Hello, and welcome back to The Breakdown.

Today, we are going to be breaking down Ramsey Solutions. We'll be looking at the few ways this media/consulting company makes so much dough, how they have grown, and one unique way that they may be making some revenue that you didn't know before.

Here are a few things you may takeaway from this:

1. Turning cost centers into profit centers for your business

2. How to find complimentary niches to sell to

3. How audiences can expand easily

Let's get into it.

Ramsey Solutions

We must start off first with what IS Ramsey Solutions?

Well, if you have heard people in finance speak about the baby steps, or this crazy guy that says you shouldn't use credit cards, take a loan out for your house, or any loan at that, you've certainly heard about Ramsey Solutions.

The other way you know of this company, is if you recognize the man below, then you definitely know of the main man of Ramsey Solutions, Dave Ramsey.

Dave Ramsey is head honcho, and the one that has built this company from just himself in 1992, to over 1,000 employees now at the time of writing (2023). We could write a whole post on the story of Dave Ramsey, and who he is, but here is what you need to know:

He got rich in his 20's through real estate, then went bankrupt. He went into real estate again, made more money in a safer way, and now helps people with their financial journey's and living a debt-free life through Ramsey Solutions, and now boasts a $200 million+ net worth.

So, how does a company go from 0 - 1,000 employees in 30 years? Let's break it down.

First, let's start with how the business makes money

Originally, Dave began the company by selling his own self-published book out of the back of his car, Financial Peace, to help walk people through his own journey and avoid what he calls the "stupid tax" of mess ups he experienced in his own financial life. That book to date has sold more than 5 million copies, and was the first step towards how we get Ramsey Solutions today.

Next, Ramsey began as one of three alternating hosts of The Money Game on radio station WWTN/Nashville in 1992, and this eventually morphed and became what is known today as "The Dave Ramsey Show," probably what Ramsey Solutions is most known for nowadays. So, the company was most likely making money through commercials and sponsors buying ad spots to talk about their own products, just as they do on radio today.

At the same time, he also was teaching financial classes at night to people actually now talking through what he covered in his book. This is what has now become Financial Peace University, which took that name in 1994 and was originally a 9 lesson video based course that people could buy and watch on their own time. This is very similar to selling a book obviously, you buy the DVD, Ramsey Solutions makes money. As long as you sell it for more than it cost you to make it, you're in the green.

And guess what? If you think this company does anything else special to make money, that's it. That is all Ramsey Solutions does as a company now, and all they have ever done. They have built an empire doing the same things they did all the way back in 1992, they just adapt to the times, and adapt to the trends to reach more and more people. They publish books, they do radio shows, they do events, webinars, etc.

But, the difference comes in this, instead of just publishing Dave's books, Ramsey Solutions now has a publishing arm (Ramsey Press) where they publish Dave and other co-hosts of their shows book's, rather than using or paying another existing publisher.

This is one big takeaway of growing your business, you might call this turning an expense into a profit. They realized if they were going to continue publishing books and having to pay other people to do it, they could offer that service for themself, and grow it by offering to other people as well.

They also expanded their show/broadcast offerings to other niches. You know what Dave has probably learned a lot about in the 30 years of operating Ramsey Solutions, and becoming wildly rich? Running a business, and managing large amounts of wealth.

Well, now Ramsey Solutions has podcasts, radio shows, webinars, and courses for running businesses where Dave talks about running a business, this is called Entreleadership.

They have the same offerings for people who have large amounts of wealth.

The one exception to this "expand your offerings in different niches," and making money the same way as they always have, is their budgeting app. You may have heard of things like Mint, YNAB (You Need a Budget), etc. Dave decided they would create their own app called EveryDollar to work how they would like/preach about finances and work with how they teach their financial lessons. For them, that means managing every dollar.

According to Ramsey Solutions back in 2016 (1 year after release), the app had over 1 million users. There are multiple plans, with a free on being offered, and a $12 a month/ $80/year plan, but if you assume 50% of those people are paying (I bet there's more since it sounds like for most features you need to pay), that would mean the app alone brings in $40 million per year in top line revenue.

That is the other big takeaway apart from expanding niches, is expand your offerings by offering complimentary products to the customers you already have. Dave preaches managing and budgeting your money. His customers didn't have a great way of doing it in the way Dave preached, so what did he do? He made his own budgeting app.

Next, let's move to how does this company grow? Well, in terms of growth, there is one lesson we can take from Ramsey Solutions, and one sneaky way they have done it:

If you do something well, and you do it over a long period of time, people will come.

Ramsey Solutions greatly benefits from this. They have been doing the same thing for a very long time, and have dialed in their offerings and improved it substantially to the point where it is now a household name and widely known to follow his baby steps to financial peace.

They also benefit greatly from word of mouth because of this. Like it or not, agree with it or not, Ramsey Solutions has helped millions of people on their financial journey, and finances is one of the most important things in people's lives, sometimes the most important. If this part of people's lives are going well, I'm pretty certain Ramsey will be talked about and shared from the people who went through the program and succeeded, to people who could also need their help.

And, this is where my insight comes in that I have hinted to. There is another secret way I'm sure not many people know about on how this company grows.

Through churches. Yes, Ramsey Solutions is a faith based organization, and what they have begun to do is offer their Baby Steps course to people through churches. AKA, the church is the one telling the people that attend and offering Financial Peace as a product to them.

And the best part? The church is the one paying for it. I experienced this through my own church, I could get access to the Baby Step program FREE through my church.

Why is this powerful? 2 things:

1. It's always better to sell to businesses/organizations. They probably have more money than individuals, and do not churn (move away from your product) as often.

2. Automatic distribution. Distribution is the name of the game, how do you find your ideal customers is the hardest part of any business. My church is a big church, over 20,000 people attend every week across about 10 campuses. I am willing to bet that at least 5,000 people have gone through Financial Peace as a result of our church offering this.

On their website, Financial Peace University has an $80 value, meaning my church alone has driven $400,000 of revenue alone to Ramsey Solutions if you assume 5,000 people have used it. Now, I would bet there is possibly a commission, or reduced price for the church, but still, that is how you distribute a product.

My church now brings this up every few weeks to the people attending since it is something they offer, which is just free advertising for Ramsey Solutions. Just the cherry on top

Let's bring this home, what can we take away from Ramsey Solutions, and the behemoth empire that it has become today?

1. If you stick with something you do well for a long period of time, you'll likely make a lot of money

2. Offer complimentary products to your existing customers

3. If you can sell through a business to your ideal customer, it is likely a great way to make a lot of money

4. Distribution is key. However you can get your name in peoples ears, is another potential customer paying you their hard earned money.

Like I said, whether you hate him or love him, Dave Ramsey has affected a lot of people, and by becoming a household name and specializing in an area, Ramsey Solutions has now come to do over $100 million in revenue, per year.

They didn't do anything special, they carved their niche in the beginning, and grew the pie from there. If you have something you are passionate about, there is probably someone else in the world that is willing to pay you for your knowledge and experience (it's been around a long time, it'd called consulting), and you can make money by doing something you love.

And THAT, is how you run a business for 30+ years.

That's all for today, if you want to get more follow me on Twitter @Cam_LaChance, where I interact with people and share more thoughts similar to what I write about here.

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💯 Freaking sick dude🤷‍♂️ Meh, do better next time😑 Bruh, I might unsubscribe after reading that