Thirteen tips for new entrepreneurs and struggling businesses. (Numbers 7–13)
For part one, steps 1–6, please see my previous article.
I started at 28, opening my first company from scratch. We did $3mm, $8mm, $12mm, and $14 million in the first four years. We were adding 75 employees a year through the whole process while implementing new policies, procedures, operating standards, routing, and systems almost daily. With that experience, I humbly offer these ten tips that I would give to any aspiring, struggling or new entrepreneurs.
These tips are in no particular order:
7. Don’t be emotional.
Don’t attach yourself to one set of ideas or policies. Change today what you changed yesterday has to be a mantra for any entrepreneur. You will want to give in as employees will fight this, but its a reality, and you have to stay resolute. People naturally become defensive of their work, but bad ideas turn into terrible ideas once implemented. This defensive emotion can many times be the reason why we don’t catch the bad ideas quickly enough. When this happens, sit back and watch the money head out the door.
I have blown up projects that we spent weeks putting together simply because, once implemented, they were crap. I then take full responsibility for it, change it again, learn from the mistake, and move on. You cannot be scared to make mistakes, so don’t try and be perfect. Embrace it; it will happen! A company not continually evaluating and improving will soon be taken over by the competition.
8. Be ready for chaos.
“It is the management of chaos that sets the great entrepreneurs apart from the not so great ones.”
Mastering chaos is critical. Learn how to herd cats! The best entrepreneurs are calm, relaxed, and collected when things are at their ugliest. That’s the essence of an entrepreneur. I don’t care if you are the best operator in the world; chaos will happen.
Before anyone tells me that the chaos was because of my management style, (which I have heard on more than one occasion, always by ideologic people with no experience running a company of any size), understand that I know A LOT of business owners. Every one of them deals with chaos regularly.
9. Money is not evil; chase it!
You can do whatever you want with it once you have it. But if you don’t earn it from profits, you can’t use it for your favorite cause. There’s no saving the rainforest if there’s no money to fund it.
Also, there is nothing wrong with wanting more, (raise your hand if you have ever turned down a raise!) So don’t feel guilty about how you think it makes you look to others or what popular culture has to say about it. I grew up poor and had no money into my twenties. The whole reason I worked as hard as I did was that I wanted more! I know all the bullshit about why we shouldn’t be proud to make money, we all have to listen to it every day; “Money won’t make you happy,” and “money is the root of all evil!”
F**k all that. I stole food to eat when I was a kid. Being poor sucks, period. For sure, being rich is no picnic, but if I had to choose?
“I have done more with my wealth, improving the lives of my family and friends’ by chasing every opportunity that presented itself and working my ass off to maximize the money I made from it.
Generational-poverty changing wealth!”
Of course, this is all contrary to what we have heard for most of our lives. Anyone else notice how it’s always the super-rich and powerful that are telling us not to chase money? I wonder why that is?
10. Don’t miss opportunities trying to find success while “following your passion” or “doing what you love!”
This one will be controversial, but here’s why I say it: I think we should work passionately on any business, so intensely that we have tremendous success. With that success and the money it brings, we can work on our passions.
I know a lot of successful business owners who ended up owning their business because they took advantage of an opportunity. For some, they didn’t even know the industry existed. You want to give yourself every advantage to be successful because god knows the odds are against you. Why would you want to increase that slim chance even further by only limiting yourself to working on things you are passionate about or genuinely love?
Always being on the lookout for opportunities that you can take advantage of is critical to success. You do not have to be passionate about what your business does; you should be excited about your business. My absolute passion in life is making sure my companies are thriving. It is about me surviving, for my family, my employees, and the food we all put in our mouths.
“If self-preservation is an instinct you possess, working passionately on any business that will improve the lot in the life of those around you and yourself gives you the best chance at success.”
(I apologize for the Pulp Fiction reference, but it seemed fitting!)
11. To hell with what other people think!
Family, friends, co-workers, competitors, social media, everywhere you look, people will have opinions about you going into business for yourself. They will all tell you you’re crazy; its too hard; they will ask you why you want the headaches, and then give you some long story about their uncle who lost it all in the crash of 08.
Ignore all that. It is why being an entrepreneur requires that you believe in yourself. Trust me; no one else will. The life of an entrepreneur is a lonely one, particularly when things are not going well.
This tip is where many businesses get lost and shut down. Outside influences can be killers, so be prepared.
12. Make time for your family. It’s about quality over quantity.
Don’t believe you can’t start a business AND spend time with your family?
I worked 18 hours a day, six days a week for a decade, and 12–15 hours for the next decade and still saw my family almost every day. Another reason not to listen to those around you. And certainly not from anyone who hasn’t been there and done that. You will always hear that you can’t have your cake and eat it too. I’m here to tell you that you can.
The key for my family and me was making sure everyone was on the same page. The page where all sides sacrifice and working together. With that in place, you have to be as aggressive with quality family time as you are the business, if not more. I believe raising a family is about quality time, not quantity. It has been my experience that we fool ourselves into thinking we are going home for our kids. And then we stop at the bar for a quick one with the boys on the way home, or perhaps you hit the gym, justifying the time as vital since it’s your health; or maybe you do go straight from work and spend quality time with your family.
For many people chasing success, quality time is an hour or so, then eat dinner, put the kids to bed, and then sit on the couch watching television until you fall asleep at midnight. Only to wake up at 6:30 the next morning complaining there are not enough hours in the day.
My three kids are grown now, and either working for me, heading to the military, or going to school. I have a great relationship with all of them; they are my absolute pride and joy. I never missed and event, a baseball game, a school function, recital, birthday party, or graduation. I went trick or treating, sat on Santa’s lap, looked at Christmas lights, ate thanksgiving dinner, and tried not to blow my fingers off on the 4th of July with them every year. Most importantly, I was home to put them to bed for 90% of their childhood.
Once I had this done, I would turn around and go back to work regardless of the time — quality time over quantity.
One more thing about this: Most of the success I had with my family is because of their mother, my wife, who was/is extraordinary. But I like to think I had something to do with it!
13. Please take responsibility for everything; it’s all your fault!
Everything has to be your fault, whether or not you had anything to do with it. You own the issue, discipline or retrain the people doing the work, and move on. Since everything is your fault, there is no one for you to blame, hate, or obsess over. Emotions that get in the way of good business far too often.
I’ve had employees steal thousands of dollars over the years. We find it, get rid of them, fix whatever loophole they discovered, and move on — either way, entirely my fault.
I once had a billing issue cost me $100k over 18 months before the accountants caught it. I was never able to recover the money.
“Would it do me any good to blame someone else? Would it bring the money back?”
We changed how we billed, so it didn’t happen again; dealt with the employee by providing additional training, and then I went into the corner, curled up in a fetal position, and started sucking my thumb! (That last parts not true, I didn’t go into the corner!)
There you go, 13 things that I think any prospective business owner or entrepreneur should know. As I said, not my top 13; just 13 things I considered critical.
For more info about me, please go to jerrybrazie.com for links to my podcast, our Facebook Group at the Jerry Brazie business page, on my Facebook group page at The Jerry Brazie Podcast Group Page, and Twitter and Instagram @jerrybrazie.
