Task Force Entrepreneur
Task Force Entrepreneur (TFE) is a podcast for entrepreneurs interested in the service industry. It began as a way to document the creation of a new service-oriented business, and aims to provide a no-fluff narrative on all things entrepreneur!
Task Force Entrepreneur
Here's what a Billionaire told me about starting a business.
In this episode, I share some advice given to me by a bonafide billionaire about starting a business. The advice was so good, that I re-read it every few months as a reminder. I absolutely had to share it with you. Originally aired Aug 14, 2023.
Hey everybody, Mike here and welcome to Task Force Entrepreneur. The podcast I started went from being a tech engineer to starting a house cleaning business. Yep, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. I hope you enjoy the show.
Speaker 2:Hey everybody, what's up, mike, here, in today's show I got something special for you guys. It's kind of a weird story. So essentially, what I'm going to share with you is advice that an actual billionaire gave to me. He gave me kind of four bullet points around building a successful business, and I'm going to share that advice with you shortly. But first I want to kind of share how I came to get this advice, because I think that's a cool story too. All right, so getting into it. So a few years ago I worked for a company, a very large company, and it's you know. I'll shorten the story for you to save you from all the details.
Speaker 2:But, in a nutshell, I worked for the company left on good terms, I would say but I always really admired the leadership there. So, after I had left, years later, I actually emailed this person right, who is a billionaire, you know. I actually basically said hey, you know, I used to work for you and I would like to start a company and I'm just curious if you have any advice for me. He actually replied and gave me excellent advice. So I want to share that with you. But, you know, I just think that's such a cool story and for someone at that level to take the time to reply to an ex employee, that's amazing and it speaks to his character, which is no surprise to me. Quite honestly, the reason that I'd reached out to him is because I did feel like he was the kind of person that would reply, but nonetheless, it was still awesome to me. You know that it wasn't just about show to his employees that he truly was, you know, willing to give back to other entrepreneurs. Now, that said, I'm not sharing his name specifically because I don't have permission to, but you know, either way, I'll get to kind of sharing the advice which is really the important part of this episode. So the first piece of advice number one they gave me was always know your numbers and what drives the economic engine of your company. Now, this seems common sense, right, just know your numbers. But it's really critical. I mean, it's pretty common for entrepreneurs to say, oh yeah, we did X amount of you know millions or X amount of thousands last year in sales, but if you ask them their costs, they have no idea, right? Furthermore, where are you earning money from, right? So one of the things I'm doing with mission cleaning is trying to make sure that we can quantify our revenue based on lead source. So this essentially means that we'll be able to do a thorough breakdown of how many dollars a year are earned from leads coming from Google, ads versus phone calls, versus word of mouth, and so on. Right? So I think that's important, right? Because once you know where it's coming from, you can invest heavily there and cut investments in areas that maybe aren't as profitable. And that's really just one example behind knowing your numbers. So I'm sure there's many others.
Speaker 2:The second piece of advice that he gave me was you've got to be willing to wear multiple hats and do whatever it takes to get the job done. And he put an extra note there, especially in the early years. Now this is really something that he lived himself. I actually remember there was some large orders that the company had, I mean very significant, very, very large facilities I can't exaggerate that phrase Very large facilities that this company owned and this guy was actually running the company and then after work hours were over, would he go pack orders in the factory next to the factory workers, and this isn't for a day or two, for a photo op. He did this for a while. So he really lived that.
Speaker 2:And one of the things that I actually get asked a lot about mission cleaning my cleaning company I'm starting is a lot of people keep kind of making fun of me. They're like are you going to clean houses? And I'm not ashamed to say yes, absolutely, why wouldn't I? If I'm asking employees to do it, then I'm definitely going to do it Now. Am I going to do it regularly? I hope not. But you know I'm going to do whatever it takes to get the job done, because I want that to be a critical part of our culture.
Speaker 2:Moving on to tip number three from this billionaire, he said take the time to hire the right people and put them in the right spots. Now, this is great advice, although I suspect I know where he got it. There's a famous book called Good to Great. I want to say it's by Jim Collins. I might be wrong, but either way, the book is called Good to Great, excellent Book. It really highlights what takes companies that were good, or what separates companies that are good from the great companies. Right, and it's been a while since I've read the book, but one example was like right-aid compared to CVS or Walgreens, right, what is the difference there? What separated those two? So you know, and one of the cornerstones in this book was the concept of getting the right people on the bus and then finding the right seats for them. Not necessarily finding the people that already have the talent, but finding the right personalities for the roles you're seeking. So that's the approach I'm taking, which is why I actually don't care if employees have experience cleaning, because I can teach them. As long as they have the right attitude, all right. And tip number four about starting a company was establish the values and behaviors you expect. Make sure you live and breathe them along with your employees. This is a really good one.
Speaker 2:I actually at one company I worked for. It was well known that if you lied, it was a terrible offense, right, didn't matter what it was about. You could literally just say, oh yeah, yeah, I sent that email and if it was found that you were lying, you did not have a job. And, to be honest, you know I mean, I heard rumors of you know that actually happening. I don't know if it actually happened, but the concept stands true and I think it's really important to just exemplify what you want your employees to be, in every sense of the word.
Speaker 2:You know, for me, what that means is, you know, like I said, the cleaning houses thing, right? I can't call someone and say, hey, I need you to drop what you're doing on Sunday and go do this unless I am willing to do it, because if not, I'm setting the example that you know. You are beneath me, I am above you, your time is less valuable than mine, right? And at the end of the day, I have a vested interest to make sure that people you know uphold the values and behaviors that I want, right, and you can't do that without establishing them yourself and being consistent. It can't be, you know, whatever you feel like it, it can't be convenient. It always has to be there. You always have to act in the way that you want others to follow, right. So that's it.
Speaker 2:That was the list. I hope you found it, you know, useful to me. To be completely honest with you guys, I got this list in 2018, so five years ago and actually, looking at the calendar, I think I got it almost five years to the day and I still go back to it regularly, and that's exactly why I wanted to share it because I thought it was such good advice and this isn't someone that wrote a book to become famous and share this advice. It was honest advice that you know he didn't have to give right. So I thought it would be useful, especially for those of you starting businesses, considering starting businesses. You know, understanding what is really the important thing to focus on. I think these are four great things to focus your time and energy on. Thanks for listening to the podcast. If you found it useful, do me a favor and give me a review. It would mean the world to me. Reviews are everything for a brand new podcast, and someday I'll stop asking, but for now, I really need them. Thanks a lot and have a great day.
