[00:00:02] Speaker A: Ramping up your business. The time is near. You've given it hard, now get it in Gear.
It's Passage to Profit with Richard and Elizabeth Gearhart. I'm Richard Gearhart, founder of Gearhart Law, a full service intellectual property law firm specializing in patents, trademarks and copyrights.
[00:00:20] Speaker B: And I'm Elizabeth Gearhart, not an attorney, but I do marketing for Gearhart Law. And I am the founder of Gear Media Studios, a content creation studio with the focus on podcasting.
[00:00:30] Speaker A: Welcome to Passage to Profit the Road to Entrepreneurship, where we talk with entrepreneurs and celebrities who tell their stories about their business journey and also share helpful.
[00:00:40] Speaker C: Insights about the successes that they've had.
[00:00:42] Speaker B: We're going to start with Bobby Moschia and he has Green Ridge Wealth Planning. He's on a mission to help entrepreneurs turn business success into lasting freedom and wealth. Who doesn't want that?
[00:00:53] Speaker C: Sign me up.
[00:00:54] Speaker B: Okay, so, Bobby, welcome. Tell us, tell us about what you're doing.
[00:00:59] Speaker D: I'm going to take a couple steps back. I told you a little bit about my story and in that story of being with the family business, having to get in with when my, my father was and my mother both went in for open heart surgery and then leaving the business and my dad not talking to me for a year. After a while of building my new business, he started to see how successful I was.
And one of the things that he said to me was, hey, listen, I see you're doing really well with this.
Do you want to help me with my stuff?
And I said, you know, dad, I love you. We have the best relationship we've ever had and I'm not working for you again. And he goes, no, no, I don't want you to come back and work for me. I want you to help me as an advisor. And I said, yeah, that's exactly what the dynamic of that relationship looks like. You're the client, I'm the advisor, I work for you. How about this? How about I help you? I'll sit on the sidelines. I don't want to get paid nothing. I'm just going to look over and help you with filling up some of your gaps that you might have or helping you just provide some value in different places. So what happened was I started to play that role, giving him the things that he needed to go back to his team on.
And there were amazing and substantial gaps, things that were done and then undone. It really didn't seem to jar him. It's one of those things, I think, you know, when you're making money, money can Hide the mistakes and the errors.
And if you're not thinking forward, you start to say, I'm okay now. I'll deal with it. When it. When it happens, when it becomes a problem, I'll deal with it. Well, he ended up getting cancer and he ended up becoming terminal. And we had to jump in and make a substantial change to a lot of things that he had going on.
[00:02:37] Speaker C: What was his business again?
[00:02:38] Speaker D: He was franchising Dunkin Donuts.
[00:02:40] Speaker C: Those are money makers, aren't they?
[00:02:42] Speaker D: Yeah, well, like I said, you have when you're making money, and it's easy to hide problems, hide issues.
When he passed and I had. Was the executor of the estate, I had taken over his business as well, which was another conversation. He says, how are you going to take over my business? I said, well, I created the business so that this way I can step away and 80% of my time can go toward this. We're set up. So let me help you over here. But with the understanding and the caveat that it becomes now my way. That was a softer conversation than that. But it was, you know, dad, I'm going to come. We're going to. I'll talk to you every day. I'll let you know what I'm doing. But if anybody says, did you know that this was happening? You have to say, yes, this is the way. This is the way I wanted. This is the way Robert's taken over. And there was a substantial amount of things that his advisors had told him to do. Accountants, attorneys, investment advisors, insurance advisors, that just did not get done correctly. And if I wasn't in the business that I'm in, and I was just a regular, you know, worked in corporate America, had a job, there would be no way that I could have taken this and made something of it.
[00:03:47] Speaker B: So your business now is Green Ridge Wealth Planning. How did that fit in? I mean, I. To me, that sounds like something where you would sit down with people and plan where to put their money so that they have enough for retirement. But it sounds like it's more than that.
[00:03:59] Speaker D: So we work with entrepreneurs, and our goal is by 2036, we want to have a thousand entrepreneurs exit ready because we believe that being exit ready is actually your best growth strategy. So whether or not that's exiting in the next three to five years or it's, I have no idea because I haven't even thought of it because I'm growing my business. Making sure that you're setting your business up correctly will give you the type of freedom that you want, that you wanted out of your business, the type of income that you want. And it also give you the valuation and the framework to work from that will be able to scale at ways that you would not have been able to do if you weren't set up correctly.
[00:04:37] Speaker C: So what are the elements of a business that is exit ready?
[00:04:41] Speaker D: I would say the elements of a business that is exit ready is they understand exactly how their business is being valued. They understand exactly what are the things that they need to do to get it to the value that they're going to require in the future to live the life that they've established themselves to have. So it's, it's almost like when you're going to go into retirement. Well, how much do I have to save to be in retirement?
[00:05:00] Speaker B: Yes, that question every day.
[00:05:02] Speaker D: Right. But instead it's how do I, how, how much does my business have to be worth in order for me to get, get there? Now, there are also different elements in there that help you to be, you know, obviously you have your, you have your other items within your business like your, your tax, your legal, your hr, the organizational chart, how you have it set up, but it's also the excess capital that you are creating in that successful business and how do you have it working for you.
And a lot of times when you start to think about business owners and they're, how do they leverage themselves, how do they create these coffers to pull from when they have these opportunities.
I mentioned before 2030 being a huge opportunity because that's when every baby boomer will be over the age of 65 and we will have officially launched into the heart of the largest wealth transfer in history. You're going to have businesses for sale. There are going to be winners and losers. We love to be in a win win situation, but the reality of it is is most business owners that go to sale, 20% of them actually reached the closing table. And if I think about my dad and what I went through with my dad, and I think about the lifestyle that he gave up and created, right. He gave up a lot to do what he did professionally. And you always hope like the American dream is, there's a pot of gold at the other end of that rainbow. So helping older people who are running their own business really set themselves up so they can take advantage of that has become a huge passion of mine. And what's going to end up happening is if they're not setting it up correctly, the younger generation is going to have the opportunity to eat their lunch, take their clients, take their business at a fraction of what it should be worth. And I don't like that. That doesn't sit well with me, especially if you can do some pre planning to get there.
[00:06:37] Speaker B: Oh, I agree, Tommy.
[00:06:39] Speaker E: I just like the way you just said that. The younger generation is going to come out and see this, take advantage of it and eat their lunch.
I get it. It makes sense. Really. What you're setting for these people is protection, which is, you know, and raising their awareness of what could possibly happen. And I like that you're passionate about it, helping people. It's what we're all here for.
[00:06:56] Speaker C: So are you still running the Dunkin Donut franchises?
[00:06:59] Speaker D: When I came in and basically reorganized and restructure it, I put a team in place. So now it only maybe takes up about 5 to 10% of my time. And I've created a family office. So we have somebody, I have a team who's running the family office. They're the ones who are basically pushing the mandates that we have down. For the manufacturing company that I have as well as the Duncan franchises. I get all of the relevant information that I need to help with the big picture strategy and they for the most part take all of the elements and just run with it. So the beauty of it is also that we have a franchise. So the franchisor does a lot of the heavier lifts for us. But now 90% of my time goes back into my wealth management firm and working with my clients and trying to create strategies for them to almost replicate some of the successes that I've created in my family business. I've created in my own business.
And I think I give an interesting dynamic being both a founder and starting something from scratch, going into six figure debt, sleepless nights. But I also was on the other side of that as acquiring and working with a fit with a family business to reestablish the strength that it had in the market at one point, to reinvigorate that was big for me.
[00:08:09] Speaker C: So what lessons can you share with our audience about working in a family business?
[00:08:15] Speaker D: Family business are they're, they're very powerful. And they could be powerful in both the positive and powerful in the negative. One of the overarching conversations that we have with the matriarch and the patriarch is do you want your kids to come into the business because they want to come into the business or because they feel like they've been obligated to then take that next step to be in the business business?
Because if it's not their Passion. And they're carrying the torch.
Well, from first generation to second generation, the success rate is about 33%.
From second generation to third generation, it goes to about 13%.
Why? Because probably some of work ethic, commitment, passion that tends to wean when it's not your own and you don't really have the drive to make it happen. So can the family business then go into the similar situation that I said be exit ready so that this way instead of passing it along to children who may not want it, but they want the lifestyle, they want the money, they see all that.
[00:09:15] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:09:16] Speaker D: How do you then say, hey, listen, I'm going to take this windfall and we're going to now translate that to your passion. I'm going to be the consultant to help you work and navigate through some of the hard things that I had to endure.
That you will now have a shortcut because I've done that. I've been there.
[00:09:34] Speaker B: That's great.
[00:09:34] Speaker C: So what are some of the things that you had to work out with your dad when you were working with him?
[00:09:40] Speaker D: And I would say that is the failed succession that we do a lot of our work off of the reality of the relationships of people in the family business. Right. So I always say that communication and transparency are like the two pillars of any successful relationship. We say it at Green Ridge to our clients, but that holds true to basically any relationship that you want to have success in. And that goes true to the family business.
And for the matriarch and the patriarch, they may not want to be so transparent, but they've got to be communicative to give some sort of a guidelines on what is your job, career trajectory look like of you coming in here? Because it can't be at some point I have this carrot and the stick and it's going to be yours. There should be some formal component around how do I get from where I am now to where I need to be for both myself and for the business?
[00:10:34] Speaker C: I would think part of it is that somebody, a family member coming into the business would want to do some things to make it their own. They would want to put their own stamp on the business, try some new products or organize things a little bit differently. But I think in order to stay motivated, they're going to have to put something of their self in. Right.
[00:10:53] Speaker D: And I think that that becomes the creative relationship that matriarch and patriarch have to have with their children and how they design their career path and how they actually create that transition plan. Because a lot of times you go in and for myself, Right. I'm the son, I'm the partner, I am the general manager. Right. So I've got my role in the business. I have my role as a partner with equity.
Then I also have my role as where I sit in the family.
[00:11:23] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:11:24] Speaker D: And a lot of times those conversations, those kitchen table conversations or boardroom conversations, everyone has all those hats on and they're not distinguishing what hat they have to be wearing. So if I'm coming to a boardroom table and dad is coming to the boardroom table with me, he's not wearing his father hat as a CEO. If he's coming to talk as the CEO, he, he's gotta wear a CEO hat and I have to wear my general manager hat.
[00:11:50] Speaker C: So is this part of the advice that you give entrepreneurs? Because I think that would be very difficult for somebody to separate their parental role from their professional one.
[00:11:59] Speaker D: And I think that determines whether or not and how successful you're going to be in your transition. Because you're right, the kids are going to want to have to put something of their mark in it, especially if they've been in it for a significant period of time. And if they're constantly waiting for that baton to get passed without any sort of communication on how that baton gets passed, you're going to lose their passion, their interest, their drive. And that ultimately can blow up a business. It could blow up a succession plan. It could blow up a family. And I think out of all three of them, the most important I'm going to go back to Tommy, before you're going to ruin your family over bad business decisions.
[00:12:39] Speaker B: Tommy Hilkin.
[00:12:40] Speaker E: I watched this in my life. Now you got to remember, generations change, right? And kids change generation to gener generation. I had two friends, their father's own bakeries in North Bergen.
I mean, killer bakeries, right? The best of the best. And as the fathers got old, they handed them off to the kids. The only difference was dad was getting up at 2:30 in the morning and making sure that all everything was done and being served. And when the kids took it over, they're like, do I really want to be up at 3 o' clock in the morning every day of my life doing this. That big difference. You know, dad came over here, you know, like, this is the land of opportunity. I'm gonna work my ass off. And then the next thing you know, the kids are like, I don't want to do this.
[00:13:17] Speaker D: So Tommy, I'm glad you brought that up, because the other dynamic is which roles in the business. Do your kids actually have the superpowers to play?
Because when you're in a job, right, you everything. Everybody knows the most effective player is the one who's doing what the things that they're really good at and they're delegating off the things that maybe don't fall in their line of passion or maybe our lower level jobs. Well, if you're expecting your son or daughter to come in and take the CEO role and they're more of a creative hat and they're thinking more from a marketing standpoint, well, who's watching the numbers and who's making sure that all of the investment decisions that are happening within the business are being done correctly? So a lot of times we're talking about if that is the case. Well, do those children actually have a role in the business or are they just an equity role? And if they're not, who's in the business running the show or helping to run the show? Because that person may be the next successor. The next person and say, yeah, you know what, this is natural fit for them to be CEO. But they also need some sort of an advisory board to help them because they're just not at that level yet. And they still need the training and the guidance.
[00:14:30] Speaker B: Right. So this is why you need to set it up to be able to make an exit to sell it to anybody. You cannot, we found you cannot depend on your kids to do it. But Bobby, how do people get a hold of you?
[00:14:41] Speaker D: You know, I'm all over the Internet. You just google my name and you'll find it. But we have bobbymasha.com.
[00:14:46] Speaker B: Can you spell that?
[00:14:47] Speaker D: B O, B, B Y, M A, s, c, I a.com or g as in girl, R as in ridge wealth plan dot com.
And you'll find lots of white papers, lots of videos. We, we're constantly up to date with things that are happening in the market. Because second to strategy is also strategy of your money and what it's doing for you and how it's working for you. So customized investment management is a huge part of the value add that we bring to our clients as well as bringing the right advisory team or adding their advisors into the team to set new expectations on how we work collectively as a group to help business owners attain the goals that they're trying to attain. And finally, the name of your podcast business, Unchained. Okay, New episode every two weeks.
[00:15:34] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:15:35] Speaker D: Chain yourself from your business.
[00:15:36] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:15:37] Speaker A: Passage to Profit is a nationally syndicated radio show appearing in 38 markets across the United States. In addition, Passage to Profit has also been recently selected by Feedspot Podcasters Database as a top 10 entrepreneur interview podcast. Thank you to the P2P team, our producer Noah Fleishman and our program coordinator Alicia Morris, our studio assistant Rishiket Bussari, and our social media powerhouse Carolina Tabares. Look for our podcast tomorrow anywhere you get your podcasts. Our podcast is ranked in the top 3% globally. You can also find us on Facebook, Instagram X, and on our YouTube channel. And remember, while the information on this program is believed to be correct, never take a legal step without checking with your legal professional first. Gearhart Law is here for your patent, trademark and copyright needs. You can find
[email protected] and and contact us for a free consultation. Take care everybody. Thanks for listening and we'll be back next week.
