What Have I Learned About Myself As An Entrepreneur

I have learned a lot more about myself as an entrepreneur through this course.  When I started this course I had just closed the doors at Express Motors, which was a bittersweet experience.  I was running a very profitable business and because of a lease renewal increase (double what I was previously paying) and not having another property to move to I closed the doors.  On one hand it was hard to do and on the other hand I knew it was the best timing in the world because the largest and deepest recession since the Great Depression was just getting into full swing.  So needless to say, when I started this class I was in a weird place in my life because I felt like I was starting over and going back to work for someone else was very hard.  I still owned a lawn care business, but it just was not the same as the dealership and I was looking at selling the business in the spring.  Needless to say this course has sparked my entrepreneurial spirit all over again and I am working on starting another business and I am currently growing my lawn care business.  I have hired a full time employee for the lawn care and I am looking at using its strong balance sheet to finance my new venture.  The way I look at Express Motors closing is no longer a failure, but a success.  I gained a lot of knowledge and I know exactly what I will do different this time.  The greatest success of closing Express Motors is that I preserved my excellent credit and all of my capital investment.  I even managed to come out ahead after the closing of the business. I now look at my past experiences as cinder blocks in my foundation and now I am going to start the frame work to something more fulfilling and successful.

Bryan Lawlor

Personal Finance Issues

Personal finance is a huge component of whether a venture is a success or a failure.  First, most of the capital to begin the venture will have to come from the owner themselves.  If they do not have a substantial amount of cash they will have to get loans any possible way they can and a lot of times the stress of the loan repayment may be overwhelming upon start-up.  Second, if the venture fails your personal assets will be at risk. You will have to back any loans you have with your personal credit and assets.  The last and most crucial component of personal finance in a business venture comes in to play with your daily and monthly personal budget.  If you are not able to save and budget for the venture and manage your own money well on a monthly basis your business will have a hard time as well.  A lot of times when you first go into business for yourself you will have to balance your own books and pay your own bills and salary.  One of the biggest mistakes I see small business people make is that the money in their business account is also used as their personal money and if there is not any separation it becomes a recipe for disaster. 

Bryan Lawlor

Hopefully A Successfull Idea

The venture that I see being most valued at this time is the car brokerage service.  Everyone despises shopping for vehicles and is looking for "best deal."  This is a huge untapped market and a new idea.  This will save the customer time and a lot of money.  This service will pay for itself more than once because there will be a two tier approach, the vehicle and the financing.  There be a section for the best pricing on your financing so that you save as much on your interest rates as possible and it will let you know what insurance products you can expect someone to try and sell you.  This will take the time in the dealership for a customer from the usual 3 to 5 hours down to no more than an hour.  It will also take all the pressure and anxiety out of the purchase.  All you will have to do is test drive all the cars you think you will like and enjoy the experience.  That is where your job will stop and mine will begin.  You will then give me the information on the vehicle of choice and I will shop for the best deal in your area.  Coming Soon!!

Bryan Lawlor 

My Marketplace Dreams

When you look around you always think, or at least I do, how can I do that better than they do? A lot of times I come up with great ideas and then with a little research I find it is already in production.  One of the great ones I had was a bathtub.  I hate that bath water never stays hot and that is why I only take showers.  Then I thought if you could heat the bath tub using radiant heat you could keep the water warm and you won't get electrocuted.  I researched it and found that someone had just invented it and HGTV was putting the first one in a house they were remodeling.  Some of my other ideas have been a brokerage car buying service where I would negotiate the deal for you and take a percentage of the savings.  Another one would be an entrepreneurship club where people get together to share ideas and help improve on other people's ideas.  Another idea I had was a one stop shop for all of your financial services.  This one would take a lot of time, preparation, and specialty.  I feel as though in the financial service arena there are a lot of conflicts of interest.  For example, an insurance salesman or a stock broker can also be a certified financial planner.  To me these are two different concepts.  A financial planner should give you a fee-based financial plan that has your best interest at heart because the "sale" was made when you decided to initiate a financial plan.  In most cases the way it works is the insurance broker or stock broker provides the financial plan for free in return for you investing with them or purchasing a life insurance policy.  To me these should be separate and I would like to have a practice with a certified financial planner, an attorney, an accountant, an insurance agent and a stock broker.  This way it enables a person to have a one stop shop for all of your professional and financial services without the conflicts of interest.   

Bryan Lawlor

Creativity and Innovation

Contrary to popular belief, creativity and innovation are not the same thing.  Creativity is coming up with an idea that could change or improve a system.  Innovation is the ability to take the creative opportunity and turn it into a marketable idea.  As an entrepreneur you will definitely need both so that you can take your creative idea and move it one step closer to an entrepreneurial venture.  For your creative idea to become something that is marketable you will have to use the innovation process to move the idea further along.  If the venture is never marketable you are going to be stuck with a great idea that no one will want to support with their hard earned money.

Bryan Lawlor

Failure Is Always An Option, Even If You Don't Plan For It

I have experienced an entrepreneurial failure firsthand.  I owned a small used car dealership in Greensboro, NC that was growing and profitable.  In 2008 I felt the economy shifting, credit tightening and the cost of my inventory was rising due to the short supply.  At this point in the market, there were less people trading used cars in on new cars so the cost of a good used car at the auction skyrocketed.  Part of my business plan was to put together my own financing arm which I was already self funding from the profits of the dealership.  The tightening credit was causing bank financing to become more difficult.  However, creating my own financing company solve that problem and I decided I could afford to pay more for cars at that point because I would not only be making money on the sale, but also on the interest and I would not have to rely on the bank for financing.  Then the proverbial shoe dropped.  My lease was coming up and the property that I was looking at purchasing would not be ready for one more year.  My landlord had begged me to sign another lease which at this point I was willing to do. I called him and told him I was ready to sign a new lease.  The next day he told me my rent would almost double.  Given the economic situation that was occurring and the fact that there was not a piece of commercial property available in the proper location for me I had a tough decision to make.  I decided to sell my business in pieces because I did not want to accumulate any debt not knowing how bad the economy would get and how long the down turn would last.  

At the time it was heartbreaking to see everything I had worked so hard for all go away, but I knew that with my rent going up that high and the economy going down this path I would not be as profitable, if at all, over the next couple of years.  I sold most of my financed accounts and all of my inventory in September of 2008.  A month later I knew I had made a good decision because the economy and stock market crashed, but I still felt as though I was defeated.  I still have another company, which occupies my time, but the car lot and finance company were what I had banked on retiring from in twenty years. Needless to say sometimes you feel as though you make all the right decisions, but failure still creeps up on you.  Looking back the only thing I might have changed was signing a longer lease, but even that is hard to say because I knew I always wanted to own my property and have a service department in the dealership as well and I was unable to do either at that location.  Now I look at this as a good learning experience and I am going to be able to apply it to whatever I do next.  

Bryan Lawlor

Social Entrepreneurship

Social entrepreneurs start a business with the mindset of giving back to their communities.  A great example of social entrepreneurship is the recent trend with companies like Tesla. This is a company that is hoping for a profit while blazing the path in the electric car industry.  Not only are they building a car that is great for the environment, but they are accomplishing this great achievement without sacrificing performance or design.  The company began in Silicon Valley with the backing of venture capitalists and today they have two showrooms in California and are planning their expansion to the east coast. You can visit them at www.telsamotors.com.

Bryan Lawlor