Work ON Your Business Not IN Your Business (with Benjamin Nevares)
This episode features a compelling showcase of a bootstrapped entrepreneur, Ben, the proprietor of IE Health. He shares his journey from a passionate fitness enthusiast to a successful business owner, emphasizing the significance of strategic decision-making in entrepreneurship. Ben elucidates the challenges he faced while bootstrapping his business, illustrating the importance of patience and strategic hiring. He also imparts invaluable advice regarding financial management, underscoring the necessity of maintaining meticulous records and leveraging available resources. By the conclusion of this episode, we aim to equip our listeners with actionable insights that can be immediately implemented in their own entrepreneurial endeavors.
The exploration of bootstrapping entrepreneurship through the lens of Ben's experiences with IE Health presents a multifaceted view of the entrepreneurial landscape. Initially, Ben recounts his transformation from a passionate fitness enthusiast to an accomplished entrepreneur, outlining his significant achievements in powerlifting and the academic pursuit of supplement formulation. His journey underscores the intersection of personal passion and professional development, as he leverages his deep understanding of fitness to create products that resonate with consumers seeking effective health solutions.
Throughout the episode, the candidness with which Ben discusses the trials of bootstrapping reveals the often-overlooked challenges that accompany the entrepreneurial path. He articulates the delicate balance between working within the business and on the business, highlighting the imperative for entrepreneurs to remain intimately involved in their operations, particularly in the early stages. This episode serves as a poignant reminder of the resilience required in entrepreneurship, as Ben shares both his successes and setbacks, providing listeners with a realistic portrayal of what it means to build a business from the ground up.
Ben further elucidates the critical importance of strategic financial management, emphasizing the necessity of maintaining thorough records and understanding one's financial position. His insights into effective marketing strategies and audience engagement are particularly noteworthy, as he stresses the relevance of aligning marketing efforts with a well-defined target audience. This nuanced discussion not only illuminates the path to entrepreneurial success but also equips listeners with pragmatic advice that can be readily applied to their own ventures, rendering this episode an invaluable resource for aspiring entrepreneurs seeking guidance in the intricate world of business ownership.
Takeaways:
- The episode features an entrepreneur who discusses the importance of strategic thinking in bootstrapping a business.
- Listeners are encouraged to keep meticulous financial records, including balance sheets and income statements.
- The speaker emphasizes the necessity of understanding one's target audience for effective marketing strategies.
- It is advisable to utilize affordable tools and resources available for managing business operations efficiently.
- The entrepreneur shares insights on the significance of timing when hiring new personnel for the business.
- The discussion highlights the value of persistence and adaptability throughout the entrepreneurial journey.
Relevant Links
00:00 - Untitled
00:44 - Untitled
01:07 - Introduction to Showcase Episodes
01:38 - The Journey into Fitness and Supplement Creation
05:32 - Navigating the Challenges of Entrepreneurship
06:14 - Building a Strong Financial Foundation
07:41 - Wrapping Up and Inviting New Guests
Welcome to the Frugalpreneur podcast. I am your host, Sarah St. John.This episode is what I refer to as a showcase episode where I feature a bootstrapped entrepreneur and they briefly share their tips, tricks, tactics, techniques and tools that help them bootstrap their business and the successes and failures along the way.My hope is that each of these showcase episodes will provide at least one valuable takeaway that you can implement with right away in your own bootstrap business journey. Now onto the episode.
Benjamin NevaresHowdy. My name is Ben and I am the owner of IE Health. And it started quite a long time ago where I just, I, I got really into fitness.I really loved the environment and ultimately the pursuit of success or self improvement.And so I started powerlifting and I was kind of just forced into the sport, not really knowing it was really an option, but I had coach who helped me along the way and then I was able to be successful pretty early on and I was able to represent Team USA multiple times around the world and got to travel the country competing for the teams.Loved loving my experience and so ultimately it led me into doing research during my undergraduate research and I did my research in Dr. Crater's lab at Texas A and M University, which is one of the most well known for creatine research.And so I started my interest in supplements before then, but really got into it the nitty gritty then and then ultimately created my own supplement a couple of years after that after I got graduated, after I got my master's and I continued to formulate work on new designs and then finally operate in the meantime as a personal trainer to high end clientele and then finally came up with the product all the power and we should be releasing that here very shortly. I will was very lucky early on where my business is part, it's intellectual property, right.And so a lot of it is just what can I think about, how can I create a formula that's ultimately going to be beneficial for many people.And so I ended up spending a lot of time reading about research about which supplements are best, what is new coming up in the world and how do I formulate those things in order to put them into a supplement that is beneficial for many people and also find something that I really liked myself because I would try supplements.I just didn't like the way they made me feel, just made me feel nauseous, kind of gross and I hated it and I really liked taking pre workouts and so I was kind of disappointed with that the existence of, I don't know what they're putting in now, but there's something about them that really made me feel uncomfortable. And so that's what I started to do. And then in the meantime, while I was working on that, I knew that I was already certified as a trainer.And so it's a skill set that I had.And so I started at a local gym and then got some clientele through there and then started to rent my own space and continue to operate under the IE health umbrella. And it was an amazing experience. And so it's been hard along the way as well. But I use those finances to continue to market myself inside the space.It definitely is tough bootstrapping the business. At the same time, it's also really makes you think strategically, which I really enjoy as well. And so that's, that's kind of what I do.Learning when the right time is to either hire on new people or go through the right process of bringing on new people into the business. So the goal is to, you know, continue to work on the business and not in the business.Very early on you're kind of, you know, you're wearing a lot of hats as an entrepreneur.And so I ended up hiring out, you know, several different people and realizing that people aren't going to do exactly what you want them to do at times.And you can, you know, you can put a lot of money towards, you know, business coaches and agencies and help and sometimes it's just not the right fit.And so I definitely shelled out quite a bit of money to realize one, maybe we hired too early and then two, maybe we hired incorrectly and remembering that yes, we want to work on the business, not in the business.But being able to do that sometimes very early on, you're going to be able to work on the business better than most people because you know your business better than most people or you should. So I definitely think that sometimes I hired out too early. Biggest success is starting man. I mean nobody ever starts.Very, very small population people attempt to own their own business and it is not an easy feat, but we're coming along and we still exist. And a lot of companies aren't profitable and we can say that we are. And so we're doing a lot of really good things.Best tips that I have are definitely to keep a very well recorded spreadsheet of your balance sheet.So balance sheet, income sheet, income statement, these kinds of things that are perceived to be for a high end corporate maybe businesses, you are that right? Like don't, don't diminish what you are coming to market with and so do all the right things, the small things.Now put in the work today to create a good spreadsheet. Maybe use ChatGPT. You can communicate with what's going on inside of your purchases and automatically record those for you.Use the tools that are around you that are either cheap or free and then you can always use Fiverr for cheap work and it's always a good option as well. But leaning into what you do know, don't pay out too early. Start to look in the future for what you want for the business.Make sure you're branding correctly.Look at your target audience and make sure you really understand who they are so that whenever you are doing your marketing you can find the right people it reaches the right individuals that are more likely to purchase from you so that your dollar goes farther. And always follow up. Always follow up. People don't show up to meetings, people don't follow up to calls.Make sure you're available and make sure that you're the individual that they are going to be looking for to solve, to find the solution or to be the solution. Thank you for having us on. We appreciate the time.Make sure you go to iehealth Co and you know you can book an appointment with us to go over your health and fitness and then you can also get your supplement there and then go check out the podcast Ben thinking you can pretty much anywhere you want to find it. So we appreciate you having us on. And make sure you go check out iehealth Co and Ben thinking Cheers.
Sarah St JohnI hope you enjoyed that episode and were able to take away a valuable nugget of information that you can implement right away in your own business. If you feel your story would be valuable for the listeners of this show, please visit Frugal Show Guest.
