PROLOGUE: LEMONADE MAKER

My entrepreneurial journey began out of desperation. I was in my mid-twenties; I was flat broke and unemployed. The small townhouse I had managed to buy was in foreclosure. My credit cards were maxed out, and there was little cash in my bank account. I couldn’t make the finances of college work and so I had no degree or formal education to help me land a worthwhile job. I had worked as a professional artist since I was a teenager but had recently left that career because of burnout and lack of pay. I was out of money and options, so I took my last thirty-dollars and plunged into the crazy world of entrepreneurship.

Desperation is a powerful motivator. If you don’t make it, you starve. Attached to that simple and easy-to-understand concept is the allusion of wealth and success. It’s the dynamic contrast of utter failure with ultimate success. What lies in between is mediocrity and stagnation, a fate possibly worse than total loss.

I grew my business from a closet to my own store. I opened a second location followed by a third. Three stores turned into a multi-million-dollar national franchise that spanned the southeastern United States. Along the way, I acquired several million dollars of commercial real estate assets, learned to harness technology, became a branding expert, and gained the knowledge required to unlock the secrets of innovation. I mastered the skills needed to manage a team of over fifty employees and managers. I conquered my own state of poverty and became a resource for positive change for others struggling to survive. I learned to think differently, I gained the courage to be a nonconformist, and I developed the confidence to trust my own instincts and creative ideas.

I learned to think differently, I gained the courage to be a nonconformist, and I developed the confidence to trust my own instincts and creative ideas. None of these things came without a cost. My entrepreneurial journey was riddled with challenges, one after another. It was a constant barrage of hits, as if I were in the ring with a professional boxer. Poverty and disadvantage plagued my startup phase. Once my business was up and running, I struggled with lack of business education and guidance. At my company’s height, I dealt with internal drama, betrayal, and sabotage. It was hit after hit after hit, with me at times left bloody and bruised, limping forward despite the pain. I was either too stupid to stop or too determined to quit.

Amid the struggles I discovered something interesting, a secret as it were, the secret to success as an entrepreneur. With each challenge, with each lemon thrown at my face, came the chance to quit or the chance to uncover a hidden gem of opportunity.

The Ultimate Secret to Success

The concept of making other people feel special and important was at the core of every innovation I implemented into my company. It's easy to make things about yourself. It’s challenging to make things about others. If you want to be remarkable, then follow this rule. You will be unique because most people in business do not possess the ability to be selfless nor would they recognize selflessness if it smacked them in the face.

We gave everyone around us, customers and staff, attention and made everyone feel special in some way. We kept our private life private because the focus was exclusively on others. We knew everyone’s name, and we knew everyone’s situation. We knew the state they were in when they first arrived at our business, we knew where they were presently in their journey, and we knew where they wanted to be in the future.

Caution: Avoid These 9 Personality Types

There is bound to be drama when you have sixteen franchise locations and over 50 employees working in your company. These characters, many of whom were our franchisees, had unbelievable opportunity right there in the palm of their hand, but their self-centeredness prevented many of them from getting what they wanted. Get the full story in Lemonade Maker: The Book. In the meantime, get plugged into our Lemonade Maker® Entrepreneur Business Coaching Program to learn how to best handle the wide variety of personalities you will encounter as an entrepreneur.

The Church of Lemonology®

Tremendous effort and care went into every part of my company. Customers can sense when a business is genuine. They know the difference between a penny-pinching business that is cutting corners and a business that is investing in its people and the customer experience.

Any one thing you do sends a message to your prospects and customers, telling them what they can expect from anything else you will do. Everything is connected. If your website is terrible, they will think your service is going to be terrible. If you communicate poorly, they will question your ability to get the job done as promised. On the positive side, when you add unnecessary perks, benefits, and small details, it sends a message of confidence to your customers. They’ll feel as though you have the basics under control and are now just focusing on making things extra special for them. In short, you must consider how prospects and customers perceive every aspect of your business and know that any one thing affects every other thing.