ASK DODGE #7. When to Quit Your Job and Go All In

0:00This message comes from Jackson. Taxes aren't something you can only think about once a year. With investments, planning for tax days year-round. Fortunately, Jackson offers tax-efficient products. Visit jackson.com for more information on how our products can make your tax bill a little bit less painful. Jackson is short for Jackson Financial Incorporated, Jackson National Life Insurance Company, Lansing, Michigan, and Jackson National Life Insurance Company of New York. Purchase New York. You're listening to this podcast, so I know you've got a curious mind. Here's a helpful fact you might not know yet.

0:30Drivers who switch and save with Progressive save over$900 on average. Pop over to Progressive.com, answer some questions, and you'll get a quick quote with discounts that are easy to come by. In fact, 99 % of their auto customers earn at least one discount. Visit Progressive.com and see if you can enjoy a little cash back. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company & Affiliates. National average 12-month savings by$946 by new customers surveyed who saved with Progressive between June 2024 and May 2025. Potential savings will vary. This is Ayo Akemwellere from the Athletic FC podcast. Buying a car should be exciting, not exhausting.

1:07And if you're looking for a gleaming SUV to replace your old banger, or you're taking the plunge and going electric, the good news is you can buy your car completely online on Autotrader. Really. Just go to autotrader.com and get picky. Search through dealer listings for the make, model, colour and the features that matter to you. Then just drop in your info and you'll see all the cars that fit your budget. Really. Once you've found the car of your dreams, you can have it delivered to your driveway or you can pick it up at the dealership. Really. So buy your next car entirely online on Autotrader.

1:42Head to autotrader.com or search the Autotrader app. hello and welcome back to the show now these are our shows where you ask a question and dodge and myself will do our best to answer for you how are you dodge you were right all good this end mate all good good stuff right the way it works it's like this ask us a question via spotify or what seems to be happening now is we have askdodge at dodgewoodle.com and add your question to the email send it over and we'll do our best we don't want to ignore people do we we don't want to ignore what people are saying do we right here we go this comes from the email is just from andrea andrea thank you so much for your question andrea asked she says i'm seeing growth for her business so this is from a business perspective now i am seeing growth but how do i know i am keeping it real staying true to myself and not becoming someone i am not you're going to be juggling a lot i'd like to know what a turnover is i'd like to know how many staff she's got you know i can add value when i know that someone's got a number of staff because growth is quite easy in growth in terms of what does growth mean to most people because if you speak to with someone who's in business, how you get in, how's business?

3:0699.9 % of people go, yeah, it's fantastic. It's great. It's great. Actually, once you get past that front and you can delve a bit deeper and you find out whether their turnover is actually making them any profit at the end of the day, then you find out how many years they've been doing it for and how many years they maybe have been making a loss and then what year it took for them to get to break even. And are they in a position at the moment where growth is really important to them but they want to go from, I don't know, maybe from 10 staff and they want to go to 15 staff. But there's big risks in growing too quickly as well.

3:38How did you manage to hold on? How have you kind of keeping it together and still being, you're the same person you are today, really, then when I first met you back in 2008? How was that just the way that you are and the way that you're programmed? Because I can see it being tough for people where they are pulled from pillar to post. No, you just deal with it. You go, you know, whatever's in front of you, you deal with it, you take the pressure, you understand it. You grab the business and see what angles you can make and what angles and what tweaks you need to do. But, you know, there's growth, but there's also growth in staff.

4:12People might say, oh, we're growing because we're getting more and more staff on board. But, you know, the biggest overhead you've got are staff and office space. You know, if you grow too quickly and you're thinking that you need three more staff and all of a sudden that comes to 120 grand, under 30 grand, under 40 grand, and the money's not coming in on the other end, you know then you're going to come unstuck is that the biggest pressure for a growing business that yeah knowing that how do i facilitate that with the right team members and those people around me obviously more outgoings is that what the biggest yeah for me it is it always has been it's always trying to keep your costs down it's always trying to make sure that every year whether you're building a business you're still looking after people they're still getting pay rises even in tough times they're all giving pay rises because you want to keep your team it's all about team it's all about your team like like if you were at the top of the helm and you watch your business is your risk you want to make sure that people have got experience but you want to make sure those people who got experience are still hungry you know there's times when businesses staff have been there for seven years eight years the hunger starts to go i was chatting to someone last week and they were saying it's just triggered this thought this thing of still trying still being true to yourself owner of a business was saying like i'm having to fire i'm firing people quite regularly.

5:27Lots of people are firing people at the moment, mate. And they said to me, but I'm not this, people think I'm this robot, this animal that is just hiring and I'm not, because I'm feeling it as well. And I never asked for this, but I just seem to be in this place at minute where I'm effectively, one, it may not be the staff is the right fit or it may be the other side that it wasn't doing the job that was anticipated. And there's somebody that said, I carry this entrepreneurs are the biggest actors out there it's interesting yeah because when do you walk into a room in a bar how's business going yeah it's fantastic you know there's a lot going on at the moment growth yeah growth's going good at the moment when does everyone you know everyone talks about scaling up scaling up got to scale up you got to scale up no one ever talks about scaling down and when there's periods over the last 30 years there's times I've had to scale down you have to understand what's coming ahead you know I've got a good I've got a good inkling of seeing things in business and most feel like I'm five moves ahead of what's happens if that you're constantly looking what happens if that happens what happens if that happens what happens if that goes down what does that you know you're constantly like a chessboard moving it around you know but going back is the actors of business is no one ever lets their guard down to say no my business is not going well at the moment I find it really tough my overheads are massive getting stung by VAT getting stung by National Insurance which is employers tags I'm getting all these things that are coming on top.

6:56I can't make ends meet at the moment, but I'm also 100 grand in debt because I borrowed a load of money from the bank and every month I'm paying my interest off of my loan to the bank. It can become too much, and I can see why people make some really tough decisions. They're actually protecting their mind health. Their physical health might be going down the pan. Maybe they can't handle it as much in their mind, especially where we are in times right now. You know, times right now, Marky, are really tough. You know, people talk about recession and it's got to hit like certain quarters down. I feel we've been in a recession the last four years.

7:32No one's ever talking about it because officially it's not a recession. But I've never seen business so tough for people out there. People launching new businesses, giving it a good go, realise it's not working. A year down the line going, right, 50 % of the business is not working. Let's go and find a job. you know there's very few at the moment that i look at and go god you know what if i was struggling for money now that's the route i'll go down there's very few like it used to be like where there was cash you know you go and buy something you if you were in you know a bloke might go you know i'm in real trouble i lost my job you know what i go and buy a car for six grand i might be able to sell it for eight grand and this cash there's nothing out there you know normally someone would go let's go and set up a bar let's go and do a pub let's go and do a restaurant let's go and do a cafe let's go and do they're very far few between right now and i do get where andrea andrea is coming from in terms of there were so many pressures you'd talk about that the stuff that we read and the stuff that we see and everything else and it is volatile so if someone is trying to just hold on and get through and still i take my hat off to anyone who's running the business right now because being a leader it's all right being a leader when times are good but you try to look for the good leaders when times are not good like now 21 22 23 24 25 20 26 you know they're the businesses that i'm like even more respect for these leaders trying to find their way through and trying to navigate through an absolute show well done yeah well done for pulling that one um and it has been a proper show so i have got a huge amount of respect of anyone trying to run a business and make a profit yeah it's okay having a business where you are running a business you're paying your staff and paying your overhead and you're paying yourself less than minimum wage there will be a high percentage of people paying themselves less than minimum wage maybe hard memory if you worked out it might be on a five or an hour like because it's so tough out there because people haven't got that extra money in their back pocket.

9:32There is cash and there's no cash in the system anymore. People haven't got the rainy day money in their pocket. They can, yeah, there's 100 quid for dinner and there's 40 quid here and passing it around and can you get me that for me? There's none of that but no one's spoken about not having cash in the system because it's the unwritten rule. No one talks about cash for some weird reason but, you know, these big companies that I'm seeing now, these massive corporates are taking everything offshore and paying no tax where the middle class at the moment are getting stung for every single bit of tax going.

10:01You know, the wealthier people can get up and go. They can jump on a plane and go, do you know what? I'm going to Bali. I'm going to these places where I can get away quite easily because I've got the money to go. But if you are a dad with two kids, one kid, if you're a mum who may be a single parent, it's very difficult for you to get away from your rent and all the bills. And that's bringing everyone down at the moment. But there is light at the end of the tunnel. and I always say this as well because we can't keep going in this the way we're going at the moment it won't last forever when you look back at the different periods of times when the government had gone into place and it's become a place where people were paying taxes to, you know, I saw the other day, I think it was, how much was it, don't quote me on this but it was a high amount of billions being brought in tax and that money, that same amount of billions was going out into people who don't work what is the incentive there you know people who don't work are getting free accommodation and free this and food and the people who are grafting 40 50 hours a week are paying the taxes to pay for that i find that really quite bizarre the thing one question though is what does make you feel optimistic obviously someone i hear is asking a question about that with what's happened on their side and doing well but but that thing of still holding it together what's your one thing that that still makes you optimistic is the fact just the fact that things happen in cycles they're massively cycles it goes in cycles it massively goes everything goes in cycles whether it's the housing whether it's property whether it's bars restaurants clubs whether it's outdoor entertainment whatever it may be I always go back to entertainment because I'm always about wanting to have fun and everyone has fun in restaurants bars clubs and doing stuff I don't know how the high street's going to change.

11:55The high street is the worst I've ever seen it as an adult. I'm not sure what entertainment will go into the high street to pull people back into the high street.

12:07Yeah. Well, listen. Andrea, we keep fighting. That's what I say to Andrea. The sun will always shine. It will. It will. My main thing for the world at the moment if you do run a company is make sure you look after your health. I really do mean that. Make sure you go for walks. Make sure you eat good food. make sure you look after your mind because your mind if you're not used to the pressure your mind can go do lally on you it really can so if you're out there make sure you get the exercise the endorphin the dopamine get the blood rushing around your body get your heart going I know it sounds really simple stuff but I really do mean that because if you don't you might not be in a good place yeah listen everyone out there listen we're all fighting everyone's giving it a good go respect to everyone giving it a good go Marky hey guys We've been running this podcast now for five and a half years.

12:55We've had some most amazing business guests on here. Simon Squibb, Daniel Priestley, Barry Hearn. The list just goes on and on from billionaires to people who have built brands. If you want to come on the podcast and talk about your business and sit here with me in the studio and tell your story, go check out dodgewoodall.com forward slash guest and check out the three minute video. We've also left the link below as well. Hey, let's move on. Let's move on to Maya, Maya Smith. So Maya asks, this is all about from listening to the previous shows as well, is in the early days of a career, what matters more?

13:29Having a polished business plan or being curious and doing your homework or backing yourself as you go? The last two. The last two. Being curious, doing your homework and backing yourself. Believing in yourself. the first one like I've never done a business plan in my life never really never never sat down going this is the perfect business plan this is what we're going to do I look at it and go what have I got to build can I create something that's going to solve a problem am I going to have fun doing it how much is it going to cost me how long is it going to take me to break even that's all I think about and obviously around that you want to build a brand you want to build a nice website you want to get your socials in order you want to build a nice environment where you've got a small little one bed office not a small office as you're building or you're going up to a bigger office they're all the niceties that come around it but keeping business simple at the end of the day business is about you know a company is a group of people you want to have a group of people together who get on and enjoy what they do it uh just to highlight that so when you say so i uh a business plan is what we can all do so the business plan is there it's part and parcel of trying to build something and make a living but what you highlighted there is the curiosity and courage is what makes everything real isn't it isn't it that's the thing that we can only put our stamp on and if there is a bit that we haven't got that get up and go in us well maybe it won't be there but if there's speak to as many people as you possibly can i've never had a mentor but i've had lots and lots and lots of mentors because i asked lots of questions to different people in different industries to find out you know because i'm curious i want to find out there's an opportunity in that industry And I build up this big picture of finding out that if you ever come unstuck, that you've got another opportunity because you were curious one day, because you spoke to a few people in the industry that you might go, that could be my next move.

15:23You have to think five moves ahead. You know, what happens if your job doesn't work for you? What happens if you're building a business if it doesn't work? What are you looking to do? What can you move into? What can you pivot quickly? You might be building a business and all of a sudden that business changes and you just quickly pivot. Bam. And obviously your direction changes again. And this, and I just want to reiterate this. So Maya, thank you for that. I just want to highlight this as well, is that what you just mentioned there, Dodge, is that a really good plan matters less than this ability that you've got to think fast and you've got to keep moving.

16:00You've got to be nimble. Because otherwise you're just sticking to what a textbook told you to do when the reality is the world's a lot different because you're going to have to adjust, modify, tweak, change. The greatest gift someone can have is the gift of being able to figure it out. Just hold that thought a minute, being able to figure it out. And when you figure it out, you then have to ask lots of questions. You then have to do lots of homework to figure things out. But as you're going along in business, it may change. You'll have one conversation, and the amount of conversations that I've had makes you change the direction of your business.

16:35If you're not having the conversation, not being curious, you're just thinking, this is the route I know, this is what's going to happen, and this is what I'm doing. and you're being stubborn this is like a two-parter because i'm now going to bring in as well from this hold that hold that thought so ben by ben pimer says this as well that there's a thank you ben he says is it important to have something to come back to even if it feels uncomfortable this this thing of like we have to keep if you're trying to do something that is you that is right even though we've we've highlighted previous shows about the things that get tricky and the time that you've got to spend on it and late nights and everything else or just take it up headspace as well.

17:15If it's worth fighting for, you have to be okay that it's going to be uncomfortable. Yeah, but you've got to be happy being uncomfortable. I love being uncomfortable. I'm happy. I'm on my happiest when I'm uncomfortable position situations. Why is that? I don't know. What does that put you in then? Does it mean, does that the fact that you think more or you're methodical with everything? Why is that? I'm just, I'm just raring to go for it. I don't know. I'm just happy in those positions. like because if you are unhappy you're not going to last very long being uncomfortable you know being uncomfortable no for me knows i'm growing being uncomfortable you the thought of going on stage speaking for the first time or third time fifth time some people are like i don't want to do i don't want to just break through that give it a go no one can see your nerves unless you're literally really really nervous you know but it's it's um yeah it's it's having the strength and courage to be uncomfortable in situations and understanding that people looking in won't know you're uncomfortable and it comes back to the backing yourself as well isn't it is that you can crumble it's like great i'll be giving this opportunity i guess from your side i've been given this opportunity i'm pretty fortunate enough to be whatever it is, whether it is standing in front of an audience or an idea, I kind of understand from your side is that uncomfort that comes with it because there's so many areas that you don't know or are about to step into that is something that you may not have experienced before, such as education or going into that space there of those products around that.

18:48So today's show, we looked at these ideas of building something that's growing and are just still holding on. Or, what's more important, the business plan or just being quick and fast and just keep on moving. So if you've got a question for us, listen, please ask us. We have Spotify. We will jump on them when you see those replies. They are genuine. Or send an email to askdodge at dodgewoodle.com. It's great that people are sending in their questions, isn't it? Yeah. When we first launched this and started it, we didn't really know what direction. We were just like, how can we help people? and then seeing people email in and go beep beep and you see emails coming in where people are genuinely like i'd love you to answer what your thoughts are on this question it's great because it just shows that people are listening and we can chip in and people feel heard and yeah and hopefully as well know that there is that encouragement and to feel a part of what we're trying to do as well it's great i think one thing you popped up a minute ago mark you're saying about people giving it a go and what can they come back on fall back on if you're in a job and you're unhappy in your job and you've got this burning, burning thing in your soul going, I need to do this.

19:54I've got an idea. I've got to do it on the weekends, do it on the evenings and then leave your job when you know that you're in a position that you have taken it as far as it possibly can go to give this a good go that you can work on it full time. And if it doesn't work, you can always go back and get another job. Can I just pick up on this? Yeah. Can I just pick up on this? because that's what I did with View of the Media is that it was almost a side project. Like anyone else that has a side project. And sometimes we jump straight away into the side project when we haven't had time for it to build.

20:27Audience, money, took three years for it to make its first pound. But sometimes we step into these things right away when sometimes all we need, what you mentioned there, is stability is okay. If you've got the job and the salary that's coming in and there is a thing in your heart or you want to kind of develop, you've just got to be okay it just takes time and if you're working from home work on your side project pretending that you're working for a company that's a good way of putting it who's going to check if you're clever and you're really hungry guarantee your salary bosses out there won't want to hear that but it happens there we go everybody raw, unfiltered and from the blimmin' heart thank you Dodge cheers, nice one Marky cheers mate What if a marginal gain unlocked greater performance?

21:20What if an insight in data could change everything? At Aramco, our focus on detail helps us deliver reliable energy to millions across the world. Because margins aren't marginal, they're where we can truly push the limits of what's possible. Aramco, an integrated energy and chemicals company. Learn more at aramco.com.

22:12Price and coverage match limited by state law.