Working Fast Has its Benefits
I’ve often wrote articles in the past, and also had discussions with fellow young entrepreneurs explaining how dangerous it can be to try to make business decisions too quickly without properly thinking it over and taking things slow.
Well maybe this just isn’t always the case. My older brother is also an entrepreneur who has owned and managed several small businesses for about five years. In fact this summer he’s actually leaving his full-time job as a Math Teacher to become a full-time entrepreneur, because business is so good.
Well anyway my older brother is very gifted; he can take a great idea and turn it into some great profit very quickly. Recently while visiting another city he noticed that at a festival, there was a huge row of about 30 “Port-a-Potties,” with absolutely no sinks or water in sight.
He thought to himself, “Yuk! That’s sick;” all these people are using the restroom, but have nowhere to wash their hands. Then that’s when the light bulb went off, and he got the idea to sell hand sanitizer along this area of portable restrooms. He soon realized that in just two weeks there was going to be the largest crowd of the year converging on this particular city’s streets, for a HUGE festival.
There would be an extra 600,000 people in town attending this event, but he only had a few weeks to get this project up off the ground and set up in time to meet the huge demand and opportunity. I mentioned that maybe he should just wait to the next year, so he could do proper research, but he didn’t agree.
So he quickly did some market research, wrote a detailed business plan, and contacted wholesalers and manufacturers/ distributors of hand sanitizer products. Then he came up with his price points, his expense reports, his break-even points, and profit margins.
Once he had his detailed report, he went to his elite group of private investors that he has consistently used over the years. He has access to about five investors, all who are very wealthy and successful, and have learned to trust in my brother’s ventures and projects.
After getting his investment capital, he struck an awesome deal with a manufacturer with a great wholesale price. Then he got all his licensing work done, received his permit to set up a vending booth at the festival, purchased his supplies, and hired individuals to help run the booth, and do foot marketing/sales.
After this, he simply tied up other loose ends and managed the whole project. Because he was able to strike an awesome deal with the manufacturer, he had a HUGE profit margin. So the project was an instant hit and he later made a great profit, even after paying his sales team, his investors and all the fees.
So judging by this example, maybe it isn’t always fitting to wait for things to work themselves out and maybe “time” is overrated. Or maybe this example is just an exception to the rule and my brother lucked out.
I’m not really sure. One thing that I do know is that you better make sure that you have a strong idea and plan in place. Also when you do get that magical idea, you must follow your gut when making decisions.
You never know what you could be embarking upon! There are no set rules in entrepreneurship and business; I think that’s what’s so cool about it! So remain true to yourself and be smart, I think you can’t go wrong with that combo.
4 Comments
David Askaripour
April 22nd, 2007 at 3:48 pm
That’s an amazing story of vision and foresight. Your brother didn’t luck out, he followed his gut instincts and it took him to success. I’ll always recommend that any entrepreneur should go with their gut, no matter if it doesn’t sound financially sound — sometimes you just have to “do” and stop “thinking.” Tell your bro I said: Rock on!!
Brian
April 22nd, 2007 at 6:14 pm
I loved this article. Really neat story about how an entrepreneur saw an opportunity in a not-so-glamorous business, and moved rapidly to capitalize.
I think it bothers me, too, to realize that I wouldn’t have taken your brother’s approach. If I did notice that there was a need for hand sanitizer, I bet I would have told myself that “someone, somewhere” could profit. But I would have passed it up in lieu of something sexier
…that may not have worked. And almost certainly not in so little time.
Great article William. I enjoyed learning your brother’s approach.
William
April 22nd, 2007 at 7:07 pm
David,
Thanks for the comments my man, yea I agree with you that my brother didn’t really luck out, but he had an excellent idea, he saw an opportunity, he had the skills and knowledge to perform a lot of research and get details very quickly, and he had the financial resources available with his team of investors–so everything was set.
He had to set a new record as far as I’m concerned for bringing a project together in such a quick amount of time.
He came up with an idea, got licensing & permit requirements done, wrote an EXCELLENT business plan with a lot of financial margins, profit points, breakeven-analysis and all the other quantitative data (My brother has a Math degree and studied Engineering in college, so I’m sure this helped), he hired a sales and marketing team, hired employees, then he struck an awesome deal with a manufacturer and then raised over $15,000 in capital in only 2 weeks!
It almost seems impossible when I recollect on it all! But like you said Dave, he stopped just thinking and he acted–plus who says you have to take “a long time” to make a good idea and plan of action work!
Brian,
I know exactly how you feel bro, I can’t even think of how many times I saw an opportunity, but reacted just like you said, saying something like, “Wow somebody could really clean up if they took advantage of that!”
But I give my bro. credit that he’s one of those entrepreneurs who will go further than just talking about an idea, he capitalizes on them and he’s been successful because of this “Get-er-Done” type of personality.
Thanks for the awesome feedback guys!
Lawrence
April 27th, 2007 at 2:16 am
testing, testing 123
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