Don’t Choose to Quit—Choose to Keep Punching
When you strip away everything else related to running a successful business—great product, great customer service, terrific marketing—one additional factor can separate a business with growth potential from one that dies.
Persistence—the ability to keep going, no matter how challenging the circumstances or what others might be saying.
Reading this, you might be tempted to say that it’s easy for me to talk about the value of hanging in there. But remember, it wasn’t always like this for me—far from it. Back when I was getting started, I scrambled constantly. Finding the money to fuel my business growth was an enormous challenge unto itself.
I also believe that there are few successful business owners who don’t have similar stories to share—entrepreneurs who kept plugging away when others might have long before thrown in the towel.
That’s why I want to wrap up this book with a breakout strategy that may be simple to understand but challenging to live by: never, ever give up. That’s the reason this topic is at the end of the book. The ability to keep going and never give up is that important. Long after you finish reading, I want you to remember this strategy, even if you don’t recall everything else I’ve told you.
And who knows? One day you may be able to look back and tell some young entrepreneur about the struggles you went through before you hit it big!
A number of episodes of Billion Dollar Buyer feature small businesses with a common issue: they’re struggling to succeed.
The reasons for those struggles can vary. Some businesses are victims of themselves—young entrepreneurs who want too much, too fast. Others suffer because they don’t understand the numbers that relate to their business—a flaw I repeatedly point out.
Then there are those businesses that have hit some tough breaks, such as the Houston-based granite company that was teetering on the edge of failure because of Hurricane Harvey, which I discuss later.
Although the circumstances differ, I inevitably come back to a central message.
LISTEN!
Keep going. No matter what. You never know—the other guy might go down before you do.
My own story about the Texas banking situation in the 1980s is a great example of why it pays to keep punching. In my case, as you’ll remember, I was able to fly under the radar and keep growing my businesses, while regulators dealt with the bigger issue of a rash of lenders who were shutting their doors.
In the end, I survived. Most of them didn’t.
That’s a valuable lesson. Keep punching because the other guy might get knocked out first. In my case, the “other guy” was a bunch of banks. In your case, it might be a competitor, or a creditor, or an internal production issue. So long as you stay alive, you’ve got a chance to outlast that other guy or solve a lingering problem.
Throughout this book, I’ve talked about a variety of skills that you need to be a successful entrepreneur and, ultimately, grow your business. I consider persistence—the willingness to keep punching—as important a skill as any other you may have.
Some people are naturally more persistent than others. But I truly believe that persistence is a skill and an attribute that business leaders can learn.
Ignore the naysayers! No matter who or where you are, you’re going to encounter people who are all too quick to point out all that you’re fighting against and encourage you to throw in the towel. Some may be motivated out of genuine concern, while others may have different reasons for urging you to quit.
You want to hang in there and keep punching and keep reminding yourself what you’re good at. Work to build that strength even further. And it may even help you pinpoint why your business is misfiring. I remember when my business was struggling, and I told my managers we need to get back to the basics: hot food hot and cold food cold. That became our theme. From that point on, our customers knew what they were going to get, and we were going to do it well.
Another strategy to keep you in the fight is to never let any current struggles cloud past success. For example, maybe your product or service received a great response when you first started your business. It stands to reason that customers saw something in that product that they valued—that should boost your confidence and commitment. There’s something there worth fighting for.
Focusing on early success can also be a helpful guidepost to pinpoint why you may be floundering now. Ask yourself: “What’s changed from the time when things were going really, really well?” Are you doing something differently that’s turned success into struggle?
Staying in the fight also requires that you be the bull—another strategy I covered. This means you’re the source of strength for the business, a leader whose best features and attributes come out when everything around you seems to be going straight to hell. This is when leaders pull themselves up by their bootstraps. Leaders stand tall in tough times. Be the bull who helps keep others upbeat and makes them feel genuinely vested in the business’s survival and growth.
And one other thing about bulls—they rarely throw in the towel and, if they do, it’s never too early.
When I see businesses of all sorts close up shop, it’s often not so much a matter of being outpunched by someone else. Instead, it’s submitting, throwing up your hands and declaring it’s all over way too early.
As I said, you can be outpunched in business. Maybe you’ve run completely out of cash, or your lenders will no longer extend you credit.
In my experience, rather than choosing to keep fighting through whatever obstacles they may be facing, some businesses choose instead to close up shop.
The reality is that many of them don’t have to do that, as I witnessed firsthand not too long ago. And I’m glad I was able to convince this business to stay in the game.
The final episode of season three of Billion Dollar Buyer featured K & N Custom Granite, a Houston-based supplier of granite and remodeling materials for both home and commercial use.
And they nearly went under—both literally and figuratively.
A genuine mom-and-pop operation—a husband and wife team, Gus and Jessica Trevino—K & N was devastated by Hurricane Harvey, which slammed the Houston area and other parts of the Gulf Coast in 2017. The damage lingered for weeks—with roads impassably flooded, the Trevinos were stranded in their home for fourteen days, unable to get to their shop. When they did finally manage to get to their business, they counted themselves fortunate that no water had gotten into the facility.
But the damage was done in other ways. Having struggled even before the storm struck, jobs that had been lined up prior to the storm’s arrival couldn’t be completed. They lost their largest account. Consequently, the business was forced to shut down for almost three weeks, costing them anywhere from $75,000 to $100,000—no small amount when sales for the prior year totaled less than $700,000.
Even worse, since they were such a small operation, catching up was almost impossible. No plan B was in place, just a desperate scramble to keep going from one day to the next.
Things were so bad that when I first met Jessica and Gus, they told me they were seriously thinking about filing Chapter 11 and closing up shop.
My reaction was: What are you talking about?
Their door was still open, I told them. I see a bunch of stone outside. There’s nothing preventing customers from walking in and placing orders.
I said you’re not out of business until you don’t have the last dollar to go out and buy product—until somebody comes and padlocks this door, or you can’t make payroll. That’s it. And if you can’t make payroll, you have to do it all—be the salesman, the manufacturer, everything. But you are in business!
I also told them not to waste their money on an attorney. I was confident that Jessica and Gus could pick themselves up off the turf and do what amounted to an in-house restructuring.
I also threw down a challenge to let them see for themselves what they could do, even under enormous financial pressures. I asked them to design a bar countertop with a bullnose cut. They delivered.
The bar showed off terrific craftsmanship and color. It was just what I was looking for and, in return, I proposed that they become the priority stone vendor for one of my casinos and for three restaurants—a deal worth $200,000.
They accepted.
Gus and Jessica’s story illustrates a key strategy behind a determination to keep going when giving up might seem the obvious answer. In their case, they didn’t go out of business, and I am happy that I had a role in that decision.
When faced with adversity, is a business closing its doors because conditions dictate it, or are the owners shutting down because they no longer have the fight?
“You’re not out of business until you don’t have the last dollar to go out and buy product to make, until somebody comes and padlocks your door, or you can’t make payroll.”
This is similar to an earlier discussion we had about customer service. When you or someone else in your business tells a customer no, is saying no a choice or something that’s completely beyond control? As we’ve covered, it’s often the case of someone choosing to say no rather than having to.
It’s the same in dealing with challenges that seem to threaten the life of your business. Are you deciding to close because you have to or because you choose to?
Giving up is easy, particularly when compared to the effort and sacrifice that it can take to keep a business alive. Many business owners reason—or convince themselves—that they’ve done all they can. Why fight against something that seems unbeatable?
But as I often remind entrepreneurs, you’d be surprised to see how long it takes to actually go out of business. By that, I don’t mean choosing to lock the doors one day and letting it go at that. Instead, what I mean is that it can take an awfully long time before it becomes impossible to keep a business open. You may struggle to pay your rent, you may have to forgo paying yourself, and you may have to take on jobs and responsibilities that you never in a million years saw yourself doing.
It comes back to making good decisions and thinking outside the box.
Here’s an out-of-the-box strategy I successfully used, called an “in the drawer judgment.”
Let’s say you owe a manufacturer $30,000. You need to obtain more product from that manufacturer but don’t have the $30,000 you owe him. If you’re thinking outside the box, you might approach the manufacturer and say, “I can’t pay you the $30,000 I owe you right now, but I’m going to agree to an in the drawer judgment, so if I ever miss a payment again, you can collect on the judgment.
“But you’ve got to sell me product. If you don’t, I’m out of business. If you do, I’m going to pay you $2,500 a month for the next twelve months, and you’re going to get your money. But if you don’t do this for me, you’re never going to get paid.”
That’s thinking outside the box. One of the keys to making good decisions is bearing in mind how the other person stands to benefit. It’s a simple scenario—either you both win, or you both lose.
Say the manufacturer agrees to your proposal. Next, you’ve got to deal with a landlord to whom you owe three months’ back rent. Again, work the deal so you both stand to benefit. Ask if she can give you a 50 percent rent cut for the next three months. Tell her she can apply it on the back end to what you owe her, if she gives you a year to catch up. And—here’s the kicker—if you don’t perform for even one month, tell her you’re happy to sign an agreement giving her the right to kick you out. No need to padlock the door or get a sheriff’s deputy—you’re out, and that’s that.
Is all that risky? Of course. Creative thinking and making solid decisions are two of your biggest weapons if you’re persistent.
The conclusion: remind yourself that the way to the top is almost never by way of a straight, unbroken line.
Did you really, truly expect to rocket right out of the gate with no bumps and bruises along the way? Granted, things now may seem darker than you ever anticipated, but bear in mind that everyone has to struggle occasionally.
Looking to others for support and advice can also be critical at this juncture. That’s what I did with the Trevinos. Talk with other entrepreneurs. Get feedback from people who can provide an objective viewpoint, which can also be helpful in making the right decision for your business.
However helpful outside advice can be, bulls recognize that they are their own best-trusted advisors.
Don’t quit, unless there’s absolutely no other choice. Keep punching.
I promise you’ll be surprised. You’ve got a lot more breaths in you than you might think.
And always remember, the best asset you have is your own instinct.
TILMAN’S TARGETS
• Leaders stand tall in tough times.
• Persistence is a valuable skill—keep punching.
• Always think outside the box.
• When things are hard, remember the basics.
• Always be the bull.