My Entrepreneurial Story – What’s Yours?

HERE’S MINE…

Everyone has a story whether you’re already a business owner/entrepreneur, you’re in the process of starting one or you have a burning desire to start your own business. Think about your story. If you’ve been around for a while you may have multiple entrepreneurial stories. If you’re just starting out your story is, as we speak, “in the making” stage.

The Beginning

Growing up with in a family where my grandfather on my dad’s side was full Chinese and my mom’s side was Hawaiian, Puerto Rican and Spanish. A diverse upbringing made way for a very interesting childhood. 

I saw my dad go through his ups and downs being a business owner. He was an example to me of never quitting and sticking with it. My dad’s still operates his business in the same town, 40 years later.

A great entrepreneurial experience that I was able to be a part of at an early age was when my dad started a charter bus company from ground up. But before I get into the story, let me start from the beginning.  My dad started as a mechanic for the city bus company at an early age. He also met my mom from this way. She was a bus driver and he was the bus mechanic. In 1974 he started a mobile auto mechanic business. He built a utility truck where he had his compressor on, his tools and everything he needed to service cars and trucks in Hawaii. He soon gathered enough clientele to start up his own shop and his business grew quickly.

My dad grew his business that still runs today by being honest and taking care of his customers. Today, it’s rare to find the two words mechanic and honest together but that’s how I remember my dad doing business all of his life. Sometimes people would take advantage of his honest and trust and many times wouldn’t get paid for the work he did but as I learned the good traits from my dad of working hard and being persistent in business I also learned what I didn’t want to do as a business owner which is be a debt collector.

What I Learned From My Dad

Going back to the great entrepreneurial experience I began to talk about above, my dad, being a master mechanic had a grand idea to start a bus company. He bought about 15 buses that were retired from the city at an auction and then restored them to almost new. He rebuilt all of the engines, had me help him sand the exterior and interiors of the buses to be repainted. He reupholstered all of the interior seats. I even got to drive a bus around the lot at the age of 14. Pretty cool stuff for a teenager. I think I may have driven it without my dad knowing. He taught me how to start the bus and let it build up air pressure. This was a great time for me and it was a family contribution so my dad had all of us helping out.

He started a charter bus service with those buses doing school charters and bus tours in Waikiki. He had a huge business going at the time. It was a really great time for our family. I guess it was a way for my dad to watch out for me when our school had a trip somewhere and my dad’s bus company was the one’s driving us. 

My Silver Platter…

One thing that I learned early on and I don’t know if it’s the Chinese culture but even though my dad did well with his businesses he didn’t give us everything on a silver platter. If I wanted something I had to work for it. In some ways, I can say that this was probably one of the best things my dad could have done for me.

Learning from this experience, it was pretty easy for me to start my own businesses. One of them was a Hawaiian catering company in Tucson, AZ which I started in 2006. I loved business, I loved food, and I loved cooking. Born and raised in Hawaii, my grandfather was a Hawaiian chef and cooked some of the most amazing Hawaiian and Chinese food. He was full Chinese born in Hawaii so he learned the cuisine in Hawaii growing up.

Getting Into The Specialty Business

Learning earlier on in life that if you’re going to start a business you always want to be in the niche business and never in a commodity business. When I say commodity I mean a business where someone can go pretty much anywhere to get what you offer. You can always buy eggs, milk, meats, etc… wherever you go, and based on the market in that area, that’s what the prices are set to. However, if you have a specialty or a niche market, where your product is a rarity or hard to find or if you’re known as the best of that specific product that you offer than that’s a niche market.

Doctors that are in a specialty field are considered to be in a niche market. If you compare a general practitioner and a specialist in the medical field, who gets paid the most? Yes, the specialist because he specializes in that one field.

Being in the ONLY Authentic Hawaiian Cuisine in Tucson, gave us the advantage over all of the tons of restaurants and caterers. We were not limited to any price bracket and we were in control of the market and what we charged. We charged anywhere from $15/person to $150/person, depending on what they ordered and whether or not it was cooked on site or at our kitchen commissary. 

Starting With Nothing

Now let me get back to my entrepreneurial story. The Hawaiian Food catering company that I started was called A Little Taste of Aloha and I can truly say that it was a ground up startup. I started my company with nothing. I mean literally nothing. We bought all of our equipment from our first catering deposit. I structured my business to where in order for us to cater someone we required a 50% deposit up front which is what I used to buy my first grill and wok.

I went to college for business but education and the actual hands on experience are two different types of education. You have to just do it first and think about the consequences after. I’m not saying to be negligent on how you start a business but do your research and eliminate as many startup failures that you can think of up front. But at the same time, don’t get so caught up with the research phase that your business never gets started. This is where a lot of beginning entrepreneurs get hung up on.

Single Parenthood

A single dad at the time, of my daughter who I raised since birth was one of the biggest motivators for me to start A Little Taste of Aloha. I wanted the freedom to be able to be there for my daughter as well as provide for the two of us. There are pros and cons to being in business for yourself but the pros far outweigh the cons.

The most common excuse that people make is, “Well, a business is not guaranteed income.” Maybe true, but a job is not a guaranteed income either. In fact, you’re at the mercy of your employer as an employee especially if you’re at a work at will state. As a business owner you’re not limited to the amount of hours you can work. And you free to make as much money as you want. You set the ceiling to how much you can make. If you’d like a raise, then you market more in your business.

One of The Greatest Entrepreneurial Catapults

In fact, starting my own business full time began as kind of a forced situation. I was freelance consulting for a local business in Tucson. She had a great product but had no marketing sense at all. At the time I saw that she had a need. She knew that somewhat of my marketing experience and agreed to hire me for room and board and a percentage of sales that I brought in for her business. She was very excited about what I was going to do.

Coming in to work one day she came in with a really discouraged attitude. A lot of things went wrong quickly and she eventually lost her business. I found out why she came in with the discouragement which also became one of her biggest downfalls but she had an unemployed loser boyfriend that was probably in his late 50’s who she was basically supporting influencing her next move and decision for her business.

To make a long story short, her boyfriend convinced her that she should close her business. He had a failed business that he lost in Colorado. I scratched my head because she chose to take the advice of her boyfriend who lost his business and then refused to do any type of marketing to get business in to her store. I knew what it took to get customers into the store and a lot of it took funds to create and send out marketing campaigns to the surrounding neighbors.

She ended up closing the business and my daughter and I were without a place to stay overnight. It was not only a bad situation for her but it went really bad for us. This was probably the best thing that happened to us at the time. You’re probably thinking to yourself, “best thing?” You’re crazy. Maybe but this actually had me pull up my bootstraps and start A Little Taste of Aloha overnight. A friend had us stay at his house for a bit and then within a week, we had our business up and running and we had our own place. And remember, the business was started from nothing.

It’s All What You Make It To Be

All of this to tell you that it’s not what you have that matters but it’s what you do with what you have that matters. Depending on what business you start or intend to start but you may need some capital to start off with. But your decision right now will determine whether or not your dream will happen tomorrow. Start today and make the decisions you to make right now to get to where you need to be tomorrow.

You may need to make a few sacrifices, not buy that new bike that you’ve been wanting for a year now, or have to get a second or third job but you doing whatever you have to do to make it happen now will be well worth it when you can buy not only 1 but 2-3 of that bike you wanted because you have well over what you need to make the purchase from the business that you were able to start.

Make the decision today for your future tomorrow.

If you have any questions or comments about this article feel free to email me at nextlevelwebdevelopers@gmail.com. If you’re ready to take the next step in starting your business and need a website for your business, let me know to and I would be happy to set you up for success with your custom developed website for your business.

Mahalo,
Ed Fong
Owner of Next Level Webdevelopers