Business with Beers: Members Only

The $10K/Hour Framework

Eric — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 13:02:11 GMT

Everyone has heard the phrase “time is money.”

Usually, that means the speed of making a decision. But time is also a form of capital. Finite, can’t be banked, and is constantly under attack from people trying to steal it.

Elon, Buffett, Cardone, you, and me are all given the same amount of time every day: 24 hours.

So why does it feel like some people get so much more done than others?

Create More Accountability

Eric — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 20:06:24 GMT

Every business owner’s dream is to build a team that runs the business without them

Unfortunately, that’s impossible when it feels like everyone keeps dropping the ball.

The solution is to create a tighter “Accountability Loop.”

Watch here

Cheers!

Brian

Are you spending too much on payroll?

Eric — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 20:05:42 GMT

How much should you be spending on payroll?

Are you spending too much on payroll?

Try this simple formula:

Sales - Cost of Goods Sold = Gross Profit

Then divide Gross Profit by Payroll to get your Labor Efficiency Ratio (LER)

For many businesses, the target LER is 3.0X

My Best Employee Retention Strategy

Eric — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 20:05:06 GMT

One of my best employee retention strategies costs us less than $2

Here’s how it works:

When a store has a record month, we mail a personalized, hand-signed letter to the home of every teammate at that store.

Not an email, Slack message, or pat on the pack

A physical letter, personally addressed, mailed to their house:

The True Cost of a C-Player

Eric — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 20:04:27 GMT

You need to hire a new manager. Two applicants walk in.

Johnny has been in the business his whole life. Worked at every major competitor. Rough around the edges, but he won’t take shit from anyone.

Asking salary: $60,000.

The Energy Matrix

Eric — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 20:03:36 GMT

Time is the most valuable resource we all have.

I use this Energy Matrix to categorize all everything I spend time on

From there, I take action to eliminate things that drain me while doubling down on the ones that fire me up

Watch the video here:

Speed to break-even

Eric — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 20:02:43 GMT

When I launch a new location, I don’t care about making a huge profit.

The only thing I care about is not losing money.

It’s a race to get the shop to generate enough sales to cover all the expenses.

That’s like getting to first base.

Reverse Engineer Payroll

Eric — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 20:02:00 GMT

For most business owners, payroll is the biggest (and most controllable) expense

It’s also the hardest one to change sometimes.

Here is the exact process I use to keep payroll within budget:

This works running a $50M/year operation

It also works with the $2M to $5M/year businesses that I’m partnered on.

Let’s say I have a location doing $20,000 in revenue per week at 30% payroll

$20k x 30% = $6k/week wages with 6 employees

But the target is 25% payroll

I’ve got three paths forward:

Is this deal worth my money?

Eric — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 20:00:43 GMT

I’ve invested in coffee farms, artificial turf, wedding venues, firearms insurance, junk removal, apartment syndications, private businesses, and oil/gas drilling.

Stop thinking of annual salaries

Eric — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 19:58:48 GMT

I had a manager named Jeremy whose salary was $60k a year.

He wasn’t terrible. Showed up on time, kept things moving, didn’t cause problems.

The shop was doing about $20k/week in revenue and making around $8k/month in profit

For a long time I told myself that was fine.

But “fine” has a cost, and I was paying it every single week without realizing it.

Where is all my profit?!

Eric — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 19:58:07 GMT

Have you ever looked at your bank account and thought, “Where is all my profit?”

Sales are up but you haven’t taken a distribution in weeks.

I’ve been there many times over the years.

And the fix wasn’t hiring a CPA or building some complicated MBA-level spreadsheet.

I figured out how to boil a 90+ line P&L down to 4 numbers.

Zero Risk Bets

Eric — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 19:56:25 GMT

A few years ago, I structured a deal that completely changed how I think about risk.

It didn’t make sense on paper: $500K purchase price for 2 shops only making $100k/year

5X multiple.... double our target of 2.5X profit

This deal went cold for 6 months before we could agree on terms because the seller was stuck on her price and I was stuck on the multiple.

The first thing I look at when hiring people

Eric — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 19:55:32 GMT

I’ve built my entire $50M/year business by hiring great people

In this video, I cover the first part of my interview process:

What I look for in people
The initial screen
First phone call

The 3-Question 1 on 1

Eric — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 19:54:35 GMT

My favorite format for “1-on-1” with employees is very simple but highly effective

It’s just 3 questions that both of you should come prepared to discuss.

Question 1: “What’s going well?”

Always start with the good.

It surfaces wins I might have missed. Little victories that happened while I was focused on something else. Progress that deserves recognition.

You Get What You Tolerate

Eric — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 19:54:03 GMT

I had an employee who was constantly late

Not every day but enough that it was a pattern.

10 minutes here. 15 minutes there.

Always a reason: traffic, sick, car trouble (lol)

I told myself it wasn’t a big deal. He was a decent worker when he showed up.

Send-Delete Employees

Eric — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 19:53:24 GMT

I used to have a running list of things I assigned to people.

Because if I didn’t write down everything I delegated, it wouldn’t get done. I’d assign something on Monday, assume it was handled, then find out Friday that nothing happened.

So I kept a list. And I checked it constantly.

“Where are we on the vendor call?”
“What happened with the equipment order?”
“Did you ever hear back from that customer?”

Leadership Book Club

Eric — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 19:52:42 GMT

I always say, “We’re in the people business that happens to fix cars.”

Our success is based on our ability to find, develop, and retain talented people.

Finding them is hard. Retaining them requires constant attention.

But developing them is where most owners drop the ball.

I used to think “development” meant sending people to work shoulder-to-shoulder with our best managers.

New Store Budget & Cash Flow

Eric — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 13:16:59 GMT

I launched store #36 last week.

I wanted to show you how we budget & run cash flow projections

People or a headcount problem?

Eric — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 13:15:50 GMT

Most owners look at a struggling location and think “we need more people.”

Sometimes that’s true. Sometimes it’s the opposite.

Revenue per employee is the metric that tells you which one you’re dealing with.

Here’s how I use it:

I had a store do $64,000 with 5 employees. That’s $13,000 per employee.

Another store did $168,000 with 5 employees. That’s $33,000 per employee.

Same headcount. Wildly different results

The checklist I use on every deal

Eric — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 13:14:57 GMT

You found a deal. The numbers look right. The seller seems motivated.

Now what?

This is where most buyers get stuck.

They either over-analyze for months and lose the deal.

Or they rush in and miss something critical.

I’ve learned that the difference between a great deal and a disaster often comes down to a handful of questions most people never think to ask.