The BIGG Successs Show
The Dirty Truth About Being an Entrepreneur
We talk with Mike Michalowicz, author of The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur. Find a link to Mike's site and book, along with a written summary of today's show at BIGGSUCCESS.COM.
Welcome to The Big Success Show. Today, we'll share the dirty truth about being an entrepreneur. The Big Success Show with George and Mary Lynn. We're joined today by Mike McCallowitz. Mike is a serial entrepreneur and author of the just released book, The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur. Mike has been featured in Inc. Magazine, The New York Times, and is a frequent guest on one of our favorite television shows, The Big Idea with Donnie Deutsch. Now, Mike, you're on The Big Success Show. Welcome! Well, thank you so much. I'm excited to be here. I guess the first thing we have to ask is, what the heck is a toilet paper entrepreneur? Do you want to hear the dirty truth? Yeah. Give it to us. So a toilet paper entrepreneur really says the real insight on what entrepreneurialism is all about. Well, a lot of us read, I think, in Inc. Magazine and Fortune and Small Business and Fast Company is what Google did, and Facebook, and YouTube, and are these overnight successes that actually achieve success over 90. I think the real definition of an entrepreneur is that classic overnight success is 10 to 15 years of hard work. And to me, entrepreneurialism gets a little bit dirtier, and there's this stuff that happens in the bathroom that no one talks about that also happens in entrepreneurialism that no one talks about. So here's where the title came from. At one experience we've all had, we're in the restroom. After we're done doing what we have to do, we look over, and sure enough, there's only three mere sheets dangling there. And it's in that one moment where, true entrepreneurialism kicks in, we do the incredible. We grab the toilet seat like a pummel horse and are able to kind of stretch the foot out, hook the garbage can, and we root through the garbage can. Oh, disgusting! The three sheets, the toilet of cardboard roll, and with that, we're able to complete the job. Maybe Cheryl Crow is the quintessential toilet paper entrepreneur, because she could get by with one sheet. But that's a great analogy, and I think you're absolutely right, and in a sense what you're really saying is entrepreneurs find a way to get the job done no matter what. No matter what, a true entrepreneur will dig deep and use things no one would ever consider. Well, don't you think like the Facebook guys and the Google guys, they did that at one point. You hear oftentimes some of these overnight successes are created in a garage. They kind of do the same thing too, don't they? They do, in respect to that's how they all started. The only difference is Google, and within a year, had received funding, and that's why called the full roll of cash, if you will, and most entrepreneurs don't ever receive funding. There's a path when you don't get that money to push you along, there's other ways of doing it, and sometimes doing it just as quickly. I read your free chapter, and we'll get to this in just a little bit in how other folks can get a hold of that, but you were saying that sometimes money is actually a detriment to entrepreneurs. I totally believe that money is a detriment, and in respect to that, money simply amplifies the habits we have, and my own life experience, the first time I received a good chunk of change, I was 25, I got quarter million dollar investment. I bought nice furniture, I hired employees, I got a good car to impress people in sales calls, I wasted the money. It is only over time when I didn't have money that I learned how to leverage it appropriately, and then as the business grew, and more money came in, I was then able to use as a vehicle for growth. Coming up, Mike is going to share a toilet paper entrepreneur trick that can save you thousands of dollars. Today, we're talking with Mike McAlliwitts, the toilet paper entrepreneur, and one of the things Mike I found really interesting is you say that you're not a big believer in business plans. I am the antithesis, I just received a hate mail from a local university professor saying I can't believe you're saying this. Hey, today was my business plan lecture, by the way. No, I'm kidding, we actually didn't go over it. I think when it comes to business plan, again, from my experience, they're wonderful, dust collectors. Man, if someone can project their own financial four or five years out, they should get into investing in stock. If you predict that only 90 days out, you could become a millionaire overnight. It seems like, and I'm not an advocate of ready fire, but you do need to ready aim fire, but at the same time, it's just amazing to me how many times someone will go to the trouble of writing that full fledged business plan, and then three months in, they're in a completely different business, and that's the one that takes them to the success. So I think the early stages of a business is being very cognizant of everything that's going on, watching the consumers' behavior, and then flowing with the river and adjusting the business, sometimes a hundred and 80 degrees to match what they want to buy. Now, I thought you were going to say flow with a down-forward toilet. I know. I know. And since you got us back to the toilet humor, George, since you've run businesses and you're a serial entrepreneur, tell us about one of the crappiest resources you used when you had nothing. Oh, here's the one little trick I've used. The most expensive cost besides rent and your colleagues, your employees, is professional services, your attorneys, and your accountants, and so forth. I don't know if you know this, but what I do is I go to the local colleges. They have CPAs working there. They have attorneys working there that are now professors, and they are more than willing to give free advice and work up the documents with you, and sometimes the exchanges simply will you be the case study for my class. It pays me thousands and thousands of dollars. I still use it today. That's a great tip. That is. And I work at a college and I didn't even know that. Okay. All right. So now tell everybody how they can get a free chapter of your book. On the homepage or actually any page on our website, toilet paper entrepreneur.com, there's a little sign up box for our newsletter, a free chapter. But this is a great book, and we definitely recommend it to people. It's great bathroom reading, right? My bathroom above my toilet. There you go. And that's where you wrote most of it too, I'm sure. I would put some of it there, it's true. Excellent. Well, Mike, it has been a pleasure having you on The Big Success Show. We'd love to have you back, and thanks so much. Thank you very much. You'll find a link to Mike's site on ours today at Big Success. That's Big with 2G, Success.com. That's also where we have a written summary of today's show. Next time, we'll talk about loving, touching, and squeezing. Is this an x-rated show? Until then, here's to your big success. The Big Success Show at B-I-G-G Success.com. [MUSIC PLAYING] [BLANK_AUDIO]