SUMMARY BY CHATGPT

Key Points:
• Why generators matter:
If you work from home and the power goes out, your customers elsewhere still expect service. Without backup power, you risk losing income, damaging your reputation, and spoiling food.
• Risks of not planning:
o Orders can be delayed or lost.
o Perishable goods (like groceries) can spoil.
o Loss of lighting, heating, cooling, and device charging.
o Public Wi-Fi is a temporary option but comes with security risks.
• Three main generator options:
1. Whole-house generator
? Runs on natural gas or propane.
? Automatic switch-over when power fails.
? Expensive, but can keep selected zones (office, kitchen) running.
? May qualify for tax credits; check with your accountant.
2. Portable gas-powered generator
? Lower cost, but must be operated outdoors to prevent carbon monoxide poisoning.
? Use heavy-duty extension cords (10–12 gauge).
? Never connect directly to a breaker box without a proper lockout switch (to avoid electrocution hazards).
? Store ethanol-free gas with stabilizer; rotate supply regularly.
3. Solar generator
? Essentially a large battery charged via solar panels.
? Good for apartments or condos (use on balconies).
? Quiet and no fuel storage required.
• Extra tips:
o Limit fridge/freezer openings during outages to preserve cold.
o Use food in order of spoilage risk.
o Plan ahead even if outages are rare—disasters happen unexpectedly.
Main takeaway:
Investing in a generator (whole-house, portable gas, or solar) is not just “doomsday prep”—it’s smart disaster planning to keep your business operational and prevent costly losses.

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Episode 1024 - Generators
[00:00:08] Welcome to Screw the Commute. The entrepreneurial podcast dedicated to getting you out of the car and into the money, with your host, lifelong entrepreneur and multimillionaire, Tom Antion.

[00:00:24] Hey everybody, it's Tom here with episode 1024 of Screw the Commute podcast. Today we're going to talk about generators and you say, well, we're talk about income generators. Is that what you're talking about, Tom? No, I'm talking about electrical generators. If you're going to work out of your home or apartment or wherever you're going to work out where you're screwing the commute, you got to think about potential disasters to keep your business running. So that's what we'll talk about today. Hopefully they miss episode 1023. That was all the cool ways you can use eBay for lead generation and research, and people are making cash flow and full time livings on, on eBay. So that was 1023. Anytime you want to get to a back episode, you go to the episode number. That was 1023. All right. Pick up a copy of our automation e-book at the free get version 3.0. Because if you have got this and downloaded this in the past, there's new stuff. So go ahead and do it again at screwthecommute.com/automatefree and check out my mentor program at GreatInternetMarketing.com and IMTCVA.org for my school, the only licensed dedicated internet and digital marketing school in the country, probably the world, and it's certified to operate by the State Council on Higher Education in Virginia. I have to say that every time I promote the school. So there it is. But it's certified where a lot of these places you hear, oh, it's so and so university and it's this and that. No, they had no scrutiny whatsoever. I had three years of it to get just a license. And we've been running, I think 13 years now.

[00:02:10] All right. Let's get to this generator topic. Well, what we're talking about is when the electricity goes out, how are you going to run your business? Just because it's out at your house doesn't mean the rest of the world that's trying to order from you and get in touch with you and email and everything else. Their electricity may not be out or won't be probably won't be out. You got to keep your cell phone now. Your cell phone can only last so long. So one thing you could do is have one of those power bricks. But it'll only lasts for 2 or 3 charges. And if you're doing a lot of heavy stuff on your just on your cell phone or tablet, that's not going to last very long. Now, you could go ahead and leave the house and go to someplace that has electricity and free Wi-Fi. No problem with doing that. However, there's security risks that go. That so you wouldn't be wanting to do. You wouldn't want to be doing, you know. Banking or, you know, financial stuff over that I wouldn't. So you got to keep your computer going, your tablets, your cell phone and your internet going to keep in business when the electricity's out and you don't know how long it's going to be out for, high winds can knock it out.

[00:03:27] You know, these places, uh, of course, the floods. That was a devastating thing down south of me here. And yeah, Texas had that freeze where all the windmills froze and the. I don't know if the blades fell off or whatever, but they were really stuck. Say, but the rest of the world, the business is still going on trying to give you money. And if you're not ready to take it, well, that's your fault for not planning ahead. All right. And it's and it's far more than your business stuff. If you're working out of your home like I've professed and I have done my entire life. Then you've got your refrigerator and freezer. I mean, for the cost of fixing what I'm going to talk about today, you could lose a whole month's worth of groceries. Right? So if it's an extended period where the electricity is out, what about lights for nighttime? Well, you're only only so many flashlight batteries you have around. Probably. How about if it's hot out fans? You know, because you're none of these things I'm talking about are going to run your air conditioning. You know, that's heavy duty electricity. What if it's cold out? Well, electric heaters take enormous amounts of electricity, so chances are you're not going to be able to run too many of them for too long to stay warm. I mean, one thing you could do if you had a legitimate, well vented wood burning stove and enough wood to run it, that's a great thing.

[00:04:58] But a lot of people, you're in condos and apartments and there's no chance of that. So how are you going to stay warm? And I know you're thinking. All right, 99.9% of the time, this is B.S.. Why should I invest any money at this time? This is this is just doomsday talk. I mean, you know, I gotta tell you, that's anybody that's out there saying this just hasn't been in business long enough. I remember I had the nightclub, we had one of the biggest promotions in my whole career getting ready to start. And I look outside and the whole road is on fire. All right. So so some something happened in the, uh, the, the poles came down and. Oh, man, luckily we had generators and and they got it fixed before the, before the end of the night. But we lost a lot of revenue that night. So even though that's not directly related to what I'm talking about here today, the thing is. Stuff happens. And if you're not ready for it, well, you're just not a great entrepreneur. You're not planning ahead for things that that could hurt your business. All right. So let's talk about the three simplest options for you. One is simple but very expensive. That's a whole house generator even running on. Well, mine runs on natural gas okay. And and it's still not big enough to run this big estate.

[00:06:29] We have 11,000ft² here. So when we put it in, we had to just get a big enough one. And then we picked zones that we really needed my office and the kitchen and the refrigerator freezer so that we could cook, uh, and, you know, stuff like that. But we couldn't do the whole entire house and certainly not the air conditioning. There's four just in this building alone. There's four major units to. So. So there was no way. But that's the whole house. And if you, uh, you know, probably, I don't know, they might there might be some tax credits for that if you check with your accountant on that. But that's certainly something that would be a wonderful thing to have. Now, if you're in close proximity to other neighbors, they're going to hear this thing running. I don't care how quiet or insulated it is. So they might be coming to you for help. You know, the whole neighborhood when yours starts running. Luckily, most of the people in my neighborhood have one. Okay, so that's a whole house generator. Expensive, but really great thing. Keeps your keeps you running. All right, so the next thing and I have two of these is portable gas. Gas driven generators. And I keep supplies of gas on hand. You know, we're talking about gas that runs your car, but gas powered generators. I have two of them. One of them on one of our outbuildings Buildings can hook in.

[00:08:01] It's not automatic like the one here at the big house. You have to plug it in, and you have to turn this certain latch because it cuts. Cuts out any potential that the electricity will go back and electrocute somebody working on the lines. And that's why when they put your whole house generator in, they have this big thing. I forget what it's called, but it cuts out the outside world and just runs yours. And then when the electricity comes back on, it realizes it, and then switches off. Now, here's the thing. If you want to get arrested or kill somebody, you try to hook your portable gas generator into your fuse box or your breaker box. You're asking to kill somebody by doing that. All right. So don't even think about doing that. You can run some extension cords to it or whatever, but you don't ever try to hook it into your breaker box unless you have one of these specific lockouts. You know, it's a mechanical lockout. It cannot operate unless this switch is pulled one direction. All right. And also, people die all the time from running those things in the house. I mean, I don't know how stupid those people were, but lots of people die from carbon monoxide poisoning. So if you want to kill your whole family, go ahead, put the thing in the house and including yourself, by the way. So you got to have plenty of ventilation for these and good quality extension cords.

[00:09:39] All right. You can't do these little cheapo Crapo. Uh, 16 gauge. The higher the number on the gauge is, the thinner the wire. And it can't handle as much electricity. So you'd like to have a 12 gauge or even a ten gauge extension cord if you can, to reach into whatever needs powered in your house, because the 16 gauge just can't handle that much electricity, and you're asking for fire or blown breakers in the machine and you know, all that kind of stuff, and you got to keep a supply of gasoline on hand to run the thing. Okay. All right. So that's the second option. I have two of those to run this big property just in case. And you need to check them every once in a while. And if you can find any place within 20 miles of you or 30, 40 miles a year that just sells ethanol free gas. Go get it and have a specific amount of gas that you don't use for anything else. You can use them in the mowers and stuff as long as you replenish it. But ethanol free gas doesn't deteriorate so much and so you can keep it for a long time. And also you get a thing called stable star bill and pour it in whatever How much they tell you. Per gallon. And that keeps your your. You'll be able to keep that gas for a long time.

[00:11:06] But still, after a certain amount of time, I take like one gallon at a time and mix it in with my vehicles and use it up and then put fresh gas in. So you always have fresh gas to run these things. So. So that's your portable gas generator. And some of you are out there thinking, Tom, I'm in an apartment on the 14th floor of a condo building. I can't have any of this stuff. Well, yes, you can, because the last one is a solar generator. You probably have a balcony that you can just keep the solar panel out there and charging and keeping your generator charged up. And then basically it's a gigantic battery that's charged by solar. And then you can draw from it just by plugging into it. So no matter where you live, you can do that unless you're on an interior apartment with no outside windows. But I don't see anybody that's doing it. Uh, living in a place like that, I guess maybe New York City. And you're really in deep doo doo. If electricity goes out there because everything, you know, you're in the middle of a big rat maze, and I don't envy you there. But anyway, it's up to you to think about this kind of stuff for your business and for your home. Like I said, if your refrigerator freezer goes out, you could lose a month worth of groceries, hundreds or even thousands of dollars worth of groceries, say, or else you just gain a lot of weight because you eat everything like that day, right? And if that does happen, try to limit the amount of times you open refrigerators and freezers.

[00:12:43] If it's fairly modern, they'll last a long time, keeping a decent temperature before it falls to the point where food is going to spoil. Say so. Or, you know, open it right away and get out the most spoiled things that could spoil the fastest and go ahead and use them up or cook them right away, and then put the stuff that that can last longer. Leave it in there and close the door and try not to open it much. All right. Well, there's a little disaster planning thing, you know, based around generators, but you got to think about things. If something happens. What am I going to do to keep the orders coming in? Because if that fails and the orders do not come in now, you know online that you might the orders might pile up. But if it had something that had to be shipped or for customers trying to ask a question before they order, you're losing a lot of money. Way more than the cost to put any of these things into play. All right, so that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Check out my mentor program. Greatinternetmarketingtraining.com and my school IMTCVA.org. And I will catch you on the next episode. See you later.