Running Head: Personal Entrepreneurial Strategy

Personal Entrepreneurial Strategy

Oliver Keller
ENTR 342
Morrisville State College

Personal Entrepreneurial Strategy

What Drives Me
For me personally there are a set list of things that energize me, some
of which are the actions themselves, and others which only involve certain
aspects of those actions. Ive played the piano for 20 years, and while just
simply playing seems to relax me and give me satisfaction, I would say that I
truly get energized when I master a new song, or even a difficult part of a
song. It should be fairly obvious that the real reason for this is a sense of
personal achievement. Setting goals for myself and achieving, and
sometimes surpassing, my expectations is what drives me. I realized at
some point that there will always be someone better, faster, stronger or
smarter. Its counterproductive to compare your current abilities to others. If
I were to do that it would be far too discouraging and I would never put in the
work and improve. Instead, its more productive to understand yourself and
your capabilities and then set goals for your own improvement. Some other
areas that capitalize on this same sense of personal achievement are
cooking, playing strategic games, and hiking.
On the other end of the spectrum, there are also things that leave me
feeling dead. There are two main activities that stick out in my mind that are
incredibly taxing, the first being social interaction, and the second being
thrust into a position of responsibility for which I havent been properly
trained. Being an introvert, being social is not second nature to me. Small

Personal Entrepreneurial Strategy

talk bores me extremely quickly and seems pointless, and as a result Im not
very good at it. So, when Im in social situations where everyone is engaged
in small talk is very taxing on me psychologically and even physically, in the
sense that afterwards I feel very tired and fatigued. The other major drain,
stated before, is being placed in a position of responsibility without being
properly trained. At first glance you would consider this a major setback for
a future business owner, however the key is in the wording: properly trained.
I have no issues with assuming responsibility, but when Im not prepared
there is a constant sense of panic and generally when things go wrong,
people come looking, which ties back to the first drain on energy.

Ideal Conditions
There are a range of issues related to the lifestyle and characteristics
of the business that appear ideal, and those are unique to each entrepreneur.
As the saying goes, One mans trash is another mans treasure. Following
are many common characteristics that an entrepreneur must consider, and
the importance I feel each of them holds.
First and foremost is the standard of living, or the lifestyle, I would
expect to maintain owning a small business. For me, Im willing to make
moderate financial sacrifices in order to grow the business and reap greater
rewards in the future. My plan is to ultimately harvest my business since I
dont believe in forcing my legacy on my children. Therefore, the more I can
grow my business, the greater the reward will be later on. As long as my

Personal Entrepreneurial Strategy

family and my needs are met and were allowed some level of freedom to
live a fulfilling life, Ill be happy. On that note, I take careful measures
through budgeting and accounting to ensure that Im not taking more than
my fair share and that Im leaving enough for the business. For the duration
of my operation, I dont expect to exceed $1 million in revenues, and plan on
having a relatively small crew of employees. With that in mind, I wouldnt
actively seek growth of more than 10-15% annually, but if opportunities were
to present themselves I would have no qualms in taking advantage of them.
I realize the massive time contribution necessary in operating a business, but
after the first 12-18 months I would seek means to reduce my workload down
to 50-60 hours per week or less so I could balance my personal life. I would
also seek to stay in the immediate area, possibly traveling up to two hundred
miles if its necessary. My theory is that if my business gets to the point
where its expanding any further, I should hire on additional, more qualified
personnel.
Although the location will be dependent on demand, I am fairly
committed to starting in Raleigh, NC. Beyond that I am open to venturing
out to surrounding urban centers in the area. My commute however, initially,
would ideally be less than 30 minutes and definitely less than an hour. With
my venture requiring a niche market, the community and its nature are very
important. My style of business relies on college to late 20s age people,
ranging from business professionals looking for a place to work, students

Personal Entrepreneurial Strategy

looking for a place to study, to people who are just looking for some good
music and enjoy the ambiance.
What I would seek to gain or benefit from my experience would be
mostly personal growth, the opportunity to use the skills and education Ive
acquired, and an expansion of experience and knowledge. I couldnt care
less about status and prestige, since my greatest motivator is internal. From
my personal experience, those who seek a title or respect from others often
fall short and achieve the opposite. Those who have a genuine interest in
their doings, and are guided by ethics and character, are the ones who will,
as a consequence, truly receive respect and prestige from those around
them.
Sustainability will also be a major issue, not just for me by choice, but
demanded of the business by its patrons. Ultimately I want the business to
be self-sufficient in my absence. Another aspect is responsible, fair-traded
organic beans. The more research I do, the more I realize the impact we all
have, and I will have as a business owner, on the lives of those that work in
the fields and supply us with our raw materials. By paying a little extra, we
can ensure that poor farmers are paid well and their communities are taken
care of. A majority of my customers will realize this already and actually
seek these certifications out to ensure theyre supporting a responsible,
sustainable organization.

Personal Entrepreneurial Strategy

The final major obstacle to consider is how to fund the venture initially.
Although some capital will come out of my pocket, the requirements will be
too large for me to carry as an individual. I will rely on small loans from
family members, and the remainder will need to come from financial
institutions. I have the unique advantage of a VA guaranteed backing of
business loans, which I intend to utilize. Of course, I will first seek out any
angel investors I can find, but the end game will be to get a VA backed loan.

Personal Lessons
Analyzing our past and previous trends is important to realizing our
motivations and using that information to maximize our efficiency as leaders.
Over time Ive held a smorgasbord of jobs in order to become
financially solvent and sustainable. Through different parts of my life
though, I maintained these jobs to fund different endeavors. I started
working when I was 14 as a dish washer at a small restaurant. I just wanted
some money to buy some new clothes, go out to eat every now and then,
and had the general assumption that having money was good so, even
though I didnt really know what I wanted to do with the money yet, I started
saving. Fast forward three years and now I was a manager at 17 at the same
restaurant. At this point I knew what things I wanted to use my money for.
To the disbelief of my peers, I was able to buy a laptop, a car for myself and
fund my trip to Germany that year, and still have money left over. My

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diligent saving and strict budgeting had created a great personal benefit to
me and reinforced their importance. One summer, in addition to working at
the restaurant I worked in the corn fields as a detasseler. The money was
phenomenal but the hours and labor were brutal.
Then, in 2008 after I earned my AS in Recording Arts in Orlando, I
moved to Chicago for work. Times were really tough so I was forced to work
for a while at a Dennys where I made next to nothing as a server.
Management was so poor there, morale was very low all around. I had
applied as a cook, having 4 years experience, but was placed as a server.
One month in I discovered that they really needed a cook. Management was
terrible at communicating and was incredibly lazy. It was there at Dennys
that I learned the power of management. Through their lack of leadership
and organization, they had systematically created a terrible, hostile work
environment with high turnover. To this day I will not step foot in a Dennys.
As a consequence of this loathing and poor prospects for work using my
degree, I enlisted in the Marines for four years. I used this work in the short
term to pay off my mountain of student debt, the mid-term to build my
savings up again, and the long term to decide which direction I wanted to
take my life after my four years was up. When that time came, I was so
happy to be free again to do what I wanted. I enjoyed my time and made
the best of it, and I still talk to many of the friends I made while I was
enlisted, but it was time to try things a second time. I moved from Nebraska
to New York to be with my girlfriend and go back to college. I got a job for

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the opening of the Cheesecake Factory in Syracuse which I was ecstatic

about. I was hired on the spot, it paid well, and opened up another avenue
for networking. The only downside was that it required 60+ hours a week
and I was going to school as well so sleep was non-existent. In fact, there
were many times I would get off work at 7 am, go home to shower and then
go to school. The thing that kept me going was that internal drive to
succeed. I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it and that I still had a
strong work ethic and could excel under stressful and difficult circumstances.
I did just that, becoming a shift lead essentially running the prep room at
work, and making the deans list at school. (After the first semester I
admitted that this operating tempo was unsustainable and ended up quitting
work. My point had been proven though.) All these activities had served the
purpose of sustaining me financially.
There are other things Ive done though that are self-serving in nature,
ones that I did or continue to do for my own well-being.
The first of these, as was mentioned before, is playing the piano. I
started taking lessons at age 6 because my family had recently acquired an
old piano, and I had just seen The Lion King and was having moderate
success plucking out some melodies from some of the songs. I took lessons
until I was 14, which were largely only because my parents were putting up
the money for lessons with the expectation that I would learn a skill. At that
point, my teacher got pregnant and said that she would no longer teach me.

Personal Entrepreneurial Strategy

This presented me with a choice: I could either give up on something that I

had worked hard at for the better part of my life because of a bump in the
road, or I could continue to learn on my own and improve through selfmotivation. I chose the latter because it gave me a sense of
accomplishment and pride in who I was.
The second major thing I did to better myself was to go to college for
my associates degree. I moved out of the house for the first time after I
graduated high school and went to Florida for a degree in Recording Arts,
figuring that Id capitalize on the musical passion Id developed. It was a
difficult undertaking, which is both common and unique to each individual
who experiences it. I remember when my parents said goodbye and got on
the plane, and I was, for the first time in my life up to that point, left alone to
make decisions for myself. College helped me develop personally,
academically, and begin to define where I wanted to go and achieve in life.
Although after graduating the degree would prove a dead end professionally,
I still use the skills I learned in my personal life when I produce music, and I
still network with my classmates who are now scattered across the US and
serve in a wide variety of occupations.
The last activity worth noting is exercise. In general, exercise is good
for your health and self-esteem. I first took a serious interest in fitness when
I was in college as I slowly began to realize what was important to me. It
wasnt until two years later that fitness was not only encouraged, but

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required when I joined the Marine Corps. Through a steady increase in

difficulty and lots of personal effort, I reached a point where what used to be
considered strenuous was now just getting started. Halfway through my
enlistment I experienced a fundamental shift in thinking; from I have to to
I want to. Specifically running gives me a sense of accomplishment, and a
high that lasts all day and motivates me to excel in the task at hand.

Values and Principle

Through all that which has been discussed, a set of values and
principles were formed which are the foundation for my understanding of
what it means to be a leader, and a good person in general.
I learned that I value creative control and freedom to execute tasks
how and when I see fit. Being a creative individual, its natural to expect me
to value creative control. While I understand the importance of being a
follower and adhering to a set of standards, I also understand that no one
made it big by sticking to the status quo and playing it safe. There is a
certain balance that must be established in order to bring out the best of two
worlds. I also value being in control of my life and livelihood. After
graduating and experiencing such hardship, I realized that it was largely
because my fate was resting in the hands of others and was subject to their
whims. I would much rather prefer to be wholly responsible for my success

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or failure, and would definitely be able to sleep at night knowing that

outcomes are merely consequences of my actions, not determined by others.
Self-employment is a daunting task, one that requires attention to
detail and following self-imposed schedules in order to remain accountable
and ultimately productive. Of all the leadership traits, I believe that leading
by example is the most important. If an individual isnt willing or capable of
following their own rules and regulations, then it is far less likely that any
subordinates will either. Another important trait of a leader is the ability to
build and manage teams of people. Building their confidence and creating a
sense of loyalty is a powerful tool to wield. By assigning a series of
increasingly difficult tasks that you are sure one can accomplish, you can
effectively build up confidence, and that person will generally feel a
connection and loyalty towards you, assuming you somehow reward their
success or mentor them in their failure.
There are several leadership positions I have held which allowed me to
both learn and test these values and principles, and have proven them right.
In high school I was the president of the German Club. Over the four years,
we, as a team, grew the group from a handful of weirdoes to the largest
language extracurricular group, who were able to fund a trip to Germany and
were one of the highest ranking groups in regional competitions. Our main
purpose was to increase our learning of the language and to build
friendships. By assigning people tasks that were difficult yet doable,

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members gained a sense of pride and belonging in the group and became
ambassadors to the rest of the school in our efforts to grow. One of the big
takeaways is that the more involved you are in an activity, the greater
personal reward you will get.
While in the Marines, I was the SL3 NCO (the guy in charge of all the
units equipment for the trucks, trailers etc.). When we were deployed there
was a massive amount of equipment constantly being checked in and out.
What I noticed though was that after we returned from each convoy, our
inventory got smaller and smaller or there would be anomalous gear turning
up. Having excess useless gear while missing the critical gear was
commonplace. Although sometimes gear got destroyed or stolen along the
way, a large amount was due to carelessness or under the table trading with
other units the junior marines came in contact with. Realizing this, I got my
hands on a dry erase board and an ungodly amount of logbooks to record
inventories. On the board were the top items that would inevitably be
moving, and in the books were everything else. Once I had an accurate,
quickly updatable record of equipment and who was responsible for it, it was
easy to hold people accountable(which reduced the trading and loss) and to
anticipate which gear I should acquire(which greatly improved our
effectiveness). The biggest takeaways from this experience were the value
of convenience, and to always seek easier, more efficient methods to save
time. In other words, work smarter not harder.

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Character Assessment
An entrepreneur should know not just where they stand, but where
others think they stand in terms of their characteristics. Its important to
get a true understanding of this in order to make self-improvements and
maintain a balanced leadership style. What I have learned about myself is
that there are certain areas in which I excel above my peers, and others that
need considerable effort to improve. I have a strong investment in the task
at hand, and it becomes the most important thing in my world at that
moment. It takes discipline, persistence and sacrifice in order to achieve
results in many situations. A failure wouldnt be the result of my resolve or
capabilities, but would be of the tunnel vision created with this blind
dedication to achieve results and succeed. I need to work strongly at
delegating tasks and coordinating the moving parts of an operation in order
to multitask and elevate myself above the chaos. The fear of failing or falling
short is a major driver for this need for control. Although in the planning
stages I get excited about the possibilities and allow myself great creativity,
once the ball starts rolling, so to speak, I tend to limit myself and shut out
creative ideas from others as well, due to the fear that changes will affect
the success or that the ideas are bad. I need to work on being open to
others ideas and making an effort to implement or critique them in a way
that make others feel positive.

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