Built Side by Side

Married almost 20 years and in business together for more than a decade, Dan and Sarah tell the story of the worst thing that's happened to their business: losing credit card processing. After years of being dropped by processors, they finally found one that worked, and the business doubled during the COVID shutdowns. Then one Friday the deposit didn't come, and nobody answered their emails. In the end the processor owed them about $60,000, they got back about $12,000, and they lost around half their revenue. Sarah was sure they'd be looking for jobs again. Dan didn't want to go back to driving a truck. Here's how they got through it, the customers who kept them alive, and what they'd tell anyone whose business depends on getting paid.

Are you the first in your family to run a business, or did you grow up in one? Tell us in the comments.

New episodes every week. Follow so you don't miss the next one, when we open our first store.

CHAPTERS

0:00 Cold open

0:17 Why we don't name our business

4:08 Frozen by PayPal

5:14 Finally, a processor that said yes

7:23 High-risk fees and rolling reserves

10:11 COVID doubles our business

11:54 The deposit that never came

18:59 What happened to our money

23:13 Glass half full vs. half empty

29:17 Starting over without fighting

32:33 Finding a processor we can trust

36:20 There's always something

40:21 Coming up next

Married almost 20 years and in business together for more than a decade, Dan and Sarah answer the question everyone asks them first: how do you work together without destroying your relationship? It comes down to one risk-taker and one worrier, the argument that decided when Dan could quit his trucking job, and losing almost everything just months into running the business full time.

Which one are you, the worrier or the risk-taker? Tell us in the comments.

New episodes every week. Follow the show so you don't miss the next one.

Chapters

0:00 Cold open

0:17 Who we are

1:18 It all comes down to risk tolerance

5:33 The risk-taker and the worrier

7:31 Trucking, and why no job is guaranteed

12:43 The fight about quitting the day job

20:33 The day we lost almost everything

22:55 Rebuilding with a new supplier

28:16 How we make risky decisions together now

31:07 What we'd tell our younger selves

36:22 Coming up next

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