Lessons From Entrepreneurship Part 1

Anuj is a Transformation Coach, Medium, and former Business Owner. In this first part, he shares key lessons in entrepreneurship: managing people, training, cash flow, assets, and the importance of planning a clear exit strategy from the start.

Transcript

Hi there,

I'm Anuj Koteja,

Transformation Coach at Medium,

And thank you for joining me in this talk today on lessons I learned from running a business.

It's my own business.

I had a business for five years.

Through COVID,

I had a franchise business that I ran that was a seven-day-a-week business with approximately 10 employees that were always on staff.

And so,

This was an amazing experience,

Definitely the most hard-working I have ever been,

And for reasons that are out of my control.

And it was a great experience because it pushed my limits as an employee,

As now I respect employers.

I mean,

Come on,

I always did.

I went in wanting to be an employer,

So there was a respect to be had as an employer,

But to really respect employers now even more,

Especially restaurant owners,

It's not easy.

And so,

A lot of lessons,

A lot of moving parts,

A lot of people.

And so,

Let's get into it.

This was an incredible experience.

I did a lot of managing,

I did a lot of hiring.

It was a constant need to have hiring going on.

So,

As a solo entrepreneur for a business that rakes a million dollars in revenue,

You're going to have employees and you're going to be doing this all on your own.

So,

Everything that happens in 15 hours or more,

My business went on until 3,

4 in the morning.

I was late buying a quick serve restaurant.

And so,

This was an intense experience requiring a lot of moving pieces and parts and you're learning as you're going because if you're like me,

A first-time business owner,

There's a lot that I think I was prepared for with my BBA,

Business Administration Bachelors from Montefiore University.

I was shunned there to my bachelor's university.

And so,

This is actually the CEO that started the franchise restaurant that I started was actually also from the same university.

So,

This is all about people.

It's really all about people because the needs of that business time-wise and effort-wise were beyond what I could do.

And the role that I was in as the franchisee,

Operator,

Manager,

Trainer,

Every role ahead of that,

It really requires that you have time to be able to do the administrative tasks.

And so,

Really,

Training became a big,

Big first thing.

And it took a little while as well because with turnover and all these moving parts and pieces and long hours,

I would say the dust settled about two,

Three months in of opening.

And really,

What it came down to was finding a way to have training happen faster because employees come and go in fast food restaurants.

Unless it's generally staffed very close proximity to friends and family,

There tends to be a lot of turnover.

And particularly because this was a late-night business,

There was a lot of turnover because it's hard finding people that want to work Wednesdays,

Thursdays,

Fridays,

Saturdays till 2,

3 a.

M.

So those tend to be the very younger people in high school or university.

And so,

That's also okay.

And we really just had to do a lot of training.

And the best part was finding people that were good at taking the responsibility to train other people.

And that's what really made a difference when I got into the mode of hiring someone who was very aware of doing a good job,

But also capable and prepared to train new employees.

And so,

This was a really positive experience for me.

Another lesson I learned was,

Of course,

Customers,

Having the repeat customers was a huge aspect of it.

I would say about 20% of my business at the very least was repeat customers in the area.

And so,

It was a blessing to see the same happy customers come in and knowing that they didn't have to say a word.

I always knew what they wanted.

And so,

That was kind of fun.

And that was the best part.

It came back to people that,

As an owner,

My favorite part was actually interacting with the customers because it was a lot of solo hours in solo shifts for me and my employees with so many hours out there and some solo hours in business.

And so,

Really,

I want to now point out what came next,

What's planning.

Some hours do become slow.

And so,

How do you figure out the exact hours that business is going to be busy unless you have some sort of insight through some other business's numbers?

If you can,

Do that.

Get some insight.

If you're a franchisor,

Do that.

Get some insight from the franchisor and other franchisees if they are willing to show you the breakdown in hours so that you can plan.

It's always good to do that so that you can plan.

When it is to be having staff come in for a three-hour shift,

Four-hour shift,

Yeah,

I had anywhere between one to three people on the busiest,

Busiest of days,

Which was like New Year's or the Rapids Championship,

Which was insane in Mississauga,

Was just like a need for eight staff,

Comparative to like two or three normally.

And that's just,

I've never seen so many people in the streets.

Really positive moments,

Some really good moments with my staff as well.

So,

I think that's one of the things I can look forward to is that growth will happen if you're a business owner.

Growth will happen,

Personal growth will happen.

I think you might learn that a business will actually make you grow more than anything else has in your life,

Maybe aside from God and a relationship.

But truly,

It does ask a lot of you,

So getting help as much as possible.

If you're starting a business,

You really want to have as much family support as possible.

And what I mean is having the support of,

If you can have any aspect of your life taken care of as a business owner that needs to maybe not be seen for what seems like a week at a time,

Yeah,

You might want help with things like laundry and food and these other things,

Right?

And it just goes to show how many hours you really spend as a brand new business owner,

Especially if you're asked to be someone operating and filling in hours of an employee as well.

So that goes to my next point,

And this is a really,

Really good point.

And my final point is that you really have to learn to be an employee and do everything within this business.

So if there's any role that you have in your business,

You probably,

As the business owner,

Aren't doing every role or specialize in every role as some of your employees.

But that's kind of what you need to get down to is being able to do the job of every one of your employees better than them or just as good as them.

And then that makes a difference when you're working in front of your employees,

Working with them.

And so,

And it makes a difference truly in truth too.

So it's going to help because any aspect of your uncertainty,

Any aspect of your guessing when margins are low,

As in the restaurant business,

It really turns a tide of negative cash flow.

And it adds up when you're balancing a lot of inventory,

A lot of stuff,

A lot of moving pieces,

Maybe weather-wise,

Parking-wise,

Or maybe construction's happening nearby and that's altered your business.

So these are things that are really difficult.

So planning and then unplanning.

How can you plan for certain things if there was a big decision to do construction?

I had that a few times for a blind business.

There was a lot of construction nearby,

Which was positive,

But also caused issues with delivery and drivers being able to get to the restaurant on time and to the people who requested the food.

So,

Hey,

There's a lot of things that you can prepare for.

There's a lot you're not going to prepare for.

Be prepared to work harder than ever.

Have fun along the way.

Trust your people.

Focus on the people and focus on the product and quality at all times.

And stay positive.

And really,

It can be one of the hardest things ever.

Very high likely of uncertainty and God bless us if you can succeed.

As a business owner,

That's really truly what every business owner should get for how hard they work.

I pray that happens to you if you're listening to this.

And just know that honestly,

It is so difficult,

No matter the planning.

Just really keep positive and keep people around you that will support you because that makes all the difference for your happiness and sanity.

And truly,

I mean that in a very positive way because,

Yeah,

Handling COVID as a business owner,

When you saw business go down to like minus 75% in the first couple of weeks,

A lot of panic was going around.

And that kind of thing is scary,

You know,

And business didn't really come back for two years around 50%.

So that type of thing,

You know,

Thankfully,

The Canadian government helped business owners.

So that was really nice.

I really do think that being a business owner is gratifying.

It's positive.

Get your financials right,

Get your forecasts right,

And the forecasts are never actually accurate and likely going to disappoint you in reality.

So you should just be aware of all those things,

You know,

Human nature of like projection and expectations being higher than what reality has to be and unforeseen costs.

So really,

Did I make running a business sound good?

I don't think so.

I did sell that business and it is no longer there.

So I just want to say that I'm coming from a place of my experience,

Very important.

You can reach out to me if you have any questions.

I'm always open to help and answer any questions that any of you may have,

Because if you can learn from something that I wish I knew beforehand,

I want everyone to have a good life and everyone to be positive and never having any sort of financial strain or precarious situation.

Because that's what happens when you run a business.

There is no absolute certainty that what you do will succeed.

And it's just better to have someone be cautious about it with you,

Because I think if you were to ever look at how many total companies were ever created and how many actually succeeded,

You would see like maybe 95% completely black and 5% around and survived,

Right?

So let's be honest about how difficult this thing is,

How long,

What's your exit plan?

Because there should be an exit plan and really keeping realistic about your exit plan.

And that's something as well,

You know,

Luckily I was able to sell my business to someone else.

And so,

Hey,

I really wish you all the best of luck,

Do your research,

Plan for the worst and try your best and know that every single person,

I can think of the world's richest CEOs.

These are individuals who have a lot of shame and money,

But if you were to live their lives for a couple of weeks,

A month,

A few months,

You'd say,

You know,

I don't think I want to work that way.

I don't think I want to live that way.

I don't think I want to work 90 hours a week because that's what they do.

And so that's how they separate themselves and it's a reflection on their lives.

I mean,

Good for them for everything that they do.

I'm not saying that's not a good thing.

I'm sure they're very unhappy.

It just goes to show that many of us that don't have that is also probably for good reason because,

Hey,

You might not actually want that.

So be happy with what you have.

Be careful with running a business and always reach out to me to ask any kind of questions and we'll share a little positive time together.

Thank you so much.

I love you all.

Anuj Patel,

Transformation Coaching Museum,

Saying thank you.