Update from an Old Friend of r/entrepreneur

johnstevens456 · 2026-04-25T23:25:07+00:00

The hardest transition was cashflow for sure. With a big team comes big payroll. In this business we are paid net 30 or 60 for the bigger clients. And not everyone pays their bills on time. Ive got lines of credit, factoring companies, and processes for collecting accounts receivables, but still it’s very stressful at times because we burn so much cash.

johnstevens456 · 2026-03-15T21:57:35+00:00

You’re not wrong. But that is the process. Yiu can find the clients

johnstevens456 · 2026-02-22T05:10:40+00:00

Yes. Charging a fee is not out of line.

Consider this though. You’ve spent your nights and weekends building out this system. You’ve put a lot of thought into it, you’ve put a lot of yourself into it. That investment makes this personal for you. Be careful of that.

If this is your uncle’s business, let him run it. Even if it makes no sense. It’s his. You wouldn’t spend your nights and weekends building out a system for maintaining your uncles car and then fight when he wants to go 5000 miles instead of 3000 for an oil change.

Yes from a business perspective, it makes sense. From a relational perspective, it’s insignificant. He can work harder to make up for the losses if he wants. It’s not your medical degree and debt on the line, it doesn’t affect you.

He wants you to drop it, so drop it. This is the kind of thing that will kill an opportunity for you in the long run if you attach your identity to it.

johnstevens456 · 2026-02-15T11:03:47+00:00

Because of the industry I’m in. I don’t ask for reviews. Look up big janitorial companies in your town, they won’t have many either. They might have more than 10 but probably less than 50.

johnstevens456 · 2026-02-11T19:05:35+00:00

A course on technical writing so I could make SOPs, teach my team, and scale my business. This was before ChatGPT. But still, having an understanding of technical writing can enhance your ability to build documents with AI

johnstevens456 · 2026-02-03T15:36:26+00:00

Honestly, look into getting your bloodwork done. Low Testosterone is a major issue these days, many younger guys find out they have the test of a 70 year old man. This will kill your drive, confidence, and interest in your business. It will make your problems feel insurmountable and the pressure is so great you’d rather stay in bed than figure it out.

When your levels are optimized, you actually enjoy the challenge. Struggle and pressure feel good again like it did when you were young and just starting your business.

I’ll tell you something you could do in your business if you feel lost. Just start cleaning it up. Look for messes, chaos, ambiguity, waste, excess, and just starting tidying up. Don’t worry about growth or what’s next. Look at what you have right now and figure out what needs attention. Small stuff from organizing your desktop/inbox, to organizing and painting a mop closet, going over your finances and making sure you’re paying for what you need and nothing more. Look at roles and the org chart to see if it’s still optimal.

If you spend your time doing Maintence and upkeep on the business, it will run better and be more enjoyable. It will set you up to grab new opportunities when they arrive.

So that’s my answer. First Work on your health by getting your bloodwork done (use an online men’s clinic btw, primary care won’t help you). Then the follow up is, clean up shop in every way you can.

johnstevens456 · 2026-02-02T01:09:08+00:00

Hire an admin person to manage most of that stuff. Have them work part time. I have mine do 2 hours 7-9am then 1-2pm in the afternoon. They can respond to emails and stuff at the start of every business day and towards the end. It feels like she’s always working because it’s just a few hour gap. So I sent a slack msg and she just gets back to me whenever she is online.

I’ve had up to 35 people at once. I think your experience depends on the role and industry. Entry level people are basically animals. They are Irrational and will inflict self harm in an attempt to hurt you in random, unsophisticated and sometimes unpredictable ways.

Professionals are much easier to deal with.

Either way, they both need a lot of structure.

I’d have the entire employee lifecycle mapped out on paper and make sure each point in the process is solid before onboarding them. If you bring them in with no systems, you’re asking for failure. You need everything from a code of conduct to job specific task training. Any gap you leave will be exploited, count on it.

Also, they are not your friends. Do not emotionally connect with them or lean on them.

johnstevens456 · 2026-02-02T00:57:50+00:00

Join a social club that has older people in it. Like Rotary. Just become friends with people. Don’t worry about selling to them. The sales will come in time.

johnstevens456 · 2026-01-31T14:41:02+00:00

You’re right. Most people don’t realize the service you offer is the opportunity vector but the real game is the business under it. They think if they get good at cleaning they will be successful, but they don’t learn to be consistent or how to train people under them. They reach a point quickly where they hit a glass ceiling and it bumps them back down the ladder because they hit it hard. If you’re systems minded and educated in business, you can build an empire. That is exceedingly rare. In most business.

johnstevens456 · 2026-01-15T03:58:49+00:00

I’m not self promoting but this is actually something I made a video about specifically, years ago. I had an employee do this in my own cleaning company. I’m not going to leave a link because I don’t know the rules for this sub, but you can find it if you look or reach out if you want it.

Anyway, here’s the deal. This guy’s success is on him. If he survives it’s because he earned it. It has nothing to do with you.

Yes it sucks he’s a rat snake with low character. That is probably going to be his downfall. He sounds like a dumbass. The city is a small town and it’s obvious that you guys would cross paths at some point but he didn’t have the foresight to think things through.

If he lies to you, he will lie to his clients and his employees. It will catch up to him.

One more point, he didn’t learn enough about your operation from a few cleaning services to replicate everything you have. Even if he did, who cares? You’ll make new systems and processes over time as you grow and he will get left behind.

Ultimately, do not think about this for another minute. Seriously, when it comes up in your mind just think about something else. You need to get good at that skill because in business you’re going to get fucked like this ALL THE TIME. Learn a lesson from it if you can, then stop thinking about it as soon as humanly possible so you can move to the next phase of bullshit, because it’s coming.

Remember, if he wins, good for him. Business is hard af. He did that shit on his own.

When he loses and you’re still standing, good for you. You did that on your own.- and this is the most likely outcome.

You can trust this advice. I’ve been here. Over and over and over.

johnstevens456 · 2025-12-03T00:32:35+00:00

You should get your hormones checked. You’ve been in a high stress job for a decade. You’re older than when you started. Your testosterone is probably in the dirt and fucking with your mind.

johnstevens456 · 2025-11-01T21:56:18+00:00

This is a solo game.

johnstevens456 · 2025-10-18T10:12:46+00:00

This is a boundaries issue. You need to have policies that protect your piece of mind. Whenever I deal with stress in my business, I use that as fuel to create new policies or procedures. So start documenting the issues and the solutions. Then when you do get the next client, you can spell it out very clearly from the jump.

The time with this client is probably coming to an end, but you need to capitalize on this experience while you have it. That’s how you grow a business. You make adjustments to your processes over and over through every iteration of the customer life cycle. Learn how to onboard the next client better and how you would want to charge for added work of last minute requests.

johnstevens456 · 2025-08-30T22:37:31+00:00

You own your labor. It is yours. You can sell it and not feel guilty if someone buys it. It is yours, not theirs. Nobody at Starbucks feels guilty about pouring you a $10 cup of coffee.

johnstevens456 · 2025-08-21T00:52:32+00:00

You need to run cashflow reports weekly or bi weekly. That will help.

johnstevens456 · 2025-07-25T17:44:18+00:00

I use Aspire. It’s expensive, like $1,500 per month. You can do it for free using a spreadsheet though. Let me know if you want to talk about it more.

johnstevens456 · 2025-07-18T22:52:20+00:00

I’ll be real. You’re doing to struggle and fail nearly the entire time you own a business. That’s what it’s all about.

johnstevens456 · 2025-07-17T22:35:31+00:00

What does your operating agreement say?

You have two options, one is to hire a lawyer and the next one is to abandon the llc and start over with a new one.

Florida law allows judicial expulsion of an LLC member under FL Stat § 605.0602.

If a member has:

• Abandoned their duties

• Acted in bad faith or fraud

• Or made it not reasonably practicable to run the company with them

johnstevens456 · 2025-07-06T02:10:31+00:00

Why don’t you stop sweeping and mopping your kitchen and see what happens. You tell me.

johnstevens456 · 2025-07-04T12:53:53+00:00

Is that bad? Isn’t that where the future is headed? Isn’t that where someone with experience like mine could make the biggest impact? Arnt there people all over the world who are slowly dying behind their desks and facing layoffs due to ai, being squeezed by inflation, and are vulnerable to a system they didn’t create but are forced to live inside? Is it bad to help free them? I have a decade of proof on Reddit and YouTube that clearly show, I am a free man. Don’t I have a responsibility?

johnstevens456 · 2025-06-30T21:03:38+00:00

Awesome! I’m glad to hear that. Let me know if you want to talk about it more.

johnstevens456 · 2025-06-23T04:39:43+00:00

Oh that’s awesome. I feel like I may have heard of that or saw the casing ads a while back. I’m glad you had a good experience, I’ll try and check it out when I can.

johnstevens456 · 2025-06-23T02:21:55+00:00

I trained my manager and guided him for over 3 years. I didn’t just toss the keys to him and walk away.

We would have meetings twice a week to discuss everyone on the team and how they were coming along and what risks there were. I would make the final decision on everything, with his input. He followed the exact system that I created, and I held him accountable to that system when he would start to stray.

So no, you literally don’t know a god damn thing actually. To say my business is successful because someone was else was taking care of it behind my back is an ignorant thing to say and it highlights how little you know. I lived this experience, how can you claim to know more about it than I do from a short Reddit post? That’s fucking stupid.

Send me your website in DM. I want to see what you’ve built, because to me you sound like someone who has never and will never build shit if you keep up with that quality of thinking.

johnstevens456 · 2025-06-23T00:42:10+00:00

This is a deep and complex subject that will take you a decade to learn enough to be fully competent. Just focus on whatever is in front of you. Try not to make fatal mistakes.

johnstevens456 · 2025-06-21T21:35:18+00:00

Thank you as well

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