We recently connected with Johnnie Bunting and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Johnnie , thanks for joining us today. Talk to us about building your team? What was it like? What were some of the key challenges and what was your process like?

In 2018 I purchased a car wash, which had employees. I had already known that some of the employees were stealing from the previous owner, but I didn’t know how many of them were stealing. So my plan was to remove the employees who had the least amount of impact on the business and to replace them with people that I knew. I would have them trained by the employees who were more valuable to the business and I would be training with them, so that I would be capable of doing the job as well.
I hired a family member to control the book keeping and the cash register, and told the woman who was doing it that she could stay working with us, but at a different capacity (she quit, which proved to me that she was stealing). Once I got the training for us all and I got familiar with the clientele, I was left with one of the original members of the previous staff, who was the manager and master thief. I had kept him longer than I wanted because he was the face of the business and lots of the clients liked him, but I had cut his hours significantly.
He ended up getting another job, and I was rid of him, but then I was faced with the reality that hiring family and friends was an even bigger challenge, as they all wanted to get lots of hours and do as little work as possible!

Johnnie , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My motto is “Do what you can, until you can do what you want!” I am a landscaper, property manager, author, publisher, public speaker, truck driver, landlord,, online merchant, private lender, loan broker and vending machine owner. I have learned that if you want to get ahead that you need to have multiple streams of income. These streams of revenue allows you to have the flexibility to take risks and have options to explore opportunities that you may have otherwise missed. I was doing landscaping and janitorial work as my own boss. I was signed up on a website called “Home Advisor “and I have some of the same clients that I had from 8 years ago. It takes some real discipline, dedication and sacrifice to accept jobs for less than market value just to get income.
I remember my very first landscaping client. I made a deal with him that secured a whopping Sixty one dollars per month for yard service, and I had to do his yard every week. It mathematically translated to $15.25 per week. I was so happy to seal that deal. It gave me the confidence to do other deals. My first deals were so bad, but I was getting clients. I was cleaning two story units for $150. I was doing rubbish removal and demolition work for hundreds of dollars instead of thousands. I was so happy to be able to put money into my pockets and to be able to pay a couple of guys for their help. That $61 deal allowed two of his neighbors to see my work, so I was soon doing three yards in the neighborhood and two more people hired me for one time jobs.
As my skills grew, so did my prices. My father used to wonder why I charged so little, and I would he exhausted, but optimistic. On one of my birthdays, there was a snowstorm, and I returned home early from a vacation in Virginia because I didn’t have anyone reliable enough to shovel my clients yards. I was up until noon the next day shoveling snow. I did 13 yards that night and following morning.
Once I increased my prices, and most of my clients stayed ($61 per month didn’t want to pay, so I dumped him, but his two neighbors paid)
The landscaping and shoveling was the foundation to establishing discipline and a great work ethic which has been with me since. The car wash experience made me rethink having too many employees. So, I sold the car wash in 2021 and bought a vending machine route in 2022 to run without employees. I bought another route in 2023, so I now own 50 vending machines.
I help people to secure loans to help them to start businesses or keep their businesses going. I am in the process of getting loads to move with my truck. I am a mentor, so every once in a while I will do an appearance or do some motivational speaking.
I am very goal driven, so I can picture a goal in my mind and perceive it. The next step is to believe it. Step three is to achieve it. I have two online stores that I am working on, and I have two more jobs that are both challenging at times, yet very rewarding and I wouldn’t change them (being a husband and a father).

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I learned that you can’t help everyone. When I had the car wash, I hired teenagers, drug addicts, homeless people and other people with issues. In my mind I was thinking that if I can put some money into their pockets, then I was doing the community a favor, giving people a marketable skill and preventing them from committing crimes. What I didn’t realize is that some people don’t really want any help. They just wanted money to keep living their lives the way they were used to. It was very frustrating for me to bail guys out of jail because they didn’t want to change their ways despite having a job.
So, now I do a more thorough investigation on a potential employee, and I will definitely fire someone who doesn’t appear to want to work or is argumentative or messing up the harmony in the working environment.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

My father, Johnnie Bunting, saw how much I was doing in order to make sure that my daughter was comfortable. I would tell him stories of my pitfalls, often laughing about it and keeping myself optimistic.
I asked him to help me to purchase a vending machine route. He refused to lend me the money, but when the car wash from down the street was for sale, he told me about it and asked me if I would be interested. He put up the money and I paid him back. My life changed from that moment.
Was I still working hard? Yes, but I was able to see the rewards of my labor.

Contact Info:

• Youtube: @johnniebuntingjrtheforce7095