As corny as it sounds, I already have my dream business mentor: my father. He runs a small family business in Rockford, IL. He makes metal parts, which is far from my traditional interests or ambitions. However, there’s commonality that I relish. He doesn’t have a love for formal financial statements; instead, he understands that if the checks don’t come in the mail – and he doesn’t have cash in the bank, he has issues. He believes in standing behind his work, even if it means occasionally losing money on a job. He works hard, charges fair prices, and seeks to establish long term relationships. If his COGS are X, and the market suddenly starts charging 2X, he’s happy to make a fair profit on his X+15% and not gouge the customer. He’s upfront with people, and stands by his word. He’s not afraid to say “I haven’t got money to pay you this week, but I’ll call you the day a check comes in and I can pay you.” During the lean years, he’d pay a few hundred dollars a week – whatever was left over after payroll – and slowly pay down his debts. He’s talked customers out of doing projects if he doesn’t believe in them, despite it being work he could have charged for. If he is unable to do a job, he’s happy to refer someone to a competitor. It’s this honesty – and simplistic business values – that I try and emulate. I may not be the most cut-throat, or make the most money as a result of this approach, but the relationships and good-will that is generated has gone a long way in making me who I am.
Similar Posts
The Fifth Truth: Defy Gravity
Our private equity partner team signs their emails with four truths: communicate fearlessly, compress time, work tirelessly, and love what you do. These truths have been good to me, helping me achieve success and accomplishment. It’s become apparent that following those truths will lead to good, but not great. If substantial success, the definition of which…
Why You Should Take a Solo Road Trip Now
For most people, the idea of driving any significant distance is daunting. Stuck in a car, with hundreds of mindless miles stretching ahead of you, and no matter what radio station you manage to pick up – it always seems that the newest Taylor Swift song is playing. It’s not hard to imagine that would…
Best vacation policy ever
Jason Freedman has it right. He wrote a post recently about 42 Floors vacation policy – which consists of a mandatory two weeks of vacation on your first day. Wait, wha????? That’s right, they start paying you and ask you to show up two weeks later. The premise being that we don’t really take vacation…
Why I Play the Lotto
As a child, we dream about being astronauts, our backyard tree house becomes an outpost in the Wild West fight between soldiers and Indians, and the only limit to what we can accomplish is chime of mom’s dinner bell (or text message). Somewhere along the way, we start becoming aware of our limitations: our intelligence,…
Four Steps to Winterize Your Business
Understand year end financials, connect, set up 2024 for success, plan 2024 calendar. It’s full-fledged fall here in the Midwest, and I’ve been busy running around the house unhooking hoses, cleaning up leaves, and generally getting the house ready for winter. It reminded me that, just like our homes, our business needs to be “winterized” each…
Not the same old marketing
During the first year of leading the Startup Leadership Program, we included the obligatory class on marketing. In the second year, we broke that down into acquiring buyers (entrepreneurial selling) and acquiring users (more akin to traditional marketing). We talked about SEO, retargeting of ads, and virality. It was good stuff, but somehow didn’t seem…