I'm an MBA who owns a plumbing company. Apparently that makes me a meme.
Since MBA's, trade based companies, and ETA seem to be a hot topic at the moment, I thought I'd add some first hand insight. 18 brief insights below.
My evening is free, so can do AMA tonight for a bit. Please, keep it civil and constructive. We're all here to learn and encourage. Don't be that guy unconstructively bashing other people just to feel better about yourself or just shooting off careless words.
Here's some first hand info in no particular order:
1. I co-own a plumbing franchise com with my best friend of 20 years; like a brother to me. His family, a second family to me.
2. He runs the day to day. He does not have an MBA. I could not run this business without him. He managed SMB sign manufacturing companies for most of of his prior career.
3. My role is CFO; i also operate kind of like a board chair, providing perspective. He believes he couldn't run the business without me. See my linkedin for background. I work just a few hours a week on the business. Mostly collaborative phone calls early in the AM or late PM; and big spending decisions; forecasting, cash flow, etc.
4. I think the secret to us working together successfully is trust built on 20 years of real friendship, being able to leave our ego's out of everything b/c we have nothing to prove to each other, and having complimentary skill sets.
5. Our trucks are wrapped, so i guess that makes us fancy. We want to employ great plumbers who don't want the hassle of running all of the "business stuff", and we want to employ top performers and pay them above market average.
6. I previously owned a company with my wife. I couldn't have run that company without her. We're still married. Huge accomplishment.
7. Prior to starting my MBA, I made less than 6 figures. After getting more than halfway through my MBA, I got a new job and now make double what I made in my previous job.
8. My current job requires an MBA
9. MBA at University of Arkansas Walton School; Great program.
10. None of my classmates are struggling to find jobs. Most make 6 figures+ and are some of the most wonderful people I've ever met. Some will be leading the Fortune 1 in the coming years.
11. Cost of MBA: $50,000. I paid less b/c of tuition discount for being a Univ. employee for awhile.
12. Plumbers don't "make" $200+ an hour. "Make" implies take home pay. $200/hr is what is charged to the client.
13. Most plumbing companies with 3+ employees now charge $250-$350 per hour for labor.
14. An experienced journeyman plumber will make $75k to $175K/yr with base salary + commission + bonus + benefits. I would say the highest recurring number if all were surveyed would be in the $100k ballpark when including all forms of compensation.
15. MBA's, generally, teach from a corporate perspective. This makes it hard for most MBA's to run SMB's.
16. I believe we will dramatic changes in curriculum over the next 5-10 years. Univ of AR is top 3 schools in SEC for Entrepreneurship
17. Most MBA Entrepreneurship programs are solely aimed at Angel/VC to Exit models unfortunately. This will change.
18. In the last 2 years of what I've learned about business: 40% has been from SMBX/Twitter; 40% has been from MBA; 20% has been self study and online courses.
Hope this is helpful. If you'd like to connect, feel free to reach out. Networks of good people are powerful things and I'm always looking to grow mine.
In small business, the gap between $2M and $10M in annual revenue usually comes down to one thing: Leadership.
The most common leadership failures I see in small biz? ๐
1. Avoiding hard decisions and hard conversations. The cost of conflict avoidance compounds.
2. No direct line to the top. Frontline employees have no safe, open channel to the CEO or exec teamโso the truth never reaches the people who can act on it.
3. Keeping long-time employees in seats they no longer have the skill to fill effectively. Loyalty is real, but when the business outpaces someoneโs skill or leadership ability and nothing changes, everyone pays for it. Just because someone can build at $3mm doesnโt mean they can at $5mm and $10mm. Different ballgame.
4. Tolerating toxic players. Big egos, gossip, slander, chronic fault-finding in public (never in private), outright sabotageโone of these unchecked sets the standard for the whole team.
5. Correcting in public, praising in private. It should be the reverse. Praise publicly, correct privately. Get this backwards and you erode trust and breed resentment.
The hard part isnโt knowing these. Itโs having the courage to fix them.
There's a grassroots movement to buy Spirit Airlines. They have real momentum but are making a classic acquisition mistake. Here's what I'd tell them as their CFO:
$1.75B buys the airline. It doesn't keep the lights on.
At 3:00 AM on May 2nd, Spirit shut off the lights. 44 million passengers. 17,000 jobs. Gone overnight โ killed by jet fuel that nearly doubled after U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran.
A YouTuber named Hunter Peterson launched https://t.co/0ddisBjVAB within hours. Crowdfund a cooperative acquisition. One vote per member. The people's airline. It's now at $437M in pledges from 500,000+ people.
I'm rooting for them. But nobody is saying this yet.
The capital stack a real CFO would build:
๐. ๐๐๐๐ฒ๐ ๐๐ฐ๐พ๐๐ถ๐๐ถ๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป: $400โ600M
76% of Spirit's fleet was leased. You're buying slots, owned planes, facilities โ at distressed prices.
๐. ๐๐๐ ๐ฃ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ ๐ญ๐ฎ๐ญ ๐ฅ๐ฒ-๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐๐ถ๐ณ๐ถ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป: $15โ25M
The operating certificate was voided. Spirit 2.0 starts from scratch. 3โ12+ months. Zero revenue.
๐. ๐๐น๐ฒ๐ฒ๐ ๐๐ฒ๐ฎ๐๐ฒ ๐๐ฒ๐ฝ๐ผ๐๐ถ๐๐: $150โ250M
Lessors don't hand planes to unproven cooperatives.
๐. ๐ง๐ฒ๐ฐ๐ต๐ป๐ผ๐น๐ผ๐ด๐: $10โ20M
Reservations. Ticketing. Operations. None of this transfers with the brand.
๐. ๐ฃ๐ฟ๐ฒ-๐ฅ๐ฒ๐๐ฒ๐ป๐๐ฒ ๐๐๐ฟ๐ป: $400โ600M
This is the number nobody is talking about. 12โ18 months paying staff and maintaining planes before a single ticket is sold. JetBlue launched in 2000 with $130M total โ in normal fuel conditions. Spirit 2.0 launches into $4.51/gallon fuel.
๐. ๐๐ข๐ง ๐ฅ๐ฒ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐๐ฒ๐: $100โ150M
Mandatory. Not optional.
๐. ๐๐๐ฒ๐น ๐๐ฒ๐ฑ๐ด๐ถ๐ป๐ด & ๐ช๐ผ๐ฟ๐ธ๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐๐ฎ๏ฟฝ๏ฟฝ๐ถ๐๐ฎ๐น: $225โ350M
Spirit burned $100M in surprise fuel costs in 60 days.
๐ฅ๐ฒ๐ฎ๐น ๐ป๐๐บ๐ฏ๐ฒ๐ฟ: $2.3Bโ$2.5B
$1.75B gets you the keys. Not first flight. Not the first winter.
The movement is real. The target needs to be real too.
If anyone connected to this campaign is reading: the path exists. It just costs more than you think.
Some conservative Christians really will obsess over the moral failings of a barely influential gay pastor as evidence of theological rot while completely ignoring or downplaying the fact that the most important and influential Southern Baptist in decades raped young men.
What do telescopes have to do with business?
Galileoโs telescope let Venetian admirals see enemy fleets from 8 miles away โ invisible to anyone without one.
At Waterloo, Wellingtonโs 30x magnification telescope let him pick out individual soldiers amid the chaos of battle. Commanders without it were essentially blind.
A sniper with iron sights is effective to maybe 300 yards. With a scope โ 12 to 25x magnification โ theyโre accurate at 600, 1000 yards, or beyond. Same shooter. Completely different capability.
Most owner-operators are running their business the same way. Only able to see as far as the naked eye can see.
A fractional CFO does what those telescopes and scopes did: it extends your horizon of awareness. Instead of guessing month-to-month, youโre seeing 6 to 12 months ahead.
You spot cash flow problems before they become crises.
You see growth opportunities others miss.
You make decisions with actual foresight instead of hope.
Thatโs the difference between catastrophe and victory.
Thank you everyone for the responses. This has been more helpful than I anticipated. I have gathered your info and passed it along to my clients so they can get in touch directly soon. You will also be hearing from me in the next 2-3 weeks. OOO next week.
If you're a CPA who specializes in strategic tax planning for small business or medium-sized business owners, please get in touch. I've had three clients request this service in the last two weeks, and it's not a service I offer. I'm looking for a great referral partner.
New essay on @BenSasse and the question I can't stop asking myself.
How can a dying man without the ability to grow skin on his face radiate a joy, levity, and peace that the rest of us are starving for?
@MetamateDaz Who does a better job of distributing the money where itโs needed? The government or the charities? I give the edge to the charities, slightly. And, power can be removed from charities rather easily, not so with the government after it grows.
Yep. Clients can now type what you said into AI in real time and find out if youโre bullshitting. Love it. Doctors started feeling it with Google a few years ago and even more now with AI. Now it will extend to all professional service providers and even pastors and Sunday sermons. Net positive.
Youโre going to hear an increasing chorus of service providers whining and complaining about clients using AI to ask them tough questions.
Let me be blunt:
There was a time that many self-declared experts were just bullshit artists in disguise.
That time is over.