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Leadership in Action - Growth By Acquisition - James Evans - Leadership in Action- Episode #53

Growth By Acquisition - James Evans - Leadership in Action- Episode #53

12/27/22 • 42 min

Leadership in Action

Today’s guest is a local entrepreneur who comes from a financing and consulting background. He’s a landscaping legend, and the kind of leader that rolls up his sleeves and gets it done. James Evans is the CEO of Jim’s Landscaping, and Principal at Gladstone Capital LLC. Host extraordinaire Mark Stiles interviews James to learn more about his background, hear James’s tips for entrepreneurs, and explore the challenges of running a successful landscaping company.

Takeaways:

  • You don’t need to quit your day job to start a business. Having a steady source of income removes risk, and can make financing your business easier.
  • When you take on a side project while still holding a job, it is important to be transparent with your employer. Establish boundaries, and communicate clearly what your plans are.
  • As an entrepreneur, you need to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. Things go wrong, and it’s important to be able to adapt.
  • Landscaping companies offer a unique opportunity for acquisition. Many owners are looking to retire, but there are not many people looking to take up the mantle. These situations offer an easy way to acquire a business that is already running smoothly.
  • The ability to prioritize is important when you run your own business. You will be tasked with overseeing all aspects of the company but you will only have so much time to devote.
  • When starting a new landscaping company, growth can be slow and costly. Each employee will require tools and transportation, which can add up quickly.
  • When James acquired his landscaping company, he put a high focus on elevating customer service. He makes sure that a human always picks up the phone, that emails are responded to quickly, and has updated payment processes allowing customers to pay with credit cards.

Links:

Quote of the Show

  • “What's dangerous is never taking a shot at something.” - James Evans

Book Recommendation:

  • Jim Koch - Quench Your Own Thirst

Ways to Tune In:

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Today’s guest is a local entrepreneur who comes from a financing and consulting background. He’s a landscaping legend, and the kind of leader that rolls up his sleeves and gets it done. James Evans is the CEO of Jim’s Landscaping, and Principal at Gladstone Capital LLC. Host extraordinaire Mark Stiles interviews James to learn more about his background, hear James’s tips for entrepreneurs, and explore the challenges of running a successful landscaping company.

Takeaways:

  • You don’t need to quit your day job to start a business. Having a steady source of income removes risk, and can make financing your business easier.
  • When you take on a side project while still holding a job, it is important to be transparent with your employer. Establish boundaries, and communicate clearly what your plans are.
  • As an entrepreneur, you need to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. Things go wrong, and it’s important to be able to adapt.
  • Landscaping companies offer a unique opportunity for acquisition. Many owners are looking to retire, but there are not many people looking to take up the mantle. These situations offer an easy way to acquire a business that is already running smoothly.
  • The ability to prioritize is important when you run your own business. You will be tasked with overseeing all aspects of the company but you will only have so much time to devote.
  • When starting a new landscaping company, growth can be slow and costly. Each employee will require tools and transportation, which can add up quickly.
  • When James acquired his landscaping company, he put a high focus on elevating customer service. He makes sure that a human always picks up the phone, that emails are responded to quickly, and has updated payment processes allowing customers to pay with credit cards.

Links:

Quote of the Show

  • “What's dangerous is never taking a shot at something.” - James Evans

Book Recommendation:

  • Jim Koch - Quench Your Own Thirst

Ways to Tune In:

Previous Episode

undefined - Entrepreneurial Elegance - Pedro Nuñez - Leadership in Action - Episode #52

Entrepreneurial Elegance - Pedro Nuñez - Leadership in Action - Episode #52

He’s an entrepreneur and business owner who uses his experiences to drive solutions for his customers. His company was featured in Inc. Magazine’s Inc 5000 for 2020 and 2021, and was named a member of the MSP 501 in 2020, 2021, and 2022. Pedro Nuñez is President & CEO at IT Management Solutions, and this week’s guest. Join host Mark Stiles on this episode of Leadership In Action as he interviews Pedro to learn about his background, the IT landscape, and the importance of visualizing your goals.

Takeaways:

  • Anyone can be an entrepreneur, but not everyone can be a leader. Anyone can open a business, but it requires a specific set of skills to convince people to follow your directions.
  • Everyone needs an end goal. If you don’t know what you are working towards, getting there is going to be a lot more difficult.
  • As a leader, your tone sets the ceiling for the rest of the organization. If you set your own goals low, you limit the capacity of your employees.
  • While tracking all the small details can be time consuming, it allows you to provide highly detailed and accurate offerings to customers.
  • The biggest threat to small businesses right now is cyber security.
  • While recessions are worrying, the best plan a business can have is to set clear goals and push towards them.
  • While many IT companies are solely focused on what they can fix for clients, the most successful ones are those that want to help clients increase revenue, mitigate risk, and help their clients achieve their goals.

Links:

Quote of the Show

  • “You don’t need to be talented, you need to be consistent and disciplined.” - Pedro Nuñez

Ways to Tune In:

Next Episode

undefined - Beyond The Views - Sam Ryan - Leadership in Action- Episode #54

Beyond The Views - Sam Ryan - Leadership in Action- Episode #54

It’s no secret that there are many influencers who promote entrepreneurship on social media, but are they promoting an accurate picture? Today’s guest would disagree. He’s an entrepreneur with a strong technical background in web development who founded a brand to help make building a creative team easier. Welcome to the show CEO of Flocksy, Sam Ryan. In this episode, Sam clears up misconceptions about entrepreneurship, shares his background, and tells us where he likes to travel when he isn’t busy running a business.

Takeaways:

  • Many people have the misconception that being an entrepreneur is inherently fun and glorious work that will have you driving ferraris and sitting on the beach. In reality, it takes time and effort, and is often slower paced than most expect.
  • Influencers on TikTok or Instagram tend to advertise strategies that are about making money quickly, rather than ones that establish strong business foundations.
  • Flocksy was created to consolidate outsourced creative work. Instead of needing to utilize different sourcing sites and having difficulty finding creatives, Flocksy provides a one stop shop for finding vetted quality creatives.
  • When you’re an entrepreneur, outsiders won’t fully understand the nuances of running your own business. Having a network of entrepreneurs to rely on for guidance and feedback is a valuable tool for those who are new to the space.
  • When you first start being an entrepreneur, growth is much slower than expected. You may be balancing a day job, which would require you to work on your business in your free time.
  • While getting a business from 0 to a million is difficult, scaling it presents an even larger challenge. Figuring out how to be a leader, hiring team members, and establishing the necessary functions of a company all present unique challenges.

Links:

Quote of the Show

  • “I want to create things that help other people.” - Sam Ryan

Ways to Tune In:

Transcript:

Mark Stiles: Hey folks. Today's guest is a traveler. He's an investor, a developer, and a blockchain enthusiast. He's an entrepreneur with a strong technical background in web.

He founded a brand to help make building a creative team easier, He's the c e O at Foxy. Please welcome Sam Ryan. Sam, welcome to the show,

Sam Ryan: man. Thank you, mark for having me. I am excited.

Mark Stiles: Cool. Well, let's get right into it. What is a common misconception about leadership running a business and or being an entrepreneur?

That was a

Sam Ryan: great question. So I would have to say, um, I think that a lot of people think that it's a really fun and glorious job. Something that you get a lot of attention. Um, they know it's hard work, but you see people driving around in Lamborghini, so Porsche and they have big houses. And especially with like the whole crypto, uh, faith that happened.

A lot of those people fell into the entrepreneur area. Um, you can think FTX stuff like that, just money going all over the place and people are like, oh, these pe...

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