LESSONS IN ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Well I'm not a parent but feel like one. I started a gym in 2021 that was 1,800 SF and contained 4 panels of cheer floor. Why? Because I have an insatiable curiosity as to what could be. I like to ask a lot of questions. The problem I've found is that I also like to find answers to those questions. Pair that with the fact that I don't trust many people (because we're all ignorant and guessing at just about everything), and sprinkle in a little bit of hyperactivity: here I am two years later with a 15,000 SF training facility in Jacksonville, FL.

After all of the experiences this has put me through, the main take away is this: I had/have no idea where this was/is going. It's one big experiment where I use my past and present experiences to dictate my decisions for the future. As Marcus Aurelius puts it so eloquently, "Every man lives only this present time, which is an indivisible point, and that all the rest of his life is either past or it is uncertain." There is so much more to entrepreneurship/business than the tangible components of it. It will test your discipline, integrity, intelligence, mental and physical fortitude, and your entire life's purpose. Being an entrepreneur forces you to make decisions and take responsibility for all facets of who you are. You're like a character in a video game thats just trying to complete quests to level up. Each one leaves you with more resources at your disposal for the next. Entrepreneurship is the greatest educator to exist.

You don't know what kind of person you are without experiencing things yourself as these physical trials and tribulations teach you so much. A great tribute to this notion can be seen depicted in the film Oppenheimer. J. Robert Oppenheimer, an American theoretical physicist, was one of the greatest scientific minds to exist. There is a great line in the movie where they hear of British and Irish physicist, John Cockcroft and Ernest Walton, respectively, splitting an atom. Oppenheimer writes out the equation to show that nuclear fission (the splitting of the nucleus of an atom) is impossible. When he completes the equation he turns to his colleague and they have the following exchange:

Oppenheimer: “See! It’s not possible!”

Colleague: “There’s just one problem”

Oppenheimer: “Where?”

Colleague: “In the other room, Alvarez just recreated it”

Alvarez here referring to Luis Walter Alvarez was an American experimental physicist, inventor, and professor who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1968 for his discovery of resonance states in particle physics. The message here being: we really don't know until we experience physical trial. And entrepreneurship reminds you of this constantly. Right when you think something will or will not work based on seeing it on paper, you apply it and get the opposite result. It makes you question everything...

If you'd like to get epistemological, this experiential means of learning would be referred to as 'a posteriori' which basically means knowledge gained from experience, or 'matters of fact' as David Hume would denote. More formally, a posteriori is defined as: relating to or denoting reasoning or knowledge which proceeds from observations or experiences to the deduction of probable causes. The antithesis being 'a priori' which means without experiencing, or "relations of ideas." Formally: relating to or denoting reasoning or knowledge which proceeds from theoretical deduction rather than from observation or experience. To give you an example, you don't have to experience a triangle to know what a triangle is/that it exists, it's a shape with three sides, it cannot be any other way. I don't want to get too lost down this rabbit hole, point being: there's a limited number of ways in which one can 'know' something. Theory can only take you so far—you have to get out and experiment/experience.

But I digress, back to the business:

Starting a brand is like giving birth to something, ~metaphorically speaking~ of course. You have to care for it, nurture it, dedicate an exorbitant amount of time to it. People don't quite understand that. Starting a business is like buying a Tamagotchi, if you don't care for that shit, it dies. That's going to be my new litmus test for clients preparedness to start a business—can you keep a tamagotchi alive hahahaha I made myself laugh way too hard at that.

Anyways, once you've established the brand, it's not fixed. It's time to keep it alive. You need to fuel it with new ideas and push growth. Fonts change, logos change, the vibe/personality changes--just like a human being. With growth comes change, and that's a good thing that should be fully accepted and embraced. If not then it will slowly and painfully die. This is why branding and marketing are so important to a business, and why you have to understand branding and marketing. You have to build a business that is likable, just like a person. People have to want to be a part of it (like being a friend). They have to want to be around and associate positive things to it. This is where you have to turn into a psychologist. You have to understand people. If you don't understand people, your business will not understand people. If it doesn't understand people, you won't know what products or services they want. If you don't know what products or services they want (within reason/the scope of your industry), you won't be able to grow and scale. Customer feedback is huge here.

A big take away from this is the separate identity. When you start a small business, the small business is YOU. YOU are the business. As you move along in the journey, the business slowly takes on a persona of it's own. I will never forget the day I got a call to my cell phone and when I answered and said "Hi this is Bonde" and the person replied with "Hi I'm looking for Hybrid Cheer." Such a quick seemingly insignificant moment, but probably the most significant moment for in this entire journey. It's like sending your kid off to college. THEY ARE THEIR OWN PERSON. This individual called and didn't know who I was, but they knew Hybrid. I knew in that moment I had a brand. One that doesn't need me—a strong independent woman.

So, once you've reached this point, you have a good model. The next question is how to scale. To answer that, we'd have to define scale. I believe any change made to enhance the productivity of the business could be classified as scale. Scaling can take on many forms and should directly represent a solution to the biggest, current bottle neck of revenue production (or at least a bottle neck). In this business, scale comes in the form of more staff (coaches) and more space to have more resources (equipment). That's true of any gym business. This is where you have to start thinking about highest and best use of your dollar. I like to think of it in terms of limiting factors. I think this comes from my background in science, specifically chemical reactions and rate limiting factors. There's always some component of a chemical reaction, such as an enzyme, that leads to the limit in the rate of the reaction. The reaction can only move as fast or continue to happen for as long as that rate limiting factor will allow. This is like growth of a business. The business can only grow as fast as its rate limiting factor will allow. For example, if you're doing personal training or group fitness classes and you are the only coach and your schedule is full so you're not able to open more time slots for classes or private training and people are inquiring, then you need to consider hiring another coach. Some would say that you should increase your rate given supply, demand, scarcity, and they'd be correct. However I believe it's one or the other and not both, especially early on when you're operating on tight margins. And if you're thinking long-term, the coach is the better solution because now you're getting into passive income—every finance bros favorite concept in business.

This idea and means of operating will allow for expansion to begin happening at a faster rate. Cause two is better than one.... hopefully. Employees add some fun layers to the business, as Shrek would say: "Onions have layers. Ogres have layers... You get it? We both have layers." Businesses also have layers, and when you add employees to the mix, the layers multiply in many ways. For example, you now have to start paying employment taxes. Wage taxes, unemployment taxes (federal and state), all the fun stuff. This gets real expensive real quick. So now, you have many on-going costs: facilities (rent, insurance, utilities, general like toilet paper, etc.), business insurance, annual regulatory agency fees (county, state, federal), you have payroll + payroll tax, you have software costs, and before you know it you'll be spending $50,000 A MONTH. Yeah I don't know how I got here either... I used to think paying rent for an apartment at $1,400/month was a lot... Maybe that's why I wanted to move into a micro-camper. See I'm learning about myself by writing.

So, employees bring a lot more to the table than just extra costs. They bring emotions. I can't help but laugh again because it's actually wild the things that you'll encounter. Ask any entrepreneur who has people that work for them: "What's the hardest part about running your business" and you want to know what they'll answer? "Managing people" or "finding good talent." It's the hardest part absolutely, 100%, without a shadow of a doubt. Business is easy, people are difficult. Write that down and put it on your mirror, or refrigerator—anywhere you'll see it a lot.

There's a lot more to this one, so I'll probably make this a part 1 and part 2 writing before it turns into a full auto-biography. The stories I have are numerous. You can watch updates on the videos I post here.

Talk soon,

~ Bonde