Chapter 1: Entrepeneurs Recognize Opportunities

Chapter one covers the basics of entrepreneurship. It covers a few of the costs and benefits of being an entrepreneur, and more simply, the essence of an entrepreneur. To me, an entrepreneur represents someone who is possibly tired of being "just an employee." They are people who believe that they can do something or make something better or more efficiently, or they have something completely new that they believe will fulfill a need or desire of consumers. For many people, thinking about someone taking on such extreme risk warrants them being labeled as "crazy." However, I believe this "craziness" is what has made many of these people as successful as they are. It's that crazy-gene that drives them to keep on going, even when the odds are against them.

For this blog entry, I thought it would be appropriate to talk to my father. He is the owner of a nationwide construction company for which I plan on taking over some day. It started out as a Servpro franchise that he ran out of our garage. Then, it grew and years later he decided to sell the franchise. According to my father, Servpro was turning into something like the government. "They were growing, but there was no value-added. All they were doing was placing too much bureaucratic control on their franchisees." In short, I believe it is safe to say that a franchise like Servpro is enough to fulfill many people's entrepreneur drive. However, it was not enough for my father. He wanted complete control of his own business. So, he opened up Restoration Systems, Inc. At first, the company did a bit of everything: residential, small commercial, fire-rebuilds, and mold mitigation. I asked him what the biggest challenges in growing the business were. According to him, the hardest thing was marketing and developing a client base. In addition to that, there was licensing that he needed to get that Servpro did not require. After some time, the company began to lean in the direction of multi-family renovation and restoration. Simply stated, he specializes in apartment construction. Even more, the company has developed a reputation as experts in fire damage reconstruction.