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Lessons from a Kamikaze Entrepreneur...

million$$$smile

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Years ago I had a roommate that I regarded highly.

This guy was one of the smartest guys I'd ever met. He was in sales and could talk his way around and through any subject.

Because he was a couple of years older than I and looked the part of success I thought highly of him. He always had a bunch of free time and because I was jobless at the time I'd hang around and listen to him talk about creating the next big sale. You see, he would sell insurance to the military, organizations and companies.
He would sometimes sell 50-60 policies in one day by giving a 'seminar.' I would just shake my head listening to his stories of how he won so many over in just a matter of hours.

The only problem was, that once he sold one of these big accounts, he would sit back and do nothing of value for the next few months until he ran out of money and then he would have to start over again and find another 'customer.'

Like I said, he had a silver tongue but he just couldn't keep his FOCUS.

He would rather go to the bar and talk about what he was going to do rather than actually doing it.

"There have been more bridges built in bars than have ever been built on earth" is how we would say it working construction...

He would go home and work on creating sales handouts and designing the next flyer/brochure but for some crazy reason he would never use them.

I finally figured out that he was what I call a 'Chief Procrastinator.'

Love to stay busy for busyness sake but never really put it into real ACTION for any amount of time.

I liked the guy. He was my best friend. But I saw him for what he really was, and I had to separate myself from him.

I realized that I had to leave or allow the possibility that he would hold me back and bring me down.
I couldn't allow that.

Sometimes we have to separate from the friends we like, but hold us back from that path we are on.

Sometimes friends,

Sometimes relatives,

Sometimes lovers.

Don't allow anyone to steal your dream, and don't be a part of anyone else's nightmare.

"I would rather have 30 minutes of wonderful than a lifetime of nothing special" Julia Roberts, in Steel Magnolias

What is unfortunate is though we are still friends, we are not close. I think he sees my success while he remembers his failures. I believe it makes him uneasy though I don't flaunt my endeavors.

I learned through that friendship that one can have all the tools for success, but without appropriate action, it is all useless.

Another way of putting it is to get off your a$$ and DO SOMETHING.

Action does speak louder than words...
 
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Argue

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Interesting. From what I think, he got lazy. He let conformity plague him.

I agree that sometimes in life, we have to separate ourselves from those people who don't hold the same values as we do.

I've had something similar happen to me at work. I read the richest man in Babylon and became obsessed with saving money. I got good at it.

One day, a coworker rode along with me on my daily route. For some reason, osmosis started to kick in. I kinda used some of the words he used.

It got worse. The guy was always broke. He's 37. He's always begging for money, asking me to buy him a meal, and asking me for money to buy cigarettes/loosies.

Then it got really bad. In my job we would make tips. Tips had to be split but my share would be spent on him or he would ask to borrow.

It got so bad, my money wasn't growing, it was decreasing. This guy was the true definition of a sidewalker. He consumed, consumed, and consumed. Instant gratification was like crack to him. It kinda started rubbing off on me the moment I bought a stupid video game I later regretted.

After I realized his path in life and mines, I separated myself from that person. Now I'm back to normal, listening to my audio books during work, building websites on my lunch break, and learning graphic design. I'm also making more tips again and thankfully my money is back up again.

Point is, sometimes you have to focus on yourself and your goals. Other people just suck energy out of you and can possibly detract you from your goals with influence etc.

Lastly, stay true to yourself and your beliefs. Thankfully for this place, I understand the value of action and what it means. In the real world, especially around commoners, it's easy to get distracted with their yolo dichotomies.

Thanks for the post/insight. Sorry for long rant.
 

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The only problem was, that once he sold one of these big accounts, he would sit back and do nothing of value for the next few months until he ran out of money and then he would have to start over again and find another 'customer.'

Like I said, he had a silver tongue but he just couldn't keep his FOCUS.

He would rather go to the bar and talk about what he was going to do rather than actually doing it.

"There have been more bridges built in bars than have ever been built on earth" is how we would say it working construction...

He would go home and work on creating sales handouts and designing the next flyer/brochure but for some crazy reason he would never use them.

I finally figured out that he was what I call a 'Chief Procrastinator.'
Happens so much in my country.
So-called entrepreneurs just working enough to get a few sales, and then sitting back and doing wasteful stuff like meaningless Facebook or networking events.
I don't network unless I am dealing with people who will throw my money for my work.
I want winners, not losers.
This is why entrepreneurship as a whole, let alone business, has gone to the pits.
I hate action that doesn't help me or you. Doesn't give me a good night's rest.
 

Raoul Duke

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million$$$smile

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Sometimes lifes biggest lessons are learned in our failures rather than our successes.

Years ago, before the internet , cell phones or Amazon, I had the dream of owning my own business. The original Sony Walkman was the popular tech thing of the day.

I thought owning a B&M business was the catapult to success.

The popular fad at the time was sleeping on a waterbed. Being handy with tools, I designed and built my first waterbed in my garage.
This led to building a few more for friends and relatives and shortly I had an ad in the local newspaper (remember, no internet) advertising basic unfinished waterbeds $99 and up.

Needless to say, I had to acquire equipment to meet the demand, so off to Sears I went to buy a radial arm and table saw, 3-4 belt sanders, planer, and a passel of small hand tools all on a credit card. Got a little production going and before long, we had customers buying our beds.

Due to my limited success it wasn't long I went out and rented a small 1800 sq/ft storefront in an old part of town.

About this time I met someone that had prior experience selling waterbeds and was also connected with manufacturers so we worked out a verbal deal to become partners. I’d build beds, and purchase a few fancier ones to have in our showroom. He'd sell 'em.

I financed the beds, fixtures, phones, etc and my partner would commit himself to selling in the store while I worked construction. We opened 'Evergreen Waterbeds' with a business card size ad sandwiched somewheres in the backend of the newspaper. Hurrah, I figured we were legit even though we hadn’t made a sale in our new digs.`

Threw a sandwich board sign out on the sidewalk and put the word out we were open and waited and waited and waited.

No sales.

Threw in a little money to advertise but our competition had bigger, better and more dominant ads.
Our store was jammed between a photography studio and a one man insurance agency while our competitors were out on the highway with a 24 hour sign blinking ’Superior Waterbeds’ and had 36 of them landscaping their showroom.

A few months went by and we barely paid the overhead, and neither of us could afford to keep it going.

It was crazy.

I was working 8-10 hrs in construction, and then building beds for another 2-3 hours nightly. Both of our personal relationships suffered and I could see the handwriting on the wall.

We were in THE GRIND

We were directly competing with deeper pockets and huge advertising budgets. There really wasn’t anything that we could offer better with our limited experience and finances except service and that wasn’t enough.

So in less than 8 months we had closed our doors and went home licking our wounds…

Lessons learned:

Define your plan: Neither of us had a plan on acquiring customers, or building the business. We just figured if we had a product, opened our doors to the public they would just wander in and buy. NOT.

Plan for the unplanned: What if your competition drops their price down from $109.95 to $99.95 to match yours? (like they did) What can you offer that makes your brand unique?
Price point can’t be the only option. What kind of strategy in case of...?

Build a good foundation before you start on the walls: We were trying to do too much. We were building beds AND selling retail out of a B&M. Better option would have been manufacturing only, or just buying wholesale and stick with retail.

Count the cost: First of all your TIME. Your making a commitment of your most precious asset. Make sure your ready to give that. Also your financial, emotional, health and relational commitments. How much are you willing to sacrifice?

Partnerships usually suck: When we're new to the entrepreneurship game, partnerships might make us feel better because we think we are 'spreading the risk', but in essence it is riskier to expect maturity in a business relationship when both haven’t the experience in the first place. Best to fail alone and lick your wounds than to blame your partner for your failures.

Stay small when you are under capitalized: Nothing is worse than starting a trip on an empty tank. You won’t get far. Better to make sure you have the fuel to get to the next station, whatever that may be.

Develop your processes before too much growth: Know your costs. Create processes before going too fast. It will save stumbling when your picking up steam.
Constantly ask yourself how can I scale this? Think Lean.

Learn from your mistake: We all make ‘em, but if we keep doing what we’ve always done we’ll keep getting what we’ve always got.

More later.


“A ‘startup’ is a company that is confused about – 1. What its product is. 2. Who its customers are. 3. How to make money.”—Dave McClure, 500Startups co-founder
 

G-Man

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The only problem was, that once he sold one of these big accounts, he would sit back and do nothing of value for the next few months until he ran out of money and then he would have to start over again and find another 'customer.'

A lot of the stuff you're describing here is stuff I've witnessed repeatedly from people that have that natural charisma and sales ability. The highest commission earners I know are also the most consistently broke mofos I know. I think it's because they've always been able to silver-tongue their way out of any situation since they were kids, they never developed a long term strategic view or any self discipline. It seems to go:
  • Get 30k commission check
  • Disappear for 6-8 weeks
  • Encounter some (usually self-inflicted) financial crisis
  • Go talk my way into the pants of another 30k
  • Repeat until the end of time
 
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million$$$smile

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Haven't written here awhile, even though I had a few more thoughts to share.

Some of you that were at the Summit know a bit about what I do, what I sell, and the different venues on how I sell. Some of you don't.

It's really no big deal if you do or you don't regarding this story. Just know that I sell products like most of you. A few of them my own brand, but most of them not.

I've stumbled more than a few times on figuring out what to sell, and just as important, not what to sell.

Sometimes, I've bought inventory that just sat on my shelves and collected dust.
Some of it for several years.

That's not how to make a profit.

One day I was taking out the trash from my store, and as I deposited it into the shared dumpster, I noticed some new products had been dumped from my neighbor retailer.
I couldn't believe it.
Dozens and dozens of products had been thrown out. Not returns, but new products. I was shocked. I just couldn't believe it.
I didn't know what to think, so I went next door to his store and I had to ask, why would he dump out brand new products like that???

Now these weren't just cheap nickel and dime products. They were products that sold for anywhere from $40-$50 on up

They were footwear.

To be continued...
 

million$$$smile

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...So I quickly meandered (quickly meandered??? duh) trying to contain my excitement and talk small talk before asking the empirical question that was on my mind.

Why would anyone throw out dozens of perfectly good footwear in the trash???

"So John, I was throwing out trash and I noticed a bunch of your shoes and boots in the dumpster, I was just curious why you threw that stuff out?"

He grinned at me and said, "Well, its all about profit, you see. They were collecting dust and taking up too much room. I didn't have room for them in my store and I had a ton of new inventory that I just had to put on the floor."

"Really?" says I. "So your telling me that you couldn't have discounted them and moved them out before you got the new stock in?"

He replied. "Randall, I did that, and moved almost all of it except what I ended up throwing away at the end. I finally dumped the rest because it was costing me more money to keep around then what I could sell in their place"

"Ya, but look at all the cash your giving up by dumping them!"

"Randall, you're not getting it. The product I can replace it with will move 10 times faster in the same space than what I would have done if I would have kept the sluggish inventory on the floor."
"I'll make 10X my profit given the same amount of time it would have to have sold the stale inventory on the floor."
"And to me, it's all about movement of product for the highest profits in the quickest way"

I mulled that over, not sure I really grasped all that he was getting at.
I'm pretty dense at times.

Then I began to think about some of the products I had in the store that literally had sat on the shelves for years, collecting dust. I began to realize that maybe, just maybe that stuff was costing me more money by taking up space than if I would just 'get rid of it', just not as radical as my peer.

He continued, "Look, if you aren't turning your inventory on your shelves in your retail store at least 3-4 times per quarter, your losing money"

"Whaddya mean??" I asked. (I told you I can be pretty dense)
MBA to me stands for Mainly By my a$$.

The old guy continued, "Lets say you have widget A that you can move 4 times in a month and make a profit of $10 each. Or you can have widget B that only turns once in the same month but will make $30, but takes the same amount of floor space. What do you think is the best deal for you to sell?"

No brainer. Even I got that one.

"That is just a simple corollary. I actually stand to do much better than that with what I'm bringing in compared to what I'm getting rid of. The key is inventory turnover . You need to turn over your inventory at least 3-4 times a quarter or you stand to lose money due to the fact of overhead costs, etc. And besides that, if you have plenty of traffic and you're not moving a particular product or group of products, you have to ask yourself (and maybe your customers) why isn't this product moving and is there something else I can replace it with that would be much more profitable?"

I mulled that all over and had to finally agree. Numbers are numbers.

Lesson learned for the Kamikaze entrepreneur.

I had to accept he was right. If we aren't moving a product, for the given amount of traffic that we have, then we have really got to decide if the product is worth it.
A. Our time
B. The COG's
C. The floorspace

Can I make better money with A,B,&C with another product?
If that is the case, then move the product by deep discounts or donate it to a worthy cause (tax deductible)
don't throw it away like my friend did.

BTW. He seemed like a pretty good businessman, but soon he closed his business for health reasons, and I ended up expanding (knocking out a wall) and taking over his area.

Again, key takeaway. If a product isn't moving, focus on another product that has equal/better profit margins and faster turnover and utilize ABC.

More later.
 
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Andy Black

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...So I quickly meandered (quickly meandered??? duh) trying to contain my excitement and talk small talk before asking the empirical question that was on my mind.

Why would anyone throw out dozens of perfectly good footwear in the trash???

"So John, I was throwing out trash and I noticed a bunch of your shoes and boots in the dumpster, I was just curious why you threw that stuff out?"

He grinned at me and said, "Well, its all about profit, you see. They were collecting dust and taking up too much room. I didn't have room for them in my store and I had a ton of new inventory that I just had to put on the floor."

"Really?" says I. "So your telling me that you couldn't have discounted them and moved them out before you got the new stock in?"

He replied. "Randall, I did that, and moved almost all of it except what I ended up throwing away at the end. I finally dumped the rest because it was costing me more money to keep around then what I could sell in their place"

"Ya, but look at all the cash your giving up by dumping them!"

"Randall, you're not getting it. The product I can replace it with will move 10 times faster in the same space than what I would have done if I would have kept the sluggish inventory on the floor."
"I'll make 10X my profit given the same amount of time it would have to have sold the stale inventory on the floor."
"And to me, it's all about movement of product for the highest profits in the quickest way"

I mulled that over, not sure I really grasped all that he was getting at.
I'm pretty dense at times.

Then I began to think about some of the products I had in the store that literally had sat on the shelves for years, collecting dust. I began to realize that maybe, just maybe that stuff was costing me more money by taking up space than if I would just 'get rid of it', just not as radical as my peer.

He continued, "Look, if you aren't turning your inventory on your shelves in your retail store at least 3-4 times per quarter, your losing money"

"Whaddya mean??" I asked. (I told you I can be pretty dense)
MBA to me stands for Mainly By my a$$.

The old guy continued, "Lets say you have widget A that you can move 4 times in a month and make a profit of $10 each. Or you can have widget B that only turns once in the same month but will make $30, but takes the same amount of floor space. What do you think is the best deal for you to sell?"

No brainer. Even I got that one.

"That is just a simple corollary. I actually stand to do much better than that with what I'm bringing in compared to what I'm getting rid of. The key is inventory turnover . You need to turn over your inventory at least 3-4 times a quarter or you stand to lose money due to the fact of overhead costs, etc. And besides that, if you have plenty of traffic and you're not moving a particular product or group of products, you have to ask yourself (and maybe your customers) why isn't this product moving and is there something else I can replace it with that would be much more profitable?"

I mulled that all over and had to finally agree. Numbers are numbers.

Lesson learned for the Kamikaze entrepreneur.

I had to accept he was right. If we aren't moving a product, for the given amount of traffic that we have, then we have really got to decide if the product is worth it.
A. Our time
B. The COG's
C. The floorspace

Can I make better money with A,B,&C with another product?
If that is the case, then move the product by deep discounts or donate it to a worthy cause (tax deductible)
don't throw it away like my friend did.

BTW. He seemed like a pretty good businessman, but soon he closed his business for health reasons, and I ended up expanding (knocking out a wall) and taking over his area.

Again, key takeaway. If a product isn't moving, focus on another product that has equal/better profit margins and faster turnover and utilize ABC.

More later.
Only just found this thread. Subscribed. Thanks for the stories @million$$$smile.


The other advantage a product that sells 4x and profits $10 each has over a product that sells 1x and profits $30 is (potentially) 4x as many new customers.



I sell services rather than products, but this thinking is still applicable.

Sometimes some services we provide are holding us back. Sometimes some clients are holding us back.

Sometimes it makes sense to get rid of things even if we don’t have anything to replace them with. Sometimes removing books from your shelf allows new books to miraculously appear.
 
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Stargazer

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Something amiss here.

Every single retailer (merchant in ancient times) near you and all the world for thousands of years would have emptied their stock of winter goods for spring, then summer and then autumn and back to winter.

The concept of removing what does not sell (a cost) for what will more likely sell (likely profit) is hardly unknown is it?

Yet they don't throw the stuff in the rubbish.

Food yes but not clothes.

Large retailers shift it to discount outlet stores, TK Maxx who pretty much hoover this stuff up, their own Ebay store and then what is left will go to a charity.

Smaller retailers might go straight to Ebay (as the stock can now just be kept in a small room somewhere rather than shelf space) or give to charity if they don't have time.

So he has completely failed to explain why he did this.

Ask him again. :)

Dan

PS: Ok he has retired so maybe not. :rofl:
 

million$$$smile

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Something amiss here.

Actually, not really. This was an older gentleman that had not stepped into the world of online. He didn't like it. He seemed to be totally disinterested in selling online. I really believe that was one of his greatest downfalls that he hadn't learned to stay up with online shopping. He just didn't want to mess with the 'hassle' of donating it, I guess.

Throwing new products away happens far more than one thinks. Especially new products that have been recalled or found to have some sort of issue. Many are supposed to be destroyed yet are found in landfills.

When I first started out in retail, I really was unable to afford used store fixtures let alone new ones to completely outfit the space I had. It was a bit of a struggle just to fill the place with product to sell as I never borrowed a dime (and still haven't) I had merchandise in boxes and on the floor for the first couple of weeks until I figured I could afford some more fixtures.

One day shortly thereafter I had to run into a nearby town and noticed a HUGE amount of gondolas, shelving, racks, pegboard, etc behind a MAJOR chain office supply store. They were just stacked and laying haphazardly all over because there was so much of it. It kind of looked like they might be throwing it out, but I was unsure.

I immediately decided to go in and ask them what they were going to do with it and if they might be interested in selling it. The store manager told me that they were remodeling the store with new corporate fixtures and it was all going to be picked up and sent to the landfill, and if I wanted any of it, that I'd better hurry as it would all be gone by the end of the week.

I was stunned.

He just told me that I could have all that I wanted and there was thousands of dollars of store fixtures if I would have had to buy them new. I couldn't believe it. I went out and rented a Uhaul (more on this subject later) and that night after I closed up I went and appropriated for myself as much as I could use. Several truck loads of fixtures. Some looked as though they were never used.

I even debated whether to rent a storage facility to store the excess and try to resell on craigslist. If it hadn't been for me spending my time on working my store and online businesses than I would have done it. I was concerned about the time/cost to work this little sideline and didn't want to lose my initial focus.

One thing is certain. There is a HUGE market for used store fixtures as every mom & pop store opening up needs fixtures and new ones are expensive. I would definitely watch store closings (toys-r-us) and smaller chains if you want to make a quick buck selling fixtures. Since then, I have gone in and bought for nickels on the dollar fixtures from K-Mart closings and the like, whenever I've expanded my operations. Many, many of the items were going in the trash!

I too, have 'dumped' brand new products that didn't move even after steep discounts. The only difference was that I took the time to contact a charitable organization, boxed up the merchandise for them and stored it until they came. Time IS numero uno. Sometimes worth more than the dollars and hassle of selling it.

Randall
 

million$$$smile

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My 500th post!

Haven't posted much lately but I've received immense value from others on the forum and thought I’d share some things I’ve learned along the way.

For those of you who weren’t at the last Summit or aren’t familiar with my story, I’ll give a little background history. Anyone that has heard it before will have to just wait till the next post for thoughts and observations I learned and hopefully will be of value.

I don't write this to brag, but to let those of you know a bit of my background and that I have been able to gain a bit of experience in developing some ideas into a few different streams of income.

In 2000, I developed & opened my first ecommerce store, a niche market for a unique group that I was extremely familiar with, having spent years working in that same realm.
Sales grew quickly and I began to notice that quite a few customers were not from the niche group but from similar groups that encompassed a new larger market. I feel sales grew fast because I understood the market and was also the first website that served this customer base adequately.

In 2001, I developed a second ecom website for the more generalized group that had been ordering products from me. The reason why I opened this second site was that the first one was so niche oriented that it might have kept others from logging on due to not being of that group.

Business continued to grow until I came to the point that my garage didn't have sufficient space so we built a small 1600 sq ft warehouse on the property. Continued to add more and more products to the websites from profits generated and from a slowlane j.o.b.

Initially started with a few t shirts, posters and peripheral products geared towards this market but it slowly evolved into everything and anything associated with the larger, more generalized market. This was around 2003-2004 and we were marketing about 400-500 products online between the two sites.

Having never gone to a bank and borrowed money to finance the biz we would use credit cards often to open up a new product line, something that we don't need to do anymore.

In 2006 I moved the small business from the west coast to the midwest to be closer to family and also to be more centrally located to ship products. This was a tough decision as it caused much dissension in my personal life. My significant other didn't want to move, but I had family there and I wanted to be around them. She remained there and continued to ship products out while I transitioned all of our vendors into shipping to our new location. It was a stressful time as additional costs of moving, setting up a new location, and added living expenses made me ultimately wonder if it would be successful.

Found a retail location along a major arterial and figured if I have to warehouse the product, I might as well sell to walk-in traffic also. I initially opened this store with a pickup truck full of merchandise that was hauled down from the property on the left coast. Everything that was brought down fit in one aisle of the 1500 sq. ft show room. Since then, we have expanded 4 times, quadrupling our size to 6000 sq. ft and would like to expand again when other tenets move out. Also, the plan is to open another location in the not too distant future. We currently carry nearly 6000 products in the store. But the first couple of years were tough, learning to eat rice and beans, beans and rice.

In 2008, I saw the need for a unique product that wasn’t being mass produced for the industry I was serving. It was a very basic product that we (my son-in-law) and myself began manufacturing out of his garage. We started a new company with an initial outlay of $500 for parts and materials. I thought it would be an instant success due to the fact that I could market it initially on the websites and in the store and I was sure my customer base wanted it.
That business has continued to grow and we currently have 44 products and approximately 50 large dealers around the country that we wholesale our products to. We haven’t actively sought out dealers for the products but they have heard about our line and most have contacted us.
Basically, they forced us to grow.
All of the products are made in the USA. This is a fairly passive business as neither my partner or I spends more than a couple hours weekly checking in on one full time employee and one part timer. It generates mid six figures in sales yearly, and we haven't focused on developing this to it’s full potential, due to other commitments. We both feel we will eventually be bought out by one of the dominant players in the industry as they cannot help from noticing and being affected.

As the businesses have grown well into over 7 figures annually, I have had to grow along with them.
It isn't possible to remain static personally if your businesses are growing.

Next, how learning to fly has taught me new concepts of running a business....
 
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sparechange

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I've been sitting on this stuff for months.

Guess its time to throw in the dumpster :DIMG_5221.PNG
 

million$$$smile

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For the past 6 months I’ve been taking flying lessons
so that I can get my Private Pilots Certificate (PPL). The goal is to be able to fly to other stores when we add them. I’ve learned some things about the correlation between flying lessons and principles I use for business.
Still taking lessons so all of you pilots out there , be easy on me! ;)

Here are a few things I've learned:

#1 I had to Learn to Solo first before taking other passengers, (business partners, or borrowing large sums prior to making any money). Growing a business is as much learning about ourselves as anything and how we respond and react in different stressful situations. It's about dealing with unforeseen emergencies, and keeping a calm head. It is a process.
We are going to make mistakes, hopefully not fatal to our new business or with flying.
Also, flying solo means just that. We are alone. It is all on us. Everything. If we are not confident in our own ability, than we shouldn’t be soloing in the first place. Much of learning to fly is applying the basics repeatedly until it is second nature.
We follow a checklist. Every time.
We inspect the aircraft. Every time.
Business is the same way. There should be a checklist to see if we are on mark for sales & profit. We make sure we'll have enough product for holiday sales. We want to ensure there are no leaks in the system, confirming that every operation is running smoothly. Soloing is just that. It's on us.
No Co-pilot.
No Partner.
No Instructor.
No hand holding.
We've got to go through this alone.
Fly this thing off the ground and back again. To learn to trust ourself, and the process.
Sometimes we'll feel like we're flying by the seat of our pants, but just stick with the checklist, and trust our instruments to gauge how we're doing.
Later, we'll take on passengers (employees) & they will need to be briefed, buckled in, prepped, & aware of the destination.

#2 Pilot-in-command. (PIC) There is only one pilot in command on an airplane. Never two. The buck has to stop somewhere. Someone has to make the final decision. A new venture can be muddied up quickly with too many chiefs. Starting up can be stressful, emotional, & full of many unknowns. Partnerships suck when they go bad. Not recommended in the startup.
Listen to others, assess the situation, but we alone have to make the final decision that could make or break us. Get wise counsel, but the final decision is up to us.

#3 And that brings up another point. In flying, there is an actual attitude gauge on the instrument panel. In business, as in flying we've got to watch our attitude.
Attitude helps to define our ultimate Altitude.
If we are planning to fly high, our altitude IS dependent on the attitude we have. This is more crucial than some think. Be aware of attitude. Especially when dealing with employees & some vendors. My first few years as a boss was really rough. I totally sucked at it. At times I brought my blue collar attitude into the office and said stuff I never should have said. It is a wonder I wasn’t sued. I mean it. You can really get yourself in hot water if you aren’t careful with your attitude and under control. Don’t fly your business with an emotional seat of the pants attitude.

#4 Don’t jump before packing your parachute. Plan for the unplanned. Prep for possible problems and situations beyond your control. If you’ve got every dollar earmarked with no additional resources then it’s almost a Point of no Return which is when an aircraft isn’t capable of returning to the airfield in an emergency. Try to have an emergency fund. Don’t fuel your fire with every stick when you've got a long, cold night ahead.

#5 Last of all, it is imperative that we refuel. That means to step away from the biz and regroup. That is probably the hardest thing I have had to learn. I recognize I can be a workaholic. No good. It ain’t healthy. I am finally figuring that one out. Time away allows the mind to be creative. We’ve all seen small business owners unable to develop their business to the next step. Many times because their creative brains are mush due to the fact of working in their business 7 days a week rather than on it.

Just a few thoughts I wanted to throw out there.
Time to Fly!
 

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I'm not a pilot but have been around aviation all of my life. My father is a commercial pilot and I work in the aviation industry. Never thought about how these things would be an excellent metaphor for survival and success in business!
 
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million$$$smile

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Another random analogy I've been learning lately...

I've been s-l-o-w-ly pressing ahead to become a private pilot. Weather and life's busyness sometimes just gets in the way from moving along as quick as I like.

But I've been working on plotting a course for a cross country flight I'm planning on doing in the near future.
In this planning, I've learned some valuable life lessons for myself and for one or two others I am mentoring.

When one plans a cross country flight, one has to plot the course to where they want to go. Then, in order to get to their destination, one uses a compass to plan his route.

As you all know, a compass is made up of 360 individual degrees.
North is 360, East 90, South 180, and West 270.

So if your destination is 280 degrees, then that is the direction you need to fly. SSW. So you set your direction indicator to 280 degrees (after consideration for wind, velocity, etc) This should ultimately take you to your final destination.

But, if your destination is 200 miles away, and you are off by just 3 or 4 degrees, you may end up 20 miles off course when you fly the 200 miles.

Just 3 or 4 degrees changes where you end up!!

I've been working with a young person. They didn't have any support or training in childhood because there wasn't any real family structure. Without a support system, and teaching. one rarely becomes fully the person they could have been.

So now, they are nearly young adults. I really need to use wisdom in teaching and mentoring this individual.

Now it has become more steering and guiding than teaching and preaching.

But it is so important.
Those small degrees of guidance are similar to flying an airplane. If we can help, by pointing them in the right direction, by perhaps 2 or 3 or 4 degrees, who knows where they may end up in life?

Who knows what they may finally accomplish to benefit not only themselves but others?

Who knows what they can create??

It is only 2 or 3 degrees that could make a difference on their final destination.
And what they become.

Plot your destination. Stay the course.

And even if you go through life's storms, follow your compass.

Your compass will get you there.
 

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Another random analogy I've been learning lately...

I've been s-l-o-w-ly pressing ahead to become a private pilot. Weather and life's busyness sometimes just gets in the way from moving along as quick as I like.

But I've been working on plotting a course for a cross country flight I'm planning on doing in the near future.
In this planning, I've learned some valuable life lessons for myself and for one or two others I am mentoring.

When one plans a cross country flight, one has to plot the course to where they want to go. Then, in order to get to their destination, one uses a compass to plan his route.

As you all know, a compass is made up of 360 individual degrees.
North is 360, East 90, South 180, and West 270.

So if your destination is 280 degrees, then that is the direction you need to fly. SSW. So you set your direction indicator to 280 degrees (after consideration for wind, velocity, etc) This should ultimately take you to your final destination.

But, if your destination is 200 miles away, and you are off by just 3 or 4 degrees, you may end up 20 miles off course when you fly the 200 miles.

Just 3 or 4 degrees changes where you end up!!

I've been working with a young person. They didn't have any support or training in childhood because there wasn't any real family structure. Without a support system, and teaching. one rarely becomes fully the person they could have been.

So now, they are nearly young adults. I really need to use wisdom in teaching and mentoring this individual.

Now it has become more steering and guiding than teaching and preaching.

But it is so important.
Those small degrees of guidance are similar to flying an airplane. If we can help, by pointing them in the right direction, by perhaps 2 or 3 or 4 degrees, who knows where they may end up in life?

Who knows what they may finally accomplish to benefit not only themselves but others?

Who knows what they can create??

It is only 2 or 3 degrees that could make a difference on their final destination.
And what they become.

Plot your destination. Stay the course.

And even if you go through life's storms, follow your compass.

Your compass will get you there.
I love that you’re working with a young person, and by gently steering them in the right direction with little course corrections. I’m sure this will make such a difference to their lives.

Every year I help youngsters with their Maths exams. It’s hard work and requires my best thinking. The satisfaction is when they suddenly realise they can do it, and that they’re not “bad at Maths”, or worse ... stupid.

That little course correction can make a huge difference in a young person’s life.




I like your analogy of a cross-country journey.

I presume on a cross-country flight you have to regularly keep checking how you’re doing and making little adjustments to keep on course?

If you lined up perfectly at the start but then didn’t make a change for 200 miles then would you end up missing your target by more than 20 miles?


I guess you do a lot of planning and system checks before you even take off. And that you have to monitor a lot of dials and incoming information. Is that your personality and business too?

I’ve never flown a plane. It’s not something I’ve ever considered. I did do trips across countries by motor bike.

I liked that we took a map but didn’t look at it till we got lost, and that we just had a goal of “get to the South of France”.

I like that we checked our tyres and oil, and filled up with gas. That (I) packed a toothbrush, credit card, and change of smalls. Then booked the return ferry to France.

I’ve been on trips where guys booked a B&B for each night. It took all the fun out of it for me.

I always thought motorbikes were a great amplifier of people’s personalities, values, and ... errr... issues.


I never considered that the mode of transport might suit, encourage, or amplify different ways of thinking though.

Curious about the types of people attracted to flying.
 

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Regarding your great line of “your compass will get you there”...

It reminds me of a phrase I read in here somewhere that I’ll probably butcher:

Too many people want the map, when they should learn to read a map.
 
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For the past 6 months I’ve been taking flying lessons
so that I can get my Private Pilots Certificate (PPL). The goal is to be able to fly to other stores when we add them. I’ve learned some things about the correlation between flying lessons and principles I use for business.
Still taking lessons so all of you pilots out there , be easy on me! ;)

Here are a few things I've learned:

#1 I had to Learn to Solo first before taking other passengers, (business partners, or borrowing large sums prior to making any money). Growing a business is as much learning about ourselves as anything and how we respond and react in different stressful situations. It's about dealing with unforeseen emergencies, and keeping a calm head. It is a process.
We are going to make mistakes, hopefully not fatal to our new business or with flying.
Also, flying solo means just that. We are alone. It is all on us. Everything. If we are not confident in our own ability, than we shouldn’t be soloing in the first place. Much of learning to fly is applying the basics repeatedly until it is second nature.
We follow a checklist. Every time.
We inspect the aircraft. Every time.
Business is the same way. There should be a checklist to see if we are on mark for sales & profit. We make sure we'll have enough product for holiday sales. We want to ensure there are no leaks in the system, confirming that every operation is running smoothly. Soloing is just that. It's on us.
No Co-pilot.
No Partner.
No Instructor.
No hand holding.
We've got to go through this alone.
Fly this thing off the ground and back again. To learn to trust ourself, and the process.
Sometimes we'll feel like we're flying by the seat of our pants, but just stick with the checklist, and trust our instruments to gauge how we're doing.
Later, we'll take on passengers (employees) & they will need to be briefed, buckled in, prepped, & aware of the destination.

#2 Pilot-in-command. (PIC) There is only one pilot in command on an airplane. Never two. The buck has to stop somewhere. Someone has to make the final decision. A new venture can be muddied up quickly with too many chiefs. Starting up can be stressful, emotional, & full of many unknowns. Partnerships suck when they go bad. Not recommended in the startup.
Listen to others, assess the situation, but we alone have to make the final decision that could make or break us. Get wise counsel, but the final decision is up to us.

#3 And that brings up another point. In flying, there is an actual attitude gauge on the instrument panel. In business, as in flying we've got to watch our attitude.
Attitude helps to define our ultimate Altitude.
If we are planning to fly high, our altitude IS dependent on the attitude we have. This is more crucial than some think. Be aware of attitude. Especially when dealing with employees & some vendors. My first few years as a boss was really rough. I totally sucked at it. At times I brought my blue collar attitude into the office and said stuff I never should have said. It is a wonder I wasn’t sued. I mean it. You can really get yourself in hot water if you aren’t careful with your attitude and under control. Don’t fly your business with an emotional seat of the pants attitude.

#4 Don’t jump before packing your parachute. Plan for the unplanned. Prep for possible problems and situations beyond your control. If you’ve got every dollar earmarked with no additional resources then it’s almost a Point of no Return which is when an aircraft isn’t capable of returning to the airfield in an emergency. Try to have an emergency fund. Don’t fuel your fire with every stick when you've got a long, cold night ahead.

#5 Last of all, it is imperative that we refuel. That means to step away from the biz and regroup. That is probably the hardest thing I have had to learn. I recognize I can be a workaholic. No good. It ain’t healthy. I am finally figuring that one out. Time away allows the mind to be creative. We’ve all seen small business owners unable to develop their business to the next step. Many times because their creative brains are mush due to the fact of working in their business 7 days a week rather than on it.

Just a few thoughts I wanted to throw out there.
Time to Fly!
Love this. Rep+

Thanks for your stories, musings, and insights @million$$$smile
 

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Some of you know that one of my endeavors is a small manufacturing business that caters to the construction trades. Along with manufacturing many of our own products in-house, we also have a line of tools private branded here in the USA.

We are strictly wholesale only to our dealers throughout North America, and revenue has grown considerably along with adding several new products yearly.

But we violated the first commandment of CENTS in some of our latest additions to our product line.
We added these products and totally lost CONTROL after a large financial investment and many hours developing this.

Now we have to pay the price. The lack of CONTROL.

Here is how it went down:

We (my partner and I) had decided to add 3 new tools to our line and sought out a US manufacturer to bring these to market. This company has been around for 80 years in the industry. They have manufactured private branded tools for the largest USA made tool lines in America. If I mentioned the brands, everyone would know them. They were sold nationwide through one of the largest retail chains but recently sold out and subsequently are currently manufactured in Asia. This loss of business for the manufacturer allowed us an opportunity to begin talks regarding developing our new products.

We flew out to meet them, gave them our specs, and promised funds to forge the tools. The initial order was almost $75K. This was their minimum for the 3 tools we wanted made and we agreed. We felt this would give us enough inventory to introduce and sell for the first year. Setup & manufacturing took 4 months and a lot of back and forth conversations. Both parties were excited about the prospects and the future growth for both businesses. There are only a handful of USA made tool lines still in existence, and we have done quite well in that niche market.

Needless to say, we were excited to bring these out to our existing vendors and their customers. We signed the dotted line, and would be receiving the samples for approval in 45 days. We'd done similar transactions before (though not this large) and couldn't wait for the results.

To be continued...
 

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continued...

We finally received the samples and after a few minor changes we approved them and production began.

Some may wonder how we were so sure that we would be successful with the new product line and spending the initial investment to bring to market. It isn't that hard if you know your market inside and out and what your customer is already using, and what you are already selling to them. We had scheduled a trade show to exhibit the samples and had great feedback. We felt fairly comfortable knowing that response was favorable.

Two months later our shipment of products arrived. Pictures were taken, some samples sent to our top vendors , and orders came in. We were on a roll.

Then we got the phone call.

The company was shutting down.
After 80 years.
Some of their employees had worked there for 40 years.

Welcome to a sinking ship.

We had recently gotten our shipment in and had just found out that that the parent company (a large conglomerate) decided to shut down their subsidiary, one of the last tool forging companies in America.
This was in January, just before the Pandemic.

We had no chance of reordering more tools. Once we sell out of these that we have, we most likely will have to discontinue selling them altogether. We even flew out to the left coast to another small tool forging company to see if they might be able to take on our designs. That too was a real eye opener. No less than 15 minutes in the conversation, we felt that they also might be on a 'sinking ship'.
We backed out of the conversation quietly.

It seems the cost of upgrading the forge tooling coupled with high labor costs, EPA, etc. are strangling the manufacturers along with lower demand due to cheaper imports.
That is their lack of control.

So the singular greatest lesson I have learned in all of this is that we lacked CONTROL due to not owning all phases of the outcome. This has been the primary lesson.
And hard lesson it was.
We had introduced three new products to our dealers nationwide (and to their customers) only to realize that we will sometime in the future have to let them know that we will be likely phasing these items out of our line.

That is the tough part. We never had full control. And most likely never will.
It could have been a pandemic. It could have been bankruptcy. It could be future fuel costs, or labor shortages or tariffs or war or a myriad of other things. It could be Mad Cow disease which could affect our manufacturing leather products.
Who knows?

I have learned the more I know, the more I don't know.

That has been my biggest epiphany.

Maybe this IS the new normal.

I sure hope not.
 
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