Two Years.
It has been two years since Brandswag drove a stake into the ground in Indianapolis and Oklahoma City. It is funny to look back on the process and change the business has gone through. From working out of an apartment to moving into offices, hiring employees, speaking through the mid-west, and venturing into new markets… it has been a whirlwind ride.
What have I learned?
Good question. I have been asking myself this question for the past week. What have I learned over the course of two years? Here are 5 things I have learned as a generation y business owner.
1. A Great Business Partner is Invaluable.
Brandon Coon (my business partner) has been the foundation holding this company together for the past 2 years. To be completely honest, I am surprised he hasn’t quit on me. I can tend to be a little ADD and completely crazy. If you can find a person that has opposite strength qualities… it will help when planning marketing strategy, financial forecasting, and absolutely everything else you will deal with as a company.
2. Don’t Let Your Age Keep You Down.
When we first started the company and I needed to go out on the “networking circuit” to sell product and services.. I let the issue of my age (being 23 at the time) destroy my confidence. I would tend to think that my alternative look and overloaded energy would push business owners away. After losing a couple of projects to “seasoned veterans” I realized that my age could actually be a supporting model to business owners looking for a “refreshed” look to their image.
By owning to your age… you will find that people feed off of your energy. Don’t ever let someone tell you that you are to young to complete a project. Don’t ever let someone tell you that it will be impossible for you to succeed as a business owner right out of college.
We have 5 people… We are all under 26. We look and preach what we sell.. and it works.
3. Find a Mentor. Even a Couple.
I am blessed to count a couple of people as mentors in my network. Tony Scelzo, Lorraine Ball, Ray Hilbert, Mike Lantz and my father (Dan Lacy) are people that have coached me and helped me through the past two years of running Brandswag. Without a support system of business owners and mentors who have accomplishments far outweighing your own… you will not make it in the business world.
Make it a point to create mentor type relationship with your clients.
4. Work Your Butt Off.
There is a saying out there: Work smarter not harder. Forget that crap. Work your butt off in the first couple of years as a business owner. You are going to make mistakes and that is a given. I have forgotten clients, missed deadlines, and screwed up print jobs BUT I have learned from those mistakes and changed.
You are not expected to run a business free and clean. You are a young business owner! Work harder than the person next to you. Out hustle the competition. Get out there and rule the world. It is yours for the taking!
5. Your Team is the Most Important Thing You Will Ever Have.
If you want to grow your company… If you want to expand into new markets and destroy new competition… You need a powerful team standing with you on the front lines. Notice I said, “Standing with you.” Your team members need to be powerful and better than YOU at what they do. We have a great team at Brandswag.
Amy Rowe, Austin Wechter, and Stephen Coley are the three team members that stand next to Brandon and myself at Brandswag. We could not do it without them.
Take care of your team members. Take care of the people helping to grow your company. They are the most valuable things you have behind that wonderful brand.
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It has been awesome running a company with one of my best friends. Hopefully, I will be writing another post by our 5th year milestone. Until then… rock out.
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Kyle – you have such a gift! Your maturity, talent and business sense are much older than your physical years. We've enjoyed watching you and Brandswag grow. You and your talented team will be leading the way for years to come! Congratulations!
Kyle I don't know you well, but I do know from what I have seen that you are an inspiration to those around you. Way to go! Congratulations on how far you have come and how far you have yet to go.
Congrats on 2 years, Kyle! I look forward to the day when I will have 2 years under my belt with my own business. Thanks for the advice in point 2. I struggle with my age also (although I have a few years on you). Thank you for your perspective.
Kyle,
Congrats man!
Brazen Careerist is about to hit its two-year mark as well. It's fun to look back and see how the business and the people involved in the business have mature.
The most important thing that I've learned is patience. Patience in seeing results, but more importantly, patience in other people. I have great business partners too. We don't always see eye-to-eye and occasionally we can get extremely frustrated with one another, but we always come out on top because we understand eachother's strengths and weaknesses.
In the beginning, it was really frustrating to admit that someone could be better at something than I was. But the more I embraced my partners, the more I realized that we're so lucky to have one another.
Keep up the good work.
-RP
congratulations on the 2 years!! And I really enjoyed your post- very true.
congratulations on the 2 years!! And I really enjoyed your post- very true.
Hey, Kyle, a quick point of view from a generation x business owner is that the fundamental nature of what you say is true. I think I've met you at least once and appreciate the passion you have towards business and marketing.
When I read something from you, and I only read about 10% of your tweets, I have to confess knowing you are young will enter my mind. I might think "oh he only thinks that because he doesn't have x number of years doing this kind of work."
Then I back up and say, what difference does that make? Times change and no matter our age, we have to allow our thinking to evolve. Just remember that when you are pushing 40 and there is a new crop of generation sms or whatever goofy label the media will apply to people like my little brother.
He is 14, addicted to his iphone, loves to offroad, play violin, and gets good grades.
Awesome post, Kyle! We are at the same place age-wise (age of company AND physical age). But definitely not direction-wise…man, you rock! I have had the hugest fear of getting a team together. I've been bucking it for ages. But I'm learning that if you scale back instead of forward, you lose your momentum, you lose your growth, you have to keep starting at square one over and over again. The only way to scale forward is to get a team together. Tons of admiration for you, man.
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