That is not the phrase most people think when they decide they want to be an entrepreneur. Most folks I work with simply want to start their own company so they can have control over their own destiny, have more flexibility, and often follow their passion. They aren’t trying to be a billionaire and start a rocket company. And this is a good thing!
According to the SBA, 44% of the U.S. economy is based on small businesses. The definition of a small business varies based upon the industry but think small, private companies. Often these are sole proprietor companies, a baker who makes cakes, a plumber who works from their van, or a gift shop owner focused on locally sourced merchandise. But these can also grow, the baker can hire an assistant, the plumber may take an apprentice, or the shop owner may hire more help. These continue to be small businesses as long as they stay private and do not control the majority of their industry.
Owning your own company can be amazing. You no longer need to worry about the boss calling you in and laying you off because they are trimming costs or because of anything not in your control. If there are specific ways you want to run your business or certain things you want to make sure are done, you can do them. Plus, leading and inspiring the people who work for you can be empowering. As they grow, the business grows, and your satisfaction grows.
But it is not all sunshine and roses. Being the boss, owning your own business means the buck stops with you. Always. You can’t blame others, especially the people who work for you, for the business’s failure. Do some employees not work out? Sure. But you are in charge of hiring, training, supervising, and firing which means you are in charge of not only that employee but how they execute their role. In addition, the buck starts with you, because the bucks are generated by you. If you need sales, who is in charge of getting them, whether you make the sales directly or have a sales team, you made the sales or you hired the team, which means, if there are not enough sales, it’s you.
But I’m here to help teach you the tools you need to evaluate if your idea is viable, how to adjust and improve things as you go, and, if necessary, when to cut bait, before you dig yourself too much of a financial hole to get out of. Let me warn you, there will be math. I’ll do my best to make it easy to understand. I’ll also try and explain why we need this math, which I feel is equally as important. There will be no making spreadsheets just to make spreadsheets. Doing the math will keep us from making decisions based upon our guts or our feelings, instead, showing measurable change, good or bad, and then deciding what changes need to be made because of the numbers.
I guess the next question you want to know is, who am I? My name is Trevor Shand. I am a father, a husband, and my hobbies are driving a race car series called 24 Hours of Lemons and being the person to go to for fixing things. I like being self-sufficient and learning things. If something needs to be fixed at work, at home, in the car, or anywhere else, I like knowing how to do it or learning how to do it.
As entrepreneurs, you’re going to need to learn new things. Do you bake cakes? Early on, you might also be in retails sales, delivery, accounting, and a variety of other roles you never imagined. Some you can predict, but some you can’t. If you have a big delivery and your oven goes out, what do you do? You can call an electrician, but that may be costly and can they make it in time? So besides the typical things other sources will teach you, I’m going to end every post with knowledge that is totally unrelated to entrepreneurship…right up until it isn’t. And as you learn both on-topic subjects, and off-topic subjects, and you practice them, you will not only get comfortable with the topics taught, but learn how to learn skills you never thought you might need to have.
Why am I qualified to write this blog? Experience. When I was 8 my family started showing dogs for a living. It was an odd life, I had more miles on TWA as a 5th grader than I would guess the rest of the school had flight miles combined. This gave me an example of entrepreneurship as my family obviously had their own business but my grandfather did as well. So seeing these examples, at 9 years old, I started a dog walking business while at shows. If you’ve never been to a dog show, the mid-morning, early-afternoon are usually busy, but by the evening, the focus shifts from showing the dogs to client/professional dinners, drinks, and entertainment.
This means most folks had things to do, including my mother, who usually led the charge at the shows. Plus, no one really wants to take a 9-year-old out for drinks, so I stayed home and walked the dogs. But that only takes so long, so I started a service where I would walk dogs for the other professionals there. One dollar per dog per walk. Once word caught on, I had a stack of keys on my nightstand (This was the 80s, we still had old-fashioned metal keys attached to plastic key tags stating the room). My mother used to joke that if there was ever a string of robberies at a hotel, I’d be the prime suspect because I had the key to so many rooms. Fortunately, my stay at a hotel never coincided with a string of thieves.
Since then, I have spent about four decades working for myself, in small businesses, and for Fortune 500 companies. Some of my favorite entrepreneurial experiences were working within large companies, helping them see how my idea could have a big impact on their ROI (ROI stands for return on investment, how much money did you spend compared to how much money came back, but we’ll get to all of that). I have an undergrad in marketing from Old Dominion University and graduated cum laude from the University of Notre Dame with an MBA in Entrepreneurship. I have worked for companies that sold items and for companies that have sold software and subscriptions.
In addition to having the experience, the other reason I believe I am qualified to teach this course is that I have taught others. When living in Seattle I got my first taste of teaching. Originally, my wife at the time, was taking classes and her friends would come over and talk about their vision for their clinics. As they would talk, I would ask questions. They were very into their work, but not so much into business, so invariably I’d ask questions they would not have even thought of. So I’d teach them the hows and whys of the business side.
I did this for enough people that eventually Bastyr University had me teach a program in the evenings for a while. Once moving back to Virginia, I stayed involved in the entrepreneurship community including two non-profits, the Charlottesville Business Innovation Council (CBIC) and the Community Investment Collaborative (CIC). Eventually, the CIC asked me to be a workgroup leader, which means we spend 16 weeks walking through the entire exercise of identifying an entrepreneur’s business idea, building the brand, monitoring the numbers, and hopefully in the end, they launch their business, or make more money doing so in the case of existing businesses.
This blog will not be an exact duplicate of that course, though we will cover large parts of it. To keep things from being too dry, I also plan to use my experience as an amateur fix it person, and share with you my favorite tools, projects, and general know-how. Work is fun but all work and no play make Jack a dull boy. Please understand I am not a professional electrician, contractor, mechanic, or chef. So I will share my stories as stories, and you can assess for yourself if you feel comfortable and confident enough to do your own work.
But like everything else, let’s start with the basics. Which in the case of doing work around the house, I think should start with the basic tools. I’m no longer brand loyal. As I mentioned earlier my grandfather owned his own company. The company worked with wood. My grandfather taught me, “Only Craftsmen tools.” That was good advice for years until the brand changed and the name was sold. I’ll be honest, I stayed loyal to the brand for years longer than I needed to. But like all things, there are places to save money and places not to.
So I’ll start my list with screwdrivers. You basically can’t work on your house, your car, your grill, or anything else without screwdrivers. Do I own a 6-in-1 Harbor Freight screwdriver that I actually use regularly? Yes, it lives in the junk drawer and everyone in the house knows if you need something quick, that it’s there. But you’ll want a decent set of screwdrivers for your set. What does that mean? Well, Doughnut Media did a very nice, measurable review of screwdrivers here (https://youtu.be/cPdzlK9fhfc) that will be helpful.
Wrenches are next. Here is a video of wrenches being tested (https://youtu.be/187rUPMegdQ) but I’ll say, I’ve had some GEARWRENCH (http://www.apextoolgroup.com/) wrenches for while and they are doing great. I own some Craftsmen as well. Wrenches are more important to buy better, those that won’t break and actually measure what they say they measure than screwdrivers. You don’t have to go crazy but there is value in better because if you have a 10mm bolt, and the wrench is even slightly too big, that’s bad as it will lead to rounding off of edges.
Hammers! No, Thor is not the god of hammers (sorry, nerdy Marvel reference (https://youtu.be/wpStWh5fmts). Hammers are important for several reasons but you should start with a basic hammer, somewhere in the 16 to 20 oz. depending on your arm strength. Any lower and you’re actually asking your hand and arm to do more work. Force equals mass times acceleration (pesky math). So if you swing a smaller weight, you have to swing harder. Heavier and your forearm will tire too quickly. For most things and most people 16 to 20 oz. is usually about right.
A voltage meter is one of the best simple tools that often get overlooked. These often seem daunting mainly because they have a dial with a bunch of odd-looking numbers and symbols but at the end of the day, most of us mainly use two or three settings and that’s it. For a quick lesson go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3elzYUfoe4. These are great for two things routinely done throughout the house. First, the old game, is that socket live? Better to have the voltage meter tell you than your fingers. Second, they are great for finding out why electrical things don’t work. When I moved into my last house, the previous owner had left a deep freezer that wasn’t working. I got the voltage meter out and then started at the plug. It had power. Then the power wires went to the thermostat. Guess what? After the thermostat, no power. So it wasn’t the coils or the compressor, it was a bad thermostat. I looked up the model, bought a new thermostat, and for $40 I had a deep freezer.
Saws….let’s go with no. Every kids’ book that shows a toolset or kid’s play set has a saw. Why? I can’t think of the last time I pulled one out. Do I own saws? Yes, lots of them. But for the basic set, you don’t really need one. If a branch falls in your yard can you use one to saw it up? If it is small enough sure, but if it is small enough where I’d be willing to hand saw it, you can just carry it.
Other things I think you should get are a set of hex keys, a utility knife, and some pliers. For hex keys, I don’t think you should start with ball ends. Ball ends are the ones that make your hex keys look like little microphones. There is a time and place for those but I wouldn’t start with them. Utility knives are great, get two, no one has ever had too many. Looking at pliers, get a good multiset from Lowe’s (https://www.lowes.com/pd/Kobalt-Kobalt-5pc-Pliers-Set/1003009770) or Home Depot (https://www.homedepot.com/p/Husky-Pliers-Set-4-Piece-90153/313849242). When you start working on things, slip jointpliers are everyone’s go to but since you’re already bought wrenches as I mentioned above, a general wrench set is fine.
So, next time we’ll talk through more on building your business, and more building in general. See you back again soon.