One of the most important lessons I have learned is the power of perseverance. I have faced numerous challenges and setbacks along my journey, but I have realized that giving up is not an option.

By staying determined and pushing through difficult times, I have achieved success and personal growth.

Success is tied to two things.

How involved you are in uncovering your blinds spots and how quickly you can fire people who are a bad fit.

Giving up equity to partners without proper expectation on what they bring to the table, setting milestones, KPIs and quarterly goals. This has bite me in the ass since im a people pleaser and thought that would incentivize them enough to work extra hard. Learned the hard way that regardless of equity splits, no one will care about the business as much as you did.

Don’t lowball your prices. Charge what you are worth you will gain more respect from that than anything. I’ve been in business 37 years every three years. I reevaluate my prices and raise them if I feel it’s necessary.

The most valuable lesson I learned when I owned my small business was this:

There are people in this world, who intentionally NOT pay as many people as possible, choosing instead to use lawyers to bully people.

There are people in this world, that will read through every scrap of your contract, find the ‘value’ in it, and once they determine a path to fuck you, they will 100% fuck you over.

There are people in this world, who never planned on paying you ever.

There are people in this world who will pay with a major credit card, run up a $5k bill, and 90 days later do a charge back at the time you desperately need that money most.

Chase® will automatically close your account if you deposit a check from a known (to chase) fraudster. This means, if you take a check from [X Industries], deposit into your account, they will immediately freeze your account and kick you out of Chase® because they now see you as a liability for being associated with a fraudster. But get this, YOU won’t EVER know who is/isn’t accepted by Chase®. One day you will get a client, who will write you a check, go deposit it at Chase, and poof, your account will be closed. Nothing you can do either.

Own your mistakes. Everybody is human and everybody fu*ks up. If you make a mistake with a client, own it. Tell them. Them them what you are doing to fix it and what you are doing to make sure it doesn’t happen again. Then do those things.

Business will peak and valley. Don’t buy a new Benz when its up, don’t contemplate self harm when it is down.

Not all customers are worth it. Learn the threshold for “pass”. No matter what your business, there will be a few who will not be worth serving.

Always be honest and direct. Set expectations from the start then have the client sign the project expectations so all are on the same page. Then, when questions arise you can refer back to the set expectations. If the expectations change such as time extension or something, discuss and update the expectations list to reflect it was satisfactory to all. Saves a lot of headaches on both sides

I’ll give you 3:

1. There is some business you don’t want. Either bexause of the customer or the price. On average businesses lose $ on 10% of customers. Identify and fire them. Make more profit on less sales.

2. It’s much better to do fewer things well than more things less well.

3. Ask customers some questions:

3a. Are there other products you would buy here if we had them?

3b. Ask every new face how they found about you. Beat to know what promotion works.

Tenant Improvement allowances are surprisingly hugely negotiable in many cases. they might not budge an inch on rent and give you some surprising credits to finsih/refinish the space.

a good idea isn’t worth anything (nobody buys ideas)

SCORE is an absolutely amazing resource

It’s a 24/7 job and you have to be mentally zoned in if you want to succeed.

Stop calling and tearing your team like family. You need to establish boundaries

Never trust anyone.

Only take equity investments from people that have the skills or trade contacts to help grow your company.

Treat your customers so well that they have to tell someone about it.

There is no better form of marketing than word of mouth.