Author Archive for Landon Schamberg

I can do this better

BusinessCardsGary Erickson was just another adrenaline junkie/hiker when one day he was an all day bike ride with one of his friends. Being on the trail in the mountains all day, he had to bring food. He had been eating some very unappetizing energy bars throughout the day and finally came to a conclusion when he put the fifth one back into his pocket. He said to his friend and himself that he could create a better energy bar. Over the next two months he experimented with recipe after recipe trying to determine which ones were good and which ones were not. Marketing his product and becoming extremely successful, he was offered 120 million dollars for the company. After much consideration, Gary saw that his company was worth more and he still loved it, so he decided not to sell. The moral of this testimony is that you will be truly happy if you get involved in the fields that you are interested in. Making a slight improvement upon an already existing product is one of the entrepreneurs strong suites, and Gary Erickson is an example of that.

Simple box

Simple box is a company of storage facilities, shipping containers and other such products. All in all, not so interesting of a company. What is interesting is the person that created I all and how he did it. Ross Black was just a senior in High School when his teacher told him that in order to graduate he would have to produce a creative project to represent what he had learned throughout his schooling. He decided that the route to take was to create a business. Recently learning about residual income and how important it is, he noticed that storage facilities are a form of residual income. He searched until he found a building that suited his needs, and then signed a long term lease on it. He even sold his car to raise up enough money to convert it into a storage facility. Raising more and more money and business brought to Ross the realization that he had created a thriving business. He did not just stay stationary at storage sites. HE EXPANDED! That is what is so special about him. Most people when they achieve success decide to stay stagnant so that they have security of where they are. Ross, taking his inspiration from Elon Musk had decided that he was always to work and never settle. Adding portable storage containers and shipping container sales, he was able to grow, now employing 17 people. He realized that having a strong administrative support in his business was quintessential. Do all the sales you want, if you are irresponsible with your money and cash flow, then you are losing money.

simple-box

Anthony Scaramucci

 

Anthony Scaramucci is not a stranger in the world of entrpreneurship. He has been a major player in Finance, entrepreneurship, and an author of books. He is the founder of Skybridge Capital investments, and the author of many books, of them a popular called “The Little Book of Hedge Funds.” Scaramucci has been in the public eye for most of his career, between his jobs, becoming an author, or his political views/political shows. He recently released an article about Entrepreneurship that is turning some heads. The name of the article is “An Honest Conversation about Entrepreneurship.” Entrepreneurship today is often discussed both in the classrooms and in the political campaigns. Political conversations talk and talk in abundance of the entrepreneur and how they shape our economy, but then why does the government try to put down the entrepreneur? Government has programs in place to “help” the entrepreneur, but do they actually help? Anthony explains that having the government backing behind the loans to the entrepreneurs might be a bad thing. Entrepreneurs will take more risks with a higher percentage of failure. This is not economically pleasing. The economy needs to rely more on entrepreneurs and less on government. Anthony Scharamucci said in this recent article that while he was building Sky Bridge capital he was “scared sh-t 90 percent of the time”. During the past ten years, the government has discouraged economic progress through various taxes and regulations that are Impossible, or near impossible to achieve. “ If we don’t become more self-advocating, it is going to get worse” says Anthony in this interview. Scharamucci then listed three distinct points about entrepreneurship that need to be identified and realized.

In point number one he made the statement that no entrepreneur is his own island. Entrepreneurs have the mindset that they are going to run their own business and do whatever they want to the business and still be able to make money. Anthony reveals that this is a very bad mindset too have. You are truly never your own boss as an entrepreneur. You have to answer to your customers and what they want. He makes the point that your company is a social organism. You have the duty to keep your employees happy. Your company is a living organism that is geared to satisfy the customer.

Point number two states that there is no financial safety net. He makes the point that entrepreneurs now just like to jump into their ideas head on without planning out all of the financials. Having a financial plan for your new business idea helps to build a solid platform for your business to stand on. Anthony states that in order to fix this problem is to fix things that seem unrelated to entrepreneurship. He has found that most of companies’ profits go towards their employees Obama-care and taxes. Fix the health care and tax codes will lighten up the pressure on the backs of businesses and lets them make more of a profit.

Point three explains that you cannot control your own destiny. The amount of outside influences that can affect you every day is astronomical and uncountable. We cannot control most things, but what we can control are the taxes and regulations that have reeled out of control. No-one predicted the financial crisis in 2008, because it is an unforeseen event. Control what you can control, and deal with the unknowns.

Anthony Scaramucci has been interviewed on what he thinks about entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship today. This article shows that he is not scared to talk about the truth of entrepreneurship. He made three distinct points in the interview to sum of some general problems with entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship in today’s society. This interview is very insightful and thought provoking.

What did I think of this article? I loved this article. Anthony is a major contributor to fox news and conservative channels. It felt good to read his points on entrepreneurship today. He was very blunt and straight to the point. The article portrayed Scaramucci as a well-respected man who is passionate about the field of entrepreneurship.2016-10-21-1477066864-8574090-scaramucci_headshot_8_23

Waste not, want not.

Chris and Mart McCurry are a true testament to the phrase, never let anything go to waste. Living in the mountains of North Carolina, they love the rustic Appalachian feel of the mountains. Furniture in their house resembled that theme, when guests came over and commented of their house décor they noticed that there was a market for this rustic décor. So they created a company called Bark House. Chris and Mart grow and harvest trees in order to sell the lumber and strip the bark off of the tree. They use a kiln to dry the bark and then sell it as wall decor. Other than wall décor, they sell natural house products as support beams, shingles and other things. They are not only selling locally, but are entering the corporate world of the U.S and Japan! It is amazing what this coupled created by asking themselves what they could do with excess waste from logging.bark-house

 

Hart Main, A millennial entrepreneur

Millennials are coming up with more and more new and inventive ideas to fill niches or fix problems, and that is no different than what Hart Main, who started his company at 13 is doing. His sister was having a candle sale, and he noticed that there were no scents that men enjoy, so jokingly he said that maybe they should make candles that have man scents. Little did he know that that idea would grow into a company. With determination and an initial investment of 300 dollars, he got off the ground and started experimenting with scents. Soon enough he created a company full of many different man scented colors like sawdust, gun powder, and fresh cut grass. It does not matter what age you are, millennials are creating more and more ways to make money for themselves!