Business

Garrett Atkins: From a Poor Young American to a Serial Entrepreneur

Published

7 months ago

May 12, 2020

Most young Americans are broke. Recent data shows that young people between the age of 18 to 29 years old have $1 trillion in debt. The financial struggles of the modern-day young person are what leads so many to try out entrepreneurship. Millennials are venturing into business at younger ages than previous generations.

Currently, 55.8% of billionaires are self-made. One of the reasons these self-made entrepreneurs succeed is that they identified a market need. We had a conversation with Garrett Atkins, owner, and Founder of VIE media. He shared with us his journey from being 23 and broke to CEO at age 27 years.

Garret Atkins Journey

Garrett Atkins focused on online entrepreneurship and invested in it early enough. He owns VIE media, which is a company in the online/digital marketing space. Headquartered in St.Louis, Missouri, VIE Media specializes in social media marketing, web design, and development, video production, and branding. Garrett is also the founder and one of the Stakeholders of StLouisPodcast.com. StLouisPodcast.com is the only exclusive podcast recording studio in St. Louis, Missouri.

Garrett’s journey began when he was 23 years old. He changed his mindset by realizing that he doesn’t have to be part of the statistics. He doesn’t have to be another young, broke American. “I realized that I could do anything I set my mind to so long as it does not have to do with breaking the rules of science/physics (for obvious reasons, because that is impossible),” says Garrett. Back in 2010, Garrett was working in the mortgage industry. It was around that time that he realized that building a personal brand online is going to be a big deal. That realization is what set him on the path to online entrepreneurship.

The ambitious youth started VIE Media at age 23 years. The company began with three clients in 2016 to over 100 clients within the same year. Also, VIE media expanded its revenue from $1,850 in 2016 to over $1.25MM in revenue in 2019. Garrett’s impressive leadership skills are also evident in Podcast.com. He started the second company in July 2019. At the time, StLouisPodcast.com had 0 clients. But in less than six months, the company had over 35 clients.

Lessons on Entrepreneurship

Garret is a man with a wealth of knowledge. When we talked to him, he said that you are likely to succeed when you stop giving a sh*t about what other people are saying, so long as you know what your end goal is and you know that you want that more than anything else. Garrett took on all the responsibilities of managing his businesses. Of course, like most start-ups, he had to invest vast sums of money and time in his company. Garrett admits that one of the biggest challenges he faced was finding a team that he could work within his ventures. Luckily, he was able to find partners who would work with him towards building a successful business.

Garrett’s success in online entrepreneurship has a lot to do with his character. This young entrepreneur is innovative, hardworking, passionately driven and wise. He discovered a need in the digital marketing space that his competitors were not utilizing. “My brand sticks out because I’m so deeply involved in the technology/digital space compared to my competitors. For example, out of all the CEO’s of digital marketing agencies in St. Louis, I have the largest audience on EVERY major social platform besides TikTok and YouTube. I don’t just own a social media marketing agency. I live and practice it, if you will.” he says.

Through VIE media, Garrett has managed to close deals with popular brand names such as multiple household names such as The UPS Store, Better Homes & Gardens, Metro Powered by Metro powered by T-Mobile, , and Arsenal Credit Union. Currently, this American Entrepreneur recently acquired Crowd Drivers. Crowd Drivers is a marketing agency that has been performing well in the market. On 6th May 2020, Garrett not only acquired Crowd Drivers, but also expanded his team with 10 more talented employees.

It is impressive that in just four short years, Garret has scaled the heights and become a famous public speaker, content creator, and serial entrepreneur. He was a keynote speaker at the Live2Lead event in St. Louis, Missouri, in October of 2019. Moreover, he continues to inspire and share knowledge through his social media platforms. Garrett’s goal is not to be rich and powerful. Instead, his goal is to give back to the community by assisting other businesses to achieve success through digital marketing.

You can expect to see more of Garrett in the coming months as he continues to disrupt the digital marketing space with fresh ideas.

Business

[QUICK GUIDE] How Much Does Home Warranty Coverage Cost? | Total Home Protection

Published

1 day ago

November 27, 2020

Matthew Wiles

The average cost of home warranty coverage is between $300 to $600 per year, or $25 to $50 per month (Total Home Protection sits neatly inside this average with plans that range from $500-$599 annually.) Although, you are also required to pay an average of $75 per service call visit. Note, costs may vary based on where you live and the level of coverage you want to place on your home.

As a quick review, the standard fees are as follows:

Annual Payment: $300 to $600 per year
Monthly Payment: $25 to $50 per month
Service Call Fee: $75 per service call visit

Depending on your annual coverage limits, you may also have to pay for repairs that exceed your maximum coverage for a select number of items in your contract. The cost of this will depend on your home warranty coverage company. More on this below:

What is Covered by a Home Warranty Policy?

Home warranty coverage comes in many forms. And home warranty companies offer multiple plans in order to provide their policyholders as much value as possible.

In the case of Total Home Protection (THP), for example, CEO David Seruya describes their coverage plans as follows: “We offer two home warranty plans: Gold Plan and Platinum Plan. Both cover essential home systems and appliances; although the Platinum Plan supplies more extensive services.” THP’s coverage also extends its warranty to cover items despite the item’s age, make, or model, which means that they cover the cost of repair and replacements of all covered items, as long as the damages incurred are a result of natural wear and tear.

Is Home Warranty Coverage Worth the Cost?

To answer this question, let’s discuss the cost of repairs and replacements without home warranty coverage, which we’ve broken down below:

Cost of Repairs: The cost of repairing damaged items in your home without a home warranty will vary based on the item damaged. As an example, however, the average repair cost of a dishwasher is around $100 to $200. Not so terrible, as a whole. But then, let’s look at the average repair cost of an air conditioner, which can cost up to $160 to $530! Or, the cost of repairing a water heater, which averages at around $200 to $900!

Handling one or two repairs per year for these appliances and home systems might not seem so bad for the short term. However, when you consider the average lifespan of these items—which is around 10-15 years each—you can start to see that there is definite value in having home warranty coverage. Especially for those with older homes or with more items to protect.

Cost of Replacements: Borrowing from our previous examples: the average replacement cost of a Dishwasher is $300 to $600, replacing a water heater will take another $2,000 to $4,000, and a replacement heating system will cost a whopping $3,000 to $5,000.

Replacements aren’t required as often, of course. And, as mentioned, there are coverage limits that limit the amount of coverage you get per item, per year anyway. However, even when you consider these two factors, the value getting covered is clear when you compare the average cost of a home warranty ($500-$599 if you choose Total Home Protection) and the amount you’ll have to pay to replace one of the bigger ticket items in your home.

Review: Should You Purchase Home Warranty Coverage?

In the end, we’re left with one question: should you purchase home warranty coverage? Unfortunately, only you will be able to truly answer this. The average cost of a home warranty is $300-$600 per year, and that comes with more than $20,000 worth of coverage for your home per year.

Remember that, and then estimate the average cost of repairing or replacing the items in your home based on their average lifespan, and then compare that cost to the annual cost of home warranty coverage.

And, once you’ve got that all figured out, we recommend that you reach out to a home warranty provider like Total Home Protection, who can give you a personal quote on the best plan and the best coverage for you based on your budget and your home. They should be able to address any questions or concerns that you might have as well. And would be more than happy to help you through the process of understanding what exactly you’re signing up for.