I’d like to take the opportunity to reflect on surviving my first year as a new business. True, 80% of businesses survive the first year, but I’m proud that I didn’t have to dip into savings, borrow money from family, or suffer irreparable damage to my marriage. (That last item is one I’m especially proud of.) Most important, we got to partner with truly great companies and work with them to accomplish some great things.
Passing this milestone has made me contemplative. Rather than craft a bunch of high-minded platitudes, I thought I’d write a brief list of what I learned and the hypotheses confirmed in the first year of operating Redhawk.
- Confirmed: Making money is hard.
- Learned: Your first customer will always be your favorite and the most valuable.
- Confirmed: There are no more “normal hours of operation.”
- Learned: I am even more frugal than I thought.
- Confirmed: Operating in a small market is all about networking.
- Learned: Mental exhaustion is very real.
- Confirmed: A supportive family and understanding wife are the cornerstones of any success.
- Learned: Time seems to compress at rates previously believed to be physically impossible.
- Confirmed: Fortune favors the bold (ok—so one platitude).
- Learned: I became a better person after starting my own business. I’m trying harder now to be a good dad, husband and friend.
- Confirmed: If you do great work, the rest starts to take care of itself.
- Learned: What we do is important. The work we get to do improves the balance sheet AND the quality of life for clients. Hearing a near-neurotic client tell you they slept for 6 consecutive hours for the first time in 9 months is pretty throat-lump-inducing stuff.
The list could be longer and more inclusive but, at some point, it becomes completely self-serving and no one wants to read that. It would be a mistake not to acknowledge all the support and love from my friends, family, clients and colleagues. I only hope I can repay their kindness over time.