraged. Yeah. So, uh, so I tend to look at making money as this puzzle to be solved.

And I don't wanna just, I don't, you know, the money is, is a byproduct of doing everything else, right? Yeah. But I wanna build a great organization. I wanna be able to have meaning in it. I wanna be able to mentor people, make a better life for my family, have freedom of my own time. So I don't wanna be, you know, a, a slave to this thing that I've built.

Right. And then, and then have money come as a byproduct of all that. And so, even if it takes my entire life, I feel like it's a, a meaningful con. Yeah.

[00:09:40] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. I think that what you just said there at the end like super resonates with me even personally, is that it is going to take until the end. In fact, most likely my vision, hopefully it's big enough to where it actually, it can't be done in my lifetime.

Right? Like what you're talking about, this potential, it's like, man, what if it goes beyond? Right. What if, what if my potential is an extension into, like you said, your team or your family, or your children, or your grandchildren? Whatever that looks like. Um, it's like, what if my potential getting to that little piece goes beyond my physical life here on Earth?

It's like, man, that's big and deep. It's like, how do, how does that get me motivated today? What, what do you think about that? Like, do you wake up thinking about this, let me go get my potential? Or, or is it something different? I don't know. What do you think?

[00:10:33] David Scott: Well, I have to balance it because I, in the past I have, you know, I'd have these huge ambitions and huge dreams, and then I would get frustrated because instead of, you know, the boat moving in the direction I want it to go, I'm just, I felt like at times I was just patching holes in it to keep it from sinking, you know, I can't even start rowing yet.

So there have been times in the past where I'm just beating myself up, feeling like I'm. I'm not getting there. And then I've, I've really changed my mindset in the past few years and spent a lot of time thinking about that, just realizing that no, this is, this is a process. This is something everybody goes through.

In fact, building from the ground up is gonna make me a better entrepreneur, better business leader down the road. And, uh, so I'm just em embracing the day-to-day as much as possible. Uh, I, I spend a lot of. Making sure that my mindset is right and I, I don't say that as a cliche. Like I have fallen into that trap where I wasn't taking care of my body, I wasn't taking care of my mind.

I was just working, working, working. And. Real quickly, the mindset goes into discouragement, frustration, depression. Yeah. You know, and so, uh, just getting in those early morning workouts, making sure I'm eating right, even vitamins, man, I, you know, I was trying to lose weight a while back and I started to eat too little and, and I think the malnutrition caused depression.

And so I think as entrepreneurs sometimes, The battle is as much up here as it is out there. Yeah. And, uh, yeah, you're right. So, so that can become a ch a real challenge.

[00:12:13] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. Yeah. The, the vitamins piece that's so simple. Um, you know, I have to have it stacked with vitamins, man, because You wanna talk about outta sight, outta mind.

Oh, yeah. . It does not happen unless it is super obvious. And then I, and then even in that obvious, I've got like red lights, alarms, you know? Other people, Hey, over

[00:12:33] David Scott: here, I . Well, and here's the thing, is that something that simple can start to cause you to get into this little bit less optimistic, little bit less ambitious mindset and you're like, oh, maybe I shouldn't do that business deal.

Maybe I shouldn't take that risk. Maybe I shouldn't hire that person yet. You know, maybe the economy is gonna crash and all of a sudden you're thinking in terms that are like life changing for you and X number of employees and your family. I mean, we really have a responsibility to. To take care of

[00:13:01] Chaz Wolfe: ourselves.

Yeah. No, that's so true. All right, let's go a little bit practical here. I want to hear, um, you know, inside of, you know, maybe the first couple of years, I know you said your dad started the business, and so, you know, I want to hear about how maybe you got started in the business. Uh, what was the transition like?

Was it, did you work with your dad for a while? Give us how it kind of.

[00:13:21] David Scott: Sure. Well, I, I think I've been an entrepreneur from the time I was a kid. Um, I remember at 12, you know, going around selling chocolate door to door. Oh, you trying to go to camp? Are you raising money for your school? No, just trying to make money.

you know, . That's awesome. So I was doing that from a young age. And then my dad, he was just a copier tech. He, he fixed copiers and his company got. Mass layoffs, uh, pay cut. So he left and, and started his own company and it just started out of our garage. I was 14. He was servicing copiers and I would help him clean 'em up, you know, we'd be out in the garage scrubbing down old copiers and cleaning 'em up to resell.

And my brother and I, we were 15 and 16. We were the first delivery team, so we'd be carrying copiers upstairs and stuff. Yeah. And as he grew and, um, so I worked for him for a couple of years doing. Joined the military. Uh, I was gone from 17 to 23. I started a family in that time, no, I'm sorry, 25. And then, um, so he started to talk to me about coming back up here and working for him full-time so that he could mentor me to take over the business.

Yeah, so I was 25. I came up here in 2005. And I, I've been up here ever since, uh, worked with him side by side for a number of years, and then he wanted to retire, so, so, uh, I purchased a portion of the business from him in 2011. He actually passed away in 2018. Oh, wow. Which was, which was a challenge for me.

Yeah. He was, he was my business partner for a lot of years and really taught me. Quite a bit. So, uh, but we're, you know, we're going strong since then, I've, I've started, um, two other copier dealerships sold. One of them started the water cooler dealership and, and sold that, uh, you and I were talking about that before the show, right.

And done a number of other things. Um, but we're just continuing to, to grow and, uh, it's been.

[00:15:16] Chaz Wolfe: Well, I, yeah, that, I mean, what a, what a transition, you know, to go through, to have, I don't know. I just, I look forward to those moments where I can talk to my kids about, you know, mentoring them inside of a business specifically, do we, you know, do it together, do businesses together, do deals together, whatever that looks like and whatever industries that we're gonna be in.

But, um, you know, I, I think that that's, he did exactly what he was designed to do, uh, paved the way. And, uh, and bring you along. He did. Yeah, that's

[00:15:47] David Scott: pretty incredible. And you know, he left behind a great reputation and a great legacy and, uh, customers still talk about him. Employees still talk about him.

That's, it actually makes me a little bit sad cuz I've been here 17 years now full-time and I've only got one guy left that was here. when I first started. Yeah. Wow. So, you know, slowly that old guard is, is retiring and, uh, but it's a, it's a brand new crew, a lot of younger people, and, and the business is starting to take on its own shape, so

[00:16:16] Chaz Wolfe: Exactly.

A as as it should, right. Um, you're, you're the, you're the lead dog now, and so they gotta, they gotta, uh, have your vision and, um, and also like we were talking about, you know, off the air just a little bit, um, about how. Businesses change over the course of time. You're not, you're not naive to the idea that people are printing less Absolutely.

Um, than more. And so you, uh, having a technology business as opposed to just a printing business, um, obviously makes a big difference. And you're gonna need some young guys to help you out with that.

[00:16:46] David Scott: So. Well, you know, and I'm especially. Fascinated with what's happening in modern era, especially with social media.

You've got this fusion of entertainment and business where they're going like this. Oh yeah. You look at these young guys like Mr. Beast on YouTube, and here he is, he's a YouTuber, but now he's got a a burger chain. He's got chocolate bars that are selling in Walmart. Like the guy has bridged the gap from entertainment into business.

And then you've got other people who are going the other direction Taking business and becoming entertainers. I think of brands like, um, K Swiss and Old Spice, that that just lean hard into creating really entertaining content. Yeah. And, um, I just think there's so much potential there. So I, I've got this, I've got this idea for what marketing is going to evolve into it, and that's really something that I'm excited about exploring in our business.

Yeah,

[00:17:40] Chaz Wolfe: I love that as well. You're right, there's this gap. In fact, I was just actually just watching. It was probably a TikTok video. Um, but somebody talking about this exact same thing where it's like, okay, you have these two worlds. Um, actually it was Sam Ovens. I'll give a little plug here. I remember now Sam Ovens, and he was talking, um, in this video that I was watching about these two worlds colliding this, this entertaining world and the, the business world or in the his space, he's the, in the info education space where they're selling courses or, um, you know, trainings or.

And then coming together, cuz you have the course creators and the trainers who need clients, who need the audience, who need the right, need the eyeballs. And you have the people over here with, uh, who like Mr. Beast, who have all the eyeballs, but. Previously didn't have anything to sell. Right. Um, and really obviously the combined effort there of not only having the audience, but then also being able to provide a product service, you know, whatever it is, that's the ultimate in business is to be able to do both because, uh, otherwise you are lacking either a business, literally sales , or you're lacking, um, the ability to find people to help them with your product.

Um, so

[00:18:50] David Scott: you, you know, Gary Vaynerchuck said he, he made this comment that has. Stuck in my brain, . But he said that attention is the new real estate. Yeah. And the more you know, everybody spends time staring at a screen. And if you can capture a few of those minutes from every person, then you now have that real estate and you've got something to do.

But if you can't get attention, uh, grant Cardone talks about this. If you can't get attention, then you really can't sell whatever it is you're doing, even if it's the world's greatest, you know, cure for cancer. If nobody's gonna listen, what good is?

[00:19:24] Chaz Wolfe: Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. And, and I think that, uh, you know, this, this is good for the listener to hear because it's not, it's not just a guru thing, right?

Like you get attention and now you can flaunt your jet. Um, right? It, it's really about you as the local business owner. You have a, a technology print business, or the guy that's listening that has a concrete business, what, whatever the spectrum of all these businesses, you need people. You need eyeballs, you need attention.

And uh, how we do that obviously is, it is changing, is is our point here, right? We're changing. Um, it's becoming entertaining. It's becoming more story-like, it's becoming more authentic, really. Like even just this right here, just having a conversation back and forth allows people to be able to see you and I both in different respects because we're just being us.

Like I got my elk hat, you know, hat on today. You know, you're chilling over there in your office. I can see what your life looks. For real, for real. You know, and so I think that just, uh, it's just a great depiction of where things are going and it's for every business. It's not just you and me or the gurus that we mentioned.

It's for everybody that's listening, they need to apply this to their business for sure.

[00:20:32] David Scott: Absolutely. Yeah. There's a, there's actually a great book. Sorry, . I'll just Yeah, go ahead. End into that thought. Um, Marcus Sheridan wrote this book. They ask you answer. Okay. And it, I was at this conference and this lease company was presenting, and they actually gave everybody a copy of this book.

They ask you answer by Marcus Sheridan. Wow. And this guy, he's in like West Virginia, he has a pool and spa business, and it was struggling, I think this was maybe in the early two thousands. Okay. And he just, Writing blog posts, answering questions that people commonly would ask them, you know, what's the best kind of pool in ground or above ground, or what kind of materials?

So he would just write these blog posts and he just was constantly. Anything that people would ask, he would create that. And he started to dominate the search engines. And then he started to do reviews on different companies, reviewed his competitors. So when people would search his competitors' names, his blog would show up.

You know, And the guy just has this inspirational story of turning around the pool and spa business there and turning it into a huge success. Yeah. I think that that concept is still valid, but it's changing. You know, the thing now is short form videos. You mentioned TikTok, YouTube shorts, Instagram stories, and companies that can really lean into that and maybe combine a little bit of education for their customer with some entertaining entertainment value are the ones that are getting, get that attention and dominate.

[00:21:58] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, absolutely. It's also too, you know, the entertainment piece is, It's, it's nurturing. That seems odd to put entertaining and nurturing together. But if I have your attention and you may not be a good fit for whatever it is that I'm selling today, but it might be a good fit tomorrow or next week or next year, or five years from now, and if I can, if I can hold your attention, then you'll remember me in essence.

And so I still think that it's applicable, you know, for those folks that. , you know, uh, my, my, my demographic isn't on TikTok. Well, first off, it probably is right? Number two. Number two, even if it's not, guess what's gonna happen in five years, 10 years. The people that are on TikTok who you quote, don't think are in your demographic are gonna become Yep.

Your demographic. So, um, don't be, don't be silly. All right. Let's get into some practical decisions that you've made. I wanna go good and bad here. Think about a decision that you made inside the business that a, that a listener right now that can go put into principle or into practice rather. Sorry, uh, today something that you did that they can, they can take a note of and it's super applicable.

[00:23:04] David Scott: Absolutely. So, I think one of the most impactful things happened. During the, the throes of the pandemic businesses were shut down. Most of our customers were closed. So, you know, and we rely on this recurring revenue from our maintenance agreement contracts. And I was just stuck. You know, I just could not figure out how to move forward, um, what is our business gonna look like, post pandemic, how to plan for that.

I just had some major, major problems that I was facing that I just couldn't solve. , I reached out to a friend of mine, uh, in fact, I'm gonna plug, her name is Elena Noel. She's got a great book called Inspiring Accountability. Wow. And she's a, a coach, author, speaker. She works with businesses to help them, uh, create a more, you know, a better culture of accountability.

Nice. But she just, she. She gave me some incredible coaching and just weekly meetings, sharing with her what I'm facing, uh, helping me problem solve. And I think I'd never reached out to a coach in that way before. I'd never had just constant business coaching. Um, at one point she identified, you know, some issues that we had in sales, and she referred me to a sales coach.

And then I worked with that sales coach for a number of months and just, you know, it's, it was the nitty gritty, it was me getting my hands dirty, uh, and, and just problem solving, but it, it showed me the value of having a coach, having a mentor, having somebody else who's outside of it with a different perspective and being able to have them help problem solve.

So that was huge for.

[00:24:39] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, this, you know, you're so far into the forest, you can't see the trees. Yep. Mindset I think is obviously very real, but we just, we don't know when we're in the forest. . Um, I was talking about this actually this morning with my workout buddy. He's one of my, uh, real estate partners and he had been in the real, or in the, uh, restaurant business for 25 years and had owned a couple of his own places and, and kind of in and out and I mean, 25 years doing something is a long time.

He's. You know, just a maybe, maybe my age or a little older. I mean, he'd been mostly doing this one thing his whole life. And so, um, it was about a year or so ago when he, he, he was cutting my hair. He's cutting my hair for a while and I was like, Hey, man, you ever thought about real estate? And I slid it, I slid him a book.

And two days later he was like, dude, how, how, what, where? Tell me what I gotta. And so we ended up creating a company and, and that's been all great, but the, what we were talking about this morning is this thing right here is like, he would, he felt odd doing something different. And sometimes we just don't know to shift or even what to shift or how to shift or where to go unless we have that person who's just completely not in our forest at all go, Hey, have you ever thought about this?

And uh, and it wasn't me cuz he's done all the work. Um, it was just my perspective. It just switched his brain for a half second long enough to realize, man, this is something completely different. Which is in essence what you're saying. Do you want to add anything to that with the example that you gave with the coach?

[00:26:12] David Scott: Yeah. You know, I think just like you're, you're talking about, I mean, I know you're, you've got a mastermind group and having people that have been through experiences or have resources or just, you know, can point you in a direction to explore, it just is, it makes a world of difference. And so, uh, maybe stealing from a future question, but I, I absolutely value mastermind groups for that reason.

that's

[00:26:36] Chaz Wolfe: beautiful. Yeah. No, no, it's good. It's good. Um, it's good for the listener to hear because. You know, in that warrior stage we talked about sometimes you're just busy, you know, and like you even said it yourself, I was just doing the thing. I was stuck. And, um, it takes doing something different or talking to someone different, um, that to change it.

And so, let's flip the script. I wanna know of a bad decision that you've made where, you know, obviously it didn't take you outta business, but, uh, man, you learn from it and we can learn from. .

[00:27:06] David Scott: Yeah, I have a good one. Um, so, so the, the water company I started in 2016, it, it's a great business. It's essentially these, these water coolers you can put anywhere in the building.

They purifier water's, hot and cold drinking water on demand, no bottles, flat monthly rentals. So, you know, it made a lot of sense for the customer and I got excited about it because it could be this recurring revenue business model. Yeah. You know, I immediately, uh, jumped in. I, I leased a couple of vans. I started to, uh, hire some people.

I built it up cuz I'm running this existing, uh, office equipment office, technology company. And that's kind of how we do things if we need to hire somebody who hires somebody. Yeah. And I was not thinking in terms of a, a startup and, uh, Really quickly got into debt, got in over my head. I just didn't do the due diligence to, to have a, a good business plan, good budget, good cash flow.

And um, about that same time I was also starting another copier dealership over in an adjacent city. Really? Believed that we had the right guys that we were partnering with that could just grow it really fast. But same thing. Didn't have a good business plan, didn't plan for the cash flow. You know, in the Marine Corps when you call for artillery fire, yeah.

You have them shoot a few rounds and then you call them and you tell them to adjust. And so I was approaching business the same way. Like, Hey, if we miss, we'll adjust as we go. Right? Yeah. We don't need a business plan. Well, things one thing led to another and I ended up in just this, this massive. And at one point, I, I had to start facing the decision.

Do I, uh, do. Pay payroll or do I pay, you know, send in the payroll tax withholdings because I didn't have enough to do both. And every week I just had this, or every two weeks I had payroll coming up. And so it just became this huge stress point started to fall behind with the i r s. And you know it when you don't send in payroll tax, like that's, that's could be criminal.

So I found myself having this discussion with an attorney like, am I going to prison because I'm really far behind. I don't know how to catch up. And he goes, No, they're not gonna send you to prison for being a bad business person. You know, you just gotta . Yeah. If you were buying a boat with it, that'd be different.

So, um, just a really bad decision. I, you know, I think I, I'm a religious person. I think God sent the right guy at the right time to buy that company and he bought it for enough to pay back the I IRS and pay off some of the debts. And so, uh, we got out of that alive, but that was a, a very scary time for me.

A lot of stress and, um, Really underscored the importance of going into it with a plan, knowing my cash flow, knowing my numbers, what's it take to be profitable and to grow and, and how much capital do I need to do

[00:29:56] Chaz Wolfe: it? Yeah. I love, I love two things that you gave to us. I love that. Um, you, you said you'd never really, you weren't thinking startup because, You were, you took over an existing business, right?

And so there's this huge difference, obviously, between a startup and buying a business. Um, I'm curious to know, though, if you did it all over again, would you buy an existing business or would you start up since you've done both? Now?

[00:30:24] David Scott: Boy, that's, that's a great question. I think it all depends on the existing business because if, if it was, if it had the right customers, if it had the right people and they were, uh, profitable, you know, the financing worked out, right? I would wanna look at the cash flow. But, um, I think buying an existing business is better.

It'll give you a faster start. But you have to be confident that you're gonna be able to keep those customers and keep those employees. Yep. And that's, that's really key. Uh, I, if I was gonna start up, I would start up a lot slower and the other thing I would do, oh, still running this business, is I would make sure that I had.

Like somebody who was taking ownership of that. I, I was trying to be the c e o of both, and it was just too much. I don't know how Elon Musk does it, but I need somebody who can be in charge of that other business. I can't be doing all the hiring and training and going out on emergency service calls at, you know, middle of the night.

Uh, so I, I failed to, to really put somebody in charge of that business. And that was a. .

[00:31:30] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, those are all great points. Um, I, I've done both myself as well, and you're right, it's a different challenge for each one. Um, but man, if you can buy a business, um, or roll up, right, like someone listening to right now, they already have their own business.

Um, potentially what the easiest way to get to seven figures is go buy a competitor, . Um, and there's deals out there because just as we started this conversation, um, You know, there's lots of opportunity out there. There's gonna be, over the next 10 years, there's people looking to exit. And whether it's in whatever industry we're talking about, um, there's always gonna be opportunities to, to go to the next level, um, through, through acquisition.

And so I think that that's a nice little plug there. Let's talk about process. We've talked about good and bad decision here a little bit, but what about today? Like today, you're a sharp guy, you got a podcast, you got multiple businesses. How does, how does David today make a good decision?

[00:32:23] David Scott: Well, I, I always talk to my wife about it.

She's, she's way more so, so, like, I've come to realize that my risk tolerance is broken. .

[00:32:32] Chaz Wolfe: So, okay. Explain.

[00:32:34] David Scott: I just, you know, I, I'm somebody who, uh, well, I, I love trading cryptocurrency. I think that that tells you something. I, I wanted to learn how to trade futures so, Not crypto futures, just, you know, financial futures back during the, the 2009 recession.

And so I just started trading like gold futures and, and uh, started trading options like. And, and lost a ton of money in the process. It was a, it was the worst thing in the world to, to just jump in and do with real money. Uh, you know, but my risk tolerance has always been very high. So now when I make a decision, I do it recognizing that, and I talk to my wife who's the opposite.

I, I, I have to value her opinion. A lot of times I'm frustrated by it because like, yep. Oh, come on, you're not seeing the. She's a big ball of nos. . . But yeah, but she's, she's objective, like, she doesn't just shoot stuff down. She, she will look at it, but she'll often give me some, some really valuable insight.

That's good. Um, I always wanna make sure that, you know, as, as somebody who believes in God, I wanna make sure it's, it's right, it's ethical, it's not violation of the Bible because I feel like, uh, that's a really important principle for my life. . Yeah. And uh, and then the last thing is when I finally do make a decision, I I, what they taught us in the Marine Corps is make a decision and die by it.

In other words, don't second guess it. Once the decision's made, it's, it's made. Go after it and do everything you can to make it successful.

[00:33:59] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, I love that. Such great wisdom. Um, some shared, some given from, uh, your own experience there. I love it. Um, let's go over to the speed round here. Got a couple minutes left here.

I'm gonna come at you in a different angle. My first speed round question is regarding tracking KPIs. I want to know what is the most important thing to track inside your business?

[00:34:20] David Scott: Boy, if, if I had to pick one thing, I would say it's gotta be cash flow, and that's just, You know, I'm not somebody who comes from a, an b a background, so it's taken me some, some real world bruises to learn this.

Yeah, yeah. But cash flow is so critical and it's, it's, it's different. It's nuanced, right? Y it's not just your net profit because you've got financing and, and taxes. So understanding how much of that cash you're actually gonna be able to keep at the end of the year Right. Is really vital to the, to the business and its growth.

[00:34:52] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, a hundred percent. I agree with you. The perspective of not having the background I share with you as well. And so I even find myself even still today, I'm a numbers guy. I, I run the numbers. I look at the. The, the, the profit, the, you know, I, we can, we can dissect it in 14 different ways. Right? Right.

But it, there is still like a little bit of street in me, you know, Yeah. Where it's like, you know, like you said, a high risk tolerance and, and you know, I look at the numbers, but also I'm like, yeah, but you know, I don't have a degree so poo on that. Let's, let's go over here and run fast and you gonna bet on

yourself you wanna bet on yourself. Exactly. And so I think, I think what I'm, what we're trying to say is that it's real. You do need, you do need to do this. You do need to pay attention. Otherwise, eventually, , like you said earlier, maybe you, uh, maybe you won't have a business. .

[00:35:43] David Scott: Right, right. Yeah. I, I found myself looking at my business one time and, and going, we're profitable.

I'm just so frustrated, you know, we're profitable. Why are we constantly having to borrow money or to, you know, struggling to, to pay our taxes at the end of the year? What's going on? Like, you know, and, and then finally just, um, diving deep, sitting down with the c p a, figuring out where the cash is going.

And it, it's, you know, it's elusive. It, it should be a no-brainer. Like, um, that's something. A business person really needs to look at and keep, keep an eye on because that should be one of the, the first and foremost things. But I think a lot of times we look at top line revenue and bottom line profit and, and we forget to look at our cash flow.

[00:36:22] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, exactly. Good stuff. Okay. What book would you recommend David for, uh, business owner trying

[00:36:27] David Scott: to grow their business? So I'm gonna recommend two of them. Um, Elena Noel's book inspiring account. Incredible at helping entrepreneurs actually confront poor performing employees in a way that's not gonna crush their spirit.

Wow. And so, especially if for, I think there's a lot of entrepreneurs out there that maybe struggle with confrontation. Yeah. Uh, they don't like it. And so they let bad behavior continue and and poison the organization. So true. So inspiring accountability, highly recommend that. And then the second one is Cal Newport's book Deep Work.

Yeah. That book just helped me incredibly. You have it on there, right? There it is. I see it. Yep. , I've got it back here somewhere. and, um, you know, just, just realizing that if you need to learn, if you need to build a website, you can build a website if you need to learn how to code. Some Python to accomplish something.

You can learn that you just need to set aside all the distractions and get some time to spend in highly focused deep work. And, uh, you can accomplish just about anything for your business. And I think that's critical, especially for that six figure business owner that can't afford to outsource a lot of things.

He's wearing a lot of hats and, um, sometimes it's just about shutting out the.

[00:37:42] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. No, that's so good. I I, I'm taking that one away today for me. , . There's a lot of noise, man. Um, and I think that, uh, you know, medically, uh, induced or not, or not induced, but, uh, claimed, uh, a D d A D H D I think a lot of entrepreneurs, we like projects.

We like the next thing we like, right? We like to stay busy. Um, you know, which over there they call that a d d I just. The, the ability to go from one thing to the next and be excited all the time. Like, come on, let's go. But man, you wanna talk about, uh, a distraction, um, uh, to, to keep things actually foggy all the time, you know?

So it does take deep work to, to make the point there. Absolutely. All right. What, uh, what do you think, you kind of mentioned earlier about mastermind groups having this perspective, but what do you, what do you think about in like, networking maybe versus masterminding? Do you do both one or the other?

What, what would you recommend for the listener to do that type of thing?

[00:38:37] David Scott: I do both. So I'm part of a mastermind group that's specifically in my industry. So there's Okay. Uh, you know, 25. Business owners, we get together twice a year from across the country. Some of these guys have nine figure businesses.

Um, and it's just great to learn from them, people that have companies that span, you know, four or five different states. Yeah. And so I can, they've, they've made all the mistakes. Some of these guys have businesses going back to their early 19 hundreds even. It's, it's amazing. Wow. You know, selling typewriters and stuff.

Yeah. And fourth generat. That's incredible. So, but you know, networking is huge because in, in just local networking, I've gotten to meet guys that have given me a huge education on how banks view S B A loans and, um, yeah, how insurance companies think. I mean, just understanding real estate. So being able to broaden my horizons has been really helpful.

Networking with people in other industries, and that's really why I'm setting up my own podcast is I wanna, I wanna. I wanna meet other people and, uh, it doesn't have to be in the context of doing business with them. I just wanna have more conversations so I can grow.

[00:39:42] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. Yeah. Love that. All right, well I've got one last question here for you, David.

I want to know if you could whisper in the younger David's ear, what would you say?

[00:39:57] David Scott: I would say learn everything you can about finance and marketing, because those two are gonna be a game changer regardless of what direction you go in. Yeah, I think those, those, those two topics, finance and marketing have, have been, uh, maybe especially marketing. A lot of people cut, cut marketing out when, when times get tough.

And I think a, a skilled marketer can yeah, just make a huge impact on a business. So, yeah. Yeah. If I could talk to my younger self, I think I would've spent a little bit more time just learning the principles of marketing and, and yeah, focusing on that

[00:40:34] Chaz Wolfe: and, and maybe invest in Bitcoin 15 years. Oh, for sure.

As a fellow crypto enthusiast, I think about that often. I've, I have asked this question. Not, not, it's, it's a newer question. That's why I wasn't on your list. I, I caught you off guard on purpose, but, um, you know, I have, I have yet to hear the person say, Uh, you know, invest in Apple, invest, you know, like whatever the, the thing that their younger self should have technically or practically done.

It's always theory, which is phenomenal. That's the mindset that we're going for. I just think it's funny because, uh, man, if, if, if we had known what we know now, buy Bitcoin . Yeah. I mean, bro, it was, it was really, really cheap. Cheaper, well, not that long ago, you know? Anyway. Well, we just appreciate you being here, obviously, uh, you've just been, uh, super helpful and kind in sharing your story.

How can the listener find you, whether they're, they need to do business with you, um, in a technology, uh, printing automations way, or maybe they just didn't wanna reach out and, and, uh, pick your brain?

[00:41:34] David Scott: How can they find you? Sure, absolutely. So I'm active on Twitter, uh, Sergeant David Scott. I've got a YouTube channel.

If you just search David Scott podcast, you'll find it. Or David Scott Finance. It's under both. Um, you know, I'm on Facebook, I'm on LinkedIn, so, you know, I don't, I don't use Facebook and LinkedIn as much, but I check my, my dms, they're open. So sure would, would love to hear from anybody.

[00:41:56] Chaz Wolfe: That's awesome, man.

Well, you've been incredible here today. Thank you for, again, just sharing and sharing of your time, uh, your history, the whole deal. We wish you nothing but success blessing on your businesses and your family and, uh, all the things that you got your hand to. So thanks for. Thank

[00:42:09] David Scott: you, Chaz. It's great.

Host Chaz Wolfe brings on David Scott, a 7+ figure king in the business solutions industry. David is President/CEO at Scott Technology Group, Inc. out of California. David grew up working in his father’s business. At 17, David joined the Marine Corps, then returned at the age of 25 to work in the family business again, and took over for his father in 2011 to run the business. Now, David is leveraging modern social media to grow his business into the digital age. In this episode, Chaz and David discuss potential consequences of not using better technology, standardizing processes, and starting a new business vs. purchasing an existing business. Listen in as David shares his experiences and the knowledge he’s gained throughout the years so you can grow your business today!

David Scott:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sgtdavidscott/

Website: https://www.scottsoffice.com/

Website: https://globalofficeinc.com/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DavidScottPodcast

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