Sam Madden is the co-founder of PocketSuite. Follow him @sammaddens.
Who is your hero? (In business, life, or both.)
My father, who taught me about the importance of work ethic and how no matter what if you put your mind to something you can achieve it.
What’s the single best piece of business advice that helped shape who you are as an entrepreneur today, and why?
The answer to this is actually a simple question I spent a lot of time asking others during school and as I began my working career. It was a question I posed when I saw someone do something spectacular, or read about a great idea, or learned about a new company.
The question is: “Why couldn’t I do that?”
No one ever had a great answer to this question. I found that there is no structural reason someone can’t do something. It’s just a function of how badly you want it and how far you’re willing to go.
What’s the biggest mistake you ever made in your business, and what did you learn from it that others can learn from too?
Hiring too early. It can be extremely tempting to bring on board extra help to take a load off your plate as a founder, but you need to be very careful when thinking about hiring — not just in terms of who it is you hire, but making 100 percent certain that as soon as that person comes on board there is enough work to fill 18 hours a day including weekends. Also, finding the right person is extremely time-intensive, so you need to be certain the ROI on this new hire will be huge.
Whatever role you are looking to hire should be something that you are already doing (and doing effectively), but are simply capacity constrained. Hire someone talented who can jump in, follow the job roadmap, and just dramatically increase the work output by expanding capacity. Never look to hire someone in the hopes that a fresh body and mind will solve a company problem. Solving structural problems in your business should be your job.
What do you do during the first hour of your business day and why?
Taking each day at a time is crucial to not burnout over the long haul. Each morning I set up a task list of goals I’d like to accomplish that day. Not all tasks get completed each day, but having a guiding star and structure throughout the day helps me manage a methodical and efficient day’s worth of work.
What’s your best financial/cash-flow related tip for entrepreneurs just getting started?
Make meals at home! The habit of eating out (not to mention buying drinks) can be tough to break. Typically these types of cash outflows are not the big ones, so you tend to overlook these when you search through personal costs to cut. But going to the grocery store once a week to purchase your week’s worth of meals will save you tons. The reality is as an entrepreneur, many times the state of your personal finances can actually determine whether or not you’re forced to shut down your company.
Quick: What’s ONE thing you recommend ALL aspiring or current entrepreneurs do right now to take their biz to the next level?
My recommendation is to meet, reach out to and connect with as many relevant people as possible who might help your business succeed at some point down the road.
When we were at the very early stages of building PocketSuite, any sense of third party partnerships or big press launches or hiring were very far off. We were so heads down talking to our customers and building the product that anything else seemed like a distraction. However, what we learned was that for many contacts you meet in business, it takes a while to build up a trusted relationship before they are comfortable working with you, working for you, or partnering with you. When you really need some outside help (and you will at some point), it’s much easier to get said help from someone you already know as opposed to a cold reach out.
What’s your definition of success? How will you know when you’ve finally “succeeded” in your business?
Success is a funny thing because it’s a subjective measuring stick. To me, success is not a destination but a journey. I say that because throughout life you never really stop having goals or objectives you are seeking to accomplish. Throughout our time building PocketSuite, we have succeeded in funding goals, hiring goals, customer metric goals, and more. Yet we continue pushing out new goal posts to hit and probably won’t ever stop. A perpetual drive to accomplish more is something that is seemingly intrinsic in most “successful” people I’ve met over the years.
