Before I share what I am working on now, I thought I would share all the ideas that I have tried that didn’t work, and more importantly, what I learned from them. I share these “failure” stories to give you the opportunity to learn from my mistakes and hopefully understand my background and why I may make certain choices later that you would not.
Not every one of these businesses was necessarily a complete failure. Some worked in certain ways, but ultimately weren’t businesses I wanted to continue building. They were quickly turning into a job and not a business.
Being as entrepreneurially minded as I am, I am only going to share the business ideas that I actually took action on, whether that was creating solid design plans or actually registering a business name. I also don’t exactly know how many posts this will take, as I do want to break down all that I remember and be as specific as possible.
MY FIRST BUSINESS: ROOFING
The first real business idea that I remember acting on was my roofing business. When I started my business, I had been roofing for about 5-6 years with other people and really enjoyed it. My bosses were good, and I got to work with my brothers a lot too, which wasn’t always super fun, but the vast majority of it was! I wanted to start a roofing business because it was an area that I knew well, and I was confident in my ability to do the job and to learn all the other skills I was missing.
So I had my father-in-law, who was a graphic designer, design a logo for me, which I put on my truck. I bought a used dump trailer and the other necessary tools, and also registered my business through the proper legal channels. I was off to the races.
Jobs didn’t come pouring in like I thought they would, but considering I was also working full time as a groundskeeper I was thankful for the steady flow.
What was also unexpected was my apparent inability to find good, reliable workers who would show up on time and actually put in a solid effort. I wonder if I could have spent more time, effort, or energy finding good guys but I didn’t. This led to me working by myself the majority of the time, and soon a one-day job would quickly turn into two or three days. This also meant that I wasn’t there for my family like I wanted and needed to be.
By the end of the summer I was exhausted both physically and mentally, which ultimately led me to shut the business down. But I did learn a few key lessons from that summer.
LESSON #1: Good Workers Are Hard To Find
One young guy I had hired for a couple jobs slept in one day. Since he didn’t have a driver’s license (he was old enough; he just hadn’t gotten one), I showed up to his house at the agreed upon time, yet he never came out. I shot him a few texts but got no answer. After about 5-10 minutes, I thought, forget it. When he wakes up he can walk to the job site; it’s only a few blocks away.
Later that morning, he came running up to the house, apologizing profusely that he had slept in. His phone had died, and he didn’t have a charger or something. Then later that day, he decided to jump off the low roof onto the ground instead of taking the ladder down. Needless to say, that was his last job.
This taught me just how valuable reliable, hardworking people are—and how difficult they can be to find. Everyone wants a big cheque, yet far fewer people seem willing to consistently put in the hard work required to earn one. Whether you are blue-collar or white-collar, in my opinion, it is always going to take hard work to create meaningful income.
LESSON #2: Reputation Is Everything
A person’s reputation is very important no matter the industry, but I believe it is especially important in the trades. Aside from the logo on my truck, I didn’t do any advertising, yet I still got calls from people who knew someone who knew me, or someone whose roof I had done. So anything that boosts your reputation, like taking an extra 30 minutes to do a deep clean of the yard or having a friendly conversation with a client goes a long way toward building up your reputation.
LESSON #3: Money Isn’t Everything
Money is always going to come in and go out, but time is always going to go. I was sometimes working 12-14 hour days on the roof, by myself, away from my family. Don’t get me wrong, I was making decent money as well, but at what cost? I wasn’t able to watch my kids grow, and I wasn’t there to help my wife.
I learned that my family is more important to me than all the money in the world, so whatever I endeavour to do, I have to make sure that it doesn’t get in the way of my family.
I remember watching an interview with a billionaire who was asked what it took for him to become a billionaire. I don’t remember his exact words, but his answer was essentially that he never saw his wife or kids.
My heart sank, and I thought, good for you, you may have a billion dollars in the bank, but you lost the chance to influence your kids, have a relationship with them, and to watch them grow. And I bet that if you had asked them what they wanted, money or their dad, they would have picked their dad 100% of the time.
You can’t buy a good family, so don’t treat them like a commodity.
Looking back, I don’t know that I would actually call the roofing business a complete failure. It made money, I found customers, and I proved to myself that I could start and run a real business. But it also taught me something that has influenced nearly every business idea I’ve considered since: a successful business can’t just make money. It also has to allow me to spend meaningful time with my family.