1651 – Business Is A Video Game with Can’t Wait To Retire’s Jessica Dragan

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0:58with us right now jessica dragon jessica you are a business transitionist and investor you're found on the web at can't wait to retire.com jessica thank you for joining us absolutely i'm so happy to be here love to point this out right at the top you're a military veteran so thank you for your service and we love having a business veteran or otherwise you know associated with the military in one way. They're now kind of serving, you know, other business owners and leaders. So thank you so much for that. And like every other military veteran, I suspect that your time in uniform has influenced how you show up in the world today and what you do.

1:42Oh, absolutely. It's really interesting how you learn everybody's role in your team, right? just in case something happens. You need to know what everybody else's job is and you work accordingly as a team. And then I find myself in business completely on accident. And I was able to wear all those hats for the business many years all by myself, with the exception of I always hired an accountant. So yes, it definitely influenced me. And what do you do today as a business transitionist? What does that mean? Well, we work with businesses that basically, if you hate your business, you need to call me.

2:21If you've been in business for a while and nothing seems to be working, I offer a fresh set of eyes so that I can identify the problem so you can fix it. And then we focus on increasing your revenue and cutting fixed costs by M &A practices. And if you decide you still don't like your business or you want to stay on, there's a very good possibility I would buy that business from you. So, and how did you find yourself in this role? Oh, that is such a long answer, but basically, as I mentioned, I fell in business completely on accident in 2004. When I had gotten out of the military, I was actually looking to work at the airport, but I couldn't figure out how to get past security because 9-11 had happened to get a job at the airport.

3:12and I enrolled in massage school and they had an internship that taught me basic business and told me that I could take the clients with me when I graduated so I did and next thing you know I had a business so I had to fumble through the whole thing I created it from start to finish you know I had the name the website the credentials all of it and by 2017 I hired my first employee and then by the end of 2019 I had a staff of 31 and they were making me crazy like oh my god I was at such a point I hated that business and I didn't realize that selling it would have been an option and I also didn't know what I would have done if I would have sold it it was what I was just really used to you know and the pandemic came and crushed that business and I couldn't have been more excited because like I said, I hated that thing, but I couldn't close the doors.

4:10It was a successful business. I have wonderful clients and I have plans to pivot in a different direction, which included a whole rebranding to attract clients that will book us more than once or twice a year and staff that was more professional and presentable. And also we had launched in Washington, Illinois, and Maryland, and I wanted more of that. I just wanted to have a nationwide presence. During the course of my business, I would try different mergers and acquisitions pieces, and I don't even know how I did that, where that came from, where the idea came from, or where it stemmed from to include giving equity away to a social media marketer to get that portion, you know, up and running.

4:59So during the course of my business as well, there would, there would be things that I would consider a mini pandemic that would happen. I feel like business is a video game. And once you reach a certain level, it's time to go to the next. And sometimes there's clients that you don't really have for a week or two. And then all of a sudden you make a couple of changes and pivots. And next thing, you know, your business is better than it was before and the stakes are higher and you know what are you gonna do so when the pandemic came and crushed it I was like this is a wonderful opportunity to figure out what's next for me and I know that whatever it is it's gonna be really amazing and it's gonna blow my mind and it's gonna be awesome and I ended up managing a mini golf course of all businesses it couldn't be any different from massage, but you know, I've been working since I was 12 years old.

5:55I've had various roles, you know, to be a cashier and all kinds of stuff. So when I came in there, the business owner and his brothers inherited it from their late mother, and they absolutely hated that business. And they basically handed it over to me. They were giving me keys, credit cards, letting me look at the, you know, the financials and everything and said, here, Jessica, take this business, just run it like it's your own and make sure that that cash register is balanced. So I did. I went in and I worked with the teenagers. It was an awesome experience mentoring them. I had the owner to use for reference.

6:32He was an amazing mentor. And we went to work. I gave a place a facelift. We ended up with all new staff, all new relationships, kept relationships. We even increased the profits. And by the time I was done with that thing, the state senator gave us an award for best mini golf course in Wisconsin. I didn't apply for that. Like, I don't even remember people coming in like Secret Service agents to play mini golf. It was all of a sudden, I've got this award. I'm like, this is so cool. But while I was wrapped up in that, I ran into Mergers and Acquisitions Challenge. And when I went through it, I said, that's it.

7:12That's what I want to do. It was like everything made sense from start to finish since I had been in business. And I knew that I could go to a completely different industry and blow it out of the water. And that's how I ended up in mergers and acquisitions. yeah um well wait a minute so tell me more about like how you go from um business ownership you obviously own you know the massage business you own or you're managing the um the golf course mini golf course and so we're it seemed like a leap how do we get to mergers and acquisitions i just want to make sure i didn't miss something there it leads that way because you have basic business principles and you look at the business and you evaluate it and you figure out what needs to be fixed with it and you make the necessary changes that come with it to include working with people which I'm very very good at.

8:05Mergers and acquisitions has a lot to do with when you have a company you go ahead and purchase the companies that support it and that's how you get your revenue up and your fixed cost down because you're going to bring a another business in with cash flow, and then you already have staff that's trained. It's a much more powerful way to do business than to just start something from scratch. Yeah. Jessica, you'd mentioned something a couple of times now about hating or loathing one's own business. How does that happen? You would think from the outside that if someone starts a business, they must be, it's kind of like that adage, do what you like, never work a day in your life.

8:50And, you know, so certainly if you start a company or buy into a company, you must be really into whatever you're going to be doing. So you're going to love it forever and you're going to love all aspects of it. And, you know, I did. From the time I woke up in the morning till the time I went to bed, all I could do was think about this business and what was I going to do with it? And what's the next best thing? And who do I get to meet? And how was this going and what needs to happen and essentially with that I burnt myself out it was a lot of waiting by the phone for last minute clients too and they were only available that one hour of the day and then I ended up changing the whole business I'm very good at that looking at the business and scrapping it and then like rebuilding it to whatever it needs to work.

9:41So in the end there, we were working with disabled and elderly and corporate only, we weren't even seeing individual clients. And yeah, it was just the constant thinking about business, not having a balance, not really having a life, just trying to make sure that all the wheels are spinning. I mean, you know, you have your business, but the next thing you know, you're dealing with your cell phone isn't working and you're at the Apple store and that eats so much of your time. But I think for me, where I really started to hate it was I had a staff of 31 people. I didn't have any former training in business.

10:22I didn't go to school. I didn't plan for this. And they were doing things that I couldn't control, like being on time and walking off jobs. And it was just, it was an embarrassing thing. And I know that in 2019, while I was going through this with the staff, I just kept reminding myself all the years before that I had worked with other professionals and it was enjoyable. There was just something about 2019 that just wasn't working for me. And so for our friend that's listening right now, and maybe they can identify with some of what you're talking about, maybe it's not hate, but boy, they are just not enjoying the day-to-day, right?

11:06They find themselves, maybe it's, they feel like they're running an adult daycare. You know, maybe they're just way too many complications, problems, putting out fires. They're just negatives that go along with it that are like, you know, they might be saying in their head, you know what? I love this, but I hate all this other stuff. And so what, How might one kind of process that initially to like, it's like if they say, well, I don't want to do this forever. Like I need something needs to change. Maybe it's not a sale because it's not the appropriate time to sell the company. But any ideas on that?

11:49Yes, absolutely. I do run into business owners from time to time, you know, that they're I hate this business and I really want to sell it. And then they sit back and they say, wait a second. I had all these wonderful years. Like this is my baby. I don't really want to give it up. My favorite solution for that is to let you stay in the company. If you would like to doing whatever role you want, it is. And then myself and my investors would come in and run the business for you. And you can do that piece that you absolutely love. What I find most business owners want to do when they don't want to exit their business just yet is they like to stay in on the sales.

12:25I am so okay with that. Yeah. So who would be like an ideal connection or someone that's listening to us say, well, Jessica might help people like me. Can you maybe further define like who like this kind of ideal connection, someone that you could really help would be like what sorts of things, what types of business, you know, that sort of thing. Right now, we're really looking for businesses that support multifamily units of 48 or better. So that looks like concrete, fencing, roofing, exteriors, locksmith, painting, those types of businesses. but also I have various different partners that are interested in different avenues like one of mine is interested in smaller businesses like anything that's not food related really but he loves to market businesses so he's looking for the smaller mom and pop businesses and then if it's a business that I'm not interested in particularly I have a whole network of people that I can send you out to and we can get you some help.

13:32Well, that sounds like a pretty great deal. So someone's like, okay, all right, all right, all right. What are kind of the next steps for someone that's like, Jessica might be able to help me. She might be able to help with some ideal connections. Go ahead and send me a message through Facebook, Alignable, or LinkedIn. It's very easy to access me. I answer that stuff personally. Yeah, you're just spelling on your name, Jessica. It's Jessica Dragon and D-R-A-G-A-N, if I said that correctly. Yeah, your LinkedIn is great. That's your website. Can't wait to retire. Are there any other resources that you'd recommend?

14:11Maybe someone's maybe not necessarily, they may or may not be ready for a conversation, but they'd love to kind of dive into your world a little bit more. Yes, I am definitely posting some tips and tricks and exactly what I'm up to and who I am on those social media outlets. Yeah, your LinkedIn is really, really good in particular. So I'd recommend that as well. So awesome. Jessica Dragon, again, your website, can't wait to retire.com. Jessica, of course, thank you for your service. Your army, I'm Navy, we're friends, we're all good. And Jessica, it's been great having you. Thank you so much for this conversation.

14:50Thank you so much for the work that you do in the world. Thank you, Josh. I appreciate you as well. It's always a pleasure.

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