In•clued turns one!!! ~~ WHOO HOO~~!!! To so many of you…Thank you for believing in us! Unstoppable starts here and we are in great standing for an EVEN MORE AWESOME second year. It takes us now 3 months to achieve what took us 9 months in the beginning….and we still want MORE. BETTER. FASTER. Extreme pride, gratitude, satisfaction…AND pain pretty much summarize the first year. These milestone photos (first expo, cupcake mania, & VIP events) don’t even begin to tell our journey of schlepping through sleet/hurricane, tech riddles, sleepless nights, unpleasant discords, hilarious misunderstandings, and deep new friendships. In short, this sh1t is really as hard and fun as everyone says. So, if you are still contemplating a #bluechip2startup move, I hope my list of top learning below is of some use. It really is a (calculated) leap of faith. #inclued #everyexperiencematters Top learning (listed in no particular order) 1) Please leave that extra tip or a thank you comment…Restaurants and caterers are one of THE hardest working people EVER. 2) Befriend other entrepreneurs. You will keep each other sane 3) Sales is King. Brand is King. Execution is king. YEP, all 3 matter equally and anyone who tells you otherwise is an idiot. 4) Pivot. Pivot. Pause. Pivot. Pause. Drink. Pivot….Wait for it…Pivot. 5) 99.9% of the time you have no idea what you are doing. No, this is not okay despite what people say to comfort you. So, don’t just sit there– get out there and go figure it out 6) As a good friend (whose name rhymes with “Myeong”) told me sternly one year ago, failure is not an option. Don’t start with Plan B. Live for Plan A. 7) If you can afford to, reinvest as much as you can into the business and don’t fear a zero profit for the first year. But zero revenue is just foolish– do you believe in your product’s value or not? 8) BY THE WAY…You can’t pay yourself wages as an LLC or sole prop. You either “draw” (resulting in equity dilution) or take the profit share at year-end. Such nuances you don’t think about until you have to… 9) Workout regularly like your life depends on it. It will help you stay positive, prevent you from talking-out-loud the crazy thoughts you should keep to yourself, and reminds you to shower once in a while 10) GOOD NEWS! What you learn in corporate is invaluable to running your own biz. Examples - Learning to work cordially with random people, communicating professionally, setting-aside time for strategic planning, doing performance reviews, forming processes , etc…all critical 11) People never forget how you treated them – this is a good thing if you’ve been authentic and respectful of your colleagues regardless of their titles. On the other hand, expect bad things if this is the first time you are realizing this… 12) If you want to have any website presence, take the time to learn coding or at least its basic. I mean, No…HTML isn’t a domain. A domain isn’t a server. And java is not short for javascript (although, yes, it is a coffee). 13) Customer’s experience should dictate you product and service design. Stop using compliance or system regulations to BS your way out of doing what’s right for the customer anymore. 14) Craft a ridiculous “suspension of disbelief” vision statement and revisit it every 3 months. You will think “what was I smoking then??!!” That’s when you dig up what you were smoking then and light it up again. Don’t forget to dream and plan even bigger. 15) Can I continue to scale this? Is this scalable? If the scalability question doesn’t haunt you everyday, then just accept that you run a lifestyle business. Live on, get puppies and bake bread. 16) Finding an economic and user-friendly payment processor is painful, especially when you have to accept Amex cards. 17) To make up for what I said on #16, we love our OPEN Amex cards. I keep miscalculating the early pay discount window on the Plum card, but the card looks so pretty it almost doesn’t matter that I don’t know how to use it. 18) You have no idea how much dividend it pays to do that one favor & care for entrepreneurs. You also have no idea how much you pay when you’ve pissed one off. 19) Thank GOD for awesome friends and awesome customers. REALLY – I can’t thank you enough. 20) FINALLY….Hire people who exhibit A) passion, B) resilience, and C) stellar decision-making. I am so proud and honored to be working with my team who teach me, counsels customers, and believe in in•clued everyday. And every day, they do it with a smile . GO IN•CLUED!!!!
Posted on: Wed, 02 Oct 2013 05:06:14 +0000
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