From $500 to $250K: How Angela McGinnis Scaled Her Businesses

Angela McGinnis (00:00)
I’m seeing the HVAC, the electrical, the plumbing companies making like millions of dollars a month that I’m helping them do. And it’s like, why aren’t I doing that for myself? And I think a lot of people don’t even understand like the value in any of that. So when I quit, I got to work. I took all the knowledge that I had learned there and I put it to use in my own company. And at the end of the year, we had scaled over a quarter of a million dollars. So within what is that, 10 months? I mean, most companies don’t even break a hundred their first year.

Issa Hanna (02:08)
Welcome back to another episode of the Real Estate Pros Show. I’m your host, Issa Hanna. And today I have somebody who was having a drink at Starbucks and decided, hey, you know what? I’m going into business for myself. Ladies and gentlemen, it’s my honor to bring on Angela Angela McGinnis. Angela, welcome to the show. How are you?

Angela McGinnis (02:27)
Hi, great. Thank you so much for having me.

Issa Hanna (02:29)
definitely I’m and I’m glad to have you. I’m glad to have you. We were talking a little bit before and I found your your story to be pretty cool and heartwarming. So for those people wanting to know what you’re into, please tell us what you’re doing nowadays.

Angela McGinnis (02:30)
Excited to be here.

⁓ so yeah, nowadays I co-own a construction company, I co-own a window company, I own a data company, and I own a business management firm. So as you were kind of saying, it kind of all started from my interaction with my barista at Starbucks.

Issa Hanna (03:00)
Yeah, and that was a hilarious story. not hilarious, very heartwarming story as well. and I I want you to get a little bit more into that. So you’re having coffee at Starbucks, you’re kinda like you already had your company, one of your construction companies going and you said, I want to scale my company. and you could take the story on from there.

Angela McGinnis (03:22)
Yeah. So I feel like I was just like any young entrepreneur and I was working because you’re not gonna be a success overnight. So I was working a full-time job. I was in school and then I was co-owning a construction company. And while I was doing all that, I also needed to get some experience. and so I started managing an electrical plumbing and heating company. So when I was there, I did basically everything I do now.

And I saw the value and what I was doing for them. And I thought, like, wow, if I spent 40 hours a week even on my own business, like where I could take my business, but instead I just, you know, was like any other college student needed the money. So I was thinking about it and I was thinking about it. And there’s the barista. I always go to this coffee shop downtown and I would see her every day. And I finally asked her one morning and I was like, you know what? I think I should quit my job. And she was like,

You’re gonna quit your job? Said, Yeah, I think I should quit my job. I think that if I spent all the time that I spend at this other company and do it for my own company, that I could be pretty successful. I’m just kind of nervous. And she was like, Well, can you survive off of you know the money that you’re making? And I said, Well, yeah. And she’s like, Well, I’m sure you’d have to give up some things, you know, to make it work. And I told her,

Yeah, it was a little bit uncomfortable. You know, I was used to my daily star my daily Starbucks and you know shopping and getting whatever like I needed and I if I wanted to make that jump, I would have to take certain sacrifices. But after talking to her, I I did. The next day I quit my job. I said, you know what? I I have a little bit of savings and I think that if I really work really hard, I can make it. So after I quit my job.

Came up with a game plan that weekend because it was a Friday I quit and just got to work. So the first month, we were making, I think we made $500. And then the second month, it was like a thousand dollars. So at the end of the second month is when I said, you know what, I should quit my job.

I’m seeing the HVAC, the electrical, the plumbing companies making like millions of dollars a month that I’m helping them do. And it’s like, why aren’t I doing that for myself?

And I think a lot of people don’t even understand like the value in any of that. So when I quit, I got to work. I took all the knowledge that I had learned there and I put it to use in my own company. And at the end of the year, we had scaled over a quarter of a million dollars. So within what is that, 10 months? I mean, most companies don’t even break a hundred their first year.

Issa Hanna (06:55)
Exactly. And and it’s with your knowledge, and working for these companies and also your background. You you went to school for Business Management, correct?

Angela McGinnis (07:03)
Correct. Yeah. So I’m right now in my master’s Business Management school. So I’m gonna be pursuing that. I’m also in my master’s for Finance. So master’s in Finance and Business Management, but I did go to school for yes, business.

Issa Hanna (07:16)
Wow. Definitely a busy person, motivated person. You run all these companies that you co-own and you’re still getting your masters. That that is remarkable. Definitely, Angela. And it’s probably really tough being in school and trying to manage these companies. tell us some of your challenges of of getting the master’s degree and managing all these companies.

Angela McGinnis (07:38)
Yes. So some of my challenges are that I’m in school and trying to manage all these companies and I really truly can’t do it alone. I think in the beginning I thought I could. I’m like, you know what? I I’ve been doing all this by myself. I can do this, it’ll be fine. And I was seeing myself beginning to like crash from from that. And obviously I don’t want any of my companies to suffer. So that’s when I decided I needed to get, you know, some help, some support around me.

So I have an assistant. She is amazing at what she does. She kind of helps it within like the ins and outs of the smaller things. I think some of the biggest downfalls when you own a business is that people don’t want to release their power and they think they can just do everything on their own. They’re gonna do it, they’re gonna do it. No one can do it as good as them. And you get caught up in that cycle and it’s you just get bogged down. So I think that.

I’ve learned that there are some things that yes, I do need to handle, but there are other things that other people should be able to help me with. And it’s allowed me to be a better boss, be a better manager. It’s okay to ask for help. It’s okay to ask for support. I feel very thankful that I have support. I wouldn’t be able to be in school, run all of these companies, and be a great manager to everybody if I didn’t have that. And I think that that’s like the biggest hiccup that when I look at other, you know.

people who are trying to start their own business. They wanna be Mr. Everything, which is great, but you can’t be the worker, the accountant, the lawyer, the customer service representative. Like it just starts to get really out of hand.

Issa Hanna (09:18)
Yeah, definitely. When you when you start scaling, especially, you know, in the beginning you can be everything, but when the business actually is successful and is doing numbers, you have to learn to delegate. And Angela being such a smart person, she learned it super quick. So kudos to you for that. with that, what does the future hold? Where do you see yourself five years down the line, Angela?

Angela McGinnis (10:15)
Well, so currently we had just purchased a commercial building in like one of the suburb areas of the city that I’m in. And we ho we host right now the contracting company and the window company and then the data guys have like their own room for like all of their equipment and things like that. And they help run the building. We have a server room, private servers, IP address, whatever. but my goal is that everyone’s gonna have their own building.

So I think by the end of next year, you know, our data company will have their own building, our window company will have our own building, contracting will have its the building solely to itself. so my goal is to just see each and every one of them individually scale to the level that I know that it can be. I mean, these are trades. People are people are people who are in trades are already sitting on a gold mine. It’s just what you’re doing with it.

I think a lot of people don’t understand the value in the skill that’s not AI. Like you’re like AI is gonna take over a lot of stuff, but they’re not gonna take over the craftsmanship of putting in a window. And people who have these skills, they need to understand how to use that to to build. And so that’s I just see a lot of potential in that because that is something that I believe isn’t gonna change in the industry.

Issa Hanna (11:34)
Definitely, and somebody your company is lucky to have such a leader with you that already has this vision and these plans for the future, and everybody’s gonna have their own building. it’s definitely impressive. You’re very you’re a very impressive person, definitely. Thank you. so for people just starting out, maybe somebody tuned into this and they’re like, you know what, I want to be just like her. do you have any advice on

How to foster business relationships, grow your network.

Angela McGinnis (12:03)
Yeah, well, buckle in for a stressful ride is this isn’t for the week at all. You know, being in first of all, there’s a couple things. Being in business is already, you know, a t a task. Like you have to have a mindset where you want to get up every day and you want to grow, you want to be better. It’s about your connection, your net worth is only as strong as your network is what I always say. So knowing the right people is super important and knowing

to make that connection with them. people who understand that value is super important. So I would just tell everybody that you need you need to be a go-getter to be able to do this job. And that’s why everybody has their roles. And I think that as long as you have a passion that you’re really passionate about, you can make it. And you just got to get up and you have to try and you have to you have to put effort into it. And it’s not going to be easy and people see, well

they can make all of this money and it’s like, yeah, but you’re not seeing all the effort that goes in behind the scenes. Like I quit my job. I took a chance. I could still be working there, you know, making I made decent money there. I could still be having a a great living, but I wanted it to be better and I I wanted to do something for myself. And people who aren’t willing to step out of their comfortability, then the you have to get used to that because that’s every single day. You’re gonna feel uncomfortable. You’re gonna feel like

you you might not make it or but you can’t live in that and there’s always growth on the other end of something that might not seem the way that it is right now.

Issa Hanna (14:22)
Definitely. And people don’t know. when you become uncomfortable, when you do the thing that is uncomfortable, ninety-nine percent of the time that’s the right thing to do. And you get the fruits of your labor like Angela has right now, where she has all these companies and she’s scaling larger and larger and larger. So take that advice, you guys, because it’s it’s it’s golden for sure. And with that, if people wanted to contact

Emerald Construction or one of the multiple other companies or maybe they just need some advice from you, Angela. Where could they get a hold of you at?

Angela McGinnis (14:59)

Yeah, so my business management firm is called the AMW Collective. you can find me on Facebook, Instagram, and I do have a website as well. It’s theamwcollective.com. You can find Emerald Contracting on same Instagram, Facebook on emeraldcontractingmke.com. And then our window company is Ark Exteriors, and you can find us on Instagram and Facebook as well.

And then Emerald Data is there’s also a website and it’s co linked with the Emerald contracting website. You can just switch back and forth on the website up top on the banner.

Issa Hanna (15:34)
And with you saying all that, you just gave me another question to ask you, which is social media, how important is it for businesses?

Angela McGinnis (15:43)
Social media is super important. I think it depends on where you’re at in your business. So a a company that’s wanting to grow, you you gotta get on social media. It’s about what you’re posting, the trending topics, audio, all of that is super important. I think a lot of people can run their business without social media that are a little bit of an older generation that have an established clientele, they’re known in the area. They probably don’t need to do that.

I wish they did though, because usually they have so much knowledge and they’re not sharing and they’re not sharing it with us.

Issa Hanna (16:15)
We’re doing just fine though, getting your knowledge right now. so Angela, I’d like to thank you for coming on the show. we’re all out of time for today. I would love to have you on the show and pick your brain some more later on down the road. So but for now, thank you so much for coming on. and if people enjoyed my conversation with Angela and want to learn more and want to hear more conversations like this.

Make sure to like and subscribe. I talk to people every day that could bring us different knowledge on every aspect of the real estate business. Angela, do you want to close with anything?

Angela McGinnis (16:49)
I just want to say thank you so much for having me on. I really enjoyed this. And just to anybody out there, maybe don’t ask your barista, because maybe their your barista is different than my my barista. But if you have a passion, you should go for it and get out of your comfort zone. You might regret it if you don’t.

Issa Hanna (17:06)
Definitely great advice to end with. Thank you so much for coming on. And until next time.