Business for the Millennial Entrepreneur
By: Millennial Entrepreneur
Tags: Business, Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneur, Millennials

#entrepreneur #selfstarter #millennial

Starting a business is hard, but as a millennial entrepreneur it will feel 10 times harder.

In this instant gratification world we live in as millennials it feels like our business isn’t growing fast enough. Maybe we should be doing something different? Maybe we made a mistake? What if I do this instead of that! After the first week you open and the WOW factor is not there anymore, it will feel as nothing is happening.

As millennial who had a business for three years and multiple things that never got off the ground, trust me when I say it’s stressful.

Everyday, every minute, every hour.

I watched as “grown ups”, people who were 40+, were doing all these great things in their business and who looked happy. They were going out, smiling, taking vacations, buying their family things and here I was wondering how I was going to make payroll. How was I going to finish the next job or buy the new $200 dollar piece that the business needed? Question after question, decision after decision.

My Background

When I started my business I was 26. At 21 I worked for a company and made $200k my first year! I was young, smart, confident, and an ego that was the size of Texas. I had no college degree, but I did know my job, numbers, and most importantly never said NO when it came to a job that needed to be done. I had 5 rent house and investments, there wasn’t much I didn’t want to try in business. Now I don’t say this to brag, but to state the fact that I thought I already knew what I didn’t know.

Fast forward to 26 I started a consulting firm. I had guys all over the US in the NE, Midwest, and Southern States. I was running everything, payroll, sales, HR, I even took out the trash. I was clearing $800 a day profit, so I thought I would hire someone (cheaply of course) that could take care of these duties. At no fault of hers, she didn’t have what I had! A passion for the business! Within 6 months we were profiting $100 a day. I closed up shop a few months later.

Well, in that time I had helped my father start his own construction company which wasn’t being ran very well. So I took what I had and invested time and money in to it.

Following the next 2 years: $70k was embezzled (by my fathers 3rd wife), he wrecked a truck 5 days after I bought it proceeding to get a DUI, employees messed up on job after job after job, brought on a partner who within the first 3 months cost the company $20k and drew a salary for 3 months while he took a “vacation”.

The whole time I laid awake wondering what to do next. How to turn it around. What was I not seeing!?

The entire thing can be boiled down to decisions, planning, and trusting your gut. In all experiences I WAS THE COMMON DENOMINATOR whether it was when I was 21 or 26.

Being in business is tough, ruthless, terrifying, and the one no one talks about is lonely. Everyone goes home for the day or the weekend and you stay. You think 24/7 on what’s next? If your business is doing great, how can you make it better? If you business is doing bad, how can you make it better? It sounds simple but is anything but. Especially when you are young, have limited funds, and limited resources.

HERE IS THE SECRET, nobody cares. Mark Cuban said it best, “business is 24-7/365, and you better be working every bit of it because your competition is”.

10 things I wish somebody told me:

Stick with your gut!

FIRE QUICK. FIRE QUICK. I can’t stress that enough. I eventually fired my father (we still don’t talk) but it HAD to be done. I should have fired him 6 months before I did but firing sucks especially when it’s your family.

WORK. You know you must work, it sucks but you do, for at least the first 5 years. If your gut says, “I should just go out there and help or check on the job”, then do it! You absolutely should trust yourself on this one. If you just want to do small things some days, do it. You are the owner everything you do is working, fill out that form, update your books, call that customer and check in, go see your employees, clean the office, I don’t care what it is just do it.

YOU WILL FAIL AT SOMETHING. As a business owner you will fail. If it is an employee who lost a big account or messed up a job its your failure. Take it and learn from it. Yes, you can’t hold everybody’s hand all the time, but if someone drastically fails there was probably already signs there that you either ignored or didn’t see. Know when an employee needs help it’s your failure not theirs if they fail, it’s your business.

BE PATIENT. I know every motivational speaker, life coach, guru, or whatever says it, but they are living the dream what do they know? Seriously, be patient, in time it will come. Be patient when teaching a new employee. Be patient when trying to get a new customer. (Don’t get any customer your not Facebook, get the right customer). A small business being able to make a profit with great customers is better than having a ton of customers and no profit. If you do $10million a year and spend $10million you are worst off than the guy who did $250k and profited 30%.

KNOW YOU NUMBERS. This one is also a duh! But I could tell you 2 weeks in advance whether we were doing good before payroll was entered. Be able to know off the top of your head what you need to make everyday to breakeven. This should change daily depending on how many employees are working that day and where they are. Understand what that looks like as far as production goes. At the end of the day, week, or month you should know without having to use a computer how you are looking.

Know what those numbers for growth are too. If you had to add a secretary how does that change your daily, weekly, or monthly total? Just because you have $20k in the bank doesn’t mean you can go out and get you an assistant who will never bring you money, because after 3 months she has ate up your savings. What will your production need to be or sales? Knowing your number better than you know your wife or husband, will take stress away from your husband or wife later on.

BEING YOUNG SUCKS. Older generations have a hard time giving younger people the respect they deserve. You have worked hard, started a business, and is it to much to ask for a little damn respect! Yes, unfortunately they don’t see it that way, so f*ck em’. It will happen more times than not, your not Jeff Bezos or the Zuck.

You’re young but still deserve a seat at the table. Don’t ever let it come across you mind any other way. It might take a little longer for you to get things accomplished, but it can still be done.

ENJOY IT. Having your own business means being able to have the freedom to do things. Like skip work on a Monday or Wednesday. Do it! It needs to be done. You can’t do everything all day everyday. Learn to enjoy the base hits, the small victories because when things go a stray you need to be able to handle them! Don’t feel guilty about enjoying your time. But also don’t get lost in it, your business still needs you.

LONELINESS. It’s going to be lonely most of the time. Your spouse will stand beside you, be there for you, and help you but will never actually know your loneliness. You will be happy around your friends, they will ask about your business and you will say it’s great. Even when it’s not going well you will lie because how could they really understand. Remember you are not alone, I know it’s corny but your not. Every small business owner feels this way if they show it or not.

There have been days I didn’t want to get out of bed or leave the house. Days I felt so alone that I just wanted to set under the covers. But also I had massive guilt for feeling this way and not figuring out a way to make things work.

When you feel this way figure out what makes your body flood with dopamine. For me its driving around listening to Elton John’s I’m Still Standing or James Brown This is a Mans World on full blast singing at the top of my lungs, like a bad mofo. Find something that works for you. Find something that will flood you with so much dopamine that the loneliness goes away even for 15 min just to get a break: wash, rinse, repeat.

YOU WON’T PLEASE EVERYBODY. Understanding this early on will help everything I have listed. Sometimes it won’t work out you are human and so are your employees. Will people be mad and won’t it suck, yes it will. It is business not personal, make this your motto if it’s not.

You will sink your business if you try to make everyone happy. This goes back to know your customer. Knowing who your target market is will make it easier to make them happy. But if you do have someone not happy, try to remedy the situations if can’t be, move on. The longer your stress over this one thing or customer, the longer the other things or customers suffer.

IT IS YOUR MONEY. It is not your employees money, it is yours. Your employees will get paid on time and you will take your piece of it when there is enough to take. So be the the Alpha and know when to say no. You are not being mean if your fire someone who sucks, IT IS YOUR MONEY. You have to understand people who waste your time and money are literally stealing from your pockets. BE MAD do something now vs. later, your bank account will thank me.