Lessons From A Life Of Entrepreneurship

 As I sit to write this article, a strange and unfamiliar thought passes through my mind—aren’t you a little young to be writing this?  It is true, if you glanced at my license it would betray my mere 24 years on terra firma. 

 However, since before my first steps I’ve lived within an immersion of business education.  My curriculum didn’t come from a book or formal classroom; in fact, you couldn’t find the lessons I’ve learned in any academic setting.  They weren’t derived from theory; instead they were borne of application.  You see, I come from a family of entrepreneurs—on both sides.  I’ve spent my life listening, asking questions, absorbing.  My family, whether they know it or not, have given me something that can’t be bought—a real world MBA. 

It’s incredible to think how quickly technology has changed things.  For instance, even at my mere 24 years, I grew up understanding business as something that was done largely face-to-face.  Where you looked into the eyes of your customer and you often knew them by name.  Perhaps even stranger, when my father, uncles, or grandfather gave their word and shook someone’s hand you knew it was as concrete as any contract. 

When I look around now, I realize I’ve been thrust into a very different world. 

Today, you don’t have to look into someone’s eyes or shake their hand.  You can avoid the invasiveness of a sales person by shopping online for anything from groceries to a new car.  Smartphones allow people to bring their office with them wherever they go.  It’s easier, and faster, to get approved for a loan than it is to call tech support and get past the automated gate-keeper to a real person—and you’re lucky if they have a basic understanding of English.

At university I watched and listened as students and professors alike taught the principals of reducing business down to numbers and percentages.  Cash-flow statements and forecasted net profits were deemed the ultimate determinants in the viability of a proposed business, and while the examples were successful in a classroom setting, they lacked something…

Said simply, business today is lacking the ‘human’ component.

Please don’t mistake me for some overly idealistic youth, I understand the importance and value of having the numbers make sense, but I feel that they are only a part of the equation.  The classroom seemed to assign no value for hard work, ingenuity, caring for and getting to know customers, valuing employees.  The very things my family’s businesses, and my real world MBA, were built upon.  It all seemed very heartless. 

Another example that shocked me came from somewhere I would have never expected.  I dated a brilliant girl who graduated from the prestigious Ivey School of Business here in Canada, and later went on to be swiftly picked up by one of the largest companies in the world.  She was caring and kind by nature, so it surprised me to learn her “Business Communication” course, which taught how to remove any emotion, implied feeling, or vestige of humanity from all communication, was among her highest grades while in school.

Look, I understand large companies have a need to standardize certain things, like communication.  However, it can’t come at the cost of losing all human touch.  Perhaps we need to re-evaluate the way we’re doing business when it’s a common story that you’ve never met Brenda in accounting whom you have to e-mail daily, your boss recognizes your face, but not your name, and you’re a stranger to the other 100 cubicles around you. 

I know I’m not crazy, because aside from the majority of small businesses across North America, there is this one big player who shares my view—Richard Branson.  With multiple companies in various unrelated industries successfully passing the billion dollar revenue mark, I’d say he’d got the formula for success down pat.  Reading one of his books Business Stripped Bare one his concepts really stuck out to me, “when a company hit 100 employees, I’d break it up into two separate companies”.  He went on to explain it wasn’t really for any tax reasons or trying to break into every niche in a market, he simply understood there was value in the camaraderie of a small-office environment.

I obviously chose to embrace technology, just look at where you’re reading this.  However, my real world MBA reminds me that it should be only a supplement to real life interaction.  That being said, here are three very human lessons to help you navigate these confusing times.

1)  Have Integrity, Stand Behind Your Product

This could be reduced to “don’t produce garbage”.  If you’re going to release a product, please take care in putting it together.  Pick something you’re knowledgeable in or passionate about, research how it will work, and construct it with quality and care.  Essentially, whether it’s a book, tool, toy, or whatever you can dream up, it should be something that you yourself would buy.  If customers complain of defects, fix them without hassle, and update your new line so the same problem doesn’t recur.  Not only will it save you continual headaches down the road, but your customers will pass on word-of-mouth referrals when the feel valued. 

2) Remember Businesses Need To Make Money

Being constantly surrounded by business students whose only understanding of how things work came out of a textbook, I hear a lot of talk about negotiating pricing as low as possible.  They need to push their supplier’s unit costs down 30, 40, 50% below ticket price to make their books hum with profits.

This frustrates me, because they apply the same idea–get as low as possible– to all situations, both business and personal, and it’s just plain wrong.  Each situation is unique and needs to be treated as such.  Dealing with a giant manufacturer with a 75% mark-up is entirely different than a small supplier making a modest profit.

I see small service businesses affected most by this blindness, especially anything that requires an expert’s hand.  If you’re buying Coke in bulk, sure, push for a deal.  If you’re tailor spent three hours making your suit fit like it’s an extension of your body, don’t fuss over the $100 bill.

3) Get Personal

If you’ve got something to say to your employee/employer/girlfriend/anyone, skip the e-mail, get off your butt and go say it to them.  I grew up with this mentality, and thought it was just ‘the norm’ until university slapped me in the face.  I was blown away by how people are choosing to hide behind e-mails, text messages, and BBM’s instead of being direct.  It’s weakens your point, leaves a paper trail, and is down-right cowardly!

Be direct and talk to people face-to-face, especially if it’s an important issue.  It’s more sincere, you’ll get a faster answer, and you might not realize it, but you’re clearing the road for them to talk to you more openly and honestly down the line.

Obviously, there’s a lot more that could be said, but for right now, I’d be more than happy to see people implement these back-to-the-basics principals.  The rest is up to you to figure out. 

Good luck.