Have you ever owned another business? If so list them.

[Bexiesbruv]

Paul Brown, what a great second career. of course pressure is all within us, we deal with it or not, in our own way, and thats not a criticism, just an observation from a Guy that had the "pressure" of arranging funerals for seven years.
I love building bikes, I cannot make a frame but know enough to be able to strip and rebuild a road bike or two. I found parts and a frame online and built my wifes bike for 800 bucks, it retailed for about 3200. I found a bike builder in Alberta called Arvon Stacey and he built me a steel (is real) frame a few years ago. I took it for a spin and went up and down a pretty good hill close to us. It rides like its on rails. I love that bike, the best I ever rode. Folks snigger at it being "old school" and not carbon but I can at least be assured it won't snap when I lay it down or if it does, that I can take it to a welder to fix it. My bike is one of the last he built I think, before he officially retired. I do think someone is being trained but the knowledge he possesses cannot be transferred.
Here is the bike and Arvon on the right
Thanks for sharing
Bex

 

[Paul Brown]

Paul Brown, what a great second career. of course pressure is all within us, we deal with it or not, in our own way, and thats not a criticism, just an observation from a Guy that had the "pressure" of arranging funerals for seven years.
I love building bikes, I cannot make a frame but know enough to be able to strip and rebuild a road bike or two. I found parts and a frame online and built my wifes bike for 800 bucks, it retailed for about 3200. I found a bike builder in Alberta called Arvon Stacey and he built me a steel (is real) frame a few years ago. I took it for a spin and went up and down a pretty good hill close to us. It rides like its on rails. I love that bike, the best I ever rode. Folks snigger at it being "old school" and not carbon but I can at least be assured it won't snap when I lay it down or if it does, that I can take it to a welder to fix it. My bike is one of the last he built I think, before he officially retired. I do think someone is being trained but the knowledge he possesses cannot be transferred.
Here is the bike and Arvon on the right
Thanks for sharing
Bex

Good looking Bike! I like steel. I sold a lot of carbon fiber bikes, but designing bikes to fit people in steel is where the fun is. Depending on the rider size, weight and intended use for a frame, subtle changes in tubing diameter, wheelbase, and frame angles can make a bike adequately supple while having great road manners for climbing, descending, sprinting and bumpy roads. I have the first Serotta Sizing machine. I bought it from Ben in 1980, he brought it out to display at the Interbike Bike Show in Reno that year and I took it home after. It has adjustable seat angle, seat tube length, top tube length, head angle, stem height and reach while you're pedaling. It's been a great tool for evaluation. It's great to see bikes I built still on the road with 80K plus miles on them. One of my favorite bikes is a 1959 Urago. It has the Simplex 15D front deraileur that you reach down on the seat tube to manually shift and the original vintage parts. I rode it on the Seattle to Portland ride in 2006. At every rest stop the bikes mechanics came out to drool over it.

 

[Bexiesbruv]

I just noticed you cannot get a good look at my frame as the image size reduced on the upload for some reason. Arvon ovalised the top and down tubes. It adds rigidity to the bike (apparently) and looks pretty cool too!
OMG You must know so many of the folks in the industry that I have only read about on the forums.

 

[Paul Brown]

I just noticed you cannot get a good look at my frame as the image size reduced on the upload for some reason. Arvon ovalised the top and down tubes. It adds rigidity to the bike (apparently) and looks pretty cool too!
OMG You must know so many of the folks in the industry that I have only read about on the forums.

Chris Pauley used ovalized top and down tubes on several bikes for me. It made the frame stiffer laterally while more compliant vertically. Phil Wood sold ovalized 4130 cromo moly tubing for tandem and single use. A lot of tandems have ovalized boom tubes.

I do know a few of the industry giants, pretty well, actually. Mountain bikes started in Marin County. Gary Fisher, Doug White, Craig Mitchell and I worked in the same bike shop, Sunshine Bicycle Works in Fairfax, CA. I knew or worked on just about all the local pioneers' bikes, Wendy Craig, Jacquie Phelan, Fred Wolf , I measured Jacquie and gave Charlie Cuningham specs for the aluminum MTB he built that she won the first NORBA Nationals on.….Charlie Cunningham lived about a mile from the shop and came often. Steve Potts, Mark Slate and Cunningham started WTB. Charly Kelly started Dirt Rag magazine, was a contributor to Bicycling, and partner in 1980-81 with Gary Fisher in Marin Mountainbikes. Bikes by Joe Breeze. Scot Nicol, Myself, Charlie Cunningham, Jeff Lindsey, Jeff Richman, Ed Litton. Otis Guy, Tom Ritchey, Steve Potts, Craig Mitchell were featured The Art of the Mountainbike Show at the Braunstein-Quay Gallery in SF in Dec 1989. I'm not sure how I got asked to be in it, but building the frame for it was fun.

I sold Tom Ritchey's third frame, worked on one of the first 10 Joe Breeze frames. Joe and Otis Guy attempted a cross country tandem record in about 1977, I loaned Joe a special old Brooks Pro saddle for that attempt. Jeff Richman built some mountain bikes for me, as did Tom Ritchey, Jim Redcay, Chris Pauley, Ross Shafer, Gred Diamond and Bruce Gordon. Roland Della Santa, John Murphy of Columbine Cycle Works, Jim Merz (designer of the Specialized Road and MTB), Tim Isaac built custom frames for my shop before joining Trek in the early 1980's. I designed several of Frank Berto's bikes, who wrote about 100 articles in Bicycling magazine. Eddy Merckx used to visit my shop in Marin. I have photos somewhere of him on the Serotta Sizer. I sold him a Phil Wood spoke threader and some digital measuring gauges unavailable in Europe. Ron Cooper use to visit every year. His US distributor lived in Marin…. Ron would borrow my surface plate and gauges to check alignment on frames damaged in shipping from the UK. Lovely man that built wonderful bikes. I have four of his frames. The garage is still full of bikes…sometime soon I need to thin out the herd….

 

[Bexiesbruv]

My wifes cousin was a motor cycle racer in the 1970/80's and also dabbled in NASCAR (I think) and he only just "thinned " his herd in the last few months. All sponsor bikes, some never ridden, most just sponsor gifts.
I recognise many of the names you mention but not all by any stretch.
Send some of those bike my way by all means, I really won't complain about the space they take up. Really, I won't!
I would like another MTB. I have a Canondale SM series from the mid/late eighties, original except tubes/tires. I never really desired a suspension bike but now I wonder if my bones might appreciate it.
I guess we should go PM if we are to continue this conversation.

 

[Beeks]

Had a personal training business for a couple years during the same time I was fighting ametur boxing. Got alot of clients through friends and through FB, had 7 clients within a few months thought I was the man. When they slowly died off, had no idea how to market myself or how difficult it would be to survive off my business. Failed rather quickly.

 

[Steam_Eagle]

How many business's have you owned?
I have owned and still own a few. Just wondering if anyone else has. It can be Amway to Travel business to anything else. What was your experience with the other business? I'll start;


1) Flat broke started carpet cleaning company 1985-1992 with a Kirby shampooer and moved to Von Schraders (Dyna-Clean)
2) Bought a "mailing/shipping" store. (Wish I would have kept it now since I sell a few items)
3) I sold my carpet business in 1992. (Made a lot & took 3 years off. It was a 5 truck operation. If I hadn't sold it where would be double my size today,but would not be so diversified)
4) Started,owned and sold vacuum store chain 1988-1991 (Jumped out market because of vacuums being sold cheap in dime stores)
5) Started another carpet company late 1993-present (Drynclean)
6) Started a termite & pest control company late 1993-present (Zap Pest Control)
7) Started a water damage company (Flood-X) 2000-present
8) Started TMF with my son in 2007
9) Started a rug spa 2012-present
10) Started Clean Informer magazine with my son. 2013-present

Who knows but I hear most men don't become extremely successful until there late 40's and 50's. I'm 53 and feel more focused than ever. I am always keeping my eyes open. About 15 years ago I invested in land in Wilmington NC. (A friend of mine is a land developer there and he said buy acres because it would skyrocket in value back then) Just about every penny profit I make I try to invest in real estate. (You will find real estate to be the best investments over time)


Over the last year and half I have been reading every marketing piece I can get my hands on and meeting with entrepreneurs who have broken through the glass ceiling,including but not limited to IBM former president,Howard Partridge,Joe Polish,Score,the former owner of Pioneer Eclipse,Liberty Tax franchise owner and Fritz Thompson who owns the carpet cleaning franchise PCS.

How about you? Have you ever owned another bushiness?

Rob

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Napoleon Hill talks about success in the 40's and about Masterminds.

This year I'll own my first biz, carpet cleaning. My future plans include a separate rug spa, water damage, and then perhaps a crime scene cleanup operation. Super long term I want to look at storage units.

 

[rob allen]

Napoleon Hill talks about success in the 40's and about Masterminds.

This year I'll own my first biz, carpet cleaning. My future plans include a separate rug spa, water damage, and then perhaps a crime scene cleanup operation. Super long term I want to look at storage units.

I loved residing Napoleon Hill's books. Your on th right track Steam Eagle so I gave you an avatar to boot.

 

[Steam_Eagle]

Awesome, thank you. Next time I'm in the Hampton roads area I'll stop by and offer a hearty handshake.

 

[Tigermjosh]

New to the forum and the business! I've been an entrepreneur since I was in the second grade. I love having the ability to grow a business from a concept to a real, beating heart, business, nothing like it. Here's the business's I've owned since i graduated high school:
1.) Construction/remodel 1997-2003
2.) Mortgage Company 2001-2008
3.) Chain of DaySpas (12 locations through out the southeast) 2005-2010
4.) Insurance restoration company (2009-present)
5.) ***NEWEST*** Floor cleaning services specializing in tile and grout.(2014-?)

Thanks for the forum!!!!

 

[Johnny Bravo]

New to the forum and the business! I've been an entrepreneur since I was in the second grade. I love having the ability to grow a business from a concept to a real, beating heart, business, nothing like it. Here's the business's I've owned since i graduated high school:
1.) Construction/remodel 1997-2003
2.) Mortgage Company 2001-2008
3.) Chain of DaySpas (12 locations through out the southeast) 2005-2010
4.) Insurance restoration company (2009-present)
5.) ***NEWEST*** Floor cleaning services specializing in tile and grout.(2014-?)

Thanks for the forum!!!!

So you're averaging out to a little over 5 years per business before you move onto something else. Welcome to the forum and I wish you the best. But I can't help but wonder why you keep changing businesses so often.

 

[Richard Baldwin]

Had a groundskeeping business for a few years before taking up carpet cleaning. Quit because customers only wanted flowerbed weeding and nothing else. At 6 am... when it was snowing...

 

[Tigermjosh]

So you're averaging out to a little over 5 years per business before you move onto something else. Welcome to the forum and I wish you the best. But I can't help but wonder why you keep changing businesses so often.

I have a bit of attention deficit disorder when it comes to my business life! lol I had gotten bored in a few, sold a couple, and lost one to a horrible economy (Day Spas). The Construction entity was basically reformed into a restoration company. Never really quit just had several years where we did a fraction of the business volume. The main reason I am starting the carpet/floor cleaning business is to keep busy between restoration jobs. I purchased some water extraction equipment for restoration and found out that i had purchased a tile and grout cleaning machine in the package. Might as well make some money with it. I also live in a huge vacation city, DESTIN, FL., and there are lots of condos that need cleaning and I've already got the contacts from my restoration business.
Just getting started and i am very appreciative for this forum, learning alot!

 

[Johnny Bravo]

Thanks for the explanation Josh. Not that you needed to, but I was curious. Makes more sense when you explain it that way. Welcome.

 

[Prowler]

I just joined up today but have been reading for a while.
I have been the manager of several places, food service, retail, convenience stores.
I have been self-employed for 30yrs. Started with mowing yards, had a sandwich shop, still have rental property, In the late 80's had a carpet cleaning business then when the 90's hit business here went bad for carpet cleaners so I moved in to fixing computers as the internet helped put computers in every home. I have had a great computer business for the past 15 yrs.
When Ipads and phones came out computer repair slowed. That was the time the recession was going on also so things got rough. Still doing good but not great. Computers repairs continue to slow down, so I decided to buy a truck mount and try to build a second business. Computer business is still feeding me but need to have a back up just in case things continue slowing down. Also I can afford to buy one now but might not be able to in the future.
I wont be the one doing the cleaning. I hope to find the right person that would like carpet cleaning as a career. I will be the money backer and he will be the worker. Plan to pay a commission so the harder he works the more he makes. If I have to clean carpets I will. In the 80's when I cleaned I used portable machines. TMF is helping me get the right equipment, tools and marketing I need. I have already ordered the 'Ride Along' DVD.

 

[admin]

I just joined up today but have been reading for a while.
I have been the manager of several places, food service, retail, convenience stores.
I have been self-employed for 30yrs. Started with mowing yards, had a sandwich shop, still have rental property, In the late 80's had a carpet cleaning business then when the 90's hit business here went bad for carpet cleaners so I moved in to fixing computers as the internet helped put computers in every home. I have had a great computer business for the past 15 yrs.
When Ipads and phones came out computer repair slowed. That was the time the recession was going on also so things got rough. Still doing good but not great. Computers repairs continue to slow down, so I decided to buy a truck mount and try to build a second business. Computer business is still feeding me but need to have a back up just in case things continue slowing down. Also I can afford to buy one now but might not be able to in the future.
I wont be the one doing the cleaning. I hope to find the right person that would like carpet cleaning as a career. I will be the money backer and he will be the worker. Plan to pay a commission so the harder he works the more he makes. If I have to clean carpets I will. In the 80's when I cleaned I used portable machines. TMF is helping me get the right equipment, tools and marketing I need. I have already ordered the 'Ride Along' DVD.

Awesome! Glad TMF has been able to help, the DVD is a great tool and good to show employees for training.


Sent from my iPhone using TMF Forums

 

[1ST CHOICE CLEANING]

I just joined up today but have been reading for a while.
I have been the manager of several places, food service, retail, convenience stores.
I have been self-employed for 30yrs. Started with mowing yards, had a sandwich shop, still have rental property, In the late 80's had a carpet cleaning business then when the 90's hit business here went bad for carpet cleaners so I moved in to fixing computers as the internet helped put computers in every home. I have had a great computer business for the past 15 yrs.
When Ipads and phones came out computer repair slowed. That was the time the recession was going on also so things got rough. Still doing good but not great. Computers repairs continue to slow down, so I decided to buy a truck mount and try to build a second business. Computer business is still feeding me but need to have a back up just in case things continue slowing down. Also I can afford to buy one now but might not be able to in the future.
I wont be the one doing the cleaning. I hope to find the right person that would like carpet cleaning as a career. I will be the money backer and he will be the worker. Plan to pay a commission so the harder he works the more he makes. If I have to clean carpets I will. In the 80's when I cleaned I used portable machines. TMF is helping me get the right equipment, tools and marketing I need. I have already ordered the 'Ride Along' DVD.

Welcome to TMF!

 

[Steve Toburen]

... I wont be the one doing the cleaning. I hope to find the right person that would like carpet cleaning as a career. I will be the money backer and he will be the worker. Plan to pay a commission so the harder he works the more he makes. If I have to clean carpets I will. In the 80's when I cleaned I used portable machines. TMF is helping me get the right equipment, tools and marketing I need. I have already ordered the 'Ride Along' DVD.

Welcome, Wayland. You have come to the right place for help. (And Rob's DVD is great.)

Steve

PS Since you are going to hire an employee(s) right from the git-go you will need to approach things differently. (Everyone here will tell you finding and keeping the "right" people is by far the biggest challenge in this industry. DUH!)

HERE is a great way to find good employees. And HERE is an entire resource section on how to hire great workers.

 

[Vegeman]

I've owned a commercial cleaning company, a tanning salon, as well as a online pet supply store.

 

[bob_rugratz]

Pimp