Seasoned Entrepreneur Shares Wise Perspective on the Journey

Brilliant ideas come and go.

But the ones who can catch them, work on them and build businesses around them are rare human beings.

Big Bob didn’t like the carpet in his house when he got married to a girl he fell in love with. Just then he moved into Kansas city and bought a new house. When he wanted to get rid of the old carpet, he put a 3 line classified Ad which got an overwhelming response.

In came his brilliant idea to sell used carpets.

Bob founded 'Big Bob's used carpet stores' and quit his full time job in a few months.

Soon they started opening more stores. They licensed the idea, monetized the licensing, and franchised the idea.

They had stores from Anchorage to Boston, Winnipeg to Corpus. They've opened between 105 to 110 stores over 40 years. Their best year did about 50 million dollars.

They won awards ‘Small business of the Year’ from the greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce, ‘The Blue Chip Initiative’ from the US Chamber of Commerce, ‘Ernst and Young’ finalist for Entrepreneur of the year.


Timestamps:
6:50 Entrepreneurial journey of Bob: successes he had and the great big companies he built, the twists and turns
14:27 What are those success stories or what are the things that Bob did that helped be more successful. What are some of those hours and days and weeks and months like where it was the hardest
18:12 What is lose-lose negotiation and an example of it
20:26 What is Bob’s approach in negotiations. What did Bob do for a vendor to give him 20 to 35% discount when the norm is just 5%.
25:24 How does one think that ‘Almost everything is negotiable if asked in the right way’
26:44 Is manipulation always ugly?
32:35 Beginner Entrepreneur’s work week and life style. How did Bob keep going during those trying entrepreneur’s moments.
38:24 Perspective of Bob on 40 to 45 year olds who think they’re late and giving up on themselves and having a hard time because they think didn’t fulfill their potential.
44:38 Bob’s advice on secret to success
48:03 Chicken or Egg first: Is it get revenue first before you hire people or hire people first to get the revenue?
50:58 Why do people reject sales so much on a more macro level, why do normal humans hate doing sales
56:30 How are people buying some products without the presence of a sales person trying to influence their decisions
58:29 Advice to Entrepreneurs who do not like sales and refuse to sell
1:03:58 What is Manny's natural gift according to Bob
1:11:36 Side businesses Bob is involved in


#alwaysonthegrow #podcast