Those who bring in $1Mil+ a year from their business, what kind of business do you run or what sector are you in? How many attempts of starting businesses did it take to get to where you are? And if you had any advice or tips to those wanting to get started, what are they?
I’m in commercial construction.
I’ll say something I don’t expect others to say. I didn’t have anything going for me in the beginning. I was competing against established companies who had unlimited $ backing them. I was a kid with no experience, 2k, and a so-so 22 year old truck. I think the biggest advantage I had was my disadvantages. I learned to be lean, I learned to go without, I learned the importance of cash flow, and most important of all, I learned to pay attention to what my competitors are doing and ask why. Sometimes there’s a good reason, other times they’re stuck in old ways because “it’s always been that way”. Fresh eyes on old problems can be a major advantage.
You’ll find a lot of people who faced the biggest hardships have some of the best success stories. Others gave up or failed to adapt. But that’s the difference between learning from those experiences or using them as an excuse. You have to leverage everything you have all the time. Success today isn’t guaranteed tomorrow. Adapting and evolving is crucial to all businesses. Look at Blockbuster. Even in our small service area, we must be aware that if we aren’t actively on the offensive and growing, one of our competitors is.
Maybe my best advice is if you start a business, just take action. Everyone has ideas, but very few execute. Sometimes even the wrong decision is better than not making one at all. Be relentless in your efforts to make things happen. Have a long term plan and actively make decisions to set you on that path. The only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time.
Love this, but have a question:
You’re saying you had a single truck–What in the world do you do with it? Do you go around asking people on sites if they need debris hauled away and just start expanding into small jobs once you get money for actual construction equipment?
I started out repairing residential windows. Usually 1-2 hour long repairs. I would do free quotes so I always knew what I was getting into before I agreed to do any work. I loaded the truck with the tools (mostly hand tools) I needed for that specific job and I only bought more tools as there was a need for them. I literally would buy tools the night before a job so I was only out the $ until I was paid the next day when the job was completed.
I did Facebook and Google ads and made a website pretty much from day 1. The calls came in very slow. I would get one call per week and it was a coin toss if that customer would hire me.
I’m not proud of it, but there was even a time I was so slow that I would walk into a business and ask for the maintenance guy and told them I was called out to look at some broken windows. Sometimes they’d say we don’t have any, you must have the wrong place and I’d laugh it off, leave a card and just say “If it ever does come up, we’d (me) be glad to help”. Sometimes they’d say “huh, not sure who called but we do have a few windows with issues.” And I’d send them a quote for the repairs. It actually did occasionally work to get business. I was desperate and willing to go door to door if that’s what it took.
Once the jobs slowly started coming in, I would go above and beyond and do everything I could to get referrals. It took close to 2 years before there were so many people calling that I had to hire a second person. As the volume grew, we just naturally had the random calls for larger projects here or there. Sometimes they were too large and we passed, and sometimes we stretched ourselves and took the leap. Little by little the big jobs seemed smaller and smaller. We have shifted away from residential and now do about 80% commercial and 20% residential. Despite less money to be made in residential, I still have a soft spot for the residential jobs that really shot us into the big leagues.