Most entrepreneurs don’t fail because their idea was bad. They fail because they didn’t understand the unglamorous parts of business—the parts no one talks about until it’s too late. Payroll. Taxes. Compliance. Risk.
Today’s guest has spent decades living in that world—and helping entrepreneurs survive it.
My guest today is Charles Read, a CPA, author, and the founder of GetPayroll. Charles has built a successful payroll company by doing something most business owners avoid: leaning directly into complexity and responsibility.
But what makes this conversation especially interesting is how Charles chooses to share what he’s learned. Through his YouTube series Charlie’s Bar, he breaks down payroll horror stories, hard-earned lessons, and real-world mistakes in a way that’s honest, approachable, and sometimes painfully familiar.
In this episode, we talk about Charles’ entrepreneurial journey, the risks small business owners don’t see coming, why payroll is far more than an administrative task, and why educating entrepreneurs, before they get in trouble, has become such a personal mission for him.
If you’ve ever thought, “I’ll deal with that later,” this episode is for you.
Charle’s Company:
GetPayroll
https://getpayroll.com
Mike Konrad entered the electronics manufacturing industry in 1985. Four decades later, he continues to dedicate his career to advancing reliability within the industry. In 1992, he founded Aqueous Technologies, an equipment manufacturer serving the electronics sector. Becoming an entrepreneur was never part of his plan, he simply had a passion for a product he designed. When his employer declined to build it, he realized the only way forward was to create it himself.
Mike entered business with strong technical skills but no business acumen. His early assets were ego, passion, arrogance, ignorance, and above all, a poor assessment of risk. Ironically, those traits proved useful in the beginning, ignorance really was bliss. But as his company grew, Mike recognized that those same traits could lead to its downfall. To survive, he had to transform himself, developing business acumen, adopting sustainable strategies, and evolving from reckless enthusiasm into purposeful leadership.
Today, with 40 years of industry experience, Mike shares both his technical expertise and his entrepreneurial journey, offering lessons from personal and professional growth, the near-misses that almost derailed him, and the strategies that carried him forward. He is also a strong advocate of “conscious marketing”, moving beyond traditional chest-thumping advertising toward education-driven authority building. By offering value through knowledge rather than hype, Mike helps organizations connect with a new generation of decision-makers who prefer independent research over bold claims.
