Charlie Genin has been building in Lafayette, Louisiana for twelve years, and the hardest lesson had nothing to do with construction: being a good contractor is not the same thing as being a good business owner. He and Bobby get into the hats nobody warns you about when you start a company.

Charlie founded The Gen Group Construction in 2014 with his father in law, and today runs residential and commercial, spec and custom. This conversation is the honest version of the first twelve years: the commitment nobody mentions when they tell you to go work for yourself, the day you accept you cannot be the best contractor and the best owner and the best dad all in the same afternoon, and the unglamorous systems that made the difference.

Along the way: why you should start writing processes while you are still an army of one instead of waiting until you have a team of ten, why the first thing you hand off should be whatever you like doing least, how to keep your standard without micromanaging the person you just handed it to, why a rainy day fund is a construction issue and not a personal finance one, and the change order habit that prevents most disputes before they start.

"The balance is really hard. To be the best contractor and the best business owner and the best employer and the best dad and the best husband. And the answer is you cannot do all of it at the same time."

Chapters:

0:00 Cold open

0:28 Welcome

0:59 Meet Charlie Genin

1:50 Founding The Gen Group in 2014

3:57 A good contractor is not a good business owner

4:50 The commitment nobody warns you about

6:31 You cannot be all of it at the same time

7:11 Siloing the parts of your life

9:59 Let the calendar be the driver

11:05 Competing without tearing anyone down

14:01 What you say about a competitor

15:42 Working with integrity

16:32 Surround yourself with better people

17:50 Goals you can actually reach

21:07 Sharing the goals with your team

22:40 Celebrating wins, yours and theirs

25:09 Advice for a new owner: the mindset

26:01 Know your numbers

26:54 Start processes as an army of one

27:26 Do not get over leveraged

29:11 All the hats you did not know about

30:12 Delegate what you like doing least

31:26 Consistency without micromanaging

34:25 Checklists are built from mistakes

37:17 Find a mentor, join your HBA

41:10 Buy time instead of paying for mistakes

43:36 First generation owners have no playbook

48:10 Get it in writing

49:30 Change orders are where people get burned

51:08 If it is too good to be true

52:27 Documentation ends disputes

55:46 Do not compare yourself to highlight reels

56:38 Work on the business, not in it

57:45 What success actually means

58:42 Clients are emotional beings

1:00:34 Give yourself grace

Guest: Charlie Genin, owner and general contractor at The Gen Group Construction, L.L.C. in Lafayette, Louisiana. gengrouphomes.com

Learn more at ChoiceConsultingMan.com/Podcast

Bobby's books, Choices and Clarity, are at ChoiceConsultingMan.com/books

A video version of this episode is on YouTube. Search Choices Create Change.

When your business gets quiet, people notice. And they do not assume you are fine. They assume something is wrong.

Bobby Mink makes the case that visibility is the most underrated competitive advantage a business has right now, and that it is not a marketing problem. It is a leadership one. Every week you are either building confidence or creating uncertainty, and silence communicates just as loudly as words.

Bobby walks through seven reasons visibility matters, from the fact that your customer's first visit is almost always digital, to why teaching beats selling, to why one viral post will never do what a consistent weekly one will. Along the way he shares the division president who asked him the question that sums the whole thing up: why did we wait until things got slow to start doing this?

If you are good at what you do but bad at telling anyone about it, this one is for you.

Seven reasons visibility is your most underrated competitive advantage:

1. Your customer's first visit is digital

2. Going quiet looks like you're struggling

3. Visibility builds trust before you need it

4. Teach more than you sell

5. Video makes your business human

6. Consistency beats intensity

7. Visibility creates opportunity

"Visibility becomes influence. Influence becomes trust. Trust becomes opportunity. Opportunity becomes growth. And that is how great businesses are built."

Chapters:

00:00 Cold open: why did we wait until things got slow?

00:25 Welcome and the seven reasons

01:10 Why most companies are bad at telling their own story

02:06 Visibility is not marketing, visibility is leadership

02:38 1. Your customer's first visit is digital

03:23 Knowing your target market

04:12 Your digital front doors

04:50 The division president who wished he had not waited

05:58 2. Going quiet looks like you're struggling

06:41 The real struggle is consistency

07:26 Confidence attracts confidence

08:09 3. Visibility builds trust before you need it

09:22 The trust account and third party validation

10:29 Start the conversation where they already are

11:02 4. Teach more than you sell

12:11 Every business should become an educator

13:31 Introduce your team, be real people

14:28 Raving fans, inside and outside

15:36 Teach your industry and become the expert

16:04 5. Video makes your business human

17:04 Show the space, show the process

17:33 Perfection is not required

18:32 Authenticity wins

19:14 6. Consistency beats intensity

19:44 One viral post will not change your business

20:25 Business growth comes from consistency

21:44 7. Visibility creates opportunity

22:28 Better employees find you

23:06 New partners and referrals

23:26 Better vendors and better opportunities

25:28 Visibility is leadership

26:22 The state of the company talk

28:38 Visibility is not ego, visibility is service

29:59 The better question to ask before you post

30:43 Influence, trust, opportunity, growth

31:37 Close and how to reach Bobby

Mentioned in this episode:

Raving Fans, by Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles

Suggest a topic for a future episode: ChoiceConsultingMan.com/Podcast

Schedule a free coaching conversation: ChoiceConsultingMan.com/contact

Bobby's books, Choices and Clarity: ChoiceConsultingMan.com/books

A video version of this episode is on YouTube. Search Choices Create Change.

Most business owners see their CPA once a year, drop off a folder, and hope for good news. Ryan Mink, CPA, explains why that relationship is costing you money, and what a real one looks like.

Bobby Mink sits down with Ryan, a partner at Suttle & Stalnaker in West Virginia and, as it turns out, his own son, for a plain English walk through the questions every owner asks and almost nobody gets a straight answer to. Do you actually need an LLC? Should you elect S corp status because someone on TikTok said so? Why does the money in your bank account tell you almost nothing about whether your business is healthy?

Ryan has spent 19 years in audit and tax, and he makes the case that the most expensive mistakes he sees are not aggressive ones. They are the quiet ones: jumping into a structure too early, spending a hundred thousand dollars to save thirty, and never asking why.

If you have ever nodded along in a meeting about your own money and had no idea what was being said, this one is for you.

"Just because there's cash in the bank doesn't mean you're doing well."

Chapters:

0:00 The surprise $30,000 tax bill

0:20 Welcome and meet Ryan Mink, CPA

0:52 Inside a full service CPA firm

2:14 Why the same questions come up over and over

4:19 Do you need an LLC?

5:01 An LLC is a liability tool, not a tax strategy

5:30 Single member LLC: the disregarded entity

6:01 What changes when you add a second owner

7:00 S corporations and how the tax savings work

7:39 C corporations and the double taxation problem

10:50 The reasonable compensation problem

12:14 Why leverage matters before you elect S corp

13:13 The S corp downsides nobody mentions

14:25 The truck, the son, and the deemed sale

16:40 Do not jump the gun on S corp

17:47 The taxes nobody warns you about

19:44 Estimated taxes and the four checks a year

21:12 The restaurant that closed over a tax bill

21:41 Profit First: pay yourself before you reinvest

22:52 Do not outspend your growth

24:56 Your CPA should be your partner

25:43 Why once a year is not a relationship

29:52 What a real quarterly check in looks like

30:32 Cash in the bank is not profit

35:45 The windfall and the Florida property

37:25 Do not let tax savings drive business decisions

39:18 The truck trap: $100K to save $30K

40:42 The Toyota Highlander phone call

42:27 Red flags: when to find a new CPA

48:47 Get your books in order

51:08 Seek to understand why

54:54 Takeaways and how to reach Ryan

55:37 Close and how to suggest a topic

Guest:

Ryan Mink, CPA, partner at Suttle & Stalnaker, PLLC, a full service West Virginia CPA firm with four offices offering tax, audit, consulting, bookkeeping, payroll, and virtual CFO services. The firm is a member of Allinial Global.

Mentioned in this episode:

Profit First, by Mike Michalowicz

Suggest a topic for a future episode: ChoiceConsultingMan.com/Podcast

Schedule a coaching conversation: ChoiceConsultingMan.com/contact

Bobby's books, Choices and Clarity: ChoiceConsultingMan.com/books

A video version of this episode is on YouTube. Search Choices Create Change.

This episode is for general education only. It is not tax, legal, or financial advice, and tax rules and thresholds change. Talk to your own CPA or attorney about your specific situation before acting on anything discussed here.