IAM912- Entrepreneur Helps Companies Resolve Financial Issues

After years on Wall Street, Joseph Meuse created Business GPS because he was looking to use his experience and business acumen to help struggling businesses. Enter COVID-19, and his company is helping hundreds of businesses get government loans, decrease their commercial rental payments, and negotiate their loans to better terms – all on contingency. It is a unique business model, where Business GPS gets paid at the end of the process.

“Business GPS is here to help business owners navigate this new, more challenging, business era,” said Joseph Meuse. “Business GPS is dedicated to providing effective solutions to real problems which all businesses, at some point, experience.”

A serial entrepreneur over the past 30 years, Mr. Meuse has started and built over a dozen successful businesses and in the process has also helped thousands of other US companies execute their business plans. Sectors of experience span financial services, investment banking, accounting and finance, IT, business consulting, and legal services, giving Joe a broad perspective on best business practices and how they can be most effectively transferred across categories. As a thought leader in business transformation and financial management, Mr. Meuse has been a regular contributor on TV and radio, including CNN, CNBC, and Fox.

Business GPS, which was launched in 2013, has helped hundreds of businesses, across all business sectors, stay in business by improving their cash flow and resolving their financial issues. Business GPS maintains co-headquarters in Washington, DC, and Los Angeles, California.

• CEO Hack: Simplifying things to stick to my vision
• CEO Nugget: Don't make decisions out of emotions
• CEO Defined: Someone in service

Website: https://businessgpsllc.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BusinessGPSLLC
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/business-gps-llc/

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Transcription

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00:10 – Intro

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

00:39 – Gresham Harkless

This is Gresh from the I AM CEO Podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Joseph Muse of Business GPS. Joseph, It's awesome to have you on the show.

00:47 – Joseph Meuse

Hey, thank you for having me. A pleasure. Certainly, we live in an interesting time.

00:50 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. It's definitely an interesting and unexpected time. But I appreciate you for taking some time out to hop with us on the show. And before we jump in, I want to read a little bit more about Joseph so you can hear about all the awesome things that he's doing. And after years on Wall Street, Joseph created Business GPS because he was looking to use his experience in business acumen to help struggling businesses. Entering COVID-19 his company is helping hundreds of businesses get government loans, decrease their commercial rent payments, and negotiate their loans to better terms on all-long contingency. It's a unique business model where business GPS gets paid at the end of the process.

And he's a serial entrepreneur over the last 30 years. Joseph has started and built over a dozen successful businesses in the process and has also helped thousands of other companies, and U.S. Companies execute their business plans. Sectors of experience span financial services, investment banking, accounting, and finance, IT, business consulting, and legal services, giving Joe a broad perspective on best practices and how they can be most effective, transferred across different categories. Joseph, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community? That was good. Let's go. Let's do it then. So to kind of kick everything off, I wanted to hear a little bit more about how you guys started. Could you take us through your CEO story? We'll let you get started.

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01:58 – Joseph Meuse

Sure, sure, happy to. I don't know how interesting it is, but I'm 50. I started my first business when I was 18 and just kind of worked my way and learned my way through things. And when I got to the great recession of 08, 09, I'd had a nice, by that time, 20-year run, so to speak, in business, different businesses, learned a lot. However, when the Great Recession came, my business was cut in half in terms of revenue. And I was looking around, we had a really good growth rate. I'm looking around, I'm thinking, oh my gosh, what do I do? And I realized at the time that I had limited options. And when I was told or knew supposedly what to do, I called my attorney and said, hey, I'm in trouble. I owe people money. My business owes people money. They're going to sue me, et cetera. And I knew to call my accountant and talk to my accountant. Hey, what do I do?

And what they offered were very limited solutions. My attorney said, hey, If they sue you, let me know, and I'll represent you in court. But again, I owe them money. There's not a whole lot you can do. I went to my accountant and my accountant said, hey, cut your expenses. So what I ended up doing was working through it myself. I communicated with my vendors, and the people who wanted to sue me, and I figured out where I needed to cut costs. And I worked through it with a different skill set than I had used. And once I got through it, or during that process, I realized, I was struggling with this, I'm a thorough entrepreneur, and I've been doing it for 20 years. I've got some knowledge. If I'm struggling with this, I was the guy down the street with only 2 years of experience or 5 years of experience making it or is going to make it in the same situation.

And the other thing that I realized is in talking to my attorney and talking to my accountant, I did talk to a couple of other, what I'll call turnaround experts, everybody had their hand out looking for money. And what I was looking for at the time was, I wish I knew somebody who was a friend of mine, who had experience in this field, Come into my office, help me out, and say, Joe, once we get through the other side of this, I'll send you. And so at that point is when the seeds kind of got planted that there's a need in the market for helping people, helping companies get out of struggling situations. That was roughly 2008, 2009. I got back up on my feet again strong by 2012, and I said, let's launch business GPS, help those companies that are struggling. So anyway, that's how it all kind of came together.

04:35 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, I absolutely appreciate that story. And I feel like it just shows those seeds of the entrepreneurial spirit and understanding it and sometimes scratching your own itch and then seeing that there are so many other people that are really potentially going through this and seeing how you can create something and build something that can serve them. And I definitely think, you know, probably, you could probably speak to this where you're going through a difficult time, you're going through a frustrating time, and as you said, people are kind of not helping, or if they are helping, it's like at expense to everything that you don't already maybe have and it becomes very frustrating if you don't have somebody you can turn to for that expertise and of course for the help to get out of that.

05:10 – Joseph Meuse

Yeah absolutely you know we're taught not in this business school but you know we go online how to build a business, how to make sales, how to grow, how to hire things that are positive for the business, how to build a business. There's so much information out there, but where's the book or where's the guide on what to do when things fall apart? Very limited. So, you know, that's the space that we fill. And we do it the way, you know, when I started in 2012, I went back to what I had hoped for, which is, I wish I had a friend who could come in and help me out. Because I also knew, when I was going through, I was scared, I was nervous. And so talking to a turnaround firm, I didn't want to hide them because I didn't know if I trusted them.

I trust them, are they just trying to get more from me? You know, there's a lot of emotion flowing through. So Fast forward to 2012 when I launched it, I thought, okay, well, how do I build it around I'm the friend? I'm the guy who's going to come in and say, don't worry about it, take care of me later. And that's where we came up with the unique contingency model, which Nobody else has, don't think anybody else has done where you pay based on performance at the end of the process. If it went for the business and the business is stronger long term, then we get paid. And if that's not the case, then I'm not really helping. No, We're not better off at the end of the process. So it's a unique business model.

06:36 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. And I think that sometimes when those opportunities come about is because no 1 else is doing it, but you see a gap in the market and in the economy, you create that solution. And so I know when I read your bio, I touched on it a little bit and you did as well, too. Can you take us through a little bit more on how Business GPS works and how you become that friend for the people in business?

06:56 – Joseph Meuse

Sure. So we're helping businesses improve their cash flow. Try to keep it, try to keep our message simple and our story simple because CEOs are overloaded with content and decisions every day. It's almost like the analogy I give people you've got too many screens up on your computer and your computer's running a little slow. It's the same thing. So ultimately what we're doing is we're improving your cashflow. Now, every business is different. So the secret sauce or the prescription, they get to improve cashflow varies from business to business. One of the common themes is reducing debt.

Some companies are choking on debt payments every month, your bank payments, vendor payments, payments, rights, payments, et cetera. So sometimes it's restructuring debt. Sometimes, as you mentioned earlier, we're getting the SBA money, getting healthy working capital, which isn't as easy as it should be defined. So the PPP, EIDL, lines of credit, et cetera, sometimes we're doing that. Sometimes we're doing some restructuring inside of the CFO office. Sometimes it's just really business coaching in life, trying to get the business back on track. But ultimately it's about improving passion. That's what it is we're trying to do. That's the gas that runs the car.

08:13 – Gresham Harkless

Nice, I definitely appreciate that. And as you said so well before, a lot of times you're not taught this in school that's not you know in the book that you read about how to start a business on how to figure out those things and I think being able to understand and I guess as you said to get to it in a very simplistic way on what you're trying to do but understand and have the fluidity to understand that each business is unique and different and might need certain things that are so huge.

08:35 – Joseph Meuse

Yeah, it really is. There's definitely no a-size fits, not just with the business, but also with the person you're dealing with. Because ultimately, no matter what business you're in, you're in the people. So I'm trying to gauge Randy or Susie on the other side of the phone and try to, okay, what are their goals? What are they like? What are their strengths? What are their weaknesses? And I'm trying to tailor a program to them. So, at 1 point in time, scaled up, I had probably 30 or 35 employees. I thought, well, this is going to be really scalable. And what I realized is that it's not because every business takes a very hands-on approach because we're on contingency even more so.

I mean, I taught the clients at 10 o'clock at night. I taught clients on weekends because, you know, their success is my success. So we're now down to maybe 13 or 14. We kind of screen clients a little bit differently in terms of the cases that we take. But the point of all that is, it's a very hands-on, unique business model where it's almost like a partnership for 6 months. Maybe a different analogy is to say, I'm your personal trainer. I'm gonna spend time with you every day. We're gonna work out every day and make sure you write, you know, whatever that however that analogy goes. And then in 6 months, you'll be you'll be on your own. You'll be so and hopefully learn some lessons.

09:57 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. It sounds like, you know, getting that opportunity to be empowered so that you can learn the lessons as you can. And of course, get the success to be able to kind of run from there. And would you consider that to be, I know you mentioned this or might've mentioned this a little bit, your secret sauce, is that ability to understand and have so much business knowledge and acumen to be able to understand that 1 size doesn't fit all then be able to help people to get to that success.

10:21 – Joseph Meuse

Absolutely. That's an important piece. I have gone through it myself in the great recession or have hit the same challenges along the way in my, whatever it's been 32 years of running my own business. All that helps a lot. But some days I feel like it's the people skills that matter even more because I've got them, especially in COVID times, you know, it used to be we'd travel 5 days a week, visiting clients, sitting down face to face, getting to know them, really doing a deep dive into their business. And that was great. I mean, it wasn't always fun to get up at 4 in the morning to catch a flight, but it was great because I was really able to get into it. Now that everything's done or done over the phone, I really have to make sure that for that 20 minutes, I'm talking to that client today that I provide the right message.

So when I hang up with them, the other 23 and a half hours that I'm not with them, that message sticks and resonates. So again, going back to the personal training analogy, hey, we're going to have a healthy meal, but hey, I'm not going to be there in 4 hours. Don't go eat a Big Mac. So the communication skill and getting the emotion out of the business owner, here at the business owner, helps a lot. So it's coming back around to your question. I think it's probably 50% business experience, my business experience and understanding the situation, 50% understanding the people and how to make sure that I deliver the right message that's gonna stay.

11:52 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely appreciate that. And I wanted to switch gears a little bit. And I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an Apple book or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

12:03 – Joseph Meuse

You know, for me, it is downtime. So going back to my comment earlier about having too many windows open on your computer. As a CEO, you're pulled in so many different directions. Sometimes you're the CFO, and sometimes you're the HR guy, and sometimes you're the sales guy, sometimes you're this, sometimes you're that. And it gets very complicated every day. We feel like we're being productive because we're checking stuff on our list, but what we lose is the vision. What we lose is the roadmap. We have to simplify things. Have to get back to moments of clarity, and listen to our inner voice about what direction we're going. So I don't know if it's a hack, but what I try to do periodically throughout the day is walk that path.

12:50 – Gresham Harkless

That is absolutely huge. And so I want to ask you now for what I call a CEO nugget. So this could be a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. It might be something you would tell a client, or if you hopped into a time machine, you might tell your younger business self.

13:02 – Joseph Meuse

I think the 1 thing that has come up time and time again for me and for the people that I talk to is making decisions with emotion is typically the wrong decision. And a lot of the decisions I made out of fear in my life, whether it was in my personal life or in my business life, were the wrong decisions.

13:24 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. And so I wanted to ask you now my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping that different quote-unquote CEOs on this show. So Joseph, what does being a CEO mean to you?

13:34 – Joseph Meuse

It's somebody who served me, in my business and in businesses that I see are successful. CEO serves the people, serves everybody else. Serves the customers, serves the vendors, and most importantly, serves the staff of their company. My job is to make everybody around me successful. I serve them.

13:58 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely, absolutely. Well, Joe, I truly appreciate that definition and I appreciate your time even more. What I want to do is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you can let our readers and listeners know and of course how best they can get a hold of you and find out about all the awesome things that you're working on.

14:12 – Joseph Meuse

Well, so thank you, Neil. I think what I would add is, you know, With COVID, it's a difficult time for businesses out there. We're under more stress than ever. We see it in the demand for FDA loans that are out there, the demand for our services. I hate to say it, but business has been very good for us the last time. So many people that are struggling. And what I would say to them is, when I went through it myself, I didn't realize what was possible. I really thought that all I could do was either close my business, and file bankruptcy or not.

And it was outside of, probably even more importantly, that it was outside of my control. That's what gave me a lot of a few years in life. So what I would say to people is that almost anything is possible. And there's almost always a solution, not only just keeping you in business, but finding a path that gets your business onto a stronger financial foundation. So there's hope out there, certainly you can do it. Just need to try to free yourself of some of the noise and fear that you have.

15:22 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome, Awesome, Awesome. Yeah, I definitely appreciate that, Joseph. And for people that want to get ahold of you, what's the best way for them to do that?

15:27 – Joseph Meuse

Yeah, absolutely. Go visit our website, businessgpsllc.com. You can send us a message straight through our website, give us a call, whatever. As I mentioned earlier, because we are contingency work, pretty much 24/7. So if you're struggling, or have questions, we're certainly here to help. Even if we don't work with you, we're certainly here to help and try to get you pointed in the right direction.

15:52 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome, Awesome, Awesome. We will have the links and information and the show notes and Joe truly appreciates that and you being of help to us as well. I think so many times I say knowledge is power and sometimes we don't know that something is an option until we hear it. So I appreciate you for what you do and obviously providing that alternative to what we sometimes hear is the either-or approach that we can often hear from people around us. So definitely appreciate you again for the work you do and the time of course you took today and I hope you have a great rest of the day.

16:18 – Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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