The Company Next Door
In this show I have the opportunity to sit down with hundreds of small business owners and help tell their story. We spend less time talking about profits and revenue and more time about how the business came to be, what got them started, why do they do what they do, and what keeps them going. This show is focused on small businesses in Utah but I may one day branch out to other states.
The Company Next Door
John Walters: Mister Bermuda (Austin, TX)
•
Ete AhPing
•
Season 3
•
Episode 13
Meet John Walters, co-owner of the newly launched Mister Bermuda in Georgetown, TX, and founder of several landscaping/mowing, lawn fertilizing, tree care, pest control, and snow removal businesses in New Jersey, Utah, Texas, and Alaska.
Discussions and Insights
- Formal education is not for everyone (3:18)
- Starting businesses when you don’t know the business (4:34)
- All you need: “Third grade math and I don't know what grade work ethic.” (5:10)
- Starting businesses is a skill that can be learned through practice. (8:23)
- The challenges of life as a serial business starter. (8:40)
- “You can always take a client base and do something with it.” (10:15)
- The formula: “You show up when you say you’re gonna show up. You do what you said you were gonna do. You charge what you say you’re gonna charge.” (11:06)
- Manual labor and contemplation (22:59)
- How and why to build a network of friends in the business. (27:42)
- There’s a huge difference in clients from different areas. (33:58)
- Seeing the value where others can’t. (35:58)
- Just follow your instincts. (37:17)
- Mentoring: 14 guys in business. “You don't have to know everything to teach it. You just have to know what you know, and teach that.” (42:40), (53:13)
- Growing older while operating a small service business (47:42)
- Avoiding burnout: Spend your time where it’s most needed. (50:47)
Miscellaneous
- “Not that you're going to be the life of the party, but you go to a party and everybody's gonna have questions about the trees.” (19:13)
- How Ete got into the business: “You don’t have to pay him. Just take him and work him.” (20:48)
- “Two things overrated in this country: orthodontics and academia.” (46:11)
- Career Attention Deficit Disorder (52:17)