Very Short Interview, Part 2

In my initial short interview, I interviewed a close family friend by the name of Mike Jones. He owns his own motorcycle business back in my hometown area. When I interviewed him it actually went very well. I asked him about himself and his dream, his thoughts on what it meant to be an entrepreneur and also what he thinks I should learn from an entrepreneurship course. He answered all of these questions extremely genuinely and offered me a lot on insight into his business and also explained things that he wish he knew before starting this business. The biggest thing I got out of his interview was that he talked about how important it was for a business owner to focus on their clients and make them happy so that they want to come back. Once you have a good amount of clients coming in because they like your service, your business will get up and running.

Since he is still in Asheville, North Carolina, I had to call him again today for this second round of interviews. This is what he responded with.

1. If you could time travel back in time, what would you have done differently for your business to become even more successful?

Answer: I should have had the confidence to expand my business, by branching out and opening multiple dealerships in other areas.  I was nervous and afraid of the financial risk.  I wasn’t sure I could control the new dealerships.  With hindsight, as interest rates were so low, I could have borrowed the money and easily opened several new dealerships and comfortably paid back the loan.  I estimate that my business today would be 3-4 times more profitable.

2. What are the most important qualities you look for when you are hiring an employee?

Answer: The most important qualities are honesty and loyalty.  I have always treated my employees more than fairly, but if they are inherently dishonest or disloyal, no matter how well you treat them they will do something to hurt your business.  Secondly, I look for hard working salesmen, because my business is all about selling products to customers.  Some people are just plain good salesmen.  Lastly, I look for good people skills, like the ability to always put the needs of the customer above just making a commission.

3. If your business did fail, would you start another business, or go work for somebody else?

Answer: Being an entrepreneur has taught me to have confidence in my abilities.  I had to weather many difficulties in my business through the years.  Once you have some degree of success as a result of your own business decisions creates confidence that you can always turn things around and become successful again.  I will never give up the freedom of running my own business.

Since the beginning of this course I've grown immensely. At the beginning I really did not know what to expect. This class was unlike everything I've done before and structured completely differently as well. When I started doing the first assignments I really didn't have any entrepreneurial ideas but as the class continued on I was kind of 'forced' to start thinking harder about these entrepreneurial ideas. Talking to entrepreneurs and interviewing strangers was definitely out of my comfort zone. I have a deeper understanding of the issues entrepreneurs face and am able to ask better questions.  Because of this class I have clarified my goal in life – to be an entrepreneur and own my own business. One of the key factors Mike emphasized is hard work.  Initially I really thought that all an entrepreneur needed was a good idea.  Now I see that the good idea is not enough, that no matter how good the idea is it still requires maximum effort and 100% focus and hard work to make it successful. Mike also noted that my first round of questions were definitely a lot more basic than these that I asked today. He commended me for my growth through the semester and hard work in this class.