SPEAKER_01 0:06

Welcome to CCI Drive Time, the podcast for vended laundry distributors. I'm Steve with CCI, using your drive time to cover laundromat trends, payment systems, and practical topics you can use in the field. Today I got to sit down with Madison Dang with Elite Business Investments out of Southern California and learn a little bit about the Southern California market, get a chance to talk about some of the opportunities that exist out there, what some of the challenges are, and just get a chance to kind of discuss where we think the distribution business is headed moving forward. So I hope you enjoy listening to this as much as I enjoyed discussing these topics with Madison. Here we go. Madison.

SPEAKER_00 0:49

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 0:50

How are you?

SPEAKER_00 0:51

I'm good, Steve. How are you?

SPEAKER_01 0:53

I'm great. I'm great. I know we chatted a little bit before we got the uh record button going here. Thank you again for uh joining me here today. It's always great to uh catch up. I haven't seen you in a while. You and I talked about I've known your parents for a long time, uh, you know, with elite business investments, uh, going back many, many years, and I always enjoyed the time that I had. Um, they're the the nicest people. And um I'm so glad to see another generation enter this industry, frankly. Um I know you're not new, new to it, but you know, in the scheme of when I look at the age across most distributorships, when I look across the country and I've had the privilege to uh you know to visit a lot of distributors, I'm always excited to see um a little bit younger generation. We talked about my son joining uh a few minutes ago, another young, a young young guy that's uh decided he wants to be in this business too. And so, you know, that gives us a lot of hope about distribution in general, the laundry market and where things are going. And so I'm looking forward to this conversation uh to learn a little bit more about what's happening, your viewpoint on Southern California and distribution in general. But before we get there, you know, uh, why don't you just tell me a little bit about Elite and kind of like what your role is there?

SPEAKER_00 2:08

Sure. Yeah. Uh company's been in business since 2008. This is a family-run business, just like CCI. It's uh my parents and I, and then seven other salespeople in our company. So um yeah, my role, I'm the VP of the company, and then I'm also the principal broker. So I handle all the day-to-days on the sales team, I handle training, um, kind of overseeing every transaction. We are truly a uh two-headed monster in the sense that we do brokerage, but we also do distribution, we're doing build-outs, so on and so forth. So um just my role. I'm just overseeing all these deals, making sure we've got a clean deal, that both buyer seller are happy, and so on and so forth.

SPEAKER_01 2:53

Yeah, great. And so um how long have you been working with your folks at Elite?

SPEAKER_00 3:00

Coming up on this is my 11th year in the company.

SPEAKER_01 3:05

11th year.

SPEAKER_00 3:06

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 3:06

Yeah, like I said, you're not you're not new to this business, but I I but you're one of the younger ones for sure still. So uh hold on to that. I was one of the young ones 25 years ago.

SPEAKER_00 3:17

Yeah, I want to maintain my youth. I want to maintain it.

SPEAKER_01 3:20

Absolutely, absolutely. Um uh that's great. And so I'm curious, um, what um and I always like to look at what's a little bit unique between different distributorships, and I and I find that some distributors are builders, like they just build new stores and that's what they focus on. Um, other distributors are equipment, that just strictly equipment. They just want to sell equipment and they do a lot of retools and remodels and stuff like that, but really on the equipment side. And then you kind of come in because I think you do a little bit of everything, but you also have this brokerage side of things, and I think that's something that you guys kind of excel at. So, what percentage would you say of your business is brokerage versus kind of more traditional distribution side of things?

SPEAKER_00 4:05

Yeah, I'd say we're probably at like a 40% brokerage and then 60% equipment. Um being that we we just signed our deal with laundry luxe and we're now selling Wascom out equipment, um, we've definitely seen an uptick in our equipment sales. Um and you know, just the market right now in Southern California for brokerage is just a little tricky. A lot of demand, not a not a lot of supply at the moment.

SPEAKER_01 4:34

I I'm seeing that in a lot of places too. I don't think it's unique to Southern California. And you know, if you if you're you know on any of the social channels, and I'm sure we're always just kind of observing, it's like every day there's somebody who goes, Oh, I want to build, I want a store in Minnesota, I want a store in Illinois, I want to store in Southern California. It's like great, you know, who doesn't want one, it seems like nowadays. It's like, you know, you gotta find the you gotta find the kneel and haystack here to get the good deal. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:01

Yeah, we we get a lot of inquiries on a daily basis. You know, we put out a listing on you know BisBend, BizBy Cell, and we'll get, I don't know, 40 to 50 phone calls every between every few days. But finding a qualified lead is, you know, we can take all the phone calls we want, but you know, being financially qualified for the deal is a whole nother thing. So like I said, a lot of demand, but very short supply and we've got to do a lot of filtering on our end.

SPEAKER_01 5:31

Yeah, I believe it. I believe it. Um you know let's get into a little bit about you know what you've seen. You know, you said you're 11 years into working with your folks and being in this business at that point. So you've seen quite a bit. Uh tell me what you think, what has changed in the last 10 years, in your view? And you know, I guess we could go on for hours about just the things that have changed, but what has stood out to you as the biggest changes recently?

SPEAKER_00 5:54

Yeah, I'm so this is funny because I just got asked this by uh one of my clients that's been in the business for quite a while. So um the way I answered it was pretty simple. I've been seeing a big tech change. And I'm really I'm for me, I enjoy that. For being a young, a younger generation, that's something that I enjoy seeing. I think the days of just being a totally coin op store, I think those days are gonna be dwindling down pretty soon. Um part of this also is I'm seeing a younger generation, I mean, people of my age getting into the business. It's a very different investment pool that's coming into the business now. So um we're also getting a lot of private equity and VCs getting into it, which you know has its benefits, sometimes doesn't, just to be candid. But um, you know, so it's it's definitely changed over the last, I would say just over the last five or six years. Uh there's been a big shift.

SPEAKER_01 6:50

Yeah, I'll uh I'll I'll echo all of those things. I think I've we're seeing the same thing, um, not obviously just in California here, but everywhere. Um yeah, and there's a you can have an opinion, you know, whether or not uh, you know, some of the bigger money that comes in is good or bad for the industry. Um I think it's just a matter of how we decide to navigate um working with these clients maybe a little bit differently. But um yeah, that's very good. Um what are you you we talked a little bit about inventory? Is that the biggest challenge that you're facing right now? Is there other challenges maybe that um that you'd like to share?

SPEAKER_00 7:25

Yeah, uh I mean inventory would probably be the number one thing. The I think the other hard part is just financing is pretty tricky right now. Um lending, I would just say post-COVID has gotten definitely tighter. So, you know, entry into the business from a down payment perspective has definitely changed, and that that number has increased. That percentage to get in has increased, specifically for the first-time buyer. And you know, for us, we we thrive on first-time buyers. We love working with first-time buyers because if you know we have a good successful deal, that becomes a multi-store owner for us. Sure. But um, you know, it again, I'd say those are the two probably tough parts right now is this inventory and financing. But um, you know, we we see that there's been some leniency on the financing side, you know, depending on just depending on the investor. But um, yeah, those are the two.

SPEAKER_01 8:20

Interesting. Interesting. Uh, you talked a little bit about technology as some things that are you're seeing as some of the changes in there. And um when you say that, are you are you thinking are you saying that your investors are expecting more out of the technology or you're just seeing more technology be available? Can you expand a little bit about what you mean by that when you say tech? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:44

Yeah, I I think it's a combo of the two right there, that investors are kind of expecting more technology into the business. But then I'm also seeing more of a demand for technology. I'm also seeing it from just the the end user side that they are looking for a payment system, right? That you know, if you've got a 90-pound washer and you're charging $13 and you got to watch a little lady put $13 in quarters, that's pretty unbearable to watch. Um so seeing, you know, whether it's uh a CCI system or a QR code system, whatever it may be, just something to ease the customer's experience. I think that's what investors are really getting into now is just streamlining the customer experience.

SPEAKER_01 9:31

Yeah, you know, it's interesting because the you know, obviously I and this is my this is my world, you know, is uh is is talking about payment. And um, you know, for years it seemed like there was this uh this focus on the idea that well, payment systems are for the owners. You know what I mean? That this is for the this is for the operator more than it's not what the retail customer wants, it's what the owner wants. And here's the first thing that you say is that it's the retail customer that wants this, and here's the reason why. It's because the machines are not getting any smaller, you know, they only seem to get bigger. I mean, you know, I've seen 130-pound washers in stores. I mean, they're vending for $20, you know, in some markets. I mean, could you imagine um you know, literally taking a $20 bill to a change machine, getting $20 a quarter, and somehow carrying those over and you know, over the next four or five minutes, loading those quarters into a machine. Or, you know, maybe they have dollar coins, but that even seems like a nightmare. And at the end of the day, sorting coins out of a box. But you know, we live in you know, 2026 and here we are. But I think you're right. I think what we're seeing is that there's an expectation, not just by investors and store owners, but custom us, you know, we're all retail customers in some place. We have expectations of what we want to see. I can't imagine going to a gas station. I can't use my credit card. I mean, I just I don't, you know, not being able to pull plastic out to use that. I I don't remember the last time I went inside a gas station, let alone you know, thinking I had to go and bring cash into a gas station. So the the retail customer is ultimately demanding a lot of this, and and it sounds like you're seeing the same thing.

SPEAKER_00 11:11

Yeah, and like a good way, I guess for us, the narrative has really shifted. It used to be, you like you said, for the operator, right? The narrative was of you know, maintain your float and reduce your collection times, but it was never about the end user. It was never about let's make this a convenience for the end user. It was all about operator standpoint. Whereas now it's shifted. Like I just took a call this morning for one of our listings, and their version of some CapEx or you know, capital investment into the business was can we put a payment system in there?

unknown 11:46

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 11:47

And so that is really the shift, right? Is now investors are looking at the value of a payment system and what that could do for the business. So yeah, that's for me, it's it's great because this is one, it's a great selling point, but two, it's giving me peace of mind that this next wave pool of investors, they get it, which is gonna make the tech.

SPEAKER_01 12:08

Thinking about it the right way here. They're thinking about operating it the way retail customers want, and you know that even you know, the float is all still good stuff. All of the things that payment system companies like myself have been touting for years, those are all still good stuff. But it it does, it's we we do that, I think, many times because we're trying to justify the investment. We know this is an investment involved in this technology, so we're trying to find ways to you know to justify the investment and telling them, well, your customers want it, doesn't have the same ROI as saying, well, there's this float and there's this penny incremental pricing, and there, you know, there's all these things that you can do. But now that the customers are demanding it and the investors, like you said, are saying, I can't imagine a more modern young investor says, I want to be in the laundermeat business and I can't wait to go pull quarters out of a machine.

SPEAKER_00 12:54

Yep. I mean, every one of them, every one of them has been, at least like my most recent investors that I'm working with, they're they're talking about all the right things, which is like time of day pricing, you know, having uh running promotions, discounts, you know, doing text blasts for customers, so on and so forth. So yeah, it's it's nice to see this new wave because I don't know, five years ago we definitely weren't having these kind of conversations.

SPEAKER_01 13:21

Much different. That's good to hear. Certainly from my perspective, that's that's great to hear. Um, you get to talk, you talk about all the calls that you guys get because you have listings and you're you're you're marketing yourselves um, you know, in a in a in a in a positive and an aggressive way. Uh what's what kind of advice are you giving people that are just starting out in the industry? And I realize you've got probably you know a high percentage of people that just are never going to get into this business, at least not in with their current situation. It's this is a high capital investment. But those that are generally qualified, you're like, okay, they're a candidate for this. You know, what is what is generally your advice for someone trying to get into this?

SPEAKER_00 14:00

Yeah, uh take due diligence very seriously. I mean, really put an emphasis on it. As much as we are experts in this industry, yeah, we don't we tell them not to rely on us, right? Conduct your own due diligence, do your own inspections. We'll hold their hand through the entire process. But uh I don't know. For me, it I I try to be very transparent with all my clients that look, no deal is gonna be perfect. There's gonna be bumps in the road, and it really as an investor, you just need to be able to tackle those. And because that's how it's gonna be when you own a laundromat. It's not it's not a perfect ownership, right? You're gonna have a flood, machines are gonna break down. Um so, anyways, I guess as a piece of advice, I one, I tell them to take their time in getting into this because there's times when they have money and they just want to rush to deploy money. They see a deal that looks good on paper, but they haven't really done the research on what that time allocation is gonna look like for them. Um, you know, I'm sure you know this. We we have a lot of social media uh people out there that are saying, oh, passive income business, 100% seller financing, all these different things, right? It's maybe true in some places, but not all places. And this is not one of those places that we can really structure those deals.

SPEAKER_01 15:22

So yeah, you know, I think what you're referring to is what the rest of outside of our well, in our industry too. We call these influencers, right? These influencers, and they and they think they're self-proclaimed in some in some ways. Some of them can very much be that. And it may it's always made me a little bit uncomfortable because I I also come from a distribution background. You know, it's no surprise we have a distribution business in Chicago, my brother runs it, and so I'm intimately um aware of all the challenges that go into. But not just that, and I see it in you too, is the investment that you make as a distributor into your customers because you're thinking about them being successful, because that does mean that store number two is coming and store number three is coming someday. And if you do a good job and you get them launched appropriately, the the years of relationship that's gonna return in business to you and to him, and everybody's gonna be happy and successful. I mean, that's the goal. That's why due diligence is important, getting them set up in the right place and all those things. And what makes me nervous about some of the influencers that are providing this advice is that their motivations are not the same. The advice, you know, their motivations are to are likely to offer a program, a book, a you know, a guide of some kind, right? But and I'm not saying that that there's no good advice in there, but the you gotta remember where the motivations are. And I think that for for the for the investor out there, they have to realize that your motivation is them being successful because you're not looking at one store, you're looking at them being a multi-store owner. And and you, you know, you nobody's getting rich selling one guy one store with equipment. That just doesn't uh that doesn't happen. It's selling that guy five stores, and you need you need a hundred people that are doing that, you know. And um so your investment into this industry as a general is because you need the gener the industry to be healthy, and then you need the investor to have it a healthy um experience through this and be successful throughout the way. And that's the disconnect, you know, when people go on Facebook and you know they get sold courses or things like that. And again, I'm not everyone has the right to make money and everyone has the right to offer their wares, and I'm a capitalist, I'm sure you are as well. But when we talk about the amount of investment required to open a laundry, you need to talk to a real person in that market who's done it many times before.

SPEAKER_00 17:58

Yeah, and and yeah. We we get tons of investors that go, Oh, I have a private consultant. Yeah, and I go, I go great. Great, no problem. Where?

SPEAKER_01 18:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:11

Oh, they're in Florida. Well, this deal's in Southern California. So Florida market, LA market, two wildly different markets. And the way that they're gonna negotiate a deal, negotiate a lease is gonna be different than how we're gonna negotiate a deal and a lease. The comps just they they will never match. Right. And so, yeah, there's there's a ton of value in that, you know, just not just working with me or my company, but any agency that specializes in this industry that's local, because we have a vested interest, like you said, we have a vested interest for our clients to succeed. Because if that's right, if they succeed, we succeed, and our reputation is is on the line for every deal. Whereas a consultant, if they if that client fails, they're not really held liable. They get their one-time payment and they're kind of off off into the moon at that point.

SPEAKER_01 19:04

You know, and and again, just to continue not to beat a dead horse here, but the the I've I've worked with distributors, and I would even say that you know, laundry concepts in Chicago is a good example of this, is that you can be really successful as a distributor by aligning yourself with a good investor, you know, that has obviously got to have some of the right means to be able to do things that executes correctly, but works with you and trusts you in a way that that one investor is and getting a handful of those makes that uh distribution business thrive. And it's a really a symbiotic relationship in that way. And they you become friends almost with these folks. It's not just a you know, great, you know, you bought a car and I never see that dealer again. It's a very different kind of relationship. Um, and so again, seeing, you know, I've already I've already said it once, but seeing younger people join this industry that recognize the relationship side of this um is is I hate to say it refreshing. Uh because one of the things that has become a bit of a a distraction, I believe. And um, you know, I get this dealers need to they need to sell what they can is this idea of if you're gonna be a distributor, then be a consultant, don't just be a catalog. You know, you can just oh you can here here's a catalog. Let me open this up and you just choose whatever it is you want on here, and then I'll I'll place the order. I mean, it's like, well, I go to Amazon and choose what I want off of there. Thank goodness you can't buy commercial laundry equipment on Amazon, but at the same time, let's not let that happen, you know what I mean, as uh as stewards of this industry. So um, you know, it that's the that's what we are. We're it we're consultants more than anything else.

SPEAKER_00 20:46

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 20:47

Yeah, that's great. Um you have a sense of where you think, you know, we've we spent a little time talking about already, but how do you think the role of the distributor is going to evolve? Do you see it changing? Do you want it to change? Do you do you see where you know the industry can do better from the distribu that you know, you're a distributor? What can distributors do better? Where do you do you see changes coming?

SPEAKER_00 21:09

Yeah, I mean, I think we were all kind of seeing it with manufacturers uh taking over some distributors. Um you know, I'm biased because I am a distributor, so I don't like that I don't like that direction. Um again, I'm just I'm biased because we are a small mom and pop type business that puts a lot of uh blood, sweat, and tears into this company. Um so yes, you know, going up against a manufacturer on a deal is not very fun, um, especially when they can price gouge us on pretty much everything. Um, I don't know if that's sustainable though. You know, it's that's that's just the key. I so we're really forecasting a pretty pretty big future here. So I really don't know if it's sustainable, but I I don't know. It it's tough. I just I guess on my opinion, I'm not the biggest fan of where it's headed right now.

SPEAKER_01 22:04

Yeah. You know, I I I'll echo that. And one of the things, you know, if we're getting to a theme here, I think we're finding a theme, is that what I hear about some of the distribution businesses that have been acquired, you know, let's say by their by their manufacturing partner, or we've seen some other larger distribution groups, you know, start to acquire and become larger and larger in the markets. Um there's this lack of um there's there's nobody to give the business to. You know, it's like my father uh you know was in this industry and he retired and I'm in the industry now, my son has joined the industry. So there's this legacy that you can can you can see. There's a there's a path for the business to continue to go with with a level of um respect that the business reserves and an understanding of the core tenants of that business. And it's kind of opened up a little bit of an opportunity for these acquisitions. And I think maybe some of the manufacturers have been nervous about the idea that their distribution network is basically evaporating or could evaporate. I'm not saying it happened yet, but they're kind of jumping the gun on the fact that it could evaporate. But this idea of whether or not they can sustain at the price points that they may be trying to sell at, I don't think they can because there's a lot of work that goes into the distribution layer of this, and you don't eliminate that work just because you eliminated the the markup that comes along with that layer of it, you know. And um it may take a little time, but you know, if you were to ask me, I would say that you know there's a disruption in that for a while, and then there'll be a hard demand for consultancy to come back. And I think so companies like yours that is kind of banking on that and banking towards the future of that is are really well positioned.

SPEAKER_00 23:54

Yeah, yeah, we're we're staying put. Good for you.

SPEAKER_01 23:59

Good for you, good for you. Um think back on, you know, is there something you wish you had known earlier in your career? Uh maybe that maybe uh there's a um uh uh an a trait, uh is it a piece of knowledge that you we wish you'd known earlier that you you learned later in your career here?

SPEAKER_00 24:18

Yeah. Um it's a good question. I would say I really wish I maybe took on a little bit more of a oh man, that's a good question. I would I think my biggest regret was not putting an emphasis on marketing early in my career. And I wish I'd put more of a focus on that and maybe taken some classes, networked, what whatever it may have been. Um I'm very like very old school style marketing where I'm just boots on the ground, I go survey, pass out flyers door to door. I I've been doing that for 11 years now. Um and I'm I'm pretty late to the wave of digital marketing, and I think that's something that I I wish because I wish that for just for me personally that I had jumped on earlier. So um, and then for it's it's also just in line with my company, right? We being a mom and pop, a smaller company, we again are very grassroots style marketing, you know, for us. So I yeah, there's mainly on the marketing side.

SPEAKER_01 25:26

I I think you're right. You're you're you're not alone. Uh and uh I'll even put us into that that that you know into that same category of you know, we could have done a better job early on. And and if I'll if I'll say that if there's anything about the new money that maybe has joined this industry is it it does kind of wake you up a little bit, say, oh, you know what, I can do that too. And I don't know why I never did that before, but it kind of makes you go back and say, you know, we should we should spend a little more on marketing, whether it be money or time, you know, it does it, you know, both of them need you need to see or both of them are costs associated with them. And so I'll give credit where credit's due there, that uh the idea of telling folks what we do and doing a better job of communicating what we can do to help you is something that I think most distributors have struggled with, and you're not you're certainly not alone. Um yeah, it's a good that's a great observation. Um, I I'd like I'd love to circle back a little bit on that because we're uh we're a payment system company, you know, we're this is what this is what we do, and I know that you guys, you you know, you've already talked about the technology. What do you what do you like to see customers do? We sell it all, we sell hybrid, we sell card only, you know, we have an app, we can do whatever really any investor wants, but forget my product line. I'm curious when you're talking to somebody, do you go all in card only? Do you go and know it should be hybrid? Oh, hybrid with an app, coin with loyalty card. There's so many different variations now that you can do on the technology side. What are you what are you suggesting people do, or does it change based on the investor?

SPEAKER_00 27:01

Yeah, I'm right now I'm pretty much solely hybrid.

SPEAKER_01 27:04

Hybrid. Okay. There is a something else. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:09

There is still a market for coin up. Okay. There is still that baby boomer generation that they just refuse to use a debit or credit card app, or they don't even know how to use Apple Pay. Um so I I still like to be able to appeal to that demographic and that customer base, but for the future of the store, because it's not about just when they're purchasing the store, it's about what's five to ten, fifteen years from now. That hybrid system, eventually you can just convert it into an all-card. You know, so the goal is you just you keep the coin in there and begin the conversion day one. And then at some point you just phase out the coin.

SPEAKER_01 27:49

Right. Yeah, that's excellent. In fact, we just did that uh I would say within the last two years to a store not far from our office here that had uh one of our our fast card products, which was a hybrid coin and credit card. And what is interesting about taking that approach, you know, where you're like, I don't want to eliminate coin quite yet. I'm not sure you know my customers are ready for that. I already got some some percentage of customers that really want to continue to use you know coin, um, is this idea is that the reporting that you ultimately get out of these systems will basically tell you when it's time to do it. You know, it's like if if if you have 80% of your customers paying with coin, well, you're not gonna pull those coin mechanisms off those machines all that fast. But when you start seeing that percentage shift, and you know, at that store, we got it under 20%. I mean, well under 20% of we're using coin still. We're like, God, you know, are the is that last 15% doing it out of habit? And if we just said you had to use the card now, would we really lose that 15%? And I think we ended up with enough confidence there to say we're not gonna lose all 15% of that. There might be a little shake up for a few customers, but our experience has generally been that the store's revenue really is unimpacted at that point, you know, when you see that. And so having some of the peace of mind that, you know, I can do the hybrid and then I can use the data that's in front of me, not just what people are telling me over the attendance or whatever about what people want. I'm using the data, what they choose to use to make the decision of when I'm gonna pull the quarter plug, if ever, you know, if you ever need to.

SPEAKER_00 29:22

Yep. So the way we did it with one of our the way we did it with one of the locations, we had the we had an F2 system in there. It was uh it was just a hybrid. Then we went from just taking uh debit credit card at the you know at the machine to then we installed a kiosk, and then that began the conversion. It was really when we took the step up to the kiosk, and and we were still accepting coin, we now just added a layer of loyalty card into the mix. And so once we got loyalty card into the mix, that's where we saw the coin number start to go down, card use went up. We were offering promotions, it was you know, put $20 in, get X amount on top. And it that was really the the turning point for the store. So but we we waited for the kiosk when we saw almost a let's say like a 50-50 to 6040 split. Because it was really a predominantly a coin store. It's always from from the beginning, and then we started to see that coin number go down and then card usage go up, and then we decided on the kiosk at that point.

SPEAKER_01 30:30

Yeah, that's a that's a great way to approach it. And uh, you know, we've seen that too, that you can a la carte this. You know, you can start with some card readers on your big machines, because again, who wants to put $15 in a in a 90-pound washer? And and and then so maybe start there. And then you you're gonna find that a couple of your customers are gonna say, well, what about the 50-pound washers? And you know, I'd really like it'd be nice to do the dryers because I'm pulling them out of the 90 and going to a dryer. And so you kind of let the retail customer tell you where to put the next card reader, essentially. Right. And then that step two is like you said, maybe, well, maybe a loyalty card will work. I'll put a kiosk in there and and and see what happens. And then you really start to get some good data out of the system and make those determinations of what to do next. So yeah, that's great. I love I love hearing the story. Um, well, excellent. You know, um, you know, Madison, as a uh you know, as a sense of just keeping things in good time, I'd I'd love to um kind of wrap things up, but I'd love for you to share a little bit about how people can learn more about elite and get a hold of you if they're interested in a store in the market. We are focused on um distributors, but I think we get people listening that are probably um interested in what you do and how they can work with you. Can you share a little bit about how to get in touch with you and um and and so on?

SPEAKER_00 31:47

Absolutely. Uh we have a website www.elete-biz.com. All of our contact information is on there. Um, every one of our emails, anybody on our sales team, they can uh send an email right to us. Um and then on our socials, we got our uh elite business investments social page, and then all of our personal pages are kind of linked towards it.

SPEAKER_01 32:10

Perfect, perfect. Well, Madison, this has been a great conversation. I appreciate you sharing, and I appreciate you um being so candid with um with your um uh with your knowledge, and it's been great speaking to you. Um thanks a bunch, and we'll we'll talk again soon. Yeah, definitely. Thanks, Steve. Appreciate it.