Berries, Decals, and Painting

I started my first business when I was about 8 years old. I would go into nearby fields and pick wild blackberries. I then sold the berries by going door-to-door in the neighborhood. I had that job for 4 or 5 summers.

My second business overlapped the first. My father owned a part-time business that sold racing themed attire. He frequently had decals, stickers, and similar items. I would take these items to school and sell them.

I don’t know if the neighbors bought my berries out of a desire to help a budding entrepreneur or a true desire to consume freshly picked berries. I do know that I sold my berries very easily and quickly.

I also know that my schoolmates did not depart with their nickels and dimes easily. Those coins were their fortune, but I offered something they valued more highly. Nearly every boy in my grade school had my stickers adorning his notebooks.

In both cases I filled a need. Neither my berries nor my decals were necessities, but I found a ready market for both. In many cases a paint job is not a necessity either, but there is a ready market for that as well.

Success in any business involves little more than identifying a need or desire that isn’t being filled, and then filling that need or desire. In the case of painting, the process of putting paint on the wall is relatively simple. Certainly there are those who cut corners, but there is also a market for that.

In my first businesses my market was small and easy to reach. I also had no competition. Paint contracting is a different animal. There is immense competition. My customers are not as captive. But that simply requires something I didn’t have to do as a child—market my business.

As a child, I built it and then beat on the customer’s door. As a paint contractor I do the same.

© BEP Enterprises Incorporated 2008