Today is the 3rd anniversary of Skyview CFO. It’s been a while since I last posted… I’ve been busy!

A lot has happened since I last posted, so I wanted to share my recent experiences in an effort to show those who may be feeling challenged entering the workforce or finding the ‘right’ career path, that there are plenty of different ways to get your foot in the door.

In August 2022, I moved Skyview HQ out of my apartment and into a WeWork office in midtown Manhattan. While I was unpacking, one of my neighbors walked into my office and asked what I did. I told him that I provide CFO services to small businesses, and he nodded and said, “I could probably use that soon.”

Less than a month later, he became my biggest client. After more than 20 years in construction, he recently started his own general contracting firm and needed someone to help manage the financial operations. While I had experience in other industries, I knew nothing about construction. I can’t even hang up a picture frame, if I am being honest. Nonetheless, I had to teach myself all about the unique financial processes in the field, and luckily my new client was patient and saw that I was a quick learner.

At first, like most of my clients at the time, he only needed my services for a few hours per week. But over the next year, his business kept growing . It was growing so fast, I was faced with some tough decisions. In order to provide the level of service he needed, I would have to drop some of my other clients. I had tried hiring people to manage those relationships while I grew the business, but in the end it became tough for me to train and provide the same level of service my clients expected. After negotiating, my client agreed to a new rate that would allow me to part ways amicably with those other clients, while still allowing me to maintain some of my smaller accounts who only required my services for a few hours each month.

Fast forward a few more months and I am now managing the financial operations of a multi-million dollar company, in an industry I knew nothing about two years ago. I still have helped other clients on the side, including a start up I invested in after meeting the founder while I was judging a business plan competition at my alma mater, Syracuse University.

While the journey of Skyview CFO has many miles ahead, it has taken a major pivot from since I launched in May 2021. My original intention was to provide financial services within the summer camp industry, but I found that my business model did not really work best for them. Currently, I am no longer providing services, or taking on clients in the summer camp industry. Not until I decide to buy one, that is.

The point is that there is more than one way to get a job. I’m not saying you should make a consulting firm and take the route I did, but there are more ways than just applying to job posts behind a keyboard. You need to think outside the box. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been far from perfect. I was losing money every month in my first year and made plenty of mistakes along the way. It was not easy, especially while earning my Master’s in Accounting, and dealing with my parent’s lengthy divorce at the same time, but I have finally found myself on a path I am proud of.

I see a lot of recent graduates trying to enter the workforce now, complaining that nobody is hiring, while expecting six figure salaries to work remotely in jobs they have zero experience in. No job is going to just jump out and get you. Sometimes they fall in your lap, but more often than not, you have to figure out alternate routes and prove yourself. You have to be okay not being a millionaire in your 20s. You have to be okay not making money, coming into an office, and learning. I have no idea where I’ll be in five years, if Skyview CFO will still exist, but what I will tell you is that I’m always trying to figure out how to increase my value while doing something I enjoy.

I intend to do more writing. I enjoy blogging about business topics and might consider putting out a new book in the future so stay tuned.

Lastly, I could not have done this all without my strong support system who has gotten me through the times of doubt, and to remind me that the people who are hating on my path and trying to bring me down are insignificant.

If you have any questions about my experience or want some advice, please email me at brandon@skyviewcfo.com .

-B

When Charles Duhigg published The Power of Habit in 2012, it was an instant best seller and became widely regarded in the psychology and business reading communities. As the title suggests, the book focuses on the science of habits and how we can utilize them to our advantage. I know I’m about 10 years late here, but the book still holds up today as the lessons can be applied to multiple aspects of life and business.

I often find self-help books to jump all over the place, often failing to focus on one main message. Duhigg, on the other hand, does an excellent job of creating a linear flow, as each chapter builds upon each other, allowing the reader to follow along and learn as the book progresses. Below I will outline the major points Duhigg brings up, but I do strongly recommend giving this book a full read. You can order it on Amazon with this link.

How Habits Work

The first part of the book discusses how habits are formed, and how the brain uses a system to create them, for better or worse. He describes “The habit loop”, which is essentialy a cue which triggers an action that is followed by a reward. For instance an alarm clock cues someone to wake up and go to shoer, brush their teeth, and have a coffee without butch though which they are then rewarded by feeling ready to start their day. He uses many different examples of habit loops, and how the brain can turn tasks that can be at first complex to the brain, but get turned into habits as the brain gets more accustomed to the loop.

Changing Habits

After educating the reader on how Habits work. Duhigg goes on to demonstrate how people can effectively change habits if they so desire. The main point is that habits can be changed if you keep the cue and reward the same but change the habit. For instance someone who is trying to stop smoking may be cued by seeing someone else light up a cigarette, they then light and smoke one themselves, and are rewarded from the feeling of destressing from smoking. If someone wanted to change that habit instead of smoking a cigarette they could have a few cups of coffee or a piece of nicotine gum. The cue and rewards are the same, but the action is different. Habits are tough to change at first but the more you get your brin accustomed to the new loop, the change becomes possible.

Keystone Habits

The next lawyer, Duhigg introduces is Keystone Habits. These are the important habits that when changed can have a domino effect on other habits. The example he uses is someone that starts an exercising habit can see other habits begin to form as a result. They might start to eat healthier, do drugs less, and so on. When it comes to business, identifying keystone habits within and organization that can have a major ripple effect on other habits the organization has fallen into is how successful CEOs make change.

Takeaways

This book does an excellent job of explaining how habits can be used effectively, by using tremendous examples from both life experiences and real-world business examples including a dysfunctional hospital, the King’s Cross fire of 1987, and how CEO Paul O’Neil transformed the aluminum producing conglomerate, Alcoa.

Don’t panic! While there is strong evidence that says yes, you can die early due to stress on the job, there are very different kinds of job “stress”. The point of this post is to help identify what causes you the most stress at work and understand what type of stress is the most dangerous.

Stop me if you’ve had this conversation before… you’re meeting up with your old college buddy at happy hour and they ask, “so, how’s work?” You scoff, do a little shrug, and robotically respond “It’s work.”

After a brief awkward pause you remember you should probably ask them the same thing so you return the favor, “What about you?” Your friend let’s out an identical scoff to yours and agrees with your assessment, “It’s work.”

You both then stand their awkwardly and sip your $5 beers in the sticky midtown pub.

No? Just me? Well anyways, I’m sure you’ve complained once or twice to your friends and coworkers about your job. Don’t worry, you’re not going to die because your boss wears too much perfume, or because you office is in Dumbo and you thought it was going to be a remote role, but now it’s “hybrid” and you wouldn’t have crammed into the Upper East Side if you had known that.

Most people do not like their job in this country – it’s a fact. According to a 2018 study, conducted by Morning Consult, just 33% of U.S. employees said they were “very satisfied” with their current job. I’ve had jobs I’ve hated, and I’ve had jobs I’ve hated slightly less. As a business owner I have by far the most stressful decisions to make than I did in any of prior roles. I have days where I love it, and I days where I want to throw my computer out the window. Upon reflection I realized my frustration at former jobs all came down to lack of control.

The jobs I had shortly after graduating Syracuse University with a degree in both Finance & Entrepreneurship, I sat in a cubicle and was monitored constantly for 8 hours per day. I was docked pay if I was late, and may have been scorned once or twice for taking too much time on a lunch break. However, the jobs were quite simple. Add up a few numbers in excel. Copy and paste a few paragraphs. File documents into another file. REAL GROUNBREAKING STUFF. But the job itself was not stressful. Nobody was going home hungry if I missed an email.

Today I am faced with many more difficult and stressful decisions than I was in the cubes. Like, whether or not it’s a good use of my time to keep writing this article. As a business owner, a consultant, and an employer, my decisions don’t just affect my paycheck and life, they affect my clients, my team, and if I had kids probably them too. But I am way happier than I was when I lacked control.

This isn’t a pitch to leave corporate America and start your own business. Just because you’re not a CEO or a manager doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have control over how you do your job. As long as your are completing the duties asked of you professionally, you should be treated like the adult you are. On the other hand, if you are a manager you might want to think about how much you tend to micromanage and the damage it can do to your business in the long run, because there has been statistical evidence that one’s degree of control in their job has a correlation with an increase in chances of getting a heart attack, or dying due to other early onset health conditions.

In his book Naked Statistics, Charles Wheelan cites a famous British study known as the Whitehall Studies that followed 17,530 civil servants over the course of 7.5 years. They were able to make a distinction of those with “low job control” by asking questions like “can you decide when to take a break?” or “Do you have a choice in deciding how to do your job?”. After years of research and subsequent studies, they were able to find a strong correlation between having a low degree of control in your job and dying from coronary heart disease.

While the Whitehall studies were conducted more than 50 years ago, the underlying message has been supported by subsequent studies. The bottom line is that while all types of job can be stressful in their own regard what really eats at peoples psyche is not feeling like they have any control or say in how they lived their life.

Therefore, I find it very important whether you are an entry level worker or a CEO, giving people as much flexibility as you can when it comes to getting the job done is how successful companies operate. What do you think?

A growing concern in America these days is the health of the middle class. The wealth gap has continuously been expanding for over a decade, and has been the main topic of political debates for as long as I can recall. This isn’t a post about which side of the isle is right, who should be taxed what, but rather an explanation of why basic statistics allows for people with more money to grow their wealth faster than those with less money.

A famous, yet concerning statistic is that most Americans would not be able to afford an unexpected $400 bill. That’s very concerning considering unexpected bills come up all the time. Flat tires, floods, a terrible war that causes a tremendous rise in gas prices, a global pandemic that shuts down the entire world, and whatnot. Because so many Americans are just $400 away from bankruptcy, that brings us to my first point of how probability makes the rich richer: insurance.

Insurance companies make billions of dollars by utilizing probability. To make things simple, let’s say that you own a car worth $20,000 and you pay a $400 monthly premium. In exchange for your monthly payments, the insurance company will pay to replace your $20,000.00 should it be lost, stollen, or damaged (yes, I’m ignoring plenty other contingencies for simplicity) (and deductibles). If buy this policy and your car is stolen one month later, the insurance policy was well worth it, and a loss for the insurance company. However, the insurance company has predetermined the likelihood of your car being stolen or damaged to be 4% in any given year. For the insurance company to make money on this policy they want you to make it at least 4 years without needing the $20,000 payout ($20,000/$400/12mos=4.1 years). If there is a 4% chance per year that you will need a payout, there is a 16% chance over a 4 year period; that’s pretty good odds for the insurer. Also, the further into your policy you need to make a claim, the less of a loss the insurance company bears (If you crash one month into the term, you’ve only paid them $400 and they need to cough up $20,000, if it’s one year in than you’ve paid them $4,800). Despite the odds being in insurance company’s favor, they have a risk you will crash and they will lose on your policy. The goo thing for them is that you’re not their only customer. The insurers make sure they will be profitable by providing many policies to many people with similar odds. The collection of all these premiums allows them to pay you in the event you smash that car into a tree. I’m not even going to mention the reinsurance industry. That’s right, there are insurance companies that insure insurance companies.

So why should you be paying a policy that only has a 16% chance of being “worth it?” Well, as I just mentioned, most Americans cannot afford an unexpected $400 bill. So we can safely assume wayyy more Americans cannot afford an unexpected $20,000 bill. The idea here is that you’d rather pay $400 each month to avoid a situation that would completely derail your life. You can’t afford the risk.

Let’s replay this scenario but now pretend you’re Warren Buffet (or any billionaire of your choosing). I highly doubt you’d be buying a $20,000 car, but let’s just pretend you are for some weird reason. $20,000 won’t even make a dent in your bank account, so it would actually make sense for you to forego the car insurance (ignoring the fact that it’s required by law) because there is only a 16% chance that it will be worth it, and even if you do end up having to pay $20,000 to replace the car, it will not derail your life. This principle shows that being rich literally affords you to the ability avoid a monthly payment that those with less money need to make. If both you and Warren Buffet bought the same $20,000 car, you essentially have to pay an additional $19,200 over 4 years than for the same car because you cannot afford the risk.

Risk is another way of describing probability. I know what you’re thinking, rich people aren’t getting richer because they’re avoiding insurance premiums. No, but the same principle applies to investment and generating wealth. A core investing concept is that the riskier an investment is the greater the rate of return needs to be. This is due in large part to the fact that there are such things as risk free investments. I can put a dollar into a savings account that pays 1% interest each year with zero risk. Given that fact, I would never make an investment that pays the same 1% rate but also has a 10% chance of failing, because I can make the same amount of money with no risk. Because there is such thing as risk-free rates, risk needs to be compensated when it is taken on.

Let’s say the 10% risky investment will pay off 25% if it is successful. You have a decision to make now: do you want to make a guaranteed $0.01 on your $1 investment or do you want to risk losing that $1 investment for a 90% chance to walk away with $1.25?

We can use simple math to evaluate this: since the risky investment has a 10% of failing, the law of probability tells us that if you make this investment nine times out of ten you end up with $1.25 nine times and nothing one time. Therefore the expected value of the investment is $1.125 ($1.25 x 90% + $0 x 10%). Based on this principle, it makes sense to take on the risk as you have a greater chance to make more money than the mere penny you get from taking on no risk.

But wait! Think back to the insurance dilemma.

You bought the policy, not because you think its a sound investment, but because you want to avoid the situation that will leave you homeless. You, unlike Warren Buffet, cannot afford the risk of foregoing the insurance. Circling back to the investment scenario you can obviously afford to lose $1.00, if not then you should probably stop reading this and file for unemployment. But let’s say the investment was $100,000 instead of $1.00. The same percentages still apply and it still makes sense to make the risky investment from a math standpoint. The expected value is you’ll end up with is now $112,500 compared to the risk free option where you would walk away with $101,000. There’s only a 10% chance you end up with nothing and a 90% chance you make a $25,000 profit. But if that 10% were to happen would you lose your house? Your car? Your spouse? Probably (pun intended). Would Warren Buffet? He probably wouldn’t even notice.

You decide that you can’t pass up the opportunity. Uh oh! The investment backfires! The dreaded 10% outcome happens and you lose $100,000 quicker than you can say “I should’ve just kept my money under my mattress”. Perhaps you still have some savings left, and you convinced your spouse things will be fine. Life is fine… for now.

But now a new opportunity comes your way. This one requires the same $100,000 investment and has the same 10% risk rate, but the potential earning is a whopping 50%! You can make half your loss back! There’s just one problem: you no longer have $100,000 to invest again. You need it to pay for your $20,000 car loan and the $400 insurance premiums. Not to mention your mortgage, daycare, gas, and all your other bills. Unfortunately, you have to pass up the opportunity, and wouldn’t you know it? It’s a winner. Not only did it go up 50% it went up 200%!! You would have made up your loss and then some!

Now imagine you’re Warren Buffet again, you hardly noticed the loss of the original $100,000 so invest in the winner without much thought. Your investment is now worth $300,000! You’re up $100,000 even after losing out on the first investment.

Do you see what I’m getting at?

Risk is a type of probability. The richer you are the more risk you can afford. Warren Buffet can afford to make millions of these $100,000 investments (literally) because he can afford the risk/probability of losing $100,000 a few times and still be able to continue on with his way of life. By being able to invest in many different opportunities the law of probability tells us that he will indeed continue to keep making money in the long run, as the likelihood that every investment with a 10% risk rate failing gets smaller and smaller the more there are.

Another large factor I haven’t brought up yet is that by having more money you have access to more investment opportunities than those with less money. For example many private investment opportunities are only available for very large minimal investment amounts. Warren Buffet can invest $10 Million into a company that wouldn’t even bother with you even if you were willing to invest your entire life savings, despite the percentages being the same.

There’s an old saying that goes something along the lines of “the first million is the hardest to make”. That’s true, to some degree. Of course, most people do have to work hard to generate their initial wealth, but growing that wealth once it exists is a lot easier than building it from scratch. Wealth generation is like inertia; it takes a lot more energy to get started than it does to keep going. Probability tells us that the more investment opportunities you participate it, the more money you will make in the long run. However, opportunities are costly, and you’re risk tolerance (should be) determined by the amount you can afford to lose without derailing your life. Risk tolerance cost money, and the more money you have the more risk you can afford.

Probability keeps the rich rich, and the poor poor. What do you think?

As a small business owner, rapid inflation can be detrimental, but there are some ways to combat some of its negative side effects

Buy In Bulk

In periods when inflation is rapidly rising, the main notion is that something today will be a lot more expensive tomorrow. Therefore, as a business owner, if you are sitting on some free cash, you would be better off buying more supplies or raw materials than you normally would, because they will end up costing more as you continue to wait.

Raise Your Rates

If the price of everything else is rising, your products/services should too. Of course, you want to be wary as you do. Depending on your industry or clientele you may not have the luxury to raise your prices and maintain demand.

Fill Up Your Tank

If you travel by car a lot to conduct business, you want to fill your tank up as much as possible even if it is not empty. Gas prices are continuing to soar, especially with the escalating Russia-Ukraine conflict. By buying gas before you need it you are staving off the more expensive prices that will continue to rise in the near future.

Earn Interest

While it is best not to sit on cash, as rising inflation will continue to lower its value, banks tend to pay more interest on savings accounts when rates are high. Compare your bank account’s APY with other options and make sure you are getting the highest interest reward possible on your idle cash.

Utilize Freelancers

As inflation rises, so does the cost of living. As the cost of living rises, so does the cost for labor. If you are trying to expand but find it too expensive to bring on full time employees with high salary demands too large for your budget, an alternative is utilizing freelancers and independent contractors to fill in the gaps. For example, instead of hiring a full time bookkeeper for $60,000/year you can hire a virtual CFO… like Skyview… for as low as $150/month.

That’s right! As you might be able to tell, I’m an avid writer and have enjoyed using The Skyview Scope as my creative outlet while I navigated not just the launch of my own company, but assisting over a dozen business owners as they set out to start their own companies. While, my business is less than a year old, and I am far from an “expert”, during this short time I have encountered many valuable lessons, spoke with successful entrepreneurs, and watched a lot of business movies and TV shows.

Sky’s the Limit: Navigating a Business Launch is a business help book comprised of tips, instructions, things to consider, and cautionary tales to be mindful of when launching a business. It will be available for purchase on Amazon starting March 1st.

Please fill out this form if you would like to pre-order a signed copy!

No payment necessary until the book is available for purchase.

Starting a business is like setting out for a long road trip. Before you begin, you need to pick out a car. The right car. Since you are the driver, you have to be comfortable in the vehicle you choose to operate.

Think about the last time you bought or leased a car; what did you consider? Cost? Down payment? Gas mileage? Horsepower? Aesthetic? Safety? These are all (to some degree) the same aspects to consider when deciding what kind of business you want to run.

As much as I would love to buy myself a Lamborghini, I don’t have the funds for it. Not yet at least. Go buy some brand new Skyview Merch. Anyway, just like a Lamborghini, I can’t simply sink money I don’t have into a start-up with initial expenses (the down payment) that are too high, coupled with ongoing maintenance fees that would continue to bleed me dry. Also, as someone living in Manhattan, it would not make sense for me to even own a car in the first place. There are other methods of transportation that are better suited for my lifestyle. Even if I had enough money to buy a Lamborghini, in Manhattan, it would make more sense for me to hire a luxury car service. Thankfully, I’m not faced with these dilemmas yet. I just ride the Covid-infested subway for now.

If you’re starting a business, the odds are that you already have an idea for the type of car you want to drive. But before you commit, you still want to make sure that it’s the best fit for you to maintain your lifestyle and reach your destination. If it gets poor gas mileage, if it’s unsafe, if it’s pink, you probably will want to consider other options. 

The good thing about cars is that if they breakdown, they can often be fixed. Along your journey you may need to change a tire, fix a broken muffler, change the oil, and so on. But even if you start driving and realize the car isn’t right for you, you can always turn around and restart you journey with a better suited vehicle. Of course, you’d rather make that decision 5 miles from where you departed as opposed to halfway across the country. BUT just because you start off driving with one car, doesn’t mean you have to commit to it for your entire life. In fact, one day you might even be able to buy a Lamborghini….

In the late 1800’s, a young engineer left his job at the Edison Illuminating Company to start an automobile company. After receiving praise and encouragement from Thomas Edison himself, he took his talented mind and exceptional engineering skills to begin a new chapter. However, the engineer’s company was not able to produce the sort of vehicles at the price and quality he intended, and it quickly failed. Instead of walking back to Edison with his tail between his legs, he designed a new car: A race car. It was a work of art that captured the attention of many players in the industry.

The success of the race car gave the engineer another chance at launching a new automobile company. The mission was to provide an affordable car for the average American (at the time, cars were a mere luxury for the rich). The engineer, however, had trouble shifting his focus from racing cars, where he was seeing success, to everyday cars. His financial backers grew impatient with the stagnant sales. The engineer decided to leave the company after many conflicts with the financers. That company was the Cadillac Automobile Company and was purchased by General Motors in 1909 for $4.75 million (approximately $145 million adjusted for inflation).

On his third attempt at starting a company, the engineer finally found his groove, and was able to finally focus on producing an affordable car. He and his partner leased a factory from two brothers, John and Horace Dodge. After a few rocky years, they were able to build and replicate the type of inexpensive car the engineer had envisioned. It was the first car to have its steering wheel on the left side, the entire engine and transmission enclosed, and a suspension using two springs. I don’t know much about cars, but apparently this was a big deal. It was very simple to drive and, when it debuted in 1908, it only cost American’s $825 (roughly $23,750 adjusted for inflation). About ten years later, a majority of Americans learned to drive with using this specific model, due to its affordability and simplicity. 

If you haven’t guessed by now, the name of that design is the Model T, and the engineer was Henry Ford. Despite Ford being a huge anti-Semite and documented scumbag, his persistence and development of the Model T, and eventually the assembly line, are two of the most important contributions to the industrialization of America. 

Ford had many ideas but was considered too volatile to be the president of the company that bore his own name. However, the Model T was led to his unfathomable success. Had he quit after the failure of his first few concepts and sidetracks, who knows how long it would have taken the country to develop a car ready to get America on the road. 

When starting a business, it is important to keep in mind that your initial model might not be the one that leads to your ultimate success. Customers may respond differently than you anticipate, it may be harder to pull off than you expect, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be opportunities to receive feedback, adjust your offerings, and come up with a viable solution that can get you where you want to go. 

I’ve always had the entrepreneurial spirit. At Syracuse, I sold T-Shirts that said “Beeracuse”, clever I know. I had many ideas which I never pursued that ended up becoming real companies like BuzzFeed and Fanduel. Don’t believe me, I don’t care, but it’s true. The year before I launched Skyview I had another brilliant idea, or so I thought. The premise was to essentially be able to send gifts to your friends as easy as you would send a Venmo or PayPal. Instead of sending money, you could send a gift without needing the recipient’s address, just their username. The name? Giftmo. Seriously, stop calling me clever, I’m blushing. Before I sank real money into it, I reached out to some of my old professors at Syracuse, who told me that they thought it the idea could have potential, but I better gauge the market first. I did a few surveys, which confirmed my thoughts, but after looking further into the industry I found other apps that offered a similar concept, although not the same. However, I concluded that it was too much of a risk and would require a complicated launch in order for me to be willing to leave my job and give it my all. Although Giftmo died, my desire to run my own company did not. I turned around the Giftmo car, dropped it back at the dealership, and bought the Skyviewmobile.

To be successful on the road, you want to make sure that you get in a car that is right for you. You want a vehicle that you can feel comfortable driving. However, you won’t get a true feel for it until you’re cruising down the highway. Maybe it doesn’t drive as you expected. There’s no shame in getting a new car if your first model isn’t right. I learned a lot from trying to start Giftmo which I can attribute to Skyview’s early success. Sometimes you need to change your vehicle to complete your journey. Or in Ford’s case, design one.

Before I decided to pursue my bachelor’s degree at Syracuse University, I attended a seminar for prospective students. The speaker was none other than, alumnus, Brandon Steiner.

“Consistency over time equals credibility”

Brandon Steiner (the other Brandon) is the creator and former CEO of Steiner Sports, the world’s most recognized sports memorabilia company. He launched in 1987 and has been since recognized as “one of the most innovative figures in the history of sports memorabilia”. If you own an autographed jersey or picture, it probably came from Steiner Sports.

At the seminar I got to know Brandon and he eventually invited me to come visit the Steiner Sport’s headquarters in White Plains the following week. As a young high schooler ready to embark on my collegiate career, Steiner shared with me some valuable advice on keeping my options open as I began my studies, and what to expect at Syracuse.

I kept in contact with him over the years, as I would periodically ask him for career advice. It had been close to three years since we last spoke, but he kindly accepted my invitation to hop on a call with me and discuss how he turned Steiner Sports from a concept into an enterprise.

“You never know when you’re actually ready,” said Steiner.

I asked about his decision to leave his comfortable job at Hyatt Hotels to start his own business. “I wanted to be an entrepreneur since I was ten years old, but when I graduated college, my mother wouldn’t let me go off on my own without getting experience first, and the most important thing I learned was empathy. Once you are able to put yourself in your customers shoes is when you can be ready.”

No matter what your business is, without experience you won’t succeed. You won’t understand the landscape, or even have enough confidence behind yourself to be able to sell to your clients. But, most importantly, if you can’t relate to your clients, and understand their wants and needs, you won’t be able to successfully fulfill them.

“The only thing that matters [when you start a business] is can you understand and develop what your value proposition is.” Your value proposition, explained in your company’s executive summary, is how your business will specifically aim benefit the lives of your customers. “The three most important things in business,” he went on, “are price, quality, and service. You can’t have all three, so you must decide which your primary focus is [and what your secondary focus is], all three work hand in hand, but it’s virtually impossible to achieve all three. Nobody likes to admit their [EXPLETIVE] isn’t the highest quality level, but look at Red Roof and Holiday Inn. They aren’t the highest quality – they’re service companies. You compare them to The Four Seasons, which is pricier, but you get a higher quality experience. A Honda is a price vehicle, they aren’t rolling out the red carpet for you, but you get a good price. If you get a Mercedes, they pick your car up to get service, they give you that extra level of quality and service, enabling them to command a higher price than Honda.”

When developing your brand, it’s important to decide which area you’ll focus on and make your value proposition. Will you be affordable and not focus too much on providing the highest quality product or service, or will you try to provide exceptional customer service and quality and command a higher price?

“If you go out, and try to claim that you’re all three, then you’re delusional. The only company that I’ve seen even come remotely close, and I’ve been looking at this for years and years, is Amazon. They have good prices, quality products, and the service? You can’t argue with that same day delivery,” he laughed, “but even they aren’t totally mastering all three. If you think your company can, then you’re just bull[expletive] yourself.”

I followed up by questioning what his biggest challenge coming out of the gate was, to which he simply said, “cash flow.”

“You can still make money and go out of business. [When starting], I miscalculated and completely winged it. I misunderstood [the logistics of] putting together a bunch of money. But the simple answer is, you have to figure out how to spend a little less than what you take in. Don’t get ahead of yourself. Growth is important but you can’t run out of money.” Don’t run out of money. Got it.

“Pricing was very hard initially. A lot of people have trouble drilling down on cost, and it was very problematic for me for a while. You can’t just sell stuff and hope things work out. You have to have a [complete] idea of what things cost. Obviously, not just the materials of a product, but all the selling efforts that goes into it as well. Pricing is one of the most complicated things in business,” he concluded.

I wrote an article about the difficulties of establishing credibility as a young entrepreneur, so I asked Steiner how he was able to figure his path towards credibility in his early years. “Consistency over time,” he said, “you can’t shortcut it.” While, in my article, I discuss ways that will help you gain credibility, Brandon means here that, ultimately, your credibility will be built upon putting out a consistent product or service that is in line with your value proposition over time.

Getting yourself to buy in and put the most effort behind your work is the easy part, but getting your employees to buy in is where things get a bit more challenging. “You’re better off having one great employee than three [bad] employees. You could write that [EXPLETIVE] down.” I wrote it down, Brandon!

“The things that travel fastest in business are great news and bad news. Consistency over time equals credibility. If you produce work that supersedes your customers expectations right out of the gate, that’s how you establish yourself. You develop a reputation. Every project has to be the biggest project you’ve ever had. Those customers then become word of mouth advertisers for you. Come out of the gate and nail it.”

“It wasn’t like the business went down, the business went out!“

While pricing and establishing credibility are two of the biggest problems new business face, they are inevitable. I was curious to learn what Steiner’s biggest unforeseen challenge was over the course of his time as CEO of Steiner Sports.

“200[8] because of the financial crisis. We lost all of our wholesale accounts, so we had to pivot to online. It wasn’t like the business went down, the business went out. Figuring out the digital landscape was biggest challenge I faced.” Boomers vs. the internet: a tale as old as time.

Although Brandon sold Steiner Sports in 2000 to Omnicom, he remained the CEO until 2019, until Fanatics wagered a hostile take over of the company. “Yeah, it’s not a great story and nobody really gives a [expletive].” Okay then, moving on…

Although he was sad to lose the company that still bears his name, he has been building a new company that “will be better than Steiner.”

In 2019, he founded Collectable Xchange, which in his words will be a “more modern version of EBay.” Right now it is both a store and marketplace for memorabilia of all kinds, and currently has three times more items available than Steiner ever had. Another angle he’s working on is Athlete Direct, where athlete’s can go out and sell their own memorabilia via his online platform.

Steiner and I talked for over a half hour on other aspects of business and his new venture. The rest of the interview will be included in my first business help book, Cash Wheels (working title, but I think it plays.), which I’m aiming to have published by March. In the meantime, take a look at Steiner’s new venture here.

Thanks Brandon! -Brandon

Scaling up is a natural stage in all successful business life cycles, but the timing and execution, can be the make or break difference in its longevity. Expanding is crucial, exciting, and enticing, but when does it make sense to do it? We’ve all heard the expression, “don’t bite off more than you can chew.” To avoid that, knowing when it’s time is key. Here are some indicators that it could be time to start scaling up your business: 

Demand Fulfillment is Overwhelming

Too much demand is definitely a good problem to have, but making sure your business can keep up with a severe increase is easier said than done. However, if you are going to scale because of demand growth, you want to truly make sure your eyes, or the numbers, are not deceiving you. Maybe it’s just a good month? Maybe you just got a couple of really big orders? If you choose to scale up you want to make sure the increase in demand will have reason to stay once you are ready to invest in the new overhead.

Rise in Missed Opportunities

Sometimes it makes sense to turn down opportunities. Whether it’s because they aren’t a good fit, the job is too expensive, too time consuming, or whatever the reason may be. However, when you start turning down more and more of these opportunities, because the order size is too big for your company to handle, waiting to expand leads to a significant rise in lost opportunity. As a business owner, nobody WANTS to turn down jobs because you are not ready to handle it. Don’t go doubling the size of your company because of one missed opportunity, but if it becomes a common occurrence, then it is time to get the ball rolling.

Inventory Constraints

Lack of warehousing space for inventory can be a real hurdle in sales fulfillment if you are not thinking ahead. Thanks to technology, and companies like amazon that can assist your business with transportation and fulfillment centers, planning ahead for inventory increases is crucial in making sure your business remains on the right trajectory.

Customer Demands

In order to retain customers, it may require you to think about what else you can offer them. Perhaps you can add more products or services that compliment those that you currently offer. Think of it like this: if I have a customer who really likes my hamburgers, and I don’t have any french fries to offer him, or a nice Coke to wash it down with, odds are they’ll go to a more encompassing restaurant. Having a wider array of products and services may seem overwhelming, but it may be a necessity to keep your customer base from walking across the street.