No, Amazon and the other tech giants have not wiped out family-run businesses. In fact, one third of Sheldon Harris' coaching clients are family-run businesses that feature multiple family members in various roles. And in Sheldon’s experience, that arrangement can be just as complicated as it sounds. “It's hard to find a business that doesn't have challenges,” he says, “and it's hard to find a family that doesn't have challenges. So those things are just amplified in the case where you've got both of those dynamics going on.”
On today’s show, Sheldon Harris discusses how family-run businesses can learn to keep their family issues from running the business into the ground.
Entrepreneurial inspiration can strike at any time. In Brian Scudamore’s case, he was sitting in a McDonald’s drive-through, trying to figure out how to pay for college, when he noticed a beat-up old pickup truck with plywood sides built up around the bed.
“I looked at the truck and I went, ‘Aha, that's my ticket,’” Brian remembers. “I took a $1,000 investment, $700 into a truck, the rest into flyers and business cards. Within a couple of weeks, I had a business that actually paid for itself. It was ironic because what funded my college education also inspired me to drop out.”
On today’s show, Brian Scudamore discusses the 3 key mindsets he used to grow 1-800-GOT-JUNK into the core business of an organization that now generates more than $300 million in annual revenue. We also discuss a really tough and really courageous staffing decision Brian made early on that allowed him to regroup, reorganize, and refocus on making BIG happen.