How Profit First Can Give You Peace of Mind in Hard Times With Jonathan Tovar

Episode 116 : How Profit First Can Give You Peace of Mind in Hard Times With Jonathan Tovar

The Profit First REI Podcast

September 26, 2022

David Richter

Summary: 

Profit First is an amazing method for managing your business’ cash flow, but it can be so much more!

In this episode, we’ve got Jonathan Tovar, real estate investor, entrepreneur, and co-owner of Action REI, as he talks about his business journey before and after learning about Profit First.

He and his brother started their company in August 2019, just a few months before the pandemic hit and dealt a major economic blow on everyone. But through the highs and lows of Action REI, implementing Profit First gave them opportunities and options to keep their business going. Jonathan even started applying the method into his personal finances! 

Listen in on Jonathan’s thoughts and experiences with the Profit First method, and more!

Key Takeaways:
[0:55] On Jonathan Tovar and His Investment Background

[4:33] Jonathan on Profit First 

[8:16] Jonathan’s Situation Before and After Profit First

[14:14] How Profit First Quickly Changed Their Business 

[18:16] How Profit First Helps Your Business in Difficult Times

[22:54] Implementing Profit First Into Personal Finances

[27:00] What Jonathan Would Do Differently if Started From Scratch

Quotes:

[5:53 ] “Real estate (is a) roller coaster… You get good months and bad months. And what we’ve found is that the Profit First method really helped us out more so in the bad months.”

[8:36] “Once you start implementing those things, like Profit First especially, then you start really treating it like a business.”

[15:14] “Profit First (gives you) peace of mind in your business and knowing that everything is where it needs to be  ”

[26:11] “It doesn’t make you feel guilty for having a little bit of fun because you know everything is already accounted for.”

Links:

Connect with him through his Instagram @jonathan_action

Profit First Real Estate Investors FB Group-https://m.facebook.com/groups/ProfitFirstREI/ 

Simple CFO-https://simplecfo.com/ 

Tired of living deal to deal? 

If you are a real estate investor or business owner who is tired of living deal to deal, and want to double your profits, head over here to book your no-obligation discovery call with me. Either myself or someone from my team will hop on a short call with you to get clear on your business goals, remove any obstacles holding you back, and map out a game plan to help you finally start keeping more of the money you work so hard to make. – David 

Transcript:

Jonathan Tovar:

Hey, you know, here’s marketing, here’s acquisitions, here’s transaction coordination, here’s disposition, but who’s really talking about finances? And so that was one of the things that he was covering was like, Hey, look like we could talk about marketing all day we could talk about acquisitions and sales and dispositions. But like what happens when you make this money? What happens when you, you hit all these other things and you have these finances, like what are you doing to take care of that?

Intro:

If you’re a real estate investor, who’s sick and tired of living deal to deal, then welcome home. Hear from everyday real estate investors, just like you and discover how they’ve completely transformed their business by taking a Profit First approach. This is the Profit First for REI podcast where we believe revenue is vanity profit is sanity. It’s time to start making profit a habit in your business. So here’s your host, David Richter.

David Richter:

Jonathan Tovar. Man this was a great episode because he’s implemented Profit First for years now but he talks about the years before Profit First and what happened in his business and how he was feeling. How he was feeling, like, what the heck is going on, why is all my money gone, what do I need to do? Thinking about giving up and going back to a W2 job, he downloaded an app to go out and to be able to hunt for, you know, the side hustle and the side income at one point before Profit First. And then he tells about his journey through that and on the other side how he’s been able to build a business with his family and be able to come out and be better and stronger on the other side without it being built on hope and knowing where the money is and ultimate peace of mind. I mean, he tells his whole journey and what was able to get him there. I hope you enjoy this episode. Lots of great nuggets for you to take away and to be encouraged that other people are going through exactly what you’ve gone through or you can avoid some of the stuff that they’ve gone through. Thank you so much!

Hey. Hey, thank you so much for being here, Jonathan! I met Jonathan, it seems like several times over the years now, where I spoke at an event or virtually with James Hodges. And then I met him at a Million Dollar Meeting a few weeks ago, so really excited to get him on here because he’s actually taken Profit First and done something with it in his business. And that’s what I wanted to talk about. He’s a huge believer in that and you know, just wanted to get that out there more, but Jonathan, it’s great to have you on the show. Thanks for being here today.

Jonathan Tovar:

Hey David, I really appreciate it. Yeah, I mean, Profit First have, has really changed. I mean really the, our lives right when it comes to man managing our finances with business. And also, and I know we talked about this at the Million Dollar Meeting. You know, I actually implemented it within my personal finances as well, and it’s really just been a game changer, so yeah, no, we definitely appreciate it and yeah, we love it.

David Richter:

Okay. Well, we’re gonna dig into both of those areas for sure, but just tell a little bit about your background and like what you’re doing now, because you’re, you’re a real estate investor, just like a lot of the people listening to this podcast. So talk about like what you’ve got going on real quick.

Jonathan Tovar:

Yeah. I mean, just a little bit about me. You know I’m, I actually started wholesaling real estate in 2019 with my brother. He’s actually a big, a big part of, of the business we kind of from early on, we kind of established like, Hey look, you know, he’s like the visionary, the one really kind of I’m out there talking to home homeowners, you know, getting contracts. And to be honest with you, he’s the one that’s actually really implemented a lot of the Profit First within the business and the business accounts and managing that stuff. Cuz he’s really the integrator, you know, kind of the brains behind, you know, all the systems and stuff like that. But yeah, I mean we’ve been, we started off in 2019 wholesaling real estate. And then within 2020 we started getting into flipping you know, flipping real estate to 20 to 2021. And then now in the end of 2021 at 2022 we’ve been doing notations. So we are a wholesaling flipping in notations company here in San Antonio, Texas.

David Richter:

Well, there you go. So this is, you know, I’ve had, you know, different people on here and this is Jonathan and he is just like you, he started a real estate company a few years ago or you might be jumping into it. So I just want you to know that this is someone who’s taken the pro first message and really implemented it in his business. I love to that you, you have your brother there as the integrator, basically the implementer of the different systems. So let’s go down this road. What got you excited about the Profit First message?

Jonathan Tovar:

Yeah, I mean to be man, to be honest with you getting started in real estate, not coming from any kind of financial background or, or any, I really didn’t know how to even manage a business. I mean, we, I never owned a business or managed a business or let alone finances. Right. So the Profit First method was a very easy way and simple way for us to help manage those, those big checks. Right? I mean your wholesale property you flip a property, you’re getting, you know, these big checks and it’s like, all right, how do we manage that correctly? Where, you know, I don’t just go spend it all at one place or pay myself too much or whatever it may be. Right. So you know, when you get that check and you get that money, you have to start now putting it, you gotta for taxes you know, one, you know, some for profit, right?

Jonathan Tovar:

You gotta pay yourself marketing. And it was really just for me, it was a simplified way of how to allocate these funds. And so yeah, we, we, we started it we didn’t learn about it until 20, I wanna say 20 late, mid to late 2020. And that’s when things change for us because, you know, if, if you wholesale flip or do any kind of real estate in general, I mean, you know, the real estate rollercoaster as they say, right. I mean, you have your good months and bad months. And where we found the Profit First method really helped us out. More so in those bad months, right. Those months where we maybe didn’t close as many deals. And so, you know, we were able to at least have that profit account still sitting there and have the taxes are already allocated to the side, things like that. So it really helped out, you know, just kind of manage those funds and especially with you know real estate and just kind of ups and downs with it.

David Richter:

Okay. Well then let’s, I’ve got, got tons of questions from there, but let’s focus on the period of time from 2019 to like early 2020 when you hadn’t heard about it, how was business like then with the finances and just that side of the things,

Jonathan Tovar:

Man, I’ll, I’ll be honest. I, I just was, we <laugh>, we get a check and we just kind of put away a like 20 or 30% in, in, in, into the tax account or like just save it into a savings account. You know, we just had a business checking and then a business savings account. Right. I mean, that’s the way we’ve always taught. Right. That’s so we’ve always learned, right. You have your checking account, your savings account. So that’s all we would do, you know, we’d shove all of our, what we thought was profit into our, our savings account. And then we’d put all of our taxes into our savings account and then our regular checking account, our business checking we just kind of had everything else in there, right. Our payroll and our expenses and things coming out.

Jonathan Tovar:

And so it, it was just a headache to manage, I mean, really from 2019 to 2020, I mean yeah, I mean, you didn’t really know if you, you asked me like, Hey, you know, what are you, how, how much are you putting aside for taxes? I couldn’t tell you, you know, how much are you putting? How much are you paying yourself? How much are you really putting aside for yourself is like, I really couldn’t tell you you know Hey, what is, what, what’s your monthly expenses look like? I had no idea. I mean, everything was just all integrated together. I mean, you know what, we paid ourselves lunch monthly expenses like marketing and, and stuff like that. I mean, it was just a mess. So yeah, to answer your question, 20, 19 to 2020 managing the finances. I mean, there really wasn’t much, it was just a business checking and a business savings.

David Richter:

So since you, you know, the management was harder at that time, did you feel like a business owner during that time 2019 and early 2020?

Jonathan Tovar:

Oh no, no, no, we’re just, it was just, you’re just going, you’re just going and, and you know, especially in the very beginning, right. You’re just trying to get checks. You’re just trying to get you’re chasing the money. And then now that once you really start implementing those things, like Profit First, especially into your business, then you start really treating it like a business. Right. I mean, at the, at the end of the day, yeah. It’s called Profit First. Right. So you you’re doing this to actually have something there. And so, yeah, I mean, once we started treating it like a business and using those systems, like it really, it was a game changer for us, for sure.

David Richter:

So I like what you said before about how Profit First has helped you sometimes the most during those hard months, did you have any very low points during the 2019, 2020, before Profit First where it was like, oh shoot, where are we right now? Like, I don’t know if we can spend the money, the account.

Jonathan Tovar:

Oh yeah, yeah. I mean, well, 2020 I mean, we all know COVID right. So COVID hit right? Yeah. Early 2020, we started in August of 2019, right? Yeah. So we had just completed the end of 2019. We, we just got in wholesale real estate with no real estate background, no business background 2020 hits early 20, 20 COVID hits. And you know, everybody is, you know, just it’s, it’s crazy. Right. I mean, you know how it is <laugh> yeah. So yeah, I mean, and honestly, yeah, we were just like everybody else. Right? I mean, the good thing about us is that we didn’t really have a team. It was just myself and my brother. So our backs were already against the wall anyway, you know, we really didn’t have an option, but to keep going, we didn’t have a large team to scale back or fire or, you know a huge marketing channel of PPC and, and cold calling and all this stuff and mail.

Jonathan Tovar:

It was just me cold calling. Right. So you know, before then, I mean, we, we had our, we had no option, but to keep going, keep cold calling, keep hitting the phones and trying to get these deals. And we actually did pretty good during, during COVID. You know, but I mean, yeah, it was, it was tough, you know, I, I, I remember at one point we were, I was looking into I, I got the, what is it? Postmates app. And we were getting ready to start doing Postmates, cuz you know, here in Texas, they were still allowing you guys, you know, if you wear mask and you know, things like that to drop off Postmates, you know, food and groceries and things like that at people’s homes. Right. So yeah, I mean it, it was tough. It was tough. 2019, 2020. It was tough. But yeah, we just pushed through and just kept, kept, kept going.

David Richter:

Yeah. Well I’m glad you did. So you downloaded the Postmates app at one point feeling really rough. So then let’s talk about, you know, during that hard time, did you see, when did you start hearing about Profit First then? Like where did it turn around for you? Like, did you hear it at an event? And then you were like, Hey, maybe this could be the thing that can help us get to where we need to be like, tell me about that journey from downloading Postmates to actually hearing about yeah. Hopefully something that can get you out of that.

Jonathan Tovar:

Yeah. So yeah, I mean, yeah, 2019 2020 was rough, you know, started real estate. You know honestly was you didn’t think we were gonna keep, you know, keep afloat you know, getting, getting signed up for Postmates. But we just stuck stuck through it kept going. We did close a few deals during that whole COVID, you know, April, may, June time. And yeah, I was talking to my brother and business partner and I said, Hey look, you know, we, we have to do something different. Like, you know, I, I, I was in the banking industry for over seven years. And I went all into, you know, entrepreneurship, I guess you can say right in this real estate industry. But it’s at the same time, I’m like, Hey, I, I really, you know, I don’t wanna struggle or keep going through this kind of, you know grind.

Jonathan Tovar:

Right. so what we did is we started looking into mentorship and coaching and we came across REI Game Changers, our very first coaches or mentors we’ve ever paid for in our lives. And within that program. And, and I would say, you know, that’s that, that’s the benefit of, you know, paying for coaching or, or, you know, getting mentorship, right. Is, I mean, a lot of times you can cut the learning curve, you know, in your business or even finances. Right. Cause now we discovered Profit First through that. So we joined, we joined the, the, the coaching program and part of it was like, Hey, you know, there’s marketing, here’s acquisitions here’s transaction coordination, here’s disposition, but who’s really talking about finances. And so that was one of the, one of the things that he was covering was like, Hey, look like we could talk about marketing all day.

Jonathan Tovar:

We could talk about finances all day, or I’m sorry acquisitions and sales and dispositions. But like what happens when you make this money? What happens when you, you hit all these other things and you have these finances, like who’s, how are you doing to take care of that? Or what are you doing to take care of that? I should say. And so that’s when he showed us the Profit First he actually gifted us the book as a gift and, and he’s like, here, here, you guys go. And then he kind of did a presentation on it and just kind of saying, Hey, look you know, this is kind of the basic fundamentals of when you get a check, you separate ’em into these accounts. And yeah, I mean, right after that immediately we went back to the, to our bank and opened up some, some accounts <laugh> started. That’s awesome. Managing this money <laugh>

David Richter:

And James is a good friend. He now sends out, I believe the Profit First version of, or the real estate investing version of Profit First. So he’s been a big believer in that for a long time. Yeah, he was definitely one of the people that helped us at the beginning. Just get that word out, but I love that you did that now. Now I wanna focus on, okay, so now you went from the dark to the light, you know, like now we can see. And so how were the first few months running on Profit First? Like, do you remember when things started to click and change once you started implementing?

Jonathan Tovar:

Yeah, I mean, honestly it really clicks immediately. <Laugh> awesome. You know? Right. I mean once you, cuz what it does is at least for me and, and it helped us is it helped us understand where our business is at. Right? You, you have a ton of money in your business checking and then some money in your savings account. And you’re thinking, oh, I, I got all this money. In reality, it’s like a lot of that is going to your marketing or a lot of that is going to your, you know towards profit, right. Or towards your taxes. You know, what are you paying yourself? So once you kind of divide everything up into these accounts, it’s like, okay, now I see, you know I have everything allocated towards taxes and it’s really a peace of mind, at least, least for me Profit First we can sit here and talk about accounts and taxes and moving things and paying ourselves. And, but really it’s peace of mind in your business knowing that everything is where it needs to be. Right. Mm-hmm, <affirmative>, it’s like organizing or organizing, you know, a closet or whatever. Right. It’s everything is in its proper place. And when you need it, you know exactly where to go you know, you kind of know what’s going on. Right. <laugh>

David Richter:

Yeah, exactly. And so then once you saw that clarity now, did you feel a little bit more like the business owner being able to direct that money?

Jonathan Tovar:

Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. immediately once, once we started implementing it and then we started getting some closing, some flips or whatever it may be. And it’s like, once that check hits the account or the wire hits the account, it’s like, alright, we start moving it in these different, different buckets, right. These different accounts. It’s like, okay, that’s what it really means to be a business or at least for me. Right. It’s like, alright, you know, you’re, you’re not just check, you know, checking account and everything kind of going in and outta that, right. It’s like, no, this is what a, this is what a real business does. Right. You, you move aside for taxes, you move aside for profit, you move aside for your, for your for your pay. You know, for your marketing, you allocate everything where it needs to be at. So AB absolutely.

David Richter:

I love that. And I love hearing this from the visionary cuz your brother’s the integrator. So he probably has a more operational mindset of like, okay, I understand this, like I know how it’s gonna flow. And you’re just like, I want the freaking peace of mind, baby. Like just give me the account, let me know where my money’s going. So I Love that.

Jonathan Tovar:

No, absolutely. And that’s, that’s literally how it was. I mean, I’m, I’m the type where I’m like you know, I’m working through our CRM and I’m saying, Hey, look, I just need this button to do this. And once it does this, I needed to do this. And he’s the one that actually is like, how are we supposed to make that happen? You know <laugh> yeah. And, and, and we end up figuring it out and that’s exactly what happened, right? I’m like, look, I just need to know that, you know, we have our money where they need to be and have the peace of mind that everything is one being covered on our expenses or two, our taxes are being covered at the end of the year. And for him, it’s, it’s also able to help manage those things with our marketing.

Jonathan Tovar:

And also since he does handle the finance side you know, once your CPA or your tax, you know, professional ask for those, for your, you know, all the, the documentation and statements, whatever it may be. It’s like, Hey, here’s exactly what it looks like. This is exactly what is in our income account. This is what we made. You know, these are all the wires we ha you know, once the taxes come around, you know, exactly you have money in that account. So it’s, it’s just sitting there, things like that. So he would, it was able to help him organize those things when it came tax time. For sure.

David Richter:

Awesome. I love that. Cuz so many people on their team usually have the, like the visionary and then the more organized one, you know, who like puts the things where, and you’ve got the visionary with the ideas who wants a peace of mind, then the organization person to be like, is this really gonna help me? Yeah. Is this gonna hurt me? And you know, I like hearing the story of how it helped both of you. I do wanna call back though to where you said you implemented Profit First, but then it helped almost more during the hard times than like yeah. When the good times were rolling in, we had properties closer. Can you just talk a little bit more in depth about that and how you’re feeling during those times,

Jonathan Tovar:

Man, I’ll just be 100% honest with you. The, thank you. We, we, we had, we had a few, we had a few months. And, and I, I only, the reason why I say that is because it’s tough as a business owner to actually say, Hey, look, I’ve had one or two or three hard months where we either a close one deal or zero. Yeah. And, and, and the fact that you had that profit account, although you wanted to be for profit, right. I mean, it, you know, this is the account to take care of you and to take care of, you know to do the, the fun things you wanna do in life. I mean, you wanna reward yourself. Yes. but because we had that profit account it’s like, okay, for us, it really was just a, a safety net during the hard months where Hey look, we, we, weren’t gonna dig into that business to that tax account because the taxes, obviously at the end of the year, right?

Jonathan Tovar:

Yeah. That’s still owed. Right. So we’re like, Hey, at least we know where taxes are, are put away. We had our marketing account that was already allocated. So it’s like, Hey look, we at least need to know that our marketing is going out. Mm-Hmm <affirmative>, you know, we’re not, we can’t stop. Right. I mean, we gotta keep going. You know, we have our, our, our monthly salary that we pay ourselves. Even if we gotta cut that a little bit, it was like, Hey, look, we at least need to make sure we get the bills paid. So yeah, during those hard months you know, it was a safety net for us to say, Hey, look, we didn’t close any, any, any deals, but like, let’s still allocate, you know, towards our marketing or, you know, let’s still pour into these things that we know we still need in our business.

Jonathan Tovar:

Right. We didn’t necessarily have to cut our salary or necessarily have to cut marketing or take out of that tax account. It was like, we were able just to pull it from there and continue to market continue to, to rough what’s the wor weather, the storm, I should say. Right? Yeah. Because that profit account for us, it was somewhere where we were able to move that into these other accounts and keep going. And now because of it, it, it helped us through that dry spell. And, you know, we started getting, you know, six figure months after that, it was like, okay, I’m glad we saved that money. Or we had that profit account and we didn’t just blow it. If it was all in our, in one checking account, we probably would, you know, everything is going everywhere. It’s like, okay. You know, it was able to help us organize and, and kind of dig back in there if we need it.

David Richter:

That’s awesome. Cuz I was, you even stole my next question, cuz I was gonna say in the past, if you would’ve run into a situation like that and you only had the one account or like we’re non Profit First, do you think you would’ve been able to, to weather some of those storms and

Jonathan Tovar:

Some oh no, absolutely not. Because you know, when it, when, when it’s all in one place you know, you, you don’t, you, you just, you’re kind of like a, what’s the word you kind of just, just, just kind of throwing things at the wall, you’re kind of throwing things at the wall. Right. And so if it was in one place, we would’ve kept just like, they just throw money into marketing, let’s just keep going, keep going. Let’s not stop. You kind of put your head in the sand and, and you’re just kind of just spin, spin, spin, spin spend. And or you continue to just, you know, over maybe overpay yourself, right. I mean, you know, especially during those. So with that, it was like, all right, you know, we have our, our, our monthly payer salary, so we’re gonna keep, we keep that going because we have the profit account and we know what we need to continue to put into our marketing, if anything, it’s probably the wrong thing to do.

Jonathan Tovar:

<Laugh> but we actually doubled down. We doubled down, we, we, we had extreme faith that, Hey look, it’s it’s we had one, two months. All right, Hey, you know what, let’s, let’s drop another five grand in this marketing channel. Let’s do something else. Let’s switch things up because we had that there. So we actually able, we actually were able to double down and pour more money into marketing because we knew we are like, all right, even if we still take some here, we like, we’re still good because we have everything move moved, moved where it needs to be.

David Richter:

Well, it sounds like it gave you options during the hard times.

Jonathan Tovar:

And exactly. There you go. Yeah, there you go. It did, it did give us more options during the hard time, you know having the clarity of where all of our funds are at and yeah, just a peace of mind. I mean, it, it, it really was. And, and I think you hit the nail on the head there. It really gave us clarity during the hard times of where we stand.

David Richter:

No, I love that. So we’ve talked a lot about the business, but you’ve mentioned too, that you’ve implemented this in your personal life as well. Like when you saw it working in the business, was that when you started implementing this on the personal side of your

Jonathan Tovar:

Finances as well? Yeah. Well yeah, so I think when the first time you had mentioned it I think was when we were at that at, at a event with REI game changers and he kind of brought you in and you were talking about Profit First and it blew everybody’s mind. I, I think you kind of just threw it out there, like, Hey, you guys could even do this in your personal life. And it always just kind of stuck in my head and yes, absolutely. Once we started implementing it in the business I was like, wow, like, this is the, I, I remember David mentioned, like, this is also a good way to manage your, your personal finances as well. And so I had a, I had to sit down with my wife and I’m like, look, we got our checking account and our, our, our savings account.

Jonathan Tovar:

We need to make sure that we are putting away, you know, for us, we need to make sure that we’re putting, you know, things away where, where they need to be. And, and so, yeah, I mean, it really I, I, I immediately implemented it and it’s awesome. And even now we pay ourselves just a normal salary every single month and right when it, and it hits the income account, I, I already know. And I have the peace of mind knowing that I have all my monthly expense account. So, you know, I have my rent that automatically comes out. You know, we have our, you know, light bills, things like that insurance, whatever may be car insurance, these are things that automat even Netflix, right. I mean, if there, if it’s a monthly expense, like just throw it in that expense account and separate it from your personal account.

Jonathan Tovar:

So now I, I, I get paid, I move it into my monthly expense. I, I move into my savings account and then the rest of it, I pour into into our checking account and I can confidently tell my wife and say, Hey, you know, she’s, you know, Hey, can I get my toes done or can I go buy this? I’m like, look, we everything’s paid you know, or, or, you know, yeah. Everything that needs to be paid for the month is taken care of. So yes, absolutely. Like, you know, this is gonna be for our food and our monthly expense or gas. And, and, and this is for us to have fun with, and you know what, let’s go in a date night, you know, let’s, let’s go have a nice dinner. And I know that for that month, I can, I can treat ourselves because of that Profit First method.

David Richter:

<Laugh> so it sounds like it’s affected the home life as well, too. Does your wife like, oh yeah. Is she a Profit First fan now?

Jonathan Tovar:

Yeah, <laugh> I, I actually told her about what it is because, you know, she she, she stays home and she manages, you know, the, the home. Right. And it’s a lot of work and she does a lot, she does a lot there. Yeah. And so you know, when, when we kind of bring everything over and I’m out here working and trying to bring home the bacon, as they say, it’s like, it helps her know that and give her also the peace of mind. That’s like, okay, everything’s accounting for, everything’s where it needs to be. And I, and I also know, you know, that we can still enjoy life and do certain things that I need to do. Because you know, it, it doesn’t make, or even in business, I guess it doesn’t make you feel guilty. Right. For, for right. Having a little bit of fun or doing something cuz you know, everything’s already accounted for. So even in the business account, right. I mean that Profit First, there you have everything allocated and you know, if we want to do a, a vacation with the team and kind of rent a boat on the lake for, for a day, that’s like, Hey look, you know, we can, we can treat our team as well and ourselves and go out and, and enjoy the a day on the, on the lake, you know? And you don’t, and you, you feel good about it.

David Richter:

<Laugh>, that’s good stuff. You know, it’s just being that peace of mind you’ve talked about in the business at home, you know, being able to do the fun things and not feel guilty about it. I think you’ve touched on a lot of the things that, where, you know, a lot of people, that’s what you’re really looking for from the business. So I love that. I’ve got two final questions here. Yeah. Then we’ll wrap up. So first one is, if you were to start from scratch, what would you do differently in your, your business?

Jonathan Tovar:

Oh man. If, if I were to start from scratch, what would I do differently in my business? I think that definitely I would, I would, I would, early on, I would invest more into coaching and mentorship. Yeah. So that’s, so that’s number one. You know, hearing other stories, a lot of times I hear people say, Hey, I went seven years or 10 years before I got a mentor. So looking back I’m like, we actually were pretty proactive with it, but you know we were maybe a year in before we, we got our first coach and mentor, but Hey, I, if, if I could have started off in the very beginning, maybe I wouldn’t have had those hard times the way we had where I was signing up for Postmates. Right. Because I, I kind of skipped that learning curve there and was able to kind of get some more insight on, on sales and marketing and finances and Profit First where I wouldn’t have maybe had those rough patches. So that’s number one. And then two, I mean, it, it probably would just be simply just, just, just, just, ah, man. I, I think, I, I think that’s probably the best, biggest thing I would say. Everything else. I feel like we did, we did pretty, pretty, pretty well on, you know, we, we kind of, I, I would just, I would just say keep going, right. Just keep going. Yeah. Don’t stop. Don’t give up through, through those hard times and, and that’s exactly what we did. So yeah.

David Richter:

So get a mentor early on that mentor, his mentor specifically got into Profit First, so managing the money once it was coming in. So exactly, absolutely love that. So this has been awesome. I’ve only gotten one final question, but I just wanna recap here, like from the very beginning, going from the journey of starting in real estate in like 20, 19, 20, 20, kinda like running around like chickens with your heads cut off. Yeah. Going to then be business owners. Once we hear about Profit First and getting that in place. And then that what you said there, I think just hits the core with so many people, peace of mind, peace of mind and the business, peace of mind at home, guilt free taking the money out. You know, you came to that point at the, at one point of like, I don’t wanna keep struggling. Like I wanna get out of this, we have to do something.

David Richter:

So I think a lot of things happen right. You know, for you to get there. And, you know, I think that journey though can be very typical of a real estate investor. I think a lot, lot of people feel, you know, feel where they are. And it’s like, where the heck is all this going? And then being able to actually go through those hard times as well, too. So this has been a great one. You’ve provided a ton of value here of like what Profit First has done for you, how other people can get help. So how can our audience bring value to you? Like what, how can they reach out to you? Whether it’s social media or your website or buyers, lenders, whatever, just, yeah. Give a little bit about where they can find you.

Jonathan Tovar:

Yeah. I mean, first off, David, I just, before I answer that. I just wanna say thank you for inviting me on you know, honestly, you know, yeah. We we’ve, we’ve kind of been different working events and we last spoke at the Million Dollar Meeting and I just couldn’t help, but I walk up to you and, and shake your hand and thank you for all the information and, and, and everything you do with the Profit First and sharing the message. And so, and so, yeah, I just, I just wanna thank you and OB obviously create creating this platform to like, kind of hear other people kind of go through it and implement that in their, in their lives too. I think it really helps to hear what other people’s been through and then how it helped them.

Jonathan Tovar:

So thank you for that. But, but yeah, I mean, if you guys have any questions or you need anything, honestly I just wanna see what I can do to help others. So if you need anything or have any questions you can reach me I think the best way would be on Instagram. So it’s Jonathan underscore action. So it’s J O N A T H A N underscore action. That’s really the best way to, to reach out to me. I, I’m gonna start just kind of vlogging my, my day to day journey here and start put, you know, posting content, just kind of vlogging my day to day stuff here. So I think that’d be a good way for people just to follow me and kind of see kind of what’s going on, but also you know, just send me a message and, you know, if, if they, if they want to chat, have any questions you know, I’d love to, I I’d love to answer and kind of help in any way I can.

David Richter:

Awesome. Well, there you go. There, you have it like follow Jonathan. He’s got great. He’s got a great profile. Make sure if you wanna connect there, he wants to help people. He’s like a lot of people that we work with that just have that giving heart. So I want you to make sure that you connect with him. Then if you’re feeling like Jonathan was and his brother in 2019 and 2020, and you are struggling in your business, living deal to deal, paycheck to paycheck, you know, not knowing where the money’s going. You can head over to simplecfo.com, simplecfo.com, and you can schedule a call there, no obligation. We just wanna make sure that you have someone who’s an advocate there listening to where you are. And if we can help you implement Profit First, or if we can connect you with the right pieces in the financial world, that’s what we want to do. So if you’re at that point, let us help you. And we would love to simplecfo.com. Then, Jonathan, thank you so much for being on the show. Again, it was an honor having you and hearing your story, and then if you’re listening, remember to make profit a habit in your business. Thank you so much.

Jonathan Tovar:

Awesome.

Outro:

This episode of the Profit First for REI podcast is over, but there are plenty more where that came from. Are you ready to learn how David and his team can help implement the Profit First  system in your business? Schedule a discovery call @ simplecfo.com right now. 

We’ll see you next time on the Profit First for REI podcast with David Richter.